#man I just think they’re underappreciated

[warriorsatthedisco]

Music blogging 5

Today’s song is: Cleaning Basil out of the Pool by Topiary Creatures

Genre: indie?, punk on their other songs

This one is fun. Less than 50 views on YouTube so quite underground, and their music video counts are in the 100s. I love the vocal harmonies especially towards the end. Very unique song in my opinion, and better with headphones.

#music blogging #topiary creatures #God I can never pick a consistent tag for these #indie music #I guess? #man I just think they’re underappreciated #personal #cleaning basil out of the pool

[ghouljams]

as someone who spends a lot of time around the trades i really appreciate your love for the trades beyond the sort of utilitarian “these people are cool bc we need their labor” you really hit the “we need these people and also they’re HOT”

i’m getting kinda sappy about it but i do appreciate you loving ppl in the trades with ur entire chest bc ur right!! they are hot!! and they deserve to be recognized

People in trades are genuinely the backbone of society, they're doing real work that often goes underappreciated because we de-value manual labor.

And ALSO they're so hot oh my god. Just the competency alone is amazing, I personally could not do half the things my carpenter friend does and would not even try. Add on that trade people are just strong as FUCK and yeah I'm *fanning myself*. Like yes I think more people should work trades because they're good jobs and union work is valuable and we NEED WELDERS, but also *tucking my hair behind my ear*

idk man I feel like I'm just saying the same thing. I respect people in uniform(the uniform being a hard hat and high viz shirt)

#ghoul speaks

[misccy27]

The fact that Darius kept Flapjack a secret is underappreciated

It feels like a given, because Darius is working against Belos, and ratting Hunter out would undermine the lesson Darius was pushing during all of ASIAS for Hunter to make his own decisions and defy authority and be more rebellious and all.

But also. It would have made a lot of sense for Darius to do it anyway, if Darius was prioritizing the rebellion over the well-being of this kid he barely knows.

Because Hunter is Belos' right-hand man. Darius and the other rebels are actively digging for information about the Day of Unity. It would have been perfectly reasonable for Darius to assume that Hunter has some sort of insider information.

And it would have been so easy. Hunter is terrible at hiding his emotions. He is blatantly horrified when he realizes Darius knows about Flapjack.

He's basically handing Darius leverage on a silver platter. It would have been so incredibly easy for Darius to be like “I won’t tell Belos about your secret palisman if you tell me XYZ about the Day of Unity.”

It wouldn’t have even been that suspicious. Like I’m sure other witches have tried to use Hunter’s position to get a leg up on the competition before. Hunter is so clearly desperate here. It would have made sense to at least try.

And it could have been even so much worse than that. Because Hunter at this point in the show is a threat to Darius and to the people that Darius cares about. The very next episode that they’re in is Hollow Mind, which starts with Hunter trying to arrest Darius, Eberwolf, and Raine. Hunter is Darius' enemy here at least as much as Hunter is Adrian's enemy in Labyrinth Runners.

So yeah. Darius could have just straight-up ratted Hunter out to Belos. It would have made sense for him to do so. Sabotage Belos’ inner circle, undermine the Golden Guard, give Belos and Hunter something to distract them from the rebellion. 

Neither of them know about Belos’ past with Flapjack specifically. In this scenario, Darius wouldn’t know he’s effectively getting Hunter killed. Hunter doesn’t know either; his fear is entirely for Flapjack I think. 

But it's okay! It doesn't matter. Because Darius is, indeed, a terrible rebel. He prioritizes Hunter’s well-being instead; here and in Hollow Mind and on the DOU. We get zero evidence that he tried to get any information out of Hunter at any point. He is Soft for this child. 

So in ASIAS, all that he does after acknowledging Hunter’s secret palisman is to give Hunter his cloak back and to fix the cloak and praise Hunter again and tell Hunter to git gud at sewing. Amazing.

#darius deamonne #the owl house season 2 #coping with the promo by indulging in dadrius brainrot #does this even count as dadrius #it's at least a 'not as much of a jerk as you could've been' award #i just love the what-ifs okay #especially when darius’ motives are relatively open to interpretation #i love him your honor

[t4tozier]

reddie legally blonde au?? except specifically the musical bc it’s better than the movie i said what i said

sorority girl (gender neutral) eddie getting dumped by his bf and deciding to go to harvard law because he IS actually smart but people underestimate him and don’t expect anything of him so he’s just gone along with it his whole life

and sonia says that she’ll pay his way if he can get in because she doesn’t think he’ll actually DO it and tries to convince him to stay in malibu where he’s safe and secure but then he actually gets in

but then law school is actually really hard and he can’t flunk out because if he does he’ll never get his boyfriend back, and the TA in one of his classes notices and offers to help him study if he can actually get his shit together

and the TA, richie, is actually really sweet and knows what it’s like to have to crawl up from the gutters to be where he is today so he admires eddie for getting into harvard in the first place even if it was for a man, and as richie helps him study over the course of the first semester they get closer and closer

and then eddie gets picked for the internship and is no longer trying to fight to get his bf back but is still underappreciated and looked down on for being a flamboyant/femme gay man rather than his bf and his new partner because at least they’re “respectable”

and then the professor he’s been working for makes a move on him and when eddie rejects him he starts getting aggressively homophobic and kicks him off the team, and that’s when eddie decides to leave, and the rumors have been swirling but richie doesn’t believe for a second that eddie would try to sleep his way to the top and tries to get him to stay but he’s so convinced that he’s ruined everything that he leaves anyway

cue girlboss bev and eddie’s ex’s partner convincing him not to leave and come back full force and then at the end after he wins the case his ex tries to propose to him but eddie proposes to richie instead :)

ft. bev as paulette who eddie helps get her trailer and dog back from her abusive husband, bob grey as callahan, and the other losers as various ppl at harvard and/or eddie’s sorority “sisters”

#yes ik eddie being hyperfemme is ooc but let me have this #i’ve thought about this au forever #also y’all need to go watch the 2007 mtv bootleg on youtube for free it’s so good #richie tozier #eddie kaspbrak #reddie #reddie au #legally blonde #legally blonde au

[yuckybusiness2]

First rating batch done…….and now for the extensive cut + explanations + thoughts + feelings + L + ratio under the Read More:

ASGORE: He’s like a staple of the furry community at this point. Absolute failman. Big fat hairy dad what’s not to love. I could fix him. I want everything on earth to happen to him

GARGOYLE: ok here’s the thing gargoyles are VERY underappreciated by general monsterfucker-furry types. They’re so cute and come in all shapes and sizes. This particular design is very good and I would love to take him out for hamburgers. Make his rock-solid body into something rock-soft am I right haha. Ok

PETRILISK: FISH!!! I love fish and fish creatures swamp monsters etc etc they are also VERY underappreciated….nothing is cuter than generic grey fish….I think XIV made me appreciate this type of Sea Man design and this guy is very handsome. I want to rub his cheeks while he gets big (which cheeks? Well…….)

PEPPY: ok I’ll be honest the bucktooth rabbit look isn’t really my favourite I think it looks a little goofy. BUT!!!! He works it well he’s a cute tubby short old man. I would love to make him tubbier….would love to do an art pack on Patreon of him one day. He would look so cute stuffed and sitting in someone’s lap 🫶

PANGORO: he never really used to be a design I liked but I’ve seen a lot of art of him over the years and he’s pretty good. Cute potbellied panda dude. Want him to sit on me and inflate himself and j*rk off (<- whoever said this is INSANE….)

AMICUS: I have ZERO clue about the VN he’s from but I’ve heard lots of good things about it so I would like to read it one day…..judging solely at face value he’s a cute generic wolf (?) uppy dog (?) guy. Cute big snout. No idea if being huge would suit his personality but he would be cute with a squeezable pot belly

DARLING: I haven’t finished Control yet but at face value he a little bit 🤏 plain for my tastes. NOT THAT THAT’S A BAD THING!!!!! Just that there are probably other men I would rather get my scrump on with. However he does wear the “Scientist Potentially Doing Unethical Experiments” look very well. Also he’s greying which automatically gives him points

These sorts of things are always incredibly fun to do, thank you guys for submitting!!!! 🫶💚😄🤓

#rates #not art #obviously my ratings mean nothing this is just my humble umble………a fat bitch loves making charts

[seeingteacupsindragons]

Of the many twists Yuukoku no Moriarty puts in the stories it adapts and the concept of stories itself, I think one that goes a bit underappreciated is the way William’s main internal conflict are a twist on a very common one: desire vs. duty.

I also think it’s Very Japanese of the series to lay that on William (of course, I’ve already talked about the shinjuu structure of his story, but. Let’s just bring that up again). But it’s not like this isn’t discussed plenty in basically every culture ever. I mean, damn, “No, Dad, it’s your dream,” is a cliché that exemplifies it.

But William doesn’t have a dad. William’s obligations are self-imposed. William's obligations are: save the country, murder the evil. This has been his plan since he was a child, he has so many people relying on him whom he has into it that he can’t simply abandon them or his plan. The country needs saving.

And on the other side of the conflict, there is Sherlock. Sherlock, who lights a fire in William’s soul and reminds him he has one. That he has a heart, that he’s a human, that he wants things, even if he doesn’t really have any idea what they are because he’s ignored them for obligation for so long. That he likes things, not just hates things. Sherlock makes him want to be a normal (ish) 24yo man who flirts with and teases cute boys and plays silly games and laughs and smiles and has fun again.

Normally, when the obligation half of this conflict comes calling, it’s from outside forces. Society. Family. Friends. Social mores. But those outside forces, all of them, even the ones he feels duty-bound to, are basically all telling him to stop, by The Final Problem. Even ever-loyal Moran is trying to wriggle William out of what he sees as his obligations. William’s obligation comes from his own messiah complex and the idea fact that he has dragged so many people into sin that he can’t abandon them. That he can’t abandon his own plan. He’s done so much already; how can he turn back?

His “duty” here is ridiculous and insane and completely outside of social conventions. His duty here is something he’s built up in his mind, not something that he’s actually obligated to do by anyone other than himself! Everyone, except William, is trying to let him have what he wants, and he is the one refusing to pursue it.

William has probably wanted to abandon his duty since it stopped being performance and became real, visceral, bloody murder with his own hands soaked in red. But it’s Sherlock who makes it impossible for him to continue shoving that down under a rug where he can completely ignore it without self-examination. And that’s why Sherlock is the Devil. It’s why Sherlock is the Antagonist of the story. Because Sherlock is trying to free William to pursue what he wants.

It’s not that no story has a character wanting to choose duty or obligation over a desire they see as selfish. It happens, and I suspect it happens in collectivist cultures like Japan even more than more individualist ones like Britain (again, the cross-cultural aspects of this adaptation are wild). But so rarely in those stories about a character trying to choose a duty over a selfish desire is their choice not just tragic, but harmful. Those are stories where it’s a tragic sacrifice for the greater good that someone cannot have what they want. The stories where choosing desire is the more moral option are ones where they’re fighting to choose it.

But William choosing his twisted obligations over his selfishness is not only harming him, it’s harming everyone around him. William would not only be better off choosing his selfish desire, but so would everyone. And yet he’s fighting actively against that for so much of the story.

Oh, William.

You truly must twist everything on its head.

#this is 666 words in Word #Lmao #Yuukoku no Moriarty #Moriarty the Patriot #William James Moriarty

[janearts]

Top ten peeves with "medieval" fantasy armour, and/or top ten Actually Quite Practical things that the time period had in its armour that you feel are underappreciated by a modern audience?

I’ve been drawing Dragon Age armour for the past 5+ years and hating much of it so I’ve decided to specify my pet peeves for their armour designs. 🙈

Obligatory Disclaimer: I understand that the DA franchise and the DA devs have absolutely zero (0) obligation to stick to historical armours and understand that they deviate from historical sources however referenced intentionally to create their own unique fantasy blend. I’m taking the piss.

Jane’s Top 10 Pet Peeves with Fantasy Dragon Age Armour:

Side Note: DA armour is “mediaeval” in that from DAO to DAI, the DA franchise increasingly borrows bits and bobs from the Middle Ages. Examples of this include Blackwall’s gambeson and the splint-styled armour that Alistair wears. It’s a bit of a hodgepodge--Alistair’s “splintmail” armour would historically predate the more traditional plate armour you also see in the game. Splinted armour was a bridge between mail and plate, which was well-established by the early half of the 15th century.

ANYWAY, here are my pet peeves:

1. The overuse of the noble belt. IRL you wouldn’t need that many and as an artist they’re a pain in the ass to draw.

2. DAO is responsible for the ugliest and most unnatural looking couters I’ve ever had the displeasure to draw. They look like bowls attached to your elbows and they make no sense. Which leads me to my next point...

3. DAO is also responsible for separate bits of plate armour for your arm that do not connect where they ought to. In the Middle Ages, the armour for your arm was all interconnected: the pauldron connects to the rerebrace which connects to the couter which connects to the vambrace. In DAO, you’ve just got your elbow pads, maybe a gauntlet, a bit of plate that I suppose is supposed to be a rerebrace or spaulder for your upper arms, and then a godawful misshapen pauldron. Which leads me to my next point...

4. Pauldrons that have spikes that look like they will KO their wearer if given the chance. Also pauldrons that look like they would “catch” weapons instead of cleanly deflecting the blow away from the body.

5. Armour with rondels and winged pauldrons. Larger pauldrons do the work of a rondel: they protect your armpit. If you have a spaulder or a smaller pauldron that doesn’t protect your armpit then you might go for a rondel. In the DA franchise, they seem to enjoy stapling rondels (or maybe they’re just giant bolts?) to pauldrons.

6. The SMALLEST chestplates known to man. Or a chestplate without its buddy the backplate. This is a Warden callout. :’) It screams “Crush my collarbone, you swine, my chestplate can’t do shit!”

7. The heinous and unforgivable lack of cuisses. Go ahead and tell your thighs they don’t matter then kiss those puppies goodbye.

8. A gorget that is YAWNING so wide it doesn’t actually protect the goddamn neck! I am specifically calling out the Templars on this one.

9. The goddamn overuse of tassets--at least I think they were going for tassets--by the franchise as a whole. The segmented style is called an Almain rivet and you can see that on Templar & Warden armour... except it’s never actually attached to the cuirass? It always seems to be held up by a belt? It’s not meant to be a substitute for cuisses. I don’t know what they were thinking. They probably weren’t and probably figured no one would notice/care. BUT I DO. I DO!

10. They overuse tassets, but don’t cover the assets if you know what I mean. I originally thought that what I’m referring to as tassets could have been their attempt at faulds & culets? Not sure on that one. Anyway, faulds & culets are bits of plate that tend to cover the hips/waist/ass area. One sure sign that a designer is looking at jousting armour is when they don’t. cover. the ass. (The original wearer didn’t need to because they’d be on a horse! But your footsoldier absolutely needs to cover their ass.) I’m thinking of the DAI Wardens again with this one. :’)

#janeopines

[89cats]

Spill the tea, what's an undervalued/underappreciated thing relating to cats that you wish more people knew?

Personally, I think cats are great judges of character. If they don’t want anything to do with you - it’s for a reason. I feel like most people see this as cats being little assholes, but cats just know, man. They’re so independent and intelligent. They’re the best kind of comfort when you’re sad or alone. Every cat has their own personality. They’re just overall great beings.

[the-rewatch-rewind]

Another new episode! Maybe the weirdest movie I've talked about yet?

Script below the break

Hello and welcome back to the Rewatch Rewind, the podcast where I count down my top 40 most rewatched movies over a 20-year period. My name is Jane, and today I will be discussing number 30 on my list: Twentieth Century Fox’s 1952 science fiction comedy Monkey Business, directed by Howard Hawks, written by Ben Hecht, Charles Lederer, and I.A.L. Diamond, and starring Cary Grant, Ginger Rogers, Charles Coburn, and Marilyn Monroe.

Dr. Barnaby Fulton (Cary Grant) is a chemist developing a formula to reverse some of the symptoms of aging. His boss, Mr. Oxley (Charles Coburn) believes this could become a fountain of youth drug, but Barnaby is more realistic, and merely hopes it could cure his bursitis. He’s been experimenting on chimpanzees but decides to try the newest version on himself – and soon after begins behaving like a frivolous college boy. However, unbeknownst to Barnaby, or anybody else, one of his chimpanzees has mixed a separate formula and poured it into his water cooler, so it’s actually the drink of water he used to wash down his formula that he’s reacting to. After a wild day, much of which he spends with Oxley’s sexy secretary Miss Laurel (Marilyn Monroe), the formula finally wears off and Barnaby is back to his more mature self. He’s eager to try it again, but after hearing about his day, his wife Edwina (Ginger Rogers) drinks his second dose before he has a chance to – and, crucially, also takes a drink of tainted water. And hijinks continue to ensue.

The first time I saw this movie was when it happened to come on TV. It must have been summertime because my sister was away at camp and I distinctly remember writing her a postcard about how I had just watched the funniest movie ever. Thus began a phase when I was kind of obsessed with this movie: I watched it three times in 2003, three times in 2004, and twice in 2005. Then I got a little tired of it and took a break, but I returned to it in 2009 and again in 2010, then twice in 2012, and then once each in 2014, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2022. There are certain things about this movie that really bother me, which is why I don’t rewatch it as frequently anymore, but there are also things about it that I absolutely love, so I don’t think I will ever abandon Monkey Business completely.

This is the second appearance of both Cary Grant and Ginger Rogers on this podcast, so I’ve already mentioned that they’re two of my faves. To people who have vaguely heard of them, a movie like this might sound out of character for these stars. Cary Grant seems to generally be remembered as a debonair leading man, and Ginger Rogers is generally remembered as Fred Astaire’s frequent dance partner. While those aren’t exactly inaccurate perceptions, they are definitely incomplete. People don’t talk nearly enough about how funny both of them were. Like, no offense to the writers, but with the wrong stars this movie could have been absolute garbage. I mean, I think we can all agree that the story is completely ridiculous. But Grant and Rogers were both comedic geniuses, and basically the only reason I keep revisiting this movie is because of how fun they are to watch in it. By 1952, they were both at least two decades into their film careers, and while they did sometimes play serious dramatic roles, much of their work was in comedy, so they’d had plenty of time to hone their comedic skills, and it shows.

I love that Monkey Business gives them so many opportunities to show off different facets of their comedic talents. The silly tone of the movie is set at the beginning of the opening credits, which Grant keeps interrupting by opening the door, and we hear director Howard Hawks’ voice offscreen saying, “Not yet, Cary.” Then in the first scene, Barnaby and Edwina are at home, preparing to go out for the evening, but Barnaby is distracted thinking about the formula and keeps failing at getting ready properly, until Edwina gives up. They both have such perfect timing and excellent chemistry that this dynamic feels entirely believable and natural, and is also incredibly funny. The first time Barnaby takes the formula, Edwina isn’t around, so we get to see Cary being a goofball by himself, and then with Marilyn Monroe as his “straight man”. But then Edwina takes the formula, and it’s Ginger’s turn to be silly, and Cary’s turn as the straight man. And then later both Barnaby and Edwina drink a bunch of coffee in his office, using the water from the cooler, so they both start acting like children, which means they get to act goofy together for a bit. These changing dynamics are all handled flawlessly. Even when they’re under the influence of the formula and acting silly, they’re still somehow believable. While I’m not convinced that feeling younger would really make people behave quite the way they do, the actors sell it so well that it’s easy to just accept it.

The aspect of their behavior that I have the hardest time accepting is that while under the influence of the formula, both Barnaby and Edwina seem to have the instinct to cheat on each other, in ways consistent with stereotypes about their respective sexes. Younger man Barnaby finds himself drawn to sexy Miss Laurel – I know I mentioned in a previous episode that as an asexual I don’t really understand what “sexy” means, but there seems to be a general consensus that Marilyn Monroe was it. Her character is a fairly basic ditzy blonde who was clearly hired for her looks and not her secretarial skills and isn’t particularly interesting, although she does get to say one of the funniest lines in the movie: “Mr. Oxley’s been complaining about my punctuation, so I’m careful to get here before 9:00.” The first time Barnaby takes the formula, he leaves work in the middle of the day, so Miss Laurel is sent to find him, and they end up going out on an extended date. At one point, Miss Laurel kisses him on the cheek, but then he mentions his wife and she backs off disappointedly. So it’s relatively innocent “cheating,” if it can even be considered cheating at all, but that doesn’t stop Edwina from getting jealous – a feeling that is significantly heightened when she takes the formula, to the point that she tries to start a fight with Miss Laurel. Then younger Edwina seems to think she and Barnaby are on their honeymoon, but they end up having a weird fight that doesn’t really make any sense and she locks him out of their hotel room, at which point she calls their lawyer, Hank Entwhistle, played by Hugh Marlowe, who, it was revealed in their fight, kissed Edwina once, presumably years ago. We don’t get to see exactly what happens next, but the following morning Hank seems to think Barnaby is physically abusive based on what Edwina told him. So to summarize: men who feel young want to go out with pretty women, and women who feel young want to pick fights with their husbands and turn to a “friendzoned” man waiting in the wings. And this is reiterated when they take the formula again and act like actual children instead of young adults. Even then, Barnaby is drawn to Miss Laurel and Edwina is jealous of them, and after a fight with Barnaby, Edwina calls on Hank again. I’m not going to claim the way they portray this isn’t funny, because it is, but I don’t love that message, and that’s part of why I don’t love this movie as much as I used to anymore. There are a few scenes between “normal” Barnaby and Edwina where they talk things out that I think are actually pretty good, and it seems like they’re trying to show that a certain level of maturity is necessary for a healthy long-term relationship, which I think does make the message better, albeit amatonormative. I still think they could have made that point without being quite so sexist about it. Although it was 1952, so… maybe they couldn’t have.

There is also some blatant racism in this movie that I realize was common for the time, but that doesn’t make it okay. Child Barnaby overhears child Edwina calling Hank to come over, so he grabs a pair of pruning shears and rallies a group of (all white) neighbor children playing “Cowboys and Indians” to help him tie up and scalp Hank when he arrives. One of the kids informs Barnaby that they have to do a war dance first, and sing, so Barnaby organizes the kids into an “Indian choir” of sorts, and listeners… it is so painfully bad. On the one hand, from a historical perspective, it’s interesting to see how white American kids used to play in that era, but on the other hand, it’s just… no. I get that it’s supposed to be silly, but there are so many ways to be silly that don’t involve mocking Native Americans. A less serious complaint I have about that part is the next time we see Hank after he’s been tied up, part of his head has been shaved all the way to the skin, and there is no way the clippers Barnaby had could have cut anywhere near that close. And while I can easily suspend disbelief enough to accept a chimpanzee unlocking the secret of youth with a mixture of random chemicals, asking me to believe that pruning shears could shave a man’s head that closely is going way too far!

I also had a know-it-all phase when it bothered me that people often refer to chimpanzees as “monkeys” when they’re actually apes, but now I’m more in the “all words are made up to begin with and classifications of animals are especially made up, so who cares” camp. I guess that’s one way I can tell I’ve grown up and matured since the first time I watched this movie, without trying to use the ability to maintain healthy romantic relationships as a metric. But the more I learn about how animals – particularly apes – have historically been treated by the entertainment industry, the less I can enjoy seeing them in older movies. I haven’t heard any specific stories about Monkey Business in particular, but I doubt the chimps featured in it had very good lives, and that is yet another thing that makes it harder to enjoy this movie.

But despite all its problematic aspects and its relentless amatonormativity, overall I do think Monkey Business has a pretty good message about our society’s obsession with trying to stay young. After he and Edwina have both tried the formula, Barnaby has this to say about youth: “We remember it as a time of nightingales and valentines. But what are the facts? Maladjustment, near idiocy, and a series of low comedy disasters. That's what youth is. I don't see how anyone survives it.” And in the final scene, Barnaby concludes: “You’re old only when you forget you’re young.” The movie points out the importance of learning from experience to keep people from acting like fools who don’t understand consequences their whole lives. But it also shows that you can embrace getting older without completely abandoning the youthful joy that people and things you love brought you when you were younger. So the way I feel about this movie is remarkably consistent with its message. As I’ve grown and matured and learned more about the world, I’ve become more aware of its negative aspects, but that doesn’t negate the delight it brought me when I was younger, and having some problematic elements doesn’t make the movie all bad. Monkey Business reveals that life is more complicated than we think it is when we’re young, and youth is more complicated than we think it is when we’re old. Basically, life is messy, and there are no quick fixes, so let’s stop wasting time seeking perpetual youth and instead make the most of the life we have.

This does feel like a bit of a hypocritical message coming from Hollywood, which is famous for its obsession with youth and beauty. I do appreciate that this movie’s two main stars were both in their 40s – positively ancient by Hollywood standards, at least for an actress. In fact, at 41 years old (possibly only 40 at the time of filming), Rogers was the oldest leading lady to ever star in a Howard Hawks movie, which is incredibly upsetting. Grant would continue to play leading men for over another decade, and by this point in his career he’d already begun starring opposite women who were closer to Marilyn Monroe’s age than to his own (he was 22 years older than her), so it’s a bit refreshing to see him mostly paired with Rogers, who was only 7 years younger than him, with his attraction to Monroe portrayed as youthful infatuation that we’re not really supposed to take seriously. Marilyn Monroe herself perfectly embodied Hollywood’s ideal of youthful glamor, and it literally destroyed her well before she could make it to her 40s, so her presence in this movie really draws attention to the hypocrisy of its message. It would be great if the entertainment industry would actually take the movie’s advice and value age and experience rather than constantly worshipping (and thereby often ruining) youthful beauty, but as is so often the case, Hollywood released a movie with a decent message and then proceeded to ignore it.

Thank you for listening to my conflicted thoughts and feelings about this movie. I truly don’t know if anything I said made any sense to those of you who haven’t watched it, which I assume is most people, but I greatly appreciate you sticking with me anyway. Remember to subscribe or follow if you want to hear more, and rate or leave a review to let me know how you’ve been enjoying this podcast so far. Next week I will talk about the third and longest movie I watched 17 times, which is another fun, silly, obscure older movie, so I hope you’re enjoying these. And if you’re not, I hope you will continue listening anyway, I promise there are more recent and more well-known films coming up too. As always, I will leave you with a quote from the next movie: “How do you say in English ‘parachute’?”

#monkey business #cary grant #ginger rogers #marilyn monroe #charles coburn #the rewatch rewind

[banisheed]

TIMING: Some time ago LOCATION: Regis Coleslaw's Apartment PARTIES: Siobhan and Emilio SUMMARY: In 2018, Regis Coleslaw posed for a new employee at Shift Space, Inc. Overworked, underpaid and underappreciated, Regis forced herself to smile as widely as she could. She was looking forward to a quiet night in her apartment, curled up with her cat and her succulents. She cut across the Wormwoods, hoping for a shortcut. In 2023, Siobhan Dolan hires Emilio Cortez to help locate the woman she thinks she's looking for. They discover the outcome of Regis's shortcut and the reality of living half-lives.

—

The piss-boy, Emilio Cortez, could not be trusted. What sort of man didn’t know how to potty train a dog, was poor, had an office that looked either like a bad noir film or a high-budget porno? And what was PI if not the first two letters in ‘piss’? No, Siobhan had to make sure this was done yet. If Regis Coleslaw was her banshee, she needed to be there. Regis would like to see a friendly and beautiful face, she thought. Instead of the unfriendly, but still beautiful, face of Emilio. Yes, one thing the piss-boy did have going for him was his looks. It was tragic they were wasted on someone so poor and stupid. “I doubt Regis Coleslaw would live in a hovel such as this,” Siobhan commented loudly, waving at the dilapidated building they were approaching. When she’d gotten word that Emilio was hot on the trail of Regis, she’d come along without invitation or notice or apology. Which was typically how she went anywhere. “Are you sure your information is correct? I expected less…” She pointed to the small pile of trash bags by the door, buzzing with an orchestra of flies. “…let’s just say I expected it to look less like your office did.” 

—

Most of his clients weren’t particularly involved in the cases they gave him. That was to be expected. People hired a PI to find information they couldn’t or didn’t want to obtain themselves, and part of that fee covered the convenience of not having to do any of the dirty work. Emilio liked it that way. Only having to speak to the client once or twice before getting paid worked for him. But… This latest client was different. 

She was definitely weird. Emilio wasn’t entirely sure what brand of weird she was — he was learning that ‘supernatural’ weird and ‘normal person’ weird had a lot of unexpected overlap — but there was no denying the strangeness. When she’d shown up at his door just before he headed out to the address he’d found listed for Regis Coleslaw, he wasn’t even particularly surprised. Annoyed, sure, but not surprised. At least the case would be over soon. They’d find this Regis person, he’d get the rest of his fee, and that would be that. He was really looking forward to it.

“This is the address on file,” he replied gruffly, wondering how pissed she’d be if he pulled out his flask. Talking to her was making the idea of drinking more and more tempting. “I’m sure. Look, maybe they’re just hiding out. Sometimes, people don’t want to be found. Hiding out in a place you wouldn’t expect them to be just makes them smart.” She seemed to think highly of Regis, so playing on that might be the best way to quell her complaints here. Or he could stab her. He was really starting to like the idea of stabbing her. “If they’re not here, they’re not here. And you didn’t have to come, by the way. Actually, I think I remember specifically telling you not to.”

—

Siobhan’s face crinkled together. “When you hide away for enough years, you start to realize that living in squalor is the last thing you want.” At least, by the first decade for Siobhan, she’d started to hate radiators and squeaky floorboards and making her bed out of suspiciously stained pillows she’d taken from the dumpster. She was still miserable but at least she was miserable in style. Emilio might learn that lesson one day, though he’d probably die before he got there. A shame. Siobhan turned her attention to the building again. The roof seemed to be caved in and the windows shattered--the jagged glass that remained made her think they’d been broken by impact rather than scream. “One day, Emilio,” she spoke idly, her eyes still focused on the windows, “you’re going to realize that the best cure for sadness is a lot of money; run your next business out of a penthouse.” 

Siobhan’s attention returned to the piss-boy again. “Oh?” She grinned at him. “But then how would we bond? If I hadn’t come, think of all the silence you’d be having right now! How dreadful.” She clicked her tongue against teeth, tutting. “My charm and likeability are saving you from a boring experience; you’re welcome, by the way. I accept payment in bones.” And finally, her attention snapped to the door. It was falling off its hinges, with one push--she was sure--it would topple over. It didn’t look locked. It didn’t look like it had been locked in years. “Do we…knock?”

—

“Some people would call it safer,” he pointed out. Having money, from what he could tell, meant having eyes on you. People noticed the rich in ways they didn’t notice guys like Emilio, who lived in run-down apartments. When things were hard to look at, the natural result was that people looked at them less. For someone in hiding, that was a very tempting thing. This building would be a good place for someone who didn’t want to be found. If Regis fit that bill, it made sense that they’d chosen it to hide out in. “There are plenty of things money can’t get you. A penthouse wouldn’t solve much for me.” It would still be empty of the people he’d want to fill it. He had no desire for that. People would also have a lot more expectations of a PI firm run from a penthouse, and even if he did somehow come into the kind of money Siobhan seemed to think he needed in order to escape ‘squalor,’ his personality still wouldn’t be one that could provide that. 

At Siobhan’s instruction, Emilio did, in fact, think of the silence he would have been experiencing in this moment had she not tagged along. It would have been a wonderful thing. Certainly preferable to this conversation. He sighed, mourning its loss. “What is it with you and bones?” This was the second time she’d mentioned them. Specifically, wanting them. He wasn’t sure he saw the appeal. Looking to the door, he weighed his options. “Depends,” he decided, glancing back to her, “is Regis Coleslaw going to make a break for it if they see you?”

—

“Who cares about safety?” Siobhan replied softly, staring at the woodgrain of the broken door. She had done her part being smart and safe, flinching at every flutter of grass or rustle of leaves--thinking some gaggle of pixies would think she was the next fun target. A traitor could never be safe. What was worse then? That she realized in time that with nothing to lose, she had nothing to fear, or that no one had ever come for her? She was forgotten and all her fear was a strange, self-important desire. Regis might have thought she was forgotten too and what was worse? That the woman who had everything chose to leave or that Siobhan envied her? Perverse as it was, she wished someone would knock her door down and remind her that she mattered at all to someone at some point. If they came, they’d find she didn’t care about losing her shiny car or decades worth of baubles. Her back burned with the memory of her mother’s vicious hands pulling at her wings. She rolled her shoulders. “We’re all going to die one day, you might as well let it come in style.”

Emilio’s words snapped her out of her mind and she turned to face him. “We all have our things; yours is piss and mine is bones,” she smiled easily, finding the rhythm of hurting someone else easy under the talon-grip of her own sadness. Emilio was nothing more than a therapeutic punching bag and Regis was nothing more than a means to an end. She’d have a life with purpose and family again, and that would be that. “Regis Coleslaw doesn’t know what I look like,” Siobhan sighed. “She has no idea who I am, even, and I have no idea how she might feel about me.” Siobhan didn’t care either. If Regis was in a place like this, she must have been afraid of the banshees of saol elie; Siobhan had already lost the battle of a good impression. “What does it matter? I want her. I don’t care how I get her, I just need her alive.” She sighed again, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Now are we knocking or can we stop pretending like this door is even locked?”

—

“You’d be surprised.” Emilio might not put a lot of stock in his own safety these days but if being a detective had taught him anything, it was that other people did. He’d had plenty of cases that took the form of someone just trying to ensure they were safe in one way or another. Sometimes, they needed leverage on someone else, dirt that they could use to cover their own back and ensure mutually assured destruction if they needed it. Other times, that desire for safety came in the form of asking him to find someone whose location was unknown, either because they would feel safer knowing where they were or because they needed them close in order to feel all right. Most people were only trying to be safe, whatever that looked like. Siobhan, it seemed, was the exception to that. It was a little refreshing, even if she was annoying. “Doesn’t matter if you die in style or not. You’re just as dead either way.”

He rolled his eyes at her statement, gritting his teeth just a little. “That isn’t my thing.” Not that he knew what his thing was. Something depressing, most likely. A bottle of whiskey, a dirty knife. Nothing worth having, but still better than whatever it was she had going on with bones. The Regis Coleslaw mystery seemed to be growing more and more with each stone he uncovered. Siobhan was looking for someone who didn’t know who she was or how she might feel. She needed this person alive. She didn’t know what she looked like, but she thought the idea that she’d live in a crumbling apartment was preposterous. There was definitely something odd about the whole situation, but… Emilio wasn’t getting paid for those questions. He was getting paid for this. 

Deciding knocking was a risk, he shrugged. “All right, all right. We can just…” The hair on the back of his neck stood up. That familiar almost-nausea tugged at his gut, persistent and loud. He heard footsteps on the other side of the door, but the only heartbeats he could hear were his and Siobhan’s. There was a low noise, like an animal growling. Cursing, Emilio grabbed Siobhan by the arm and yanked her out of the way just as the door burst open to reveal twisted features and red eyes. Christ. Not only was Siobhan’s Regis Coleslaw a fucking vampire, she was a feral one. Letting out a mangled cry, the vampire leaped forward, going straight for his client’s throat. “¡Puta madre! Maldita cosa estúpida…” He couldn’t exactly get paid if his client was eaten, and Regis Coleslaw seemed too far gone to reason with, so Emilio yanked out his stake, grabbing the vampire by the shoulder and yanking it backwards, throwing it back into the apartment and rushing after it. 

Maybe it was good that Siobhan had come with him after all. He got the feeling that this one would have been hard to explain otherwise.

—

Siobhan did not enjoy being yanked, but she could forgive the act when the cause was a starved vampire. The creature streaked across her vision, closing into her. She smiled in its face--her face, though gender was a construct very far from the mind of the creature. Once upon a time, maybe, it might have been a ‘her’. Siobhan could see the tattered remains of a pastel floral skirt and a sensible white blouse; the pieces of a personality that were lost. “Can I interest you in a mint or…?” But before the creature could meet her neck in a not-so-sexy bite, it was off of her and focused on Emilio. “No! Not Emilio! He’s too sexy to die now!” Not that he was, she would’ve screamed if he was, but Fate could still change and Siobhan had no preferences either way. As long as it wasn’t her sweet blood being made a meal of. “If you eat him, leave me his bones!” She called out into the murky depths of the dilapidated apartment. “Emilio, I realize you have a stake and that means you know how to use it but I just think if I’m going into business with a slayer I should be warned beforehand so I can prepare my wood jokes.”

She followed the sounds of struggle, watching Emilio with the thin body of someone who once loved sensible-office-lady fashions. “You’re doing a wood job right now.” She paused, running a hand through her hair as a frustrated sigh slipped through her lips. “See? I would be doing so much better if you just let me prepare.” She leaned up against the broken door frame, arms crossed over her chest. “If it makes you feel more confident,” she called out over the sounds of their struggle, “you’re not actually going to die. Not yet, at least. Oh, but you are dying whittle by whittle every day.” Maybe when Emilio was done fighting, he would admit that one was a good joke.

—

At this point, Emilio could fight a feral vampire in his sleep. He’d been doing shit like this since he was a child, had been tossed in rooms with feral beasts before he had a sound grasp on what those beasts were. It was almost a comfort, having something as familiar as a vampire to fight. What was less familiar was Siobhan’s commentary. “Not helping,” he called back in her direction, ducking to avoid the vampire’s attempt to bite his neck. She wouldn’t have liked what she found there, of course — slayer blood wasn’t a very tasty snack — but he’d still like to avoid having his throat torn out if at all possible. Although, if the alternative was hearing Siobhan’s best ‘wood jokes,’ maybe bleeding out in Regis Coleslaw’s shitty apartment wouldn’t be so bad. “You’re not getting my pinche bones. Stop asking.” 

Feral vampires were strong, but stupid. There wasn’t much difference between this and a spawn, when you got down to it. Sure, maybe with enough blood, this one could get back to something resembling human eventually, but right now? That just wasn’t an option. If it was kill or be killed here, Emilio would take the former if only to avoid the embarrassment of being murdered by a fairly killable vampire in front of someone who would almost certainly pick apart his corpse and make off with his femur after. He glanced back curiously as Siobhan assured him that he wasn’t going to die with all the confidence of someone who knew it for a fact, narrowing his eyes momentarily. The suspicion couldn’t last, of course; not with Regis Coleslaw doing her damndest to make a meal out of his throat. 

Turning back to the fight, Emilio grunted and shoved the vampire off of him and into a coffee table which shattered with the force of the impact. It didn’t do much to slow the vampire down, but it did put Siobhan back into its line of sight. It moved for the professor again, and Emilio barely managed to grab it by the hair and yank it back again, turning it and pulling it onto his stake. There was a moment of quiet then, a heartbeat where it seemed the vampire was registering its own death before it collapsed into a pile of dust all over the front of Emilio’s shirt. Great. “All right,” he said, dusting off his shirt as best he could, “there you go. Regis Coleslaw. Sorry there’s no bones, but have some dust.”

—

Siobhan wasn’t sure why ‘slayer battles vampire’ wasn’t a national broadcast sport but she was, at that moment, convinced it would make for wonderful TV. Not only was Emilio sufficiently stressed, annoyed and still bursting with that hunter determination, but the former Regis Coleslaw made a beautifully tragic case. Being in the ‘splash zone’—as it was now known in the sport of slayer watching—Siobhan enjoyed a level of personal thrill. When the vampire came for her again, Siobhan remained smiling. And as Emilio predictably pulled the creature away from her, leaving Siobhan unharmed and only a little disappointed, she wondered if she could sell this experience for a few hundred dollars. 

As Emilio rose, dusting the remains of Regis Coleslaw off of him, Siobhan frowned. “You couldn’t have extended this a little? I was having a grand time over here.” Of course, ‘slayer battles vampire’ wouldn’t be so profitable if the vampires were done too quickly. It was a conundrum that she wouldn’t ponder again outside of this moment as she would inevitably forget to. She frowned again. “No thank you on the dust, it clogs my pores.” She gestured to her face as if to demonstrate that her having clogged pores would be an extreme tragedy. “I still have a few wood jokes in me, but I guess you have to leaf now.” Did that count? Siobhan was counting it. She stepped closer, staring down at the spot the vampire had once been. She held no sympathy for the undead, the abominations that they were, but there was always something strange in seeing someone here one moment and then knowing that they were gone forever in the next. Death, even when it happened to those already dead, was an emptying feeling—being upturned and shaken out over an endless pit. She reached down and picked up the ID card that had snapped off her shirt when her body exploded into dust. It was the clip-on sort of work ID and sure enough the woman had been named Regis Coleslaw and one day in 2018 she had posed for a photo with a big smile on her face. She had brown eyes and brown hair and a small arrangement of freckles across her nose. 

Siobhan turned to Emilio, who had finished the job she’d hired him to do by all accounts. She flipped the ID around towards him. “Do you ever think about this? Or are they all just monsters to you? All the way through?” Siobhan didn’t ask because she cared, but it was a curiosity that played in her mind. Her fingers tightened around the clip. “You’re free to leave, by the way, I think I’ll stay to see if Regis ate someone whose bones I can pilfer—Hm, is it pilfering if they’re dead? Repurpose. Whose bones I can repurpose.” She smiled. “You’ll have your money by the end of the day, I’ll deliver it to your piss office. But before you go, if you could…” She rattled the ID. “I’m curious; indulge me.” And no, she would not be thanking him though he did objectively save her life—it didn’t count if she wasn’t really going to die anyway. 

—

Christ, Siobhan looked so smug about the whole thing. Like it was a game, like it was something funny that was happening on a television screen and not a potentially deadly fight right in front of her. It wasn’t hard to guess that she knew something was ‘different’ about Wicked’s Rest, but Emilio was beginning to wonder if she might actually have a few screws loose to go along with the knowledge. Most people were at least a little concerned when a vampire went for their throat. Siobhan was smiling. 

“Didn’t feel like letting her take a bite out of you. You might not have paid me if she had,” he replied dryly, though his expression betrayed some interest in the cavalier way she walked into the apartment. “Guess we’ll leave it for the maid, then.” Another joke; it was clear from the state of the apartment that Regis Coleslaw hadn’t had a maid. From the looks of things, she might not have even owned a vacuum. At least Siobhan’s pre-existing knowledge of the undead meant Emilio wouldn’t have to stay around to explain things to her.

Though it did not, apparently, save him from all explanations.

He looked down at the ID badge, at the smiling photograph of the person who’d once been inside the creature he’d just turned to dust. The smile didn’t quite reach her eyes, something he’d noticed was common with staged photos. If you wanted to really capture someone, it couldn’t be by telling them to smile. In the photo, Regis Coleslaw looked a little tired. Like working at Shift Space, Inc. had exhausted her even before her badge was printed. There were more hints of her lost humanity scattered around the apartment than there were in that picture, of course. The shoes tucked under the sofa. The wilting plants hanging by the window. The fan whirring from the bedroom. She’d been a person, once.

But not anymore.

“She was too far gone,” he said, looking to Siobhan with a shrug. “In a state like that… If she hadn’t killed someone already, she was going to. And maybe she would have come back to herself, after, but it would have been too late. Some people you can save. Some people you can’t. Being able to recognize that is the only thing that’ll stop somebody from losing their goddamn mind.” He plucked the name badge from between her fingers, tossing it over to the coffee table. Eventually, someone would come looking for Regis Coleslaw and find an empty apartment and a name badge. Maybe they’d tell themselves she’d gone off somewhere, found a better life. Maybe that’d be better for everyone. 

Deciding not to question the bone thing — there was some shit that Emilio really didn’t want to know about — the detective turned to walk towards the door. He paused under the archway, tapping his knuckles against the doorframe absently. “I’m charging an extra fee,” he informed her. “Stabbing’s not included in the base price. Good luck with your bones.” And then, he was gone.

—

Siobhan had been raised on rights and wrongs: right to be a banshee, wrong to be a human, right to be a devout servant, wrong to have any emotion. Hunters sometimes shared the same blacks and whites that she could comprehend: all vampires bad, all fae evil, humans good. Emilio’s response sucked the amusement right from her. It was a sensible answer, of course, but Siobhan lived in the gray that he had set out. Some people could be saved. Some couldn’t. It seemed like another black and white but one so strange in its idea; some people could be saved. Some people could be saved. Some. People. Could. Be. Saved. 

Siobhan watched the ID sail through the air. She didn’t know what Emilio meant. For the first time in her life, she had encountered a sentiment so bizarre that she couldn’t parse it. The individual words she understood: some meaning not all. People meaning people. Could meaning possible to happen. Be meaning can be done. Saved meaning… 

Siobhan swallowed. Behind her, the dull thudding of Emilio’s receding footsteps echoed through the room. His voice went off, something about charging more; it was funny, Emilio could be funny when he wanted, she realized. His voice was a little deeper than Siobhan thought it would be for his face, she noticed that before but the hollowness of Regis’s apartment accentuated it. He wished her good luck. He was gone. Some people, he said, could be saved. Siobhan burst out at once, bubbling over with questions: what did he mean? Saved from what? Who counted? How could he tell them apart? Did this make him an arbitrator of salvation? Saved meaning what? How could someone be saved? 

Siobhan picked up the tattered remains of Regis’s clothes, folding each article and setting it aside neatly on the cushion of the sofa. She pulled the shoes that were underneath until they sat out like they were ready to be worn. She grabbed the ID Emilio had thrown and laid it to rest on Regis’s sensible blouse. Her dust went in the nicest Tupperware container Siobhan could find from the kitchen and she put that out on the coffee table. For the next hour, Siobhan sat beside everything that remained of Regis and pretended she knew what salvation felt like. 

#i love bex and i love emilio #regis in peace #writing #s1 #c: emilio #another regis bites the dust

[hunsa-jars]

I posted 11,708 times in 2022

That's 4,587 more posts than 2021!

424 posts created (4%)

11,284 posts reblogged (96%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@smokeys-house

@rye-in-a-coat

@flowerbloom-arts

@laecandraw

@iemondropsss

I tagged 11,687 of my posts in 2022

#moomin - 2,469 posts

#moomins - 2,464 posts

#lego monkie kid - 1,081 posts

#snufkin - 989 posts

#dhmis - 797 posts

#don't hug me i'm scared - 789 posts

#this - 510 posts

#animals - 484 posts

#cuphead - 465 posts

#lego monkie kid season 3 - 414 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#the whole 'you're so much more than what i've become' got me so hard he's just holding snuf close to him and his expression dear god i can't

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

so you all know that i’m in a “oh my god monke!!” mood so it’s the perfect opportunity to appreciate a forgotten moomin character, the little Silk Monkey

wish we saw more of her..

Also silk monkeys (or marmosets) are super adorable and tiny, just look at em!!

See the full post

300 notes - Posted January 5, 2022

#4

If you guys gonna give Red the Tumblr Sexyman status I will get a free license to be unbearable on main, I think that would be fair

332 notes - Posted September 27, 2022

#3

Autumn this, fall that

W r o n g

It's Night in the Woods/Over the Garden Wall/Fran Bow season, get it right 🙄

348 notes - Posted September 5, 2022

#2

Girl help I'm so autistic about the autistic spaghetti man

401 notes - Posted September 29, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Eyey so i made this chart, since i haven’t seen one around including every important term so here it is!

i also added two more i always use because why not 

The terms explained (the first 7 from this post):

blorbo (favorite character, character I think about the most)

scrunkly (my “baby”, character that gives me cuteness aggression, character that is So Shaped)

scrimblo bimblo (underrated/underappreciated fave)

glup shitto (obscure fave, character that can appear in the background for 0.2 seconds and I won’t shut up about it for a week)

poor little meow meow (“problematic”/unpopular/controversial/otherwise pathetic fave)

horse plinko (character I would torment for fun, for whatever reason)

eeby deeby (character I would send to superhell)

Bonus 2 from me:

second dancers or “Másod táncos”, a word mix from my mother tongue, from the words “másod pilóta” [co-pilot] and “háttér táncos” [background dancer] (basically the background character or the one you just don't think much about. they’re there, they exist, and that’s kinda it for you)

blarba (the menace blorbo, the derogatory fave, you think about them a lot and you absolutely HATE it, they live in your head and aren't paying rent)

489 notes - Posted May 2, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #11708 POST A YEAR YALL #well damn #of course the moomin tag took the crown. i saw that coming #hahaha help the autistic spaghetti man post is number 2 sfndhnf #hell yeahhh the silk monkey appreciation #this is great- i'm happy with this

[laurelwinchester]

so.

the boys fandom sure turned out to be a whiny bunch, huh?

''the spn stans are clogging the tags with their posts about the guy from supernatural''

well.

you could post more shit in the tags.

i’m just spitballing here but imagine if you created the content you wanted to see instead of complaining that other people have dared to create the content they want to see.

not a gif maker? write some text posts. draw some fanart. make a fanmix. write a fic. write some analysis. speculate wildly. do literally anything other than whining like a five year old because the thing you want isn't in front of you at the specific moment in time you want it to be.

not a content creator at all? hey, i get it. i'm not much of a creator either. so you know what i do? i shut my goddamn mouth because i know better than to bitch and moan about the people who take time to make things. they're underappreciated as it is. they don't need you throwing their work back in their faces with complaints of, ''well, this isn't what i wanted.''

''there's nothing about this character/this actor in the tags because everyone is talking about soldier boy/jensen ackles''

again, perhaps you should do something about that? like, idk, post about that character or that actor? this should not be rocket science.

''soldier boy is a bad guy and here is a list of reasons why you can't like the character and why you're a terrible person and nothing more than an annoying spn stan if you do''

i'm sorry.

do you... do you think you're on sesame street?

almost every character on this show sucks. welcome to the point. it seems you've been missing it this whole time.

homelander is the most talked about character on the show. dude is a fan favorite. universally praised. and he is the worst of the worst. a heinous villain with an uncomfortable milk fetish. people like him because he is a bad guy. because that’s fascinating to watch. because the performance is incredible. 

if you can understand that but can't understand why people want to see more of soldier boy, why they find him fascinating, why they want to talk about him, then you're just a bitter hypocrite and that's your problem. not ours.

if you are someone who thinks liking villains is morally wrong, no exceptions, and everyone who does is somehow an awful person then i'm going to go out on a limb and say maybe this isn't the show for you.

also, as a final point - and kind of an important one - this is fiction. it's fictional. it's a television show. it's all fake. people can like any character they want. because they're characters. they're not real. sorry to break it to you. hate that you had to find out this way.

''why are people thirsting over soldier boy when we know he’s evil?''

yes, it's because he's played by jensen ackles.

live with it.

''they don't even like the show! they're just here for jensen!''

aside from the fact that most of the jensen stans i've seen (including myself) genuinely like the show...

so what if we didn't?

i'm sure there are some people who are going to watch this season just for him and then peace out after, but.. so? who cares?

sorry but you thinking that this affects you in some way is weirdo behavior.

''there's too much ass on my dash.''

you just watched a man shrink himself, climb into his boyfriend's penis, then accidentally blow him up from the waist down with a sneeze, but a two second ass shot is where you draw the line?

i think you'll survive.

#i mean good lord this is exhausting #like damn y'all live like this? #i expect this sort of constant nonsense spewing from cw fandoms but the boys fandom? i expected better from you lot #the boys fandom discourse #the boys #the boys spoilers

[dear-kumari]

How about Witch Hat Atelier for the ask meme?

I heard it's getting an anime, so I will definitely be checking it out once it airs ^^

Wonderful choice!  In the spirit of really hoping you pick up the series someday, I will also provide a little context for my blorbos, skrunklys, et al. :3  All you need to know going into these is that there’s a society of witches that’s regarded as helpful and altruistic but also hides the secrets of magic from the rest of the world, and the series is about a young outsider entering this society and wrestling with the cognitive dissonance therein.  The Pointed Hats follow the law, the Knights Moralis are a subset of Pointed Hats who enforce the law (they have the power to memory-wipe and exile people), and the Brimhats are any witches on the fringe who reject Pointed Hat laws and practice dangerous forbidden magic.

blorbo (favorite character, character I think about the most):

Coco, the main character!  It’s my opinion that main characters must be incredibly hard to write well, considering how often I’m underwhelmed by them.  Coco is a fantastic protagonist, though, and I really love how we get to see her worldview grow and/or shrink in real time with every harsh reality she faces.  A lot of the tension in WHA hinges on the possibility that she’ll join the Brimhats, which I would really love to see.

Also tied with Coustas, who started as a seemingly inconsequential bystander/casualty who would be forgotten in most manga and is now arguably the most important vehicle for the story’s themes.  Don’t want to spoil anything big here, but the way his arc has played out so far is just … intensely cathartic in a way I haven’t experienced in a while.

scrunkly (my “baby”, character that gives me cuteness aggression, character that is So Shaped):

Iguin, the main Brimhat antagonist!!  He’s aggressively Shaped, honestly, and all because of the cool/scary/somewhat goofy costume he wears.  I adore his vibes.

Also Sasaran, a minor ally of Iguin!  He’s also very Shaped, but not really by choice; he accidentally permanently transformed himself into a cat-man with forbidden magic. :/ it happens

Coustas again — wonderful character design, really

Tetia (one of the girls Coco’s learning magic with, basically loves making people happy and has curly pink hair), she’s soooo cute and endearing

scrimblo bimblo (underrated/underappreciated fave):

Tartar!  I wrote a whole impassioned post about it already, but yeah, he’s really the best.  I love when characters actually surprise me, and Tartar might be the most surprising character in the series with how much depth he brings to the story.

glup shitto (obscure fave, character that can appear in the background for 0.2 seconds and I won’t shut up about it for a week):

Cheating a bit here, but I also absolutely obsess over this depiction of random Brimhats, even though most or all of these representations probably aren’t specific characters we’re going to meet.  (You never know, though …)  I love the idea that there is a large and vibrant (and honestly, probably very chaotic and #cringe) Brimhat subculture out there waiting to be explored.  I just think they’re neat :)

poor little meow meow (“problematic”/unpopular/controversial/otherwise pathetic fave):

Who could it be but Sasaran?  Really, look at him.  He’s a literal pathetic wet cat.  He’s a goofy little meow meow.  He loves hurting random people, including innocent kids, with forbidden magic.  He has no redeeming qualities as far as I can tell, but that doesn’t make him any less deserving of my affections.  Honorable mention for Iguin ofc, but no one is doing it like Sasaran.

horse plinko (character I would torment for fun, for whatever reason):

Easthies :) To put it diplomatically, Easthies is solely dedicated to his job as a witch cop and the ethical principles it’s built around, so ofc he deserves the horse plinko ^^ (tbh I am Not opposed to “““redemption””” for any or all of the Knight Moralis in whatever form that might take, but only if this guy gets plinko’d)

Also Beldarut (a whimsical and politically important Pointed Hat guy), though I really have nothing specific against him.  I mean I think his worldview is kinda cowardly and ultimately harmful, but like. he has a fine personality.  I shouldn’t want to torment him for fun, but I do.

eeby deeby (character I would send to superhell):

Uhhh any of the minor characters who are obviously shitty to kids (Sasaran gets a pass bc he’s a skrunkly little meow meow, ofc)

Thanks for the ask!!  I really like talking about this series and I hope the anime brings in new readers ^^

#Kumari memes #Witch Hat Atelier #Tongari Boushi no Atelier #hirazuki #I'm not tagging everyone #or anyone ig #Also you're obliged to act shocked that I like the Brimhats so much. just be absolutely floored #me loving weirdo antagonists? unheard of #btw I'm just going w/ the pronouns used on the wiki for now but it's worth noting that Iguin and other Brims are pretty ambiguously gendered #so that might change at some point #Kumari abuses the tagging system

[randomvarious]

Today’s compilation:

Super Bad Is Back 1973 Funk / Soul / R&B

K-tel, a prolific Canadian compilation label that became a fixture of middle-America in the 70s, and was synonymous with overall cheapness and disposability, provided one hell of an outlier here with this 1973 record of theirs that's filled with contemporaneous funk, soul, and R&B tunes. Usually what mars K-tel is their gathering of huge, obvious hits, rendering their releases as practically useless and annoying, but with this album, even though they still chose a couple enormously popular songs, like Barry White's sex-blaxploitational "I'm Gonna Love You Just a Little Bit More Baby" and Bill Withers' gospel-inspired "Lean on Me," the rest of these tunes haven't fared nearly as well, commercially.

And that's what ultimately makes this such an exceptional release from K-tel. The selection here is simply stellar, with almost all of its tracks coming from 1973, specifically, and almost all of them magnitudes more obscure than what you'd expect from a typical K-tel release too. To be clear, all of these songs still managed to chart in some capacity in the US, but most of them didn't end up charting that well, and if they did, they're, for the most part, not signature hits.

For example, it took some time for Earth, Wind & Fire to become maybe the most popular funk and soul band of the 70s, but in their first few years, their biggest hit was a song with a touch of Latin to it called "Evil," which only made it to #50 on Billboard's Hot 100 and #25 on its R&B chart. And Curtis Mayfield, who had clearly established himself as one to definitely look out for by 1973, appears on here with "Future Shock," a flute-infused funk stunner that features his famed falsetto, that only barely scraped the top 40 and didn't make the R&B top 10 either!

And there's so many other examples of phenomenal, yet underappreciated gems on this album. Brooklyn's Mandrill delivers a lively piece of funk-rock with a blistering guitar solo called "Fencewalk," which only made it to #52 on the Hot 100 and #19 on the R&B chart, and in the case of one-hit wonders, a vocal group who dared to call themselves New York City doesn't even come with their one hit! Instead, K-tel gives us "Make Me Twice the Man," a terrifically lush soul joint that only made it to the bottom of the Hot 100 and #44 on the R&B chart.

So, in total, there's 20 songs on this album, and I ended up adoring 18 of them. This is another one of those compilations that reminds you just how much fantastic funk, soul, and R&B was floating around out there in the pre-disco 70s. Not even the charts could properly handle it all, but in this one rare case, K-tel was surprisingly able to. Unless you're a true-blue, dyed in the wool early 70s funk, soul, and R&B maven, I really don't see how you could possibly be familiar with a significant chunk of this amazing sampling of songs that mostly came out in 1973.

I also can't believe I found an essential K-tel album. This is like picking a four-leaf clover, folks! 🍀

Highlights:

Joe Simon - "Theme from Cleopatra Jones" First Choice - "Armed and Extremely Dangerous" Annette Snell - "You Oughta' Be Here With Me" The Manhattans - "There's No More Me Without You" Fred Wesley & The J.B.'s - "Doin' It to Death" Chakachas - "Jungle Fever" Kool & the Gang - "Funky Stuff" Barry White - "I'm Gonna Love You Just a Little Bit More Baby" Millie Jackson - "It Hurts So Good" The Chi-Lites - "Stoned Out of My Mind" Curtis Mayfield - "Future Shock" Don Covay - "I Was Checkin' Out She Was Checkin' In" Bill Withers - "Lean on Me" New York City - "Make Me Twice the Man" Mandrill - "Fencewalk" Lyn Collins - "Think (About It)" Earth, Wind & Fire - "Evil" James Brown - "Sexy, Sexy, Sexy"

#funk #soul #soul music #r&b #rhythm & blues #rhythm and blues #music #70s #70s music #70's #70's music

[pawpunkao3]

mmmm fuckit gonna do this

blorbo (favorite character, character I think about the most): Is it bad that I can’t narrow it down? TBH I like Barry, Gunnie, and Sid. I think they together are the real heart of the show and the most compelling characters. Additionally, they have the strongest established relationships out of everyone (Margaret and Skip were kinda interlopers, Riva doesn’t have that “we bonded through pain” vibe because they had a happy backstory) So they all get to share my heart :)

scrunkly (my “baby”, character that gives me cuteness aggression, character that is So Shaped): Barry! Yes I know I just said him but he bears repeating. He has the biggest heart and I love that for him. He probably gives the best hugs

scrimblo bimblo (underrated/underappreciated fave): ZORTCH. They fucking rock ok??? 100% calling them the Princhef now, it’s what they deserve. Also their vibe is inherently hilarious but also so touching. They don’t know shit but they’re still willing to risk everything to protect Gnosis.

glup shitto (obscure fave, character that can appear in the background for 0.2 seconds and I won’t shut up about it for a week): Ronnie Kwan. Man appeared once in the show but a million times in my heart. What is his story. I Wanna Know.

poor little meow meow (“problematic”/unpopular/controversial/otherwise pathetic fave): Ok fucking obviously Norman. Y’all knew it was gonna be him. I just think if Brennan and Zac didn’t want me to sympathize with him they should have made him actually unsympathetic and not also someone who was profoundly taken advantage of and wasn’t given the chance to cope with it.

horse plinko (character I would torment for fun, for whatever reason): Sidney. IDK why but she has the best character for angst. Maybe it’s the fact that she’s so new to personing, and doesn’t have the tools to work out her feelings, but there’s so much there!!

eeby deeby (character I would send to superhell): Gust Wetherall, but he’s already there (thanks Norman!) Literally booing at the screen whenever he appears.

[libertys-lovers]

Let’s Chat, Liberty! #1

(Welcome to my first proper gush post!)

Listen, being able to hook up with Karamatsu has all sorts of benefits. His existence, for example, is a great benefit!!! His passion, his goofy lil lines, his sweetness! However, there’s one benefit of knowing him that I think is criminally underappreciated. In fact, this benefit can come from being with ANY of the brothers: the benefit of knowing their mom.

Now I’m not gonna say that Matsuyo is 100% perfect... B U T I’m saying that she’s only 0.000000001% off. She’s a funny straightwoman to everyone’s nonsense, and STILL she has a heart of gold for her family! And... ya know... I just genuinely think that even before I officially started dating Kara, she’d welcome me with open arms. To be fair, part of the reasoning for that was probably her mindset of “excuse me?!?! my NEET sons met a woman that’s not actively trying to obliterate them?? k e e p  h e r  i n v e s t e d-”. But over time, I think she’d genuinely warm up to me. We could def get along, not just in that casual family sense. Dare I say we’d be... besties~

I love the idea of me arriving to the Matsuno household one day. One of the sextuplets opens the door, and already a bunch of assumptions are going through their head. I’m there to either A. Chill in their upstairs room to write, or B. Steal one of the brothers for the day. But from behind him calls Matsuyo, telling her son to move out of the way so we can go girlboss across the town. Or maybe after I marry her second-oldest son and officially become her kid (ah, someday~), someone will ask her if she has any spare photos of her kids. She’ll perk up a bit and start showcasing various photos, but they’re all of me! Whoever asked clarifies that they meant her sons, and she kinda just shrugs and pulls out a photo. Something about that feels like a joke from the actual show, and it’s pretty neat I think. (I know she deeply cares about her sons; I know they’ll have higher importance than me and I’m mega cool with that! I just also know that sometimes her love towards them is tough love-). This isn’t even just how she’d treat ME either; she’d treat all of her sons’ spouses like this, I can guarantee it. 

I also greatly appreciate the fact that she wouldn’t question how some of my adopted kids are straight-up cookies. She’s seen weirder stuff... she just wants some grandkids man- 

And remember, ALL of these fun lil things... and I haven’t even brought up Matsuzo yet! I’ll have to make another gush post for him-

I think the lesson for today is... man... familial F/Os are underrated aren’t they-

#🗽let’s chat liberty🗽 #<~ This is my gushing tag now I guess #I won't put EVERY post that would probably qualify as a gush under this tag #BUT at least my longer textpost gushes can go in here #self ship #self shipper #self shipping #self shipping community #familial f/o #parental f/o #f/o gush #🕶️💥dramatics💥🕶️ #🌲💥🌳Cozy Lil Treehouse🌳💥🌲