#this book is LITERALLY being made into a movie BC the source material is good

[inkegg]

So have you seen Hellraiser 2022? What are your thoughts?

Yes! I've finally seen hellraiser 2022 and the short of it is: I LOVED IT!

I loved the design for the Hell Priest. I liked the color pallette (reminded me of comic kirsty) and I loved the pin treatment (reminded me of the book.) The voice was haunting and beautiful. Everything I would expect out of a cenobite.

I loved Riley as a protag. As always the rule of "if the protag is a girl then the movie is good." I think she perfectly embodied the themes and meanings of hellraiser. She consistently chose life's pleasures over facing life's pains and realities. And she continues to do so up until the end of the film. That final moment with the hell Priest will stick with me forever. Riley saying she wants nothing, after doing all that for her brother. And the Priest outlining the regret and suffering that will come of these choice and then saying "so you choose lament." That was SO POWERFUL!! it felt so perfect.

The new additions to the Hellraiser lore were done well. It added new confinement and clearer rules when it came to the configurations, while also opening up for cooler concepts and questions. If someone were to choose Lore what would that look like? What would Love look like to a cenobite? Also my friend mentioned it was funny all the choices started with L. You literally are just taking your L.

I think it stayed true to the hellraiser roots in which pinhead will always be like "not arguing with a brunette with a perm. Whatever deal you want beautiful." I especially found it funny when a cenobite was killed as an offering and the Priest stood there quietly as if they were debating if that was even allowed.

I loved that they stuck to the formula of the Priest being a consequence to the antag. The loom of which he was strung on was an insane concept. And ofc his later wish of power through Leviathan was everything I wanted and expected.

I was SO HAPPY when I heard the original hellraiser OST being used in the end. That music is iconic, it really wrapped me in at the end like wow this IS a hellraiser movie. It was when that music started did the 2022 film really grounded itself as being up there as one of the most enjoyable hellraiser movies.

The way the cenobites opened and closed the dimensions between hell and earth were so creative. The car scene is so mind boggling and is exactly how I would love to see that concept get pushed with new technology.

That also includes the puzzle box. All the configurations and the sounds, the clicking and the moving felt great. We've really progressed beyond just rubbing our fingers on the box and hoping for the best. I thought it looked amazing.

I have very little criticisms of the film other than, even though the cenobite designs were so great. I really do miss the black and leather component of the cenobites. It makes them look like beings who make active choices rather than zombies. I would've liked more of the clothing aspect incorporated bc that was such an iconic look of cenobites. However the 2022 look was insanely creative and really pushed their body modifications.

So yeah! Those are most of my thoughts. Great movie over all. I wouldn't mind seeing more with this cast, but I also would be content if it stood alone. :>

It felt like it was made by people who enjoyed the source material. And that ALWAYS makes a better movie.

#hellraiser #hellraiser 2022 spoilers

[lascapigliata]

the best parallel i have for the magneto issue is actually true blood bc the erik/eric lehnsherr/northman problems are ironically the same

i rephrased some of this:

they used/made* a good antihero character and didn't realize or didn't care that said character was more interesting (and in tb's case, charismatic) than many of the main "heroes," and they just didn't know how to grapple w that situation. bc putting them all on the same side would overshadow their other characters

so they separate them partially in an effort to engage the audience in the main crew (either figuratively by making him a villain for erik, or literally by being off in vampire jail or dying of vampire cancer or fighting the yakuza or making him a villain for eric)

but doing so doesn't actually make the character less interesting or engaging, just separates the interesting/engaging part from the heroes.

ofc from there the problems wildly diverge, among them that because true blood literally separates plotlines and puts all the other vampire stuff with eric too it makes the fairy stuff horrible, whereas erik is obv always connected to the main mutant storyline lol. but they have a similar foundation of not knowing what to do with a good creation.

*i have never read the source material for either, so idk how much was baked into the original books/comics and how much was invented for the movies/show

[thosch3i]

Hi hi! So the lost tombs and chronology all super confuse me. So tlt2 ended on a cliffhanger that was not resolved by tlt3 which is ultimate note, but now there is another tlt3 that I am guessing is made by the same studio as tlt2 (but not UN) that actually follows tlt2? And it has the same WPZ as tlt2 (but sadly different WX, ZQL though I’m sure these guys are great). You seem to know what you’re talking about so I’m hoping you can help!

UN also ended on a cliff hanger so I’m wondering if they’ll get a sequel from their studio that comes before tomb of the sea.

ahhh hello anon! yes ahaha the dmbj dramas are certainly very confusing--because they keep switching the screenwriters/entire production team between dramas. huanrui did tlt1 (2015), tlt2 (2019), and the sequel to tlt2 (2021). they're also technically the production company for un (2020), but linghe did like all the directing/casting/writing so its significantly different in tone and quality from the other dramas huanrui produced. npss (dmbj author) did sha hai (2018) and tltr (2020), with sha hai being in collab with linghe, so you can see lots of parallels with un and shared cast. (gonna add that i dont know much about the m9 because that’s not what im personally interested in, so i’m only going by stories with wu xie & the iron triangle.)

unfortunately, the dramas pretty have no continuity as a result of all the weird shit and multiple studios doing different dramas and messy stuff going on behind the scenes. the author's production company currently has all the rights back for filming future dramas, which is......imo, a good thing for book fans who love the author but a 😬 thing for book fans who like the original story more than what the author is now doing with it. I'll uh avoid saying too much opinion stuff though so no more on that 😅

that aside! yes 云顶天宫 “explore with the note” part 2......is the direct sequel to tlt2 and done by the same studio. unfortunately the writers are different and im not sure how much of the production team is the same either. idk how much you know about the novels so brief summary here--for the chinese version, the main story has 9 parts split among 8 books (though the official eng tls have each part being a different book) with some important content being as follows:

official eng title “cavern of blood zombies” (first time wx goes into a tomb, first t3j meeting)

official eng title “angry sea, hidden sands” (xisha seabed tomb, introduce a-ning)

official eng title “bronze tree of death” (bronze tree in qinling, wx & lao yang solo adventure)

official eng title “palace of doom” (heavenly palace on the clouds, introduce bronze gate)

official eng title “deadly desert winds” (golmud, introduce hei xiazi, desert, rainforest, tamutuo)

official eng title “graveyard of a queen” (the rest of that arc, wu sanxing & xie lianhuan reveal, jade meteorite, amnesiac xiaoge and escape, sanshu vanishes for good--also i think the official eng tl covers a couple chapters of the beginning of the next part too)

阴山古楼 (searching for xiaoge’s memories in banai, miluotuo cave, i think introduction of wu erbai)

邛笼石影 (auction/hotel iron triangle fight, introduce xiao hua & xiuxiu, wx & xh on the mountains alone while pz & xg go with granny huo)

finale (rescue from zhang family mansion, changbai mountain goodbye, 10 years promise)

after the main story are the main sequels:

zang hai hua (tibetan sea flower; unfinished & abandoned) covers wu xie a few years after xiaoge has entered the gate, searching to understand xiaoge’s past

sha hai (tomb of the sea; unfinished & abandoned) covers wu xie’s plan to wipe out the wang family, after zhh

chongqi (reunion: the sound of the providence) covers wu xie’s lung disease and how he recovers from that, set after they pick up xiaoge again from the bronze gate. thunder city and everything.

灯海寻尸&万山极夜 (still updating on wechat) don’t worry about this one since it’s still a WIP lol

btw between sha hai and chongqi there’s also ten years later (a short story) that covers how wu xie and pangzi pick up xiaoge from the bronze gate and take him home

the dramas Do Not Connect To Each Other At All, which the exception of tlt2 & tlt2 pt2 somewhat, but they go in this order:

盗墓笔记 / the lost tomb 1 (2015): covers part 1 but with major OCs and filler, and includes the auction scene from part 8 for some reason, so introduces xiao hua early.

怒海潜沙&秦岭神树 / the lost tomb 2 (2019) technically “explore with the note”: covers parts 2 & 3 but with major OCs and filler, introduces xiao hua & xiuxiu (and hei xiazi briefly) early. last couple episodes also cover the beginning of part 4. not a direct sequel to tlt1 despite being done by the same studio.

云顶天宫 / heavenly palace on the clouds (2021) technically also “explore with the note”: covers part 4 with major OCs and filler (and the same changes carrying over from tlt2). some episodes are identical to the last couple episodes of tlt2. works as a direct sequel only if you ignore the last couple episodes of tlt2 that take place in the snowy mountains. (those episodes of tlt2 were filmed after this drama was filmed, and im still not sure why they dragged the wu xie and xiaoge from tlt2 back to changbai mountain to film those episodes.)

终极笔记 / ultimate note (2020): covers parts 5-8 with minor OCs and minimal filler, also introduces xiao hua & xiuxiu early. the only adaptation that resembles its source material most of the time.

沙海 / tomb of the sea (2018): covers the second sequel with major OCs and filler. includes some bits from zhh and the short story “three days of silence”.

重启之极海听雷 / the lost tomb reboot (2020): covers third sequel with major OCs and filler.

in addition there is the prequel series mystic nine (2016) and side movies for the dramas that the author produced. there is also a single standalone movie--time raiders (2016) that is....well it’s. very strange. it’s fully subbed on youtube if you’re interested?

the best way to watch the dramas is to assume each one is its own self-contained AU set along different points of the dmbj timeline because even the dramas the author himself worked on don’t have continuity LOL (and with the exception of ultimate note & sha hai most of the time, also assume most characters are pretty OOC from the novels).

i uh regret to inform you though, that ultimate note will not be getting a sequel unless the author magically decides to not care about making money anymore and sells the rights to film the finale to linghe or something ^^;;;; it’s....unfortunate bc un is the most highly-rated dmbj adaptation on douban by A Lot, but it’s an adaptation that the author had literally nothing to do with whatsoever.

more information on some of the side movies/stage plays/manhua/donghua here.

summaries of the main novel stories (currently through zhh) here.

edited mtl (some of which has apparently been looked over by native cn speakers) of the novels following where official eng tls end here. (there are many scattered extras as well.)

you can get the official eng tl books/ebooks on amazon or elsewhere(?), but if you have problems purchasing them or like you just dont wanna support amazon or something, dm me off anon. (also i dont want to be mean but frankly the official tls are kinda bad too ^^;;;)

a rough timeline (spoilers galore) for the dmbj novels here. (fair warning im not 100% sure how accurate all of this is--they put three days of silence as 1991 but looking at the info in zhh, it seems like it should have been before the 1950s...but it’s more than fine as a general overview.)

anyway i hope that was helpful in some way? dmbj is a Very Confusing thing to get into ahahaha, one of my twitter mutuals has made a few carrds if you think they might be helpful: book, dramas (slightly out of date bc it says heavenly palace hasn’t aired yet), ultimate note (got its own carrd by virtue of being the only adaptation aside from sha hai sometimes that most og book fans acknowledge lol ^^;;;)

also anon if anything wasn’t clear or if you had more questions feel free to ask again sorry ahahaha im kinda tired rn @.@ 

#dmbj #shouting into the void #ask #anon #....im kinda tired bc i just finished watching ydtg so i hope that doesnt come across *too much* in this post LOL #and its probably obvious which adaptation im biased towards but after reading the novels i cant really help it

[gotham]

Give us your review of The Batman please 🙏

spoilers under cut:

i really loved this movie. i was that loser grinning at the screen simply bc i was having such a good time. for a film that leaned so heavily into the grimness of gotham and the darkness of these characters, it didn't feel pessimistic or bleak in fact it was funny as hell at times. i'm so glad reeves was given the time and freedom to really perfect what he wanted bc you can see the time and care put into this film on every level and the results speak for themselves. gotham as a place seemed so present and fully formed, and reeves rly used it to its full advantage. god, that first "batman" scene of the criminals seeing the shadows and alleys where batman might be THAT'S GOTHAM BABY!!

what struck me most was how unashamed of the source material it was; this was a noir detective comic book film and it loved that it was. bruce's narration was both right out of a panel and from those old hollywood and 70's detective stories. it could so easily have felt like a parody but it did it so /well/ that it never did. having it almost completely be from bruce's perspective was great too, bc it not only added to that comic book feel, but you had this voyeuristic view point of the whole thing, which fitted in with the batman/riddler character parallels (LOVED that you initially didn't know whose POV the first shot was bc it could so easily be batman or riddler, as batman has a similar shot later on).

speaking of detective stories; FINALLY WE HAVE A BATMAN BEING A DETECTIVE!! i said in my wants for this film post that this was rly important to me and they nailed it NAILED IT! i was so invested in the riddler's case and the riddles he was leaving, i tell u i wanted to know who the rat was more than i wanted my next breath i love that shit. we really saw him using the full range of his detective skills, seeing and picking up on things that others wouldn't, and i loved how he worked w/ gordon. and it wasn't just a case, it was deeply tied to bruce as a character and his personal journey of realising actually my parents were just people and holding them on this pedestal that paralyses me is probably not a good thing.

riddler was everything, paul dano can do no wrong in my eyes and his "pathetic little slim boy wanting treats but instead gets beat" deal is my jam and worked so well here. when there's a character who is straight up bonkers, it's hard to find proper grounding without just seeming cringe/ tryhard but he really made this character seem like someone who could exist but you really hope doesn't (omg his "thanks to all my followers like and subscribe for more riddle content" bit at the end had me in stitches). you know i'm always down for a deluded villain who thinks he and the hero are bffs and has a full meltdown when proven otherwise. again, i'm just really pleased with how he was used to tie in w/ bruce's character, acting as a mirror to show bruce what he doesn't want to be (but so easily could be).

catwoman was great zoe killed it she really knew when to camp up the sexy and when to play it straight. i was pleasantly surprised that her "i'm playing her bi" comment wasn't just hollow bait but was literally in the film. idk how else you could take her calling her ""roomate"" baby all the time. her and bruce's little romance was cute and though it's not really what i'm interested it, i did like both of them letting the other in just a little (bruce leaning into her at the end 🥺)

ok this is getting long so some little things:

- my sweet cockney alfred 💗 i'm sorry u got letter bombed and when u woke up ur boss son was immediately berating u but at least you got him to hold ur hand, that was a big step for him.

-my sweet baby bruce, my awful socially incompetent boy. he was all i wanted him to be. what else can i do but sigh dreamily at his greasy too long hair, bloodshot eyes and hunched shoulders?

- penguin was so funny farrell was insanely good i was not expecting to i enjoy him this much. crazy how one film had two actors schooling jared leto how it's done for two different roles of his, but this is how u use prosthetics to aid a character. the interrogation scene with batman and gordon? him mocking their spanish then waddling like a penguin bc they left his feet tie? magic

- the only thing i aggressively DISLIKED in this film was that god damn wretched joker, i'm sorry, Unseen Arkham Inmate, scene. it was embarrassing, completely took me out the film, and i hope we never see him again. yes, i'm judging the performance on that small snippet but it was bad; the performance was bad, the lines were bad, his hair was bad, and i dont like that creepy kid playing him. riddler's already done the best "cat and mouse, look how we compliment each other we're the same u and i" plot in this verse, you can't do better than that. batman's only got the most iconic rogues gallery of all time, pick literally anyone else.

- the camera contact lenses were cool

#honestly i'm still a little overwhelmed by it but i'm seeing it again thursday so will have a clearer idea and may add to this #the batman spoilers

[binickandros]

Hey I know it was a few days ago you said this but I'm coming into your asks to also complain about how much they sidelined Nick in the Stand. I legitimately don't understand the creative choice to focus on Harold as the main character and sideline Nick and the other, bigger characters. Yes Owen Teague is a fantastic actor, he was amazing, but the decision was presumably made long before his casting. Why was this the Harold Lauder show whereas Nick was barely in it, I... don't understand :(

Stand ranting anon again: I just wanted to add that I would be fine with the amount of screen time Harold got, if all the other characters got the same amount, like if it was a 20 episode season and we could get a whole episode of Nick backstory, of Frannie etc. We only even saw Frannie pre-plague through the fence whilst Harold was creeping on her, which is really... Not Great. So yeah I just feel like it was bizarre they used their limited time in the way they did, very confused.

Listen, nonny, LISTEN: I may never be over this injustice. I am a CANCER, we hold GRUDGES, and you can consider this one fuckin well HELD. Uh this gets long sooo...

I watched the 94 miniseries when it aired and of course immediately loved Nick. Shortly after that I read the book for the first time and loved Nick even more (Larry is 2nd, then prob Fran, then Stu), and over the years I’ve rewatched the mini-series and re-read the book and I was always like “man, I’d love to see an adaptation of this without network TV limitations, just like dark and creepy and atmospheric, but with the good guys winning the day” as they do.

So fast forward to 2011 or whenever and there are tentative announcements of a movie. Eh, not great, nowhere near enough time. Then!! A limited series!! Which is just a miniseries made fancy.

My dumb ass: more time in Shoyo!! Maybe Rita AND Nadine!! More time with Fran and her dad!! Etc etc

Welp I guess I got one of those things, but at what cost!! A whole entire Lucy, and uh...p much everything else I might have wanted.

I was talking about this with someone else (you know who you are but don’t wanna tag you in case you, like me, avoid the mortifying ordeal of being known at all cost) and we were both like “okay what EXACTLY about our culture right now made the adapters here (including King’s own son, Owen) think that a story about good v. evil somehow needed to focus on the red pill incel????”

Like they obviously had some idea about making the story more diverse, but because of the way they then used those characters, it felt like performative with no substance.

Ralph Brentner is now a Native woman?? Love it!! She’s also a glorified extra until the last few episodes?? Oh pls fuck off.

Larry is Black?? Great! A Black main character!! Except of course he’s NOT because HAROLD IS.

Nick’s now Latino! Buuuut played by a hearing actor. Which actually only matters in principle because we’re going to try to sweep our bullshit decision-making under the rug by hardly having him on camera. Won’t show up till episode 3, gone by episode 6, in one 2-minute scene in episode 5. Good job, guys! *high fives all around the writers’ room*

I’d honestly like to see someone with way more time on their hands do a screen time comparison between Nick and Harold, or Harold and literally every other character on this show. They opened with Harold, he was in every episode in a major way, he got a CLOSING MONOLOGUE and MONTAGE of his LIFE, while Nick just blew up and then was mentioned a few times and that was it.

I mean I guess they attempted something meaningful by having him...looking at that picture or postcard before the bomb? Which was like someone on a boat, so was maybe his mom, or reminded him of his mom? But how the hell were we to know that, bc we got the piece of exposition about his mom from FLAGG in ONE SCENE, and we’d never seen that picture before, nor do we have any idea of the significance of “Silencio,” which was written on the picture and was the title of the episode. It was literally not meaningful AT ALL bc we as the audience didn’t know a goddamn thing about it, and it was “blink and you miss it.”

I thought 9 hours would give us more time for backstory. That’s what I was looking forward to. Like Fran burying her dad was sad bc duh he’s her DAD and he’s DEAD, but it’s so much more meaningful when you’ve seen them bonding. Even the 94 miniseries, which had to cut some stuff for time, showed us how close they were, and the scene of her stitching his shroud was heartbreaking.

How did Stu, a 45-year-old man (tho that’s James Marsden’s age and I think they mean for Stu to be younger), come to fall in love w Frannie, a 20ish-year-old girl?? Who knows! He saw her on the road and thought she was cute and I guess that was that. She’s a college student from Maine and he works in a calculator factory (or something idr) in East Texas and there’s a huge age difference, so what do they have in common? Ah fuck it who cares let’s see what Harold’s doing.

I just honestly would like to know the thought process here. I think. Let’s be real. This is what happens when your main creative team is nerdy white boys. They identify with Harold: he’s an “outsider,” he’s “misunderstood,” if only people hadn’t been so mean to him!

An adaptation created by 2 white dudes. A writers’ room with all white dudes, except ONE woman who, for all we know, was just there, again, as tokenism. This is what happens when white men create for themselves without any real input from women, POC, or members of the LGBT community. Because the “gay rep” on this show is a whole other rant.......

Anyway, nonny, I’m writing a Nick fic rn that will hopefully see the light of day soon, and it’s literally. All Nick. And an OC bc Nick deserves love too!! And no Julie does not count. I’m not saying that just as shameless self promotion, but also to show that I was so incensed by this bullshit adaptation that I’ve now written 35k words and they JUST LEFT SHOYO, all while starting school doing something I’ve never even dipped my toe into before, so it’s fairly intense work.

Justice for Nick Andros. He deserved better from the source material, and somehow an adaptation made in 2020 (when we should all know better) made it So. Much. Worse.

#anonymous #asked and answered #the stand #nick andros #the entire thing smacks of whiny white men #i guarantee if women had been more involved #and POC and the Gays #this adaptation would be entirely different #and we'd like it a WHOLE lot more #1 woman like pls #i've read enough horror stories #of women on writing staffs #with all white men #to know exactly how much input she had #hint: none to 'not much' #not any creative decisions i can promise you that

[whyarewecalledtheshipname]

kh3, khux, recoded spoilers:

ramblings about unreality, the BoP, and the journal:

ngl i'm hella late to the party and i'm still not super familiar with what ideas and theories have been made regarding khux shit, unreality shit, etc. these are thoughts i had after rewatching recoded.

i know the maleficent/book scene isn't novel, but i wanna ramble about it anyway.

a question i had when listening to some khux talk: is it agreed that MoM made unreality? bc we know he hid there, right. idk how or since when, i'm guessing it's where he originally disappeared to.

But what's our understanding of that scene in the khux finale, where MoM's telling Darkness about the fictional world, the world he couldn't even conceive? Where neither light or darkness rules?

i've only watched that scene a few times, and i'm not clear on whether MoM's talking about the fictional world as if it already exists, or something he's envisioning.

pff i can't even organize my thoughts lmao. So, my guess at this point is that MoM was envisioning/imagining this world where neither light or darkness rules (and where voices and eyes can't reach but idk what dictates THAT particular rule). By simply imagining/thinking of it, i don't think it resulted in that world becoming real. Cause i thought he said something about that idea having to be "realized", but rewatching that specific scene, he doesn’t. If anyone knows for sure if he ever mentioned something like this i’d appreciate confirmation. [EDIT: MoM does specify putting your imagining into realization in the fan translation, which is more direct/literal and often times more accurate than the official localization…🤷🏽‍♀️]

But—IF it's not enough to /just/ think of it, and you do have to literally put it into realization—. My interpretation of what that means is, you know, putting the idea into action. /Making/ it real. Manifesting it. And that can happen any number of ways. Namely, in this case, putting it on paper. In the Book.

THE BOOK, UGH. The recoded scene. I know it kinda basically confirms that the book can create worlds but again i wanna scream about it a little.

But first. So far, i have that idea. Now as for the actual sequence of events, mmm. My brain goes all over the place for that one. Bc before rewatching those scenes, the question took form of "what came first? the chicken or the egg?" bc an idea i had heard was that Verum Rex, the game, could be a documentation of what's going on in unreality. And i've been flip flopping on that.

for me it would depend on whether unreality as we see it was spawned (that's the word i use) as soon as MoM originally thought of it, and wrote it down. Bc then Verum Rex could be made in the image of that world. On the other hand, if Verum Rex is like, 'additional' realization of the /idea/, then that would mean the game came before (most/some of) the world. But i think the first option is more likely.

So MoM conceived the world --> MoM wrote about it in the Book --> the world became real --> SOMEONE made the world into a game

and that gets into my thoughts about who tf has access to unreality, at least to the extent that they can see into it and observe it, and how. and obv, square enix (in kh) made the game. and square enix is literally "the powers that be" so. kinda an obvious option. but anyway.

i covered my main points ig. so time to scream about how tf this even could happen and why. not that i have any actual answers bc how tf could a book make worlds.

recoded. GOD, RECODED. If i didn't already ramble about HOW the Book could make worlds then i'm about to.

idek where to start lmao. Maleficent. she brings up the book, after she and pete have been rescued/released from the datascape.

(And what IS the datascape exactly? WHAT does it encompass? is the datascape in recoded strictly the data made from the journal? like, could there be multiple datascapes based on different source materials, or based in different devices/computers? ????)

“Yes, considering legend has it the book can conjure, making an entire world filled with beings and powers that have yet to exist.”

So that's just there. We've seen this. So this is assuming we can take the legend as (probable) fact. I'm assuming the Book really /can/ make worlds.

this next part about fairy tales i'm including to like cover my bases and see if anyone has thoughts about it bc i have not thought too much about the concept of fairy tales in kh and what it could mean:

“Really? A book that can just make up a world? I don't know. That sounds like nothin' more than fluffy, pink, kids' fairy tale stuff. It just sounds too good to be true"

“Ah, but who’s to say a fairytale’s not true?”

So that's that about fairy tales. (omg cinderella, dreams coming true, true love's kiss, sleeping beauty, WHHHHH--)

“And I ask you, how does that differ from this world they call the ‘date escape’?”

THIS BITCH. (the quote not maleficent lol) I know that early theories and probably current one's still, suggested unreality/quadratum/other-shibuya were data worlds, or something akin to them. and i mean, yeah, i wondered too, bc of the glitchy stuff with sora’s heart station in the secret episode.

but also, like. this whole world manifested "outside" of kh's reality. like, is it even possible that it COULD be /just/ data? As in, could data just exist on it's own like that? (or is there more? if the part of unreality we see /is/ data, is it only the data aspect of a bigger whole? i've seen a theory talk about this, is why i even bring it up)

If what we see of unreality so far is data, like, does that data exist within something? does it /need/ to?

and if unreality is data, like. i feel like it'd have to be different than that data worlds we see in kh. pure guesswork, but i feel like it's /more/ than just data worlds. /Bigger/.

"how does [world created by the BoP] differ from [datascape of the journal]?" thats the thing, too. essentially, what's the difference between the Book, and the journal.

sHEESH i just rambled in my notes. it's a bunch of guesswork, and idk if i should even put it here. gimme a sec.

okay well might as well address this while i’m here. my guess is that there IS no difference. there is no difference between the BoP and fucking jiminy’s journal, ability wise. We know the BoP doesn’t actually predict the future, it was simply written in the past after the future had taken place.

inherently, there’s no difference.

the difference between their CONTENTS however. one accounts the future (that has already happened, this is kinda important imo). the other records the past.

two things they both share. 1) the events in both books already happened 2) we saw them happen. in reality.

just like the past is fixed and unchangeable, so is the future (bc it’s already happened). We know this.

so what ISNT fixed and unchangeable? if literally all of time IS?

fiction.

okay, well, duh.

this is where my ideas become pure assumptions.

my guess is that like i said, neither of these books holds any special power over the other. and if my next guess is right, then neither of these books holds any special power over literally any other book (in kh).

this has no bearing on my main points above. (did MoM not discover unreality, did he THINK of it? i think he did. did MoM write his idea in the BoP? i think he did. did writing it down result in the idea manifesting as a world? i think it did.)

the idea is that ANY book [any MEDIUM, for that matter (books, shows, movies, games)] can create worlds. THIS world (or these, that we’ve seen in the secret ending and secret episode) is just the only one we’ve been shown.

i could not tell you how. and i could not tell you why. the only guess i currently have is that fictional ideas (given a medium) create worlds bc that’s Just How Things Work in kh. like, it’s literally just the laws of physics of kh.

For SOME fucking reason, fictional worlds given a medium spawn real worlds, outside of kh. hence, unreality. (bc they’re outside of kh reality, and bc they’re Not Real. fictional)

What about the BoP and the journal then? The shit in there doesn’t manifest as a separate world because it has already manifested in reality. That’s why i was saying it was important that the future already happened. bc if you wrote about a hypothetical future, not simply recorded the future as witnessed through your time traveling eyeball, then that would therefore be fiction. even if it’s based on the real world, this hypothetical future would not consist of real world events. An AU, basically. like real world=canon, hypothetical future=noncanon (fanfiction oop) (nonfiction vs fiction)

so if you wrote your fake future shit, it would hypothetically spawn as a world in unreality. IF the idea of the creation of worlds through fictional ideas given a medium pans out lmao.

On the other hand, the power to create worlds really could be special to the BoP or MoM himself. but the reason i don’t assume that in the first place is due to his wording in his khux scene.

“If you imagine hard enough, you can make anything a reality.” (maybe it’s just phrasing. maybe only he has the power and he’s just not specifying it but 🤷🏽‍♀️)

this brings me to Pete in kh2 LMAO LEGIT i just remembered that one theory video about how the fuck pete manifested a whole ass time capsule world by WISHING for it. if all it takes is JUST IMAGINING (in the case of fictional ideas) and WISHING (in the case of real world events), that would throw this whole post out the window lmao.

if imagining ISNT enough, and you DO have to go through the step of /realizing/ your idea, by giving it a MEDIUM, then.

and the reason i stick so much to the concept of giving things MEDIUMS is bc of khux. and this is all based on the english versions of the game.

at this point i’m not even connecting random dots, i’m scribbling all over a blank page but. it reminded me of time travel. to time travel, you leave your body behind, resulting in just a heart. to restore the body, the physical form, you need two things at your destination. Someone with memories of you, and a medium.

a mental/non-physical element, and a physical one.

memories could equate to imagining. a medium to restore the physical form could equate to a medium through which to express a fictional idea. and these two things combined results in a physical manifestation. Except one process restores real people in reality, and the other process creates people/places in unreality. (bc worlds don’t time travel or do they oh god)

the likely thing is that these two things aren’t related at all, esp since i’m working with the assumption that the second process even exists.

there’s also this random google definition of the word medium as it relates to computers: “a particular form of storage for digitized information, such as magnetic tape or discs” 🤷🏽‍♀️

another random idea/question regarding the process by which we’ve seen mediums result in worlds. the journal was converted into data with mickeys fucking macbook computer/machine. and that resulted in the worlds and people written about in the journal being recreated as data, hence data worlds and data characters. (and real people can enter data too without necessarily being data themselves but that’s a random note)

would the writings in the BoP require a similar process? or any other book/medium for the matter? obviously it wouldn’t be the exact same process or it’d just result in a data world, and a fictional data world would just be a video game at that point. is writing it at all the process? i mean i already assumed it is but just thinking.

i thought maybe Verum Rex could have been the process for this world specifically. The video game could be the writing converted into data but i don’t think the time aligns. Like, Verum Rex is like the best selling game right now. and MoM conceived and potentially wrote the idea down back in the age of fairy tales. I don’t know what time shenanigans could explain that time gap.

imo the wildest part of this whole thing is just the assumption that writing down a fictional idea results in the creation of a whole ass world in a whole different plane of existence lmao. like i said, i could not guess as to why this would be the case, only that it could just be part of the physics in kh world. Action, reaction. Conception, manifestation.

if anything, this whole concept of ideas becoming worlds would just be a fourth wall thing. get an idea, put it on paper, make worlds. ofc everyone has recognized the meta-ness of all this lmao i’m here trying to rationalize it in-game.

i had more quotes i didn’t add lol, in regards to the similarities between the BoP and the journal. it’s kinda additional stuff about why i do or don’t assume the things i do. (the first maleficent quote is the biggest tho for me)

“Don’t you think it might just be worth our while to search for a connection? Perhaps there’s a link of some sort between that so-called journal of theirs and the Book of Prophecies.”

(“so-called” why this phrasing? is it that maleficent suspects the journal is more than it seems? is it just the eng dialogue or just maleficent’s speech pattern?)

at this point i’m mostly gonna copy/paste my ramblings, so it’s gonna be messier:

So clearly they’re telling us to LOOK for the connections between the journal and the book. is it for proof that the book of prophecies CAN make worlds?

and also, does it make worlds OUTSIDE of kh BECAUSE you can’t change fate? it depends on the power of the book, and what gives it that power. (if it’s a power exclusive to the BoP after all)

lmao admittedly, this can be encapsulated by stuff Spuuky said during one of his streams about how Jiminy’s journal is OP bc you could create literally anything by writing it down bc converting it into data would make it real, and able to directly affect and interact with the real world. And at that point i was like bruh it’s not the journal it’s the machine but??? LMAO ARE THEY SO DIFFERENT AFTER ALL, i hate this game

and, another random question, does stuff from unreality manifest in kh? and if it does, does it do it on its own or would someone in kh need to access unreality and carry the ideas back over to kh? i already asked this earlier, and my end assumption for now was that verum rex did NOT just leak into kh by accident, someone brought the idea over. and the reason i don’t think it was MoM is because i’m guessing MoM doesn’t work at square enix in kh (nomura is MoM theories incoming lol). And MoM is hiding in unreality (tho he seems to have been coming back to kh every so often when he sees fit, such as his intervention with xehanort).

imma leave this for now, my thumbs are RIP

#sheesh tags incoming #kh3 spoilers #khux spoilers #recoded spoilers #COMPLETE RAMBLING OMG SO MUCH RAMBLING #theorizing #cringe cant believe i typed that #theory #theories #unreality #fictional worlds #fuckin—so much god #datascape #data worlds #jiminy’s journal #book of prophecies #recoded #MoM #kh speculation #kh thoughts #curse you Spuuky istg #many of these ideas were inspired by other people’s theories #word vomit #verum rex #verum rex: reclaim ur braincells my gosh #square enix in kh #fairy tale shit #fucking fairytale vibes if i ever felt them #the journal #mediums

[my-artblog-is-ssjumi]

Thor/Loki, Catra/Adora, Devil/Constantine, the Killing Eve gay enemy to ?? thing

Thor/Loki

I personally don’t go there but I watched both Thor movies and the first Avengers movie was pretty cool, and jumping off of that as what I know about this ship:

A+++

Thor’s loyal love and desperation to make his brother see he can literally just Stop Ruining Everything For Everyone and how that would maybe stop ppl from being rly fed up with him

and Loki’s refusal to accept that bc it doesn’t align with his feelsies of being Other and also he wants power but not in the Good Guy way and oh, if his brother would REALLY see him for what he is he would stop following him around to tell him he still loves him, or worse, it would change him and Thor is too good for that, also power, power sound good, mmmhmmmmmm, if only i’m powerful enough i won’t have to think about any of that anymore for sure :) :) :) :) :) :)

also rly into the potential of the angsty outcome of Loki having faked his own death and impersonating Odin now. Imagine how interesting it would be to explore the emotional fallout of Thor not only finding out his dad is potentially/probably dead but that Loki has been alive after all and had no problem lying to him under the disguise of their father! there is so much to unpack, not just in the grief department but also in how all nice things “Odin” said to Thor were lies and surely none of them had a bit of sincerity in them in a “Loki actually sometimes enjoys being able to spend time with his brother again without having him see him for all the ways in which he fucked up” way

so much potential

only a fool who didn’t like those characters would not make use of it when getting the chance to make a 3rd Thor movie

can’t imagine how anyone would miss out on that potential or why anyone who doesn’t even like the source material would be given a say in these things in the first place though....

so yeah. shame there never was a 3rd Thor movie

*

Catradora

Ok so disclaimer: I only watched the first season of SheRa.

It’s a cool show and as a kid or maybe young teen I might’ve REALLY gotten into it - as a kid mostly bc I would’ve made up my own probably at least partly Self-Insert princess and as a teen because of Catra’s and Adora’s relationship.

(side note: ok now i’m lowkey ecstatic about the possibility that I would’ve probably also made up a 2nd OC to pair my Self-Insert with and that it would’ve likely been a girl bc that’s just the vibe of the show and wow, what a power move for an 11yo (that i would’ve been completely oblivious to, bc i was always the “everyone is a little bi and everyone knows that, ppl just say otherwise for reasons i don’t care about” bi kid))

I always loved resentment as an emotional theme in the fictional relationships I like to explore, and this pairing has it plenty!

“If you cared about me enough you’d stay!” “If you cared about me enough you’d leave, too, and join me!”

Love it. 11/10. Great basis to write a shit ton of angsty songfic to (and then be surprised you’re not the only one in the fandom who chose LP’s Numb for that).

No one ever show me what ppl do with this pairing or say about it, I don’t trust fandom these days with things I like.

*

Devil/Constantine

.................. （￣∀,￣）

Only one of the main reasons I (re)watch this movie.

I mean, it’s a fun movie in general, I always enjoy it from start to finish, but When That Black Tar Stuff Drips On The Floor, I always get excited goosebumps and feel like that’s what I was actually waiting for the whole time.

Peak. Fucking. Aesthetic. Love that energy. *chef’s kiss*

*

Villanelle/Eve

Ok, so I watched the first season of the show and read the books. What I’ve seen of the show is better imo btw, in the books the author dude was just a little too into his own excitement over having come up with The Coolest Edgy OC In The History Of Ever which, i mean, bless his soul, especially given what he used this OC for but. I didn’t rly vibe with it, u know.

The aesthetic of it is great.

Sandra Oh/Eve is hot and such a fucking mess and Villanelle is an OC teen!me wishes she had come up with first lol

Love the potential of that obsession and like. Overall potential of everything.

Something was missing tho. Idk if the second season delivered it, I think I read something about it not quite living up to s1 in between the lines of posts about it, but could just be ppl not getting things I don’t want anyway. I’m just too lazy to hunt down s2 tbh.

But yeah.

Very neat aesthetic.

If it was two dudes and the queer was more baity and less Probably/I Think/I HOPE?/i legit can’t remember canon it would probably have a massive fandom. Or would’ve had in 2013. Idk.

#pandirpus #ask game #honest ship opinions

[smallcowplant]

Hi! I'm curious what your thoughts and issues are with chapter 2? I just saw it last night myself! I completely agree with all the positive things you said! I left the theater feeling dissatisfied though, and I can't quite put my finger on why.

Hey!! 

Alrighty, this is gonna be a doozy, so strap in folks!

Disclaimer: This is all my opinion, and it’s cool if any of you disagree w/ me! Just don’t be too mad at me, lol. ALSO, BIG SPOILERS FOR IT: CHAPTER 2.

So, in my humble opinion, I think the one thing that hinders IT: Chapter 2 the most is something inherent to the very structure of the story—-the source material. Oop! 

Now, don’t get me wrong, I love me some Stephen King. He is an absolutely phenomenal writer and has a knack for writing some of the most poignantly horrific scenes in modern lit—-he greatly inspired me as writer and I love him for it! He’s my favorite creepy uncle of the lit world and I adore him. (In a way, TSS is a total love letter to his works, as they impacted me so much.)

HOWEVER (and this is a big however with me), I strongly believe that Steve’s strongest characterization and writing is in his Tortured Middle Aged Straight White Guy Writer With a Vaguely Dissatisfied Marriage and Drinking Problem™ characters. 

He’s very good at writing this one character, and this one character only. 

Ask him to write a female/lgbt+ character and he falters hard. I would even go as far as to say that his female characters often blend into this one colorful curvy blur of nothingness (wendy/audra/jessie/bev)….unless they’re the villain, and then they get an ounce more of Decidedly Female™ Evil (Carrie, Annie). 

This is of course, a personal opinion, and one that I’ve come to realize through years of reading SK. 

Bev feels very much like a vague character in IT: Chapter 2, so I don’t have much to say about that. I like Jessica Chastain in the role, yadda yadda.(The Bev/Ben/Bill shit is dumb af, but I’ve thought this since I read the book so what can you do.)

My biggest issue is in the handling of Richie, and the gay characters in the film as whole. There’s a bunch of hammy weird scenes meant to wink-wink-nudge-nudge at the audience that just rubbed me all the wrong way.

The closet behind the “Very Scary” door.

The not-so-subtle parallel of the hate crime against Don and Adrian and Richie’s response to Eddie’s death. “He has asthma, you fucker!” Or some line somewhat similar….who else has asthma? Who else dies while the man who loves him watches horrified, screaming his name over and over again? Yeah. That was definitely on purpose.

The last scene of everyone ‘After’, wherein we see that Bev and Ben are happily together and have a dog (???), while Richie approaches the bridge, completely emotionally broken, to re-carve the R + E into the bridge. 

Just……..boi. Lmao. Now, these are not problems that the film has alone—-this is all due to the faithfulness to the novel. This is mostly all pulled from the novel/directly in line with the canon. 

Personally, the Bury Your Gay/The Gay Character Faces The Deepest Trauma trope is one of my most hated tropes. 

It’s just….very disappointing to see everyone else get this very hopeful ending, and see Richie just…..completely devastated. I love seeing representation, and I’m glad that they made Richie/Eddie more explicitly gay (even though it was never…..actually…..said……), but……killing off your gays and making them sad is the most tired “haha gotcha!” trope and I really dislike it. 

THAT BEING SAID, THIS CANNOT BE CHANGED WITHOUT COMPLETELY GOING OFF SCRIPT OF THE ORIGINAL NOVEL. 

This is a problem I have with Steve, and IT, inherently. It colors my opinion of the movie/book greatly, and I can’t escape it.

Now, for Less Me™ Problems:

The pacing feels….off. I honestly think that if they had included more slower-paced scenes/introspective scenes, the impact of the final battle would’ve been stronger. (Now, once again, just my opinion! My bf thought the movie was way too long, but then again, he never read the book.) It really felt as if they just jumped from jump-scare to jump-scare to jump-scare for shits and giggles sometimes, tbh.

On that note, the fuckin’ JUMP SCARES. One of my favorite things about the first movie was how it didn’t rely on jump-scares to be scary—-I can remember a singular one (when Pennywise catches Bev in her apartment), and that WORKED because the tension was there. For me, things that are eerie—-or slightly off—-are scarier than in-your-face ‘BOOM GOTCHA’ crap. I was a bit disappointed by the over reliance on them, tbh.

I honestly believe that they played too much of their hand with the trailers. It gave away a lot of the scares and emotional bits. (The scene with them looking into the storefront absolutely SHOULD NOT have been included, as it totally took away any emotional weight that the scene was going for.)

to end on a positive note tho!

Things I Really Liked:

The BANTER was great. The restaurant scene was hilarious and morbid and I LOVED it.

I also genuinely can’t stop raving on how amazing the casting was?? It was literally so on-point?? I’ve never seen a film ACTUALLY cast actors who reasonably resemble and act like their younger versions??? That you can wholeheartedly believe actually are them grown up?? I was SHOOK.

EDDIE.

I really hope that what I thought was shade @ st*nley k*brick was actually shade @ st*nley k*brick. Because if so that was fcken devastating jfc.

All the scenes with the Losers as kids!!

If you’ve read the book, it’s genuinely v creepy to know that Bev was literally drinking sewer water out of that teacup, even though the movie doesn’t explicitly say it (the cut to her holding the cup in a way so you could see the brown liquid SENT ME) 

VERY glad that they dropped the whole pointless plot of Audra coming to Derry and getting captured bc I think I would’ve fallen asleep 

#it chapter two spoilers #it chapter 2 spoilers #it movie spoilers #homophobia mention cw #death mention cw #asks #wizardingworldofharrypottersims

[spnfanficpond]

September 2019 Pond LiveChat Recap

We had a great time chatting with @manawhaat today! Thank you so much for joining us, even though you were busy!!

Today, a bunch of us got together and talked about inspiration and writer’s block! We all had good ideas that were discussed! A rundown of the chat, as well as general Pond news, is below the cut!

To start us off, Mana shared a link to this ask that was recently presented to the Pond. The question was that a professor said that there was no such thing as a muse or writer’s block. The answers given by some of our Big Fish are terrific! All seem to agree that the ideas of a muse and writer’s block are valid, no matter what you call them. Digging beneath the surface to ask what is causing the writer’s block or the inspiration can help to get you past what’s stopping you and get you writing, again.

@mrswhozeewhatsis (Michelle)shared a link to a tweet by Robbie Thompson. She had asked him for tips on getting inspired or getting past blocks when the words just don’t want to flow. He responded by saying, “write from emotion: what scares you, angers you, etc. and make writing a habit. sit down once a day, same time if you can & just get to work. got nothing? write until it comes. inspiration is great but not always reliable.”

When looking for ideas from other famously prolific writers, this post from Neil Gaiman came up. In it, Mr. Gaiman says that blaming writer’s block gives you something to blame, but it’s usually a combination of laziness, perfectionism and getting stuck. He goes on to encourage writers to not accept writer’s block as a insurmountable thing and figure out the cause so you can get past it.

@mostly-shawn (Maayan): My professor's take on writer's block is that writer's block doesn't exist because there's no such thing as "not knowing". What we call "writer's block" is simply being distracted by other things like shopping lists and to-do lists and everything else, so in order to overcome "writer's block" you just need to sit and write everything that's in your head and clear out your brain space to allow yourself access to the idea. And in terms of muse, she doesn't believe in muse because no work is perfect on the first draft and because it's not perfect, you can't have had a muse.

If anyone wants to read her book it's called "To Tell The Truth" and it's about how to write creative nonfiction. Obviously, that's not what we're all in the business of, but it's a good read for all genres.

Everyone seemed to agree that this professor has a strange view on muse, but she’s got a point about writer’s block. A muse can be anything that inspires you to write, and nothing anyone ever writes is perfect right out of the gate, so her perfection theory makes no sense to us. Mana disagreed with part of her thoughts on writer’s block, though.

Mana: I think she has a point of clearing your head in order to get into your 'writing groove' but insisting that there isn't such a thing as 'not knowing' sounds ridiculous to me, specifically, a person who has not known what she wanted to do with a certain rpf fic for over 4 years.

@katehuntington mentioned that sometimes she feels like she knows exactly what she wants to write, but when she sits down, the words just won’t come. She can’t get them down. Michelle said her Fibromyalgia sometimes causes similar cognitive difficulties. The words just aren’t there. (If anyone has read Rob Benedict’s chapter in Family Don’t End With Blood, the feeling is described there beautifully.) 

Michelle: Physical and mental issues can definitely affect creativity. When you're struggling to do the basic activities of daily living, creativity is not your body's priority.

Q: So, what do you guys do when you hit a block?

Kate: Accept it. LOL. I take a lot of inspiration out of what I've written already, if that makes sense. I revisit stories, go over what made those work. And I read back on the feedback I had from readers too. Those can be super inspiring.

Maayan: Yeah, I basically just say "alrighty then" and continue on with my life and push the work as far out of my head as possible.

Mana: Write some flaming garbage. (Michelle added, “Crap makes good compost.”) I get through as much as I can, plot wise. if I'm stuck between point b and c, but know where I'm going from point d to e then I just put down anything I might want to happen between point b and c and then move on. There is no rule that says writing needs to happen in a linear form so if I get stuck, I move on.

Michelle: I once heard Robbie Thompson talk about writing at a seminar, and he said that if he's really stuck, he'll take a walk, get outside, get some fresh air, clear his head. Just change his scenery, really. Did you know that when you move from one room to another, your brain kind of ties off the thought you had in the first room and opens up another thread in the second room? It's why so many people arrive in a room and then forget why they're there. (This is why carrying something from one room to the next can help you remember why you're in that second room.) Sometimes, that's what you need. Make your brain jump out of the rut it was in. Write in a different room, on a different medium (paper instead of tablet, tablet instead of computer, etc)

Mana: I haven't tried writing on a different medium, unless you count someone else's computer instead of your own, but the change of scenery does help. listening to different music instead of your usual tunes helps. 

Maayan: I think better when I pace so when if I'm trying to figure out a storyline I pace, but when I have the storyline but I can't make my fingers do the word thing on the magical typing box I'm just stuck for good usually. (A suggestion was made that she could try speech-to-text software to help her get past that!) Mana records voice notes to her phone to be transcribed later.

Kate and Michelle both said that having ideas isn’t the problem for them, most of the time. The problem is usually having the focus to sit down and translate them to paper.

Mana: Watching a movie you know well enough to tune in and out of is a big one for me. Literally any time I NEED to do something in my life, I put on Pride and Prejudice bc I know the film so well and love the score, but it's my ultimate focus movie. I can tune out and write or file taxes or whatever the fuck and tune back in for him to hold her hand helping her in the carriage and then tune back out and repeat this process while the movie plays 6 times in a row.

Michelle: I can't have anything else playing. No music, no TV, no nothing. However, I've discovered that a lava lamp does wonders! When we lived in our apartment in Chicago, I had a great view of the planes coming into O'Hare, and it was an east-facing view, so I saw the sunrise after a long night of writing so many times. My creativity dropped way down when we moved and I no longer had a view to stare at. So, I bought a glitter lava lamp. I love staring into that thing. And then I put up twinkling fairy lights over my desk. Something about that got me going, again. 

Maayan: I use my fish and snail as a lava lamp with the same effect.

Q: What do you do when you’re in the flow, and everything is going great, but you suddenly just stop? You know where you want to go, but you’re suddenly just stuck for no clear reason?

Michelle: I've discovered, and this may not be true for anyone else, but I've discovered that it usually means I've screwed up a little ways back. If I go back to where I last felt like everything was going well, and rethink everything I wrote since then, I've usually made a mistake in that section, and it needs to be rewritten. Whether I've made a character do something that's not in their character, or I've added something (or taken something away) that isn't right, whatever it is, it's in that section. If I just delete it and start writing from the previous good spot, I get going again.

Kate: Yeah. I've read somewhere that when you're stuck, you should go back at least 5 lines and start over. Put those lines away, pick it up again.

Mana: I think that's a big difference between us, Michelle. You can pinpoint a spot where things go awry and back up, cut off what isn't working and restart. I am a stubborn bitch so even if I see that something isn't really working, if I like it even the slightest bit, I refuse to get rid of it or change it. And those are the instances where I 'pick fights' with you and resist your input when you're beta reading for me. Am I the only one that does that? And if so, how are you all able to justify letting go of something that doesn't quite work but you've grown attached to?

Michelle: It’s perfectly okay to set bits aside and use them in other fics! Timestamps. Put it in another fic. Make it a one shot! I cut SO MUCH from Non-Trad, but I loved those parts SO MUCH, and that's how the Timestamps were born. They really didn't fit into the story well. They made it bloated. So I published them separately. Now, finding that I've gone off the rails entirely makes it easier for me to go back and get rid of something.

Q: Tips that we haven’t mentioned, yet?

Kate: Ask for help. Have a beta look it over, or whoever is interested and might be able to add to it.

Michelle: When looking for inspiration, always go back to the source material. It's not lazily, obsessively binge-watching the same show over and over, it's RESEARCH.

Mana: Someone asked what I do to get over it and I said: when I experience writer’s block or when the character I’m trying to write isn’t cooperating with me and I can’t get my brain to function I try to distract myself with something else or another character. Try watching an episode with your character in it, get a refreshed feel of how they move, talk, interact with other characters, draw from the episode or scenarios that you can fill in where the ep didn’t. Or, take ques from other characters, write about someone else for a bit so your mind has a break and time to sort itself out, then go back to what you were working on. 

Another way to get past it is to read other’s work. It may inspire you, make you realize that the story you wanted to tell this way can be told a different way, or give you the kick you need. 

My best answer to this: “If you’re going through hell, keep going.”

When the block hits and you have zero inspiration or motivation, write about anything and everything. Start reading and watching new things to see if it’ll spark something, check out Tumblr and users you don’t follow to get your eyes on some fresh content, write a dramatic scene of you sitting on the couch to hear the doorbell ring and let the suspense grow until you open it to find a pizza man there when you specifically did not order a pizza. Writing through it may spark something, and if not, my best suggestion would be to read. Read your old stuff and that of others, read a new book, read an article on how to beat writer’s block, read through the writer resources tag at the @spnfanficpond…

Mana also gifted us with these lovely links:

Writer’s block app that won’t let you do anything else until you’ve reached your goal.

A lovely gif beautifully encapsulating exactly how writer’s block feels.

General Pond Updates and Reminders

What we’ve got cooking up next: Not much, at the moment, since everyone is busy, so we’re just trying to keep up with the day-to-day at the moment! Our to do list is still long, though, and will not be neglected forever!

Reminders:

Angel Fish Award nominations are accepted all month long! No need to wait to tell us how much you liked a fellow Fish’s work!  IF YOU HAVE SENT IN A NOMINATION, BUT HAVE NOT RECEIVED A PRIVATE MESSAGE CONFIRMING WE RECEIVED IT, WE DIDN’T GET IT. Be sure to use Submit instead of Ask!

Don’t forget to submit your stories to be posted to the blog! When your stories are on the blog, then they are easier to nominate for Angel Fish Awards!

SPNFanFicPond Season 14 Weekly Episode Challenge - Even though season 15 is just around the corner, these prompts will still always be open for you to use! Remember, there’s no deadline for submissions! Just tag the Pond and @mrswhozeewhatsis in your post!

Say hi to August’s New Members!

Check the Pond CALENDAR to see when Big Fish will be in the Skype chat room/discord general channel and other Pond and SPN events are happening! Know of something that’s not on the calendar, send us an ask or submission with the deets info details!  The calendar offers a lot of features, such as showing you when things are in your own timezone! Since we’re an international group, that’s a definite plus!!

We don’t have a topic or speaker set up for October’s event, yet, so if there’s something you want to talk about, or someone you want to talk to, LET US KNOW!

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[fmdduri]

a headcanon about duri & canon group tracks he’s written.

word count: 1,491. about: how duri feels about the tracks he’s written and other information on them that i’ve been thinking about. essentially following his career as a successful songwriter who’s shown the different songs he’s been able to write, with each song being fully written by him.  notes: i honestly kept thinking about this and decided 2 simply talk about it. i thought it would be a good time ! i wrote a lot of this with the way that sm entertainment tends to do lyrics, with the whole pool of lyrics being thrown in, as that seemed to make the most sense to me. other times, duri simply just submitted lyrics to bc and hoped for the best. also duri writing playboy is literally just me being a shawol and i want to admit that out front. 

2012 - the chaser by titan: the first song that is apart of duri’s resume as a songwriter. duri had requested to be able to write a song for titan and bc entertainment suggested duri to add a song to the pool of lyrics for the title track. nervously, duri had agreed and thought really hard about what to portray. he wrote this song while on the rooftop of the dorms one night, deciding to write about essentially a cat and mouse game of trying to win someone back. he wasn’t entirely sure where that came from, but he was thinking upon movies he’s watched and books that he read. reluctantly, duri submitted the lyrics to bc entertainment and to his surprise, his lyrics were the ones that ended up getting picked. he was shocked that he was chosen for the title track of all things, but he took it with pride. this was the song that ultimately ended up gaining titan a lot more attention. to say the least, duri probably cried the most during the chaser’s music show wins due to it’s success and the fact that it really sealed titan as icons in the industry so early on. this is one that he’s very proud of. 

2013 - gee by lily: following the success of the chaser, bc entertainment approached duri the following year to submit lyrics into the pool for lily’s first comeback as a group. due to his friendship with the members of the group, duri agreed once more to write the song. truth be told, he was nervous about writing for another group, especially because bc entertainment had only accepted one song that he wrote, this being the chaser. nonetheless, he still wrote the song after bc entertainment gave him a general idea. duri had written this song about a crush, following his celebrity crush on a popular actor. it was rather cute, something like a little school boy crush that he knew wasn’t serious, but made it serious for the sake of the song. duri, once again, submitted the song into the pool of songs, without thinking much of it. however, bc entertainment would end up telling him that his lyrics were once again picked by staff. the pressure was on, especially because it was for a completely different group. he thought that it was simply just going to be like the chaser, however, the story ended up being different with gee because gee... well, gee really extended duri’s expectations and has become the most popular song that he’s written to this date. duri 100% sobbed when gee was successful because it really showed him what he’s capable of doing, and it was his song that he wrote that got so incredibly popular, soaring to the top of the charts and breaking records. to this day, duri still gets emotional over the success of gee and when people mention that a song he wrote is so popular. plus, the fact that he wrote “listen boy... my first love story. my angel and my girls... my sunshine... uh uh let’s go” is iconic. 

2014 - light by titan: this was the year that duri started having a bit of a crush on maverick. it wasn’t anything crazy and was only small, most of the time it wasn’t really even there. but, it was there sometimes. at the time of writing this song, the crush was there. so, duri had sat down one day and wrote out his feelings onto paper, and taking about how maverick’s smile would make him melt in that sort of way and everything of a cute little crush. duri had submitted the song to bc entertainment, with bc entertainment eventually taking the song to make it a b-side on the album “season 2.” this song ended up being a duri solo song on the album, which seemingly is a bit funny. he did, later on, reveal to maverick that the song was about them when duri had a tiny crush on them for just a little bit. the song ended up doing a bit well, gaining 57 as it’s peak position on the charts. not to mention, hanbyul’s background vocals in the song brings the song to the next level.

2015 - playboy by titan: playboy has probably been the most interesting that duri has written thus far in canon discography. it’s a rather sexy song, that’s simply putting it lightly. however, duri wanted to take a different take on all the other songs that he had written over the years, and this really just showed that. duri listened to a lot of other songs that seemingly follow the vibes of playboy, as well as going through books and movie source material to really try to figure out how to make this song sexy. so, he would end up really just figuring it out and based it off of a lot of the sexy music videos from american artists in the nineties and early two-thousands. thus, due to all of that, duri ended up being able to write a song that just has such a sexy factor to it. he submitted it to bc entertainment, again thinking nothing of it, but bc entertainment ended up accepting it as a b-side for exodus. to date, it’s his most popular b-side written for titan, as it peaked at number 9 on the charts. 

2016 - she’s dreaming by titan: this is the song that had really ended up bringing duri into the zone that he had always been meant for - ballad. it was only time that duri finally ended up writing a ballad, which only makes sense considering he’s now a big balladeer within his own solo career. bc entertainment ultimately needed another b-side for the album, so they approached duri to write the song, especially considering the success of playboy a year prior. duri would end up getting to work rather quickly, as he would end up writing this song one night when he couldn’t sleep (a usual for him.) he sort of wrote the song about himself a bit, in the point of view of someone else and using the pronoun of “she” and portraying himself as cinderella in a way. since, after all, duri is a dreamer. this is duri’s second-best charting b-side he wrote for titan, as it’s peak  position on the charts was number 11. 

2017 - ko ko bop by titan: duri would get the chance to write a title track again come 2017, when bc entertainment approaches him again to write a track. they suggest he write a summer title track and place it in the pool of lyrics. with yet another opportunity to write, duri agrees to do it, and went on his quest for inspiration. he knew he wanted it to be fun, as the summer is just fun under the sun in a way. the first thing he comes across is the 1959 hit,  “shimmy shimmy ko-ko-bop” by little anthony and the imperials. so, he took the ko ko bop part of the song and made it his own. it’s a summer of fun and love, as well as fun dancing. of course, he’s had to explain it a few times, but he’s okay with that. in the end, bc entertainment ended up picking his lyrics once again. this has ended up being his highest charting title track for a titan song that he’s written, as it’s peak position ended up being number 1, and duri was just really proud of himself for accomplishing that with a written song. 

2017 - lights out by titan: this ended up being the second ballad b-side that duri ended up writing for titan. on one of the days that he was having a rather hard time, he ended up writing lights out. this was another thing that he wrote in a point of view that wasn’t technically himself, but made it out to be himself - with a lot of words that he wanted to be told, but words that he wasn’t able to tell him himself. this was also kind of wishing he would just be able to sleep at night, to not be so fearful of his dreams being haunted pretty consistently. in general, it’s a comforting song for himself, and he really has a strong attachment to lights out in general. he would end up submitting these lyrics to bc entertainment, whom would end up using the song for a b-side - which duri was perfectly fine because it would be out there. this was a bit hard for him to record because it did make him rather emotional, but he managed to get through it and kind of played it up as him finding emotions for the song. he’s probably gave some made up reason for the song itself, but he’s really kept the real meaning of the song to himself. 

#☆ ⠀ ── headcanon ⠀ !

[obdurare-archive-blog]

how do you feel about dmtnt?

Lmao oh. Oh, gosh, anon I. /sweatsOkay, yeah, no. I’m glad it’s breathed life into this fandom that I hold nearest and dearest to my heart. I’m glad to see more people in it and talking about it and drawing fanart for it (like this one bc I am not a Sparossa fan at all but the art is lovely and it’s still cute even it’s not my thing and I now subscribe to the headcanon of Hector with full-body freckles). Like I’m glad to see new people come in, and old people return. Feels like home again. I’m glad it’s made so many people happy.ALSO LET ME PREFACE BY SAYING: These are my feelings on the film. In no way do I feel this way about any DMTNT rpers or their interpretations on my dash. You guys are all fucking fabulous with what you’ve done, and I am here to play with you all, no matter how I feel about the source material. You’ve done an amazing fucking job with what you were given and I am in awe of every last one of you. Which goes to show how I feel means not a fiddly fuck, because you guys are giving pure gold. And know that if you wanna ever do a thing, just hit me up. Because I don’t give a good goddamn, we’ll figure it out. I want to write with you. Keep rocking the fuck as hard as you do, and know each of you are here because I want you to be.HOWEVER I have a lot of issues with this film.

I haven’t been shy about my issues with characterization and canon non-compliance within the film. And I’m not about to start now. Me? I hated it. There were a couple of things that rang true to me, that sounded IC to me, but on the whole I felt like it was a tangled, disjointed mess of a movie. But also understand I’m looking at it from a I really love my boy and how does this even work in actual canon standpoint. I think I’d be a lot happier with it if it were treated - in fandom - like a soft reboot with no bearing on the original trilogy? It could work that way. But as it stands, there’s just so much that directly contradicts 14 years of standing canon, I can’t love it, and I can’t really use it.So from a Hectormun perspective:Hector is hollow in this movie. I know a lot of people have feels about him, but from a squinting at his character from every angle view that I have, he doesn’t sound like himself. The Hector Barbossa I know and love would never hide in his cabin with a private band. The Hector Barbossa I know and love is an active, working captain, who is boots on deck at eight bells and out and about amongst his crew. Because he understands that his position as captain only lasts as long as they want him to be captain. He’s vain, but he’s not really flashy. His biggest physical vanity is his hat, and even then it’s feathers in muted, natural colors. He wears old and tattered clothes because that’s not what’s important to him. He doesn’t trim his beard because fuck what Jack thinks, have you seen Jack? He’s a walking disaster.From a character perspective, I have a hard time believing a man who baby talks his pet monkey could leave a daughter of his at an orphanage. Especially an orphanage of the 18th Century. I have a hard time thinking that he would let other people take the experiences from him of braiding his daughter’s hair and reading her bedtime stories. Say what you want about Hector - he’s a hard man - but once he loves, he loves just as hard. And if you don’t think he’d love his baby girl more than anything on the planet you are wrong. It would probably be the first time he’d experience the want to put someone else before his own desires and wants. I’m sorry, I just literally cannot buy he’d do this. Maybe it’s wanting to believe he’s better than what he is, but I don’t think so. I’m eyes-open on the things he’s done for survival. Aware of how terrible he can actually be. But as attached as he gets to his pets, and how the compass pointed to her the entire time he held it, I cannot believe he wouldn’t have had her literally strapped to his fucking side the moment she was born.I have issues with Jack. I have issues how we go from “I’ve never actually been that drunk,” to slurring his words, when Jack has never been like that. Ever. In four movies, and about twenty books. I have issues with Jack demanding tribute. @pearlsparable has written a great thing here about it, you should go check it out. Pirate captains do not demand tribute, or they do not remain captain for very long. I have issues with the production value, too, but that’s another thing entirely. I have massive issues with the change in how Jack got the Wicked Wench. It’s so integral to who he is I feel like changing it cheapens his character so much. It takes away so much depth the original storyline gave him. I have a lot of PoF love, y'all, you’ll pry it from my cold, dead hands. I also have issues with the compass giving. This whole thing has been built around him bartering it from Tia Dalma, and it cheapens her and him to rewrite it because…I haven’t figured out why. I feel like this whole script could have used a cursory wiki check.I have issues with Will and his being a morose bastard about things. Will knew the duty. Will knew he was more suited than Jack to do the duty. Remember that talk on the Pearl? “You have to do the job, Jack. Or end up just like Jones.” Will was meant for the duty. “A touch of destiny.” Tia Dalma knew, too, I believe, when she she laid eyes on him. Also lots of issues with how Henry (I’m sorry, babes, they should have kept with the Williams and this one should have been Willie, Henry jars really bad for some reason) is kind of. Left to swim back to his own boat. I have problems with Henry not being given any depth when he could have been so much more. Like there was so much potential in this film and it all feels flat.I feel like Salazar was so much wasted potential. As is, he’s still great, those special effects are hell unnerving and fucking zombie sharks, I am always here for zombie sharks. But I feel like he could have been expanded on so much more. Look at Hector from CotBP. That’s how you write a sympathetic villain. And Salazar tries to reach that same level of writing craft, but it’s not a fault of Javier Bardem, who is fabulous, but a fault of a shitty script that left him filling in too many details. I’ve seen rpers here who do a much better job of giving him depth and feeling and a solid feeling than that script did. So kudos to you guys for being awesome, too. You’ve made him into what he should have been, and I’m so grateful to see so many talented people picking up the slack there.I’m disappointed in the handling of this romance of Hector’s. She’s a name. A throw away line. If she’s someone Hector Barbossa fell in love with, then she was someone worth remembering. That I promise you. She should have been more than that.I’m angry that the writers can’t seem to write an intelligent female, apparently, so everyone else feels a bit dumbed down to compensate. I’m angry, because this is Hector Barbossa’s fucking daughter and they wrote her so blandly and I saw nothing at all of him in her and I wanted to. I wanted her to be as witty as she’s supposed to be. I want her to be everything she was supposed to be. I’m fucking pissed they give Hector this backstory that 1. doesn’t really jive with original canon and 2. do nothing to actually explain it, on top of short-servicing what should have been the two most important people in his life. You don’t give my boy this and tear it from him two seconds later. You don’t. I’m so glad to see so many good Carinas out there fixing this, making her everything she’s meant to be and more. I’m so glad. I know I can count on fandom when the official source fucks up.I’m super fucking pissed a lot of this with Hector was for a tortuted metaphor. I get why it’s supposed to be super feelsy, but for Hector’s character in totality it makes no sense. I’m angry his death was actually pointless as hell. I know it’s Geoffrey Rush bowing out, he’s said he’s done now, but I’m still mad.I’m just mad, anon. I’m mad I waited this long for this movie, and this is what I got. One that doesn’t even make sense with the rest of the canon and treats all the characters like cardboard pieces that can be moved with no autonomy. One that could have been amazing with a cursory continuity check and some better writers (we also almost had Russio back and I’m salty af about that, too). This movie is an example of something that could have been a wonderful chapter ending, that ended up a goddamn disaster.  I’m mad for all of us, because I feel like we all deserved better.Now that I’ve said all that, lemme say this. You DMTNT rpers? Keep doin’ what you do. Because you guys are 10000% better than the writers of this movie. You’ve actually given these characters some life, so I’m so glad to know each and every one of you. I may not be canon compliant for your guys for all of the above, but that never means I don’t want to write with you. Like I say in my rules, hey. My Hector won’t really have a clue who you are, but he’ll roll with it. And so will I. You guys are 100% welcome here, always. In no way is this a reflection on you, or your quality. Because I wouldn’t be following you if you weren’t quality, and you can take that to the bank like money.

#anonymous #what is it that you want ( asks ) #[i mean it] #[i enjoy each and every one of you] #[and your passion for your characters] #[don't let my opinion make you feel like you are less] #[because you are MORE] #[you've done a fucking fantastic job] #[i can't express that enough]