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howtofightwrite · 3 years

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The Fight Scenes in Ava and the Importance of Tempo

Anonymous asked:

What do u think about the fight in Ava movie (u can find it in YT searching “Ava – Jessica Chastain – [Hotel Fight]”)?

It’s serviceable.

This is me saying, “it’s fine.” Not great, but not terrible either. It’s mostly just, “eh.” If you’re a veteran viewer of these types of action movies, you can tell the director really made an effort for the stylistic realism of similar thrillers like The Bourne Identity, but lacked the practice and familiarity with these sorts of scenes to carry it off. Which, really, shouldn’t surprise anyone looking at his filmography.

I want to make it clear that if there’s any failures here (and there are), it’s on the part of the director and not the actors. I’m also going to ignore Colin Farrell in this scene because I’ve seen him in better action movies, and he’s doing a really good job of moderating his performance. (For the record, this is an actor skill level issue and not a gender one. Farrell is skilled at adjusting his performance to his costar and he largely deserves credit for the equal footing here. Cinematic fight scenes are cooperative, not combative and the best stuntmen make the actors look amazing. Look at this scene with Colin Farrell and Edward Norton from Pride and Glory. Farrell can’t take entire credit for speed here, because the film has actually been sped up.)

It’s not on the level of Bourne’s let me kill you six or seven times in thirty seconds, but the beautiful cinematography that’s reflective in movies like Bourne, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Salt, or Charlize Theron’s Atomic Blonde isn’t there. If you want hyper realistic gun work, you go to Michael Mann films like Collateral and, more recently, though not a Michael Mann production, John Wick. If you compare to fight scenes from these films, you’ll notice Ava’s fight scene itself is neither hyper-realistic, nor visually interesting. That’s the real kiss of death here, and why it’s serviceable.

The gun sequence was fine, Farrell was doing a sloppy CAR which is why he looks a little wonky compared to Chastain, but it fell apart when they hit the hand to hand section. The hits aren’t in the same zip code as the opponent’s face, there’s a painful lack of force, and it’s very slow even at the very beginning. It’s almost levels of Buffy first season bad, where 90% of the fight scenes is very obviously just the stunt doubles going at it. Compare to this fight sequence from Into the Badlands with Emily Beecham, can you track how many times she’s switched out for her stunt double? (Hint: it’s almost all the long shots with acrobatic stunts, and a few of the back shots.) The way it’s intercut, you’d probably never notice.

And that is where the problem for Ava lies. In terms of pacing, it plods.

Into the Badlands is choreographed by a stunt team out of Hong Kong, it’s all in the wuxia tradition, and doesn’t give two shits realism. Ava is trying for faux Hollywood realism over stylized violence, but doesn’t want to commit to it.

Part of the problem for Ava is there’s a distinctive speed difference in hand to hand combat where the stunt doubles are performing versus when the actors are, which hurts the scene’s pacing. And, there’s always a difference in tempo between stunt doubles and the actors, but when the difference is vast, it hurts believability. Again, the scene is really useful if you’re trying to parse what makes violence interesting and watchable outside of narrative context, because the director hasn’t figured it out. He’s imitating other styles he’s seen but has yet to settle on a distinctive one of his own. The fight scene also lacks visual personality to set it apart from other mediocre action films.

I mean, if all you want is hot women kicking ass then you’ve got Luc Besson’s entire filmography and Chastain is not sexualized any less here than the women in Besson’s films. (And, yes, I’m aware of the allegations against him, and, if you’ve watched his movies, they’d come as no surprise. He’s really on brand for Hollywood’s faux strong female character, pop feminism, kickass sex doll. It’s a lot harder to throw a coin and not hit a sexual predator when trying to learn things, so consume your media wisely.) Compare Ava’s fight scene here to Anna’s, both are technically superhero assassins. You can feel the tempo difference, and it’s not just because one is a group fight scene. (This scene from Anna also has a long cut where it’s just the stunt double, can you find her?)

One of the neat tricks from Anna’s fight scene is the broken plate, because the plate is broken and therefore bladed, the actor doesn’t have to pretend they’re putting in more force in order to be convincing.

So, how can you use film choreography to improve your own fight scenes?

One thing to remember is that film is a visual medium where the written word is mental and, potentially, auditory. You get further with sensation, and your goal is to ultimately be convincing rather than right. The reason to Learn How Things Work is so you get to pick and choose your own rules, you decide what to keep and what to discard in the service of your work rather than being bound by someone else’s choices. If you can define reality, you can create it.

You can learn a lot about staging from film, the usage of environmental props, and start training your mind to consider where your characters are fighting and what they can potentially use.

Choreography is very important. Choreography is a large part of what makes violence engaging outside of emotional involvement via the narrative. (Violence on its own is actually boring.)

Stuntman queuing is remarkably useful when balancing group fights on the page where you sometimes need to drop and pick up minor characters in text.

Lending weight to your character’s hits. One of the major differences between good fight scenes and bad fight scenes on film is the weight of the onscreen hit. If a hit feels heavy i.e. the force appears to have been generated for it, it feels more real. Otherwise, you’re just relying on motion to entertain the eye.

Your audience has a basic understanding of physics, so certain tactics will look more real than others. (Regardless of whether or not they’re factually true.)

The importance of setting goals with your fight scenes for tone and impact, just like all your scenes.

The more you learn, the larger your toolbox is.

-Michi

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The Fight Scenes in Ava and the Importance of Tempo was originally published on How to Fight Write.

#fightwrite answers #michi answers #writing advice #writing reference #writing tips

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teainnit · 2 years

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picture this: you own a boat, you take tourists or locals on the boat to go along the beautiful bodies of water in Amsterdam. Today was just another average working day for you, a group of British dudes and one American showed up.

You hear them chatting calmly as you slowly motor the boat on it’s route, suddenly they started a commotion. It seems that two of them (the blond kid and the American) wanted to try dangling from the bridge ahead since it looked so “danglable” as they said, luckily one of the older in their group told them to cut it out.

You settled your nerves down since it looks they they’ve got it all under control and you probably won’t get into any trouble of drowning tourists any time soon.

The two loudly protesting had finally stopped, you can continue to do your job, and oh? What did the tall dude just said- OH FUCK SHIT HE JUST JUMPED ONTO THE PAVEMENT WHAT THE HECK- oh he came back on the boat, that was such a shock, wasn’t he the one in charged??! The reasonable adult???

Oh god he just hopes the kids won’t follow- THE PRICK DID IT AGAIN WHAT THE F U C K???!!!?!! Okay he’s back, oh gosh, your feeble heart. You looked to the oldest of them, a man in his thirties who was actually verbally generating your inner monologue out loud, there’s an understanding, sympathy it seems in his eyes, you two reached to an agreement, that these youngin’s all fucking lost it. Haa… they finally stopp-

OH GOD NOW ITS THE AMERICAN DUDE FUCKKKKKKKK ISTG IF HE FUCKING FALLS IN THE WATER- Oh well, he’s back in the boat, maybe it’s fine, they could handle themselves, you don’t earn enough to handle this shit.

Okay another bridge, you hoped, silently prayed in your mind for these unhinged bastards not to- I FUCKING KNEW IT THE AMERICAN OH GOD, on the other hand it’s pretty funny for the rest of the group to panic as the boat goes pass the bridge leaving their friend dangling mid-air, over water, under the bridge. Okay ngl, it’s quite impressive how long the dude lasted on the bridge until you turned the boat (the boat’s actually slow asf so props to the dude fr, what a chad).

You’re also really impressed with how the loudest and who he thought would be the first to partake in these risky activities, the blond kid’s just sat at the boat as the other two stuntmen taunt him into pulling those same stunts. Good lad, they all settled into comfortable silence, you yourself also relaxes a bit, let’s hope this trip have a calming end…..

The kid- the kid- FUCKING TARZAN-ED ON THE WILLOW BRANCH WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK HE NEARLY FELL IN THE WATER- welp he hit your sympathizer instead.. okay that was better than the water and it’s pretty funny too, sorry (a look of betrayal the man sent you as you try to stifle a laugh from the scene, it was just too funny they can’t blame you).

You send them off, wasn’t too bad of a group, they even tipped you for your services (also for the permanent mental scars but oh well), they were pretty nice after all (you prayed to never meet them again).

Tubbo&Phil the entire time: *sat there judging* grown ass men grown ass men 🙄🙄

#short fic #inspired by tommy’s amsterdam story on stream #stream: does anyone still see this notification? Say hi if yes #tommyinnit fics #philza minecraft #wilbur soot #charlie slimecicle #tubbo #tommyinnit #boat crew

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mst3kproject · 3 years

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The Giant of Marathon

For some reason, probably because I've seen them all so many times, I thought I'd already done all four Film Crew episodes. Evidently this is not true. Here's one, and if you haven't seen it... wow, Mr. Honcho was not exaggerating about the thousands of sweaty men.

Philippides of Athens is the greatest athlete there is, having won the entire Olympics. With the games over, he returns to his day job as commander of the Athenian city guard. Followers of Hippias the exiled tyrant are plotting to take control of the city with help from the invading Persians, and they try to seduce Philippides to their cause by offering him wine, women, and homoerotic wrestling (it was ancient Greece, after all). Philippides refuses to be seduced, and sets off to secure the help of Athens' old enemy Sparta in opposing the Persians. His mission is a success, but upon his return a spy tells him that the Persians are planning a sneak attack on the harbour of Piraeus. Can even Philippides get there in time to deliver the warning?

I don't actually know if it were possible to win the entire Olympics in ancient Greece. I know there were several events and at least one of them involved reciting poetry. The Battle of Marathon was in 490 BC and a table on Wikipedia suggests that there could have been up to twelve different sports, but some of them were only for children.

The Giant of Marathon touts itself as a tale of epic battles, daring deeds, and political machinations. I'll get back to the epic battles and daring deeds, but what stands in for the political machinations is mostly a bunch of people pining. Unimpressive villain Theocritus is pining for the beautiful Andromeda, whose father has promised her to him but she thinks he's a dick. She's pining for Philippides, who is also pining for her but thinks she's one of Hippias' followers, so refuses to speak to her. Meanwhile Theocritus' concubine Charis is also pining for Philippides because he's the only man who ever refused to fuck her, I think.

These relationships are important to the plot, too. Andromeda's love for Philippides is one of the reasons her father refuses to join the traitors, and when Theocritus realizes he cannot have her, he ties her to the prow of his ship to force Philippides to watch her die. Charis' crush on Philippides leads her to her death, as she is executed for spying. Yet none of it is ever developed beyond 'these two pretty people saw each other and now they want to bone'. Philippides declares his love for Andromeda after a single five-minute interaction. Charis has seen Philippides twice, and both times it went badly, when she decides to betray Theocritus.

Why do the writers hang such important plot points on the 'love' between people who have barely spoken to each other? I can't decide if it's because they're lazy, or because they're hacks, and I lean towards a combination of the two. There is absolutely no subtlety to the writing in The Giant of Marathon at all. Everything is told, not shown. We know that Theocritus and Creusus are traitors because they talk about it, in dialogue that's clearly written for the audience, not as anything that sounds like a natural conversation. We know that Charis and Andromeda are both in love with Philippides because they say so. The only thing we're really shown is that Andromeda hates Theocritus, which comes through in her body language (though we are also very much told), so props to actress Mylène Demongeot for that much.

The movie doesn't care about any of this character stuff, anyway. It just wants to get straight to those epic battle scenes, and it's very obvious how much work and time went into those as opposed to everything else. The battles are lengthy and elaborate, full of impressive stunts and props and miniatures being destroyed all over the place. We get to see Persian chariots run down Greek infantry, and while I'm pretty sure this would have been orchestrated so the stuntmen didn't get hurt, I'm not nearly so confident about the unfortunate horses (and neither was Bill). There are ships in flames and injured men screaming as they fall overboard. There are even some pretty good deaths, like the guy who was hit in the eye with an arrow. The desperate last stand of the city guard against the entire Persian fleet, with the Spartans arriving just in time to save the day, is very tense indeed.

I get the impression that this is what somebody really wanted to put on screen, and they did a decent job of it, but pretty much the entire rest of what ought to be the story is just an accessory to the fighting stuff. It's as if the film-makers wanted so badly for their fight sequences to be epic that they forgot what makes epic-ness – which is the characters and their stake in the events. We don't know any of these people, none of them have anything we might call a personality trait, and so we don't care.

The focus on how epic it all is makes I seem a little strange that the battle ends on a shot of dead Persian guys floating in the water. You'd think they'd want to end with something that more decisively shows the Athenian victory, maybe the men cheering as the Persian ships turn around and flee. Or perhaps some kind of victory celebration, which could mirror the celebration of Philippides winning the Olympics in the opening and call back to the scene where Philippides asks the goddess Athena to protect her city.

Instead, we cut to a shot of Philippides and Andromeda walking across the farmland together. This feels a little too sudden, and is also a poor fit with the rest of the movie. The only time we've seen Philippides on his farm is when he's gotten disgusted with the politics of Athens and returned to the countryside to sulk. If the farm is supposed to be a place where he's happy and at peace, the movie never establishes it.

So that's political machinations and epic battle sequences, let's talk about some daring deeds.

Unlike the Hercules and Maciste movies we've seen in the past, The Giant of Marathon wants to be grounded in real-life history. This means that while the script does reference gods and mythical heroes, none of them ever appear and there is no hint of them working behind the scenes to bring events about. Likewise, Philippides is not a demigod, so we avoid several of the tropes associated with the genre. Nothing important ever happens (or fails to happen) because the hero was asleep, and he never bends prison bars or drinks a love potion – although a love potion is mentioned, as if to draw attention to this.

This doesn't leave Philippides a whole lot of scope for daring deeds, and when they try the results are a little lackluster. His main feat is, of course, running all the way from Marathon to Athens (the proverbial forty-two kilometres) to let them know of the impending attack, but while this ought to be the highlight of the movie it's shot in terrible day-for-night and we have nothing to suggest how far this is... I think the writers just assumed everybody knows the length of a marathon. If we'd seen the army tired from making the march earlier, we would have a better sense of it being a long and tiring journey even at a walk or with horses, and it would seem that much more formidable as a distance for one man to cover before sunrise. Of course, showing us these things is apparently beyond the scope of The Giant of Marathon's writers, but you'd think they could at least have a character say something like, “it's twenty-six miles! He'll never make it!”

His other major daring deed is when he pushes giant boulders down a hill onto the attacking Persians. This is kind of weird because Philippides is not Hercules or Maciste. He's good at track and field, but we haven't seen any evidence of him having godlike strength, and this is a universe where gods don't seem to do much anyway, so it comes out of nowhere. The rocks are huge – there are similarly-sized ones at the park near my house and I know one guy couldn't move them no matter how buff he might be. Did somebody just forget that they weren't making a Hercules movie?

Between the battles and the various plot twists, The Giant of Marathon could have been a pretty fun sword-and-sandal movie, but it's like a tower without a foundation. The fights have nothing to hold them up, so we just can't get into it. Also, what the Underworld happened to Hippias? We see him once, chatting with the king of Persia, and then he vanishes and the movie decides weaselly little Theocritus is the big bad instead. I'm sorry, but if you've got a character with a name as cool as 'Hippias the Tyrant', you really can't just drop him like that.

The Best Brains liked to complain about the tinyness of the costumes in these movies but honestly, nothing here is as off-putting as actual ancient Greek sports would have been to the modern viewer. When I was in university I TA'd for a course called Introduction to Greco-Roman Civilization. It was an adventure in several ways – the students were mostly dumb freshmen who spent the lectures playing Farmville, and the professor didn't give a shit because she'd just been denied tenure. I don't know how much anybody learned in that class, but I'm sure they all recall how, after the professor told us that Greek athletes stripped naked and covered themselves in olive oil before wrestling, somebody raised a hand and asked if they removed their body hair. The professor cheerfully told him that they did not, so next time we see a Greek vase we ought to remember that these guys were much sweatier, oilier, and hairier than terra cotta can possibly convey.

#mst3k #reviews #episodes that never were #the battle of marathon #the film crew #50s #my cheese steak

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threeeyesslitthroat · 3 years

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So I watched Chaos Walking(2021)

Yeah, lucky for me, my local theater was open and showing(side note, I love my local theater so much. Like, not to brag but seven dollars for a movie and a snack is so great)

Anyhow, I watched Chaos walking. This is sort of my review.

First off, I read The Knife of Never Letting Go and one third of The Ask and Answer, almost two years ago. When they finally dropped the release date and the trailer, i made the choice not to go reread the first book because i wanted to give the movie a chance and make an exercise of managing my expectations(in preparation for Disney’s Percy Jackson adaptation). Which means not only do I not have a complete understanding of the source material, but I also have a shit memory, so I don’t have a great shot at analyzing this films in adaptation terms, but i’m gonna try anyhow.

So first off, The Noise.

I found it a bit sketchy that they decided to make the make Noise have visual elements alongside audio but I decided it was fine, since it be pretty hard to bring this to life with only just audio and not make general audiences confused.

But they did try and do a solid job. Minus not letting us hear the Noise of animals, which sucks. we do see the Noise of a Spackle, but briefly.

The part that really pisses me off is the final confrontation, when the Noise is treated like a Super Power. we see this when Todd scares Davy’s horse by conjuring up an image of big snake, when Mayor Prentiss tricks Viola into a false trap, when Ben tricks everyone by pretending to give Viola up when in fact he’s buying Todd and the real Viola time to get away, and in the final, Todd distracts Prentiss by conjuring up the image of his mother(complete with bloody wounds) and the various women that died when he was a baby, which caused Prentiss to fall to his death.

I don’t know how the Noise is depicted in the later books, if it was anywhere remotely like this, but i know for sure it doesn’t happen in the first book, which the film is based on.

(Also, how the fuck does Todd know what his mum looks like, or any of the other women and how is he able to bring up their images so perfectly how is ANYONE ABLE REMEMBER SOMEONE WITH THAT MUCH DETAIL That goes beyond photographic memory)

Second bit, the Spackle.

The design is boring. Its clearly an alien, buts its dark grey, tall, holds its own when Todd attacks it in the film, has zero impact on the film as a whole and pretty boring. I do recall reading the book and imagining them to have faces similar to real world lemurs or Sloths, with big expressive eyes and such, but the CGI monster doesn’t emote for shit in this film. Todd comes at with a knife with every intention of killing it and it shrugs him off and walks away like it wasn’t fucking attacked my gods.

But in short, they only brought up the Spackle because they’re a thing in the world and it teased the bigger concepts of the next books with like, one measly exchange between Todd and Viola. (it went something like this)

Viola:We’re the aliens, though. They’re the natives.

Todd: huh.

Third bit, New World itself. Not a big deal, It looked like how i originally imagined it, no mention of swamp apples, though we see Todd Hewitt use a knife to stab a big ass bug thing for food. i hear some critics consider it lame that the planet isn’t actually alien but eh, whatever, Didn’t really feel an alien vibe reading the book so it doesn’t matter.

Now there’s one bit i have to acknowledge in passing. At one point Todd decides to go get lunch by going into the water with his knife and wrestles with some big ass thing with tentacles. Which is fine, just have a couple of questions.

A: is this in reference to the books? Where there big ass tentacle creatures in the novel that are hunted for lunch?

B:if not, was this the film makers deciding to remind the viewers that yes, they are not on planet earth and to make Todd look cooler and justify why he’s useful for the quest and show how much Viola doesn’t know?

I kinda have to acknowledge the thing. In that scene, Todd and Viola take a break, and Todd removes his clothes (all of them) and decides to go hunting in the water naked as the day he was born. You may have noticed that the Tom Holland stans are all over this scene because One) the camera focuses on Tom Hollands muscles when he takes his top off and Two) one can see his bare ass in the distance.

Not a big fan off this, just find it interesting because its the most recent example of a Male being objectified by the camera when this never happens once to any of the female characters in the film, including Viola. Also, a touch of weird character detailing because haha, get it? Boy’s never seen a girl before in his life and doesn’t know what modesty means.

Also, very weird because Todd Hewitt in the book was so fucking self conscious that he would never have done that.

Now I gotta talk about the characters.

( i understand why they aged them up, i truly do, better to get established actors instead of child actors that could more easily break to movie than sell it. its easier to make movies with legal adults instead of working with child labor laws. but damn it you lose so much of the fucking nuance of the novel when you age them up. There’s so much shit that makes an impact because of how young they are. Around the ages of eleven and twelve is when ones understanding of good and evil has its foundation, to me it was like the story was grappling with Todd Hewitt’s very soul and you lose so much of that when you change it to them being older because instead of being just kids in fucked up situations its younger adults in messed up situations. Like ugh. and aging them up leads to even more problems but we’ll fucking get to that)

Tom Holland’s Todd Hewitt is not the Todd Hewitt of the novel. He just ain’t. There is nothing there that reminds of the boy. The acting is solid, don’t get me wrong, but it just ain’t the Todd Hewitt i remember. Neither is Daisy Ridley’s Viola Eade.

(excuse me while i get Percy Jackson flashbacks)

Now, I have to acknowledge the fact that neither actor(actually none of the actors in this film) slouch on the job. They bring solid and at times very good acting.(If Tom Holland is in the film, its not going to be complete waste of time. He brings quality.)

Honestly, respect to Mr Holland because he was basically the main character, not only acting but also doing voice and various stunts(also huge credit to the stunt coordinators and stuntmen) and I heard that filming wasn’t that great and bloody broke his nose how many times like damn boy, hats off to you.

But here’s the thing. I don’t want to say that Holland was playing himself or just a version of peter Parker, because i really don’t think he wasn’t but it just. Didn’t feel like a legit character? Especially when compared to the novel. Like Todd Hewitt in the novel is such a raw force of emotion and such a smartass and i was so looking forward for Holland to own this role but in the movie he just? Awkward dude going through some stuff?

but yeah, Holland works his ass off and there are some scenes and moments in the movie that work just because this fellow is just that charming, so (shrug emoji) like i said, He doesn’t waste your time at least.

Ridley....sigh. i know this woman can act. But next to the character who’s thoughts are heard constantly she’s very boring. And it hurts so much because Viola has an actual personality in the novel like; I’m ninety percent sure that Viola hits Todd with a big stick and I do remember that there were multiple moments where she lets Todd know when he’s being a dumbass.(seriously, i may have a shit memory of the book, but i do remember that they play off each other well and hugely entertaining seeing two twelve-year-olds handle the shit getting thrown at them)

Like, Viola in the film doesn’t really have much going on. We see the crash, we hear about the graves she dug herself, we see her be sad, we see her look at Todd like weirdo, we see her look horrified or shocked. (its so sad that I only remember the facial expressions more clearly than the actual dialogue) We really have no idea what the hell is going on with Viola Eade. I don’t think we can blame Ridley, only the film makers, because how can you see Viola Eade in the novel and then turn her into that????

i do have to talk about the relationship between Tom Holland’s Todd Hewitt and Daisy Ridley’s Viola Eade, even though its painful. In the novel, them is just two kids on a really tough adventure. Because they aged them up, its not two kids old enough to run for the playground when recess starts. Its Teenagers.

First question, HOW OLD ARE THEY??? Is Todd sixteen? Eighteen? Seventeen? He sure as hell ain’t Thirteen in this. What about Viola? I mean, big shout out to the hair and makeup team for making 28-year-old Daisy Ridley look so much younger but how. OLD. IS.SHE? Nineteen? Twenty? Twenty-one? Pretty sure she’s older than him in this? I ask because it MATTERS.

The way they play off each other has a vastly different energy to the novel because they are aged up. Its pretty obvious pretty fast that Todd’s feelings are basically a big crush, though not all of it is superficial as the film progresses. And Viola is clearly not receptive to that in the film. (honestly i cringed so hard at the “daydream kiss’ and whatever the hell that was in the Farbranch mayor’s house)

The relationship in the film just doesn’t have the nuance or the energy that the novel had in depicting their relationship which is depressing for all the Todd x Viola fans i’m sure. There’s some adorable bits though, like Viola seeing Todd’s dream of her playing with Manchee, and not so adorable canon bits like when Viola read the diary to Todd.

I’m just grateful that the film at least ended with them being friends instead of trying to force the romantic relationship. That right there is why I like the movie. It’s a crush, its used for a couple laughs, they’re friends, its fine. Even if you didn’t read the novel that’s really great for a movie in this day and age to not end with forcing two opposite sex characters into a relationship. To be honest, I like the idea that the film leaves us thinking that yeah, maybe these two could be real friends one day.

I just want to touch on Manchee real quick.

Manchee’s Noise is not seen or heard in the film. It is briefly acknowledged by Todd ins their first scene but other than that? Nada. Which is a low blow in comparison to the novel because Manchee was a character in his own right, which is why the death hit so hard.

Todd?” he barks, confused and scared and watching me leave him behind. “Todd?” “Manchee!” I scream. Aaron brings his free hand towards my dog. “MANCHEE!” “Todd?” And Aaron wrenches his arms and there’s a CRACK and a scream and a cut-off yelp that tears my heart in two forever and forever. And the pain is too much it’s too much it’s too much and my hands are on my head and I’m rearing back and my mouth is open in a never-ending wordless wail of all the blackness that’s inside of me.”

in the film, it takes place in white rapids, So its chaotic, its awful, the veiwer’s all stressed out because Viola can’t swim, everyone's getting separated and Aaron’s there and he is seen drowning Manchee.

Dude, its brief, but not pretty. Because you can see Manchee’s legs trashing above the water, struggling to get free. Aaron is drowning a dog, letting its lungs fill with water. For the folks that don’t like watching dogs die in graphic detail on screen, this isn’t great.

Personally, I love this scene in the novel. Its the first time i had to put the book down and take a moment. It hit really close to home for me, because i watched my own dog die in real life. It was emotional and horrifying and had such a fucking impact because we could hear his thoughts. Todd had to make the choice to leave him behind to keep Viola safe. To be honest, i think the death is better in the novel, since Manchee basically dies instantly instead of drowning, which takes time(I’ve always assumed that his neck was snapped but I’ve heard others say it was the psine but whatever) it would have been easy and necessary for them to not show that on screen. I personally just think that in terms of depicting a violent death, the novel did a lot better.

Anyway, on to the other characters

(I had to choose the one with the big orange fluffy coat, and i couldn’t find a good pic og Ben and Cillian on google images.)

As for Mayor Prentiss, he’s played by Mads Mikkelsen, and he delivers. But for the most part, we don’t really know why he’s the bad guy, he just wants to get Viola because “she’s the key” which isn’t really explained, and at the end he tries his hardest to kill Todd.

Because i only read the first book, I don’t know what exactly his character arc is. And since its been a really long while, I don’t remember what he’s like in the novel regardless, other than the cliffhanger ending.

I did take a quick crashcourse through the wiki and it turns out that Todd and Prentiss have a relationship in the later books, which the film sort of touches on, because Todd looks up to Prentiss in the film from the get go.

To be honest, I knew that the trilogy was a lot more complex, and even though I didn’t read the whole thing I knew it would be really disappointing for the fans to see the mayor be hollowed out to almost unrecognizable and not getting to see the whole picture on screen.

As for Davy Prentiss Jr., he was an asshole and stayed an asshole. I know he improves and gets killed off in the novels, so yeah, exhibit B of character foundations not being laid down because there isn’t gonna be a movie after this. Also, why is he played by Nick Jonas? Did they actually have more in mind for him when they decided to go with a Jonas brother or was it just star power?

As for Aaron...don’t have much to say about him, other than just being pretty weird fit to the film. I think he’s after Viola because he’s just that full of delusions but other than that, his character is just flat and useless. (I wish to the gods that writers would actually think instead of going with “religious delusion” to explain insanity) He only brought tension in a few scenes for the most part. I’m pretty sure that in the novel Todd and Aaron have a confrontation, like the final fight of the novel, and I’m 90% sure that its where the Novel gets the Knife of never Letting Go as its title, because the knife is big deal at that point. But I guess they wanted Viola to have a quick boss battle for the ending and set him on fire.

Ben and Cillian were fine. They did a good job, the actors were pretty great, I liked Cillian, and i like how they acknowledged that these dudes were family(i know that they’re gay and a couple but the film doesn’t say it outloud beyond letting them sleep in the same bed, be Todd’s parents, and having Ben hold Cillian in his arms) I get a kick out of the fact that the official reviews by Movie Critics are openly curious about why the film doesn’t make it more obvious that they’re gay, but whatever.

As for the overall plot, this is a fine example of mashing three books into one film and not having good results. Instead of going to Haven, the movie decided to shortcut the ending and go to the original ship that somehow has working tech but whatever, Viola needs to communicate to her ship. So not only do we not get the great relationship between Todd and Viola, not only do we not get the Spackle, Not only do we not get to see the noise of Manchee, not only do we have poor character adaptation, we also don’t get to have a plot that matches THE ONE BOOK THEY WERE SUPPOSED TO ADAPT. THEY HAD ONE FUCKING JOB AND THEY COULDN'T ADAPT THE ONE BOOK-

Its only so sad that they decided that this was going to be a one-shot deal because they didn’t have faith in the film and chose to have all the threads tied up. I mean, its so sad for the fans because the movie makes it very clear that we are not going to have anymore movies. sigh.

slight respect towards the film makers for tying up all the story threads instead of leaving them hanging. they did a neat job, even if it wasn’t a great one.

Anyway, maybe later on when google images has more than the promotional material I’ll do a review of only the good stuff this movie did, even if its a sad pathetic failure of an adaptation. Anyway this review is a bit of a mess and already so long so i’ll stop now.

May the gods give us strength against all the Tom Holland stans that will inevitably clog up the Chaos Walking tag with their Todd Hewitt x reader fanfics.

#Threeeyes speaks for once #messy film review #took forever to do this #i truly do feel for the Chaos walking fandom #As a Percy Jackson fan #I can only say #First Time?#Chaos Walking #Knife of Never Letting Go #Tom Holland 2021 #Daisy Ridley 2021 #Viola Eade #Todd Hewitt #Chaos Walking 2021

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lathalea · 4 years

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The Hobbit: AUJ: The Appendices, Part 7 (2/4)

The tumblr group The Hobbit (aka the Dwarf Lovers aka The Cult of Saint Bofur) did it again! Time for the 2nd part of our shenanigans.

Lord Elrond is trying out his new outfits.

Elrond Collection Spring Summer 2941 TA

Lot of Lindir stuff happens. And then... then it hits us... Lindir really got curly hair! :o

Thorin appears (majestically) ashdashdf THE HAIR!!!

There are some Galadriel x Gandalf shippers here... yeah, but they are together in a single scene... and they talk about the hobbit! Friendzone level: the hobbit

Every bad guy: I have an army Gandalf: We have a hobbit Bilbo: BILBO SMASH Christopher Lee does a lot of eyebrow acting And the Oscar for the best Eyebrow Acting goes to... Radagast, I'm sorry.

Putting on new hobbit feet Frodo making a face: ah shit, here we go again

The special effects unit making thunder with the blinking lights Disco Misty Mountains!

Dwarven torture with sprinklers. Actors recall how it was Steven (Bombur): story time! I almost DIED Dwarves looking miserably wet We empathize with them: This is me, trying to look good on a beach

Dwarves falling into the goblin caves How to kill/injure your stunt doubles 101

Fake!Bilbo appears on the screen off brand Bilbo! Bilbo made in china Great Value Bilbo is back! Stuntmen dressed like dwarves laying down quietly on training mats, preparing to fall into goblin town What is this? a dwarven yoga? Goblins training to become goblins They're training for the new season of the walking dead xD It turns out that goblins can have more nipples than two Dwarves take pride in their beards and hair, goblins take pride in their nipples The Dwarves are very good with the Asian martial arts: Karate Ori KUNG FU NORI And sensei Bilbo! Now we know why Goblins have extra nipples! Why? Where does the Goblin juice comes from?! (remember the white "milk flowing out of their suits? GROSS!!) The new drink made by fitness instructor, Dwalin Everyone: PUKE! but... but... THEN AGAIN... FLASH MOB GOBLINS! Guys! I have an idea for a fic! The adventures of Helicpter dori with his fellows Kung Fu dwarfs and karate Ori Plus young goblin king who tries to work in TV world The Elven TV Station Rivendell 6

This is a direct quote from Barry Humphries. We’ll just leave it here: “A family film depicting perverse sexual activities can be described only as educational.“

The fire in the pines. Who appears first? Yup, Thorin. MAJESTIC THORIN EPIC MAJESTIC FLYING HAIR THORIN You can say what you like, but he’s as majestic as always It’s the sexy fire scene!!! I swear, they didn't need the real fire there (The set bursts up in flames) RA was so hot the set just couldn't take it RA makes his own fire at will DRACARYS! But he doesn’t even need to say anything, it just happens :D .... aaand there goes Laketown. Well done, Thorin.

MAJESTIC BERSERK THORIN ATTACKING THROUGH THE FLAMES (RA had to repeat the scene over and over all day long) AWWWWW RA IS TAKING INSPIRATION FROM ANDY SERKIS He's just a little fanboy! And you know what? We'd also keep running for Andy ... What did you say? Sorry, I got too lost in Richard's voice and I didn't pay any attention.

A confession I'd kiss Fili on a fake green eagle --- cute first date ideas everyone should try

Eagles flying scene w Bifur and Bofur Who knows what Bofur saw in that scene? Beorn's bear rave party? Darude sandstorm playing in the background! PJ's daughter being a hobbit, excited about finally seeing her dad. When your dad says he wants to spend time with you and he turns you into a hobbit.

The Hobbiton scenes. (Elijah has one of the Ring props) Look at Elijah! Hasn't aged a day... wait...

Picking the extras for the Hobbits how to get a part in Tolkien films: tag along to your friend's audition

Scene 88 This was an indie movie "Warg". Only running! Only Long distance! I thought dwarves weren't long-distance runners? :D "Very dangerous over short distances"

The Battle of Azanulbizar Look! Thror, Thrain, young Thorin, Dwalin, Balin! Old floppy Balin is in charge! ...that was when the floppy wasn't old yet Before the CD era.

FEMALE DWARVEN WARRIORS! HELL YEAH! It’s the new movie. Warg 3: The Bloodening

Dis has a more epic beard than Thorin. Fight me. ... His beard was more majestic tho...

Graham’s daughter interviews her father. AWW DADDY DWALIN HE LOST HIS HAIR THROUGH STRESS! It was stress from helping to raise fili and Kili my guess

(💙💙💙 but nvm, I'm swooning now - The Oakenshield Moment 💙💙💙)

Bilbo gets feisty and beats up an orc who wants to kill Thorin Bilbo: Stupid green man, don't touch my dwarf Epic ship moment!

Mark Hadlow singing Nessun Dorma 💙💙💙 Opera Dori! Singing Helicopter Dori!

Peter Jackson during AUJ: "It was fun and relaxed." Peter next two films: HRRRAGGHH and don't forget: Hrrrragh 2 or maybe it wass one long HHHRRAAAAAAAAGHH bc he did both movies at once? hrragh the fellowship of crap and hrrragh 2 the two screams and don't forget hrrrrrragh 3 the retun of scary bilbo! :D

The last scene on AUJ, lots of group hugs, no social distancing! Oh, they are hugging each other! Those were the days... the pre-covid times... Every time I see them crowding I'm like STOP THIS MADNESS! Everyone: sees a lot of people together "I have no memory of this place"

Missed Part 1? Here it is.

Want to see how silly we were when watching The Hobbit? Check it out.

Thank you all for coming! I laughed so much :D 💙💙💙

@estethell @cassiabaggins @ahshithherewegoagain @theresonlyzuul @shrimpsthings @oreo-cookies-fan @whitefiredaydreams @dash-o-frost @way-too-addicted-to-fandoms @imhereforthefluff @bendakaya @deathlikessodaandpizza

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highandlowculture · 4 years

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MEET THE NEW WEST, SAME AS THE OLD WEST

In the second act of Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood, washed-up actor Rick Dalton is on the set of a TV western as his stuntman and best buddy, Cliff Booth is revisiting Spahn Ranch, a former set for movie westerns. The ranch has been taken over by a bunch of hippies who follow some guy name “Charlie”. The heavy of the hippies is a fella by the name of Tex Watson. When conflict arises between Cliff and the hippies, one of the girls runs off to fetch Tex, who’s busy showing a tourist couple around the ranch. Hearing that there’s trouble brewing, Tex snaps to it, galloping across the western landscape on horseback and wearing a black hat. It’s a sweeping shot straight out of a John Ford film. That’s when it clicked for me…

Tarantino has made his third western.

Although there were always spaghetti western elements in his films (especially in Kill Bill vol. 2), QT hadn’t made a full-fledged western until 2012’s Django Unchained. Though entertaining and with an African-American lead, the film is his most straight-forward movie. We know who the heroes are, we know who the villains are. Wrongs are righted with a six-shooter and a hero’s grin. Its followup was another western, 2015‘s The Hateful Eight, a much darker and far less heroic film. All of the characters are flawed if not outrightly fucked-up. If Django Unchained was the sumptuously shot crowd pleaser, The Hateful Eight was the claustrophobic, nihilistic reversal. The western myth of heroes and villains is subverted by an unsavory group of characters who drag each other through snow, blood and racial slurs. Maybe the Old West was a pretty rough place to live in after all!

And now, in 2019, QT transports us to another Old West: 1969 Hollywood.

Fifty years ago. Half a century. Pretty old, right?

Already contentious with reviewers, one of the main debates surrounding Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood is its handling of Sharon Tate and the Manson Family. In the summer of ’69, when Tate, her unborn baby and her houseguests were brutally murdered by three members of the Manson Family, it sent shockwaves throughout Hollywood and America. The utopian dream of the 1960s was over. That’s the sanitized, less complicated history anyway. At the time many people were blaming satanism and Tate’s husband Roman Polanski for his hedonistic ways. Plus anyone deep in the trenches of late 60s hipdom knew that some of the peace-and-love spouting Flower Children might be psychopaths that could turn on a dime. Such darkness was foreshadowed in the music of The Doors and Velvet Underground. As Joan Didion recalled in her seminal work The White Album:

“Black masses were imagined, and bad trips blamed. I remembered all of the day’s misinformation very clearly, and I also remember this, and wish I did not: I remember that no one was surprised.”

Knowing this I find it disappointing just how many reviewers fail to see how sympathetic QT is to Sharon and her friends. They’re shown as cool people with a good vibe (only Roman is shown to be prickish when he speaks rudely to a dog). Sharon and Jay Sebring like to listen to records and enjoy life. No satanism. No orgies. And Sharon’s a generous person. She picks up hippie hitchhikers and buys her husband a Thomas Hardy novel. She relishes the communal experience of watching herself in the Dean Martin film The Wrecking Crew. It’s not just about her. She’s enjoying the connection she’s making with the theater’s audience. On the infamous August night, the film’s narrator talks about how Sharon, in the late stage of her pregnancy, was feeling hot and anxious. In short, Sharon is humanized. She’s a thoughtful, spirited and benevolent presence throughout the film. I think reviewers who view her just as “a Barbie doll” are revealing more of their own lack of empathy than QT’s. And people getting hung-up on how many lines her character speaks have some skewed priorities. As if the only way a person has worth is if they talk a lot. Talking. Talking. Talking. There are so many empty vessels running at the mouth these days. Social media voices bombard us constantly. There’s something to be said for some quiet dignity every once in awhile. Regardless, Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood isn’t Sharon’s film and it’s not a biopic. It’s Rick and Cliff’s film and it’s a western.

If comedy is “tragedy plus time”, then the same can be said for any work of art. The mythology of the Old West often mixed historical and fictional characters. Whether they were Billy The Kid, Wyatt Earp or Butch Cassidy, we’ve seen countless retellings of their exploits, never exactly the same, never entirely accurate. That’s what makes it a myth. A good portion is made-up. Going back to Homeric and Arthurian legends, the foundation of storytelling has always been a collision of fact and fiction, chronicle and embellishment. People make too much of QT altering historic events. Are the Nazis of Inglourious Basterds and the Manson Family of Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood any different than any other mythical villains of earlier works of art? If a filmmaker can’t riff on a fifty-year-old historical event, then what are we really doing here? Do we just want the cinema of Marvel Comics and discreet biopics? QT doesn’t treat history any different than the filmmakers of the 1960s treated the events of the 1860s. Tex Watson, galloping away in his black hat, is a signpost for this. It’s QT’s way of saying: “Every time has its myths, every time has its black hats and white hats”. And the Manson Family, filled with bloodlust and megalomania from the top down, fulfill the role of black-hatted villains quite perfectly.

Does this make Rick and Cliff, two middle-aged white guys who love booze and hate hippies, our white-hatted heroes? Hell, no. With the exception of Django Unchained, that was never QT’s bag. He’s all about the anti heroes of spaghetti westerns and Sam Peckinpah films. Men who have done plenty of bad, sometimes unspeakable, things. They’re only the hero because they wrestle with their past and because there’s always a meaner, badder fella waiting to shoot it out with ‘em. Clint Eastwood’s character in the The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is only “Good” because Lee Van Cleef is so clearly “Bad” (and Eli Wallach “Ugly”). In 1992’s The Unforgiven, Eastwood’s character talks of killing “women and children” in his past. Yet he’s still clearly our hero. The Old West is a morally complex time in which one’s heroism is often defined by a greater and competing villainy.

So when it’s revealed that Cliff possibly murdered his wife and got away with it, he’s stepping into the role of anti hero with a dark past. Is Cliff haunted by his past? Not seemingly. He’s more inclined to shrug it off with a smirk and swig of beer. Shit happens y’know. This makes him exactly the type of guy murderous hippies shouldn’t fuck with. They justify their bloodlust with a self-serving philosophical bent: Entertainers taught them to kill via TV and movies, so it’s okay to kill the people who are involved in making TV and movies. QT makes the bold and provocative choice to not confirm whether Cliff did or didn’t kill his wife, but if he did, he probably wouldn’t dress it up as anything other than a burst of brutish violence that he was lucky to get away with. He loves his dog though, and he’s a good friend. In real life that might not justify liking the guy, but in a western that’s usually enough. Ultimately these character choices made by QT are to set up a mythic showdown between Cliff and the Manson Family. He’s good because they’re bad. It’s the same reason Cliff was shown going head-to-head with Bruce Lee. Masked racism by QT, a known lover of Asian and martial arts films, or a way of building up Cliff’s status to mythical proportions? There was once this ex war hero, who became a stuntman and maybe killed his wife, and he once threw Bruce Lee into a car door on the set of The Green Hornet! Cliff is Paul Bunyan. He’s Bill Brasky. A folk hero for stuntmen and for his time.

And did you hear that one tale about Cliff and the Manson Family…?

Rick’s bread and butter is now guest-starring on various TV shows in which he plays the heavy and gets his ass kicked by the show’s star at the end of the episode. Rick is a boozy, bloated hot mess of a man who’s prone to crying. A lot. His first burst of tears in the film is at the Musso & Frank parking lot, after an agent gives Rick a harsh dose of reality regarding the state of his career. Cliff, always keeping his cool, gives Rick his sunglasses and says, “Don’t cry in front of the Mexicans.” Remember — this is a western. Anyway, if Cliff fills the role of macho, gives no fucks, murderous outlaw, Rick is the contrasting “modern man” or, to use a western term, “tenderfoot”. The film begins with a behind the scenes segment for Rick’s old show Bounty Law. In it an interviewer talks to Rick and Cliff about what a stuntman does. During the interview there’s a quip about Cliff carrying Rick’s load. So right out of the gate, QT brings our attention to the idea that Cliff is the real deal and Rick’s the actor playing a role. This notion is repeated throughout the film (even one of the Manson Girls, “Pussy”, makes reference to Cliff being more authentic because he’s a stuntman rather than an actor). Regardless of whether Cliff murdered his wife or not, he’s an ex military man and war hero, so obviously he’s killed people before. So in addition to taking falls and performing dangerous stunts for Rick, he’s more of a bona fide western anti hero than Rick ever could be. Fittingly, while Cliff and the Manson Family black hats are sizing each other up at Spahn Ranch, Rick is busy acting in a TV western. And Rick keeps crying. A lot. He even cries in front of a little girl who simultaneously coddles and reprimands him. No doubt, Cliff would view this as potentially worse than crying in front of Mexicans. But Rick can’t help himself. He’s both a man of his time and out of time. He can’t roll with the hippies and spaghetti westerns but he’d never last a day in Cliff’s shoes let alone the wild frontier. Even at the end, in which Rick finally gets the chance to become an avenging hero (involving possibly the greatest payoff in cinematic history) if one steps back and thinks of the climactic set-piece, Rick is merely stepping in at the end to grab all the glory after Cliff and his wonderful dog Brandy did most of the heavy lifting. Thus Cliff is yet again carrying Rick’s load.

But this doesn’t mean Rick doesn’t have a victory. He does. It just comes at the midpoint, and it’s the closest thing to a real-life victory in the film. When Rick shows up to play the heavy in the TV western, he’s reached his low-point. Like a different part of the anatomy going into ice-water in Raging Bull, Rick is submerging his face into ice-water in his trailer, struggling with a hangover and hopelessness. Making matters worse, the artsy director shows up and tells Rick he wants him to play a hippie-style outlaw with a fringe jacket, mustache and long hair. The only thing Rick does more than drink and cry is insult hippies. He’s living his worst nightmare as an actor. QT makes another one of his most interesting choices by showing the subsequent scenes from the TV show in the same film stock and style as the main narrative. Thus when juxtaposed to Cliff at Spahn Ranch, Rick’s battle with his growing irrelevance as an actor is given the same cinematic weight. This isn’t just a TV show within the movie — it is the movie! This battle or showdown is just as important as Cliff’s eventual showdown with the Manson Family. Rick struggles. He fucks up his lines. He comes totally unglued in his trailer. This looks like the end of the road for him as an actor. He eventually gets his shit together, embraces the role and goes for broke. It’s a credit to both QT as a filmmaker and Leo DiCaprio as an actor that the villain Rick plays in the TV show ends up being more intense and visceral than the one he played in the main narrative of Django Unchained. Rick’s chops as an actor are restored and he decides to go to Italy and star in spaghetti westerns. He learns to maximize his talent in order to roll with the times.

A protagonist who is at odds with changing times might seem regressive or even reactionary to some people today, but it’s also a hallmark of westerns, especially the westerns of the late 1960s and early 1970s. From Once Upon a Time in the West to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, an impending future of railroads and industrialization is always treated with uneasiness by the heroes. These changing times aren’t going to include them. Their wild and free ways will soon come to an end. Nowhere is this theme most prominent than in the work of Sam Peckinpah. In many of his westerns, The Wild Bunch, The Ballad of Cable Hogue, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, the heroes are viewed as endangered creatures who are all too aware of their fate. The character of Cable Hogue even meets his end when a motor car rolls over him. He’s killed by the modern age! Another Peckinpah film from this era, Junior Bonner, is set in 1972 Arizona but can also be considered a western (creating a template for QT’s western that’s not set in the canonical “Old West”). The protagonist and title character is an aging rodeo star (brilliantly played by Steve McQueen, who perhaps not so coincidentally also appears in QT’s film). In Peckinpah’s film, Junior has lost his edge and returns home to take a breather and maybe get his chops back. His struggle is not unlike Rick Dalton’s. They’re both aging entertainers and they both fear they’re washed-up. And as with all of Peckinpah’s westerns, encroaching progress is a threat to Junior’s simple cowboy ways. All of these above mentioned westerns are filled with a bittersweet quality; a nostalgic snapshot that’s destined to become yellow and brittle. The power of myths is they suggest immortality for our heroes.They might be long gone but they live through these tales. Whether’s it’s the Old West of outlaws in dusty little towns or the Old West of ’69 Hollywood, people once lived in these places and they lived vibrant, foolhardy and sometimes dangerous lives. Maybe they didn’t live or die exactly as the tale accounts, but they did indeed live and they did indeed die.

In his film QT references another “man out of time” western: The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean. Written by John Milius, directed by John Huston and starring Paul Newman, the film is a highly-fictionalized account of the life of Judge Roy Bean. At the climax an elderly Roy Bean reemerges from a self-imposed exile to have a showdown with businessmen who have surrounded his beloved town with oil rigs. When his enemies ask who he is, Roy Bean shouts “Justice, you sons of bitches!” This is immediately followed by a shootout in which Roy defeats his foes, blows up the surrounding oil rigs and goes out in a blaze of glory. In real life Roy Bean died in his bed after a heavy bout of drinking. What’s most interesting is how QT referenced The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean. After the climax of Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood there’s a triumphant but wistful epilogue in which one of our heroes is faced with a future that we all know is a fantasy. Over this scene is an evocative piece of music that sounds like it’s from a fairytale and it plays over the end credits. The piece of music is entitled “Miss Lillie Langtry” and it’s the main theme from The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean. Lillie Langtry was a British-American socialite Roy Bean was enamored with and he even went so far to name the saloon in his town after her. “Miss Lille Langtry” plays over the end credits of Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood and the opening credits of The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean. But before the credits in Roy Bean we see written in storybook fashion:

“Near the turn of the last century the Pecos River marked the boundaries of civilization in western Texas. West of the Pecos there was no law, no order, and only bad men and rattlesnakes lived there.

…Maybe this isn’t the way it was… it’s the way it should be.”

With Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood, Quentin Tarantino pays homage to a socialite/actress who was tragically murdered before her time and two endangered heroes—one an outlaw stuntman, the other an entertainer—neither of who existed but men like them did. For two hours and forty-five minutes, the onward march of tragedy and time is defeated through a spirited, Old West mix of bravado and audacity. Maybe it’s not the way it was…

But it’s the way it should be.

#Quentin Tarantino #Once Upon A Time In Hollywood #western #hollywood

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fuforthought · 4 years

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Hi! Great blog and podcast! Quick questions for you. Do you know how much stunt double the big action stars use, for what purpose (acrobatics, kicks, ...)& why (insurance, they just can't do it anymore...)? Also curious about your opinion on Donnie Yen's fight scenes in movies he choreographs himself: I read a lot they're 'too one sided' (as in, keeping all the best moves for himself)... what do you think? And finally, who you think are the best upcoming martial arts stars today?

Doubling is huge. All the big Hollywood stars use doubling for most action scenes. Even Keanu Reeves had a double for the John Wick movies, despite doing most of the action himself. Even Jackie Chan, the man who built a career on not using stunt doubles, used doubles back then and uses even more today. Don’t even let Hollywood fool you: doubled are always used.

I don’t know the ins and outs of it all but I think it’s down to insurance reasons. With that said, I don’t know why Tom Cruise is allowed to do half the wacky shit he’s allowed to do. So I’m really not sure how it works.

Donnie’s self-choreographed movies are one sided a lot of the time but it works. It makes him look like a beast...which he is. I’m not sure I support some of Hak choroeography choices though. For example, he asks stuntmen if he can pay them a little extra for them to actually let him hit them. Sounds a bit rough. But he knows choreography. I think most people still want to see the hero triumph. Look at John Wick. Most of his fights are still him just fucking people up save for the big final act of the third movie.

I’m into Donnie and Donnie’s style. The man has choreographed some of the best fights of the last twenty years. If a survey was done, I imagine most people would rank his fight with Collin Chou in Flabspoint as one of the best fight ever filmed. Me? I prefer his Ip Man stuff but that’s just my preferred style.

As for upcoming martial artists, there seek to be none in Hong Kong right now. It’s best to look to the American stunt scene: Andy Le and Brian Le, Bryan Sloper, Amy Johnston, Lorenz Hideyoshi, Felix Betancort (sp?) etc. Get on IG and look a few of these up. You’ll always find great martial artists linked to them.

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storytell · 4 years

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@giftandguile asked

📂 more baccanos. every one of them

nice: when the gang eats together, she doesn’t eat until she’s made sure everyone else has gotten food. this used to be because they didn’t always have a guarantee of getting food, but now it’s kind of habit.

claire: claire isn’t usually super serious when he proposes to people, but he takes all proposals seriously even if they clearly aren’t, and if someone proposed to him first he’d take it as a sign that that person absolutely was meant to be with him and accept right away, even if he wasn’t considering them at all prior to the proposal.

maria: her favorite season is winter because she loves to decorate for christmas by cutting up paper snowflakes, cutting down pine trees to make christmas trees, and cutting up her enemies for that nice red christmas color.

isaac: his favorite animal is a stork, because he thinks it’s very noble of them to deliver all those babies to their homes all the time.

berga: he yells when he’s talking over mobile phones in the modern day. most people assume it’s just because he yells a lot but the truth is that one time luck told him he needs to talk louder than normal into mobile phones because the lack of a wire makes it harder to hear the person on the other end. and berga believed that.

donatello: he tends to get flirted with a lot, but he tends to politely brush off the women that do. he says it’s because his first priority is his duty to the lord, but really he’s just not interested and is reaching for excuses.

lua: she pays very careful attention to what people around her are saying. because she has such a quiet presence, people forget she’s there sometimes, or they find her more trustworthy. sometimes if the things she hears are interesting, she’ll tell them to ladd.

dallas: he passes away prior to the 2002 plotline of baccano!---despite only being able to die of old age, he was in very poor health before becoming an incomplete immortal, and wasn’t going to live that long as it stood.

rachel: she actually likes nice dresses, and secretly looks forward to any jobs where she can wear them. however, her usual outfit is plenty comfortable too, and she said if she had to pick one over the other for everyday wear, it’d probably be her usual outfit.

christopher: his favorite color is green! he mostly wears red because it matches his eyes. he used to also jokingly say it’s because red is the color of blood, but ever since he lost the will to kill people, that joke has become obsolete.

random useless headcanons. / accepting.

gabriel: gabriel likes to socialize with people who don’t know who they are, because many people that know who they are treat them with some level of caution or disgust.

chaini: the times at which she interjects into a conversation with her signature “hyaha!” are actually carefully planned to make sure she says it at a funny moment or a moment when someone needs cheering up. her follower is a lot less organized with where he says it.

ladd: the only person stronger than him that doesn’t piss him off is graham.

huey: they don’t harbor any particular fear of death, but they also aren’t ignorant to the possibility. they’ll only outright provoke someone to try and kill them if they know the other person won’t be capable of it.

victor: victor’s favorite curse word is fuck, followed by shit, bitch, ass, and damn. hell isn’t up there in his top five because he thinks hell is a really tame curse word. he’s never used the word cunt, because he’s saving it for “a special occasion when there’s a real bastard who needs to be cussed out to hell and back again”.

luck: one of his biggest pet peeves is people talking over him. there’s not many ways to make him more annoyed during a conversation.

graham: graham claims not to like sports, but if he had to pick a sport he’d want to play it would be basketball. that said, while he would be great as a batter, he’d be very difficult to be on a team with.

sonja: sonja doesn’t exactly have a sense of what’s morally right and wrong. she won’t know if something is right or wrong until someone directly tells her something is wrong. this is, predictably, because of how her parents chose to raise her (like seriously what the fuck were they on).

melvi: he’s never smiled out of genuine happiness.

esperanza: he is an excellent marksman, and is not to be trifled with in duels.. however, he refuses to fire his gun in front of a woman unless she specifically requests that he do.

sham: sham actually has full control of the vital systems of all of his host bodies. this means he could completely shut down a host body at will if he so chose, and it also means that he has to constantly keep their vital systems running along with continuously pretending to be all of them.

The Gang: some of the older members of the gang hang out more with the younger members because it’s a lot less stressful and because the kids need someone to babysit them.

charon: if claudia really wanted them to, they’d star in a film alongside her. however, they have an aversion to the spotlight and would prefer to continue doing stunts because stuntmen are seen as more intimidating, and they usually don’t have to talk.

maiza: he prefers the fashion of the 1700s to what he wears in both the 1930s and the 2000s, but he doesn’t say anything about this because there’s no point in complaining.

czes: he’s kind of a really picky eater. there’s a chance that if he had been allowed to grow up he would have grown out of it, but since it’s physically impossible for his tastes to change, he’ll always be that picky.

ronny: ronny is very rarely surprised by things, even when he’s limiting what he knows so he can make guesses as to what the outcome will be. when he is surprised by things, those events stick out in his mind more often than ordinary but still chaotic events.

jacuzzi: funnily enough, he doesn’t actually like to admit that he’s crying, even when there are literally tears streaming down his face. he’ll either turn away completely, bury his face into his hands, or use the nearest person as a shoulder to cry into.

roy: sometimes roy has dreams/nightmares about some of the hallucinations he had while he was addicted to drugs. usually, just before he’s jerked awake, he’s calling out for edith in his sleep.

kalia: between her and kate, she’s the first of the two to die. she dies of lung cancer in 1984.

rail: christopher once offered to give them an actual name, but they refused, saying that they didn’t deserve it. this wasn’t quite true to what they thought; instead, they just figured it’d be less painful to be called rail if they chose to be called rail.

#i hate you #her SISTER was a WITCH! RIGHT? ;; OOC #giftandguile

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fox-in-the-library · 5 years

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I scribbled down random thoughts while watching GoT S8E5. Most of them did not spark joy (spoilers behind cut)

1. That was a really awkward cut between Varys’ execution and Dany picking up Missandei’s only possession. For a minute i thought that someone was picking up a bucket of sand to chuck on the fire that used to be Varys.

2. Dany to Jon: “Is that all I am to you? Your queen?” Everyone watching: “And his aunt!”

3. Davos: “I’m not going to like this favour, am I?” I love that Liam Cunningham sounds like every beleagured office worker ever.

4. Tyrion and Jamie: I’M NOT CRYING YOU’RE CRYING NO WAIT EVERYONE’S CRYING.

5. Arya and the Hound win the award for most logistically unrealistic entry to a city ever. I think they were going for a call-back to Arya’s earlier “going to King’s Landing to kill the Queen’ line” but really? Really? The guards win the award for most useless guards ever. King’s Landing’s counter-terrorism unit is an utter shambles.

6. Meanwhile, is anyone else wondering why no one thought to use the tunnel under the Mudgate that Tyrion and co used in the Battle of Blackwater? Maybe I missed something in the last seven seasons, and it’s no longer useable?

7. I’m sure that Kate Adie did an interview with a number of stuntmen and women, and they said that they normally got paid more than usual for being lit on fire directly? (As they should be, I hasten to add.) Still, that was the first thing I thought of when Drogon attacked. Kudos to the stunt men and women of GoT and may they be paid good fortunes in the wars to come.

8. Dude, where did all the Dothraki come from? I thought they all got zombified in the Battle of Winterfell?

9. Was that the head of the Golden Company who had a FML moment there running away from the Dothraki? #Shouldabroughttheelephantsmydude

10. Given that the dragons move like giant bats when they’re on the ground, walking forwards on their wings, I’m going to suggest that they’ve got other bat characteristics along the lines of particular sonar/echo frequencies. My theory is that the bells are hitting a particular frequency that are driving Drogon mad, and that’s what’s impacting on Dany. Hell, it’s better than ‘the sound of bells drive her mad for no reason what-so-fucking ever.’ Just assume that the dragon’s been driven nuts by bell frequencies and she’s having a parenting fail moment, nad is unable to control Drogon’s homicidal tendencies, #justmomlife

11. WHY EVEN IS EURON?

ETA: I take it back - I’ve just watched the behind the scenes thing on Youtube, and the fight between Euron and Jamie is being referred to as ‘Danebowl’. Euron is worth it for this alone. And for the image of Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Pilou Asbæk switching language to chat in Danish between takes, and the director never being sure as to whether the next take was going to go as planned, or whether they were plotting doing something else entirely.

12...This is about to be rocks fall, everyone dies, isn’t it?

13. CLEGANEBOWL IS A GO! They surely can’t fuck this up. Wait, don’t answer that. HOW DO YOU FUCK UP CLEGANEBOWL?????

14. ...ARE YOU EVEN FUCKING KIDDING ME ROCKS FALL AND EVERYONE DIES????? E6 is going to end up being some weird shit along the lines of Bran finally waking up from the coma he’s been in since being shoved out of the window in season one, and everything will have been a dream.

ETA: If the final episode ends with any line of dialogue other than ‘and now my watch is ended’ I will be sorely disappointed.

#got #got spoilers

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fulcrum-agent · 5 years

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Body By Thor

Some of you may have noticed this tag on some of my food posts. I’m going to explain where the hell it came from, and probably sound like something of a shill for a minute. Cut for length concerns.

CENTR

Last week, a programme called Centr launched, and I believe it’s the most comprehensive health and wellness programme you can get, short of being able to hire your own trainers and wellness staff.

For years, Chris Hemsworth has been approached about how he is essentially Thor in IRL. Questions about how he got so ripped, how he maintains all that bustling energy, why he’s so damn positive. (Spoilers: half the answers are because of Hemsworth being Australia, as a starter.)

The man has a massive health and wellness team, as well as myriad friends in the industry. So he’s picked 21 of the best experts he knows, and brought them together to create Centr.

Every expert has a series of videos in the programme, as well as some articles for self guided work, instead of the video and audio guidance. I’ve had the programme for a week now, and I haven’t made it through a fraction of the videos and articles.

The thing that caught me at the get go was the fact that there’s a huge article dedicated for how to train as someone whose either been injured, or suffers from chronic medical conditions and/or persistent pain. Literally, no other health or wellness programme I’ve touched in the past decade has had something like that. Further more, each trainer they have for fitness gives alternate movement sets and suggestions for those who are suffering physical ailments, and can’t do the full monty version.

The other thing that drew me to this programme is the fact their app is fairly much fully comprehensive. Previously, I’ve needed an app for a food plan, an app to track calorie intake and/or exercise, an exercise app, and an app for creating shopping lists at the very least. In some manner, all of that shite is built into Centre, which makes it a hell of a lot easier to manage.

Making management further streamlined, the app is heavily invested in the Apple Health system. It utilises nearly every aspect of the Health API, as well as the Apple Watch. I was shocked as hell when I did my first workout, and had my Watch suddenly flip on with all sorts of metrics going. It uses the Workout API of the watch, but has its own custom interface that has a lot more data right there and available.

The core of the programme is a weekly planner. This has your workouts, meditation and/or sleep aids, and your meals for every day of the week. The recipes for the meals can be adjusted by serving, so people who are cooking for just themselves can trim it down to one serving (or two for quick leftovers), while people who are feeding a family can crank up the servings to cover even parties worth of people.

What’s awesom there is that you can tell the app to move your weekly meal plan’s ingredients into a shopping list, which will auto calculate how much you need of what, even if something is used in more than one meal. It sorts it (as best it can) into what section of the grocery store items are located, but your milage on the accuracy of such will vary, based on your local stores. The shopping list does have the ability to add things not on the meal plan list, so that part’s covered as well.

Centr has one of the most diverse workout/fitness selections I’ve seen in a single app. There’s really good foundational movements, yoga and pliates, strength training, endurance training, muscle building, HIIT and HIRT, along with things like boxing and MMA. One of the guys who does a video set is Chris’ stunt man friend, who relates some of the various things he’s teaching to the world of stuntmen, which is pretty fun.

The programme is pretty flexivle in terms of the fitness. You can swap out workouts if you need something a little less strenuous, or want to up your anti on a good day. You don’t need to use equipment, but if you have it or a gym membership, the programme has series that focus on using such.

I think the one thing about the app that throws me off, and will likely throw others off, is that you personally are not tracking your calories. The app does it for you in the meal plans. As long as you stick to the meal plans (which do have snacking factored in), you can just not give any fucks about the calories going in. That’s...like the antithises of every other nutrition app, but I’m digging not having to give extra fucks over it.

And this last piece may sound odd, but unlike a lot of other programmes, Hemsworth has made sure there’s a link right in the iOS app to hit the Apple Store and adjust your subscription, whether it be to change your bililng cycle or cancel completely. Far too many apps now a days are super opague about that, and it’s really annoying.

The programme is literally by Hemsworth himself. He not only turns up in many different parts of the programme, he oversees the entire god damn thing. It’s letimately his work, something he’s doing between being a super hero and having a family.

Your first week ends with him popping up in a video, which was cute as shit. I won’t spoil it for anyone, but I giggled like a school girl at what happened during the vid.

There is one thing that may be a turn off for some people: this is not one of those free-to-use-but-has-in-app-purchase type programmes. It’s a straight up 7 day trial, then full on subscription. The upside is that nothing is gated during the 7 day trial, and then everything is yours to use once you subscribe. One of the most frustrating things is the variance between the amount of accesibility with an app that focuses on in-app purchases, and despite the programme being about the same amount as a gym membership, the lack of not knowing what I do and don’t have access too is pretty nice.

Centr has a pretty huge FAQ for people to look at before starting. I also suggest starting the programme right after you wake up, to maximise your 7 days. The first day is super chill, and all about collecting your week’s worth of stuff, but you really need that full day to get into it. I made the fucking mistake of doing it at like 2 AM and having my first day all messed up cus I didn’t have transportation to the store.

Completely by accident, I ended up being a Founding Member, since I stumbled upon it during the launch ramp up. I spent the night of the 13th into the 14th doing my grocery shopping, and man, that was a workout on its own.

To wrap things up, the reason I decided to write anything about Centre is because I’m seeing immediate results. My pain decreased dramatically, the amount of calories I burn each day has doubled already, I am sleeping more restfully (once I can sleep, insomnia is still being a jerk), and I’m giving less fucks about the things that don’t really matter, and enjoying the things that do.

I do mix Centr with another programme called Fabulous, which focuses on the mental aspects of life. But I literally only need two apps to have a full compliment of health and wellness help, instead of like...six.

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk. This shill was given freely, cus I’m not lucky enough to be endorsed by Hemsworth himself.

#A Moonlit Original #ashe.txt #centr #body by thor #chris hemsworth #seriously - i feel amazing

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stephantom · 5 years

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@me-fish replied to your post

“The next PWG event is going to be excellent. Puma King is great and...”

This sounds absolutely awesome! I've never seen wrestling like this in my life but man would i like to after reading this! ��

it’s an interest I totally didn’t see coming. i just got randomly invited to an event about a year and half ago and went mainly out of curiosity, and then it was just so much fun, I ended up going back again and again, and here we are.

@shit-lizard

replied to your post

“The next PWG event is going to be excellent. Puma King is great and...”

this sounds like larping but professionally and with more actual fighting and i fucking love it

haha omg that comparison hadn’t occurred to me, but you’re right. it’s like a larp where all the participants are professionally trained stuntmen. definitely more emphasis on the fighting, of course.

and how much goes into the setup, the story and characters, the comedy bits, vs how much goes into the fight, can vary. and the outlandishness of the stories and characters can vary a lot too.

On the one hand, you’ve got stuff like Lucha Underground, with like... demons and curses and time-traveling and aliens, etc. And in Mexico, luchador films have been a thing since the 50s--basically, imagine your typical superhero or spy movie, but the hero is a famous masked wrestler (who also wrestles in real life at shows).

Then of course there’s WWE, where the focus seems to be just kinda.. typical sports drama and hype? feuding athletes, overlooked stars, a rookie/underdog’s rise to glory, an unsportsmanlike braggart/bully getting taken down (or not getting taken down!), etc.

Then you’ve got some independent wrestlers like The Bullet Club/The Elite, with shows on youtube, and it’s all just super meta, where they basically break the 4th wall all the time. most of the time, they aren’t pretending to be people who are really trying to win fights; they’re pretending to be people pretending to be people who are trying to win fights (if that makes sense). they openly acknowledge the staged-ness of it and play it up for humor, and it works because the stunts are amazing and they’re funny.

The local indie shows i go to are a mix of all three, really. and audience interaction is a huge part of it too--tons of chanting, booing, shouted oneliners, suggestions, etc. Sometimes feels like what i imagine a play performed in a town square in the middle ages would be like.

(that’s not an exhaustive list of pro-wrestling styles or types of promotions, and also, none of those worlds exists in a bubble--most wrestlers move between all of them.)

#shit-lizard #me-fish #replies #wrestling #long post

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sebfiction · 6 years

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Hey Doc!

Chapter 2

Amanda was more than disappointed to hear that you didn’t actually completely know who every one of the cast was. She was almost offended. So she sat you down and gave you the rundown off all of the main cast. And after that, she gave you the play by play of all of the Marvel movies leading up to now. Sebastian Stan was, according to Amanda, the hottest motherfucker you would ever get to meet. And as she showed you his photo, you couldn’t really help but agree. When she was done you hardly had any time to gather the equipment you needed before the golf cart came to take you to set. It was just a short drive there, as they had arranged to always keep the medic trailer closest to the action. However, in the two minutes it took to get there you started working up a nerve again. By the time the massive structures they had built as a set appeared you were anxiously fiddling with the stethoscope around your neck. Amanda, who was sitting next to you, looked about as nervous as you felt. The golf cart stopped and so, it felt like, did your heart. There, casually talking to Anthony Russo, in full suit was Chris Evans. You thanked your driver, nudged Amanda to get out, grabbed some of the equipment and strolled over to Nick.

“Nick!” You called out, waving with your free hand. “Where do you need us?” you asked. Nick showed you to an area behind the camera with a couple of chairs and parasols, where you put down your equipment.

“Miss (Y/L/N)!” You heard Anthony’s voice behind you. You turned and saw him waving you over to where he was standing. “We haven’t been properly introduced I believe! I’m Anthony, great to meet you miss (Y/L/N). Oh wait shit, is it Dr. (Y/L/N)?” He rambled as you walked over. You grabbed his hand and laughed.

“Technically it would be Dr. (Y/L/N) in, but I would prefer (Y/N)” you told him, trying your best not to stare at the man next to him. Chris Evans offered you his hand.

“Great to meet you (Y/N)! I’m Chris, I play Cap, but you maybe guessed that already” he joked as he gestured to his costume.

“I had a suspicion” you joked as you shook his hand. ‘He’s bigger in real life’ you noted mentally.

“So you’re the one who’s gonna be saving our lives every time we mess up a stunt, huh,” he asked as he casually grabbed his shield from where it was leaning against his leg.

“Well, hopefully you’ll make my job easy by not, you know, getting seriously injured” you retorted.

“I’ll try my best” he promised. “Can’t say the same about my coworkers though.” He turned to wink someone behind him over to you. “Seb! Come say hi to our Medic!” he yelled. The guy he was yelling at turned around, and you felt your heart rate slowly speed up. As he walked over to you, you carefully watched his physique. He was a large guy, way taller than you, with broad shoulders and muscular arms and legs. His hair was long and black, dyed for the part you guessed, and he was wearing all black, apart from one of his hands that looked to be made of metal. He made his way to the two of you and reached out his hand, the one that looked human, to greet you.

“Hi! I’m Sebastian, great to meet you. You’re Dr. (Y/L/N) I presume” he smiled a crooked smile. ‘He knows my name’.

“Though I’m very flattered by the use of my proper title, please just call me (Y/N)” you chuckled, feeling a blush start to rise in your cheek.

“So you’re the one who’ll be saving our asses everything we mess up a stunt huh?” he joked, making both you and Chris laugh.

“I’m afraid Chris already made that joke. And like I told him; please make my life easier and don’t do anything dumb” you fake pleaded.

“Aaah, I’ll try my absolute best” he laughed, sounding almost nervous to you. You tried your hardest to conceal the sharp breath you instinctively took.

“Well, I should check on my equipment, and meet the rest of the stunt crew. But, you know, come by if you need something, like if you get dehydrated or anything. I’d rather check on you one too many times than one too few” you told them before you turned to find Amanda.

—

Luckily, the first day went by without any major issues. A few of the stuntmen came to see you for some light bruises, or just to say hi. Amanda and you spent most of the day watching the monitor to see what was going on inside the building structure they were filming. Even though you could see the wires and all the green screen areas you found yourself incredibly impressed by everyones performance. A few times you and Amanda gasped in union as when you thought something looked waaaay too real. You had to supres your instincts to run in and make sure everyone was ok every time one of the directors yelled cut. You were applying some anti-inflammatory cream to the shoulder of one of the stunt-actors, Dereck, when Sebastian walked up to you.

“Hey” he said to get your attention. You looked up at him as you put the cap back on the cream-tube.

“Hey! You ok?” you asked instinctively. He smiled shyly.

“Oh yeah I’m fine, just wanted to ask you how your first day has been” he explained, and you noticed his eyes were flickering slightly.

“Oh that's kind of you,” you said, slightly surprised. “And my first day was great, I mean, I’ve never worked on any type of movie set before, let alone a movie as big as this one!” Sebastian laughed and nodded his head.

“It’s kinda overwhelming right?” he said, gesturing to the massive sets behind him.

“Oh definitely. And man those fight scenes are amazing! I mean that’s some seriously impressive stuff” you exclaimed. Sebastian smiled and you noticed a slight blush on his cheeks. ‘Oh my god he’s shy’.

“Thanks” he chuckled. “I mean if you knew how long it took us to get it to look that cool you probably wouldn’t be that impressed but…” he trailed off.

“Are you sure you’re ok?” you asked before you could stop yourself. “I mean it looked like you took a hit back there, and you’re kinda just been rubbing it all this time.” He raised his eyebrows in surprise, and finally stopped rubbing his shoulder.

“Actually, it’s a bit sore” he admitted.

“And you didn’t think to mention that to the person whose one job it is to make sure you’re not injured?” you huffed, and gesture to sit in the chair in front of you.

“It’s really nothing, just the metals been kind digging into..” he started before you interrupted him.

“Just let me do my job and look at it please” you joked. He gave in and sat down. You gently tugged at his shirt to reveal where the metal arm ended. The skin there had been rubbed red and there was some chafing.

“Ok so it looks like the edge of the arm has been rubbing against the skin a bit too much, and if it continues like this you’ll have some awful blisters by the end of the week. So either you’ve gotta do some adjustments to the fake arm, or I could patch up the edges to protect the skin there” you told him, lightly pressing at the skin on his shoulders. You suddenly became very aware of how his face was to yours when he muttered a low “ok” back at you. You quickly straightened up to look at him.

“Actually, you’re not doing any more scenes today right?”. He nodded.

“Well, I would love to talk to the makeup department about this and look at your shoulder after you take off the arm. So if you don’t mind we could head there now” you suggested. Sebastian looked at you in surprise.

“I mean, whatever you say I should do, I’ll do it” he joked and threw up his hands in fake defeat.

#sebastian stan #sebastian stan fanfiction #sebastian stan imagine #sebastian stan x reader #hey doc fanfiction

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