#both films incredibly overated and incredibly toxic

[martini-garnish]

So I've been throwing ideas about Vox at @bigfatbimbo for a hot minute, specifically factoring in his relationship with Valentino because they are toxic and manipulative and so incredibly non-exclusive lmao. But some things are too long to be asks and y'all Did vote for freak behavior on main lmao

(Like every other scenario I wordvomit onto the screen this is definitely based around an oc but I'll be generic with it lmfao)

18+! NSFW! Minors do not fucking interact Please!

So Val sucks, we know this, we know. Please note Vox also sucks. That does not get acknowledged often enough he is also an asshole. What I'm saying is there is no way he wouldn't use a side piece to get under Vals skin.

It's word of Viv that outside their relationship they're both very dominant, but with eachother it's a toss up and, inevitably, a fight for power every time.

Here's where this new partner comes in, especially if they're someone petty, vindictive, and or willing to take shots at Val. Because wouldn't he just hate to see something he has to fight so hard for get offered up on a silver platter to some Fucking Nobody? Of course he would.

So Vox let's himself get dommed. Kind of. He plans it, of course, lays out Exactly what's going to happen. He's pulling the strings, he's in control here, he won't let them forget it, but Val doesn't need to know that. The plan of course is to film this encounter and "accidentally" leave it playing somewhere that Valentino will probably definitely "accidentally" come across it. See someone else getting the easy submission he can't have.

The problem arises when Vox, stripped with his hands tied and someone, sometimes, being gentle with him in this state, realizes he likes this a little too much.

A lot too much. He's stopped reminding them to stay on script. He's forgotten to moan instead of whine. They tell him he looks so perfect like this, he's doing such an incredible job. And the scripted scene is out the window because he's fucking whimpering.

The more they praise him the more he forgets what this was for in the first place. That the point wasn't originally being told how stunning and brilliant and gorgeous he is while being touched so softly it almost aches. He didn't plan out begging for more, please fucking more because he's getting close before they even start paying attention to his cock. As soon as they do its practically over, he bluescreens, buffers, glitches, practically sobbing when he cums so hard it knocks out power in the entire section of the building.

Once he's back in his head he can't believe he knocked out the fucking camera, that was the whole point, now they'll have to set this whole thing over again. Friday? Does that work? Maybe sooner? It's really too bad he lost the footage.

(Of course he didn't, it autosaved up until the black out. But they don't need to know that.)

#unsafe for work #hazbin hotel x reader #vox x reader #hazbin hotel vox #yes this is a Merlot scenario thats been floating around in my silly little brain #thank u bimbo for giving me the confidence to write about this shitty tv guy also #i get nervs

[thefrogdalorian]

The Best of Both Worlds

Din Djarin x Female Reader Modern!AU

Summary: When a new Star Wars TV show called The Mandalorian premiered, you found yourself completely enamoured with the titular character. Enjoyment of watching the lone bounty hunter travel through the galaxy quickly turned to obsession. There was just something about the show that captured your imagination. Now, you spend much of your free time — when you're not working a fast-paced, minimum wage and incredibly stressful job at a prestigious London Museum— speaking to your online friends about your love for the show. There's just one thing... Despite how much you love The Mandalorian, no one knows the identity of the man behind the helmet... either in the show, or in real life. You only know him as Mando. No one has ever seen his face, no one knows his name.  Even after the countless hours of speculation from fans online, which even you have occasionally participated in, no one is any the wiser to the identity of the mysterious man who wears the shiny armour.  Surely, given the depth of your love for the show, you'd recognise if the man who you spend so much time obsessing over online was to ever cross paths with you. Right?

Content Warnings: Reader is AFAB, uses she/her pronouns and in her mid 20s. Age gap between her and Din is noted but not really central to the story. Grogu is human, hints of past trauma/child abuse before Din adopted him are mentioned but not described in detail. Some mature scenes later on in the fic but not explicit smut... because I just cannot write x reader smut! Author's Note: SO very excited to finally share this fic! Thank you to the lovely @suresnips for being my beta. I really appreciate you ♡ This baby was originally my NaNoWriMo 2023 project and was inspired by this post from @toxic-seduction that I saw one evening and couldn't stop thinking about! POVs will alternate chapter to chapter from Din to reader. It was fun to write that way! Set in London for a few reasons: partly because I love the movie Notting Hill and it has some of those vibes (if you squint), also, the village where Din lives is based on Elstree Studios just outside London, where the OT was filmed and ultimately because NO WAY was I writing a modern!AU set in the states, it would've been painfully obvious a Brit wrote it. While there are lots of references to places in London, I don't live there so it might not be truly accurate (Londoners don't come for me). Also, to be political for a sec, reader works at the British Museum and I hate that institution. This was actually the line of work I was interested in when I was at Uni but for many different reasons I did not pursue it. However, it works for the plot of this story and as you'll see, she doesn't exactly love it either and goes on a few rants. Just wanted to make that clear that her job there is not an endorsement of it or anything. I can't stand them or their historical apologist bs and I wish we would give back all the things we stole (including the Parthenon Marbles)! Finally, it was incredibly important to me that the actor behind Mando in this fic clearly be the fictional character of Din Djarin rather than the real person Pedro Pascal, because rpf is not my jam! I hope I did that pretty well but just wanted to warn that if you're expecting me to use Din as some kind of way to write a Pedro fic, this won't be for you! Okay, I'll shut up now! This fic is fully written, just needs editing so hopefully I'll get a couple of chapters up each week, but life happens. I'm very proud of this one and I really hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it! Also if you would like to be added to my taglist for this fic, please let me know! Happy reading ♡

❁ My Masterlist ❁ Read on AO3 ❁

Why Does It Always Rain On Me? [Reader POV]: After a dreadful day which saw you drenched by a rainstorm after leaving a hectic day at work, you reflect on your love for Mando and upcoming excitement for the sci-fi convention you will soon be attending with your internet best friend.

He Is My Only Priority [Din's Pov]: The character of The Mandalorian is known and loved by millions. But there is another, much softer side to the man who portrays him that Din Djarin is determined to keep hidden from the world, despite the challenges that presents for him and his beloved son, Grogu.

This Is Why (I Don't Leave The House) [Reader's POV]: Your internet bestie arrives in preparation for the Star Wars convention you will attend together. Everything is set for the greatest weekend of your life! Until you arrive at the con and find yourself overwhelmed by all the crowds and noise. At least you have numerous incredibly realistic Mando cosplays to distract you from how stressed you feel, and there's one in particular which is uncannily accurate...

Curiosity Killed The Cat [Din's POV]: Despite his reservations and against his better instincts, Din heads to a Star Wars convention that he was invited to. Although he fears that his cover will be blown, curiosity gets the best of Din and he can't resist attending a panel. But Din doesn't exactly find the answers he was looking for. Instead, he finds something far more precious. Something that he would never have expected...

He's So Tall (And Handsome As Hell) [Reader's POV]: Being back in the real world and returning to work after an incredible weekend at the convention where you had so many fun experiences is taking its toll on you. The thought of collapsing on your couch in front of The Mandalorian is the only thing keeping you going. However, the universe has other plans for you. News of an out-of-hours tour for a private client that you are asked to lead almost sends you over the edge, but when you finally meet the man, he is the opposite of what you were expecting. Weirdly, he seems familiar...

With A Little Help From My Friends [Din's POV]: Din returns to the set of The Mandalorian to begin filming a new season. Despite his experience and capability, he finds that he struggles to focus as his thoughts remain firmly fixed on a certain someone...

You're The Sunflower [Reader's POV]: Despite feeling certain that you'll never see the ridiculously handsome man you gave a tour of the museum to, a special delivery is about to change everything...

Your Face Hung Up High In The Gallery [Din's POV]: After a difficult few days of filming The Mandalorian, Din is excited to spend time with you as he finally takes you on your first proper date...

Have I Known You Twenty Seconds or Twenty Years? - (Reader's POV):  Despite a messy evening which led to you waking up in an opulent hotel which you have no memory of falling asleep in, memories of kind brown eyes and breathless kisses soon come flooding back to soothe your soul. Your relationship deepens as the two of you spending time together whenever your busy schedules allow. But one night, a turn of events causes you - despite Din's reassurances - to wonder if everything you have been working so hard to build together has just come crashing down around you...

There's A War Inside Of Me - [Din's POV]: The realities of the secret he is keeping from you begin to weigh heavily on Din's mind and he seeks advice from a certain curly haired co-star on what his next move should be. Things don't go exactly according to plan, not least because of the typically awful English weather...

It Could Be Love, We Could Be The Way Forward - [Reader's POV]: With your respective busy jobs keeping you and Din apart, a mystery date after a hectic day at work is exactly what you needed.

The Calm - [Din's POV]: When filming overruns and conspires to keep Din from the fun weekend he planned for you, he agonises over his decision. Fortunately, he manages to salvage the weekend, even after a calamity involving a rowboat...

P.S. - I tried to be inclusive for all body types and skin tones in this fic, but if I missed something, I do apologise. If you do spot something that takes you out of the fic, I am more than happy for constructive criticism as I wouldn't want anyone to be excluded on those grounds. I am always trying to do better and would love to know where I went wrong so I can improve and be more aware of these things going forward, so I would appreciate it if you could let me know if you do spot anything. Thank you so much! ♡

#my fics #tbobw #din djarin fic #din djarin x reader #din djarin x you #the mandalorian x reader #mando x reader #din djarin #pedro pascal characters #the mandalorian fanfiction #pedro pascal fanfiction #pedro pascal #pedro boys

[rewritingcanon]

i’ve seen relationship therapists and psychologists analyse hermione and ron’s relationship and conclude that they wouldn’t work out in the long run. they’ve argued for hermione to be with harry, krum, even DRACO (don’t understand how a counsellor can vow for canon dramione but alright) as an alternative partner for hermione since ron is “too insecure” to be with her and match her intelligent prowess or what have you.

i seriously don’t understand this sentiment. ron and hermione genuinely seem (almost) perfect to me, maybe not in the movies (a common denominator of people who don’t like romione is that they always cite evidence from the movies, since the films took a lot away from ron’s character and his growth), but definitely in the books.

looking at ron’s insecurities, a lot of people dredge his inferiority complex up to toxic masculinity primarily, when it was more explored how it was an effect of his home life (not gonna argue toxic masculinity wasn’t a factor, they’re teenagers in the 90s written by a pretty misogynistic woman so…). he was the youngest son out of how many children? all of his older brothers were brilliant in some way. bill was an extremely gifted spellcaster, charlie was gifted with magical beasts, percy’s academic score was unmatched, and fred and george (despite their trouble) were entrepreneurial inventor-geniuses. ron, on the other hand, was quite literally born a disappointment to his mother, who conceived him specifically because she wanted a daughter, whilst ginny was born her favourite (though, even then, ginny was gifted at quidditch). ron was mediocre in every sense of the word, and his two best friends were harry (one of the most famous wizards) and hermione (the smartest witch of her age yada yada). and i’ve seen people argue that harry was more welcomed by molly into the weasley household than ron ever was. this isn’t even mentioning the amount of bullshit he copped for being poor (people always downplay the blow to confidence being in poverty can have on a person who is constantly surrounded by people who not only have more, but look down on him for simply being unlucky as to not have what they do).

so yeah, ron was an envious kid, but he was that way not because he was an evil patriarchal conception but because he was lowkey neglected. and even then he was overall an extremely devoted and loyal friend to both harry and hermione, because he did genuinely love them.

there were many moments of ron standing up for hermione that was cut from the films, not as a guy who was romantically interested in her, but as a friend. ron arguing with snape for making hermione cry is one of my fav scenes in the books ru kidding me, and in the movies he AGREED with snape RU KIDDING ME. not to mention how ron was a sobbing violent mess when hermione was getting tortured in the last book, whereas he wasn’t nearly as bothered in the films. and the films cut out harry being a dick to ron about his familial concerns (in dh), so when ron left it seemed like a random dickish move over his jealousy towards harry and hermione’s relationship.

there’s also a million moments where they minimised ron’s usefulness in the books for comedic purposes (forbidden forest with aragog, troll scene, devils snare scene) so ron seems dumber than he is. like, he’s actually smart and a really good spellcaster…. in the books.

so simply by stating this most of the arguments against romione become void. “he’s too stupid/weak for her” simply not true. “he’s a terrible friend who doesn’t stand up for her” also not true. “he’s too insecure to have made a move on her,” yes, but given the context i don’t think people would freak on about ron’s upbringing, i think many would be more understanding, especially considering his growth. even if he wasn’t insecure, hermione is beyond incredible and is bound to make anyone nervous when pursuing her (not an excuse for ron to act like a dick, but it does explain a lot where the movies don’t). “they argue too much” they bump heads, none of the arguments they have are actually super damning, with the exception of ron leaving in deathly hallows.

maybe i’ve covered everything (excluding the abhorrent amount of classism that clouds people’s judgments around how they view ron when harping about how hermione deserves better? hopefully).

now, i know people won’t like me mentioning the cursed child, but i’m going to considering we actually get an insight of their life as a longterm married couple there. a lot of ron stans hated how ron was the only character that wasn’t doing something incredible. harry was head of the aurors, ginny was a famous quidditch player retired to a famous journalist, neville was a hogwarts professor, hermione was quite literally minister on magic. and ron…. ran the joke shop with george.

and i think this was almost the perfect route to go down for ron. because he was average, and was perfectly fine with just being average. hello?? that speaks leagues of growth for his character. he’s supportive of hermione’s work, he grounds her when she gets too caught up in being the literal president of wizarding society, and he still viciously defends her, minister or not. in fact, he’s proud to simply be known as hermione’s husband because he doesn’t feel the need to prove to anyone else his worth. the people he loves most know his worth, hermione never downplays or underestimates him, they are complete equals in the relationship in every single way that matters. they kept ron’s best qualities whilst making him seem more of a healed person. they work so well as a married couple without it seeming like mischaracterisation (not to mention the cursed child literally shows how those two are in love in every reality, so there quite literally can’t be a better partner for hermione or ron according to canon).

so i really don’t understand how professional relationship counsellors can go online and denounce it. probs because they only watched the movies, but it’s 2023 and ron stans should not STILL be fighting for their lives trying to defend him from people who simply don’t consume media with as much depth (which is fine, but one should clarify if they’re talking about the movies because i’ve seen people state they’re talking about the hp BOOKS when it’s simply just…. the films). anyways. romione on top, thanks to coming to my ted talk.

#buts thats just a theory. a GAME theory #next ted talk i’ll talk about wolfstar and why fanon wolfstar can suckkk in so many ways simply bc the fandom characterises remus as a dick #didnt mean for this to turn into a ron defender post but it did. #most romione-antis cite ‘ron’ as just the sole reason as to why theyre romione antis in the first place loll #its been a while since i read the books tho. like seven years since. so if i get anything wrong just lmk #harry potter #hp #romione #ron weasley #hermione granger #lavender brown #severus snape #anti dramione #draco malfoy #pro ron weasley #cursed child #ootp #molly weasley #bill weasley #percy weasley #charlie weasley #neville longbottom #ginny weasley #fred weasley #pro romione #george weasley #viktor krum #hp gof #deathly hallows #rewriting

[copperbadge]

If its not too personal could you talk about what was the inspiration for Michaelis? He's got a lot of depth to him, especially for what could have been a one off character in the background after Fete. Also the way he mourns but carries on really resonates with me in Jes.

Oh sure! I mean, on the one hand it is quite personal but it's a kind of personal I really enjoy sharing. :D Michaelis began life as the Standard Hallmark Parent -- you see them a lot in the movies, the parent who is

1. Kinda grouchy

2. Usually pushing their kid slightly too hard in slightly the wrong direction (with the best of intentions)

3. Often a widow/er

4. Practically a cameo designed to stress out the lead, but easily attractive enough that they could be romantic lead themselves in the sequel.

There are actually several Hallmark films where the over-sixty characters are either the supporting romance in a one-off film or the main romance of a sequel film. (The Wedding Veil films, which despite their flaws are actually very enjoyable, have a Michaelis-like character for the mother of the male lead in the first movie, and she then becomes the major supporting romantic lead in the fourth movie.)

By the time I got to Michaelis talking to Eddie at the end of the script for Fete, I'd grown to really like him. When I adapted the script to a novel, I liked him even more. I thought that I could do a sequel with him getting jolted out of himself a bit -- and I was encouraged by how many people liked him in the initial read through. The main inspirations for the actual plot of Infinite Jes were, one, Gregory jokingly suggesting he do a podcast, and two, Michaelis's defensive dismissal of Gregory's question about what he's done for companionship since Miranda passed.

Over the course of writing Infinite Jes, he came to be a collection of themes I've explored or wanted to explore, sometimes themes I knew I wasn't skilled enough to handle yet. The core of him is based on a professor I worked with as a student; the confidence that occasionally tips into arrogance, the keen intellect that likes to take things apart, the ability to look at some toxic family traits and decide "RIP but I'm different" and be a present, nurturing masculine figure, all come from that professor, who had a huge impact on me.

But I have also been fascinated for decades now by a certain kind of character in fiction, someone who has had a devastating loss and keeps going, even if they aren't driven by something like revenge. Profound grief is difficult and fascinating for me, and I finally felt capable of exploring that fully, perhaps because the pressure on romance novels is a bit lower at times.

And honestly, a lot of him is me, processing the fact that I am aging in fandom. I'm older (44) than the oldest person I knew in fandom (38) when I joined it at the age of 14. I have, for lack of a better word, a position in fandom, a status, that affords me certain perks and requires of me certain obligations. Not to call myself elected king of fandom ("I didn't vote for him!") but the duty I feel to fandom, both as a culture that raised me and a found family, is very similar.

Most of my characters contain some of me, but Michaelis and Jerry contain far more of me than most, perhaps because I'm in a place to do some reflection. Michaelis -- intelligent, experienced, hopefully a mentor, but also lonely and detached at times -- is who I'm coming to grips with being; Jerry, the charming fuckup with power but no real clue how to use it, who is doing his best to grow up a little later than a lot of his peers and figure out how disability fits into his identity, is who I still see myself as.

So yeah -- I find Michaelis incredibly fun and compelling to write for, and I think that's because I had hit a skill level in my work where I could combine a lot of tropes and themes into one character and use him to explore why I enjoy them so much. But he definitely began life as the Hallmark Widowed Dad. :D Well, there are worse origin stories.

#shivadhverse #writing

[the-blue-fairie]

Let it Go is the REMEDY, not the sickness.

Since the first film came out, the song Let it Go has been incredibly beloved... but there has also been criticism of the song since the first film came out - whether from people who felt it was just too overplayed (it was, but that is not the fault of the song itself) or people who felt it set a bad example because Elsa was too "sexed-up" (she's breaking free of decades of repression and the film itself does not unduly sexualize her) or from people who feel that Let it Go is Bad, Actually because Elsa is using the unhealthy coping mechanism of self-isolating.

I want to talk about that last criticism some more. Because it's wrong - and I already wrote a short post discussing why it's wrong yesterday, but I want to elaborate on that.

This criticism seems to frame Let it Go as "more of the same" for Elsa - doing the same thing she's been conditioned to do for years by shutting Anna out.

This is wrong. Elsa's actions during Let it Go are her BREAKING THE CYCLE that her upbringing and trauma has trapped her in up until this point.

You can see her pushing back against the way she was raised at the start of the song. She's frustrated, she's angry, and she has every right to be angry.

Don't let them in, don't let them see Be the good girl you always have to be Conceal, don't feel, don't let them know Well, now they know

Elsa is pushing back against the teachings that have only heightened her and her sister's pain, against the strictures that have stifled her and suffocated her and forced her to walk on knives for over a decade. This is a good thing.

Elsa is healing.

Elsa is finally able to take hold of her life on her own terms, and that does her more good in a night than years of, "Conceal, don't feel."

She is taking her first steps towards loving herself.

She is recognizing the beauty in herself.

This is a good thing.

Let it Go is the remedy, not the sickness. The sickness is years of learning to hate yourself. If anything, the problem is that years of toxic conditioning and living with trauma are not going to be broken in a night (and they are not, as the rest of the film shows), but why are people judging Elsa for trying to break free of that conditioning?

And the people who frame it as, "Elsa was running away from the consequences of her actions" are also wrong. What was she supposed to do? The people are terrified of her. A nobleman from another land is screaming that she's a sorceress and a monster:

It makes SENSE that she would run away. Can she expect them to suffer a witch to live? The Duke's exclamation of, "Sorcery!" highlights that there's a hatred of magic/witchcraft around. This was obvious even BEFORE Frozen 2 came out and showed Runeard and other Arendellians' distrust/fear of magic.

Some people also claim, "But her running away shows she's still letting fear control her." No, it's much more complicated than that. Yes, Elsa is afraid, but why do people blame HER for being afraid and not the people who are disturbed by her and the man calling her a monster? Being afraid, in this context, is a good thing. It is not the same thing as Elsa fearing herself/hating herself just for existing. That is the bad kind of fear - the fear that the trauma of the accident and her parents' teachings have left on her.

And can I just say this? Why is there such a double standard in the way a subset of the fandom approaches Elsa and the way the fandom approaches Elsa's parents/the trolls?

When people point out the mistakes these authority figures made when Elsa was a child and the way her parents' teachings hurt both sisters, others rush to defend them with statements like, "They couldn't have done anything differently" (debatable), "They loved their daughters and never meant to hurt them" (true, but they still hurt them), "Elsa's trauma comes from the accident, not her upbringing" (this shows a fundamental misunderstanding of how children interact with the world, and if you think over a decade of being taught to hide who you are from the world won't have an influence on a child, you're wrong.)

But, at the same time, people scrutinize every flawed decision Elsa made in a moment of extreme crisis to criticize her, even when some of those flawed decisions make sense in context or are the product of how she was raised.

Why are people so quick to blame the victim of years of misguided teaching - who was a child when she was first trained to hide who she was and isolate herself and who had these teachings reinforced to her throughout her childhood, but absolve the adult authority figures who raised her that way?

#frozen #elsa #let it go

[deramin2]

Review: Bottoms (2023)

Bottoms is a sapphic teen sex comedy about two unpopular lesbians that start a women's fight club at their high school to try and hook up with cheerleaders after a series of miscommunication and escalating lies to looks cool. Hands down one of the funniest movies I've ever seen. And one of the smartest.

It's plot is absolutely wild, but it captures normal teen emotions so honestly. It both embraces the tropes of classic teen comedies (especially of the 1980s) while subverting them entirely. Everything is a little too big and off the rails in a way things feels when you're a teenager going through all this for the first time in your life. Magnified by the systemic injustice of being a young woman in 2023. It really captures that feeling of surviving high school feeling like a life or death struggle.

All the adults are failing these kids in unique ways. So literally and metaphorically the kids are teaching themselves and they don't know what they're doing or how to stay safe or how to keep things from getting out of hand. Even when an adult is explicitly supposed to be watching over them or is gone to for advice, the kids come away only knowing not to be like them. I love how Mr. G embodies misogyny and fake allies in it for themselves. His apathy and desire to cover his ass allows this to get started. The coming of age lesson is that the girls are going to have to figure out how to save the world because the adults aren't coming to save them. There's a comradery in that.

The characters feel so complicated and alive. You could make a whole film about any one of them. All with their own hangups and ambitions. The film pokes fun at them but also sympathetically understands them. Except the football team and their supporters who very much represent toxic masculinity in a cishet patriarchal society that glamorizes violence. But with a cartoon violence energy.

They threaded some incredibly tight lines here. It faced some tough subjects head on but with so much humor. The jokes you've been waiting for someone to pull off for years.

Great film. You should watch it. Queer people continue to be the funniest filmmakers on the planet.

#queer media #media review #bottoms film #bottoms 2023

[babybubastis]

Ok. We need to talk about this.

⚠️ (Spoilers for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever below!)⚠️

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It’s incredibly disheartening (and somewhat alarming) that there seems to be no room in fandom for any kind of nuance. I’m going to talk specifically about the Black Panther fandom and what I’m seeing/experiencing occur between Shuri x Namor shippers and some other users in the fandom. There are users on here who are, unprovoked, actively tagging and seeking out and harassing other fans for shipping the pairing. Real quick, a little personal context: for those of you who don’t know, I’m black. It has been especially demoralizing to see this type of activity occurring between black women in the fandom. I’ve seen the blackness of some fans who ship Shuri x Namor be called into question. I’ve seen fans be called clowns, and anti-black, and sick, and all manner of things. And I guess my question is: Why?

Why, as a black woman in fandom, am I not allowed to love a particular black female character, and also ship her with another character without facing harassment? Those two concepts — 1) caring for Shuri as a character and 2) wanting to see her courted and desired by the attractive (admittedly toxic) male antagonist — don’t have to be mutually exclusive. IT CAN BE BOTH. And that, contrary to some people’s beliefs, does not make me a bad person.

Wakanda Forever is a complex and beautiful masterpiece, teeming with commentary about colonialism, anti-blackness, white supremacy, grief, anger, vengeance, religion, mother-child relationships, and so much more. Why is it impossible for me, as a complex person who has complex interests, to want to talk about those more serious topics AND gush about Shuri’s interactions with the charismatic antagonist who treats her as an equal? There is clear romantic subtext in Namor’s early interactions with Shuri. The entire sequence where Shuri is in Talokan reeks of Hades/Persephone, as well as other classic romantic tropes and gestures:

Namor allowing Shuri to be brought to his hidden underwater civilization,

Him commissioning a beautifully ornate custom dress for her to wear,

Him telling her about his history and giving her his dead mother’s bracelet,

Him happily showing her around his hidden kingdom

It was all very calculated on his part, I’m sure, in an attempt to win her over to his side. But there was also obvious chemistry between he and Shuri. Hell, Riri even spells it out for us, comparing the entire gesture of giving her the custom dress to Beauty and the Beast! So it is not nearly as far-fetched as some people want to claim to ship these two, to be intrigued by their dynamic. And it is entirely possible to be just as intrigued by that as it is to be moved by the bigger, deeper, more serious concepts explored in the movie. Again, those things aren’t — and shouldn’t— be mutually exclusive. To claim otherwise is doing a disservice to the entire film as a whole, and it’s doing a disservice to Shuri as a character. She is a grown woman, complex and broken and messy. This entire movie, while being a gorgeous and poignant tribute to Chadwick Boseman, was also very much Shuri’s story. Letitia herself said in a recent interview (that she did with Tenoch Huerta) that she loved this film because the audience is really getting to see Shuri explore her womanhood and maturity.

Shuri is no longer the precocious, quippy 18-year-old that we saw in the first Black Panther. Her character arc is extremely dark in this film. She loses, again and again. We see her express rage. We see her be stubborn, we see her grieve, we see her break, we see her hopeful, we see her stepping out of her comfort zone to save Riri and to save her people. We see her succumb to vengeance and then turn around and choose mercy. There is a wealth of complexity there just bubbling under the surface, and, like the audience, Namor is clearly drawn to her. He sees something in her that mirrors something in him. It is no coincidence that they both see their mothers in that final fight scene before Shuri commands him to yield. And it is no coincidence that, when Shuri’s mind is flitting through the recent sequence of events that led up to that final battle, she sees her mother’s drowning reversed, and right after that she remembers Namor smiling as he told her about his history and his people. She remembers that, underneath the terrible things he has done, he is a human being who does everything he does for the love of his people. I have no doubt that Namor was being calculating and manipulative in regards to Shuri. He saw the chance for an alliance with her and wanted to make it work. But he also clearly connected with her on a personal level. If that weren’t true, he would have either killed her or imprisoned her the second she rejected his proposal in that cave to join him in destroying the surface world. Instead, when Shuri stated that they needed to find a peaceful way to resolve their issues, he sat and was prepared to listen (until they were interrupted by Namora alerting him to Ramonda’s summons).

It’s so clear that Namor was drawn to not only Shuri’s intelligence and strength and wit and compassion, but also to her beauty and charm and passion. Namor is the first person we see treat Shuri as a true equal — as a fully-capable, formidable counterpart. Is it so wrong to be intrigued by that? To want to see Shuri come into her own in every way and to also want to see her desired as a potential love interest? Are black women not allowed to be intelligent and complicated and powerful and desirable?

I could go on and on about Shuri and Namor’s interactions. But I will say this: were these any two other characters in any other movie, there would be no debate. The fandom at large would be salivating over the subtext and symbolism and tension and chemistry.

There are so many reasons why this ship has so many people excited. It’s the first time we’ve seen a dark-skinned black woman as THE MAIN CHARACTER in this franchise have any interaction that even hints at something remotely romantic. It’s a ship between a black woman and a Mexican man. And the most glaringly obvious reason: it’s a toxic mess. It’s unhinged, it’s chaotic, it’s explosive, it’s dynamic, it’s dark. It’s complicated and messy in a way we’ve never seen Shuri get to be. The tension and conflict and messiness of it all is what makes it so compelling. We haven’t gotten these types of multi-dimensional, complex character explorations in this franchise for a black woman before, not on this scale, not in this context, to this magnitude. OF COURSE in real life the dynamic would appalling, at best. But THIS ISN’T REAL LIFE. What so many fans seem to forget ( or ignore) is that fandom, and more specifically shipping, is supposed to be a safe space to explore all manner of complex concepts — good, bad, morally grey, relentlessly fluffy, despicably toxic, etc. — in a fictional construct where NO REAL PEOPLE GET HARMED.

Increasingly in fandom, I’m seeing this very black and white thinking, that you can only ship one thing or the other, think one thing or the other, feel one thing or the other. All nuance is thrown out the window. But the thing is, life isn’t that simple, and neither are human beings. People fall in love with people they aren’t supposed to all the time. People are messy and imperfect and toxic and complicated. People can experience emotions and hold ideas that are often in direct conflict with each other. So why do we ignore this, in fiction, of all places? Why do we demand that all fiction be sanitized and only portrayed in one way? The new, unwritten rule in fandom seems to be, if you’re going to ship, it had BETTER be the morally upright, fandom-approved ship, or else you MUST face the wrath of the fandom gatekeepers.

That is wrong, and even dangerous, on so many levels.

Let me be clear: you have every right to not like a ship. You have every right to be upset or appalled or triggered or disgusted or angered by a ship. But those emotions and reactions are YOUR responsibility and no one else’s. It is very easy on this website to curate your own experience. See a ship you don’t like? Block the user, the tag, blacklist it, whatever you need to do. Because that is the rational thing to do. Going into a ship’s tags in order to seek out users and posts that upset you in order to unleash your childish rage because you can’t be bothered to learn how to take responsibility for regulating your own emotions is infinitely worse than whatever icky ships you don’t like.

No one in this fandom is shoving this ship down your throat. We are in the tags, minding our business. We’re gushing about our favorite pairing, having silly discussions about headcanons and AUs, while also having deep and nuanced discussions about Shuri and her character growth, and about the deep themes explored in the movie and how it all interconnects. The sad thing is that I’ve seen really excellent takes about Wakanda Forever from certain users that I agree wholeheartedly with, only to then, several posts later, see them unleashing all kinds of unwarranted harassment and vitriol toward other fans simply for shipping Shuri with Namor.

At the end of the day, I can’t change people’s minds. I don’t care if you like or don’t like the ship. I DO care if you bully and harass and dehumanize me and other people because you don’t like the ship. Again: THIS IS FICTION. A lot of things that people explore and enjoy in fiction are not things we would ever condone in reality. There’s a certain catharsis in seeing characters go through toxic and even dark scenarios in a controlled environment such as fanfiction. But we understand very clearly that that is not okay in real life. I would urge those of you who are harassing shippers to please develop some critical thinking skills and learn to differentiate fiction from reality.

Fandom is supposed to be fun. Shipping is supposed to be fun. Shipping is not activism, it is not politics. And it is not supposed to be a vehicle for your own personal hatred, harassment and bullying (although it too often is).

If you’ve made it this far through my incoherent ramblings, I appreciate you. This may have no impact at all, and maybe no one gives a shit about my experience or my opinion. And that’s fine. I just felt the need to say my piece so that I can go back to shipping and writing in peace.

#black panther spoilers #black panther 2 spoilers #wakanda forever spoilers #black panther wakanda forever spoilers #black panther: wakanda forever spoilers #bpwf spoilers #black panther 2 #wakanda forever #black panther wakanda forever #black panther: wakanda forever #shuri #namor #shipping discourse #black panther

[therese-lokidottir]

Okey it's pretty much sound like thor bashing but did thor ever really apologize to loki at all like 'I am sorry for leaving you', and no in thor 1 ,thor did not apologize for hins mistake, because next sentences after said 'i am sorry brother for whatever I did to you', that definitely sounds like he thinks he have no mistake to loki at all.

And for next film he not even trying understand what is wrong with loki, he just assume loki gone mad because he was jealous and delusional thinking his family didn't love him.

He only came to loki when he need him after that he just throwing him away. In dark world pretty much proof it by leaving his corpse on dying land.

Thor keep saying loki is betrayal him but he didn't realise thor already betraying him long before thor 1. Thor betrayed loki as brother.

Why I said that? Simple, as older brother he should the one protect him younger brother but as we can see loki is the one take care thor reckless behavior

2. Thor with foolish make fun of loki and let his friends to disrespect lokiand lead loki self esteem be low

3. As Prince and brother thor never protect loki physically or mentally, as prince he to open about hism family problem to his friends.

Thor maybe good warrior ot hero but he is not good person. Yes, he have flaws but in my opinion if he can't be kind and protect someone that really close to him in this chase is loki than thor is not worthy of being a brother.

You can say loki is not good brother but thor not good either, he have no right to demand loki to be good brother while himself no want be good brother either

Thor is incredibly guilty of not only not getting it but also never really even attempting to get.

Like, that apology in 2011 is at most a start. It is Thor recognizing that he caused harm but that is not the end of it. There needs to be way more than a singular apology. Now the time needs to be taken to understand what he did wrong and now change so he no longer does harm.

I don't consider TDW Loki betraying Thor, because Loki did fully hold up his end of the bargain and never tried to harm Thor or Jane, but I can accept the characters viewing as a betrayal.

But that's only two times Loki "betrayed" Thor And both times there are involved complicated reasons Loki did what he did. I hate how in TR Thor claims that Loki always betrays him. It's not only a over simplification it's just not true.

Thor can be very kind and can be a good person. But his relationship with Loki is very toxic because he has a need to put himself in the role of being the good one so he never sees his on flaws and mistakes. So the relationship between the brothers can never truly heal.

#asks #thor #loki #Be a better brother Thor

[loren91]

This blog is kinda new and I haven’t done a post like this before, but as someone who works with film, I have a lot of thoughts, and I’d like to go on a little filmmaking rant regarding Young Royals, or more precisely, the critique of Wilhelm’s character.

The past few years there’s been a trend in films to have the main protagonist be strong, flawless and morally perfect from start to finish. I’ve never really understood this, because that way you are actively blocking any opportunity for good character development. If you want a character to be interesting or undergo some kind of journey of growth, they have to start out in a somewhat bad place. As a viewer, I honestly find it a bit insulting too, because a filmmaker who doesn’t dare to take risks or write nuanced characters are essentially saying “I don’t trust my audience”, and that’s how you end up with boring films.

Now in regards to Young Royals and Wilhelm, I keep seeing critiques popping up across platforms, like “Wilhelm is selfish”/“he’s a bad person”/“he’s toxic”, even to the point of saying that the whole show is toxic. And in a sense, yeah, Wilhelm is kind of a bad person, and you can give all kinds of explanations for it. He’s a teen and a product of the environment he was brought up in. Considering the fact that both Wilhelm and August have grown up in the same kind of toxic upper class-elite culture, I’d be more surprised if he wasn’t at least a little bit of a douchebag (There’s a reason why they gave him an anxiety disorder, to make him more relatable and worthy of our sympathy) There’s a lot of expectations on him, from his family and his peers. And he’s terrified of the consequences if he were to break those expectations, that’s why he’s so complicit. But most importantly, his flaws are there for narrative reasons. 

If you want to figure out if a piece of work is morally questionable or not, you have to look beyond just one character. The million dollar question here is, are the characters rewarded despite bad behaviour?

Let me set an example here with 1984’s Ghostbusters (an odd one I know, but hear me out!) The romantic subplot between Peter and Dana is incredibly poorly written. When Dana shows up at their office, asking for help, Peter doesn't take her seriously and only attempts to flirt. He also stalks her and tries to pressure her into dating him, and despite her saying no several times over, he doesn't back off. Then at the end, when Peter and his team have saved the city from the big evil ghost, he thinks he deserves Dana as a reward. He kisses her (without checking for consent) and the film tries to frame this as romantic. Peter is rewarded despite his bad behaviour. I don’t care about anyone's nostalgia for this film, it’s gross af.

Now, let’s compare this to YR. Wilhelm is constantly going back and forth on his relationship with Simon. He keeps pushing him away, only to pull him in moments later when he’s too weak to resist his feelings any longer. Simon has a lot of patience with Wilhelm because he understands that he’s in a complicated situation. Also, red flags are difficult to see when you’ve got those rose tinted glasses on..

However, all of this is there really only to build up for one scene, the break up behind Simon’s house in ep 6. Wilhelm has hurt Simon several times over at this point, and he’s exhausted. But Wilhelm tries to ask for his reward anyway. 

“I’m really sorry, this was the only way. But, this doesn’t have to change what we’ve got. We’re still us.”

But Simon calls him out for it.

“You expect everything to be on your terms. You need to figure out what you want… You need to do it on your own, I don’t want to be anyone’s secret.”

Effectively telling Wilhelm that his days of avoiding responsibility and taking people for granted are over. Simon won’t stand for it anymore. Wilhelm is being punished for his bad behaviour.

Wilhelm is the main protagonist of the story, meaning we see the story progress mainly from his perspective. It’s really important to remember though, that just because a character is the protagonist doesn’t mean that they’re the hero. Wilhelm is certainly not a hero, but it’s still his journey of growth and self discovery, that’s what makes the story interesting.

We get to see just how much these boys love each other and how happy they are together, but their situation is too complicated and they are terrified, which leads to Wilhelm making some questionable choices. The script however makes sure that the characters pay for their less than ideal actions, and not just with Wilhelm. 

-When Simon attacks August because he refuses to pay, Rosh makes sure to call him out. 

-When Sara finds out he’s been seeing their dad behind her back and lying to her about it for months, she calls him out for it. 

-When August kisses Sara in the stables, Felice breaks up with him.

-When Wilhelm finds out August recorded the video, he disowns him.

And so on.

All of this stuff is really crucial for their development as characters. Learning through their mistakes. That’s why the last hug and love confession outside the church is so damn important, it’s concrete evidence of Wilhelm’s character development. He’s far from done, but that’s why we’re getting season 2! It’s most likely gonna be a rather bumpy ride, but the boy just needs more time. Who knows, maybe he’ll end up being the hero of the story eventually.

YR is so well done and I could go on for hours about this kind of stuff, but that will have to do for now, bye 😅

#young royals #Prince Wilhelm #simon eriksson #august #film theory #sorry for the rant #my analysis

[xxgothchatonxx]

Something I love about Peter Pan (2003) is that it's considered by many (myself included) to be the best on-screen adaptation of Peter Pan yet there's quite fair bit that isn't from the book BUT these additions still (mostly) keep in-line with the themes of the book.

Some (that I can recall right now) film-only additions include:

Aunt Millicent - seemed to be a replacement for Liza the maid, but mostly there to hammer in the message that while Wendy is not a young girl anymore, she is still a child so ffs quit making young girls grow up so fast!

George Darling being a complete anxious wreck - I mean, he was still anxious in the book but he kept it hidden under the stern father persona. But in the film, he was like that to create an even bigger contrast to Hook who is basically Wendy's nightmare father. And of course the wonderful moment at the end where he breaks down crying, which is from the book. George's arc can be summed up as "screw toxic masculinity standards - love your family and show emotion!"

Mary Darling talking about "the many different kinds of bravery" George Darling has - honestly, I was so convinced this dialogue was from the book because it sounds like something Barrie would've written.

Peter and Wendy's fairy dance - Peter questioning their dynamic as "it's only make-believe, isn't it?" while Wendy wanting it to be more than that.

Hook seducing (*dry-heaves*) Wendy - Wendy's attraction to Hook is in the book, but P.J. Hogan expanded on it in the film

The ENTIRE climactic battle between Peter and Hook while they're both flying - yeah none of that was in the book but it perfectly captures the tragedy of both characters. Also the dialogue Hook taunts Peter with "let us now take a peep into the future" etc. is taken from the book, just re-contextualized. (Nearly threw my book across the room when I realized it was Wendy telling the story- P.J. Hogan you are EVIL! I love it!!)

Wendy giving Peter her hidden kiss - Wendy and Peter don't have a romance in the book, so this is what I meant by 'mostly' in-line with themes from the book. But it still does connect to growing up so it's not entirely unrelated. And it's still a beautiful yet bittersweet scene.

So, I'm not saying these additions are bad because they weren't in the book. Far from it, I actually think they're some of the best scenes in the film! But I think that especially over the last few years I've been rethinking what makes a 'faithful' or 'good' adaptation. And it doesn't mean 'word for word from the book'. It's, well, adapting. These changes helped create an incredible film while still keeping the spirit of the original source material. So, scenes like these are just one reason why I think the 2003 version is the best adaptation of Peter Pan.

#peter pan 2003

[animesavior]

“There's nothing guaranteeing tomorrow. We could die today or we could die 60 years from now. Either way there's never enough time to do everything we want. With that in mind...I'm gonna...” -          Akira Tendou, Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead (Ep. 01)

The Toonami Trending Rundown for March 30-31, 2024.

With a zombie apocalypse striking Tokyo, Akira is freed from the toxic environment of his former job to complete his bucket list of things he wants to do, as Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead makes its premiere on Toonami.

On Twitter, #Toonami trended in the United States alongside Ninja Kamui, Zom 100, and Lycoris Recoil. #Toonami also trended on Tumblr.

This past Monday marked the 12th anniversary of “The Night no 90’s Kid Slept.” When on April Fools Day 2012, what was originally thought was another rerun of The Room turned out to be a sudden revival of Toonami after being cancelled for over four years. Thanks to incredible fan support, the block would be resurrected for real nearly two months later, which has now surpassed the lifespan of its original 1997-2008 run. Here’s to many more years of Toonami to come.

Last week, Toho Animation released a new trailer for the upcoming 7th season of My Hero Academia, which will begin airing on May 4th. You can see an English translated version of the trailer below. In addition, four special recap episodes titled My Hero Academia: Memories, will be airing weekly beginning on April 6 and through the weeks up to the season premiere. As with previous seasons, Crunchyroll will simulcast the new season and will be producing dubs for season 7.

Toho has also announced this morning that a new My Hero Academia film is also in the works. Titled “You’re Next”, the film will be premiering in Japanese theaters on August 2, 2024. Plans for a release stateside have yet to be revealed as of this writing.

On Tuesday, the anime world bid adieu to Funimation, as Sony has shut down the FunimationNow service (with funimation.com now redirecting to crunchyroll.com), completing its merger with Crunchyroll. Funimation is one of Toonami's long time media partners, going back as far as when DBZ first aired on the block in 1999.

And on that note, if you missed it, I posted an Op-Ed this week titled "The 2020’s Anime and Streaming Service Bubble Burst," as I look into the controversies regarding the Warner Bros Discovery merger, the Funimation-Crunchyroll merger, their respective effects on Toonami, and how what's going on with both could lead to another anime bubble burst, and one for streaming services overall.

Legend: The shows listed are ordered based on their appearance on the schedule. Show trends are listed in bold. The number next to the listed trend represents the highest it trended on the list (not counting the promoted trend), judging only by the images placed in the rundown. For the Twitter tweet counts, the listed number of tweets are also sorely based on the highest number shown based on the images on the rundown.

United States Trends:

#Toonami [#Zom100]

#NinjaKamui [Trended with #Toonami and #Zom100]

#Zom100 [#6]

#LycorisRecoil [Trended with #Toonami and #Zom100]

Tweet Counts:

#Zom100 [2,927 tweets]

Tumblr Trends:

#Toonami [#2]

If you wish to send me a tip for the work on the trending rundown, donations can be sent to PayPal.Me/DanielLimjoco.

Get Ready to Run for Your Life. Only Toonami on [adult swim] on Cartoon Network.

#Toonami #Adult Swim #Cartoon Network #Toonami Trending Rundown #Zom 100 #Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead #Ninja Kamui #Lycoris Recoil #Youtube

[ojcobsessed]

GQ: In the New York Post, you called yourself “the go-to guy for toxic men.” Was any part of you hesitant about playing another rich San Francisco jerk just a couple of years after The Invisible Man?

Oliver Jackson-Cohen: Not really, because I think that there's something really interesting in the complexities of these men. There are so many layers to them that you get to explore. I don't know if I've ever made a decision, specifically in the past, like four or five years, that has been about, "Oh God, how's this going to look?" I'd rather play someone like James than play the friendly neighbor, do you know what I mean?

The season really puts James through the wringer. I think we see him both cry and seem like he might kill someone in every episode. You've spoken about having a hard time closing the door on roles that are emotionally wrenching like this. Was that the case with Surface?

I think so. I'm probably a therapist's dream because there is a part of me that's like, "If it doesn't hurt, it doesn't count." I'm not interested in faking it. It probably sounds incredibly clichéd and probably a little bit fucked up, but I feel like I learn so much about myself by going through these emotional turmoils. I guess this one was taxing, but then every job is taxing to a certain extent.

TV shows don’t generally shoot in the order that we see. Given how much it changes over the season, what were the challenges for you and Gugu and keeping your characters’ relationship straight from day to day?

We actually managed to shoot most of the season in order, apart from Episode 6, where we just went away for three weeks, but even that was kept in sequence. It's the episode where James is telling Sophie everything about their lives [before the start of the series], and they were so generous that, by this point, I’d made all the decisions about the backstory, all of the little things that they'd done and that happened to them. And they let me just sit in front of Gugu, and they put two cameras on us, and they filmed us for, like, 45-minute takes.

I just improvised this whole story, but it was all the story that I knew. And it was the first time for her, hearing it. So that was incredible, to be able to start at the beginning — not too dissimilar to this documentary called Tell Me Who I Am, which inspired the show.

That level of collaboration is unusual in TV or film.

Yeah. I mean, I've watched the season once, like this [partially covering his eyes], but what was quite remarkable is that they've kept so much of all the stuff that we improvised as well. Working with people like that, who embrace what you bring to the table as much as being respectful of what you need to bring on their end, it’s very lucky.

Luke, your character in Hill House, has issues with substance abuse, and you've said you wanted to avoid clichés about it that tend to appear in pop culture. What research did you do with or around the recovery community to make sure that what you and Mike Flanagan created together was truthful?

Well, quite a lot. It was an interesting prep period, for Luke. When they offered it to me, I watched a bunch of documentaries. Then I thought, "No, no, no, this isn't the right way. I don't want to play an addict, because these are people." Playing Luke was not about playing a heroin addict. It was about playing someone that had been so deeply traumatized that he had no choice but to end up in this place, and that it wasn't his fault. No one fucking wakes up one morning and goes, "I know what I want to do.”

Let’s stay in the horror realm with The Invisible Man. It’s amazing how much I felt not just that there's a presence in the room with [Elisabeth Moss’s] Cecilia, but that it is specifically Adrian — it still seemed like you even when you're not on screen. Because it’s not always just special effects or a stand-in: you were there!

In that sexy green suit, yep. Lizzie is such an incredible talent and I just wanted to support that as much as I could. I mean, she's more than capable of doing it without me, but it just felt like the right thing to do all the stuff that I could do. I mean, some of the stuff were [stunt performers] doing it. I'm glad that you say that: we did want this constant looming threat, so I'm glad that it's achieved.

But that sexy green suit was horrific. Never ever say yes to green spandex. Ever.

You did a similar thing on The Haunting Of Bly Manor, in the scenes where Miles [Benjamin Evan Ainsworth] is possessed by your character, Peter. Do you ever get stressed out working with children, particularly on something that scary?

I think there's always a concern when you are working with kids: you don't want them exposed to anything. Ben and Amelie [Bea Smith, who plays Miles’s sister Flora] were just so incredible, and their moms were with them the whole time. We tried to make their experience as uplifting and as fun as possible. But with Ben, I would sit on set with him, and I would do the scene, and then he would copy what I did. Then I would just sit by the monitor, in his eye line. I mean, kids at that age, they're such brilliant mimics, you know what I mean?

Apparently I love to do stuff like that offscreen. Maybe I shouldn't be an actor. It felt very, very important for the story, as with Invisible Man. Whether or not people will notice that, I don't care, but I feel like all this minutiae hopefully adds up to something in the end.

When I was going back through your older press, it was impossible not to notice the dates on all those pieces about The Invisible Man: it really was the last big movie to come out pre-COVID, and your first big splashy Hollywood movie. What was it like for you to have the movie and lockdown happen right on top of each other?

It was mad. Like, it was really quite mad. I remember getting home from the press tour and then four days later the world shut down. But it was exciting in a weird way. Even as quarantine was happening, I remember Universal pivoting quite quickly to say, "We are going to release this at home and people are going to stream it for like 700 bucks.” It became this thing that people were doing, watching at home even though it had just come out.

So I feel so proud of that movie. But my dad just had passed away, and three days later I went on a press tour for The Invisible Man. The whole press tour, it was like, "What is happening?"

Then I got home. The movie was this huge success. My family was a mess. And then the world shut down. From March to September was such a bizarre time — for everyone, of course. That's why when the quarantine lifted in September and I went and did The Lost Daughter, it came at such an important time for me personally, with what had happened that year. It was life-affirming stuff, being in Greece with all these people that I respect so much and just having a laugh — and being with any people when we hadn't been for so long.

Your director on The Last Daughter, Maggie Gyllenhaal, is, of course, a prolific actress. Leigh Whannell also has a background in acting. How does it change your process when you and your director can relate as peers in that way?

It's like a completely different language that's spoken, because there's such an understanding. Maggie’s a phenomenal actor, but I think an even more phenomenal director and writer. She said this very early on: "I hire people that I trust. So whatever it is that you are going to do, it's going to work, but what flavors do we want to bring?" On set, she's like, "Why don't we do this? Why don't we do this? This is nuts, but why not?" And so it becomes this playful thing, this quite fun exercise.

One day on set — it's a small thing, but it was post-lockdown. My dad bod was in full swing. And then I got to Greece and was like, "Oh, shit." And I was like, "No, I feel like my character just, like, wears tank tops all the time." And then we got to set and Maggie was like, "You look great. Why don't we try it without that? You look great." She's been in this situation so many times, and knows what it feels like. And so she’s able to approach her actors with such care, which is not always the case, you know?

I think we've covered all your darkest roles, so let's move to a very light one: Mr. Malcolm's List, which is out now. You had previously played the same character, Lord Cassidy, in a short film version. Had you followed the project’s journey from that iteration to feature film?

[Director] Emma Holly Jones I'd met because she was a hostess at a bar in L.A. when I was living there. I was like, "Oh my God, you're English. Right, let's be friends." I was 22. We were babies. And so she called me in 2018 and said, "Listen, there's this movie that I'm trying to make, it's just a short, will you come and help me out?" Of course. And then she was like, "We're making it into a movie." And I feel like you hear this quite a lot: "No, we're going to make it into a movie." And then she fucking did. I'm so incredibly proud and happy to be a part of it. I think it's important to champion first-time directors, and specifically first-time female directors.

Is Regency rom-com a genre that you spend a lot of time with as a viewer or a reader?

Not really, but I think that was the appeal. I've done this Emily Brontë movie, which comes out later in the year. I knew nothing about Emily Brontë or Wuthering Heights — or very little. It’s the same with something like Mr. Malcolm's List. I'm familiar with it all, but it's not in my wheelhouse. So there was something very exciting about jumping into those worlds, and they're so fun.

Given the rough stuff that you do most of the time, how did it feel knowing this was coming up on your schedule?

I loved it. Like, I really, really loved it. Because I went from The Lost Daughter to Malcolm's List and then went into this Emily Brontë thing, which is pretty harrowing. So it was this magical moment. There's something really incredible about being able to go to set every day, and your main focus is to figure out what makes you laugh the most. Working with Zawe Ashton, who I think is comedic perfection, it was just such a joy building that dynamic [with her character, Julia] of utter co-dependence — these two cousins who need each other but hate each other.

#oliver jackson-cohen #oliver jackson cohen #mr. malcolm's list #zawe ashton #lord cassidy #adrian griffin #the invisible man #emily movie #james ellis #emma holly jones #maggie gyllenhaal #the lost daughter #leigh whannell #luke crain #the haunting of hill house #the haunting of bly manor #peter quint

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

Kind of an add-on, but I've been observing the response to the INSIDE OUT 2 teaser.

I haven't seen this kind of response to an upcoming Pixar movie in a while. Where it seems like the film/toonsphere on the internet is united in anticipating a Pixar movie... Because ELEMENTAL, LIGHTYEAR, and TURNING RED got all kinds of jeers from various (and largely toxic) swamps of the internet. But it seems like there's no complaint about INSIDE OUT 2...

Anxiety seems to be the film's Grogu. People are already falling in love with the character and especially her funky design. I see praise for a female Pixar character that isn't all perfect-looking or overtly "feminized", a man's idea of what a female character looks like vs. a funkier-looking male character. I think Anxiety's design, and what we saw in TURNING RED and such kinda steer us away from Lasseter's very "boys' club" Pixar, or as one person on twitter once put it, "For dads, by dads".

Also, a lot of us suffer from anxiety, myself included, so for a lot of people this character will be super (forgive me for using this word) relatable. First film was basic primal emotions: Joy, Sadness, Anger, Disgust, Fear... And in this film we have a literal mental illness with Anxiety.

This film will singlehandedly cure Disney's animation box office blues. WISH is also apparently tracking very well and will likely outgross ELEMENTAL domestically and maybe soar above it worldwide, too. It costs around the same amount, so $500m should be the floor here. ELEMENTAL just barely missed that, but Disney top brass considered it a success while the praise lauded its leggy run as a "comeback story".

INSIDE OUT was massive back in 2015, and made some incredible numbers for an original movie not based on any pre-existing IP. Performed similarly to the likes of FINDING NEMO and THE INCREDIBLES, made well over $800m at the worldwide box office. With the 9-year wait and the astounding amount of trailer views? Easy billion right here. Perhaps Disney and Pixar knew what was on hand, and probably delayed ELIO - previously set to open this coming March - all the way to summer 2025 for that reason. (That, and - supposedly - to have some time to fix its story troubles. Post-strike, they can get the voice cast back now. Again, if that's all true.)

While box office is largely silly, it'll be cool to see a Pixar film not "flop" again. ELEMENTAL barely checked out, so INSIDE OUT 2 will be their first bona fide smash hit since... TOY STORY 4 all the way back in 2019. A sequel, no less. Hey, remember how the surprise appearance of Forky in the TOY STORY 4 teaser had the internet a-blazin' for a brief bit? Anxiety gives that kind of energy. Maybe a good secret weapon is a neurotic, jumpy character? (Thinking back to it, that TOY STORY 4 teaser is *brilliant*.) It's why people tend to talk about panic attack scenes a lot. I think the generations from millennials (mine) on down are more upfront about their mental health struggles, and the lot of us love to see it represented in some way or another.

From the teaser, I can't quite say much about Anxiety other than love that incredible design. I wonder if its portrayal will, in some way or another, really hit me hard.

As for later Disney-released theatrical animation, I'm going to be curious to see how they go about original stuff. ELIO would've given us an idea of that if it had come out in March 2024 as initially planned, but now post-WISH, we'll have to wait 'til Disney Animation's presumably-original movie comes out in November 2024. It'd be a little disheartening to see only a bunch of sequels (this, TOY STORY 5, ZOOTOPIA 2, and FROZEN III) do well while the originals have trouble.

Worth noting that the biggest animated movies domestically are largely franchise favorites or adaptations of beloved properties. Illumination's SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE reigns supreme with over $570m followed by SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE and MINIONS Deux, both of which made over $360m respectively... And then well behind that is PUSS IN BOOTS Dos with $185m, and then SING 2 above $160m. ELEMENTAL is the biggest original so far with $154m. Worldwide's a different beast, as ELEMENTAL outdid PUSS IN BOOTS 2 in overall global gross, for example.

But WISH doing good (with, say, $180m+ domestic and $600m+ worldwide) followed by INSIDE OUT 2 easily breaking the big billion will make for a nice upward trajectory for Disney-released theatrical animation... So that would make WDAS #63 the interesting one to follow. Does that repeat WISH's success? Does WISH's box office inform WDAS films going forward? We shall see.

[rewritingcanon]

teddy and victoire headcanons because they are such an ‘it’ couple to me:

fairytale sort of love

like teddy would transfigure themselves to look like a prince when they were super young because then vic would get upset at him because how could they be a prince whilst she couldn’t be a princess? and then teddy would just say ‘but you’re already a princess vic’ and yeah. literal disney-like childhood friends to lovers

when teddy went away to hogwarts for the first time victoire was absolutely distraught, and even more so when she found out out he’d been sorted into hufflepuff because she was convinced she would be in gryffindor since she’s a weasley (surprise! she wasn’t!) and got immense separation anxiety

so everyone knew they would get together and that it was only a matter of time, and fleur, being the romanticist she was, was obsessed with teddy.

like if victoire brought any other person back home fleur would be polite but there was always that hint of coldness towards them because why aren’t they the golden-hearted punk enby vic’s been so clearly in love with since she could process what love was????

teddy and fleur are like that rough, has a cracked tooth, part time tattoo artist who constantly smells like nicotine and the pristine middle aged french woman who has casually acheived milestone successes in her youth and always has her hair and makeup done pair and they just binge watch sad, terribly-written romance films together because they are both extremely sensitive and LOVE cliches

also they do each others makeup and victoire gets very sheepish about it sometimes

victoire and teddy were both heartthrobs at school and they had major game, so they didn’t have much trouble getting partners. suprisingly enough they were never that toxic ‘seething-with-envy’ pair of friends. they were actually quite supportive of one another, if not confused at why they got sad sometimes when seeing the other with someone else

james will claim he found out first that vic and teddy were in a relationship, but it was actually dominique, who is leagues better at keeping secrets.

victoire is high strung perfectionist and teddy is a concentrated chaotic mess, but instead of it being a peeve to each other, they simply balance each other out

teddy used to have dreams of victoire leading up to the moment they realised they were in love with her, and sometimes would wake up morphed as her and become incredibly confused (having gender identity issues was not helping their situation)

teddy gets victoire into philosophy, victoire gets teddy into curation. no one ever thought they’d see the day where either things were possible

victoire has an incredibly grumpy designer persian cat called Camille and she only has a soft spot for her and teddy

after a really long and stressful day at work (victoire’s a sub manager in st mungos), teddy will take down vic’s ponytail, and gently brush her hair out as she relaxes on the couch.

teddy is just overall being great spouse material, i could go on about this point by i would have to make a seperate post

its the tattooed blue-haired bruised-knuckles punk x preppy pastelle pink 2000s fem aesthetic couple

its staying up in your room painting your nails or flipping through an old magazine with your cracked phone crammed between your face and shoulder at night as you slowly fall in love with your lifelong best friend over the phone, and you don’t even know it, because this had been going on for years.

teddy fell first, victoire fell harder

this is a couple that wears big chunky platforms and sleek shiny heeled shoes ONLY

teddy is a huge flirter whilst victoire tends to get flustered more easily, but their dynamic switches when it comes down to each other, making victoire the flirty one and teddy the shy one

victoire’s love language is acts of service, teddy’s is all five because he’s perfect (words of affirmation mighttt just top however)

that’s all because this post is already so long. lmk and request if anyone wants hcs on any other couples!

#i feel so passionate about them i could write an essay on their love story #i could write a BOOK #should i #no i got to focus on one thing at a time #but srsly i will have to do a part 2 because i only pulled thoughts at the forefront of my mind for them but ik theres so many more #yknow i deleted like seven points because this was too long LMAO #harry potter #hp #tedoire #teddy lupin #victoire weasley #cursed child #hpcc #harry potter and the cursed child #harry potter next generation #harry potter next gen #rewriting #genderfluid teddy lupin #edward lupin #fleur delacour #james sirius potter #dominique weasley

[dollarstoreartsupplies]

i lowkey would totally be interested in your richie and stan dance moms au lore. I read that fic ages ago and now can't get richie and stan being dancers out of my brain. especially because im a dancer myself

Richies strengths are performing (obviously), but i also think she would have this super cool and unique quality to her dancing while stan is super technical. and i think stan would struggle with a perfectionistic mindset (ugh dont we all) and sometimes lose her artistry while richie is relaxed and genuinely just dances for enjoyment, not really caring if shes not completely technically sound

(btw you are such a talented writer i could read ur writing forever. and you characterization skills are so fucnjkh good)

(Here's the fic for reference btw)

Dude, homie, bestie, my dear like it’s so STUCK IN MY BRAIN because like?? I in general am of the opinion that gals Stan and Richie were in dance classes as little kids together, because I think it’s fun, and I ALSO think they’re the two funniest characters to throw onto reality television? Like,,,, come on?  

(Also like I’m Bad at describing dance for a person who dances so unfortunately there isn’t nearly enough dance info forthcoming in this as there is in my brain)

SO the basic timeline and lore built out in my head is:

Age 2: Richie and Stan start dancing at the ALDC in those baby ballet classes, Andrea and Maggie become friends sitting in waiting rooms and tiny Richie and Stan baby bond INSTANTLY, so they’re best friends immediately 

Age 8: The show starts filming, and it follows the actual real life incredibly fucked up dance moms lore where everyone thought they were signing up for a short documentary style thing about dancing and got locked into YEARS OF TELEVISED CHILDHOOD TRAUMA

They’re in a one year contract at first, which then gets upped to a five year contract once the show starts picking up, so six years in total that they’re REQUIRED to be on the show.

Stan genuinely is very invested in dance and both her and her parents specifically put a lot of weight in her being successful (without meaning to be kind of fucked up about it), and she’s an only child with a stay at home mom who can spend all her time on Dance, so that’s why they sign on

Richie is pretty much Gonna Do What Stan Is Doing and is generally having fun (-ish) with the being a minor celebrity of it all because she’s Nine Years Old so she’s down

She does have one older sister but she’s way, way older (18 when Richie is 8 kind of vibe) so she’s going to college by the time the show begins and therefore Maggie and Went feel comfortable committing to it

(There are some episodes where Maggie isn’t there because of Richie’s sister and Abby thinks she’s a bad mom because of it and says it a lot)

It’s also important to note that they’re just normal people being intensely manipulated by production to sign on

At the start of the show A La Maddie (DISCLAIMER: i refuse to write any semblance of real person fanfiction, Abby doesn’t count because she fucking sucks, so decide on ur own if the normal real dance moms girls are there or there are just other random Dance Children) Stan is very much the golden child who Always wins and Always gets very good solos because she’s abby’s favorite

Their solos are mostly Ballet and Lyrical because they are technically incredible and a very pretty dancer

HOWEVER like you said she is SUCH a perfectionist (mood) and takes every loss REALLY personally, so it becomes a sort of toxic fandom mindset that she is a spoiled brat because they cry a lot and have panic attacks over not liking how a dance went (FILMED LIVE ON FUCKING TELEVISION AT EIGHT! WUH OH!) 

Richie is sort of set up to be a Jojo type character, where she’s REALLY REALLY fun to watch dance and a ball full of energy but because she’s so Much all the time the producers end up painting her as very, very rude and sort of lazy brat

But she’s a fantastic performer, which is crazy important in dance, and it’s not like she’s BAD she’s just not super technical? Which actually sometimes works in her favor because she ends up being a really a super versatile dancer

Jazz and musical theater are her Big Two but she’s pretty much good at everything except ballet because WHO IS? (Stan)

The dynamic is basically Stan is a incredible dancer but really just at certain styles (idk if I’m describing this well but she’s very much the kind of dancer you watch and think Wow She’s Good At Dancing and Doing This Correctly) and Richie is very much a jack of all trades master of none

They’re very good at duets though because Richie gets Stan to loosen up and Stan refuses to let Richie Not Practice Constantly

Richie’s coasting the bottom of the pyramid WEEKLY even when she wins because of her ‘behavior’ and Stan is usually at the top

Generally the production team tries to frame the two of them as enemies because they’re SO different that it makes good television for perfect, ballerina Stan to be constantly butting heads with obnoxious brat Richie but they’re genuinely such good friends it Does Not Work

One episode is set up to sort of push the Hate Each Other narrative in season one where they give Stan a really cheesy, big performance jazz number and Richie a really, really technical ballet number, expecting it to be a big competition and fight but instead they just help each other practice and cheer each other up when they get upset

Stan wins the first nationals, obviously

Age 9-10ish: By the second season it sort of starts to pick up in intensity and both of them start to get homeschooled/setschooled and the show becomes their entire lives, which is Bad

By this point both of their mental health isn’t Awesome but Stan is really not doing great, especially because they’re so anxious the social media perception is really getting to them, and her mom is trying really hard to get out of their contract, but they’re stuck. 

Stan and Richie (along with their moms) decide they’re both leaving together the second their contracts are up.

Someone else from their team wins nationals second season but because Stan is so in her head about everything she gets like fourth, which is also Bad For Her and the narrative starts to slightly switch from ‘golden child’ into ‘is she Still the golden child?’

Age 11: THIRD SEASON, though, Richie win’s nationals and Stan gets second, which like… isn’t supposed to happen

(Fun actual Dance Moms fact: pretty much all the competitions are rigged but nationals are Less Rigged like they’re tilted in their favor but the judges are a little more real)

Abby is PISSED and basically tries to make it seem like the judges messed up scoring or it was a mistake and it’s one of those Famous dance moms scenes because Abby is basically saying that Stan should have won because she is better and Richie is clearly very genuinely upset (which doesn’t happen a lot she’s very good at like making when she’s upset a joke when the cameras are around) and Stan fully stands up to Abby and calls her out on her bullshit 

After that the whole energy skews more against Stan where suddenly production is airing a lot more of the little insults they usually cut out specifically for Stan to try and push the agenda that Abby is unfairly nice to them

Everyone sort of blames Richie for it a lot of the time, though, and the two of them probably have a thinly veiled duet called like The Bad Influence 

Age 12: Abby really fucks up and says something Genuinely So Bad (and probably Pretty Antisemetic im ngl because have you fucking watched dance moms?) to Stan so production literally cannot make them stay legally, like with Kelly situation, where it could get them into actual trouble so Stan and Andrea are allowed to break their contract and leave the show

The show runners cut most of the argument out and edit it to seem like it wasn’t Abby’s fault

Richie and her mom try to follow but because it’s a specific situation that wasn’t aimed at Richie they aren’t allowed

They both know they’re leaving when the contract is up but there's still two years stuck on the show without her immediate best friend support system and it really sucks

People make a lot of sad edits about it and Richie thinks it’s really funny but also it's genuinely the crux of why she's QUITE so mentally ill (in general being hated by abby was never good for her but once Stan leaves it's ROUGH)

Age 14: Richie’s off the show, she knows she’s gonna be off the show, so she like fully flips Abby off in the dressing room after nationals and storms out with her mom and the show honestly just keeps it in because it’s good tv to have a big reason like that to explain why she left

They worked it out so Stan and her mom are waiting outside and they drive them home and hang out and it’s a good time :)

OTHER LOSERS LORE:

Richie and Stan were best friends with Mike from before the show and they went to school together/continued to post both of them leaving the show

She’s in One (1) episode for two seconds at like a party or something and Richie and Stan pretty much Just Post That Scene when they’re older, like if someone asks them about their favorite moment they’re like oh yeah when mike was there

She’s got a big social media following from the two of them and thinks it’s hilarious

They meet the rest of the losers in college

Bill and Mike are college roommates who are crushing hard on eachother so she becomes their friend through Mike

Stan and Ben are roommates and Ben is dating Bev so that’s how they become friends

Bev was a childhood Dance Moms stan, like ran a fan instagram account and went to meet ups because I think that's really funny don’t worry she’s better now

Bill and Eddie have been best friends since elementary school so she gets dragged to a lot of their hangouts and is completely and entirely unaware that Stan and Richie are like c-list celebrities for a WHILE

tbh this is like a very train of thought bare bones explanation but do with it what you will :)

#dance moms au #fem richie tozier #fem stan uris #this might be illegible idk

[doberbutts]

Your takes on men's issues are usually so great but I really need to disagree with you about the deposition trial. Amber was not taking advantage of systems designed to protect women. She filmed herself yelling at Johnny, "Tell the world, Johnny, tell them, 'Johnny Depp, I, a man, I'm a victim too of domestic violence". That is her taking advantage of a sexist society that believes men can not be victims of domestic violence. This sexist belief does not protect women. --

-- Additionally, the trial found that Amber maliciously lied about being abused, which is absolutely a thing that happens. It was a civil defamation case. Amber believing her statements to be true, even if they were proven to be false. Amber used the same edited picture to "prove" busing in two different DV incidents. This is lying. It's not about proving if DV did or did not happen, it's about lying. I hate the idea that this sets anyone back because you have to provide proof. --

-- Amber and her lawyers could have just NOT provided false and misleading evidence. Those assertions just completely ignore that she did that. I'm just so baffled because you're usually on point. There are a million things Amber and her legal team fucked up and this case is so specific to the defamation, being a defamation case, that it as no relationship to average people, and I say that as a victim of DV myself.

"much younger ex-wife" the inclusion of this detail also makes me think that you are falling for the idea that being younger and being a woman prevents one from being an abuser. Amber's exs say she abused her, Johnny's exs are shocked he is being called an abuser and came out to sing his praises. What happened to believe women in that case? Also, it's not "refusing to let go of his incredibly toxic marriage" when your ex's lies and literal defamation black ball you from your industry

- in addition to the "refuses to let go of his incredibly toxic marriage" it takes years for this stuff to go to court because that's how court works. I hate the idea that in committing to go to court for say, my landlord refusing to give back my security deposit I am "refusing to let go" just because that process of small claims court has taken over a year now. I am shocked and disappointed but I do hope my words might provide insight you might consider.

Imma be honest here you sent me like 5 anons about this and if you really feel that passionately you should put your money where your mouth is and actually reply to me on the post rather than hiding in my DMs where you can annoy me with the worst possible faith reading of my post.

As said, if Depp is the victim here then he is a flawed victim, and the same is true for Heard. Both of them have quite a few skeletons in their closets, both of them have hit people in the past and that is on record, and both of them have practiced some sketchy behavior both within their marriage and also on the stand. I'm not going to ignore that just because I believe male DV survivors get the short end of the stick in these conversations.

And, to be honest, I think Heard knew she lost the trial the second that recording played. I think we all knew how that was goispng to go once we heard it, because no matter what context she puts in it, that's pretty damning evidence that she at least knew the system would favor her for being a woman because the system by design is intended to protect women from violent men. I also think Depp's team was overly aggressive while cross-examining Heard on the stand, and I really really dislike the memes especially on TikTok mocking her testimony. I was surprised Heard's lawyers didn't advocate more for her when Depp's team was questioning her. Much of Depp's testimony was based in hearsay and cannot be used as evidence- as shown by the amount of times the judge sustained the hearsay objections. And, from an outsider's standpoint, her team seemed to be really bad at what they're doing. If that's the team that won her and the Sun that libel suit in the UK, I have a lot of questions about the UK court system. How did either one of them get hired on such a high profile case, fucking yikes.

Also you do understand that the first paragraph would be if Depp had lost the case, and thus that's why it's an uncharitable view of him, correct? Because if he'd lost the case then yes, it's a man with a lot of power and status continuing to harm his spouse with far less power and status, some of which you gain by age, outside of the context of his marriage rather than letting it go and fessing up to what he did. If Heard had won, that's what that would have proved. Acknowledging that isn't spitting on anything you weirdo. Like it or not, a significantly older partner with a significantly younger partner often has a power imbalance and most of the time that power is on the older person- and I say this as someone who has dated people more than 15 years my senior.

Listen. You seem like you like Depp and you know what, I enjoyed the first three Pirates movies and a lot of the 90s/00s movies he was in. I have a really good memory of a Depp marathon I had with a friend in high school where we watched everything we could possibly get our hands on of his. And if he really was abused, that sucks and I'm glad he was able to get away from her and I hope more men see this case and are emboldened to come forward with their own stories. I'm also not really loving what I'm seeing from his fans in regards to Heard, and I'm not loving the "BUT THE EVIDENCE" precedent, because for many many DV survivors the evidence is simply not going to look at them favorably.