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prince-kallisto · 7 months

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*sigh* I have the silliest theory of all time, which is saying a lot considering what I theorize, but I’m trying so hard to figure out Jack’s birthday card

It’s been controversial, to say the least. Because RAFIKI?!? Not to clown on my boy Jack, but even though he’s very smart, he never had this special type of wisdom like Rafiki. He’s very serious, a lone wolf. I thought we would be getting a picture from the Beauty and the Beast wolves, especially considering he’s from the land of Pyroxene, even being childhood acquaintances with Vil

But since I’m getting desperate, I look at the two frames closer

We have Rafiki with the light shining behind him, and Scar shrouded in darkness. Jack is conveniently in between the two, separating the light and darkness

Then Mufasa teaches Simba about how “everything the light touches” belongs to the king. OKAY.

And there’s “that shadowy place” where the Hyenas and Scar gather. OKAY

So…is TWST trying to imply that Jack is the “in between,” or the representation of “everything the light touches?” Like the dawn or twilight (stop don’t think about the vampire movies)?? Jack IS a first year, has white hair, and the first years definitely have a lot of symbolism regarding new beginnings and personal change, and they seem to be setting up their importance in the end game.

I’ve talked more about this anthology cover before, but the first years symbolism change and growth. A lot of them are discovering who they are, what their Unique Magics are…and Jack notably stood against Leona in Book 2 despite idolizing him before. And if there’s still hope for Beauty and the Beast reference, the beast quite literally goes under a transformation, just like Jack’s unique magic that turns him into a wolf. So does Jack being the “twilight” a representation of this transformation?

Still, this seems like a REALLY abstract and roundabout way to reveal Jack’s origins? Which is saying a lot considering Sebek’s and Lilia’s origins being pretty abstract.

The weird thing about this is, even though Jack has white/pale hair like Silver and Kalim, he is NOT a part of the “light trio” which is made up of Silver, Kalim, and Rook (who is blonde), supposedly because they are based of heroes instead of villains. Ironically enough, Jack has a much stronger moral compass and behaviors compared to Rook. And visually, with his white hair, he would fit into the light trio a lot better. But what makes the light trio the Light Trio is how their magic is represented with white glows instead of the standard dark magic that everyone else has- including Jack.

I tried seeing if there were any “sayings” about wolves that Jack may be based on, but the closest thing I could find was one of the Pinterest-esque quotes about two wolves, one being the light and the other darkness 😭 I mean…I suppose if you REALLY stretch it, the “grandfather” explaining the story of the two wolves in this fakelore could be Rafiki, which is why Rafiki shows up in Jack’s artwork.

Rafiki does something similar with grown up Simba, asking Simba who he was, and showing him a reflection of his father. But like the wiki page says, it’s origin is very dubious and is considered fakelore.

But this is driving me crazy because it almost made sense until I realized Jack is basically the embodiment of this meme 😭😭😭

So unless Jack is secretly Rafiki’s wolfsona

WHAT IS TWST TRYING TO SAY WITH THIS?!?

#twst #twst theory #twisted wonderland #twst spoilers #twst Jack howl #twst Jack #Jack howl #KallistoPost

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auld-a · 2 years

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Dorm Leaders x male!Draculaura!Yuu

I’m making this because no one else will and because I’m chronically obsessed with both fandoms

🌹Riddle Rosehearts🌹

I feel like there would be a rule against pink skin or something😭

Yes this is twisted wonderland where people are used to others with unnatural features but PINK SKIN??

I think it would be very off putting to him at first but he eventually accepts it

He enjoys your quite outgoing and cheery nature, he deserves to let loose once in a while and you’re his first option for just that

Both of your old victorian-esque styles would clash very nicely

He would often invite you to tea parties which you’d enthusiastically accept, and maybe dress in a nice pink dress which would always put a small blush on his face

He’d introduce you to the hedgehogs and they would probably be fond of you (especially the pink one)

Enjoys having someone who’s about his height or shorter. It’s a welcome change for him

Always has an umbrella handy for any sun exposure you may run into

Trey also enjoys having you around so that’s like a bonus for Riddle

Very accommodating towards your vegetarian diet

Overall very happy that you happened upon twisted wonderland, he couldn’t imagine his life without you

🦁Leona Kingscholar🦁

Can someone say SIZE DIFFERENCE

Your hella short compared to him

He can’t lie and say he’s not a fan

Y’all probably met while you were admiring the pink roses in the botanical garden and came across him napping

You didn’t wanna wake him up so you just stepped over him

He noticed you right away (probably because you’re like walking cotton candy) and was somewhat interested in you

As in curious as to what your deal was, I doubt he falls in love that fast

He sneaks glances at you every once in a while throughout the day

Was ACTUALLY introduced when he saw you hanging out with Jack

He was very drawn to your energetic personality which was the complete opposite of his and you vice-versa

Everyone wonders how in the world Leona got a cute, peppy, stylish bf (who everyone thinks may be a vampire but they don’t have much proof for that)

He’s probably aware that you’re capable of taking care of yourself when need be, but is still generally very protective because of your somewhat naive tendencies

After all this is a school for villains people aren’t the nicest here

Always kisses your heart shaped birthmark

Wouldn’t be as diligent with bringing an umbrella to block sun exposure but will still do what he can to make sure you avoid it

He’ll even block the sun with his own body if he has to

Forgets you’re vegetarian very often

Is willing to try to be a little more active if you encourage him to

After all he does really wanna impress you

Very happy he met you, you make his life a lot cheerier even if he refuses to admit it

🐙Azul Ashengrotto🐙

Probably met because Floyd likes to bother you a lot

Not everyday you get a pink skin non-human from another dimension ya know?

Like many others your sunny disposition is very welcome to him

He was always made fun of as a kid so having someone who not only accepts his *freaky* flaws but encourages him to embrace them makes his heart melt

Enjoys having someone shorter than him since the tweels are basically towers compared to him

He has a pretty good sense of fashion as do you so I imagine he would purchase a lot of very nice (and pink) clothing/accessories for you

You would probably be willing to help around the lounge which is much appreciated from him

You would likely scold him if he tried to make a deal too serious (like taking someone’s bodily control)

You’re still very impressed by his UM though

Your excitement for things never fails to get him flustered

He would go to the ends of the earth to make you happy

🥳Kalim Al-Asim🥳

It’s like looking in a mirror

Not in terms of physical features ofc but in terms of personality

Y’all are like two peas in a pod

Jamil has never wanted to disappear more/hj

He loves having someone who’s just as cheery and down to party as he is

You’re definitely an enabler

But not in a bad way

Jamil is the one to keep you both in check if you guys try to do something stupid

But you keep Kalim distracted to for that Jamil is thankful

Always takes you on magic carpet rides because he loves to see the way your eyes shine seeing this wHoLe NeW wOrLd

Will spoil you with extravagant gifts and clothing

His siblings probably love you

Also one to kiss your heart shaped birthmark

If you’re someone who’s not used to compliments get ready because this man will SHOWER YOU with love

Loves to carry you around bridal style

Idk why I just feel like he would

You both are incredibly obsessed with each other and he wouldn’t have it any other way

🦚Vil Schoenheit🦚

He would try to hide his interest in you but that doesn’t go over well for him

YOU’RE JUST SO BEAUTIFUL AND CUTE

HOW???

Probably thinks your skin color is like body makeup or something at first

Pretty shocked when he finds out it isn’t

He tries not to be disappointed that you’re put into ramshackle instead of his dorm

Not necessarily in a romantic way he just feels you’d fit in there so much better

Would get to know you through Rook constantly spying on you

He didn’t ask him to, but it is a bonus

Would always dress you up in stunning pink ensembles

Think Haunt Couture or Limited Edition Draculaura

Would show you off to his fans (with your consent ofc)

He would love if you modeled with him

Is very understanding of your vegetarian diet and always gets you vegan snacks

Will always have a beautiful pink umbrella handy for potential sun exposure

It’s very important to him that you keep yourself safe

He’s more than happy to let you pick out his outfits

He could never be more happy that he met you

👾Idia Shroud👾

He would be scared of you

Not because you’re a scary person, but because you’re just so nice

He simply does not understand

He would try to avoid you like the plague but he doesn’t get very far since you and Ortho get along so well

You also like hanging out in Ignihyde a lot because of the dark lighting

You approach him first with mountains of compliments about his hair and overall looks

His face goes the shade of your pink skin

You tell him your interest in his video games since I don’t imagine you’ve played a whole lot of those so he asks if you would like him to teach you

Your enthusiasm is unexpected and leaves him blushing profusely

He grows to really like your outgoing and kind nature even if it’s the exact opposite of him

You encourage him to go meet others a lot which he’s opposed to at first but its gotten him a lot more friends which he doesn’t hate

Always lends you his hoodies

You convince him to let you dress him up and he likes the style you’ve given him much more than he expected

You paint each other’s nails

Is the only person he lets mess with his hair

He also likes that you and Ortho are such good friends, it makes him happy that two of his favorite people get along

He would dox someone for you💙

🐉Malleus Draconia🐉

You being a 1600 year old vampire you can definitely relate to the feeling of being lonely for so long

Which is why you always go out of your way to attempt befriending him

You’re more than happy to talk to him at lengths about his love of gargoyles which is what made him fall for you in the first place

That and your lack of cowardice in speaking with him

He always asks you to dress him up since he knows you like doing it so much

He likes the color change

Also someone who is a fan of the size difference

It makes it feel more like he has someone to protect

And protect he will

Always shields you from sunlight by standing the direction the sun is pointing from

He is indeed tall enough to block it out

Gifts you with beautiful pink gemstones he finds

You try to explain to him current technology which he appreciates even if he doesn’t understand it

You would probably decorate his horns with different chains and jewels

He refuses to take them out

You invite him to any and every event if he wasn’t already

He would destroy every realm if it put a smile on your face

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yourneighborhoodneighbor · 10 months

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this is now just a masterpost to my fics

please do leave a comment (either in the comments or in a reblog or even in the tags! or an ask on my blog! or an ao3 comment!) if you like it. reblogs appreciated (and visits to ao3 too!) :)

ummm, yeah, have a nice time (it got long so it's under a cut now)

AFTG:

fear has nothing AO3 - neil panic and h/c, oneshot

poppy seed roll AO3 - twinyard bonding, oneshot

fear, joy, everything - pixie hollow-esque andreil, multichap, has BB amazing art!

The Sweetest Dream Would Never Do - andreil fluff, multichap, has RBB art!

Always Come Home (To You) - andreil, met as children, multichap

Mers and Naps - mer!neil, andreil fluff, oneshot, inspired by art

Sorrys and Strawberries - cat hybrid!neil, fluff, oneshot

Running towards - oneshot, neil on the run ficlet

BNHA:

black cat and his kittens ch2, ch3, ch4, ch5, ch6, ch7, ch8, ch9, ch10 AO3 - vigilante everyone, dadzawa, multichap, incomplete

we're all hitchhiking in this car AO3 - dabihawks roadtrip au, oneshot

the fire triangle AO3 - bakusquad atla au, bnha, oneshot-

green friends and tired dads - oneshot, dadzawa, tsu&izu friendship

bonus unposted draft! - villain aizawa taking care of HIS kids

DPxDC:

super cool ghost ice mega slide AO3 bonus unrelated snow LBM drawing - fun in the snow, danny cass and duke, oneshot

and you're always free to begin again ch2, ch3, ch4, ch5, AO3 - twin danny and damian, multichap, incomplete

of clones and time bullshittery - complete multichap, co-authored with Bewitched_Forest

+Who are these people in your house?! -There's people in my house?! - feral detective tim is baffled and excited by weird amity park, oneshot

Danny's Winter Holiday - oneshot, the batfam tries to make danny happy

The Danny Test - part one of a series (i hope), oneshot, jack and bruce are long lost twins

Ten Broken Ornaments - oneshot, LBM shenanigans

The Bat and the Parental Mad Scientists - oneshot, the fentons ask batman for help in getting back their children

Wing Ficlets - three short stories, one DC, one DPxDC, one DP

A New Pup - multichap, cute omegaverse with O!bruce and pup!danny. technically wip but it's plotless, so

DP:

kool aid AO3 - crack oneshot

Stars (Dream a Little Dream) - vivisection, oneshot, mega gore warning!! part of EI, so it has amazing art and audio (again, extra gore warning!)

Danny and the (mini)Phantoms - funny and creepy shenanigans, oneshot, part of EI so it has amazing art!

12 Marshmallows - humorous, one-shot how many marshmallows is too many?

The Dog at the Park - oneshot, cujo pov

MCU:

cuddles? cuddles AO3 - dad!bucky and son!peter, oneshot

tags for browsing: my fics: fics i've written my art: art i've made fic rec whateverday: my fic recs fanwork, random fanstuff: includes both my fics and my art (if i remember to tag them as such), my fic recs, but also fanworks from others (for example if i reblog something) second one has non-fanwork fandom stuff. idk pal, sometimes i'm tired and forget to tag stuff

[link count 24/04/24: 65 (just for me to remember)]

#ao3 #aftg #mcu #dpxdc #danny phantom #bnha #mha #ao3 down #neighbor stuff #random fanstuff #my fics #my art #fanwork

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itsclydebitches · 2 years

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Okay, so as the canon recedes from memory and fandom jokes take hold — la de da the world turns — I’ve seen an influx of takes that have steadily moved away from “Izzy’s tragic because this whole debacle is technically his fault (going after Stede’s hostages)” and “Izzy is sympathetic in part because he’s so bad at villain-ing” straight into serious claims of, “Wow, Izzy is just totally incompetent, huh?”

No, no, no, Izzy is terrifyingly competent.

We as a fandom need to remember our meta roots; one of the very first things ever acknowledged in the community: this is a character who has suddenly been thrust into a new genre.

For me, it’s basically the storytelling version of the “Who would win, Goku or Saitama?” question. The answer has nothing to do with power, skill, or competence and everything to do with what would be funny, because Saitama exists in a universe where, unless it’s more entertaining for him to lose, he automatically wins — always, forever, it’s the default state. That doesn’t make Goku, a guy with the power of the gods in his own universe, incompetent by any stretch of the imagination. It just means he’s suddenly been hog-tied by the rules of a new reality.

Izzy is the Goku to Stede’s Saitama.

Izzy scopes out Stede’s marooned crew (because he didn’t remember to have someone steer the boat), buys the hostages he lost, and homoerotically skillfully cuts up his shirt with hard-earned sword skills. Stede wins when Pete throws a rock.

Izzy corners Stede in the duel before he’s even realized they’ve started, hits him across the face, disarms him, and skewers him to the mast by successfully stabbing him. Stede wins because the handle of Izzy’s sword broke and there’s supposedly nothing important on the left side of the body.

Izzy is a complete asshole about chores because in his ‘real world’ a lack of munitions, or barnacles on the ship’s side, leads to death. Or at least lost raids (which they also need to afford basic supplies). Stede exists in the world where you can walk off stab wounds, find an oasis of oranges at your assassin’s church, and row straight to your lost crew without a need for anything like supplies, rest, or a map.

Pre-Stede Izzy successfully intimidates Fang, gets him to obey his commands ( “Fang!” *hiss*), and Fang admits that complaining about the abuse wouldn’t do any good. Post-Stede Fang, Lucius, Pete, Wee John, etc. can’t be intimidated because they know that here, such threats are meaningless.

Izzy manages to wrangle together Calico Jack, Spanish Jackie, and the British — three very different parties with beef against each other and him — all in an effort to get Stede executed. Stede survives because Ed pulls out a trump card that we learned about [checks notes] right now.

Stede beats Izzy again and again and again because Stede is working under the rules of the Romantic Comedy. Is it funny if Stede were to win a duel through absurd means? Yes? Then that’s what happens. Would Izzy winning here interfere with the romance between Ed and Stede? Yes? Then that can’t happen. It’s as simple as that. Unless we circle away from the stages of Epiphany (Stede’s talk with Mary) and Resolution (heading back to Ed for the presumed reunion) and Izzy becomes a more serious Obstacle to their love, everything he attempts is doomed from the get-go. Even if he were to be written as a more serious threat to the romance, the comedy inevitably obliterates any real chance he’d have. Unless OFMD doesn’t just pull lightly from other genres as it has in season one, but takes a hard turn into something new... Izzy is fighting a losing battle. He’s Goku powering up to fucking super saiyan and then being understandably confused when Stede manages to trip over his own feet, starting a Loony Toon-esque domino fall that somehow ends with Izzy K.O.’ed. How did this happen? Fuck if he knows. The logic he’s worked under all his life says it’s impossible and yet... here he lies.

Honestly, I ramble because competence is SUCH an important part of Izzy’s character. Competence is what’s allowed him to survive into his 50′s (unless he’s really 16 lol), help build the Blackbeard legend, and gain the kind of respect that has the crew (initially) jumping at his command. Izzy knows that he’s competent. His entire, prickly personality is built on being competent, particularly when competence is used as a defense mechanism. (No need to grapple with feelings when he can just kill someone.) More importantly, he knows that, under ordinary circumstances, not being competent gets you killed. He’s watching Ed trade in protective leather for lace shirts, fill up on marmalade, turn sword training into a flirting session, admire model ships instead of formulating plans — all these things that should, according to the rules Izzy has spent his entire life living by, get them all killed. We know Stede wouldn’t survive a day in the world of “real” pirates, where Izzy originally hails from. Izzy knows it too. We know Stede survives anyway because this is a rom-com and he’s the lead. But Izzy doesn’t know what genre he’s in; certainly not that the genre has changed — and fuck, if the rules of the universe changed once before, who’s to say they won’t suddenly change again? What if he wakes up one day on a frilly ship, with a useless crew, a domesticated Blackbeard, and the world is a horrifying mess of cruelty and violence again? They’d be screwed. He’s running around bitching about plans, munitions, ship speed, killing pets, formal duels, and yes, avoiding “namby-pamby” soft things because dammit of course those things matter. They always have. Yes everyone needs specific duties because otherwise the ship falls apart and they all die. What do you mean the ship isn’t falling apart while everyone eats marmalade and has gay sex? That’s not possible.

Imagine you were a crazy competent member of society according to current social norms. Maybe you’re highly educated, have a six-figure job, are meeting all the expectations for a family, you’re considered conventionally attractive, you eat well, go to the gym every day, have impressive hobbies, give to charity on the regular, maintain a thriving friend group — in every way that your peers might judge your worth within this specific social circle, you are killing it. Then you wake up one random morning and, as Badminton puts it, you’ve entered Backwards Land. People suddenly laugh at your well-balanced lunch because pff, what do you mean you’re not just eating a bucket of candy like the rest of us? Certain public displays that would have been unthinkable 24 hours ago are suddenly occurring on every street corner. You walk in to a promotion meeting with a detailed report on why your work of the last 30 years is worth recognition. The new hire suggests they have a face-paint party instead of running the company and your boss is like, “Well damn if that isn’t the best suggestion anyone’s ever given me. You’re promoted!”

What?

Izzy is fascinating in part because he’s a HYPER-COMPETENT individual who took to his toxic, violent, homophobic, highly repressed society like a duck to water, only to find one day that the rules of the universe had changed (for the better) but whoops, nothing he’s good at suddenly has a foothold anymore. You’re an expert at running a ship? Ships are just a backdrop to romance and it doesn’t matter if there’s, you know, ammunition, or whatever. Supplies — like oranges — only matter if they’re forwarding relationships. You’re an expert swordsman? Yeah, good luck winning a rigged fight where literally anything goes provided it’s funny enough (and you, as a tightly-strung rule follower, are not funny). Your entire identity is built around intimidating and executing people? The queer polycule thinks your threats are hilarious and if you strand people on a desert island their lighthouse captain will just row to them in a single scene; the guy tossed overboard will just climb into the walls and sustain himself on paper or something. You’re Alice in Wonderland except you don’t remember falling down the hole. The fact that Lucius’ cut off finger is used for a moment of (wonderfully gross) humor and he’s totally fine when he wakes up, whereas Izzy’s severed toe is more straightforwardly horrific and requires a cane, just highlight that they’re living in different genres. For Lucius, a severed finger is a moment of comedy (Dutch fuckery) and romance (Pete whittling him a replacement). For Izzy, a severed toe is a moment of devotion to a toxic relationship (eating it on Blackbeard’s command) and a #SeriousInjury that he literally can’t walk off. Izzy’s got the worst of both worlds at the moment: governed by his original, gritty genre and unable to circumvent or reap the rewards of the rom-com.

Which only leaves the question of whether Izzy will remain the tragic figure — but still very humorous for the viewer — who is either killed or permanently exiled due to his inability to adapt? Or will he grudgingly (oh so grudgingly) turn himself over to this new set of rules? I’m personally hoping for the latter BUT with moments here and there where the gritty drama bleeds into the rom-com; moments where things suddenly do become legitimately perilous and Izzy’s honed skills once again become necessary for survival. Like Ed who moves from the poetry-loving Edward into the murderous Kraken, Izzy has the potential to move between and/or straddle genres in some pretty entertaining ways.

#OFMD #Our Flag Means Death #Izzy Hands

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spiderdreamer-blog · 5 months

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2023 at the Movies: A Year in Review

2023 has been an odd year for American cinema in particular, between overall tepid box office outside of a few big hits and the combination of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes affecting release dates as well as promotional tactics. (Just so we're clear, this is a Union Solidarity Blog) But it was a fascinating year artistically nonetheless, especially on the blockbuster end. What this list aims to achieve is sort of a capsule review of the theatrical releases I saw (not counting streaming-only films even if I ended up seeing theatrical releases ON streaming) and how I felt about them in capsule review form. And even then, there's still stuff I need to catch up on like Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, Oppenheimer, Elemental, or Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. Anyhoo, on with my list, in chronological release order:

John Wick: Chapter 4: Much like its titular hero, there are perhaps some signs that this franchise could benefit from taking a bit of a rest. Some of the worldbuilding is going from knowingly absurd to just plain absurd, and a couple early action beats, while fun (NUNCHUCKS), are a little familiar in terms of director Chad Stahelski's neon-as-fuck aesthetics. Ultimately, it's not too much to derail things, as Keanu Reeves proves a capable grounding lead like always, and the Parisian third act is giddy, comically overblown violence in the grand John Wick tradition that reaches an unexpected poignancy. The supporting cast might also be one of the best in the series; while Asia Kate Dillion's unflappable Adjudicator is missed from the last installment, we do receive Bill Skarsgard doing an OUTRAAGEOUS French accent as a smarmy villain you really want to see dead by the end of this, Donnie Yen as a clever, funny spin on the blind swordsman trope, Rina Sawayama is both badass and touching, Shamier Anderson stands out by dialing down, and my beloved Clancy Brown has some of the best implicit "are you fucking kidding me" reactions I've seen in a while.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie: I was honestly dreading this for a while. Illumination Entertainment is a perfectly cromulent animation studio who makes films that, with a couple exceptions, represent pretty much everything I dislike about American family filmmaking: loud, hyperactive, deficient of nutritional value, and did I mention loud? But the trailers started impressing me in terms of how well they adapted the candy-colored toybox Nintendo aesthetic to a wider theatrical scope. And if nothing else, casting Jack Black as Bowser would probably be pretty awesome (spoiler alert: he was). Thankfully, it manages to be an immensely entertaining, zippy adventure film that minimizes potential annoyances at nearly every turn. This is primarily thanks to a ready-to-play, enthusiastic voice cast (outside of Black, I particularly like Pratt and Day's brotherly dynamic and Anya Taylor-Joy doing a Disney Princess-esque comedy action spin on Peach), a smartly simple story structure, and leaving a lot of potential open for the future like Seth Rogen's lovable ready-for-spinoff-movies Donkey Kong. It may not rock the boat, but it was better than it had any business being, and that counts for a lot in my book.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3: The Marvel Cinematic Universe and I are admittedly on a bit of a break. Not because they're doing anything WRONG per se, just that a lot of their shows and movies haven't enticed me as much in the past year. I did get out to see this, though, which is both the best all around MCU film since Endgame and very possibly the best film of its own trilogy. James Gunn pulls out all the stops emotionally for his Marvel swan song (godspeed to you over at the still-in-progress trashfire that is Warner Bros. Discovery, good sir), crafting a beautiful, resonant journey for all the characters. The ensemble cast fires on all cylinders, for one. While Bradley Cooper is the obvious vocal standout as Rocket takes center stage, it's assuredly the role of Chris Pratt's career (other non-Mario/Marvel directors, take note! You can in fact have this guy be funny, credibly tough, AND sympathetic instead of missing out on the other two), Zoe Saldana navigates a difficult emotional dance, Pom Klementieff finds real heart in Mantis, Dave Bautista is still one of our most interesting wrestlers-turned-actors in the choices he makes, Karen Gillan has slowly become of the MCU's MVPs as Nebula, Will Poulter is endearingly dunderheaded as a comedic take on Adam Warlock, and Chukwudi Iwuji proves a truly vile villain who exemplifies the maxim of "if you really want an audience to just HATE a motherfucker, have him torture cute animals". And of course Gunn's musical tastes remain impeccable, such as a Beastie Boys needle drop that prompts a truly bitchin' fight scene (oddly the second time this specific song happened this year in a Pratt-led vehicle). It's funny, it made me ugly cry at SEVERAL points, and I got to see a psychic cosmonaut dog beat people's asses with her mind. What more could I want?

Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse: Into the Spider-Verse was a revolution and a revelation for what the American animated film industry could accomplish artistically and technically. How could a sequel possibly live up to it? Across does, against all odds, proving to be the Empire Strikes Back to the original's Star Wars in terms of going darker/more complex on the emotions and to greater visual heights (albeit with the caveat that maybe next time, we can manage the production better and not crunch people so much). Co-directors Justin K. Thompson, Kemp Powers, and Joaquim Dos Santos (who I've stanned as one of our best animation action directors from Justice League Unlimited through Voltron Legendary Defender) craft a propulsive narrative that asks big questions about who and what Spider-Man is. And while those will have to wait to be fully answered in the third installment, what it sets up is no less compelling or thrilling. Shout-outs in particular go to Hailee Steinfeld, who has to anchor this film with Gwen as much as Shameik Moore's still-iconic Miles; Daniel Pemberton for an outstanding score; Oscar Isaac for giving rich complexity to Miguel O'Hara, who could have felt like a boorish bully in lesser hands; and Jason Schwartzman for not just proving he transitions REALLY well into voicework between this and projects like Klaus, but being by turns pathetically funny and terrifying in ways I've never heard him be as the Spot. Can't wait to see where that goes next time in particular.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny: "Pleasant surprise" comes to mind. While I never hated Kingdom of the Crystal Skull as much as most, it was definitely a little underwhelming as a possibly final Indy adventure. (Not helping is that Steven Spielberg immediately turned around and made an infinitely better indy movie in the form of The Adventures of Tintin) So I was curious to see how going to the well for seemingly the real final adventure would work this time around. Thankfully, director James Mangold proves he has a good eye for creative action, even if nothing here quite reaches the heights of the original trilogy, and Harrison Ford does some of his best acting in ages as a weary, burnt-out Indy; one always got the sense that THIS was much closer to his heart than Han Solo. Phoebe Waller-Bridge is a terrific foil to him, joyously amoral (or so she says), while Mads Mikkelsen finds a new spin on coldly cruel cinematic Nazis; he has a tense reintroduction scene that had me squirming in my seat. Add in a slam-bang ending and a touching epilogue, and I'm pretty happy with where things end up for our favorite archaeologist. A solid B+, which we could use more of nowadays.

Also they Poochie-d Shia LaBeouf, which is hilarious to me on several levels.

Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One: The Mission: Impossible franchise has undergone a curious metamorphosis from where it started as one of many oldies TV adaptations in 1996 to a purposefully old-school action franchise. Director Christopher McQuarrie has become a pro at these over the last three installments, and Dead Reckoning (now no longer a part one, as the back-in-production followup will be retitled) has lots to offer both large and small for action fans even outside of the continued spectacle of Tom Cruise Possibly Wants To Die On Camera. Obviously the big stunt sequences remain a draw, like a terrific car chase through Rome or the climactic journey onboard the Orient Express because trains are ALWAYS bitchin' locations in movies. But just as good are pleasures like a tense cat-and-mouse game in an airport where nobody's quite sure whose side Hayley Atwell's thief Grace is on, Henry Czerny coming back to the franchise after 27 years and looking as shiftily patriotic as ever, Pom Klementieff on this list for the second time looking really hot as she whoops ass, and Cary Elwes getting an unexpectedly choice exposition monologue. Plus the whole deal with the A.I. villain ended up being, uh, fairly relevant.

Barbie: A brilliant human comedy from an unexpected source. This could have gone wrong in so many different ways, I can easily imagine a version that's WAY more lugubrious and, crucially, much less funny. But director/co-writer Greta Gerwig has quickly become one of our best talents between this and the wildly-different-but-has-more-in-common-than-you'd-think Little Women (I also still need to see to heard-it's-excellent Lady Bird). With an infinitely clever script (I love in particular that the "real world" is just as ridiculous in its own way as Barbieland) and Sarah Greenwood's impeccable production design, Gerwig and her cast craft a feminist fable that remains light and funny even at its most strident and angry. Margot Robbie has never been better, hilarious and gut-punching by equal measure, America Ferrera ends up as the unexpected heart of the piece, and Ryan Gosling is absolutely hysterical as Ken while still making him intensely sympathetic. He and Robbie deserve Oscar noms in particular. No, I'm not kidding. Might expand this one to a full review at some point tbh.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem: I missed this in theaters and regret it immensely, given that this is a hilarious, cheerfully irreverent take on characters who've really managed a surprising amount of relevance in the modern age. Actually having teen actors voice the Turtles makes them feel so authentic, and they're matched well by an equally game cast like Ayo Edebiri's thoroughly modern April O'Neill, Jackie Chan as a more bumbling-but-heartfelt version of Splinter than usual, and Paul Rudd going full surfer bro as Mondo Gecko. And of course the scribbled-notebook underground comics vibe of the animation is a neat bit of full circle aesthetics if you know these guys' origins.

Wish: All of you are wrong and being dumb about this movie. It's not that I can't grok some of the criticisms as being legitimate, to be fair; for example, the songs, while very good on their own IMO, don't always hit the iconic level of a Frozen or Encanto. But the vitriol with which they've been expressed, and this odd narrative that Disney is in the toilet artistically and needs to nebulously "fix" things, is something I can't at all agree with. It's gorgeously rendered, for one; yes, I would potentially like to see a return to full 2D animated films for the studio at some point too. But if they're gonna experiment even marginally with CGI, I applaud co-directors Chris Buck and Fawn Veerasunthorn making it look this painterly as a starting point. And as with a lot of modern Disney, there's real richness and inner life to these characters. Ariana DeBose is a winning heroine as Asha, who feels distinct from other "princesses" by essentially being working class and unionizing the kingdom. And Chris Pine as Magnifico is a Disney Villain for the ages, blending real complexity in his relationships with scenery-chewing madness. (Also am I the only one who got major "studio executive/CEO" vibes off him?) If this is "mid" or "bland" Disney, I really question what some of y'all are seeing that I seemingly can't.

Also I liked the 100th anniversary references, sue me. The last one in particular gets points for quiet charm rather than grandstanding.

The Boy and the Heron: Hayao Miyazaki, anime's favorite grumpy old man, comes back out of retirement for like the fifth time. Seriously, remember when Princess Mononoke was supposed to be his last film 25+ years ago? I'll believe his "last film" is truly his last when he's in the cold, cold ground. Regardless of the continuing saga of Old Man Won't Retire Because He Seemingly Can't Be Alone With His Own Thoughts, this is a brilliant, haunting spectacle of animation that might be a new favorite for me. Some have called it confusing, whereas I go for "dreamlike", possibly his most to date. Nearly every frame is suffused with longing and melancholy (though this also has some of Miyazaki's best comedy in a while), and, oddly like Wish, this feels like a true career reflection, if a bit more fraught and questioning what legacy truly means. Joe Hisaishi contributes possibly his moodiest, most dissonant score, with little of the bombast or whimsical charm that typifies his music, but it works unfathomably well. Credit also to the dub, with Robert Pattinson as funny and menacing as you've heard, but Luca Pandoval is also excellent as our stoic lead Mahito, Florence Pugh manages to be both a total badass and a funny old woman (it makes sense in context, I promise), Christian Bale puts forth a fascinating two-step with his boisterous father, Gemma Chan and Karen Fukuhara nail some complex emotional turns, Willem Dafoe nearly steals the whole thing in under two minutes, Dave Bautista makes a real meal out of a part not much bigger than that, and Mark Hamill finds resonance as a tired old man.

#movies #analysis #criticism #disney animated canon #wish 2023 #tmnt mutant mayhem #john wick #atsv #mission impossible #the boy and the heron #barbie #the super mario bros movie #indiana jones #guardians of the galaxy volume 3

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ewingstan · 5 months

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For Worm character bingo: Nilbog

Love this dude. What if you could make sure you were never alone again and killed everyone to make sure you got it. What if Willy Lowman got to rule over a Phil Tippett movie. Not sure why he makes his fake body hugely fat when his real body is svelt outside of wildbow equating fatness and body horror. Maybe he just liked having that body type, love that for him. Really though I love his whole deal. The crazy Alice in Wonderland-esque tea party he holds with Taylor and Jack Slash was my favorite part of Slaughterhouse 9000 arc by a longshot. Him casually chatting with a bunch of the leftover heores and villains in the middle of gold morning really helped set exactly how crazy things had gotten there too. His strange speech in Valkyrie's epilogue—look, you get it, he makes the ending good, the whole latter part of the book is better for his inclusion even when its incidental. He's a measure of how bad things have gotten by virtue of being so much stranger than anything else around him, even though he fits well into the typical superhero landscape. He's a type of villain that's a lot more like something out of a comic than what we normally get in Worm, yet he's so much more terrifying and his presence with so much more weight than he would in Marvel or DC. He's like a Madoka witch to me. He should be in a ero guro series. Alright I'm just saying things now

#wormblr #leo says #leo reads worm #wildbow #parahumans

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mrsbsmooth · 3 months

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Suzi, now… before the reveal I NEED you to rank the islanders based on their names and resumes (we mostly have similar opinions Id love to see your prospective)

Oh you NEED it well then okay I guess I gotta do it 😂 y’all wild.

Note: this does NOT indicate which LI I’m going for this season. I’m waiting for the rest of the sprites because I’m ✨ shallow ✨

Anyway, here you go!

(Hope this doesn’t come back to bite me in the ass)

Season 8 islanders ranked worst to best

Based on nothing but their applications

#8 Sports Physio (Jack)

Cyclist. Last place.

#7 Wedding planner (Emel)

Hannah/Juliet hybrid. Thinks she knows everything about love. “Can always tell when a couple aren’t right for each other”, now wouldn’t that be convenient if you’re coupled with someone she wants??? It sucks because she sounds so smart and cultured and I hope she’s nice, but I just have a feeling they’re gonna make her the villain.

#6 Acrobat (Sophie)

She could be interesting, but she’s screaming “I’m quirky! Look at me! Want to watch me do a handstand?” Like come on, at least Rohan had a personality outside of his job. It might end up being endearing like Tim with his rap career but somehow I don’t see it happening. I hope not though because I do so love the Irish.

#5 Cat Cafe Manager (Luna)

Idk what it is about her she just sounds laaaaaaame. And this is coming from someone with a cat who adores them more than life itself. One of those people who makes coffee their whole personality, you know??? I feel like she’s gonna be Thabi from S4 but without the personality quirks that made her unique.

#4 Firefighter (Oakley)

He sounds a little boring but I have a feeling he is going to be like, next level hot. Like NEXT LEVEL hot. I’m immediately picturing Blaze from Love Is Blind (Netflix Game) and if he is I might die. 6’3!?!?!?!? Strong silent type, Jake Wilson-esque, might be our “slow burn” (😏) of the season because I feel like one of the girls is gonna latch her claws into him like that cat he saved and NEVER LET GO.

#3 Underwear Model (Jin)

Don’t get me wrong, he’s gonna be hotter than the sun, but honestly his personality is just boring to me. It might be how it’s written, but the whole “I’m funny because I tell you I’m funny” is getting a bit old. I hope he’s got a serious/romantic side to him (a la Bruno 🥰) otherwise he’s gonna get on my nerves real quick (a la Bryson 🤢).

#2 Dentist (Claudia)

I’ll be honest I’ve already seen her sprite and holy moly mother of Mary she is a STUNNER. I already know MC is gonna have nothing on her, but she’s gonna be stuck in friendship couples for her whole time in the villa because she’s a female LI. This also means she’s probably a bestie option. She seems so smart and funny, and it seems like she doesn’t take things too seriously. She’s gonna be fanfic fodder for sure.

Drumroll:

#1 Travel Photographer (Theo)

Not only is this one of my favourite names, it’s also one of my weaknesses. Greek men. Y’all saw me last season demanding Cassius and it didn’t eventuate so if Theo is as hot as he sounds I might pass away. The reformed player vibe is doing it for me so I’m REALLY looking forward to seeing if he’s all that. If nothing else he sounds like he’s going to be a huge source of entertainment and will probably get himself into a lot of trouble 😂

#I’ve been saying the even numbered seasons are better since s4 watch me prove my theory right #love island game #litg s8 #love island season 8 #love island the game #litg #come on consistent sprites COME ON

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oliveroctavius · 9 months

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It's been a while since I read the first Agents of Atlas lineup but I think about it intermittently because it's the most tailored-to-me concept ever despite fumbling the ball in the second half so bad. It's a modern era lineup made of entirely 1950s stock characters (both on a publishing history level and an in-universe lore level, they're from the '50s) that faces mostly fifties type pulp scifi threats. But it centers on James Woo as an interesting comic history anomaly. He's from a Jack Kirby yellow-peril esque comic that made the unusual move of making the protagonist secret agent Chinese-American presumably to try to offset the grossly caricatured Chinese villain.

The comic starts to do this thing that I'm always wishing adaptations of old comics would do: it addresses the foundation of the era the character is from and the biases that shaped them. It gets into the fact that Jimmy Woo would never have been "allowed" as a '50s hero if he wasn't given a caricatured Foreign Chinese enemy to fight against. It observes how Jimmy's relationship with his own heritage is never addressed (in a Doylist sense because he's a re-skinning (lol) of the generic American secret agent, in a Watsonian one because of the pressures of assimilationism). And it makes gestures to start undoing this; for instance we learn James' birth Chinese name and it's Woo Yen Jet,

and then they're like "and of course Yellow Claw's real name isn't Yellow Claw that would be silly" and you're like "of course" and they're like "yeah his real name is Plan Chu aka Master Plan" fuckin Master Plan. are you for real

It's like there's an understanding that posing everything culturally Chinese as evil is stupid and xenophobic even where it can be claimed to be not racist, so they try to give a Chinese heritage back to Woo, but they're "giving him back" this super caricatured fifties style conception of Chinese culture with only slight corrections for authenticity (why does chinese dragon have wing on it?) and it's like, you made us sit through this much repetition of fifties xenophobia only to give up after deconstructing it only maybe halfway? and putting the job of both owning and removing traces of caricaturedly evil Chinese business influence as Jimmy's responsibility? At some point ignorance holds open the gap that hatred opened.

It's a shame because I love Jimmy as a Guy (I love time-displaced weirdos who have developed bizarre attitudes from growing up in an era unfriendly to one or more facets of their identity) and I love the team lineup. (There's some other weird stuff going on there including Venus hiding out in Africa which isn't even imported from the 50s iirc but in general they were just really well chosen and interestingly characterized.) AND I love stories that sink angry teeth into questionable comics history instead of sweeping it under the rug but it turns out that can be botched badly enough that I just wish we were fighting actual aliens or hollow earth robots or something instead.

#watch this guys we're gonna get something enlightening by integrating the stereotyped villain with the assimilationist hero #[sticks the still-uncomfortable hero into a stereotyped setting]#anyways #oliverliveblogs #...a comic I read months ago idk why I'm thinking about this again #agents of atlas #jimmy woo

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maxwell-grant · 5 months

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Are the any superhero type characters from Brazil you wish got more attention internationally?

The ones I create, hopefully I don't really want specific characters to get more attention internationally, so much as I want more interesting characters to be developed, because most Brazilian superheroes (and that goes for a lot of other international superheroes) tend to be stuck on creative dead ends. I can elaborate more on that and the history of Brazilian superheroes if asked but if you want a specific answer, I'll give three, first one being, Tales of the Orishas by Hugo Canuto.

Tales of the Orishas fuses the pantheon of the African diasporic religion of Candomblé with the Silver Age comic aesthetics of Jack Kirby into a riveting tale of high adventure. The story centers around a celestial battle between the gods of Brazil, who are worshipped by the Bahia people, and a fearsome conquering force led by a dark and malevolent overlord. Only Shango, the god of fire and thunder, can lead his people into victory while the fate of creation hangs in the balance.

It is considerably popular already and even used for didactic purposes in classrooms overseas. but I can say very comfortably can say that this is a thing that should reach as large an audience as possible by any means. I mean, fucking look at it.

I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but I've seen enough pages of it that I can very comfortably call it the best Jack Kirby tribute I've ever seen, even though it's ambitions are way higher than just doing that, and It's been heavily recommended by everyone I follow within the Brazilian comics scene for very self-evident reasons. Gets my strongest recommendation out of all these as proof of concept for what can and should be done with Brazilian superheroes.

Danilo Beyruth is one of the biggest names amongs the local comics scene, and has done several works with superhero-esque characters like The Necronaut, which is about a Spectre-esque "lifeguard of the dead" who wanders the world helping spirits carry over and resolve their unfinished business, and Days of Horror, which is a showcase piece for 50 major names in Brazilian comics, in a story about a Dr Doom analogue named Doc Horror standing trial for his role in an alien invasion that murdered his world's Trinity as well as thousands of civilians. He's done five books on the Astronaut series, which are a space-opera superhero-esque revamp of Monica's Gang character Astronaut, more in line with their more adult-themed Graphic MSP line-up.

The power to change the world lies in his hands...but he only wants to play king.

Rei de Lata is set in a world ravaged by war that faced it's worst disaster: a biological weapon that practically drove an entire country extinct. Unexpectedly, however, all children born after the attack developed some kind of abnormality, some kind of power generated by a survival instinct, trauma or extreme situation. Due to their immunity to the toxic air, the surviving adults detest and fear them, and wish to hunt and study them, and so the super-kids must battle for their survival in a post-war country.

And I'm also gonna be including Rei de Lata (I think you can loosely translate it as The Can King but that is way too clunky and isn't quite right for what the name is supposed to mean and sound like), which is available on Webtoon. It's more along the lines of a shonen battle manga, but it is about distinct, superpowered characters, it's invited enough comparisons to MHA and the main character is a supervillain so I feel comfortable putting it here. It's been ongoing since 2017 and I think it got a physical release, it rules and rises above a lot of it's inspirations, the protagonist and side characters are all great opposite perfectly detestable villains. Very strongly recommend it, really excited to see where it's going.

#replies tag #superheroes #brazil #brazilian comics #brazilian superheroes #contos dos orixás #danilo beyruth #rei da lata #international superheroes

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denimbex1986 · 9 months

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'Every great actor understands how to harness the tools they've been given. For Christopher Walken, it's his pinball-esque grasp of cadence. For Jack Nicholson, it's the Play-Doh structure of his face. Then there's Cillian Murphy. Some may say it's the eyes, those piercing almost-translucent blue orbs that help him oscillate from warm to terrifying in a split second. But no, sorry, they're wrong. Nothing but love to those pearly peepers, but the real magic of Murphy's face is that razor-sharp set of blades hugging the side of his head.

Those cheekbones, so sharp you could probably run his face up a bottle of champagne and the cork would fly off. So cutting you could make sushi with them. You would probably have to baby-proof his face for fear of toddlers happening across those dangerous corners. But beyond just how they look (very good), Murphy understands the power they have in his performances. They can transform him from menacing to ghoulish to inviting, sometimes in the space of one role. With Oppenheimer on the horizon, we've ranked Murphy's cheekbone-iest roles to date.

6. Batman Begins (2008)

As the Kens of Barbie are defined by their jobs, the style and mood of a movie will dictate how the Cillian Murphy cheekbones operate on screen: in Oppenheimer, they remind us of the deathly, apocalyptic stakes of the A-bomb. In 28 Days Later, they make everything a little more scary. In Red Eye, they’re serving. Which brings us to Batman Begins, in which Murphy portrays the DC series’ central purveyor of spook, Jonathan Crane, AKA the Scarecrow, ooooh. It’s most appropriate, then, that the tautness of Murphy’s face gives him a hot, skeletal allure, which is also kinda spooky. He can dose us with a demonic hallucinogen any day. JK

5. Red Eye (2005)

We're about to say something Cillian Murphy will, at worst, hate, or, at best, be utterly baffled by thanks to his refusal to exist in the age of the internet. But those cheekbones? In the 2005 Wes Craven underrated film Red Eye? They're serving cunt. Slicey McGee's second consecutive villain role after Batman Begins traded the burlap sack for an eye mask in this thriller where he plays a seemingly nice hot man who turns out to be a terrorist. Modern dating, amirite? The cheekbones do some transformative heavy lifting in this, getting more hollow the more menacing he needs to be. He's essentially Wolverine but the retractable knives are on his face. And, just in case it needed to be confirmed, yes, the cheekbones still hold up under airplane bathroom lighting. The jammy sod. LF

4. Sunshine (2007)

After 28 Days Later, Danny Boyle's second Murphy team-up upped the ante in a fashion any good sequel should: they took the cheekbones all the way to space. If we learned anything about those staggering face cliffs over the course of Murphy’s early career, it’s that they always, always deserve the best lighting possible. Nay, they demand it. Which is presumably why Boyle took Murphy to the surface of a dying star, because fuck a ring light when you’ve got cheeks like these. Chris Nolan would essentially do the same years later with Oppenheimer, though substituting the sun for an atomic explosion. Do NOT turn down the brightness. JK

3. Peaky Blinders (2013-2022)

Has the term peaky blinders been used as slang for cheekbones yet? If not, it should. Think about it, “That boy Cillian's got a cracking set of peaky blinders on him”. It just works. Murphy's almost decade-long tenure as gang leader Tommy Shelby did so much for the landscape of men's fashion – You could barely walk down the street without seeing at least a handful of lads sporting his drastic undercut. And while we're not here to yuck anyone's yum, the real secret sauce of that haircut that so many failed to recognise is that it was following the severe line of his 90-degree, razor-sharp cheekbones. They were simply two parallel lines fighting for supremacy on one man's head, but we know who came out on top in the end. LF

2. 28 Days Later (2002)

Like Watergate, the Moon landing and 9/11, most people can remember where they were when they first saw 28 Days Later, because it was the day that Danny Boyle introduced the Cillibones to the world. Lives were changed, the planet shook, something shifted: here was the most archetypal Man to Be Shot in Close-Up ever seen on screen, unleashing upon the world a cheekbone fever stronger and all the more unhinged than a rage-inducing virus. People literally died. Good movie, too. JK

Oppenheimer (2023)

Christopher Nolan loves Cillian Murphy's face so much he shoots it in pretty much every way he can in Oppenheimer – Colour, black and white, extremely close-up, lit by the fire of 100 tons of plutonium. Not to mention the IMAX cameras! The man just wants to see his guy look glorious on the biggest screen possible, and the result is blinding. Hand us the welder's glass, Oppy, we're about to lose our retinas here. Murphy shed weight to play the emaciated father of the atomic bomb, which give the Cillibones™ a chance to pop even more than usual. He ends up looking like a besuited Grim Reaper which, for someone who utters the iconic phrase “I am become death, destroyer of worlds”, tracks. When the time comes for Murphy to inevitably win an Oscar for this role, we hope there's enough room on the plaque to engrave a co-winner in the shape of his own bone structure. LF'

#Oppenheimer #Cillian Murphy #28 Days Later #Tommy Shelby #Peaky Blinders #Christopher Nolan #Oscar #Sunshine #Danny Boyle #Batman Begins #Scarecrow #Red Eye #Jonathan Crane

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n0brainjustvibes · 6 months

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Greetings fair mutual!

I beseech thee with a question:

How do you think the Worm universe would handle somebody with the power to transfer their consciousness to a corpse, reanimating it. Also he has wings and the people skills Jack Slash wishes he had?

I'm considering some crossover story ideas

Hmm! I think how he was treated would depend a lot on his personality/motives. Heroic? Villainous? The power, of course, lends itself more easily to villainy.

Reminds me of Pretender. As such, the power would be useful for (heh) identity theft, at the most obvious level. If they decided to go hero, I don't think they'd use reanimation in the public eye. Either disguise their power as the wings alone, or rely heavily on subtlety, like Vegas capes or Indian 'dark' capes - or for an independent example, Eraserhead from BNHA.

Reminds me - do the wings appear on the reanimated corpses? Or on his 'true body'?

If any corpse he reanimates has wings, he could probably start a religious cult if he wanted to. Scratch that, he could start a cult regardless. Would be interesting to see his interactions with some of the religious groups - Haven, was it? That hero group? I give it 70:30 odds they find him blasphemous, lol. Wonder if he could subsume a Fallen (or other cult) sub-group, if he so desired, to kick-start his own cult.

As a cult leader, the ability to wear any face (including yours) is pretty strong fuel for fear tactics. Especially if he regularly changes bodies - double especially if the wings don't transfer. Anyone you pass in the street could be the leader; any of your family members could be replaced; you could be killed and replaced, if you transgress, and the man in your body could do anything in your name... and it's hard for the PRT to catch him, too. Alternatively, he hides that it's his own consciousness and pulls some Victorian spiritualist schtick. "I've brought your loved one back and they tell you they love you and you should totally join my group to get to heaven and also pay me 1000 monies. totally".

Reanimation would get him clocked as a parahuman easily, wing usage even quicker. In this case, I expect PRT (and/or other hero team) response - not very high-caliber response, though, since as far as Worm cults go this is fairly innocuous. As such, solid shot at killing + impersonating one of the responders and infiltrating the PRT, if he so desires. Just realised I've been saying PRT when I meant Protectorate, lol, but that actually works nicely - I've never seen a story focusing on a solely PRT-squad raid. And if he can't use the powers of the reanimated, this is a safer route.

Can he use their powers?

If he relied on personality for the cult, with the Changer-esque applications of reanimation kept under wraps similarly to Mama Mathers' power, he could glide under the radar, though. In that case, I'd expect his opponents to be people with closer personal ties to the cult. Close enough to notice what's going on, and object even without knowing it was a parahuman affair. Indie heroes or vigilantes who protect his particular territory; villains, rogues, or non-parahumans whose families (or income) got tied up in the cult... Non-parahumans could be fun here, too, especially since it gives you the chance to integrate a trigger event at some point and shift the playing field. That said, it really depends on the story you want to tell. He might also face parahuman opposition from inside the cult, if someone triggers, or a recruited parahuman starts being deprogrammed.

Whew! Okay, enough cults. I saw 'Jack Slash' and went bonkers. Other options, other options... Something that comes to mind is being used as a political scarecrow like Canary (greater crackdown on villains/regulation for heroes/fearmongering around Changers/Masters/death-related powers) and the fallout. Though with his charisma he's well equipped to handle that.

Maybe Pretender gets mad at him for stepping on toes if he goes hero, lol.

That's all I got. Good luck with the crossover, and I'd love to hear more about it!

#worm fanfiction #asks

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marvelousmop · 10 months

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Ranking the Songs of Jack the Giant Killer (1962)

Jack the Giant Killer isn't a musical... or at least it shouldn't be. If you haven't heard of it (and I'd assume you haven't), it's one of those fantasy adventure movies with lots of stop-motion puppets like "Jason and the Argonauts" and "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad"... unfortunately, Columbia Pictures saw this similarity and weren't too pleased, threatening to sue the filmmakers.

Their solution to avoid getting sued? Make it a Musical!

No new footage was filmed and boy can you tell. If you saw the musical version without knowing the history, you could probably guess that some of these songs were added in post.

Fortunately, nowadays you can see the non-musical version quite easily (in fact it's up on some of those movie youtube channels and freebie streaming services - it's an alright adventure flick with really good set design and some interesting visuals), but I'm not interested in that. I wanted to see the musical. So I did, and now I just want to talk about the songs, from best to worst.

[Disclaimer: there is no official soundtrack, most of these song titles are just conjecture on my end.]

1) A Spectacle!

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This song has been stuck in my head for days. It is a very ill-fitting ice capade-esque song underscoring an action scene where Jack fights a bunch of monsters... it's also a duet with the main villain (Pendragon) and his henchman, which only serves to make it more bizarre. If you had to listen to any song from this soundtrack, listen to this one, there's a reason it's the only song I could find on youtube without uploading the unlisted clip myself.

2) You Can Do It!

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Picture this: you're near the end of the movie. You think Jack has won, but Pendragon has a trick up his sleeve... in a flash, he raises his red cape, and his form shifts into that of a mighty dragon! Swiftly, he descends upon Jack's ship, ready to take the fight into his own hands in a climactic final battle... and then this song plays. This goofy motivational song better suited for the middle of a musical than the final song.

It has also been stuck in my head for days.

One other confusing thing is that I'm not sure who's meant to be singing this song. Like, it's the same nasally male singing voice used by both Pendragon's henchman (though it can't be him since he has no reason to cheer Jack on) and the Leprechaun (though this song doesn't use the same rhyme scheme the Leprechaun uses, and all his words are accompanied by a jingle which is absent here, so it can't be him either). Maybe it's God?

3) Title Card Song & Coronation Song

These two songs play near the beginning of the movie, with the former also getting a reprise for the end credits. I'm lumping them both together because I couldn't remember what they sound like if you held a gun to my head, though, for the Coronation song, it's quite amusing that they have to hide most of the crowd because it would be very visible that they aren't singing.

4) Just Ask Me

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Quite a boring love song with generic and slightly repetitive lyrics, but what makes this song stand out to me is the editing going on in this scene. You see, the lyrics are barely close to anything the characters are saying, so the editors have to pull out all the stops to make it fit the scene - footage is slowed down, sped up, looped (and it's all very visible thanks to the various background elements) and in the end the woman is still clearly saying something very different to the lyrics. It's honestly like a proto-youtube poop.

5) We Have Failed, Master

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This is where we get into the real good stuff. A keen listener may pick up on the fact that, despite their attempt to make "We have failed, master, we have failed!" into a chorus and the slight rhytmic patter of the henchman's lines, this is very clearly just a normal dialogue scene that has been recklessly converted into a song. Granted, you see this stuff in operas all the time, but it's very bizarre to see in something that's trying to sound like a Rankin Bass musical.

6) To Us

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If you thought the last one was bad, this one is barely trying to sound like a song. There's no clever editing, no rhythm, no chorus, not even a cheeky attempt to add more lyrics while a character is facing away from the camera, it's just a dialogue scene!

Thank you for sticking with me through my inane opinions, and I hope you enjoyed this tour through probably the most bizarrely constructed musical. Credit to this Twitter post for inadvertently informing me of this... masterpiece.

#jack the giant killer #musicals #review #musical theater #Mop's inane ramblings

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n0-1r · 2 months

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Personas/Personae whatever

Note: I dont proofread and i have not played a persona game in a good while so feel free to correct me or something

Very minor spoilers for Persona 1 (mention of a certain death at the start of the game), 5 (mention of a major (unnamed) villain's persona)

So what is a persona? According to Jungian Psychology, everyone has masks, personas if you will, in life. It's pretty complicated but basically these beings they’re awakening to are representations of their personality.

Each character has an arcana eg. Naoya being an Emperor and his persona is a protective diety, which basically sums up their personality, then they have sub-arcana, these can be interpreted as their other masks. You can put on a personality that isn’t your own when you’re talking to someone you don’t like, you put on another personality when you’re public speaking ect. but these masks aren't authentically you, you may be able to portray this mask but perhaps not as comfortably than being yourself. This concept is expressed in the oldsona games with party members having a main arcana and therefore be able to utilise a persona's skills to the fullest and various sub-arcana they may use well but not perfectly. Additionally there may be arcana/masks characters are weak in using/portraying and can only use a few skills or none at all.

The modern persona games include the concept of a 'wild-card', a persona user who is able to wield all (most) personas with ease and reducing everyone else to one arcana and one persona (until they evolve but are still only restricted to the use of one persona). These wildcards are typically of the 'Fool' arcana (jack of all trades, master of none arcana basically) and are therefore, able gain this ability to mask as whoever, supported by the silent-protagonist style of character these are (the heros the other wildcards are just cooler ig) and the (i don't want to say dating-sim-esque but it kinda is) gameplay.

Awakening to a persona is like showing how you: Embrace who you are, Gain courage to face death, the truth, your oppressors ect. You gain a persona (in modern iterations) by facing death and being able to shoot an Evoker, accepting your shadow (personas are essentially tamed shadows) or standing up to your oppressor. Unless you have the ability to wield multiple personas. I guess using your persona in battle is like standing up for yourself, you're facing mind monsters with your 'true self'.

Similar to shadows, personas are monsters from various mythos (with of course the exception of Yamaoka which is an analysis for another day) but may have variations in appearance. For example, Loki, recently there has been two variations of Loki in one game, DLC of Persona 5's Loki and the typical Loki you would see in an SMT game. These show how a persona is definitely not like SMT demons and that personas/shadows can be interpreted differently between people. There have also been multiple cases of various characters sharing personas.

#persona series #persona 1 #persona 2 #persona 3 #persona 4 #persona 5 #persona #megami ibunroku persona

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