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lockdaisy · 1 year

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How Resident Evil 4 Remake Makes it More Explicit that Leon’s Life SUCKS

While Resident Evil 4 Remake's new introduction insinuates it, supplemental material makes it explicitly clear that the ONLY reason Leon joined the government as a special agent after the events of RE2 was because they threatened to MURDER Sherry, a little girl, if he refused to work for them. In other words, Leon gave up his freedom for Sherry's safety. Actually, to put it even more bluntly, it means that the US government essentially enslaved Leon, who was already severely traumatized by the events of Raccoon City, and forced him to continuously re-traumatize himself over and over again by forcing him to undergo brutal training and throw himself into life-threatening missions where he endlessly has to fight against bioterrorist monstrosities

(I’ll add the rest under a read more to avoid cluttering the tag)

This fact adds a lot of tragic irony to the story and a lot of tragic elements to Leon's character as a whole. First, Leon, who the government enslaved into working for them by threatening a girl he viewed as his daughter figure, was assigned to rescue Ashley, the daughter of the president of the US government, and I can barely believe that the government had the temerity to give Leon that mission in light of his circumstances

Second, it makes the scene where Ashley, inspired by Leon, excitedly talks about her desire to become an agent "just like Leon" and go on missions "protecting the US from any and all threats" take a far more tragically ironic, painful turn since, unbeknownst to her, Leon very much did not willingly join the government, and she's talking about protecting the very government that enslaved her savior

Third, it really highlights Leon's inherent kindness. Although you could argue that Leon had no choice but to save Ashley, there was nothing that forced him to be kind to her. Even though Leon has all the reason in the world to hate her, since she's the daughter of one of the men who enslaved him, he nevertheless was nothing but kind, patient, and selfless to her, which emphasizes the intrinsic goodness of Leon's character

Fourth, it really makes RE4's ending a lot more bittersweet and Leon's character a lot more tragic. Considering the fact that Leon singlehandedly rescued the President's daughter, you'd think that that would've been enough for the government to grant Leon and Sherry their freedom, right? You'd think that President Graham, who must have known about Leon's circumstances and who is completely beholden to him for saving his daughter's life and preventing a huge bioterrorist catastrophe in the United States, would set Leon and Sherry free, right? Wrong. From what we saw in the other games and movies, Leon is still enslaved. In fact, in RE6, it was even made clear that they not only refused to grant Leon and Sherry their freedom, but that they didn't even allow Leon to watch Sherry, the girl he sacrificed his freedom for, grow up, and they put him and Sherry under the control of the legitimately monstrous Derek Simmons. So even though Leon sacrificed his freedom for Sherry, just because Simmons hated him due to the fact that he thought that he was “stealing” Ada from him, he was basically NEVER allowed to visit Sherry. And since RE6 made it clear that Leon became highly suicidal and that the only reason that he forced himself to stay alive was to protect Sherry, it really just makes Leon's life all the more tragic. He saved the President's daughter, he saved the world, again and again, but nobody will ever save him, and he will forever remain enslaved by the U.S. government

And... overall while I love the fact that they did imply it, since they never even did that much in the original RE4, I do wish that the game made it more explicitly clear that Leon was forced to work for the government against his will because 1) it adds a really fascinating element to Leon's character since he is the only member of the cast who was essentially enslaved in the fight against bioterrorism, 2) it would have really strengthened the parallels between Leon and Krauser since it would make it more clear that the US government screwed them both over in their own ways, and 3) it really explains Leon's grumpier, more cynical attitude in the game

I also think it's strange that Capcom goes back and forth between acknowledging and ignoring this part of Leon's character and lore, and I think it's kind of sad since it distorts the perception of Leon's character as a whole in the fandom. For example, in Infinite Darkness, it can basically be argued that the reason why Leon did what he did at the end was because he CAN’T go against the government's wishes without endangering Sherry's life. (And I’m not blaming Claire for being mad at him, either, since there’s a good chance that he kept the fact that they’re holding Sherry’s life over his head a secret from her in order to protect her from being targeted by the government). Instead, because Capcom doesn't really focus on his circumstances, it just makes it look like he's a government shill

It’s just... so tragic. Unlike Jill, Chris, and Claire, Leon literally had no choice in his career against bioterrorism. He didn’t become a special agent of his own volition; he was enslaved. And the only reason Claire didn’t end up in the exact same circumstances was because Leon, knowing that she still needed to find her brother Chris, encouraged her to go look for him, promising that it would be ok for her to do so since he would look after Sherry. And because of that, Claire left before she could get captured by the government like Leon and Sherry did, and so she got to have her freedom. And the only reason why Leon is still enslaved to this very day is because he cares about Sherry’s safety so much that he was willing to sacrifice his freedom for her. In other words, Leon ended up suffering because of his kindness. He was punished for being kind

And despite all that, even though his kindness directly contributes to his suffering, Leon still chooses to be kind and selfless anyway, and that’s just so...

I love him

#leon kennedy #leon s kennedy #resident evil 4 #resident evil 4 remake #re4r #re4 remake #resident evil #re #re4 #not op #lockdaisy speaks #leon scott kennedy

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rhondafromhr · 5 days

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Headcanon that Grace’s love language is media. She obviously has a lot of hangups about physical touch and I feel like she wouldn’t be the best at using words to comfort people (love her but she’d probably accidentally say something that made them feel even worse lol), so if one of her friends is distressed she’ll put something on (movie, show, video game, etc) that she either knows is their favorite or thinks they’ll like. She’s weirdly good at guessing, too, and she’s helped them all discover new favorites.

With Steph, whenever her dad says something that really stings (even if Steph will never admit it and will say she’s just annoyed that he won’t get off her case), they watch so much trash reality TV together. Grace insists that it’s sinful filth and she’s only tolerating it for Steph’s sake, but she gets super invested to the point of actually yelling at the TV and it never fails to get Stephanie to crack a smile. Stephanie’s actually gotten into Twitter beefs with a couple cast members from previous seasons of Love Island (they just HAD to defend that problematic dog) and Grace thinks that’s the coolest thing ever.

With Pete, it’s old school video games. He has every retro console imaginable and especially likes the older Legend of Zelda games. Whenever he’s feeling down, Grace just has to get him rambling about the lore and showing her all the hacks and Easter eggs in the games and soon he forgets whatever was bothering him.

With Richie, it’s the Danganronpa games. Whenever they figure out who did it, she has endless thoughts on why the culprit’s plan was stupid and what they should have done differently to not get caught and Richie finds it both amusing and mildly concerning. They also watch a lot of anime in general (obviously, it’s Richie after all) and he’s endlessly fascinated by Grace’s deep analysis of the religious symbolism he didn’t catch on his previous watches.

With Ruth, it’s classic movie musicals. Ruth has a lot to say about them and the influence they’ve had on musicals today and at first, whenever she catches herself rambling about it she apologizes for being annoying and gets super flustered and embarrassed, but Grace encourages her to keep going because at least Ruth isn’t crying anymore. Grace actually really enjoys the music and the pretty costumes and larger than life choreography. She also appreciated that there was no sex/vulgarity in them until Ruth ruined it by explaining that there totally is, they just had to rely on more subtle innuendo. As a wise man once said, a song is a dick in sheep’s clothing. They also watch newer musicals sometimes, although they’re limited to ones that have pro shots or movie versions available because Grace refuses to watch bootlegs. Once Ruth’s really comfortable with her, she points out all the characters that are dream roles of hers and how she’d portray them.

With Max (assuming a Max lives/gets redeemed AU), it’s cartoons. He’s reluctant to admit to liking them because he’s worried it’ll make people think he’s stupid and childish, but one day he came to her house looking like he’d been crying after his dad really went in on him for failing a test and she put on Gravity Falls at random. She doesn’t approve of the satanic magic it promotes, but he seemed to like it and she would have done anything to get that devastated look off of his face and make him stop putting himself down. They also regularly watch Veggie Tales together after they discover they both grew up watching it.

She also makes them a cup of hot water to sip on because that’s what her mom always does for her when she’s sad. They all think it’s weird, but they still drink it because they appreciate the gesture and over time it sort of grows on them.

#grace chasity #nerdy prudes must die #npmd #npmd headcanons #ruth fleming #max jagerman #richie lipschitz #stephanie lauter #peter spankoffski #I just love when they’re all friends ok

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lion-buddy · 3 months

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HEYO!! I JUST WANNA SAY!!

I'm obsessed!! Your crossover comic with Undertale, I LOVE IT! THE WAY PRIM IS STILL VERY MUCH SET ON HER WAYS, AND THE EXPRESSIONS! JUST IT WAS AMAZING!!

I can't wait to see more,,, Also, Prim and Mettaton, just saying, it would be silly.

ahh ty!! that makes me really happy to hear, prim and puka are some of the most interesting characters ive ever come across. the end of the movie gave us just enough to speculate about the two of them and their dynamic and brain chemistry is just endlessly fascinating to me <3 so being able to explore it through silly crossover is soso fun.

tbh i hadnt really thought about other ut characters! but on the prompt of mettaton,,,

i think prim would be forced to experience genuine disdain for the first time <3

#i imagine this takes place after the in game battle. or maybe during reunited?? idk lol. n e way mettaton clashes so much with prim.#hes flashy and his fight is full of theatrics. its more dependent on your ability to strike a pose than your actual fighting strength lol #i may have written out an entire script for that fight. prim would suffer <3 they are not photogenic in the slightest. its very fun lol #ut #pc #precure #precure all stars f #undertale #mettaton #prim #puka #crossover #ask #prizm-metamorphose #cure supreme #cure puka

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compacflt · 5 months

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hi! im learning so much from your blog and its endlessly fascinating to me, im not american so i knew next to nothing about the us military before getting into tg (still dont know that much but. more than before), i never cared about or defined myself by us political terms but now i really want to know and understand the tg characters and its fascinating to me how much politics is a part of that, so thank you for sharing your views on that on here, id be lost without them!

(i havent read your fic yet because idk if im emotianally ready for it yet but when i do. im sure its gonna be great)

haha I do sort of worry that I’ve made top gun too political. I think I’ve always just been trying to come to terms with the fact that… top gun wasn’t really made for me.

I saw Top Gun: Maverick for the first time in a movie theatre in rural southern Oregon…. Which, if you’re not American/didn’t know, is a part of the country characterized by Jesus-loving gun-toting “patriots.” The theatre was a full house. Everyone loved TGM. It’s NOT an apolitical movie. It pushes a WWII-era narrative about the “American underdog” military that appeals to a certain subset of the population: the military deserves more resources because our heroes are disadvantaged on the battlefield (F-18 vs SU-57), though of course in real life no more than a dozen SU-57s have actually been produced, and American fighters… don’t engage in dogfights anymore. Cain was right, no matter how much TGM wants to sensationalize the adventurism of real life pilots: drone warfare is making extinct manned fighter jets. TGM is geopolitically out of date. —And whether we like it or not, it is straight-up recruiting propaganda. The main emotional thrust of the movie is that we (audience) are supposed to sympathize with Bradley, who wants nothing more than to Join The Navy. We are supposed to be mad at Maverick (and later, conveniently, our scapegoat Carole) for preventing Bradley from Joining The Navy. The story of TGM does not make sense if the Navy isn’t the most desirable place to be. Top Gun: Maverick isn’t just recruitment MATERIAL; fundamentally it is a recruitment STORY. I feel like that’s an important metatextual aspect to engage with & acknowledge.

I’ve said elsewhere on my blog, the target audience for TGM is Republican dads of teenage boys: men who were teenagers when the first Top Gun came out, and have that nostalgia for a more dangerous/more exciting military, and are in the position to influence their sons to join up. The Navy would not have let Tom Cruise et al rent their $20,000-an-hour-operating-cost airplanes if that weren’t the case. Top Gun wasn’t really made for people like me.

Obviously how people in fandom engage with the source text is their decision. But engaging with Top Gun & Top Gun: Maverick is to engage with the Reagan-era reactionary, hawkish Cold War foreign policy that inspired Top Gun (the 1981 Gulf of Sidra incident really springs to mind—it would’ve been in the minds of many people watching Top Gun in 1986), and then the subsequent NOSTALGIA for that time period that inspired Top Gun: Maverick. They’re not apolitical movies at all; they have an agenda. It’s good to take their agendas seriously.

I hope if you read my fics you enjoy them 😊

#this is my last answered ask for a while #I do a lot of handwringing #there’s a reason i don’t tell irls i write top gun fanfic #it’s a conservative-coded IP!#I’m not telling people ‘you should write political fic’#but i AM telling people it is good critical practice to understand/take seriously the politics of a source text before you transform it #in fandom.#fun military movies are still fundamentally military movies.#top gun #top gun maverick

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natjennie · 8 months

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the way we seek out tragedy is so fascinating to me. I was just rereading a fic I loved and am getting down to the end where I know a really sad thing happens. and yet I picked it to reread anyway. I knew it was coming, but I'm still nervous and sad and anxious about what's coming up. we reach for sad songs to sing along to in the shower. we rewatch our favorite shows knowing we're going to cry at the finale. we read poems and watch movies and read books that we know will hurt us to consume. maybe it's commiseration, knowing we're not alone in negative emotions. maybe it's schadenfreude, a sick delight at the pain of someone else. maybe it's because we've been numb for too long and need to feel something, even if that something is painful. maybe it's because we've measured the tragic parts to be worth the joy of the rest of it. maybe the joy is worth it not despite the tragedy but because of it. and maybe that's just how life is. it's just endlessly interesting to me that we crave things that we know will hurt us. anyway not to make everything about hadestown but. it's a sad song. it's a sad tale it's a tragedy. it's a sad song. but we sing it anyway.

#hadestown #<- just for the ref

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aotopmha · 6 months

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Attack On Titan Final (Final?) Thoughts

With AoT now done done, I really want to give my final thoughts (season 4 part 27):

If it weren't for Attack on Titan, I would have never become as active talking about media online as I have.

I would have never met, talked to and followed cool people like @raelis1, @momtaku, @ghostmartyr, @tatakaeeren and many others, some who fell out of love with the series and some who yet love it in its (im)perfection.

(I actually started as an anon on @momtaku's blog.)

I currently have almost 1300 followers, most of who followed me for AoT.

For 10 years, the series has been an active, weekly/monthly/in general periodic part of my life and for all of the issues I take with it personally, I loved most of the time I followed this story.

I loved theorising about and analysing this delibrate (and less delibrate and flawed) mess.

It's a compelling and memorable first long-form story by a young author and I'd say you can do much much worse (but also much better) for your first outing.

And to think, I went into the first episode expecting to hate it because of an unfortunate encounter with a fan of the series. But from there I caught up with the anime and then the manga, followed by quickly getting endlessly fascinated by it – and from the start I was fascinated by what I considered the flaws of the series as much as the positives.

And since getting into the series, I really developed my taste: I truly love dark stuff with a heart buried within it. The definition of shock value differs so much from person to person, but to me AoT *generally* had a good balance of both.

It is a B-movie (horror) that also has sincere and complicated thoughts about humanity. It uses all the tropes in bad visual novels and manga aimed at teens and up, but sometimes also turns them upside down in really cool ways.

I think it ended up a slave to unfortunate tropes within its ilk of series, but only two stories have ever come close to make me invested like this one.

And for the most tl;dr version of my thoughts on the series, for probably the last time (might make this a yearly thing, might not; at some point I also want to finally redo my Favorite Character List from back when I started this blog):

I love it with all of its warts. I think the anime ending really solidified this very specific opinion about it I have.

All of the contradictions within this series' themes and characters are fascinating. And all of the straight-forward ideas powerful and burning fiercely.

Not new, not original, but to me absolutely still memorable and still meaningful.

And I have been saying this since season 1: I think the anime 100% ended up being better than the manga. If I'll ever be able to get a full version of the story, I'll be getting all of the anime.

(It's also better in case Isayama ever goes full trash person, but supporting the anime has its own issues.)

#Attack on Titan #Shingeki no Kyojin #AoT #SnK #AoT ending #Attack on Titan anime #SnK ending #Shingeki no Kyojin anime #AoT finale #SnK finale #New pinned post?#Send me asks regarding the anime finale?

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marinesocks · 2 years

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writeblr intro!!

hi hi!! i'm helena/danger (she/her) and i'm new to tumblr but i saw a bunch of people doing writeblr introductions and wanted to join in!! i'm a bit shy when it comes to reaching out but if you interact with me at all i will like. 100% respond!!! ok here goes!!

about me

i am a:

adult,

lesbian,

ADD haver,

third culture kid,

hobbyist reader,

psych major,

avid dog enthusiast,

wannabe artist,

horror movie fan,

ecology nerd,

and, as you might have guessed,

a writer!!

i'm not incredible at it but for some reason i cant stop doing it so here i am!!

favorite genres/niches

fantasy mostly!!!

i like to think i like plot but honestly i'll like anything if the characters are good enough

HUGE mythology and folktale fan!! i have very strong opinions on how to incorporate those into a novel tho, so only ask about that if you dare!!

surprise creepy concepts and crapsaccharine worlds are like my favorite of all time. i 100% support lying about the contents of a project to keep that twist extra shocking!!

romcoms might not be my favorite but im a sucker for cute couples, especially if they are LGBTQ+

psychological horror is excellent, one of my favorites (even if i'd never dare to write it)

depictions and representations of mental health is probably the thing that's most consistent throughout my work? maybe its just the psych major talking but i find that stuff endlessly fascinating

i've lived in various places overseas for most of my life, so i enjoy stories set in unique locations absolutely DRENCHED in culture!!

current projects

i feel a bit awkward sharing these because again, i'm not a great writer, but i like reading about other writeblr's projects so i figured i'd give other people the option of seeing mine! warning for pretentious titles for very straightforward and basic concepts

WIP - flowers that mean "we'd miss you" - a short story I wrote while testing out subtext, character dynamics and prose!! the basic run-down is that a boy wakes up in the hospital and now he and his friends have to navigate a very difficult conversation. the subject matter definitely requires a content warning, and it has a few gaps i still need to fill, but overall i really like the direction it's headed!! out of all of these projects, it's probably the one i have the least issues with.

in the ataraxis of aftermath - this one is a novel i wrote for NaNoWriMo 2020! it is post-apocalyptic with elements of fantasy, slice-of-life, and romance, specifically lgbtq+ romance. it's about a girl exploring what remains of her flooded city when she suddenly finds another survivor. despite the genre, this novel is very slow-paced and calm, relying more on the character dynamics and emotional journey of the protagonist instead of traditional story beats and plotlines!! i finished the whole first draft that november (and without any real outline to guide me, so altogether it's a bit of a mess), and i plan on rewriting it after i finish the two following projects!!

WIP - the owl's wish - originally intended as a short story for just a friend and i, this project is quickly expanding into a full-on novel!! it's a haikyuu!! fanfic, but i've been told that the story is well enough removed from the show that it can work even if you don't that context. the only summary i can give without spoilers is that it's about an owl spirit with amnesia who finds a friend, and together they set off to get their wishes granted by the mysterious Lady of the Yellow Springs (but it's about more than that, i promise ;) ). it's set in ancient japan, and i referenced a few traditional fairytales when drawing up the outline, but otherwise it's a completely original folktale that can hopefully be accessible to anyone who picks it up!!

WIP - currently titled ouroboros paradox - this is a novel i am currently plotting, so honestly i'm not so sure how much i can say!! this is a fantasy novel coming from my intense passion for large creatures, horror elements, and norse mythology. as far as i know now, the story will follow two protagonists in the city of jörmungandr - one from the past and one in the present - as they try to navigate life, religion and ethics in a world where murdering living beings lengthens your lifespan. i plan on finishing my outline before this november, so i can try to hit 50K for nanowrimo this year!!

where to find me

Instagram, Wattpad, Art Fight, AO3, & Toyhouse! If you would like to read my writing but don't have a Wattpad account, i've linked the google docs directly to the titles :)

and that should be it!! if you read this far imagine i am giving you a very firm handshake with very watery eyes. if you'd like to reach out, ask questions, or share some of your story tidbits with me, please do!! i'd be so happy to reciprocate however you'd like :) have a great day!! drink some water!!!

#writeblr intro #wip intro #writblr #writeblr #writers on tumblr #lesbian writer #looking for friends #looking for mutuals #im very shy but if you want to reach out like at all i 100% will #like im 110% serious i love writing friends i'd be so happy to make more mutuals #even if you want to just ramble about something you haven't been able to like... hmu bestie i love listening to that #not even kidding let me be the audience for your passionate speeches i am begging you #helena says stuff

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hermesserpent-stuff · 5 months

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Oooohhh, tell us about the httyd au!

So its been a little while since ive been able to watch the first HTTYD show, so the movies and race to the edge are my closest touch points of knowledge (and the books) so forgive the timelines a little.

Thanks for asking! Ideas under the cut!

The major things in this au is that Hiccup learned to speak dragonese through dragon watching and interactions after the fall of the Red Death. He spends a lot less time with the humans of Berk than in cannon, isolating a lot more. He would rather be amongst the dragons who are less confusing once he has had the time to interact with them than humans.

Hiccup and Toothless took up the place of leader in the nest after that fight. A lot in the nest jokingly take to calling Hiccup a noise that roughly translates to little Queen and toothless something like Queens wings. They get called leader neutrally, but the nicknames stick more and Toothless is forever calling Hiccup that in front of wild dragons.

There is a heavy element of scent based communication amongst dragons here, with hiccup smelling safe and like an adored leader because he spends so much of his time with the dragons of the nest. This makes other dragons quicker to trust him. So, hes a little op in the dragons loving him department.

The other riders talk to him still but he is not as close with them as in the shows. He stays an outsider.

Other tribes start to know that the Hooligans ride dragons but have a hard time doing anything similar. Hiccup often goes island to island to convince dragons to move and most wild dragons do. The whole archipelago experiences a sudden and noticeable drop in dragon raids because of this.

Skipping a few things and pushing onwards, we find a year or two later, hiccup is eager to fly further, and so is Toothless, who likes exploring. It is what the nightfury had been doing before being drawn into the Red Death’s nest. They have lieutenants that handle watching the nest as they go further afield. Hiccup hears of further markets and gets a map to the ship graveyard that had the dragon eye in race to the edge. Which makes hiccup go further to try to seek out new dragons.

He runs into dragon hunters and there are a few other changes and ideas rattling around. Dragon hunters think that he is a dragon! So thats all sorts of fun.

Uuhhh…. This is getting long but one last thing Im attached to! Viggo had an encounter with a nightfury long ago when he was like 10. Not a real close encounter, but it was the last instance of the hunters interacting with a nightfury in decades. And so he is endlessly fascinated that there is still one out there. Alive! ^_^ Let me know if you have anything specific I could elaborate on or if there is any other things youre wondering about.

#httyd #httyd au #claws and calls au #how to train your dragon #hiccup haddock #toothless #ask hermes #hermes speaks

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sidras-tak · 1 month

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i'm curious, does your previous post mean you enjoy neil breen's movies?

Do I enjoy Neil Breen’s movies? What a question. Do I enjoy them? It’s hard to say. Does one enjoy watching a tornado destroy a city, beautiful as such an act of nature is? Impossible to say. Neil Breen’s movies are an audacity of existence, a masterpiece in confusion, endlessly frustrating, and impossible to forget. I respect the man for continuing the very hard work of making movies, but I also do not respect him for refusing to improve over time. Unless it’s a very involved act of satire in which case he’s a genius. But I doubt it. And still, fascinated, I must watch.

#sparklepants #neil breen #ask #anon

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missmaywemeetagain · 1 year

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I need to tell someone this, get it off my chest, and I don’t think my irl friends will understand. So I’m trusting you.

I have never felt more in love in my life. I haven’t fangirled this hard in 6 years, probably never this hard in my life. I’m so in love with this man. I just watched the Elvis movie and of course I thought I was going to have a *little* Austin Butler phase, but to my surprise I barely even touched Austin, to my surprise I’ve fallen down the Elvis Presley rabbit hole, harder than ive ever fallen before. I didn’t know anything about him before that movie and here I am listening to all his music and slowly going thru his movies and TV appearances. I barely say “i love you” out loud but I’ve been saying it over and over when I listen to his singing and when I watch him on the screen.

I feel insane. I’ve been contemplating breaking up with my boyfriend because I feel so in love with this man who, even if he was still alive, i would never be with. I’ve been contemplating convincing myself heaven is real just to know I’ll meet him one day. Very intense. This “confession” is all light hearted, but I am honestly wondering if I’m the only one... I’m going crazy right?!

(I feel very embarrassed to be telling anyone this, so if you think I’m crazy pls be nice😭 but I felt like I had to tell someone)

Oh, Nonnie honey, Nonnie BABY, I think that SO MANY of us here can relate to what you are saying!

First, thank you for sharing this with me! I so very much connect with what you are saying here on a number of levels.

Listen, my life has been a series of hyperfixations and fandoms and there is a very good reason I call myself a “lifelong fangirl.” I’ve made shows/music/musicals/ people my entire personality for certain moments in time for as long as I can remember. Now I’m writing A LITERAL NOVEL imagining a romance with a man who’s been dead for nearly half a century. And I LOVE it. It can be intense and irl people sometimes (often) think I’m nuts but it’s part of my DNA to be this way and I am cool with that!

All this to say that with Elvis Presley, things are a little bit different. This is my second go-around with him and it is definitely more intense in a lot of ways than other fandoms I’ve been in, especially this time around, I think because of the Elvis community on social media has exploded since the movie and there is more info so readily available about him now than ever before. Maybe it’s because the world and life have been a complete clusterfuck for the last few years and it’s just nice to settle into something that makes us feel GOOD and connects us to people. Elvis is perhaps one of the first and strongest parasocial relationships in the world, and research has shown that parasocial relationships in general are on the rise because of what’s been going on in the world. So there’s THAT, too!

But let’s be real—Elvis is unlike anyone or anything before or after him. I am not entirely kidding when I say I’m convinced he has some preternatural/supernatural/ethereal/not-of-this-world quality to him that is simply unexplainable. Like how does a man who has been DEAD 45 YEARS STILL MANAGE TO GAIN/KEEP DIEHARD FANS all this time later? How does he have nearly as many people visit his home as they do the White House? How is he still one of the most prolific recording artists of all time? His fans have been equated to a religion. That is POWERFUL SHIT. It’s as if he was a star than burned so intensely, so brightly, that made such an impact, that the world couldn’t sustain him for a lifetime.

Yet he was a very real and complex human person that did some extraordinary things and had extraordinary gifts and talents. He was good and bad and everything in between and honestly I find him endlessly fascinating and beautiful and tragic. And good god, he was so incredibly gorgeous in such an otherworldly way. Ugh. He literally changed society with his beauty and music. That’s crazy in itself!

I am not a super spiritual person, and fairly skeptical, and yet I too find myself wondering and exploring and experiencing things I never would’ve CONSIDERED before because of him. It’s strange and eerie and blows my mind on the regular, tbh. Somehow, he came around in my life again at EXACTLY the right time and my world is very different/better than it was 6 months ago partially due to his presence.

I, too, have moments of feeling completely insane at how invested I am emotionally in this man I will never meet and how utterly, impossibly strange it feels to hold such love for a person who has been gone longer than I’ve been alive. I am lucky that my partner puts up with me and it and is understanding enough to be like, “this is weird but okay.”

He’s addictive in every possible way. I don’t know how else to describe it. I guess I’ve channeled all these intense and crazy feelings into Pink Scarf and somehow that makes me feel better because I’m creating something from this madness. It inspires me and makes me reach for my own dreams. And I’ve met this incredible community on top of it all.

So, Nonnie, you are very much NOT alone. I can’t say that it’s not crazy because it is a bit but in the best way possible and we’re right there with you!!💗💗💗

But also, take breaks. Don’t break up with your boyfriend (unless it’s truly not working for you in other ways). See and talk to people irl who have nothing to do with E. Read books or watch media unrelated to him. These are things I actively have to do make myself do to stay sane. It’s okay cuz E will always be around when you come back, and so will we!!

I hope this helps. Lovin’ you, Nonnie! 💗💗

#xoxoxoxoxoxoxox #give Nonnie some love y’all!#well this got deep real quick #and so long I’m sorry!#elvis #elvis presley #if you’re looking for trouble #you came to the right place #elvis 2022 #elvis movie #elvis presley x reader #austin butler elvis #elvis x reader #answered #ask

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handweavers · 1 year

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maurice (the book, the movie which is pretty close to the book all things considered, etc) has a lot of problems like fundamentally it's definitely a product of its time and of the man (e.m forster) who wrote it and the state of the british empire and culture in his lifetime, his biases and failings of his ideology are clear when reading his writing.

but there really is something so endlessly fascinating to me about it Because of that, if that makes sense, because it really does capture the mindset of an Edwardian era middle class white British man and all that entails, and how the quintessential version of that man might react when faced with his desire for men and only men, and the ways in which that might very realistically be experienced and expressed.

this is especially notable because he wrote it privately, knowing he couldn't publish it until after he died or until some distant day when british culture could cope with a book like that, and so many of the characters are inspired by himself and the other white British gay men he knew from all walks of life and it's sort of just written for them and so it feels very personal and insightful to that entire mindset and experience of the time. like it functions as such an excellent snapshot of that time and place and group of people and it's simultaneously a work of complete fantasy and the overwhelming whiteness and britishness of it and the very premise (as well as the solution offered by it) is something entirely a product of itself, if that makes sense, like this book only could have been written in these conditions and in this context.

analysing it feels like placing an entire worldview and experience in a fish tank and spinning it around - noticing what it says and what it doesn't, what is left out, how events are framed, the thesis of the story, the entire thing is fascinating no matter what angle you take and it's so self indulgent and confessional it's just the whole thing laid bare in a way that is really rare imo

especially w the emphasis on class in particular as a defining thing in the story, like maurice is fundamentally an exploration of class and forster tries to grapple with these things clumsily and using the only language and approach he knows how to because of the circumstances of his own life, and you can see the limits of his understanding of class dynamics through the book, the fault lines in his thinking and his contradictory opinions on working class people and old money gentry and the middle class and all of that. like it's Not a marxist look at class whatsoever but I always find things like that really fascinating because they're trying to grapple with class consciousness and they're so close and yet so far and in maurice it's wrapped up in anxieties about white male masculinity and british propriety and the specific strange brand of late victoria /edwardian period misogyny and you get the benefits and consequences of empire and british racism laid bare on a kind of deeply insular, commonplace level without ever once mentioning let alone featuring a nonwhite person at all. like the Lack of mention of these things feeds into the fantasy aspect of it and the self indulgence of it.

bc at it's core it's just all so loud and it's an edwardian era white cis gay affluent british mans fantasy of his ideal man and ideal relationship and that fantasy of escaping class society to some """"primitive"""" state where they can just Be but there's no room for that within the british empire and it's so so so so indulgent in that way and so revealing. theres so much to unpack and so much that still feels relevant to the experience of white middle class gay people in the imperial core today and their mindset and anxieties and the whole thing is just endlessly interesting to me in a "I want to study this in a laboratory" way. like it's the kind of book that makes me want to do a marxist analysis of the entire ideology on display here and how it's still relevant to current class anxieties and fantasies of escapism within certain communities - like the cottagecore thing - and pick it apart and examine its innards because it reveals so much at just a rudimentary level and whenever I reread it there's something new I think about and come away with

#its one of the books i always go back to like i know the whole thing nearly by heart at this point #because its just endlessly fascinating to dissect and every time i listen to it/read it i come away with something different #and its a pretty short book so its easy to do #(edited the post to break up the text a bit for readability)

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junebugwriter · 3 months

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I can't stop thinking about House (1977).

Haunted houses are a staple of horror culture. The haunted house goes back centuries, back to oral culture, before these kinds of things were written down. There are hundreds of movies about haunted houses, countless books about them. The Haunting of Hill House, the Amityville Horror, The Shining, the Conjuring, on and on there are examples and variations of the genre, and yet we still go back to the well because there is something so eerily alluring, so endlessly fascinating about the haunted house. Yet, I don’t think there is anything that could have really prepared me for the bizarre and surreal experience of watching House (1977), dir. Nobuhiko Obayashi.

I had heard about it in an offhand fashion from some essayists and critics, but only ever in passing and never in any detail. I think mostly that is because it is impossible to really describe, at least in text. It is a fever dream, a nightmare of color and editing that resists description. About halfway through the movie I had a realization: “Oh, I get it. This is a film made by an insane person.”

I know the word gets thrown around a great deal, and usually in an unserious way. It’s an ableist term, for sure, and one that stigmatizes neurodivergent people. But when you watch this film, you will understand what I mean, because there is no better term for the kind of film that was made here. It was made with remarkable craftsmanship, especially for a film with most likely a shoestring budget. The special effects are pretty silly, especially 46 years later, but there is an air of charming artifice to them that lets you know that the filmmakers were in on the gag. Aside from the effects, however, there is a grasp on genre and subversion that not a lot of films lean into, or they might try and fail to do. House, more than anything, has something to say about haunted houses that not every haunted house story would be willing to do.

Once upon a time...

Spoilers for a film from 1977, obviously. Not that it really matters much, because I’m sure you’ve heard a story like this before.

A girl, unhappy with the fact that her father is getting remarried after her mother died, decides to reach out to her mother’s sister, her aunt. The aunt in turn invites her and her friends to come visit for their summer break. The girl, named Gorgeous, takes her friends, Melody, Sweet, Prof, Kung-fu, Fantasy, and Mac, out to the countryside, where they find her aunt’s house, an idyllic rural mansion. The twist, of course, is that the aunt has been dead for years, and lingers on in our world by haunting her ancestral family’s house.

If any of that seems boring to you, well, congratulations, you’ve heard a scary story before. It’s not the novelty of the story itself that is the draw here, but rather in the way it is told, a way that can only be done through cinema. The imagery of this thing is... well, here’s a few images from the film.

And my personal favorite:

That last one is the severed head of a young girl, Mac, biting the rear end of one of the living girls. We’ll get back to Mac.

Images like this are a big part of why medium is so essential to the arts. Because the “story” is basic, but the film is not. Every great story can usually be boiled down to a simple idea. “Man takes a job at a hotel during offseason.” “Family moves into a house where a grisly murder takes place.” “There’s a doll with a ghost inside it.” Simple, adaptable, and leaves room for a storyteller to leave a mark.

House goes all in on artifice and genre, to the point of farce. At the beginning of the film, you would be forgiven for thinking it was a sunny daytime sit-com, and the girls are even introduced as such halfway through the film! It’s bizarre. It changes tone from “slice of life comedy” to “soap melodrama,” and in brief moments when Kung-fu has any action, “kung-fu movie.” The director took one look at the screenplay and went, “I’ll take everything on the menu.”

You don’t make a movie like House without being in love with film as a medium.

I could go on for a while about the effects, the tonal whiplash, the aesthetics of the thing, and I am very tempted by doing so. I could just list the incredible things this movie does. The set-piece deaths that come in quick succession through the back half of the movie. But that’s best left to someone with a film degree, who can get into the granularity of the medium that I cannot.

No, what makes me really keep thinking about the movie starts with poor, innocent Mac. And once you figure out what the film is doing, you realize that this is not a movie about a haunted house. Haunted house stories seldom are. Haunted houses are about us.

We need to talk about Mac.

Mac is a girl who likes food. That’s it. That’s all the character she was given. Mac likes to eat, is almost always eating something, and is frequently teased and mocked by her friends for being “fat,” which... well. I don’t know much about Japanese culture, but I do know that there is a rigid enforcement of conformity to certain ideals, which often gets translated to shaming and fatphobia. Mac liked to eat, and so she was the first real punchline of the film. Even her name, Mac, was an intentional joke about eating, a reference the word “stomach,” or even MacDonalds, or some other joke that does not translate from Japanese cleanly. All the girls are given Disney Snow White dwarf naming schemes, but only hers is most clearly a joke.

I was instantly invested in Mac’s wellbeing. Sadly, of course, she was the first one to die.

Mac died first, because she was obviously the odd girl out in a group full of oddballs. She’s the only one that really gets the worst teasing, even worse than Kung-fu, who is mocked for being “manly,” but whose manliness is seen with a kind of awe and reverence, rather than obvious revulsion. Mac was always seen eating something, or in pursuit of food. It is this pursuit of food that in the end results in her death. She went out to the well where she was storing her watermelon, and when a girl goes to check in on her, she is found as only an animated, floating head in the well, a head that makes a joke and then bites a girl on the butt because even in death, she is still hungry. Death cannot keep Mac from being the butt of a joke.

It is in Mac’s shameful death that you realize what the film is doing. Because Mac, though her name was a joke, was just as flatly characterized as everyone else is in the film. All these girls have silly, descriptive names, and all of them have extremely flat, one-dimensional characterizations. Kung-fu is sporty. Sweet is... sweet. Melody plays music, Prof is smart, Fantasy always has her head in the clouds, and Gorgeous is the most beautiful. And all of them, every single one, gets devoured by the house. And in the end, you realize why the house is eating them.

You see, the house is hungry because the ghost who animates it is still waiting, a cautionary tale about putting your own life on hold waiting for a man who will never return. See, the aunt who owns the house was betrothed to a soldier during WWII. She promised that no matter what, she would always be waiting to marry him. When he never returned home, the aunt grows bitter, and dies unmarried. Since then, she preys upon the lives of young, unmarried women in her bridal gown, feasting upon their youth and vigor to sustain her undeath. She literally put her own dreams, her own life, aside for the sake of a man because that is what women are supposed to do in a traditional, patriarchal society.

Once you learn this, you understand why Mac had to die first. All the girls’ names are not only descriptive, they are also flattering to an extent. You could hypothetically ask a man “What are the qualities of a good woman, one you would like to marry?” And the response might be, “I’d like someone smart,” “I’d like someone sweet,” or “I’d like someone beautiful,” etc. So in response, these girls all are simply the embodiment of an idealized feminine attribute, something desired or seen as valuable in a woman. All, of course, except for Mac.

Mac was the joke. She was the most disposable, the one ostracized and teased even by her friends, and also just so happens to embody an attribute that is not classically seen as desirable by patriarchal society. She eats. She consumes and is consumed by consumption. Therefore, she is the first to become consumed by the House.

All the girls meet with a similarly ironic punishment, a Dantesque hell of the film’s making. Sweet is smothered by an avalanche of pillows and mattresses. Gorgeous, sitting in front of the mirror, is swallowed up by vanity and possessed by the ideal itself. Melody’s hands are eaten by a piano. Kung-Fu physically tries to fight the house but is in the end broken by violent means. Prof drowns in a pool of blood as she reads the ghostly aunt’s diary, explaining the tragic end of the House’s owner, and dies in pursuit of knowledge. Fantasy, the final girl, is cradled in the arms of the possessed Gorgeous, and is gently comforted to eternal sleep. The final scene involves Gorgeous meeting her new stepmother in the House, and the cycle will continue anew with this new victim.

Each girl is in the end consumed by the identity which they embody, a grim and grisly vision of what might await them if they ever lived to be adults. The point then is that girlhood and womanhood is only ever seen as an inherently objectifying gaze of the masculine, patriarchal world in which they lived. Mac, the first to go, was but an appetizer, the most visibly mockable victim in the parade of victimhood. The House devours them because society devours us, despite our innocence, despite what qualities we might embody. The aunt was virtuous too, remember. It is virtuous to be patient, to be honest, to be faithful, even unto death. But what if that life is put entirely aside for the betterment of someone else? What is left of the woman left behind to mourn, to grieve? She carries on bearing the weight of expectation. Femininity in relation to patriarchy is a funhouse mirror, warping and distorting what makes us unique, highlighting and capitalizing on our flaws. The ghostly aunt perpetuates the horrifying cycle of predatory expectation, and in turn inflicts those expectations upon the next generation. Gorgeous then the final victim lives on to victimize another.

What is left is simply leftovers

Considering the film made it into the Criterion Collection, it’s safe to say that I’m not the only one who sees the value in House. There is something to the cult horror flick that lingers in the minds of its viewers. Each of us is in our own way haunted by the society that we participate in. Each bears the weight of patriarchy and are either consumed or rejected by it. Both paths lead to destruction.

House is not a hopeful movie, by any means. It's not meant to be a cautionary tale, either. Nobody is virtuous enough to survive, because there is not virtue great enough when the world values those virtues and seeks to consume those who embody them. I do think it is possible in real life to live beyond this cycle, but blaming the girls for dying to it helps nobody. We must instead learn to see why they were swallowed up by the old house and recognize ourselves in the same morality play.

I can recommend watching it, but only if you have a stomach for some out-there gore, silly special effects, idiosyncratic directing choices, and a critical eye. It is definitely the strangest film I’ve seen in years, and if you’re up for strange, you’re in for a treat. Just try not get too hungry.

#film #film criticism #house #hausu 1977 #house 1977 #patriarchy #feminism #horror

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