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traumatisedbabygay · 3 years

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for some reason youtube just recommended me a shit ton of video essays on the novel “Lolita”, and how its message has been warped through adaptation so much its doing what the og book warned against. I’d read the book years ago, but oh boy did this open up a whole lotta feelings for me...

so, being the bookworm little shit that i am, allow me to rant a while.

Lolita is a book by Vladimir Nakobov, whose protagonist is an unreliable narrator, about how he becomes infatuated with, and grooms a twelve year old girl called dolores (that he calls, Lolita). The book makes an effort to show that dolores is a kid, having her pick her nose, throw tantrums, adjusts wedgies, ect. In the book, you read as Humbert Humbert, the unreliable narrator, twists these childlike situations into something creepy and sensual, to justify his own pedophilia.

Now, you’d think that in a book with an, I’ll repeat, UNRELIABLE narrator, any directors wanting to adapt it into film would take every written sentence with a heap of salt. Humbert Humbert is a narcissist. A predator. A disgusting old man with a obsession for his step daughter (whom he intentionally made his step daughter, so that he could groom her.)

But NO. Kubrik (the director of Lolita’s first film adaptation), made the 14 YEAR OLD actress become a “seductress”. He validates Humbert’s infatuation by placing responsibility on this CHILD, because she’s the one draped on a sun lounger in a “sexy” bikini, she’s the one placing long, exaggerated kisses to Humbert’s cheek, she’s the initiator.

It’s turning a story about how pedophilia and grooming is disgusting, and turns it into a love story. The actress is A MINOR. The character herself is A MINOR. And whilst, granted, Kubrik aged her up to 14 so it’d be allowed a theatre film release, it doesn’t fucking matter. She’s still a child.

By unnecessarily sexualising dolores in the film, not only did kubrik literally appeal to pedophile like Humbert Humbert, but he validated their disgusting fetish. Instead of showing us Humbert infer things this CHILD does as sexy, show us the CHILD being normal, and Humbert still being aroused by it. Show us how vile and twisted his view of her is. Show us that everything dolores “initiates” is in his head.

Don’t show him inferring thing right!

Another adaptation was made in the 90s, which wasn’t as awful, but was still pretty fucking awful in terms of betraying the og message of the book. The actress playing dolores was still a minor, and whilst she didn’t act as exaggeratedly seductive, and did act more “child-like”, she had her moments. And those moments were pretty much as bad as the Kubrik film. In the 90s film, though, they make Humbert too sympathetic, and personally it’s done in a way that is.....iffy, to say the least.

So now, we have a novel with several stage adaptations, operas and two feature length films made from it....and most of these adaptations literally become the thing the og book sought to destroy.

Pedophiles.

It doesn’t help that (because of some choice Lana Del Ray lyrics), tumblr had a phase in like 2014 where lolita was romanticised to a point where young girls saw the story as a “romance” rather than a psychological drama. They sought out a “love story” akin to that of Humbert and Dolores’s, and envied being in that situation. The media didn’t help. More copies of the book were produced, with new covers, many of which betrayed Nakabov’s demands. He asked for no young girls to ever be on his book cover, for...obvious reasons given the books message and Nakobov’s personal stances.

Did cover designers listen after he died? Of course they fucking didn’t.

People got Lolita copies with teenage girls’ legs on the cover, girls suggestively sucking lollipops, girls in compromising positions....which is disgusting, misleading, and a fucking betrayal of the author.

Nakobov one taught at a university, and when several girls dressed up as Lolita for halloween, he was horrified.

Do I blame Kubrik for most, if not all of this? Yeah, pretty much. He made the decision to romanticise the story in his adaption...the rest just followed suit because it sold and fit their model for society. It catered to the heterosexual male gaze, especially the gaze of pedophilic men, and in a patriarchal society that benefits a lot off of sexualising women (particularly YOUNG women), thats the perfect combination.

So, why, at 4:38 in the morning am I writing a fucking essay on tumblr about a book i read ages ago and almost forgot existed?

idfk

I guess i was just super pissed at how warped the message of the book got through time. It was like a massive, 60+ year long game of (for lack of a better term) Chinese Whispers. And at the end of the game, in the 2010s, we were so far away from the original point of the novel that we may as well have been talking about a different book.

Nakobov is probably thrashing and rolling and turning in his grave, because a cautionary tale about child grooming somehow became a “love story” idolised by a large sum of teens/young adults on the internet.

It is a betrayal of the author, a disgrace to the novel, and as a writer it’s really pissed me off.

it’s now 4:48 exactly in the morning, and this rant has gone on for WAYYY too long already. I doubt anyone even ended up reading this whole thing, but hey, that’s what tumblr is for, right? Anonymously ranting about random subjects at ungodly hours, instead of taking ur sleep medication and lying down like a responsible person.

That’s why this site is a breeding ground for chaos.

And honestly I’d have it no other way.

So...yeah. Nakobov deserved better.

#lolita #late night rants #humbert humbert #vladimir nabokov #stanley kubrik #this book was fucking fantastic and eye opening and yall turned into soft core cp #no im not mentally stable

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amazingphanisnotonfire-imagines · 3 years

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Reggie//i can't let you go now that i got it

Request: your last reggie mantle imagine was soooooo cute it was.... BIG FAV i'm still grinning! could you please do one where reader and reggie have been best friends their whole lives? she's super protective and sweet to him and like? she's been in love for years but has been hiding it well?? she gets him to come away with her to college because 'screw this town' and they live together? but eventually she starts going on dates and it makes him realize he's in love with her too?? mutual love confession

hey! so before you go any further trigger warning mentions of abuse, specifically around reggie and his dad. it’s not in detail but it is mentioned a few times so don’t read if that upsets you. the last thing i want you to be is sad. i hope you all have a good day anyway, whether you’re reading this or not! (title is from Børns ‘electric love’)

- For 18 years

- Reggie Mantle has been the only constant in your life

- Even when you were babies he was there

- Your mom’s sat beside each other in baby class, cooing and awing over each other’s kids

- All while 6 month old you stole 6 month old Reggie’s toy

- And then he cried so hard he vomited on not only himself but you as well

- Which then made you cry even louder

- And then your mom’s were asked to leave

- So instead

- It became a weekly thing for your mom to take you to The Mantle’s

- While her and Mrs Mantle gossiped and drank tea

- You and Reggie would hit each other with various stuffed toys.

- As you got older

- The weekly visits turned into daily ones

- Especially when you moved three houses away from him

- You and Reggie started to see each other more than your own parents did

- Your mom still went over once a week

- But when she arrived you were always usually there

- Either stood in the kitchen getting a snack

- Or lying on Reggie’s bed watching an awful movie he just ‘had to show you’

- They usually involved a hybrid of two animals

- Sometimes mythical, sometimes not

- But in all of them they were usually taking over the world

- They also always had the same four actors in

- But despite how much you protested

- ‘reggie? are you being serious? we watched this one last time.’

- ‘no, we watched molemaid last time. this is medusamaid. they’re completely different’

- ‘oh, sorry. my mistake’

- You actually secretly loved them

- Because they made him happy

- You would watch in awe as he laughed at stupid jokes

- And how his eyes would always light up at a particularly gruesome part, no matter how badly CGI’d it was

- You also listened to the countless of theories as to how ‘hurrik9’ is clearly the prequel to ‘hellhounds’ because ‘they’ve got the same main character! it doesn’t matter if they’re not played by the same person. y/n, they’ve got the same name.’

- You also listened to him complain about the inconsistencies between ‘werewombats 1’ and ‘werewombats 2’

- ‘no matter how much the director stands by the decision to make them turn on each other, despite the first film clearly stating that that’s the last thing they’d do.’

- But the thing you loved the most about it

- Was that he was only ever this way with you

- You’d been sworn to secrecy when you walked in on him watching ‘dinocano vs uniquake’

- And you promised never to tell anyone about his secret passion

- Or the fact that he had a stack of notebooks filled with plots and mini scripts for his own films.

- Reggie may have gotten popular

- But to you, he’s still the same Reggie you’ve always known.

- Whose scared of clowns but won’t admit it

- And cried when watching Edward Scissorhands but if anybody asks it was you

- And who hates hot chocolate, but its the only thing he’ll drink when he’s sick

- He also only eats pink marshmallows in months ending in R

- And white ones every other month

- But in December he has both...because its Christmas.

- Yeah, you and Reggie are best friends

- Always have been, always will

- But it doesn’t stop you from wanting more.

- It doesn’t stop the longing looks when you think no one is watching

- Or the lingering touches whenever he hugs you

- It doesn’t stop your heartbeat picking up whenever he walks into a room

- Or how you forget how to breathe whenever he looks at you

- You look forward to everyday, even if you have a pop quiz or homework you only remembered the night before

- Because he’s going to be there to make you smile

- Even if he isn’t doing it on purpose

- You look forward to the countless of texts he sends

- No matter how weird or ridiculous

- Like when he text you at half three in the morning to ask if birds were real because somebody told him they weren’t.

- You then got a text straight afterwards telling you that it would be great idea for a plot

- And you still answer every single one

- No matter how stupid they are

- It’s really a wonder how you get any sleep with your phone being on loud all the time

- But it’s worth it

- Especially when you get texts like

- ‘he’s done it again’

- Reggie’s relationship with his father complicated to say the least

- You remember when you were younger they used to be best friends

- Reggie idolized him

- And you’d have conversations in Reggie’s tree house, about how much he wanted to be just like his dad when he grew up

- But when he did grow up

- And started to develop a personality that didn’t just revolve around football

- Reggie no longer wanted to be just like his dad

- He wanted to be the furthest thing from him

- The first time it happened

- Reggie tried his hardest to hide it from you

- And for the first time in 8 years

- You went two days without seeing each other

- On the third day though

- You’d had enough

- So you went round to see him

- But when you asked his mom if he was in

- She lied and told you he had just gone out

- Even though you could clearly see him trying and failing to hide on the stairs

- So you did what any normal friend would do

- You climbed through his bedroom window

- With about as much grace and steal as you could muster

- Which surprisingly, wasn’t a lot

- And you gave him the fright of his life

- ‘what the hell are you doing here?’

- ‘you’re avoiding me’

- ‘i’m not. i’ve just been...busy’

- ‘doing what? fighting?’

- ‘what?’

- ‘your eye’

- ‘oh yeah...that’

- That was when you knew something was wrong

- You’ve known Reggie your entire laugh

- And you know the three things he’ll always boast about

- Girls, football and fighting

- ‘what happened?’

- When he told you

- You couldn’t believe what he was saying

- You wanted to find Marty Mantle and give him a black eye...see how he likes it

- But Reggie begged you not to do or say anything

- ‘it’ll only make it worse’

- ‘but its wrong. he should be locked up’

- ‘who’s going to believe me?’

- ‘me’

- ‘see...it was only one time anyway’

- So you agreed, reluctantly

- And you so wanted to believe it

- But then a few weeks later he turned up to school with a bust lip

- A month after that another bruise around his eye that he tried to hide behind sunglasses

- And by the time graduation rolled around

- Both of you had lost count of the sunglasses and excuses

- For three years he’d been trapped in a house with a father who thought hitting was the same as love

- And a mother who pretended it didn’t happen

- But now college was round the corner and that meant a chance for both of you

- Or at least thats what you thought

- ‘you didn’t get in?’

- ‘i didn’t get in.’

- ‘to any of them?’

- ‘nope’

- ‘reggi-’

- ‘it’s fine. my dad has always wanted me to work for him. i guess this will make him happy. even if i am the cleaner’

- ‘reg-’

- ‘please go’

- That summer was the longest one of your life

- It was even longer that the time Reggie had to get his appendix out and so you couldn’t hang out for a 3 weeks.

- For two and a half months

- You heard nothing from Reggie

- You text, called, DM’d and even E-mailed

- But you got nothing

- You went round at all times of the day to try and talk to him

- And every time Mrs Mantle answered and told you he was either out or busy

- Doing homework was her favourite excuse

- And Reggie has only ever done homework when you were doing the majority of it

- You even tried climbing in through his window again

- But he locked it

- So you watched every morning as he dragged himself into his dad’s car

- Wearing a stiff suit and a miserable expression

- No matter how hard you tried to get to him before the left

- How fast you ran or how early you got to his house

- They were always long gone before you managed to get anywhere close to him

- You missed the midnight texts about nothing

- You missed his stupid jokes

- You missed watching an entire room light up whenever he walked in

- You missed the way he made you feel, even if he was unaware of it

- You even missed watching his god-awful movies

- You just missed him

- And when he missed your leaving party

- That was the final straw

- At 7am the next morning

- You shoved the last of your boxes in the back of your car

- Said goodbye to your parents

- And drove away

- Three houses down the street

- Making sure your parents had gone back inside before stopping

- You sat outside for a few minutes

- Trying to think of what to do or say

- You knew his mom would answer the door

- And that you’d get the same excuses

- You also knew from the past few experiences that his window would still be locked

- So you threw rocks at his bedroom window in the hopes that when he’d check to see what it was, he’d leave it unlocked

- And he did!

- You watched from behind a bush as he hung his head out the window to look around

- His brow furrowed and hair messy

- Clearly he’d just woke up

- You couldn’t help the smile twitching at your lips

- You’d missed that face

- Climbing the window was a lot harder than it used to be

- Mr Mantle had taken the ladders away

- Another reason as to why he sucked

- But you managed eventually

- And you almost died only twice

- Which is good

- It’s better than three

- You landed on the carpet with a loud thud that made him jump half way across the room

- ‘y/n. what the hell are you doing here?’

- ‘it’s moving day. and i must say i’m very disappointed at the lack of preparation on your part. have you even started packing yet?’

- ‘it’s not funny y/n’

- ‘i know. do you see me laughing?’

- ‘i’m being serious y/n. just leave’

- ‘no’

- ‘what?’

- ‘the last time you told me to leave, i listened and i didn’t see you for two months, so no’

- ‘what about college’

- ‘what about it?’

- ‘it starts in three days’

- ‘i know. and if we stand here any longer we’re going to miss it. so get packed and lets go. it’s a nine hour drive and i’m not doing all of that alone’

- ‘you know i can’t go’

- ‘says who?’

- ‘my dad, every single college i applied for and me’

- ‘listen to me reggie. you are my best friend, you have been since we were babies. there’s not a part of my life you haven’t been in. do you really think that would stop at college?’

- ‘we didn’t spend the summer together’

- ‘and it was the worst summer of my life’

- ‘same...but that might have been because i was spending 12 hours a day in an office’

- ‘rude. but i’ll take it!’

- ‘i did miss you though. it was weird not seeing your face everyday’

- That makes your cheeks heat up and you have to force the flutter in your chest to go away

- ‘it always cheers me up’

- There it goes again and you want to claw at your chest until it’s no longer there

- Hope is a terrible thing to have when you’ve been in love with your best friend for your entire life

- ‘you always cheer me up’

- Oh dear...

- ‘i love you...a-as a friend. this summer has been the longest and most depressing for both of us. i don’t want to live the rest of my life like that. i need you reggie. so please pack your bags, say screw you to your dad and to this town and lets go’

- ‘what about money? where am i going to live?’

- ‘we’ll figure that out on the way there. just hurry up’

- And he did

- You and Reggie threw the majority of his belongings into any bag you could find

- He took all the money he’d been saving out of the poorly disguised fake plant

- And wrote a nice little note for his parents

- You also may have added a few choice words to it

- But what Reggie doesn’t know won’t hurt him

- And the two of you climbed into your car and never looked back

- The 9 hour car ride was the most fun you’ve ever had

- It was like you were trying to fit the entire summer you’d lost into those few hours

- It was filled with off key singing

- And stories of your summer

- His favourite being about Archie being tricked into going skinny dipping by himself

- You laughed loudly like nothing had happened

- And cried silently because everything had

- Thankfully when you arrived on campus, it was already night

- So you managed to sneak Reggie into your room

- And when you nervously told your roommate

- She just grinned at you

- ‘it’s fine, my boyfriend will probably be staying over a lot too’

- ‘oh, he’s not my boyfriend’

- ‘we’re not together’

- ‘...okay’

- She said with a knowing smile and you and Reggie shared a look

- And a year filled with adventures started

- Reggie got a job as a bartender with a little help from Veronica

- And you started your classes

- But nothing is ever easy

- At least not when it involves you or Reggie

- It turns out hiding a whole human is a lot more difficult that you anticipated.

- It involves Reggie squeezing into your closet

- And a whole team of people to get him to and from the showers

- But it was also difficult for another reason

- Because it was easy to hide your feelings from him when you lived in separate house

- But now you’re sharing a room

- And a bed

- And every time he would wrap his arms around you

- And pull in for a half asleep cuddle

- You’d forget how to breathe

- You’ve never been more excited to wake up

- Because he’d be all messy hair and parted lips with just a little bit of drool coming out of them that it would be cute instead of gross

- And when he said good morning in the same deep, tired voice

- You wanted to live in that feeling forever

- But then 2nd year rolled around and everything changed

- It all started when you moved into your own apartment

- You knew you had to but there was a part of you that hoped you could keep everything the same

- You found a tiny, two bedroom flat that you could both just about afford

- Reggie was so happy to have his own room

- ‘i won’t have to sleep next to you and your freezing cold feet anymore’

- ‘i’ll just sneak into your bed when your fast asleep and put them on you then instead’

- ‘i thought we were supposed to be friends’

- It took a few weeks to get used to an empty bed

- But eventually you started to sleep properly

- And it was quite nice to have your own space again

- It meant you could study without having to listen to ‘nighthawk nightmare’

- Honestly, you don’t really know what the plot of that one is

- But you’ve still seen it 7 times

- You may be in love with him but it doesn’t mean he can’t be annoying sometimes

- And you were happy with going back to admiring from afar

- Your heart can’t get broken that way

- In fact a small part of you thought he felt the same way

- That one glimmer of hope you felt a year ago

- Came back all of sudden

- And soon

- You became aware of the lingering touches

- And the gifts he’d buy you just because

- He also asked what you wanted to watch for your movie night

- And he’s never, ever done that unless you were sad or sick

- And even then, when you broke your arm a few years ago, he chose the film

- The way he looked at you suddenly felt different

- You would feel him staring, but when you would check he would always be scrolling through his phone

- And you’re sure the was a little bit of flirtiness in his tone whenever he spoke to you

- But just because you think you can’t be burnt if you stand far enough away from the fire

- Doesn’t mean that the sparks can’t jump out and get you anyway

- Because all of sudden Reggie started bringing girls home

- And every time you saw a t-shirt that wasn’t yours on the sofa

- Or a pair of shoes discarded by the door

- You felt yourself die a little

- After a few weeks of this

- Something in you snapped

- You’d spent the majority of your life pining after some boy who saw you as nothing more than a friend

- And sometimes a small part of you thought as just an escape route

- So you moped for a few weeks before deciding it was finally time to move on

- Reggie would only ever see you as a friend

- And that’s fine

- The only way to move on, is to move on.

- So you waited for the right guy to move on with

- And there were a few

- But none of them were right

- Until you met Daniel

- Sweet Daniel with curly brown hair and dimples

- Who studied history

- And spent his days sitting in the coffee shop on campus

- For a few weeks the two of you spent your short interactions stealing glances and exchanging shy smiles

- That evolved to small talk with flirty undertones

- Until finally he asked you out

- And you said yes

- And you kept saying yes to each date afterwards

- They were fun too

- He’d take you to museum's and on picnics and at night he’d pick you up and you’d go star gazing

- He would make you laugh when he’d tell you a joke

- And make you blush when he’s whisper in your ear while staring up at the sky

- But he wasn’t him

- And that killed you

- It doesn’t matter how many time he takes you to watch some unknown indie film thats supposed to be the greatest thing ever made

- It has nothing on standing outside the only cinema in town that’s showing ‘sharkcano vs tigerana’ in the freezing cold with Reggie wearing an absolutely ridiculous costumes that Reggie threw together last minute and somehow roped you into wearing too.

- But what hurt even more was watching how Reggie acted around you when you and Daniel started dating

- He looked hurt whenever he saw the two of you together

- And you would watch him roll his eyes whenever you mentioned him

- Until eventually he would just avoid you all together

- Do you know how hard it is to avoid someone when you’re living in the same 2 bedroom flat that barely gives two foot to yourself?

- It’s hard

- But Reggie finds a way

- Eventually you’re more roommates than friends

- And you really don’t know how much more you can take

- You feel like you’re about to break

- And Daniel can see that too

- So on Friday night he invites you to go drinking with him and his friends instead of staying in and moping

- ‘bye, i’m going out’

- ‘wait’

- The speed of which he runs from his room and into the living room where your stood, startles you to say the least

- ‘what?’

- ‘don’t go out with him.’

- ‘why not? what ever george has told you about is a lie. george does that. he once told a bunch of people that you streaked in an old people’s home and almost killed his grandmother’

- ‘because he isn’t me’

- You’ve dreamt of those words

- Built them up in your head for years

- But in all of your daydreams, there’s never been a scenario like this one

- Not one where you’re about to leave to go on a date with another guy

- ‘reggie? what are you talking about?’

- You need to make sure he’s saying what you think he’s saying

- Because you can feel yourself hoping again

- And you know if he doesn’t mean what you want him to

- You don’t think you’ll be able to recover

- ‘i love you y/n. you’re my best friend, you always have been, you always will be and i love you.’

- ‘reg-’

- ‘please tell me you feel the same way’

- ‘i-’

- In your head you had a full oscar worthy speech planned out just in case this ever happened

- But now you’re here in the moment.

- You have no idea what to say

- ‘it doesn’t matter. just leave’

- ‘no’

- ‘what?’

- ‘do you really think i’m going to walk away from you after that? when have i ever walked away from you?’

- ‘i-no’

- ‘i love you too by the way. if you care’

- ‘shut up...wait really?’

- ‘yes i do. i’ve loved you for as long as i can remember so are you going to just stand there or are you going to kiss me?’

- ‘i’m definitely going to kiss you’

- ‘good’

- And he does

- He’s standing in front of you before you can catch your breath

- His hands reach up to cup your cheeks

- His lips part as he stares down at you

- And you’ve never seen him look at anyone the way he’s looking at you

- Like you’re everything good and light in the universe

- And like he’s also been waiting just as long for this moment

- Maybe he has

- Maybe he’s been waiting all his life for this

- He just didn’t know

- You feel whatever breath you had left leave your lungs

- His lips are soft against yours, but he gets his point across

- And you’ve never been happier

- All the heartache and tears

- The laughter and stupid jokes

- The 3am texts

- The constant worrying

- The early mornings and late nights

- The damage to limbs from trying to fit in tiny closets

- And the scrapes on your ankles and bruising on your legs from crawling through his bedroom window

- They’re all worth it

- ‘are you still going on your date?’

- ‘what do you think?’

- ‘good. because they’ve just released werewombats 3’

#reggie mantle #reggie mantle imagine #reggie mantle x reader #reggie mantle x you #reggie mantle x y/n #reggie #reggie imagine #reggie x reader #riverdale #riverdale imagine

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lucidpantone · 4 years

Note

What are your thoughts on why 90% of the clips in S4 were so short? Do you have any intel on that...

I mean let’s ignore the fact that regardless of length, all the clips lacked any substance anyway cause we’ve covered that. Despite all the many obvious flaws with S4 that we’ve all written verse and chapter about in the last few months I just find the clip length choices really bizarre? Wtfock usually have a few quite meaty clips throughout a season but we really got none here.

I suppose the argument is there that it was because of covid restrictions while filming etc but I dunno, if you’re shooting for a full day you can easily get more than a minute or two worth of content...and it doesn’t all need to be dialogue. Do you think it’s again just a combination of all the factors we’ve already discussed; inexperience of the team/misunderstanding of the format etc?

I don’t really know where I’m going with this ask. But just interested to hear your thoughts because it was yet another thing that added to the disjointed feel of the season.

(Sorry I don’t mean to keep making you repeat and repeat to anons that it was a plethora of factors that failed season 4 😂)

similar anon: Do you know why they changed director as well? Maybe they will go back to the old directors like they will go back to the old writers now they are in properly scheduled for S5?

similar anon: If they'd integrated her influencer lifestyle in the show, i think the sponsored content could have worked. As an influencer who was also trying to save money, it should have made it 1000x easier to incl. the sponsored content as a part of her world w/out the audience feeling ambushed by it. The sponsorships could've been peppered into the clips, not by force, but by incorporating more bts of her life as a influencer alongside her personal life

The old director went to direct sputnik’s new show Mesjes. I also have a theory I think we got so much sponsored content because sputnik spent so much money producing Mesjes/new content they couldn't afford the hit of not having a wtfock season air in 2020. wtFOCK is clearly their cash cow and producing a new show is expensive and I think they probably budgeted their entire 2020 production profits on wtfock existing so they couldn't delay till 2021. Thats just what I predict.

Also it would have been well over a year till yasmina’s season would have aired. Also I think the clips were short because for some odd reason wtfock got it into their heads that we wouldn't be open to exploring a new character who wasnt Moyo or part of the squad and in a way they are right. We never asked for Kato and all of us were highly disappointed when we got her but it wasnt for the reasons they think. For one we clearly did not want a white protagonist in the age of BLM. If we had to have a new character because the fandom isnt dumb we know about the blocks then commit to developing them. Give them an actual narrative arc and am sorry I don’t want to hear about the covid excuse. Think about Druck how much time did we spend with nora just in her house or kiki’s apt? Its obvious production had to shoot a ton of druck in Nora’s house or they use a lot of parks/campsites/parking lots and the school. There was a ton of “walking to places” too in druck because of covid but what I wish wtfock would have done with Kato instead of the useless 1 min daily clips which btw I think didn't help the director catch how bad the season was going because he was seeing the playback in super short clip form was to use Kato being stuck in her home as a form to get to know her. She is influencer why didn't we have clips with her spending hours looking at other’s insta. Maybe do a sponsored clip with her trying to do a make up tutorial and spotlight the brand but maybe in the clip we see her do 50 takes because she is a perfectionist. Let her go to the gym but merely so she can put it on the gram and be that annoying person that “got up at 5am for a workout”. I just dont get why they didn't develop this girl its like they were to scare to give her any meaning and the only meaning she got was via Moyo but then that was weird because it made the fandom be like why are we following this girl again? if moyo is in 80% of the clips why do we care about her? Once again poor judgement Moyo could have been there but thats not an excuse not to develop her. So finally my thoughts It just seems that production was afraid we wouldn't watch unless the squads or moyo were there. They wouldnt let go of their daily drops(because god knows we needed 3 sponsored clips a week) and also to us spending time with the main in her room just seeing her life its like Kato became background in her own season and she only showed up to insult people and be problematic.

#lucidpantone anons

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juliankinney · 4 years

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━━ ( alex fitzalan + cis male + twenty-two ) oi , have you seen julian kinney around ? he lives in flat 14 in bedroom 4 ? i was meant to meet them this morning at bean me up before our lecture but he didn’t show . no ? well , shit . if you do see them , can you tell them i’m looking for them ? they’re a 4th year computer science student from madrid , spain & you’ll know it’s them because they might just remind you of a stack of unread books , the sound of keyboard typing at three in the morning , coffee creamer in every flavor , & unprescribed pills if that helps at all . just be careful , he can be a little distant , critical , & compulsive sometimes . —- oh don’t look like that , they’re usually ingenious , reliable , & confident most of the time . ✏ y! , 22 , she/her , cst

alright whats up guys, as jd once said, greetings and salutations!! im y and this here is julian, who i’ve known for two hours but adore already anyway. i usually play dumbass boys and he’s no exception, but i like to think he might just be a little less dumb than the rest of them. so lets jump into it!!! ♡

for starters here is his messy pinterest board that i made.. like i said... it is a mess, and still a work in progress but y’all can have it anyway!! (fun fact: was gonna make him texan but pepper called him country boy and i was triggered!!!!!!!!!!)

backstory:

julian was the conception of two teenagers in love during the 90′s in spain; a local and a tourist. the pair were just seventeen when they became parents but it was a whole ordeal at the time because his father’s side of the family did not want anything to do with this impregnated nobody. it wasn’t his grandfather’s vision!!! his son was supposed to go into adulthood unscathed by his mistakes!!! as you can guess julian’s mom side of the family were your blue-collared society while his father’s side was more white-collared. at the time his mother was a student and helped her own mom with the family tailor shop while her father worked as a cook in a restaurant. on the other end of the spectrum, the kinney’s were in the film industry and of old money. needless to say, the two families had little in common.

the kinney’s tried to pay this girl off but her family was 100% not having it and after many arguments and empty threats they came to an agreement. said agreement was that julian would have his rightful surname and would stay in spain and the family would receive a weekly stipend for his expenses. in return no one would say a thing to the press— which, honestly was only ever a threat because the kinney’s wanted to pretend like nothing had happened.

and so julian grew up in madrid with a single mother and the help of his grandparents. as far as he knew his father had died shortly after he had been born and had been madly in love with his mother (that part was true). the only reason he didn’t share a name with the rest of his family was because the pair had never married, which, would have been the truth regardless. everything was fine; he grew up working at the family shop, attended school, skipped school, maintained amazing grades while simultaneously spending 1/3rd of the time in detention, lost his virginity to marisol cordova in her lilac colored room, etc. he had the most basic upbringing a kid could have.

then his father died. his real father. and suddenly, on paper, he was well off. it wasn’t easy for his mother to tell him the truth when his grandfather stepped foot into the one story home like he had seventeen years ago with that sour look on his face, but she was forced to. she had no other choice. devastated as she was (and she was truly heartbroken), she told him the story of how one day during the summer of 96′ she met james kinney, and how the next year he came back. then, his grandfather informed him of his father’s will and how he’d have access to his inheritance once he turned eighteen.

it was... a lot to process, and as julian does when he feels overwhelmed, he got angry. he was very upset with his mother and even more so with this old man he was meeting for the first time who kept calling him shit like ‘his only grandson’ and ‘a kinney by blood’. it was infuriating for julian, and his mother further telling him about their weekly allowance among other expenses over the years did not help. at all.

that is how julian found out his father was a successful actor turned director, generally known for an action packed franchise released in the 2000′s. it was mind boggling— he’d turn on the tv only to see a picture of his now dead father on screen, news coverage of the deadly car accident that occurred during en route to manchester on every channel. it just didn’t make any sense and was very hard to feel sad for. besides, his mother had enough sadness for the both of them. at his funeral, the two had to stay in the back while the family tried to come up with a game plan of how things were going to move forward; james’ widow was not happy to see her husbands former lover and child at the scene.

anyways in spite the fact that julian wanted nothing to do with the kinney’s, his grandfather had other plans. a vision of his own for the only grandchild his son had brought into the world, and that started with schooling. julian graduated and had no plans for college until his grandfather threatened to contest the will if he chose to stray from the path, and they needed the money; so college it was. a college of his grandfather’s choice of course, and what better place than somewhere closed off enough to distance julian from the outer world but elite in its own right?

his grandfather’s plan basically is to make him successful, and being that julian has no interest in their world, he’s had to compromise and just live with the fact that julian is just going to be your regular everyday man. he’s only really doing all of this because he feels guilt over the years but not guilty enough to tell the world that there’s an extra kinney lying around (last names are so common right!?!??!) . however, he still wants him to be in the family. as in everyone in the direct family knows of him and he gets to be involved in all family affairs, etc, but julian just does not give a fuck about them fksdhjfs specially because of how they fucked over his mom and how james’ widow is so fucking bitter about the will.

ANYWAYS he’s been at the school for four years now, gets his schooling paid by his grandfather but still has a job because pride or whatever, and will hack into your shit!

personality/hc’s

i love him, he’s sweet but also not annoyingly sweet. as in yeah he’s nice and polite but has no problem squaring up due to his short temper. kind of blunt sometimes though, and either is dumb or acts dumb if he says something that might hurt someones feelings. like oh.. sorry you feel that way ksjfsdkln

super smart???? has amazing grades and constantly does his work; knows how to multitask and balance his life out (for the most part... at least until he burns himself out). an intellectual™ . not an eboy but i guess u could say a little bit of a gamer,, has tik tok downloaded on his phone, the dad friend i guess

is either in one end of the spectrum or the other when it comes to socializing. most of the time though he finds it exhausting,, talking is hard but once he does start talking it’s like shut up dude no one cares about javascript

has a small pill problem,, he’s got to be successful somehow right !! also drinks lots of coffee and is a fan of coffee creamer, does not like the strawberry shortcake creamer though because ew. only tea he will drink is matcha green tea, anything else can suck it.

has also developed some ~anxious~ feelings , why ? idk, light trauma i guess. his pill usage sure doesn’t help though! loser! ... tbh maybe his anxiousness has grown over the years because he doesn’t know what he’s supposed to do after school like he has money (that he tries not to use if i’m being honest, would rather use the money he gains from his job which i haven’t decided what should be. leave me alone), and will have a degree, but he’s still just questioning everything?? things have just been weird

sometime during middle school years (idk whats the equivalent of this in spain, shut up) he got into computers and... i’m not proud of this but his first hack was into this girls account that he liked and bro all he wanted to do was see some titties man thats it i promise. that crush did not work out, obvs.

anyways yes he continued down this computer path and made an app during high school!!! it wasn’t successful at all and he eventually deleted it but good for him coding and shit!!!

would hack into school systems to help out his buds and their grades. yeah they could have just copied off of him but... where is the fun in that lads

sometime he be just looking up ‘james kinney interviews’ on youtube just to see who this dude was dshjkg poor lad

can speak english and spanish ,, has that lisp thingy spaniards have i hate it but i guess whatever

kind of messy honestly, can someone clean his desk

connections

literally anything just hmu i can’t come up with these things tbh

#pulled this out of my ass i literally just made him on the spot im jkshdsg #theflats:intro

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chongoblog · 5 years

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Hey I know that you all see me as the Grand Authority on Movie Opinions in that I am correct and can never be wrong and also my opinion on things is NEVER unsolicited because I’m literally the most important person on the internet and you CRAVE my opinions.

So I saw Shazam last night and I’m gonna talk about it under this readmore because I dunno how long it’s gonna be and I respect y’all’s dashes like that (plus if y’all don’t care abt what I thought then you can keep scrolling). There will be spoilers but I will clearly mark them.

So I’ve been thinking to myself on whether or not Shazam was the best DCEU movie. All things considered, it didn’t have too high of a bar to leap over, seeing how Wonder Woman, which was originally my favorite, had a lot of incredible moments, but was bogged down by a few of the scenes around those moments and a frankly terrible final act. And if I were to put it into numbers, (which people seem to love) I’d put Wonder Woman at about 50% INCREDIBLE 20% ehhhh and 30% GOD WHY, plus add a few bonus points for being so inspiring within its social context as a female-led superhero movie that isn’t terrible, sexualized or both. Shazam, on the other hand, doesn’t get those bonus points of social context, but has about a 60% Pretty Good and 40% ehhhh with one small bonus point for having one scene that personally hit me pretty hard that I’ll talk about later. It doesn’t reach any of the LOWS that any other film in the DCEU had, but at the same time, it didn’t really hit any of the highs either.

Something that’s worth addressing is that as someone who likes to partake in any and all drama because I’m a gremlin who loves seeing complaining, I saw plenty of DC fans complain that this movie was falling into a sort of trap set up saying “ITS ONLY BEING LIGHTHEARTED BECAUSE IT THINKS THAT IT HAS TO BE MORE LIKE MARVEL AND THATS WHY MORE PEOPLE LIKE IT” and I do want to address that because it’s a stupid argument. While Shazam is a departure from the DCEU’s more serious tone thus far, it’s not a black and white deal. DC isn’t strictly defined by being “the more serious Marvel” or vice versa. Being lighthearted did help Shazam out, not BECAUSE it was more like a Marvel movie, but because unlike movies like Batman v Superman, it didn’t try (and fail) to tackle more complex themes and down to earth schemes that made it lose focus and become an enormous mess. That being said, Shazam’s schemes and themes were much simpler, and it made for a much SMALLER mess if/when it did lose focus.

Before I dive into the spoilers, I’ll give my two cents on the film as a whole. Like I mentioned, the light-hearted tone did help out the movie, and it took itself a little less seriously with things while still balancing out some emotion in the story, and the whole theme behind it, while not PERFECTLY drawn out, still had a coherent message behind it. Visually, the movie was definitely trying to break out of the Zack Snyder mold that had been set up back with Man Of Steel, and while it still chills out in Low Saturation City a lot of the time, it IS doing a better job. Zachary Levi definitely deserves a shoutout in this movie for probably being the second best actor in the DCEU closely behind Gal Gadot in terms of casting choices, perfectly encapsulating the idea of Shazam, and pulling off the role of a Big Billy Batson, however he seems to have taken away the acting talent from half of the rest of the cast, because some of the acting in this movie is.....not great. And that’s not counting the child actors who did alright considering they’re child actors (Freddy in particular was fantastic).

The dialogue in this is pretty solid and indicative of the situation, and they really tried to lean into the idea that it’s some middle school (or early high I cant really remember) kid who just got these powers, and they do a pretty good job of that in both the dialogue and in the first half of the movie. And like I mentioned, there is a bit of Emotion in this movie that they really tried to deliver and they did a pretty good job delivering it. That being said, it’s very clear that they’re going for a kinda cheesy sort of vibe. Which makes sense, since the concept is Kid Becomes Superhero, which is ripe for picking like some kind of Cheese Tree....orchard.....thing.....and it leads to just a fun experience. It’s something that knows it shouldn’t be taken too seriously, which is why I’m writing an incredibly long analytical review of it, because I’m a curmudgeon like that.

ALRIGHT SPOILER TIME SCROLL DOWN TO THE VERY BOTTOM IF YOU DONT WANNA GET SPOILED

Lol alright so this spoiler section is gonna have a lot of negative points, so let me start with some positives.

The overall theme of this movie is sort of an idea of Found Family (which I’m an absolute sucker for), and there’s a subplot that follows this idea where Billy is looking for his mom. The movie starts showing a flashback where Billy’s mom gives him a compass saying “it’ll always help you find your way home” and then very shortly afterward, Billy gets himself seperated from his mother and had to be put into foster care and is now searching for his mother by looking everywhere he can to the point it causes him to run away multiple times. It’s not too surprising how this ends, with him finding his mother, only to find out that she just didn’t pick him up because she was 17 at the time and felt she COULDN’T take care of him. And that’s the point when he realizes “maybe my REAL family were the kids in the foster home all along”. Billy Batson sees that his birth mother’s life is tumultuous, taking on new lovers, working part time jobs, and not having time to even consider caring for Billy, moreso just hoping he turned out alright. Billy, as a sort of symbolic gesture, hands his mother the compass saying “you’ll need this more than me”. And then she replies with two words that just killed me for some reason.

“What’s this?”

I don’t know. It was a line that hit me. Kinda reflecting that sort of disconnect. Alright enough being nice, let’s talk things that are Alright but could be better.

The villain was alright. His character was pretty fun at the beginning, but after he got revenge on his father for Toxic Masculinity™ he became pretty boring, acting more like a CGI Monster Vending Machine. Of course it kinda leads into the whole Cheesy vibe they were going for, but it’s hard to make your movie seem like it’s gonna be campy and cheesy when your villain doesn’t really fall into the role once he actually fights the hero (also with the color palette). Just wish they would’ve sorta gone full Sam Raimi and just leaned into the campiness, with this movie kinda afraid to jump into the pool past its bathing suit.

And then there was the climax of the movie in the carnival, where I felt like it went a little bit downhill, not really being the best that it could be, but still pretty serviceable. The director seemed to be REALLY into using slo-mo, using it a little more than necessary to the point of being distracting, and while the Shazam concept was used in a few fun creative ways, there were some moments where it could have had more utility, or one moment in particular when he absolutely needed to change back and probably had time to say “Shazam” like twenty times over, but he didn’t, which was a LITTLE frustrating, but that’s way more nitpicky. Speaking of nitpicks, there were a few shots that were.....questionable (most notably the Santa.....moment? It seemed to be a clear funny moment, but it didn’t really land and didn’t flow either)

And also the climax has a bit of a fun twist moment that helps round out the Found Family moment where all of Billy’s adopted family also become superheroes, which is pretty sweet, but there was one SMALL nitpick that doesn’t overwhelmingly detract from anything but I found strange. Every character had a power, with one person showing the super strength, another showing super speed, another with lightning, another with flying, which were Shazam’s powers. And then Mary was there....and we don’t really get to see her powers? I did research and apparently she’s a character in the comics with all the powers of Shazam, but Mary was one of the only other characters with an arc and we don’t get to see her with any powers, which is a bit weird (we also don’t get to see her arc formally conclude. We can draw conclusions but still). So in the end it looks like Mary essentially kinda got Kairi’d. Oof.

But that’s really it for spoilers, in terms of the “bad” it’s really just that it didn’t really give it enough of an impact and while it knew what it wanted to be and isn’t disingenuous about it, it also doesn’t really commit to BEING what it wants to be.

ALRIGHT SPOILERS ARE ALL DONE YOU CAN LOOK NOW HERES MY BOTTOM LINE

Bottom line is that this movie is definitely flawed, and after consideration I don’t think I’d put it at the top of the DCEU, if only because Wonder Woman reached higher points than this one did, but that shouldn’t be a slight against Shazam at all. Heck, I would consider putting it a little bit above Captain Marvel if we’re inevitably comparing rivals.

So all in all I give it a Shazam/10. A good fun time. Not the BEST movie you’ll see this year, but you’re there to have a good time and you’ll have it.

#reviews i guess #dang im really just writing a review #ah well #shazam #dceu

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beansandco · 5 years

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Script for Documentary

Hello there, My name is George. I am currently enrolled at the Colchester Institute studying VFX & Animation. We create in adobe software and 3D software to composite effects into scenes and create movement of characters. However it’s really only Animation that I’m interested in, hand drawn and digital 2D especially.

Now I’ve never been much of a detailed illustrator but I can deal with cartoons and really thats all I want to do. The idea of drawing a character so many times that they come alive on screen is really captivating to me. In college I’ve created a couple short animations, all of them teaching me what it’s like to draw digitally. I soon discovered there is a lot more to it than I had originally thought. Just drawing the character in different positions isn’t enough, you need to think about the fluidity, consistency and weight of all movements. I decided to study the rules of animation set forth by the disney founders. I then implemented these into my FMP which has given me a deeper understanding as to what really makes the difference between an amateur and a seasoned animator. I learned to become quite accustom to Adobe Animate while making them and I now enjoy using it as my main tool to animate.

Despite all this, I’m held back by my lack of drawing skills. I enjoy drawing simple cartoons and with animation that’s generally a good thing. However since I have to make all parts myself for FMPs and such, backgrounds and other details are going to look lack luster, which could break the immersion. Working in a studio this might not be a problem, as there will be background artists and others that do the detailed work. Leaving the in-between animation my own duty. However you will still be expected to have artistic capabilities if you want to move up and become a key-frame artist or a producer/director.

I learnt about this from hearing the story of Hayao Miyazaki. He actually is where I take a lot of inspiration. His work was always about high risk, high reward. He would pay close attention to every little detail of a scene. So much so that the production time would be a painfully long task. There’s a saying that if you pause a Studio Ghibli movie at any point, it would look like a stand alone painting. What has this got to do with me? Well his attention to detail and hand drawn method of making animations are exactly what I aspire to reach. He stared as a in-between artist at Toei Studios, became a key-frame artist and eventually branching off to make his own films in his own studio. He did this, through a long laborious gaining of experience.

This is where university I think will help me. While I’m learning at university it will be far more specifically aimed at the practice of Animation, that I’ll be gaining lots of crucial practice. Most uni’s offer the chance to work with a partnered company for work experience at the end of the course which would be an incredible “foot in the door” opportunity. This is why my plans are so specific, finish college, go to uni and then get to work in a studio. Its the way a master like Miyazaki did it and its exactly what I plan to do.

I specifically want to go to, Norwich University of the Arts. Its a dedicated arts university, therefore most of their resources are put towards helping creative practitioners. Its also only an hour away from where I live and the accommodation is much cheaper than that of London's.

This all however depends if I can get into university. There are various obstacles that might make this difficult. The one I’m most concerned of is the creation of a portfolio. Portfolios are there to impress the Uni’s with things you have created and the creative journey behind them. For me I have a handful of short animations that took dozens of hours to create. My hope is they will understand this as animators themselves, how long a process it is to make them. With my lack of drawing skills however, that’s something I will have to just build up while I practice. My plan is to drawn progressively more detailed background for my animations, each one using a new technique like lighting and focus.

I’ve followed many animators, mainly because they often have a lot to say. Many recommend not getting into animation. They say it’s a long and mind bending process. But one thing they all say is that the end result is always worth it. One animator, Zach Hadel said, “Anyone can animate, it doesn’t matter their drawing skills”. Animation isn’t how real it LOOKs, its how real the world they’re in FEELS. Thanks for listening.

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femmesfollesnebraska · 5 years

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Artist-Poet Feature: Claudia Serea & Maria Haro

Pleased to feature artist Maria Haro alongside poet Claudia Serea with some of their collaborative work...

Where are you from? How did you get into creative work and what is your impetus for creating?

Claudia Serea:

I was born and raised in Romania, and I started writing poems when I was around 14 years old, in Romanian, of course. I wrote until my third year in college, then stopped. I immigrated to the U.S. in 1995 and took up writing almost 12 years later, this time in English. As for the reasons, I write because I believe I have something to say: my experience growing up behind the Iron Curtain, my immigration story, and the fact that I am constantly moving between two languages and cultures, not fitting perfectly in either of them. I also find inspiration everywhere around me, on New York City streets, in everyday life. I don't have to make up almost anything, just type what I see really fast. :)

Maria Haro:

I was borned in Madrid, Spain. Ever since I remember, I have been creating. My father is also an artist, so I grew up surrounded by art. I started my professional career in 1994 when I moved to New York City after graduating in graphic design.

My impetus for creating has evolved through the years. It started as something I liked to do, then something that I liked and I needed for a living, and now is evolving into something I need to do in order to make sense of it all.

Tell me about Twoxism, your current project and book, and why it’s important to you. What do you hope people get out of your work?

Claudia Serea:

I started the blog Twoxism in 2015 together with my friend, photographer Maria Haro—but the idea is older than that. The project concept came from Maria's friend, the Spanish photographer, Koldo Mirren Guinea Herran. He contributed some excellent photography to our project; he also designed the amazing cover and created the layout of the book. One of the poems I wrote for his beautiful photograph of tools was shared 1,600 times on StumbleUpon alone. I’m sure a lot of its appeal is because of this iconic image. Here it is:

Sometimes I feel like a mechanic

Sometimes I feel like a mechanic, hammer and wrench instead of hands,

fitting the small parts, turning them this way and that, until they lock together, tight, teeth clenched.

I test the wheels, try the belt, turn the engine on and off, and on again,

listening to the wheezing, the whirr, until it works, and the growl comes on,

and the propeller starts flipping and swooshing,

and the shiny thing lifts into the air and flies into the world,

leaving me behind with my greasy hands and grimy nails,

grinning.

Maria Haro:

Twoxism started as a poetry-photography collaboration blog (www.twoxism.com) for which I took the photos and Claudia wrote the poems they inspired. In April 2017, 33 selections from the blog became an art exhibition that opened in New York City. Recently, Twoxism became a book published in December 2018 by the Canadian press 8th House Publishing.

Twoxism is an invented word for all things two—among them, love, friendship, and relationships. We had a great response to the blog, with +15K page views and +40K impressions on Twitter and growing. As a project, it finds beauty in unexpected places and sees the mundane with redemptive eyes. As a book, it speaks of love and relationships in a new way. We hope others find it fresh, inspiring, and authentic. I personally started to better understand personal relationships through the photos I take and the lens of the artists who contribute to Twoxism.

Does collaboration play a role in your work—whether with your community, artists or others? How so, and how does this impact your work?

Claudia Serea:

I love collaborating with other artists. Collaboration gives my poems the chance to be shared with and enjoyed by more people. It gives the poem a new life. Apart from Twoxism, I collaborated with film directors who turned my poems into videos. My poem In Those years, No One Slept was set to music for choir by composer Rich Campbell, and the song won the top prize at the 2018 Uncommon Music Festival last August. I have another ongoing poetry-photography project with artist Mike Markham which, who knows, might become an exhibition or book in the future. And Maria and I we’ll keep Twoxism growing as long as it can. We are just getting started.

Maria Haro:

My biggest drive now is to discover what is possible through collaboration, and everything has to have a purpose. I am mostly interested in creating work than helps others using my design, photography, and artistic skills. I always have more projects on my mind that time to execute them and make the best of them. That is where collaboration really makes sense to me. Things are always better together.

Considering the political climate, how do you think the temperature is for the arts right now, what/how do you hope it may change or make a difference?

Claudia Serea:

Creativity knows no limits and no one can contain it, although some might try. The arts are hot in the U.S., and they will always be. Language is also extremely important in shaping our message and connecting us with emotion. Here is a poem from Twoxism that explores language’s important role, accompanied by Maria’s evocative photo:

About languages

In what language does the house painter paint?

Does the wind in Chile speak Spanish to the trees?

Do the gulls over the Hudson River cry Whitman’s verse?

And what about the Statue of Liberty?

In what language does she keep silent?

Coming from Romania, I feel fortunate to be in the United States and share my poems in English with the artists here. Who knew something like this could happen? I never thought I would get here in the first place. We get to write and express ourselves, and that is thrilling to me. I am very grateful for that. In turn, we must fight to open doors for others, and not create in a vacuum. There are countless artists and poets who live under oppressive regimes and don’t get this chance. We need to raise our voices and help them in any way we can. It’s an uphill battle, but I have faith we can contribute to the change.

Maria Haro:

Being an artist is hard, and it will always be, no matter where you are and what political climate you’re in. But it really helps to be in Madrid and in New York City where there is freedom to express yourself and a lot of receptivity to art.

Art is very intangible. You can only break through when you touch the viewer’s emotions and cause disruption. I will continue to try to do that for the rest of my life.

Sense of humor is another great weapon to have. I love to explore through my art the political environment and discover in deeper layers what is really going on and how it translates into our daily lives. Here is a twoxism that illustrates that:

High stakes entertainment

When all of this is over,

we'll have invented a new game,

the American roulette.

All is fair in love and war. So pass the popcorn, the wine, lots of wine, and the remote.

Artist Wanda Ewing, who curated and titled the original LFF exhibit, examined the perspective of femininity and race in her work, and spoke positively of feminism, saying “yes, it is still relevant” to have exhibits and forums for women in art; does feminism play a role in your work?

Claudia Serea:

In Twoxism, we explored the topic of empowering women in several combinations of poems and photographs. The goddess woman, the working woman, the skateboarding girl who is afraid to fall, the mother, the lover, the friend, they all find voices in the book. One of my favorites pieces is “Ode to the warrior woman,” paired with a beautiful photo of red lipstick as a “weapon” of choice by Maria Haro. Here it is:

Ode to the warrior woman

Beautiful woman, the world is still cruel and wild. Bring out the thunderbolts and don’t be afraid of the fight.

Put on your lipstick and pull up your boots. Grab your sword and slay the dragons on your way to work.

Walk in knee-high blood on 7th Avenue and don’t let anyone see the quiver in your heart.

Be kind and smile. Don’t let them see that you’re hurt.

Sharpen your talons, merciless bird.

Woman, you da man, the man’s womb, you da bomb!

Galaxies explode from your sex, Milky Way swirls and pours out of your breasts.

Tell the little girl inside you to hush.

Swing the bow on your back and spread your eagle wings.

There is so much to fight for, so much to do.

Put on your lipstick, girl.

The world is waiting for you.

Maria Haro:

There isn’t really a choice for us to demand equal rights for women. It’s mandatory (and I have projects coming up that directly address this topic.)

Ewing’s advice to aspiring artists was “you’ve got to develop the skill of when to listen and when not to;” and “Leave. Gain perspective.” What is your favorite advice you have received or given?

Claudia Serea:

Keep writing even if you get rejected. Be honest and true to yourself. And, most importantly, never give up. Persistence is the most important quality.

Maria Haro:

Attack your fears by being fearless.

How do the birds know when it’s time to fly?

They must feel a restlessness, or a clock striking in their brain,

an itch, or a longing in the bones.

Or maybe the roads are calling, unfolding ahead,

new balconies of the city, glimmering windows and highways of air.

That’s when I have to say goodbye to my friends of the same feather

and prepare to travel light, with only love as carry-on.

Then, without thinking too much, the leap:

the push off the ledge, a flap or two.

I lean my chest against the wind and glide.

The current pours and lifts me up, up, so I can see everything.

Farewell, past.

Twoxism by CLAUDIA SEREA & MARIA HARO

Published by 8th House Publishing, Montreal, Canada

Order the book here.

6 x 9 | Paperback | December 2018

116 pages | Price: $20.00

ISBN 978-1-926716-53-4

Claudia Serea is an award-winning Romanian-born poet whose poems and translations appeared in Field, New Letters, Gravel, Prairie Schooner, RHINO, The Malahat Review, and elsewhere. She has published five poetry collections, most recently Twoxism, a poetry-photography collaboration with Maria Haro (8th House Publishing, 2018). Serea is a founding editor of National Translation Month and a co-host of The Williams Poetry Readings series in Rutherford, NJ.

Maria Haro grew up in Madrid, Spain, where she studied fine arts and graphic design. She graduated from the School of Graphic Communications and moved to New York City in 1994. She has won several global awards as a Creative Director in pharma advertising. She collaborates with other artists on projects that inspire her. You can find her photos on Instagram @mariavisualdesigner.

Les Femmes Folles is a volunteer organization founded in 2011 with the mission to support and promote women in all forms, styles and levels of art from around the world with the online journal, print annuals, exhibitions and events; originally inspired by artist Wanda Ewing and her curated exhibit by the name Les Femmes Folles (Wild Women). LFF was created and is curated by Sally Deskins. LFF Booksis a micro-feminist press that publishes 1-2 books per year by the creators of Les Femmes Folles including the award-winning Intimates & Fools (Laura Madeline Wiseman, 2014) , The Hunger of the Cheeky Sisters: Ten Tales (Laura Madeline Wiseman/Lauren Rinaldi, 2015 and Mes Predices (catalog of art/writing by Marie Peter Toltz, 2017).Other titles include Les Femmes Folles: The Women 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 available on blurb.com, including art, poetry and interview excerpts from women artists. A portion of the proceeds from LFF books and products benefit the University of Nebraska-Omaha’s Wanda Ewing Scholarship Fund.

Current call for collaborative art-writing: http://femmesfollesnebraska.tumblr.com/post/181376606692/lff-2019-artistpoet-collaborations

https://www.facebook.com/femmesfolles

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differentkindapiratemovies-blog · 5 years

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Photography - Process and Meaning

My initial instinct when it comes to photography is to go out with a camera and shoot black and white stills of the real world. I even played around with self portraits for the first time in my life. But relating my photography work, whatever it was going to be, to the theme of transformation got me thinking. I very much want to make movies, and so how does photography relate to that? I don’t know a lot about photography itself, no photographers really or famous photographs I particularly like but I do know and like how it relates to films, things such as cinematography, composition, you know, basically everything except the image is still. Movies are essentially photographs shown one after another TRANSFORMING not only what we are seeing but the media we are seeing it in. So, my first idea was to write a little film, shoot it frame by frame (most likely with a continuous shooting DLSR camera which i did use) related to theme of transformation and print out every single frame and display it in a gallery like setting. However, this was impractical. Not only would it take a ridiculous amount of time (and printing credits) that I didn’t have. So maybe cut down the idea? How so? Okay, have not a short but a few SHOTS instead. All right, still impractical, especially on my time limit.

I really thought about transformation, from transformation of the self as in me then to the medium itself to maybe making something to do with werewolves. I often deal with blocks when i come to physically doing something in recent times so I decided one day just to take my camera out to Camden Town just to break that wall down a little. Every time I go i think about how much it’s changed, or maybe at least not how I remember it. When I was growing up I was told Camden was a cool place to be but every time I go with my rose tinted glasses thinking of the times I missed out when real punks roamed the streets. Camden is filled with tourists, wannabes, homeless people, street pedlars trying to cell you CD’s and drugs and rowdy drunk people. Its dirty, its busy, its like the rest of London. Like the heart has been taken from it, never letting me in my time see what London was like. Especially since it has physically changed since I made memories there as a kid; a large part of the market that was unique that I used to spend time in with my family and made memories there was, well, gone. it just wasn't there. Instead, a block of flats being build. How depressing, how modern.

So i saw a perfect opportunity when I saw a run down shop window with a sign reading Camden market that had yellow tape across it. CAMDEN IS CLOSED, GO HOME is shouted at me, with reflections of visitors and shoppers in the window. Perfect I thought so I started snapping, handheld. Then I played around with it in an editing software. I stared experimenting and then blurring frames over each other and repeating them in a hypnotic montage that could be played on loop for hours in a big dark room as an installation perhaps although I’ve never had much interest in that medium. The short series of photographs, or film, shows that in a sense Camden is dead, suggesting a transformation and showing a transformation in the mediums with photographs sped up becoming moving image then slowing down and stopping becoming a photograph. With an important aspect fading in an out of what can separate the two - sound.

The reflections, almost Pepper’s Ghost-esque, symbolise the people who once came to Camden and no longer do but could also suggest the hollowness of the people who go there today, or maybe once did. The tape suggests the place is almost long abandoned with only remnants of what was, such as the ghosts of those who were, a cut-off sign, and tape, to suggest the place is no longer looked after and long forgotten. The “ghosts” could also mean the memories that are now just that- memories, hence the jittery imagery being on loop, like a memory replaying in the brain. Then comes in some negative and distorted colors for a brief few moments, yet another transformation, that the place, or the memory of it, is somehow corrupted or not what it used to be. I think I took some inspiration from Malcome Le Grice’s Berlin Horse when I was playing around in the edit, which a few nights in the library playing around with the frames and ideas I had. Then of course the day of shooting which meant a trip up to Camden itself.

Historically, one moment when still image became motion happened around the 1870s-1880′s when Eadweard Muybridge was asked to take photographs of horses galloping. He would set up a series of cameras and triggers to go off at certain points as the horse galloped through the shots. It was here, the photographer became scientist where he discovered the human eye could not pick up on the fact that all of the horses hooves at a moment were all off the ground. The question is though- did this photographer now scientist accidentally create film/moving image by experimenting with horses? I believe this correlation between photography and moving image relates to my work.

(See Sketchbook pages for additional things)

Overall I am not that happy with my final piece, Ghosts Of Camden, (although I do quite like the short myself) as I joined late onto this project and did not give myself enough time to really fulfil a project up to my standards. Although i have interest in photography my main passion is film and also where most of my knowledge comes from and the direction I want to go. I am not particularly interested in photography or know much about other practitioners except for its obvious connection to film with cinematography which i do enjoy (Stanley Kubrick himself being a photographer before a film director which is often why his films are very photographic). I also have an interest in Gonzo style going out and being an opportunist. If I had to do anything differently i would, well, go back and do it all differently. I would probably make somethings else, like a werewolf film and print off the frames so I could call it photography, although the fact I did a werewolf movie already put me off this idea. It’s been hard because I’m not very passionate about it and didn't have the time. One hundred hours is a long time for something you can’t get that excited about although in a way it was a relief because I tend to put a lot of pressure on myself with my favoured subjects. I enjoy taking photos, but thats about it. I realise I could of done a lot better both after and during the project. Like all art mine is down to interpretation and eventually the artists intent becomes all but meaningless, presuming of course that anything you ever make will be seen and be taken in.

Transformation Experiment:

I went out and tried to break the ice with the camera, playing around with flowers and the transformations they go through. From growing, to being alive, then dying and being dead, no matter what way they die. The same process all living things and beings go through.

Transformation 1:

The moment a street peddler having a conversation then hugging a stranger. There isn’t a lot to say about this but I take an interest in capturing untouched real moments out in the world.

Transformation 2:

The moment a woman bending down to tie her shoe lace, the only person to be at the same height as the nearby homeless man who everybody walks by and pretends isn't there. For the single moment she’s on the same level as the homeless man before she gets up and becomes apart of the moving crowd again, not noticing the man. Also note the homeless man is sitting next to a store front with a “penny sale” sign.

Various Photographs:

A graffiti tag on an advert of woman with the words “I Saw It First”, obviously referring to her fashion however with the frame cut off and with the tag it implies that the tagger himself is saying this about the woman and perhaps the photo is a comment on sexism.

A young black woman and an old white man walk smiling although looking in different directions, probably seeing different things in the world, though almost harmonise.

Outside of a gay bar a group of men smile and look at some of the women-orientated sex ads in the phone box. Although one of my attempts at photographing the seedier side of London is in fact a comment on how masculinity could be masking as something else.

A person walks up the street on her smart phone as we see to the right of the frame old disused phone boxes, an image showing the changes of technology.

A homeless person sits has headless people decide not to take notice of him, being distracted by a diversion that we usually pretend to see when walking past homeless people although here is a physical sign. Perhaps something the media doesn’t want us to see?

Tearing Through Time- Self portraits at different stages torn up and stuck together inconstantly. I don’t do too well with time, I can never seem to keep up with it. This was me expressing that.

Various self portraits trying to capture my own raw emotions going through different stages. I’m not a fan of self portraits, these are probably my first and last attempts.

Last Transformation

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lifeasitis21 · 6 years

Text

Destined

Imagine: Henry Cavill x reader can’t stand each other and then one night something happens and they realize they actually have feelings for each other.

A/n: Thank you for the request! Let me know what you think! I’ll be honest, it was really hard to write a mean Henry!

Warnings: Smut

Today was your first day on the job, but you weren’t nervous, you were ready. This was the biggest movie you’d directed on so far. Your other work, though smaller, was known by everyone. They said you ‘had an eye’ for this kind of stuff. Either way, you just really enjoyed yourself while doing it. From the start your name was already very well known. You were an accomplished writer who turned director after wanting a more hands on experience. You weren’t looking to surround yourself with big names to gain more recognition though, it was always about the work itself rather than the benefits.

When you arrived on set you were greeted by who you assumed was going to be your assistant for the duration of filming.

He had a nice smile and what looked like a chai tea in his hand, so right away he was off to a good start.

“Good morning Ms. Carter. How was your flight in last night?”

“It was fine, and please call me Y/n.” You smiled and took the drink from his hand as you walked past him. He fell in step beside you.

“My name is John. And may I say its a pleasure to meet you. I’m sure you know your plans for the day, but if you need a reminder, I have this binder that lays everything out. I will put my number into your phone if you need anything, and of course I’ll be shadowing you most of the day, unless you say otherwise.”

Before the two of you reached the conference room you stopped.

“Listen uh, John. I really love my job, and I’m a generally laid back person. So lets just be on the same team, okay?” You smiled bright and the look on his face told you he hadn’t expected that, but was glad you said it.

“Sounds like a plan Y/n.”

You pushed the door open to the conference room and relished in the sight. A room full of like minded directors and actors who had a vision for creation.

Your entrance caught the attention of a few, luckily you weren’t the last one to show up.

Across the room Henry stood surrounded by a few of his female co-stars. He was one of the first you noticed. You’d never worked with him before, but from what you’d heard, he made it a habit to remind every women within a five mile radius that he was a god walking among them.

You were less than excited to be working with him.

The head director was waving you over, so you made your way through the crowded room and took a seat.

“Y/n we are so glad to have you working this with us. I’m ecstatic.” Her vibrant personality and animated gestures made her easy to like.

“The pleasures all mine!”

You’d been corresponding with Julia for months before now. She even asked to meet you for lunch a few times.

“After the meeting I’ll introduce you to the actors you’ll mainly be working with.”

Julia stood and brought her hands together before calling everyones attention.

“Ladies and gentleman! I’m glad you could all make it. I’m very excited and passionate about this project and I believe you’re all here because you are too. Thank for making this commitment…”

The rest of the meeting was mostly basic guidelines, a timeline for the next few weeks, and a ton of introductions. From across the table, you noticed, but also tried not to notice Henry who seemed to be trying to seduce you with his eyes or something.

After everyone was dismissed, Julia found you again like she promised and led you towards a small group of people, Henry being one of them.

“Everyone, this is Y/n Carter. I sent a few of you an email saying you’d be in close contact with her throughout. She has a mind like you’d never imagine, so I’m hoping for a lot of interaction and ideas from you.”

After she finished she said goodbye, leaving you with Henry and two of his co-stars.

He reached for your hand and you gave it, “It’s a pleasure to meet you Y/n. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“Likewise.” The way he was looking at you made you restless. You had no intention of being apart of his entertainment so you tried your best to make an escape as soon as possible.

“We would love to brainstorm with you one of these days, but for now, we really love everything you have so far.” Joyce, the younger of the two women, said.

The older, Becca, seemed to agree with what she said, but Henry just shook his head.

You tilted your head slightly, “Is there a problem?” You asked.

“I just think they should have considered hiring someone with experience when they choose the actors director.” As he spoke you kept your eyes on his. The other two actors obviously seemed uncomfortable.

“No offense or anything. I am willing to give you a shot though. Who knows, maybe–”

“I’m sorry, you’re willing? Is that what you said? Yeah, there is no willing.” You took a step towards him, barely stopping yourself before shoving a finger towards his face. “I am not here in spite of you Henry, and I will not leave because of you. My job is not dependent on you, my job is to make you all the best actors you can be, and right now it looks like you are prepared to make that job very hard.”

Joyce’s mouth all but fell open as she was stunned into silence. Becca looked back and forth between you and Henry, who were now in an intense stare down you did not intend to lose.

Henry scoffed as he gave in and made his way to the door. “I’ll see you tomorrow then Y/n.”

The other two looked like deer in headlights when you looked back to them. But as soon as Henry was out the door you exhaled.

“Please don’t get the wrong idea. I’m not an assholeI just–”

“I loved everything about that moment.” Becca interrupted.

“You’re my new favorite if you weren’t before! He deserved every bit of that, don’t even worry.” Joyce looked like she wanted to hug you, but instead she followed Becca out, walking past John as they left the room.

“Are you okay?” He asked, you were still trying to catch your breath.

“Does that binder say the next time I have to work with Henry?”

John flipped a few pages here and there, before settling on what looked like the second page.

“It looks like Julia has you working with him more than once a week..every week.”

You brought a hand to your forehead. “I can talk to Julia if you’d like? Ask her if she can change it around?”

You considered it for a moment, but knew you couldn’t just run from this. “I love my job. I love my job. I love my job.” You seemed to need to repeat those words to yourself periodically for the rest of the day, but you had more important things to worry about.

The next day you arrived to set, things were far less hectic. You had a message from James, your assistant director, asking you to meet him on set.

This wasn’t planned, but his reasoning for wanting to meet became a little more clear as you approached and saw Henry going over something with him.

“Y/n. Morning, thanks for coming over.”

“What’s this about?” You asked, eyeing Henry before looking to James.

James held what looked like this weeks script in his hands. “Well, some of the actors mentioned a few things they think might work better in a few of this weeks scenes. I wanted to run some of them by you, see if you want to make any changes? Nothing too big–”

“Some of the actors? Henry is the lead in all of the scenes assigned to me this week. And he’s also the only other person standing here–Henry, it looks a lot like James is speaking for you..”

That made him agitated.

“Y/n. We got off to a bad start, and I regret that, but can you honestly say you would be giving me shit right now on something I am within my rights to do, like give you notes, if that hadn’t of happened?”

His voice was sickeningly calm. Like he for some reason thought he always had the upper hand.

“Could you honestly say you’d be making notes on the second day if it hadn’t of happened?”

Henry titled his head at you and all but tossed the script back to James as he walked away.

“I apologize for that Y/n. If–if I had known something happened I never would have bothered you about this.”

“Is he always like that?” You asked, silently praying the answer was no.

“No, he’s actually not, but he’s never really been told no before by..”

James trailed off hoping you hadn’t caught that.

“By.. what James?”

“By an attractive woman..And I don’t say that in an inappropriate way! Please don’t take it like that. He’s just used to not having problems with women…am I making any sense or? I’m sorry.”

His fumbling kinda made you laugh. “James I understand, don’t worry about it.” You said, placing a friendly hand to his shoulder.

As far as you could tell, this wasn’t going to get any better until you faced it head on. And thats what lead you to Henry’s dressing room.

You knocked a few times before he finally opened up.

“Do you need something?”

God you wanted to hit him. “…Can I come in?”

He hesitated long enough for you to think he was going to say no, but then he moved aside and made just enough room for you to walk in.

“Listen, we don’t have to be best friends. You don’t even have to like me. But we do need to do some productive work together.”

As if it couldn’t get any worse, as you said that Henry lifted an eyebrow and looked at you with that, look.

“All you had to do was ask Y/n.” Before you could comprehend what was going through his mind, he pushed his dressing room door closed and pulled his shirt up over his head.

He moved to grab at your waist but without using your critical thinking you pulled back and socked him hard in the jaw.

“–jesus what the FUck!” He recoiled and brought his hand to his jaw.

“Oh fuck! That hurt! I’m so sorry. I–uh.Shit.”

“I’m fucking done with this!” He started towards his door but before he got there you ran and stood in his way.

“Get the hell–”

“Okay just wait!. Calm down, I hit you yes, but you almost forced yourself on me so we’re both in the wrong.” The words barely came out fast enough.

“Forced myself–what are you talking about I didn’t force myself on anyone, you said we needed to do stuff together, regardless of if we liked each other.”

“Holy fuck Henry, I said we needed to WORK together! You heard what you wanted to hear but that is not what I meant. Now just calm down a second.”

Henry glared up at you still holding his jaw. He took a step back and retreated to his couch. This wasn’t going how you planned to say the least. You grabbed a bag of frozen fruit that he had in his freezer and took it over to him.

“You should–just hold it on your jaw–”

“I know what to do with it.” He snapped.

An unintended chuckle escaped you before you could stifle it. You brought a hand to your mouth and tried to cough your way out of it.

“mcgh–hm, I’m uh. Sorry Henry. Sorry.”

He looked up at you and the look he had on his face for some reason was just cracking you up. There was no way to stop the laugh this time, you just turned around. “I really am sorry..I don’t know why I’m–hcmm.”

When you turned back around Henry actually had a semblance of a smile on his lips, he even chuckled a little under his breath.

“Do you make it a habit of punching men in the face or is it just me?”

“Only when they have obnoxiously pretty ones.”

“Jesus Henry, I said obnoxious before the other part..did you not–nevermind. Are we good?”

He looked you up and down a moment before nodding his head. You turned and made your way towards the door.

“You might wanna ice that hand Y/n.”

You lifted said hand and flipped him off as you walked out the door. A smile he couldn’t see forming on your face as you did so.

“–no, I think I want you to walk into the room as Henry’s sitting on the couch. Walk up to him a little faster, so he doesn’t have time to get up as you start your lines.”

Joyce nodded her head at the suggestion and reset. You looked to Henry who you found already looking at you.

“Does that work for you?”

He smiled a little and nodded his head. “It’s a great idea Y/n.”

You squinted a little and called action before thinking more about it.

Just as you’d envisioned, Joyce’s character walked into the room, catching Henry’s character off guard. As she read her lines she was able to maintain the upper hand in the power dynamic with Henry lower than her. And with Henry sitting down looking up at her as she communicated her anger, his eyes looked softer, more passionate.The whole scene was more intimate.

You watched the two as they read out the script. But your eyes really just kept finding Henry. You watched him as he gently reached his hand out towards Joyce. The delicacy with which he touched her skin, like it would shatter under too much pressure.

You could even see his jaw flinch at her words. His eyes, the way they sparkled with just enough tears.

“–Y/n. Are you going to call it?”

You all of a sudden realized you had already gotten the take.

“Shit. Cut!”

James was next to you but thankfully he had his eyes on the monitor instead of you during that. He rewound the film so you could watch the scene back.

It’d come out just like you wanted it to.

“How’s it look?” Behind you, Henry leaned down close to your ear and placed his hand on your shoulder. The heat of his breath sent shivers down your neck.

You jumped a little as he spoke but tried to play it off as just getting up from your chair.

“It looks good! Looks great.” You walked towards any one or thing that could get you away from Henry and all of a sudden you were very excited for the one month break that started tomorrow.

You only had a few more scenes to film today, but that was the last one with Henry in it. And thank god for that.

This was beginning to happen to you more often than not. It was like every time you walked into a room, your eyes would unconsciously find him first. And then anytime you heard his voice, you would always listen a little closer.

And it didn’t come from nowhere. His whole attitude with you had changed. And not just with you, but he acted different around everyone now. He wasn’t so annoying for lack of a better word. And fuck, when he would look at you, you’d never seen eyes so captivating. They tore through you with ease.

When he spoke to you about work he was respectful, of course. And you appreciated that, but then he started finding time to speak to you about anything. He asked you about your ambitions, your life, your favorite color. He seemed to be dedicated to learning everything about you, everything you would give anyway.

Four weeks apart would be good for you. You loved your job. It was who you were now. And that was enough for you right now.

At the end of the day Joyce found you heading towards the door and caught you before you walked out.

“Y/n! Hey I just wanted to say goodbye before we left.”

You happily accepted her hug with a bright smile.

“ I think everything we’ve done looks amazing this far. And that scene with Henry was practically perfect.”

“Oh yeah, I was really happy with that one. You guys executed perfectly. You’re all so easy to work with it’s amazing.”

She smiled shyly at the compliment. “Henry and Becca came over last night to work on that scene with me actually. Henry even came fully prepared with a ton of your earlier work so we could try to capture your vision. He said, and I quote, ‘if we could act with even a quarter of the passion Y/n has, any scene we do will turn out great.’”

The thought of Henry talking about you like that to other people made your heart jump a little.

“I really appreciate all of your hard work, truly.” You smiled and squeezed her hand, the both of you heading to the door now.

You said some quick goodbye’s before climbing into your car. The driver started on the way to the airport. In your bag you heard your phone buzz.

When you pulled it out you saw a text from John wishing you a ‘restful break.’ Just as you began to type a response your phone began to ring.

“This is Y/n.”

“Y/n. Hey. You uh, left without saying goodbye.”

“Henry. I–Sorry about that, I guess I’m just anxious to get home.”

“Amsterdam is beautiful this time of year.”

“Have you been?”

“Well, no. But I have an entire month free to go anywhere I like. Maybe I’ll mark it off my list.”

He made you smile, and not even regret saying what you were about to say.

“If you do come…call me when you get there.” And now you regretted it.

“I’ll make sure to. Bye Y/n.”

Maybe it wasn’t the best idea, but a stupid smile was on your face now and it wasn’t going away.

You were curled up on your chair that overlooked the river, steam from your cup of tea drifted into the air above you. You looked over your shoulder when you heard a knock at your door.

It was early, maybe 4. You hadn’t been able to sleep since you got in late afternoon yesterday.

You looked through the peep hole and slowly stepped back. You contemplated even opening it, but only for a short second before you did.

He stepped forward slowly. The two of you looked at the other for what felt like a long time. Then, he took a step forward and his fingertips touched the delicate silk fabric of your wrap up.

You kept your eyes on him as he relished the sight of you.

He took another step towards you, now pushing the door closed behind him. His hands were less afraid now, running up the length of your thigh, finding their way underneath your gown.

They were warm and ruff. Your breath became uneven the more places they went. He slowly pulled at the string that dangled below your chest. As he did the fabric covering you began to unravel.

His eyes widened as he saw you in all your beauty.

He ran his fingers just below your ribcage, then up past the middle of your stomach, curving right below your breasts.

Air caught in your throat and he caught your eye at the hitch.

You felt comfortable under his gaze, but you wanted more. You took this pause to run your hands up underneath his shirt and lift it, allowing him to pull it off the rest of the way.

You smiled as you looked down at him. In your mind, he had done this countless times before, but in his, in his you were like no one else. Like nothing he could ever imagine.

With one hand he pulled your lips to his, and with the other, he traveled down the length of your torso, stringing you along as he went agonizingly slow.

With mouth agape, you gasped as you felt him touch you. He closed his teeth around your bottom lip. Inching towards your opening. You forced yourself to wait for him. As his fingers slid into you, your knees felt weak.

He slid his finger in and out of you, slowly, but passionately.

As best you could, you undid his pants and reached for him. He was warm in your hand. You pumped him a few times, as you did his lips left yours as his mouth fell open in a pleasure filled moan.

He kicked the rest of the way out of his jeans and wrapped you up in his arms. Your legs entwined around his waist. Lips crashing against each other, forgetting about air.

You pointed him in the direction of the bedroom, and he tried to get there, he really did. But the second you reached the hallway he rested your back against the wall. His eyes found yours at that point. All you could do was smile, and when he did the same, it warmed your insides.

He reached down and aligned himself with you. He lazily pushed himself into you. As he did your fingers arched down onto his back. You felt yourself widening for him, the sensation of it all forcing your eyes closed.

After a quiet moment, he began to push himself into you. Hearts beating in sync, moans of ecstasy filling the room. You ran your hands through his hair, tugging every thrust, entangling yourself with him every chance you had.

He slowed down and supported your weight as he continued on towards your bedroom. He’d never set foot in here but every part of your beings believed that you’d known each other forever.

He barely reached the bed before lying you down onto it and continuing to thrust into you. You loved the way he filled you. You loved that he looked at you like nothing else mattered. His arms were wrapped around you so tight you could barely breath. All of your senses heightened, you felt as if the two of you were the same person.

His mouth found your shoulder and as he bit down on it, you erupted like you never had before. It came out of nowhere. You tightened around him, clawed down on his shoulders as if you’d fall through the earth if you didn’t. He watched you drive your head back into the bed and felt you arch up onto him. The feeling of your fingernails grasping at his back was pure euphoria.

He’d never felt so liberated as he watched you melting beneath him. As he followed after you, never wanting this to end.

He pulled you deeper onto him as he released into you. Teeth against the bare skin of your neck, fingers digging into your hips.

After, he couldn’t dare let you go. You rested your head against his shoulder, legs straddling his lap. His hands were splayed across your back, one wrapping around your waist, the other reaching up to hold your head against him.

He ached as you pulled him out of you. You moaned at the loss of sensation.

He slowly lied the two of you down onto the bed. You shifted ever so slightly to his side and let your eyes close shut. He leisurely ran his fingers across your exposed back until he drifted off to sleep after you.

The risen sun danced with your bedroom curtains. A warm breeze flew in from your cracked open window and settled on your skin.

Henry’s chin rest on top of your head. As you began to wake up you noticed how tightly he had you wrapped in his embrace.

You stirred slightly, slowly waking him up as you did. You didn’t know what to expect, but lying here with Henry, you could hardly even worry.

“You got here really fast..” You said, letting yourself laugh.

A lazy smiled played at his lips. “I bought a ticket as soon as I hung up.”

Your hand lie across his chest, it all felt so intimate, so familiar. It was hard not to feel tempted to remove it.

“I won’t…hold anything against you. You can leave, if that’s what you want.”

You didn’t want to say it the moment you did, and even more so, you didn’t want to hear his answer.

And he didn’t for awhile. In that time you’d prepared yourself to disconnect. But then he surprised you.

“What if I don’t want to go?”

When you looked up his eyes were closed, but he had a smile on his face.

“I mean, I didn’t fly all the way to Amsterdam for sex…we both know I can get sex anywhere.”

“–oh my god.” You said, starting to push yourself from his embrace, but he wouldn’t budge.

Instead, he pulled your face to his by your chin. Before he spoke, he placed a kiss to your lips. One sweeter than you could of ever imagined.

“I came for you Y/n. I’m only here, for you.”

Tag List:

@jaderbugz @a-girl-who-loves-disney

@chillnadia @pietrosprincess

@cojootromuelle @smexy-bucky-waifu

@maragaretcarter @supersleepyfangirlthings

@shortstoryimagines @omg-fuck-i-love-you

@thebutterflyxx @posiemax

@tomhollambucky @samdean-67

#henry cavill #henry cavill imagine #Henry Cavill x Reader #henry cavill x oc #henry cavill fic #man of steel #superman x reader #supermanxreader #love #Smut #super fluffy #Henry cavill smut #Henry Cavill fluff #superman fluff #soulmate au

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a-pretty-nerd · 7 years

Text

Behind the Scenes (Devon Bostick x reader smut)

Request:“can you do one where the reader and devon are working on a movie together but hate eachother and in the script they have to kiss, and later on in the night they end up having rough sex, sorry if it’s too much cx” ~ Anonymous

Too much!? Honey have you read my shit? ✌❤❤❤

Warning: NSFW, and cursing.

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There you were, on set. Reading over the script for the 50th time that month as you sat on the side. Watching the crew set everything up, and the director shout at them. An average day on set. Everything was going great. You knew your lines, your character, your blocking, marks. Everything. Your day wouls have otherwise been perfect. Except for the fact, that a certain co-star of yours was lurking around.

You tried your best to ignore the lanky insect, but it was hard when he was so obnoxious all the time. When he was constantly joking around with the other actors and crew. Everyone just loved Devon. Except for you. Something about him made your blood boil. You weren’t sure what it was, but he wasn’t exactly a fan of yours either. It was easy to assume that the feelinf was mutual. What was even worse, was that you had to constantly be around one another. You were cast as the main love interest. Which meant painstakingly long shots of dreamily staring into each other’s eyes. A part of you felt a little pride in the fact that you could act as if you were so in love. And yet hated one another so much.

Today, was a special day. Today was the day you dreaded the most out of all the days of filming. Today, you had to kiss that scrawny, bobbled-head looking motherfucker. Your heart sank into your stomach when a member of the crew called for the two of you.

“We’re ready when you are.” The director stated, before he told you where to stand, what lines to say, and what exactly to do before you practice ran it. Skipping the kissing bit of course. You felt sick, just being so close to him. Your heart raced, and you had to hold back a sneer and force yourself into character.

“Don’t fuck this up.” Devon spoke. To everyone around, I’m sure it looked like he was joking. But to you, it made you want to punch his square in the jaw.

“Fuck off.” You spat.

“Rolling!” The camera man shouted. You straightened, and like that you were in character.

“And…Action!” The director shouted.

“Jesus! Quinn! Are you alright!?” Devon’s line.

“Y-Yeah I’ll be fine, just, go on.” Your line.

“No way. There’s not a chance in hell I’m leaving you behind!” Devon.

“Oh Owen, don’t be a fool! I’m not worth saving! We knew the both of us weren’t going to get out alive. So go, please. Save yourself. I couldn’t bare the thought of you risking your life for a waste of space like me.” You.

“Don’t say that! I’d risk my life for you any day. I’d die for you Quinn! I…I love you. I always have, and I always will! I can’t imagine a world without you, now please. Let me help you.” Devon. He cupped your face, as the tears ran down both of your faces. You looked deeply into one another’s eyes. Before he leaned in, and kissed you. You froze for a moment. Something in that moment struck you. You weren’t sure what it was but it sent a shiver down your spine. Soon, you started to kiss back. For, the sake of the scene of course. When he pulled away, you looked onto his eyes. Looking for an explanation as to what you just felt. Did he lace his lips with something? What the hell was that? That moment played out fast, as Devon, in character, picked you up, and walked you out of screen.

“Cut! Perfect you guys! I think thats it. One take wonders over here!” You sighed a breath of relief as Devon practically dropped you. Quickly, and swiftly walking away from you. You finished other scenes before the day was over. And by the time you were dismissed, it was late in the night. A lot of people had gone home by the time you got back to your dressing room. You took off your costume carefully, and hung it up before changing. As soon as you finished, you heard a knock at the door. You opened, and to your utter surprise, found Devon standing there. Starring at the sign by your door stating your name.

“Can I help you?” You asked, flaring an attitude of annoyance. He bit the inside of his cheek, clearly annoyed with your tone of voice.

“I need to talk to you about the scene from earlier.” He grumbled. “Can I come in? It’s fucking freezing out.”

“Whatever, hoser.” You mocked. You pushed open the door, lettinf him catch it as he walked in and closed the door behind him. You glared at each other, as you waited for him to speak.

“Look, I’m not here because I want to be. Alright?”

“Uhuh, sure.” He shook his head at your tone.

“That kiss…I can’t explain I just…did you lace your lips or some shit?”

“What!? No! I thought you did!” The two of you stared at one another for a moment. Now realizing the both of you felt the same thing. He approached you, pinning you against the wall. His eyes wide, glaring holes into yours as you studied one another for answers. Only to turn up with nothing.

“Don’t play games with me.” He warned.

“I’m not playing games asshole!” You defended.

“You started this shit!”

“I did not!” Before you could say anything else, his lips were on yours once again. Again, that same feeling hit you like a truck. You went weak, against your will. All you wanted, was more. He pulled away after a minute, breathing a but heavier.

“You…feel that?”

“Yeah.” Another kiss. Passionate, and stricking. Automatically your arms were around each other, embracing one another as the kiss became more and more heated. Before you knew it, you were making out on the table where Devon had put you. Suddenly he had taken off your shirt, and then you took of his. Then his mouth was on your neck, biting and licking away. Driving you crazy. Wild with need and pleasure, you wanted him desperately. It was like someone had cast a spell on the both of you, and now you were mad about one another. Now you were almost completely naked, as was he. You could clearly feel his hard cock against your wet pussy. It twitched helplessly as his tongue circled around yours. You pulled down his boxers to release the poor thing, allowing it to spring free. He chuckled into your lips as he gropped your breasts and held you close. All of sudden you felt it, slowly slide deep inside of you. You gasped at the pleasure, a million times more explosive than his kisses. Though they sent little bolt of electricity through your bones, while he started thrusting.

“Christ Y/N…you’re so tight for me.” He whispered in your ear, biting your lobe. Making you moan.

“And you’re big and hard for me baby.” You gently scratched down his back, as he thrusted into you. Slapping against you as he tightly held you hips. “Ohhh fuck Devon.” You gasped, rolling your head back. The pressure building, and building. You were losing yourself to him, as he was to you. The sounds of your cries driving him crazy as he desperately fucked you. Another good minute of relentless fucking, sent the both of you over the edge. You cried out one last time as your climax washed over you, as you felt Devon follow. He panted, and groaned as he shuttered. Relaxing a few seconds after.

“Fuck…That was…uh..”

“Awesome?” You asked. He chuckled.

“Yeah…Yeah that was pretty awesome.”

“Eh, could have been better.” You joked. He shook his head with a smile.

“Shut up.”

#devon bostick x reader #devon bostick x reader smut #devon bostick imagine

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scuttleboat · 7 years

Text

Review: Thor Ragnarok

(no plot spoilers until the replies/reblogs)

I've seen Thor: Ragnarok twice now, and my head is buzzing with all the things that I wish this film could have been. It's good but it's not great and that comes down to needing a portion---just a PORTION---of restraint.

I'd give it a B. Very rewatchable, fun action, winning performances, highest Cool Factor of the Thor films so far, and fabulous music, art, and CGI.

And yet, it had some problems. First off: 30% less comedy. Just cut out a third of the jokes right off the bat. Sure the movie is hilarious but it's often trying so hard to be funny in moments when humor is unnecessary, that it completely undercuts the impact of its own story. The tonal shifts in this movie are jarring, and much of the drama around Asgard feels empty and unimportant because the movie is so careless about it.

My big gripe is that they used the same style of joke--undercutting the tension--on EVERYONE. They used it with the heroes and the villains, the supporting characters and the leads. It quickly became a thing where that style of delivery had a dulling effect on me. You just... That's not good, guys. Humor should come from characterization, so a joke about Thor should be presented differently from a joke about Loki or a joke about Hella. Now, they DID manage this with Banner; most of the humor around him had a character-centric tone, and wasn't just about taking the piss out of everything all the time. The humor around him was mostly about the ways that Hulk is inherently a funny concept. The only moment with Banner that I didn't like was his "you're just using me, you're not my friend, thats gross." Like... Too on the nose guys. Taking the joke and pushing it too far until it's out of character. Since when does Banner care about people being his friends? Especially someone he's got the least relationship with on the Avengers. His character has run away from friendships and relationships so many times in the MCU that it doesn't work for him to be complaining about it, it doesn't come off as something he'd say. That line is just so... parody. Cut it. Let it go into the bloopers.

The undercutting style of humor worked best with Valkyrie--whose character is naturally positioned in the plot to undercut Thor anyway--and with the Grand Master, who is baked from Jeff Goldblum already. But even with the Grand Master, there were moments when it was too much, laid on too heavy. Ex: the aside about interrupting, about prisoners with jobs. Both went on too long. But overall, this style of humor was best suited to Sicar and the characters on it, because it was already a strange and absurdist place. Thor as a character shined nicely there, and a lot of his humor worked too, as part of that world. Chris Hemsworth has fantastic comic timing, and he sells ANYTHING. The most over the top stuff, he sells it. The movie does good with that, but... again, they abuse it. They undercut too much, too often, and some for the jokes come off as just things that the director thought would be funny, rather than jokes that work for Thor himself. The tone was a little to SNL or sketch comedy sometimes. Character sacrificed for a pithy line.

No plotline was more impacted by this creative over-indulgence than Asgard. Start off with Hella: great character, convincing threat, and fabulous headdress (my favorite CGI in the movie). If her character is going to be effective, you get ONE JOKE with her. ONE joke in this undercutting style. A character like her, so full of flair and drama and camp...you've got to treat any jokes around her like precious gifts not to be given lightly. She has to remain the "straight" character int the comedy flow, so that it contrasts with the Sicar stuff, and so that when you do get ONE JOKE, it will be by comparison the best fucking joke in the movie. But taking little asides to make her funny is just... no no no. T whole subset of jokes about her as a disappointed boss to Scourge... no. Ugh, why. It doesn't fit. Stop it. And the stuff in front of the crowd, so tonally wrong. Stop trying so hard with her! The best stuff from Hella was with the two princes and when they do or don't look like dad, which barely qualify as jokes and thus WERE MORE EFFECTIVE. There were so many compelling things about her character, but when the script or director applies this flat undercutting humor to her, it completely saps away the cool and the interest. Ugh...you can sap the cool away from your protagonists, but you don't want to take a single ounce of cool from the villain. Once you do that, nothing in the film has any stakes. At that point, we might as well be watching another post-Avengers SNL skit.

Also, let's talk about Korg for a minute. The rock guy. I...did not like that joke. His whole premise was not inherently funny to me, and then they OVER USED HIM. So much, all time. God, he would not go away. The director Waititi was way too indulgent with his self-insert part. Much too often the Korg character was there just to say a "funny" line for the sake of it, not a line that fit the story. And about half of his lines fell utterly flat with me. Again, he's a character type that should have the most humorous impact when he is used judiciously.

I had a few other complaints, mostly about the static natural of some of the characters, but the comedy balance was my big issue with it. It needed 30% less humor, and needed for more of the humor to come uniquely *from* the characters themselves, not just from the director's personal comic style. If they cut down a portion, then the humor would have landed with a lot more richness, as would the drama. They basically used this movie to make a parody of the MCU, and while I love parodies, that doesn't mean I want one of the films in the MCU to become one. That's what a blooper reel is for.

I really like this movie, but it's a B grade. 8/10. And that's too bad, because with the little bit of editorial oversight, this could have been an A.

and for God's sake, did Loki need THAT much makeup?

#thor #thor ragnarok #thor x loki #thor x valkyrie #chris hemsworth #tessa thompson #cate blanchett #tom hiddleston

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insphoeration · 7 years

Text

The comic- con fic you never knew you needed

Pairing: Platonic(ish)!Sebastian Stan X Actress!Reader

Fandom: Marvel MCU

Summary: Reader has anxiety at a panel/ during interviews, and Seb steps up.

Warnings: lots of Panic/ Anxiety, sprig of depression.

There were parts of your job in which you loved and you hated. You loved touching peoples lives, the way you portray a character that can help them through so much. You loved making life long friends on set. And you loved doing what you love every single day.

You hated interviews. The way the person asking the question would press you until you said exactly what they wanted you to say, or if you didn’t, how they would twist your words into something else. And then the backlash from it all was sometimes too much to bear.

Part of the reason you loved acting so much was because, being the anxious mess you were, you had the chance to be someone else, someone confident and bad ass. Of course auditions were hell, and having about a million people stare at you as you made out with your best friend was horrifying but you still loved it.

Speaking of working with your best friend, Sebastian was like your rock. He was familiar with the toll of mental illness in his own way and you always did your best to help each other through it. If one of you needed to be alone, the other would give just enough distance not to suffocate you but also let you know they will always be there. If one of you needed a person, the other would drop whatever they were doing to be there.

In the weeks leading up to comic con, you were kind of a stressed mess. You tried to focus on work but the PR department at marvel- and even your own agent, would not stop reminding you about comic con. It was basically a religious event at this point.

You were excited to meet your supporters and fellow actors but the thought of getting on stage in front of however many people was nauseating. And it wasn’t like you could just get out of it- because boy have you tried.

“Y/N?” Sebastian said, shaking you out of your thoughts. You mumbled in response, remembering you were supposed to be running lines in his trailer instead of spiraling. “Y/N, are you okay?” He asked taking your hand.

“Yeah.” You sighed. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry.” He stated. “Just tell me where your head is at.”

“Comic con...” You said, cringing as you heard how stupid it sounded.

“Hey.” He said softly, squeezing your hand in his. “I am going to be right there with you, every step of the way.”

And he was, the two of you sat together on the plane, every time your chest tightened or your heart began to race, you would reach over and he would automatically take your hand and hold it for as long as you needed. And when you got to the hotel, you don’t think your hand ever left his, to hell with the people taking pictures, and just as you started to feel guilty, Seb leaned over and mumbled in your ear, “Marvel can fuck right off if they have any complaints about rumors, I have no problem taking the heat for this, as long as you’re okay.”

The two of you had some interviews the next day, so you decided to call it a night early, you were surprisingly calm, being that one person and a camera was not as intimidating as the panel.

You were about to turn the lights off, when there was a knock at your door, when you opened it the sight absolutely broke your heart. Sebastian stood outside, hair a mess and red eyes brimming with tears. You grabbed his arm immediately, pulling his body crashing into yours. You could feel the beat of his heart against your chest as his tears dampened your neck. You stood there, rubbing his back, shushing him until he was comfortable enough to let go, which felt like forever, but you didn’t mind.

You tried to coax him into the bed so he could get some rest but every time he even sat down, he would just leap up and start pacing around the room.

“Seb, love, please talk to me. Tell me what is happening.”

“I can’t do this.” He would mumble, over and over.

“Hey!” You jumped to your feet, taking his shaking hands in yours, trying to steady them. “Don’t you dare say that. Of course you can do this because you are strong, and what you’re feeling right now won’t last forever.” His hands were starting to slow, “whats going to happen tomorrow is, you’re going to sit at that table and be the amazing person you are and everyone is going to love you because that is what they do when they meet you, and you know what I am going to be right there with you.” You tell him, repeating back to him the very words that were so comforting to you.

“You promise?” He asked, you smiled and nodded, guiding him to the bed. He laid on one side, but he started to shake again and you could tell he was about to bolt so you put the covers over him.

“And if you can’t do it tomorrow then that’s fine. Say the word and I will have us on a plane as fast as humanely possible. You crawled into the other side as he chuckled.

“They would kill us.” He mumbled sleeping, starting to come down from his episode.

“Nah, that would be such bad press.” You joked, as he snuggled into you.

The next morning, before Sebastian woke up, you snuck downstairs and found event organizers. It took a bit but you were finally able to bribe them to put yours and Sebs interview together, as well as seat the two of you beside each other at the marvel panel. The later was more for selfish reasons but, it made you feel better to know he would be right there. On the way back up to the room, you stopped for coffee, also getting one for Sebastian. He was leaving just as you got to your door.

“I wanted to wait, but I needed to get ready.” He explained sheepishly. You laughed and gave him his cup.

“Thank you.” He said, taking his cup and leaning down, placing a quick peck on your cheek. “For everything.” And you just nodded at him as he disappeared into his room.

He was surprised to find that your interviews were together, and even thought it was a mistake at first but when his adorably scrunched up face, saw your devious smile he knew you had something to do with it and was so grateful you were his friend. He interlaced his fingers with yours and brought the back of your hand up to his lips, placing a soft kiss on them as a thank you.

Your interview droned on. A lot of general questions about your characters, what goes on behind the scenes and even a few bout your off screen relationship which the both of your were expecting since you had been attached at the hip the entire trip so far, and someone was bound to at least notice. But then it happened.

Seemingly out of no where, you became very tense, which caused you to feel anxious, which caused you to feel light headed and warm, your heart began to race and your hands tingle. You tried to focus on the interviewer and their questions, but that only made the symptoms worse, so you just smiled and nodded, know if you opened your mouth, you would stutter whatever came out. Sebastian glanced at you, like he did every few minutes to make sure you were okay, and noticed you fidgeting in your chair. Silently, he slipped his hand into yours, still smiling and responding to the interviewers questions.

It wasn’t long before the anxiety was overwhelming, you squeezed Sebs hand a few times to get his attention and you shook your head at him.

“Sorry, one sec.” He told the lady in the middle of her question. He leaned into your ear. “Go. I’ll cover you.” He said. He pulled back as you mouthed the words ‘thank you’ and he smiled and squeezed your hand once more. You stood up and apologized to the people, before you made a b-line for the exit, avoiding the curious eyes of your friends. You let out a deep breath once you were in the hall, instantly feeling feeling like you could breathe again, without all those people around.

“Y/N! wait!” You stopped and turned to the voice calling you. It was someone you didn’t recognize, but had a VIP lanyard.

“Hi.” You said,

“This is for you.” She was holding a bottle of water. “I know distress when I see it, and water always helps me, even just a little.” She said.

“Thank you so much, thats really thoughtful.” You hoped you sounded a lot more meaningful than you probably did because even if the anxiety was lifting, the guilt was setting in, and it was hard to be sincere when all you wanted to do was lie on the floor.

“I’m a really big fan, and I know it’s none of my business so don’t feel like you have to answer! But I noticed you and Sebastian have been really close on the trip, is that because you guys are...you know...together?” She asked. You smiled. She was blushing almost as hard as Sebastian did when you first kissed, he was so red, the director insisted he put ice on his face so he could keep filming.

“No.” You chuckled slightly. “He’s just helping me through some stuff.”

“Oh my God.” She marveled. “He must be really great.”

“Yeah, he’s pretty incredible.” You grinned at the thought of him.

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone I swear!” She exclaimed. You pursed your lips together, pretending like you believed her.

“It’s fine.” You said, already prepared for this situation. “I’m not ashamed of my illness. It’s part of me and I’m sure its the same for a lot of people. And no one should ever be ashamed for who they are. Sebastian is the best friend anyone could ever have. He is incredible and has dropped everything- on multiple occasions,for me when I’ve needed him.” You said proudly.

When Sebastian got back to your room, he was un-surprised to find you huddled under the covers, with the AC blasting.

“You know, you wouldn’t need the covers, if you turned the AC down.” The sound of his shoes hitting the floor was muffled through multiple layers of fabric. “Everyone is worried about you.” He said, sliding under the covers.

“What are you doing?” You demanded. He froze.

“Joining you?” He wasn’t sure if you were kidding or not.

“No.” Well that was a first. And it kind of stung a bit too.

“Oh.” He mumbled. “Ok.” He slowly retreated away from the bed.

“No,” You popped your head out from the covers. “I mean, Mackie and Evans texted me that the whole lot of them were going for drinks, you should go.”

“I know, they invited me too.” He said. “I said no.” You groaned.

“You should have to miss out on the fun because your worried about me.”

“For the record, everyone is worried about you.” He crouched beside the bed, his features and his voice back to regular old softie-Sebastian. “And I didn’t say no because I was worried about you- well partially. I said no because I would rather spend time with you.” He stated.

“Really?” You asked, bringing the covers up to hide your blush.

“Really.” He confirmed. “Now let me in there, I’m freezing.” You giggled and moved to the side, making room for him. “You ok?” He asked.

“Eh.” You muttered.

“Melissa has been trying to get a hold of you.” He said, instead of responding, you buried your face in his chest, “don’t worry, apparently what you said made a lot of people really happy.”

“What I said about wh- Oh. Good.” You giggled, pretty much drunk off his cologne.

Day three. Not the last day of the con but the last day for you guys. You got the Friday off but everyone who was scheduled for filming on Monday, actually needed to be on set by Monday, jet lagged or not, including yourself and Sebastian.

It was panel day, also known as the epitome of dread. You popped one of your anxiety meds, knowing you might not even be able to leave the hotel room without it. Meds sucked, they made you loopy and tripped you out a bit which is why you did your best not to take them but you had absolutely no faith in your self today.

By the time the panel started, your meds were in effect. You were anxious but it was bearable. Although you wish you could say the same for Sebastian. You could tell something was wrong when he started to fidget in his seat. You placed your glass of water in front of him, and as soon as he looked at you, you took a deep breath in and out, reminding him to to the same. He smiled kindly at you copying your actions, taking a sip of water and repeating, until he relaxed in his chair.

However, it wasn’t long before his hand started to twitch, he was itching to squeeze something and you wanted to take his hand so bad but you couldn’t. It was an actual rule. People watch your every move at panels so you weren’t supposed to do or say anything out of the ordinary.

But the he started to shake. And no amount of heat from Marvel would compare to a distressed Sebastian. So you slipped your hand in his, cringing at the almost immediate awes that erupted from the crowd. Marvel could fire you at this point and it wouldn’t matter. They definitely wouldn’t but they could and you wouldn’t give a single fuck because Sebastian was okay and thats all that mattered.

You would start a war just to see him happy.

Alternate (fluffy-not-platonic-at-all) Ending

Also more of my stuff here....

#avengers imagine #avengers fanfiction #avengers fic #sebastian stan fic #sebastain x reader #sebastian stan imagine #avengers cast imagine #the winter solider imagine #winter soldier one shot #winter solider imagine

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curly-q-reviews · 5 years

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ROAD TO THE OSCAR MAYER WIENER AWARDS 2K19

First Reformed, 2017 (dir. Paul Schrader)

Nominated for: Best Original Screenplay

ok well uuhhh. so u know how my plan was to watch as many oscar-nominated films this past week as possible before the awards show tonight. well. that uuhhhh didnt happen my dudes. and not for lack of trying either!! i searched high and low for theaters still showing The Favorite and all the show times I could find were while i was still at work, and its not available for rent on amazon video yet. in fact i ran into this problem with a lot of the movies i wanted to see; theaters just werent showing them really. which kinda doesnt make any sense cause u’d think movie theaters would jump at the opportunity to make extra money by showing oscar-nominated movies before the awards show for people who wanna check out the nominees.

one movie i WAS able to find to rent on amazon video was First Reformed, one of a few movies on the noms list who only got one or two noms total. paul schrader, the writer and director of this flick, previously directed timeless classics such as Raging Bull and Taxi Driver. schrader became famous because of these two films for creating fantastic character studies, and i gotta say he lives up to his reputation with First Reformed. its a dark, sometimes surreal, and layered look at the life of a priest who’s been through some tough shit, who now works for a large religious conglomerate preaching at a tiny “tourist trap” church that is known by the other preachers in Abundant Life as the “souvenir shop”. his encounter with the husband of a woman who attends First Reformed sends him spiraling into self-doubt and questioning his own religion, and it all culminates in one final tragic scene that plays out like an emotional punch to the stomach

ill get back to that later but i’ll touch first on the things i really like about this film. acting overall is very solid, but ethan hawke really delivers something fantastic with the character of reverend toller. im kinda surprised he didnt get a best actor nom?? cause i thought he was really great. ethan hawke is one of those actors thats been in a lot of stuff, but i can never remember WHAT i’ve seen him in, i just know hes a good actor who usually delivers solid performances. amanda seyfried is in this too and she did pretty good, her performances for me always kinda range inbetween really good and not so great and here shes more towards the “really good” side.

now another area where this movie got snubbed FOR SURE was the cinematography category cause this movie just looks divine. a lot of use of natural lighting, lots of playing around with shadows and high-contrast lighting, dynamic framing of scenes. and the movie is shot in an interesting aspect ratio of 1.37:1 (almost a perfect square) that i thought was a cool touch, it almost kinda closed things in so ur focus remains on the characters and their actions instead of the setting so much if that makes any sense. idk it was unique and tried some different things which i feel makes it deserving of a cinematography nom but i guess the academy didnt feel the same way??

ok so the nom that it actually DID get, best original screenplay, is without a doubt this movie’s strongest asset. the story is just.... so fucking smart, and so well-paced, dialogue feels natural but still leaves an impact, and the way this movie progresses into pure suspense by the end doesnt really hit u out of nowhere but still is jolting enough to really make u pay attention and sweat a little. like.... holy shit. this movies ending is so intense. its not quite a horror movie but it kinda has some horror movie-ish moments in that it evokes such a visceral response from the viewer. i know it was pretty disturbing for me at least, and it takes a lot to get me truly disturbed.

shit i mean this movie was really good!! after watching it im surprised its only got one nomination. i suppose i could see there being some mixed feelings about how this movie ends, because its pretty surreal and its unclear if what is going on is actually whats happening or if its metaphorical/an illusion/etc. but really thats the only issue i had with it. guh idk man im like kinda expecting tonights awards ceremony to be a bit of a shit show but we’ll see what happens.

well i guess thats it for this years wiener awards review series!! i might do some post-wieners reviews for movies i never got the chance to see, and then ill write a lil blog post about the awards show itself to give y’all my Thots. until next time!!!! drive safe!!!!! text me when u get back!!!!!!!!!

#curly q reviews #road to the oscar mayer weiner awards 2k19 #first reformed #ethan hawke #amanda seyfried #oscars #oscars 2019 #academy awards #drama #suspense #religion #climate change #global warming #movies #paul schrader

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robotnik-mun · 7 years

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can you elaborate on endgame? when did you realize it was quite bad and how so?

Firstly, my apologies that this took so long, as I had to gather up my thoughts and type them all down.

Now to answer your question, it was during the lawsuit and after I had taken a look at Penders’ twitter and his forums and gotten a good look at what the man himself was really like. While it might sound like that I’m simply being a contrarian out of spite due to that fact, but the truth of it is that upon having my eyes opened, I was able to observe his work with a more objective eye than before, and separated from my personal feelings towards the man, it became clear that a lot of his work was objectively quite terrible. As such, re-reading Endgame with a more critical eye and a better understanding of storytelling, everything began to fall apart?

The reasons for that? Let me count them, though I am sure there are things that slipped my mind.

1) To begin with, the basic premise of the plot, namely Sonic being framed for a crime he didn’t commit? Had been done so many times by that point in the comic that none of the good guys really had much of a reason to believe it to be true. First there was the incident with Pseudo-Sonic, then the times with Evil Sonic and the Anti Freedom Fighters, and then there was the time Sonic got amnesia and was tricked by Robotnik into attacking his friends, and of course not even ten isues ago the whole “Mecha Madness” thing had happened with Sonic being accused of a crime he didn’t commit.

After all the times this has happened, nobody would have a good reason to be so convinced that it was actually Sonic who did the deed. It literally requires everyone involved to forget all the times that something like this has happened and just blithely accept that Sonic has murdered Sally for no discernable reasons. It’s particularly jarring in the case of Antoine, who had previously gotted ahead of himself with accusing Sonic of having deliberately gone to Robotnik in the aftermath of Mecha Madness, only to be proven *thoroughly* wrong. But no, Sonic’s friends and team mates just immediately believe it, despite having gone through all this several times already.

Compounding the matter is that they were aware Robotnik could build Robotniks that perfectly mimic the appearance and mannerisms of people- Tails encountered Fiona, St. John witnessed the Sally duplicate, and Sally herself surely would have told everyone about what had happened during that time, to say nothing of the Substitute Freedom Fighters who had similarly witnessed the same. It’s an incredibly glaring ommission that none of this was brought up by any of Sonic’s friends, with only Chuck acting as his advocate- and even then neglecting to mention any of the prior incidents at all.

In short? The basic plot is kicked off not because of how convincingly the premise is displayed, but because that premise is willed to work and the plot to move on by it due to the fact that the writer wills it.

2) Speaking of the frame job itself, the circumstances around it make less and less sense the more you think about. Drago managed to convince Hershey to put on a Sonic suit and sent her out into Robotropolis to do... something, and thanks to the costume having special lenses that made other people look like Snively, she thought she was killing Snively rather than Sally. This begs the question though of what it was Drago exactly said she would be doing in Robotropolis, and how the hell he managed to get her into the suit. That outfit was so perfect that it fooled everyone into thinking it was Sonic, so try and picture how it might look when not being worn by somebody. This meant that Drago presented Hershey with what essentially looked like a perfect replica of Sonic’s *skin*, and at no point did she see fit to ask questions about where he got it or why she had to wear it.

Similarly, while the deception of the ‘Snively Lens’ would explain how she could wind up killing Sally under a false pretense, it was never established if there was a similar thing going on with the ears- she might have *seen* Snively, but would also be in a position to hear Sally. And thats without getting into how she could have gotten into the position that she did without spotting anybody else in the Freedom Fighter group, despite it being a joint effort between the Knothole Freedom Fighters and the Wolf Pack and as such a lot more people being in Robotropolis than normal. It stresses the suspension of disbelief that she just happened to spot absolutely no one else in that entire time when she was in Robotropolis in the costume.

And getting past all that, it’s just plain *convoluted*. An easier and more believable explanation would have been that Robotnik just used a robot made to look like Sonic (particularly since he earlier managed to replace King Max with precisely that) or used Metal Sonic with a hologram or something like that. But paying off a traitorous Freedom Fighter to get his girlfriend to put on a costume with special lenses to trick her into killing off Sally Acorn? Say it out loud and tell me how that sounds.

3) Also, far too many bits and pieces of the story’s outcome hinge on coincidence and fortuitous happenstance. I firstly mentioned how somehow, nobody at all thought about all the other times Sonic had been framed, but that isn’t the only time when things happen because the writer wills it to happen, and in a lot of cases it is done to the heroes benefit. Firstly you have Sonic being sentenced to be imprisoned at Devil’s Gulag. On the way over though, Robotnik sends his forces to shoot down the aircraft carrying Sonic, which results in him surviving the crash and escaping. Ignoring the question of how the Freedom Fighters are even able to have and maintain a prison, Robotnik’s action makes little sense- Devil’s Gulag is far away and isolated in the middle of the ocean, it’d be a perfect place to keep Sonic away, and if he really HAD to kill Sonic, it’d make more sense to bomb the place when he was secure. Instead though, Robotnik’s actions only give Sonic a means of an escape, because of COURSE he would survive a crash that killed everyone else.

Then of course, Bunnie and Antoine are captured and rather than being taken to Robotropolis to be Roboticized, where we learn that Croc-Bot is a traitor who has planted an explosive upon one of his Combot guards and intends to use it to assassinate Robotnik. So naturally, Bunnie and Antoine are able to escape, make off with the explosive and later use it to destroy the Ultimate Annihilator. By tremendous coincidence their dire situation turns out to actually ultimately be for the best as they are gift wrapped important information and a means to deal with the problem.

Similarly there is the scene where Knuckles and Sonic start fighting due to Knuckles being informed of Sonic’s crime and, in his grief, not believing him and attacking him, only for Dulcy to declare that Sonic is telling the truth, and since dragons ‘cannot lie’, everyone just immediately accepts what she says. These details have never, ever come up before and are never references again- it is literally conjured into being for the sake of the story and in the name of making everyone magically trust Sonic despite being previously hellbent on capturing him. And you know, if that was the case, then why didn’t Dulcy say anything back in Knothole? Oh wait, that’s the logic talking, silly me.

Similarly, Snively’s sabotage is oddly limited- he sabotages the Ultimate Annihilator to kill Robotnik, true, but he himself hates the Freedom Fighters and would want them dead as much as he would want Robotnik dead. Why would he reprogram the thing to target only Robotnik and not take the chance to eliminate ALL of his enemies by simply leaving it unchanged save for including Robotnik and excluding himself? It’s a blatantly stupid move by the guy, one that is only made because the story demands that Knothole and everyone in it survives, along with Sonic.

4) Key plot details are badly, badly foreshadowed and explained, if at all. To begin with, Drago is only introduced a mere issues earlier, and his betrayal lacks impact because everything about him screams ‘Bad Guy!’ to begin with, and similarly, Hershey is only introduced in this arc, and as such we can not really be convinced of the significance of what is happening because we have little prior investment to help us actually feel the betrayal. Also, it is never made clear how Robotnik was able to capture Dr. Quack’s family without anybody noticing- again, this is this is the first time we ever see or have mention of them, but that aside, they live in Knothole, as does the doctor. It’s hard to believe that nobody would notice would notice that they were absent, especially given that its implied to have happened over the course of several days before Endgame commences. Then there is the matter of Snively- everything he has done is revealed AFTER everything has happened, and even in the ‘Director’s Cut’ there is only a single page to build up Snively’s actions.

Almost all the details pertaining to why Endgame happened and how it was resolved are explained via exposition near the very end of the series. It’s bad storytelling and incredibly lazy to boot.

5) Glaringly, this story takes a lot of beats from the Harrison Ford movie ‘The Fugitive’, enough that it becomes distracting. Sonic is falsely accused of a crime he didn’t commit, he’s being transported to a prison in a vehicle until that vehicle is waylaid and he manages to escape with his life intact, he’s forced to go on the run while being pursued by somebody who refuses to believe that he is innocent (with even less of a reason than in that film, ironically), and there is even a scene where Sonic evades capture by diving down a *waterfall*. I mean come on- there’s referencing, and then there’s just stealing shit.

6) On a more personal note, knowing Penders motivations for this story and his attempt to permanently kill off Sally even after SEGA told him no has severely soured my ability to appreciate even what it was trying to do, particularly since Sally’s death was done purely for the sake of motivating Sonic to ‘cut loose’... it’s a really textbook example of ‘Stuffing Women In Fridges’, even though that term gets overused a lot of the time, but it’s true- by his original statements, a major female character and love interest had to die purely so that it would motivate the hero and, as such, doesn’t get to play a real role in what was built up as the series finale. The fact that Penders has given several OTHER excuses for why she had to die only makes it all the more worse.

7) And finally.... everything that the heroes do in this story ultimately doesn’t really do anything to influence the results of how it turned out. Snively’s behind the scenes scheming ensured that Knothole was never, ever in any real danger to begin with, and Crocbot was already on the way to killing Robotnik. If Sonic had just stayed put in Devil’s Gulag, or if Bunnie and Antoine had never managed to escape when they did? The outcome would still be the same- Knothole would get zapped, but it wouldn’t actually be destroyed, and Crocbot’s explosive would have gone off anyway and Robotnik would STILL be dead, and Sally would still be alive in suspension. Every major event of the book is out of the heroes hands and, ultimately, the heroes just weren’t really needed. All that happenstance and coincidence has meant that the people we’re supposed to care about, are the least relevant factor in any of it.

In short? This story, which was meant to be the one where Sonic is pushed to his brink, is ultimately resolved not because of anything he did, but because of things that OTHER people did, and things ultimately still would have resolved themselves if Sonic had just sit down and done nothing at all. The Big Finale for the book, and Sonic has the least impact on anything. It’s pathetic.

So yeah, what else can I really say? The story is a mess. The plot points are contrived and forced, the characters act stupid in order to let things happen, the heroes are able to succeed more by coincidence and storytelling convenience than anything genuine, the writing is just plain bad and heavily derivative of an outside source, and in the end, none of it really mattered because nothing the heroes did really mattered when everything is looked at from a distance. There are a few moments that are genuinely cool, and the fight scene between Sonic and Robotnik is still my favorite fight, bar none. But that isn’t enough to salvage it. That isn’t enough to forgive all the horrible, glaring problems with the story, pacing and execution of this thing.

Hope that explains it.

#Anonymous

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