#(again: no my name is not anya or taylor or joy or anything resembling any of those names in any way?? :D) | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

tctteredwings · 7 months

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if you’re hearing I AM WHAT I AM by GLORIA GAYNOR playing, you have to know LUCIAN CARTY (THEY/THEM; GENDERFLUID) is near by! the THIRTY-THREE year old HOMELESS SHELTER LEADER/BARTENDER AT HELL & HIGH WATER has been in denver for, like, ALL THEIR LIFE ON AND OFF. they’re known to be quite CARELESS, but being PASSIONATE seems to balance that out. or maybe it’s the fact that they resemble CODY FERN. personally, i’d love to know more about them seeing as how they’ve got those PLACARDS FIGHTS FOR INJUSTICE, AN EVER CHANGING WARDROBE, MESSY BEDHEAD vibes. and maybe i’ll get my chance if i hang out around the RINO DISTRICT long enough!

tw: drug abuse, abortion mention, violence, drug overdose

ABOUT.

Name: Lucian Carty. Age: Thirty-two. DoB: April 23rd 1990. Occupation: Homeless ShelterLeader/Bartender at Hell & High Water. Sexual/romantic orientation: Pansexual/grey-romantic. Birthplace: Denver, CO, USA. Current Location: Denver, CO, USA.

They’re a native to Denver and grew up in Lakeridge.

Product of a one night stand who was treated like crap by their mother from birth. She didn’t want them, had planned to get rid of them and made that clear each and every day. The police were constantly getting called to their place because of the continual screaming and shouting.

At seven they found their mum’s drug stash which suddenly explained why they had no money even though she was working all the time. It explained a lot.

Shortly after that they were joined by a younger sister, who their mum seemed to want this time.

Threw themselves into school. They were a bit of a brainiac. Maths club, debate, constant tutoring of other students, anything to keep them away from home.

By the time high school had come to an end they’d found a passion for activism and spent all their time in the middle of the city involved in protests. Constantly spent their time clashing with the police, chaining themselves to buildings and locked away for the night after peaceful protests ended up violent.

At around twenty-one they came out as genderfluid. They’d never fit in any kind of box anyway. Started going by both they/them, something that has stuck ever since.

They spent the rest of their time working in bars, coffee shops, restaurants (whatever brought the money in) and a local homeless shelter.

Attempted a relationship for the first time. Failed. It lasted a couple of years but ended when they let them get dragged off by the police without helping at all. They are a bit of a hopeless romantic deep down, but have never really felt they deserve love because of how they were treated by their mother when growing up.

Spent the next couple of years flitting back and forth between Denver, Los Angeles and new York constantly, unable to settle.

Moved back to Denver permanently around five years ago after receiving a phone call from their younger sibling, who told them their mother had overdosed. Despite everything they still came running to take care of them both.

Picked up a job at a bar again pretty quickly, needing money to support themselves and their mother and sister, something they never thought they’d be doing. They live in an apartment away from them though, choosing to settle in Rino, there was no way they were living in the same house as their mother ever again.

They’ve fallen back into working at the shelter since arriving back home, working their way to leader. It's something they've always been very passionate about and dedicate most of their time to both that and charity work within the LGBTQIA+ community. Working at the bar just tops up their income so they have enough to survive.

WANTED CONNECTIONS.

Maternal Half-sister (0/1): Of at least half European descent. 7/8 years younger. Anya Taylor-Joy’s the dream.

Childhood best friend (0/1): This person was like Lucian’s family when they were growing up. That’s never changed.

Childhood friends (0/?): Anyone they knew growing up in Lakeridge.

Sister from another mister/brother from another mother (0/1): They’ve never been close to their actual siblings (or don’t know them at all) so this is someone they’ve formed a sibling-like bond with over the years.

Close friends (0/?): Friends they’ve grown close to since settling Rino.

Getting to know you (0/?): They’ve only recently got to know one another, but they’re working on it.

The best kind of people (0/?): They’ve met on numerous charity/good will projects over the years and just made a bond.

Ex-partners (0/2): There have only been a couple, Lucian doesn’t have the best luck with lasting relationships.

You’re kind of special (0/1): Someone they’ve found themselves growing closer to recently, although it might all be one-sided, they’re not sure yet.

One night stands (0/?): There aren’t too many of them, but every so often they’ll spend a night with someone.

Friends with benefits (0/2): Same as the one night stands, though these two keep coming back to one another.

Roommate (0/1): They are by no means rich, so having a roomie helps with rent.

People from work (0/?): People they know through their work at the bar or others who may work with the homeless from time to time.

Not quite the best of friends (0/?): They just really don’t get along… at all. They could have clashed during a protest or something in the city at some point.

#✧ lucian ( about )#chq;intro

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that-shamrock-vibe · 4 years

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Movie Review: The New Mutants (Spoilers)

Spoiler Warning: I am posting this review the week following the movie first airing in the U.K, so if you haven’t yet seen The New Mutants do not read on until you have.

General Reaction:

A three year delay for the final instalment of a twenty-year franchise, was it ultimately worth it? Well as an X-Men fanatic I am always going to say yes, it wasn’t a swan song or a wrap up to the X-Men Cinematic Universe, far from as it was originally pitched as the start of a trilogy and does sew the seeds for that. However, while Dark Phoenix did feel like a sombre instalment not only for that “First Class” timeline but also the team movies as a whole, this had an air of sadness to it because this is the last time I will see anything X-Men related on the big screen for who knows how long.

In that sense, this was an emotional movie for me, more than just the fact that the emotion of fear is a running theme through the movie. However, in terms of my actual enjoyment of the movie, it was a very good movie for what it was.

When your very final movie is effectively an origin movie then there’s always going to be that sense of incompleteness, and what this movie teases both for these characters and who is the big bad behind all of this, it’s really frustrating to know it’s over before it truly starts.

With that in mind, The New Mutants is very slow to get started as there’s a lot of exposition and because it feels like it’s own branch of the X-Men Cinematic Franchise, similar to Deadpool, there is a level of “Beginner’s Guide to Mutants 101″ at play here with the explanation of what a Mutant is and when a young or “New Mutant” first discovers their powers that, to give this movie credit, I have never truly seen explored properly outside of the comics other than a quick explanation from Storm to Jubilee in the first episode of X-Men: The Animated Series.

It’s also disappointing to know that unlike X-Men: The Last Stand or Dark Phoenix, there isn’t a sense of finality for these characters as we have just been introduced to them. Outside of Sunspot who has briefly appeared in X-Men: Days of Future Past, this is the first cinematic appearance for all of these characters. The X-Men are briefly mentioned and Professor X is alluded to quite cleverly but every character outside of Sunspot is debuting here and to know they’re never going to be seen in this continuity again with a chance to develop is very sad.

In terms of the “horror” aspects of this movie I have to say this is very comic-book horror as in how Blade in the late 90s was horror. If you know the jump scares in this movie are coming then there are no jump scares, so basically if you’ve seen the trailers you know the jump scares.

As a horror movie, it felt very much like It-lite in terms of the theme of bringing nightmares into reality, only without the hard R-rating of the blood and gore because outside of one maybe two scenes there is nothing truly horrific to look at here.

There’s also a great parallel to the Gentlemen from Buffy the Vampire Slayer shown from their episode in this movie and the Smiley Men who are Illyana’s nightmare brought to life. They’re creepy like them but they’re not as sinister as them...and that is a great choice of wording considering who the big bad behind the scenes of this movie is.

As an X-Men movie, which is what this is as the New Mutants in the comics are basically younger versions of the X-Men, as I say the first half of this movie isn’t that power heavy but is about introducing and establishing this team, the second half/last third on the other hand is power heavy. Not exactly Days of Future Past or Apocalypse heavy but still heavy for the powers this group of Mutants have.

Overall generally as both an X-Men movie and a comic-book movie, this was really a great movie particularly for the first new movie I have seen since lockdown.

Characters:

So this breakdown will be easy as there’s only really six characters to talk about but I’m going to make it a seven-character breakdown as the looming presence in the shadows of this movie deserves their own section.

Illyana Rasputin:

Alright so it is somewhat difficult to say if Illyana is my favourite or if Rahne is my favourite but I ultimately landed on Illyana for first as Anya Taylor-Joy is really in the spotlight the entire way through this movie. Every time she’s in a scene she commands the attention, and all five of the New Mutants have solo scenes so for Illyana to stand out the most, this is why she is #1 for me.

I’m not entirely sure where this movie takes place in terms of the overall X-Men timeline...but considering it’s supposedly in the revised timeline and Colossus is a member of the X-Men in the late noughties/early 2010s, I imagine this is either around the same time or can even be modern day (2017 or 2020).

Anya Taylor-Joy is as suited to the role of Magik as Channing Tatum would have been as Gambit in my opinion. Not only does she have a reasonable Russian accent but she just simply looks like how Magik looks in the comics.

I loved the rebel teen angst she had all the way through from when we first meet her to the very end, not only is it fitting for the movie but in my opinion it’s fitting for the character. This is a girl that literally goes through some resemblance of hell and is effectively a serial killer so of course she is going to have this icy dark exterior.

In terms of powers, I am slightly disappointed she never fully armoured up, it was always just her left arm that she had armoured complete with Soulsword, whereas in the comics her main look is her entire body. I guess the argument could be made the majority of it is simply a uniform and her arm is the only part armoured but I would have liked to have at least seen her crown.

But Magik’s powers for me here are an interesting combination of Zatanna and Nightcrawler which is a very good combination. The scene where she first appears through limbo fighting the Smiley Men was very impressive.

I would have also enjoyed it if we had spent more time in Limbo, given that we always saw cameo flashes of it whenever she manifested a portal, but we never actually had a full scene of her in her “special place”.

Not being too familiar with the comics however, I am almost completely unaware of Lockheed as a character. My only prior knowledge is his appearance in Pryde of the X-Men as a pest and I have to say I much prefer him here. The animation of both Lockheed and the Demon Bear were stellar.

As I say, I feel we have only just scratched the surface with where this version of Magik could go. I doubt very much Kevin Feige would bring Anya Taylor-Joy back if/when he does bring the character into the MCU because he doesn’t like playing with used toys but if ever there was an exception I would hope it would be her.

Rahne Sinclair:

It is slightly obvious to think of when Maisie Williams was filming for this movie as her hair, unless it’s a wig, is in that “Arry” phase of her Game of Thrones tenure.

Because of the current entertainment climate and the non-starting stance this movie finds itself released in, I think the lesbian romance between Rahne and Dani is going to go unnoticed. But considering this is the first major LGBT romance in a comic-book property I feel this movie will be cheated out of that representation in favour of what is to eventually come from Marvel.

Outside of the romance, I feel Rahne’s story rooted in her religion and mutation was fantastic. I love me some werewolf action and I feel I saw enough actual wolf to satisfy Rahne spending most of her time in “halfway form” as the character has been known to do in the comics.

The fact her nightmare was that religious leader branding her as a werewolf and thereby a monster, not only was it believable given her character but also the parallels to devout religious views on homosexuality were subtle but there.

I do feel the character spent way too much time screaming towards the end of the movie. This girl is a werewolf but spent most of the final battle as the screaming protector of her unconscious lover, I mean she was I guess helpful in waking Dani back up but never truly let rip like I feel the character could have.

I’m not entirely sure if Williams has any Scottish heritage about her but the slipping in and out of the accent was slightly distracting at times. When she was able to be loud the accent was often broken but in her quieter moments or longer dialogue scenes you could hear it.

I do appreciate keeping the nationality of the character from the comics, considering the mess they made of Banshee and Moira MacTaggert, and I do understand having an at the time name talent like Maisie Williams in the role, but there are surely Scottish actresses out there and the casting pool wasn’t exactly high for this movie.

Dani:

The main character in this movie, or focal character I guess as it’s an ensemble movie, is either Illyana or Dani, but because we start with Dani and are introduced to the other characters through Dani I guess she is the focal character.

Again, I give credit to the movie for keeping the nationality of the characters from the comics, but while Anya Taylor-Joy and Maisie Williams border on appropriation as they are not Russian or Scottish themselves, although Anya is of Scottish Argentine descent, Blu Hunt is at least Native-American as Dani is. I think they come from different tribes but I don’t think people are going to focus too much on that technicality.

Similarly to all these characters I don’t really know much about Dani so have no frame of reference to compare her to. I remember she appeared in one episode of X-Men: Evolution and I know her powers involve dreams, which similarly to the majority of the characters in this movie lends itself beautifully to a horror movie, but that’s about it.

I felt her relationship with Rahne was genuine and her own “survivors guilt” over being the only member of her family still alive after the Demon Bear attack was well explained.

I just didn’t understand why it was decided that Reyes had to kill Dani because of the severity of her powers, maybe it was the unpredictability of her powers because their limitations are literally the power of imagination, but I thought Reyes was responsible for sorting out those capable of being killers...surely the power to bring nightmares to life as many times as it takes to kill the person qualifies?

With the Demon Bear being tamed at the end of the movie, I kind of don’t see anywhere for Dani to go if they did continue, she still has the power to solidify nightmares, and I guess she can always call on the Demon Bear, but unlike Rahne or Magik I do not see any further development for her.

Sam:

Sam Guthrie aka Cannonball was an interesting one for me as I knew the character and I knew the actor, but hadn’t properly seen either one fully explored before. I have not watched Stranger Things so do not really know Charlie Heaton’s acting potential...but what I do know is he is from Yorkshire and cannot really do a Kentucky accent.

As for the character of Cannonball, I thought that early scene of him strapping himself to that weight while zooming through the air to either test himself or hurt himself was really well realised. There wasn’t enough of him going full cannonball throughout the movie, mostly it just came across as a sort of super speed which in a way I guess it is but projecting that force-field while he is zooming about is what makes the power set unique.

Similarly to Dani he had guilt over his nightmare which was him causing a mining accident which killed his co-workers and dad, but unlike Dani who never really developed the thought of it being her fault for her family’s death because of her conjuring the Demon Bear, Sam did at least hold a lot of guilt over what had happened...despite his nightmare being probably the weakest as the main effect it had was totalling a washing machine.

I also didn’t understand the back-to-back scenes of Sam suggesting he was meant to be in the hospital and felt he had to be there, but then in the next scene him trying to walk out saying he doesn’t belong there. Maybe it was the editing but it just seemed like a complete 180 from scenes that were literally back-to-back.

Roberto:

As I said this is Sunspot’s second cinematic appearance and I guess in the revised timeline he has gone from being portrayed by Mexican actor Adan Canto to now Brazilian actor Henry Zaga.

I didn’t feel the boys in this movie had that much to do, with both Sam and Berto it did feel like them simply coming to terms with their powers. I did like how both had that fear of hurting people and both had to learn I guess to push past that fear.

With Berto’s fear though, I do feel his power first manifesting in conjunction to him reaching sexual maturity was very well explored, because of course the combination of testosterone and becoming a living solar flare are not exactly two things anyone wants to mix. So when the result is burning your girlfriend to a crisp it is going to shake you.

Outside of his powers though there wasn’t a lot to the character and it is hard to remember a good line that he or Sam had that weren’t douchey, but for what we got he was a good character.

Reyes:

Wow this woman deserved to be eaten by the Demon Bear, which by the way I found almost as humorous as Katie McGrath being carried away by a pterodactyl in Jurassic World.

But yes, this doctor was the “villain” of the movie as she was the agent of the big bad Essex Corporation in charge of determining the new mutants’ powers and whether or not they’re worth progressing to their facility.

Outside of that I didn’t really think much of her as a character, she wasn’t a sympathetic character, she wasn’t believing to be doing this for the benefit of these young mutants, she was simply following orders.

It’s a deviance from the comics where Reyes is a hero and member of the X-Men, whereas here she is far from it.

Alice Braga is also regionally appropriately cast as she is Brazilian whereas the character is Puerto Rican, although whenever she spoke I kept thinking about Gal Gadot a lot, even looks wise there are similarities.

Sinister:

Now let’s talk about the looming big bad who I imagine would have been the major big bad of this supposed trilogy. Despite the new mutants believing the facility to be owned and run by the X-Men, it is in fact run by the Essex Corporation...Essex as in Dr. Nathaniel Essex, a biologist obsessed with evolution who became the Mutate supervillain Mister Sinister.

I want to see Mister Sinister in a live-action movie so badly it’s unreal, they’ve done Apocalypse so why they can’t do Sinister I don’t know.

This isn’t the first time Sinister has been alluded to as the Essex Corporation was in an end credits scene of X-Men: Apocalypse that acquired samples of Wolverine’s blood presumably to create X-23, but because those events took place in the 80s and these events take place in somewhat modern day it’s hard to correlate the two.

Obviously we are no longer going to get X-Men movies in this universe and continuity, but with the seeds being sown for Sinister more than once now, the baton has been laid down for Feige to finally bring this villain to life.

Reccomendation:

If like me you are more or less interested in just completing the twenty-year franchise because you love these characters and any interpretation of them then this is the movie for you. However, don’t expect wall to wall action, and I would recommend not getting too attached to these characters. It’s too late for me with Illyana I already love her and already feel Anya Taylor-Joy has set a high bar for whoever plays Magik next.

But for me personally, this franchise has been my favourite movie franchise and my favourite property. Even the bad movies I can at least find something good about them regardless of if the overall movies have been good or not. But just to reiterate, I do feel this is one of the good movies.

In a ranking of the 13 movies (not counting Once Upon a Deadpool), this ranks somewhere between #6-8 for me.

Overall I rate the movie a solid 8/10, by no means the best or a perfect X-Men movie but by no means one of the worst. The movie benefits from new characters (aside from Sunspot) but suffers due to the inevitability of this being the definitive end for the current franchise.

So what did you guys think? Post your comments and check out more Movie Reviews as well as other posts.

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uglypastels · 3 years

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Hi,

How often do you read?

What is the last book you've read cover to cover? Do you recommend it?

Which author have you read the most?

Have you met any authors?

Are there any books on your bookshelf that you regret owning?

Do you prefer paperback or hardcover books?

Have you ever bought a book solely because you liked its title?

What is your favorite book series and what is your favorite book of that series?

Is there any character from a book you wish was written off?

Name one book you've read cover-to-cover but completely hated.

What fictional character from a book do you think you relate to the most? Why that character?

Name one (yes, only one) fictional character from a book you wish you could be best friends with in real life. Why that character?

What is your favorite movie based off a book?

Has a movie ever made you go the book that it's based off?

Name one book you wish had a movie version. Who would you choose to act in it?

Name one book you believe is superior to its movie version and explain why you think so.

alright answers below the cut :) thank you for sending all of these in!!

> questions for bookworms ask game

How often do you read?

it honestly comes and goes. i have periods where i can read a book a day (that's what I'm at rn) or i can go on for months without reading.

What is the last book you've read cover to cover? Do you recommend it?

I finished The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman yesterday. it was good :)

Which author have you read the most?

Probably Rick Riordan

Have you met any authors?

I met Thomas Olde Heuvelt a few years back at a comic con. he was selling signed copies of his book (HEX) and ngl i still haven't read it oops, but he was a nice guy

Are there any books on your bookshelf that you regret owning?

like a dumbass i bought like 8 of the Pretty Little Liar books in dutch and i didn't even finish one.... i just don't like reading in dutch so this was meant to happen (also all the youtuber "self help" books)

Do you prefer paperback or hardcover books?

paperback!

Have you ever bought a book solely because you liked its title?

hmmm... no, i really struggle when buying books so i always read the back of it, sometimes even the first page. Altough i did once buy a book in Asda for the mere reason that it had glitter on the cover (well, i did read the back summary as well but the glitter was reason #1)

What is your favorite book series and what is your favorite book of that series?

oh boy... currnty, probably the Robert Hunter series by Chris Carter? i haven't read all the books yet but from the ones i did read... probably "the Executioner"

Is there any character from a book you wish was written off?

oof... not that i can think of atm. that's a hard question lol.

Name one book you've read cover-to-cover but completely hated.

doesn't happen to me. if i don't like a book i can't get through it. and i don't even think I've ever read a book i hated. (edit: i remembered reading the book "If I Stay" by gayle forman for class. maybe because i read it in dutch and that just gnaws at me but... oof no that was... not enjoyable.

What fictional character from a book do you think you relate to the most? Why that character?

probably a mix of Lily and Dash from "Dash and Lily's Book of Dares"

Name one (yes, only one) fictional character from a book you wish you could be best friends with in real life. Why that character?

arhhhh that's so hard to pick tho!!! uhm..... i can't pick. sorry haha

What is your favorite movie based off a book?

that's so hard to pickkkkk like there are so many?! and would it be fair of me to pick a movie that i haven't read the book of? but then again, most movies that i did read the book weren't too great adaptations argh so... i really don't know. Sense and Sensibility??? idk

Has a movie ever made you go buy the book that it's based off?

I bought Cherry, really liked the book (the movie not so much) and I did get The Devil all the Time and the Chaos Walking books but both didn't really get through me and i couldn't finish either (also, not great movies imo)

Name one book you wish had a movie version. Who would you choose to act in it?

just cause i just finished reading it and it's fresh on my mind, the Graveyard book. i have no idea who i would pick for the main characters, but my edition had like drawings in it and i thought one of them (the witch, if i remember correctly) really resembled Anya Taylor-Joy and i love her so.... yeah

Name one book you believe is superior to its movie version and explain why you think so.

every book lol. it would probably be harder to name a movie that's superior to the book and i can't really think of anything

#uglypastels answers #fedorable-killjoys

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