#the Brandon part is super interesting

[abalidoth]

what is cosmere? (is that what its called?)

The Cosmere is a big, interconnected fantasy universe that is the setting of most of the works by the author Brandon Sanderson. The cool thing about his books is that each series is contained to its own world, and you can read any of them in isolation without realizing you're missing anything, but if you read them all you get a sense of the larger plot happening behind the scenes as those worlds start to collide and things cross over.

Brandon's magic systems tend to be very rule-based and well-defined, with a lot of twists being characters finding interesting ways to use those rules of magic. This lends itself well to the crossovers, because all the magic systems (as different as they are) share the same underpinning principles.

Here's some quick rundowns of different series and standalones in the Cosmere:

The Stormlight Archive

Planned ten-book series, currently four books are out.

A massive sprawling epic about the world Roshar, that's hit by a hurricane about every four days, and all the life has adapted to survive that environment. Knights Radiant -- superpowered individuals with a close bond to a spirit -- are starting to re-emerge in the world after being absent for centuries.

Because there are so many characters, this is where a lot of the character fandom tends to focus their efforts. I wouldn't recommend starting with it, though -- the first book alone is a thousand pages. I'd wait until you have a sense of Brandon's writing. But it's very good.

Mistborn

One trilogy (completed), one tetralogy set a couple hundred years later (completed), two trilogies some time in the future.

One cool thing about this series is that it follows one world (Scadrial) from a vaguely Renaissance tech level in the first trilogy, to 1920s in the second series, and eventually 1980s in the third and space-age magic in the fourth.

The magic itself is very intricate and all woven around metals -- there are people called Metalborn who can ingest metals and burn them in their stomachs to get different effects, including super-senses, strength, and Magneto-ish metallokinesis. That last bit makes the gunfights in the second series particularly fun.

The first book is a heist novel about robbing a thousand-year-old God-Emperor blind. It's a pretty good place to start, although it's a pretty hefty novel to start with.

The Emperor's Soul

I'm putting this one in a different category from the rest of the one-offs for a very good reason -- it's, in my opinion, the single best place to start reading the Cosmere.

It's a novella (just over a hundred pages) about a forger named Shai who uses magic to rewrite the histories of objects. She is captured by the government of an empire to reforge the soul of their Emperor, who has been left braindead after an assassination attempt, in the 100 days before the mourning period is over.

It's a fantastic meditation on art, a cool introduction to the way Brandon writes both characters and magic systems, and Shai herself is one of my favorite Cosmere characters. If any of this sounds at all interesting to you, I recommend you check it out.

One-offs

Brandon has also written a bunch of one-off novels in the Cosmere.

Elantris: His first book, and the one that my tattoo is from. About a prince who is affected by a dark transformation and thrown into a city of fellow undead, and the princess betrothed to him who arrives just in time to be told he died. Good, but suffers from some first book issues, pacing problems, and weird plot cul-de-sacs. Set in the same world as The Emperor's Soul, although there's basically no crossover.

Warbreaker: About a world where souls (Breaths) are bought and sold, and used to animate objects to do work, ruled by The Returned, living gods who require a steady dose of Breaths to live. One of my favorites, and an essential if you'd like to get into the crossover-y parts of the cosmere, as it introduces a bunch of elements that show up later (Especially in Stormlight)

Tress of the Emerald Sea: The first of his wildly successful Kickstarter project books, it's a fairy tale style story about a girl who braves a sea of bubbling, deadly spores to rescue the man she loves. It's lovely, especially if you're into a more Diana Wynne Jones kind of vibe to your fantasy. Probably a pretty good place to start!

Yumi and the Nightmare Painter: The third Kickstarter book. About a shrine priestess who stacks rocks to draw spirits, and a man who paints the nightmares that roam the streets of his city to banish them -- they become trapped in each other's places and must learn about each other's worlds to survive. This is currently my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE cosmere novel, oh my GOD it's so good. I'm not sure it's a great place to start, as a lot of the conclusion might feel a bit rushed if you don't have a good feel for the vibe of how Brandon writes magic, but honestly it might stand alone just fine even then.

The Sunlit Man: Fourth Kickstarter book. I haven't read this one yet.

Novellas: There are a bunch of novellas and short stories, some set on worlds we haven't otherwise seen, some set on Roshar or Scadrial.

If any of this sounds good to you, I recommend you give his writing a shot. He's one of my all time favorite writers (the tattoo should prove that, lol) and the Cosmere fandom is by and large wonderful and welcoming. I've made many lifelong friendships there.

#cosmere #brandon sanderson #stormlight archive #mistborn #tesseranswers

[adrianicsea]

the time that glenn howerton was in a gay period-piece play about crossdressing

so awhile back i was poking around glenn howerton's wikipedia looking for movies and such that i might have missed, and i noticed it had a small theatrical section listed. this was never something i'd given much thought in the past, but on this particular occasion i was so hard-up for new Glontent that i decided to see what i could find about the three plays listed there, because i'd never seen anyone else have much luck with that and i love a good internet scavenger hunt. walk with me.

compleat female stage beauty caught my eye right away-- the title of the play itself is interesting, and i happened to know already that the most famous real-life duke of buckingham was the lover of king james. so of course i went delving...

and what should i find but the entire playscript for compleat female stage beauty, For Free, on archive dot org? anyone on earth can rent it and read it for an hour at a time, or for 14 days if you want to really take your time with it. i have to assume that this is NOT common knowledge among sunny fans (or anyone else), as the archive upload only has 99 views at the time of making this post.

to give a VERY succinct summary of what the play is about-- in the 1660s, during the english restoration, women were allowed to act professionally onstage for the first time in english history. this caused problems for the male actors who had previously made their careers playing female characters, such as edward kynaston, around whom the play centers. outside of his acting career, kynaston is a gay man, and he's in a romantic entanglement with george villiars, the duke of buckingham (NOT the same duke of buckingham who was fucking king james-- that was this villiars' dad. we love gay fathers and their gay sons!) kynaston struggles to find his place in a changing social landscape where it seems as though his talents are no longer needed or wanted.

before getting into the script proper, the book has some information about notable early productions of the play. this is great because it pins down a lot of details about glenn's involvement in the show that wikipedia left unanswered, but there's also an unexpected sunny crossover here-- in an even EARLIER production, the lead role was played by david hornsby!

(i also learned over the course of my deep dive on this that glenn's costar, lead actor brandon demery, was a fellow member of glenn's graduating juilliard group!)

things don't end well for kynaston and villiars, but still, the onstage relationship between the two is both electrifying and heartbreaking as it changes over the course of the show.

now, this WOULD be where i would include cast pictures or footage or any kind of photos of glenn in this show... but if any such material exists, it's not publicly available. i went so far as to email the publicity and outreach coordinator for the theater that hosted glenn's production of this show to ask if they had any archived materials, but she told me that they didn't.

but this production took place in october of 2000, meaning it was pre-that 80s show, meaning we can all sit and think about how a glenn that looked like This was acting in a gay period piece about crossdressing and gender roles and the mystery of human sexuality. dudes rock.

a bit of a disappointing note to end on, i know, but i really wanted to talk about this play and share it with people!! it's a super interesting and overlooked part of glenn's early career, but also i think the script is fascinating and very well-written in its own right. i definitely encourage yall to check it out on the internet archive if you're interested-- again, it's literally free!

#glenn howerton #iasip #it's always sunny in philadelphia #compleat female stage beauty #this is a longer and more coherent version of a post i made two months ago that got no traction-- #--because i accidentally opted out of having my blog's original posts show in any tags. lol. and even lmao #it's crazy what's just like. there and relatively easy to find on the internet if you take the time to look

[highladyluck]

For the fan theories ask, can you go down the list of Nakomi theories on the wiki? (Or, if that’s too much, just Nakomi is the Creator (or an agent of the Creator))

Ok, before we get into detail on this, if any of you tell me who Brandon Sanderson says Nakomi is, I will be genuinely annoyed. I don't want to know and I hope to go to my grave blissfully unaware of the actual truth. I engage in this for the pure love of unhinged speculation and bitchy judgement. I'm including the 7 theories that @anyboli tells me are on the wiki, and then 3 bonus ones.

1) Aes Sedai From Age of Legends - this is just silly, and frankly after [specific chapter in AMOL when a long-debated fandom question was finally answered] the fandom as a whole should have stopped making theories like this. THERE IS NO PURPLE AJAH!!! I debated shoving it further into 'worst idea' territory but unfortunately it is an undeniably fun premise, and we do canonically have Aes Sedai from the Age of Legends hanging about (they're just evil) which is why everyone keeps trying to make it happen. The placement just into worst idea territory is a compromise.

2) Agent of the Creator/Pattern - this is deeply unlikely- the Pattern doesn't care and the Creator's only agent is Rand- but I like it a little better than the previous option. I also think this is the Bela option, which also nudges it slightly more into 'extremely compelling'.

3) Bubble of Good - I don't think this is the author intent, but on the other hand, it's a random positive encounter that moves the action along, and a Bubble of Evil is a random negative encounter that moves the action along. Functionally, Nakomi ACTS like a Bubble of Good, so I think this sits squarely on the border between likely author intent and definitely not author intent. I enjoy the lampshading of Nakomi as Plot Device so this is somewhat compelling to me.

4) A Hero of the Horn, or Amaresu - Ok, this actually strikes me as somewhat likely and I think if it were an RJ thing this is almost the likeliest option. As a Sanderson thing it seems a little less likely but still pretty plausible. I enjoy the specificity of it and the Heroes do seem to break their own rules about meddling a lot. Maybe Amaresu is vibing with Aviendha because Avi's going to give birth to her reincarnation or something; that's not particularly plausible but I like the emotional implications.

5) A Jenn Aiel - This seems like the most likely of the wiki options. I think the Jenn Aiel still exist, canonically, and probably they'd be in the area and have opinions. It's not the most interesting theory to me because I don't get the mystery aspect at all in this case. I'd rather just know up front that Nakomi was Jenn, then I could get a reaction from Aviendha, which would have been super interesting. It's still pretty neat but the execution could have been improved if this is really the answer. (I actually think this would be AWESOME as part of #10, but without either the use of a specific known character or a reason for the obfuscation, this is not peak cool to me.)

6) Verin - No. I don't even get why people are saying this and I don't care to be informed, either. Verin's great but we don't have to make everything about her.

7) A Wise One - Sure, maybe? But this premise is so deeply uninteresting without specifics. This is the Wheel of Time. I need any random character that shows up once and has a speaking part to have a backstory three pages deep. It doesn't all have to be on the page, but you better convince me that it exists.

8) any Cosmere character - This is my worst fear because it seems so horribly plausible. I know it has been officially denied, but like Taimaindred, it makes too much sense and you can't convince me this wasn't the original intent.

9) Lanfear - This is my personal theory and it sparks joy. Nakomi is a moon-related name like Lanfear's "Selene" moniker, Lanfear constantly goes around in disguise helping protagonists even though it makes no fucking sense, AND Lanfear is apparently still at large even after she appeared to have died? At this point, Lanfear could be doing anything for any reason, we just can't know. The only way we can truly know Lanfear is her vibes--that's why her punishment from the Dark One was to be put into a body that was perfectly good but not her aesthetic--and this whole business has Lanfear Vibes so strong they can be seen from the Age of Legends moonbase.

10) Tigraine - This is @asha-mage's theory and it's the best one I've ever heard. The only reason it's not higher on author intent is because I'm going by Sanderson intent and I don't think this was on his radar, but it absolutely seems like something RJ would have done, so I split the difference. It fits the hints I vaguely remember- someone we haven't met directly in the books but not a totally unknown character either- and it's just so cool, the idea of Tigraine surviving after all, maybe throwing in with the Jenn, and giving advice to her son's lover/a future leader of her adopted people. I want to write a series of 3 vignettes about Tigraine and the concept of legacy: Tigraine at the Tower, dealing with being the legacy kid with no magical skills. Tigraine abandoning Galad and contributing to his complex about his family legacy. Tigraine (as Nakomi) after talking to Aviendha about the legacy of the Aiel as complicated by her son. It would be so satisfying!!! This should be the answer!!!

Again, DO NOT SPOIL THIS FOR ME. I DO NOT WANT TO KNOW THE CANONICAL ANSWER.

#wheel of time #wot book spoilers #fan theory ask game #anyboli #nakomi

[sterakraffulz78]

This is hilarious and fateful

I saw the episode, and I never really thought that wasting time like this would be a suffering that lasted too long. I'm going to get good and bad things from what I saw

first for good, okay?

1. The deaf imp

In itself, I was very surprised by this character and to tell the truth I can consider him better than the other deep and sad Pseudos that only serve to make the panties get wet because of the Fujoshits, and it is something that in this program is seen very little or is scarce in Yes, it made me tender that Fizz treated him well.

2. Fizz and Asmodeus' relationship

What can we say, the relationship itself is healthy, and superior to many of both series and when Asmodeus protected Fizz it is something nice on his part, not like a certain owl who is only interested in the red cock who is a tremendous fucking creep unable to defend his """"little""", this relationship is one of the few salvageable things in this series

Now with the bad things

3. The songs

For the love of God... why? All the songs seem forgettable and super stupid to me, it seems that the only thing this chapter does is create time and necessary filler that will never contribute or amount to anything

4. The imp hater by fizarolli

This was expected, it doesn't surprise me much to tell the truth... just imagine that you are so hurt by harmless criticism of your program that you only hope for a good change and to be guided to do a good deed, but you prefer to spend and overexploit the Poor workers who only want some money to encourage your resentment in a lively way, this is ridiculous and makes others feel sorry for Viviana Medrano

5. Mammon

This is the first most annoying, loudest and most obnoxious thing I've ever seen followed by Chaz, the only thing he knows how to say is pure rudeness in every damn sentence, it's a fucking audiovisual blister that seems to never end, apart from the cringe I feel about it, the Deadly sins of this show will never be taken seriously and more that sexist phrase about "Women are not funny" and then you're dead... Damn you Medrano bitch, can't you at least respect a simple woman even if she has a tertiary role in your shitty program? (And ironic why you make penis jokes and swear words to wait for someone to laugh and praise you)

6. I HOPE THEY FUCK YOU BLITZ

Is it really necessary to put Blitz in every episode? For the love of God, am I already sick of listening and seeing that red cringe guy making those embarrassing faces and hearing his voice why can't I listen to Brandon normally anymore without remember this abusive and manipulative guy swearing!? They shoehorned this guy in just to get "laughs" and make him stick to Fizz when he was given the biggest tragedy of his life

7. Good vs bad, hAha ​​tHeY aRe RiGht wHy tHEy aRe nExT To thE bOyS aNd uwu sOfT

As always, our wonderful writing writing the bad characters, like the black ones in this Turkish soap opera and making them caricatures for mockery and portraying them as the soft boys and uwu the good ones. These characters are already predictable, if there is a soft and sore young gay uwu, he will be the good one because he is the soft and sore young gay uwu and we are all forced to take his side, while those who have the potential to be good villains like Striker, you position them as silly, cartoonish and you are the generic antagonist of a series for children under 6 years old, for example Asmodeus against Mammon

It's good that the views are getting lower and lower, so soon we won't be able to stand this series in decline and the next more ridiculous, repulsive, mediocre, cringe and pathetic chapter written by a ridiculous, mediocre, cringe, pathetic, misogyny, sexist, Transphobic , racist, xenophobic writer who only ruined her own work so that her little friends the Fujoshits (I already saw you SatorRojas, TeaTheKook and Dani) get their panties wet and buy more panties again to get them wet because they can't stand two boys together

#anti stolitz #helluva critical #helluva boss critical #vivziepop critical #helluva boss fandom critical #vivziepop criticism #helluva boss critique #blitzo #Helluva boss

[cosmerelists]

What Radiant Order Non-Stormlight Characters Would Belong To

As requested by anon. :)

If non-Stormlight Archive characters had the opportunity to bond spren, what orders would each of them belong to?

(I’m a Edgedancer, by the way, per the quiz!)

1. Vin: Windrunner

As pointed out by @itmakesssenseincontext (here), Vin literally thinks The Words that make someone a Windrunner, as she vows to only use her power to protect those unable to defend themselves. So. Like. If there had been an Honorspren around, she’d be a Windrunner already.

2. Steris: Elsecaller

The Elsecaller order is about self-improvement, and it attracts people who are quote "less flamboyant" and more serious, like scholars. Their spren are logicspren. I think this order would suit Steris very well!

3. Wayne: Edgedancer

This is per WOB! I mean, I do see it. Wayne’s power is essentially Super Empathy, as he can make himself understand other people’s perspective in order to pretend that he is one of them. Plus, he literally cannot forget the man he killed, creating elaborate and unhealthy rituals to remember him forever. I guess he does have healing powers too; I dunno if that’s part of the reasoning. Per Brandon, the other Edgedancers would find Wayne “strange,” but come on. Wayne & Lift would get on like a house on fire and would possibly literally cause that.

4. Sazed: Bondsmith

This is one of those that just felt right to me immediately, and then I just had to sit and try to figure out why. I think partly it's because Sazed literally bonded two very disparate Shards together into one, which feels very Bondsmith of him. But Sazed also cared a lot about connecting people and helping people understand other cultures, so there's that as well. I suppose the other one I could see for Sazed would be Edgedancer, given that he makes it his mission to save all otherwise forgotten religions. But I'm going Bondsmith as my number one choice.

5. Shai: Lightweaver

WOB has Shai as an Edgedancer, which I found shocking. I mean...the artistry? The literally becoming other people in order to be ready for various situations? The one last-ditch personality whose entire purpose is to craft an intricate lie to hide Shai from herself??? To me, Shai is a Lightweaver through and through. But per Brandon, Shai is an Edgedancer. So I guess it depends on who knows this character better. A random person who blogs or the literal author.

6. Wax: Skybreaker

As a lawman, basically. Plus, there's the whole conversation between Miles and Wax where Miles tries to convince Wax that if the law is unjust, you have a duty to oppose the law and Wax is like, "Nuh-uh shut up." (Since that so mirrors Kal and Moash, I can understand teh Wax as Windrunner argument, but we can't have ALL the protagonists be Windrunners!)

7. Marasi: Truthwatcher

This is almost certainly just me--I so strongly headcanon Marasi as an investigative reporter that I can't even remember the truth anymore. Ironic, I guess, given the subject of this entry... If I wanted to try to justify this, I guess I'd say Marasi does have a canonical interest in discovering the truth...but yeah, I don't expect many to agree with this one!

8. Rashek: Skybreaker

Had to include this one, as it's a WOB. Not a very good one, per Sanderson, but a Skybreaker nonetheless. Let's all imagine Nale having to deal with Rashek, shall we?

9. Vivenna: Stoneward

Vivinna does feel very Windrunner to me, given her bro chemistry with Kaladin. But the Stonewards are about being where they're needed, about being dependable and good team players, about making the best of a bad situation. I think of Vivenna showing up on a whole new planet, seeing a city without leadership, and being like, "Sure, I'll take over the city guard and forge a team of incredibly loyal guards until it's time for me to move on and go to the next place I'm needed."

10. Ranette: Dustbringer

Mostly because of the tinkerer angle--dustbringers are interested in knowing how things work, plus their power is inherently destructive and so requires careful control. And Ranette, you know, makes guns 'n' stuff.

11. Bleeder: Willshaper

The Willshapers are about freedom--for themselves, and for others. They want to free those who have been unjustly imprisoned. And oh man. What Bleeder wanted was to free herself and others from Harmony's influence, from the way he could literally take her and others over. So she wanted freedom for everyone and would do anything to obtain it.

12. Kelsier: Edgedancer, Dustbringer, or Willshaper

Sorry to end on a WOB, but I'm fascinated that Sanderson can see so many possibilities for Kelsier. An Edgedancer in his desire to change the world back into a green paradise for Mare. A Dustbringer or Willshaper for self-mastery and determination. Honestly, I'm most fascinated by Willshaper, due to the comment that they believe any law is a form of oppression. That extreme form of freedom really feels like it suits Kelsier, to me.

#this got long so I only did 12! #if people enjoy I'd be happy to do more or to have people add on their own thoughts! #cosmere #cosmerelists #Vin #Steris #Wax #Wayne #Marasi #Kelsier #Bleeder #Ranette #Rashek #Vivenna #Shai #Sazed

[melrosing]

I just find so much of the whole Lyanna Rhaegar thing so interesting. And its something I've explored more in my fanfics (that I've not really posted). But it's really weird to me that so many people's take away was that they were starcrossed lovers when... Rhaegar was like 23 (idk, an adult), married with a kid and Lyanna was a 15 yo. regardless of many factors, Rhaegar was still in the wrong in kidnapping her (no matter how willing of a victim she was). I totally buy that they thought their love story was that of starcrossed lovers.

also I love Ned having a complicated relationship with Brandon. I'm a sucker for Ned/Cat, and it's always strange to think that had things gone right she would've married Brandon. Like, it must be weird to look at the family you love and know you wouldn't have any of it if your brother (and to some extent sister) hadn't died.

Anyways, love the ending of season 1! I've found the whole thing super fun!

Yeah, I talked a bit about how I see Rhaegar and Lyanna here - like I'm sure they felt like star-crossed lovers, and GRRM the Shakespeare fanatic has certainly incorporated a handful of Romeo & Juliet tropes into their story. But they're also a lot more complicated than that. I can't disregard Lyanna's age, I can't disregard Rhaegar's obsession with prophecy and how that may have played a part in his pursuit of Lyanna (and his pursuit of a child from her body), and I can't disregard how he treats Elia and their children.

And people do minimise the affront to Elia which is really irritating to me, like as you can see per my sparknotes thing I don't believe that Elia ever came to love Rhaegar - I think at best she may have thought in the early days she was lucky to have such a worthy match, but that there's otherwise no suggestion they were close or even had any especial rapport. So, fine - it was a political match and not a love match - so if either of them privately committed adultery, that would be one thing.

But humiliating Elia in front of virtually all of Westeros by making a show of disregarding her, when she is either pregnant with his child or has just given birth to his child... and then later leaving her and their two young children in the charge of a teenager and a pyromaniac??? like sorry no i'm just not having it babes. it's not on

And yeah I definitely like the idea of Brandon and Ned having a kind of spiky relationship! I think Ned loved his brother but I can imagine there were things he disliked about him. And that Brandon could be quite callous towards Ned, treating him a bit like a doormat, condescending to him etc, and not even realising he's doing it because Ned's feelings hardly register with him.

It would kind of make Ned's close friendship with Robert more interesting, because I think Brandon was probably a lot like Robert - but here's a version of his brother who has time for him and jokes with him and confides in him etc etc. So it was easier to look past Robert's foibles and failings.

But then obviously Ned would feel a lot of guilt for having resented his brother once Brandon is gone (and Brandon dies proving how much he truly values his family), and for having inherited everything he was meant to have. It makes me think again of Jon as like a twisted outlet of penance for Ned. like he would always have cared for and protected Jon for Lyanna, yet part of him thinks he deserves Catelyn's resentment and the judgement of society that comes with Jon, but for own private guilt.

anyway thanks so much for reading they're really fun to write! working on plotting out the next bunch tonight....

#ned stark #brandon stark #rhaegar targaryen #lyanna stark #elia martell #asoiaf #sparknotes robert's rebellion

[pinkandpurple360]

Something about how Viv described Fizz always bothered me and made me really lose interest in the series before Oops ever happened. She didn't say it directly but if I recall, a friend of her's who works on the show said Viv described Fizz as a Pillow Princess.

And, like, that's a really loaded term to be throwing around in the LGBT space. Being a pillow princess is usually an insult about a sexual partner who does not reciprocate in the relationship. Like, someone who just lets things happen to them and takes from the relationship without putting anything back in and that really bothered me.

Wasn't Fizz supposed to be a self-made successful performer who started from the bottom? Wasn't he supposed to be this strong willed fighter against all the social barriers as well as severe trauma and physical disability who still came out on top despite everything?

To call him a pillow princess was one of the first signs to me that this was not going to be good. It was a neon sign for me stating Fizz wasn't successful, he was handed success. He didn't have a story, he is just a footnote of a story. The really meaningful parts about who he is as a person and how he became who he is today, completely glossed over in favor of fetishizing him.

Season 1 Fizz would top from the bottom and take what he wanted. He would run up behind someone in a brawl and bite their ear off. He would read a room and walk out as he burned it to the ground. He was the definition of "The Most", and I just knew once Viv was said to have described him as a non-reciprocating passive bottom bitch "Pillow Princess", I knew that any hope for a single character in this series to not just be some heteronormative farce of queer relationships was dead.

It was such a drastic change from what I think Brandon had initially written. Alex at the end of season 1 said Fizz "Had two sins wrapped around his fingers". Only for it to be Fizz is getting spit roasted between them.

And then the fizz/ozzie fanatics get upset when the one character Fizz can be sassy, aggressive, assertive and on equal footing with is the one we ship him with.

Very Fizzarozzie writing critical ahead. How it is written what it could be instead. and possibly why. If you like the lovey dovey ship don’t read this thanks

.

.

How much better would it be if Fizz was the one to say “mammon didn’t do shit, neither did Asmodeus, I already was this, I’d be this no matter what” Instead of..daddy telling him how great he is, again, and fizz parroting it back to him. That’s probably why Blitzø was there originally, to help him stop looking for royal approval, and find independence the same way he’s did, or is at least trying to. Because he’s dealing with abuse by a royal too. The potential empathy there is lost.

And the funny part is it would have been way more successful. The super corny ‘crooked’ song is the least popular from that episode by a massive margin except for niche fangirls and like you and I both know, the fujoshi.

And yeah you explained why I like blitzfizz more pretty well. Some people want DDLG diaper wetting Fizz and I want the Fizz we were introduced to, assertive not wimpy and submissive out of fear.

I’m so pissed that his introduction in Ozzies is now ditched and he’s been turned into someone absolutely starving for male approval, specifically royal male approval. [Before Ozzies, if you like the wholesome ship this isn’t for you] Don’t forget what character inspired Fizz, Beetlejuice. And he’s a manipulative villainous character trying to dupe you. I can tell there was a more mature idea for Fizz to be an actual sugar baby happy to mooch of Asmodeus and manipulate mammon as well. He was possibly going after a ring so he can become immortal. Going by both his song ‘drama queen’ and the Bjuice plot where he goes after marriage. But instead we get Twilight levels of writing.

I’ve spent enough time in queer spaces to know the difference between how gay men see their sex lives and how uh… people who are not gay men and are definitely not fujoshi or anything think they see their sex lives. For example: Another thing Viv said that grossed me out was that she tries to have her lgbt couples with one having “masculine energy” and “feminine energy”….not all queer couples are like that. Some are, but most really aren’t because what the F is feminine energy? It gives the vibe of using straight people as a blueprint. So it’s fair to say you can read into it. He’s “the woman” to Viv and in a different way, to some people in the fandom, they change his canon gender not for trans representation, but to make him hermaphrodite (not intersex, which is a different thing) and get pregnant. Like they are obsessed with making him have both genitalia and I have no idea why, it creeps me out. Because it’s never about intersex or trans struggles it’s just a fetish.

A pillow princess -_- right…I want to know where he was born, how he feels about his childhood being taken away from him, what he has to say about the entertainment industry—not how energetic or placid he is during sex. Gross. I’m calling CPS

I thought pillow princess was a lesbian term? Also you’re correct. It’s someone who just lays there and lets things happen to them, a selfish lover, like Verosika criticised Blitzø for being. Stella used similar language describing a pillow princess, which was supposedly meant to imply that stolas barely consented.

Sorry I know it’s weird but I could barely sexualise him knowing I’m a woman and he’s a gay man, and the fact in my minds eye I still see him like This:

Cute widdle baby hands..I’d adopt him. How did this angel end up in hell 🥺

And I’m not saying it’s not ok to see him that way because obviously he’s an adult now, but I really don’t need to know what his kinks are and whether he tops or bottoms ffs. I should be allowed to not sexualise him lol.

Ohhh your third paragraph…how I mourn the story we could have had instead of “I need male approval not for my reputation or my career or my status in life or my self esteem or where I came from, I don’t care about any of that, I’ll lose my boyfriend!!” She even teased us with a good story by having Fizz say “Oz, working for mammon is a big deal to me” (in the end it was just because mammon gave him his boyfriend Asmodeus -_-) “this, is for me” (This is for Ozzie so that I don’t lose him and I’m barely worthy of him) He is astring

I can tell Viv rewrote it because we started out with this much darker Fizz within the form of a robot. An angry blast from the past Blitz couldn’t forget about and couldn’t measure up to, and was also really attracted to. Even if it’s not the real thing. But this personality was changed to be Ozzies pet, then changed again to his ‘soulmate’ for more shipping fodder. Like many people have pointed out, the change from stolas as the villain to blitzos boyfriend has caused massive ripple effects, Ozzie was supposed to be Fizz’s boss who he has a secret scheme against, possibly the secret selling of Asmodean crystals. I’m basing this off of the magazine article which is probably the ditched story. Another thing is mammon and Ozzie were introduced as business partners obsessed with Fizz who in turn is making bank off of them both. All of blitzos exes and potential new love interests have been sorted into neat little pairs except stolas. It’s a weird fujoshi marketing strategy.

And now instead, we have baby girl pillow princess queen clussy fizz, his cuck boss who sees him as a son, as his doting sugar daddy therapist 😵‍💫

#helluva boss critical #fizzarozzie critical

[thishazbinamistake]

*Mild spoilers*

I watched the first episode, so here are my kind of disjointed thoughts if anyone is interested in hearing them:

So first off, I thought it was okay visually. I tried to ignore the weird animation errors, like how in one scene I noticed Charlie has five fingers on one of her hands instead of her usual four, and that they never fixed that one scene where Vaggie just... disappears in the background (you know the one), because I try not to be too harsh the animators for these sorts of things. But it definitely felt amateurish in places. Other than that, Viv definitely wasn't lying when she said it looked "fine". I've seen worse, for sure.

The voice acting ranges from pretty good to honestly terrible. Stephanie sounded like she could not give less of a shit about being there, and had some weird annunciation, making her kind of hard to understand in places. I was optimistic about Keith, and he sounded great, but honestly did not fit the character of Husk very well. Charlie was actually quite good, she has a great singing voice and overall I thought Erika did a good job for her. Alastor was decent, Amir definitely did a better job than I was expecting, considering how iconic Edward's performance was in the pilot. Niffty didn't talk nearly enough in the first episode for me to even form an opinion on her voice acting, but she's fine, I guess? Katie is literally just Brandon Rogers doing his Brandon Rogers voice.

Blake was super annoying, and he did not make Angel's constant sex jokes endearing or funny in the slightest. For the record, I didn't even like pilot Angel in the first place, but now, compared to this, I'm honestly starting to miss him. And I'm not even going to touch that "this body was made to be exploited" line with a ten foot pole.

Adam, though... God, he was easily the worst part of this first episode. His surfer-dude voice was annoying as shit, and his lines were so cringeworthy. He is not an entertaining or engaging villain in the slightest. Literally, every time he was on screen I was just waiting desperately for the scene to change.

In the first episode, we hardly get any glimpse into the personalities of honestly most of the characters besides Adam and maybe Angel, which is unfortunate because they're the two most annoying characters.

With Lucifer and Lilith's backstory, in typical Vivzie fashion, Lucifer is the sad uwu boy while Lilith is treated as being the one responsible for everything. Not really surprising.

As for the writing, it's 30% boring exposition, and 70% unfunny sex jokes. Literally most of Adam's dialogue is sex related. I hate him so much it's unreal.

And the songs... they sounded fine, but they don't feel like something you would want to casually listen to on their own. They just feel like they're meant to be transitions from one scene to the next and nothing more.

For as little as we saw her, I think my favorite part of the first episode was Niffty. She's honestly a super cute and fun character, and the scenes with her were the few times I actually cracked a smile. She's such a little freak and I love her. Everyone else was either boring or made me want to shove a screwdriver in my ears.

Finally, one of the most glaring issues to me (aside from Adam) is that the show didn't really give much of a setup for what was happening. We got a little exposition about Lucifer and Lilith and the fall of man and all that, but aside from Charlie, we aren't reintroduced to any of the characters from the pilot. This feels like a really dumb move because it's alienating to new viewers. If you were someone with no knowledge of the pilot scrolling through Amazon Prime looking for a new show to watch, and Hazbin caught your eye, you'd probably get confused about who all these characters are and what it is they're actually doing, so you'd probably just click off and look for something different. It's obvious the writers just assumed that everyone watching had already seen the pilot, I guess because they think only longtime fans would be interested in the show, which is honestly really sad. You'd think they'd want to try and grow their audience more, but it just feels like they only want to pander to the people who are already fans, which feels like a bad desicion from both a storytelling standpoint as well as a business one. A show, especially one that migrated from an internet pilot to a full series on a paid streaming platform, should be able to stand on its own two legs without needing the pilot to do all the explaining. Especially considering the designs and voice actors changing between the pilot and the series. I didn't expect them to completely remake the pilot, but they could have at least done a better job establishing the characters.

All in all, episode one was at best a 5/10. Like I said, I've seen far worse but this just felt like a bad note to start this all off on. For newcomers, it's confusing and downright unappealing, and for longtime fans it's just disappointing. I can really only see diehard Vivzie fans getting a ton of enjoyment out of it.

Still need to watch episode two, maybe things will improve from there.

#hazbin hotel critical #hazbin hotel spoilers #long post

[queenlua]

i rewatched schindler's list last night (extremely scattered random thoughts)

* the main motif that jumped out to me this time was that of paperwork

which makes sense, right. the list. in the title. is in fact a piece of paperwork

but (1) the last time i watched this i was like 15 and a dummy, and (2) i guess paperwork's been on the brain lately ever since i saw brandon taylor calling for a comeback of the "paperwork movie" and i was like so true bestie

the paperwork thing isn't the movie's primary preoccupation. it wasn't trying to make a specific statement about The Inhumanity Of Machines And Bureaucracy as far as i could tell (even though that'd be an easy angle for something like this to take), but even so. the endless lines with some harried typist at the end of it, the shots of ppl checking every coat pocket for their work papers, Itzhak's goofy-ass typing technique as he's making that list of names, the paperwork error that sends the train of women not to his factory but to Auchwitz, etc...

but there's a missing middle in there, right, with some honest examination of these typewriters and databases and keyboards and emails and files as part of the air we breathe now. (i think the automated-job-assignment-system in Le Guin's The Dispossessed and the City of Mind in Le Guin's Always Coming Home are both her kind-of-inchoate-but-deeply-felt AHHHHH reactions to bureaucratization and the internet, respectively—a lot of scifi from that era reads like that, nervous but not really sure what to say yet.) like, Schindler's List was not wanting to examine that angle overmuch, but because it's not so front-and-center preoccupied with the papers in-and-of-themselves it probably comes away with stronger imagery/riffing on the idea than it would have otherwise

when taylor was talking about paperwork movies he was talking about stuff like legal thrillers, romcoms, stuff like Air, and so on. things where bureaucratic competence is the way to win. and there's no shortage of midcentury stuff where The Bureaucratization Is The Horror, the act of putting anything on a paper or in a database is the itself the thing to be feared

but it'd be interesting to see a film that did take that front-and-center. (probably one exists! i don't watch very many movies.) i guess the closest thing to what i'm thinking of is Red Plenty, which is a novel about a lot of things, but one of those threads is definitely Egghead Soviet Math Nerds Doing Paperwork, & yeah it's so so so good. I Am Once Again Asking You To Read Red Plenty

* the other new thing that jumped out at me, this time around, was just how bad at business Schindler was lol. this went over my head as a kid, because the guy is always dressed fantastic and slots so easily into the Charming Business Magnate Archetype, and also because as a kid i hadn't spent enough time around Charming Business Magnates to realize how often they are full of shit... but yeah, the movie makes it super clear upfront that this is essentially a Wall Street Bets guy who has identified exactly one weird arbitrage opportunity ("hire slave labor") and is good at calling in favors from the other nazis he parties with and that's it. utterly unsurprising he failed at every single other business he ever tried. reading the details of Actual Oskar Schindler's life makes him seem both better and worse than how he's portrayed in the film, and it would've been really interesting to see all those angles explored, even if i get why Speilberg opted to sand down those edges and i'll concede he was probably right to do so for the thing he wanted to make

anyway yeah. that's a film

[renyen808]

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The TV Show We (and Disney) Needed

Back when I was a child, I had a difficult time reading. In fact, I loathed it. I never understood why we had to read in the first place, it seemed extremely tedious to me. It had gotten so bad to the point where it became obvious that I just did not want to read. It wasn’t until my parents signed me up for this reading thing at my elementary school, where after hours, like dinner time, they would give us a book to read. I wasn’t a fan of this because why the hell would I want to be reading at 7 pm on a Wednesday night? Yes, you read that correctly, a Wednesday! The first session, they made us read a book from an author in Hawai’i. They wrote a children’s book and they made us read it, which I didn’t because it never interested me. So, the next Wednesday comes around and I just expect it to be the same. Just give me my copy of the book that I am never going to read again and I’ll call it a day. But that didn’t happen. For the first time, I actually found a book I was interested in: The Lightning Thief. 

(Credit: Goodreads)

Everything about Percy entrapped me in this mystical world of Greek Gods, monsters, and half-bloods. I was never like this before, reading page after page just to know what happens next. Along with that, since I started reading them when I was twelve, it was a great way to see myself in these different characters, feeling the triumph and betrayal throughout every twist and turn of their adventure.

I read all of Percy Jackson and the Olympians and The Heroes of Olympus throughout my time in school, and also watched the movies, but, while watching the movies, I was disappointed to find that it wasn’t like how I imagined it. They changed aspects of the story that didn’t need changing and in doing so, kinda destroyed the magic that made it so great. Grover was a kind hearted boy and while I like Brandon T. Jackson, I didn’t buy him as Grover. Sure he was a great friend to Percy, but he wasn’t Grover to me. Logan Lerman was the perfect Percy, just the wrong time for him. And do not get me started on Alexandra Daddario as Annabeth, she was the worst offender of the three in my opinion. Them changing every aspect of the story just made me super upset, and do not get me started on that second movie (Love you Blackjack). The point is, as a Percy Jackson fan, we needed better, we deserved it!

(Credit: Wikipedia)

During 2020, I finally got my wish when they announced that the show was greenlit. Everyone around the world rejoiced as we finally got our chance. Once that happened, everyone started to wonder about who would be casted as the titular character. Then, April 2022, Walker Scobell was announced. At this point, I haven’t watched the Adam Project or anything that he has done, but after watching it, I was stunned, I was like, ‘That’s Percy…’ Then, Leah Sava Jeffries and Aryan Simhadri were casted as Annabeth and Grover and the world lit on fire in the community.

(Credit: Polygon)

As a woman of color myself, not African American, but Asian, I was ecstatic to see Jeffries take on Annabeth. I’m the type of person that cares more about if they embody the soul of the character than the appearance. Daddario may have looked like Annabeth, but Jeffries IS Annabeth. There are still portions of the community that cannot wrap their head around that the beloved daughter of Athena is a different race, but I don’t care. It is especially prominent in this Facebook group (yes, I still use Facebook) I am a part of to share my love for Percy Jackson. I try to surround myself with like minded people, and sometimes, a few of the racist ones just come through.

As you can see, I loved the series. From the moment I heard Scobell’s voice, I knew the series was built with so much love. I always felt drawn to Percy, being from Hawai’i, the ocean is special to me. I always found his snark and humor relatable, since I am similar with my friends and family. I also was drawn to Annabeth with her no nonsense attitude, along with being a strong female character. Also, cannot forget Grover, the literal glue of the group. The quest would have gone completely wrong if not for him. Scobell, Jeffries, and Simhadri all played their roles to perfection. They are truly the Golden Trio come to life. 

(Credit: Town and Country Magazine)

I need to also call attention to all the different actors and actresses who played supporting roles throughout the series. Virginia Kull’s masterful performance as Sally, showing just how difficult it can be on the mortal parents of a demigod child. Glynn Turman as the perfect Chiron, showing a sense of care and concern as Percy’s mentor. Jason Mantzoukas’ performance as Mr. D is a standout, with him completely capturing what it means to be the punished director of Camp Half-Blood. Megan Mullally was an amazing Alecto, bringing a sense of fear immediately into Percy’s life. Timm Sharp played an amazing Gabe Ugliano, showcasing a different way that Gabe could be portrayed for an audience today. Adam Copeland, also known as Edge in the WWE, plays Ares, a terrifying force in the book that Copeland captures perfectly. Also want to shout out Nick Boraine, the voice of Kronos, who brings a sinister feel to the series, showing he is the big bad of this story.

(Credit: PopBuzz)

I wanted to make a separate paragraph for the last supporting character: Luke Castellan. Luke is played by Charlie Bushnell, who really sold me as a demigod feeling betrayed by the gods. Just from his acting in Episodes 2 and 8 solidified to me that this is how Luke is. Granted, the confrontation scene is not as sinister as it is in the book, I believe that the TV series did it better, where Annabeth is there in person to see the betrayal happen. I mean, that is literally her brother betraying her, I cannot imagine what she is going through. Bushnell really sold it as Luke honestly, showing he’s an upset demigod who believes the gods have turned their backs on them. He made use of his time on screen, and I cannot wait to see him in future installments as our big bad.

(Credit: IGN)

Overall, this series is what we all deserved! I understand that people are upset that it was not completely faithful to the books, and that is a valid argument, but I will say this: if you want a faithful adaptation, read the books and recreate it in your head. Nothing will ever be a perfect copy of another, not with humans around. I think instead of nitpicking the differences and inconsistencies between the two, we should embrace the changes. Embrace the fact that this was even created in the first place and be grateful for it. Embrace the fact that we have a great TV show, but god forbid they forget about the scorpion that Luke poisons Percy with. The books, movies, the TV show, they’re all interpretations of the same idea, and we all have different thoughts about the idea, that at the end of the day, at least one person will be a hater. Anyway, with millions of views each episode, I’m sure season two is coming, and with that my boy Blackjack!

#screenandjoystick #percy jackon and the olympians #percy jackson #percy jackson tv show #annabeth chase #grover underwood #walker scobell #leah sava jeffries #aryan simhadri

[m-arahuyo]

some questions for writers !!

tagged by the lovely @luvwich :’) thanks so much for the tag!!

aight here goes

Last book I read: if not, winter (fragments of sappho) by anne carson. this is like. from way back january this year :’)

(sidebar that i am looking for her eros the bittersweet. took me years to cop if not, winter, so……)

Greatest literary inspirations: anne carson (the only sappho translations i accept in my life are hers), pablo neruda, fernando pessoa, haruki murakami, and, songwriter incoming, brandon boyd

Things in my current fandom I want to read but I don't want to write:

cyberpunk: honestly…… jus a songbird/panam/v ot3. out on the road. havin a good time. bein sweet. but, yknow, still fuckin bitches up. can anybody hear me

Things in my current fandoms I want to write but I think nobody would be interested in them but me:

cyberpunk: i’ve sort of started a series exploring songv across the game’s diff endings, but like, people are generally reading fanfic for the Happy (understandable) and most of the game’s endings jus weren’t built for Happy, yknow? so……

You can recognise my writing by: raw doggin. sprinkles of errors and/or typos bec i am Bad at proofreading :’) verbose/overlong sentences, lots of references to bodies and body parts, “teeth”, Devotion(tm), lots of body fluids in smut

My most controversial take (current fandom): not sure if this a take per se, but what fans think of so mi after that Big Reveal at NCX is my litmus test for their empathy. like, honestly, anybody can make whatever choice they want on what do w her after that, but to so easily think she deserves all the bad shit for the lie? ye pal sure :’)

Top three favourite tropes: PINING !!! enemies to lovers, and i mean that in a tearing each other down or straight up attempted murder. and what’s it called when the blorbo is jus written as raw power, unhinged, decidedly unattractive, bloody and beaten, on the brink of madness and/or death?? distillation? ye that, Love That

What’s your current writing mood (10 – super motivated and churning out words like crazy, 0 – in a complete rut): i will say…… a strong 2 :’) ye last long form took q a bit out of me and i’ve been laying so long on the floor that i’ve become it. do i have ideas tho? ye!! do i have the words for them? abs not

Share a random frustration: being treated like i’m borderline invisible at work since my last day is april 30th (don’t mind that) but then groveling to me to help fix royally fucked up shit anw when they come a-knocking (mind that very much) ?? can we not be hypocrites please

aight only taggin my angel @sp4cedr4g0n here bec errbody else be shy, that’s cool :’) feel free to do this when u want and tag me tho!! hearts love ilu

#tag game #thanks u luv dear u are wonderful #also ye poets on there

[floralovebot]

A lot has been said about Helia's love language in his and Flora's relationship, but how do you think he shows/expresses his love with others, like the rest of the specialists? Do you think it varies depending on the person? I'd love to hear your opinion! ^^

AOUGHHHHH

i think i may have talked about this before but i'm not sure if i talked about the other specialists too!

we definitely see hints of it in canon, most especially with timmy! we often see a "words of affirmation" approach with helia and timmy - helia is just always there to comfort him and back him up :') timmy on the other hand, likes to spend quality time with helia!

for the other specialists, honestly i think helia still does words of affirmation with them too. we just don't get to see it as much :( but we do see it occasionally, like when he gets worried about sky or calls riven his friend etcetc.

as for how much it varies, i can see helia changing it around a little based on how close he is with someone and what they need from friends. helia, for the most part, is pretty perceptive and he knows when someone is uncomfortable. so he definitely wouldn't be complimenting riven all the time because riven (while it is nice to hear) sometimes takes it as an insult/is just vaguely uncomfortable with being people super nice to him. i can see helia instead spending more quality time with him - learning his interests and hobbies, sparring together, hanging out in helia's bigger room cause it's nicer than their little bunk rooms aldgh

now, i don't have any evidence for this because we never get to see their relationship in canon, but i think helia would do more acts of service with brandon! like spotting him, helping him clean up, taking his shift when he wants to go on a date with stella etc. stuff like that!

but anyway, i think for the most part helia tends to fall back on words of affirmation because he's not shy at all about telling his loved ones how much he loves them yknow? but he would also be aware of and prioritize what the other person needs so it can change depending on them!

#helia also Loves giving gifts but the other specialists think his poems and flowers are cheesy 😔 #ladghl #ough... i love him...... perfect blorbo i can't stop thinking about him #answered #winx helia

[shownumetal]

@girlbloke wow ok some interesting choices on here…

roots by sepultura is absolutely nu metal but arise is just straight up thrash so i have no idea why that’s on here. also surprised there’s 2 sepultura albums but no soulfly, same singer but soulfly was more firmly nu. lots of big huge drums in roots, i love it.

i will never listen to devil without a cause because we live in a world where kid rock was invited to the trump white house

follow the leader is like half a good album? there’s a track where jonathan davis and fred durst are just homophobic at each other for several minutes. but also i’m not a huge korn fan, i could probably cobble together one album i enjoy from the 4 that i’ve heard. the bass strings are so floppy. i enjoy their first 2 albums more bc they sound like shit, this one is more polished for sure and that’s not what i want lol

system of a down s/t A+

slipknot s/t 💕💕💕💕 i front to back this album all the time. drums are insane. all hope is gone is another odd choice, it’s way more thrash/straight up metal. after their 3rd album they moved away from nu for the most part. i really like at least half the songs on it tho. shocked iowa isn’t on here

hybrid theory is great for baby’s first heavy album bc there is no cursing so your parents would let you listen to it. incredibly vague lyrics by design so you can apply them to whatever is happening to you. a technically very good album, v polished and well thought out. kind of like the nexus of what nu metal could achieve, like where to even elevate from here. they were like the last super popular nu band. a place for my head rules

make yourself also an odd choice! i would have gone with fungus amongus or SCIENCE. SCIENCE is SO fun, my mom loved it lol. for the 311 connoisseur for sure. the elements are still there with the turntables and the bass but it’s definitely more alt rock imo. also brandon boyd said it made him sad to be lumped in with nu metal bc of all the machismo lmao

i have yet to listen to chocolate starfish bc i cannot sanction fred durst’s buffoonery. rollin’ is great though obviously. there’s a ben stiller shout out in livin’ it up. he also says he’s seen fight club “about 28 times” which i believe

the jane’s addiction pull is insane. in no way is this nu metal. probably influenced some groups wrt funkiness but that’s all i got. also just a sidenote my mom and i saw jane’s addiction like 10 years ago and we realized simultaneously that perry farrell looks like michael douglas as liberace

i was going to say i’m shocked there’s no deftones but i assume white pony or around the fur is on there, ppl just love to say they’re not nu metal bc they’re “good”

[sharpestasp]

Devil's Night Watch: The Crow (1994)

Thank you to @eerian-sadow and @ilyena-sylph for watching with me, even if it was just by discord for the incomparable eerian-sadow!

++

Graeme Revell knocked it out of the park for the OST Ilyena_Sylph: 💯 eeriansadow: YES

I love the kid that played Sarah. She just… she's perfect Ilyena_Sylph: i love Sarah so much

I am VERY glad Eric's introduction as the Crow is SO extensive and long. I know some complain that it is slow in relation to the rest, but… it works so well. Then again, comic book feel of it is perfection to me. eeriansadow: I agree Ilyena_Sylph: i can't imagine it being even a frame shorter. it's just. it's perfect. eeriansadow: — It IS. It's exactly what he needed. And it's an indrawn breath before the madness hits Yeah. And the transition, once the memories play out, into the rock music from the eerie haunting music? +chef kiss+ eeriansadow: So good, yes I just… you feel ALL OF HIS LOVE and his PAIN eeriansadow: nodnod

Still amused that my two roles for Tin-Tin's actors are THIS and Hackers -- where he was a bit Flaming

I love that both The Cure and Nine Inch Nails limited how often they would play their songs from this movie, despite both being frequently requested.

That is not murder strut. That is VENGEANCE WALKING

Ilyena_Sylph: i adore that they put the lyrics in the proper closed captions.

Ilyena_Sylph: i have such a love-hate with the fucking pawnshop owner and Tin-Tin and how much they despise each other. Ilyena_Sylph: like, it's just enjoyable in a truly bizarre way. Ilyena_Sylph: and gods, his sheer physical power.

I love the fight with Tin-Tin for showing how he is learning his abilities. I totally think "it's all in the reflexes" when he catches the knife.

Top Dollar and his sister are CREEPY. And I love it. Ilyena_Sylph: they are and it's gloriously terrible. Michael Wincott is still so pretty here.

Brandon Lee wasn't actually on the short list for the role. Lee himself convinced O'Barr. And then helped shape the final film creatively.

Torres is such a DICK.

Super strength, nigh-invulnerability, speed, animal senses, post-cognition…

Ilyena_Sylph: "jolly pirate nicknames!" "Is that gasoline I smell?" Creator cameo! (looter taking the TV)

Was it just me, or was there some Looks going on between Myca and T-Bird? Ilyena_Sylph: such a delightful little meeting there. Ilyena_Sylph: there were some interesting looks, for sure.

OH ERIC Touching her was SO HARD for his mind. Ilyena_Sylph: and doing anything good.

For those that never looked it up, the lady cop is Annabella. Tony Todd's character is Grange. Neither is named in the movie.

"Stop me if you've heard this one before…" I actually had not heard that joke before this movie, and I love it. I am sad they had to abbreviate the Fun Boy scene. But it works the way they handled it. We didn't actually NEED to see Eric interrogate him, though it served to show for every thing he did that wasn't directly part of the vengeance, it weakened him. (If you don't know, Fun Boy recovers enough before Eric is done to hurt him because of Eric healing Darla's addiction.)

I LOVE Albrecht. "You still have your hat on." Ilyena_Sylph: ACAB, but he tries not to be. Ilyena_Sylph: "Boo." He's what I used to believe cops were supposed to be. People who really wanted to make the world better. A fairy tale, in other words. OH ERIC. Ilyena_Sylph: "nothing is trivial." I LOVE THEIR DYNAMIC. "I thought I'd use your front door."

Now, I've never verified, but the sword Top Dollar uses here is the same blade from The Three Musketeers. I should get a copy of that to verify… Oh Gideon you dug your grave, insulting Myca. Ilyena_Sylph: "for fuck's sake, die, willya?!"

Actual Vinyl. But then, Detroit. Makes sense there would have still been vinyl presses running for the indie scene up there. eeriansadow: Yep

"Drive." Hello Henry Rollins. In the Yugo. Ilyena_Sylph: +giggle+ Coffee in the lap of an ACAB. Ilyena_Sylph: hot coffee to the crotch. Ilyena_Sylph: say what you will about Skank, he's loyal as fuck. crazy little bastard. Yes, he very much is. I love that T-Bird is actually the one that has to endure TERROR before his death. Fun Boy was too high to be really terrified, Tin-Tin didn't last long enough… Skank, yeah, he winds up having to watch the melee, but he ain't all there enough to really feel what T-Bird just did.

Ilyena_Sylph: Grange's 'what the fuuuuuuck' face perched at the edge of the opened grave. INDEED!

Ilyena_Sylph: oh, Darla. Yeah. Side note - Darla is a good character in the TV show.

Ilyena_Sylph: god i hate Torres. Yes, we do. Ilyena_Sylph: racist prick

The story BEHIND the reunion between Sarah and Eric HURTS. Ilyena_Sylph: ?? She filmed this after Brandon's death. Ilyena_Sylph: oH GODS YES "You're not dead, are you" to the CAT Ilyena_Sylph: WELL?! it's a reasonable question! Ilyena_Sylph: given her last 24 hours! And I always though Gabriel was touched by the supernatural because of the events.

The Skank scene with Grange and Top Dollar… Skank's actor played it well.

Sarah and Albrecht coming clean about Eric is so touching. Ilyena_Sylph: 'he can't be my friend because… because i'm alive.'

Thrill Kill Cult's song is so PERFECT for the coming scene. Jeff Imada, legendary stuntman and stunt coordinator. "Devil's night greeting cards." I love how Brandon MOVES. And the kill floor is live. Ilyena_Sylph: YES the change from the techno metal to the eerie music, the almost quiet around the bullets… Ilyena_Sylph: when did you become a shootist, Eric? (talking about Brandon's other roles) - Showdown in Little Tokyo? Or Rapid Fire

What was with the 90s and Helicopter chases over skylines? "So many cops, you'd think they were giving away donuts." Also, ALL the blood on Albrecht's car seat was a really good sign of his power waning. eeriansadow: It was, yes. Good visual storytelling

Sarah sleeping at the graves is just so her. He CAN'T tell her goodbye, because you don't get that chance before you die and can't take it after. And that is a promise she kept, about not taking off the ring, if I remember the second movie right. eeriansadow: I haven't watched the second in a LONG time but I believe you're right I think it gets taken off of her at one point? But. Just like Top Dollar just did to her. eeriansadow: Yeah

Metatextually (as Top Dollar will monologue in a few minutes), Eric's job WASN'T done. But oh he's waning on power. Ilyena_Sylph: but he thought it was Ilyena_Sylph: he didn't know. Yeah.

Albrecht to the RESCUE! Grange going down to Albrecht, when he was the enforcer for Top Dollar, the man behind most of Albrecht's cases, felt good. Ilyena_Sylph: yep And Myca, the mystic, dies at the actual crow's actions. Weather-vane versus sword…. Top Dollar is one of the best amoral villains in cinema. Ilyena_Sylph: and stupid enough to not be able to not gloat. Ilyena_Sylph: and make himself a justified target again. Well, Lawful Evil. He has rules, they're just… fucked up.

"I've been meaning to come to church anyway." And Albrecht pins it all on Top Dollar. Gotta love that.

MY HEART ALWAYS THUMPS SO HARD AT SHELLY COMING FOR ERIC. "For Brandon and Eliza" - yep, there's the tears now. eeriansadow: Yes. I always cry at the dedication

And new to me trivia - Eliza, his fiancée, was his assistant on the movie.

#the crow 1994 #eric draven #officer albrecht #sarah mohr #brandon lee #ernie hudson #holiday movies #devil's night

[sniffanimal]

people talked about Yumi and the Nightmare Painter "predicting" the AI art debacle, and I think that's a completely fair read of it, but I do think you're missing some alternatives if you read it like that and leave it there. (Mild-moderate spoilers)

First and foremost, "can robots make really art" is not a new idea.

So it was merely a timely connection, not groundbreaking, to be pedantic.

That said, I think it's interesting to look at YatNP through the lens of being about Media™️ and capitalism. Specifically like, clickbait/franchise media. And, le gasp! I think this is both nuanced in the text And I honestly don't think this was Brandon Sanderson's intention in the slightest. He's a known Marvel/Star Wars fan and is one of the most prolific fantasy authors out there. But I also don't think he writes stuff just to shit out a book for money, and I think that's part of his intention there.

Let's start with Painter's relationship to art. Painter is someone who draws the same thing every day for work because it gets the job done, then goes home to consume his dramas on TV every day. Sure, he's extremely skilled, but has no desire to continue creating because it doesn't make him any better at his job.

As someone who has done lowbrow underpriced commissions just because they put food on the table, not because content wise I was passionate about it: relatable.

There's something to be said about how his primary focus with art is on utility and consumption. Draw bamboo for work, come home and watch the new show. Rinse repeat. This, combined with the fact that his storyline is the more "modern" one, gives the impression that IRL present day people are flattened by capitalism when it comes to creating art. Furthermore, engagement with art becomes flattened into passive viewing (slightly contrasted with Yumi's experience with the Dramas on TV, how she becomes so passionate about the story).

Now, moving on to Yumi's experience with art. For her, creativity was taught to be narrowly crammed into one medium, but she was able to bring her own passion and creativity into it. Her art is fully about the process of creation (with 1% awe of the stacks). Creating the stacks is what brings the spirits forward (and in Painter's case, the focus and intent of the paintings is what brings the Nightmares forward, though that isn't understood as easily at the beginning). When she is contrasted with the Machine(s), there's this feeling that the machine is creating something blasphemous, as it just shits out the same piece over and over again and gets the spirits attention nonetheless. While this could be read as an indictment of AI art, I think you could also read it as content farms, or artists who create what's popular for attention* and not what they're passionate about, or big budget franchises chasing money and not visions. Make the same cookie-cutter content, get the clicks. Get the clicks, get money. The same energy that drove the Machine (capitalism), is the same energy that shrouded Painter's world in darkness and made his work rote and unfulfilling. You can also see this in the disillusionment he felt upon discovering the Dreamwatch team was entirely built on Nepotism from rich families. Realizing the only people who get to succeed in his field were people who had money to begin with.

Lastly, how they engaged with each other's Mediums of Choice was cool, I think it was fun to see them learn the value in each other's creations despite not understanding them initially.

this was a little all over the place but I just wanted to talk about how while it's easy to say "this is about AI art", I think it's first and foremost about people. And capitalism (I know the AI art debate has a lot to do with anti-capitalism, but I think YatNP's story goes deeper than just 'computers don't make real Art').

What do you think? am I super off-base here, Do I need to go back to Anti-Cappitalism 101 class? Or am I cooking? Is there another interesting read you have on it? Do you want me to talk about my Transgender read of the story?

* Nuance note: yes I know artists draw popular things to get attention so they get a bigger following and therefore money. I'm a freelance artist myself. this isn't negativity directed towards the artists for doing this, it's directed at the fact we have to do it in the first place. Until I stopped full time freelancing and got a stable job, I never realized just how freeing it is to just draw what I'm passionate about instead of trying to draw appealing things for an audience. Getting the freedom to do that felt like Painter's mural of Yumi, something drawn for the sake of art alone and not for an end goal in service to an audience.

#badger rants #yumi and the nightmare painter

[thelovelydoggycatmadi]

me and lions objectively correct mystreet character ranking (not clickbait fr fr)

So let me explain the ranks here a bit and why characters are in certain places:

S Tier: Characters that have a solid foundation or general character arcs that both me and Lion liked they’re story and character was enjoyable from beginning to end.

Lucinda is the only S tier character because she managed to remained both consistent character throughout the show. And while she doesn’t have a general arc that really doesn’t make her character any less likable. She’s just a silly little guy that activates the neurons.

A Tier: characters that we found really strong and compelling but have one really big glaring issue from putting them in S.

Rowan is here simply because he was really enjoyable, a genuine healthy father figure, and was just super cool to watch. His problem: lack of screen time.

Zianna has the same problem as Rowan her importance to the plot overall is also a factor.

Zane and Kc have the problems of both certain parts of there stories leaving us feeling icky. Like Zane becoming an over protective incel that sees aph as an object, or KC’s shipping shrine and canonically being a stalker.

B Tier are characters that we liked but just simply couldn’t peek are interest character wise due to one reason or another.

I’m gonna try and speed run the rest of these so:

Garroth: same problem with Zane but worse his obsession with aph even with or without the inclusion of mcd feels unearned and generally problematic. He’s goofy though and has a solid character arc with his brother

Eric and Terry: goofy and likable but nothing much outside of that also besides Rowan they are the only good parental figures in the show. (Eric is higher because he has more screen time)

Daniel: he’s voiced by ross has an interesting character concept, he’s the only werewolf character that didn’t frustrate me personally at some point. He’s just not all that important.

vlyad teony and GF captain: all interesting characters that weren’t in the show enough.

blaze: making in here on charm and charisma alone. (Also because our friend June fell in love with him, you can imagine his reaction to season 6.)

Brandon: mainly here because Lion said so.

C tier is mostly for the meh characters that we didn’t feel super strongly about for the most part.

Travis: didn’t have a decent enough character or story to really make us care in anyway. While pm seymour gave it their all it wasn’t really enough to keep us engaged.

Laurence: he has like one or two really good moments. And some laughs. Didn’t keep me or him engaged, especially after he just vanished.

from Ivy to kai: all these characters have really likable personalities and stories but they all generally had the one thing in common where they just weren’t in the show enough or there character took a direction we agreed wasn’t all that good or interesting.

Ivan: he serves his purpose as a one off villain. That’s all.

White haired girl: she just exist for a bump in the road in Aarmau.

Aphmau: none of her arcs are interesting, her personality isn’t consistent and when Jess does stick to a personality for her it’s generally not that likable.

D Tier: where hitting characters that both of us generally felt were lacking or straight up didn’t like.

Sylvanna: this may shock some of you but I’m going to be brutally honest, half of the reason y’all like her is because you HC her as being overprotective because Aaron is a groomer. Now let me be clear that’s not a problem, however that doesn’t change the fact in the actual show, it’s written more like an emotional incest situation. If Aaron being a groomer was “played straight” as it were she’d be much higher. But the canon reason of her overprotective (at least the reason were given initially) is that Aaron does a better job at taking care of Aph. It’s not because she actually fears Aph is in danger as we come to learn. It leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth.

Nicole: didn’t like that Dante was the one punished for their break up. They even mention later that she was being unreasonable. But Dante was at fault don’t get me wrong. But she also wasn’t in the show a hole lot and from what we see of her, just didn’t stick out to us.

Michi: plot device in character form, she could’ve been so much better if her character wasn’t watered down to “Aarmau Speed Bump”

From Kacey to Nekoette: all characters that felt shoved in for plot purposes and didn’t have enough personality to make up for it. They all range of for being added for stupid reasons like another conflict or fan-service. Some of these are even combinations of those reasons plus they just have some really unlikable moments that rubbed us the wrong way or even worse did not help the plot at all by being there.

Katelyn: I’ve made it extremely clear I don’t like this character and she’s at the very bottom because I believe her offenses are worse than most characters before but don’t deserve hell tier. She technically “works through” her fantasy racism and other problems just not in a compelling or even satisfying way. Even her reasons just didn’t justify her actions for us.

HELL: characters that did morally deplorable things therefore we did not like them on principal. ONTOP of being poorly written because in this series they go hand in hand.

Rachel gaslit her son and told Melissa to get Aaron home by any means necessary and that was implied to be the blackmail Melissa got from Michi. She generally invaded his privacy and almost ruined her son and an innocent girls relationship because of toxic traditional family values. (I believe she would’ve done this with or without the ultima curse, remember, that all what I just wrote was something written before that was even conceived.) and then does a 180 when season 5 hits. We all laughed and played crab rave when she was publicly executed.

Elizabeth abandoned her kids don’t care if that part wasn’t her fault because she was sealed away because again that was written before season 4-5 (we also see Zack abandoning his kid so like it’s implied she did it before she was sealed away anyway.) Also allowed a literal demon to do experiment a on her daughter. She doesn’t get any satisfying conclusion to her villain arc and she’s part of the post credit cliffhanger.

Zack cheated on his wife and abandoned his child after experimenting on her and was Michaels right hand only to grow a conscious after the literal child abuser tells him to produce a spine. Was not in the show enough to be a “I love to hate” kinda character.

Garte and Derek are both on the list for basically the same reason neither of there characters end in a satisfying way. Dereks just worse because he directly abused Aaron verbally.

Emmalyn is here because me and Lion took her as a stand in for ghost sense they are the same character. And she SA’s Zane. Ghost also confuses the plot heavily. And made the story so hard to follow in season 6. She actively makes both the story worse both inside and out.

Ein stalked and mind controlled multiple characters and was both indirectly and directly responsible for multiple innocent peoples deaths. There’s more you could say about him but he’s just not a compelling villain. His plans are not his own, the plans he does come up with only work by chance. He’s basically if you took Michi and cranked her up to 11.

Micheal is a really bad uncompelling villain outside of MCD besides killing people and world domination or whatever. He does nothing interesting with the time he’s given.

Balto and Aaron are both different flavors of pedos. Balto tries ask aph to prom, like even if bruh was just doing it for power; what the fuck. Even if was compelling he wouldn’t be any higher.

Gene is also a pedophile and gets Ein to take pictures of her when he graduates college, which is a shame because he actually does have a compelling story but because of how problematic his flaw is we couldn’t rank him any higher.

Aaron has been talked to death about so I won’t repeat what’s been said a hundred times over. But pedophillia, mass genocide, and a general inconsistent characterization is everyone’s main problem.

Ace: Our friend Ace was in call with us, we gave her one chance to save a character from a lower tier.

Melissa: originally in hell tier for enabling her parents and taking black mail from Michi, and just not having a spine when it came to the abuse of Aaron and that part of her character being sweated under the rug as she hardly had any consequences for gaslighting him. Even going so far to say they’ve changed and have gotten better when they clearly had not. Emotionally manipulating him at almost any chance she had. The reason why she rescued her and not her other choice Aphmau is because Ace is a lesbian.

#aphmau #mystreet #mcd #aphblr #minecraft diaries #aphverse #zane ro'meave #garroth ro’meave #laurence zvhal #mystreet laurence #aaron lycan #derek lycan #aphmau slander #aphmau rant #melissa lycan #kawaii-chan #nana ashida