#hannibal spoilers /ish?

[cherub-esque]

.:BLOG INFO:.

General:

Amanda

she/her, woman-ish creature, 28 and ageless

located in the Midwest, USA and maybe your dreams, nightmares even, under your fingernails and under the leaves

What The Fuck Is Wrong With Me: autism, it’s the autism website, grew up in a white buddhist cult, my hair is green, my brain is leaking

What The Fuck Is Right With Me: queer, left handed, definitely alive somehow

this blog is not for minors!!!!!!!!!

Content:

the beautiful and grotesque, religious iconography and art (though i am agnostic), erotic art and tasteful nudity, celebrations of the queer experience, miscellaneous

if any art i want to reblog is uncredited, i will take the time to try to find the artist and credit them. fuck off with that "it ruins the aesthetic of my blog" shit. and pinterest is not a valid source, oh my god. the website pinterest did not create that art.

Queen and Freddie Mercury (not always tagged, you will suffer)

Good Omens (spoilers tagged as #good omens spoilers)

Hannibal on occasion (spoilers tagged as #hannibal spoilers)

also free palestine 🍉

#i did not intend to make myself sound like a corpse #oops #pinned post

[gogetyrshovel]

fic rec friday 17

for all my pride, you were the fall of me by nobetterlove (13k, e)

summary: what if, after being released from the BSHCI, will grabs the dogs and the can't live without and leaves without a trace? instead of sticking around to help jack take hannibal down, will runs across the country to fort worth, texas, where he finds a home and a job training dogs. everyday, he waits for the signs of hannibal's presence, worrying over the old wounds and confusing memories. what happens when Hannibal finally finds him?

the moth and the dark by emungere (7k, e)

summary: one of them has to bend. hannibal decides it should be him.

i am what i see inside of you by sweetnsimple (6k, t)

summary: hannibal leaned back and looked out the window. “do we talk about teacups and time and the rules of disorder?” He glanced at will. will held his hands in his lap. “the teacup’s broken,” he rasped. will almost said, It’s never going to gather itself back together again. He almost asked, why did you save me? he almost said, i’m not going to miss you. he said, “what can you do to fix it again? there is no abigail hobbs to bring back from the dead, hannibal. what could you give me now?”

notes: digestivo (3x07) canon divergence, short and sweet but still incredibly well-written

eat, go birding, love by theremin (e, 25k)

summary: after pied piper's disastrous launch, richard goes traveling

notes: so those of you who've been around longer than november 2020-ish will know that i wasn't always a hannibal/horror blog. my old url was gayforbio and i was one of like. 3 people worldwide who talked about silicon valley hbo on this site. anyway it's a great show and a great parable for the tech industry in general but my ofc my gayass has to wear my grubby little gay glasses when watching anything. also zach woods played jared that way on purpose. anyway. major spoilers for all 6 seasons in this fic.

#hannibal fic recs #fic rec friday #hannibal #will graham #nbc hannibal #hannigram

[marias-wonderland]

Spoilers about the “Inside man” on Netflix and its similarities with SoTL (specifically Hannibal’s character and his relationship with Clarice)

TL;DR: I think they drew inspiration by the movie when it comes to grief’s and Beth’s character and while they are completely different media and cases, they were an enjoyable duo I wish we had more time to see together, because it would have been an interesting concept to explore more (especially if they shared some more common elements with Hannibal and Clarice)

Alright so: lemme tell ya I liked the show. Could have been better? yes. Did I still enjoy it and had a blast? absolutely! That being said: I couldn't help but notice a familiar pattern with Grieff’s Character/Beth and Hannibal/Clarice

Everyone’s keep talking about how Tucci’s Character was Sherlock-ish (well thats what happens when the writer of Sherlock writes more shows ig) but in my eyes he mostly was Hannibal-ish. 

Grieff wasn't all that ironic as Sherlock was throughout the show (kinda), and he wasn't trying to ‘show off’ either as Sherlock did. He also didn't solve the cases with the help of some rather deux ex machina clues (like Sherlock did sometimes) He was mostly reversed, stoic, calm, ready to point out the hypocrisies in one’s morals and enjoyed helping Beth discover the clues for her case (don't these things remind you of Hannibal?). Beth is also an ambitious young woman, a journalist who writes about crimes in general, who is dedicated to what she does.

episode 1:

Her first meeting with Grieff had SoTL vibes. His indifference at first, then starting to take a like on her. Her trying to figure out how to ask the right kind of questions but also making sure she's respected and calling him out whenever she feels she should. And when he revealed that he chooses his cases based on ‘moral worth’ feels like he shares a piece of himself (perhaps a more vulnerable one?), smth he wouldn't do unless he knew she was a ‘decent’ human. And as dilon said “you liked it, you talked a lot”, smth that neither of them would do unless they found an interest in the other person

Episode 2:

Episode’s 2 little game of ‘would you rather help your friend or get more material for your job?’ felt smth like Lecter would do too. I didn't expect her to choose the latest but then again, it’s not like they were bffs.

Also her going all around searching for clues with him on the phone, directing her and being pleased when she finds the solution? definitely smth Lecter would do to, had he being in prison in 2022 and not in the 80′s. And again, I enjoyed their banter. And their little talk at the end, him making fun of her moral codes while she just saw the woman who was the murderer running away?? I found it funny tbh

Episode 3:

Morag’s speech during ep 3 was also a nice touch. Making sure Beth never forgets that after all these, Grieff is a monster (Just like what everyone kept telling to Clarice, both the media and her closer environment). Her determination to continue her job/finding Janice im sure pleased Grieff (as for why he wanted to listen to her reaction on the phone: the man loves playing games)

Episode 4:

Episode’s 4 opening scene has similar vibes, explaining hard to grasp concepts in a simpler way. And him sending the men of his ex father-in-law to the vicar’s house, in a pretence he had confessed where he had hidden his wife’s head, so he could help Beth? ingenious and Lecter should take some notes tbh

On the whole:

While I recognise this was not 100% intended by Moffat, I would like to believe he drew some inspo by SoTL and Hannibal’s relationship with Clarice.

It was obvious they were never meant to be like them (let alone how their relationship developed in the Hannibal book) but, for sure it felt refreshing to watch something that shared some common clues with one of my favourite couples in media. Especially with a couple we are not going to watch together in the big screen because of copyright issues...

#so yeah #I ramble sometimes #I spent an hour writing this #mostly because I rewatched the scenes between these two #no im perfectly normal why are u asking?? #please don't get this post in the way im shipping the or smth #god forbid no #It just was a pleasant surprise to see smth I like in media #smth which reminded me of clannibal #of course smth tells me im on my own on this one... no wonder!! #but I would like to read what you people think too!! #inside man #inside man bbc #SoTL #silence of the lambs #the silence of the lambs #hannibal lecter #clarice starling #jefferson grieff

[kal-culator]

Super random, but what's your favorite movie and movie genre?

Any you recommend?(Especially if its horror-)

I don't really watch that much movie anymore but if I gotta pick it's definitely the Cars movie series. Whether it be the first, second or third, I've watched it to moon and back 👍 (don't ask why I don't know why honestly I just like it)

For genre I think uhhhhh, psychological thriller, sci fi and action? I guess something that can make your heart thump and curious but with a hint of lore (which is probably why I don't really like horror; sometimes the reveal of what the 'ghost' are is.. Anticlimactic to me.)

I don't really have a horror movie suggestions but I do have a series suggestion:

Try watching Manifest on Netflix (or anywhere really)! It's a psychological horror, thriller, and drama-ish? Basically 190 passengers take off on a plane, but they landed 5 years in the future, and during that 5 years gap, the plane was presumed to be missing in the ocean. So it's already a bunch of mystery at the start.

Next to it there's this Korea sci fi movie I found called Space Sweepers! It's sweet and exciting found family movie :)) (spoiler but there's a trans robot there)

Also if you want horror horror that I know of, maybe try out Hannibal :DD totally didn't watch that for Mads Mikkelsen.

#movie ramble movie ramble #anonymous #prince does ask

[lemonlimetoast]

I'm halfway thru Hannibal (Tumblr favorite)(ik I'm late to the party ok) and there is so many parallels between will graham in season 2 and late season 1, maybe earlier too with Jonathan Sims the Archivist from the Magnus archives and his arc of (massive tma spoilers) losing his humanity in the pursuit of knowledge which was the whole point of tma but it makes it so easy to draw conclusions of how this will end, but early season 3 Jon is so S2 E4 will because like they both disregard their safety for the pursuit of information of what they've been accused of. Even before then the similarities are baffling which makes sense because tma started 2015 ish and that's when Hannibal ended and every story influenced and is influenced by another BUT

Even down to end of s1 will hiding out with Hannibal and beginning of s3 Jon hiding with Georgie (though different relationships with the harborer and obviously very different intentions) and there's also a lot of parallels between will and Jon and Hannibal and various other characters as different aspects of their relationship, like Jon and Elias in terms of manipulation and power dynamics of sorts, Jon and Martin in terms of humanity and it's tether are honestly more Alana or even Abigail and thus in terms of losing it hopefully Alana doesn't die but maybe that's where it's going and will fully loses his strong moral compass, but also Jon and Martin in terms of their steadfastness to each other is will and hannibal

Oh also basira or maybe Melanie or maaaybe daisy but not rlly and beverly Katz are similar in their investigation of what Jon/wills being accused of a la s3 Elias confrontation and digging up the truth with the help of dramatic irony in that the audience already knows so it's so nice to see the truth coming to light which also brings in the audiences need for getting to and unveiling the truth which is ultimately why we tune in yk

#long post #sorry #midnighttalk #tma spoilers #hannibal spoilers #obviously #ok i see why y'all were loud about this show back in the day im sorry for internally being a little hater about it containing themes #and motifs of course #i just think #anyways my google doc analyzing it is so long now and it's so funny cuz like #omg this is so unprofessional #and then the next line is like #will and hannibals mutual obsession is ultimately going to be their downfall both internally and externally no matter how much they both #lean into the roles they play that they have carved out for themselves carefully and it's unraveling with wills psych n then with the truth #and then ill say something about how hannibal blends the modern with the traditional in his food and practice cuz they mentioned Escoffier #anyways autism won today #I'm sorry to my mutuals who have to see this and yet I'll write an essay about anything guys I promise you

[gzdacz-writes-fic]

#2 - are you planning on participating in hannigramtropefest, hannibal fanfic writing event? #4 - how much outlining did you have to do, and thought process put behind juggling the switching POVs for 'storyteller' #30 - do you plan on writing more hannibal fanfics in the future now that leviathan is finished?

Thank you for the ask!

#2 - I am considering it! I'm working on an HP story at the moment and I'm worried I won't have enough time to write something I'm happy with in time for the event... But then again it sounds like a lot of fun, so I might persuade myself to do it anyway before I miss the deadline ;)

#30 - I would like to, though I don't have any currently in the works. It's nice to mix it up a little, and I was actually going to take a break from Hannibal after Storyteller, but then Leviathan just sort of happened. Once I'm done-ish with the story I'm working on now, I'll probably come back with another Hannibal fic - I have a couple ideas floating around already!

#4 - under the cut for spoilers for The Storyteller, obviously.

You can probably imagine that the answer to how much outlining is A LOT. I have two notebooks' worth of notes for this one, which is certainly my personal record.

From what I recall, the whole thing actually started from the little stories Hannibal and Will tell each other - the bear and the hunter, the sharks, the deals with forest creatures, the lighthouse etc. - and I had the idea of these being Will's fever-induced delusions that start spilling out into Hannibal's world as season one progresses. It was originally meant to be entirely episodic, with every chapter focused on another story. But I liked the little story about the Other Will so much that I soon realised it needed to be the crux of the fic.

I deliberated over the answer to the question "is the Other Will real or is it Will being an asshole?" then decided I wanted to supply enough evidence for it being kind of both, and then it became obvious I needed what I referred to as the "Fingersmith structure" (not the only book that follows this model, but that's the one I thought of because it's so much fun), where we swap POVs halfway through the story to show an entirely different and more complete perspective on what the hell has been going on. When I realised this, I became a little angry honeslty because it meant the whole thing would have to be twice as long.

And then Abigail's POV was entirely unplanned. I just realised while writing that we needed to see some sort of conclusion to her story, and while I'm sure she's better off, it was a bit of a downer for her to just disappear from Hannibal's life. This way, at least we got to see the way that Hannibal's influence is reflected in her life in Florence.

#asks #hannibal fic #the storyteller

[angelicgarnet]

nothing will ever be funnier than that scene in hannibal where will walks into his house and sees mason just sitting in his living room in the dark feeding his dogs and will is like ‘what are you feeding them....’ and it shows mason cutting strips of skin off his face and hes like ‘ha, just me :)’ 

#woof #that whoel scene is so fucking funny #hannibal's pig fursona #hannibal telling mason to eat his nose and then he does it #and then getting annoyed with him and just snapping his neck #gore mention #hannibal spoilers /ish?

[theravennest]

That bone deep chill you feel when watching as episode after episode Will Graham uses the phrase “This is my design.” to represent fully understanding some random killer of the week’s motives, then seeing the moment when Will finally uses “This is my design.” to describe his own actual murder tableau of Randall Tier:

#hannibal #will graham #hugh dancy #liveblogging #hannibal spoilers #That ish hit SO different. #Hugh Dancy played that moment beautifully. #Sometimes I'm drawn to dark messed up ish. I don't have time to unpack it.

[sssamsondraws]

welcome welcome

i meant to do this after april's giveaway when i got a number of new people following this blog, and a few more have come on board since then, so here's fiiiinally a little run down of what goes on in this thing i call an art blog:

i draw a lot of quick portraits because i am horrifically lazy outside of commissions these days

i try and tag everything as best i can with the fandoms and characters so you can black list anything you don't care about! jolly

apart from art drawn for people (commissions, art trades, etc), the stuff i do for fun is pretty much dictated by a roulette of obsessions

most of the time it cycles between dragon age, mass effect, and swtor, with a smattering of fallout from time to time (i have also been known to dabble in regular old star wars here and there, hannibal, and probably other things i'm forgetting. though it's mostly the few games mentioned at this time)

BUT recently added to that roulette, and the current winner of my affections, is FFXIV which i just started playing some 3-ish? weeks ago and am pretty much experiencing major tunnel vision as i try to balance running through it as fast as i can to get caught up and not see spoilers AND go at a pace where i can enjoy it (currently on patch 3.0, approx halfway through)... so you can probably definitely expect more shitty portraits from that over the next while

to that end, i'm on a sort-of-hiatus as that goddamn game (read: cid) is monopolizing my mind and time when i'm not doing my actual day job (okay, and sometimes even when i'm at my day job, leeeet's be honest) but i still take on commissions and such!

side note: i follow blogs from my main blog (sssamson)

questions, comments, etc etc.? my inbox is always open!

#about the blog #welcome everyone #thank you for joining

[aeroplaneblues]

So I read 3 volumes of Hell's Paradise, I like it so far. I said on twitter that after vol 1 it reminded me of the dark continent arc in hxh and actually there is a lot of things that remind me of other works😂 Not in a bad way, I enjoy that! Its probably the most violent one I've read in a long time, dorohedoro isn't super violent but more gore-ish which I've learned that I can tolerate that more haha [ok so SPOILERS] just in case:

There is this character that reminds me of sanemi, like not only of looks but personality too! He does what I wanted sanemi to do, be more of a protective big brother. Like he is ruthless but not to his baby brother and its cute😂

Oh and there is this blind character, very pretty drawn. Thats it for characters I like so far haha The flower men that return from the island, instantly reminded me of the tree man in futamono episode of hannibal or maybe that one where someone feeds the diabetics to mushrooms. See, this is why I'm unfaced by gore or is this body horror?

IS not that extreme and I just think is very manageable once you get used to the tone of the manga!

Anyway, not sure yet if I rec it tho I'm fairly entertained!

#hell's paradise #why i wanted to write kitchen instead #anne txt #anne reads manga #i think the violent vs gore thing is #that violent is very REAL #and gore can go too fantasy #if that makes sense

[goliathsmother]

Warning Hannibal Spoilers

I mean I get why people don't like spoilers and stuff bc yeah most things you want to experience for yourself

but

do u guys know how fucking fun it is watching Hannibal knowing vaguely what's going on already

Like Hannibal is so proud of Will trying to solve the stuff he did

and basically everything involving Abigail

I'm not done watching yet but this gore show is practically a fucked up found family trope and a weird ass love-ish relationship which I absolutely adore

Sorry for rambling, tho tumblr is the only site I can rant about it lol

#Hannibal #Spoilers #Hannibal lecter #Will graham #Abigail hopps

[dafukdidiwatch]

I’m actually pissed that this is a decent movie.

<A lot of spoilers>

Overview: Arctic Researchers/Scientists stumble on Nazis who live in the center of the earth who have survived by replacing their dying tissue for living ones in a bid for immortality.

And in order for me to talk about this film, I have to talk about this:

Fucking Sky Sharks.

I hate that movie.

I hate it So Much.

I bought it from a Walmart for $10 so what a waste of movie.

The first like, 10 minutes was the movie dragging on showing everyone in the plane in the worst way possible. An old swedish man watching shitty CGI sci-fi porn. A weird gang turn priest man which I for sure might have been the main character but had the weirdest backstory that goes no where and does nothing. Some drunk guy wanting to flirt with a stewardess and the joke is that she wasn’t a super model 20 something. So after going On and ON THEN the sharks come in to show how epic they are.

And they also suck ass. I couldn’t give a shit about the CGI this is a movie about nazi sky sharks I walked in not expecting quality.

Oh yeah, Nazi’s. Forgot to mention the Nazis. Because, you know, they made the sharks. And are also zombies who rose again to take over the world. And our first look is a female blond haired officer killing people in the longest and dullest way possible. Like, there is only so many ways you can decapicate a bunch of people with wires.

After that, move into the “plot” with random ass girl #1 and random ass girl #2 where girl #1 is also in the Antarctic (shocker) and finds a boat, goes in by herself without help/backup, finds out the zombies are not only in there, but also shark tanks because this is where they were raising the sharks.

So to recap: In the COLD NEGATIVE FROSTBITING SNOW COVERED DREADNAUGHT the nazis are not only alive and NOT freezing, but the great white sharks are also alive and NOT freezing. You can say bs science, I say bs movie.

Oh and you know what the sharks feed on?

Misogyny.

God this movie hates women so much. First, multiple porn shots/sexual harassment jokes on just the plane alone (again, first 10 minutes). Then the “sexy” female zombie commander because that’s what was in the Nazi Military: Women. Not saying shit about history or anything, just saying that I know a fetish when I see one. And the Random Ass Girl #1? The reason why she was at the boat in the first place is because she was on a solo rescue mission to help some researchers who found the boat. A Guy and A Girl. The Guy was like, killed normally or shot or something I couldn’t give a shit about. The Girl was stripped naked, hung upside-down by her foot, bare naked ass shown to us, as she is fed to the shark tank.

Yeah, real women friendly.

It also doesn’t help that when Random Ass Girl #1 gets stabbed with, I guess zombie venom for ReAsOnS, she has a shower scene where it shows her being affected and poisoned under her skin....but also how Hot she is by having it shot on her boobs, check, body stretching and curling to show ALL of her body. While under a show that’s in the middle of the fucking room like it’s Hannibal Lector’s bathroom.

And you that that would be the reason I hate this movie but it isn’t dammit. The movie was dull as hell. I’m only talking about the Misogyny for so long because it was the only thing that was actually worth mentioning. I didn’t give a shit about anything else!

The acting is bad and just monotone across the board. Apparently RAG#1 and #2 are like, rich spies from a super rich family corporation which took me a full as 20 minutes to realize. And they have no idea how the fuck to plot a movie! Finding out the sky sharks were because of Dear Old Granddad, results in THREE! SEPERATE! FLASHBACKS! EACH MORE BORING THAN THE LAST!!! I have no idea how you made working with NAZIS dull as shit but this movie found a way. Instead of having the history set in the beginning of nazis doing shit as a teaser to explain later, he just tells his fucking life story of how making Sky Sharks would save the Third Reich. And I Couldn’t Give A Shit.

It got so dull and bored that I literally fast forward through the entire movie to find interesting parts. Spoiler: there was none. Not even with more sharks like eating the world could it entertain me. I just fast forwarded to the very end, and only watched 30 minutes of a 90 minute movie. God I hate Sky Sharks.

So WHY am I bringing it up? Well, it really did set expectations and a bar for Nazis at the Center of the Earth. They both have rediculous titles that you can’t take seriously or expect “great things” from. They both deal with nazis, zombie-ish nazis, genetic research, scientists in the Arctic, and Nazi’s hiding in the Arctic. That is a lot, and I just watched Sky Sharks like 2 weeks before so this was very recent and absolutely in my head.

Which is WHY this movie was a very pleasant surprise.

We start with seeing Nazis doing action pact Nazi shit escaping for science! It even has that Wilhelm scream, but the movie has plot and vision. It didn’t make the nazis seem any more than being just army soldierd and has decent action and sets expectation for the rest of the movie.

And that’s like the big difference between this and Sky Sharks: The Treatment of the Nazis. The nazis here were treated, in my view, as powerful and dangerous. They are meticulous, uncaring, cold and distant. The head Nazi is actually Dr. Mengele, he is in this movie, and he is just so apathetic to everyone.

All the Nazi’s faces were covered in mask so you couldn’t see their faces, making them inhuman. And the first Nazi face we do see is Dr. Mengele as he just, slowly cuts the face off of a person. Methodically. Meticulously. He doesn’t even talk, doesn’t react as the person begs. Just does it. And was going to do it to the girl as well but because she kept talking science, he allowed her to live.

But it was close.

In the beginning it feels like two different movies because it cuts from two researchers who got kidnapped by Nazis surviving their own horror movie trying to escape, and the rest of the researchers being in a Survival Rescue Movie trying to find them. I honestly wanted to see more of the Nazi part because that was the more engaging section. It was filmed, framed, shot as a tense horror movie, where you don’t know if she will live or die.

I also want to approve of the lack of misogyny. Like, first, the Nazis are equal treatment terrible to everyone. They shot one of the researchers who wandered in because he was Jewish. (”I’m non-practicing” lol love that line). Second, the scenes that they did were filmed in a way to highlight the horror but not the sexiness of it. The guy and girl strapped to the table, they are both naked. We don’t see the whole naked body, just enough to establish it while censoring the rest. You see Dr. Mengele looking over them, but there isn’t sign of lust. He is viewing them both as just experiments (which also adds to the horror aspect but I digress). One of the girls ends up being thrown to the Nazi Officers to be raped and killed, but we don’t see that. She doesn’t have a shirt, but it isn’t films as a “sexy” moment, the camera doesn’t move or linger on her body. It is just a straight shot, where she tries to cover herself up. When they close in on her, crawling towards her, the camera focuses more on their approach than on her while at a distance. This is scary, but it isn’t sexualized. Which I approve and is a WAY PLUS from Sky Sharks.

This movie has an odd budget too. There is a lot of CGI. And it isn’t good. Not at all. It works to show things happening like CGI tanks...CGI snow/ice. CGI Robots and lasers. They don’t hide it at all. But then, they also have amazing makeup budget because the “ripping face scene” was amazing physical effects it looked so real. The Nazis are obviously frankenstein stitched up monsters, but they are well done in makeup and design. Like all the close up shit is amazing to look at.

Overall: It was an Alright Movie. Yes, there is plot. There is tension. There is fear trying to survive with the nazi. Bad CGI, and a bit campy at the end, but nothing to detract from the actual movie. It was a fun movie.

#dafukblog #Dafuking Films #week 41 movie #sky sharks #nazis at the center of the earth

[pass-the-bechdel]

Alias s02e02 ‘Trust Me’

Does it pass the Bechdel Test? 

Yes, three times.

How many female characters (with names and lines) are there?

Four (25%).

How many male characters (with names and lines) are there?

Twelve (75%).

Positive Content Rating:

Three

General Episode Quality: 

Alias’ jump the shark episode, and I will not be convinced otherwise.  

MORE INFO (and potential spoilers) UNDER THE CUT:

Passing the Bechdel: 

Sydney confronts Irina. Sydney brushes off Vicki. Sydney lays down the law to Irina.  

Female Characters:

Irina Derevko

Francie Calfo

Sydney Bristow

Vicki Crane

Male Characters:

Kendall

Jack Bristow

Ramon

Arvin Sloane

Alain Cristophe

Michael Vaughn

Dixon

Judge Freid

Will Tippin

Marshall

Richard Schmidt

Petr Fordson

Other Notes:

The episode’s initial sequence, of Irina getting brought into the ops center, is gorgeous, and one of the best-shot sequences in the show.

Kendall! He made a good foil in his one appearance last season, and he makes a good foil here. 

The Francie / Jack sequence is pure gold.

SD-6 apparently knows about Khasinau’s dead and that Irina is “in hiding”?  How?  Who knows?

On a similar note, Kendall apparently knows Vaughn helped break Sydney out of U.S. custody in Q&A.

Sydney can apparently just go radio silent whenever now. 

Why does Vaughn think Irina could help bring down SD-6? 

Sydney’s Italian accent is certainly something.

The cut to Jack yelling about trusting Irina is great.

SD-6 doing blackmail is new-ish. It’s not something we’ve usually seen them do, or at least not this way. 

The opinion shifts in this episode about whether or not Sydney should speak with Irina are dizzying.

Francie is apparently thinking of getting involved with organized crime in order to get a liquor license. I don’t think this actually goes anywhere.  

So Vaughn is apparently doing Dixon’s job on the C.I.A. side.  This was not his season one job. 

Nice callback to the pilot. That said, the comparison highlights something i hadn’t noticed before: while Sydney has always been insubordinate, it struck me, while watching this episode, how she would never say “We’re on the same side, time. It’s time you start acting like it,” to Sloane.  

Sydney, Vicki’s just trying to help, and doesn’t deserve your C.I.A. princess unprofessionalism.  On a different note, see how easy it is to pass the Bechdel Test when you actually have female incidental characters? 

Irina is not a traitor any more than Saddam Hussein was a traitor to the United States, and I really wish characters would stop claiming that she was.  Words mean things, Alias.

After last episode did its darnedest to reset the show’s status quo, one might have expected Alias to continue more or less the same way it did in season one. While that is, to an extent, the case, it’s weird to see just how different things have become, without any real explanation.

First, there’s the episode’s big development—that Irina has surrendered herself to the C.I.A., claiming that she wishes to cooperate with them against the syndicate she previously led—but only if they agree to her terms. All well and good—we’ve seen this story before (and after—both Nikita and Person of Interest did versions of it). And yet, there’s one important detail that the series completely ignores: we’ve seen what happens in this particular story when people working for the bad guys decide to work for the good guys—they get turned into double agents and sent back out into the field.  The show even made the parallel explicit last episode! So why is Irina behind bars—or conversely, why isn’t Sydney?  

Granted, Irina isn’t Sydney and Sydney isn’t Irina, and a case can certainly be made for why Spymommy deserves to be imprisoned while Sydney doesn’t. And yet…that case is never made, nor does the episode even acknowledge that the case needs to be made. The most interesting thing about SpyMommy’s imprisonment is all the questions it raises, and yet the series ignores them completely.

Consider the matter of trust: how does the C.I.A. that immediately (and ultimately correctly) trusted that Sydney could be taken at her word decide that Irina can’t?  Or rather, why wasn’t Sydney subjected to the same amount of scrutiny? Sure, part of the answer is “SpyDaddy,” but even then, it’s not like he was in that much contact with Sydney before she joined the C.I.A.; the smart play with her should have been to treat her overture with the barest amount of skepticism. But once it’s established that they didn’t, and that they don’t, it makes no sense for them to suddenly turn around and say that Irina cannot and should not be trusted.  

Consider the matter of culpability: why does Sydney deserve the freedom to make amends for her crimes, while the best Irina can hope for is life in prison for hers? If the series can overlook Sydney’s seven years working for a terrorist group, then why not Irina’s time with the KGB? Especially since her work as The Man has, by and large, helped U.S. intelligence agencies?  

Consider the matter of practicality: if we assume that Sydney being used as a double agent is a good idea, what reason is there for not allowing SpyMommy to do the same? Especially since, well, she’s the actual leader of the organization?  If she’s on the level, why not use her to actually subvert her organization and turn it into a tool for U.S. interests?  It’s much more effective than pumping her for increasingly less valuable intelligence.  

Consider the issue of need: why does the C.I.A. need SpyMommy at all? If what we were told last episode, that her organization is now fractured following the destruction of Clifford the Big Red Ball, is true, then that means that the C.I.A. has been doing a perfectly bang-up job without her.  And yet, as we see this episode, Kendall and company are tripping over themselves to give away all their leverage. Why?

Irina’s presence raises a question: what makes her different from Sydney—especially since we’re told Irina is a monster who deserves to die? Even if we just accept that Sydney is a hypocrite (which she is—or would be, if the show ever acknowledged that she worked for a terrorist group for seven years) why isn’t the show actually exploring that hypocrisy?   

Well, the answer to all of those questions is that the series wanted SpyMommy as the C.I.A.’s Hannibal Lecter figure, and by George they were going to get it. And honestly, that’s all well and good except for the part where the series is ignoring almost everything that is interesting about the set-up.  

I’ve ranted enough for one episode, but I also want to note how this new set-up drastically alters the careful balance the series had established. SpyMommy needs to be kept somewhere, hence the brand-new Joint Intelligence Task Force Ops Center, which Sydney can apparently enter whenever she wants.  If this was available to Sydney all along, why all the meetings with Vaughn in season one?  Furthermore, the new location and SpyMommy’s presence there shifts the series’ center of gravity away from SD-6, which in turn means characters like Dixon and Marshall, who already struggled with insufficient focus, now have even less.  Additionally, we’ve now had two C.I.A. missions in as many episodes; while they’ve never made much sense—doesn’t the United States have other field agents who do not also have to report for double agent duty?—their frequency and circumstances  only serve to make them seem more ridiculous.  

After all this, it’s worth noting that the episode is not terrible. It’s not great, but as with most of early Alias, it goes down easily enough. Still, a lot of the series’ worst creative instincts, which in the future will lead to some terrible developments, get their start here: the writers are willing to sacrifice anything in order to focus on whatever shiny new bauble is in their sights at any given moment, and what they are focused on is only explored at the most superficial levels.  

#Alias #Alias Season Two #Trust Me #Female Representation #Bechdel Test #MimeParadox

[yepthatsacowalright]

I’m sure there were other factors, but yesterday I had a randomly super anxious day, then all last night/today I had one of THE most fucked up series of dreams ever. I essentially was binge-watching a TV show where a family (mom, dad, 2 kids, 3 dogs) were trying to go on a vacation but were kidnapped and taken to this fucking weird underground cult-y civilization. Pretty early on I realized I made a mistake and this is something I did not want to watch, but they were separated from the dogs early on and I NEEDED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO THE DOGS. So I proceeded to, in what appears to have been real time because I slept for 13-ish hours, binge watch a fucking creepy weird messed up TV show that doesn’t actually exist solely because I needed to make sure the doggos were okay (spoiler alert: I woke up before finding out if the doggos were okay :((((( ) BUT SOMETIMES, as I was watching, I would become one of the characters instead of just being a viewer. The parents and kids were also separated so if it was a kids scene I sometimes was one of the kids, and if it was a parents scene I became a parent. This increased the anxiety I felt because now I could theoretically try to do something about making the show a little less fucked up, but I had no idea what to do but panic most of the time. People kept betraying us. All the people in charge kept playing psychological tricks to slowly corrupt us into becoming one of them. They had hidden cameras/microphones everywhere so they would use what we thought we were saying in private to each other against us. I woke up at 3:34pm VERY MUCH NOT OKAY. I feel like I should write down details for future me? But also I’m gonna hard pass because there are parts of the dream I don’t think I could forget about even if I wanted to. I did, however, make a list of all the movies/shows/books the dream reminded me of from most similar to least: American Horror Story (specifically Season 2) Neuropath by R. Scott Baker Hannibal Old Boy Sharp Objects A Series of Unfortunate Events Portal Game of Thrones The Americans Alice in Wonderland Lost Star Trek TNG Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut Maus by Art Spiegelman Chitty Chitty Bang Bang So if anybody knows a way I can Eternal Sunshine this horror show from my brain asap, that would be great.

#i know this a pointless post #BUT I NEED THIS OUT OF MY HEAD #and it's harder to verbally explain it to friends because the whole thing is so wibbly wobbly and confusing #thanks for coming to my opposite-of-a-TED talk #WHAT HAPPENED TO THE DOGSSSSSS?????? #D:

[starkaryen]

A beginner’s guide to posting fanfic

Before beginning, first of all, this is not a guide to writing fanfic, of course. This is merely a compilation of tips and things I’ve learned on how to post fic and let more people find your workds, that I either learned from other people, or in time, since I’ve been publishing fanfic for a long time now, and regularly for two years. I am not an expert on anything, these are just my tips, and this may not be new or useful to anyone, but I’m not losing by anything sharing this! ^^

And now, let’s begin!

· The timezones and days.

When you’re beginning to publish fanfic and you don’t have people subscribed to your AO3 or an established group of readers, you need to give your fic visibility. A very easy way to do this is simply estimate when you’re publishing the fic, and how many people could lay their eyes upon it when you do. First of all, the days: I found that I had way more readers when I published something on Friday than any other day. It may not be instant, since some people go out on Friday, but it’s also easier to have free time on the weekend, and so people will have around 3 days to read your fic/update, whereas during the weekdays people might be working or studying and by the time it’s Friday, the fanfic has been buried under many other fics.

The other issue is the timezones. Timezones are HELL, we all know that, but I did some research when I began posting fic regularly, and I found that there is an hour when I could aim for almost all time zones (not all, but as many as I could). Since the language I write in is English, I always try to aim for the European + USA’s time zones, and I found that at 6-8pm (ish) my time zone (CEST), I could reach Europe and both USA’s coasts (in the east coast it’s around 1pm, and in the west coast 10pm, sort of. Here is a very good time zone converter if you want to make your own estimation). It’s probably not the best time for other parts of the globe, and maybe if you already live in the USA and you don’t care about reaching other time zones, this isn’t very useful to you, but it’s up to you if you want to aim for more time zones than yours ;)

· The tags.

The tags in a fic are very important for two main reasons: the first is because people need and want those tags. Fanfiction is about sharing and having fun, so nobody wants to read a work and find something that may traumatize or trigger them. That’s why tags are always important whether it’s fluff, daddy kink or noncon (especially with the heaviest kinks or tags; even if you’re very used to them, have in mind that not everyone likes the same stuff! And that’s the beauty of fanfic, there is something for everyone!). Be polite and always try to tag everything, even if you think it’s a spoiler for the story; if the fanfic is good, people will read it despite a few spoilers in the tags (and people who don’t want to be spoiled at all and don’t mind reading without tags, can choose to skip them); however, people might not read your fics again if you leave a fanfic untagged for something that triggers them.

The other reason is that tags will help people find your fanfics. Some people search for specific tags like ‘hand holding’ or ‘first kiss’, so even if you think “well, this is very obvious”, tag it! Like lube, there are never too many tags, so use them! ;)

· Less is more when it comes to titles.

The titles are one of the enemies of a fic writer (or, at least, it is one of mine). Sometimes you decide the title before even beginning the fic (rarely), other times it comes to you while writing it, and other times you finish the fanfic, you’re super happy about it, and then when you’re about to publish you realize: “I don’t have the damn title...”

So as a person that usually gives her fanfics very simple titles: don’t stress too much over giving your fic an incredibly meaningful title. I used to do this, and I ended up giving my fics very simple titles (I mean... Sensates... xD) and being very nervous about it, but then I realized it doesn’t matter that much. The least thing I care about a fanfic when I’m reading it, is the title, and so do most people. Yes, sometimes it’s cool having a title with double meaning that makes you go “ooooh, I get it now!” when you’re halfway through the story, but again: don’t stress too much over it. Just write, and worry about the title later, or just decide a simple one and throw the fic out into the world for people to enjoy it.

· Chapters/Fanfic Length.

This is something I only learned with time, and after publishing a fanfic with +10k words per chapter (yes... xD). If you’re publishing a fanfic, the chapters length is very important, both for the readers and for you.

From your point of view, the writer, it may not seem as important, but if you’re publishing/are planning to publish your fic as you write and edit it, it ends up being much easier and not as tiring to edit shorter chapters than a 14k words chapter (talking from my own experience). It becomes a very hard task, and you may skip more errors and typos if you’re editing something THAT long (and if you have a beta, same goes to them) than if you’re editing a much shorter thing.

From the point of view of the reader is even more important. In time, I’ve learned that people, including me, prefer a chapter that is neither too long nor too short. A short chapter may leave the reader thinking “that’s it??”, whereas a too long chapter may become tiring for the reader. Think of it as a tv show’s episode. When a show has +50 minutes episodes, sometimes you can’t watch it because you don’t have enough time, sometimes your attention span won’t let you watch more than half the episode before you start losing your interest (and not because it’s not good), and in the end, you can’t even remember what the last chapter was about. Same goes for fics; if the chapter is too long, you may lose the reader halfway through it, they may have to stop reading and resume later, and not remember where they were, etc. After asking people and a bit of intuition as a writer, I’ve learned that the ideal length for a fic/chapter is around 3k-6k words.

This, though, doesn’t mean that you have to write your fics being scared of exceeding or not reaching the number of words, at all. Writing has to be, above all, something that flows naturally. So if the story asks you for the chapter to be longer or shorter, let it be! To me, it ended up being organic, and when I end a chapter, it’s usually around that scale, but I never cut or add something from a chapter because of the number of words: the story is always the priority.

· The AO3 spaces of hell!

If you’ve published something on AO3, you’ve probably encountered the problem that when pasting your fic on it to post it, it looks a bit too much spaced. If that’s happened to you and you don’t know how to fix this, I have a quick and easy guide to solve this HERE.

I believe other people have other methods, or they write differently on Word so they don’t have the same problem, but if someone writes as I do and has the same problem, that guide will be your friend.

· Advertise through social media!

This may sound way too obvious, but if you want people to find and read your works, a very good way to advertise them is through Tumblr and Twitter. I know some readers navigate through the fandom or pairing’s tag directly on AO3, but a lot of other people don’t (like me), and they just read what they find through Tumblr, Twitter or recs. That’s why it’s good to post summaries and links of the fics on social media, so more people can find it.

And exactly as I said in the above section, always use tags. The same applies to Tumblr; people can blacklist the tags they absolutely don’t want to see, and other people like to search through the tags of the show or pairing, so make sure you add them! (Though I think Tumblr only searches for the first 20 tags, so if you add more, your post may not show up in the Tumblr search with those that exceed the first 20 tags!)

Another tip is, try to add pictures to those posts or tweets! Things with an image are always always more attractive to people, so either add an edit from photoshop, or if you don’t know how to use photoshop, a simple photo edited (or not) on your phone will do.

· Participate in the fandom’s events.

This is an individual decision, of course, but participating in your fandom’s events is always a very good way to “find new readers” (and also for yourself to find new fics and writers!).

In the case of my fandom, Hannibal, we have lots of events every single month. You can find the ones I help organize at @hannibalcreative, but I know there are many more you can find and participate in ;)

That’s all for now, I think! As I said, these are just *my* tips, so you may have other methods that work way better than mine :)

#tutorial #sort of? #not exactly but I'm tagging it like that #AO3 #fanfic

[aesterea-archived]

Hi! Do you have any book recs for well written antagonists/villains such as the darkling? I cannot get over him :(

AHHH my friend you have come to the right place :’)

here’s a list of books with similarly delicious villains/antagonists/anti-heroes: (but i’m not going to tell you who they are because *spoilers*)

Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

Entwined by Heather Dixon (deserves a lot more attention)

Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge

Caraval by Stephanie Garber (my latest obsession)

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

Paranormalcy by Kiersten White

Uprooted by Naomi Novik

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

books-with-characters-not-quite-as-reminscient-of-the-darkling-but-you-might-still-enjoy-them-as-much-as-i-did? (it’s been a long while since i’ve read some of these tho so i can’t be sure how “good” they are anymore)

Dead Beautiful by Yvonne Woon

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones (more nikolai vibes with this one actually)

Mistwalker by Saundra Mitchell

Vicious by V. E. Schwab

A Darker Shade of Magic by V. E. Schwab (like,,, all V. E. Schwab books are amazing really)

The Wrath and the Dawn by Reneé Adieh

Fire by Kristin Cashore (i’m not actually sure why with this one but it just feels right to put this on the list… it’s part of the Graceling Trilogy but you don’t have to read the books in a particular order, although Bitterblue is also an incredible book with a wonderful nikolai-ish character, and the full series follows the trouble caused by a single terrifying villain who you’ll probably loathe but he’s written very well.)

film/TV/visual stuff:

The Phantom of the Opera

V for Vendetta

Labyrinth (Leigh’s inspiration for the darkling came from this movie!!)

Crimson Peak (horror/romance… watch out tho, weird vibes)

Hannibal Rising (also horror, if you’re into young cannibals portrayed by french models haha)

the show Once Upon A Time has a lot of villain-romance arcs if you’re patient enough to watch through it

Maleficent 2014 (the disney live-action Sleeping Beauty movie… i just can’t express how much i love her?)

that’s all i’ve got for now, i hope this satisfies! and if you’ve got more fiction featuring delectable antagonists to add to the list, please be my guest!!!

#replies #book recs #the darkling #villains as love interests #villains #illunaria #i think you'll enjoy this 😏😈 #snarkydarkling #katarinakreuz #alekzandermorozova #i need a villain squad