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ghouloflove · 11 months

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when worlds collide.

in other words, the only female member of the biggest korean band in the world goes to formula 1 race in monaco with a friend; only to meet a certain ferrari driver.

pairing: charles leclerc x oc/fc (reader is an idol)

authors note: hello hello, this is me simply trying my attempt at sm aus! lately been fixated on f1, even trying to learn more about:) ofc a tiktok popped up abt charles then opps down the rabbit hole 🕳️ n recently found out that Wi (squid game actor) was at monaco this year so obviously I was like…..somethings cooking. then the 10th anniversary came for bts then again….something is being made. anyways hope you all like! (trying my best on remembering on certain ascents of the kpop social media goes cuz i'm not thatttt deep into it anymore!)

ps. soyeon is the actual name of the fc, i simply changed it to kim soyeon. check her and group out, G-IDLE! annndd her signature emoji is 🐻‍❄️! ALSO Monaco Grand Prix takes place three races into the 2023 season, for the sake of appropriate posts 🥴 this little sm au has its own race schedule for special purposes because lord knows I don't do well with dates so !!! but Im pretty sure all the race dates are the same, just the races switch spots :) and of course, google translated korean, french and italian will appear.

-enjoy.

part two. part three.

[ instagram ]

s0ye0nnnn

liked by rkive, wi_wi_wi, soye0nssloot and 4,589,890 others

s0ye0nnn monaco 🇲🇨 f1 race weekend with wi ! met some cool people and had some great laughs. first time but definitely not my last kekee

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wi_wi_wi why not redbull though!?

rkive we must go to one together!

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s0ye0nnn 🙌

luvusoye0n wowoww wishing u hadn’t gone on charles curse home race 🥲 he’s great tho!

tomholland2013 wonderful seeing you again! glad you had fun!

scuderiaferrari it was an absolute pleasure having you visit and chat with us at the padlock! 😎 team Ferrari, yes?

view 12,456 replies

s0yeonsluvr shes got incredible taste, as always 😌

charleslec01 idk who she is, except shes in a band but i like her already lol

mysticalyeon holdupholdup….chat? with who👀

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letsgossip_kpop

liked by ncccct101 and 321,789 others

letsgossip_kpop [ ASIDE FROM GOSSIP, LET’S UPDATE ⬆️: Kim Soyeon, the only female member of BTS (an international sensation group), has recently attended the Formula 1’s Monaco Grand Prix over the weekend. With Wi Ha-Jun, star of Squid Games, she was spotted chatting with her previous co-star from the animated film Onward, Tom Holland and others such as Actor James Marsden (who she has been rumored to be featuring in a film with as his on-screen lover). It seems her most talked about conversation even by her close friend, Wi Ha-Jun—was with the Ferrari team and drivers, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. There are no sources on what the conversation contained but her friend Wi Ha-Jun comment on her recent instagram post suggests her team is now Ferrari, “Why not redbull though?!” Perhaps there will be more to be said once she and fellow member, Kim Namjoon, attend a Grand Prix together as shown in her comments. Will this remain just an update or turn into gossip? Stay tuned! - from your admin 🌱]

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charlecssss sooo….shes the only female in BTS? i remember seeing her around them all time pictures or videos of them came up but like…???

f0rmulatypee1 nice to see someone like her status get familiar with the sport, but hopefully she’ll turn team Redbull 🙏 the winners 🏆

s0yeonmyluv WHEN MY WOLDSS CLOOIDE 💀

k.f1.pop i was literally just saying what if F1 drivers had photocards 👹

letsgossip_kpop UPDATE ⬆️: Charles Leclerc, and Carlos Sainz have followed Kim Soyeon’s social media (Instagram and Twitter). Other drivers such as Lewis Hamiliton, Lando Norris and Zhou Guanyu have followed her before her recent introduction to Formula 1. (Admin 👾: my worlds have collided!)

maxverssstp fuck outtaa here, cirnge 🤢

lalaaland noooo this was the only place away from the freaks in kpop🥴

s0yeonnnbby idk y ppl r hating like…shes like everyone else, trying have a good time n yet ppl r mad that drivers r starting (AND BEEN) following her????🤠

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[ twitter ]

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[ instagram ]

s0ye0nnn

liked by rkive, thv, wi_wi_wi, 101ofkims, charles_leclerc and 4,890,487 others

s0ye0nnn 10 years of pain. of comfort. of love. of heartbreak. of the highest of highs, to the scum of the earth lows. of questions, “can you do this?”, “is this the end?”, “can you handle this?”.

this group went from strangers to friends to family. i was the odd one out, most definitely. i was a girl in a group with seven boys. i was originally meant to leave the company but the man who believed we could become something pushed me into the group. it was strange—then it wasn’t.

year after year, we slowly formed a family. with one thing in common: we loved music. music has always been in my blood, even in my blood family. my found family has created melodies , poetry hidden in symbolic instrumentals and videos descriptive of what is and what is not.

within that, we found others like us. others that may not be in musical industry but found their place and home in our music—that is you, ARMY.

당신의 삶을 우리와 공유해 주셔서 감사합니다. 여전히 우리와 함께 걸어주셔서 감사합니다. 모두가 돌아올 때까지 기다려 주셔서 감사합니다. 💜 ( translation: Thank you for sharing your life with us. Thank you for still walking with us. Thanks for waiting for everyone to come back. )

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rkive beautiful words, 작은 곰 🐻‍❄️🤍

view 12,467 replies

s0ye0nnn 최고에게 배웠다 ! 🐨🤍 ( translation: learned from the best! )

b0anggtans enough to amke a grown woman 😢

thv 🐻‍❄️❤️

biassssjk the last photonnnn!!!!! idk y but thats so cute 🥹

purpuryouuu 10 yearsssss 😅 been here for 5💜💜💜

charles_leclerc Just began listening to your discography! Can’t wait for your future projects, solo and group! ❤️ Happy 10 years 😆

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s0ye0nnn come visit korea! some behind the scenes? 👀

cl16lucyyy aaARIAN WHAT U DOH G HERRE!?! 💀😭

f14liferrrr no charles!!! stay Way from kpoppiess! 🚫

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s0ye0nnn

tagged rkive

liked by rkive, wi_wi_wi, charles_leclerc, scuderiaferrari, and 5,098,450 others

s0ye0nnn Australian Grand Prix 🇦🇺 with joonie! 🐨 was very fun, nice views and such great company (on and off track?) !

view all 1,098,762 comments

rkive mercedes....🐻‍❄️

view 15,098 replies

s0ye0nnn hushhhhh k.f1.pop RM knows whatsup

scuderiaferrari It was an absolute pleasure having you with us! You must come again, lucky charm!

danielricciardo Despite opposite teams, it was so cool to meet and chat for awhile! Good laughs 😁

s0yoyoens slayed everyone, ate, left no crumbs, walk me like a dog!!!!!!

charles_leclerc I think your words helped a bit, haha 😉 Coming to next one?

view 5,647 replies

s0ye0nnn noooo, your talent! and of course, this is my new obsession! 😍 s0yeonmyluv SHUT UO NOW omfgggg WHAT WORDS?// KET ME INNNNN formula1n1mv charlesssss....you're approaching new and scary territory !!!

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[ twitter ]

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authors final note:

i really hope you all enjoy this! this is sorta one of the social media au where it's a somewhat slow build because lets be honest, just meeting once and dating right after aint happening, plus who doesn't love the subtle growth of a friendship ;) oh and this universe of kpop are actually treated like humans by their company and can date but of course, haters are going hate plus Kim Soyeon is THAT bitch. ofc you are be her, that is essentially the purpose but i kinda dislike "y/n" idk just kinda makes it hard for me to make everything look good but dw just close ur eyes and imagineeeee, soyeon is just a fc for the posts keke. if you want to be tagged in the next part, comment and i'll do it! PART TWO IS ALREADY IN THE MAKING, LITERALLY ALMOST DONE WITH IT.

guide: i am always open to constructive criticism. i'm always down to learn how to better and try to implement them.

--and that world is yours, until next time.

#charles leclerc imagine #charles leclerc fanfic #charles leclerc x you #charles leclerc x oc #charles leclerc social media au #f1 instagram au #f1 imagine #charles leclerc x female reader #charles leclerc x reader #f1 x kpop

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petalsonmoon · 1 year

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i’ll love you in silence, from a distance, just like i love the moon.

(a certain scene of never let me go inspired me. once again english is not my first language so my sincere apologies. anyone can read! it doesn’t contain any pronouns.)

you get out of bed hesitantly.

your steps to the door are slow, your anxiety makes you be careful even if the man in the other room is concentrated watching TV.

peter was too kind and too unbelievably beautiful you sometimes felt he wasn't real. he had those eyes that told people staight away how big his heart is and how he would never judge anyone and yet you couldn't help but look at them and want to change all of you to be everything he ever wanted.

and you've known each other for so long, there's no reason for this nervousness. who are you trying to fool here y/n, you know damn right why you’re bitting your nails.

his sofa faces the bedroom door so you took a deep breath before opening it.

you open the door and leave the room, closing the door you keep looking at your hand on the doorknob. enough seconds have passed to understand that your intention isn’t going to the bathroom.

when you finally look at him, his eyes were on you with a small smile next to it to accelerate your already accelerated heart.

he lifts the blanket in the empty space next to him and you nod almost imperceptibly. it wasn't that close like cuddle close. but it was pretty close.

okay. this is okay.

and now looking at the tv you frown. he was watching sonic the hedgehog.

"it's a nice movie." you say.

he turns to you. "what?"

"what what?"

"it is a nice movie." he answers agressivily.

"that's what i just said"

"it was implied in your tone what you meant." you really try to hide a smile. there was a split second of silence. "the second movie is coming out. that's why i wanted to watch."

even though a smile was trying to escape he looked like a child who's been told he couldn't have ice cream for dinner.

and for a moment you rest your head on his shoulder in way to show him you are kidding, it was supposed to be for a second but he suprises you wrapping his arm around your shoulders and hugging you.

you end up watching the rest of the movie like this. the world and paranoias completely forgotten.

"i mean... i get it. it was because of james marsden, wasn't it?"

you say when the credits start to roll and turn to him. "i see your smirk. you were so planning to watch enchanted after this-"

a low scream escapes from your throat when he hugs you and the two of you fall lying on the couch.

it can be said that you are close but this is not a common situation. in 6 years that you are neighbors you have created an incredible bond. not of best friends but you were, in the literal sense of the word there for each other.

when you just mentioned that you would need to make a major reform in your apartment, the next day he rang your doorbell and appeared with a big bag of tea boxes saying that he knew you couldn't go on with your day without drinking it for breakfast.

“because you know, you’ll be living with me for a while.”

and stupid romcom shit like that is what makes you fall in love with somebody.

you don't have enough courage to turn your face to him but you felt his chin gently touching your forehead.

“will you watch sonic 2 in the theaters with me?”

“you didn’t watch top gun with me.”

he’s definitely pouting.

“i’ll watch barbie in the 12 dancing princess with you.”

you look up at him for a second with a large smile on your face. “will you really?”

“just say when.”

you’re certain the world stoped for you two tonight.

“pss”

he’s a child.

“hm?”

“are you okay?” and it’s implied on his tone what he meant.

“i am.”

silence.

“i really am.”

“ok.”

his hug tightens slightly and you feel his finger affectionately draw a circle on your back. suddenly you feel like crying.

“you’re going to stay on this hug for while.” he just let’s you know.

your forehead meet his neck.

“i don’t mind.” it comes out of you low like a breath.

in these 6 years you’ve been sure you were down bad for him for at least 4 of them. and never once you truly learned how to read him. sure you knew when he was lying about silly things or trying to hide the fact he was exhausted from his work. or even when a bad mood was coming.

but not once he even blinked differently at you. so being head over heals for the boy became a familiar feeling accommodated in a little room in your heart. it didn’t hurt it was just there.

that being said, it was your first night sleeping at peter’s apartment.

and he didn’t know you can’t sleep in total darkness.

“i can’t… i have a hard time sleeping without some light on.” just keep going “i have this moon shaped lamp in my room that helps me…”

he nods. maybe thinking about an answer.

“may i ask why?”

“i don’t know. something about the light makes me feel less alone? …it feels like it’s illuminating the dark paranoias out of my head.” you say the last part in a joking way but you’re not sure that’s how he interprets it.

silence involves both of you.

“did you know that a 20-second hug is good for the heart?”

“really?”

“yeah.” he’s very calm “i’m not gonna say you should’ve told me but i’m gonna say you could have.”

“i feel like a 14 years old when i talk about this.”

“hey, no.” you just know he’s frowning “not at all. someone’s discomfort or fear is never silly. don’t think like that.”

you nod.

“you know how absolutely terrified i am of small insects.” he says.

“me and the whole building.”

“so you better come when i shout or i’ll have to knock on mrs mulligan.”

“she’ll kill the bug then you. and right next to it on purpose.”

“with no hesitation. and we don’t want that.”

he adjusts his body so you can be face to face.

your mind is at ease but you’re afraid he can feel your heart race increasing.

“you’re not alone, y/n. not as long i live and breathe quite literally next to you.”

he gently rubs his nose on yours. oh.

you’re not sure what is happening but it’s very natural. you’re not nervous. it’s a great feeling. it kinda feels like he likes you the way you like him.

so you just go for it.

“did you know that a kiss is like a reduces blood pressure? it prevents cardiovascular problems.”

“really?”

“probably. i don’t know”

he smiles. he’s really really cute when he smiles.

“what if i told you that i can test this theory?” he whispers so close to you that for a second you think he's not real.

"oh"

he bites his lower lip like he's fighting a smile. and that's the last thing you see before he kisses you.

a slow kiss. your hands traces his chest to his neck and gently caresses his brown hair. peter's arm pulls you impossibly closer to him while the other hand draws such gentle shapes on your neck that at the same time it makes you shiver, you melt on him.

he tasted like snickers. his tongue was warm and calm while danced with yours. you’re going to deduce and say that it was a very passionate kiss with a hint of longing from both parts.

when he pulls back from you after you don’t even know how long he kisses your cheek.

“should i buy a saturn shaped lamp for my bedroom?” he whispers and you smile.

#peter parker x reader #peter parker imagine #peter parker #andrew garfield #tasm!peter parker x reader #tasm!peter parker imagine #peter parker x you #tasm!peter imagine #spiderman imagine #spiderman #peter parker x y/n #spiderman x reader

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actuallylorelaigilmore · 8 months

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2022 MOVIE OF THE WEEK #33

disenchanted. i......have been avoiding this review since literally months ago because just thinking about reviewing this movie makes me sad and tired. if you loved this movie, which i think some people must have because i’ve seen the occasional gifs from it on my dash, feel free to skip this. it’ll go behind a cut, because i suspect it’s gonna get long.

(spoiler alert: it got ridiculously long. how did i have five thousand words to say about this? and if anyone besides leander reads this i’ll be shocked but that’s fine cuz they were the one encouraging me to make it through this rant and if they hadn’t i definitely would have given up even trying a long time ago.)

and it is pretty much universally negative, because i could not have been more looking forward to this sequel featuring literally my favorite disney (noncanon but still mine) princess and it not only let me down (as sequels tbh do a lot so that’s not even surprising) but it sincerely broke my heart.

in a ‘wow i’m being really overdramatic about a disney movie’ sort of way, but it’ll make more sense after i explain it, i promise. you had to be there, i think, to care as much as i do, and only @actuallylukedanes was, so it was also pretty convenient that i ended up watching this with them when they were gonna watch it with their partner and invited me to join. cuz they felt the same way i did about the sequel, which is how i knew i was not overreacting.

it was also leander who advised me to start posting completed reviews of other 2022 movies since i was stuck on this one, even though i never posted them out of order before. (i ended up realizing in january that i totally forgot a movie from 2022, so it’s good i wasn’t as obsessed with perfect chronology anyway.)

the first warning sign i had with this movie was honestly its release. they had been talking about an enchanted sequel for so long that i had stopped hoping for one, and then when it was really happening they wouldn’t even put it in theaters!! i was so pissed off about that, because enchanted felt like a magical (pun intended) experience for me in 2007.

it came out exactly on my birthday, when i turned 23, and @actuallylukedanes and i saw it in the theater to celebrate. we lived in utah then, and were happy rather than homeless, and we paid for the movie using a card that had a ‘reward’ system like a lottery where they told you they would at some random time choose a single purchase you made, and reimburse you for it. out of everything we paid for with that card, it was the tickets to enchanted that they made free.

and i couldn’t have been more excited to see enchanted back then, because it was a real live musical, and those have always been rarer than i wish they were, and the cast was ridiculously great. long before amy adams was making bigger movies, she had played tara’s cousin on buffy and a memorable one-episode character on charmed, and i had just always loved her an unreasonable amount like i had been waiting for her to be a movie star. plus i had discovered wicked in college and dove deep into other idina menzel musicals as well as every one of her solo albums (and singles that weren’t sold anywhere, which i downloaded illegally because that is called devotion) and was just generally obsessed with her for years.

and then there was patrick dempsey, reliable dreamy star of grey’s anatomy (which i gave up on quickly but he was good in) and james marsden of the x-men trilogy i had watched a zillion times. (his character was not one i liked in that, but he was great as a comedic part of this.) i had grown up with susan sarandon and wasn’t used to her as a villain but she brought just the right level of Too Much, and her henchman was perfectly cast. they somehow managed to even make the child in the story not annoying, which can be really rare, especially when she has an actual role--but she’s great.

the mix of animation and live-action was really fun, and when giselle’s dress goes from cartoon to sparkly 3d it was so swoony. truly like a disney fantasy sort of moment, they brought so much to life. and they did so even where it shouldn’t have worked! the basic plot of ‘two couples aren’t meant to be so they switch partners amongst themselves and then it’s perfect’ is not one i like in other movies, but here i’m just like, yeah absolutely, dance with patrick dempsey in your pretty dress, and let idina menzel go live in a fairy tale.

but in addition to all of that, and the catchy, catchy music, what i really, truly loved about enchanted, and why it was one of my all time favorite movies to put on that i never got sick of (along with mamma mia and a few others, i really like musicals okay), is how much it turned out that i identified with giselle. how much she not only made sense to me, even as she was supposed to be this wide-eyed disney princess, but how she gave me language for things i was still figuring out, and i got so attached to that.

i was 23 years old. i had left home less than two years earlier, and i didn’t know i was autistic yet, let alone bipolar/anxious/adhd/disordered eating all knotted together. i hadn’t begun thinking about what it meant to be ‘developmentally disabled,’ and how unprepared that made me for adulthood, independence or being in a relationship. I had just leaped into all those things, and i wasn’t necessarily all that good at any of them.

but there was giselle, singing her way through a world she didn’t understand how to navigate either, and it was okay because there was somebody who loved her for her exact weird self and a child who needed her. (substitute cats for child and you see where i’m coming from.) she was relentlessly optimistic but also cursed by forces outside her control, and she was full of creativity.

my absolute favorite moment that giselle has in the whole movie, when it comes to why it was important to me, is when she experiences anger. at first she can’t even name it, and then there’s a kind of joy she finds in it, in having a new feeling...in having the FREEDOM to feel that difficult feeling, and not need things to be perfect all the time. until i saw that scene, i had never realized that my childhood had trained me to not be angry--before i was even conscious that had happened. and once i saw that scene, i started to wonder if maybe anger was something i was allowed to feel, after all.

i think if you’re not me, or you didn’t know me at 21 (a fragile adorable unstable bby desperate to be rescued from my life), it might be hard to understand that, how i didn’t just love giselle for being giselle, but loved her for being the most me a character played by amy adams could be.

up until i fell in love, and was loved in return (my only real wish thanks to moulin rouge), i collected tv and movie characters, made little lists of them, and they were always the ones i wanted to be like, ones i wanted to grow into. usually the snarky best friends, the deadpan wits, the ones who pined but never got the guy. (bby me didn’t think anything but ‘guy’ was an option.) i didn’t spend time claiming characters that were like me, that made me feel seen, until i was older. (i couldn’t, when i didn’t know who ‘me’ was.) so giselle felt like one of the first ones, with her autistic literalism and trust in humanity and her joy in everything.

then flash forward fifteen years and they’re continuing the story. even more amazingly, they’ve brought back the whole central cast (minus the child actor, who i assumed they replaced because New Morgan sings and dances, but i didn’t look it up or anything). idina is much more famous now thanks to her frozen work and of course amy adams is amy freaking adams now, nominated but never oscared, but they both came back. the direct-to-streaming release worried me, but i saw a trailer and the movie looked way better than i kind of expected, so i was excited after all. and as mentioned above, i settled in to watch it with my family.

^^^^and that is where this review left off, almost a year ago--because it was still so hard for me to wrap my brain and my heart around writing it. but at this point i’ve reviewed all the other movies i watched in 2022, AND i’ve watched almost 20 movies this year and reviewed most of them, and those reviews are just sitting in my drafts waiting for me to post them once i finish this. so here goes:

this movie was bad. obviously that’s a personal opinion or value judgement or whatever, but like...it was really, really bad. it bore no resemblance to the original and painfully reminded me how disney’s moviemaking these days is so soulless when it comes to trying to squeeze more money out of its existing IP. and i can handle fairy tale/princess modernizations that aren’t all that impressive (idina was in one of those as well, cinderella), but even those had parts that i liked or that were fun once i was grading on a curve for the whole movie. i can’t say the same for this one.

first of all, we’ve skipped time since the original, which makes sense, since everybody’s older. but nothing about the time progression makes sense, because offscreen fifteen years have passed, making amy adams 48 when this movie came out. giselle and robert have just had a newborn whose royal inheritance is what leads to the movie’s plot--at best, i guess we can assume amy was supposed to be playing giselle a lot younger than she, the actress, was. or maybe her andalasian genes make her immune to fertility averages?

either way, though, that still doesn’t explain morgan. who in addition to becoming literally a different person (and i hope they only replaced her because the original actress opted out, because she was so great in the first movie i’d resent disney for dumping her just to make the new one sing and dance, or whatever other justifications they might have) is a teenager now. Original Morgan was nine years old in enchanted, or the actress was, anyway. if we assume they meant for Original Morgan to be only seven or eight as a character, that still doesn’t explain a now-high-schooler morgan in this movie. it has been literally twice as many years in real time as it would have to have been in this movie world for morgan to be this age! and unfortunately for the movie, it’s mainly about adults, who have aged the fifteen years you would expect. so that’s ridiculous.

but anyway. somehow, all the adults from enchanted look fifteen years older but morgan’s a teen, and her parents have had a shiny new baby. idina’s character moved with prince james marsden to his world, and literally everyone is depressed now except prince james marsden (and presumably the baby). giselle sees a billboard and decides that’s a plausible reason to uproot her whole family from the city she fell in love with and that the others were from even before meeting her...to move to the suburbs.

at first, because of the impression i got from the trailer, i thought she would be moving to a perfect-seeming little enclave that was secretly evil, like a magical stepford or something, and that it would turn her evil and throw her family into peril. but the real plot is not that creative. it’s literally just the three of them moving to an ordinary suburb that (gasp!) doesn’t automatically fix their lives. instead, robert has a slog of a commute now, and in their own ways, giselle and morgan both struggle to fit in with their new local peers.

everything establishing this movie’s setup baffled me because it felt so random and flimsy, when the original was a beautiful sendup of classic disney tropes that managed to be subversive but still magical. i referred earlier to giselle deciding on a plausible reason, and i felt the same way about disney and this sequel: it felt like they decided this concept was a plausible reason to bring the cast back together, mix in a few new actors, and try to make money off the result (in this case by locking it inside their streaming service as though that would force new subscribers to disney+ instead of what i’m guessing actually happened, having less viewers for the movie than they would’ve gotten in theaters--cuz even i, the biggest fan of the original, wouldn’t have subscribed just to watch it).

but their ‘plausible’ setup is therefore that everybody’s feeling a bit meh in new york city. robert’s not excited about his job, morgan’s a sullen teenager, and giselle misses the days when everything felt magical and new and perfect. instead of recognizing that they have a freaking newborn, which i may not have experienced personally but have certainly heard is a difficult phase of life (especially the first time, for giselle), and that they simultaneously have a teenager, which anybody who’s ever been or met a teenager can tell you is a difficult phase of life for both the teen and their parents--heck, instead of just going to THERAPY when new york city is one of the few places it may still be easier to find access than everywhere else these days--they move to a random place where they know no one for truly no reason.

the movie wants us to believe that the reason is giselle seeing a billboard and believing its promise (or still being unusually literal?) but neither of those makes any sense because even if we had reason to believe that giselle hadn’t learned anything or grown in the last mysterious number of years and would truly treat a billboard like a promise rather than an advertisement (and i don’t think what we see of her in the sequel supports that idea) it’s still robert she’s married to now, and we know he’s always been someone who lovingly but firmly points that stuff out.

morgan’s unhappy because she’s a teenager, she doesn’t actually want to move, and as much as robert loves giselle, i don’t believe at all that he would just let her have her fantasy of a fresh start without injecting reality into the situation--so i think the real explanation is that both robert and giselle, for their own reasons, are desperate enough to try it despite knowing it won’t be a magic fix. but then idina menzel and prince james marsden (i should remember their character names but i really don’t at the moment) pop into their new, still-unhappy-just-in-a-different-time-zone, lives and make everything even worse. way to go guys!

continuing the flimsy plot setups, they’re visiting to give a gift to the new baby, to basically proclaim how special she is and make morgan feel like she’s neither special nor giselle’s ‘real’ daughter. giselle is thrilled by the gift from her childhood home and her former prince remains as hilarious as ever (the acting in this movie is good, they’re just not given as much to work with; ‘campy humor’ was the only element they could successfully recreate for some reason). but nancy is clearly already Over It, the former new yorker not exactly as enchanted with prince james marsden as she used to be now that she has to live with his personality 24/7.

you might expect this to be woven in with the central family’s ennui in some way, but you would be disappointed--that general intermittent eyerolly energy is never directly addressed and as far as we know by the end of the movie, she’s still with him. and i guess will remain so forever? because that��s the rule when you choose a fairy tale life?? even though giselle’s story was entirely about leaving fairy tales behind when they weren’t what she wanted???

maybe we’re supposed to read nancy’s reactions as like, lovable occasional annoyance at How Very Much her guy can be sometimes. but it didn’t come across that way to me; it seemed intentionally to mirror the dissatisfaction giselle and robert were struggling with. i could have been giving them too much credit there, i guess, in assuming deliberate parallels.

but the real point is that the adults were unhappy in the city, and now, in the suburbs, they’re still not very happy. after the gift-givers go back to andalasia, giselle makes a wish using her baby’s magic present, wanting to make their family into a fairy tale...and she gets her wish. morgan goes from a strugglng teen to a cheerful girl again, running around singing and eventually having to be the savior of her family. robert goes from a commuting lawyer to a wannabe monster slayer, and giselle slowly transforms into an evil stepmother--while the women in town who’ve been snubbing her turn into an actual villain with henchwomen in tow.

from then on, it only gets more ridiculous. amy adams is an immensely talented actor, and like i said, i’ve loved her since she was on tv. but she is not doing her best work here, switching between normal giselle and evil stepmother giselle in response to a chiming clock in a way that reminded me of one of those over-the-top acts where a guy hypnotizes people and then can trigger them to be a chicken or something. it was just so over the top, and lacked any of the emotional depth the original movie brought to her character that made me care.

and poor robert, it was clear, they did not know what to do with. a convoluted exchange with prince james marsden before the wish created circumstances where he was carrying a sword around on his commute. that, i’m sure, was supposed to help make it seem like it made sense for him to become a giant fighter or whatever. but really, they had a sequel to make in which he had to be there because he was her happily ever after in the first one, except now robert isn’t a love interest anymore, there’s no drama between them--and the actor was never meant to be a major contributor to the musical part of these movies, so what’s the point of his story? to run around looking for monsters, totally separate, and mostly unnecessary, it turns out.

the fairy tale transformations mean that we go from watching giselle being sad and hurt in response to morgan’s attitude to morgan’s being mistreated by her now-evil stepmother--neither of which is fun. in giselle’s intermittent ‘good’ moments, she tries to encourage morgan to be free of her and get help, and eventually morgan does end up in andalasia with nancy (she’s also a cartoon at that point, i think). nancy helps her understand what might fix things, and the fact that it’s up to their teenage daughter (whose complaints the whole time have honestly seemed the most reasonable to me compared to her parents’ vague ennui) to save not just her own family but both worlds from doom...it doesn’t seem at all fair. but okay.

the solution for making giselle good again involves morgan’s memories and singing and the idea that with the power of love it’ll all be fine, but what i remember most about it is that the scene is really just a vehicle for idina menzel to get her own song. which, duh--i was very disappointed that she didn’t sing in the original, and given the success of frozen, it would’ve been crazy for them not to showcase her more this time.

but the song she’s given? it’s so bad. so very bad. the others i was watching this movie with spent a significant portion of the song time mocking it, and i couldn’t blame them. at a certain point, it just devolves into idina belting the words ‘love power’ over and over and over. you know how some words or phrases become completely meaningless if you say them too much? this definitely felt like that, like the big drama’s ‘solution’ was flimsy to begin with, and then they forced a song into it that wasn’t even a good song, and got idina to sing it. she’s so much better than that! it genuinely made me wonder if she has some kind of disney contract that left her stuck dealing with this.

somehow thanks to morgan, though, giselle does stop being evil by the end--i don’t remember exactly how that scene plays out so i doubt it matters too much--and ending the sort of wish curse she inflicted on everybody means they go back to living in a normal suburb. the woman who briefly became her villain nemesis apologizes in a ‘sometimes i’m a lot oops’ way, and giselle is just like ‘hey, me too, no big deal.’

and this brings me to my two biggest problems with the movie, outside of how much it felt like it was trying to destroy any love i still held for the original.

this movie has no real villain. unlike the first one, where susan sarandon was camping it up in a delightfully appropriate way, and was defeated in the end...this movie falls into the same hole that so many New Disney Movies are determined to, for unknown reasons. we can’t have classic straight-up evil anymore; our heroes have to instead be facing antagonists that are less specific or even less corporeal. it’s family! who of course will no longer be in conflict by the end, and don’t actually need to be ‘defeated.’ or it’s emotions! and once they can be accepted rather than avoided then things will be okay again.

i’m not saying that’s a bad thing, in general. i love encanto, and i thought turning red and inside out were great. but when you’re dealing with a now-franchise whose original style was to reference and gently mock and lovingly rework classic disney tropes...why would you toss that out completely and make a sequel that feels like the other movies disney makes now? why can’t people appreciate that beloved movies are beloved for a reason and you can’t just slap the ‘brand name’ on whatever you want and act like it’s just as good?

but yeah. this movie decided to have no villain by way of having two villains, both of whom were only temporarily villainous due to indirect magic and who became normal again once it stopped. they bear no real responsibility for being villains, because after all, they aren’t really. post-movie, it seems like they may even become friends! all’s well that ends well.

which really annoyed me, lol, because it felt so incredibly pointless once i knew that was how it ended. our main character accidentally makes herself evil, makes somebody else evil, has to be saved from being evil while fighting the other evil, and the grand conclusion is that they just finish back where they started? how is that a story that moves forward, let alone a good story with some kind of point or even just a good-versus-evil win, fairy tale style?

it’s like the main conflict of the movie is created by them having problems, but then the problems they were having...are solved because they’re no longer in conflict. which brings me to my second issue with the movie’s ending: apparently the ultimate lesson of this follow up to enchanted is that growing up means learning to settle, rather than believing in happily ever afters.

despite the cheerful singing at the end of the movie that tries to make us believe it’s just as great an ending as enchanted got, i was so underwhelmed and disappointed and tbh freaked out, that they reached that conclusion. the story we were given was giselle and robert and morgan are a family now just like they wanted but they’re all unhappy, so they move out of the city to seek happiness elsewhere. and it fixes nothing which instead spirals giselle into cursing the town but in the end everybody’s okay and there are no consequences and nobody’s mad at giselle cuz she didn’t mean to do it...so she and robert and morgan commit to trying even harder to be happy in their new suburban life.

and all i can wonder is, why is that the lesson? why is that the right place to end up? why couldn’t they go back to the city and figure out their problems there, since clearly suburbia wasn’t a fix on its own? there didn’t seem to be a real reason for requiring giselle, who loved the sparkly harsh city she landed in years ago, to become a suburban mom--or for uprooting morgan, or making robert become a ‘small town practice’ kind of guy.

i guess what grates on me about it is that it has such a hallmark christmas movie vibe of just assuming their real happy ending would naturally be escaping the city, no matter how central it was to their original story and lives. whatever their deeper issues were that made them unhappy in the city, they haven’t addressed those by the end of the movie; they’ve just somewhat improved the issues that moving TO this new place piled on.

therefore my logical brain goes, you were unhappy and tried to fix it by moving but that only made things worse. why wouldn’t you reverse the making-it-worse part by going back, and then continue trying to figure out how to fix it? i just don’t get it. and i may be kind of offended by it, because the giselle who i have always adored is a completely different person in this movie, and not because of some wish curse.

she’s older, and sad, and it’s like nothing about her life is fun anymore...and maybe there could’ve been a way to craft an interesting story out of that, though i don’t know what it would be off the top of my head. but we don’t get whatever that could’ve been. and we don’t get a sequel about our faves from enchanted having more hijinks and having a to fight a new tropey villain, in the style of the first one. what we get is a story about everybody from the first one not liking their lives and having to fight the fallout from that and then concluding that hey, at least the world didn’t end so they must be better off than they thought, time to make the best of it. it deeply depressed me.

and look--i’m not saying i demand happy endings always. i don’t even require happy endings mostly! but unless there is some requirement i’m not aware of that post-pandemic we are no longer allowed happy endings at all, this was not the movie world to bring back just to say ‘the best you can hope for is meh. good luck.’ giselle and everybody else deserved better.

i will say that there was one thing about this movie that i liked. exactly one thing, sadly, or at least only one i clearly remember. i was really excited about the casting before this came out, because i love jayma mays, and maya rudolph is reliably good always. once i actually saw the movie, i was bummed that jayma mays and the other henchwoman didn’t have roles worth including, but maya rudolph was as good as i expected.

and since this movie was such a mess, she also just really stood out. she’s a ‘can do it all’ kind of performer, in a way that makes it look easy, and i feel like that’s the difference between amy adam’s background in a lot of dramatic roles and maya rudolph’s background in snl. they’re both super talented and both have range, but are a good fit for different things because of that.

so there is one song in this movie and one performance (cuz it’s the performance of it that makes it good) that i genuinely enjoyed. it’s basically a face off between the two not-actually-villains, kind of like ‘anything you can do i can do better’ but sillier and maximum camp. it’s the only part where it felt like that was what the movie was deliberately aiming for, and both actresses are fully going for it while sometimes we’re watching them parallel on splitscreen...it was ridiculous but in an entertaining rather than cringe-inducing way.

so that part is great, but also highlights even more what this movie could have been. if only they had let maya rudolph be a proper villain, the leader of a trio of new antagonists for our faves to face, that would’ve been potentially a great movie. she could have gone evil after getting her hands on the baby’s wand, then gone down fighting after the family consulted with their andalasian friends on how to deal with magically corrupted humans. the ending could have been more interesting with bigger stakes than ‘everyone survives and decides to play nice.’

heck, i could write that version of that movie! lol. but i won’t. because it would probably necessitate rewatching disenchanted and that is something i never ever want to do. that was a piece of my heart you fucked with, you jerks. and i’m gonna stay mad.

#disenchanted #rant #amy adams #idina menzel #patrick dempsey #james marsden #susan sarandon #actuallylukedanes #actually autistic #autistic #jayma mays #maya rudolph #negativity #enchanted #2022 motw #my formative years

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mermaidsirennikita · 5 months

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The Scoundrels Of St James would be a better tv show, I agree on that, the storylines are great and they have more dept to them including the male characters don't go that far to be considered bad for a tv audience

St Vincent is not even a morally grey character, he is an asshole and I wouldn't have him in any other way bc I love him like that lol

I will say, I do think St. Vincent is way softer than a lot of my favorites (every Mila Finelli hero except for Giacomo and Alessio, both of whom could still murder St. Vincent in 30 seconds but are very emotionally sweet, LOTHAIRE) but I don't think like... soft bad makes him gray? He gets redeemed, but redemption does not a sweetie pie make lol. Matthew Swift is a sweetie pie. St. Vincent is like... so a dick lol. Which is why even though I love his cameos in the Ravenels they're still very jarring to me because it's like--yeah, I guess it's believable that decades of marriage and five kids would mellow him out even post-redemption but like. This is a LEAP lol.

Scoundrels is honestly very cinematic as a series, and I think that's another thing about Lorraine's books that actually make them more "ready for TV" than a lot of other historicals, imo. Lorraine's books have amazing character development and super deep characters, but they also have a good bit of external plot and this rich web of supporting players who interconnect with each other. Like, the lawyer guy who's all "I'm sorry Jack Dodger but you've inherited a kid and I can't tell you why"? Is in so many other Lorraine books lmao. I'm actually pretty sure he tells the Marquess of Marsden that he inherited the Hellions of Havisham. Dr. Graves is a hero but he's also the bestest doctor who runs around and saves literally everyone who's dying in any Lorraine book ever.

I meeeeean Charles Dickens cameos in Scoundrels and he's like "I shall write a book about y'all, especially Jack Dodger because he's the coolest dude I've ever met ever in my life" and I was like wow so true Charles Dickens.

I also find it interesting that Lorraine's approach to heroes is really a lot... softer in a lot of ways than many other authors of her era, but they never feel like golden retrievers. Very few Lorraine heroes that I've read are ever truly aggressive to the heroines. Even if they don't *like* her, they're not physically *threatening* towards her. However, they are very competent, often pretty dangerous, and frequently quite dark because of a tragic backstory, self-loathing, etc. But a Lorraine hero will easily, easily hurt himself before he would ever hurt his heroine, even before he's in love. I think that's something mainstream audiences really want to see from romance heroes today--there's space for other stuff in less mainstream projects (again 365 comes to mind) but for mass appeal romance, I just feel like the hero has to have a very clear respect for women's boundaries.

#romance novel blogging #i mean. gorilla twins has some consent issues bc she doesn't know who tf he is lol #but that's different

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someopinions · 1 year

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In defense of Enchanted's (2007) Robert.

So, Enchanted is probably one of my favorite Disney movies. I love how it blends classic 2D animation with live action, the great soundtrack, and memorable characters.

And about the characters, I love them. Giselle, Robert, Nancy, and Edward. I especially like Nancy and Edward, and am so glad they returned for the sequel Disenchanted (2022).

I'm glad they had each other in the end. And who would pass up the opportunity to live in a fairytale land, where your biggest problems are the occasional trolls or dragons? And you don't have to worry about student loans or nuclear warfare!

Because I want to see more of Nancy and Edward, I look for fanart and fanfiction of them. This brings me to their pairing tag on Archive of Our Own. There are some great fanfics about them, but while browsing the tag, I came across a fic that I wanted to discuss now.

By all means, there was nothing mechanically wrong with it. Spelling, grammar, etc. And there's some fascinating ideas in there, like the "return" (?) of Queen Narissa in Nancy's dreams to tempt her and persuade her to learn magic. But I take issue with the author's depiction of Robert.

In Enchanted, we never know the ages of the characters, and nothing has been confirmed by the writers/directors/etc.

The fanfic author seems to think that Robert is 40 however, and Giselle is 18. So of course the author has Nancy react with shock (which makes no sense because she has met Giselle and can judge for herself how old she is), and the author basically drags Robert's name through the mud, saying how "he didn't want a woman who could challenge him".

I could just leave this at that, since this is "fan"-fiction after all, and it's not supposed to be entirely accurate. But I was quite surprised to discover that there is a portion of Enchanted's viewers, who have similar opinions on Robert. Even going as far back as 2007-2008.

Therefore, I would like to use this post to refute a couple of the most common claims against Robert's character.

#1. The "age difference"

Like I mentioned before, there is no official confirmation from either the movies, or staff who worked on the movies, on the character's ages (other than Morgan, Robert's six year old daughter).

As such, it is not fair to assume things about the characters, reflecting their actions in respect to those "ages". It is not fair to villainize Robert for being in a relationship with a woman "younger" than him, when we don't even know their actual ages.

I assume the aforementioned fanfic writer thought that Robert was 40 because of the actor, Patrick Dempsey's age. He was 40 years old when Enchanted came out.

If you're using the actor's age to estimate the character's ages, than let's be impartial here, okay? Amy Adams was 33, Idina Menzel was 36, and James Marsden was 34, when Enchanted came out.

On the topic of age differences in relationships however, let's step back from Enchanted for a moment and discuss it.

An age difference is fine. If both parties are consenting adults, then they are allowed to be in a relationship. As an outsider observing that relationship, you may have problems with it because it is not what you personally agree with, but this is not about you. This is their relationship, and thusly, no outside party should interfere with the wishes of two capable and consenting adults.

Therefore, responsibility for the age difference in relationships should fall on the parties involved. Both parties should be prepared for the differences in maturity and life experience compared to their partner.

Back to Enchanted, I believe that the four main characters are similar in age to each other. Giselle and Edward, the reason the audience may be led to think they are younger than they actually are, is because of their animation in Andalasia, and the way they act.

The animation style/art style of the fairytale land of Andalasia is very ambiguous. It is not clear how old Giselle and Edward are from the art style alone. Even Nancy, when marrying Edward at the end of the movie, looks younger than she was when she was in live action.

If you observe Nancy and Edward in Disenchanted, which takes place ten years later, Edward has hardly changed at all in the 2D art style. Nor has Nancy, other than changing her hair with bangs.

Giselle acts immature because she was an orphan woman living by herself in a magical forest. Her only company in the forest is the animals who raised her.

Similarly, Edward only acts "immature" because of the environment he was raised in. Queen Narissa definitely did not educate Edward as a prince, since that would make him more capable of going against her. Edward's father, the King, is not there to raise him either.

Their immaturity comes mainly from their backgrounds, not really because of age differences with their partners.

Plus, as shown in Disenchanted, Giselle and Robert have a baby ten years after Enchanted. Even if Giselle was inexperienced in "sexual relationships", it took them ten years to have a baby. Robert clearly did not rush things with Giselle, on account of her immaturity. Nor did he take advantage of her immaturity.

#2. Robert's interactions with Giselle

When Robert first meets Giselle, she is someone with nowhere to go and who has no idea of the world around them. He is justifiably wary of her, and yet he stills allows her to rest in his home.

He is not heartless, and what he did was incredibly kind compared to what someone else would do in his shoes.

Nor does Robert "put Giselle down" and deliberately make her out to be someone she isn't. His attitude towards her throughout the movie does not stem from maliciousness, but practicality. After all, people in New York do not spontaneously burst into song everyday, or act the way Giselle does.

Robert is concerned for her, which is why he tells her not to sing, or to not believe "Prince Edward" is coming for her. He views her from the lens of someone from Earth, not Andalasia, which is why he didn't believe she was from a fairytale world.

In conclusion, Robert doesn't have to be your favorite character. But please don't accuse him of being a criminal, nor an evil person!

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imunbreakabledude · 10 months

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ah fuck ah shit in my attempts to avoid twitter lately I totally didn't realize today was emmy nominations day so I didn't make my full list of nom predictions (as I like to, as a geek)

it looks like MOSTLY what I anticipated but random reactions here

congrats to bella ramsey bc I haven't seen that show but scoring a drama lead nom at such a young age is very impressive! will they win and steal the record zendaya "stole" from jodie comer

Jury Duty best comedy nom?!? that's kind of fun and surprising, tho likely only because a couple auto contenders (Hacks) didn't make it this year. james marsden getting an acting nom feels weird to me though, can't quite explain why.

Lead comedy actor is not SURPRISING per se but Steve Martin not making it ... I know he won't care yknow but always funny to see who gets picked out of a clear lead duo (see also: Christina Applegate and not Linda Cardellini, tho I feel that's less surprising with her greater fame + also her personal story going into the final season of DtM)

no offence to juno temple whatsoever because she is my favorite performer on that show but how does she keep getting nominated when they write garbage material for her

Okay. Supporting actress in a drama series. We knew this would be White Lotus heavy but FIVE slots? That should be not allowed?? How is that even possible that they all got enough votes? See I enjoyed all of those people and don't spite any of them but like FIVE people from an overrated ensemble show? I just wish Yvonne Strahovski could've at least got a nomination for her great work on handmaid's tale s5, even though I knew she wouldn't I'm bummed :( Actually far more shocking is Christina Ricci not getting in - I expected her and maybe another YJ person to make it over 1-2 of those WL actors. I guess this shows that opinions soured somewhat on Yellowjackets season 2. Overall, I won't get hopes up on this category because I anticipate it'll go to either JC or maybe, maybe, JSC, but honestly with how much the white lotus votes might split and how minor gerri's role was in succession s4 ... is this Rhea Seehorn's best shot?!? is this her last stand??! could it happen? (probably not)

Supporting actress in a drama oh god this is even less serious. i mean. we KNEW it would be mostly succession and white lotus, but has this ever happened before? a category with 8 noms split between only 2 shows?!?

anyways idk I'll post more thoughts as they come to me and maybe do official predictions later on because I find this fun kind of like sports betting lmao

#emmys #awardsthoughts #i don't CARE that much about the emmys but i find the discourse fun #what a mix of nice things and a mess these noms are

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reflections-in-a-critical-eye · 5 months

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While trying to come up with a list of favorite/best shows seen in 2023, I realized that this year there hasn't been anything that truly impressed me. Some of them were good, others mediocre and some shows that I started watching and then abandoned for whatever reason. Apart from the last season of Succession, nothing felt exciting enough that would make me impatient for the next episode. I couldn't even gather 10 shows for this list, but anyway, here it goes.

1. Succession

I do think that the last season wasn't as cohesive as the previous ones and sort of lost its direction in the second half, but it still was one of the best tv series of the year. If not for the entire season, at least for the Connor's Wedding episode, which was a masterclass in acting/directing.

2. Barry

It took me a while to get used to Barry and I wasn't really into it at the beginning, but it turned out that season 3 had one of the most interesting pieces of directing in tv and really got out of its way in terms of experimenting with the medium.

3. Rain Dogs

This is a little show, perhaps not very well known. If not for its plot, I think the acting was top notch, but it's something I usually find in a lot of British series.

4. Bad Sisters

I never thought I could hate Claes Bang's face (I really liked him in The Square), but my god, his character was a complete asshole, the worst of its kind. No wonder those sisters came up with 10+ ideas on how to kill him.

5. Jury Duty

I'm always down for a mockumentary and this one was a bit particular, as the main character wasn't aware of what was going on. But I think the project worked and it landed the reveal well. James Marsden was my favorite here.

6. Minx

I've mentioned Minx here before. I'm happy it was picked up by another network after HBO cancelled it. It may not have a big audience, but there's barely any promotion for it. Which is absurd because it's such a fun show about combining feminism with 70s erotica for women in a way that only that decade could have done.

7. Winning Time

Another show barely promoted and also cancelled by HBO after two seasons. I'm not really into sports movies/tv series, but when I'm hooked and the story is interesting enough, I'm all in. I didn't pay any attention to The Lakers before, but its fictional story set in the 80s? Bring it on.

8. Swarm

This is a must see for anyone who is part of a fandom. Yes, it's fiction and it shows a version of what extremism leads to, but I do think it points a mirror to today's understanding of what it means to be a fan. Of taking a really toxic mindset from the online world and applying it in real life. There's a lot of food for thought there.

#m thoughts #top tv series 2023 #swarm #succession #winning time #minx #bad sisters #barry #rain dogs #jury duty

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stuckysdaughter · 1 year

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I just watched Disenchanted for the second time, thoughts (and spoilers!) below the cut.

Ok, ok. I freaking love this movie! My family and I have been waiting 15 years for this sequel and it did not disappoint!! I was so little when Enchanted came out, and it was my absolute favorite. So much so that I still have the soundtrack memorized and watch the movie almost religiously every year. I think Disenchanted will also be a comfort movie too, since it is quickly rising in the ranks of my favorites.

The first thing I want to mention is the little nods to original Disney tales even from the opening credits. It uses the old style where the choir opens the film (stopped right around the 60’s/70’s but started all the way back with Snow White and I miss that so much can we bring that back?). It really got me in the mood, like i was small and watching my other favorite Sleeping Beauty. You can start seeing where the town already looks like a fairy tale with small hints at what will change when Giselle makes the wish. The three women who offer to help with Sofia are color coded to be Flora, Fauna, and Meriweather. There’s a freaking wishing well in the backyard that looks exactly like Snow White’s! The clock tower of course, and Melvina right away you pinpoint as the Evil Queen (that one wasn’t subtle). You have the two dumb henchmen, and the meet-cute for Morgan and Tyson (that's like my one thing, who names their kid tyson?!). So right away it feels like a classic Disney film from the 40's or 50's which honestly were some of my favorites (but that's another discussion post for another day lmao).

Next, the soundtrack. My family and I are music nerds, and we were hoping for any nod to the original. We appreciated the small “how does she know” in the beginning. You have to listen a little bit, but you hear it. “Nice” was heard from both my dad and I. I was a bit sad that nothing else made the cut, but I'm more glad that the new soundtrack was allowed to shine as it deserves. Alan Menken is the king of good Disney soundtracks (Tangled, Aladdin, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Beauty and the Beast, etc) and boy did he deliver. The new songs are so good, and they finally got the good sense to utilize Idina Menzel in a style where she really shines (Frozen didn’t quite hit this like Menken did. Here she sounds more like she did in Wicked 19/20 years ago just before Enchanted came out and the endings are much bigger than Frozen II or even Let it Go). James Marsden didn’t get as much singing attention in this one, but he was so good when he did. It made me want to rewatch him in Hairspray so I can listen to him some more. Maya Rudolph surprised me a bit, I'll admit. I didn't peg her as a singer, but she proved me wrong. Badder is such a good song. "Every good movie (musical) should have a tango" is also heard in my house often. These two women blend so well I almost can't tell who's singing what part when they're together. Amy Adams of course is a Goddess! Who I love!! I think she really found her sound in this (can you tell i go to music school lmao) and obviously she wouldn't sound the same as 15 years ago, but this fits her better in a way. She sounds more comfortable, and was able to show off more in Even More Enchanted (After the Wish). That's another Snow White nod, by the way, it mirrors pretty closely what she sings to the birds at the wishing well. All this to say, I instantly added all the songs to my Spotify, they have now become part of my walks to class. And no, I'm not ashamed of that. (continue later)

I don't know much about film and how it works, but my god there were some gorgeous shots and set design. You can tell there was a pretty big budget for this, and it shows. It was all just so beautiful to look at, and it seemed to flow along really well. There are always those camera angles or transitions you wish were smoother but I didn't see any. It was all very aesthetically pleasing, and I love that you can see Giselle's transformation into a wicked stepmother through her dresses and her hair. She starts the tale with a dress almost identical to her dress for "That's How You Know", and eventually goes full on Lady Tremaine. (I want that red dress so much holy shit) "My hair's so high! And my dress is so low, oh!" I love you Giselle never change please. And Pip's "I feel like the most superior being in the whole world". I have cats and that is so true, we laughed far too much at that line...

The plot!!!! I love this idea so so much! I remember throughout the years hearing rumors of what the plot was (well before we ever had a real announcement from Disney). From what I can recall, the plot was originally (or supposedly, anyway) that they all were living happily in NYC, but Morgan's biological mom came back into the picture and was trying to muck things up. I don't know how that would've worked, which is probably why it didn't go that way lmao. Anyway, this plot is so cool! And I wish that i could watch it again for the first time! I don't think I will ever react as genuinely as I did that first time with my parents. The acting is top notch, and Amy Adams really pulled out all the stops to convince us that there's two of her inside fighting for control. I like that even when the wish occurs, there's still a lot of nods to other tales. Morgan has a whole "Belle"-esque number while dressed like her, and they even have her plot match Cinderella (mostly). Disney definitely did the same thing here with Morgan that they did with Andy in Toy Story 3. The kids who were roughly Morgan's age (like me) who have grown up with Enchanted are now adults in their late teens or twenties, and are maybe struggling to find themselves and what that means. My mom and I were definitely not crying (and by that, I mean, we bawled like children) at the end where Giselle reassures Morgan that she is her daughter, and that her love for her has power. That's something that I (and I'm assuming just about everyone else my age) needed to hear. Even if it wasn't from my own mother, I know the sentiment was shared. And even Robert's feelings of time slipping away from him and his hopelessness resonated with me and I'm guessing others too.

In conclusion, this was a fantastic movie, and the sequel Enchanted deserves. An amazing plot, excellent soundtrack, and beautiful design. I couldn't have asked for a better way to suitably sate my nostalgia while giving me a whole new movie to love. People can criticize me all they want, but it won't change the fact that this movie is brilliant and one of my new absolute favorites.

(what my family sees sometimes when they look at me and my cats)

#disenchanted #disenchanted spoilers #enchanted #disney #disney spoilers #giselle #morgan #nancy #robert #edward

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alj4890 · 1 year

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Hii 🥰

What is something you love about your MC / OC? You can create and share anything you’d like 😍 HC‘s, moodboards, edits or drabbles. Have fun and gush about your MC / OC 🥰

Also what made you create your MC /OC what was your inspiration?

Eek! I love this idea @peonierose 🤣 So I did a little moodboard, or tried to 🤦🏻‍♀️ I wish I was better at them, LOL! I went with my OC Amanda Bridgerton. *on a side note, I'm still out of town so this was done after long theme park days and nights 😂 So my exhaustion might be shining through with multiple mistakes 🤣

One of the things I love about her is how once she is assured that her love interest returns her feelings, she immediately relaxes and is so giving with her heart and affection. She settles into the role of girlfriend/fiancee/wife with ease and does nothing but look forward to being with the one she loves. Her adoration of her love interest only makes him fall even more in love with her. Her gentleness and humor go a long way to endear her to those she considers hers.

My FC for her is Anne Hathaway. The other two FC's are James Marsden for Maxwell Beaumont and Jon Hamm for Thomas Hunt. Amanda was created at first for Maxwell Beaumont. In my HC, she is a duchess from Cordonia. Her duchy is St Orella. Her parents died at sea when she was twelve and she grew up with Liam, Maxwell, Drake, and Olivia. Her uncle, Nicholas Bridgerton "Uncle Nicky" raised her and was a huge influence on her life as well as her friends' lives. He was warm, fun loving, and wise and died shortly before the events of TRR.

I usually had her either crushing hard on Maxwell or in love with him. In a few older AU's of mine, they always ended up together. Amanda is also a successful author. From the beginning, I had her working with Thomas Hunt and Ryan Summers of Red Carpet Diaries to turn her book about her ancestor into a movie. In the beginning, I had her falling for Ryan Summers when she believed that Maxwell would never see her as anything more than a friend. Then I did something that changed everything 🤣

I decided to write an angsty piece with Maxwell and Amanda. I allowed Thomas Hunt to enter into the picture as a love interest and realized (along with a few others on here) that she was better suited with him than she was with Maxwell.

So the end of Maxwell x Amanda came about and I entered into the Thomas Hunt x Amanda saga.

I must admit writing their love story came about so much easier than when I tried to force her with Maxwell 😂😂😂 Now I can't imagine her with anyone else.

So, regardless of the Love Interest or the AU, Amanda is trying very hard to not be a suitor for Liam because she is desperately in love with either Maxwell or Thomas. And usually, they are working just as hard to make certain she doesn't have to.

Amanda longs to find the one she is meant for, marry, and have a family of her own. With Maxwell, she has two daughters, Nichole "Nicky" and Emily. With Thomas, she has three children, Kathleen and the twins: Ian and Elizabeth. All these names are what I wanted to name my own children, especially if I had been fortunate enough to have girls and one more boy. 🙄 I have two sons and was unable to have anymore due to serious health issues that developed after having my second son, so it at least I have my imaginary ones 😂

As for inspiration for my OC, it belongs with my late aunt whom I lost in 2013. Aunt Ann always encouraged my imagination and story ideas and she wanted me to one day write a story and have a character with my name (she loved how it looked written out). So Amanda has my first name and long before Bridgerton became popular on Netflix, I devoured the Bridgerton series of books back in 2016/2017 and gave her their last name in honor of my all time favorite series of books.

I've also given Amanda my own quirks and insecurities along with my dark hair and hazel eyes.

She has my hatred of having to stand and speak before large groups. She loves to dance. She loves movies, especially the classic films which is something I was raised to adore. Her favorite flower is the tulip and her favorite color is blue (which is also her duchy's color along with silver)

She is an only child like me. She suffers with many of the doubts I did as a teenager and young adult while waiting on my perfect match to appear.

She is highly critical of her own body like I am. She loves cheese enchiladas and chip and dip like I do 🤣 She laughs often which I'm guilty of and is pretty upbeat for the most part when she isn't wallowing in her doubts.

Amanda also over thinks things and jumps to conclusions though tries to be logical about them in her arguments much like I do 🤦🏻‍♀️ I also gave her my clumsiness. It's been so great to have in life 😂

LOL! I've given her a lot of me in case you can't tell. So if you like her, then chances are very high that if we were ever to meet, you'd like me too.

#asks and replies #my oc #maxwell x oc #thomas hunt x oc #maxwell x amanda #thomas hunt x amanda #choices trr #choices rcd #choices thomas hunt #choices maxwell beaumont #meet my ocs #choices

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im-overstimulated-and-im-sad · 2 years

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Manifesting who I want to host sometime during season 48 for SNL- (a lot of these have hosted before; but they did such a good job and I’ve watched their episodes so many times I want them to host AGAIN.

People who should host SNL this year:

Leslie Jones- man I miss Leslie on SNL, and it’s been enough years she really ought to come back and host. She’s been long enough her “honey bunches of Jost” is married and has a child! That update appearance would be amazing.

Rob Lowe- so I was surprised once I finally broke down and got stupid Peacock that Rob Lowe has in fact hosted SNL three times! The most recent was in 2000 so it’s been a while but y’all, this ageless man is a delight. He has a show on a network right now so he has shit to promote and because his sons should be there to heckle him during the monologue.

Courteney Cox- I think she has a show right now, something with Greg Kinnear? Eh don’t quote me on that but I think she would be great on there and as far as Friends cast members go I still feel she is an underrated one.

Chris Evans- this is one where I feel he’s been asked and he didn’t want to do it. And that happens, like when Oscar Isaac hosted he mentioned in his monologue that he had turned them down when they first asked him to host in 2015. And cause Chris Evans has mentioned his struggles with anxiety in interviews it makes me think he wouldn’t be totally comfortable with this kind of gig? I don’t know there’s a chance he just hasn’t been asked but that seems unlikely to me, and also I want him to come on and tap dance.

Zendaya- this is the one I feel most like this could actually happen- she’s the youngest person to win an Emmy she could very well win another one in a few days, her career is on fire and she would be sensational.

Colson Baker- I want to see him host as well as be the musical guest, which I don’t know how likely it is since Pete has left, but he did say he was gonna release two albums this year and the European leg of his tour is scheduled to end in October so there would be time after that if he was on and then put his next album out. Cause come on he would be so much fun on there!

Allison Janney- this is another I’m surprised this hasn’t happened already. She’s been on literally so many shows and has I think like 62 Emmys? Like we need to make this happen!

Craig Robinson- WHEN I SAY PREHEAT, YOU SAY OVEN! Sorry that probably seemed weird- Craig Robinson made a show called “Mr Robinson” where that’s a line from a song he sings. The show isn’t that good and they only made six episodes but seriously- this man is so much fun! He has a current show in Peacock to promote! Andy Samberg could possibly pop in! This is another one where I don’t know if it will happen BUT IT SHOULD.

Emma Stone- this is one where she has hosted, in fact she’s hosted four times. But she should host again for the big five times! She’s one where even in the first episode she hosted she fits in so well, and her episodes are rewatchable AF.

RuPaul- another one where yes he has hosted but he needs to do it again! I need him to read more children at the library!

Taylor Tomlinson- oh sweet lord I LOVE THIS GIRL SO MUCH. Seriously please watch her Netflix specials if you haven’t yet- I want this one to happen more than anyone in this list I am such a simp for this girl. Okay this one and MGK are the two I want the most.

Sebastian Stan- I have no idea how this would go. But he’s done a lot of stuff this year and he is someone I could see them asking and him turning it down cause he does seem more shy and awkward in interviews. Maybe he wouldn’t rock it but I’m curious.

Taylor Swift- I do wonder why she hasn’t hosted again. She’s been on as the musical guest so many times but she only hosted once when she was 19, and as we all know, that is a very different Taylor. I want grown up Taylor to host dammit! Also she has a new album coming out so you know, shit to promote and what not.

James Marsden- Honestly either he or Patrick Dempsey could be on here cause both have a movie coming out in Disney plus this year. James Marsden though seems more able to access off the wall wacky between the two of them though.

Stephanie Beatriz- is there anyone less like the character that made them famous than this lady? Which speaks to how kickass of an actor she is. She definitely seems like someone who wouldn’t hide in the back with one line a sketch, she would be front and center and I want to see her take over.

Christopher Meloni- yet another in the how has this not happened yet? I don’t know but here’s why it should happen now- he’s got a current show so shit to promote, anyone who has seen wet hot American summer/this man’s social media knows he is fucking hilarious and doesn’t show that as much as he should, and they could do the soul cycle sketch again (because have you seen this man’s arms- like HOLY HELL. SIR HAS ANYONE TOLD YOU THAT IN FACT YOU ARE SIXTY ONE YEARS OLD! LIKE GOD DAMN!!!!)

Ariana DeBose- did she literally host not even a year ago? Yes, yes she did. Is this one super likely? No, no it is not. Is it just because her and Kate McKinnon and are fucking magic together and Kate has left the show and I’m in denial over this? Was I watching the Sappho sketch while typing this? Why do you ask?

Zachary Levi- should I stop saying why hasn’t this happened yet? Cause it’s like he starred in a show where he was the title character for five years- but that show was and still is underrated AF. And now he has a sequel coming out where he also plays the title character! And he is just the sweetest human alive if his social media is anything to go by and he’s lovely and needs to be in more stuff.

Vanessa Bayer- how long has she been off the show? Would this be found easily if I looked it up? You know probably. Still- she was always great on SNL and she has that all important shit to promote and she also should appear in more stuff, and because she is as her Miley impersonation would say, she is pretty cool!

Terry Crews- for real though why no asking people on Brooklyn nine nine to host? They would be so good at it! Terry would kill a hosting gig and have more energy than anyone in the building and they can do the soul cycle sketch again!

Sydney Sweeney- I remember seeing her on Ellen and Ellen was going on and on about how Sydney plays such different characters and she answered “yeah.. I’m an actor”. Which I mean it seems like a silly thing to point out but a lot of people just play the same type of character over and over and Sydney is so good in every role she’s played I would love to see her do comedy.

That is who I came up with now- I’ll check in a year to see if any of these came true.

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ultrahpfan5blog · 2 years

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Westworld Season 4 spoilery thoughts

So finished Westworld season 4 recently. Overall, this was definitely a strong season. Definitely a step up from season 3, which I didn't hate, but definitely looks like the step child when I look at it in context of the 4 seasons so far. It almost seems like season 3 was its own separate storyline whereas seasons 1, 2, and now 4 seem more thematically interlinked. I thought the season started out super strong. Maeve and Caleb made for a very interesting pairing and I frankly thought they had way more chemistry than Dolores and Caleb did last year. Also, Caleb felt more like a independent character, rather than Dolores' sidekick. Ed Harris was back in a substantial role and clearly was having a lot of fun after having been wasted in season 3. Hale was a pretty delicious villain. Also, the whole Christina and Teddy angle seemed interesting. ERW has been terrific throughout this show and it was nice to see her play someone a little more vulnerable. Plus, it was really nice to see James Marsden and ERW reunite because they clearly have great chemistry.

I think the midway time jump and twist was really interesting. The fact that the whole world was inverted now with the humans being the puppets and the hosts being the puppeteers. However, I do think after the time jump, things became a little uneven. Thandie Newton is always an mvp of the show, but she gets sidelined significantly in the 2nd half and she even dies twice, which seemed quite pointless because she doesn't exactly accomplish much. Caleb becoming a host also loses the show one of the few remaining human characters. Plus, there does seem to be a lack of purpose to Caleb's existence in the back half of the season. Also, while there is certainly more Bernard this season than last, the show didn't really use Jeffrey Wright's skills in the best way once he became all knowing god. He has some amount of dry humor due to his weariness at everything, but he's capable of more and has shown this in seasons past.

There are things about this season that I just don't quite get. Hale keeps talking about their kind transcending from their physical form. But the show never really tells us what that means. I initially thought she meant going into the sublime, but it is confirmed that the sublime is shut to her. So that part I didn't get. She also later said that she wanted to create a world where the hosts of the sublime may want to come back, but she also said her goal is to transcend the real world. So its all sorts of confusing what her end goal was. Also, we only ever see one city and one tower. Is that all the remaining human population of the world, minus the outliers. That's also confusing because that is what is indicated by the end. The season has a bit of a downer ending by saying that the real world is beyond saving but again I don't quite get what the end is supposed to be representing. How can humans survive in a digital world when the experiment to make humans into hosts failed the fidelity test. We also never really get a proper understanding of what the host MIB is. He is built from Dolores/Hale programming, but he is an imitation of the real one. There are a ton of unanswered questions for me at least. Maybe some have been answered and I just didn't get it.

In any case, I enjoyed season 4 a lot. The performances across the board were terrific. Ed Harris, Tessa Thompson, Thandie Newton, ERW being standouts. It does seem that we said goodbye to Jeffrey Wright, Aaron Paul, Ed Harris, and Tessa Thompson based on the finale, but you never know with Westworld. Thandie Newton's character died but I seriously doubt they will kill her off just like that. It will be a damn shame if the show is cancelled just one season before the finish line. There is no doubt that there is some amount of frustration in the way the show poses questions but doesn't provide answers but I guess that is also why the show is addictive.

#westworld #westworld season 4 #ed harris #tessa thompson #aaron paul #jeffrey wright #evan rachel wood #james marsden #luke hemsworth #thandie newton #dolores abernathy #maeve #bernard lowe #charlotte hale #teddy flood #the man in black #ashley stubbs

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doloresabernathypiplup · 2 years

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Westworld season 4 ep 1 : The Auguries

Alert spoilers

-so, I expected it but it’s terrifying to see it. The flies allow indeed Charlores and the host man in black to control the humans like the hosts were controlled.

-the timeskip is strange. Like, for the characters it’s been seven years since season 3, so I feel like a disconnexion with them. Which isn’t a bad thing, it makes me enter more in the story because I want to connect the dots, but it’s the first time it happens in Westworld, before we always find the characters where we let them at the end of the precedent season, so I don’t know, I like it but it’s a little strange to me too.

-we finally meet Christina. You know, I can’t stop myself to imagine if I haven’t seen any trailers or spoilers, what would have been my surprise seeing Dolores alive again and actually, it’s not Dolores ? But to talk about Christina...we have the same taste in fiction XD She wants to tell the story of Dolores but her boss prefers William’s one. The scene with her boss made me think about the scene between Lee Sizemore and Ford in the second episode of season 1, except that this time, the one who wants to tell a story touching people is the employee and the one who is just interest by the superficial element which attracj the guests/players is the boss. I feel like Christina what S1 Dolores would have been if she lived in our world : she has a little or her naivety and idealism, but repressed because she lived in our reality and this kind of sentimentality is judged idiot. But I want a story with a happy ending too.

-we discover what Caleb and Maeve became : one is married and is the father of a girl who loves him, the other lives alone mulling over her happy and tragic memories of her past. No wonder ho succeded its life the best XD More seriously, it seems that a lot of things happened to them, Maeve said “William did it again” but did what ? Caleb didn’t even know William and for Maeve, he was just an asshole in the park. Did they already fight William and Charlores, without realizing Charlores was behind William, between season 3 and 4 ? Did they know that it’s not the true William but a host ? At least, they don’t look surprised to see that William sends hosts after them and not humans.

-so Peter said he saw Christina in his mind. He’s clearly controlled, so I think he doesn’t see Christina but Charlores, but like Connellores was played by Evan Rachel Wood and not by Tommy Flanagan in the simulation in the sixth episode of season 3, he sees Charlores for who she really is, Dolores played by Evan Rachel Wood, and not how she looks like in our real world, Charlotte Hale played par Tessa Tompson.

-one of my issues with season 3 was that Caleb didn’t look at all like a violent and paranoid person. So it’s actually fine to see in this episode that yes, it’s a part of him, and a part that can lead him to take bad decision, or at least decisions he could regret

-Teddy ?!!! Like, I knew that James Marsden was going to come back, but I thought he’ll appear later in the season, that Bernard was going to bring him back from the Sublime. Actually, we didn’t see Bernard in this episode, it’s surprising. Like, I understand why we don’t get to the big villain, Charlores, but I expected to see Bernard.

-Oh, and the musics were beautiful, as always.

So, this episode was excellent, I really liked it. I think it’s a way better season premiere than Parce Domine, and maybe I prefer this one over Journey into the night. I don’t compare it to The Original because it wasn’t only a season premiere but also a series premiere. I can’t wait for the next episode...but I’m going to wait anyway because I won’t be able to follow the three next episodes TT

#WESTWORLD #westworld hbo #westworld season 4 #westworld spoilers #christina westworld #maeve millay #caleb nichols #william westworld #teddy flood #?

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nonbinary-sticks-the-badger · 22 days

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id like to start this post with a link to a fundraiser masterpost and a reminder to do your daily clicks.

as i mentioned in my last post, i probably wont be posting about anything scu-related in the future, at the very least not anything praising it. if i reblog shadow referencing a keanu reeves role, my bad, ive only seen so many things with him in it. if i reblog scu art that i think is just mainline, my bad, i wasn't thinking. im gonna be honest i dont even think ill do little things, like stobotnik but in mainline context, though i will say, stobotnik mainline au may be like. the 1 exception??? because i do like the ship??? but thats the complete extent of what ill post, if that.

a part of me wants to say "but this is spoiling other people's fun!" and then the other part of me says "by not giving a platform to actors and a company that is complicit in genocide" and it shuts up the first half pretty easily. remember that considering everything, while yes it's likely to have very anti-military, anti-us themes, there is a chance both knuckles and sonic 3 will contain hidden pro-israel propaganda. if it wasnt obvious, i don't want to post about israeli propaganda.

for anyone who knows me personally, or at least messages me, im more likely to be more leniant seeing as. well. it's not public. but im still not sure if ill talk about it unless it comes up in conversation???

ik i have a handful of people here who are mostly scu fans, possibly even scu exclusive. ig im sorry??? i can understand why theres a lot of scu fans, so i suppose if you like scu but you also want to stop posting about it, may i recommend some OTHER things to try (this is a long list so buckle up:

hop (2011) has a similar plot to sonic 1 and has james marsden (who is also not a good person but i dont think even universal would care if youre pirating hop (2011))

a really good place to start is honestly the snapcube dubs!!! you might get a few spoilers from context clues but theyre a really fun way to get to know games a little bit! obviously, theres a big barrier of there only being 5 dubs of 4 games, but i feel like once youve watched the dubs you can sort of get into the rest of her videos from there (theres also. theres this one. this one series. that people like. btw.)

while yeah i recommend the games, theyre sort of hard to know where to start. all i can really say is, dont start from forces or frontiers, at least know the plot of sa2 and thats basically it. ig if you want to play EVERY game, you dont really need to play anything before sonic 3 & knuckles and even then you can still start from sonic adventure and learn the plot of s3&k

NiGHTS is fun but also youll learn nothing about sonic i just wanted to mention it

if youre more into the action, i recommend sonic prime (and also, a few fix-it-fics or rewritten endings)

i recommend sonic boom if you want the comedy* and the characters living (mostly) normal lives. also you can literally watch most of sonic boom for free on youtube idc if im biased i will die on the hill of it being the best sonic canon. yeah im even including rise of lyric. no i have not played rise of lyric. do not mention the wasted potential of the concepts or i will explode.

*no offense but sonic boom is way funnier. idc if im biased because the sonic films are honestly only a step up from mcu humour most of the time, if that

if you want lore, i recommend the comics rather than the games, seeing as its slightly daunting where to start with the games. for a slightly more sanitised and. ig "normal" experience, read either idw or post-reboot archie. but if you want things to get a little wild theres pre-reboot archie. the only archie comics ive read are sonic boom and NiGHTS, so im not speaking from experience. but. wow. theres a lot to unpack there

if for whatever reason you just want sonic thats completely different to the games, i recommend sonic the comic and any of the 90s cartoons!!! theyre honestly really fun and because theyre so early on in sonic history (?) theres so many inconsistencies

sonic the fighters is fun but also you literally will never have to play that ever and its hard to find anyway

im pretty sure ive mentioned every canon there??? and a few things i dont need to lol. but the point is, if you are a fan of scu, you arent immediately a bad person! BUT (and here's the bit you actually have to listen to): if you are posting and praising the scu, particularly the upcoming projects, you are giving a platform to a large chunk of zionists.

#sonic #scu

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culttvblog · 1 month

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Dalgliesh: The Black Tower

As you all know I am in the habit of reading round commentary and reviews online before blogging about a show, and I saw an absolutely hysterical review about this show which meant that it simply had to have a blog post even though it may not strictly be cult. The review said that the characters are the most thoroughly umpleasant people you could ever wish to meet, and the writer queried whether it was even possible to get that many unpleasant people together, but then he said he didn't live in England, so he doesn't know. Oh, we do unpleasant. The food is merely a sort of unpleasant amuse bouche before you meet the people. That's the other reason we had an empire: it was to get away from here and get some sun. The full series is five episodes, but I'm only going to do one blog post for reasons which will appear below.

The Black Tower (1985) is part of the ITV series of adaptations of PD James novels (1983 to 1998) and is one of the ones starring Roy Marsden as Dalgliesh. It adapts James's 1975 novel of the same name.

The plot is essentiallly that Dalgliesh gets asked to investigate the events in a very unusual nursing home. It is run on quasi-religious grounds by Wilfred Anstey who himself experienced a miraculous cure and devoted his life to this. The events are essentially murderous and so we have wheelchairs with their users hurtling off cliffs, climbing ropes partly cut through, an epidemic of poison pen letters and of course the entire cast all hate each other really. Thus far it probably sounds like any Golden Age mystery set in an enclosed setting where the characters start getting murdered and the detective has to work out what's happening.

However (and this is pertinent to both the book and the adaptation) this isn't one of your one-dimensional mysteries by Miss Christie (don't send me hate mail please). P D James's books are never straight detective stories and she has a fine eye for the human elements involved in the story. A nursing home of course gives us lots of potential for strong emotions, jealousy, frustration, the difficulties of ageing and illness, and indeed these all come out. James is also incredibly good at putting sex into her plots in a nuanced way which helps the plot. The reason I think this point is so important is that both the book and this adaptation are criticised for being rather slow and not getting to the action quickly enough.

I think that that is to miss the point here. I mentioned the crit that the entire cast are all thoroughly unpleasant, and I think the slowness of the mystery is deliberate. The fact that it takes the whole of the first episode before it gets to the first murder is to give us time to experience the dreadful, contained, slow feeling of being ill, in care, and not in control. That is the real genius of this show: we genuinely feel how much we would hate Toynton Grange if we were actually resident there. The slowness of exposition also gives us a fine insight into the dynamics among the residents which gives us something to get our teeth into when trying to work out who is doing the murders.

One of the most important elements of the show is the very difficult one of the religious aspect. Because Anstey's miraculous healing was religious he has given the home a religious...I want to say veneer, but we are clearly invited to think about how deep the veneer goes for the various characters. None of the characters is RC but nonetheless they all go on pilgrimage to Lourdes. Perhaps most bizarrely the staff of the Grange wear brown Franciscan-style habits as their uniform. James cleverly sets this up in a way which means the reader/viewer can understand it however they wish depending on their own religious understanding. This is some quality writing here, and there is none of the experience that so often happens when TV shows try to depict religion, that you see grating things wrong with it. Instead the religious practice here is one which can't possibly be real, and that's the point. This approach is so brilliant that I wish TV shows would use it more often.

I think there is one element of the plot which may be seen differently now from the 1970s and 1980s: I think the events of the succeeding years have persuaded more people that religion and religious people are not always what they seem to be. Perhaps the 21st century viewer may give much less credence to the religious aspect of the home and be more inclined to see it as fake. This was always of course a possible way to interpret Anstey's motives, so it wouldn't be a view which was impossible forty years ago. Certainly I think the central revelation that what Anstey is doing in the tower in the afternoons is not meditation as such but amusing himself with his collection of jazz magazines, will certainly not come as a shock nowadays.

James's heavy investment in character and motivation means that this show avoids a straightforward device of having characters who are clearly moral and immoral. The nuanced understanding of the characters' emotions and lives means that this show is gripping, and avoids the disappointment for the viewer of setting up heroes only to knock them down again.

I've been wracking my brain trying to find a criticism of this show and I really don't have one, except that unless you're used to TV of the past it would seem too slow to you.

I highly recommend this excellent drama.

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