#how do you see a Batman movie about Year One hear about a sequel with Robin and immediately jump to 'oh it's gotta be my uwu babygirl | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

artzychic27 · 8 months

Note

Harley Quinn (The show) quotes for the DC Class?

*Nathaniel and Lila are seated across from Nadja Chamack on her talk show. Nathaniel, grown to about fifteen feet is only shot from the neck down by the camera*

Nadja: Nathaniel, hon. how are you feeling about all of this?

Lila: He is devastated that the world is attacking a girl he knows is so kind, is so lovely-

Nadja: Let’s hear it from Nathaniel in his own words!

Lila: Those are his own words. I’m a telepath! He thinks it, I say it. *The audience boos at her* Isn’t that right, sweetie? He said right.

Nadja: He did not say “right”! Did y’all hear him say “right”?

Lila: Well-

Nathaniel: She was talking to ME! An individual person who exists outside of YOU!

Nadja: Get her, boy!

Nathaniel: A person who, for months, you mind-controlled-

Lila: Don’t do this.

Nathaniel: Into thinking he loved you!

Lila: Do not do this!

Nathaniel: A person who is leaving YOU! *Storms out of the studio*

Lila: Why, you get back here, you miserable [BLEEP]!

—

Adrien: *excitedly* Is this the good kinda acid that gives you superpowers?!

Alya: No!

Adrien: Awwww...

—

Marinette: I need a permit for a trap door? The whole point is no one is supposed to know about it! Especially the city.

—

Lila: *fighting Denise* OW! That really hurt, you [BLEEP]

*everything, including the Earth itself, comes to a shocked standstill*

Rose: *watching the fight on TV* Holy shit!

—

Nino: The name is Nino, actor extraordinaire recently portraying the juicy role of country boy bartending in the big city!

Lila: I thought you were playing the role of literal piece of shit.

Nino: Not yet. *transforms into Lila* NOW I'm a literal piece of shit!

—

Rose: Adrien! You can't kill him.

Adrien: You don't think I can kill a 12 year old?! Oh, okay. Well, I will smash in his face with a bat like a WATERMELON!

—

Batman: I'm gonna say something embarrassing here. I didn't have a nemesis until... my late twenties.

Zoé: Don't patronize me, dad, it's unbecoming.

Batman: It's true. I wasn't ready for one. You want your first nemesis to be special. Someone that you can see being your nemesis for the rest of your life.

Zoé: I suppose you're right, dad... When can I propose to Cosette?

Batman: I... think I hear the bat-signal. *grappling-hooks away*

—

Juleka: Quick side bar. How did this *Gestures to Nathaniel* work...in terms of making out?

Lila: Not great!

—

Juleka: So let me get this straight: you're not over your ex, and you want to throw your success in his face.

Adrien: Exactly!

Juleka: Honestly, that might be the most relatable thing you've ever said.

—

Ivan: I wish they would make a sequel to Up.

Max: No, they can’t! The story ended with the first movie.

Myléne: Unless... the kid is the old man in the sequel.

Ivan: Oh, that’s fun! That’s a good one!

—

Adrien: When my mind is set, it is set. Hell, they blew out three electricshock machines at Arkham trying to get through to me.

—

Adrien: Nice save, Jerk-Face League!

Ismael: That's not our name at all.

—

Marinette: What is wrong with me?

Zoé: You're a sociopathic narcissist!

Marinette: It was rhetorical, asshole! And who do you think you are, a psychiatrist?

—

*Marinette approaches newly-unmasked Robin/Zoé*

Marinette: WayneTech promised an electric car by this year! I put a deposit down! Where's my goddamn electric car, Zoé?!

—

Rose: Have a good life, get married, make babies. Name them Rose. The girls and boys.

Juleka: Rose!

Rose: See? It totally works. You know I love you. Bye, Jules.

—

Zoé: *in flirty tone* Wonderer, you look hot

Adrien: What?

Denise: So, Robin, are those abs real or is it just the suit? *giggles*

Adrien: Gross.

Jean: Well, these abs are definitely real. Give them a look. Don't-a be shy.

Adrien: Oh, gross! Did you just spray them with Rose’s love pheromones?!

Denise: Let’s just, uh… See who has the best abs for a moment.

Adrien: Or not! A lot of not! PLEASE, NOT!

—

Denise: *after lassoing a Parademon* I'll only ask once: where is Lila?

*Parademon screeches. Confused, Denise turns to Ismael*

Ismael: Oh, what, because I'm an alien, I understand all alien languages? *Denise’s eyes widen* OK, I know a little Parademon, but it's still a racist assumption. Be better.

*Denise rolls their eyes*

—

Rose: You... you don't think I'm chaotic, crazy and make a bunch of messes?

Juleka: No, you definitely do that. But you're trying to grow, and actually doing it! And that... I mean, for me, that is what matters!

Rose: I love you, Jules!

Juleka: *smiles* I love you too, Rosie.

—

Batman: What's with your voice?

Zoé: What are you talking about?

Batman: It's a bit... overly serious.

Zoé: I think it's an appropriate amount of... serious.

—

Adrien: How could Bruce be Batman? I mean, sure, he's the richest man in Gotham, so that explains all the vehicles, and he always goes missing at big galas when villains show up... Okay, if you come to think of it, it's very obvious.

Ismael: Wait 'til you hear who Superman is.

#miraculous ladybug #miraculous #mlb ocs #mlb au #dc comics #dc heroes #dc villains #Harley Quinn #incorrect quotes

17 notes · View notes

kylesvariouslistsandstuff · 7 months

Text

Looooong post incoming...

THE INCREDIBLES and INCREDIBLES 2 have been on my mind, lately.

Writer-director Brad Bird’s 2004 superhero movie, done up at Pixar in the days they weren’t owned by The Walt Disney Company, was like a formative film for me. Like STAR WARS was for many kids growing up in the ‘70s and ‘80s, THE INCREDIBLES was probably that for 12-year-old me, among a couple other movies. (That same year, I was also blown away by SPIDER-MAN 2 and… Umm… I, ROBOT?)

And I’m one of the few weirdos that really, really dug the contested sequel. Well, contested by people online. It did get good critical reception and got an Oscar nom, made a truck ton at the box office, but it’s one of those weird “big” movies that came out, made tons and tons of money, but I hear few talk about it to this day. I feel some other recent Pixar sequels fit that bill as well, like FINDING DORY and TOY STORY 4. These absolutely massive movies that people raced to see, because they love the originals and the characters in them so much, but then seemingly… Forgot about? I think it has a lot to do with just how much stuff comes out now, that it kinda all gets lost in the shuffle. They don’t stick the way TOY STORY 3 did back in 2010, before we got so inundated with lots and lots of stuff oozing out of every pore: TV, streaming, other movies, podcasts, more streaming, etc. etc. Plus, there's that special sauce with the originals that tends to make them hit different than the sequels, no matter how good the sequels may be...

But no matter, I loved INCREDIBLES 2 and still do, even if I think it falls a little bit short of the original. That was a hard act to follow, after all. I did go over some of the few things about the sequel that I thought could’ve been expanded a bit, a few months back… And I’m thinking about them again.

I think the main point of contention with INCREDIBLES 2 was the Screenslaver, and the whole twist being that he was a fictional character, a face that was created by a disgruntled telecommunications company exec who wanted to keep superheroes illegal.

I get it, in a way. Screenslaver looks cool, and that one action sequence with him in the strobe light cage with Elastigirl? I fuckin’ LOVE it. Such a dynamic, well-done action sequence. I guess it made people wish that both Bob and Helen, and the kids and Frozone and maybe those weirdo superheroes like Screech and Reflux, took this guy on. A slender, creepy mask-wearing mind control villain… It's what you expect in a superhero movie, the heroes fighting a rather weird bad guy!

And yet, in a way, I feel like Screenslaver being a mere face. A distraction. Makes INCREDIBLES 2 every bit as subversive as the original. Especially since INCREDIBLES 2 came out in 2018, which was literally a superhero/comic book movie-heavy year. Maybe the heaviest? You had AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR, DEADPOOL 2, ANT-MAN AND THE WASP, TEEN TITANS GO! TO THE MOVIES, VENOM, SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE (!), am I missing anything? That year was S-T-A-C-K-E-D.

By contrast, in 2004, THE INCREDIBLES debuted opposite of SPIDER-MAN 2 and HELLBOY… And also BLADE: TRINITY, THE PUNISHER, and CATWOMAN… Much different times. Especially when it was greenlit by Pixar in the year 2000… What was happening in superhero movies that year? X-MEN had come out, and that was after a fairly successful BLADE movie… And years after BATMAN & ROBIN was lambasted and put the Batman movie format to rest for a good while. (Now it’s inescapable. Every few years, a new actor portrays Batman in live-action.)

THE INCREDIBLES stood out in 2004, I feel, not just because of the freedom animation allowed for the superhero concept (which put it above many of the live-action spectacles being made at the time), but also because it rung closer to a ‘60s spy movie than a typical beat-em-up extravaganza. It’s clearly set in a midcentury modern world, a stylized retro futuristic early ‘60s that is informed by the presence of superpowered beings. Or “Supers”, as this franchise has always called them. While there isn’t a wealth of material explaining how world events played out, it’s all implied and hinted at in both films.

By the mid-1960s, American animation had kinda been pigeonholed as an outlet for cheap, reliable kids’ entertainment on Saturday mornings. The closest thing to an American “spy” movie in the animated medium back then was, of all things, a FLINTSTONES movie: 1966’s THE MAN CALLED FLINTSTONE. THE INCREDIBLES almost feels like a lost animated movie made for a slightly older audience circa 1965, but dusted off decades later and done in CGI. That’s a Brad Bird staple. Born in 1957, he loves midcentury modern retrofutures, and just that setting in general. THE IRON GIANT is set in the late 1950s, he had a cancelled take on Will Eisner’s THE SPIRIT that was set around the time it was introduced, his long-gestating RAY GUNN has been described as a 1930s sci-fi noir retrofuture, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE is of course a ‘60s spy show and a series of feature films (Brad’s feels the most ‘60s out of the movies), TOMORROWLAND… Need I say more? Even RATATOUILLE, which doesn’t involve super heroics or gadgets or futuristic technology… It’s literally a movie about cooking! Even that movie has a retro vibe to it. It’s set in the then-present, but it’s timeless in its look and feel.

Anyways, THE INCREDIBLES plays as much James Bond as it does, say, Batman. You have the whole Nomanisan Island lair, close-quarters fights with armed men, Michael Giacchino’s score, it’s a just-right mix. The first INCREDIBLES has a rather conventional bad guy in Syndrome. An evil guy in an eye-catching suit, with all these various man-made powers, as opposed to other Supers’ natural-born powers. INCREDIBLES 2’s villain is merely an average woman, roughly in her 30s? 40s? She has no powers, she’s just a master manipulator, almost a filmmaker in that regard. I mean she’s an artist and a designer, that’s made perfectly clear the minute you see her, so it makes sense that she could pull off this elaborate show. Mysterio in SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME - which was released a year after INCREDIBLES 2 - needed drones and such to do that. That the Screenslaver is merely a brainwashed pizza delivery guy is part of her brilliance.

So, that’s what makes INCREDIBLES 2 stick out from the other superhero movies circa 2018. A year where the majority of the villains were clear-cut, like a big purple alien guy who wipes out half the universe… and here’s INCREDIBLES 2 with a very crafty woman who essentially puts on a big show. And that in the second half, it’s her and her use of mind control technology that are the big obstacle for the Supers. Not a creature or a conventional superhero bad guy. I think it works, honestly. Like, what’s a different kind of challenge? What if all the good guys got brainwashed, leaving a few… Namely the KIDS, to fend for themselves? That’s a very cool idea, honestly. But again, I get why detractors wanted the shadowy mind control guy instead. Part of me would love to see that version of INCREDIBLES 2, too, if it ever existed. According to interviews w/ the filmmakers, Screenslaver was a late addition to the plot. INCREDIBLES 2 was supposed to come out in summer 2019, but Disney had pushed it up a year, which apparently affected a lot of the decision-making. For some, it shows.

Maybe if INCREDIBLES 2 came out in 2008 instead of 2018, and had the same exact villain twist… In a world where other Disney Animation and Pixar movies with twist villains didn’t yet exist (i.e. Hans, Callaghan, Bellwether, Ernesto), it’d be received differently? I do not know. But that’s why it all works for me. I can tune out the succession of “twist villain” movies, and take INCREDIBLES 2 on its own merits.

In my previous piece on INCREDIBLES 2, I did kind of find fault with its rather rushed third act and how the film doesn’t really bite into the meatier political aspect it kind of teases. The whole idea of a society being dependent on superheroes, rather than getting up and helping pitch in to make the world a better place. (Not dissimilar to TOMORROWLAND’s message.) It’s really all just there to serve Evelyn’s character, which I’m totally fine with… It works in that context. But on the other hand, I feel like this could’ve gone further and explored the whole idea of superheroes being - to quote Jenny Nicholson in her review of JOKER - a “band-aid solution” to crime. And it being a PG-rated mass-market Disney release is no reason to keep me from speculating about this version of INCREDIBLES 2.

I get that Brad Bird probably just wanted to keep it simple and streamlined, and that the “who needs Supers anyways” idea is just a device for Evelyn, not there to make a larger statement. I do believe all art is political, even these movies, but how far the creators want to go with the politics is another story. Ultimately, Evelyn’s methods of getting her way are wrong, but she has points… What if a better society could be created that didn’t depend on superpowered beings having to clobber criminals or threats to save the day?

Clearly the world of THE INCREDIBLES needs superheroes, though, because you have things like mole men with massive drill-mobiles cutting through cities like they’re nothing. But I feel that in a world where we are hyperaware of the system’s flaws and how it’s mostly a failure by design and pretty much creates crime (I’m getting political here, heads up), INCREDIBLES 2 could’ve possibly said something about that. Instead of having superheroes, a stand in for the police when the police themselves or the military can’t handle the threat, what’s causing all the crime in New Urbem and Municiberg in the first place? What systemic inequalities are happening? How progressive is this world because of the presence of superheroes/cool tech? Why are there are robberies? What’s the poverty rate? Etc. etc.

And you may be thinking, this is just an animated family movie, it doesn’t have to be that deep… But I disagree. Plenty of family films, and good stories in general, don’t shy away from this kind of stuff. Art is not made in a vacuum. A lot of actual real-life kids LIVE these sorts of things, too.

But even PG-13 Marvel movies, probably because they’re released by Disney - and Disney tries to play moderate when it comes to political stuff (though they are still too far left for dinguses who yell “WOKE” at everything), don’t really go that far either.

CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR chips at whether there should be government regulation of superheroes or not, until it settles for being a story about two friends turning against each other over a family death… and then a few MCU movies later, none of that matters - the superheroes are ultimately needed to stop the big purple guy in space… THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER asks why, in a post-Blip world, a universe where half of all the living beings just ceased to be… Why are there still such inequalities on Earth, after Thanos’ snap and subsequent revival of everyone who was unalived? It’s all the catalyst for the Flagsmashers, and leader Karli herself. She was so nuanced as an antagonist, and you also had this ersatz Captain America guy who straight up murdered a person in cold blood. I was loving where it was all going, until a few episodes in, they just made Karli a straight-up murderer. All that nuance is flattened, and the final episode is just another big fight scene. Outside of Sam Wilson’s speech at the end, what really changed on MCU’s Earth? What did this Disney+ series have to say, really? Other than bringing up those very real problems we face in the U.S. and around the world?

I think INCREDIBLES 2 is just more interested in being about its characters first, which, again. Is fine. I don’t think less of the movie because of that. The first INCREDIBLES was about the family dynamic first and foremost, too, and not the spectacle. I don’t require Brad Bird to share all of his political views with me. I appreciate that the movie even posits the question to begin with, it’s ultimately why I’ve been thinking about it! Maybe Bird sees that world as simpler because it’s one where superheroes have been around since at least the turn of the 20th century, and things are different because of that.

This is probably why some people get a very Ayn Randian reading out of THE INCREDIBLES, when I think Bird’s conceit was merely “the villain is someone who uses technology to be a pretend-superhero”. It’s all there to inform Syndrome’s character, not necessarily to declare to the audience that people without powers CAN’T be superheroes. Syndrome kills several Supers so he can enact his plan and make everyone into Supers, because he’s big mad at Mr. Incredible, and that’s why he fails. He could’ve just grown up to make super technology to make other people super, not kill a bunch of them. Heck, if he had turned out better, he could’ve singlehandedly ended the outlawing of Supers… And not natural-born Supers… Imagine THAT movie…

The original movie, I feel, just doesn’t necessarily make a case for whether people born without superpowers can be Super. This dichotomy is just there to make the villain what he is, and hint at what he could’ve been instead of a villain. Sure, the Parr family and Frozone saving the day at the end upholds this apparent status quo, but I don’t think Bird was thinking about it like that. He had denied the Ayn Rand comparisons as far back as the release of the first movie.

The likelier reading of this film, and some of Bird’s other films such as RATATOUILLE and TOMORROWLAND, is informed by Bird’s career trajectory. He was mentored by Milt Kahl, of all people! One of the greatest animators, one of Walt’s Nine Old Men… He was mentored by him as a teenager! But most of Bird’s career, as noted by Mark Mayerson, was a long series of denied opportunities. His aforementioned SPIRIT movie didn’t take off in the ‘80s because who during that period - a time when SECRET OF NIMH came and went, and when features like TWICE UPON A TIME couldn’t get an audience - wanted to sink money into an animated action movie of that caliber? RAY GUNN didn’t go through in the 1990s at Turner Animation, and Warner Bros. dumped THE IRON GIANT in the late summer of 1999 with an ineffective marketing campaign that caused it to flop at the box office.

Because IRON GIANT did so badly, Bird took his toys and left Warner Bros. He headed to Pixar with his superhero movie concept, and he got in despite those who didn’t quite want him around. John Lasseter was not fond of an outsider coming in with this very different pitch for a movie. Up until that point, Pixar was literally what I like to call “Team TOY STORY”. John Lasseter, TOY STORY’s director, also directed A BUG’S LIFE and TOY STORY 2. Pete Docter and Andrew Stanton, where instrumental in TOY STORY 1 & 2, directed MONSTERS, INC. and FINDING NEMO respectively. Lee Unkrich, an editor on TOY STORY, co-directed on TOY STORY 2, MONSTERS, INC. and FINDING NEMO. Lasseter fired Jorgen Klubien off of his CARS, which was in the works at the time, and took it over. Tight-knit building. Bird was an outsider, and Lasseter wasn’t thrilled about that. But luckily, Steve Jobs staved him off and also kept Michael Eisner’s doubts about THE INCREDIBLES at bay. Bird got to make his rather outre superhero movie at Pixar in spite of Lasseter, Eisner, etc…. And it was a big hit and an Oscar winner. Lasseter was singing a different tune after that.

Future directors didn’t have Jobs’ protection, though, which meant that Lasseter could fire them more easily… And he did… Brenda Chapman, Bob Peterson, etc.

So then after THE INCREDIBLES, Brad Bird really wanted to get a live-action adaptation of the novel 1906 off the ground, but that didn’t go anywhere. He took over RATATOUILLE at Pixar, made a big hit out of that, and then tried to pursue other endeavors. His MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE movie (GHOST PROTOCOL in 2011) did very well, but then after that, he made TOMORROWLAND and it bombed… And then took on an INCREDIBLES sequel. He is just now starting to get his cooler ideas off the ground, as his RAY GUNN is finally in production at Lasseter’s Skydance Animation. Funny how that works, right? The guy is over 60 years old and is just getting started.

If anything, his movies are more about that. He’s a guy with really cool, game-changing ideas for animated movies in an industry that isn’t interested in that… So… The INCREDIBLES movies being about superheroes who want to help people but not being allowed to by the system, RATATOUILLE being about an animal that doesn’t belong in a kitchen wanting to cook for people, GHOST PROTOCOL being about spies still trying to do the right thing and save the world after their unit has been shut down by the system, TOMORROWLAND being about people not subverting the system by pitching in to make the world a better place and also being barred from the utopia - by, again, the system - where they can make that happen… Yeah, it’s very clear that Bird’s movies are just him venting about his own hangups via fantastical concepts, not trying to espouse some sort of Ayn Randian ideology. How the hell do you get “if you’re naturally talented, you should hoard those gifts from the rest of society” out of THAT?

I think that’s what it is, and that’s what informs the world of THE INCREDIBLES. It’s simply an Earth where superheroes exist, and the system makes them illegal instead of finding other ways to correct accidents that have happened whenever they are around. Just outright ban them from doing what they do, instead. I mean, governments in real life ban all kinds of people for various reasons, strip away their rights, dehumanize them, criminalize them, etc… Sometimes mere circumstances, such as poverty, are viewed as personal failure and inherently criminal. There’s a level of relatability with superheroes for some people because of that. The late Kevin Conroy, for example, used his role as Batman in the 1992 animated series an outlet for his struggles as a gay man. X-Men stories, and the early 2000s X-MEN movies, are either interpreted as that or ARE largely about that.

But even then, Bird’s world still posits some interesting questions that it doesn’t fully answer. It’s busier focusing on the characters. This is more an observation, as I’m not trying to dock the original or the second movie any points… I just wonder why, in the sequel, the world the movies are set in was so quick to legalize Supers after everything that has happened. All it took was saving a boat and that was it? Not the defeat of Syndrome’s final Omnidroid? Not the other good deeds before that? I feel like that portion in the final third of the movie was strangely very rushed.

The thing is, before I wrap this up (phew), we only have two canonical movies in this series, and a handful of comedic/gag-based shorts. The world of the INCREDIBLES is wide and ripe for exploring, I’d argue, but Brad Bird’s not getting any younger and he should pursue the projects he really wants to make. Again, RAY GUNN, his Western, his horror movie, his musical, etc. Pixar honored him by not having someone else throw together a second INCREDIBLES sometime in the late 2000s/early 2010s. Like, Disney could’ve forced Pixar to make one without him anyways, but no. They waited. And if there’s a third one to be made, or a prequel set during the “Golden Age”, they’ll likely wait for him to be available and willing to do it. Or if he gives it his blessing and leaves it to another director… Like Pixar did with TOY STORY 4 and INSIDE OUT 2, and almost did with FINDING DORY. I wonder if he was gonna do the same with INCREDIBLES 2, had TOMORROWLAND done great and he went straight for a sequel to that.

I’d like to see more of that universe, but it needn’t be forced out of the filmmakers at Pixar. Maybe the little we know of it is what kind of stokes our imaginations when it comes to this series? Look at something like STAR WARS now… There’s a ton of movies and shows and expanded universe stuff, which arguably dilutes the magic of its universe... THE INCREDIBLES isn’t that big wide despite the original movie almost being 20 years old. THE INCREDIBLES doesn’t need to be that huge, but I would like to see a little bit more of that world. Maybe another movie - be it INCREDIBLES 3 or a prequel called SUPERS or something - or a Disney+ series, but not the behemoth something like STAR WARS or the MCU have become.

I feel it’s worth playing around in a little bit more. I’m also biased, because I love the movies, particularly the first one.

10 notes · View notes

amberautumnfaebrooke · 11 months

Text

idk you guys i think you may just not have a full grasp of the complexities of getting audiences to watch movies

i have seen a lot of posts reading some variation on "studios are going to learn from barbenheimer to release two DIFFERENT movies concurrently when they should be learning to release two GOOD movies," a take i find absolutely infuriating. like, just to begin with, people don't often... choose to make bad movies. movies are really really hard to make, and it's famously impossible to know whether anyone will like the damn thing until it's already basically done. if you're a studio exec and you're planning your slate for next year, do you go with the weird experimental movie made by an up-and-coming with few-to-no features under their belt? sometimes you end up with a gem, but at least as often it flops and ends up costing you a bunch of money. what about established directors who regularly give you good stuff? sometimes nolan will give you his most well-received work since the batman stuff, and sometimes olivia wilde will turn in don't worry darling and audiences will turn their noses up. "make good movies" is not actionable advice.

not that being a good movie is actually any guarantee people will see it. in my opinion, the best movie released so far this year is past lives, and i'm not alone in that. the reviews are unanimously glowing, the letterboxd for it is basically all overwhelming praise. and that movie made barely 10mil. how much have you heard anyone talking about that movie? how many people do you know who've seen it? it wasn't an especially limited release, it's probably still showing at your local amc.

now how many people do you know who have seen the dungeons and dragons movie?

that's not a dig on the d&d movie, i like the d&d movie! i'm just saying, the truth is, there are few sure bets in this business. the success of a movie is a combination of its quality, its marketing, pure dumb luck, and yes, i'm sorry, star power and brand recognition.

we've all seen and made a thousand posts about how hollywood has no new ideas. complaining about reboots and sequels has been a stale observation for decades. but i also haven't seen the "no sequels or reboots" crowd get as excited any anything this year as they have about across the spider-verse and barbie. two excellent movies! which, be really honest with yourself, you would have been less likely to have seen if you weren't already excited about the property! barbenheimer isn't just two good movies. it's two good movies audience members already have reference points for.

i think this is a really human reaction. there is so much media at this point in history, constantly competing for your attention, and you can't possibly pay attention to it. so, as a heuristic, you look for reference points. i don't pay attention to AAA video games in general, but you bet your ass that when they announce the last of us part 3 i'm going to take notice, because i connected so strongly with the second one, but if they released basically the same game with a different name i might not ever hear about it.

there's that post where craig mccraken says he pitched cartoon network like seventeen original shows and they rejected everything until he suggested a powerpuff girls reboot, and everyone went "wow, the horrible studio execs are stifling creativity," and i just... i mean, are you really convinced you would watch those original shows? that your cousins would? that caitlin, a 32 year old single mom in michigan would put that on for her kids?

this isn't me saying "i don't care if movies are good" or "i'm glad they make so many sequels and reboots." this is me saying "you are not immune to branding" and "audiences have some share of responsibility for how things are" and "find a way to seek out media you're less familiar with."

i do that by seeing a movie in theaters once a week, but you can do it by giving yourself themed prompts when deciding what to watch, picking an album of the week, joining a book or movie club, or just asking friends for recommendations.

there is so so much out there that is exactly up your alley, that is weird and different and fresh, but the niche stuff won't come to you. you have to find it.

#barbie #oppenheimer #barbenheimer #past lives

14 notes · View notes

stillsimpinforfanfiction · 2 years

Text

What can be Cradled but Never Held? Chapter 1

Paul Dano!Riddler x f!Reader NSFW Slowburn

18+ MINORS DO NOT INTERACT

Word Count: 3882

Warnings (not all in this chapter): Umm tbh everything at one point or another, this is Riddler we're talking about. Assault, murder/death, blood, harassment and sexual assault attempt (not by Eddie), abuse mention, neglect mention, sex/masturbation, mental illness (I'll try to depict this as well as I can), weapons, torture, kidnapping, BDSM themes, and more! lol

Summary: After meeting the girl of his dreams, Eddie is confounded in his new feelings. When he is supposed to be focusing on his Riddler agenda, as he had planned for the last two years, but finds himself thinking about you day and night instead, what will he do? Should he let you go and move on, force you to stay with him and learn to accept him as the Riddler, or stop his plans altogether?

A/N: Hey guys, I've been working on this one for a while, and have quite a few chapters ready already. Idk when I'll post them though since I may go back and tweak things depending on how the plot progresses. Also, I've never seen/read any other batman besides the newest one and was just obsessed with Dano's Riddler. So, I apologize if this isn't entirely canon, especially since I imagine I will have to write after the events of the first movie before the sequel is out. Any tips (good or bad) would be great. Thank you!

Despite loving your old town, getting to see your best friend in-person every day, and having a good connection with many of the locals, you decided that taking up a job in the city Gotham a few hours away would be good for you. The "good" parts, of course, being that it paid about 1.5 times the amount your last job did, and you had secured a decent apartment with lower than average rent. So even though you would be leaving behind your old life in a way, you could still talk to your friend online and visit every now and then, especially with the bank you were about to be pulling in.

You took up a position as a clinical lab tech at a prestigious animal hospital in the city. The job had its perks as you occasionally got to see cute animals going by and knew that your work was going to a great cause: saving animals. I mean, what could be controversial about that? The best part, though, was getting to work in a lab where no direct customer consultation was usually required as it was done through the veterinarians. I.e, you didn't have to deal with customer service drama. Everything seemed to fit into place almost too perfectly and you moved to Gotham with a naive but optimistic view about starting your new life.

The first few weeks were nerve-wracking but exciting. Getting used to your new job was difficult, and finding places for everything to fit in your apartment was as easy as a blood cell trying to flow through a blocked artery, but you managed, for now. After finally having being moved in all the way and having a good handle on your job, you decided to explore the city, albeit not venturing very far the first time.

After work one night, you walked to a nearby cafe, about 5 blocks from your apartment, to get something not hand-cooked by you for once. As you walk in, you can tell the diner is much larger than can be seen from the front window and had a retro-urban vibe to it that felt very comforting. Considering it was as late as it was, the only other patron was a man sitting at the bar with his head in a book and illuminated by one of the few dim lights left on.

As you drew closer, you could hear some faint sounds coming from the back, indicating that the place was definitely still open and you didn't just enter into a closed restaurant accidentally. Still a little wary, you decide to sit a few seats away from the man, but still at the bar in the best position for a waiter to hopefully notice you and get your order soon.

Trying not to look awkward, you scroll through your phone absentmindedly but definitely see in your peripheral vision the man sneaking glances at you over the top of his book. One time he glanced, you look up at him and smile which makes him immediately look back at his book with tinted red cheeks. Cute, you thought.

"Do you have any suggestions on what tastes good here?" you ask, setting your phone down on the counter to give a more direct presence.

"Oh, um....I really like their pumpkin pie" he stammers out sheepishly. You nod, giving your thanks and letting him get back to reading.

After a few minutes, a waitress finally notices you and scrambles out, apologizing for not hearing you come in and asks for your order.

"Oh, it's okay, I just got here! And could I get a burger, fries, coke, and....a slice of pumpkin pie?" you smile to the man at the last part. The waitress smiles and heads to the back as you give your thanks and go back to reading whatever smut you had pulled up on your phone.

After a few minutes, the waitress sets down your food and you thank her. Deciding to pay then, you try not to become feral when you finally can gobble the food down from your hunger. You're about halfway through your meal when you glance to the man again, this time focusing on the book he's reading.

"Is that Into the Wild?" you ask enthusiastically, although rhetorically since you would recognize the cover anywhere.

"Ah, um, yes...you know it?" The man peers surprisedly at you through his clear-rimmed glasses.

"Yes- I mean- well, it's one of my favorites. Jon Krakauer is...an incredible writer. Is this your first time reading it?" You blurt out, a little too excited at the opportunity to share your passion for the book.

"It is. I've never read from him before, although I have to agree this is an incredible story so far. Especially knowing it's true." He exclaimed, his knee slightly bobbing on the footrest of the bar stool.

"I know right!? It makes it so much more thrilling knowing that you really can just...slip away from society. Makes you wonder why we decided to make this corporate world at all huh..." trailing off, you go back to eating the rest of your food, finally starting on the slice of pie.

The man hadn't responded to you after that, but you could feel his stare on you like a hawk the whole time. In normal circumstances, it would be creepy, but for some reason, you didn't feel like it was with him, more just that he struggled with social cues, which hey, you could definitely relate to that. After the first bite, you closed your eyes from how good the pie tasted, savoring the flavor before swallowing and looking at him again.

"You were right, this really is good, wow" you beamed at him. He smiled back shyly and attempted to push down a cowlick in the middle of his head to clear the air.

"I'm y/n by the way, what is your name?" you pushed further, leaning your head on your hand and tilting it as you stared back.

"It's-uh...it's Edward" he paused long before telling you, almost like he was deciding whether to say it or not.

"Well it's nice to meet you, Edward. You'll have to let me know how you like the book if we happen to see each other again."

"Yeah that...that sounds good" he smiles again, watching you grab your things and head back out into the night.

Little did you know, that interaction would completely change both of your lives forever.

It had been a few days since that night and work was starting to take its toll on you already. The higher pay wasn't just due to the prestigious level the animal hospital operated at, you discovered, it also came with many more duties than your previous job where you shared much more of the work. There were more tests that the lab ran compared to others within hundreds of miles, and that meant that you had to deal with tests being shipped and people travelling with their pets from all over. You also had to learn how to operate the new machines that were capable of such tests and interpret the data intervals for each kind, and so on. In other words, every time it seemed like you were getting used to your job, you found out something you were doing wrong.

Trying to relieve your pent-up stress, you took to driving before heading home after work. Both to explore the city more and to clear your head before getting into your comfort mode; you didn't want to bring that negative energy home. You had found quite a few odd but interesting places you planned to check out on the weekends, but your favorite spot was actually out of the city up a large hill to a long-forgotten park. Whilst kind of creepy at night, it had an amazing view that overlooked the city and reminded you much more of your old rural town, being able to hear crickets and see the stars rather than honking and air pollution. At some point, coming to this spot became ritual for you after work and you would destress in the cool breeze.

This night, however, the park didn't seem to be cutting it after a particularly bad day at work. See, your manager had gotten switched with one from another lab within the hospital and the new manager was...forward, to put it nicely. From the get-go, he had asked you in private if you had a boyfriend, to which you of course lied and said yes. This did little to dissuade him, however, and he had still taken to you in a way that was entirely unprofessional.

At one point, while preparing a specimen, he came up behind you and grabbed your hands, using his fingers to show you how to prepare it in a way you were quite literally already doing before his unwelcome presence. After declaring that you would prefer vocal instruction to physical in the future, he just laughed at you dismissively and continued his provocations.

Every time another lab tech or delivery person came in, he of course completely stopped his actions and put on the most charismatic persona equivalent to a devious politician. It ground your gears, knowing damn well that he had plenty of other work he should have been doing rather than bothering you.

Sighing, you tried to let the negative stress go but found it unbearably difficult and decided some food would help. Returning to the same diner you met Edward at, you were surprised to see it packed much more than last time, with about half the booths filled and only a few seats left at the bar. It was a Friday night, you supposed.

Despite your previous defeated thoughts, you perked up a bit at seeing Edward in the same spot he was before, with an open stool next to him. This time, however, he had a computer on his lap rather than a book, which he was currently typing away at almost in a frenzy.

You sit at the stool next to him, waiting to see if he notices you and smiling down at whatever it was he was so preoccupied with. You could only get a slight view with the now-glaring dining lights reflecting off the screen, but it looked like some sort of coding.

"Hey Edward! It's y/n, do you remember me? How have you been?" you ask, hoping you aren't bothering him too much.

"Yeah, I do. I've been fine" he forces out, not even looking up from the furious typing he quickly resumed with.

"That's good! Well did you end up finishing the book? I'd love to know what you thought of it" you try harder, hoping your first, much more friendly, encounter with him wasn't abnormal behavior for him.

"I did. Look, I'm not trying to be rude but I'm just really busy right now" he finally looks up at you, clearly annoyed with having to stop whatever he was working on twice now.

"Oh, okay, sorry" you mutter, feeling humiliated. Opting for a booth far from the bar instead, you head over and spend the rest of your time there looking out the window as you eat, feeling even more down than when you walked in.

The next time you enter the diner, you feel extraordinarily depressed, even compared to last time, and are solely going because you didn't have the motivation to cook. This time, the diner is mostly empty with only a few patrons in now, and, of course, Edward in his normal seat. You head for the same booth as last time and, after ordering, put your head down to cry silently despite telling yourself you wouldn't do so in public.

Edward obviously noticed this and felt his heart drop for some reason, which he knew was silly. The last time you had been here, he had been dealing with covering up some of the traces that he left when getting intel for his Riddler plan. Normally, he would do this from the safety of his own home, but, by the gift of Hades himself, his apartment's internet had decided to go out and his hotspot wasn't working. Thus, his best solution at the time was to just use a VPN and go to the closest place with free wifi: here.

Of all the days for him to get to see you again, of course, this was the day it happened to work out. His frustration with everything going on at work, the internet issue, and having to cover up his mistakes in the first place, made him quite agitated already. So when you innocently tried striking up a conversation with him like when you met, he regrettably took out the stress on you more than he meant to, instantly feeling terrible at your dejected expression and decision to leave.

As atrocious as it was, he took that opportunity to hack your own phone that night, once his own work was finished. It was easy, since you didn't have a vpn on and were the last to connect to the wifi. He didn't want to be too invasive, though, so he decided to simply find out your name and do a background check anyone could do, rather than snooping through your photos or messages like a total creep.

From this, he had found your previous work history, family, and university which all seemed pretty normal. You also didn't have any social media accounts, at least, none tied to your name, which he was surprised by. Really, all he could find on his "normal and not at all creepy" background search was a few newspaper mentions of you with honor roll, awards, etc. However, he decided to look a little deeper, just out of curiosity as to what you were suddenly doing in Gotham, and found that you worked for Tariel Animal Clinics, a corporation that he had the unfortunate experience with digging into, as they were infamous for money laundering off the ingenuine business of some of their patrons.

This immediately sent a red flag through his brain, completely disheartened that you, who seemed so sweet and rejecting of society, based on the little he had talked to you anyway, could be involved with this dark scheme. He couldn't say he was surprised, of course, considering this was Gotham, but it still sucked.

He thought about it, your background, the fact that this job was so similar to your last one, and wondered, did you know? Maybe you were just a naive outsider not prepared for the horrors of this city and not aware of the evil corporation you were working for.

Regardless of the self-preserving voice in his head telling him not to have hope, he couldn't help but keep that spark alight that his suspicion was true. But first, he had to be sure. He'd talk to you next time you were there.

Well, unfortunately, you didn't look any more elated than the last time he saw you, which was already not a high standard. In fact, you were crying, and that made him want to stop his investigating right then and there just to comfort you, which scared him. But maybe he could do both, he thought, starting to head over to you.

Once he was only a few steps away, your head perked up from the sound and he stopped in his tracks, seeing your eyes red and puffy made him want to cry, too.

"Hey...y/n...I am so sorry about how dismissive I was last time you were here. I had something urgent I needed to do but I could have been much nicer about how I communicated that, can I sit with you?" Edward gestured to the other side of the booth you were draping your arms across.

"Hi Edward...yeah, you can. And it's okay, I totally understand. I shouldn't have been so pushy." You apologized back, wiping your eyes and straightening out your shirt to look more presentable across from him.

"No no no, please don't be sorry, this was on me but....are you okay? I don't mean to pry but you seem quite down. Did something happen?"

"Ha...yeah I guess. It's a lot of things, really, but I don't want to dump it all on you and ruin your night" you said, watching the headlights of passing cars through the window.

"Please, by all means, it's the least I can do to listen" he half smiled, rubbing his thumbs nervously in his closed hands.

Sighing, you took a drink of your water before starting.

"Well, I'm new to Gotham and I guess altogether I just wasn't ready for the city life like I thought I would be, you know? Where I grew up, I only had a few friends and even in my college town there wasn't much to do so I usually kept to myself. But I could always go outside whenever I wanted and it was mostly safe. Here, though, it seems like crime happens around every corner and I'm constantly on edge about getting mugged or raped or killed or god knows what else. I guess I just really miss my friends and I hate how cold and lonely this city feels-" your sentence is choked off with a sob as the tears you fought to control came back down your face.

Edward immediately reaches out on instinct to comfort you, a sensation which was foreign to him, and realizes what he's doing. Right before going to touch your shoulder, he stops to gauge your reaction that it's okay. You answer silently, leaning into his hand and feeling the heat of his palm warm your skin through the fabric of your shirt. He tries to rub you reassuringly, but his labored breathing gave away his inexpertise in even the most subliminal touching.

"I'm so sorry y/n. In a way I understand since I've always lived in Gotham, but I've also never known anything else so I can't imagine how difficult that transition is. How come you decided to leave everything and move here?" He questioned softly with his head lowered to meet your eyes.

"Well, I moved for work. It's essentially the same job I had as before but it pays much better and I guess I just wanted to make that sacrifice so I could save up, if that makes sense." You mumble, trying hard to keep the tears at bay once again.

"Yeah, it does. Do you mind me asking what you do?" he asked, despite already knowing the answer. He wanted to lead the conversation towards determining whether you were someone even worthy of the comfort he had already given.

"Oh, I'm a clinical lab technician at an animal hospital. I essentially just run different tests on specimen samples to help vets determine the health complications of animals." He nodded his head, acknowledging this like it was news.

"What got you interested in that kind of job? Do you like the new one more than the last?" He found that the previous job you had worked had no shady fraudulence, at least as far as he could find, which meant pretty much guaranteed.

"Well, it's complicated. The job itself I like because I love being in a lab setting and knowing that my work is used to save animals lives gives me...some sort of purpose that I can do good in this world. And I do like that my new job has more tech and tests for me to use is exciting but..." you trailed off, not sure you wanted to share this yet.

"But?" Edward pushed. Given what you had just said, it was safe for him to assume you definitely did not know about what was going on at the company. Which was both relieving for his sake and worrisome for yours.

"It's just that um...I got a new manager. The first one I liked and she really helped with my introduction to the lab but the new one is...a bit unprincipled." He watched as you bit your bottom lip, not making eye contact with him anymore. This news hit him like a freight train as he felt...protective. He definitely shouldn't, he barely even knew you yet.

"In what ways?" He almost whispered, trying to look up into your eyes with his head lowered down, worrying about your change in demeanor.

"He's been quite...forward with showcasing his advances towards me...." screw the formalities, you were just going to be blunt, you decided "multiple times he has grabbed me, made perverted comments towards me, and is incredibly condescending whenever I make the simplest mistakes. I would go to HR about it or something but he's from higher up in the company and I think if I did that I'd just end up getting fired. I can't lose this position, not after everything I gave up."

"That's so terrible, y/n, I'm sorry you're having to deal with that, I truly am." After giving your shoulder a squeeze, Edward drew his hand back and stared at you for a moment. Outwardly, he looked nonchalant but inside he was attempting to quell the burning anger he had for your despicable manager and everything this city is that has made you feel so downtrodden. He had to breathe deeply through his nose to calm down the side of him about to start the Riddler attacks.

In this time, you stared at him, seeing his jaw tighten slightly which you imagined had to do with anger in some way. Realizing you had made this whole conversation quite negative since the beginning, you decided that it was time to try something positive.

"Do you know the East Gotham Library downtown?"

"Huh? Oh uh...yeah I've been, why?" His trail of thought about how he was going to take out every corrupt person in this city was quickly stunted.

"I saw they were going to have a book sale this Saturday and wanted to go see if they have anything good, would you like to go with me? As friends, I mean?" you held your hand in your palm, your hair locks falling freely onto the table in a way that he wished he could picture and save forever.

Then, the weight of what you just asked him set in. Holy shit. You asked to hang out. Granted, it was as friends but he couldn't believe it. Someone as alluring as you was asking...him...the weird loner guy...to be friends? His face turned red against his wishes as he nodded a little too vigorously.

"YEAH! I mean yeah, I would absolutely love that" he stammered out

"Okay great! Would you like to meet up here around 1? I can pick you up if you'd like to go together"

"Yes, I would...I would love that" Edward was still fumbling over his words.

"Alright, well give me your number" Tossing your phone over to him, you saw his fingers effortlessly glide over the buttons despite his obvious nervousness.

"I'll see you then, Eddie, thank you for talking with me!" you beamed down at him as you grabbed your things, leaving the awestruck man sitting in the booth, still contemplating how this was even happening.

#okay andddd first one is up #this is prob the shittiest writing youll ever read if u even make it this far and i apologize for that #tbh this is 100% self indulgent but im tryna keep reader...somewhat general?#idk i mean like not superrrr specific things but she also needs a personality so ig its somewhere in the middle #anyway sorry for the fic sorry if u tried reading it im gonna go #eddie nashton #edward nashton smut #edward nashton slowburn #riddler #riddler fanfic #riddler x y/n #riddler x you #riddler x reader #paul danos riddler #the batman #eventual smut #slowburn #nsft #SoundCloud

33 notes · View notes

trayzen-the-infinite · 10 months

Text

My Hot Take on the Writers Strike

I’m going to get this off my chest because it’s been killing me and I’m seeing too much of one narrative go across my recommended. I’m known to be very blunt and will undoubtedly hurt feelings. For those who don’t want to read it and block me without reading do it now. For those who at least want to hear me out, thank you.

Most of the people in support of it just strike me as bootlickers. The Unions involved are all very abusive, manipulative and hypocritical. They’re in support of it because they tricked themselves into believing this will somehow hurt Hollywood and thus are willing to excuse absolutely anything no matter how horrible. They let big name celebrities continue to do work while barring small time members of the union to essentially starve. Tell influencers who aren’t even a part of the union what to do, as well of cosplayers, and will attack people who’re not part of the union and are just working on independent film by calling the Scabs, while allowing their own union members to do the same thing they attacked indies over. These unions aren’t good people, they’re running a Mafia style racket. You’re doing nothing but perpetuating the suffering of these poor Union members forced to do the bidding of the Union like slaves but you don’t care, because you’re sticking it to the corporations. Not remotely true by the way, they decided that if people don’t want to work for them then they can just automate the process and keep on trucking. The strike is just convincing them to replace writers and actors with machines. So congratulations, you’re solving nothing.

Another thing is that the reason why the general public doesn’t give a rats ass cheek about the strikes is because the actors all act like entitled brats, and writers like pompous royalty. They’ve released Bomb after bomb and whenever they bomb they immediately run to Social Media and insult both the actual viewers and random groups they don’t like as if they can bully people into liking it. When you want men to watch your movie, don’t insult them beforehand and say “it’s not for you” or “if you don’t like it then don’t watch it” because they’ll take you up on that offer, so don’t be surprised when no men show up to watch the movie.

On another note. Years back Lego did a study to understand how to better market to children. They would give kids some toys to play with and separate them between Boys and Girls. They would have the same toys to play with. With some minor outliers the conclusion was this: When Boys played with Batman toys they would stick to the canon, do the Batman voice, have him on adventures fighting crime, beating the Joker and even doing the Batman voice. When Girls were given those same toys, they did not do this. Batman would be a boyfriend or a husband, they’d do things Batman wasn’t known for or did at all. This carries over into general adulthood, Men care about action and Women care more about the Drama. Obviously theirs always outliers but this is the general trend. On YouTube or even TV when having things like building a Cabin in the middle of the woods the majority audience will be Men, their may be some women audience but it’s a male dominated interest. Women on the other hand devour stuff like Crime Drama and is a majority Female dominated program.

I say this because with all the shows being made now, the people making them are behaving like 5 year old Girls. They disregard canon, established Lore or characterization, Season 3 of Picard is beloved by Trekkies that actually stuck around because that’s the Star Trek the fans know. Picard up until that point was unrecognizable as a Star Trek. The Sequel Trilogy was hated by long time Star Wars fans befit spit in the face of Star Wars. Rey was uninteresting and too perfect, the story was nothing like a Star Wars story, and it disrespected the original characters that started the franchise. The removed everything that original fans loved about these properties and made it into something unrecognizable from its name. They keep doing this, hoping nostalgia and Brand Recognition will be enough to reel in old fans while not putting forth any effort to stay true to that brand.

THIS IS WHY ALMOST NO ONE CARES ABOUT THE STRIKE. Because the writers and Actors are entitled brats who forget that their audience pays their bills. If what they write isn’t successful then the company doesn’t make back its investment, if it doesn’t make back its investment it starts losing money, and if it does make money then the writers will stop seeing that cash. Now think back to every Box Office Bomb that blew MILLIONS OF DOLLARS for nearly a Decade Straight and then wonder why these Hollywood Corporations are unwilling to give raises.

Everything Must Add Up Or You’ll Be Subtracted From The Equation.

#writer strike #union #wga strike #fuck the writers #writers guild strike #sag afra #sag aftra #sag aftra strike #personal rant #vent rant #sag aftra weak #feel free to block

1 note · View note

gaykarstaagforever · 1 year

Text

I hear that new Flash movie is a mediocre Batman movie.

I am not paying to see it, however, because I'm not in favor of Warner Bros decision to act like they have never even heard of this Ezra Miller person, have you seen my glasses, are you my granddaughter?

Their entire plan for the DCU is "rip off the MCU," and they start by releasing a movie centered on an actor not even they would allow in a room full of children. You could not have dropped the ball harder on this if it were a basketball you slam-dunked from space. Possibly as part of some ill-advised Space Jam sequel.

Oh, and let's not forget acting like it is some kind of win to bring back 71 year old Michael Keaton as Batman, something only people who are over 40 will care about...while simultaneously removing a bunch of Batman Animated content from MAX. You know, the Batman stuff 40 year olds grew up with?

It's almost like David Zaslav, the man who turned at least 8 different cable channels into an endless stream of shows about renovating haunted houses, has no idea how to do anything that isn't exactly that.

It's like if you hired Vince McMahon to produce operas for The Met. Except not half as cool as that sounds.

The best case scenario here is that we don't pay for this new DC crap and Zaslav assumes that means no one likes Batman and he sells DC to Apple or something.

Because at least they've proven they are willing and able to spend a billion dollars trying new and exciting terrible ideas.

#warner bros #david zaslav #the flash #ezra miller

1 note · View note

danny-chase · 3 years

Link

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Batman (Comics) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Damian Wayne & Dick Grayson, Damian Wayne & Bruce Wayne Characters: Damian Wayne, Dick Grayson, Bruce Wayne Additional Tags: Damian Wayne Centric, Panic Attack, Sickfic, Sick Dick Grayson, Damian Wayne Needs a Hug, he gets half a hug, Damian Wayne is a sweetheart, Dick Grayson is a Good Brother, Damian Wayne is a good brother Series: Part 10 of Bad Things Happen Bingo Summary:

Sequel to Pneumonia, Damian decides to spend his day home with Richard.

Full story under cut

Footsteps echo through the hall, light, but heavy enough to be intentional. Too carefully timed to be confident in their placement. And with too little bounce to be Richard’s.

Nor would he waken if they were Richard’s and that’s really his first clue. Briskly throwing off the sheets and flattening his hair, he throws open the door before his father can make it the rest of the way down the hall. The footsteps stop in their tracks.

He leaves the door open as invitation, yet it’s unnecessary – father doesn’t approach. From what little time they’ve spent together, Damian finds it strange – his father is single minded in his work but yet so indecisive in his home – well – really this wasn’t his home. “How is he?” The words come out too harshly and he grits his teeth, hoping for leniency – father is to be respected, not talked to in such a manner.

Nor was father was pleased the last time he erred in his judgment. Ever since he’d failed the first time he meant, he’d been treated like a plague, locked in his room then, and avoided now.

…But he’d heard stories from Richard about a softer man than the one he’d met a year ago. A man whose love was stronger than his hate – who took in children and saved their souls.

It was odd that such a man had shied away from his own son. Damian couldn’t understand what he’d done wrong – he understood the skirmish with Drake was wrong – but Richard spoke of a man who could forgive. And yet. He’d only seen forgiveness from Richard.

He’d thought perhaps, that had been his father’s influence.

Another footstep resounds around him, and the realization strikes – he hasn’t moved. Huffing – at no one in particular – he silently strides forward, yanking his dresser drawers open to retrieve a set of perfectly folded clothes.

“Damian.” Father stays just out of sight beyond the door. Its nerve wracking – almost painful – waiting for information. Richard promised he would be fine, last night, he promised Bruce could take care of the things – would be back – would fix it.

He’d almost believed him, but for a flicker of doubt in his eyes.

It was odd, seeing him waver – especially because he’d seen for himself how much Bruce cared for him. He’d read the worry in his expressions and the thinly veiled pain as he stitched his successor’s side. Father was back – he’d believed that much – though he didn’t believe it when Richard said it – and that was… a complicated thing.

Suffice to say, he’d kept watch from afar until he heard the doorknob turn, leaving once father began to speak.

An awkward clearing of the throat makes him turn. Father stands in the doorway, looking stern but unsure, finally having decided to make an appearance. It’s irritating, how tall he seems; his head mere inches away from the top of the doorframe. “What?” He can’t keep panic from slipping into his voice. Swallowing, he makes another attempt. “How is Richard?”

Frowning, father shakes his head slightly looking displeased. Damian’s heart sinks to the floor – Richard couldn’t – he promised – he –

“He’s not doing as well as I’d hoped. His blood oxygen level fell last night, I had to put him on an external canister to raise it.” Damian lets out a long breath, his pulse returning to normal as father continued. “He’s stable, Leslie came over an hour ago. She predicts a full recovery, just don’t expect him to bounce back too quickly.” His father paused, giving him a curious look. “You look flush, are you alright?”

Suddenly full of the desire to be alone, he shuts the door. “Yes. One moment.” For a moment he thought – never mind that now. Turning back to his clothes, he kicks off his pajamas, hastily changing. He runs a hand through his hair, breathing steadily – everything is fine.

He can hear his father hesitating, the floorboards groaning as he shifts his weight. “School starts in an hour. I’ll drive you.” It takes all the willpower he can muster not to let a groan escape his lips. School’s awful on the best of days, a miserable prison with miserable teachers not paid enough to put up with his obnoxious rich classmates’ egregious behavior.

“I’m not going.” Richard needs monitoring after all and his father had fulfilled the task last night. For proper care, he needs properly awake caretakers.

“You will go.” The response is firm, but not without minor hesitation – something Richard had taught him to look for – something he could exploit in interrogations – something he could exploit here (for a good cause of course).

His argument must be flawless – rational and logical, nothing else will suffice. Pulling on his socks, crossing the room, he flings the door open, storming into the hall, in a display of righteous fury. “The benefits of my attending school today do not outweigh the benefits Richard would receive if I monitor his progress and allow you sleep in order to be prepared to monitor him tonight. Firstly, I know the material already.” His father makes a noise to interrupt, but he continues unperturbed.

“Secondly, I understand the social benefits are a concern to you. Ask Richard, I have made a friend. His name is Colin and he’s much better than any of the awful children at that school. And I’ve met with Lian and Irey and Jay.” The Titan’s children were annoying, but he wasn’t lying. It was awful, but he’d made it through the ‘playdate’. “Thirdly, as for extracurricular activities, Grayson has provided me with all necessary materials to pursue my interests. And…” He trails off, finding his father’s eyes tired, the bags under them unreasonably puffy. Gesturing vaguely, he pointed back at a mirror in his room. “Just look at yourself, you expect to watch him well like that?” They can debate all they’d like, but if father refuses to sleep much longer, the argument will be decided in his favor.

The eyes shift to the mirror and back, then to him, to the floor, then covered by a hand. His father turns, muttering something he can’t quite hear, but he makes out the words from reading his lips. ‘What the hell has Dick been teaching you?’ A smile tugs at the corners of his mouth – he’s won. Perhaps, with further needling, he’ll be out of school for good, but today, he doesn’t press his luck.

Father drops his hand with a sigh. “Fine. Keep up with your studies.” He takes a few steps back. “You can sit in the room but don’t bother him.” Damian holds back an eye roll, as if he would bother Richard while he’s recuperating. “Call if anything changes, I’ll make breakfast.” Father turns, Damian’s eyes follow, watching him stride down the hall, ducking into the kitchen.

As the kitchen door smoothly thuds shut, he turns back to his room, swallowing down the odd sensation that stirs in the base of his throat. His steps are silent – mindlessly so, as he pads over into the adjacent bathroom to finish his morning routine.

He emerges – the strange feelings sticking with him – he supposes he ought to feel relieved, but dread builds in the pit of his stomach instead at the prospect of seeing Richard.

Father said Richard would be fine. Leslie said Richard would be fine. Richard promised he would be fine.

None of them are liars – but what if they missed something? The thought wracks his mind on an endless loop. The hallway seems to stretch out as he takes a step towards his brother’s room. What if something changes before he gets there? What if the medication doesn’t work – what if it’s a super virus or an antibiotic resistant bacteria? Their enemies could come up with ridiculously effective toxins, pathogens aren’t that much different.

Richard promised. He tries desperately to hold on to that thought, stumbling forward, forcing himself closer to his room. His heart pounds harder the closer he inches, his head joining the party and thudding along in time. He feels like the deer slipping on ice on that dumb movie Richard made him watch; it’s as if his legs have forgotten to function.

He’s nearly there – the hallway spins slightly but it’s just a few more steps – he needs to get control of himself but he can’t breathe. Two more steps. Two more steps and then he can. See Richard.

Halfway through his next step, he trips, falling face first onto the floor, unable to do anything but choke out unsteady breaths, his mind screaming the counts to a breathing exercise learned as a child long ago.

Pathetic. He would have been killed in the League for less. He mastered control of his emotion as a child – this – this is unacceptable! He reaches a hand forward, sheer willpower the only thing keeping him from curling in on himself – he has to keep moving.

His hand connects with a foot, he looks up, finding a flush face with bleary eyes staring back. “Damian?” Richard’s voice is rough and quiet, guilt floods his stomach – Richard shouldn’t be out of bed – he shouldn’t have panicked like this – this is – “Woah, buddy, breathe.” There’s a hand resting on his shoulder, the next time he looks up, Richard sits next to him on the floor, tapping his hand in time to a new count, one he learned here a few months ago.

There’s a million pieces of his mind scattered about the hallway and the longer he sits there breathing, the more pieces settle back into their places. Richard’s verbal count shifts into coughs, but he keeps his hand steady. When he finishes, the tapping’s all that’s left.

Damian shakily pulls himself up on his knees, not quite sure what exactly happened. Richard gives him a small sad smile, his eyes full of sympathy – sympathy that Damian doesn’t want – feels guilty for receiving – sympathy he’s never earned. It’s overwhelming – and something’s wrong with him – because he doesn’t cry – hasn’t cried since he was nine – and he’s nearly eleven and he’s over this.

He can’t cry because everything’s okay – Richard’s arms are open in an invitation, his hand receding from his shoulder, but close enough to hover. He’s fine. Richard is fine. Tired, yes, but his side’s not gushing blood, and his coughs subsided. Damian wipes his eyes on his sleeve, glancing around – ensuring they’re alone – before sliding up against the wall next to Richard, scooting under one of his shoulders. A muscular arm drapes over his shoulders, hand settling back on his shoulder.

He’s warm, a bit uncomfortably so, and his breathing sounds raspy, but as he leans against his brother’s chest, he hears a steady heartbeat and it’s unbelievingly reassuring. The hand on his shoulder is firm, but not tight; he can slip out; he’s not trapped.

Really, he ought to be ashamed, of needing comfort like some sniveling third-grader, but it’s different – coming from Richard – someone he’s seen far too many times on the wrong end of some twisted concoction of fear gas, crying and screaming – needing comforting himself. Fear gas. Maybe this was an after effect – he files away the notion to mull over later – perhaps run a blood test on himself later.

Richard’s grip tightens as he coughs, turning to face away. Damian’s gut drops – Richard was supposed to be on supplemental oxygen. Guilt claws at his insides as he quickly stands, pulling his brother along the best he can. It gives him appreciation for Nightwing’s smaller frame – his brother is way heavier and bulkier than he was a year ago – supporting him takes nearly all his might. “Come on.” He urges, dragging Richard into his room, this times his steps steady and stable.

They’re both out of breath by the time they’ve made it to the bed. Richard plops down, bouncing slightly on mattress, gasping for air. Biting back his guilt, Damian quickly traces the path of the nasal cannula, shoving the nose piece into Richard’s hands. “Here.” He watches the man fumble for a second before settling it place.

He slides down, tucking himself into a tight ball beside the bed, listening as gasps turns to wheezes, wheezes to coughs, coughs to rasps and back again, as Richard learns how to breathe like a normal human being. “Thanks.” He grunts, nudging Damian with his shin.

Damian huffs, he shouldn’t be thanked – he caused this mess! “For what?!” He half-shouts, quickly lowering his voice before he can say more. He needs to stay calm – he’s not supposed to be a disturbance. “It’s my fault you-”

“Damian.” Richard groans in an annoyed way, not an ‘I’m about to hack up another lung’ way. “Thanks for staying in to keep me company. It’s sweet.” Some company he is, forcing his brother out of bed to come pick him up off the floor. “Quit pouting, I’m fine.” The leg nudges him again. A third time when he doesn’t respond. He pushes back. Richard nudges him again. Damian scowls, what’s he supposed to even do in this situation?! “Let’s play Mario Kart or something.” Richard says, as if he’s overheard Damian’s thoughts.

Just as he pauses to mull over the suggestion, the door screeches on its hinges, shaking him out of his musings. “We should get that oiled.” Father mutters, carrying a tray of breakfast foods. He freezes in his tracks at the sight of Damian on the floor. “Everything okay?” Unfreezing, his motions are rigid and forced, his lips pursing into a straight line, brow furrowing, contorting into deep worry lines.

Richard swings his legs back onto the bed. “Just left to use the bathroom, Damian helped me back.” The lie sounds natural, comes far too readily out of his mouth. Damian swallows, staring at the floor as his father ponders whether the statement rings true.

It seems he’s decided to let it slip if he knows. He grunts an acknowledgement, setting the tray aside the bed, passing each a plate. It’s funny – how their dishes are so plain – just pure white, no décor. It struck him as odd when he’d first used them, now no longer odd, but fitting. The bland dish fits right in with Richard’s bland room.

Father leaves as quick as he came, and Damian’s left to reflect on the empty room as he munches on a bagel. He hasn’t spent much time in here, out of respect for privacy, he’s seen it before, but never thought what it would be like to live in it. “Don’t you get bored of looking at the walls?” He mutters, after swallowing a bite. His own walls are cluttered with his possessions; trophies from fallen enemies, keepsakes from his mother, and gifts from his brother (even a friendship bracelet from Brown is tacked to his corkboard). Richard’s are bare, save one faded poster. His eyes linger on the grinning young acrobat, gracefully swinging with his parents in the background.

Richard hums, curiously following his gaze. “Walls are walls, I don’t normally look at them. I just come in here to sleep.” He nods towards the television. “If I’m bored I can watch a show.”

Damian rolls his eyes. “When’s the last time you even turned it on?” He stands, spinning, taking in a full view of the room. “Room color effects your mood.” It’s something Richard used an excuse, to get him to pick a new color for his bedroom when they first moved in. “And potted plants are good for overall wellbeing.” He has a few on his dresser, he even set up an automatic watering system. He could hang some ivy over the balcony. Though… maybe not ivy.

Richard smiles to himself, letting out a little raspy noise that he supposes could be a laugh. “You’re really into it, huh?” Damian feels heat rise to his cheeks, he’s not ‘into’ anything as trivial as room décor. “Go wild, you can order whatever online and have it delivered.”

Damian turns his attention back towards Richard, hastily scoffing as he finishes speaking. “I’m not interested, I just wondered how <em>you</em> of all people could have such a bland room.” A flash of annoyance runs over Richard’s face, lingering long enough for Damian to properly identify it. It’s surprising to say the least; Richard almost never looks that way at him anymore.

Annoyance fades as Richard gazes out past the balcony. “I… lost a lot of stuff in the move.” Damian kicks himself mentally – Richard last lived in New York, but a month ago he overheard him and Drake talk about an old apartment back in Blüdhaven. He’d done some snooping in old casefiles, Richard’s stint there had been quite extended. Extended enough to have his property demolished by a villain even before the entire city was leveled by a nuclear explosion. “Damian.” Richard looks at him, face carefully neutral. “Don’t worry about it, let’s play cards or something.”

Don’t worry about it – how can he not worry about it?! He’d be devastated if he lost the gifts from his mother – some things aren’t replaceable. He gives the room another glance – it’s still empty – but he could fix it slightly. Maybe consult with Drake about the former apartment, if necessary contact – he shudders – the Titans during – he gags – one of their playdates for advice. “Damian are you okay?” Richard looks perplexed.

He shoves his plans back down, first things first, walls and flooring. He turns on the spot, marching out the door. “We’re fixing your room.” He mutters, storming down the hall to grab his laptop.

When he walks back in the room, Richard is staring at him. “What?” He demands, as Richard’s eyes follow him all the way to a chair aside the bed. He’s a bit annoyed at the chair even, it’s from the kitchen, probably dragged in here by his father last night. He adds ‘seating’ to his mental list – if Richard’s ill or injured, it would be nice for Pennyworth or him to be able to sit somewhere.

Richard shuffles back, edging closer and sitting upright against a mountain of pillows. “Nothing. I just thought you weren’t interested.” He cocks an eyebrow as Damian pulls up a paint comparison site.

“I’m not.” He spits. “I don’t want to look at your boring walls anymore.”

Richard laughs again, in his modified way. “Mm. Yup. Sure.”

Damian ignores the comment, already delving into the program, comparing colors against the wall - connecting to the TV to display them, and weighing the pros and cons of each one. Richard watches, providing occasional commentary, rating each color on a scale from one to one hundred. They argue over shades of green, and the correct way to make purple pop – nothing serious, nor work related. Later the room will be full of things, but for now he’s content to let their conversation fill the void.

#bad things happen bingo #batfam #batfamily #batman #dick grayson #damian wayne #absolutely no one requested this so hella self indulgent lmao #oh trying out a new writing style so if it's different that's why #my writing

41 notes · View notes

davidmann95 · 3 years

Note

Did you see the interview Morrison did with CBR on Superman and The Authority? Any thoughts on it if so?

Anonymous asked: You see that interview with Morrison about S&tA? They’ve got me excited, confirms it’s basically a spiritual successor to their Action Comics run, an ending story for the Golden Age Superman the way All-Star was for the Silver Age. Very intrigued at how they’re doing this older, kind of pissed off Superman

Anonymous asked: Morrison talking mad shit about Injustice and the Snyder film plans made me happy. Just wanted to share even though you have much more positive feelings on both than I do lol.

Anonymous asked: Well Superman editorial continues to suck massively per Morrison. Almost comforting how even after the entire department gets purged, the people there would rather continue to do evil Superman than anything else.

Anonymous asked: Any thoughts on the new Morrison interview?

Anonymous asked: Have you read the CBR interview with Morrison on Superman and the Authority? Interested to hear your thoughts.

Plenty of thoughts.

* I suspected pretty much from the beginning that their choice to go with The Authority had to do with that crew representing for Morrison a bittersweet nostalgia for the turn-of-the-millenium promise of a more radical, just tomorrow (especially given that they repeatedly noted in interviews at the time they felt it had rightfully supplanted their own JLA, and with Millar and Quitely doing the second run on it), so it delving into that makes sense to me. I did not expect that to be in the form of Kennedy showing up (add New Frontier to the list of stuff this is implicitly drawing on, another comic asking 'has Superman sold out?'), but it makes me ten times more fascinated; I assume that was allowed in the first place because this was planned initially as part of 5G where Superman would have debuted in the 60s, and now because of the post-Death Metal 'it all counts' ethos.

* The DC perspective is an unsurprising downer (I imagine Morrison pitched The Authority angle as a commercial way of doing that they could actually work with), but it's notable that those initial plans were in 2018; I think signs point to the perspective of the higher-ups on Superman having shifted pretty dramatically in the last couple of years. Also holy crap they had a Morrison Superman mini in cold storage for four years, I don't know if it's abhorrent that this was kept for us or admirable that they waited for perfect timing. It's also kind of shocking that this wasn't written contemporaneously with Wonder Woman: Earth One Vol. 3/The Green Lantern Season Two/Detective #26, because it seems so much the conclusion of the capstone they represent.

* In a weird way, this is them doing an all-encompassing take on Superman ala their Batman they never have before. All-Star and Action are often flattened out into 'Silver Age' and 'Golden Age', but really it's them doing their interpretation of classic, iconic Superman vs. their idealized personal reinvention drawing from several eras. This is the one that goes 'no he lived through it all, what are the consequences of this and what does he regret'.

* "It's kind of a reflective age for Superman who looks back and wondered if it worked, all that gaudy presentation, fighting with Doomsday, having Crises? Were we all wrapped up in our superhero bullshit and not dealing with all the problems that we started out with and tried to [solve]?" This feels almost ripped from the page from Blackstars and it casts that story in a very new light knowing that they'd already been writing this at the time, as if the take on Superman in there was built to ultimately justify the changes in here.

* I guess I'm not strictly as harsh as most but to qualify my feelings on Injustice or the Snyder movies as "much more positive" than most I'm pretty sure they would've had to run over a beloved childhood pet. Yes, I read some Twitter responses, they were hilarious.

* Talking up Clark's alien perspective makes me wonder if that's part of why the books doubling down on "he's half-human and born on Earth, in a way even his dad can't be he's seen and lives as one of us" with Jon as the impetus for his own apparent progressive journey in Son of Kal-El. Curious what capacity Jon might be in this, since again, Morrison played with him a lot in Blackstars and this apparently sets stuff up for his book.

* Superman as the dad picking you up after you get really drunk for the entire planet is such a killer framing, and also makes me think of this, which they wrote around the same time:

* Love the described stuff with Midnighter and Apollo, wild that it's just now a full decade after their incorporation that Apollo's meeting Superman and Midnighter still hasn't met Batman.

* Are those preview pages the final colors? I suspect not but I'd be so down with it if they were and this book was going with a bold near-monochromatic take.

* Finally, realized this is the conceptual sequel to Multiversity: a pulp-age hero (who's apparently been around since then) dealing with the 'successor' heroes of tomorrow, the post-Millar post-9/11 breed, hoping to act as a brighter example but terrified he's become inexorably an instrument of the status quo and that maybe it's all just shit. Think there's a low but non-zero chance The Gentry might show up to go after Superman for breaking all the rules. It is also, god help us, their Doomsday Clock - can Superman redeem DC's metatextual perceived embodiment of realistic cynicism?

#Superman and The Authority #Grant Morrison #Mikel Janin #Jordie Bellaire #Superman #The Authority #Multiversity #Opinion

34 notes · View notes

fabianocolucci · 3 years

Text

Can we have one lighthearted and optimistic show or movie for once?

Hello, I am writing this post because I have read that the CW is making a TV show about the PowerPuff Girls, except they’re going to be depicted as “20-somethings who are disillusioned after having spent their childhood fighting crime”.

Reading that angered me, I have to admit it, because this is just the latest of a never ending series of shows and movies that try to take something that is supposed to be lighthearted, funny and optimistic and turn it into something dark and edgy about how much life sucks, trying to highlight that “we live in a society” and so on.

Riverdale is the example many people come up with most of the time, and I can see why: its shared universe (which includes The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina) is a textbook example of how Hollywood keeps handling these things. However, what many people fail to realize is that this trend has been going on since long before the CW took Archie Andrews and the others and tried to be as dark and edgy as they can.

When Batman Begins proved to be a huge hit, and it was followed by an even greater hit (The Dark Knight), Hollywood apparently thought that the reason of its success was that it tried to be darker and edgier. However, those things worked only because Christopher Nolan wanted to take a popular superhero and tried to depict him in a more realistic tone (after all, their movies may be even darker than what Batman is supposed to be, unless you take in consideration any Batman comic written by Frank Miller).

Since then, we’ve seen countless movies, games and shows that tried to be so dark they’ve become bleak and, honestly, even a bit bland.

On the superhero side, we’ve seen multiple depictions where, for instance, Superman has become evil and is now a force that needs to be stopped (they even made a movie about this being a possibility, as if it’s inevitable), while we’ve seen at least four live-action depictions of Batman being a killer hero who has lost his vision and hope (to the point where Batwoman casually mentioning how Batman has a no killing code was enough to make that world’s Batman a lighter version than what is the current trend). The Netflix shows about Marvel superheroes even made it look like the Avengers’ arrival caused nothing but problems for New York (admittedly, they kind of have to depict New York this way, otherwise it would feel weird how there’s so many superheroes in that city and yet crime is still a thing).

On the fantasy side, because of Game of Thrones’ success, now every fantasy TV show wants to emulate it, and as such we have bleak, humorless worlds where there’s a lot of darkness, with constant “mature” content like swearing and sex (The Witcher is a great show, but they could have toned it down a bit, in that context). It’s like even a genre whose name is literally “fantasy” can’t escape in trying to depict a more gritty and real world where everything always has to be dark.

On the science fiction side, well, we’ve seen the new Star Wars movie, which took the ending of Episode VI, which was full of optimism and hope, and basically said “nope, everything now is so dark and lonely”. I guess one of the reasons why you could pretend the sequel trilogy never happened is that, well, they end with a more positive note than whatever happened after episode IX.

On the TV side, there isn’t just Riverdale or the upcoming PowerPuff Girls show. The Winx Saga has taken away all the color of the cartoon (no, seriously: everything is so grey and soulless looking in the TV show that someone may have to tell you they’re supposed to be The Winx Club in live action). The Nancy Drew show now is a dark mystery more in line with Riverdale actually. Netflix is making an Avatar show and apparently they want to age up the characters “so that they can have sex” (which somewhat implies that there’s someone who looked at 12 year old Aang or 14 year old Katara and thought “I want to see them have sex”, which is so creepy and disturbing that I even regret pointing it out).

This would not be such a big deal if there wasn’t the fact that we’re talking about the vast majority of big movies and shows! Even something funny like Lost in Space has been turned into a dark remake.

Why is it so hard to find something in Hollywood that doesn’t try to be dark and depressing? Well, I think there are multiple reasons, which I’m going to point out:

· There is this idea among writers that drama is the only thing that keeps the plot interesting. Characters need to have tragedies thrown at them all the time, they constantly have to fight and (usually) heavens forbid if they even try to lighten up a bit. This is, of course, wrong, as shown by how many fanfiction writers take characters who have a life made of day-by-day drama and depict them in quiet scenes like them making a meal for their beloved or just going to a vacation where they can relax. Just because depicting nothing but quiet and peaceful moments can become boring on the long run, doesn’t mean it can never happen;

· Because we live in dark times, then everything has to be dark. It’s as if people can’t experience any sort of hopeful escapism when out there it seems like nothing but tragedies and negativity occurs outside of their windows. Illnesses, war, deaths, recessions and so on happen 24/7, so how can you showcase even a bit of positivity? Well, I have one question: what kind of escapism would constantly remind you of the very thing you are trying to temporarily escape from? If I want to forget about the World’s problems for an hour, then why on Earth are you making me think about them? Who decided that the best way of forgetting that life sucks is to have your story say “life sucks” all the time? I don’t understand;

· Writers are probably influenced by the “loser culture” on the internet. I mean, wherever you go on social media, people seem to have a race to see who has the most miserable life. Many comic artist have their characters experience all sorts of problems and negativity, there’s a lot of memes about negative stuff (how many times have you seen a wholesome post with a reblog or a retweet adding something negative? For example, I don’t know, someone tweets “I asked my mom a puppy, she brought me five of them” and someone says “if I asked it to my mom, she’d bring five slaps to my butt”). Of course, if I, a writer, see that people can’t stop talking about how much their life suck, I would think “well, maybe that’s all they want to hear about” and make characters with miserable lives;

However, I have always noticed how there’s a medium who seems to not be easily affected by all this stuff: animation.

You want a fantasy show where everything is colorful and bright? There’s lots of cartoons for that.

You want to see superheroes doing their best to fight for the good of the World? There’s plenty of them in animation.

You want hope and positivity? Tune in on any station that airs cartoons and you will find it.

However, the problem is that this goes hand to hand with the old stigma that, well, “cartoons are for kids”, so it feels like movies and TV shows are saying “positivity and happiness are for children. Grow the hell up and see how dark and hopeless the World truly is!”.

Why is trying to be positive and optimistic something that can’t happen if you’re a mature person? Why is it so wrong to just want to see a bit of peace in these media?

I don’t know what else to say or to add, so it’s best if I finish my post right here. So, here’s my opinion:

Even though it is okay for you to tell me a story where nothing matters, where “we live in a society” and where you can’t have good things, it should be balanced with something. Have you ever seen the Yin Yang symbol? Why do you think it depicts darkness with a little bit of light? Because nothing can be completely dark. So, just try to add some good energy in your story. It won’t be an issue for anybody to just have one moment where everyone smiles.

#darker and edgier #dark and gritty #dark TV shows #edgy #positivity #why is everything so dark #optimism #Riverdale #PowerPuff Girls #PPG CW #CW #Game of Thrones #superheroes #happiness #hope

99 notes · View notes

rantsandsparkles · 2 years

Text

The Batman - Spoiler Review

Batman has always been my favorite super hero. What I’ve always loved about him as a character was his duality of being Bruce Wayne , the seemingly carefree billionaire playboy by day, and Batman , the dark brooding badass vigilante by night. This movie takes place two years into this Bruce’s turn as Batman, and this character is all Batman and no Bruce. I’m hearing a lot of “Robert Pattinson will be your favorite Batman after you see this” - I would disagree with that. To be the best Batman I think you have to be able to be both Batman and Bruce, and its almost like this Batman doesn’t know how to be an actual human person yet , let alone Bruce Wayne.

The tone of this movie is heavy AF, which is fine we can get heavy , but my main criticism is this movie is too damn long. Its a good 30-45 minutes too long imo. I found myself looking at my watch a bunch and there were a few times when a scene would cut and I would think it was the end of the movie, but then it just kept going. I mean I know they told everyone it was a 3 hr movie, but I personally really felt those three hrs.

Highlights of the movie though were the performances. Zoe Kravitz as Catwoman was just.... chef’s kiss. Spectacular. She was raw, she was fierce, she was sexy ; the fighting choreography was amazing. She was definitely one of the highlights for me. And she had undeniable chemistry w/ Rpatz which is just a testament to how powerful she was because this Batman was completely incapable of connecting with her. I loved Jeffery wright as Gordon. The scene where he is talking to the batman and it looks like he’s interrogating him but he isn’t , was one of my favorites. Andy Serkis was really really great as Alfred, much better than the last Alfred that our last iteration with Jeremy Irons.

For the villains I was kinda disappointed with the fate of Carmine because I really enjoyed John Tutoroo in this gangster role. I would have loved to see him some more in a potential sequel. in a major hollywood blockbuster. It was a little strange for me because I’m also watching Severence right now and he’s in that too, and I always remember him from O Brother where art though (his “dat don’t make no sense” line is something I’m always quoting lol) , so its kind of a trip to see him do this but I’m happy to see him in this kind of movie. He’s one of those character actors that I wish was a bigger star because he’s always so fantastic in everything he does.

The riddler - I know this sounds crazy but I found myself smiling the whole time that he was being crazy lol. Idk I just love watching deliciously crazy villains be deliciously crazy. I thought Dano was fantastic - creepy , dark , crazy as hell , zodiac on the loose vibes. A little bit of overacting, but was enjoyable.

If you have the opportunity to see this in an IMAX or Dolby Cinema special format you defiantly want to do that for the main action piece with the bat mobile. But overall I thought it was pretty good. I wish I loved it as much as everyone else seems to but it was just missing something for me. 7/10

#batman #robert pattinson #zoe kravitz #paul dano #thebatman #review #spoiler #film

4 notes · View notes

that-one-gay-girl · 4 years

Text

Oh, Baby

Pairing: Daddy!Dean x Reader

Word Count: 2342

Summary: While Dean, Sam, and Y/n are on a hunt and things take an interesting turn as they head back to the motel…

A/N: Let me know what you think about this, I might make a sequel! Let me know if you want to be tagged! Requests are open!

A/N 2: Update: I’ve decided to turn this into a series! Check out the next chapter!

The fire burning the body of the vampires shined in the dark night as Sam, Dean, and you walked back to the impala. “I hate vamps.” you say in disgust as you climb in the backseat covered in blood. “Lets head back to the motel wash up. We can head back to the bunker in the morning.” Dean says as he looks at you through the rearview mirror and starts up baby. The ride is filled with the low sound of Metallica playing as Dean drives back to the motel. Throughout the drive Dean continues to glance at you through the rearview mirror as you struggle to stay awake, exhaustion crawling through your body.

An hour later, Baby comes to a stop in a rundown motel parking lot “Y/n fell asleep? She never sleeps in the car” Sam says softly “I think she's got a stomach bug, saw her throwing up this morning when I came back with coffee” Dean replies as he gets out of baby opening the back door and waking you up softly “Y/n, we’re back at the motel, wake up sweetie” Dean gently wakes you up. You blink your eyes open taking in your surroundings before sitting up and getting out of Baby to stretch. The three of you make your way inside the motel room. Sam goes into the shower as you sit down on the bed waiting for your turn. “You feeling okay Y/n?” Dean asks you. Standing up you walk over to Dean hugging him “I’m okay Dean, just a stomach bug. I'll be fine in a few days” you smile at him. The door to the bathroom opens and Sam comes out dressed in clean clothes. “I’ll grab food while you two shower.” Sam says grabbing his wallet and baby's keys. “Oh! Get me four supreme burritos!” you say as you walk into the bathroom with your bag and turn on the water.

While Dean and Sam are talking you pull the box of pregnancy tests out staring at the box before finally deciding to get the test over with. Sam looks at Dean waiting for him to announce his food order “three burritos, two tacos Sammy.” Dean pats sam on the back as he walks towards the bathroom. The sound of the impala's engine rumbles through the quiet night as Sam leaves. Dean twists the doorknob to join you, but finds it locked. He knocks on the door as you look down at the pregnancy test in your hand, the positive sign staring back at you. “Y/n, unlock the door, I want to shower with you.” He says with a smirk resting on his face. The sound of Dean's voice snaps you out of your state of shock as you shove the pregnancy stick into your bag, zipping it up quickly. “Not tonight, I don’t want to get you sick” you lie as you undress quickly and get in the shower washing all the blood from your body. Dean walks towards the table in the room drinking a beer as he waits for his turn in the shower or the food, whichever comes first. An hour and a half later the three hunters are showered and sitting around the small kitchen table as they eat. Dean and Y/n scarf down their food like it’s their last meal as Sam quietly eats his salad while reading a lore book.

The next morning the three of you pack up and head back to the bunker, the ride is short and you can’t wait to get back home. All morning you had been fighting off morning sickness, not wanting the boys to suspect anything. You were scared if you were being honest with yourself. You grew up in the hunting life with your family, you always wanted a normal life, but it wasn’t in the cards for you. Shortly after you turned 21 you split away from your family to “hunt on your own”. This really meant finding a home, a job, and settling down. Along the way your plans got interrupted by the winchesters and you never settled down, you continued to hunt and now it's been 13 years since you met the winchesters and 3 since you started dating dean. You never talked about kids or marriage, hunting was your life and a priority. You were scared of how Dean would react, you were scared of raising a child, but also excited because for the first time in your life you had a chance at normalcy. The impala pulls into the garage and everyone unloads ready to have a break from hunting. After months on the road the group of hunters needed time to relax.

Three weeks, Sam was actively looking for cases but the past three weeks had turned up nothing even slightly supernatural, it had also been three weeks since you found out you were pregnant and you still hadn’t spoken to dean. You were going crazy, you wanted to tell him but you were so scared. The hormones didn’t help you hide things either, the night before you were watching batman with Dean and started crying. You made up the excuse that you were starting your period soon but you knew pretty soon you were going to have to tell Dean, especially since Sam found out.

You were coming out of the OBGYN in town looking down at your sonogram, you were three months along and couldn’t keep the smile off your face despite Deans unawareness. As you were walking to your car a large man bumped into you, making you drop the sonogram and regain your balancing. Looking up to see none other than Sam Winchester as he bends down to grab the fallen picture. Before you can react Sam flips the photo over to return it, his eyes widening when he sees the contents of the photo. “You’re pregnant?!” Sam says shocked. “Yes, please don’t say anything to Dean, I-I haven’t found a way to tell him yet. I’m scared.” you say ashamed, looking down at your feet. Sam places the photo in your hand pulling you into a hug. “I promise I won’t say anything, but you have nothing to be scared of. Dean is going to be over the moon when he finds out! I can’t think of anyone better to be parents than you two, this is truly great news Y/n” Sam smiles widely. “Really? You think he will be happy?” You question one last time. “Trust me Y/n, i’ll finish the supply run, you go home and tell him.” After that you quickly depart from Sam, you make a pit stop at the bakery getting a fresh apple pie before heading back to the bunker.

When you pull into the garage you notice the Impala hood open, Dean underneath it working on her. As you step out of the car with pie you clear your throat. “Dean? Can we talk?” you ask, walking towards him. “Hey honey, what do you need to talk about? Oh! Pie!” he says excitedly eyeing the pie. “How about I dish you some pie and we talk in the kitchen?” You respond, walking past Dean into the kitchen as he follows. As you hand Dean the plate of pie you sit across from him nervously wringing your hands together. “Y/n, honey,” Dean grabs your hands softly to stop you “Calm down and just talk to me. WHatever it is, I'm sure it’s fine” he says, taking a large bite of pie. “I’m pregnant” you blurt out as Dean's eyes widen and he starts coughing frantically. You stand up quickly hitting his back as he finally regains his breath. “Are you okay?!” you ask freaking out as Dean started choking. “Give a man some warning next time?” he asks as he gulps down his beer. “Pregnant?” he repeats looking at you as you sit down again. “Yeah, I'm three months along.” you smile softly pulling out the sonogram handing it to Dean. Taking it softly in his hands Dean looks down at the small photo of his baby. A small tear slips from his eye as he looks up at you smiling. “We’re having a baby!” he says excitedly jumping up and pulling you into a burning kiss. “I love you!” he kisses you again “And I love you” he bends down kissing your stomach, bringing tears to your eyes. “You're not angry?” you worry looking into his eyes. “I could never be angry with you, especially over this? You are carrying our child, I love you!” You pull him into another kiss as the bunker door opens and Sam comes in “Is it safe?” he asks not wanting to see anything unclothed. “Guess who's going to be an uncle!” Dean runs into the war room excitedly “Me?” he asks with a knowing smirk “Congratulations man” He pulls Dean into a hug.

-6 months later-

“Dean, go on the hunt already. Charlie will be here in 10 minutes. She's just getting snacks from the gas station.” You push Dean towards the impala as your large belly pokes out beneath your shirt. “Excuse me for being worried about my wife” He says teasingly as he pecks your lips one last time. “Your wife will be fine with Charlie. We are just going to watch Lord of the Rings on repeat till you get home.” you joke with a laugh. You exchange goodbyes one last time before Dean climbs into the baby with Sam and drives off. 30 minutes later Charlie arrives with bags of food and a large pile of movies. “This is going to be the best girls weekend ever!” she pumps her fist in the air as she sets everything up in Deans cave.

The week passes by quickly and soon enough you receive a text from dean letting you know they’d be home in about a day. “Charlie could you bring me another pillow? I just can’t get comfortable” You say tiredly and in slight pain. “Feeling any better?” she asks, putting another pillow behind you. “No, I feel like it's getting worse, I’m going to try to take a nap, maybe that will help?” you say unsure as you close your eyes. Charlie leaves to let you sleep and texts Dean to update him.

“Charlie says she's still in pain” Dean tells Sam as he presses on the gas harder. “It's probably just normal pregnancy pains. All sorts of weird stuff has happened to her she's never experienced before. Maybe this is one of those things?” Sam says, trying to calm Dean down. Dean doesn’t respond and just continues to speed through back roads.

Charlie is in the kitchen making nachos when she hears her name being screamed. She quickly drops everything running into you and Dean's shared room. “Y/n!” Charlie runs in to see you holding your stomach in pain, blood spreading down your legs. “Somethings wrong!” you cry in pain and fear. “Just hold on Y/n, we’re getting help.” Charlie grabs towels and helps you into her yellow bug. As she speeds down the road to the hospital you grab her hand tightly. “You're going to be fine y/n, the baby is going to be fine. Nothing bad is going to happen, do you hear me?” she panics as your eyes begin to close heavily. “Save my baby” is the last thing that leaves your lips before darkness pulls you under.

Dean runs into the hospital, spotting Charlie in the waiting room, her head in her hands. “Charlie! Charlie what happened!” Dean questions as he runs up to her. “I’m so sorry dean she…” charlie begins before she breaks down crying. “She's what, charlie!” Dean panics as a doctor comes out. “Family of L/n” the doctor questions the room as Dean runs up to him quickly “What happened to my wife! Where's my wife and baby!” he shouts at the doctor. The doctor takes a step back before responding, “sir, your wife was brought in tonight with a placental abruption. She lost a lot of blood and we had to rush her to have an emergency c-section done before the baby was compromised. Your child is in the NICU recovering well, we have her on oxygen to help her breathing but she should be off of that in a few days. Otherwise, your daughter is perfectly healthy. Your wife however did lose a lot of blood. We gave her a transfusion and she is now resting in her room. A nurse will take you to her room in just a moment.” The doctor finishes telling Dean. Dean nods as he sits next to Charlie. “Thank you, I don’t know what we would’ve done without you Charlie,” Dean says, hugging her tightly as she cries silently.

An hour later a nurse comes by to take Dean to your room. “Hey you” you smile weakly as Dean walks in the room closing the door behind him. “Don’t you ever scare me like that again, I can’t handle losing you” he says laughing as tears fall from his eyes. “Hey, baby i’m ok, our daughter is ok. We made it through this now let's enjoy it” you hold his hand rubbing your thumb over it. “Have you seen her yet?” he questions you as you shake your head no in response. “Lets see what I can do” he stands up and leaves the room, half an hour Dean returns with a nurse pushing a clear cart with a baby in it towards your bed. Dean helps you adjust the bed more so you can see her. “She has your eyes” you smile as the nurse places her in your arms. “She's beautiful, just like her momma” Dean sits beside you admiring her. That night is spent with family celebrating the new life brought into the world. Celebrating the bundle of joy that the winchesters would do anything to protect. “Welcome to the world Luna” you kiss her head softly.

Chapter 2

Taglist:

@akshi8278 @hobby27

#dean winchester #dean x reader #supernatural fic #supernatural reader insert #daddy!dean #supernatural fanfiction

77 notes · View notes

sinceileftyoublog · 3 years

Text

Small Isles Interview: Filmless Music

Photo by Dustin Aksland

BY JORDAN MAINZER

It’s rare that you find a record with a genesis as specific as The Valley, The Mountains, The Sea, the debut album from Small Isles. The new project of guitarist Jim Fairchild (Grandaddy, former Modest Mouse) and songwriter/composer Jacob Snider has its basis in film scoring. The catch? The films don’t exist. The Valley, The Mountains, The Sea is presented as an imaginary score to an imagined sequel to Ang Lee’s 1997 familial drama The Ice Storm, itself based on Rick Moody’s 1994 novel. And the band’s upcoming, unfinished EP, with strings arranged by Snider and recorded by collaborator Sienna Peck, is, according to the band, a distillation of the concept of the band, one that consciously combines film scoring motifs with traditional songwriting. In a way, you could say that Small Isles is music about film scoring as much as scores itself.

Fairchild and Snider hold the belief that film scores should hold their own as a piece of music independent of visuals, and on The Valley, The Mountains, The Sea, they announce themselves convincingly. Opening track “The Concept”--essentially the prototype for the band--combines vaguely harmonic deep bass sounds with pristine, echoing string plucks, and wordless vocals, building up like an Explosions in the Sky tune. Other tracks, too, juxtapose the ambient with recognizable structures. “Fort Wayne” shimmers atop a drum machine, while the vocal samples of “Maybe We Will” cut in and out among the beats and arpeggios. Each track also has a pristine sense of place, as much of the album was written while Fairchild was on tour with Modest Mouse, tracks like “Fort Wayne” and the washy, atonal “Lake Superior” started in those locations.

I spoke with Fairchild (calling from his home in Ojai, California” and Snider (calling from near Philadelphia) last week, a few days prior to the release of the album via AKP Recordings. (The album comes out on vinyl next month). Read our conversation below, edited for length and clarity, about the band’s artistic process, The Ice Storm, adapting the songs live, and what Small Isles has in common with Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour.

Since I Left You: You’ve called this record an imaginary score to an imaginary film. Did you think of the sequencing of the record in a narrative arc?

Jim Fairchild: Kind of, but honestly, there’s a sequence that originally existed, and I don’t remember what it was, and it would have been more aligned with what I pictured from the movie, but it didn’t work as well as a comprehensive piece of music. The last song on here, “The Plot to Take Clover”, that was earlier before. “Life at One”, the first single, really kicked off me and Jacob’s partnership. It was designed that way; it’s not the way the record plays out. I wrote all of the principle themes, the underpinnings of all the compositions, as an imagined score to some sort of a sequel to The Ice Storm. I don’t know exactly how it would play out with Rick Moody. The first one was really successful. I have this idea for a similar type of movie that takes place in contemporary California and all these cues I can use as a mood board. Like, let’s sit down and figure out what this palate is. Let’s write a movie around it. That’s what I was thinking.

SILY: You wrote a lot of this while on tour. Had you conceived of the idea before then and wrote while on tour because of your downtime, or was the downtime the launching point for the idea?

JF: I was totally inspired by the idea. I started some of the themes that popped up, but once the actual Ice Storm Ang Lee idea came to mind, it was really generative. It’s how a lot of this stuff works with me. It kind of floats around for a while, reaching out this way or that. Once the real kernel appears, it’s like, “That’s it!” It all happens pretty quickly. That was definitely the case with this. It was the real fine-tuning that’s the most time consuming. That’s what Jacob and I have experienced. The EP that we’re releasing later this year, basically how it’s worked so far is I send him a sequence of chords and basic rhythm, which happens pretty quickly. Then--and we’ve only done it on Zoom with the new EP, though it was the same with “Life at One”--there was this theme. Jacob came in, we were gonna write some other stuff. He came in with a mic and sang some stacked harmonies. Then it’s carving out all the other elements around that to make it.

These are unconventional compositions. They’re meant to accompany visual ideas. With that in mind, cues and scoring music doesn’t always work in recorded music, traditionally speaking. There’s all these lengths, sometimes time signatures shift, a melody might exist in an unconventional way to fit what’s happening visually. I really wanted to embrace that. With “Life at One”, Jacob did all this stuff, and there’s this really interesting sound I don’t know how to describe. He asked, “What are those over there?” [My partner Natasha Wheat] had made these ceramic bells for me, and that’s the most fun part about working with Jacob. A lot of the people who are trained as Jacob is--and I say this with great admiration for his abilities--are stuck in certain modalities. This is a perfect example. He looked at the bells and said, “Let’s do that.” He grabbed a drumstick and played the edge of these bells and processed them. That was a big feature in the composition of “Life at One”. This all happens very thematically and reflexively, but to then carve it up and get it to have purpose, meaning, ebb, and flow and make it work visually--that’s where the dirty shit happens. [laughs] I also look forward to when Jacob and I can be in person more. We’ve made a lot happen over the past 7 months, but it’s hard when you’re not in the same room. Plus, I’d like to show off. If he’s sitting right next to me, play some fast guitar...[laughs]

SILY: The title of the record refers to various aspects of topography, and there are song titles that refer to specific places, like “Fort Wayne” and “Lake Superior”. Do these aspects exist within the narrative of the film?

JF: “Lake Superior” and “Fort Wayne” were just started in those places, literally. I picture the Ang Lee movie--the new Ang Lee movie that is inevitably gonna take form because he’s gonna hear me and Jacob’s music and think, “You’re right, we gotta do this,”--in this zone a little bit east of Berkeley. It’s the West Coast equivalent of the Connecticut zone where The Ice Storm exists. It’s this affluent, green place. But the reason I chose to keep the others as titles is like, Fort Wayne, that’s pretty grand and has Batman implications. And Lake Superior, what a fucking great name for a lake, you know? I like the power of those, and if I were sitting down and writing a movie, those titles could be at least generative of a conversation.

SILY: What about the other song titles? What inspired them?

JF: “The Concept” is literally the concept for our band. The concept has expanded since then, but out of the ordinary--no sounds are out of the ordinary in modern production--but in the film scoring landscape, out of the ordinary, ambient, or textural sounds. But then big, beautiful melodies. Jacob’s voice. All that stuff. Synthesizing our two strengths. Jacob’s also a songwriter and makes amazing songs, but my background’s in bands, and so I treat our relationship as if it’s a band. Taking our two strengths. Jacob’s more conventionally trained, schooled, and knowledgeable than I am. He has a richer depth of knowledge in theory and orchestration. I can arrange that way, but he knows what’s going on. Mine is more reflexive--I don’t want to say auto-didactic because that’s kind of an arrogant term--but learning through mistakes. I think Jacob’s made fewer mistakes than I have.

SILY: What were all the instruments used on the record?

JF: There’s a lot of found stuff. 12-string guitar. I was writing it using this Rosewood Fender Stratocaster that Fender made for me. The 12-string is prominent on “Life At One”. There’s a piano Jacob played. There’s a lot of me coming up with drum beats. A lot of the initial stuff was in the box. I’d roll in my portable studio backstage, I’d have a guitar, Universal Audio space, whatever drums and synths I had.

SILY: What is your background in film scoring?

JF: I don’t have a specific background. From a very early age, I’ve been into film scores. I’d buy them starting when I was 15 or 16. CDs. Pretty obvious releases, but things like Danny Elfman’s Batman score, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Sort of getting into Jerry Goldsmith. Elfman, Morricone. I like some of the Bernard Hermann stuff. I started studying it from the way I study everything: figuring out chord sequences, the way the melodies work, to the degree I was able. In the early 2010s, I was making a lot of music that was getting licensed for TV. Once Modest Mouse really started touring [2015 album] Strangers to Ourselves, I let a lot of those pursuits wither a little bit. But I’d always longed for a collaboration. A lot of that stuff was done in a solitary way, so I felt very fortunate when Jacob and I met. He was into that idiom but has a range of skills I don’t have. We also really work well together. All the reflexive stuff that happens, the melodies, it’s easy for us to go back and forth and see what we’re into and where to keep going. Neither of us get upset when the other person isn’t feeling whatever the direction is.

As I get older, I realize the value of stimulating multiple senses. I look forward to Jacob and I doing more of this stuff in collaboration with people. The Riley Thompson video for “Life At One” was him responding to a finished track, but in an ideal world, filmmakers would come to us and, in the way Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross work with David Fincher, where he says, “This is the concept for the new film,” and Jacob and I come back and say, “This is the sonic and melodic landscape we’re thinking of, and here are some character cues. Let’s take it from there.” I love being in conversation with people collaboratively and am attracted to the idea of it across media.

SILY: Do you think the idea that the music might not be responding to a finished film would make the score stand on its own more as a piece of music?

JF: The scores that I like totally stand on their own as music. When Morricone passed away, I read that John Zorn had a quote when they were hanging out in the late 80′s or early 90′s, Zorn said, “Don’t do it unless you’re thinking about what the soundtrack record is gonna be like.” The music needs to be cool enough to just be music.

SILY: Tell me about the album art.

JF: Natasha and I sold our place in Los Angeles last year and moved to Ojai. We thought it was a temporary transition, and now it’s somewhat permanent, because we bought a place here. We’ve been in this guesthouse next door since November. I like taking pictures at night with whatever ambient light [there is], so I took that picture from our place. I wanted there to be contrast with this technicolor paint and silver border on the upper and lower parts of the image. Homes are very interesting to me, and there’s a lot of that in The Ice Storm. There’s that shelf people look at from the outside and think, “It could be dilapidated, it could be beautiful.” People think of it as a thing. But there’s this whole other world that only exists inside of there. It’s always fascinating to me when walking by the place. Stories in the shell. I like the idea of a structure having implications. I don’t have an agenda for what those implications might be, but I like the idea that there could be implications there.

SILY: Jacob, when Jim came to you with this idea, how aware were you of The Ice Storm?

Jacob Snider: I had seen it. I don’t know if in our first meeting, it came up that specifically and clearly that this is where the music was going. In fact, it started more as a casual meeting of creative types. When I came over to Jim’s studio, he just showed me the latest thing he was working on without any huge idea behind it expressed to me in that moment. Jim might have been thinking it in that moment, but that day was more, “Alright, I’m working on something, what do you hear and is there something you think you could contribute to it?” It was really organic. Like Jim mentioned before, the best thing you can do when making something is show it to somebody else, because they’re gonna hear it in a different way or they might suggest something if you’re open to it. People can make amazing solitary music, but it will always be just their thing. You bring in someone else, there’s a different energy, a different perspective.

As it stands, I do love that film. It’s really haunting. Jim and I talked before that it’s not a movie you can watch every week. It’s heavy, and the themes are deep: family, loss, grief, betrayal. It’s a great one. I think it’s a movie that’s cinematic but also has a lot of depth. I think that’s what we’re going for with Small Isles. It has shades of film music but also shades of rock and roll and romantic string writing from the orchestral traditions. I think we’re trying to combine a few things at once, and we’re really curious how it starts to strike people and how some filmmakers respond to it.

SILY: Are you both generally Ang Lee fans?

JF: I haven’t devoured all of his work. There’s plenty I like. But I’m so in love with [The Ice Storm]. I was in love with the book before the movie came out. He treated it so beautifully. As high in the sky as it is for two nascent film composers to say, “I want to work with Ang Lee,” it’s very important to know where you want to go. It may take a long time to get there, but [it’s important] to have a place where you’re headed. That was definitely the case in the early Grandaddy days, and having watched [Modest Mouse lead singer] Isaac [Brock] for as long as I did, I think it was the case there, too. It may not be as specific knowing that I’m traveling in this direction, but that direction can totally change. There can be diversions that knock you off your course positively or negatively, but thinking about how beautifully he treated that material, that’s where I want to go.

SILY: How are you adapting Small Isles to a live performance?

JF: We’re gonna play at least some of this, maybe all of this live. I’m really looking forward to it. Jacob’s only on half this record, and the 5-song EP we’re releasing later this year, he’s on all of. That’s a straight-up 50/50 collaboration. I’m looking forward to the stuff Jacob didn’t contribute to on the record, hearing what he does with strings. We’re still figuring out how we’re gonna approach it. Jacob will be on keys and vocals, and I might sing a little bit. I’ll be on guitar. Our friend Sienna who Jacob went to school with, who’s doing the strings, we’re talking about having her lead a double string quartet. I would like to have a drummer doing some electronic drums and maybe a kit as well. I definitely don’t imagine we’ll totally nail it on night 1. There’s a lot of stuff we have to work out. There aren’t many antecedents in this zone, but something like Explosions in the Sky mixed with Johann Johannsson. I saw [the latter] in 2010 in San Francisco; there was a little bit of strings, various electronics, and he was on piano. That was a very striking performance. So the explosiveness of a big arena rock show with lots of subtleties and nuance that can come from strings and orchestral.

SILY: What else is next for Small Isles?

JF: We wanna finish this EP. I also really love the way a lot of rap and hip-hop people have gotten it right over the years. Using current listening habits and technology to get out as much music as possible. I definitely have the seeds for at least another EP behind this. Once we get this EP done--there’s just a little bit of tinkering to be done over the next month before going into the mixing stage--I want to make as much music as possible and release it. With the spirits of the world willing, I want to get off the ground live and collaborate with filmmakers, dancers, artists, people in the visual medium. I just love making music with Jacob and this type of music. I’d like to have a few releases a year. EP length [or] album length. I have a number of concepts written down. The seeds that Jacob and I have been playing with to make the EP. I was thinking about The Last Black Man in San Francisco when making this EP, and I’d love to collaborate with those filmmakers. Even just being in person, to tell Jacob, “What do you think of this sequence?” and have him respond without dealing with latency issues and dodgy DSL.

SILY: Anything you’ve been listening to, watching, or reading lately that’s caught your attention?

Jacob Snider: I’ve been listening to a lot of pop. I’ve been listening to the Olivia Rodrigo record [Sour]. I think there’s great writing on there, great production. Watching, I’ll just piggyback on The Last Black Man in San Francisco. It took me a while to finally see it, but I had a filmmaker friend tell me I had to, and I loved it. Also the other film Emile Mosseri did the score for, Kajillionaire, the Miranda July film. Reading-wise, I’m about to jump back into Louise Erdrich’s The Round House.

JF: I’ve been digging the Olivia record, too.

JS: There’s some cool strings on there too from the guy who does a lot of the strings for Portugal. The Man, [Paul Cartwright]. They created a string orchestra sound with just one guy layering violin and viola, which is really cool, and that’s what we’re doing with our collaborator Sienna Peck. There’s totally room for that now, the way the world has been so remote. We can’t put 16 players in a room right now due to public health restrictions, so let’s get one person. It’s really hard to do--you can be a great violinist and not be able to layer yourself in a way that makes it sound like a string orchestra. You have to change your position in the room, the way you’re playing slightly, pretend to be three different people sharing a stand. That’s what you’ll hear on the next record.

JF: I just got into How to Change Your Mind, the Michael Pollan book about psychedelics, which I really loved. I just started a book called The Magic Years, which is about child development. I have a three-and-a-half-year-old son, and I’m very fascinated by what’s going on in his brain and what makes him make the decisions he makes. Just how to be a better dad. I am always a religious reader of The New Yorker, every week it comes out. Natasha and I watched The Kids, a documentary [about the making of Larry Clark’s Kids]. When that movie came out, Grandaddy were skateboarders, so it was important to us. But even as a young kid, I felt that it was really exploitative, and the documentary verifies it. It’s heartbreaking. Larry Clark is a really derelict dude. Truly lecherous. But [The Kids] is a beautiful movie. We’ve been watching Los Espookys. I’m really excited about Vince Staples’ upcoming record. My friend Nik Freitas put out a new song. My musical diet’s gotten really regressive in a way because my son is very into the Super Furry Animals record Radiator. It’s all he wants to listen to in the car.

youtube

5 notes · View notes

redhoodssweetheart · 4 years

Photo

DICK GRAYSON

Benched

You get injured while on a mission and don’t tell anyone. It isn’t until you’re shot that Dick realizes the extent of your injuries.

Captured

While out on patrol you are captured leaving Dick worried about your condition. Can he find you or will you be lost to him for good?

Love Languages (BatFam Version)

Dick learns about the love languages and shares them with the others in his family.

Love Languages (Reader Version)

Dick learns about the love languages and starts using them on you.

Opposites Attract (Gender Neutral!Reader)

You seem to be doom and gloom while Dick is sunshine. Many question whether you feel the same about him as he does you. Dick knows you do because you show him that you love him just as much as he loves you.

Mom Down

You’re stressed when the League decides to make a visit to see how you and Dick have been doing running things. As the mom of the group you have a lot more stress on your shoulders than the others. Because of the stress you pass out right as the League visit is in progress.

The Art of Falling (Fem!Reader)

You and Dick have known each other since you were children. You were his safety net and now years later he’s finally ready to tell you how he truly feels.

Mischief and Mayhem (Talon!Gender Neutral!Reader)

(Can be read as a prequel to Kill Me) You love taunting Nightwing, but at some point, your loneliness calls out for a companion and you find yourself longing for a certain vigilante.

Kill Me (Talon!Gender Neutral!Reader)

You and Dick have known for some time who the other was. The two of you playing games with one another whilst simultaneously falling in love. But when the Court orders you to kill him, can you cross that line and murder the man you love?

Tell Me a Lie (Gender Neutral!Reader)

You and Dick may be teammates but he seems to hate you. When you break up with your boyfriend you ask Dick to tell you a lie when he finds you crying on the roof. He tells you the last thing you expect to hear.

JASON TODD

Stuck in Quarantine

You and Jason have been stuck in quarantine and are trying to find ways to pass the time. Playing Uno together is just one of the ways you’ve discovered help.

Amor Gignit Amorem

You and Jason meet at a local bookshop and your relationship slowly grows into love as the two of you grow closer together.

Legally Dead (Non-Reader Insert)

Jason died nearly two years ago. People that knew and loved him mourned and moved on. Now he’s back after being resurrected and trying to get the courts to declare him not dead.

Disney Marathon (Fem!Reader)

You’ve had a bad day and you tell Jason that you want to watch Disney movies in order to cheer yourself up.

Rewrite the Stars (Gender Neutral!Reader)

You come from the future to stop Superman from becoming a dictator after the Joker destroys Metropolis. What you didn’t plan on was falling in love with Jason Todd during your time in the past.

BRUCE WAYNE

I’m Batman

You meet Bruce Wayne at a charity event where the two of you strike up a conversation. After months of dating Bruce has started growing distant, and out of all the reasons why he could be pulling away you never imagined to learn his greatest secret.

Sick Day

You’re sick and Bruce decides to take the day off in order to take care of you.

Kiss Me Quick

Bruce is hit by the thunderbolt almost immediately after seeing you for the first time, and he just can’t keep his hands off of you.

Damian Wayne

Clumsy (Clumsy!Gender Neutral!Reader)

Damian teases you for being clumsy.

Goodbye Damain (Gender Neutral!Reader)

Damian’s mother plans to kill you in order to eliminate what she considers a distraction for him. You are forced to fake your death and leave Damian behind for yours and his safety.

Hello Damian (Gender Neutral!Reader) (Sequel to Goodbye Damian)

It’s been seven months since your supposed death Damian’s mother is captured and he learns that you are still alive and living not far from Gotham.

Meeting the BatFam (Gender Neutral!Reader)

You’re meeting Damian’s family for the first time and a little nervous about how it’s going to go.

Betrayed by a Kiss

It’s boys versus girls at a game of laser tag, and you are determined to win.

She’s the Best

Damian talks to Dick about you and Dick says that he hopes you and Damian get married and has eight kids. Damian doesn’t know about the kids, but he might be thinking about marriage.

My Girlfriend is Better

Dick and Damian get into a little argument over whose girlfriend is the best.

All Night (Fem!Reader)

Damian has kept his relationship with Y/N a secret from his brothers. But what happens when Dick and Jason see Y/N one night in nothing but one of Damian’s t-shirts?

She’s a Mess (Fem!Reader)

You’re clumsy and Damian’s brothers can’t get over how patient he is with you.

Power Up (Male!Reader)

You only gained your powers about a month ago and you go to Gotham hoping that Batman might have answers for you. He sends you and Robin to San Fran to the Titans to help you seek training and see if you are trustworthy enough to be around. Robin clearly doesn’t like or trust you, but can things change?

The Hatred They Feel (Gender Neutral!Reader)

Delilah goes back in time to see what her parents were like as teenagers, and she discovers that they hated one another.

Interrupted (Gender Neutral!Reader)

Damian just wanted some alone time with you, but he’s interrupted with his plans.

Do Not Disturb (Fem!Reader)

Dick comes to wake Damian up and discovers you with him. Damian threatens Dick with bodily harm if you wake up.

Until Midnight (Gender Neutral!Reader)

You and a man named Dami have been in a secret romance for a while now. One day he invites you to a masquerade ball that the Wayne’s are hosting and you learn that the man you’ve been talking to is really Damian Wayne.

We Go Together (Fem!Reader)

Damian has had a crush on you for the longest time but you’ve never noticed.

CLARK KENT

L.O.V.E.

Clark Kent has been in love with the reserved rich girl since college. Ever since meeting you and becoming friends his feelings have grown, and he’s hoping that when he confesses you’ll feel the same about him.

Surprise (Arrowverse!Clark)

Clark meets Y/N when he goes to visit his cousin at CatCo. Kara comes up with the idea to set the two of them up on a date.

Flowers in My Lungs (Gender Neutral!Reader)

You love Clark, but he doesn’t love you and that’s obvious by the flowers growing in your lungs. And you don’t know if you can survive this.

Falling From the Sky (Fem!Reader)

Wishing that a nice guy would just fall from the sky you get a little more than you bargained for when Superman lands on your table while trying to enjoy breakfast.

DIANA PRINCE

Famous

Diana is tired of being used by people in her life. Everyone but you seems to be after something from her, and you finally work up the courage to tell her the truth about how you have feelings for her.

Day Off (Gender Neutral!Reader)

You and Diana have the day off and you have the whole day planned out.

Confined Spaces (Gender Neutral!Reader)

You and Diana get trapped in an elevator and she helps make sure you don’t have a panic attack.

MAR’I GRAYSON

Dance with Me (Gender Neutral!Reader)

Mar’i gets invited to a masquerade ball on New Year’s Eve. When she goes she meets you, a mysterious stranger that makes her night ten times more enjoyable.

BARRY ALLEN

Honey, I Swapped Our Bodies

You go to visit Barry on your lunch break and the two of you accidently swap bodies.

TIM DRAKE

Enemies to Lovers.... Slowburn 300K

You and Tim can’t stand one another, but you can’t even remember why. Your boss on the other hand loves your antagonistic relationship because it sells more papers.

You’re a What? (Fem!Vigilante!Reader)

You and Red Robin hate each other, but you aren’t sure why. But what happens when you find out that your boyfriend is the vigilante you hate?

Sucker (Gender Neutral!Reader)

Tim Drake can’t help but be a sucker for you.

Broken Trust (Gender Neutral!Vigilante!Reader)

You and Red Robin start a secret relationship, but one night he ends it and you're left wondering why. That's when you learn the truth about who he is.

You Believe God is a Woman (Fem!Reader)

What starts out as a work relationship slowly evolves into something more as Tim begins to fall in love with you. *Slight NSFW

Bleeding Out (Fem!Reader)

Tim is desperate after being shot and winds up at a stranger’s apartment. You didn’t think that you would have to patch up a vigilante but here you are.

Drunken Love (Gender Neutral!Reader)

Tim gets drunk one night and accidentally confesses that he’s in love with you.

Hatred is a Strong Word (Gender Neutral!Reader)

You have no idea why Tim seems to dislike you and vice versa. Tim can’t remember what he did to make you hate him so much, but maybe it was all just one big misunderstanding?

BARBARA GORDON

Days Go By (Gender Neutral!Reader)

You look back on your friendship with Barbara and wonder where things went wrong.

CONNER KENT

Pumpkin Patch (Gender Neutral!Reader)

Conner has never visited a pumpkin patch or carved pumpkins before so you introduce him to the wonders of fall activities.

KARA DANVERS

Give Me a Reason (Gender Neutral!Vigilante!Reader)

You and Kara are on two opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to how you save people. You take a Red Hood-like approach versus Kara’s Superman approach. What happens when you hear about a hit out on Supergirl’s life? Will she finally start trusting you?

POLYAMOROUS/MULTI (NON-POLY)

Day of Fun (Kara Danvers x Deaf!Fem!Reader x Diana Prince)

You lost your hearing over a year ago and sometimes you still have nightmares about the incident. Kara and Diana decide that they’re going to treat you to a day of fun.

Dressing Up As My Fave (Bat Boys x Gender Neutral!Reader)

You dress up as the batboys but not as your significant other just to see their reactions.

NON-ROMANTIC

Falling Leaves and Paintball (Danvers Sisters x Baby Danvers!Fem!Reader)

The Danvers sisters have a tradition of paintballing with friends in the fall and this year their baby sister can join in with them.

#Masterlist

172 notes · View notes