#author do not gets money off of it. i do not rewatch the movies. if i do it's only because i can't fall asleep and i pirate it. i don't rea

[bjtch-craft]

"I'm a Rockstar Babe"

Todd Ingram X Bottom Male! Reader

☆ Summary: [Name] reunites with an old high-school friend turned rockstar things take a turn when they restart their old high-school ways.

☆ NSFW

☆Request: Yes or No

☆ Word count: 2,836

☆Genre: Angst to Smut (Kinda)

☆Warnings: Smut, degradation, manipulation (kinda, tbh I just tried making him cocky but rereading it it sounds like bro is manipulating), Bl♡wjobs, slapping, just douchy rockstar things, spitting (he's one of those ppl)

☆Authors note: Dude, I rewatched the movie and reread the novels, and why is Todd so mf fine like WHAT? And why are there no stories about this man? Anyways enjoy!! (P.s this has been in my drafts for like 2 months now and I've never finished editing it for some reason...)

Also look at the comic version of him like WHAT A CUTIE like yeah sure he's arrogant, narcissistic, uncaring, and may or may not be a pathological liar, and a walking red flag but like that red looking a little orange so??? PRAYING SOME OF YALL READ THIS!!

Did this count as being a groupie? No. It's not like I'm some obsessed super fan like Joseph I mean for fucks sake I knew Todd in high school [Name] thought as he lay on the mattress of the cheap motel room waiting for Todd to get out of the shower.

10:15 P.M. - some time earlier

[Name] was shoved and pushed around by the hundreds of thousands of fans who had gathered to watch the band play. The band in question was none other than The Clash at Demonhead. [Name] new one of the members (while technically two if you count Envy but they didn’t know each other. They were more of acquaintances really.) Todd Ingram who he was close friends with. Really close.

He'd given him head a couple of times (and slept with him too) but that didn't mean anything to them (yes it did.) it was what Todd considered a "bro-job" whatever the fuck that was. But that's not important (yes it is) what is important is how quickly their friendship ended after he got with Envy. They tried to keep in touch but after the band blew the absolute fuck up he cut ties with him.

Did it hurt? Yes. A lot. But [Name] didn't let it get to him he still supported Todd even if Todd himself didn't know it. [Name] bought every CD, vinyl, and cassette tape, and got tickets to most shows. He even tried to get backstage passes to rekindle his relationship with Todd but the prices were far out of his price range.

There have been times when for a quick second he'd seen Todd after a show or two and waved to him or said a quick word but he didn't recognize him. Which also hurt. How can you not recognize someone you spent almost TEN YEARS of your life with? But [Name] was determined to catch up with his best friend so after pulling a couple of night shifts and saving up some money he... still didn’t have enough.

10: 50 P.M.

"Todd's so hot!"

"Jesus Envys even hotter in person!"

"Why's that chick got a robotic arm?"

These are just some of the things [Name] heard throughout the event which was on the verge of ending.

12:10 A.M. - Later

The concert was over and [Name] pushed and shoved his way out of the venue and quickly rushed towards the back of the building looking for the band.

"Come on please don't tell me I missed them!"

His shoes thudded against the gravel, and as he rounded the corner a gate came into view.

"No. No, no, no, no!"

The gate door was slid open. How safe right?

"Envy? Do you wanna get a bite to eat or something?"

[Name] stopped for a moment as he saw Todd standing there his guitar case in hand talking to Envy. He took a deep breath and stepped through the gates. Fuck?

"T-todd?"

Todd turned to look at him a look of shock and anger upon his face.

"Who the hell let you in" Todd asked as he stepped closer to [Name] his voice coming off as aggressive as his eyes and hair started to glow.

"N-no one the gate was open."

"So you just snuck in?"

"I'm [Name], [First name], [Last name] we went to high school together. Remember?"

Todd's eyes and hair stopped glowing as his hair drifted back down in front of his face.

"You're kidding?!"

Todd dropped his guitar case and ran up to [Name] his tough guy rockstar persona shedding completely. He threw his arms around [Name] and pulled him into his chest. [Name] could feel the heat rising to two places as his face was smushed into Todd's rather large pecs.

"Todd you're squishing me..." [Name] said his voice muffled.

"Sorry!" He pulled away. "Jesus it's been a long time since we've seen each other... I'm a Rockstar!"

"I can see that!"

"Todd, what the fuck is going on," Envy asked?

Todd turned to look at them wrapping his arm around [Name's] waist. "This is [Name] from high school! He's my best friend remember?"

"While to me he looks like a fucking groupie! Let's go" Envy replied.

"I'm not a groupie..."

"Do you think he can come back to the motel with us?"

"No."

"Find some other cheap motel to fuck in," The Bionic arm bitch said.

"He's not a groupie and we're not gonna fuck! He's my friend and I wanna catch up with him!"

"Find. Another. Motel." Envy said the tone of her voice showed her annoyance more than anything.

12:30 A.M.

And they did find a cheap motel in an extremely unsafe part of town. Fits the stereotype, huh? A rockstar takes one of his fans to a cheap rundown-looking motel just to get it in.

[Name] once again was hugging Todd but this time was looking up at him.

"I'm so sorry for ghosting you [Name]."

"It's fine."

Todd's hands traveled down [Name's] back and reached his ass and groped it firmly, making [Name] let out an involuntary yelp. He pushed Todd off of him, causing the blonde boy to let out a laugh.

"What's the matter [Name] just like old times!"

"Todd aren't you dating Envy or something?"

He shifted his weight on his feet annoyingly.

"I'm a Rockstar babe we don't date," Todd said cockily.

"Oh?"

"I'm gonna hop in the shower. I know I reek of sweat... care to join me?"

"Smooth Todd.... real smooth."

He winked at [Name] and waltzed into the bathroom and shut the door behind him. After a minute or two he heard the shower go on.

Did this count as being a groupie? No. It's not like I'm some obsessed super fan like Joseph I mean for fucks sake I knew Todd in high school [Name] thought as he lay on the mattress of the cheap motel room waiting for Todd to get out of the shower.

"Do I wanna do this... again?"

The first time [Name] and Todd ever did anything together was on his eighteenth birthday. They were both unbelievably drunk, and both were bored lying on Todd's bed in silence. One of them now and then would say something, and they would have a short conversation.

"H-heyyy~ [Name] can I ask you for a favor," Todd asked his words coming out slurred.

"Yeah- hic! What'sss ~'s up?"

"Do you think you could um... s-suck me off?"

"Why?"

"Well, I'm one drunk! And two horny as fuck~! So can you?"

"You know what fuck it! You are my best friend!"

[Name] slid his basketball shorts off and then his boxers and grabbed at his length.

"I've never done this before so um... bear with me~."

Todd nodded his head a goofy grin on his face. "Do it as if someone's doing yours."

[Name] took him into his mouth slowly going down inch by inch the girth was almost too much to handle. Almost.

But that was years ago. They were two dumb eighteen-year-olds who were just helping each other out. But [Name] didn't feel that way anymore... but reminiscing on their old days made [Name] slowly begin to get hard in the shorts Todd had given him.

[Name] rubbed himself through the fabric and pushed down on it, making him release a soft moan. He needed Todd he didn't realize how badly he did until right then and there. The door opened to the bathroom, and [Name] quickly through the blanket over his lap.

Todd walked out with just a towel around his waist, his bulge catching [Names] eye as well as his body, which was still wet and glistened in the light.

"What are you doing?"

"Getting another pair of boxers, I forgot to bring them into the shower..." Todd looked at [Name] and noticed the tent that was forming underneath the blanket. "Aw, are you happy to see me like this again, baby?"

"What! No!"

"Come on..." He said huskily. The cockiness was back. "I heard you moan... were you thinking of the times I fucked you? The times you begged me to fill you up? The times I came on that pretty face of yours?"

[Name] could feel his cock growing harder with each question.

"N-no" [Name] whimpered out.

Todd walked to the side of the bed grabbed [Name's] hand and placed it on his groin.

"You miss my fat cock don't you," He asked his voice sounding oddly humiliating.

"I don't have to say anything."

Todd started to move his hips grinding his bulge against the palm of [Names] hand.

"Todd we can't... you have a girlfriend."

"I told you we rockstars don't really - truly date, and if anything, it's just another bro-job, remember?"

[Name] pulled his hand away and sat up and using both hands opened Todd's towel up causing his cock to pop out and slap against his happy trail.

"Fuck~," [Name] whispered out.

[Name] reached out and pumped his cock twice.

"Yeah that's it~ I know you fucking missed it haven't you?"

[Name] let go of Todd's cock and adjusted his position so he was sitting on the edge of the bed. Todd backed up a little.

"Please don't like- hurt me that much. Please?"

Todd chuckled and ran his hand through his wet hair.

"You sweet dumb thing, you know I can't promise that."

[Name] grabbed Todd's cock once more and spat on it and stroked him off spreading the saliva over his cock.

"I haven't done this in a long time... so I'm a little rusty."

Todd smiled down at him. The grin was a mixture of amusement and humiliation.

[Name] placed the tip on his tongue and licked it gently before wrapping his lips around it and slowly going down on it.

[Name] couldn't lie he truly did miss this. Not only did he enjoy it, but it honestly made them closer as friends.

[Name] gagged on the base as he looked up at Todd with tearful eyes.

"Aww you look so cute with my big cock in your mouth," Todd said softly his voice coated in lust as he gently patted [Name's] cheek.

[Name] began to slowly come off his cock before Todd placed a hand on the back of his skull and slammed him back down causing him to gag and for drool to pour out of the sides of his mouth.

"Mmm-hmm-agh." [Name] groaned out.

Todd pulled his cock out of the boy's mouth and slapped it on either side of the guy's cheek.

"You took it so well [Name]~."

[Name] looked up at Todd with innocent eyes, his tongue sticking out a little as he gasped for air.

"Jesus you look so fucking gorgeous."

"I-I think you bruised the back of my throat!"

Todd grabs [Names] chin as he angles his head straight aligning his cock with [Names] lips.

Todd spat on his cock (and on [Names] face) and slammed it down [Names] throat before pulling out. [Name] stuck out his tongue and licked a stripe down his cock.

"You're such a fucking slut baby. I bet you've been craving my cock since you heard about our band haven't you?"

[Name] nodded his head embarrassingly. Todd placed a hand on the back of [Names] head and leaned in, planting a kiss on his lips as his hands traveled down his body. His hands reached the bottom of the boy's shirt and began to pull it up over his head, breaking the kiss in the process.

Todd pushes [Name] down onto the bed by his chest and crawls on top of him, attacking his neck, causing [name] to let out a soft moan. Todd kisses down his neck while unbuckling [Names] belt and gently pulls them off along with his boxers.

"I don't reckon you have a condom do you?"

"I have one in my wallet in my left pocket," [Name] says, his voice barely above a whisper.

Todd grabs [Names] jeans off the floor and pulls out the condom from the wallet before discarding them back onto the floor.

Todd rips the wrapping of the condom off with his teeth and slides the rubber on. He places [Bames] legs on his shoulders and lines himself up at his entrance.

[Name] squeezes his eyes shut as Todd pushes himself into him. A sudden wave of pain and pleasure washes over him, causing him to grab onto the sheets, twisting them in his hands. A soft whimper escapes his lips as Todd continues to push deeper into him.

"Shit- Todd, you're so fucking- ngh~ big!" [Name] whimpered out, causing Todd to look down at him with a cocky grin.

Todd had pushed himself into the other boy and slowly began to pull back out, only to slam back into him, which earned him a low groan.

"Does that feel good?"

[Name] nodded his head and let out a whimper. Todd began to rock his hips in and out of him, the tip occasionally brushing against his prostate. His thirst got faster and quicker he reached down and grabbed [Name's] hands and placed them above his head.

Todd began pounding into [Name]. The sound of skin against skin filled the room as well as screams of pleasure from both boys.

"Ugh~ F-fuck! You're going to har-!" [Name] wasn't able to finish his sentence as Todd delivered a gentle (but still hard) slap across his face.

"Don't tell me what the fuck to do!" Todd growled out.

[Names] cock twitched as pre-cum drizzled down his cock causing a moan to escape from his lips.

"Don't tell me you're into this shit you slut?"

"S-s-shut up Todd~"

Todd smirked and began rocking his hips.

"How bad do you want it?"

"W-what?" [Name] stuttered.

"I can pull out right now and leave and not let you finish you."

"Please don't~ I'll do anything!"

"Then admit it.'

"What?"

"Admit you're a filthy whore" Todd said his voice thick with lust.

"I'm not going to- ah~!"

Todd pulled out of [Name] leaving him feeling empty and somehow even more fucking desperate.

"Todd please" [Name] begged.

"Then say it."

"I-I’m a whore okay? Is that what you want to hear from me? I'm a fucking slut for you okay?!"

Todd looked down at [Name] with a cocky grin.

"Good boy."

Todd leaned back over [Name] and placed a soft kiss on his lips before pushing himself back into him. He wrapped his hand around [Name's] throat and began pounding into him. The sounds of skin against skin filled the room once again.

Todd raised his hand and brought it across [Names] face with enough power to cause a sting of pain leading [Name] to let out a dry moan.

"I can't believe your into this shit!" Todd said with a cheesy grin.

"Shut up!" The boy underneath him whined out.

Todd smirked and removed his hand from [Names] neck and grabbed him by the waist and slowed his thrusts.

"What are you- agh~!"

Todd pulled [Name] into him driving his cock deeper into him pushing past his prostate. [Names] jaw dropped as the sudden feeling causing a high pitched moan to erupt from his throat. Todd took this opportunity and grabbed his jaw holding it open and dipped his thumb into his mouth.

"Don't close your mouth got that?"

[Name] replied with a whimper as Todd's thurst became annoyingly slow as a string of spit slowly began to fall from his lips and landed in [Names] mouth.

[Named] closed his mouth after Todd gave him a look that practically yelled at him, too. Todd's slow thrust became faster and faster. Todd wrapped his hand around [Name's] dick and began jerking him off as [Name] placed his palm at the back of Todd's head.

"I'm so close!" Todd groaned out as his rhythm began to go out of sync.

His movements became harder and harder as he felt himself getting closer and closer to finishing.

"W-where- fuck~ where do you want it?" He moaned out.

"On me..."

Todd placed a hand behind [Names] head as his thurst became sloppy he spat once again at [Name] the salvia covering his face before pulling out and jerking himself off.

"Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!"

With one final moan ropes of cum erupted from his cock covering [Names] body in white ropes. Todd pumped [Name's] cock for a minute before he came their cum mixing on his stomach. Todd scooped up some of his cum off of the boy's body with his index finger and popped it into [Names] mouth.

"How's it taste?"

"Salty... can you get me a towel?"

1:35 AM

[Name] lay on the cheap hotel's mattress, his head on Todd's chest, listening to his heartbeat.

"Hey, have you ever thought of being a roadie?'

"A what?"

"A roadie helps the band set up... you could be one for us so we could keep in touch and..." He wrapped his hand around [Names] body and groped his ass "Have some more time to ourselves."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

THIS MAN IS SO FINE ARGH. I NEED HIM SO BAD LIKE I WANT HIM TO FULLY REARRANGE MY INSIDES.

Authors note!!

Again, sorry for the break. School is still once again kicking my ass :) I do plan on writing more over Christmas break, but I do have like half-written stories in my drafts, so here are some of them. (Some of them have titles, but they are to be determined, so kill me or wtv) .

Darry Jenner x Male reader (Fluff)

Miguel Ohara x Male reader (Smut)

Chad Meeks x Male reader (TBD)

Simon Kalivoda x Male reader (Fluff)

#Spotify #scott pilgrim #todd ingram x male reader #brandon routh #i need this man so bad #scott pilgram vs the world #lgbtq #gay #todd ingram #todd ingram x reader

[creoterative]

Well, I said that September might be Paul's month, didn't I? So here's another drawing, inspired by a scene in Charlie Chaplin's movie 'City Lights' from 1931.  I'm a great fan of Ikarishipping and thus wanted to finally make a drawing for it since the last one I made was... let's just say, it's very old.

The idea for this drawing came to me when I rewatched this gem of a movie a few days ago. It is my favorite out of Chaplin's collection because of the simple but very sweet and hopefull story that brings the two main characters together.

I'll give a summary and explain why I picked that scene for this picture.

----Spoilers----

The movie starts with the main character, the Tramp, being chased off a statue, that was to be revealed to the public, all while he decided to sleep under the curtain. He didn't have any other place to sleep that night, so he just took what was there, not realizing the amount of trouble he'd make in doing so.

After he's chased off, he walks through the city for a while, not really caring where his feet will take him, until he encounters a lot of traffic and has to climb through the car of a wealthy man to get to the other side. A young woman is sitting on a small wall, selling flowers, and when she hears the door of the car, she asks the man if he's interested in buying some.

The Tramp thinks for a while, since his money is very limited nowadays, but decides to at least give the flowers a look. Accidentally, he throws a flower out of her hand with his ellbow and picks it up quickly, right before the woman bends down to do so as well. Realizing she is blind and didn't see him already get the flower, he helps her up and she puts the flower on his jacket. He gives her the rest of his money and wants to wait for his change when another man gets into a fancy car right next to him. Not knwoing that he's still standing beside her, the woman reaches out for the car, asking for him to wait for his change, while the Tramp sneaks away, letting her keep the money.

As the woman returns home to her grandmother and dreams about finding someone who doesn't just see the disability she has, the Tramp stops a millionaire from drowning himself in the river and befriends him (kinda). After saving him from himself, again, he and the millionaire go out to make trouble in town and live the city night life. All kinds of crazy things happen, multiple times the Tramp or the millionaire almost get into a fight, but in the end, they make it out alive and arrive at the millionaires mansion in the early morning.

While the still very drunk millionaire is brought inside, the Tramp stays at the stairs outside, where he sees the woman from yesterday sell her flowers again. Getting money from the drunk millionaire, he rushes over to her to buy all of her flowers and guide her home as well. (That's the scene I drew by the way.)

When they arrive, he asks if he may see her again and she tells him he may come visit whenever he wants to. Afterwards, she talks to her grandmother about him, saying that he may be rich, but he's more than that, referring to his kind and gentle attitude.

The Tramp gets back to the millionaire's mansion the next morning, thinking his butlers will let him in, but when the millionaire is sober, he doesn't recognize the Tramp and sees him as filth, a streetrat. In the afternoon though, they meet each other again, the millionaire being drunk again and he hosts a party for the Tramp. In the end, he gets thrown out the next morning and leaves, not really caring for the rich man anymore.

The woman meanwhile catches a severe cold and when the Tramp hears this, he decides to help her. He finds honest work, cleaning streets, and tries his best to keep up the facade, as the woman still thinks he's a gentleman.

But when they find out, that the authorities will take her home if she doesn't pay rent quickly, he promises her to help, only to discover that he's about to lose his job for being late again. Desperate, the Tramo enters a, more or less legal, boxing fight and can even hold his own for a while, but is defeated at last.

Not knowing what to do, he visits the millionaire again, who is drunk for the millionth time and promises him, that he'll take care of the woman. There has been a new scientific breakthrough in eye surgeries, so that people can see again and the Tramp suggests that he'd get her the treatment. He can get a lot of money from the millionaire before the policemen arrive, mistaking him for a thief, while the real thieves are escaping already.

Running away from the law, he rushes to the woman and gives her every cent he's got, telling her to get the treatment and pay her rent before he has to go. She asks him if she'll see him again, to which he replies with 'I gotta go, for a while.' Knowing, that he'll get thrown into jail if the police finds him, he leaves her and gets arrested shortly after.

Six months later, the Tramp is free again, but broke and doesn't have a clue where to go from here on, so he just wanders the streets, as always. The woman got the treatment and is finally able to see, which helps her to open her own flower store, which is doing wonderfully.

The Tramp passes the store and recognizes the white flowers out on the street, but as he sees her through the window, he doesn't really know how to act. When the woman approaches him, he wants to run away quickly, but she stops him to give him a flower and some money. After touching his hand and hearing his voice though, she realizes it's him, seeming kind of shocked, but also happy to meet him again.

What happens afterwards is up to us, the viewers.

---

The story is old, the movie is old, but I like this old charm, so yeah.

The reason why I thought it might fit Ikarishipping, is a bit much to explain in english, but I'll try my best.

Paul isn't nearly as comically or charismatic as the Tramp. He is cold, doesn't approach people if he doesn't need anything from them (or wants to scold them for something), and he especially doesn't show any interest in being a gentleman. He is very polite to people he thinks deserve it, though. Cynthia, Nurse Joy, Roark, even Dawn at the end seems to have earned his respect in some kind of way since he actually opens up to her about why he despises Ash etc.

If I had to figure out his lovelanguage, I'd say it's through actions, not words. He doesn't talk a lot, but rather shows how much he cares with little things at first. Just as it was in the movie, it started with the Tramp buying one flower, then the whole basket, then he paid her treatment and rent. His love and care grew exponentially and even though I'd say it would take a loooot longer for Paul, I'd still think that's what he works with - slowly opening up, showing more of his care and realizing, that he actually has feelings.

While Paul isn't actually that much reflected by the movie, rather his way of showing affection (in my opinion), I think Dawn is portrayed perfectly. She isn't blind, but the determination of the young woman and her effort are clearly something, that Dawn shows as well. But also the amount of emotions she shows reflects Dawn's. She openly talks about her feelings and thoughts, shows that she cares by asking about the person, how they feel and what they are doing, also offering help if needed.

The woman in the movie is mostly portrayed as shy, but not helpless, knowing her way around the house and even though she's blind, she's still trying her best to make money. Yes, she needs help with the rent, but afterwards she shows that she can handle herself perfectly, since she took the rest of the money he gave her and invested it into something that'll last. That's what I think Dawn is like too. She's not always able to fight her demons oof by herself, but when she gets that little extra help from her friends, she's able to make something remarkable out of it.

Most importantly though, she doesn't judge right away or seeks the fight. Even when Paul was mean in the anime, she showed concern or at least tried to understand what was going on. Especially when he got defeated by Brandon, she seemed worried about him. Of course, they also had their tense moments, for example when he couldn't remember her name, but that's... well, part of the ships charm, I guess ^^

Anyways, that's my opinion on this, my idea for the picture.

Have a nice day and stay safe!

#pokemon paul #pokemon dawn #pokemon anime #pokemon shinji #pokemon hikari #ikarishipping #pokemon diamond and pearl #charlie chaplin #city lights #digital fanart #digital drawing #pokemon fanart #couple #twentieth century

[fischotterkunst]

an informal review of "La Tulipe Noire" (1964)

this film named after but NOT based on the novel by Alexandre Dumas, best known for "The Three Musketeers" (to which a character in "The Black Tulip" gives a nod). the theme of "fuck the monarchy AND ALSO fuck cops" is just as strong in this movie, however, and it likewise takes a couple of interesting twists while following the titular vigilante, The Black Tulip.

^^^ ET SON CHEVAL, VOLTAIRE 👏👏👏

The Black Tulip is the alter ego of local nobleman Guillaume de Saint Preux who robs from the rich in the name of the poor. and disrupts aristocrats in various vague ways but mostly robs them. he's famous in the province, beloved by the people and hated by the authorities.

^^^ he plays tag with Voltaire ngl that's cute

during a robbery and subsequent encounter with Head Buffoon/Police Lieutenant Baron La Mouche, Guillaume receives a nasty wound to the face, marking him and thus preventing his appearance in society lest he be recognized. so he sends for his younger brother, Julien, who strongly resembles him and also happens to idolize him. Julien is a revolutionary and gladly agrees to double as Guillaume in public so he can continue his Black Tulip activities without suspicion.

Julien starts out the film as a pathetic little meow meow he's so cute and he's trying so hard ;3; five minutes into the gig, he falls off his horse and is nursed by Actual Goddess, Caro

i literally spent half the movie physically holding my heart as it tried to beat out of my chest like a cartoon character im very in love with you, ma'am.

Caro and her father are also revolutionaries, and when Guillaume gets tired of the charade and tells Julien that he's always just been in it for the money and doesn't give a shit about the poor or the revolution, Julien snatches The Black Tulip role from him like a powdered wig and goes to get fencing lessons from Caro

when she's a 10 AND she can kick your ass with style and grace 😍😍😍

obviously Julien falls in love with her (who wouldn't???) and lemme tell u i haven't cared about a straight couple getting together in a MINUTE but i love these two

the revolutionaries hatch a super sneaky plot to fuck with the monarchy that starts with Julien faking a love note to Prince William from the Marquise and then going to "defend her honor" (the Prince is ugly af she wasn't losing out) in order to assassinate the Prince. said assassination devolves into shenanigans (this is a comedy and they play the Actual Plot and humor together beautifully) i won't spoil the entire rest of the film but i wanted to share some of my personal highlights:

^^^ Caro's dad impersonates the Prince

^^^ Vintage Film Fight Slapstick hell yes

^^^ both Caro and her dad get to do some genuinely badass swordplay (seriously, i love the role Caro has in this film. there's a brief bit in her intro scene where her father mentions he calls her by a masculine name because he wanted a boy, but afterward it is never made an issue of that she's a woman. she's overall equal to the rest of the heroes which really surprised me for a film made in the 60s. if anything they sexualize Guillaume so much more than any of the women in this film. he's running around with his tiddies out for 90% of the scenes he's in.

^^^ ( @ Netease i fully understand the decision to have borrowed the main Black Tulip outfit but next time consider this alternative)

so yeah if you're into bare-chested men covered in their own blood this film ALSO is for u!!!

like i said in a previous post, if you enjoyed The Princess Bride this film is right up your alley in terms of mood and aesthetics. i can definitely tell where the filmmakers and possibly even the author drew inspiration from this movie. 10/10 would recommend and will certainly rewatch again.

#don't mind me i just really adore vintage cinema #the scenery is gorgeous and the dialogue is SO endearingly cheesy #long post #the black tulip #la tulipe #noire #river babbles

[popculturebuffet]

Pirate Month!: Pirates!: Adventures with Scientists (Band of Misfits) Review!: Release The British Cut (Commison for WeirdKev27)

Come aboard all ye happy swabs, i’m yer Captain Jake and this is Pirate Month, where I review a bunch of the finest works to sale the seven seas. 

And while Darkwing Dubloon got us kicked off, it’s now time to sale right and proper with what i’ve found on rewatch to be a true classic: Pirates; An Adventure with Scientests! Or as it was known here in the US, Pirates: Band of Misfits. 

Pirates is the fifth film from beloved animation studio Aardman and isn’t he first film i’ve covered of theres on there blog, as last year I did a Wallace and Gromit retrospective, cumulating in Curse of the Were-Rabbit, which is excellent. And since Kev, my patron turned friend who still pays me money to review things was the one behind that, it was only a matter of time before I came back, and gladly as i’ve always loved Aardman and remembered liking what I saw of this films when my niece and nibling got it when they were young. So I was happy to give it another look. 

Before I can get into what I thought about it (aka what I was paid for and frankly would’ve done for free but mans gotta eat), a bit of backstory: For starters to my shock Pirates is actually based on a book of the same name, starting a whole SERIES by author Gideon DaFoe who wrote the script for the movie on top of this. Had I known this I would’ve tired to get and read the book beforehand, so as a result I can’t say how it stacks as an adaptation. I can say however that, in part due to having the authors input and clearly loving said source material it seems in the same spirit: Madcap adventures with pirates following the daft Pirate Captain (which everyone uses as if it was his name) and his crew of ham loving pirates who don’t really have names just descrptions such as number 2, albino pirate, and suprsiingly curvacious pirate (aka a woman whose only disguise is a fake bushy beard), who get into shenanigans. In short just from what I could find out about the book and the other books, it was PERFECT material for Aardman to adapt. 

It was also something they’d wanted to do fairly quick as the book came out in 2004 and was what the crew wanted to do as their next film at Dreamworks after Curse of the Were-Rabbit. And Jeffrey Katzenberg’s response?

Yeah Jeff’s justification was that “Pirate movies just aren’t profitable right now” Given this was after Pirates of The Carribean had been a MASSIVE sleeper hit for disney and was on track to have two sequels which would end up being monster hits, I can only guess that his real justification was ‘I’M NOT GIVING THOSE GREASY BASTARDS THE SATSIFACTION OF COPYING THEM. I’LL SHOW THEM BY NOT MAKING MONEY. SEE HOW THEY LIKE IT”. Which somehow ISN’T the dumbest corprate decision i’ve read about in the past week, but only because Warner Bros just torched a film people woul’dve gladly seen for a tax writeoff and still hasn’t backed down from this monumentally dumbass and not remotely seen as smart decsion, so it kinda came in at a bad week. 

SHOCKINGLY their partnership with Dreamworks only lasted through flushed away after this kind of sterling decision, so they went to Sony next, pre-knowing what they were doing with animation so it only lasted Arthur Christmas, another film I need to cover sometime, and this flim. 

That said even if the Pirates of The Caribbiean craze was gone, Sony still smartly backed the studio who knew better than them, so this flim happened. Production was apparently really smooth, with Aardman taking their cg knowledge to the film, allowing them to do a film with water and on boats like this FAR easier than in the past. Hence the water in the film is cg and some of the sets were expanded with it. And i’m entirley okay with this: I’m sure some claymation purists aren’t, but sometimes there’s only SO FAR you can go with a medium budget and time wise, and it’s done in a way that I GENINELY thought the water was done with stop motion. And even once I knew otherwise., I still couldn’t tell looking at the sets and water that it wasn’t stop motion. I’ts blended perfectly and thus allows the film to be as grand and swashbuckling as it should be. 

That said a good production... didn’t translate to good box office. It did eh in the united states. I think part of this is the title as in the US we got band of misfits which isn’t bad, it’s an apt title, but it’s just not as inherently funny as “In an adventure with scientests” and was bafflingly changed because the books weren’t as big here.. forgetting that an adaptation of books can MAKE the books big. I didn’t even know Over the Hedge existed before the movie, and i’m a huge comic strip nerd, and How to Train Your Dragon, while being vastly diffrent from the books, still got them to sell and wider distribution. 

IT also probably dosen’t hlep that for older fans they cut a lot of risque jokes from the film. I watched the UK cut this go round, which I want to get a wider release as it’s REALLY funny, and it does have some adult jokes such as Charles Darwin outright mentiong his monkey bob’s “Unsightly ass” and a scientest promoting an airship , which would change travel, as really being the best because you can look down ladies tops (which Charles confirms later). It also weirdly swapped out the actors for Albino pirate for no real reason. 

But honestly while it had those things working against it.. what ultimately doomed it was opening between avengers and hunger games. In short.. it was SONY’S fault, not the films. Even edited down, it simply coudln’t compete with the two biggest films of the year, and thus Sony ended the partnership and Aardman has gone mostly independent, most recently partnering with Netflix, which has me worried given how the last few partnerships went and Netflix current state, but hopefully it pans out.  That said provided Sony no longer has the rights to the books, it does mean since their making plenty of sequels out of the gate, we have a chance at a sequel for this film, as Aardman DID have one planned and there are plenty of nutty adventures from the books to adapt in addition to the adventures with cowboys idea: they adventure with captain ahab, mary shelley and COMMUNISTS. Yes there really is an adventure with communists including Karl Marks. I REALLY gotta get my hands on these books because hot damn this is amazing and deserves a tv series. Or a series of movies. Just aardman, somehow continue this. I beg you. 

Before we get into why i’m begging them, we have one last bit of buisness to cover for those unlucky souls who haven’t seen the movie and those of you who like me hadn’t seen it in a decade and thus don’t remember it that well. 

Pirates follows Pirate Captain, played by Hugh Grant whose easily the best part of this flim. And keep in mind the voice cast ofr this flim is NOT remotely shallow: We have Martin Freeman as Number Two (Aka Pirate with a Scarf) Pirate Captain’s oft ignored and frustrated #2, Imelda Staunton flexing her Umbridge Muscles (While I may be frosty towards harry potter for obvious TERF shaped reasons, I won’t deny that her performance in the film was fucking pitch perfect and she’s pretty much playing umbridge as the queen of england here, same mixture of sometines going full ham mixed with icy could authortanisim with a sugary hint of malice), David Fucking Tennant in one of his earlier VA rolls as Charles Darwin, the wonderful Selma Hayek in a sadly short roll as Cutlass LIz, extra shouty king of kings BRIAN BELSSED as The Pirate King, and in the US Cut, the late great Anton Yelchen. Add in some great UK voices I don’t recognize in name but do a great job, with my faviotie being the equally underultizied pegleg hastings by Lenny Henry and scottishy Ashely Jennings as Suprisingly Curvacious Pirate, and you have one hell of a cast and Grant still tops them. Grant plays Pirate Captain to the hilt, playing him as on the surface a jolly swashbuckler with a sense of gravitas, a mastery of disguise, and a flair.. while also being a bit impulsive, rekckless, egotistical and his most crippling selfish, putting his desire for Pirate Of the Year over common sense, which he has little of to begin with and often taking his second for granted, to Number Two’s frustration.

You also see though WHY he wants this so bad: the three front runners, Liz, Hastings and “Sigh” Black Belamy. Black Belamy is played by Jeremy Piven, and he broes it up to hell and back and it just does not FIT at all. Aardman is a very british company and while I don’t have anything against using a yank actor if it’s for contrast like say casting future abuser and anti-semite mel gibson as Rocky in Chicken Run,. As TERRIBLE as that turned out in hindsight, which to Aardman and Dreamworks credit they coudln’t of possibly seen coming, casting a big time american actory to play a very american rooster, who deliberatley contrasts the very british hens, works. Their TRYING to do that here, but it just dosen’t work, as while Vance Waggoner was set up as a kind of 50′s rockstar to contrast the 40′s setting... Belamy however is just...

That’s all. He’s the weakest part of the film as a result and feels very much like he was added soley because Sony wanted a bigger name in the cast. 

So to one up Black Bodyspray, Pirate Captain tries looting a few ships to hilarious but unfruitful results. One was SUPPOSED to be a leper colony, but was changed to plauge boat as Aardman got backlash from the Leper Community, which they, like myself, likely didn’t realise still exist and I salute them for taking a backlash like that and changing it instead of just you know screaming NO YOUR WRONG like many often do. Aardman is a class act and while it was a low bar they cleared it. 

Thankfully he gets thrown a bone as the next boat, while not having treasure, contains Charles freaking Darwin. And i’ve glossed over it till now, but yes, a CRITICAL character in this film is Charles Darwin. And as I said this was not only in the book, if in a diffrent form judging from wikipedia but spirals from mildly rediculous here to metting Karl Marks and the Captain romancing Mary Shelley.  And given the books are fairly cheap, I will defintely be keeping an eye out for them at bookstores and possibly reviewing them in the future because they sound delightful as they are ridiculous. 

Darwin nearly walks the plank because the Captain needs a pick me up after throwing a Tommy Wiseau style tantrum, but Darwin saves his own life, and gets drudged out of the sea after Suprisingly Curvacious PIrate jumps the gun and sends him overboard, by spotting Polly.. and revealing she’s a Dodo. The captain is understandably not receptive to showing her off at the science expo, not helped by it being in London, home of the Queen who hates pirates as much as the Marines in One PIece and is just as harsh towards them. But the promise of Untold Riches means the Captain decideds fuck it and they head to London. Darwin serves as the antagonist for this portion as the untold riches end up being an audience with the queen, and as such he keeps trying to either take Pirate Captain’s place or outright steal Polly for himself, being foiled by the fact that Pirate Captain is only HALF as stupid as he seems and thus either has clever counters to any way Darwin could present the bhird himsef, without realizing it no less, and foils a kidnapping attempt. I mean he’s still stubborn enough and stupid enough he can’t put two and two together that Charles wants the bird, to Number Two’s utter exasperation, but give him credit: Just because he’s an idiot dosne’t mean he’s not an experinced one as seen with refrences to previous adventures, from librarians to barbarians to that buisness in madagascar with an old pal they find hanging in a cage as a warning to pirates. 

Naturally said prize leads to Pirate Captain being discovered after he refuses to hand over Polly to the queen as she’s family... for now, and only escapes decaptatation because he hid the parrot, with the queen leaving it to Darwin to steal the bird. We also get a great scene of Darwing taking the captain, who was publicly pardoned, out , including Captain talking about who would win in a fight between a shark and a dracula and instructing Jane Austen to write it into her next book. God I would pay to see that. Also for the record since i’m nerdy, as for who would win: Using a regular vampire and a regular shark, a shark as most vampires can’t cross water and thus likely if pushed will sink. If it’s Dracula versus, let’s say Jaws to make it a fair fight as Jaws is both a big boy and more intellegent than a regular shark, if not thatna dracula, it’s a bhit more complicated as Dracula can shapeshift, so he may be able to become a shark himself, or simply turn into a fish after using his vampire powers on him. He coudln’t really use wolf form or mist obviously because water, but I do feel Dracula would win as he could lure jaws to land and simply get in his mouth via a smaller transfomratoin then turn bigger and tear up his insides, or tear his ass to pieces with pure strength and skill then shark his way up to the surface. 

Now we’ve covered the subject of Dracula fighting Jaws, and given Universal a VERY easy pitch for a jaws and dracula reboot, especially if Dracula rides Jaws at some point, Darwin says to hell with subtley and just tries to have his monkey Bobo threaten him at gunpoint. And Bobo is delight, a silent chimp who uses cards to talk, having to use one in lower caps to whisper and when noping out later leaving a trail of cards saying “Are you out of your #$@#%$ minds?”. 

A chase ensues which ends up with them in the tower of london and in front of the queen who literally dumps poor charles. We even get a great bit where Captain undrestands doing crazy shit for a girl.. though is UTTERLY baffled in Charles lack of taste. 

But soon is tempted by the ultimate shortcut to everything he wants: a shit ton of the queens gold in exchange for Polly.. and he gives her up, as he feels she’ll be fine. It’s also well done as while the protaganist doing something terrible and then it backfiring horribly for a short term gain is usualy in these movies this has been well set up: The captain has time and again chosen his own glory over the logical solution or his crew’s well being, and while it’s clear he loves them, it’s also clear he loves himself more and when choosing between the crew member he loves most (sorry Number Two) and his glory.. he picks the glory and looses everything: He has pirate of the year for all of a minute before Bellamy outs his pardon and BRIAN BLESSED STRIPS HIS TITLES, and the rest of the crew sadly abandon him. Even the use of the utterly great Flight of the Conchords song i’m not crying can’t undercut how sad it is. Again this is a pretty usual plot beat for a film.. but it’s been building all film. The pirate captain had been pushing his crew, just enough to make us not hate him but to be annoyed at him all the same, and they finally had enough. The captain, left with nothing and retiring to make baby clothes (And seeing Jane Austen hook up with the Elephant Man which is a crack ship I ddin’t know I needed), sees a sign of polly and realizes he NEEDS to save her. 

The bad news, as Charles, now a “tramp”, horrifiedly relays is that Polly has been taken from the Zoo.. by the queen. As he found out shortly after being dumped into the trash, literally, and as made him realize what a selfish horny ass he’d been (Charles can be a bit annoying at times i’ll admit but suffers enough slapstick especially in the last act to punish him for his actions, so it evf3ens out), as it turns out the Queen just wants to eat Polly and is part of a cabal of world leaders who secretly eat endangered species. And i’d honestly be shocked if there wreen’t a club like that back then let alone in present day. 

So the two go to steal the air ship to look down ladies tops save polly, and we get a heck of a third act as Uncle Sam reprsents america at the club. Yes really. It’s so stujpid I of course love it, stage a daring rescue and we get a GENUINELY tense fight between Captain and the Queen, who fucking dual wields. Thankfully darwin got the crew, who forgive captain since he’s making up for his actoins and they win the day, with The Queen ultimately sent away on a blimp while our heroes regain polly. 

As a result all ends well for our heroes: The captain is given the highest bounty ever of 100,000 pounds and is left a world fugivitive, and as a result is not only welcomed back into pirate town, as seen thorugh a bunch of credits scenes set to you can get it if you really want, but is happier that way. Darwin heads to the galapagos and possibly finds love, Bobo stays with the crew and Black Broddude gets his trophy taken by Brain Blessed and his magical flying clamshell. The rest of the credits rock out to the utterly awesome song Alright by Supergrass which fun fact, lives in my head rent free thanks to these credits and did so at the time of the film. 

So as you could probably guess I REALLY loved this film and the plot isn’t at all that serious and follows a pretty basic plot structure.. but it works because it’s just so damn creative and funny. It just throws tons of jokes at you, almost all of them clever ,and never really lets up for a moment. As a result there were WAY too many moments to recap here, from the Pirate Of the Year awards having BRIAN BLESSED as a vocal volume, to the mad scientest with a rubix cube who just throws it at the wall, to the ladies tops bit, there’s just so much here it’s great. The writing is witty, rapid fire and unabashidley ludcrious, not carring for period accuracy or common sense, just what’s funny and the actors all deliver it well.. again except piven. It’s the same kind of very british style as wallace and gromit but where as those films are subdued, this one goes full tilt bonkers and it works. 

Animation wise it may be Ardman’s Prettiest Film and despite it having been years since they got to do a stop motion feature, they hadn’t missed a step: The anmiation is agonizlingly gorgeous, goofy enough to fit the tone but still beautiful and painstaking and in such a high resolution you can see it quite clearly how beautiful it looks. It’s the sum total of their efforts

So yeah... WATCH THIS FILM. It’s currently not streaming but can be gotten on amazon  on dvd and on most digital platforms, and while that’s the us verison it at least has

So it’s not all bad. Find this film however you can and watch it. And if you enjoyed this review consider joining my patreon, dming me for my discord or following for more and see you tommorow for Muppet Treasure Island!

#pirates! in an adventure with scientests #pirates band of misfits #hugh grant #aardman #David Tennant #selma hayek #imelda staunton #BRIAN BLESSED #sony pictures animation

[dolphs-world]

Doesn't Matter

Movies, movies, movies. I've watched about 75 movies since I last talked about Barbie. I still need to write a critical review of that film. I may do it tonight. We'll see. Sadly, I don't have much to say on these movies, except for a few very connected ones. The greatest non-IP film I saw was Rat Race and I can't say anything more about that film than it was really really funny and I wished that Tracy got the money. She was so hot and her outfit looked really good. I watched some Spielberg films and I can say that he hasn't made a good movie in 20 years. RE: The Fabelmans, Paul Dano was fantastic, I think the younger sister with the glasses is going places (she was also great in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood), I can't believe Seth Rogan cucked Spielberg's dad, and I wished I didn't know David Lynch was in the movie but his scene was the only thing worth it. Shit ending though. Close Encounters of the Third Kind, also a bad ending. I really liked the whimsy and the discovery of the film. And that a third guy joined their adventure to climb the mountain, until he gave up which sucked. Like A.I, a more interesting film to think about but maybe not to watch as a movie. None of the character's are good, interesting, or driven besides lunacy. The music and shot where the car flies over the truck rock though.

I thinked I watched a lot of TV? I can't really remember. I rewatched Modern Family. While a real interesting premise of so many different pairings, the don't do anything with it. Storylines are primarily focused on the same pairings. How many Phil and Cam plots are there? Or jokes with Manny and Mitch together? And it has a real structure issue. Most sitcoms have an A and a B plot, split 2:1. You know which plot is more important but you need another plot to cut back to so it doesn't feel too samey. Maybe, you have a C plot which is really just a loose set of jokes for pacing issues or for character pairings that are fun but don't provide a lot of depth. I've been watching King of the Hill so that comes to mind. There's an episode where they go to Louisiana. The episode is about Hank trying to win some money in a football game but the writers need to justify having more characters go with them. So it's revealed that Bill is from Louisiana so there's more of a reason to go there. Bill's plot is the B plot and it also helps drive the A plot. Or sometimes they give all the character's on the sidelines a C plot for jokes and so the audience is left wondering why they're not involved in more of the episode. But with Modern Family, you have 3 families of supposed equal importance so each episode can only really focus 5-6 minutes on each family. It's very rushed and mainly focuses on marital issues, which again, are resolved in mere minutes. And the rest of the time the show has to focus on jokes with the non-relevant characters to the given story so it doesn't seem weird that they're not in the episode. In KotH, a lot of the side characters are adults who aren't family so it isn't weird if they don't appear in a given episode or are in only one scene. But in Modern Family, the side characters are their children so it would be weird if they didn't show up. And when the kids are grown up and given unlikeable personalities and love lifes, the show gets bogged down in seasons where no one is able to grow and each character only gets 2 episodes of actual importance on them. But that said, it's still decent television. And as you can tell, I don't really like many of the characters. I liked Cam a lot more this time but I think it's because he told a lot of puns. I do really like Phil and Claire. I think Phil is why the show got 11 seasons. I hate Alex. I'm so sick of that kind of nerdy author insert. I got bullied in high school so I'm going to make this really smart character who no one gets mean to everyone else. Fuck off.

#dear diary #steven spielberg #modern family #king of the hill

[dovenymph]

a film by peter parker

authors note: this was inspired by another thinkerpete tweet that read "peter probably watches the bit from "a film by peter parker" where he's in the car with tony over and over when he misses him" and@peterparkers-bad-youtube-apology’s summer of love prompt list💛💛 also the video edit was made by me so please do not screen record/save and repost it even if you do credit me (also this is unedited so sorry for any typos, i’ll probably go through it sometime this week, i just wanted to post it first)

prompts used: 2. making the backyard/rooftop into a movie theater

my masterlist

warnings: mentions of tony’s death, other than that, nothing but fluff

word count: 3.9k

Peter hated the summer.

Peter hated not having anything to busy himself with; no homework, or academic decathlon, or seeing Ned everyday who could wrap him up in his graphic novel fan theories or the drama in his on and off relationship with Betty. It was petty drama and minor stimulation, but it was something to distract him momentarily. But now Ned was in Aruba with his parents for the entire month which meant Peter had to suffer through the scorching heat of Juy all by himself.

Peter knew he didn’t have to be alone each day, -Aunt May had spent many dinners trying to get him to join her at the movies or the mall, even offering to let him have free reign of the lego store (when he said no to that, she knew he was in worse shape than she thought)- he had a handful of trustworthy and dependable friends he could hang out with for the afternoon like MJ and Betty, or even Flash who had been uncharacteristically nice to Peter ever since he found out he was Spiderman; this having happened only a few weeks after Tony had died and Peter had let him in on his secret to console a sobbing Eugene who, honestly, seemed to be more broken up about the news than Peter was. But even with his expanding friend group, Peter had found the most his body could endure was the contents of his bedroom.

He tried to get back out there after Tony’s passing, he really did, but at the first Iron Man tribute he admired on patrol, his body completely shut down and he swung back home, tears dampening the material of the mask.

So a lonely summer was what Peter submitted himself too, and he’s come to terms with it. He’s rewatched his favorite old shows, started binging some new ones. He’s taken apart and put together his lego death star four times now, each time faster than the last. But he’s been particularly fond of staring out the window. His apartment complex was quite close to the building besides his and he could look down into the backyard everyone had to share. Peter’s building had one as well, but since he was pretty sure he was the only person under 35 who lived there, it went unused.

Next door, there was always a different activity occurring in order for the patrons to beat the heat, and Peter often thought about how easy it would be for him to just go downstairs and introduce himself, and ask to join. It’d really be as simple as that and he’d meet some new people, get a free lunch and a chance to swim in the plastic pool they set up; maybe they’d laugh at his jokes and clap when he did flips, but it was all just a maybe, just in his imagination because his brain never let him wander to far before squandering the idea of getting close to someone again, for if history has taught Peter anything, it's that anything he gets close to, is not meant to stay for long and will be soon snatched away from him in the cruelest of ways.

And this thought is what resigns him to slink back behind his window and pout the day away, as he was doing now, vision blurring as he stared at nothing.

“Hey!”

Peter jumped, his eyes focusing on the target of whoever pelted his window and they landed on your form, slumped against your open windowsill, chin resting on your hand as you gazed back at him.

“Can I help you?” Peter bit back after lifting his window half way, his tone unconsciously laced with annoyance. He really didn’t even notice it anymore since that’s how he’s been speaking to everyone in his life for months now, but when you flinched at his tone, guilt started to creep up his spine.

Before he could ever begin to stumble out an apology, you cut him off “Yeah, is there a reason you stare into my room everyday?”

Peter's face flushed red and he opened and closed his mouth like a fish. He couldn’t remember the last time someone had spoken so bluntly towards him, and honestly, he liked it. He was getting tired of everyone walking on tiptoes around him, he just wanted things to go back to how they were, where he was just Peter Parker, your friendly neighborhood student.

“Or could you at least give me some money for some curtains if you just can’t give up the beautiful view of a concrete wall?”

“S-sorry, I- I didn’t even know you were there.”

Lie.

Peter knew you were there, he always knew when you were there.

Peter Parker isn’t a stalker, though! Sure, he’s gone through some fucked up shit on Earth and in space, so yeah, he wouldn’t call himself the most …sane person he knows, but he really wasn’t a creep. With your buildings being so close and your rooms directly across from one anothers, he was bound to notice you at some point.

And at some point he did. It was the first day of summer and Midtown let out at 12 instead of 3 to mark the occasion, so Peter had been mulling about in his room for quite some time already, thinking about how he heard all his classmates amazing summer plans and how the farthest he was going to go was probably the Thai restaurant down the street, and even that was a maybe. Peter sulked in silence until a couple hours later he heard a door slam closed, thumps from things being tossed on the ground, and a loud groan as he peeked through his windowsill at you who was currently flopped on the bed, window wide open without a care, scrolling on your phone.

At first, he was taken aback by your beauty, a small, small feeling of intrigue spiked his system, but it flew under the radar due to the seemingly everlasting dread that’s been weighing down on Peter's shoulders for months. But he couldn’t look away. You’d been doing nothing but looking at tiktoks mindlessly, occasionally cracking a half smile if a video was particularly amusing, but you still remained cemented to your mattress with no plans on moving anytime soon.

This brought comfort to Peter as he fished his phone out from the bottom of his bag and pulled up Ned’s messages and started to look through the media he sent him, almost two months worth of funny memes and videos that he hadn’t been bothered to look at, and he sat there along with you, aimlessly letting the time pass by. He enjoyed it, knowing he wasn’t really alone in his lazy and distracting behaviors because the pretty neighbor girl was doing just the same.

Ever since then, he’s just been …aware… of your coming and goings. He figured you had a summer job as every other day you were gone for a few hours, a solid shift. But on the days you were home, you also spent it mainly up in your room, every now and then, playing music from your record player, and if he was really lucky, you’d, unknowingly, give him a private concert as you sung out whichever niall horan or ariana grande song struck your fancy that day. He grew quite fond of the music, having added some of the regulars to his own playlist. And he enjoyed knowing you were right there, and he was right here; each of you living your lives, as uneventful as they may be, but you were together in some sort of way.

He’d never spoken to you, the ability of being able to just push his window up and call out to you at any time was what he liked, and each day he thought he’d do it but chickened out, and now it seemed like he’d have to make introductions whether he was ready or not.

“Mmm, right, so you haven’t seen me change or anything like that?” You asked and the content of your question and the inquisitive tone brought a flush to his cheeks.

“N-no! Of course not! I-I’d never do that, why would I even want to look at you? I mean! I don’t think you’re ugly or anything I… I just…”

Peter’s ramblings were cut off with your laugh as it bounced off the summer air and into his room. You were fully leaning out your open window now, and Peter had found himself in the same position, as if he was drawn to you.

“I was only joking with ya, but it's still nice to have the confirmation. I’m Y/N, your neighbor! Obviously.” You trailed off at the end, knowing that information was unnecessary since the boy next door obviously already knew that.

He was like no boy you’d ever seen before, only read about in books. He had a sweet disposition and inviting brown eyes that matched his soft chestnut hair. But he was built like a man, a strong jaw and strong arms. You’d seen him leaving his building everyday on your way to school, and when he’d get dropped off in a big black SUV during the late hours of the night, but he walked in the opposite direction or darted inside so fast,you never really got a chance to take him in.

“…Peter?” His tentative tone snapped you out of your daze and you realized he was introducing himself.

“Sorry, Peter! I- I… got distracted… by your… death star!” You let out, eyes focusing on the black and grey figure resting on his bed.

Peter felt his cheeks heat up as he moved to push it to the ground.

“That’s pretty cool! I finished the star wars series last summer.”

Peter’s eyes snapped up to yours and the friendly smile you were giving him along with the genuine interest in your tone seemed to break something inside him, snapped the band of hesitation that wrapped around his heart. “You did? For the first time?”

“Yeah! I know I’m like super late, but there’s like nine movies!”

Your laughs melded into one as you leaned out your respective windows and began talking about your favorite movie series. Peter was aware that this was unnatural for him. He had been more open to this stranger in the past few minutes than he had to his own Aunt in months and the same guilt from earlier crept up on him. But Peter was having a good time talking to you and he felt his insides turn in excitement when he realized you really had no idea who he was. He had a clean slate with you and he could make any first impression he wanted, well he hoped your first impression of him wasn’t that he was a peeping pervert, but we move, as MJ would say.

You were about to start telling Peter about this new dystopian novel you began reading when you heard a woman call out to him.

“Oh, that’s my Aunt May. She must be home from work. I- I should go say hello.” He explained, a sad look crossing his face that you didn’t quite understand.

You felt your own sadness wash over you, though. You didn’t want to stop talking to Peter either. “Yeah, of course!”

“But we can talk tomorrow right?” Peter asked, his tone laced with uncertainty.

“Oh well, I work double tomorrow… so I probably won’t be home ‘til late.” You said and the way the brown haired boys face visibly fell felt like a punch in the gut and you were scrambling for a reason to make him smile.

“B-but hey! I also get paid tomorrow so if you want, you can come over on saturday and we can have a movie night and we can order a shit ton of take out?”

“Come over to your place?” Peter asked, and he felt himsef involuntarily tense at the idea of leaving his room for the first time in weeks. It was safe in his room. But the pleading look on your face and hopefulness in your tone encouraged him to take the chance.

“I’d love to y/n.” Peter said with a soft smile and you smiled back shyly at him before closing your window and making your way out your room, making sure you were safe in the hall, away from his prying eyes to do a little happy dance.

Peter was unable to wipe the grin off his face as he walked out his room to greet his Aunt.

She heard his feet padding down the hall as she was setting out dinner, “Sorry its not ready yet, Petey, today’s been crazy, but I’ll get started now.” She rushed. Recently, she’s been hoping food’s the key to lift her poor nephews spirits, so each night she’ll either order or make something more fattening, cheesy, and delicious than the last.

“It’s alright May,” Peter let out easily as he turned the counter and placed a kiss on her cheek, “why don’t you let me cook tonight?”

May’s jaw dropped and she blinked a couple times. She could barely get two words out of Peter recently, and they were always either a meak thank you for dinner or an it was good when she asked about his day. She felt her eyes tear up at the slight sliver of her old Petey back.

“O-oh, really, you wanna cook?”

Peter ducked his head down at the ingredients in front of him to avoid looking in her eyes, his heart dropping at the glossiness that overtook them. He truly hadn’t realized how closed off he’d been. “Well, how about we do it together?” He began and the face splitting grin that spread across May’s face was all he needed to know he was taking a step in the right direction.

“G-good idea, honey. Can’t have the house burn down, can we?”

“Hey!”

May laughed and kissed Peter’s head as they began winding through the kitchen, making casual conversation. It was just like the old days, May thought. Before the wave of devastation drowned Peter as he lost a father figure, once again.

“So what did you do today, P? Do you know when Ned get’s back? I’m sure you’re both excited to see each other.”

“Oh, uh, yeah, I am. I don’t know when he get’s back actually, but that’s okay-“

“I know you like your peace and quiet, I really do, but I do think it’ll be good for you to get out of the apartment for a little bit, see if Michelle is available. Oh! Or maybe that Lisa, Liz! I liked Liz, see if she’s available-“

“May! Its okay. I don’t need to hang out with Liz Allen,” Peter grumbled, “I- I made a new friend actually.”

May looked over at Peter in confusion since he hadn’t gone out or had anyone over in weeks, that she could remember; and Peter took her silence as an opportunity to continue.

“The neighbor.”

“Mrs. Wozniak?”

“No! Y/n, she lives in the next building over. And my room is right across from hers. We’re gonna hang out on saturday.”

“Oh?” May raised her brows at her nephew and bit back a smile, much to Peter’s chagrin. “Is she pretty?”

“And that’s relevant why?”

“I don’t know!!” May drawled and Peter just rolled his eyes and kept chopping the vegetables in front of him, the blush adorning his cheeks refusing to go down as he thought yes, yes she is.

.・゜゜・　　・゜゜・．

You yanked the door open as soon as you heard Peter’s knocks against it. He jumped back a bit, his arm still partially raised from when he knocked and you silently berated yourself for being so eager, but the spreading smile across his face made you feel not so bad.

“Oh, sorry, I was just-“

“It’s alright.” Peter replied with a soft smile, and you let yourself trace the golden flecks in his eyes before he cleared his throat, once again, snapping you out of a daze. You seemed to be in a dreamy state around him alot.

“Can I come in? I brought my Star Wars DVD collection by the way, I know you’ve seen them, but this one has the director's cut which I thought totally changed the course of the first trilogy!” Peter explained, rocking on the balls of his feet in excitement.

You bit your lip at the sight, his cuteness was rubbing off on you. “Yeah, that sounds great, but actually we aren’t gonna be watching in here.” You said, grabbing the bag of Chinese food and snacks and stepping out.

Peter’s face sputtered as you both walked to the stairs. He’d spent all day building up his courage to just go six feet from his building, there was no way he’d be able to go around the city with you for the fear of seeing something that’ll remind him of the avengers or crime.

“Y’alright?” You asked, noticing Peter’s stony silence as you walked down the last flight and made your way to the back gate.

“Yeah, sorry, I guess I’m just nervous. I haven’t really hung out with anyone new in a while, well, with anyone at all really.”

You smiled in sympathy, “I get you, I haven’t either. All my friends are out of town, so I’ve mostly just hung out in my room, too.”

“But you already knew that, don’t ya stalker?”

Peter rolled his eyes and shoved your arm as you laughed, glad you got his nerves out of his system. You unlocked the gate and lef Peter to the back garden.

“Woah..” Peter let out. There was a large white sheet hung up between two trees, and a projector set up on the table behind where a blanket lay, covered in a mess of pillows. The setting sun lit up by strung lightbulbs.

“You like? I figured since we both seemed to be home bodies, we could have the fun of the movie theatre, but here!”

Peter felt his heart swell at your words. You’d only known him for two days, and you already treated him with so much consideration and kindness. “I- I love it, y/n. This is amazing.”

He saw how you tucked your cheek into your shoulder in bashfulness and felt his spirits raise even higher. You were adorable.

“I’m glad you like it. I hope the projector works though, it took me forever to translate the instructions.”

Peter walked over to it and gave it a once over. “It seems fine to me, but I can always look at it if you want.”

“Oh yeah? You good with tech?”

“Good enough to get by. I needed it a lot while working with Mr. Stark” Peter began, forgetting that he wasn’t talking to an old friend.

“You worked with Tony Stark?!?”

“Oh.. oh yeah, only for a little! I was an intern.” He said quietly, beating himself up for even bringing up the topic of Tony. The last thing he wanted to do was cry in front of a pretty girl.

“Wow, that must’ve been amazing. You, you must miss him a lot then, huh?”

“Yeah,” he chuckled lifelessly. “Yeah I do.”

“But no matter, we’re here to have a good time right?”

“Yeah, yeah we are!” You grasped his hand and gave him a sympathetic squeeze -neither of you blind to the sparks that shot from the place your hands met- and got settled on the blanket.

Two and a half moves later, the sun had set and the two of you were sitting in the darkness, the only light coming from the flickering of the projector as the abandoned movie played. You and Peter were sitting cross legged, facing each other as he told you another story about working with the Avengers.

“Yeah, it was so crazy!! We were in this airport and he went from being like two inches tall to two hundred feet, it blew my mind. But it was okay though, because I had this idea-“

“Wait, wait, wait. You were there? Why?” You asked, loving every adventure filled anecdote he told you, but it wasn’t all adding up. For just an intern, he seemed incredibly close to Mr. Stark himself, but then again, you’d only known him for less than a week and you also wanted to go everywhere with him.

Peter worried his lip, thinking about how he could worm his way out of this one. Why would a teenage intern be at the Avengers civil war? He figured he could lie, or even just run away and buy black out curtains. Maybe he could convince Aunt May to switch rooms with him even. But you’d already brought so much light to his life in multiple aspects, and he thought, just maybe, you’d be able to bring light to that aspect of his life too.

“You know what, lemme just show you! Wait here, I’ll be back!”

Peter ran back down, his Chewbacca flash drive in hand, adrenaline running through his veins. He plugged it into your laptop and dug up a folder he hadn’t touched in almost eight months.

“What’s this?” You asked as he sat back down next to you.

“You’ll see.” He said, eyes glued to the screen in front of him.

A Film by Peter Parker, read the title as a compilation of videos featuring Peter, Happy, Aunt May, the Avengers, and Tony projected before you both.

Peter heard you gasp as the camera flashed to the suit, and saw, from the corner of his eye, how your head snapped towards his as he backspringed across the battleground. The film continued and neither of you could tear your eyes from the screen. Peter felt his eyes well up with tears as a scene with him and Tony talking to the camera began and he thought that watching this was a bad idea and he was about to turn around and turn it off when he felt your fingers intertwine with his.

He sucked in a sharp breath at the warmth you brought him and he squeezed back, his brain nearly malfunctioning at the speed in which he tried to memorize the feel of your hand in his. But his senses were overloaded as he picked up on your accelerated heartbeat.

The two of you continued to watch the video, neither moving even when it autostarted from the beginning, and this time you laughed outwardly at the funny parts, and asked him questions about why Happy didn’t seem to like him.

“What did you do to him Peter?”

“Nothing I swear!”

“Likely story.”

And he felt the steel blanket of grief fall off his shoulders. The feeling of intrigue and excitement for going back to life was no longer a small trail buried deep within him, but now a firecracker that ignited his insides and aurated off of him. Things were going to be alright, he was going to make it out this summer with more than just the memories from his bedroom, and he’d make it through whatever else life would throw at him, as long as he had you by his side.

Because you didn’t make his heart beat faster out of fear, you made him feel flustered and full of affection.

And you didn’t hold him roughly, with the intent to harm him; you held him delicately, and he could only wait to be able to hold your heart the same way.

#peter #peter parker #peter blurb #peter parker blurb #peter fluff #peter parker fluff #peter drabble #peter parker drabble #peter fanfiction #peter parker fanfiction #peter parker mcu #peter parker spiderman #peter parker fic #peter fic #spiderman blurb #spiderman fluff #spiderman drabble #tom holland peter parker #mcu spiderman #tom holland spiderman #tom holland #tom holland fluff #tom holland angst #tom holland imagine #peter parker x reader #peter parker x you

[thran-duils]

Dubious Representation (P.1)

Title: Dubious Representation (Part One) Summary: Fem!Reader x Dark!Hank Palmer. Reader's husband is facing jail time and although Hank Palmer entered the counsel for pro bono, he is still going to get a form of payment. Recently single, he’s been lonely and he’s looking for some comfort. Even if it means obtaining it from less than savory means. Words: 1,768 Warnings (for entire fic): Eventual smut, sexual coercion, infidelity, mention of past domestic violence, verbal abuse Author’s Note: This is going to be a two parter at least. This is pure shameless smut since I just rewatched the movie yesterday....

Part Two || Masterpost (mobile) || Fanfic masterpost

You bounced on your feet, waiting outside the court room. Your husband Rich was sitting nearby you on a bench, as nervous as you. You were not even the one who needed representation, but you were feeding off of his energy. You two were a team and this was big. He had been high and someone had tried to drag you into a back room at the party. You had put up a fight and of course Rich had retaliated spotting it across the room. Now he was facing aggravated assault and drug charges.

The two of you knew the reputation of this attorney and he rarely lost a case. You could not let Rich go to jail for something that had not been his fault. He had just been trying to protect you.

Hank Palmer walked out of the court room, throwing his sunglasses on.

Rich was up in a moment, taking strides towards him quickly, hands wringing.

“Mr. Palmer!” he called. Hank ignored him, continuing down the hallway. He tried again, louder, “Mr. Palmer!”

Hank slowed and turned on his heel, looking completely unimpressed.

“What? Do you need a quote for your newspaper? Here’s one, ‘Cohen loses another case to Palmer: Not a surprise to anyone’,” Hank quipped, before trying to turn around again.

“N-No,” Rich stammered, reaching him with his fast pace. Hank stopped his movement, facing him. “That’s… I’m not a journalist. I am looking for help.”

“For what? Therapy? Direction to rehab?” Hank asked callously. Rich blanched at that, and Hank nodded, “Rehab, then? Look, I’m a counselor but not that type. And you look like you can’t afford me, so… can I go?”

Rich pleaded, “Please. Just hear me out. My case, it shouldn’t be a thing. It was self defense for my wife. And no, I don’t have the money probably to pay you. But I know you are good and I really, really need good representation. I can’t leave my wife.”

Hank was staring at him, head cocked. He looked to the courthouse security next to him and pointed at Rich.

“I’m sorry, is he asking for charity?” Hank asked, laughing wryly.

“Don’t you have to do that legally? Pro bono?” you asked, irritated, stepping forward to be in his sights for the first time. “You don’t seem the type to just do that willingly. I am sure people have to seek you out.”

He hesitated in his belittling, seeing you. His eyes flicked to your husband before coming back to you. He straightened up, and asked sounding far more interested, “You with him?”

“Yes, he’s my husband,” you stated, not breaking eye contact.

Hank studied you for a few moments more before telling Rich, “Write your number down.” He held out one of his business cards between his index and middle fingers towards Rich. Rich looked at loss taking it from him, and you inhaled sharply before digging in your purse, pulling out a pen. You were always prepared. Hank noticed, amused, his eyes still running over you unabashedly. “You can come to.” The way he said that sounded lewd and your mouth fell open slightly. He smirked briefly before adding, “To the meeting. Game plan and all between us. We’ll need all the noggins we can get probably.”

Without breaking eye contact with you now, Hank snatched the card from Rich’s outreached hand.

“You’re right, people do have to seek me out. Good on you for being so assertive, sweetheart. I’ll be seeing you soon.”

<><><>

Sitting in the office, you were trying to avoid keeping eye contact with Hank. He was staring at you more often than not, watching you while Rich was trying to explain what was happening. He was getting the gist, you believed, but he was distracted still. They reached a plan of defense, Hank insisting he could get Rich off the hook for the assault but not the drugs. That was already screwed. But that did mean less time.

The hour was coming to a close and Rich stood up from his chair, holding out his hand. Hank took it reluctantly, shaking it weakly. Rich turned to you, gesturing for you to get up.

“Hey, can I keep Y/N here for a moment?” Hank asked quickly, catching both your attentions. You narrowed your eyes at him, immediately suspicious of his motives considering how he had been eye-fucking you for the last hour. “Something her and I need to discuss. Regarding this whole representation situation.”

Rich looked at you before shrugging, “I-I guess? Do you want me to wait outside?”

“You got it the first time,” Hank winked at him, flashing a smile. He was being condescending with that and you held back rolling your eyes, seeing Rich not pick up on it.

Rich nodded with a “sounds good” before turning and walking out of the office, closing the door behind him.

Hank’s eyes slid to you, and he relaxed back into his office chair. Chewing on the end of his pen, he ran his eyes over you for the millionth time.

“You know, for someone who got aggravated assault for trying to protect you, he seems pretty stupid when there’s a nonphysical threat in the room,” he finally said, breaking the silence. “Are meatheads like him just triggered by someone laying hands only? They can’t pick up on other things?”

“If you’re just going to be insulting, I’m gonna leave. The two of you can work on this together,” you told him, beginning to stand up.

Rich was daft sometimes, but he was your husband and you loved him.

Hank held out his hand, “Whoa, whoa. Hold your horses.”

Irritated, you sat down again, glaring at him across the desk. You hated how handsome he looked even when he looked as smug as he did.

“There’s something else I want to discuss with you. Personally,” Hank told you, placing his pen back on the desk. “Payment.”

You flushed, immediately mad. “You said you were going to do this pro bono—” you began to argue.

“Chill, chill, chill, doll,” Hank purred, leaning forward. You clenched your jaw at his calm tone; he was trying to corral you. And calling you ‘doll’? He was handsome but he was sure an ass. “Don’t get riled up now. I am not asking for money.”

“You’re not asking for money?” you asked disbelieving. “You’re telling me you didn’t drag us in here just to waste our time before pulling the shade back up to ask for money? Cause that’s what it seems you’re doing.”

“No. I’m not doing that,” Hank told you, his fingers interlacing, leaning on his elbows on the desk. “I don’t want money from you.”

You stared back at him, the silence growing. You could see it in his eyes, and you felt the worry seeping into your bones quickly. And your fears heightened when he yet again, drug his gaze over you, lust in his eyes at your breasts. He was a pig.

He saw the realization wash over your features and before you could make a move, he grinned broadly. “The contract is simple that I could draw up for you. And it doesn’t have to be an ongoing thing, but if you wanna extend the contract, than sure, I am game. You look like you’ll be fun, and I don’t think I’ll be satiated quickly.”

“Fuck you,” you got out, standing up quickly.

Hank was on you before you got halfway to the door, turning you around. He peered down his nose at you and said gruffly, “Do you want your husband in jail for more years than he’s already going to be? That’s what you want? You’ll put your pride above that?” Slack jawed, you stood there, his hand tight on your waist. “No, I don’t think you will. You’re loyal to a fault.” He blew a raspberry and admitted, “Which is honestly baffling to me considering you’re a ten and he’s a four at best.” You huffed at that before he smirked, “But I think you like me.”

“You’re an asshole—”

“I am. But that doesn’t stop you from wanting to bend yourself over the desk,” Hank retorted confidently.

“I-I would not—” you began to argue, sputtering, but he interjected again, laughing.

“Don’t be embarrassed. You’re the only reason your husband got an appointment in the first place. But you knew that already didn’t you? You’re not daft. You picked up on that immediately. You were intrigued. And you sat there and let me ogle you – and I could write a novel with the thoughts that went on. Could rival 50 Shades if we are going to be honest.” You said nothing, hating that he was so right. You had known and you had come anyway, not challenging his lecherous looks until it was too late. When he saw you were silent, he stated, “So, let me make up that contract for you, doll.”

His hand fell from your waist, and you stood there dumbly as he walked back to his desk. Grabbing a yellow notepad, he scribbled quickly before tossing it onto the desk.

You came back over to the desk and peered at the paper.

I want representation.

[  ] Yes  [  ] No

Compensation will be provided with solicitation from the below signed party to attorney, Hank Palmer.

[  ] Yes  [  ] No

Sign here: ___________________

“This cannot be legal,” you said irritated. “Prostitution is illegal.”

“Where is there prostitution? I am not giving you money for it, am I? And it’s unofficial now but with your signature, it can be a binding document I can use,” Hank returned.

You slowly reached for the pen, grasping it tightly. You could find other counsel. But no one was as good as Hank. And he was just asking for momentary pleasure in exchange to make sure your husband would not be taken away from you for too long. And he was right; you were attracted to him. As big of a smug douchebag he was proving to be, he was dreadfully handsome. A lethal combination that had usually got you in trouble too many times before.

The pen scratched as you marked yes and yes and signed your name. Tossing the pen back down onto the desk, you took a step back.

Hank ran his tongue along his bottom lip at the sight of your signature and his eyes flicked up to meet yours, a wicked smile forming. “I’m half chubbed up already. Come back on Friday afternoon. 2:00pm. We will really game plan then.”

~~~

Forever tags: @coconutqueen21 @undecidedsworld 

@agustdowney I saw your comment on one of the posts about him so.... here we go.

#hank palmer x reader #dark hank palmer #hank palmer #my shit

[eclpsedsun]

rules : tag at least 5 people to learn more about

tagged by : @caribaheine thanks sm bea! ♡♡♡

tagging : @resetme @burnhamandtilly @jynesro @fahey @marksfarrows @keepyourlife (of course feel free to ignore!) ♡

music

♡ fave genres : alternative, indie, rock, pop punk

♡ fave artists : halsey, måneskin, the unlikely candidates, the struts, barns courtney, bishop briggs, queen, arctic monkeys, lana del rey and many more

♡ fave songs : don't have one, but my fave albums are smoke + mirrors by imagine dragons, il ballo della vita by måneskin, pure heroine by lorde, i love you by the neighbourhood

♡ songs most listened to recently : i am not a woman, i'm a god by halsey

♡ song currently stuck in your head : dis-moi by bb brunes

♡ 5 fave lyrics :

"your heart was glass, i dropped it" - champagne problems, taylor swift

"when the stars look down on me, what do they see?" - thief, imagine dragons

"you steal the air out of my lungs" - don't take the money, bleachers

"in my head, i do everything right" - supercut, lorde

"heaven is a place on earth with you" - video games, lana del rey

♡ radio or your own playlist | solo artists or and bands | pop or indie | loud or quiet volume | slow or and fast songs | music video or lyrics video | speakers or headset | riding a bus in silence or while listening to music | driving in silence or with radio music on

books

♡ fave genres : young adult, contemporary, low fantasy, murder mysteries/thrillers

♡ fave writers : marie lu is probably the only author I keep up with

♡ fave book series : still searching for it

♡ comfort book : i'll give you the sun, aristotle and dante discover the secrets of the universe

♡ perfect books to read on a rainy day : any classic really

♡ 5 fave characters : kestrel trajan (the winner's curse), jude duarte (the folk of the air), adelina amouteru (the young elites), fang runin (the poppy war)

♡ 5 literary quotes that you know by heart :

"You could jump so much higher when you had somewhere safe to fall." - Truly Madly Guilty, Liane Moriarty

"The only way the universe will remember you is if you do something worthy of remembrance." - Illuminae, Amie Kaufman

"My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me." - Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

"You can't get away from yourself by moving from one place to another." - The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway

"The stars incline us, they do not bind us." - These Violent Delights, Chloe Gong

♡ hardcover or paperback | buy or rent | book series or standalone novels | ebook or physical copy | reading at night or during the day | reading at home or in nature | music while reading or reading in silence | realism or fantasy | one or multiple POVS | judging by the covers or the summary | rereading or just once

tv + movies

♡ fave tv / movie genres : fantasy, sci-fi, comedy, superhero

♡ fave movies : tenet, inception

♡ comfort movies : all of the early barbie movies + studio ghibli

♡ movies you watch every year : different versions of A Christmas Carol

♡ fave tv shows : 3%, sense8, orphan black, what we do in the shadows, the umbrella academy

♡ most rewatched tv show : avatar the last airbender

♡ ultimate otp : i don't really care that much tbh

♡ 5 fave characters : melanie cavill (snowpiercer), michael burnham (star trek discovery), yennefer (the witcher), daenerys targaryen (game of thrones), villanelle (killing eve)

♡ tv shows or movies | short seasons (8-13 episodes) or full seasons (22 episodes or more) | one episode a week or binging | one season or multiple seasons | one part or saga | half hour or one hour long episodes | subtitles on or off | rewatching or watching just once | downloads or watching online

#🤍 #I'm so so sorry it took me so long! #but it was really fun #I'd love to do one again next year to see how much I changed #anyway #I hope you're doing well bea! ♡♡♡

[goldentsum]

━ socs and greasers

CHARACTERS: kuroo tetsurou and oikawa tooru

GENRE: fluff, a little angst

AUTHOR’S NOTE: oikawa’s a bit longer! i got too excited while writing this cus i rewatched ‘the outsiders’ soooo yeah,, here~

━ kuroo ♡

a gREASER WITHOUT A DOUBT! CAN YOU IMAGINE HIM WITH SLEEK HAIR AND SPORTING LEATHER OR DENIM AND THAT COCKY SMIRK ON HIS FACE---

ahem i mean yeah kuroo tetsurou is most definitely a greaser

Kuroo always scares those socs half to death with his tall height and intimidating aura but tbh he’s a softie

Though he won’t lie that the leather and denim aesthetic was kinda his style and scaring socs was too amusing for him

He most def has a busted second-handed car that he bought with his own money cus his parents doesn’t give a shit to even give him money

He lives with himself now as he run away from the dysfunctional family he had because he’s gonna go crazy if he hears another full blown fight his parents always has

I headcanon his s/o to be a soc and his childhood friend along with kenma, whos a greaser omg

You’re the daughter of a huge businessman who always leaves you on your own most of the time

you became friends with kuroo and kenma when yall met in the vacant lot with the two sporting bruises which made your motherly instincts go haywire even at a young age

Before you and kuroo became a thing, he was just admiring you from a far cus you’re a soc and he’s a dirty greaser but you always remind him that you really don’t really care about that

though kuroo doesn’t really wanna mix you up with his problems,, afraid that someone might hurt you,, soft boy :((

You were just too good to him that it hurts... you always make sure he has enough food in his house, always patching him up after a brawl, always making sure he’s okay, and just always there for him...

with you being like that,, kuroo can’t help but fall...

After accepting the fact that you were no longer the sister he always thought he’d have and that he started to see you more as a woman,, he started being softer, noticing certain quirks and features he didn’t see before,, while being a bit awkward because he doesn’t know how to act really

Kenma always catch kuroo staring at you which he always call him out about

“you’re staring awfully obvious there”

“shut up, kenma... i wasn’t starin”

he totally was pft

And it might not look like it but kuroo is really good at school! he has the best grades in his class and he’s hella cocky about it, rubbing it on the poor socs’ faces in his class

He even tutors you cus you were flanking chem :DDD fUN

Kuroo loves spending time with you! even if it’s just some tutor session but it always ends up with you pouting because you can’t understand it and him getting a headache at the amount of times he repeated it already

One night, he was out riding in his car, pouty that he didn’t see you for about a week now

Then he saw you getting ganged up by 3 taller socs at the street and he was LIVID god help those socs

He just stopped his car and run up to them, punching them without any warning,,, His tall and muscular stature helping him,, he won at the end but they got a number on him ngl which you were angry about

“Why would you do something as stupid as this, Tetsu?!”

“It ain’t stupid, doll... just wanna make sure you’re alright”

“You’re so stupid.... but.. thank you, tetsu...”

god he loves the way you say his name like that

“Well, i can’t have my girl get disrespected by those shitty--”

“your girl?” 

You were staring at Kuroo with a soft gleam inside your eyes

Kuroo just wanted the ground to swallow him up and die,, why the fuck did he just say that?!--

“That sounds nice... I like it...” You said after seeing kuroo’s internal monologue, giggling softly

Kuroo sighed in huge relief, cupping your cheek with his coarse hand that felt so familiar to you

Touching your forehead with his, “It’s official then. You’re my girl”

“Yeah... but first let’s clean up your beaten up face”

of course... it really won’t be you without you ruining the moment but kuroo won’t have it any other way

━ oikawa ♡

a SOC AND HE’S ONE OF THOSE ARROGANT LITTLE SHITS!

He is fILtHY RiCh! fILTHYYY!!

has a reputation about being a flirt with his pretty face

Oikawa: it’s just a struggle being this pretty~ aND I’M RICH TOO sigh

IWA IS SO DONE WITH HIM PLEASE HELP THIS BOI

A well known jock who gets all the girls with his charms and a flirty smile on his face

Oikawa knows how well he got people wrapped around his finger and he feeds off the power he has

Loves shopping and spending money on useless shit he won’t even use,, he’s unafraid to sPEND cus it’s not like it’ll dent his bank account

aND ALSO BECAUSE HE AIN’T WEARING THOSE UGLY KHAKIS! NO WAY IN HELL! he did once though and iwa, makki, and matsun made fun of him

NOW HOW YALL MET IS SO FUN

You’re a greaser, a terrifying one at that

Your group was in the movie drivethru with your busted cars and leather and denim clothes

aND Lo and behold he’s also there,, though he’s with a date and Iwa, Matsun, and Makki were tagging along

a brawl start up with your group and some socs AND OIKAWA HAS TO SEE THIS DRAMA

He wanted to look good to his date so he went and tried to be the “hero” and stop the brawl

You got irritated and punched him right on his nose surprising him and knocking him off his feet

IWA, MATSUN, AND MAKKI WERE LAUGHING THEIR ASSES CUS THAT WAS THE BEST THING THEY JUST SAW

Oikawa stared up at you, nose aching and bleeding, wide teary eyes from the pain

And you stared down at him, a deadly glare on your face as you tugged on your leather jacket, scoffing at the soc

Your group quickly left when someone called the cops,, yall ain’t going to prison now,, nope

Oikawa was left there, sitting on the dirty ground with his nose bleeding and welling up eyes,, It took Makki and Matsun to help him up with Iwa staring at him like, are you okay, dude tf?

“I think I’m in love”

Now that was not what they were expecting, they expected something extra but definitely not that kind of extra,,

His date got irritated at that and dumped her drink at his feet, stomping away but Oikawa barely flinch,, too occupied in his thoughts on who you were

He spend an entire week looking for you because he just can’t get you out of his mind,, you were the first girl to ever pull a stunt like that and it was amusing masochistic bastard

When he finally saw you, you were in a diner with your group and his heart got all fluttery and shit and he got scared because tHAT WAS UNUSUAL! WTF WAS THAT FLUTTERY FEELING?!

He mustered up all the courage he had and marched up to the table, looking straight at you,, barely looking at anyone else

You raised a brow at the familiar brunette but you couldn’t really place your finger on where you’ve seen him then it hit you,, yOU HIT HIM LAST WEEK,, STRAIGHT IN HIS NOSE and the redness on his nose was evidence enough

You started to speak cus what if this soc get you arrested like nope you ain’t having that,, “Look dude, I don’t want any trouble--”

“Go on a date with me” 

Your whole table was laughing at you making you fluster up in embarrassment cus wtf is with this weird guy,, you punch him then a week later he shows up claiming he wants to go on a date with you???

oH this was pay back,, okay you got it

tHAT WAS YOU THOUGHT IT WAS BUT OIKAWA REALLY PERSISTENT,, ALWAYS APPEARING AND ASKING YOU ON A DATE,, REJECTION AFTER REJECTION the guy just won’t stop

Finally, you agreed! Oikawa can’t stop giggling on the way home and got already took out multiple outfits for your date

On the day of your date, he was immaculate with his outfit! He also fixed his already perfect hair and got to the place where you guys will meet up at half an hour early with a bouquet of flowers in hand,, he was that excited!

but 2 hours already passed and you were no where to be seen... D; did you just stood him up? aND WORSE OF ALL IT STARTED RAINING ruining his outfit and hair and making the flowers in his hand all soggy and gross

Oikawa slumped on the the fountain, sAD AS FUCK

while you were snickering in your car driving on the opposite side of town but then a punch of guilt made way to your gut...

what if he waited there?.... and its raining...

goddammit,, and like that your car turned around and drove to the park where you and oikawa planned to meet up.

You stopped the car in front of the fountain and your heart shattered when you saw the familiar sitting figure on the fountain in the pouring rain.

“fucking hell, this idiot”

You stomped your way to him, your leather jacket on your head trying to shield yourself in the harsh rain and stopped in front of the soc

“You’re late...” His croaky voice was really not helping your guilt,, fucking hell...

“tch... Let’s go idiot!” You pulled him up and dragged him in your car

There was tense air inside the car with you grumbling on your seat and Oikawa pouting sadly on his, slumping more

“Look... I’m sorry about this... I’m sure you’re a nice guy,, i think... L-Let’s start over, yeah?”

Oikawa perked up and looked at you at the corner of his eyes,, he hated the fact that he was happy rn... he was supposed to be mad at you,, he waited 3 hours for you and an hour in the rain, hoping you’ll come to him

“Fine... but you owe me one!”

“yeah yeah, idiot soc”

#haikyuu #haikyuu x reader #haikyuu imagines #haikyuu headcanons #haikyuu au #oikawa x reader #oikawa tōru #kuroo tetsuro imagine #kuroo x reader #kuroo tetsurō #haikyuu kuroo #haikyuu oikawa #haikyuu fluff #haikyuu angst #oikawa headcanons #oikawa angst #kuroo testuro #kuroo tetsuro x reader #kuroo tetsuro headcanons

[redpanda-fan]

Where did that come from? Octavinelle Edition

Octavinelle, one of my favourite dorms and The Little Mermaid (1989) a movie I loved as a kid, this will be fun. Other than Azul's boss fight taking literal days for me to beat, I loved this chapter and it solidified these 3 mer-mafiosos as characters close to my heart. Let's sea what they have in common with the Ursula, and where they came from. Time for part three of my "Where did that come from" series.

Overall

The characters correlate pretty easily: Jade and Floyd are Jetsam and Flotsam respectively, with Azul as Ursula. Deuce, Ace, Grim and the other people who made the deals are the shrivelled creatures in Ursula's lair and Yuu is Ariel. In my opinion, compared to people in Ursula's Lair the one brain cell trio got off easy.

Apparently all mermaids turned human have trouble walking at first like Ariel did. Honestly I would pay money to see the Octavinelle gang's first week or so on land. It sounds like a hilarious sight. The tweels grew out of it quickly, just like Ariel did, but it seems Azul hasn’t so far.

Bonus: The Octatrio’s names are all colours, Azul- blue (Spanish) Jade- green, Floyd- morally grey (Welsh)

Character specific

🐙 Azul Ashengrotto 🐙

Azul and Ursula both own less than honest businesses.

Azul resembles Ursula alot physically from his white hair and mole though its on the wrong side of his chin to his underwater form even sharing her colour scheme and when he was younger he would have had a similar body type to her. He even has her crazy eyes when he overblots. It's uncanny. Since he admires Ursula, I wonder how he feels about looking like her? Other than Malleus, I feel Azul resembles his corresponding villain the most.

Azul and Ursula both love to act as a pillar of generosity and give help to all the poor, unfortunate souls who flock to them in need of help, but often use underhanded techniques to make sure that they end up failing their end of the bargain, allowing them to get what they want.

Azul’s potion works in opposite to Ursula's own, he offers a way to go underwater, she offers a way to go on land. Yet both have the same 3-day time limit for their deal and heavy collaterals, Ariel her voice and Yuu their house.

Sidenote: the way Azul made Crowley sign away his authority to do anything about his shady dealings was like Crowley signing away his ability to speak up and voice his opinions on the matter.

Azul lies about how his contracts are unbreakable, but it seems Ursula found a way to do that, and he was just piggybacking off of that to scare the first years.

When Azul is on the brink of Overblotting he tries to take the abilities and magic of Jade and Floyd as a sort of sacrifice to allow him to win and Ursula took out her eels with magic but not as a sacrifice to make her stronger but by accidentally vaporizing them. Thankfully Azul wasn't able to hurt the tweels because the group stopped him.

I'm going to group Jade and Floyd because Jetsam and Flotsam don't really get much characterization or screen time so what one has is for both in most cases.

🐬🦈 Jade and Floyd Leech 🐬🦈

Jade and Floyd both obediently listen to Azul's commands and often get information for him, just like Ursula's eels do. They have even made these comparisons themselves in chats. This, plus Ace mentioning a movie about the mermaid princess and human prince. That makes me wonder how much their stories have in common with our own, but that's a theory for another day.

Something I really liked is that the shadow Jade and Floyd cast on the gang at the Atlantic Museum is the same one Flotsam and Jetsam cast on Ariel. Both sets of eels also come to people in bad situations offering to rid them of all their troubles all you have to do is make a deal with a certain Octopus mermaid.

Jade and Floyd match their respective eel with the order of their heterochromia.

Jade mentions the fork Ariel uses to comb her hair with as an artefact in the museum.

Floyd mentions visiting the sunken ship in the intro of the movie, as a common test of courage when he was younger.

I have to give it to Disney and the team, these two are pretty unique from each other even though the core is still there. Great for giving people who saw the movie a new experience, but it doesn't give me much to write on especially for Jade and Floyd. Flotsam and Jetsam don't really get much screen time other than lurking in the shadows except for their one scene with dialogue. Until this rewatch I didn't even remember if they talked.

#where did that come from #azul ashengrotto #jade leech #floyd leech #octavinelle #disney twisted wonderland #twst azul #twst jade #twst floyd

[imaginesrus]

Bad Decisions

Reader x Francis ‘Ajax’ Freeman (Deadpool)

Summary: You were one of ‘The Workshop’s’ experiments however all that was behind you until you come home to find a certain manufactured mutant bad guy sitting on your couch looking for information.

Author’s note: So I recently rewatched Deadpool and had forgotten how much I loved Francis/Ajax in this movie and then this idea took hold and I couldn’t let it pass. Sorry if you are subscribed just for the Steve content but I’m experimenting with branching out a little. If you enjoy this and would like more please let me know. Suggestions for content are always graciously accepted.

You had never expected to see him again. After all, you had kept up your side of the bargain.

Five years.

Five years chained and collared to a purpose you couldn’t care about. Five years fighting a battle in which you had no vested interest, except to make it back each time in one piece.

When your time had finally come and your debt repaid you bent that silver collar until you had felt it snap-in on itself with a satisfying crack. Freedom had never felt so good.

But as it turned out old habits were hard to break and despite the yearning, you felt to return to the normal life you found yourself feeling something missing, and that was how you had found yourself dipping your toe into that life again. You lied to yourself that it would be just one more job, just enough so that you had enough money to set yourself up then you would return to normal. You told yourself that this was different. You had the choice of what jobs you would take on, you were no longer anyone's puppet. You were crafting your own path and direction, just not the one you had ever thought you would.

Besides ‘normal’ was no longer part of our vocabulary, and when curiosity had gotten the better of you you had discovered that 6 years missing was as good as dead to those you had left behind. You didn’t belong there anymore.

You closed the door of your apartment behind you eyes closing as you leant your head against the door. All you could think about was running your bath and slipping into the warm water, allowing it to ease your aching muscles. Perhaps even opening that bottle of wine you had been saving, a thank you of sorts from a pleased client who happened to own a renowned vineyard as a side project.

But it seemed that there was to be a change of plans when you saw the very man who had started this all, sitting casually on your sofa as if he owned it.

Fucking Ajax.

And he had opened that bottle of wine.

Your eyes flicked to the knife block that sat on the kitchen counter, while your hand remained on the doorknob. He took his time taking a sip from the glass in his hand before placing it calmly on the coffee table, your coffee table.

There were two clear options, fight or flight. Neither one was particularly appealing. But you were damned if you were going to let them take you in again, turn you back into a slave.

“I’m not here for a fight, Sweetheart.” He said calmly, as he rose from the couch and instinctively you edged your back against the door.

He held up his hands, showing that he had no weapon. Like he needed one. You had seen first hand that his body itself was enough of a weapon. You had wondered whether lacking the ability to feel he had become more machine than man.

“So why are you here then?” You ask, trying to steady your breathing as he continues to advance towards you, his stance open and inviting as if you were friends. But you can see the calculation in his eyes, watching your movements closely, ready for you to run.

“Can’t a doctor check-in with his favourite patient?” He asks with a quirk of his eyebrow and you let out a laugh. Unable to remain silent on the absurdity of the whole situation. “Share a drink reminisce?”

“One, calling yourself a doctor is a little generous don’t you think? And, two, I am far from your favourite patient.”

“Don’t sell yourself short,” he replies with a smile, his eyes roaming over your body in a way you haven't noticed before. A way that creates a tangle of heat in the base of your stomach.

You focus again, pushing any of those ‘notions’ from your mind and coming back to the fact that he has advanced again, only a mere steps away and you still don’t have a plan, your gaze was drawn back to the knife block, out of reach.

“But maybe it is a little more than that.”

Of course, it is.

“Someone has been looking for me,” his jaw clenches and you revel a little in the thought that something has managed to get under his skin, “a frustrating little worm in a black and red suit.”

Now that rings a bell, in fact, the other night while you had been at Sister Margaret’s a man in one of those ridiculous superhero costumes had been asking around for someone. Swearing about revenge and retribution for what someone had done to him. You hadn’t paid too much attention, the bar usually attracted a few crazies in amongst the regulars but this one had been particularly determined to find a man called ‘Francis’.

“Wait, you’re Francis?” It was starting to come together now. He must have been part of the project as well, it was not surprising that Ajax was on someone’s kill list. You ruin numerous lives it is bound to catch up with you sooner or later.

“You’re the guy he is looking for?”

With that last question, the smirk is wiped from his face. His enhanced reflexes allow him to move quickly to box you in, his arms braced on either side of your body up against the door. His eyes dark as he stares you down.

Your heart is beating wildly and you struggle to maintain your focus. If you are to have any chance of surviving this encounter you need to remain calm.

“He was here?” There is a distinctive edge to his voice now, the casual friendliness no longer present.

“No,” you say, quickly shaking your head. “Not here. At that bar on the other side of the city, the dodgy one with the smart-arse bartender. It’s a good place to pick up jobs.” You explain quickly your mouth running away from you. Hoping that once you let him know that his trip to your apartment has proved fruitless that he will leave and you can start to immediately look for another apartment.

But he doesn’t shift his stance, leaving you blocked and trapped. His head tilts as he looks over you, and you feel even more nervous under his gaze.

“Still making use of those gifts then,” he smiles as his finger traces over your shoulder, travelling down your arm in a movement so slow and delicate it’s intention is explicit.

"Maybe you should give me a little demonstration?" He cocks his head to the side, examining you looking for a sign of weakness or hesitation, you refuse to give him the opportunity.

"How do you know I'm not already?" you quirk your eyebrow as your fingers twist just slightly. Your breathing remains controlled as you speak, taking satisfaction in the confusion in his eyes.

"Sometimes I forget that you can't feel anything. Not even the knife I've currently got pointed at your back. In between your L1 and L2 vertebrae if I 'm correct, but then again I'm not the doctor here. Now maybe this knife isn’t sharp enough on it’s own, but I’m sure I can put enough telekinetic energy behind it to sever your spinal cord."

Instead of retreating or freezing in place, he lets out a laugh.

“You have changed haven’t you?” You freeze as his fingers trace across your cheek, “Where is my timid little mouse?”

You turn your face away, breaking the contact as it stirs feelings you are not in the mood to confront tonight.

“She was lost after that first kill.” You admit, even though it was a blur, you remembered the look in their eyes as life fled their body as the results of your actions. A simple twist of your fingers had been all it took to snap a neck.

“Would you kill me?” amusement tinges his voice which makes you blood boil urging you to push the knife further.

“If I had to.” You tell him, even though the simple answer should be yes. Those years were stolen. Even though they were years that you would have never had otherwise. Ajax or Francis had always been an enigma to you. Never giving anything away of himself during your sessions.

You rise to your toes so that you can attempt to match his height. “You don’t hold the power here, not anymore.”

A smile broadens across his lips as he looks almost impressed.

“You know it wasn’t a complete lie when I said you were my favourite patient. Quiet, yes, but one of those spirits that are hard to break, I had to work hard to trigger that mutation. I had thought maybe after your mutation that you may work beside me, at the Workshop.” He sighed, “But a telekinesis mutation, much too valuable on the private market. Not that you have suffered for it. It looks good on you. And now that you are a free agent.”

You search his eyes for what was the truth and they were just as cold and unreadable as ever. Could he actually be deluded enough to think that you would join him?

“Drop the knife, Sweetheart,” he whispers in your ear and you are reminded of all the times he would call you that, even before he snapped the cold metal collar around your neck as you were delivered to who would be your handler.

‘That’s it, Sweetheart, hold still for me.’ The last thing you heard until your surroundings before everything became faded and blurred.

“Or I can make you drop it,” he warns.

You want to laugh at his continued blind confidence in his own abilities even in his vulnerable position. But you are cut off by his lips pressing against your own.

Even though you could feel the tension in the air, his kiss takes you by surprise. It may have been unexpected but it is in no way unpleasant, and you can chastise yourself later on your poor decision making as you move your lips against his.

You hear the knife clatter to the floor, your concentration is broken, as his hand grips your hip.

You can still taste the wine on his lips as your tongue darts out to trace across his bottom lip.

You should stop this, should push him away from you with your mind or body, whichever feels like cooperating, but there is a part of you that craves this. Perhaps the part of yourself that was twisted and moulded by the Workshop itself.

Besides, it’s been a while since you made an epically bad decision. You are well overdue.

#reader x ajax #reader x francis freeman #francis 'ajax' freeman #ajax imagine #francis freeman imagine #deadpool2016 #imagines

[virareve]

30 Questions

Rules: Answer 30 questions and tag 5 blogs you are contractually obligated to know better.

Thanks for the tag @tiredandtoothless !

Name/nickname: Vira

Gender: Female

Star sign: Leo (I don’t know much else except something about me being primarily in the tenth house???)

Height: 5′4.5″ (that half inch really counts)

Birthday: July 29

Time: Approximately 3:30pm

Favorite bands: (in no particular order...) Aerosmith, Fleetwood Mac, Rising Appalachia

Favorite solo artists: (in no particular order...) Zedd, Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Anuel AA, Chance the Rapper, Kanye West, Darius Rucker, David Bisbal, Maren Morris, Marshmello, Norah Jones, Ruel, Shakira, Yola

Song stuck in my head: La Bikina written by Rueben Fuentes. While not quite exact, this song reminds me a lot of Brienne in post-show and encapsulates a lot of the feelings I’d imagine she would have after GOT canon. I love this song very dearly and have listened to it with the written lyrics and without the written lyrics. It’s a haunted and beautiful song.

Last movie: That I finished? Princess Switch 2: Switched Again. It’s maybe the third Christmas romance movie I’ve seen in my life but I really loved this one. It’s a good bad funny unlike the first which was just boring lol. Why have two Vanessa Hudgens when you can have three? 

Last show: Avatar: The Last Airbender. I’ve been slowly rewatching it since it came onto Netflix in 2019. 

When did I create this blog: 2012 ( I had to check because I couldn’t remember lol.)

What do I post: Anything that interests me. Usually things I find funny or fandom stuff I would want to see again (i.e. artwork or meta).

Last thing googled: News on my aunt’s uncle who was taken by the government in our family’s home country recently. 

Other blogs: I only have this one but I’m thinking of making a sideblog just so I can keep organize all the patterns and inspo I get for Animal Crossing.

Do I get asks: Occasionally but sometimes they’re also just the randomest things that I think someone wants to just send me from anon  and not really meant to be answered. XD

Why I chose my url: I’m not exactly bi- or multilingual now but I was raised among many spoken languages. Vira was a name given to me by a friend, it is a play on my name in one of their languages. Reve is from a language I spoke as a child and no longer remember. 

Following: 81

Followers: 103

Average hours of sleep: It varies wildly but I’d say three to four days out of the week I get 8

Lucky number: I’ve never ascribed to any. 

Instruments: I used to have a rudimentary understanding of piano, violin, and harp

What am I wearing: Turtleneck, flare jeans, and heeled black mules

Dream job: trauma surgery but a physical health issue from the last few years  means I might need to rethink that if I go back, another dream job I want to run simultaneously (whether or not I return to medicine) is growing the company i work for

Dream trip: Going backpacking for a year or two through Europe and Asia and visiting some of the places the last few generations from my family came from before ending up in the US

Favorite food: Ramen, fresh churros, California burrito, mashed potato tacos, Pho, Kimbap, or Dolsot Bibimbap

Nationality: American (the second gen remix)

Favorite song: Hotel California by The Eagles

Last book read: The Pursuit of Mary Bennet by Pamela Mingle. (The story was was ehhhhh. It was first person and read a bit like a YA novel. Sometimes I felt the author imposing her beliefs a bit strongly. The MC also felt like she took a new character and decided to call her Mary Bennet. It was so-so, enjoyable but I wouldn’t recommend spending money on. If you find yourself intrigued by the idea of a Mary Bennet Spin-off, The Unexpected Miss Bennet by Patrice Sarath was a bit more true to the way I imagine the book character and more character-centric. One thing I do appreciate these novels for is painting the Bennet sisters’ relationship is a less harsh light.)

Top three fictional universes I’d like to live in: 1)  Pokemon (I want to be ten and go on adventures and get protected by plot XD) 2) Crazy Rich Asians (I just want to be friends with Go Peik Lin and Astrid Leong) 3) A:TLA post-hundred years war and without the existence of LOK (that’s too dark to retire in lol)

Tagging @twelvemonkeyswere @ladym-rules @writergirl2011 @treadcareful @hillaryschu

#tagging meme #tagging game

[moviemunchies]

Disney made a movie about the making of Mary Poppins.

The story goes like this: P.L. Travers, the author of the Mary Poppins books, is broke. She needs money. And for the past twenty years Walt Disney has been desperately trying to buy the rights to adapt one of the books into a movie. Travers, however, being a stuffy English woman who doesn’t want her works adapted into a “silly cartoon” and thinks that Disney will butcher the material, doesn’t want to. But as her attorney points out, she needs the money, so she agrees to go to Los Angeles for a couple of weeks and negotiate. There the scriptwriter and lyricists attempt to work with her on how the movie will go, but Travers proves difficult to work with, and refuses to budge on what seem to be very minor points.

All the while, the audience (and P.L. Travers, it’s implied) are receiving flashbacks to her childhood in Australia, which seems to start as a somewhat idyllic life in the Australian countryside, but quickly shifts as her father’s alcoholism becomes more and more obvious to the audience.

It is a bit of a difficult movie to really wrap my head around. It’s not a complicated Plot or anything, but it’s a movie that’s essentially about trying to convince an author to sell out to Disney. And in a world in which Disney owns an absurd amount of the entertainment industry, trying to frame a story about Disney being a nice company just trying to share good stories with the world… well, it’s a bit of a hard sell. And this movie did come out in 2013, when it wasn’t quite as obvious to all of us that Disney was taking over EVERYTHING yet--although it should have been, considering they bought Lucasfilm and Marvel at that point, but we all just kind of joked about it--so it’s a bit lighter of a blow, but it still hits very weirdly. I like this movie, but I don’t know if I should feel bad about it because it’s so obviously Disney making a movie about how it’s okay that absorbing all these properties and twisting them into something with their brand stomped on it.

...I did also rewatch Lindsay Ellis’s video on this, yes, if you were wondering. And to be clear, her video is probably better than anything I’m about to say.

It is a fascinating movie about the process of adaptation though. Because I feel as if people of my generation were very much of the opinion, back when our favorite books like Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings were being adapted, that a good adaptation was one that was an exact translation from the book onto screen, all with the smiling approval of the book’s author. And even in very good adaptations or I don’t think that’s how it works at all. I think most people think that Mary Poppins is a good movie, but that doesn’t change that it’s not a very accurate representation of the book it’s adapted from. 

In a way, we have that on full display here. P.L. Travers never really loved the movie of her book; but at the end of her life she’d made peace with it as a well-made film, although she didn’t consider it related to her own work. In the film we watch her desperately try to exert more control over the movie 

Travers demanding that the entire process be recorded on tape was a real thing, BTW. You might have figured that out from the bits of audio played during the credits.

It’s also all tied up in her memories of her father--hence the title. Because (in-film) Travers identified the fictional Mr. Banks she created with her own father, and her acceptance of Disney’s adaptation is tied up with that--making sure that they understand that even if he wasn’t perfect, Mr. Banks wasn’t a monster, and he needs saving more so than his children. Hence the resolution of _Mary Poppins_ is about the redemption of Mr. Banks, rather than just about his children (hence the movie’s title).

I have no idea if this is remotely true or not; after all, while P.L. Travers is a pen name that she took from her father (his first name was Travers), the first Mary Poppins book was dedicated to her mother. But it’s an interesting conjecture and I, who knows next to nothing about the subject matter, think it works.

Emma Thompson manages to make Travers both kind of terrible but also very likable in her performance. No, her being rude to everyone doesn’t endear her, but the frustrations she’s being rude over are relatable, if just expressed in a way that would make you very exhausted with her in real life. Which is why her more emotional moments in the film stand out and make them that much more heartbreaking.

Tom Hanks as Walt Disney is pretty much… well, it’s what you expect. It’s good casting. The movie paints Disney a lot lighter than he probably was in real life, but it doesn’t lose the fact that he’s very much out to make money--the film just also balances that with him trying to make people happy with it.

Apparently Tom Hanks campaigned to show Disney smoking on screen, but this was overruled, so you just hear him coughing and he mentions it at one point, and that he doesn’t like to smoke in public for fear of being a bad influence (which was true).

Paul Giamatti plays Ralph, Travers’s driver while she’s in Los Angeles. And he’s cool. Basically he’s there to show Travers becoming less harsh.

Bradley Whitford plays Don Dagradi, the scriptwriter of Mary Poppins, and B.J. Novak and Jason Schwartzman play the Sherman Brothers, the lyricists for the movie. They're kind of just there to have Walt be nice to and Travers be mean to. They don’t get that much to do other than shuffle about and awkwardly try to do their jobs. Novak, as Robert Sherman, gets a little more to do, in that he actually snarks back a few times, but overall these actors are underused. And I get that it’s hard to use them more and give them more material, because this isn’t their story, but they basically do one thing the entire movie and that’s it.

In the backstory, we have a very good performance from Colin Farrell as Travers Goff, Travers’s father, who is able to portray a man who is both a charming father but also kind of a massive jerk as his alcoholism and illness takes over his life.

Annie Rose Buckley plays young P.L. Travers, Ginty Goff, and she does a great job? I’m not usually critical of child actors, I suppose, but I think she did a phenomenal job of a girl who just has no idea what’s going on with her dad until it’s far too late.

It’s a good movie. I enjoy watching it. Yes, it’s whitewashing the history of the company, and presenting the ending to be a lot happier than it probably was in real life. And that’s not bad! A lot of good movies are like that! But I have really mixed feelings about it nowadays with Disney’s business practices and the way it dominates the entertainment industry. A movie that tells it’s perfectly fine for Disney to eat up and profit off of all fiction is a harder sell for me nowadays. Maybe that’s a ‘me’ thing though.

#Saving Mr. Banks #Marry Poppins #Emma Thompson #Tom Hanks #P.L. Travers #Walt Disney #Movie Munchies

[bobo-is-tha-bomb]

The Anime of a Life Time

I guess, since I’ve started this thing, I should contribute my own two cents on what Gundam Wing has done for me.

Gundam Wing wasn’t the first anime I watched. There were others before it. My starter pack was the Dutch dubs of Pokemon, Digimon, and Flint the Time Detective (known as Jikū Tantei Genshi-kun in Japan) on Fox Kids. Sometime later they broadcasted an anime called Shinzo (known as Mushrambo in Japan) and I guess that is where my love for anime really started. My cousin introduced me to it during a vacation and we spend quite a few days watching episodes!

Anime, at that time in the Netherlands, was something regarded as a ‘boys thing’. So for me it was rather awkward to talk about it and I didn’t, because I already was an easy target due to my HSP. The only person I could share it with was my cousin, who was just as crazy about anime as I was. She introduced me to the little Cartoon Network block we had on tv, and that is where I discovered Dragonball Z.

Dragonball Z was a turning point for me. Over the course of just a few months it turned me into a fanfiction author. My cousin and I were practically joined at the hip at every family gathering we had, and would sneak off to write together or read what we had so far. It was a glorious time. Every day I would rush home from school to try and watch a Dragonball Z episode. I was not always able to, because I had a horse to take care of. On Saturdays and Sundays, the weekday episodes were rerun, so I’d try to catch anything I had missed then. Sick days were the best, because then I could watch the episodes for sure.

And it was a sick day that introduced me to my favorite anime of all times. I was at home with my brother and we were both down with the flu. We had actually set an alarm to make sure we’d be awake on time to watch Dragonball Z. But as we turned on the tv, it wasn’t Dragonball Z that started. It was a different series. At first, I was so pissed off, BECAUSE HOW DARE THEY STOP BROADCASTING DRAGONBALL Z, but ten minutes into this episode of this new series I was sold. For life apparently.

Wing Gundam fell from the sky and ruined me.

I have some of my best memories from that time, because my cousin was just as crazy about Gundam Wing as I was. She went to school in the Hague and often stopped by my house on the way back. We were, at this point, so joined at the hip we might as well have been siamese twins. We would sprawl on the couch in my living room together almost every day, shoulder to shoulder, and sing along with Just Communication in terrible Japanese. Epic moments where the first time Zechs took off his mask (“THIS GUY IS SO PRETTY! WHY?”), or the time when Heero said goodbye to Relena on Libra and showed us the ‘pretty eyes’. That really send us into hysterics.

During the first run of the series, my cousin introduced me to some fanfiction sites. This really opened a door for me, because apparently there were others like me that wrote stories about their favorite series! I started writing for Gundam Wing, but kept the stories to myself mostly. I was too shy to actually post anything. Most of the stuff I wrote was in Dutch and I didn’t switch to English until somewhere in 2005, when I started posting a story for Yu-Gi-Oh!. We’ll not talk about this story, because it’s horrible.

I wrote more stories and got a little better at it. My cousin found some more sites that had good stories for us to read and in this way I found Freedom of Speech Fanfiction, Lunaescence, and Fictionzone. It was through these sites that I started writing more actively for Gundam Wing and became the writer that I am today.

I wrote for other fandoms on the side for some time, and then my cousin told me that Gundam Wing was having a rerun on tv. I was quick to jump to the idea of a rewatch, and faithfully watched every episode. But halfway through that rerun, they stopped. I was devastated. I was really angry about it, because watching the rerun had reignited my love for the series. Around that time Limewire had its glory days, so I checked to see if I could download the episodes from there. And what did I discover then? Endless Waltz! Endless Waltz had never been broadcasted in the Netherlands, so can you imagine how happy I was? There was more Gundam Wing and I had never known about it!

I downloaded all the episodes and movie onto CDR’s, that I could only watch on the small television in my room. But boy, was I happy!

Since then, I do a rewatch of the series almost every year, and I never get tired of it. I just love these characters and the story so much. I feel as if it has become part of me. Maybe it’s because I watched it during a time in my life where I discovered I’m a bit different from other people. Whenever I didn’t feel accepted I could hide in my little fantasy world and think about my favorite characters. I never felt this kind of love for any other anime I’ve watched. I guess Sailor Moon gets close, but I never wrote a fanfic for it. I’m totally game for the complexity of the characters, the plot, the politics and intrigue that go on. I love watching these characters grow and develop, time and time again. That the fandom is so warm and lovely is a nice bonus! I’ve made lovely friends for life because of this anime!

The only thing I regret is not spending money on it sooner.

I was raised by parents who did not understand my love for anime one bit, so spending money on it was out of the question. I didn’t get to visit anime conventions until I was an adult, and since then I knew that Gunpla existed, but never thought about buying anything. In 2016 I bought my very first Gundam Kit. I was so overwhelmed with the idea that I FINALLY had bought something Gundam Wing related that I nearly cried. My best friend was so supportive and happy for me. She could totally see how much this meant to me and snapped a polaroid picture of me and this stupid little Gundam Kit so I would always remember that moment.

Since the last two years, I’ve been really putting some money into my Gundam Wing collection. I guess it’s safe to say it’s money well spend and I’m so thrilled with every new item that gets in! My fiancé sees how happy it makes me and even though he doesn’t always understand, he is supportive and stimulates my buying of Gundam Wing related goodies. Maybe I’m trying the catch up for all the years I’ve missed in collecting. Who knows.

Visiting Japan was a real treat, because there were so many Gundam kits, and if I took the time to browse, I could find some really nice stuff! Besides kits, I took home postcards, gashapon items, and T-shirts. Next year I’ll go back and then I plant to buy so much more!

@memoriesofgundamwing

#gundamwing #gundam wing #Mobile suit gundam wing #mobilesuitgundamwing #memories of gundam wing #memoriesofgundamwing

[potatowitch]

finding out that the star wars sequel series was written on the fly rather than actually planned out makes so much fucking sense but also pisses me off EVEN MORE because i watched the force awakens in 2016 and within a day of leaving the cinema had a fully fleshed out idea in my head of the direction the next two films would take and the plot points they would cover, all brainstormed in the shower. 16 year old me was more capable of writing a cohesive storyline than disney was. so here you are - i rewrote the sequels to be ten times better than what disney actually gave us. enjoy.

- after rey finds luke they train for a bit then he's like "gotta tell u something. u ever heard of mara jade? she's ur mum" "wait weren't u two dating for a bit" "yeah" "does that mean ur...." "...yeah"

- "why did u leave me on jakku?" "i didnt. she did. i only just learned u existed i wouldve come for u" "oh."

- "...can i call u dad or" "i would be honored if u did"

- meanwhile at the resistance base leia realises finn is force sensitive, gives him her old lightsaber she had in the comics

- because come on. rewatch the force awakens and tell me that man aint fuckin feeling the "shitloads of voices cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced" when starkiller goes off

- and he picks up a lightsaber and instinctively knows how to use it?

- also: two main heroes in a star wars film being a queer coded woman and a queer coded black man.

- and the whole "used to be a stormtrooper and defected, becomes a jedi" is a TOTALLY NEW storyline? not some tired old "white boy villain is a dick for three movies then suddenly turns Good TM right at the end" trope

- make rey explicitly asexual. she's beautiful and smart and got abs that make everyone who sees them MELT but she is NOT INTERESTED in anything but JUSTICE and PLATONIC HUGS

- finn and poe are also making out because come on, disney, if u wanted to show you're becoming more progressive having a loving interracial gay romance is the fucking easiest way to do it. BB8 has two dads and they share The Jacket

- turns out finn is a kenobi because u cannot tell me obi wan didnt Fuck. jedi code says "dont form attachments" but watch the clone wars - obi wan plays fast and loose w the jedi code at the best of times. now we got a skywalker and a kenobi working together being best buds again, THE WAY IT SHOULD BE.

- the destruction of starkiller has crippled the first order. don't fucking look at me like "the resistance just won a major, VERY VISIBLE victory but OOO no somehow they're still very low on numbers and infrastructure" NO. the public destruction of starkiller has earned the resistance an influx of allies. the republic has started publicly supporting them. the first order spent years building that thing and now not only is all that time, effort and MONEY gone, they lost a shitload of staff and military personnel when it blew up

- "the first order is rich" is a plot point I DO NOT UNDERSTAND because it directly contradicts what's going on in the expanded universe books. the first order was built from remnants of the empire that had been banished to the outer reaches of the galaxy to live out of broken down, shitty old star destroyers.

- it's the reason hux, who was raised in a decrepit old academy in the ass end of the universe by an abusive father, is SO anti republic. in his head, it's the reason he starved as a child. it's the reason his mother is dead. it's the reason he had to be raised by a father that beat him. his hatred for the republic is PERSONAL

- disney learn how to write a good villain challenge? hux EASILY could have been terrifying AND sympathetic

- hux and kylo now have to deal with how absolutely PISSED snoke is that both of them failed with starkiller. hux gets force choked and threatened. kylo gets snoke very painfully rooting around in his head. it is emphasised that snoke's relationship with these two is downright abusive.

- somewhere in there, they realise that the whole five years they've known each other snoke has been deliberately pitting them against each other and sneakily forcing them to undermine each other's authority

- they realise it was snoke's shitty leadership that lead to the destruction of starkiller. they realise that maybe they'd be better off on their own

- the two of them plot to murder snoke themselves. while this is happening, the resistance is happily building an army, gathering resources, and forming alliances. luke and rey have reunited with the resistance and now rey and finn are both happily training with luke.

- snoke dies. hux decides to take the mantle of emperor. kylo LETS HIM because he realises he doesn't know shit about fuck when it comes to leading anything more than his knights. has a crisis of confidence about how useful he actually is, then hux decides he wants to keep the knights of ren around as his personal "fuck up the resistance" squad.

- the two of them working together turn out to be fucking terrifying, competent villains. the films have short, five to ten minute sections where they explore their VERY SIMILAR traumas to make them sympathetic WITHOUT making them seem like "uwu they're not actually bad people" because THEY'RE STILL AWFUL GENOCIDAL MASS MURDERERS

- on the kylo trauma side: it's made obvious in the books that from about age 6 snoke has been in his head deliberately grooming him away from his family. make that obvious in the films. make its impact on kylo obvious in how unsure of himself he actually is. don't make his "redemption arc" one where he suddenly goes light side. give him a bastardisation arc where he realises his whole life he has never made a choice - and then make THE FIRST ORDER his choice. (it is the wrong choice! emphasise that! but make him MAKE THAT CHOICE)

- the resistance thinks they're doing well. they have two new jedi. they've seen very little of the first order outside of small operations that they've been squashing. they think "hm. starkiller's loss must have crippled them. we're doing well!"

- until they learn actually. they've got an emperor now. and the commander of the knights of ren is INCREDIBLY loyal to him. the first order is PISSED OFF and VENGEFUL. they're back with a force. they've started invading and subjugating planets even with their forces cut as thin as they are because hux is a military mastermind and kylo and the knights of ren are a fucking TERRIFYING unit in combat.

- also why did disney decide to present hux in the films as a weak pissbaby when he probably topped his class in all combat situations and fights dirty in close quarters. man can SNIPE. man will bite your fucking finger off if you manage to disarm him. he is a 6 foot beanpole and he will kick your ass

- kylo has a crisis about actually having to kill his mother, uncle and cousin. he still feels a bit bad about han - despite everything, he still loves them and is struggling. he actually confides in his knights about this. we get to see that the knights of ren have a found family dynamic with their commander and they comfort him.

- kylo realises it will be painful to murder the last of his bio family but it must be done, because he's come around to hux's view that the resistance and the republic are standing in the way of true peace in the galaxy. he actually believes that reinstating an empire is the best thing for the galaxy. this makes him a more effective villain because he actually believes what he's doing is right.

- more stormtroopers defect to the resistance. finn is there to welcome them and help them adjust. there's a couple of lowkey force sensitive troopers in there too. we learn more about how horrible, soul crushing and traumatic stormtrooper training is. this is a good way to keep painting the first order as an organisation that violates human rights and the geneva convention at every turn.

- the first order makes up for this loss of troops in picking up recruits from the planets they've taken over in the outer rim because they've been providing stability. again - it is SO EASY to write the first order as sympathetic villains WHO ARE STILL FASCIST ASSHOLES. this would've been such a good opportunity to show the moral argument between stability vs freedom. show the flaws in the republic because they do exist!! we see that throughout the ENTIRE expanded universe! every iteration of the republic fails in some way!

- the fight against the first order becomes increasingly more difficult, but they're actually on pretty even ground. it doesn't make sense to me that disney decided to go for the route of "the resistance should've been squished easily by the might of the first order but uwu kylo can't make up his mind and thats what saves them!" that is not a compelling storyline! they are relatively evenly matched and the resistance only JUST comes out on top!

- kylo kills luke in actual combat, not just "luke randomly dissolves for ... no good reason?". this hits the resistance HARD. rey and finn have to struggle with their desire for revenge. leia realises her son is beyond help. it nearly breaks her. she has a moment where she feels like she has lost everything. poe has to step in to remind her she still has him. it is revealed that he joined the resistance after the first order killed his family HORRIBLY when he was a teenager and he and leia sort of have a mother/son relationship.

- this is also a good way to juxtapose hux and kylo. they took their trauma and it made them awful. poe takes his trauma and it makes him kind. it makes him want to protect people from what he went through. also gets rid of the "haha we made the latino man have a drug dealer background" bullshit that disney did

- poe also has to comfort his boyfriend and best friend and remind them that they are fighting to make the galaxy a better place, NOT for revenge. then they have a discussion about "yeah, don't make revenge your main priority, but the jedi were a bit wrong in saying that you shouldn't enjoy it anyway. it's going to feel good to fucking murder kylo and that's okay". acknowledgement that the old jedi code was garbage and too restrictive for actual PEOPLE to follow it.

- kylo still can't kill leia or chewie. we get flashbacks of her singing to him, braiding his hair, comforting him after nightmares. we see baby ben riding on chewie's shoulders. seeing the conflict between kylo recognising his family loved him and still choosing to be a villain would have RUINED ME. he tells hux this, expecting hux to shoot him for it. hux understands - he had a mother, once. the republic killed her.

- (they actually didn't. she was an imperial slave and was probably left behind when an imperial settlement was being razed. the only reason hux actually survived was because he was his father's only heir. there's a whole spiel in the books about brendol going "this kid is a piece of shit bastard i dont want him" and imperial officials being like "the empire needs kids. go pick him up")

- hux decides to kill leia instead. he nearly dies doing so because woman is STILL a force to be reckoned with even at this age. remember she is actually trained to use a lightsaber AND guns. the only reason hux doesn't die? kylo steps in at the last minute and kills his own mother. he's made his choice. he mourns, and then he steels. there is nothing left to pull him to the light side anymore.

- anakin has given up trying to bring his grandson to the light from beyond the grave. him and obi wan are focusing their force ghost attention on rey and finn. now luke and leia are both there too. we get the same "all my jedi ancestors are rooting for me" moment that disney gave us, except now it's shared between rey and finn.

- the two of them plus chewie cut through the knights of ren until they get to kylo. he kicks the living shit out of them, but they manage to kill him. rey earns some gnarly, sexy scars. chewie needs a hug and goddamn does he get one.

- poe is the one to kill hux. he's not just doing it for the galaxy, he's doing it for leia. the first order already stole his first family from him. he won't lose his second family to them. bonus points if BB8 joins the fight and like ... tases hux in the leg a few times.

- we get some gratuitous "c3p0 and r2 are sneaking through an imperial base and fucking shit up but like, badly because 3p0 never stops talking" scenes

- you want to bring rose tico into it? she's head of the resistance's infiltration team. she's with the droids taking down shields, stabbing people in the back, freeing prisoners, stealing plans, sowing chaos. she's the one who finally takes down phasma.

- without their emperor and the knights of ren, the new empire crumbles pretty quickly. the resistance has taken HEAVY losses but they have won. we get a very beautiful funeral scene for luke and leia. there's a gorgeous group hug between finn, rey, poe, chewie and bb8. poe and finn smooch against the sunset.

- we see finn and rey going into crystal caves to get kyber crystals. poe, chewie, bb8, r2 and 3P0 wait outside the cave in the falcon for them to be done picking up their crystals, then we see finn and rey inside the falcon building their new lightsabers with guidance from a bunch of force ghosts. we get to see that rey has chosen to decorate the inside of the falcon with a bunch of potted plants so she can be surrounded by greenery at all time. the found family aesthetic is STRONG

- rey builds a saber pike. it comes out golden. finn builds a standard single blade saber that comes out white, like ahsoka's. gold to emphasise protection of the weak and the perfect blend of combat and scholarly pursuits. white to emphasise free will from both the jedi and the sith. it is emphasised that these two will NOT be your traditional jedi.

- we see an epilogue where poe is working to help shift the republic's focus from political squabbling to actually protecting its citizens. he leads reconstruction efforts, helps establish more of a presence in the outer rim, constantly fights for moving resources from protecting the republic's assests to providing food, shelter and safety to its citizens.

- finn is constantly by his side. we see him protecting his new husband, on the front lines destroying remnants of the empire and the first order, and using his combat prowess to absolutely murder slave owners.

- rey has taken to training new force sensitives with chewie by her side, however she recognises the jedi code has been failing force sensistives for millennia, and instead her teachings are more aligned with the grey jedi philosophy. she recognises that people feel anger, hate, grief - and that they are all valid emotions. it's what you choose to do with them that is important.

- she actively encourages personal connection, believing that loving your friends and family is righteous and the true path to the light side. her apprentices all adore her, and she is always there for them - she'll listen to their worries, from something as small as "i am 13 years old and my first crush just rejected me" to "i am a former slave coming to you after the first order murdered my family and tortured me. i am having nightmares and am afraid of the anger i feel".

- she encourages apprentices to stay in contact with their family, and she becomes that family for the ones who have lost theirs.

- you get the feeling that this time, peace in the galaxy is actually going to last. anakin, obi wan, luke and leia look on from the Force in pride at their children and grandchildren. they did good. they can finally rest.

- the sequels have made personal choice a major theme. finn chooses to defect. poe and rey choose to be kind, when they have every reason not to be. hux and kylo make the wrong choices. there's no flip flopping like a dead fish between good and evil until the very last second. the lines between kindness and freedom and hatred and subjugation are clearly drawn again and again.

- i sit in the cinema after the screen goes black and i weep. i am satisfied. this was a fitting end for a franchise i have loved for most of my life.

#star wars #star wars sequel trilogy #anti disney #they really fucked up one of my favourite things and i will never forgive them #star wars fix it #i was a literature nerd in school #can you tell? #stormpilot #finnpoe

[natsubeatsrock]

10 Things I Enjoyed in 2020 that Aren’t Fairy Tail

Well... it’s almost over? With all the crazy stuff that’s happened this year, it’s hard to remember that there were some good things to come from this year. So instead of 7, here’s 10 things I enjoyed throughout this year.

#10. Sonic the Hedgehog

Not unlike many people, this would be the last film that came out this year I would see in theaters before everything shut down earlier this year. While I have gone out to watch movies throughout this year since, this happens to be the only movie I’ve been looking forward to that came out this year. Since the release of Detective Pikachu last year, the fraught history of video game movies has started to look a lot better. For all intents and purposes, I think this film is better than that one, and I’m a much bigger fan of Pokemon than Sonic. If certain spoilers are a sign of anything, a future sequel will be interesting to see and greatly anticipated.

#9. Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia

One of the blessings-in-disguise of being locked down with extra money is the ability to get and enjoy things you haven’t gotten the opportunity to before. In my case, I was able to play through some of the Pokemon games I’ve been waiting to play through. My favorite of the bunch has been the second installment of the Pokemon Ranger series. The Ranger games have been greatly underrated and overlooked by fans. I was reintroduced to the original last Christmas and believe it to be a solid game, but this easily blows it out of the water. While this year also marked the sad end of the 3DS cycle, I’m glad that this game came my way.

#8. 42

With the unfortunate passing of its lead actor, Chadwick Boseman, and the racial tensions which came to a head after the death of George Floyd, it makes sense theaters would reopen with this movie. Jackie Robinson’s story is one that’s interested me as the talks of integration and racism have gone on this year. He became the first African American MLB player because of both his talent on the field and his character off it. He wasn’t just skilled in stealing bases. He didn’t allow the anger he rightly felt towards racism control him.

#7. Bakuman

The famed writer and artist duo behind Death Note teamed up to deliver another smash hit manga for Weekly Shonen Jump. This time, about... a writer and artist duo who team up to make a name for themselves by delivering a smash hit manga to Weekly Shonen Jump. As I read Bakuman, I was struck with the genius of its construction. It’s one thing to read the information about Shueisha and WSJ this series shares in a book. It’s another for that information to be shared within the confines that the series itself describes. Special shout-outs go to Ayakashi Triangle and Phantom Seer which started in WSJ this year.

#6. Power Girl: Power Trip

Oh? Were you perhaps expecting to see some other female character owned by Detective Comics Comics who graced the silver screen take this spot? Well, maybe next year, depending on how things go. I love my comic book heroes with healthy doses of snark and existential crisis. While I might have gone in expecting the former, I wasn’t expecting the latter as much. If you know about Power Girl, you may know about her famous “boob window“, which is in lieu of a real symbol. It turns out that she was originally thought to be Superman’s cousin, but has recently been proven to be otherwise. I’m not so against DC that I’m unwilling to admit when they make books that I like.

#5. Carole and Tuesday

Carole and Tuesday holds a special spot as becoming the latest 10/10 anime I’ve seen. This is easily one of the most diverse anime that I’ve ever seen. It’s not just a matter of showing people of different walks of life, ethnicities, and sexual orientations. It’s also showing artists different music styles from folk to jazz to rap to electronic to new age to operatic rap. And none of it feels forced or unnatural, though some of it might come off as offensive. If you’re on as big a planet as Mars, you’ll expect to see all kinds of people and hear all kinds of music as long as you’re willing to listen. Shinichiro Wantanabe is one of anime’s best directors and this might be his best work yet.

#4. Lupin III: The First

If you told me a few years ago that one of the best anime movies would be a fully CGI film, I would have looked at you like you were insane. Nevertheless, this movie exists. I was skeptical about the idea of a fully CGI movie for a character like this. But when I saw a clip from the movie, I could tell they knew what they were doing. This movie is by no means anywhere as good looking as Spiderverse, but it looks amazing in its own right. Content wise, this serves as a great heist film for anyone regardless of proximity to the series. Arsene Lupin III makes  It makes a fine introduction to the world of one of anime’s most longstanding series, and a good launching point for his earlier antics. Props to Weathering to You for keeping this slot warm. (Ironic considering things...)

#3. John Byrne’s run on Sensational She-Hulk

So I wasn’t going to say this talking about Power Trip, but I need to say this here. American comics are at a weird spot. In attempts to reach a wider audience, they’re not doing a great job of keeping the fans they have. Or make actually new ones. The current run of Savage She-Hulk has been no exception to this. Though it wasn’t always like this and John Byrne’s runs on Sensational She-Hulk is proof positive. Byrne took Jennifer Walters with more fun than I’ve seen any author write any comic book with. This especially shows in one of the more notable abilities of She-Hulk, breaking the fourth wall. I was very worried when I heard Marvel Studios was going to do a series with Shulkie. But with this as inspiration, maybe there’s hope for this project after all. (Please be good!)

#2. Burn the Witch

Tite Kubo is back, baby! This spot doesn’t go to any of the sets of chapters to be published in Shonen Jump. Rather, his collaboration with Studio Colorido is my choice for anime of the year. Burn the Witch tells the story of a different Soul Society than Bleach fans may be familiar with. It’s almost cheating to compare this mid-length film to the other shows to come out this year, even if it was broken up into three episodes for streaming sites. However, film or otherwise, no other anime grabbed my attention as much as this did. This also marks the best anime from WSJ I’ve seen this year. Surely I’m not forgetting anything big to come out recently in saying this, especially from this year with everything that got delayed. Honorable mentions go to TONIKAWA: Under the Moon, Bofuri, BNA, Keep Your Hands off Eizouken!, and Misfit of Demon King Academy for nearly taking my spot.

#1. Skullgirls

This year has been a tough year for a lot of people, companies, and fandoms. Though, I’d be hard pressed to think of a fandom that has had a worse year than this indie fighter. One of its founders was revealed to be terrible, one of its parent companies went under, and a prime opportunity for the spotlight in EVO Online being cancelled, it wouldn’t be a mistake to say things aren’t going well. Thankfully, the fans and dev team have done everything they can to keep this game alive before and that didn’t stop this year. It feels somewhat on-brand for this series to have survived the kinds of situations that would normally kill a game off. This game would have made the top spot by virtue of being the most fun game I played this year. I’m proud to put it at this spot knowing everything that’s surrounded it this year.

For extra honorable mentions, Pokemon’s seventh generation of games, especially the Ultra versions, were fun to finally experience and they have the best stories of the 3DS era of Pokemon. Cobra Kai was a fun series and almost definitely would be here if I were more emotionally attached to the Karate Kid series. I rewatched Neon Genesis Evangelion and it’s better than I remembered originally. Finally, I’d move heaven and earth to add Oregairu or Hilda on this list, considering new seasons came out this year, but I know better.

As usual, check my list for EZ, which also has 10 things, and be glad we’re almost done with this year. See you!