#also the dream was spooky.... not like nightmare spooky more like this is a plot to a bad horror film.... spooky cheesey without the camp | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

igncrxntripley · 1 year

Note

How do you think TJD would react to the reader having night terrors? ( for their secret weapon)

bad dreams

a/n: not me mixing TJD fluff and angst 🫠 also added a new plot point...we'll be playing with that as time goes on LMAOOO

mentions: bad dreams, nightmares, night terrors, anxiety, crying, description of past trauma, slight appearance from the spooky scary fiend, overall SFW but be cautious of above themes

taglist: @babybatlover @ripleyswhore @auburnwrites @thesithdiaries

She was running, running, running...Y/N ran through the dark forest in hopes of getting as far away as she could. Every time she turned her head she could see him going after her. He was huge - almost animalistic. The animal head he wore only made him look that much more like a beast. Y/N had been running like her life depended on it but she had no clue where she even was. She could barely see anything in front of her but she knew she needed to keep going. As soon as she stopped, he was going to catch up to her. She couldn't let that happen.

Y/N finally saw it in front of her; a cabin, the porch light shining in the dark and illuminating the house. It was the only source of solitude around, and she knew she needed to go for it before he found her. She ran to the house and stepped foot onto the rickety wooden porch and opened the door before she could even think twice about it.

Her back hit the door as she caught her breath. Y/N stood there in pitch black once again, but she hoped she was safe at least for a little while. "I need to find them..." She whispered to herself; she'd lost her partners a long ways back after they ran in different directions and had no clue where anyone was. The last she saw of any of them, Dominik tripped and clearly hurt himself but he told her to keep going. Y/N needed to listen to him and just hope they'd fine another again.

Before Y/N could even make her next move, she heard soft humming in front of her. She couldn't tell what the tune was, but the deep voice sent shivers down her spine. She could hear something creeking, something moving...it made her blood run absolutely still in her body.

"Let me in."

Y/N's eyes widened in fear when she heard the voice. It sounded so familiar, yet she could barely pinpoint it. No words left her mouth to answer him, but she watched closely as he lit a lantern to shine on his face. He smiled at her, his wild hair and beard only making him that much more deranged. "We've been waiting for you, Sister Abigail." He said with a smile, slowly rocking in a rocking chair.

Her breathing only picked up as she panicked. Y/N shook her head, and when she turned around to the door to make a run for it she saw the same beat from earlier. She had nowhere to turn, nowhere to run...

"Let us in."

--- ---

Y/N practically shot up in bed with a gasp, clutching her chest as she tried to catch her breath. She didn't even notice the tears and sweat on her face, but she could feel just how claustrophobic she was in the bed.

Hearing their princess cry was like a siren for each member of The Judgement Day. They heard her wake up, and they each slowly followed suit and sprung into action when they noticed just how in distress she was. "Baby, hey..." Rhea was the first to say something, her hand reaching out to touch Y/N's arm.

She jumped when Rhea touched her, but as soon as she realized who it was the tears only rushed harder down her cheeks. "I-I...h-he...I couldn't s-see...!" Y/N panicked as the words tried to form and explain why she was so upset but it just wasn't working.

"Woah woah woah..." Rhea said, immediately pulling Y/N into a hug and letting her cry it out. Her brows were furrowed in confusion as she held their girl close to her chest and looked at each of her partners to see if they knew what to do. Damian rubbed his eyes before putting on his glasses to see what happened, Finn and Dominik looking just as confused and worried. "What happened, love? Huh?" Damian asked this time, his hand coming forward to rub Y/N's thigh.

What her partners didn't know, was that this nightmare was the result of Y/N's long and damaging history with The Fiend himself. One that started when she began her run in NXT, and ended not long before Brooks and Josh came into the picture.

Everyone knew that when Bray Wyatt wanted something, he was going to get it. It didn't matter how or what he needed to do - once he had a target, he was laser focused. And a naÏve, young Y/N easily became one of those targets when she first started training with the WWE.

She did her best to ignore his presence whenever him or a sign of him showed up. But Bray quickly caught on, and he never took well to the ways in which Y/N would just turn her back on him or throw away the things he'd leave behind. He would begin making his presence more obvious; showing episodes of Firefly Funhouse after her matches, sending Alexa to visit, anything he could to not only make it clear what he wanted but not let Y/N have the chance to ignore him.

Once Y/N met Brooks, Bray backed off. He'd been taking more time off and focused his energy elsewhere, but that didn't mean it lessened Y/N's fear of The Fiend. She'd been doing so well for so long, too; not thinking of him or even seeing him when she closed her eyes to sleep. But somehow he was working his way back into her world, and she needed it to stop.

Y/N’s body shook in Rhea’s hold, practically paralyzed in fear. “L-lights…turn t-the lights on! He’s g-gonna c-come back!” She panicked. Dominik hurried and started by turning on a set of string lights that illuminated the area around the bed. Once everyone could see, they got a better look at Y/N’s tear stained face with some sweat starting to form at her hairline.

“Who’s ‘he’, baby?” Rhea asked quietly, but Y/N only shook her head in response and continued to let her tears fall. It was clear they weren’t going to get any immediate answers from Y/N so Rhea sat patiently with her and let her cry.

Finn moved forward a little and moved the hairs from Y/N’s face. “You need to breathe, princess. Look at me…” he encouraged, smiling a little as her eyes met his. “There she is.” Finn took one of her hands and placed it over his chest as he started to take deep breaths. “Just follow my lead.”

As Y/N let Finn calm her down, Damian stayed next to Rhea and continued to rub Y/N’s thigh. Dominik had made his escape to grab some water, but once he came back he was right back in bed and rubbing Y/N’s lower back. Nothing was more comforting than the four sets of hands on her body, their sole purpose being to ground her and calm her down after being startled awake.

Y/N’s sobs turned into sniffles eventually turned into sniffles as she image of her running through the woods replayed in her mind. Even though the lights had been turned on and she saw her partners around her, the imminent fear remained in her kind of being alone. She continued to tremble in Rhea’s hold, and the stares of everyone around her didn’t go unnoticed.

“He was…he kept chasing me.” She whispered softly. One of Dominik’s hands reached forward and held her own, her finger lightly tracing the tattoos on his hand. “We all had to split up. He…it was so dark…” Y/N could barely get the words out to explain what she saw in her dreams and she just knew she was going to struggle even beginning to explain it.

Finn frowned and rubbed her back. “Who is he, my love?” He asked quietly.

Rhea could feel the shiver that went down Y/N’s spine at Finn’s question. It took a second, but eventuality answer answer left Y/N’s lips in a hushed whisper; she was scared that even trying to speak up would bring her nightmare into existence. “Bray.” Y/N finally said, looking at Finn with teary eyes over Rhea’s shoulder.

"I knew it." Dominik mumbled as he gently shook his head, his fingers drawing gentle patterns on Y/N's lower back as she continued t calm down.

Damian frowned; he hated that he couldn’t protect his partners from everything, especially the nightmares that would pop up in their sleep unannounced. He was someone who lived to protect all four of them, and not being able to do so made him feel an immense amount of rage. But he was determined to make it better even for the time being.

He reached out and gently rubbed Y/N’s thigh. “Nothing is going to happen to any of us, especially you.” Damian said quietly. “There’s nowhere safer than right here in our home.” Y/N’s bottom lip trembled again at his words, and while she was still too terrified to fully believe Damian she gave a small nod. She also moved out of Rhea’s hold to settle in Damian’s; his muscular arms wrapped tightly around her body to shield her from anything that she thought could potentially come for her. “You're okay." He whispered softly.

Y/N's fingers gently played with the loose strands of Damian's hair; anything to occupy her mind other than the dream she'd just woken up from was fine with her. The other three watched by with sad eyes, each of them exchanging looks with one another and Damian to come up with something that could make this all better for their girl...but they knew it wasn't going to be an easy fix.

Eventually once the sniffles stopped and Y/N had exhausted herself all over again, everyone was getting settled into bed with hopes of not being woken up again. Y/N had once more been transferred to a different partner, this time laying on Finn's chest with Dominik next to her. The younger man's arm was lazily draped around her waist while Finn's fingers twirled her hair, looking down at her every so often to see if she'd fall asleep.

"If you'd quit staring at me maybe I'll fall asleep." She teased him softly.

Finn chuckled at her and used his long fingers to gently scratch at her scalp. "I'm just checkin' on ya. Need to make sure you get at least some of your beauty sleep." He smiled and gently tilted her face up so she would look at him. "Go to sleep, my love. We've got you."

463 notes · View notes

myrskytuuli · 6 months

Text

Oh my god, I literally just woke up and I have to write this down immediately, because I just had the funniest genre-shifting dream I can ever remember.

Okay, so this actually started as a sex dream, don’t worry, I won’t go into details, but this is so funny in the grand scheme.

So I was apparently hired as an actress for a porn set, taking place in this boarding school, because it was like a super cringe two students experimenting roleplay thing. The point is that it wasn’t even super hot, as far as dreams go, because it ended up being a bit too realistic about what it’s like fucking in front of other people and also about my skills to come up with dirty talk on the fly. It was more a dream about what it would be like to be a porn actor than about the sex part, if I’m going to be honest.

But I digress. The weird part was that the dream “plot” continued even after the wet part of the wet dream was over. So me and my two other co-actresses were just chilling and making small talk in the lobby of the what now cleared up to be an abandoned victorian era boarding school in the middle of nowhere. And the genre of the dream shifted into a nightmare as I suddenly noticed that the place looked exactly as every Victorian abandoned building from any horror movie ever. And with dream logic I could remember that I’ve been here before, with some friends, and that during that time we had witnessed some spooky activity. Like furniture moving on their own and doors banging etc. Ghost shit.

I started explaining this to my co-actresses. We three were now alone there, as with dream logic I knew that the film crew had left to do something else in somewhere else. The two women kept telling me to stop talking about the last time I was here, because it would summon THEM. And lo and behold THEY arrived, possessing these two women, making objects in the room levitate and summoning knives into their hands.

Now I was functioning with full on nightmare logic, where when you try to move it’s like your entire self is stuck in glue and when you open your mouth and try to scream, nothing comes out. The helplessness and the looming sense of dread when you try to scream so hard that you feel like your veins are going to explode and nothing comes out expect maybe tiniest whimper.

And the entities kept coming closer, and I knew I was going to die. But then one of them opened its mouth and started talking with that creepy-little-demon-girl in a horror movie voice. Something like: Oh we’re going to play such fun games” or some other cliché horror movie line. Expect that I guess the voice of a little girl unlocked my elementary school teacher part of my brain, and for the first time that I can remember, I actually managed to shout in a nightmare.

So I just very sternly shouted NO and slapped the knife from her hand. She kept summoning different knives from the kitchen, and I just kept slapping them from her hand, sternly telling her no each time. And it got pretty slapstick comedic. And then with the pathos of a disappointed homeroom teacher, I started scolding the two ghosts and or demons possessing my friends like; No. This is not a fun game to play. We are going to play some other game, something were nobody has feel bad or left out of the game.

And the ghosts/demons started fidgeting just like my 8 year old students would have, expect they were possessing bodies of adult women. So we all sat down and I started asking them: So, what do you like to do for fun, that doesn’t need knives. And they shrugged their shoulders very sullenly with a: dunno. So I asked: what did you like to do for fun when you were alive. And they both looked at me kind of very sadly, but with this small smile on their face, and that is when I woke up. and started immediately writing this. Anyway. Was pretty bonkers.

#personal nonsense #nightshift makes me sleep at weird times but also makes me wake up in the middle of my dreams in a way I can easily remember them #which is pretty cool because you get gems like these

7 notes · View notes

rubydracogirl · 9 months

Text

Hello and welcome to my blog!

I guess I should start by saying that this place is a mess. I hardly ever tag stuff, and when I do, it's usually me rambling or gushing. I reblog literally anything that catches my eye or makes me laugh, so if you follow me, you can expect an absolute hodge-podge of stuff, including adult-themed, NSFW posts. THAT BEING SAID I'm an adult, 30+ years old, and I do not feel comfortable interacting with minors. If you are a minor, please respect my boundaries and leave. If you do not, I'll block you. ~concerning commissions~ I will open 5 slots every year. There's more information and my TOS in the link above. Concerning my fanworks: My fanfictions are a hobby, and I work on them when and if I have time + energy. I'll post a list below the cut if you're interested. Also, I draw sometimes, mostly Sans, unfortunately XD Please mind the tags if you do, most of what I write is explicit and can get quite dark.

Current ongoing fics: UNDERTALE/DELTARUNE Adventures In Temmie-Sitting: Underswap romcom. Multiple OcXCanon pairings. My most self-indulgent story.

The Rainbone- Zone: Ongoing porn with plot involving Ink!Sans, a female reader-insert, and Error!Sans.

Skittle Friend-zone: Prequel to The Rainbone-Zone

Rainbone-Zone Shorts: Intermediate short stories that take place in The Rainbone-Zone.

Slave To The Fallen Stars: The Star Sanses become corrupted in their pursuit of you... Trust no one.

Static Malevolence: Nightmare and Error have a problem... it's you, you dirty hacker. (There's a lot of mindlessly indulgent porn in this one)

The Parasite Files: Something strange happens when Sans takes you dimension hopping. His memories are foggy... it's probably fine. (This one's an erotic horror, please mind the tags.)

Kinktober 2022- The Dumpster-Fire Edition: Just what it says. Kinktober, so, lots and lots of skeleton/monster smut. MIND THE TAGS.

Your Boyfriend In Darkness- A yOur bOyfriend smut series: A collection of explicit smutty one-shots involving Reader and the yandere-golfball head, Your Boyfriend.

Gravity Falls

One More Chance: You think your life is about to end. Fate has other plans for you... or something like that. NSFW. Tags will be updated.

Finished/One-shots/Commissioned Stories

Gravity Falls

Just A Hug: A short SFW one-shot. Stanley PinesXReader

False Hope: A short SFW one-shot. Ford PinesXReader

Blind Date: A SFW one-shot. Ford PinesXReader

The Scenic Route: A short SFW one-shot. Stanley PinesXReader

Pent Up: A NSFW One-shot. Ford PinesXReader

Undertale/Deltarune fics

A Rivalry Is Just A Slippery Slope To Obsession- Commissioned work. Explicit one-shot.

Meant to Be~: Commissioned work. NSFW.

Crimson Anxiety: Commissioned work. NSFW.

Lolo At Fault: Commissioned work. NSFW.

Tangled With The Dark: Commissioned work. NSFW.

No Strings Attached: One-shot. SFW.

Content Creator-less: One-shot. NSFW.

Kinktober 2020-Disaster edition: Completed. NSFW

Glass Heart: Completed. NSFW.

Dream Catches, Nightmare Snares: Commissioned work. NSFW.

Photographs and Memories: Commissioned work. SFW.

My Heart On A Life Line: Completed. NSFW.

Stars In Your Eyes: One-shot. SFW

How to Tame Your Human: One-shot. NSFW.

Since When Were You The One In Control?: One-shot. NSFW.

Kinktober-2019: Completed. NSFW.

Lucid Dreamer's Dilemma: Completed. NSFW.

Royal Cream Pie: One-shot. NSFW.

Royal Bones: One-shot. NSFW.

Riding The Edge: One-shot. NSFW.

Just A Box Of Rain: One-shot. SFW.

Spooky Month

Magically Delicious: One-shot. NSFW

Your Boyfriend/Raft/Angry Boy Pedro

Possession: One-shot. NSFW.

FNAF: Security Breach

Until Death~ One-shot. NSFW.

My Hero Academia

Attention, Everyone: Commissioned work. NSFW.

#Masterlist #Hopefully all the links work #This is an 18+ blog #MDNI #Lord this took forever #Updated with Gravity Falls stories

8 notes · View notes

pixelkip · 10 months

Text

Fnaf trailer coming out has reminded me of something in fnaf theorizing that bothers me to no end

Why the hell did we decide Michael was the player of fnaf 4.

What purpose does that serve.

How is this a reasonable or satisfying explanation for anything??

"OoOoOoH but Michael drew nightmare fredbear once in the survival logbook so how else would he know what that looks like???" Ok but what if he drew up fucked up lookin versions of the animatronics to scare his brother as a kid, or just cause he was an edgy little shithead teenager drawing fucked up versions of his dad's childrens animal mascots and it happened to scare the hell out of CC because of COURSE it would.

"But pixel it's on the "do you have dreams" page" ok bet Michael drew spooky animatronics, CC saw them and went WAAAA I HAD A NIGHTMARE ABOUT SCARY FREDBEAR and his guilt about bullying his brother stuck with him. Enough to recall it when asked about dreams.

It could also be another case of no matter how you theorize it, fnaf will always have plot holes or details that make no sense.

Maybe it's just me but im willing to go with the easier, albeit slightly headcanon-y solution of Michael Was A Jerk that doesn't require overlooking the obvious details in fnaf 4 that point to the crying child being the player (hospital imagery easter eggs, the players height, the room clearly being a young kids room etc), and doesn't involve William using,, what is it high tech illusion robots???? to torture his children or punish Michael or whatever the explanation is.

Also Michael being the player just makes the story of the game just.. worse. but again, maybe that's just me.

Tldr: fnaf 4 player is Michael theory is kinda dumb and i don't like how it changes fnaf 4's plot and it requires a ton of leaps in logic to justify it and Michael coming up with some spooky shit to scare his brother and recalling it later makes more sense to me.

#sorry for posting rambles about random ass shit it will happen again #i coupd be biased towards wanting to preserve the story of the original game #but as far as i know no official source has seriously attempted to retcon the story of the og game #unless you consider a SINGLE DRAWING to be retconning an entire games plot #i get fnaf lore be like that sometimes but. seriously?#ramble post #fnaf #five nights at freddy's #fnaf 4 #fnaf theory #posts that are either gonna get no attention or get the fandom in question to crucify me

8 notes · View notes

blogtaculous · 7 months

Text

I read The Deep by Nick Cutter and I have some thoughts. I’m also going to spoil the shit out of the whole thing.

The first 100 pages are almost sublime. I couldn’t read fast enough. The world literally falling apart from the seams from the disease feels so real. People are just losing the ability to be human and everyone else is trying to carry on like normal. It feels eerily prescient considering it was published years before the same thing would happen during the first heights of Covid-19. The Disease itself is very cool, and only teased at (eventually it’s revealed that it’s basically Colony Collapse Disorder in humans, but the cause and transmission are not explained), but for the first 100 or so pages it feels like it’s going to be a dynamite reveal (it won’t be) and it’s so exciting.

The characters are interesting and the conflicts as initially presented are memorable and even fun. The terror of the deepest depths is so visceral, and the backstory lore teases are well done.

Unfortunately, it fucking unravels fast.

The things I liked:

- Luke’s son vanishes and has not been seen for years. It’s spooky and haunting, a parent’s worst nightmare. The conflicts that arise from that aftermath feel grounded and it is a good bedrock of terror that’s much more real than, say, being 8 miles underwater and having hallucinations.

- Luke’s mom is evil, and at the start she truly feels like the actual antagonist, the 11th hour see, she was the real horror all along, and the delight she takes in being awful was good. She sucks but it made for good reading. This will change later.

- The technical details feel grounded enough to make you think that a research base in the Mariana Trench could be possible. The Ambrosia, also, is well introduced and seems like a neat macguffin that will play a cool part in the story to come. It’s just sinister enough to get the ball rolling, and I was really looking forward to more.

- The body horror was (mostly) very good. Sick, twisted, and flirted with The Line enough to be fun instead of just uncomfortable. I was squirming in a few sections. Alice’s body being incorporated into the evil beehive and her face peeled open and birthing some monster was a highlight, but the scars upon scars corpse was also good.

And now… The Bad

- Killing the dog for shock value is stupid, and it’s also stupid to draw out that entire incident into like four pages.

- Luke’s mom is revealed to have sexually assaulted his older brother numerous times, and then he poisons her to death. This is how the story acknowledges Luke’s brother is a psychopath. It wasn’t the unspeakable experiments be performed on animals, or how he didn’t care for anyone else on earth, or how he tried to make deals with extradimensional evil… it was when he killed his abuser, a Good and Right thing to do.

- The plot just fucking derails. It does this in two ways. First, the actual plot doesn’t take very long once Luke and Alice (I’m not calling her Al) get to the Trieste so the length is padded out with an absolutely insane number of dreams and flashbacks. They exist to feature some creepy imagery, but most of it has no bearing on the plot or characters. And they’re long! Let’s talk about the goddamn tickle trunk, as an example.

What is the tickle trunk? The short answer is it’s a fairly innocuous toy box with some clowns on it that Luke’s abusive mother forces into his bedroom. That’s it. Does she use it as a torture device? No. It literally just sits in his room and is vaguely creepy. The worst part about it is that while Luke is having his little dream-flashback about it Alice is also having one… about half of a corpse of a submariner she worked with in the Navy plaguing her with guilt about his death. Which do you think would make a better spook? The box, or animated bloated corpse? Like… come on. Alice is like “wow I had this horrible dream about this gross dead body chasing me with my own guilt” and I had to sit there and think about how instead of diving into that I was reading about a toy box.

I’ll bring this toy box up later, don’t worry.

Other bad flashbacks include Luke gathering frogs for his scientist brother and seeing a spook in a gated tunnel and anything to do with the “millipede.”

And second, the Big Reveal sucks. I’m just gonna dive in because it’s so bad.

Ambrosia is a tease to get humans to build a research base in the Mariana Trench. Why? Because two extra dimensional beings of terror have been banished there. Most egregiously, how do we know this? Because they literally fucking sit Luke in a chair and explain the entire thing like a fucking Scooby-Doo villain. The entire scene reeks of Dumbledore talking to not-quite-dead Harry fucking Potter. It’s so fucking bad. And the worst part is these motherfuckers somehow planned the whole fucking thing. There were three researchers on the base, and all of them were specifically groomed by the baddies to be there so they could manipulate them into going looney so that Luke could be brought down there to free them. That’s right, Luke was a Chosen One all along.

It’s further revealed that the monster in the tickle trunk and the gated tunnel were real the whole time. The extra dimensional horrors, despite being banished 8 miles under the ocean for being evil can force project monsters to terrorize people. They do this to slowly torture all the researchers their whole lives to lead them to the Trieste. In fact, they fucking kidnapped Luke’s son.

I cannot begin to describe what a stupid thing this was, and how fucking stupid it was for the extra dimensional horrors to just flat out explain it to Luke like it was a college lecture.

Like, what even keeps these motherfuckers down there if they can so easily do all this? They also reveal the following complete bullshit:

- The Disease was a happy coincidence for their plot. Just background noise. Shrug!

- All the torture and dreams and bla bla bla was just for fun. To quote the extra dimensional horrors: “For fun. And games.”

That’s right, literally less interesting than fucking Jigsaw. Just for funnies. Jokes, even. Their presence, often described as curious, was just silliness. They already knew everything there was to know and were just having a ball.

All right, so prior to Luke being soft-captured to witness this monologue of total garbage, he had grabbed some Go To Sleep medicine (that he knew how to administer since he was a veterinarian) and it just sat in his pocket. He didn’t use it to spare the dog from being Assimilated into evil, or to spare Alice from her ecstasy of pain and suffering, so when he gets captured I’m thinking “okay, here it comes, this is important.”

The extra dimensional horrors reveal that they’ve kept Luke’s son “safe” (he’s a monster now, by the way) and they want Luke to merge his consciousness with it. They explicitly tell him they need him to do this and that it will help them escape to the surface to bring horror and madness. I smiled, “Aha! Luke will use his Go To Sleep chemicals to kill himself, preserving life on earth and rejecting the Thing That Is Not His Son, showing how he has grown and healed.” I was confident in this assessment because Luke literally tells the bad guy that he won’t do it. He knows that this monster isn’t really his son and he’s ready to die.

NOPE!!!!! !!!! !!1! That motherfucker does it! He just fucking merges with Not Zach and lets them out. No big moment, no deep breath, no clarity. Just “yeah I guess.” So what happens? The unholy amalgamation of Luke, his son, and two extradimensional horrors goes to the surface in the only submarine and they get out. The last line is like “what emerged was unspeakable” but what I thought was unspeakable was how fucking stupid this plot was!!!!!!

Read the first 100 or so pages then chuck it in a bin.

#the deep #Nick cutter #book review

4 notes · View notes

monsterfloofs · 1 year

Note

General question, do you plan to write or continue the Nightmare Collector story? Among all your works, this is one of my favourites

Oh gosh the short answer is absolutely, it's a difficult question to answer at this time because I love this character and what they stand for so so, so, deeply. I have been trying to wrap my head around making more than just a handful of shorts for the Collector.

I have been wondering if I could rally enough motivation to work on a comic, or a series of stories revolving around different characters and the fears they have to overcome

This guy is definatly one of my big story contenders, I draw them often, I seek inspiration to further their world and potential story/plot develoment-- been trying to see if I can tie in some other anatagonists too.

If we have one spooky bean lurking around the threshhold of dreams and the waking world-- what's to say there isn't others? 👀

So, ah, yes!! There is a lot of potential to definately be more with them, much more! As for the medium in which it will look like, I am not really sure at the moment. ^^; )

I think a comic would be really darn cool- Love comics have always wanted to make them, ever since I was little. I just never found a story I could resonate with deeply that could capture my attention for long periods of time.

And also the debate on whether I should keep the stories short and quirky or. . . try and tackle the idea of running a thread along them and link them to something bigger.

I have a lot of thoughts about this guy! x//D

And while I may run off on different whims of inspiration The Collector is very solidly camping in my subconcious. He isn't going to go anywhere soon. =3c

#floofyrambles #floofyasks

5 notes · View notes

mrs-evadne-cake · 2 years

Text

S4: The Good, The Mediocre and The Weird

Yep, after the mess that was S3 I’m apparently easier to win back than your Intrepid Girl Reporter High School Ex, so there isn’t even a bad category, I truly enjoyed most aspects of the season. Hell, I have so much good will toward it even Murray was tolerable (might just be dead inside, who knows).

The Good:

The Characters: They’re back! They care about each other! They don’t act like they absolutely can’t stand each other for no reason and treat each other like trash! I was expecting pointless multi-episode bickering about if Lucas Had Really Betrayed Them or no one believing each other about supernatural shit absolutely arbitrability, but nope. I kept being pleasantly surprised as characters showed love and concern and logical priorities. Even minor characters like the Parents or Callahan and Powell, or Chrissy (RIP, I really liked you Chrissy) got some excellent, compassionate beats.

There were also so MANY great little moments that actually show development (Nancy nearly breaking down in tears the SECOND she sees The Gang back together because she knows it’s happening again absolutely sent me) and so many great big ones (everything Max and Lucas do all season). Which brings me to-

Max: Season 4 belongs to Sadie Sink. It’s an understatement to say I was dreading Max’s plot line and thought she was going to end up reduced to a mouth-piece to retcon Billy into A Super Good Guy but I will HAPPILY eat crow. Fucking phenomenal, heartbreaking examination of survivor's guilt and trauma.

And she saves herself with THE POWER OF KATE BUSH AND FRIENDSHIP. The POWER OF FRIENDSHIP IS BACK GUYS.

Eddie: I’ll just keep the ball rolling on things I was wrong about. I honestly thought this character was going to be extraneous at best and eat up time that the show could really use for the main cast. Nope. Absolutely fantastic addition and fantastic character that I missed when he was off screen. Joe Quinn is incredible.

Vecna: I like a spooky tentacle monster that talks to you in your head, drags your mind into another dimension, and breaks you down using visions of your fears and insecurities. Who would have guessed?

The Horror: Between the Crunch of Vecna and Hopper Gerald’s Gaming his foot (twice) there was some great, truly gnarly shit this season. Nice shout outs to Silence of the Lambs and Hellraiser and of course, Nightmare On Elm Street 3 Dream Warriors. Robert Englund is the GOAT as always.

D&D and The Satanic Panic: S3 felt like it was LARPING the 80′s, S4 goes back to actually feeling like it’s set in them. The introduction of the paranoia and general psychosis of Satanic Panic is really welcome and Mini-Patrick Batemen is finally the Unambiguously Sociopathic 80s Yuppie Jock that we deserve (if he gets fangirls I am going to throw myself off of a bridge). For anyone who lived the 80′s/90′s as a weird goth a PTA mob is nearly as scary as Vecna and genuinely uncomfortable to watch.

Speaking of D&D Eddie actually knows how to DM which is a nice change from...whatever it is the kids were doing before.

MK Ultra : Evil U.S. Government Agents are back where they belong on the top of the Villain Pile.

Steve and Robin, Juggling that Brain Cell: God, I love these two. I love that Steve continues to be cautious and genre savvy (”Everyone in this room has almost died like, 100 times so-”) and still rocking his nearly-supernaturally good instincts about when things are Going Wrong until the SECOND he gets the place at the grown-up table and IMMEDIATELY grandstands and nearly gets eaten by the flying motherfuckers from The Mist. A+ Steve-ing.

I’ve heard some complaints about Robin this season, but I thought she was great. Definitely getting some neuroatypical vibes and she just generally seems like the Same Robin but much more comfortable being herself around the people she’s with than S3. Like every character last season I always thought there were times that she was a little TOO acerbic for no reason so definitely not missing that. Let my girl be excited by Nancy’s ridiculously cliche bedroom.

Stancy: I'm pretty agnostic when it comes to shipping but I do like portrayals of the fact that people aren’t static and just because someone wasn’t right for you at one point, doesn’t mean they never will be ( or vise versa; sometimes people just grow apart and that’s okay). So I actually like it fine in concept especially since last season made it pretty clear the writers really don’t know where to go with Nancy and Jonathan and aren’t interested in trying to work it out. Which brings me to-

The Mediocre

Stancy (Again): Can we PLEASE have Nancy actually break up properly with her current boyfriend instead of falling in love with whoever has been fighting evil next to her for more than an hour? This is a straight up habit at this point and it’s a really...questionable character trait. I blame Murray and his shared trauma BS for this.

The Upside Down: Between how relatively easy travel was, and how fast they got out this place is undergoing some serious Eldritch location decay. Also I know they’ve all been read into the secret (and Steve’s been in the tunnels, if not the Upside Down proper) but a few seconds of Existential Angst from everyone but Nancy about the scale of the Hellish Dead World they’re trapped in would have been welcome. But no one’s got time for that ‘cause we gotta get to to-

Russia: Look, it’s better. IT’S WAY better. If S3 was Rocky and Bullwinkle this is fucking Chernobyl in comparison so I don’t hate it- and Dmitri is ANOTHER fantastic new character and David Harbor is bringing it so hard it almost makes be forget what a giant tit Hop was S3 but it still feels like a plot tumor when I just want to get back to plucky teens fighting evil. And speaking of plot tumors-

Joyce and Murray Go To Russia To Fight Russians: *sigh*

That Half-Hug: Mike Wheeler I will rip your face off with my teeth, you little fucker. I could have gone without another Season of the Mike-Will-El Dynamic being the exact same Will Pining, Mike Being Inexplicably Mean to Will, El and Mike Fight. I don’t care who ends up with who but can we like...move this shit along?

The Flash Backs: The director thinks we have retrograde amnesia again. STOP BREAKING UP INCREDIBLE PERFORMANCES WITH POINTLESS FLASHBACKS.

The Weird

Stancy (Again, Again): Okay, writers, what the fuck. Why are we stopping scenes to have characters that barely know them as a couple try to put this relationship over? The first time this happened it was weird, by the third I thought I was having a stroke. Eddie. Baby. You are IN A HELL DIMENSION IS THIS REALLY THE TIME? No it is NOT. STOP MURRAY-ING. They were doing fine with the two of them quietly starting to rekindle the affection they had for each other- stop turning random characters into yentas every time you want Nancy to get some.

California Road Trip Crew : I don’t...even know how to feel about this group. When it first started I thought I had wished for Stoner Jonathan on a monkey’s paw and was ready to go full ‘Look how they massacred my boy’ but everything about it has grown on me and by the time they were burying a federal agent in the desert I just gave up and decided to enjoy... whatever the hell this is. Which is good because boy howdy-

Susie’s House : Does anyone else smell burning toast? Sure, lets do a random 15 minutes of 80′s/90′s Unsupervised Child Comedy. Fuck it. I’m in.

#st s4 spoilers #stranger things s4 spoilers #stranger things s4 #spoilers #s4 spoilers #stranger things spoilers

21 notes · View notes

msookyspooky · 2 years

Note

Hi Spooky !! So I’ve been getting through some of the recs you gave me for my Halloween marathon :33 AND i saw Child’s Play — which i liked way more than I thought i would, like it’s genuinely pretty funny And i cant wait to watch the sequels, leTS FUCKING GOOO — Yesterday was Idle Hands which sksksks wanna a silly little movie, ‘twas truly delightful, all the characters are fun/cool except for Anton most of the movie so it took a while for me to feel bad for him, BUT i did eventually, i really enjoyed it so it’s definitely up there for the rewatchbility of it !! — I CANT REMEMBER IF YOU RECOMMENDED POLTERGEIST OR NOT ??? I think you did but anyways I really liked it !!! The supernatural stuff is pretty mild + the 80s special effects make it not that scary to me, also i felt really bad for that fucking family ? What the hell ?!?! The dad was the fucking mvp he did The Most and he looked great doing it (10/10 - could watch again)

NOW for movies that ik you didn’t recommend but have been mentioned here at some point: Black Telephone and Butcher Baker Nightmare Maker. I saw someone recommended BT for you a whole ago and if you haven’t had the time yet to watch it please know it’s super worth it !!!! The main characters are really good and interesting and the acting is just phenomenal, specIALLY THE KIDS WTH, AND theres a bit of a supernatural thing to it but it was just fun/good for the plot and not so much trying to get you to shit ur pants, ya know?

AND for BBNM, i was very excited for this movie, to me it was a classic like 80s slasher, the tENSION, the creative like weapon choices, the like twist/break the killer goes through (like after its clear to us/other characters they did it) and THE ACTORS ARE JUST PHENOMENAL — like the aunt is/has been basically grooming her nephew since he was 3 and god does it show, some scenes are so creepy, and moments were someone would you know question her/ her actions, he doesn’t even Think to doubt her, it was terrible (but in a good way, story wise) OH AND BILL PAXTON, he doesn’t show up a lot (i think with dialogue for 2 or 3 scenes maybe) and he plays classic homophobic with daddy issues so 😐 but he did look good tho so theres that

STAR THIS IS LIKE WEEKS UPON WEEKS LATE FORGIVE ME 🥲

Idle hands is such a dark humor dumbass slap stick but I love it 🤣 Listen, I just thought he had the worst asthma of his life I didn't even know what weed was till I was like 11 but as a kid seeing that hand terrified me and child me remembered it being so scary and adult me rewatched it and I was like....What? This is the movie that terrified me??? afjsafkjs

POLTERGEIST! That completely slipped my mind, I didn't watch it often but I do remember parts of it and it's really good. And I did see the black phone!!! It was so good I mean the protagonist was so smart and using the ghost of the children was a haunting aspect I didn't expect but so glad they did it. Gwen was my favorite character she reminded me of how I was as a kid and I also have prophetic dreams like her. So does my one grandmother. We both dream of family deaths and major events going to happen and it almost always comes true so it was so different to see them utilize that in the movie. I went in expecting a kidnapping survival and got so much more!!

And bro I have GOT to watch it!! I couldn't find it under Butcher Baker Nightmare Maker so I saw someone recommend searching Night Warning and there it is (Idk why they picked these titles bc it makes it so much harder to find bro ong) and yeeaahhh I kind of expect the homophobia and sexism in 80s movies I just try to take it with a grain of salt I think that's why I like Lost Boys and Near Dark sm bc...Wow...An 80s movie with an 80s aesthetic...and no homophobia or sexism or racism? OMFG FINALLY!!

Another one with Bill I watched but was HORRIBLE was Boxing Helena. I'm usually not a snob with movies but it was like bad cheesy softcore porn for someone with weird fetishes. The guy/doctor is basically an incest mommy issues guy bc of his vapid mother who just 'died' out of nowhere and he inherited her home and he's engaged to a wonderful woman that is also a doctor and too good for him but the kicker is he is OBSESSED with a woman that he had a one night stand with years ago and wants nothing to do with him but he's a toxic fucking weirdo that does everything he can (Including cutting her limbs off....You heard me.) in order to make her dependent on him bc...Shocker; she reminds him of his shitty Mom. You are filthy rich go to therapy you freak. I felt zero remorse for him and the movie tries to make you sympathize with him and it's like...Why?

THE ONLY part, I do mean, THE ONLY FUCKING PART worth watching is the explict Bill Paxton sex scene the first 15 minutes he has the woman's entire boob in his mouth while he's grinding her hips on his uh...And MOANING while he does it...I'd scream w/o the s on the spot if I was her istg 💦 Like I was so flustered bc I DID NOT expect it to be that explict 😳😳😳

He plays an asshole rockstar lover to the woman but compared to the guy we're supposed to sympathize with at least he's not wackadoo nuts tbh. I will take cheating asshole over whatever the fuck is wrong with the doctor if I had to pick....And I mean...Lolk at him-

Like I can't show any scenes from his part in the movie but if you want to watch like the first 15 minutes then skip to the end where Bill's character pistol whips the guy holding her hostage and mutilating her. I mean, Bill's character beats the shit out of him (Again, so hot of Bill's character to do that🥵😤) understandable bc I regret wasting almost 2hrs of my life watching it

WHY IS THE HOTTEST BILL PAXTON SCENE I'VE EVER SEEN IN THE SHITTIEST MOVIE??? WHY 😭😭😭

If ppl like it good for them but I deadass couldn't hardly focus on it at all it was just a hot mess and the ending had me fuming lmfao

I also watched The Watcher and Nope and those were so so good!!!! Especially Nope!

5 notes · View notes

obscureaestheticist · 2 years

Text

★PANTOSTAR★

★PANTOSTAR★ ★ ★My Findings <- the long part ★Possible Origins <- less long but still long ★Why Call It Pantostar? ★Games ★Music ★Fashion ★Symbols ★Themes ★MY FINDINGS★ Pantostar is a visual and narrative aesthetic with design motifs characterized by its whimsical, fairy tale, and storybook-like nature. As such, the majority of Pantostar stories and characters are typically associated with folkloric and mythical themes; - Pantostar protagonists fit very staunchly into the role of traditional fairytale heroes [Sora, Klonoa, Kirby, Nights, Rayman, and Balan.]. However! There are a number of key components of Pantostar that separate it from aesthetics like Adventurecore & Whimsycore, and standard Western Fantasy, and that is its intertextual themes of reality with dreams and theatre, and focus on personal emotional conflicts such as loss, grief, sorrow, communication, loneliness, etc.

This aesthetic is compiled from the video games and franchises of Kirby, Klonoa, Rayman, Kingdom Hearts, NiGHTS Into Dreams, Balan Wonderworld, and Super Paper Mario. As such this aesthetic has a connection to the PS1-2, Gamecube, Sega Saturn, Dreamcast, Wii, and Nintendo hand-helds. Although this covers a wide array of games and time periods, Pantostar does have its roots in the periods of 1997-2002 with the releases of NiGHTS Into Dreams [Saga Saturn - 1996], Door To Phantomile [PS1 - 1997], Rayman 2 [Dreamcast - 1999], and Kingdoms Hearts [PS2 - 2002].

Pantostar graphically has its associations with this low poly era of 3D and 2.5D games, while in its artwork it will follow a strong storybook motif often with dark undertones; - taking scenes of bright whimsical colors and contrasting them with this almost Halloween-like spooky and expressionist environments. Think Destiny Island & Traverse Town / Final Bastion, or Nightopia & Nightmare. Or even in character design aspects such as Klonoa & Ghadius, or Kirby & Zero.

Pantostar has this very distinct dualistic motif of light and darkness, using it as a frame to explore personal feelings and emotions in a way that is easier for kids to process, as such, while these games often feature world-ending plots, they're treated as deeply personal experiences, or in some cases, personal feelings might very well feel like the end of the world [such is the case with kids in NiGHTS, a personal fear in the waking world brings them to confront a reality breaking threat of the nightmare]. - Not to mention the eldritch madness that is the Kirby Lore and villains, or all this stuff the poor catbun Klonoa experiences.

Symbols such as hearts, stars, moons, suns, and the 5 classical elements, heck, even symbols of marriage and death, appear throughout Pantostar games with direct connections to magic and reality. Think the Hearts of Kingdoms Hearts, the significance of the moon in Klonoa, stars in Kirby, and marriage in Super Paper Mario. Dreams and theatre are also very prominent symbols, Rayman exists in a world of dreams, Door to Phantomile is presented as a popup storybook, Balan Wonderworld takes place in a realm called the Balan Theatre, and jesters play a role NiGHTS, Klonoa, Kirby, and Super Paper Mario. Even the majority of the Heartless resemble some form of a twisted jester. - The function of the master of ceremonies/storyteller is a key motif in Pantostar, whether it be in simple character design or literally how the story is portrayed.

In some cases the aspect of fairytales and dreams can add an ominous atmosphere to the game's world, such as Kingdom Hearts 1 with idea of the darkness seeping into every world and that Sora, Riku, and Kairi are falling into the roles of Hero, Villain, and Princess, not by choice but rather by happenstances, like the world itself has willed it to be so [keep in mind this is before the later games expanded on the world]. - This motif of being controlled by unseen forces or reality writing one's self into the story where you weren't before is explored a bit more with Namine in Chain of Memories and her ability to literally write herself into Sora's memories. - Or even Klonoa is an archetypical hero that is willed into other worlds by an unseen law, and in Door to Phantomile his memories are ALSO altered to make him become a hero. - Or even the kids Nights being dragged into the events of the game just by simply falling asleep. It takes the concept of the unwitting hero to a different level, and I'm honestly unsure if this is intentional on the part of the developers or if it's just video game logic. Likely its a combination of both, or its just a way to justify game logic like is the case with a lot of games, but here it's sort of unintentionally created an underlying atmosphere of some sort. Pantostar worlds are alive to a degree, and operate in this shapeless, abstract, storybook popup-style existence, although this is mostly just me trying to sound smart, it's actually just how video game overworlds were designed.

In terms of music, Pantostar has a wide variety of great music [as games of this kind typically do]. In terms of common motifs, I'd say the classical influences, as well as uses of synth, accordions, organs, harpsicords, and woodwinds, are common instruments. - Music boxes, lullabies, nursery rhymes, choir, psychedelic, and surreal music are common aspects Pantostar music. Fashion? Weirdly yes, there is Pantostar fashion and its combination of elaborate colorful theatre costumes, the kind you'd be able to find, mix and match in the back of the changing rooms, and also modern streetwear [you can thank Nomura's trendy love of Harajuku fashion for that]. If you wanna go more nostalgic then try alternative fashion of the 2000s. There is also this strange running motif of exoticized cultures or even characters wearing patchwork and rags in their fit but this isn't exclusive to Pantostar, it's in a lot of video games, although the rag and scrap vibe is its own aesthetic. The fashion is performative, so any combination of circus, theatre, or theme park costumes could suit Pantostar designs. Throw in some streetwear and you're good! - I might make a mood board of Pantostar fashion to try and get a feel for it because it's such a strange combination it sounds like a fun design prompt.

★POSSIBLE ORIGINS★

From what I can find, the 3 of the 4 core games of Pantostar all share the same development line of Japan translating traditional Western aesthetics into something performative for the sake of visual design in characters and environments. - The exception being Klonoa and sorta Rayman, as Rayman is French and it's inspirations were Studio Ghibli and Tex Avery Cartoons. The Sonic Team got the idea for NiGHTS's character after traveling to Europe and Western Asia, and Kingdom Hearts has it's obvious Disney connection which Nomura incorporated after visiting Disneyland.

This isn't anything new, it's sorta like how Americans use Japanese visual aspects and themes, or even how New Age spiritualism basically took the basics of Asian Spirituality and took it's own spin on in. - Whereas Japan has a similar fascination with Western Countries, except it's not as spiritual and more aesthetic. English words used in Japanese songs are seen as cool, references to Western Media and locations in the UK and US are repeated in My Hero Academia, and angles and devils are seen as something strange, romantic, and exotic. Many creators in Japan like to incorporate these Western motifs into their works because of how different it is from their own culture to the point it is almost a form of cultural exposure. - Although in some cases this can be accidentally offensive when it comes to portrayals in anime.

As for the magical aspects of Pantostar, occultism and superstition have a MASSIVE history in Asia, and Western superstitions and religions have their place in Japanese modern society. - The concept of diviners, magic, and fortunes has, and continues to be, a major part of life in lots of Asian countries and honestly warrants its own post to go into, but needless to say Western Occultism, Alchemy, and Hermeticism has a lot, keen researchers and enthusiasts, in Japan. It's why you'll see much more faithful and traditionally accurate imagery in shows like Card Captor Sakura, Full Metal Alchemist, Attack on Titan, Digimon, and Yugioh, than you would in Western Fantasy or shows with magic in it. As for Japan's own irl cults? ...Yeah just look up Japan's history of domestic terrorism and you'll see the difference between its views of Western Cults and its own cults. It's quite an insane history.

★WHY CALL IT PANTOSTAR?★ Pantomime crossed with Planet Popstar Pantomime feels appropriate because of its colors, self-aware nature, and its history with theatre and Commedia Dell'Arte. As well as it's retellings of traditional fairytales and folk stories. I figured it'd be a good Western subject to apply to such a motif, while also throwing in the star because of how common a symbol it is in this motif, and also to pay homage to the most well-known game of this aesthetic, Kirby! ★GAMES★ ★ Kirby Series ★ Door to Phantomile & Lunatae's Veil ★ NiGHTS Into Dreams ★ Balan Wonderworld ★ Rayman Series ★ Kingdom Hearts [Early Games] ★ Sonic And The Black Knight & Sonic And The Secret Rings ★MUSIC★ ★ All the above's respective OSTs ★SYMBOLS★ ★ Hearts ★ Stars ★ Moons ★ Suns ★ Rings ★ Crystals ★ Diamonds ★ Elements ★ Wings ★FASHION★ ★ Cap & Bells ★ Masks ★ Capes ★ Top Hats ★ Ruffs ★ Cravates ★ Motleys ★ Tights ★ Gloves ★ Waistcoats ★ Spats ★ Long Sleeve Shirts ★ Scarves ★ Caps ★ Berets ★ Gatsbys ★ Kebi ★ Brimless Caps ★ Full Fur Caps ★ Veils ★ Robes ★ Hoodies ★ Trainers ★ Zippers ★ Shorts ★ Cargo Pants ★ Boots ★THEMES★ ★ Coming of Age ★ Sorrow, Sadness, Jealousy, and Grief ★ Memory ★ Theatre ★ Dreams ★ Storytelling ★ Illusions ★ Unwitting Heroes ★ Duality ★ Expressionism ★ Surrealism ★ Saying Goodbye ★ Rejuvination ★ Travel ★ Marraige ★ Love & Friendship

[My apologies for spelling and grammar mistakes]

15 notes · View notes

yourbespokeartisanalapocalypse · 7 months

Text

We're on the cusp of October, the nights are drawing in, and I'm feeling the draw of the spooky and the gothic. I started watching Dog Soldiers the other day, got bored and turned it off.

Which made me wonder why I find vampires generally so fascinating and werewolves so...not fascinating (apologies to all the werewolf lovers out there). Here's another question: am I the only one who likes vampire films but gets squeamish about blood drinking? Like, seriously, the last time I tried to watch Interview with the Vampire I had to turn it off because of the way it visually focuses on blood drinking.

So why do I love vampire films? Partly, I think, because some of the best examples of traditional gothic settings (which I love) with the crumbling castles, swirling mist, etc., have been in vampire films. The idea of a being from an antique past lends itself well to that setting. Other films do this too though (hello Sleepy Hollow, I see you there).

The best thing that pretty much only vampire films do, I've decided, is vampiric hypnotism.

This isn't (usually) your run-of-the-mill "when I click my fingers you'll be a chicken" kind of hypnotism. In fact, it isn't usually about controlling another person at all. Vampires are not Jedi and the victim rarely seems to feel violated or cheated once they snap out of it. Instead, vampiric hypnotism draws more on Victorian ideas of mesmerism and animal magnetism in which to be hypnotised is to have some primitive force innate inside you unlocked and let loose.

People who are hypnotised by vampires yearn for the vampire, they experience insatiable, obsessive desire, a longing that is not even chastened by the prospect of death. There's a reason films often portray it as a kind of twisted perversion of love (Coppola made love Dracula's entire motivation). People who are hypnotised also remember it, and sometimes recall the feeling fondly - it is a dream, not a nightmare, and sometimes they even actively try to re-enter the "dream". They don't really consent, but it's not a total negation of their freewill either, more just a case of making them want something really really badly. And even in normal times who the hell knows where desire comes from? Why not from a vampire?

On film, hypnotism often presents like arousal and you don't need me to tell you about vampires and sexual imagery. But it's also often presented as something deeper than just sexual attraction, as a new kind of self-awareness where a person discovers a part of themselves that has been hidden or repressed. So you get these debutante type coming kutt scenes...

It's not a coincidence that mesmerism was such a hit in middle-class Victorian drawing rooms where being "mesmerised" created an excuse to explore the parts of one's self and one's relations with others which society otherwise might not allow.

I think of vampiric hypnotism as the opposite side of what we get in films like Brief Encounter and The Remains of the Day where characters struggle with every ounce of their being to suppress desire. Whereas in those films, the characters are acutely aware of desire's consequences, vampires don't care about consequences. Vampires represent a person's removal from consequence - even death is not really a consequence if they so choose - and so we get all the high drama and excess of overwhelming desire in tension with the checks and balances of civilized society. In many stories, a central plot point is how the vampire gradually chips away and removes anything that inhibits acting on desire.

Interestingly, the vampire is as much of victim of desire as the...uh...victim, since they usually obsess over a specific person.

Of course, because vampires are an evil perversion of humanity everything gets twisted and, spoiler alert, the victim is very much a victim. And there's always the Renfields of the vampiric world too, bless 'em.

#can you tell i'm procrastinating #vampires #hypnotism #mesmerism #dracula #carmilla #vampire movies #gothic horror

0 notes

alphaclient · 10 months

Text

Explaining The Sandman for newbies:

The main character in Sandman is Morpheus AKA Dream of The Endless. He is the living embodiment of dreams. His usual appearance (as his form changes depending on who is looking upon him) has peculiar, bone-white, skin and completely-black eyes with tiny star-like pupils that flare when he’s using his powers. (in the Netflix TV show version they just let him have pale blue, human-looking eyes for most of the time.) He has wild black hair and he is extremely thin.

Morpheus's minion are entities of Dreams and Nightmares. He seems to have a fondness for Halloween aesthetics from Jack-o-lanterns and Gothic castles to spooky old houses (like The House of Secrets and The House of Mystery), and ravens.

Morpheus AKA Dream of The Endless is of a family of beings known as... well... The Endless.

The Endless are a family of anthropomorphic personifications. That means they are living embodiments of certain concepts. For example Morpheus / Dream’s older sister is Death. She’s essentially the Grim Reaper.

The family consists of Destiny, Death, Dream, Destruction, Desire, Despair, and little Delirium (She used to be Delight but she went mad).

Most of Sandman is the story of Morpheus and what happens to him. The place to begin is Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes or The Sandman: Book 1 (which contains the first three volumes of The Sandman).

In this story Morpheus gets summoned and captured by early twentieth century occultists who had been trying to capture Death but got him by mistake. He is kept locked in a windowless cellar in a crystalline cage for nearly a century (It's over a century in The Sandman Netflix series).

When Morpheus finally escapes he gets his revenge on the son of his original captor and then seeks out his tools that were taken from him when he was captured. These tools include his pouch of dream sand (he is the Sandman after all), his helm (a battle helmet, though he rarely if ever goes into battle, made from a skull and spine of Old (Lovecraft style) Gods and resembles a gas mask), and his rubly dreamstone amulet, which is a conduit for his power (like a wizard’s wand).

The first storyline is Morpheus reclaiming these lost artifacts. At one point this leads him to Hell, where he faces a demon who has gotten a hold of his helm. The demon challenges him to a game of wits, creativity, and imagination as opposed to physical combat.

Morpheus used to be something of an asshole but he undergoes considerable character growth through the course of the series and becomes more and more compassionate.

Often Morpheus finds himself simply trying to set right the wrongs of his own past. For example Sandman: Season of Mists starts with Morpheus reluctantly (he’s very afraid) going back to Hell to rescue a soul he wrongfully left there centuries before only to find that Lucifer is quitting (basis for the plot of the Fox / Netflix TV series Lucifer).

Lucifer leaves Morpheus the key to Hell and now Morpheus must figure out what to do with it while The Dreaming (his realm) is bombarded with deities and beings of folklore who all want the key to Hell for themselves since it’s “Prime psychic real estate.”

The Sandman is strange. It’s surreal and it’s beautiful. Each volume of Sandman comics is drawn in a different art style. There’s very little combat-style action or explosions though there is occasional horror and gore. It’s more like a work of pure literature than any traditional idea of a comic book.

____________________________________________

Currently The Sandman is available in comic book / graphic novel format.

And there is the new Netflix Sandman TV series. It's not as faithful as the audio drama but it is still good. (It's a great show but it's not precisely the same as what's in the original version.)

You can also buy The Sandman as three Omnibuses.

Another option is The Sandman Absolute editions (six volumes). The Absolute editions are the highest quality and are leather bound. Five volumes and then Overture.

There are also the Deluxe editions.

The final option are "Book 1, Book 2, Book 3, Book 4, Book 5, etc... This is the cheapest way to purchase the graphic novels.

It's also recommended to read Death: Deluxe edition or Death: Absolute edition. At least

#the sandman #comics

1 note · View note

therefugeofbooks · 2 years

Text

The weather usually starts to get warmer in October. However, this October was cold and rainy. It was the perfect atmosphere for my spooky reads! I read almost all the books from my tbr and managed to listen to some great audiobooks.

Talking about all the books I read in October under the cut.

In reading order:

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (x) (x) (x) (x)

The first part of Mexican Gothic had everything from the Gothic novels I love, the old mansion, the dark ambiance, the weird dreams at night. But the second part just blew my mind! The story is clever and the atmosphere gets even more suffocating and thrilling. I also liked how it discusses topics like Eugenics and Colonialism. It’s a new favorite!

read if you want: gothic fiction with social issues discussion, gore, some body horror.

The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward

It was super thrilling! I didn't see the plot twists coming, and it was super effective for me. It makes you think about who is truly the monster and who we are used to seeing as the villain in horror novels.

read if you want: psychological thrillers.

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas (x) (x)

It was a quick and magical read. It deals with many heavy topics such as deportation, homeless youth, gang members, but it is treated sensitively, and the story still manages to be sweet and lighthearted.

read if you want: ya fantasy, ya mlm, complicated but loving family relationships.

Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage

Books about creepy children! I usually enjoy stories about the horror of motherhood, and the child in question is scary, cruel, and intelligent. It freaked me out how manipulative she could be. As for the mother, the book also discusses the intersection between motherhood and disability that is very interesting.

read if you want: psychological thrillers, "evil children".

Tomie 1 by Junji Ito

Tomie was nice, it’s scary and nightmare-ish like other Junji Ito’s works!

read if you want: gore, body horror, disturbing horror.

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina #1 by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa with Robert Hack (Illustrator), Jack Morelli (Illustrator)

I don't know what it is exactly, but it was not for me. I’m not a fan of the art style, but the creepy vibes are on point. Maybe I should read the next one to see if my interest changes.

Lobizona by Romina Garber

It was a magical and fun read! I love the worldbuilding, and the immigrant issues discussed, and the overall Latine representation! But I didn't know this is a series, and I don't think I'll continue to read. I'm not in the mood for book series right now.

read if you want: magical schools, werewolves, ya fantasy, family secrets, immigrant experience.

The Misfits Club for Girls by BéKa with Camille Mehu (Illustrator)

Stories about friendship are my thing! It's a fun read, with some heavy topics. Review coming soon!

read if you want: stories about outsiders, friendship between women.

Teddy Spenser Isn't Looking for Love by Kim Fielding

It was a fast-paced and sweet story. There's a lot of things that happen in this book that are not realistic, and I think they fall in love too quickly, but if you enjoy forced proximity, you'll enjoy it.

read if you want: adult mlm rom-com, forced proximity, there's only one bed!

Geek Love by Katherine Dunn (x) (x) (x)

It's a very dark and twisted story. It deals with a cult and very complicated and sinister family relationships. It seemed like the right amount of horror and character analysis that I’d love to read. However, I’m not sure what happened, but I caught myself not wanting to pick the book up, and it took me longer than I expected to finish. Nevertheless, there are so many horrific things in the plot, and the characters are so fascinating that the book still left a deep impression on me.

read if you want: cult horror, family relationships, circus horror.

Horrid by Katrina Leno

The plot twist in this one was really good! It's creepy and spooky, but it was a bit slow for me. I think the main character was a bit boring, though.

read if you want: ya horror, haunted houses.

When the Reckoning Comes by LaTanya McQueen

It was super spooky! The plot is engaging, and the mystery is creative. I loved the atmosphere of the restored plantation, and the historical aspects are well-done.

read if you want: black horror, social horror, haunted houses, small-town drama.

Fragments of Horror by Junji Ito (x) (x) (x)

I enjoyed Fragments of Horror a lot! What I like about Ito’s horror is it doesn’t need an explanation to exist. People go to extremes because of their obsessions, everything has the potential to be monstrous, and the art is pretty shocking.

read if you want: body horror, surreal horror, gore.

Rereads:

My Sister, The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite (x) (x)

Disponível em PT:

O fim e o começo de todas as coisas by Karen Alvares (x)

Read in: Feb | Mar | Apr | May | June | July |Aug | Sep

☆Book Photography ☆ Storygraph ☆ Scribd ☆

#booklr #monthly wrap-up #mine: original posts #read in 2021 #the refuge of books

27 notes · View notes

franniebanana · 3 years

Text

CQL Rewatch - Ep 19

Wow, Wei Wuxian looks so rough here. He’s spent some time under the knife (with no anesthetic), and then after that, he has just been waiting around for Jiang Cheng. It’s been seven days since Jiang Cheng went up that mountain. And of course Wei Wuxian is worried about him. What if something happened on his way down the mountain? What if he’d been captured or killed by the Wens? All the while, he’s basically defenseless here in Yiling (iirc). He’s sweating profusely, clutching at his middle—it’s possible he’s even suffering from an infection due to the transfer surgery. Seriously, the poor guy!

I love the visuals here: all these cloaked figures just filling this tea house, and not another soul in there other than the waiters. It’s both comical and heartbreaking the way that Wei Wuxian tries to immediately nope out of there, because he knows it’s a trap right away. Even with his Golden Core, I don’t know if he could have escaped them all—there were too many Wens, including the Core-Melting Hand. This part always really gets to me, because it truly is the first death of Wei Wuxian. It’s the death of who he once was: that smart, quirky, rascal of a youth, who made a very honest oath that essentially guided him to this point.

No joke, the first time I watched this, I was like, “Is that Lotus Pier? How tf did he get there?! How much did they change the story?!” And then a few seconds later, I realized this was a super sad dream/vision that Jiang Cheng was having and I channeled all my anger into sadness. This part is also super depressing. He has this vision of this happy family: his mother laughing, his father kissing his hand, just the picture of love. But it’s so far from what he had growing up, and you just realize that his greatest desire was really to have that happy family. But his parents are dead, he’s lost just about everyone at Lotus Pier—it’s so heartbreaking.

God, he just looks so broken! I’m sad now.

So even though I know the cost of Jiang Cheng’s happiness is Wei Wuxian giving up his own Golden Core, I still feel so happy here, seeing Jiang Cheng feeling like himself again. It’s because Wei Wuxian knows Jiang Cheng’s heart truly that he could offer up his own future so that Jiang Cheng could have a better one. I also just love this shot of Jiang Cheng kowtowing to the Immortal One, thanking her for healing him, and the camera pans past him, showcasing the beautiful scenery again. And then he walks down the mountain path with such a spring in his step! I love it!

I love that Wei Wuxian is still able to use his mind and play to their weaknesses. Wang Lingjao is extremely superstitious and fearful of the supernatural, and just the idea that he could haunt them scares the shit out of her. It’s just very cool to me that with all the abuse he endures, he still maintains a clear head and is able to fight back with his wit. This is yet another reason why I get annoyed when I see Wei Wuxian characterized as an idiot or someone who isn’t very smart. He proves his wit in just about every scene, so I don’t know why he gets this reputation in fanon. I feel like it’s derived from some overused yaoi/shojo trope where the “girl” has to be less smart than the “guy.” I don’t know how many things I’ve watched and read with a scatterbrained (but not charming) female lead—it’s overused.

This is so cool, because Wei Wuxian is scared out of his mind—he’s terrified of being left to die in the Burial Mounds. He’s heard all the stories: people don’t return, their souls get torn apart, etc. But what is cool is that he turns everything around and makes this place his source of power. He’s the man who conquered the Burial Mounds. It’s very satisfying to see that. FYI, I’m not going to talk about how he falls for like 20 minutes.

But I do think it’s really cool how the dark spirits catch him (and that’s all I’ll say).

This part still gives me major chills: you hear so many people calling out Wei Wuxian’s name, and then a “Wei Ying” breaks through. My breath always catches in my throat the first time I hear it. And then you hear it again, and the other voices have faded away before you hear it a third time. And that all feels nice until the screaming starts, which is hard to listen to, let alone hard to watch Wei Wuxian go through the mental turmoil.

Lan Wangji is back, bitches! He’s got a new title, a new headdress, and he’s hotter than ever. Jokes aside, though, this entrance is beyond epic. Other than that tiny glimpse of him in the last episode, it’s been ages since we’ve seen him, and it’s so satisfying that we get this great entrance, walking up this enormous staircase. Obviously by this point, I’m ecstatic to see him (it’s been way too long). Everything about this scene is great, from his entrance, to the way he uses his guqin as a spiritual tool, to the way he and Jiang Cheng are now a team. I don’t think there’s an awful lot of comradery there, but they have a common goal: find Wei Wuxian.

So we’re not really used to seeing a ton of emotion from Lan Wangji. Even when he’s annoyed, he doesn’t tend to show it. But, man, he is pissed here. Because of the magic of fiction, he’s probably heard the Wens’ conversation as he was walking up the stairs, so he heard them mocking Wei Wuxian (and the Yunmeng Jiang Sect), and he is not happy about it. He even uses the Chord Assassination Technique right off the bat against at least two of the Wen soldiers. Lan Wangji means business, and he’s not leaving until he gets what he wants.

The other great thing is that he doesn’t even need to come up all the way. He defeats them at a distance, while he’s still on the stairs. And the power and respect he commands is so great that they all know him by his face.

What Wen Chao does here is so relatable. His girlfriend is freaking out, having nightmares, convinced Wei Wuxian is going to turn into a ferocious ghost and haunt them until they lose their minds, and he, of course, rationalizes: they’ve sent so many people to the Burial Mounds and none of them have ever come back. In other words, “You’re being ridiculous.” But when he turns away from her, you can see the fear in his own eyes. When something spooky happens, my first step is always to rationalize—there’s a logical explanation for most things, right? And it always makes you feel better to rationalize it to someone else, but when you’re alone and thinking, your mind starts to wonder, your imagination starts to go wild. It’s easy to psyche yourself up in the dark and quiet of the night.

There’s this really gorgeous cello version of “Wuji” playing during this scene—it’s so beautiful, so moving, hitting me right in the feels. The look on Lan Wangji’s face when Jiang Cheng is telling him about how he and Wei Wuxian were supposed to meet in Yiling, how he thought Wei Wuxian had abandoned him to meet up with Lan Wangji in Lanling—he looks so defeated there. Defeated despite taking down the Qishan Indoctrination Bureau. Defeated because he hasn’t found who he’s been searching for. And then he holds Suibian so tenderly and lovingly—I’m emotional, okay?

It’s really cute and heartwarming to see Jin Zixuan starting to fall for Jiang Yanli. We’ve known for quite some time how Yanli feels for him, so it’s quite satisfying to see his walls come down as he starts to care more and more about her. He becomes protective of her. When she gasps at the hanging head at the gates of Qinghe, his instinct is to hold her—of course, he stops himself, but it’s very obvious that he wants to comfort her physically (and not in a dirty way, get your minds out of the gutter).

I love the dichotomy here: on one end, you have Jin Zixuan asking Lan Wangji where Wei Wuxian is, while you have Jiang Yanli echoing that on the other end with Jiang Cheng. Jiang Cheng can’t answer—he’s crying, trembling, emotionally responding to his sister without speaking. And Lan Wangji can’t speak either. His lips part, but no words come out. Again, you get this great sense of defeat from him—he’s completely at a loss, but he can’t or chooses not to show those emotions.

It’s also interesting how they kind of clipped the reunion between the Yunmeng Jiang siblings in favor of showing the conversation between Jin Zixuan and Lan Wangji. In my opinion, it’s to remind us of the reunion that isn’t happening right now—the one that should have been—the one between Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian. And why isn’t it happening? The conversation reminds us that he’s still missing. I don’t doubt the importance of the Yunmeng Jiang siblings in this story—they are obviously instrumental to the plot and to Wei Wuxian—but it’s choices like this where the writers/scene directors remind us that the relationship to focus on is the one between Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji. Lan Wangji, and not Jiang Cheng, holds onto Suibian, the only remaining item that is most spiritually connected to Wei Wuxian. Isn’t that interesting?

“A-Cheng, you’ve grown up. As your sister, there’s nothing I can do but worry about you.” Such a wise line—such a sad line. This really brings out how powerless she feels in the lives of her brothers. She’s a bystander, she has no influence. All she can do is watch and worry, and nothing either of them says or does will change that. It’s something we as parents and caretakers and guardians at some point have to admit: we can’t control our children’s lives, we can’t control those we take care of. Once they reach a point in their lives, it’s them who has to make their own decisions. They must thrive on their own, they must fail on their own. And all we can do is watch and worry and hope for the best. God, Yanli breaks my heart.

Me in bed when I watch a scary movie any time of the day.

She does crazy so well, though.

Other episodes: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |

#cql #the untamed #wei wuxian #lan wangji #wangxian #jiang cheng #jiang yanli #jin zixuan #wen chao #wang lingjiao #mdzs #mo dao zu shi #cql rewatch #ep19

19 notes · View notes

missgonnabeallrightsomeday · 3 years

Text

Best. Christmas. Films. You. Shouldn't. Miss. 🎄🎥

Heads up! It's the most beautiful time of the year again! Do you have plans for Christmas already? Or nah, because the pandemic got in the way? Because of the 2020 curse, it just doesn't feel like the holidays right now, don't you think? But I assure you a good ol' holiday film will definitely put you in the Christmas spirit. Like literally a Christmas ✨miracle✨ that you've been looking for. So take note, here are some of the perfect films to stream and set you in the mood for the holiday. Sit back, grab your hot chocolate and relax.

Klaus (2019)

Let's start off with an animated film to bring out the kid in you! Klaus is a 2019 English-language Spanish 2D-animated Christmas comedy film. Jesper Johansson, the lazy, spoiled son of the Royal Postmaster General, has been trying to flunk out of the postman academy, but his father sends him to the distant town of Smeerensburg; if Jesper fails to post 6,000 letters within a year, he will be cut off from his family's fortune. Jesper, befriends toymaker Klaus, their gifts melt an age-old feud and deliver a sleigh full of holiday traditions. Art style? Perfect. 2D animation? Perfect. Story plot? Incredible. This movie? Perfect for everyone!

Home Alone (1990)

Oh yes, a classic. A bratty 8-year-old Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) acts out the night before a family trip to Paris, and his mother makes him sleep in the attic. After the McCallisters mistakenly leave for the airport without Kevin, he awakens to an empty house and assumes his wish to have no family has come true. But his excitement sours when he realizes that two con men (Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern) plan to rob the McCallister residence, and that he alone must protect the family home. What a witty kid, I could learn from his tricks.

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992)

Kevin again and his mischievousness. Kevin loses track of his father at the airport, he mistakenly gets on a plane headed for New York City -- while the rest of his family fly to Florida. Now alone in the Big Apple, Kevin heads into a room at the Plaza Hotel and begins his usual antics. But when Kevin discovers that the Wet Bandits that intruded his house before are on the loose, he struggles to stop them from robbing an elderly man's toy store just before Christmas. Then again, Kevin outwits the bad guys for the second time.

The Princess Switch (2018)

In the Princess Switch, High School Musical alum Vanessa Hudgens takes the lead(s). One week before Christmas, the duchess of Montenaro, Margaret Delacourt bumps into her doppelgänger Stacey DeNovo, a baker from Chicago, and they decide to switch places so the royal can experience, a “normal” life. And little did they know, they each fall in love with each other's beaus. Just enough fluff and romance for a warm Christmas you wish you had.

The Christmas Chronicles (2018)

Siblings Kate and Teddy Pierce hatch a scheme to capture Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. Santa accidentally gets interrupted by the two kids on his Christmas Eve deliveries-- and crashes his sleigh, losing his presents in the process. Then the kids join forces with a somewhat jolly Saint Nick and his loyal elves to save the holiday before it's too late.

Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

Are you down for a spooky winter? Also known as Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, is a 1993 American stop-motion animated musical dark fantasy film. It tells the story of Jack Skellington, the King of "Halloween Town" who stumbles through a portal to "Christmas Town" and becomes obsessed with celebrating the holiday. He is so taken with the idea of Christmas that he tries to get the resident bats, ghouls, and goblins of Halloween Town to help him put on Christmas instead of Halloween -- instead of spreading Christmas joy, Santa Claus is put in jeopardy and his mission turns sideways and creates a total nightmare.

Last Christmas (2019)

Nothing seems to go right to a frustrated Londoner and young aspiring singer, Kate, who works as an elf in a year-round Christmas shop. Things soon take a turn for the better when she meets Tom-- a handsome charmer who seems too good to be true. As the city transforms into the most wonderful time of the year, Tom and Kate's growing attraction turns into the best gift for the both of them-- a Yuletide romance.

Dash & Lily (2020)

Dash & Lily is an eight-part romcom television series that is based on the romantic young adult novel Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn. A whirlwind holiday romance builds as snarky Dash who hates Christmas and optimistic Lily who's the opposite of Dash and a certified Christmas enthusiast trade dares, dreams and desires in the notebook that they pass back and forth at locations all across New York City. Although polar opposites, they soon discover that they have a lot in common than they expected. The series will literally transport you to New York's festive vibe while figuring out Dash and Lily's journey on romance.

And that’s a wrap!

P. S. you can find more scenes of the movies on my blog! just scroll down (ꈍᴗꈍ)

#christmas #christmas movies #nightmare before christmas #dash and lily #klaus movie #home alone #the princess switch #the christmas chronicles #home alone 1 #home alone 2 #film #movies #last christmas #netflix

87 notes · View notes

popculturebuffet · 3 years

Text

Amphibia: Night Drivers/Return to Wartwood Review “Many Happy Returns”

Hello you happy people. And Amphibia is back and that means my reviews are back! As for why this reviews a bit late despite it leaking, I wanted to wait for today, and long story short both focused on finishing a review that WASN’T time senstive, instead of finishing it Sunday, and overestimated how much time i’d have to do two reviews on a day that included my first covid shot, grocery shopping, helping mom clean the car, and my friend coming over to watch Judas and the Black Messiah. Excellent film by hte way, as was the Sound of Metal which we watched after. Point is I done goofed and I will try to at the very least actually get the reviews of the episodes out on the same day they come out.

But slip up or not i’m happy to be back in the saddle, and back to Wartwood. I’m pumped for the heavier second half, with more secrets to uncover, some zelda style temple action, and some heavy drama with just a whiff of keith david, as well as to see the supporting cast from Wartwood again after far too long. So how’d the mid-season premire pair fair? Join me under the cut to find out.

Night Drivers: I was really excited by the Road Trip idea when first announced for season 2. A chance to expand the world and get the plantars out of their comfort zone was an amazing concept and it did lead to some really great stories and interesting locales.. mixed with episodes that had interesting locations but no interesting plot or character stuff. It was a mixed bag, and disappointing after close to a year’s wait to continue the plot that it really didn’t outside of “Toadcatcher”. Anne never really dealt with her trauma and the show never dealt with hop pop’s poularity or anything else. Again there were GOOD episodes and ideas but it felt like the show stalled for a good chunk of the season till we got to Netwopia which while still having tons of slice of life stuff felt a lot fresher with it, and had a lot more fun playing with stock plots and gave us a fresh new setting to dig into.

So I was a bit hesitant to go back to the road for an episode.. even if it was just one episode. Thankfully I was very wrong there as Night Drivers was a pretty good episode and would fit well among the best of the road trip arc like “Truck Stop Polly” “Fort in the Road” “Anne Hunter” “Toadcatcher” and “Wax Museum”.

The plot is straightforward: Sprig and Polly are excited that their almost home to wartwood and if Anne and Hop Pop drive all night they’ll be there by morning. Polly will get pillbug pancakes and Sprig will see Ivy again. This is part of a long tradtion of “skiping over the journey home because we’re tired and we wanna go home” in fiction. Jokes aside it’s a resonable device used to prevent ending fatigue and in this case to free up episodes for the second half. We already saw the journey once, we usually don’t need to see it again. To Amphibia’s credit they have valid reasons for it: The journey is LITERALLY sped up, as Hop Pop and Anne have been driving for 20 hours straight.. and their on a timer. As was established last time.. well the last time that wasn’t a spooky halloween episode, The Plantars have to get back for the harvest and really don’t have time to sightsee, while they all have to be there for whenever Marcy comes back to take Anne to the first temple. They’ve also traveled these roads before so while their going a whole other directoin, they know what perils to avoid.

But as anyone whose taken a long cartrip can tell you, you can’t shotgun it forever and the two eventually tap out with Hop Pop telling Sprig and Polly not to night drive as it’s dangerous and blah blah blah standard parental warning that will be swiftly ignored. So once Hop Pop and Anne are conked out they swiftly ignore it after we get their dreams.. which are the best gags of the episode: Hop Pop has a dream with weird, really cool looking monsters that represent his faults, only for it to turn Lucid and him to start flying and take his shirt off and whip it around Muscle Man style.

While Anne’s is about a yogurt world where there’s only one flavor... BLACK LICORICE. Yeah it quickly turns from Shopkins to the Lich From Adventure Time really fucking quick.

So while Anne has a nightmare and Hop Pop becomes unto a god, Sprig and Polly drive all night, repreadtly running into a creepy hitchiker and realizing it is as dangerous as they said with bolders, even worse creatures than usual because of course theye’d be a lot of nasty things lurk in the dark why wouldn’t they on froggy death world, a nightmarish fog and nearly dying on said foggy road they took to evade the hitchiker. Naturally the scary hook handed hitchiker.. is a friendly one, simply trying to help them and saving them from going over a cliff. They do make it three miles from Wartwood and Hop Pop wakes up angry to find they disobeyed him.. but Anne gets him to back off as they clearly learned their lesson from the sleep deprviation and nearly dying, and our heroes head for home.

Night Drivers isn’t an exceptional episode, but it is decent and still does belong with the other good road trip episodes, with some good dream sequences and a nice dynamic between Sprig and Polly. It was nice to have an episode with the two that was good unlike Quarallers Pass which made me want to run full speed into my nearest wall until I was given the sweet gift of unconciousness. While the Hook Handed man thing was a bit obvious it lead to some great gags. It’s a nice breather after the tearjerking mid-season finale and while we’ve obviously had months and a haloween episode between that, the creators rightfully realized a lot of people will be binging the series in the future. The issue I had with the first quarter of the season was it was ALL break and only a little plot progression. Here we’ve had a lot of plot progression in the last episode chronlogically, and are going to have a lot in the coming episodes with ‘After the Rain” coming next week. It’s nice to take a break and see the forest for the hook handed ghosts.

Return to Wartwood: I was excited and terrified of this one. I was excited because I missed the supporting cast from season one, mostly Ivy and Maddie, and was delighted to see them again in full. But I was also worried the show might pull out a melancholy breakup plot and having gotten attached to Ivy/Sprig and Hop Pop/Sylvia I was worried. And I was delightfully wrong as instead it’s another breather episode and an utterly fantastic one after the simply decent one above.

Our heroes return, without being drawn by rob liefield or replaced by the Squadron Supreme first, and are happily greeted by the town. Aformentoined fears died a happy death as Sylvia squeezes Hop Pop and as for Sprig, Ivy unsuprisingly ambushes him. Everyone’s back and the Mayor, who I also badly missed is back using Toadie as a gong to get everyone back to buisness, with Swampy inviting them for a big dinner at his diner that night to celebrate and welcome them back.. and to give out their gifts.

Sprig and Anne are equally confused while Polly and Hop Pop are sweating bullets. Turns out when they got the Fwagon they agreed to get a bunch of stuff for the town and forgot and now everyone’s on the hook for it and want to lie their butts off to solve it. In a nice show of character development, Anne has learned that the lying never solves anything “I think we’ve learned that lesson by now”. After SO many plots of the characters lying and it going terribly, it’s nice to have someone speak up. Sprig also wants to lie but only becuase he’s deeply afraid Ivy will break up with him as she wanted a Red Sun shell to go with the blue moon shell she gave him. Awwww. And oh crap.

So our heroes head home to plan and kick Chuck out (“I grew tulips”). So they do the natural thing... and decide to summon an edltich beast from the necronomicon... which of course Maddie gave Sprig as a present (”Aww that’s nice”. Agreed Polly, agreed.). I also can’t help but love the line “We’re all cull with practicing the dark arts to solve our problem right?” So our heroes get the proper summoning horn, thing to go with the horn and some candles.. i’ts not part of the ritual but Anne says it helps with ambience and it’s right.

So our heroes summon the Chikalisk, an edltich god that’s naturally basalisk in all but name, which dosen’t attack unless attacked and goes after gold. So they fake some golden presents, and the beast attacks at the party.. but the town naturally fights back, and our heroes are forced to help fight the monster as it stonifies people. So we get a truly glorious battle sequences as the whole town shows off how badass they are, with Maddie curing people, Sylvia showing she can keep up with Hop Pop and Ivy showing her already established badass bonafieds. It’s just awesome. Also the Mayor uses Toadie as a shield not realizing he’s turned to stone which can only remind me of this.

Once the townsfolk are freed they get into Chickalisk formation (”We have a formation for that?” “We have a formation for everything!”) And it’s offended enough to just nope out. The townsfolk are depressed though the presents got destroyed and Anne glares the family into coming clean. And while the mayor seems mad at first... he just laughs with everyone taking it in stride: It was boring without them getting into trouble and learning lessons every week, and they missed them. Ivy likewise dosen’t care about a gift she just missed her boyfriend.. and asks Sprig to take her on a proper date and smooches him on the cheek leaving both him and Anne catatonic, with Polly dragging Anne away and sprig just falling over before Maddie hits him with the potion. It dosen’t work that way, end episode.

Return To Wartwood was a standout episode, with tons of great jokes, pacing and a nice plot that showed growth in anne. While Night Drivers was decent, this was the show at it’s : Sweet, deranged and adventurous all in one episode. While Night Drivers was a good appitizer this was one hell of an entree. Or an appetizer sampler which I often use as an entree. Great episode and a nice high note to start on.

Next Time: We get an Ivy focused episode!

And Hop Pop is finally forced to own up to his lies!

As the twin kermits sooth you if you liked this review, follow me for more, check the amphibia tag for more reviews from this season and join me on patreon. If I get another patreon, i’ll add reviewing season 1 to my 25 dollar stretch goal so look out for that and my next one at 20 dollars, only 5 dollars away, nets a monthly review of a darkwing duck episode. Check it out and i’ll see you at the next rainbow.

#amphibia #night drivers #return to wartwood #anne boonchuy #sprig plantar #hopidiah plantar #polly plantar #ivy sundew #maddie flour #sylvia sundew #mayor toadstool #disney channel #disney #animation #amphibia spoilers

19 notes · View notes