#haven’t seen these movies since i was forced to watch them in 2008

[lifeisablackhole9]

hey for lotr should i do chronological order or start with fotr?

#haven’t seen these movies since i was forced to watch them in 2008 #now that i won’t spite-hate it i’m actually kinda excited #also i’m assuming the directors cut is the way to go even though it’s like suuuuper long right?

[magnificent-nerd]

Why Naqib in The Boys sucked

Image description: fictional character Naqib in Amazon Prime’s show The Boys.

(Is the fire in the background an excuse to use racist Yellow Filter to show how exotic he is? Hmm.)

I first posted this on my blog in Dec 2020, and since nothing in superhero media has changed for the better at this time (September 5th, 2021), I’m going to keep talking about it.

Because nobody else does. So, without further ado:

WHY NAQIB SUCKS.

I was a big fan of The Boys season 1; I love superheroes, I love deconstructing a genre. Sure, it has its problems, but overall I enjoyed season 1 and thought the show had potential.

(That’ll learn me for being hopeful!)

When season 1 ended with this big build up of mostly nameless brown and background characters as Muslim terrorists (deep sigh) we the audience are left thinking this one Muslim character (Naqib) whose superpower is to blow himself up repeatedly (insert another long deep sigh here) is going to be The Big Bad of season 2.

I had my misgivings about that direction. Firstly, as you can see from the image of Naqib, he is highly exoticised and is walking around bare chested with Arabic writing on his chest. He looks more like a generic western media depiction of a genie than he does a supervillain. 

And yet he's the first prominent Muslim character in superhero media I've seen in YEARS.

-

(See my post about MENA and Muslim character good guys, including Joe played by Marwan Kenzari in The Old Guard, which is technically a comic book movie but it’s not what I’d call ‘caped and costumed’ superheroes so it’s more... superhero adjacent.)

I follow superhero content closely and as far as I'm aware the last time we saw any named Muslim characters in superhero movies WITH SPEAKING LINES was:

Instance 1) Iron Man 1 back in 2008 with The Ten Rings in Afghanistan, showing multiple Muslim characters as baddies/terrorists, but only two of them as a named character and with any meaningful lines to say. And despite one of them, Yinsen (actor Shaun Toub), being a good guy he still dies! Which is common in western media for Muslim and MENA characters.

Note: Fellow Iron Man 1 castmate, actor Sayed Badreya, makes an important point in this GQ article: "I die in Iron Man, I die in Executive Decision. I get shot by everyone. George Clooney kills me in Three Kings. Arnold blows me up in True Lies…" (x)

Instance 2) A more recent instalment in Batman V. Superman in 2016, with some unnamed 'General' character and mercenaries/terrorists in Nairomi, Africa, referred to only as "the desert" throughout the movie. All reference to the General's actual name are available in an extended/deleted scene only, so a very poor and vague depiction in the final cut.

Instance 3) The generic and badly written ‘bad guys’ in Wonder Woman 1984 (2020 movie), which was honestly such a racist depiction of Arabs and Muslims that many critics pointed out we hadn’t seen a depiction this terrible since 1994′s True Lies. (At least most critics were in agreement that WW84 movie was generally terrible, so there’s that.)

And that's it, those are the only major instances showing any Muslim actors or characters in a caped and costumed superhero movie. 

Some other fleeting glimpses of Muslims onscreen:

Glimpse 1) I spotted a girl wearing a hijab among the nameless and unspeaking background characters of Peter Parker's class in Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019). A first for Marvel movies, apparently.

Glimpse 2) Disney Plus show Falcon and Winter Soldier (2021) had two nameless Muslim characters walk by in a scene that’s supposed to be Tunisia (using Yellow Filter), and ‘thank’ the present American Air Force (eye-roll).

Glimpse 3) Netflix show Jupiter’s Legacy (2021) had a nameless Muslim sailor conversing with one of the main characters in a scene, with meaningful dialogue about racism. (WOW. Really good.) Bonus: no yellow filter. It’s a pity he’s a nameless background character because this brief instance is the least problematic MENA rep I’ve seen in ages, but it is very brief.

I just wrote about Glimpses 2 and 3, and how the Netflix show outdid Disney when it comes to these nameless walk-on Muslim characters.

This is pretty pathetic overall, these small crumbs, especially compared to better rep and probably the only instance of legit MENA superheroes in a ‘costumes and capes’ style superhero show, the Tarazi siblings on DC’s Legends of Tomorrow.

-

Anyway, now I’ve listed what crumbs are available across the live action superhero genre, back to The Boys.

I was intrigued about how season 2 would handle Naqib and any characters relating to him, and what storyline they'd use. 

Was I excited at the possibility of seeing Muslim supers onscreen? Damn straight I was. Did I mind that they were baddies? Well, yes and no. When you only ever get crumbs or no crumbs at all, you tend to get excited over one stale old crumb.

After the build up for season 2, I eagerly sat down to watch the first episode, only to have the first five minutes of episode 1 Trigon him.

Note: who's Trigon, you ask? Well if you didn't watch the DCEU's Titans show, Trigon was The Big Bad who was hyped up throughout season 1, introduced in the season 1 cliff-hanger episode as this big 'oh shit!' moment for the cast of heroes, only for him to fizzle out like a wet fart in the first episode of season 2 while the show pivots wildly in another direction. 

Exactly what happened to Naqib in the first five minutes of The Boys season 2.

Erm, so, Naqib. Farewell, I guess? As a character you briefly appeared in 2 episodes, portrayed by a different actor in each (Krishan Dutt, and Samer Salem). It seems the writers used you as a plot device when they needed a cheap cliff-hanger for a direction that ultimately went nowhere.

Am I disappointed? Yeah, I am. Overall I thought season 2 of The Boys was weaker than season 1, but I'm not here to talk about the whole season: I want to talk about Naqib and this missed opportunity.

The Boys and its showrunners sell the show as being a satire of recent and well known superhero content, of all the big movies and TV shows. There's been a lot of patting themselves on the back for calling out overused tropes in superhero media (and sometimes they've done this satire well: see the LGBT marketing scene with Queen Maeve in season 2), but my issue with the show on their Muslim rep, or should I say lack thereof, is if your show has even less Muslim character rep than the content you're trying to parody, how is this a win for satire?

Naqib and that whole angle came across as a lazy, half-assed swing from the writer's room. Sure, perhaps a lot of the non-Muslim and non-MENA audience won't even notice, as we've been ignored by western media or made into nameless, generic, vacuous baddies for decades now. Non-Muslims and non-MENA just accept that we're always the baddies for no particular reason at all (which feeds into Islamophobia, by the way) and The Boys' writers could say they are simply satirising the tropes already present in media...

But, and this is a big but, the media that The Boys is satirising has already made a step toward better inclusion and representation: Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan), Marvel comics' first Muslim superhero, is entering the MCU as a lead character in her own Disney Plus show, debuting in 2022. 

Ms. Marvel/Kamala Khan is also cited to appear in upcoming Captain Marvel sequel, The Marvels (2022), which will be a major movie.

The MCU has also cast a Muslim actor (Mahershala Ali) as the lead in a reboot of Blade. That's going to be big news when it starts filming.

So to the showrunners on The Boys, I say this: now you've done this small angle of 'all Muslim characters are terrorists, yuckity-yuck!' like we've seen in major superhero movies thus far, and you've brushed that aside in favor of focusing on other whiter villains, my question is will you come back to Muslim and MENA characters again? Or is that all you got?

Because if that was ALL, then the current score is Disney/MCU:02, Netflix:02, DCEU:02, and The Boys: a big ZERO as far as Muslim and MENA rep goes.

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Originally posted on my blog, magnificently nerdy.

If you, like me, are always on the lookout for onscreen Muslim and MENA characters in superhero media, and have spotted any characters in superhero TV shows I haven’t watched yet, let me know about them!

Here is my post on good guys, featuring Old Guard’s Joe, and Blindspot’s Rich Dotcom.

Here’s my post about the Tarazi siblings on DC’s Legends of Tomorrow TV show.

And, if Marvels’ Eternals gets released on schedule for 2021, we will have a MENA actor portraying a supporting character. I just hope Marvel gives him a name.

#naqib #the boys #islamophobia #racism #tired tropes #orientalism #mcu #disney #homelander #tony stark #the ten rings #the boys tv #yinsen #muslim #representation matters #bad writing #white hollywood #hollywood #critique #the boys critical #disney critical #mcu critical #representation #mena #swana #mena actors #swana actors #muslim actors #muslim characters #mena characters

[uboat53]

The Greatest Movie Scene

This is a spiel about the greatest scene I have ever seen in a movie.  It is not about the greatest scene that's ever been in a movie, I haven't seen every movie so that's not a fair statement, nor is it about someone else's greatest movie scene.  This is about the greatest scene I have ever seen in a movie, which includes all of the personal background and baggage that I bring to the movie plus the particular circumstances in which I saw it.  Clear?  Great.

The greatest scene is from the movie Batman: The Dark Knight, the one with Christian Bale.  If you haven't seen it yet, stop reading this and go watch it.  It is a movie that really benefits from being seen fresh without spoilers, so don't do that to yourself.  If you read past this, accept that you will be spoiled on key plot details of the movie.

Now, with a movie like this one, with a cast that includes Morgan Freeman, Michael Kaine, Gary Oldman, Aaron Eckhardt, Heath Ledger, and where Christian Bale himself, the star of the movie, can essentially be an afterthought, one might imagine that I'd be talking about one of their fantastic performances.  And one would be wrong.

So let's set the scene.  We come near the end of the movie, the third act.  The Joker, who has spent nearly two hours of movie time tormenting the heroes and tearing the city apart with incredibly innovative and terrifying schemes, has set three terrible plans in motion, all of which are occurring simultaneously.  First, he and his gang have taken a lot of doctors and nurses hostage in a skyscraper that's still under construction.  Second, he's placed explosives in two huge ferries that are being used to evacuate people from the city and is threatening to blow up both ferries unless someone on one ferry presses the detonator to blow up the other.  Finally, he's driven the city's white knight prosecutor insane and has encouraged him to exact his revenge on the police officers who led to his disfigurement, and that prosecutor has taken the family of the city's top policeman hostage.

For our scene we're going to focus on the second plan, the one with the ferries.

Now our two ferries couldn't be more different.  One of them is full of families, lots of women, children, and men who are no longer young.  The other one is full of the most hardened criminals from the city's prison.  Each is full of explosives and each one has a detonator on board that will destroy the other ferry if activated.  Both have been told that they have until midnight to blow up the other ferry (fifteen minutes away!) or both ferries will be blown up.

Now many movies would focus on the execution of the other two plans, they're far more action oriented.  Batman has a ton of great fight scenes in the partially completed skyscraper, tangling with disguised thugs and the police in turn, and the prosecutor (Two-Face!) is threatening the policeman's family with a loaded gun to their faces, but the real heart of this sequences is the scene on the ferries.

On the prison ferry, the warden has the detonator and is protected by two prison guards armed with shotguns.  The guards are young and frightened, both of the prisoners who are increasingly insistent that the warden should activate the detonator and of the ticking clock which is slowly approaching midnight.

On the family ferry, frightened people debate with the captain of the ferry and national guardsmen on board who eventually decide to put it to a vote.  Amidst a sinking feeling of dread, the people on board the ferry write their vote on pieces of paper which are slowly, all too slowly, collected by the guardsmen in their helmets.

Seconds tick by and the tension builds.  Frightened faces flash in front of the screen, sometimes reacting to the arguments for or against using their detonators and sometimes simply blank with dread.  Tension builds and builds.  The family ferry finishes their vote, it's a landslide in favor of using the detonator.  The captain takes it out, his hand on the key that will explode the other ferry.  There are only three minutes left.  He pauses for a moment.  "What are you waiting for?" an old woman demands, "Do it."  "We're still here," he says nervously, "That means they haven't killed us either."

Meanwhile, on the prison ferry, there is utter bedlam.  Prisoners are on their feet, screaming and shouting in the faces of the terrified guards, only kept back by bared shotguns.  At the back of the crowd a man stands up and walks forward.  He is huge, a massive African-American man with a shaved head, covered in tattoos and scars.  Calmly, he walks forward, the crowd parting before him and going silent, until he stands face to face with the warden, looming over him.

"You don't want to die, but you don't know how to take a life," he says in a threatening growl, "Give it to me; these men would kill you and take it anyway.  Give it to me. You can tell them I took it by force.  Give it to me and I'll do what you shoulda did ten minutes ago."

Nervously, hands shaking, the warden pushes the detonator into the handcuffed hands of this huge prisoner.  The expression on the warden's face is pained; the prisoner is right, he wants desperately to live but cannot bring himself press the trigger.  He hasn't killed the people on the other ferry directly, but in that moment he has sealed their fate.

The prisoner holds the detonator, looks at it for a moment, and then tosses it out the window into the water.

That is the single greatest momoment of the movie and, for my preferences, the single greatest moment in any movie I've ever seen.  The raw tension of the scene, the conflict between pure morality and a desperate desire for survival, the anticipation of one outcome, and the suddenness by which another is achieved.

That is the pivotal moment of the movie, the moment when the tension is broken.  And not like tension breaks in other movies where there's a gradual drawdown and sense of relief, this tension snapped like a dry twig and left behind only deepening feeling of dread, acceptance, and a certain feeling of pride and accomplishment.  The fear on the people's faces as they chose or were forced to accept that they would die in order not kill was palpable, all the more so as we'd been witness to their struggle.  The decision of the filmmaker to make us spend the entire fifteen minutes with these people, worrying and debating, trying to save both their lives and their souls as Batman fought his way through a vertical construction site, drew us into their struggle and forced us to empathize with their fate.  There was no way to save both their lives and their souls and they had chosen, even the ones who we may have assumed were the most soulless among them, to save their souls.

But it's not just the tension that's the reason why this scene is so great, not by itself.  The reason why that scene, that moment when the detonator flies out the window, is the greatest I've ever seen is that it's the moment when the Joker is defeated.  Batman hasn't punched him in the face yet; in fact, at that moment, he has Batman pinned, forcing him to watch the culmination of his schemes, but in that moment he has lost.

You see, the thing that becomes clear from the rest of the movie is that the Joker isn't trying to kill people or destroy the city.  That's far too simple for him.  He threatens the life of a man not by pointing a gun at him, but by threatening to blow up a hospital if he isn't killed.  He tries to break his enemies not by injuring or killing them, but by setting them up so that they must choose which of two choices they value most, only to discover that they were the reverse of what they thought they were.  The Joker isn't trying to destroy Gotham, he's trying to force Gotham to destroy itself.

In that moment the people of Gotham, some of them at least, decide that they won't do it.  They won't play his game.  He may kill them, he may rampage ans scheme and cause his mayhem, but they won't be a part of it.  Not because they are perfect and not because they are without fear, but because they are human.

And in that moment it is they, the ordinary people, who become the heroes of the movie.  Not the caped crusader or the police, not the extremely talented actors who take lead billing on the marquee, but the regular people who are most often just relegated to the background of superhero movies, forced to simply react to or accept whatever the result of the conflict between the hero and the villain is.

That's why that moment in Batman: The Dark Knight is the greatest scene in any movie I've ever seen.  It has stuck with me since the moment I saw it, at a midnight showing in the summer of 2008 with some of my roommates while we were doing summer work in our college town.  No movie I've seen before or since has stuck in my head the way that one did, coming back to trigger more and more thoughts and contemplations on the many, many topics that it brought up, many of which are still salient to the world we live in today, and no scene to me has better illustrated the greatest potential of human nature.

If you're still with me, thanks for reading.  This has been going through my head for years now and it's good to write it all out.  I hope you enjoyed and, if you haven't seen the movie yet, go see it!

#movies #batman #the dark knight #movie scenes #philosophizing #movie review #scene review

[moldygreenblue]

The Killing Fields (1984)

The Killings Fields (1984) is one of the most haunting and darkest films of the late 20th century, in part because everything in the film all happened. Nominated for seven Academy Awards, six Golden Globes -and honestly, a lot of other nominations I’m looking up right now on Wikipedia that is just making me deciding to just not type it all talk about a mistake- The Killing Fields is is a film I understand why it’s always recommend to people to see at least once.

(In my case, it was less recommended, and more looking it up due to my parents -my mother mainly-  and seeing the mostly second half of the film once on television before years ago and trying to find the full version online.)

Based off the article later turn book, The Death and Life of Dith Pran by Sydney Schanberg, The Killing Fields is mainly about well, Dith Pran. Between 1973 (1972) to 1975, Sydney Schanberg is a reporter/foreign correspondent for The New York Times reporting about the Cambodian Civil War. His fellow journalist and interpreter is Dith Pran (last name Dith, first name Pran by the way) and two are basically a team, with Pran more or less the ‘sidekick’.

(‘Sidekick’, because while Sydney is one of the two protagonists, the second half makes it clear Pran is who the story is about. Which is a given, since Sydney literally wrote Pran’s name in the article’s title. The original screenplay doesn’t go with this angle though, keeping the two men as equal main characters with them getting alternated.)

As the civil war continues to rage on and gets worst by 1975 with the United States deciding to pull out as military aid, Sydney eventually gives Pran a choice about evacuating the country, for Pran’s family is deciding to evacuate. Pran is torn by his family and friendship with Sydney, but he ends up deciding to stay in Cambodia with Sydney, as Sydney decides to continue on reporting the news with few others, like Al Rockoff (photographer, American), and Jon Swain (another journalist, British). 

After the Fall of Phnom Penh and when the Khmer Rouge takes over, the four and Sydney’s taxi driver -Sarun- are capture by a few Khmer Rouge soldiers. While Sydney, Al Rockoff, Jon Swain, and Sarun are force inside a military truck, Pran doesn’t, for the Khmer Rouge wants him to just leave. Pran ends up risking his life by insisting to go with them and later on, convincing the soldiers they’re not the enemy and it works. They’re eventually let go, and after taking everything possible with them from the hotel they were staying at (except the food like peanut butter; the article and original screenplay reveals Sydney had a stash of food for emergencies and Al Rockoff didn’t bring it with them this is almost surreal) and head to the French embassy to take refugee and leave Cambodia into neighboring Thailand.

It’s eventually made clear that only foreigners at the French embassy will be able to stay and leave to the Thailand; Cambodians who took refugee there will have to leave. In an attempt to save Pran, Sydney, Al Rockoff, Jon Swain come up with a plan: forge a passport. Jon Swain has a few, and he realizes by leaving only his middle name (Ancketill Brewer; talk about a tongue twister even I can’t say it) Pran can claim it as his own.

This is where article and the film -and original screenplay- differ. In the film and screenplay, Al Rockoff has to take a photo of Pran and develop it, which is a problem because of their current conditions at the embassy is less than ideal. Even though Al Rockoff was able to get a photo for the forging, it eventually fades away. The article implies Pran has a photo on himself, as Rockoff had to use a razor blade and glue to put the photo onto the passport. However, the people in charge of the embassy catches on the plan and tell Jon Swain it won’t work because if they caught on, the Khmer Rouge would too. Rockoff himself say this is what happened, and is upset with the film change.

In both the dramatization of the film and the reality of the events, the plan fails, and Pran has no choice but to leave the embassy. Pran for the next four (and half) years lives under the Khmer Rouge regime. In what TV Tropes calls ‘Obfuscating Stupidity’, Pran has to avoid getting kill for being an intellectual and having ties to Westerners by playing dumb and being a normal poor peasant, faking a story on how he was just a taxi driver before the take over (this tactic was used by everyone trying to hide their past, including Pran’s actor, Haing S. Ngor, who lived in the regime himself before making his escape). Pran continues on keeping up the act in order to reach his goal: making it to Thailand. After years of living through actual hell,  Pran finally makes it to Thailand in 1979.

Had this been a true fictional story, no doubt Sydney Schanberg would find a way in or get someone to find a way back in to get Pran out. But harsh reality is that Sydney couldn’t do anything to save Pran, a friend who risked his whole life to make sure Sydney and others don't die. Sydney in both the film and reality after getting to Thailand and the United States, couldn’t do more than send letters to organizations about Pran. All he can do is wait for a respond, with the article revealing he gets sporadic news of Pran alive, but nothing more solid until 1979, when the news of Pran’s escapes reaches him.

The reunion itself is just a big long sigh of relief to both of them and the audience. For Sydney and Pran, they haven’t seen in other in four (and half) years, yet both of thinking of their friend in their thoughts. For the audience, with all the horror of the Cambodian Civil War and the Khmer Rouge, by the time Pran makes his escape, the audience is now hoping for glimmer of happiness for him, that he can be reunited with everyone he loves and miss. 

I first watched the film several years ago (I think maybe between 2015 and 2017; it was on late at night and I was still awake at the time). Even though I only saw the second half, I knew right away this film was truly about friendship and how war affected it; the ending made it clear to me these two men were close to one another before getting separate, and just reuniting was something both longed for. The fact the real Dith Pran Sydney Schanberg remain friends until Pran’s death in 2008 makes it all more sweet.

Having watching the film in its entirely in 2019 and again only a few weeks ago, I still stand by my belief. It’s overall, a very powerful film about one the darkest periods going on the late 20th century, ultimately telling the tale of two and their devotion for one another, even when far part. 

If one already watched the movie and wants to know more about the actual people themselves, I recommend reading The Death and Life of Dith Pran, for it goes into more detail, especially about Pran’s story of survival for the film omitted a few things for what I suspect is to save time. If one is curious about the original screenplay (for it has very interesting things; some clearly taken from the article, some I can’t tell if they were legit or fictional for the film), the sub-Reddit Screenwriting has a link to it here on a PDF file.

#the killing fields #the killing fields 1984 #the death and life of dith pran #moldy watching movies #moldy reading things #i legit found the pdf file yesterday #hence why i'm making this post #it's sure something

[lokiondisneyplus]

After more than 40 years as an actor, Sheri Mann Stewart had finally taken the plunge to launch her own production company. A week after she wrapped shooting her first film for Mann Woman Productions, Atlanta went on pandemic lockdown.

Mann Stewart was suddenly left with a film on hold, an audition on hold, and the careers of her husband and two sons — all performers — on hold. Instead of ushering her first film — prophetically inspired by John Paul Sartre’s “No Exit” — through editing and post-production, she spends several hours each day on the phone trying to iron out issues with unemployment benefits that she has yet to receive.

“Nothing like this has ever happened,” said Mann Stewart an Atlanta native who most recently appeared in Tyler Perry’s Netflix feature film “A Fall from Grace.” “I think, one way or another, our industry will be changed.”

COVID-19 left actress Sheri Mann Stewart with the first film from her production company on hold, an audition on hold, and the careers of her husband and two sons – all performers – also in flux. She has spent time working on other projects including a new YouTube series to support LGBTQIA youth who may not be in supportive environments.

Like many other industries, the film and TV business has been shut down since mid-March, with only a few exceptions such as late-night talk shows and virtual versions of “American Idol” and “The Voice.” With plenty of content currently in the pipeline, streaming services and television networks have managed so far, but if production doesn’t restart soon, viewers will face a major drought of new shows to watch this fall.

Pressure is building to get production started as soon as possible, but the natural intimacy of a typical set with makeup artists, camera operators, producers, actors and production assistants constantly crossing paths, makes creating proper protocols a serious challenge.

“People are anxious to get back to work,” said Mark Wofford, general manager at Atlanta-based Production Consultants & Equipment, which provides motion-picture rental equipment. “But this has to be weighed against the need to make sure everyone is safe. It’s going to be a real balancing act.”

Georgia has become a major player in Hollywood production, courtesy of generous tax credits to film and TV production companies passed in 2008. It’s now the third-largest state for such content after California and New York. As the only state with no cap on its credits, Georgia has drawn big-budget films such as “Black Panther” and “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.”

Despite Hollywood’s liberal leanings — some in the industry called for boycotts after Georgia’s 2016 religious liberty bill and 2019 heartbeat abortion bill — the Republican-led state legislature and three Republican governors have consistently embraced the tax credit system. At the recent Georgia Film Day on March 11, Gov. Brian Kemp spoke before 200 industry supporters in the state Capitol atrium, extolling the $2.9 billion in direct investment and 50,000-plus jobs the business brought into the state last fiscal year. Weeks later, Kemp would issue a statewide shelter-in-place order.

In May, the Georgia Film Office released a set of nonbinding best practices for film and television productions to consider during the pandemic. The guidelines included holding remote auditions and virtual location scouting as well as reducing the number of extras used on set and placing clear barriers between actors to be removed just before the director yells “Action!”

Local studios are preparing to reopen this summer as they await multiple unions to accept unified protocols. Earlier this month, a task force composed of the various unions and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, sent approved health and safety guidelines to governors in California and New York with plans for final protocols to follow soon. “This document is an initial set of principles and guidelines that we all agree form a relevant and realistic first step to protecting cast and crew in the reopening of the entertainment and media industry in its two largest markets,” said a joint statement from unions, including the Teamsters, the Directors Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA. Face masks for live audiences, staggered mealtimes with no buffet-style setups, and daily screenings for COVID-19 along with a designated COVID-19 compliance officer, were among the recommended guidelines.

Studios have already begun to make big investments in COVID-19 friendly infrastructure. Since March, two of the largest studios in the metro area — Pinewood Studios in Fayetteville and Blackhall Studios in Atlanta — have each invested more than $1 million to retrofit their studios. One of the biggest costs: improving the HVAC systems on their sound stages and offices so they are comparable to that of hospitals in order to reduce the chances of airborne transmission of viruses. Major film and television productions can easily have hundreds of staff members working in tight indoor quarters, creating the kind of environment that public health officials have noted can increase the spread of COVID-19.

“I’ve had to become an expert in viral containment,” said Ryan Millsap, owner of Blackhall Studios. “Until March, I hadn’t given it a second thought. This is a big moment in our generation where disease has come to the forefront.”

Atlanta-based makeup artist Tracy Ewell has seen a virus or cold spread like fire on almost every production on which she has worked. She started toting a personal air filter to set up in the trailers and tents where she and her team spend hours getting actors camera ready. ”I am paid to be hygienic,” Ewell said. “I take full responsibility for my actor’s condition, but masks don’t work in my world.”

Ewell, who has worked as a department head on productions for Marvel and the Netflix drama “Ozark,” is not afraid of returning to set, but she knows that is a decision everyone will have to make for themselves. The initial industry guidelines for makeup artists included providing more time to allow for safety measures to be followed, but additional protocols need to be established before that kind of work can continue. “I would be comfortable having fewer people on set in my department if I knew they were going to have the time,” Ewell said. But more time means more money, and studios now have to make big investments at a time when they’ve posted big losses.

Just before the pandemic shut down productions nationwide, HBO finished its upcoming J.J. Abrams drama, “Lovecraft Country,” and Paramount wrapped Chris Pratt military science fiction movie “The Tomorrow War” at Blackhall. Millsap was about to sign with two other major studios for new productions when COVID-19 put the kibosh on that.

Since then, Millsap has generated zero revenue, shedding more than $1 million a month while keeping his 12 full-time employees on payroll. He said he has had enough money in the bank to keep his studio afloat but would be challenged if shows didn’t begin shooting by the fourth quarter. If all goes well, two major studios will begin pre-production at Blackhall in July with potential full-blown production by August or September, he said.

Frank Patterson, the head of Pinewood Atlanta Studios, said they have had to study every aspect of their business, from more limited security access to more sequestered work pods, dividing the studio into zones. They also hired a medical testing company, BioIQ, to handle the anticipated flood of COVID-19 tests they plan to use on a daily basis. “Some days, we’ll have 6,000 people on the lot,” he said.

The past couple of months have been “overwhelmingly stressful because I’m working with people I’ve known for decades,” Patterson added. “These are people I grew up within the industry. We have to make certain nobody gets sick. At the same time, these are friends who haven’t worked for months and have families to feed. We need to get this done now.”

Atlanta-based Tyler Perry Studios was the first in the country to announce detailed plans to shoot two of his BET television series in July. Perry has some advantages most other studios do not. He owns 330 acres of a former Army base and has at least 80 residences on the property which will enable him to more easily isolate crew and actors. He writes and directs his own TV series in a way that will enable him to finish shooting an entire season in less than three weeks. He has developed protocols to test everybody multiple times with contingencies in case anybody gets COVID-19. He has scaled back on-site crew and extras and is using his largest sound stage as a cafeteria with proper social distancing.

“It’s an enormous undertaking and an enormous cost to the budget,” Perry told Variety last month.

Mann Stewart had just been called for an audition for a Perry television production before the studio closed. She is unsure if that opportunity still stands but has continued with other auditions, including a recent commercial audition that came through in late May. Still, it is never far from her mind how so many aspects of the industry must change.

While writing a script for a play, she found herself debating if she really needed the characters to have a physical interaction.

“I try not to let it impact me and say I can fix it later but…,” said Mann Stewart, her thought left trailing.

Some studios are already pondering creative solutions to those kinds of concerns. As soon as the pandemic hit, executives at Atlanta-based Crazy Legs Productions created an advisory council of five medical experts to help them draw up 25 pages of safety guidelines. Last month, they began compiling a database of local actors who are in relationships with other actors. “We can cast a husband and wife as a husband and wife,” said Scott Thigpen, chief operating officer. “It’s a way to mitigate risk.” They are also considering using family members as extras.

The company, which launched in 2006 and now has 34 salaried employees, produces docuseries for TLC such as “Family by the Ton” and crime shows for ID, like “Dead Silent. ” They also began shooting films for the first time this year.

Industry insiders are confident productions in Georgia will bounce back quickly and fill sound stages as a backlog of content gets filled.

After months spent keeping their skills sharp and in some cases, auditioning via Zoom, actors across metro Atlanta are ready to get back to work, said Clayton Landey, president of SAG-AFTRA Atlanta local. He hopes summer marks that return but said the proper precautions are needed. Landey, a 48-year industry veteran, recalled a scene years ago when his character was being hit with a bullet. Everyone else on the set was standing behind safety glass. “I feel a little like that now,” Landey said. “I am interested to see what is going to be the new normal in terms of safety on set.”

The pandemic ended a theater run for Landey and stalled a film, which no longer has a date to begin production, but he has spent the past three months staying connected to other actors through virtual chats and meetups. Landey worries about the actors who may be suffering mentally while isolated from the career that allows them to channel their emotions into their work. Though acting is a field that prepares you for career ups and downs, this is unlike anything they have seen before, he said.

“Nothing in our industry touches what we are going through now. Typically when there are times of stress or hard times in the general population, we are working like crazy because entertainment is what gets you through the day,” Landey said. “This time, it is slapping us all.”

[cladnplaid]

OKAY GUYS, I’ve had all weekend to think this though so here is my essay on the Ahsoka’s lEkKuS & mOnTrAls Debate

I’m not here to cause waves, just here to point a view things out. I have a few points I would like to make about the costumes choices that they went with for Ahsoka’s character design in the latest episode of The Mandalorian  because to be honest, I’m just really tired of seeing everyone here being so damn picky.

There could be a few different reasons as to why the Mandalorian team changed the look of Ahsoka “headdress” (ie. Lekkus and Montrals), one of them mainly being for practicality and stunt work. Also it could be that the team was wanting to stick to practical effects instead of CGI as much as possible like they have been for the entire series.

But you have all heard those arguments already so here’s a hot take on another reason:

It's a marketing thing.

She already has new toys and collectables (A FORCE FX LIGHTSABER!) scheduled to come out right off the back of the series ending of The Clone Wars as well as her new appearance in The Mandalorian. They had to make her appeal to the new fans of the TCW/Mandalorian/Star Wars so they kept a similar silhouette that's easily marketable and recognizable.

Star Wars has gained a HUGE amount of popularity from new fans over the past 5 years due to the Sequel Trilogy (mainly it has grown in 2019-2020). I would say Episodes VII, VIII, & IX had the same effect to new Star Wars fans as the musical, Hamilton, had with the general public; it got you interested in a thing so you went and researched what is was based off of to see what it’s all about. Simple, right?

Except we have a huge factor that was added to this Hyper-fixation-like equation.

New Media Thing + Stress + Quarantine = BOREDOM which then = Escapism through Hyper-fixation

At the end of 2019, as Covid started to rear it annoying head, right at the launch of Disney+, right as The Rise of Skywalker was released digitally early, right as The Mandalorian was gaining traction, right as Jedi Fallen Order came out (the first single-player Star Wars adventure game since The Force Unleashed in 2008), AND people were forced to stay home until further noticed.

If you were on TikTok in the beginning of 2020 because you were bored due to quarantine, you, like me, witnessed a whole lot of people CONSUMED all Star Wars content by the droves because for the first time, everything Star Wars was readily available on a brand new streaming service, Disney+, that was easily affordable (or free to Verizon Customers) and your casual friend who only watched the Sequel Trilogy now has access to the whole Saga and more.

In 2020, The Clone Wars series is ranked 3rd most watched on Disney+, being beaten by The Simpsons at #2 and (unsurprisingly) The Mandalorian at #1 (Rebels ranted #11 on this list) After those kinds of numbers, it’s safe to say that Ahsoka’s most familiar and most popular look/style would be from The Clone Wars series.

Now on to the more practical side as to why I think they went with the “shorter Lekkus & Montrals”

As an amateur costume designer/cosplayer, I can say without a doubt it's challenging to even WALK in something as cumbersome as her “headpiece” would be if they made it as large as it appears in Rebels, let alone attempt stunts in it. Just ask any Hatsune Miku cosplayer and they will tell you that wig is a nightmare and you don’t even want to THINK about dancing in it.

Take for example, David Prowess' stunts in the iconic Vader suit in the Original Trilogy. I know canonically, that suit is supposed to be restrictive and hard to move in but that doesn't mean you have to make it actually hard to move in for the stuntmen/actor. I wouldn’t really know if there is much you can do to make The Suit more flexible, so I applaud Prowess’ work because I can’t even comprehend how he would be able to move, let alone SEE in that thing, especially in the brilliantly choreographed duel in Empire Strikes Back.

Now with some costumes, You can cheat and make it a lot easier to move in while keeping its integrity. For example, ol' Luke Skywalker at the end of The Force Awakens, his cloak was clearly stitched to his tabards/tunic because a cloak like that is heavy so it can easily slip off in the wind or when you de-hood yourself. To solve this problem, they "fudged" it by stitching it to his tunic. Simple and easy to hide (which they did not do well, I’m afraid)

Also before you come at me with the whole “BuT sHaKk Ti iN II & III” spiel, keep in mind in The Attack of the Clones, the characters like Kit Fisto, Lumimara, and Shakk Ti all had costumes with “headdresses”, all had MINIMAL screen time and were hardly shown fighting in they're costumes. I haven't seen the movie in a while but I would hazard a guess that if they are shown fighting, it’s very brief or it's heavily CGIed which is the path that The Mandalorian crew doesn't want to go down. I would say almost all the aliens in the show are entirely practical effects, aside from Grogu in a couple of instances which is astounding compared to the Sequel Trilogy’s heavy uses of CGI aliens (except for Force Ghost Yoda, they did right making him a little puppet again. That made the 10-year-old in me so happy)

I guess the point I’m trying to make is just PLEASE stop being so damn picky! We have something REALLY good here with The Mandalorian and if you just look back in recent history, “fans” bullying the creators and cast of Star Wars can have damaging effects to the series and the people in general. To name a few examples:

People complained about not wanting the film Solo, so the Kenobi Film was canceled. Two points on that, the film was released at a bad time and now we are getting a Kenobi show, so that’s a bright side

“Fans” bullied Kelly Marie Tran (Rose Tico in The Last Jedi) and she now has no online presence.

“Fans” complained about the PLOT of The Last Jedi so they tried to undo it all the with fluster cluck that was The Rise of Skywalker, ruining established character arcs for Finn, Kylo Ren, Rey, Rose, Poe, etc (but also idk why Abrams and Johnson didn’t share both their visions of the series bUT WHATEVER, I’m not here to debate the Sequel Trilogy)

Let’s go back further, “Fans” bullied Hayden Christensen to the point where he hardly acted in anything where he should have been getting jobs left and right after the success of Revenge of the Sith, but nooOOOoo, he was tOo WhIneY. Homeboy strait up went and had to to try farm-living to get away from the “fans”

AND DON’T GET ME STARTED on Jake Lloyd, who was literally TEN YEARS OLD in The Phantom Menace, who left his acting career because of bullies in school and constant hounding from the press.That kid’s life was ruined by bullies.

In closing, to all the purists, the gate-keeping jerk-wads, and the basement dwelling “fans” who turn their noses up at anything that came out after 1983, you can take Kylo Ren’s absurd lightsaber and shove it where the sun don’t shine.

Stop ruining Star Wars for the Fans who actually enjoy it and are having fun. GOSH

#the mandalorian #ahsoka tano #ahsoka tano live action #star wars #mandalorian #the jedi #me just ranting passionately about costume design and yelling at bullies and babies #rambles #sw #this is NOT me @ any of my mutuals or irl friends. it's me @ the trolls and b*tchy fans who won't stop whining

[anti-pasto]

for the 200 ask thingy, i actually dare you to do all of them. :D

delgaskarthalexhere we go, anon: 

200: My crush’s name is: I don’t have one right now, I don’t get them often (if I ever had a crush at all)

199: I was born in: 2003

198: I am really: A 2005 emo kid x a 2008 scene kid x a 2014 tumblr fangirl x Kyle himself

 197: My cellphone company is: Apple

194: My ring size is: Honestly? No idea. Propose to me with a sword.

 193: My height is: Somewhere between 5′7″ and 5′8″

192: I am allergic to: Nothing I’m aware of 

191: My 1st car was:  94 Station Wagon, by request

190: My 1st job was: being this funny is a full-time gig

 189: Last book you read: Bone Gap by Laura Ruby

188: My bed is: “made”

187: My pet: I have a cat, I love her very much and I will show her to you if you dm me a cursed image

186: My best friend: We don’t use “best friend” for personal reasons, but they’ve been with me since I was 5 so, my one and only Bro

185: My favorite shampoo is: anything with “silky smooth” or “strawberries” on the bottle. i’m not that picky anymore.

184: Xbox or ps3: xbox or ps4  xbox

183: Piggy banks are: really useful

 182: In my pockets: wallet, keys, phone, earbuds, black pen/pencil, earplugs, mini flashlight

 181: On my calendar:  i’m meeting a friend for smoothies tomorrow

 180: Marriage is: something we shouldn’t push so much onto people. it’s a declaration of love, not an end-all fix-all to your life. i can’t ever see myself getting married but who knows!

 179: Spongebob can: continue to be a relevant meme

178: My mom: i mean. we function. i can’t really complain about my family at large but i am defiantly looking forward to living literally as far away from them as i can. 

 177: The last three songs I bought were? psh, you think i pay for music? (folie a deux, lake effect kid, believers never die volume two) (those are albums but its okay)

176: Last YouTube video watched: I watched Markiplier play Uno

175: How many cousins do you have? 11? 12? I lost count

174: Do you have any siblings? I have a brother

 173: Are your parents divorced? Nope!

172: Are you taller than your mom? Yes, I have been for a while

171: Do you play an instrument? dude HECK yeah! i vibe on piano, guitar, ukulele, clarinet, and im a drum major

170: What did you do yesterday? I went on a drive by myself.

 [ I Believe In ] 

169: Love at first sight: Nope.

168: Luck: Yes, but luck is something that can be engineered

167: Fate: To an extent

 166: Yourself: I’d say overall, yeah. I still have doubts tho

165: Aliens: Mmmmmm yeah

 164: Heaven: Yes

163: Hell: Yes

162: God: Yeup

 161: Horoscopes: without an ounce of truth, they would have died a long time ago

160: Soul mates: the greeks had seven words for love. i think we have multiple soul mates to fit each of those categories. there are definitely people we’re just meant to vibe with

159: Ghosts: i want to say yes but i really dont know

158: Gay Marriage: yes. its 2020. grow up.

157: War: in theory? no. war is kinda messed up. in reality? not everyone is going to be down to nice diplomatic conflict resolution, and not everyone is just gonna leave people *countries* they don’t like alone, so...

156: Orbs: ??? energies are real

155: Magic: vibes are real

 [ This or That ]

 154: Hugs or Kisses: hugs

153: Drunk or High: i am a child of jesus

152: Phone or Online: online

 151: Red heads or Black haired:  irdc but black hair bc i am Emo

150: Blondes or Brunettes: blonde?? ig?? easier to dye

149: Hot or cold: hot weather + cold rooms

148: Summer or winter: summer

147: Autumn or Spring: autum (screw spring)

 146: Chocolate or vanilla: vanilla

145: Night or Day: night

 144: Oranges or Apples: oranges (better to share with homies)

 143: Curly or Straight hair: i dont care but curly

 142: McDonalds or Burger King: mcdonald give iced coffee

141: White Chocolate or Milk Chocolate: dark chocolate

 140: Mac or PC: pc for vidgya gaemes

139: Flip flops or high heals: ...converse. please. i cant walk properly in either of those

 138: Ugly and rich OR sweet and poor: sweet and poor 

 137: Coke or Pepsi: pepsi

136: Hillary or Obama: this is kinda outdated but obama

135: Burried or cremated: cremated i aint watch spn for nothin

134: Singing or Dancing: singing. at least that gets better with practice

133: Coach or Chanel: chanel (thank u mr frank ocean and also the neighborhood)

 132: Kat McPhee or Taylor Hicks: whomst

 131: Small town or Big city: big city and if you say small town you’ve never lived in a small town

 130: Wal-Mart or Target: target

 129: Ben Stiller or Adam Sandler: who tf is this

 128: Manicure or Pedicure: idk dude probably pedicure i don’t like people touching my hands and i use them for too much to get my nails done

127: East Coast or West Coast: hnngggggggg west coast has more to do but east coast has better beaches and 

126: Your Birthday or Christmas: birthday 

125: Chocolate or Flowers: chocolate bc then i can give u some

124: Disney or Six Flags: ive only been to disney so disney (though i AM a HARDCORE rollercoaster stan so it wouldnt take much for me to say six flags)

123: Yankees or Red Sox: what 

 [ Here’s What I Think About ]

 122: War: unfortunately sometimes necessary but not as a first resort i went over this already 

 121: George Bush: is that the shoe guy?

 120: Gay Marriage:  be gay. do crime. kiss wife. or husband. or partner. basically, hell yeah

119: The presidential election: america need 2 b single and focus on herself

 118: Abortion: pro-choice and that choice should be made by the one carrying the baby

117: MySpace: tumblr’s dad

116: Reality TV: don’t talk to about abt this

 115: Parents: disgusting. go to therapy. 

114: Back stabbers: if you’re gonna stab me in the back, pull my lungs through my ribcage bc that’s what my ancestor’s ghosts are gonna do to you (thanks great (x a few times) grandma viking ily thanks for the hair:) )

113: Ebay: good for merch and selling books

 112: Facebook: zuck my dick, data-theif

111: Work: i like doing work? like- i enjoy completing tasks and seeing my hard work pay off? it’s not that bad?

110: My Neighbors: old. boring. want me to babysit for free.

109: Gas Prices: i cant really complain rn they’re kinda low and im a little broke so

108: Designer Clothes: i vibe to them, honestly

 107: College: not for everyone but definitely for me

106: Sports: marching band is a sport marching band is a sport marching band is a sport marching band is a sport marching band is a sport but only technically speaking though you can make fair comparisons to sports such as cheer, and gymnastics where the idea is to put on a show and receive a score in the form of competition. 

 105: My family: disgusting

104: The future: the future doesn’t exist

 [ Last time I ] 

103: Hugged someone: god, don’t ask me this

 102: Last time you ate: uhhh like 9 hours ago? it was dinner and i had pizza

 101: Saw someone I haven’t seen in awhile: three or four weeks ago by best bro came to visit and we vibed

100: Cried in front of someone: i finished twist and shout at school at the end of a very bad week. it was only a few tears but that’s as close as i get to crying

99: Went to a movie theater: whenever the last star wars movie came out

98: Took a vacation: last year i went to dc over summer break to see the Smithsonian, it was a lot of fun. i was supposed to go to altanta and florida this year but that didn’t happen for reasons

 97: Swam in a pool: last week

 96: Changed a diaper: never

 95: Got my nails done: never

 94: Went to a wedding: its been at least 6 years dude

93: Broke a bone: never, somehow

 92: Got a peircing: nope

91: Broke the law: technically, yesterday. 55 is too slow

90: Texted: just now

 [ MISC ] 

89: Who makes you laugh the most: the person in my snap named “junior”

88: Something I will really miss when I leave home is: my cat

87: The last movie I saw: probably into the spiderverse

86: The thing that I’m looking forward to the most: things going back to normal. or somewhat normal. i need school to have a schedule bc i absolutely cannot force myself to function without outside influence

 85: The thing im not looking forward to: ironically, school in the fall. the way we’re going back is going to wreck me more than lockdown already has

 84: People call me: i only ft one of my bros and they know who tf they are if you ask to ft you’re getting fuckin blocked mate i dont do that shit video calls are for WORK and SCHOOL thats IT. but ppl call me by my nickname irl, i go by screech on here. 

83: The most difficult thing to do is: listen to my parent’s political opinions? live in a small town? force myself to be productive without a physical influence and reminder? put up with that one dude?

82: I have gotten a speeding ticket: nope

 81: My zodiac sign is: scoprio/leo/gemini

80: The first person i talked to today was: the potential bassist for our potential band? 

79: First time you had a crush: uhh im still not sure if it was a crush but i wanted them to myself and they wanted (and got) someone better. we were just friends so it doesn’t really matter

 78: The one person who i can’t hide things from: the person on snap named “the great oracle”

77: Last time someone said something you were thinking: yesterday, it was my brother

 76: Right now I am talking to: in order of snap names, “vibin ~[^.^]~”, “russian umbrella”, and “mom” (not really)

75: What are you going to do when you grow up: hopefully, a job that makes me happy

74: I have/will get a job: as soon as i know what’s going on with school. but like as an adult? wherever will hire me and pay my fairly. being a barista would be fun, but at a local place (not in my current town)

73: Tomorrow: ???? time for bad poetry: tomorrow i will see my friend/ admist this lasting chaos/ we will be each other’s solitude/ while sharing fruity drinks/ and when we both come home/ a smile we will bring

72: Today: idk what this means so more poetry: today i will be sleep deprived as always/ i will think of them and weep/ but no tears will fall from my eyes/ for i know there is a reason/ we went our own way

 71: Next Summer: i fr dont know whats goin on so: next summer i will be/ as happy as can be/ because i will be in pain no longer/ the earth is sure to heal/ and i will heal with her/ so i can enjoy/ the heatwave of next summer

70: Next Weekend: next weekend i will spend/ my days wasting away/ maybe ill finish hannibal/ again/ not that serial killers make the dopamine stay/ i will not see my friends/ or talk to my family/ i will seldom eat/ and live off coffee/ this has been my life/ all quarintine/ god someone please help me

 69: I have these pets: i have four cats, three chickens, and a dog

 68: The worst sound in the world: my dad and grandpa talking

 67: The person that makes me cry the most is: Them

 66: People that make you happy: snap name time: the great oracle, junior, vibin ~[^.^]~, russian umbrella, mom, hero, booby-king 48, go to bed, son, pooper trooper, mac&cheese, plain egg biscuit, apple pie

 65: Last time I cried: i dont cry bitch (last week over officals that cant make up they gottdamned mindes)

64: My friends are: my family and i would die for each and all of them

 63: My computer is: an old hp but it play gaemes real good so it okie

 62: My School: is trash but the band pops off

61: My Car: old, fast, clean

60: I lose all respect for people who: are my dad

 59: The movie I cried at was: i cried over big hero six

 58: Your hair color is: blonde

57: TV shows you watch: supernatural, good omens, hannibal, parks and rec

56: Favorite web site: this hellsite or youtube

 55: Your dream vacation: out of the country with beautiful beaches, amazing food, and my best friend

54: The worst pain I was ever in was: the time i split the back of my head open, the time i split my chin open, and the time my then best friend said they didn’t want to talk to me anymore. i’ll let you guess which one hurt the most and which one i think about every fucking day

53: How do you like your steak cooked: medium or medium well. 

52: My room is: clean and a reflection of myself, or so i’ve been told

51: My favorite celebrity is: i do not engage in celebrity worship. ill follow them and reblog gifs/interviews but i dont really have a favorite. the less i know abt them the better.

 50: Where would you like to be: my own apartment in nyc

49: Do you want children: FUCK THEM KIDS BRO

 48: Ever been in love: i dont know if it was love. i dont know if it was a crush. what i do know id that i was attached and they didn’t feel the same, and why would they?

 47: Who’s your best friend: we dont really use best friend bc but “the great oracle” “junior” and “vibin ~[^.^]~”

46: More guy friends or girl friends: its 50/50

45: One thing that makes you feel great is: goin fast, the beach, playin video games

44: One person that you wish you could see right now: them

43: Do you have a 5 year plan: go to college, earn degree

 42: Have you made a list of things to do before you die: commit arson

 41: Have you pre-named your children: FUCK. THEM. KIDS. BRO.

40: Last person I got mad at: they do not understand that they do not know everything about something they’re not even involved in yet

39: I would like to move to: new zealand

38: I wish I was a professional: artist? musican? youtuber? who knows

 [ My Favorites ] 

37: Candy: nerds

36: Vehicle: 1970 mustang gt

 35: President: jfk only bc his assassination is the only good thing abt american history the rest of it is fucked up and shouldn’t have happened. also jfk’s song in assassians the musical goes hard

34: State visited: california

 33: Cellphone provider: verizon? apple? idfk

32: Athlete: what is sport

31: Actor: i don't watch shows or movies

30: Actress: i do not consume media

29: Singer: alex gaskarth or alexander deleon

 28: Band: fall out boy 

 27: Clothing store: hot topic (i will not apologize)

 26: Grocery store: okay harris teeter fucks but lidil’s has aloe vera juice and target at 9 pm energy so idk man 

25: TV show: supernatural...

24: Movie: big hero 6

 23: Website: tumblr or youtube

 22: Animal: snow leopard 

 21: Theme park: busch gardens bc roller coaster go fast

20: Holiday: christmas

19: Sport to watch: snowboarding bc its like skateboarding but on snow

18: Sport to play: anything with havy footwork (marching band is a sport)

17: Magazine: i do not condume media

16: Book: the ranger’s apprentice series as a whole makes up my all-time one favorite book

 15: Day of the week: friday bc its game day baybey

14: Beach: cocoa beach in florida but also i have so much left to experience 

13: Concert attended: i havent been to any notable gigs but i was supposed to go to hella mega

 12: Thing to cook: pancakes

11: Food: pizza or shushi

 10: Restaurant: chiplote

 9: Radio station: i like my local rock station and my local edm/top 40 station

8: Yankee candle scent: anything smoky or vanilla idc

7: Perfume: chanel no. 5 if i even wear it

6: Flower: Hydrangea

5: Color: orange

 4: Talk show host: cecil palmer

 3: Comedian: john maulaney

 2: Dog breed: yes

1: Did you answer all these truthfully? ;)

That was a trip. But it was fun, please do things like this more often. Also, I don’t consume media by choice. I’m not sheltered I just can’t be bothered, and I have enough going on. That being said I will now be sleeping. Thanks again, Anon, I hope you have fun reading this :D

[antagonistchanremade]

Getting Into Transformers

So, someone (who I don’t actually know) asked how to get into Transformers, and a mutual, uh, mutual recommended me as a good source for that sort of thing, so, here’s a post on that.

Transformers, despite being an absolutely massive franchise, is a surprisingly easy series to get into. Compared to other fandoms of its scale, it’s basically no work at all to get into it. This is because Transformers is split into, like, fifty different continuities. That can be daunting in its own way, if you want to REALLY get deep into the series and its lore, but since most continuities are at least a little self-contained, getting into any individual continuity is a breeze.

Also, a particularly noteworthy fact about Transformers is that it’s one of the few franchises I can think of that’s completely multinational. As in, it is equal parts Japanese and American. It is, and always has been (though it was a little fuzzier in the early days), a joint project between the American company Hasbro and the Japanese company TakaraTomy. And there are a lot of ways in which it is a quintessentially American franchise, but just as many ways in which it is a quintessentially Japanese franchise. It’s really interesting. And the history of why Transformers is like this is also interesting, but not important to the topic of getting into it.

My personal introduction to the series was the 2005-2006 anime Transformers: Cybertron (or Transformers: Galaxy Force in the original Japanese), which... that one’s actually a little complicated due to some blunders on the parts of its creators. It is effectively its own continuity, but it’s officially the final act of a trilogy with 2003′s Transformers: Armada anime and 2004′s Transformers: Energon anime. But the timeline between Cybertron and Energon is so chaotic and screwy, and Cybertron feels like a completely new story, that you’re not really missing much if you haven’t seen Armada or Energon yet. So, don’t worry about it when you’re first getting into it, just be prepared for complexity when you start broadening your horizons.

However, that’s not, in my opinion, the best starting place for getting into Transformers.

The best places to start would be:

Transformers: War for Cybertron: Siege, a Netflix original series which is going to be starting in 2020 and will take place in its own continuity.

Transformers: Cyberverse, a cartoon that started last year, takes place in its own continuity, and can be watched for free on the Hasbro youtube channel.

The 2008 cartoon Transformers: Animated, which is widely regarded as one of the best incarnations of the franchise (and again, takes place in its own continuity).

The original 1984 cartoon, The Transformers (these days more commonly referred to as “Transformers G1″). It’s not very good, and is not a standalone series in the slightest (they keep adding onto and rebooting this particular continuity, since it’s the first one), but it’s where the series began and that’s pretty important. I wouldn’t recommend it as your first series, but definitely your second. Also, an important note is that there’s a movie, The Transformers: The Movie, which came out in 1986, in between the second and third seasons, and also takes place between them, and it’s my favorite movie of all time. Like, the rest of G1 is kinda charmingly terrible, but the movie is genuinely really good. It also technically shares the position of “where the series began” with the Marvel comics that started at the same time, but the Marvel comics are significantly more obscure and also significantly more daunting.

The 1996 cartoon Transformers: Beast Wars. It has a similar positive reputation as Animated, and it takes place in the same continuity as the original series... but while having seen the original series definitely enhances Beast Wars, Beast Wars can be enjoyed just fine without it, since it’s a very distant sequel/prequel (it’s a sequel because the characters are from the far future, but time travel happens and they spend pretty much the entire series in the distant past, so it’s also a prequel).

The Transformers comics by IDW Publishing that started this year (there was also a Transformers series that IDW did that began in 2006 and ended earlier this year, but that’s significantly more daunting). The previous IDW series is just as beloved as Animated and Beast Wars, but is significantly more daunting, so the new series that’s just starting is probably a better starting point.

And one final note:

The “Transformers” tag on Tumblr is absolutely worthless. It’s just filled with, like, pictures of actors who have been in the Micheal Bay movies. As such, the Transformers fandom on Tumblr came up with its own tag for fandom content, “Maccadam”, which comes from the name of a fairly obscure character.

#transformers #maccadam

[swiftzeldas]

Can I please request tv show recs??

yes! or, i can try! i don’t know that i watch much that people haven’t heard of yet so i’ll try to be a little more obscure lol

the river (abc, 2012): this show ran for a single season. it’s found-footage horror by oren peli (the creator of the paranormal activity franchise). the premise is a famous explorer (think discovery channel) goes missing while filming a new tv series, and his son sets out to search for him on uncharted parts of the Amazon. i have no idea where one would watch this nowadays, and i haven’t frankly watched it since it aired, but it made me feel ALL the things and i LOVED it

pitch (fox, 2016): a little better known, but again, a single season that deserved more. the show is about ginny baker’s (fictional) journey as the first female player in major league baseball. 

sense8 (netflix, 2015-2018): two seasons + a finale movie for this one. i actually haven’t finished this yet, but it’s about eight strangers across the world who suddenly have a psychic bond with each other.

the marvelous mrs maisel (amazon, 2017-present): if you haven’t watched this yet, sarah, i feel like you would really like it! i have not finished this one either but it’s about a 1950s housewife in new york who starts a career in stand-up comedy.

new girl (fox, 2011-2018): another one i haven’t finished, another one i have to think you must have seen already, but i love it so much! jessica day moves in with three new roommates. shenanigans ensue. 

leverage (tnt, 2008-2012): the PERFECT SHOW. five criminals form a team to help regular people recover from injustices inflicted upon them by corporations or government. “sometimes bad guys are the only good guys you get.” 

graceland (usa, 2013-2015): ugh this was my perfect summer show, it’s been over for a good few years now and i STILL miss it when summer rolls around. if you like cop/fbi shows this is a great one to check out (i think it’s on hulu!). aaron tveit stars as a rookie fbi agent who moves into a house with several other undercover officers. this definitely does get dark and heavy at times!!!! but worth it.

the exorcist (fox, 2016-2017): yeah u all saw this coming. it’s a spinoff of the 1973 film. a young priest is concerned that a girl in his parish may be possessed by a demonic force, and for help he turns to a man who’s devoted his life to exorcism.

#andcoffeeatmidnight #ask #SORRY I TOOK THIS WAY TOO SERIOUSLY

[letterboxd]

Endgame.

“I think audiences are so smart now, so they require to not be fed the same drivel as even 20 minutes ago.” —Robert Downey Jr.

The cast and filmmakers behind the most anticipated release of the year talk to Letterboxd, without actually saying anything specific about the film. (But we don’t mind.) This article contains mild Infinity War spoilers.

Although there are going to be many, many more of them, Avengers: Endgame can’t help but feel like the climax of the grand Marvel movie experiment; the culmination of the shared universe first suggested by a delightful post-credits teaser in 2008’s Iron Man.

Since then, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has come to dominate the modern blockbuster with hit after hit, year after year. Then came last year’s Avengers: Infinity War, with its devastating cliffhanger in which many Marvel protagonists evaporated into dust. That epic act of character disintegration built an anticipation for the follow-up that allowed the filmmakers to apply incredible restraint in the film’s marketing. Indeed, all we really know about Avengers: Endgame is that we don’t know anything.

Marvel head honcho Kevin Feige announced that there would be nothing in the trailers from beyond the first twenty minutes of the film. That is unprecedented in modern blockbusters, which center their campaigns around the major action set-pieces, usually dutifully showcased in teasers and trailers to the point where we complain we’ve already seen the film.

In the modern marketing-saturated film-going environment, to go into a film of this size and not be aware of which direction the story is heading, or what the major action scenes will be, is an almost impossible task.

Feige and co-directors Joe and Anthony Russo are to be commended for using their accumulated powers for good in this regard—not since Gone Girl has a major studio film shown such restraint. Heck, they didn’t even let press see the movie before we sat down with Feige, both Russos and the (currently officially alive) cast members of the film (pretty much the original Avengers team) in downtown Los Angeles this week.

Read on for the low-down on the Avengers’ best Boggle player, Natasha Romanoff’s evolution from “sexy secretary”, and the scene that had Robert Downey Jr. “more shredded than a julienne salad”.

Front row, left to right: Danai Gurira, Jeremy Renner, co-director Anthony Russo, Chris Evans, co-director Joe Russo, Brie Larson and Mark Ruffalo. Back row, left to right: Karen Gillan, Paul Rudd, Scarlett Johansson, Marvel Studios president/producer Kevin Feige, Robert Downey Jr., Don Cheadle and Chris Hemsworth during Marvel Studios’ ‘Avengers: Endgame’ press conference in Los Angeles.

Letterboxd: Filmmakers are known to tinker with blockbusters until the very last minute, honing in on what audiences respond to in the teaser material. That’s obviously not the case here, since you held back so much in the film’s trailers. How did this lack of advance audience feedback impact the filmmaking process, if at all? Anthony Russo (co-director, the taller brother): Look, at the end of the day, my brother and I, we came to this material because we’re fans. We grew up loving the comics. We came to the MCU already fans of the MCU. So the energy we move on is our own passion and our own excitement, and that’s how we tell stories. We learned long ago that you have to tell stories for yourself. You can’t be thinking about how others might receive them.

So for Joe and me, because we have such an intimate relationship with the material, because we have so many amazing collaborators—starting with Kevin [Feige, producer]—we are able to really fashion the story around what we want to see as fans. How do we surprise ourselves. How do we excite ourselves? How do we challenge ourselves? How do we force ourselves to keep digging deeper and keep exploring this narrative and these characters in ways we never imagined? That’s sort of how we guide ourselves through the process.

And once the film is complete and we put it out into the world, we really have no idea how it is going to be received. Once that complete film is experienced and digested and responded to, I think that’s the moment where we are then filled up with a reaction. But as we’re executing, once we conceive the film and start executing, we’re not really second-guessing what we’re doing. We’re really focused on chasing the initial vision that we had for it.

On how the Russo brothers are feeling now that they are near the end of the journey: Joe Russo (co-director): This is, I think, a really unique experiment in movies, this grand mosaic. Depending on how you count it up, eleven franchises… have been interwoven into one big narrative, and I think a lot of people have invested a lot of heart and soul into the characters. When we take these movies around the world, it’s really heartwarming to see people come up to you and say “hey, I started watching this with my classmates when I was ten years old—now we’re all 21 and we’re all going to go see this together” or “my parents have taken me to every movie” or “my grandfather has taken me to every film”. It’s a real sense of community and sharing in these stories and believing in them. And I think with Endgame, we get the opportunity to finish off one of the grandest experiments in movie history and bring it to, as Kevin said, an epic conclusion. So what we’re hoping for is that people feel satisfied with the conclusion.

‘Avengers: Endgame’ co-directors Joe Russo and Anthony Russo.

On what it’s like to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe at this critical moment: Brie Larson (Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel): I mean, stressful, now that you put it like that. I’ve felt kind of chill. But now I’m scared. So I hope you guys did a good job. I came at just the most magical time I think. To come exactly at this ten-year anniversary, and really, my first introduction to everyone was the ten-year photo, which was a really remarkable and special day. And super surreal and also like not allowed to [be talked about]. So the whole thing has always felt like a dream.

This film will always be personally dear to me because it was my first time playing Captain Marvel. We shot this first. So I had to stumble and try to figure out who this character was with no script for this and no script for Captain Marvel either—and perform for the first time in front of legends. But it was incredible.

As big as it is, it still feels like a bunch of kids. Just like what I was doing over summer break, making movies in my garage. There is still this sense of wonder and play and encouragement—and of course this film deals with some heavy subject matter. So you’re bouncing in between things that feel very deep and serious, and then we’re going off and playing Boggle. Which I am very good at. Just to be clear.

There is no other word I can describe it as other than surreal. And I’m super excited for this to come out. Mostly just so that I can talk about it. I want to be able to talk about my experience, which I haven’t been able to do for a very long time.

On connection to his fellow Avengers: Mark Ruffalo (Bruce Banner/Hulk): It doesn’t feel like family to me because we all really get along well. There’s not that much drama. It does feel like family. It’s a family that you wish you had in a way. I don’t know if you could tell, but it’s a little bit different press conference than the last time. It has a little bit sort of sadness to it. We’re all talking about like we’re dead. I loved working with these guys. It was great knowing them. They were great Boggle players.

There is something very bittersweet about this moment, because as actors, we’re like vagabonds. We kind of bounce around. We have these intense relationships. And then you don’t see anybody until you get nominated for something or you’re nominated in something and you end up in an award ceremony.

Chris Evans (Steve Rogers/Captain America): What’s that like? Speak for yourself.

MR: Well. But like, this is the closest thing that any of us really have to—unless you’re in several franchises—it’s the closest thing you have to continuity and friendships and watching people grow up and have children and get married and then get divorced and then get remarried.

On how Captain America’s leadership role is affected by the presence of other leaders like Black Panther and Captain Marvel: CE: I think he tends to lean on those people who are of like mind and nature, who kind of are intrinsically selfless. I mean, all the heroes up here have their baked-in-the-cake flaws. And I think a lot of that makes for really good conflict in storytelling. That’s why my favorite stuff in this arc has been my stuff with Downey, because [there is] such a dichotomy between how we approach things. But at the end of the day, our hearts are both in the right places. It provides a lot of great friction. By introducing characters like Captain Marvel and Black Panther, people who also align very similarly to Cap’s nature, it reinforces Cap’s sense of purpose and home. It’s an environment that… feels more natural for him. It’s nice to see the certain pockets where he feels at peace and the certain pockets where he feels his buttons might be getting pushed.

On the evolution of the franchise’s female roles: Scarlett Johansson (Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow): Initially, the character really started as a sort of sexy secretary with a skill-set on the side. Posing as. And we didn’t know, or I certainly didn’t know how the audience would react to the character, my interpretation of the character. And obviously a very beloved character for a long time. Then the next time that we saw her in Avengers, she was sort of one of the boys for better or worse. And that made sense then.

I think the fans and the audiences have really pushed, certainly Marvel, but pushed all the studios and filmmakers to really throw up on the screen what represents what’s going on in the zeitgeist and wanting to see diverse films and casts that represent their own aspirations and how they feel. I feel the character has sort of grown in reaction to that. And the movies have really grown in reaction to that kind of fan encouragement.

I remember when Lizzie [Olsen, Scarlet Witch] signed on. Cobie [Smulders, Agent Maria Hill] was there. We were all clinging to each other… I felt like I had been in this testosterone fest for such a long time, it was so nice to see other female cast members. And then with Brie [Larson] coming on and Karen [Gillan, Nebula from Guardians of the Galaxy] and Danai [Gurira, Okoye from Black Panther]. I’m amongst so many wonderful actors, so many strong actors, and it’s just grown beyond my wildest dreams. I could never have imagined where this would take us. And all of us. It’s been quite a journey.

On how Robert Downey Jr. felt while filming the now-iconic scene in which Spider-Man (Tom Holland) fades away at the end of Infinity War (“Mr Stark, I don’t feel so good”): Robert Downey Jr. (Tony Stark/Iron Man): I just love the lighting in that scene. I look so shredded. I was more shredded than a julienne salad, man. No. I make a lot of faces. I need some help in the editing. It was one of those moments. “This is the most serious thing that’s happened since you were nine. Now don’t F this up.” And I remember the brothers were there. I think we re-staged it once or twice. Anyway. It was crazy to shoot it. But it was just another day. But then I think seeing it—I happened to see it with this amazing kid, this Scottish kid who couldn’t go to a theater—I saw it with him and his reaction really f’ed me up.

So I think what a lot of us are looking forward to—like Kevin always says—is that it’s a surprising, delightful experience with Endgame. It’s one of those things where you go “Wow, I think we just made a pretty serious choice here”. But I think audiences liked that. I think audiences are so smart now so they require to not be fed the same drivel as even 20 minutes ago. It’s like we need novelty. And I think that what the Russos and Kevin have been able to do that is provide that in spades.

On what’s been special about Chris Hemsworth’s journey with these films: Chris Hemsworth (Thor): Well, just to echo something you were saying before, Anthony, about the first time that the Marvel Universe came into my universe back in Australia: I was sitting there, and I would have been just straight out of high school and watching Iron Man and thinking the same thing. Thinking “Oh my god, imagine. I wish I could be a part of that world”. And then a few years on, getting cast in it as Thor and having the opportunity to embark on this thing, and at the time I thought, was this film even going to make it past DVD? Or make to the cinemas? Or was I going to be re-cast and all those sort of questions.

I think the answer to the question, what made it so special for me was just the different people I was able to work with. From Kenneth Brannagh—that first film was really sort of completely in his hands, and he was basically willing to do whatever it takes and wherever he needed me to go for the character—and then through the films with each director and each different cast member, I would learn something different from them.

And by Ragnarok, I felt like I finally had enough sort of confidence to go “Okay, what is it that I could possibly bring to this?” And then have this great collaboration with Taika [Waititi, director]. We really decided to do something different to see how we could make it unexpected and unique. And then I had been calling Joe and Anthony and saying look, I’ve got this new version of Thor that we’ve just shot. And I want to continue that version. I don’t want to do the old version. And they said we’ve got an even newer version for you.

It’s just about the people that’s made it so special and I think unique each time with any of our characters. The fact that we’re all willing to be open to what new possibilities lie ahead of these franchises and these characters. It’s been a pretty remarkable journey.

‘Avengers: Endgame’ opens in Australia and New Zealand on 24 April, and in UK, US and other regions from 25 April. Reporting by Letterboxd West Coast editor Dominic Corry.

#avengers #mcu #Marvel Studios #ironman #avengers endgame #avengers infinity war #thor #black widow #natasha romanoff #scarlett johansson #letterboxd

[comeoncomeout41]

Y’all it’s 2019, a time when women in Hollywood have been speaking out about equal pay, sexual harassment, and advocating for more diverse storytelling. And I want to bring you all way the fuck back to circa 2007-2008 when the world shit on Katherine Heigl for being “snobbish.”

This article in The NY Times from June 2008 discusses two different occasions in which Katherine Heigl was seen as a bitch.

https://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/14/arts/television/14heig.html

Y’all remember this shit? Let’s list off the grievances of Katherine Heigl mentioned for anyone who doesn’t want to click the article:

1. Calling Knocked Up “a little sexist.” Guess what motherfuckers?? She wasn’t wrong! Girls gets drunk and has sex with a guy. Who stupidly disrespects her consent and doesn’t wear a condom. Seth Rogan’s douchebag character just thought it would be cool to not wear a condom even though the discussion clearly is addressed even in her drunken stay. And she gets pregnant! But it doesn’t even stop there! The entire movie Heigl’s character is seen as some uptight bitch who just needs to relax when the man smokes weed and does literally fucking nothing to help her, in fact making her life more miserable the more the movie goes on, and for some reason Heigl is seen as “difficult to work with” for calling out the “blockbuster movie that supposedly started her career.” Which is bullshit because I know we’ve all seen Wish Upon a Star (maybe not but you’ve at least seen gifs of her as Izzie on Greys.)

2. Which brings me to my next point. Heigl called out Shonda’s writer’s room/ the show in general. Let me just say if you haven’t seen the first two-three seasons of Grey’s where Heigl does a stellar performance, you missed out. And her stories and her character development were actually GOOD. (Shonda did write more-maybe it’s all episodes?- in the earlier season.)

Izzie Stevens grows up in a trailer park to a single mother and she also models (sometimes in risqué/nude photos) to pay her way through medschool. That’s the beginning origin of Izzie Stevens and by the end of her run, Heigl gave some incredibly emotionally gripping performances. Plus Izzie being someone who made her own path in life despite where she is started is something a lot of women can relate to. She’s also wicked smart. Not as smart as Cristina Yang or as driven, she doesn’t have a famous mother like Meredith but the friendly competition between all of the interns was so fun to watch in the beginning and it was because of that, and the odd friendship between those three women and George that made Grey’s the most watched show on television at the time. Of course Ellen Pompeo carrying that show as Meredith-with her relationship with her mother and then the McDreamy romance and the line “pick me, choose me” made the show memorable. And Sandra Oh and Ellen Pompeo were a force and gave us the term “my person.” AND Grey’s being the first female lead show of this caliber, all made the world love this show.

And it’s for that reason that it’s strange to look back and remember the fact that Heigl was nominated and won an Emmy as a supporting actress for Grey’s in its early years.

So when another Emmy season came around Heigl didn’t want to even be put in for the nomination, and again was criticized. The season in question which she would have been nominated for was the one in which Izzie becomes “the other woman,” and George cheats on his wife, Callie, with Izzie.

Now why the fuck is it so wrong for Katherine Heigl to say, “this storytelling is shit, and I don’t deserve an Emmy for this performance. And I want to give another woman the opportunity to be nominated.” She had just won the previous year, on a show that was still receiving nominations left and right on top of a heavy fan following, high ratings, and would likely continue to be renewed for new seasons year after year. Seriously Grey’s is still on. And guess who was nominated that year? Both Sandra Oh and Chandra Wilson, two woc who honestly deserved the awards more than Heigl did but alas, didn’t win because at this time Hollywood had barely even started nominating any actors or actresses who weren’t white. And the woman who did win was white but get this, she was 62. An older woman in Hollywood winning awards in 2008 is still a good thing even if Sandra Oh deserved an Emmy every season she was on Grey’s.

She also asked for more money, after having won the Emmy. And while Ellen Pompeo is commended for asking for her fair share, Katherine Heigl is seen as snobby and bratty. Now I don’t know exactly how these negotiations went but you’ve got an Emmy award winning supporting actress, asking for more money when the lead asks for more money, but again she’s difficult to work with..

http://www.pajiba.com/celebrities_are_better_than_you/bring-on-the-new-age-of-katherine-heigl.php

Now that article from July 2018, highlights a lot of Katherine Heigl’s struggles in her career over the last ten years since these incidents, and I genuinely hope that the television and film industry finds it in themselves to look at Heigl’s career and see a new light to her as a person.

Everyone shit on her for doing cat litter commercials. And guess what? She is still advocating for them now. Even after you assholes made fun of her.

So anyway, I Stan Katherine Heigl and all y’all can fuck off for being mean to her

#i made this draft months ago but didnt post because of the unflattering screencap lol #but the point still stands..

[romana73]

REYLO VS VAMPIRE KNIGHT

Post written by ME. The animated gifs and pictures shown, however, AREN’T MINE and DON’T BELONG TO ME IN ANY WAY. Sorry for my mistakes, but English isn’t my first language

"In depths of my heart, fear of a dark past has always tormented me. My parents abandoned me ... and who am I? " (Yuki, 2x04, Vampire Knight Guilty) I will try to insert less possible spoilers about Vampire Knight, ‘cause if you haven’t seen and read this work, I highly recommend you do it and I don’t want to ruin various surprises story holds.

Vampire Knight and Reylo DON’T have much in common. Their stories are different, Vampire Knight is a mirrors game, with two male protagonists always poised between good and evil and a true love triangle in classic sense. Nonetheless, two stories share narrative canvases show how by using them, different stories can be built, but always love stories. Vampire Knight is a 2004 Shōjo Manga, signed by Matsuri Hino. In 2008 cartoon version came out. Divided into two seasons Vampire Knight and Vampire Knight Guilty, cartoon summarizes only comics first part. To know second part and story’s end, you must read Vampire Knight comics. Story protagonist is Yuki Cross, a 16-year-old girl, adopted by Kaien Cross, Cross Academy’s director, a renowned private school she’s a student of and Guardian. Together with Kaien and Yuki also lives Zero Kyriu, a 17-year-old boy, student and another institute’s Guardian. In fact, school hides a secret. Students are divided into two classes: Day Class, formed by human and Night Class, beautiful vampires elite. Former retired vampire hunter, belonging to Hunters Association, Kaien Cross opened school pursuing a difficult goal: peaceful coexistence between vampires and human. In fact, being divided, there is a moment in which two groups meet, under Guardians watchful gaze: classes changes. Vampires often attend evening classes. Banned from vampires sucking blood of academy humans. For this, at their disposal are blood tablets, dissolved in water, are transformed into blood... students also reside in two separate dormitories. Sun dormitory (human) and Moon (Vampire). Yuki and Zero are responsible for discipline and respect for rules, they also possess anti-vampire weapons. Sharing and helping director Kaien's project is Kaname Kuran, a fascinating and powerful Pure Blood vampire, head of Moon dormitory and all Academy’s vampires, whose Yuki has always been in love. Yuki suffers from a big memory emptiness, which prevents her from remembering her childhood. Her memories start on a cold, snowy winter night, when she was 10 and Kaname saved her from a vampire E-level attack: a vampire, a human time, whose transformation has degenerated to point of erasing all consciousness, reason and feeling, turning he into a monster thirsty for blood. Since then, Kaname has taken on task of protecting Yuki, refusing to reveal to anyone, including Yuki, real reasons for this choice. Only Kaien Cross knows truth. Difficult relationship between Yuki and Kaname is complicated by Yuki's feelings for Zero. Shaky, taciturn and grumpy, Zero keeps everyone at a safe distance, including Yuki, whom he loved in secret. All she knows is, one night, four years ago, Kaien had come home with blood-covered Zero, saying he was son of two famous vampire hunters, murdered by a pure blood vampire and he was only survivor. For this reason, as well as ‘cause of his being a hunter, Zero feeds a deep and boundless hatred for vampires, which he only wants to exterminate. What Yuki ignores is Zero himself is turning into a vampire. Shizuka Hio, nicknamed Princess of Blossoming Flower, had been killed by his parents, who had broken her hearts by killing vampire she was in love with. In revenge, Shizuka had killed two hunters, but first she had irreparably bitten Zero... to help her, Ichiru Kiryu, Zero’s twin brother, physically too weak to become a hunter. Protected by Zero, to whom he was deeply tied, Ichiru couldn’t bear his frail health and be considered by all weak link. Shizuka recognized as a kindred soul, behind promise to be healed and turned into a strong boy, Ichiru was on vampire’s side, betraying parents and Zero, then disappearing with her. One day Kaname reveals to Yuki only pure-blooded vampires like him can choose to turn a human. Unfortunately, transformed human is destined to become inexorably a level E vampire: a blood-thirsty monster without any more reason and conscience. This is also Zero’s fate who, once a human, has been fighting against a slow transformation into a vampire for four years ... Kaname Kuran’s title is MASTER KANAME. He faithful friends and subordinates, a group of seven young aristocratic vampires: Hanabusa Aido, Takuma Ichijo, Akatsuki Kain, Seiren, Senri Shiki, Ruka Souen and Rima Toya:

One of Ben Solo/Kylo Ren’s titles is a KNIGHTS OF REN MASTER, a fighters group loyal to him:

Yuki’s first memory is when, in a dark and cold winter night, Kaname saved her from a mad vampire, then he holding her hand out. Yuki, who at time was a child, grasped Kaname's hand confidently, while a woman's words rang out in her mind, warning her: "He is ... who sucks people’s blood...monster takes on human form... he’s a vampire. You don’t have to get close to them, if you do... you will be captured by those eyes " (female voice, 1x01, Vampire Knight)

In Vampire Knight’s opening themes, Kaname offers his hand to Yuki, but she portrays her own, uncertain:

In "Star Wars. Episode VIII. The Last Jedi" movie, Rey offers her hand to Ben/Kylo and he accepts it. In same movie, Kylo offers his hand to Rey, but she doesn’t grasp it:

Zero confides to Yuki:

"I accepted to be a guardian only for one reason: because I want to look for most effective way to destroy those beasts with human features" (Zero to Yuki, about the vampires, 1x01, Vampire Knight)

Likewise, Kylo Ren hates Jedi and wants to kill them all, along with Sith:

At one point, at Academy, comes Toga Yagari, vampire hunter and ex ZERO’S MASTER who tries to kill Zero. Knowing boy's vampire condition, Yagari closes Zero. Concerned, Yuki goes to see Zero and, noticing he isn’t immobilized and doors and windows aren’t locked, Yuki gets angry and asks why Zero accepts imprisonment imposed by Yagari: "Why do you have to obey that man? Tell me! " (Yuki to Zero, 1x06, Vampire Knight)

Similarly, in "Star Wars. Episode VIII. The Last Jedi" movie, while Ben/Kylo is taking her to Snoke, on elevator, Rey tells him: "You don't have to do this. I feel the conflict in you " (Rey to Ben/Kylo, from "Star Wars, Episode VIII, The Last Jedi" movie)

At one point, Yuki's mental block, which prevents her from remembering, becomes too heavy for her who, reflecting, says:

"In depths of my heart, the fear of a dark past has always tormented me. My parents abandoned me ... and who am I? " (Yuki, 2x04, Vampire Knight Guilty)

Similarly, in "Star Wars. Episode VIII. The Last Jedi" movie, Ben Solo/Kylo Ren gives voice to Rey complex, even if ABANDONED when it was small by PARENTS, she DOESN’T STOP TO HOPE of couple coming to her and of FIND OUT THEM in any adult shows her affection: "Thrown away like rubbish from yours ..." "It isn’t so!" "Yes, yes, but you still need it. You look for them in anyone, it's your weak point. You look for them in anyone, In Han Solo, now in Skywalker " (Ben Solo/Kylo Ren to Rey, from "Star Wars Episode VIII, The Last Jedi" movie)

To help Yuki rebuild her past, Zero and Kaien accompany her to Hunters Association headquarters, to search through their archives. By time Yuki finds 10-year-old register, when Kaname rescued her from mad vampire, book’s pages burn themselves, before she and anyone else could read them, leaving Yuki depressed and shaken:

To search for answers about their parents, Rey ventures into dark cave on sacred island where Luke lives. Inside it, girl finds a mirror-like wall, asking her to show her parents. Rey sees two shadows walking towards her, until she becomes one, but when image clears up, mirror reflects Rey's only face. Destroyed and disheartened, girl confides in Kylo

Yuki would do anything to save Zero from his destiny as a vampire, convinced of inexorability of his fate, Zero handed Yuki a bulletproof pistol, making her promise. if one day he becomes a lethal level E vamp, she will kill him. Yuki accepts weapon, but refuses to kill Zero. One evening, entering Zero's empty room, Yuki thinks:

"It’s in this room he suffers alone, he suffers in silence. Zero, I know I can save you "

(Yuki thinking of Zero, 1x11, Vampire Knight)

In "Star Wars. Episode VII. The Force Awakens" movie, Kylo Ren closes in his room, alone, to talk with Vader's mask:

In "Star Wars. Episode VIII. The last Jedi" movie, arguing with Luke, Rey declares herself confident she can bring Kylo Ren back to Light Side, saving him:

“This is not going to go the way you think! “

“It is. Just now, when we touched hands, I saw his future. As solid as I'm seeing you. If I go to him, Ben Solo will turn”

“Rey... Don't do this”

(Rey and Luke Skywalker, from "Star Wars Episode VIII, The Last Jedi" movie)

One evening, in disguise, Shizuka Hio arrives at Academy. Zero recognizes her immediately and he challenge her, but vampire reminds him:

"So I know you're incapable of killing me, because a slave couldn’t kill his master, who offered him a vampire life with his blood"

(Shizuka Hio a Zero, 1x10, Vampire Knight)

In "Star Wars. Episode VIII. The last Jedi" movie, speaking of Kylo, ​​Snoke tells Rey:

"You think you can turn him? Pathetic child, I cannot be betrayed. I cannot be beaten. I see his mind: I see his every intent " (Snoke a Rey, about Kylo Ren, from "Star Wars Episode VIII, The Last Jedi" movie)

One evening, Kaname finds Yuki fainted in front of his palace. He takes her into his house, placing her on sofa and sitting next to her. The moment she opens her eyes, Kaname tells Yuki: "It was time! It's been a while since I've been here, waiting for you to wake up" (Kaname to Yuki, 2x02, Vampire Knight Guilty) In "Star Wars. Episode VII. The Force Awakens” movie, after making Rey faint and taking her to Starkiller Base, Kylo Ren binds her to interrogation table, sitting in front of her, waiting for her to wake up:

At moment, when Yuki's amnesia risks leading her to madness, Kaname intervenes. Using his powers to sleep Yuki, he picks her up, carrying her out, under the snow, where he awakens her...

In "Star Wars. Episode VII. The Force Awakens", locked and captured Rey, Kylo Ren uses his powers to sleep her, then carries her on his ship:

One day, Yagari observes, while not being Kaien's true daughter, Yuki looks very much like a man: "This father, that daughter. You are not even blood relatives, but you always behave in such an excessive way ... " (Toga Yagari to Yuki Cross, 2x12, Vampire Knight Guilty)

In "Star Wars. Episode VIII. The last Jedi" movie, reproaching Kylo Ren, Snoke intends to take off his mask then, studying his face, says: "Take off that ridiculous business. Yes, it is. You have too much of your father, I still feel his heart in you, young Solo" (Snoke to Kylo Ren, from the movie "Star Wars, Episode VIII, The Last Jedi")

Discovery about Yuki to be a PURE BLOOD VAMPIRE PRINCESS, puts a strain on relationship between her and Zero. Not caring about his status as a vampire, Zero decided, in fact, to become a VAMPIRE HUNTER in all respects. Yuki would like to talk to him, to try to fix things, but closed in his room, Zero replies it’s useless and points to front door which is Yuki, Bloody Mary, his gun ANTIS VAMPIRE. Yuki replies Zero is right vampire in her DIVORED Yuki he knew:

Similarly, in "Star Wars. Episode VIII. The last Jedi" movie, Rey cries hot tears seeing Kylo Ren take over from Snoke as First Order Supreme Leader and decide to kill everyone: Jedi, Resistance and Sith. Rey rejects proposal to join Kylo to reign with him and, instead, to take his hand, she tries to recover her lightsaber:

For his part, furious at Rey's decision, Kylo Ren orders to take down Falcon spacecraft, on which Rey himself travels:

Yuki decides to leave Academy, accepting Kaname's proposal to leave with him and other vampires their friends. Greeting Zero, Yuki bites him to tell she really became one of vampires he hates so much:

"You are a vampire ..." "Mm...hmmm" "We can’t live in the same world" "No" "The day will come when I ... I will decide to kill you..." "I will wait for you" (Zero and Yuki, 2x13, Vampire Knight Guilty)

In "Star Wars. Episode VIII. The last Jedi", Luke tells Kylo Ren Rey is LAST JEDI. Kylo replies he will DESTROY her. Rey decides to join and leave with Resistance, hated by Kylo: "I'm sure you are! The Resistance is dead, the war is over, and when I kill you, I will have killed the last Jedi!”

“Amazing. Every word of what you just said was wrong. The Rebellion is reborn today. The war is just beginning. And I will not be the last Jedi”

"I will destroy her, and you, and everything else" (Kylo Ren and Luke Skywalker, from "Star Wars Episode VIII, The Last Jedi" movie)

#ben solo #kaname kuran #kylo ren #parallels #rey #reylo #star wars #vampire knight #vampire knight guilty #zero kiryuu #yuki cross

[inknerd]

Reading Wrap-Up: Summer 2018 (June to August)

The books I read and finished from June to August 2018! I feel like it’s been a good summer for me and books, despite that I haven’t read all the books I’d hoped to (mainly because there was A LOT), but these are all the books I read during the summer, 23 in total; perhaps you read some of them too?

WARCROSS by MARIE LU ★★★★☆ | 353 pages | 1 day to read | Published 2017 |

I was pleasantly surprised how little time it took for me to read this. I’m looking forward to the sequel! + It was very engaging and I liked the world that Lu painted up for the reader. - You could sort of see the plot twist coming (not that it was a bad one) and the supposed “friendships” fell flat for me.

CROOKED KINGDOM by LEIGH BARDUGO ★★★★★ | 536 pages | 6 days to read | Published 2016 |

Whatever hesistance I had reading Six of Crows (which was very little, by the end of it) completely evaporated reading Crooked Kingdom. It’s great! + The characters were what really hooked me on this story in the first place, and I really liked how we got to know more about them. Especially Wylan, who became my favourite. - I wouldn’t like to spoil anything, but there’s certain parts of the ending that I might have wanted to change. Might.

VICIOUS by V.E. SCHWAB ★★★★★ | 368 pages | 2 days to read | Published 2013 |

Started out sort of-maybe liking it but then I really got going. I’m SO down to buy the sequel as soon as it gets out. + The characters, their motivations, stories, and powers were all so intruiging! - I can’t really come up with something to complain about? It took some time to get into, I guess.

THE PENELOPIAD by MARGARET ATWOOD ★★★★☆ | 198 pages | 2 days to read | Published 2005 |

I’d looked for another greek myth retelling ever since I read The Song of Achilles, and this was a great one! It’s also the first Margaret Atwood book I ever read, and I absolutely want to read more books by her. + It was very beautifully written and explored characters I’d never seen explored and in a way that felt very original, even for more known characters as Odysseus and Helena. - It could get a little boring, at times.

CALL ME BY YOUR NAME by ANDRÉ ACIMAN ★★★☆☆ | 248 pages | 3 days to read | Published 2007 |

I wanted to read the book before I saw the movie. I still haven’t seen the movie, but I will...someday. + It was a very beautiful book, in certain ways. The language and the overall feeling of just everything was dripping of the pages and made it hard to stop reading while the book also felt way longer than it actually was. - But I also felt strangely...underwhelmed by the whole thing? Like I get why people like it but at the same time it was a somewhat strange book were not much happened. I also don’t get why everyone makes such a big fuss about the peach scene when there’s a literal scene where they watch each other take a shit. Like. I’m serious.

ELIZA AND HER MONSTERS by FRANCESCA ZAPPIA ★★★☆☆ | 385 pages | 2 days to read | Published 2017 | 

When there’s a book about fandom experience in some form I usually want to read it. Sadly, for me this didn’t quite live up to, let’s say Fangirl (which I love), but was still an enjoying read. + I liked the whole thing with Monstrous Sea and how it included other parts of fandom from fanart, fanfiction, cosplay, but also how it can be hard to make people from the outside understand. - Not all of it simply clicked for me.

MEMORIES OF EMANON by SHINJI KAJIO & KENJI TSURUTA ★★★★☆ | 175 pages | 1 day to read | Published 2008 |

Man, I can’t believe I hadn’t read this manga before!  + The art was beautiful, Kenji Tsuruta just made Emanon so pretty as well as the background and it all fit so well with the story. The story itself was very intruiging, I’d like to know more about Emanon and all her lives. - There was this one thing that bothered me about Emanon and how her memories sort of transfered to her offspring, and it could get a little confusing at times but at the same time it was part of the charm of this little story.

JIM HENSON’S LABYRINTH: THE NOVELIZATION by A.C.H SMITH, JIM HENSON & BRIAN FROUD ★★★★☆ | 288 pages | 7 days to read | Published 2014 (1986) |

When I found out this existed I was mindblown. You mean to say there’s a novelisation of one of my favourite movies and I haven’t read it yet!? There seems to be no physical copies left, but lucky for me there was a e-book version available! + It was so much fun to revisit the story and dive deeper into the characters. I feel like I got a deeper appreciation of some and more frustration from others, despite the book almost following the movie to a T. - Like...okay. The story wasn’t that great - if you weren’t a fan of Labyrinth before this book or haven’t seen the movie this book probably won’t give you much, to be honest. Sadly, the pictures of Henson’s written notes in the end wasn’t really readable either. At least not for me, who can’t read cursive for shit, especially when it’s sloppy.

ELLA ENCHANTED by GAIL CARSON LEVINE ★★★☆☆ | 232 pages | 2 days to read | Published 1998 |

Another book that I read because I love the movie so much! This one came before the movie, though. + It was very witty and gave new perspective to characters I already love. The world of Ella Enchanted was somewhat different from the movie (actually, a lot of things was, especially the main plot changed tremendously) and I felt like the book more than the movie focused on Ella and her curse and how she felt about it and how it affected her entire life even after it was broken. The romance was also very cute. - Perhaps it’s because I saw the movie first and it’s so funny and one of my favourites, but I missed some of its elements when reading the book. I wished I’d read the book when I was younger, I think I’d liked it even more then.

AN ASSEMBLY SUCH AS THIS ★★★☆☆, DUTY AND DESIRE ★☆☆☆☆ & THESE THREE REMAIN ★★☆☆☆ by PAMELA AIDAN | 1073 pages | 12 days to read | Published 2006-2007 |

These are all part of the Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman series - which is a Pride and Prejudice story from Darcy’s perspective. + When I read the first book I really thought I’d found the P&P retelling from Darcy’s perspective I’d been looking for. It was very promising and funny to see through his eyes and how he and Elizabeth misunderstood each other. - The rest of the series didn’t go as well. Duty and Desire was plain boring and had no feeling from the original work by Austen. These Three Remain was slightly better simply because it returned to the original setting of P&P, but by then I was already too bored to enjoy the story any longer.

LET’S TALK ABOUT LOVE by CLAIRE KANN ★★★☆☆ | 288 pages | 1 day to read | Published 2018 |

I was so excited for this book. Asexuality! In YA! Just what I needed and craved. Still crave, actually. + The story was very cute, and I could connect with a lot of what was talked about. The supporting characters were also very funny and well-developed. The friendship of this story were more interesting to read than the romance, in certain ways. - As cute as the story was and how refreshing it was with an ace main character, there isn’t much more to say about this book. It was good. It was nice. Not much else. The overall plot was pretty standard beneath it all.

GOBLIN MARKET AND OTHER POEMS by CHRISTINA ROSSETTI ★★★★☆ | 135 pages | 6 weeks | Published 2017 (1862) |

I heard about this for the first time in my Literature class at uni, and was immideatly interested in reading it. And let’s just say this is among my favourite poetry collections of all time now. + The poem Goblin Market was a clear favourite, but the whole first section of the book was so pretty and a fantastic read. I underlined a lot of lines that stood out to me. - The later parts of the book was to me not enjoyable as the first one. I definitely felt more drawn to the poems of Rossetti that took inspiration from nature and folklore rather than the ones who talked a lot about Christianity and Jesus.

UNNATURAL CREATURES by NEIL GAIMAN (editor) ★★★☆☆ | 462 pages | 32 days to read | Published 2013 |

This was a collection of short stories selected by Neil Gaiman (one of them written by him). And as always, as soon as I see the man’s name I feel compelled to read whatever it is he’s written or edited. + I really liked reading the first part of this collection! All the stories are very cool and the book has a very wide range of unnatural creatures. From dictator wasps to griffins to werewolves.  - As it should be, some stories appealed to me more than others. Some were pretty boring.

THE DARKEST MINDS by ALEXANDRA BRACKEN ★★★☆☆ | 488 pages | 5 days to read | Published 2012 |

When I saw the trailer of the movie it looked very interesting, so I quickly got myself an e-book copy and read it before the movie came out. + Overall it was a good book. The setting and the powers within the universe were good and the book was well-written. - At the same time I feel like I’ve fallen out of the YA dystopian genre a bit. It didn’t feel like The Darkest Minds gave me anything and I’d seen the characters before in a lot of different YA literature. I don’t feel super eager to continue on with this series, but maybe I will anyway.

FURYBORN by CLAIRE LEGRAND ★★★★☆ | 512 pages | 14 days to read | Published 2018 |

This book was so hyped on booktube, the cover was amazing and the premise sounded exciting. I’m glad to say that it wasn’t disappointing! + What I loved the most was how everything revealed itself over the chapters. I constantly tried to figure out how everything fit together and the suspense was thrilling. The characters are also very well-written. - I was good, but I can’t say the plot really took a hold of me and forced me to continue on reading. It took a while to read, and by the end of it my thoughts were “well, this was good! I’m looking forward to the sequel” and not much else.

HER BODY AND OTHER PARTIES by CARMEN MARIA MACHADO ★★☆☆☆ | 248 pages | 11 days to read | Published 2017 |

I heard about this book somewhere online saying it was a very interesting and worthy read. Luckily I found it at a library and read the collection of short stories during a period of time. + As it normally is with short story collections, some you like and some you like less. I think my favourite in Her Body and Other Parties was the first one, then I sort of lost more and more interest. It was very beautifully written and poetic, though. - I just didn’t have enough energy to completely understand all the stories and what they were trying to say. It just wasn’t my cup of tea.

HOUSE OF LEAVES by MARK Z. DANIELEWSKI ★★★★☆ | 709 pages | 2 days to read | Published 2000 |

Jeez, this was a weird book. But I liked it. I thought for sure it would take me ages to read this - especially once I started and almost fell asleep after 20 pages - but then it took hold of me and I just couldn’t stop. + What’s definitely the most interesting about this book is it’s weird style. It’s like a medium inside a medium inside a medium; with footnotes stretching over entire pages, text being upside down or just blank pages with only one or two words written. It helped the story being even more creepy. - Though the medium sort of makes the story, it’s also why this book is so hard and frustrating to read. There could be lists of names that one just didn’t care enough to skim through or sudden breaks in the main story for page-long articles about greek myths, history, or other things that just made me want to return to the actual horror story that I was reading.

THE TEA DRAGON SOCIETY by KATIE O’NEILL ★★★★☆ | 72 pages | 1 day to read | Published 2017 |

Aww, this is one of the cutest, warmest graphic novels I’ve ever read! + The art was so cute and fit the story perfectly. The characters were so colourful and funny, I almost wish it was longer! The information about tea dragons at the end was also very enjoying to read. - I don’t really have any actual complaints.

MY SOLO EXCHANGE DIARY by NAGATA KABI ★★★☆☆ | 168 pages | 1 day to read | Published 2018 |

The awaited sequel to My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness! + I love the art of this manga so damn much. You have no idea. It’s just so cute even when it deals with so serious issues. And it’s PINK! - I felt like I didn’t understand or connect to this one as much as I did with the first one. Her ideas and descriptions of humans and human relationships are very interesting and thought-provoking, but more than once I had some issues with understanding.

THE WEIGHT OF FEATHERS by ANNE-MARIE MCLEMORE ★★★☆☆ | 308 pages | 2 days to read | Published 2015 |

This is Mclemore’s debut novel, and I’m absolutely thinking about checking out some of her other books. + The magic realism and scenery are amazing. The two shows - one with “mermaids” and the other with tree-climbing “fairies” - are amazing and so imaginative. - The story didn’t really catch a hold of me and I wasn’t overly invested in the romance either.

OF FIRE AND STARS by AUDREY COULTHURST ★★★☆☆ | 389 pages | 4 days to read | Published 2016 |

A fantasy novel featuring two princesses in love? Sign me up. + I quite liked the universe and character Coulthurst made, they all felt very real and human. - I felt disconnected from the magic system and the plot. I didn’t really care much for what happened outside of Mare and Denna’s relationship - the political intrigue wasn’t interesting for me.

THE ASTONISHING COLOR OF AFTER by EMILY X.R. PAN ★★★☆☆ | 462 pages | 1 day to read | Published 2018 |

Another debut novel filled with feelings, colours and magical realism - I’d looked forward to reading this so much! + The topic of colours that is brought up chapter after chapter and the significance of the feathers and the bird - it all makes this book seem more magical. - As interesting and beautiful this book was, I can’t say it really stood out to me. While being a good book, it didn’t make me feel anything special, you know?

EVERY HEART A DOORWAY by SEANAN MCGUIRE ★★★★★ | 169 pages | 1 day to read | Published 2016 |

Like, I knew I was going to love this book, so I’m still confused why it took me so long until I picked it up? + Just, god, the worldbuilding!? The characters!? I loved how peculiar they all were and how they sort of incarnated the worlds they’d been to. Also, asexual main character? You got me hooked. - Honestly just the fact that it felt a bit too short? I would’ve liked more! More about the characters and worlds they’d lived in (though I think that’s shown more in the sequels to this?)

#reading wrap-up #reading wrap-up: summer 2018 #books #my post

[spaceorphan18]

hey! i'd love to jump on the marvel bandwagon but i have no idea where to start. what movies should i watch & in which order? help! x

Hello Nonny!! And thank you for asking me this - made my day, really :D 

Well - the first thing I’ll ask is do you have a favorite character, or a character you want to know more about? Cause, let’s say you want to know more about Captain America - I’d sit and watch all the Cap movies, or movies that he’s in.  If, however, you’d like to experience things beyond a single character well then --- 

SO’s Guide to the MCU: 

So, these are in chronological order - the order they were released, and this is the order I suggest you watch things in.  They kind of flow into each other really nicely.  Note: There are also a bunch of TV shows, too, but I haven’t watched any of them, nor do you really need to for an understanding of the movie universe.  So, here we go: 

Phase One: 

Iron Man - This movie kicked the whole thing off in 2008 and is the story about Tony Stark becoming Iron Man. Tony Stark is a billionaire who sells weapons for a living, but when he’s kidnapped and nearly killed, he rethinks his life’s priorities. It’s a solidly good movie, and I do recommend starting here as it lays the foundation for everything that comes after it.  It also kind of gives you a feel for how Marvel movies run, so you can get an idea if this type of movie is your thing or not.  

The Incredible Hulk - Not to be confused with the (supposedly) awful film from 2003 named Hulk.  This version of Hulk is not much better, and it i the one film that I recommend skipping over entirely unless you really want to see everything.  Hulk is gonna be recast for Avengers anyway, so there’s not really anything here that connects to the rest of the MCU, and it’s not really that good of a film in the first place.  FWIW - Bruce Banner created a serum that accidentally turns him into the Hulk, and that’s pretty much it.  

Iron Man 2 - The continued adventures of Tony Stark and Iron Man.  This movie gets a lot of crap, but I don’t think it’s all that bad.  It’s not necessary if you want to hit the highlights, but if you enjoy Iron Man, I do recommend it.  It also introduces Black Widow. 

Thor - Oh, Thor. Thor is a demi-god, based on Norse Myth, who lives in a place called Asgard and has a magic hammer named Mjolnir.  If you want to do your homework before watching the Avengers then I do recommend this - even if it’s a middling film.  Thor and Loki’s relationship is one of the highlights of the MCU, so that alone makes this film worth a watch.  Also, there’s a brief introduction to Hawkeye.  However, it’s not necessary, as I made it all the way to a few weeks ago without seeing it and managed to understand everything just fine. 

Captain America: The First Avenger - Captain America is original just a scrawny kid named Steve Rogers who just wants to do good in the world. The Cap movies are slightly better than the Iron Man and and a lot better than the Thor films, so I’m going to recommend all of them.  This one is also is a solidly good film, it’s a nice intro to Cap, gives some background and depth to the MCU, and sets up The Avengers.  Plus Peggy Carter.  

The Avengers - Avengers, which brings together Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, Thor, Black Widow, and Hawkeye, is possibly one of my all time favorite films, and I definitely recommend it over everything else in phase one.  If you are a little iffy about whether or not you’ll like the MCU - maybe start here, and see if you like the characters, then go back and watch their origin stories if you are interested.  

Phase Two: 

Iron Man 3 - The continuing adventure of Iron Man.  It’s a bit wonky, but Tony’s story is really compelling as he struggles with PTSD.  I think if you’re an Iron Man film, it’s worth the watch, but maybe not if you aren’t as interested in his character.  

Thor: The Dark World - Like the first one, this film struggles a bit, and also like the first one, the only redeeming thing about this film is Thor and Loki’s relationship.  It is pretty skippable if Thor isn’t your thing. 

Captain America: Winter Soldier - The best film in phase two, it’s Cap and Black Widow against the government in this high stakes political thriller.  It’s a well done film that has ramifications on the entire MCU, so I definitely recommend it! 

Guardians of the Galaxy - This is the MCU’s version of Star Wars, complete with scrappy characters.  It’s mostly about Starlord, who comes from Earth and was abducted at a young age.   Space stories aren’t my cup of tea, but this film is well done, funny, and sets up a ton of stuff that will be played out in later films.  I recommend at least seeing it once so you know who these guys are because they will be back. 

Avengers 2 - I’ll be upfront, it’s not as good as Avengers 1, but there are some good things in it.  And it’s the whole crew back together again, which is always fun.  I do recommend seeing it at least once since it introduces some important characters and plots that get carried into phase 3. 

Ant-Man - Ant-Man is Scott Lang, a down and out criminal, who is recruited by a scientist to steal back some technology.  This film is mostly stand alone, but it’s a fun little heist-comedy.  It’s not needed for the greater understanding of the MCU, though there are nuggets in here, but if you want a light-hearted film to watch one evening, I do recommend it! 

Phase 3: 

Captain America: Civil War - Don’t let the title fool you, this is really Avengers 3.  I love this film since it explores the various dynamics among the Avengers - especially getting into the heart of Tony and Cap.  But even if you’re upset that it’s not fully a Cap movie, I strongly recommend this one since this film sets up so much going forward and will be referenced a lot in other movies. 

Doctor Strange - Strange is an unusual character that represents the mystic side of Marvel comics.  He’s a surgeon who’s wrecked his hands, so he’s forced to find new ways to heal and stumbles upon some seriously weird mystic shit.  It’s a solid film, but I wouldn’t say that it’s a stand out.  If you’re interested in Strange and his beginnings, or just a Benedict Cumberbatch fan, I’d say check it out! But it’s not really a necessity.  

Guardians of the Galaxy 2 - I’ll be honest with, I had a hard time getting through this movie.  If you’re a fan of space stories, or just really like GOTG and its characters, I’d say watch it - but feel free to skip if it’s not your thing.  It’s not really that good of a movie.  

Spider-Man Homecoming - I’ll be honest, I’m biased and love Spider-Man, so this is an automatic yes for me.  Peter Parker’s just your average high school kid who got bit by a spider and has super powers.  (Though, I’m assuming you know this partially since most people know about Spider-Man.)  If you watched Civil War and found Peter Parker endearing - yes check it out! It doesn’t have a lot of bearing on the MCU as a whole, but it’s a fun, low stakes, high school story that I think is worth watching.  

Thor: Ragnarok - Finally a Thor film that’s good! Yes, I whole-heartedly recommend this film.  It’s a great comedy, and finally gives Thor some good character development.  It also has a lot of influence on Thor’s character going forward.  

Black Panther - Black Panther is the king of Wakanda - an advanced African country, who keeps its borders closed to the outside world.  Another definite yes! Like Spider-Man, if you found Black Panther interested in Civil War, check this one out! It’s incredibly solid, has really engaging characters, and is more thematically complex than a lot of MCU movies.  I recommend it! 

Avengers: Infinity War - This film is a masterpiece of everything that’s come before it.  If you can watch it in a theater - I do recommend doing it that way for the experience.  However, it does rest on the shoulders of everything that’s come before it, so it may not have the same weight if you haven’t seen most of the rest of the MCU.  

Upcoming Phase 3 - 

Stuff that’s not been released yet

Ant-Man and Wasp - After the heaviness of IW, I think this will be a fun little adventure story and already looks worth checking out. 

Captain Marvel - MCU finally gets their act together and has a female character as their lead.  This should be interesting, especially since Captain Marvel will probably play a big role in Avengers 4

Avengers 4 - The conclusion of Avengers 3, and the finale of the first three phases.  It’ll be interesting to see how all of this pans out, and will set the stage for anything that comes after it.  

So, there you go, Nonny, hopefully this helps a little bit!  Honestly, the only film that I straight up don’t recommend is Hulk -- but like I said first, I’d stick to following characters you enjoy if you feel a bit overwhelmed by everything.  If you want more information, let me know! 

#mcu #Anonymous

[aion-rsa]

Best Movies Coming to Netflix in August 2021

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As quickly as the summer movie season of 2021 seemed to come upon us, it’s already about to begin its long, languid slide through the dog days of August into fall. That’s not to say that theaters won’t still have plenty of interesting fare to encounter, with films like The Suicide Squad, Free Guy, Respect, Candyman and The Night House all on deck. Hopefully the other hideous sequel happening at the moment — Pandemic 2: The Delta Variant — won’t set any of these potential hits back.

In the spirit of keeping August entertaining, Netflix is rolling out a slew of new streaming additions as well, including an underrated Spielberg gem, fantastic teen comedies both old and new, a couple of stoner classics and perhaps the finest film from the canon of one of the modern era’s most revered directors. We’ve rounded up our recommendations below, and hope you stay cool and healthy whatever you’re watching!

Universal

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Beethoven (1992)

August 1

Hollywood in the 1990s was a glorious and furry era when studio executives never met a family movie that couldn’t be improved with the addition of at least one animal character. Beethoven is one of the most successful examples of this winning formula. Directed by Brian Levant from a script co-written by John Hughes himself (alongside Mystic Pizza co-writer Amy Holden Jones), Beethoven is basically the story of how a husband and father, Charles Grodin’s George Newton, feels threatened by the attention his family gives their new dog, a St. Bernard named Beethoven.

George eventually works through some of his issues and accepts the charming Beethoven into the family, a process that comes to a head when Beethoven is dog-napped into an animal experiment scheme run by evil veterinarian Dr. Herman Varnick. (Honestly, the plot isn’t dissimilar to the story in cinematic masterpiece Paddington.) The deep supporting cast includes Bonnie Hunt, David Duchovny, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Oliver Platt, Stanley Tucci, and Everybody Loves Raymond‘s Patricia Heaton. The film’s sequel, Beethoven Second, will also be available on Netflix starting on August 1st.

Dreamworks

Catch Me If You Can (2002)

August 1

As one of Steven Spielberg’s most charming and laid-back efforts, Catch Me If You Can is a breezy and star-studded entertainment. The story is loosely based on the real grifts of conman Frank Abagnale Jr., who beginning as a teenager was able to pass himself off as a pilot, lawyer, doctor, and many other things. But really, this is a cat-and-mouse chase movie between a still baby-faced Leonardo DiCaprio as Abagnale and Tom Hanks as the FBI stiff who hunted him down. It’s all good stuff, with the movie enjoying a light touch and fresh take on Spielberg’s favorite subject matter: fathers and sons.

Warner Bros. Pictures

Deep Blue Sea (1999)

August 1

A shockingly entertaining B-movie about a bunch of genetically engineered super-sharks which break out and take over a testing facility, this is horror silliness at its best with great turns from Samuel L Jackson, Thomas Jane, Saffron Burrows and LL Cool J. Partially shot on sets built around the same water tanks used for Titanic, with animatronic and CGI sharks, Deep Blue Sea is action-packed, schlocky fun from director Renny Harlin (Cliffhanger).  

STX Entertainment

The Edge of Seventeen (2016)

August 1

A bit like Lady Bird before there was a Lady Bird, Kelly Fremon Craig’s Edge of Seventeen is an underrated gem that stars a teenage Hailee Steinfeld as a young woman stumbling through an especially awkward time in her life. Steinfeld is terrific in her best performance since True Grit, playing Nadine as a bundle of insecurities, yet still nobody’s victim. Also of special value is Craig’s hilarious and authentic script, which captures the specificity of growing up in the social media age while being near-universal in its accessibility and empathy for a wide ensemble which also includes Kyra Sedgwick, Haley Lu Richardson, and Woody Harrelson.

Paramount

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)

August 1

Just in time for the dog days of summer comes one of the best summer movies ever. Relying on charm and sharp characterization instead of special effects for its spectacle, John Hughes’ Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is a truly great teen comedy that follows the easygoing bon vivant (or secret sociopath?) of a high school’s senior class when he decides to take the day off in the best fashion: by faking he’s sick and then guilting his BFF into giving him the keys to his dad’s Ferrari.

Read more

TV

Should Netflix’s Pokémon Live-Action Series Explore the Franchise’s Dark Side?

By Matthew Byrd

TV

Never Have I Ever Season 2 Review: This Netflix Teen Comedy Deserves to Run and Run

By Louisa Mellor

It’s silly yet curiously honest stuff about the pressures of young adult life, at least in 1980s suburban America, and a beguiling showcase for an ensemble that includes Matthew Broderick in his coolest role, as well as Alan Ruck, Mia Sara, Jennifer Grey, and a seriously stoned Charlie Sheen. If you haven’t seen it yet, you’re due.

Warner Bros. Pictures

Inception (2010)

August 1 Still Christopher Nolan’s most complete and satisfying film to date (yes, even more so than The Dark Knight), Inception is a cerebral sci-fi set of stacking dolls combined with a rollicking James Bond adventure that all happens to be mostly situated inside one guy’s head. Leonardo DiCaprio leads a team of professional thieves who steal things from people’s minds — only this time they’re hired to implant an idea, even if they have to dive deep into the mark’s subconscious to do it.

Mind-bending imagery and several jaw-dropping action sequences are wrapped around a surprisingly emotional core, with only the usual unwieldy exposition there to remind you that there are some things Nolan may never get right.

Lionsgate

The Lincoln Lawyer (2011)

August 1 Based on a novel by crime writer Michael Connelly, this gripping, suspenseful 2011 drama arguably kicked off “the McConaissance,” a shift from rom-coms to more serious roles by Matthew McConaughey that launched a new, largely acclaimed phase of his career.

McConaughey is formidable as attorney Mickey Haller, a slick lawyer who works out of his Lincoln Town Car and undergoes a crisis of conscience as his new case starts to feel disturbingly like an old one. In addition to McConaughey stepping up his game, this Brad Furman-directed thriller is the kind of character-driven, literate melodrama we don’t see much on the big screen anymore — although we see plenty of them these days on, of course, Netflix.

Paramount Classics

The Machinist (2004)

August 1 Director Brad Anderson followed up his cult classic 2001 horror effort Session 9 with this surreal, Kafka-esque psychological thriller. Christian Bale plays Trevor Reznik, whose inability to sleep leads him to cause an accident at his industrial job that costs a co-worker (Michael Ironside) his arm. Already physically and mentally deteriorating, Reznik begins an even deeper descent as he tries to unravel what’s happening to him and why. Bale is intense and viscerally shocking as the emaciated Reznik, with his riveting performance anchoring an atmospheric, visually striking film that is sometimes an exercise in style over substance.

New Line Cinema

Magnolia (1999)

August 1

Boogie Nights pushed director Paul Thomas Anderson into the spotlight, but it was his massive, sprawling jigsaw puzzle Magnolia that made him into a superstar filmmaker. Following multiple narratives and numerous characters all finally brought together by a climactic storm of frogs, this is high art packed with standout moments.

Read more

Movies

Top Gun: Maverick Footage Shows Tom Cruise in Real Jet Behind the Scenes

By David Crow

Movies

Best Modern Horror Movies

By Don Kaye

Tom Cruise is electric as a toxic motivation speaker, Julianne Moore is brittle and tragic as a trophy wife who has grown to love her dying husband, while the burgeoning relationship between Melora Walters’ addict and John C. Reilly’s cop added sweetness and hope to a tale of messed up people and damaged families. Epic.

Sony PIctures

Pineapple Express (2008)

August 1 After its trailer introduced everyone to M.I.A.’s amazing “Paper Planes,” Pineapple Express’s work was already done. It didn’t even have to produce a satisfyingly funny movie on top of that. Thankfully the filmmaking team of Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, and David Gordon Green decided to give us one anyway, because Pineapple Express is the ideal of the little-seen-or-attempted stoner action comedy.

Rogen stars as process server and marijuana enthusiast Dale Denton, while James Franco portrays his annoying drug dealer Saul Silver. When the pair witness a murder, they are forced to flee hitmen, a pair of corrupt cops, and worst of all, Danny McBride. The Rogen/Goldberg comedy catalog has very few misses and this one is particularly excellent.

Universal Pictures

Seabiscuit (2003)

August 1

No one would ever accuse Gary Ross’ Seabiscuit of being subtle. With its voice-of-god narration by Ken Burns fave David McCoullough, which helpfully spells out the themes of the movie every few scenes, and its achingly sentimental score and dialogue, Seabiscuit is a Cinderella story which all but asserts its titular race horse ended the Great Depression. Yet Ross captures some of the simple American grandeur of Laura Hillenbrand’s non-fiction source material book, as well as the beauty of this true story where a horse that everyone counted out as worthless was nursed by three men into becoming one of the greatest racing animals of all-time.

It’s the type of feel-good yarn that won people over in the 1930s and which is still winning now. When coupled with a handful of strong performances, including from Jeff Bridges, Chris Cooper, Tobey Maguire, and a seriously underrated Elizabeth Banks, you have a crowd-pleaser that actually pleases.

Paramount Pictures

Team America: World Police (2004)

August 1 Roger Ebert’s one-star review of Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s Team America: World Police sums up the film’s nonsensical political stance nicely. “I wasn’t offended by the movie’s content so much as by its nihilism,” the great film critic wrote.

Rog was right to criticize Team America’s incomprehensible worldview. Nearly 20 years later, its seeming position that Alec Baldwin and Kim Jong-Il are equally bad hasn’t aged that well (despite Mr. Baldwin’s best efforts). But it’s hard to argue that the South Park creators’ nihilism doesn’t lead to some great comedy. The novelty of Thunderbirds-style puppets saving the world amid graphic sex acts and voluminous barfing never quite wears off.

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[babyleclerc]

Hi, I was wondering if you had a specific order you'd watch the movies of the MCU in, given the chance? I'm new to this whole thing and I haven't been able to find a specific order, so I'd love to get some input before I properly dive right in - I've seen Iron Man, Captain America: TFA, Thor and Iron Man 2, so where would you go from there? Thanks 💜

Hello! Oh, what a fun question. :) There are a lot of opinions on this and I may not get it all right, so please take this at face-value! I’m no expert, just an obsessed fan. :)

My nerdy & honest opinion would be that if you want to follow the storyline from start to finish (with no gaps/everything is threaded together) then I would watch the movies in the order which they came out from Marvel specifically. Whenever I rewatch them, that’s how I do it but I leave out Hulk, Cap 1 & Spiderman: HC bc I can’t stand those movies lol. I wrote the Marvel order out below in case that interests you (under the read more).

But if I had to go at randommmmm/just by my favorites, then this is probably how I’d do it (also I’m leaving out X-Men/Wolverine bc to me they are separate from the Iron Man/Cap/Thor/etc. storylines):

Thor

Thor: The Dark World

Doctor Strange (Unfortunately, Thor: Ragnarok won’t make as much sense if you haven’t seen Dr. Strange).

Thor: Ragnarok (Can you tell I’m a sucker for the Thor movies lmao they’re my fav series and you don’t have to have seen any of the other movies for these to really make sense. Also this movie is just a top 12/10 would recommend. I’ve seen it in theaters 4 times)

Iron Man

Iron Man 2

The Avengers

Iron Man 3 (This movie doesn’t make sense unless you’ve seen the Avengers)

Cap 2: Winter Soldier (I loathe the first Cap movie so I’m skipping it and since you’ve already seen it, no harm no foul lol)

Avengers: AOU

Ant-Man

Cap 3: Civil War (Ant-Man is in Civil War so watch that movie first)

Then the rest you can just kinda watch at your leisure, IMO:

Guardians 1

Guardians 2

Deadpool

Spider-Man: HC

Also, while I would recommend watching ALL the movies at least once, if there are storylines you absolutely don’t care for (ie. Spidey/Hulk/Deadpool) you can read the comics online and get the gist of it. Don’t feel forced to watch it just bc Marvel put it out. :) Or, just ask one of us on Tumblr and we can give you a quick synopsis ;)

Here’s the list of Marvel movies in chronological order (you’ll see mine doesn’t map to this!):

Hulk (2003)

Iron Man

Hulk (re-make in 2008. You can watch just one Hulk and get the gist of it, either one suffices)

Iron Man 2

Thor

Captain America: TFA

The Avengers

Iron Man 3

Thor: The Dark World

Captain America: TWS

Guardians of the Galaxy

Avengers: AOU

Ant-Man

Captain America: CW

Doctor Strange

Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2

Spider-Man: Homecoming (I left out all of the other Spider-Mans bc IMO I just don’t care for the story of Spidey and hate it the most, so, woops. I didn’t even like this movie but it has Tony in it, so. Would watch it at some point. Plus Peter Parker will be in Infinity War so you’ll need to see this before you watch that)

Thor: Ragnarok

Deadpool (This isn’t included in the “phases” set out by Marvel and is more of a standalone story, so you can watch this whenever)

#ask #holy shit this turned into a beast of an answer lol #I hope this helps?? Feel free to ask me more q's if you have them!! :) #captain-loki-xavier