#i stand by the homoerotic reading of this movie

[dathen]

One of the weirdest arguments for why people who think Dracula fed on Jonathan are Wrong is that “no one ever thought this before 2022 and no interpretations included it” when there’s a little thing called The Hayes Code. Acting like something that Stoker had to self-censor about in a book published right after the Wilde trials is a 1000% completely neutral topic on par with “what color is Lucy’s hair” or something is just BEYOND baffling to me. Homoerotic subtext has been leeched out of and censored from adaptions of all kinds of stories for ages (where is my Frankenstein adaption that actually includes his intimacy with Henry); all that proves is society’s homophobia.

And then there’s the fact it simply isn’t true. The very first Dracula adaption/spin-off, Nosferatu, had the Count drink from the Jonathan stand-in several times. The scene implying that Dracula fed on Renfield, the 1931 stand-in for Jonathan, almost got censored by movie makers anxious about the homoerotic implications—but the creators pushed it through and refused to cut it. Michael Pink’s Dracula ballet with its incredible sequence of Jonathan struggling with Dracula before being bitten premiered in 1996, just a couple years after the notorious Coppola film that reinforced so much of modern mainstream perception of the story. Freaking Moffat even used it in 2020. This is not an interpretation invented wholesale by Dracula Daily readers on Tumblr Dot Com in 2022.

But on top of that, haven’t we been ranting about how inaccurate and heteronormative adaptions have been this whole time?? How Jonathan’s story in particular is almost never treated with any care or caution, whether by cinema or by academics trying to make him the boring cardboard stand-in for everything wrong with the Victorian era? These are the same adaptions and readings saying that Lucy is a slut who was asking for it and that Mina is in love with Dracula; putting these obscenely heteronormative readings on a pedestal to say “THEY didn’t think Dracula fed on anyone but women, why should we??” is honest to god making my brain dissolve.

I don’t care if anyone personally has a different theory. If you feel that after “tonight is mine!” Dracula changed his mind last-minute and decided to chow on some random worker nailing the boxes shut, knock yourself out. But this weird backlash against the reading and the insistence it’s wrong because it’s not explicit enough on the page isn’t just baffling, it’s downright ignorant.

#dracula daily #discourse

[aphroditesmoon]

sea, swallow me (part IV)

jacaerys velaryon x fem!velaryon!reader

summary: when jacaerys finally meets the hidden bastard of corlys velaryon, he loses interests in his betrothed Baela and intends to make her aunt his, but are you really what your family has made you up to be?

warnings: MAKING OUT, this fic is inspired by the movie 'song of the sea', CANON DIVERGENCE, slowburn, aged up jace (18 yrs old), reader has selective mutism (she CAN talk), reader is 5 years older than jace, selkie! reader, reader's race is NOT specified(adopted!reader), cursing, nsfw content in future chapters,typical ASOIAF sexism, typical asoiaf targcest.

a/n: yall want baela and reader to have a homoerotic friendship or homoerotic friendship to rival to friendship, say rn.

wordcount: 5.3k

taglist: @marytargaryen , @cdragons , @libdarkheart , @bellstwd , @dianxiaxiexie

@cumslutforaemond , @mariaelizabeth21-blog1 , @literatureluster, @itszzmoon

♧♣︎♧

Rhaenyra Targaryen was in no state of panic or upset when his son had entered her chambers, answering her call. They both had known what she called him for, therefore both sides were more prepared and rational. The princess was standing by her window, watching Lucerys and Rhaena practicing their sword fighting. She remembered how worried she was when the two sisters voiced their want of being included with the same fighting curriculum as their men. But Daemon beamed at the idea and granted permission. My daughters will not be weak, They shall be as good as me in swordsmanship by the gods’ will. Those were his words. And so they were.

“You called, mother?” The prince spoke after a minute of silence watching her gaze out the window.

Rhaenyra snaps out of herself and turns to her eldest son. “Jacaerys, have you eaten?” The mother in her acquires first. He hummed positively before taking a seat on the long chair. “That’s all well. I wanted to ask you of your aunt.” She states. “The two of you have grown close since the feast- do not deny it.” She shushes him when he opened his mouth to interject.

“I am not upset, we’re not in Driftmark nor Kingslanding, so I doubt there’ll be any rumours brought up from it. And that is not my current concern, no. My concern is on how she fares so far. That girl smiles and bows all the time, you can’t really tell if she’s genuinely comfortable most of the time.”

“She’s fine, I think.” The prince answers simply, receiving a raised brow from his mother. "Well, It’s not like she speaks.” He lies.

“But, she does seem quite excited for a tour here. I’m sure she’’ll find our library to her liking, Rhaena mentioned she likes to read.” The blonde woman smiled in relief of that. “Oh how nice, Perhaps you and your brother could take her to night market as well, there’s more sailing boats this season.” She suggests, making him frown. “I thought you said it’s dangerous. What if anyone recognizes us?” Rhaenyra waves her arm in a careless motion as she moves to sit by him. “You’ll be covered up. Besides, it’s a good thing neither of you have my white hair, the streets get so busy at nught, they won’t give you a double glance.” Jace nods understandingly at her words, still confused at her enthusiasm. His mother was never cruel, he knew that. But he also wonders why She’d worry herself over a small matter such as you.

“Is that all?” Rhaenyra gives a resigned sigh before nodding her head, permitting Jace to leave.

The weather had been bleak so far, thunders and thick clouds hiding the sun. If by tonight, the hints of rain doesn’t disappear altogether, the night market trip would have to wait for tomorrow. He knocked on your door and found no reply, which was of course, expected. But after several moments of waiting, he opens the them to find an empty room. The bed was already made and there was no one besides himself. It looks like you have taken it to yourself in making yourself comfortable here. Jacaerys scans the empty halls and corridors for you but receives no luck.

Bumping into Baela, he halts her to ask; “Is there a possibility that you’ve seen our dear guest around, I can’t find her.” He confesses. Baela, with a book of the Valyrian language under her arm, shoots him an amused smile. “She’s playing a boardgame.” He frowns. “Chess?” Baela gives a single nod. “Yes, with my father. So far she’s lost all 3 rounds. You’re welcome to go watch her fail the fourth.” He does just that, entering the library.

He was met with a tense sight of you and Daemon sitting opposite of each other, Rhaena sits close to you. If she’s trying to help you win, her father cares not for it.

The curtains in the library were all pulled open today, something it’s rarely been done. And the stack of books littered on top of shelves and tables everywhere, made it seem more homely than messy somehow.  All three of you are staring down at the board, anticipating your next move, no one notices his entrance. Jacaerys can’t really blame anyone, even he was getting nervous. You lift a pawn, it stands in the air for a second before you gently place it two squares forward near Daemon’s queen.

The prince consort smiles, and everyone groans. “Checkmate.”

“Your best pawns aren’t the usual ones, the knights and the-“ His words were cut off by the loud sound of the pieces smashing onto each other and falling into the ground as you flip the board off, glaring at him. “Alright then, enough board games for today.” Rhaena concludes as her father shrugs nonchalantly. “I told you I’m good.”

Jace’s shoes creaks slightly as he walks closer, drawing the attentions of all 3 people there. “Jacaerys, have you seen your mother? She called for you earlier.” Daemon asks while getting up and moving to his opposite. Jace nods and gives a barely comprehensible answer as the older man leaves the room. He spares him a glance until he’s gone before turning back to you. “No one wins with him, he has the age advantage, been practicing for ages.” The prince attempts to comfort you, ignoring your glowering glare. Rhaena gives up on the comforting as she buries her face on the table, laughing quietly. "Lunch time now, you two hungry?"

The elders had not joined you all for lunch. You’re sat in between Baela and Rhanea with Jacaerys and Lucerys in front of you. You were glad it was Luc that’s facing you. You have feared since last night that if either you or Jace meet eachother’s eyes again, something terrible might occur.

You were born of anxious possibilities. When it’s become your life to go through and witness tragedies repeating themselves, even the smallest of things could trigger the war in your mind. So you keep your eyes down and pretend you can’t see him sneaking glances at you every two seconds, and you pretend that you can’t see Baela noticing him sneaking in glances every two seconds. If you don’t look, and if you don’t react the way they’re both expecting you to, then it’s not your problem. The steak is excellently cooked, the anxious thoughts you bear can’t help getting distracted by this nice meal, and it's special sauce you’ve never had before. But of course, considering that Rhaena who’s next to you, is currently ravaging a salmon fillet, any meal is better than the ones from sea.

“I’ve heard you’ve never seen a dragon up close before?” Jacaerys’ voice fills the silent, snapping you in reality. You’re forced to look at him and shook your head. “Really? What about Vhagar? Mother must’ve taken you on a ride once a while.” Baela asks in disbelief. You gave her a short smile and shook your head again uncomfortably before going back to your steak. “Then I guess we know where the first stop of our tour will be.” He joked and you brave yourself to raise a brow at him.

“You’re giving her a tour? Have you not anything better to do with your time?” Baela scoffs at him, her temper seems fair but eyes bore a challenge. “Would you like to show her around instead?” He answers the question with another. The girl’s eyes relaxes as she scoops her spoon of soup to blow it.

“No, I’m afraid I’ll be occupied for the day.” She drinks up her soup. The steak is really good dipped in blackpepper sauce, you’ve find. You hummed delightfully, dipping another cut piece of it in the sauce. “Here.” Luc passes the sauce closer. You grinned gratefully at him before continuing your meal. Oblivion of the small smile painted on Jacaerys’ face, who’s now no longer eating anymore.

♧♣︎♧

You’ve never told anyone before, but you have met Vhagar before.

A cranky one, the old lady. It was long past midnight, Laena and her husband Daemon along with their children had returned to Driftmark for two moons. You had waited until you were sure the whole place was asleep before sneaking inside the dragonpit. There’s only one dragon available, seeing as Laenor and Rhaenyra were still in Kingslanding.

You’re not sure how the pit had managed to cover her, but with her singular appearance, a space was made big enough for the beast.

You still remember the flick open of vhagar’s large eyes, staring straight into your soul. You had flinched at the singular acknowledgement, standing as far from it as possible without drifting too further that you couldn’t see her. She had not blow fire straight onto your face as expected, in fact, she barely budged. You took it as a sign to get nearer, until you’re inches away from the beast, who had also moved it’s face closer before laying her head down again, eyes remaining open. You stretched an arm towards her, risking spoke at her hard head, receiving a low whine, as if she’s scolding you. You had never pulled your arm back as fast as that moment.

“You can’t tell anyone about this.” You remember telling her. In which she had blinked her eyes slowly at you in response before closing it for good and falling asleep. An understanding was made that night, between two rare animals, often caged against their will.

But that was almost a decade ago.

You’ve heard of Vermax, mostly from Jacaerys himself, telling you stories of his little beasts’ quirks and habits.

“You should stand behind me, He gets protective of me, especially around strangers.”

You knew what he meant, but a laugh almost escapes you, still. You’ve known him for less than a week, but your heart was very sure, that he is no stranger inhabiting there. You only smiled in response, one too bold to reassure him. “I’m serious, my mother and rhaena will kill me if he blows you hair off or something.” You sigh loudly, to show your annoyance before moving to stand beside him.

The two of you walked in a straight line, the prince confident in his steps while you try to ignore the judgmental looks of the other dragons you passed by. You wonder if the dragons ever talk shit about their owners together when everyone is asleep. Too bad you don’t speak their language. Roaring and grunting.

His dragon, conveniently, was in the furthest pit. And as much as you wouldn’t admit I, you were excited to meet Vermax. You’ve only had one sole interaction with a dragon, who’s reaction had been very disappointing. With the speed Jacaerys is walking as he leads, you reach his pit finally. The light from the hanging orbs all over the place had shed onto his face. You nudged Jacaerys aside and let out an audible gasp. Breaking the ‘no talking’ vow you’ve made yourself do earlier that day, you swore under your breath. “He is…small.” The prince snaps his head fiercely to you. “He is growing.” You pursed your lips and nod your head sympathetically.

“Course’ he is.” The dragon groaned loud enough for the two of you to hear, as if defending himself. “No offence.” You mutter to him quickly.

“He is adorable.” You admit, earning more frowns from the rider. “Fierce?” He scoffs at your attempt. “You’re very judgy for someone who’s never seen a dragon up close.” You couldn’t tell him of course, that in comparison to Vhagar, Vermax is unfortunately, very adorable.

“I am impressed.” You tell him as you bent yourself forward to meet the dragon’s sad eyes. “I think you are very mighty, Vermax.” The beast huffs out lazily. “You know I’m surprised he’s barely having a reaction to you, the first time Baela met him, he flinched and ran away, poor boy.” You tilt your head towards Jacaerys, grinning wildly. “He recognizes me as a friend.” He returns the smile. “Maybe.” Perhaps Vermax knew, that we wild creatures must stick together. “He trusts you so easily, one might mistake you as one who shares Valyrian blood.”

You say nothing, smiling softy at the dragon who’s now leaning his head closer to your hand. “Oh, you brat.” Jacaerys chides him, annoyed. You laugh at their antics, It was definitely true though, Vermax seems very young still, you’d bet he’d be as big Caraxes or Meleys in a couple years time.

After a few more pettings and complimenting the dragon, Jacaerys decided it’s time for the touring to continue, parting you away from his baby. “We don’t have all day. If we finish up the castle touring quick, we’d have much more time to rest before tonight.” He explains as the both of you move to exit the dragon pit. “What’s tonight?” He sends a smirk your way, wiggling his brows. “Something more exciting.” You huffed and rolled you eyes, striding beside to him. “All right, keep your secrets.”

He makes a quick tour of the garden, which was much more prettier than you’d expect. Seeing as Rhaenys wasn’t much of garden person, the one in Driftmark was much more underwhelming. He asked you what your favorite flowers, and you had to take a moment to think.

“I don’t know, they’re all pretty.” You said. “So you like them all?” You shrugged, “What’s yours?” You ask him instead, receiving a quick answer. “Hydrangeas. They’re not everyone’s favourite, but they look magical together.” You nod yourself, placing your hand under your chin in a thinking motion. “Then my favorites are also Hydrangeas.” His brows meet as he lets out a small laugh. “Is it now?”

“Hmm.” You ignore his lingering gaze as you move to the bush of Hydrangeas. “I’m looking at them right now, see. I think they’re pretty, they shall be my favorite if I must choose.” You declared. “Alright, I’ll keep a note of that.”

The two of you moved to the throne room after. A rather contradicting view to the garden. The throne was smaller than you expected, but it looked terrifying enough, being sat in the middle of the dark, silvery room. “Have you ever sat on it?” You ask curiously. His eyes widen and he shook his head immediately. “Gods no, that’s only for my mother.” You raise a brow suspiciously. “Not even for fun, not even as a child.”

“Nope.” He insisted, “Although, Lucerys had, once. He’d thought it’d be funny, pretending to be mother. I’ve never seen anyone run so fast when Daemon and her enter the room out of nowhere.” He chuckled at the memory, making you laugh with him as you move out. “See, he knows how to have fun at least.” The prince snorted at that. “And I didn’t get an arse whooping, guess who really won?”

Jace mentally crosses out every place he’s shown you. Honest to the gods, he knew he’s probably the shittiest tour guide ever. But he tries his best, and he knows that it doesn’t really matter. Hopefully tonight, there’ll be less talking and more discovering. Since he himself have not sneaked out to the night market in ages. And with his mother’s permission, there needn’t be any sneaking around. “So, where to next?” You ask, when he keeps quiet through the walking. “My chambers.” You almost choked. “And pray tell, why, are we going to your very forgettable room out of anywhere else?” He laughs in surprise at your forwardness. “So, you’ll know where to go tonight.” Your frown deepens. “Why am I going there again, tonight?”

“Because we’re off to the night market tonight. And although my mother knows we’re going, leaving by the front door would make such a fuss. Next thing you know, they all would want to tag along. So we leave by the hidden exit in my chambers."

“And you don’t want them to tag along?” You ask almost teasingly, testing the waters. “No.” He says. “I do not.”

♧♣︎♧

It was night enough after dinner. The skies had darkened themselves so well that you could barely even see any stars from your window. The rest of your company had resolved to their own business. You’ve barely seen Baela for the whole day, the young lady had been so busy studying and reading like the scholar she is. Meanwhile Rhaena had spent a good half of her day with Lucerys, swordfighting, and then to their high Valyrian studies.

You had thought that you may find it feeling odd and awkward to be spending the whole day with Jacaerys, but your nerves had lied to you once again.

You were much more comfortable around him than you expected. For one thing, You hadn’t have to mind your speaking. You still stayed silent whenever you found it necesarry to speak, but the need to tiptoe around every person you meet was not needed when you are around him. Sometimes he’ll speak to you like he’s known you for ages, and it takes you by surprise every time.

You know his history, the rumours that has surrounded him since birth. Those same rumors you have faced since you were found by Corlys.

But you wonder how does one like him could still find it in himself to still be kind and trusting, despite being treated the opposite by his own family. It was no secret that his uncles and the queen have a strong distaste for Rhaenyra and her children. Corlys makes jokes of the queen often with his ladywife, the green queen. And now that you’ve known him, you wonder why exactly would such distaste exists at all. A true Targaryen, with the traits of a true king to be.

You brush off your unimportant questions as you tie your shoelaces properly. There was no guarantee what the activities tonight would enquire, but just to be safe, you dressed lightly with a hoodie to cover yourself on top of it all. Peaking out your door, you leave after making sure the doors are shut and no familiar faces are detected.

Jacaerys, who has been waiting for you 15 minutes earlier than the time he’s set, wastes no time opening his doors after two knocks by you.

Closing the door behind you, he fails to resists the grin blooming on his face as he leads you into a small entrance of staircase behind the curtains of his bed. “Ever been on a boat before?” He asks as his fingers make quick to find yours, walking you through the dark pathway.

“The small one?” He grins largens. “Yes, that would be a boat.”

“Then no, I have not.” The two of you finally reaches the end of the way, a small door, heavy of stones is the end, You help him push it to the right, revealing the dim light of the moon, accompanied by loud noises made by the pigeons. Walking out of the castle, you let him close shut the secret entrance while admiring the jet black sky, engulfing the unrivalled sight of the moon. The wind was gentle too, caressing your visible skin, making your goosebumps rise. Your head turns to the boat placed on the sand when you hear Jacaerys’ nearing footsteps.

“We’ll be rowing on that?” he gives you a nod before pushing it onto the water.

“Come on, get in.” You do as he tells you to, pulling your long skirt up, Passing you the giant paddle, He follows suit hopping into the boat once he’s pushed it further into the long river. “It’s barely a few minutes to get there, if we could just walk, that’ll be easier, but water has been rising up since three years ago, so they dug a long hole to make a river, rowing it is.” You nod understandingly at his words as you move your arms with the paddle as he does, rowing fast. True to his words, after a good 15 minutes, You begin to saw patches of grass and sand, along with  bright lights and what had sounded like people.

You fix your hood as advised as the boat reaches it end. Tying the simple craft onto a wooden post, the prince stretches a hand for you to grab on as he helps you up. He pulls you to his chest too strongly, making the both of you sway back and forth. You let out your giggle while your hand grips his for stability.

He smiles with before lightly taking one step away, hand still holding yours. “You excited?” He asks like he doesn’t know. You say nothing and only shoves him slightly before walking over him, tugging him along as you lead yourself through the noisy and bright coloured crowd.

The hood you wear does a good job of hiding how in awe you were of your surrounding. There were many people, but none of them were looking at you or Jacaerys. The beauty was in how you felt like you were everywhere and nowhere all at the same time. You jolt to the side when a group of children burst through path without warning. “Rascals.” You hear a man sigh tiredly before following them. The overlapping voices and laughing mixes with eachother, producing an overwhelming humanly background noise. Spinning your head around the place, your eyes confuse themselves as they turn from the firework stalls and the food section to the toysellers and pantomimes that’s set much further.

“Catch up with me.” You warn the prince as you move without direction to whatever calls you.

Carrot cake, you noted. Passing through a stall of baked goods, and whatever else food you eyes couldn’t have grasped properly as you kept walking. “What are you looking for?” You hear the muffled voice of your company from behind. You weren’t sure what you were looking for. Stopping at a covered tent, you peeked in and jumped backwards immediately when a woman looked back at you. Her head appears through the curtains. “Would you like to know your future?” You blinked at her and was pulled forward before you could speak. “A scam.” Jace says as he leans into your ear. “It would help a lot if you stop running, yeah? No one’s chasing you angel.” His worlds were almost reassuring until the last word. “Right.” You stutter, following his lead now instead of the reversed as before.

“Fishcakes?” He asks as you pass a seafood stall. He sees the frown of distaste and laughed in return. “Not a seafood girl, got it.”

“Beefcake maybe.” You suggest. He humas and lets his eyes roams the stalls while he walks. “I think those are further up.” The both of you are walking slower now, letting you take a good look at the shops and lights. “Have you ever seen anything this beautiful?” You ask, nodding at the lights connecting from stalls to stalls. You would’ve thought they were stars if it weren’t for the mix of pink, yellow and purple. “Yes, I have.” You appreciate that he’s not laughing at you. When you turn to look at him, he’s already set his gaze on you. “Is it always like this every night?” You ask. He shrugs at you with a small smile. “I don’t know, I’ve only been here twice when I was a child, It was much paler then. Smellier too.” You laughed.

His attention was turned away when he finally spots a beefcake stall. Small pieced of them stuck through a long stick and are placed over the tables. “Two please.” He pays the seller and hands you the stick like a prize. “Oh, this is great.” You praise hungrily, taking a bite off of it. “It is, isn’t it?” You hummed in reply, enjoying your beefcake. He continues his stride soon after, fingers still intertwining with yours.

“A puppet show is that?” The prince asks himself as he reaches the pantomime performance. “Puppet?” You repeat in confusion.

He brings you to his side as the two of you stand a bit far from the children sitting crossed legged to enjoy the small theatre. “What’s it about?” You whisper to him. He shrugs and points a finger to the cardboard drawn puppet of a girl wearing a straw hat. A voice of a man shushes the chattering children as the puppet begins to move. "This is a story of Aenathema.” The invisible voice spoke.

“Aenathema, is a seaborn woman, or most accurately, a siren.” The children turned quiet. “Young in age, and beautiful as the myths say, she spends her days swimming and nights tricking sailors for their trinkets.”  How factually incorrect this story already was, you thought. Sirens don’t exist, firstly.

Aenathma the puppet moved through the cardboard cut ocean. “Stories of death luring sirens spread all over the land of men, to warn the sailors and fisherman. But they misunderstood poor Aenathema, for she only craved an end of her curiosity.” You could understand that, if you’re honest. ”But one day, a brave and unhinged prince decided to find the said siren, in wishes to prove his people how false the stories of her cruelty were. So he sailed for moons-“ A male puppet glued to a paper ship moved through the square space, “-until finally, Aenathma, curious she always were, showed herself.” They must fall in love, that’s how the stories always went.

"The prince, with his original intention to kill her, hesitated. The siren and her beauty had captivated him.” Of course it did.

“He invited the naïve Aenathema up his ship, ‘Please, make yourself at home, for all that you could want shall be by your feet, if you’d only asked.’ He had said.”  The two puppets neared eachother, standing side by side.

“Grateful by the prince’s kindness. Aenathema fell into his trap. Weeks past, and the lovesick prince had refused to let her go.” The voice was interrupted when a child yelled out; “Why can’t she just jump back in?” The other children agreed, their voices scattering. “I was getting there.” The voice snapped, making you smile.

“Poor Aenathema could not return to sea, for her magical coat had been stolen. The coat she would need to be able to breathe underwater.” This is the part where she turns into a seal, you think to yourself.

The male puppet was switched to another version with much scarier drawn eyes.

“She devised a plan then, come full moon, she shall trick him into bed, and poison him to sleep. And so she waited, and waited, and waited. Until finally, Full moon appeared. With her siren voice, she lured him to bed, and poured his own poison into his wine. Once the prince had fallen asleep, she took the key oh his treasury and unlocked it for her coat. Fash she moved to put it on, and faster more she moved to dive back into the sea.” You felt your heart drop uneasily, what a terrifying story for a child to hear, you thought to yourself.

“The prince was angry when he woke, four of his crewmen were killed on sight in the midst of his rage. For not only did he lose his future bride, he also lost his future child.” The crowd gasped. You gasped along with them, earning an amused smile from your company. “You’ve never heard this story before?” He asks lowly. You shook your head, attention still stuck on the show.

“Aenathema had swam and stayed underwater for moons without knowing she was with child, but once she did, she swore she’d never let harm become of them, and that the child shall never swim to shore as she did, lest they befall the same fate.”  What an end. The crowd of kids erupted into chaos again, yelling out their questions and even disagreeing with the narrator’s end.

“A bit too disturbing for the little ones, right?” Jacaerys spoke You felt your body relax as you nod at him. “I want more beefcake.” You requested as the children starts to part ways back to their parents.

♧♣︎♧

After spending the next half hour walking around and the market and eating more beefcakes, the two of you decided it was well past the time to go home.

You twist and turned the new bracelet Jacaerys has brought for you earlier as fixes the boat back where he found it. It was no gold, but the marble like blue beads had caught your attention. His treat, he had insisted.

You made your way back in through the hidden pathway into his chambers. It was dim without the light of candles or day. The both of you were quiet despite the fact that everyone else was asleep. He finds a burner to light up his bedside candle.

“There you go.” He mumbles to himself as the room brightens slightly. His eyes were tired and his hair was disheveled, it was weirdly attractive, you thought. He turns to you, who’s now sat on the edge of his bed, equally as tired and spent. Taking a seat next to you, his fingers were sly, moving to touch the beads around your wrist. “Do you like it?” He whispers. You nod your head subtly. “Tell me, I can’t see you. He asks gently

“I like it.” You whispered back, voice slightly cracking at the end. You were thirsty.

“Did you have fun, tonight?” You smiled. “Shockingly, yes.” You could see his brows raising despite the dimness. “Why suprising?” “Well, I didn’t think you knew how to have fun.” His lips spread from a thin line to a grin, matching your own.

“I know how to do a lot of other things too.” The way he spoke was hesitant, like he knew he’s reaching through a forbidden border. But you leaned in closer, till you noses touch, and you had asked him, with the same angel-like voice you had from the night you first met. “Like what?” He answered you with an embrace of his lips with yours.

The first touch of them were teasing, so you pulled him closer, and you kissed him back, fiercer. As his hands move to cup the back of your head, yours finds the walls of his chest, grasping on his tunic like air restricted from you. You feel his lips wet your dry ones, letting his tongue tease your mouth into opening, and intertwining with your own.

As his hands move to caress your lower back instead, you find yourself pushing him to sit laid back on his bed before climbing onto his lap, devouring eachother with more access. The bolder you feel, the bolder he gets with his hands, and the louder the sirens in your head rang. But how could one move on from another who looked at you the way he does?

One of his palms are now gripping your hips, sitting you on him, while the other grasps your hair tight so your lips won’t leave his. He groans lowly. Your fingers are holding onto his neck so shyly, trying not to squeeze it with the intensity of how he’s kissing you. Like a strike of lightning has struck you, You jolted away from his face in sudden. Heavy breathing fills the air between the two of you. “What-“ You cut off his question before he could complete it, “Someone’s coming.” Too soon the confirmation came, three knocks on his door forces you both to scramble from his bed.

“A second!” He yells as he fixes his tunic and ruffling his hair back, trying to calm himself down enough to remove the redness in his face, while you run to hide behind his secret door, pushing the stone door close quickly without making a noise. “Jacaerys.” It was Baela.  

You curse yourself internally, the memory of tasting him repeating themselves in your head like a warning sign. Of course, It’s Baela. It was always Baela.

#jacaerys velaryon x reader #house of the dragon #jacaerys velaryon #hotd x reader #jace velaryon x reader #house of the dragon x reader #game of thrones #jace targaryen x reader #hotd #jacaerys targaryen

[maoam]

"Kishimoto make sasuke and naruto gay intentionally and not on accident" Okay then so why did he go on multiple interviews insisting that naruto and sasuke's relationship is brotherly and is inspired from his twin brother and that people shouldn't interpret their bond as romantic but platonic?? Source : https://twitter* com/uchihassasusaku/status/1419104011265974275?

If a writer writes homoerotic subtext in his material and expects people to read the material as romantic, he doesnt go around calling the characters "siblings" and asking people to not interpret their dynamic as romantic because then people wont read into his queer subtext like he wanted to

Ship what you want to ship. But stop acting like everyone should buy into your delusions. Kishimoto never said or implied that he wanted naruto and sasuke to be seen as gay but he did say many times that their relationship is brotherly

Ah, another shipper who ships a ship where creator implied twice they never kissed. And whose couple never had a meaningful conversation in a 700 chapter manga. And linking me to some SS stan who gave Elon Musk money for bluecheck mark. 🤣 A good ground to stand on. Okay, I will guide you by the hand since you don't seem to understand. It's okay, illiteracy is a common problem these days. I will put this in easy sections for you, with added links.

Also you and your "queer" nonsense... we are talking about gay, homosexuality. Not slurs.

About the interviews:

The Kizuna thing isn't even written by him, it's an article by another person. These books aren't written by the mangakas ever, they do not have the time nor is the article written from Kishi's pov. Shocker, people write a lot of things in anime merchandise that the creator isn't even involved in. [link] If it were written by Kishi, then an interviewer wouldn't have had to ask Kishi years later whether brotherly relationship was what he was going for with Naruto and Sasuke's bond, and Kishi wouldn't have had given such a cryptic answer where he mulls over it. Because he would have given the answers years back already. Also the fact that he's asked to define their relationship shows how weird it is to the readers. He NEVER told people to not interpret their relationship as romantic. And personally, I have seen movies and a comic where two characters referred to each other as brothers, and their creator referred to them as "soul brothers" but later revealed them to also have romantic feelings.

But I don't expect your mind to be able to comprehend things like this, it does require a little bit of 1+1=2 math. The interview about Seishi is about the feeling of empathy, not that they are literally Naruto and Sasuke's characters. It is one aspect. Kishi has joked about how Naruto and Sasuke are him and his editor too, because he will try to impress his editor. So? And he has said Kushina is based on his wife. So Naruto is him and Kushina is his wife? Why aren't you freaking about this freudian stuff? I know why. I also remember someone saying if Kishi REALLY saw his relationship with his brother as the exact same as Naruto and Sasuke, his brother would need a restraining order against him. It was funny and accurate.

I have wrote about the inconsistencies in his interviews and what shows that he definitely didn't write their dynamic as the same as with his brother despite having one aspect of it [link] and here is another post talking about it more deeply (they also linked my post I just mentioned) [link]. This post also explains how Kishimoto wrote Naruto constantly to do what Sakura can't for Sasuke, and she also included many links to my other posts where I talk about how Kishi wrote Sakura and Sasuke's dynamic, which you can also read if you feel like it. Unless you are scared of being proved wrong, you will read those right, or at least the linked post itself?

About how the audience perceives their dynamic:

The thing is, you and SS fandom don't understand how stories are written. Authors don't do stuff randomly. They use narrative and literary devices to tell their story. Kishi himself has remarked on it many times how careful he is about writing characters, how much he does research, how careful he is about angles etc. [link] If Naruto and Sasuke's relationship was written as brotherly in the text, in the manga, it wouldn't make a bunch of people uncomfortable. There wouldn't have been meltdowns after specific chapters nor would we have people saying when the manga was going on that they are annoyed by the "gay stuff". [link] [link] [link] (there are many more, but here's some collections for an example). Here's one more talking about the Japanese fandom. [link]

When Luffy was saving Ace in Impel Town/Marineford arc, no one in the dudebro community was uncomfortable nor saying it was gay. Eventhough it was a touching and dramatic storyline that showed us how much the two cared about each other. When Alibaba and Cassim were having their past and relationship unravelled in Magi, no one was uncomfortable. Eventhough it was tragic and dramatic and touching yet again. Because despite neither of these pairs being blood-brothers, they were WRITTEN to have a brotherly dynamic/development/relationship in the text, in their behavior. Which is why this also translated to the audience successfully.

If Naruto and Sasuke were written to be brotherly, they would refer to each other as such, including in Boruto, and would tell other people such as well. Hell, they would be proud to tell other people that this person they respect and admire the most is like a brother to them. But they don't. Naruto even told Hagoromo they aren't siblings, but friends. Sasuke said he has only one brother and that is Itachi. If they were brotherly, Kishi wouldn't make Naruto kiss Sasuke, even if accidentally, and have that to be their first interaction. He wouldn't say he wants to be the first one to have rivals kiss in shounen. Not a single brotherly relationship in media is written like this. You know, tropes matter. He wouldn't have Sasuke think fondly about the kiss as one of his most precious memories when he is dying, while years later implying more than once Sasuke never kissed Sakura lol. He wouldn't say Sakura had her first kiss stolen by her rival Naruto. He wouldn't make Sakura be jealous of Naruto's importance to Sasuke, while also giving her zero importance in saving Sasuke. He would not constantly make fun of Sakura by having her be thirsty/desperate for Sasuke's attention, any little crumb from him, while Sasuke ignores her and focuses on Naruto. Kishi knows how his writing comes off. Plenty of people, both men and women who weren't shippers, made jokes about Sasuke going "where's Naruto? hey Naruto" whenever Sakura speaks. Because Kishi made it such a constant dynamic with the three of them. People who have the basic amount of media literacy will get it, and thus all those jokes and memes were born. [link] [link] [link]

If they were brotherly, the anime studio wouldn't have them make eyes at each other while lyrics "please kiss me all night" play in the background, aside from all the other gay ops/ends with romantic lyrics to them. And since Kishi watches the anime, he would have probably point out it's weird. That's what I would do if I wrote about my relationship with my brother and people did that. Magi anime didn't have Alibaba and Cassim in romantic endings...

Kishi wouldn't put this in the movie he made if he wanted them to appear as brothers. Everyone was saying this looked gay/homoerotic when the movie dropped. I saw men on forums say "lol this looks so homoerotic, why did he have to catch Sasuke like that" and even in Chinese theaters people were giggling during this scene. Because it's so in your face fanservice. And Kishi said he cares about angles a lot in his story and that he redraws them if they aren't good enough to drive the message home. So what exactly does that tell you?

People usually aren't sexual about their brother

He wouldn't sexualize and put so much homoeroticism surrounding Sasuke's character, if Sasuke was solely inspired by his brother. You know, unless he had a questionable obsession with his brother. [link]

He wouldn't make Naruto literally get sexually excited when about to fight Sasuke lol [link] [link] that's so obvious Japanese men got amused, uncomfortable and even angry about it, if Sasuke and Naruto were him and his brother.

Romantic tropes/brotherly tropes are not the same

The fact Kishimoto's het couples parallel Naruto and Sasuke's dynamic is very evident. If "brotherly" relationship resembles romantic couples by the same author instead of the other brother dynamics he has written, guess what, it's not written as a brother dynamic lol. Again, proof that he didn't write their dynamic as brotherly. Both Mario/Saori [link] [link] and Minato/Kushina [link] [link] parallel Naruto/Sasuke and have the same tropes as them.

Raikage/Killer B is written as a normal brother relationship. Itachi/Sasuke is written as a complicated brother relationship with a lot of tragedy. Shikamaru/Choji is written as a normal friendship. Kakashi/Obito is written as a complicated friendship with a lot of tragedy. Naruto/Sasuke resembles the romantic relationships Kishimoto wrote, instead of these ones I mentioned. Even in their world, Naruto's actions are seen as irrational and obsession, and the weirdness of it all is constantly pointed out, by Sai, Kabuto, Sakura, Raikage, Itachi. This is a choice Kishi made when he wrote them. [link]

He also made a homage to Devilman and Akira/Ryo relationship that even people in the Japanese fandom noticed. [link] He specifically picked the chapter where Ryo admits having romantic feelings for Akira, and the fight (which parallels Vote2) ending with Ryo realizing how deep his feelings for Akira lie. Kishimoto would not do that if Naruto and Sasuke were based on him and his brother. Why would he pick a character famous for being gay for his best friend/enemy in a chapter where we finally get to see inside Sasuke's head?

Aside from paralleling Hinata's feelings towards Naruto in the Pain arc with Naruto's feelings towards Sasuke in the very next arc, he also foreshadowed a romantic double-suicide with Naruto and Sasuke during said arc. ROMANTIC. [link]

Sasuke on the other hand, was never satisfied with Naruto calling him brother or friend. If their relationship was strictly brotherly, they wouldn't need to ponder about the nature of their relationship, because that's not how any brotherly relationship is written in media. [link]

Kishimoto dislikes SS and talks about Sakura's "love" negatively more than once. [link] Sakura's love is selfish, toxic... yet this doesn't mean anything. Sakura wanted to save Sasuke, yet the one Sasuke said saved him was Naruto.

Now think hard. Use the modest intellect you possess. So aside from Kishimoto having Naruto show sexual attraction towards Sasuke to the point it made Japanese men uncomfortable, he also used romantic tropes (one of them being double-suicide which a writer Kishimoto admires is famous for because he mostly wrote romantic plays ending in that) and romantic parallels to show Naruto's feelings towards Sasuke multiple times, which he did not use for other male friendships in the manga. To the point many Japanese men wondered why Kishimoto "has to push homosexual agenda with Naruto's character", despite the fact he's supposed to be " a normal/good guy". All of these things somehow do not mean anything, nor do the multiple other things I have pointed out on my blog.

I'm not asking you to "buy" into anything, because understanding Naruto is a love story between Naruto and Sasuke and that Kishimoto does not even like Sakura let alone SS would require a little bit of reading comprehension and common sense. Which you and the person you linked sacrificed at the pink altar of Sakura worship, because to you not having anything in common with your partner nor having anything meaningful to talk about nor knowing anything about each other is somehow love. To you having someone else help and understand the person you love because you can't somehow makes an ideal relationship. You mistake Sakura's onesided melodrama for love. She has never said anything meaningful about Sasuke's character, neither has Sasuke said anything meaningful about her. Yet you believe Kishi wrote some deep relationship between them. How am I supposed to reason with someone like that? But your gaslighting doesn't phase me, I have seen all this before many times, it's old news by now. You can call me delusional all you want, but I trust my own understanding thank you very much. It's not like that much is even required, as proven by how many people, even the ones that don't have any need to (casual viewers, straight men, etc.) see it, still see it. Because it is that obvious that only desperate need to not see it blinds someone like you from seeing it.

I'm actually working on another post about Narusasu and Kishi's writing tools regarding it, so stay tuned 🩷

#anon #sometimes I wonder if people frothing in my inbox #are just bored #I know I am bored explaining the same stuff over and over again

[chansaw]

how is standing by each other as gay as making out?

you got me there anon!! the non-canon homoerotic girl best friends don’t kiss onscreen! next you’re gonna remind me that one of them dies less thirty minutes into the movie, so why bother at all?

i’ve already alluded to tibby’s rich girl/weird friend manifesto and i once again encourage you to read it to get a little more insight into why the fact that they never kiss onscreen is essential to their dynamic. see also this article from the cut about jackie and shauna, whose relationship has much in common with chansaw.

because i have terminal yellowjackets disorder i also want to point to the showrunners’ excellent comments on the homoerotic undertones of toxic codependent girl best friendships

all that to say is that chansaw transcends the boundaries of romantic and platonic. it’s about the cruelty of adolescence and the wasteland between girlhood and womanhood.

so yeah sorry they didn’t make out but vote for them anyways here on the @redandbluebracket

[wisefoxluminary]

There's something in TV that makes me really sad - queerbating. Now I'm straight myself, but I feel like people who ship same sex relationships don't get the respect they deserve and it breaks my heart. For example, Destial, Byler, Thasmin etc.

Fans should be allowed to interpret characters however they want, without scrunity and hatred from others. These relationships have had seasons of buildup and nothing happens. Years of subtext get thrown in the mud because the writers have finished off these relationships not the way fans expect. These relationships get addressed/hinted at in canon and yet they do nothing with it. These ships end in a disappointing note because the writers don't know what to do with them and it makes me sad. It doesn't matter if these ships become canon or not, fans should be allowed to ship or interpret characters in whatever way they please. People are allowed to identify with characters and see themselves in them. If you like these ships, I respect you and I stand with you. You matter. I just feel like creators should take this audience interpretation into account and respect all fans' opinion, no matter how they see these characters. I love reading fics about Steddie even though I'm not a hardcore shipper. I read analysises about Byler and I really enjoy them. In the Star Wars fandom, fans ship Din Djarin with Luke Skywalker. A relationship that on paper is really great and interesting to read. I feel like fanfiction sites like ao3 are a great place for queer representation as people get to write about their favourite ships on a platform and have their love seen rather than looked down upon. That's why I love reading fanfiction, because it allows these ships to blossom and grow in a positive light.

What I'm trying to say is that I feel like there should be more representation for queer relationships in movie and TV without any baiting that leads to nothing. Take The Last of Us for example - Bill and Frank's relationship in episode 3 was groundbreaking for queer representation and I feel other writers should take note of that. The most positive portrayal of homoerotic subtext I've seen recently was Roquill in GOTG vol3. You may think shipping a human with a raccoon is a taboo subject, but they both exhibit human qualities and love towards each other. But the way they ended things with that pair was really satisfying for me because they show the lengths this pair will go to keep their love alive while leaving the door open to interpretation.

In conclusion, I think there should be more queer relationships in media. They deserve to be treated with the same build up and care that a heterosexual relationship gets. All fans' interpretation should matter and be respected by all of the fandom. We may see characters differently than others, but that doesn't mean we should hate each other. Queerbating is a subject that annoys me because it leads to nowhere and it is quite sad to see. How fans represent characters and the relationships they share should always be treated with love and care. Sorry for the long rant, I just wanted to get this off my chest.

#destiel #byler #thasmin #queerbaiting #homoerotic subtext #queer representation #mini essay #mini rant #roquill #pro shipping #queerbaiting is such a diservice to the fans #we need more positive queer relationships #stranger things #supernatural #lgbtq

[adamshallperish]

hiii ♡ 1 + 2 rant about your faves!!!

1. what is your current favorite film?

i tend to fluctuate between them, and i honestly feel like my absolute favorite film is still out there waiting to be discovered, but for right now i'll say o brother where art thou. it's such an incredible experience in that it's hyperaware of what the odyssey is (a myth), and merges that with american mythos in a way that becomes even more incredible when you learn only one person on set had actually read the odyssey (it was tim blake nelson, who basically steals the whole show as far as i'm concerned). it has such a solid cast and beautiful cinematography (i believe it was the first film to do digital color grading), and i'd be lying if hearing the first notes of man of constant sorrow didn't get me immediately pumped up. i want everyone in my life to see this movie.

2. what was your favorite film as a child?

had the DEEPEST hyperfixation on newsies (1992) in a way that forever altered my brain chemistry - and i must reiterate - i stand by my eleven-year-old assessment that it was the greatest piece of cinema ever released on home video. it has everything. scenes shot in what is obviously a shitty backlot. the wildest new york accents you have ever heard. the fact that it was made with Actual Teenage Boys and so this pg disney film occasionally has characters audibly swearing in the background. a soundtrack of absolute fucking bangers. a disney movie with an anti-capitalist message that bombed so hard upon release and remains somehow deeply ironic today. robert duvall putting his entire pussy into a role and the result is absolutely bewildering. homoerotic subtext up the wazoo. christian bale sings, dances, and is on a horse??? it transed my gender before i even realized i was transgender. i was in the trenches of the newsies fandom for years. if it gets bad enough i may get dragged back again.

#thank you so much for the ask #i love talking about my movies #my friends #ask adam #ask game #o brother where art thou #newsies #newsies 1992

[ribelleribelle]

talking about my wip/go to fantasy for when im bored in class because i have nothing to do

it doesn't really have a name, but it's about 3 flatmates who are kinda broke and in their 20s (except for steve but i'll get to him in a moment), one of them's rock band, and the sheer chaos that they are constantly in.

we have:

Seb (sebastian) - he/him, gay, plays guitar, is a complete disaster and a total mood, looks like a metalhead but listens to all rock music, really ("i don't see any difference, rock is rock"). he's a bit of a dumbass but not that stupid and really cares about his friends (even if he seldom shows it). he works in a record shop since he dropped out of university, now he is in a band.

Vivian - she/her, maybe bisexual?? she doesn't know (i don't know either i haven't decided yet), aspiring stylist/movie costume designer, sleep deprived and coffee dependant, sarcastic sense of humour, can't stand her flatmates, actually a nice person if you aren't seb or his bandmates (except eve).

Steve - he/him, the most middle-aged-dad-literally-just-some-guy ever, ghost. yeah, he's a ghost, he died 30 years ago (in the dullest way you can imagine) and since then he haunts the house. not that he cares about all that haunting stuff tho, he's just here to read his newspapers and chill. he can't really chill though because he has to hear the band practice and vivian argue with seb every. single. day.

then there's the Haunters (because of steve haunting the house), seb's band, and we have:

David - he/him, trans and bi, singer, he and seb were best friends in middle school and high school, they were inseparable until he got a girlfriend (who looked suspiciously a lot like seb) and went in the same university as her. when they split up, like 2-3 years later, he realized uni wasn't for him and went to find seb again. seb is in love with him since they were 16.

Ash - they/them, aroace, bass player, met seb in the record shop and have been friends for a couple of years. they're the youngest member of the band and has been basically adopted by them. tiny and angry, has a collection of sunglasses and gets bored easily because of no attention span whatsoever (they're literally me except i don't play bass).

Eve - she/they, lesbian, drummer, vivian's best friend (who doesn't approve of her being in the band tho) and fashion icon. can't drive but loves to and doesn't let anyone touch her car. she is the one who knows seb and david the least, so she's constantly going insane over their always present sexual tension and obvious mutual untold love.

basically the main story is: vivian wants to hold a party to show how cool she is and how good her clothes are so that she can get a job and start her career as a designer, meanwhile david arrives unannounced to reunite with seb after 2 or 3 years since they last saw each other. they decide to put together their old high school band again, ash joins them and later so does eve (who met the band kinda by accident). they start playing together and they like it so much they manage to convince vivian to let them play at her party. while her, eve and ash organize the party and try to figure out all the problems and trouble they find along the way (steve tries to help too), seb and david have to put back together their frienship by being extremely gay and even more oblivious with each other. the day of the party comes and everything is set up (more or less), the guests are all there and vivian is confident. all the attention should be on her creations but when the haunters start playing they steal the spotlight with an amazing performance and the frontman and guitarist being unintentionally very homoerotic. the tension between the two finally breaks after they kiss on stage and they Realize a LOT of things. but the show must go on, they keep playing while ash is unimpressed (they saw that coming) and eve is SHOCKED (they didn't), but not for long because steve arrives to see what the hell is going on in the living room and he's VERY angry because he just wants to read but there's too much noise, so he freaks out all the guests. they all run away, stuff catches fire, it's a MESS, and vivian is FURIOUS. just before she's about to commit 4 murders in a row (not 5 because steve is already dead) seb and david escape and there's like a wholehearted conversation about their feelings (spoiler: they're been super in love with each other since before david got a gf but didn't realize it) also they make out a little??? idk i'm too aroace for this. meanwhile the rest of the band is also safe from vivian's rage because a woman approaches her and tells her how cool this whole performance was (clearly thought it was fake) and offers her a job. everyone gets an happy ending but the story WILL go on because the hunters are gonna keep playing and maybe they'll get famous and vivian too, who knows? (i don't)

.....doodles under the cut bc i wrote already too much :]

if you can read my handwriting ily <3

anyways, what's in these blurry pics:

seb

eve

ash

david + tiny eve playing the drums and tiny ash being *swag*

messy sketch of seb and david being gay

old ass drawing of eve and ash

even messier sketch of seb and david being gay

same thing as 5 and 7 but with ash and tiny steve being a ghost in the corner

random drawings of everyone

eve being shocked, ash being uninpressed and the only decent drawing i have of vivian (sorry)

#aaand that's it #i love them so much they're my children #they've been approved by syd too and one (1) person is enough to me to post something about them #tbh i wanted to do this for a while i just needed approval lmao #uhh anyways. i hope you enjoy my gay little rock band and friends #mine #my art #the haunters #<- i am going to post more stuff about them eheheheheheheh

[twopoppies]

Hi Gina hope you are having a nice day!!!

In honor of yesterday's fight club tiktok I wanted to add some fight club content that might give some perspective to people who haven't seen it/read it.

First of the book starts with some homoerotic innuendo and we also get some hints of it further on in the book. Here are some examples(it is a bit lowkey but remember the author of the book is gay so I don't think this is a coincidence).

(Gun in mouth->read it as bj, fighting->sex)

Secondly, if I remember correctly we talked about the fight club before when just like you mv dropped. There was a comic of yogi the bear and the original comic says something along the lines of first rule about the park is dont feed the bears and people conected it with quote from fight club that says first rule of fight club is you dont talk about fight club

And lastly smiley. In fight club smiley first appears in a scene where the Narrator gets a call from Marla. This is the screenshot from it(it might be a reach but it looks like the same type of sticker that rbb and sbb were using).

The sticker foreshadows project mayhem where the goal is to destroy the world and make something better of it. The symbol is once again a smiley that shows up on the burning building. (Smiley and soap are popular symbols of the movie)To me smiley screams Louis.

This are just some of my first toughts when it comes to connecting louis to fight club. Also one of the main points of the movie is fighting capitalism/consumer culture and i think louis kinda stands for that.

I tried to be as objective as possible but I'm quite a fan of fight club soo...Idk this might be a bit of a stretch to connect louis to fight club.

(If you think this theory is a bit of a reach dont post it:)

As always lots of love and thank you for all your work in this fandom <3

Hi love. Yay, thank you for coming back and adding more thoughts to this conversation. I’ve neither seen the movie, nor read the book. All I’ve done is read up on it, so I don’t have much of a personal opinion other than these theories sound very reasonable to me.

In reference to this post about Fight Club and COACOAC.

Yogi Bear cartoon from JLY mv.

#jly mv #fight club #coacoac

[maniacwatchestheworld]

hey I really really don't want to ruin your fun and am not sending this to you to be mean or patronizing but with the way things stand it is extremely unlikely that DC would make Bruce canonically queer any time soon, and strongly hoping they will is just setting up for disappointment. yes there has been that tease with Ghostmaker last year and Bruce's interactions with other male characters tend to read vaguely homoerotic, especially with characters like Clark or Harvey, but Bruce is still their flagship character and as long as making him canonically interested in men might mean losing a large part of their reader demographic (straight male comic nerds) they won't risk that. Making TwoFace bi however is a much more likely scenario since he's a villain or side character! If they made him bi it would most likely only be vaguely implied rather than outright stated (like they did it with the Riddler in last year's Valentines anthology) but it is a possibility, so if there is any official plan of validating BruHarvey as a ship then the best most likely bet is hoping for a one sided confirmation of Harvey's crush

So the thing is... I agree with you! I have doubts that DC would want to make their best seller canonically queer. I don't have my hopes up, and I'm entirely ready to be disappointed that this isn't going to happen... But the thing is... It's weird isn't it...?

Why is Harvey in so many pieces of Batman media right now? He's in their best selling comic AND he's in the comic that the freaking company is named after AND he has a TV show starring him AND he is in a film that they JUST released AND he's popping up here and there in other things too (the podcast, the comic based off of the Animated Series). And so I can't just help but to wonder. Why. Because like, I can chalk a lot up to coincidence. But it's enough at this point where it feels like this is either deliberate, or someone at DC fucked up. Because for people who don't like Two-Face or that like other characters wouldn't all of this Two-Face at once in all the big pieces of Batman media that's coming out right now feel alienating...? Why bunch all of these appearances all at once instead of releasing them spaced out from one another? I don't think that this year is like a significant anniversary year for him. Is it purely because of Gotham Knights? I doubt it. It's a TV show based off of a video game, more or less, and it's not like Gotham Knights: Gilded City is doing crazy well right now either. And the game received lukewarm reception as well. No one gave me an answer on my other post from before of asking if other rogues periodically get a sudden wave of love like this, so I can't say these things for certain, but I doubt that all of this was done for Gotham Knights. Like did the Riddler get this much love when the The Batman movie came out?

And just... The more I think about it, the more it feels deliberate. But why would they be doing this? Are they pushing him to be a character with his own solo series? I'm sorry, but as much as I love him, I don't think that Two-Face is that popular. And what can you do with him if he did star in his own series? I think that he would be used best for a courtroom procedural, (but he doesn't have his law license anymore,) or... A noir mystery series... You know... Like some kind of... Detective Comic...? But I have so many doubts that he'd replace Bruce or that they'd want to create a series to compete with the book that the company is literally named after. And if he was popular enough to warrant having his own solo series, you would think that Task Force Z would have gone on for longer. Are they trying to use Harvey as their answer to Moon Knight? Possibly. But the dates don't line up super well for that. (Moon Knight came out in March of 2022, and they had already ordered a pilot for Gotham Knights in February of 2022.) So just... Why would they deliberately push him so much? I'm not really certain.

And honestly when it comes to comic books... I think that they have a LOT more to gain from LGBT rep than to lose from it! Look at Harley Quinn and Ivy! There are SO many queer characters in DC right now! Specifically in the Batman sphere too! Speaking for myself, I would not have gotten into Batman comics like I have if it wasn't for the Harley Quinn Show and their queer rep. I had 0 interest in the Harley Quinn Show until they had Harley and Ivy start dating in it. And straight-up, if it wasn't for Harley and Ivy dating, I would not have watched the show. I started hyperfixating on Two-Face because I decided to give the Harley Quinn Show a shot. I've sucked my sister into the Batman hole with me, and I guarantee you that if Bruce and Harvey started dating, I could convince pretty much all of my friends to start reading Batman comics. I think that they have FAR more to gain than to lose by appealing to the LGBT community. Watching the Harley Quinn Show, it felt like the show was uncertain that it was going to get revived at the end of the second season, so they did their best to wrap things up and get Harley and Ivy together so that they could at least say that they did it. And now look at the show. They had no question of if the show would come back at the end of season 3! They got a Valentine's Day special! It has its own comic book series now! Them leaning into the queerness of the characters has only benefited the show! And I think that the same can apply to the comics. Just look at the Transformers comics. The Transformers franchise for forever has appealed to a solely straight, white, male fanbase. But by adding queer content into the comics, I think that it not only didn't hurt the comic, but rather contributed to its popularity and ensured its longevity. I think the same could apply to Batman. Also isn't Constantine bi? Doesn't stop him from being popular! And Deadpool is pan and he became a pop culture icon!

Given how pretty much everyone in the Harley Quinn Show is confirmed as some flavor of LGBT, it's kinda weird that Bruce HASN'T been confirmed as queer in that show yet! Harley is bi! Ivy is bi! Clayface is sex and gender fluid! Bane is bi! Riddler is gay! Clock King is gay! Catwoman is bi! If anything, Bruce feels like the odd one out for not being confirmed as bi! And... Isn't it kinda weird that they haven't confirmed Two-Face as bi in that series...? It's such an easy and obvious thing to do with him. Like, OF COURSE he'd be bi! He's bi everything! If any piece of media would just be like, "Yeah, Two-Face is bi. OBVIOUSLY! Duh!" It would be the Harley Quinn show. But they haven't done it yet and I don't know why. But it would make sense if they didn't mention it on sheer virtue of them wanting to actually address it later. It's WEIRD to me that Harvey hasn't been confirmed as bi yet because it's not a big deal for Batman characters to be queer anymore. Tim Drake is bi. Why haven't they just gone through with it yet and mention somewhere that Harvey likes men too? Why not just say the obvious thing out loud already? Are they worried about what people would think of Two-Face? Are they worried that people might look at the only other man that he's ever been close to and start asking questions? Why would DC care if they started asking questions about that?

One or two of these things in isolation absolutely can be a coincidence. But all of these things together are painting a picture... Especially when you start considering the content of these stories. So that and the interview and I can't help but to speculate. I am not going to get my hopes up. I do not expect for Bruce and Harvey to be getting together. But it sure as hell would be the RIGHT thing to do right now! It opens up so many story possibilities! It is the morally correct thing to do given the political landscape right now. And I guarantee you that they would get a lot of new readers by being daring and doing this with their flagship character. I think that the benefits outweigh the losses. I don't expect that it will happen. But DAMN they are giving me a LOT of fuel for my conspiracy theory brain! I didn't mean for this post to get this long but just... I think that it's the right move. And I keep finding evidence that it's a good move, and the evidence just doesn't stop coming. This is a thing that keeps tugging me deeper and deeper into believing the more time I spend in this fandom. I don't want to get my hopes up. I don't want to believe it. But when the only response to all of this is just, "They would never do that with Batman. It would alienate the straight, white, male fanbase!" Just... It might have been a strong argument at one point... But the strength of that augment just gets weaker and weaker and weaker the more I look at and think about things. Honestly, it might even be good for the incels that fixate too much on Batman if their hero turned out to be interested in men. Might finally get to them that us gays are just better.

#batman #bruharvey #twobats #harvey dent #bruce wayne #two-face #queer #queer representation #lgbt #lgbtqiia+ #lgbtqia #lgbtq #queer community #gay #two face #twoface

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 8/9/22

this time next week i will be free from the video game data mines. do i have anything else lined up yet? no :)

listening jovian by artisan. i opened the wretched clock application to view a short film of a buff woman my sister procured for me, and this was in the first couple videos on the main page or whatever. a very cool jet set radio/cowboy bebop/future jazz sound with an elevator music interlude???!? i adore this. i want it to be out now.

so i went and listened to all his other stuff, which is very different. jovian is my favorite, big gustav horst The Planets suite vibes, mostly i think it sounds like a point-and-click adventure game about a generation ship with elves.

-

reading not far enough into The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett to have real opinions, but i adore the movie so i have high hopes. this was one of my new year's eve movies- every new year's eve i start a new-to-me black and white movie around 1130 so im still watching it as it turns into the new year. the thin man (1934, dir Van Dyke) was one of those movies. top five black and white movie for me honestly

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watching watched Angel and the Badman (1947, dir Grant). this one, like High Noon and Shane, succeed bc they don't super need to be a western. by that i mean the very barebones plot stands on its own. what a hopeful, if at times trite, little film!

any time we are not on a soundstage it feels like a movie from about a decade earlier, what with its shot and framing choices. like ENORMOUS serial vibes (like the types of movie Roy/Lee Pace does stunts for in The Fall) as people and horses scramble down various slopes to stirring music. people fall into some water from a height. there's a plot relevant waterfall. that kind of thing. did like this bit very much, which is far, far less homoerotic in context. this was a perfectly adequate little movie but i don't feel the need to ever rewatch it

how'd i come across this: dunno. definitely not one i watched with my dad growing up. i think it keeps popping up as like a Good American Western and i want to encourage my library to add more westerns to their streaming service.

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playing hey remember when i said i liked playing that goofy little zombie mobile game state of survival bc i didn't have to talk to anyone in order to do the multiplayer part? well that little group of players dissolved, and holy fucking shit everyone on the specific server i am on is fucking insane. it's not a baby gamer thing bc a lot of people are talking about their spouses, and it's not even really a classic gamer toxicity thing, there's just so much fucking catty backstabbing? absolutely exhausting. i don't seem to be able to change servers :( but i have been playing this on and off for about a month and bought exactly one two dollar "unlock something permanently" slot so it's not a huge loss if i need to find a new "make the numbers go up" game. absolutely bizarre little player ecosystem in this game tho.

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making going to be extremely late with all the yee.hawgust stuff this month bc it is very hot out and i am very busy :(

also i don't like saying that i impulse bought a pet, bc i do have a perfectly good cycled ten gallon tank, it's just that the betta fish i walked out of the store with is So Small and cannot be in the ten gallon tank. i need to be able to find it and make sure it's eating. this has unlocked a sidequest of Locate Brine Shrimp (100x) because this tiny creature does not recognize crushed pellets as food and is too small for finely chopped bloodworms. i am hoping that in about 24h it WILL recognize crushed pellets as food and is simply stressed the fuck out. which, fair.

#tuesday again #tuesday again no problem #SoundCloud

[365days365movies]

31 (Films) to Life: End of Year Round-Up II

Before I wrap up last year and begin anew, here's the rest of the round up of the crime films I saw in 2022! Here's the first part of this post if you want a catch-up. These post is gonna cover these films:

Once Upon a Time in America (1984); directed by Martin Scorcese

Thelma and Louise (1991); directed by Ridley Scott

Reservoir Dogs (1992); directed by Quentin Tarantino

Casino (1995); directed by Martin Scorcese

Heat (1995); directed by Michael Mann

The Usual Suspects (1995); directed by Bryan Singer

L.A. Confidential (1997); directed by Curtis Hanson

American Psycho (2000); directed by Mary Harron

Catch Me if You Can (2002); directed by Stephen Spielberg

Monster (2003); directed by Patty Jenkins

The Departed (2006); directed by Martin Scorcese

Zodiac (2007); directed by David Fincher

OK, let's jump back into this recap!

Goncharov (1973); dir. Martin Scorsese - 82%

Look, I realize that this, as a recently recovered film, this has gotten a sort of cult-following, as it were. But after finally getting ahold of a copy of it and watching it, I dunno...seems somewhat overrated to me? Sure, Scorsese's choice to focus on Italy during the end of the Cold War is an interesting premise, and the cast is genuinely excellent, but...again, I thought it was only OK compared to some of the other movies on this list. Although, I will say, John Cazale was a stand-out character for me, in sort of a spiritual successor to his role in Dog Day Afternoon, playing the unhinged assassin with a very complex backstory. I read somewhere that there was a planned spin-off for Ice Pick Joe at some point, and I would love to know more about that. Plus, Scorsese's choice to follow up on Midnight Cowboy and Dog Day Afternoon by injecting homoerotic tones, especially in a film from this time period, was...

...Yeah, I'm WAY too late to hop on this meme. I'll stop now. It's a very funny meme, though. Love the fact that Scorsese himself admitted to making it; that's shit's hilarious. Anyway, on to the actual list.

Once Upon a Time in America (1984); dir. Martin Scorsese - 94%

This is a complicated movie to describe and to recap, and I actually never posted the last part of my review for this one, but...man. This is an excellent movie. Granted, exactly what you'd expect when I say it's a Martin Scorsese-directed period piece set in NYC and starring Robert de Niro...but, it still manages to surprise here and there. A couple of these surprises are, in my opinion, a tiny piece contrived, and it also manages to make its main character thoroughly unlikable in many ways, but it's still a great story with a lot of character packed in a...3 hour and 50 minute runtime, JESUS CHRIST. OK, yeah, this is a really long movie, but it's also hard to see a good place to trim it without harming the story and character work as a whole.

In terms of my normal breakdown, acting is nearly perfect all around; plot is convoluted and takes place in multiple time periods, but is still very good; directing and cinematography is beautiful; production and art design is perfectly immersive throughout all time periods represented; and if I hear pan-pipe music one more time I'M GONNA FUCKING LOSE IT. But the editing is still solid, despite an insane runtime. Look, if you're the kind of person who doesn't like uncomfortable moments in film or unlikely characters, or if you'd rather not strap in for a lot of atmosphere and silent character moments over the course of a nearly four-hour movie...maybe skip this. But otherwise, this movie is entirely worth it, and a genuine masterpiece. A must-watch for crime movie and Scorsese fans.

Thelma and Louise (1991); dir. Ridley Scott - 84%

A good Ridley Scott movie (and one that I only published half of my review for, whoops)! So, Thelma and Louise has a pretty good plot and acting, and does everything else pretty well. Plus, its titular relationship is compelling for a lot of reasons, whether or not you take it as romantic (which there are arguments for and against). As well as being a good source for an essay on justice within a patriarchal culture that has issues with female self-autonomy and sexual consent (yes, really, I'm not even reading into that super hard), it's an interesting movie. But if I'm gonna be honest, while I thought this was a good movie...it's not necessarily one I'd go out of my way to watch again, and I may turn away from it when it comes on TV. Y'know what I mean? Like, I'd tell people it's a good movie, but I wouldn't recommend it, necessarily. It's a good movie to watch at least once, though.

Reservoir Dogs (1992); dir. Quentin Tarantino - 89%

Reservoir Dogs, on the other hand, is a movie that I absolutely recommend. Now, is this a movie that, like Scarface, every college fuckboi in the world has seen, recommended, and quoted. I mean, yeah, absolutely. Is it gratuitously gory and violent? Again, yeah, absolutely it is. But it has a banger of a cast (Harvey Keitel, Steve Buscemi, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, to name a few), fantastic plot and good writing, good direction and cinematography, good production and art design (simple as it is), great editing, and memorable music (for what little there is in this movie). There's a lot packed into this one, and there are narrative twists and turns you wouldn't necessarily expect, leading to one of the tensest endings I saw in a movie last year. And as much I would love to go into more details about this crime thriller...I won't. Go watch this one, trust me.

Casino (1995); dir. Martin Scorsese - 94%

So, this year, I made a huge mistake. I was in a hotel room for a conference, alone (much less sad than it sounds, believe me), and I decided to watch a movie that night. So, I sit down, look at my list of films, and realize the next one is the Scorsese classic film Casino. Now, I have a copy of this movie at home on DVD, but I find it on streaming, so I figure I may as well go for it. Here's the problem: it was on AMC. Now, at first blush, this doesn't seem like a problem. But it actually is a massive problem for Casino, more than any other movie I've ever seen, because the censoring for TV really distracts from the movie itself. Like...really badly, too. It was an issue.

Now, is this a good movie? Very much so. As Scorsese loves to do, it follows a gangster played by De Niro, during the time period where the Mafia was at its strongest influence in Las Vegas. His enforcer and best friend, played by Joe Pesci, joins him in the business. What follows is a multi-year story of death, lies, betrayal, talk shows, domestic abuse, and a LOT of crazy shit that you follow the entire time with baited breath. This is a 3 hour plus movie, and I remember more of it that I rightfully should. And yes, there are a LOT of F-bombs, all of which were covered by Joe Pesci's less-than-stellar dubbing over his own lines. When "fuck" comprises 40% of a character's dialogue, censoring tends to really hamper with immersion, just saying. But yes, this film has stellar acting from the leads and support, an interesting and engaging plot with curse-heavy writing, great direction and cinematography throughout, fantastic production design, and a good score with great editing. Definitely watch this one...uncensored. Trust me on that one.

Heat (1995); dir. Michael Mann - 90%

Well, shit, Al Pacino and Robert De Niro in a crime movie? And Pacino's playing a cop? Hell yes. It's also Pacino's last movie before he goes into overacting hell, and even then, he has a lot of scenery in his teeth and he is loving it. But even despite that, solid performances from our two leads, one of whom is playing to type, and the other against it, but both very well. It manages to mix multiple compelling stories, while maintaining the tension of a cat-and-mouse game, during which you're somehow always rooting for both sides to win. Direction is great, production design is simple but good, and the music is...fine. I actually don't remember it much, to tell the truth. But either way, a must-watch for any crime film fan. It's fantastic.

The Usual Suspects (1995); dir. Bryan Singer - 92%

As some of you may know by now, I'm a firm believer in divorcing the art from the artist. So, yes, even though this is a Kevin Spacey vehicle directed by Bryan Singer, I still really wanted to watch this one. And it's great. Absolutely fantastic, don't get me wrong...but I was kinda fucked from the start here. Without going into any details, this movie is about cops investigating a crime committed by the mysterious Keyser Soze, and uncovering who the culprits are. And that's it. That's all you're getting. Because there's a famous twist in this film, and I knew it from the jump, unfortunately for me. Definitely didn't ruin the movie, but not knowing the twist would've made it OH so much sweeter. So, that my word that it's a good movie, do not attempt to look it up anywhere for more info, and go check this one out.

L.A. Confidential (1997) - dir. Curtis Hanson - 90%

Another Spacey vehicle! And hot damn, is it a great one. I like the previous movie more for the plot, but L.A. Confidential is certainly no slouch when it comes to twists. Not the least predictable twist in the world, but still a notable twist. Again, excellent cast here (Crow, Pearce, Spacey, Basinger, DeVito, Cameron, etc.), great plot and writing as well, great direction and good cinematography, excellent production design, and great music, and this is another must-watch action movie, on par with Chinatown in tone, and Heat in quality. Also, a seminal buddy-cop movie...kinda.

American Psycho (2000); dir. Mary Harron - 82%

Fun fact about me: I'm a serial killer true crime junkie. Which, yes, makes me either a typical millennial or a middle-aged white mom with nothing to do all day, but sue me, I think it's an interesting topic. Anyway, because of that, I've always been interested in watching this movie, which not only pictures a very '80s sense of psychopathy that's still identifiable today ("sigma males", anyone), but actually inspired a real-life serial killer duo, Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka, AKA Canada's most notorious murderers. Their favorite book was the original American Psycho, which was later adapted into this film. But that said, outside of the true-crime connection, I also liked this film as a character dissection of a man quickly going insane, as well as the exploration of a business shark capitalist drive and misogynist culture surrounding it as major causes and drivers of that mindset. And I'd say that was reading too much into it, but...it really isn't.

But that said, this movie is interesting to watch, but definitely not perfect. Acting, with Bale as an exception, is good but not great throughout. Plot and writing are good, if ham-fisted at times, and with an unexpected ending (and not in a great way). Direction is great, cinematography is pretty good, too. Production and art design is extremely solid, and maybe the strongest part of the movie. Music gives that a run for its money, though, since it's also a narrative device to better understand our lead. This is a good movie, and weirdly relevant with certain elements of our internet culture, so check this one out if you have the time. And if you're in the mood for a film whose bread and butter is toxic masculinity, but was also directed and written by women. Which is hilarious.

Catch Me if You Can (2002); dir. S. Spielberg - 88%

The concept of an auteur in terms of film directing is varied and storied, but is usually used to refer to an individual whose artistic vision is clear on the screen, making their films quite distinctive to the discerning viewer. And Jesus Christ, is this film an example of that for Stephen Spielberg, because I don't know if a crime film could Spielberg harder than this! What I mean by that is that Spielberg's style, while not often applied to the crime genre, is very apparent in his films. You usually know one when you see one, is what I'm saying.

That's to say nothing about quality, which is very good in the base of this film. The only real weak spot, for me, was the music of the film, which wasn't very distinctive outside of the opening credits theme. Everything else, though, is pretty great. DiCaprio and Hanks kill it, even though Hanks was admittedly still definitely Tom Hanks through the film. Plot and writing was a Spielberg plot, but a really good set of character dissections and interactions. Direction and cinematography are fantastic, Production and Art Design are TOP fucking notch, until we sort of fall off towards the end of the movie. And editing is great, even if music wasn't my favorite. Great movie, very much recommended if you want to see Spielberg do a crime film. And you should want that, ideally!

Monster (2003); dir. Patty Jenkins - 86%

Remember that thing I said earlier about being a fan of serial killers? Well, Monster and its focus on real-life murderer Aileen Wuornos was high on my list of must-sees at the very beginning of this project. Charlize Theron's performance as the character is pretty legendary, and for good reason, because she does an AMAZING job as Aileen. And Ricci's no slouch as her girlfriend Selby, either. Was it the most accurate movie in the world? No, but it was unexpectedly accurate in some ways as well. Wuornos is one of those figures who's kind of controversial, as some of her murders could have been self-defense, and the film's writer and director, Patty Jenkins (yes, that one) does realize that. And I started to be worried in the beginning of the film, but she turned me completely around by the end. It's great!

Direction, though, is...fine? It's not particularly distinctive, but it isn't bad. Same goes for the Cinematography. Production design is excellent, mostly because Charlize Theron BECOMES Aileen Wuornos, partially due to acting, but also absolutely due to appearance and wardrobe. It's genuinely very impressive the whole movie. And finally, music was there, and kinda weirdly clashing with tone in some instances, but it's not too bad. Check this one out if you're into serial killer stuff, too.

The Departed (2006); dir. Martin Scorsese - 94%

Another fun fact about me: I grew up in New England, as well as currently living there. And I live in an area of the region where Boston is a major feature, as is the culture that revolves around the city. And yes, this film is well-known for being a somewhat stereotyped view of Boston...but JESUS FUCKING CHRIST, is it wicked accurate, kid! It also helps that, as a Scorsese film, it's very well-made and absolutely star-studded. Some of those stars, namely Damon and Wahlberg, are actually from the area, and they flex some intense Boston accents throughout this movie. DiCaprio and Nicholson are also fantastic in this film, as are Sheen, Baldwin, Farmiga, Winstone, and Anderson, even though some of them don't quite pull off the accent as smoothly as others. Baldwin, in particular, is still Alec Baldwin, no matter how you try and change that voice.

Directing and cinematography is stellar, unsurprisingly, while production and art design is definitely very iconically mid-2000s Boston. The score of this film literally changed the musical tastes OF BOSTONIANS, according to my fiancée who's more from the area than I, and the editing is also top-goddamn notch. And the plot and writing? Holy SHIT, the plot and writing! Look, you need to now two things. One, this is a cop-mafia drama in a vein similar to Heat, and it is VERY good at that job. A little bloated, story-wise, but it doesn't show too much. And two, watch this movie, do not look up the plot or film beforehand. Suffice to say, this is an in-depth morality play all over the spectrum of morality, and the twists are EVERYWHERE. Please check this one out, it's fantastic. Go Sox.

Zodiac (2007); dir. David Fincher - 90%

And last but not least, another serial killer film with an unclear ending, and one that focuses on the investigation and the figures involved instead. Zodiac is a fantastic movie, based on a book about the case by Robert Graysmith, who's played in the movie by Jake Gyllenhaal. Graysmith is, in fact, arguably the main character of the film, with Robert Downey Jr. and Mark Ruffalo playing other key figures in the investigation from both a press and police side, respectively. You watch how this unnerving case affects these people's lives, while knowing that the case won't ever actually be solved. They present a case for the killer, but no actual answers. And in playing with that, Fincher is able to build some real goddamn tension in some moments.

Again, though, not perfect, but it's pretty damn close. Acting is stellar all over, even though some people don't quite disappear into the role. Ruffalo and Gyllenhaal are amazing on that particular front, but it's hard to see RDJ as anyone but RDJ, as an example. Plot and writing is great, directing and cinematography is great, production design is pretty good (I dunno, I wasn't as sold on that one, but that might be a me thing), and the music is great as well! Editing makes the film a little overlong in my opinion, but I don't think it affects the movie much. Check this one out, again, if you're in a serial killer movie mood.

And that's it!

Next film I was set to watch was Captain Phillips, and I'll try and check that out this year regardless, but I only got that fair this year. That said, though, the next movie I'm set to watch in 2023 is technically a crime film, from what I understand. But I'm leaving the life of crime behind for a while otherwise. I've done my time, so it's time to say farewell to the old life for now. But that said...I do have plans. Oh, I always have plans.

In 2023, I'll be going off of a list of challenges, as curated by the book Everyone's a Critic: 52 Week Movie Challenge. These challenges each require I watch films of specific categories, like award-winners, animal films, etc. And the first one in the 52 Films challenge is Best Picture winner. And for the first of those...I gotta watch this movie. And I've been wanting to watch it since 2020. So, what better time like the present? Plus...been a while since I've watched a foreign language film, honestly. So, strap in for the next one! It's gonna be a ride in 2023.

Next: ...We'll see.

#user365 #films i watched #365 days 365 movies #crime films #crime genre #31 to life #31 films to life #goncharov #once upon a time in america #thelma and louise #reservoir dogs #casino #heat #the usual suspects #L.A. confidential #american psycho #catch me if you can #monster #the departed #zodiac #parasite 2019 #52 films

[joshisurcrush]

"IT" by Stephen King

To preface this, the book is nothing like the movie. It's absolutely nothing like the movie. They took the characters' names and three isolated events from the book that were roughly three pages long each, and then made a movie out of that. If you watched the movie, don't associate it with my following review.

Heads up, I ABUSE brackets (constantly), and another FYI: There’ll be a level of abuse/sex/gore talk, so it might be in your best interest to skip this review if you’re sensitive to that.

IT (by Stephen King) was super crazy, I loved it, and my overactive imagination did too. The characters are pretty good (I'd kiss Richie Tozier on the lips in a mildly homoerotic way), the story is laid out so nicely and the word choice is insane. Even as someone who’s not a native speaker but started English along with basic multiplication, I’ve had to search up some words. Sure, the book might have given me nightmares about flying leeches biting dime-sized holes into my arms and flying into my mouth to then blow up to the size of a balloon as they fill with my blood, but it was fun to read. Wild ride. I also liked the perspective switch, graphic detailing, and the way that the horrible events described were used as a vessel to talk about bigger things. This book basically scratched all of my itches. A need for gore, a need for emotional depth, a need for comedic relief, a need for poetry, a need for murder and for horrors beyond my comprehension.

Ok, I'm gonna elaborate a bit further to do the story justice. I drip-fed the book to myself slowly, reading a bit every day, five days a week, and it took me... weeks. Well, currently it's one of my favorite books and there's good reason for it. First off, the perspective switches were awesome. Point, end of the story, I don’t care how you stand to Stephen King himself, the plot or anything else relating the book. Incredible. I like how you were able to see everything from everyone's perspective, how there were subjective and objective accounts of things, diary entries, news articles, etc. Had me cumming and nutting I swear to god and little baby jesus, it's so good.

Second, the family dynamics were well-written. I'm a cause-and-effect type of guy, and I like when characters are fleshed out, and there's a rhyme and reason as to why they're the way they are. King (Stephen King, the author) executes this fantastically by letting you meet the families of most of the losers (that's what they call the main characters if you were unaware.) 

For example, we're introduced to Bill's post-Georgie apathetic, cold family (giving him a motive to kill IT, since he thinks it'll make his family care about him again). We meet Eddie Kaspbrak’s mother, a fat and overly emotional lady that sort of abused him (I'm sure that the way she treated him was abusive actually) and she ended up really shaping his character from a young age.

Mike Hanlon's family was awesome and supportive though, real model family, but he got crap for being african american (the story’s set in 1958, it was really bad for Mike). Richie Tozier also had a good family (probably the most normal), and Stan Uris did as well (he went birdwatching a lot with his dad.) Bev's family, I think, was the worst of all because her dad physically and emotionally abused her, and well as attempting to sexually abuse her. This is later reflected in the man she marries, Tom, who physically, emotionally, and sexually abuses her. It was very hard to read, I'm gonna be honest. I didn't know what it feels like to read something with a lump in your throat until I read the parts about Tom and Beverly. Plus, it's like... ultra-triggering for survivors of abuse, it was pretty triggering to me, so I'd discourage anyone who went through that kind of stuff from reading. If you really wanna read IT though, as a sexual assault survivor or someone who’s easily triggered by stuff related to SA, you should skip over the Beverly POVs because frankly, they're just brutal.

Well, on a lighter note, I like how Stephen King wrote sex in this book (it's a continuous theme.) And before you judge me, I'm praising him for being thorough enough, but also vague enough. The story is not an erotica, it's not meant to be hot. Sex is mentioned as a form of bond, as a form of abuse (holy shit there's so much abuse in this book, it's absolutely packed with it), and also mentioned in the "losing your childhood / growing old" sort of way which becomes VERY important later in the story. Sex is only insinuated in the story, it's not graphic, you don't get any action out of it and it's only for the plot which I find awesome. Even in the part where adult Bill cheats on his wife with also-adult Beverly (lol), sex is only insinuated, even though it's the only actual erotic scene in the book. Felt like mentioning it on the side, but I *do* think that the way that King wrote about ten-year-old Beverly Marsh’s body way very, very weird; but I was able to let it slide because it wasn’t too frequent and medium in severity. Still think King is kinda messed for describing a kid’s body that way.

Lastly, the poetry is crazy good, and the way he strings together the literal dozens of characters with their own individual stories and experiences is so well-executed. King unironically sat down, created a masterpiece, and dipped. Everything fits into place, all the experiences come together to form this... beautiful picture with no loose threads. Everything ties off together, there are no plotholes and the more you think about it, the more it makes sense. I'm getting goosebumps and a boner thinking about this (I'm a writer, how could you tell?), but the only thing I didn't like about the book is how it ends. I’m gonna ruin Christmas, but essentially IT ends with all of them moving to different states/places and forgetting each other, like, a full memory wipe, and just going back to their lives before that. They're slightly improved though, because Bev leaves her abusive husband and Ben gets a promotion, along with Bill's depression lightening up.

Now comes something that really ruffles my feathers. I hate Ben's and Beverly's relationship toward the end. I hate, hate, hate it. If the word HATE was printed tiny, 10 times onto every square inch of the 1184 pages of the IT paperback, it wouldn't be able to touch the amount of HATE HATE HATE that I feel for the relationship between the two. Bev could have ended up with anyone else. Richie would’ve been ideal, maybe Eddie, hell, Bill would have even been fine if his wife had died. But Ben? Ben the weirdo who's fantasized about touching her breasts starting in fourth grade? Ben who never got over her, even as she was married? Ben who couldn't back the heck off? Ben, the lonely pig who I wished had died instead of Eddie in the finale of the book? I guess he's not as bad as Tom, but holy, I was dreading the Bev&Ben arc, and it ended up being confirmed at the end of the book. Screw that, bro. 

Still doesn't take away from how good the book was. I'd rate it a solid ten.

#books #review #bookreview #book reviews #booklr #reader #writer #writerblr #reading #writing #discourse #genre #coming of age #fiction #rant #long review #extensive #discussion #medium #vaguepost #joshposting #gnome-review #mini-review #opinions #story #novelist #novel #photo #photography #pictures

[beggingwolf]

mav whump mav whump mav whump! yes!! also when i first saw top gun i was not prepared for how homoerotic it really was like i thought people were exaggerating?? but no. it’s really Like That. it’s like 50% homoeroticism 30% flying planes 15% shoehorned in het romance 5% sunsets and golden hour and 100% military propaganda

I know, I know 😅 I think when the movie first came out, I read a REALLY scathing letterboxd review about how it was pure, undiluted military propaganda (complete with "the enemy somehow possesses military tech the USA doesn't, but they're so incompetent at using it that our heroes kill them while flying cold war relics" and "brave lone ranger stands up to military bureaucracy to prove them wrong, which is absolutely not how the military would actually allow that to go" lol) and I agreed and snorted and said "I'll never watch that" and then the day of the pens' equipment sale I was bored, drove past a movie theater with my geno stick wedged over my center console, and I thought: ah it's a matinee, why not.

and the damn hoomeroticism got me in the end

#all the critiques of the movie as a l*ckheed m*rtin ad are true and there is MUCH to discuss in how mav is positioned as both #an authority figure and someone laid low by higher-ups who want to outmode him #BUT... I came to this fandom for the sticky roomav feelings not to critique the american military machine. ethically dubious of me >:3c #on all accounts lol #I picked the ''hey wait they shouldn't be together'' ship for the movie that has ugly politics! spicy #hahaha #also they really couldn't have put another woman on the flight team? #that's very ''WHAT ABOUT WOMAN DRONE PILOTS'' of me so I don't mean it like that lol #just that I think phoenix's character had to do WAY too much heavy lifting and penny is removed from the battleground #anyways. ANYWAYS. head full many thoughts about this movie from many angles #also it just really is a well-made movie. it's fun it has good pacing and it's got solid stories. effective propaganda loltgm #tgm

[babischlong-six]

10 Characters, 10 Fandoms, 10 Tags

10 Characters you love or 10 Characters you want to stab in the eye

Tagged by lovely @gosiksmallspace ❤️

In no particular order, here are ten of my many, many favorites. (See if you can detect a pattern 😂)

1. Luo Fei – Detective L

He's a gentleman, he's a bitch, he's kindhearted, he causes problems on purpose, he respects women, he's a genius, but he's not an arrogant prick, as is the current wont of writers writing smart people. Luo Fei is unselfconsciously weird, ridiculously cute, and has the best sense of humor. Not to mention drop-dead gorgeous and played by Bai Yu. Luo Fei stole my heart from the moment he showed up on screen. Also he gives very bisexual energy.

2. Lan Qiren – Mo Dao Zu Shi

A pissy, honorable, rigidly uptight old man who spends his entire life picking up the slack of his ridiculously messy family. As you may come to find after reading through this list, I am partial to the characters archetype known as a "DILF." He's not even a main character, I'm just viscerally into him.

3. Han Jaeho – The Merciless

He's a terrible person, but GOD, he's irresistibly charming. Han Jaeho does the absolute worst things, but he still manages to inspire sympathy. Is it the magnetic personality? That weird cackle? The way he looks in a suit, covered in blood? The screwed-up, homoerotic relationship he has with the protagonist? We may never know.

4. Elim Garak – Star Trek: Deep Space 9

I can't even express how much this character is beloved by me. He's a fussy middle-aged tailor. He's a terrifying super-spy in exile from a fascist alien superpower. Everything that comes out of his mouth is a lie. He's completely devoted to what he believes is his duty. His first appearance onscreen, he makes a blatant come-on at a young man. I love him.

5. Lin Nansheng – The Rebel

The character development on this guy is just *chef's kiss*. He's honorable, but he's a spy. He's idealistic and self-sacrificing, but he's also way too devoted to the "cause," capable of but not wanting to to endanger and sacrifice those closest to him. He is absolutely miserable and incredibly hot – especially later on in the series when he comes into his own.

6. Wu Xie – Tomb of the Sea

Wu Xie specifically as played by Qin Hao has a special place in my heart. He's a bastard in the same way that a cat pushing things off a table is. He's middle-aged and tired. He has intense chemistry with literally anyone he's on screen with. Morally ambiguous with ultimately noble goals, which is so sexy.

7. Tatsu – Way of the Househusband

I fucking love that manga. A former gangster turned househusband approaches the everyday struggles and triumphs of domestic life from a very unique perspective. Also, he can get it.

8. John Watson – The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson

I grew up on this serial, absolutely fuckin love it. Vitaly Solomin's Watson is great – a perfect balance of spirit and enthusiasm, whole being a companion rather than a sidekick to Holmes (like in so many other adaptations). At this point with how I've grown up watching this serial and keep revisiting it, he and Livanov's Holmes feel kinda like my uncles.

9. Milady – The Three Musketeers

My very first literary/movie crush. She's such a cool, compelling villain, and a really interesting character. I was entranced by her as a kid (and confused about why 😂) and I still am. Again, the Soviet Three Musketeers serial version of her is paramount in my heart because it's what I grew up with.

10. Xiao Long Nü – Return of the Condor Heroes

Another early crush. She kicks ass, she's gorgeous, and she's got an outwardly cold personality. Again, young me didn't stand a chance.

Anyways, that's all folks. Tagging @the-marron ❤️ no pressure tho

[thesecondpossum]

Tumblr's Goncharov (1973) DOES NOT EXIST

Hi. So, if you’re new to Tumblr or you haven’t been around for a while, you might have seen some discourse about the hidden Scorsese-masterpiece Goncharov (1973). I’m sorry to tell you that that film just DOES NOT exists. I REPEAT. DO NOT GO AROUND SEARCHING FOR 1973’s GONCHAROV. It’s just another example of Tumblr over-analysing something and tripping over itself.

I can’t believe I have to be the one to say it, but the actual 1973 film Goncharov isn’t actually that good. In fact, I’d say that at-best it’s a poorly executed mess of interesting ideas and at worst a full-on 3-hour snoose-fest. The fact that anyone could think that this is one of Scorsese’s or DeNiro’s greatest films is honestly astounding to me. Don’t get me wrong, I see that a lot of good ideas were brought into this film, and I’m sure that everyone involved gave it their best shot, but good intentions don’t make up for bad execution, and I have some grievances I’d like to address:

This is probably one of DeNiro’s worst performances, period (and I’m counting all those movies where he plays a raunchy grandpa). I know that his god-awful Russian accent has been talked to death, but honestly, even without it, his performance is all over the place. The man clearly can’t decide if he wants to play the titular Goncharov as a greater-than-life character or as a subdued, meekly man moved by his circumstances. The result is two conflicting performances that might’ve worked on their own, but make absolutely no sense in the same film. And before you start, I know about the grandfather clock scene. I agree that it might have been one of his best performances ever put to film. But ONE masterful scene does not make up for a full three hours of poor acting.

Tumblr is reading waaaaaay too much into Katya’s arc. I get that we all want her to succeed, but unfortunately, everything about her, from the homo-erotic subtext to her independence arc is handled so poorly. This isn’t a dig at the actress. In fact, if any of us were able to get anything from the movie it’s 100% due to her masterful performance, but if you actually look at the text of the film, you’ll see that Katya’s character is awfully underwritten.

Sorry, I’m not done talking about Katya because WHAT THE FUCK IS UP WITH THE HOMOEROTIC SUBTEXT IN THE MOVIE. I get that it was the early seventies and Scorsese would probably risk full-on career suicide by putting an explicitly queer woman in his film. Once again, I’m not blaming him or the mesmerising Cybill Shepherd. I get that this was probably the closest we could get to seeing Katya’s inner struggle without the film getting banned, but it’s still such a missed opportunity. As it stands, the film falls into the “evil lesbian that plots against our hero” trope, and despite being a supposed morality tale, we’re still supposed to root against Katya for not being 100% on Goncharov’s side at all times.

Also, how anyone can miss the fact that Katya’s ending is completely tragic is beyond me. Like, DID WE EVEN SEE THE SAME FILM? Katya’s ending might be one of the most heart-wrenching things I could possibly THINK of.

Al Pacino. I rest my case.

Once again, what the fuck are the Russian accents in this movie????

I don’t know if a lot got lost in the editing room floor or if the script is just clunky, but there’s so much about the film that just doesn’t make sense. The movie is OVER ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY MINUTES LONG you should be able to tie up at least one (1) single narrative thread. The film is ambitious; I give it that, but it’s such a mangled web of themes that whenever someone asks me what it was about, I can’t say anything beyond hehe funny mafia movie.

You don’t even have to believe me, Sheperd and DeNiro THEMSELVES have said that the film was “a lost opportunity” and that “it had a lot of potential […] but unfortunately, it just didn’t work.”

Now, I don’t enjoy being a negative-stu all the time, so here are a couple of good things I’ll say about the movie:

You’re all right about the soundtrack, I mean holy shit. I still can’t listen to “Katya’s main theme” or “farewell to Berlin” without getting teary-eyed.

The cinematography is gorgeous. The film is absolutely a visual delight, especially in every scene that Katya and Sofia share together.

Wanna know why I haven’t talked about Sofia? Because I have no notes. Magnificent performance, brilliant characterisation, everything about her is just perfect. If you can find it, the “and yet it sparkles” deleted-scene is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. I cry like a baby every time I watch it.

The film at least attempts to show themes of queer romance in a nuanced light. And as much as it often fails to do so, I still appreciate the effort.

So yeah, I’m sorry, all-in-all Goncharov (1973) isn’t that great a film. It has tons of good ideas but the execution just falls flat. I don’t mean to be a hater, but this really isn’t a hidden-gem from Scorsese’s early career. It’s a so-so film that got forgotten to time for a reason, and all the amazing music, stunning visuals, and homoerotic subtext in the world can’t fix poor execution.

#goncharov #goncharov (1973) #katya goncharov #katya #katya x sophia #film critique

[johannestevans]

Update 21/06/2022

Good evening!

I have been radio silent for a few weeks following illness and am now staying with friends in England for a few months. I'm still a little under the weather as I always get more mental illness symptoms in the summer months, unfortunately, but I'm feeling full of ideas and am excited to work on several things while I'm here, plus some stuff once I'm home in Galway in August!

First, let me rec some new favourite media of late:

Shadow of the Vampire (2000, dir. E. Elias Merhige) - This is a fantastical twist on the filming of Nosferatu, playing with the idea of a real vampire being involved in the production - it does such a lot of fun layering of tropes and convention analysis, looking at Dracula and also broader vampire conventions through the (literal) lens of film and performance, and it really captivated me, I enjoyed it a lot.

The Deep House (2021, dir. Alexandre Bustillo & Julien Maury) - This film has middling reviews because it's stupid as shit and is all vibes, no substance, but that's honestly what I really enjoyed about it - two extremely annoying people (a cishet couple) go to vlog in a haunted house... that's submerged in a lake. That's it. There's no deeper meaning here, no complexity at all, it's just spooky scary vibes while scuba diving and influencing, and so long as you expect nothing more interesting, it's good.

Apartment Zero (1988, dir. Maritn Donovan) - Hey, did you know that Colin Firth starred in a homoerotic psychosexual political thriller set in 80s Buenos Aires? That it's extremely gay and somewhat murder husbands-y, and really very autistic and trauma-focused, whilst also digging a bit into the political backdrop? Because I didn't, and this movie is fucking A.

Joel Kim Booster's Psychosexual (2022, dir. Doron Max Hagay) - Joel Kim Booster's new comedy special which released on Netflix today! It's really good, I really enjoyed it, I've loved JKB's stand-up for a while now so I was super excited to see him get a special of his own, and this one has really fucking delivered, it's such good banter.

Emergency (2022, dir. Carey Williams) - This is an extremely well-crafted comedy/drama, it's so fucking well-written and so stupendously human and complex, and it really digs into the constant fucking fraught dangers of being forced to potentiall rely on emergency services in crisis situations when the cops are literally dangerous to you. I would die for Sean, who's one of the MCs, he's so incredibly sweet and so loving to his friends I just wanted to fucking sob over him by the end.

Ordinary Lies (2015-2016) - I'll be honest, I started watching this because I wanted to thirst over Con O'Neill and Joel Fry, who are in S2, and are both indeed extremely hot and lovable, especially Con. I assumed based off the trailer for S1 that it would be typical cisheterosexual drama rife with bullshit, but to my surprise, it's actually really good, although S1 is significantly better written and balanced than S2. Tragically, most of the characters are indeed bullshit-laden cishets, but because they're almost all demonstrably mental and living absolutely ridiculous lives telling the most outlandish lies to one another for no reason and often for very little conceivable gain, it ends up being genuinely entertaining for all that!

I've also been playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons on my new Switch, and I know that everyone who wants it has already heard of it, but nonetheless, I'm enjoying it and having a good time with it.

New Works Published

Romance Short: Temple Service

A servant at the temple to Hephaestus lusts after an olive-tender.

Rated M, 2.2k, cis M/M, some ancient Greeks! A temple servant and a grove-worker, lots of teasing and banter and flirting. Adapted from a Tweetfic.

Read on Patreon / / Read on Medium

Erotic Short: Festival Prize

A young man is knotted by two wolfmen at a night-time festival.

1.2k, rated E, trans man getting double-knotted by two huge-dicked cis wolfmen! Public sex, double-knotting vaginally and anally, come inflation, overstimulation.

Read on Patreon / / Read on Medium

TweetFic: The Captain's Clerk

Short and horny! A sailor is fascinated by the captain's clerk, and doesn't understand his full purpose aboard.

Exhibitionism, group sex.

Read on Twitter

Our Flag Means Death Fanfic: Repentance & Forgiveness

Rated E, Frenchie/Izzy, Frenchie-centric and exclusively Frenchie POV. 33k+, plot-heavy, WIP. Set post-season 1 - Act I is nearly completed, and is centred on Frenchie on the Queen Anne before Stede Bonnet's triumphant return. Act II will be Stede and Ed's reunion - or clash - and how that affects Frenchie and the others.

On the Queen Anne, Frenchie can't sleep.

Desperate to just get whatever he can away from Blackbeard's crew, he knocks on Izzy's door and invites himself in.

Read on Ao3

Erotic Short: Degrees of Separation

A violinist has a quick tryst with his father’s boyfriend in a coat closet.

1.3k, rated E, cis M/M. Anal sex with protection, big size difference and significant size kink, infidelity, pseudo incest with dirty talk from the dad’s boyfriend about the dad’s preferences in bed, to the son. Use of the word daddy throughout.

Read on Patreon / / Read on Medium

Erotic Short: Lunch Break

Two coworkers run to their car for a quickie.

600w, rated E, cis M/M. Two coworkers run for a quickie on their lunch break — car sex, safe sex, silly teasing sex.

Read on Patreon / / Read on Medium

#weekly update