#like obviously there r some made up stories that r now infamous

[slutauthority]

seeing who replies “fake tumblr story” on posts to see who has never gone outside in the entire life

#like obviously there r some made up stories that r now infamous #but like sometimes ppl will be like ‘I spoke to a stranger at my job’ #and some fuckn clown is always like “’nice FAKE TUMBLR STORY’ #and I’m like sweetheart……….

[doreamu-san]

An analysis of SolKy

Hello! Thank you so much for clicking on this. A while ago, I was asked to do an essay explaining why people ship SolKy other than the whole rivals/opposites attract reason, and I got a lot of feedback stating it was useful for newcomers to the ship! As a result I’ve decided to post this on tumblr, but just on the ship’s tag as to not bother uninterested people.

A couple of disclaimers before I begin. This is firstly just my own opinion, so whilst it makes sense for me, other shippers may disagree with my points. I’m also not claiming they are canon because they are not. But I do hope it’ll give some insight into why some people like me enjoy them together.

Even once you’ve read this essay, you can still dislike SolKy. This isn’t an essay stating you have to ship them.

This will be extremely long as I basically cover every single interaction they’ve ever had with each other since I know some people sort of gloss over their dialogue, so grab yourself a drink, get comfy, and I hope you enjoy reading!

(Last edited: 09/05/2021. This will be updated again when Strive releases!)

How this all began

If we’re starting right at the beginning, it’s common knowledge that Ky and Sol weren’t exactly on great terms and often clashed most of the time due to their conflicting beliefs. Ky saw the world in terms of black and white, and had very strict rules on what constituted as right and wrong. Sol seemed to think differently and went against that, which was a stark contrast compared to the other Order members at the time.

Considering that they were in fact, in the middle of a war, you would think that generally people would be willing to put their differences aside and work together.

But Sol wasn’t like everyone else, going off and doing his own thing instead of actually listening to orders, so it’s understandable why Ky found him rather irritating.

However, Ky did grow curious of Sol. Obviously curiosity does not equate to love, but it is the basis of Ky wanting to become more friendly with and know more about Sol. There seemed to be something that Sol knew but Ky didn’t, but how was that possible..? As a result, despite how infuriating he could be, Ky sought to seek out the truth and so fought him for answers.

In regards to why exactly they fight (aside from the fact that this is a fighting game), Ishiwatari wrote something called ‘Hostility is Akin to Love’ right above a picture of them fighting:

Hostility is akin to love Thinking of your opponent’s actions to fight, Reading your opponent’s inner thoughts to fight, Planning attacks that will hit your opponent to fight, And then transmitting your thoughts with those attacks, The more you think of your own advantage, at the same time you think of your opponent, In the instant you mix with your opponent, a passionate feeling arises, and blood boils, Reality is hurt, and you wound your opponent, Hostility is akin to love. — Guilty Gear Isuka Mook

It states how fighting someone can be close to feelings of love because you have to think about what your opponent is doing, as well as how you’re going to respond to your opponent. Overtime, you start to memorise how your opponent thinks, and as a result you’ll know them on a deeper level.

So considering the above, this explains how even though they weren’t on friendly terms, they still formed a bond with one another.

Now we’ve established how exactly their relationship started, and why Ky was curious about Sol in the first place, let’s look at things from Sol’s perspective.

Sol’s attitude towards Ky

We know that Sol was also pretty annoyed by Ky, which was totally justifiable given the extreme way in which Ky thought the world worked. But Sol didn’t exactly dislike Ky.

In order to provide some evidence that Sol cares about Ky, let’s cover that infamous scene everyone likes to reference which shows Sol crying over Ky’s dead body:

Sol:     "I came to pick you up." Ky:      "Always coming late... you never could fix that..." Sol:     "You..." Ky:      "As to be expected... until the very end... I could never beat you..." Sol:     "Don't say anything!" Ky:      "I have... a request..." Sol:     "I said shut up!" Ky:      "After Commander Kliff... carry on... the Holy Order..." Sol:     "Stop it... that's your job!" Ky:      "Please... promise me..." Sol:     "Dammit..." Ky:      "If it's you... you can do..." Sol:     "Hey.... what's wrong. Hey! KYYYYYY!" — Guilty Gear XX Drama CD Side Red, Battle of Rome — Deathmatch

A lot of people bring this quote up when discussing SolKy and yes, it does show Sol cares about Ky considering how Sol never really cares about anyone in general, but the fact that Ky’s death managed to make him emotional shows what an impact Ky had on him. There are however more quotes that show Sol’s feelings.

There’s this scene in the GG Xtra manga, Ky and Sol get attacked by a mountain-sized gear. In order to save them, Sol rips off his limiter and Dragon Installs. This scene is very poignant when you take into consideration what Sol said in After Story A:

Sol:     "Back during the Crusades, before we met... Kliff told me this rumour about a prodigy swordsman." Sol:     "If you couldn't guess, that was you. I didn't give a shit at the time..." Sol:     "But then I saw you on the battlefield." Sol:     "I saw someone out there who surpassed all of my expectations. Or perhaps I should say 'something.'" Sol:     "No openings, no wasted movements, no carelessness, no hesitation, no embarrassment, not even any honor. No chivalry or mercy. A being unaffected by emotion." Sol:     "You were a killing machine. Taking down gears with brutal efficiency." Ky:      "...That was a long time ago." Sol:     "I'm not done talking. I've seen the face of the 'serious' Ky." Sol:     "Then one day, you challenged me." Sol:     "You wanna know what I thought right then?" Ky:      "..." Sol:     "I was afraid. Hell, I was scared shitless." Sol:     "'He figured out that I'm a Gear, and he's come to kill me.' That's what I thought." — Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR-, After Story A

Sol admits that he knows just how scary Ky can be. Since Ky was extremely against Gears, if Ky found out that Sol was a Gear, then Ky would have most likely attempted to kill him. But Sol knew this and was willing to die for Ky’s sake, and transformed anyway:

Ky:      "Sol..." Ky:      (Really... that's really..) Ky:      (That's really you!?) Ky:      "SOL!" Sol:     "Shut it..." Sol:     "I didn't do it..." Sol:     "To help you out—...." — Guilty Gear Xtra, Chapter 5: Unspeakable Thoughts

Going off on a bit of a tangent from Sol’s feelings, but I just want to point out Ky’s state of mind at this point. Ky in this time period was still very anti-Gear, as it was only through this moment and his encounters with Solaria and Dizzy later that made him change his way of thinking. It took a long time for Ky to accept Gears, and he still had the remains of that mindset in him when he had Sin, as he refused to make eye contact with him because Ky was ashamed of having a Gear child. So the fact that Ky knew Sol was a Gear, believed all Gears were evil, but still decided to accept Sol into his life and wanted to support him regardless of that, is interesting.

Back to Sol, another small quote that manages to show Sol’s feelings towards Ky is this:

Sol:     (Maybe I'll finish them off while I'm at it...) Sol:     (But that would mean breaking my promise to Ky...) — Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R, Sol Badguy Path 2

Now, Sol doesn’t care about 99% of what other people do as long as they don’t get in his way. The fact that he intends to keep his promise with Ky suggests that he holds Ky in somewhat ‘high’ regards compared to others.

There’s also this quote that shows Sol is thinking about Ky in Overture:

The frustrations of the man wielding a giant sword were piling day by day, and a familiar face appeared in his head. What’s he up to right now? “Hmph, whatever…” With a feeling of self-contempt, Sol Badguy shook his head. What am I getting sentimental for? — Guilty Gear 2: Overture, #0 “Noise”

And when Sol encounters Raven later on after seeing Ky incapacitated, Raven points out how he can tell Sol is upset, meaning Sol’s not really doing a good job of pretending he’s still indifferent to Ky.

Raven: "You're as ruthless as ever, huh, monster?" Sol:      "Look who's talking." Raven: "Can you not put down your sword and talk? I understand you're upset with Ky Kiske defeated." Sol:      "I'll ask your corpse for answers." — Guilty Gear 2: Overture, #5 "Gaze of the Chronicle"

Sol’s thoughts about Ky become even clearer during his confrontation with Sin when he’s under the influence of Valentine, where Sol defends Ky’s actions and tries to make Sin understand Ky is not 100% at fault:

Sin:     "Can you see it? Can you feel it? This is my real power. This is my mother's strength." Sol:     "But it's light. It must be from your father." Sin:     "Shut up! Don't ever mention him!" Sin:     "He abandoned my mother and me using justice as an excuse!" Sin:     "Who cares about the King!? Who cares about the people!? That man, and that Kingdom, not one of them can protect a damn thing!" Sol:     "I don't give a damn about your family." Sol:     "But you know what, Ky may be a stubborn idiot, but at least he's true to his beliefs." Sol:     "A punk like you is still alive thanks to his justice." — Guilty Gear 2: Overture, #15 "Roaring Compass"

Okay, that’s the pre-Xrd era for Sol done, now to focus on Ky’s pre-Xrd’s emotions.

Ky’s attitude towards Sol

We’ve established earlier that Ky was annoyed by Sol and disliked him in the Crusades. However, afterwards it seems as if Ky saw himself as friends with Sol:

Ofc1:   "All of them seem to have been destroyed by... fire?" Ofc2:  "Yeah... why could that be?" Ky:      "........" Ky:      "Change our course!" Ky:      "Head towards the Eastern United States!" Ofc1:   "May I ask why, Chief Ky?" Ky:      "To meet an old friend." — Guilty Gear Xtra, Chapter 4: Former Friends

We know that Ky outwardly expressed his first signs of liking Sol when Sol stole the Fuuenken and Ky chased after him, only for Sol to win in their duel, and Ky says this:

Ky:      "Promise me one thing..." Sol:     "..What?" Ky:      "We'll meet again." Sol:     "Hmph... Well, if fate brings us together..." Ky:      "..That's fine." — Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R, Sol Badguy Path 1

It’s pretty interesting that Ky wanted to see Sol again despite how Sol never used to listen to his orders, and how Sol never even tried to act like what the Order expected their men to act like (chivalrous, putting the people first, etc). It at least shows us that Ky saw possibly the potential of becoming friends with Sol. And Sol didn’t even say straight up ‘no’ or ‘in your dreams’ or whatever Badguy-esque notion he usually would’ve done, so we can assume he doesn’t mind seeing Ky again either.

Then they don’t speak to each other properly for 5 years until the tournament that Testament holds, though they have probably ran into each other a few times within those years.

A common misconception people have is that during those 5 years, Ky was obsessed with Sol and would constantly try to find him. Obviously, this is not true. Ky was busy with IPF stuff and Sol was hunting Gears down.

However, it’s not as if Ky completely forgot about Sol — he was just probably at the back of his mind, and Ky does admit that he has been chasing after Sol the most more than anyone else:

Ky:      (Waiting outside for me when I left the ship... burning red flames. Soon, they seem to take the shape of a man... and he appears before me. Yes... it's him. The one I've been after the most... it's him.) — Guilty Gear X Drama CD, Vol. 1: Track Seven — Crater

There’s also these two other quotes:

Ky:      (Sol...) Ky:      (Why are you so stubborn about doing things alone?) — Guilty Gear Xtra, Chapter 5: Unspeakable Thoughts

You can interpret this in two ways: either Ky wants to help Sol out and/or he’s curious as to why Sol always does stuff alone.

And then there’s this:

Ky:      "Maintaining peace, law, and order. That is my duty." Sol:     "Whatever..." Ky:      "You and I, we are cut from the same cloth." Ky:      "How long are you going to keep that facade?" Sol:     "..." Ky:      "Answer me Sol!" — Guilty Gear Judgment, Sol and Ky Ending

Being ‘cut from the same cloth’ is quite a strong statement. The phrase means that Ky thought he and Sol were similar somehow, and that he shared something with Sol. Regardless, the ‘how long are you going to keep that facade’ at least shows that Ky knows Sol is intentionally acting distant/rough/etc. and that its not actually who he is.

Jumping to pre-Overture, just before Ky gives Sin to Sol, Ky is in a really depressive state due to all of the stress he’s been going through. This leads Dizzy to contact Sol. The fact that Sol is called means that Dizzy knows that Sol is possibly the only person who can help Ky at that point, which puts some emphasis on just how much Sol means to Ky or at least affects him.

Before I move onto Xrd, there’s this part where Ky gives his son to Sol. This proves he trusts Sol so much considering he was asking him to take care of Sin for a long period of time.

Ky:      “Sol....I want to request something...” Sol:     “...hnn?” Ky:      “My son....Sin..can you take care of him for a while?” Sol:     “...what did you say?” Ky:      “I know it’s unreasonable but...I still want to ask...” — GG2: Overture Story, Sol's Story

The Xrd era (because it is so long, it needs its own section)

The Xrd era is extremely interesting to me, because Sol and Ky have some more in-depth conversations, and boy, do they have a lot of conversations.

Focusing on Sol first, theres a scene in REV where Sol asks Ky why he isn’t interested in his past:

Sol:     "Why don't you ask me already?" Ky:      "Ask you what?" Sol:     "About my past." Ky:      "I can ask you?" Sol:     "I guarantee, it won't be interesting." Sol:     "Every other word that came out of your mouth was 'Duel me,' or 'I challenge you!' You were so eager to fight and..." Ky:      "........" — Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR-, Story Mode: Chapter 03, Sense A

Given that Ky was constantly pestering Sol about his background in the past, it makes sense why Sol is suddenly a bit confused about Ky’s sudden change in behaviour. But it also shows that Sol wants Ky to know about his past. After ~170+ years of being alive, Sol wants to finally open up to someone again, and he specifically chose Ky for this. It shows in the very least Sol trusts Ky and knows him well enough to decide to let him know about who he used to be.

And then Ky says this, which is basically him just showing Sol how much he cares and understands him:

Ky:      "Sol. Of course I have an interest in your past." Ky:      "But wanting to understand someone and trying to understand everything is completely different." Ky:      "Right now, Sol Badguy's future matters much more to me, than Frederick's past." — Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR-, Story Mode: Chapter 03, Sense A

There’s also this scene in SIGN:

Ky:      "I don't know your history." Ky:      "I don't know if you had friends once, or if you fell in love, or why you burn with such hatred for That Man and the Gears..." Ky:      "I don't even know your real name." Sol:     "..." Ky:      "But I do know a great deal about a man named Sol Badguy." Ky:      "Blinded by vengeance, he lost sight of himself, and now he runs from the truth that frightens him." Sol:     "...Say that again." Ky:      "Tomorrow always comes, Sol." Sol:     "..!" Ky:      "If tomorrow promises to be cold and dark, I cannot stand idly by... even if I know my efforts will come to nothing." Sol:     "... The self-righteous apple doesn't fall far from the tree." Ky:      "I don't expect the world to change tomorrow, but I do hope that, today, perhaps my words will reach you." Ky:      "Sol..." Ky:      "I'll be waiting for you. We'll all be waiting for you. Sin, Dizzy..." Ky:      "Once all this is over... come home." — Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-, Story Mode: Chapter 04, Kaleidoscope B

Three things to take away from this:

Ky admits that he doesn’t know anything about Sol’s background, but that he knows a lot about the current Sol, and then goes on to explain how Sol acts. Which to expand on, means that although Ky used to care about Sol’s past, he doesn’t really mind about it anymore because Sol’s past won’t really change much who Sol is to Ky now. Also, the part where Ky explains how Sol was ‘blinded by vengeance,’etc. shows that Ky knows Sol’s current personality well enough in order to be able to distinguish his behaviours. Which is interesting because nobody has been around Sol long enough to be able to know him really well unlike Ky (Aria and Asuka count too, but they were around Sol when he was Frederick, and Sol seems pretty adamant on the idea that he’s a separate person from Frederick.)

‘Come home’ is pretty significant, as it implies that it’s almost like Ky is saying home is with Sin, Dizzy and the Valentines, and so when Sol is done getting revenge on That Man, instead of letting Sol just wander off alone, Ky wants Sol to be a family with them.

The fact that says Ky says ‘I’ll be waiting for you’ separate from ‘we’ll all be waiting for you’ implies that either Ky’s want to wait for Sol is somehow different from everyone else’s or it’s just for the sake of being dramatic. I interpreted this in both ways, as it seems like Ky knows that Sol treats him differently compared to others. So in a sense, by Ky emphasising that he’ll be waiting for Sol, it might make Sol more likely to ‘come home’.

There’s also a scene that shows Ky knows Sol’s personality well:

Ky:      "When I look at you, Sol, I see a man who is afraid." Sol:     "... What?" Ky:      "It became clear when I watched you caring for Sin." Ky:      "You work very hard to keep everyone at arm's length." Sol:     "..." Sol:     "I got Gear blood in my veins, and it ain't friendly. It's always there in the back of my head, whispering that I oughta just destroy all of this." Sol:     "The only way I'm gonna get some closure is tracking down That Man and beating some answers out of him." Sol:     "And if he doesn't have 'em..." Sol:     "Then maybe there really isn't a good way to live." Ky:      "That's why you close your heart off." — Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-, Story Mode: Chapter 08, Hope A

There’s also this:

Ky:      "Not all people have the strength to stand on their own." Sol:     "..." Ky:      "If only life were simple, and the right path was laid out before each of us..." Ky:      "But even then some would leave it, and some would struggle with walking it. Such is human nature..." Ky:      "The truth is that no path will ever be 'right' for all people. Each of us must find the one we are meant to walk--and sometimes that is where none exists." Ky:      "That is what I learned from you." — Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-, Story Mode: Chapter 08, Hope A

This just shows that Ky actually learnt something from Sol. Which I think is important because Ky is someone who always used to be very strict to his ideals. The fact that he learnt something from Sol that had an impact on his mindset means that Sol actually managed to have a great impact on Ky.

There’s this scene where Sol finds out that Aria isn’t dead when he confronts That Man, and he has somewhat of a mini mental breakdown. So Ky excuses them from the room, and goes outside to talk with Sol:

Ky:      "Sol. The grudge you hold is certainly not something that can be taken lightly. And, whatever answer you think you've found, I doubt any of us will be able to stop you from seeing it through..." Ky:      "But we have very little time left. Right now, we need the Gear Maker's help." Ky:      "So, I'm begging you... Just for now. Why don't you stay outside with me." — Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR-, Story Mode: Chapter 06, Cause A

The last line that Ky says is interesting because it’s obvious that he’s just trying to calm Sol down, and Ky thinks that if he stays with Sol outside for a bit, he’ll be able to help him calm down. Furthermore, Ky thought it was more necessary to pause everything and help Sol out rather than keep listening to the plans of what their next course of action would be.

Ky does have the habit of comforting Sol. One of the more significant moments is whenever Sol refers to himself as a monster:

Ky:      "Yes, he took away some of what makes you human, but that doesn't mean he altered your mind or your soul." Sol:     "So what?" Ky:      "I want to believe that you'll fight for the people of this world." Sol:     "Are we seriously having this conversation?" Sol:     "Look, kid. I'm a monster. I'm here to do two things: Destroy That Man, and kill all the other Gears." — Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-, Story Mode: Chapter 04, Kaleidoscope B

To expand a little on Sol’s mindset, it’s common knowledge that Gears were generally in the past regarded as akin to monsters. Now we don’t have any solid proof Sol is referring to himself as a monster because he’s a Gear, or because he feels guilt about the whole Gear Project, etc. But we do know it’s something he’s affected by given that he constantly refers to himself as one.

So the fact that Ky constantly reassures him that he’s not one, and that Ky didn’t treat him differently after finding out he was a Gear, must be comforting to know.

Then at the end of REV, there’s the scene where Daryl is about to shoot Sol, because he (quite rightly) doesn’t trust the fate of the world to be left to Sol. And so, the kids get beamed up, but Ky asks to be left behind:

Ky:      "But, if you plan on targeting Sol, then you must leave me behind, as well." Daryl: "What!?" Zappa:"60 seconds until impact..!" Sol:     "What the hell are you doing?! Stay with Sin!" Ky:      "I am well aware that this is a one in a million chance..." Ky:      "But, if I survive at the expense of my dear friend, then there is little reason left for my ruling this world as king." — Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR-, Story Mode: Final Chapter, Fireworks

This was a really odd moment because Ky’s life was never in danger at that moment. If he had been sent on board Daryl’s ship as originally planned, he would have been safe. But Ky intentionally chose to risk his life, and its kind of startling because Ky has always put his people above everything. There were times when he put the people above his own family, like when he kept his family a secret instead of coming out with the truth about them in order to remain as King to protect his people.

So Ky suddenly going ‘I would rather die with Sol than take care of my people’ is really extreme. Also Ky was willing to leave his family behind, which is even more extreme. So this just really proves how highly Ky regards Sol considering how he would rather die with him than live without him.

Some concluding notes

I think Sol and Ky’s personalities do work really well. Perhaps not in the Crusade era, but if we take a look at the Xrd era, they have shown to get along and have deep conversations with one another that they both enjoy. They know each other extremely well; they know how to support one another when life gets a bit too much and they’re also capable of telling one another when the other is wrong.

Sol teaches Ky that life isn’t as simple as it seems, and that (figuratively speaking) he shouldn’t stick exactly to the textbook. He’s able to see under that perfect image Ky puts up about him being able to cope with everything, acting as a source of stability when you consider how Sol has been the only person who’s been around Ky since the very beginning.

Throughout all of Ky’s life, he’s been under so much pressure. From being Commander in the Crusades, to becoming the Head of the International Police Force, to becoming King. In every situation, people are constantly relying on him, and his environment is changing rapidly. But despite everything, Sol has always remained the same. He looks the same, acts the same, etc. Ky can rely on Sol and trust Sol. He’s like a source of stability for Ky in those hectic times.

And Ky provides something similar to Sol too, given how often he ran into Sol time and time again. When you’ve been alive for so long, it’d feel reassuring in the very least to see a familiar face. And Sol does seem to get less annoyed each time they meet each other again, considering like how in Overture he voluntarily went to go see Ky after seeing himself on a wanted poster.

Ky also gives Sol the chance to open up to people again and form connections with them, something that Sol has been reluctant to do. Sol needs someone to care about him, and Ky proves that by constantly reassuring him and never giving up on trying to help Sol, even though he kept getting pushed away.

They may not be canon but I really do love how they work together. Yes it’s true some people may like them because they are ‘rivals’and seeing rivals get together and bicker is great, but actually I think when people focus more on how much they support and rely on each other, as well as the fact that they do get along, them being in a relationship is more convincing.

Whilst this essay focused on their canon interactions, there’s plenty of other great material out there. For instance, the Guilty Gear 4KomaKINGS manga provides plenty of great SolKy interactions (like the time Ky wanted to have a friendship diary with Sol, only to get rejected and start crying about it. Of course, take these interactions with a pinch of skepticism considering the frivolity of the source material.)

And that, was my very long SolKy essay. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading! Though you may not have agreed with everything I have said, you still continued reading, and I am grateful for that. Thank you for showing such enthusiasm and loving this franchise.

#solky

[ecoamerica]

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[florencesmachine]

tell me what's going on

Why tumblr user donottearmedown/luciequeenofelfame/luciehvrondaie is an embarrassment: a Masterpost

Hi if you’re here it’s because you’ve heard that tumblr user donottearmedown is an embarrassment and you’d like to know all the details! Let me break it down. It all started with this post by @minacarstairs (Tessa (yes @minacarstairs’s name is Tessa sorry if that makes this post confusing)), in which donottearmedown originally reached out to Tessa by sending her something along the lines of “Do you ship heronstairs/herongraystairs?” And Tessa replied with something along the lines of “Yeah lmao herongraystairs rights!”

(I wanna note that Tessa was being very polite, and continues to be very polite to people who disagree with her opinions on heronstairs/herongraystairs. She even began her original conversation with dont tear me down by saying it’s a matter of personal interpretation :) it’s donottearmedown who made the conversation mean-spirited)

(Also Tessa pls correct next if I’m wrong on any of this thnx)

And then sometime later, the conversation above ensues in which donottearmedown, seemingly perfectly reasonable at first, disagrees with the ship and offers a link to look at. (She throws this link around any chance she gets. She really fucking loves this link.) I got involved because in her answer, Tessa replies back with a link from a post I made from my own blog starting back in 2018, and then continued to add to it until my account got terminated (long story). You can read through both posts and check out all the replies! But basically we realized during this interaction that donottearmedown wasn’t looking to have a friendly conversation and was, in fact, batshit crazy. They were saying some absolute brain dead shit like that people shipping heronstairs is the same as people shipping Alec x Clary. Here’s the screenshot:

donottearmedown came back the next day to reply on several of Tessa and mine’s post which she wasn’t even tagged in, such as this one, and this one that had absolutely nothing to do with her because I make that same post every year. Here’s a screenshot from my old account last year via Instagram:

(there are more posts she replied to but I can’t be bothered to look for them, I’m sure you can find them on their blog if you can spare the braincells)

Racism by donottearmedown:

So, Tessa received this anon which tipped us off to some of the other tomfoolery on donottearmedown’s blog. We decided to look for ourselves and lo and behold, here’s the post of donottearmedown accusing Cassandra Clare of having a “Chinese kink” for writing Jessa:

Which, first of all, makes no sense because there’s like 2 Chinese characters in TSC total. If anything CC has a straight white boy kink lmao. But by saying this she was basically implying that the ONLY way Tessa (book!Tessa), or anybody who loves Jem, can love him is if they have a “Chinese kink”. Which donottearmedown can’t seem to be able to understand is an incredibly racist thing to say and think.

They also reblogged this BLM link and proceeded to tag it with absolute nonsense like “#smoke weed #lose weight #wessa”. I don’t know if her intentions were to mock the BLM movement but I still found this to be so incredibly disrespectful and tone deaf.

I also feel like I should mention this ask sent to Tessa in which donottearmedown implies she ~could be~ Asian, but it’s “none of her business anyways” (as if being Asian would absolve anyone of being racist akjsksjsj), but based on the fact that she has a track record of lying and pretending to be a person she’s not (as you will soon see :)) I call bullshit lmao:

I think that was the last of our interactions until today? Tessa and I were distracted because we have, you know, real lives.

But anyway, that brings us to today.

donottearmedown started replying to posts from mine and Tessa’s blogs which she wasn’t tagged in, again, and made several days ago. This one literally wasn’t even about her, it was about someone else that had engaged with one of Tessa’s posts. I made that post over a week ago and had already forgotten about it, but clearly donottearmedown never stops thinking about us 😳

NOW I WOULD LIKE TO POINT OUT THIS POST SPECIFICALLY.

Why? Because donottearmedown and luciequeenofelfame (now luciehervndaie) interacted on this post, as 2 seperate entities. luciequeenofelfame had also interacted with Tessa and I’s original posts at the beginning of June (you can check the replies on the posts!) coming to donottearmedown’s defense, and praising her for her opinions and other shit like that.

Here’s the screenshot. As you can see here, luciehervndaie reblogs from donottearmedown and adds on to their opinion:

Now here’s the kicker: donottearmedown and luciehervndaie are the same person.

As in, this bitch literally made up a second blog so that she can pretend to be someone else agreeing with her own opinions and cheering herself on.

Here’s the proof:

I made this post calling out donottearmedown on their racism. I didn’t bother tagging her in the original post because I knew she was stalking my blog and would see it eventually anyway. 😌 And they took the bait, as you can see.

AND THEN I got the notification that luciequeenofelfame had replied to my post. Here’s the reply:

Now here’s where donottearmedown/luciequeenofelfame made an oopsie! 😳

Notice where luciequeenofelfame says “1. I didn’t delete it lmao”. She’s responding to my tags on this post where I’m calling out donottearmedown on her racist post, and my tags read:

“#the fact you went and deleted this post because you KNEW you were about to get slammed #comedy”

(context: @wilhelminacarstairs looked on donottearmedown’s blog recently looking for the post I screenshotted in the link above, and he couldn’t find it so I assumed she deleted it so that I wouldn’t call her out on it. Although she claims she didn’t delete it, so! Maybe it’s still up! Feel free to look for it and let me know lmao)

Now, in the tags I am obviously talking to donottearmedown, correct? So then why is luciequeenofelfame replying that she didn’t delete anything? 🤔 AND JUST AS IM ABOUT TO REPLY-

Wow, looks like I can’t reblog the post. Why? Because luciequeenofelfame has deleted it, and then IMMEDITALY changed her url to luciehvrondaie, hoping it would cover her tracks. Little does she know, tumblr notifications are forever:

As you can see, donottearmedown/luciequeenofelfame/luciehervndaie realized they made an oopsie, so she deleted her first response and posted it again from the blog she actually MEANT to post it from. Damn if only she knew that @minacarstairs @wilhelminacarstairs and I keep screenshots of e v e r y t h i n g :/ Then she might have gotten away with it! 😩

But yeah lmao here are the posts I made about it immeditaly afterwards calling her out on it because I thought it was funny: X X X X

She defends herself on some of them saying shit like “wow so I’m just making up blogs for support wessa? The majority of the fandom supports Wessa so I’m all of those blogs according to you? I’m thousands of people?!” Or just trying to change the topic back to heronstairs and ignoring the allegations altogether. Like, no luv we’re not saying you’re every single Wessa blog ever. We’re just saying you’re these 2, and we’re right lmao. If you look through both their blogs they also post about the same fandoms, and more damning, make a lot of the same spelling errors. Seriously their speech pattern is exactly the same. Feel free to look through them if you want, and if they don’t start mass-deleting post trying to cover their tracks.

BONUS:

I don’t know how true this is, but according to @fair-but-wilde-child on this ask, donottearmedown is ALSO the infamous twitter stan that complained to CC about TLH having too many gay characters.

EXTRA BONUS:

luciequeenofelfame/luciehvrondaie (donottearmedown’s second account 😌) is the account responsible for that wessa vs jessa comparison chart that went around a while ago LMAOOOOOOOO embarrassing

tl;dr: donottearmedown/luciequeenofelfame/luciehvrondaie is a biphobic racist who’s opinions are so bad she has to make a second account to agree with herself

🥺 tragic

Also I wanna say for the record, as @minacarstairs ans @wilhelminacarstairs will testify, I guessed a while ago these accounts were the same person when I noticed their speech patterns were eerily similar, and how luciequeenofelfame always seemed to reply to donottearmedown’s posts IMMEDITATELY after they were posted. 

So the lesson for today? Cinthia is always right. 😤

#WHEW this took a while but here u go #feel free to scroll back through my blog and see the posts #also ive tagged almost everything from these interactions with her url #donottearmedown #replies #bidrewtanaka #long post

[radramblog]

Pokemon Quartz

I have a confession to make.

I fucking love Pokemon Quartz.

Okay, context. Pokemon Quartz is an infamous Romhack of Pokemon Ruby, finished in 2006 by a young Spanish developer going by Baro. It was possibly the first completed romhack that completely replaced the entire set of the available 386 Pokemon with a set of newly designed Fakemon, and while lots of the replacements are pretty obvious analogues, there are some pretty interesting designs and the sheer effort required to do this solo as a teenager is something to behold.

(Look at Lileep, it’s a dodo now! I think its cute.)

The hack shows it age pretty well these days, with the sheer development made in GBA hacking especially in the last couple of years obviously showing it up- obviously something like Clover or Radical Red is going to make Quartz look ancient, and limitations in available tools are pretty obvious if you know where to look. The game’s region, Corna, is blatantly just Hoenn with some modified route themes, and its pretty clear that the designs for each Pokemon are limited to the replaced mon’s colour palette (as with Torido above).

(The map is kinda pretty though imo)

Quartz is infamous for a few reasons ultimately linked to the developer’s youth. For one, the dialogue tends to be a mix of poor English and weird humour and plenty of cursing, along with some jokes that don’t really fly these days. (To Baro’s credit, the writing and English does get better as the hack progresses.) The plot is utterly nonsensical as a result of shoehorning the Electric themed Band Ambar as villains into vanilla Ruby’s story, and involving the very 00s teenage idea of CHAOS vs ORDER and the pseudophilosophical musings that go along with it. Also like some of the designs are extremely ugly, to be frank. Lots of people are aware of Babos, the Skitty replacement, but that’s only really scratching the surface- the Llamayama line (aka Numel) and Berchi line (Clamperl) are pretty awful if you ask me.

(ew)

(…sis you are literally standing in a centre)

(hey can we take this from a 10 down to like a 6 or so)

I first encountered Pokemon Quartz as part of a bootleg multi-game cartridge picked up in my time living in Kuala Lumpur. The version of the hack on that cart was either very early or just broken, since none of the doors in Golden Island or the nearby Broke Cave (Dewford Island/Granite Cave) would actually let me in and therefore I couldn’t progress especially far. (I understand there was another broken ROM running around the internet that just had legendaries and Master Balls running around the first few routes, for some reason,). My trying to find a walkthrough or a fix led me to one Let’s Play of the hack by Zorak, which I suspect considering his association with fellow early LPer Chorocojo is the reason a fair few people are aware of Quartz at all. While I absolutely wouldn’t recommend reading that LP these days- its very late 00s, enjoys a certain R-word way too much, and to his credit Zorak has a comment on the archive stating that he considers it “immature and severely unfunny!”, but it was the only way for me to consume the remainder of the game at the time, having not figured out emulators at that point. I could go on for a long time about those early Lets Plays, but I’ll save that for another day.

(Oh also I’m ganking a bunch of the screenshots from that LP since my file is in endgame, cheers mate)

Okay but why do I like this game then? Well, aside from tickling my nostalgia bone something fierce, there’s a lot of cool things in the hack that make it stand out. While the lore behind the main legendary Pokemon is pretty bad and some of their designs are godawful, the Braille puzzles from Ruby have been converted into an entire original runic alphabet and is expanded to be present in the encounter events for Kaomare and Karendi (Kyogre and Jirachi). I had a lot of fun translating all of the script by hand, even if the actual text is a bit edgy. Speaking of Karendi, the game has a very JRPG style item chain sidequest to get to the encounter, which is pretty fun and something that to my recollection hasn’t been seen since. It has some little ideas in the dex that took Game Freak years to try, such as an evolving legendary (Ordkip->Tanord, replacing Latias and Latios) and the hack’s replacement for the Kanto starters having a 4th evolution (replacing the legendary beasts in the dex). The player is actually offered a second starter from the trio replacing the Johto starters late in the game at Muddy Island (Pacifidlog), which while a bit useless at that point is still something that took GF until X and Y to try. (Emerald doesn’t count imo)

(I’d translate the Cornan, but I lost my notes. Find the key yourself, cowards)

I can’t really explain beyond that why I love Quartz so much, but it’s the type of attachment that doesn’t really make sense and can’t really be explained. With that in mind, please believe me when I say never play Pokemon Quartz.

Most of the Pokemon are reskins of the original mon without changing the stats or learnset, and some of the ones that are make zero sense (As an example, the Water starter gets Aeroblast of all things, but only if you overlevel it in the second stage). The 3rd Gym leader’s ace, an overleveled Groundoe (Sandslash), has 4 ground moves, so any Flying type beats it outright, except 2 of those moves are Earthquake and Fissure, so if you don’t have a bird you are S.O.L. . The 4thleader has an absurdly overpowered ace in the form of Freech, one of the few mons to be completely overhauled, being the Milotic equivalent except its Dragon/Ice with overpowering STAB moves and Speed Boost. Basically, the game balance is completely out of whack.

Instead give a look into Pokemon Ultra Quartz (I refuse to type Let’s go Blobbos more than once). Released in 2018 by the developers for the excellent if also problematic Clover, UQ fixes just about every issue with the game’s balance, expands the encounter tables to include many of the Quartz mons that were implemented but unobtainable, and re-enables missing features such as the Battle Tower, while leaving most of the rest of the Quartz experience untouched- in this sense, I’d argue it’s the superior Quartz experience. It does still have issues- the labyrinthine route and cave design is untouched, Blobbos is here but is pretty pointless, and TM availability is as shitty as Quartz (which is the same as vanilla Ruby, but still). It does also add a few events of varying quality- Blobbos is as adorable as ever if a little pointless, the endgame developer battles are neat and decent grinding, and the postgame dungeon added is pretty sick even if the secret boss is… unique? The direct 1:1 import of the Deadly Seven from the infamous Pokemon Snakewood is both unnecessary and obnoxious, so try to keep in mind its origin when suffering through that forced segment of the game.

(My final team- Dotori, Psimouse, Rubygon, Mazalon, Oceadino, Kaosune. Or, Flying/Fighting completely overhauled Cradily, Serene Grace Gardevoir, Split evolution Vibrava, Ghost/Steel Banette, Water/Flying Swampert, and Fire/Dragon Groudon.)

It’s a good game despite this, ok? Give it a shot, experience some Romhack history but not quite as shit as it was in ’06.

Wait shit I forgot to mention how Baro put his name everywh-

#ramble #pokemon #romhack #pokemon quartz

[firekyoshi]

i can't believe yall havent thought of a sambucky the handmaiden au LIKE GUYS LOOK AT THE POTENTIAL

okay if u haven't seen the handmaiden (2016) PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE CHECK IT OUT OMG ITS ONE OF MY FAV MOVIES AND AS A BISEXUAL WOMAN ITS ONE OF MY FAVORITE MOVIES FEATURING SAPPHIC CHARACTERS

anyways here's a very self-indulgent sambucky the handmaiden! au that i wrote at midnight literally 7 hours before my exam

tw // mentions of suicide

- sam is sook-hee and bucky is hideko obvs

- sam is a criminal working for the power broker aka sharon while bucky or in this case, the winter soldier, was a test experiment for HYDRA / is now an assassin + bodyguard for their leader, alexander pierce

- sharon is conducting business w hydra to obtain some weapons and idk black market stuff which forces her to go to siberia, but obviously the ultimate weapon she wants to take home is the infamous winter soldier

- she asks sam to pretend to be her butler/bodyguard but is actually hiring him to get information on the winter soldier program and obtain the code words needed to control them

- they end up staying in pierce's mansion in like a really remote place in siberia

- sam gets acquainted w the other butlers and housekeepers, they tell him that the area is haunted because they would always hear a man screaming just before daybreak followed by complete silence. they also tell him that the forest is haunted by the spirit of a man who killed himself there

- just like the housekeepers said, sam wakes around 3-4 in the morning to the sound of a man screaming followed by complete silence

- anyways the next morning he accompanies sharon to her first meeting w hydra officials, and that's where he encounters bucky

- after the meeting, sharon is all like, "change of plans. we're going to steal the winter soldier." sam's like "and who's that?", "the person u were standing next to earlier,"

- afterwards, sam starts to spy on bucky. he doesn't talk much, sam notices, actually scratch that this man does not talk period

- they were standing by the door a few feet away from where their bosses were talking. "so uh, what do i call you?" sam asks one day, but bucky is like a statue, his response being a mere blink

- sharon and pierce always have their business meetings in the morning, but they also have spend time at night, usually supper or dinner, that's more casual. sam notices that pierce's bodyguard is less stiff and more human during the later hours of the day

- sam and bucky are again standing by the door. "what do i call you?" bucky asks quietly, almost like a whisper. "uh sam, you can call me sam. and you?"

- he freezes for a while before replying, "james barnes"

- another thing that sam notices is that bucky is NEVER alone. either he's with pierce or he's escorted by other bodyguards (who look like they couldn't even take him down altogether)

- one morning, after the usual distant screams, sam decides to figure out where the screams were actually coming from. he goes to the main house, pretending to bring tea for sharon (there's a small camera hidden in the tray)

- he sees the usual group of bodyguards escorting a half-naked and disheveled bucky from the stairs to the basement. when they see him, the group looks like a pack of deers in headlights, one of them reaches for their gun, "i'm bringing tea for ms. carter," he quickly says.

- "go ahead," the leader, rumlow, says, "but next time use the main hallway will you?"

- "right, she just said it was faster this way, and she's really peculiar about the temperature of her tea."

- he shows the video to sharon and she's like "i need u to find out wtf is going on in that basement."

- one night, sharon and pierce are having dinner tgt "since we're on the topic of legends and fairytales, i have to ask about something," sharon says,

- "go, on," pierce replies

- "the winter soldier program, does it really exist?"

- the hydra leader chuckles, "i was wondering when you would ask that," then points toward bucky, "my dear, you're looking at the winter soldier."

- sam listens in on the conversation. the winter soldier program was a program created by hydra in the 1940s with the first successful test subject being an american ww2 soldier named steve rogers. apparently he was given this serum that made him super strong and for 10 years, while the other test subjects were cryogenically frozen, hydra worked to find ways to control him but failed and they had to keep him restrained most of the time.

- one night, rogers broke out of the facility, stole all the remaining formulas, and threw them away before blowing his brains out in the nearby forest

- after rogers' suicide, hydra brought out its second test subject, bucky barnes, and used the remaining serum on him. afterwards hydra froze him again while they worked on something to keep his mind under control.

- around the 1960s they created the trigger words and since then they've been using bucky to do their dirty work for them. "this, my dear, is our greatest creation." pierce says as he approaches a stand displaying a red book. "his trigger words. say them and he will do anything you want. if you need some errands taken care of, i'd be happy to lend him to you. we can talk about the costs later."

- "i don't have anything i can't take care of myself at the moment, but i'll keep that offer in mind." sharon replies

- now sharon's like "okay we HAVE to steal him and the codes." she figured out that all of the mansion's surveillance turns off for an hour to reboot from 1 AM to 2, and tells sam to basically go to the basement and manipulate bucky when he's not under hydra's control. "make him trust you, that way we won't have much of a fuss taking him to madripoor."

- that night, after the clock strikes 1, sam sneaks into the basement and finds a cell with bucky inside. there's a bed, well, more like a mattress, but bucky's not sleeping on it. instead he's sitting in a corner, head against the wall, knees tucked in his chest, hyperventilating and,,,crying???

- "hey," sam whispers, "you okay?"

- the winter soldier stares at him with red rimmed eyes and a tear stricken face. "you're sam, you're her bodyguard."

- "yeah and you're the winter soldier, or do you prefer james?"

- "bucky. it's bucky"

- yeah basically sam visits bucky's cell every night for exactly 45 minutes before he has to sneak back out. he tries to gain bucky's trust and manipulate him but guess what they fall in love surprise surprise

- bucky tells sam his true story. how he and steve used to be ww2 soldiers that were experimented on by hydra. he remembers being frozen and the first thing he sees when they woke him up was steve's dead body. "they told me he shot his head in the forest." the first thing he felt was pain as they injected the serum into his veins then tried to erase his memories. he remembers going into cryo and being woken up over and over again to kill someone or destroy something.

- he also tells sam about the one night he broke out, ran as fast as he could, and jumped off a cliff, only for him to survive. he lost an arm, but hydra replaced it with another weapon. "i thought i would end there, but i just became more of a weapon"

- so sam starts to feel unsure about stealing the winter soldier bc goddamnit bucky's a person and he doesnt deserve any of this.

- also the more time he spends with bucky the more he realises that the actual james bucky barnes is a fucking piece of shit that still uses 40s slang and petnames and makes outdated jokes and is actually a big fucking flirt.

- and sam's heart breaks every time he looks at bucky's crestfallen face when he realises that their 45 minutes are over

- of all the people he could fall in love with, it just had to be a brainwashed assassin

- sharon tells him that in a few days, she and pierce will leave for a week to actually get the business transaction done. basically she tells sam that he should break bucky out of the mansion while they're away, take the trigger word book, and meet with torres so he can take them both to madripoor.

- while sharon and pierce leave, sam continues visiting bucky during the night. also he doesn't see bucky during the day bc they have no reason to bring him out of the cell, and he kinda misses him aw

- one night, he wakes up to noise, lots of it. everyone in the house is running. in the midst of all the chaos, sam hears, "find the soldier!"

- the first place sam goes to is the forest, and there he finds bucky kneeling by a frozen lake, with a gun in his hands. sam tackles him and throws the gun away

- "what the fuck were you thinking huh?!" sam shouts, tightly holding the front of bucky's shirt, and he can't help but cry at the thought of bucky's dead body. and all of a sudden he feels like shit. for manipulating bucky and taking advantage of his trauma for his own gain. so he gathers bucky in his arms and tells him everything. about what he and sharon were actually planning, what his true motivations were when he first went inside the basement, and how he actually grew to care for bucky

- bucky just laughs and says, "i know,” he reveals that sharon's plan all along was to take bucky and the trigger words for herself, and frame sam as the mastermind behind everything. she'll then fake bucky’s death and offer sam as another test subject for the winter soldier program as compensation for stealing (and “killing”) bucky

- "how do you know all this?"

- "she visited me the first night you arrived and we talked. she told me she'll take me away and all i had to do was manipulate you into breaking me out." bucky confesses, "i didn't realise you were a sweetheart, that made everything so complicated."

- anyways sam knocks bucky unconscious and basically helps hydra guards put him back in his cell. "just saying, maybe we shouldn't tell pierce abt this yknow" and the hydra guards r like yeah no totally cause if he knew we're all fucked

- anyways bucky and sam come up with a plan to escape together. sam contacts a friend known as baron helmut zemo, who's basically sharon's biggest enemy, but more importantly, owes sam a big ass debt and asks him to give the two of them safe passage to sokovia

- they plan to escape two nights before sharon and pierce return to siberia. on that night, sam wakes up at exactly 1 AM like he always does, and kills everyone in the house. he puts a bullet in every hydra guard, every housekeeper, everyone. he disables all the techs in the house, steals the trigger word book and breaks bucky out of his cell.

- "wait. there's something i have to show you." bucky says. he takes sam to the facility. the place where they tortured him and experimented on him. the place where every other test subjects were kept frozen.

- (if you've watched the handmaiden, yes this is a reference to the library scene) sam can't contain the anger he feels when he looks at the room. "is this where they tortured you? is this where the screams come from every night?"

- bucky nods. he points at a chair in the centre of the room, surrounded by machines and computers. "every morning they would drag me out of my cell, put me on that chair, and-" he swallows a choked sob, "and read the trigger words,"

- sam can't control it anymore. he grabs a metal rod and starts destroying the place. he breaks every machine, tearing them apart until they are nothing more than wires and buttons. he kills all the frozen test subjects, because they deserve better than this. he rips apart the pages of the winter soldier's mission reports, and gathers them into a pile.

- from afar, bucky watches as sam lights up the pile and everything in front of him starts to burn. when sam turns to look at him, he can't help but think about how magnificent he looks as the fire roars behind him. his hero. his guardian angel. his sam.

- sam approaches bucky and pulls him in for a hungry kiss. something he feels he should've done earlier. "no one will ever control you again." he says, and for once its a promise that bucky believes in.

- sam reaches in his bag and pulls out the red book. bucky starts to cry bc no one, not even before hydra, had ever loved him like this. "i mean it. no one." sam says. bucky throws the book in the fire and watches and both paper and leather melt into ash

- the end they escape using zemo's private jet and live happily ever after haha

#sambucky #sam wilson #bucky barnes

[ambivalentman]

THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY (1998)

In 2019, Peter Farrelly crossed the Dolby Theater stage at the 91st Academy Awards to proudly accept three Oscars, including Best Picture, for his drama Green Book. For any director, these Oscars would be a crowning achievement. To Farrelly, this was also an induction into the Hollywood fraternity—that rarefied group from whom he and his brother, Bobby, had long stood apart. The Farrelly brothers had at one time been maverick comedy filmmakers whose brand was just the right combination of offensive humor and heart. As Farrelly raised his Oscars for the crowd, he was no longer the goofy outsider who directed gross comedies. He was an important filmmaker.

Be that as it may, Green Book—despite the awards coronation—was every bit the offensive relative to Peter’s work with Bobby. The film had generated tons of criticism for its handling of race, leaning heavily on cultural stereotypes for its humor and pathos, and presented a morally superior view of white privilege while possibly misrepresenting the only nuanced Black character in the film. These criticisms dominated the Monday Morning Oscar Quarterbacking on podcasts and Twitter threads, putting just a little bit of tarnish on the filmmaker’s new trophies.

Criticism and controversy are not new to either Peter or Bobby Farrelly. Since their directorial debut in 1994 with Dumb & Dumber, they have walked the tightrope of all offensive comedians. As Roger Ebert said about them, their movies are “crude, vulgar, cruel, insensitive, scatological, perverse, and politically incorrect.” Gene Siskel made sure he added “gross and raunchy” to that list. They meant this as a compliment. People died watching Jeff Daniels experience exploding diarrhea in Dumb & Dumber, Woody Harrelson share a post-coital cig with his grotesque landlord in Kingpin, and Jason Alexander wag his tail in Shallow Hal. Few would call any of their oeuvre particularly deep—and should probably laugh at the pretense of referring to their filmography as an oeuvre.

The most controversial, and arguably most popular, film of the Farrelly’s career is 1998’s There’s Something About Mary. This one focuses on a generic loser named Ted (Ben Stiller), who holds a flame for his teenage crush, Mary (Cameron Diaz). Because Ted believes Mary may hold the key to his happiness, he hires a private dick named Healy (Matt Dillon) to find out where she is. Healy falls under Mary’s spell and leverages his influence to keep Ted away. As played by Diaz, Mary is a “smart girl who has a lot going for her”; however, Mary isn’t particularly observant and awfully naïve. Every man she encounters falls for her, and she has a litany of stalkers who will do anything to possess her.

Based on description alone, There’s Something About Mary presents as a harmless rom-com, but the Farrelly’s bring their edgy style to the film. This movie is packed with indecent images. Ted’s “Franks N’ Beans.” Mary’s “hair gel.” The fish hook. Magda’s makeout session with her dog, Puffy. Woogie’s face. The gross stuff is what it is, but the material that sticks are the stalking and how the depiction of Down’s Syndrome impacted perception of those with mental handicaps. Reviewing this film through the lens of 2021 causes even more cringing than it did in 1998.

You could tell that even in 1998 there was a narrative building around this movie. In a press interview, Ben Stiller said, “I wouldn’t necessarily associate this film with deep social commentary. I think it’s a sweet movie that you can go out and laugh at.” Diaz added, “With this film, I know that [the Farrelly Brothers] wanted to have characters—people—that were important to the audience. They wanted a love story that people could really get involved with, as well as have the comedy.” She also said more recently in 2018, “Peter and Bobby have such heart in all of their movies. No matter how shocking the comedy is, there is so much that is inherently good about the story and the characters that really appeals to people and it makes the laughter at the jokes a little more forgivable.”

From the get-go, everyone on the project knew somethings were going to be potentially problematic. Studio brass expressed some concern over the decision to make an R-rated comedy. The PG-13 rating had squeezed out the R-rated comedy to the point that very few were being made. Movies like Friday (1995), Flirting with Disaster (1996), Private Parts (1997) and The Big Lebowski (1998) all had pretty limited audiences. No one was convinced an adult comedy could even make a buck, let alone entertain. Besides, the Farrelly’s previous film, Kingpin (1996), had bombed, so could they even be the duo to make a lucrative R-rated comedy.

On the set, there were concerns, too. Diaz worried about whether the infamous “hair gel” scene was a bridge too far, and might possibly be the ruin of her rising career. During the scene where Puffy falls out a window, Bobby Farrelly needed to get the right reaction from Diaz and co-star Lin Shaye, so he dropped his pants and wiggled his ass. It wasn’t the first time the director had done this, either on or off set. According to Peter, Bobby liked doing this; it would one day get him in some trouble. And the production was surprised when Plantation City Hall, whose veneer was redressed to become the exterior of Ted and Mary’s high school, asked to have their name removed from the film’s credits because they didn’t want to be associated with anything “lewd and offensive.” The studio was also worried about the decision to include a close up of Ted’s “franks n’ beans” after he catches them in his zipper. That shot was got by creating a 4’x2’ prop, and inserted just in case it needed to be cut out of the film. Fox chairman, Peter Chernin, after seeing a test screening, told the Farrelly’s, “It’s perfectly reprehensible; don’t touch a thing.”

There were also questions about the portrayal of Warren, Mary’s brother, who has Down’s Syndrome. Peter Farrelly said, “Whenever you did [write disabled characters] back then, it seems the studio was, ‘No, no, no! People are uncomfortable’ [with disabilities]. And I’m like, ‘No, they’re not. That’s bull. People have disabilities, so let’s see them.” Warren was based on a next-door neighbor of the Farrelly’s to whom the family was close. The young man is also cast in the film as one of Mary’s students. It also seems casting may have been one way to circumvent controversy surrounding Warren. Initially, it looked like the part would go to Chris Farley, who was hot at that time for his work on Saturday Night Live. However, Farley’s energy may have contributed to seeing Warren as a caricature, so the production went with W. Earl Brown. Brown wanted to play Warren as a real person, not a cartoon. He said in a 2018 interview with Variety, “I just feel instinctively, ‘If you goof this, if you play it broad and you try to be funny, it ain’t going to be funny. The audience is going to hate you because you are mocking somebody with a handicap,’” This didn’t stop anyone from seeing the film as a possible Pandora’s box of disabled stereotypes and disparagement humor.

The other controversy surrounding this movie has become more pronounced in the social media age. Does There’s Something About Mary normalize sexual predation and stalking? Critic Rachel Verona Cote said, “Humor that takes stalking seriously requires nimbleness and nuance that the Farrelly brothers lack; instead, they trade in crude jokes underpinned by the structurally misogynist ‘boys will be boys’ mythos.” There may be something to this criticism. In 2016, a University of Michigan research study, entitled “I Did It Because I Never Stopped Loving You,” found that women are often more tolerant of aggressive male behavior because of the normalizing of such behavior in romantic comedies. There’s Something About Mary was one of the films cited in the report, which suggested that the film’s excusal of male aggression supported “stalking myths,” which were defined as “false or exaggerated beliefs about stalking that minimize its seriousness.” Findings like these also support research that has been going on since Harriet Martineau began pioneering the field of gender conflict. The Martineau Theory suggested that exposure to disparaging humor towards a particular group often has the result of inducing tolerance towards prejudice directed at that group. Martineau’s work focused on gender theory, but could just as easily be applied to any group.

Obviously, there is no truly right or wrong answer in regards to There’s Something About Mary, but as you watch the film, it seems a new lens may need to be applied. Even as we laugh at the cringeworthy humor of the Farrelly Brothers, what is their target? What behaviors are they excusing? Ben Stiller suggested there was no deeper political meaning to the film, but does that deeper meaning have to be intended to be valid? As There’s Something About Mary nears its 25th anniversary, we now look at it with more nuance, also with the realization that Peter Farrelly’s Oscar victories for Green Book suggest his once outsider take on comedy and culture is now firmly at the center.

#There's Something About Mary #Peter Farrelly #Bobby Farrelly #Farrelly Brothers #Cameron Diaz #Matt Dillon #Ben Stiller #Lin Shaye #Comedy #Romantic Comedy #Offensive Comedy #Green Book

[ecoamerica]

Watch the 2024 American Climate Leadership Awards for High School Students now: https://youtu.be/5C-bb9PoRLc

The recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by student climate leaders! Join Aishah-Nyeta Brown & Jerome Foster II and be inspired by student climate leaders as we recognize the High School Student finalists. Watch now to find out which student received the $25,000 grand prize and top recognition!

#ACLA24 #ACLA24HighSchoolStudents #youtube #youtube video #climate leaders #climate solutions #climate action #climate and environment #climate #climate change #climate and health #climate blog #climate justice #climate news #weather and climate #environmental news #environment #environmental awareness #environment and health #environmental #environmental issues #environmental education #environmental justice #environmental protection #environmental health #high school students #high school #youth #youth of america #school

[jalebi-weds-bluetooth]

There’s More To Her #6

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Preparing a Date

Twenty four hours after Akash's grand declaration of a first date, Akash found himself in his brother's cabin as the latter looked flipped through lookbooks.

"Pathetic," Arnav murmured, mentally listing out the fifth set of people to be fired. The new designs were not only unambitious, they were an exact replica of Sabyasachi's fall bridal collection. Clearly he was hiring the wrong people off late.

Akash made himself industrious, pacing left to right within the circular walls of Arnav's cabin.

"Akash, if you were to exercise in silence, may I know what you're doing in my cabin?" Arnav murmured, without looking up from the photographs. Akash sat in front of Arnav, shutting the files close.

"What the-"

"It's my first date."

---

"I know Khushi, you are forgetting that I was present when Akash ji asked me out for a date." Payal mused. Somehow Khushi was more excited than Payal for her own date. Out of happiness Khushi had cooked an extra batch of jalebis and given them off for free in the morning at the store and ended up retelling a story instead of tutoring the kids.

Khushi kept the money box aside and climbed up on the bed next to Payal. She grabbed her sister's hands and squealed.

"I know Jiji, but this is like a romantic picture." Khushi sighed, lying her head on Payal's lap, "But not like a Hindi film, more like those English ones!" She said. Payal chuckled and tapped Khushi's head. Khushi got up and frowned.

"What Jiji, aren't you even a bit excited?" Payal could only blush in response, "Oh ho, I see..." Khushi giggled.

"Shut up. But Khushi, you've seen more films than me and you also know more about all this romance shomance than me. Where should the first date be?" Payal asked.

"Why should you decide that? According to the first laws of Hindi cinema dating, Akash ji should worry where to take you out!" Khushi proclaimed.

--

"And that is the problem Bhai, where do I take Payal?" Akash asked. Arnav took his file back from Akash.

"Why are you asking me, do you have to get married to Payal or me?" Arnav shrugged. Akash rolled his eyes and took the file away from Arnav, again.

"Bhai, obviously I want to marry her. But I'm asking you because you have more experience with dating and-" Arnav raised an eyebrow, daring Akash to speak about love, "-I mean, Bhai, where do I take her for the perfect experience?"

"All right, let me stop you there." Arnav sighed, "First thing, don't strive for perfection. Relationships need to be based on effectiveness and common grounds. If you try too hard, or too differently, you'll be telling Payal a whole different story about you. Then don't come running to me that you guys are having compatibility issues because you're the one giving her false impressions in the first place."

Akash stared at his brother. This was the longest he had ever spoken to him, and this includes their childhood.

"So do you think I should ask Payal for advice?" Akash asked.

Arnav struggled between palming his face and gawking at his brother.

"So you want to ask Payal, where to take her, as a surprise, to her first date?" Akash nodded, completely missing Arnav's point.

--

"Khushi! Ab kya?" Payal stared at Akash's text message.

"What? What!" Khushi gasped, the second 'what' dedicated to the message on Payal's phone. Akash had... asked Payal where she wants to be taken on a first date that should be a surprise?

"Hey Devi Maiya, by living with his brother Akash ji has also become like him!" Khushi grumbled.

She turned to Payal and grabbed her shoulders, shaking the bashful smile off Payal's face, "Jiji, the second rule of dating is that the first date should be a surprise! S-U-R-P-R-I-S-E! Now if you do all the planning with him, then who will be surprised? Me! Arnav ji?" Khushi wailed.

"Actually it's not a bad idea. If we both plan together then it'll be just the way we want it to be. And we can also learn many things about each other." Payal said, unaware of Khushi's sinking heart.

To her agony, Payal and Akash were derailing from her epic Hindi-film romance. They left Hollywood right about when Akash messaged her.

"Terrific idea Jiji," Khushi threw her hands in the air, her anger lost on an optimistic Payal.

--

"Excellent." Arnav deadpanned on seeing the text message that Akash sent Payal.

"Thank you Bhai," Akash smiled. Arnav pinched between his brows. Of course, Akash wouldn't get sarcasm. For all the maturity in the world, his brother was quickly turning into a lost cause in the case of dating.

"Nevermind," Arnav took a deep breath and addressed Akash, "What's the most important place for the both of you?"

Akash answered without missing a beat.

"Lakshmi Nagar bazaar."

--

"WHAT?" Khushi choked on her jalebi, staring at her moon eyed sister.

"What what? That's where it all happened. We first met, he bought my dupatta, vegetables - potatoes! - a diya, all from this market." Payal murmured, her cheeks red as she recalled her favorite moments.

Khushi, on the other hand, clutched her heart in pain. This was worse than she expected.

"Jiji, your whole love story happened in Lakshmi Nagar bazaar?" Khushi asked.

"Nahi-" Khushi breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thank-"

"It also happened in Happy Ji's garage."

--

"What the fu- garage?" Arnav winced in distaste. Akash nodded, smiling his thirty two pearly whites.  Of course, recreating Akash and Payal's first moments for their first date was out of the question.

"Why are you so surprised? Where else could it be?" Akash asked.

"Anywhere, abandoned buildings, your car, this office or let's make this easy... house - yours or hers!"

--

"Really?" Payal scoffed.

"Yes Jiji, now you and Akash ji can't hold a candlelit dinner at a vegetable stall, right?" Khushi explained, as if she were speaking to a five years old kid and not a sister who was older to her by five years.

"And you both can't have your first date in his house, nor in ours - unless you want Bua ji's presence." Khushi ducked the pillow Payal threw her way.

"So, according to you the mandir, dargah, pedh, jungle or dhaba is the place for a first date?" Payal asked.

"Haven't you heard? Jungle main mangal? And you even met Akash ji in the mandir and by the tree in Ber Sarai." Khushi smiled.

"Khushi, Akash and I are to meet for our first date, not head to our pilgrimage." Payal shot back.

"Kya Jiji!"

--

"Bhai, are you serious?" Akash asked.

"Have I ever been anything else?" Arnav countered. True, Arnav was infamous for his seriousness. Yet, he was equally infamous for his humor and one wouldn't ever know if Arnav was cutting a joke with him or at his expense.

"You think I should take Payal home, or to this office... or an abandoned building for our date?" Akash chuckled.

"Better than a market." Arnav stated.

"I think I should call Khushi ji, she knows Payal and above all, she has more EQ than both of us combined." Akash stood and pulled out his phone. Arnav ignored him and sat back in his seat to review the designs for the next calendar shoot.

Akash turned and assessed his brother for a quick second. No one could say that ten seconds ago Arnav was between laughing and exploding on learning about Akash's unconventional trips to see Payal.

"Bhai, I think you're the one who's weird." Arnav graced his statement with narrowed eyes.

"Why would anyone associate romance to abandoned buildings?" If Akash had not turned away to call Khushi, he would not have missed the look of pure terror and agony flit across his brother's face.

Of course Akash wouldn't understand. He wasn't in the guesthouse, pressed against the woman who had thunderous eyes and the softest lips. He wasn't the one struck by lightning. Subconsciously Arnav grazed the flesh of his palm where her broken bangle had pierced through. Agony gave way to denial, and Arnav reached out for his files, flipping through them without seeing them.

--

"Khushi, you're really Sanka Devi! Do you think that this is Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak? That we'll go to the jungle, get lost-"

"-How romantic!" Khushi gleed, already imagining the imaginary songs her sister and potential brother in law would dance to. That is, if Akash and Payal would move beyond practically figuring out how to get out of the jungle.

"Yeah, and all I need is for Akash to fight some goons for me?" Payal drawled, having suffered several cheesy hindi films with Khushi, "And he and I have to pretend we're husband and wife, right? There goes our first date-."

In our fight we seemed to have forgotten that today we got married. Khushi stiffened, her mind assailing with several memories. Khushi, are you ok? To her horror, each memory had grown fonder in time.

"Why do you say that?" She asked, her words devoid of all the joy.

"Aur kya, if this isn't your typical Salman, Aaamir or any Khan love story then what is it?" Payal chuckled, tidying up the bedroom.

"So this can't happen in reality?" Payal paused at her question and sat next to Khushi. Her little sister still seemed to believe in the stories. Her face was crestfallen and Payal mentally smacked herself. She put a pillow on her lap and put Khushi's head down.

"You know, maybe it can," Payal smiled, in a soft, sing-song tone and gently played with Khushi's hair. Khushi gripped on the blanket, her heart thudding painfully against her ribs.

"And you know what, the day we see a couple like this we'll get them married, deal-" Khushi shot up from Payal's lap. Payal's smile fell at Khushi's horrified face. She gently cupped Khushi's cheek.

"Khushi, what happened?" Never had Payal seen Khushi so terrified. A sister before a lover, Payal's focus shifted rapidly from her own date to Khushi's engagement.

"Chutki," - an endearment Payal only used to soothe Khushi's darkest fears - "what's wrong?"

"Nothing," Khushi choked out and to her luck, her phone rang at the exact moment, stopping Payal from digging further.

"Ji Akash ji," Payal watched as Khushi's smile fell into place. As days passed it was getting more difficult for Payal to realise when Khushi smiled, versus when she was happy.

Nowadays there seemed to be a difference between the two.

---

Next Chapter

A/N: I hope you liked this update! Thank you for all the notes <3 This story will bite the dust in not two but more (hence I should never promise story lengths!) but I’m really looking forward to your notes! 

Thank you for your time and for reading. Don’t hesitate to chat - I love to speak! 

Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak is a classic Hindi 90s romantic film where the leads get lost in the jungle - much like our dear Arnav and Khushi.

Love,

S

P.S: Also read it on: Wattpad

#ipkknd ff #ipkknd #iss pyaar ko kya naam doon #Arshi ff #arnav singh raizada #khushi kumari gupta #Akash & Payal #fanfiction #There's more to her

[lambychop]

Ultimate Horror Flick List

I know this isn’t usually my style, but 🎵it’s the most wonderful time of the year🎵

That’s right: it’s the spoopy month! Which means SPOOPY MOVIES

So I present to you:

IRONICENIGMA’S ULTIMATE HORROR FLICK LIST FOR ALL TYPES OF FILM LOVERS

1) For the Gore Hounds

•Saw series- the classic films for the guys who just wanna see some people get ripped to shreads (honestly, after the second one, they go downhill)

•Jigsaw- the more recent edition to the Saw series (this ones actually pretty good and FULL of gore)

•Hostel- Saw Studies Abroad (TM)

•Final Destination series- kinda a dumb one. The movies can be kinda dumb, but the kills are INSANE. Fun movies to watch with the gang

•Texas Chainsaw Massacre- you know it, you love it, I don’t gotta explain it

•Cannibal Holocaust- seriously messed up. Banned in multiple countries. It’s something special.

•The Midnight Meat Train- lesser known, kinda weird, super bloody

•Cabin Fever- gross disease makes you loose your skin. Nasty

•Wrong Turn- basically The Hills Have Eyes but with funner kills

2) The Classic Slashers

•Scream series- one of my faves. Classic story of small town teens with a killer on the loose. Lots of fun

•Friday the Thirteenth- do I have to tell you why this is here?

•Nightmare on Elm Street- Johnny Depp getting turned into a volcano of blood? I’m in.

•Halloween- can’t have Halloween without the movie that took the name, right?

•My Bloody Valentine (the original one)- one of my all time favorite movies. Creepy killer, great group of characters, great time

•Sleepaway Camp- infamous for its batshit ending. Kinda weird ngl, but a classic

•The Town That Dreaded Sundown- Based on a real killer. Oldie, but goodie

•Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon- different take on the slasher genre. Fun look into the life of a movie slasher

•You’re Next- badass female lead? Check. Masked murderers? Check. Family bonding? Uh sure okay

•I Know What You Did Last Summer- secrets are bad. Roll credits

3) Supernatural (demons, ghosts, etc)

•The Conjuring- it’s pretty popular, you know it

•Insidious- also popular. Moral: your body is a ghost hotel

•Sinister- classic demon: likes kids, likes brutal deaths, likes to appear in the background of pictures

•The Exorcist- obviously

•Lights Out- ghosts are scared of light, that’s all you need to know

•The Sixth Sense- not really scary. Actually pretty wholesome. In an “I see dead people” kinda way

•The Rite- priest Anthony Hopkins coughs up nails

•The Omen- aka don’t trust kids

•1408- haunted hotel room. Someone call the ghoul bois

•The Amityville Horror- based on true events. Well at least we know the murders were real and the house is creepy

•The Skeleton Key- Old People+Voodoo= bad time

•Haunting In Connecticut- also a “true” story. Don’t buy a house that used to be a morgue

•The Autopsy Of Jane Doe- boy bonds with dad over dead teenage girl

•Mama- moths are gross, ghosts are worse. Dead Mom from Beetlejuice, but now a movie

•Rosemary’s Baby- dont trust thy neighbor

•The Shinning- classic. That’s all I’ve got to say

•The Orphanage- again: creepy kids

•Stir Of Echos- Kevin Bacon sees ghosts. Must I say more?

•The Others- haunted house story with a twist ending

4) Creature Features

•Trick ‘r Treat- classic Halloween film. Fun, creepy, iconic

•The Ritual- camping trip turns bad. Monster looks really cool

•A Quiet Place- you’ve probably seen it. Jim from the office speaks sign language

•The Babadook- children’s storybook is not kid friendly

•Backcountry- bears are dangerous

•Alien- you’ve seen this already but it needs to be here

•The Descent- dont watch if your claustrophobic

•An American Werewolf In London- also a fave. Best werewolf movie ever made

•The Monster- lesser know, actually pretty good

•The Thing- classic. Super good. Based on a short story. No one can be trusted because you don’t know if they’re even them

5) Horror Comedies

•Zombieland- hysterical. Bloody. Great cast

•Cabin In The Woods- this movie is insane. Combine every horror monster ever, the Illuminati, and the Office- that’s this movie

•Shaun of the Dead- the classic horror comedy

•Scary Movie series- less horror, ridiculous comedy

•This Is The End- again, like no horror, but one of the funniest films ever

6)Found Footage (not a great genre, but some can be pretty entertaining)

•The Blair Witch Project- basically the king of the found footage films. You’ve seen it

•The Conspiracy- the Illuminati is real and they don’t like to be filmed

•Paranormal Activity series- kinda annoying to horror fans. Relies on jump scares and the characters are idiots. But if I’m doing a section on foud footage, this has to be here

•Creep- okay this movie actually really disturbed me. People are absolutely insane. Don’t meet up with people from Craigslist

•V/H/S series- basically a anthology of short horror films. Kinda fun

•Apollo 18- the government faked the moon landing because they found some crazy shit

•The Sacrament- Jonestown caught on camera

•As Above So Below- Paris Catacombs are wack

•Grave Encounters- what if Ghost Adventures actually found ghosts

•Unfriended Dark Web- lets be honest: the first one sucked. Second one is actually not bad. Take away the ghosts, add the black market

•The Poughkeepsie Tapes- lesser know, can be hard to find. Really disturbing. Basically watching a serial killer tape his crimes

•Cold Ground- Set up to look just like it’s out of the seventies. It’s pretty fun

•The Last Exorcism- priests are liers

•Quarantine- English version of [REC]. I wouldn’t say it’s great, but it’s something

•Hell House LLC.- kids set up a haunted house. People die

•The Houses October Built- again with the haunted houses. Don’t trust em

•The Bay- Cabin Fever but found footage-y

•Willow Creek- y’all gotta leave Bigfoot alone

•Lake Mungo- girl drowns, family sees her ghost. No jump scares with this one, like most found footage. Mostly just a family in mourning

•The Tunnel- if the government says to stay out, STAY OUT

•The Taking Of Deborah Logan- alzheimers itself is awful to go through, but let’s add some more spooks

•The Possession Of Michael King- another possession film? Yep they just keep comin

•The Last Broadcast- suspicious murder of tv hosts

6) Family Fun

•Hocus Pocus- okay obviously

•Beetlejuice- dark humor in a “kids” film. Most of the comedy caters to adults, but it’s an awesome film

•Corpse Bride- guy accidentally marries dead girl. Wholesome family fun

•The Nightmare Before Christmas- my fave Disney film. Super cute

•Frankenweenie- dead dog=goodest boy

•Paranorman- sixth sense but now for kids+zombies

•Coraline- Might scar some small children, but I loved it when it came out when I was 8

7) Psychological

•Midsommar- happy cult family holds a festival

•Funny Games- home invasion movie done well. No cheap thrills, just some sadistic shit

•The Strangers- dont answer the door for people wearing masks when it’s not Halloween are you crazy

•The Perfection- artistic, bloody, absolute mind fuck

•Gerald’s Game- sexy time turns not good

•Unsane- imagine being stalked and no one believes you. That’s the premise

•Triangle- ummmmmmmm wtf is happening what time is it??

•It Comes At Night- trust is bad. Paranoia is good.

•The Silence of the Lambs- my personal favorite film. Serial killer helps rookie detective find another serial killer

•Jacob’s Ladder- Vietnam vet struggles with EXTREMELY terrifying visions

AND THERE YOU GO. I have seen plenty more, so if you don’t see one you’d like on this list, hit me up with what kinda movie you’re lookin for and I’ll hook you up amigo

#halloween #horror #movies #movie recommendation #horror movies

[letterboxd]

More Foghorn: The Robert Eggers Q&A.

“I wanted to be able to laugh at misery.” —The Lighthouse director Robert Eggers answers your questions and ours about what he’s wearing on Hallowe’en, being cool with memes, and paying homage to Mary Poppins.

The Lighthouse, out now in select US cinemas and opening nationwide this weekend, is the follow-up to Robert Eggers’ feature debut The Witch, one of our highest-rated films of 2016 and the third highest-rated horror of that year.

Similarly, The Lighthouse is firmly in our top ten narrative features of 2019 and is absolutely tearing up the Letterboxd reviews section with reactions like “Eggers holds nothing back in this film. He takes things far past okay and doesn’t apologize for any of it,” (Logan) and “If a bearded, bulging-eyed Willem Dafoe talking like a pirate for one hundred and ten minutes, shot on high-contrast orthochromatically filtered high-resolution black-and-white celluloid that brings out every follicle and pore doesn’t deserve five stars, I simply don’t know what does” (Jonathan).

The film’s success lies in a combination of obsessively detailed production design, singular technical choices (“a black-and-white movie in a stupid aspect ratio”, as Eggers told Filmmaker magazine), the superb acting partnership of Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson as lighthouse keepers on a far-flung rock, a borderline-ridiculous amount of foghorn in the soundtrack, and—in spite of the characters’ miserable circumstances—a hysterically funny script.

When we spoke to Eggers’ brother and co-writer Max at TIFF, he told us that the writing partnership was “a perfect fit; we trust each other, and I think that’s the big thing about writing teams is you gotta trust each other”. Their brotherly relationship naturally enabled the film’s dialogue to head into comedic territory, even as the story itself descends into hallucinatory horror. “Comedy is about that. You’ve gotta be able to be honest and trust yourselves. We didn’t know how it was going to play but, thankfully, I think the fart jokes work.”

Not only do the fart jokes work; the poetically trippy 1890s dialogue became instantly meme-able. It was no surprise, then, that when we invited the Letterboxd community to contribute questions for this interview, many of them dwelled on the script. But first, with Hallowe’en fast-approaching, we needed to know what Eggers had planned.

A24 has put out a helpful guide for those who want to do Hallowe’en as a 19th-century lighthouse keeper. You’re in the middle of The Lighthouse promo tour, but have you managed to plan yours? Robert Eggers: Hallowe’en was my favorite holiday growing up and I made many elaborate costumes, but now that I’m doing this, I will agree with Marilyn Manson where he says: “Hallowe’en is my day off”. It’s time for everyone else to catch up!

At TIFF, we spoke with your co-writer and brother Max about your collaboration. Letterboxd members Kevin and MrRabbit7 are interested in what the writing process was like with Max. Does that relationship allow more of an ‘anything goes’ approach? I know my brother, so it’s easy for us to write together. My movie that was leaked in the trades a couple days ago [The Northman] I also wrote with another writer. I’m finding, as much as I like writing scripts on my own, it’s fun to collaborate. It’s actually joyful to pass the drafts back and forth and see how you’re lifting each other’s work up.

We had many questions (including from John, Austin and Tyler) about The Lighthouse’s dialect and vernacular. Can you tell us about the work you did in constructing dialogue in unfamiliar languages, including the sources you consulted? It’s a lot of research and there is some quoting the sources directly. There’s much more of that in The Witch, where sentences remain intact. There’s very few intact sentences from the research in this film. There’s certainly many turns-of-phrase. When I’m looking at my primary source material from the period, I’m writing down vocabulary words in my own thesaurus that I can turn to.

I tend not to write in modern English and then translate the dialect. I try to write in the dialect even as I’m learning to do it, so the thesaurus is organized more [as] moods and ideas. I’m washing my eyes with words and hoping something turns up that works as I’m moving forward. You’re studying the sentence structure and trying to find the rules.

Thankfully with The Witch, because it was written in early modern English, which was a golden age of English writing, there were plenty of books available to teach me what the rules were. In studying the various Puritans, I could find how different people broke the rules and did things their own way. With this film it was much harder to find that, but eventually my brother came across the work of Sarah Orne Jewett. She was writing in coastal Maine dialect, interviewing working people to get their dialect. My wife found a thesis written by Evelyn Starr Cutler where she provided rules for different dialects—where are ‘r’s omitted and where are ‘r’s added, so on and so forth—so we could create consistent dialects for both characters.

“Why’d ya spill yer beans?” “Wouldst thou like to live deliciously?” Everyone—even A24’s marketing team—has taken to the film with meme-able gusto (exhibit A: these goofy Lighthouse emoji). How does it feel to have your deeply researched script torn apart in this affectionate, ironic way by internet culture? Does it make you hesitate in your approach to writing and directing these types of lines? (This question brought to you by those who quoted those infamous questions in response to this AMA.) No, it’s cool with me. The Lighthouse was designed to be a black comedy and not just have moments of black comedy. The Witch takes itself very seriously, but I think that there’s something kind of film student-y about how serious it takes itself. I’m glad that people can make PlayMobil and Lego playsets as jokes. You need to be irreverent, and with The Lighthouse I was exploring misery again but I wanted to be able to laugh at misery. Werner Herzog talked about it like, you’re on the floor laughing, you know?

You and your brother both have deep roots in theater. After listening to your A24 podcast with brother-in-arms and Midsommar director Ari Aster, Solly F wants to know which playwrights you look up to, and who was particularly useful in your approach to The Lighthouse? I like Shakespeare [laughs]. I don’t know if he was particularly helpful for this, but he’s pretty good! Clearly [Harold] Pinter, Sam Shepard, and evoking the name [Samuel] Beckett is almost worse than evoking the name Shakespeare, but you know, they’re good at what they do, and for this two-hander about identity it was impossible not to think of those playwrights.

Many members are curious about the films that inspire you and, more specifically, your most influential Ingmar Bergman films. So, which Bergman were you looking at for The Lighthouse? Also, Evan McKenzie dares to ask, “Given the chance, which Bergman film should you like to remake?” Well, I would not remake a Bergman movie because that’s just insanity! Even though I dared to talk about remaking Nosferatu—which also probably does not need to be done—so I guess, yes, I am insane. Fair enough question. Obviously Persona and any of his chamber dramas would be the ones I would be thinking about here.

There’s a shot where Willem is knitting and Rob is smoking in the foreground, which Jarin [Blaschke, The Witch and The Lighthouse’s director of photography] and I referred to fondly as our Hour of the Wolf shot. Of course we’re using a much wider lens than Bergman ever would have done and had a different approach to lighting than he did, so it doesn’t seem all that Bergman-esque in the end, even though it was our homage.

Youssef asks: which foreign-language films are your favorites, or provided you an entry point into the non-English language arthouse? The arthouse films that I saw in high school were ones that just happened to be in my local video store. Only one of them is foreign language, The City of Lost Children, but that, Eraserhead, and Brazil were three movies that I can think of that made me ask: “Oh you can do that? Wow!” Julie Taymor’s Titus also was another film from high school that made me realize that there was something other than—and not to speak disparagingly—Spielberg and Tim Burton and whatever was more easy to see in rural New Hampshire cinemas.

Robert Pattinson and Robert Eggers on the set of ‘The Lighthouse’. / Photo: Chris Reardon

The Lighthouse has an ambiguity that has led to many of our members questioning its genre. Even Ari Aster wasn’t sure when he mentioned the film in his Q&A, and you’ve referred to it as a black comedy here. But we have to ask, for the sake of our community’s sanity: is The Lighthouse a horror movie? I don’t see it as a horror movie. But I’ve definitely spoken to people who get my intentions that think it is. So maybe? I don’t care what people call it.

It’ll probably make our top horror lists, if that’s okay. That’s fine.

Let’s not tease too many hypotheticals, since this question is based only on your two-feature output so far, but there is significant interest in whether you’ll branch out into other genres, specifically sci-fi, and other time periods, specifically the future. Well again, pointing to the leaked Viking movie, that ain’t a horror movie. And I’ve written other movies that aren’t horror movies. It’s just The Witch and everything that I’ve actually gotten made so far have been horror or horror adjacent. That’s just how it’s been—fine, happy about it.

Never say never because I am interested in sci-fi. I feel like generally when people are trying to ask big questions and challenge current philosophies, to look at things that are bigger than ourselves today, it’s always done with sci-fi. So for me, I’m enjoying doing that kind of stuff in the past just because that’s not how people often use historical movies today.

Writer-director Robert Eggers.

We love asking filmmakers this and Filbert wants to know: what are your go-to comfort films? The movies you’ve seen the most? Anything that could surprise us? The Big Lebowski I’ve watched a lot. We have a little bit of a nod to it in The Lighthouse when [Pattinson] throws their shit off the cliff and it hits him in the face. It’s pretty damn close to the ashes of Steve Buscemi. I think it’s not going to surprise anyone that I’ve seen The Shining a zillion times. I’ve seen Mary Poppins a lot, and we have a little nod to it with our weather-vane shot.

By the way, when I’m writing it I’m not thinking ‘this is the Big Lebowski scene’ or ‘this is the Mary Poppins scene’. I’m just kind of writing and you say, “well, I know where that came from.”

Finally, the 2010s are drawing to a close and many of us, including Max and John, would like to know: what are your essential films of the decade? I’d have to think about it more, but recently I thought Trey Edward Shults’ Waves is great, Hereditary is great, Parasite’s great… I’m sorry, I haven’t seen Parasite [laughs]. That’s a microaggression, I meant to say Burning is great. Anything by Ciro Guerra [director of Embrace of the Serpent and co-director of Birds of Passage] is great. Yeah, there’s a few.

‘The Lighthouse’ is in US cinemas now. All images courtesy of A24.

#The Lighthouse #the witch #robert eggers #max eggers #robert pattinson #rpatz #willem dafoe #scriptwriting #screenwriting #writing #19th century #film #black and white #cinematography #mermaid #a24 #A24 films #a24 movies #letterboxd

[stenbrozier]

Modern Losers’ Club Headcanons

Plot: Individual headcanons of the modern Loser’ about different things they’d do and love (mostly during high school)

Warnings: slight Reddie, shit ton of Stenburough, drug use + mentions of sex + swearing

——————————————————————————

Bill Denbrough:

~ He’s the artist, everyone knew that.

~Typical art kid who won all the awards and participated in every art class his school offered.

~ He just didn’t take choir or band because we know this boy has no musical abilities at all.

~ Bill would save up all his allowance and holiday money so that he could buy that really good drawing app that he could use on his IPad.

~ After he got it, there was no way to get him to look up at you for more than ten seconds. He would fall in love with digital art.

~ Remember he took all of the art classes? Well, creative writing and poetry we’re considered arts at Derry High School, so that’s where he fell in love with writing.

~ Suprisingly, he would be really into heavy metal. Bands like Bring Me the Horizon and Of Mice and Men would blare in his headphones while he drew in his room late at night.

~ Bill would also really love watching indie movies on Netflix and other platforms. He’s lowkey a movie buff, but he doesn’t tell people too much.

~ His favorite movie from the past decade would probably be Moonrise Kingdom (good movie!!) or The Skeleton Twins (also good movie!!)

~ Bill’s favorite book would 10000% be Turtles All The Way Down by John Green because of the main character and her battle with anxiety.

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Mike Hanlon:

~ He runs a cooking YouTube channel, you can’t fight me on this one.

~ Mike would definitely have one of those motorized scooters, idk seems like a Mike thing

~ He’s in love with video games but only the ones that are based on a lot of skill. He doesn’t like first person shooters, nor does he like any games with violence at all. Tbh, Papa’s Pizzeria is right up his alley.

~ Mike would be a gym try hard, most definitely. But in every other class he’d just sit on his phone.

~ But he’s so smart that he’d pass all the tests anyway.

~ He’d work a lot just so he could afford the newest phone because he thinks it gives people less of a reason to pick on him and bully him. (News flash: it doesn’t)

~ Whenever Mike isn’t working, he volunteers at the animal shelter in Derry. He runs the Instagram account :)

~ Probably one of the guys who posts shirtless pics on Instagram because he likes the attention the girls give him in the comments.

~ Will answer any of Bill’s texts at 3am when he wants feedback on a new piece of art.

~ A secret theatre kid, no doubt. Not really a musical kid, but he loves acting and just being on stage with everyone’s attention on him.

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Richie Tozier:

~ Speaking of theatre kids, Richie is the BIGGEST fucking one. He has been in every musical and play that his school has done since 6th grade, and he was one of the best kids they had.

~ He wears Pierce the Veil and Sleeping with Sirens shirts, but Richie mostly listens to softer bands like Arctic Monkeys and The Neighbourhood.

~ He has a bi pride pin on his backpack. Kids will sometimes pull it off and throw it around, but he just pulls another one out of a ziploc bag full of them in the tiny front pouch of his bag and sticks it on there.

~ Richie unapologetically owns a Juul and will sometimes let Bev borrow it as long as she pays him “25 cents a hit”, which she never does.

~ Posts music on SoundCloud. He’s not much of a singer outside of the musicals because he’s mostly shy with his talent; however, he does a lot of instrumentals.

~ Richie shops are thrift stores most of the time. He’ll take Eddie with him and though Eddie won’t touch anything until it’s been washed twice, Richie will buy him anything he likes.

~ He LOVES Harry Potter. He found the first book when he was younger and he just fell in love with the story. He owns all the first editions and all of the movies.

~ Goes to small venues to see bands that no one knows. Richie will go to so many concerts because he likes the escape it brings for him. He’s in his element when he goes to concerts.

~ Despite what many people think, he isn’t a whore :0 He just flirts a lot and he actually didn’t lose his virginity till he was 17 at a party. He regrets it, though, cause he was drunk off his ass.

~ He was also in the color guard for his high school’s marching band. A lot of the girls from the theatre stuff begged him to be apart of it because he could dance really well, and he ended up being in it for both the indoor and outdoor seasons all throughout high school.

——————————————————————————

Eddie Kaspbrak:

~ BOOKWORM, BOOKWORM, B O O K W O R M!!! This boy would spend every second he could just browsing the books that his school library had.

~ After he yelled at his mom for his pills, he started to kind of overcome his germaphobe tendencies, but he still was very iffy about touching things in places he’d never been.

~ For example, Richie took him to the park one time and he had never been there before, so the whole time he was holding his noses and steering clear of the snot nosed little kids.

~ Him and Richie definitely dated at some point or another. Whether to get a feel for guys or just for each other, but it did happen. Beverly was the only one who ever knew.

~ Eddie fell in love with engineering at school. He would always call one of the Losers at an ungodly hour in the morning and rant about how all of the buildings in town were built and with what materials. Honestly, Ben was the only one who shared this interest with him.

~ Eddie was the first to get his own car so all of the Losers would pile into his Jeep. Richie always tried to convince him to take off the doors, but Eddie thought that that was the biggest goddamn safety hazard he’d ever heard.

~ As they all got older, obviously him and Richie stayed close, but he also got surprisingly close with Ben and Ben would gush about Beverly to him after Eddie would excitedly explain how a car’s engine works or something like that.

~ Eddie was the one to convince Beverly to go after Ben and stop pining over Bill.

~ Eddie went to concerts with Richie all the time, and even if the sweaty roadies grossed him out, he fell in love with the bass killing his eardrums and the way the mic static could transform someone’s voice.

~ He also joined his school’s marching band (mainly cause Richie begged him) and was fucking AMAZING at playing snare drums.

——————————————————————————

Stanley Uris:

~ He was the last one to enter high school, everyone a year ahead of him, but he was ironically the most popular among the lower class men.

~ Stan was a very private person, but his willingness to do other’s homework for $5 a page made him infamous.

~ Because of all this money he’d been making, he’d buy the Losers presents all the time. He would treat them to their favorite snacks whenever they went to Keene’s or to a new shirt whenever they went to the mall over in Bangor. And he never went over budget because he’s a goddamn accountant by nature.

~ He had a massive crush on Bill and asked him to homecoming his freshman year. Yeah, they were bullied, but Stan couldn’t have been more happier.

~ Bill convinced him to tryout for the baseball team. He tried out for pitcher and got it immediately. He was also one of the sports kids who would post on his Snapchat whenever they had a game.

~ Him and Bill ended up dating up until junior year, when Bill admitted that he wanted to date at least one girl before college and Stan wasn’t mad because he honestly wasn’t feeling it anymore. Afterwards, they both started dating cheerleaders.

~ Stan was in Calculus his sophomore year of high school, which was the class that all of the AP seniors took. Many people called him a genius, he just thanked the internet.

~ Stan fell in love with indie bands like R.O.A.R and Florence + The Machines. Richie did, however, convince him to go to concerts with him and Eds. He might’ve not enjoyed the music, but he still loved being with his best friends since diapers.

~ He didn’t like movies too much but would watch them with Bill. He enjoyed TV shows a lot more. He’s definitely a true crime baby.

~ Stan also fell in love with photography because he was forced to take the class. He begged his parents to buy him a camera for his birthday, and his many cork boards were filled with pictures of his friends and birds.

——————————————————————————

Ben Hanscom:

~ Was a track start in high school. He ran off all of his fat and just fell in love with the high of running (tbh this is my favorite part about Ben’s character. like such a determined boy 🥺)

~ Ben enjoyed sitting at the library with Eddie and just watching him peruse books, usually pointing a few that he had read and liked. He also just loved the fact that him and Eddie were able to get so close as they got older.

~ Ben was in all the engineering courses his school offered. He was just so happy that he could take classes that pertained to the career path he wanted to go down.

~ He was able to finally get Beverly their senior year. He had been in love with her for the longest time, and she asked him to homecoming.

~ Ben also considered trying out for the football team, but it conflicted with the winter track season so he wasn’t able to; however, him, Mike, and Bill would always play their own small games in the field by Mike’s house.

~ While Stan helped everything with their math homework, Ben helped everyone with their history homework. He was a big history nerd, and everyone knew he paid attention the most.

~ He lost a bet one time and Richie was able to give him a stick and poke tattoo anywhere of his choosing. So now on the inside of his left ring finger he has R.T. written messily.

~ Ben loves pop music. He had always liked it, and some of his favorite artists were Katy Perry and Sia.

~ He rode his bike to school everyday. He was a very big proponent for the environment and hated the idea of driving, so he’d pass up the rides from Eddie or Richie and just bike with his headphones in.

~ Ben was apart of the school’s Green Team and protested climate change and the use of fossil fuels. When he had free time, he’d study ways that he could benefit the environment when he became an architect.

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Beverly Marsh:

~ She was an English wiz. It was her favorite subject, and she fell in love with analyzing poetry and other forms of literary work.

~ Beverly started to let her hair grow out again and she was relieved to see that it started to grow out straight. She hated her curly hair.

~ She bleached her hair a few times throughout high school; she hated the red because it reminded her too much of her mother.

~ Her and Richie’s friendship fell off big time, but she got super close with Bill, Ben, and Mike. Her crush in Bill didn’t deplete for a while, even after him and Stan started dating. She still had hope.

~ Eddie told her about Ben and it really changed her whole perspective on everything. But that wasn’t until junior year.

~ Though she didn’t have too good of a singing voice, she loved being in choir. The angelic reverberations throughout the auditorium whenever they performed always gave her chills and she wanted so desperately to be a part of it.

~ Beverly wrote a lot of poetry. She wrote some to her friends, to her dead mom, to her asshole dad. Just to whoever she was focused on in that moment.

~ She helped Mike after school at the animal shelter and actually ended up adopting a kitten for herself.

~ Luckily, her dad didn’t mind the cat too much as long as Bev took care of it and didn’t bother him for a single thing.

~ Beverly didn’t get her license until she was well into her twenties, but she loved hanging her arm out of the passenger’s side window of Richie’s car and listen to the bands that he’d blast with closed eyes.

#it chapter two #it chapter one imagines #it imagines #stanley uris #stanley uris headcanons #mike hanlon #mike hanlon headcanons #beverly marsh #beverly marsh headcanons #richie tozier #richie tozier headcanons #eddie kaspbrak #eddie kaspbrak headcanons #bill denbrough #bill denbrough headcanons #ben hanscom #ben hanscom headcanons #masterlist

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Michael in the Mainstream: Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

Horror has had a rough time this decade, but lately it has been managing to produce some great films with excellent themes, solid acting, and genuine scares beyond the jumpscares audiences have bemoaned for so long. For every Bye Bye Man and Slender Man we get A Quiet Place or Get Out, or at least that’s how it seems. And while it’s mostly R-rated horror that has been getting better, younger crowds can rejoice, because now they have a gateway into the darker realms of horror: Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.

Based on the infamous and frequently challenged book of repurposed folktales that are mostly remembered for the gorgeous, nightmare-inducing artwork of Stephen Gamell, this movie is a wonderful step up for kids when you want to ween them off of Goosebumps and get them into some darker fare. But even if it is mostly a gateway horror film, I definitely think that there’s value to it beyond that.

Now, I don’t necessarily think the value comes from the characters. They’re all fine, but they’re mostly well-acted stock cliches, with just enough charm to them you’ll start to care about them when they get murdered. And I’m not exactly sure the plot is what makes this valuable either. The film starts off as very similar to Goosebumps 2, with the kids reading from an evil book that releases monsters (an oversimplification, but it is still rather funny that these two gateway horror franchises have vaguely similar plots in their films). From there, we do have some twists and turns that keep it engaging before, in the ending, the film reveals that it was, no joke, a live-action remake of ParaNorman! I���m not kidding, without any spoilers there is a major point near the end that is exactly the same as a major moment in ParaNorman, and frankly I find it beautiful that this happened. So overall the story is standard, serviceable, and enjoyable, but nothing truly groundbreaking.

So what, then, makes this movie so great?

The monsters. As if it could be anything else.

Now, sadly the monsters are not onscreen for very long, with all of them basically getting a single scene each, and with Big Toe being the one most shafted for screentime, though this is par for the course for Javier Botet monsters. We do get a lot of the Jangly Man, sure, but wouldn’t it be better if there was a more even distribution of monster screentime? Still, with what little screentime they do have, they absolutely kill it. Harold is one of the standouts, as he should be, getting one of the nightmarish and brutal kills in the entire film and just generally living up to his legacy as the stcariest scarecrown in town. Big Toe, as mentioned, is shafted for screentime, and frankly doesn’t do anything too interesting, which is a real shame. It’s especially bad since as The Conjuring 2 shows Javier Botet does not need a lot of time to make an awesome monster make an impression with brief screentime as he did with the Crooked Man, but maybe they were afraid his monster-portraying powers were too intense to be onscreen too long. Then there’s the Jangly Man, the final boss of the movie so to speak and a mish-mash of multiple stories to make one incredibly uncanny undead monstrosity, who is certainly interesting from a monster standpoint with a suitably gruesome design.

Of course, I saved the best for last: The Pale Lady. Her design is ripped straight from Gammell’s haunting illustration, and she easily steals the show, delivering the most unnerving and terrifying scene in the entire film. Never has a fat woman walking slowly down a hallway to give a boy a hug been so absolutely terrifying. She is easily the best monster in the film aside from Harold, and between the two of them they more than fill up the movie’s scare quote. The fact that a lot of practical effects were used is really just gravy here, and while there’s obviously some CGI everything only serves the monsters and their uncanny creepiness.

Now, a lot of people have said this would have been better as an anthology film, and on some level I do agree – hell, the books would lend themselves perfectly to that sort of format. On the other hand, however, producer Guillermo Del Toro had this to say: “Anthology films are always as bad as the worst story in them — they're never as good as the best story.” And considering how The ABCs of Death is definitely as bad as “F is for Fart,” it’s hard for me to not agree with him there. While I don’t think the narrative is the best, it’s definitely fine for what it is, and if we get a sequel to this, I think they could definitely work from this solid base to make an even more polished and compelling narrative that will ease the doubts of all the anthology-loving skeptics.

As it stands, I think this is one of the better horror movies of the decade. No joke. It’s not some flawless masterpiece or an uber-original story, but it has awesome monsters, great effects, cool ideas, and at least enough going on in the story that you’ll care a little about the characters and their plight. This is definitely a good horror movie, and not only would I recommend it to fans of the book, if you want to get your teens into horror or think your younger kids are ready for something like this, I think this is a nice step up from stuff like Coraline and Goosebumps. It’s fun, refreshing horror film, and while it’s still a bit rough around the edges, I think it more than makes up for it with the fantastic monsters, ripped straight from those nostagically terrifying pictures that made us soil ourselves as kids.

#Michael in the Mainstream #Review #Movie review #Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark #Guillermo Del Toro #Horror #Horror movie #Stephen Gammell

[woofety]

@lives-ruined-and-bloodshed replied to your post “@lives-ruined-and-bloodshed mentioned you on a post “You wanna try and...”

Yeah, I think May would definitely win in a real fight but I think they have so much fun just sparring, they know each other so well and probably sparred plenty of times so they know most of each other's moves and well, it's just really hot to imagine them going at it lol of course AoS couldn't give us that. We even saw Coulson fighting but ofc not with May, that would be giving too much to the shippers.

OF COURSE RIGHT, GOD FORBID THEY GIVE US EVEN JUST A FLICKER OF CONTENTMENT LMAO, WHO CARES ABOUT THE FANS ANYWAY... Sorry for the capslock, but I couldn’t express this any other way than shouting it because I’ll always be annoyed by this! Yeah, they don’t owe us anything, they should be able to tell the story they want without feeling obliged to indulge in the fan-service, bla bla bla, don’t care, I’ll stay pissed off, I’m sure the writers won’t mind, and at this point it’s the level of resigned annoyance that doesn’t ruin my day, so I can stay “fueled” without feeling miserable about it like I was some time ago, when I was more invested (not that I’m not invested in the ship now, but I made peace with the fact that I won’t get the satisfaction - and there is no “compliance” involved here :p - I need from the show so I’m looking for it elsewhere)!

I am convinced it would have been so amazing seeing Phil and Melinda spar because I found adorable (ok, maybe it’s not the best term to describe sparring sessions, but I have big family feels about it because Philindaisy obviously so for me that adjective stands) the sparring scenes Daisy had with both Phil and Melinda so yeah, it was a huge waste of potential, but what’s new when we talk about Philinda’s treatment in the show...

I do see their relationship as a bit unbalanced. There are so many times we saw May showing in words and actions what Coulson means to her, even her freaking robot was out there declaring her love and willing to die for him and the team. I think you're right that Coulson being the director is one of teh reasons for that difference but I think who they are is another.

For Coulson there is Humanity, SHIELD, Daisy and ofc May cares about that too but I mostly see her putting him ahead of pretty much everything, she's so ridiculously loyal to him, even Garret knew that about her, it wasn't follow SHIELD to the grave but Coulson. Watching gifsets of S1B was actually making me ship them less lol, he believed she was Hydra up until she was about to be killed too and then he was a raging dick, to hurt her, and not even an apology after.

Nothing much to add here, I agree with you, let me just underline the awful treatment Phil reserved to Melinda when he thought she was Hydra... All right, I get it, he must have felt overwhelmed discovering such huge betrayal from people in his organization to the point he felt he couldn’t be able to trust anyone, when he was raised in SHIELD with the “trust the system” drill in his head, valid for him until he died and was brought back, at least, not to mention the fact that he was kept in the shadows about this goddamn GH-325 secret by his closest (at least that’s what he thought she was) friend and ally, but just because he seemed to rely on Melinda so much that he decided to choose her as his “right-hand” for the task he accepted, I was flabbergasted that, after the first (comprehensible) moment of shock, he didn’t give her just a glimmer of benefit of the doubt, straight up assumed that she betrayed him and all... So was there nothing at all to be saved from their relationship until that moment that he could just pause just a second and consider that that was Melinda May he was crucifying, and I’m aware that it all happened so fast that there wasn’t a moment to breathe, let alone the chance of having a proper, lenghty conversation with her, but it took him too long, in my humble opinion, to realize that he couldn’t just throw whatever they had out of the window so rashly... Anyway, after the “epiphanic” Audrey episode the writers OBVIOUSLY never addressed the situation again, making us believe that between them it was all good again just by magic... mumble mumble... Thankfully there is fanfiction to fill in the gaps, because there is not a chance in the world I’ll be convinced that that evening, after Melinda brought Phil the infamous pendrive with the video about the TAHITI project, didn’t end up with them spending the night discussing everything and both apologizing AT LENGTH (in my universe there would have been also moments gradually and steadily reaching the R rating, but I would have been perfectly fine watching a scene with just them talking and making a real effort to clear things up and it would have actually made more sense considering canon, but they gave us nothing so whatever, I consider myself free to imagine whatever it pleases me :p )

I remember watching all of that some months ago and thinking he's going to to redeem himself by showing she the same kind of loyalty but then S2 and May was again with that massive devotion of hers, with the alien illness and the "real" SHIELD but what I got was Coulson lying to her repeatedly for no good reason. 3A was weird, I don't mind they had LIs, I actually really liked Andrew but they barely felt like friends imo. When Andrew/Lash was happening *Mack* was the only one who thought that maybe she could use a friend, that was bizarre. 

WHEN HE ASKED HER TO KILL HIM IF THINGS GOT OUT OF CONTROL (and just that, my god, I understand that he trusts only her with everything at this point, not only SHIELD but even his life, but it’s rather a terrible thing to ask anyway), AND SHE INSTEAD HAD ALREADY PLANNED TO SPEND THE REST OF THEIR LIFE IN A GODDAMN CABIN IN A PLACE SHE KNEW HE WANTED TO VISIT, DECIDING TO STAND BY HIS SIDE AND SUPPORT AND HELP HIM UNTIL THE VERY END... AND BY S5 SHE HELD UP TO HER WORD AND DID IT, EVEN IF IN A DIFFERENT PLACE... 

“NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS, I’LL TAKE CARE OF YOU, THAT’S MY PLAN”  

EXCUSE ME WHILE I GO DIG MYSELF A HOLE IN THE GARDEN AND CURL UP IN THERE FOR THE NEXT DECADE IF THAT ISN’T LOVE I DON’T KNOW WHAT IS??!?!!!!! That sentence and her actions show her love for him more powerfully than any “I love you” voiced out, but ok, let’s carry on...

I could even let the fact that he didn’t tell her about Theta Protocol slide because of all that classified crap and such, even if she called him out brilliantly about him not having the right to know that as well him not being Director anymore (HA, sorry Coulson but take that!) - I’m not really sure it was that a valid reason the fact that he should have told her because Andrew was involved, I mean, idk, they were not even married anymore, I don’t think that officially it should have been her business to know, but surely, as his best friend, Phil maybe should have felt more of a moral obligation to inform her, also because I can’t really recall if Phil started seeing Andrew before he confessed Melinda about his writing impulses, but at some point she knew, so what was the harm on letting her know? Where was the logic in keeping at least that hidden from her? I’ll be damned if I know! 

Anyway, what I seriously would have kicked Phil’s ass for is the fact that he, TWICE (as far as I remember at least) affirmed that he didn’t want to go to Melinda after the whole Andrew/Lash debacle because “she wouldn’t want me to go after her right now” “she’ll talk when she’s ready”... Phil... pal.... buddy... what the fuck???!!! I mean, ok, Melinda would have assured you that she was fine, especially if you approached her in public, but... you know... we know... THE WHOLE WORLD knows she wasn’t, how could she???!!! One fucking sentence, one “you know I’m here if you want to talk or anything” like she said to him, more than once, would have killed the writers to insert it?????!?!?!?! But no, not only he doesn’t reach to her (at least, we don’t see it and it isn’t even implied in the show)but in the meantime he proceedes to go out and have drinks and slEEP WITH ROSALIND AND START A RELATIONSHIP WITH HER WHAT THE HELL KINDA BEHAVIOUR IS THAT?????! His best friend is anguished, tormented and in pain, he should have at least stood by her bunk’s door all night just to reassure her he was there for whatever she needed, or at least stay at base, work, go to sleep, idk, with what spirit you go out and go on a date and everything???!! Why is that, to distract yourself?? Oh yeah, but he’s also working an angle here, yeah all work and duty and no play, eh, Coulson?! MELINDA NEEDED YOUR SUPPORT AND FRIENDSHIP FFS!!!!!!! Damn it, at least find time to show a scene in which he makes an effort to reach for her, then she is free to do anything she wants with his support and if she asks he’ll be considerate enough to leave her alone, but show us he tries, because that’s something I think Coulson would do!!!! Instead he apparently just straight up assumes that she doesn’t want anyone close in that moment so he doesn’t even bother to assure her that if she needs it, he’s there for her... I get it, we all know she closed off after Bahrain and all and she’s the kind of person who tends to keep things for herself, but it doesn’t hurt to at least let her know he’s available if she needs help, especially because she’d hate to bother him knowing well that he has a lot more to think about than just her? Listen, Coulson in certain instances could be a little dense, but I think he’d make such a reasoning, idk? Or am I assuming too much about him? But, as you said, even Mack voices his concerns about leaving her alone, someone who is not particularly close to her, but not Phil 

3B was better but still too little. It's funny but two of my favorites scenes of the show were the one about the boundaries, SO much to unpack there and when called him on it when he said she was too quick to the trigger and Daisy wasn't Andrew, the murder vest was bad enough but damn he still went the extra mile, but if he's going to be a bastard, at least have May fight back because I don't think I could take more of him being a dick and May just taking and getting no apologies like in 2B. 

Oh my god, OH MY GOD yes, that was the peak of the idiocy!! “You’re always so quick to the trigger” JESUS CHRIST PHIL HOW COULD YOU EVEN CONCEIVE TO SAY SOMETHING LIKE THAT TO HER, TO MELINDA, HOW THE FUCK DOES YOUR BRAIN WORK????!!?!?!!? I seriously tend to erase all this stupidity in s3, I know it’s not fair to the show but I’m sorry, I really can’t stand that Phil could say shit like that to Melinda, I can barely recognize it as canon... Maybe it’s me who has created this version of Phil in my head that actually got things wrong about his character, maybe I’m misreading him and don’t really understand him fully (not that I have ever claimed that I do, anyway), because no matter how stressful this moment is for him and no matter how much pressure he is under, I can’t for the life of me accept that he would say those things and behave like that... S1 behaviour I understand even if it still pisses me off a bit but it’s definitely more comprehensible, but these aspects no, just no, no way... The writers kinda saved it with May taking no shit from him (thank god for that, at least) and him apologizing, even if that was still pretty mild according to me, but oh well, better than nothing at all I guess? Let’s try to convince ourselves of that...

S4 was kinda funny to me because they just turned it up to eleven but I appreciate we actually saw him showing love/devotion/loyalty, without S4 I don't think I could ship them as much and since S5 was also disappointing in my I need to believe Coulson loves her as much as she loves him thing there was little Philinda, but still we had May showing in actions and words her love for him and Coulson, well, I believe he loves her and I guess he kissed her, said he didn't want to leave her and invited her to spend a few days together before he died in front of her. Her SL in S6 was about how much she loved him but I knew that already lol and then emotional torture and death. 

Definitely, I seriously don’t know what happened during s4 writing that convinced the writers to suddenly push on the accelerator with their relationship, but I’m actually grateful (see? I can also say good things about them lol ), even if in terms of continuity for their dynamic I’m not sure how much sense it makes unless you take for granted that interactions must have happened in between the seasons, things we obviously weren’t witnesses of... As you pointed out, otherwise it would have been pretty hard to root for them to get closer, because May deserves the world!

It’s kind of ironic in a way to see, despite her being not openly vocal and expressive in her affections, how much more Melinda has said and done to and for Phil compared to him for her - again, as it has been said, he had far more things to worry about than her, whose mission was mainly Phil from the very beginning, so he obviously was more preoccupied to allow himself the luxury of devoting himself to just one person, but still...

S6? What is that? I really have no idea what you’re talking about here... :p

And that's why I appreciate so much how the fics do the work on Couson's part because I don't think I would love the ship as much without it either. And I just find confusing why AoS decided to go for the ship if they didn't care much about committing to their relationship on screen.

Yes! And ah, at this point, especially after S6, I’m so deflated about some choices that were made that I hardly care about trying to understand what goes through the writers’ heads, so again, I’ll just take what I want and run away quickly before they catch me and throw me in the pit of misery again (lol, look how confident I seem, as if I firmly believe that I won’t be affected at all by S7... Mh mh, yeah, sure, stay tuned to find out how much I’ll fail despite me training myself not to get involved with the show like I used to be...)

#lives-ruined-and-bloodshed #reply for your life! reply for the hills! #I'm sorry this took so long to reply to #ok maybe you didn't even want t a reply to this idk #especially messy as this one is #also sorry for 'lashing out' like this #I guess this conversation gave me the opportunity to get some things out of my system about philinda #long post

[angelcatsiel]

I reblogged an ask game thing the other day but no one sent any asks so I just fuckin answered them all because I was bored and I am learning to not give a fuck what anyone thinks of me and it was fun

1. What is your favorite childhood story of yourself?

This is a hard one. I want to think of a funny one but my childhood wasn’t great. My dad has told me that when I was a toddler, before I can remember, he used to play AC/DC and I used to put clothes pegs in my hair for some unknown reason, stand on the sofa and violently headbang.

2. What is the stupidest way you have ever gotten hurt?

When I was about 11, I was swinging on a swing in the garden, and got curious about what would happen if I put my hands right at the very bottom of the chains while I was swinging. The answer was that I fell off backwards and hit my head. I went in to my dad crying, calmed down, and went back on the swing again. I tried to work out what exactly I had done to cause myself to fall off. I remember thinking, I think I held the chains near the bottom like this... and tested the theory, and fell off again, and hit my head again.

This is one of many stupid injuries. Other considerations were the time I climbed up a slide and hit my head on the bar at the top and knocked myself out, or the time I got kicked by a horse in a field and grabbed onto the electric fence to hold myself up.

3. What was the first PG-13 movie you watched?

Literally no idea.

4. What was the first R rated movie you watched?

I think it may have been the first Deadpool? Haven’t seen that many tbh

5. When was the moment you felt most badass?

When I was about 8, I was at the park with my brother, and this much older kid (maybe about 16 or 17, hardly a kid) with an aggressive dog stole my brother’s ice cream money. I marched up to him and demanded he give it back. He let his dog off the lead and it sniffed around my ankles and growled, and he told me it would bite me if I ran. I stood there and stared him down for a good 20 seconds or so before he called back the dog and walked away. I didn’t get the money back.

6. What is a band you can reliably always love?

Marillion. Favourite band, always.

7. What is your favorite form of self expression?

Probably singing even though I’m very bad at it.

8. What is something from your childhood you wish you still had?

My stuffed rabbit Hoppy. I haven’t been able to find him in several years. Can’t think about it too hard or I’ll cry.

9. Where is your favorite place on earth?

The Isle of Wight. My dad used to take me and my brother there for holidays every few years. It’s beautiful and full of memories, the most precious memories being the time we saved up vouchers in the newspaper to go the year after my dad left his abusive wife and ended up homeless. We were so poor but with the vouchers we could just afford to go, and it was the first time I saw my dad happy in a long time.

10. What is the longest friendship you have ever had?

My best friend @van-helsa124 who I have known since literally nursery and I love her so much.

11. Is there anyone is your life you wish you had met sooner than you did?

Maybe my friend Luce who I only met a couple of years ago, but we’ve grown close pretty quick.

12. Do you believe in ghosts?

Yep definitely. Pretty sure I was visited by my gran after she died and I’ve had a few creepy experiences.

13. What is the coldest water you have ever swam in?

No idea tbh, I don’t swim much

14. How old were you when you learned how to swim?

Maybe 8 or 9? I had lessons in primary school.

15.  What song do you listen to when you’re sad?

Never Grow Up by Taylor Swift. It’s my cry song.

16. Are you an adrenaline junky?

Yep! Love roller coasters and stuff like that, and would love to do something extreme like jump out of a plane or something.

17. What is a song that takes you back to childhood?

I have a few but the main ones are probably Man on the Moon by REM, and You Were Right by Badly Drawn Boy.

18. What is your favorite word?

Not sure I have one. For some reason the only one coming to mind is a place not too far from where my family live called Biggleswade, and I have to say it every time we drive past because I love saying it. I also love saying tiddies at every opportunity.

19. What is your least favorite word?

Don’t think I have a least favourite either, the usual infamous ones (e.g. moist) don’t really bother me.

20. What scent reminds you of childhood?

Cherryade. I drank some several years ago and the smell before I tasted it transported me immediately back to my childhood and a memory I’d completely forgotten, which was my gran constantly buying me a shit ton of cherryade every time I stayed over her house.

21. Were you sad when you found out clouds weren’t like pillows, or did you never think that?

I don’t think I was sad, I think I was just curious and interested to learn, and I tried to come up with new interesting ways of describing the feeling of clouds in my head, since even as a kid I loved to write.

22. When in life did you laugh the hardest?

A few times come to mind and they all involve @van-helsa124. A lot would make absolutely no sense, no matter how much I tried to explain. They’re now ‘friendship memes’. The only one that might be explainable is the first time we ever got drunk, to celebrate achieving ultimate friendship, after we found out that her mum had believed me and her were in a relationship for a year and a half. We even created our own drink, named the year and a half, which was literally just a mix of vodka, koppaberg, rose wine and cloudy lemonade. Tasted better than it sounds. Got me drunk in about 0.5 seconds. Ended the night hugging her trash can trying not to throw up while she read me a destiel fanfic to take my mind off feeling sick

23. What makes you laugh when you don’t feel like laughing?

Old yogscast videos.

24. Do you come from a big family?

Fairly big, lots of aunts and uncles and cousins.

25. What is your favorite part of yourself?

My positivity and the inner strength that I have, that helps me find happiness and courage even when my mental health is low.

26. What is the worst pain you have ever felt?

Trigeminal neuralgia pain (facial nerve pain). Spent 90% of January this year constantly crying and even screaming in pain. Hospital couldn’t do anything for me. I get occasional flare ups now but nothing that severe, but it’s probably going to come back. Feels like someone trying to rip out my cheekbone and jawbone or like someone is literally drilling into the bones in my face, and that’s the milder part. Every so often that pain is interrupted by stabs of sharper pain like electric shocks which have caused me to collapse to the floor screaming. 0/10 do not recommend

27. Do you swear often?

Not super often out loud but very often in my head.

28. Do you get confused for being older or younger than you are?

People always assume I’m younger than I am. I get asked for ID for everything.

29. What is your favorite way to eat a potato?

Probably roast potatoes, but they’ve gotta be done right. Soft inside, crispy outside, and obviously with herbs and spices.

30. What is the best compliment you have ever received?

Honestly no idea.

31. Describe yourself in 6 words?

Slightly unstable yet somehow happy weirdo

32. What is the worst insult you have ever received?

Can’t think of any major insults either lmao no one talks to me apparently

33. Have you ever taken in any media that changed your life?

The Good Place and Supernatural. With supernatural it wasn’t the actual show so much as the friendships it made me and the confidence and happiness the conventions gave me, at a time when my mental health was at its worst, although the show helped massively too. Idc if it’s cringey, it kept me alive. The Good Place changed my entire worldview and actually made me less afraid of death.

34. Have you ever collected anything?

My model horses! I have at least 10 at this point

35. Strangest thing you have ever broken?

As in bones or objects? Can’t think of any objects and the only time I ever broke a bone was when I broke my toe at like 12:01am on new year’s day when I got up to pour myself another drink and tripped over the table

36. Weirdest food you have ever eaten?

I’m not that adventurous with food so nothing that weird

37. Childhood nickname?

My dad would call me Flo. Not sure why.

38. Most people you have shared a bed with in a non sexual manner?

Two. Shared a bed with my best friend and my other friend Josh, once at a convention, once at Josh’s birthday. Birthday one is a bit blurry as I was drunk but at the convention I got to be in the middle and spooned Josh while my best friend spooned me and it was very cosy

39. What is something that makes you fall asleep?

The Marillion song Angelina, or this one ASMR video that’s supposed to be the sound of being in the Impala with the Winchesters. Laugh all you want, I like it.

40. Did your parents ever accidentally lose or forget you?

No but my teacher did once, can’t remember the context, I think she had to drive me and some other girls somewhere for some club event and when we got back to the school she forgot me in the car because I was so quiet lmao

41. If you were a superhero what would your weakness be?

I would be a terrible superhero and have many weaknesses. Loud noises would immediately put me out of action. Someone makes eye contact with me and I disintegrate immediately

42. What food reminds you of home?

Tuna pasta! With this one specific sauce that my mum used to make it with

43. What is your comfort food?

Probably also that tuna pasta. And chocolate. A shit ton of chocolate.

44. Cold room with lots of blankets or hot room with no blankets?

Cold room with lots of blankets, no question.

45. No shoes without socks or no shoes with socks?

No shoes without socks

46. Do you run hot your cold?

I am presuming this means ‘do you run hot or cold’ and the answer is, usually, both simultaneously. My body has no idea what temperature regulation is. Catch me out for a walk in short sleeves in the snow, sweating profusely while violently shivering bc I’m feeling extremely hot internally but my skin is freezing (and yes, I have actually done this). Do I have some sort of legit medical issue? No one knows, least of all my doctors!

47. Favorite condiment?

Probably ketchup. Though I also love garlic dip. Does that count as a condiment?

48. What utensil do you use the most?

Probably my tongs for turning chicken and stuff

49. When are you most comfortable?

Any time I’m home alone, just doing my own thing

50. If you could be really good at one thing, what would it be?

Singing! I would love to be an amazing singer but sadly I am a terrible singer though I do practice every day in the vain hope that maybe my voice will improve. If the neighbours could hear me they would have killed me by now

#personal

[nomadicism]

To be honest, I'm not that surprised that Voltes V is being adapted into la before Voltron. Voltes V is extremely popular in the Philippines, even now. While I think Voltron was big in North America during it's time, it's not nearly as popular as was back in the 80s, even with the Netflixs series. It's like how Saint Seiya is still super beloved in Latin America to this day, despite it being made in the 80s.

Hi Anon, thank you for the Ask!

I’m surprised-and-not-surprised that Voltes V will be adapted into live-action before Voltron, both for the reasons you mentioned, but more importantly, it’s because when IP holders of cartoons (doesn’t matter what cartoon it is) attempt to get a live-action film made, they nearly always fail to get it made. Live-action TV series adaptations don’t do well either, for mostly the same reasons.

Note: I’m not counting live action adaptations of anime, b/c that’s a completely different beast.

My self-indulgent axiom is: The moment that there is an announcement about a cartoon being made into a live-action film or series, is the moment that such a thing ever happening dies on the vine. There are quite a few of them languishing in movie rights limbo, so I never take it seriously. 

There are a lot of factors involved as to why they fail to get made, but the biggest reason has to do with special effects budget/capabilities vs perceptions about how much money the potential audience will bring in. Since cartoons in the US are for children—obviously, they don’t have to be, but sadly that’s the widespread cultural belief—then that limits what can be done for a film that is based on a cartoon. This isn’t the same as an original animated film that is not adapted from an existing cartoon.

Basically, PG, PG-13, and R movies bring in more money. TV series face the same issue, even though live-action series traditionally bring in more ad revenue. The special effects budgets that would be required to adapt most cartoons (given the fantastical content) practically demand a movie adaptation rather than an on-going series, or mini-series.

Rated G movies can bring in mountains of money (especially if you’re Disney), and even then, Disney’s live-action films (notably based on IP that Disney purchased and are not even uniquely Disney) bring in more than their most beloved animated films, and no Disney G-rated film has broken $1B. Their top grossing animated film to date is the 2019 Lion King, which, being realistic CG, effectively makes it a live-action film. 

Frozen and the recent CG Lion King (2019) are in Disney’s top 10 as of 2019, and they are both rated PG. CG Lion King is #7 and Frozen is #15 of all top grossing films. FWIW, CG Lion King is ‘realistic’ to the point where I don’t think it really counts for what I’m on about here. Its realistic look makes it indistinguishable from the rest of the top 10 highest grossing films to date.

No company wants to spend tens of millions (or more) to make a cartoon into live-action if they have to keep it rated G, and they have to keep it rated G due to audience perceptions and expectations. The Scooby Doo movie got to dodge that a bit for some reasons that are unique to its franchise and audience (also, they still had to cut content/tone it down to avoid the R rating). The live-action He-Man movie is a good example of everything that could possibly go wrong, and I suspect that its infamous failure still looms large in the minds of those who write checks to produce movies.

The Michael Bay Transformers movies did well b/c the technology was there to make them look good, they were PG-13, and Bay’s “explode all the things” film-aesthetic was hit the right notes in the zeitgeist of the time. Even if I don’t really like the Bayformers, I can still respect them for bringing something fresh to the franchise, and looking damn good for CG robots.

Compare their success against, the animated Transformers: The Movie. That one did not do well in theaters and the more mature themes caught fans and viewers by surprise and—as much as I love the movie—many parents and kids were upset by it at the time and I agree with the reasons why. I also saw it in theaters as a kid and was upset at the time, but eventually grew to love it. That movie is another example of just how tricky it is to bridge the cartoon-to-film gap, even when animated. The Bayformers movies bridged the gap right (again, even though I’m not a fan of them, I respect them for what they are). I can’t think of any cartoon-to-live-action film that made the adaptation gap as well as the Transformers did. Obvs, there is no live-action TV series for Transformers. It can’t be done.

TMNT did well for the first two films, but again, they were films and not a TV series.

What follows is speculation on my part:

In the case of IP like Voltron or Robotech, I suspect that the reason why they have been in movie rights limbo for so long is to prevent someone else from buying the rights and making a movie of the original source material. Even a shitty Golion or Macross live-action movie could harm WEP or Harmony Gold’s control or water down their vision for the IP. Voltron and Robotech are unique b/c technically, a Japanese studio could have gone to production on a live action Golion or Macross movie, but if the license to make them is tied up with American studio/production houses (and royalties being paid where applicable) will prevent that. This doesn’t mean that WEP or Harmony Gold couldn’t challenge said hypothetical Japanese studio over an adaptation, but it would be a legal battle that no one wants. The rights get tied up indefinitely simply to keep another studio from buying them and possibly making the film and doing a great job of it.

It’s such a Cold War mentality, but I can’t see any other rationale for it other than WEP and Harmony Gold being really awful at brand and IP management to the point where they actually believe that a studio would risk millions on a live-action adaptation. At this point, Robotech would be more likely to get adapted since HG has the fire lit under their ass by looming copyright changes and that Sony was interested enough to get involved. They’ve got like 2 years to make that happen so we’ll see.

How this relates to Voltes V:

Since Voltes V is an anime, a live-action adaptation won’t be bound by the same expectations for content rating, especially if it is not being made for an American audience that expects rated G or family-friendly PG. The love for Voltes V among Filipinos puts the IP into a special place, and it’s probably a lot like Transformers, where there are a lot of older fans who are waiting to see their beloved show get some attention, whether big screen or small. There is that legacy audience plus the popularity of robot anime and video games in the region gives a Voltes V a good chance at a live-action TV adaptation.

To me this means that, since this adaptation won’t be a movie, but instead will be a “seasonal” series, that it’s going to do well enough for the Philippines, and probably have a quality similar to more recent Ultraman series, or Power Rangers. They don’t have to go all-in like a big budget Hollywood film, or an HBO drama. I’m curious if this live-action is actually live-action + CG, or if it’s going to be all CG animation that’s mostly realistic looking but also stylized.

Whatever happens, I’ll be happy to see Voltes V get made b/c it’s a fun-and-interesting story that deserves more attention, and it’s really a shame that there was never a reboot or remake. If it does well, then maybe Toei might bring it back in animated form.

#voltes v #超電磁マシーン ボルテスＶ #live action #ask me anything #anonymous #sorry for the info dump #sort of thing needs detail tho

[lostwriterworld]

Wonho | Kids

POV: Y/n

My hands gripped the sleek leather covered wheel. Houses and tree’s zoomed by as I drove, my foot gently pressing down on the gas. My right hand was taken by his, our arms resting on the center console. His thumb gently brushed against my knuckles, repeating the same movements as we got closer to our destination. The radio was playing some chill R&B music seeing as that was my favorite. It was quiet though, but it was relaxing for us. The smell of mahogany filled the car as the small car scent tree dangled on the rearview mirror.

It was these kinds of drives like these that I loved, even if we were only going a short distance. The calmness of it, with him being here. Nothing really needed to be said. I just enjoyed having him here. But I could tell he was nervous, no matter how many times I tried to reassure him. 

I pulled up to a two-story house. The flowers in the flower bed were in full bloom, brightening up the exterior. Childhood memories of me picking some of the flowers during summer flooded through my mind. A small smile played on my lips. I pulled the stick shift into park and turned off my car. I looked over at my boyfriend. 

“You ready?” I asked him, giving his hand a gentle squeeze. I noticed his throat bob a bit. 

“You’re sure they’ll like me?” I let out a soft laugh, letting go of his hand. I lifted my hand to brush some of the hair out of his face before cupping his cheek. He leaned into my touch as I grazed his cheek with my thumb. His skin was so soft. 

“Wonho, they’ll love you. All they ever do when I come is ask about you. They’ve wanted to meet you for a while now. Just be yourself. There are kid’s here too, my baby cousins, so they might hang on you,” he let out a soft laugh. It was like music to my ears to hear his laugh. 

“Noted,” I smiled. We just stared at each other. His deep brown eye’s seemed to shine in the sunlight. They were captivating, alluring even. My eyes drifted down to his pink lips before they flicked back to his eyes. I noticed where his eyes were trained. I noticed him start to lean in, me following his actions.

Our lips just barely brushed over each other. He tilted his head before pressing his lips fully against mine. My eyes fluttered shut before I found myself returning the kiss. My heartbeat picked up its pace, butterflies fluttering in my stomach. We slowly pulled away, foreheads resting against each other.  

My eyes slowly opened to see his smile. A smile played on my lips as he stared into my eyes. I carefully pulled away from him, unbuckling my seatbelt. He followed my actions before we both got out of the car. Warm air wrapped around me as soon as I got out. Smoothing out my white t-shirt, I joined Wonho at the front of my Black Mercedez. His hand wrapped around mine as he let me lead him up the concrete pathway, to the oak wood porch. We reach the door. 

I gently knocked on the door, signaling our presence as we walked in. I heard loud chatter come from the basement. But I also heard chatter from the kitchen up here, the voice belonging to my mother and father. I started to lead WOnho there, our footsteps quiet as we walked along the wood floor. “Hey mom” I greeted. My parents turned as the sound of my voice, their faces lighting up. 

“Hey, sweetie!” My mom exclaimed, pulling me in for a hug. My hand slipped out of Wonho’s as he greeted my father. My mother and I pulled away. She pulled Wonho in for a hug while my dad did the same with me. My hand found Wonho’s again. He looked around the kitchen. 

It was a cute little kitchen, to me at least. White granite countertops with dark oak cabinets. Little succulents on the window sill above the steel sink. Cookie jars and mixed nut jars were in a corner of the counter, but the toaster. The microwave was placed by the fridge, which was resting against the wall.  There were counters overhead too, most likely filled with plates and glasses. In the middle of the kitchen was a small island, chairs placed around it. A fruit basket, filled with bananas and apples, were placed in the middle. 

“How come you guys aren’t downstairs?” I asked, running my free hand through my hair. 

“Your aunt wanted us to get the salad and check on the ham in the oven,” My mouth started to water. Ham sounded amazing right now. 

“Well, we can take the lasagna down,” I offered. Mom smiled. 

“Sure! Oh Wonho,” my mom started as she pulled out a glass container full of lasagna. She carefully handed it to me. I let go of Wonho’s hand and held the container. It was radiating warmth, meaning it was still fresh. My mouth continued to water. 

“Yes, ma’am?” Wonho asked. He motioned to me that he’d hold the container. I gave him a grateful smile before handing it to him. 

“I wanted to warn you that my brother, her uncle,” she pointed to me, “Is very protective of her. So you might be bombarded with questions,” Wonho nervously laughed. 

“Thank you,” 

“Mom, he’s nervous enough,” I whined. 

“Don’t be nervous,” my dad cut him, patting Wonho’s shoulder. “They’re all friendly,” Wonho’s shoulders relaxed a bit. “Now you two better head down there.,” I nodded and started walking off, Wonho following behind. 

“You sure you don’t want to carry it, babe?” I asked as we headed downstairs. 

“I got it,” he reassured. The smell of fresh-baked cookies filled my nose as we reached the middle of the carpeted stairs. I groaned a bit, mouth-watering. “It smells so good,” Wonho softly said. I nodded, reaching the last step. It was much louder in the room now. 

“Y/n?” I turned my attention to my Aunt. She rushed over to me, pulling me in for a bone-crushing hug. I grunted a bit before hugging her. “Did you bring that boyfriend of y-” her sentence was cut off when she saw Wonho behind me. Her eyes bulged a bit, her mouth agape. I chuckled a bit and wrapped my arm around Wonho’s waist. 

“Meet Wonho, my boyfriend,” my face warmed up. I noticed my family started to get out of their seats and make their way to me. 

This was going to take a while. 

~

~

~

Things had settled down after I introduced Wonho. We had gone into the small living room, my uncle, brother and Wonho sitting on the couch. I sat on the white carpet floor, playing with my baby cousin, Quinn. I had her laying on her back as I played peek-a-boo with her. She giggled every time I showed my face and tried to reach her small hands to grasp my hand. Every time I saw her, it made me want kids, but I was too young for that yet. I wasn’t even married, and that was okay. 

Eventually, I let Quinn take hold of me. Her small, soft fingers attempting to wrap around my finger. She started to bring it to her mouth. I retracted my hand carefully, laughing a bit. “No no,” I told her as I lifted her up so she could stand. I held her gently She giggled as I pretended to make her dance, her chubby legs trying to take steps here and there. 

Eventually, Quinn’s mother, Melanie, had to take Quinn so she could change his diaper. I pouted a bit as I watched her go. My other cousins hadn’t arrived yet, so I was overcome with boredom. I sighed and sat up, walking over to Wonho. I carefully sat down on his lap, feeling the denim material on my legs, seeing as I was wearing shorts. I felt him wrap his strong arms around my waist and rest his chin on my shoulder. I noticed that the boys went silent once I came over.

“What were you guys talking about?” I asked. My brother smirked a bit. 

“Nothing,” he said unconvincingly. I cocked an eyebrow.

“Obviously something. You guys went quiet when I came over,” 

“We were just talking about how you’d make a good mother,” my uncle spoke. My face started to grow warm. 

“Then I told Wonho how you always wanted to have kids,” my brother added. My eyes widened a bit, causing the men to burst into fits of loud laughter. I swallowed hard and looked over at Wonho, who was smiling. His face was a bright red. It was quite adorable. 

“Sorry about them,” I mumbled. Wonho softly laughed and shook his head. 

“Don’t be, I agree with them,” A slow smile spread on my lips. “You’d make a great mother,” he placed a soft kiss on my neck. 

~

~

~

By the end of the night, more kids had come. Wonho had joined me on the floor, playing with Lily, who was only five. She obviously adored him. For the past hour, she was attached to him. Meanwhile, I had her brother, Luke. Luke had tired himself by running around me, so he fell asleep in my lap. Meanwhile, Lily was bombarding Wonho with questions, and showing him her toys. A part of me thought he’d be annoyed by now, but he was all smiles. 

I watched them, a smile spreading on my own face. Wonho had always been good with kids. He loved them. It amazed me how he never got annoyed. But it was always cute to see him interact with kids. 

A few more minutes had passed and I noticed Lily getting tired. She wasn’t moving as quickly, and her yawns were becoming more frequent. Wonho seemed to take note of it took. “Do you want to take a nap?” he asked her. She went to protest but gave in. He smiled and let her lay in his lap. I shifted Luke in my arms, carefully, and moved over to Wonho. Luke moved back to my lap. I yawned and rested my head on Wonho’s shoulder. “Do you need a nap too?” he teased. I softly giggled and nodded. “Go ahead,” I felt his head rest on top of mine. He gently intertwined our fingers.

“Lily seems to like you,” I quietly said. 

“Jealous?’ he teased. I rolled my eyes, smiling. 

“No. I’m just saying, she really liked you. I’m not very surprised,” 

“Why?” He started to graze his thumb over my knuckles again. I stared down at our hands. 

“You’re great with kids. They always love you,” I slowly lifted my head. Wonho looked over at me. “You’d make a great Dad,” his infamous smile etched itself on his face. He leaned in and placed a gentle kiss on my lips. It lingered even as he carefully pulled away.

“And you,” he started. “Would make a great mother,” 

#wonho imagines #monsta x #peachylnwrites #writeblr #writers on tumblr #writing #my writing

[robinrunsfiction]

The Fantastic Adventures of Glitter Ghost and Killer Lux - Chapter 1

Co-Written with @mariawritesfanfic

Rating: Teen (for violence)

Requested By: None

Author’s Note: Set in the Danger Days universe, please enjoy this story featuring both the Fabulous Killjoys, the Youngbloods, and a couple of two badass babes who are looking to tear down BLI. 

I’m gonna take advantage of the fact that I am the one posting this to give a MASSIVE thank you to Maria for writing this with me. It wouldn’t be half of what you see here if it wasn’t for her help, and I really appreciate her patience with me and my tendency to get a bit too wrapped up in stuff sometimes and probably got kinda annoying with all my inane questions lol

I know I don’t write many OCs, but I really have come to love these two and I hope you do too.

Song recommendations for this chapter: Bad Girls by MIA and I Did Something Bad by Taylor Swift

"Lux, get up. Lux, come on, get up," Glitter Ghost shook Killer Lux's shoulder as she lay on the ground. Suddenly a shot went right over her head. Looking up, she spotted a Drac as it rounded the corner of the burning building. Glitter grumbled as she grabbed her gun and dropped the Drac right where he stood.

"Fastest 'joy in the Zones my ass," Glitter muttered pulling Lux to her feet and hauled her to their car. 

She pushed Lux into the passenger seat and climbed into the driver's side. It wouldn't be long before the area was crawling with S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W Units and Dracs. The mission went well; she secured the perimeter while Lux got inside and set her explosive that was rigged to a timer. Lux had assured Glitter over and over that she was fast enough on her feet to get out before it blew. But either Lux was wrong, or something happened because she had barely gotten out before the building went up, tossing her body across the ground. Now she was finally coming to, groaning in the passenger seat. 

"Lux, you ok? Come on, get it together," Glitter urged worriedly, glancing across the car. Lux just groaned again in response.

The rest of the drive was silent as Glitter sped along the back route until the car started to make a noise she hadn't heard before.

"No, no, no, no!" She said banging on the steering wheel as the vehicle began to slow. She steered it to the side of the road and popped the hood although it was dark and she didn't know what to even start looking for to solve the problem of them being a couple of sitting ducks waiting for Dracs on patrol to come ghost her and Lux. Slamming the hood back down resulted in a wide-eyed and terrified looking Lux staring back at her from the passenger seat. 

Glitter sighed and looked up the road. Under the moonlight, she thought she could make out the silhouette of a building not far in the distance.

"Stay down," she said to Lux through the cracked window.

"Huh?" 

"Stay down," she shouted, motioning downward. She wasn't sure if Lux was complying or losing consciousness again, but she slid down in the seat.

Glitter jogged toward the silhouette, and as she got closer, she saw that it was an old burned outbuilding of some sort. Enough of the walls were standing that it would offer them shelter until she could puzzle out what was wrong with the car or find someone to help.

She hurried back to the car and opened the back door, pulling out their bags and hauling them over her shoulder, then she opened the passenger side door, causing Lux to jump.

"Shit, you can't hear a thing, can you?" Glitter muttered. She motioned for Lux to get out of the car. 

Lux moved slowly, groaning as she stood. "Feel like I got blown up," she mumbled.

"You did," Glitter said close to her friend's ear, as she pulled Lux's left arm over her right shoulder to help her down to the shelter. She just hoped their next move would be clear in the morning. 

~

It was a few days before Killer Lux finally began to get back to her version of normal. Glitter's assumption that her hearing was blown out was correct, but as it slowly came back, it didn't appear to be a permanent injury. 

"I'm just glad that my jacket didn't get wrecked," Lux commented as she examined the back of her wine-colored leather motorcycle jacket.

"Yea, because you could've gotten yourself dusted, but what really matters is that your jacket is ok," Glitter scoffed from under the hood of the car.

"But I got out, didn't I?" Lux sassed back.

"Barely."

"I tripped, ok? If I hadn't, I would have made it out no problem. And we'd still be stuck on the side of the road. Can we just walk? There's gotta be someone nearby that can at least help with the car."

Glitter sighed before slamming the hood shut. "Fine, we'll leave when the sun starts to set, so we don't roast alive."

Satisfied with her friend's concession, Lux grinned and started to wander back towards the shelter. The morning sun felt good against her bare shoulders after the frigid desert night. She tugged down the hem of her navy top over her faded black moto jeans and stifled a yawn. When she was back in the shade of their shelter, she pushed her black sunglasses up into her dark brown hair, unstrapped her black blaster and holster from around her thigh and laid down with her back against the wall, using her jacket as a pillow.

Lux really didn't try to worry about much in life. In the Zones, with BLI running things, she knew she wasn't long for this world, no Killjoy was. All she really cared about was having a little fun when she could, helping her partner in crime, Glitter Ghost, take down as many Dracs as possible, and running free in the desert without drawing too much attention to herself.

Not like Glitter, who was made to stand out. With her hot pink hair, a black polka-dotted shirt that strategically revealed just enough of her lace bra, baby pink moto jacket and an ever-present sheen of glitter that defied all logic, she grabbed attention no matter where they went. She was also obviously a total badass with her knee-high combat boots, pink blaster at her side, and at least half a dozen knives on her at any time.

But Lux knew Glitter was also a big softie at heart. They'd roamed a long way together, and she had seen the way Glitter took care of her. She would never leave another 'joy in need stranded.

"Gonna try to rest before tonight?" Lux asked without opening her eyes when she heard Glitter walk in.

"It's my turn to keep watch."

"I'll split it with you," Lux offered. "Who knows how far we'll have to go."

"I'll wake you in the afternoon," Glitter offered.

"Deal," Lux muttered, even though she knew she wouldn't be asleep at any point that day.

The sun had been setting earlier as the end of the year neared, affording them an earlier start up the road. Lux secured her black, and gold leopard print bandana over her face and Glitter pulled up her silver glitter facemask as the duo set out from their shelter. Glitter was on alert to anyone coming up behind them, and Lux watched up ahead.

"Glitter, look," Lux called over her shoulder after what felt like many miles. "Is that the diner?"

"A diner?"

"No, the diner! The one we heard about that one time, remember? Let's go check it out," she replied, leading the way.

~

News doesn't travel fast in the Zones, especially when Dr. Death Defying's broadcasting equipment was damaged in a clap with the Dracs like it had been recently. But now word of the BLI lab that no one else had been able to infiltrate getting destroyed had reached the diner hideout of the infamous Fabulous Killjoys. Party Poison, his brother Kobra Kid, and friends Jet Star and Fun Ghoul were huddled around with the Youngbloods, discussing who could have been bold enough to attempt, and get away with, blowing up that lab.

"They had to be fast to get in and out without getting themselves blown up," Party theorized.

"Sounds like the bomb was way bigger than it needed to be," Ghoul commented. His expertise with bomb-making left him impressed by the details he had heard.

"But to get away like that, what was it? Destroya? A ghost?" Soul Punk asked, thoroughly confused by the whole thing.

"Someone looking for a Ghost?" Glitter asked with a smirk behind her mask.

The eight men all turned, caught completely off guard by the two women that had walked into their hideaway. They were also surprised to find that women were totally undeterred by the eight brightly colored blasters now aimed at their faces.

"Relax boys, we just wanna know what the dinner special is tonight," Lux said, tugging down her bandana with a cocky grin.

"Who the hell are you?" Ghoul snapped.

"The only two Killjoys that could do what you couldn't," Lux replied smugly.

"You took out the lab?" Sandman replied, sounding skeptical.

"What, like it's hard?"

"But who are you?" Ghoul asked again, more irritation in his voice.

"I'm Killer Lux."

"And I'm Glitter Ghost," Glitter said as she jumped up and sat on the counter, facing the gangs.

The other Killjoys looked amongst themselves, each searching the others' face for a look of recognition. Kobra lowered his weapon first. "Why are you here?"

"Our ride broke down the night we took out the lab, not sure if it's related, but I can't figure out what's wrong. We're looking for a safe haven until we can get back to running," Glitter replied, pulling down her mask.

Party followed his brother's lead, lowering his weapon as well. "Sure, but you tell us how you got in there. Every detail."

"You only think it was impossible to get in there because there's one thing you haven't tried yet," Glitter laughed.

"What's that?" Sandman asked her suspiciously, his eyes trailing up and down her slowly. 

"Being a poor, helpless girl in need of a big, brave corporation, obviously," Lux replied, rolling her eyes. She glanced over at Glitter with a smirk, only to find her entirely distracted by the other Killjoy's attention. She stifled a laugh and turned her attention back to the others.

"So, what, you flirted your way in?" Ghoul asked.

"Not exactly," Lux shrugged. "Glitter secured the perimeter, I had the bomb in my bag and went to the gate, sobbing my eyes out, begging to be let in. I had been kidnapped and dragged out into the desert against my will by some Killjoy scum. They let me in without checking me over because they're fucking mindless idiots, and I took the two guards out. I got inside, took out the Dracs as I encountered them, there weren't many there that late though. Got as far inside as I thought I could risk it and dropped the bomb. I did trip on my way out, and almost didn't clear out in time, but here I am."

"Damn," Kobra said, looking impressed, and Lux grinned at him. The others murmured their approval as well.

"She couldn't hear for a day," Glitter piped up suddenly with a giggle. "I thought she was dusted!"

"Glitter, come on," Lux replied through gritted teeth, annoyed that her moment of glory was slightly undermined.

"No, that's awesome. I'm Party Poison," he said, introducing himself. "We'll take any allies we can get against BLI."

"I gotta know more about that bomb," Ghoul said. 

Lux pointed at Glitter. "That's all her." Glitter gave Ghoul a little smirk and patted the top of the counter next to her, indicating that Ghoul could sit next to her; the rest of the Killjoys proceeded to introduce themselves to the newcomers.

Glitter and Ghoul discussed the bomb that she had built, but she could still feel eyes on her, and when she looked up, she noticed Sandman was watching her. She gave him a small smile and went back to talking to Ghoul. "And that's how I set up the bomb to not only explode but also shoot off the glitter. Everyone needs a little glitter in their life," she laughed.

Ghoul sat there in awe. "So, you basically glitter bomb people? That's amazing," Ghoul clapped his hands.

"Yeah," Glitter laughed. "It's pretty awesome to watch Dracs get a face full of glitter, then realize there's a timer under it, or hear a ticking noise. Depending on how I'm feeling, the glitter will either go off before or after the explosion. This time it was after."

After finishing her explanation, Glitter sighed and looked around. She wasn't really sure about much lately, but now sitting here in this dinner with other people fighting against BLI, she was sure of two things: the first being Sandman was adorable, and she very much enjoyed looking at him. The second was that she was almost positive that Lux had eyes for the one called Kobra Kid. Spending as much time as they had together, Glitter had a feeling she knew Lux better than Lux probably knew herself.

Glitter also couldn't help but notice the difference in aesthetics between the two gangs - The Killjoys were more flashy, like she was, however, the Youngbloods had more of a muted color scheme going on. Glitter noticed that Phoenix and Novocaine seem to stand out among the four of them. Phoenix due to the brightly colored tattoos that covered every inch of exposed skin from the neck down, and he didn't seem to like to wear a shirt, and Novocaine because he had a large mop of dark curly hair that seemed to have a mind of its own.

"So, I really hate to be that person, but Lux and I haven't eaten in, what? A day, day, and a half?" Glitter looked at Lux, who was sitting next to Kobra.

"Yeah, about a day and a half," Lux answered.

"We don't want to put anyone out, but if we could eat that would be amazing." 

"I suppose we could spare a couple cans of Power Pup for the heroes of the day," Jet announced before going back into the kitchen and returning with two cans, a spoon in each and they started to dig in.

"Why haven't we seen you two around before?" Phoenix asked.

Glitter shrugged "We've always tried to keep a low profile and avoid BLI and their associates as much as possible."

"A low profile? Looking like that, you are literally wearing a crown made of flowers?" Novocaine scoffed.

"You wanna fight? Because I will drop you right now" Glitter jumped off the counter and was caught by Ghoul and Sandman as she tried to lunge at Novocaine.

"Whoa, whoa, there will be no fighting each other," Party stepped in between Glitter and Novocaine.

Glitter threw up her hands "Fine, whatever" she sat on one of the stools in front of the counter.

"We've always tried to stay on the edges and away from others, until now," Lux stated. "That lab we blew up? We discovered it by accident one day, and we knew we had to do something about it."

Glitter sighed, "The things that they were doing had to be stopped. It was horrible."

A deafening silence fell over everyone.

Glitter shook her head, "But it's done. That lab....is destroyed. Time to move on and think of other, less depressing, things." Glitter grabbed her can of Power Pup and started eating. "So now that we've introduced ourselves, explained how we blew up the lab, and got to know each other a bit," Glitter shot Lux a look, "would you guys be ok with us crashing here for the night?"

Lux looked around the room, batting her eyelashes at the men and pouting slightly, hoping to guilt them into letting them stay, much the same way she got into the BLI lab.

"As long as you don't start any fights, your welcome here as long as you need to be," Party replied.

#The Fantastic Adventures of Glitter Ghost and Killer Lux #Danger Days Fan Fic #Fabulous Killjoys Fan Fic #Young Blood Chronicles AU #My Chemical Romance Fan Fic #Fall Out Boy Fan Fic #Kobra Kid #Sandman #OCs