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grigori77 · 5 months

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2023 in Movies, My Top 30 Fave Movies (Part 3)

10. NIMONA – we almost didn’t get 2023’s most socially important animated feature. When Disney acquired Twentieth Century Fox and everything went tits up for its various affiliates, animation house Blue Sky Studios bit the dust just as this long-awaited adaptation of influential She-Ra & the Princesses of Power showrunner ND Stevenson’s beloved fantastical graphic novel from Spies In Disguise directors Nick Bruno and Troy Quaine was nearing completion, and it looked like it might never see the light of day … at least until Annapurna Pictures and Netflix swooped in to the rescue, snapping it up, funding its completion and getting it out on streaming to the delight of all of us who’d thought it was essentially LOST. The end result is just about THE VERY BEST movie I’ve ever seen about the struggles of being non-binary and not conforming to any set gender norms in modern society, viewed through the fantasy prism of a shapeshifting “teenager” who effortlessly steals their own film. Chloe Grace Moretz is perfectly cast as the voice of the titular misfit anarchist troublemaker supernatural being, who finds an opportunity for some fresh chaos by joining forces with Ballister Boldheart (Riz Ahmed), a newly-knighted commoner who becomes public enemy number one after being viciously framed for the murder of the queen of a futuristic medieval society (really!) built around chivalry and the righteous smiting of monsters. Ballister’s determined to prove his innocence, while Nimona just wants to create havoc, while they’re both being hunted by his former fellow knights, led by his ex-boyfriend Ambrosius Goldenloin (Eugene Lee Yang of The Try Guys), a direct descendent of the Kingdom’s legendary original monster slaying heroine Gloreth. It’s a gloriously original piece of work, the animation presented in a truly GORGEOUS brightly coloured 2-dimensional 3D graphic style that at once riffs on the ingenious visual inventiveness of the Spider-Verse movies while also creating something COMPLETELY NEW but simultaneously lovably reminiscent of the classic Blue Sky cartoony look, while the frequently chaotic action is just as infectiously anarchic as the lead character herself. It’s also fiendishly brilliant in its subversive message and twisty logic, making the viewer question what being a monster REALLY means, and if what we SEE someone as REALLY IS their true identity. Needless to say, Moretz runs away with the whole film, while the character of Nimona herself is a truly ENCHANTING and thoroughly inspiring creation who’s destined to become an iconic hero for non-binary and trans kids around the world, but Ahmed and Yang are clearly having a great time here too, as is Frances Conroy as the Director of the Kingdom’s knights, having a blast bringing icy menace to her deliciously duplicitous villainous turn. It’s an incredibly FUN movie, shot through with a rich and rewardingly infectious sense of humour, taking classic fantasy tropes and turning them on their head in new and wonderfully inventive ways, but it knows JUST when to get serious too, and there are some powerful moments when it grabs hold of your heart and DESTROYS YOU emotionally, especially in the incredibly evocative climax. Ultimately this ISN’T an overly faithful adaptation of Stevenson’s original graphic novel – he was in a darker place when he wrote and drew it, going through his own complicated struggle with his gender identity before finally making his personal transition in 2022 – but it certainly is rewardingly true to the book’s spirit and deep-down message of inclusion, positivity and being true to your core identity, which makes it one of the most important animated films to be made in a very long time. I’m so happy it’s received the TRULY MASSIVE amount of attention and LOVE it’s garnered since its release, and I thank Netflix and everybody else who made the effort to get this movie out after all when Disney seemed so reluctant to take a chance on it. This deserves to be seen, it NEEDS to be seen, and I urge you to check it out.

9. RENFIELD – my horror movie of 2023 sits very comfortably in the genre’s sub-category that I’ve always loved best, a jet black comedy of particularly rare quality and gleeful abandon that made it one of the most entertaining viewing experiences I had this past year. Yeah, like the best horror comedies it has enough genuine darkness that it CAN be genuinely scary when it wants to be, but given the sheer (literal) batshit craziness of its premise this is a BONKERS FILM, and so it wisely embraces its sheer lampoonery to full effect without reservation. Not that it’s overly surprising – director Chris McKay cut his teeth helming The Lego Batman Movie before branching out into live action with Amazon’s criminally underrated time travelling alien invasion blockbuster The Tomorrow War, both of which were excellent vehicles for him to master the gloriously anarchic style that he finally unleashes fully formed for this brilliant alternative sequel to the classic Universal Dracula movie with Bela Lugosi. That being said, the big box office draw here was always going to be Nicolas Cage, who pays loving tribute to Lugosi as the infamous Count, kicking into his typical “manic” setting to chew the scenery with ruthless abandon and, as a result, frequently steal the show right out from under Nicholas Hoult as his titular ghoul manservant, the long-suffering Robert Montague Renfield, who just wants the opportunity to finally find a real, simple life for himself and thinks he can pull it off in modern day New Orleans, only for his Master to himself become inspired by Renfield’s newfound ambition and set his sights on world domination with the help of the Lobos, a brutal local crime family. Thankfully Hoult DOES manage to hold his own in his scenes with Cage, as always proving ADEPTLY talented enough to deliver another winningly endearing performance while playing perhaps the single most pathetic specimen of his career to date … meanwhile the thoroughly adorable Awkwafina once again proves she’s well on the way to becoming the PREMIER kooky goofball female comedic lead in Hollywood as Rebecca Quincy, the one truly honest cop in one of the most corrupt police forces in all of America, who winds up falling for Renfield’s hangdog charm and puppy-dog eyes as he inadvertently becomes the key to her quest to bring down the Lobos after they murdered her legendary detective father. Shohreh Aghdashloo brings a much needed touch of class to proceedings as Bellafrancesca Lobo, the family’s seductively sly matriarch, while Space Force and Sonic the Hedgehog’s Ben Schwarz is a frequent non-PC laugh riot all on his own as her entitled constant disappointment of a son Teddy, and Ghosts’ Brandon Scott Jones is lovably flaky as the leader of Renfield’s endearingly pathetic support group for people trapped in toxic co-dependent relationships. This genuinely is a DEEPLY FUNNY FILM, perfectly geared up for a maximum hit count with the one-liners, in-jokes and situations, but then there’s no surprise here since writer Ryan Ridley (adapting a pitch from The Walking Dead’s original creator Robert Kirkman) is a seasoned veteran of TV comedy, particularly well known as an alumnus of the similarly edgy and madcap Rick & Morty, and this carries a lot of the same twisted, anarchic charm as that rightly beloved series, just in a much more big budget live action form. It’s also SPECTACULARLY bloodthirsty when it wants to be, the welcome reliance on what are clearly LARGELY physical effects meaning that this movie is another gore-hound’s wet dream, even if the film does mostly play the horror elements for laughs throughout, and it’s an impressively inventive and chaotic beast in THAT regard too, delivering some of the most gloriously OTT splatter-fuelled action sequences I’ve seen in a good while whenever Renfield eats a bug and gets an ultraviolent power boost. Altogether this is definitely some of the most fun I had at the cinema this past year, and I’ll admit I wouldn’t mind a bit more of this if they DID fancy trying the sequel road after all …

8. LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND – Mr Robot was one of THE all-time great TV revelations of the 2010s, creator/showrunner Sam Esmail becoming a genuinely challenging counter-culture voice responsible for hard-hitting, thought-provoking material which really shook up the status quo. Shocking, then, that his only real notable foray onto the BIG screen was with the offbeat but ultimately overlooked romantic comedy fantasy Comet, but that balance has FINALLY been redressed almost a decade later with this powerhouse leftfield tour-de-force dystopian apocalyptic thriller from Netflix. Adapting the already hard-hitting, critically acclaimed novel by Rumaan Alam, Esmail wastes no time in weaving a spell of subtly inexplicable unease as we follow a family of well-to-do New Yorkers who take the opportunity to get out of the city for a break on the coast after renting someone else’s house for a long weekend, only for the owners to suddenly return in the night with tales of a blackout and more bafflingly worrying events unfolding in the outside world, hoping they can stay too until they know more. Feelings of distrust and paranoia immediately settle in and refuse to leave even as the two families warily get to know one another, but then things are getting WEIRD – the internet and TV are DOWN, drones are dropping indecipherable foreign propaganda from the skies and there are sudden bursts of head-splitting noise coming from SOMEWHERE … all too slowly it becomes clear that something truly terrible is happening, and that there’s more than just rumoured cyber-attacks at work here. This really is CHILD’S PLAY for Esmail, who’s clearly having a wild old time crafting a twisting, unnervingly unsettling suspense thriller which sticks the knife in and keeps on twisting as things get more worryingly desperate, all while casting a deeply critical eye on the state of modern society, capitalism, pop culture and pervading racial and social divides. Julia Roberts and Ethan Hawke are both typically EXCELLENT as Amanda and Clay Sandford, the white liberal upper class couple who find their deep-seated preconceptions forming their perceptions as they’re forced to deal with the as always truly MAGNIFICENT Mahershala Ali’s cultured stockbroker G.H. Scott and his brash, opinionated daughter Ruth (Industry and Bodies Bodies Bodies’ Myha’la), while there’s a brief but unsurprisingly POTENT turn from Kevin Bacon as Danny, the exact kind of paranoid, doomsday prepping redneck who’s probably gonna survive this coming apocalypse JUST FINE. There’s SO MUCH to unpack and explore in this film, it’s definitely one of those film’s that rewards repeat viewing with neat little twists, fascinatingly subtle hints and clues which lead to insidiously profound payoffs and more sneaky little easter eggs than you could EVER spot on a single viewing, leading to a truly HORRIFYING existential climax which will lead to many a sleepless night given the way this world seems to be heading. Speculative science fiction or worryingly potent prophecy? Only time will tell, I guess …

7. SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE – the animated feature that completely CHANGED THE GAME at the end of the last DECADE getting a sequel was pretty much a no-brainer, but it didn’t make the wait any easier, and after COVID put a dent in so many of the big releases coming forward this was definitely one of the most painful delays for me. Finally getting to see it was, therefore, ONE HELL of a cathartic release of tension, so much that even later discovering that not everything was exactly GOOD in the production studios at the time (namely the animators being crunched LIKE CRAZY by the ever-shifting nature of the vision they were being asked to realise, leading to a toxic working environment for many, which is NEVER cool) still didn’t dent my truly AWED appreciation for the finished film. Seriously, this is THE BEST animated feature we saw this past year, and ALREADY a strong candidate for best animated feature of THIS DECADE (although that’s likely to change if the incoming sequel turns out to be as good, if not BETTER, which it probability WILL). Honestly, I could end the review right here just with that recommendation, it’s GENUINELY THAT GOOD, people. But I still got a job to do here, so … once again, Miles Morales (Dope’s Shameik Moore), the new Spider-Man in his world, is at the centre of a whirlwind of narrative chaos as a new arch-nemesis he never knew he had emerges to hold him to account for what he did when he destroyed the Kingpin’s interdimensionally destructive supercollider in the first film – the Spot (Jason Schwartzman), a former scientist at Alchemax who got turned into a walking mass of unstable wormholes when he got hit with the full brunt of all that quantum energy. As he embarks on his quest to take his misguided revenge on Miles, his interdimensional spree of carnage leads our Spider-Man to become connected with a Multiverse-spanning cadre of Spider-People, led by the spectacularly stern Spider-Man of Earth 2099, Miguel O’Hara (Oscar Isaac), who police the various Earths in order to combat and remove “anomalies” that arise to threaten them … and

the Spot is a BIG ONE of those. Oh, and Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld), the Spider-Woman Miles most definitely fell for in the first film, has started working with them too after her own father, police Captain George Stacy (Shea Wigham), who’s had it in for their Spider-Woman after she was mistakenly framed for the death of their Earth’s Peter Parker, discovered her secret identity and made her run from her own dimension as a result …yeah, it sounds pretty complicated, but this whole twisted labyrinth is, nonetheless, unveiled in the exact same super-slick, viewer-friendly way the first film pulled off its own exposition, which just makes more room for all the FUN as we get to follow our old favourites and a whole host of fascinating NEW incarnations of our favourite arachnid-themed superhero on their various insane adventures. This is JUST AS SPECTACULAR in terms of action, character work, pure invention and sheer, unrivalled SPECTACLE as its predecessor, in many places upping the wow factor SIGNIFICANTLY (particularly during a particularly colourful visit to the distinctly Indian-flavoured alternative version of New York called Mumbattan, which is the stomping ground of one of the film’s most memorable new Spider-folk, the irrepressibly chipper Pavitr Prabhakar, voiced by Deadpool’s thoroughly brilliant Karan Soni). Indeed, the most fun we have throughout this movie is definitely getting to hang out not only with our old friends but all these newcomers too, with Pavitr being joined by the fascinating likes of the very coolest Spider-Woman after Gwen, Jess Drew (Awkward Black Girl’s Issa Rae), digital avatar Margo Kess/Spider-Byte (The Hunger Games’ Amandla Stenberg), overly-angsty living Todd McFarlane comic panel Ben Reily/Scarlet Spider (the incomparable Andy Samberg) and even Mayday Parker, the impossibly adorable new baby daughter of Jake Johnson’s welcome returning fan-favourite OG Peter Parker (and, of course, Miles’ original mentor from the first movie), who’s ALREADY got her spider-powers, while Miguel is a FANTASTIC character, brooding like a champ and sometimes proving to be as much of an EXTREMELY EFFECTIVE villain in the story as the Spot, especially once his beef

with Miles is revealed … but at the end of the day, ALL of these new arrivals thoroughly PALE in comparison to one of this film’s BEST secret weapons, Hobie Brown/Spider Punk (Daniel Kaluuya getting to use his normal accent for once), a misfit non-conformist anarchist JOY with one hell of a problem with authority (Miguel’s IN PARTICULAR) who effortlessly steals our hearts just as much as EVERY SINGLE SCENE he’s in. That being said, it really is SO GREAT having our old crew back – Miles and Gwen are SO SWEET, their chemistry is just OFF THE BLOODY CHARTS without them even trying, and I adore every single scene of them together, never mind their own individual storylines (it’s PARTICULARLY great getting to see Gwen herself get a SIGNIFICANTLY enlarged narrative presence this time round, becoming JUST as important in this story as Miles himself), while any time we get to spend with Johnson’s Peter is pure gold, and we get to spend even more time with Miles’ wonderful, loving, hard-working parents Jeff and Rio Morales (Brian Tyree Henry and Lauren Velez), which is ALWAYS a plus. Needless to say, this is a whole LOAD of fun, shot through with the same classic winning humour, wild invention, visionary experimentation, thematic resonance and pure geeky in-joke easter egg-packing FAN SERVICE that made the first film such a winner, but it also comes through BIG TIME with more of those wicked FEELS, this time ramping things up FAR MORE with the serious emotional HEFT as we’re presented with some truly DEVASTATING character arcs whose after effects are gonna be felt for A VERY LONG TIME after. The fact that this is just the first half of a two-part SAGA, with Beyond the Spider-Verse currently in the works, means that we can look forward to PLENTY MORE, although here’s hoping that this time they give their animators a little more BREATHING ROOM to get it done right WITHOUT having to break their backs in the process, yeah? Then again, with the writers’ AND actors’ strike barely over, the likelihood of THAT is pretty strong …

6. OPPENHEIMER – really, is there ANY SURPRISE over this placing so high? You know what a MASSIVE Christopher Nolan fan I am, and him making a proper EPIC historical biopic examining the career and achievements of the father of nuclear power was GUARANTEED to not only grab my attention but also thoroughly please the serious high-brow cinema appreciator buried inside me over all that action junkie, superhero fanboy and sci-fi-nut stuff … but yeah, this was ALWAYS gonna be a fucking amazing film, wasn’t it? Nolan’s most regular acting collaborator (outside of Michael Caine, anyway), Cillian Murphy, stars as J. Robert Oppenheimer, the theoretical physicist who spearheaded the Manhattan Project which led to the creation of the very first viable nuclear weapons which were then used by the American military to destroy the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and end the Second World War. On the surface he seems like a driven, visionary man with a real fascination for the science he’s pioneering, but also a cool pragmatism which makes him the ideal man to usher in this astounding technological achievement, but as the film unfolds in Nolan’s typical non-linear narrative fashion we discover a far more complex man than we first supposed, Murphy unveiling Oppenheimer’s deep-seeded fears about the frighteningly real dangers his Project could give birth to. After all, he may have been the father of the Modern World, but this particular creation also gave rise to a century of technological horrors and a whole new, long lasting Cold War. Anyway, this is UNDENIABLY the greatest performance of Murphy’s career, if he doesn’t at least get an Oscar nod for this there’s no justice in the world, while, in typical Nolan fashion, the rest of the rich ensemble cast is a genuine embarrassment of riches, from Emily Blunt as Oppenheimer’s long-suffering wife Kitty and Florence Pugh as his ill-fated Communist mistress Jean Tatlock to Matt Damon as his nominal “boss”, Gen. Leslie Groves, Kenneth Brannagh as his mentor and idol Niels Bohr, the mighty Tom Conti as the even MORE awesome Albert Einstein and even Robert Downey Jr. in a particularly KEY role as Oppenheimer’s one-time colleague and later rival, Atomic Energy commissioner Lewis Strauss, who dominates the parallel narrative throughline presented over the course of the film as his own efforts to discredit and destroy the great man ultimately end up coming back to bite his own political ambitions. To a man, they’re all as MAGNIFICENT as the rest of the film, which is a fascinating journey into the dark heart of one of the greatest but also most historically and socially destructive scientific achievements in the history of the world, the man who ushered it in, and the hell he then went through afterwards when he then tried to make sure we didn’t make it SO MUCH WORSE once we had the power to destroy ourselves. It’s a film that raises extremely tough questions, and what answers we ARE able to come to are every bit as terrifying as any of the consequences that are either seen or merely suggested here. Nolan is, as always, A MASTER in the director’s chair as much as in the screenwriter’s corner, bringing his usual visionary flair and artistic brilliance to craft yet more of his trademark IMAX-rocking BEAUTY and opulence, while his sneaky, snaky narrative shenanigans once again frame things in ingenious, challenging and sometimes emotionally DEVASTATING ways before we’re brought to the bittersweet denouement. Tenet composer Ludwig Goransson’s expansive, evocative score is, ultimately, just the icing on the cake, making an already amazing film even more noteworthy. If this ain’t the toast of the Awards Season they really didn’t pay attention …

5. THE CREATOR – if ever there could be a film that would decry the state of the modern blockbuster blueprint, it’s this one. Seriously, that fact that something THIS fresh and original could flop in a market so saturated with cookie-cutter franchises and exhausted expanded-universe IPs just says it all, doesn’t it? Writer-director Gareth Edwards (along with screenwriter Chris Weitz, who previously worked with him on Rogue One) has had a look at our encroaching terror at the pervading rise of AI, taken a step back and looked at what COULD potentially happen if we actually end up OVERREACTING and blaming it for something which is actually entirely our fault … cue a troubling delve into a dystopian future where, after the accidental nuking of Los Angeles due to defence-Ai programming human error, the West has uniformly turned again artificial intelligence and set about waging an uncompromising war against it and the sentient androids it’s spawned. These survivors have fled to the more sympathetic nations of New Asia, but the oppressive machinations of the Western coalition and their obsessive hunt for the AI’s creator, Nimata, have given birth to a terrifying weapon, the deadly orbital weapons platform NOMAD. John David Washington is Joshua Taylor, a US Army sergeant who lost an arm and a leg in the LA blast, and then what innocence he had left in a subsequent ill-fated infiltration mission in New Asia, who’s drawn back into the fight by his former commanders when evidence emerges that his supposedly dead wife, Maya (an enjoyably complex turn from Gemma Chan), the daughter of Nimata he met and fell in love with on that mission, is still alive and in possession of a devastating weapon which they need to get hold of before it can be used to destroy the West. Going in with a special forces team, Joshua discovers that this so-called weapon is actually Alphie, an android child (newcomer Madeleine Yuna) with the power to control electronic devices, and he finds that the truth is nothing like what was led to believe … Edwards and Weitz have created a spellbinding science-fiction MASTERPIECE here, a breathlessly thrilling and expansively EPIC science fiction war saga which takes some challenging and thought-provoking ideas and heavy themes and takes a very interesting direction in their interpretation while posing profound questions about the nature of humanity, morality and love, all while delivering a truly intoxicating masterclass in peerless world-building, brought to astonishing living, breathing reality through some of the most seamlessly engineered visual effects I have EVER seen in a feature film (then again, Edwards DID start out as a visual effects artist, so he knows the game INSIDE AND OUT). Washington is an unusually complex, multi-layered hero as Joshua, fallible and driven by selfish desires but ultimately finding something much bigger than himself to believe in, while Yuna is a revelation, a sweet and inspiring little light in the darkness, while mighty support from the likes of Alison Janney, Ken Watanabe, Marc Manchaca (Ozark, The Outsider, No One Gets Out Alive) and Ralph Ineson rounds things out nicely. Powerful, inventive, affecting and endlessly thought-provoking, this deserves to be remembered not only as one of the most rewardingly original and genuinely brilliant movies of 2023, but of the entire decade, and I think it’s a genuine crime it wasn’t a massive hit like it deserved to be. Audiences really did SLEEP on this one …

4. MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – DEAD RECKONING, PART ONE – really, there should be NO SURPRISE that this topped off my list for the summer. I may have grown up with James Bond, and I LOVE the Jason Bourne movies too, but the Tom Cruise-starring cinematic adaptation of the classic TV spy show has been MY ABSOLUTELY FAVOURITE espionage-based film franchise since JJ Abrams established the tried-and-tested formula for the series with 2006’s seminal classic third entry. That being said, the franchise didn’t find its strongest voice until Cruise brought Jack Reacher writer-director Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects, The Way of the Gun) on board for the dynamite fifth instalment, Rogue Nation, which was so fucking brilliant and well received by both critics AND audiences that Paramount saw fit to retain his services on the EVEN BETTER follow-up, Fallout, which came DAMN CLOSE to equalling the heights of Sam Mendes’ Bond masterpiece Skyfall … so of course it was a NO-BRAINER for him to return once again for this two-part intended send-off for Cruise’s seemingly immortal superspy, Ethan Hunt, as he not only faces his deadliest foes to date, but also a very dark ghost from his own past. As with its predecessor, this is another spy flick where knowing as little as possible going in works best for your enjoyment, suffice to say that this time Ethan and his loyal friends, master hacker Luther Stickel (the legendary Ving Rhames), tech wizard Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) and former MI6 spook Ilsa Faust (Dune’s Rebecca Ferguson), really have their work cut out for them when they’re forced to go rogue yet again in order to track down and deactivate a supermassive AI program known as the Entity which has become fully self-aware, broken free of its constraints and is now wreaking havoc throughout the internet and beyond.

Unfortunately this seemingly unstoppable digital force has enlisted the aid of a particularly dangerous “avatar” to represent its concerns in the real world, a mysterious terrorist known as Gabriel (Ozark’s Esai Morales) who seems to be following a dark agenda of his own. The ensuing race against time takes in a grand tour of impressively picturesque locales, a collection of winningly well-written characters and a series of knuckle-whitening, visually arresting action sequences that have long since proven to be McQuarrie’s bread-and-butter just as much as his ingeniously twisty labyrinthine plots and sparky, sharp-witted quickfire dialogue, again showing that he really is THE VERY BEST filmmaker that Paramount could EVER have found for this franchise. Needless to say, Cruise is as spectacular as ever in what really has become the very best role he’s EVER HAD, by this point basically just INHABITING Ethan’s easy charm, admirably solid, unswerving moral principles and truly INCREDIBLE physical prowess, delivering equally well in the truly insane stunt-work which WE KNOW FULL WELL IS ALL HIM as he does in the acting stakes; meanwhile Rhames, Pegg and Ferguson once again shine bright in their now comfortably well-established roles while still managing to bring fresh depths and interesting new arcs to their well-worn characters, we get a lot more of The Crown’s Vanessa Kirby’s intriguing notorious second-generation arms dealer Alanna Mitsopoulis/the White Widow, and it’s an IMMENSE pleasure to finally welcome back the first film’s prickly yet verbose antagonist Eugene Kitteridge (Henry Czerny), Ethan and Luther’s former boss in the IMF, in a far much expansive role this time round. Meanwhile the franchise newcomers all impress as well, Morales easily proving to be the series’ VERY BEST VILLAIN to date as he menaces, seduces and murders his way through the story, brutally tearing our heroes’ lives apart as he pursues his mysterious master’s nefarious ends, while we get a brand new series heroine in the form of Grace (the MCU’s own Peggy Carter, Hayley Atwell), a sly and duplicitous professional thief who essentially stumbles into the thick of the action before becoming Ethan’s EXTREMELY unwilling accomplice; meanwhile there’s strong support from Shea Wigham and Greg Tarzan Davis (who previously worked with Cruise on Top Gun: Maverick) as Briggs and Degas, a pair of US Intelligence agents sent to chase down the rogue IMF crew, and Cary Elwes as Denlinger, a particularly duplicitous US Director of National Intelligence. And then there’s Paris … ah Paris, my sweet, psychotic demon child. Guardians of the Galaxy’s Pom Klementieff actually gets to be FRENCH again as Gabriel’s unpredictably lethal pet killer, and she’s an absolute JOY throughout, so delightfully unhinged that she makes every second of her screentime an undeniable pleasure, and as a result she’s BY FAR my favourite character in this. Altogether, this is about as perfect as spy cinema gets, McQuarrie and his cast and crew working tirelessly to deliver not only the very best film in the series to date, but also the best film I saw all summer, very nearly my action cinema highlight of the whole year, and one of the VERY BEST spy movies I have EVER SEEN. Given the shake-up from the Strikes it’s not clear if we’re REALLY gonna get to see Dead Reckoning Part Two in May 2025 like it’s been slated since getting pushed back from its summer ’24 release,but whenever it DOES finally arrive, I KNOW it’ll be worth the wait … it just has to be bloody INCREDIBLE to be better than THIS ONE …

3. JOHN WICK CHAPTER 4 – and so, it has come to this … honestly, who’d have thunk it, back in 2014 when the first movie came out and (rightly) became a surprise sleeper hit that went a long way to revitalising Keanu Reeves’ career for a SECOND TIME as he found THE GREATEST ROLE HE’S EVER HAD, that almost a decade later it would’ve blown up into something THIS BIG?!!! I mean sure, back then it definitely was The Little Movie That Could, but still … well, after two increasingly BIG sequels which each maintained a surprisingly impressive level of quality throughout, the fourth and final John Wick chapter is finally here, and GODS is it good. I mean it’s FUCKING BRILLIANT. It just might be THE BEST ONE YET. Certainly it’s proving to be the most well received, landing BY FAR the best rating on Rotten Tomatoes and it genuinely seems like almost nobody has ANYTHING bad to say about this movie, even the CRITICS largely seem to LIKE this one. And it deserves every lick of love it’s been getting, this is definitely both the pinnacle of the series AND a perfect swansong for the greatest assassin in cinema history. I don’t wanna give too much away about the plot, even those who HAVE seen what’s come before shouldn’t be spoiled, even if these movies have never exactly been SHAKESPEARE in their construction they do still frequently leave you guessing in the best ways as to how they’ll turn out, and this one is definitely no exception. I’ll just say that, after all the killing John’s done to get to this point, his one-man-war with the international criminal network’s High Table has finally reached its zenith as Winston (the great Ian McShane), the Manager of the newly-demolished Manhattan Continental Hotel, gives him the means to finally find a way to get out and find peace while he’s still alive – namely by challenging the Marquis Vincent de Gramont (Bill Skarsgard), a high-ranking Table member who’s taken it upon himself to rid the criminal underworld of the “cancer” that John and his constant disrespect have wrought, to single combat in a ritualistic duel in order to take his place at The Table should he win. The

subsequent battle that ensues as John sets about facilitating this duel and the fallout that follows as he fights his way to that final, fateful meeting fuels the film in HIGH STYLE, so that even though this movie’s almost THREE HOURS LONG it never feels overlong or outstays its welcome. Once again the cast are all ON FIRE, Reeves once again proving that he is just about THE BEST LOOKING and most interesting action star working in Hollywood today when he’s mowing down endless bad guys with a stoic expression and the odd deadpan response, the role once again VERY MUCH playing to his strengths, while McShane and Laurence Fishburne (returning once again as the dethroned Bowery King) are both on fine form throughout, and it’s both a pleasure and privilege but also a genuine heartbreaking SHAME to watch the late Lance Reddick deliver one of his very last performances as Charon, the noble and quietly charismatic Concierge of the Manhattan Continental (at least he also shot one more turn as the character for the upcoming Ana de Armas-starring spinoff feature Ballerina, so it’s not QUITE the end); meanwhile the newcomers all serve admirably as well, with Skarsgard particularly impressing as one of the franchise’s best villains to date, slimy, entitled and exquisitely arrogant, the kind of Big Bad you just LOVE to hate, Wynnona Earp’s Shamier Anderson is a delightful revelation as Mr Nobody, a precocious up-and-coming hitman talent who certainly has a whole lot of potential for a possible future spinoff franchise of his own within this larger universe, Donnie Yen excels as usual as Cain, a former friend of John’s that the Marquis brings out of forced retirement in order to take the unkillable Baba Yaga out (clearly the filmmakers saw his blind badass take in Rogue One and they were like yeah, let’s have a whole lot more of THAT), Hiroyuki Sanada once more delivers effortless class and cool gravitas as Koji, the honourable and principled Manager of the Osaka Continental, and Scott Adkins is viciously impressive but also thoroughly surprising in an almost unrecognisable prosthetic getup as Killa Harkan, the brutish Head of the High Table in Berlin. In the end, though, we’re once again here primarily to MARVEL at all the action exploits on display while wallowing in some of the richest and most well-crafted world-building there’s EVER BEEN on the big screen – this is a thoroughly fascinating universe, realised with

exquisite precision with so many cool little winks and nods and in-jokes to make the geeks among us grin and chuckle with sheer joy over the immense bounty on display, while veteran stuntman-turned-director Chad Stahelski once again wrangles some of the VERY BEST cinematic action EVER COMMITTED TO FILM in a series of astonishing and punishing set-pieces bravely executed with nary a visual effect in sight. There are almost TOO MANY cool action beats in this movie to count, although the final BIG sequence, in which John fights his way up the spectacular but infamously punishing Stairs of Montmartre in Paris against an endless onslaught of thugs all determined to not let him reach the top, which includes one of the BIGGEST belly laughs I have EVER HAD at the cinema in my life, as much just over the joke’s sheer, ingenious AUDACITY, has to be the film’s undeniable highlight (closely followed by a genuinely INSANE run/gun/drive chase/shootout/fight sequence through the sheer chaos of the traffic around the Arc de Triomphe – every single one of these sequences is thrilling, they’re adrenaline fuelled and each crafted with such precision but also brilliantly varied inventiveness that it NEVER leads to vicarious battle fatigue. Best of all, though, as with the previous film’s there’s a surprising amount of soul and heart and heft to the film too, which ultimately leads to a climax which is both immensely satisfying but also pretty devastating in its emotional power. Altogether then, this was EASILY my action movie of the year, a fitting climax to an franchise which has come to SET THE BENCHMARK for this entire genre, and, honestly, just a damn fine movie in its own right.

2. NO ONE WILL SAVE YOU – the scariest movie I saw in 2023 is a very strange beast indeed, a genuinely original and very leftfield piece of work despite tackling one of the most classic movie plot tropes out there – the alien invasion of a small American town. What makes this such a noteworthy piece of work is that this film plays almost ENTIRELY without dialogue … SERIOUSLY, throughout the entire film’s run there’s only a SINGLE line of actual spoken dialogue delivered by its lead, the rest of the film relies entirely on sound effects and Joseph Trapanese’s atmospheric score alongside visual storytelling cues to gets its narrative across. It’s an incredibly brave prospect and one which I’ll admit I wasn’t even EXPECTING when I first sat down to watch Hulu’s most blindingly successful offering of the past year, it kind of snuck up on me realising that nobody was actually SAYING anything, but I still knew EXACTLY what was happening. This is because there’s ONE HELL of a writer-director at the helm of this project – I’ve been a big fan of Brian Duffield for a while now, having really loved his screenplay work in The Babysitter, Underwater and Love & Monsters, so when he dropped his actual FEATURE DIRECTING DEBUT in the middle of the Pandemic with 2020’s ingenious jet black teen comedy horror Spontaneous I was already onboard and in the aftermath simply COULD NOT WAIT to see what he’d do once he got his hands on a budget decent enough to actually deliver the kind of films he’d already been WRITING. But even so, this one STILL left me shocked by just HOW FUCKING AMAZING it actually is, seriously, this is almost certainly THE MOST IMPRESSIVE movie I’ve seen in the past year, and DEFINITELY its most important from a filmmaking standpoint. The story itself revolves almost EXCLUSIVELY around a slightly odd young woman named Brynn (Booksmart and Dopesick’s Kaitlyn Dever) living a seemingly idyllic but ultimately lonely life in her isolated home on the outskirts of a small town which seems to have universally shunned her for some initially unknown past crime … which means that she knows full well that there will, indeed, be NO ONE coming to her rescue when, one night, an alien walks into her home and starts tearing the place up using devastating telekinetic powers. She

manages to escape after accidentally killing the creature, but this simply makes things worse as, when morning comes, she discovers that the whole town is in the middle of a subtle but TERRIFYING alien invasion and that they seem to have marked her as a particular threat. From this beautifully simple starting point, Duffield has crafted a simply PERFECT scary movie, exquisitely paced and relentlessly driven as we hit the ground running the moment night falls after that initial time taken to establish Brynn’s place in the story, and he never lets off the brakes again until we reach the end. This is a genuinely TERRIFYING piece of sci-fi horror, with the varied creatures in particular presented in impressively near flawless standards of CGI which really should be used as a major benchmark moving forward with the artform, while the frequent and substantial knuckle-whitening set-pieces are executed with a precision that verges on the simply RUTHLESS throughout. It all plays out with a surprising denouement which feels cathartically PERFECT for everything that came before once you think about it a little, and the whole endeavour is aided ENORMOUSLY by the MASSIVE contribution of the film’s star herself – this is essentially a one woman show, and Dever easily proves the equal of the task, delivering an immensely potent performance that makes the striking lack of dialogue an ultimate significant VIRTUE since she’s able to convey SO MUCH with just a look, no matter the scene, so you find yourself latching onto her in the first ten minutes, meaning that when it goes from bad to worse to truly NIGHTMARISH you’re thoroughly invested in her desperate fight for survival. This really is a star-making role, and I don’t doubt she’s due for a MAJOR raise in her profile moving forward … altogether this is a genuine MASTERPIECE, easily one of the undeniable HIGHLIGHTS of the past cinematic year and a great sign of things to come, one would hope, should the rest of Hollywood take notice. Only time will tell … in the meantime take my advice, check it out and experience something TRULY SPECIAL …

1. DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: HONOUR AMONG THIEVES – so what, then, could POSSIBLY have beaten such astounding fare to the top spot this time round? If you’d asked me that at the year’s start I DEFINITELY wouldn’t have thought it could be THIS … I mean SURE, I love D&D as much as the next geek, but even so this felt like SUCH a shameless cinematic cash-grab from Wizards of the Coast and Disney (producing through Paramount) that I felt there was NO WAY it could REALLY be an actual GOOD FILM. At best I was expecting to be mildly entertained by a serviceable guilty pleasure, something that’s good for a Saturday night-in with a pizza and a six pack, not a genuine MASTERPIECE of cinematic adaptation. And yet, it turns out that’s EXACTLY what we got – this film has ONE HUNDRED PERCENT clearly been made with the utmost love and respect for the source material because the only possible interpretation for the way they wrote this was by taking Player’s and Dungeon Master’s handbooks, a Monster Manual, some character sheets and a few dice bags and just turning the mini-campaign that ensued into a two-hour screenplay. It’s clear that they are heavily steeped in respect and knowledge of the game itself, or were at least CONSTANTLY advised by experts who are, because this movie is AT EVERY STEP a pretty much PERFECT representation of the Forgotten Realms setting, the bestiary and even the game mechanics themselves IN ACTION, and it EVEN colours the way that the plot is laid out, how the characters interact and how some of the action sequences go. (Seriously – a perfectly executed knockout on a knife-wielding hostage taker with a hurled potato? That’s the Barbarian’s player landing a Natural 20 Critical Hit on their Attack Roll. It love it.) Sure, the results are likely to INFURIATE some people who think a little too highly about how FORMALLY WRITTEN their cinema should be, but for most folk this actually makes for a refreshingly honest and pretty unique piece of cinematic storytelling that actually works DAMN NEAR PERFECTLY from start to finish. It also helps that the writer-director duo in

charge here are a pair of stalwart comedy movie veterans, namely Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daly of Horrible Bosses, Vacation and Spider-Man: Homecoming fame, whose extremely enjoyable previous directorial collab Game Night actually likely provided a useful throughline for them to get into tackling this one. The main cast of dysfunctional heroes we follow through the story are even put together like a typical motley band of player characters – Chris Pine once again proves that he’s at his best when he’s doing broad comedy, thoroughly delightful as self-centred, opportunistic roguish Bard Edgin Darvis who, along with his platonic partner, tough-but-fair and sweetly naïve Barbarian warrior Holga Kilgore (played to absolute PERFECTION by Michelle Rodriguez in what’s UNDOUBTEDLY the best role she’s ever had, and definitely my FAVOURITE character here), enlists the help of bumbling, neuroses-riddled half-elf Sorcerer Simon Aumar (Pokémon Detective Pikachu’s Justice Smith, twitchy, unsure of himself and UTTERLY adorable) and shape-shifting Tiefling Druid Doric (It’s Sophia Lillis, forthright, dependable and immediately done with all of Edgin’s shit) to help them knock over the accumulated fortune of their one-time colleague, Rogue-turned-nobleman Forge Fitzwilliam (Hugh Grant once again expertly bringing home the scheming sleaze persona he’s perfected in more recent years now he’s finally said goodbye to his earlier days as an upper class heartthrob) and foil the dastardly machinations of the monstrous undead Red Wizard Sofina (a genuinely chilling and unsettling turn from Shadow & Bone’s Daisy Head); meanwhile there’s a top-notch supporting cast of “DM-controlled NPCs” that help the story flow and breathe as effortlessly as the main stars, from Bridgerton’s Rege-Jean Page as deliciously dry Paladin Xenk Yendar, the obviously-overpowered PC from another campaign that the DM brings in to help the party out when things go COMPLETELY WRONG for them, and Chloe Coleman (Gunpowder Milkshake) as Edgin’s estranged young daughter Kira, to Bradley Cooper in a truly INSPIRED and genuinely hilarious cameo as Holga’s decidedly diminutive ex-husband Marlamin. Every single one of these is a well-rounded, living-and-breathing vital person in their own right, and the writers have crafted them and their misadventures with proper precision throughout, while the world has been realised with genuine skill and clear loving attention to detail, as well as a welcome reliance on real sets and locations and good old fashioned physical make-up and animatronics over pure digital effects wherever possible. There are some pretty spectacular action sequences on offer here (the Underdark sequence with a decidedly overweight dragon is a particular highlight, although my personal favourite has to be the scene in which Doric has to pull off an unexpected escape by Wildshaping between different animal forms, all unfolding in a spectacular unbroken “single” take), but in the end this film is, first and foremost, a COMEDY, and while there’s plenty of heart and pathos on offer, as well as more than a little genuine DARKNESS here and there, ultimately almost everything is VERY MUCH played for laughs, and the end result is definitely the funniest film I encountered this past year. It’s also just about the most effortlessly ENDEARING film I’ve come across in a very long time, and I have to admit I am SO GLAD that it managed to defy my low expectations SO MUCH, I feel VERY HAPPILY HUMBLED that I was proved SO WRONG this time round. I’m genuinely hopeful that we get LOADS MORE of this going forward, I’d love a whole campaign’s worth of movies to grow out of this humble one-shot. Best get those D20s rolling again, guys!

#2023 in movies #nimona #renfield #leave the world behind #spider man across the spider verse #oppenheimer #the creator #mission impossible dead reckoning part one #john wick chapter 4 #no one will save you #dungeons and dragons honour among thieves

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isaksbestpillow · 1 year

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Hi Siiri! So I often watch stuff when I see it on your blog because you honestly have excellent taste. This time I watched Sangatsu no lion after I saw that post that had the Bump of Chicken video. I'm obsessed with that band and the show sounded perfect for me. I finished the entire anime today and I loved it so much!! I wish there was more. So anyway I just wanted to say thanks for reblogging that post lmao. Also what other anime/manga do you love and recommend?

Hello!! Omg another Bump of chicken listener in the wild!! I love them though I haven't been vibing with their last few songs as much. Fujiwara Motoo has a genuine talent for writing profound lyrics using mundane words, he's great!

I've become such a boomer regarding anime that I really don't know any of the titles currently relevant, but I can recommend some of my forever faves!

Natsume yuujinchou/Natsume's book of friends: My beloved, my dearest, my most favourite. Natsume Takashi is an ordinary, introverted high school boy who lives in rural Kumamoto prefecture with his foster family and a fat cat. Except that his cat is no cat at all and Natsume is no ordinary boy because he can see youkai (spirits). Some of those spirits are angry, some sad, some funny, some lonely. What they have in common is they've all got beef with Natsume's late grandmother who has sealed their names into a book. The episodes revolve around Natsume and his cat sidekick setting free the trapped spirits they encounter one by one. It's the best anime!!! It's so calming and melancholy and nice. With 29 manga volumes out, the story is still on-going.

Chihayafuru: The best sports anime ever!! Chihaya, Taichi and Arata are three childhood friends brought back together by competitive karuta, which is an agility and memory based sport that uses ancient Japanese poetry. There's friendship, romance, sport, poetry, what else do you need! I love it so much. The characters are great, they all have their strengths and weaknesses in karuta and outside of it, especially Chihaya who is super likable without being a Mary Sue type. With fifty manga volumes out, the story is still on-going. I just wish they'd go polyamorous because even after all these years I can't decide whether I ship Chihaya more with Taichi, Arata or her idol/nemesis Shinobu haha.

Shouwa genroku rakugo shinjuu: Freshly out of prison, a yakuza discovers the world of rakugo (traditional Japanese story telling), but his mentor is haunted by the ghosts of his difficult past in this stunning queer period piece.

Mushishi: A guy wanders around the country in search of supernatural powers known as mushi that can possess and harm people. This is what would happen if Natsume Yuujinchou took up drugs and smoking.

Heike monogatari (2021): A stunning feminist retelling of the birth of one of Japan's oldest epics.

Yojouhan shinwa taikei/The tatami galaxy: A guy tries to restart his freshman year at university over and over, each time failing to get the outcome he desires regardless of what he chooses or changes, steadily snowballing to a mental breakdown and existential crisis. This one is a classic with a very unique style in art and direction and the most amazing line you must accept that you are the person here now and you cannot become anyone else but that person.

No 6: This anime pales in comparison to the book series that's such a vivid, visceral portrayal of the indomitable will to live even when dying would be easier, but it's still nice viewing. Queer teenagers take on an oppressive government and some killer bees. The books though!!!! They are so great!!! It's a shame they aren't available internationally, but then again I'm not sure how well they'd work in English because so much of their rhythm and tension tempo is achieved in ways that disappear when you remove Japanese from the equation. Pov is an especially tricky area because Japanese doesn't have personal verbs or mandatory grammatical subject which allows for shifting pov and narrator and time.

I'm probably forgetting something, but these are some of my forever faves!! I didn't mention Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood because I think everyone knows it already, but it's my most favourite favourite.

#asks

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sepyana · 11 months

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JJBA Stardust Crusaders Ep. 25-29 Thoughts

Aka I ramble on about the N'Doul episodes and some manga differences.

Ep 25 is the start of the second half of SDC. I have been a bit slow so far so I've decided to pick up speed. It's gonna take me 2 months to finish the anime otherwise. I've watched episodes 25 to 33 but I have some extra things to say today, I'm gonna split the post in two.

First of all, the opening. It starts off all mysteries but then the rest of the song is like the first one. It even has Star Platinum's ORA ORA's in it. My favourite part is the start and the sequence with the white lines in it.

Ep. 25-26 (N'Doul)

There is a dog. The dog has a stand, The Fool. To be fair, he is a really anthropomorphized dog, way smarter than the actual thing. They kind of have to do this if he is gonna be part of the team with a stand and all. (Jotaro smiling while Iggy is biting Polnareff's face off was pretty funny. Mr. Emotionless over here thinks this is hilarious.)

It's honestly a crime that N'doul shows up for only two episodes. His design, abilities and personality is sick as hell to me. My fave DIO goon, maybe? Most of the time stands are way more interesting then the goon using 'em. Basic bitch pick, I know. Sometimes things are popular for though.

^ Kakyoin being a piece of shit here was pretty funny. They were arguing so much that N'Doul could sense them. Good work guys.

Episode goes from 1 to 11 real quick when N'Doul slashes Kakyoin's eyes. And he passes out from the shock. Kakyoin getting hurt to show how dangerous the new threat happens a lot, but it seems actually serious this time. I don't think Araki is bold enough to make him lose his eyes for real, but It'd be really interesting development if he did. I'm just saying.

Advol says "No, that's wrong" He says the thing! Guys!!! He also gets his neck cut too ig lol. I'm sure he'll be fine.

Jotaro uses the secret Joestar technique of running the fuck away (to divert attention away from the people he cares about). Classic. He makes sure to grab Iggy on the way.

^ Jokes aside, I thought Jotaro throwing Iggy to not get hit by Geb was really smart. It makes so much sense but I couldn't think of it at all.

I know Iggy is just a dog, he didn't ask for this yada yada I don't care, if the bastard didn't wanna get thrown at 20 mph he shouldn't look so goddamn puntable. Every time I look at him I am filled with rage. I want to kick him like football.

Okay but for real, Iggy is gonna be a hard sell for me. I don't like small dogs but I dislike fart jokes even more, which he unfortunately delivers in spades. I know part 3 has a lot of piss shit and fart jokes in it but Iggy isn't helping!!

Okay the stand-off between Jotaro and N'Doul was excellent. The animation, the soundtrack and the sound design worked really well. And then Star Platinum going HUUUUAAAHHHH

If you didn't think Dio wasn't building a cult before, you'll surely do now. Even Jotaro comments on it. Cults give people a purpose and answers, so...

I do feel a lil bit bad for him. Dio finds the most isolated and depressed people to use them, letting them depend on him. As much as I've been trying to avoid them I get recommended jojos when I search for clips. N'Doul's line "I do not fear death. Just as long as [Dio] doesn't abandon and murder me himself." in one of the games puts it plainly.

It's hard to wrap your head around Dio being charismatic but when you hear his interactions with them it becomes obvious. He acts like he cares for them, whether that's genuine or on is up in the air. Considering everything in Phantom Blood, how much it took for Dio to finally respect Jonathan, I'm inclined to say no? He was definitely meant to be a pure evil Disney villain type of character there. SDC might shake things up, who knows.

Overall, these episodes are great. They have a lil bit of everything I like. Part 1 doesn't feel boring compared to part 2, unlike some other two parters. Not to mention the music picks.

Now, onto something I wanna talk about. I was sort of going thru the manga pages for the last few episodes and,

This line of Jotaro is given to Advol in the anime. And he is less stressed about it. (I know characters get major injuries only to be fine the next episode but like, Kakyoin losing his eyes is a big development. He doesn't show for the next 13 episodes after this.)

^ Too tired to change the lines.

Also, in the anime, It is Advol who holds Kakyoin. (Polnareff holding Joseph isn't in either.) Instead, Jotaro hangs with one hand while the other is casually in his pocket. Which is absolutely hilarious. And shows how anime and manga to treats his character.

I know people arguing over manga and anime Jotaro is -a whole thing- I would hear stuff about it while Stone Ocean anime was still releasing. I will think about this a lot more if I actually read the whole thing. Just talking about these two episodes here.

In the anime, Jotaro needs to look cool all the time always. I assume what they were going for was to make him more stoic so that when his cool guy persona (and it is a persona) starts slipping it has more impact. But the changes made seem kind of random. They changed some stuff in this episode but they have kept the Anubis one largely the same. He is not as agitated there but he is still on the back foot.

He is losing control in this episode. The only reason they made it out alive was because The Fool just happened to be able to fly, he was basically fucked before then. Him looking panicked at Kakyoin losing his eyes also makes sense. He can't do anything about the situation, so naturally, his stoic demeanor starts to dissipate for a while. Kakyoin and Advol has put him on a timer.

I don't think the difference between manga and anime Jotaro is that big but it is notable. I dunno. I would prefer Jotaro breaking the cool mask too much rather than basically never.

Another tidbit is, Star Platinum smiles in the manga way more. And I'm gonna be honest I prefer the anime in this. It goes back to the "Having it less makes the times where it does show up more impactful." thing. So, it can definitely be done in a good way.

Ep. 27 (Oingo Boingo Brothers)

One thing I found strange is how the English dub and sub treats the brothers' names. They normally call themselves.Oingo Boingo Brothers. The English sub calls them Zenyatta Monetta Brothers. The dub straight up doesn't mention their name at all.

Weirdly enough, the the other subs do call them Oingo Boingo Brothers. Is it a cultural thing, or a copyright one? I don't know.

I don't have much to say about this episode. So I'm gonna take the opportunity to talk about Kakyoin instead :D

^ This is from the next episode but there isn't much I can use.

I mentioned before how I thought it would be interesting to blind him. You never see legally blind characters in action stuff, unless they have an ability that let's them sense the environment. Like Toph or N'Doul himself. It's a pain to fight blind, it turns out.

Kakyoin should have a way to see, through the humanoid stand Green Heirophant (unless him being blinded makes Heirophant blind also). Like, It would have been really draining. Summoning the stand is a lot but also the chronic pain from his injury, but he could do it. He could use the eyes for battle situations, or Joseph could have SPW bring him technology that could help him in some way. I'm not gonna call this a missed opportunity, I can see why didn't go with that.

I'm guessing Araki wanted to shrink the cast for a while, like with Advol's "death". 5 man band casts are nice but it can be hard to work with 5 people all the time. Cast is divided again with Polnareff-Jotaro and Advol-Joseph. I went in to check when Kakyoin shows up again (grazing thru the manga) and he is not in the show for 13 episodes, excluding 2 scenes. That's more than quarter of the whole runtime. Advol was away for 9 episodes, and he was suppose to be dead.

I'm a bit conflicted on this, shrinking the cast builds relationships between the characters more in depth and it allows for new and interesting storylines. But at the same time, that's a lot of episodes. I just really like both Advol and Kakyoin, man.

Ep. 28-29 (Anubis)

FINALLY Some swordfighting scenes.

Polnareff goes off on his own, again. He comes across a stand user and gets almost killed, again. Yet he keeps going off on his own anyway. Never change king.

Anubis' shtick is that it's a stand with no user, that gets more powerful the more you fight it. It's like Nasus but way cooler. Not that that's a high bar to pass, anything is cooler than farming stacks for 20 minutes. I don't know where Anubis getting stronger with time comes from, since Nasus also has this It's probably part of the mythology. I know absolutely nothing about that though.

Anubis themselves is also a fun villain. Funny man with funny voice. Their design is the opposite of unique but it works for me. I like that him possessing the kid gives him lipstick.

Going back to Polnareff, I think people forget how powerful he is sometimes. When it comes to power and speed, only one stronger than Chariot in the group is Star Platinum. And Star Platinum is op as hell.

Jotaro vs Anubis drives that point even further, Jotaro is not even sure he can win against Polnareff with Anubis' speed added to the equation. The whole fight is just Jotaro sweating bullets thinking "Shit shit shit shit sh

When he does finally win, he says "What were you saying? You were gonna tear me into shreds?" while Star Platinum puts his hand like this. Just. I love it.

^ Compilation of Jotaro faces for this episode.

Overall, Anubis episodes were pretty nice. I think the Alessi epsiodes do a better job building Jotaro and Polnareff's dynamic though.

#sepya watches jjba #↪ posts

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autisticandroids · 2 years

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not to become a disciple or something. but do you have any media recommendations, like books/films/shows. because i like the way you think. sorry for mass rbing btw

Smiley also knew, or thought he knew - the idea came to him now as a mild enlightenment - that Bill in turn was also very little by himself: that while his admirers - Bland, Prideaux, Alleline, Esterhase, and all the rest of the supporters' club - might find in him completeness, Bill's real trick was to use them, to live through them to complete himself; here a piece, there a piece, from their passive identities: thus disguising the fact that he was less, far less, than the sum of his apparent qualities… and finally submerging this dependence beneath an artist's arrogance, calling them the creatures of his mind…

this passage from tinker, tailor, soldier, spy is what i think of every time anyone tries to put me on a pedestal as Tumblr User Autisticandroids. like genuinely my main skill is making connections with other people and essentially propping myself up through them, though of course i don't really do it on purpose.

anyway unfortunately my taste in media isn't going to contain what you want i don't think. i'm going to give you an extremely random list of things i like. not favorites, but just stuff i enjoy.

my favorite episode of star trek: the next generation is season six episode fourteen "face of the enemy," but if you're going to actually get involved with star trek i would recommend deep space nine instead. when i want to alienate people i put on an episode of the prisoner (1967) because i love that show but it's deeply unenjoyable. i unironically think kill la kill is a great anime. the private life of plants is probably the tv series i've seen the most times.

talking to you, talking to me by the watson twins is underappreciated and contains some of my favorite pieces of music. however, the only thing i've listened to lately is the rise and fall of ziggy stardust and the spiders from mars by david bowie because it's a castiel thesis to me.

passing by nella larsen is one of my favorite books ever, and when i first read it i had this free online version where you could actually turn the pages, i think it was this version. i think speaker for the dead is wildly underrated but feel vaguely guilty about recommending orson scott card. a bad book that has brought me a lot of joy lately is absolute friends by john le carre. as a kid i really like the underland chronicles by suzanne collins. a while ago i read the three body trilogy by liu cixin and while the second one dragged and was rather poorly translated, i enjoyed the first for its creativity, classic scifi feel, and understated spookiness, and i enjoyed the third for its dark camp and comparatively strongly drawn characters. even the second had acceptable elements, but mostly because i was tickled by the fact that it reminded me a little of the futurological congress by stanislaw lem.

i just finished relistening to the white vault, a horror podcast which i like a lot but am more ambivalent about now that i know the ending (it wasn't finished the first time i listened). if you hate horror, my favorite non-fiction podcast is you're wrong about.

my favorite source for horror short stories is the scp foundation, and here are some faves.

my favorite movie is alice (1988) dir. jan svankmajer, which is an adaptation of alice in wonderland. it's very much a childhood nostalgia watch for me, unbelievable as that might seem. here's a link, but this version is in czech with english subtitles, so you might have to scout around if you want the english version. not that this movie has much dialogue. a rather eclectic selection of other movies i've liked that i just thought of in the last ten minutes is bride of re-animator (1989), x-men (2000), d.e.b.s. (2004), mirrormask (2005), isolation (2005), the host (2006), hard revenge millie (2009), black swan (2010), excision (2012), the handmaiden (2016), and swallow (2019). my movie taste is probably the closest you'll get in terms of media recs that you might enjoy based on my blog, since i hate movies and can only be tempted to watch them if they cater to me. but also big trigger warnings for some of those lmao.

#asks #leatherat

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heartman · 2 years

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What are your favorite MCU movies?

Hey anon!! I think my faves are as follows:

1. Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers my beloved, I am so in love with her it isn't even funny)

2. Werewolf By Night (because who doesn't love a good shlocky fifties style horror movie? A masterclass in classic horror which surprised me but I adored it)

3. Eternals (I can't gush about this movie enough. There's something about someone being so old and all knowing yet still struggling to find a place even amongst those who are like them and I adored everything this movie had to offer. I love the slower pacing and it was serene and almost sensual in a way and every about it makes me gush I will never shut up about it ever)

4. The Thor movies (always have a good time with these and while Love and Thunder felt a little lacking, every movie has been a good time, Thor never fails)

5. Ant Man 1 & 2 (I love how laid back they are and it's a good starting point because they're so self contained and I loved Ava Starr/Ghost)

6. Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness (Wanda being an iconic horror girl? We love to see it. Also Charlize Theron as Clea is exciting. I loved the creativity with the magic and the set pieces and Christine Palmer is *chef's kiss* perfection. America Chavez was a fun addition and I love Sam Raimi's flair on his movies)

7. Captain America The Winter Soldier (this movie OWNED MY ENTIRE ASS IN 2014 okay I was pretty convinced I was gonna become Sebastian Stan's best friend if we ever met but alas 17 year old me could only dream)

8. Shang Chi and the Legend Of The Ten Rings (the fight scenes! The whole sequence in the beginning where Shang Chi's mom and dad do that fight at the gates of Ta Lo was sexier than any sex scenes I've ever watched like it Did Things ™️ to me and I still haven't recovered)

9. 2012 Avengers (the one that started it all. I still get the same feeling I did that some great was happening with this movie and I love seeing where it all started compared to where they are now. It's a good time and yeah I have nothing more to say on it other than Natasha was fantastic and the fact that Thanos was in Loki's head even back then is mind boggling)

10. Infinity War (Avengers Endgame wants what this movie has and I will not elaborate)

11. Black Panther (a beautiful movie with a superb cast. The way Chadwick Boseman exudes class and charisma and charm through the entire film is stunning and the idea that even family can learn and grow as you learn and grow and try to be better is a wonderful message, I love this movie and Chadwick Boseman is gone too soon. Rest in peace, sir. I am very excited to see Namor in the sequel but it won't be the same without T'Challa, I just know it)

12. Black Widow (a wonderful sendoff for a character who deserves better. This movie came too little too late but it did introduce the wonderful Yelena Belova and Red Guardian. Natasha, I miss you and yeah. Natasha deserved better than the MCU gave her, especially considering she was one of the original six Avengers)

13. GOTG 1 (A great intro to a great team. Gamora has my heart alongside basically every other woman in the MCU and Bucky, and it really was just a fun romp through space after the MCU introduced a much darker tone with The Dark World. I am ecstatic for Adam Warlock's introduction in GOTG 3 and I do wish Dennis from Always Sunny was playing Starlord instead of crispy rat man. It also bugs me that Peter is confirmed to be half celestial in the MCU as of GOTG 2 and it is NEVER TOUCHED UPON AGAIN LIKE WTF FEIGE)

14. Basically the first three movies of the Fox X-Men series (so First Class, DoFP and Apocalypse)

15. LOGAN (made me cry shut up Caliban I miss you)

#marvel #asks

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erikahammerschmidt · 2 years

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I worry sometimes about how far opinions about a work of fiction can travel beyond the sphere of people who actually know anything about that work of fiction. This can happen in many ways For example, it applies to the people who think 60's Star Trek was some "non-political" white male power fantasy but it ALSO applies to those who act like it was 100% respectful to every marginalized group by today's standards Of course it wasn't. There were episodes that would today be called straight-up racist and sexist on multiple levels, even when at the time they were TRYING to be progressive Same with Terry Pratchett. His books are amazing, I love them, they're brilliantly clever and entertaining and generally very forward-thinking for when they were written. But not ALL of it aged well! Lots of good artists from bygone days get held up as examples of "see, nobody HAD to be a product of their times!" But you can almost always find things in their work and life that... clearly were, and wouldn't be accepted by progressives today Now, some people really want their old-timey fave to be unproblematic and will do gymnastics to reinterpret the problematic parts as not just "okay for their time" but "objectively, timelessly good" (even if they'd never accept the same work from a present-day artist) and will seem sincerely oblivious to the contradiction in their thoughts But I think it's even worse when people decide something is their old-timey fave just based on other people talking about it and then they actually read or watch it and they're like OMG THIS IS AWFUL, YOU ALL LIED TO ME Of course there's a lot of talk about this binary that we try to force on all media throughout all of history (where either it adheres to every current progressive standard of how everything should be portrayed or it is so evil that anyone who even thinks it's worth reading/watching is automatically evil too) When that whole debacle happened on twitter a few months ago, with the person who tweeted a list of Problematic Authors, I was struck by two things-- in very different but related ways. 1. The list included warnings about many pieces of content that only in recent years would be considered problematic. For example, the use of derogatory terms for groups of people, by characters in fiction. When I was in school, reading the classics that the school assigned us to read, my entire class would seem to be in total agreement on a point like "the word used in this scene is an unacceptable slur that no one should ever use against anyone in real life" And at the same time, everyone, as far as I could tell, would ALSO be in agreement that the author wasn't wrong to show a character using the slur against another character (because it's a thing that does happen, and was clearly portrayed as a bad thing to do) Now I said "as far as I could tell" because I'm not sure everyone WAS in agreement. It's totally possible that the author's use of the word offended and hurt people who didn't feel safe speaking up about it, and their feelings are absolutely valid. My point is that, in the 80's and 90s, it wasn't commonly known that this was a problem (except among groups who were hurt by it). Awareness had not spread. Many people had no idea. If they had never been in a group targeted by a slur-- or if their own experience of being targeted did not extend to feeling trauma from fictional representations of it-- many would never have considered, on their own, that a fictional use of a slur could be harmful. In recent times it is much more openly discussed as a problem. And this has extended to mainstream novel-writing and movie-making, where the use of slurs has in fact become much less common as a result of the discussion. (If they ever do remake Blazing Saddles, for instance, it would be very advisable in the current climate to do it WITHOUT such an abundance of racial epithets.) So, while this sort of content in older works is considered problematic by lots of people today, it can also be important to realize that it doesn't make an author inherently bad and bigoted. Often it happens in the context of a work that was very clearly trying to condemn bigotry and promote acceptance. Of course not every attempt to do this is successful, or good, or helpful in any time, let alone the modern time. But nor is it automatically evil. The second thing I noticed about the "problematic books" post was that... the OP made it quite clear they were NOT saying the books were bad, that the authors were bad people, or that anyone should be condemned for reading them. They'd been harassed into deleting the post by the time I saw the discussion, but the screenshots I saw looked much more like a list of content warnings than a callout post. I saw no evidence that OP's intention was anything more than "pointing out things in these books that may be problematic by today's standards, so that you can be prepared before you decide to read them, in case you're uncomfortable with such content." Yeah, the initial posts could have been worded better, to convey that more clearly. But they also did not (despite many people's jumping to conclusions) clearly convey the opposite, at all. And yet even though the actual author of the post had given no sign of promoting the "good/evil" binary, virtually all the critics were acting as if that was the post's purpose. In other words: the critics were those who USUALLY make a big deal about how a book having "upsetting content" doesn't make it an evil book that promotes those things happening in real life -- and yet, here they were interpreting a simple list of content warnings as an outright attack against the books? Just as if they actually believed that "a book portraying bigotry" was the same as "a book promoting bigotry" And just as if they were experiencing the same "poor reading comprehension" that they're so quick to accuse others of. This has convinced me that none of us are immune to these failures. And I think it's extremely important that when recommending a work of fiction as being progressive, respectful, and good representation... we should still refrain from saying it's perfect. Because there are still many people out there who have trouble seeing anything except a good/evil binary. Perhaps, if it becomes common enough to hear things like "I love this story, the representation is mostly great, it has some parts that didn't age well but overall it's one of the best portrayals of this issue that I've seen" then MAYBE it'll become common to have thoughts with that kind of nuance, as well.

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tahtahfornow · 2 years

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literary wolfstar classics (rec list part 1, pre-2010)

Okay y'all. I threatened to do it and now I am doing it. This here is a rec list of "literary" wolfstar classics (all were originally written/posted pre-2010, many were written 2005 or earlier). By "literary" I mostly just mean heartbreakingly gorgeous with, like, decent grammar to boot. Sort of a rec list for snobbish lit-crit cunts like me (& probably Remus) and especially for any of you sweet children who weren't lurking the internet when a lot of these were being written/posted and may have missed some or all of these utterly seminal wolfstar texts :). Since returning to fic a few months ago after, like, a trillion years away, I've also discovered a few "new" (i.e. post-2010 lol) authors with some breathtakingly lovely and "literary" stories, and I'll try to get around to eventually compiling those into a similar list at a later date when I've got more free time. Probably won't be for a while yet.

So, without further ado/in no particular order - literary wolfstar classics:

"redeeming time" by minx.

A true classic. Written well before HBP (and maybe even before OOTP? - I'm not sure). A post-prank narrative told entirely from James's perspective (so it's also, of course, James/Lily, although wolfstar is the main storyline) and spanning Nov. 1976 - Nov. 1977. Minx's clean, straightforward prose works so perfectly for this story; it's, like, the quintessential growing-up narrative (but with gay wizards). This, this will always be canon to me. An all-time fave.

"fingerholds" by centaurea.

As far as I know, this is the author's only wolfstar fic, and omfg it is breathtakingly gorgeous. Non-linear narrative that shifts between First War & Lost Years. It tells the story of Remus and Sirius coming together after Hogwarts and then falling apart under the terror/suspicion of war. Again, the writing is fucking beautiful - imagistic, atmospheric, rife with metaphor. This might possibly be my favorite fanfic ever, although I really don't know because that's such a tough call. But anyway, this story will make you hurt.

"vector," "gasp," & "wane" by @rageprufrock.

Pru has written a number of wolfstar classics, so you can't go wrong with anything by her, but I picked these three because they strike me as the most "literary" (i.e. achingly gorgeous) of the lot. "Vector" is a lovely reflective piece in which Sirius, sidetracked by various memories in the midst of Christmas shopping, realizes he's in love with Remus; "Gasp" is basically just a beautiful, atmospheric sex scene (complete with a charming and pitch-perfect Confession of Feelings); "Wane" is a dreamy and poetic "fairytale for Remus," spanning his early childhood up through (and slightly beyond) Sirius's death in OOTP. I adore all of them. Her lighter/funnier fics (like "Seven Things") are also great so check those out, too.

"the times" by @imochan.

Absolutely everything imochan creates is gorgeous and she's written so many wolfstar classics. But I picked "The Times" for this list because the joy, the joy in this story is just so wonderful and palpable. It's a non-magic AU set in 1930s Ireland; Sirius is a paperboy and Remus works at the news office. This story is so beautifully written and unquestionably ranks among my all-time faves. A few other imochan classics I adore include "Liars Leaving My House," "Five Ways to Open Your Arms," & "Oh, Night, and Divine (The Selfish Wish Remix)." But really, anything by her is pretty much guaranteed to be gorgeous and wonderful.

"that the science of cartography is limited" by @sashayed aka rave/dorkorific.

Another true classic. Authored by one-half of the Shoebox Project team. Written pre-HBP, shifts back-and-forth in time between MWPP/post-Hogwarts days & post-OOTP/Remus in the aftermath of the veil, with the Marauders' Map and the boys' attempts to trace Hogwarts' ever-shifting walls with language becoming a sort of broad metaphor for the utterly tangible and seemingly solid yet eternally shifting, breathy, unstable, always-already crumbling foundations of human relationships - the "built-in" loss of relational existence. I mean, just beautiful.I cannot even. Another story that will hurt you.

"the love song of sirius black" by @kaydeefalls.

Based on Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" and another true wolfstar classic. A poetic imagining of Sirius's fall through the veil as a sort of dreamy exploration of various major fork-roads in his life, with each section of the story depicting a diverging (i.e. non-canon) path from Sirius's reality. And the final dream scene - ohmyfuckinggod. You will cry. Unless your heart is, like, stone, but maybe even then. I'm so sorry because I'm just now realizing I should have probably called this rec list "wolfstar for masochists" or something like that because so many of these stories are just brutal. As a side note, kaydeefalls also has a number of other lovely fics worth checking out, such as "Quiet" and "Twas Brillig, and the Slithy Toves."

"in love" by minnow_53.

I adore minnow! She has written so many charming, clever, sweet (& often hilarious) wolfstar stories, and she has this way of stepping a bit outside of the characters and creating a fly-on-the-wall sort of vibe that is just so wry and funny, but also at times becomes ridiculously poignant. I know I already used this word but her prose is just charming, idk what else to even say. I picked "In Love" for this list because it is so fucking sweet, in the best way possible, and fairly indicative of her style generally, and also, just - ugh. How can this story not make you happy. The title is self-explanatory. Other fics by Minnow that I especially love include "The Cure" and "What We Did In The Holidays" (these two are just utterly hilarious).

"beat the devil" & "the love there that's sleeping" by musesfool/victoria_p.

Musesfool has written so many wolfstar classics that I cannot possibly account them all here and I'm pretty sure I haven't even read most of them. She is, like, prolific, and you likely can't go wrong with anything by her. But anyhow, I picked these two because they are, in different ways, so particularly gorgeous. "Beat the Devil" is a First War/Sirius pining/hook-up fic with just, such great atmosphere; the story is just thick with atmosphere. And "The Love There That's Sleeping" is a MWPP-era, Beatles-infused, cut-it-with-a-knife-sexual-tension sort of thing that is also, just, so lovely.

"the shortest distance between two people" by riko.

A year-by-year MWPP era fic (each section occurring during the corresponding Hogwarts year) that is just so lovely and charming and often so funny but with so much freaking hurt, too. And these utterly perfect characterizations to boot. This story is just good, I mean, really what else can I say.

"written by hand" & "the moon's significant tremble" by setissma.

I think setissma has written a lot of wolfstar (and some of it may even be hard to find now?) but I picked these two because they are just so lovely. "Written by Hand" features this beautiful premise where Remus has to spend a summer in Romania with no way of communicating with his friends/loved ones, and so with their consent he charms the walls in his summer flat to display everything they write down (letters, grocery lists, all of it). "The Moon's Significant Tremble" is a lovely non-magic AU wherein Sirius is posh and Remus is a schoolteacher and they meet on a train when Remus may or may not be attempting to steal Sirius's watch.

"a peripheral vision" by carmine_ink.

Another heartbreakingly lovely AU set in the 1890s, Cambridge, wherein Remus and Sirius share the misfortune of falling in love in a time/place where that sort of thing is Quite Illegal Indeed, and Remus's lycanthropy is beautifully translated into epilepsy.

"the drought story" by librae.

Librae's style is just so pretty - everything she writes is so atmospheric and poetic and richly imagistic. "Drought Story" takes place the summer between sixth and seventh year; Remus's owl dies and Sirius pays him a visit for the funeral rites. I don't even know how else to describe this story, other than - just lovely.

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AND here are some "honorable mentions" aka more lovely/charming/very well-written wolfstar classics that I just don't have the time/energy to type up full summaries for rn. But these are also all very, very good!

"a few mornings in january" by omgsubtext - in which Remus maybe sort of forgets to tell Sirius he's moved in with him, actually.

"ever after" by busaikko - in which Remus is a geeky astrophysicist & Sirius a gay Scheherazade.

"delta" by fahye - in which every single sentence is so poetically crafted.

"it's not the years, honey, it's the mileage" by thistlerose - in which Remus turns thirty-five and Sirius brings him stolen library books.

"cooler than frogs" by penknife - in which Sirius has a secret, and lycanthropy is very cool.

"the curious incident of the dog in the nighttime" by penknife - in which Sirius is Harry's brooding, Rochester-esque guardian, and Remus Harry's private tutor.

"a flame in two cupped hands" by such_heights - in which Sirius adorably pines.

"for someone came and kissed me there" by such_heights - in which Remus gives Sirius a scandal for Christmas.

"as red as hearts and autumn" by rosemaryandrue - in which Remus has a sexual encounter in front of mermaids under Brighton Pier.

"fire shadows" by mysecretashes - in which Remus, Sirius, and Peter spend the summer before seventh year at James's.

"being an historical record . . ." by moonpants - in which Remus is ambushed by James during truth-or-dare.

"earl grey" by mariinarusalka - in which Remus drinks tea.

"heat the winter floods" by daphnaea - in which R & S share a flat, and Remus keeps piles.

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AND, finally, just for fun, this classic essay re: the canonical evidence for wolfstar, because I love close-reading and such nerdy shit as that: "the case for r / s" by elwing_alcyone.

<3<3<3

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oh and p.s. many thanks to @broomsticks for being so sweet & acclimating me to the wild world of tumblr!!

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continuing to tag authors as i find them, pls lmk if you would like a tag or story removed

#wolfstar #r/s #rec list #wolfstar reclist #r/s reclist #my recs #fanfic #marauders #remus lupin #sirius black #literary wolfstar recs

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tamabbyboi · 3 years

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hi!!! I was reading some of your soulmate au’s and wanted to request one where it’s seeing writing on your skin from your soulmate, except the soulmate doesn’t speak/understand Japanese so there’s a language barrier. thought it might add a fun little twist! 😅 my fave characters from your list are hawks, tamaki, and todoroki so any of those would work I think 👀💛 ty in advance!

A/N: HI I LOVE THIS❤💕💞💟❣💖!!! Learning foreign languages is like,, my thing (I've been learning German since age 5, French for about 2 years, and have been learning Japanese for a bit too and am planning to learn Dutch and Russian at some point) so I love language shenanigans!!! Thank you for requesting! And for giving me a reason to write another soulmate au. I also never mentioned where the reader is from or what their native language is so it would be kept ambiguous!!!

Third Time’s the Charm!

Also sidenote but I've read the bnha manga and Hawks panels are god tier, seeing some of them animated in s5 is just *chef's kiss*

Synopsis: When you turn sixteen you gain the ability to communicate with your soulmate through writing on your skin. Unfortunately for you, your soulmate doesn't speak your native language, and instead only speaks Japanese. Also unfortunately, neither of you are very good artists. Even more unfortunately, you’re both idiots.

Pairing: Keigo Takami (Hawks) x reader

Request: yes!!!

Word count: 1.5k

Warnings: A tiny bit of cursing

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Ever since you were a kid you daydreamed about your soulmate constantly, hearing the stories from your parents and all the other adults in your life about how they met and fell in love with theirs.

You found yourself lost in the possibilities, especially as you got older, a hopeless romantic by the very definition. You'd heard stories of childhood friends turned soulmates or teenagers who were already deeply in love before finding out they were destined to be at the age of sixteen. The classic enemies to lovers type story, finding out the person they constantly fight with was their soulmate after recognizing their own handwriting on their skin.

You often wondered what your love story would be, and somehow you never considered anything like this.

Keigo didn't really have time to think about soulmates growing up, he was too busy training to become a hero, that was always his goal. But it would be a lie to say that he absolutely never did, in fact, his future soulmate always held a place in the back of his mind.

He didn't see as many soulmate pairs together, or hear as many soulmate stories, but he still had great hope for the day he could contact his own soulmate. He was happy to have something to look forward to, something to occupy his mind that wasn't just hero work this and hero work that.

Don't get him wrong, he was excited to become a hero and save lives and catch villains, but he didn't want his career to consume his entire life as it had so far. Even as a teenager, he strived for a world where heroes had a lot of time off.

So one could imagine the disappointment when the both of you ended up turning sixteen and finally writing each other, only to find out that you couldn't even communicate. The languages you spoke didn't even use the same alphabet!

And even worse, you both tried drawing pictures and it backfired terribly, neither of you could draw for shit. It was embarrassing, really.

You were able to make out a pair of wings and a chicken leg?? What an odd combination...

You were suddenly motivated to learn Japanese, however with your tight schedule in your first year of hero school you couldn't find the time.

Keigo wanted to learn your language as well, but with all of his training he wasn’t able to either.

By the time you graduated you two had been aimlessly scribbling for each other for almost two years. Sometimes one of you would make a bad abstract drawing and the other would color it in, sometimes your bad art was a collaborative piece by the two of you, and sometimes you both actually tried to draw things and failed miserably.

At least you and your soulmate shared bad art solidarity.

Now, Japan has one of the best, if not the best pro hero industry in the world, and has a lot of crime to be taken care of. Completely unrelated to your soulmate situation of course, you decided you would broaden your horizons and see what the hero scene there is like to be a part of.

You had to learn basic Japanese in a hurry, meaning you didn't bother with learning how to read and write, figuring you’d do so later, and learned what you needed to get by in Romaji, this was great for learning quickly and being able to communicate with the people you'd be working with and around. This was, however, not great for communicating with your soulmate.

Unfortunately, even after half a year in Japan, you still hadn’t found the time to learn to write Japanese. You were pretty good at speaking and understanding, having been surrounded by it for a while, and you think you had somehow managed to finally alert your soulmate to your presence in their country.

By managed to alert your soulmate to your presence in their country you mean you asked your friend to write “I’m in Japan but I still don’t speak the language” on your arm after not even contemplating the idea for 6 months. You never claimed to be smart, if either you or your soulmate were smart, you would have used google translate by now.

The funny thing is, you and your soulmate already knew each other and had absolutely no clue. You had worked with pro hero Hawks quite a bit, and you really enjoyed working with him. The two of you got along really well, and there was only one person who truly knew why.

You had ended up getting close to Rumi Usagiyama, or Miruko, during your stay in Japan thus far, and she happened to be the friend that you asked to write to your soulmate. She had heard Hawks rant about his foreign soulmate and how cute their drawings were all the time, and knew that when you showed up with the same native language and inability to write Japanese he would be too stupid to make the connection. She had suspected there was a possibility for a while, but the writing on the arm confirmed it.

She decided not to get too involved, honestly thinking you two fools were hilarious. But she did want to push it in the right direction. She didn’t account for how oblivious both of you are.

Her first attempt at bringing you two together was casually mentioning that you both had foreign soulmates who you couldn’t communicate with, staging it as just a little something you had in common and hoping you’d put two and two together.

You didn’t put two and two together.

You even had a super long conversation about the struggles that come along with not being able to talk to your soulmate. You even established that your respective soulmates were from each other’s home countries. You even talked about the one time you wrote to them. You even mentioned that that one time was yesterday.

And still neither of you realized.

One of the topics that came up in your conversation, which Rumi third wheeled, was both of your your terrible art skills, and this sparked her next brilliant idea:

Pictionary!

You both talked about your soulmates’ terrible art skills so many times that you had to recognize that it was each other’s terrible art skills.

She brought it up when the three of you were dining out, thinking it would be a fun little game to see who could guess what someone was drawing first while you were waiting for food. Well, she thought it would be fun for you two to discover you were soulmates while waiting for food.

As soon as the idea was proposed there were numerous complaints about poor art skills, and seeing as this was a topic of discussion yesterday, Rumi figured this was going better than she thought it would. She figured that this would help you two absolute clowns realize the obvious.

She figured wrong.

Of course neither of you got it from that, maybe you'll recognize each other's bad art? Is that thinking too wishful?

Yes, yes it is.

You even commented on how similar his drawing was to your soulmate's. You commented on it. And still neither of you understood. It flew right over your oblivious, idiotic heads.

Maybe he'll realize when it's your turn?

...

No, of course he didn't, what were you expecting?

Rumi's plan failed once again and though it had only been a few days she was at the end of the line. Why concoct genius plans if neither of you had the IQ to understand? She wasn't going to do something like lock you in a closet or handcuff you together until you notice either, she knew you'd never figure it out.

So, she decided the best course of action was to make it extremely clear. With absolutely no doubt, and no way either you nor Hawks could misunderstand the situation. And this was to be carried out with a trusty black sharpie, because she'll be damned if anything could possibly go so wrong that it gets wiped off before she can make her point.

It happened exactly three days after she found out you and Keigo were soulmates, which is ridiculous to think about because the first people to know you were soulmates should have been you, but alas.

Rumi grabbed both of you, brought you to the same place, announced that she was to perform a magic trick, pulled out her sharpie, and drew a scribble on your hand.

She then held it up, making sure to completely show off exactly what it looked like to both you and Keigo.

"And for my next trick I will prove that your dumb asses are soulmates."

You and Keigo's eyes went so wide as Rumi held up his hand with the same scribble as yours. There was no way you didn't notice this time. Absolutely no way. None.

Especially when both of you had this look of realization on your face, like your eyes were finally open to something that they never were before. Because they were.

"WAIT THAT MAKES SO MUCH SENSE NOW."

Soulmates who clown together, stay together.

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sneezefiction · 4 years

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soft shiratorizawa sleepover

Shiratorizawa x Reader - Sleepover Headcanons

request: “Hi can I request having a sleepover with Shiratorizawa?”

a/n: classic Gracie move, here. ultra fluffed up, on a Friday evening. please enjoy some soft, sleepover moments with our faves, Ushijima, Tendou, Semi, Goshiki, Shirabu, Reon, and Yamagata.

warnings: none!

wc: 930

soft sleepovers - karasuno edition

---

you’ve been unofficially managing/supervising the Shiratorizawa team over the past couple months

but with their strict schedule and the fact that you joined them a bit late into their volleyball season, it’s been hard to actually get to know them

luckily, you and Tendou hit it off instantly, his curiosity gravitating toward the novelty of having a team manager

after expressing your wish to get to know the team better, the idea for a sleepover popped up in a playful convo between you and Tendou

i mean, you were definitely joking about it, but apparently Tendou had already presented the idea to Ushijima

and Ushi was totally chill with it??

he felt like you would manage the team better if you could see how everyone functioned outside of a high-pressure game

also i’m almost entirely positive that half of this team has never had a real sleepover

like, sure, they’ve spent the night together while away for practices games and tournaments, but they’ve never had one for the purpose of “hanging out” with each other

the team is surprised to hear that you’ll be joining them, but they’re genuinely excited to learn about you

lmao they might even be sort of intimidated esp since most of them are fr socially awkward

so be ready to actually get to know these boys, bc they’re all weird af

ps everyone will be invading Goshiki’s home for this wild, overnight endeavor

you arrive slightly late, but you’re welcomed with sounds of howling laughter and vibrant discussions that seem to be spiraling into loud arguments

Semi has Shirabu in some kind of headlock, wrestling him to the floor for being too pretentious

Tendou is already in his sleeping bag, but he’s not actually lying down... he’s hopping around in it

and Ushijima looks like he’s supervising the entire team, while still holding a glint of humor behind his gaze, enjoying the goofiness of his teammates outside of a gym for once

when they spot you at the doorway, your pillows and items in hand, everyone goes silent

and then Tendou rushes toward you, crashing headfirst into your body after losing balance in his absurdly heavy sleeping bag

you’re pretty much stuck under him, so Reon and Ushi have to lift Tendou off of you before Semi can give you a hand up

you thank Semi and turn to Tendou with a playful scowl on your face, his own cat-like grin is spreading the width of his cheeks

before he can react, you’ve smashed a pillow right into his head, leaving him slightly dizzy as he throws his pillow toward you… but it misses

...landing straight into Ushijima’s gorgeously sculpted face

everyone is too shocked by this to realize that Ushi has already picked up a pillow and aimed it at poor Goshiki

the power in Ushi’s pillow throw literally knocks him off his feet

yikes

don’t get me wrong, Ushijima doesn’t really get the concept of a “pillow fight,” but he’s willing to try anything at least once to understand it

this starts a full-send pillow war:

It’s you, Semi, Goshiki, and Yamagata VS Tendou, Ushijima, Shirabu, and Reon

and lemme tell you, IT IS BRUTAL.

you learn quickly about their inner team rivalries and the team’s extensively colorful language

this ends with lots of sweat, several bruises, and countless bursts of excited laughter

but when the game and adrenaline highs wear off, you’re all left lying on the floor

they all recover pretty quickly, but most of the 3rd years realize just how worn out you are from the amount of effort you just exerted

Semi flicks you in the side of your head and asks you some personal questions, but really the whole group is listening in,

“Y/n, why’d you choose to help our team out? I’m sure you have a lot going on outside of all of this.”

you’re taken aback, having to process your answer… because truthfully friends weren’t easy to come by these days

you’d been searching for an opportunity to find community and be apart of something… and this management position seemed to be an open door to it

“You’d be surprised by my social life, Semi.” you say through a laugh, but it doesn’t sound funny

you’re amazed by the understanding faces surrounding you, some nodding, other just staring without judgment

because they could all relate

LITERALLY this short convo turns into a really sweet discussion about fears and problems, with some venting mixed in

It’s mostly you, Goshiki, Tendou, and Semi speaking, but in the end, everyone shares a little piece of their life with the group

which is all so weird for everyone on the team, but somehow your presence was the perfect set up for a Group Therapy Sleepover Session™

by the end of the night, you’re the one advising and listening to them, which is such a cozy turn of events

like, your heart is full & they’re actively being invested in by your sweet self

several of them (Ushijima, Semi, and Goshiki) fall asleep to the soothing sound of your voice

you just make them so comfortable

and as much as they should be the ones protecting you, you’re the one making them feel safe and put together

honestly, while i’d like to think that Shiratorizawa is always so cool and calm, i think they need hugs and softness too

sure, they’re tough and they get all of that intensity and energy out on the court

but now that the team knows they have an outlet to get things off their chest and out into the airspace, they don’t want to lose it

and that’s when the bi-monthly, non-volleyball related Shiratorizawa sleepovers become mandatory

it’s pretty much the ultimate mental health booster and it gets wilder every time

so, you indeed get to know the boys well <3

—-

soft team sleepover series

soft karasuno sleepover

soft seijoh sleepover

soft nekoma sleepover

soft fukurodani sleepover (in progress)

—-

tags: @yams046, @cherryonigiri

(comment or send an ask to be added to my general tag list)

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sitp-recs · 3 years

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Happy happy birthday @dragontamerdame!! No better way to celebrate one of my favorite Drarry artists than gushing about her incredible work and selecting a few pieces that speak for themselves about Ash’s skills, sensitivity and versatility as an artist. Every new masterpiece she publishes blows my mind and becomes my new favorite thing, I’ll spend hours checking every tiny detail and appreciating the amount of story, emotion and character Ash manages to incorporate in each piece.

Here are some of my personal favorites in no particular order, but before that let me scream again about the perfect art she made for @the-starryknight’s scorching Sleight of Hand. I still don’t know how Ash managed to get exactly what I had in my mind when I read the scene, and her luscious art translated the fic’s sexy and tense atmosphere on another level, oof 🔥

Make sure to check and reblog these lovely works to celebrate this talented, kind and supportive friend we’re lucky to have in our fandom!

Drarry faves ❤️

1. Can we start obsessing over her latest break up make up piece?? God, the amount of feels this gave me. I cannot believe how Ash came up with such perfect, detailed facial expressions (!!!), they reflect tenderness, regret, surprise and hope, all at once. A heartbreaking yet hopeful piece, and also a sweet love letter to the ship and to this trope which happens to be one of my personal favorites!

2. Eccentric town fortune teller ftw please and thank! I keep coming back to this art because it’s so damn refreshing - not only made in this gorgeous color palette which was a personal treat - but this is a classic example of how bold, creative and powerful Ash is as a storyteller. I love how she imagined and executed this concept and I’m dying to know the story behind it. Harry’s confident smile and outfit blows my mind and I feel as smitten as blushing Draco watching him use those long, smart hands 😌

3. Now reccing for the 47827258 time my comfort comics, the soft and heartwarming Erised piece following Harry and Draco’s post-war journey where they bond over little Teddy, plus my beloved yoga instructor!Draco (with the cutest chibis by @cibeewastaken as a treat!) that made me smile stupid for the rest of the week. I keep coming back to these little stories that represent so well some of my favorite tropes in fic with the mature, gentle and easy falling in love we all cheer for and appreciate. Ash explores both nsfw and soft atmospheres so well in her art, it makes me wanna join that little world and learn more about those characters, their individual journeys and their life together. What a treat!

Rare pairs 💜

Whenever I see a rare pairs fest going on I get super excited at the idea of Ash joining in with her fabulous take on triads and poly ships! This particular art hits me right in the feels, it’s so so soft and domestic it makes me wanna read that story right away. Give me Ron living his best life with those two kind, gorgeous and smart women anytime - and have you noticed the amount of details in their bedroom?? This is probably one of my favorite backgrounds ever, and it shows how much attention and care Ash puts into each work. A comforting piece for a comforting ship! By the way @caroll-in just posted a lovely Ron/Hermione/Luna art to celebrate Ash’s bday and it’s glorious, go check it out!

NSFW 🍑

1. exCUSE ME, I still remember feeling “dead and buried” and losing my fucking mind over this piece when I first saw it. I spent five minutes gaping like a fish, then proceeded to reblog with some incoherent tagging (“LEGS!!!! CURLS!!!”). As a long-haired Drarry enthusiastic this is hands down one of my all-time favorite nsfw artworks, lush and sexy without losing that domestic tenderness, be still my heart. If you haven’t checked the brilliant and scorching in knots by @bonesliketambourines you’re definitely missing out, go read it now and indulge yourself!!!!

2. I cannot even do words to express how much I adore and lust over this power bottom Harry. The BDE he gives off is beyond the charts and I’m forever arrested by that stare of pure and arrogant confidence and purpose. It’s like Harry’s seeing right through me, daring us all to look away, and I love how Ash incorporated the smoking trope to establish his defiance and give the piece a sexy & mysterious tone. To think an explicit artwork could make me focus solely on those (very green!) eyes... absolutely mindblowing! 🔥

3. Finally a magnificent character study: Draco in lingerie! I’m unashamedly obsessed with how good and real he looks in this, he displays such power sitting like a boss, those luscious thighs all spread, the body hair and belly button and shiny jewelry and have I said the way the soft and detailed red lace hugs his curvy body is sending me?? I freaking love his badass attitude and how comfortable he looks in his own skin. Can you picture Harry’s nosebleed from across the room because I totally can 😏👌🏼

#happy birthday Ash!!! 🎉🎉🎉#dragontamerdame #Drarry art

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sparrowmoth · 3 years

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Okay, I'm kind of interested... What is Twisted Wonderland?

@bunny-lou I'M SO GLAD YOU ASKED. 💖 Okay, okay, so...

(Let me just real quick mention that @moorsgrimhilde is the one who told me about TWST, so all my love to her for the serotonin. 😘♥️♥️)

Twisted Wonderland is a game produced by Disney and Aniplex. The game itself is region-locked and everything is written and recorded in Japanese; however, you can watch the story with English subs on YouTube. There's five chapters out at the moment and more to come!

The game is set in an all boys' boarding school, but the player ("Yuu") is written as gender neutral and interacts with all the characters platonically. In other words, this isn't a dating sim, which is great since it means all the emphasis is on worldbuilding (and it shows).

FUN FACT: Yana Toboso, the game's primary illustrator, has stated outright that Descendants was a major inspiration for Twisted Wonderland. This quickly becomes apparent as you start the game.

In Descendants, you have the Core Four descended from the four most evil villains in history. In TWST, you have the "Great Seven" (the Queen of Hearts, Scar, Ursula, Jafar, the Evil Queen, Hades, and Maleficent) who aren't regarded as evil, but rather as role models.

Each of the Great Seven has a dedicated dorm that students are sorted into based on "the shape of their souls." For example, the first dorm you interact with is Heartslabyul, a dorm with a strict emphasis on the Queen of Hearts' rulebook (enforced by the hot-tempered dorm leader, Riddle Rosehearts).

There's eight dorms in total, because the player (who has no magic) can't be sorted into one of the usual seven dorms, so they're permitted to lodge in the "Ramshackle Dorm."

Having said all that, let's talk about some of the characters:

This is Jamil Viper and Kalim Al Asim of the Scarabia dorm. I like to joke that this is AU!Jaylos, but truthfully they're entirely their own characters with a wonderfully angsty (and hilarious) dynamic and backstory that now lives in my head rent free. Kalim is the dorm head of Scarabia and Jamil is the Vice Dorm Head; however, much more significantly, Kalim is the wealthy heir of an influential businessman and Jamil is his servant/bodyguard (the Viper clan is said to have served the Al Asim family for generations, so Jamil was born into it). Jamil keeps a low profile because of his position, but well... you'll see.

This is Epel Felmier, Vil Shoenheit, and Rook Hunt of the Pomefiore dorm. Vil (centre) idolizes the Evil Queen to the extreme. He's top of his class in potions and poisons, and his nemesis is Neige Blanche (based off Snow White) from a rival school, Royal Sword Academy. Among my many favourite things about Vil, one of them is that he has absolutely no time for gender roles and, in fact, goes on a very passionate (iconic) rant about that "fossilized mindset" in Chapter 5.

This is Sebek, Malleus Draconia, Lilia Vanrouge, and Silver of the Diasomnia dorm. We don't know that much about them yet since their dorm-centric chapter hasn't been released yet, but I can tell you that the dorm head Malleus is a fae prince, able to transform into a dragon, and he's got quite a fearsome reputation across campus. He's a loner, obsessed with gargoyles, and likes to shake off his bodyguards (Sebek and Silver) to be alone in quiet, abandoned places, such as what Ramshackle Dorm used to be.

There's many, many more characters, including some key faces I haven't even mentioned. The ones above are just some of my faves.

TL;DR, you should check out Twisted Wonderland because:

It's inspired by Descendants and classic Disney villain stories

The character design is gorgeous and you're sure to see the influence of Descendants characters/storylines/aesthetics.

The worldbuilding is great! (It's more story than game tbh.)

The player is gender neutral and all relationships are platonic.

There's some gorgeous anime-style trailers and a music video ("Piece of My World"), plus a manga (only one chapter out so far) that could possibly lead to an English adaptation of the game and maybe even an anime some day, so it's a good time to get hooked.

The game is still in production (the Maleficent and Hades-inspired dorms don't have chapters yet). Something to look forward to!

The characters return to interact and build relationships with other characters even after their dorm-centric story is done, so the story actually gets better and better as the dynamics get more complex.

You can watch the story on YouTube (click here for playlist link); please note: at the time of posting, that playlist ends abruptly without finishing Chap 5, so you'll need to search the rest on YT.

@moorsgrimhilde and I are obsessed with it and we'd love for more people to get in on this because have I mentioned we're obsessed

#bunny-lou #moorsgrimhilde #<3 #twisted wonderland #descendants #disney #have I mentioned I love TWST today #for real though check it out y'all it's so good #I came for AU!Jaylos (Kalim and Jamil)#I stayed for EVERYONE #except Leona #who isn't mentioned in this because I hate him lol #anyway please feel free to talk to me about TWST at any time #this blog now works doubletime for Descendants and TWST #because they're two sides of the same coin as far as I'm concerned

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wistfulrat · 4 years

Text

a 4-part rec list of my fave drarry fics - the thrillers, dramas, soft bois, and wankbanks getting me through 2020′s shitstorm

[ for my fellow fledgling drarry stans! the drama list is here and, well. like i didn’t initially intend to go off in the mini-reviews beneath every rec but it’s just that you can't nOT yell about drarry as classic literary foils!! also it’s my dumb sideblog so i decided there are no rules and i get to be annoying about good writing.

but rly, the whole premise of the drarry pairing is shaped by this genre and if the ~serious world of serious published writers~ weren’t absolute cowards, they would admit that drama fic authors have contributed more to the genre than the average shit you can find at your local chain bookstore. so that's that on thAT. & if you love a fic here, don't forget to follow the authors, leave kudos & comments on their work, send them nice msgs bc they do all this shit for free xoxo ]

part 2: dramas

mood: for when I need emotional catharsis and maybe 7 hours to sob/brood about loneliness, the cost of love, & the perpetual fear of being truly known

includes: angst, hurt/comfort, reconciliation fics. it’s cruelty o’clock folks and someone is about to say/do something Fucked Up that they can’t take back. but don’t worry!! there will be a Reckoning feat. hamlet-worthy monologues, ugly truths, unbridled rage, trauma, insecurity, and just a fuck ton of tears!! but maybe even tender apologies and mended things.

(Un)wanted by @aibidil - 36k - E | Ginny's pregnant, then she's not and Harry's single. Harry, again with no family, doesn't know what to do with this turn of events, or how to find a new life—post-war, post-Ginny, post-abortion—in which he belongs. He doesn't expect that life to include dancing to the Backstreet Boys with Hermione and Draco Malfoy. A story of finding belonging in the unexpected. | --- can a fic be tender and unflinching at the same time? bc this story strikes that balance rly well and for a piece about unwantedness, it is incredibly humanizing. ginny holding her own, draco being gentle but not letting harry play victim, hermione calling harry “hazzah” and just the way this friendship insists on the validity of found families even when harry is spiraling?? and you’re forced to consider that no one has the monopoly on fucked-upness and that doesn’t absolve us of the ways we hurt each other but it means that everyone has the same potential to be better after being broken. goD JUST READ IT, OKAY.

Blood Magic, the series by @houseofhebrideanblacks and @thestralsofspinnersend 335k - E “Later that night. . .Draco wondered at the depths of magic, its breadth and scope. The ways in which life pervades and eludes death, the ways in which they endure all manners of small and large deaths within their lives.” -- if you don't read any other fic on this list, i hope you read this series bc holy shit it’s breathtaking. harry’s a recovering addict, draco’s recovering from abuse, and in a cottage within the forbidden forest begins an unlikely partnership as the boys take up the tedious work of healing. there are thestrals and everyone's in therapy. there are whole chapters of cottagecore drarry. it's a beautiful exploration of how we bare the immensity of loss against the miracles of birth and regrowth.

Ship of Theseus by GallaPlacidia - 18k - T “A ship in a full sail, a ship in a state of decay, a ship that had been rebuilt, slightly different. A repeating cycle. “What makes the ship the same?” asked Harry. “I don’t know. There must be something in it that lasts across the changes.” -- DO YOU KNOW HOW THIS QUOTE LIVES RENT FREE IN MY SAD, SAD BRAIN. DO YOU KNOW HOW I LOSE SLEEP THINKING ABOUT THE FUCKING SHIP OF THESEUS. it’s a memory loss fic and everything is so unFAIR. you want to murder harry sometimes bc he’s such a shiT and you suffer through the ways he questions desire, penance, redemption, true love. and by the end, you want to believe in those golden slumber lyrics: “once, there was a way to get back home”

Yours to Keep by @dracoismytrashson - 135k - E i love the university setting, i love getting to see harry and draco’s first forays into a real LGBTQ community, the class and race structures outside of the wizarding world. i love that this is the context in which they’re allowed to confront the shittiness of PTSD, anxiety, depression etc. as they come together and fall apart against each other’s traumas. it makes the ending feel earned af. “Baby, we’ve been easing into it for a decade.” -- my god this line

Away Childish Things by @letteredlettered - 153k - T this fic is devastating. like, completely forget whatever reticence you might have towards a de-aging fic and read this. the de-aging premise allows the author to cut through the ways harry and draco hold each other at a distance and you end up with these stunning moments of clarity where they’re truly seeing each other for the first time. and suddenly everything makes sense. i won't spoil it here but there’s a scene towards the end where harry is talking to hermione and ron about realizing the first time he felt what its like to be loved and I fucking SOBBED. an all-time fave fic about learning how to belong.

Had To Be You by @lettersbyelise - 59k - E a genuinely excellent slow burn about absolute fucking morons who refuse to express their mutual love over the course of literal years?? HOW MANY TENDER MEET-CUTES DO 2 GAY IDIOTS EVEN NEED. a car ride a bookshop a street corner -- when harry met sally is my enemy. but you know what? this fic is masterfully written, it’s an epic tale of unexpected friendships and the inability to say the things we feel. also its very much also a soft boi fic if not for the Major Fuck Up that pushes it into drama territory for me. so worth the turmoil tbh.

Hurricane by phrynne - 120k - E auror partners terrified of love. it’s a fic about walls - where the emotional landscape of this fic is occluded by dishonest words so you feel the tension play out in hollow voices, shuttered looks, emptied eyes. it’s like watching two ppl get flayed alive in slow motion and everything is SHIT for a little. it’s mean, it’s ugly, it doesn’t let you give the characters an out when they’re being cruel - to each other and to themselves. but harry and draco are two violent forces hurling toward each other’s walls and the inevitable reckoning comes and it’s so very worth the ending. the hospital bed scene to rule all hospital bed scenes.

Returning Tides by @zigster-ao3 - E “Is my timing that flawed? Our respect run so dry? Yet there's still this appeal That we've kept through our lives” --those fuCKing ian curtis lyrics in the summary!! p a i n. why do i put myself through getting-back-together fics knowing full well i’m gonna be Sad As Hell during the not-together portion of the story?? we are all unfortunately hoes for heartache. anyway this fic is beautiful. draco’s a dad and recently widowed, harry has a thestral reserve, the settings here are stunning. a story about grief and love that lingers.

A Piercing Comfort by @talithan - 44k - T “There is no objective scorecard. There isn’t anything that a person does that tips the balance from ‘deserving’ to ‘undeserving’, or vice versa. A ‘deserving’ person will not run out of worthiness after a set time of happiness and have to then go about working to deserve it again. And an ‘undeserving’ person does not have to suffer at length before having the opportunity to be ‘deserving’.” -- the heart of this fic. harry’s in therapy, facing depression, and learning how to accept love he doesn’t think he deserves. (also draco is harry’s therapist but yes, that power dynamic is handled ethically-well imo and addressed in the author notes I promise!!).

Borrowing Courage by @xx-thedarklord-xx - 70k - E |After years of being a Magical Artist and painting for other people, Draco decides it’s time to paint for himself for once. The secrets pile up as he tries to unravel the mystery of his relatives but the only thing he didn’t count on was having to go to Potter of all people for approval.| --god i love this fic. the thing about drarry here is that they never mean to hurt each other but they do. they do and draco’s trying to do the right thing and he wants so badly for good family but harry’s never rly stopped grieving sirius and it’s this whole unintended mess of festering wounds forced to heal. everyone needs a hug. also ron/blaise pairing and ron+draco’s friendship here is everything!!

Reparations and the sequel, Foundations by Saras_Girl - 320k - E | Harry is about to discover that the steepest learning curve comes after Healer training, and that second chances can be found in unexpected places.| -- incredible. harry and draco’s dynamic as healers, the cast of original characters, the boys learning what it means to trust each other, draco building a rehabilitation center, harry falling in love with him, and “meus fabula est mei ut dico: my story is mine to tell.” i cry

The Ties that Bind by phoenix_writing (not on ao3) - 61k - T | Upon Andromeda’s death, Harry and Draco are given custody of Teddy. Their lives will never be the same.| -- harry’s got major abandonment issues and he’s just trying to be a good co-parent with draco but everyone is being the woRST and you want to murder them on behalf of harry. but then, the boys learn to listen to each other and god it all becomes so tender. also harry has a gay panic. things are awful but it all works out. -

[part 1: thrillers | part 2: dramas | part 3: soft bois | part 4: wankbanks]

#drarry #drarry fic #drarry fic rec #drarry dramas #im so sorry if this got long but also #I have too many Thoughts #all I do is cry over two sad gays #its pain o'clock sweeties #time to Sob about the mortifying ordeal of being Known

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joonie-beanie · 4 years

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Meet my OM! MC - Bean

Yes, she’s a self-insert MC. But that’s why I’m playing the game so lemme live aljkdaksdl;

Also! Check out this commission of Bean by @/frujiko !

Name: Bean (June is her real name, but they refer to her as Bean most of the time)

Height: 5′8 (173cm)

Age: 23

Sexuality: Bi

Likes:

Sweet foods

Peace and quiet (w/optional soft music playing)

Food that involves noodles

Steak (medium-rare)

Easy-to-play video games (Mario Kart, Smash Bros, etc)

Reading/writing smut

Thunderstorms

Open communication

Dislikes:

Anyone who says that cats are demons

Hot weather

Nail polish (on herself)

Chihuahuas (w/Luke as an exception)

Confrontation

Sudden, loud noises

People who lack patience

Ocular headaches (she only wears glasses when she has one)

Relationships with the Demon Brothers:

Lucifer:

Thinks he’s the most beautiful man in existence.

Is immediately attracted to him at first glance.

However, she’s also intimated by him, so she never goes out of her way to make a statement of her affections.

Lucifer embodies pride, which is the sin Bean lacks most (especially with regards to self-image)--hence why she’s intimidated of him at times. Despite him being kind to her, she feels like he’s in a different league.

Therefore, Bean does her best to treat him normally--trying to be someone he can rely on, and be proud of. (She really loves making him proud).

Lucifer, of course, is aware of the little wall she puts up when around him. Like there are thoughts on her mind that she doesn’t want him to know.

He respects her distance, at first, but eventually attempts to figure out what it is that’s causing her to treat him more distantly than his brothers (yes, it bothers him).

Aside from Bean’s complicated feelings for him, she’s always reminding Lucifer to take care of himself, and asking if she can do anything to help out.

Since she loves to relax, she hates seeing Lucifer so busy all the time, so if anything, she’ll bring him a meal, or come and ask if he wants someone to make conversation with while he works. (He appreciates her greatly for these little acts of kindness).

Also, once Lucifer finally makes her walls crumble and elicits her true feelings, their relationship becomes more physical (sharing skinship like with his brothers, etc). And she is ESPECIALLY flustered by any show of affection from him.

He tends to use her real name 90% of the time, which she doesn’t have a problem with. (It makes their relationship feel just a little bit more special).

Mammon:

Bean thinks his stupid tsundere ass is cute and annoying all at the same time.

She’ll bully him a little bit, but will always follow up with affection, because she doesn’t want him to take her little jabs to heart.

Since Bean loves the casino, they end up being gambling buddies.

Unlike Mammon, however, Bean knows when to stop. Lucifer only allows Mammon to go to the casino with her 1. Because it’s the Devildom and he doesn’t want Bean going alone, and 2. Bean had promised him that she would make sure Mammon stops gambling once he reaches the end of his prepared budget.

Mammon feels comfortable talking to Bean when he’s not feeling the greatest. Or, rather, there’s no talking, but just him holding onto her tightly, or laying in her lap while she pets his hair.

Bean enjoys all forms of skinship, so she’s more than happy to give him cuddles, hugs, etc. The only time she gets annoyed is when Mammon interrupts her while she’s busy, or gets too clingy.

Overall, the two get along fairly well.

Levi:

Bean loves Levi.

She relates to him in a lot of ways--including being an introvert, and enjoying anime and video games. So, she tries to befriend him.

After the whole TSL incident--once things get worked out--Levi finally allows her into his life, and they become close quite fast.

While she doesn’t understand half the shit he’s talking about sometimes, she listens to him and supports his interests nonetheless.

At least once a week, Levi demands that she come over for a game night. Once his brothers pick up on the trend, they start showing up as well (which peeves Levi sometimes because he just wants to spend time with Bean).

Don’t tell him, but every so often, Bean will message the brothers who tend to show up (Beel, Belphie, Mammon), and ask them to not come to game night since “Levi is having me help with a dungeon run and wants peace and quiet”.

....he has never said that to her, but she knows he wants to have some alone time, and so does she, so Bean doesn’t feel bad making up a little white lie.

Also, she absolutely loves giving him affection. She honestly can’t explain her need to kiss him on the cheek, or hug him for a solid 10 seconds, but it happens fairly often once their relationship gets better.

Maybe it’s the way he blushes, and slowly begins returning all of her shows of affection? Yeah, that might be it.

Satan:

Their relationship revolves around literature, love of cats, and late night discussions.

Bean and Satan see each other as someone they can have a solid, intellectual conversation with, so sometimes they’ll show up at each others doors with a bottle of wine, and a topic in mind, and will rally the conversation back and forth until they’re too tired, or tipsy, to keep going.

Bean misses her cats back up in the human world, so Satan makes a point of taking her to cat cafes, or sending her stupid cat videos on Deviltube whenever he finds one.

Bean isn’t into classic literature like Satan, but once the demon finds out she enjoys writing, he becomes entirely too curious as to what, and eventually (after Satan wears on her enough), she admits that she writes smut.

Satan becomes her unintentional beta-reader, once she shares a piece with him, and he actually gives her very constructive feedback.

He promises to keep her dirty secret (hah) from his brothers, if she sends him what she considers to be her best stories so far (because he honestly does enjoy her writing).

At the end of the day, the two have a comfortable, friendly relationship, and really value each other. Simple forms of skinship between the two come as natural as breathing air.

Asmo:

Asmo is absolutely the self-care force in Bean’s life that she both needs and fears.

Despite his self-centered nature, he’ll be damned if he allows Bean to leave the Devildom feeling anything but confident in herself.

And so, in spite of the fact that in the beginning, Bean wants to run away from Asmo, eventually he manages to become someone that she feels she can confide in. Especially when it comes to her body-image issues.

She feels like such a burden when she’s having a bad day, but Asmo is more than happy to be there for her--whether she asks or not--and she really appreciates him for that.

She’s also more than happy to be Asmo’s doll to dress up, put make-up on, etc. and he loves her for that. Of course, he loves to do those things to himself, but it’s so much fun to have a willing subject.

The two also have a habit of giving gifts to each other. Bean gives Asmo a gift to thank him for his kindness towards her, and then suddenly they’re in a constant back and forth of never ending gift giving. (It’s honestly really sweet).

And when it comes to skinship, Asmo is very open--giving hugs, kisses, etc. And whenever Bean initiates skinship with him of her own accord, he honestly melts a little.

Beel:

BIG TEDDY BEAR. Oh, and food buddy.

Bean wants to cuddle with Beel literally whenever possible. She loves walking up and being able to hug him with her face pressed between his tiddies. Because she’s tall herself, knowing a big boy like Beel excites her so much.

And of course, Beel loves all of her hugs, and shows of affection. He accepts them all with a smile, and is more than happy to reciprocate.

One time, Beel picks Bean up during a hug, and she gasps. Beel immediately worries if he had hurt her, but she just says she’s not used to anyone being able to lift her up, and Beel then makes a point of lifting her into hugs. He also gives her piggy back rides when appropriate, and her heart is so full for him.

They also end up going out to eat together quite a lot. Beel wants to introduce her to all of his fave Devildom foods, and Bean happily goes along with him.

If there’s ever a day where Bean’s self-image isn’t the best, Beel will make sure she doesn’t skip any meals. And if she expresses the want to change her diet, or start an easy exercise routine, he’ll be more than happy to help her out.

The two tend to go on evening walks together--since it’s exercise done in good company--and Bean appreciates him a lot.

Overall, the two are very affectionate and casual in their relationship with one another.

Belphie:

Low energy pals.

Literally will lay in bed next to each other on their DDD’s, sharing memes, and talking about random shit.

Bean quickly becomes Belphie’s new favorite pillow once the whole stuck-in-the-attic chapter is done with, and their relationship improves.

She’s a little shy about it, but Belphie honestly loves her squish. Perfect for napping.

If Belphie finds Beel and Bean cuddling, or hugging, he will absolutely add himself into the equation with zero hesitation.

Bean is someone that he can talk to without feeling judged, or like she’ll rat out his negative feelings to his brothers.

He really appreciates her willingness to accept him despite how he’d manipulated her, and hurt her in the past. In turn, Bean hopes that she can continue to be a light in Belphie’s life, and that she can help him continue to grow and change (despite him being thousands of years older than her).

The two tend to hang out in the planetarium together frequently.

Also, Bean will wake up to random messages/memes from Belphie that he sent at an ungodly hour while the rest of them were busy sleeping (and she loves it).

If anyone has any questions about Bean, her relationships with the brothers, or other characters, how she would react in certain situations, etc -- please feel free to send me an ask about it!! 👉👈

SFW or NSFW topics are okay!

#obey me #om!#obey me mc #om! mc #oc #bean

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