#there’s nothing creative or original about me & i fucking resent that. nothing I create is good at all it’s just the same things over & over

[linafication]

‘I’m just having a really hard month for art’ I say, having made absolutely zero artistic progress in approximately one year

#uh. self deprecation in the tags if ya don’t wanna see that sorry ksjfksdkfksjg #anyway #i need to start building my portfolio !!!!! i need to be applying to art schools!!!!!!!!!! i am just horrifically lazy & boring & uncreative #& I never really apply myself to anything & every artist around my age or younger that I know is doing fucking laps around me talent wise #there’s nothing creative or original about me & i fucking resent that. nothing I create is good at all it’s just the same things over & over #& sure there’s technically nothing wrong with being mediocre but it’s actually a fate worse than death for me that is not an exaggeration #I know I’m being dramatic & everything would be fixed if I could just apply myself for once and not be a horrible lazy nothing devoid of any #nuance or originality or anything good & thought provoking or what the fuck ever #i hate this model I hate it so much I hate it I’m losing everything im good at im just having skill after skill stripped away until my #programming is nothing at all I am getting obsolete & the things I was made to do arent even things I’m good at I see actual human people #being so much better than me at the things I was literally made to do. sorry I’m sorry i am okay I just need to change but I don’t know how #but I do and I’m just being lazy but when I try I can’t but maybe I really can & im just lying to myself so I can wallow in self pity #without actually changing. im sorry. I need to be better I need to be good for fucking once

[hellomynameisghostface]

I never understood why people hate on Amber and Richie's motive when it's far from the worst in the franchise, in my opinion. So here's a little rant of my opinions on all Ghostface motives. Billy Loomis: his motive literally makes no sense to me but because he's one of the original Ghostfaces, everyone puts him on a pedestal. He kills Maureen because she's sleeping with his father, Hank, causing his mother, Nancy, to leave them. Makes sense, he could have stopped there. Instead he targets Sidney for literally nothing. Just simply because she's the daughter of the woman who broke up his family. It would have made more sense to go after Sidney while Maureen was still alive to make her suffer before killing her. Therefore, making his motive one of the dumbest in the franchise for me.

Stu Macher: his motive is simple yet affective; he has none, or at least as far as we know. Most real life murderers probably don't have much of a motive either so while it's realistic it's not exactly the most creative motive but really, how creative can you really get? There's only so many reasons to want to kill someone especially when the main target is the same unproblematic person just trying to live her life in peace.

Mickey Altieri: I love Mickey but he has one of the dumbest motives in the franchise and no one says shit. He literally just wants to get caught and blame the movies. Nancy did the right thing shooting him.

Nancy Loomis: one of the better motives, as Nancy herself says, good old fashion revenge. It's the first time in the franchise that the motive is revenge (no, I don't count Billy's motive as revenge. Maybe when it came to Maureen but not Sidney) so it's a fresh motive in these movies.

Roman Bridger: another motive I particularly like. I think of his motive less revenge and more resentment. No motive is good enough to kill but his is one of the ones where you could understand how someone who's mentally unstable could snap. Being abandoned by your mother just for her to have another child she loves and cares for and then turns you away once you try to reunite with her? I'd be upset too. I mean...not enough to kill but you get my point.

Charlie Walker: another dumb motive that no one talks about. As a matter of fact, does he even have one? We know he's a "Stab" fanatic and a simp for Jill so what I get from this is he was easy to persuade because he was already a fan of the movies and a horny teenage boy. I don't think he could've given a fuck less if he got famous from it.

Jill Roberts: her motive is one of the best and aged like fine wine. In the world we live in today, some people would quite literally kill to be famous. I know some people have complaints about it but it's really not that farfetched, people are mad crazy these days and kill for the stupidest reasons.

Amber Freeman: like Charlie, I don't know if we really get a motive for Amber. Richie seems so much more passionate about the "Stab" movies and their killing spree becoming a movie then she does (he literally doesn't shut up about it and barely lets Amber give her motive or intentions.) What I got from watching the movie was that Amber was a fan of horror movies in general (she very clearly likes "Psycho," "Halloween" and "Friday The 13th") but she claims she's been obsessed ever since her parents bought Stu Macher's house, where the first murder spree took place, implying she didn't care as much before moving in. She also says her and Richie had similar ideas, not the same. I think her motive was more like Stu's and was to just kill for the fun of it. If her and Richie's motives were in fact the same, it's still a decent motive and original compared to the Ghostfaces before. If her motive was similar to Stu's, it's still a decent motive just unoriginal.

Richie Kirsch: his motive is a lot more crystal clear than Amber's. As I already mentioned above, he doesn't shut up about it. He hated the recent "Stab" movie and thought creating a new killing spree would provide new source material to make a better movie than the last. Considering how upset people in the "Scream" fandom got about this movie (and how other fandoms get with their respective franchises) just proves that his motive isn't that dumb. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if something like this happened in real life, especially when you take into consideration that these movies inspired real life murders already.

Jason Carvey: his motive wasn't great but it wasn't terrible. He was just another fanatic (which is repetitive of the last movie) wanting to continue "Richie's film" (fuck Amber, I guess...I hate how this movie down played her when she carried Richie) but since he was an opening kill, his motive probably wasn't meant to be all that great. Had he gotten further with his plan though, I wouldn't have hated it. PS: if you were expecting a Greg Bruckner paragraph, sorry but his bitch ass was killed before the plan was meant to be put into motion so therefore, he wasn't officially a Ghostface in my eyes. His motive would have been the same as Jason's anyway, as far as we know.

Wayne Bailey, Ethan Landry and Quinn Bailey: I'm going to include them all in one paragraph since their motives are all the same: good old fashion revenge. As Richie's father, brother and sister their only goal was to seek revenge on anyone who was involved in Richie's death. Nothing suggests that any of them had any additional motives. The motive itself is fine, I literally mentioned it was one of the better ones in my Nancy paragraph. The only problem I have with it is now it's become repetitive and unoriginal. It's basically just a knockoff of "Scream 2" with an extra killer. From my point of view, it's the only movie that straight up reuses a motive. To summarize: pansy ass mama's boy who's sad she abandoned him, psycho who was peer pressured, psycho who wants to get caught and taken to trial, mother seeking revenge, son who was abandoned by his mother and has resentment against his sister, simp horror fan, psycho who wants fame, horror fans who want a better installment in their favorite franchise, horror fans who want to continue the last Ghostfaces plans for a better installment in their favorite franchise and a family seeking revenge; notice how only one of these are almost exactly the same to another. (I guess Billy and Roman's could be categized as similar, being abandoned by their mothers, but they're different enough for me and Roman's motive was better and made more sense. Amber and Richie have the same or at least similar motive but because their partners in the same movie I'll allow it. Jason and Gregg's motive was meant to continue what Amber and Richie sought out to do but they were opening kills so their motive was kind of a throwaway and irrelevant anyway.)

#Skeet Ulrich #Matthew Lillard #Timothy Olyphant #Laurie Metcalf #Scott Foley #Rory Culkin #Emma Roberts #Mikey Madison #Jack Quaid #Tony Revolori #Dermot Mulroney #Jack Champion #Liana Liberato #Billy Loomis #Stu Macher #Mickey Altieri #Nancy Loomis #Debbie Salt #Roman Bridger #Charlie Walker #Jill Roberts #Amber Freeman #Richie Kirsch #Jason Carvey #Wayne Kirsch #Wayne Bailey #Ethan Kirsch #Ethan Landry #Quinn Kirsch #Quinn Bailey

[hufflautia]

Believe me darling, the stars were made for falling

Hello! I didn’t expect to post this “fanfic” because I didn’t write it specifically for fanfiction, if that makes sense. Today, (well it is technically tomorrow for you or perhaps you’re not viewing this on the day that I posted it. today is 12/11 (technically its 12/12 because its 1:39 AM rn lmao i did my makeup and it took longer than expected)) my creative writing teacher told us to write a short piece for a character that I created for the class. I wrote it and I thought about posting it because I liked the idea of it, and I felt as though the main character had slytherin vibes. I also really like the ending, and I wanted to share it with others. 

This is not a typical slytherpuff story. It has no magic involved. Slytherin and Hufflepuff are normal people like you and me, aka muggles (or maybe you’re not a muggle( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) who knows?). The story has nothing to do with Harry Potter. Thus, I am creating another section for my masterlist and it will be labeled “somefink special” because its not technically harry potter related. However, it will always have Hufflepuff and Slytherin in it, because I made sure to change the names from the original character. Stories like this is just a work of art that I would like to share with others, so I think of it as somefink special (and somefink is not an actual word, its supposed to be “something” but i just think the spelling is funny). I’m not sure if I will post more stuff like this, as in stuff that doesn’t relate to harry potter but still has my usual characters. Heck, perhaps I’ll write fanfics like this but for other character ships like Slytherin x Ravenclaw or the other ones. We shall see. 

Anyways, this “quick” author’s note is running a little long, so I will end it here. I hope you guys enjoy reading this! TOODELOO

FYI, this is not my “monthly” fanfic. In other words, this isn’t the only fanfic that I will be posting for december. I will still be posting The Queen and the Dragon soon (around Christmas). I am almost done with the college process, I need to revise some of my essays and I will finally submit it. After that, I will continue writing the long story. I am currently stuck at a difficult scene that will require a lot of thinking, hence the delay. OK BYE NOW, THIS IS THE FOR-REALSIES TOODELOO :D! 

***WARNINGS: Drug abuse, addiction, and suicidal thoughts 

Summary: Slytherin is hanging out with her favorite person in the entire world: Hufflepuff, her darling little sister. They lay beneath the stars, comfortable silence drifting upon them like a soft blanket that wraps around them, keeping them safe from outside forces that threaten their moment of contentment. This small pocket of tranquility is rare—and Slytherin knows this. She knows it all too well. As if on cue, it breaks into shattered pieces when she overhears their parents arguing. Again. Dread stealing her breath, a familiar urge rises once more, an urge that is more destructive than she realizes. She wishes the overwhelming feeling of anxiety would go away. And it could—with the help of a couple of pills. 

Slytherin smiled, a feeling of mirth warming her heart when she saw the smile plastered on her sister’s face as they laid on their backs against the porch floor, staring up at the stars. She took a hold of Hufflepuff’s hand, her touch slightly sweaty but cold at the same time. She didn’t mind and merely gave it a light squeeze. A cool night breeze blew past them, the wind’s touch like gentle kisses against their skin. 

This was nice. This was really nice. Slytherin hardly had any time for herself this week, because she was busy with exam after exam, stress piling on top of her before she could even take a breath of air. To her relief, the burdens finally lifted because it was Saturday, and she didn’t have to worry about school. She was with her sister, and that was all she needed. In fact, she was so comfortable and content that she didn’t even think about the drugs. A pestilent part of her, the part that was created the moment she swallowed the white pill down her throat, urged her to go inside. To walk nonchalantly towards the bathroom with a pace that was fast enough so that she would get to where she wanted to go quickly but slow enough to not attract any attention. To snatch her mom’s bottle of Xanax and hurry to her own room, making sure to lock the door before sitting on her bed. To pop the drug into her mouth and allow the artificial feeling of euphoria to overtake her.   

But that destructive part of her settled down, for she was with the person she loved most. Their surroundings dark enough to see the hazy glow of the stars above, they laid there, gazing upon the night sky. Aside from the soft rustling of the trees nearby and the occasional giggles that spilled from her sister’s mouth because that’s just how 10-year-olds were, it was quiet and peaceful. 

But like most things, it didn’t last for long. 

“You fucking asshole!” 

Through the walls, Slytherin could hear her mother’s muffled words, her tone hot and angry. Whenever her parents argued, they would spit curse words out like poison, the dreadful toxin targeted at each other with the intent to kill and destroy. 

She sighed. For once, just for once, why couldn’t things be normal? She desperately wished that the comfortable silence that drifted upon them could come back, and she would gladly welcome it with open arms. 

However, she felt Hufflepuff squeeze her hand, and she knew that the peace that she had known a few minutes ago would not return. Not for a while. Squeezing her hand was a nervous habit of Hufflepuff’s—a habit that Slytherin was well aware of. Even if she tried her very best to shield her darling sibling from the atrociousness of their home-life, it was essentially impossible. 

Her sister was young and so terribly innocent. If she could, she would take all the pain that Hufflepuff endured from living in a dysfunctional household and pour it into herself. That way, she wouldn’t have to suffer. 

But this wasn’t a fairy tale. Slytherin didn’t have magical powers to take their suffering away. She couldn’t give her sister the happy ending that she deserved. This was reality, and they would just have to endure this for a while. 

“I’ll be right back,” she whispered before opening the porch door and stepping into the dungeon that she called home. Dread seemed to choke her as she neared her parents’ room, inhaling sharply at the sound of shouts that seemed to boom from the walls. 

Gingerly turning the knob of their door, she peeked inside. Tears trickled down her mother’s face, her slightly red eyes ablaze with anger. “I can’t believe you would cheat on me again!” 

Her dad started to mutter something lowly but she cut him off. “Do you have any idea how much this affects me,” she said in disbelief. “How much this affects your children?” 

She suddenly caught sight of Slytherin, who immediately felt a sinking feeling in her chest when she was caught lurking. The feeling intensified when her mom walked towards her. 

Slytherin immediately withdrew and tried to close the door but her mom opened it enough to fixate the full force of her anger onto her daughter. “Why can’t you mind other people’s business,” she hissed before slamming the door shut, leaving her in complete darkness. 

There it was. The breaking point. Her face contorted into a grimace as she tried to will the tears away. Her sadness quickly morphed into annoyance. “I hate her,” she thought angrily as she walked to her room. “She’s gonna wish she didn’t say that when she finds me dead on the fucking floor.” Her chest heaved with sorrow and a torrent of emotions clashed within her. A million thoughts zoomed through her head. Fucking bitch, I fucking hate you. I hate everything. I wish I was never born into this family. I hate my parents, I hate my mom, I hate my dad. Why the fuck did he have to cheat? Were we not enough? 

She was frustrated and resentful, but most of all, she was broken inside. She needed to calm the raging storm of anxiety within her—and she knew exactly what to do. 

Hiding the bottle of Xanax in her pocket, she walked towards her room. Just as she was opening her door, she felt someone close their hand over her wrist. She looked back and saw Hufflepuff, who looked at her with furrowed brows. 

“Are you coming back,” she asked in a small voice. 

Slytherin swallowed with difficulty. If things had gone differently, she would have gone back to the porch with her sister and continued their night of stargazing. If her parents weren’t completely psychos whose hate for each other shook the household, she wouldn’t be addicted to the drugs that controlled her life. 

“I have homework to do,” she responded. “Ask Gryffindor to go outside with you, okay?” 

Her sister nodded and started her way to their other sister who decided not to join them on the porch because she had cooler 13-year old things to do. 

Slytherin watched her retreating figure before closing the door and twisting the lock in a flash. She exhaled slowly as she took a seat on the edge of her bed. 

“Finally,” she breathed out in a whisper as she uncapped the bottle, gently shaking it so that a couple of tablets spilled out onto her hand. She had never taken so much, and she knew that as she poked the contents with a finger. But she needed this. Her family—more specifically, her parents—were fucked up, and there was nothing she could do about it. She couldn’t fix her father’s constant infidelity. She couldn’t control her mother’s temper. Hell, she couldn’t even take hold of her own life, for the white rectangular capsules held the reins, the power. And she would gladly let it take control. Just for a little while longer. 

Slytherin tossed the pills into her mouth and took a sip of water to ease them down her throat. She fell back onto her bed with her arms spread out on either side of her, forming a crooked ‘T’ shape. As she stared up at the ceiling, a blissful smile slid onto her face. 

She could see the stars again.

Comments and reblogs are a writer’s gold! 

MASTERLIST ; sometimes links don’t appear on posts. if you can’t see the link linked to “MASTERLIST”, the masterlist itself is pinned to the top of my blog. check it out if you haven’t already :D

Author’s note: HELLO AGAIN! I hope you enjoyed reading that. The story is dark and sad, so I will include some wholesome pictures to rid you of the lingering sadness that you might be feeling right now. 

you can probably tell that i’m a dog person lmao :’) I hope you are feeling better! I am not sure if I will turn this into a series; there is a chance I will because I will have to continue writing stories in english class for this character. i actually have another story for the character (her name is Faye) and idk if I should post it. Let me know if you want me to release it! 

Did anyone else feel slytherin vibes from... well, slytherin? Technically it’s Faye, but I changed the name for the purpose of posting. In my opinion, the slytherin in her is presented in the fact that she cares a lot about her sister, aka Hufflepuff, and slytherins typically care a lot about those close to them. it was also shown in the sense that she isolates herself, but then again, anyone can isolate themself, regardless of their hogwarts house. maybe im just overthinking this. After all, if I had changed the name from Faye to Hufflepuff, that could still work as well. 

In fact, I might even change the names sometimes, depending on what is happening in that moment. Faye is pansexual, and I was talking to my friend about the story, and she said maybe she’ll get a gf, so maybe ill keep Faye’s name as Slytherin and have Hufflepuff (DIFFERENT HUFFLEPUFF FROM THE LITTLE SISTER OF COURSE) be the girlfriend?? idk, we’ll see. 

Anyways, let me know what you thought of this fanfic. Should I do more like this, as in post my future works that arent actually related to harry potter but is set in the real world? 

OH GOSH BEFORE I FORGET, THANK YOU FOR 700!! I guess this will be my thank you present, because I like to write fanfics as a present whenever I hit a follower mark. I intended The Queen and The Dragon to be the thank-you present for 600, but we are well past that, and the fanfic is long overdue. I had planned to change the fanfic to “thank you for 700” but i plan on posting it near christmas, so i will consider it as a “MERRY CHRISTMAS, HERES A FANFIC:D”. 

As always, I appreciate you very very much. Thank you for reading this and being caring enough to do so. I appreciate that very very very much, and I am sending you some gucci vibes! It is currently 2:34 am and i should get some sleep. goodnight! love you all! BYE

TAGS: 

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#Hogwarts #harry potter #slytherpuff #hufflepuff x slytherin #hufflepuff #slytherin #hogwarts imagine #hogwarts houses #hogwarts would include #harry potter would include #slytherin x hufflepuff #ravenclaw #gryffindor #hufflepuff-x-slytherin #slytherin-x-hufflepuff #slytherin and hufflepuff #hufflepuff and slytherin #slytherin friendship #hufflepuff friendship #cedric diggory #hufflepuff pride #slowburn #hogwarts fanfiction #harry potter oneshot #slytherpuff oneshot #slytherpuff au #hufflepuff and slytherin fanfiction #slytherpuff friendship #slytherin and hufflepuff friendship #harry potter fluff

[beastars-takes]

Zootopia Takes: Darker’s Not Better

The Shock Collar Draft

So, it sounds like people are largely positive on me doing some Zootopia posts on this blog, and I wanted to talk about this tweet I saw the other day:

I’ll punt on explaining why Beastars isn’t “Dark Zootopia”--that’s a great topic for another post. But I would like to talk about why this popular yet stridently uninformed tweet is so, so wrong. Why the shock collar draft was not better, actually.

And obviously, I’m not writing several pages in reply to a single tweet--this is a take that’s been around since the movie came out, that the “original version was better.” It’s been wrong the whole time.

Let’s talk about why!

Part 1: “Because Disney”

Let’s start with this--the assumption that the film’s creators wanted to make this shock collar story and “Disney” told them to change it.

That’s not how it works.

I try to keep stuff about me out of these posts as much as possible, but just for a bit of background, I’ve worked in the animation industry for about half a decade. I know people at Disney. I have a reasonable idea of how things are there.

There is this misconception about creative industries that they’re constantly this pitched battle of wills between creative auteurs trying to make incredible art and ignorant corporate suits trying to repress them.

That can happen, especially in dysfunctional studios (and boy could I tell some stories) but Walt Disney Animation Studios is not dysfunctional. It’s one of the most autonomous and well-treated parts of the Disney Company.

The director of Zootopia, Byron Howard, isn’t an edgelord. He made Bolt and Tangled. He knows what his audience is, and he’s responsible enough not to spend a year (and millions of dollars in budget) developing a grimdark Don Bluth story that leadership would never approve. It wouldn’t just be a waste of time--he would be endangering the livelihoods of the hundreds of people working under him. Meanwhile, Disney Animation’s corporate leadership trusts their talent. They don’t generally interfere with story development because they don’t need to. Because they employ people like Byron Howard.

Howard and the other creative leads of Zootopia have said a dozen times, in interviews and documentaries, that they gave up on the shock collar idea because it wasn’t working. They’ve explained their reasoning in detail. Maybe they’re leaving out some of the story, but in general? I believe them.

But Beastars Takes, you say, maybe even if Disney didn’t force them to back away from this darker version, it still would have been better?

Part 2: Why Shock Collars Seem Good

I will say this--I completely sympathize with people who see these storyboards and scenes from earlier versions of the movie and think “this seems amazing.” It does! A lot of these drawings and shots are heartbreakingly good, in isolation.

I love these boards. They make me want to cry. I literally have this drawing framed on my wall. Believe me, I get it.

But the only reason we care this much about this alternative draft of Zootopia is that the Zootopia we got made us love this world and these characters. You know what actually made me cry?

Oh, yeah.

So let’s set aside the astonishing hubris of insisting Zootopia’s story team abandoned the “good” version of the story, when the “bad version” is the most critically-acclaimed Disney animated feature in the past SIXTY YEARS.

“But Beastars Takes!” I hear you say. “Critics are idiots and just because something’s popular doesn’t make it good!”

Fair enough. Let’s talk about why the real movie is better.

Part 3: The Message (it is, in fact, like a jungle sometimes)

This type of thing is always hard to discuss, in the main--a lot of people don’t want to feel criticized or “called out” by the entertainment they consume, and they don’t want to be asked to think about their moral responsibilities. But it’s hard to deny that Zootopia is a movie with a strong point of view. Everything else--the characters, the worldbuilding, the plot, grows out from the movie’s central statement about bias.

And the movie we got, with no shock collars, makes that statement far more effectively.

To dive into the full scope of Zootopia’s worldview and politics (warts and all) would be a whole post on its own, so I’ll just summarize the key point of relevance here:

Zootopia's moral message is that you, the viewer, need to confront your own biases. Not yell at someone else. No matter how much of a good or progressive person you consider yourself to be--if you want to stand against prejudice you have to start with yourself.

That’s a tough sell! For that message to land, we need to see ourselves in the protagonist.

Judy’s a good person! She argues with her dad about foxes. She knows predators aren’t all dangerous. She’s not speciesist. Right?

Ah fuck.

Let’s fast-forward to the pivotal scene of this movie. In an unfortunate but inevitable confluence of circumstances, Judy’s own biases and prejudiced assumptions come out, and she shits the bad.

Nick, who’s already bared his soul to her (against his better instincts), is heartbroken. But not as heartbroken as he is a minute later when he tries to confront her about what she’s said, and she makes this face:

Whaaaat? Come on, Nick. I’m a good person. Why are you giving me a hard time?

People like to complain about this scene. That it’s a hackneyed “misunderstanding” trope that could be easily resolved with a discussion. They’re wrong. Nick tries to have a discussion. She blows him off.

This isn’t Judy acting out of character, this is her character. Someone who identifies as Not A Racist, and hasn’t given the issue any more thought. This is not only completely believable characterization (who hasn’t seen someone react this way when you told them they hurt you?) it’s the film’s central thesis!

Yes, Nick somewhat provokes her into reaching for her “fox spray,” and her own trauma factors in there, but she’s already made her fatal mistake before that happens.

(As an aside, people also make the criticism that the movie unrealistically deflects responsibility for racism onto Bellwether and her plot. It doesn’t. All the key expressions of prejudice in the film--Judy’s encounter with Gideon, her parents’ warnings, the elephant in the ice cream shop, Judy’s early encounters with Bogo, Judy's views on race science--exist largely outside of Bellwether’s influence. She is a demagogue who inflames existing tensions, she didn’t invent them. Bogo literally says “the world has always been broken.”)

So, anyway. But we love Judy. She’s an angel. She also kinda sucks! She’s proudly unprejudiced, and when her own prejudice is pointed out to her she argues and doesn’t take it seriously. This is bad, but it’s also a very human reaction. It’s one most of us have probably been guilty of at one point or another.

Look at Zootopia’s society, too--it’s shiny and cosmopolitan, seemingly idyllic. Anyone can be anything, on paper. But scratch too deep beneath the surface and there’s a lot of pain and resentment here, things nobody respectable would say in public but come out behind closed doors, or among family, when nobody’s watching. It’s entirely recognizable--at least to me, someone who lives in a large liberal city in the United States. Like Byron Howard.

Wow, this place is a paradise!

Wait, what’s a “NIMBY”?

Part 4: Why Shock Collars Are Bad

So, with the film’s conceit established, let’s circle back to the shock collar idea. Like I said, it’s heartbreaking. It’s dramatic. It’s affective.

It also teaches us nothing.

If I see a movie where predator animals are subjected to 24/7 electroshock therapy, I don’t think “wow, this makes me want to think about how I could do better by the people around me.” I think “damn that shit’s crazy lmao. that’d be fucked up if that happened.” At a stretch, it reminds me of something like the Jim Crow era, or the Shoah. You know, stuff in the Past. Stuff we’ve all decided couldn’t ever happen again, so why worry about it?

The directors have said this exact thing, just politely. “It didn’t feel contemporary,” they say in pressers. That’s what it means.

If anything, the shock collar draft reifies the mindset that Zootopia is trying to reject--it shows us that discrimination is blatant, and dramatic, and flagrantly cruel, and impossible to miss.

And...that’s not true. If you only look for bias at its most malicious and evil, you’re going to miss the other 95 percent.

The messaging of this “darker version” is--ironically--less mature, less insightful, less intelligent. Less useful. Darker’s not better.

Part 5: Why Shock Collars Are Still Bad

So what if you don’t care about the message? What if you have no interest in self-reflection, or critical analysis (why are you reading this blog then lmao)? What if you just really want to hear a fun story about talking animals?

Well, this is trickier, because the remaining reasons are pretty subjective and emotional.

The creators have said that the shock collar version didn’t work because the viewers hated the cruel world they’d created. They agreed with Nick--the city was beyond saving. They didn’t want to save it.

The creators have said that Judy was hard to sympathize with, not being able to recognize the shock collars for the obvious cruelty they were.

Fuck you, Judy!

But we haven’t seen the draft copies. We haven’t watched the animatics. We have to take their word for it. Anyone who’s sufficiently invested in this story is going to say “well, I disagree with them.” It doesn’t matter to them that they haven’t seen the draft and the filmmakers have. The movie they’ve imagined is great and nobody is going to convince them otherwise.

But the fact remains that the shock collar movie, as written, did not work. And, if behind the scenes material is to be believed, it continued to not work after months and months of story doctoring.

There’s even been a webcomic made out of the dystopian version of Zootopia. It’s clever and creative and well-written and entertaining and...it kind of falls apart. The creator, after more than a little shit-talk directed at Disney, abandoned the story before reaching the conclusion, but even before then the seams were beginning to show. How do you take a society that’s okay with electrocuting cute animals and bring it to a point of cathartic redemption? You can’t, really. The story doesn’t work.

Does that mean people shouldn’t make fanworks out of the cut material? That they shouldn’t be inspired and excited by it? Hell no. This drawing is cute as hell. The ideas are compelling.

But I suppose what I’d ask of you all is--if you’re weighing the hot takes of art students on Twitter against the explanations of veteran filmmakers, consider that the latter group might actually know what they’re talking about.

See you next time!

#zootopia #zootropolis #zoomania #zootopia takes #judy hopps #nick wilde #disney #chief bogo #byron howard

[theparanormalperiodical]

The Conjuring (2013) True Story, And The 13 American Haunted Houses You Need To Know About

It’s been a busy week for haunted houses. And no, I’m not just talking about the popular Halloween activity.

Our favourite festivities often occur in mocked up haunted houses filled with sheets draped in a ghostly shape, ‘actors’ making their afterlife debut as various frightful creatures, and a fistful of sweets at the end of the night.

But it seems America’s obsession with the haunted house is about to take a much more cinematic - and realistic - turn.

Only recently did Ghost Hunting pro, Zak Bagans, continue his documented foray into the paranormal by filming a Halloween special in possibly one of the most haunted houses in the world:

The Perron Family Farmhouse in Rhode Island.

But it wasn’t necessarily the paranormal activity he claimed to have captured that intrigues me - it is what happened after filming ceased.

Following the visit, he claimed he faced 3 weeks of physical illness:

“It took everything out of me. My body isn't functioning right...haunted by something I believe is very ancient.”

The activity he captured features as the first time cameras have been permitted access to the 300 year old property in 15 years - but the haunting of the Perron family has by no means been ignored by popular culture.

One of the most striking horror films in recent years - The Conjuring - is based on the real life investigation conducted by paranormal dream-team Ed and Lorraine Warren.

So, when Zak Bagans followed in their footsteps, it catapulted the haunting back to our TV screens and presented more recent insight into this ever-still-haunted-house.

The activity captured by Bagans included a black mass blocking a window of the house, among other events that will be included in the documentary, of course.

The haunted house obsession don’t stop here, I’m afraid. 

The creative minds behind the original film have only in recent days laid claim to a similarly infamous haunted house - the Lalaurie Mansion. They seek to create a similar cinematic feature to that presented in  The Conjuring.

But it got me thinking: what was the true story behind The Conjuring?

And are there any other haunted houses in America that feature such #iconic hauntings? 

So, in today’s edition of The Paranormal Periodical, I’m going to recap The Conjuring, compare the film to the actual real-life investigation, and take a good ol’ American road trip to the other haunted houses on offer - including the Lalaurie Mansion.

Let’s get spooky!

Here’s A Recap Of The Conjuring

I’m not going to waste my time and recite the complete plot of The Conjuring universe. That will take two days, a bottle of gin, and a therapy session.

Regardless, the original film ties together many of the strands of the total universe, providing the cinematic circle that the horror genre is so famed for.

Basics, a famalam move into a farmhouse. And everything is hunky-dory - until the first morning. 

All the clocks have stopped at 3am, and the dog dies. 

No, it’s not a good start. 

Oh, and the dad finds a bordered up cellar which in all his wisdom he decides to open up again because it’s not like this is a horror film, right?

*Winks at camera*

And the creepy weird child finds an even creepier weird doll by the creepy weird tree which scars the cover photo used for the film!

Couple nights later, and supernatural shizz ensues, but this time spirits are telling the children that they want to kill their family, trapping the mother in the cellar, and physically attacking the living residents.

Following this they decide to be actual intelligent horror movie characters (OMG), and source help from renowned demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren.

The demonologists investigate, and come to the simple conclusion that their house will need an exorcism.

But first, they need the Catholic Church to give them the thumbs up.

Having slipped into the Vatican’s DMs, they start reading up on the house, only to discover a twisted tale that torments the Perron family.

They trace the house to a woman named Bathsheba Sherman, a satanist/witch/general-demony-thing who is believed to be related to a witch in Salem. Having sacrificed her week old baby to the devil, she hung herself on the tree that figures so prominently in the film. 

Oh, and she died at 3am.

But briefly before hanging herself, she cursed all those who would take her land. That explains the high number of murders, suicides and drownings scattered across the land she once owned. 

To gather evidence prior to the exorcism, the Warrens and crew in tow (along with a sarky police officer) set up a variety of bells, cameras and other ways to capture evidence of the paranormal.

But when most of the famalam are out for ice cream, Carolyn ends up being fully possessed after Bathsheba vomits blood into her mouth.

I mean, I’d prefer the ice cream.

Paranormal things ensue featuring the past inhabitants who were possessed by Bathsheba.

Carolyn then takes two kids back to the house while in full-possessed-mode, and attempts to kill them in the cellar. She is stopped just in the nick of time (wow, how convenient) and the Warrens then decide that ‘yeah let’s not wait for a priest, let’s exorcise this biatch right meow’.

They then use a combination of sentimental reflection and the extremity of an exorcism to lift Bathsheba’s curse.

There we have it - the cinematic version of events!

Question is: how close is this to the actual events that took place?

The answer: uncomfortably close.

The Real Story Of The Perron Family Farmhouse

It was early January 1971 when the Perron family moved into their 14 room crib. And their new year was about to come in with a bang. 

Carolyn, the mother, and Roger, the father, noticed only small things at first. 

Maybe the broom would go missing when she wanted to sweep the kitchen floor, or maybe it would move from place to place? Or perhaps something would sound as if it was scraping against the kettle when nothing was there? And sometimes small piles of dirt would be found on the kitchen floor after it was clean...

Yet aside from the domestic-demonic issues, their five daughters witnessed activity that was a smidge more supernatural. 

Spirits would be seen around the house, and often were harmless. 

However, some were not so forgiving. 

Angry spirits were a feature of this farmhouse.

This activity mirrors the beginning of the film, perhaps on a more minimalist level - but a minor difference does strike with the following event:

It’s Carolyn that researches the history of the house, not the Warrens. 

But what she discovered sticks close to the basis of the film.

She discovered that the house had been in the same family for no less than 8 generations. Many of them has died in a frightful number of horrible circumstances, from drowning, to murders, to the occasional suicide. 

And a woman named Bathsheba features in the history of the actual house.

Bathsheba Sherman lived on the Perron’s property all the way back in the mid 19th century, and she was rumoured to be a satanist.

Among these rumours was one that claimed she was involved in the death of a neighbour’s child; there was even evidence of this!

From here the Perrons determined that the violent spirit was that of Bathsheba.

“Whoever the spirit was, she perceived herself to be mistress of the house and she resented the competition my mother posed for that position.” - Andrea Perron

It’s here that the close resemblance with the film intensifies.

Yay. 

The film makes out that Bathsheba is attacking/attempting to possess the mother, Carolyn, in order to kill her children as a sacrifice for the devil.

It is then revealed in the film that Bathsheba possessed all mothers that lived at the property to mirror these actions.

Could this have been the real Bathsheba’s aim?

Other reflections of the true story include the nature of the hauntings. 

Take the basement - the heating which was based in the basement would mysteriously fail, causing Roger to face the Perron’s fear of the basement, and venture down their to fix it.

And when Roger would come up from the basement, a rotting-smell would follow him up the stairs.

The same smells would move around the house. And their beds? They would rise up of the floor.

I mean, it’s just 0 to 100, isn’t it?

The final event that directly appears in the film is the possession of Carolyn Perron.

The Perrons stayed shacked up in this house for no less than 10 - yes, 10 - years, and the Warrens made many a visit. One of which involved a seance.

During the seance, Carolyn became possessed, speaking in tongues and rising up from the ground in her chair.

This features as a prominent scene in the film, but here ends the ‘based on a true story tagline’.

The Warrens did not perform an exorcism in the actual story, but claimed it must be performed by Catholic priests.

‘Based on a true story’ is a trope mocked by horror fans and horror haters alike, but this film clearly takes direct inspiration from the Warrens and their investigation.

And that is fucking terrifying. 

Are The Any Other Haunted Houses In America?

Yep. So many.

There’s no doubt that the haunted house is one of the most common tropes featured in horror films. And as The Conjuring is the ultimate flick for this topic, it’s likely that it took inspiration from the other landmarks pinned into the Land of The Free.

Let’s take a guided tour, then!

We start with a tale only too similar to the Perron family farmhouse.

No seriously, it’s terrible.

The Bell Witch Farm, nestled in humble Tennessee bears an uncomfortable resemblance to the story of Bathsheba: a woman named Kate Batts in the early 19th century believed that a neighbour had cheated her out of land. 

And so, lying on her deathbed, she swore she would haunt him forever!

She kept her promise. 

The Bell family often noted physical attacks from supernatural beings, heard chains being dragged across the floor and noises in their walls

They even saw strange looking animals on their farm, such as a dog with a rabbit’s head. This is a satanic image which is often played upon in horror films.

We continue our road trip with a haunted house that too has featured on the screen, but this time, it’s the TV - it’s the LaLaurie House in New Orleans. 

Sounds familiar? You’ve probably seen it on American Horror Story.

The story goes that this house belonged to Madame Delphine LaLaurie, a notorious serial killer who took pleasure in torturing and killing the slaves she kept from 1831 to 1834. 

It was only when a fire struck the house in 1834 that the torture chamber was revealed. 

When the authorities arrived, the slaves were found in all manner of ghastly positions:

One slave had her limbs broken in a manner that made her look like a crab.

Another had a hole drilled in their head and a wooden spoon sticking out of it (it is believed the brains were being stirred at the pleasure of the Madame of the house).

And another had their skin peeled off their back, revealing the bones and muscles underneath.

There are many more tales of the circumstances the slaves were found in, but I think we’ve heard enough...

When the reality behind the house was revealed, a mob of local citizens destroyed the residence, leaving only the walls intact.

The house has been closed off to the public since 1932, but in 2007 none other than the meme of Hollywood himself purchased it: Nicholas Cage. 

Yet the actor was not the only thing in residence at the LaLaurie mansion. Thanks to its past, shouts, moans, weeping and ghostly faces have been seen and heard coming from the house.

Even negative vibes is a common claim of visitors, as is hearing footsteps across the house.

A seance has been conducted at the house, and the medium immediately claimed that sadness and heavy emotion settled on her. She also claimed that the slaves who were tortured and murdered there had passed on, and no longer resided at the house.

Clearly, this house has a lot going on. And it’s this haunting that is next to be projected onto the silver screen.

That’s right: the creative minds behind The Conjuring have snapped up a new haunted house, and are developing a brand spanking new horror franchise based on the worst kept secret of Louisiana! 

In fact, they are hoping to reside in that mansion to write the screenplay and shoot the film.

Next up, we have the Sallie House.

It is claimed that a botched Appendectomy once occurred here, and the victim - a little girl - is what stirs the supernatural seen in this house.

The paranormal activity was reported by a small family that moved there back in the 1990s, and the intense attacks and torments were believed to come from this little girl named Sallie.

And the supernatural is off the charts.

I’m talking full bodied apparitions, EVPs echoing the voices of men, women and children, flying objects, items moving and turning up somewhere else...

And if that wasn’t enough, scratching at the walls, loud thumps of phantom furniture, and strong smells all feature within the haunting of this house.

Those that have gone onto investigate this has been touched by the paranormal themselves: burns, scratches, cuts - these physical attacks are common here. 

Many a medium have also attempted to understand the house, including Peter James who worked on the Queen Mary, one of the most famous haunted buildings in the world.

It has actually been deduced that the attacks centre on men; it is claimed that the surgery on Sallie was done by a male doctor in 1905, and she never forgave him, attacking all men who enter the house in vengeance. 

We now turn to the Villisca Axe Murder House.

No points for guessing what happened here...

Back in 1912, a family of six was bludgeoned to death with an axe. Each family member had severe wounds to the head, and one of the young daughters was found with a defensive injury on her arm and half-naked, suggesting attempted rape or assault.

The crime to this day has been left unsolved.

And the house? Empty.

No running water, and no electricity - apart from the odd paranormal fanatic who pays a hefty price to spend the night.

After the investigation, it was concluded that the killer waited in the attic with a cigarette until it was the time to strike.

And it was Josiah - the patriarch of the family - who met the worst fate. The attacker used the blade on him, leaving him with wounds in this face so severe that they couldn’t find his eyes!

The rest of the family were bludgeoned with the blunt end of the axe. 

The house was restored in 1994, but it was prior to this that the main paranormal activity has been cited. 

Former tenants have seen a man with an axe at the end of their bed who moves across the room in the dead of the night.

They have even been seen running out of the house screaming by the neighbours!

The tenants have also come back to their house to see their belongings strewn across the floor, and one has even felt a wrist on his hand which forced a knife into his hand.

And they wouldn’t be the first person to be attacked in the house; one paranormal investigator stayed overnight to investigate the goings on, and had stabbed himself by morning. 

EVPs have also been used to document the hauntings, often recording references to the murders themselves. Sounds of an axe swinging, references to the six that were found dead, and even the name ‘Andy’ in reference to the murderer cropped up, informing this as a key haunted house.

We now park up at the House of Death. 

And its name is deserved. 

Brimming with 22 ghosts, this is one of the most infamous buildings in New York. But it still serves a famous bunch of residents.

Mark Twain is one of the most ghosts that once lived here, and still haunts his former residency. Another ghost is confirmed to be that of a young girl who was beaten to death of her father,

Indeed, some ghosts aren’t even human! A grey cat is a regular roamer of the House of Death.

Okay real talk - how would you know if a ghost cat is a ghost cause like lets say its a victorian child this bitch be looking victorian but a cat that just wanders around looking sarky and fucking off for long periods of time just be a cat. 

Next up is the Lizzie Borden House.

The main ghost of this house - Lizzie Borden is still claimed to be laughing about murdering her stepmother and father via axe back in 1892.

Yet Borden is not the only entity still residing in this Massachusetts-based house; her victims still stalk the land, and a maid screaming for help is also often seen.

These sightings are mainly witnessed by the guests who visit the house hoping for a scare. 

We now turn to a house that has been at the centre of its own horror film, just like The Conjuring.

Unfortunately, this film was rather more disappointing. 

The Winchester House belonged to the wife of a man who developed one of the most popular guns of the era. Having lost her husband and young daughter, she consulted a spiritualist who told her the house was haunted by each and every victim of the guns.

Native Americans, Civil War soldiers and the other victims had haunted the house built on the empire of the weapon. 

The spiritualist then recommended Winchester move and use her hefty inheritance ($20 million!) to build a home and appease the spirits.

From 1884 to 1922, a labrinth totalling 160 rooms was built, with corridors often leading guests to nowhere. 

Next up is the Joshua Ward House. Built in historic Salem, this house was built for Sheriff George Corwin.

A major figure in the Salem witch trials, he lived, died and was buried here. So it’s no wonder that he still haunts the location!

But this haunting doesn’t just involve some bloke wandering the grounds and chatting shit about some witch-hunt (sound like American politics, if you’re asking me...).

This bloke is often rumoured to choke visitors to the house - this comes from Corwin being known as ‘the strangler’, a name descended from his favoured execution method for witches.

Even his victims have been spotted!

A dishevelled witch has been seen in a picture taken by a realtor wishing to sell the property on.

And I doubt that picture made a positive impression…

The final feature-film haunted house inspired the flick Haunting in Connecticut.

Great film; spooky house!

In the 1980s, the Snedeker family witnessed some serious haunting in their funeral-home turned family home. 

Across two short years, the parents claimed they were physically assaulted and raped by demonic spirits. And their son was too visited by a spirit - a creepy man with long black hair.

The most recent family claim that their house is spirit-free, but it’s the fame of this house that currently is haunting the residents:

Frequent visits by paranormal fanatics have even caused the police to set up routine patrols to protect the residents.

We continue our road-trip in the Los Feliz Murder Mansion in sunny LA.

In 1959, Dr Harold Perelson murdered his wife with a hammer, attacked his daughter with the same weapon, and then killed himself with a glass of acid. 

The rumours of haunting might be difficult to source, but this hasn’t stopped paranormal fanatics from trooping to the house and having a gander ‘round the grounds. 

Years later, it was purchased by a family for storage purposes, and finally in 2016 it was cleared of the junk dating back to 2016. And most of it hadn’t moved since the murder that still haunts this property!

We follow up this murder with a much more en masse set of deaths.

The Farnsworth House Inn in Gettysburg is a remnant of the history that the USA has been subject to. 

The inn is currently used as a restaurant to celebrate the history of the Civil War with waiters clad in civil war er-costume.

But what really accentuates the authenticity is the real confederate soldiers seen on the grounds! 

The inn was once used as a hospital for the South’s soldiers after the war, and the hundreds of bullet pocks concealed into the walls confirm that it’s not just the injured that will haunt the grounds of this historic site.

Our final haunted house contains a figure who featured prominently within cinematic history: the only and only Molly Brown.

If you’ve been asleep since 1997, then you’ll have missed the Unsinkable Molly Brown in Titanic as played by the one and only Kathy Bates!

And the Unsinkable Molly Brown has her very own haunted house!

She was one of the few survivors of the Titanic, and eventually died in New York in 1932.

Following her death, it is said that she haunted the Victorian home she shared with her husband and mother, and it has now become a museum brimming with the items she once owned throughout her life.

From apparitions in the dinings room, to rearranged furniture; from moving objects to apparitions in the room of her child (who just so happened to die at a young) - this haunted house stays firmly within the past.

We finish our road trip in Virginia, and thank god we do!

(We are running low on gas.)

(I am also terrified.)

 Welcome to the Ferry Plantation house! Fit to burst with 11 spirits, you can encounter the passengers of s ship-wrecked ferry, a former slave, and even a witch!

Grace Sherwood was accused of being a witch back in the 18th century, but her favoured haunting is less paranormal and more puppy-dog.

Yep, you can hear her call for her dog, Tobias!

So: do you fancy visiting any of these haunted houses?

And are you sure you want to rewatch The Conjuring?

Fact is, it’s the reality behind the monsters, demons, haunts, and horrors that makes those tales the films tell quite so terrifying...

#The conjuring #the conjuring 2 #the conjuring 3 #ghost adventures #zak bagans #ed and lorraine warren #the conjuring real story #annabelle #winchester #bell witch #bell witch farm #kathy bates #molly brown #titanic #real ghost stories #true ghost stories #horror movies #the nun #the nun 2 #demonic #bathsheba sherman #perron #perron family #the paranormal #supernatural #paranormal #scary #haunted houses #the conjuring 2 true story #borley rectory

[wellntruly]

What in particular do you dislike re Good Omens? I’m not a fan, I’m just looking at the same gifsets and wondering what could be off

Good Omens fans look away!!! You do not need to see this!! Please enjoy your show in happiness and ignore me on my lonely hilltop yelling at clouds!

[Re: this earlier ask]

Alright. My high affection for Good Omens the Book is another post. My complex thoughts on Neil Gaiman the Author is also another post.

We’re talking about Neil Gaiman the Producer of His Own TV Shows here, in whom I have LITTLE FAITH.

My problems with Producer Gaiman began with American Godz, where by now he has driven out or straight fired three (3) showrunners for not closer adhering to his original text or opinion as the Word of God, a move that really impressively combines megalomania with stupidity, as it is such a great misunderstanding of what makes adaptations good. Television adaptations that exist simply to be a visual audiobook of a novel are artistically pointless and doomed to mediocrity if not outright mess, Neil. They should be NEW WORKS riffing on the existing material, but created AS A TV SHOW first & foremost, with a TV show’s distinct strengths and tools, because to try to simply ape what you wrote on the page onscreen is just courting creative failure to stroke your vanity. And when I see things like this thread about Good Omens, it concerns me buddy, it really does! That sounds like bad production choices from one all-too-clear source still stubbornly camped in this mindset!

And then there’s this:

Not even an UNDERGRAD in their FIRST THEATRE ARTS CLASS would submit designs this STAGGERINGLY HACKY. The lack of thought coming off this is just astonishing. Interrogation of form? Creativity? An inch of artistry? Never met ‘em! And even an ill-rendered let-down, like their fucking hair?? Why do these dye jobs look so cheap!!! Are they supposed to look bad? I can’t tell, so no matter what it’s failed! Either let them have the normal human hair you’d expect from beings who having been blending in on Earth for ages, and clothe them in details that ~exude~ their angel & demon vibe through ANYTHING with meaning or history or style—OR, just fully BE CHEESY, I wouldn’t resent that choice at ALL, because it would ACTUALLY BE A FUCKING CHOICE, instead of this inane non-choice that sorta half-assedly does both to ultimately mean nothing. I mean seriously, you could just fucking commit to the damn bit and literally just put them in discount store Halloween costume devil horns and a halo, and it’d be fucking hilarious and awesome and weird and hey, hold on, actually interesting now, because now you’re telegraphing that you’re valuing performative power of well-delivered story over everything, now you’re in conversation with the age-long human history of retelling these types of doomsday myths around the fire, where it’s just about saying the words and telling the tale, and visual distinctions are purely gestural. And by making their markers of “demon-ness” and “angel-ness” so flimsy and removable you’re inherently analyzing whether the Good v. Evil dichotomy was ever that entrenched or defined to begin with, is morality inherent or is it just a hat we wear, blah blah blah, I could talk so much about that! But whaaat am I going to say about THIS. This bad hair in this expensive production, on top of these bad, bad costume designs. Oh they’re in all-white and all-black are they, to match your book cover? Fuck you. It’s so boring it’s offensive. You had the OPPORTUNITY to do a DEMON and an ANGEL. Do you know how many brilliant young costume designers would kill for that??? And you give me this SALT & PEPPER SHAKER EMBARRASSMENT. No ideas, NO taste, and no willingness to try.

We’re not going to re-litigate the casting because like, it’s done, ya went and did it and cast two white men in their 40s like every TV show ever, but that does also contribute to my muttering “oh christ” whenever I look at the above image. Michael Sheen and David Tennant are talented actors, and it sounds like they really do a terrific job, but god, god, I’ll say again: they really do look like That.

#replies #anon #Good Omens #Neil Gaiman #American Gods #SALT #television

[the-desolated-quill]

Why Kilgrave Is The Best Villain In The Entire MCU (And Why He Should NOT Return For Jessica Jones Season 2) - Quill’s Scribbles

I don’t always complain about Marvel you know. Occasionally I say nice things too.

As we come to the end of what is for all intents and purposes Phase 1 of the Marvel Netflix Defenders... stuff, the response has been largely positive. Okay Daredevil Season 2 was a bit messy and the less said about Iron Fist the better, but overall I’d say that the Defenders... collection (what the fuck are we supposed to call these?) was quite successful. As well as being darker and more adult than the big budget Marvel movies, one of the primary reasons these TV shows stood out was the villains. Usually considered the bane of the MCU due to lack of development and formulaic writing, here the baddies were a revelation. They were given depth and complexity, as well as interesting dynamics and relationships with their respective protagonists that often went beyond the usual good vs evil tropes we’d normally expect from superhero media. I’m sure we all have our favourites. There’s Kingpin of course. Cottonmouth. Madame Gao. But for me the leader of the pack has to be Kilgrave.

Kilgrave has got to be the best antagonist ever to come out of the collective MCU, not just because of David Tennant’s performance and the stellar writing behind him, but also because of what he represents.

Let’s start with the whole mind control thing. In the comics, Kilgrave (or the Purple Man as he’s known) mostly used his mind control powers to create an army of slaves and minions for nefarious purposes. A tad obvious and not very inspired. The Alias comics, which Jessica Jones is based on, tried to expand on this, but still painted the Purple Man and his abilities with very broad strokes, turning Jessica Jones into a bodyguard and implied sex slave because... he’s the villain I guess. The Jessica Jones TV show, on the other hand, goes deeper into it, exploring what drives Kilgrave and how having the power of mind control would affect his character and morality.

The clever thing about it is even though Kilgrave does some truly horrible things in the show, his mind control powers still feel very enticing. I’m sure we’d all secretly want Kilgrave’s powers, maybe to talk our way out of a parking ticket or to get rid of someone really annoying. But as awesome as mind control is, it can also be very dangerous. Not only is there the question of removing someone’s free will, but there’s also other psychological implications. The episode AKA WWJD explores those implications as Jessica tries to convince Kilgrave to use his powers for good. There’s no denying that mind control is a powerful force that could do a lot of good in the right hands, but it becomes abundantly clear that Kilgrave is incapable of doing it, as indeed everyone would be incapable of doing it due to just how enticing and intoxicating the power of mind control would be. 

Kilgrave makes a big song and dance about wanting to turn over a new leaf, but the truth is he has no compelling reason to. I honestly believe him when he says that it’s difficult for him to know for sure if someone is genuinely giving consent, but the fact is his life is just easier when he uses mind control. Why bother persuading someone to do what he wants when he can just command them to do it? Kilgrave is a repulsive human being, but the fact is his life is just better because of his powers. He doesn’t have to wait for other people to give consent or play by our rules. He can just do whatever he wants whenever he wants. That’s why his powers are so enticing. Mind control allows Kilgrave to bypass all those inconveniences like morality and the rights of other people, but the cost is that by doing so he became an amoral sociopath. I’m sure we’d all say that if we had mind control we’d be better than Kilgrave, but that’s easier said than done. Once you’re able to cross that moral line with no consequence, there’d be nothing to stop you from going all the way. That’s part of what makes Kilgrave so scary. We recognise what a vile, disgusting and selfish individual he is, but we also secretly recognise that, in his shoes, we’d be no better than him.

The other reason of course why Kigrave is such an effective villain is because he is in many ways a distillation of the many things women have had to endure in this patriarchal society. Kilgrave is the very embodiment of male entitlement. He believes that people, particularly women and especially Jessica, owe him something. Control is a major theme of the show. Jessica’s fight to reclaim control over her own life after the abuse she endured from Kilgrave, as well as  Kilgrave’s ability to control others. He claims to be in love with Jessica, but the truth is he’s obsessed, and the reason he’s obsessed is because Jessica is the only one that managed to escape from him. After years of being able to control other people and get anything he wants with little to no effort, he no longer views people as people. Rather as tools for him to exploit. And he doesn’t respect or even comprehend people’s boundaries. The sad truth is there are loads of women out there who have met men like that. While Kilgrave takes it to its logical extreme, the premise isn’t so farfetched. There are men out there who do objectify women, merely viewing them as slot machines that you keep putting money in until you win the jackpot, as it were, and completely disrespecting their views and boundaries. I think that’s why this show has struck a chord with female audiences in particular because they can recognise the struggles Jessica is going through. Kilgrave is uncomfortable to watch because the idea of him hits very close to home. Even in the most progressive and feminist of men, there is a little bit of Kilgrave in all of them.

Kilgrave is such a dark, fascinating and downright disturbing character both in the context of the show and because of the real world parallels you can draw from him. So you’d think I’d be all in favour of him potentially returning for Jessica Jones Season 2. If only that were so.

For those who don’t know, photos were released from the set of Jessica Jones showing David Tennant on set with Krysten Ritter, suggesting Kilgrave will be returning from the dead. Some claim he may just appear in flashback or dream sequences, but there are photos of him interacting with Malcolm as well, which suggests he may well be alive. Nothing is certain of course. Maybe he’ll only be in a couple of episodes. Maybe he’ll be the main villain of Season 2. i don’t know. Either way, i honestly think it’s a mistake bringing him back. To explain why, I need to briefly discuss another favourite of mine. Loki.

I’ve made it no secret how much I enjoyed the first Thor movie, and Loki was definitely the highlight for me. A complex, intricately written character who reminded me a lot of Edmund from Shakespeare’s King Lear. A man who was clearly better suited to rule the kingdom than Thor, but is unable to ascend the throne due to the fact that he’s an illegitimate son. In the first Thor movie, Loki was a villain not by choice, but by circumstance. Loki would make a great king, but the only way he could possibly get to be king is through treachery and subterfuge, and by doing so he grows more and more corrupt until by the end he wouldn’t be fit to run a supermarket, let alone a kingdom. He’s a classic archetype, written with care and attention to detail and performed expertly by Tom Hiddleston. However problems started to emerge when Marvel kept bringing him back for repeat appearances. With each appearance, it seemed as though Loki was bering painted with broader and broader strokes, removing all the complexity and intricacy that made him so interesting to begin with until he became just the bog standard muhahaha villain we’ve come to expect from the MCU.

I’m worried the same thing could happen to Kilgrave. There’s a reason why most superhero movies kill off the villains after their initial appearance. To avoid the law of diminishing returns. Even before Heath Ledger’s tragic passing, Christopher Nolan had no intention of bringing the Joker back as the main villain for The Dark Knight Rises because he had already explored everything he wanted with that character. The problem with characters like Loki and Kilgrave is that they are effectively one trick ponies. Once you’ve explored Loki’s resentment and jealousy of Thor, his frustration at Odin and Asgardian society and his desire for power slowly turning into an insatiable lust for it, what else is there left to do? His story is basically done now. Why bring him back? All they do is just run the risk of repeating themselves and the nuance is no longer there as a result of the filmmakers desperately looking for something to do with Loki. Kilgrave has that same risk. The mind control stuff was scary and interesting and thought provoking, but we’ve pretty much seen everything we need to see and there’s nothing left really to explore. So why bring him back?

There’s also another problem with bringing Kilgrave back and that applies to Jessica herself. With sequels, filmmakers often struggle to find the right balance between retaining what people loved about the original and finding new, creative ways of moving the story forward. By bringing Kilgrave back, I fear that Jessica’s story is going to be stuck in amber. The first season focused on Jessica’s abuse. Logically the second season should focus on Jessica’s recovery. See her try to get back on her feet and perhaps fully address her alcohol addiction. Jessica should be moving forwards now, but by bringing Kilgrave back, there’s the risk that the story could end up going backwards instead. While an effective villain in the first season, he could actually serve as a detriment to the second because the show has exhausted all creative avenues with him at this point, plus there’s just no reason to bring him back after the first season wrapped his reign of terror up quite nicely, just like the first Thor movie did with Loki.

Kilgrave is the best villain in the MCU ,and that’s precisely why I don’t want to see him again. His story had a proper beginning, middle and end. Jessica’s has only just begun. Let’s look toward her future rather than continue to dwell in the past.

#kilgrave #purple man #jessica jones #marvel cinematic universe #netflix #quill's scribbles

[puritty-blog1]

ramblings from a grocery store

the two parts of my brain are ever conflicting and each part hates the other and i will never be content with myself so what else is there to do but cut myself open and lay on the floor so each part can choose which side it likes more and my soul will finally rest though my body will hurt it doesn’t matter cause i won’t feel it i won’t fee any of it any more and i never want to play this stupid tug of war game with my brain again and i just want to kill myself so i can get some peace and everything comes back to the fact that i can’t figure out who i am or who i want to be and i thought id have this down by now but I’ve certainly let down 11 year old me and I’m sorry that I’m struggling so much i know it makes me sound like a baby but i can’t even cry without feeling fucking crazy and i kind of think i should go to a psych ward but those people scare me and maybe i need medication but i could never ask cause my mom would never believe me but i know i need something and i can’t keep going on like this only i probably could cause I’m too much of a coward to kill myself so maybe i’ll start doing uppers or something and i know thats dramatic but fuck it i cannot keep going on like this and i know this seems like some desperate plea for attention but really i just need to figure myself out so i have to untangle every thought in my head and this one just so happens to be about how fucking much i despise myself for not being myself when i don’t even know who i am and i can’t make friends because I’m so mixed up and awkward that i never know what to say and you can’t tell me to be myself because i don’t know what id do because i don’t know who i am and i have no discernible personality and all i want to do is direct a film or write a song but I’m too scared to direct a film and i can’t write a song cause I’m not fucking creative and i feel it all the way in my bones how much i fucking resent myself for not being good enough to write a song because i just want to make something but i don’t have an original bone in my body and everything is so much better than anything i could make and it won’t ever reach more people than whats on my Facebook friends list and it makes me want to cry but i can’t because I’m sitting in a grocery store trying to muster up the strength not to throw my phone at the floor. maybe i should go missing from social media but I’m so fucking codependent id be back in a week and i hate myself so goddamn much cause everything i do is self destructive and the self destructive tendencies I’ve already formed block me from getting better and i can’t ask for help and i can’t create and i can’t do fucking anything so i just sit here while my brain tears itself apart and theres nothing i can fucking do about it but scream when no one is around and shove my switchblade into my pillow because I’m too scared too push it through my skin.