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pancake-breakfast · 8 months

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It's hot. I'm hoping for chibi Livios to make things feel better.

Stream-of-consciousness thoughts for TriMax Vol. 11, Chapters 3-4 below.

Chapter 3: The Noise of Thunder

Good to see these people are giving Luida credit for her knowledge now.

They think they're gonna be saved... but yeah, the ark and Knives are definitely a threat right now. We'll see how that goes....

Awww, Vash looks happy! Excited, even.

Ohhhh, Luida's not happy that he expended more of his power.

Awww, Livio looks all depressed and sad again. Someone look after this man.

Ah, everyone's favorite question right now. And, of course, there's no helping it. When your right hand is suddenly gone, people who know you are bound to have questions.

!! My boy Livio was gonna just fess up right there, set himself up to take all their ire and sadness and frustration so Vash didn't have to deal with the question. He was gonna step up and do his best to handle it himself!

I have mixed opinions on Brad's response. I get what he's trying to do, but the truth of these things has a way of coming out. I guess at least it will allow the girls some time to get to know Livio first.

Heh. He's not fooling Milly. She knows something bad happened.

He has no right and he knows it, but I kinda want Livio to just give Milly a hug right now and tell her he's sorry. I don't know if she'd put it all together from that, but she'd hug him back and they could both use the comfort right now.

The ark isn't looking so good right now. Is that from Vash's backlash in the last volume?

Wooooooorms.

Zazie doesn't look super-happy with Knives right now.

Hahahaha, I was wondering how Zazie got injured.

It seems strange that a world like this would have weird little toy figurines. Then again, Nightow made this world, so maybe it's strange that there aren't more of them.

Awww, it's Vash's old personal effects!

RIP Bernardelli HQ

Oh, goshdarnit. It's Legato's stupid token collector.

I like that Milly was somehow the one who found the two from Hoppered and Midvalley. Good for her.

Hahahahaha, Twolives cameo.

Meryl gets it. Legato's game is dumb. Vash thinks Legato's game is dumb. He's right.

I love the subversion of the trope with the coins. It could have been Villain of the Week, but Vash didn't want to play, and so the coins got brought up here and there, but not because he was specifically hunting them. It's only now, so much closer to the end of the game, that he both realizes their importance and even has them on-hand.

I wonder if perhaps they're important to Elandira and can be used to just... pay her off. She seems pay-off-able, if one somehow were to find something she valued.

Vash isn't wrong. Legato's much too invested to let things happen without being there himself if he has any ability to do anything about it.

Aww, Livio. Please don't tell me you're trying to wash off the marks on your face from Razlo. I get it, but... it's ok, buddy. It's ok.

Oh, he finally noticed his hair is a mess. I think it's cute all sticking up like that, but yeah, it could probs use a comb and such.

Livio... let Brad finish peeing before you chat him up, maybe?

Brad, you're making Livio feel emoshuns. He's probably lived a long time trying to kill them all, and now he has too many. Let's hope what you told him helps him sort a few of them out, gives them some direction.

Livio looks a lot beefier now that he's wearing casual clothes instead of his bondage gear. What's up with that??

Heh, it's not gonna do anyone any good if the people left on Noman's Land go all civil war on each other in this.

Good job, Luida. Tell it like it is.

Vash, trying to not be a burden, getting called out on it by the gunsmith. Good job, gun guy.

It's a nice way of saying, "You're 150 years old, for crying out loud. Time you learned a bit about interpersonal relationships, dumbass."

Awww, he made Vash cry. Vash isn't used to recognizing how much other people care about him... and right now, he's in a mental state where it's unavoidable, and he doesn't know how to process.

Uhhhh... what went boom??

Worms??

Legato???? I swear, this boy always looks sleepy.

Ohhhh, shit. He's graduated from his bagworm state. This is bad.

Chapter 4: Return of the Wicked

Lemme guess; "the wicked" is Legato. Am I right? Do I get a prize?

Awww, Zazie has a giant butterfly worm!

Dang, it looks like it takes an act of willpower for Knives to pull himself up into physical form away from his sisters at this point.

Knives: "I want to be left alone." Also Knives: *probably dealing with the collective consciousnesses of all the Plants he's absorbed and thus never alone*

LOL, Zazie called him out on it. That's what I get for not having read the next panel yet.

Meh, I call shenanigans. Zazie doesn't want to help. Zazie wants to complicate.

Aww, baby Knives!

Adult Knives looks even more tired than he usually does. Not to be confused with Legato's sleepy look. Legato looks like he just woke up from a nap and is still in that state between sleeping and waking. Knives looks like he's forgotten what sleep is.

Hahahahahaha, see? Shenanigans. Zazie just wanted to distract Knives for a bit so they could screw Knives over. No wonder Legato went apeshit on them.

The keywords to summon forth Legato have been spoken! Or... rather... thought.

Yep, Zazie's doing Zazie things. Zazie says, "Fuck you, personally, Knives."

Aaaand they're unzipping their pants. I've seen this scene and I'm not ready to see it again.

Ewwewwewwewwewwewweww THAT IS NOT A POCKET FOR STORING MORE WORMS IN, ZAZIE!!! *shuddershuddershudder*

Somehow, I don't think this is quite gonna work out for Zazie.

Ah, there he is.

Wait, are we getting explanation for Legato's powers?

Elandira looks pleased.

Yep, Legato's free of his little iron maiden. About freaking time. Ohhhh, gods, I'm gonna eat those words.

Yeah.... He's definitely terrifying, girl. The scariest thing in this series apart from (arguably) Knives himself. At least with Knives, it's not personal... but with Legato, it's almost always personal.

Ah, I was wondering if the scrapes were there for a reason other than aesthetics.

Gratuitous shirtless Legato shot. How the hell did he keep his body fit while in that cocoon? Was he, like, applying little electroshock impulses to his muscles to keep them toned the whole time??

Aww, he's even got his old outfit back.

Is it really Legato if he isn't grinning like a madman?

Ohhh, shit. Looks like Knives is about to join the fight. Or... something.

Vash's twin sense is tingling.

I like how the way he has the bullets and everything set up kinda looks like a miniature city. Maybe he's using them to strategize?

Well, that's one way to make your own bullets.

Aww, man! I knew the haircut was coming, but I kinda hoped he'd just grow it out more evenly instead.

I don't know much about DID. Is it... good to treat the alters as separate individuals like that??

The separating out of the name Chapel. They don't mean Chapel-Chapel. They mean Wolfwood.

Whooooo the crap is this, and how is it that their timing was so perfect? Were they just listening behind the door, waiting for this conversation to come up??

Glad to see Vash is also confused.

Archive

Trigun Vol. 1: Covers + 1-3, 4, 5-6, 7-8, 9-10 || Vol. 2: Covers + Extras, 1, 2-4, 5-6, 7-8

TriMax Vol. 1: Covers + 1-2, 3-4, 5-6 || Vol. 2: Covers + 1, 2-4, 5, 6-7 || Vol. 3: Covers + 1-3, 4-5, 6-7 || Vol. 4: Covers + 1-2, 3-5, 6-7 || Vol. 5: Covers + 1-2, 3-4, 5-6 || Vol. 6: Covers + 1-2, 3-4, 5-6 || Vol. 7: Covers + 1-2, 3-4, 5-6 || Vol. 8: Covers + 1-2, 3-4, 5 + Bonus || Vol. 9: Covers + 1-2, 3-4, 5-6 || Vol. 10: Covers + 1-3, 4-5, 6-8 || Vol. 11: Covers + 1-2

Extra Credit: Trigun Vol. 1: Nebraska vs. Vash's Motivations, Vash's Loneliness, Vash's Depression (pt. 2 of post), Soupy Brains || Vol. 2: Coin Factoids || TriMax Vol. 1: Lina, Vash, and a Haircut || Meryl, Vash, and the Pursuit of Happiness || Vol. 5: Knives, Vash, and Hatred for Humanity || Vol. 6: Coping Series: Wolfwood, Meryl, Vash || Vol. 8: The Uncoordinated Counterattack || Vol. 9: Justice, Punishment, and Mercy, The Tolling of an Iron Bell || Vol. 10: Crucifixion Symbology (pt. 2 of post), Merging of Families, Being Childlike (And Why God Hates Chapel)

#trigunbookclub #trigun maximum #volume 11 #pancake thoughts

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alena-reblobs · 8 months

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Trigun Bookclub Trimax Vol11 Part2

Vol01: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Vol02: Part 1 | Part 2

And this is Part 2 of Vol11, review for chapters 4-6 below the cut!

Chapter 4:

What a cool comment by Zazie and insight we get here...so Knives is constantly hearing all the plants in his head. Boy, that must be a burden on his mind. His conscience, the 'Knives' part, is slipping away under all the other minds inhabiting him...

Sooo Elendira is trying to contact Legato...with her mind? That's a very plant thing to do (if it isn't just a neat perk you get once you become one of the GHG) I've read some posts saying that Elendira could be altered with genes of Knives, and Stampede pretty obviously tells us the same, so even though we get no clearer info in Trimax it's quite probable. Only question is why Legato could hear her, but maybe after this whole body-destroying-show he's been altered with plant genes too? I'm sure some of you guys mentioned this in your posts about this chapter too, looking forward to dig through that and read your thoughts!

fJSKJFasf Zazie! What the hell!

Legato taking a speed Webinar in his coffin about how to become an alpha male in 2 months

Heeeey he's back! Didn't miss you guy! (the drawing looks pretty sweet though)

At first, Vash was terrified of his power (first thing blocking out the memories about it and the traumatic consequences it brought upon July). He didn't know how to control it. Then slowly, he used it to protect: first subconsciously himself, then deliberately to protect Wolfwood and those dear to him. He learned to use it for HIS actions, the way HE wants to. Not to destroy but to protect. And now he's even learning new ways to use it, combining it with his old way of fighting. Isn't that so cool?

Livio!!! I love his short hair! <3 Also is Vash saying that "because it looked weird" and Livio making that affronted face in reaction? Hehe.

......this...this is the most out of context scene in the whole manga. Deus ex machina guy here to suddenly help deliver important plot devices that could not be logically be here in this place??? Nightow sir I salute you for not giving a fuck how some parts of the story are done. They are done and nothing else matters, and everybody who questions the whys and hows is weak minded.

Chapter 5:

Aah so mush sweet new information we're getting. The Indepentants (I can't remember if this is the first time that we hear them being called this way in the series? I think it is!) are nothing unknown! On earth, where humans are developing plant technology further, it seems to be a phenomenon that appears sometimes, though before they manage to wrack havoc they...die from using too much power. Which is kinda sad :(

More cool info. So the 'newer' generation of Plants and Indepentants can't fuse their minds into a bigger mass since they have neural blockers...which makes me wonder if they, meaning the newer Independants AND plants still can use the mind telepathy or if that got shut off with that. I can't remember if that gets cleared up. Super interesting to read this again tho!

There IS an explanation for how that guy got there but you just KNOW Nightow was sitting together with his editor at the end of vol10 and going "ok so hm for the final fight with Legato we uhm...there were these coins, maybe we should bring them back?" "But but we didn't see Vash collect them all! And he lost his old coat, too!" "Damn how are we going to get them all back to him again?" "Okok I got this you know some of them Meryl and Milly can collect, and uhm Zazie is still alive but maaaaaybee we could uh have some random dude being worm-controlled and uh get it to Vash" "Yeah. And we'll make it look SO random and non-serious nobody's gonna question it"

I love their dynamic so so much!! I want them to be besties, bonding for life after all this! <:'3

Helloooo~ time to introduce my second fav ship of this series, Livio and Elendira, aka called Crimsonfang.

News today: Big huggy bear crawled his way into the hearts of several bookclub citizens and refused to get out of there.

Someone's presence...Wolfwood's presence is still around them, what he fought for, his ideals, his companionship still lingering in the air and their hearts. The Dark Horse translation had me a bit at a loss over this page but I think I know get that what it's saying here is that Vash sees how much Wolfwood's legacy is living on in Livio, and how much Livio obviously tries to make Wolfwood proud and is looking up to him (not as an authority figure but as a comrade, brother and friend). And in seeing and realizing that, Vash realizes that it's the same with him, that he's also trying to protect Wolfwood's legacy, to fight for the future he died for...and that in that aspect, he and Livio are both the same, and by that, connected with each other. Wolfwood is the connection that ties these two together, not only in their grief but also in their love for that man and for his wished!!

It's also so important to get this take on the plants, to see they are not passive, but have feelings too! The thoughts he is talking about, are these the thoughts of the Plants? Sounds like it, and that would make them even more conscious beings than the reader might have thought all the time! They might not think the same way humans do, but they process information, they understand emotions, and they exchange fears, hopes, basic thoughts...they are really a cool species. I always love when I get to read some plant interaction in the fics I read :)

By the way that date is Vash's birthday. Well the confetti was already thrown the day prior ahaha

Stop it Nightow you're giving is so much information how am I to process all of that so suddenly!! After 13 volumes of nearly no explaining too!

AAAAAH this is so so sweet. I love those so much, and I love their friendship and how Meryl, who is normally shown so strong-willed, is crying at the thought of having to part with Vash again, maybe not getting to see him again...these three have come to mean so much to each other <:')) I hope Vash properly knows how to cherish that.

Sir, have you lived under a rock?

Understandably I have to say, the people are not convinced of the idea to NOT attack the ark. Also loving to see different scenes here...some ruffians fully prepared with heavy guns to attack, people praying in these last hours, and then some evil goons who use the chaos to murder, as it looks like.

Fucking military with their heavy bombs!

HELL YEAAAH HERE WE GOO

Chapter 6:

Yeah it's time Livio remembered that he saved someone, and that he had something to protect once!

Oh tehee stop flirting, Elendira.

Ok, low fucking blow, Elendira.

Combined with what we heard her saying the page before, it sounds like Elendira is just so pessimistic about the human nature (no doubt the influence of living in Knives presence and seeing only the bad sides of humaniry) that she sees no point whatsoever to believe in any good outcome that includes humans. They are worthless and destroy everything, so even if the Plants fail, they still deserve to be eradicated in her mind. Bit of a heavy opinion, but given her experience (or non-experience) about the human nature, I guess...it makes sense!

Yeah yeah, they are cute, too

Livio is determined! This meeting with Jasmine and the kids is probably exactly what he needed now. It's the confirmation that there's stuff he CAN protect by playing his part and defeat Elendira. At this point, I'm sure there's no more doubt inside of him, and the guilt of what he has done can't hinder him anymore because it has moved aside to make room for the determination to win this and help Vash and all the people. Go Livio, go! In a way, Vol11 was a volume about Livio finding his resolution and his goal.

#trigun #trigunbookclub

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cindysnuts · 1 year

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trigun stampede i just finished it and have so many thoughts but i can't possibly process them all so here's a more easily sharable sexuality hc list:

(oh and minor spoiler warning too)

Vash is like ace. he doesn't necessarily crave sex from any humans but could definitely be coaxed into it and fully enjoy it. if his physiology allows for that, i guess. Can probably experience romantic attraction too, but in a demiromantic way. Just demi overall

Nai: also ace but would NOT want to carnally enjoy a human. he'd hate it. has no romantic love for any human. for a plant maybe.

Meryl: idk i'm very gay and don't think about women's sexuality much, but probably bi. she could be straight but idk she has a special something I think. has been following around vash for long enough that she has a strong attachment to him. but is it love? probably. romantic love though? hmmmmm she'll have to figure that one out herself. i would like it more if it wasn't, or if she wasn't the only one... but we'll have to wait and see. she's close to Rem in Vash's mind... so no telling about that one.

Roberto: Old man, definitely straight, has definitely seen it all, has definitely made out with a man. didn't do much for him but them again what has? shared a cigarette with a man once though and it changed something about him permanently. so make what you will

Nicholas: ohhhh bitch. now this is the guy that inspired the list. he's still so young but so tired, he's seen so much. he loved that boy. catholicism has its ways though. not only does he bear that cross for the people he's hurt but for the people he's loved too. all are sins in the eyes of the cross in that way. only ever loved one man but that was enough. seeing straight into Vash's soul though... his vulnerability... his scars he's taken for loving... well let's just say this undertaker had something stir. definitely not love though. no he could never love again. monsters like him can't have love. so he definitely can't love Vash, and he didn't love Livio. or so he keeps telling himself. making that cross a little heavier. not all burdens are beared consciously.

Livio: ah yes, the little boy who fell in love with Nico so hard that he followed him to hell, to be an undertaker. a love so deep it's gonna tear them both apart. definitely gay.

Bluesummers: ah now we're on to the fun ones. these guys don't have the narrative weight to be wrapped in heavy metaphor that I don't wanna disrupt yet, so I'm a little more free with their speculation. this guy seems like he serves Knives like a god, but with that level of devotion who can tell the different kinds of love apart???? me, i can this bitch is flaming literally like f slur.

Zazie: not human, literally a hivemind, so I dont think sexuality really fits them at all. like literally i dont think they even have sex to reproduce?? so sexuality is a no lol. um that said they're also nonbinary cause they literally do not have human sex characteristics let alone human genders. unaligned evil enby you love to see it.

Rem: for catholic metaphor reasons i think she would have to be straight but she's a lesbian its why she didnt marry or have children of her own no i will not be taking questions at this time.

William Conrad: despite having two names that should make me personally feel insane he is instead a beleaguered straight man. he is a Priest, after all.

Ludia and Brad: again, straight probably for catholic narrative reasons, like Wolfwood's sexuality wouldn't be as big a burden if everyone was just gay. that said they are dyke 4 fag pair bonded permanently no i will not be taking questions at this time. actually since they live on the ship outside of the reach of the church maybe they could be gay and have it work narratively... hmmmmm.... homos

Gosef: gay asf you seen his little bowtie??

Prof. Nebraska: transgender mad scientist just loves his son.

Chuck Lee (goon from ep 1 had to google his name): straight subscribes to a space egirl's space twitch channel and buys her used space socks in a cringe fail incel way but he's supporting space swers so we kinda stan in a cringe fail way.

#trigun stampede #headcanon #sexuality hcs #yeah this is gonna take over so much of my brain this is literally like if fma and eva and bebop had a baby who was also their father.#vash is. everything. to me <#<3 #vash trigun #trigun 2023 #nicholas d. wolfwood #ask to tag #i could give or take alot of these but you will pry gay wolfwood from my cold dead hands #oh and the plants are all lesbians having crazy fifth dimensional space sex. thats where the energy comes from. fyi.#this is all canon now btw. i just made it so <3 #can't WAIT for Milly in season two shes so trans coded right??? gonna become insane after seeing her its gonna be so good

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shastafirecracker · 8 months

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for the ask meme: 3, 18, 22?

another break for writing rambles!

3 what’s one scene you always wanted to write but can’t be arsed to write all the setup and context it would need? I would love to write just some smutty smutty PWP of polygun all having fun with vash’s vine tentacles but I keep being hung up by my own inability to let go of canon characterization - the fact that those vines are incredibly traumatic to vash and I have such a hard time getting him in my mind to a place where he’d be okay with even manifesting them, much less railing three people at once with them. argh! it took me however many thousands of words of the VWL post-canon AU to get to a place where I think vash is fine with feathering out and having oops-accidentally-psychic sex with wolfwood and livio. do I have to do that with vash/wolfwood/meryl/milly also?? (maybe?? i’m not saying it’ll NEVER happen I’m just saying it makes me insane)

I also have a slew of AU ideas that I know would make great 100k+ epics but like, man, that’s work, that’s so hardddd whine whine whine

18 do any of your stories have alternative versions (abandoned plotlines, AUs of your own work, alternate characterizations)? again I can’t say anything about BB fic yet, though I will! probably in december I’ll make a roundup post of discards and trivia. and I don’t think I ever have alternate characterizations, because having a strong idea of the characterization through-line is usually where my fics start. but in both Trillium & Ivy and my bb fic I have thought to myself that it would be so fucking easy to make them polygun instead of vashwood. there’s a very noncanon-to-t&i wip of the wives and the bfs having a bi4bi4bi4bi weekend getaway, which… I’m gonna hold onto because there was a polygun event interest check recently and I do like the bones of this wip, it just needs a LOT of work, so. if there’s an event it might be just the thing, idk.

T&I has the most abandoned plotlines of probably anything I’ve ever written besides my old destiel AU. modern-setting AUs have so many potential ways to get sidelined, at least for me. probably the biggest thing is that according to the original outline, the final showdown was meant to take place in like a warehouse at some docks (why? what??), zazie was going to drive everyone there because elendira sent them to get her man back safely, the WHOLE crew was supposed to go (vash, nick, livio, meryl, milly, kaite, zazie) and there were going to be? whole gun fight scenes??

this is a blatant example of what is meant by “don’t be precious with your ideas” - I wrote several thousand words of outline and then looked at all of it and said what the fuck, time to put all of this in the garbage disposal and start over. don’t be precious = drawfee’s whole bit of “delete your art.” sometimes you gotta accept not even scavenging for bits to salvage, just burn it all.

the fic is MUCH better for it

22 do you reread your old works? how do you feel about them? I do! I love them! oh it’s the tea, for me, the tea for me, the tea specifically designed to kill me, etc etc! I drift off from rereading my own fics in older fandoms often because I’m just not rotating those blorbos in my head so hard anymore, but for finished fics in my current fandom, it’s like hey wow this author wrote a fic that will push every single one of my buttons with extreme precision, because this author lives in my head and is me, lol. also, when I get a review that mentions any specific thing, I have to go back and reread that bit to extract all the dopamine from seeing it through fresh eyes and imagining how the reader interpreted it or felt about it.

#sf writes #writer ask meme #sometimes i think about the episode of 24 or whatever the fuck that was the original ending of t&i #and i'm like. did i have a fever? what tf was happening? brain?

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miseburyfm · 11 months

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𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐍𝐘𝐌𝐎𝐔𝐒: ideas for sirens ? like why they'd be on land and fc ideas? Love this rpg !

can be any reason you like ! Like maybe someone they were with disappeared on land . maybe their birth parents is on land after being exiled from their pod . they probably don't want to be alone anymore and the one person who showed them humanity is on land ? as for fcs : , tati gabrielle, tessa thompson, maggie q, laverne cox, nana komatsu, sandra oh, sherri saum, zazie beetz, logan lerman, avan jogia, chance perdomo, matthew daddario, herman tømmeraas, poppy drayton, khadijha red thunder, conor leslie, alba flores, alisha wainwright, jessica parker kennedy , lucy fry, alexander calvert ! and thank you so much I know we are all excited for this rp !

#appless rp #supernatural rp #dark rp #horror rp #mature rp #mumu rp #new rp #town rp #answered.

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chidoroki · 3 years

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The Promised Neverland S2EP9

aka: acting kinda sus

I would say happy Thursday but I already know we’re gonna be in for some pain. At least “Identity” makes me happy.

“Existence of an Insider” but this time it plays directed towards Norman.

Sonju took off to go help the other demons, I hope.

“You’re stronger and kinder than anyone.. but you’re also an arrogant coward.” Yeess girl, tell him!

Haahaa, Norman really looked to Ray like “bro help me out here,” and my boy fired back like “nah you’re gonna listen to us right here and now.”

Ray even gets a little angry at him, nice!

Okay.. we’re not getting a full-score hug from the trio but the way Norman stumbles into Emma’s arms was cute. NE fans must be ecstatic. Still would’ve preferred the hug though.

“Due to the drugs administered to me at Lambda, I won’t live long.” And with Adam still no where in sight, who knows how you’ll be cured.

Vlyk (yes i finally remembered blind demon’s name) really cut his arm off no problem. I know it’ll probably regenerate like Sonju’s did in manga but alright, I guess he’s gonna show us instead.

Ah, well nevermind. Sonju demonstrated it just now too.

Barbara no.. oh my god.

Oh! She hesitated though!

Wait, Zazie! HOLD UP!

Ah.. thank you Norman.

Sooo where are Vincent and Ray currently during this conversation?

This song is also using the lullaby’s melody, whatever the name of it is.

Okay well there’s Vincent.. but where is my boy? I’m getting nervous.

And now our demon friends are here, but HAS ANYONE SEEN MY SON??

AH! He went back to the hideout, okay.

“Phil and the others are being shipped!” Hold the fuck up! That’s not supposed to happen!!

“Isn’t that right, Grandma Isabella?” The queen has returned! Hell yeah!

Oh my god, knowing the escapees took the radio from the shelter, she put out that warning that Phil & the others were gonna be shipped in order to lure the escapees back to Grace Field.. I can’t help but applaud her.

I know in manga she believed the kids would return regardless to save the others and because of how well she knew her children but damn it, she’s clever.

Also think “Cold-hearted Isabella” kicked in too, which is fitting of course.. at least I think it is? It just changed slightly..

Ray at his usual spot near the wall I see..

“Besides, there’s a possibility it’s a trap to lure us in.” Haa, he knows how his mother’s mind works.

Oh so Mujika did save Vylk many years ago.

That’s the motherfucking pen cap from Goldy Pond! Why did he have it?? HOW! Don’t tell me this is how they’re gonna learn about The Seven Walls! I know the cap contains info about it but isn’t it a bit too late to include it all?

“It was 15 years ago. It was in the hand of a human who collapsed and was dying.” Was that James? I can’t tell.. he was killed by his own men, wasn’t he? Unless they just sorta left him there afterwards.. although in manga he fell into water after being shot at.. so..?

It couldn’t be Lucas because even though the cap was located at GP the dude in Vylk’s flashback has his left arm. Not Yuugo either by some random chance because no facial hair.

“I ate that human.” Damn, okay Vylk.

Right, the cap also held the GF blueprints.

“A cure for our side effects! How to make it, too!” Well isn’t that just so damn convenient for you all! For fuck’s sake, they’re making this way too easy. These kids are smart okay? Can we at least see how they deal with their issues without serving up solutions on a silver platter?

“I heard my kind treated you horribly. Sorry.” Demon Emma is precious and must be protected!

“It’s not like she thought it through to make her decision.” True, our Emma just sorta goes with her gut and stays true to herself, and we love her for it. And, naturally, I love how Ray knows this perfectly.

“Okay, we’re off! To Grace Field House!” Sweetheart I have the upmost confidence in you, but you seriously plan on raiding the top farm, filled with not only numerous demons, the Ratri clan, trained mothers and sister and goddamn Isabella, with just some bows and arrows? At least manga gave you some firepower and a larger, much more talented group of kids!

Granted, this time around the Lambda crew isn’t heavily injured, but between them, Emma, Ray, Don, Gilda, maybe Norman and whatever small child is proficient enough to wield a weapon.. y’all have me worried okay? Manga didn’t have the younger kids, because they were captured, but they made up for it by having Nigel, Gillian, Oliver, Zack, Hayato, some of the larger Lambda kids and motherfucking Ayshe alright! That’s far more comforting!

“I have some intel, and would like to make a deal.” VINCENT?? The hell are you doing!! I know you weren’t in favor of ditching Norman’s plan, in both manga and anime, but hello?? I suddenly don’t feel bad that you got shot at in ch168!

Oooh I’m nervous. I figured the GF raid would still happen, of course, but with the escapees and the lack of guns in their possession and now Vincent acting sketchy, oh no. I’m hella excited to see more Isabella though. (just please don’t animate ch177 please don’t animate ch177 please change that event please i’m not ready)

I guess we’re around ch161? Even though the Grandma reveal happened a chapter after. Still so much to cover in only two more episodes.. oh boy.

How are they gonna end this darn series? I don’t know! Is it really just gonna be stairs this time??

#the promised neverland #episode reaction

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puff-poff · 3 years

Note

hey!! i had a thought last night, and i wanted to tell you about it. do you think maybe Hayato and Jin were sent to lambda because they tall 2 year olds, and not 2 tall year olds cause of lambda? like, the mass production farm was supposedly pretty new, so maybe it was trying out some sort of trick that would make the kids grow faster to speed up production rate, and lambda wanted to know if there would be any side effects and took Jin and Hayato as test subjects?

alright it’s theory time! I’m super tired right now so hopefully this drabble makes sense:

based on the sizes of the children born in Lambda, like Adam and Zazie, we already know that Lambda experiments cause rapid growth. however, the kids we see in the mass production farms look older than two, and the meat produced from the farms looks like it would belong to a child that’s maybe four or five. so basically there are two main options:

mass production farms kill the children once they’re about five years old, meaning Hayato and Jin were sent to Lambda before they were mature enough to be killed. the experiments there caused them to grow rapidly.

the comatose state of the children in mass production farms, plus the possible experiments conducted on them, causes them to grow/age differently, meaning Hayato and Jin had already grown at an alarming rate before they went to Lambda.

so let’s look at option two first. because the mass production farms supply food to a majority of the demon population, they need to produce meat much faster than the premium and experimental farms. if the demand for food suddenly went up, it makes sense that the farm owners would attempt to speed up the production rate by experimenting on the children. since the meat from the mass production farms is fed to middle and lower class demons, I doubt the farm owners would care if their experiments made the meat taste bad or something.

unfortunately, despite all of this, I think option one is more likely. Lambda experiments are already known to change children’s growth rate. it seems that Lambda seems to focus the experiments around either the physicality or intelligence of the kids. Hayato and Jin aren’t exactly the brightest bulbs, so we can assume that the experiments done on them were physical. Hayato also has super speed, which is a physical ability.

as much as I love the idea of Hayato and Jin growing fast before Lambda, that probably isn’t the case. there is still a chance, however, that they were experimented on in both locations. maybe Hayato, Jin, and some of the other Lambda kids were all from one mass production farm that tried to make them grow faster in order to speed up production rate. maybe at some point the kids were taken away from the farm, perhaps because experimenting on children is a violation of some sort, but instead of killing them, the kids were sent to Lambda.

again, sorry if this doesn’t make any sense. I might have missed something that adds more to this conversation, so feel free to add on!

tldr: Hayato and Jin side story when

#asks #anonymous #the promised neverland #the promised neverland manga spoilers #tpn jin #tpn hayato

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patroclusonly · 4 years

Text

Buck Begins headcanon: why he joined the seals, how he fell into firefighting and bi buck confirmed all in one.

Some people are actually starting to like this headcanon of Buck’s boo, so I decided to make a post about this to have everything in one place.

Big thanks to @himbo-buckley for coming up with some great ideas and helping me and waiting patiently until I finished this! <333

(Hopefully y’all read it and like it and even come to my inbox with thoughts because I want to hear them)

(tw: cancer and death by cancer are mentioned)

Buck started sleeping around right after he left his parents house. They were distant and also didn’t allow him to do much so he didn’t have a long dating history, was pretty inexperienced and his self-esteem wasn’t so good. (still isn’t but we’re talking about physical image here and we know he loves that now)

Being a 6’2, blond, blue eyed and pretty smile, charismatic hunk did help him a lot there. He got girls’ attention really quick and he was surprised, but after the first two he was like “damn,I got game” and started his journey of countless hook ups.

Not long into that journey, he realized guys were hot too and that college was a place to try new things right? So, boom, he discovered he was bi.

After college he went to south america and he got that bartending job. Now, I need to add pictures because I’m a visual thinker, so Buck looked kinda like this (but with like, no shirt or something because summer in south america):

And one day while he was working at the bar, this super hot dude walks in and they hit it off but not for a hookup at that first moment(both think the other is straight).

This dude’s name is Dave, he’s a SEAL, around 26 I guess, and he looks like this (remember, visual thinker):

He’s there with Jimmy, his high school best friend who always tries to plan get togethers when Dave is off duty. (this one get together vacation is special but you’ll find out why a littler later)

The idea of Jimmy started with a SEAL buddy of Dave, then changed to be a high school best friend that is actually a woman named Jemma that goes by Jimmy and that looked like Laura Harrier and that is actually a lesbian. BUT, after discussing it some more, Jimmy is still the high school lesbian bff but now she looks like this:

Because I saw a picture of Zazie Beetz and went “damn, she has the vibe to be Jimmy” so, she is now.

That first night when Buck and Dave met, they talked a lot. Even after Buck’s shift was over, they just sat there -way too close for two straight dudes who just met- and talked for hours.

Buck told him about his life, his sister, how he didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life now that he was out of college.

Dave told him how he met Jimmy, how he was a SEAL because his family was a military family but that his true dream was to be a firefighter.

They did that almost every day for maybe two weeks? before Jimmy was like “Make a move or I’ll do it for you!”.

So Dave, looking like that but not being even half as smooth as Buck, tries and fails to make a move. But that gives Buck the push he needed to make a move and he kisses him.

Things move pretty quickly after that, they start sleeping together, sort of dating but not really talking about it, just feeling it.

They fall hard. Like, “I’m so in love with you that every time you smile at me my heart melts a little” in love. Like “I see you looking at me with the softest eyes and I can’t help but smile” in love. That hard. But they never admitted it out loud. Until that last day.

Dave was sick. He had been sick all that time but by the end of the fourth month he was getting worse.

He noticed six months before going to that vacation, when he was working and couldn’t keep up with his team anymore. He got tired fast, started coughing when he did routine exercises. He went to the doctor and discovered it was regional small cell lung cancer.

The SEALs wouldn’t let him go back so he spent those six months trying everything. Chemo, radiation therapy, different meds, nothing really worked. And he hated how that made him feel, so he just gave that up.

He started feeling better and that’s when he and Jimmy decided to go on that vacation together. It was probably going to be their last and they wanted to have a good time.

When the symptoms came back and Dave couldn't hide it anymore, he decided to tell Buck. Not without first convincing Jimmy that they had to leave. Go back home or whatever, but not stay there where Buck would see him just get worse and worse.

That last day, him and Buck have a perfect day. The three of them spend the whole day on the beach, enjoying the warm sun and calming sound of the waves hitting the shore.

At night Buck and Dave go to Buck’s room. He lived in an apartment with a roommate but the good thing was that their shifts were usually fixed so that when one was working, the other wasn’t. And he could get the place for himself for a few hours.

After a moment in silence where Dave was mentally preparing himself to tell Buck the truth, he does. He tells him he’s dying and that there’s nothing he can do and that he will not stay there to make Buck watch him slowly lose the life in him. He want Buck to remember him for those perfect months they had together.

Buck gets angry at first, not like, yelling angry. But just that heavy feeling in his chest that turns into sadness after a second. His eyes fill with tears and he just hugs him as tight as he can and stays there for a few minutes. He asks him to stay but Dave doesn’t answer that.

Instead he tells him that it’s okay, that he knew that was coming and that he’s sorry he didn’t tell him sooner. But he’s so glad that he got to meet Buck before and that if he were to die the next day he’d die happy. Right then he finally says I love you for the first time.

Neither of them has said it before, and Buck just stares at him for a moment. He doesn’t want to say it, not then when it feels so final. So he kisses him, slow and desperate at the same time. To let him know that he does love him, that he loves him so much the affection and the fondness and the sadness he feels about losing him compares to nothing he’s ever felt before.

They make love for the first time that day, not sex, but real love making with all the feelings and intimacy and closeness they needed to reassure themselves that everything they lived those past months had happened and that they were lucky enough to find each other. Even if it was for a short period of time.

Buck falls asleep and Dave stays awake, looking at him, smiling to himself, holding him close and kissing him one last time.

He leaves in the middle of the night. He doesn’t say goodbye, doesn’t explain, doesn’t leave a note. And when Buck wakes up and realizes that, he understands and forces himself to move on, but the heartbreak he feels is still the worst pain he’s felt up to that moment.

He stays there another month. Until he gets a call from Jimmy. She tells him Dave died and invites him to the funeral. That is the worst pain he’s ever felt.

He decides to go. It was on the u.s. so he quits his job and goes back.

At the funeral he feels out of place. He doesn’t know anyone and nobody knows him other than Jimmy, who hugs him and cries when she sees him. The two of them are probably the only ones to know that Dave ever dated a man. She tells him he loved Buck like he’s never loved anyone else and that those were the best months of his life.

And Buck can’t cry, he can’t react, he can’t feel anything. He doesn’t want to, because he knew that after the moment he got that call and cried until he ran out of tears, he built a fort around his heart and that if he were to let out everything he really feels, he would just break down and not get back up again.

After that he decided to join the SEALs, as a way to honour Dave, but after six months he realizes it’s not really for him.

So he’s between jobs, and maybe he saves someone accidentally and stays there until the firefighters get there. And that reminds him of the first time he met Dave and how he said his real dream was to be a firefighter and he thinks maybe he could try that to honor him, since the SEALs didn’t work.

So he joins the academy and he passes and he gets a few offers from different stations, because he’s damn good at it.

But one of the offers is in LA, and he can’t say not to that. Not for how they are the best in the whole country or anything like that, but because he remembers how Dave used to love the sun and the ocean, and that seems like the perfect place for him. So, that’s how he starts working at the 118.

He tries not to think how funny and cruel the universe is.

By this time, he’s sleeping around again. Anything to get that closeness he craves but without his heart getting broken again. (Here’s where we find him in season one)

He never told anyone about Dave and he didn’t even hooked up with another man again. He just did everything he could to forget about that and move on.

He can’t do anything but confront his feelings and that triggers a wave of repressed memories and emotions that he can’t control.

But then, one day he starts getting messages and calls from Jimmy. But he’s worked really hard to let that time of his life go, so he just ignores her. Until he can’t, when Jimmy shows up at the fire station.

And this is as far as I can go without involving the present characters. Maybe I will do that?

#i hope this makes sense and y'all like this #because it turned real sad real quick #but i love this idea so much #i have pictures and all #boo i hope this meets your expectations!#it took me a second but here it is #evan buckley #season 4 predictions #buck begins #evan ends #911 headcanon #911 fox #dave #jimmy

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celebritytgcaptions · 3 years

Text

Requests (5/8/2021)

Hi lovelies! I just filled up the queue through May but I have a LOT of requests left. So I’m posting the remaining requests below! If you see your request here that means it’ll be posted in June at the earliest. If you don’t see your request it means it’s probably going to be posted in May (although I did delete two messages that weren’t “requests” as much as “demands”, messages that said, “Do this,” or, “Make that,” which I don’t respond to). There are some requests I addressed in a post on April 27th though that won’t be posted until June also so be sure to check that out. Thanks for the support lovelies! Hope you like what’s to cum. ;)

Anonymous said:

Could u do emma stone from amazing spider man i like her look from the 2nd one but its fine whichever u use

Yep! Second one it is. :)

Anonymous said:

Hi was wondering if you could do a caption of a superhero that is captured by their villain and turned into an evil hench woman thought about anne hathaway as cat woman if you could thanks love your captions btw

Sure thing!

Anonymous said:

Could you do a caption where a white guy gets turned into Kerry Washington. And becomes addicted to sleeping with black men? I was thinking of using the scene from little man where shes in bed after a night of "doing it". Can that be done or is that too graphic of a description?

I don’t think it’s too graphic? I’ve never seen Little Man (idk what it is tbh) but I googled “Kerry Washington Little Man” & found a pic I think works so I can do this.

Anonymous said:

I don't remember if I requested this already or not but could you do one of Haley atwell from captain america I was thinking like a super soldier test turns a guy into her but he then finds out that was the plan that the government wanted to make super sissies instead

You did not request it and I can do it!

Anonymous said:

Hi could you do a caption using Betsy brandt? Shes the aunt from breaking bad incase you didnt know I just think shes beautiful and hope you could do a caption for her idk what about maybe something about milfs thatd be good ig whatever you decide anyways thanks

I DO know who that is! And there have been quite a few MILF requests (as you’ll see) so all you MILF lovers will be happy going forward. :)

Anonymous said:

Hello first off big fan 2nd off im sorry if this is too much but I have abit of a list for ya if u can do these thats great if not its ok just sorry i know its alot. Emma thompson(saving mr banks) Sean young, (ace venture) Rhea Pearlman, ( matilda) Christina agulara( burlesque) sigourney weaver, (alien or ghostbusters) emma stone (cruela) thank u there will be a part 2

Heres part 2 its just ones I dont really have any specific thing in mind. Tia and Tamara. Idna menzel. Adele. Bonnie Tyler. Ruby rose. Sarah chalke. Kristen schaal. Melissa McCarthy. Megan trainer. Elizabeth gillies. Like i said if u can great if not thats alright atleast u'll have some stocked up for a rainy day thanks again and sorry again

Hello im the one who gave the list of requests sorry once again I just wanted to further explain one of them the christina Aguilera from burlesque one to be specific I would like the one where she is wearing the bowler hat with the loose frizz curls thats the only one I can think of to elaborate on the rest are up to u thanks again sorry again

Ok so this is A LOT of requests and in the future I would like to ask people to limit their requests to three celebs at a time, but I’ve never said that before so it wouldn’t be fair to the person who requested all these. So yes I can do these requests. The only one I won’t do is Sean Young from Ace Ventura because her character in Ace Ventura is really really transphobic (or, more specifically, how that character is written). And I can do that specific Christina Aguilera one. Also since this IS so many requests I’ll probably be sprinkling them in through instead of doing them all at once, & I already wrote an Elizabeth Gillies one coming out towards the end of May.

Anonymous said:

If possible could you do Elizabeth perkins as Wilma Flintstone I had the idea of it litterally being set in cave man times and depicting the forat instance of feminization, the first sissy, being of a weaker evolution and stuff causing the tribe to pick him as the tribes cave sissy

Oooo, sounds fun. Totally!

Anonymous said:

Could you do Marissa tomei? Was thinking hero type story by night hes a crime fighing vigilante by day She is a stay at home sissy wife waiting for hubby to get home to pleasure him

I can do this!

Anonymous said:

Could you try making one where a boy who’s always been short his entire life gets feminized by his friend? I was thinking someone like Skai Jackson would be great for this

Sure thing! I found one of Skai where she’s of age so I’ll use that. :) (I won’t use a GIF of here her though since most of them are from Jessie when she’s under 18)

Anonymous said:

I was wondering if you could do one about a college professor named Peter whose autocloset gets hacked by his students. They transform and feminize him into a sexy latina milf so they have someone sexy to look at during class. Actress of your choice, someone over 30 please.

Oooo, I’ve got the perfect celeb for this. ;)

Anonymous said:

Hi I actually have 3 u may have done them before but if u can thatd be great. 1 Natalie Portman (V for vendetta ) the little girl outfit with the pigtails I was thinking like a lost bet. 2 P!nk (beautiful trauma) the house wife look is so good. 3 Elizabeth olsen (wandavision) when shes in the bed wearing her costume like a morning after thing. Thats all like I said if u can thank u love ur captions

Ah gotcha. I can do these!

Anonymous said:

Hi id like to start off by saying i love your captions. Was wondering if you could do one of Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Ramona flowers when she had Green hair as far as the story I dont really have anything other than green being the guys fav color idk hopefully you can do something with that anyways thank you for your time have a good one

I can work with this. :)

Anonymous said:

Hey I have a specific scene in mind its of kaley cuoco when she was on the big bang theory I dont remember the episode but its where shes sitting on the couch when her BF walks in and shes dressed in this purple lingerie and shes got her hair up its beautiful I was thinking if u could do a caption on that? Maybe like a roommates thing sorry I dont have enough info on the scene

I’VE HAD THIS IMAGE FOR SO LONG BUT COULDN’T THINK OF A STORY SO YES I CAN DO THIS! :D

Anonymous said:

Could u ro Lindsay sloane from bring it on I had to look up the name I just remember her as "Big red" what they called her in the movie

Yep! I love Bring it On. :)

Anonymous said:

Omg i love the Alex kingston caption u did recently whenever u get a chance could u do more River song captions also the billie piper one again whenever u get the chance

You got it. :)

Anonymous said:

Ok if you could i have an idea for a caption of a guy who wants to be internet famous but cant cut it as a guy so he pretends to be a lady on an onlyfans but doesnt show off anything too much then he gets surprised by his Male roommate who found out and his roommate blackmails him into making more "Private" videos to get cash I was thinking using meg turney if u could thanks

Sounds fun. Sure thing! :)

Anonymous said:

Hello I know you mightve done this one already but the one of Katy Perry from "Hey hey hey" music vid could u do another one from that still her with the blonde hair but when shes just waking up instead thank you

You bet!

Anonymous said:

I know you got alot of requests lately but if you dont mind one more could you do Drew Barrymore from Batman forever?

I had to double check how old she was in that but yes! I can do this. :)

Anonymous said:

I know I probably wont see this for awhile but if u could can u do a caption of debby ryan from jessie where she is dressed like a little kid and has her hair in pigtails? I was thinking like a babysitting gig gone wrong for the story like dress up goes too far or something anyawys thank u

Do you know what episode that’s from? I found the image and I think it looks great but I just want to make 100% sure that Jessie was an adult when she made it. If you know the episode feel free to message me & I can go ahead with it. :)

Anonymous said:

I have 3 if u could do them 1. Zazie beets 2. Zendaya 3. Tessa Thompson. Thats all thanks

I actually have Zazie Beets and Zendaya caps coming up before May ends, but you’ll get the Tessa Thompson one in June. :)

Anonymous said:

Hi could you do another caption tor jenna fischer from the office please?

Yep!

Anonymous said:

Could you do a cap where a teacher named Peter gets feminized into a latina housewife and use Marisol Nichols from Riverdale? Can't ignore the MILFs.

Damn right you can’t! I’ll be sure to do this. :)

Anonymous said:

Addison Rae or Ariana Grande please

I’ll do both! :)

@tammyboy25 said:

Hi there! I was wondering if you could please do one where a sister or best girlfriend guilt trips a boy into being their maid of honor for her wedding? Bachelorette party, Dress shopping, getting their hair done, dancing with other boys at the reception are some ideas I had. Thank you so much either way!!!

Ooooo I love this! You got it sweetie. :)

Anonymous said:

Wow, I really loved the "From the Amazons" caption you did with Wonder Woman! Could you do something similar with a guy named Rene put into the body of a sluttfied superheroine? Maybe Scarlet Witch/Wanda? Thanks!

“From the Amazons” has been getting a lot of love so thanks everyone! I can totally do this with an Elizabeth Olsen pic. :)

Anonymous said:

I'm not sure if youve seen falcon and the winter soldier yet but Erin kellyman who plays kharli in that is a relatively new actress so I could understand if you dont know her but if you do could you make a caption for her? Thank you

I actually do know who she is! I saw her in “Falcon & Winter Soldier” and Solo so I can totally do a cap with her. :)

Anonymous said:

Hi, yesterday I said how much I loved that Wonder Woman caption you did with Gakl Gadot. And I've since discovered the manips made by Saturdays24. My name is Rene, and I'd loved to be turned into a girl in one of his pics, particularly Taylor Swift! Thanks!

Sure thing! @saturdays24 gave me permission to use their stuff a few years ago so I can do any caps with their manips. :)

Anonymous said:

Can you please do Priyanka Chopra captions

Sure!

Anonymous said:

Can you do Lala Anthony captions. I am a big fan of her

Totally! (For some reason I can’t find a good GIF of her though)

Anonymous said:

Can you do a cap with the new Billie Eilish Vogue Pics? That would be so so amazing.

Anonymous said:

billie eilish or addison rae?

Anonymous said:

Hi I remember someone else asking for a billie eilish caption since she was of age now but it was still too recent to have any pics of her at the right age well now shes 19 and I just saw she was on the cover of vogue afew days ago ....would that work?

Don’t worry, a Billie Eilish cap from British Vogue is on the way! She is an adult now & so I can make caps with her. :) (Also to the person who asked about Addison Rae, like I said earlier I’ll make one for her too. :D)

Anonymous said:

I really liked ur newest caption of Kelly lebrock as a boss being spotted enfemme I was wondering if u could do a follow up to that one? Maybe with her from woman in red. Id just like to see the coworker confront the boss

I like that idea! Totally. :)

Anonymous said:

Could you do a caption with Jhene Aiko or Jenna Ortega? They’re both similar to me in body build so it would be pretty amazing to see them in a caption.

Jhene Aiko yes. Jenna Ortega MAYBE. Jenna Ortega only JUST turned 18 and that was during the COVID-19 pandemic so there aren’t going to be a lot of projects where she’s an adult to pull from. So if I can find something maybe otherwise you might just have to wait a bit. Sorry if that’s a bummer. :/

Anonymous said:

Can you do Nikita Dragun captions please?

I’ve no idea who this is, sorry.

Anonymous said:

Idk if u know the band pentatonix or not but if u do could u do a caption for Kirstin Maldonado they just came out with a music video for 90s medley and she is gorgeous in it much appreciated :)

I’ve actually done some Kristin Maldonado caps already so I can totally do another. :)

#Requests #Not a Caption

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hadeheria · 3 years

Text

wanted: leif miller's on/off relationship/hookup - reserved for darcy

tw: toxic/tumultuous relationship.

aight!! so!! i'm looking for leif miller's on/off relationship/hookup. now i'll preface this by saying a) this is gonna be a kinda toxic situation, so please scroll past if that's upsetting to you and b) i put 'girlfriend' in the image above but leif's bi so it could also totally be a dude, doesn't have to be a woman. and all the details on them are 1000% open. for the purposes of this ad i'm gonna call them 'zazie' because that's the face in the image. but that's just a placeholder more than anything.

my thoughts here are that leif met zazie around 2 years ago. it could've been through a work event (or mb they work together), at a party, a bar, anything. they instantly had a connection and hooked up. and again. and again. it was pretty peachy to start off with.

the problem is though, leif really isn't big on commitment. it's not really a conscious choice: he just doesn't think he has the time to invest in a relationship, and honestly he's so focused on himself that it's hard to make room for another person. but it's also not conscious in the sense that there's something much less logical to it, a subconscious terror.

that could obviously cause some problems in this situation, regardless of whether they're just hooking up or saying they're committed to one another. i figure there's a few things at play...

one, that whenever leif feels like he's committed too much of himself he probably disappears for days or weeks. he'll go on a retreat or a solo trip without saying anything and turns his phone off. when he gets back they fight, he apologises, says he'll do better. but thus far... he hasn't. this has probably occurred a few times.

two, they argue a lot. it's one of those situations where they seem to either really love each other or really really hate each other. they'll have a great week then something will come along and just set one of them off. and neither of them will back down from the fight, so it goes on for days until they have makeup sex. the reasons for all this can be discussed

three, they have great sex. like it's fucking awesome. sometimes they worry it's the only reason they stay together. but they're so totally in sync on that front that it's hard to imagine living without it

four, leif gets jealous. yes, maybe he considers himself a free agent. he's gonna be a total fucking hypocrite on this. but seeing zazie with someone else makes him go crazy.

five, maybe there's some pressure on them for marriage now? they've 'been together' a little while, so perhaps people are starting to think they should quit fucking around and do something about it. hell, maybe zazie does as well. but it could be kind of a sticking point for them rn.

six, this is optional, as is five, but perhaps zazie has given him (or is thinking of giving him) an ultimatum. one more fuckup and it's over. and both of them know that there's probably gonna be another fuckup. it's just a ticking timebomb to see what happens now, but maybe zazie's expecting things will change.

those are some of the ideas i've just v roughly thought of, and it's all pretty up in the air! all in all i just want it to be something super messy with lots of feelings, lots of highs, and lots of lows. but please let me be clear: this is not going to be abusive. that's totally off the cards here. it's gonna be two people being bad at a relationship, being bad for each other, and somehow still deciding that they wanna spend time together.

like i said at the top, details are still very open on this. i kinda just want something we can both vibe with. if you're interested then please message me either here or on discord @ buffy#3832

#downrp #character request

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notjanine · 3 years

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2020 in books!

the only kind of new year’s resolution i made as a naive baby last january was to try to read 40 books for the year. (i read 37 in 2019, for context.) well, with all of my commuting time eliminated and an increased need for immersive escapism, i ended up surpassing that goal three times over lmao (thanks library ebooks!)

idk how to summarize my year in books in a way that makes sense but

(f) = fiction, (nf) = nonfiction, (p) = poetry.

books that rewired my fucking brain:

braiding sweetgrass by robin wall kimmerer (nf)- GOD?!?!?! good. dr. k is right. ostensibly a book about plants, but actually a book about shut up and go outside. consumerism and capitalism are doing their damnedest to fuck you up, but you can just choose to value different things. take care of yourself by taking care of your environment. etc etc.

wasp by richard jones (nf)- lissen. when i got this book, my wasp-phobia was so severe that i had to put it away face down on a high shelf because there are wasps on the cover and i couldn’t bear to RISK even GLIMPSING them. now i am like... a wasp evangelist. (also due to the bugs 101 course on coursera it’s so good.)

wag by zazie todd (nf)- i have a dog, but i am NOT a Dog Person (i.e. i love my dog, but please keep yours away from me, thanks.) this book helped me understand my little guy better, plus it gives actionable tasks and activities to do with and for your pup! plus, y’know, learning about things you’re scared of helps to lessen that fear. i’d recommend this to anyone who has, wants, or regularly interacts with a dog.

a closed and common orbit by becky chambers (f)- is this series complete fluff? absolutely. am i fundamentally different after reading this one? maybe.

the best we could do by thi bui (nf)- this is so far outside of my personal experience but somehow still made me come to peace with my relationship with my mom?? and it’s barely even about that?? idk. this is probably objectively the best book i’ve read this year.

books that were just fun as hell:

mexican gothic by silvia moreno-garcia (f)- this book made me YELL out loud

death on the nile by agatha christie (f)- i grew up on agatha christie shows, but never actually read her before this year! she really was That Bitch. read this before the movie comes out

cosmoknights by hannah templer (f)- i read this in one sitting through the worst headache i’ve had in years. it is a goddamn DELIGHT. this book has everything: spaceships. mech suits. fighting the patriarchy. a perfect otp. fun art in bright colors with clean lines. onomatopoetic WAPs from before the song gave that hilarious context. 800 lesbians. this is an antidepressant in graphic novel form.

stiff by mary roach (nf)- ms. roach is like the 4th most represented author on my bookshelf because she 1. stays writing about shit i’m interested in and 2. manages to talk about gross and ridiculous things without resorting to sensationalism. it takes skill to write a hilarious book about corpses.

black sun by rebecca roanhorse (f)- excellent sexual tension between a horny siren pirate and a hot doomed... monk, kinda? set in the pre-columbian gulf of mexico with magic and shit.

cuisine chinoise by zao dao (? n/f)- this graphic novel about chinese food history/mythology is BEAUTIFUL.

the color of magic by terry pratchett (f)- you’d think a hardcore douglas adams stan would have gotten to this sooner, but no, i had to date a nerdy white boy to get here. it’s fun though! i’m not gonna read them all, but this one was good. bonus: contains one (1) great himbo.

gideon the ninth by tamsyn muir (f)- like 500 pages of action and mystery and jokes and space necromancy. harrow the ninth gets a special mention bc it has a meme reference that took me out so hard i had to close the book, lie down, and groan for an entire minute before continuing.

other minds by peter godfrey-smith (nf)- i love octopuses. on one tma bonus ep, jonny sims says that if a creature can choose to do evil, then it’s a Person. octopuses are People. but anyway frfr this has an explanation of the evolution of consciousness that is cool af. (this one is much better than the other recent popsci octo book which i will not name out of politeness.)

the perfect predator by steffanie strathdee and thomas patterson (nf)- i read this bc my microbiology prof recommended it and it’s cool as heck! it’s got adventure, drama, mystery, Science-with-a-capital-S. i’m biased bc i’m a bit of a microbes nerd, but i had a blast with this. (but only bc we know going in that everything works out okay; if i hadn’t known that, i would have been TOO stressed!)

books that were a little less fun but still very readable:

my sister, the serial killer by oyinkan braithwaite (f)- i couldn’t find this as funny as other people bc i, too, have a beautiful sister who’s an insufferable narcissist, so it hits a little too close to home, but. it is a wild ride.

piranesi by susanna clarke (f)- idek what to say! i went into this one blind just bc it had a cool cover and title, so i guess i’d recommend that for other people too.

the sixth world series by rebecca roanhorse (f)- monster hunting! a post-apocalyptic take that doesn’t feel tired.

the shades of magic trilogy by v.e. schwab (f)- easy escapism. some ideas feel a little first draft-y, but idk, it’s also a pretty simple premise (which isn’t a bad thing). it’s a decent urban fantasy set in ~georgian?-era london. very actiony. suffers from a bit of i’m-not-like-other-girls disease, but i didn’t even notice until book two or three, so.

the only good indians by stephen graham jones (f)- starts off a little ??? (and reeks of being Written By A Man) but picks up. the pacing’s great and there’s just a super fucking cool monster.

robopocalypse by daniel h. wilson (f)- this reads like a tv miniseries so much that i can’t believe it isn’t one yet.

confessions of the fox by jordy rosenberg (f)- not my usual cup of tea, fiction-wise, but still compelling. a fresh take on the white-male-english-professor-self-insert? but not insufferable. gets weird!

spinning silver by naomi novik (f)- rumplestilstkin, but make it interesting! a great, richly-told fairy tale, but like, large scale. good to read on a cold day while you’re wrapped up in a blanket with some hot tea.

interior chinatown by charles yu (f)- compulsively readable. a couple things bugged me, but not enough to make me dislike it. a fun companion piece to how to live safely in a science fictional universe. i like this guy’s style.

cannibalism by bill schutt (nf)- COOL. mostly covers the animal kingdom (fun), spends too much time on the donner party (less fun), ends with a SPICY take on prions that i cannot get out of my head!!!

buzz, sting, bite by anne sverdrup-thygeson (nf)- BUGS! broad but not overwhelming, neither dumbed down nor overly scientific, short enough to finish in a day or two. recommend this to literally everyone.

books that made me want to read everything else in the author’s ouevre:

the time invariance of snow by e. lily yu (f)- this FUCKS but it’s too short!!!

an unkindness of ghosts by rivers solomon (f)- okay this book is SO good and so well-written and interesting and blah blah blah all the good things, but... the whole time, i was just like?? why???? why is this what you’re choosing to write about??? (i did also read the deep and blood is another word for hunger after this one, and i did like them both, especially the latter, but i think they can do better! like i think they could write a perfect book and i am gonna be *eyes emoji* until then.)

the space between worlds by micaiah johnson (f)- a fine debut novel, but i want to see her do something a little more... idk, refined? i think she overreaches here, like it’s a little... idk looper? this is how you lose the time war? there’s a better comparison, but i can’t think of it, but you get the idea. and then halfway through it shifts gears to mad max. there’s something weird about one of the central relationships, like it’s not complex enough to take as long to resolve as it does. idk idk. there are just a lot of little nitpicky things. it’s not bad! but i think she can do better and i look forward to finding out.

postcolonial love poem by natalie diaz (p)- thinky! like i tried to read this before bed, but it’s not the sort of thing to parse out while you’re falling asleep, it requires more attention than that.

books that Learned Me Somethin:

smoke gets in your eyes by caitlin doughty (nf)- i am a self-professed death obsessed weirdo, fascinated by death and mourning, but i didn’t know all that much about what happens to a body between the dying and the funeral! this book isn’t big, but it covers a lot and doughty’s writing style is engaging and honest. it’s very memorable.

queer by meg-john barker and julia scheele (nf)- i’m gonna be totally honest and say Queer Theory is above my intellectual pay grade, but this book takes you by the hand and explains the basics.

vitamania by catherine price (nf)- LMAO my fellow americans, never take a supplement. this book is great and well-researched, but normal folks don’t need to read it, just listen to season two of the dream podcast, which definitely cribbed from this.

vegetable kingdom by bryant terry (nf)- this is a fine cookbook, my favorite of his that i’ve read so far. gets a special mention bc i had a religious experience just reading one of his kohlrabi recipes. absolutely gutted that i didn’t have an opportunity to try it this year, since the pandemic put the kibosh on all family bbqs.

the best american food writing 2020 edited by j. kenji lopez-alt (nf)- this really is just a great collection.

are prisons obsolete? by angela y. davis (nf)- yes.

i moved to los angeles to work in animation by natalie nourigat (nf)- before reading this, i had basically zero knowledge of how the animation industry works. now i know like three things.

the secret lives of bats by merlin tuttle (nf)- BATS! okay this book is more about the adventures of being a bat scientist than it actually is about bats, but there are bats in there. insectivorous bats basically shit glitter, you should know this.

books from valuable perspectives:

hood feminism by mikki kendall (nf)- a breakdown of who’s getting left out of feminist spaces, why that’s happening, and why it shouldn’t be happening.

all you can ever know by nicole chung (nf)- a (transracial) adoptee’s take on adoption and learning more about her birth family. the personal storytelling of this one really stuck with me.

motherhood so white by nefertiti austin (nf)- a single-mom-by-choice’s take on the foster system/adoption process. walks you through some things i always wondered about and some things i wouldn’t even have thought about.

this place by kateri akiwenzie-damm et al (? n/f)- i, like a lot of non- native americans, only know that history in broad strokes. getting this many highly specific stories in one dense and beautiful book felt like a lucky find. and taking that perspective into the future in the context of that history is v good.

empty by susan burton (nf)- eating disorder stories are important to me bc i care about food so much. this one is so relatable- not in its specificity, but rather its generality. it’s easy to empathize with her perspective because it’s like, Oh, i don’t have that exact problem, but i struggle with different problems in a very similar way. (feels like the opposite of roxane gay’s hunger, in a way.)

obit by victoria chang (p)- this exploration of grief is... woof.

short story collections are hard to evaluate bc you’ll never read one where every single story hits but i generally enjoyed these:

a thousand beginnings and endings edited by ellen oh and elsie chapman (f)

how long til black future month? by n.k. jemisin (f)

her body and other parties by carmen maria machado (f)

books i revisited:

the broken earth trilogy by n.k. jemisin (f)- i read the series backwards this time and like... i can’t really find any faults in these books, man. they’re just the best.

everyone’s a aliebn when ur a aliebn too by jomny sun (f... but is it really?)- half of this book’s sales are from me buying it for other people bc it’s the only way i know how to say i love you. i reread it every time just to make sure it still feels right and it always does.

other honorable mentions:

white is for witching by helen oyeyemi (f)- not to pit two bad bitches against each other, but this book does what akwaeke emezi’s freshwater was trying to do. it’s a little weird, a little haunted, a little of a lot of things. read this only in the dead of winter. (and with stephen rennicks’ score for the little stranger playing in the background.)

homie by danez smith (p)- there’s a lot going on here, but this just made me crack a smile a couple times in a way that no other book of poetry has ever done.

the murder of roger ackroyd and murder in mesopotamia by agatha christie (f)- That Bitch!

blues by nikki giovanni (p)- she sure has some Things To Say

the three-body problem by cixin liu (f)- interesting concepts, but... idk something’s missing? felt weirdly soulless to me. i’m probably not gonna read the sequels. but it did make some points!

the sisters of the winter wood by rena rossner (f)- i’m a slut for shapeshifting, okay. but this is a good fairy tale, it works!

parable of the sower by octavia butler (f)- i read this in march, when the pandemic was just kicking off and boy that was not the right time. def my least favorite of hers so far, but an octavia butler i don’t love is still better than a hell of a lot of other books. no idea when or if i’ll get to a good enough headspace for the sequel.

faves:

saturnino herrán by adriana zapett tapia (nf)- i got to learn new things about my mans and see some of his paintings i’ve never even seen online! GOSH.

on food and cooking by harold mcgee (nf)- yeah yeah, i’ve already mentioned this book half a dozen times on here this year, but i don’t care. this book lives off the shelf in my home bc i reference it like every other fucking day. this book is a part of me now.

#long post #final total for the year will be 120 by the end of the day!#and i had a pretty good hit rate. would probably recommend at least half #and only outright hated four

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cmitz · 4 years

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Personal top movies of the decade. There were a lot of great ones and I didn't watch them. Instead we have:

3. Pacific Rim. For a majority of people this isn't really anything to write home about in terms of anything other than production design and world building. I love this movie. I've seen this movie the most in theaters more than I have any other movie. As a life long tokusatsu/kaiju movie fan, seeing something like this one the big screen was a dream come true. It's far from perfect. The lead actor is...something. I feel that it's enjoyable and I notice something new every time I watch it because, really, the art direction in this is maybe too good for this movie.

2. Shin Godzilla. The best Godzilla movie to come out since 2001. It took my breath away when I saw it in theaters just because of how horrific they made Godzilla once again. If you're not a fan of the two newer American iterations because they may be too bombastic, this is the perfect foil. It's like an episode of West Wing, but the problem is Godzilla. I at least find it very interesting to see the concept of a giant monster taken this seriously and the tactics they they deploy to deal with the situation.

1. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Once upon a time I wanted to be an animator and make a Spider-Man movie. That shit didn't and isn't happening anymore, but I doesn't need to because this movie exists. It's really everything I want in both an animated movie and a Spider-Man movie and it's not a horrible mess. The animation is stylish as hell and doesn't rely of realism to be impressive. There's a lot of Spider-Man characters and fan service and it's all handled beautifully. The script is tight as hell, the pacing is great. It's an absolute total package.

The other, arguably better, great movies of the decade:

Rubber: A spoof, meta "horror" movie about a killer tire. I love humor and the way weird structure of the story. There's an audience watching things unfold, but only some people in the story know it's a movie. Real weird. Into it.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: One of the best live action adaptations of a comic. Really dig the neon, video game style and the editing.

13 Assassins: 13 samurai are hired to take out a warlord. This movie is wild. It's 2 hours long and just builds and builds up to the 40 minute long, non stop action climax. I haven't seen anything like it and haven't seen anything like it since really. An impressively patient movie.

The Raid: Cops go into a building of criminals and they all fight. Some of the best fight choreography in cinema. It's a rush.

The Muppets: I like Muppets and it was good to see them all again. I thought this movie was very funny and sweet.

It's Such a Beautiful Day: An interesting animated film about a man's bizarre life and his place in the universe told in little vignettes. I'm big on the visuals and the dark humor.

Why Don't You Play in Hell?: Yakuza's decide to make a movie. Weird, violent hilarity ensues. Probably my favorite movie about making a movie. There's four story lines presented and they all come together with the joy of violence and film making. It comes off as so sincere, pure, inspiring, and heartfelt but is juxtaposed with wild violence. Like it.

The Grand Budapest Hotel: Might be my favorite Wes Anderson movie? I personally think it's his funniest. I like the art direction and the visual comedy of the movie. Really great stuff.

The Lego Movie: This could've been so bad but it wasn't and was way better than it needed to be. Really surprised by how funny it is and the animation in this is really crazy. I thought for like the first 15 minutes it was stop motion.

Colossal: Anne Hathaway controls a giant monster across the planet. I didn't expect to enjoy this movie as much as I did. Jason Sudeikis is really fantastic in this movie.

Guardians of the Galaxy 2: The best Marvel movie. It's impressive for a movie like this to have this many major characters and for all of them to have some sort of pay off. I'd say the most emotionally charged of the Marvel movies as well. It's really something special and I wonder if Guardians 3, or any other Marvel movie, will come close to this.

Logan Lucky: Ocean's Eleven but in the south. A really funny and clever heist movie. The acting and characters are great and what make it. I wouldn't mind seeing a sequel to this.

The Shape of Water: What a strange little love story with fish people. Really liked the look of the world and the fish guy. Michael Shannon is a great villain. Del Toro has a lot of great human villains.

Hereditary: A family comes to terms with a death in the family. The scariest and most emotionally brutal movie I've seen in a theater. Don't know if I'll ever watch it again but I really liked it. I know some people didn't think, horror wise, that it was anything special but subjectively hit every one of my branches on my subjective horror tree. Tony Collette should be recognized more for this.

Annihilation: A group of scientist travel into a weird space bubble in Florida. Stalker with monsters really. This movie really should've had more eyes on it. The pacing is great. The acting is pretty great. There's very weird, suspenseful moments. Four scientist female protagonists. Great effects and story. It's the dream of combining the spectacle of blockbusters with the character and emotion of more grounded movies. A beautiful middle ground.

Mission Impossible Fallout: Ethan Hunt does more impossible missions but all his shit doesn't work. One of the most impressive spectacle movies I've ever seen. The whole helicopter bit is a stand out for me.

They Shall Not Grow Old: The day in the life of a World War One soldier. An incredible documentary and a revolutionary step forward for film restoration. It's mind blowing to see the work that went into making look as good as it does. Highly recommend if you're into that sort of thing.

Booksmart: One of, if not, the best teen comedy I've seen. Great characters and humor. It's good to hear teenagers sound like teenagers.

Movies I should've watched and didn't:

Blade Runner 2049: I'll get around to it. Leave me alone. I'm lazy.

Sorry that this got long and congratulations if you made it this far. Also watch Tampopo. It came out in 1988 but I watched it in this decade and it's one of my favorite movies of all time now. Same for Zazie dans le Metro. Both terribly charming films. Can't remember if I first watched The Abominable Dr. Phibes this decade or not but I like that a whole bunch too. Watched Buckaroo Banzai in 2007 but it's still my all time favorite. Will always recommend that. Keep watching movies.

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johannesviii · 4 years

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Top 10 Personal Favorite Hit Songs from 2018

I’m kinda sad this series of posts is coming to a close, especially with two mediocre years for the kind of hit songs I enjoy.

I was very depressed in 2018 so I thought maybe it was the reason why I didn’t like most songs I heard, so I revisited the entire catalogue of 2018 hit songs from the year-end lists and... no, it wasn’t just me.

Disclaimers:

Keep in mind I’m using both the year-end top 100 lists from the US and from France while making these top 10 things. There’s songs in English that charted in my country way higher than they did in their home countries, or even earlier or later, so that might get surprising at times.

Of course there will be stuff in French. We suck. I know. It’s my list. Deal with it.

My musical tastes have always been terrible and I’m not a critic, just a listener and an idiot.

I have sound to color synesthesia which justifies nothing but might explain why I have trouble describing some songs in other terms than visual ones.

As I mentioned before I was super depressed in 2018, which wasn’t helped by the death of two family members including one I was super close to, and by catching a mysterious infection on a finger that doctors didn’t seem to be able to cure and which made my left hand hurt all year long, until I had to have an operation in early 2019 to fix the issue (plot twist, it wasn’t an infection, which is why nothing was working). On the plus side, my s.o and I decided to get married but it only happened the next year.

Ok so, hit songs weren’t that good (stay tuned for that), but albums? Some great stuff dropped in 2018. Unfortunately, Eminem’s Kamikaze wasn’t among those great albums and at that point he was basically dead to me. BUT! A Perfect Circle came back, which was completely unexpected! Nine Inch Nails released Bad Witch which contained the excellent and super hypnotic Over And Out! Mike Shinoda released Post Traumatic and every single Linkin Park fan was like “oh god what a mood”! Moby, which I hadn’t liked for years at that point after loving his stuff so much when I was 15 or so, released Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt and it was unexpectedly good! And The 1975 released A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships, which, in my opinion, isn’t quite as great as their second album (I refuse to write its super long title again), but still super good. Just like the previous one, a lot of songs had crossover potential and I’m very sad it didn’t happen. Stay tuned for the unelligible songs.

But you know what? The album of the year, at least to me, was always going to be something much darker. Fortunately, the end of the year was when VNV Nation decided to drop its best album of the entire decade, Noire. In these trying times, an album about the fight between light and darkness was exactly what I needed to hear. I was super emotional when I first listened to it. Armour might just be the best song on the album. Collide explodes into a million colors after a super slow start. Wonders is a big mood. Lights Go Out is a super angry song which basically says ‘we’re dancing while the apocalypse is happening because they won’t let us do anything else’, and we need more stuff like this. When is the Future was a super solid first single and yeah, exactly, where is the future we were promised as kids? Only Satellites became one of my fight songs in record time. And All Of Our Sins is terrifying and super good. Just an amazing album all around. I certainly hope they make more in the future, but if they don’t, that would be a super high note to finish on.

As for unelligible stuff, there’s Chun Li (Nicki Minaj) which I found super weird at first, but it grew on me a lot as the year went on. I’m very surprised it’s not on the US year-end list, by the way. And I wish more stuff from Indochine had charted... again, I know. Apart from that, it’s all The 1975. Love it if we made it should have been a hit but wasn’t a safe bet for a leading single so it kind of makes sense. TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME despite its stupid title was a much more convincing hit, and yet, it wasn’t one, and that pisses me off more. And It’s Not Living (If It’s Not With You) is one of their best songs ever. Catch me on the right day and I’ll call it better than The Sound, even. This should have been a hit. I’m so angry it didn’t happen.

But hey! Their new album is getting released in just a couple of days! Maybe 2020 is finally going to be their year? Wait and see.

Holy shit there hasn’t been a shorter list of honorable mentions since my 2008 list.

Remind Me To Forget (Kygo) - Good but (ironically) a bit too forgettable to be on the list.

Later Bitches (The Prince Karma) - So bad it’s good at its finest right there. Not enough to put it higher though.

High Hopes (Panic! At The Disco) - Tiptoes the line between good and super annoying too much to be higher. Not even the best song on the album (that would be Say Amen (Saturday Night)). Not sure why this was more popular.

Sicko Mode (Travis Scott) - God I want to love this song so bad. I tried so hard and it never completely clicked for me.

Next To Me (Imagine Dragons) - Believe it or not, this was the last cut from the list. I sincerely hope that Imagine Dragons will make good music again in the future and that their new songs will stop sounding like a person dragging themselves accross the wet sand of some post-apocalyptic beach covered in ashes.

So how do I know this was a bad year for hit songs? Well I not only struggled to find ten songs for this list but also struggled to find a suitable #1. Then I just went “I’m gonna put the only 2018 song I ever put on my mp3 player at #1 by default.” Does it make 2018 as bad as 1990? I’m not so sure. The top 3 I made for 1990 contained two songs I absolutely adored, including one of my favorite songs of all time. On the other hand, it was a bit easier to find ten songs I liked (not loved) in 2018. So... I don’t know.

I should also mention that Bohemian Rhapsody made the French year-end list again, at #83, and that is hilarious, but putting it on the list feels like cheating. Consider it to be an alternative #1!

10 - Finesse (Bruno Mars)

US: #14 / FR: Not on the list

I know. Everybody likes this song. I’m no exception, and I love its aesthetic, but I also like it wayyyyyy less than 24k Magic.

9 - New Rules (Dua Lipa)

US: #16 / FR: Not on the list

Basically, same thing here. I like it but I’m using it mostly as filler for this list. The lyrics are pretty great, though.

8 - This is America (Childish Gambino)

US: #51 / FR: Not on the list

This would be much better if the radio version had kept the gunshot sounds from the music video, but on the other hand it would have been pretty terrifying to hear gunshots on the radio while driving, so eh... this was probably the right decision to make. Apart from that, this song and this video have already been analysed by countless people on the internet and I don’t see what I could contribute after all this time.

7 - Sweet but Psycho (Ava Max)

US: Not on the list / FR: #42

This sounds like a song from the bygone era of Bad Romance and to be honest, it would have been annoying several years ago but in 2018 that was genuinely a refreshing blast from the past.

6 - Speed (Zazie)

US: Not on the list / FR: #74

To be honest, I never expected Zazie to show up on one of my lists again, but 2018′s general quality forced me to do it. This is a song that starts super slow and keeps getting faster, and it’s mostly about overcoming depression. Everything I needed that year.

5 - Let You Down (NF)

US: #29 / FR: Not on the list

I don’t think I know a single other person or critic who likes this song, and yet it charted super high. I don’t love it, and the chorus is grating, but there’s some damn powerful lyrics in there, and a lot of it is extremely relatable.

What can I say, in this day and age, if you give me a super-watered-down version of early 2000s Eminem, I’ll take it.

4 - Marry Me (Thomas Rhett)

US: #76 / FR: Not on the list

Yeah, it’s a slow emotional song and I tend to dislike those, but I heard this song only maybe four times in total and it destroyed me every single time.

No, I don’t have anything else to say about it.

3 - Un Été Français (Indochine)

US: Not on the list / FR: #67

I do not like this song’s chorus, it’s a mess and a half. There’s a lot of much better songs on the 13 album. 2033 should have been a single. But this is the one which charted instead. And you know what? I’ll take “super messy and clunkily written song about how the far right is gonna destroy this country if we let it exist any longer, sung over a nice tune” over everything I mentioned previously on this list.

In a better year, this wouldn’t have climbed higher than the honorable mentions. But yeah, I’m not gonna repeat my entire 2017 lecture about Indochine. It takes a lot for me to dislike one of their songs. Even at their weakest, their hearts are in the right place.

2 - Flames (David Guetta & Sia)

US: Not on the list / FR: #13

We’ve finally reached the songs I genuinely love and uh, yeah, there’s only two of them. This is sad. But this song is a lot of fun! And the music video is absolutely ridiculous in all the best ways.

It was also a super useful song to me. You’re being super sad and unenergetic, you’re climbing into your car to buy some food, you’re turning the radio on and suddenly you’re hearing “Go, go, go, figure it out / Figure it out, you can do this / So my love, keep on running / You gotta get through today / There my love, keep on running / Gotta keep those tears at bay / Oh my love, don't stop burning / Gotta send them up in flames” over a super good beat and yeah, definitely. You can do this.

1 - La Même (Maître Gims & Vianney)

US: Not on the list / FR: #1 (!! holy shit quality wins for once)

This might just be the weakest #1 I’ve ever put at the top of one of my lists, since the only criteria that put this one there was “this is actually on my mp3 player and none of the other songs are”. Also, somehow, I only discovered it last year even though it was the biggest song of 2018 in my country, apparently...

Even so, that’s a fantastic song with great lyrics and a wonderfully catchy tune and that would have been enough to put it at #1 on its own, I think. But look at those lyrics! (here’s a rather good translation) It’s about how society judges people by their looks in public. The chorus literally goes “If what I am bothers you, well, tough”. That’s even the title. And I like the music video a lot, with this white box in which people are put and as soon as they aren’t in it anymore you notice how different they act or look, like the buff guy who turns out to have prosthetic legs, or the grandma who turns out to be covered in tatoos. Simple but cool idea.

It may be a weak #1, but it’s an extremely useful song, because having “si je vous gêne, bah c’est la même” (”if I bother you, well tough”) turning in your head like a playground taunt, it really does wonders for your confidence.

And to think some French friends thought making these lists would make me hate Maître Gims’ music once I discovered it.

Next up: the last list?! It’s been a wild ride.

#Johannes’ bad not good pretty terrible music lists #music #long post #eye contact tw #fire tw

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the-desolated-quill · 5 years

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Joker - Quill’s Quickies (No Spoilers)

Joker is proving to be an extremely divisive film. Some think it’s the best thing since The Dark Knight. Proof that comic book movies can be art too. Others think it’s pretentious Oscar bait with nothing interesting to say.

And that’s not to mention the controversy surrounding the film as people wonder whether this will incite violence in white men (which I’m not going to touch with a barge pole, at least not here. I’ll do a separate Scribble for that sheer nonsense at some point). Needless to say everyone and their mums have an opinion on Joker... so I guess one more, won’t hurt.

Whether you like Joker or not I think depends on your tolerance for a) films that deliberately set out to make you feel uncomfortable and b) films that ask you to feel pity for the devil. (and I want you to remember that word ‘pity.’ It’ll be important later on). Personally, I loved Joker. I think it’s one of the most unique and groundbreaking comic book films I’ve ever seen. If you don’t like it, that’s fine. I can actually understand why to a certain extent. However don’t try to spin this as some ideological thing because that’s just disingenuous and stupid.

Lets start with the obvious. Joaquin Phoenix. Give this guy a fucking Oscar, for the love of God! His performance was truly mesmerising, particularly when he does finally don the full clown makeup. He is the Joker. The mannerisms, the attitude, the nihilism, it all just works. There’s even a monologue near the end of the film that could have been lifted straight out of the comics. This is a film that not only depicts the Joker perfectly, but also completely understands the character too.

The rest of the cast is exceptional too. Robert de Niro plays a chat show host who Joker looks up to and he does a good job. Deadpool 2′s Zazie Beetz plays a small but pivotal role as Sophie, Joker’s next door neighbour and ‘love interest’ and she’s excellent too despite having quite a small amount of screen time. Frances Conroy plays Joker’s mum Penny. Again a relatively small role, but a crucial one and she gives a memorable performance. Finally there’s Brett Cullen as a very different interpretation of Bruce Wayne’s father Thomas Wayne, which I think works extremely well in the context of this film and creates exciting possibilities for this world’s version of Batman, which we’ll probably never get to see because this is intended as a one off. Not that I’m complaining. I wouldn’t want them to do a sequel. This works perfectly as a standalone piece.

As I said, the supporting cast actually play a minor role overall as the film follows Arthur Fleck exclusively. The man who would be Joker. It’s a bit hard to talk about why I think this film works without giving away spoilers, so I’ll focus on how it made me feel.

Joker is an extremely tense movie. Todd Phillips’ stellar direction puts you in the mindset of the character and Hildur Guonadottir’s incredible music really elevates the film’s more disturbing moments. In fact (and I suppose you could call this a trigger warning), I did actually suffer from an anxiety attack halfway through the film because you’re constantly on a knife edge. As Arthur’s life falls apart, we see him become more violent and erratic to the point where he becomes legitimately frightening. Fear is of course subjective. I’m sure most of you have more of a spine than I do. But if you do suffer from any kind of anxiety, I would recommend psyching yourself up before you watch this and maybe have a friend or relative on hand to comfort you if it starts to get a bit much.

Seriously, I’m not kidding. Joker is an extremely uncomfortable experience and it’s unrelenting in how grim and unsettling it is. It’s R rated, but it’s not necessarily gory. It’s not as violent as, say, Deadpool, but its more bloody moments often come rather suddenly and with a lot of tense buildup beforehand. While it does bear similarities to movies like Taxi Driver and The King Of Comedy, those films have the audience on the outside looking in. Joker on the other hand takes the audience and locks them inside the Clown Prince of Crime’s mind for two hours straight, and quelle surprise, it turns out the inside of Joker’s mind is fucking horrible. Viewer beware.

Okay, okay. I guess I can’t avoid it altogether. Do I think this film is dangerous? No. Do I think it insults those with mental health issues? No, in fact quite the opposite. I found the film to be quite sympathetic towards the mentally ill, presenting Arthur as being a dark outlier, not the norm. Do I think the film is making some sort of political statement. Again no. I honestly don’t think it’s saying anything about white people or toxic masculinity or gun violence or anything like that. In fact, if it is saying anything at all, it condemns those who seek to hijack a public figure for their own political agenda (which ironically is exactly what the press are doing with this very movie, but of course critics and journalists can’t see that because they have no self awareness what so bloody ever). The film is what it is. An extremely dark character study of arguably the most famous villain of all time.

Some have criticised the film as being too predictable, which I personally don’t think is a particularly valid critique. Like, yeah, of course it’s predictable. We all know what’s going to happen in the end. The fucking title kind of gives it away. It’s execution that counts, and Phillips and co have done a fantastic job in my opinion. As for those who complained that this film is cynical and nasty and made them feel numb afterwards... I mean... I honestly don’t know what you were expecting. Of course you’re feeling numb. That’s what the film wants you to feel. It’s cynical and nasty because the central character is cynical and nasty. That’s like criticising a comedy for being funny.

Honestly, if I had any complaints, it’s that I think they do paint the story with broad strokes, leaving very little room for subtlety. But having said that, this is based on a comic book about a billionaire who fights psychotic costumed criminals at night whist dressed as a bat. I don’t think subtlety has much of a place here.

Finally I just want to briefly touch on the concern that this film might make the character too sympathetic. First of all, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Some villains can actually become scarier when we as an audience can empathise with them and understand their motives (see Killmonger in Black Panther). Second, and most importantly, Arthur Fleck/Joker is not a sympathetic character. Yes I did feel pity for him at times, but that’s not the same thing as sympathy. Like I said, this film completely understands the Joker. There are occasions where you do feel sad for the character and wish he could have got the right help, but most of the time (and the film emphasises this throughout) he’s presented as being a deeply disturbed and maladjusted individual and at no point is his behaviour ever justified. Instead it’s presented as being almost inevitable. That in a city as terrible as Gotham, what else could Arthur have become? Joker is a tragic character, but he’s not in anyway likeable.

I would definitely recommend you go and see this movie, especially if, like me, you’ve gotten sick of the slew of formulaic comic book movies and convoluted shared universes. If Joker is indeed going to be the first of an anthology series focusing on telling low budget, character driven, standalone, experimental films, then it’s a very strong start. Whether you liked Joker or not, the fact of the matter is the success of this movie can only mean good things for Warner Bros, DC, the comic book movie genre and the industry going forward, so please go and see this film.

#joker #joaquin phoenix #todd phillips #dc #dc black #warner bros #quill's quickies #no spoilers

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ryanmeft · 5 years

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Movie Review: Joker

The Joker is ubiquitous in pop culture, possibly second only to his nemesis. If there is a Batman-adjacent project, the Joker will show up at some point, and often be the most memorable element. That’s held true for portrayals by Cesar Romero, Mark Hamill, Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger. Joaquin Phoenix’s turn in the role takes a different tack and makes the villain the central character. It does not make him the hero, and that is an important distinction. Todd Phillips’ film walks a thin line between exploration of the character and adoration of him, and manages to stay upright.

There will, of course, be debate about that, a thing which in and of itself speaks to the unique creature the film is: can you imagine walking out of Avengers and debating anything other than which moments were the most fan-pleasing? I did that after Endgame, and was, on a superficial level, satisfied. Joker is aiming for a more cerebral level. There were times I could see the point and times I could not. That alone is noteworthy. I can’t imagine feeling philosophically conflicted about most superhero films. Is it possible I am giving it bonus credit simply for having thoughts in a typically thoughtless genre? Entirely possible.

One thing I noted is that when the credits roll, Phoenix is not credited as the Joker, but as Arthur Fleck. Fleck is a clown-for-hire who dreams of being a stand-up comedian, but keeps the lights on, barely, for himself and his mother by spinning sale signs or cheering up sick children. We meet him as he is mugged by a group of teenagers for no reason; they break the sign he is twirling, and his boss insists he stole it. His life is a series of such incidents, a pattern of trusting the world will do the right thing and finding it won’t. You sense that, deep down, he knows this. He reacts to each new disappointment not with shock or anger but with simple, resigned acceptance.

His life is one of quiet drudgery leading inevitably to a pauper’s grave, and it is dominated by his mother, played by Frances Conroy, who I have personally not seen since she was owning the brilliant Six Feet Under. We meet her here as a defeated old woman, gazing lovingly at TV interviews being given by Mayoral candidate Thomas Wayne (Brett Cullen) whose attitude toward the poor is derived from the real-world remarks of many right-wing politicians mixed with the savior-ism of the left. She worked for him, years ago, and is convinced he will answer her letters and lift her and her son out of poverty. This is one of several places where the film breaks with society’s stereotypes of the down-and-out: Fleck lives with his mother and does his best to care for her despite his own limitations, and the situation is not seen as especially pathetic. Another is that Fleck is regularly single, but being unlucky in love isn’t a significant contribution to his transformation; a brief relationship with a single mother (Zazie Beets) ends sadly but is not greatly important to his fall.

That transformation is played out slowly, and there’s no one moment that allows us to go “A-ha! This is it!” He discovers things about his true parentage, and then discovers there may be even more secrets to those secrets. He learns his mother may not be all there, and is keeping things from him. A moment is needed to highlight Conroy, who must shift her persona a couple of times during the film. We’ve all likely known an older woman who is oddly obsessed with something she’s seen on television; it has become a cliche, and most cliches have some basis in fact. Conroy feels sympathetic, and yet when we learn she may be unstable and possibly abusive, we also believe it; there is more than one person in her.

The film’s world views are not what Outrage Culture decided ahead of time that they would be. Prior to the film’s release, there were those who watched the trailer and decided it was glorifying sexist societal outcasts and the acts of violence they sometimes carry out. If you go into the movie expecting it to be that, you can probably find evidence of it. For myself, I don’t subscribe to the notion of deciding what a film I have not seen is and is not. I’ve seen it now, and as with almost every film that addresses mental illness in any way, there are things it does well and things it does less well. The slow transmutation of a simple sad sack into a mad anarchist is movie-plausible, if not real-life-plausible. Phillips and co-writer Scott Silver use some convenient shortcuts to let us know how close to the line Arthur is. He’s on seven medications and asks for more; more crazy, of course, requires more pills. He is gaunt and skeletal, with Phoenix losing a lot of weight for the role, to the point where his joints seem misplaced; another shorthand, as you rarely see a character who is both mentally ill and has any meat on their bones. There’s still a basic idea that external forces are needed to produce a real breakdown; the idea it can just simply happen, due to imagined events or to nothing at all, is simply too opaque for a visual medium to capture. The drama concerning Fleck’s parentage veers just this side of soap opera, but rights itself in the end. This is set against a backdrop of economic unrest, and the eventual furor the Joker stirs up resembles Occupy Wall Street on steroids.

What the film gets right is the way most people who end up suffering from a damaged mind get that way not because of one bad day---the cause Joker famously attributes his origin to in Alan Moore’s classic graphic novel The Killing Joke---but because of the slow accumulation of wounds that by themselves would not be serious, or would not be serious to someone with a different brain. The most tone-deaf criticism I have heard is that the things that happen to Fleck are not realistic; that they are contrived simply to make him sympathetic. If someone believes that people are not casually cruel for no reason, I would venture to say they have lived a charmed life. As someone who has spent time in both retail wars and the vastly overhyped halls of many a Comic Convention, I didn’t find anything people did to Fleck to be beyond belief. Robert De Niro plays a late night host who mocks Fleck’s botched attempt at stand-up to score cheap laughs of his own, and that of course is found everywhere. It is, for instance, easy to write a negative review by personally attacking the people involved. The film is not denying that some people are just horrible. Rather, it is saying that maybe, just maybe, the casual cruelty and anger that is so easy to find doesn’t help. We are also, of course, not meant to sympathize with the path Fleck takes, but to recognize that when people are monstrous, they create monsters.

There are criticisms that can be leveled at Joker, and since this is a positive review, I obviously disagree with most of them. Yet one stands out: the idea that the movie glorifies a murderer. There are ample movies and TV shows picturing the common fantasy of not taking it anymore, in which good guys kill anyone and everyone who looks at them funny while obliterating huge parts of the world around them. People die at the hands of heroes for doing their jobs on the regular, and how many innocent bystanders do so when Iron Man rips through downtown New York? Those movies reduce such sequences to cartoons, so we may go away satisfied and empty-headed. The greatest perspective trick movies often pull is not any camera wizardry, but in convincing us that psychopathic mass murderers are heroes. Will Joker start a new wave in film of Watchmen-like introspection on the reality of worlds full of colorful people with powers? Certainly not; we like our candy too much. Yet I will continue to dream of a Batman film in which the question asked is not why Joker kills, but why Batman keeps letting him escape to do it.

Verdict: Recommended

Note: I don’t use stars, but here are my possible verdicts.

Must-See

Highly Recommended

Recommended

Average

Not Recommended

Avoid like the Plague

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#joker #Joaquin Phoenix #batman #heath ledger #movies #frances conroy #jack nicholson #mark hamill #cesar romero #todd phillips #brett cullen #DC comics #zazie beetz

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