#a more unique big bonny original way | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

dweemeister · 2 months

Text

The complete list of films featured on this blog’s 2024 “31 Days of Oscar” marathon

Hello everyone,

Thank you once more for allowing me to present this annual marathon of Oscar-nominated films to your dashboards. This year, the films were grouped by category (for the most part, one day featured only films nominated in a particular category). This is the most exclusive period on this blog, as the selection of films that I can post and queue about is at its most limited. But at the same time, the blog is at its most accessible as this yearly marathon’s selection skews to more popular fare than what I usually queue. I hope you enjoyed this year’s presentation of 31 Days of Oscar once more!

What follows is the exhaustive list of all 381 short- and feature-length films featured on this blog over the last thirty-one days for the 31 Days of Oscar marathon. This is down from 2022’s record of 420. But that count remains only a fraction of the 5,145 films that have been nominated for Academy Awards since 1927 (excluding Honorary Oscar winners that weren't nominated in a competitive category).

Of those 382, 28 were short films (53 short films is the record, which was set in 2022). 354 were feature films.

BREAKDOWN BY DECADE 1927-1929: 10 1930s: 51 1940s: 54 1950s: 44 1960s: 42 1970s: 26 1980s: 26 1990s: 23 2000s: 26 2010s: 26 2020s: 54

TOTAL: 382 (380 last year)

Year with most representation (2023 excluded): 1938 and 1942 (9 films each) Median year: 1966

Time for the list. 59 Best Picture winners and the one (and only) winner for Unique and Artistic Production that I featured this year are in bold. Asterisked (*) films are films I haven’t seen in their entirety as of the publishing of this post. Films primarily not in the English language are accompanied with their nation(s) of origin.

The ten Best Picture nominees for the 96th Academy Awards, including the winner, Oppenheimer (2023)

The fifteen nominees in the short film categories for the 96th Academy Awards

À nous la liberté (1931, France)

The Adventures of Don Juan (1938)*

The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)

Albert Schweitzer (1957)*

Alexander’s Ragtime Band (1938)

Alice Adams (1935)*

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974)*

Aliens (1986)

All About Eve (1950)

All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

All That Jazz (1979)*

Amadeus (1984)

Amarcord (1973, Italy)

An American in Paris (1951)

An American Werewolf in London (1981)*

Anatomy of a Murder (1959)

Anne of the Thousand Days (1969)*

The Apartment (1960)

Aquamania (1961 short)

Autumn Sonata (1978, Sweden)

Avatar (2009)

Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)

The Awful Truth (1937)

The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)

Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)

The Band Wagon (1953)

The Barefoot Contessa (1954)

Batman (1989)

Beauty and the Beast (1991)

Becket (1964)*

Before the Rain (1993, Macedonia)*

Ben-Hur (1959)

The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

Bicycle Thieves (1948, Italy)

The Big Country (1958)

The Big House (1930)

Black Narcissus (1947)

The Black Swan (1942)

BlacKkKlansman (2018)

Blazing Saddles (1974)

Blue Valentine (2010)*

Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

Born Yesterday (1950)*

The Boy and the Heron (2023, Japan)

Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)*

Braveheart (1995)

Brief Encounter (1945)

Brigadoon (1954)

Bullitt (1968)

Butterflies Are Free (1972)*

Cabaret (1972)

Caged (1950)

The Caine Mutiny (1954)

Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018)

Captain Blood (1935)

Casablanca (1942)

Cavalcade (1933)

Chico and Rita (2010, Spain)

Children of a Lesser God (1986)

The Children of Theatre Street (1977)*

Cimarron (1931)

The Circus (1928)

Citizen Kane (1941)

Cleopatra (1963)

A Clockwork Orange (1971)

CODA (2021)

The Color Purple (1985)

Come and Get It (1936)*

Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt (1989)*

El Conde (2023, Chile)*

Cool Hand Luke (1967)

The Country Girl (1954)*

Cries and Whispers (1972, Sweden)*

Crossfire (1947)

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000, Taiwan)

The Crowd (1928)

Dances with Wolves (1990)

Dangerous (1935)*

Days of Waiting (1991 short)*

The Deer Hunter (1978)

The Departed (2006)

Desert Victory (1942)*

Disraeli (1929)*

The Divine Lady (1929)*

Doctor Zhivago (1965)

Dodsworth (1936)

Double Indemnity (1944)

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1932)

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941)

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Mouse (1947 short)

Drive My Car (2021, Japan)

Driving Miss Daisy (1989)

Dune (2021)

8½ (1963, Italy)

Elemental (2023)

The Elephant Whisperers (2022 short, India)

Elmer Gantry (1960)

Emma (1932)*

The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Encanto (2021)

The English Patient (1996)

Ernest & Celestine (2012, Belgium/France/Luxembourg)

The Eternal Memory (2023, Chile)

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)*

Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022)

Fantastic Voyage (1966)

Far From Heaven (2002)*

A Farewell to Arms (1932)

Fiddler on the Roof (1971)

The Firemen’s Ball (1967, Czechoslovakia)*

Five Star Final (1931)*

Flee (2021, Denmark)

Flower Drum Song (1961)

For All Mankind (1989)

Forbidden Planet (1956)

Foreign Correspondent (1940)

Forrest Gump (1994)

42nd Street (1933)

Four Daughters (1938)*

Four Daughters (2023, France/Germany/Tunisia/Saudi Arabia)*

Freedom on My Mind (1994)

Frida (2002)*

The Front Page (1931)*

Funny Girl (1968)

Gandhi (1982)

Gaslight (1944)

Gentleman’s Agreement (1947)

Giant (1956)

Gladiator (2000)

The Godfather (1972)

The Godfather Part II (1974)

Godzilla Minus One (2023)

Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)

Goldfinger (1964)

Gone with the Wind (1939)

The Goodbye Girl (1977)

Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939)

Gosford Park (2001)

Grand Prix (1966)

The Grandmaster (2013, Hong Kong/China)*

The Grapes of Wrath (1940)

The Great Dictator (1940)

Great Expectations (1946)*

The Great Race (1965)

Green Dolphin Street (1947)*

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967)

Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957)

Gypsy (1962)*

Hamlet (1948)

The Heiress (1949)

Henry V (1944)

Henry V (1989)

Hercules (1997)

Here Come the Waves (1945)*

High Noon (1952)

How Green Was My Valley (1941)

How the West Was Won (1962)

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019)

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)

The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the WIndow and Disappeared (2013, Sweden/France Germany)

The Hurt Locker (2008)

If Anything Happens I Love You (2020 short)

In America (2003)*

In the Heat of the Night (1967)

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)

The Informer (1935)

Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970, Italy)*

Io Capitano (2023, Italy)*

It Happened One Night (1934)

JFK (1991)*

Juno (2007)

Kung Fu Panda (2008)

Lady for a Day (1933)

The Last Command (1927)

The Last Emperor (1987)

The Last Picture Show (1971)

Laura (1944)

Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

A Letter to Three Wives (1949)

Life Is Beautiful (1997, Italy)

Lilies of the Field (1963)

Lincoln (2012)

The Little Foxes (1941)*

Lolita (1962)

The Longest Day (1962)

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

The Lost Weekend (1945)

Love Affair (1939)*

The Love Parade (1929)

Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955)

Loving Vincent (2017)

Lust for Life (1956)

The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)

Malcolm X (1992)

A Man for All Seasons (1966)

The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)

The Man Who Skied Down Everest (1975)

March of the Penguins (2005, France)

Marie Antoinette (1938)*

Marty (1955)

Mary Poppins (1964)

Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)

Merrily We Live (1938)*

The Merry Widow (1934)

Mickey’s Orphans (1931 short)

Midnight in Paris (2011)

Milk (2008)*

Million Dollar Baby (2004)

Minari (2020)

Miracle on 34th Street (1947)

The Miracle Worker (1962)*

Mogambo (1953)*

Moneyball (2011)*

Monsieur Hulot's Holiday (1953, France)

Monsieur Lazhar (2011, Canada)

Moonstruck (1987)*

The More the Merrier (1943)

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)

Mrs. Miniver (1942)

Munich (2005)*

The Music Man (1962)

My Fair Lady (1964)

My Man Godfrey (1936)*

Napoleon (2023)*

National Velvet (1944)

Naughty Marietta (1935)*

Network (1976)

Never on Sunday (1960, Greece)*

Nimona (2023)

No Country for Old Men (2007)

None But the Lonely Heart (1944)*

North by Northwest (1959)

Now, Voyager (1942)

The Nun’s Story (1959)

Odd Man Out (1947)*

On Golden Pond (1981)

On the Waterfront (1954)

Out of Africa (1985)

Papillon (1973)

Parasite (2019, South Korea)

A Passage to India (1984)*

Patton (1970)

Penny Serenade (1941)

Perfect Days (2023, Japan)*

Persepolis (2007, France)

Phantom Thread (2017)

The Philadelphia Story (1940)

Pillow Talk (1959)

Planet of the Apes (1968)

Platoon (1986)

Pollock (2000)*

Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor (1936 short)

The Pride of the Yankees (1942)

The Prince of Egypt (1998)

The Prisoner of Zenda (1937)

The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939)*

The Public Enemy (1931)

Pulp Fiction (1994)

Pygmalion (1938)

Quo Vadis (1951)

The Quiet Man (1952)

Raging Bull (1980)

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Rain Man (1988)

Raintree County (1957)*

Random Harvest (1942)

Rashômon (1950, Japan)

The Razor's Edge (1946)

Rebecca (1940)

Rejected (2000 short)

Return of the Jedi (1983)

Rhapsody in Rivets (1941 short)*

The Robe (1953)*

Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)*

Robot Dreams (2023, Spain)

Rocky (1976)

Roma (2018, Mexico)

Roman Holiday (1953)

Room (2015)

Rustin (2023)*

Sadie Thompson (1928)*

Schindler's List (1993)

Searching for Sugar Man (2012)

Seconds (1966)*

Sergeant York (1941)

7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964)

7th Heaven (1927)*

Shall We Dance (1937)

The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949)

The Shop on Main Street (1965, Czechoslovakia)

Silence (2016)*

The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

The Silent Child (2017 short)

The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1931)

Singin' in the Rain (1952)

The Sixth Sense (1999)*

Society of the Snow (2023, Spain)*

The Sound of Music (1965)

Spellbound (1945)

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023)

Spotlight (2015)

Stagecoach (1939)

A Star Is Born (1937)

A Star Is Born (1954)

Star Trek: First Contact (1996)

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1994)

Star Wars (1977)

Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)

Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999)

Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005)

The Sting (1973)

La Strada (1954, Italy)

A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)

Strike Up the Band (1940)

Sun Valley Serenade (1941)

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)

Sunset Boulevard (1950)

Superman (1978)

Superman Returns (2006)

Suspicion (1941)

The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2013, Japan)

A Tale of Two Cities (1935)*

The Teachers’ Lounge (2023, Germany)

Terms of Endearment (1983)

Test Pilot (1938)*

The Thief of Bagdad (1940)

The Thin Man (1934)

To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

Tom Jones (1963)*

The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021)

The Triplets of Belleville (2003, France)

12 Angry Men (1957)

20 Days in Mariupol (2023, Ukraine)

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

The Two Mouseketeers (1952 short)

Up (2009)

The Valley of Decision (1945)*

Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)*

War Horse (2011)

West Side Story (1961)

Whiplash (2014)

The White Helmets (2016 short)

Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)

The Window (1949)*

Wings (1927)

Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too (1974 short)

Witness for the Prosecution (1957)

The Wizard of Oz (1939)

The Woman in Red (1984)*

Woman in the Dunes (1964, Japan)*

Written on the Wind (1956)*

Wuthering Heights (1939)

Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)

You Can’t Take It with You (1938)

#31 Days of Oscar

2 notes · View notes

bcbdrums · 2 years

Text

My Drakken/Shego Fanfics Masterpost

It has come to my attention that I have written...a lot of Drakgo fics. So I thought I'd make this post to try to help.

Fics are listed alphabetically in the categories I've given them, with sequels below them for ease.

I’ve tried to give a small description and category for each fic.

Links given to each fic are the FanFiction.net link. However, if you prefer to read on ArchiveOfOurOwn.org, you can click the following to find my KP/Drakgo fics there.

I feel I am terrible at describing my own fics without giving anything away, so do click links and read the actual summaries and author’s notes on the site to give you better context.

Be aware, many fics may have adult themes or mentions of adult themes. I would describe my NSFW content as similar to modern sitcoms or TV dramas. If you’ve seen Titanic, I’d say it’s slightly more than that.

Some of these fics are headcanon, many are not, and some I’m going to later retcon to become headcanon... That said, don’t hurt yourself looking for any continuity. I apologize... My thoughts are one big jumble and I want to explore every possibility within Drakgo~ Someday I will go through and mark which fics are headcanon... Today is not that day.

***If you are reading this post from a reblog, check my page to see if the post has been updated, as I intend to continue publishing more and more Drakgo fics! I’ll list dates updated as I go along.

ORIGINAL POST: 5/21/2022 UPDATED: 6/11/2022 - new fic, and added word counts and a few headcanon indications. UPDATED: 7/22/2022 - four new fics! Updated: 7/24/2022 - new fic! Updated: 6/16/2023 - new fic! oh snap it’s been way too long... Updated 9/18/2023 - new fic, a WIP this time!

------------------------------------

Multi-Chapter Fics:

Drakgo in December! - a series of mini one-shots that are all part of one continuing holiday-themed slow burn. (romance/fluff) 29,100 words.

Five Kisses Under the Mistletoe - a Christmas kiss for each year Drakken and Shego have known each other, pre-canon to post-canon. (romance/humor) 6,901 words.

Forget the Days Gone By - Shego's backstory, with some post-grad developing relationship Drakgo mixed in. (family/drama/headcanon) 42,080 words.

Mad Angry, Mad Crazy - just what happened in between "Mad Dogs and Aliens" and "Clothes Minded" that got Drakken and Shego reconciled...? (angst/suspense) 52,784 words.

Pandemic - an AU set pre-So the Drama paralleling our real world pandemic; Drakken and Shego going through that situation and a tumultuous romance. (romance/angst/drama/tragedy/nsfw) 86,631 words.

There's Christmas—and Christmas - post-canon domestic chaos, in which Mama Lipsky visits the lair for the holiday and Drakken gets a unique early gift that torments Shego... Surprise twists abound. (humor/romance/nsfw/headcanon) 67,352 words.

Things Change - a short post-grad “how they got together,” my first of very many in that area of Drakgo fic! (slight angst/romance) 6,722 words.

------------------------------------

Anthologies:

The Little Ones - very short one-shots that I'm posting in a collection so I don't have dozens of fics that are less than 2,000 words. A few over 2K have snuck in, which is my error, but I’m not migrating them out. Most of these shorts are unrelated, but there are some that became part of a continuing story, and others that are mini-sequels to other longer fics and part of my headcanon. A little bit of something for everyone in this collection! Masterpost of just these fics is here!

The Watermelon Saga - a small series of fics contained in this collection, which I’ve made a separate post about for ease. (fluff/romance/nsfw/humor/family/headcanon)

Drakgo in October! - WIP; unrelated one-shots based on prompts for the month of October. Autumn-flavored fics. 24,574 words so far.

------------------------------------

Long narratives that should be multi-chapter:

A Day in the Life of Bonnie Rockwaller - there's more to the snobby cheerleader than meets the eye... Set just before the episode "Homecoming Upset." (gen/introspective) 13,597 words.

Adrift - Drakken and Shego are lost at sea... (angst/romance) 25,420 words.

Lost World - a hover-car crash takes Drakken and Shego to a place with terrifying unknowns. (adventure) 17,700 words.

Passing Storms - Drakken and Shego learn more about each other while trapped in a cabin during a thunderstorm, with some unexpected revelations throughout. (angst/romance/introspective) 23,562 words.

------------------------------------

One-Shots (with sequels indicated beneath):

A Knotty Situation - in which personalized lasers, awkward flirting, and tangled hair lead Drakgo into deeper and deeper ridiculousness. (humor) 5,457 words.

A Sock or Two of Bother - what has been happening to Drakken’s lost socks and what happens when Shego goes looking for them? (humor/mystery) 2,678 words.

Actions - another post-Grad get-together fic; a horrible misunderstanding gets Shego questioning her feelings. (angst/romance) 3,583 words.

Angels There With You Tonight - in which Drakken has a secret, and the henchmen worry. (angst/tragedy) 3,817 words.

As the Images Unwind - movie night at the lair is rife with arguments, pranks, confrontation, and the teasing of unspoken feelings. (humor/slice of life/friendship) 4,962 words.

Beautiful - a brief look at how Drakken views himself, and how Shego views him. (introspective/romance/nsfw) 1,459 words.

Still Beautiful - a brief look at how Shego views herself, and how Drakken sees her. (introspective/romance/nsfw) 5,713 words. Learning Beautiful - another look at how Drakken views himself, and how he might need to change that view. (introspective) 2,516 words.

Because the Night - another post-grad get-together fic; Shego makes a decision and forces Drakken to confront the the unspoken feelings between them. (light angst/romance/nsfw) 3,975 words.

Bedtime Story - tiny future fic; Drakgo putting their children to sleep. (slice of life/fluff) 977 words.

Brighter Than the Moon - post-canon, a moonlight picnic, and an unexpected question~ (romance) 5,947 words.

Check out my prison tats, Yo! - Shego comes back to the lair after "Mad Dogs and Aliens." (introspective) 3,427 words.

Choose Your Side - another post-grad get-together fic; Drakken reveals some feelings at karaoke night and forces a conversation about the future. (angst/romance/songfic) 4,438 words.

Depths - post-canon, Drakgo are on the run...but why? (suspense/romance/nsfw/headcanon) 3,195 words.

Empty Embrace - takes place during Graduation; Shego finds herself focusing on wanting Drakken’s arms around her... (introspective) 1,629 words.

Moments - after the invasion, Shego and Drakken suddenly find themselves afraid to be alone... (friendship/introspective) 4,202 words.

Equilibrium - post-grad semi-established relationship; during a storm and power outage at the lair, Drakken wonders and worries about his future with Shego. (humor/angst/romance/nsfw) 4,866 words.

Eye of the Storm - post-Grad pre-UN, Shego can’t sleep after what’s happened. (introspective/friendship) 2,151 words.

Fallen - post-canon possible future, in which Shego leads Drakken into a darker form of villainy... (suspense/action/romance/angst/nsfw) 3,348 words.

Feeling - there are physical feelings, and there are emotional... Drakken breaks down the walls and helps Shego feel at least one. (introspective/friendship/romance) 4,850 words.

Finally, Fair Weather - everything is finally going Drakken’s way... will he be victorious? (gen/romance) 2,032 words.

Forfeit - Drakken has everything he ever wanted...or does he? (heavy angst/tragedy) 7,436 words.

Heat Wave - Drakgo are moving lairs, and the high heat forces some focus on certain feelings... (romance) 2,719 words.

How to Begin, or the Beginning of Forever - post-grad, Shego isn’t used to being in a relationship, but she’s willing to try to figure it out. (sickfic/romance) 3,461 words.

Ice Escape - missing scene from “The Truth Hurts,” after Kim flips Shego and Drakken under ice into freezing waters. (action/humor/gen) 4, 698 words.

Jailbirds - Drakken and Shego make a daring escape. (action/gen) 3,420 words.

Just Hold Me - post-canon possible future, an attack leaves Shego hurt in more ways than one. Can Drakken help? WARNING: sensitive subject matter. (angst/hurt-comfort/nsfw) 7,524 words.

Just Love Me - direct sequel, deals with one of the traumas that Shego endured at the hands of Sangerson... Can Drakken help? WARNING: sensitive subject matter. (angst/hunt-comfort/nsfw) 5,377 words

Last Chance - post-canon, Shego isn’t herself and Drakken fears he will lose her... A caper gone wrong forces conversations. (action/angst/romance/nsfw) 8,486 words.

Lonely Forever - my first Drakgo fic, as I was figuring out the characters. Someone doesn’t want to confess to their feelings... (romance/angst/nsfw) 6,471 words.

The Nightmare and the Dream - the aftermath of certain *cough* choices in the prior fic...but is any of it real? WARNING: sensitive subject matter. (angst) 8,405 words.

Meltdown - the Lorwardians have returned for revenge against an unexpected target... (action/suspense) 9,169 words.

Mistake - all he’s ever wanted is a friend, but Drew Lipsky has never felt wanted by anyone his entire life... (angst) 2,817 words.

New Heights - evil date nights with Drakken and Shego are...interesting. (romance) 2,036 words.

Past, Present, Forever - a dinner date, a massage, reminiscing, and some talk of the future... (slice of life/romance/nsfw) 3,237 words.

Priorities - what happens next in “Emotion Sickness.” (action/suspense) 3,825 words.

What is True - Shego has more processing to do after everything... (introspective/friendship) 1,614 words.

Rekindling - Drakgo decide together to move past a tragedy... (angst/romance/headcanon) 1,085 words.

Sand, Snowmen, and Aloha Conversations - post-canon, a holiday vacation doesn’t go exactly as planned. (humor/romance/nsfw) 6,470 words.

Silent Roar - a betrayal and an accident leaves Drakken in dire, potentially life-changing circumstances. (action/angst) 4,688 words.

Solidarity - in which everyone is naked after a scheme gone awry. (humor/gen/nsfw) 6,980 words.

Something More Evil - a freak accident ends up being the most evil thing Drakken could possibly do... (tragedy) 1,892 words.

Stay - another post-grad get-together; at karaoke night, Shego decides it’s time that she and Drakken act on their feelings. (songfic/angst/romance) 3,465 words.

Stone House, Forest of Oak - an AU in which Drakken is a vampire and finds an unlikely love in Shego, a dryad, amid threats to both of their lives. (adventure/romance/fantasy/nsfw) 13,474 words.

Noble Purpose, Dark Course - one of three sequels so far (the others contained in Drakgo in October!, in which the darker sides of a mythical Drakgo are put on display... (horror/fantasy) 2,659 words.

Sunlight, Paint, Flip-Flops, and Old T-Shirts - post-grad, Drakgo are settling into the new reality they’ve chosen after saving the world. (romance) 3,494 words.

Sweet or Sarcastic - a one-shot anthology about aspects of Drakken and Shego’s relationship; unrelated stories answering monthly OTP prompts.

Ch. 1 - First Kiss (romance/humor) 352 words.

Talk To Me - Drakken is thrilled to be dating Shego, except for one thing... Shego tries to figure out what’s bothering him so their relationship can move forward. (light angst/romance) 4,032 words.

The Cocoro of Rococo - Drakken uses the trans-dimensional vortex inducer again, with unexpected results... (humor/romance/nsfw) 3,634 words.

The List - a young Shego in her first days working for Drakken checking off items on her villain bucket-list... (suspense/romance/nsfw) 6,959 words.

The Spice of Life - Shego’s adventure to steal something for Drakken’s new plot has an unexpected outcome. (friendship/action/slice of life) 2,797 words.

They Sing Your Heart's Desire - a hurricane and a hover-car crash lead Drakgo to meet a very unique adversary... (action/suspense) 9,701 words.

The Voice - a crash landing in a rainforest leads to an encounter with a giant spider, and then Drakken and Shego must deal with the aftermath... (suspense/hurt/comfort) WIP so no word-count yet; multi-chap.

Torment - post-canon, Drakken is all alone and is tortured by not knowing why. (heavy angst) 2,302 words.

Immolation - Shego is all alone, too... WARNING: sensitive subject matter. (heavy angst/tragedy) 2,413 words. Purification - ALTERNATE sequel; will Drakgo stay alone? (angst/hurt-comfort) 4,726 words.

Uncomplicated Truth - another post-grad get-together; feelings are confessed and awkwardness ensues... (romance/nsfw) 3,254 words.

Victim - when bad things happen to someone their entire life, eventually they begin to see it as their fault own fault...and a prison from which there is no escape. (introspective/heavy angst/very nsfw) (AO3 only) 8,655 words.

Victory - AU ending to So the Drama (gen/romance) 1,801 words.

Warm From the Inside Out - a caper goes a little awry, leading Drakgo into an awkward situation for survival. (humor/adventure/friendship) 4,376 words.

We Forget the World - post-grad, two confused villains figure out what they really want. (introspection/romance) 2,278 words.

What Happens in Vegas - Drakgo wake up with hangovers and questions... (humor/nsfw) 2,108 words.

What She'll Never Know - Kim has lost a fight against Drakken and Shego and could lose her very life... (action) 3,275 words.

What They Say About Coincidence - AU ending to “Return to Camp Wannaweep” in which Kim listens to Ron. (gen/action) 938 words.

Why Does Anyone Go To A Drive-In? - in which a plan to ruin Kim has very, very different result. (humor/nsfw) 2,294 words.

Wildest Dreams - fic for the live-action movie; thoughts of unrequited love abound as the duo’s greatest creation is unveiled. (introspective) 1,028 words.

Windfall - post-canon, a plane crash leaves Drakgo in dire straits. (suspense/romance) 3,964 words.

Worth Remembering - Drakgo go on a date and reminisce about their respective pasts (slice of life/romance/nsfw) 2,016 words.

59 notes · View notes

my-makeshift-masquerade · 1 year

Note

more about the 5 missing kids

Alright sure! There are more than just five by the way. The “Original Five” were just the only ones William Afton killed himself by hand. Other children died from the Funtime animatronics and another murderer entirely after peepaw got springlocked. Here’s some info on the children I haven’t mentioned!

Ballora was possessed by a young ballerina named Daphne (13) who died at the same age as Charlie (13), making her tied for the oldest child spirit out of all of them.

Funtime Freddy and Bonbon were the host animatronics of a pair of twins called Taylor and Tyler (7). They were both trapped in the chest cavity together.

Funtime Foxy was possessed by a child named Lucas (9) who was hard of hearing. He was lured in by an odd smell and a voice he thought was his mom’s.

When they all combined to make Ennard, they were definitely having trouble working as a team. The others came to resent Lizzie (8) for supporting her father.

The toy animatronics got possessed by a rather diverse group because the new murderer after Afton had his own patterns for choosing his victims.

Toy Freddy was the host animatronic to a boy named Theodore (10), but most called him Teddy. He was a big fan of video and tabletop games.

Toy Bonnie was possessed by a child named Riley (12) who was known to have a unique sense of style all their own. They also had two dads.

Toy Chica was the host animatronic to a peppy girl named Chloe (9). She enjoyed playing with dolls, doing makeup and wearing cute outfits.

Mangle is still possessed by Susie’s dog Sprinkles, and acts more animalistic than the other animatronics, despite the new form giving her the ability to talk.

Balloon Boy is the host animatronic of a child named Billy (7), who was known to be mischievous and hyperactive. He was often labeled a menace.

#fnaf missing children #fnaf headcanons #bound to imagination

10 notes · View notes

randomtvpollsjp · 2 years

Text

I’ve finished my TVD rewatch and I’ve got a lot to say! And I’m sorry, but y’all are gonna hear it.

***

THINGS I LOVED

Everything To Do With Doppelgängers: I could not get enough of Katherine Pierce in particular. But something about Doppelgängers being magical but not so magical that they’re POWERFUL was very unique. And it made Elena special without making her some type of amazing, overpowered magical creature. No, she can’t defend herself against a vampire. She’s an average 17 year old girl. And the gag of finding out that STEFAN was a doppelgänger too—and the jealousy that made Damon feel—was high drama. Chef’s kiss.

Vampire Lore: Vampires have special abilities that you don’t often find in vampire stuff. Their strength and speed is to be expected. But the rules about turning, their healing blood, compulsion, the humanity switch and dream manipulation were really cool abilities. Not to mention the origins of vampirism coming from witchcraft was really cool.

The Pacing: Specifically as it relates to how they introduce conflicts and villains into the show. Before one villain arc ends, another villain arc begins. It feels very organic and allows for the seasons/chapters to flow from one into the other. It feels cohesive while also feeling like A LOT happens in every season.

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE

The Mistreatment Of Witches: Witches are arguably the single most powerful (and useful) creatures in the show. And yet, they’re just a smidgen less disposable than the average human. They have little to no defense against other supernatural creatures (unless they plan for them in advance), which makes them too easy to kill when up against an actual threat. Bonnie especially suffered because of this. She’s had her neck bitten into too many times.

The Mistreatment Of Bonnie: Tied into my first point is just how unfairly Bonnie was treated throughout the show. All the characters are WILLING to die for each other. But Bonnie often does. Or has to make a huge sacrifice. There were whole seasons when Bonnie lost access to magic for doing something good. And she’s rarely ever rewarded for her sacrifices. I was particularly triggered by the fact that Enzo was so brutally ripped away from her as a way to level her up. And the writers knew they were tormenting her (more than once she’s made to put everybody else’s needs above her own, and she acknowledges this) and they never really stopped doing that. Even up to the end. We never find out what her life is like. Did she fall in love again? Have kids? Carry on the Bennett line? Hang out with her mom more?

All Big Bads Were Not Created Equal: Over the 8 seasons, there were a lot of villains. But some were wayyyyy more interesting and powerful than others. Katherine is a standout and recurring antagonist for me. But I also think Klaus, Silas and Kai were exceptional. The others were mostly ok, but lacked depth. For example, Cade was an interesting antagonist. But he was just PURELY evil, which made him less interesting overall. Because he wanted the Salvatores to make good people do evil things. He was irredeemable. Klaus came across as very evil, but we got to see so many layers to Klaus that even if he did awful things, we saw him as three-dimensional. So we came to understand and maybe even LIKE him. I ain’t never liked Cade. I liked Sybil the Siren more than I liked Cade.

Too Many Plot Contrivances: This show doesn’t have a lot of holes. But by GOLLY are there a lot of conveniences. TOO many conveniences. For example: we had never heard of siphoners before meeting Kai. And then by the end of the season, Damon and Stefan’s long-supposed dead mother has a coven of vampire-siphon hybrids as friends?! This was a problem that especially plagued the later seasons. Didn’t like that.

***

Overall, I enjoyed my rewatch. Standout seasons, IMO, are S1 (arguably, the season that stands up THE BEST), 2, 3, 6 and 8. The other seasons are fine and have good chapters. But these 5 are my favorite.

#the vampire diaries #tvd #legacies #the originals #tvd universe #tvd rewatch

3 notes · View notes

ectonurites · 3 years

Note

about the cissie post: funniest answer is that yes, green arrow is her bio dad simply because her dad is (was? idk if he's alive) infertile. nobody bothered to bring it up because nobody bothered to make a big deal out of it at the time, her mom just asked a dude at like a college archery comp "hey, my husband can't have kids, will you knock me up because I want a bio kid?" and Ollie went "okay, sounds fun" and had a threesome with a hot blonde and her husband. she's declared part of the arrowfam but GA's not her dad and they all just go on with life drama-free

SFHDGFGD (the other post for context)

While that is very funny, I wanna bring up some... stuff from canon related to this topic.

So, to start off, Cissie's dad is dead (at least pre-new 52 which ya know thats where all this is centered considering Cissie has only shown up in 5 issues total post-new 52) and that's actually a part of her hero origin story. Bonnie used the insurance money from his death (he died of... some bad shellfish when Cissie was 5) to fund Cissie's becoming Arrowette (also fun fact! Hal Jordan was the insurance guy to deliver the check LMAO)

(Secret Origins 80-Page Giant)

But a piece of things I feel like you may not know based on how you phrased this is that... Bonnie was the first Arrowette. She had been an award winning archer (varies between just a competition or the olympics) and after not living up to her mom's expectations started to idolize Green Arrow & Speedy and wanted to be a hero herself! Now, we have different versions of these events told, what Bonnie told Bart and what Cissie told her guidance councilor, and there's a few differences that definitely just come from perspective of who the narrator is.

When Bonnie tells things she says she'd helped Green Arrow and Speedy,

(Impulse #28)

vs. in Cissie's retelling it's more that they just saved her at some point because she was getting herself in over her head

(Secret Origins 80-Page Giant)

So like it's a 'your mileage may vary' type thing. But she interacted with them at some point.

Now the fun thing is that this isn't just retroactively adding in a character- Bonnie actually existed all the way back in the 60's!

(World's Finest Comics Vol. 1 #113)

Now, this was pre-crisis, so the events from back then aren't necessarily canon the exact same way post-crisis, but this does give us some indication that Bonnie really had interacted with Ollie & Roy at some points, possibly more than Cissie actually believes. The majority of her old stories (there's a grand total of 4 unique ones, the dc wiki will initially make you think there's 6 but two are reprints) are her trying to help them and messing things up because 'whoops! she's just a girl' because ya know this was the early 60's, but usually she'd save them in the end and Ollie would be like 'well thank you for that today but Please Stop Doing This Bonnie'

But in one that's overall a JLA story... she shows up at the very end on a date with Ollie in his civilian identity (while all the JLA members are there with love interests)

(Justice League of America Vol. 1 #7)

We already knew Ollie knew her identity as Bonnie/Miss Arrowette but it's unclear if Bonnie knew Ollie was Green Arrow, regardless this means they interacted as civilians as well as heroes.

But then Bonnie just stopped showing up mid-60s, and never really got mentioned again until Cissie came into the picture in Impulse in the 90's now post-crisis.

In Impulse & The Secret Origins issue, it's explained that at some point after being undermined by Green Arrow & Speedy not taking her seriously, she met Bernell 'Bowstring' Jones and they worked together for a bit until Bonnie got carpal-tunnel syndrome from her day job and it forced her to stop acting as Miss Arrowette altogether

(Secret Origins 80-Page Giant)

And it was at this point when she had to give it up that she got married & had Cissie (the first panel I posted in this ask). Seems straightforward enough!

But then we throw this exchange into things...

(Young Justice (1998) #34)

And it just makes you wonder!

Like, Bonnie idolized Green Arrow and if we think about those pre-crisis appearances she possibly did also know him as Oliver... a situation where Bonnie slept with Ollie at some point is definitely plausible. Based on the 'they got married and a year later had me' thing, for him to be Cissie's bio dad it would mean she'd have either cheated on Bernell or theoretically it could have been a situation vaguely like what you said where it was something all parties knew about. The reason I brought all this up in the first place though is that there's very unlikely a situation where Ollie wouldn't have known who Bonnie was going into things vs how what you said implies more of a random chance occurrence.

But yeah we're most likely never gonna get an actual answer on this but I think it'd be a fascinating thread to pull on to build a story out of!

167 notes · View notes

afoxysunny · 2 years

Text

Alright this is gonna be a long one so my apologies in advance, idk how to do a "read more" cut on mobile

So like i asked avout in my previous post this is my thoughts on what fnaf animatronic each Lazytown character would like best if the freddy fazbear franchise was an actual chain in the Lazytown universe (i know, oddly specific)

So I'm thinking we'll start with Ladys First and then go down in a somewhat but not really organized manner

Stephanie: Funtime Foxy

How convenient that Funtime Foxy has pink in their design, that's a little bonus for our Pinky.

Furthermore i choose this pair bc it makes a lot of sense in relation to other picks i made which will make sense to you if you're familiar with fnaf (namely Ella, Trixie, Sportacus and Robby all have a fav that relates to Funtime Foxy in some)

Also Funtime Foxy always had that toss-up if they count as a female or male animatronic and with Stephanie's wild mix of stereotypically male and female interests and hobbies it's a match made in heaven

(also, totally throwing shade, if i was going by the way Steph is portrayed in later seasons her fav would just be Chica bc girl. Yes that's how shallow i feel like they made her, I'm no small part salty)

Ella: Balora

Very obvious choice here for the ballet motive in both characters

But also because Balora is blind and i always headcanon Ella as mute so i think she'd relate to an also slightly impeded character

Balora also has that creepy can-walk-on-walls-like-a-spider thing going on if she's removed from her track and Ella likes to hide a very mischievious side behind her cute exterior so they just overall vibe

Trixie: Lolbit

That way the two best friends have matching Animatronics, yeey

Lolbit was also originally planned to be really important for the lore of the games but ended up totally shafted and barely appearing at all in the end. But if and when she was in a game she got a special and unique role and that's juat totally Trixie

Stingy: Golden Freddy

Goooooold

Also Golden Freddy is a one of a kind, unique, only exists once, special Freddy and our greedy boi would be all over that

Honorable mention: Pigpatch

The others keep telling Stingy that he can't have more than one fav so he just started telling them that Pigpatch is his Piggy's fav and bc he speaks for his Piggy he gets to have two favs and the others just grew too tired to debate that so checkmate)

Ziggy: Candycadet

Another really obvious pick, he gives out candy after all!

Plus that animatronic is not as big or bulky or heavy or anything like the others so the little coward is less intimidated by it and he feels less small next to it too

But if he's pressed to pick a fav from the main line animatronics to fit the other kids' picks he also does enjoy Bonnie a lot (he grew to like that one bc of Sportacus' pick)

Pixel: Freddy

Pixel is just the kind of kid to root for the hero, he likes the main characters best so of course his fav is the franchise mascot!

I'd also like to say tho that if it wasn't a "normal pizzeria" to the kids he'd love Ennard for the really cool mechanical robotic look that one has

On to the adults!

Bessy: Phone Guy

She probably always says picking a fav is childish and therefore refuses to answer the question outright but every time they go to a pizzeria she ends up endlessly talking to those pre-recorded tapes that are actually just meant to rattle off rules for kids who can't read yet

Robbie: Foxy

He's a meme! He's a pirate! There's so many reasons for this pick

Foxy only moves when you don't pay enough attention to him but once he gets going there's basically no stopping him

Also both of them chose to live seperated from all the others and alone far away from the main stages

And Foxes hunt Bunnies which leads me to

Sportacus: Toy Bonnie

He's blue! He's slick! Another one with a lot of great reasons imo

Bonnie also plays electric guitar.

And as a bunny he'd jump around a lot

And he's one of the most modern animatronics

Do i need to say more?

Milford: nope

He honestly finds all the animatronics really unsettling and creepy but bc the kids love it there he also had to spend a lot of time at Freddy's and specifically the one we know as Sister Location so he grew to appreciate Funtime Freddy.

He's a little related to Stephanie's fav

The funtime version isn't such a top dog as the other Freddys which makes Milford feel less under pressure somehow

And the little Bonbon plushy on his hand reminds him of Bessy bc its blue and she likes bunnies a lot

BONUS ROUND

Glanni: Springtrap!

It's criminal - criminal solidarity

Yes i know he shouldn't technically know about him if they aren't ganes but establishments but Glanni breaks the fourth wall a bunch and he deserves the deranged weirdo as his fav.

Springtrap could canonically be a cryptic creepypasta like ghoststory people who outgrow the kids friendly pizzeria branding tell each other

Both stole suits they wear for all eternity to torment kids with, it's a great match

Also he picked that one to mess with his Sports Elf

Íþróttaálfurinn (GGíL) : Spring Bonnie

Aka Golden Bonnie

The not fucked up version of Springtrap

the colors match you guys, it's funny

And Spring Bonnie was one of the OG animatronics that helped make the franchise what it is today. He may be outdated and a little rough around the edges but he's beloved by older fans still

Íþróttaálfurinn (ÁL) : the Puppet

Aka Marionette

The unintentionally creepiest animatronic

Means really well but the means it goes to to help the dead kids out were questionable at best; i think he can identify with that xD

If anyone knows about the violence this franchise holds then it would definitely be him but he's not gonna tell anyone bc fear burns calories and makes people jump and run away. He sees this as an absolute win

Also the Puppet jumps out of a box and loud music starts playing, it really fits that weird elf

#lazytown #revive the lazy #It's been so long since i came up with this #I'm not tagging all the characters #Oh but i guess #Fnaf #Should i add Jives and Penny?#Idk nothing spontaneously came to mind so i just ignored them #I hope you enjoyed #I had fun :3

16 notes · View notes

dossi-io · 3 years

Text

An introduction to DeVita

Do you want to learn all about the AOMG artist DeVita? This article will cover everything you need to know about the third female member to join the labels roster.

The content of this article is also available in video format, embedded at the bottom of this article.

Prelude

In early April of 2020, the Korean hip-hop label AOMG ambiguously announced that a new artist was signing onto the label. This label was grounded by the Korean-American triple-threat; Jay Park, who’s also one of its executives. This is a label with a very organic feel and artist-oriented nature, which stands out compared to many other music labels.

On April 3rd, the label’s official Instagram account posted a video. It was titled, “Who’s The Next AOMG?” where fellow AOMG members talked about this upcoming recruit. They sprinkled small hints and details by sharing their thoughts on the artist without mentioning who.

Around the world, fans immediately began speculating on who this could be. The major consensus was that it had to be the solo artist Lee Hi, due to reporting like this: “AOMG responds ‘nothing is confirmed’ to reports of Lee Hi signing on with the label”

A few other names got thrown in fan speculations like Hanbin (B.I), previous member of IKON, Jvcki Wai, and MOON (문) aka Moon Sujin. This despite a few of these already being signed to other labels.

On April 6th, three days later, the account was updated with a part two. This time dropping more hints, which would exclude many names from fan speculations.

On the 7th of April, the label’s official Instagram account posted a short teaser. The video sported an 80’s retrofuturistic setting, with a woman turned from the camera, dressed in all black, rocking braids, and some glistening high-heels. As it seemed to be a female, some were now certain that it had to be Lee Hi. A small few actually guessed correctly that the one who would be joining AOMG would be Ms DeVita.

Finally on April 9th, it was official! She debuted with the music video, from which the teaser clips was taken from, EVITA!, which accompanied the release of her EP, CRÈME.

What does the name DeVita mean?

The name DeVita, draws inspiration and meaning from two things. Firstly, Eva Perón – also known as Evita – who was Argentina’s former First Lady. When Chloe was learning about Eva’s life, it inspired her to combine “Devil” and “Evita”, thus creating “DeVita”. The name signifies the duality of how both Eva Perón and DeVita could be perceived. Either being a devil, or an angel depending on the eye of the beholder. Secondly, Salvatore Di Vita, a character from Cinema Paradiso, was also a source of inspiration.

An introduction to DeVita

Chloe Cho – now known under the artist name DeVita – was born and raised in South Korea, until the age of eleven. In 2009, she moved to Chicago, where she would learn English.

In 2013, she went back to Korea and participated in the third season of the show; K-pop Star. A talent show, where the “big three” (the three largest music labels in Korea) hosts auditions to find the next big k-pop star. However she didn’t win, therefore neither got signed.

Later on, she returned to Chicago and graduated high school. After reflecting on what she wanted to do next, she decided to make music. In 2014, her pursuit to become an artist brought her to the talent show Kollaboration. On this show, she performed covers and actually ended up being a finalist. Despite her talents, she did not triumph as the winner of the show.

Not letting these losses stop her, she started releasing music on Soundcloud. The earliest release I could find, Halfway Love (Ruff), was from 2016. Her catalogue consisted of both covers and original music.

One day, Kirin, an artist and CEO of the music label 8balltown Records, was introduced to DeVita’s music. He liked what he heard and the two linked up. In May of 2018, WEKEYZ, one of 8balltown’s producer duos released a track titled Sugar. This track featured both DeVita, and the AOMG rapper Ugly Duck. This was the beginning of many collaborations to come.

On August 28th of 2018, just a few months later, AOMG released Sugar (Puff Daehee Mix).

This was a remix done by Puff Daehee, the alter ego of Kirin. Along with this track, it was accompanied by a music video starring Kirin, DeVita, and Ugly Duck. For most people, this was their first time seeing DeVita.

DeVita continued doing features on many songs by Korean artists while creating a little buzz for herself. There’s one notable feature, which could be seen as an important milestone in her career. That is her feature on the track Noise, from AOMG artist Woo Won Jae’s project, titled af.

In a tweet a few days after the release of CRÈME, she shared the significance of this moment.

“I was still making minimum wage working at a restaurant back when Noise dropped- I wrote my part during my shift on the back of this receipt paper. This was about a year and a half ago. A little bit after that I got a call from Pumpkin at 3am Chicago time. He said Jay wanted to meet in Philly in 4 hours. They put me on a plane and the rest is history.”

The phone call she mentioned in her tweet, about Jay wanting to meet, must have been made around September 2018. Jay was performing in Philadelphia at the time. The moment they met in Philadelphia was actually captured through a photo of the two. However, this picture ended up getting removed later on.

Fast forward a few months and Jay had just released his Ask About Me EP. The project focused on a western audience, so he went to the States on a promo run. During his visit, he also met up with DeVita once again, as can be seen here.

Finally, on April 9th, her being signed to AOMG was officially announced and she debuted with her EP titled CRÈME. Her joining AOMG, looked like something that happened pretty naturally. The vast majority of artists she had collaborated on tracks with happened to be AOMG members. Getting comfortable with the AOMG family, likely made the decision to join crystal clear.

Artistically

Just a quick look at her body of work thus far, a majority of it is in English. However, she has no issues singing in Korean, as proven by her feature on Code Kunst’s; Let u in. The tone in her voice has this sort of mixture of many singers, a melting pot of sorts. It reminds me of Audrey Nuna, SAAY, H.E.R, some vocal riffs from Dinah Jane, and at times, just a tiny bit of Ariana Grande.

As an artist, she’s still in the early stages of carving out her own unique sound and style. There’s incredible potential here, but her distinct identity is not completely there yet. I see before me a caterpillar that within a couple years, will transform into a butterfly, with its own identifiable pattern to spread its wings out on.

From what she’s shown so far, I would say she seems most comfortable doing R&B and soul music. However, beyond a quick description I prefer to refrain from categorizing her. Mostly because artists generally feel limited when categorized. More importantly, because we have no idea what she has in store for the future.

Debut EP: CRÈME

CRÈME is DeVita’s “crème de la crème”. She constantly modified the tracklist to present her debut project in a way that held her personal standard; essentially presenting us her best tracks. The result is CRÈME, which consists of five tracks, with a runtime of fourteen minutes altogether.

This EP showcases the fact that she is a competent songwriter, able to write some soulful, emotional ballads. It is completely in English and all the tracks are written by her, telling both life stories of her own and that of others. A majority of the production was handled by her “musical soulmate”; TE RIM, but other notable names, like Code Kunst show up as well.

Tracks:

Movies, introduces the project in a very gentle manner. In the track, DeVita paints a picture of a criminal couple, getting a rush, by committing crimes together. The lyrics feel inspired by movies like Bonnie and Clyde. My initial thoughts were that, for some ears, it could possibly be “too” calm as an opener. It doesn’t demand attention the way EVITA! does. Simply put, it’s not a bad track. I would just have put this track later on in the EP.

EVITA!, is something different compared to what I hear from others in the K-R&B lane. I love the 80’s aesthetic in both the track and music video. Sonically, the nostalgic saxophone riffs, warm lush synth pads, thumping bass line, results in a trip back to the 80s. With this recipe, topped with DeVita’s “current” contemporary soul and R&B voice makes for an interesting combination. The music video had that futuristic 80’s look with the neon colors, and I loved how the guns she played around with looked a lot like the “Needlers” from the Halo franchise. The title is once again just like DeVita’s name, an ode to the controversial Eva Perón. The instrumental was originally used by TE RIM, the producer of the track in 2017. His version has the same title as DeVita’s version and I recommend giving that one a listen as well, as it has a different feel to it. This track was definitely one of the highlights of the EP.

All About You, is a simple yet beautiful piano love ballad. Originating from her own tales of love, her vocals effortlessly capture what she felt during these moments.

1974 Live, is yet another ballad, but this time, with a calm guitar backing, playing a poppier R&B chord progression. DeVita’s voice is given a lot of space to be in the center of the track. As soon as I heard this track I became curious. What was the significance of this year, which would have her title the track as such? My questions were left unanswered… until the EP had marinated a while, when she tweeted: “1974 Live is about Christine Chubbuck”. In case you’re unfamiliar, Christine Chubbuck was a television news reporter, who made history in 1974. She was the first person to commit suicide live on air. According to her mother Christine’s suicide would on paper be due to an unfullfilling personal life. All throughout her life, she had experienced unreciprocated love. With this information tying back to the track, it becomes a lot less ambiguous and reveals a more cohesive narrative.

Show Me, is the final track of the EP, featuring immaculate production from the talented CODE KUNST. The sound is very moody, which fits her voice like a glove. This is my favorite performance on the entire EP, both lyrically and vocally. The lyrics present someone who’s fed up dealing with men, who talk the talk but don’t walk the walk. Now she’s looking for love with someone who’s honest and “real”.

With the project being a year old now, it has already gotten her nominated for both Rookie of the Year along with EVITA being nominated for Best R&B & Soul Track in the 18th iteration of the Korean Music Awards.

A majority of listeners seemed to enjoy the project. Many seem to be in love with her voice judging by the endless amounts of praise she has received, often described as painfully addicting, soothing, smooth, and so on.

I also asked a friend who’s a huge fan of Korean music, especially the hiphop and r&b scene to share her thoughts on the project. Here’s what she said:

"This whole project is empowering, in particular the tracks Show Me and EVITA! DeVita being a new artist, managed to impress me and many more listeners through this EP. As mentioned earlier, empowering lyrics with unique melodies and beats. Especially with the track EVITA! The fact that 1974 Live and EVITA! was referring to, two historically important women, is something that I love. This is one of my favorite EP:s of 2020 and DeVita is now included in my list of favorite artists." @Haonsmom

From what I’ve seen, only a few have been vocal about not really being too fond of the project. Some were left a bit disappointed, as they were expecting more hip-hop and R&B from an AOMG artist. The lack of “danceable” tracks was also a concern to some. Despite these criticisms, one thing was always mentioned; the girl has a beautiful voice and is obviously talented.

After listening to this EP, I hear a lot of potential. Being an EP with just five tracks, it definitely avoids overstaying its welcome. It’s brief enough to allow a listen through the entire project, no matter what you’re doing. My favorite tracks would have to be Show Me and EVITA!, but I found the whole project to be enjoyable. This EP is sprinkled with lovely vocal performances and simple but captivating production. I do still stand by my opinion that Movies would have fit better later in the tracklist if you’re chasing that mainstream ear.

I think the way EVITA! kicks you in the face, demanding attention, would’ve been a better fit as the opening track. In contrast to the other tracks, the energy level is unique, making the placement feel odd as the rest of the tracks have a chill vibe. All in all, this project gave me a taste of the “crème” but left me with a curious yearning for what this chef will whip up for dessert.

Bright future ahead

The addition of more female artists to the AOMG roster was much needed. Hoody was the first and only female member for about four years. This was the case up until late 2019, where she was then joined by sogumm, who had just won AOMG’s audition program called SignHere. Now funnily enough after DeVita, Lee Hi actually did end up officially signing with AOMG on July 22, last year.

Based on what I’ve heard during Devita’s Kollaboration days, she has improved immensely. This topped with her leaving the impression of someone passionate about their craft, bodes well for what's to come. She seems to be someone who'll constantly evolve.

Following an artist, at the early stages of their career, is something that I always find exciting. With such a lovely debut, I cannot wait to see what the future has in store for DeVita.

To view the content of this article in video format simply play the video embedded below.

youtube

Thanks for reading, watching. If you enjoyed this content feel free to follow my socials to stay up to date on when new content is posted.

https://allmylinks.com/dossi-io

Credits:

The first image in article: Original photo, pre-edit from @jinveun

Gif from the Sugar Puff Daehee MV: @moxiepoints

#devita #krnb #jay park #aomg #h1ghrmusic #8balltown #kpop #review #korea #uglyduck #chloe devita #chloe cho #kirin #evita!#crème #moon sujin #khh #korean hip hop #krap

28 notes · View notes

freedom-in-the-dark · 4 years

Text

James Flint Is Gay: A Meta Post

[slides into the Black Sails fandom late with Starbucks]

Hey! What’s up! Here’s a post no one asked for but I wrote mostly for me. Before we get into it, I’ve got some big notices to put on the top here.

DISCLAIMER: If you interpret James as bi, and you prefer that, I am not trying to say you can’t do that or to convince you otherwise!

You do you! If you’re not cool with seeing him as gay, please do us both a favor and keep scrolling past this post! I’m mildly aware that this fandom has a history of rough discourse surrounding this topic, but I cannot emphasize enough that I am new here, and this post is not an attack. Please do me the courtesy of not attacking me or blocking me or whatnot because I’m not trying to start drama lol. And for what it’s worth, I myself am bi (well, bi ace), so I’d like to think I’m being objective.

This post exists simply because I like to write meta out with my arguments / evidence lined up in a row; it gets things out of my head and onto a screen, and I find it satisfying. And if I’m doing it anyway, I might as well share.

So if you see James as gay, or have an open mind to that interpretation… please allow me to take you on this adventure under the cut. I’m sure it’s obvious, but this contains spoilers? Lol.

Here we go!

Compulsory Heterosexuality vs “Bi Erasure”

Firstly… to address some stuff I’ve seen in my limited Black Sails fandom travels right out of the gate: I’ve seen people imply that interpreting James as gay is “bi erasure,” or they ask “Why are you erasing that James was attracted to Miranda and had an affair with her?”

But to that I say: it’s far more complicated than that.

Gay people can have sexual relationships with people of the opposite sex, especially until / or before they identify as gay. This is how so many gay people can be married to the opposite sex and have biological kids, and then later realize their truth and come out to themselves and their families. Having those experiences or even some variation of actionable attraction to people of other sexes in the past doesn’t negate their ability to later identify as gay, once they stop burying those parts of themselves and/or experience something that “brings that part of them into the light.”

This is why the phrase compulsory heterosexuality exists. The phrase was originally coined by Adrienne Rich in a 1980 essay titled “Compulsory Heterosexuality and the Lesbian Experience.” So yes, let me make this clear: this term originated in reference to lesbians and feminist theory, and then the idea was later expanded upon to include discussions of gay men by other academics in the early 2000s. I’m not gonna dive too deeply into it here, but in essence–as the name implies–this is the idea that patriarchal and heteronormative societies are viewed as the default, so individuals are assumed (by themselves and otherwise) to be heterosexual until “proven” otherwise. Through these standards that are seen as “normal,” people are also taught from a young age–whether explicitly or subconsciously through society–that anything that deviates from those ~straight norms~ leads to negative consequences. And so, society encourages people to avoid sexual exploration, because having experiences with someone of the same sex is what can often bring their gay identity into focus.

In the case of Black Sails, this is all very much emphasized at the forefront because it’s a historical drama. Aside from racism/slavery, patriarchy and heteronormativity are what the characters are actively going to war against.

So, the point in me defining all of this? No one—or at least, not me—is saying that James didn’t have a sexual relationship with Miranda. That’s not in question. But that doesn’t necessarily make him bi, and it doesn’t mean the narrative isn’t structured in various ways that indicate otherwise.

Just keep this in the back of your brain, because I’m going to circle back around to it.

Anne, Flint, & Gay Rage

In the wise words of an old pirate captain: “Fruit, fruit. Tits, tits.” This show thrives on parallels, and gives us lines / scenes that apply to more than one character; it’s partially why the themes are so consistent, and if you ignore that, you can miss a lot of the nuance. Our resident angry gay gingers are one of the paralleled sets of characters.

This is not a meta about Anne… but talking about parts of Anne’s story can help to highlight some things about James’ story.

I tweeted this once: “Flint and Anne’s sexualities paralleled to show struggles with compulsive heterosexuality, fighting for the sake of fighting, bringing parts of themselves into the light, wrestling with being told they’re monsters and their distorted senses of self, etc.” and really, now I’m just here to elaborate.

-----

The word “monster” is a recurring theme in this show. It’s tied mostly to Flint and how he is told he is monstrous for loving a man, fears being “the villain” or “monster” in everyone’s stories, and eventually embraces that monstrous portrayal in service of his goals–even as the violence is slowly devastating to him. But the other character the word “monster” is used in reference to? Anne.

A quote by Max:

“Idelle, how would you feel if the one man you thought would never betray you did? If he purchased for himself a future through that betrayal? If you were told by a world full of men that that betrayal confirmed for them that they were right to see you as a monster to be shunned? She's not mad. She is adrift.”

In some ways, this quote is also the story of what has happened to James in his life, over and over. (Not to say this is what Jack intended to do to Anne, but the parallels inherent in Max’s line itself cannot be denied.)

James is repeatedly betrayed by those he trusts: Admiral Hennessey; Peter Ashe; Hal Gates. All of them try to get him to conform to heteronormative society–including Gates, because even if he didn’t know it, that’s what he was doing by trying to get James to take a pardon. That’s why James reacts with such instinctual panic and kills him; the idea of being forced to apologize to and assimilate back into heteronormative society puts him at a breaking point. (It can even be argued that Miranda “betrays” James in this way too by trying to get him to take a pardon and go to Boston–which is where his “and they called me a monster” speech comes in–and that also contributed to how James later panics and kills Gates for trying to force him to do the same. Miranda tried in a well-meaning way to get James to move on, because she isn’t fully understanding what James wrestles with; but I’ll go back to that.)

Again, these parallels are deliberate. Anne and Flint are the two main gay characters who wrestle with their supposed “monstrosity” in the eyes of everyone else, because they don’t fit in. They are “othered.” It’s not simply about their violence; for these characters, it’s about what their violence is in service of achieving, which is tied to their sexuality.

Anne is seen as a “monster” for slaughtering the men who abused Max, who is not only a fellow woman but also a fellow lesbian, in a way that Anne is undeniably drawn to even before she lets herself acknowledge the feeling. We as viewers are meant to see this and understand this, and we do. Anne is ostracized for violence that was motivated by her sexuality, which is partially why Max tells her that she understands her violence and will protect her–because Max is not only also a woman in a patriarchal society, but she is gay too.

Flint is seen as a “monster” first and foremost by England, for his sexuality… and then, later, by everyone else for the actions he takes because of his sexuality. Again: the violence he commits cannot be divorced from his sexuality because it is the reason for it. It’s what informs it.

I tweeted about this once too, but in many ways Anne and Flint’s kindred displays of brutality and anger and “fighting for the sake of fighting” (a quote by Miranda which applies to them both) are informed by their desire/need for gay tenderness. The world has too often denied them that tenderness and their expressions of their sexualities, or demonized them for wanting it, and their violence is the result.

Here’s a quote from Deborah Tolman with regards to how compulsory heterosexuality affects men, which she calls “hegemonic masculinity”:

"These norms demand that men deny most emotions, save for anger; be hard at all times and in all ways; engage in objectification of women and sex itself; and participate in the continuum of violence against women."

The anger and hardness is a huge part of the personas both Flint and Anne have to put on for survival. I include Anne in this because she uniquely lives her life in a “male” role to survive the male-dominated world of piracy, and she’s clearly not immune from these unspoken masculine guidelines: she refers to Max as “the whore” half the time as a defense mechanism. Flint and Anne lash out, they’re hard and angry and violent for the sake of their personas, and it’s all because... inside, they just want to be soft and gay with who they love.

Anne, Flint, & Compulsory Heterosexuality (Not Bi Erasure)

In Black Sails, we are shown the story of a gay person who has a consistent sexual relationship with someone of the opposite sex, but is running from internal truths about themselves in some ways in the process. That person is Anne.

Struggling with compulsory heterosexuality is explicitly Anne Bonny’s prime storyline in the show and that is not up for debate (and I’ve rarely seen people disagree); but I argue that it is also part of James’ storyline, and he is paralleled significantly with Anne to make that clear. It’s just overall more subtle because it’s not the prime focus of James’ story the way it is for Anne, because James’ realizations happened largely in the past and we’re seeing the aftermath of it. The parallels are there, and I’ll be breaking some of them down.

----

From episode one, we are told that Anne has a sexual relationship with Jack…. But later on, she tells Jack that she “can’t be [his] wife,” even though they’ll be partners forever. Why? What changed? The answer is that she’s been with Max and realized that she’s gay. It doesn’t mean Anne didn’t have sex with a man in the past and even enjoy it on some level, but it does mean that she knows now that she was using that sex partially to distract from things about herself that she was doing her best to ignore.

Multiple lines by Max (to Anne) tell us this:

3x03: “When you and I began you did not choose me. Something that lives inside you beyond choice made it so.”

2x01: “But perhaps there is something else underlying it. Something hiding in a place not even you can see. Perhaps… we would do well to bring it into the light.”

Before I continue, let me remind you of something: when writers decide to show viewers something on screen, that is done with intent, especially in a show like Black Sails where not a single moment is wasted. Remember this. What they show us, and what they don’t show us, are both deliberate choices.

So what are we shown about Anne’s sexual relationship with Jack? We get exactly one scene of her having sex with him. We are shown Anne riding Jack in a way where neither party was particularly enthused. Does this mean they definitely never had sex in the past that they both enjoyed on some level? No. But they showed us this one scene on purpose: to emphasize the stark difference when Anne has enjoyable sex with Max, an experience that forever changes her.

So what are we shown about James’ sexual relationship with Miranda? We get exactly one scene of him having sex with her. It is the most depressing sex scene of all time, James is just lying there to try to be helpful for her to chase her own pleasure, and he doesn’t even touch her. Does this mean they never had sex in the past that they both enjoyed, especially back during their affair in London? No. But we are never shown any of that. We never see them have sex in London before James’ relationship with Thomas; we never see them having good sex with each other after it all goes to hell. And that is a deliberate choice.

Why? Because all of the above info about Anne and her compulsory heterosexuality journey also applies to James McGraw, and his relationships with Miranda and Thomas.

“They paint the world full of shadows... and then tell their children to stay close to the light. Their light. Their reasons, their judgments. Because in the darkness, there be dragons. But it isn't true. We can prove that it isn't true. In the dark, there is discovery, there is possibility, there is freedom in the dark once someone has illuminated it.”

The realizations James came to about his sexuality (just like Anne did) inform much of his tangled story with the Hamiltons, and much of the tragedy of Miranda and James’ situation after the loss of Thomas. We are shown the way James and Miranda are no longer perfectly aligned after that loss, and grief is undeniably a part of it… but it goes beyond that. It’s more complicated than that.

That sad sex scene is not solely about grief; remember, that scene takes place ten years after they lose Thomas. It takes place during a time where Miranda is already thinking about and will soon actively try to tell James that they need to move on, without understanding why the loss of Thomas affects him in a profoundly different way than it affects her. I am not minimizing her loss or her grief whatsoever; but it is undeniably more complicated for James, and it’s why he can’t move on.

In episode 1x07:

James: “Have you no memory of how we got here? What they took from us?”

Miranda: “What does it matter now? What does it matter? What does it matter what happened then if we have no life now?”

James is, of course, appalled by this. I’ll talk about why momentarily.

The next time James is in Nassau (2x03), he goes to see Miranda and tries to apologize that night, but she’s otherwise engaged. So he stands outside of her window looking in, surrounded by darkness, while she’s playing the clavichord with children in the light. It is symbolically the domestic version of a heterosexual ideal. He is “othered” by the camera angles / framing, and the dark / light aspects. James is relegated to being an outsider literally because as Flint he’s a pirate, but metaphorically because he’s gay; the reason we as viewers are given that scene is to underscore that he feels he has no place in that display.

Ultimately, James is misaligned with Miranda after the loss of Thomas (shown in both the sad sex scene and arguments) in a way that goes beyond grief. The implication is that things cannot ever be the same for him again since the loss of “his truest love” and the truths he learned about himself.

If James and Miranda were simply at odds with one another because of grief, it would be far less of a “tragedy” in some ways. But James cannot heal the way Miranda slowly finds the way to over ten years, because Thomas signifies things for James that Miranda cannot relate to. In London, when Thomas is taken from them, Miranda even yells to James, “He is my husband!” Her grief and rage are shown as equal to James at the start and have extreme validity; the two of them are partners in the plan to kill Alfred Hamilton for revenge; but then she is able to somewhat move on, whereas James is not.

Why? Because, for James, Thomas was not just his (truest) love; Thomas was the awakening of his fullest self as a gay man.

In the same way that Anne can’t be Jack’s “wife” after she’s been with Max and realizes she’s gay, James cannot content himself with fulfilling the role of Miranda’s “husband” after he’s been with Thomas and realizes he’s gay. Neither of these facts minimize Anne’s love and devotion to Jack, or James’ love and devotion to Miranda; they are undeniably two sets of partners. But Anne and James are forever altered by their experiences with same sex lovers, and the truths about themselves that were brought into the light as a result.

----

Another part of the tragedy of James and Miranda is what happens right when we see Miranda grasp the significance of all of the above. Whether or not she grasped it before in the past, we are shown it only once on screen, and that’s in Charlestown.

Peter Ashe says this in 2x09:

“You will tell them about the affair with Thomas. You will tell them how it ended. You will explain to them what it drove you to do. You will reveal everything. And when you do, Captain Flint will be unmasked, the monster slain. And in his place will stand before all the world a flawed man, a man that England can relate to and offer its forgiveness.”

This is James’ worst nightmare; we know as such from what he told Miranda back in 1x07, and from when he killed Gates. And yet, here and now in 2x09, he is exhausted from pushing back against heteronormative society, all he wants is to retire the mantle of Flint born of gay rage, and he actually contemplates playing by their rules and giving into their judgements of his sexuality... until Miranda comes to his defense.

In season 1, Miranda didn’t seem to fully understand James’ thoughts on this, but here–in combination with her realizations about Peter Ashe’s betrayals–she finally does. And she’s not having it.

“What forgiveness are you entitled to while you stand back in the shadows pushing James out in front of the world to be laid bear for the sake of the truth? Tell me, sir, when does the truth about your sins come to light?”

And the moment she is yelling in rage on behalf of James, and their combined loss, and how Peter would dare to force James to experience shame about his sexuality again–she is instantly shot for it. A woman who’s yelling on behalf of a gay man? In a patriarchal heteronormative society? It has no place. England makes that clear.

It all further underlines James’ sense of “otherness”... and now he decides to embrace it, even at his own emotional detriment. He will no longer try to fit in or reason with them; he will no longer accept their halfway measures of pardons. He can’t, because in the eyes of England, all that he is as a gay man is abhorrent.

2x10: “Everyone is a monster to someone. Since you are so convinced that I am yours, I will be it.”

3x05, to the Maroon Queen: “...England takes whatever, whenever, however it wants. Lives. Loves. Labor. Spirits. Homes. It has taken them from me. I imagine that it has taken it from you.”

The Way James Views Miranda

And here is where I simply give you more food for thought–or further “evidence” of James being gay, if you will.

All of Flint’s lines about how he views Miranda are worded very, very deliberately.

Here’s a minor one, from 1x05:

“So you can probably guess it isn't as much fun to tell stories about how your captain makes a home with a nice Puritan woman who shares his love of books.”

There is nothing overtly romantic or sexual about this. It’s said in a one-on-one conversation with Billy, where Flint neither has to make the relationship sound like something it isn’t nor refuse to give any info whatsoever. So he goes with what is the seemingly-mild truth.

But 3x01, convincing the men to forego pardons:

“But what price surrender? To beg forgiveness from a thing that took my woman from me? My friend?”

“My woman” is what Flint says for the benefit of the men… these men who are part of the heteronormative world they all live in, and still value sexual relationships with women above all else. It’s about hegemonic masculinity, remember? (“Objectification of women and sex itself.”) He’s doing his best to speak their language.

But “my friend” is a secondary line that was not needed for the purposes of this speech, but James could not keep himself from adding it in a quieter tone–because that’s who Miranda was to him. His friend. Not his woman, which drips sexism and sexual undertones. Not his wife. Not even his “love,” which he could’ve used if he wanted to be ambiguous and sneak a Thomas reference in; he said “my woman” to appeal to the men, and then he added “my friend” because in the face of her memory he couldn’t help it.

And lastly, in 3x03, we begin to hear from “ghost Miranda.”

But what is ghost Miranda? She’s a voice from James’ traumatized mind. Everything she says to him is about truths he already knows and/or things he is hiding from himself. So what “she” says here is a voice from James’ mind; it’s about how James sees her, and subtly elaborates on his sexuality in the process.

“When I first met you, you were so... Unformed. And then I spoke and bade you cast aside your shame, and Captain Flint was born into the world... the part of you that always existed yet never were you willing to allow into the light of day. I was mistress to you when you needed love. I was wife to you when you needed understanding. But first and before all... I was mother. I have known you like no other. So I love you like no other. I will guide you through it, but at its end is where you must leave me. At its end is where you will find the peace that eludes you, and at its end lies the answer you refuse to see.”

This does not diminish Miranda’s importance to James in the least! In fact, it emphasizes it, and it is all part of why he is so ruined over her! But it is also, in the oddest way, an elaboration upon how he isn’t bi: Miranda was his partner in many things, including shared grief and revenge and some semblance of life for ten long years; and she was also was instrumental to his formation of himself as a person (“mother”), and his acceptance of himself as a gay man (“love” and “understanding”). This is how he sees her. Mistress and wife were roles she filled in his life, but above all, she contributed to the birth of Captain Flint–the personification of James’ gay rage.

Of course, the “answer” that ghost Miranda (the depths of James’ brain) alludes to here as well as her later words of “you are not alone” are all about James needing to recognize that Silver is a newfound partner and love for him… but that’s a whole other meta entirely.

Closing Thoughts

Look, did I consult a couple of specific scenes and look up transcripts to put quotes in this? Yes. But have I still only seen the show in its entirety once? Also yes. My point in mentioning this is that, if I did a full rewatch, there might even be more evidence I haven’t mentioned here. This isn’t meant to be comprehensive, but I do feel that it... certainly conveys the gist of the mood.

You may still agree to disagree if you prefer to see James Flint as bi; I’m not here to fight you on it and what queer characters mean to you personally.

But for me, when surveying all available evidence, the narrative screams that he’s gay. In that sense, my thoughts on this matter are similar to my thoughts on the ending; sure, you can interpret it one way if you look at certain details, but if you take in all the evidence and the big picture as a whole… there’s a specific conclusion to be drawn.

Last thing I’ll say is this: Steinberg himself has said that Flint is gay, which I found out way after watching the show and forming this interpretation. And like... not that if I wanted to hardcore argue he was bi I wouldn’t disregard Steinberg’s words, because in my experience the narrative speaking for itself is always more important than than creators’ words, but... in this instance (as in all Black Sails instances I’ve come across), his words just underscore what the well-crafted narrative is already telling us, because the creators wrote this show with intent. They knew what they were doing.

And thus, I will quote him (from these GIFs) below.

“When we were trying to build the story, we wanted whatever this thing was that made [Flint] feel alienated to be so deeply tied into who he was that there was no way he was every going to dismiss this thing that happened to him. We wanted to make sure we understood what the reality was in England in terms of how homosexuality was perceived. In some ways it was more tolerated, in some ways it was significantly less tolerated. I think in terms of Flint being gay, it’s about the fact that it is a tool that is used politically when convenient to make somebody be a monster… and it isn’t even really about the relationship.”

(If you buy the series on iTunes, you get an “inside” look at every episode, including this one from 2x05.)

EDIT: I had no idea Toby Stephens basically confirmed my thoughts that James' relationship with Thomas was his actualization as a gay man, so excuse me as I lose my mind for a moment:

“I think his relationship to Thomas Hamilton, the initial friendship and then becoming lovers is sort of like the realization of himself. I think he became himself with Thomas Hamilton. His potential was unleashed with Hamilton.”

And just for fun, since I’m here anyway, here’s a piece of a Steinberg quote about Anne from the Fathoms Deep podcast.

“In terms of Rackham and Bonny, I think that was another thing that I assumed for a long time could never go away. That they were essentially, you know, that they were married. You know not legally, but they were functionally married. And then this story happened in Season 2 with Bonny, that I think with like with a gun to my head of things that I’m proud of with the show, probably at the top is this story of this woman coming out and understanding that she’s gay. . . And so when we got to a point where it was like, I think she’s gay? Like I don’t think this is something we want to be wishy-washy about. It required getting over that hump with Rackham of, ‘Well like what am I going to do with this relationship? I don’t want to split them up?’ And I think it became something way more interesting.”

Thanks for coming to my TED talk. I love James Flint and his gay rage, I love you if you read all of this, and I love my friend @sunbardy who dealt with me yelling about this in DMs and then proofread the doc.

Hit me up on Twitter @gaypiracy if you want, where I do most of my Black Sails related yelling. And shitposting. Because I contain multitudes.

Know No Shame, my friends.

#black sails #james flint #know no shame #flinthamilton #captain flint #anne bonny #meta #black sails meta #miranda hamilton #jackanne #maxanne #legit have no idea what else to tag #my meta

130 notes · View notes

1-800-slater · 4 years

Text

TOP FIVE CHRISTIAN SLATER MOVIES!

(determined by casting, performance, script, cinematography, set design, prop design, character design, character appeal, soundtrack, plot, etc.)

TRUE ROMANCE (1993)

overview: R, action/crime, 2h 1m

description by ella: an elvis presley fanatic named clarence worley (christian slater) falls suddenly in love with a peachy romantic call-girl named alabama whitman. (patricia arquette). to prove to her his willingness to protect her, he goes to take back her belongings from her former pimp. after a violent change of plans, clarence leaves the club with the pimp’s blood on his hands and a mistaken suitcase filled with cociane, not clothes. they decide to live a glorious on-the-run life by selling the coke, with the help of friends. but, will clarence and alabama’s movie lifestyle have a happy ending, especially with the mob on their tail?

directed by: tony scott

script by: quentin tarantino

music by: hans zimmer and others

starring: christian slater, patricia arquette, michael rappaport, dennis hopper, christopher walken, brad pitt, & gary oldman.

why it’s #1: with a movie directed by tony scott and a script by the legendary quentin tarantino, nothing can go wrong. clarence worley and alabama whitman are some of the most interesting characters to ever be in a bonnie/clyde scenario. the movie is always moving, but the cliches of a crime/action movie are thrown out of the window when it comes to true romance. the cinematography and overall design is very unique, is quite beautiful. pretty much one of the sexiest, if not the sexiest, movie, ever.

PUMP UP THE VOLUME (1990)

overview: R, drama/comedy, 1h 45m

description by ella: a outcast with a way of words, mark hunter (christian slater), finds his voice in a pirate radio show, going by the name happy harry hard-on. every night a 10 o’ clock, he empowers the teens of arizona to be who they are, be crazy as shit, and live their life, no matter how ridiculous and crazy, all while nineties hard rock plays and his hormones rattle. but when he’s discovered by nora diniro (samantha mathis), everything falls apart. suddenly the government and the school are after him for his out-of-line behavior on the air, and he’s falling in love for the first time. jeez, somebody give mark hunter a break!

directed by: allan moyle

script by: allan moyle

music by: concrete blond, pixies, peter murphy, urban dance squad, etc.

starring: christian slater, samantha mathis, annie ross, cheryl pollak, andy romano, billy morrisette, & ellen greene.

why it’s #2: pump up the volume is one of the most controversial and eye-opening movies of it’s era. with mark hunter (christian slater) boiling over with truth about society and how it beats down it’s youth, it’s bound to be fantastic. the set design is gorgeous and really matches the aesthetic of the 1990s. the plot is easy to follow, but wild and interesting, and really is a good watch. plus, who doesn’t want to see christian slater and samantha mathis drooling over eachother?

HEATHERS (1988)

overview: R, dark comedy, 1h 43m

description by ella: a teen girl lost in societal standards, veronica sawyer (winona ryder) falls for a rejected and dejected jason dean (christian slater), with a taste for a clean slate. it seemed perfect at first, her prince coming to her rescue on his motorcycle. but, after a line of murders with her knight in armor, veronica finds herself pushed off the edge. before she can stop the madness, she must stop jason dean.

directed by: michael lehmann

script by: daniel waters

music by: david newman

starring: winona ryder, christian slater, shannon doherty, kim walker, lisanne frank, patrick labyorteaux, lance fenton, & carrie lynn.

why it’s #3: the set design of this movie is absolutely gorgeous, with each piece seemingly handcrafted to fit. the script is one of the best of it’s kind, as it’s unique catchphrases and dialogue assigned to each character is brilliant. the plot is so fun to watch unfold, and you’ll find yourself torn between rooting for veronica sawyer or jason dean.

UNTAMED HEART (1993)

overview: P-13, romance/drama, 1h 42m

description by ella: caroline, a bubbly waitress,(maresi tomei) falls victim to the tender trap of love after a series of breakups. with the help of her best friend cindy (rosie perez) she finally feels herself again. but, comes along thugs from her past, who follow her home and attempt to rape her. a shy busboy named adam (christian slater) who is hopelessly in love with caroline, comes to her rescue. as their romance blooms, caroline falls even deeper in love with adam than she ever imagined.

directed by: tony bill

script by: tom sierchio

music by: cliff eidelman

starring: maresi tomei, christian slater, rosie perez, kyle secor, willie garson, & lotis key.

why it’s #4: untamed heart is one of the most tragic yet heartwarming romance stories ever told. maresi tomei and christian slater play their roles with ease, and their romance is believable and awe-worthy.

MOBSTERS (1991)

overview: R, crime/drama, 2h

description by ella: four mobsters, charlie luciano (christian slater), meyer lansky (patrick dempsey), bugsy siegel (richard grieco), and frank costello (costas mandylor) rise from nothing a build an empire. but, the original big guys of the mob world are sensing the quartet are more trouble than they thought.

directed by: michael karbelnikoff

script by: michael mahern

music by: michael small

starring: christian slater, patrick dempsey, richard grieco, costas mandylor, lara flynn boyle, anthony quinn, & michael gambon.

why it’s #5: armed with a tommy gun and a craving for revenge, christian slater and his gang of mob maniacs stop at nothing to make their acting perfect in this movie. the set design is the best i’ve seen in a mob movie ever, and does justice to charlie lucky luciano’s legend.

#more

59 notes · View notes

sometipsygnostalgic · 3 years

Note

oh shoot that bit talking about PB growing up and away from Marceline, who wants to still be carefree I realized just adds more to the end of Stakes when Marcy says “thanks for helping me grow up” clearly she was seeking this by wanting to no longer be a vampire, but even that might’ve originally missed the point. even though she can’t physically grow up as a vampire, she still can grow in other ways? and that’s probably hard to believe when everything starts to feel the same and you deep down believe you are just a monster

anyways i love seeing the growth they both went through during the series that led to them being able to have a much healthier and successful relationship :’)

Yeah yeah yeah!

Marceline growing up wasnt just in a LITERAL sense!

She also meant in an emotional sense. Marceline hadn't been confronting her inner demons and had been forever hiding away, running from what scares her. However, with the support of her friends, she was able to face the vamps again. She got bitten once more, with a smile on her face.

If you consider Pb to be the "mature" one of the group, even from their first interactions, it was pretty hardcoded that Marceline saw reaching her level of maturity was an impossible goal, and she coped by telling herself she didnt WANT to be anything like Bonnie. That Bonnie had become a "bummer", or a bad person who meddles with others. It's transparent as daylight that Marceline didn't want to confront the idea that SHE is the immature one, because she has so much baggage and trauma that... where does she even start to work on herself? And, yknow, Bonnie IS a big jerk, so is it fair that Marceline do all the legwork? It wasn't just their relationship that was being affected by Marceline's peter pan complex though, it was Marceline's ability to connect wity others.

Bonnie was right there, by her side, for the entirety of Stakes. A few eps before the miniseries, Marceline had seen her be very vulnerable- she was able to connect to her on an emotional level. They worked hard as a team together, abd whenever Marceline was in trouble PB helped her back on her feet. They were a team!

Marceline did have a crisis at the end, wherein she felt like she had messed up. She had just been manipulated by the Vampire King, and she felt like all the hard work they did up to that point was part of his plan... so she thought, rather than subject herself to further pain, the best thing to do would be to run from it. But Pb wants to fight, she wants to do the right thing, for all the people the Vampire King is going to kill. She tries to pep talk Marceline, but in this moment, Marceline sees a barrier between them again... she doesnt see herself as capable of doing the grown up thing. So PB quietly leaves, and leads the charge by example. (Big character moment for her too btw)

Marceline berates herself then speaks to Ice King, who reminds her that her surviving isn't a pathetic thing - it is an indication that she is strong. However, she realises she can't run away and hide forever. Maybe it's time to stop being a cockroach and do something with that strength in her heart.

So, after she confronts the Vampire King - something she thought would only go traumatically - Marceline feels she has reclaimed her own destiny. And Bonnie was there watching, completely shellshocked by the strength of heart (literally) Marcie showed in that moment.

Marceline felt like she'd been able to face some of the trauma and baggage that had been holding her back for so long. She thanks the one who led by example and acted as the cheerleader for her growth the whole time!

(Marcie's dialogue in half of Stakes was pretty.... unnatural, I felt like this miniseries did all the action and comedy scenes incredibly but struggled with some of the emotional ones, visually and dialogue wise, which stands out like a sore thumb after varmints wrote marceline so naturally)

After this miniseries, Marceline is waaaaay more invested in looking out for others. She's also way more involved in the story. Whereas there'd often be many times Pb appeared as a secondary character in an episode, and there were very FEW times Marcie showed up, now Marceline was often by her side, and they had a unique chemistry with each other that I think shows off an appealing side to Marcie's character. Marcie also sung for Finn in the Music Hole, and hung out with him in the Dark Purple episode, and she even appeared at the start of Islands, and for the climactic parts of Elements. Marcie was continuing to rebuild her relationship with Ice King, in Broke Hus Crown, and she had an ep in season 8 where she spoke to BMO about various things for 11 minutes.

I was glad to have her back!

#adventure time

12 notes · View notes

buzzdixonwriter · 3 years

Text

TROTS AND BONNIE Review

Trigger Warning: This will review a work that often addresses human sexuality, emotional / physical / sexual abuse, and adolescents’ views on same. Be advised.

. . .

When I was growing up in the 1950s and early 1960s, two old comic strips that remained popular were J. R. Williams’ Out Our Way and Gene Ahern’s Our Boarding House, both started in the 1920s and, from their daily panels and Sunday pages, never moving out of that decade. My favorite cartoons on local kid shows were Fleischer Brothers Betty Boop and Popeye cartoons, many of which took place in urban / suburban settings heavily reflective of 1920s and 1930s America.

So when I first encountered Shary Flenniken’s Trots And Bonnie I instantly recognized the flavor and style of the strips.

The content, on the other hand, came straight out of her underground comix pedigree, with the refreshing point of view of the female gaze instead of the admittedly too often misogynistic male cartoonists of the milieu.

Flenniken is one of the best artists and writers to come from the underground era, displaying a confident early mastery of the form (don’t listen to her protestations she really wasn’t good at the start of her career; she clearly ranked among the finest of the underground comix artists).

But the sweet and innocent look of Trots And Bonnie belies the frank and frequently shocking honesty of Flenniken’s work.

As cartoonist Emily Flake notes in her introduction, “that’s the terrible power of children, the monstrous innocence that makes them capable of anything, a state of being we fatuously describe as ‘pure.’”

Innocence is not synonymous with purity in the world of Trots And Bonnie because the cast lack the moral and cultural filters we acquire as adults. They are reporting on reality as they see it, and as with all children (and the elderly, and drunks) there’s nothing to stop them from commenting on the foibles of hypocrisy of humanity, nor is there a single iota of shame to hold back their expression.

And when you add the impact of puberty to that mix, holy &#@%, you have no room left for pretense or propriety.

Hold on to your hats, folks, ‘cuz it’s gonna be one helluva ride.

One helluva ride…and a hilarious one, too.

If modern audiences can get past the admittedly often shocking visuals and situations, they’ll find some of the most brilliant coming-of-age comedy ever penned.

The truth is always an absolute defense, and Trots And Bonnie dishes it out lavishly. Brava to Shary Flenniken for having the courage (or honesty, of lack of filter; take your pick) to pen it, to the original underground comix and National Lampoon to publish it, and to new York Review Comics to bring almost all of it back (Flenniken herself opted to withhold a few strips that she feels might be construed now as hurtful or insulting).

Flenniken is the daughter of a military family, growing up in a variety of climes and places before her father retired in the Seattle area.

She reached adolescence and young adulthood during the hippie era, and the earliest strips cast a fond eye back on that time.

An original member of the infamous Air Pirates crew, she and fellow underground comix artists gained immediate recognition skewering Disney icons. Air Pirates Funnies and Paul Kassner’s The Realist generated no small amount of tsuris for the House of Mouse in the late 1960s / early 1970s but The Realist, true to its name, possessed to good sense to adhere to the unofficial so-called “one-time fair use parody” rule while the Air Pirates pressed their luck with Air Pirates Funnies #2, resulting in the Disney legal department descending on them like an anvil dropped from orbit.

Crawling away from the wreckage, Flenniken kept contributing to a number of underground venues, creating the first Trots and Bonnie strip for the 1971 underground comix Merton Of The Movement.

Trots and Bonnie (soon joined by Pepsi, a beguilingly sweet looking elfin-like child with the heart of Germaine Greer, the reproductive organs of Karen Finley, and the mouth of an interstate trucker) popped up in several single page strips and short stories until NatLamp recruited Flenniken in 1972 to be a regular contributor and (briefly) an editor.

NatLamp proved to be the perfect venue for Flenniken and her characters because the magazine possessed the economic mojo and suicidal “Who gives a &#@%?” attitude to publish Trots And Bonnie while at the same time providing a perfect audience of proto-incels who desperately needed some consciousness raising, especially if said consciousness raising arrived in the form of a kick in the groin.

Trots And Bonnie’s tenure at NatLamp lasted slightly more than two decades, but a big hunk of that era saw the Reagan culture wars raging, not to mention much of the country becoming obsessed with a literal modern day witch hunt in the infamous Satanic panic (an apt subject for Flenniken’s characters, but one she wisely avoided, thus following the old military adage, “Never draw fire on your own position.”).

The already edgy material in both NatLamp in general and Trots And Bonnie in particular threatened to be perceived as too edgy by law enforcement, legislators, and judicial authorities who seemed either unwilling or incapable of distinguishing between photographs and video of actual sexual assaults and rapes committed against real children as opposed to crudely drawn Xerox copied mini-comics made by outsider artists with audiences that might possibly number in the dozens.

Flenniken’s willingness to honestly recall the turbulent emotions of early adolescence resulted in stories and strips where prepubescent kids engage in activities and discussions that would be acutely problematic if done today. Again, the utter lack of self-consciousness in Flenniken’s characters swerves her work away from the low grade smut ground out by many of her male contemporaries and flung open a window on how adolescent females perceived the world around them.

The stories are wildly transgressive, and like all transgressive art can only be understood in the context of their time and mores. Flenniken’s art carries a sweetness that leavens out the most horrendous situations (she gets astonishing comedic mileage off a story about a woman raped by a police officer, never once blaming or exploiting the victim but lambasting the culture and mindset that makes such a crime possible).

The fact these stories are told from a vibrant feminist / sex positive point of view makes them relevant to this day, and Flenniken’s ability to draw both truth and humor from dysfunctional families, emotional abuse, and drug use keeps them from being one-note exercises.

Most importantly, Flenniken comes across as strongly pro-child, even while honestly depicting her own characters’ failings and misconceptions.

She always brings a genuine emotional connection with her characters as adolescents, neither glorifying nor patronizing them.

One of the most notorious Trots And Bonnie strips finds Bonnie looking at herself in a mirror, fantasizing she’s famous actresses of the past.*

At the hands and brush of Norman Rockwell, this theme tries for poignant but lands in schmaltz, looking down on an anxious child studying her reflection in a mirror; in far too many bad novels by sub-par male writers, it’s borderline (and often not-so-borderline) pornography.

At the touch of Flenniken’s deft pen, it’s honest and sweet and shockingly frank but it never depicts Bonnie as a figment of the male imagination but as a character and personality all her own.

Flenniken has not done any new Trots And Bonnie strips since the last ones published in NatLamp in 1993.

To be honest, I think that’s a good thing.

The characters are of their particular time and cultural gestalt, it may not be possible to recapture that lightning in a new bottle, and rather than diminish the old, perhaps it best remains a perfect artefact of its era.

Mark Twain tried repeatedly but could never transport Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn out of antebellum Hannibal, and to use an example more contemporary to Flenniken’s work, the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers resolutely thwart all efforts to move them out of San Francisco during the Summer of Love.

You can’t go home again, as Thomas Wolfe famously observed, but that only applies if you’ve successfully left home. At a certain point, if you haven’t moved beyond your old confines, you never will.

Flenniken’s honest frankness could have turned into a big crosshair on her back during the cultural wars, but to paraphrase John Lennon, life happened while she was making comix.

She married twice, divorced once, widowed the second time. While she never completely withdrew from professional illustration, she no longer sought out the high profile gigs.

Trots And Bonnie from New York Review Comics is the first extensive English language compilation of her strips and stories, a very handsomely produced volume designed by Norman Hathaway.

The strips are meticulously presented, making it possible to enjoy Flenniken’s fine line work and exquisite character depictions in greater detail than every before. It’s a genuine delight, sure to thrill old time fans of the original strip and quite likely to win a new generation of admirers.

But brace yourselves, noobs, this ain’t your grandma’s Betty Boop…

* It should be noted that for all its apparent revolutionary newness, the counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s, the crucible that forged Flenniken’s point of view, also enthusiastically embraced the past. W. C. Fields and the Marx Brothers became cultural icons to a new generation, Betty Boop regained her old popularity, old movies were rediscovered and reimagined, African-American spirituals and blues sprang from new voices, obscure books and novels from earlier decades and centuries became the new cultural touchstones.

I’ve posted elsewhere on how the boomer generation enjoyed a unique conflation of new technology and old media to produce a brand new synthesis; there has been nothing like it since even with astonishing advances in technology. When old media is rediscovered and reinterpreted in this era, it too often tends to be in the form of irony, which mocks that which it cannot understand.

Give those old hippies their due -- they got the &#@%ing point!

#Shary Flenniken #Trots And Bonnie #New York Review Comics #comics #underground comix #Air Pirates #National Lampoon #NatLamp #cartooning #counterculture #hippies #1960s #1970s

5 notes · View notes

doomonfilm · 3 years

Text

Ranking : Martin Scorsese (1942-present)

Of all the places in the world that seem to be hubs for creative energy, New York stands high on my personal list of favorites, and when it comes to iconic New York filmmakers, there aren’t many that can hold a candle to the prolific career of Martin Scorsese. His appreciation for films, art and music blasts off the screen with the same energy as his kinetic cinematography and vibrant editing. Once he established himself as a mainstay in the industry, his list of collaborators evolved into a who’s who of acting legends, both old and new. His career spans just over 50 years, and even his latest film (his 25th in his catalog) went head to head with other contenders for the top awards of the year.

To put it bluntly, there is Martin Scorsese, and then there is a long list of imitators and those influenced by his genius. To rank his films is a true test of logic, patience and decision making, but after a few weeks of catching the 7 or so films I had yet to see, I think I can stand behind this list as my definitive ranking (from least to most favorite) of a director I hold in the highest regard.

25. Gangs of New York (2002) An honest attempt at an epic flick, but at the heart of the matter, I simply don’t care about either side in the battle Scorsese presents us. Set in New York City in the mid 19th Century during the Civil War, we are thrown into a generational battle where the two key figures have different goals... Bill the Butcher stands as antagonist in his fight to maintain power and control, while Amsterdam is our protagonist charged with a mission of revenge. In the end, neither side ends up mattering, very much like my personal experience with this all flourish, no foundation exercise in style.

24. Bringing Out the Dead (1999) Nicolas Cage was gearing up for the run that most people know him for now during the release of Bringing Out the Dead : he was coming off of Golden Globe and Academy Award wins for Leaving Las Vegas, but was quickly leaning towards films of a more exploitation-based style. This film marked a refinement of his wild-man persona, while simultaneously being one of the last high-level actor/director combinations he would be involved in before his mad dash to accept every film and avoid bankruptcy. New York is captured in a mid-transition point between the darkness of the 1970s and 1980s versus the Disney aesthetic of the new millennium, and while heavy on the entertainment factor (as well as visually striking), there is ultimately not enough on this plate to push it higher up the list.

23. The Color of Money (1986) If you had to do a quick gander at the Scorsese list and pick the film that, on paper, screams Hollywood, it’d be hard to argue against The Color of Money taking that top spot. A soft sequel to The Hustler, Scorsese picks up the Fast Eddie story in the 1980s (an era that oozes out of each and every frame of this film), and yet, despite this legendary move, the film is ultimately the Tom Cruise show. Scorsese’s trademark dollying and trucking camera shots work beautifully in the context of this film, but in a story that shines bright, the star of Cruise ultimately outshines all that remains.

22. Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974) After a few exploitation-based projects, it seemed that Martin Scorsese wanted to provide a slightly different change in perspective, albeit one that still dwells in the darker corners of life. Rather than deal with the streets of New York or crime, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore is a study on broken homes, single parenthood and domestic violence that oscillates between the view of the titular Alice and her young son. Harvey Keitel gives another strong performance as a Scorsese regular, while Ellen Burstyn shines in a transitional role towards more mature performances. Seeing Scorsese camera movements coopted into a more down to Earth story was refreshing.

21. The Departed (2006) Many people would have assumed that The Departed would be higher on a list of Scorsese films based solely on the cast... pairing Leonardo DiCaprio opposite Matt Damon in a tension-filled triangle with Jack Nicholson is a bold combination in its own right, but surrounding this nucleus with Martin Sheen, Mark Wahlberg, Alec Baldwin, Kevin Corrigan, Anthony Anderson and supporting actors of that ilk creates a rich showcase of talent. Stylistically, everything you need is there too, as Scorsese proved time and again that films of this nature were his wheelhouse. That being said, the story itself, an adaptation of the 2002 Hong Kong thriller Infernal Affairs, takes a few liberties in its adaptation that ultimately are to the detriment of the narrative. Kudos to Scorsese for putting this one together, and too bad for him that the choices of William Monahan knocked what could have been a mega-classic way down the list.

20. New York, New York (1977) New York, New York is one of the most unique offerings from the Scorsese canon for a number of reasons. Of all his films, this one is probably the one that can be considered a “style exercise” more than the rest, as it oscillates between obvious sets and real locations before blurring the lines between the two. Long gaps of time are given to fully executed musical numbers (a must when a talent like Liza Minnelli is involved), and traditional methods of songwriting and performance are given their due respect. The exercise portion, however, comes in the newer acting styles that are infused into the old school structure... improvisation and aggressive physicality are used to put a deeper, disturbing red tint on an era often presented through a rose-colored lens. While interesting at times, the nearly three hour run time of the film begins to wear on the limits of the style, which ultimate leaves the film feeling more like a personal indulgence than a statement on changing times. For the iconic title track alone (and the buildup to its release), this film is worth seeing, but in terms of its placement in the realm of other Scorsese films, it may have to grow on me a while to find a higher placement on the list.

19. Boxcar Bertha (1972) Originally, this film was much lower on the list, largely due to its chronological placement between Who’s That Knocking at My Door and Mean Streets seeming odd to me. Upon revisitation, however, it stands clear and present that this film served as an exercise in the process of directing and organizing a shoot. With its period-specific placement, ensemble cast and action sequences, it was bound to be compared to (and ultimately overshadowed by) the formidable Bonnie and Clyde, but Boxcar Bertha has a few key moments in it (including a stellar final action sequence) that places it near the middle of the Scorsese canon, even with it being his second film.

18. Who's That Knocking at My Door? (1967) For all of the refinement that Scorsese found in his second film, his debut film, the stunning Who’s That Knocking at My Door?, stands as testament to the fact that Scorsese brought his many gifts to the table from day one. What started as a student graduate film grew into a speculative project, only to find 25th hour funding that allowed it a festival run and a proper release. The film took many years to complete and release, to the point that keen viewers will notice Harvey Keitel’s boyish, soft good looks morph into the sharper, edgier intense profile we came to recognize in Mean Streets and the films that followed. The energetic cinematography, respect of film as a medium, stellar music choices, defiance of youth, toxic masculinity and realistic look at relationships are all here, making this debut a hidden gem in the Scorsese canon.

17. The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) Seeing Scorsese retread old stylistic ground (as opposed to infusing his style into newer projects) is an interesting take, and for what my opinion is worth, The Wolf of Wall Street feels like Goodfellas for white collar criminals. In theory (and, in some aspects of the film, in reality), the experiment does work, but ultimately, this film finds its placement in the middle realms simply because we are given infinite sizzle off of what amounts to a very thin steak. Goodfellas works because it is carried by the weight of omerta, but The Wolf of Wall Street focuses on a culture where status comes from self-appointed importance, which ultimately makes for an attempted redemption story for despicable people.

16. The Irishman (2019) Seeing actors the stature of Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and Al Pacino combine forces for a film is always a major event, but until 2019, those combinations have been limited to duos. When Netflix announced its intention to release The Irishman in 2019, people were not only intrigued on Scorsese’s take on the Jimmy Hoffa story, but seeing De Niro, Pesci and Pacino in the same film for the first time. For what it was worth, the trio lived up to all expectations, with the only bittersweet criticism being wishes that the three could have found a way to work together prior to the twilight of their careers. The historical drama is high quality, with Hoffa’s larger than life persona captured perfectly by Pacino, and bolstered by the dramatic chops brought to the table by De Niro and Pesci. The film is a tad on the long side, and the de-aging process tips into the realm of the uncanny valley due to the older actors’ physicality, but for a 25th film 52 years into an illustrious career, The Irishman must be recognized for the triumph that it is.

15. The Aviator (2004) Much like The Wolf of Wall Street, I avoided The Aviator for years simply because I have no interest or fascination with Howard Hughes. I was very much aware of his financial stature, his innovations as an aviator, his rocky love life and his personal demons that plagued him, but for my money’s worth, I was fine without seeing it presented on the big screen. In an effort to cover all the bases for a director I hold in high esteem, however, I made the decision to finally check out The Aviator, and for every element of the film I previously had no interest in, an element was presented that won me over. Cate Blanchett and Adam Dunn put on two of the strongest performances in the entire realm of Scorsese films, and the XF-11 crash sequence is possibly one of the grandest and well executed in any Scorsese film. Leave it to Martin Scorsese to make a powerful film about an individual I care nothing about and nearly crack the top ten with that effort.

14. Hugo (2011) Up to the point of watching Hugo, I knew nothing about it. About halfway through Hugo, I had to stop and look up how the film was received, as it was simply stunning, and sure enough, it was a monster in terms of award nominations and wins. I never would have pegged Scorsese as the type to direct a kid’s film, but in all honesty, that ‘kid’s film’ title is used as a façade for a love letter to film in general, and the groundbreaking work of Georges Méliès specifically. The look of the film is otherworldly, the energy is light, kinetic and infectious, and even a mostly slapstick performance by Sacha Baron Cohen yields surprising emotional depth when given the opportunity to do so. While just missing the top ten, Hugo easily stands as the number one surprise on this list in terms of pre-viewing expectations (of which there where none) versus post-viewing thoughts (of which there are many). Knowing that Hugo exists lets me know that one day, if I have children, and they want to know why I love film so much, I will have a film on the level of Cinema Paradiso to share with them and (hopefully) help foster a love of film they can call their own.

13. Casino (1995) For a time, this film stood as the last work containing the vibrant combination of Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci, a trio of high energy creatives known for putting their all into their projects. Casino felt like a spiritual successor to Goodfellas, focusing on a lavish but secretive lifestyle with high stakes and even higher consequences. An instantly iconic movie, Casino felt like the end of an era in regards to gangster fare for Scorsese, opting instead for more challenging projects, adaptations of other books and films, or personal passion projects. It would be nearly 25 years later before Scorsese would touch similar subject matter or work with these actors again, but had Casino been the last of Scorsese’s so-called “gangster” films, I believe the world would have been happy with that.

12. Kundun (1997) To make one religious-based film in a career is a bold move to some, but I am hard-pressed to think of any director that made films on two different religions who didn’t explicitly make religious films. With that in mind, it is incredibly impressive that Martin Scorsese was able to make a film as moving and objective as Kundun after making such a bold take on religion as The Last Temptation of Christ. The film centers around the discovery, growth and eventual escape to India in light of growing aggression from China. In all honesty, I had my doubts as to whether or not the Scorsese style would work for this story, especially in light of the lack of cooperation from Tibet and China, but somehow, Scorsese’s amazing signature camerawork captures the unique spirit and essence surrounding the Dalai Lama. I’d heard of this film for years, but never got around to it until it was time to make this list, but I will almost certainly try to find a copy to own in the near future.

11. The King of Comedy (1982) What an odd left turn in regards of career trajectory for both Scorsese and De Niro. With three collaborations already under their belt (not to mention The Godfather II already being a well-established classic), it would have been easy to imagine the duo putting another notch on the gangster film genre belt. What we are given, however, is the yang to the yin of Taxi Driver : our protagonist is a statement on personal conviction and the trappings of instant stardom, our antagonist is a statement on star fascination and the high costs of celebrity, and our satellite characters directly reflect the toxicity certain fandoms can be capable of. Scorsese sets aside his normal flourish and camera moves for a mixing of film and video mediums, as well as a completely new sense of freedom in regards to the highly improvised nature of the film. Its influence on recent successful films like Joker is undeniable, but I’d argue that Joker lacks the heart, sincerity and realistic bite present in The King of Comedy.

10. After Hours (1985) Of all the “new to me” Scorsese flicks I finally viewed while preparing this list, After Hours stands as my favorite discovery of the bunch. I was marginally familiar with the film, both from my younger days in video stores and from friend recommendations, but for some reason, when Scorsese time arrived, After Hours seemed to never be on the docket. That oversight, however, will now be a thing of the past. This film feels like a personal challenge to Woody Allen in regards to how one should make a New York-based romantic comedy, and I’d be hard pressed to share any shortcomings or failures present in this comedic masterpiece. One of the few films that can be both a product of its era and a timeless classic, and one that should be much more recognized in the Scorsese canon.

9. Shutter Island (2010) Me hesitating or not getting around to Scorsese films seems to be a bit of a common theme here, but there was literally no excuse for me to take this long to get around to Shutter Island. Despite knowing the premise of the story (and even having the ending somewhat spoiled for me), I still found the impact of the final moments just as powerful as I imagine I would have going into this film blind. Some people will likely argue this statement, but in my opinion, this was the best Leonardo DiCaprio performance captured by Martin Scorsese. The asylum setting is wonderfully bleak, and the psychological horrors it infers create a vibrant playground for some of the most stunning visual symbolism that Scorsese has ever committed to film. Don’t be like me if you’ve not gotten around to Shutter Island yet, because it’s a thrill ride more than worth the price of admission, and a rewarding repeat viewer.

8. Mean Streets (1973) Mean Streets may have been Martin Scorsese’s third film, but for many fans, it was the first true indicator of the brilliance that was to come. A true New York film through and through, it not only presented fans with a stronger Harvey Keitel performance than Who’s That Knocking at My Door?, but it introduced the world to the palatable tandem of Scorsese and De Niro that would go on to lead to years and years of iconic performances. The use of altering aspect ratios is something that I wish Scorsese would have continued to use more often, but in all honesty, Mean Streets has style to spare. This the film that I love to recommend when people start ranting and raving about Goodfellas, and more often than not, it impresses those unfamiliar with it just as much.

7. The Age of Innocence (1993) Martin Scorsese’s love of film is widely known and well documented, but The Age of Innocence goes an additional step further by displaying Scorsese’s love of art. The film also is one of the most touching displays of unrequited love that Scorsese has committed to film, a slight alteration from his normal infusion of love stories trying to sustain in the surrounding chaos of gangs, crime, religion and so on. Daniel Day-Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer and Winona Ryder all give standout performances in this masterfully directed film. If Gangs of New York was meant to be the definitive old school New York film in the Scorsese canon, then The Age of Innocence is the unintended definitive New York film from Scorsese, with some European touches thrown in for good measure.

6. Cape Fear (1991) Of the many, many iconic performances that Robert De Niro has given Martin Scorsese, I’d be hard pressed not to put his characterization of Max Cady at the top by a clear margin. Cape Fear was already a classic film adaptation of The Executioners when it was first released in 1957, but De Niro pulled two fast ones with his update : in terms of casting, especially with the aforementioned De Niro, Scorsese brought the harrowing story into a much darker, recent world, therefore increasing the tension by upping the ante for violent retribution, while at the same time, paying direct homage to the original by having Elmer Bernstein adapt the original Bernard Herrmann score. Juliette Lewis also provided a breakout performance in this modern day classic, and possibly the film that provided the most tense debate in terms of placement, as we will get into with the next film.

5. Silence (2016) Despite being one of the most recent Martin Scorsese films, this one’s limited release meant that I missed it during its initial run, and the lack of streaming service placement essentially erased it from my memory. I was certainly intrigued about watching it for this list, and it ended up being the last film viewed. Going into it, it felt like a sort of religious take on Saving Private Ryan, but it didn’t take long for the film to start dealing out much heavier cards in terms of faith, belief systems and cross-cultural contamination. The Last Temptation of Christ showed that Scorsese could find nuance and secular drama from a holy tale, and Kundun showed that he could make a religious icon a relatable human figure struggling to grasp his divine appointment. Silence is the work of a wise, steady hand, however, like some sort of cinematic parable or testament to faith in the face of crippling doubt and danger. Scorsese is certainly still moved by the idea of faith, and he uses Andrew Garfield to display this in some of the most powerful moments that he has ever created or captured for his films. For those who have not seem the film, this placement may feel a bit high, but I would not be surprised if, given time and proper amounts of reflection, it makes its way higher.

4. Raging Bull (1980) The placement of Raging Bull and Cape Fear was the biggest hurdle I was forced to overcome in the creation of this list. Robert De Niro is powerfully captivating in both films, though I would personally give his performance as Max Cady the nod over his embodiment of Jake LaMotta, but when it comes down to the brass tacks of it all, Raging Bull is ultimately the better of the two films. The raw, black and white look of LaMotta’s life already provides a gritty, unflattering portrait of a savage and uncouth man looking for beauty in the world, but that beauty he searches for appears in the boxing sequences with no apologies. The airy look, mainly caught by dynamic slow motion photography, works in tandem with the abrasive first-person views of the combatants, not to mention the direct nature of the combat itself as the viewer is often placed directly in the line of fire. The involvement of the real LaMotta within the film provides a nice button to the superb acting put on display by De Niro, Joe Pesci, Cathy Moriarty and the numerous actors used to portray the opponents of LaMotta.

3. The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) Call it a trope if you like, but it feels like every great (or aspiring) director has a film in them that is driven by religion in some capacity. The Last Temptation of Christ is unique in this sense because it takes the story of the accusations, betrayal, trial and eventual crucifixion of Jesus and turns it into a deeply faith-based suspense thriller. Many of the familiar beats we know from the Bible are re-contextualized as visions, mystic tests of faith, carnal desires driven by lust, and nihilistic views infringing upon deep indoctrination. Willem Dafoe plays a Jesus that is bitter in his acceptance of his fate, Harvey Keitel plays a wonderfully opportunistic Judas, and Barbara Hershey plays a very modernized version of a woman forced to use her body for survival that is suddenly trapped between necessity and passion. The film hinges on the verge of becoming a soap opera without falling into the trappings that come with such high drama, and the walkup to the film’s amazing final sequence puts you in the emotional passenger's seat while Jesus takes the wheel and steers directly into his fate. A dramatically powerful yet brutally sincere take on an iconic, revered and sensitive subject matter.

2. Goodfellas (1990) Is there any original praise left to bestow upon this movie? To focus on the imperfections of this film is an act of futility, as they are mostly non-existent. Some of Martin Scorsese’s best examples of his iconic camera movement, editing techniques, still frames, writing gleaned from personal experience, soundtrack use, loose historical connections and dark humor are found within the confines of Goodfellas. If you’ve seen in actor in any television show or film that had any connection to the mob prior to Goodfellas or since, it is more than likely that that actor was in Goodfellas, even if only briefly. Using Henry Hill as both an outsider and insider perspective is a brilliant narrative stroke, as he can get close to the top, but can never have it all, making him essentially a fly on the wall bursting with charisma and personality. They highs are as epic as the lows are tragic, and for most people, it is the first film that comes to mind when the name Martin Scorsese is mentioned. This could have very easily been the number one film on my list, but anyone who has been visiting this blog with a keen eye for detail probably figured out my favorite Scorsese film the first time they visited the DOOMonFILM blog.

1. Taxi Driver (1976) Since the day that I started this film blog, there has been one image at the top of the page : Travis Bickle in the porn theater (with his face replaced by my logo) from the iconic Taxi Driver. There’s not a single element that I can put my finger on for this film, but there are certainly a number of elements that do speak to me : the isolation that Travis faces, the journal-like narration that drives the story forward, the hypnotic nature of both Bernard Herrmann score and the repetitive taxi cab shots and the vivid camera movements are all burnt firmly into my brain. Everyone that makes up the main cast for this film kills in their performance, and the ending of the film is not only a brutal one, but an ironic one in regards to where Travis lands in the eyes of those who make up the world of the film. Martin Scorsese has made more amazing films than some directors have made, period (amazing or otherwise), but for my money’s worth, none of them are as powerful or well put together as Taxi Driver.

13 notes · View notes

bonniebelleklyde · 3 years

Note

i am,,,, in love with your writing 🥺

okay, miss bonnie ma’am, i have a question, do you have personal headcanons regarding the sides’ appearance or do you just go with them all having Thomas’ face?

Thank you!! I’m so glad you’ve been enjoying my writing :).

This is actually an interesting ask for me, and I don’t think I’ve talked about it on here before, but my thinking in terms of physical appearances is probably different from what you might expect because I have some difficulty visualizing faces. That comes from my having a similar difficulty recognizing people by their faces out in the real world. Prosopagnosia has been suggested but never formally diagnosed. Writing is actually a cool way for me to test my own visualization ability because I’ve developed a bunch of coping mechanisms over the years, and it’s nice to put them into practice without the pressure of having to recognize someone in real life.

One of my coping mechanisms is to look for other defining characteristics that don’t require me to have an understanding of the (to me) vague concept of a specific face as a whole. Is there a defining feature I can look for? A scar, birthmark, freckle pattern, etc. That’s one of the awesome things about Sanders Sides for me. The characters’ faces literally don’t matter! It’s all the same face! I can recognize them instead by their clothing which is not a problem for me at all. I’m also fine at recognizing expressions, and sometimes a person’s unique facial expression can help me recognize them, especially if I know them well. For example, my fiancé knows to smile at me when I look at him because I find his smile very distinct, and it helps me recognize him easily.

So yes, I do have personal headcanons when I’m writing the sides, but they’re the kind that help me keep them distinct from one another even when they’re not in their typical on-video clothing. That being said:

Janus is easy enough as is. His scales help me to keep him distinct in my mind in the same way that a distinct freckle pattern would be an indicator for me in real life. (And I do tend to replace his scales with freckles in human au’s!). I’ve also assigned him a rather distinctive grin.

Logan’s glasses help me out, but he isn’t always wearing them in my fics; plus, Patton has the same ones. So I give him unique eyes. They are darker than everyone else’s and a bit rounder and larger as well.

Patton always, always has curly hair in my mind. I don’t know where I got this from, but it’s there!

Remus has a big, toothy grin, and I’ll often see him with a scar above his right eye. Again, I don’t have a specific origin for that other than the fact that scars are something I look for when trying to recognize people in my daily life.

I actually don’t give Roman “extra” features most of the time. I think it’s because I always visualize him in red clothing— and I never visualize any of the others in red— and I tend to distinguish him from the others more from his voice than his appearance. He’s just...loud. In the best way!

Virgil’s eyeshadow is a godsend, much like Janus’s scales. As is his love of hoodies and his slouch. Sometimes I give him dimples!

I’m sorry if I did a terrible job of explaining haha normally I spend so much time compensating that I don’t ever end up explaining any of this. It was actually pretty cool to talk about though, so I’d welcome any follow up questions you might have!

#headcanons #physical appearances #face blindness #ask #rizzyluke

7 notes · View notes

ordinaryschmuck · 3 years

Text

Top 20 BEST Animated Series of the 2010s-1st Place!

And now.

For real this time.

What is hands down.

The Best.

Animated series.

In the 2010s.

Is…

(Pause for dramatic affect)

#1-Adventure Time (2010-2018)

I mean...what else?

The Plot: The magical land of Ooo has many things: A kingdom made of candy, a sociopathic Ice King, and even a self-proclaimed Vampire Queen. Amongst all this chaos are two adventures: A human boy named Finn, the Human, and his magical dog/best friend/adopted brother (yes, really) named Jake, the Dog. These two then go on adventure after adventure, facing against the many oddities that the Land of Ooo offers. What type of dangers? Well...you’re just going to have to watch the show to find out.

Before I start praising the crap out of this show, there’s one thing I want to get off my chest. You see, I hate Top X lists that always end with “the one that started it all.” It comes across as lazy because there is no way the first story tops every other one after it. Case in point: when looking at the best episodes of your favorite shows, how often do you see the first episode making the top ten, hell, even the top five? Not often, I bet. And sure, you can make the argument that “Without X, there wouldn’t have been Y,” but is that even a fair comparison? Sure, Disney wouldn’t have been as big as it is now without Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs being a success, but does that make it right to ignore great movies like Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992), and The Lion King (1994)? Sure, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope is the reason why fans love to hate Star Wars in the first place, but how often do you hear people saying Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back is the best of the franchise. And sure, the Marvel Cinematic Universe wouldn’t have existed without Iron Man being a box office hit, but with movies like Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, can you really say Iron Man is the best in the franchise anymore? To me personally, if you’re going to pick “the one that started it all,” then it better be something that can outshine “it all.” This is why I chose Adventure Time as the best-animated series of the 2010s. Not because it’s a show that practically sparked the existence of almost every show on this list, but because it really is that good of a series. Unfortunately, with a series that really is that good, there will be people who try to pick it apart. This is why I’m going to do my best to defend against some criticism that Adventure Time seems to face.

The first criticism I want to talk about is one that hasn’t even occurred to me until I watched JelloApocalypse's video called, “So This is Basically Adventure Time.” In that video, I realized that Adventure Time doesn’t really have a proper storytelling structure. Hell, most episodes don’t even have a conclusion. They just stop almost randomly. But there’s a remedy to this problem, and it's one that I discovered somewhat effortlessly during my rewatch of the show. And that solution is to stop looking at Adventure Time as a series of episodes and more of a series of experiences. What do I mean by that? Well, while watching, you can either have a good experience or a bad experience. A fun experience, or a depressing experience. A philosophically brilliant experience or a randomly stupid experience. All of which can happen separately or conjoined in every episode. Personally, I like this style of storytelling because I’m more likely to remember the experience of watching something rather than the basics of what is being viewed. However, as JelloApocalypse has proven, not everyone is going to be ok with this style. This is fine, as everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Just remember that if it doesn’t work for you, that doesn’t mean it won't work at all. Case in point: there’s a reason that this show got ten seasons.

However, with those ten seasons come the inevitable seasonal rot. Which, in this case, can easily be explained. Halfway through season five of Adventure Time, series creator Pendelton Ward left and made Adam Muto the head showrunner. And where Ward’s style relied on being random and hilarious, Muto took the series in a more philosophical direction. Several fans were turned away from this aspect, but I like to argue that this isn’t seasonal rot and more of a series’ development. Tons of shows on this list went through their own transitions, some subtle and some drastic. Whether or not you’ll be ok with those decisions is entirely dependent on who you are. And personally, I actually enjoyed the direction that Adventure Time took. While I was entertained by how hilarious the original seasons were in Ward’s run, Muto caused me to think more intensely than any other show I have seen in my life. This is why, once again, I would like to point out that just because it didn’t work for you doesn’t mean that it won’t work at all.

But one thing that didn’t work for me, and one criticism that I’m inclined to agree with, were how some characters got treated in later seasons. Now to be fair, most of the characters actually become more interesting as the series goes on (Ice King, Marceline, BMO, Susan Strong, etc.) There are just two characters that got a little iffier compared to others: Finn and Princess Bubblegum. The main reason why Finn’s character seemed to fail is that the writers focused more on Finn's love life (or lack thereof). I genuinely believe that Adventure Time has some fantastic romantic relationships, but that aspect of Finn’s character is easily the most uninteresting. It’s even worse when an episode focuses on his armorous hangups through past...mistakes. I even heard that this decision ruined Finn as a character for some people, which I can totally see why. Luckily the show course-corrected itself, and by season six, it started focussing on an aspect of Finn’s character that is actually interesting: His family. Not to give away any spoilers, but let’s just say that Finn gets significantly more fascinating through this decision. Unfortunately, one decision that never got better was how the show treated the one and only Princess Bonnibel Bubblegum. This character started off as a gentle/playful ruler who was as sweet as her kingdom. Only to evolve into a sociopathic control freak who is obsessed with science. What went wrong is that the show goes so far as to say that she’s always been that way, even since she was a kid. I guess she just was good at hiding it in early seasons. Once again, the writers try their best to course-correct Bubblegum, but all they did was make her bearable than despicable.

But while Bonnie doesn't work for me, do you want to know what does? Literally everything else about this show. One of the reasons why Adventure Time is the best series on this list is because it has elements of every other show that has already been mentioned before it. You see, Adventure Time can have: Hilarious comedy, intense action, superb animation, creative ideas, compelling drama, catchy music, thought-provoking stories, good romantic subplots, gay romantic subplots, great lore and backstory, intriguing mysteries, and, most important of all, bacon pancakes. All of which can be handled in ten to eleven minutes, where most shows struggle within twenty-two.

But one element that stands out among the rest is Adventure Time’s serialized storytelling. You see, there are two different types of storytelling: Plotting and pantsing. Plotting is how it sounds: You come up with ideas beforehand and work your way into making them come to life. Pantsing is where the goal is to basically make things up as you go along and try to make everything connected afterward. The ladder is the route Adventure Time takes. Every single amount of lore, character development, and even surprise twists were thought up almost on the spot. And one might think that this makes things more complicated, but when I rewatched the series in 2019, a solid 99.9% of what’s written lines up. Sure, there are small things that get confusing or downright forgotten. But that’s the keyword: small. It’s the big things that the writers try their best at explaining away, which can be much appreciated. And while I can love a show for creating a well-crafted story, I got to give Adventure Time respect for doing the same thing just by improvising. But do you want to know the real reason why I stuck with this show? And why do all the elements mentioned before manage to work so well? The same reason why any show can work so well: The characters.

And yes, I know I just complained about how certain characters were nearly ruined in this series, but that doesn’t change how good they are. Almost every character that the show focuses on has a level of intrigue to them, and characters that don’t still manage to be incredibly entertaining, to the point where a worm’s butt can carry an episode by itself (Yes. Really). But nothing beats the central duo, and I’m being honest when I say they make the series enjoyable. Finn and Jake not only have such an entertaining brotherly dynamic, but the two of them are just so much fun that I can’t help but smile whenever they’re on screen. They’re easily the best thing about the show, as well as the most entertaining characters in it. This is saying something because Adventure Time has a LOT of characters. One might say too many. In fact, one could argue that Adventure Time suffers from the too-many-characters syndrome, which I can absolutely see. However, every character is so unique and creative that to this day, I still remember the Tree Witch in the episode “To Cut a Woman’s Hair.” From her voice to her design to even Tree Witch's creative and hilarious way to convince Finn to get her some princess's hair.

This brings me to another great thing about the show: Its endless amount of creativity. Everything that Adventure Time does is something you will never see anywhere else. From all the unique ways the show has Jake use his stretchy powers, to also having a vampire drink the color red instead of blood, Adventure Time is always a show that leaves me scratching my head wondering, “Why hasn’t someone else done this before?” And the best part is, no other show can do the ideas that Adventure Time has had. Because there is no way of doing it without coming across as a carbon copy. Which I can appreciate. Believe it or not, I would rather see an idea done once and never again, rather than repeated to the point where it becomes stale. Letting Adventure Time keep its creativity helps the show stand out among the rest and prevents it from being forgotten through time.

Thus, we come to the real reason why Adventure Time is the best-animated series on this list: Memorability. When doing a rewatch of the series, I was surprised by how many episodes I somehow remember. In fact, out of over two hundred episodes, I only manage to forget one (which coincidentally managed to be an episode I hate). I honestly don’t know why so many episodes managed to stick with me. Maybe because the show is so creative that it’s hard to forget. It's probably because the characters are instant icons that their impact just won’t leave me. Hell, perhaps it’s because the show is so gosh dang weird that my brain refuses to forget a second of it. No matter what the reason is, it all still stuck. And I’m not going to lie, I feel as though there are going to be a lot of shows I'll forget over the years. But ten years from now, something tells me I’m never going to forget Adventure Time.

Now that I think about it, there really have been many great cartoons over the previous decade. And we owe it all to Adventure Time. The act of being unique and creative with one’s ideas came from Adventure Time. The idea of being more mature and deciding what should and shouldn’t be for kids came from Adventure Time. The fact that a show needs well-written characters to tell a great story came from Adventure Time. Even certain shows were made because creators worked on Adventure Time (looking at you, Steven Universe). Is the show perfect? No. Far from it, even. But when looking back at the many great series we’ve gotten in the 2010s and the many great shows we’ll get in years to come, I realize that the fun will never end WITH Adventure Time.

(Especially since we’re still getting it with four hour long specials on HBOmax)

#top 20 of 2010s #adventure time #what i thought about

5 notes · View notes