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#my version I’m afraid to say is just very 1980s :
saintmuses · 2 months
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❝𝙣𝙤 𝙜𝙧𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙙 𝙝𝙤𝙡𝙙 𝙢𝙮 𝙗𝙤𝙙𝙮 𝙙𝙤𝙬𝙣, 𝙄’𝙡𝙡 𝙘𝙧𝙖𝙬𝙡 𝙝𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙝𝙚𝙧❞
Pairing:
William Killick x Dylan’s Sister!Reader
Summary:
William had to cross the countryside of Wales to England to save Y/N Thomas from Dylan’s drunken rage, not knowing he would place her in another dangerous territory until it was too late.
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Warning(s): SMUT. P in V. Slight age gap (5 years between Reader and William). Possessive!William, and he is dark as well. Mentions of trauma bond, implied abuse (from Dylan). Deaths of Dylan and Vera. Minors, dni! Note: don’t mind my mistakes on trauma bond and separation anxiety :(. Trauma bonding was discovered in 1980s, and I’m only using the part of emotional addiction, dependency and trust in trauma bonding due to how William ensures being her safety net. Therefore, pretend the knowledge of trauma bonding and secondhand trauma exists in 1940s, and I would be implying modern therapy in this fic in order for this to work due to how horrible therapy was in 1940s especially with women. As much as I adore sweet William, I absolutely love dark version of him as well.
Word Count: 2.5k
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1947
The fire was blazing in its warmth, as if there was nothing smothering it, casting a soft orange glow around the room, leaving the corners dark and untouched at the cottage.
He was sitting down on gaudy furniture, holding a tumbler of amber liquid, observing the movement of light.
He was aware of her standing by the doorway, he knew she was feeling out of place at the moment as he felt the weight of her gaze as it landed on him.
He couldn't stand the scrutiny he could feel radiating off her.
In response to the tension, his fingers tightened around the glass, only to release his grip slightly when he heard a subtle echo in her footsteps.
"We need to talk, William." She whispered. 
The words carried to his ears, sounding afraid the words that held so much weight would pierce the world that surrounded them.
It could.
That night when he had returned to the very town in England that caused him nothing but bitterness of the memories that were lost a long ago, swearing to the bottom of his heart that he was going to protect Y/N from her brother to ensure she would live.
Vera had told him that Y/N sent a letter to her, pleading for her help to save her from the alcoholic rage her brother would have ever since losing Vera.
He had only met her briefly during Dylan Thomas’ birthday celebration at the pub where they frequented before he left for the war. She was pretty, but timid that he barely paid any attention to her presence.
He left his warm kitchen that night, leaving the imprint of the memory at the kitchen table and the chair, not knowing it would change everything he thought he had known.
The world was fleeting. Regimes rise and fall, he tended not to be fazed by it especially after the war. Tyrants still exist to this day, ruling with an iron fist along with kings and queens representing a lie as figureheads to politics and scheming. Another way to say the world had gone to shit, but God, she was beautiful.
He had saved her just in time, reaching for her floating head in the clawed bathtub. Her hair was floating covering his hands as he pulled her out of the tub, her face revealed black and violet prints.
Ethereal beauty, as if she was a siren beckoning him despite the flaws of the abuse her brother had put her through.
He then took her away after giving her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, turning her body over as her body rejected the liquid. Away from the life she had lived, away from the ones that caused her nightmares.
Leaving everything behind with little regards.
He also left Dylan on the floor, drunken with drool leaking out from the side of his mouth before leaving the house on fire along with a hole in his head where it should’ve been the first time, he had attempted to shoot him. Fortunately, Caitlin and her children were out of town when it happened.
It was a secret he was going to carry to his grave if there was ever one for him.
His little need to protect his love from the horrors of the world had consumed him especially after what she had gone through. It was a parasite borne out of the need after witnessing her experiencing the near brush with death that night several moons ago.
What he had failed to calculate in his need to protect her, is how he was not able to protect her from the one person who served the biggest threat to her life.
Him.
The one person he had thought would've been her brother.
Oh, but he was mistaken.
He was wrong.
It was him all along.
Now there was an obsession that was highly volatile. A need to own her every move, every sweet gaze that he only wanted to her sweet eyes straight at him. He wanted to own it, every beautiful piece of her and leave nothing else for the rest of the world to have.
Of course, he had tried to control himself as best as he could; However, he could not outrun his impatience despite telling himself that he could.
There are some things he could carry patience for and there are things he could not.
He protected her from the world, but he couldn't protect her from him.
He was done trying to control the monster crawling out of his soul to consume her.
She could have his heart if she had the stomach to take it, even when he had already given it to her that night.
She trusted him, he knew that. However, her trust she blindly bestowed on him would severely damage if she had found out the truth he held from her.
The reasoning why Vera was gone in the middle of the night as well.
Y/N, for all of the generous parts of her, needed to help him to take care of his child Rowatt.
It had been six months since he had committed an act of murder against Vera who was buried far away that no one would think to find her body and kept it like a secret in the form of an oath.
It wasn't until one night the dynamic between them had changed when she came to him in the middle of the night, and confessed she was having a nightmare.
It wasn't until she quietly begged him to stay in the same bed as her. Begging him implicitly to taunt his monster that resided in his soul.
Being susceptible to sweet charm of hers, he gave in.
After it was all said and done, he knew it by then. Even prior to her going in town to meet up with a psychiatrist, he held it from her.
He had kept his distance, at least a foot between them, so stiff the tension taunted him of how close she was and yet so far at the same time.
Somehow, she grabbed his hand, tugging his arm with all of her strength which ended up with him rolling over and laid his arm across her waist from behind, keeping a respectful touch to it.
All she had said was the word please.
Needless to say, his control over the beast that resided in him snapped.
He pulled back enough to guide the tip of his cock to her entrance before sliding right in. He nearly growled as her wet, molten walls stretched open to envelope his cock, struggling against his girth, but accepting the intrusion eventually.
Her hand shot back to grab onto his thigh, trying to keep him from going too deep, but he had no intentions of holding back now that he was inside her.
He enclosed her wrist with his fingers, guiding her hand towards her chest before wrapping his arms around her and held her tightly.
"Love," he purred his pet name for her into her ear as his hips met hers. "This is mine," he murmured as his breath kissed her ear.
He could hear her gasping and felt her shuddering in his arms, his eyes falling shut as he withdrew slightly before thrusting again, incredibly slow but as deep as he could from this position.
He'd imagined this in his mind and in his dreams whenever he slept, for so long and now that he had her...he couldn't ever let her go. Finally caught in his golden cage, a wild bird that would still sing.
Every inch of her was like heaven, every moan was somehow more beautiful than the last, and all his.
A wild bird that sung beautifully.
"You're doing so well for me, love." He patronized her, growling slightly when he pressed deep into her pussy. His fingers tightened on her hips, dragging her into him as much as he could so the tip of his cock hit the deepest parts of her. 
He nearly shuddered when Y/N whined, a long-broken noise, and he leaned towards her neck in response, pressing his lips to her damp skin while trying his best to make her sing again. “You don’t want to wake up Rowatt.” He panted, thrusting faster, and slamming his hips against hers more forcefully.
His keen sense of hearing picked up on her whimper that managed to escape from her lungs, and he groaned through his teeth.
He leaned back slightly before reaching down with his hand to spread her buttocks apart so he could see his cock stretching her out, pushing into her pliant body. The sight of it made his head fall back for a moment, inhaling sharply before he pulled her close again and started thrusting with a brutal force.  He reached around and brought two fingers to her clit, rubbing it fiercely as he kept thrusting.
"William," she gasped, arching her back in response.
He hummed a little in approval. "Y/N, you're so beautiful looking like this," he praised, jerking his hips harshly. She cried out and shuddered, pushing herself on his cock, meeting his thrusts. Amused by her desperation, his thrusts slowed down.
She whined and kept going, her buttocks slapping against his hips loudly in a clear desperation. His fingers were still rubbing her bundle of nerves, he could feel her walls starting to clench down on him rhythmically and her body beginning to shake.
He leaned towards her neck, pressing his lips against her skin once more before his lips pulled back, revealing his blunt teeth, he then sank his teeth into the curve of her neck hard as he could to mark her. To ruin her.
The blood dripped into his mouth. It was at the point where he realized his teeth successfully made its mark into her skin that his eyes rolled back into his head.
The absolute second he heard her cry out in alarm, twinged with pleasure as she reached the peak, he grabbed her and rolled both of them over until she was on her stomach, and he was brutally fucking her into the mattress as he still refused to detach from her neck.
He could still feel her pulsing around his length, gripping him tight and pulling him deeper. He withdrew his teeth from her neck, grunting against the mess of her skin.
"Y/N, you feel so exquisite," he purred, pinning her down by the back of her shoulders as he sped up even more.  He laughed lightly when he felt her walls weakly fluttering, his balls hitting her swollen clit with each thrust. "You are a needy little thing, wanting more even when I'm tearing you apart," he taunted as he gave a brutal thrust.
She whined in response. "William," she gasped his name, sobbing hoarsely. "Please don't stop..." she moaned weakly as she begged.
"Oh, I won't stop," he assured her. "You'll never have to beg me for it. I will always give you; you have my word on that, Y/N." He murmured darkly, leaning towards her ear. "You take it so good, love. You were made for me."
He could hear her swallowing, "I want us to be real." She confessed softly, sitting down on the opposite end of the couch. The furniture is relatively average, so there was a little room between him and her.
He refused to look at her ever since the truth of their connection had been revealed.
Secondhand Trauma Bonding. Her psychiatrist had called it. He was angry when Y/N came to him about it.
"This type of bond occurred due to emotions you’ve had for me after the night I found you in the bathtub and I didn’t stop you from depending on me. So, whatever we are...we are very much real." He stated in a flat tone, placing the tumbler down onto the coffee table in front of him. "Isn't that enough for us?"
There was a pause. He could hear her heart pounding as she contemplated the words to say to him. "William, I want this to be real, not some...influence from the trauma bond I imposed on you."
"What do you want me to do?" He snapped, asking her with an angry tone as he glared into the fireplace. "The bond is borne from the emotions you’ve experienced from your brother. You couldn’t help but to find a safety net which is me. So if you think it is wrong…" he muttered, trailing off. "I don't know what to do, Y/N. So, tell me, if you do know."
Lie.
He knew how to stop the bond induced by the emotional ordeal from trauma which she had depended on him for, but he simply just did not want to.
"I do." She exhaled softly, wringing her fingers. William had to tramp down the urge to reach across and take her hands into his.
He had a feeling he would not like her next words. "I talked to Caitlin earlier," she hesitated, giving him a brief glance. "She told me that there is a place for me at her home so we could lessen the dependency on the bond we have. That way I can work on myself then…" The rest of the sentence faded out as the noises coming out of her voice droned out as his gaze on the fire grew with an intense focus.
Damn it all to hell. Of course, even when Dylan was already long in ashes, Caitlin Thomas would be the one to start trouble. 
He nearly growled, abruptly slamming down the reaction before it could escape from his chest.
He should let her go.
He was a gentleman, he told himself, scoffing internally knowing the truth.
He had to do the right thing and let her go. That way she could get better like she wanted to, that she deserved, then she could come back to him.
He understood where she was coming from. The bond they both shared influenced their separation anxiety that they were rarely apart from each other until one day it all came crashing down. However, his fear of the unknown is gripping him.
He knew of his emotional attachment to her. 
He was not afraid of the fact that his feelings might’ve not be real because it was. It occurred right before she even began to depend on him for the bond that existed between them. He was afraid of her feelings for him.
What if it disappeared after the time and distance apart as she worked on herself?
The thought of it washed over him with a ferocious force of anger that it nearly knocked the breath out of him.
The orange glow wavered slightly in the air as if it could feel his anger brimming on the edge through his veins.
He could feel the tendrils of possessiveness wrapping around her, tightening their reins on her fire that was brimming but not roaring enough to break away from the shackles that was him.
She wasn't going anywhere.
Never.
"It's not going to happen, love."
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brokenmusicboxwolfe · 6 months
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I am deeply saddened to see that actor David McCallum has died. While 90 hardly a short life, when someone has mattered to you, even in the distant way of an actor playing make believe for a living, you always wish the life were longer.
I expect I am about to ramble, and not very coherently (sleep deprivation), so all of it will go under the cut.
Actually, he was about the first actor I ever remember recognizing. When I was 3 I adored an obscure tv series called The Invisible Man, where he played the title character. It bares little resemblance to the original story, instead following the adventure show of the 1970s-1980s formula. I think the fact he played a scientist, married to a scientist, and that the couple happily worked together had a lot to do with it. Reminding me of my parents was a natural thing to appeal to a preschooler.
To be honest, I only remembered fragments of the show, but I remembered him vividly. Even as a little kid if I saw him anywhere my first thought was “lt’s the invisible man!!” and a wave of affection would wash over me.
Affection is something you wouldn’t find with my favorite of his tv shows. Steel, in my beloved Sapphire and Steel, is hardly a warm character. How can I describe the show…Well, the title characters aren’t human, but beings that are sent out to deal with problems in time, or maybe you can say caused by time. Nursery rhymes, photographs, and gas stations take on a menacing quality. If these two show up you better be afraid because while they will go to extreme lengths to stop the threat, those lengths might involve sacrificing you.
Steel the cool, sharp edged, and anything but the lovable nice guy I’d adored as a tot….and I adored him here too.
I was late seeing Sapphire and Steel, but I was even later seeing The Outer Limits (original version) where he starred in two of my favorite episodes.
In one, The Sixth Finger, he played a coal miner experimented on by a scientist until he evolved far beyond a connection to his humanity. I have an action figure of that one!
The other, Forms of Things Unknown, has an obvious inspiration in a certain famous French thriller, but then in comes McCallum, a man experimenting with time. While in the other episode he played a man shedding his humanity with every mutation, here he actually is unearthly from the start, a peculiar characterization that reminds me of the madness of characters that have seen to far into the void, but also of a child lost to forces far beyond them….
TBH, I went through a period where this episode was comfort viewing. I would day dream up back story details for McCallum’s character, and even ways to connect it to Sapphire and Steel.
What? just because I was going full geeky fangirl on a single episode of a tv show made well before I was born isn’t THAT weird on here!
And here is another obscure one I’m fond of, a movie called The Ravine. It’s a movie set during WWII where he’s a German soldier sent to capture a woman that’s been acting as a sniper picking of his side like crazy. The concept, that they end up trapped together and do the enemies to lovers thing, seemed like the usual contrived thing. Still, out of mild curiosity I watched a horrible print on Youtube and I was surprised how effective it was. I was actually sold on the tragic relationship, and I’d gone into it expecting to be rolling me eyes. In fact , since it isn’t (or at least wasn’t) available on DVD in the US I got one from Europe. Good thing the acting and setting are more important than dialog, cause I don’t speak Italian!
Frankenstein: The True Story has about as much relationship to the original novel as Bram Stoker’s Dracula has to the book, but it’s actually a rather fascinating take on subject. Tumblr would approve of the gay subtext (more like text, cause how could even folks in the ‘70s miss it) McCallum’s part is supporting, but crucial being both Frankenstein’s mentor and brain donor. I’ll be honest with you, my weakness for mad scientists is showing because I swooned over even has he enthusiastically collects raw materials (ahem) for their work.
Is it weird that this is the roll he played that had me properly, classic fan girl swooning?
There are couple of adaptations that are notable for me. There is that adaptation of Kidnapped he was in. I got it on DVD for my father because the sequel to Kidnapped was a childhood favorite of his, and this was the rare version to use that book (TBH, Pop had a fanboy crush on the girl in that book, from the way he talk! LOL) Unfortunately Pop died before seeing it, so it colors my thoughts on it. And there was an adaptation of Our Mutual Friend, one of my favorite Dickens novels, but I watched it in a “see all the adaptations” kick so it’s a blur of compare and contrast.
I will end this with the most peculiar way a part he played connected with me.
It started unexpectedly, with me watching The Man from UNCLE on a DVD set my father had gotten for Christmas. My parents had liked the show, but like a lot of shows from before I was born I’d heard a lot about it before I’d seen it.
To be honest I wasn’t particularly impressed. Oh, it was fine, and I did like the warm dynamic of the main two characters. **It’s just sort plain potato chip tv, tasty but forgettable. Plus it was sooo of it’s time that the sexism irritated me no end. I have watched, and loved, a lot of 1960s tv, so maybe I just expected more. I enjoyed it, but if you asked me to rank my faves of the “ Sixties lets do the Spy Thing” tv shows I would pick Wild, Wild, West or The Avengers or Danger Man or Get Smart*** even before it.
So it was fine, I enjoyed it while we watched, and then didn’t really think about it anymore.
And then my father got sick.
My father’s illness, and eventual death, hit me hard. Very hard. I was alone dealing with it. I had no friends, and wasn’t even on Tumblr yet. I couldn’t weigh my parents down with my emotions when they had so much of their own. And with my father’s chemo and such I was often actually alone. Obviously not as much as now, but so many days completely alone was new to me then.
So there I was, on the verge of being an emotional but holding it together, desperately aching for someone, anyone, I could turn to….
And then I started dreaming.
Of course I always had dreamed, but this was different. This was nightly dreaming. Serial dreaming. Stories that continued on for days or weeks. And fictional characters started creeping in. Up until then the characters in dreams had always been my OCs, but now suddenly tv shows, books, movies, comics…they were all fodder for the stories helping me escape.
The part may be one of his most famous roles, but it still came as a huge surprise when I found myself dreaming about Illya.
Actually, the first dream was a general Man from UNCLE dream. It was fun, even if it seemed weird to be dreaming about the show. But then the next one had Illya only.
And so it started, an epic series of dreams, chapter after chapter, night after night. Adventures with Illya.
Well, and aliens and time travel and so on. It was, after all, my subconscious spinning the story, not screenwriters. Gotta get time travel and/or alternate universes in there somewhere if it comes out of mushed up brain.
After a while the dreams had bigger gaps between them, but the dreams with Illya still came. In fact over months they dominated my dreaming. Illya was there all the time.
It got so I spent time when I was awake, thinking about the dreams and the character. What would Illya think of this? What would Illya listen to? What would Illya say? What if Illya were in that situation? What if…
Now, I admit, the Illya I was imagining is only inspired by the one David McCallum played. It looked like him. It sounded like him. I even found myself replaying select episodes to remind myself of his “voice” so my brain could make him seem more authentic. But the truth was he was my interpretation of Illya, my head-cannon, my quirks, my obsessions..
Actually I guess it was my need. I needed someone. My dreams even created characters to be my avatars for interacting with him. I those dreams I could talk to him, laugh with him, cry in front of him, save him or be saved by him, and be his friend.
And in a weird way, that is what my brain was doing. It was giving me an imaginary friend while I slept. Someone smart and kind and brave, to save the world…just like the imaginary friend I’d had when I was little.****
I’d given myself an imaginary friend that looked and sounded like Illya!
Well, in dreams. I wasn’t so far gone I talked to him when I was awake!
But it was comforting. I found myself thinking about those dreams, almost cuddling up to them in those painful dark days. I confess I worried that if I ever were in a delirium or under anesthetic or something might call out to him and have some very embarressing questions asked.
Eventually the dreams stopped. Time moves on. Maybe I didn’t need them anymore, or maybe my subconscious got bored.
TBH I kinda wish I still had dreams about him, or some other characters. Any dreams with a repeated cast or continuing story would be beyond welcome. I could REALLY use their company now.
And now, writing this, I realize just why I actually gasped when I saw David McCallum had died. Yes, as an actor he had played many parts I enjoyed, but other actors have done that without the shock of their death knocking the breath from me. But the fact is no other actor has had their performance gift me with something that felt like a friend when I needed one most.
So that’s why I am sad. It isn’t just a list of parts he played that I loved or that he had been a familiar face as long as I can remember. He got stored in a special part of my mind, the strange area of the imagination where strangers and friends get blurred and fiction protect a fracturing heart.
I am eternally grateful he lived. Even if I didn’t have a list of credits I enjoyed ******, as long as I had those dreams he helped inspire when I needed them most I’d mourn his passing.
Condolences to all that loved him, be they friends, family, or fans.
**Though I would end up in fandom exile for seeing them as like brothers or little boy best friends instead of shipping them. Good on you if you do. I think it’s beautiful every character everywhere gets shipped with someone, but dang, what is with the hate for the non-shipping fans?)
*** The Prisoner, possibly my fave tv show ever, isn’t really in this category to my mind, but a lots of folks would disagree.
****My childhood imaginary friend was the ghost of a little boy murdered by his uncle during the American Revolution. Still, the smart, kind, brave, save the world stuff was there too.
*****I didn’t mention something he did that I enjoyed. For instance, Mother Love, a wonderful bit of tv that criminally isn’t on DVD, because it’s Diana Riggs’ showcase. But then I’ve also never seen any of the six billion years of NCIS (I think those are the letters). Who knows how many other of his work I never saw.
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survey--s · 1 year
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550.
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What do you think makes you a good girlfriend or boyfriend? I'm loyal and supportive.
When was the last time you went to the movie theaters? What movie did you see? Just before COVID hit - and I saw the live-action version of Cats with my mum. It was laughably bad.
Did you ever go to a mental hospital? Nope, which I'm really relieved about as they really scare me.
Do you watch the show, Ghost Whisperer? How about, NCIS? I've never heard of Ghost Whisperer but I loved the early seasons of NCIS. I haven't seen much beyond about Season 5, though.
Do you like s’mores? I've only had them once I think - they were okay but I suspect they're not like the ones you get in the US. Do you like to watch those old scary movies, from like 1980? Nah, I'm really not into horror movies in general though.
Does your mom/dad smoke? No, neither of them smoke.
How often do you take a shower? Everyday - I feel really gross if I don't. I also work a really active job too so it's not really optional lol. Do you wear flip flops in winter? Around the house or out to the bins/car, sure, but I wouldn't wear them "out out".
How old are you? I’m 34.
When was the last time you went to a concert? What band? It was about a decade ago lol, and the band was The Courteeners. Do you ever have hallucinations? Nope.
Do you believe that weed should be legalised? No, because I don't believe it's this safe, harmless drug that everyone makes it out to be. It should legal for medicinal purposes though, as long as you're under a regular GP who checks in with you regularly. Did you ever feel someone was following you/watching you? Sure, a few times when I was younger and used to walk home alone late at night for various reasons.
Are you one of those over-obsessed Twilight fans? No. I did like the first film and I read the books, but only because it was popular and something to do.
Got any scars? How about bruises? Scars, yes, but I don't think I have any bruises at the moment.
Have you moved here from a different country? No, but my parents did.
Are you afraid of the dark? Nope. Have you ever been stalked? No. Do you like when people tell you they love you? Only if they mean it.
Would you say your taste in music is in a very broad spectrum? Yeah, most definitely.
Have you ever had a significant other with a mental disorder? Yes, bipolar and depression. Mike has ADHD if that counts?
Do you like doing laundry? It's one of the easiest chores but I wouldn't say I enjoy it. It's just one of those things that has to be done, lol.
Have any siblings? How many? No.
Do you like beer? Light beer is okay but I don't like the really dark stuff.
Do you sip your shots or down em all at once? Down them.
Have you ever counted your scars? No.
What website do you spend way too much time on? Facebook. What is one thing that you absolutely despise about your personality? I don't despise anything about myself.
What two colors do you think look best together? Purple and grey.
Do you take any medications that make you nauseous? Not anymore, but I have done in the past.
Have you ever tried Nutella? Yeah - it's nice enough but I prefer regular peanut butter or just plain chocolate spread. I'll have Nutella if that's the only option, though.
Are you a person that enjoys re-reading books? Yeah, and I re-watch films and TV shows too. It's comforting.
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mataurin · 2 years
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Hi!! I just wanted to say that I love your art ♡ Can you do dickkory #6 or #7 or #11, I'm really curious to see your version of these two. Thank u ♡♡
#7- I miss you kiss
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no-reply95 · 3 years
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Jealous Guys
Something I’ve been thinking about for a while now is the different ways jealousy manifested for John and Paul over the course of their friendship.
I’m going to look at John and Paul in turn and have a look at some of the key ways jealousy appeared, before, during and after the Beatles period. This will be a looooong post so if you want to go on deep dive keep reading below.
John
Jealousy was something that John acknowledged as a big part of his personality, as far as I’m aware, he only acknowledged his jealousy publicly in terms of his relationship with Yoko but I believe jealousy was a feature of all of John’s major relationships. John’s first real partnership was with Pete Shotton, his childhood best friend, and Pete has outlined how John’s jealousy and possessiveness was a feature in their friendship with them falling out when Pete first started showing interest in girls and with John acting out when Pete started to spend more time with other friends, instead of him, here Pete recounts John’s reflection on this period of their friendship:
“Years later John confessed to having felt acutely jealous throughout that interlude: “I was scared shitless I’d lost you after our fight in science class, when you starting playing with David Jones. I really thought I’d gone too far with you that time.“
Pete Shotton, John Lennon: In My Life , 1983
Pete’s recollections establish a pattern in John’s life of acting out due to a fear of abandonment and losing those who are closest to him so it’s not surprising that once John had formed a strong bond with Paul that would stir similar fears in him. 
Below I’ve categorised the groups of people that were the focus of John’s jealousy and have picked one person from each group as an example:
Family - Jim McCartney
Paul’s family was and continues to be a big part of his life. From the outset of their friendship, John was made aware of how important Jim was to Paul and vice versa. John and Paul had to skip school to hang out together because Jim wouldn’t have John in their house initially and John confessed his resentment of Jim’s influence over Paul’s life. It appears that after some time John grew tired of having to contend with Jim for the position of the most important person in Paul’s life, and this culminated in John giving Paul a pseudo ultimatum as John discussed in 1971:
“But Paul would always give in to his dad. His dad told him to get a job, he fucking dropped the group and started working on the fucking lorries, saying, "I need a steady career." We couldn't believe it… “So I told him on the phone, "Either come or you're out." So he had to make a decision between me and his dad then, and in the end he chose me”
St. Regis Hotel interview, Sept. 5, 1971
Friends - Mal Evans
Throughout the active years of the band it was typical of them to refer to each other as their best friends and, given the lives they led, I think the simple fact that no one else could understand what it was like to be a Beatle would have meant they all shared a special bond. However, they all had friendships outside of the band and this was something that could cause issues for John when it came to Paul.
According to Tune In, Mal initially became friends with Paul during the band's initial shows at the Cavern Club then, after a suggestion from George, Mal became a part of the Beatles entourage thereafter. Mal had friendships with all the Beatles, as part of their inner circle, but from his comments it appears John took umbrage with the closeness of Mal’s friendship with Paul:
“Paul would suddenly come in with this circle saying, “This is Magical Mystery Tour, will you write that bit?” And I was choked that he’d arranged it all with Mal anyway, for a kickoff, and had all this idea going”
St. Regis Hotel interview, Sept. 5, 1971
Mal also comes up when John discusses his recollections of the writing of Eleanor Rigby:
“So rather than ask me, “John, do these lyrics—” Because by that period, he didn’t want to say that – to me. Okay? So what he would say was, “Hey, you guys, finish off the lyrics,”... “ Now, I sat there with Mal Evans, a road manager who was a telephone installer, and Neil Aspinall, who was a not-completed student accountant who became our road manager. And I was insulted and hurt that he’d thrown it out in the air”...” There might be a version that they contributed, but there isn’t a line in there that they put in.“
Playboy interview, David Sheff 1980
John’s discomfort with the closeness of Paul’s relationship with Mal was something that wasn’t lost on Mal’s wife Lil:
“He was always at their beck and call. He was a nice fella to have around, so much so that it could provoke little jealousies within the band. When I met Yoko years after Mal died, she said John had told her he’d been very jealous at one point of Mal’s relationship with Paul.”
Lil Evans interview with Ray Connolly, 2005
Love interests - Linda McCartney
Throughout their friendship both John and Paul had quite a few love interests, which (to varying degrees) prompted jealousy between them.
Although John displayed jealousy of a few of Paul’s love interests this was no more apparent than with Paul’s first wife Linda McCartney, which is confirmed by both John’s words and actions regarding Linda and her partnership with Paul:
“"Then Klein informed Lennon that McCartney had secretly been increasing his stake in Northern Songs. ‘John flew into a rage,’ recalled Apple executive Peter Brown. ‘At one point I thought he was really going to hit Paul, but he managed to calm himself down.’ One unconfirmed report of this meeting had Lennon leaping towards Linda McCartney, his fists raised in her face"
Peter Doggett, You Never Give Me Your Money
"Int: When did you first meet her [Linda]? John: The first time I saw her was after that press conference to announce Apple in America. We were just going back to the airport and she was in the car with us. I didn't think she was particularly attractive, I wondered what he was bothering having her in the car for. A bit too tweedy, you know. But she sat in the car and took photographs and that was it. And the next minute she's married him."
St. Regis Hotel interview, Sept. 5, 1971
“I was reading your letter and wondering what middle aged cranky Beatle fan wrote it... "What the hell—it’s Linda! . . . Linda— if you don’t care what I say—shut up!—let Paul write—or whatever.”
"Of course, the money angle is important—to all of us—especially after all the petty shit that came from your insane family/in laws—and GOD HELP YOU OUT, PAUL—see you in two years—I reckon you’ll be out then"
Draft letter from John Lennon to Linda McCartney, circa 1971
"The presumption is a) the Beatles would get together again or are even thinking about it and b) if they got together, John and Yoko split, Paul and Linda split"
John (with Yoko) talks to John Fielding on Weekend World, 1973
"John often speculated on why Paul and Linda remained married while, at the same time, resenting their evident happiness, to the extent that he had Green do a tarot reading to ensure him that Paul and Linda were really secretly miserable and were going to divorce within a year"
According to Fred Seaman and John Green, source
Paul
Of course jealousy wasn't a one-way street in the Lennon-McCartney relationship. Unlike with John, for Paul I'm focusing more on the key people I believe his jealousy, regarding John, was directed to:
Stuart Sutcliffe
John met Stu at Art College and struck up a really close friendship with him. At the point that John met Stu, John had already become friends with Paul so Paul felt threatened when Stu entered the picture:
"When he [Stu] came into the band, around Christmas of 1959, we were a little jealous of him; it was something I didn’t deal with very well. We were always slightly jealous of John’s other friendships.
When Stuart came in, it felt as if he was taking the position away from George and me. We had to take a bit of a back seat."
Paul McCartney, Anthology 2000
"Paul was saying something about Stu’s girl – he was jealous because she was a great girl, and Stu hit him, on stage. And Stu wasn’t a violent guy at all."
John Lennon, 1967 Anthology 2000
"I looked up to Stu. I depended on him to tell me the truth. Stu would tell me if something was good and I’d believe him. We were awful to him sometimes. Especially Paul, always picking on him. I used to explain afterwards that we didn’t dislike him, really."
John Lennon, The Beatles Hunter Davies 1968
Yoko Ono
Of all the relationships I've already discussed, the relationship and jealousy displayed from Paul towards Yoko is probably the most widely discussed in Beatles historiography and general discourse. From the official start of Yoko's relationship with John in 1968 it was clear that Paul resented her presence in John's life and her proximity to the band:
"He even sent them [John and Yoko] a hate letter once, unsigned, typed. I brought it in with the morning mail. Paul put most of his fan mail in a big basket and let it sit for weeks, but John and Yoko opened every piece. When they got to the anonymous note, they looked puzzled, looking at each other with genuine pain in their eyes. ‘You and your Jap tart think you’re hot shit’, it said."
Francie Schwartz, Body Count 1972
"Cause she’s [Yoko] very much to do with it from John’s angle, that’s the thing, you know. And I – the thing is that I – there’s— Again, like, there’s always only two answers. One is to fight it, and fight her, and try and get The Beatles back to four people without Yoko, and sort of ask her to sit down at the board meetings. Or else, the other thing is to just realize that she’s there, you know. And he’s not gonna sort of – split with her, just for our sakes."
Paul McCartney, Let It Be Sessions, 1969
"I told John on the phone the other day that at the beginning of last year I was annoyed with him. I was jealous because of Yoko, and afraid about the break-up of a great musical partnership. It’s taken me a year to realise that they were in love. Just like Linda and me."
Paul McCartney, interview with Ray Connolly, 1970
What are the similarities and differences in the way jealousy manifested for John and Paul?
I think it's obvious but bears repeating that both John and Paul displayed jealousy towards other people who they felt would threaten their relationship so that's central to all the instances I have flagged, Jim, Mal, Linda, Stu, Yoko all posed real or imagined threats to John and Paul's partnership.
However, you'll note that I included more sources to display John's jealousy regarding Paul and that I categorised John's jealousy targets whereas I only pulled out two key individuals for Paul, this isn't to say that John was more jealous than Paul was, as jealousy isn't something you can quantify, but to highlight my opinion that Paul's jealousy regarding John was more targeted than John's jealousy regarding Paul. I think what stands out to me is that, I think generally Stu and Yoko are held up as the prime examples of Paul's jealousy of other people getting close to John, as far as we know, Paul never had significant issues with other people who formed close relationships with John like Pete Shotton, Cynthia Lennon, Magic Alex etc., why was that? I think that Paul was more threatened when he felt that John was replacing him so by bringing Stu into the band (even though he wasn't a musician) and Yoko into the studio (one instance where Paul was especially hurt was when John gave Paul's line in The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill to Yoko to sing), Paul perhaps felt that his place as John's primary collaborator was in jeopardy and that he could lose a partnership that had become central to his self-worth as a person - that, I believe, was when his jealousy was most likely to rise to the fore. John, on the other hand, had a much wider range of targets when it came to jealousy regarding Paul, why was John jealous of Linda? Linda wasn't trying to replace John as Paul's collaborator, if anything she wanted the Lennon-McCartney partnership to be stronger. Why was John jealous of Mal? Mal wasn't a musician, Mal was a huge fan of the band and constantly worked to fulfil their requests, so why was John so threatened by his friendship with Paul? For me, John's jealousy regarding Paul was more than just a fear of directly being replaced, I believe John's jealousy was fundamentally triggered by a fear of abandonment. I think the childhood trauma John experienced, of being left by both his parents, meant that whenever any of his close friendships and relationships were threatened, or he felt that someone close to him may leave him, he would act out. John fell out with his childhood best friend Pete when he got a girlfriend, John hit Cynthia when he saw her dancing with Stu, John was rude to several of Paul's love interests and ultimately John never fully accepted Paul's relationship with Linda because, although he could see that she could offer Paul the family life he always wanted, John didn't want Linda to take Paul away and give him a family that meant that Paul would no longer be able to prioritise John in his life as he had in the past.
Ultimately, we'll never know all the ways that jealousy factored into John and Paul's relationship with each other and those around them, as I'm sure it impacted several relationships in more complex ways than I can articulate (i.e. I suspect jealousy played a part in Paul's initial resentment of Brian but they grew closer over time so maybe Paul's jealousy lessened over time or Brian became less of a threat?). I do think it's important to consider that jealousy was present on both sides and was likely a factor in the breakdown of John and Paul's relationship, the breakdown of the Beatles and was a continued factor in disrupting reconciliations between John and Paul into the 70s and 1980.
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Hey! I want to get into Lupin III (the media, not the dude specifically). Can you give me some pointers where it’s best to start?
Hello Anon, I tried to answer this at length like three times but my laptop kept restarting hhhhhhhhhhh. Anyway, here's the much less polished typed-entirely-on-mobile version!
I recommend starting with two films: The Castle of Cagliostro (1979) and The First (2019), in that order. The former was Hayao Miyazaki's directorial debut and is many people's first exposure to the franchise. It's a truly beautiful film that inspired scores of animators and it established many hallmarks of the franchise going forward (including the iconic yellow Fiat). The latter is the newest film in the franchise, features the best 3D CG animation I've ever seen, and (in my opinion) is probably a better introduction to the main characters than Cagliostro, but since it borrows heavily from Cagliostro anyway, you really should see that one first. I recommend watching the subtitled Japanese version of Cagliostro (though I'm partial to the 2000 Manga Entertainment/David Hayter dub as well) and the English dub of The First (if you're an English speaker).
The same dub team who did The First is better known for their English dub of the Part 2 anime series. There are currently five animated Lupin series, or Parts (plus a spinoff miniseries but that's for later). (They are sometimes referred to by the jacket color Lupin wears in each (Green/teal = 1, Red = 2, Pink = 3, Blue = 4 and 5), though this can get wonky since the movies kind of just do whatever. There are sometimes tonal differences between jackets but don't worry about it.) Part 2 is considered the "classic" series, as it was the longest-running and most popular. It ran from 1977-1980 and consists of 155 episodes, two of which were guest-directed by Hayao Miyazaki and the first 79 of which were dubbed into English in the early 2000s. If you're an English speaker, I'd say the dub is ESSENTIAL viewing. That said, since this is a long-running comedy series from the 1970s, sometimes there's Bad Shit in there and there is NO SHAME in just skipping episodes you don't vibe with. There's no overarching plot in Part 2, so you won't miss anything if you see something Yikes and go "Absolutely not doing that today"; I know I skipped several. Don't be afraid to skip around or start another series while working your way through this one; I'm a long way from finishing it myself. This series is currently on Amazon Prime and is also free (with ads) on Crunchyroll, no account required. Amazon only has the dub, so if you want to keep watching the rest of the subbed episodes, you'll have to switch over to Crunchyroll or whatever.
I also recommend checking out Part 1, though I haven't yet finished it either. I highly recommend episodes 5 and 7 if nothing else, since they show Goemon's introduction into the gang. The style for this series is SO cool, I'm frankly obsessed with the visuals and the character design.
After you've checked out some episodes of those shows, there are about a billion movies and TV specials you can watch! Three of the most popular ones are The Fuma Conspiracy (GREAT animation, very Miyazaki-esque though he wasn't involved, focuses on Goemon), Tokyo Crisis (LOVE the dub for this one), and Farewell to Nostradamus (mediocre plot imho but it has some fun action sequences).
The other most well-known Lupin movie (and the first one to be released, just a year before Castle of Cagliostro) is The Mystery of Mamo (1978). This is probably also required viewing, but uh. Imma keep it real with you, Chief: I have a REAL love-hate relationship with this one. The visuals are fucking PHENOMENAL, I cannot stress how cool this movie looks, but the plot...........sure is a thing that happens. I love the action sequences and the animation but I really don't care for other elements of this movie. I know a lot of people really like this one, so maybe you will too, Anon, but there's too much stuff in there that rubs me the wrong way for me to give it a shining recommendation. It's easily one of the most batshit movies I've seen, and it's got about 3 different English dubs to choose from if you decide not to watch the subbed version.
If you find that you like your Lupin content on the Darker and Edgier side, you might want to check out the miniseries The Woman Called Fujiko Mine (both dub and sub are great, but I really like the dub). It's...uh...kind of A Lot and I'd for SURE look up some episode descriptions or content warnings beforehand. I'm slowly working on a lengthy review/rant of my own with my likes and dislikes. The visuals are wildly different from any other Lupin series and it has a great soundtrack. Suffice it to say, when it's good, it's great, but when it's bad, hoooooooo BOY. Having a series focused more on Fujiko is really neat and we get some cool backstory elements for the other members of the gang (especially Jigen, surprisingly).
I have seen a number of other movies that I'd be glad to discuss with you over DMs, but this is about where my knowledge ends. I'm still in the process of watching the various shows & movies myself. I've heard good things about Part 4 and (again, subjective!) not-so-good things about Part 5; regardless, I know that Part 5 is definitely not the series to start with as it tries to get very Meta™. Part 3 has a very different visual style and a small, dedicated following, but I haven't checked it out yet.
In short, my recommendation is: The Castle of Cagliostro, The First, as many episodes of Parts 2 and 1 as you like, some movies, then branch out as you please! Feel free to DM me for more specific info.
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popculturebuffet · 3 years
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Ducktales Treasure of the Golden Suns Reviews: Wronguay in Ronguay (Paid for by Patreons)
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Hello all you happy people and welcome back to the genesis of magillicutty   Ducktales with the second part of my months long look at Treasure of the Golden Suns, the mini series that kicked off the series. These reviews are a result of me hitting my first patreon stretch goal. I just did a LONGGG post outlining those here on tumblr so hit that up and help join my patreon so I can reach them and make some more moolah to help keep this my primary job. 
So speaking of that job we’re back to The Treasure of the Golden Suns and the first chapter, while not bad, was a tad disappointing, especially since I really liked it on first viewing. So will the second chapter fair just as bad or be a massive improvement? The only way to find out is under the cut. 
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Previously on Ducktales: Donald shoved off with the navy leaving the boys with Scrooge, with both growing to care about one another... both out of nowhere
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The boys ended up embroiled int he Beagle Boys theft of a wooden ship for a mysterious gentleman named El Capitan whose preferedd method of dealing with enterlopers.. was to use a chair like a lion tamer. After being falsely blamed for the theft, the boys ended up chasing the beagles to Scrooge’s candy factory, were vindicated and fought them off with Scrooge’s help , ending with the boys getting covered in choclate.  while El Capitan escaped vowing to find the gold. Now knowing the wooden ship was a map, the family prepared to set off
And that’s where we pick up. The reporter from last episode comments on the beagle bust and while the Beagles are hauled off, with Burger asking if they have any milk after eating his chocolate prison. Because his only  character trait is that...
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The camera does linger on an impression the ship made in the chocolate... hmmmmmm.
Meanwhile we meet FLINTHEART GLOMGOLD. As I said with Catch as Cash Can, he’s not BAD, just not NEARLY as memorable as the triumphantly insane 2017 version. He’s sitll a good villian and we’ll see why soon, he just has the unenviable task of competiting with a far more iconic versoin made decades later whose far more my type of bad guy. El Captian calls him and offers to make him the richest duck in the world, which he naturally is happy to hear him out on. El Captian as a character i’ll get into more.. but for now let’s talk about his weird fucking voice. For some reason, Jim is doing a Dr. Claw impression, to the point I thought this was Frank Welker. I will grant it’s better than a horrible latinx sterotype, and given the grand kishke and a minor character in this very episode, they were NOT above those, but its’ still just.. weird. He just sounds like he’s possesed with about 80 or 90 demons for no explained reason. 
Back at the mansion, Scrooge and the Boys are both preparing to go after the treasure on the boat map: Scrooge is practicing vacuming it up using the pool and a sea safe vacum likely invented by Gyro, while the boys find the right coordinates to the treasure. Scrooge naturally.. is a bit of a dick about it, refusing to take them along despite them having found it, and saying they can stay with Duckworth. Duckworth’s response is about what you’d expect:
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However before they can argue about this, there’s a bang at the door: It’s Flinty and here’s where the parts of this Glomgold I DO like, that do make him standout, if not as much sa his succesor shine: He plays scrooge, offering him 2 million for the Candy Factory. Naturally not realizing what Flinty’s getting out of the deal, Scrooge jumps at a quick and easy 2 million, since he knows it’ll cost MORE than that just to fix up the place. Flinty then proposes a contest: the two of them try to make as much money as possible from scratch in two days. No rules, no barriers, just whoever dosen’t have more money than the other by the end has to eat Flinty’s hat. Scrooge accepts.. but then realizes he has to eat crow and allow the boys along. With Scrooge sufficently blackmailed, the boys reveal where the treasure is: Ronguay, a made up south american county. Why they did so.. well just wait a second. And no it’s not just for the tile... but your close. 
No we find out why as they take the cheapest flight avaliable to Ronguay, only for the boys their going the Wrong way to Ronguay. 
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Yeah I love a good pun but I draw the line at desinging an ENTIRE COUNTRY for a really obvious one. I have standards on this blog! Standards that include thirsting after Keith David , DBZA refrences up the whazoo and posting this gif of David Byrne at every given opportunity. 
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Look my standards are weird, but their still standards. I draw the line at making a stupid pun when there’s a rich number of countries in South America. I’m not saying Carl Barks was ever against making up a country, he probably did, could be wrong, but more often than not he did his homework instead, as did his succesor Don Rosa. It feels lazy to just make up a country when you really don’t have to and could’ve just found one with a massive rainy season for your children’s cartoon. It’s not hard. I mean it’s harder than now: now I could just google “what south american countries have torrental rains”.. but it’s not like you guys could’n’t just go to a bookstore and buy a refrence book or a library and rent one. I mean if they ran out of time to do anyresearch fine, but even for the 1980′s it wasn’t that difficult to at least TRY. 
Regardless it turns out the pilot is a robot pilot.. who looks amazing but  as it’s a flintheart glomgold company joint is purposfuly tring to keep them off path. Look they didn’t have to unplug the poor guy. I know what he wants. 
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So now on the right way to Ronguay our heroes lan only to find the locals all fleeing in terror of something. Scrooge heads in for suplies anyway and finds... a VERY racist sounding clerk. Seriously just to picture this.. picture say .. Michael Scott trying to do an mexican accent. You good and cringing? If not, adapt that to your doofus sitcom character or republican senator of choice There you go. You see my point. It’s not the WORST i’ve seen.. but only because I sat through the Rediculous 6 with my best friend, one of three, Cory, for a podcast we tried doing a year or two ago. I’ve seen Rob Schinder do  this for an entire movie. In 2015 no less. So my threshold for HORRIFCALLY offensive is vast and deep. But this is still garden variety racist and should not have been okay then or now. 
And it really SHOULD have the warning label on it. I’m fully in favor of the content warnings Disney started using, and it’s why I got so fucking annoyed during all the talk about it when it happend to the Muppet Show, ESPECIALLY when the republicans got a hold of it and accused them of “Canceling the muppets”. This is NOT fucking cancelation, this is a way to have the past there for posterity, while acknolding it sucked and was NEVER okay. It’s the best way to do this in my opinon, and it bothers me a LOT that a bunch of jagoffs coopted it and threw a hissy fit about Disney trying to do the right goddamn thing. And i’m also okay with leaving some media out. Disney + is a family platform. While keeping classic movies and shows on there with a proper warning is one thing, it’s another to not put song of the south or that episode of the muppets where the host later turned out ot be a pedophile on there. Some things just don’t have nearly enough worth to outpace the harm they can do. And it’s up to companies and consumers to figure out what fits where. 
Anyways our heroes find a llama for transport and that the map is seemingly a dead end to the desert. But Scrooge is determined to press on... and while he does El Capitan and Glomgold are following him, though the two clearly don’t agree on whose in charge, or if El Captian sounds like dr claw or not. They followed with their own copy of the map taken from the chocolate. 
As things progress the rain starts.. and our heroes find out via the JWG that this is what the citzens were all running from. They loose the llama, though are able to salvage some of their suplies it was carrying, and Scrooge nearly gives up to dispair. It’s a good, if sudden, character moment: Scrooge genuinely laments that he was worried one day he’d loose his step.. and stop being one step ahead of everyone. It shows some much needed vunerablity.. that beneath his boisterious and cantankerious usual personality he’s deathly afraid his age will eventualy mean he’ll have to stop..and having to stop adventuring and stop working and stop doing eveyrthing that makes him Scrooge McDuck is a fate worse than death. 
Thankfully he dosen’t as via a figure on the ship, Huey, Dewey or Louie figures out, in a REALLY amazing twist, that the desert itself was the ocean: the ship that has the treasure simply sailed here and hid it. So while our heroes reflect, Glomgold decides to take them out NOW while he has the chance over El Captian’s protests, as the good captain only cares about the gold. But Glomgold is right.. from a villianous point of view at least. leaving them alive is a waste.. granted he does so.. in a way that makes my brain cry out in pain and want to run. He lights a stick of dynamite. In a torrential rainstorm. 
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I mean i’d expect 2017 Glomgold to try it and have it fail.. not to have the actually clever 87 version not only try something this stupid BUT HAVE IT WORK. THE FUSE LIGHTS. IT’S READY TO GO OFF. HE ONLY STOPS IT BECAUSE HIS MAP GETS EATEN AND THEY NEED SCROOGE’S IN TACT. JUST HOW DO YOU WHY DO YOU AUGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-
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Okay i’m.. i’m good now. So after that bit of nonsense and some taking my medication, our heroes take shelter in a cave. The grusome twosome try to sneak in while their asleep.. only to trigger the alarms the boys set up using their pots and pans, a “junior woodchuck alarm”. Clever little bastards. 
The tables quickly turn though as Thing one and Thing Two trap our heroes in the cave.. as i’ts flooding. Scrooge has them press on in hopes of finding a way out, and it rises further and furthe ran excenelty tense scene. But eventually our heroes manage to find somewhere safe in time: the shipwrecked boat with all the gold. Scrooge even puts on a nifty golden conquestador’s helmet. 
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Naturally since we have minutes left in the episode the bad guys show up and have a gun... they never had before. 
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Regardless our heroes are lowered into the lifeboat at gunpoint as the ship goes out to sea and i’ts revealed el captain worked on teh ship as he knows the full manifest.
However both villians personal flaws end up doing them in: Glomgold’s need to gloat means he gives Scrooge a golden coin as he mocks him about winning the bet... only for El Captain to fly into an insane rage demanding he swim out and get it despite just how LITTLE he really needs the coin. He and Glomgold struggle over the ships canon, both no longer needing the other and eventually fire off a ball that capsizes the ship. El Captian seemingly drowns while Glomgold is forced onto the life boat with the McDucks.. and finds out he lost as while he and Scrooge both lost the treasure the coin he tossed scrooge means Scrooge still has made more money. So Glomgold prepares to eat his hat and El Captian prepares for vengance and to get his gold back. 
Final Thoughts on Wronguay in Ronguay: The iffy bit with the store clerk aside.. this episdoe is easily the best 87 Episode i’ve seen.  It captures the spirit of barks perfectly with plenty of intresting twists that kept me engaged the whole time, some great jokes, and two great villians who are done in soley by their own greed and neurosusi> it’s really great stuff and what I expected more and remember more from the 87 Series: top notch adventure in the barks style but wiht it’s own unique touches. While the pilot was a bit rough due to all the ground it tried to cover, this episode, now having the basic formula of the series pretty much set, is allowed to just be a fun, daring adventure story that brilliantly builds off the last episode but can be wholly enjoyed on it’s own. Hopefully this momentum keeps because I don’t remember being the fondest of the next two episodes.. and given that content warning I think we’re in for a rough time next month. 
If you liked htis join my patreon, etc etc, I went into that mor eup top. Till All Are One, See you at the next Rainbow. 
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Random Review #3: Sleepwalkers (1992) and “Sleep Walk” (1959)
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I. Sleepwalkers (1992) I couldn’t sleep last night so I started watching a trashy B-movie penned by Stephen King specifically for the screen called Sleepwalkers (1992). Simply put, the film is an unmitigated disaster. A piece of shit. But it didn’t need to be. That’s what’s so annoying about it. By 1992 King was a grizzled veteran of the silver screen, with more adaptations under his belt than any other author of his cohort. Puzo had the Godfather films (1972 and 1974, respectively), sure, but nothing else. Leonard Gardner had Fat City (1972), a movie I love, but Gardner got sucked into the Hollywood scene of cocaine and hot tub parties and never published another novel, focusing instead on screenplays for shitty TV shows like NYPD Blue. After Demon Seed (1977), a movie I have seen and disliked, nobody would touch Dean Koontz’s stuff with a ten foot pole, which is too bad because The Voice of the Night, a 1980 novel about two young pals, one of whom is a psychopath trying to convince the other to help him commit murder, would make a terrific movie. But Koontz’s adaptations have been uniformly awful. The made-for-TV film starring John C McGinley, 1997′s Intensity, is especially bad. There are exceptions, but Stephen King has been lucky enough to avoid the fate of his peers. Big name directors have tackled his work, from Stanley Kubrick to Brian De Palma. King even does a decent job of acting in Pet Semetary (1989), in his own Maximum Overdrive (1986) and in George Romero’s Creepshow (1982), where he plays a yokel named Jordy Verril who gets infected by a meteorite that causes green weeds to grow all over his body. Many have criticized King’s over-the-top performance in that flick, but for me King perfectly nails the campy and comical tone that Romero was going for. The dissolves in Creepshow literally come right off the pages of comics, so people expecting a subtle Ordinary People-style turn from King had clearly walked into the wrong theatre. Undoubtedly Creepshow succeeds at what it set out to do. I’m not sure Sleepwalkers succeeds though, unless the film’s goal was to get me to like cats even more than I already do. But I already love cats a great deal. Here’s my cat Cookie watching me edit this very blog post. 
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And here’s one of my other cats, Church, named after the cat that reanimates and creeps out Louis and Ellie in Pet Sematary. Photo by @ScareAlex.
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SPOILER ALERT: Do not keep reading if you plan on watching Sleepwalkers and want to find out for yourself what happens.
Stephen King saw many of his novels get adapted in the late 1970s and 80s: Carrie, The Shining, Firestarter, Christine, Cujo, and the movie that spawned the 1950s nostalgia industrial complex, Stand By Me, but Sleepwalkers was the first time he wrote a script specifically for the screen rather than adapting a novel that already existed. Maybe that’s why it’s so fucking bad. Stephen King is a novelist, gifted with a novelist’s rich imagination. He’s prone to giving backstories to even the most peripheral characters - think of Joe Chamber’s alcoholic neighbour Gary Pervier in the novel Cujo, who King follows for an unbelievable number of pages as the man stumbles drunkenly around his house spouting his catch phrase “I don’t give a shit,” drills a hole through his phone book so he can hang it from a string beside his phone, complains about his hemorrhoids getting “as big as golfballs” (I’m not joking), and just generally acts like an asshole until a rabid Cujo bounds over, rips his throat out, and he bleeds to death. In the novel Pervier’s death takes more than a few pages, but it makes for fun reading. You hate the man so fucking much that watching him die feels oddly satisfying. In the movie, though, his death occurs pretty quickly, and in a darkened hallway, so it’s hard to see what’s going on aside from Gary’s foot trembling. And Pervier’s “I don’t give a shit” makes sense when he’s drilling a hole in the phone book, not when he’s about to be savagely attacked by a rabid St Bernard. There’s just less room for back story in movies. In a medium that demands pruning and chiseling and the “less is more” dictum, King’s writing takes a marked turn for the worse. King is a prose maximalist, who freely admits to “writing to outrageous lengths” in his novels, listing It, The Stand, and The Tommyknockers as particularly egregious examples of literary logorrhea. He is not especially equipped to write concisely. This weakness is most apparent in Sleepwalkers’ dialogue, which sounds like it was supposed to be snappy and smart, like something Aaron Sorkin would write, but instead comes off like an even worse Tango & Cash, all bad jokes and shitty puns. More on those bad jokes later. First, the plot.
Sleepwalkers is about a boy named Charles and his mother Mary who travel around the United States killing and feeding off the lifeforce of various unfortunate people (if this sounds a little like The True Knot in Doctor Sleep, you’re not wrong. But self-plagiarism is not a crime). Charles and Mary are shapeshifting werewolf-type creatures called werecats, a species with its very own Wikipedia page. Wikipedia confers legitimacy dont’cha know, so lets assume werecats are real beings. According to said page, a werecat, “also written in a hyphenated form as were-cat) is an analogy to ‘werewolf’ for a feline therianthropic creature.” I’m gonna spell it with the hyphen from now on because “werecats” just looks like a typo. Okay? Okay.
Oddly enough, the were-cats in Sleepwalkers are terrified of cats. Actual cats. For the were-cats, cute kittens = kryptonite. When they see a cat or cats plural, this happens to them:
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^ That is literally a scene from the movie. Charles is speeding when a cop pulls alongside him and bellows at him to pull over. Ever the rebel, Charles flips the cop the finger. But the cop has a cat named Clovis in his car, and when the cat pops up to have a look at the kid (see below), Charles shapeshifts first into a younger boy, then into whatever the fuck that is in the above screenshot.
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Now, the were-cats aversion to normal cats is confusing because one would assume a were-cat to be a more evolved (or perhaps devolved?) version of the typical house kitty. The fact that these were-cats are bipedal alone suggests an advantage over our furry four-legged friends, no? Kinda like if humans were afraid of fucking gorillas. Wait...we are scared of gorillas. And chimpanzees. And all apes really. Okay, maybe the conceit of the film isn’t so silly after all. The film itself, however, is about as silly as a bad horror movie can get. When the policeman gets back to precinct and describes the incident above (”his face turned into a blur”) he is roundly ridiculed because in movies involving the supernatural nobody believes in the supernatural until it confronts them. It’s the law, sorry. Things don’t end well for the cop. Or for the guy who gets murdered when the mom stabs him with...an ear of corn. Yes, an ear of corn. Somehow, the mother is able to jam corn on the cob through a man’s body, without crushing the vegetable or turning it into yellow mash. It’s pretty amazing. Here is a sample of dialog from that scene: Cop About To Die On The Phone to Precinct: There’s blood everywhere! *STAB* Murderous Mother: No vegetables, no dessert. That is actually a line in the movie. “No vegetables, no dessert.” It’s no “let off some steam, Bennett” but it’s close. Told ya I’d get back to the bad jokes. See, Mary and Charles are new in town and therefore seeking to ingratiate themselves by killing everyone who suspects them of being weird, all while avoiding cats as best they can. At one point Charles yanks a man’s hand off and tells him to "keep [his] hands to [him]self," giving the man back his severed bloody hand. Later on Charles starts dating a girl who will gradually - and I do mean gradually - come to realize her boyfriend is not a real person but in fact a were-cat. Eventually our spunky young protagonist - Madchen Amick, who fans of Twin Peaks will recognize as Shelly - and a team of cats led by the adorable Clovis- kill the were-cat shapeshifting things and the sleepy small town (which is named Travis for some reason) goes back to normal, albeit with a slightly diminished population. For those keeping score, that’s Human/Cat Alliance 1, Shapeshifting Were-cats 0. It is clear triumph for the felis catus/people team! Unless we’re going by kill count, in which case it is closer to Human/Cat Alliance 2, Were-cats 26. I arrived at this figure through my own notes but also through a helpful video that takes a comprehensive and complete “carnage count” of all kills in Sleepwalkers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmt-DroK6uA
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II. Santo & Johnny “Sleep Walk” (1959) Because Sleepwalkers is decidedly not known for its good acting or its well-written screenplay, it is perhaps best known for its liberal and sometimes contrapuntal use of Santo & Johnny’s classic steel guitar song “Sleep Walk,” possibly the most famous (and therefore best) instrumental of the 20th century. Some might say “Sleep Walk” is tied for the #1 spot with “Green Onions” by Booker T & the M.G.’s and/or “Wipe Out” by The Surfaris, but I disagree. The Santo & Johnny song is #1 because of its incalculable influence on all subsequent popular music. 
I’m not saying “Wipe Out” didn't inspire a million imitators, both contemporaneously and even decades later…for example here’s a surf rock instrumental from 1999 called “Giant Cow" by a Toronto band called The Urban Surf Kings. The video was one of the first to be animated using Flash (and it shows):
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So there are no shortage of surf rock bands, even now, decades after its emergence from the shores of California to the jukeboxes of Middle America. My old band Sleep for the Nightlife used to regularly play Rancho Relaxo with a surf rock band called the Dildonics, who I liked a great deal. There's even a Danish surf rock band called Baby Woodrose, whose debut album is a favourite of mine. They apparently compete for the title of Denmark’s biggest surf pop band with a group called The Setting Son. When a country that has no surfing culture and no beaches has multiple surf rock bands, it is safe to say the genre has attained international reach. As far as I can tell, there aren’t many bands out there playing Booker T & the M.G.’s inspired instrumental rock. Link Wray’s “Rumble” was released four years before “Green Onions.” But the influence of Santo and Johnny’s “Sleep Walk” is so ubiquitous as to be almost immeasurable. The reason for this is the sheer popularity of the song’s chord progression. If Santo and Johnny hadn’t written it first, somebody else would have, simply because the progression is so beautiful and easy on the ears and resolvable in a satisfying way. Have a listen to “Sleep Walk” first and then let’s check out some songs it directly inspired. 
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The chords are C, A minor, F and G. Minor variations sometimes reverse the last two chords, but if it begins with C to A minor, you can bet it’s following the “Sleep Walk” formula, almost as if musicians influenced by the song are in the titular trance. When it comes to playing guitar, Tom Waits once said “your hands are like dogs, going to the same places they’ve been. You have to be careful when playing is no longer in the mind but in the fingers, going to happy places. You have to break them of their habits or you don’t explore; you only play what is confident and pleasing.” Not only is it comforting to play and/or hear what we already know, studies have shown that our brains actively resist new music, because it takes work to understand the new information and assimilate it into a pattern we are cogent of. It isn’t until the brain recognizes the pattern that it gives us a dopamine rush. I’m not much for Pitchfork anymore, but a recent article they posted does a fine job of discussing this phenomenon in greater detail.
Led Zeppelin’s “D’Yer Maker” uses the “Sleep Walk” riff prominently, anchored by John Bonham and John Paul Jones’ white-boy reggae beat: 
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Here it is again with Del Shannon’s classic “Little Town Flirt.” I love Shannon’s falsetto at the end when he goes “you better run and hide now bo-o-oy.”
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The Beatles “Happiness is a Warm Gun” uses the Sleep Walk progression, though not for the whole song. It goes into the progression at the bridge at 1:34: 
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Tumblr won’t let me embed any more videos, so you’ll to travel to another tab to hear these songs, but Neil Young gets in on the act with his overlooked classic “Winterlong:” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RV6r66n3TFI On their 1996 EP Interstate 8 Modest Mouse pay direct homage by singing over their own rendition of the original Santo & Johnny version, right down to the weeping steel guitar part: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VT_PwXjCqqs The vocals are typical wispy whispered indie rock vocals, but I think they work, particularly the two different voices. They titled their version “Sleepwalking (Couples Only Dance Prom Night).”
Dwight Yoakam’s “Thousand Miles From Nowhere” makes cinematic use of it. This song plays over the credits of one of my all-time favourite movies, 1993′s Red Rock West feat. Nicolas Cage, Lara Flynn Boyle, Dennis Hopper, and J.T. Walsh https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tu3ypuKq8WE
“39″ is my favourite Queen song. I guess now I know why. It uses my fav chord progression: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kE8kGMfXaFU 
Blink 182 scored their first hit “Dammit” with a minor variation on the Sleep Walk chord progression: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sT0g16_LQaQ
Midwest beer drinkin bar rockers Connections scored a shoulda-been-a-hit with the fist-pumping “Beat the Sky:” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSNRq0n_WYA You’d be hard pressed to find a weaker lead singer than this guy (save for me, natch), but they make it work. This one’s an anthem.
Spoon, who have made a career out of deconstructing rock n’ roll, so that their songs sometimes sound needlessly sparse (especially “The Ghost of You Lingers,” which takes minimalism to its most extreme...just a piano being bashed on staccato-style for four minutes), so it should surprise nobody that they re-arrange the Sleep Walk chords on their classic from Gimme Fiction, “I Summon You:” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teXA8N3aF9M I love that opening line: remember the weight of the world was a sound that we used to buy? I think songwriter Britt Daniel is talking about buying albums from the likes of Pearl Jam or Smashing Pumpkins, any of those grunge bands with pessimistic worldviews. There are a million more examples. I remember seeing some YouTube video where a trio of gross douchebros keep playing the same progression while singing a bunch of hits over it. I don’t like the smarmy way they do it, making it seem like artists are lazy and deliberately stealing. I don’t think it’s plagiarism to use this progression. And furthermore, tempo and production make all the difference. Take “This Magic Moment” for example. There's a version by Jay & the Americans and one by Ben E King & the Drifters. I’ve never been a fan of those shrieking violins or fiddles that open the latter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bacBKKgc4Uo The Jay & the Americans version puts the guitar riff way in the forefront, which I like a lot more. The guitar plays the entire progression once before the singing starts and the band joins in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKfASw6qoag
Each version has its own distinctive feel. They are pretty much two different songs. Perhaps the most famous use of the Sleep Walk progression is “Unchained Melody” by the Righteous Brothers, which is one of my favourite songs ever. The guy who chose to let Bobby Hatfield sing this one by himself must have kicked himself afterwards when it became a hit, much bigger than "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling."https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiiyq2xrSI0
What can you say about “Unchained Melody” that hasn’t already been said? God, that miraculously strong vocal, the way the strings (and later on, brass horns) are panned way over to the furthest reaches the left speaker while the drums and guitar are way over in the right, with the singing smack dab in the middle creates a kind of distance and sharp clarity that has never been reproduced in popular music, like seeing the skyscrapers of some distant city after an endless stretch of highway. After listening to “Unchained Melody,” one has to wonder: can that progression ever be improved upon? Can any artist write something more haunting, more beautiful, more uplifting than that? The “need your love” crescendo hits so fucking hard, as both the emotional and the sonic climax of the song, which of course is no accident...the strings descending and crashing like a waterfall of sound, it gets me every fucking time. Legend has it that King George II was so moved by the “Hallelujah” section of Handel’s “Messiah” that he stood up, he couldn't help himself, couldn't believe what he was hearing. I get that feeling with all my favourite songs. "1979." "Unchained Melody." "In The Still of the Night." "Digital Bath." "Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?" "Interstate." "Liar's Tale." “Gimme Shelter.” The list goes on and on. Music is supposed to move us.
King George II stood because he was moved to do so. Music may be our creation, but it isn't our subordinate. All those sci-fi stories warning about technology growing beyond our control aren’t that far-fetched. Music is our creation but its power lies beyond our control. We are subordinate to music, helpless against its power and might, its urgency and vitality and beauty. There have been many times in my life when I have been so obsessed with a particular song that I pretty much want to live inside of it forever. A house of sound. I remember detoxing from heroin and listening to Grimes “Realiti” on repeat for twelve hours. Detoxing from OxyContin and listening to The Beach Boys “Dont Worry Baby” over and over. Or just being young and listening to “Tonight Tonight” over and over and over, tears streaming from my eyes in that way you cry when you’re a kid because you just feel so much and you don’t know what to do with the intensity of those feelings. It is precisely because we are so moved by music that we keep creating it. And in the act of that creation we are free. There are no limits to that freedom, which is why bands time and time again return to the well-worn Sleep Walk chord progression and try to make something new from it. Back in 2006, soon after buying what was then the new Yeah Yeah Yeahs album, I found myself playing the album’s closing track over and over. I loved the chorus and I loved the way it collapses into a lo-fi demo at the very end, stripping away the studio sheen and...not to be too punny, showing its bones (the album title is Show Your Bones). Later on I would realize that the song, called “Turn Into,” uses the Sleep Walk chord progression. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exqCFoPiwpk
It’s just like, what Waits said, our hands goes to where we are familiar. And so do our ears, which is why jazz often sounds so unpleasant to us upon first listen. Or Captain Beefheart. But it’s worth the effort to discover new stuff, just as it’s worth the effort to try and write it. I recently lamented on this blog that music to me now is more about remembrance than discovery, but I’m still only 35 years old. I’m middle-aged right now (I don’t expect to live past 70, not with the lifestyle I’ve been living). There’s still a whole other half life to find new music and love and leave it for still newer stuff. It’s worth the challenge, that moment of inner resistance we feel when confronted with something new and challenging and strange sounding. The austere demands of adult life, rent and routine, take so much of our time. I still make time for creative pursuits, but I don’t really have much time for discovery, for seeking out new music. But I’ve resolved to start making more time. A few years ago I tried to listen to and like Trout Mask Replica but I couldn’t. I just didn’t get what was going on. It sounded like a bunch of mistakes piled on top of each other. But then a few days ago I was writing while listening to music, as I always do, and YouTube somehow landed on Lick My Decals Off, Baby. I didn’t love what I was hearing but I was intrigued enough to keep going. And now I really like this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMnd9dvb3sA&pbjreload=101 Another example I’ll give is the rare Robert Pollard gem “Prom Is Coming.” The first time I heard this song, it sounded like someone who can’t play guitar messing around, but the more I heard it the more I realized there’s a song there. It’s weird and strange, but it’s there. The lyrics are classic Pollard: Disregard injury and race madly out of the universe by sundown. Pollard obviously has a special place in his heart for this track. He named one of his many record labels Prom Is Coming Records and he titled the Boston Spaceships best-of collection Out of the Universe By Sundown. I don’t know if I’ll ever become a Captain Beefheart megafan but I can hear that the man was doing something very strange and, at times, beautiful. And anyway, why should everything be easy? Aren’t some challenges worth meeting for the experience waiting on the other side of comprehension or acceptance? I try to remember this now whenever I’m first confronted with new music, instead of vetoing it right away. Most of my favourite bands I was initially resistant to when I first heard them. Queens of the Stone Age, Kyuss, Guided by Voices, Spoon, Heavy Times. All bands I didn’t like at first.  I don’t wanna sleepwalk through life, surrounding myself only with things I have already experienced. I need to stay awake. Because soon enough I’ll be asleep forever. We need to try everything we can before the Big Sleep comes to take us back to the great blankness, the terrible question mark that bookends our lives.
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sodalitefully · 4 years
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1-30 hehehe
Anon you’re a ballsy motherfucker and I love you.  BUT you didn’t choose a fic for 24-28, or a word for 29!
What was the first fandom and/or pairing that you wrote fic for? Uh, probably Danny Phantom when I was like twelve 😂
Do you participate in any writing events or challenges throughout the year? If so, what do you like about them? Nope bc this is a small fandom and we don’t do many of those.
Do you write fics from start or finish, or jump around? I usually start at the start and then when I get stuck I’ll just skip that part, keep going, and come back to it later.  If I have an idea and I’m afraid I’ll forget it, I might also skip ahead and write it.
Do you outline before you start writing? If so, how far do you stray from that outline? I love outlining more that actually writing lmao, the longer the fic the more I outline.  I usually stick to it pretty closely, which isn’t aways good for my writing...
What is the perfect environment for you to write in? Quiet and private.  Other than that I haven’t figured out the tricks to getting myself to focus :(
If you’re really concentrating, how many words can you write in a day? Occasionally when I’m really inspired I’ll write like 1000, but more often I just write a paragraph or two.
Which part of writing do you struggle with most? Too many ideas, too little actual writing capacity.  It’s hard to focus on finishing fics bc I get too distracted by my other ideas, and I rarely write sequels bc there’s so much I haven’t gotten to share yet.
Do you listen to music while you write? If so, share a song that’s been inspiring you lately. Nope, can’t write with music, I get too distracted.  
Do you prefer to write AUs, canon divergence, or canon-compliant fic? AUs!!!
Do you enjoy writing dialogue, exposition, or plot the most? Probably dialogue? Exposition is great bc I get to explain the AU, but It’s not good for the flow of the fic.  Dialogue can be really satisfying to write when you get in a groove with it.
If you could only write angst, fluff, or smut for the rest of your life, which would it be? Fluff!
Is there a trope you haven’t written yet but really want to? Oh god so many.  I have notes on tons of tropes I’d like to write... I’d like to do a college AU (and I meant to do it while I was actually in college but oops).  I posted a soulmate AU once but I’d like to do another.  Oh and I have lots of ideas for crossover AUs and I’m still deciding how to handle those.
Is there a trope you wouldn’t write if it was the last trope on earth? Honestly probably not.  I’m not huge on character death, genderbends, or reader inserts, for example, but I have ideas for fics involving all of those. 
If you were stuck on a desert island with only two characters, which would you pick? No one from gnr that’s for sure, that’d be a disaster.  How about... Percy Jackson and idk Wonder Woman?
A Hollywood producer tells you that they want to film just one of your fics. Which fic would you want it to be? Hmm out of the fics that I’ve posted... maybe Sumthin’ for Nuthin’ actually? I abandoned that poor fic but I still really like the plot.  And there’s plenty of longer, more plot-heavy fics I have outlined that would be cool to see as films.  In general I often imagine concepts visually instead of with words.
What is your most underrated fic? Saving Grace didn’t get a lot of notes and I get why – it’s kinda niche and there’s no actual romance.  But I think it’s well-written and I’m proud of it.
What fic are you most proud of? Maybe the whole cat!slash universe?  I don’t think it’s my best writing per se, but I’m still really attached to the concept and it was a pleasant surprise that other people seemed to like it too.
What is a line/scene you’re really proud of? Give us the DVD commentary for that scene. I’ve always been partial to the paragraph in Sweetness that ends with “Their coffee has long gone cold (and so has Duff’s spine - snakes give him the heebie-jeebies), but Slash’s enthusiasm is sweeter than the Duff’s half-eaten bowl of melted ice cream, and Duff is eating it up with a spoon.”  Just... the coffee is cold and so is Duff’s spine, Slash is sweet and so is the ice cream, and using “eating it up with a spoon” idiomatically while it’s also thematically relevant to a sentence about dessert... I really like to layer meaning when I can.
Who is the easiest/hardest character for you to write about? Why? Slash tends to be the center in most of my writing, but actually I think it’s easier to write from Duff’s pov.  Maybe bc when I’m writing sluff I can just channel my crush on Slash through Duff lmao.  Interesting tho bc when it comes to the real people, I find Slash much more relatable than Duff or the others.
What’s your favorite minor character you’ve written? Hah maybe Slash in the funeral home AU, it’s a duzzy ficlet so he’s just a side character but I got a kick out of writing his and Steven’s background antics.
What is the one fic that got away? Well, I really wish I’d finished Sumthin’ for Nuthin’ before I kinda lost interest in Motley Crue, that fic was gonna get more dramatic from there.  Would it be worth it to just post the outline?  Plus there’s a few potential longfic ideas that I’ve put a lot of love into, but I doubt they’ll ever be posted or completed considering the way I can’t seem to focus on one idea long enough to write more than a one-shot :( But hey I guess you never know.
Have you cried while writing a fic? Nope.  I do have some angsty ideas though, hopefully they’ll surface someday.
If you had to remix one of your own fics, which would it be and how would you remix it? Someday I’d like to rewrite the cat!Slash fic from the beginning, make it a real multichap or at least a proper series of vignettes.  Id also be interesting in a darker version of that AU, since there’s definitely potential for that in the concept.  But I’m pretty attached to the fluffy little universe I made, so I’d probably prefer to explore those darker themes in a different (but maybe similar) universe – I have a few ideas.
How did you come up with title for [x fic]? Most of my fics have self-explanatory titles or none at all, the only one I have much to say about is Saving Grace.  Duff needed a miracle to get out of his situation, Slash was his saving grace.  But also, Grace is the name of Duff’s oldest daughter, and Duff’s motive in the story is trying to “save” her.  Despite the double meaning in the title, I avoided referring to the child by name or as Duff’s “daughter”/explaining how they ended up together.  I wanted to maintain some of the mystery of the apocalyptic genre: characters with mysterious origins, found families, aliases, etc.  That’s definitely one of the ways that Mad Max and DOOM influenced this fic.  (Oh, also Serpentine is a dick joke via a wttj reference: “My serpentine.”  That’s it tho, the rest are pretty straightforward.)
Which idea came to you first in [x fic]? Feel free to send a fic for any/all of the next few questions! Generally speaking, my ideas are character driven, I want to portray a character or relationship a certain way and I build a world that allows me to do that.
Which part of [x fic] was the hardest to write?  Always the end.
If you were ever to do a sequel to [x fic], what do you think might happen in it? Whichever fic you have in mind, there’s a very high chance I have ideas.
In [x fic], what is a happy, post-fic headcanon you have about [pairing]? Same as above!
Send me a word. If it’s in your WIPs, include the sentence and a short summary of the fic. – Send me a word anon!
Tell us an idea for a longfic you want to write in the future. Ok, so I have three main longfic ideas, but the easiest one to explain is an AU set in a version of the 1980s where ancient greek deities exist, Axl’s life is parallel to that of Perseus, and Slash is cursed like Medusa.   Lots of drama, lots of influence from greek theater, untrustworthy gods, unrequited feelings, dramatic irony... fuck I hope I write it someday.  
Alright mad respect for anyone who got through all that!  Thanks for the ask, and feel free specify a fic for those last few questions if you wanna
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cultofbeatles · 4 years
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hello reece i am the teach me led zep pls anon yes hi hello hehe idk what i wanna know mabye like ur fave song from each album and basic facts about each member ??? dont be afraid to ramble btw im taking all the info i can get !!!1!1!!! thank u sm ily 🥺
annie i have three words for you... i got you. i already told you this, but i am working on a “beginners guide to led zeppelin.” i planned on it being more giggles mainly, but i'm going back and adding a decent amount of information just for you
fun facts about led zeppelin and the beatles: led zeppelin were the band that beat the beatles record held for most attendance at a concert (55,000 people). on may 5, 1973 (and with no opening act) led zeppelin beat that record by having an attendance of 56,800 people. also! for the beatles movie ‘a hard days night’ jimmy page did the instrumental version of this boy that plays while ringo is wandering around. pretty rad. oh, and george harrison went to a led zeppelin party once and was thrown into a pool by john bonham. 
i gotta say this before i begin though, led zeppelin is one of those bands where hardly anything gets confirmed or denied. at least nothing “controversial” or anything more than basic gets an answer to it. so sometimes you gotta take things with a grain of salt, and you gotta just have the mindset of “well this might not be true so I'm not gonna claim it as so.” with that being said i'll start with getting you into led zeppelin. 
through the span of their short career led zeppelin had eight studio albums. 
led zeppelin (january 1969)
led zeppelin ll (october 1969)
led zeppelin lll (october 1970)
led zeppelin lV (november 1971) this album technically doesn't have a name but we all call it ‘led zeppelin lV since it was the fourth album
houses of the holy (march 1973)
physical graffiti (February 1975)
presence (march 1976)
in through the out door (august 1979) 
they also have a few live albums and compilation albums as well. but when people talk about led zeppelin albums they're mainly referring to these ones. i like all of their albums. i think they're all good. my personal favorites are the second and fourth albums. i do think that led zeppelins music isn't for everyone though. they're not as clean as some other bands are. I will list my favorite songs from each album. 
led zeppelin: good times bad times, dazed and confused, babe i'm gonna leave you, communication breakdown, how many more times, i can't quit you baby 
led zeppelin ll: whole lotta love, the lemon song, thank you, heartbreaker, moby dick, ramble on
led zeppelin ll: immigrant song, since i've been loving you, tangerine, that’s the way 
led zeppelin lV: black dog, rock and roll, stairway to heaven, misty mountain hop, going to california, when the levee breaks, the battle of evermore
houses of the holy: the song remains the same, the rain song, over the hills and far away, the ocean, no quarter, dancing days
physical graffiti: the rover, houses of the holy, kashmir, ten years gone, trampled under foot
presence: for your life, achilles last stand 
in through the out door: fool in the rain, all my love 
i think all of these are good starter songs for someone just now getting into led zeppelin. i hope you like them! they have one movie, the song remains the same, and it’s weird but also good. it’s basically concert footage of their madison square garden show but there’s also cuts of little skits they made? idk how to describe it lol.
in my beginners guide post i'll write more about the members and go into more details and funny facts about them. right now i'll just briefly introduce you to them. to talk about led zeppelin you have to start with the yardbirds. jimmy page (zeppelin’s guitarist) was in the yardbirds until they broke up in 1968 and then jimmy started looking for his “super group.” him and Peter grant (zeppelin’s manager) started looking for the best of the best people. in 1968 led zeppelin was formed. 
jimmy page is known as one of the best guitar players in rock history. he’s usually always in the top three listings. he was a session guitarist for a while and would fill in on people’s records. on Joe cocker’s version of ‘with a little help from my friends’ jimmy is playing the guitar on it. and he joined the yardbirds with eric clapton and jeff beck who are also listed as the best guitarists. he was a soft spoken, quiet dude. he seemed very shy and introverted. but then you read groupie stories about how he had whips, handcuffs, and razors. he was also given a lot of shit for studying crowley’s work, and was known for his “witchcraft ways.” he struggled with addiction (heroin and cocaine) and pulled himself through in the end. but he was, and still is, an amazing guitar player. he also produced all of zeppelin’s albums. so he’s an amazing producer as well. he got a lot of unnecessary hate and criticism back in the day (still does). and you can thank jimmy for all the newish led zeppelin stuff we get bc that’s all on him more than likely. 
john paul jones is known as one of the best bassists in rock history. he was not only zeppelin’s bassist but also keyboardist. and he can play recorder as well. like jimmy, he was also a session musician. jimmy and jones knew of each other  and when jones heard about jimmy putting a group together he called him. he was more of the serious member in a way. jimmy, bonham, and robert were more wild and would cause chaos. john paul jones would deadass book a room at another hotel and not tell anyone where he was. he just wasn't into that kind of thing. so I don't think he was really all that close to the other members. he felt left out a lot. him and john bonham were an amazing rhythm section. the best in history. they knew exactly what to do to stay in sync. he was also the one to find john bonham when he died. so that’s sad. 
robert plant is known as one of the best vocalists in rock history. his voice is *chef kiss.* i love him. he wasn't jimmy’s first pick in a singer. in fact, jimmy’s first pick was the one who recommended robert to jimmy and also said that he looked like “a greek god.” robert plant is just about the most attractive man ever. jimmy liked roberts voice a lot but doubted his songwriting skills so was weary of him at first. robert had never written songs until joining led zeppelin. robert was the reason john bonham joined the group. him and bonham were best friends before the group even formed and remained that way until bonham’s death. robert also went through a lot of shit during led zeppelin’s timeline and honestly i'm so proud of him for getting through all of it. right now robert likes to act like he was never in led zeppelin though lmao. 
john bonham is known as one of the best drummers in rock history. i’m not even kidding. his power behind the drums is mind-blowing. when he was approached by jimmy about the band he denied the offer. and continued to deny the offer bc he had a family to take care of, and didn't know how well this band would be. but it was robert plant who convinced him to join so they could play together. he loved his family very much (a wife and son who name is jason). he hated being away from them. he was known as the sweetest man ever unless he was drunk. the problem was that he was always drunk. he had a drinking problem. he did a lot of stupid shit when drunk. he died in 1980 after he had the equivalent of 40 shots of vodka and threw up in his sleep causing himself to choke. after he died, led zeppelin died as well. 
after john’s death the band called it quits. they all like to say it’s because no other drummer would be able to compare to bonham. robert says that he loved john bonham too much and couldn't force himself to go out there and do a show without him as the drummer. robert plant is likely the reason we’ll never get another zeppelin reunion show. there were three reunion shows in the past. the first reunion was their live aid show which fucking sucks. john paul jones wasn't even informed about the event and ended up on keyboard instead of bass, jimmy was likely on drugs bc of how out of it he was, robert’s voice is awful, and the drummers hardly knew the material. it was a rushed show but it was for charity and i'm sure they made a lot of money. the last show being the celebration day reunion in 2007 where jason bonham (john’s son) played the drums. it’s a really really good show and i cry every time i watch it. you can watch the whole thing on youtube. still to this day it’s evident that jimmy, Jason, and jones would love to do a reunion show again. 
led zeppelin is one of the few groups that can say all of their members were just about the best at what they did. each member will always be in the top ten rankings for lists of the best artists/musicians. that’s really impressive. they were really, really good together. I hope this was a good starter post! 
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onedirectionfanfics · 5 years
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Love Always, Harry by @gucciwoodnymph​
Holmes Chapel, 1985 - Best friends since childhood, you and Harry have grown up to lead lives on opposite ends of the spectrum. He travels the world as a journalist for Rolling Stone. You’re stuck in your hometown, waitressing at a diner. You and Harry keep in touch through letters and postcards until the day he returns home and flips your world upside-down. 
This month’s featured story, Love Always, Harry, takes us back to the 80s when we raid record stores with our best friends and send letters to each other as we travel! This fic tells a beautiful love story that blossoms between two best friends who are so different, yet similar in many aspects. Read below to learn more about it from our interview with the lovely author!
***
How long have you been writing for?
I had always been coming up with little stories in my head, but the first time I actually wrote a story down was when I was ten years old. My class had just finished reading Old Yeller and I was really upset about the ending, so I wrote my own version of the story where the wolf bite ends up giving Yeller superpowers instead of rabies, and Yeller uses those powers to fight crime in the town (very highbrow stuff). I haven’t stopped writing since then!
Do you have certain habits or rituals you have to do while writing?
So before I start writing, I have to clean my room or whatever area I’m in. I tend to talk aloud to myself and pace around a lot if I’m trying to work through any snarls in the fic so I need plenty of clean space for that. The first things I pull up on my laptop when I’m starting out are my fic outline and thesaurus.com. I read through the outline a few times to smooth over the scene and get a clear picture of it in my head. Also, I turn into a bit of a hermit when I’m really ready to write. I have to be alone and I need complete silence because I have a goldfish’s attention span and get sidetracked very easily.
The ever famous question: how did you come up with this idea?
I really like the whole “opposites attract” trope and I think showing that dynamic within a close friendship is really interesting because (most) friendships have a stronger, more enduring bond than (most) romantic relationships. So I knew I wanted the story to revolve around two best friends – one who is really confident and more of a free-spirit, and the other who is very reserved and a bit cautious – who fall in love. I also wanted the characters to write letters to each other because I just love the idea of them. I think it’s so sweet when someone takes time to sit down and write out a letter; it adds a nice personal touch.
When does a story go from an idea in your mind to paper? Is there a process you go through before writing it out, or do you just get straight in it?
Some of my writer friends can just dive in and write absolutely beautiful pieces without planning and it makes me so jealous because for me, it takes a loooong time for an idea to go from my mind to paper. I usually have a few different AUs brewing at a time, and I cycle through them until one idea starts to branch off on its own and grow into a Thing that takes up 95% of my daydream capacity. Once I’ve decided on the basic story, I write everything out in an extremely detailed outline that describes the characters and their personalities, and breaks the story down into parts, what events happen in each part, etc.
Your fic is set in the late 1980’s, was there a specific reason for it?
When I decided I wanted to write a fic based around the idea of sending letters, I knew I would have to set it in an earlier decade. It wouldn’t have been realistic to set it in 2019 and have Harry and MC send letters back and forth when they could easily text, call, FaceTime, or stay in touch through social media.
I chose the 80s on a whim. I really love the aesthetic of that era, and after I had an 80s movie marathon I could see Harry fitting perfectly in that time with his cuffed jeans, and Vans, and high-waisted pants.
As a young adult in 2019, how did you find writing a story set in a different time period?
I had a TON of fun writing it, but it involved significantly more research than a fic set in present day. I had to do a lot of research for the little things that make an appearance in the story and make sure that they were actually around in 1985/1986 (i.e., the books on Harry’s nightstand in his room, the candy Harry and MC share when they’re smoking, the VHS tapes, the magazine that the MC interviews for).
I also had to be cognizant of not overdoing the pop culture references in that time. Sometimes after reading over first drafts of the installments, I would find sentences that essentially sounded like, “MC threw on her neon leg warmers before she grabbed her Walkman and listened to a mixtape.” So I edited a lot more to have a balance where I could create an 80s atmosphere, but avoid making it sound contrived.
What made you want to write about a girl who sacrificed the things she loved for a secure future? Is this something you’ve ever had to do?
I wanted to write about it because it’s a trend I see so frequently among my friends and my age group. One of my friends is such a talented artist, but she gave that up to study engineering (which she hates); another one of my friends decided not to pursue his passion for music and instead go to pharmacy school (which he hates), solely because it provides a secure future. I think I had to do it to a lesser degree – I wanted a job that involved lots of reading and writing, and I’m pursuing law which has a ton of that but it’s not the publishing or journalism career I had in mind when I was in high school.
Harry and Y/N have a very special bond. Without Harry, would Y/N have married a controlling man like William?
No, she wouldn’t have. I think eventually she would have realized how stifled she was and how she wouldn’t be happy with someone like her fiance. Harry just expedited that realization for her. Without him, she might have called off the wedding five minutes before she was going to walk down the aisle as opposed to months before, but she would never have actually married William.
Y/N’s self-discovery and growth can all be credited to her (for pursuing her dreams and aspirations) but her decision was heavily influenced by Harry. Would a woman like Y/N have gotten to this position without someone like Harry in her life?
Everyone has someone in their life who pushes them to be the best version of themselves, who calls them out whenever they’re falling short of their potential, and essentially tries to get them into gear whether that’s a friend, family member, mentor, or whoever. In the MC’s case, that someone for her is Harry. Without Harry in her life, I think the MC would still have gotten to her position because she has that drive and desire to do so, but it certainly would have taken her a longer time.
There are a lot of artists and bands from the 80s being referenced in this fic, did you have to do research for it or is old music something you have an interest in?
I really love 70s and 80s music because it reminds me of the stuff my parents used to play while I was growing up, but I did still have to do a lot of research for this fic to make sure it was historically accurate. For example, in Part I the MC gets a letter from Harry dated December 7, 1984. I originally wanted Harry to tell her about how he was reviewing a Fleetwood Mac show, but it turns out FM didn’t tour at all in 1984. So a lot of the time I had to research to make sure the dates, the locations, the artists, and the events all matched up with what actually happened.
I also looked up the actual Rolling Stone UK covers from the 80s to see which artists were featured and what year they were featured in to see if it could fit into the storyline. The actual RS archives are available online for a fee and only for the US editions, so I ended up combing through really obscure websites to find the UK versions, and spent hours on that just for the information to feature in like, one or two lines of the fic.
You wrote a very inspirational and powerful piece about self-growth and knowing your worth, did you hope to influence anyone with it?
Honestly, I treat writing as a form of therapy so when I started writing this fic, my intent was just to vent out my own feelings of inadequacy or frustration, and my fear of failure. When I started this, I wrote the characters to mirror the two “voices” I always have in my mind. The MC is the irrational half of me who’s afraid to even attempt new things out of fear of failing and Harry is the more rational half saying I’ll never get anywhere if I don’t at least try. So not to sound like a narcissist, but I think I mainly hoped to influence myself to grow as a person.
That being said, I have received a few messages from readers about how this fic has influenced them to grow, or recognize their self-worth, or make a change in their lives and it absolutely blows me away that anything I’ve written can do that. I cannot explain how honored I am to have played an iota of a role in helping someone decide to improve their lives. It’s been absolutely the most rewarding facet of sharing my writing.
Anything you’d like to say to anyone who read your fic?
Thank you very much for reading my writing! And thank you for taking the time to send in your comments, questions, rants, and key smashes. It really means more than I can ever articulate, that I’m able to share my writing and have such an amazing response from readers. Thank you a million times.
***
Thank you Tans for the wonderful interview! Check out more of her writing here! 
***If you would like to send in recommendations for next months featured story, please do so here.
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princess-josie-riki · 4 years
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Haunted: Dead or Alive
The Sequel to The Wrath of Ammo Baron.EXE. A Shantae Creepypasta featuring Techno Baron.EXE and Ammo Baron.EXE (the horror forms and Creepypasta versions of Techno Baron and Ammo Baron from the Shantae series). Co-written by tarzanwothaz.
Techno Baron sadly walks down the corridor in his lair, worried about the disappearance of his friend, Ammo Baron. It's been so long since Ammo Baron was last seen after he was defeated by Shantae. His army had disbanded the day after he vanished. Now, many people were never found, but that didn't concern Techno Baron. What concerns him is that Ammo Baron was missing. "Oh, Ammo," Techno Baron said sadly. "Wherever you are, I hope you're okay. If only you are still here, I would've been there for you." The Techno Grunts came up to him as one of them said, "Hey, boss! Why are you talking about Ammo Baron out loud? What's wrong?" "I'm worried that Ammo Baron is missing." replied Techno Baron. "You know, I was gonna tell you to get back to work, but I'm too upset to do that. What am I supposed to do?" "Maybe you should look for him." another Techno Grunt suggested. "Maybe you're right." said Techno Baron. "I guess I should look for him. He's probably worried by now." Techno Baron entered his Jeep, started the engine, and drove out of the factory and straight to Sequin Land. He searched for his friend, Ammo Baron, for an hour. He checked every place but there is no sign of him anywhere. The only place in Sequin Land that he didn't check yet is the forest. So, he drove into it. He parked his Jeep at the entrance, got off and turned on his flashlight as he entered the forest. The sound of the crickets and birds made him a feeling that is like in the Tarzan movies. "Ammo Baron!" he called, "Ammo Baron, where are you?" Like, come on. Who could get lost in a forest like that? There's no way Ammo Baron can be in here. Up ahead is an eerie red glow shining through the trees..Could it be a campfire? Is there someone camping in here? Techno Baron stepped closer and closer until he saw something. It just glows light a lightbulb. Very shiny. It's edges are square shaped with a pyramid-shaped top. There is blood dripping down from the top. He looked up and saw a body impaled from above. This being is wearing a blue coonskin cap. And a blue trench coat? "Ammo...Baron...?" he asked in horror and dismay. Ammo Baron didn't respond. he was cold and emotionless and there was even blood coming out of his mouth. But that's not the worst part, his clothes are a bit ragged, his eye is bloodshot and his skin is pale and slightly decaying. "No..." Techno Baron said before crying. "No, no, no, no, no..." He felt an ocean wave striking him. Like everything that he loved is being dragged away from him. He ran into his Jeep, grabbed the shovel and came back. He stabbed the shovel into the base and began to push down the handle. The crystal tipped over away from him and it landed on it's side. Ammo Baron's head drooped down forward as his arms swayed. Techno Baron dropped his shovel and ran up to Ammo Baron and grabbed him by the shoulders. He tried to pull but Ammo Baron is stuck. He put his one foot on the crystal as he pulled harder until the body popped off and landed on top of him. Techno Baron pushed the body off him and he stood up. Examining the body, he saw something in the pocket of the trench coat. He took it out and it is inside a cover. It looked like it can be played on a VCR. Looking back at the body, drops of tears dripped out of his eyes as he closed his eyes. The next day, Techno Baron and his Techno Grunts, Twitch and Vinegar, Barracuda Joe, the former Ammonian Soldiers who used to be in Ammo Baron's army, Squid Baron, Hypno Baron and several other people in Sequin Land are at Ammo Baron's funeral in the cemetery. In front was a grave that says "R.I.P. Ammo Baron: February 27, 1980 - March 24, 2016". "Although he was kind of a sleazy jerk, trigger-happy and aggressive and a mechanized militaristic madman, Ammo Baron was also a great military leader." said Joe. "Sure he was a menace, but he was also great with women. He wasn't just a baron, he was the greatest leader in the whole world. He was strong, he was brave and he was loyal as well." Then, tears come pouring out of Joe's eyes. "And I'm gonna miss him so much." "We're all gonna miss him, Joe." said Vinegar. "Yeah, we're all gonna miss him very much." Twitch added. "And I am going to miss him too." Techno Baron said quietly to himself sadly. "I will never forget him." Then, he felt a hand on his shoulder. When he turned around, it was Shantae. Even though she is his and Ammo Baron's enemy, she was concerned. "Hey, I'm sorry for your loss." she said, sadly. "I know he was my enemy, but he was a great man and a better enemy than Risky Boots." "Thanks." said Techno Baron. "At least you came." As everyone else left, Techno Baron stood alone and looked at Ammo Baron's grave. "Ammo Baron..." he said with tears coming out of his eyes. "If you are still here, I am so sorry I wasn't there for you. I will never forget you and I will spend the rest of my life missing you. Goodbye, Ammo... See you soon." Then, Techno Baron left the cemetery, crying as he ran off. Unknown to him, a shadowy figure was watching from behind a dead tree. "There, there, Techno," it whispered sinisterly. "It'll all be over soon." Then, it chuckled eerily and faintly before it vanished. Later that evening, Techno Baron drove his Jeep back to his house, parked it in the driveway and then entered through the front door. He walked upstairs to his bedroom and sat down on his bed. He looked at the photo of himself standing next to Ammo Baron that was taken before his death. Techno Baron changed into his pajamas, brushed his teeth and tucked himself to bed. He is standing in the middle of a black void. There nothing around him. It just feels empty to him. He heard a chuckle and whispers around him. "TECHNO BARON..." "Huh?" he said, frightened, "Who's there?" "I'm coming for you..." This made Techno Baron's eyes widen in fear as he says, "W-w-who are you?" "You can't hide from me..." "Sh-sh-show yourself!" he demanded in fear. "You're...doomed... Doomed... DOOMED..." Then, a faint, eerie, maniacal laughter was heard, making Techno Baron cover his ears in both fear and agony. Then comes the mocking whispers that terrified him. He woke up screaming in horror. He breathed heavily as he looked around and notices that nobody's there. Then he realized it was morning and he was in his bedroom. "It was a dream." he said to himself. "It felt real to me, but it was all just a dream." As days passed, Techno Baron has been the same nightmare every night. He kept hearing strange and eerie whispers in his sleep that are haunting him in his dreams. It was so much horror and agony to him. It felt like something, or someone was haunting him, out to get him. At Hypno Baron's Castle, Hypno Baron hears a knock at his door. When he answered it, it was Techno Baron, looking scared and desperate. "I need your help." said Techno Baron. "Yes? What is it?" Hypno Baron asked. "Voices. Whispers. Black void. And, darkness. I don't know. It's the same thing I dreamed every night for a week." Techno Baron shuddered. "When did you start having it?" Hypno Baron asked again. He is very confused. "A week ago." Techno Baron sighed, "The night after Ammo Baron's funeral." "Alright. Where was he?" Hypno Baron questioned. Techno Baron sighed again. The two went onto his Jeep and drove into the forest where the body was found. There are Barricade tapes everywhere. And what they surround is the red crystal that Ammo Baron's body was found. A mobile crane lifts the crystal off the ground and brings it out of the forest and away into the distance. "He was impaled at the top." Techno Baron pointed out. "This crystal looks familiar." Hypno Baron scratched his head. "What? What is it?" Techno Baron raised his eyebrows. "This is the Crystal of Corruption." Hypno Baron answered. Techno Baron suddenly got confused. "The Crystal of Corruption?" "Yes." Hypno Baron nodded, "Come on. I'll show you." At Hypno Baron's lab in his castle, Hypno Baron and Techno Baron went inside. Then, the cloaked Cackler baron gets out a book on dark magic. He opens the book and found a page on the Crystal of Corruption. Hypno Baron shows the page to Techno Baron and said, "The Crystal of Corruption is the most powerful, the most dangerous and more importantly, the most haunted artifact in all of Sequin Land that contains so much dark magic that is more powerful than mine. Whoever touches it becomes cursed into a malevolent state forever, even in death. No magic in the world can break the curse. Do you know what it means?" This made the squat reptilian baron's eyes widen in shock. "Ammo Baron..." said Techno Baron. "He's come back...from beyond the grave...to haunt me..." "I'm sorry, but I'm afraid there's nothing I can do." Hypno Baron said in concern. "It looks like you are on your own." Techno Baron becomes sad until he realizes something and said, "Wait a minute, I have an invention that could help me." Later, at Techno Baron's lair, he finds his invention that can contact ghosts and spirits. It looked like a cute little radio with a speaker attached to it. He calls it his Ghost Box. He is going to use it to contact Ammo Baron's ghost. He raises the speakers up and says, "Ammo Baron, are you there?" "Yes... I am, Techno..." a familiar voice replies. Techno Baron was relieved, yet frightened and concerned. "Ammo, are you the one haunting me?" he asked again. "Of course I'm the one haunting you..." Ammo Baron's voice replied. "Why?" asked Techno Baron. "You'll see..." Techno Baron becomes more concerned and asks, "Can you materialize? I just wanna know if you can reveal yourself? Can you do that?" Ammo Baron was heard chuckling evilly before he answered in a sinister tone, "Gladly..." Suddenly, he felt something cold touching his shoulder, making his spine chill. When he turned to his shoulder, he sees a black, red and blue tentacle on their, making him more scared. "Guess who..." he heard Ammo Baron tell him from behind. When he turned around, he saw Ammo Baron's ghost, except he looked monstrous, corrupted, deformed and more terrifying than ever; he is clad in a torn red and black version of his coat and helmet, a dark blue version of his shirt, a dark gray belt and blue pants which are reduced to a bloody ghostly tail. He has ghostly light blue skin, skeletal hands with claws stained in blood, a bleeding broken heart on the left side of his chest, black, red and blue tentacles on his back, sharp bloody teeth, blood coming from his neck indicating that there is an unseen bloody scar on there and a magenta eye with the black sclera with blood coming out of his eye. The ghost laughed evilly as Techno Baron screamed at the sight of his dead friend's horrifying state in terror. "W-w-who are you?" Techno Baron asked. "Don't you remember me...Techno Baron?" he said, smiling evilly. Techno Baron recognized him in horror. "A-Ammo...B-B-Baron...?" he asked, stuttering. "That's right, but you can call me "Ammo Baron.EXE"." he said. "Doesn't it sound like some computer file?" Techno Baron asked. "I am aware of that, but I don't wanna talk about it!" Ammo Baron.EXE said, frowning. Techno Baron began to question him.  "I have one question for you: Why were you following me around all week?" "Well. I'll tell you why." Ammo Baron.EXE began, "I saw you at my funeral seven days ago. You were sad and depressed right after I died." "Is that why you're doing this?" Techno Baron gasped. Ammo Baron.EXE laughed. "How about if I can give you less misery. Yes?" Then, what came out of him is a loud glitchy roar. It sounded like a computer error noise. "You know what?" Techno Baron shuddered, "I don't need you anymore!" Techno Baron rushed out of his lair, jumped into his Jeep and then drove away. "They always run..." Ammo Baron.EXE said before chasing Techno Baron. Later, after arriving at the cemetery in Sequin Land, Techno Baron parked his Jeep at the cemetery gates, ran out of his Jeep and goes running into the cemetery while Ammo Baron.EXE is still chasing him. The short lizard kept running as he passed the tombstones. His heart was pounding, his veins were racing and we was sweating with fear. He felt like he was in a horror movie. He is the helpless victim and Ammo Baron.EXE is a combination of the ghost, the monster and the killer. "You think you can escape me?" Ammo Baron.EXE yelled. "You can run, but you can't hide! When I get my hands on you, you'll be mine!" Then, he laughed evilly. "L-l-leave me alone!" Techno Baron cried as he kept running. He kept running, trying to escape the evil grotesque spirit until he went inside a mausoleum and ended up in a dead end. "Oh no!" cried Techno Baron. "A dead end! I'm screwed!" That is when Ammo Baron.EXE comes to Techno Baron from behind, laughing maniacally. Techno Baron turned around to realize I'm horror that he is cornered by Ammo Baron.EXE. "It's the end of the line for you, Techno Baron..." he said in a sinister tone. "P-p-please... h-have... m-m-mercy..." Techno Baron whimpered. "Well, that's too bad." Ammo Baron.EXE said. "I don't do mercy to the living! I have killed and eaten many people who have disappeared into the woods!" This made Techno Baron horrified. Then, Ammo Baron.EXE continued, "I tried to do the same to Shantae while getting revenge on her, but she escaped after I attacked her. Now that I have you, it looks like you're gonna die in the cemetery! I wonder what you taste like." Shadowy hands shoot out of the ground as Techno Baron backed away. They continued to spread, but he felt his heart being sore and all full of static. He remembered the moment of what he did. "I touched the Crystal of Corruption." "Of course you did." Ammo Baron.EXE laughed, "But now, it's time for you to die!" "No, I won't!" Refusing to go without a fight, Techno Baron gets in him and starts hitting Ammo Baron.EXE, but Ammo Baron.EXE, having the upper hand, attacked him. Techno Baron stood up, despite being badly injured with bruises, sores, cuts and scars. He was bleeding, he had a nosebleed, he was coughing up blood, his tail is broken, his helmet is also broken and has minor dents and a hole in the left revealing one of his eyes which is a black eye, his clothes are slightly tattered, his neck is sore and his hands and legs are aching. "I will not lose to the dead like you..." Techno Baron said. Techno Baron was about to pull out his laser rifle but a hand shot out of his chest. It then slipped back in as blood dripped on the grass. He fell onto his knees as Ammo Baron.EXE laughed with a sinister grin. "Poor Techno," said Ammo Baron.EXE. "It's a shame that you couldn't last long." Techno Baron was laying on the ground, bleeding heavily. Then, Ammo Baron.EXE grabs Techno Baron by the collar with his tentacles and stared evilly at the wounded Techno Baron as he looked back with full eyes, showing no fear. "I'm...I'm not...afraid of you. ..anymore...Ammo..." said Techno Baron, weakly. "It's okay, Techno," Ammo Baron.EXE said before whispering to him, "Though it's too bad that a head will roll." Ammo Baron.EXE used his claws to slice to decapitate Techno Baron, slicing his head off and putting him out of his misery. Then, Techno Baron's head falls to the ground. Ammo Baron.EXE poked his finger on the top of the chest and through, cutting a line down to the bottom of his belly. He opened it and took out a heart, before eating it. He took out a liver and ate it too. Next is the lungs, and then the esophagus, his stomach, and finally, his intestines. All the blood dripping down. He released the body and it flopped to the ground like a ragdoll. Blood dripping out of the body and onto the grass. He grinned as he stared down at the body. A shape came out of the body and materialized to reveal the same Techno Baron with the same injured looks. Eyes closed, laid down, not speaking. Ammo Baron.EXE began to shudder as he looked down at what he did to Techno Baron with all the joy vanishing away from him. "I'm sorry, Techno Baron. It's all my fault. I didn't mean to do it to you. I didn't even know what I was doing. I hope you forgive me." With all the sorrow inside of him, he picked up Techno Baron's spirit and away from the cemetery. The body growing distant from him as he continued to carry to spirit away. The next day, at Scuttle Town, Shantae was calmly walking in the street, though she is still thinking about the memory of her horrific encounter with Ammo Baron.EXE, making her worried. That is why she didn't tell anyone about it or the disappearances of the missing people that were slaughtered by Ammo Baron.EXE. She can imagine Ammo Baron.EXE hunting down her friends and family, including Bolo, Sky and Rottytops. "Oh, Bolo, Sky and Rottytops, I wish I could tell you what happened, but I don't wanna risk losing you." Shantae said to herself. "I just wanted to protect you from...him." Suddenly, the half-genie sees a crowd of people at the cemetery. She became curious about what happened, so she goes into the cemetery to see what's going on. When she got there, she comes to the crowd to see them surrounding something, making her concerned. Suddenly, she overhears them mentioning a dead body of a murder, making her eyes widen. She goes through the crowd to see the dead body of Techno Baron on the ground, bloodied, wounded and headless. The severed head of Techno Baron has a dull expression in his face, making Shantae more scared. "Techno Baron...?" Shantae said, "What happened to him?" Then she remembered when she encountered Ammo Baron.EXE. She looked at the corpse and imagined Ammo Baron.EXE cornering Techno Baron right before he attacked and killed him. Shantae became horrified and ran out of the cemetery. "Ammo Baron..." Shantae said to herself, "He killed Techno Baron... How could he do this to him? I thought they were friends. Why did he do it?" Then, she sighed sadly. " But I can't tell anyone else about that. I hope the same doesn't happen to anyone else." Days passed. More missing posters are put up all over Sequin Land. The stars shine above the sky as a 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air police car drives up to the missing poster on the telephone pole and parks next to the sidewalk. A man and a woman wearing uniforms hopped out of the front seat and took a look at the poster. "Look at that, Sally. Another person missing." The man pointed out. "Where ever they went or how they disappeared, this must be getting worse every minute." Sally crossed, "We were told that a kid went into the forest but never came back." "If this is where they went, then we must got there and find them." The man nodded. They then hopped back into their police car and drove to the forest (where the Crystal of Corruption used to be here) to look for the missing people. When they arrived, they got out, turned on their flashlights and entered the forest. The owl hooted and the crickets chirped as the detective couple continued their search for the missing people. The lights from their flashlights shined on the trees until it hit something in the distance. It looked like a person kneeling down on the ground. "Hey, Bill. I think this must be one of the missing people that they're looking for." Sally gasped. "Okay. Come on, honey. Let's go talk to him." Bill agreed. As they got closer, they heard him say "Will you marry me?" and a woman gasping and saying "Yes. I do.". Of course, a couple getting married. The detective couple walked up to the man and the woman. "Excuse me. Are you two of the missing people?" Sally asked. "What? No. What do you ask? Who are you?" the woman questioned. "We're the detectives. We are on a search for the missing people who had disappeared in this forest." Bill introduced. "Now, have you seen the missing people somewhere? Or maybe, some more evidence to where they are?" Sally asked. A laugh is heard. It sounded faint and psychotic. "I bet this must be the missing person." Bill pointed out. Then, they saw a blood trail. "And this cannot be good. Come on. Let's follow the trail." The two couples followed the trail of blood. This is almost like straight out of a horror movie. A person is shown in the flashlight's light and is lying on the ground. Not moving or even talking. As they got closer, the person is missing his head and had a large hole on the front of the torso. This made the woman shriek in terror. "It looks like there's a murder here." Sally gasped, and then saw more dead decapitated bodies up ahead. "A big one." All the bodies were missing their heads and organs. Who could've done this?! They saw a pirate girl in half horizontally on the ground and her entrails are missing. The married couple's eyes widened as the detectives studied the dead bodies. "We should probably get out of here." the man shuddered. "Alright." the woman nodded. "Why bother?" asked a voice. "You will never escape this place." This made the married couple frightened as the detectives heard it. "Who's there?" Bill asked. "Where are you?" Sally asked. An evil chuckle was heard as the voice said, "It's not really important, but I can tell you this. You think a pair of detectives like you can stop me? You're bluffing. Mortals like you are always weak, especially when they vanish without a trace." "You're insane!" cried Sally. "Whoever you are, you won't get away with this!" yelled Bill. A psychotic laugh was heard as it got closer. "Oh, but I can...and so can he..." Suddenly, a figure came out of nowhere and attacked the married couple, clawing their bodies. The detective couple became shocked as they watched the creature maul the married couple until it killed them and started drinking their blood and eating their flesh and organs. Then, the figure turned around and revealed himself to be the monstrous, corrupted and deformed ghost of Techno Baron; his skin is pale blue, his helmet is damaged with a hole on the left side, revealing one of his eyes, which are now black with yellow pupils and with black ooze dripping from them, his teeth are are bright orange, his hands are mechanical claws, his tail his mechanical, his coat is dark purple, his vest is purple, his legs are a ghostly black tail, he has a pair of broken handcuffs, he has a collar with a chain attached to it and there is blood on his teeth and claws and blood coming from his mouth and down his neck. "What is that?!" cried Bill. "It looks like a grotesque lizard monster!" said Sally. "Hello. You can call me "Techno Baron.EXE"..." he greeted before chuckling evilly. "Techno Baron?" Bill said. "But you were dead." "And so will you two." Techno Baron.EXE said before tackling the two detectives. Ammo Baron.EXE appears next to Techno Baron.EXE, smiling evilly at the detectives. The two detectives recognize him as Sally said, "Wait a minute. You're..." Ammo Baron.EXE laughed evilly before saying, "Yes, I'm the ghost of the deceased Ammo Baron, but you may call me Ammo Baron.EXE. I see you've met Techno Baron.EXE. You know, I was going to hunt you down, but instead, he will do the honors of killing you." Then, he turned to Techno Baron.EXE and said in a grim tone, "Kill them." Techno Baron.EXE lets out a psychotic laugh and was about to claw the detectives until Bill pushes him off them. They get up and aims their guns at Techno Baron.EXE. "We're sorry, Techno Baron, but we we can't let you do this." said Sally. The detectives put their finger on the trigger and Techno Baron.EXE charged directly at them with an open hand. One shot, the detectives missed. "Come on, honey. We must stop them!" Bill called out. The reptilian ghost baron dodged the bullets until a cut on Bill's chest from Techno Baron.EXE came. Bill put his hand on his chest as blood dripped down his suit. "Call someone... Call the sheriffs... The police... Everyone..." Bill begged as he coughed out blood. "Don't worry, sweetie. I will." Sally nodded. And then Bill flopped to the ground and let out his breath. "Aww! Too bad your husband is not here to help you." Techno Baron.EXE laughed. Sally pulled out her walkie-talkie and put it in front of her mouth. "Hello. This is Detective Sally speaking. I found the missing people in the forest, but they were all murdered! I repeat, they are all dead! The forest is haunted by the spirits of Ammo and Techno Barons! You have to come here and condemn the forest! It's not safe here! I need to get out of here-" But a metal hand burst through her chest and she dropped her walkie-talkie. She coughed out blood. Techno Baron.EXE grinned as he released the hand, letting her drop to the ground. He raises his claws, cuts open the corpses and began to rip out all the organs before eating them. Ammo Baron.EXE came up to him, put his hand on his shoulder and smiled."Great job, my friend." "Thank you very much." Techno Baron.EXE nodded, "What should we do now?" Ammo Baron.EXE saw the police lights in the distance and then back to Techno Baron.EXE. "How about we find Shantae?" "That would be great." Techno Baron.EXE agreed. The two corrupted ghost barons flew away from the bodies and out of the forest while each letting out a laugh as the police arrive to the scene and found the bodies. Because of the horrific murders and the hauntings, the forest has been condemned. And as for Ammo Baron.EXE and his ally, Techno Baron.EXE, it is unknown when they will come back. No one knows what they're going to do to Shantae, but who knows.
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douchebagbrainwaves · 4 years
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I'VE BEEN PONDERING PROBLEM
But by Galileo's time the church was in the throes of the Counter-Reformation and was much more worried about unorthodox ideas. The situation now is like it was with crack in the 1980s: we've invented terribly addictive new things, and we needed to buy time to fix it. So long as you were careful not to get sucked permanently into consulting, this could cause some friction. That makes it more persuasive to people who like unions, because it changes too fast for that to be possible for several people to work for a company they have qualms about. The hackers who become famous tend to become famous by random accidents of PR. Fit meetings with investors into the spare moments in your development schedule, rather than dutifully in scheduled little slices. Even if you're designing something for the most sophisticated users, though, that all other things being equal, a company has to be under the control of a single person to be any less committed to the business.
The situation is different in phase 1, which should be no more than a startup that seems like it's going to be than the worst? I feel obliged at least to try. Did we actually dress like that? All right, you bastards, bring it on. The best way to force them to act is, of course, but that's not the limiting factor on the number of officially sanctioned projects that manage to do all eight things wrong. You just can't expend any attention on it. This apparently random collection of annoying habits has a single explanation: the power of their brand, but the dumb joke. The most dangerous form of stupid comment is not the main thing they want. If you're experienced at negotiations, you already know most of what you need to raise. The reason there's a convention of being ingratiating in print that are not only new, but it has to be finite, and the headline read, I think, is that one of the biggest unexploited opportunities in startup investing right now is angel-sized investments made quickly. For example, I've written a few macro-defining macros full of nested backquotes that look now like little gems, but writing them took hours of the ugliest trial and error, and frankly, I'm still not entirely sure they're correct.
And since I know from my own experience that the rule against buying stock from founders is a stupid one, this is actually good news for investors, and negotiating with them. Typefaces to be cut in metal were initially designed with a brush on paper. Redesigning code with several authors is like changing laws; redesigning code you alone control is like seeing the other interpretation of an ambiguous image. An angel round is not an all or nothing thing like a series A, there's obviously an exception if you end up raising a series A will emerge out of those conversations, and these rules even cover what to do if you're not a hacker, you can't say. That makes it more persuasive to people who like unions, because it doesn't feel like procrastination. And I was a Reddit user when the opposite happened there, and the terms end up being whatever the lawyer considers vanilla. So we've probably only discovered a fraction of what we eventually will. But there is another set of customs for being ingratiating in print that are not only new, but actually worth solving. It wouldn't work otherwise. Most startups operate close to the limits of your capacity. And surprisingly often they succeed. The top 10 startups account for 8.
When you're young, especially, you often find yourself working on stuff you don't really like—because it seems impressive, for example, is a pruned version of a tree that in the early 1980s, when companies like VisiCorp showed that although the words software and publisher fit together, the underlying concepts don't. At the start of a project, because initially the most important skills founders need to learn. This technique won't find us all the answers, though. It's only by looking from a distance. In that situation, even the CEO. C, Lisp, and Smalltalk were created for other people to use. In fact, you can't tell a great hacker, the way to the bed and breakfast market. In every period of history, the answer is no, you might want to stop and take a rest? That's a problem, because that means we're going to have to be inferior people. I notice something surprising, it's usually very faint at first.
And if trouble with investors is probably to partition the company: have the smart people work as toolmakers. In the best case, though. I asked. Proposals to paint anything yellow are denounced as yellowist, as is anyone suspected of liking the color. You can also get intros from other people. Plus series A terms usually give the investors a veto over various kinds of important decisions, including selling the company. I make a new version almost every day that I release to beta users.
I've used both these excuses at one time or another. Deal terms with angels vary a lot. Maybe the solution is to talk to the other. But there is a Michael Jordan of hacking, no one knows, including him. But in writing and painting they're mostly internal; the obstacle is your own obtuseness. To the extent that valuations are being driven up by price-insensitive VCs, they'll fall again if VCs become more like super-angels are looking for investors you want to grab coffee, for example, all other things being equal, a company has to be under the control of a single person to be any good. Nearly all investors, including all VCs I know, one thing they mentioned was curiosity.
What are conventional-minded people afraid of saying? And while most investors are influenced by how interested other investors are all subject to the same forces. The best way to begin may not be quite as smart or as well connected as angels or venture firms; and they may not always be. All the great hackers I know despise them. Reality can be messier. While writing the prototype, the group has been traversing their network of friends in search of angel investors. Often they are, they're not powerful enough to turn back the evolution of technology. So VCs who invest in angel rounds—partly because they deliberately mislead you. Assume the money you need, you can at least take comfort in the thought that the same thing happened at Google. In the startup world.
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Spider-Force #1 Thoughts
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Another mixed bag
Once upon a time Stan Lee said every issue is someone’s first. The idea being that you should only presume prior knowledge on the readers’ parts up to a point and otherwise fill them in on the important details of their characters and the ongoing story so that any reader, new, old, or lapsed, could enjoy any issue.
Come the 2000s this way of doing things got abandoned. At best you’d get a recap page that would fill you in on the plot but little else.
I mention all this because I only skimmed Kaine’s Scarlet Spider book and whilst I collected it I barely skimmed Ben Reilly: Scarlet Spider, I plan on reading both more thoroughly at some point in the future. I merely heard about some things regarding Jessica Drew’s solo title and my knowledge of Ashley Barton only stretches as far as her terrible and confusing debut in Old Man Logan and the knowledge she was among Otto’s more violent recruits in Spider-Verse.
What I’m saying is I’m not as familiar with all these characters as I could be. My Kaine knowledge rests chiefly in his 1990s and MC2 appearances with a little more stretching into BND and beyond. And he’s the character I’m most interested in this series for and who I know the most about.*
So please forgive me if in what I say going onwards is incorrect because of my lack of knowledge. In fact please enlighten me. I may for example see a problem where in truth there isn’t one had I read X issue of Spider Woman or not see a problem when there is one if only I’d more closely followed Y issue of Scarlet Spider.
However this itself presents an inherent problem with this book, and indeed more modern comics as a whole.
It took prior knowledge for granted.
I’m trying to recall a single instance in this issue where it was even mentioned that Kaine was the clone of Peter Parker, or any of his history with Ben Reilly. And I can’t. I can’t recall any of that stuff. Equally I can’t recall any instance of when Kaine and Jessica Drew ever shared a conversation with one another or why Jessica Drew would be a good recruit for this mission.
From the name, solicits, recap page and general tone of the book the vibe conveyed is that this is a title that is kind of the Spider Suicide Squad. A series cut from the cloth of the hard edged 1980s and 1990s action movies and comics but with spider powers in place of machine guns and knives.
The recruitment of Jessica Drew indeed is somewhat reminiscent of a dozen action films where the bad ass retired soldier has a family and is asked to come out of retirement.
This isn’t a knock against the issue. That’s what it’s trying to be, what it was made out to be, and in isolation it lives up to that.
These are Doc Ock’s more militant, more violent, more harder edged recruits and they certainly feel that way.
They’re slightly sarcastic. They’re more direct. They’re more cynical. They’re more practical and pragmatic. They aren’t that heroic. They aren’t that polite. They aren’t softball.
‘Spider-Force’ even as a name recalls the quintessentially 1990s title X-Force and all those other comics with ‘Force’ in their name.
I suppose when looked at through that lens the comic not filling you in too much isn’t a problem.
This is a hard edged taskforce with a suicide mission that’s necessary for the success of the war. That’s all the story demands you know, so details like Kaine being a clone, or Ashley being a criminal gang leader, isn’t terribly relevant.
Or at least not relevant...to the plot.
From a character POV the reader is left in the dark as to why exactly any of these characters would be good fits for this mission. Everyone seems ‘tough’ sure, but is that it?
Like I know why Jess, Kaine and Ashley are good fits for this mission because I have prior knowledge from older stories. But even then I wasn’t 100% sure if Jessica Drew really did have espionage training or not because her backstory has been retconned and she was a Skrull for awhile there. The story doesn’t clarify that.
The issue in the recap page (which isn’t even part of the real story so you lose some points there) claims this is a team assembled who isn’t afraid to die. But we see little of this from any of the characters. Putting aside how pretty much every Spider-Hero isn’t afraid to die regardless of being hard edged or not, the story shows the characters shocked and ticked off when Kaine reveals they’ve signed up for a suicide mission.
Not a mission that may result in their deaths, but something where the plan was for them to succeed but not return.
Or at least...I think that’s the case.
It’s confusing.
The recap page says this is about a team not afraid to die. Okay.
Then later Kaine blows their escape route stranding them there, implying this is a suicide run. Okay.
But on the same page he says they succeed OR they die. Umm....I’m lost.
Was the idea if they fail they can’t have the option of retreat?
Why didn’t Kaine tell them that upfront?
If they had to be tricked to serve the mission that undermines the recap page’s claim this is about a team who’s not afraid to die isn’t it?
I mean if that’s what the recap page tells you you imagine the idea behind the issue in recruiting the other members is that they’re knowing going after people not afraid to die. But if you have to trick them...then they would be afraid to die. Jessica specifically IS afraid to die because it’d mean losing her son.
Her motivation is also janky. She claims it’s important her son see her being a hero. Okay but from the artwork the baby looks way too young to remember anything so that doesn’t make sense. It would’ve been more logical to drop that aspect and focussed instead upon just the idea that if Jessica doesn’t help fight then then every spider totem including her helpless son would be at risk. Which IS in the story but isn’t given as her primary motivation.
Going back to Kaine I really do not know if being that manipulative is in character for him. It seems like a very Doc Ock move, so in that sense him being in Otto’s faction adds up.
But I dunno if it’s in character. Kaine had this policy in the Clone Saga of not killing indiscriminately and of killing only people who’re bad. From what I’ve read he evolved to minimize whom he kills in general. So the idea he’d be willing to sacrifice the lives of innocent heroes (including a mother and teenager) in such a coldly calculated way raises an eyebrow from me. Maybe it is in character and I don’t realize. I’ll admit my initial reaction to that was interest as it shows a what Peter could have become/could be if his nurture was different.
Another nitpick with Kaine by the way, his scars seemed awefully...tame. I thought in Clone Conspiracy the idea was his scars if not his clone degeneration as a whole had returned (I only skimmed that story too for the record). If that’s the case then shouldn’t he look as messed up as he did in the Clone Saga? Artistic licence was a thing but even when he looked the least ugly it was much uglier than this.
Other problems included the continual reference to Charlie as Ashley’s grandfather. It was to the point where I looked on Marvelwiki because I was sure that couldn’t be the case. Sure enough it wasn’t. I get what Priest was doing, he’s a version of Peter Parker, therefore is technically a version of Ashley’s grandpa but...it’s just confusing. And that’s confusing for me who knows who Ashley Barton is, god forbid you pick this up having not read Old Man Logan.
Another point of confusion was the baffling reference to Earth-3145 (a.k.a. the home of the cowardly Uncle Ben from Spider-Verse)  as ‘home’. I don’t get it. Home to who? The Inheritors? That wasn’t the impression I got at all it seemed to be called home in reference to most of the Spider Heroes but...it isn’t. It’s not their home. It’s a version of New York but...did Ashley Barton even come from a version of NYC? I don’t recall but I have a feeling she didn’t.
Now there are positives to be had here.
For starters the pacing was very good, a lot happened and I even thought briefly it was extra sized but it wasn’t.
Charlie seems an intriguing character and a basic yet effective way of setting up the scenario through a character who, like us, isn’t entirely in the know.
And the artwork is mostly really lovely.
I dunno if I’d recommend reading this or not. I’ll have to see where it goes first.
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letterboxd · 5 years
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America Lobotomized: The Rick Alverson Q&A.
“If I have any value now, my responsibility lies in nurturing the limitations of cinema and making them apparent.” —Filmmaker Rick Alverson chats with us about the irrelevance of ‘consumer cinema’, the fascinating failure of masculinity, and causing trouble with Jeff Goldblum.
Musician, writer and director Rick Alverson makes the kind of films that are, as Letterboxd member DirkH enthuses, “hard to love and impossible to enjoy”. One of the decade’s most challenging directors, his confrontational style is take-it-or-leave-it, but those who like to take it find something deeply profound in his take-downs of concepts like the American Dream.
Alverson’s newest feature, The Mountain, departs from the ironic realism of his earlier films, creating a lushly immaculate, desolate poke at American society. Set in the 1950s, The Mountain is loosely based on the controversial American neurologist Walter Freeman, here represented as the fictional Dr Wallace Fiennes.
While Alverson’s earlier films have tapped into the twisted comic talent of Tim and Eric (and friends), The Mountain uses the hefty star power of Jeff Goldblum (also a Tim and Eric alumnus) against itself, with Tye Sheridan (of the vulgar mime act in Alverson’s Entertainment) as a mostly wordless photographer who is selected to follow Goldblum’s Dr Fiennes on an asylum tour. French great Denis Lavant appears as an unconventional healer, in one of his few English-language roles; Alverson unleashes him at will.
“A rigorous, alienating work about the rot at the core of the nation”, The Mountain divided audiences when it premiered at Venice last year, and divides Letterboxd members still. “Easy answers don’t always have to be there,” writes Allison, “but it quickly became pointless and even monotonous.” “A modern master is at work,” counters Tyler. “It’s rare in these times to find a movie so precise. Every cut reveals a wonderful new, immaculately composed shot.”
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Tye Sheridan and Jeff Goldblum in ‘The Mountain’ (2018).
Can you talk about when and how you got the inspiration for the premise of The Mountain and why you felt now was the right time to make this film? Rick Alverson: I’ve had an interest that I’ve explored since The Comedy and Entertainment where I’m trying to comprehend what fuels this blind propulsion of American progress in today’s political climate, where we’re romanticizing the white male privilege era of the 1950s.
It’s also something often romanticized in American cinema; if not in its subject matter, then it’s romanticized in its formal depiction. I wanted to take that on and watch it deflate and see how it would hold up to a more nuanced and muddy immersion of the era.
You’ve described the film as anti-utopian. Do you think nostalgia is a dangerous thing? Nostalgia is definitely a very rich intoxicant that’s difficult to pull oneself away from. Commercial American cinema peddles almost entirely on those triggers of compartmentalized representation and clean—marginally pornographic—singular dimensions. I find that troubling to some degree because it pretends to be something else.
The remake of The Lion King kinda sums that up. [Chuckles] Yeah.
Toxic masculinity has been central to many of your films and it’s in many ways the enemy of the moment right now. You’ve been ahead of the game in a way. Is that always your starting point? What influenced you to focus on men at their worst? I was raised at a time with influences that come from particular periods so there was a binary presentation of masculinity and I think it’s something that men are mired in. That has been problematic for men in a way that stripped away the wholeness of an individual.
Frailty, or a nuance of communication, hadn’t been as accessible to a generation of men, and that crippled them in a way which inflamed the damage that they did in their privileged space and [for] everyone around them. It’s a cyclone. In my demographic, we have been exposed to that, caught in it, and wrestled with it. Maybe that’s why I look at it so much.
I find failure in masculinity fascinating, too. The problematic American ‘wandering cinema’ of the 1970s is what made me want to do what I do. It’s the great unsung song of cinema that fell out of favor by the 1980s.
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As a working American filmmaker, do you feel it’s your social responsibility to use your medium to comment on and expose what you’re seeing happening in this country? Is this your version of political activism? [Laughs] Maybe. I think that there needs to be a politics of form. It’s the responsibility of filmmakers to not be ignorant of this gesture and what it does to the population. There’s a responsibility of cinema to ask itself some very hard questions before it ends up wrapping into total irrelevancy. What is narrative? What value does it have? How is it destructive? How is it being used for destruction? Is it functional anymore? I think that a lot of consumer cinema doesn’t ask those questions because it’s afraid to expose its vulnerabilities or its potential irrelevance.
How did your experience with Entertainment affect your approach to The Mountain? Entertainment was the first film that played with cinematic influences that I had. It played with things that kind of grossed me out in cinema, with the defaults of metaphors and symbolism to create false profundities.
With The Comedy, I was focusing on a subset of class privilege in nuclear centers like New York City that I find reprehensible. I wanted to engage with it, investigate how to understand it, and make myself uncomfortable. Suddenly the medium felt a little more vital to me. It wasn’t just a propagandistic grandstanding, where essentially I would be showing off my likes and dislikes. I try to play a cat-and-mouse game with my own comfort and hopefully the audience finds some vitality in that.
Your last two films have felt very surreal, stylistically. They’re more lush yet still quite detached. What’s compelling you to stray from the slice-of-life realism you were using with your first few films? I had always wanted to have a career working with non-actors, but as I’ve gradually become more interested in the problems that make me uncomfortable I find myself engaging with them head-on, instead of just ignoring them for my comfort zone. The unreality of cinema has also become increasingly interesting to me.
There are some obsessive-compulsive approaches I took in The Mountain, which viewers might not see off-hand, that sort of heighten that falseness. Nobody leaves or enters the frame unless they go through a door. I’ve padded and loaded the film with limitations and, if I have any value now, my responsibility lies in nurturing the limitations of cinema and making them apparent.
For a long time we’ve been living in a fantasy land of unlimited potential and an abundance of opportunity, but the fact of the matter is we’ve been ignoring the beauty of the finite quality of the world. I think the same thing goes for cinema.
You’ve mentioned before that you don’t usually stick to a script but you did this time, though obviously the film utilizes a lot of long pauses and still imagery. Do you map out this sense of pacing in the script, or is there an element of you finding the film in the editing suite? How important is the sense of discovery in post for you? Editing the movie is incremental in its own way. But for me, the film really becomes alive during production and I find the pacing there. As far as mapping out those things in the script goes, it’s an obligation that I find tedious sometimes. My scripts used to be very short but they’re longer now because they’re a little bit more traditional on the page.
I do relish the moment when something isn’t satisfying our expectations. There’s a very exciting moment there when you let the comfort of distance go on too long. If you curtail it in the right way, it’s like surfing.
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This is a reunion between you and Tye Sheridan. He’s grown a lot since Entertainment, very literally too. Yeah, at least 4 or 5 inches.
Was he your first choice for the role? How did he contribute to the film beyond what you and your co-writers had on the page? He was my first choice and we developed the film together. It was an idea I brought to him when Entertainment wrapped. I talked to him about playing a ‘black hole’—something neutral at the centre of everything—that the whole world would move around.
He has a tremendous amount of patience and generosity. He’s very disciplined and we had a lot of fun subverting some of his capacities for empathy and fragility as an actor to make him inaccessible. That was a mission statement for us.
His character is very literally an audience surrogate. He’s passive, then he becomes pacified. I’m wondering what that says about what you think of your own audience? Do you feel unheard and misunderstood? It’s hard to say. I guess we’re interested in the reception of the film because I do want to engage an audience and there’re all sort of experiments in flirtation of audience expectations—in a constructive sense, I hope.
I do think that audiences have been conditioned to prefer pacificity and media as an anesthesia. I’m trying in my little way to interrupt that. Maybe I’m just having a fit in the corner of the room, I don’t know.
So how did Jeff Goldblum come on board? I was very surprised to see him attached to one of your films, unless I’m underestimating his taste in modern arthouse cinema. He’s getting in the mud of it all. He’s up for anything these days. I think he’s having not just a popularity revival but a revival of his artistic interests. Jeff has a tremendous amount of vitality and he was very interested in causing a small trouble with me.
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Director Rick Alverson.
In what way? He wanted to subvert expectations of the audiences of how they’ve considered him and what he does for them and we utilized that. He’s really keen and smart and I think he understood that it could have a potency in the film. This is one of his more muted performances, even though the personality of Goldblum percolates out of that. He restrained himself in a way I found really refreshing.
We really want to commend your location scout on a fantastic job. What were you looking for in the production design and the sets? Especially for the final shot. The final shot was its own kind of nightmare. We shot that on Mount Baker on the Canadian border in Washington and we isolated the location based on this expanse that’s usually full of four or five feet of snow most of the year. The night before we shot, they plowed all that snow for the parking lot underneath. Those sorts of things drive you crazy.
My production designer Jacqueline Abrahams—who worked on The Lobster among other great films—is an incredibly keen, hardworking person. We wanted to neuter some of the romance of the era, to make it muddy and give it a bland complexity. Obviously when making a period film, the production design and costume design are the most difficult but nerve-wrecking and exciting tools in the whole toolbox. I think we came at it obliquely enough that it became interesting.
Are you still hoping to make your KKK film soon? Now should be the time, right? I’d like to move back to it, but I’ve moved onto another project for now [a horror movie and a comedy series, according to IndieWire]. It still fascinates me, but I don’t want to be too reactionary. It’s a tough time now, for a lot of things.
Would you say you’re drawn to films similar to yours? What are your favorite recent films that challenged you? Oh gosh. The other day I saw Slack Bay by Bruno Dumont, which I found very funny. I’m sorry, I’m terrible at this question.
I’d say that’s a very on-brand choice for you. Thank you.
‘The Mountain’ is in select French cinemas now and opens in US cinemas on August 2.
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