#i know there was so much more to the LY era than just the trailers and music videos okokokok

[girlbossblackbeard]

S2 TRAILER ANALYSIS WITH 1 BILLION SCREENSHOTS

obligatory warning that this post is gonna be SOOOOOOOOOOOOO foolishly long and rambling with all my silly little theories and thoughts and if you ALSO have silly little theories and thoughts you should ABSOLUTELY share them here please!!!! we can clown so much harder when our cacophonous honking harmonizes!!!!!!!

NOW ONTO THE POST (putting it under a read more so tumblr doesn't literally explode):

-the revenge looks BUSTED AF: i don't know if this is from general disrepair when ed is in his kraken era or if she was in a battle but her sails are all dirty in the opening shot of the trailer, and later we see stede on her deck with tattered sails and ropes everywhere, AND i'm like 99% sure that the shot of buttons ziplining from one ship to another is him going from the Chinese warfleet ship to the revenge, which i'm guessing is essentially stuck bc the sails are so torn they would never be able to catch the wind strongly enough to move her. I also wonder if the shot of roach shooting a canon at something is him shooting a canon at her since we had all those allusions to her exploding from samba, vico, and david on twitter all those months ago

-stede's earring: he DOES NOT HAVE THE EARRING when we see him lying on the deck next to roach and sighing dramatically nor does he have it during his conversation with Olu about stede dumping him, but he DOES have the earring in later shots like the beach english fight and when he's talking about being a failure his whole life which means WE WILL GET TO SEE STEDE GET HIS EAR PIERCED!!!!!!!!!! we'll get to see him make the decision to look even hotter and who knows who does the piercing for him idk!!!!!! @sluterastede had a dastardly beautiful thought in her brain about ed giving stede the piercing and stede making groaning noises and izzy once again thinking they're flapping their jacks right there on the deck in front of god and everybody!!!!!

-stede is spilling his heart out ("i let him down. i should've just told him how i feel") to susan on her ship (you can tell it's her by the long hair)

-interesting that there's a drawing of a donkey next to ed's wanted poster considering s1 had the line "a rich donkey is still a donkey". also i can't really read what the surrounding posters say other than "WANTED 20 GUINEAS". is this in the republic of pirates?

-stede says "i will find him" meaning ed may be actively avoiding stede at the beginning of the season???? (or the basic laws of travel physics have finally caught up to them)

-"look, captain, you know blackbeard's gonna murder you" i just think it's interesting that Olu is referring to him as blackbeard again even though ed told everyone in his pink robe era to call him ed. like it makes sense that he'd say blackbeard considering ed is on a rampage but it just made my brain wheels start spinning

-the Kraken crew are eating cake :)

-ed is holding a torch while letting the storm rain down on him: i don't think the laugh we hear is his because i don't think his mouth is even open during that slow-mo shot

-STEDE with a TEAR in his EYE as he says "i think i hurt him pretty bad"

-ed sobbing on the floor while the little bride cake topper is next to his head

-ed choking on the weed smoke i'm ACTUALLY crying, but also: where the fuck is ed when he's sitting in the chair smoking??? i thought it was on deck at first bc above his head is really dark and it looks like the lanterns we see on the deck of the revenge but there's a chandelier too?? it might be whatever shop Anne Bonny and her friend "you two know each other?" run bc behind ed in that chair is just a bunch of random furniture and a chandelier like we see when ed and stede are at the market. in fact, i think ed is smoking with Anne Bonny because I think that's her hand in the corner of that shot:

-"no more booze, no more drugs, and no more _____" not sure what the end of that sentence could be but we know that the "stede" that was put in there is NOT what he actually says!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-"you two know each other?" now hold on a sec because it kinda sounds like stede met Anne Bonny and Co. separately from Ed/before that market scene (maybe in the teaser clip of Anne on Stede's lap??) WHAT IF WE GET THE AITA SCENARIO WHERE ED AND STEDE TELL PEOPLE ABOUT THEIR VERSION OF EVENTS AND NO ONE REALIZES THEY'RE TALKING ABOUT EACH OTHER UNTIL THAT MOMENT BC THEY'RE BOTH SO BIASED ABOUT ONE ANOTHER

-the evil guy definitely got his nose sliced off by Jackie. good for her :D I also don't think the evil guy is Hornigold, i'm still holding onto my theory that the man in the white rags we saw in the teaser and this trailer is hornigold's "ghost" that ed needs to contend with to find his inner peace or whatever a la stede with nigel's "ghost". but i DO think the evil guy is the rich prince dude from that leaked audition tape from rhys's friend. if memory serves, the guy wants to buy his way into the pirate lifestyle but he's pompous and entitled which makes him reckless. based off the production stills we also got today, he still had a nose when he went into Spanish Jackie's...but i don't think he leaves with one. so because he gets butthurt over invading a space that was NOT meant for him and faces the consequences of purposely disobeying their customs, he defects to the english navy and goes on a rampage against all piracy, very MRA energy :/ also, later izzy says to him "you don't know the first thing about piracy" which would further support that this guy just tried to buy his way in

-izzy gets an honest-to-god pegleg but he doesn't start the season off with it because we see him in several shots with both legs, like the wedding raid and swordfighting stede on the beach. unsure if he loses it due to infection from the toe situation or if he gets shot in the knee like i've seen some posts talk about, but @sluterastede mentioned that one of the leaked audition tapes for archie included dialogue about an amputation so maybe that character has to uh. Get Her Roach On

-as i mentioned before with the teaser analysis, izzy is clearly training stede for something and now im guessing it's the english but like we kinda knew that !

-olu is in a bar fight??

-THE "ED GETS CAUGHT IN A BUCKET ON A ROPE DURING THE STORM AND GOES OVERBOARD" THEORY IS OUT. THE "ED TIES HIMSELF TO A MF BIG ASS ROCK AND JUMPS OFF A GOD DAMN CLIFF TO GO ON SOME SOUL-SEARCHING JOURNEY UNDER THE SEA" THEORY IS IN. and what the FUCK is the rag man doing with ed up on that cliff hello?????? if my theory is correct and that is in fact hornigold's ghost or whatever, what advice or harmful shit is he saying that makes ed do that?????????????????????? but do note the large rock with the rope around it in the first pic

-the revenge crew is blowing up SOMETHING on the side of a building. maybe to cause a distraction or gain access inside the building? is it the side of Spanish Jackie's?? also hiiiiiiii lucius <3

-"our entire escape relies on this" i'm just assuming they're trying to escape from the english bc that seems to be the Big Bad of the season??

-not plot related but during the rope swinging training session izzy slaps stede on the ass and makes this face (sir??????):

>he also has his pegleg here so their mentorship may ramp up after izzy is out of commission for hand-to-hand combat. maybe izzy was supposed to have a larger fighting role alongside ed in defeating the english but once he became incapacitated he realized he would need to train someone else up for the job so ed would be sufficiently protected. but it also had to be someone izzy knew would be willing to die for ed to save his life if it came to that, just like izzy would

-"i've been a failure my whole life. it's not so bad once you get used to it" is stede talking to ed here? is that ed's hair in the corner of the frame??

>side note: as mentioned above, stede also has his earring by this point!!

-"you're going through that 'if i was a regular dude' phase" first of all, SPANISH JACKIE AND EDWARD TEACH BEST FRIENDS TRUTHERS RISE UP. second, why would ed be considered a regular dude now?? how did he lose his reputation? did he willingly give it up or was it taken from him? is this permanent or just temporary? or did he fake his own death with the cliff and the rock thing so he could retire and live a more normal life?? the swede doesn't seem scared of him at all in the final clip from the trailer, straight up asking him if he's poor and going "back to basics". of course, that could just be a power trip from being one of Jackie's newest husbands (or at least her waitstaff)

-possibly totally minor/just a continuity error thing, but: ed has a red ring. we saw it in s1 as he picks up the rather fine cashmere and we see it as ed dramatically drapes himself across the ship's helm with his head on his hand. we do not see it in the scene where he's smoking (see above) or the scene where he's talking to the rabbit. now, if you'll allow me a little bit of clownery for a moment, red has been explicitly coded in this show to be a symbol of love/the heart, especially as it pertains to edward like his red silk scarf as a metaphor for his heart in s1. what if. what if he. gave the red ring (his heart) to. SomeOne. because.....................because his heart belongs to st--[GUNSHOTS]

-olu, jim, and archie with garlic around their necks and making a cross with their fingers - clearly they think someone is a vampire on the ship. @sluterastede proposed it could be izzy, especially if he's on the brink of death due to an infection and frenchie managed to spread his superstitions to other people on the ship!

-THIS FUCKIN GUY. WHO ARE YOU??? it seems like he kidnaps stede and his crew and throws a party on the ship and drugs the drinks which is why everyone is kinda tripping/laughing in some parts. but then everyone gets tied down (stede to the mast, wee john's hands get squished, olu and roach's heads get squished, and jim and archie's feet get secured to the ship's railing i think??). also that wide shot is definitely the rando dude hitting some shrill high note at the same moment the revenge crew cry out in pain from all the squishing (except maybe jim and archie - they might just be laughing at the others bc they're badasses and this pain is nothing). also don't know what the guy is looking at when we first see him but im thinking maybe it's a wanted poster of stede and he's looking at the description of the gentleman pirate to confirm it's the dude right in front of him/that he's captured?? also i think roach is wearing flowers from the drug party in his apron when he fires that canon, so maybe he's tripping too and shoots a canon?? i need a prayer circle for the revenge's safety at this time

-stede has a bullet hole???????????????? did ed fucking shoot him in the heart?????????????????????????? he also notably does NOT have the earring in this scene but he does have the sexy stiddies (blue) shirt like we see in the other shot where he DOES have the earring. maybe this weirdo dude pierces stede's ear bc he thinks stede needs to look more piratey?? or stede gets absolutely sloshed (or drugged) and gets his ear pierced idk !!! maybe jim does it bc they're effortlessly cool and has a bunch of ear piercings!!!

-idk if this is a coincidence or not but i'm pretty sure stede in his training scenes with izzy is wearing the clothes he wore in that final shot of s1 as he rows to find the crew on the island (white linen shirt, dark pants, brown belt and boots). so either costume changes are happening later in the season, they're reusing outfits like normal people do, or the training montage happens extremely early on in the season

-so originally with the teaser trailer i thought ed falling in the water was followed by the shot of ed coming out of the water on the beach. i don't know if i fully believe that anymore because ed is NOT wearing his jacket on the cliff (see above), but he IS wearing it as he comes up out of the water, so either it's two different events and ed just spends a lot of time in the water this season or he puts his jacket on before jumping off the cliff

-ed his holding his right side as he slashes that dude on the beach so he definitely got hurt in battle but i hope it's not him getting stabbed bc ur supposed to cleverly take the sword on the left where all the unimportant bits are :(((

-I VERY STRONGLY BELIEVE that the person in the scene where stede turns around and shoots his gun into the air and everyone else on deck suddenly draws their weapons against that person is our boy lucius!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! he's wearing a beret?????????? @sluterastede proposed that lucius got picked up by the english navy after getting thrown overboard and that's why we see him in the english navy garb (which we later see frenchie in too?? i believe an infiltration fuckery is afoot). also the fact that the shot immediately after this one is of Black Pete doing a happy little fist pump which i'm choosing to interpret as a cute little easter egg symbolizing Pete gets reunited with his love. i also also also believe lucius is in the shot of buttons about to zipline from one ship to the other. i missed him :')

-okay i know i said in an earlier post that stede running across the beach was romantic but i changed my mind and i think izzy is just making stede do cardio as part of his training lol. his outfit matches the one he's wearing when swordfighting izzy in that earlier wideshot and i think he even still has the scarf belt and the full beard in both scenes (explained at the end of this post via production stills) so maybe they have an honest to god training montage that takes course over several days and we get an incredible 80s powerballad to play on top of it while stede thinks of ed to motivate him or whatever. david jenkins hire me to help write season 3 i have ideas

-i think jim is behind stede as he breaks into the weirdly religious room we saw in the teaser when stede punches that guy??

-ed is pretty bloodied in the shot of stede leaning over him and saying VERY worriedly "ed????" so my theory is that ed got hurt in battle or he was taken captive by the Chinese warfleet and stede was worried he was grievously injured. however, once ed comes to and realizes who's kneeling over him, he gets pissed and headbutts stede because he's still mad at him for breaking his heart, and maybe his hands are restrained/his body is too weak so he can't push stede away. or maybe they had to begrudgingly work together on some mission and stede fucked it up and ed got hurt so he's mad about that idk!! ALSO HE'S WEARING THE CRAVAT HELLO

-ed in buttons's shirt looking so PEACEFUL what the HELL. obviously it's from the same general time as him being in Spanish Jackie's when she's talking to him about being a regular dude and later when the swede asks him if he's poor addkjfajdfhlkefh i fucking love this show and its writing so much. but ed says "no, i'm just trying something different man >:/" so i wonder if this is ed at the end of s2 or if this is more towards the middle as he's still in the thick of his healing journey. maybe buttons teaches ed about meditation and/or the tai chi he practiced with the Chinese warfleet crew??

-the BTS production still of ed with his "trust no one" tattoo also features what i believe is the treasure chest we see jim carrying off the ship in the shot where fang is smashing two dudes' heads together!

-i also think the BTS production still of stede with the beard is early on in ep 1 because he has a full beard (that im hoping someone on the revenge bullies him into shaving off to the scruff we see in the rest of the promo materials) and ALSO because he's wearing a long red scarf around his waist, which we never see again in any of the other promo material - except, however, around his neck as a makeshift cravat:

>it's the same exact material and everything! my guess is he gets his ass handed to him in a fight (maybe against izzy??) and his scarf belt gets destroyed, so he repurposes the shredded fabric into his necktie

-there's literal gold bars in the background of this production still lmao the kraken crew got BUSY during ed's goth era

>speaking of, the fucking hair dye dripping down izzy's forehead in this production still:

*sad clown noises*

in conclusion:

WE'RE BACK BABEYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

anyway that's my second dissertation on less than 2 minutes of content that turned out to be quite literally 6 pages long :)

#ofmd #our flag means death #blackbonnet #gentlebeard #edward teach #stede bonnet #ofmd s2 #ofmd s2 spoilers #ofmd season 2 #ofmd s2 trailer #izzy hands #the swede #spanish jackie #jim jimenez #oluwande boodhari #wee john feeney #ofmd spoilers #i don't know what i need to be evaluated for but it's SOMETHING and it's PREVALENT #i spent a collective 5 hours making this post what the whole actual fuck

[5and3nevermind]

What do you think about this one interview after bts getting n1 on bbhot100 where Jimin said “he was with Jk when it happened”. But before that there was a live where Suga mentioned “he cried with Jimin”. Do you think someone was lying? Or Suga just meant that he was crying with Jimin on the phone (while Jimin was with Jk)?

Btw not the same anon but I’m interested in your thoughts on 2020-2021 era. Jimin looked a bit sad at that time and I would like to know your opinion on yoonmin dynamic during that period.

Thnx!

No, I don’t think anyone was lying. All of the members are close, so it isn’t surprising that some of them were together that night. Was Jimin with Yoongi or on the phone? I think it is much more likely to “cry all night long” with someone in-person rather than over the phone.

^^ that’s Yoongi speaking in that screenshot

As for 2020-2021, I agree that Jimin was sad at times. All of the members were! Canceling the tour and changing their plans was devastating.

As for yoonmin during that time, I think we start to see more openness beginning in 2020. The radio live where Jimin said he wanted Yoongi to “long for him more actively,” and Yoongi responded by listing some of the times he’s singled Jimin out for special attention and mentioned him in interviews. We also saw during ITS (which was filmed around that same time) that Yoongi sought Jimin out for gaming, invited him into the trailer to listen to the music he’d been working on, etc. It seems to me that Yoongi was making an extra effort. And after that came surgery era, when Yoongi went out of his way on several occasions to mention how supportive Jimin had been.

As for 2021, again, they seem fine to me and seem to seek each other out for emotional support, like sitting next to each other during the post-Grammy live when they were all so tired and disappointed. We also see them in the background so often. If you have to squint to see them, then it certainly isn’t fanservice! So…if two people are continually seeking each other out, I think that’s a sign they are quite close.

So, long story, short (too late), I think the pandemic was a really difficult time for all of the members. The fact that yoonmin stayed close during that time and emerged from that period being more connected than ever? Wow, that says a lot!

#yoonmin #ask #emotional support #2020 #2021

[heybaetae]

MAKE ME CHOOSE ↳ wings or love yourself era? — anonymous

#bts #bts* #networkbangtan #btsedit #btsgif #dailybts #dailybangtan #bangtanedit #bangtangif #vantaenet #bangtanarmynet #ipurpleunet #purplearmynet #armysource #*gifs #comp #mmc #i think i may have outdone myself #i also didn't realize how many jungkook closeups i chose lmao #i know there was so much more to the LY era than just the trailers and music videos okokokok

[crazymisscarly]

OBVIOUSLY I’m gonna ask about: Bughead sexcapades !!!

Oh God, my inner puritan is *blushing* right now. I started writing this like... over a year ago and I don’t know if I’ll ever finish it. I low key got tired of re-reading all the season 2 era bughead smut fanfics on ao3 (because believe me, i’ve read them all) and decided to give it a go myself. I’m not very explicitly smutty when I write, I prefer to allude to things or just graze the surface. not to say that I don’t like including sex scenes in my works - I just tend to steer clear of anything graphic.

Since I don’t know if I’ll actually finish it, I’ll post it here in its current entirety. For context, it’s meant to go through all of bughead’s ‘sexcapades’ throughout the early series, all the unseen intimate moments between them from their kitchen makeout scene in 1x13 up until they actually do the deed in 2x12, and possibly even exploring how their relationship changed and strengthened afterwards -- I 100% would name it something else if it ever went up on ao3, but for now, bughead sexcapades is the working title hahahahaa

Who knows, maybe going through my old WIPs thanks to this game might’ve just inspired me to keep writing it aahahaha

Betty had been honest with her mother; the night of Riverdale’s 75th Jubilee, her and Jughead almost had sex when they went back to FP’s trailer. 

They didn’t talk about it beforehand, and really, both had been too distracted by the Black Hood shooting Fred Andrews to properly discuss it with each other afterwards. But somewhere between Betty removing her pink coat and Jughead lifting her up and near-slamming her against the kitchen cabinets, both of them were completely aware of what was about to happen.

But then Jughead changed schools, and there was less time to spend with each other, and the nerves set in. They started making out once or twice, and both of them could feel the urge to connect with each other in the most intimate of ways… but had always been interrupted. 

Their first post-“shirtless in the trailer kitchen” make out was in the Red and Black office; Jughead deepened their kiss and pulled Betty towards his body as he leaned back against a desk - it reminded him of the Blue and Gold, their haven of intelligence gathering (and their place to escape for a few moments alone during school hours). Their near-hookup in FP’s trailer had ignited some kind of flame in both of them; they weren’t as cautious with touching, the familiar comfortability giving both of them the confidence to explore each other’s bodies in their own nervous way - Jughead’s hands strayed from Betty’s cheeks to her neck, then to her waist, and he hoped that maybe he’d get to move his hands even lower...

But still, they’d been interrupted - then, and any other subsequent time, whether by friends or Betty’s mother calling her to come home. So much so that sex seemed like it was going to become an impossible mission that not even Tom Cruise could achieve.

When they had finally found the time to be alone, shortly after Jughead drag raced the Ghoulies and Betty admitted that she didn’t really want to break up with Jughead (in fact, that was not what she’d asked Archie to do), they’d both overthought the possibility of sex so much that neither was certain whether they were actually ready for it, or if their intensifying emotions were the result of the life-threatening happenings in their hometown. 

“We’ll know when it feels like the right time, Betts.” Jughead reassured her after she wiggled out from under him on the trailer’s bed; Jughead had claimed it after FP was imprisoned, but Betty was struggling to think of it as being anything other than Jughead’s parents bed. And something about having sex in it felt... off.

Betty sighed. “I want you, Juggie, I don’t know what’s wrong with me…” 

Less than two weeks earlier she’d practically torn her and Jughead’s shirts off in an effort to get closer to him. But today, lying on her back beneath her boyfriend, on a bed, her thighs cradling is hips as they kissed (hot, open mouthed kisses) as though her body was in control and her brain was just following its lead, sex just seemed so much more real - and the butterflies in her stomach threatened to swallow her up. Betty knew having sex would change something between them that couldn’t be reversed, and she’d only just gotten him back. She didn’t want to risk losing him by doing too much too fast. 

“Nothing! Nothing’s wrong with you.” Jughead said quickly; his eyes betrayed the mild panic he felt. “We both have to be feeling completely comfortable and ready or it’s not going to work out - and I read that on Reddit, so we can reasonably believe it’s true.” He smirked as his eyes met hers. 

Betty giggled. “Did you find a thread called ‘how to have sex’ and use the replies as research?” She brushed a stray lock of hair from Jughead’s forehead. 

Jughead’s cheeks were turning pink. He cleared his throat before speaking. “Well, that’s, ah - that wasn’t the exact title…” 

Betty smiled and reached out to take his hand. “Hey, comfortable, right?” She leaned over and kissed him. Although she still wasn’t completely sure about sex itself, kissing Jughead and feeling his arms wrap around her was a great experience in itself. 

Jughead leaned into her, his body coming dangerously close to pinning her down into the mattress. He groaned quietly as Betty kissed his neck, and Betty felt the sound all the way down her navel, and lower…

He felt Betty lightly pushing his chest, and he rolled onto his back so she could straddle him. His body felt like it was on fire. The feel of her, pressed against him, had him filled with desires he didn’t know could exist. Everywhere Jughead touched her felt hot, and her mouth on his was like a fulfilling heat that awakened every nerve inside him. He trailed his hands down to her hips and pulled her up his body slightly so she was straddling his lower abdomen instead of his lap, fearing that if he left her there then this would be over before it even really started.

Betty pulled away from his mouth, her eyes a mixture of lust and vulnerability that had Jughead’s breath coming out in laboured gasps. “Juggie?” she asked in a breathy moan. 

Oh God and yes were the only words in Jughead’s mind. “Ye-yeah?” He forced out when he could focus. 

“It’s getting kind of late…” She bit her bottom lip for a moment. Jughead’s grip on her hips tightened at the sight. “I could tell my Mom I’m staying over at Veronica’s… that’s if, you know… you don’t want me to go.” Her eyes searched Jughead’s. 

Jughead’s mind was swimming, and he would have been embarrassed that it took him so long to figure out what she meant if he could even think at all. “Um, yes, that's a great idea.” She probably could have asked him to paint himself blue and go to school dressed as a Smurf and he would have agreed, so long as she stayed right where she was. 

Betty smiled and laughed softly. The vibrations sent tingly jolts through Jughead’s body and he couldn’t contain the groan that escaped his mouth. Betty’s eyes lit up for a moment before she blushed and looked down at his chest. She ran her fingers up his chest softly, and Jughead placed his hands on her cheeks to pull her down for another kiss.

This kiss felt deeper than the others. Betty’s tongue slipped into his mouth. One of Jughead’s hands slid into Betty’s hair as the other wrapped around her back. Her chest pressed deliciously up against his. She was so warm, right now and every day. And she freely gave him her warmth, no strings attached. Betty’s love warmed his heart, his body, his mind - he gravitated towards it every day, and gave it back to her in the form of light brushes of fingers, a hand in her hand, a gentle nudging of her shoulder...  

And her smiles… wow.

Jughead’s heart was beating faster than he’d ever felt it beat as Betty started kissing and sucking on his neck. He’d never been so closely entangled with Betty before, and all he wanted was to get even closer. As close as two people could get… 

But he wasn’t going to push the point, not when they both had reasons to hesitate. 

“Can I…” Betty said nervously. “Do you want me to…” her hand slid down his chest, over his hip (his breath hitched as her fingers met the skin where his shirt had ridden up) and rested on his thigh. She squeezed his thigh just a little, and Jughead couldn’t believe how sensitive it was; how good it felt. 

#riverdale fanfiction #bughead fanfiction #bughead #betty and jughead #bughead wip #my fics

[favescandis]

NEW interview with Alexander Skarsgård about Godzilla vs. Kong and The Northman with Uproxx

Alexander Skarsgard Knows You Don’t Care About Him In ‘Godzilla Vs Kong’

MIKE RYAN, SENIOR ENTERTAINMENT WRITER MARCH 30, 2021

Yes, Alexander Skarsgard is under no false impressions that you are looking forward to Godzilla vs. Kong to see the adventures of his character, a geologist named Dr. Nathan Lind. You see, Godzilla has been causing some problems for humans for unknown reasons and, just maybe, Kong can take care of business and let Godzilla know that his antics aren’t appreciated by means of a knuckle sandwich. And Dr. Nathan Lind has been studying Kong for years and has a good idea of what Kong’s motivations might be and what Kong actually wants.

So, yes �� there are times where there is not a lot to talk about when even one of the lead actors in a movie admits people aren’t coming to see him or his character. Though from past interviews, I know Skarsgard has a pretty good sense of humor, so the real questions soon devolved into kind of outlandish fake questions and, luckily, Skarsgard ran with them.

Also, Skarsgard’s next film is The Northman, which is interesting for a couple of reasons. First, he teams with Robert Eggers, which will be the director’s followup to the acclaimed The Lighthouse. Second, it will completely screw up Google searches for True Blood fans searching for Skarsgard’s character, Eric Northman. And, yes, he’s thought about that and wonders how many people will show up expecting to see vampires. (There will be no vampires.)

It’s funny, because just the title of this movie, that isn’t false advertising.

Oh yeah.

Multiple fights.

It’s almost a two-hour-long movie, and it’s like an hour and 55 minutes of fighting.

So what’s this like for you? When you sign onto something like this? Because it’s Godzilla and Kong and they’re going to wind up getting a lot of the attention.

It’s humbling for a narcissistic actor like myself, to be put in my place, to show up on set and know that no one will go to see this movie because I’m in it.

Well, that’s not true. I have noticed over the years you do have a fan base that goes nuts for you.

That’s flattering to hear. But I’m under no illusion that I’m the star of the show and that anyone will go see the movie because they want to see Nathan Lind, the geologist.

The geologist.

Yeah, well, in a way, to be a vessel and a way for the audience to get to know, in my character’s case, Kong, more so than Godzilla, because I’m with Kong throughout the movie. But in a way to not necessarily humanize Kong, but to show a different side of Kong, to show that he has empathy. He’s lived a very solitary, lonely life on Skull Island without social connections, without family. And the thought of him to be reconnected, or to find his family in Hollow Earth is, is kind of the driving force, to reconnect. So I felt like my job was kind of set that up in a way and to kind of show the audience that side of Kong.

Well, you said people aren’t coming to see Dr. Nathan Lind, the geologist. But once here, where you tell me, how you’ve spent the last five years, studying with geologists and following them around and becoming a trained geologist yourself, people will look at this in a different way.

Right? Well, that’s how seriously I take my job.

You threw yourself into it. The last, maybe, ten years, you’ve been studying with geologists, just to know exactly what you were doing in this movie.

It’s just the kind of actor I am, Mike. Even though I play a very peripheral character and no one cares, I still take my craft seriously. And that means a decade of studying geology and living, breathing the character. Just to give the audience that sublime performance that I give in the movie.

When you’re giving the technical jargon during the movie, viewers can rest assured that you know exactly what you’re talking about, because you studied for so long with trained geologists.

Exactly. And they can see that in my eyes, that I’m not lying. I’m not pretending. I’m not acting. I’m not playing a geologist. I am a geologist.

You are a geologist.

Yes.

So when you filmed at Hollow Earth, in the center of Earth, was that on location?

Obviously, it was.

Yeah, I could tell.

And being there was trippy. I felt like you can’t … the audience can tell whether you’re there or when you’re actually there, or if it’s the soundstage with green screen. So the only way to do it, when you make a character driven drama, like Godzilla vs. Kong, is to actually go there and actually spend time down there and be there with Kong. So it was six very intense months, deep down in the center of the earth with a gigantic ape.

That’s why we haven’t seen you in a while — because you’ve been down there.

I’ve been down there, with a gigantic ape.

Being serious, doing the “there they are” reaction seems especially difficult in this movie, with these being such central characters. And I know that’s part of the deal with a lot of movies, but this seems even more that.

Absolutely. Watching the movie, I could tell that I’m reacting to the wrong thing, like I’m reacting to something else. And they play my reaction to something that I think I’m reacting to, but many things have changed. Or they use that reaction to something else. So they kind of make it work. So it’s like, I look at something, and I think I’m reacting to something completely different, but I’m not. They completely changed that. So it’s quite a ride and exciting to watch the movie, because I’m as surprised as the audience. When I watch it, like, “Oh really? That happened.” And, “Oh, look at my reaction here.”

The scene that we all saw in the trailer, which surprisingly happens pretty early in the movie, where Kong just punches Godzilla in the face. So do you watch the movie and go, “If that really would have happened in front of me, I might’ve reacted quite differently than I did even in the movie”?

Well, that specific sequence, they actually had in the pre-visualization, so that actually looks quite very, very, very close to what the previs two years ago looked. So Adam [Wingard] played us that. So pretty much the whole fight scene was choreographed before we shot our reactions to it. So I knew that that punch was going to land, and that’s what I’m reacting to.

We’ve given Dr. Nathan Lind a lot of time, and we’ve given King Kong a lot of time. We haven’t really talked about Godzilla. He gets annoyed when people bother him. I relate to that.

Me too. Going into the movie, I was very much team Godzilla. I love the old Godzilla movies, like the ’60s and ’70s, that era, when it’s zero special effects.

Just a guy in a suit and it’s awesome.

It’s a middle-aged dude in a suit, kicking a miniature version of Tokyo on a set.

In your next movie, you’re working with Robert Eggers, The Northman. You’re done filming that, right?

We’re done. Yeah, we shot for six months during the pandemic. We started last summer and finished just before Christmas.

Did you look at his prior movies and just go, “I have to be part of this.”

Well, I courted him. I loved both The Witch and The Lighthouse. And was developing The Northman and was trying to find a director for it. It was a very different iteration of the script, and the story was very different from what we ended up shooting. But I had a version of a viking movie that I wanted to make and basically went after Rob. He was my dream director and I thought that he would be perfect for this. And that, when I mentioned it to him, it turned out that he was a huge viking fan and knew everything about the mythology.

That doesn’t surprise me for some reason.

Yeah, he knew so much about that world and that era and got really excited about the idea of potentially making this movie. And then he found Sjón, this Icelandic author and poet and screenwriter. And Sjón and Rob together wrote the screenplay to what ultimately became The Northman, the movie that we shot. So it’s something on that was slowly percolating and growing over the course of eight years. So, to finally be on set last year, with the greatest filmmaker of our time and some of the greatest actors of our time, was the highlight of my career, for sure.

Have you thought about how this will screw up Google searches for your True Blood fans?

[Laughs] Yes, I am very much aware of how problematic the title is.

Well, not problematic. True Blood fans are going to have to put in a few other keywords now.

Yeah, that’s true. That’s true. I do apologize for that. And I’m sure some people will be pretty disappointed if they go to see a stand-alone movie about Eric Northman, and then they sit down and it’s a goddamn Viking movie and not a vampire in sight.

I think they’re in for a treat, to tell you the truth.

Well, I hope so. I hope so. I’m very excited about the movie, but I have to admit that, unfortunately, there are no vampires in the movie.

‘Godzilla Vs. Kong’ hits theaters and HBO Max on March 31st.

Photo credited to Getty. [Paris Men’s Fashion Week Armani show, July 2, 2019]

https://uproxx.com/movies/alexander-skarsgard-interview-godzilla-vs-kong-the-northman/

#Alexander Skarsgård #Uproxx #Godzilla vs. Kong #The Northman #Alexander Skarsgard #long post

[vinceaddams]

obvs feel free to keep this private, but I got recommended the UFH channel by a friend of mine, haven't gotten around to watching anything from it. I trust your judgement on the content, but my friend considers it her main resource 🙃 of course, since you only watched a few videos you might not be able to answer this, but was there any specific really bad/unacademic approaches I should keep my eye out for that my friend might have adopted? we work on a historical festival together so im concern

(I was going to answer this privately but then it got really long and turned into a post I want to post.)

Oh dear! Well, It appears that the lady behind that channel only cares about the 20th century, so maaybe she’s got good stuff on the 20th century at least? I don’t know, but the 2 videos that I saw were so incredibly awful that I’m highly suspicious of all her stuff. 

The first bad thing about her channel is that her videos all have a one or two sentence caption and nothing else. (I clicked on a few more just to check) No sources listed, no links of any kind except to her merch store. I don’t recall her mentioning any particular sources for any of the things she said in the videos either, she just declared them very matter of factly. 

Good historians cite sources! Bernadette Banners’ video on the history of PPE has so many source links she ran out of room in the description box and had to put the rest of them on a page on her website.  (Oh poo, now I feel a bit bad because I love Karolina Zebrowska but she really needs to do better with leaving source links. But she does talk about doing research, talk in a more nuanced way, and doesn’t present herself as an expert or academic, unlike the UFH lady.)

Good historians also embrace nuance, and aren’t afraid to say “I don’t know” or “I was wrong”. Presenting things in a “this person did this one big thing, and then this happened, and that caused this” kind of way isn’t good because history is more like “all these things happened and as far as we can tell it appears to have influenced this, which was also connected to this other stuff that we don’t know all that much about”. History is foggy and complicated, no matter how much the general public wants it to be simple.

Her description of herself also seems a bit... misleading? In her about page on youtube it says “Amanda Hallay, a college professor specializing in fashion, costume, and cultural history.” but if you look at the CV linked on her website the only degrees she has are in creative writing and art history. I’m not saying a person can’t be really knowledgable about something without a degree, but her whole online presence is about being a “professor” who teaches this stuff so I find it weird.

And if the 1850′s-60s video is anything to go by, she presents things in a shockingly unprofessional way. She starts off by saying she thinks these fashions are ugly and ridiculous and that she has some “theories of her own” on them. @marzipanandminutiae has a post with a lot more about what was wrong with that video, and a few others I haven’t seen. She claims that hoop skirts were oppressive cages when in reality they were a liberating garment that allowed women to achieve full skirts without the heavy layered petticoats they wore previously. 

She posts a photo of a naked lady and says “Now lets start with a beautiful naked lady and cover her up with ugly and unflattering clothes. Now this sexy naked lady isn’t so sexy” I wish I was making this up but that’s almost word for word what she said. Along with a whole lot of untrue or exaggerated stuff about Victorian modesty. She says dresses with layered flounces were called “pagoda dresses”, which isn’t a term that anyone has ever used for those dresses. She says this is cut down from a longer video she uses for teaching class, and I find the thought of this being presented in a classroom quite appalling.

After spending about 95% of the video talking about womens fashion in an extremely condescending and disdainful tone of voice, she posts what appear to be the 5 biggest and most extreme examples of 19th century moustaches she could find, presenting them as if they were what every man looked like.

This part really grinds my gears, because she says “I haven’t said anything about menswear because there’s really not much to say.” She posts photos of suits from 5 different decades and says they’re basically all the same, and also basically the same as a modern suit. Excuse you, there is A LOT of difference between menswear of the 1850′s and the 1890′s. Yes the changes over the decades are more subtle, and the colours are often more subdued than in centuries past, but it is absolutely not (as she claims) “the century when men stopped doing fashion”.   I personally am not hugely interested in 19th century mens fashion, and can tentatively date things in the first few decades but after the middle of the century I can’t. But people who are interested and who study that era can tell the decades apart. Because they’re different. And there is SO MUCH to talk about! Suits for different levels of formality, accessories, waistcoats, sportswear, sleepwear, knitwear, swimsuits, loungewear, underwear, etc. are all extremely different from their modern equivalents. 

It’s perfectly fine to only study womens fashion if that’s what you’re interested in, but it is not okay to then declare that the history of mens fashion is worthless and nonexistent. Simply not being interested in a thing is no excuse for publicly shitting all over it. (I’ve seen people do this more than once. We already have so few men who do historical fashion stuff! Stop putting off newcomers who might be interested!!)

The fact that her online presence is so closed off is also highly unusual. Comments are turned off for her videos, and the only social media link she has is to a private facebook group. (There is also a link to a fb page, but it appears to have been deleted.) Turning off comments is of course the personal choice of the one posting the videos, but the fashion history side of youtube usually tends towards pretty decent comment threads, and people often have nice little discussions and learn stuff in them. Here it looks like she doesn’t want discussion, doesn’t want to be contradicted or asked for sources, doesn’t want to learn new things.

I had never even heard of this channel until I saw @marzipanandminutiae mention it, nor have I ever heard any of the many historical costumers/youtubers I follow mention it, yet somehow it has 55k followers? I don’t know the demographics that watch it (especially not with the comments turned off!) but I’d wager that videos like the 1850′s-60′s one I suffered through are mainly watched by people who like hearing things trash talked, rather than people who actually want to learn about fashion history. The same sort of people who loved that Beau Brummell twitter thread, which was also full of lies and unsourced garbage. People like to believe the past was way worse and grosser than it was because it makes them feel like we’re smarter and better now.

Lastly, the whole premise of the channel is just bad. Calling any one thing “The Ultimate Fashion History” is a bad idea. Her channel trailer says “Youtube’s number one channel for original fashion history content” “we’ve got it all, fifty thousand years of fashion history”. You can’t have one channel that’s the ultimate resource for ALL of fashion history! It’s a huge, HUGE subject, and even if she did do actual good research she’d barely be able to scratch the surface of fifty thousand years. That’s like saying one channel is the ultimate source for all of science, or all of music, or all of cooking. No one thing can come close to covering all of it. I will deign to admit that she’s at least right to call it “original”, because she has some very original lies I haven’t found anywhere else. 

Most people who study fashion history/historical sewing have one or several eras they like best and find most interesting, perhaps with occasional jaunts into other eras. This way we can focus and get a much better understanding of the eras that we find most interesting, rather than just a vague notion of everything. 

For example: I’m most interested in 18th century menswear, and so far have mainly researched and sewn 1785-95 stuff, and more recently some 1730′s. I usually focus on fashionable civilian clothing, so I don’t know as much about working class clothes, and next to nothing about military and other occupational dress. Even with this narrow area of interest, which I’ve been obsessed with for many years, I still have so much to learn! I could never make anything claiming to be the ultimate source for 18th century menswear, because I’m just one person focusing on some aspects, and there are other people out there who research other aspects of it and their work is just as important. It’s all so big and so much, even if you narrow it down to one era.

Amanda Hallay is basically holding up a bucket of saltwater and calling it the ocean.

I haven’t watched any of her 20th century videos, so maybe they’re better than the older ones I watched. I don’t know. (But even if they’re actually good they still don’t have source links.) Edit: okay, nope, turns out they’re just as bad! They appear to make up the vast majority of her videos, so if she’s most interested in the 20th century then maybe she should just... make her channel more clearly 20th century focused instead of trying to paint it as a channel for all eras?

TL;DR, the main bad things about that channel are:

Lying and making ridiculous claims, not citing ANY sources. Spouting easily debunked myths.

Stating things matter of factly without any nuance, even though history is foggy and complicated.

Being extremely judgemental about historical fashions and talking about how much she hates them and thinks they’re ugly, which really isn’t appropriate for a fashion history teacher. You can hear the disgust in her voice and it’s awful and I hate it.

Comments turned off on all her videos, leaving no way to communicate or have public discussions. Unknowing viewers are left to accept her statements as fact without any outside opinions.

Claiming one channel is the ultimate channel for an incalculably enormous subject. Says it covers 50,000 years of fashion history when it’s mostly just the 20th century.

I would like to add that I am not what I would consider an expert either, and have no formal education in fashion history beyond the one college class that was part of my 2 year sewing course. I have learned mainly from books and the internet, and as I said earlier I still have a huge amount to learn. I’m sure a more knowledgable historian could put things better than I have. 

But I’m confident in stating that primary sources are needed to back up a claim! Sometimes even widely accepted beliefs turn out to be entirely unfounded myths, like that one about doctors using vibrators to treat “hysteria”. Total nonsense someone made up in 1999.

Wow this post got way longer than intended. Anyways, yes, I do not like condescending slideshow lady.

#dongiovannitriumphant #ask #irksome things #fashion #history #long post

[myfeetkeepdancing]

One Last Effort  | Tom Holland x Male!Reader

Warning: Smut

Request:  Can you do a smutty bottom Tom x top male reader where they're both closeted actors and costars in some big movie and the tension between them gradually rises until the last day of filming when it comes to a head and they just let it all out in one of their dressing rooms

A final push clicks the mechanism of your suitcase shut. The end of an era. It has something emotional about it. But you weren’t going to admit to it. You pop yourself beside the suitcase on the mattress. Eyeing the trailer, you spend the last months in, recollecting all the treasured memories you made here. Not only this trailer. But also around it. The studios. The stage. Your co-stars all had one, lined alongside the studio. A journey that started far and foreign. Alone and lonely. New co-stars and colleagues. Adjusting your way of living, getting into the flow of filming. Long tiresome days, but with rewarding results. And most important, feeling valued for what you do — being acknowledged at what your best at doing.

Within no time, co-stars started becoming friends. The crew was becoming more than colleagues, making the long days bearable. Dining with the crew, instead of alone in the trailer, going out with co-stars, instead of hanging in your trailer at night. The whole experience was turning out to be a life-defining experience. But all that joy and fun came and abrupt ending.

Months seem long. A year even more so. But once the daily routine, and the things you do become enjoyable. Time has no grasp on you anymore. The most memorable birthday to date was celebrated largely at the studios. Emotional moments were filmed with real pain and feeling. And so was the last day at the studio. In hang in the air for weeks. The tension was tangible between everyone. Sharing the last moments on the screen together. It kept you awake at night. The thought that this was the final moment together. There was no part for any of you in the post production. And if there was, it was voice acting. Something that could be done at home.

Then there was that one person. Tom Holland. You had known him. Years before you got the news, you looked up to him. Admired him. And more.

 Thank the Gods for that first meeting. That moment you met him was magical. From day one, you hit it off. In a good way. You were sure that from day one, some sort of spark hit you. You could feel it. Almost sense it. There was more to it. But who was going to take a shot at it? Risk it all?

 In the months to come, you had shared vast amounts of time with each other. Met his family, friends, and shared memorable moments. Becoming far more than just co-stars, making that last day on set extremely difficult. Hugged, laughed and finally shed a small tear. It was inevitable. Each was going their own way.

Now you were alone. Waiting for the taxi to arrive. Your conscience bothering you. Eating at you, the fact you didn’t tell him how you felt. You let him go. For a moment, you trapped in your own thoughts.

“(Y/N)?” The trailer door creaks open. “H-Hey!”

Snapping from your somewhat daydream you look up at Tom coming through the door. “Get that look from your face. C’mon!” Reaching out to you open arms.

“Oh shut it, Tom.” Waving away his open arms. “I clearly remember seeing you cry as well. Don’t you hate these days?”

“More than you, trust me.” Showing a thin smile. “But I believe-...” Looking about the room. “-you still have my hoodie.”

“I don’t, Tom.” You chuckle lightly. Thinking back to that one night.

“It has to be!” Opening random drawers and closet doors around the trailer. Before locking his gaze onto your suitcase. “You’re were going to take it home, weren’t you?” Pacing towards your suitcase.

You turn your body towards him and pull his arm away. “Don’t you look in there, Tom.”

“What? Why not? Whatcha hidin’ there?” His smile turning in a devilish grin. “You got some of my underwear as well?”

“To be fair, I haven’t had the chance-” You grin, rising to your feet. “-to ask for it.”

“You know… You didn’t ask for my hoodie…” Closing the distance between you. His breath brushing past your skin. His one hand holding onto your shoulder, as he leans into your ear and whispers. “So maybe you should… take it…while you can.” You feel the goosebumps shoot across your skin.

The distance between the two of you was dangerously close — the tension thickening. You catch the sparks glitter in his eyes as he moves back. Your bodies yearning for one and the other. But hesitation holding you both back. Not sure who’s going to take the first step.

“How about you?” You let your fingers brush past his hips, sliding one finger along his belt, pulling him in like an anchor. Your lips were hovering past each other, nearly touching. “Do you want anything… in particular?”  

“Well…” He says while his eyes look about your figure. Before meeting your gaze again. “I’m looking for something-… He pauses as his strong arms reach around you. Pulling you tenderly against him. “-memorable.” Feeling his muscular body pressed against yours. “Got an idea?” He says with a cocky edge.

“I can help you with that…” You wrap your arms around his neck. “But it involves your underwear.”

“Good...” He grins. “Cause it’s starting to get a bit tight down there…”

His lips part before engulfing yours in a long passionate kiss. Your bodies finally finding each other. Moaning deeply into the kiss. Tom becoming fiercer the moment your fingers run along the waistband of his pants. Tom flips your suitcase across the floor so violently. Clothes fly all through the room. Pushing you to mattress, undoing each other of clothes with substantial ferocity. All the pent up energy from past weeks released within seconds. You had teased and played with each other for long enough. Locked in the embrace of love and desire. You both wrestle naked on the mattress, worshipping each other’s body with unrelentless desire, rolling back and forth as you both desperately crave more. Kissing every inch of each other’s skin, sucking and caressing as much as each can. Tom eventually succumbs to his nerves. Lying flat on his back, breathing heavily, his fingers intertwined into your locks of hair as you caress his abs with your lips. Soft moans circle the trailer. You halt and gaze upwards, feeling your hips being clasped by his legs. He cups your cheeks and brings your lips to his. Kissing you violently. Before suddenly pulling you away from his lips. Demanding your attention. “I want you to do me…” He says. “Fuck me (Y/N)” He groans. Right here, right fucking now.” Grinding his pelvis against you.

Before he’s able to utter another word, you have placed your tip at his entrance and push lightly against his hole. Before continuing, you circle a wet finger around his hole. Tom moans out loudly. The anticipation driving Tom mad. Startled by his reaction, you gaze at his lust, overflowing face. Craving you more than anything else. His cock in front of you, standing up in full glory. You’re mesmerized by his meaty shaft and all its veins. All converging to a big throbbing head a top. The reason for your nightly wet dreams. It’s wonderful. You feel your throat falling dry. Feeling yourself harden by the second. “Ram it into me (Y/N)!” He snarls, pulling you back into reality.

You hesitate for a moment. Slowly pushing into him. As soon as you feel the tightness wrap around you. A long a powerful thrust from your pelvis pushes you all the way into him. The warmth and wetness gliding far and deep. Tom’s back arches upward, his eyes rolling to the back of his head. An intense moan sounds through the trailer. “Yes, babe!” He cries out. “Just like that...”

You grab both his shoulders firmly, and start rolling your hips, holding his figure back against your thrust. And begin to slide in and out with increasing speed. The sound of naked flesh slapping against each other was soon overshadowed by cries of pleasure from Tom. His muscled body now under complete control of your shaft, you snatch the pillow beside you and shove it under his hips. Arching his ass more towards you. You reposition along and continue ramming into him. The effect immediately noticeable, feeling yourself gliding much deeper. Not only for yourself.

Tom’s eyes widen, gasping loudly as he arches upward. But you have his body tight into a grasp. Pushing him down again. His lips quiver as he tries to utter a word. His arms fall beside him like a ragdoll. Rendered motionless. Only air escapes his mouth. And the deeper you ram into him, the tighter it feels. Squeezing your member more and more. You feel the edge coming closer. 

Tom’s body shudders under your hands, the sweat making it difficult to hold onto him. His head rolls back, eyes close, and suddenly a long white string lands onto his face. Another lands along his jawline and more on his neck. It never seems to stop. You clench onto his figure and feel a sudden jolt of pleasure shoot down into your hips. And groan uncontrollably as it passes outwards through your member. You shudder and shake as you watch Tom unload himself. Tom eyes instantly lock into your gaze, feeling what’s happening. Before the final spurts sprinkle on his chest. The shaking and shuddering stops and the two bodies collide into a panting mess of flesh and wetness.

---------------------------------------------------

“Finally got one...” You smile, spinning Tom’s underwear on your finger. A chuckle followed by a tender brush of his fingers along your jaw, he turns your face towards him. Rolling you onto your side, his lips finding yours.

“Well, I’ve got plenty more...” Tom whispers after releasing your lips. His fingers ghosting along your figure.

“Underwear?”

“Oh, you name it, love. Just as long as every piece counts towards this...” His fingers run along your pelvis, Tom grins. “We’re going to be busy for a while.”

“You include socks as well?”

“Fuck yeah…” He grins, pushing you down onto the sheet, throwing one leg over, taking place on top of you. Both his hands cupping the sides of your face, kissing you long and intense. “And they’re going a piece. Not per pair.” He mumbles into the kiss.

#tom holland x reader #tom holland x male!reader #tom holland x male reader #tom holland imagine #tom holland smut #male reader smut #tom holland x y/n #tom holland x you #tom holland male reader

[captainchrisfics]

Oh, Baby

About: After finding out she’s pregnant with Chris Evans’s baby less than a year into their relationship, the first person pov narrator looks for comfort and advice from their fellow MCU cast members. Unbeknownst to her, Chris notices she’s shut him out and decides to confront her at the same time that she plans on letting him in.

Word Count: 4,070

Requested by: Anon

“Hey, I need to talk to you guys,” I said, trying to keep my voice level though I was sure I didn’t hide the panic in my eyes very well. Sebastian Stan stood outside his trailer, leaning against the wall while talking to Brie Larson. Exactly the two people I wanted to see. I was elated, just enough of a little thing going right can be enough of a relief. They were my fire extinguisher found in the middle of a blaze.

That was until they both turned, revealing Chris sitting behind them in a folding chair poised perfectly as if it was meant to keep him out of my view. Sometimes you realize the fire extinguisher is empty and you’re still utterly fucked, for lack of a better term. “Hey, babe,” Chris perked up with a smile, standing to greet me. He was in his Captain America costume, filthy from a fake battle with Thanos. That didn’t stop him from planting a kiss on my lips, which planted a dreadful anxiety that stemmed from the bottom of my nervous stomach. Chris pulled away, leaving my face sutty with makeup. “Hey,” I responded, hearing the high-pitched lilt in my voice. 

Chris’s smile dropped for a moment the same way my heart did. “What’s wrong?” he inquired sweetly, reaching out to hold my hand in comfort. He played with my fingers, lacing our hands together. When I pulled away, Chris looked at me with pleading eyes while I wiped my sweaty hands on my jeans. “Nothing,” I asserted too forcibly. “Just need to talk to Seb and Brie about our scene,” I recovered quickly with the first excuse that came to mind. “That’s not in my script,” Chris said with a slight frown, sure that he’d gotten the actual one from the Russo’s instead of one of the many full of misleading scenes for the sake of spoilers.

I hated lying to Chris, but I just couldn’t tell him yet. So I shrugged, trying to find some kind of elaboration as to why I’d need to talk to them about a scene that didn’t actually exist until Brie got the hint.

“It’s in mine,” she corroborated my story. “Same here,” Sebastian followed our lead, his eyes darting between us before nodding reassuringly at Chris. My boyfriend shrugged it off, letting me off the hook this time. Still, it was clear he didn’t take the bait entirely by the suspicious look in his eyes, calculating how much innocence I’d need to be proven guilty.

Chris hesitated for a beat too long before leaning in to peck my cheek, choosing not to fight this battle right now. “Have fun then. Love you,” he said with a controlled smile. I nodded my head, picking my nails uneasily and failing to listen enough to realize I should’ve replied. Instead, I turned and walked away with Seb and Brie in tow.

Although we’ve only been working together on Endgame for a short time, Brie and I were fast friends. There weren’t many women around, so we were incredibly close. As for Seb, we’d been best friends since we met filming The Winter Soldier. Now, on the set of the last installment of our MCU era, we were all trying to make the most of it. Constantly around and hanging out together, even if all of us weren’t even filming that day, which I was more grateful for now than ever.

The three of us walked stiffly back to my trailer where we could talk privately, but even once we were there I couldn’t seem to push any words passed the boulder in my throat. Sebastian and Brie sat across from me over the small kitchen island, staring at me expectantly.

“Is everything alright?” Seb finally asked softly, reaching across the counter to hold my hand. He rubbed small circles on the back of my hand with his thumb, patient eyes on me while my mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water. I gave up on speaking and instead pushed the two positive pregnancy tests I’d kept hidden in my pocket over the counter. I never thought something as small as the little, white plastic sticks could be so earth-shattering. That something so tiny, just a handful duplicating cells at this point, could feel so heavy.

Brie held one up as if she was checking that she was seeing clearly. I didn’t believe it either, but the second, faint pink line was really there. “If this is part of that prank war, I’m going to kill you,” Seb said incredulously, his hand holding mine falling limp as his jaw hit the floor.

“I wish it was,” I said with a dry laugh, tears starting to prickle the corners of my eyes. “I went to the doctor today. I’m only around six weeks along, but she took this anyway just to make sure.” I slid the sonogram across the counter. It was too early to see much other than the dark gap in the middle of my organ, hosting a blurry ring of white so small the nurse drew a silver Sharpie arrow to point it out.

Brie just sat looking at me dazed as if she thought this was a dream. “Do you know what you’re going to do?” she asked. She was careful when picking up the picture, holding it daintily from the edges.

“I don’t know,” I confessed. Saying it out loud made it that much more of a reality. I didn’t know what I was going to do. “I’m sorry to dump this on you guys like this. I-” I stopped when my voice cracked, choking back the tears threatening to fall. “I just didn’t know who else to talk to. I mean, I want to tell Chris so badly. I want him to be happy. But what if…” My voice kept growing quiet until it ceased, trailing off before I could indulge my newfound fears that simultaneously became my deepest. What if he isn’t? What if he didn’t want it? What if he didn’t want me? What if this ruins everything?

“If I’m sure of one thing,” Brie said, calm as you always cross your fingers in hope the sea will be, something I found comfort in. “Chris loves you. Tremendously and unconditionally. That counts for so much,” she assured with contagious confidence. Seb agreed with a nod of his head. “You know we’re always here for you and he is, too. Honestly,” Sebastian said with a stiff upper lip, “I think he’ll be over the moon.”

“We haven’t been together very long,” I said in protest, chewing on my bottom lip with anxiety. Although Chris and I have known each other for years, it wasn’t until only a handful of months ago we started dating. It was one of the many cards I realized were stacked against us as I stared at those sticks for what felt like forever as if they held the key to all of this. “What if he isn’t ready to do this yet? What if he doesn’t want to do it with me?” I spit out before I could decide to bottle up those poisonous personal thoughts.

Sebastian placed a strong hand on my shoulder, tethering me down to Earth. “Hey,” he said gently. “It’s all going to be alright. Chris is basically already a dad, save for the whole having a child bit. Until now, I guess.” Seb gave a half-hearted smirk, trying his crack at comedic relief.

“Yeah,” Brie agreed. “You’ve seen him with his sisters’ kids. And even on set, everyone’s families are always around. He adores kids as much as they love him, yours won’t be any different.”

The problem was that, in my head, I knew she was right. I knew Chris talked about how he couldn’t wait to settle down way before we got together. I knew he would never turn his child away. But, in my heart, I didn’t feel it. I felt scared. I felt like there were all of these other crushing ways he would react and partly irrational reasons for him to reject me and our baby. Our baby. I couldn’t tell if that had a certain ring to it or if it was more of a sound of alarm. “What matters is if you want this,” Brie implored, holding one of my hands between two of hers as she radiated support.

“I know,” I sighed, the defeat I heard in my own voice being depressing in itself. “I do. It just… wasn’t supposed to happen like this,” I choked out, finally letting a few tears slip. As quickly as the fracture in my dam appeared, the crack spread until it was all turned to rubble, allowing the crashing waves of tears to flood my cheeks without a hope to stop them. I felt like I couldn’t breathe, like the dam’s remnants were weighing heavy on my chest and caving my rib cage. Brie and Seb both swooped in to hug me, but they only suffocated me more.

“Everything alright in there?” Downey suddenly asked. His suspicious tone was accompanied by loud taps on the trailer’s door. “Swear I’ll kick Evans’s ass to the ends of the Earth if it isn’t,” he said, sounding every bit of the protective dad he is to me. 

I nodded to encourage Sebastian, who was staring at me expectantly as he moved to the door slowly, waiting for me to stop him. As soon as Robert entered the room, his face softened with slumped eyebrows and a slack jaw. “We were walking by and heard some crying,” he explained gently. I noticed Tom Holland, who must have been accompanying RDJ to his own town of trailers, following in suit. Tom kept his distance, still so new around all of us he was trying to find his place among our family.

Robert took a seat next to me and leaned forward as he waited for me to speak. He grabbed my hands in his and waited patiently, for me to summon the courage he seemed to seep. Robery’s eyes trained on the stick I’m sure he recognized as a pregnancy test before widening with realization, but he continued to sit in suspense nonetheless. 

“I found out that I’m uh...” I stopped to swallow the lump in my throat. “Pregnant,” I finally sobbed out. It didn’t get any easier. Downey broke out into a smile, jumping to his feet and pulling me up with him before drawing me in to a bone-crushing hug. “I know it’s scary as hell,” Robert whispered with the wisdom of an experienced father. His tone telling me he understood all too well how terrifying the instability of life when you needed it to be secure could be. “And it doesn’t feel like it now, but I promise this is one of the best moments of your life.” 

“I mean, yeah duh,” I joked in a sorry attempt to lighten the mood. “It’s not every day you get a bear hug from RDJ.” He held me at arms length and looked me up and down slowly, though I couldn’t tell exactly what he was looking for. Until his eyes hit mine with a look of pride and I realized he was taking one last look at the small, helpless caterpillar I felt like before I entered my cocoon and emerged a much stronger, beautiful butterfly. “Really, I promise you’ll be proud of who you are when you come out on the other side and you’ll have this incredible little person with you along the way.” He caressed my cheek, wiping some tears with his thumb. 

“Yeah,” Tom said from where he stood by the door with enough excitement for the both of us combined. His age didn’t allow for the kind of seasoned support Robert did, but his youth provided for a more optimistic outlook. He bit his bottom lip hesitantly, thinking over what he was going to say carefully. “You’ve become one of my favorite people and Chris has, too. It’s going to be so awesome having a little combo of you two running around.” Some may call it naïveté, but Tom telling me it was all going to be okay with the assuredness of someone who hadn’t seen how terribly wrong it could go yet was exactly what I needed. 

“Thank you. All of you,” I choked up again. This time it was a tidal wave of love I was surrounded by that seemed to drown me, filling me from the bottom of my heart with a sudden inner peace until it poured out in appreciation for the friends around me.

Seb was the first to hug me, whispering congratulations in my ear as he buried his face in my shoulder as he hid the falling tears. “I can’t believe you’re going to be a mom,” he said solemnly.

“Me either,” RDJ remarked as he joined in, followed by Tom who hurdled into us like he just entered the atmosphere. Brie stretched as she tried to wrap her arms around everyone. There, in the middle of almost all the people I loved huddled together in a rally of support, I suddenly realized how my heart still ached for something missing. Someone, rather.

“I’ve got to tell him… But how can I do that?” I questioned contemplatively, thinking out loud more than anything. Considering the aftershocks I was still experiencing from the kind of quaking surprise that turned your whole world on its axis, I didn’t want to put Chris through the same calamity. My friends pulled away, though they all stayed close. “Ever seen Full House?” Tom suggested, causing the rest of us who were around when it was on air and immensely popular to break into laughter. Still, it got me thinking. Maybe the kid was on to something.

Chris stormed into the place we were renting out for the duration of filming earlier than I anticipated and with more aggression than I expected. I headed over here after everyone wished me luck and left, shooting Chris a text to meet me back here once he was done filming so we could talk asap. He opened the message but didn’t respond, which I would’ve taken personally if I didn’t know how much I’d pissed him off. Instead, he swung the front door open with an unexpected force almost half an hour earlier than he’d been scheduled to.

I sighed as I pulled the baby back ribs out of the oven so I could plate them along with the peas and baby carrots, knowing he was unhappy just by the rush of his heavy footsteps. Chris walked up behind me with crossed arms and a stern expression. His lips pressed together and eyebrows furrowed as he demanded, “What is up with you lately?”

I tilted my head and hummed in question, trying to play dumb. He called me out for it immediately, but I turned away from him. Facing the kitchen counter, I took off my oven mitts before returning to preparing dinner, gathering silverware and napkins.

“Don’t act like you don’t know how distant you’ve been,” Chirs huffed, hands on his hips.” Hell, you didn’t even bother to say you loved me too after you blatantly lied. That hurt,” Chris raved, his pain exploding into frustration and spreading shrapnel with a fevered wave of his hands around the kitchen. Sometimes it was hard to tell when he was really that vexed or a Bostonian by nature and nurture. Now, I had a feeling it was a dangerous cocktail of both I wasn’t prepared to stir. If only there was a bit more traffic coming home, all I needed were a few more minutes to get the table set.

“I’m sorry,” I said dismissively while compiling all the utensils in one hand and the plates in my other. “Be a dear and grab the water and some cups please,” I instructed before heading into the dining room.

Chris rolled his eyes dramatically, chastising me for ignoring him. “Y-you’re sorry?” he exhorted a bit dumbfoundedly, but he’d already lost his audience. “I’m not dropping this,” Chris grumbled, snatching the decanter from the fridge along with some wine glasses. “Sure you don’t want Merlot with those ribs?” he asked, unaware of his own innocence. Chris’s proposed pairing would’ve been great if not given my circumstance. He still sounded indignant, but his blissful ignorance nearly elicited a laugh I had to stifle with a cough before turning the alcohol down.

“It isn’t right of you to shut me out, worse of you to lie to me,” Chris continued ranting. He was right on my heels down the hall, clinging the crystal together in one hand sloppily. Knowing I’d break and ruin the surprise once I saw the hurt in his eyes, I busied myself with making sure the napkins were perfectly perpendicular to the table’s edge. “We’re supposed to be in this together,” he protested, just short of stomping his foot. “And now you won’t even look at me!” Chris snapped sharply. He slammed the contents of his hand down on the table with a harsh thud, unconcerned for the splash zone he created. He was running out of patience so fast he could’ve placed in the Olympics. 

My eyes cast downward as I took my seat at our table nonetheless, trying to ignore Chris’s tantrum. He remained standing upright, stubborn and immovable. “Can you at least acknowledge me, damn it!” Chris yelled, striking the wooden table so hard the water quivered again. The veins protruding from his neck and forehead slowly started to subside with a few deep breaths as Chris realized he wasn’t going to get the screaming match he wanted. “All I want to do is talk to you,” he pleaded, the defeat of a battle that didn’t ensue evident in his voice.

“You’re right,” I said calmly, my eyes snapping up to his, overcome with surprise. “Sit down then and let’s talk.” I cut a carrot in half and popped it in my mouth, watching as Chris was taken aback by my repose. He came to a fight I’d already predicted, seeing the storm in the forecast allowed me to be prepared with an umbrella. Chris stood up straighter before pulling out the chair and sitting before the plate I’d set out for him. “How do you like dinner tonight? Thought I’d try something relevant-”

“The only thing relevant to this conversation is you telling me exactly what your problem has been and- wait, what?” Chris said in a flurry, going from exasperation to perplexion faster than a sports car from zero to sixty. “How could ribs, peas, and baby carrots possibly be relevant right now?” Apparently, he wasn’t just full, but overflowing with confusion to the point that his anger was completely diluted.

“I knew the peas would be confusing, but Sebastian insisted it was brilliant,” I explained. Chris spluttered, trying to make sense of my cryptic words. “You see,” I picked up a small pea, holding it in between my thumb and index finger and raised it up to be level with Chris’s blue eyes. “This is how big a fetus is at six weeks. They’re already growing up fast, huh?”

“A-a fetus?” he stuttered like it was his first time saying the word out loud. Chris’s eyes searched frantically from the pea in my hand to the pile on his plate along with the other things accompanying it. Puzzle pieces he started to put together, an image that he began to bring into focus. Once it hit him, Chris sat back in his chair and braced himself against the table by the heels of his hands like he was thrown back by the force of a metaphorical and literal shock.

This was the moment I’d been dreading. The terrible in between when it was all up in the air. When everything was out of my control and, for better or worse, in his.

“Oh, baby,” Chris said, his use of the pet name being soft and breathy. He closed his eyes as he leaned in toward me again. Placing an elbow on the table and resting his chin on his hand. His anger had brought Chris to a boiling point, but now he sat before me completely melted. Soft and gooey from the inside out, the irate lines of his cross face molded into crow’s feet by his smiling eyes and defined the apples of his cheeks as he broke out into a grin. “A baby.”

Chris said the word like it was a blessing rather than a curse. A sunny day instead of a storm. A solution as opposed to a problem. A miracle in lieu of an accident. Everything I’d hoped he’d feel, but the thought was too good to be true in the face of every other reaction. Everything I’d wanted to think, but what I couldn’t allow myself to believe out of the fear of getting my hopes up.

“I wanted to tell you,” I finally confessed. “I just wasn’t sure how you’d take it. Not that I don’t think you’d make an incredible father. Honestly, all day I’ve been thinking about you with our little bundle in your arms. I mean, we haven’t been together long and it’s a big step for anyone let alone-” Keeping things from Chris wasn’t something I was used to and now, with the brazen ability to share everything with him again, the words spouted out of me like an erupting volcano, full of excited energy and nowhere else for it to go but pouring out.

Until Chris cut me off with a kiss. Leaning across the table, his lips were still stretched in a smile when they met mine. He didn’t mean to shut me up because of some kind of antipathy to my side, but rather because he already understood. I didn’t need to waste air I could’ve spent kissing him on explaining myself when Chris comprehended it. Instead, he told me everything I needed without saying a word. He still loved me, but more than that he loved us. He still wanted me, but our baby as well.

Chris pulled away sooner than I wanted him to, but I could have lived in that moment forever if the world let us. Like nothing happened, he picked up a rib and took a bite out of it. Chris sat back in his chair again and nodded contemplatively. “I know it wasn’t planned but it just feels so…” He stared down at his plate like it held the answers.

“Right,” I finished his sentence, realizing that, with his support, it was. Chris nodded in agreement. “That’s it,” he said as he picked up his fork to reach for the meal that had already grown cold. “Right,” he said, meaning it more in a sense of agreement. “I’ve wanted kids my whole life and I’m grateful to have you as their mom,” he reached across the table to grasp my hand in his gently. “We’re speaking in plurals now?” I joked in deflection since I couldn’t properly express how he made my heart burst with anything other than a squeeze of his hand. Chris chuckled as he backtracked, “Maybe not yet, but I just can’t believe we’re going to be parents.”

“If you don’t believe it, you better see it,” I said, reaching for the folded photo I kept in my pocket and handing it to him so Chris could conceptualize his child with something other than carrots. “I think he looks like you.” Chris let his fork clatter to the table as he held the sonogram up and shook his head, still unable to completely find the right words. “How do you know it’s a he?” Chris asked, quirking an eyebrow up to which I shrugged simply. It was just a feeling.

Chris turned back to his plate, staring bug-eyed at the themed dish in front of him. “A baby,” he repeated in a whisper to himself, almost like a promise. “Gotta be really honest with you,” he said seriously, causing my breath to catch behind a lump in my throat. Chris turned to me with a pronounced tilt of his head, fighting back a smirk, as he said, “I feel kinda weird about eating the peas now.”

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[becomewings]

Shadows of My Childhood

Analysis: ON Children + Shadows of the Past (BU/HYYH)

Note: All names herein refer to fictional characters in BU (BTS Universe/HYYH/The Notes). The events described are entirely fictional and not representative of the members' real lives.

Content warning: contains mentions of abuse, abandonment, trauma, and suicide; images of blood 

Some of the most compelling aspects of the ON official MV, and indeed most of BTS’s cinematic repertoire, are the multiple layers of meaning and opportunity for interpretation woven throughout the video. While this version of ON has not been confirmed as part of BU canon, it contains enough explicit references to visual material in other BU videos to merit analysis of the deeper thematic connections between the two.

In this post, I will specifically look through the lens of the pairing of child figures with BTS members in ON to address possible implications within the context of their corresponding BU characters. If the children of ON represent the shadows of the characters’ pasts that continue to haunt and shape them, then the relationships and interactions of the video pairings map to each character’s coping mechanism for handling these ghosts: JiMin’s denial of trauma; YoonGi’s self-inflicted destruction; and TaeHyung’s spiral of violence that starts within him yet increasingly splinters outward. But they also shed light on the future’s hope for moving forward and healing.

The blindfolded girl + TaeHyung

The child with the most screen time and arguably the most significance in the unfolding of ON’s cinematic narrative is paired with TaeHyung. But taken in the context of BU, why is the child a girl and why does she wear a blindfold? Blood ties and violence are the roots of TaeHyung’s shadows. Yet it is impossible to address the years of his suffering without acknowledging the individual who bore it alongside him, the person one may interpret as represented by the blindfolded girl: his sister.

This portrayal does not reflect their true age difference. She is depicted as a child because, as a protective brother, he views it as his duty to safeguard her innocence. The blindfold reinforces the symbolism that he is trying to protect her from the atrocities and darkness of the world. In ON, it is the aftermath of a bloody war (a battlefield upon which he possibly fell and was reborn, given the grave marker of gathered objects and the cross-like pose of his awakening). In the BU narrative, the darkness is domestic violence and their father.

As young children, TaeHyung and his sister were abandoned by their mother,  who was pushed to terrible extremes by her husband's treatment, and left to fend for themselves in the home of an abusive alcoholic. Violence is perpetuated throughout their childhood and into adulthood. Every time she suffers, he suffers too, whether by his father's hand or the guilt that he is powerless to stop him.

“Then. That night. That night ten years ago when Mom left home. That night when Mom, my sister, and I were beaten to a pulp by Dad and we cried ourselves to sleep. … My sister is weeping quietly. It was even more distressing to hear it today.” — TaeHyung, 24 July Year 22. The Notes 1.

This cycle of violence traps TaeHyung in a private nightmare, making him afraid of his own nature's potential: vengeful fantasies (and half-remembered events from parallel timelines) of killing his father; lashing out physically at his friends in moments of conflict. Perhaps more than anything, he fears turning into his father (20 May Year 22, The Notes: Her). Denial is a disease. The more he withholds the truth of his pain and fear, the deeper the darkness takes root in his heart. The pressure threatens to break outward, consuming the people closest to him, or shatter him from within. At his most desperate, TaeHyung views suicide, an act of violence against oneself, as the only way to break free of this cycle.

“I almost killed Dad who brought me into this world and who beat me every day. I almost killed him. No, I actually killed him. Countless times. I killed him countless times in my head. I want to kill him. I want to die. I don’t know what to do. I’m lost.” — TaeHyung, 20 May Year 22. The Notes 1.

Outside, TaeHyung dons a mask to conceal the circumstances of his home life, even around his closest friends. Despite his grinning and loud-mouthed persona, this mask is cracked. His friends see the signs: bruises on his face and back, the emotional marks that run deeper than skin. They follow his lead and do not speak openly of the abuse. TaeHyung refuses to acknowledge that they can see through his mask. They all skirt the uncomfortable truth:

“TaeHyung laughed sheepishly, taking off his torn shirt. Under the dim light hanging on the trailer box, for a second, I saw his bruised back. HoSeok looked at me in shock. TaeHyung looked at himself in the mirror wearing my T-shirt. And he laughed.” — NamJoon, 11 April Year 22. The Notes: Her (translation credit: KRN - ENG © ktaebwi).

“I couldn’t imagine how he must be feeling when I felt this chilly inside. His heart must’ve felt ripped and torn. Or, does he have a heart left at all? How much anguish has he endured? … I first saw the scar on TaeHyung’s back in NamJoon’s container. I couldn’t bring myself to ask about it when he was smiling so broadly with his new T-shirt present.” — HoSeok, 20 May Year 22. The Notes 1.

He cannot seek help from his friends, because that would admit his powerlessness and give voice to the truth of his suffering. And if his pain is real, then so is his sister's.

TaeHyung cannot protect her from the brutality of their father's abuse. He cannot shield her from the cruel reality of their world. The gateway to healing will never open while he turns a blind eye to the ramifications of the violence committed within his family. In ON, acceptance of these truths is embodied in his removal of the girl's blindfold. She gazes forward, unafraid, at the wall toward which she has been looking the whole time. Standing, he takes her hand and discovers that the once-impenetrable wall is in fact a gate. With open eyes, he can see the blossoming land beyond. The future has hope, if only he can face the reality of his family’s violent history.

The drummer boy + JiMin

This is not the first time a blindfold has been employed as a significant visual symbol in BTS’s MVs. Blindfolds, in the form of silk or other members’ hands, figured prominently in Wings-era BU content, particularly in association with JiMin. Therefore, it is all the more noteworthy that in ON, he is not the one paired with the blindfolded child. However, there are several cuts from TaeHyung and his blindfolded partner to JiMin and the drummer boy, or vice versa, that feel like a deliberate choice to draw attention to this absence and the contrast against previous representations. 

In the BU narrative, JiMin suffers from seizures likely caused by Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder as the result of an as-yet-unspecified traumatic childhood event that he has tried, and often failed, to repress. He is forced into extended hospitalizations by his parents, who seem unwilling to face the reality that something happened to their child and seek to bury his “abnormal behavior” behind doctors and drugs to preserve the family’s appearance of normalcy.

“When I was taken to the hospital after they found me unconscious at the Grass Flower Arboretum, my parents didn’t ask any questions. They ignored the fact that I had blacked out there. It was the same when I developed seizures. They hospitalized me, discharged me after some time, and transferred me to another school. Family reputation was important to them. A son with mental illness was unacceptable.” — JiMin, 11 May Year 22. The Notes 1.

JiMin, for his part, wants to live a normal life by attending school and cultivating friendships. Maintaining both presents challenges that he struggles to overcome, doubting his own fortitude and questioning the lie that he perpetuates to save himself: nothing ever happened to him. When his seizures are triggered by stimuli that resurface memories of the past, he winds up in the hospital again and again. Donning a metaphorical blindfold to deny the truth of his trauma, he attempts to convince the medical staff of the same lie.

“When the doctor asked me about it in a concerned tone, I trembled and apologized at first. I repeatedly said that I was sorry. It was all my fault. Please let me forget all about it. Then, I tried to pretend nothing had happened. I didn’t remember anything.” — JiMin, 11 May Year 22. The Notes 1.

After HoSeok and his friends help break him out of the hospital (15 May Year 22, The Notes 1), JiMin recognizes that in order to keep his freedom, he must prove both to his family and to himself that he is “okay” and will not relapse. 

“I had to return to the Grass Flower Arboretum. I had to stop lying about not remembering what I’d seen there. It was time to stop hiding in the hospital and put an end to my seizures. To do that, I had to go back there. But, for days, I went to the shuttle bus stop and failed to get on the bus.

After I watched the third bus of the day pull away, YoonGi suddenly appeared and plunked down next to me. … Then he asked what I was doing here. I kept my head bent low and kicked the ground with the toe of my sneaker. I was sitting there because I didn’t have courage. I wanted to pretend that I was OK now, that I knew enough, and that I could easily overcome this. But I was afraid. I was afraid of not knowing what I was about to face, whether I would be able to endure it, and whether I would have a seizure again.

… The bus stopped and the door opened. The driver stared at me. I asked YoonGi. ‘Will you go with me?’” — JiMin, 19 May Year 22. The Notes 1.

The drummer boy in ON may represent, in part, JiMin’s childhood: his real younger self, the one who experienced an event with long-reaching, traumatic consequences, just as the drummer boy marched into the horrors of war. User @cinnaminsvga​ points out that the boy’s striped pants (and I will add, shaved head) may refer to the common style of uniform assigned in Holocaust concentration camps, drawing in additional themes of imprisonment and persecution. In JiMin’s case, the violence against his true identity is committed by himself, in the attempted act of self-preservation, and his family, in turning a blind eye and forcing his hospitalization.

JiMin has spent years of his life denying the truth of what happened in the arboretum, hiding behind a blindfold of denial and lies. Embarking on the arboretum shuttle with YoonGi marks his first conscious effort to remove that blindfold. This is paralleled by his interaction with ON’s drummer boy. For the first time, he reaches out to that boy of his past, in a striking visual homage to Blood, Sweat, & Tears. Instead of running away, he chooses to face the reality of his trauma, in the hope of walking a new path toward acceptance and healing. 

Later events in the Notes and BU films remind us that the path to recovery is not easy or straightforward. It is riddled with pitfalls and switchbacks, challenges and missteps that threaten to drag oneself into relapse. When JiMin accidentally stumbles into his dance studio partner and they fall, the sight of his own blood once again triggers him.

“The blood reminded me of the Grass Flower Arboretum. I felt suffocated. I couldn’t remember how I got up, ran out of the practice room, and made it to the restroom. I scrubbed and washed the scrape like crazy, becoming more and more frightened at seeing the blood sucked down the drain. I thought I’d overcome this. I thought I was OK. But I wasn’t. I had to flee. I had to wash it off. I had to look the other way. 

… On that day, I’d run away from the Grass Flower Arboretum. My body was covered with mud that looked like blood. I hadn’t grown up one bit from that little eight-year-old kid.” — JiMin, 4 July Year 22. The Notes 1.

The road to the future will be paved with hardship and setbacks for JiMin. However, the act of reaching toward the drummer boy in ON may further represent the acceptance that he has more challenges to overcome. Although the young age of military drummers has been exaggerated and romanticized over the years, their role is uncontested: drums helped the formations march in step, and a language of rudiments (basic rhythmic patterns) relayed commands from officers to soldiers. Despite the danger to their lives, they accompanied the troops to war and played on the battlefield. JiMin’s partnership with the drummer boy in ON signifies his willingness to brave the conflicts, personal and external, ahead. Though his private battles to survive his trauma are far from over, if he does not surrender again to denial, he will one day see light breaking through the storm.

The candle girls + YoonGi

In ON, YoonGi is connected with not just one child, but an entire congregation. The scene appears as a kind of candlelight vigil or memorial service, likely composed of girls because all the men and boys have been summoned to the war. Fire has been one of the most significant, recurring elements since the very beginning of BU content, especially in association with YoonGi, so the choice of imagery is impossible to miss. Fire is the root of his obsessions, the heart of his torment, the means to his self-destruction.

YoonGi has never truly come to terms with his mother's death, locking away the suspicion that she was responsible for setting the fire that took her life. His love for music is bound by the painful memories of his mother and the piano. Love and pain are inextricable. His mother's love for him and for music were not enough to save her life. Again and again, in countless timelines, he plays out that same act of self-violence, throwing himself into the flames.

“I tried to imagine what was going on in YoonGi’s head. Once, I followed him secretly for hours. His footsteps were insecure and unpredictable. He staggered through the night streets and tried to fling himself into the fire. He sometimes squatted on the ground and listened to music that flowed out of somewhere inside an underground shopping arcade. … The suffering he must have endured, going from one extreme to the other, were beyond my imagination. All I could do was watch him stagger on.” — SeokJin, 2 May Year 22. The Notes 1.

Like TaeHyung, YoonGi attempts to hide the true depths of his despair from his group of friends: the wildly uncontrolled mood swings from fits of creative passion to destructive tendencies of alcoholism and self-harm. Though he finds a kindred spirit in JungKook, his own internal conflicts and fears repeatedly force him away when they get too close. When they are reunited physically at key moments throughout the BU narrative, he cannot bridge the emotional gap. YoonGi’s mother abandoned him to an inheritance of grief and mental health struggles, neither of which he is capable of working through alone. But he recognizes that his self-destructive habits spin out of control, and he does not want to inflict that pain upon others through their closeness.

“I turned my eyes away. I didn’t want to get involved in someone else’s life. I didn’t want to try to console someone who was lonely. I didn’t want to be important for someone. I wasn’t sure I could protect that someone till the end. I wasn’t confident I could stand by that someone till the end. I didn’t want to hurt that someone. I didn’t want to get hurt. It’s hard enough for us to try to save ourselves when the last moment comes, let alone someone else.” — YoonGi, 7 April Year 22. The Notes 1.

“‘Why didn’t you go see JungKook? Don’t you know what you mean to him?’ Of course I knew. Maybe that was why I couldn’t go into his room. I was distorted and thorny. Anyone who tried to come near me was bound to get hurt.

… I’d inflicted pain on others as I suffered greater pain. I looked away from their wounds. I didn’t want to take any responsibility. I didn’t want to get involved. That was who I was.” — YoonGi, 25 July Year 22. The Notes 1.

YoonGi is eventually driven to understand that he cannot survive alone. When he fears that he pushes away HoSeok, the “one who always pave[s] the way for [him] to come back no matter how far astray” he has gone (28 July Year 22, The Notes 1), for good this time, HoSeok later texts him privately to ask if he is okay. In between those two points of contact, YoonGi discovers a new purpose for living: completing the melody that has nearly driven him to madness, as it haunts him across many parallel timelines in tantalizing and ungraspable fragments. 

“I completed the piece several days ago. I changed the version I sent to HoSeok a few more times. I gave it the title ‘Hope.’ To be honest, the title didn’t actually match the piece. It contained my fear, cowardice, and inferiority. It contained all the moments I tried to avoid, get away from, and reprimanded myself for. But I couldn’t think of any other word that could encompass it all.” — YoonGi, 30 August Year 22. The Notes 1.

In sharing this musical representation of his innermost self, YoonGi opens himself to vulnerability. This is a step forward in accepting the turmoil of his heart and allowing others inside to see his true self, too. It is particularly striking to see YoonGi, who has forbidden himself emotional proximity to others for so long, emerging from isolation to participate in ON’s candlelight service. Linking him to a community of children, rather than the solo partners of TaeHyung and JiMin, signifies his progress in growing beyond the shadows of his past and exploring new ways to manage his grief. Even the cuts to him alone in this sacred, ceremonial space reflect his development. He is not torn by anger or despair, but given to reflection. He does not stare obsessively into the flames, but instead gazes outward at a beam of sunlight. Despite the somber undertones, this scene in ON is one of the rare instances of YoonGi associated with fire in a positive light: not one of violence and self-destruction, but reflection and healing through the allowance of both private and shared grief. 

Bonus: HoSeok + the bag girl

While all seven characters of the BU narrative are influenced by their pasts, the ones whose lives are most acutely shaped by the ongoing traumas and conflicts that are rooted in their youths are the characters reflected here: TaeHyung, JiMin, YoonGi. And, I am inclined to say at first pass, HoSeok. Like TaeHyung, he was abandoned by his mother, but this left him without any family and he was consigned to an orphanage. He carries the weight of his abandonment with him into adulthood, influencing multiple aspects of his health and manifesting an unconscious obsession with seeing his mother in other women.

So where is his child representation in the ON video? It is entirely plausible that another pairing included was not included for timing reasons. Another possible reason is that he has made considerable progress in his personal growth by the end of the Notes 1, and therefore the shackles of his past have loosened: he confesses to JiMin that his narcolepsy is fake (16 May Year 22, The Notes 1) and in later months recognizes the problematic nature of seeing his mother, whose face he can no longer remember, in other women in his life, strangers and friends alike. 

That being said, the presence of the girl with the bright yellow bag in the shot of everyone looking beyond the wall (included in the first photoset) might be a coincidence… or it might be a small nod to the shoulder bag carried on tour by the real-life HoSeok and gifted to a fan during the New York Citi Field performance in October 2018. The one in ON is not red (although the girl standing next to her has one with red embellishments), but the yellow is a surprising pop of color amid the subdued color palette in the rest of the shot. She does not stand near HoSeok (although neither does the drummer boy near JiMin)... But perhaps, if we are inclined to read into it, we may find a dash of hope in the separation of this mother/child reference, as HoSeok gazes forward with the others at the opportunities and dreams promised by the future.

------------------------------------------------

If you made it this far, I sincerely thank you for coming on this little journey with me. Please do not repost this analysis on other platforms. If you have any questions, comments, or wild theories of your own… send them my way! I would love to hear from you. -- wings

Added Note: This was written before I read actress Rina Johnson’s statement about playing the role of Taehyung’s sister and prior to the release of the ON behind-the-scenes video.

#bts on #bts theories #bts analysis #hyyh #taehyung #jimin #yoongi #hoseok #the shadow like me #unconfirmed hyyh #bts on mv #bts the notes #bts the notes 1 #bts universe #bts themes #cinematography #tw: suicide #tw: abuse #tw: trauma #tw: blood

[littlemisssquiggles]

Rwby volume 7 episode 2 killed me with all the cute rosegarden look and the Qrow and Ironwood hug😖 So what are your theories on ep2 and ep3? Will Oscar and Ruby be in the same dorm?

Hi again Luna. This episode left me with some conflicting feelings...again. Overall, I liked it especially certain wholesome bits. I loved the moments of seeing out gaggle of heroes reunite with Atlesian allies and seeing Ironwood reunite with Qrow. Ironwood didn’t have to outwardly say to Qrow that he was happy to see him. I think it was implied by his actions---his soft smiles throughout the group’s encounter with him. I feel as if these moments with James come sparingly. He doesn’t seem to be the type to often express his emotions and show how he truly feels. So when you get him to be this outward with you, one thing you can safely assume is that he meant it in good faith.

[Spoilers Ahead]

....Which is why I’m REALLY disappointed that Ruby lied to him!

I mean, I understand why she did it. It’s one of those scenarios where her reasoning is justified but at the same time I’m still mad because I know what this implies. I’m going to assume that Ruby probably did it out of not fully trusting Ironwood’s intentions given all that she’s heard of how his actions are affecting the People of Mantle and how little Ironwood seems to mind that his methods and choices aren’t helping everyone.

I’m also assuming that Ruby chose to lie out of concern for Oscar’s well-being, possibly. The last time an ally of Ozpin’s learnt that whole truth it didn’t particularly end well on Oscar’s part. So I figured Ruby didn’t wish to see another repeat of what transpired in Argus (because I’m pretty sure Ironwood might’ve damn well punched poor Oscar to the moon given how Qrow reacted). 

Again, I see that her intentions were good but at the same time you have to consider the long-term. I also can’t help but shake the feeling that Ironwood may have deceived Ruby about the Relic of Knowledge. How do we know that there weren’t details that Oz entrusted Ironwood with (as part of his specific instructions from Oz in the event of his death) that he didn’t disclose to Qrow.

Here’s something I noticed. When Jaune first asked Oz about the Relic of Knowledge back in V6, Qrow’s reaction was an immediate glance at Ozpin. This along with his surprised reaction to Jinn in a later scene where Ruby first summoned Jin tells me that Qrow didn’t know about Jinn at all. He knew nothing about the Relic of Knowledge.

How compare that to Ironwood’s reaction to Ruby telling him about the Relic of Knowledge. His reaction was different than Qrow’s. Ironwood already knew about how the Relic of Knowledge operates. He already knew about three questions every 100 years and even commented how Oz had already told his circle about this years ago. But I couldn’t help but feel like he probably knew more…and was genuinely curious to how much Oz disclosed to everyone. 

So who’s to say that Oz didn’t also tell Ironwood how to use the Relic in the event that he wasn’t around? I don’t know about you but I can’t help but shake this eerie feeling that Ironwood knows about Jinn. As a matter of fact, the nonchalant way he was completely complacent with allowing the Relic back into Ruby’s custody rubbed me the wrong way. 

Why would Ironwood entrust the Relic back to our heroes? The Relics as weknow as super important. So why not safeguard the Relic of Knowledge along with the Relic of Creation? Why not add it to the Vault or place it somewhere for safekeeping? Why give it back to Ruby? It just doesn’t make any sense. Even Ruby was a bit surprised by that too. 

Here’s what I’m thinking: my hunch right now is that I think Ironwood lied to Ruby in the same breath as she deceived him. Ruby lied about Ozpin just as how Ironwood lied about the Relic. My hunch is that the reason why Ironwood gave the Relic of Knowledge back to Ruby was because the Relic is no longer useful. I believe that Ironwood must’ve summoned Jinn and probably used the last question. So what Ruby is currently safeguarding is a Relic that’s no longer of use to anyone since all three questions has been used up. Imagine if Ruby tried to summon Jinn again only for her  to either a) not appear anymore orb) inform her that all three questions for this current era have already beenused and therefore Jinn cannot help Ruby, not even to answer questions.

I could be entirely wrong about this here but…I can’t help but feel oddly suspicious of that moment. I want to believe that Ironwood genuinely wanted the heroes to trust him and returning the Relic to them was a sign of him doing so. However at the same time, I’m not buying into it 100%. Something is fishy about that scene. But y’know, it’s just a tiny hunch for now.

As for my theories for CH3 and CH4—well obviously those two episodes are going to be settling in to Atlas Academy and training missions with the Ace Ops episodes. We’re probably going to see JNR_RWBY getting their upgrades and new looks in the next episode while the fourth episode will be what we saw in the trailer—them out in the field with Ace Ops on a mission to the Dust Mines.

So CH3 will probably focus on our heroes adjusting to their new life at Atlas Academy—and seeing just how inadequate and out of their league they might feel when standing up against the so-called best of the best in the mightiest kingdom in Remnant. How much you wanna bet that CH3 is going to start off with our heroes sleeping snuggly in their respective dorm rooms only to suddenly be woken up boot-camp style at the crack of dawn with everyone startled out of their beds at the sudden loud noise?

As for whether or not Ruby and Oscar will share the same dorm room, I doubt it. Penny did say that it’s the same living arrangement as Beacon with each huntsmen team having their very own dorm to themselves. Ruby already has her full team.

Oscar on the other hand has no team. However I’m going to assume that Oscar will be bunking with JNR until a different arrangement can be made of him, if required. I’d actually love its if it’s done in a way where JNR allow Oscar to bunk with them; taking him in. It’d be a nice clear sign that Oscar will be joining JNR soon. By having him room with them until further notice. Oh! Imagine if Oscar being a part of JNR was only meant to be a temporary thing but in the end, it becomes permanent as Jaune, Nora and Ren soon see Oscar as the perfect fit for their team.

I’m also expecting Oscar to not have the same training regimen as JNR_RWBY. As I said in my last batch of theories, I feel like Oscar is going to be training privately with Ironwood while JNR_RWBY will train with the Ace Ops out in the field.

One thing I’m mucho concerned for going forward is Oscar’s friendship with Ruby. I’m a little worried that her lying to James may have hurt him a little bit. 

After all, look at the hypocrisy in Ruby’s actions. Ozpin use to bank on lies and half-truths and when he was forcibly outted by Jinn; courtesy of Ruby herself, he was rewarded with everyone losing their trust in him and turning their backs away from him.

So I’m worried Oscar might be a little mad at Ruby in the next episode because technically, she did the exact same thing that got Oz in trouble with everyone. Imagine if Oscar even gives Ruby the cold shoulder a bit or might feel weird around her. I dunno. Somehow I’m expecting Oscar to look at Ruby a little funny next episode. I definitely expecting the two to have another moment like the Dojo Scene from V5.

I expect Oscar to pull Ruby aside at some point and confront her on lying to Ironwood. As a matter of fact, I kind of expect several confrontations between these two over the season. 

As a matter of fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if it’s during another heart to heart with Oscar where we get this line from Ruby from the V7 Trailer:

“…I’m trying to do what I think it’s best but I really can’t tell if what’s best is what’s right…”

It’d be interesting if it is. 

Imagine if…at first Ruby convinces Oscar that keeping the truth from James is a good idea for the time being until they can figure things out. Initially Oscar, while clearly skeptical, goes along with Ruby’s plan as he trusts her. However ultimately Oscar becomes conflicted from withholding the truth especially as he grows close to Ironwood. 

Somehow I feel as if this moment from CH2 is going to lead to Oscar calling Ruby and the others out for the way they treated Oz. After all, it’s the same scenario. I can also see this leading into a moment where Oscar questions Ruby on whether or not she trusts Ozpin and whether or not she trusts him too. After all, right now Oscar believes that he is destined to become the next Ozpin.

So…imagine how heartbroken he will feel if he pushes Ruby into a corner where she has to admit that she still distrusts Oz which will unintentionally hurt Oscar since it’ll come as if she doesn’t trust him either. I’m just picturing a potential big argument between these two that’s going to be real heavy.

It won’t happen in the third or fourth episodes, obviously not. But I wouldn’t be surprised if we got little breadcrumbs of it going forward.

The Rosebuds are going to talk and they’re probably going to fight. The truth will come out. Things will fall apart for a moment but in the end, everything will be mended back because of trust.

Trusting in love. 

This is my theory. At least for now XD 

~LittleMissSquiggles (2019) 

#apocalypseluna786 #squiggle answers: rwby #oscar pine #general ironwood #ruby rose #rwby theories #rwby volume 7 spoilers

[thedeaditeslayer]

Dead Doll's Eyes: Bruce Campbell Talks New Evil Dead and Calls Out Martin Scorsese’s Bulls—t.

You can choose to read the interview below or click the link above to listen to the ten minute recorded version. 

Bruce Campbell burrowed his way into our hearts as a dashing B-movie icon with roles in a litany of cult classics, from Evil Dead to Bubba Ho-Tep.

After returning to his roots to play Ash Williams for three seasons of delightfully gratuitous gore in Ash vs Evil Dead, Campbell put away his chainsaw for good when Starz cancelled the series in 2018. However, much to fans’ delight, Evil Dead trilogy director and Ash vs Evil Dead producer Sam Raimi recently announced a forthcoming entry to the franchise with Campbell attached as a producer. Even better: although Ash won’t return to fight Deadites in live action, Campbell will lend his voice to an upcoming Evil Dead video game.

To accompany the rerelease of his memoir Hail to the Chin: Further Confessions of a B Movie Actor — now with an added “Requiem for Ash” chapter — Campbell is dropping by the Alamo City next week for a screening of Army of Darkness and audience Q&A. He promises it’ll be a good time — “There’s lots of stories about the making of that ridiculous movie.”

We caught up with Campbell over the phone, and he shared his thoughts on retiring Ash, teased some upcoming projects and even offered a few choice words for Martin Scorsese.

After Ash vs Evil Dead was cancelled you decided to hang up the character and retire him.

I did, didn’t I?

Unlike other actors who retire their characters, it’s not so much that you’re sick of Ash Williams, but that the demands of filming such a special effects-heavy series led you to reach something you’ve called “The Latex Point.” Could you expand on the on-set demands of Ash vs Evil Dead and why they’re so taxing?

Well, my wife sort of put a finger on it — as she so often does. She came into the trailer one day the last season of shooting, and I’m sitting there miserable because I had to put down plastic sheeting everywhere I went. I’d stick to everything because I was always covered with blood.

She goes, “I know what your problem is — you got Poopy Diaper Syndrome.”

I’m like, “What’re you talking about?”

“You’re like a 3-year-old or a 2-year-old sitting in a poopy diaper, and you can’t get out of your poopy diaper. No one will help you change your poopy diaper.”

So really, it’s that. It’s a series of lying face down in cellars. And it occurred to me multiple times. I’d be lying there literally face down, waiting for a shot, covered in blood in a dark cellar on the dirt, and I’m like, “Is this where I belong?” And the answer was “yes” for a long time, but it’s not a permanent place where you wanna be. Not as a 60-year-old man.

I wanted to avoid that Star Wars crap, where they’re holding these actors up with baling wire and cotton balls, you know what I mean? Feeding them their lines of dialogue through earbuds. I couldn’t do that. I could still pull the character off, so I wanted to finish while I could still do it.

And not have it kind of become…

Uh, sad. We don’t want sadness.

But you’re not leaving Evil Dead. You’re attached as a producer to a new movie, and it’s going to bring new blood into the franchise, including a director hand-picked by Sam Raimi. How does it feel to be able to step back, but still help usher in this new era?

Well, fantastic. Because, look, we can work with these directors. We can support them in the ways that we’ve always wanted to be supported. We can punish them in the ways that we should have been punished. We can hire actors that are good and well behaved, because I know what to look for. And when we get an actor, we can tell them how to best use their time and not party. We’ve learned a lot over the years, so we can share and torment these directors into making a good movie. There’s definitely a place for us. We’ll be there behind the scenes pulling the strings on these little monkeys.

How does it compare so far to the development process for Fede Álvarez’s 2013 Evil Dead? Or is it too early to say?

It’s too early, and every director’s different. Fede was very specific. I’d never worked with Fede, so I wanted to make sure he could work with actors. I sat in for only one day during auditions, and I could see how he would see a take, work with the actors, and the second take was better. After I saw two or three of those, I was like, OK — I’m outta here. This guy knows how to get a better take out of an actor. Done. That’s a huge accomplishment. And he was already very astute with special effects.

What you have to do is find out what the director’s strength is and encourage that, and find out what their weaknesses are and either fix that or discourage that. Some directors are great with actors but they suck at special effects, some are great at special effects but they don’t know how to talk to actors. It’s a really delicate dance. The modern movie is very delicate, because the modern movie has way more special effects now.

In Captain Marvel, even the cat was CGI most of the time he was onscreen.

Lemme tell ya, I’m gonna make a bold statement here.

The Irishman has more digital effects than the most recent Marvel movie, but you just don’t notice. Which why I call B.S. on Marty Scorsese calling out the Marvel movies. It’s like, bullshit! You just used more digital effects than a Marvel movie, and you’re telling me that’s cinema but the other one isn’t?

But the point is, I don’t buy it. I mean, I can’t wait to watch that movie, because I’m gonna be driven insane by Robert DeNiro at 42, Robert DeNiro at 47, Robert DeNiro at 31. It’s just gonna drive me insane, because I’m gonna look at it and I’m gonna be looking at dead doll’s eyes and, you know, they’re gonna do a good job, but they’re all gonna look like sharks.

Now that you’re no longer beholden to the intense schedule of TV production, are there any projects that you’re able to look at that weren’t an option before?

Well, one of two things can happen. I finally told my agent, “OK,” because I had to pass on some things in the last couple years that were decent projects, because I had a bunch of other random stuff going. If you open up your schedule, you can allow for stuff like that. All of 2020 is currently completely open. I have zero bookings for the first time in probably 15 years. I like booking my year — I like knowing what’s going on — but, in this case I’m gonna leave work open to fall off the truck from my agency.

But I also have a TV project that I’m pushing and a feature film project. I will go back under the TV knife under the right conditions, and I have a project that I would do that for. “Under the knife” meaning to sign a contract.

The beauty of it is with these limited series now, no one has to commit to shit these days. One season, two seasons, three seasons, you know. So, we’ll see what happens. I just wrote a feature film — a political satire — and I wanna make that next, so I’m in the process of shopping it. I’m hat in hand right now.

You’ve been in the director’s chair, both for Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess as well as your horror comedy My Name is Bruce. Would you be interested in directing again, possibly for the movie you just wrote?

All the projects that I’m currently gonna be involved with now, moving forward, I’ll be directing in some way. Raising money for low budget movies — I have as much experience as anybody now, so there’s no reason to look for anybody else. I’ll just direct myself.

It’s time for the new sheriff to come into town.

Another thing that makes Evil Dead so compelling is the long-running team behind it. Even if it’s not Evil Dead, would you be down to act in future projects with Sam and Ted Raimi, or your Ash vs Evil Dead costars?

Well, I would be happy to work with any of them again, but I just can’t say. Sam, who knows? Sam’s off making these 10-minute shorts. I forget the name of the company, but everyone’s making shorts now, so go figure.

Kind of like YouTube — getting on that train?

Yeah, I don’t know. It’s all new to me. I’m sticking with the true-blue formats for now.

If you had the opportunity to reprise any other characters that you’ve played previously, like fan favorite Brisco County, Jr., would you be interested? Or do you want to focus on all new material and characters?

New stuff is always my favorite, but I would definitely do Brisco Rides Again, and I would definitely do more Burn Notice. We’re sort of circling the building now with Burn Notice. Maybe it’s time to save the world again. The world needs us.

You recently updated your memoir Hail to the Chin with a new “Requiem for Ash,” and are making appearances tied to the book’s rerelease. How do you integrate tours and press appearances without blowing out your schedule, and how do they differ from press junkets you do for film and TV?

The beauty of working with a company is when it’s time to do press, they’ve really got it down. I saved a bunch of my itineraries from Ash vs Evil Dead just because of how ridiculous they were, so I can look back and show my grandchildren “this was a press day in New York City.” So, you really got the support. The only difference is when you do low budget stuff, or even books, you’re kind of on your own, and it’s way more down-home. It’s Twitter, it’s Facebook, it’s Facebook ads or whatever. It’s no national TV — nothin’. It’s a whole different ball game.

You know, I’m a one-man band. I’ll miss a few interviews because I forgot or didn’t put it in my schedule or whatever. Someone’ll call, I’ll go, “What do you want?” They’re like, “We have a phoner.” I go, “Really? Ok, great.” This one I happened to remember. We do what we can.

A Conversation with Bruce Campbell and Screening of Army of Darkness: $29.50-$125, 8 p.m. Friday, October 25, Aztec Theatre, 104 N. St. Mary’s St., [phone], theaztectheatre.com.

#Bruce Campbell

[nicolemagolan]

Two Cities, One Galaxy: How Star Wars Connects And Divides Us

Early in 2019, I wrote a personal essay about Star Wars. It centered around SWCC (Star Wars Celebration Chicago) and my experience of watching the live stream in my living room at 4am, when the episode IX teaser and title was unveiled. 

It’s about fandom, the internet, and isolation. It’s about how Star Wars impacted my life, and about my relationship with my brother.

It also, eerily, foreshadows the disappointment I would eventually feel about The Rise of Skywalker. So here it is, under the cut. Please give it a read, and let me know your thoughts!

***

My phone blinks 3:30am, April 13th, 2019. In Chicago it’s 10:30am, yesterday. I should be asleep. I should stay present in Auckland, where no one else is awake except the moths gathering on the kitchen window.

My brother is slumped beside me, eyes closed, lost somewhere between sleep and boredom. We sit in the darkness of our living room, outlined by the grey glaze of the television. I’m wearing pyjama pants and yesterday’s T-shirt. An empty bag of chips is screwed up on the carpet, a half-drunk can of Lift Plus sits on the mantelpiece.

I stare at the TV. Waiting. My knee bobs up and down. I glance at my phone, and refresh Twitter. The tweets are coming in a blur: people yelling in caps lock, streaming without punctuation, some of it indecipherable, some of it from me. It’s happening kids / MERRY IXMAS, EVERYONE / I'm trying to remember it's called Star Wars Celebration not Star Wars oh my god I'm so stressed-ebration / I AM READY TO BE EPISODE IXed. The world around me is asleep, but the world under my thumb has never been more alive.

I take another sip of Lift Plus and feel its energy tingle through my bloodstream. Or maybe that sensation is the force.

When I was in class earlier in the day, wearing a Star Wars tee, writing in a Star Wars notebook and drinking from a Star Wars bottle, I was already stewing in anticipation. My mind was in another galaxy; speculation ran through me like shooting stars. My dedication to the Star Wars universe is fuelled not by the incessant marketing or the cheap merchandise, but by the passion I have for stories, space wizards, and the cute-yet-creepy alien bird race known as the Porgs.

 Star Wars Celebration Chicago is set to begin livestreaming on YouTube in just a few minutes. A countdown slowly ticks on screen. This will be the first big panel of Celebration, and the one I am most eager to see. The panel is for Star Wars: Episode IX, consisting of a Q&A session with cast members. Our first real, palpable look at the film, at beloved returning characters, and the new additions, to hear from returning Director J.J. Abrams what his vision for IX is.

But the real reason anyone is staying up all night to watch the livestream isn’t to see Abrams dodge spoilery questions. It’s to be amongst the first to witness the Episode IX trailer. The very first teaser trailer. Imagine a choir singing angelic sounds behind that one word and maybe you’ll begin to understand. What I really want is to catch a glimpse of the upcoming film, to learn the title—oh my goodness, the title—along with thousands of far, far away fans; some watching live in the dead of night or crack of dawn. The lucky few are crowded into the panel room itself. I swipe through pixelated and blurry selfies posted with #SWCC. It’s a big auditorium, packed with media, families, and cosplayers, and many are swinging lightsabers above the crowd’s heads. Purple, blue, green, and red beams of light. The stage itself is lit up with a bright blue backdrop.

 When I told my parents I was going to camp out in the living room to watch the livestream of Star Wars Celebration, they rolled their eyes. When I asked my brother if he wanted to join me, he cried, ‘Whyyy,’ before revealing his true colours when he showed up on the couch at 2am.

He was all too keen to eat my snacks, but now as time crawls forward, he seems to have come to the conclusion that it is ridiculous to stay up for something you can watch on your phone, from your bed, when you wake up. I have come to the conclusion that he is lying to himself. On the path to the dark side, perhaps.

He’s always joined me on my silly adventures, making fun of me along the way. But the fact that he’s willing to be there is enough, as he is now. Star Wars has been a part of his life as much as mine; we grew up roaring Chewbacca impressions and fighting with cardboard lightsabers; He’d be Darth Maul and I’d be Obi-Wan (so I got to chop him in half every time). Kids would tell me I was a weirdo for liking Star Wars, for playing with Barbies and Darth Vader figurines, blurring the lines between allocated girls’ or boys’ toys. But my brother and I knew: Star Wars is a fun space adventure for whoever wants to enjoy it.

We got older and the movies lost a touch of their magic: the internet revealed the intense hatred shovelled at the prequel trilogy. Little-me had loved the ridiculous Jar Jar Binks, but the middle-aged fans who grew up with the original trilogy saw him as an offence to their childhood obsession. (JUSTICE FOR JAR JAR is the hill I will die on.)

Then Disney bought Lucasfilm and ushered in a new era. I have a series of selfies from midnight premieres—me grinning from ear to ear, my brother with eyes closed and discontented frown (his go-to photo pose)—in the blurry light of the Imax screen on Queen Street. But one glance at his smiling face during the film and you know he loves this galaxy as much as the next fan.

Sometimes that’s the problem: our love for this story is so great and so ingrained, that it can bubble over into endless online debates. Debates become heated, become personal, become hateful. In this era of social media, everyone has a voice, but the ones who spit poison are the loudest. We struggle to find common ground sometimes. But it’s always there, beneath out feet and on our TV screens. We love Star Wars. We love to watch it, re-enact it, dissect it, wear it, read it, and write about it. Whether the common ground we stand on looks like the sands of Tatooine or the lake country of Naboo, it’s all the same galaxy. Even though the galaxy-shattering film The Last Jedi threatened to destroy us, we can find a way to stand together. Because when the fans unite, at movie premieres, or conventions, the fandom can become something worth celebrating.

Like today, right now, 3:59am in my living room.

I look up from my phone. The countdown reaches zero. I hold my breath. A soft echo of music trickles through the speakers, and John Williams’ familiar score wraps around me like a blanket. Goose bumps pop up on my skin.

The Star Wars logo vanishes and the screen cuts to black. I snap up and nudge my sleeping brother’s arm with my toe. He jolts awake, looks at the black screen and scowls.

‘Nothing’s hap—’

He’s cut off by a roaring applause as the blue-lit panel stage lights up the screen. The room around me fades. I’m in Auckland with my brain fuzzy, and I’m transported to Chicago with heart thumping.

My brother jumps up and stands in front of the screen. ‘I’m going to the bathroom.’

I babble, ‘butthepanelisabouttostart,’ craning my neck around his legs.

‘Oh well,’ he says. He walks off.

Stephen Colbert is pacing around the stage, babbling on about Dagobah and S-foils, trying to work the crowd up—unnecessary, since we are all waiting for the cast and crew.

I’m leaning forward, straining my eyes, and wondering if anyone actually finds his ‘jokes’ funny. Twitter tells me, yes, they do. The excitement level is high, making everything fresh and exciting, even if it’s a Star Wars pun heard years ago. I almost feel like I could twist my neck and hear people whispering behind me, instead of tweeting alongside me.

 The closest thing to this feeling in my own city is Armageddon Expo, the annual convention at the ASB Showgrounds in Greenlane. Nerds I’ve never met become my best friends. We jam the halls like squashed-up skittles. I don’t know their names but I know who they are. When I’m dressed in Rey’s dusty scavenger outfit, with staff in hand and hair bunched in three bobbles, young girls point and giggle. I wave at them, their eyes wide with wonder, and my heart is full.

The internet fandom space is a mix of tweet-before-thinking garbage and fun bite-sized meta. The real-world fandom spaces, such as Armageddon, are a big geeky party; no one hiding behind an anonymous wall, and no one left out.

This livestream is somewhere in between. I am connected online from where I sit in Auckland. Reading tweets and writing tweets and liking gifs. Yet I am in Chicago, oblivious to the sleeping city around me.

Stephen Colbert brings out Director J.J. Abrams and head of Lucasfilm Kathleen Kennedy, and the content we’re all waiting for finally begins. I take in every detail, every non-answer. I enjoy it. I loathe it. Stephen Colbert asks unanswerable questions, like the fate of Daisy Ridley’s character, or how the relationships develop. No word is uttered more than ‘spoilers’.

The cast members are introduced onto the stage; first is Anthony Daniels who plays C-3PO—one of the remaining few original cast members from 1977. He waves hello to the crowd before looking for the cameras. In his charming British accent, he says, ‘On tweets today people were, all over the world, saying “wish I could be here”. And I know we’re on camera, so I don’t know where the camera is, but whoever is in Australia or…’ He pauses for a flicker of a second, ‘…all the other countries around the planet; I wanna give you a big wave, and you are here in spirit. Okay?’

I grin a little wider. Of course he would mention our neighbour, Australia. So close, and yet so far.

 In New Zealand, despite the growing connections through social media, I feel isolated. Even in the vast Auckland city, where I easily get lost in the busy roads and busy people. New Zealand is separate. And that’s part of what makes it special.

But the isolation is also part of what makes being part the Star Wars fandom special.

It’s a larger world. Out there in space; out there in the world wide web. Legendary or anonymous, you can be a part of something. You can tell your story; you can make one up. After movie premieres, there is a sense of privilege and power in that none of my fellow fans in America have yet seen the movie. The Last Jedi came here a few days early, and I knew all the things before anyone else. We were isolated again. And it felt so good.

Did I go and post spoilers? No, because I’m not an asshole (you know who you are). But I told people they’re gonna love it. I told them the film is exciting and unexpected and dabbles deliciously in subtext in a way that’s fresh for Star Wars. I sign off with eagerness for the upcoming dissection and discussion of the film.

 The next day I’m shocked to learn that many many many people felt it was a ‘betrayal’ of Star Wars. A disaster of a movie. A cluttered mess of a story, an anti-climactic sequel that instead of building on what came before, tore the past to shreds. My brother is one of them.

And the fandom split in two.

But not today. Not tonight. I refuse, and so does everyone on my Twitter feed, because we’re tired of defending Rey, who is not a Mary Sue; and Vice Admiral Holdo, whose purple hair does not make her a lesser fighter; and Rose Tico, who fell victim to dude-bros saying she’s the worst character ever, she ruined their childhood, and Asians don’t belong in Star Wars; until eventually the actress, Kelly Marie Tran, deleted all her social media.

When Kelly walks onto the panel stage, she gets a standing ovation. There are tears in her eyes, and there are tears in mine.

 They introduce the new cast members, and display behind the scenes photos, and babble on about the brilliant practical effects. There’s a touching tribute to Carrie Fisher, an awkward bit about Adam Driver’s chest, and the introduction of new droid D-O. When the duck-inspired droid rolls onto the stage, you can hear cash registers ring.

My brother comes back in the room as the panel is winding up. He flops into the chair and sighs. ‘So, did I miss anything?’

‘You missed everything.’

‘So I didn’t miss anything then,’ he smirks.

Stephen Colbert asks J.J. Abrams if there’s anything he wants to leave with the fans. I lean forward. ‘This is it,’ I screech.

This is it. It boils down to this simple, repeated moment in time: the day, or night, or very-early-morning that a Star Wars trailer is about to debut. I am alone, and yet so very not alone, united in a nerdy passion that doesn’t call for such depth of devotion. But here we all are. Here I am. And here’s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (omg).

 I switch off the TV. The darkness eats my eyeballs.

‘How am I supposed to sleep after that!?’ I yell. ‘Palpatine. Freaking Pal-pa-tine! NO! YES! Why?!’

Silence.

My brother is asleep.

I throw a pillow at him. ‘DUDE! Palpatine is back!’

He mumbles, ‘Haha, lame.’ His eyes don’t open.

I slide down the couch until I hit the hard floor. The Rise of Skywalker. Doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. I sit there in the lonely living room, and let my thoughts trail off into the dark.

#star wars #writing #my writing #the rise of skywalker #swcc #star wars celebration #star wars essay #personal essay #creative nonfiction #tros #writeblr #sw

[twiststreet]

Feeling too tired to do my day, so just lying around in a bathrobe (bathrobes were on sale at Ikea, so I decided to become a bathrobe guy!  I should’ve become bathrobe guy ages ago-- it’s like wearing a blanket!), catching up on comics.

Wrapped up Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt, which I’d been writing about here and here (though you’re way better off reading  Adventures in Poor Taste’s writing about it-- they're more passionate about the project and more delighted to unpack it-- I’m just some old, crotchety weirdo that stopped liking things sometime shortly after the third issue of Civil War).  I just didn’t think it was about very much at all, in the end, though it kind of insists otherwise throughout.  It believes in itself, the scamp-- the swagger’s admirable, at least...

It mostly resolves itself as just being a comic about a desire that comics move forward from Watchmen.  Which at the outset is weird to me because while I’ve hardly read a lot of his stuff, I’d read at least some of those Keiron Gillen comics-- that guy’s influenced by Watchmen?  Oh okay.  I hadn’t... I hadn’t noticed, but.  And to be fair, I felt very influenced by Wes Anderson’s Grand Budapest Hotel when I was doing a poo the other day, so who am I to... I’m just a guy that takes twee pastel shits-- I can’t pass any kind of judgment here, so... 

But also, move forward to what?  There, the best the comic can try to answer it is with (arguably its best issue) the Eddie Campbell issue, which is celebrating the quotidian smallness of normal life.  But there aren’t any characters in the comic.  How do you do a comic with no characters in it that argues for how comics should look to normal life for inspiration more (or make that argument in a comic about defying Watchmen or whatever, which has about a zillion more normal people characters in it than this does???  It contains that critique within itself!)?  I mean, maybe that absence is part of the point, creates an arc, etc., but the “having its cake and eating it too” of it all seems like it undermines its own argument...  Or it talks about "Envying” a sort of pastiche of those things in the Eddie Campbell issue, but I just think it comes across as a fashionable pose-- because it’s got no real thematic concerns outside of comics.  Morrison made a bunch of comics about how we all need new ideas too-- then he wrote Batman comics.  He liked to do little poses next to Watchmen, too... 

As a personal exorcism of Watchmen’s influence, the comic’s, you know, fine.  The “How they beat the baddie” bit is clever.  The drawings of the baddie eating the pipe are pretty fun-- it’s a pretty fun comic to look at generally.  I didn’t really get every choice the letterer made, but it looked like they were having fun, so good for them.  But it’s... It’s just very, very odd outside of that context.  As the Adventures in Poor Taste folks point out, Moore walked from Watchmen ages ago.  And then the rest of the world-- unauthorized Watchmen sequels; pirate Watchmen TV shows; an audience that is in a state of permanent embitterment, hostility or unearned condescension towards Alan Moore; comic creators and publishers having “Go fuck yourself, Alan Moore” as their default stances... 

Like, this comic posits a world where Watchmen is a villain.  But that’s not our world.  Our world is the exact opposite:  we’re the villains. Keiron Gillen did this for Dynamite-- anyone think Dynamite’s on their side?  Answer: yeah, read the papers-- fucking Comicsgate does.  The comic’s just very oblivious to its context.  But that context is that nothing matters to anyone.  So this comic's whole orientation just seems... very odd.

The big cheer moment that the internet seems to love is the hero of this comic standing over the avatar of Watchmen and saying “you did it 30 years ago.”  Like, haha, suck it, old thing, your time has passed.  Which I suppose is a meaningful thing to say if we were still in the era of “Comics should be pop” that Gillen came of age at on shitty online messageboards.  If your antecedents are pop music where 30 years is perhaps a lot, instead of books.  But the people who went on and on about pop in comics, their work is mostly nothing.  You want to be the guy reading Grant Morrison comics in 2019?  I still like Doom Patrol or whatever (No thanks on your little TV show) but I find the idea of having read as much of his stuff as I have kind of embarrassing now.  That’s how pop works.  But if you live in the world of actual books by actual writers... 30 years for a book...?  That’s not... anything.  The conversation hasn’t even really started at 30 years.

But of course, now there is no conversation.  It’s weird seeing an internet that cheered Watchmen getting stolen away from its writer, as unauthorized Watchmen TV shows are getting trailers put out, now cheer a comic that tells Watchmen that it’s old and can’t show us the way forward and...?   The layers of indecency to that are just... I mean, Lucy just pulled away the football; she didn’t spike it on Charlie Brown’s fucking face!  But I don’t flatter myself to think we live in any more profane times than any other times.  I mean, the newspapers aren’t great to read lately, but.  The last time a comic came out that was oblivious to exploitation and heavily annotated by its creator, it was Paying For It, though...

But thinking about my own personal malaise-- which is probably mostly, you know, just being middle aged and all... It’s just constantly of interest (alarm?) to me how little stuff seems to matter.  How little anything sticks anymore-- the thing about that “30 year line” that this comic refuses to grapple with, is that Watchmen came from an era where shit stuck; and now we’re not in that era anymore; people online praising this comic but even if it’s as good as they say, it’ll be forgotten in a year, if it makes it that long because the way our culture works now. Best case scenario: people are going to be angry about Watchmen’s influence for a longer time than they’re going to remember Peter Cannon standing up to it because something in our culture feels like it’s fucking broken. (Worst case scenario:  I get full-blown AIDS).  Or you look how angry people got watching Game of Thrones just tell an ordinary story to them instead of something that justified the 1000 hours they spent mentally worried about the politics of Planet Skeksie or whatever the fuck they were going on about... They got so mad!!! Because they just got an ordinary story and what are those worth?  Nothing!  

And some of that you chalk up to “Oh all the movies are franchises now” or you know: capitalism.  But I just... I wonder if it’s maybe that when you have a larger story that a culture’s telling itself, these smaller stories can stick more maybe.  Or to put in comics terms, Watchmen came out at a time when comics were telling a coherent story about what comics were, and where they’d come from, and where they might be headed.  And in the world generally, and in comics especially, maybe those larger stories don’t make any sense anymore.  Does the story the UK tells itself make sense after Brexit?  Does the story the US tells itself make sense after ‘16?  Especially as Watchmen itself has become a symbol of that now more than ever in comics-- Watchmen tells us a story now about comics that people don’t want to hear:  the bad guys fucking won.  And this is their world.  And people can point the finger at comicsgate or whoever else as being aberrations, but it all just seems very ... consistent.   People don’t want to hear that story-- they want to hear how you can read a bunch of old work-for-hire comics off some fucking app now-- that’s 90% of the “comics discourse” now, so... fuck it... 

If we’re in a culture where the bigger stories stop functioning, what... what then?  You know?  I don’t fucking know.  I’ve kind of started rambling there, haven’t I?  Aawwwwwfuck, sorry...

Well, anyways, now I’m going to read a Dash Shaw Clue comic.  Hahahaha!  

TLDR:  Abhay is a bathrobe guy now -- they’re like wearing a blanket!

#Worst Hobby or Worstest Hobby?

[make-it-mavis]

A Million Dreams (1998)

A NEW YEARS’ FLUFF FIC -- MAV/TURBO IN SUGAR RUSH ERA. 2718 words, rated E for Everyone thanks to @nerdygalaxy-p for suggesting “sentimental, sweet and fluffy new years” shitgoblins content (although i chose to write it)!

Summary: Turbo and Mavis (King Candy and Pyrite) ring in the new year for the first time since they “took up residence” in Sugar Rush. Read in Google Docs here!

The first hours of 1998 crashed onto Sugar Rush with all their might. It was the first New Years’ Eve that the game had seen since it was plugged in, and it was certainly not going to be forgotten any time soon. All the stops had been pulled out for the merriment that hit when the clock struck midnight. Food, games, music, dancing, fireworks -- oh, so many fireworks. They simply could not have had any less, not for the magnificent new beginnings waking in the year to come. Most beginnings of which the Sugar Rush racers and citizens were completely blind to, but all the same, they celebrated with almost enough jubilee to cover them all.

Almost.

But how could they ever be expected to fill such a quota? Could one night alone truly hold a celebration worthy of the things to come?

After all, 1998 would be Sugar Rush’s first year under its new, far more qualified management. It would be the first of what was sure to be the best years any racing game had seen for over a decade, and it was all thanks to him. He had finally taken his hard-earned place on the sugary throne, and he would lead the kingdom into greatness. This time, it really was his to hold, defend, and command. This time, it would not go down the tubes. It was more than just a trophy, and certainly more than mere refuge.

It was his home. At long last, he had a home again.

Most would argue it was a step up, disregarding any sentimental value that his original game held in his heart. A kingdom stretching for miles in each direction was better than the tiny, boxy map he started life with. And a castle with a labyrinth of chambers, corridors, and dungeons was undeniably a step up from his tiny trailer. It was big enough, even, to drive around inside it, which was all for the better, because the trek from the castle doors to the royal chambers would become tedious to walk again and again, especially after a night of vigorous partying.

So, nearly four hours past midnight, his muscles aching from all his silly jumping and bouncing, and his throat raw from all his laughing and shouting, “King Candy” drove through the castle halls with reckless speed and uncanny precision. Even in his growing exhaustion, the speed stirred a tickled thrill in his stomach, and he could not keep from cackling out loud at the distressed gasps and grunts of his right-hand-man (or ball in this case) desperately holding onto the crown of his seat behind him.

When the royal chamber doors came up on their left, King Candy slammed on the breaks. There was a hard thump against the back of his seat, and a miserable groan. He shamelessly chuckled.

“Sour Bill,” he commanded firmly, exaggerating his natural lisp as far as it would go, “get off my car and open the doors, if you please.”

The little green ball, with his strange jelly bean limbs, grunted in agreement and dropped to the floor. It took a whole-body effort for him to push the doors open individually, because they were entirely too tall to be necessary for any creature in the entire game. Once the way was cleared, King Candy cruised inside, parked at the foot of his massive canopy bed and hopped out.

“Now, I believe, by now, you ought to know the drill, Sour Bill,” he chuckled at his own rhyme as he strode back to the doors. “A king needs his beauty rest -- not that I need much help with that, hoo hoo -- and a well-rested king is a happy king. So I am going to lock these doors, and you are to ensure everyone knows that I am not to be disturbed. Yes?”

Sour Bill looked as if the words turned to mush the second they reached him. Eyes downcast, he grunted, “Mmm-hmm.”

“Hey,” the king snapped his fingers. “Listen with your eyes, mister. Turn those emerald greens up here n’ try that again.”

With a short sigh, Sour Bill lifted his droopy gaze.

“Without the attitude,” King Candy said sharply.

“Apologies, your majesty,” Sour Bill droned.

“That’s quite alright, just don’t let it happen again. Now, let’s review -- I am not…?”

“To be disturbed,” Sour Bill finished promptly.

“Under any…”

“Circumstances.”

“Except…”

“A glitch emergency.”

“And even then…”

“Knock first.”

King Candy chuckled in approval and pat Sour Bill’s rock-solid head. “Now, that’s a good ball. Goodnight, Sour Bill. And a happy new year!”

“Happy new year,” he replied morosely, “your highness.”

Once the doors were closed, and after he listened to make sure Sour Bill’s footsteps really disappeared down the hall, the king locked the doors and leaned his back against them with a sigh. At last, it was time to unwind, and his bedroom scarcely looked more inviting. The game’s inhabitants had been lucky enough that the rare phenomenon of a Sugar Rush nighttime fell on New Year’s Eve, so the room was lit only by cool, sleepy moonlight pouring in from the stained balcony windows. It was all too tempting to just cross right to his needlessly large bed and curl up in a nest of silky blankets, but in truth, his night was not entirely done. He had to wait up just a while longer.

That little while dragged on longer than he would have liked. He wandered around the room, straightened trinkets on the dressers and paintings on the walls, opened up the hood of his car and marveled at the candy machinery for the hundredth time. He was lying on his bed staring at the canopy and trying not to slip out of consciousness when he finally heard her voice begin to sing from the balcony.

“Ev’ry night I lie in bed,

The brightest colors fill my head

A million dreams are keepin’ me awake…”

He knew that song. It was one of the oldest ones she ever wrote, and hearing it again sent such warm nostalgia washing over him that he could not even be annoyed at the long wait. The fact that she was finally there was suddenly all that mattered.

Swiftly, he strode to the door and cracked it open. There she was, lying on her back across the balcony rail, fully disguised, yet unmistakable. On the outside, she was Pyrite, the whimsical and admired ring master, with her rainbow ringlets, swirly eyes, top hat, and swallow-tailed coat that was most certainly just a rip off of his own. Even her brush had been modified, looking more like a staff or a slick, silky broom, lying on the floor next to her. But that twang in her voice that she was no longer hiding, the way she held her guitar like a loved one, and the arrogant way she let one leg dangle over the edge as if telling gravity itself to shove it, were all a dead giveaway. That was the girl he spent nearly his entire life alongside.

Without a glance his way, but a growing smile, she continued her song.

“I think of what the world could be

A vision of the one I see

A million dreams is all it’s gonna take

A million dreams for the world we’re gonna make…”

Fondness swelled in his chest. She had to have chosen that song specifically, and the thought of it brought to him a sort of contentment that he had never quite experienced until he entered Sugar Rush. The feeling that they had really, truly, made it.

He breathed a short chuckle, and spoke the last line to her. “The world we’re gonna make.”

Finally, she turned those mismatched eyes his way and lit a spark of that signature naughty grin. “Hey, Sugar,” she said lowly.

“Hey, Cherry Bomb,” he replied, falling into his natural, deeper voice that undoubtedly looked weird coming out of King Candy’s mouth.

Pyrite swung her legs around to solid ground, and King Candy crossed to the ledge to stand with her. They leaned against the rail, surveying the kingdom below, all the frosted peaks of truffle mountains and lollipop forests glinting in the moonlight. It was beautiful in the most unexpected way. Partially because of the way it looked, but mostly because it was his.

Well, it was theirs.

He glanced over at her. She gazed down at the world below with admiration in her eyes, a depth of which he rarely saw her give anything. She was absolutely in love with this new world, that much was certain. But something about her silence felt a bit uneasy.

“...’98, huh?” he prompted her casually.

“Ninety-freakin’-eight,” she chuckled in that accent he had not heard in so long. “What a night. What’s your verdict? Did I ring it in right?”

He scoffed. “You?”

“Yeah, me,” she grinned. “I planned the party, the fireworks, the decor, the food--” “But I planned the games, and the prizes, and led the entire event,” he interjected.

“Come on, T, you might be king a’ the world, but I’m still the queen a’ fun.”

“Only ‘cause I let you have fun in my world,” he nudged her.

“Ah, ah, ah,” she slapped the rail in light protest. “Let’s cut the playful circling short, huh? What’s your verdict on our team effort?”

He looked back out at the forests and roads, off to the soft glow of distant merriments still dying down. As exhausted as he was, there was only one answer. “It wasn’t nearly enough.”

Pyrite was not offended. She merely hummed in agreement next to him. “Yeah. But I don’t think we could have done enough.”

He watched her again. Her face was still happy, even lit with a glow of awe. But when she spoke again, her voice, while soft and sincere, was weighed down with anxiety.

“I’ve loved this place since the day I set foot in it,” she confessed. “But tonight… Ringing in the new year together, I just… I’ve never felt this way about any place I’ve been in my life. Tonight, for the first time in my life, I… think I’m ready to call this place home.”

He was glad to hear it. He had beat her to that one, but he knew it was a much bigger deal for her. Once upon a time, he had a game he considered home. She never really did.

“It is your home, now,” he agreed. “This is where you ought to be.”

Pyrite tried to smile at him, but her face fell troubled again a second after.

King Candy waited, but when she did not continue, he prompted, “What’s the deal?”

“I just…” she shook her head. “I expected it to feel better than it does. It’s a lot to handle. I love this place enough now that I couldn’t stand to lose it. Even more so than before. I don’t like feeling that way. It freaks me out.”

He tapped his finger thoughtfully. “We were never going to lose it in the first place. We swore to that already.”

“I know, but…” she looked at him, her eyes painfully vulnerable. “Swear to me again. Say we won’t lose this one. Please.”

His smile pulled into his cheek and he placed a steady hand on her wrist. “I swear we won’t lose this one. By the Devs, by Litwak, by the very Eight Bits, I can promise you that. Nothing’s gonna take this game from me, now. And I know nothing’s gonna take it from you.”

The anxiety in her eyes dissolved into affection, and she gave a single chuckle. “And let’s swear right now… 1998’s gonna be the start of the best years of our lives.”

“The start of the rest of our lives,” he corrected with a grin.

In silent, but whole agreement, she held out her pinky finger. “Swear on it?”

Scoffing at their age-old dorky tradition, he hooked his pinky over hers. “Swear.”

He had to resist the impulse to kiss her. Kissing Pyrite was strange, and she was never shy about how gross it was kissing King Candy.

There was real warmth in her smile for a moment, but that look of mischief made a sudden reappearance. She glanced out at the kingdom, then to her brush lying at her feet. Releasing his finger, she said, “Okay, okay, now watch this--” and took up her brush in her hands.

With a single slash across the air, she sent a crackling red firework hurtling into the sky, where it exploded into glimmering crimson embers. It was pretty, but it was nothing he had not seen from her before.

He looked at her quizzically. “I don’t get it.”

“Wait,” she held her hand out.

After a moment passed, he began to hear distant, muffled whistles, and with a great chorus of cracks and booms, the night lit up with fireworks scattered across the world below. The rainbow of lights shimmered off the shapes of hills and trees otherwise hidden in the dark. Just when he expected them to stop, the brilliant explosions kept on coming. It took him a shameful amount of time to realize the significance of the sight. He had seen her fireworks hundreds of times. But this time, she was not the one lighting them off.

When he looked at her again, she was grinning with a wicked sort of pride. She did something.

“What…?” he squinted.

“I taught the kids to use fireworks,” she shrugged with a smile.

“You taught the kids,” he echoed slowly, “to use fireworks.”

She just nodded.

At that, he could not help but break into laughter. That was so quintessentially her, it just filled him with so much affection that he could barely stand it. “And you had them on standby?”

“Yeah,” she grinned, “I told ‘em we had to give the king a proper goodnight to thank him for the awesome party.”

That just tore it.

Disguises be damned, he pulled her into a hug hard enough to squeeze a squeak out of her and gave a swift spin. Apparently, hugs were still okay, because she squeezed back just as hard, laughing all the while. He wheezed against her shoulder, “You’re just somethin’ else.”

Before too long, he pulled back enough to look at her. He was just about ready to go inside and finally slip out of their disguises, but the song she sang was stuck in his head, and it stirred up a pressing question.

“Hey,” he raised a brow.

She scoffed. “What?”

“How many a’ those million dreams does this place check off, huh?”

Pyrite looked caught off-guard, but to his surprise, she looked out at the night still sparkling with her lights, and pondered. Then she looked at him again, with a peculiar shine in her eye. Before he could respond, she pulled him away from the ledge. Her body crackled with red binary as she willingly glitched away her disguise, revealing that beautiful blue-eyed devil he fell in love with. Make-it Mavis.

Her hands raised to his face, and she sent a jolt of glitching through him to tear his royal disguise away. Finally, it was time to be Turbo again for a while.

“One,” she answered, smiling coyly.

He scoffed. “One?”

“Yeah,” she breathed, brushing her gloved thumbs over his cheekbones. “Just the one.”

With a firm tug, she pulled him into a real kiss, the sort that they had gone far too long without. The whole night’s joy swelled up in Turbo’s chest and he crushed her to him, lifting her toes from the floor just the slightest bit.

“Happy new year, loser,” she said once her lips were free.

“Hey,” he flashed a grin, tugging her along back into the royal chambers, locking the doors and pushing her back against them. “Night ain’t over yet.”

The fireworks outside still pounded jubilantly as they held onto each other. They were both exhausted, but could not bear to sleep and waste the time they had to be themselves, to be alone. If ‘98 was truly going to be the start of the rest of their lives, they had to keep doing everything they could to begin somewhere good.

‘Together’ was the best place they knew.

#wreck it ralph #turbo #make it mavis #king candy #sugar rush #oc #gayyyyyyyyyy #fanfiction

[pathetic-midgardian]

Spider-Man Far From Home spoilers:

I hadn't felt like this since Age of Ultron

and by this, I mean disappointed because the movie didn't fill my expectations

plus I was with a WTF face through almost the whole movie

there are great visuals and fights that yes I enjoyed but idk I was expecting something different and I wasn't even expecting that much

at first when there was only one trailer yes I was super excited and wanted it to had a lot of awesome things I wanted Mysterio to be better or at the level villain of Vulture but then idk I was like meh, he's obviously faking everything he's lying and very much likely everything is an illusion even Nick Fury recruiting him can be one, he's gonna pretend he's a hero stopping those elementals and then reveal his true motivation, I even expected the different earths/dimensions being fake but considering the possibility that yes because yes now multiple universes or timelines exist so it would be cool if they explore that, yes

and then idk if just for me but the first minutes of the movie are so weird like hurried explanation of the snap and the world doesn't seem affected at all (other than people moved into snapped people's houses and now there's older friends and siblings etc) and maybe I'm too old but Gen Z jokes I don't laugh (yes I laughed a couple of times) but meh, the whole first half of the movie has a weird tone I was considering everything was an illusion of Mysterio, and I wanted the earth Mysterio ‘’came from’’ was real and it was his fault those elementals escaped and now he’s playing the hero

and maybe it's because after Endgame I disconnected myself from anything MCU related because Tony's death hurt so much so I ignored every MCU news and posts, so when the movie tried to get me sad because of Endgame and Tony I just didn't? my reaction was more of a -that's rude yes I KNOW they're dead thanks for the reminder pfff

the bar scene was so obvious like wtf both of them are sitting in costume and no one gives a sh**? ok, then Peter gave him E.D.I.T.H. and ok here it comes the revelation and, and?!, oh yes they can't come up with a better motivation for the antagonist that FREAKING BLAME TONY STARK AGAIN, I rolled eyes so hard and kinda erased it from my mind because I really wanted to enjoy the movie so I focused on Jake's and Tom's performances and the visuals were great, yes I was like oooHH  that’s neat!! two times because of Mysterio's illusions but I'm not a fan of the drones thing, yes it's kinda the obvious path because of technology era and that but also lazy, they could've given Beck real illusion powers but nah, let's blame Tony's Tech because he fired me blah blah

uugghg

I did almost cried when Peter was with Happy on the airplane/jet and AC/DC starts playing ausdhauyshdaush I MISS TONY :(

ok now after a week I’m thinking Quentin’ story about Tony not giving him the credit of B.R.E.A. is totally bullsh*t, that’s what he does, he lies right?, and I hope he isn’t dead so he, Vulture, the other guy from Spider-Man Homecoming mid-credits scene  and whatever other villains there is on the third movie team up and form kind of Sinister-Six plsssss

#spiderman far from home #i wrote this a week ago #mcu spoilers #far from home spoilers #mcu #obsessed with fictional characters

[hellyeahsupermanandwonderwoman]

So the Death of Superman animated movie recently leaked online. And I saw it. This is my review. 

SPOILERS AHEAD.

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This movie is waste of time for SuperWonder, Wonder Woman and Justice League fans. It shoe horns Superman and Lois Lane’s relationship out of nowhere. Clark and Diana “broke up” because....I really don’t know. But it makes no coherent sense or has no emotional connectivity to the last 4 movies in this animated verse loosely based on the new 52. 

Superman is a tad whiny and suddenly “loves” Lois who doesn’t even know he is Superman but he is dating her as Clark. Yet feels like Lois is on heat for Superman. LOL. Yeah. 

Like how, when, and why she even is with Clark was not even addressed.  So he is dating her and, lying his ass off  as half his self...um yeah so honest and such a great thing to do. She says doesn’t know much about him, but he says she knows him better than anyone else...Yet we don’t know what the hell she truly knows of him.

By the way Peter J Tomasi pens this so he of course tries to dump the blame on Diana. Why? Apparently she likes being truthful and not lying. Yeah. Wanting REAL truth  in a relationship and not hiding and living honestly is so bad. This Superman wants a woman do as he says and wants. Lois obliges for him. Easily. Because he tells her his little secret. She doesn’t have to do much else. But say she love him now. 

The villain is a waste of time and looks like Jeepers Creepers on steroids. The whole JL is nerfed so Superman can punch real hard and make google eyes at Lois. Lois who should actually be dead given she keeps jumping in the middle of their battle. 

The quality of the animation is not good. You just have to look at the trailers and see what I mean. It has taken a nose dive. If you like Batman or Flash or Cyborg or GL you see  little of them. If you love Aquaman you see nearly nothing. Wonder Woman gets a little more than the others but she is not really respected in this movie much either. And Jerry O’Connell who voices Superman sounds younger than his wife who plays Lois.She sounds much more mature.  I find they don’t really gel as a couple as he and Rosario did. 

The movie tries to mish mash an old 90ties story in the modern era and fails. It ignores the original set up and the new 52 set up and even the new 52 verse these movies are based on and to me it fails. 

This is really DC trying to Rebirth now on animation. They did their crapping of new 52 SMWW in comics now is time to do it in the animated movies. It lacks real emotion. You view Superman dying and don’t give a fuck. Like the DCEU. 

And Tomasi steals the new 52 SMWW moment of “What a lucky man I was...” and gives it to Superman and Lois. Talk about disrespecting the new 52 fans who bought the books and the DVDs. SMWW can’t even have their own moments preserved. DCAU is renown for this, stealing from smww and giving it blatantly to SMLL or BMWW. They did in it in The New Frontier and For The Man Who Has Everything. And clois fans say we steal from them and our pairing is easy. Pfft. I think they need to get their eyes checked and see what easy means. 

Anyway my suggestion? Go see if you can find that leak and look at it and save yr precious dollars. wait and download it free. It is not worth it unless you really don’t give a shit about organic story telling. WB are banking on using this JL and the new 52 look to try to get this tired, rehashed Death of Superman to sell. I don’t think they will succeed. 

It’s such a waste of good, original material from the new 52 to force a tired story with little emotional resonance. As a pure Superman fan I don’t even know how anyone can find this remotely riveting unless you are a clois fan who does not care how yr couple hook up. 

Also SuperWonder fans need to send DC a clear message: We are not chumps.  

Keep voting with yr wallet, SuperWonder fans! 

#superman #wonder woman #superwonder #death of superman #dc animated universe #justice league #peter j. tomasi #the new 52 #DC comics #batman #cyborg #the flash #green lantern #aquaman #martian manhunter