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blackswaneuroparedux · 9 months

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Anonymous ask: What do you think of the new Indiana Jones movie? And of Phoebe Waller-Bridge?

In a nutshell: From start to finish ‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’ is watching Indiana Jones being a broken-down shell of a once great legacy character who has to be saved by the perfect younger and snarky but stereotypical ’Strong Independent Woman’ that passes for women characters in popcorn movies today.

I went in to this film with conflicted feelings. On the one hand I was genuinely excited to see this new Indiana Jones movie because it’s Indiana Jones. Period. Yet, on the other hand I feared how badly Lucasfilm, under Kathleen Kennedy’s insipid woke inspired CEO studio direction, was going to further tarnish not just a screen legend but the legacy of both George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. The cultural damage she has done to such a beloved franchise as the Star Wars universe in the name of progressive woke ideology is criminal. The troubled production history behind this film and its massive $300 million budget (by some estimates) meant Disney had a lot riding on it, especially with the future of Kathleen Kennedy on the line too as she was hands on with this film.

To me the Indiana Jones movies (well, the first three anyway, the less we say about ‘Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’ the better) were an important part of my childhood. I fell in love with the character instantly. Watching ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ (first on DVD in my boarding school dorm with other giggly girls and later on the big screen at a local arts cinema retrospective on Harrison Ford’s stellar career) just blew me away.

As a girl I wanted to be an archaeologist and have high falutin’ adventures; I even volunteered in digs in Pakistan and India (the Indus civilisation) as well as museum work in China as a teen growing up in those countries and discovering the methodical and patient but back breaking reality of what archaeology really was. But that didn’t dampen my spirit. Just once I wanted to echo Dr. Jones, ‘This belongs in a museum!’ But I happily settled for studying Classics instead and enjoyed studying classical archaeology on the side.

I couldn’t quite make sense why Indiana Jones resonated with me more than any other action hero on the screen until much later in life. Looking like Harrison Ford certainly helps. But it’s more than that. I’ve written this elsewhere but it’s worth repeating here.

‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ is considered an inspiration for so many action films yet there’s a very odd aspect to the film that’s rather unique and rarely noticed by its critics and fans. It’s an element that, once spotted, is difficult to forget, and is perhaps inspiring for times like the one in which we currently live, when there are so many challenges to get through. Typically in action films, the hero faces an array of obstacles and setbacks, but largely solves one problem after another, completes one quest after another, defeats one villain after another, and enjoys one victory after another.

The structure of ‘Raiders’ is different. A quick reminder:

- In the opening sequence, Indiana Jones obtains the temple idol only to lose it to his rival René Belloq (Paul Freeman). - In the streets of Cairo, Indy fails to protect his love, Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), from being captured (killed, he assumes). - In the desert, he finds the long-lost Ark of the Covenant, only to have it taken away by Belloq. - Indy then recovers the ark only to have it stolen a second time by Belloq, this time at sea. - On an island, Indy tries to bluff Belloq into thinking he’ll blow up the ark. His bluff fails. Indy is captured. - The climax of the film literally has its hero tied to a post the entire time. He’s completely ineffectual and helpless at a point in the movie where every other action hero is having their greatest moment of struggle and, typically, triumph.

If Indiana Jones had done absolutely nothing, if the famed archeologist had simply stayed home, the Nazis would have met the same fate - losing their lives to ark’s wrath because they opened it. It’s pretty rare in action films for the evil arch-villains to have the same outcome as if the hero had done nothing at all.

Indy does succeed in getting the ark back to America, of course, which is crucial. But then Indy loses the ark, once again, when government agents send it to a warehouse and refuse to let him study the object he chased the whole film. In other words: Indiana Jones spends ‘Raiders’ failing, getting beat up, and losing every artefact that he risks his life to acquire. And yet, Indiana Jones is considered a great hero.

The reason Indiana Jones is a hero isn’t because he wins. It’s because he never stops trying. I think this is the core of Indiana Jones’ character.

Critics will go on about something called agency as in being active or pro-active. But agency can be reactive and still be kinetic to propel the story along. It’s something that has progressively got lost as the series went on. With the latest Indiana Jones film I felt that Indiana Jones character had no agency and ends up being a relatively passive character. Sadly Indiana Jones ends up being a grouchy, broken, and beat up passenger in his own movie.

Released in 1981, ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ remains one of the most influential blockbusters of all time. Exciting action, exotic adventure, just the right amount of romance, good-natured humour, cutting-edge special effects: it was all there, perfectly balanced. Since then, attempts have been made to reproduce this winning recipe in different narrative contexts, sometimes successfully (’Temple of Doom’ and ‘the Last Crusade’), usually in vain (’Crystal Skull’).

What are the key ingredients of an Indiana Jones movie? There are only four core elements - leaving aside aspects of story such as the villain or the goal - that you need in place before anything else. They are: the wry, world-weary but sexy masculine performance of Harrison Ford; the story telling genius of George Lucas steeped in the lore of Saturday morning action hero television shows of the 1950s; the deft visual story telling and old school action direction of Steven Spielberg; and the sublime and sweeping music of the great John Williams. This what made the first three films really work.

In the latest Indiana Jones film, you only have one. Neither Lucas and Spielberg are there and arguably neither is Harrison Ford. John Williams’ music score remains imperious as ever. His music does a lot of heavy lifting in the film and let’s face it, his sublime music can polish any turd.

This isn’t to say the ‘Dial of Destiny’ is a turd. I won’t go that far, and to be honest some of the critical reaction has been over-hysterical. Instead I found it enjoyable but also immensely frustrating more than anything else. It had potential to be a great swan song film for Indy because it had an exciting collection of talent behind it.

In the absence of Spielberg, one couldn’t do worse than to pick James Mangold as next best to direct this film. Mangold is a great director. I am a fan of his body of work. After ‘Copland’, ‘Walk the Line’, ‘Logan’ and ‘Le Mans 66’ (or ‘Ford vs Ferrari’), James Mangold has been putting together a fine career shaped by his ability to deliver stories that rediscover a certain old-fashioned charm without abusing the historical figures - real or fictional - he tackles. And after Johnny Cash, Wolverine and Ken Miles, among others, I had high hopes he would keep the flame alive when it came to Indiana Jones. Mangold grew up as a fanboy of Spielberg’s work and you can clearly see that in his approach to directing film.

But in this film his direction lacks vitality. Mangold, while regularly really good, drags his feet a little here because he’s caught between putting his own stamp on the film and yet also lovingly pay homage to his hero, Spielberg. It’s as if he didn't dare give himself away completely, the director seems too modest to really take the saga by the scruff of the neck, and inevitably ends up suffering from the inevitable comparison with Steven Spielberg.

Mangold tries to recreate the nostalgic wonder of the originals, but doesn't quite succeed, while succumbing to an overkill of visual effects that make several passages seem artificial. The action set pieces range from pedestrian to barely satisfying. The prologue sequence was vaguely reminiscent of past films but it was still a little too reliant on CGI. The much talked about de-ageing of Harrison Ford on screen was impressive (and one suspects a lot of the film budget was sunk right there). But Indiana’s lifeless digitally de-aged avatar fighting on a computer-generated train, made the whole sequence feel like the Nazi Polar Express. Because it didn’t look real, there was no sense of danger and therefore no emotional investment from the audience. You know Tom Cruise would have done it for real and it would have looked properly cinematic and spectacular.

The tuk tuk chase through the narrow streets of Tangiers was again an exciting echo of past films, especially ‘Raiders’, but goes on a tad too long, but the exploration of the ship wreck (and a criminally underused cameo by Antonio Banderas) was disappointing and way too short.

The main problem here is the lack of creativity in the conception of truly epic scenes, because these are not dependent on Ford's age. Indeed, the film could very well have offered exhilarating action sequences worthy of the archaeologist with the whip, without relying solely on the physicality of its leading man. You don't need a Tom Cruise to orchestrate great moments but you could do worse than to follow his example.

Mangold uses various means of locomotion to move the character - train, tuk tuk, motorbike, horse - and offers a few images that wouldn't necessarily be seen elsewhere (notably the shot of Jones riding a horse in the middle of the underground), but in the end shows himself to be rather uninspired, when the first three films in the saga conceived some of the most inventive sequences in the genre and left their mark on cinema history. There are no really long shots, no iconic compositions, no complex shots that last and enrich a sequence, which makes the film look too smooth and prevents it from giving heft to an adventure that absolutely needs it.

And so now to the divisive figure of Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

It’s important here to separate the person from the character. I like Phoebe Waller-Bridge and I loved her in her ‘Fleabag’ series. She excels in a very British setting. I think she is funny, irreverent, and a whip smart talented writer and performer. I also think she has a particular frigid English beauty and poise about her. When I say poise I don’t mean the elegant poise of a Parisienne or a Milanese woman, but someone who is cute and comfortable in her own skin. You would think she would be more suited to ‘Downton Abbey’ setting than all out Hollywood action film. But I think she almost pulls it off here.

In truth over the years Phoebe Waller-Bridge, known for her comedy, has been collecting franchises where she is able to inflict her saucy humour into a hyper-masculine space. I don’t think her talent was properly showcased here.

Hollywood has this talent for plucking talented writers and actors who are exceptional in what they do and then hire them do something entirely different by either miscasting them or making them write in a different genre. I think Phoebe Waller-Bridge is exceptional and she might just rise if she is served by a better script.

In the end I think she does a decent stab at playing an intriguing character in Helena Shaw, Indy’s long lost and estranged god daughter and a sort of amoral rare artefacts hustler. Phoebe Waller-Bridge brings enthusiasm, charm and mischief to the role, making her a breath of fresh air. She seems to be the only member of the on-screen cast that looks to be enjoying themselves.

To be fair her I thought Waller-Bridge was a more memorable and interesting female character than either Kate Capshaw (’Temple of Doom’, 1984) and Alison Doody (’Last Crusade’, 1989). She certainly is a marked improvement on the modern woke inspired insipid female action leads such as Brie Larson (’Captain Marvel’), or any women in the Marvel universe for that matter, or Katherine Waterson (’Alien Covenant’). Waller-Bridge could have been reminiscent of Kathleen Turner (’Romancing the Stone’) and more recently Eva Green, actresses who command attention on screen and are as captivating, if not more so, than the male protagonists they play opposite.

To be sure there have been strong female leads before the woke infested itself into Hollywood story telling but they never made it central to their identity. Sigourney Weaver in ‘Alien’ and Linda Hamilton in the ‘Terminator’ franchise somehow conveyed strength of character with grit and perseverance through their suffering, while also being vulnerable and confident to pull through and succeed. Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s character isn’t quite that. She doesn’t get into fist fights or overpowers big hulking men but she uses cheek and charm to wriggle out of tight spots. She’s gently bad ass rather the dull ‘strong independent woman’ cardboard caricatures that Marvel is determined to ram down every girl’s throat. If Waller-Bridge’s character was better written she might well have been able to revive memories of the great ladies of Hollywood's golden age who had the fantasy and the confidence that men quaked at their feet.

What lets her character down is the snark. She doesn’t pepper her snark but she drowns in it. All of it directed at poor Indy and mocking him for his creaking bones and his entire legacy. It’s a real eyesore and it is a real let down as it drags the story down and clogs up the wheels that power the kinetic energy that an adventure with Indiana Jones needs. ‘The grumpy old man and the young woman with the wicked repartee set off across the vast world’ schtick is all well and good, but it does grate and by the end it makes you angry that Indy has put up with this crap. I can understand why many are turned off by Waller-Bridge’s character. As a female friend of mine put it, we get the talented Phoebe Waller Bridge’s bitter and unlikable Helena acting like a bitter and unlikable man. But it could be worse, it could be as dumb as Shia LaBeouf‘s bad Fonzie impersonation in 'Crystal Skull’.

I would say there is a difference between snark and sass. Waller-Bridge’s character is all snark. If the original whispers are true the original script had her way more snarkier towards Indy until Ford threatened to leave the project unless there were re-writes, then it shows how far removed the producers and writers were from treating Indy Jones with the proper respect a beloved legacy character deserves. It’s also lazy story telling.

Karen Black gave us real sass with Marion Ravenwood in ‘Raiders’. Her character was sassy, strong, but also vulnerable and romantic. She plays it pitch perfect. Of all the women in Indy’s life she was good foil for Indy.

Spielberg is so underrated for his mise-en-scène. We first meet Marion running a ramshackle but rowdy tavern in Tibet (she’s a survivor). She plays and wins a drinking game (she’s a tough one), she sees Indy again and punches him (she’s angry and hurt for her abandoning her and thus revealing her vulnerability). She has the medallion and becomes a partner (she’s all business). She evades and fights off the Nazis and their goons, she even uses a frying pan (she’s resourceful but not stupid). She tries on dresses (she’s re-discovers her femininity). Indy saves her but she picks him up at the end of the film by going for a drink (she’s healing and there’s a chance of a new start for both of them). This is a character arc worth investing in because it speaks to truth and to our reality.

The problem with Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s character is that she is constantly full on with the snark. Indy and Helena gripe and moan at each other the entire film. Indy hasn’t seen her in years, and she felt abandoned after her father passed, so there’s a lot of bitterness. It’s not unwarranted, but it also isn’t entertaining. It’s never entertaining if the snark makes the character too temperamental and unsympathetic for the audience to be emotionally invested in her.

I think overall the film is let down by the script. Again this is a shame. The writing talent was there. Jez and John-Henry Butterworth worked with James Mangold on ‘Ford v. Ferrari’ and co-wrote ‘Edge of Tomorrow‘ while David Koepp co-wrote the first ‘Mission: Impossible’ (but he also penned Indiana Jones and the ‘Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’, and the 2017 version of ‘The Mummy’ that simultaneously started and destroyed Universal’s plans for their Dark Universe). I love the work of Jez Butterworth who is one of England’s finest modern playwrights and he seemed to have transitioned fine over to Hollywood. But as anyone knows a Hollywood script has always too many cooks in the kitchen. There are so many fingerprints of other people - studio execs and directors and even stars - that a modern Hollywood script somehow resembles a sort of Ship of Theseus. It’s the writer’s name on the script but it doesn’t always mean they wrote or re-wrote every word.

Inevitably things fall between the cracks and you end up filming from the hip and hoping you can stitch together a coherent narrative in post-production editing. Clearly this film suffered from studio interference and many re-writes. And it shows because there is no narrative fluidity at work in the film.

Mads Mikkelsen’s Nazi scientist is a case in point. I love Mikkelsen especially in his arthouse films but I understand why he takes the bucks for the Hollywood films too. But in this film he is phoning in his performance. Mads Mikkelsen does what he can with limited screen time to make an impact but this character feels so recycled from other blockbusters. Here the CIA and US Government are evil and willing to let innocent Americans be murdered in order to let their pet Nazi rocket scientist pursue what they believe to be a hobby. But to be fair the villains in the Indy movies have never truly been memorable with perhaps Belloq, the French archaeologist and nemesis of Indy in ‘Raiders’, the only real exception. It’s just been generic bad guys - The Nazis! The Thugee death cult! The Nazis (again)! The Commies! Now we’re back to Nazis again which is not only safer ground for the Indy franchise but something we can all get behind.

However Mads Mikkelsen’s Dr. Voller, is the blandest and most generic Nazi villain in movie history. At the end of World War II, Voller was recruited by the US Government to aid them in rocket technology. Now that he’s completed his task and man has walked on the moon, he’s turning his genius to his ultimate purpose, the recovery of the ‘Dial of Destiny’ built by Archimedes. Should he find both pieces of the ancient treasure, he plans to return to 1930s Nazi Germany, usurp Hitler, and use his advanced knowledge of rocket propulsion to win the war. In a sense then he was channeling his inner Heidegger who felt Hitler had let down Nazism and worse betrayed Heidegger himself.

So there is a character juxtaposition between Voller and Indy in the sense both men feel more comfortable in the past than the present. But neither is given face time together to explore this intriguing premise that could have anchored the whole narrative of the film. It’s a missed opportunity and instead becomes a failure of character and story telling.

Then there are the one liners which seemed shoe horned in to make the studio execs or the writers feel smug about themselves. There are several woke one lines peppered throughout the film but are either tone deaf or just stupid.

“You trigger happy cracker”- it’s uttered without any self-awareness by a black CIA agent who is chaperoning the Nazi villain. Just because white people think it’s dumb and aren’t bothered by it doesn’t make it any less a racial slur. If you want authenticity then why not use the ’N’ word then as it would historically appropriate in 1969? The hypocrisy is what’s offensive.

“You stole it. He stole it. I stole it. It’s called capitalism.” - capitalism 101 for economic illiterate social justice warriors.

“[I’m] daring, beautiful, and self-sufficient” - uttered by Helena Shaw as a snarky reminder that she’s a strong independent woman, just in case you forgot.

“It’s not what you believe but how hard you believe.” - Indiana Jones has literally stood before the awesome power of God when the Ark of the Covenant was opened up by the Nazis, and they paid the price for it by having their faces melted off. Indy has drunk from the authentic cup of Christ, given to him by a knight who’s lived for centuries, that gave him eternal life and heal his father from a fatal bullet wound. So he’s figuratively seen the face of God (sure, he closed his eyes) and His holy wrath, and has witnessed the divine healing power of Christ first hand. And yet his spews out this drivel. It’s empty of any meaning and is a silly nod to our current fad that it’s all about the truth of our feelings, not observable facts or truth.

For me though the absolute worse was what they did to Indiana Jones as a character. Once the pinnacle of masculinity, a brave and daring man’s man whose zest for life was only matched by his brilliance, Henry Jones Jr. is now a broken, sad, and lonely old man. Indiana Jones is mired in the past. Not in the archaeological past, but in his own personal past. He's asleep at the wheel, losing interest in his own life. He's lost his son, he's losing his wife. He's been trying to pass on his passion, his understanding to disinterested people. They're not so interested in looking at the past. He remains a man turned towards the past, and then he finds himself confronted by Helena, who embodies the future. This nostalgia, this historical anchoring, becomes the main thread of the story.The film tries to deconstructs Indiana Jones on the cusp of retirement from academia and confronts him with a world he no longer understands. That’s an interesting premise and could have made for a great film.

It’s clear that the filmmakers’ intention was for a lost and broken Indiana to recapture his spirit by the film’s end. However, its horrible pacing and meandering and underdeveloped plot, along with Harrison Ford’s miserably sad demeanour in nearly every scene, make for a deeply depressing movie with an empty and unearned resolution.

By this I mean at the very end of the film. It’s meant to be daring and it is. There’s something giddy about appearing during the middle of siege of Syracuse by blood thirsty Romans and then coming face to face with Archimedes himself. The film seems to want to justify the legendary, exceptional aura and character of Indy himself by including him in History. Hitherto wounded deep down inside, and now also physically wounded, Indy the archaeologist tells Helena that he wants to stay here and be part of history.

It's a lovely and even moving moment, and you wonder if the film isn't going to pull a ‘Dying Can Wait’ by having its hero die in order to strengthen its legend. But in a moment that is too brutal from a rhythmic point of view, Helena refuses, knocks out her godfather and takes him back to the waiting plane and back to 1969. The next thing Indy sees he’s woken up back in his shabby apartment in New York.

I felt cheated. I’m sure Indy did too.

After all it was his choice. But Helena robbed him of the freedom to make his own decisions. She’s the one to decide what’s best. In effect she robbed him of agency. Even if it was the wrong decision to stay back in time, it’s so important from a narrative and character arc perspective that Indy should have had his own epiphany and make the choice to come back by himself because there is something worth living for in the future present - and that was reconciling with Marion his estranged wife. But damn it, he had to come to that decision for himself, and not have someone else force it upon him. That’s why the ending feelings so unearned and why the story falls flat as a soufflé when you piss on it.

‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’ feels like the type of sequel that aimed to capture the magic of its predecessors, had worthwhile intentions, and a talented cast, but it just never properly materialised. In a movie whose pedigree, both in front and behind the camera, is virtually unassailable, it’s inexcusable that this team of filmmakers couldn’t achieve greater heights.

The film was a missed opportunity to give a proper send off to a cinematic legend. Harrison Ford proving that whatever gruff genre appeal he possessed in his heyday has aged better than Indy’s knees. He may be 80, but Ford carries the weight of the film, which, for all its gargantuan expense, feels a bit like those throwaway serials that first inspired Lucas - fun while it lasts, but wholly forgettable on exit.

I wouldn’t rate ‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’ as the worst film in the franchise - that dubious honour still lies with ‘Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’. Indeed the best I can say is that I would rate this film at the benchmark of “not quite as bad as Crystal Skull”.But it’s definitely time to retire and hang up the fedora and the bull whip.

For what’s worth I always thought the ending of ‘Last Crusade’ where Indy, his father Henry Jones Snr., and his two most faithful companions, Sallah and Marcus Brody, ride off into the sunset was the most fitting way to say goodbye to a beloved character.

Instead we have in ‘Dial of Destiny’ the very last scene which is meant to be this perfect ending: Indiana Jones in his scruffy pyjamas and his shabby apartment. Sure, the exchange between a reconciling Indy and Marion is sincere and touching. But that only works because it explicitly recalls ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’. That's what Nietzsche would call “an eternal return”.

I shall eternally return to watch the first three movies to delight in the adventures of the swashbuckling archaeologist with the fedora and a bull whip. The last two dire films will be thrown into the black abyss. Something even Nietzsche would have approved of.

Thanks for your question.

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kiasnocturnality · 1 year

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✩⋆ﾟ𝐌𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓 / 𝐑𝐔𝐋𝐄𝐒

characters: Alois Leblanc

notes: Eden's currently working on her vampire valar au for her main blog and it gave me some AU ideas for Alois hehe

warnings: essential enslavement of humanity, objectification (?) of reader

DARK! ALOIS who isn't as kindhearted as the one we know and love. Our Alois went through hell and it taught him to be firm but kind - this Alois is taught that the world is wicked if left untamed.

DARK! ALOIS who doesn't just want to reclaim his family's legacy but who wants revenge too.

DARK! ALOIS who reclaims his family's estate, who finds the vampire hunters that killed his family, who's still not satisfied.

DARK! ALOIS who makes the hunters suffer the way he did, who makes them watch their family die before he kills them too. It's not enough.

DARK! ALOIS who uses his renowned status as a Leblanc to approach the royal family and propose coming out of hiding to wage war on humanity, to force humans into the submission of vampires. It was the Leblancs who deemed it best that creatures of the night go into hiding in the first place, wasn't it only appropriate that a Leblanc would also decide when to come out of hiding?

DARK! ALOIS who gains a large amount of supporters that are eager to take the world back from humans and force them into submission for the sake of feeding the vampires.

DARK! ALOIS who becomes Supreme Commander of the Night Court's army and builds an Empire in the name of the royal family (though, it's really in the name of revenge). He employs demons, sorcerers, magicians, anyone he can to block out the sun and plunge the world into eternal night. Humans are forced to live in designated communities where they are unable to leave and are forced to give blood to be distributed to vampires across the Night Empire.

DARK! ALOIS who looks out over his work and one day realises that it will never be enough, that humans could never possibly suffer enough to redeem themselves for the way his family died. He thinks of the sight of Ambroise being run through with a sword while Yvonne's blood-curdling screams filled the air as the flesh melted from her bones and he knows no suffering he inflicts upon humans will ever be able to rival those memories.

DARK! ALOIS who's given a particularly delicious sample of blood one day and is curious to see who it came from. There you are, a frail little thing in captivity (as you should be, the world but be spared from humanity's evil) and yet in your veins is the best blood he's ever tasted.

DARK! ALOIS who brings you back with him but makes it very clear you're not a companion and you'll be lucky if he comes to see you as a pet.

DARK! ALOIS who, despite who he's become and how he's come to see humans, takes quite a liking to you (has be become lonely? surely not?) and dolls you up, fusses over your health because 'you humans are such sickly and fragile little things, my pet' and will have you sit at his feet or on his lap as he works or takes meetings.

DARK! ALOIS who will have you see your own kind the way he does: you're too prone to corruption, to wickedness and evil, too destructive of the world around you. Can't you see how much better off humanity is now? You no longer wage war on one another, you're taken care of to prevent you from dying of sickness, you're clothed and homed and protected and all you need to do in return is give blood and obey. You could never accomplish such peace on your own.

DARK! ALOIS who hates all humans except his darling little pet and who won't stop until the Night Empire successfully quells humanity.

𓋼𓍊⋆ﾟ like my work? why not: ⋆ support me ⋆ join my taglist ⋆ consider following/reblogging

@writing-noah @edensrose @indigobl00d @dustyinkpages @itseivwhore @matcha-flavored-cake @shusumilk @felinexwhispers @axtrr @aetheriial @black-rose-29 @asianbutnotjapanese

#✧･ﾟINTO THE FOREST #✩⋆ﾟALOIS LEBLANC #vampire oc #vampire oc x reader #vampire x reader #terato #terato x reader #monster oc #monster boyfriend #monster boyfriend x reader

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theh0rnetnest · 2 months

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Thank you, Toriyama 🕊

When I was super little, I saw a glimpse of Dragonball when I really young when my cousin and relatives watched some episodes together. I clearly remembered the Goku vs Jackie Chun fight where Goku turns into an Oozaru, and the very first few episodes of Z up to when Raditz kidnaps Gohan. I forgot it existed until 2011 when Dragonball Z Kai aired on Nicktoons. There, I watched the very first episode and was obsessed. Drew a lot of fanart, played the games, things I still do after getting back into it. What really drew me in was the iconic art, the relatable and memorable characters, and the fights that get you on the edge of your seat. In a way, the story felt compelling in its own simplistic ways. To this day, DBZ has always influenced my life one way or another. It inspired a lot of my art and writing (I still use DBZ characters as pose references. Toriyama was a literal master of his works). Without his works, I probably wouldn't have created the characters I have today. I can honestly write a whole ass essay of how much this series means to me.

Sometimes, it blows me away how popular and influential this series is worldwide back in the day and in modern times. The fact that any kid, teen, and adult around the world has watched DBZ at least once or more is crazy to me. It only hits even more knowing that we lost a huge legend who inspired countless of people across the globe, be it mangakas like Oda Eiichiro, voice director Christopher Sabat, and content creators like Lythero and DevilArtemis. It's truly a large wave of emotions reading statements across the globes about Toriyama, especially ones by the people who worked close with him.

Thank you, Akira Toriyama. You were gone too soon, but your ideas and legacy will continue to live on and the positive impact on people is undoubtedly crystal clear through your stories. Rest in peace, you absolute legend. Say hi to King Kai for us! 🕊

#dragonball z #Dbz #dragon ball #dragonball super #akira toriyama #thank you akira toriyama

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tacticalmaladjustment · 1 year

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So the ending, according to the interview, will be something that the realists may take issue with. So let me play the role of the realist for a bit and ruminate how ep 12 could go down (and let's me see just how much i'll end up surprised by the end of episode 12).

How likely is a full-on takedown of the organization? I don't know how large the Suwa organization is but given the sheer size of the Suwa estate shown in episode 8, the presumably large number of people they employ, and the large sums of money regularly circulating in the underworld, I think it's safe to assume that the scale of their resources, power and operations probably rival some real-world mega corporations. What I'm getting at is it seems unlikely to me, as a realist (:D), that 3 dudes will be able to fully take down this enormous, highly-organized machinery by themselves. Organizations like that do not fall apart just because its head or its arms have been lobbed off. It would be a setback, true, but groups of this complexity adapt like malevolent slime molds, and even if Shigeki is gone, it will just grow a new head.

Now, one could argue that all they really need to do anyway is just John Wick their way in, eliminate Shigeki and it's done as far as our protagonists are concerned--he is the only one, apart from Ogino, that is truly relevant to the predicament our family is in and stands in the way of them being free. But who is to say, that once they killed Shigeki off (if that ever happens) that the organization and what's left of it won't turn on them in retaliation. Again, they have the resources and manpower to make that happen if they so choose to post-assassination. And that is not something Kazuki and Rei should have to deal with if their objective is to be a family that has no entanglements with their former lives of crime.

So considering the aforementioned very realistic take (?), if they cannot fully destroy the Suwa hold, they could either ( A ) go beyond its reach and/or slip through the cracks by going incognito or ( B ) change the organization such that it is rendered incapacitated in some manner or is at least no longer a threat to them. Now for some scenarios:

they could all just fake their deaths in some elaborate scheme that Kazuki and Kyu cook up. Yes, this has been suggested by some posts in the tag. The issue i have with this is just how relentless Shigeki, Ogino and the rest of the organization is. Will they just give up when they don't recover any bodies/corpses?? We've seen how dark and twisted these characters are. It's ideal for our 3 adults because fighting would be minimal, but...it feels too easy (???) I can definitely see them though coming up with such a plan, trying to make it work, but then it fails because, uh, shenanigans, and they end up having to fight and John Wick their way out anyways.

Escape to another country. Again, another suggestion that pops up a number of times. Realistically, we don't really know how vast the organization is. Does it have branches elsewhere outside Japan? It's not outside of the realm of possibility that they do have local outposts/branches or affiliated groups overseas given that the work they do has them putting hits on people who presumably travel the world a lot (ep 1 human trafficker and ep 2 drug king pin come to mind). So even if our family does end up doing this...i feel like they won't be too safe either unless they incapacitate the organization's ability to seek them out in some way.

The aforementioned fall under ( A ). As for (B):

A trojan horse. inspired by episode 1 where Kazuki delivered a cake to infiltrate the Christmas party. Here, the cake/bait could be Rei. Or maybe Rei returns home to deliver a "dead" Kazuki to his boss as a sign of his seriousness in continuing the Suwa legacy...Or something, something, whatever to catch the old man off-guard. But this just gets us inside the organization. We still have the problem of actually dealing with it. Of course, they can just kill everyone and everything that comes after them, but will it ensure their safety post-Shigeki?

the police/law enforcement (lol. i mean this is the most crimeless possibility out there). i mean they could get them involved, but seriously, won't Kazuki, Rei and Kyu just end up incriminating themselves? The organization has a lot of info on a lot of people (see all those files that Kyu gives to Kazuki for their missions as well as all the data from recons, etc.). and I'm sure they have files stowed away on all 3 of them. Plus, the police in Japan, in my limited knowledge of the world, don't necessarily even want to have to take head on some crime syndicates like the yakuza for example irl.

From here on, the possibilities are even more...improbable but i include for their inherent wildness. So, no.3: a mutiny. which will be an unforeseen event (i know, totally out of the blue. but then we don't really know much about the power dynamics/struggles within the group itself, so this is some wild conjecture. Anyway, the VA's did say the ending was unexpected). it could create enough chaos and distraction, totally disrupting the group's entire operations to let our family slip through.

leadership change. (may or may not happen as a consequence of no.3) Maybe after Shigeki is disposed of in some fashion, someone (maybe it's Rei, maybe it's some unknown deus-ex-machina relative/minion) who is at least sympathetic to or tolerant (or even ignorant) of the family takes over. in any case, our trio is off the hook.

some equally powerful external entity who has an axe to grind with the organization attacks. I'm suggesting this based off things Kazuki and Kyu have said about the chance that they are on some hit list because of a grudge or some vendetta. I mean the Suwa must have enemies, right? Realistically speaking. Some of their assassinations (like the human trafficker and the drug kingpin) must have made some powerful people somewhere really mad. idk. Anyway, we are yet to see the underworld consequences of these hit jobs.

These ones fall under (B). I would like to add that the last 4 of these conjectural events can hypothetically explain the presence of mystery guy in the anime op (who is yet to be shown).

Honestly, it can be any variation and/or combination of these. or absolutely none of these, since i went with the realistic route and the ending is supposed to be something realists will end up questioning. For all we know, they could go the simplest route: kill Shigeki, get out and then that's it--to hell with the consequences of the organization still standing. We could also just end up with a time skip, skirting around the topic of what went down. Heck, maybe the anime will even dodge fully resolving it at all (and we'd all have to pray for a season 2).

There is one final possibility though, that seems just bonkers to me:

Shigeki actually lets them go following a one-on-one fight/duel, or a deal, or something else entirely.

Seriously, not gonna happen.

#in any case none of these will happen #i just like making shit up and end up totally totally wrong #and yet we try nonetheless #buddy daddies

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elliepassmore · 1 year

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Bitterblue review

5/5 stars

Recommended if you like: fantasy, magic, political intrigue, healing stories

Fire review here

Graceling review here TW mentions of rape, mentions of torture I remember now why I don't reread Bitterblue as much as Fire and Graceling. It's a good book, but it definitely centers heavier topics as the focal point of the story. I do think it's a good read and actually kind of an important one, because it deals with the aftermath of terrible things happening, and you don't really see that a lot in fantasy (or in other genres, imo, the revolution happens and then that's it). Leck's legacy leaves a lot to recover from, and Bitterblue is a newly-adult queen with too much on her plate and too many people lying to her. I think there's a really interesting play here where nobles and people in the palace are desperate to move on and forget because they were closest to Leck while the people of the city (and country) just want to know what happened and get justice for what was done. I also think it's interesting how the idea of 'forward thinking' ends up meaning 'destroy and suppress anything that might shed light on the past,' which may seem counterintuitive but is actually frighteningly close to what happens in history (and now). A large portion of the plot centers around Bitterblue trying to learn the truth of what's going on in her city and determine why her advisors seem to be lying to her, even about trivial things like the number of gargoyles on a wall. As established, I liked this plot quite a bit and enjoyed seeing Bitterblue go out in the city and piece together all the bits of information she had and was learning to find out the truth. Another part of the plot is the Council business and the stuff going on in the kingdoms surrounding Monsea. Stuck in there as well is the business with Saf and the separate business of Po making some decisions about his life. This book is definitely character driven, much more than the other two, and I daresay that the plot is about the characters and the minor action that occurs is a reflection of that. Bitterblue is 18 now and has been queen for the past 8 years. The book opens with her feeling trapped by the paperwork and the fact that she doesn't feel she knows her country or her people, and so she sneaks out. She definitely does some things and reacts in ways that I don't agree with, but at the same time I understand where she's coming from and why she does the things she does. Bitterblue wants to help her people and is ignorant about their lives, she is also a young monarch who has to try and balance that with her other duties, and sometimes that means doing things in a...questionable manner. She gets better about it over the course of the book, and I do think a lot of it has to do with learning about the past and understanding both what happened then and what is happening now. Bitterblue really is the only main character of this one, but we do get cameos (some extensive) of Katsa, Po, Raffin, Bann, Helda, and Giddon. Also briefly of Skye. Some new characters join the cast as well, such as Saf, Teddy, Hava, and Bitterblue's advisors. Saf is someone I remember liking when I read the book in middle school, but now that I'm older I find that I only like sometimes. He behaves rather abominably, even after Teddy and their sisters forgive Bitterblue for her secrets. The times he is behaving well though, he's quite protective and has his more gentle moments. Teddy is much more likeable and quickly takes to Bitterblue, regardless of what she's going by. He's a good source of knowledge, both academic and practical, and he proves eager to help set things right. Hava we don't get a ton of here, but we do meet her a couple times and she becomes someone Bitterblue relies on and has on her side. Like everyone, she's still dealing with Leck's legacy, made even more complicated by her own connection to him and Bitterblue. Katsa and Po honestly seem the most changed out of the characters, which I suppose makes some sense since it's also been 8 years since we've seen them, but Katsa seems much more emotionally fragile than she did (imo she's always been emotional, just more angry). Po has some of his own stuff going on and he's struggling under the weight of the secrets he's been carrying. In Graceling he's of the mindset that keeping the secret, and then secrets, is important to maintaining his freedom, but now in Bitterblue he's really feeling the toll of having so many close friends and confidants who don't know. Helda has a wonderful role in this one and I'm pleased with where her character has ended up. True to what Katsa said she'd ask of her, Helda is Bitterblue's...lady's maid? Guardian? Not entirely sure, but what she was for Katsa. She's also Bitterblue's spymaster, which is a fun development and I'm loving that Helda got that kind of role. She acts as a good, stable influence who cares about Bitterblue and is within reach when Bitterblue needs comforting, spying, etc. Giddon is also far more tolerable in this one than in Graceling. I suppose in the past decade or so he spent a lot of time thinking about what happened and traveling for Council business and acting in the name of goodness, and somewhere along the way got some sense knocked into him. He and Po actually seem close friends now, and their interactions are fairly amusing, and he's taken Katsa's continued anger/dislike of him with good humor. I also like that Fire and the Dellians come to visit. It's been almost 50 years since the events of Fire, but Fire herself comes to Monsea and we get to hear a little about the royal family and the new goings-on in the Dells. One thing I do always wonder about with this book is why the Council never steps in. They clearly have contacts outside of the castle, so shouldn't they know what's going on in Monsea and Bitterblue City? Wouldn't they have heard reports of people killing truthseekers and preventing education? They definitely hear of reports of such things from other countries and intervene, so it seems weird, especially when Katsa and Po seem to visit Bitterblue as often as possible, that they never heard about it and brought it to her attention or tried to get to the bottom of it. Overall, this is a good book and I really enjoy how it shows the struggles to move on after the bad stuff has happened and the revolution/whatever is over. This book is heavier than the other two, so be mindful of that going in.

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multitrackdrifting · 1 year

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G-Witch EP 15 Thoughts & Review

warning: spoilers for UC timeline as part of my speculation about the end game of the story

Really good no-nonsense episode of G-Witch, naturally some people on socmed were like "idc abt this go back to characters I like", but the literal setting of this story wants you to be cognizant of the fact that it doesn't matter if you like one of the characters, their parents are usually tied up in corruption and sewing the seeds of discord across space.

The time for slice of life is over, the facade of chasing the title of "holder" is over, these are largely a distraction from the real suffering created by the status quo in this universe.

If the narrative beats are too bleak for you idk how to tell you that you're watching a franchise that stands on a legacy of writing about warfare and while the characters are important, the "what" of the world is absolutely essential to those characters - it is not about living a fulfilling school life and never was going to be that. It's more than likely they gave the audience doses of fulfilment specifically to take it away. I criticised how this early setting of the show was likely a facade and now that it is continually shown to be the case people are getting annoyed that G-Witch looks more like every other gundam despite knowing that things have fundamentally changed between seasons. Gundam writing no matter how bad does not dangle the illusion of peace for a super long time, so just let it go and enjoy what the series is as opposed to what you want it to be.

Guel Jeturk is, naturally, walking the path of the GOAT. He's trying to figure out who he is, and he is traumatized from killing his own father. For now, he wants to connect with what his father stood for, but naturally, that may mean reckoning with his corruption and role in the injustice created in the world. This is not new, so don't get too annoyed that he is doing that.

Seeing more death at the hands of spacians has probably coloured in the abstract world of Earthian suffering that Miorine doesn't even understand to the same level. His allegiance going forward is questionable, but I do not doubt we will see him creating instability in the power structure going forward - and don't worry - even if he "dies", he still can come back.

Factions are not hardline restrictions in Gundam, even Shaddiq could become a temporary ally despite everything he has done - McGillis certainly hopped around factions a lot in IBO. Even Char was technically the "good guy" after 79 for a while, but it's not to say that any one side of the conflict is correct, just that the injustices committed during warfare are intrinsic to it.

In Zeta Gundam we're seeing a side of char that has all the qualities of a protagonist, and it's part of his evolution of self - the comparison of Prospera to Char is funny because Char has such a specific evolution that every subsequent "char clone" holds his aesthetics but not his character arc. But the idea of a char clone is that they disrupt the world in a way meaningful to its context so she is one, I'm just saying that Char is poorly understood mostly because people haven't seen UC (and ZZ is impossible to watch on streaming through legal platforms for one reason or another).

Char is working through his ideals and sense of self in a way, going from "icognito fella bent on revenge on the Zabis" to "I'm not sure if I want to take the mantle up" and then of course, we reach end-game Char who wishes to remove Earth from the equation. If the object of desire & conflict is gone, surely this will fix things.

It's a lot more nuanced and comlpicated than that for sure, but Prospera will undergo a few changes, and I believe wholeheartedly there will be faction shifts, and her plan won't just sit in the abstract for a super long period of time.

The Earth-Space conflict in G-Witch is interesting because the Earth Federation is just cartoonishly oppressive in UC, but nothing about Earth is framed that way. It seems that Earth has some kind of puppet government, the benerit group has literal riot mechs made by the Jeturks stopping social instability on there & it honestly seems pretty clear that (for now) the Spacians are resented because Earth is like a colony in UC.

From this episode, it seems that Earth has a lot of pseudo-conflicts [war partioning] to keep them busy and unstable, unable to unite and rebel against the spacians and then there is the Spacians who are so brain dead that they're busy fighting for the title of holder and playing hte zero sum game inside Asticassia because their parents are more obsessed with climbing the ladder than engaging in unregulated profiteering and warfare.

Delling Rembran's big goal in my eyes is not absolute power, but the belief that a big enough deterrent and system of control can end suffering itself and Quiet Zero is that key. As a person who has walked the battlefield and seen the curse of gundams take his close friends and comrades, there needs to be a world without it.

Starting as an ideal, QZ is just an abstract ambition - but having seen UC Gundam my firm belief is that Quiet Zero converts people into Data. The rhetoric used to explain it to Mio in this episode entrenches that belief, "the restoration of human nature", "there was always some new enemy or rebellion".

Aerial itself is a different story, I think it's pretty obvious that Aerial at high permet scores is interacting with "permet" and "augmentations", this is akin to the NewType Destroyer in the Unicorn Gundam. That it can overwhelm and kill people is not that surprising since the Unicorn has way more overpowered abilities (e.g. Time Travel, Time Control, Control Funnels and much more).

Aerial at the moment seems to operate under the principle that none of the G-Witch Timeline (Ad Stella) doesn't have Electromagnetic shielding like other series.

Aerial has a stun wave, and the prev. episode showed how Sophie's death was accelerated by Aerial interacting with "the curse". The appearance that people take on with Permet scores is akin to a circuit, so I think this is all building up to some kind of technology based survival with Quiet Zero - if you have played a certain deep ocean game the concept might not be that foreign to you.

I'm thinking that right now the endgame is that QZ is some kind of device that envelops the entire universe in a data storm and uploads them to some kind of "ark".

The reason the "AI world" theory is so strong for me is that this current series has largely been about transcending the curse of gundams - what if that means binding oneself to a Gundam. Ericht is gone, that much is clear - but in the future, it seems that other people will also be gundams. It's not a new idea to the franchise either.

The reason it's about transcending the curse is because of the virtue held by Gundams and their ability to "enable living in space", and this begs the question, what is Aerial's role in this?

Aerial technology: Bind mankind to machines and transcend physical limits.

Quiet Zero Technology: Either a giant stun wave that completely disables GUND-ARM tech, or converting mankind itself into Data, the ability to live properly in space is probably difficult to achieve because of acts of terror & conflict - the only path forward is to leave behind ones physical body to become one with space.

If nothing else, it seems that physical bodies being left behind is going to be a recurring solution regardless of whether Aerial or QZ is the solution.

In UC Char says that people's souls are held down by gravity, but the hostile nature of space in Ad Stella suggests that we don't need to overcome the curse of space, but the curse of our bodies. That's how I interpret it anyway.

#g witch spoilers

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antiquatedplumbobs · 2 years

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just binged the sewell legacy and i love it. anyway would it be rude to ask for some of your headcanons for some the characters?

Not rude in the slightest!! I love getting asks looking for more details, it's hard to fit all the little things I have in my mind into posts so this is a great way for me to share them.

Your ask also made me realize it might be worthwhile to make a tag for asks like this where I've given away story details that aren't published. I went back and edited all the posts I could find like that and attached the sewellbitsandbobs tag. I'll try to find a good place for that to live on my blog soon. I have some blog cleaning to do unfortunately. Okay, for headcanons I'm just going to share some of the background on the sims that may or may not be obvious or mentioned, I hope that's what you're looking for. I'm putting it under a cut because this will get long...

Violet is a gloomy sims, that's one of her traits, and gave that to her because her mother died when she was a toddler and she was raised alone by her father on Deadgrass Isle. Another one of her traits is that she is a bookworm, and I gave that to her because I imagined that she read a lot as a child on the island. Her father was the lighthouse keeper so she was often alone. She learned to cook and keep the house at a young age as well. She was pretty lonely out there which is why she was so happy to marry Hamish and his large family. Her aspiration is Soulmate, and her last trait is romantic, and I always saw her as this hopeless romantic who was kind of swept off her feet by this handsome confident farmers son and that she was very happy to be able to leave the island. She loves her father, but she wanted more for her life.

Hamish is one of my most underrated characters in my mind, I don't focus on him as much, but I feel like he's one of my favorite characters. I almost see him as this sweet jock type guy. Jock might sound weird because he doesn't ever do anything particularly active in game, but I feel like farming is the early 20th century version of that. But he also has a really sharp mind and loves reading too, he also has the bookworm trait, he loves reading magazines and periodicals to learn about farming. I picture him as totally into the new scientific edge to farming that was happening at this time, he always wants to do the newest, best scientific method. He and Violet bonded over their shared love of reading. I imagine that they met one day when Violet came to the main land on an errand with her father and she and Hamish met at the general store or market and then they began writing to each other. I don't think they had honestly spent much time together in person when they got married.

Willy is a bit more amorphous for me, but I feel like that makes sense as he's a teen and teens are a bit more amorphous. At his heart he's just a very sweet guy, loves his family, always wants to help out. But he's starting to feel a little stifled under the expectations of his parents and he's not sure how to become his own independent self. But he's not told either of his parents about these feelings at all, so he hasn't given them a chance to try to help him at all. During this period in history there was a big exodus from the country to the city, and while I don't think Willy will live in the city, I think the fact that people are beginning to much more frequently live farther from their birthplace is affecting him. He has a really fun journey ahead and I am so excited to showcase it.

Freddy is definitely a bit less fleshed out, he's kind of a loner and he just prefers to play by himself or read or do his schoolwork. He has the genius trait and I always kind of picture him as kind of aloof and not very friendly. Not like mean, but just not a thoughtful guy, like he always just wants to get to the point. He's off at school currently and he'll definitely end up in a more academic career, but I'm not sure which one yet. I have multiple ideas for that and haven't figured out which one is best really. He's mostly concerned with himself, I wouldn't say he's overly selfish, but he's not very family-minded.

Elsie is still pretty young, so I don't really know what she's like completely, but I think she's going to be a bit hot-headed and quick to rush into things. Like she's very much a ask forgiveness rather than permission kind of girl. She has two older brothers, so she's also not very girly. Definitely probably in a bit of a tomboy phase currently. I don't know if that will last into her adulthood, but we'll see! She's a very loving person though, and will defend those that she loves intensely, she's super protective of Charlie.

Charlie's still a baby and I have no idea what he will be like, his personality hasn't really come through yet.

I'll also give some background on their world and neighborhood.

I have this save set up in Brindleton Bay, they're living in the Sable Square neighborhood at the end. The farm across from them is where Hamish grew up. It's been bought by a new family now that it was sold. There's also a church and a schoolhouse in this neighborhood as well as a church house.

In my world its walking distance to the other neighborhoods in the world, so the Whiskerman's Wharf serves as the downtown/docks area, and there's a train station and some shops there. I do switch out builds as needed, and there's a smithy there as well.

Cavalier Cove is meant to be the outskirts of town with a couple small farms and fishing cottages, and some wild areas, as well as a new hotel. New England started becoming a huge tourist destination around this time period and as someone that deals with New England tourists alllllll summer I really wanted to bring that to my story.

Deadgrass Isle doesn't have anything but a lighthouse keepers house and the Brindleton Head Light. I imagine that the lighthouse keepers house was built by Violet's father before she was born so that his wife could live with them on the island, and that prior to that the keeper only had a small cottage attached directly to the light. Thank you so much for this ask, I love talking about my character's, its so fun! If there's anything more specific you, or anyone else, would like to know always feel free to send me asks, I love answering them.

#antiqueasks #antiqueask #sewellbitsandbobs

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rosetyler42 · 2 years

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Been rather busy lately and haven't been up to posting, but I felt in the mood to share my new Drericka Shipchild OCs:

Meet the Van Dracula Twins, Children of the Night: Lucy and Simon!

Lucy (Short for Lucille) is the oldest of the two by 13 minutes and takes quite a bit after her mother: a Brave, outgoing, and mischievous adventurer who loves exploring and causing trouble but has a heart of gold despite her "Little Terror" rep AND natural theater kid energy. She's also the one of the two to gain fangs and vampire powers: even hypnosis, one Dennis never apparently inherited. The girl takes alot of pride in her family's gothic Horror legacy and considers herself the "ultimate goth girl." "I'm a Dracula AND a Van Helsing living in a castle full of monsters! Ya can't get more goth than that!" She's perhaps the brainier and more acrobatic of the two, cleverly finding ways both into and out of trouble. She also inherited her mother's talent for languages and combines vampire abilities with a natural talent for acrobatics and martial arts.

By contrast, Simon is more like his father: a big shy sensitive but loyal sea-loving cinnamon roll who may struggle a bit to fit in in a family of mostly monsters but push comes to shove will do anything for them. Despite being the more humany cinnamon roll twin, he still has an edge to him. The boy inherited the build of his large Van Helsing ancestors which while making him a bit different and "chubby" looking, he's impressively strong, fast, and durable for his size. He's also inherited his mom's love and skill with weaponry. Along with his father's more pragmatic nature, he's a formidable force to be reckoned with. As he likes to say, "I may be humany, but I can still be scary!"

Together, they're an impressive Pugsley and Wednesday style team!

I was sort of inspired by an RP friend making a girl Drericka OC that ended up being human - which I loved the idea of Drac having a humany lid after the events of HT - and ultimately stumbled into "Well if they becomes more human, why not go the Normal!Pubert route?" Another inspiration was @lovelylivelyv 's Jack Nephalem, which looking at him for a while also provided the idea since he's partly based on Pubert. for Lucy, we never really saw a FEMALE dhampir in the series and I liked the idea of going the other way from Dennis and Simon and making a more goth character. I also kinda took inspiration from him in Lucy's brave Troublemaker-with-a-heart-of gold personality. Along with making Simon more a cinnamon roll than his parents (Though Dennis and Mavis was also an inspiration.)

In a way, they're sort of inverses of their parents: Drac is a Slytherin with Hufflepuff traits, Ericka is a Slytherin with Gryffindor traits. Lucy is a Gryff with Slyth traits, while Simon is a Puff with Slyth traits. The idea being since the twins had a much better life than their parents, growing up in a loving family and world with less hate between humans and monsters, they haven't had to rely as much on their cunning or be pressured into following tradition as much. (Plus it's fun to make them different from their parents. Especially Lucy. Drac having to deal with a kid who's a bit more like Johnny than him is kinda funny. As is Ericka having a badass yet shy and sweet kid, it brings out her soft side.)

Visually, Simon is based on Pugsley and Normal!Pubert from Addams Family Values while Lucy is sort of a mix of Ericka, Drac, and Mavis. I named Lucy after the Dracula book character (the woman who Dracula attacks and turns into a vampire. Kind of in the same vein as Johnny being named after Johnathan Harker.) Simon on the other hand, is named both after Simon Van Helsing, an early iteration of Johnny as a vampire hunter that falls in love with Mavis (possibly an inspiration for Ericka down the line, knowing the HT team's penchant for re-using unused material later) and the monster hunter from Castlevania.

Bonus: The Twins' birthdate is Friday Oct 13, 2023. It was too perfect an opportunity to pass up. XD

@gothicthundra @drericka @neo-storm @chica-chuu @ebevkisk @thenerdynightprincess13 @animatedpixie @sine-qua-noon @erickadracula @ericka-van-helsing @erickaanddraculasblog @ericka4ever @thesecreatoroftrans @elenadracula @twinklecupcake @thenerdynightprincess13 @countessericka-blog @f-mhoteltransylvaniacomicseries

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more-than-a-princess · 1 year

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@awesomeuchuu asked: Frankenstein

universal classic monster headcanon asks! - Accepting!

Frankenstein - if your muse had to choose, what three traits describe them the most? who taught them these traits, and who do they think had the most influence in making them who they are?

Hmm...let's see. Sonia, when describing herself, is often one of two minds: to say what others 'expect' or need her to say, or what she honestly believes. Sometimes those overlap, so I'll include those here.

Tenacious - This Sonia gets from her mother. Queen Valentina of Novoselic was not the first choice of consort for King Alexandre, or the second, or the third. But as the fourth daughter and fifth child of the Borghese family, the head of the family holding a dukedom to a large amount of Novoselic's southern lands, not much was expected of her beyond being beautiful and not embarrassing the family. The then-Lady Valentina was not terribly fond of these low expectations, and in a move that stunned her family and the country, she made the marriage match young, well-to-do women across the world were hoping for.

Determination, persistence, and a strong will were what she brought to the Royal Family and instilled in her daughter. Often, I think the most important thing about Sonia's view of her mother is the fact that it's Sonia's view, and as her child there's plenty she can't, and doesn't, fully understand about what her mother has experienced, if not sacrificed, for her position and her family.

That's not to say she's of excellent moral character. But she is reluctant to give up on what she really wants and what matters to her: Sonia is similarly driven. There is always a way to get what's needed done. Whether it adheres to the rules, however...

Compassionate - This Sonia gets from her father. Even though Sonia has been raised in a world of wealth and privilege, with every possible luxury at her disposal, her father has always been intent on showing Sonia how others live. Particularly those in their country without the advantages they do. Her father is not only compassionate but forward-thinking, constantly analyzing, to the point that he realized from a young age that unless he began efforts to keep the rich aristocrats from getting richer while the poorer classes suffered, there would be little in the way of a royal legacy to leave his daughter and her future descendants. The monarchy would eventually become unsustainable and collapse into another form of leadership: whether a dictatorship or an elected position, it would mean the end of the Royal Family.

In addition, he's most fulfilled in his position when truly helping those who need it. Those whose futures wouldn't be secured if it weren't new laws, charitable efforts, and/or business and education opportunities that the Royal Family can facilitate. And while Sonia doesn't really know too much about 'normal' life, since she was very young, her father has taken her along to visits to shelters, orphanages, hospitals, and a variety of businesses to show her how, even as a child, she can make a difference for her people.

He also got her started on letter writing to children in pediatric wings of Novoselic hospitals and orphanages: he began doing so as a young teenager, and kept it up until his father died and he took the throne (as his new role gave him little time for consistent correspondence).

Curious - This Sonia gets from her general upbringing. Beyond official royal visits, holidays, and the excursions her father would take her on, Sonia grew up in relative seclusion from the world. Most of her first friends were Castle staff and she was only allowed to play with children from noble and/or rich families on occasion, and she was homeschooled until middle school.

With that in mind, she often had to make her own fun. She had to dream, and explore, the best she could through the avenues available to her: books, TV, film, and other media she could get her hands on. Whether it's her specific hobbies or just a general yearning to see the world and constantly keep learning and evolving, much of Sonia's curiosity is due to the fact she was kept home and hidden for so long, only trotted out to be seen and heard when her family deemed it necessary.

With that in mind, she tends to say 'Yes!' to quite a lot. Save for things that push her limits too far (relationships/sex and some substances, usually. She has some hesitations with those).

#more-than-a-princess answered #more-than-a-princess headcanons #awesomeuchuu #(Classic Monsters headcanon meme)#(Thanks for the ask!)#(Sonia really is the product of both her parents)#(In both the good and the bad)

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wyrmfedgrave · 5 months

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Pics:

1 & 2. Photos of Jules Verne, himself.

3 & 4. Covers to various editions of the story under investigation. #3 includes Mysterious Island as well. And #4 has a great painting of the battling sea leviathans!

1906: The Earth (is) Not Hollow.

In 1864, polymath, dreamer & sci-fi writer Jules Verne published his huge hit "Journey to the Center of the Earth."

Plot: This journey starts with a German geologist examining a runic manuscript with a backwards coded Latin inscription.

An alchemist secreted instructions to reach the center of the world! And the way in is thru Mt. Snaefell, a dormant volcano...

Once finding the entrance, our heroes get lost in the roots of the mountain. Following an underground river, they reach a vast shoreline. Which is all covered in giant mushrooms - growing from mastodon bones!

They make a raft out of petrified wood & sail for the far shore...

They barely survive a battle between giant sea dinosaurs & a long lasting electrical storm.

Reaching the shore, they explore the beach, finding a human skull &, a fossilized human body!

Suddenly, they see a giant - who's busy shepherding a herd of living mastodons!!

Fleeing, they follow a marked path to a blocked way. This they blow aside with gunpowder.

Back on their craft, they're carried away in a torrent. Hours later, they're suddenly pushed upwards...

Two months after they entered this underworld, they're disgorged - via a volcanic eruption (!!) - on the surface of Stromboli Island, Italy!

Pics:

1. The explorers in a Cave of Giant Diamonds - much too large to carry off!!

2. Our heroes find the Fields of Giant Mushrooms!

3. The rocky shore from where the wide sea will be crossed.

4. I love the attention that the artist spent on the underground ecology.

Author: Jules Verne was a French writer that helped (H.G. Wells) to lay the foundations of modern sci-fi.

His father wanted Jules to become a lawyer. But, Verne fell in love with literature.

Jules worked as a secretary - while writing plays & short stories. Verne dreamt of a genre where he could mix scientific facts with adventure tales.

In 1862, Jules published his 1st novel "Five Weeks in a Balloon" - an international bestseller!

For this, Verne was offered a long term contract, to write more scientific adventures...

This would lead to a 40+ year career & 60+ successful works.

But, after 1886, Jules became more pessimistic. With stories exploring the dangers of "high tech" made by hubris filled scientists...

Personal problems with Verne's own son & financial difficulties forced him to sell off his priced yacht.

Then, the deaths of his mother & mentor left Jules emotionally bereft...

Verne even got shot (in the leg!) - by his own nephew!! This left him partly crippled.

Jules fell sick weeks after his 78th birthday. Burdened by diabetes & a stroke, Verne died quietly - with his family around him.

Pic: The beautiful headstone/monument for another dreamer gone on to the Underworld...

Criticism: This classic adventure novel is not a long book. But, it holds an amazing amount of fast paced action & a well constructed plot.

Its main theme is the quite common 1 of perseverance in the face of any hardship - even to ignoring all reason!

Though it takes it's time setting every thing up, once it gets going, 1 can't put it down.

Legacy:

1. When Jules Verne died, he left behind a drawerful of almost finished manuscripts. When finally published, it was found out that his son had rewritten them!

He had changed the stories' style & added characters to make these last tales more melodramatic.

Most critics condemned these works - for being 'contaminated'...

2. "Journey to the Center of the Earth" has been adapted into film several times: 1910, 1959, 1988 & 2008.

3. It's also been turned into a late 1960s Filmation/20th Century Fox cartoon & a TV series in 1977.

4. At the Tokyo/Disney theme park, there's a "Journey" slot car 'dark' ride based on Jules' story - visit today...

#earth not hollow #scifi #aside #weird geology #jules verne #adventure

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freezegirl · 5 months

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THE BIG CANON MASTERPOST* [note: if you write any of the characters mentioned, i just want to reiterate that you do not have to comply with anything written below, this is just for fun and because i love world building*] (written: 17-01-2022 / version 1: 16-02-2022 / version 2: 17-12-2023)

khione hima goossens (iman vellani) has lived in maxville her entire life. as have her parents. though her maternal grandparents and their ancestors came from surinam, india and pakistan. khione grew up in the richer part of town, in the same neighborhood as gwen grayson, and spends her time at the maxville ice arena and ice slash snow sculpting.

her dad, leander (neil jackson) is a cryokinetic. he used to be known as the superhero permafrost but has since gone inactive to focus on his acting career. he's been tapped for the 'darkstar' franchise, playing the titular character.

her mom, saraswati, who's more commonly known as sara as per her insistence (jameela jamil) has hydrokinesis abilities and is a retired superhero turned tv personality, being known for the fabulous lives of superhero wives. and, yes, khione has been on the show too.

khione has inherited both her dad's cryokinesis and her mom's hydrokinesis, which means she's got a big family legacy to live up to. much like will stronghold, khione is a she's a third gen.

leander and saraswati never should have been allowed to name their only daughter. aside from huge expectations for their daughter, a tendency to manage her life, a huge dose of haughtiness, as well as loftiness and a remarkable hatred for pyrokinetics, whom they deem “beneath them”, leander and saraswati are a normal couple.

well, as normal as two (retired) supers can be.

especially if one of those two has a secret.

khione may be an only child, but saraswati has another child out there: zach braun-springer (agastya nanda) who possesses photokinesis and an immunity towards the cold that people thought was just sheer dumb luck on his part.

this secret comes to light during zach's freshman year and khione’s sophomore year at sky high, a few months after royal pain’s rampages have largely been forgotten. the super community can change like the wind, at the drop of a hat, or a coin. it goes from loving to vicious. from soft to sharp and back again. it ruptures the marriage of khione’s parents (though they stay together instead of divorcing), and does the same to the marriage of zach’s parents as well. khione tries to keep her head above water by focusing on her classes and her friends.

sometime during her senior year at sky high, nurse spex passes away, rendering her grandson valerian - laser eyes kid - effectively an orphan. his parents died on the job and nurse spex, his grandmother, took him in. in her opinion, she’s raised the finest boy in maxville. no one had the heart to tell her that her grandson was behaving terribly. after nurse spex’s funeral, laser eyes kid takes out his grief on everyone around him, khione included. but he finds a home with mr and mrs timmerman, who end up fostering him alongside jolene hamilton (and they adopt both of them down the line).

khione manages to make it to graduation. her parents don’t show up as she walks the stage because they’re both in europe for their jobs. shortly afterwards, khione gets accepted into sky u.

in the transitional period between high school and college, the superhero world is shaken to the core when josie stronghold (nee demarco) dies. khione attends the funeral with her parents - who fly back from europe for this - and does her best to be there for will in the aftermath when his paternal grandparents fly into town.

during her first year at sky u, disaster strikes again: warren’s father, baron battle, escapes the maximum security prison. people speculate it’s an inside job. the downtown area of maxville gets turned into a disaster zone made of smoke plumes, flames and screams. khione, warren, will, layla, zach, magenta (brianne tju) and ethan are deployed to put a stop to baron's battle against the citizens of maxville.

things turn from bad to worse, however, when baron gets away and kidnaps ethan banks (quincy fouse) who is, by far, the smartest member of khione’s friend group and it takes far longer to get ethan back than khione would have liked.

enter katherine "katie" baxter shortly after khione's second year of uni has started. she and her twin michael “mike” baxter have sound based powers. while barron has escaped prison, mike is still locked up and katie is hurt and enraged about it. she and mike have gone through some shit and now they don’t quite know how to exist without each other. katie kidnaps khione, thinking that if she presses the right buttons, the stronghold seven (or six, in this case) will pull some strings to get mike released. khione is gone for about a week and the squad gets video updates. khione's parents are informed as well and they fly back from europe immediately (though whether they are truly concerned for their daughter's wellbeing or for everything they've invested in her so far is truly anyone's guess).

while she has her, katie excessively uses her sound powers on khione who tries her hardest to fight back until she’s exhausted. when it becomes clear that khione has received training when it comes to dealing with sound based powers to the best of her ability (because of course khione’s parents would do so, even though it hurts like hell), katie realizes that she needs to press harder. so she does, promising to wean khione off of all her friends when it becomes clear that they're not going to help her get her brother back.

the stronghold seven (or six, in this case) find khione locked up inside maxwellness, a wellness and beauty centre ("for maximum wellness!”) located somewhere in maxville. katie left khione in a sauna booth with the settings way up high. after she gets out of there, she faints and it's a race against the clock to try to get her core temperature back down before she dies. this whole experience exerbates khione's existing case of claustrophobia too.

ethan and khione hang out more afterwards. they bond over their respective experiences. ethan comes out as queer. khione tells him she’s pansexual. they bond over that, too, and magenta organically adds herself into the mix when she comes out to them as bi.

both of them spend the majority of their time catching up on the stuff they missed in regards to schoolwork as well. ethan and khione also end up training together (and seperately) so that neither of them get taken against their will ever again.

khione's third year is filled with pro and anti super sentiment across the board. after supers are forced to go public when mr medulla's particle accelerator explodes, the general public has a lot to say. turns out, he hadn't really "gotten rid of that horrible weapon, forever" like he said so many years ago and kept tinkering with the reversed pacifier behind the scenes. he just couldn't help himself. medulla was certain that he was doing a good thing here: he was going to bring about advancements in (mad) science, physics and advancements in medicine. still, the consequences are long-lasting. and never before had the debate on whether supers need to hang up the cape or not, on whether "their secret identity needs to become their only identity" been fiercer.

after graduation, khione officially takes up the mantle 'frostbite' amid the pro and anti super discussions and enters the field alongside the others and officially becomes part of the stronghold seven.

#headcanons; metas; world building.#queue.

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