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kimberly-spirits13 · 3 years

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Batfam Reacting to S/O Turning into a Robin HC (Request)

So this entire thing happens because you and Bruce were fighting Circe who just had to throw a spell at a civilian

You jump in front of the spell and catch it, taking the blow

This means that on site, you turn into a Robin

Wtf

Bruce is big mad now since now he thinks that you could be a Robin for the rest of your life and that’s just not cool

The moment that the fight is over, he calls in everyone from the league

Z, Constantine, Dr. Fate, Zatara, Wonder Woman, the whole lot

Once they find out what happens there’s a worry but eventually they find that it’s going to be alright and you’ll change back within the next 72 hours or so

72 HOURS

Bruce just simply cannot wait that long

he doesn’t know what to do with a bird like

ALFRED

They make sure to not try and feed you anything that’s too disgusting that you wouldn’t normally eat

No worms

That would be gross

Bruce does find it kind of funny that you turn into a Robin and not something else

So happy it wasn’t a bat

You’d get mixed and lost with the rest of them in the cave and that would be weird

Plus there’s a high chance that you’d just fall from the ceiling

Once you finally detransform from the entire debacle, Bruce is very happy to have you back

Gets special charms from Z and Constantine that repel bad magic back onto the user

Ensures that something like this doesn’t happen again

Dick Grayson:

This man does not know what to do

It’s a run in with Witch Boy that causes this to happen

Z!!!!!!

That’s the first person that he calls

Wally is really the one that takes you back to him since Dick wasn’t on this mission but you and Wally were leading it

You jumped in front of one of the newer recruits and that’s how that happened

Does this entire experience count as a souvenir?

Like maybe he just takes a feather that you drop or something and like SOUVENIR OF THAT ONE TIME THAT Y/N TURNED INTO A ROBIN

After the initial freak out mode, he just thinks that it’s kind of funny that it was a Robin

Z said that the spell was the wrong spell (thankfully) and you’d only turn into something that you loved for a little while

RObin yOU TuRNeD InTO A RoBIn

And that makes Dick a blushing mess

Once you finally do turn back, he teases you

Your most important question is did you eat anything gross

The answer was no but still

Trust issues

he does mention what the spell was and that lead to some blushing

Jason Todd:

This was the last thing that he had planned

The absolute last thing

On a mission that involved some weird magic stuff, you just happened to get turned into a Robin

What the literal hell is happening now

The first instinct is to see that it’s really you

Once you understand that you’re a Robin, you’re just like, oh, so this is happening now

And that’s just how it is, you fly up onto his shoulder and just run with it

Just sitting there like it’s no one’s business cause it isn’t

If anyone asks why there’s a Robin following, it’s just what’s happening now

He is concerned that you don’t turn into a human again

So he does make sure to ask and this time, it needs a counter spell

Z is the one to do this since Jason isn’t keen on trusting Constantine

Doesn’t take super long to do this since Z is already very powerful

We Stan a powerful helpful queen

So Jason goes to one of her shows and sneaks back stage still in the Red Hood uniform and explains what happens

Z just goes ahead, sets you on the floor, and does the transformation

It was really easy, not to painful, but it was weird to just be laying on the floor and not able to fly

You’ll only miss that part

Jason doesn’t miss any of it and still jokes about the fact that you were a Robin

“Babe at least you didn’t blow up in your time being Robin.”

JASON PETER TODD

Tim Drake:

So you turn into a Robin on a mission with the team

He was on this mission and watched the entire thing go down

The funny part was that you could still talk since the magic was somewhat incomplete

There’s just this small voice “WHAT THE HELL!”

And then Tim knows that it’s definitely you

Tim was going to take you to one of the magic users in the league

but since Diana was right there when you got back, you stormed up flew up to her and just mouthed off

“DIANA LOOK AT ME! THAT ASSHOLE CIRCE TURNED ME INTO A ROBIN! THERE’S NOTHING WRONG WITH ROBIN BUT I DON’T WANT TO BE ROBIN! WATCHA LOOKIN AT BATS! I’M NOT UP FOR ADOPTION!”

Tim just died laughing

Cause it really was funny that you were just a little tiny Robin and mouthing off at the most powerful heroes in the world

Recorded it 100%

When Diana takes you to Themyscira in order to get one of the Amazon’s to help, Tim obviously couldn’t come

So it’s about a three day long trip and during that period, Timmy is a mess

He needs to know what’s happening at all times to ensure that you’re alright

When you do finally get home, he tackles you into a hug and checks you up and down to make sure that there’s nothing still wrong

Very happy when he concludes that there’s nothing wrong anymore and you’re back to the regular Y/N

Damian Wayne:

His first instinct is to not let anyone touch you but him

He takes you everywhere and makes sure that you’re alright

You can’t talk but he’s helped birds before and has dated you for some time so he knows what no to do and what to do

That being said, he does want you back to normal ASAP

That means that he’ll call an emergency league meeting without Bruce’s approval

Although Bruce probably would have done the same thing since he really knows that Damian loves you and would make sure that you’re alright

That’s super important to him and the rest of the family since you are kind of family at this point

Damian insists that the magic users help turn you back very quickly

They call in Constantine since Z is off doing other things and he makes sure that he knows exactly what happens

Constantine has had some bad experiences with magic in the past and he wants to be sure that you’re not going to have anything really bad happen to you

Damian is the same way

Probably threatens John’s life if something goes wrong

Once you’re finally back, Damian also tackles you

Though Constantine has to hold him back at first since the shock of turning back and then having someone tackle you to the ground would be over whelming

But when he finally can, he does

Checks you over just like Tim and then doesn’t let you out of his sight for a week or so

It’s not that he doesn’t trust you, just not anyone else

He makes it a point that you’re too important to lose

Cuddles everywhere

Once he does step back and think about it though, he finds it kind of endearing that there are thousands of other things that you could’ve turned into but it was a Robin

It was sweet but didn’t need to last longer than it had to

Duke and Luke:

I’m putting these guys together since in my mind they’re pretty alike

Luke is the classical version of Duke and Duke is the Lofi/ alternative hip hop version of Luke

For these reasons they both have very similar reactions

And that would be to freak out

they take you to Bruce and get advice cause what is going on

They don’t have as much of a connection with the Robin deal since they weren’t ever technically Robin for Batman

Duke is a bit more of an arguable case but still

They do find it both suspicious and a bit comedic that it was a Robin out of anything else though

I have to say that they’re the most chill out of any of the Batfam when it comes to something like this since this kind of thing just happens a lot

Not turning into Robin, just weird outta pocket experiences

Like this is just another thing to add to the list of oh here we go again

Duke does think that you’re still really a pretty Robin

In the most non- weird way possible you’re just a pretty Robin

Luke doesn’t really pay attention to that and instead wants to get to the bottom of what happened so that it doesn’t happen again

They’re both really smart so they’ll figure it out but at different paces since one is more urgent than the other

Doesn’t mean that either care less though

Once you’re back they do make sure that extra diagnostics are run to make sure that nothing was effected and you’ll be okay long and short term

Once they’re satisfied it’ll all go back to being pretty normal

Sry this took so long, exams are running wild

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fanficsandfluff · 3 years

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The Snyder Cut: Headcanons (mostly of the tickly nature)

Bruce Wayne (Batman) ~ Batfleck, my love

He’s such a lover boy, and I can say that though I don’t exactly know how to explain what I mean. You just gotta understand.

He cares so strongly about EVERYONE. e v e r y o n e. Alfred, fucking loves the guy, jokes with him. The fucking “This is Alfred, I work for him.” MY MAN, STOP!

I think he just really wants to get along with everyone and wants everyone to get along in general.

But he lowkey crushes on Diana (at least in his mind, he’s keeping it lowkey, but we all see what’s happening)

I love the idea of this big hunk of a man getting soft with someone like Diana.

She makes him genuinely laugh this one time by saying something funny, and then they’re both laughing together.

Bruce definitely has one of those laughs where he throws his head back and shit and you can see his like Adam’s apple bobbing and everything.

But that’s if he’s really laughing.

And he has loud “HA”’s that are like really short but loud and then he kinda just snickers to himself for a while, holding his stomach.

And dude, the scene in freaking uhh… i think it’s BvS I’m not 100% (maybe i fucking imagined it who knows) where she like comes over to him and is fixing his wound….. tickle scenario hand picked from the gods right there

I can see a whole, “Woah!” from Bruce when Diana traces her fingers on some sensitive skin. And that Gal Godot smile is on her in an INSTANT.

Bruce will laugh if he’s with the right person. Like I headcanon that if he’s being tickled, he will laugh if it’s done by Diana or Barry, then like he’ll be forced to laugh if it’s Clark bc he overpowers the poor bat, but then he just has these hilarious bouts of angry growls and chuckles if Arthur is going after him.

I can’t even write about Batfleck being a ler because I will literally explode, so I’m done here

(((((butseriouslyifanyonewantstotalklerbatfleckwithmehmuplz)))))

Diana Prince (Wonder Woman)

I know the GIF isn’t from ZSJL but just let me live, ok? (Also I couldn’t find the one of Gal wiggling her fingers YOU KNOW THE ONE I’M TALKING ABOUT)

First off, Gal is the most horrible queen of giggles. I’ve seen those blooper reels. My god, girl, how do you keep getting hired?

SHE HAS SUCH A BIG SMILE IT’S LIKE THE ROCK IDK HOW THEIR TEETH AND MOUTH GET SO WIDE LOOKING

Diana will start tickle fights without a doubt.

She’s already very trustful and I also feel pretty handsy with people, especially those she may feel close to. So if she’s playful, you best watch out.

Her favorite targets are Bruce and Barry. I will not take criticism. Diana attacking Barry and reducing him to panicky shrieky laughs is my #1 thought. It’s not even living rent free, I’m commissioning it to be there.

Diana is one to laugh with her victims. She will wreck them and have a great time doing so.

She’ll be ticklish if she wants to be, but it isn’t often she gets pinned and tickled or anything like that.

The guys try to stay away from her or not go after her with tickles for fear of retaliation.

AQUAMAN, CYBORG, SUPERMAN, AND THE FLASH UNDER THE CUT

Arthur Curry (Aquaman)

So…. my man isn’t really ticklish. I really don’t think he is, I feel like his Atlantean genes make his skin a special kind of hard, if that makes sense?

THAT BEING SAID ARTHUR IS THE BIGGEST LER OMGGG

He’ll try and act all cool and ‘whatever’ around the League cuz that’s kind of his persona.

But he slowly gets to like them more and more and his playful side starts to come out.

He’ll tickle Barry out of pure annoyance. Like if Barry makes any kind of comment, he’ll just point his finger out and get that glint in his eye and Barry is sprinting for the hills.

Here’s my favorite headcanon: Arthur will tickle Bruce because he knows it pisses him off when he does it. Bruce will fight back and keep Arthur in his sights at all time and curse and growl at him. And Arthur thinks it’s hilarious.

Arthur as a ler will taunt and tease until the cows come home

“Huh, big guy? What’s that? Ahawww that’s what I thought!... Not so fast/tough/etc. now!... I will wreck you.”

Victor Stone (Cyborg)

Unfortunately… not ticklish. :(

But this boy has the sweetest laugh you will ever hear, and I will die on that hill.

Now that he has friends (superpowered friends, no less), he can slowly come alive and be himself.

I can see Victor not getting involved in tickle fights at first, but at a certain point he’ll be all like, “Okay, step aside so we can do this right” and just PIN THE SHIT OUT OF WHOEVER IS BEING TICKLED. His extra robot arms are killer!

Okay, when he laughs for the first time in front of the group, there’s that cliche moment of pause where everything stops and everyone just stares and listens to him. It’s so rare to hear him laugh because the poor kid barely even smiled around them in the beginning.

He SMIRKS

Now hear me out on this…

Okay, so half a face. Great. Weird. We love it. But you can see all of mischievous Victor when the guy SMIRKS. You see his eye squint and you can swear his robot eye gets a gleam of a different color.

Wait honestly as I was writing that, the thought of Victor’s eye and like his apparatus changing color based on his mood is golden.

Me sitting here, lowkey wishing Victor’s robot body had some kind of cuddly mode like Baymax lmfaoooo

Like the defense mode his body went into when he was around resurrected Supes, but for cuddles and being cute.

Clark Kent (Superman)

I was debating even including any headcanons for Superman bc I don’t care about him much, honestly.

I am v happy they kept in the whole ‘him staring at Flash through the speed storm’ scene bc I laughed so hard at that the first time i saw Josstice League in the theater.

Also I didn’t really like the black superman costume??? I’m not a comic buff, so I’m assuming that’s why. I am like the one person who missed the color from the Josstice League cut. Don’t miss the stupid red sky in the finale, but I miss every other ounce of color that was just SUCKED right out of the Snyder Cut.

Clark and Bruce are besties now, I don’t make the rules. Bruce bought the man his house back. By buying the bank. He’ll take care of him.

And I’ve always simped for those two ever since BvS, bc I’ve already written like two fics where they tickle each other.

Clark overpowering Bruce to tickle the shit out of him makes me so happy lol. Big strong boy Batfleck looking thiccc over here… but put him against Superman and he’s donezo. Because as mentioned earlier, I do think Bruce is pretty ticklish.

But Clark can have his lee side when he’s feeling nice

He’s got that mighty chuckle, almost like how Thor might laugh.

And he really likes getting involved in tickle fights with the League. He knows all of them are sorta afraid of him on the daily anyway, but have that power added to a tickle fight and it’s fun as hell.

He’s gotten taken down by them ONCE. And I mean exactly (1) O N C E.

They all teamed up. Bing, bang, boom. Pinned him to the floor and they each took an area of skin and fucking SQUEEZED AND WIGGLED. They were trying to incapacitate him as quickly as possible. And dangummit, he laughed a lot! Like Clark realized just how ticklish he could feel if he wanted to feel it.

And don’t even get me started on Lois, he’s big on getting her to giggle and she likes toying with him and running her hands all over his body (bc who wouldn’t?)

Barry Allen (The Flash)

I waited to write about Barry last because I have so much to say about this character....

and then I fell asleep and waited until the next day to write anything down about him so now I’m totally not in the mood and I forgot all the salient points I was planning on making.

fuck you, michelle.

I got a weird relationship with this character. He was mad annoying in the Josstice League. Thank goodness they trimmed his bad jokes down.

But now....

when he got hurt at the end and he was like crying and shit oh my god I wanted to hug him

His character got so... good

And I’m now at the right age where I can think about myself in a relationship with this character with no changes or shame

We both out here trying to find that one good job after college and everything

BARRY JUST WANTS FRIENDS, GUYS

HE’S THAT CUTE

And then he got this whole found family schtick with the Justice League!!! Lookit him!!! Thriving!

He has total little brother energy

like, pesky little brother. Bothers everyone, looks over people’s shoulders while they’re deep in thought or concentrating on something.

Asks a lot of questions.

All the more reason for the gang to want to tickle the shit out of him.

Barry just reads like a super ticklish lee. Like his whole character.

Maybe touch starved because he said he needed friends, and I don’t think he has siblings??? (sorry if i’m wrong about that, comic fans)

I already named some of my fav headcanons about him getting tickled by like Diana and such, and I’m sticking with it.

Barry does flee. He runs away with super speed.... but sometimes he just kinda wants the tickles so he lets them have at him.

The chase is all part of the fun with tickling Barry, though. That’s what makes it so entertaining. And Barry isn’t afraid to be a little shit about it either. He will super-speed around his pursuers and poke their sides and tickle them back really quickly before they even know what’s happening.

Barry doesn’t exactly hold back his laughter lol. He’ll protest and scream and squirm like crazy, but once he’s actually tickled, he loses it.

Pure boy. With funny ass facial expressions.

And it really doesn’t help that I never realized just how hot Ezra Miller is, even though I heard he’s not a great person irl. Oh well.

THAT’S ALL FOLKS!

Please please let me know if y’all have things to add, to squee over, to question me about... please. anything. i’m here for you. thanks for reading, guys!

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aros001 · 3 years

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Going in blind: Watching season 4 for the first time. Random thoughts.

I never said anything about it before but I love Shadow Weaver's DCAU Batman eyes. They're so expressive.

Episode 1: Okay...I wasn't expecting Catra to do that. I mean, it makes sense. If she has leverage over Hordak then she's basically in charge of the Horde and that's what she's wanted (or at least believes she wants) since episode 1. It's an aspect that made her a good antagonist, that she's not blind to the evil of the Horde, she just doesn't care as long as she herself is secure. Which naturally begs the question, when the rebellion and the princesses are crushed, when the Horde is on top, when Adora is dead, when Catra finally has everything she's ever wanted...will she actually finally be happy? Somehow, I have my doubts.

I definitely feel for Glimmer in this. When you go through as big a loss as she did you need to be able to feel and vent if you're ever going to get through it. It doesn't have to be right away but everyone doing everything in their power to avoid the topic entirely can make you feel like you're going crazy. It'a especially bad for her since it unintentionally makes it feel like everyone is acting like it doesn't matter that Angela is gone when it clearly means everything to Glimmer.

Episode 2: I actually had a potted cactus plant once. Accidentally forgot about it and left it outside for an entire winter. Once the snow was gone the cactus looked like it had melted.

I kind of want to see what an interaction between Double Trouble and Clayface from the Harley Quinn animated series would look like. I'm guess Catra was just testing how good Double Trouble was as a doppelganger because it doesn't seem like she did anything while Adora was being distracted, though I suppose that could be a reveal in a later episode.

Not much to say except that I love how buff Huntara is while still clearly being a woman. Like, women can have a variety of different body types, as this series and Steven Universe show, and Huntara's build isn't just, like, Bow's body with lipstick and ponytail and the animators calling it a day. No, she looks like a freakin' jacked adult woman.

Episode 3: I didn't figure out the Flutterina = Double Trouble twist until a minute before it was revealed, so good job there. Before that I was wondering if Flutterina was some fan's original character where they won some contest where their OC got to be in the show for an episode. She was giving off some weird self-insert vibes. That twist made it all work though. It's honestly not a bad plan. Shapeshifters haven't really been a thing in the series before now so there's no reason to suspect it. Even if they did they'd probably be expecting it by way of magic or technology, while Double Trouble's seems to be a natural ability.

I like that even though Bow is definitely the goofier one of the trio he is still consistently shown as competent. That's never in question. He was very heroic and reassuring to the villagers this episode. I get why those kids idolize him so much.

Catra's having guilt over what she did with the portal and to Entrapta and her response is basically to just double-down. She doesn't know any other way to be. Not going to lie, I am kind of hoping we get another moment in the show where Adora just completely overwhelms Catra with the sheer power of She-Ra. I'm not saying like brutalize her or anything but just something where Catra is made to realize just how powerful Adora is and that she could just destroy Catra if she had a mind to do so.

Episode 4: Well, I was saying I wanted Adora to do it but I guess I don't mind Glimmer being the one to get some good shots in on Catra. Like I predicted, Shadow Weaver's moving in to become her teacher like she was with her father. Honestly I like that that was more Adora's problem than Glimmer using her as bait, which she seemed to get over pretty quick. Yeah, it was kind of a heartless thing to do but it was an understandable tactic and she clearly outright told Adora that she did it and why afterwards, which at least means she's still being honest.

It occurs to me that Glimmer and Catra may be the ones running parallel right now. Both are basically leading their respective sides of the war. They both have lost someone very important to them. And both are trusting someone they probably shouldn't. Both even have outfits that've been updated in the intro. The difference is Glimmer's just trying to deal with a bad situation while Catra's is entirely self-inflicted.

Minor thing but I like Glimmer's new outfit this season. I'm sure this is the intention but it makes her look older and more mature. A little more muscular in some shots too.

Episode 5: Heart of Etheria project. No idea what that is but assumedly whoever's a part of it doesn't like Light Hope and Mara being friends. Sounds like it's very much interested in She-Ra being just a warrior, and perhaps a tool, for the greater good. It does make me wonder though how much Light Hope remember from when she was rebooting. Even if she deleted the Mara memory she could potentially still have the memory of her and Adora watching the Mara memory, as well as Adora asking to be her friend.

Episode 6: Yep. Scorpia; definitely favorite supporting character. There is something kind of funny about her whole "Scorpions are loyal" line when you remember the story about the Frog and the Scorpion, where it stings the frog despite it meaning death for itself as well simply because that is its nature. But finally we're having someone go save Entrapta, and I can only assume at some point Scorpia's going to access the power of the Black Garnet.

The parallels between Catra and Hordak are definitely at their max here with that speech of hers to him. She's basically trying to convince herself that she doesn't need anyone, the timing of which is appropriate since she just drove away Scorpia and now truly doesn't have anyone. Not that I blame Scorpia, obviously. Like Adora before her, however good you believe someone can be and that you can help them, at some point you just have to cut the toxic people out of your life. You have the right to be happy too.

And man, Bow is just the best. He saw something was wrong between Adora and Glimmer and defused the situation like (snap) that, pushing them to talk like any sane person would.

Episode 7: I'm sure it is just because I've seen way too many TV shows and movies (both animated and live action) that don't do it but it is just such a relief to have a show where the characters just TALK and LISTEN to each other. It doesn't solve all their issues but they're at least not being stupid and freakin' petty. It helps the drama feel a lot less forced and contrived.

Episode 8: A little bit of amusement in Bow thinking at first that Glimmer and Adora didn't even notice he was gone despite them coming to his rescue very shortly afterwards, given Catra is only now realizing Scorpia has left and assumedly she did so a while ago. Bow and Sea Hawk hadn't been gone for that long so it's not unreasonable Glimmer and Adora wouldn't be worried about their absence (Bow was literally talking about "me time" when they last saw him), while Catra is only noticing Scorpia's absence now and it was because she wanted something. Like Scorpia said, she's a bad friend.

Kind of ironic given that a lot of Catra's issues are the direct result of Shadow Weaver giving her very little love growing up but it does seem this tough love is probably what'll get through to Catra the best. She might finally stop making bad decisions and lashing out if she's forced to live with the consequences of them, like Adora told her last season.

Glimmer gets a bit of slack from me since she suffered through a huge loss, that being her mother, and then was immediately thrown into being queen right after. It'd be hard for anyone to be 100% on their game and well-adjusted in a situation like that, and I buy that she was on some level resentful of Adora for coming back instead of her mother, even if unintentionally so. What definitely helps is that Glimmer very clearly and immediately regretted what she said to Adora. Like Catra she's lashing out but unlike Catra Glimmer recognizes some of the damage she's doing and knows, at least in this case, that she went too far.

Episode 9: Now that I can see the design in color I definitely prefer Mara's She-Ra with pants to Adora's She-Ra with shorts. Honestly, while the differences are pretty minor, I do think Mara's She-Ra design is overall a lot better than Adora's. Sharper shoulder guards. Bigger cape (especially the cape, I love capes). I don't know, there's just a lot that clicks with it and I wouldn't mind Adora getting a similar outfit later.

Madam Razz definitely had a Yoda feel this episode. I was very much expecting her to start wacking Mara with a stick over the sugar like Yoda did with R2. Though while that was Yoda acting crazy, for Razz it's because she experiences time out of order, and I don't think I've ever seen that concept taken to this extent, or at least done this way before. There are characters like River Song from Doctor Who, Professor Paradox from Ben 10, or even the Reverse-Flash who interact with other characters in time out of order but those characters are still on a linear path from their own perspective, even when travelling through time. Razz is just bouncing around her own timeline, seemingly not even any real reason or cause to it like Subaru from Re:Zero. Clearly she's not just remembering things oddly because her talk about things of the present are heard by people in the past and have an effect. I wonder if maybe the reason why is because Razz was at ground zero of Mara's actions and this is a side-effect of pulling Etheria away from the rest of the universe.

Bringing more Star Wars into this, it basically sounds like the Heart of Etheria project has turned Etheria into a magic Starkiller Base; storing power that'll be unleashed to destroy whole planets. And jeez, I think this was the first time I really felt creeped out by Light Hope when she was talking to Mara.

I'm looking forward to seeing what it means that the First Ones only made the sword and that Etheria made She-Ra. If that's the case, why is only the sword able to bring out the She-Ra form? Is it like MCU Thor's hammer and the weapon was just meant to help him control the power he already had? Or is what we think is She-Ra not actually She-Ra and that form that Adora and Mara take is just a stand-in for the real thing?

Episode 10: It didn't even occur to me until now but Double Trouble's capture is another blow to Catra's circle of "friends" too. They were at least able to make her laugh. One less person for her to talk to and just...really just distract her from her thoughts.

It's a good dilemma this episode presents about what to do with the Heart of Etheria. The safest and probably best option is to just dismantle it, like Adora and Bow want, since it could easily lead to the destruction of the entire planet if it goes off. Not the mention there's so little they know about it and what it was intended for and the one person who can potentially tell them, Light Hope, they were warned not to trust. But it's not hard to understand where Glimmer is coming from in wanting to use that power to fight the Horde. They're already losing the war and now she knows Hordak Prime and his FAR more powerful forces are on the way. Tapping into the Heart is a huge risk but she's not seeing any other paths for the rebels to win. It's a really good dilemma, with good arguments presented from both sides, and I buy this widening the schism between Adora and Glimmer.

Episode 11: I have mixed feelings on King Micah still being alive. On the one hand there's a lot of good potential interactions we can now have with him, primarily between Glimmer and Shadow Weaver, and he is a fun character. But on the other I can't help but wonder if this kind of lessens the impact of what Angela gave up to overcome the false reality. Part of what made it so emotional was that she had to accept the person she loved was dead and not coming back...except now we see that he wasn't dead and now he is coming back. Yeah, their family lost out on years together and that does still carry some emotional weight but I was already also half-expecting Angela to come back later in the series because she's stuck between dimensions, meaning there's a chance she could still be alive. If both Glimmer's parents come back then that really feels like it takes a lot of weight out of her story. But I guess we'll see what happens.

Also, why did the Horde exile him to Beast Island? Why not just kill him?!

Episode 12: So the Horde exiles Micah to Beast Island instead of killing him. The First Ones protect their secrets by sending their bad tech to Beast Island. Does no one know how to just destroy things in this world?

Ohhh, I am so looking forward to next episode. While it's debatable whether Glimmer should be going through with her plan she is at least being smart with how she's going about it. Double Trouble was being paid by Catra to work for the Horde, not out of any sense of loyalty. Glimmer has the resources of Bright Moon at her disposal so it's reasonable she could pay them more to switch sides. Double Trouble was very good at sabotaging even a group as tight-nit as the heroes, so Hordak and Catra are probably easy pickings with all their issues.

Episode 13: ....WELL THAT AIN'T GOOD!

I'll admit, I had a little bit of an unintended laugh. After all we've heard about Horde Prime, like this shadowy all-powerful monster, I wasn't expecting the fabulous flowing dreadlocks and smoothness. Credit where it's due, man has charisma and charm, which goes a long way in helping your big evil world conqueror not be a very flat character, because it's doubtful he's going to have the same kind of sympathetic motivation as Hordak or complexity as Catra to keep him elevated.

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Double Trouble kicking at Catra while she's down. Adora and Scorpia were honest but they never wanted to hurt Catra. Not so much with Double Trouble and they just shove reality into her face. Everyone leaves Catra because of Catra. She's the common factor. It's her fault and no one else's. Again, I don't know for certain if Adora and Catra get together at the end (Catra would have a LOT to make amends for regardless) but Double Trouble was definitely implying Catra had feelings for her with the way they put Catra's hand on "Adora's" cheek while talking about how she left her.

I like that we see Glimmer's plan actually working at first. The princesses get a massive power boost and decimate the Horde forces. But the minute it starts going wrong she immediately admits Adora was right and she tries to stop the energy flow. I imagine having her there with Catra was intentional by the writers. Despite some parallels, Glimmer can actually accept her failures and work to try and fix things. Unlike Catra, she didn't blame Adora for things going wrong.

So the sword allows the First Ones to control She-Ra and the energy she'd be absorbing from the planet. Assumedly that means there are at least some parts to She-Ra that have nothing to do with the First Ones and thus maybe Adora can still use some of those powers without the sword.

Season 4 verdict: Yeah, the show keeps getting better, though I will admit last season's finale had me more emotional, but that's a bit of an unfair comparison given everything that happened in that finale vs. this one. This is definitely the series hitting its darkest hour, where it feels like EVERYONE lost. Not just the rebels but the Horde as well. The sword and Light Hope are gone and She-Ra (for now) along with them. Glimmer and Catra are basically prisoners. Hordak's probably going to have his personality stripped away. The Fright Zone is in ruins. The only one who's gained anything is Prime.

Really looking forward to what the final season has in store, especially since there seems to be the implication that Catra just saved Glimmer's life.

Original Reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/PrincessesOfPower/comments/o1j5gk/going_in_blind_watching_season_4_for_the_first/

#she ra #she ra spop #random thoughts #reddit repost

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stranger-who-writes-fiction · 3 years

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Alright HERE WE GO...SOME PRESS!

By which I mean, Tom King was on ComicPop discussing Supergirl! So we have CONTEXT AND BACKGROUND INFO! WOO!

Gonna get into it below, but my recommendation, as always: the best way to have an informed opinion is to get the info firsthand, so don’t just take my word for it! Go forth! Watch the thing! (Language advisory, though. There is some swearing.)

Okay. With that out of the way, LET’S GO!

Gonna lead off with a summary of the Supergirl bits, as they discuss a variety of things, from Strange Adventures to Batman/Catwoman to the canned New Gods project:

How Tom King came to be the writer of Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow:

King’s longtime editor, Jaime Rich, was moved from the Bat books to the Super books.

King, historically, likes to take on characters that ‘need help.’ He cites the example of Kirby who, upon coming to DC, asked what their lowest-selling title was, which is how he ended up on Jimmy Olsen.

So, when King asks which character needs help, Rich, to King: Supergirl. We have trouble selling that book.

King, describing Supergirl: ‘She’s singular in a way Mr. Miracle and Vision are not.’ Says that if you ask any four year old who Supergirl is, they know.

Editors asked him, ‘what’s your take? what are you gonna do with her?’

King then discusses the difference between his approach to Bat people vs. Super people.

Bat people: It’s a deconstruction approach. King brings up Kite Man from his Batman run. You tear the character down and build them back up, a la Dark Knight Returns

Super people: It’s not about deconstruction. Let them be themselves. They’re wonderful, let them be wonderful.

But he does mention sort of stripping down the character to their purest form; he describes it as chiseling off the barnacles that have built up on the character, over the years.

Additionally, he says ‘evil doesn’t work for the Super family of characters.’

He mentions Superman: Up in the Sky. He says that there’s deep stuff in Up in the Sky, but the theme of every page is simply: Superman is awesome.

King: “I don’t want to make Kara mean or sad. I want to test her.”

The host compares ‘angry Kara’ stories to ‘evil Superman’ stories in that there are many of them, such to the point that people think Kara is relatable because she’s miserable and angry all the time.

The host: I don’t get that.

(Same dude, same.)

King talked to Steve Orlando

They discussed the fact that Supergirl knew her planet; the people who died were her friends, family, classmates.

King summarizes Kara’s original Silver Age origin: she witnessed three huge, traumatic losses of life. First, when Krypton exploded. Then again when the Kryptonite started killing Argo residents, and then again when the meteorites destroyed the lead shielding that was keeping Argo safe.

King: “That’s some f-ing trauma! I don’t know if you’ve read my books, but I love the trauma in characters.”

King thus describes Kara as world-weary, she swears, ‘she has seen some sh*t’.

On the new character, Ruthye:

She’s a child on a vengeance quest.

She’s named after King’s niece, Ruthie.

The pronunciation for the comic character, though, is Ruth-Eye.

One of his sons told him to add the ‘e’ on the end to make it look cooler.

Further discussion of Kara herself:

King noted that there’s sometimes a tendency to be very precious with the character.

King: ‘Let’s not be precious with Supergirl.’

This is not the story of a sixteen-year-old girl discovering the world; King says that Supergirl has been that sixteen-year-old for a long time now.

He describes it more as a move from Supergirl to Superwoman.

Art and Influences:

Talking about the red sun planet that Kara visits for her twenty-first birthday, King says he was reading a lot of Conan, which influenced the look of that portion of the story.

The impetus for getting Evely on the book: King said his editor emailed him, ‘Hey, how about Bilquis?’ King: “And I did a happy dance!”

Evely sent King a mood board of the types of things she wanted to draw; Moebius, Kirby, Wally Wood, landscapes in particular.

Also, King says Evely is fast! She’s already halfway through the book, art-wise, and King is confident the book will release on time.

The host asked him, following up on King’s description of the book as a fantasy/western, ‘Is this True Grit?’

King: “It’s True Grit inspired. The novel AND the movie.”

If asked to give the Hollywood pitch: ‘It’s True Grit in space with Supergirl as Rooster Cogburn.’

Details about this book, as compared to Other Tom King titles:

He’s using captions on this comic--he’d thrown out captions as a storytelling device after Batman, but he found a ‘good voice’ for this comic.

King was prepared to do his usual twelve issues, but they said no one buys Supergirl comics, so it’s eight issues.

King says that Strange Adventures, Rorschach, and to a lesser extent, Batman/Catwoman, were written at a time when the world felt very apocalyptic.

He considers them to be angrier books; they are about what happens when evil is in our life, and how we deal with that.

Supergirl is the start of the ‘next generation’ of titles.

It was written during the pandemic, but King hoped that by the time it was released, the pandemic and this very dark time in our history would be past.

He says it’s a ‘roaring 20s’ book. Not about anger, or trauma, it’s about stepping into the future and kicking a**.

THUS CONCLUDES the Supergirl portion of the interview.

Okay, so! Now that we’ve been objective and presented the information in a straightforward, unbiased manner...SOME THOUGHTS AND OPINONS!

The thing I was most curious about was how King got the book, so I was EXTREMELY PLEASED to get the full story.

This wasn’t like. King desperately wanting to do a Supergirl book, nor was it DC coming to King like, ‘Take Supergirl!’

Sadly, it was, ‘which book needs the most help right now? In the Superman lineup?’

He even said that Supergirl was kind of just sitting around, no one was doing anything with her/there were no plans.

(So the idea that King stole this opportunity from a woman is not true. There were NO PLANS.)

(Also it’s not based on the FS stuff, I suspect they gave the FS team some ideas from his pitch to work with, as that entire event was sort of a stop-gap/fill-in as they hurried to relaunch their line.)

Anyways!

My initial thought that this is DC’s attempt to sell some dang Supergirl books? Not that far off! XD

Boy, I hope it works.

(Important to note: This is not news. Supergirl has historically always sold poorly. I’ve heard from actual Supergirl writers that the trades do not sell, which is a huge problem.

So King, who is KNOWN for having really good trade sales, is as solid a gamble as they could probably hope for.

He said Superman: Up in the Sky is his third best-selling trade. A WAL-MART BOOK! Is just behind Vision and Mr. Miracle!

Basically: If this doesn’t work, I don’t know that anything will.)

As for the specifics of King’s take in particular!

Again...I really want to see it, before I pass judgement on it.

I liked the Andreyko run! And that was pretty edgy!

Also, we have never seen a twenty-something Kara, post-Crisis. She’s always been a teenager. Thus I’m pretty willing to go along with this approach because it’s entirely new territory.

And it does seem like King is enjoying leaning into the idea of a Super who swears and kicks butt and is just a little ‘done’ with it all.

It might not mesh with my ideal Kara but again. I need to see it, before I come to any firm conclusions.

Honestly the thing that gives me the most pause? Is that King says this book really focuses on Supergirl, not Kara, which is a more recent identity for her.

(That is somewhat true! The ‘Kara Danvers’ identity is wholly new to the show; she’s always been Linda Lee, Linda Danvers, Kara Kent, or Linda Lang, when she has a secret identity. Sometimes she doesn’t.)

(Also of note: Tom pronounces it ‘Care-a’, like the cartoon.)

(PERSONALLY I like KAHr-a, like in the show, because it creates a phonetic consistency with ‘KAHl-el’ but that’s not really relevant to a comic book. You can mentally pronounce it however you choose! XD)

So, yeah, I like the Kara Danvers part of her identity, I like earth-bound Supergirl stories, but. This isn’t that. Which I’ll need to make peace with, I guess. XD

Otherwise? Tell me a story, Mr. King. Even if I hate it, Evely will draw it beautifully, Lopes will color it masterfully, and that’s half the battle, right there.

I’m sad King didn’t mention the Gates/Igle run! But I also understand he’s probably been looking at more recent stuff; those Gates/Igle comics are fifteen years old, oh man, oh geez, how are they that old already.

King did confirm that this is 100% in-continuity, and will affect the character going into the future.

But, IDK, given the sort of. Grim beginnings of how this book came to be, what with the reminder that the Supergirl title doesn’t sell well...who knows what the future will look like, for Kara!

I stand by my guess that Kara will graduate to ‘Superwoman’ and the Supergirl mantle will pass to someone else, maybe Ruthye? She might be a bit young, though.

Mmm. What else, what else?

Oh, this is pretty funny, IMO: when King first teased the new character, Ruthye, a bunch of SG fans rushed to google to see if there was any clue as to like. What it could mean.

And they freaked out over some obscure connection where that name appears but hey, turns out! It’s just a made up name! Based on King’s niece!

It’s funny because SG fans never learn, man. Just chill out, read the dang book, then get all upset and huff and puff and blow your twitter house down.

They briefly mentioned the Peter David run; King said the PAD stuff was great.

He’s already teased that ‘treat’ and, okay. Time for some rumination on that specifically.

I’ve read the whole PAD run. It wasn’t my cup of tea, I don’t really like the DnD, angels and demons stuff. Also, it wasn’t Kara; it’s an entirely different character who uses the name ‘Supergirl.’

Also, stuff from that run didn’t age well.

And on top of that, PAD turned out to be...kind of a jerk! As so many folks in the comic industry are.

There’s also...an extremely weird, mean-spirited vibe through the whole back half of the run; I thought maybe I was imagining it at the time, but I recently went back to “Many Happy Returns”, the final story arc of the title, and David’s introduction in the trade...it doesn’t read like a guy who was in it for the love of the character, you know?

All of which to say! I’m not excited about connections to the PAD stuff.

But I know a lot of fans who love that run, love that version of the character.

So like. Eh! Not for me, but to the folks who enjoy it, I hope it’s cool/fun, whatever it is.

(Still think it’ll be a variant or an easter egg or something, but we’ll see.)

(Oh, hmmm! Evely *did* post a WIP of like. Some creepy skull gate that they presumably encounter...hmmmmm.)

Okay, this is crazy long, and there’s no fun art or anything to go with it--OR IS THERE?!?!?!

BOOM. From Bilquis Evely’s twitter today. (GO. FOLLOW. HER. FOR THE GOOD ART.)

(LIKE!!! I look at this and I just! Can’t! Bring myself to not be hyped as all heck! LOOK AT THIS! AND iT’S JUST THE PENCILS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

God, wish that Supergirl sold better, so we could get a full year of this. HNNNNGGGGGGG.

Oh! That was another thing King discussed in detail; that 8 is way different from his usual 12, in terms of pacing and story. The beats fall at different places (obviously) so it was a bit of a challenge for him.

Actually, now that I’m thinking about it...maybe 8 will be good. Issue 10 just dropped for Strange Adventures, and wow, it has felt LONG. (I mean, the last four? Three? issues are also bi-monthly so that doesn’t help but. Still.)

(Superman: Up in the Sky was twelve issues but half the length, because it was a Wal-Mart book, so it was more like six.)

OKAY! For real, I’ve gone on long enough. XD

SOON. Soon. June 15th, to be exact. Mark yer calendars!

#stranger speaks #supergirl: woman of tomorrow #long post #LONG!#dc comics

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thekytchensynk · 4 years

Text

An Absolutely Normal Training Day (Fictober Prompt 24)

Prompt number: 24

Fanfiction Fandom: DCU/Booster Gold and Ted Kord

Rating: G

Warnings: No warnings

Read this story on AO3

“So you’re sure about this?”

Ted grinned. “Trust me! It’ll be great.”

They both stood in tee-shirts and sweatpants in a room at Ted’s house. Booster thought it used to be some sort of formal sitting room last time he visited -- the sort of room where the furniture is nice so you can visit with company in there, but all your company is so informal that it feels too weird to go in there. Booster had seen it only once, and felt pretty sure there was enough dust that it gave the upholstery a whole new texture.

All of that was gone -- except a big bay window. It let in a lot of light on a fake-hardwood floor, a couple floor-to-ceiling mirrors, a treadmill, a rack of weights and … this.

“You’re sure about this,” Booster repeated.

“Will you stop judging a book by its cover?” Ted replied.

To be sure, judging it by its cover would do little for this particular book. The machine in the center of the room looked somewhat terrifying --falling somewhere between an oversized doll and a piece of construction equipment. He’d made some effort to stretch a rubbery skin over the whole thing, both to protect it and the people around it, Booster supposed. But that just made the whole thing another step creepier. The face was a single, smooth piece of metal with only shallow protrusions and indentations for facial features.

“How do you sleep with this thing in your house?” Booster asked, walking a slow circle around it. The thing looked rooted to the floor, which he assumed meant the bulk of its mechanical bits had to be down in the basement. Did you need some sort of special license for that?

“Quite well, thanks,” Ted said, so jovially that it tipped over into sarcasm.”Now come on. Half the Justice League, they have powers. Guys like you and me, we have gadgets. And you know what that means.”

“Ridiculous repair bills,” Booster agreed.

“Ye- No! It means we get put in the same category as Batman. Which is totally unfair, since that guy can probably kick the butt of an entire army platoon without breaking a sweat. So you and I, my friend, need to bulk up.”

“And we can’t do this in the same training area as everyone else because…” Booster prompted.

Ted shot him a look. Clear as a word. Clear as a book with its contents right on the cover. “Aww, come on, Ted,” Booster said, walking back around the monstrosity to stand by him. “No one is judging you or me or anyone like that. Well…” He paused. Amended, “well, Guy maybe, but he’s an ass. No one should listen to what he says. Dude, you move like an acrobat. It’s really impressive.”

Ted looked skeptical. “Nah, this is going to be great. Just think of their faces when I show up, ripped-”

“From this?” Booster paced around it again. “”Looks more like something that’ll rip you in half.”

“No pain, no gain.”

Throwing his hands up, Booster said, “Fine! How does it work. Let’s see the miracle in action.”

“Now you’re talking.” Ted walked over to the rack of weights and picked up a silver box that had been resting on top. It turned out to be a remote control, about the size of a stick of butter. It featured a couple dials and two buttons.”Speed,” he said, pointing to one dial, then the other. “Strength, and these are the on and off buttons.”

“Simple enough,“ Booster said, looking but not touching. He’d been around enough inventors to know to always, always let them try the experiment first.

“Three on the dial is average human,” Ted said, setting both dials there. “So, good place to start. Work my way up.”

“You really don’t have to do this,” Booster tried one last time. If pressed, he would have to admit he was still judging the book by its unsettling, quasi-human cover. It seriously freaked him out. Reminded him of an inhuman amalgamation illustrated in a book of scary stories for kids he’d taken out of the library once upon a time.

But Ted took a deep breath and pressed the on button. For a moment, nothing happened. Then a low hissing sound began to emit from the machine.

“Is it supposed to do that?”

“It’s the pressure building up in the hydraulics. Here.” He handed the remote to Booster and squared up opposite the machine. For a moment, they stood there, neither making the first move. Then Ted went in -- two quick steps and then punch aimed for the thing’s “face.”

The entire mechanical body swayed left with speed that left the metal screaming, then its body rotated a full time around. The head, of course, stayed perfectly still because why move normally when it could move creepily? One of the flailing hands caught Ted full in the face and knocked him back, out of range.

Booster hurried over to where his friend lay sprawled out on the ground, propped up on one elbow and with the other hand over the red blotch on his face. “Ted, you OK?”

“Uh … yeah. Yeah, I think I’m fine.”

“Oh, good,” Booster said. There was a beat, then he started laughing.

“It’s not funny,” Ted said.

“No. It wasn’t funny when I thought you might be hurt. But now that I know you’re fine, it’s hilarious,” Booster said between his laughter. “Your invention just slapped you across the room. Maybe you should have taken it on a date first before getting so close.”

“I’m glad to know your compassion runs only skin deep,” Ted said stiffly before starting to climb to his feet. Booster offered a hand. Ted scowled and got up on his own, but there wasn’t any real heat in it. Turning and surveying the still-twitching machine, he said, “I guess there are still a few kinks.”

“Looks like,” Booster agreed.

“Maybe when I assembled it, I didn’t account for the additive effect of the tubing. Or…”

That caught Booster’s attention. “So, you didn’t test this before showing it off?”

“I tested … parts of it,” he said defensively.

Further discussion got cut off as the machine spun around again. And then again. The hissing sound had stopped, and in its place a whine had begun, low but climbing in volume and intensity.

“Maybe we should turn it off,” Ted said. Wordlessly, Booster pressed the marked “off” button.

The thing kept going.

Frowning, Booster tried the button again. Then he handed the remote to Ted, who tried several more times. The combat dummy had begun to twitch back and forth, in addition to the shell of the chest rotating over and over. It had a very “if you get hit by this, it’s your own fault” vibe.

“Well, this is unexpected,” Ted said at last. He dialed both dials down to zero, but this didn’t cause any notable change in the performance.

“How worried should we be about this?” Booster asked.

“Umm… I’m going to go down to the guts,” Ted said, backing away from the flailing machine. “And maybe you should put your suit on. Or at least the bit that gives you that force field.” Then he ran out of the room, heading toward the kitchen and, presumably, to the basement from there.

Booster ran and got his belt.

When he came back, the machine almost looked possessed. It thrashed back and forth, still sometimes spinning. When this happened, the hands would smack into the floor, chipping up pieces of it.

“Ahh, shoot,” Came a muted voice from below. “Something got in here. This cord is chewed right through … which one is-”

Whatever mooring the sparring dummy was attached to seemed to be working loose with its wild gyrations. The movements were getting bigger, and he could see the metal box below it starting to peek up into the room.

“You gonna turn this thing off, or…” Booster asked the floor. The room wasn’t all that big. He set himself up in front of the window. On the off chance this thing did tear free, he didn’t want it to go sailing straight out through the window and potentially into some neighborhood minivan.

“Trying.” Ted’s voice carried equal parts exasperation and anxiety. “How’s that?”

“Did you do something?”

“Yes!"

“Then no change,” Booster blocked an incoming slap from the machine. Jeeze, that was supposed to be human strength and speed?

“I think … ah, are you kidding me? How could the … hold on!” Ted seemed to be carrying on a whole conversation with himself now.

“Ted?”

“I’m going to try cutting the hose. Hold on.”

A moment later and the room erupted in a spray of liquid and the sparring monster just sort of … lifted off. Booster watched it slam through the ceiling, then heard it slam through another level above. He stepped under the gaping hole in time to see the thing sailing up into the cloudy sky, drifting a little toward the front of the house. Booster booked it outside to make sure the suburban nightmare he’d been trying to prevent earlier wouldn’t happen in a whole new way.

He got out to the front lawn just as the training dummy came plummeting out of the sky and landed in the middle of the front yard in a shower of dirt. Booster blocked the flying particles from his face with one arm. When he lowered it, he saw the remains of the dummy poking out of a new crater. Looking further, he saw a kid on a bike, maybe eight years old, staring. As he looked, a door across the street opened and a woman stepped out, shading her eyes and staring over.

Footsteps came up behind him, and he turned to see Ted approaching, splattered head to foot in what he assumed was hydraulic fluid. He surveyed the front lawn, hands on hips, then let out a huge sigh. “We’re in trouble, huh?”

“Yup.”

“What are the odds this gets back to the League?”

“For us? 100%.”

“Fair point. Help me clean this up? We could use a workout still.”

Booster grinned. “Hey. There’s always the League’s gym.”

#fictober20 #24 #dcu #booster gold #ted kord #fanfic

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vintagegeekculture · 5 years

Note

You once said that Captain Marvel's Golden Age popularity tends to be overstated. Could you please elaborate?

I was specifically referring to the idea that “CaptainMarvel was the best selling superhero of the 1940s,” which I have seen a fewplaces, and is untrue. Though Captain Marvel was very famous and tremendouslypopular, the best selling superhero of the 1940s was exactly who you’d thinkit’d be: Superman.

A closer look at the era shows that our concept of the era,with Captain Marvel/Superman as this Gobots/Transformers or N’Sync/Backstreet Boys rivalry is untrue, because the reality is that there were several tremendously popular charactersthat were second-banana to Superman in the comics world at different points inthe 1940s: Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, Nedor’s Black Terror, and mostextraordinarily of all, the Blue Beetle, who is a pretty good candidate for my“dead fandoms” series in that at one point, he was in the top three ofsuperheroes, a radio phenomenon with a coast to coast fan club.

The narrative that Captain Marvel was the biggest hero apartfrom Superman hides how huge these other characters were, and it’s moreinteresting to talk about how, say, Black Terror was huge but vanished, or howthe best selling female adventure comics character of the 1940s wasn’t WonderWoman but Sheena, Queen of the Jungle.

(You’ll probably note the absence of a few characters thatwere only big in retrospect: Batman comes to mind. In the Golden Age, he was in the top 10 of superheroes, sure, but his popularity wasn’t that great until thehit TV show of the 1960s made him a semi-rival in popularity to Superman. Anycollector can attest to this: it is truly rare to find any Batman merchandisebefore 1966.

If this was Snopes or something, I’d call the “Captain Marvel was the top selling superhero” as partially true, because it is: the origin of this misconception is the totally true claimthat Captain Marvel’s comic was the top seller at certain points in thedecade, certainly, but (and this is the key part) from what we can tell, he wasnot consistently the top seller,which I think is an important distinction. Part of it was the astounding dropof interest in superheroes after the war, but part of it was also that CaptainMarvel just plain ran out of gas creatively at a certain point.

In other words, Captain Marvel had what we today call a“shark jump” point, Simpsons Season 9 style. And that point is, rightly orwrongly (mostly wrongly), associated with the introduction of Mr. Tawny theTalking Tiger in 1947, a Jar-Jar Binks-esque character of unclear purpose.

Let me be absolutely clear: Mr. Tawny the Talking Tiger wasnot the reason later Captain Marvel comics lacked the pizzazz and charm of theearlier ones, just like Jar Jar Binks is notthe reason a lot of people didn’t connect to the Star Wars prequel movies.The issues were a little more fundamental. But like Jar Jar Binks, Mr. Tawny isidentified as the point at which dissatisfaction crystalizes.

Captain Marvel until 1946, might just be some of my favorite comics ever. The Monster Society of Evil was easily one of the creative highpoints of the Golden Age, the first time 23 or more issues in a single comicwas dedicated to a sweeping story, the first time all villains of a hero cametogether. It was easily one of the most ambitious and memorable stories of the Golden Age. It’s had a lot of trouble getting reprinted in modern times, due to racially insensitive, caricature-esque depictions of Asians and blacks. The story nonetheless should be reprinted, with such depictions relevant for their historical importance.

For those who are unaware, in a time before serial storytelling, close to 2 years of Captain Marvel were dedicated to a single over-arching story. All of Captain Marvel’s enemies, from Oggar and Black Adam to the Crocodile Men, the robot Mr. Atom, Goatman, and Captain Nazi were unified by a mysterious cackling voice on a speakerbox, into the Monster Society of Wvil, by a creature called Mr. Mind, who’s identity was totally unknown. At the end, after two years of battle, Captain Marvel finally unmasked the mysterious voice on the speaker box - only to reveal the sinister Hitlerian genius that threatened the world was actually just a tiny worm.

But in a few years, perhaps because the comic was done by a single creative team, as inevitably happens, they started to run out of ideas. This makes sense to me – if “anything can happen,” nothing is eventful. One exerciseI do with stories and settings is to identify three things that can’t happen – if they can’t identify three things that won’t happen in thestory, their setting doesn’t have a unique identity.

History has a way of eliminating our sense of the passage oftime completely. To someone born after the Golden Age of Comics and looking back,the introduction of Mr. Tawny, the Talking Tiger, happened at the same time asMonster Society of Evil and the other legendary Captain Marvel stories; unlessyou read them in the original order, or read them in reprints in the DC 80 PageGiants, they’re a big undifferentiated mass that came out simultaneously. ButMr. Tawny came several years later after the truly great Captain Marvel storieswere told, and did not participate in them. Reboots scrambled things up evenfurther, some of which have Mr. Tawny there from the beginning (like Ordway’sPower of Shazam! Mini where Tawny was Mary’s stuffed toy who came to life).

There are some people who defend the later Golden Age Captain Marvel in much the same way that there are people who defend Star Trek V: the Final Frontier. More power to them if they see something of value. Personally, I never hate anything when it comes to fiction, even the bad things you can learn things from (never, ever hate a movie…and never forget that disliking things is not a personality trait). The internet being the internet, however…well, I can’t help but wonder if a lot of modern Mr. Tawny fans like him because they want to fuck him.

Just like with Jar Jar, it’s better not to forget him – he’sthere, use him somehow. I rather liked how he was used in the Captain Marvel/Shazam movie that came out last April, not as a character, but as a Kubrick style visual motif that keeps showing up in Billy’s life to reflect his desire for a realhome, on his backpack and everywhere (notice that his costume has tigertoken cape claspers). I also liked the idea in Ordway’s Power of Shazam series that Mr.Tawky was a friend of Mary Marvel, not Billy, a friend who gives her emotionalsupport and who is a semi-father figure. And there was an absolutely wonderfulissue of Astro City clearly inspired by Mr. Tawky, where the Astro City version was kind of a sad-eyed drunk and failure chewed up and spat out by the venomousculture of showbusiness.

It was so funny to me that this year, they had two CaptainMarvel movies come out from competing studios within weeks of each other. That’s such an asshole move that I kind of admire it, and I seriously doubt the timing is a coincidence. I am100% sure that some ultra-competitive alpha dog studio executive said, “hey,can we have them come out the same weekend?” It reminds me of how Golan and Globus after they split, both simultaneously made movies about the Lambadadance craze, and released them the exact same weekend to spite each other, with one named “Lambada”and the other named “The Forbidden Dance.”

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thisguyatthemovies · 4 years

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A Hardy effort

Title: “Capone”

Release date: On disc/streaming May 12, 2020

Starring: Tom Hardy, Linda Cardellini, Kyle MacLachlan, Jack Lowden, Matt Dillon, Noel Fisher, Al Sapienza, Kathrine Narducci, Tilda Del Toro, Wayne Pere, Gino Cafarrelli, Josh Trank, Edgar Arreola, Mason Guccione

Directed by: Josh Trank

Run time: 1 hour, 43 minutes

Rated: R

What it’s about: Notorious gangster Al “Scarface” Capone, his body and mind ravaged by neurosyphilis and dementia, lives out his final year at his Florida estate as the government keeps tabs on him.

How I saw it: The purpose of director/writer/editor Josh Trank’s film about gangster Alphonse “Scarface” Capone’s final year, “Capone,” seems to boil down to this: provide a showy, over-the-top, cartoonish, Oscar-bait type of role to Tom Hardy. Beyond that, the film – a largely incomprehensible mess, and not an engaging one, that swirls around Hardy’s scene-chewing performance – wouldn’t appear to have a reason to exist. Is there still an eager audience in 2020 for the retelling of stories about Prohibition era gangsters?

In this version of Capone’s story (whether it sticks closely to the known facts would seem to matter little, given Trank’s treatment), Capone (Hardy) smokes a lot of fat cigars, soils himself (and his bed) and unknowingly urinates on the furniture, talks nonsense (when he isn’t grunting), experiences frequent bouts of paranoia, goes incognito by dressing as a woman, shoots an alligator from a boat with a shotgun, sings and dances along with the Cowardly Lion during an at-home screening of “The Wizard of Oz,” has hallucinatory flashbacks about his vicious past (ones that apparently don’t produce any remorse) and goes berserk with a gold-plated Tommy gun while chewing on an unsliced carrot (his doctor having taken away his cigars) while he’s wearing an open robe and adult diaper. That last part really happens in the movie.

The plot? Trank doesn’t give us much of one, other than Capone getting gradually more ill and then dying. The closest “Capone” comes to drama is a side plot about the gangster supposedly having buried about $10 million (that’s almost $150 million in today’s dollars) but forgetting where it is, and federal agents trying every trick in the book to get Capone to reveal the location. The obligatory summarizing printed words just before the credits tell us Capone’s money was never found. The film also includes a storyline about a teenage son who Capone doesn’t acknowledge trying to talk to his father on the phone (as federal agents listen), but it’s neither here nor there because it goes unresolved; the scenes mostly serve as an intermission to the Hardy-as-Capone craziness.

And Hardy’s Capone is plenty crazy. Say what you will about the film, but the 42-year-old British actor (he is playing a 47-going-on-87 Capone) goes all in for his roles, and for this one he most definitely is all in. He is only recognizable through his eyes. Hardy wears prosthetics to recreate Capone’s garish face scars and is given a balding head, and he’s dumpier than usual; his physique looks nothing like it did when he played Bane in the Batman movie “The Dark Knight Rises.” Speaking of Bane, Hardy’s Capone voice is nearly as comically bad and every bit as difficult to understand (must be all those cigars). Thankfully, viewing at home allows for the use of captioning. That way you know Capone is saying mostly “ehhh” and “mmmm.” The supporting cast is solid – especially Linda Cardellini as Capone’s wife Mae, Jack Lowden as a young FBI agent who must convince his superiors Capone still is relevant in 1947, and Matt Dillon as Johnny, an acquaintance of Capone – but takes such a backseat to the central figure that it matters little who plays the other characters.

“Capone” seems jumbled because it bounces between reality (we think) and Capone’s dreamlike consciousness. In one scene that seems to go on forever, Capone (though still the gravely ill version) walks through the crowd in a ballroom and joins Louis Armstrong on stage for a duet of “Blueberry Hill.” In another flashback, Capone is present for the brutal murder of a masked snitch, as one of his associates, Gino (Gino Cafarelli), stabs the man’s neck more than a dozen times while screaming f-bombs. Hardy’s Capone is at times funny, sometimes unintentionally, but if that was supposed to be the tone, the effort is undermined by what amounts to exploitation of a character with elderly traits even though he hadn’t yet reached 50. Watching a grown man soil himself while being interviewed by federal agents is far more sad and gross than humorous or entertaining.

By the end of the plodding movie, it isn’t clear if Trank was trying to paint a sympathetic picture of a prematurely dying man or making a statement about people like Capone getting their comeuppance, or something straight down the middle. “Capone” doesn’t work as any of those options, even with Hardy giving it his all.

My score: 33 out of 100

Should you watch it? Not necessarily, unless you are fascinated by old-timey American gangsters and/or a diehard fan of Hardy.

#movies #movie reviews #capone #tom hardy #al capone #prohibition #josh trank #gangsters

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adamwatchesmovies · 5 years

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The Worst of 2018

Before we dig into my Worst of 2018 list, let’s make something clear. Making movies is hard. I may be criticizing people’s efforts but am fully aware that they’ve all accomplished far more than I have by making an actual movie. Even the worst film on this list is still a fully-functional production that someone somewhere might enjoy... theoretically at least. If you were somehow involved in anything made on this list, I know you can do better. With that said, I sat through all of these, some multiple times and suffered so it’s time for me to get my revenge. How many were on the list I made halfway through the year, and how many new entries have we got?

10. 2.0

I typically reserve my #10 spot for a movie so bad it’s good and 2.0 is just that. Part techno-horror, part supernatural thriller, part superhero adventure, part sci-fi action movie, it goes in all sorts of outrageous directions. This one’s a gem, a picture I’d like to bring home and show to my friends on our weekly movie nights to hear their screeches of disbelief. I had a blast with it but legitimately good? Nah.

9. Show Dogs

I have some affection for this film as well. It’s awful, even as low-grade children’s entertainment. The plot has no idea what it’s doing and can’t figure out its own rules. The special effects are dodgy, premise idiotic, and jokes bad. And yet, I treasure seeing it in theatres. Soon after its release, a specific scene stirred uproar within parents and critics alike. This prompted the studio to re-edit the film. The scene in question concerns Ludacris’ character, talking police dog Max getting ready for the dog show he needs to infiltrate in order to discover who has kidnapped a baby panda. His partner, FBI agent Frank Nicholas (Will Arnett) explains that part of the competition involves the dogs getting their genitals inspected by the judges. In real-life, it’s to ensure the animals are capable of breeding. Finding the idea of someone fondling his junk without his consent intolerable, Max is told to escape the situation by going to his “zen place”. I didn’t take offense to it but understand why others would. I doubt the scene is available in the home release’s deleted scenes menu so I count myself among the few who saw the original cut.

8. Selfie from Hell, Slenderman & Truth or Dare

I’m lumping these three together because they all suffer from the same problem. They were doomed from the start. “What if a game of Truth or Dare… was fatal?” What if you could only take 13 selfies before a supernatural entity came after you?”, “What if severe head trauma caused H.P. Lovecraft’s intelligence to plunge and he set “The Call of Cthulhu” in the 21st century?” seemed to have been the opening pitches for these would-be spookfests. None featured any scares or compelling characters. I doubt anyone will remember any of these by the time 2019 ends.

7. Robin Hood

Many of 2018's films ended by assuring us that more was yet to come. Robin Hood should've saved itself the embarrassment of being yet another aspiring franchise which failed to take off and been self-contained. It failed because it tried to be a superhero film when it should’ve simply been a movie about Robin Hood. This story by Ben Chandler steals so many ideas from Batman you almost forget to criticize the costumes, the impossible action sequences, and Jamie Foxx’s bad performance. It’s dripping with “tries too hard”.

6. Life of the Party

Boy does Melissa McCarthy need a new Agent. Her and Tiffany Haddish actually. Life of the Party is all-around lazy. It hardly has a plot. Instead, it throws one scene after another, praying something will stick. This film about a newly-divorced mother who goes back to college to reconnect with her daughter can’t even get its characters right. In some scenes, McCarthy’s Deanna is mousey and unable to give a speech to the class. In others, she’s such a partier she ends up wrecking everything for everyone around her. I hated the film’s conclusion worst of all, a deus-ex-machina of an ending which has nothing to do with anything and feels like it was hastily shot when director Ben Falcone and co-writer/spouse McCarthy realized the film they made wasn’t amounting to anything.

5. Fifty Shades Freed

Fifty Shades Darker was terrible. It began by immediately undoing the ending of the previous film but at least it was building up to something while introducing us its equivalent of the Legion of Doom, a trio of villains all of which would converge and attempt to ruin the relationship between Anastasia Steele, and Christian Grey… or not. This third and final chapter struggles to find something to do for the first three quarters and then suddenly introduces a thriller element before rapidly concluding it and showing us the end credits. The unrated version released on home video filled in a couple of holes (such as Kim Basinger’s disappearing character) but those holes shouldn’t have been there in the first place. Between the un-erotic sex scenes, we’re treated to lame melodrama and further proof this trilogy is completely oblivious to matters of love and relationship. Even if it had been well acted and gave fans some satisfaction by adequately tackling some of the bigger questions the series posed, it would’ve still been bad.

4. Venom

I didn’t want to listen to people who proclaimed Venom would never work. The character has appeared in solo adventures before. There’s nothing to say a talented writer couldn’t make one of Spider-Man’s most well-known archenemies work on his own. Or maybe not. This is an appallingly written film full of plot holes, vaguely defined powers, bad humor, and illogical actions. In many ways, it reminds you of films like Ghost Rider and Catwoman. In a way, it’s worse than either because everyone involved should’ve known better. Making its flaws doubly apparent is the film Upgrade, released earlier during the year. It essentially did what this film wanted to but better, funnier and more inventively. It’s extra funny that Upgrade features Logan Marshall-Green, who looks a lot like Tom Hardy, making the pair a perfect double feature if you like to compare bad movies with good ones and discuss them with friends.

3. A Wrinkle in Time and The Nutcracker and the Four Realms

These Disney films, the first directed by Ava DuVernay and the second by a combined effort by Lasse Hallström and Joe Johnston, wanted to be empowering female-led fantasy adventures. A Wrinkle in Time is historic in that it’s the first $100 million+ film directed by a woman of color. This makes it extra disappointing because it’s awful. Both tales are filled with developments who inspire you to say “but I don’t care”. Overrelying on visual razzle-dazzle, neither of these had any substance whatsoever. I blame the writers, who took the original stories and tried to make them into something they weren’t. Much of AWiT could’ve worked if the story had kept some of its novels' Christian themes. Then the evil black cloud who does evil for evil’s sake would’ve simply been Satan and wouldn't have seemed nearly as lazy and underwhelming. By attempting to force The Nutcracker and the Mouse King into the same mould as Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland (another bad film), you robbed the ballet of any potential charm. In many ways, these are worse than most of the others on my list because you keep hoping something would turn around and because they’re not obviously bad, at least not at first. They fill you with false hope.

2. Life Itself

I should’ve known this Dan Fogelman creation was trouble from the advertisements, which built it up as this epic tale containing all of the universes’ deepest truths. I sat there aghast as one corny development followed another. This tries to be poetry in motion, this grandiose tale about the bonds which connect us and not one second works. It’s utterly ridiculous, so bad it might be funny except you’ll be bored by its nearly 2-hour running time.

The Runner ups:

Nobody’s Fool & Night School

Both featured Tiffany Haddish who is rapidly burning through any goodwill she might’ve earned with her breakout role in Girls Trip.

Holmes & Watson

Bad movie but it made me laugh more than the other films on this list

Book Club

A film I’m kicking myself for not being harder on when I first reviewed it but take comfort in the fact it seems to have dropped off the earth completely.

1. The 15:17 to Paris

Agonizingly dull, The 15:17 to Paris was well-intentioned. That doesn’t translate to “entertaining”. Most of this film’s 94 minutes are spent watching the real life Spencer Stone, Anthony Sadler and Alek Skarlatos vacationing through Europe, periodically flashing back to the time when they met and were the real-life non-actors were played by equally bad child performers. I hated this flat slab of propaganda masquerading as entertainment so much after it was over I had to turn to the other people around me and ask them what we just saw.

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mysterious-prophetess · 5 years

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Movie Double feature

Today I saw TWO Movies somewhat back-to-back.

Bumblebee AND Aquaman.

One I’d been anticipating and one I was slightly skeptical about.

So I’m going to do my little post movie write up AS a double feature as well.

So first the overall experiences I had with both and then below a read more, I will get into spoiler territory.

Bumblebee

I will admit I had the bar set low because it’s a Transformer’s movie. Though, I was slightly hopeful because Bee was a bug like he was in the cartoon. And also, Bee is my favorite transformer’s character.

I was right to be hopeful. This movie was thoroughly enjoyable. Not once did I glance at my cellphone. Ok I did but that wasn’t because I was bored.

The pacing could be very quick at times but the human protagonist was actually someone I could give a full damn about. The plot wrapped up nicely and if Michael Bay really wanted, he could reboot the whole franchise and it would work. Easily the best of the....how many are there at this point? Let’s see.....(one google search later) Six. Best of the Six Transformers movies out. Personally, I think Michael bay should just reboot the series.

Aquaman

I didn’t have the bar super high here either but I was hoping for it to be good because of several reasons.

1) I am a HUGE DC fangirl. That’s right I’ll admit it, I prefer DC to Marvel. So, I’d prefer it when DC movies are good.

2) Representation matters.

3) The way they set up Aquaman in Justice League (especially with the Motherbox thing and Mera) intrigued me.

So, how was it? Well, I will say it was not as good as Wonder Woman. However, it was better than all the other current batch DC movies, though. By which I mean the ones that are already out. Which is something it does pain me to admit since I am (at heart) a hardcore Superman fangirl. So, for me current DC movie rankings in quality (in my personal opinion):

Wonder Woman

Aquaman

Justice League

Man of Steel

Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice (extended cut)

Suicide Squad

The tone flipped back and forth with light and more serious moments here and there. The pacing could be choppy in a few segments and Snyder is back at it again with his choices for editing scenes together. More on that in the spoiler section. But it was also fun and Arthur’s 1000000% done with it was something I could relate to. Yes, it is the standard trope-y King Arthur tale (yeah, pun intended and DC did that too) of good true king versus Bad False King, but it also wasn’t totally stale. The art direction is what really made this movie for me. I loved LOVED how the underwater civilizations looked.

Now time for the spoiler section.

You have been warned. Don’t read if you’ve not seen either.

Bumblebee

Like I said above, I did not enter this film with high expectations of it. I mean, I don’t hate the other Transformers movies. I’ll just admit up front that if I could cut out the human bits from most of the other five films and just have nothing but giant robot fights, I’d be more than good with that. Especially Dark of the Moon. Just give me the giant robot bits and omit the rest please.

Charlie is actually relatable. Especially to me because I’ve had the sucky as fuck job at an amusement park. I won’t say where or when but trust me: working at a theme park is not fun at all. She also has something of an arc in this film that isn’t “get the girl” or whatever Mark Whalberg’s character’s arc was supposed to be in Last Knight (I didn’t see age of extinction but it seemed his arc there was around fatherhood or something). Charlie is also (as a character) charming enough to help carry the film with Bee.

I won’t say the Charlie parts were always 100% good, but definitely good more often than not.

The male human lead (Memo?)...he was just Sam Witwicky 1980′s edition and a little less pathetic.

Bumblebee was adorable in this. I get it was the amnesia but before he lost his voice, it was nice to hear him actually talk and the fact they cast a guy with a young-ish sounding voice was something I really liked since in the cartoon I’m more than fairly certain Bee was a kid or the youngest member of the Autobots. After the amnesia, it also sort of was childlike in his behaviors.

I even liked the Decepticons. They were barely playing nice.

I like that the human military was trying to play them right back.

Best line in the movie was when the John Cena character Agent Burns says something like,

“Should we even trust them, It’s right in their name “Decepticons”“

That was actually a clever thing to have in the film.

Something else I liked was the fact that Optimus Prime, Soundwave, and Ravage were all really close to their cartoon designs, and it looked so much nicer to me.

Bee as a Camaro origin story. It was a nice touch. This skews the canon of the films a little but since it’s in my personal opinion they should just reboot it here and run with this new universe, any continuity issues aren’t that big to me.

Were there times the move just went from 0-CRAZY. Yeah.

Charlie’s family: Borderline abusive at times, and borderline too...much. They weren’t as over the top as the Witwicky’s but that’s not saying much.

The internet already existed in the 80′s for the military as either DARPA or ARPA Net, so that little revelation was stupid.

The bullies who harrass Charlie at that party spot. I’ve never met someone that callus IRL and there is no way the bitchy chick making fun of the fact Charlie’s dad dropped dead wouldn’t have had at least someone aside from Memo and Bee going “Not Cool”

Speaking of that, the whole delinquent thing that they did to rich girl’s house? Funny but not 100% plot relevant. There were other ways to end up with Charlie, Bee, and Memo in a car chase.

E.G. Bee’s trying to cheer Charlie up by going fast or something.

The nod to the other films with Simmons was nice.

A solidly enjoyable film. I do actually recommend it.

Aquaman

Now onto a bigger spiel.

Again, due to DC’s track record for film quality with the current movie universe (and beyond) I did not want to have my hopes up, but I already mentioned why I wanted it to do well above.

The tonal shifts from serious to light to serious again could be (to borrow what my dad said) corny. I like corny, personally, but I get that tonal shifts like this can give others whiplash. Fortunately, they didn’t do this all the time.

What Snyder had them do enough times, however, was editing in flashbacks in the main flow of the story with little warning a la Man of Steel and I didn’t like it then, I don’t like it now.

Sometimes the dialogue could be a bit on the nose and clunky but I did like Arthur’s arc in this film. It was slightly incomplete because part of his arc started in Justice League which was learning how to play nice with other people to do something. Then there was the whole reluctant leader thing. It was done well enough, but having seen it done much better in the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings trilogy, I know that attempting this sort of character arc in one film was asking for it to be a little less refined. Which is the result. Yet, despite it relying on a very Arthurian trope of Chosen King with Magic Weapon, it did it well enough that it wasn’t a totally stale thing. The fact he had the magic-trident of King Atlan was something he was actively working to earn throughout the movie. It did actually feel like he had gone through enough of a growth in the film (and part of Justice League) to merit him earning this achievement of his.

The film did drag a little in places but only twice did I just want them to get on with it already.

Black Manta Ray’s origin was interesting in this universe. Arthur did quasi-create this enemy.

On the other hand, I can’t fully feel sympathy for a murderous pirate dying because he tried to kill Arthur and Arthur decided that the man who tried to blow him up wasn’t someone he wanted to save. But that’s because I’m a vindictive bitch.

Arthur, later, realizes that he should have done the right thing all along but too late now. He also realizes the value of mercy because of this so...

Mera’s powers are never fully explained, but I find myself mostly ok with that because I just started calling her a waterbender in my head.

Arhtur and Mera’s relationship evolved semi-organically. They did have chemistry for the most part, but it was almost too cliche at times yet it was fine because it’s the action movie romance cliches that aren’t 100 horrible but it was even at times a little sweet.

So, let’s go over, in detail what I loved about the art direction

Yes, it does look very similar to other underwater cities that I’ve seen in the past in other media, but they also incorporated enough new and nature inspired parts to it that I loved looking at each underwater civilization. The ruins, the tech, the fact things glowed the way they did. That pirate ship air pocket was also a really interesting thing though I kept wondering where Ariel was

I even got that the reason there was water in the Atlantean vehicles was Atlanteans don’t need to worry about things being airtight because they breathe under water.

Later when it was explained that only a handful of Atlanteans can even breath in the atmosphere it made even more sense.

When Volko was training Arthur in his Atlantean skills and stuff started to glow once he went deeper in the water I actually nodded because there is scientific evidence that every living thing does give off small amounts of bioluminesce. Even we humans do, but it’s so faint we can’t perceive it.

I personally think the Atlanteans should have glowed a little too.

The different species of Atlantean were very neat. Especially the “feral” ones. Reminded me of someone crossing a Zora with that creature from Pan’s Labyrinth or that thing from Hellboy 2 that Liz made a deal with to save Hellboy.

Onto other things:

The Karathen. I did not expect her to live up to the hype the movie was building her up to be. I was also pleasantly surprised that it was a “she” during the scene where she is trash-talking Arthur without knowing that he can understand her. Then, later, I found out she is voiced by Julie Andrews.

Also, because the Karathen did make such a huge impact in that final fight two things entered my head.

“RELEASE THE KRAKEN” and

Orm: “I have an army!”

Arthur: “I have a sea monster.”

The Atlantis thrown down was noticed but that got me thinking: Where was the rest of the JL during this. Were they just doing damage control or something after Orm’s little oceanic temper tantrum?

The mid-credits stinger with Mantaray. I knew he wasn’t done because Manta Ray is a major Aquaman villain. I just didn’t think the Atlantis obsessed prof would end up finding him.

I don’t fully get why Nereus would want a war with the surface with Orm in charge, unless he would just strike Orm down later and take his power.

I didn’t get why the fishpeople didn’t just RUN AWAY whenever Arthur showed up with the Karathen AND wielding the Trident of Atlan. All Fish-People Princess would have had to do was say “my people RUN FROM THE MONSTER” And Orm’s armies (and Orm himself) would be so busy fighting a literal sea monster from their worst nightmares that no one could or would have stopped them.

In fact, I am confused as to why there wasn’t mass panic once the Karathen showed up and she started wrecking all the military vehicles. -\( `-`)/-

Arthur’s ability to speak to the aquatic animals was actually built up to be a major ability.

Aquaman’s been made fun of in the past for this, but considering he was able to talk to the Karathen, and control a bunch of apex sea predators (turning them on their masters) it isn’t something to be fully laughed off. Outside the ocean, sure it doesn’t really make a huge difference but that’s where making the Atlanteans tougher than land humans comes in. That too makes actual sense with the reasons as to why this was.

Atlanna’s survival wasn’t really too much of a shock for me. I was half-expecting the Trench-peoples to not be totally savage and actually just have a bad rep.

The Hidden Sea at the Earth’s core bit got an eyebrow quirk. I was half expecting it to be the Caspian Sea....

I would still very much recommend Aquaman.

#aquaman #bumblebee #movie reviews #(ever notice a huge typo 24 hours after posting something? cause I JUST DID)

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callunavulgari · 6 years

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Scrapbook 2018 - Pt. II

Second part of the scrapbook for 2018. A reminder, for myself and others-

Italicized titles - enjoyed quite a bit | bold titles - love | titles with an asterisk* - all time favorites | (bracketed titles) - re-watches/re-reads | strikethough - dislike

Goals are: read forty-five new books this year (34 so far!), finish six video games (2 so far!), write either 30 fics or 70k total, finish the damn Sabriel AU (not so much), and write something original.

MOVIES

June

Solo

Professor Marston and the Wonder Women

(Coco)

(The Lost Boys)

(Road to El Dorado)

(Avatar)

The Philadelphia Story

Singin’ In The Rain

Incredibles 2

Funny Girl

High Society

Blade Runner 2049

Moonlight

Ocean’s 8

July

Ant Man and the Wasp

Lego Batman Movie

Good Morning Vietnam

Mary and the Witch’s Flower

(Coraline)

August

(Hercules)

(Wonder Woman)

(Coraline)

Flavors of Youth

September

(Song of the Sea)

The Losers

The Greatest Showman

October

(Jurassic Park)

(LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring)

November

(V For Vendetta)\

(Serenity)

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before

December

Wreck It Ralph 2

(Howl’s Moving Castle)

Ready Player One

Home Alone 2

BOOKS

June

The Stand | Stephen King

Think of England | K.J. Charles [Fin]

Reincarnation Blues | Michael Poore [Fin]

Voyage of the Basilisk | Marie Brennan [Fin]

Wishful Drinking | Carrie Fisher [Fin]

(Captive Prince | C.S. Pacat) [Fin]

(Prince’s Gambit | C.S. Pacat) [Fin]

(King’s Rising | C.S. Pacat) [Fin]

The Fifth Season | N.K. Jesmin [Fin]

The Power | Naomi Alderman [Fin]

July

The Stand | Stephen King [Fin]

King of Attolia | Megan Whalen Turner [Fin]

Conspiracy of Kings | Megan Whalen Turner [Fin]

The Ocean at the End of the Lane | Neil Gaiman [Fin]

Postcards From the Edge | Carrie Fisher [Fin]

A Closed and Common Orbit | Becky Chambers [Fin]

The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 1 | Kieron Gillen [Fin]

The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 2 | Kieron Gillen [Fin]

The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 3 | Kieron Gillen [Fin]

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street | Natasha Pulley [Fin]

Half Bad | Sally Green [Fin]

Spinning Silver | Naomi Novak [Fin]***

(Uprooted)** [Fin]

The Bedlam Stacks | Natasha Pulley [Fin]

If We Were Villains | M.L. Rio [Fin]

Circe | Madelline Miller [Fin]

Lord of the Flies | William Golding [Fin]

The Goldfinch | Donna Tartt

The Obelisk Gate | N.K. Jesmin [Fin]

(His Majesty’s Dragon | Naomi Novak)

August

The Goldfinch | Donna Tartt [Fin]

(His Majesty’s Dragon | Naomi Novak) [Fin]

Pachinko | Min Jin Lee [Fin]

The Cruel Prince | Holly Black [Fin]

Thick As Thieves | Megan Whalen Turner [Fin]

The Language of Thorns | Leigh Bardugo [Fin]

Salt Magic, Skin Magic | Lee Welch [Fin]

Red Queen | Victoria Aveyard [Fin]

Record of a Spaceborn Few | Becky Chambers [Fin]

The Labyrinth of Drakes | Marie Brennan [Fin]

The Stone Sky | N.K. Jesmin

Luck In The Shadows | Lynn Flewelling

September

The Stone Sky | N.K. Jesmin [Fin]

Luck In The Shadows | Lynn Flewelling [Fin]

Stalking Darkness | Lynn Flewelling [Fin]

Within the Sanctuary of Wings | Marie Brennan [Fin]

Traitor’s Moon | Lynn Flewelling [Fin]

Shadow’s Return | Lynn Flewelling [Fin]

When Breath Becomes Air | Paul Kalanithi

The White Road | Lynn Flewelling [Fin]

Casket of Souls | Lynn Flewelling [Fin]

Shards of Time | Lynn Flewelling [Fin]

The Name of the Wind | Patrick Rothfuss

October

The Name of the Wind | Patrick Rothfuss [Fin]

When Breath Becomes Air | Paul Kalanithi [Fin]

Little Fires Everywhere | Celeste Ng [Fin]

Titus Groan | Meryn Peake [DNF]

The Fellowship of the Ring | J.R.R. Tolkien

Howl’s Moving Castle | Diana Wyyne Jones

The Wise Man’s Fear | Patrick Rothfuss

November

The Fellowship of the Ring | J.R.R. Tolkien [Fin]

Howl’s Moving Castle | Diana Wyyne Jones

The Wise Man’s Fear | Patrick Rothfuss [Fin]

December

Howl’s Moving Castle | Diana Wyyne Jones [Fin]

Ender’s Game | Orson Scott Card

The Poppy War | R.F. Kuang

PODCASTS

June

Wolf 359 (Eps 49-61) FIN

The Bright Sessions (56 - Finale) FIN

Penumbra Podcast (1-32)

Alice Isn’t Dead (5-6)

July

Penumbra Podcast (32)

August

Penumbra Podcast (ALL OF IT)

September

EOS 10 (Rewatch of s1 & 2, then 1-5 of s3)

Welcome to Night Vale (1-26)

October

EOS 10 (s3; eps 5-FINALE, bonus episode)

Welcome to Night Vale (26)

November

Welcome to Night Vale (26-29)

Wolf 359 RELISTEN (1-34)

Penumbra Podcast (Juno Steel and the Long Way Home pt 1-2)

TANIS 1

December

Wolf 359 RELISTEN (34-62)

TV SHOWS BY SEASON

June

Westworld s2

Legion s2

The Flash s4

Siren s1

Sense8 Series Finale*****

Black Mirror

Voltron s6

July

The Bold Type s1

Anne With An E s1

Black Mirror

Big Mouth

August

Anne With An E s2

Legion s2

The Flash s4

Voltron s7

San Clarita Diet

Jeff Jeffries

September

American Horror Story: Apocalypse

Killing Eve

The Dragon Prince

Castlevania

October

American Horror Story: Apocalypse

Killing Eve

The Haunting of Hill House

The Good Place s2

Castlevania s2

November

The Good Place s2

Castlevania s2

American Horror Story: Apocalypse

Killing Eve

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina

She Ra s1

December

(Dead Like Me)

(Buffy the Vampire Slayer s4)

VIDEO GAMES

June

Witcher 3: Hearts of Stone DLC - 2 hrs

Song of the Deep

(Final Fantasy 15) - 30 hrs

July

Witcher 3: Hearts of Stone DLC - 2 hrs

SOMA [Fin]

(Kingdom Hearts Final Mix) - 34 hrs [Fin]

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days - Remix [Fin]

(Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix) - 40 hrs

August

(Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix) - 40 hrs [Fin]

Kingdom Hearts BBS, Terra - 20 hrs [Fin]

Kingdom Hearts BBS, Ven - 5 hrs

Prey, M Morgan - 30 hrs [Fin]

Prey, F Morgan - 6 hrs

September

(Final Fantasy 15) - 100 hrs

Witcher 3: Hearts of Stone DLC - 6 hrs

October

(Final Fantasy 15) - 100 hrs

Witcher 3: Hearts of Stone DLC - 6 hrs

Kingdom Hearts BBS, Ven - 12 hrs [Fin]

Kingdom Hearts BBS, Aqua - 5 hrs

November

Kingdom Hearts BBS, Aqua - 5 hrs

Pokemon Go?

December

Pokemon Moon (34 hrs, Ghost trial?)

Pokemon Go

(Kingdom Hearts: DDD - La Cite de Cloches, 5 hrs?)

Pokemon Let’s Go Eevee

Detroit: Become Human

DELIGHTFUL FIC

June

take the stage and deliver by mothwrites | Wolf 359 | Jacobi/Kepler | 3k | “Why me?” Jacobi asked.“You’re just his type,” Cutter said. “He’ll never see it coming.”

push to the limit by gortysproject | Wolf 359 | Jacobi/Kepler | 10k | five times kepler asks too much of jacobi, and one time jacobi can't pull through for him.

you be the motor, I'll be the gasoline by crookedfingers | Wolf 359 | Jacobi/Kepler | 5k | The hold music begins before Jacobi can finish his sentence. He blinks at the far wall and then glances at a clock. He’ll give it thirty seconds before he hangs up.Then the music stops jarringly mid-note and someone says, “Thank you so much for your patience. I understand that you’re seeking career opportunities with Goddard Futuristics.”

life 2.0 by goldtreesilvertree, mothwrites | Wolf 359 | Jacobi/Eiffel | 5k | "Alright... Daniel. Why are we having a movie night?" Minkowski never seemed the type to be into movie nights, and Hera probably doesn't get the point. He's beginning to get the feeling this will be the first movie night Eiffel 2.0 is going to remember, and he doesn't know if that's a good thing."Because," Daniel says, passing him a DVD so he has to get up again, "I really want to watch this, and my usual movie-buddy is dead. My backup movie-buddy is also dead. Any further questions?"

'til your heart goes numb by LuckyDiceKirby | The Bright Sessions | Mark/Damien | 1k | Instead of going out and getting drunk with Rose, Mark goes for a drive.

black sheep and mischief by grim_lupine | Thor | Thor & Loki | 3k | A bird alights on Thor’s shoulder and pecks his cheek twice, hard enough to make him wince.“What are you doing?” it warbles in his ear.“Wondering what my brother is doing up at this hour, little bird,” Thor replies. “Will you go ask him for me?”

(Lines on Palms by Fahye | Captive Prince | Damen/Laurent | 35k | "You're lying," Damen says. "You walked into Akielos and stole something from me.")**

On Tilt by 13th_blackbird | Solo | Han/Lando | 3k | “You want to play?” Han says, nodding at the cards, before he can think better of it. “Or are you just showing off?”

tell me, get my shit together by paperclipbitch | Solo | Han/Lando | 5k | “I thought we were actively avoiding each other after the Trandosha Shitshow,” Han says.“We’re actively avoiding each other after the Iridonia Shitshow,” Lando corrects him, “the Trandosha Shitshow is That Which We Do Not Speak Of.”

Make Me Feel by Copper_Nails (Her_Madjesty) | Solo | Han/Lando | 2k | Winning the Falcon back is supposed to fill the empty space beneath his ribs. Han told himself this the whole way to Lando, tells it to himself again, now: it’s immensely satisfying to stare up at the ship’s sleek (battered) lines, so he can stop thinking about Crimson Dawn, thanks; can stop thinking about Beckett on the cliffside and Qi’ra, fading like a star in the morning.

Proving It by sailingonstardust | Solo | Han/Lando | 1.5k | “You know,” Lando interrupts Han in the middle of a story about a seedy club and two twi’leks, “you can talk, and talk, and talk, but I don’t believe half the things you’re saying for even a second.”

one night on the falcon by topaz | Solo | Han/Lando | 3k | If Han was the kind of guy who thought about things like this, the idea of fucking Lando Calrissian in the ship he'd used to own would have fallen somewhere on the Cool side of the prospective ideas spectrum, probably shading to the Not really likely to happen but still fun to think about group.

A Cornstalk Fiddle by notbecauseofvictories | Devil Went Down to Georgia | Devil/Johnny | 9k+ | Where Johnny goes, the Devil follows; where Johnny goes, the Devil is already there.

The Beginning After the End by notbecauseofvictories | Star Wars | Padme & Obi-Wan | 7k | Padmé wakes to the back of Obi-Wan’s head, his hair mussed and his arms spread, outstretched over her knees as though to shield her from all that would come.

( Stargazers by Ruby_Wednesday | Captive Prince | Laurent/Damen | 90k | Five years after the Truce of Marlas, Damen and Laurent meet again in Delpha. They're forced to work together to soothe the growing tension between their countries. But Laurent does not forgive easily and Damen's not that sorry.)

( One the Other by Ruby_Wednesday | Captive Prince | Laurent/Damen | 200k | Marlas goes badly for Damen. He goes back to Ios with Laurent as his reluctant ward.)

July

Any More Obvious by idiopathicsmile | Les Mis | Eponine/Cosette | 2k | “Look, folks,” says Musichetta, ten minutes from the end of cheer practice, “we have an audience. A spooky audience.”

speak in tongues by SpineAndSpite | Yuri On Ice | Yuri/Otabek | 7k | The last time Yuri went sightseeing with Otabek it had been the middle of winter, and he only had breath to contemplate the speed of the bike and the warmth of Otabek through his jacket. A crowded bus is a far cry, but he still has the same feeling of displacement--of not knowing what will happen next.

cherry pie by brawlite, ToAStranger | Stranger Things | Billy/Steve | 133k | Billy Hargrove lives for summer. Endless sunshine, heavily chlorinated pools, roaming ice cream trucks, and unencumbered freedom? There’s nothing better.**

(you hate me) cause i got what you need by brawlite, ToAStranger | Stranger Things | Billy/Steve | 6k | “You smell like coconuts,” Billy murmurs. “Like the ocean, too.”

Draconia by perceived_nobility | The Bright Sessions | Damien/Mark | 4k | "So I was driving. One ex wife and one ex husband later, stopping at the same fucking gas stations you and I stopped at."

untalked of and unseen by prouvairing | If We Were Villains | James/Oliver | 5k | Four times Oliver and James slept together, and one time they didn’t. Not exactly in that order.

Swipe right by mee4ever | HP | Draco/Harry | 2k | Or then one where Harry swipes right, and it turns out Draco does too.

The Truth by mee4ever | HP | Draco/Harry | 4k | Or the one where Harry is too bloody thick to see the truth, even when it's staring him in the face.

August

Victory Condition by astolat | Transformers | Megatron/Optimus | 39k | “Do you want me to tell you a story?” Megatron said mockingly. “You won’t like it, Prime. It’s not a very nice one.”

chases, escapes, true love, miracles by pepperfield | The Flash | Cisco/Harry | 55k | Just because the timeline has been restored, doesn't mean things are back to normal. Cisco's got 99 problems, and Harry Wells is approximately 38 of them.

Turn by Ever-so-reylo (Ever_So_Reylo) | Star Wars | Reylo | 9k | I would kill for you, he thinks at her, inside her, and this is the result of what they just did, the culmination of all of their history together. I would destroy the entire galaxy for this.

You should see the things we do by Ever-so-reylo (Ever_So_Reylo) | SW | Reylo | 13k | “Maybe Ben will come home from his business trip and bend me over the nearest piece of furniture and fuck me hard and fast.”

Your Pretty Little Heart by Ever-so-reylo (Ever_So_Reylo) | SW | Reylo | 64k | “Good. Good little Omega.” He says the words against her gland, almost sweetly, and Rey—Rey is going to die. A wonderful, delicious death. Depraved, all of this. Filthy. Beautiful.

✓✓ Read by Boyue | South Park | Kyle/Stan | 65k | AKA how Stan Marsh met Kyle Broflovski through a dick pic mishap.

Pretend There Is No Wreck by LuckyDiceKirby | The Flash | Harrisco | 11k | Cisco and Harry figure out how to not kill each other, and also maybe how to talk about their feelings.

the cure by aquaexplicit | The Flash | Harrisco | 43k | “I guess I don’t really get what you need to fix? Harrison Wells is a hot, rich genius that pays you to make cool stuff with his daughter and is totally into you. If you guys boning is the biggest problem you have, I think this officially qualifies as your best relationship ever.”

and everything nice by perzimon | Voltron | Sheith | 5k | when he's beautiful and you love him but he can't make toast, the fic

hello, i love you, won't you tell me your name by perzimon | Voltron | Sheith | 12k | Keith's human enough to have wisdom teeth and unlucky enough to need them extracted. The team despairs.

Unexpected Developments by mific | SGA | McShep | 14k | Detective John Sheppard after Vegas (S5E19). His near-fatal wound's slowly healing and he's got his old job back, but then someone turns up unexpectedly who's a greater mystery than any of the cases on John's desk, and John has to make some hard choices.

teach me something new by tagteamme | Voltron | Sheith | 64k | Keith and Lance accidentally get into trouble. Shiro is the TA that has to Deal With It™.

to go, to follow, to kneel at your feet by arahir | Voltron | Sheith | 12k | They think it will be funny to leave him with a Galra in heat.

called out your name (but it was too late) by arahir | Voltron | Sheith, Griffin/Keith | 5k | Walk into the Garrison like—wait, what the fuck, is that Keith? Or: an old classmate watches Keith fall in love with someone else.

To Consummate is to Burn by the_glow_worm | Spinning Silver | Miryem/The Staryk | 6k | Miryem, the Staryk, and their wedding night.

The Time-Traveller's Portion by PutItBriefly | Pride & Prejudice | Elizabeth/Darcy | 7k | Darcy always knew she was to be his wife. He just didn't know she was poor.

September

songs about love by sarahyyy | YOI | Yuri/Otabek | 8k | In the embedded Instagram photo just under that subheading, a very grumpy Yuri is cuddling a very grumpy-looking cat. The caption reads: I found the cat version of me at the shelter today. #iknowisaidnomorecats #canyoublameme

Between the Lines by Dementordelta | Harry Potter | Snarry | 22k | Harry discovers a secret in his Potions text and a friend in the Half-Blood Prince.

More Than Gravity by JenTheSweetie | Marvel | Stony | 20k | “Aw, time travel, no.”On Christmas Eve, Tony came unstuck in time.

Of an Arcane Binding by Salvia_G | The Hobbit | Thilbo | 44k | An inexplicable magic ties Bilbo Baggins, hobbit of the Shire, to Thorin, dwarven prince of Erebor.

Back and Forth by kiyala | Yuri On Ice | Yuri/Otabek | 4k | Yuri convinces Otabek to get snapchat, just to send selfies of himself making faces at Victor and Yuuri. He gets more than he expected.

your tongue is sharp, but i miss the taste of it by thecopperkid | Stranger Things | Harringrove | 7k | Billy had one job -- don't take off the scarf. / Science is probably not Steve's strong suit, but he's really trying to make sense of why Billy's suddenly found him so appealing.

Things Already Said by balloonwhisk | The Bright Sessions | Damien/Mark | 4k | Damien gets a not entirely unwelcome early morning surprise.

Wreak Havoc by myfandomsareinfinite | EOS 10 | Ryan/Akmazian | 8k | Five Times Ryan Dalias Saved Akmazian's Life (Sort of) and One Time Akmazian Saved Ryan's (Sort Of).

you will see what it is to be overcome by magneticwave | Star Trek | Spirk | 10k | What kind of an idiot would try to explain magic to a Vulcan.

Bloody Ruin by esama | Castlevania | Alucard/Trevor | 37k | Vampire hunter and a vampire try to get along.

Minus 1 by Ever-so-reylo (Ever_So_Reylo) | Star Wars | Reylo | 6k | The text—'What’s up, daddy?'—was originally intended for Finn.

Paint it, red by CeruleanHeart | Stranger Things | Harringrove | 3k | " That's a pretty color..." Billy repeated and stepped closer, crowding Steve against the door "... for a pretty boy."

October

a road less traveled and a life less led by Azzandra | Dishonored | Gen, Outsider & Billie | 9k | She took him out of the Void, as promised.And then she kept him, she supposed.

Changing the Sound of Your Name by Agrotera | Dishonored | Outsider/Corvo | 14k | It was the first thing she said to him when they stumbled out of the Void. You’re going to need a name. Emerging from the dark into what promised to be a lifetime of questions impossible to answer, and she broached the hardest one first.

if the end comes (don't let us hear it) by Kandakicksass | Dishonored | Outsider/Corvo | 5k | "He comes in like a ghost in the fall of 1854."

Work of All Saints by antistar_e (kaikamahine) | Coco | Hector/Imelda/Ernesto | 210k | Imelda Rivera (b. 1899 - d. 1969), a story that includes but is not limited to: the finest music school this side of the Santo Domingo, three traveling musicians and the mess they made of love, the twice-cursed assassination of Venustiano Carranza, all the patron saints, and ninety-six ways a man can try to cross a bridge.**

Traveling Far by astolat | GOT | Jaime/Brienne | 24k | Three weeks into their delightful slog across Westeros, during yet another charming day of shitting in the woods, eating half-raw squirrel, and trudging his feet bloody, the single most dour and uninteresting woman Jaime had ever met in all of Westeros stopped in the middle of a field, drew a deep breath, and said, “When I was seven, my aunt came to visit with her son. My father told me that as the daughter of the house, it was my duty to show hospitality to my guests and to be gracious to them. I wanted to make him proud. So for three weeks, I let my cousin follow me around and talk to me about spiders.”

insert baseball pun here by hoppnhorn | Stranger Things | Billy/Steve | 6k | He’s considering taking up smoking again if it keeps him from trying to pick up Steve in the middle of the office. That’s really the last thing that he needs to do, start fucking around with someone he works with. He had sex with a coworker one time back in college when he worked at some shitty deli and that had devolved into his manhood being threatened with a meat slicer.

Regrowth by moogle62 | Uprooted | Agnieszka/The Dragon | 1k | Agnieszka’s wood-green cottage stands waiting for her when she leads Sarkan carefully by the hand back home. They wind through the trees together and only she does not flinch at the stray touch of branches. The Wood has known her too completely, now, for her to mistake friend for foe.

I just met you (and this is crazy) by littlesystems | Captain America | Steve/Bucky | 41k | After Steve gets outed by a grainy cell phone picture, it takes the media less than 24 hours to discover Captain America’s secret relationship with James Barnes: classical musician, teen heartthrob, and son of a former president.The only problem? Steve has never met James Barnes in his life.

will you chew until it bleeds? by brawlite | Venom | Venom/Eddie | 7k | Venom drags Eddie into a seedy club out of sheer curiosity. Trying to make the most of a night he didn't choose for himself, Eddie tries to get laid. Instead, he gets mugged. Afterwards, Venom doesn't let Eddie feel too disappointed about the missed opportunity.

devil's backbone by starscry | Castlevania | Alucard/Trevor Belmont | 3k | “Come, now. I’ve seen you stalking around, pent up like a bitch in heat. You’re quite high-strung; it’s beginning to wear on the others, me included,” the vampire drawls. His sharp eyes find Trevor’s, narrowing slyly. “You need a good fuck.”

Steam and Skin by LuciferianRising | Castlevania | Alucard/Trevor | 5k | He wanted to spare Sypha the horror of having to share a bath with either of them, but Trevor never imagined choosing to share it with Alucard would lead to this. He's not exactly complaining, however.

November

when the devil comes to plea (he'll be running quicker than you've ever seen) by Hornswaggler | EOS 10 | Ryan/Akmazian | 3k | Akmazian runs with some pretty shady people. Akmazian is a pretty shady person. Now the Destroyer of Stars has developed something of a soft spot. Not all of his employees approve.

like it's supposed to by Hornswaggler | EOS 10 | Ryan/Akmazian | 2k | Ryan is consistently busy. Luckily for him, that means he's consistently distracted from things he'd really rather not think about.Unluckily for him, he's apparently not too busy for impromptu visits from one of the most wanted men in the system.

a lesson in cartography by novembersmith | Uprooted | Agnieska/Sarkan | 7k | “I will never cease to be amazed at your unequaled talent for creating chaos out of the simplest components. You were meant to be scrying and map-making. What were you doing?”

heart on a string by jilliancares | She-Ra | Adora/Catra | A good Force Captain would do a lot of things that Catra wouldn’t, like not pulling their punches when fighting Adora and not sneaking into Castle Bright Moon for anything less than evil purposes. Unfortunately, Catra wasn’t a very good Force Captain, despite striving all her life to become one.No, everything had changed when Adora wandered into the stupid Whispering Woods to find a moral compass. Little did she know she was dragging Catra’s heart on a string behind her.

December

Aia ke ola i Motunui by asteriae | Moana | Moana/Maui | 25k | The trouble with saving the world and returning home a hero with a demigod by your side, is it really scares off potential suitors.

lilies of the valley (cover me with kisses, make my garden grow) by diasterisms | Star Wars | Reylo | 8k | Every girl is entitled to the mistake. That one colossal fuck-up that permanently alters the terrain of who you are. You'll either learn from it or you won't, so might as well have the time of your life.

Astronomical Odds by xzombiexkittenx for Cinnamaldeide | Hannibal | Hannigram | 2.5k | Picked up a hitchhiker last night. He said, “Thanks! how do you know I’m not a serial killer though?” I replied, “The chances of two serial killers being in the same car are astronomical.”

meet me in the woods tonight by brawlite, ToAStranger | Stranger Things | Billy/Steve | 86k | There’s something in the woods of Hawkins, Indiana.

Notes of Noy, Notes of Joy by pendrecarc | Spinning Silver | Miryem/The Staryk | 5k | "I might wander ten thousand years in the goblin depths and never find a way out again...."Miryem descends into the depths with no more than a dagger in her hand, a mirror about her neck, and a song in her heart to bring her husband out again.

if you don't like the company, let's just do it you and me by hoppnhorn, thecopperkid | Stranger Things | Billy/Steve | 9k | “Stevie, Stevie, Stevie,” Billy tuts, and it’s nearly sickening, too fucking good, the way he looks like he can think of nothing better than digging his teeth into Steve Harrington. “Look at you. What’re we gonna do with you, huh? Tell me what you want, pretty boy.”

B-Sides by notbecauseofvictories | Devil Went Down to Georgia | The Devil/Johnny | 5k | All the tunes that didn't make the cut.

DELIGHTFUL FANVIDS

June

Steve Rogers | Elegy

Lucifer | Heaven's Door

in my veins | keith

[𝙺𝙻𝙰𝙽𝙲𝙴] WAVES

Voltron | Rise

VOLTRON || H O M E || Season 6

Eleven || I'm this way because of you

July

Tenth Doctor | Reminiscence

Lucifer | Heaven's Door

Marvel || Where are you now? (Faded)

Stranger Things | Heroes

What if THOR RAGNAROK had an anime opening?

August

the maze [multifandom]

Gilbert Blythe || The last, the only

K E I T H // "I won't quit" (6x07)

(Marvel) Avengers | Sacrifice

sᴜʀᴠɪᴠᴏʀ (ᴇᴘɪᴄ) // {Voltron AMV} ᴍᴀᴊᴏʀ sᴇᴀsᴏɴ 𝟼 sᴘᴏɪʟᴇʀs

Voltron | Rise (Season 6)

sᴏʟᴅɪᴇʀ // {Voltron AMV} ᴍᴀᴊᴏʀ sᴇᴀsᴏɴ 𝟼 sᴘᴏɪʟᴇʀs

Marvel | We Will Rock You

infinity war || bleeding heart

How Far We've Come - Voltron AMV (s1-s6)

Kylo Ren | Look What You Made Me Do

Way Down We Go｜Detroit: Become Human

Loki // Hustler

Born ready [VOLTRON]

You could be h̶a̶p̶p̶y̶ and I won't know

ʜᴏᴡ ғᴀʀ ᴡᴇ'ᴠᴇ ᴄᴏᴍᴇ

voltron s7 | home

VOLTRON || FIX YOU || Season 7

almost everything;

Infinity War || Flesh and Bone

Broken People || Avengers Infinity War

September

Marvel || Death is not the End

Blood//Water || Voltron Legendary Defender

The Wolf|Voltron| AMV

Harry Potter || Across this New Divide

► I Like Me Better

Game of Thrones | Flesh and Bone [6K]

October

The Byers || We can fix it, together

Legion || The World Killer

Infinity War || Violet Hill

Mike & Eleven || Out of the darkness

My Hero Academia「AMV」|| You Can Become A Hero

MARVEL || Stronger [The Score]

Peter + Roman | he hurt you

peter & roman | animals

November

N/A

December

Excelsior, Stan Lee

[Catradora] ＴｈｅＥｎｅｍｙ

Avengers: Endgame - (Logan Style)

2018 --Trailers Mashup

X Ambassadors - UNSTEADY | Official Dance Video #LoveisLove

2018 Movie Trailer Mashup

just a machine? [Detroit: Become Human] *HBD Pteryx*

who are you? | Connor | Detroit: Become Human

Detroit: Become Human || Paralyzed

DELIGHTFUL MUSIC

June

Emeli Sande - Daddy

EMPIRES Hello Lover

Stupid | Brendan Maclean

Chaos Chaos - Do You Feel It?

GHITA - Mindfvck

Olivia O'Brien - Fuck Feelings

gnash - i hate u, i love u ft. olivia o'brien

Paradise Valley | Honey and the Sting

Hidden Citizens - Hazy Shade of Winter

Attila the King | Nick Glennie-Smith

Lawless - Crossing Over (feat. IO Echo)

Is This the End | Joseph William Morgan

Man or a Monster | Sam Tinnesz(feat. Zayde Wølf)

EXPERIENCE - LUDOVICO EINAUDI

Nothing Matters When We’re Dancing, Sense8 Remix ft Zoe Wise

Moonlight End Credits | Nicholas Britell

July

Ori and the Blind Forest Soundtrack

Little Sadie - Crooked Still

That Feeling When - Dagny

Asylums for the Feeling - Silent Poets

Starboy - The Weeknd

Lash Out - Alice Merton

Liztomania - Phoenix

Alice - Fields and Planes

Little Black Submarines - The Black Keys

Ahead By a Century - The Tragically Hip

Can I Sit Next To You - Spoon

Fantasy Reading Soundtrack

Watercast Soundtrack

HAEVN - The Sea

August

Achilles Come Down - Gang of Youths

Ocean Size - Jane’s Addiction

174 Hours - Jeff Russo

you should see me in a crown - billie eilish

the trapper and the furrier - regina spektor

the war - syml

lion - saint mesa

island - svrcina

who are you - svrcina

lovely - billie eilish

hold me - the sweeplings

natural - imagine dragons

mermaid - skott

sky full of song - florence + the machine

music to watch boys to - lana del rey

road river and rail - cocteau twins

hypnos - daemonia nymphe

in a landscape - john cage

mmm mmm mmm mmm - crash test dummies

queendom - aurora

ordinary world - duran duran

September

silent lucidity - queensryche

friends - marshmello

popular - nada surf

song of the sea lullaby - nolwenn leroy

flesh and bone - black math

the wolf - siames

broken people- rag n bone man & logic

nina cried power ep - hozier

kol nidrey - the yuval ron ensemble

amen - for king & country

stronger - the score

rise like a phoenix - conchita wurst

heroes - mans zelmerlow

cut to the feeling - carly rae jepsen

electrified - just loud

all my friends - the revivalists

the way you used to do - queens of the stone age

the morning after - maureen mcgovern

killer shangri-lah - psychotic beats

work it out - effee

sous les aquarelles - ingrid st-pierre

the other side - greatest showman ensemble

the greatest show - greatest showman ensemble

never enough - loren allred

this is me - greatest showman ensemble

October

SOS - Cher

Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! - Cher

Dancing Queen - Cher

Perfect Opening Line - The Frames

Twin Fawn - Chelsea Wolfe

The Plains/Bitter Dancer - Fleet Foxes

Don’t Fall In Love - Still Corners

Acid Rain - Lorn

One Night Only - The Struts

Goodbye My Lover - James Blunt

Always Starting Over - Idina Menzel

Ghost of John - Kristin Lawrence

Fernando - Cher

The Ancestors - Dario Marianelli

November

Turn Back Time - Cher

It’s Quiet Uptown - Kelly Clarkson

Stranger Things - Facing West

Saturn - Sleeping At Last

The Origin of Love - Hedwig

December

DJ Earworm Mashup - United State of Pop 2018 (Turnin' It Up)

DECADE OF POP | The Megamix (2008-2018) // by Adamusic

MASHUP 2018 "THE GREATEST HOPE" - 2018 Year End Mashup

DANCE TO 2018 | YEAR END MEGAMIX (MASHUP) // by Adamusic

Vivaldi Recomposed by Max Richter

WRITTEN FIC

June

and i'm always tired, but never of you | The Bright Sessions | Sam/Damien/Mark | 10,405 words | Sam runs into Damien at the grocery store two years later. It changes everything.

July

N/A

August

tides will bring me back to you | Kingdom Hearts | Axel/Roxas | 7,383 words | When Axel was sixteen, he did something stupid. He and a couple of his friends took his mom’s car up to the mountains, where they’d spent the better part of the day drinking bottles of stolen liquor and staggering along a heavily forested trail, laughing and bumping into trees as they went. As it was getting dark, they’d ended up near the end of it, where the heavy brush of the trees gave way to open sky and sea, a quiet little cove in the middle of nowhere.Then, one of his friends said, “I dare you to go in the water.”

September

Smallest Light | Stranger Things | Gen, El & Will | 5,165 words | In the summer of 1986, Will’s mom marries Jim Hopper. OR, Will and El learn how to be real people again together.

October

N/A

November

i don't want to rest in peace, we can haunt each other's dreams | EOS 10 | Ryan/Akmazian | 1,520 words | In the dream, Ryan wakes up and Akmazian is there.

December

Looking For Atlantis | SGA | Mcshep | 4,632 words | Hey Rodney, the postcard reads. Go see a movie.

keep your heart open (i'll keep mine open too) | Stranger Things | Harringrove | 7,915 words | “Did you even like me before you found out I was your soulmate?” Billy murmurs as he kisses a line down Steve’s throat.

FANMIXES/GRAPHICS

December

2018 Playlist

#heather says what #scrapbook #2018

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dawnofspeed · 6 years

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so i went and saw ‘justice league’ with my li’l bro and bestie tonight.

spoilers ahead.

i want to preface my entire thing with saying that lately i’ve felt conflicted about joss wheedon’s work (and even unrelated with the deadpool 2 movie) because of joss’ whole ‘i’m a feminist but the reason i’ve been horrible to women is the patriarchy’ (and with deadpool 2 the whole... forcing a stunt person to do a stunt they weren’t ready for and got them killed). But also as a filmmaker i know that there are tons of people who work on these films that have nothing to do with those things, so i’ve decided to keep them at the back of my mind and just focus on these slightly problematic films on their own merit. (no i won’t talk about dp2 in this. it’s just been on my mind bc i saw the new trailer and spoke to my bestie, another film graduate, about the issues with stuff tonight and yeah. soz.) ALSO PLEASE NOTE THAT THE FOLLOWING ARE OPINIONS. if you like something i don’t, that’s great. all the power to you. i am literally just writing thoughts and opinions and i only just finished a film degree so... y’know. not an expert.

moving on.

i loved a lot of this movie. as a whole it was a great ensemble piece. the cast was solid, the acting was solid, the script was solid. the plot worked well. i think it accomplished setting up the justice league, introducing us to characters and their backstories while driving the story forward. i also liked that it really seemed to know its source material and kept to the actual point- superhero movies shouldn’t be completely dark. they can be fun, they can be funny, they can be hopeful. whatever problems i have with joss wheedon as a person and the things he’s said and done, i think he can write and direct well. and he knows what he’s doing. the few women in the film he also balanced well. i didn’t feel like he was ‘buffy’ing any of them (something he sorta did with kitty pryde in his astonishing x-men, as much as i loved it. although that could also be because buffy was sorta based off kitty, joss’ fave x-men character).

i enjoyed all most of the characters. the whole justice league was great (alfred included, c’mon, he’s totally a team member at this point). i do think that diana was different in this film than her wonder woman one, there was just a different tone but you can also kinda just explain that away as this is post-steve trevor, it’s been a while since the events of ww, and that’s just what it is now. towards the end of the movie it felt more tonally in sync with her in ww, so that may be it. also bats pushing diana to lead the team? i loved that. i’ve never known much about victor but i found his story intriguing in this, he was fun, and my reservations about him being in the flash film are totally squashed now. i maintain that batfleck is my favourite of all batmen. this movie sealed it for me and i definitely enjoy his performance more than any that came before him. i mean. i enjoyed michael keaton but he was just never totally batman for me. clark was SO much better in this movie. he was light, and funny, and 100% the superman i actually love. i didn’t want him brought back to life and then afterwards?? i was like?? nah, you’re right, clark IS a good guy. how have i never seen this before? i just hated dceu superman before this film. arthur curry is cool. i have never been a massive aquaman fan. i didn’t hate atlantis. but i just... didn’t really care? then. they made him cool, and fun, and so much potential. i’m intrigued about his backstory. i wanna know more. i wanna unpack his personality. just. wow. but the standout? barry all the way. i was a bit anxious about how they were going to do it. i love ezra, but we’ve seen so many iterations of barry at this point that i was just really worried about what aspects they’d keep and how they’d navigate his background and his powers. but they did an amazing job. they kept his sense of humour while also maintaining his kindness, his intelligence, his zest for life and i love how even when he’s terrified he goes out of his way to do the right thing. added to his ‘i assume he’s an attractive jewish guy’ when he’s talking about his security footage. i just. love him. i do think some of his qualities are wally west?? like??? but my brother kept insisting that in the early comics barry was very playful and jokey, not just puns and dad jokes, so i’m inclined to believe him. also alfred was a+++ i love him. alfred forever. so that clears up most of the mains. plot? well i’m gonna be honest. i know... very little about darkseid and any of that stuff in the comics. i did think it was a great way to bring in both atlantians and amazons. and that cheeky green lantern reference at the beginning. and my brother swears he saw hercules but i only know marvel’s hercules so?? i??? dunno???? i also think it had high stakes, a ticking time frame, gave them the ability to bring superman back AND create a justice league. all while never trying to cram more than one actual plotline into a film. (like. a LOT of other dc movies.) i was happy with it. i never felt like it ran too long or i got bored or any of that so i’m. yeah. great. also loved that no one was forced into a freakin’ love interest or hampered from saving the world or anything by romance. did think that clark waited way too long to meet up with them for the end battle. like. did he spend all that time making a new goddamn suit? what? got a hair cut? like. why did it take you so long? you’re SUPERMAN. lois told you ages ago to get moving and help out. did you spend all that time like chatting with your mum? also, sidenote: thank you trailers for not spoiling this film. i didn’t expect the superman rebirth. i went in just knowing the jl was gonna kick butt somewhere and we were gonna get introduced to them all. the marketing on this film was spot on, and i loved that surprise and being pulled through the whole movie trying to guess what the hell was gonna happen. double thumbs up. ok. i will go over the things i didn’t like. which were very few. but first i kinda wanna talk about a few other cast/character things. i’m gonna be honest. not a massive fan of amy adams as lois lane. besides the fact that to me she doesn’t look like lois lane, and doesn’t embody (TO ME) anything that lois does... she also (TO ME) doesn’t have any chemistry with henry cavill. i don’t feel a thing. sometimes i might be like awwwww, cute. but that’s more of the situation rather than any emotions i get off of them. but that’s kinda nitpicky here as she was already cast as that character and no one was going to change that for the justice league. i will admit i felt more for her in this film than any of the others, and i enjoyed her more than in the others. but she was still... not lois. now... amber heard as mera. i will admit that amber looks like mera. and i enjoyed her limited performance and i’m sure she’ll do a great job in the aquaman film and i hold nothing against her. but. if arthur curry doesn’t need to look like comic arthur curry than. why does mera? we only had three women in the whole movie, really. two had limited parts. mera could have been a woc. she could have been not supermodel gorgeous as amber is. (i love amber i do but... who looks that goddamn gorgeous?) already the entire film felt like impossible standards of women. the amazons are varied in body shapes yes, but those costumes. then mera is AMBER. and gal is. gal. i just. there are so many races on earth. asian and hispanic women (and people) exist. not that the movie... shows that... at all. in fact, between the dceu and the mcu there’s one hispanic character on the movie screen. and he isn’t even a superhero (yeah, the friend of antman’s. and no i’m not counting netflix. that’s not a movie screen. yes rosario dawson is awesome.) heck the cw only added a hispanic woman in the last year. before that cisco was pretty much on his lonesome. wait. that might not be right. i’m sure arrow had a guest star that moved to lot... meh. i don’t keep up anymore. all i’m saying is... if mera had been cast woc then that would have continued right on through to aquaman too. but i have nothing against both amber and amy. they’re doing their jobs and i wish them all the best and i will try and enjoy it as much as possible. my few criticisms:

- ... not a big fan of the costume design. i was so confused about wonder woman’s until i remembered it was probably the one from bvs which i hated. i have no idea what was happening with superman’s. batman’s was fine. flash was fine. cyborg’s was fine. loved aquaman’s (and mera’s). the amazonians? what? why???? you could tell it was a male designer. every vital organ was pretty much on show and it was all sexy, just like how wonder woman’s skirt was shortened and the front was like almost a loincloth. just. no.

- production design was ok? like there were very few standouts to me. batcave was pretty good, the flash cave, and anything with aquaman’s fishing village. pretty sure that was filmed in new zealand tho and those guys are on point with their pd. studying their stuff over there, man. pd orgasm tbh. ever since lord of the rings those guys are just amazing.

- camera work was great at times and then just weird in others. i think that had a lot to do with cgi demands, which i’ll get to in a minute.

- the lighting? i mean yes, each scene requires different lighting depending on the place, time of day, people and props... but. there’s this one scene in the field with clark and lois and i was like. confused because it felt like they got first year film students to light it. it was off. and if they were trying to reproduce a field at sunset in a studio with green screen that might make sense but to me it didn’t feel like a gs scene.

- which brings me to my next point. cgi and green screen. there felt like a lot of it in the movie. pretty sure the fight after clark is revived is green screen. the entire last battle has so much cgi that i felt like it was avengers on steroids. also kinda felt like i was watching a video game with like real people pasted in. and while i get WHY it was like that i also felt like. there could have been ways to do it differently. when i watch stranger things i know there’s cgi. but i never get that feeling, that i’m watching a video game. which is important. because i want to stay sunk into the film. not be thrown out and feel like a different medium has taken over. my challenge for jl2? keep me in the film. find a way to make the sfx stay real. possibly a nitpick but like i said, this is my opinion. so that’s it. that’s my long ass dissection and feels and thoughts. i am so looking forward to every solo movie and also being introduced to iris west and atlantis more. im me or d/cord if you wanna chat about anything or if we’re not pals you can send me a q via askbox.

#spoilers #justice league spoilers #jl spoilers #long post #nita blogs #ooc #not rp related #really #except for that i wanna rp as dawn in the dceu SO BAD NOW #hmu if you wanna plot dceu things with me k

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mahalshairyballs · 6 years

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Justice League Review

I have a lot to say about that movie. And I haven’t done a long review on a movie in a long time. So I guess it means something that I want to do that for Justice League?

but first: come on rottentomatoes it deserved more than 40%

Many compared it to Age of Ultron, while that comparison is interesting, I feel like when Age of Ultron is good it is better than JL but when it is bad, it is way worse than JL, while Justice League is a pretty innoffensive movie. There’s no canon destruction here compared to BvS or AoU.

“A fun but unimpactful movie”. I think this describes it well. I liked most of it and I would go see it again.

Now for the details (and spoilers) under the cut

And my inevitable comparison of what people said and what I saw:

General

People said that the movie was jumping a lot from scene to scene, I saw that but it didn’t bug me. It wasn’t as jarring to me as it felt to many other people. I also didn’t see that “change in tone”, the movie felt pretty constant in tones to me. I also like the more “light hearted” feel of the movie, there’s not that many jokes in it (but I guess compared to BvS it’s a big difference) and most of them work well. Some things were cheesy and over-the-top, some things were “bad” but in a good way. I think it’s Andre from Black Nerd Comedy who said that it felt like a live-action cartoon of Justice League, and I could see that. It really had that feel, which is hard to describe, but it was a positive thing.

Also I’m rarely one to complain about CGI, but maaaan some CGI in this was reaaaally showing. The worst part for me was when Steppenwolf fought the amazones, and at some point when Arthur Cury was jumping in the water it seemed like he was in front of a green screen? I have no idea why, it’s just a guy in the water, why do you need a green screen for that?

Many people liked the battle between the amazones and Steppenwolf but I didn’t really like it. My favorite was the one in the tunnels, mostly because there was a lot of character interaction and some form of character development. And it’s true that the “boss battle” at the end was done in like 10 minutes.

The movie does feel like there’s no high stake here, who cares about steppenwolf? Even if they say it’s a big threat you’re like wtv. But that didn’t bother me much.

People said there was a lot of plot holes, well they were not big enough to bother me. People said that it was rushed, yeah I can get that, especially with the backstories of the new characters, but it could have been way worse. The movie was mostly straightforward and easy to follow. I had no problems understanding what was going on even if I never saw BvS or Suicide Squad (But I did watch a lot of reviews and analysis of those movies, and I know the big lines of the DC comics lore)

The characters:

I liked Batman, I quite like Ben Affleck’s take, especially the lighter version seen here in Justice League. I feel it’s more like the comics than the other ones. And I liked that they made him do some martial art fighting, I feel like we don’t see that enough in the Batman movies. He’s supposed to be so good at it they should show it more. But then his costume is so bulky, it does very much look like some of the comics stories. He says a few funny lines in the movie, I wouldn’t say they’re “jokes” but at least he’s not GrumpyMcGrumpalot Batman in this.

I liked that Alfred had stuff to do in the movie, even if it was more just practical than emotional. He kind of reminded me of JARVIS.

It was also kind of funny that Batman tried to delegate to everyone else the task of talking to the other three ‘recruits’ (Wonder Woman and Alfred “I thought you were supposed to talk to him.”)

Wonder Woman is difficult to pinpoint in this movie. She seems more or less the same as in her solo movie. I saw an excerpt of a review on tumblr that said “oh Joss Whedon made wonder woman a nagging wife trope again!”. For one, who said it was Joss Whedon who wrote those scenes and not Snyder? When I was watching the movie I thought “where is she supposed to be the nagging wife exactly?” I never got the sense that she was that at all. It’s not because she disagreed with Bruce that one time that she’s automatically a “nagging wife”. Women can disagree with men you know? And Batman never seemed annoyed by her, and he apologized later, and the other ones were all on Wonder Woman’s side... so really I have no idea where she got that idea...it’s reaaaly stretching it. I saw that scene where they disagreed more like a “Tony and Steve” kind of moment, and it was way less tense in JL than Avengers. I saw Batman and Wonder Woman as the coleaders of the team, or at least trying to be. Also if you want to talk sexist tropes, instead of the nagging wife, I felt like the nurturing mother was more present to me. I don’t know if it’s good or bad but she seemed to be the one who cared about everybody and believed in them and was sweet to them.

But there are some things that bugged me. Like the fact that they kept mentionning Steve Trevor. Like I GET IT, SHE LOVED HIM. But like it’s been 100 YEARS AND SHE’S STILL NOT OVER IT? Steve wasn’t over Peggy because he got FROZEN IN TIME so to him it’s been a fraction of a second later, but Diana had to live in “Man’s world” for a hundred years now. I know they wanted to link it to the Wonder Woman movie but it felt so forced and I didn’t get any emotion from it. It is a way for them to explain why she didn’t do anything for a hundred years. When Batman said “why aren’t you a beacon of hope like Superman if you’ve been here longer” me: ‘hum I don’t know, the patriarchy? The fact that the producers decided she wasn’t?” I though that the idea that Diana had lost hope and abandonned men had been retconned with Wonder Woman. They went back to retcon the retcon from what I’m understanding? Ugh I hated this.

The choices of aestetic

First, the ass shots thing people complained about. It’s not there all that much. I think it’s there once when she’s in normal clothes and maybe two times in her Wonder Woman costume? That’s not what bothered me the most. What bothered me the most was how often she had very big cleavage shirts, even when she was only going to talk to Victor, why did she need a shirt like that? Also “sexy women in movies must wear heels” it’s funny because the first time she came to see Batman she had those big heels, and then the next scene where they walked in a park or something she had black running shoes? So she decided to change shoes in between?

The Amazones

So the “bikini armor” of the Amazones’ past that did the rounds on tumblr didn’t bother me that much. During the flashback you barely see that they have leather bikinis, and some don’t. What bothered me though is during the present day some of the amazones had metal crop tops and all their stomach were showing. Did we have that in the Wonder Woman movie? I’m pretty sure we didn’t.

Her relationship with Bruce

I liked it, except for the moments where he kept mentionning Steve Trevor. But oh my god the StraightsTM with their “oooooh there’s sexual tension between Wonder Woman and Batman, will this be a future ship in the movies” like? no? there? isn’t? any? For real, I didn’t read any ~sexual tension~ in their interaction. When she got to help him in a secluded room after he got pretty hurt I feared for the worst, I was like “oh no, this is it, this is the time they will flirt and people will call it ~sexual tension~ “ but actually it wasn’t? I was relieved, they only talked heart to heart. Also the “I should stop reacting and start acting” thing. I understand where they were coming from and what they wanted to do here. I didn’t see it as necessarily sexist but more a reference to that damn “oh Wonder Woman has lost faith in humans and is hidding now for a hundred years”. I know they wanted that moment to be where she assumed her role as the leader of the team, but yeah it felt more like a reminder of a previous bad character choice for her that they still wanted to be A THINGtm in the movie.

Also, can we all agree that Wonder Woman is also super fast? They kind of forgot that after her first scene.

The new characters & the team

The movie tried to give a story/backstory to these characters as much as they could with the short amount of time they had. I applaud their effort, it didn’t work super well, but they tried, and each of the tree had their ‘alone moments’ and some good moments together. It didn’t work so well because you mostly felt thrown into their story without knowing much of anything about these characters. It’s true that the movie does rely on the fact that you should already be familiar with those characters via other media.

Something I liked is that they all didn’t want to be part of the team at first (Flash said yes but hesitated later), for different reasons, and came back on their own for different reasons too. But can we talk about how everyone in this movie seem to show up exactly at the right time, excactly when they’re needed? Sometimes you’re like “How did you know to come here?”.

I also liked the team dynamic as a whole, I liked that there wasn’t any forced tension, they mostly got along well but they still had their disagreement. I’m a bit tired of the trope “people who hate each other must fight a common baddie that will unite them and they will bond through fighting together and then form a team of mistfits!” it’s been done over and over, Marvel is a particular expert at this one. I liked that they didn’t have to fight each other to become a team, it’s refreshing.

Victor (Cyborg)

I really liked him, he was endearing. I liked the actor. I just liked the way he was in general, he was the rational one who knew a lot about stuff. He was the straight man to Barry’s quirky/excited character. He had some tension going on with Aquaman, and developped a bond with Wonder Woman (I liked their scenes).

During his first scenes, we saw him having to deal with being now a cyborg. They touched subjects that were deep and had a great potential for drama but I thought “That has such potential for a deep story, but I’m sure they’ll ruin it”. They didn’t ruin it, they just never really adressed it again?

Toward the end of the movie I was like “I like him, but I don’t know how they’ll be able to make a solo film with him”. I still want that solo film though.

Also Honest Trailer will probably nickname him “MrExpositionGuy” probably.

He did look CGI A LOT, I mean of course he would, all his body is a robot! but it was jarring at the beginning how much he looked computerised. And the way he learned his powers, I don’t know if it was good or not but he did learn to use them fast.

Barry Allen (Flash)

I really liked him!? Yeah he was the comic relief but maaaan he was cute, and relatable. I often felt he was all of us, a tumblr poster child, super awkward, some social issues and endearing. I do very much like the actor too so it helps. So many of the things he said were tumblr quotes material. I hope people will at least gif him.

I liked how they threw in there a small character development story for him. I liked how he was the average guy who suddenly got supperpowers, he wasn’t suddenly all courageous and had to learn to be. He was a bit the spider-man of the story, the young tech guy who’s also a fanboy and doesn’t know how to Hero yet.

Also, after credit scene with superman: gold.

Arthur Curry (Aquaman)

Most people said it was Cyborg that made the least of an impression on them (if they mention him at all...) but to me, my least favorite one was not Cyborg...it was Aquaman. Which surprised me a lot. I LOVED Aquaman’s new design, and Jason Momoa to play him. But I don’t know, his character never struck anything in me. He was cool, I guess I liked him, but less than the others.

I did like the ‘sit on the lasso of truth’ scene haha. Clever way to have Emotional Exposition moment.

I do want to see a solo film of him though. I think he is one of the characters who should have had a solo film before the Justice League movie, because there is so much lore to his world. They tried to crame as much lore and backstory on him in one scene, it was weird. I mean, good try, but it didn’t work very well. I wasn’t lost during that scene, but it’s definitely one of those “yeah you need to read the comics to know more” moments.

Superman

I liked him. I liked that he went back to mostly be the Superman of the comics and the early movies. People said that it was the best superman portrayal they’ve seen in the DCEU, I agree, but I also think it got a bit overhyped.

The moment when Barry saw that superman was as fast as him though, priceless.

We did have some good BatSups moments.

Also the CGI lips? Guys it wasn’t that noticeable. I kept looking at his lips and didn’t seen any problems with it.

Steppenwolf: yeah there’s really nothing to say about him, like who cares?

The most important now: the ships. Hey I came back with ships! I feel like a movie did its job if they made me ship characters, so good on you Justice League! During the boss battle at the end the only thing I was thinking about was “ok so I ship him with him and her....and then him with....”

So ships: I’d say Diana x Victor or Victor x Barry (or Diana x Victor x Barry? Ot3 ? maybe?). But then I was like Victor x Barry so Diana......Bruce? ah nah....*Superman arrives, awkward but cute scene with Batman* ah! Batman x Superman! All is as it should be, and all is well in the world.

So Diana x Victor x Barry

Superman x Batman

and Aquaman......? (and that’s where I realized he was my least favorite, I had no ship with him. But I could maybe see Aquaman x Victor, idk? Aquaman x Batman?)

To sum up

The movie was enjoyable, but there was something that felt...off. I couldn’t put my finger on what exactly. I theorized it was because we didn’t know most of the characters yet, or that the story was no that engaging. I’m still wondering what it is, maybe it was the filming choices? Even if there was more colors, it was still a pretty grey movie (and red..).

So you know I’d give it a good 65%-70% I think.

And the After credit: Hey Deathstroke, will you come in time to watch Deadpool 2? (So we won’t have Darkseid just yet?)

#this is SUCH A LONG REVIEW #I think the last time I did a review like that was for age of U #Justice League review

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filmery · 7 years

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Stream of Consciousness

from Iron Man

****WATCH OUT FOR LOTS OF GRAMMATICAL ERRORS****

fav marvel opener- flipping comic book pages -never read any whoops

no one is wearing black- back in black

sexist- driver woman

rdj is =iron man

peace sign kid holds- he dies so thats why tony does peace sign

"older guy cant work camera" clishe

uggggh shaky camera

why was he with the troops/ not in helicopter?

zoom into bomb fast- GREAT fast comedic moment just before sadness

he shud not have been conscious after explosion that close

WTF IS THAT UNDER HIS SHIRT WTF- IFITS ARMOR IT SHULD PROTECT HIM

al quaeda to soon

so hes steve jobs- made a frikin computer in his garage

ewww rbj with no beard- bad cgi :( cant u just shave and get over urself?

yes weapons are the key to peace hahahahahahAHAHAHAHAHAHAHhahaha

rip terrence howard as rhody

"too cool for award" cliche

"bald guy is bad" cliche

"hes always working" uhhh besides a few montages.... no he really just parties

only talks to cute girls....... uggggh

military funding? ha more like military debt ahahahahah 20 trillion is iron mans fault

jarvis is wing man after one night stand???? idve thought hed think tony was cheating lol

"girl wakes up with just guys shirt" cliche

"guy wakes up and leaves before girl wakes up" cliche

cat fight ha+2 points

literal and figurative island haha

so tony aint smart, he just uses jarvis

he obvi doesnt know how t4he faa works

i was gonna get REAL mad if tony didnt buy a painting cuz it was "too expensive" but we good

tonys a dick

yet pepper finds him attractive

ksorry

yaaaas rhody calling him a baby cuz he FING IS

im pretty sure laser shows in airplanes are illegal

"im not drinking them gets drunk" cliche

in my opinion from what ive collected, you cant be feared AND respected. fear takes over and you do things based on fear, not fromrespect - also how will blowing up people help them respect you? unless youre talking about getting respect from those u protect and those u kill cuz thats completely differeent then

"i respectfully disagree" or do you "fearfully disagree"

starts out as all techno talk, then turns into baby talk wtf

that shock wave conviently stopped right after it hit them

montage of painful surgeyr cliche

ewww that pipe in his nose as groooooooss

"dont do that but dontexplain" cliche

the dude cant understand english how did he know that tony refused????

why tf wouldnt u test it ANYWHERE BUT THE MIDDLE EAST?????

why cant they just wait and order the missile

k so this scene is srs and all but WATCHING HIM CARRYING THE CAR BATTERY IS SOOOO FuNNY I CANT

"no he wont" OK NOW U CANT UNDERSTAND U POS

"theyll never find u" cliche

why is his friend here?

how does he know how to build it? tbh he probs just had jarvis do it back home

how does the gov not know hes selling weapons to terrorists? we cant be that corrupt can we?

so hes building his ring thing but they DONT FING NOTICE THATS THERES NO MISSILES AT AlL??????

and they didnt question them the entire time

lemme peek but not go in and investigate

"i have steady hands" and then he crashes his car and LOOK! Doctro strange!

when a speech starts with a history lesson, u know its been rehearsed u poser

honestly... hot coal in mouth- worst way to die fml

props to marvel for not telling how fast theyre moving so i cant bust them for not being able to get it done

why the circle around the chest thing

wouldt one of their rules to be able to see u at all times

ctrl i is italicize hahahaha

why did the lights shut off but no the clearly hookedup laptop?

i enjoy the rock music as background music- not ur stereotypical ( yet awesome) hans zimmer score

yaaaaaas bitches run

gun shootsthen rebounds onto him- pretty sure thats not how physics work

if anyone should die, its tony tbh that whiny bithc

-2 for killing an actual good guy

how does not one of those bullets penetrate his suit?

----not enough use of the word penetreate

k no theyd keep shooting

tony: everythings on fire and im dying

ouchie that giant fall

how does he know hose helis are good?

DONT TOUCH HIS SUNBURNT AND BLISTERING SHOULDERS RHODY EWWWW

+2 for cheeseburger yas

-2 for burger king ew

doesnt sheild deal with aliens not terrorists?

newsreels? hes not THAT old

+10000 for ACCOUNTABILITY AND RESPONSIBILTY WOOOOO

k hes obvi doing the best thing here and now everyone gets pissed for him TRYING TO SAVE PEOPLES LIVES EHY IS THAT BAD?????? HE ALREADY HAS a shit otn of money LET HIM BE

fuck u and ur segway obidiah

the other thing..... dont put ur name on it

jokes on u! it was alqueade

+100 for mad money reference!!!!!

...so pepper didnt know about it so whyd he blame her for .3 seconds?

pepper is useless omg PUT YOUR HANDS IN HIS CHEST

why did he say dont take out the magnet but all of a sudden u dont need it?

i wonder if they actually built robots for tonys btterfingers

rhodeys we need pilots speech was just proven again by the aircraft landing in the hudson

so non military= humanitarian now? and if so why that bad?

honestly surprised that jarvis isnt some hot lady voice

k raza with sunglasses= morpheus

why is the mask the most vital part for raza?

tony crashing into wall is why u should ALWAYS WEAR A HELMET KIDS

obadiah is NOT playing the piano

+2 for not trusting obidiah

daaaamn if thats 1% whats 100% capacity

and he still doesnt wear a helmet

k his eye holes are so small how can he actually see?

run before walking leads to lots of problems later in life tony

at leaast he checked atc

goddammkit u made smol child drop ice cream

beginners luck

rip that baby grand he probs didnt know how to play

+2 for that fire extinguisher

+50 for Pepper being a cutie with that gift

how does tony not have his liscence revoked? hes a shit driver and can hire a chaffeur

STAN LEE BABE

RIP COLESON OMG :'(

so just fire pepper and marry her

pepper is totally right and tony should seperate who actually matter to him

how is a lot of olives 3?

im not my company- THEN TAKE UR NAME OFF HOE

no, modern day hell s walking those 15 miles and watching a car and heli and camera lady who are fine and can get there in 20 minutes

i sincerely hope that these footages were planned and not real

is this the news or a documentary?

just realized he never gave pepper her drink lol

yeah, let the kids watch their dad get shot thats fine omg

after that hit, he looks like a lion

why did he say colonel rhodes form weapons development? that name isnt that common

there was 0 time for radio contact omg

the only thing i could think during this scene was SERPENTINE SERPENTINE SERPENTINE

k now im getting a lil tired of the electric guitar

finally obi has been outted geez

im feeling some west side story WITH snaps

why is raza telling obi what he ALREADY KNOWS CUZ THEYVE BEEN IN CONTACT

how has no one noticed that obi just GOES TO THE MIDDLE EAST LIKE ALL THE TIME

this scene between pepper and tony is THE MOTHER of cliched lines

WHY DIDNT SHE SHUT DOWN THE COMPUTER STUPID WEIRDO

he tried to push his hair back hahahaHAHAHAHAHhaha

not scraps obi.... he had his own stuff

im just imagining obi hidig under toys couch haha

that dick took his shirt!!!

yaas beethoven reference

props to makeup people for his paralysis on point!

sorry but paralysis seems to me like U CANT FING MOVE TONY

i thought the old reactor needed a magnet

OF ALL THE CARS TO STEAL RHODY YOU STEAL THE AUDI

goddman all these chains

JUMP SCARE COMING HAHA I KNEW IT

-2 awful jump scare

yes middle age mom- honk at the GIANT FING ROBOT

nooo not the hydrogen powered bus!

gooood iron freezes before stainless tell

daaamn obi is a real bad shot

and radiation now floods the malibu land area and thosands are illed thanks to tonys reactor

sk glad hes corrected the mediait aint iron

coleson never briefed tham

that was longer than 90 seconds

iron man- STOP TRYING TO BE BATMAN

great ending 10/10

affter credit scene: 10/10 avengers yay

#film critic #tony stark #iron man #filmery #stream of consciousness

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thisguyatthemovies · 5 years

Text

It’s no joke

Title: “Joker”

Release date: Oct. 3, 2019

Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, Bill Camp, Frances Conroy, Brett Cullen, Glenn Fleshler, Douglas Hodge, Marc Maron, Josh Paris, Shea Whigham, Bryan Callen, Sharon Washington, Leigh Gill

Directed by: Todd Phillips

Run time: 2 hours, 2 minutes

Rated: R

What it’s about: In this origin story of “Batman” supervillain The Joker, Arthur Fleck, a middle-aged Gotham City resident with a plethora of mental health issues, becomes increasingly unstable and violent while unwittingly become a symbol for anarchists.

How I saw it: So many adjectives, so many questions.

Let’s start with the descriptors. “Joker” is bleak, unsettling, troubling, violent, depressing, edgy, gritty, enigmatic and entertaining, though in an uncomfortable way. Todd Phillips’ origin story of Batman’s most notable villain is, in short, not exactly a super happy fun time. It also is a bit of a mess of troubling images and mixed messages, which means you’ll likely be regurgitating it in your brain for days to come. It begs many questions, not the least of which is, “Is this a movie I should like?”

The much hyped and criticized “Joker” is the story of Arthur Fleck, played by Joaquin Phoenix, who somehow has raised his game to another level. Fleck is a middle-aged man who lives with his ailing mother in early 1980s Gotham City (New York). Fleck works for a clown service and aspires to be a stand-up comedian. He also has serious mental health issues, including a condition that makes him uncontrollably laugh out loud.

The setting is important here. It is modeled after – in scenery, lighting, color – the New York in two Martin Scorsese films “Joker” has been most frequently compared to, “Taxi Driver” and “The King of Comedy.” Both star Robert De Niro, who has a key role here as TV talk show host Murray Franklin. Gotham City is enduring a garbage collectors’ strike and being overrun by rats. Millionaire Thomas Wayne, who we all know as the father of Bruce Wayne/Batman, is running for mayor. The city is struggling financially, and Fleck’s therapy and medications are the victims of budget cuts.

It’s all downhill from here for Fleck, who was starting in a pretty low place anyway. He is beaten in streets while working and eventually loses his job for having a handgun while performing for kids. While riding a subway dressed as a clown, he laughs uncontrollably as three young businessmen harass a young woman. They confront him, and Fleck shoots them to death. The crime makes headlines (media reports are prevalent throughout the film), but Fleck is not captured. And though it was not his intention, the crime makes him an anti-hero among Gotham City’s working class, who participate in protests while dressed as clowns. Fleck’s mental state continues to deteriorate, and he becomes more and more violent as he endures one setback after another. Eventually he embraces his status as a symbol for the angry and oppressed, and The Joker is born.

Phoenix’s performance is remarkable even by his standards. He is almost unrecognizably emaciated here, all arms and legs as he runs through the streets and occasionally performs odd dance moves. The weight loss shows most in his face, which just sort of hangs there waiting to be contorted depending on Fleck’s mood, and when he is shirtless, he doesn’t have enough meat on him to cover his ribs. Phoenix is wonderfully uneasy to watch. He is playing a man who knows he has issues and is looking for something, anything to turn out right but seems to resign himself to remaining in a downward spiral. Phoenix is flat out scary, especially during tight shots, even when he isn’t being a psychopathic killer. He is clearly the best thing about “Joker,” and the rest of the cast, except De Niro, largely gets left behind through no fault of their own.

“Joker” has its share of memorable scenes, the best of which is its most violent and darkly funny. Two of his former co-workers stop by his apartment after the death of Fleck’s mother, and Fleck has a bone to pick with one of them, a fellow clown who convinced him he needed a gun. After much blood is shed, his other former co-worker, Gary (Leigh Gill), who oversees the clowns and is a man with dwarfism, apologetically tries to leave the apartment but needs Fleck’s help to do so. Perhaps disturbingly, this provides the most laugh-out-loud moment of a film that contains few funny moments.

While Phoenix lives up to the pre-release hype, it’s not clear if the rest of the film does. Except Gary and a neighbor of Fleck, no one – not random people on the bus, not Fleck’s mother, not even his state-assigned therapist – is a nice person. “Joker” lacks the moral compass of, say, Frances McDormand’s Marge Gunderson in “Fargo.” Its most pleasant scenes, as it turns out, are strictly a figment of Fleck’s psychosis. When Fleck appears on Franklin’s talk show, confesses to the shootings and then makes a speech about how he was driven to violence because everyone in the world is terrible, Franklin reminds him that not all people are bad. But those words are hollow coming from Franklin, who invited Fleck to his show just to mock him.

Part of the confusion, at least after one viewing (this seems like the kind of film that might get better with multiple viewings), is what “Joker” is supposed to be. It presents a familiar comic book character, and though a mostly original story meant to be a standalone, it links itself to the Batman universe, including in a delicious twist that seems to resolve itself but leaves enough ambiguity to produce some doubt. Viewed strictly as a comic book origin story, it is great.

But Phillips has stated that the intent was for “Joker” to be a serious movie, one with Oscar aspirations (and one that was screened at many of the big festivals), and the gritty, realistic setting (no capes, magic sledgehammers or CGI cityscapes here), ties to real-life events and Phoenix’s performance help him accomplish that. However, Phillips has been outspoken about the backlash against the film, most notably those who see it as glamorizing violence (including gun violence) and having the potential to inspire copycats among “incels” in the real world. Movies aren’t released in a vacuum, and “Joker” was hitting the festival circuit about the time of several mass shootings. Much of the criticism against “Joker” is politically motivated in nature, but Phillips’ film, because of its tone and subject matter, can be interpreted as highly political. Thomas Wayne is a wealthy, powerful and crass man not unlike a certain president, but when he calls Gotham City’s ordinary people “clowns” and then talks about how they need him to help them, it sounds a lot like Hillary Clinton’s “deplorables” episode. “Joker” doesn’t exactly glorify Fleck’s rise to public anarchist, but it does not condemn it, either. If “Joker” is being criticized on political grounds, the fact that it is tied to a comic book character is not a viable defense against that criticism. Serious criticism goes with the territory of a film that aims to be taken seriously.

About those questions. Among them: What was the point here? Comic book origin story or statement about an uncaring real-life society? That everyone is terrible, and that could drive someone to insanity and violence? That a more caring (and better funded) government could prevent people with mental health issues from someday trying to overthrow that same government? That the human psyche can withstand only so many setbacks before a beast is unleashed? That it is OK to fight back against the right people? That a terrible world creates terrible people? Or is the world terrible because people are terrible? That our society and the media are fascinated by deranged killers? That everyone is perverse at the core, and that perversion is why we like watching someone go way off the rails?

“Joker” is an enigmatic, chaotic, twisted movie. Perhaps that is the entire point.

My score: 80 out of 100

Should you see it? Yes, if you like being made to feel uncomfortable in a theater but see a great actor at the top of his game.

#movies #movie review #movie recommendation #Joker #dc characters #dc universe #joaquin phoenix #batman

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