#stealth fave scene? POSSIBLY

[booasaur]

Crush (2022)

#crushedit #crush 2022 #crush hulu #aj campos #paige evans #auli'i cravalho #rowan blanchard #crush spoilers #aj x paige #femslash related stuff #stealth fave scene? POSSIBLY #you know how much I love just freaking talking about feelings #and who doesn't love when there's finally an emotional outpouring because they just can't keep it in #and are like frustrated because it's so dumb and they just can't help themselves #very 10 things #the whole movie feels like an updated take on '90s high school romcoms tbh #feel like we barely get these scenes because f/f couples are so rushed or like Serious Period Dramas where there's staring and symbolism #atypical did it well too and honestly same mood #and what I love best about that last line is that it isn't just a trope #it has to very specifically apply to them #because paige IS often stupidly cutely being a flustered dork and aj's usually around half-smiling fondly

[marvelandimagine]

I think some people mad about the arm is not necessarily about the fact that Ayo disabling the arm itself, it's more of the fact that it was not necessary and the fact that Bucky had no idea they can do that. If I were to be honest, I think it was not that necessary because Ayo is well capable of taking him down without having to disarm him and she is definitely not threatened by him. I think what some people find upsetting about that scene is the fact that it kinda comes off as Ayo putting Bucky in a position where it would make him feel like he doesn't have full control of his own body after all. The Wakandans, especially Ayo, T'Challa and Shuri had every right to feel betrayed and upset but the point is they should have told Bucky about how the arm can easily be disabled like that, they didn't know Bucky was going to set Zemo free when they gave him the arm and regardless of the things they have done for him and if they were ones who gave him the arm, they should have at least told him about it, because it's connected to him, it's a part of HIS body. It doesn't matter if it was necessary to disarm him or not, the point is they should have told him about it because apart from the fact that it's his body and that it was a bit insensitive given his history, it's also a point of vulnerability, and the fact that she did it in front of Walker (and possibly Zemo) --- people who can easily turn on Bucky, could easily that to their advantage and attempt to disable it themselves. Just my thoughts on it.

Thank you for sharing your perspective, anon!

I’m going to use this long-ass reply to address this stuff with Ayo and also voice some thoughts I’ve had over the past few weeks seeing people paint Bucky into being this complete soft and harmless human that needs 25-7 protection which I don’t jive with — and this is me, a complete Bucky stan.

Many moons ago, I saw a post that compared 1940s Bucky moving with stealth and a loaded gun on the train to the Winter Soldier doing the same thing, essentially discussing the similarities and debating how much of non-brainwashed Bucky was in the Soldier. And I think the fandom forgets or chooses to neglect the following when painting him as this fragile, peace-loving guy:

Bucky was an incredibly skilled sniper in the United States Army. His job is to eliminate threats in the most efficient way possible, and he’s good at it. HYDRA gets their hands on him and + the serum, this gets magnified. It wasn’t like HYDRA turned him into someone with the ability and mental capacity to kill — that was already there. The brainwashing and torture just carved out the rest of him to leave those honed skills and an amplified ruthlessness with no moral issues, no sense of self to contend with. That ruthlessness is part of Bucky, whether people like it or not.

When Bucky is outside of HYDRA for the first time and hiding in Civil War and gets attacked, he’s so brutal in his actions that Steve Rogers, the man who literally was ready to die to save Bucky and free him when no one else believed in the good in him, intervenes because “Buck, you’re going to kill someone.” Bucky responds that he’s not going to kill anyone, but the fact remains: with or without HYDRA control, Bucky has a strong capacity for violence that hovers on brutality — again, what’s the most efficient way to eliminate or neutralize a threat? Like, I don’t want to kill you, but I’ll knock your ass out with cinder blocks to the chest.

Bucky has a good heart, he’s loyal, he’s smart, he’s caring, he’s the longest-standing POW in history and was turned into a slave for decades, put through unimaginable trauma and torture and horror with no escape. Bucky is also a strong and incredibly skilled super soldier who has a bionic arm, is a trained sniper, is unnervingly precise with knives, and self-describes himself as “semi-stable.” Zemo notes in the bar that “it didn’t take Bucky long to get back into form,” and he’s right because the ruthlessness and skill of the Winter Soldier is a part of him and always has been. We see it when he has his hand around Zemo’s neck and tells him he will kill him, when he rips the glass from his hand and throws it across the room.

And I’m sure the Wakandans know all this about Bucky, this light and his ability for hard-to-stop violence, whether from talking to Steve and Bucky or doing their own homework. And they still choose to help him out of the goodness of their hearts because he’s been put through hell and they believe they have the capacity to help him and it’s the right thing to do — they’re betting more on those positive attributes. And they put a failsafe on his arm, a literal weapon, and chose not to tell him. You know why I think that shows how much they did care about him? Because they could’ve blatantly come out and said “Hey, we don’t trust you,” and hurt him outright, but they didn’t because they’re betting on the light in Bucky to outweigh the dark or any future manipulation. That it’s a worst-case scenario function they hope to never have to use — so they’re prepared if shit hits the fan, and if it doesn’t, Bucky doesn’t have to be hurt feeling like he can’t be trusted. I see no issues here, they’re just being cautious.

Now coming to Ayo, my QUEEN Ayo. From that beautiful, beautiful opening scene, we get to see her support, her reassurance, her belief that Bucky will be able to work through this, even when he doesn’t believe it himself. She watches him fight and struggle and cry, and you can feel the hope in her and how moved she is when she gets to tell him it worked, he did it — he’s free. And she says it not once, but twice. And you can hear not just the comfort, but the PRIDE and warmth in her voice directed to him, who I’m sure she’s watched throughout the whole deprogramming process and gotten to know and is happy to see him work through the pain and come out on the other side.

And then she sees that same individual make a decision in freeing Zemo that she perceives as a “fuck you” not just to her country, but to her, someone who was charged with protecting her king. She could’ve just disarmed Bucky the second they met up, but she doesn’t. She takes the time to explain her side and her feelings, her guilt and her shame, and basically implies that she feels betrayed by Bucky because Wakanda helped him and now he’s doing something that’s hurting her country. And still, she doesn’t attack or just go get Zemo. She gives Bucky the benefit of the doubt and a whole 8-hour American workday to do what he has to do because again, she believes in the best of him. And then that time limit runs up, and he chooses to get in her way.

And that’s the final straw. She’s angry, she’s guilty, she’s frustrated, and she feels betrayed hurt by someone I think she did respect and care about, someone whom she worked with and helped and supported when he was his most vulnerable. Did she “need” to disarm the arm to fight Bucky? Probably not. But is she doing it in the heat of battle and adrenaline and a whole bucket ton of emotions, including what she sees as the White Wolf blatantly disrespecting her country and her as a person and even friend and she just says fuck it, I’m done? You hurt us and me, and I’m going to hurt you back? Oh yeah. And Bucky looks shocked, not because he’s a poor fragile baby and “oh no, my arm, how could you?? my TrAumA”, but in the dual realization of “oh shit, how’d you do that?!” and “oh shit, I think I crossed a line here.” And also, I don’t think a single person in that room would be able to recreate the disabling sequence other than Ayo — it’s way too targeted and specific for someone like Walker to pick it up in the whole three seconds it took.

People need to stop reducing characters to these black and white extremes of soft and hard, of good and bad. Doing so completely devalues and ignores the REALITY of the complexity of being human, and Bucky and Ayo are both great examples of that played by stellar actors who portray that range and depth extremely well. End of the day, my thought is that the failsafe in the arm was justified and people need to stop coming for Ayo based on this ridiculous narrative that Bucky is too traumatized and sensitive and too much of a fave to ever be challenged or he’ll explode into dust. Boy deserves a life of freedom and healing and mental health support, but he’s also still a formidable opponent with the capacity for violence and skillset to kill. People are more than one thing.

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk!!

#Bucky barnes #winter soldier #falcon and winter soldier #falcon and the winter solider spoilers #faws spoilers #faws #james bucky barnes #marvel #dora milaje #wakanda #Ayo #Steve Rogers #falcon and winter soldier spoilers #marvel fandom #I really went off on this one huh #fatws #fatws bucky #fatws ep 4 #fatws spoilers

[sleepykittypaws]

Stealth Christmas Movies

Updated: April 13, 2024

A “stealth” Christmas movie is one that takes place at the holiday season, or contains key holiday scenes, but isn’t specifically focused on, or mostly about, Christmas. There are literally hundreds of movies that fit this description, and I’ve previously chronicled my top 25 and put together a Stealth Christmas Movie Showdown in 2018 to find readers’ faves.

The holidays are such a fertile storytelling tool, there are certainly even more than this out there, but below you’ll find a list of nearly 300 Stealth Christmas Movies (in alphabetical order), with briefs on what make them holiday appropriate viewing, even if they’re not primarily about Christmas…

12 Monkeys (1995) - An epidemic eliminates most of the world’s population at the holidays. Making it either the very best, or very worst, Christmas 2020 watch possible, depending on your perspective.

1941 (1979) - An inept German/Japanese raiding party attempts to invade L.A. after Pearl Harbor, starting with capturing a Christmas tree farmer.

1985 (2018) - A closeted man goes home for the holidays for the first time in years, but struggles with how to tell his conservative family he’s got AIDS.

29th Street (1991) - A guy who’s been effortlessly lucky since birth finds out he’s a lottery winner, which, ironically, throws his charmed existence into chaos. The movie, told in flashback, starts with the main character screaming at God outside a holiday-decorated church in the slowly falling snow.

8 Women (2002) - This oh-so-French, dark comedy finds eight women stranded in a remote house with a murder victim for the Christmas holidays.

About a Boy (2002) - Hugh Grant is a man living off the royalties of his one-hit-wonder Dad’s Christmas classic who befriends a young boy, which helps them both grow up. Pivotal scenes are set at Christmas and New Year’s.

About Time (2013) - A young man (Domhnall Gleeson) learns his family’s secret gift is time travel during a fateful New Year’s Eve party.

The Adventures of Ichabod and Mister Toad (1949) - The perfect Halloween-Christmas combo watch, the action of the Mister Toad portion takes place on Christmas Eve, though the holiday is somewhat incidental to Toad’s tale.

The Aftermath (2019) - This 2019, (barely) based-on-a-true-story drama about a British family living with the enemy in occupied Germany is narratively flat, but there are some gorgeous Christmas scenes.

Age of Adaline (2015) - This extremely weird movie about an un-aging Blake Lively begins on New Year’s Eve, both a past one that marks Adeline’s long ago birth, and a modern-day party where she meets a new love.

Alex Edelman: Just for Us (2024, Max) - This filmed version of Edelman’s one-man Broadway show details his visit to a white supremacist meeting in Queens and it’s hilarious. One of the best diversions in this conversational story is a laugh-out-loud look at the Jewish Edelman’s experience with Christmas.

Alice (1991) - This everyone-falls-in-love with Mia Farrow movie concludes at Christmas, with much of the culmination taking place at a holiday-festooned party.

All of Us Strangers (2023) - The Andrew Scott-Paul Mescal movie inspired by Taichi Yamada’s Strangers features a memorable and plot pivotal Christmas scene.

All That Heaven Allows (1955) - This Jane Wyman-Rock Hudson classic, directed by Douglas Sirk, centers around a May-December romance that takes place at the holidays. Criterion even released a “Christmas Edition” in 2018.

Almost Famous (2000) - Cameron Crow’s autobiographical ode to ‘70s rock opens at the holidays, with his mom’s ranting against Christmas commercialism while “The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t be Late)” plays.

Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007) - The entire movie is set at the holidays, starting when the Chipmunks end up in L.A., and in the care of their eventual guardian, Dave, due to their home being cut down for use as a Christmas tree in a record company.

The American President (1995) - The White House Christmas Party is where environmental lobbyist Sydney Ellen Wade, played by Annette Bening, inadvertently reveals the info that helps her boyfriend, the President, get his crime bill passed.

An Affair to Remember (1957) - Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr fall in love on New Year’s Eve and are reunited on Christmas Eve.

Annie Hall (1977) - In this classic Allen-directed rom-com his relationship with Diane Keaton hits the rocks at the holidays, with several memorable Christmas-set scenes in the film.

Antiquities (2018) - A man wanting to better know his recently deceased father takes a job at an antique mall, where one of the booths is run by a man who recreates his childhood Christmases with elaborate displays.

The Apartment (1960) - This poignant, Shirley MacLaine-Jack Lemmon classic about men and their mistresses, is set entirely over the holidays.

Are We There Yet? (2005) - A single mom’s kid-hating suitor (Ice Cube) is forced to take a New Year’s Eve trip with her offspring, who are determined to break them up.

Await Further Instructions (2018) - A family receives a mysterious message on Christmas Eve that makes them turn on each other, and their neighbors.

Babe (1995) - The Christmas scenes in this otherwise charming live-action children’s film border on terrifying, as the family considers dining on our hero, before selecting an unlucky goose we’re at first led to believe is another main character instead.

Baby Mama (2008) - This 2008 Tina Fey-Amy Poehler comedy begins and ends at the holidays. There’s even a Christmas song!

Bachelor Mother (1956) - Ginger Rogers is a recently-fired shopgirl, hired by a department store for Christmas, who finds a baby, that everyone quickly assumes is hers. 

Backfire (1950) - An injured WWII vet tries to track down his friend and potential business fire around the holidays, in this twisty noir thriller.

Bad Education (2019) - Part of the grift that unravels the school board con is the purchase of lavish Christmas gifts on the company card. Also has pivotal Christmas party and present opening scenes.

Baggage Claim (2013) - This slight but charming holiday-set rom-com has flight attendant Paula Patton flying all over the world looking for the perfect date to her sister’s wedding, when the man of her dreams might be right next door.

Bad Times at the El Royale (2018) - This one is admittedly very subtle, but Christmas decor indicates these strange events are taking place around the holidays.

Bar Fight! (2022) - Holiday-set comedy about a couple going through a bad breakup and staking out who gets their local watering hole.

Batman Returns (1992) - One of many Christmas-set superhero movies, but this one even has a holiday-themed (secondary) villain in Cristi Conaway’s, The Ice Princess.

The Beanie Bubble (2023) - Apple TV’s Ty toy origin story has several small holiday-set highlights, including a company Christmas party where the storylines of the three women centered, converge.

Beautiful Girls (1996) - This Matt Dillion, coming-home romantic drama is very much not a rom-com, despite comedic elements, and uses its holiday setting sparingly, but effectively, to amp up the angst.

Beirut (2018) - This one is oh-so-slight, but there are visible Christmas decorations in the brief, American-set scenes before Jon Hamm’s character is called back to Beirut to negotiate alongside Rosamund Pike.

Bell Book and Candle (1958) - This classic, witchcraft-themed romantic comedy, is set over Christmas, making it another great Halloween-Christmas crossover.

Before You Go (2014) - Chris Evans’ directorial debut features he and Alice Eve walking around a holiday-decorated New York City.

Ben is Back (2018) - This Julia Roberts drama is set on Christmas Eve, when her drug addicted son unexpectedly shows up at home for the holidays, though he’s supposed to be in rehab.

Better Off Dead (1985) - Set mostly around the holidays, this classic 1980s comedy starring John Cusack features an indelible parental costume scene with David Ogden Steirs as a holiday aardvark.

The Birthday Cake (2021) - This Val Kilmer and Ewan McGregor-led mob movie about a son finding out what really happened to his connected father at a party ostensibly celebrating his memory takes place at the holidays.

Blackbird (2020) - Susan Sarandon gathers her adult children for one last faux-Christmas celebration, before ending her own life as a terminal illness worsens.

Black Garden (2020) - This dystopian sci-fi story of mankind’s final survivors begins on Christmas Eve.

Blast of Silence (1961) - This holiday-set movie about a hitman hired to take out a mob boss, has received recent Christmas noir recognition thanks to the Criterion Channel.

Blossoms in the Dust (1941) - A dramatization of the charitable life of Texan Edna Gladney, this drama features several key Christmas seasons, and the overall theme of giving is well suited for holiday viewing.

Boiling Point (2021) - Stephen Graham headlines this restaurant drama about a stressed out chef in the weeks leading up to Christmas, based on a 2019 short film of the same name.

The Boss Baby: Family Business (2021) - Sequel to the 2017 animated comedy starring Alec Baldwin, set totally at the holidays and culminating at Christmas, despite its summer release date.

The Bourne Identity (2002) - Though it’s never mentioned, the entire CIA chase of Jason Bourne takes place amidst the holiday season, with Christmas decor visible in many seasons.

The Box (2009) - This Cameron Diaz moral conundrum thriller is set mostly around the Christmas season.

Brazil (1985) - This holiday-set movie of a dystopian future where Christmas is used to distract from disinformation.

Break (2019) - Russian thriller about a group of friends who get trapped in a mountaintop gondola on New Year’s Eve.

Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001) - This delightful Renee Zellwegger comedy begins and ends at the holidays, making Bridget the perfect New Year’s or Christmas watch. (You won’t be surprised to learn this is my personal favorite stealth Christmas movie.)

Bright Eyes (1934) - Shirley Temple’s stubborn disbelief in Santa is a major character trait.

Bros (2022) - Big chunks of this very funny Billy Eichner rom-com, co-starring frequent Hallmark holiday hunk Luke Macfarlane, takes place around the holidays.

Bundle of Joy (1956) - This remake of Bachelor Mother stars then-married-couple Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds. Reynolds finds an abandoned baby at the holidays, and people mistake her for a (gasp) single mother, leading to all sort of outdated comedic hijinks.

Carol (2015) - This Cate Blanchett drama about a closeted woman whose tight control of her emotions slips at the holidays isn’t an uplifting holiday watch, but it’s unquestionably gorgeous and seasonally appropriate.

Cash on Demand (1961) - This cult classic British crime thriller centers on a pre-Christmas bank heist.

Catch Me If You Can (2002) - This stylish Steven Spielberg story opens on Christmas Eve, and several plot-pivotal Christmas depictions help set the scene for how Frank Abagnale, Jr (Leonardo DiCaprio) became a con artist.

Children of Men (2006) - For the true Grinches in your life, this dystopian Nativity story allegory from Alfonso Cuaron will bring down even the happiest elves.

Clouds (2020) - This based-on-a-true-story account of Zach Sobiech’s final days is set in snowy Minnesota, and features a montage of holiday scenes to help note the passage of time. Clips from the real, holiday-themed "Clouds Choir" fundraiser, held annually to benefit the Zach Sobiech Osteosarcoma Fund, play during the credits.

Clueless (1995) - Though it’s not dwelled on, the movie takes place partly at the holidays, with the “tragic Val party” awash in Christmas decorations.

Citizen Kane (1941) - The greatest film of all time opens at, you guessed it, Christmas and, as we all now know (80 year old spoiler warning), Rosebud was, indeed, a sled embodying the magic of childhood innocence.

Cobra (1986) - This Sylvester Stallone ‘80s actioner is chock full of Christmas decorations, though the holiday is never cited in the story. Legend says this is because the movie actually shot near the holiday, so many of the locations were decorated and the B-movie production didn’t want to take the time to take down or shoot around existing decor.

Collateral Beauty (2016) - This divisive Will Smith movie, which culminates on Christmas Eve, is either a feel-good holiday fantasy, or mawkish, manipulative dreck, depending on your mood. But it’s definitely a holiday film.

C.R.A.Z.Y. (2005) - The Jean-Marc Vallée story of a French-Canadian boy born on Christmas, which his very religious parents take as a sign, ties the holiday into coming to terms with his sexuality amid dysfunctional family chaos.

Curse of the Cat People (1944) - The little girl kicks off the curse by giving a ghost a Christmas present (no, really), and the entire second half of the action is set at the holidays.

The Cutting Edge (1992) - In addition to it’s New Year’s party sparkler scene, this sports movie-romance also has a significant Christmas scene, where the rivals turned partners exchange meaningful gifts.

The Day Mars Invaded Earth (1963) - This low-budget '60s sci-fi uses the holiday to show how aliens have effected a family man.

The Dead (1987) - John Huston’s final film, starring his daughter Anjelica, is set around an Irish celebration of the Feast of the Epiphany (a.k.a. the 12th day of Christmas).

The Dead Zone (1983) - David Cronenberg’s take on Stephen King’s novel about a clairvoyant trying to prevent a grim future has a top-notch cast—Christopher Walken, Tom Skerritt and Martin Sheen, among others—and takes place partly at the holidays.

D.O.A. (1988) - Dennis Quaid is a detective trying to solve his own murder before poison ends his life at the holidays.

Desk Set (1957) - This fast-talking Katherine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy classic is an absolute delight any time of year, but an elaborate office Christmas party helps makes this a welcome addition to December viewing.

Die Hard (1988) - The quintessential action movie set at the holidays, this is definitely a Christmas movie—if you want it to be.

Die Hard 2 (1990) - This also-Christmas-set sequel tries, and fails, to recreate the magic of the original, but it’s still a stealth holiday movie.

Eastern Promises (2007) - For those who like their Christmas movies bleak, this midwinter-set Russian mob movie will do the trick.

Edward Scissorhands (1990) - Johnny Depp’s misunderstood weirdo hero helps wins over his neighbors with evocative and festive holiday ice sculptures.

Eileen (2023) - Set in snowy, 1964 Massachusetts, a pivotal Christmas Eve rendezvous ramps up the tension in this Anne Hathaway-led drama

Enemy of the State (1998) - Though almost innocent in its portrayal of our current (mostly self-imposed) surveillance state, this Will Smith action movie features loads of holiday decor, and the entire chase begins with some Christmas shopping.

Entrapment (1999) - This Y2K (remember when that was a thing?) heist movie moves from Christmas right through the big New Year’s Eve robbery.

Everybody’s Fine (2009) - This Robert DeNiro-led family dramedy features a grumpy widower trying to connect with his kids at Christmas.

Everyone Says I Love You (1996) - Woody Allen’s attempt at a musical with A-list stars not known for their singing, wasn’t exactly a hit (though critics liked it), but it does feature a memorable Marx Brothers themed Christmas party.

The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021) - This biographical film netted Jessica Chastain her third Oscar nod for playing televangalist Tammy Faye Bakker and we’re introduced to the Bakker’s PTL TV network via an extended scene that shows their fifth anniversary Christmas Special.

Eyes Wide Shut (1999) - Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise indulge in a Christmastime orgy. (I’m sorry, that’s actually the movie’s plot.)

Facade (2020) - A group of people who think they’re taking part in a study are actually twisted Christmas entertainment for a family of rich psychopaths.

Falling In Love (1984) - This Robert DeNiro-Meryl Strep drama features two married people falling in love over Christmas shopping…Only not with their spouses.

Family Switch (2023, Netflix) - This Jennifer Garner-led body swapping comedy takes place at the holidays.

Fanny and Alexander (1982) - Even Ingmar Bergman understands the power of a holiday setting for his Oscar-winning historical drama about Swedish siblings in the early 1900s.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to find Them (2016) - This Harry Potter prequel is mostly set in a Christmas-decorated, 1926 New York City.

The Father Who Moves Mountains (2021) - This Romanian adventure thriller set around the holidays starts as a straightforward rescue movie about a father willing to go to any length to rescue his son, then turns more surreal.

Fighting With My Family (2019) - This based-on-a-true story, professional wrestling, inspirational drama hinges on a holiday trip home for the heroine.

First Blood (1982) - Did this Rambo introduction kick off the trend of action movies obviously set at, but rarely name-checking, the Christmas season? Not sure, but Rambo fights his way through the decked-out town of Hope.

First Daughter (2004) - Frequent Hallmark lead Marc Blucas’ first Christmas dance was with Katie Holmes in this Forest Whitaker-directed movie that culminates with an elaborate White House Christmas party.

Five Year Engagement (2012) - This years-spanning, under-rated rom-com features several Christmas and New Year’s parties for the on-again, off-again couple.

Funny Farm (1988) - This Chevy Chase fish-out-of-water comedy ends with an idyllic Norman Rockwell holiday portrayal, engineered to extract a regretful couple from their country home purchase.

Funny Pages (2022) - This coming of age comedy about an aspiring comic book artist takes place over the holidays, and culminates on Christmas Day.

Get On Up (2014) - Chadwick Boseman’s portrayal of James Brown features a single Christmas scene, but it’s a fairly important one, showing the abusive relationship he had with his second wife.

Ghosbusters II (1989) - A rousing rendition of “Auld Lang Syne” saves New York in this Christmas-set sequel.

The Ghost Who Walks (2019) - A man fresh out of prison tries to save his family from a mob boss at the holidays.

Ghosts of Girlfriend Past (2009) - This is the rare movie based on A Christmas Carol not set at the holidays, but it’s structure, and inspiration, still make it a stealth holiday movie in my book.

The Glenn Miller Story (1954) - The classic stealth Christmas movie for me, as even though only the end of this one is holiday-set, I absolutely think of it as a Christmas movie, and one of my favorites at that.

Go (1999) - This intertwining storyline, dark, Christmas-set crime comedy has become a cult classic.

Go Back to China (2019) - Emily Ting’s semi-autobiographical story of an L.A.-based woman who returns to China to design a Christmas toy line for her estranged father.

The Godfather (1972) - It’s not only AMC’s post-Thanksgiving airings that have made this Scorsese classic, and its sequel, a holiday mainstay, but the movie’s family holiday scenes that help humanize its mobsters.

The Godfather Part 2 (1974) - The first sequel to ever win Best Picture, the holiday moments are brief, but the family feeling is forever.

Godmothered (2020) - This Disney+ original walks the line between just plain Christmas movie, and stealth, as the holiday is ubiquitous throughout the movie, but not its main focus.

Good Grief (2024) - Dan Levy’s Netflix directorial debut opens with a Christmas sing-a-long in a fabulously-decorated holiday house, along with a generally chilly, winter vibe for much of the film.

The Good House (2022) - Though this Sigourney Weaver-led story, based on Ann Leary’s novel, takes place mostly not at Christmas, holiday celebrations of both Thanksgiving and Christmas play key roles in this funny, and real, tale of an in-denial alcoholic who is faking being in recovery.

Great Balls of Fire (1989) - Jerry Lee Lewis (Dennis Quaid) and his cousin Jimmy Swaggart (Alec Baldwin) celebrate a significant family Christmas in a festive scene that is called back multiple times

Green Book (2018) - A lengthy and pivotal Christmas dinner scene is used to illustrate how much Viggo Mortensen’s White Savior character has changed.

The Green Knight (2021) - Dev Patel’s epic quest takes place at the holidays in King Arthur’s court.

Gremlins (1984) - Steven Spielberg’s horror-comedy classic set at the holidays is festive enough it’s really almost just a regular Christmas movie.

Greyhound (2020) - Tom Hanks’ most recent World War II movie begins at Christmas.

Grumpy Old Men (1993) - The holiday-set comedy sees the rivalry of affections between Jack Lemon and Walther Matthau come to a head on Christmas day.

The Happiest Millionaire (1967) - This was the musical in production when Walt Disney passed away and while it’s generally considered one of Disney’s few flops from that era, there is lengthy Christmas section plus a holiday song from stars Fred MacMurray and Greer Garson.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) - The gang spends their first Christmas all together at Hogwarts, in lieu of going their separate ways for the holidays.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows-Part 1 (2010) - Harry visits the graves of his parents and leaves a Christmas wreath, but other than Part 2, where Christmas doesn’t even occur, this is definitely the least holiday-centric in the series.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) - The Yule Ball is a central plot point for all three main characters in the fourth Harry Potter film.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (2009) - Harry spends the holidays with the Weasleys and celebrates a magical Christmas at Hogwarts, making this one feel fairly festive.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix (2007) - Harry and Hermione spend their first Christmas with the Weasleys, basking in their good cheer.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) - Hogsmeade Village looks extremely festive at the holidays.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001) - The first Christmas at Hogwarts scenes in this debut Harry Potter film are so elaborate and festive that many people think of this one as a flat-out Christmas movie, even though most of the film does not take place at the holidays.

The Hateful Eight (2015) - Definitely not a feel good movie, this bloody Tarantino joint takes place during a blizzard, the holiday is discussed, and one character even plays “Silent Night” during a stand off. So, you know, definitely a stealth Christmas flick.

The Hating Game (2021) - Based on the book by Sally Thorne, this rom-com takes place from Thanksgiving to New Year’s with seasonal appropriate decor and mentions throughout.

Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008) - Guillermo del Toro’s cult classic sequel opens with a bedtime story told on Christmas Eve.

Help (2021) - UK movie made for Channel 4, starring Jodie Comer as a nursing home worker navigating the COVID crisis; begins at Christmas 2019.

Holidate (2020, Netflix) - This Emma Roberts-Luke Bracey rom-com covers all the holidays in a year, making it a seasonally-appropriate watch just about anytime, but it begins and ends with Christmas.

Holiday (1938) - Though the “holiday" in the title refers to a vacation, not Christmas, there’s tasteful Christmas decor aplenty in the Seton house, and a memorable New Year’s Eve party in this Cary Grant-Katherine Hepburn classic.

Hook (1991) - The whole reason the grown-up Peter (Robin Williams) is in London at all is because it’s Christmas.

Hope (2019) - Stellan Skarsgard is helping his spouse hide a brain tumor diagnosis in hopes of one last happy, family holiday. 

Hot Fuzz (2007) - It’s not a huge part of this Edgar Wright action cop action flick satire, but Peter Jackson (yes, the director) does play a criminal who attacks Simon Pegg dressed as Father Christmas, which, frankly, is pretty stealthily holiday.

How About You (2007) - This Irish film based on several of Maeve Binchy’s short stories stars Haley Atwell as the unprepared caretaker of a residential home, left in charge over Christmas.

How to Be Single (2016) - This first half of this Christmas-set rom-com is heavy on the holidays.

How to Blow Up a Pipeline (2022) - This drama about enviromental activists determined to stop a new pipeline, features a cold, snowy and general miserable Christmas along the way.

Hustlers (2019) - This based-on-a-true-story Jennifer Lopez-led film features an epic Christmas scene that shows the high point that comes before these looting ladies inevitable fall.

I Am Legend (2007) - That there’s more than one movie on this list featuring a worldwide plague that wipes out most of humanity at the holidays might be a really bad omen for how 2020 turns out.

I Come in Peace (1990, a.k.a. Dark Angel) - This Dolph Lungren action movie follows in the tradition of far better action movies by taking place entirely at the holidays.

I Give It A Year (2013) - The pivotal turn in this underrated UK rom-com comes at a Christmas party, and there’s an absolutely epic game of holiday charades.

The Ice Harvest (2005) - Harold Ramis’ Christmas Eve-set crime movie stars John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton.

Ideal Home (2018) - Paul Rudd and Steve Coogan play a bickering couple looking after a surprise grandson with the holidays as a background.

The Impossible (2012) - This harrowing true story from the 2004 tsunami that struck on December 26th, starts out with the foreshadowing of a perfect Christmas day in paradise.

In Bruges (2008) - Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson are chatty hitman stuck in one of Belgium’s most beautiful and festive Christmas towns—the last place they want to be.

Instant Family (2018) - This charming, foster family comedy is at its sweetest during the Christmas scenes.

Invasion U.S.A. (1985) - A Chuck Norris movie that mixes xenophobia and Christmas.

Iron Man 3 (2013) - Director Shane Black continued his Christmas tradition, by not only setting this Marvel movie during the holidays, but keeping star Robert Downey, Jr. mostly out of the suit while he did it.

I Trapped the Devil (2019) - This horror-thriller set over the Christmas holidays has a man who has imprisoned another, saying he’s the devil. But which one is the real monster?

I Wouldn’t Be In Your Shoes (1948) - A classic, wrong-man noir murder mystery set around the holidays.

Jarhead (2005) - Based on a real-life Marine’s memoir, a pivotal holiday party leads to a demotion for Jake Gyllenhaal in this grim, but well acted, military drama.

Jaws the Revenge (1987) - This most ridiculous of the Jaws sequels—and that’s really saying something—takes place almost entirely at the holidays, cause what’s more festive than being stalked by a Great White shark?

Jersey Girl (2004) - This Kevin Smith rom-com features Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez meeting cute at a Christmas party, and even has a Stevie Wonder Christmas tune on the soundtrack.

A Journal for Jordan (2021) - Michael B. Jordan plays a soldier father communicating to his son via a journal, in this tear-jerking holiday season release that includes several key Christmas-set scenes.

Jumanji (1995) - This original starring Robin Williams ends at the holidays, with a full on Christmas party, where Williams’ character meets the kids he knew in the game in the real world for the first time.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017) - Like the original film, the Jumanji reboot, which was released just before the holiday, ends with a Christmas scene once everyone is (spoiler alert) safely back in the real world.

Jumanji: The Next Level (2019) - In the barest nod to its holiday release date, the kids plan a Christmas break reunion, only to find themselves drawn back into the game. Neither of the new series has as much holiday as the original, but it is a Jumanji Cinematic Universe through line that all three take place, at least in part, around Christmas.

Jurassic World (2015) - Even though this was released in summer, the whole set-up of the film is the kids are visiting their aunt at the holidays—it even starts with Christmas carols. Mostly likely because this was originally destined to debut at Christmas.

Just Friends (2005) - Really riding the line between stealth and flat out Christmas movie, this holiday-set, Ryan Renolyds rom-com could go either way.

Just Getting Started (2017) - Morgan Freeman and Tommy Lee Jones compete for Rene Russo’s affection in this holiday-set, Grandpas-getting-busy-and-running-from-the-mob movie that is very heavy on Christmas, but low on laughs.

Karate Kid (1984) - The Christmas elements aren’t as memorable as the Cobra Kai’s Halloween dance beat down, but they’re there, as Daniel preps for the All Valley tournament, probably because this summer release was actually filmed in December.

King Kong (2005) - The entire third act, when King Kong is on display in New York, takes place in a holiday-decorated New York. There’s even a skating scene with Naomi Watts and the great ape.

The King’s Man (2021) - This Kingsman prequel has our British heroes (spoiler alert) take out Rasputin at a Russian Christmas party in a manner that mimics the Mad Monk’s real-life, and oft-fabled, demise.

The King’s Speech (2010) - This Best Picture-winner is only partly set at the holidays, but King George’s primary goal to overcoming his speech impediment is to be able to give the same sort of comforting Christmas radio speech his father did. 

Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014) - Another Colin Firth, sort of Christmas movie, with Firth’s early scene introduction to then-child Eggsy taking place in their holiday-decorated council flat. 

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005) - Arguably what director Shane Black and Robert Downey Jr started in this black-comedy, Christmas-set film, he finished, or least got a much wider audience to watch, in Iron Man 3.

L’immenmsita (2022) - This 1970s-set Italian family drama, starring Penelope Cruz, displays a mother trying to hold her family together, including through a key holiday celebration.

L.A. Confidential (1997) - While this modern noir is far from festive, it’s definitely set at the holidays, as the swinging holiday soundtrack and ubiquitous Christmas lights remind you.

Lady in the Lake (1947) - Robert Montogomery actually specifically set this at the holidays, deviating from Raymond Chandler’s novel, to juxtapose the festiveness of the holiday, against his gritty central character.

Lady and the Tramp (1955 & 2019) - Both the Disney animated original and live-action remake have beautiful Christmas scenes where Lady joins her family as a beloved Christmas present for her mistress.

Larceny, Inc. (1942) - This holiday-set, Edward G. Robinson crime comedy, is a fun twist on the heist movie.

Lassie (2005) - This (infuriating for animal lovers) remake finds the classic collie so devoted to her boy, she escapes from her cruel new owner and undertakes an epic journey that leads her home on Christmas Day. Warning: Not only are there multiple animal deaths, but Lassie herself seems to perish as she reaches home, too. 

Last Action Hero (1993) - This meta-commentary/buddy comedy action movie about action movies is best known as a box office bomb, but since Shane Black is one of the writers, it’s not surprising that one of the inside jokes is that the action movie within the movie takes place at, you guessed it, Christmas.

The Last Boy Scout (1991) - It’s an action movie. It takes place at Christmas. It stars Bruce Willis. No, not that one. Not that other one either. And you’ll never guess who wrote it either. (Yes, you will.)

The Last Letter From Your Lover (2021) - A pivotal section of this Netflix romantic drama’s dual storytelling is set amidst a lush, 1969 London Christmas. The non-holiday scenery is equally gorgeous.

The Lemon Drop Kid (1951) - This Bob Hope classic finds a con artist struggling to come up with a wad of cash he owes a gangster before Christmas.

Les Miserables (2012) - This big screen adaptation of the Broadway musical based on Victor Hugo’s novel is probably best known as the movie that, for some reason, let Russell Crowe sing. In a nod to its Christmas Day-release, this version also adds a drunken Pere Noel to Sasha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter’s “Master of the House” song and dance.

Less Than Zero (1987) - Has anyone starred in more almost-Christmas movies than Robert Downey, Jr. (and don’t forget Home for the Holidays is a Thanksgiving, not Christmas movie)? In this one he’s a spoiled wastrel throwing debauched Christmas bashes that couldn’t possibly look more 1980s.

Lethal Weapon (1987) - Shane Black strikes again. Or, in this case, strikes first, as this black holiday, Mel Gibson action flick, which Black wrote, predates his other Christmas-set efforts.

Lina from Lima (2020) - A nanny for a wealthy Chilean family plans a holiday visit home to Peru in this Spanish-language drama.

Lion in Winter (1968) - Katherine Hepburn won an Oscar for playing Eleanor of Aquitaine, wife to Henry II, in this historical drama set during the Christmas of 1163.

Little Women (1933) - Katherine Hepburn is Jo in this, the first major adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s novel that kicks off at Christmas.

Little Women (1949) - June Allyson plays Jo in this first, color version, but it’s Elizabeth Taylor as Amy who steals this show.

Little Women (1994) - Susan Sarandon is Marmie in this Academy Award-nominated adaptation.

Little Women (2018) - Known as the one we’d like to pretend didn’t happen, this Lea Thompson-led version is best forgotten, but still fairly festive.

Little Women (2019) - Greta Gerwig actually found a new way to approach this oft-told tale, but there’s still plenty of Christmas feels to be found in this star-studded, critically acclaimed movie that gets Meryl Streep to play Marmie.

The Lodge (2020) - Riley Keough is a soon-to-be stepmom trapped in a cabin with her fiancé’s less than welcoming offspring as Christmas approaches.

Look Who’s Talking Now (1993) - In perhaps the most we’re-obviously-out-of-ideas sequel of all time, the pets now talk in this hooky, Christmas-set cash grab.

The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996) - This under-rated Geena Davis-Samuel L Jackson movie might just be the best action movie set at Christmas. (Yeah, I said what I said.)

The Lost Husband (2020) - This romantic drama, based on a Katherine Center novel, is basically a Hallmark movie with a bigger budget, so no surprise that key scenes take place at Christmas, and the whole movie starts on New Year’s Eve.

Love, Simon (2018) - This sweet, coming of age movie finds Simon’s coming out, coming over Christmas break.

Love at First Sight (2023) - This Netflix original, British rom-com is oh-so-sweet and takes place entirely from December 20-21, with plenty of decor and holiday plan chatter woven into the strangers fall (almost) instantly in love plot.

Lovely, Still (2008) - This heartbreaking Alzheimer’s love story is set over the holidays, for extra tear-jerking effect.

The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942) - This Bette Davis-starrer tells the story of a self-satisfied dandy who slips on the ice and is forced to spend the holidays with a family exasperated by him.

Mandrome (2023) - This bleak drama about a cult-like male empowerment leader, played by Adrian Brody, that draws in expectant father Jesse Eisenberg is set in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

Mean Girls (2004) - An iconic “Jingle Bell Rock” performance made Lacey Chabert a Christmas movie star long before Hallmark came calling.

Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) - Perhaps the ur-stealth Christmas movie, this mostly summer-set musical was turned into a Christmas classic the moment Judy Garland crooned “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.”

Metropolitan (1990) - Whit Stillman’s look at spoiled New York City debutantes takes place almost entirely between Christmas and New Year’s.

Millions (2004) - This UK delight from Danny Boyle is a sweet story set at, but not necessarily about, Christmas and New Year’s.

Miracle at Morgan’s Creek (1944) - This Preston Sturgess screwball comedy culminates at Christmas.

Mixed Nuts (1994) - This Steve Martin-led mental health comedy that kicks off on Christmas Eve didn’t really translate for American audiences, though the French original, Le Père Noël est Une Ordure (Santa Claus is a Stinker) is a beloved holiday classic.

Moneyball (2011) - Math + baseball doesn’t sound like it would equal a great movie, but this Brad Pitt-starrer, which also features a pre-Starlord Chris Pratt and earned Jonah Hill his first Oscar nomination, is excellent. Plus, much of the first act is set around the holidays, as Billy Beene tries to rebuild his bargain baseball team before the 2002 season.

Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979) - The life story of the guy born in the stable next to Jesus, also on Christmas Day.

Moonstruck (1987) - This Oscar-winning, offbeat rom-com starring Nick Cage and Cher was released in mid-December and features the seasonal background decor to match.

Morvern Callar (2002) - How bleak is this Lynne Ramsey-directed, holiday-set story? Well, it starts with a Christmas morning suicide and only gets much, much darker from there. 

The Mothman Prophecies (2002) - The titular horrific prophecy is set to come at Christmas, and the entire second half the film is set at the holidays.

Mouse Hunt (1997) - The Christmas setting of this slapstick comedy may have been trying to evoke Home Alone, though this time it’s a mouse, instead of Macaulay Culkin, provoking prat falls.

Museo (2018) - This Spanish-language heist drama starring Gael Garcia Bernal is based on the true story of a 1985 holiday robbery.

My Night at Maud’s (1969) - Also known as Ma Nuit Chez Maud, this French New Wave classic is centered on chance meetings during a Christmas vacation.

Mystery, Alaska (1999) - This amiable ice hockey movie has lots of cold weather whimsy (Alberta doubles for Alaska), and a few actual Christmas scenes, that make it holiday appropriate viewing.

New in Town (2009) - Slight but amiable Renee Zellweger rom-com about an outsider finding her place in a small town, partly through Christmas caroling and tree lighting.

The Nice Guys (2016) - For most of its run this R-rated, 1970s-set dark comedy-thriller starring Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe has nothing to do with the holidays. But it’s a Shane Black joint, so the coda is completely decked out in holiday cheer.

Night of the Comet (1984) - This B-movie classic uses Christmas as the background for the apocalypse.

Nomadland (2020) - This Frances McDormand drama, and recent Best Picture winner, about modern day nomads, starts at the holidays.

Nutcracker and the Four Realms (2018) - This Disney fantasy film based on the classic ballet is hit or miss story wise, but pretty to look at.

Old Man and the Gun (2018) - This based-on-a-true story heist movie, features Robert Redford as an aging, but ever charming, bank robber, and includes an epic Tom Waits monologue about a Christmas tree.

Olympus Has Fallen (2013) - This Gerard Butler Presidential action flick kicks off with Christmas at Camp David.

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969) - While Bond films at Christmas are a UK tradition thanks to ITV’s annual airings dating back to 1978, this is the only Bond movie that actually features the holiday.

One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961) - Though it’s not the focus, the original Disney animated movie takes place entirely around the holidays, with the happy ending coming on Christmas Day.

Once Upon a Deadpool (2018) - The PG-13 cut of the normally very R-rated Deadpool, was released at the holidays and used Princess Bride storytelling framing, complete with a kidnapped Fred Savage, and Santa wall decor, to fill in the parts that were cut out.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) - The latter half of the movie is entirely set at the holidays, and it’s in the aftermath of an illicit Christmas party that we finally see Billy stand up to Nurse Ratched.

Only You (1992) - A recently dumped Andrew McCarthy takes a woman he just met (Kelly Preston) on a non-refundable holiday trip to the tropics, but soon finds himself interested in his travel agent (Helen Hunt)

The Oranges (2011) - A great cast—Hugh Laurie, Oliver Platt, Catherine Keener and Allison Janney—headline this so-so story of a man who starts an affair with his best friend’s daughter when she’s home for the holidays.

Ordinary Angels (2023) - Feel good story about a recovering addict, played by Oscar winner Hillary Swank, who steps in to help a down-on-their-luck family and ends up saving a little girl’s life at Christmas.

Other People (2016) - This Jesse Plemmons-Molly Shannon movie about a mother-son relationship, as the former succumbs to cancer, documents a year in the family’s life, starting and ending at the holidays.

Paul Blart: Mall Cop (2009) - This Black Friday shopping adventure straddles the line between Thanksgiving and Christmas cannon.

Peanuts Movie (2015) - Though this full-length, computer-animated film isn’t entirely set at the holidays, there are key Christmas scenes that call back the classic Peanuts specials.

The Perks of Being of a Wallflower (2012) - A pivotal and memorable Secret Santa scene makes this coming-of-age movie starring Emma Watson a solid holiday watch.

Peter’s Friends (1992) - This under-rated British ensemble features a group of disparate friends celebrating New Year’s together.

Poseidon Adventure (1972) - This New Year’s Eve-set classic isn’t specifically Christmas, but it’s definitely holiday appropriate.

Poseidon (2006) - The boat still flips on New Year’s Eve in this over-long remake, but the fun is what was really swamped.

The Princess Bride (1987) - As Peter Falk reads his grandson the ultimate romantic adventure story, you can see a prominent Santa on his wall, and even snow and Christmas lights out the window if you watch closely.

Priscilla (2023) - Though mostly not set at the holidays, Sofia Coppola’s adaptation of Priscilla Presley’s memoir features a few sumptuous Christmas at Graceland scenes that truly are fit for a King (get it?).

Prometheus (2012) - In case setting it at the holidays didn’t clue you in—Idris Elba is shown decorating a Christmas tree—the Biblical allegory of a women who can’t get pregnant giving birth to an alien, foretold to her by a non-human (robot Michael Fassbender), is pretty on the nose.

Psycho (1960) - No, this isn’t a mistake, this is the stealthiest of stealth Christmas movies, but the backstory makes it worth including…If you look closely, the streets in the opening scenes are decorated for the holidays. The story goes this is because the actual B-roll for the movie was shot during the holiday season, and no one really thought about it till they got in the editing suite, which is why the “Pheonix, Arizona, December 11” title card was added to the opening.

RED (2010) - This under-rated action comedy is probably Bruce Willis’ second-best Christmas action classic. Super fun, even if all of Willis’ Christmas decor gets blown to smithereens.

Red, White & Royal Blue (2023) - This delightful rom-com’s American and British heroes bond (and unbeknownst to them start to fall in love) over Thanksgiving and Christmas texts, finally fully revealing their feelings at a plot-pivotal New Year’s Eve party.

The Ref (1994) - This Dennis Leary-Kevin Spacey holiday kidnapping comedy debuted to scathing reviews, but has found its place among off-beat, cult classics.

Replicas (2019) - Keanu Reeves makes clones of his dead family at Christmas. Very festive.

The Rescuers (1977) - Like many Disney movies, there’s a touch of Christmas in this animated tale, as the rescued little girl is adopted just in time for a holiday happy ending.

Reindeer Games (2000) - Ben Affleck’s action movie was such a bomb they moved it away from a holiday release, despite its title, seasonal setting, and a main character literally named Rudy, as in Rudolph. (Get it?)

Rent (2005) - This film version of the Broadway classic loses much of the stage magic, but still sees its character's through a New York Christmas and New Year’s.

Riders of Justice (2020) - Mads Mikkelsen avenges his wife’s death and takes on a biker gang in this Danish language action thriller, bookended by Christmas scenes.

Rise of the Guardians (2012) - This is the classic non-Christmas, Christmas movie for kids, featuring Santa and Jack Frost, but the action actually takes place over Easter.

Roadblock (1951) - Holiday-set, dark love story gone wrong, starring Charles McGraw and Joan Dixon.

Rocky (1976) - There’s not only a very memorable Thanksgiving scene, but Rocky’s story carries on through the Christmas season, with decor aplenty, and what’s more holiday appropriate than an underdog story?

Rocky IV (1985) - Rocky’s Russian-set showdown with Drago takes place on Christmas Day, after a seriously snowy training montage.

Rudy (1993) - This quintessential sports movie offers up a family Christmas scene that not only evokes 1960s holidays, but reinforces the “you’ll never make it, kid,” motif of the film. (Spoiler alert: he does!)

Sam & Kate (2022) - A holiday-set romance between father-son and mother-daughter duos, played by real-life family units, Sissy Spacek and Schuyler Fisk alongside Dustin and Jake Hoffman.

Scenes from a Mall (1991) - Woody Allen and Bette Midler’s marriage crumbles inside a mall at Christmas time.

Second Act (2018) - This Jennifer Lopez-Vanessa Hudgens rom-com is festooned throughout for the holidays, though they’re not the characters' main focus.

Serendipity (2001) - John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale rely on frustrating fate to bring them back together in a magical New York City at Christmas.

Sex and the City: The Movie (2008) - Carrie and her pals celebrate not only Christmas, but a very memorable New Year’s Eve in this Big Screen continuation of the iconic HBO series that, unlike its cinematic follow-up, is also an actually good movie.

Shadowlands (1993) - This C.S. Lewis biopic kicks off when his till-then pen pal, and future wife, comes for a UK holiday visit that leads to a very memorable Christmas party date.

Shazam! (2019) - Probably the best holiday-set superhero film, this is an absolute delight, and also very Christmasy.

The Silent Partner (1978) - This Elliott Gould movie about a bank teller who figures out a bank heist and tries to get in on the action, is a remake of the 1969 Danish movie, Think of a Number.

The Shop Around the Corner (1940) - This oft-remade classic, itself based on a stage play, stars Margaret Sullivan and Jimmy Stewart, about rival shop owners who fight while unknowingly falling in love with each other as anonymous pen pals, comes together at the holidays, but still keeps Christmas in the background.

Six Days Seven Nights (1998) - This one is definitely a stretch, as the holiday is never mentioned in the movie, but it does start in a snow-covered and Christmas decoration-festooned New York City, indicating Anne Heche and David Schwimmer’s doomed trip to paradise is taking place during the holiday season.

Sleepless in Seattle (1993) - Dripping with Christmas and New Year’s moments, this Tom Hanks-Meg Ryan radio call-in romance really holds up.

Soldier (1998) - Admit I’d never heard of this late-90s action movie starring Kurt Russell and Jason Scott Lee, but am assured the action hinges on a Christmas party that goes badly for Russell’s retired, cyborg super solider.

Some Girls (1988) - This Robert Redford-produced, meet-the-family film starts with Patrick Dempsey accompanying his girlfriend home for the holidays.

Spoiler Alert (2022) - This real-life love story based on the memoir by Michael Ausiello uses Christmas as one of its primary storytelling markers.

Spontaneous (2020) - This genre-defying teen romance/horror-comedy uses name-checked holidays, including Halloween, as well as a quite pivotal Christmas scene, to mark time in a world where teenagers are literally blowing up and no one knows why.

Stalag 17 (1953) - The action in Billy Wilder’s dark comedy comes together on Christmas Day when the SS come for Don Taylor and the prisoners unmask the spy among them.

Star Trek Generations (1994) - This one’s fairly slight, but Trek fans are quick to cite a holiday scene featuring Capt. Picard’s could-have-been family in this time-trippy Trek flick.

Stepmom (1998) - Though it’s got a pretty memorable Thanksgiving scene, this weird, weepy and oddly star-studded melodrama closes at Christmas. Also, how many stealth Christmas movies is Susan Sarandon in, anyway?

Stuck in Love (2012) - Though this movie is really more of a Thanksgiving film, since that holiday bookends the film. there are also some Christmas scenes, making it holiday appropriate anytime in November-December.

The Sure Thing (1985) - This mid-80s, lose-your-virginity comedy (why was that ever a thing?) stars John Cusack and Daphne Zuniga, and takes place over Christmas break.

Susan Slept Here (1954) - In the 1950s, making movies about adults falling in love with “juvenile delinquents” they were put in charge of for the holidays was considered cute fodder for romantic comedies.

Swiss Family Robinson (1960) - The Disney version of this tale features a family Christmas celebrated in the iconic tree house that includes one of the movie’s most emotional moments.

The Sword in the Stone (1963) - Young Arthur gets his job as a squire only when someone else falls ill at the holidays, which is how he ends up at the New Year’s tournament where he finds Excalibur.

Tales from the Crypt (1972) - This little-known horror anthology features Joan Crawford as a murderous wife who offs her husband at Christmas for the life insurance, only to get her own comeuppance from Santa.

Tangerine (2015) - This heartbreaking, brilliant and far funnier than it should be film, follows a trans sex worker as she searches for her pimp on Christmas Eve.

Their Finest (2016) - Basically just a really great war drama, with hints of romance and comedy, but there is a significant Christmas scene, so I’m including it, if only to encourage everyone to see this one.

They Live By Night (1948) - Noir thriller led by Farley Granger as an escaped, wrongfully prosecuted convict, double-crossed by a fellow former inmate at Christmas.

The Thin Man (1934) - This first in the beloved fast-talking detective series starring William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles is set across the holiday season, featuring very memorable Christmas and New Year’s scenes.

Things to Come (1936) - Also known as H.G. Wells’ Things to Come, to give it that extra boost, this sci-fi classic(ish) starts at Christmas, replete with carolers and Christmas shoppers crowding the streets, unaware of what the future holds.

Those Calloways (1965) - This Disney live-action story about a New England family features a significant Christmas scene that emphasizes the family’s thrifty but loving ways.

Three Days of the Condor (1975) - Robert Redford was doing holiday-set action thrillers way before it was cool.

Three Godfathers (1948) - This John Wayne Western, directed by the venerable John Ford, is a straight-up Christmas movie for many, with its unmissable Biblical Nativity allegory, but the characters don’t really mention the movie’s holiday setting until most of the way through the film.

Together (2021) - This dark UK comedy stars Sharon Horgan and James McAvoy as a couple living through COVID lockdown, including some significant Christmas scenes.

The Tomorrow War (2021) - The events of the big-budget Chris Pratt alien action movie takes place (at least in the present/past) fully at Christmas time, which doesn’t make total sense given the movie’s ostensible timeline, but little about the movie does so…

The Tower (2012) - This Christmas Eve-set Korean update on The Towering Inferno is a holiday disaster epic.

Toy Story (1995) - The original Pixar classic concludes at Christmas. Not that surprising, considering how well toys and Christmas go together.

Trading Places (1983) - This Eddie Murphy-Dan Aykroyd, Christmas-set comedy is somewhere between a stealth Christmas movie, and just a full out holiday flick.

Trancers (a.k.a. Future Cop, 1984) - This cult-classic, sci-fi indie, starring Helen Hunt, features a time traveling cop going from 2247 to 1985 Los Angeles at Christmas time to save world from mind control zombies…You know, as one does.

The Tunnel (2019) - Norwegian disaster movie finds a group of Christmas travelers trapped in a tunnel after a tanker truck crashes and burns, while a blizzard rages, making outside rescue impossible.

Twelfth Night (1996) - Featuring a British acting who’s who, this moves the action of Shakespere’s classic Christmas play to the late 19th century.

View from the Top (2003) - This critcally-panned comedy (?) has no idea what type of movie it wants to be, but for about 25 minutes near the end, it’s a full-on Christmas movie, with Gwyneth Paltrow racing home for the holidays to see Mark Ruffalo.

The War with Grandpa (2020) - Robert DeNiro stars in this family film, with the whole second half set at a Christmas-themed birthday party.

We’re No Angels (1955) - Humphrey Bogart, Peter Ustinov and Aldo Ray are escaped criminals preying on the kindness of others at Christmas.

When Harry Met Sally (1989) - Covering all of the Fall-Winter holidays, this Meg Ryan-Billy Crystal rom-com classic both totally holds up, and is the perfect holiday watch, culminating on New Year’s Eve.

Where’d You Go Bernadette (2019) - This movie version digresses from the novel significantly to shift the focus to its star, Cate Blanchett, but it’s still set around the holiday season.

While You Were Sleeping (1995) - When transit worker Sandra Bullock saves the man she’s crushed on from afar, she’s mistaken for his fiancee by his family as he lies in a coma, and decides to go with it, spending the holidays with the group while growing closer to his brother.

Whisper (2007) - This snowy, psychological horror movie about a group of desperate criminals, led by Josh Holloway, is set at the holidays. They soon learn there is more to the wealthy child they kidnap than meets the eye.

Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? (1971) - This cult classic, British horror-thriller takes place during a spooky Christmas Eve sleepover.

The Wolf of Snow Hollow (2020) - Jim Cummings wrote, directed and stars in this horror-comedy set over the Christmas holidays about a town that may or may not be plagued by werewolves.

Wonder (2017) - A good chunk of this heart-tugging story of Auggie, a young boy born with facial deformities, is set at the holidays.

Wonder Woman 1984 (2020) - This by-no-means-good superhero sequel ends with a full-on Christmas scene, straight out of a Hallmark movie, complete with Kris Polaha.

Why Him? (2016) - Bryan Cranston is the dad not at all won over by his soon-to-be, son-in-law (Dave Franco) during a holiday visit.

Wind Chill (2007) - The under-rated Emily Blunt horror-thriller starts with a couple of college kids sharing a ride home for Christmas that takes a very strange turn.

Winter Meeting (1948) - This little-known, snow-set Bette Davis movie has her competing with God for the love of a world weary vet.

You’ve Got Mail (1998) - Tom Hanks-Meg Ryan remake of The Shop Around the Corner features plenty of Christmas New York feels, as the pair play rival bookstore owners and secret email pen-pals.

[jq37]

The Royal Report– A Crown of Candy Ep 11 In the Mountains of Sweetness

Requiem 

The Rocks family is on the run but they’re also in mourning. As they sail up the Cola River, they stop to do repairs to the ship and pay their respects to Jet at a bright pink hill under a tree--her final resting place.

The remaining kids are in opposite worlds emotionally speaking--Liam is fully sobbing (which we find out later is largely him still being messed up over Preston) while Ruby is hollow and bitter. Amethar (after almost murdering a Jellybean farmer with poor timing who wanders onto the scene) eulogizes about how much Jet taught all of them (including that “to defeat monsters you must become one” which mmm don’t love where his head is at; also, Brennan says he seems to almost have this new sobriety which I think, mechanically, is him having taken a level of Battlemaster Fighter). 

Cara, also a wreck as you’d expect, wonders if Jet died thinking she didn’t love her and wishes Jet would have just listened to her--something that Ruby takes as blaming Jet for her own death, causing her to stalk off. Cara is too in her grief to really react but Theo goes after her. As he does, Cumulous notices that, for a split second, Ruby’s shadow seemed to be out of sync with her actions. But only for a second. 

When Theo catches up to her, Ruby gets really upset and says that she blames her parents, Lazuli, and herself for Jet’s death. Theo says that Jet wouldn’t have blamed her and that she died in battle, like she wanted. Even still, Ruby doesn’t know how she’s going to go on without her. Theo says that he takes comfort in Lazuli’s research and the thought that Jet might not be truly gone. She could be around and protecting them right now. “She was always protecting us,” Ruby says before mind-hopping into Yak and flying above the ship so she doesn’t have to deal with her emotions for the moment.

Once she’s gone, Theo breaks down for a second and then summons Sprinkle...to dismiss him. He tells Sprinkle he’s done a great job but he needs to go back where he came from and have Jet send a new familiar as a sign. Sprinkle tearfully leaves and, almost immediately (which is not how the spell traditionally works btw) a Black Licorice viper shows up which Theo names Princess and which bites him for no reason. Feels right.

Back at the grave-site, Cara starts to walk away but Amethar catches her and leads her back to the ship. They run into Theo and when she sees him with his new familiar, she goes off on him: Oh Jet is watching over us? Who was watching over her? And don’t think I don’t know about your crush on Lazuli. I have one daughter left. You think you can do a better job at protecting her? That kind of thing. She goes to board the ship but Amethar stays behind saying he’ll be with her in a minute, something that made *me* feel like I was about to get chewed out by Amethar’s wife.

Liam remembers that Cal--the traitor--saved Jack and Brie and decides to (as he is wont to do) ask about it in the clumsiest way possible. Jack says that they didn’t meet up with Cal on purpose or anything--they just happened to stumble across him and, now that he thinks about it, it was weirdly easy the way Cal got them through enemy lines and stuff. He seems pretty on the level so Liam does his Ranger thing to check for danger while they’re docked.

Back with Theo and Amethar, Theo says he’s fine so Amethar catches up with Cara and says that she can’t turn on Theo like that. They don’t have a lot of allies left. On a dirty 20 Persuasion check, we are spared the marital spat of a lifetime and instead she just presses herself against him and he brings her into a hug.

Sweet Life on Deck*

*I knew I’d get to use it eventually!

The next day, as they set sail, Cara apologizes to Theo for taking her grief out on him and he’s very gracious about it--also assuring her that he doesn’t hate her for winning Lazuli’s affections as she suggested nor does he have a crush on her--he just strongly believes in her ideals.

Cumulous finds Ruby to have a chat with her about his favorite topic (well second fave after magical items)--death. Ruby says that, with Jet dead, all she cares about is revenge and that she’s dead inside. Cumulous, who clearly doesn’t have Inspiring Speech on his character sheet (or, if he does, learned from Kristen), rambles about death for a bit before saying that though they’ll all die eventually, she doesn’t have to die yet and gives Ruby his necklace from Lazuli. She pockets it and walks away.   

Liam, with his Ranger senses, knows they’re being followed but also knows that they have the jump on them so they shouldn’t have a problem staying ahead. Jack and Amethar have a heart to heart wherein Jack blames himself for spilling the beans about Ghee and Amethar says it’s not his fault. They reaffirm that they’re in it together for the long haul. 

In the night, Liam has an intense dream involving familiar snarling, heat, smoke, chocolate, and cinnamon. Ruby wakes up in the middle of the night with Lazuli’s necklace glowing a little bit. The glow fades and then she notices, like Cumulous did, that her shadow is a little off--but it quickly corrects itself. All messed up, she goes onto the deck and finds that she can suddenly see perfectly in the dark. And, on a Nat 20 Perception check, she sees that the eye of the Lazuli necklace is a little creased, like it has smile lines. It glows brightly and casts her shadow on the wall--except it’s not the shadow she should have. It looks like her except the hair--the hair is in a long braid. Ruby presses her forehead against the forehead of the shadow and finds that it’s warm. And, as she does so, she fully breaks down for the first time since Jet’s death and the shadow does so alongside her. (Mechanically speaking, Ruby took a level of Shadow Sorcerer).

In the morning they dock, having gotten as far up the river as the ship can take them. It’s a long trip to the mountains and Muffinfield--Cal’s territory--is in their path. They have the option to go through the town fully, take the more off the beaten path route, or a little of both but either way it’s gonna take at least a full week (and up to three if they fully avoid the town). They decide to take the hybrid route which takes them into Muffinfield to begin with. It’s a rich province and very Bulbian. Tons of Imperial guards, tons of churches, and, in fact, they see a church putting on one of those puppet show/morality plays. Amethar makes the, mmm, unwise decision to check it out and sees that it’s a play about the Rocks family, depicting him as a horny lout, Cara as an airheaded bimbo, and the twins as feral bastards. Ruby sets the puppets on fire and Amethar hustles her away before she can do something more rash.

After that, they get to the woods--staying for a night with a lady so old and out of touch that she doesn’t even know that Amethar’s dad isn’t king anymore. Theo thanks Liam for saving Jet’s body and they bond over how much rage they have over, like, everything that's happened.

The Gang Gets Scooped

When they get back on the road (with some not so hot stealth checks), they see a little gingerbread guy in a Peter Pan cap who’s trying to pull his friend out from under a rock. Theo, knight to his core, rushes to help but Liam, who’s on the warpath, decides to shoot him. An insane course of action but he’s not wrong because a net captures both Theo and the gingerbread man and this turns out to be an ambush. The “friend” was a doll and the Gingerbread man (Swifty is his name) pulls a lollipop shiv on Theo because of course. When Theo says he’s not pro-Bulb, Swifty calls for Gooey--the chief marauder who is this buff warrior woman with half her face melted (like melted chocolate) like she was badly burned. She and this chocolate viking dude (Jon Bon) discuss whether they should take the group to the queen, which they decide to do, shackling everyone (though Liam and Ruby successfully conceal their thieves' tools in their hands for a later escape). At the mention of the queen, the assembled marauders start chanting “Long live the queen”--harkening back to the mountain gratifi from two episodes ago. They take them to their secret hideout in the mountains while Swifty runs ahead to let them know they’re coming. 

All their captors are Candian but they’re all deformed in some way and/or have old Sucrosi tattoos and Sweetening Path stuff, ears of Ceresians/Vegetanians on necklaces (EARS BRENNAN?), and defiled Bulbian relics. They’re from all over but they seem like they’ve been living this life for years.

The hideout is kinda built into the cliff side and it has this big rock outside like the standing stones the SPF has (menhir is the technical term).  It’s also covered in a layer of snow and very cold. Magical light is glowing as they pass through the entrance. Cumulous can feel very powerful magic at work. There’s a ton of ceremony and fanfare and chanting in advance of the queen’s arrival--these people seem to really love their queen, and so do we because out comes Queen Saccharina Frostwhip aka, Emily’s new character (aka Rina because I’m not typing that every time)! 

She is this extremely cool (in both senses of the word) ice-cream sorcerer with a magic staff (Winterscoop) and two swords and is majorly serving sweet but frosty-cool energy. Liam and Ruby spring everyone from their chains and Rina aggressively sweetly says that she would have freed them soon enough. She calls herself the legal ruler of Candia and when Cara questions that she says that she has another last name: Ghee. Amethar, is like, “Oh shit,” but she says that she’s not here to force a relationship on him, she just thinks they can all be useful to each other, especially since she’s the legal heir as the child of his legal marriage and someone not in open rebellion with the Concord. Theo is like, “That all checks out.” He asks Amethar if this is actually his kid and he sees in Rina Ghee’s eyes and his own swagger. Yeah, that’s his kid. In turn, she recognizes Cumulous as a monk of the Order of the Spinning Star. She, like half the party it feels--is a huge Lazuli stan, can feel her magic on him, and believes in her mission. She says she’s seen Lazuli in her dreams when she was little and Cumulous in her sees someone who can, in a lot of ways, take up Lazuli’s mantle and start rebuilding Candian magic rather than just doing triage like the monks have been. He bows to her. Ruby is not having any of this though and says that Rina isn’t her sister or her queen.

Theo asks Princess if they should trust her--she’s saying all the right things but he’s wary--and gets a bite which tells him nothing.

Ice Feast

Rina, upon being told special guests were coming, had a feast prepared which is described as Robin Hood-y. Amethar is like, “This is cool but the Bulbian church is literally trying to kill us so maybe we focus on that?” Rina says that that works for her. All Amethar has to do is recognize her as his daughter and heir and everything will be square--if the church wants to go after them at that point, they’ll have to break their own rules. Ruby, who’s still being obstinate says that it won’t work because she’s clearly a heretic with an allegiance to the Sweetening Path but Rina says and Jack confirms that as long as you kiss the ring in public, no one really cares what you do on your home turf. 

Ruby accuses her of not knowing what she’s talking about because she’s been hidden away her whole life and Rina shoots back (still smiling) that she’s actually been traveling the world, building her followers from scratch which she had to do because she came from nothing. Amethar (who’s in the, I would have to imagine, pretty novel position of watching his daughters fight) breaks it up. Cara--who fully hates that not only is this happening, it’s also their best shot--takes Ruby with her to have their meal somewhere else and Ruby, who has found someone to hate more than her mom, willingly goes. 

Rina has a sidebar with Amethar where she apologizes for popping up randomly and upsetting his entire family. She always wanted to meet them and she’s sorry that these are the circumstances. Amethar says that it’s not her fault--they’ve just been through a hell of a lot lately and they’re kind of emotionally spent but she’s actually a huge asset to them politically right now and he’s sure that once things are calm, things will be different on the relationship front. 

Ruby can’t believe Cara is taking all of this lying down and Cara (who is full John Mulaney, “This might as well happen,”) says she can’t remember the last time she had a handle on her life which is news to Ruby who thought she *was* the handle. Cara hits her with the unfortunate truth that no one--least of all kings and queens--knows what they’re doing or can really control it. All she can control is what she’s doing next which is having a bath. Ruby decides to, instead, cast Invisibility and look around for anything suspicious. 

After seeing a bunch of stolen loot, weapons, and Candian artifacts it seems like Rina’s trying to preserve, she eventually finds Rina in her quarters. On a 25 Perception to Ruby’s 24 Stealth, Rina clocks her and whispers, “I’m not here to take your family, little sister. I look forward to the day that we are friends.” Ruby, channeling Adaine in a big way, flips invisible double middle fingers. 

Cumulous is in another room, just fanboy happy-crying over all of Rina’s magic stuff in some of the funniest scenes Zac has ever done which is saying a lot. I cannot overstate how funny Zac crying over an imaginary ring pop is.  

Theo also finds Rina and asks about her visions of Lazuli. She says it happened when she was very young and her powers were just manifesting. She was in a place where magic wasn’t supported and the connection was all but beaten out of her. But she can also sense Lazuli’s presence in Theo. Ruby, still invisible, pipes up that she sees Lazuli too so she’s not special and Rina shoots back that she can also see Ruby while invisible, which is pretty special. This dissolves into a little sibling spat which Rina says she enjoys because she’s never had a sister to fight with before. The comment sets off Ruby again who says she already had a sister and she’s dead and she can’t replace her. She runs off.

Theo and Rina speak a little more and she reveals that she doesn’t really care about the throne. She just cares about bringing back magic and destroying the church (which means she’ll fit right in with the rest of the fam--not really wanting the throne and plotting against the church. The family business). 

After the feast, Gooey brings out the war maps (moving the Jawbreaker flag away from Castle Manylicks and deeper into the mountain and putting an ice cream cone flag deep into the mountains) and a bunch of magic tomes which Rina starts reading. Ruby notices that a lot of the tomes are written in Lazuli’s hand, she had a way to tap into the SPF’s runes, and that she wrote some kind of warning about the SPF--Lazuli did not trust or revere the SPF. Liam sees a book with the same ice cream symbol as the flag on the map and it’s a book of lost beast lore--including an ancient spirit described on pages scented like cinnamon and seemingly bound in some way (and also amongst a lot of SPF talk): Dracoria Azucar (or, Sugar Dragon). 

Anyway, Rina says that the SPF has done a lot to suppress Lazuli’s research (she’s not sure if she thinks it’s too dangerous or if she’s hoarding it or what) including taking all of her coolest relics and findings and hiding them in a frozen temple--the Ice Cream Temple. She wants to loot that temple. (Note: She also mentions that Kerradin visited her orphanage when she was little which...Bad). She’s sent raid parties who haven’t come back but they weren’t super powerful--she has a lot of angry, rescued orphans in her service. The gang more or less agrees to her plan--even Ruby reluctantly, but Ruby hears the SPF on the wind, “Things that are wrong may yet be made right. There is more than one true magician in Candia, Princess and I await your coming and will be delighted for your wish to come true.” 

A Change of Plans  

In the morning, they decide Cara will stay with Jack and the marauders while they (and some of Jack’s men) go on their mission. When Jack offhandedly says that Ghee was lovely, Rina says they had very different experiences with her. Ominous!  

Theo asks what’s going on with the Jawbreaker situation and she says that they’re in kind of a pissing contest--he won’t recognize her claim to the throne. Gooey pulls Rina aside and informs her (for the first time it seems) that Jawbreaker has left the Castle because people in the area were being tortured by Ceresian soldiers (wasn’t specified but I’m guessing Imperials) to draw him out and now he’s pinned down in the mountains. Rina (along w/ Gooey and Swifty) consider that if they help Jawbreaker, he’ll be more likely to acknowledge her claim to the throne. But, if they don’t and they let him die, Liam will be heir and he’s already on Team Rina. In the end, she decides to tell the group and they are keen on rescuing Jawbreaker--even though Liam is concerned because he knows his dad will never give up the throne. 

Everyone seems pretty gung ho about this except for Ruby who is like, “Hello we’re super outnumbered.” Cara has a solution to that however. She’s been up all night reading Lazuli’s books and she thinks she can bamf them past enemy lines if they can get to the nearby Spinning Star monastery. She can get them back too but because there’s not a teleportation circle where they’re going, she has to basically do the magical equivalent of holding her breath or remembering a really long series of numbers while they get in and get out. They won’t have much time.

They go to the monastery (where Rina’s anti-monarchical sentiments wins her another new fan in another monk named Snicker-Snack because sure) and Cumulous kills a chicken for that sweet temp HP. Cara says, “Lazuli, please help me get this right,” before performing her magic and sending them all to a dark, locked, musty building. They can hear Ceresian soldiers shouting outside--and that’s where we end our episode! 

Note: You can find the art for the new characters this episode on the D20 tumblr here! Once again, Samir is coming for some of y’all specifically with some of these designs.

Things I’m Concerned About

I’m gonna separate my thoughts on Rina across these two sections because my thoughts are hard in separate directions. I *love* Rina but I have to be honest with myself and say that if she was an NPC, I fully wouldn’t trust her. She comes in at the exact right time saying all the right things and coming with a major plot solution. She says she doesn’t care about the throne and she only wants to destroy the church (something that would make sense considering the backstory hints the dropped) and we haven’t had PvP before but like...if there was a season to do it...listen, I want her to just be this cool orphan who sincerely wants justice and a relationship with her dad and sister if that’s on the table but I’m just keeping my eye on her. (Also, when Gooey pulled her aside to have that troop movement convo I feared it was going to go in a much more suspicious direction.)

There’s a part that I kinda glossed over where Brennan says Manta Ray Jack looked at Rina “bashfully” and Rina took it as, “He’s gonna ask me out,” and rebuffed his advances. I feel like that’s not what that was about. That doesn’t mean it’s anything actively bad--maybe him remembering her mom?--but idk, I don’t like feeling like I’m missing something.

Oh, and speaking of her mom? Rina saying he had a different experience of her mom than she did combined with Rina saying her connection to Lazuli was “all but beaten out of her” plus the out of game knowledge that something related to child neglect happens in a few eps that’s so bad that Brennan hurt himself...It paints a Bad picture.

Once again, I am Concerned about everything going on with the SPF. What did she mean there’s more than one magician? Was she referring to Ruby? Does she want Ruby to PvP Rina? She better not. 

Little concerned about Annabelle’s side mission to find Ghee. I was before but now I am even more. 

Five A Few More Things

I want to believe that Jet is both partially inhabiting Princess and doing the Shadow Sorc thing with Ruby. The Pontifex works hard but Jet Rocks works harder. 

OK, let’s talk about what I call The Inherent Tragedy of Saccharina Frostwhip (*such* a good name, btw). If Ruby and Jet had met Rina *together* (either during peace times or having rolled a high enough Insight check to clock her as an ally during the present events) they would have loved her completely immediately. She’s got Cool Big Sister written all over her: cool design, martial prowess and magic, anti-monarchy and anti-Bulbian Church BUT willing to take the throne in their stead. They would have LOVED her. BUT, Rina wasn’t an NPC. She was Emily’s backup character. Which means that, because of the way our world bisects the world of Candia, there is never a world where Jet is alive while Rina comes into play. That’s tragic, man. That’s the worst. And when I say that’s the worst, I mean the best. This makes for such delicious story. You guys know I’m a full sucker for sister stuff. Which we were already getting but this is *complicated* sister stuff which we all know is better. Like, if this is where we’re starting emotionally, do you know good it’s gonna hit if Ruby eventually comes around on her? Siobhan and Emily are catering to me specifically this season.

Also, that reveal? Within like five minutes, my theory that “the Queen” in question was Amethar’s first kid was confirmed, my circa episode 3 prediction that a twin would die and come back as Amethar’s first kid was confirmed, AND my prediction from last episode that the SPF was telling a technical truth about Ruby finding her sister was confirmed. (Literal) sweet vindication! Can I do lotto numbers? No. But plot points for a Candy/GoT mashup? I’m your gal. 

Lol at someone mentioning Ghee as Amethar’s wife with Cara standing right there and Amethar fully WWE bodyslaming that dude with tag-teams for the entire family.

People are saying it seems like Rina is a Storm Sorcerer which would be cool seeing as Amethar is a Storm Herald Barbarian. Family parallels even without really knowing each other.  

Cara--who better survive this or I will Riot--needs like a 6 month spa trip after this is over. What she is dealing with right now is untenable and she is handling it much better than I would be honestly. (But also her, “lol, my life is in shambles,” to Liam’s inappropriate question that didn’t even really register to her at that point was another comedy highlight of the ep. Icon, even in mourning.) 

Lazuli might as well be a PC for how important she is to this campaign. 

Ooooh, Sugar Dragon for Liam? Brennan has outdone himself. (Unless Liam is gonna have to fight the Sugar Dragon which I am also super down for. As I was just discussing, there are never enough dragons in D&D for a game that’s half named after them).

Shout out to this post for making me short circuit for a full second. Ow. 

It’s a little funny that Brennan laid the groundwork for Emily’s background character in the middle of the episode he knew was gonna end with him trying to kill them. Like, OK, your future is secure, now time to destroy your present!

#dimension 20 #dimension 20 spoilers #a crown of candy #a crown of candy spoilers #the royal report #is Jon Bon CoC hodor? #idk enough about GoT to confirm or reject that but that my my immediate thought for some reason

[hoe-doroki]

ana reads bnha ch137

previous chapter here first chapter here next chapter here

Oh, come on, Aizawa. I know you’re not naive enough to think that it could be as simple as this. I guess it’s too early atm, but as they’re making the raid plan, they would have to litter it with contingency plans as to how these four could escape should the LoV get involved. Honestly, at that point, it wouldn’t even be worth including them in the mission. At best, they could escape and ‘end their roles’ there. But it’s more likely and more important that they be able to have other ways to survive without wasting resources.

Yes, yes, yes!! I love this scene! It’s one of my favorites in the series. Iida offering the same counsel he was too dumb to take back in volume 6. And Todoroki showing that he’s not the total oblivious idiot we so often characterize him as, noticing that Midoriya is stressed and stifled. And, like, I get that Deku can’t talk about the Eri or the All Might stuff. But he could also say, “Yeah, so, there are some things that I can’t talk about, but they’re weighing on me a lot right now.” And then he can have some level of support, even if it’s not as nice as if he could really spill his guts.

But also—where’s Uraraka??

And a couple panels before it said that “Even Kirishima and the rest were off-limits.” So…he can’t talk to the other work study kids either? Even about just the Eri stuff??? That boggles me. People need to be able to talk, and there’s no reason why they shouldn’t be able to talk amongst themselves.

This is what confuses me a lot with hero culture. If Nighteye was All Might’s sidekick…shouldn’t he be pretty well known? If this guy is a serious villain, isn’t it possible that he would know Nighteye’s face and even his quirk? I know it’s not certain that he would, but I just mean in general. With a quirk that works better when someone doesn’t know it—like Shinsou’s—how do you combine being a hero—a public figure—and a stealth hero? Nighteye isn’t even in any kind of disguise here, and his hair is pretty memorable. Just musing.

Overall: Definitely a transition chapter. But this one is a fave just for that Todoroki/Iida/Deku scene. I mean, it sucks that Deku follows in Iida’s dumb footsteps and doesn’t open up in any way, but at least the other boys have learned a little more about support They tried a little harder than Todoroki and Deku did with Iida, what with specifically mentioning that something must be wrong and that they know what happens when you keep stuff in and then offering their food. It’s really lovely. I think that actually sets a really good example for teenage boys.

#and how does nighteye know about that toy???? #no judgement--i just wanna know #ana reads the manga

[dictacontrion]

Hey for the ask thing F, I, and U ! Thank u I love your blog and your work !

Thanks, nonnie!! These have been a blast!! 

F: Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

Okay so I actually love writing dialogue, it is kind of my fave, and I don’t have one single favorite, but this one, from Make Me a Headline (I Want to Be That Bold) came to mind: 

“I want you.”

“For—bed?” Harry asks, eyes flitting nervously upwards at the ceiling and, presumably, the bed above them.

“Yes,” Draco answers, “but not only.”

Harry takes another step towards him. “What else?”

“Dancing,” Draco says. “Champagne.”

“Yeah?” Harry prompts.

“Dinner,” Draco adds. “Letters.”

“Answered letters?”

“Answered letters. And…dates.”

“Public dates?”

“Yes. And…” Draco takes a turn at stepping forward, “breakfast.”

“Breakfast?”

“Breakfast,” Draco repeats. “After…”

“Bed?”

“Yes.”

“For breakfast, you’d have to stay.”

“Yes.”

“And you want?”

“Breakfast.”

“Oh,” Harry breathes. “Breakfast.”

I like it because I think usually I’m drawn to snappy banter, and clever characters who are able to explain themselves, and when there’s lots of witty subtext, and this is sort of the opposite of that. It’s a very emotionally naked moment for them, and it felt like piling on the words wasn’t going to work. What matters here, for them, is how well they understand each other without words, that they know each other so well they don’t need further explanation to get what’s at stakes. Well, and that they’re able to create this space that works emotionally for both of them, such that Harry can be reassured while Draco doesn’t have to put himself so explicitly on the line that he recoils into defensiveness. But how to get them to communicate that when saying it would defeat the purpose? This felt like the really right solution - the economy of language, the repetition, the construction of the story so that the readers and the characters have to recall a lot of complicated history in order for this to have meaning, and (hopefully) that the simplicity of the actual words pushes the reader to be present alongside the characters in being attentive to the complexity of the meaning behind them. And I thiiiiink it does that successfully? Though readers would know better than I would! 

I: Do you have a guilty pleasure in fic (reading or writing)?

My writing guilty pleasure is 100% the banter mentioned above, which wouldn’t be a guilty pleasure at all, vs something very fun, except that I tend to do it when I’m stuck or stonewalling, so will occasionally feel a bit guilty when I notice that’s what I’m doing.

My reading guilty pleasure (though as a phrase, I prefer smug indulgence to guilty pleasure!) is probably 1D/BBC RPF AUs, which, there are just some really fun ones, and it’s in this fic space that I don’t write or rec or mod or really blog about very much, so it’s work-free pure indulgence. 

U: Share three of your favorite fic writers and why you like them so much.

I take this question to ask what I like about three of my favorite fic writers’ writing but, if you’ll bear with me, anon, I am going to intentionally misinterpret this for a moment (and will do it over properly if you like!) and tell you about three of my favorite fic writers and why they are some of my favorite people (with the caveat that I could easily do this for a dozen more!) and #sorrynotsorry, hopefully these lovely individuals will be up for tolerating some tenderness.

1. I have had the extraordinary luck to be within driving distance of @firethesound​ for most of my fic-writing life, and while I’m sure many of you, like me, admire her writing enormously, I am here to tell you that it is the tip of the iceberg. I have lost track of the number of times I have been having a crap week, only to show up at fire’s house and find the kettle on and cookies waiting, or the number of times she’s listened while I talk through whatever’s bothering me, or the number of days that have been improved by her company. She can be very stealth about how funny she is, and how incisive her commentary is, and how thoughtful her views are, and how observant she is, and how creative and resourceful and resilient and patient, and how she cares for the people around her, and how curious and interested she is, and how good at figuring things out, and how determined, and how generally much of a stone cold badass she is when the situation calls for it, but it’s all very, very present and I am perpetually blown away, and so, so grateful to the universe that our paths crossed. It’s made my life more balanced and fuller and funner and funnier and inspired, and that’s very much par for the course when spending time with fire. 

2. @gracerene09​ is a brilliant writer who just knocks my socks off a little bit more every time I read her latest work, and also has been my adventure buddy across two continents, three countries, and two (soon to be three or possibly maybe four!) states, and holy fuck she is amazing. She is so thoughtful and so unbelievably on the ball and possessed of good common sense and feet firmly on the ground, and she is the rare human who manages to be all of that and imaginative and silly and hilarious and adventurous and game for flights of fancy. Like, we can have a spreadsheet and a plan A and a plan B and then get drunk and have a selfie competition and end up wandering some random places absolutely cackling our butts off. And having seen her in all of those contexts and done loads of fandom and RL stuff with her, I can absolutely say that she’s one of the few people in the world whose judgment I trust implicitly. Even when we disagree, I trust her process and her ability and willingness to talk it through and figure it out. I also have the hugest admiration for the way she approaches the world with an eye towards growth; if she notices something she wants to change, she changes it, and she does it in ways that are deeply reflective and considered and dauntless and principled, and it’s truly incredible and an honor to see how that’s played out, is playing out, over the years. 

3. When it comes to fandom, and to life, @writcraft has become one of my absolute favorite people to talk to. Writ’s approach to writing and thinking is so masterful and meticulous and smart, I am constantly in awe. I have endless appreciation for the way they’ve written queerness into fic, which takes it so seriously and pays homage to its history, and would happily listen to them talk about queerness and culture for hours, both as it has to do with fandom and as it matters in the world beyond. And alongside this phenomenal, blinding awareness and knowledge, they’re also so much fun. I often come away from my conversations with writ reminded that all things - fandom, politics, the daily business of life - are meant to have elements of joy and connection in them, that the object isn’t only to learn and work for change, but to remember what it is that’s worth working for, and to stop and enjoy it, and to change things, even when that involves taking risks, in order to build a more enjoyable, connected, intrinsically motivated life. Whether it’s a serious conversation about political commitments and practice, or a serious conversation about fandom, or getting drunk and sweaty and dancing till ready to drop, having writ around is guaranteed to make it richer and sweeter and better. 

Fic asks!

#there were so many people i wanted to do who are artists or bloggers!! #and so many other authors i wanted to do and then felt like i'd set this bar at knowledge that comes from hanging out #when the observed online stuff could be its own posts! #and you three - this is a no response needed situation!!! #memes #irl #yay asks!

[ninthfeather]

For comment on the fic thing

(submitted by @hawk-in-a-tree, with a little formatting by me as Tumblr messed up the format of this thing)

(Since ask is too short) Team Dynamics, ch3

Rage builds almost instantly.  “If he hacked you I swear to—”

“I was not hacked, sir, and I am slightly insulted on both your behalf and my own that you even believe that possible.���

“Then what?” Tony asks, mildly exasperated.  “Don’t tell me he just said something!”

“That is, in fact, what happened,” JARVIS says.

“What?” Tony asks.  “What did he say?”

“I wish to respect his privacy,” JARVIS says crisply.

“What about your creator?” Tony wheedles.

“I seldom wish to respect you,” JARVIS says flatly.

“Oh, come on!” Tony whines.  “You are my most wonderful, sarcastic creation, and—”

He recalls the earlier conversation, the way Erde talked about the supercomputer like it was his baby, how he’d said “I couldn’t pilot like that,” and “there was a bit of an adjustment period.”

“Is Erde human?” he asks.  “Not sentient, I know he’s sentient, but is he human?”

JARVIS sighs.  “No, sir, not precisely.”

“Is he an AI?” Tony asks, somewhat excited, because, if he is, holy crap, Erde’s more empathetic than some of the humans in the Tower right now.  JARVIS is amazing, but he needs the butler-politeness framework to fall back on sometimes, even if he’s mostly outgrown it; Erde doesn’t seem to have those limits any more than a slightly eccentric human might.

“No,” JARVIS says.  “I cross-referenced the term he used with all available databases and determined that it does not exist in this dimension and time.  From what I gathered, however, it refers to what is basically a highly genetically engineered human.”

Well, that’s disappointing.  Oh, well.  He’s still got JARVIS, who’s pretty awesome himself.  Tony gives him a few more years before he’s independent enough that Tony can start devising new AI tests based on him.  It’s gonna be great.

“He does, however, have the ability to directly interface with certain types of computers,” JARVIS says.  “I would thank you not to share this information with Fury—Erde is deeply wary of him.”

“Like I tell Fury anything I don’t have to,” Tony says.  “So he can talk to computers with his mind?  Cool.”  He thinks for a second.  “So, how long did he spend being a computer?”

“Sir, I don’t know what—”

“JARVIS, I promise not to say anything to him, or to Fury, I just want confirmation,” Tony says.

“Roughly two years,” JARVIS says.  “As he put it, an enemy was foolish enough to shoot him while they were inside of the building which housed Veda–the supercomputer he mentioned at dinner.”

“So he uploaded himself,” Tony says.  “And this is the future, so they got him a new body eventually, I guess.  That explains the hair, too—though not the glasses.”

“Actually, sir, I am given to understand that this is his original appearance,” JARVIS says, sounding a bit amused.

“And he didn’t take the opportunity for a makeover?” Tony asks, incredulous.  “Clearly, not as smart as I’d thought.”

Fic DVD commentary!

Ahhhh, JARVIS and Tony banter.  Tony and JARVIS are two of my faves and I remember this scene being especially fun to write.  Having Tieria and JARVIS get along was one of my initial outline goals for this fic, and this was one of the nicer payoffs–it meant that I could do some exposition to the Avengers characters about G00 backstory that wasn’t coming directly from the G00 characters.  Rather than having the characters react predominantly in thoughts or facial expressions, I could have them react by how they chose to talk about it, which was a fun sort of exercise.  It was also definitely written as part of my ongoing “JARVIS is sentient” theme in this work (guess who was still bitter over AOU).

Tony’s thought process is fairly obvious as the narrator, but JARVIS, for the record, is basically varying between levels of amusement through this whole scene.  He’s definitely messing with Tony on purpose.  I love their dynamic so much; if I ever write Avengers fic I’m going to have JARVIS in it, either by setting it pre-AOU or going AU.

Also, I couldn’t resist the temptation to poke a little fun at Tieria’s appearance. From the perspective of the anime staff, having the Innovades be, as some have termed them, the Skittle Squad, makes sense for catching people’s eyes. But in-universe, it makes zero sense for Aeolia Schenberg to just up and decide to put in the extra time and effort to incorporate nonhuman coloration into his genetically engineered advanced beings.  Like, just, why even bother?  It makes them all useless for stealth missions and has no practical advantages.

#a question that's too long to be an ask #submission #hawk-in-a-tree #ask game #about fanfic #gundam 00 #mcu #tony stark #jarvis #tieria erde

[no-zaku-boy]

DA:O Appreciation Week - Day 1

I love this kind of thing but don’t really want to put these questions/prompts on my woefully neglected writing blog, so haaaave some Dragon Age babbling~ (And as a reminder, my inbox is literally always open for DA talk, so feel free to spam me with your meta or tell me about your OCs or anything; I will eat it up.)

Questions of the Day:

How many wardens do you have?  Are they all from different origins, or do you like to do the same origin with different OC’s? I only have two well-developed wardens atm: my canon warden, Lalia Tabris, and my Lyna Mahariel (I’m still debating the name because I really love Lyna but also think I should pick something more original meeeeh, but that’s literally the only thing about her I’m still waffling over). I also have a few from other origins bouncing around in my head, mainly a couple Aeducans and a Cousland. I haven’t done much with them because I’ve been so focused on writing and re-writing my established girls’ campaigns, but I will get to the others eventually.

More under the cut~

Who is your Favorite Squad Member in Origins? Extremely obvious if you take one glance at my little space here on tumblr dot com. I adore every single companion from Origins, they will all always be my favourites, but Zevran has stolen my heart in a way no fictional character has in a long, long time, and there is no sign that I’ll get it back any time soon.

Who is your Favorite NPC in Origins? (ex: Wade, Anora, Bhelen, etc.) Shianni is probably the NPC I spend the most time thinking about, and I truly want her to be happy. Other fave NPCs are Bodahn, Anora, and Wade and Herren. And Isabela, of course~

Prompts of the Day:  

Your Warden and their weapon/weapons of choice.  What sort of strategy do they use in battle?  What are their favorite types of weapons? Lalia is a duel-wielder who goes for nasty little daggers covered in poisons. She fights fast and dirty. She’s not a good tactician to begin with, what with most of her experience being street brawls and alley scuffles, but she has a keen eye on the battlefield, can be where she needs to be at just the right moment, and is rarely taken by surprise, and within a few months, she’s learned enough to craft effective assaults, though she tends to rely on stealth and surprise whenever possible. She benefits from Zevran’s assassin techniques and Isabela’s duelist training but never can quite shake that scrappy, take-whatever-shot-you-can style even with frequent drilling.

Lyna is skilled with a number of weapons. While she opts for the bow when hunting and is a keen shot, in battle she prefers to be right in the mix and takes quickly to greatswords, though she also appreciates a good war axe and can maneuver decently with a shield if necessary. Having grown up with a clan that operated as one be it on the hunt or in defense against attacks, she at first expects everyone in her party to react to one another smoothly and is frustrated by their disparate fighting styles to the point that she enforces group training and finds that she’s a natural leader, if not a particularly clever one. At the end of the day, if she can’t outsmart an enemy (which isn’t uncommon), she can sure as hell chop it to pieces and ensure her companions cooperate with one another while in a fight.

Write about, Draw, or make a tribute to your Favorite Squad Member in Origins. It took me a long time to realize that I liked Zevran not only because he’s right up my alley both romance and general characterization-wise (charming, flirty rogue type with much more to them than you’d guess at first glance? sign me up immediately), but also because I had a lot in common with him emotionally at the time of my first playthrough, and seeing his growth throughout my game helped me in a very personal way. It’s nothing I care to talk about much right now, but in short, there was something very therapeutic in helping a suicidally depressed character come back from such a low place, and that, in part, has endeared him to me in a way I really, really didn’t expect at first. In fact, I thought I’d dislike him after watching his initial scene with Loghain, and I’ve never been happier to be wrong about a first impression. He’s an incredibly well-written character with a lot of depth, and it physically pains me when people write him off as nothing more than a spicy Latin lover trope or, worse, some sort of creep/predatory pervert (people who think this lack a fundamental grasp of his character and should go back, play again, and actually pay attention). It’s an absolute shame that Bioware has more or less shunned one of their very best characters at every turn, and I hold hope in my tiny fangirl heart that we will see best elf boyfriend’s glorious return eventually.

Write about, Draw, or make a tribute to your Favorite NPC in Origins. I wish I were in the mood to actually write a drabble or something for Shianni, but I’m just not, so have more babbling. She’s such a great character, imo. She’s defiant and stands up for herself and others despite being kind of a mess. Even after the horrific events of the city elf origin, she remains outspoken and demands justice, and I’m so grateful to all of the creators in fandom who have explored her story in ways that the game simply couldn’t since she was meant to be a more minor character. I thoroughly reject the epilogue slide that states that she’s murdered, especially when compared to Soris’ possible Bann ending where he pretty much gives up and abandons the Alienage and goes off to live with his new wife. Like, what the actual fuck? Shianni deserves better than that, and I headcanon that despite rubbing a lot of shems the wrong way, she’s an effective leader and comes to have a very good relationship with King Alistair and/or Queen Anora (especially in Lalia’s run since she pretty much ensures before she leaves Denerim that Shianni and Alistair are on good terms and is constantly checking in with Alistair from Vigil’s Keep to make sure the Alienage is being taken care of like he promised) and that while she’s Bann, the Alienage prospers in unprecedented ways.

#dragon age origins appreciation week #da:o #dragon age origins

[sparxwrites]

i think u have a point abt kinks being only one step sideways from vanilla stuff, but what about the heavier/violent stuff? im trying to think of where it might come from and my only idea is maybe a dark fascination with what our imaginations are capable of. i remember being younger and fascinated with writing violent things just because i was surprised my imagination served. you're certainly more experienced with dark stuff than i am, though. what do you think?

tw for frank discussions of violence and sex, sometimes the intersection between the two, and a whole variety of sometimes very extreme kinks

Okay, that’s a tricky one. And not something that has a single answer, either – I’ve talked to a lot of people about what they see in darker fiction, and honestly every single person has had a slightly different perspective on it (one person, entertainingly enough, just shrugged and said they liked the aesthetic). But there do seem to be some common threads, and I’ll see if I can… if not provide answers, then at least provide food for thought and maybe lay out the groundwork for an interesting discussion.

(The rest is under a cut because, me being me, I got a little carried away, and this turned out to be something of an essay, and a compilation of thoughts I’ve had for a while now and conversations I’ve had with others. Whoops.)

The first thing is, I think, defining whether we’re talking about heavier/violent stuff in a consensual (either fictional or non-fictional) context – ie. heavy impact play, bloodplay, needleplay, consensual nonconsent, humiliation and degradation, what I’d call BDSM in a broad context – or a non-consensual, fictional context – ie. fiction involving rape, torture, severe bodily harm, gore, what I’d call whump and darkfic.

(I’m not talking about non-consensual non-fictional contexts, on the basis those are a) pretty much illegal, and b) even people I’ve talked to who enjoy really dark non-consensual fictional stuff are usually deeply upset or even disturbed by the thought of the same stuff in a non-fictional context. I can talk about the psychology of someone who wants their fave fictional character being beaten bloody, but wanting that to happen to an actual person is… a little beyond me. It’s not something I’ve talked to people about, and something I personally feel deeply uncomfortable thinking about outside the context of a consensual BDSM scene.)

Another thing is to define whether we’re talking about sexualised “stuff” or nonsexualised “stuff”. The consensual things are almost always sexualised, fictional or not (though very occasionally you might come across depictions BDSM that are entirely free of sex). Fictional depictions of non-consensual things are also sometimes sexualised – noncon fanfic (which is, by definition, sexualised, since noncon vs. rape was fandom-historically used to differentiate between sexualised and nonsexualised non-consent) is the most obvious example. Most fictional depictions of non-consensual violence, though, are things like torture, sickfic (not exactly violence, but it falls under the general “people in pain when they don’t want to be”), hurt/comfort, and whump, which generally aren’t explicitly sexualised.

We also need to work out whether people’s responses to these various categories are erotic or not. Are people actively getting off to them? Passively aroused by them, but not getting off? Are people reading them because they want to be aroused, or is that a (possibly irrelevant?) side effect? Are they getting something other than arousal from them?

With sexualised stuff, this is pretty easy – people pretty much always have erotic responses to sexualised stuff, that’s what it’s designed for. It’s written with the intent to arouse, that’s why it’s classed as “sexualised”.

But with non-sexualised stuff, such as whump, or hurt/comfort, or torture porn, it’s a lot more complicated. Some people have erotic responses, but a lot of people don’t, or only sometimes have erotic responses. Many seem to struggle to even answer any of the above questions – the difference between erotic responses, other powerful emotional or physical responses, can sometimes be blurry and difficult to define.

I and other people I’ve talked to about this, though, seem to get strong “stomach feelings” when reading good whump. They sound similar to arousal but are different somehow. Variously, I’ve had people talk about things like an emptiness just under their ribcage, a heaviness in their stomach, a lurch in their stomach, “like someone’s tucked a hook behind my stomach and pulled”, lightning through their abdomen, shortness of breath / panting, tightness, hollowness, an ache…

There’s definitely similarities to sexual feelings there, but people usually seem pretty insistent that it’s not exactly the same – even though it does feel good, and it’s a sensation they actively try to find more of by seeking out fiction that generates it – since they only get it from fictional depictions of violence or pain. Trying to find language for intense, pleasurable physical sensations that aren’t sexual is incredibly hard, but non-sexual or only partially sexual physical pleasure seems to be an integral to a lot of people’s enjoyment of fictional violence.

(Case in point: like you, I also remember being younger (we’re talking like… starting from about six or seven, here, really young) and daydreaming about either my favourite characters, or myself / thinly-veiled self-inserts, being hurt to help me get to sleep. Like, properly broken bones and blood and screaming kind of hurt. It took me until maybe a few years ago to realise these were not the kinds of things “normal” people daydreamed about for fun, so I certainly wasn’t doing it out of surprise at what my brain could come up with, and it definitely wasn’t a sexual thing. I just liked it. Lots of other people I’ve talked to have similar stories of enjoying fictional depictions of violence, and daydreaming or thinking about them for enjoyment, from a young age and well before they had any kind of sexual awakening.)

In some ways, I think the sexualised stuff is easier to analyse, since that’s mostly about sex (by the sheer merit of being a consensual scene or a sexualised non-consensual fantasy, it’s designed to be jerked off to). So, let’s have a look at some of the feelings and desires based around that kind of thing first.

The fact that people get off on power and control, or lack thereof, and vulnerability, is just sort of… a fact. And almost all fetishes eventually come down to that power versus no-power dynamic, even the really weird, “scary” ones – I’ve talked to people about hard vore and rape fantasies and execution kink, and they’ve all talked about how it’s about Dom/sub roles, about the submission of the “victim” to their fate, about the power held over them by the predator / attacker / executioner.

On the basis I have notes from the conversation I had about execution kink, let’s look at that one (I told you, I really like learning about this stuff). On the surface, getting off to fictional depictions of people being executed seems very, very heavy, but… the person I discussed this with talked about liking the aspects of the person being bound and handcuffed pre-execution (bondage), about being tried and sentenced and paraded around in front of a crowd and feeling scared and embarrassed (humiliation), about the ritualised aspect of it (rituals of various kinds are common in the BDSM community, from collaring ceremonies to body modification rituals). They talked about the historical pressure for the condemned to submit to their fate, “put on a good show”, pay their executioner (submission). They talked about necks and breathplay, and the condemned’s feet twitching (foot fetish), and the “death erections” people sometimes get (involuntary arousal) with regards to hanging, specifically.

So that’s, y’know, something really big and dark that I think a lot of people would kind of instinctively rear back from, that’s actually just a lot of smaller, very “reasonable” kinks being combined into one thing. If someone says, “Hey, I’m into necks, breathplay, bondage, humiliation, Dom/sub stuff, and feet,” you might think that’s a lot of kinks or be squicked by some of them, but you won’t necessarily think they had “dark” tastes. Turns out, that’s also all the basic components people who like fictional depictions of executions and hangings seem to enjoy. Weird, huh?

On a similar but slightly different note, some things I’ve heard from a lot of people who enjoy noncon or dubcon are that, a) contrary to the popular opinion of “people who like noncon are stealth rapists”, they tend to imagine themselves in the victim’s position rather than the attacker’s, and b) there’s a strong element of “I feel ashamed by / scared of / nervous about the prospect of sex, and having to admit I want sex, and the negotiation and intimacy and emotions that come with that – but also I want sex. Therefore, in fiction, the idea of having sex forced upon me, or being drugged/intoxicated or manipulated to the point I am not responsible for having sex, is powerfully appealing”.

Essentially, a large part of the appeal of rape fantasies seems to come from the prospect of being able to have sex whilst maintaining you definitely don’t want sex – which, in a culture that constantly talks about sex and encourages sex and pushes images of sex, whilst also telling people (specifically women and afab people, and some other marginalised groups such as disabled individuals) that they shouldn’t have or even want sex, makes sense. In a rape fantasy, you can have as much sex as you like, and it’s not your fault (and therefore you’re not an awful, sex-hungry monster), because you didn’t ask for or consent to it.

Obviously, people don’t actually want to be raped and would be deeply upset if their fantasies actually happened irl, but in the privacy of their own heads it’s a useful “tool” of sorts to circumvent feelings of shame attached to sex. Also, hey! Conveniently plays into the whole submission thing a lot of people have, often conveniently plays into stuff like breathplay, bondage, bruises and slapping, humiliation, maybe age difference or size difference or group sex… Again, big scary fantasy, really not particularly scary once you break it down into lil bite-sized chunks.

(Not all people have rape fantasies for this reason, though it’s a very common one. For some people, the “actually wanting it, deep down” thing is actually a turn-off, given they’re attracted to the vulnerability and control aspects of it. For some people, they enjoy “actually wanting it” in depictions of sexualised assault, where there’s an element of ravishment to it, but dislike it in non-sexualised depictions of assault, where the appeal is the character’s vulnerability, or the control the rapist has over them, or the negative emotions and physical pain involved with it. Fantasies are complicated, and even people with very, very similar fantasies may be getting completely different things out of them.)

There’s also the taboo aspect of these kinks and other things like them, which is a powerful draw. Humans like breaking rules (or at least, breaking rules in the privacy of their own heads) for some reason – it gives them a bit of a rush, makes them feel good. Humans also just seem to fundamentally really like power dynamics, and as a result they’ve found a lot of really interesting ways to tie it into sex (with various additions for flavour).

(You’ll notice how I say “in fiction” or “in their own heads” or “in fantasies” – because, surprise surprise, a lot of people with darker sexual fantasies don’t want those things to ever happen. Fantasies are often not remotely an indication of what you actually want, irl, sexually. You can have a reoccurring, incredibly powerful fantasy that gets you off like a rocket every goddamn time, and also be kind of sick thinking about it happening irl. That’s perfectly normal, and perfectly fine – and, in the case of things like rape and executions, probably pretty good, because it indicates you’ve got a working conscience.)

With outright kinky stuff, too, I think there’s a habituation aspect to it – you can be kind of trained to find something erotic by having it presented alongside more conventionally erotic stimuli often enough, or even just coming across something that presents it as strongly erotic. A lot of people tell me they didn’t realise they had a certain kink until they read something I wrote with it, and I really suspect that’s because I kind of… think about the building blocks of what makes a particular fetish appealing, and emphasise them in a way that appeals to even people without the fetish. You can definitely coax other people into liking something with a “convincing” enough “argument”, or train yourself into liking something by associating it with pleasure. This, I think, though, is probably less common for violent and dark things than it is for stuff like, say… foot fetishes or leather kink, more every-day objects of fixation that it’s easier to accidentally associate with pleasure.

For less sexualised violent and dark fiction, such as whump and hurt/comfort, though, understanding why people like it becomes a little more difficult and murky. It’s not directly about sex, and people don’t seem to view it as inherently sexual or have inherently sexual responses to it, but do seem to get some kind of pleasure from it. Sometimes that pleasure is sexual, sometimes it’s not, mostly it seems to be a very confusing mix of the two. I suspect that mix has a lot to do with people who like whump also liking analogous, explicitly kinky and sexual things, and sort of… not signals getting crossed, exactly, but something similar.

It doesn’t help that a lot of the language of sex is also the language of pain – squirm, gasp, groan, moan, writhe, shudder, clench, too much, please, god, fuck, kicking feet and sweat and wide eyes and dilated pupils and hearts thumping in chests. Unsurprisingly, a lot of the language of pain is also the language of submission – begging and cowering, vulnerability, reliance on others, bending to another’s will, weak and small and shaking. Even when torture or pain isn’t deliberately being written as erotic, the language of sex and power (and a variety of other fetishes besides) is still there, and both brains and bodies will still respond to that.

Oddly enough, if they’re written similarly, your arousal probably doesn’t care much whether that fictional character being choked consented to it or not, or whether it was supposed to be sexual or not – their eyelids are still fluttering, their breath is still coming in short pants and hitching wheezes, they can still see the darkness creeping in at the edges of their vision and hear the blood rushing in their own ears, and they’re still going to have a collar of bruises blooming dark around their neck come tomorrow morning. The only difference between a Dominant and their submissive, and a torturer and their victim, is consent, and in fictional fantasies that can be a very blurry line when it comes to people’s weird, unreliable sex brains that just want that sweet, sweet power differential.

(As a side note, it’d be interesting to see what the correlation between “likes whump” and “likes various whump-like aspects of BDSM” is, and also what roles people tend to imagine themselves in when they read whumpfic versus how dominant or submissive they consider themselves. The general consensus by people who object to violent fic seems to be that everyone who enjoys it sees themselves in the aggressor’s position, because they’re “secretly abusers”, but… my personal experience is that people usually seem to imagine themselves in either the position of the whumpee, or the caregiver (the person getting hurt, or the person looking after the hurt person, respectively, for those not familiar with the terms).

A lot of very violent and dark stuff tends to be vicariously enjoyed from the perspective of the “submissive” party, it seems. And when someone vicariously enjoys it from the perspective the dominant party, even people used to existing in these darker spaces tend to get worried. I’ve had friends who’ve bumped into stuff like this outside of fandom spaces mention how they feel deeply unsafe around the people there (usually men) who enjoy taking on the role as the aggressor and also seem very into the idea of this stuff actually happening. So, even in dark kinky spaces, there’s a distinction between “safe” and “unsafe” people who are into stuff, based around perceived willingness to enact non-consensual violence irl.)

I think, though, the most powerful non-sexual motivators for liking non-sexualised violence in fiction are emotional venting and catharsis. Darkfic allows us to explore a range of very powerful emotions – sadism, cruelty, twisted pleasure, and anger on the behalf of the person doing the hurting, and pain, misery, fear, horror, desperation, and grief on behalf of the person being hurt – in a safe, controlled environment where we can say stop at any point. In real life, these emotions are powerful, and scary, and can be overwhelming, and in a way confronting them in fiction can be a good way of practicing for feeling them irl.

However, in the same way intense physical sensation can be good regardless of whether it’s pleasurable or not, intense emotions can be good regardless of whether they’re positive or not.

Sometimes, especially for people who are hurting, it can almost be better if they’re not good. If you’re hurting emotionally, sometimes it’s easy to translate that into physical pain in fiction, to match the way you feel like you’re screaming inside to the way some fictional character actually is screaming. If you’re angry, sometimes it feels good and cleansing to write about a fictional character getting torn to fucking shreds, in much the same way it feels good to punch a pillow and scream until your throat’s raw. There’s a lovely post about finding fiction that “matches the shredder noise in your head”, and although I disagree a little with the implication that only unhappy people like whump, and that you inevitably grow out of it as you leave your teen years behind, I really like the shredder metaphor.

Best of all, fiction comes with catharsis, usually. Not so much darkfic or torture porn, but whump and hurt/comfort usually have a caregiver character, who spends the whole story worrying over the character getting hurt, and / or spends a portion of the story nursing the character back to health. Either way, they provide a way for the reader to vicariously live through being cared about and fussed over and have people demonstrating their love for the whumpee through being deeply distressed over their pain and desperate to ease it, to help them.

(If you think about it, this is, perhaps, very similar to the way a Dom provides their sub with love and catharsis and care during aftercare after intense scenes – which may have included powerful emotions such as shame from things like humiliation and dehumanisation, or physical pain from things like flogging or spanking… Isn’t it funny how people play out the same patterns over and over? Once you’re looking for them, they’re surprisingly easy to spot. Breaking people down, building them back up again… violence and vulnerability, and control.)

For anyone (and, again, especially for people who are hurting emotionally already in some way) this whole process can be very powerful, and very soothing. The character is hurt, broken down – and there’s this lovely, intense emotional release on the reader’s behalf where they get to experience all these big, scary, good emotions, maybe have a bit of a cry, maybe feel a bit sick, maybe get a little aroused. They can wallow in the state the character’s been brought down to, where they’re so tired and broken and damaged that there’s nowhere lower to go, that they can just be – which, oddly enough, can be very soothing in a way.

And then a caregiver turns up, and demonstrates their love and affection and deep desire to help the character that the reader has been putting themselves in the position of – and the reader gets to experience that love and care and acknowledgement of the pain they’ve just been through, second-hand.

Some people need this final catharsis a lot, and go for hurt/comfort, where the balance of hurt to comfort is usually 50:50, or tipped even further in favour of comfort, and the hurt is generally fairly mild (broken leg, small accident, minor injuries). Some people need more intense hurt, and less comfort, where the balance is maybe 75:25, or tipped even further in favour of hurt (possibly even no explicit comfort, just the promise that it’s going to happen after the story), and the injuries might be graphic, or there might be torture. And then there’s darkfic, and tortureporn, that’s just entirely hurt, and usually involves gore / guro / body horror, people enduring unsurvivable injuries, and possibly the character dying at the end. So the vulnerability-catharsis cycle isn’t the same for everyone! And, in fact, doesn’t even need to be a cycle for some people.

(I, personally, tend to sit cheerfully on the line between whump and tortureporn, for those curious. Love me some torture, but I generally want at least the promise of a positive-ish ending, if not a little outright worrying and comforting from a caregiver character. Suffering is most interesting when there’s someone who cares there to witness it and worry over, for me – it legitimises the pain of it, somehow, I think.)

Incidentally, mentioning “broken down”: characters can be really interesting to read about and write in extreme mindsets, whether that’s someone broken down to almost nothing, someone furiously determined not to give into the pain and stay strong, someone who’s abusive and whose thought processes are badly warped as a result, someone who’s so sadistic they’re barely even human any more… extremes of human existence, of human experience, of human thought processes and mindset, seem to just be a Thing that people find interesting. (They’re a thing people are interested in experiencing, but in a controlled environment where no one’s actually getting hurt.) So I’m sure that’s also got something to do with it – that humans are kinda voyeuristic and nosey when it comes to Horrible Things and Mangled Corpses and Huge Tragedies, even irl, and that naturally bleeds over into fiction.

Another important aspect is that both irl and fiction are full of examples of violence and hurt towards minority groups – women, poc, and lgbtq+ and mentally ill people, to mention just a few, since they’re the groups fandom is largely comprised of. But there’s very few depictions of (specifically cishet and white, but not exclusively) men experiencing violence, or being hurt. When men in fiction do get hurt, they largely bounce back from it, action-hero style. You get this sort of “impervious, invulnerable man” character, who never seems to experience any true sort of pain or suffering – and who also looks a lot like the people who enact violence on minorities in real life.

There is, then, something appealing about a) seeing the untouchable become touchable, the unhurtable become hurt, the invulnerable made vulnerable, b) seeing someone who is usually the one enacting trauma being the one that’s experiencing the trauma, and suffering for it, “seeing how it feels”, c) seeing someone who usually shrugs off any kind of trauma or pain having to actually deal with that pain, and become vulnerable and more real as a result, sort of humanising thing, and d) being able to project the violence and trauma minorities experience or live in fear of on a daily basis onto a “blank slate” character.

In a culture that treats male (again, especially white, cishet male) as the default, hurting fictional male characters can be a way for minorities to examine, explore, and discuss their fears and feelings surrounding the violence they’re constantly hyperaware of, but one step removed from themselves. You can hurt a white, cisgender man and be able to realistically talk about violence, and the short- and long-term consequences of that violence, without having to think about stuff like racism, transphobia, and misogyny, which may be a little too close for comfort. Even given fandom’s tendency to make characters gay or bi, a fairly small proportion of whump and darkfic is focused on attacks to do with or even tangentially related to a character’s sexual orientation. People want the violence and the aftermath, but they don’t necessarily want the messy, real societal issues that so often come along with that.

There’s a lot of discussion about women using slashfic to examine their thoughts and feelings about sex and romance without having to confront various, female-specific or gendered issues around them. I get the feeling – especially given most whump targets are male, and many people are utterly disinterested in or actively upset by female whump – that whump is, similarly, a “safe” way for women and other minorities to explore their thoughts and feelings about the violence they are immersed in. They can even create imagined minorities which which to explore realistic violence against minorities but again without the personal context. This is most obvious with A/B/O and BDSM aus (omegas, who are stereotyped in-universe as weak and prey-like and needing an alpha to “protect them”, and subs, who are stereotyped in-universe as much the same), but even in aus more removed from being obvious social critiques people tend to create some kind of group perceived in-universe as weak and easily victimised with which to explore these issues.

And, even when the whump targets are members of real-life minorities, such women, or poc, or lgbtq+, there’s still that element of author or reader control. They can control whether the whumpee is getting hurt because of their minority status, which minority status they’re being hurt because of, whether the violence they experience lines up to common irl expressions of violence against that minority, how far the violence goes, whether the fictional community around the whumpee reacts realistically or overwhelmingly sympathetically…

Finally, and relatedly to the above point, there’s also the eternally-trotted-out “coping mechanism” line, which… has been pretty badly weaponised, unfortunately, by people who don’t really seem to care about the people using darker fiction as a coping mechanism and mostly seem to care about policing people’s fiction consumption. But it’s definitely a thing, and some people enjoy darker fiction because it gives them a way to relive past abuse or mistreatment in a safe environment (they can close the tab, hit the back button, if it gets too intense). Allows them to put themselves in a position of power again (reading noncon and imagining themselves as the rapist, or reading noncon and knowing they can stop reading at any time, or reading a consensual nonconsent scene where the sub actually has the power because they can say stop at any time). Gives them a sense of reassurance and catharsis through the caregiving aspect of it (their fave characters went through what they did, these characters still have people who love them even after the abuse, these characters were told it wasn’t their fault and they’re strong and perfect and deserve to be supported and their abusers are bad people). Gives them a chance to fictionally confront their abuser (the fictional abuser gets put in jail, or killed, or gets the shit kicked out of them / gets verbally condemned by the survivor’s friends, or the survivor finds the strength to confront them about what they did).

And oh, hey, look, we’re back to power, and controllable vulnerability, and catharsis. Surprise!

So… that’s it, really. In the end, it largely comes down to power and control, and catharsis, and vulnerability. People use darkfic because it’s a safe way of feeling intense emotions and then getting love and catharsis afterwards, or of venting negative feelings and desires they’re already feeling without hurting anyone or needing to feel guilty after, and because humans have been getting off on power dynamics and taboos since probably forever. People have kinks for… pretty much the same reasons, but with sexualisation and erotic responses. Pretty much every big, scary kink can be broken down into lots of little non-scary kinks. Fantasies aren’t inherently bad, and it’s pretty normal and not inherently harmful to have fantasies about things that would be Deeply Bad irl. Humans are fucking Weird, and I love them for it.

Did I really need over 5k to say that? Maybe, maybe not, but it’s been fun putting thought into this whilst avoiding doing my coursework, and hopefully it’ll be useful to some people (and maybe to me, next time I need to argue against purity politics).

If you’re interested in talking / thinking more about this: my ask box is always open. I’m always curious to hear people talk about their own experiences with trying to understand their weirder or darker kinks, or happy to answer questions about why I or other people like things, or to just be as much of a safe space as I can manage for these kinds of things. If you’re interested in more introspection about non-sexualised violence and why people have intense, enjoyable (but largely non-erotic) responses to it, go into the “whump” tag and poke around a bit on the blogs that post in there – most whump blogs talk about why they like whump a fair bit, and there’s a huge amount of variation. The “purity politics” tag on my personal blog has a lot of me being annoyed at people trying to police fiction, but it also has a lot of really good, introspective thoughts on why people like, want, and need darker themes in fiction. Finally, the book “In The Flesh: The Cultural Politics of Body Modification” by Victoria Pitts also touches a bit on similar real-life things, where body modification overlaps with kink and fetish and BDSM things and people’s enjoyment of pain and injury as both a personal thing and public spectacle. (She’s got some fun thoughts on identity that I really liked, too, though that’s for a different discussion.)

Otherwise… Whilst I think it’s good to think critically about what you’re into and how and why, and do the same about what other people are into, I don’t think it’s necessarily great to criticise yourself for what you’re into. (Caveat: this is not me approving of people committing illegal acts irl, just… acknowledging that people usually worry a lot about having “bad” fantasies, when really fantasies rarely hurt anyone, don’t necessarily indicate a desire for something to happen irl, and are rarely as bad / weird / unusual as the person having them thinks.) Think about stuff, but try not to stress, and try to enjoy working out the shape of your brain and what you like. You might be surprised what you find out about yourself in the process.

#anonymous #ask #whump #meta #darkfic #sparx chats #idk what to tag this with really??? #it's just like. 5k of me talking about why human brains are weird and sometimes really like violence #even if your human brain is Definitely Not Weird and you Definitely Don't Like Violence i'd suggest reading it tho #i would hope it's interesting #and i think it's got a bunch of important things in it given the current fandom climate #essays