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c-t-r-l14 · 1 month

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Dontis Is Written So Amazingly Well.

It wasn’t a surprise when I found out he killed people. It was implied in the first episode we’ve seen him in that he did some things that he wasn’t proud of; and in the second episode, he even told the hunter that it was a shame he couldn’t get drunk, because there was some things things that he’d rather forget; even if it was for a little while. Him killing people in order to survive didn’t make him a bad person—and when you live a life as a being like Dontis or Xanthus—you will eventually get into situations where killing to survive or dying at the hands of your enemies will bring you an ultimatum.

What surprised me was that Dontis wasn’t always this wise and gentle.

Before this audio, I thought that he’d only kill out of necessity—that he’d exhaust all his other options first before he’d think about taking another person’s life. I thought that he’d always tried to help people out, make sure to protect the innocent when needed, and try to understand all the sides before he passes judgement onto other people. But that was never the case.

Dontis was once cruel. He had betrayed innocent people. Dontis was once selfish. He put other people in harms way so he could be able to live another day. He trusted no one, and was wary of the world. He wasn’t filled with faith, nor optimism, nor empathy, nor understanding.

He was not filled with love.

He did these things because in a world full of humans and supernaturals—one of them will try their hardest to be on top of the food chain. In this world, the strong survive, and the weak perish. In this world, it is kill or be killed. And as far as Dontis knew, there was no room for kindness or trust.

One of the things I really loved about this audio was that we were indirectly shown Dontis’ thought process when it came to him forgiving hunter listener for everything they have done. Before, he’d preach about how “all someone needs is a helping hand,” and, “sometimes, a little kindness goes a long way,” and while I do I agree with sentiment, I still couldn’t wrap my head around how exactly Dontis could be so forgiving to the people who had wronged him so badly. And now, because of this audio, I finally get it.

Dontis was in their place once, too.

He knows what it’s like to be filled with hate and spite; to drown in it and have it consume you—and rule your life. He knows what it’s like to take a life; he’s done horrible things too. The reason why he’s so forgiving is simply because he’s probably experienced what they’ve went through, too. And he feels like he can’t judge people because that’d simply make him a hypocrite—because he has done bad things, too. He had made terrible choices. Choices he will have to live with. Choices he will regret for the rest of his life. And when Dontis gives advice or comforts others, I get the strong feeling that he is trying to be the companion he wished he had during those first few decades of his life.

Another thing I really loved about this audio was how it showed that Hunter listener and Dontis are parallels of each other. Dontis was young, and full of spite and wariness. When he had met that Turkish woman, he really thought that she was going to be just like all the rest of the humans he’d met before her. He thought that she wouldn’t hesitate to sell him out if it meant saving her life—or that she’d use and abuse him, but that was never the case. She simply needed love. She simply wanted company. This woman single handedly showed Dontis that not every single human he was going to meet would bad person. And as ironic as it sounds, her actions made Dontis gain some humanity of his own.

When hunter listener finally caught and trapped Dontis, they were just like him when he was younger. They hated supernatural beings and killed them before even getting a chance to know them—simply because they knew WHAT they were without getting to know WHO they were. But, in a strange turn of events, it was Dontis who made them realize the truth. It was Dontis who helped them forget their pain for a little while; Dontis, who gave them a second chance at living a good life—free from all the violence and acts of terror they have committed. And it was Dontis who have given them a different perspective on the beings they have once despised and condemned.

The lady is to Dontis as Dontis is to the hunter.

I feel like Dontis’ story—all of the struggles, pain, and suffering he has went through in order to become the beautiful, loving, caring person he is today, really reminds people that compassion and empathy aren’t things you are born with; nor is hatred and spite. Those behaviors are learned and taught. And I have totally forgotten that—because up until today, I’ve only gotten to see the type of person Dontis has become, and never thought about the type of person he once was.

Saku’s mind—his ability to write characters with so much depth and development—is absolutely insane. And honestly, this audio makes me love and appreciate Dontis even more than before.

Masterlist

#zsakuva #sakuverse #dontis zsakuva #dontis my beloved #dontis #Yes this is a rant #I just had to get this off my chest because holy shit #Saku is an absolute generous bro omg

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bibliophile-in-training · 9 months

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A Plebian's Review of the Last Voyage of the Demeter

I don't do reviews normally but I have many thoughts I wanted to share after recently watching this movie. In general, I did enjoy this movie and I thought it was a fun watch. As someone who read Dracula and enjoys most modern Dracula stories I would watch it again if it came on. (6/10)

Non-spoilers:

It took some liberties with the source material. Combine the recent Poirot movies with modern vampire lore and that's what you should expect, not something strictly adhering to the novel. Not necessarily a bad thing, but if you're enjoying dracula daily just know this isn't really that.

On that note, Dracula bibliophiles aside, it's a pretty good movie on its own. It's suited for modern audiences and won't confuse them with Stoker's vampire lore (ex. what can and can't kill a vampire, what powers Dracula has).

It had pretty gory moments that you may not be prepared for if slasher movies aren't something you watch. Also, check out doesthedogdie bc there are a lot of potential triggers.

The lighting for this movie was really good imo. There was a strong contrast between day and night which awesome, but you could also still actually see what was going on in the dark. There were a couple times when Dracula was in a shadow and you couldn't really see him but it was for effect as opposed to trying to be "realistic" (looking at you, GOT).

The design for Dracula was cool and they do play into him getting stronger and scarier as he continuously feeds.

The Captain is not the main character (in contrast to the source material's Captain's log). Here, it's Dr Clemens we follow and we get an occasional Caltain's narration from the log.

If you like Until Dawn and other titles from Supermassive Games, you'd probably enjoy it. Dracula's design, the kills, and character choices feel like you're watching a playthrough. Not to mention there are a lot of close-up shots of characters in the same way Supermassive Games does.

Spoilers under the cut:

The Good:

The cinematography was pretty good. I particularly liked shots that followed through the ship to the cargo hold where count bat boi was sleeping.

They also filmed the gory scenes really well, and one scene that stood out was when one person who's become a thrall bashes his head through a door and then slides his nose along the splintered panels as he looks up. Impactful to say the least. They didn't pan away and leave it up to our imaginations but went all in and I applaud it.

Things were recognizable from the novel (names, events, some vampire mythos). I was genuinely surprised that they marked Dracula's coffins with dragons and kept that he slept in dirt, since modern audiences probably wouldn't have known about these things. When we (modern audiences) hear "Dracula" we think it means "vampire" as opposed to "dragon", and we would likely expect Dracula's cargo to be velvet-lined coffins.

The opening scene (finding the ship at Whitby & the wagon train of the coffins) had me immediately invested and excited, and I was already looking forward to this movie (I chose it over Barbie lol).

The Captain's actor was phenomenal. He went all out when he was grieving Toby's death and he really didn't have to but I'm so glad he did. While the character itself wasn't consistent, the actor made it believable. He was strict and kind when he was sane, he was frantic and distraught when he was insane, and his moments of grief and hope were all palpable. Good choice.

"Oh my God it has wings" When I say I LAUGHED SO HARD

Honestly there were a lot of funny moments. Some were genuine to cut the tension and help build characters but being ND and desensitized to horror I don't know if I was supposed to laugh at some of them, like when the cook's dingy knocked against the side of the hull. And when vampire Toby jumped up.

The use of knocking was a cool addition. I enjoyed when they used it like when Toby was in trouble and when Dracula was messing with the two dudes on deck.

One of the key things of Dracula's personality is that yes - he can kill you in 10s - but he won't because he's a sadistic bastard that enjoys drawing it out and playing the wager to see if you'll die of fear before he can bite you. They absolutely captured it. Homie is purposeful in how he terrifies his victims before giving them a gruesome death.

I think the model ship they showed at the end was the original model ship for the Demeter in the 90's Dracula movie (or at least a nod to it), which is how this movie was started apparently. Nice touch.

The Grievances:

Dr Clemens was a mary sue. I'm sorry, there's no way around this. Man has bad main character syndrome. I can accept a black man fighting tooth and nail to graduate Cambridge top of his class and struggle in a world that won't see his abilities because they won't look past his skin color, but on top of that he's an astronomer, a sailer, a strategist, a detective, and everyone immediately falls in love with him? Hell, he cured Toby's [1] grief over losing his lifelong friend (Huck, the dog, who was MUTILATED) and [2] guilt for all the animals dying because it was his responsibility to take care of him, and [3] fear for whatever unknown thing did this, with a headpat and "sometimes shit happens and you can't do anything about it".

He took one look at Anna, Dracula's beef jerky ration, and immediately went "she has an infection, she needs a blood transfusion", then proceeded to give her repeated transfusions over several days and he was totally fine. Up running around and fighting vampires meanwhile in reality he would have been bedridden from lack of blood and possible complications from the procedures.

Also, why is he the only clean person? Everyone's covered in grime and blood and dude looks like he just walked out of a proactive commercial. Even when he's floating in the middle of the ocean for days with an open neck wound he looks like he was just in the shower. Compare it with the Captain's burns and the first thrall's face after banging the through a door and the dissonance just pulls me out of the movie.

Keeping him alive just to sequel bait. Just. Why. Hollywood, it's okay to kill your protagonist. 1912 did it really well. Plus, I personally wasn't invested enough in this character to want to see a sequel following his vendetta with Dracula. We already know about Jonathan and Van Helsing. You can make movies that stand alone. It's okay.

If you want to sequel bait why don't you have him delirious from being lost at sea for several days and end up at the asylum with Dr Seward and Renfield? That would actually be cool and you could still have Dracula show up to taunt him.

Also, in regards to Anna, while I think it was a cool idea to use her for lore dumping and as a surprise for the audience, I was disappointed with her. She had the potential to provide a lot of info and help fight Dracula but instead she had to be the "strong independent woman". I don't hate this trope (think about Ripley in Alien, or any of the women in the original novel) but it wasn't done well here. While it's cool to see her gain confidence and wield a gun against count bat boi I was really hoping she would provide more info like his weaknesses. She says "he ran out of food in my country" but we know this isn't *literally* true because we see people at the beginning. It's the fact her people knew how to keep Dracula away that he ran out of food and he decided to try greener pastures. You could bring up HOW they did that (religious tokens, garlic, silver, etc.).

Also when she does try to give info about Dracula it's still vague and meant to be mysterious. Bruh, you are locked on a boat with this monster and you know your only hope for survival is to flee or work together to get rid of him. Why are you not giving as much info and details as possible? Because that's what the script said bc the writers wanted to make dracula look cool by relying on the characters to say it? Okay.

This movie relies on a lot of telling instead of showing. It's like they don't trust their audience to pay attention or understand what's going on. The only time I legit felt they showed and not told (lol) was when the Captain asked if what happened to the animals could be transmitted to humans and Dr Clemens lied and said no. You could see in the actor's face the inner monologue of telling the truth vs preventing chaos. It was nice and gave more info about the character than him actually yelling his life history at the first mate.

It also suffers from the writers trying to make every scene be memorable. There are too many times characters say things because it sounds cool or would be good in the trailer rather than because it makes sense for the character to say that.

Honestly all the characters fall flat for me (besides the captain who's character is treated like a pinball). They're all archetypes rather than people. The protagonist. The independent woman. The racist drunkard. The child. The religious guy. The guy that makes obscene jokes. The only names I know are Toby, Dr Clemens, and Anna. Bc they get said a lot as opposed to me actually caring about them.

On that note, I am definitely biased because I loved the Captain's log from the novel, but I wish that this was from the Captain's pov, culminating in him tying himself to the wheel and dying from shock or exposure like in the book. Then Whitby.

On that note, I am still upset that they used modern vampire mythos yet again for Dracula. In the book the Captain dies after being taunted for days by Dracula after tying himself to the wheel, only possible because the rosary in his hand protects him. It's a noble but horrific sacrifice made of fear and a duty to not let the evil on the ship reach land. In this movie, however, he reaches the wheel and dies because the rosary has no power over Dracula (it's also how Toby dies).

Oh, also the sun kills vampires. How do we know? Because occasionally some people turn into vampires, but only when it's convenient for the plot (looking at you, Anna). Why don't they use this against Dracula and dump the dirt box they know he's sleeping in during the day? Who knows. But they wasted a lot of potential to play on the audience's expectations (rather than giving into them) by using Dracula during the day. Y'know what's scarier than a vampire picking off your crew at night? A vampire picking off your crew at ANY time when you only expect it at night because SURPRISE sunlight just doesn't let him crawl in lizard fashion.

Are you seriously telling me Dracula sustained himself off of Anna for several weeks, and then decided to slaughter the crew mere days before the boat docked? Yes, he was weak bc of it but I don't think the director knows how blood works (see Dr Clemens's transfusion issue). Also, if that's the case, how did Anna not suffocate in her dirt box for hours on end for weeks? Just fill the other 48 crates with dead people and say Anna was the last caprisun in the box and it would make more sense.

Also, why have their last hurrah be the day before they reach Whitby? It made the movie seem too fast; it felt like it only took a week to get from Transylvania to England. Why not find Anna early on, then disperse the crew member deaths across a couple weeks like in the novel? It would help with the suspense and you could have the Captain tie himself to the wheel then let us experience the time passing after he dies so the audience has a moment to sit with the deaths and feel hopeless. Bc that's what the role of the Demeter is, story-wise. It's supposed to make us afraid of Dracula and feel hopeless in his presence. Not give us hope and make him into our rival we have the possibility to get revenge on. That's what our dear friend Jonathan is for.

Dracula never takes human form. Why do all adaptations refuse to give him his bushy mustache? COWARDS.

Okay, he *sort of* takes human form. But they really just put him in a waistcoat and top hat then expected us to believe that showed he was cunning. You literally said he's both man and beast then only show the beast. One of Dracula's main appeal is that he's clever and his sadistically human traits are the only thing preventing him from immediately ripping you to shreds. And he can pass as human, so he could be anyone. Yet we only see the beast part.

While this movie was fun to watch, it comes off more as a gruesome drama or action movie than a horror. I never really feel any suspense or dread. Compare it to Alien which had the same situation. Alien did such a good job of making you feel scared and claustrophobic when you're surrounded by the vastness of space (in this case, the ocean) and being hunted down by an intelligent monster. I was watching this to see how Dracula killed people rather than seeing how they struggled to survive.

I can believe this movie was in production hell not just because of the writing but some errors. In one scene, the Captain's burn is on the right side of his face but there's a close-up cut and suddenly it's on the left side like someone flipped the screen. And this is just one error out of a couple. No Starbucks cups tho.

It sounds like I don't like this movie because of all of my nit-picking grievances, but I really did like it. I think my issues are just because my expectations were too high going in. I was expecting a loyal expansion of an underappreciated segment of a classic novel, which is really rare these days. And a *suspenseful* horror.

I see why Guillermo del Toro and Stephen King suggested it. It's pretty similar to their stuff, just more fast-paced. So if you like that stuff and Until Dawn I think you'll really enjoy it.

#last voyage of the demeter #dracula #dracula daily #the last voyage of the demeter #movie review #horror #horror movies #re: dracula #yes this is a rant #listen my head is full of THOUGHTS

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affymoon · 3 months

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The issue with being the face of Japanese Electro Swing is that the second you release a 6.5/10 album and arguably the closest associate of the band who once said something bad when they were a teen is featured in one of the album's best tracks nobodies from around the world start clamouring to say that you "fell off"

#FAKETYPE #demondice #yes this is a rant #also wasn't 2023 FAKETYPE considering like the band's peak. tf you mean it fell off after one album

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fluffypotatey · 7 months

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only saying this once: lmk is a show full of unreliable narrators. everything we are told about the past should be taken with a grain of salt until many other tellings affirm it.

#any characterization of swk we learn from the past should be taken with a grain of salt if it comes from antagonists #any characterization of the JTTW crew should be taken with a grain of salt until we learn more #THIS SHOW IS UNRELIABLE AND IT IS INTENTIONAL #jfc if I have to see another take about Tripitaka’s character in lmk when I click on his tag #or a swk take about his character that is based solely on the antagonists when i surf SWK’s tag I will scream #yes this is a rant #yes I know this show is catered to a younger audience first before anything #however: y’all be aware of the fact that the story can AND will lie to you #this show is not finished #we don’t know the full story #we can speculate and theorize but in the end everything is up in the air #I have said my piece #wont say anymore #lmk

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friendshipgamer13 · 1 year

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Do you want to know something ironic Brooklyn from Gargoyles isn’t on the sexy Tumblr man Wikipedia page but Lola Bunny is. I mean hell most helluva bosses that are important to the story and the same for hazbin hotel are on there but not one Gargoyles character 🙄 and yes I know I’m being petty but she is literally loved by every single furry in history but no Gargoyles character I know I’m throwing a hissy fit over something this stupid and I agree that this is stupid and will contribute nothing to society but the wiki is a bit unfair if you ask me

Edit: the wiki’s have actually four legged animal like why is that on there but not a single gargoyle character

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theprettyhimbo · 1 year

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No clue if I just can't read or not but "entrepereneur" is a DASTARDLY word. Absolutely GHASTLY.

Not the people tho. Y'all are chill. I just hate your job title.

#rat squeaks #like why cant we call them something cuter and easier to spell?#like job beetles #bossinesses [boss business]#entrepeneur sounds like you eat shit #not like it has anything to do with workibg #yes this is a rant #its a hatepost for this one word #hate post

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doctortinystark · 10 months

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Friends to lovers is great until you ask out a friend you have feelings for and they agree but 2 months later they pretend it was just a normal hangout and not a date and go back to normal (it has happened to me twice)

#and then somehow the feelings thing is also forgotten #its weird that it happened to me twice #or maybe i just have no rizz #and they have no regard for my feelings #yes this is a rant #friends to lovers #book tropes #dating #or some shit #stuck in the damn #friendzone #booklr

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berisims · 1 year

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I usually don't give a damn, but I just found out one of my favorite creators has me blocked and I'm just...???? Like, we never even interacted and we like the same things?? I just??? wanted to keep??? liking their stuff and show my support???

O...Okay?

#sour berry rambles #yes this is a rant #im sorry about that #but I'm actually hurt wtf #please i'm just a little guy #with a tiny little simblr #and a tiny little following

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doubleddenden · 7 months

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So Nintendo announced that they're fully shutting down any servers that the 3ds and wii u use for games

Except Pokémon Bank

Which is still on life support and, according to TPC, they encourage us to transfer to Home soon, meaning they WILL be shut down, probably within the year.

Realistically this was at the back of my head back when they first introduced Bank almost 10 years ago, but I'm still irritated about it.

First of all, let's look at the shut down of servers. XY, ORAS, SM, USUM all lose wonder trading, online trading, and gts- effectively meaning trade evolutions and version exclusives are forever lost to those games once that happens. That also means the only instance of gts we'll ever have now is in fucking Home. And that sucks.

Here's another thing: When Bank shuts down, what does that mean for transferring?

Well, we'll still have gen 3 to gen 4 to gen 5 transfer, they can't take that away from us because that was back when they cared enough to make transferring an in game mechanic.

But now we have the issue of gen 5 onward, and for that matter the gen 1 and gen 2 Virtual Console games. The only way to transfer those pokemon will be through Transporter, which btw has to connect to Bank, which is a cloud based service. Even further complicating things, you cannot transfer to or from gen 6 or gen 7 once it shuts down. Basically, pokemon obtained prior to gen 5 are stuck in gen 5, gen 1 are stuck to gen 1, gen 2 to gen 2, gen 6 to gen 6, and gen 7 to gen 7.

Looking at the current situation on Switch, we'll only have access to Kanto via the Let's Go games, Sinnoh/Hisui via BDSP and Legends Arceus, while Galar and Paldea are currently unaffected.

That means when Bank shuts down- and they will shut it down next year probably- we lose access to Johto, Hoenn, Unova, Kalos, and Alola- which btw Alola is not even 10 years old yet.

Even with a positive outlook that Unova and Johto are next up for remakes/re-remakes/revisits, that's still means that we no longer have access to 3 regions, and especially Alola for at LEAST 10 years at this rate.

Even further complicating things, as it stands with Indigo Disk on the horizon, we'll still be missing a few pokemon across the Switch games. It's a small handful, but those are still unusable.

Look, I get some of you have already labeled me an asshole manchild getting upset over something we all saw coming- fuck you btw, but I get it. It still just sucks so much ass. I know people that don't transfer don't get the big deal and are already typing up why i'm stupid and should just get over it- but to me, I've always enjoyed keeping each pokemon that's made a difference to my playthroughs throughout the years. That was a unique thing for Pokemon as a series that separated it from other games- i actually still have Pokemon from when i was 9.

What this means is that once Bank is gone, your pokemon are stuck, you cannot transfer anymore! If you want to play through those games, you'll have to erase any new pokemon! If you encounter a shiny in X or something after Bank closes, tough titties! It's basically gone forever.

This absolutely sucks. I literally haven't experienced this since I learned I couldn't transfer my very first pokemon from gen 2 to gen 3 back when I was a kid.

It also just highlights a humongous issue with modern games in general. Too much reliance on services that won't be available 10 years from now. Too much reliance on the assumption that game companies will care enough about preservation to keep things going even when it's not AS profitable- which it still would be.

Like again, I get that they couldn't "realistically" keep it up forever- Except tbh they could have if they actually gave a shit beyond what makes them more money than they'll ever need. I fucking hate corporate gaming. Like you CAN NOT realistically tell me they don't make enough money from Home subs and Go to just keep the damn servers up. It isn't that old! The technology can probably run from like, 1 broom closet at most.

Listen, if anyone smart out there can do this, I have an idea for you: create some sort of hardware that directly copies info from gba, ds, 3ds, and switch cartridges- especially Pokémon games- by plugging in said cartridges to a program of some kind. That program can then be used to essentially copy the process that Transporter, Bank, and Home uses to copy the specific data of of each specific pokemon and then inject that data straight into the cartridge, with no cloud service needed. At the very least fans need to figure a work around like they did the DS DNS servers for events and gts, or else we just have even more corporate sponsored lost media.

I'm upset, man. Fuck corporate pokemon. Fuck Nintendo too. Fuck all of this. There's no need for any of this except greed. I don't want to hear how Pokémon was being "gracious" by giving us more time, they're a corporation and I'm not kissing their asses anymore for doing the bare minimum, they can and should do better by their fans and have been getting away with far too much bullshit lately.

#pokemon #nintendo #yes this is a rant #i don't want to hear arguments and if you want to insult me kindly save yourselves the keystrokes

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