#even the general lore. there's some fun stuff here but also it's very... american

[clea-dessendre]

starfield is very fun, but it continues the modern Bethesda tradition of mixing some truly wild game design choices with some basic ass writing

[luthwhore]

I want to preface this by saying that I haven't read every comic in which Lex has ever appeared, and most of what I've read has been from the last two decades or from the Bronze Age; I am still working my way through most of his post-crisis/pre-flashpoint content.

These are also recommended based on how much I personally enjoyed them, so there is a bit of subjectivity here. However, if I think a comic is particularly important to Lex’s canon and/or objectively well-written, I will try to make note of it, even if it doesn’t suit my own tastes.

Stuff listed as “further reading” is content I have more mixed feelings about or that features Lex less prominently, but still think is worth a read if you want to dig a little deeper.

There are a few things I recommend avoiding unless you really, really want to read it for historical reasons (often because the comics include triggering content), and I've tried to make note of these as well.

⭐️ = most important for current continuity 💜 = personal favorites

Superman: Birthright by Mark Waid ⭐️

Generally considered the definitive retelling of the Superman origin story, and the comic that reintroduced the idea of Clark Kent and Lex Luthor growing up together in Smallville to the mainline canon after it was written out during Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Further Reading

↳ Superman: Secret Origin (alternate telling from Birthright) ↳ Action Comics Special #1 - "The Last Will & Testament of Lex Luthor" ↳ Superman: American Alien (Superman origin story that actively contradicts Superman: Birthright, but has some fun Lex moments)

Lex Luthor: A Celebration of 75 Years 💜

Not a single comic, but rather a historical account of Lex through the ages. Rather than featuring entire arcs, it tends to feature a single issue that showcases the Lex of each era, so it's a good read to figure out what versions of Lex you personally enjoy. Some of the stories in this collection are included elsewhere on this list.

JLA: Rock of Ages by Grant Morrison (JLA 1998 #10-#15)

Lex and the Injustice Gang take on the Justice League! I really like Lex's characterization here because it really shows how Lex thinks, and it does a great job showing that despite being a villain, Lex does have standards and tries to avoid unnecessary bloodshed.

Salvation Run by Bill Willingham & Lilah Sturges 💜

A villain vs villain story, featuring most of the DCU's villains being stranded off-world together and comparing Lex's style of leadership with the Joker's. Probably one of the best examples I've ever read of exactly how competent Lex is, and seeing him go head-to-head with the Joker is a delight.

Superman: The Black Ring by Paul Cornell (Action Comics #890-#900)

Might be a little hard to follow if you're not familiar with Green Lantern lore, but the arc does a great job with balancing Lex being villainous with still feeling fun and flawed and human. Not a lot of interaction with Superman until the very end, but there is a lot of Lois in this one. (Sort of. You'll see.)

Further Reading

↳ President Luthor: Secret Files and Origins ↳ Superman's Nemesis Lex Luthor ↳ Lex Luthor: Man of Steel ↳ Superman: Last Son ↳ Superman: Unchained

Forever Evil by Geoff Johns ⭐️

The start of Lex's "hero" arc, which spans from the end of n52 until 2018. Functions as a bit of a reset for his character and sets the tone for everything from here on in Lex’s continuity. It gives some insight into Lex’s relationship with Lena post-reboot, and has a very sweet take on his relationship with Bizarro.

Justice League (2011) by Geoff Johns ⭐️ (Lex appears in #30-52, though you can start at #24 if you’re interested in the setup for Forever Evil)

Follows up on the events in Forever Evil and kickstarts Lex’s several years’ long time as a formal part of the Justice League. I really enjoy his dynamics with each of the Trinity here, particularly with Diana. I would recommend the Darkseid War arc in particular (especially if you’re a Clex shipper), but the whole thing is enjoyable. Lena also appears here! Read Justice League: The Darkseid War - Lex Luthor between #45 and #46.

Action Comics: Path of Doom & Men of Steel, by Dan Jurgens ⭐️ (#957-962, #967-970)

Continues on with the “Super-Lex” arc teased at the end of the previous Justice League arc. This is also where Jon Kent (Clark & Lois’s son) is introduced. There’s a lot more Clark & Lex interaction here than most of the other comics in Lex’s hero era, and you do get the sense that he is genuinely trying to do the right thing, even if his motivations for doing so are a bit…self-centered.

Superman: Imperius Lex, by Patrick Gleason & Peter Tomasi ⭐️ (#33-36)

The end of the Super-Lex arc, though not technically the end of Lex’s time as a hero. Make sure to read the n52 Justice League: Darkseid War arc first, since it references the events heavily. Great Clark & Lex content, including a scene of them being stranded on a red sun planet together.

Justice League: No Justice, by Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, & Joshua Williamson

The official end to Lex being a hero and a member of the Justice League, as well as the setup for the Legion of Doom & Year of the Villain arcs. Imo, his reason for becoming a villain again is pretty contrived and frustrating, but it does set up what will end up becoming a very important dynamic between Lex and the Martian Manhunter in the next arc.

Further Reading

↳ Action Comics #23.1 - Bizarro ↳ Action Comics #23.3 - Lex Luthor ↳ Superwoman (2016) #1 - #8

⚠️ Note: Superwoman (2016) issues #1-8 feature both Lex and Lena and follow up on what was set up in Forever Evil and Justice League (2012), but the writing around Lena’s disability is extremely ableist. It does feature a lot of Lena and expands more on the backstory set up in Forever Evil, and there are a few good character moments for Lex, but Lena's treatment is pretty bad, so read with caution. ⚠️

Justice League (2018) by Scott Snyder & James Tynion IV (#1-39)

Lex’s return to classic villainy, along with the Legion of Doom. The arc is a little weird in places and I’m not crazy about some of the choices made, but his dynamic with the other villains is fun, and I enjoy his relationship with the Martian Manhunter. I personally like both Snyder and Tynion as writers enough to power through the general weirdness of this arc, but your mileage may vary. It’s pretty dense and hard to follow at times and I felt like it didn’t really hit its stride until about issue #8, so you might need to power through a bit at the beginning.

Year of the Villain: Hell Arisen by James Tynion IV

Follows up the “Year of the Villain” plot set up in Justice League. It’s weird as hell but it does have some good character moments for him, and more importantly, features the conclusion of the arc.

Further Reading

↳ Justice League Annual #1 ↳ DC’s Year of the Villain Special #1 ↳ Year of the Villain: Lex Luthor 💜 (Features an alternate universe where Lex is married to that universe's Kal-el. No, really.) ↳ Dark Nights: Death Metal ↳ Action Comics #1000 (special anthology issue)

Superman: Son of Kal-El (Annual #1) by Tom Taylor

I don’t have strong enough feelings about Lex in Son of Kal-El for me to recommend the whole series for him alone, but his interactions with both Clark and Jon in the annual are very enjoyable. (If you like the annual and you enjoy Jon, Lex is a recurring character in SoKE, and the series is a pretty quick read.)

Batman: The Abyss, by Joshua Williamson 💜 (Batman (2016) #118-121)

Technically a Batman story, but a very short one. Superman is currently off-world, so naturally Lex needs to find another hero to menace. Williamson is the current writer on the mainline Superman book and imo he is THE best Lex writer at DC. He really captures the way Lex earnestly views himself as a hero while doing the most unhinged bullshit you have ever seen. Worth a read if only to watch Lex take Bruce on the worst date of his life.

Action Comics #1050, by Joshua Williamson, Philip Kennedy Johnson, & Tom Taylor ⭐️

Provides context for the current Superman run. You could technically skip it, but with Williamson as a co-writer, I have no idea why you would want to. Lex is truly a mess in the most enjoyable way here.

Superman (2023), by Joshua Williamson ⭐️

The holy grail, the crown jewel, THE comic to read if you’re a Lex fan. The comic is only a few issues in as of writing this list, but Williamson really hits the perfect balance of making Lex funny and charming while still kind of being an asshole. (Updates monthly, though July-August won’t have new issues while the Knight Terrors arc is coming out.)

Further Reading

↳ Superman: Son of Kal-El ↳ Superman: Kal-El Returns ↳ Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen (2019) ↳ Lazarus Planet: Assault on Krypton ↳ Action Comics: The Rise of Metallo

The Last Days of Lex Luthor, by Mark Waid 💜

Written by the same author as Superman: Birthright. This comic is a Black Label comic, which means it’s not part of the mainline continuity and is more “adult oriented” than the mainstream books, so the writer has significantly more freedom and it shouldn’t take a lot of prior knowledge. In this comic, Lex is dying, and Superman is trying to find a way to save him. (The comic will be 3 issues long, released every other month.) I would strongly recommend reading Superman: Birthright first, though it's not mandatory.

Smallville: Season 11, by Bryan Q Miller 💜

The S11 comic is a little bloated with random cameos from other DC characters and the art is pretty inconsistent at times, but there are some really nice moments in it if you want more Smallville Lex. You can skip the Titans & Lantern arcs if you’re not interested in the extended Smallville universe, but the rest of the comic features Lex pretty heavily. Prepare yourself to cry over Otis. If you read nothing else, read Smallville: Alien, particularly if you're a Clex shipper.

Batman: Last Knight on Earth, by Scott Snyder 💜

A post-apocalyptic/dystopian future story, following Batman as he attempts to make his way back to Gotham. Lex only appears in issue #2, but Scott Snyder really loves his villains unhinged and psychosexually obsessed with their heroes. Lex’s fate in this might make you tear up. ⚠️ Character death warning. ⚠️

Clark & Lex: A Young Superman Graphic Novel, by Brendan Reichs

Young Clark Kent enters a competition to win an internship at Luthorcorp, where he meets and befriends a young Lex Luthor. Heavy Smallville influence is present here! This novel is marketed as the first in a series, so we'll hopefully see more in the future.

Further Reading

↳ All-Star Superman (widely considered one of the best Superman stories ever written, but I would not recommend if you’re new to Superman) ↳ DC Bombshells ↳ Injustice: Gods Among Us / Injustice 2 / Adventures of Superman: Jon Kent (would not recommend these if you’re new to DC)

Prior to the changes made to Lex's lore in the wake of "Crisis on Infinite Earths", Lex had been a mad scientist first and foremost, and had generally been portrayed as fairly human and flawed. This version of Lex grew up in Smallville alongside Clark Kent, though in the 80s and beyond this would be written in and out of his continuity several times.

These can be a little campy and goofy at times, since the comics were still being marketed toward children and were largely episodic, but there are some truly excellent bits of characterization for Lex within the pre-crisis canon, and it really is a treasure trove of Clex content if you're into that.

How Luthor Met Superboy, by Jerry Siegel (Adventure Comics #271)

The original story of Lex and Superboy (Clark) meeting for the first time. Eventually retooled slightly for Elliot Maggin's "The Luthor Nobody Knows" and then massively overhauled for Superman: Birthright, but this is the original, and while a bit corny and dated, some parts of it still hold up!

The Showdown Between Luthor and Superman, by Edmund Hamilton (Superman #164)

Lex and Superman face off on a red sun planet in an attempt to prove once and for all which of the two of them is stronger. The start of the short "Lexor" arc wherein becomes a hero on another planet.

Luthor Unleashed!, by Cary Bates 💜 (Action Comics #544)

The conclusion of the Lexor arc (mentioned above). Lex has a wife and child on Lexor, and considers that he might even be able to let himself be truly happy there. Unfortunately for him, his obsession with Superman wins out.

The Luthor Nobody Knows, by Elliot S! Maggin 💜 (Superman #292)

This story is somewhat of a retelling of "How Luthor Met Superboy", but told via flashback from the perspective of Superman. It's a bit more introspective than the original Silver Age story, with Clark reminiscing on his relationship with Lex.

The Einstein Connection, by Elliot S! Maggin 💜 (Superman #416)

Long before Smallville decided to make Lex an Alexander the Great fanboy, pre-crisis Lex uphold Albert Einstein as one of his heroes. A great character study on pre-crisis Lex, and in general a great example of the more "frenemy"-esque dynamic that Maggin wrote Clark and Lex with.

The Ghost of Superman Future, by Elliot S! Maggin (Superman #416)

A story set in the far future, with an elderly Superman recounting his life, including his friendship with Lex Luthor and all of its many ups and downs and complications. Contains the first-ever reference to the idea of Lexcorp, though it would not be fully incorporated into the mainline canon until post-crisis when Byrne revamped the character. ** If you like this story, I would strongly recommend reading Elliot S! Maggin's short story "Luthor's Gift", as it delves further into the dynamic between Clark, Lex, and Lois and presents a very bittersweet story of the end of Lex and Lois's lives. **

Further Reading

↳ Luthor -- Super-Hero! (Superman #168) ↳ Lex Luthor -- Super Scalp-hunter! (Superman #282) ↳ The Parasite's Power Play (Superman #286) ↳ Seven-foot-two... and Still Growing! (Superman #302) ↳ Welcome to Luthorcon III! (DC Comics Presents: Annual #4)

There are some I would personally recommend only reading for historical purposes, as they do not have a lot of connection to Lex's current characterization and have largely been retconned. These contain some pretty triggering content and I will try to warn for it where appropriate.

Superman (1986) and The Man of Steel (1986) by John Byrne

John Byrne was tasked with rebooting the Superman franchise after Crisis on Infinite Earths and made a lot of sweeping changes to the Superman lore at the time. One of the changes made was to switch Lex from a mad scientist who grew up in Smallville and was friends with Clark Kent as a child to a corrupt billionaire who grew up in Metropolis. A lot of the emotional complexity and depth of the pre-crisis version of Lex was stripped away into making him more unambiguously villainous. The Lex of the Byrne era is... to put it delicately, very predatory and abusive to the women in his life. John Byrne is also a far-right conservative and his politics in general bleed through a lot into his work, so I don't recommend it on... pretty much any level.

Lex Luthor: An Unauthorized Biography by James D. Hudnall

This comic contains Lex's Metropolis-based origin story, which would be his accepted origin from Crisis on Infinite Earths through the publication of Superman: Birthright. On top of lacking most of the aspects of Lex that most people who like him actually appreciate, this comic continues the Byrne-era trend of Lex being sexually predatory and physically abusive to the women in his life. You've been warned.

[chaoticprussia]

hi, you don't have to answer this but are you actually lithuanian?? immigrant who left lithuania? Or born american but lithuanian descent? First generation?

yes?? why would i lie about that lmao. usually when people lie about their race its to pretend to be asian not from the baltics. SNRK

in short my family left lithuania to get away from the soviets and i was born here. yeah. (im pretty sure i explained all this MONTHS ago actually.) thats just on my dads side though since hes the one with the strongest ties. i have no idea whats going on with my moms side she never talks about it. i think shes russian? polish??? haha im the polish lithuanian commonwealth. im just gonna say my mom is american. thats why i just have the lithuanian flag in my bio its the one im closest to and know for sure im 100% am. but i do know theres some other stuff going on but to be fair who in the us is 100% one thing. lol

also were jewish by blood on my dads familys side. probably moms side too judging by our lastnames. but non practicing for what i like to call lore reasons. its all very interesting. i find this stuff interesting. even if its kinda stupid in the eyes of europeans. but i have fun here.

but overall im american still so. who gaf. LOL

[beevean]

I’ve had a lot of problems with Netflix’s Castlevania but I’ve never played the games so all my complaints about it were never from it being a poor adaptation. So reading your posts about just how much it differs has been super interesting and kinda makes me wanna check out the games because the lore and themes just seem so much more unique? Like all the stuff with the Belmont Family and Dracula’s destinies being so intertwined and how that effects the descendants (like Richter) and Dracula being less of a vampire and more like some satan figure in service of Chaos, sounds so much more original than Netflix’s version which just seems like a really generic dark fantasy, but like worse, with all the swearing and sex and just general dismal tone. I feel a bit robbed now because a good adaptation actually sounds like it would really stand out from all the other fantasy shows I see on Netflix and HBO.

Oh 🥰 first of all, it's always nice to hear when people have issues with NFCV without having played the games, because it proves that complaints go far beyond "it's too different :<" (implying everyone who dislikes the show is nothing more than a grumpy old purist, which is not the case). Trust me, as a Berserk fan, NFCV doesn't do anything groundbreaking, and somehow it manages to be more outdated and offensive than a manga started in 1990. Second, I'm very glad you are interested in trying the games! They're a lot of fun :D

I wrote a list of my first picks to play here. However, I skipped on the Classic games on the asker's request: if you're interested, I'd start with Rondo of Blood (appropriate, as it's the game Nocturne allegedly adapts) or Super Castlevania IV. Nocturne also takes a lot of cues from Bloodlines, which is fun but a bit harder, and ofc the original NFCV started off as an adaptation of Dracula's Curse - a good game with quite a bit of replay value, but hard in the Japanese version and outright sadistic in the American version lmao. So I'd save it for later.

Now, if you're playing from the plot, I must say that the games as a standalone tend to be somewhat light in story, and even the most elaborated ones are usually limited by scope or budget and/or feel a little cliché. A good chunk of the lore that connects the whole timeline is tied to manuals (mostly the Japanese ones, because sometimes the English translations made a mess, as it was custom in the '80s), outside materials like mangas, or even character bios in the games' official websites that have long shut down. But it's worth doing some research!

Personally I love this website, for example:

In any case, have fun! 💖

[especdreamy]

Oooo I'd be interested in why erika left splatsville (the in quotes made me go 👀) and how that effected the friendgroup before Dani arrived :0

Oh boy is that a LOADED question!

This is kind of niche splatoon lore but the Splatlands are poorer than Inkadia - And I sprinkled on top A LOT of personal experiences as a Latin American, specially the idea of moving to North America/Europe bc its Better™, to make up this whole narrative that the story has.

Erika, Niki, and Emilio were ALL from poorer neightbourhoods, going to public school and such! (Erika and Niki met Emilio when they all went to a public High school!)

Rowan has always been a bully, Erika's parents worked for one of the restaurants Rowan's family owned, so he kinda felt this "superiority complex" he kinda drilled into Erika's head that she would never get to be any better than she was right now. That she will be stuck, and that she's lesser.

Niki and Erika met after she defended her from Rowan's bullying, they became friends ever since. But because of this harrassment she experienced, and also encouragement from her own family/teachers, Erika always hoped to continue her education abroad and get a better life. She grew up tired of the Splatlands in general: its climate, the people, the chaos of it all. She wanted to get Out of There.

She didn't manage to land into an Inkadian University after graduating, so she continued her normal life with Niki, Emilio, and Rivet (Who they met while turning an abandoned building into a "base" for all of them to hang out in). Despite her having lots of fun with them and loving all her friends (specially Niki, her gf) she STILL was hoping to find a way to get Out.

She was the leader of their team, because she was the smartest and had the better skills, she was also the only one Rivet would listen to, for some reason. In the end, even though they were all good friends and very close, the whole group kind of relied a Bit Too Much on Erika's presence to live in harmony.

So when she left, she kind of did it with very little warning - or at least for Niki and Rivet, because Emilio was able to tell that Erika had been acting weird the months prior and discovered that she had come up with a plan that could get her a scholarship to an Inkadian University. Erika was scared of causing awkwardness in the group by breaking up with Niki and stuff, but in the end she...created a bit of a bigger mess because she left a week after giving out the news.

It was a MESS. Emilio himself has a bit of a grudge against Inkopolis/Inkadia because of the way they tend to look down upon the Splatlands (Reminder of my own little self projection here), and he also suffered A LOT from the pressure of his own family/teachers to Move Out when he never wanted to leave (And thanks to Niki he was able to assert himself bc he tends to be a people pleaser). He kind of felt betrayed by Erika when he found out she wanted to leave.

Niki is arospec (Detail u can find in the pride drawing i made of them), and Erika was the first time she fell in love and she was terrified of it being the last. She struggled so much coming to terms that she might never understand what falling in love is like and now she had to come to terms with maybe never feeling like that again - she was heartbroken. She was in a very deep depressive episode and she was UNBEARABLE.

Rivet was disconcerted by Erika suddenly leaving - they do not cope with loss well, and they kinda went a bit destructive over it (Its HARD to explain fully Rivet is a very peculiar character andhskjdd). They wouldn't listen much to Emilio and they ran away from home after an argument they had with him.

Emilio was the only one who Was Kinda Functional during the fallout, and he was put into A LOT of stress. He's a very responsible guy and now he had to basically take care of EVERYTHING because neither of his friends were taking this situation well, and they were driven into lots of financial problems too.

LOTS of arguments ensued, after Rivet ran away for several months Niki got the wake up call she needed to work on herself and get some more friends for the sake of Emilio. Rivet met Gabriel, who invited them to work for Grizzco from which they saved a lot of money that they gave to Emilio to work on the Financial issues. And In the end things get solved for them all!

As for Erika? Well, she kinda lost communication with them during those months. Niki never replied to her messages because the memory was too painful, Emilio resents her so he stopped talking with her, Rivet doesn't really use a telephone. She at least tries to calm herself down by assuming they're okay, and in the end she can find more happiness and comfort with her life in Inkopolis compared to whatever she had in Splatsville - it was for the best.

Erika left roughly two years before Dani arrived ^_^

[lorz-ix]

Time for another "I was bored this summer so I binged an entire horror series" post

As with the Saw one, I'll keep my thoughts on each entry as brief as possible, since these tend to take a while to write. Also trying to avoid spoiling stuff as much as I can, since that would ruin the point of making recommendations.

The Purge (2013)

When discussing this series, this is pretty much the only one people broadly tolerate. The premise is very easy to understand: the very conservative US government has instituted a "yearly national holiday" during which all crime, with a few extreme exceptions, is made legal for 12 hours. The subtext isn't subtle at all, it's obvious that the government is using this event as a scapegoat to avoid addressing broader social issues. Violent crime is supposedly kept under control because people "relieve their violent feelings" once a year, they don't have to care about poor people and welfare since they're massacred during every purge, as the primary targets of the violence.

It's a very clear satire of how conservatives turn a blind eye to these issues in real life, how they justify violence when it benefits them and the gun lobby, how they're classist as hell, how this classism manifests as racism since it disproportionately affects minorities. You might think the messaging isn't that smart, but I think it's neat, and it's used as pretty cool background for a decent thriller here.

The Purge: Anarchy (2014)

Extremely simple. Do you think you would enjoy some worldbuilding after watching the previous movie? Do you care about the plot of the movie itself, "lore" aside, being super generic? Do you want the political messaging to get even more explicit? Then you might enjoy this.

I really mean it, it's a very nothing movie unless you're the kind of fan who cares about questions being answered rather than following an interesting story.

A nugget of worldbuilding I really like though? The government knows most people don't want to go out there and kill each other or commit crimes for fun, so they manufacture violent incidents to make it look like the purge works. Really makes you think...

The Purge: Election Year (2016)

Hmmmmmm I wonder if the year this came out and that subtitle are related...

A slightly more interesting affair than Anarchy, they at least have some strong stakes in this story. We mainly follow an opposition candidate to the presidency who's rising in popularity and wants to get rid of the purge. We understand that the holiday, despite everything, is very unpopular, but the current government will enlist the help of neo-nazis to get rid of the opposition. The satire is reaching new levels of unsubtlety and I honestly kinda love it.

What I don't love is the implication that winning an election is all it takes to get rid of the problem, along with other milquetoast soy latte liberal takes. Black liberation groups are generally painted in a positive light in the series, but it feels somewhat dishonest when the savior is a white girlboss. Truly a very 2016 movie.

The First Purge (2018)

That first teaser poster was somehow even more 2016 than the previous flick, holy Jesus Christ this is very funny.

I feel pretty much the same as I did with Anarchy. Generic flick, focuses a lot on disadvantaged, african american communities, makes very similar points to the ones we saw before. If again, the "lore" is your thing, this prequel might be of interest, otherwise you can skip it.

The Forever Purge (2021)

Shit, finally something interesting, I thought. This story starts off in a previously unseen setting, a southern town. We get to see the prejudiced relationships between mexican immigrants and wealthy white americans. The premise said "the purgers want to keep the massacre going after it's over", so I thought it meant "banning the purge didn't work", which is the point I wanted to see. But no, we learn very early on that the original party simply won the elections and re-instated the holiday, which is a way more underwhelming way of getting there. The purgers simply don't want the holiday to be over after 12 hours, and somehow things devolve into an uncontrollable nation-wide riot.

Is it more interesting and a bit scarier than most previous entries? Yeah, a bit. Does it bring new possibilities to the table? Yes, sure. Are the added analogies for immigration in this franchise's universe kinda neat? I guess. Does that make for a good movie? Not really. It's, once again, rather generic and forgettable once the actual conflict fully explodes. I really do like these for what they try to say and how explicitly they do so. I wish more movies had these levels of ridiculous, yet more or less adequate political satire.

The Purge (TV series, season 1, 2018)

10 episodes, lads. They're 1 hour long each. Watching this thing would take you longer than all of the movies combined, and let me tell ya, it's not worth it.

Starts off promising enough, it shows us more insight into the religious cults that grew around the purge for example, and that's properly disturbing, but after a while the story stops being intriguing. You quickly realize you're watching another generic bunch of characters go through a mostly forgettable series of perils. Yet again, an interesting world did not make for an interesting story in the slightest. These things aren't even that awful, they're just painfully bland.

The Purge (TV series, season 2, 2019)

Just like S1, it's 10 episodes and they're all one hour long. But thank god, finally this time they had a set of ideas that felt worth watching.

For the first and only time, the story focuses on what happens after the purge is over. How people get traumatized by the violent events. How pro-purge nutjobs eat up and spread propaganda all year round. What happens if shocking acts of violence do happen outside of those 12 hours? What happens if someone tries to kill you during the purge and they fail? How do you cope with the idea that someone wants you dead and no one would do a thing about it because it would have been legal and normal to kill you?

I think that focus on trauma and how the purge affects the psychology of every single person makes for some actually compelling characters for once. Finally, we get a story where we're not completely sure of what will happen next. It's probably not that great in the grand scheme of things, but god dammit, they finally made something remotely worthwhile with this franchise.

[decafbat]

8 for the artist questions?

8. What's an old project idea that you've lost interest in

ok really really long story but when i was in high school i had a big set of characters and a plan laid out for an animated short, that i ended up trying to do for my senior project (my high school did those. they could kinda be whatever you want.) it involved a possum named reuben who worked as a cook in a dilapidated Kowloon Walled City type setting. a terrible setting for the story i realize now. the characters feel plopped into a totally disconnected world. theres no thematic or lore reason i set it in a place like that, and the characters are all so entirely american lmao my little highschool self was just really interested in that kind of stuff i guess. his boss was an incompetent raccoon named pascal, and the plot involved reuben running an errand (buying some cinnamon) for the restaurant after a local celebrity, a bat named Flan, showed up. his order had cinnamon in it and pascal didnt want to have to make an incomplete dish for him because he probably had a huge crush on the guy. coincidentally reuben met up with his friend, a pidgeon named Mochi. (i wish id just leaned full on into the chowder style food names and given pascal a different name lmao idk why i didnt.) thats the gist of it, and i worked on it all throughout my senior year, though at least 80% of that work did not go into the actual animation because i planned it so incredibly poorly. most of my time went into the storyboards, which is the part i actually enjoyed the most.

next, in an act of utter foolishness, i decided to tackle the project of drawing every. single. background. and mind you i did not know how to draw backgrounds. this took me months of time i could have spend animating, and i had to get help from my internet friends just to get it done in a timely manner. i ended up with. 81 BACKGROUNDS. THE AMOUNT ACTUALLY USED IN THE FILM? ABOUT 10. MAYBE.

i did all the voice acting myself, which is the only reason im not linking the final film here beyond general embarrassment over the quality. this was pre-transition and im not comfortable sharing how i sounded back then. in the end, with only a few months left in the year, i finally began animation, and it was quite a lot of fun. sadly, i was tackling all the scenes with no lip-syncing necessary first because i assumed lip-syncing would be very hard with my snouted characters. i didnt ever get to any lip-synced shots, but the scenes i ACTUALLY did get around to animating were a lot of fun.

with my unprepared hubris, i ended up with an 8-minute slideshow of inscrutable storyboard scans punctuated occasionally with animation. i would have preferred to edit the characters into the backgrounds i had worked so hard on, but i had to crunch insanely hard to assemble the final video near the end to meet the time limit, and gladly, covid-19 made it so only my family and teachers were present during the presentation, with my classmates present over a zoom stream, which eased a lot of the embarrassment. i still had to leave the room while the short played. gladly though, they loved it, and thought it was really really funny. i stated boldly that i would FINISH THE SHORT SOMEDAY AND SEND IT OUT TO EVERYONE. at the time i probably meant what i said. id been drawing reuben, pascal, flan and mochi in the corners of my homework every day for years, i was really really passionate about them, but after the school year ended something kind of shifted. coincidentally it lined up with my coming out as trans and drawing Cath for the first time. i lost interest very quickly after that, and my parents were pretty mad that id decided to abandon the project. i guess the pressure probably got to me too. i was burnt out and even i was aware of how messy and flawed the story had come out. i didnt really draw them ever again after that except for a few times. leaving the project behind also ended my hopes of becoming an animator one day, my dream up until that point. it was probably the biggest shift in my artistic direction ive ever had, and im happy that shift happened. even though i left those characters behind almost entirely, they helped me become the person i am today. this of course involves all the times i drew reuben with boobs and thought “this is normal right? its normal that im drawing whats essentially my sona as a girl, right? its normal that i think about reuben transforming into a girl so often right?”

thanks for the question, you definitely landed on one of the ones i had the most to say about lmao, its nice to get to talk about this old abandoned project every once in a while. id still love to answer more if ppl wanna go back and read over that ask post.

[ironloki3]

Thank you for the tag @mandalorian-general

10 Recommended Songs

1. Let's start of with an old favorite of mine (to curse you all)

Yeah, I had a Fnaf Childhood, and I actually kinda miss the good ol' days when Fnaf wasn't so complicated, lore wise.

2. Now a recent favorite

Actually, I only really stared liking that song after I saw it live in February.

3. Imma cheat a little and add a second P!atd song

This song is responsible for me becoming a P!atd fan at all. Sadly, I am too young to have "discovered" them earlier than the Death of a Batchelor Album.

4. Let's get back to the spice stuff

It's also a recent favorite but boy do I love this song. The vibe is just very very nice.

5. A little bit of metal never hurt anyone

Don't really have anything to say to this. I just really like the vibe of the song. Actually will be seeing Sabaton live this May.

6. Down to our last four gotta add a bit of fun here

No joke, I listened to this for about 4 hours on a car ride and even fell asleep while listening to this song, if you can even call it that.

7. Well I think it's time for a little Imagine Dragons (this will be hard I currently like a lot of their songs)

I've decided on this one tho. I can't even pin down why I like this song so much. It somehow just hits the right spots in my brain apparently.

8. Here, I'd like to add a song that I haven't actively listened to in quite some time, but I'm always happy when it ends up in my shuffle songs

Actually, saw someone with a Mother Mother Shirt yesterday, but sadly, I never got the chance to comment on it.

9. Last two, let's go

Really big fan of American Murder Song. Their songs are just simply *chef's kiss*. Actually, nowadays I listen to The Donner Party, but this song is what kinda got me into their music at all.

10. Finally, the last one

I had to add this. I'm not listening to it a lot, but especially when season two of Good Omens will drop, I'll probably add this to my playlist again.

And there you have it folks. 10 Recomended Songs, by me. Some are cursed, some are actually pretty decent, but all of them are definitely approved by me.

As for the tagging of other people I'll only tag my good friends @zukks-dummy-mansion but everyone who ready this can feel free to make their own version of this. Of course there is no pressure on anyone tho.

[kalorphic]

Oh here's some creatures I'd like to see more of in IF/media in general!!:

1. Werewolves. They're not terribly uncommon, but unfortunately they tend to be really one dimensional in a lot of media?? They all have pretty much the same personalities and don't get the depth that some other creatures do, so I'd love for their to be more shy, nerdy, awkward, goofy, etc werewolves, rather than the typical tough, very physical, etc werewolf.

2. Dragons. I always fucking loved dragons as a kid, so anything with dragons will instantly draw my attention (early signs of being queer tbh). I'd especially love more dragons which draw on the lore of them being clever and wise and often walking amongst humans, rather than them being purely animalistic and violent.

3. Eldritch angels. Like listen, I guess pretty gentle humanlike angels are what most people picture first, but angels from any actual religious text were fucking terrifying. They were rarely even humanoid, much less able to pass for a human with wings, and they tended to be very different from humans in the way that they perceived and interacted with the world. Basically just because a creature is Good and Righteous, doesn't mean that it's in any way merciful or normal or kind.

4. Androids. This admittedly comes out of the fact that Data from Star Trek was my first big fictional crush. Also they're a really compelling way to explore humanity and the boundaries of what makes someone a person.

5. Aliens and specifically very non human ones. I don't mind in live action productions when aliens end up looking like humans painted blue or whatever because I get that that's a budget thing, but when you're writing I think you should absolutely get wild with what aliens look like. Also more aliens that actually act like it please?? Like there's absolutely no reason that a species that evolved on a completely different planet would have the same social norms, political systems, moral beliefs, gender binary, etc as modern White Western human beings when not even all humans share those norms, so it just comes off as annoying and ridiculous that pretty much all aliens in fiction are pretty close to how the average modern White American or British person would think and behave.

Sorry for my Big Speech on all of this stuff, I just have A Lot of feelings about this!! Thanks for opening up this question for people!!

That’s okay! I love opening up questions for everyone, it’s great to see everyone’s opinions and ideas and it’s fun to interact with people! 🤍

I honestly don’t think I can add much here though lol! But I’ll try:

I actually love when you have shy, nerdy, awkward characters who are tall and muscular/heavily built and add that in with them being a really sweet werewolf characters who just wants a hug…yeah.

I remember reading something when I was younger about a benevolent and wise dragon with a great sense of humour who befriended the protagonists and they went on adventures together and I can’t remember what it was called :( but I would love to see some dragons characters like that.

The concept art for eldritch angels are stunning!! I get why people don’t really use them as ROs lol, but they could be utilised as NPC’s a lot more (scary eldritch angels as mentors/guardians/messengers who not hesitate to destroy you or others if needed).

Data (but like Lore as well 👀)!! I loved him so much, his mannerisms and confusion about humans really made him a great character. But yes, I agree!

There really isn’t much at all I can add here, but yes, yes, yes!! Please I would absolutely love to see people’s imaginations just go completely wild with alien designs and cultures and personalities. Especially with the creativity in the IF community!

[acerace]

...you have opened my eyes to a vast universe of VintageBeef lore that I was unaware of. I knew about the New Hermit Order, of course, and the UHC invention, and I've watched a few of his CTM things but -- I will take all the info and lore you feel like giving out because Beef is amazing and my knowledge is so small.

Vintagebeef my beloved <3

So the thing is, right, until about 2016 I only watched two (2) youtubers- Vintagebeef for Minecraft and aDrive for Pokemon (and funnily enough both of them are named Dan irl). So I've watched most of Beef's videos over the years and have a general knowledge of most of his stuff, except because it's been like a decade I don't remember where most of the lore comes from XD

The thing with him is that he doesn't do Lore tm the way other mcyters often do lore- he doesn't have an extensive RP series to draw from like Grian, doesn't have a solo world with steadily increasing amounts of lore like Etho or Zisteau, and while he's played on SMPs and been involved in storylines before it's not really the focus of his episodes unlike with Evo or Legacy or Empires

So where does that leave us?

IRL, Beef always has multiple series running at the same time. Often he's playing on an smp while doing a singleplayer, often modded, series as well as a CTM or modpack with a group of friends. For example, right now he's playing on Hermitcraft, doing weekly Pixelmon and Building a Zoo episodes, and a CTM map with Slip. And to me, this translates to one thing: Beef is an adventurer. He travels frequently- he explores a world and when he decides he's done, he leaves for the next one. That's the basis of my personal interpretation of his series and his character for my writing.

Ok so reading this back, this got extremely long and didn't explain much in the way of lore, somehow? If anyone has any additions to add please do so, I am very definitely leaving out a lot and would love to see what other lore people remember and are using for Beef! I didn’t include the Hermitcraft stuff since my memory of season 4 is blurry (his base was themed after the Martian, that much I know, and he and Iskall were buddies :D) and most of the s5 NHO lore is best watched from Bdub’s perspective from what I remember, and the only s6 stuff is a single line in Hermitgang and then the Area 77 arc with its possibility of an NHO reunion which we did not get rip. And s7 of course had the cloning machine and also the Podzol Party as the main lore. So all the original rambling is still below the cut though it is very long, and I'm gonna bullet point the main stuff here instead:

Actual canonical things:

Invented UHC and was the only survivor of the first ever uhc (Mindcrack UHC s1)

Married to an ender dragon (one of the UHCs I think), later father to a different dragon (Mindcrack season 3? I think?)

Might not have legs if you choose to take that joke as canon (Mindcrack s2)

Was a wizard (RAD)

is a zookeeper (Building a Zoo) 

Had a wife and kids (Sims in Minecraft)

Part of the Trial of the B Team court case (Mindcrack)

NHO founder, founder of the Podzol Party (Hermitcraft)

Created a cloning machine that sort of works (Hermitcraft)

Played the Forest which is I believe the first time he and Keralis played together (look up the trigger warnings for this one, it's a horror game)

Was the creator/owner of Sourceblock SMP (featuring some familiar faces if you know Legacy, Empires, or MCC) and there is literal magic from a mysterious sourceblock of water that teleports people and summons mobs and probably more stuff that I haven't seen yet since I'm still watching it myself

Things you can infer:

Good with animals (Life in the Woods, Pixelmon, Ark)

Is a car nerd (irl and all of the car games he's played)

Is a highly experienced adventurer who has traveled through dozens of worlds both vanilla and modded, across multiple dimensions (Twilight Forest, the Aether, the Betweenlands, Limbo), completed dozens of monuments, fought in blood sports, survived apocalypse after apocalypse, tamed dinosaurs, and played a lot of prop hunt and golf with your friends

If you're looking for what to watch for lore purposes, I'd say the Mindcrack UHCs and Team Canada's RAD series are pretty good, definitely Sourceblock and HC s5, plus the Diversity CTM maps and Ruins of the Mindcrackers maybe? And Mindcrack Prank Wars for the chaos and the origin of Team Canada. And if you can handle horror than the Forest is fun and if you don't do horror you can watch the Pojkband play golf or prop hunt they're hilarious I love them sm I want a Pojkband reunion So Bad 

Beef's first series was a singleplayer series in beta 1.4_01 though he had played the game extensively before that, and was a big fan of Guude, having watched his own Minecraft videos. The series was functionally a hardcore one where if he died Beef would delete the world and start again! I haven't actually Watched this series so idk if he died or how often lmao. When Guude made Mindcrack, which was btw one of the very first Minecraft SMPs, he also hosted a competition for people to join, and Beef submitted a video (which is still viewable on his channel I believe!) and won, and was added to Mindcrack in season 2 :D (fun fact, Guude said that even if Beef hadn’t won he would have added him anyway) 

Two running jokes emerged from Mindcrack- pulling a Vintagebeef and Beef doesn't have legs. The first is a reference to Beef dying of fall damage (I believe the exact instance was him trying to jump into his swimming pool and failing spectacularly) and after the incident, every time someone died of fall damage they were pulling a Vintagebeef. The second joke comes from Guude, who joked that the reason Beef wasn't going to a convention was because he didn't have legs, and then he pranked Beef's base by building a giant pair of legs at the entrance to his castle so you had to walk between them to get into the base. This joke has long since died and both Beef and Guude feel pretty bad about it iirc because there were people who genuinely thought Beef was disabled and were emailing him supportive messages and stuff oops. So if you go looking on the Salad or find old Mindcrack fics, you might see references to Beef having prosthetic legs!

Mindcrack also brought about the creation of several Player groups- Team Nancy Drew, Team Canada, and GOB to name a few relevant to Beef. Team Nancy Drew consists of Beef, Pauseunpause, Guude, and Baj, who formed to investigate a prank on one of the members but I forget who. They're named Nancy Drew after the detective! Team Canada also formed in retaliation to pranks, with it consisting of Beef, Etho, and Pause, the three Canadian members on the server (not including Adlington who moved to Canada but never joined the group). There was also a Team America who pranked them with American flags everywhere. GOB is Guude, OMGChad, and Beef, who played stuff like the Ragecraft, Pantheon, and Monstrosity ctms together but that's way down the line lol

Team Nancy Drew is also notable for inventing UHC. It was Beef's brainchild but it was the four of them who first played it! The first UHC had the four of them working to kill the dragon with no natural regen, with everyone dying but Beef, who "won" the UHC. The second uhc was still dragon focused and iirc is where Beef married the dragon? Memories are hazy but they do kill the dragon in this one I think. UHC was then revamped as a pvp event and became a regular Mindcrack game every few months, featuring most of the Mindcrackers and several special guests, including Dinnerbone, who as we know Thanos-snapped Doc's arm out of existence as a result of Doc killing him in one of them

In one of the seasons of Mindcrack, Beef invited swedish Mindcracker and good friend Anderzel to go caving with him and invented ABBA Rules caving, where the winner takes it all. ABBA Rules is a game where each ore (and also dungeon loot like nametags) is assigned a point value and the person with the most points at the end wins and gets to keep all the stuff collected from the game.

In Mindcrack season 3?, Beef punched the ender dragon in an... awkward area, so when the dragon died and left the egg behind, Guude said Beef was the father of the egg XD I don't remember if I watched s3 so I have no idea if anything Happened with this concept but *history of the world voice* you could make lore out of this!

So Team Canada has played a Lot of CTM maps (which fun fact were pretty much invented by another Mindcrack member, Vechs, with his Super Hostile series! Super Hostile has a bunch of things called "Zistonian", which are references to another Mindcrack member Zisteau, who has a very wild singleplayer series with even wilder lore but I digress). In Ruins of the Mindcrackers, they had a running joke that Beef was Etho and Pause's mom, which is a joke we can leave in the past actually /lh. They also played all the Diversity maps, Sky Factory, Terra Restore, Uncharted Territory uhhh and a couple more ctms and adventure maps! Each map kinda has its own story so in Diversity 3 for example they were trapped in a simulation? I think? Team Canada also recently played the Roguelike Adventures and Dungeons modpack, aka RAD, in which Beef was a wizard with a magic staff that could do anything from summon lightning to control hostile mobs.

Sourceblock SMP is a vanilla survival 1.14 series that ran for one season and the series starts with each of the Players being drawn to a strange sparkling water source that, once they touch it, brings them to the Sourceblock world. It also summons a giant zombie at one point. There's probably more lore for this series but like I said I haven't watched it all the way through yet 

He has a Patreon server called VintageCraft and has done a series or two on there as well, and played a few UHCs with them, so lore that how you will! 

Beef also played a few popular mods, notably Pixelmon, Life in the Woods, and Feed the Beast, with LitW being singleplayer and the other multiplayer. He's also recently played the Zoo and Wild Animals mod a lot. He did a short series with the Minecraft Comes Alive mod where he married one of the villagers and had two children, so that's canon now :D he’s played a Lot of Pixelmon starting when the mod first came out iirc (he chose Turtwig in his first series and built a Grass gym, then made a Normal gym in another series in uhh 2016) and he still plays to this day. Quite a few Hermits played on his Pixelmon servers with him, like Wels, Etho, Iskall, Stress, Slip, Zueljin, and also Guude and Phedran (a Mindcrack adjacent player and creator of the LitW modpack) and a few Mindcrackers on the older servers 

Mindcrack and friends played a lot of other games too- 7 Days to Die, Ark Survival Evolved, Unturned, to name a few, so you can pull a lot of lore out of these as well. Speaking of friends and non-Minecraft games, Beef teamed up with Pause, Keralis, and Slip (a former Hermit) to play the horror game the Forest, which saw them stuck on an island trying to survive against terrifying mutated human... things. They played it a few times as the game updated but as afaik it's the first time Beef played with Keralis and possibly Slip and since the game starts with the Player's airplane crashing, that could totally be how Beef first met them in-universe 

I... think? that’s everything I mentioned in the tags? There is probably way more stuff I’ve forgotten that stems from inside jokes and things that happen within each series, but I hope that was a) helpful and b) at least somewhat comprehensible lmao 

[james-fun-in-the-sunderland]

1, 6, 8, 11, 14, 21, 22, 26, 28, 29, 30. maybe too many for one post but u can split it up as u like.

HIIII you always give me a billion qs from ask games i love u sm for it <3

obligatory link back to the npc ask game

1. What’s your NPC creation process like?

ALREADY ANSWERED FOOL!! (/j <3)

6. How do you pick names for NPCs?

same way i pick names for ocs of mine! if theyre not a one off npc or one off turned main npc then i search for a name that has a meaning relevant to who they are as a character! (swords's last name is lyon and her symbolic animal is a lion... winifreds name means reconciliation, giving her a fun ironic twist since she wants to KILL her ex husband soso bad lol) but if theyre a one off then typically i just generate the name using this american name generator and pick something i think fits the character at hand!

the only one that doesnt fit in either here is jacques who as i belief i said is named off of my old cat with the same name <3

8. What kinds of NPC (personality, class, culture, age, whatever occurs to you!) tends to be your favorite to make and/or play?

i really enjoy fucked up dudes!!!! if it werent obvious from my ocs... this was supposed to be a lighter campaign but i really love tragedy and making people have OBVIOUS issues and its fun to have stuff with those play out with the players, sometimes even being used to bounce off the players! also i like magic users. theyre fun. or people involved with the gods of this world! i think i really really enjoy making people who give off lore hints or just straight up tell you interesting stuff about the world c:

11. (which oc is...) Most unique?

oh this is a hard one... if we mean in context of the world itself like in that world then i would have to say speciallest girl ever henrietta but also not really bc theres also vanya.... hmmmmmmm but out of context i would have to say probably daggers, swords or dr. shi, i feel like those three have a good spread of not being too like many of my other ocs! (daggers having lots of image issues and being outwardly guilt trippy and feminine, swords being impulsive and almost like a shonen character, and dr shi being very monotone and intelligent (i like my dumbasses) plus all three have big as hell prides, they think they are HOT shit)

(putting the rest under a readmore so that people dont hate seeing me on their dash)

14. Most likely to be on a reality show?

HARD TO TELL... first instinct is to say daggers or swords bc those two interact with media enough to want to go onto a reality show (or henrietta bc shes. you know. leader of the old rebellion imagine the numbers that could do for the show) but i think final answer would be delilah bc not only would she LOVE to be on tv but she would like have an AWESOME time

21. Which NPC is the easiest for you to roleplay? Why?

ALREADY ANSWERED AGAIN!!!!!!

22. Which NPC is the most difficult to roleplay? Why?

ouhhh hard one here but id probably say first of all vanya bc my russian accent skills are NOT there. but in terms of personality and roleplaying in general not just speaking as them then probably wiz or daggers! both have to have an incredible amount of balance, in daggers's case its so that she is nuanced and not an annoying caricature considering my concept for her and with wiz its just . not revealing some things too early and not revealing some things too late, plus hes the quest giver and PLUS idk why but doing his voice gives me troubles. this is all ironic bc he is like. one of my favorite npcs lmao (hes better in writing IMO)

26. Which NPC is YOUR least favorite and why?

oh interesting... this is like having to say i hate one of my children i really never dislike any characters i create i just get agonies over them tbh but if i HAD to choose one..... hmmm probably vanya and/or richter, i really enjoy them conceptually but i feel like i fumble them too much and their story, while interesting and exciting in the beginning, became a bit more extraneous as time went on ! but really its not by much that i dislike them, i really love every npc i make

28. Is there any NPC you wish your party interacted with more?

THREE STRIKES YOURE OUT SIR !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

29. Are there any NPCs you wish you could play as a PC one day?

wiz probably fits most closely into the type of pc i would create for a game like this! however if i would want to be more fun more creative then i would actually really like to play jacques or vanya, mostly because they also are the types of characters i would make and they are easily translateable into a pc for this specific campaign (both in stat ways and in story ways!) as for a complete wildcard i think also playing as someone closer to the religion of this campaign (swords, rhys, etc) would be very interesting ! but im sure if i were to recycle a character concept from this game i would not expect who i would choose in the future...

30. Bonus question! Answer any that you haven’t been asked, or talk about any NPC you want!

oh god an open ended q ummm this is really the hardest question ever . i will give you a few little tidbits abt characters not on their toyhouse and not like fully really talked abt i tink...

Vanya is based on a character from dungeon meshi and originally followed this characters plot way more closely before i changed her up! not saying who tho

hook and rex came out to each other at the exact same time (as trans).... it was really funny and they almost immediately did a fun little clothes swap :)

even though wiz has his 50 ft vision, sometimes bc of habit when hes in his house he wont use it and if he has a guest he will often times get spooked by them... he feels silly after it happens every time lol

jacques is bisexual. also has never dated anyone ever. (he feels like its weird to date anyone from the village hes from bc everyones kinda like family there...)

rhys and the griffin god priest (mr hightower) have actually met once on occasion, they found each others company very enlightening but will not meet again ever

[hawkland]

(Mostly) Destiel Fic Recs #5

This is a LONG recs post because it’s been a while since I did an update and I fell hard into reading one author’s work (DeanRH). In fact I could easily do a rec post just of their fics alone, but for this round I’m just going to pick out a handful of my absolute favorites so far, the ones I’d recommend to start out with, along with more other authors’ works I’ve especially enjoyed lately.

Absolution at the Five-and-Dime by DeanRH (125k)  - this is perhaps THEE DeanRH fic to start with if you want a good, long read with a little bit of everything (Roadtrips! Intriguing casefic! Americana! Tasty Dean/Cas pining! Wing!kink and unique angel lore! Kinky soul fisting and tentacles!) It’s kind of two of parallel stories in one: the first, a flashback to Dean and Sam's first year hunting on their own (as well as trying to avoid hunting, and John in general); the second on how Dean and Cas finally get together during an unusual case and when Dean is able to really let go of his past trauma and accept himself/accept love from Cas. 

What I love about DeanRH’s work is that they write from the unique point of view of a drifter, so they understand living on the road, traveling place to place, and the highs and lows of that life like no others I’ve encountered in SPN before. (The author’s notes are often as much fun to read as the stories themselves). They also write a kickass angel!Cas and never lose sight of his non-human traits and background. Their writing style is unique - almost poetic in nature, and I know some readers have found it difficult to get into. But it works really well for me in their SPN fic...gives it the flavor of oral story telling as might actually happen at a drifter’s camp (with one story written exactly as such). Be warned this particular fic does play up the idea of John Winchester being mentally abusive and Dean having to turn tricks when he was younger in order to support him and Sam, so there is some dark stuff. But as someone who grew up with mentally abusive parent, reading this was extremely cathartic to me and believably written (unlike some stories that go too over the top with abusive John, or just don't understand how that kind of abuse leaves lifetime psychological scars.)

The rest of this round’s recs below the cut.

Carnevale by DeanRH (18k) - Actually the first fic by this author I read, because I just couldn’t resist a story set in my favorite place in the world, Venice, Italy. Castiel is the Angel of Venice, banished there for so long he does not even know or remember the reasons why. But Carnevale season is the one time a year he can let his wings out - figuratively and literally. And during this particular Carnevale season, he meets an intriguing masked young American tourist there with his brother and their one night stand turns into something far more powerful than either expected. This one’s hot, romantic, and achingly sad at the end as it all ties together unexpectedly with canon-verse...though with a hint for the future so it’s definitely not totally sad. I loved how DeanRH clearly understands Venice as a fellow lover of the city, the side of it most tourists never see unless they spend a long time there. This story made me cry just from wanting to be back in Venice again.

Ice cream was sweeter, food more satisfying, everything was an epicurean delight. There was just something magical about Venice, and he had lived here in the city for hundreds of years, so the shine should have worn off by now.

But it didn't, and there was always something more, something wonderful to discover around the next corner. The painted eaves of a church. The beauty of two women dancing with flowers in their teeth across the Piazza San Marco one day, overcome by the sheer joy of just being there. The way the university students still created Venetian masks, like Castiel's extravagant volto mask and Dean's humble servetta muta, with crafts that had been handed down across the generations. The morning silence that lay against the stones.

Hard Landing by DeanRH (26.9k) - A bit similar in theme to Carnevale. A pre-series Dean and Sam are sight-seeing in Spain when an angel, struck by a babel-spell, crash lands right in front of Dean. A strange yet seriously hot encounter with the angel turns into something much more complicated when the brothers return home and realize something more serious is afoot and they are both trapped in the middle of it. This is another story where things are very much not as they seem at first (as fun as that is!) It features master strategist Cas at his best, with a side helping of delightful trickery care of Gabriel and Balthazar as they deal with Lucifer, Michael...and a few others along the way.

The Sacred Band of Thebes by DeanRH (14.5k) - The last DeanRH fic I’m gonna allow myself to include in this round up, because it’s just very soft and sweet and beautiful - for a story about Dean & Cas being magically transported back in time to ancient Sparta! This is another story infused with a great knowledge of place and history, with some wonderfully delightful original characters added in that make it all the more enjoyable to read.

And now on to some other authors, I promise!

IPAMIS OL OLPRIT by emmbrancsxx0 (56k). A really wonderful fic that take a different look at what might have happened with a temporarily resurrected John Winchester during Season 14. Dean & Cas are in an established relationship here, and John here isn’t too happy about it — though mostly because he sees Cas (and Jack) as monsters, the kind of monsters he spent his lifetime hunting. This is a great fic for the emotional complexity of how John, Dean and Cas are all handled. John isn’t a cardboard evil dad, Dean is struggling between his loyalty to his father and to Cas, and Cas is increasingly bitchy/frustrated at Dean still being so desperate for his father’s approval (and all the more complex for not just being a quietly suffering perfect supporting boyfriend.) There’s some great action sequences in this too along with the emotional angst and a delicious dose of hurt!Cas if that’s your thing (as it is for me :D)

Abrenuntio by Neonbat (51k). A very dark but compelling AU take on the/a apocalypse universe. Dean, Sam and John are all alive in this post-angel war-apocalyptic world. They are part of a group of human survivors fighting against the angel army when they manage to capture “Blue” — a particularly feared angel of death. Dean is tasked with bringing Blue in for interrogation and he becomes a prisoner in their camp after John is killed. As mentioned, this is a pretty dark/sad fic (with some rather gruesome torture scenes) but I still found it quite compelling as a look at how things could have gone in some other parallel universe. And somehow the author manages to make the Dean/Cas relationship come together despite them starting out as complete enemies. This is one of those AUs that works for me because the core of the characters really shine through despite the differences in the setting.

if it all fell to pieces tomorrow by spocklee (37k) - a gorgeous post-Empty rescue fic that takes an approach I haven’t really seen explored in detail before (despite being something I’ve actually thought about as something that could’ve happened.) What if Cas has spent so long denying himself happiness, and then trapped in regrets and false-rescue scenarios created by the Empty, that he can’t trust that his rescue is real? And so he runs off to be on his own - literally stealing the Impala because he can’t handle being in Dean’s presence one moment longer - and only slowly comes to terms with the idea that it’s over now and he can be happy with/around his friends and family. This one’s both deliciously angsty and at times funny/sweet, looking at Cas’s relationships not just with Dean but with Sam, Jack, Claire, even Eileen. It does some fun stuff with other returned angels and demons who now find themselves back on Earth (and human), and...I just really enjoyed this one a lot.

Both Saved and Lost by angelfishofthelord (13.7k) Gen Cas character study, absolutely gorgeous and sad and one of those fic I couldn’t stop thinking about the day after reading it. AU where Apocaverse!Cas isn’t immediately killed by our Cas during 13x22 but instead hitches a ride back to the main ‘verse. Dean and Sam want to keep him alive for information on Michael; Cas is torn and trying to figure out just how similar—or different—they really are. Some great angel stuff here (I also highly recommend this author’s Jack & Cas “dadstiel” fics, they’re equally lovely and heartbreaking at the same time.)

flesh of the mighty by Mudprophet (2.7k) - THEE “What exactly did Dean eat in Purgatory, anyway?” fic you’ve probably already heard about. *cough* I’ve been trying to work up the courage to read this one for a while and finally gave in and OH MY CHUCK I’m so glad I did. It’s perversely disturbing and beautiful at the same time, Cas is wonderfully DERANGED and ALIEN in that way that I love it when fics managed to convey just how much angels are NOT human. Do heed the tags.

Full of Grace by ilovehowyouletmefall (11k) - Another one for the weird-as-fuck-angel!Cas lovers’ list. Heaven/canon-compliant fic where Dean knows he should feel happy and at peace but he just...isn’t, even with Cas and all of his friends and family there. He finally goes looking for Cas when he’s been absent for a time and, for the first time, gets to not just see but experience his true form. Another one that hits some kinks I knew I had and others I didn’t...until now. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

don't ask me where i've been by saltwound / @1x06 (8k) - I can never resist a good 09x06 fiction gap fic! What makes this one really stand out is how well it captures Cas’s internal voice - his struggles adapting to human senses, limitations and emotions versus what/how he experienced things as an angel. The longing and feelings between Dean & Cas here are so achingly beautiful and I just wanted to cry when Cas says he misses hearing Dean’s prayers, so Dean, he...oh, I’m not going to spoil it. *happy sigh* Just read it.

this room is wrong by DarkHeartInTheSky (12k) - Sometimes I like torturing myself with some good 15x03 divorce arc angst and this fic hit that button just so. It’s an alternative take on where Cas might have ended up after leaving the bunker and features some great Cas & Sam friendship feels, when Sam sets out to try to bring Cas home. It’s all the stuff you’d wish the writers would’ve let them talk out in canon.

Well that’s more than enough for this round! Go forth, read and give some great writers some kudos & comment love!

[ectonurites]

this is a calm anon ask. hi sam :) hope your day is going well! have you read any comics lately that you particularly liked? (this is an invitation to infodump if you'd like)

thank u for ur calm energy, my day has been ok! i've honestly had some ongoing family stuff that is not good happening in the bg of everything else in life so i'm kinda highly emotionally drained from it, but otherwise like, things are ok.

[ok edit that while i was in the middle of answering this ask my dog threw up on my mom's bed so i then just had to go help clean that up which was not very pleasant dsgfdfh]

TBH I haven't been doing too much comic reading lately aside from keeping up with ongoings, just between trying to get back on track with art commissions and also doing some other freelance graphics work for my friend's news site i've been a bit drained, BUT this past week I was actually really surprised by how much I liked the Batman Secret Files: Miracle Molly oneshot!

the art was a haunting kind of pretty

(Batman Secret Files: Miracle Molly #1)

which was absolutely perfect for the story it was telling. like it's... a lot to do with societal pressures (and pressures within a relationship, within your own family) as well as how shitty workplaces can be when you're passionate about the work but the company is just looking to exploit you that... hits a certain kind of way. Miracle Molly's so new of a character that I'd been kinda struggling to get a read on her so far, but this definitely like, explained a lot, what pushed her to join the Unsanity Collective and everything. I think she's neat and I do hope she sticks around Gotham even after Tynion leaves DC!

Then the other reading hole I was going down recently was less with DC comics stuff but just looking into some comic book history local to my area (I talked abt this a bit yesterday), particularly because my town is like a referenced location in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles lore because the studio that created them (Mirage) was based here for the majority of the time it existed (LIKE apparently there's an arc earlier in the current IDW TMNT series named after my town?? its so funny). I never got into TMNT much as a franchise but it's just super interesting that like, the building a lot of their early stuff got made in was basically down the street from where I grew up (just... ya know much earlier sdgfdhhgfj)!

And it wasn't until reading some interviews and stuff the other day I realized it all related to a talk at my college Denis Kitchen gave a few years back about the underground comix movement (because he'd actually moved Kitchen Sink Press up here to my area after a merger with one of Eastman's [a co-creator of the turtles] other comic publishing ventures called Tundra, shortly before KSP went under) like... its just really cool that there's so much of that history that's so closely related to what i'm interested in Right Where I've Lived. Even though overall i'm most into DC in terms of comics which doesn't rlly have any notable history here, I do think comics in general as a medium are fascinating and I always have. It also all reminded me of how there had been another talk at my college a few years earlier with Howard Cruse author of Stuck Rubber Baby (which was like a very monumental piece of gay comics history) which was really cool to get to hear about from the author too! It's really sad that he's now passed away but I'm so glad I got to meet him. (His talk had also been at a perfect time for me because that it was back during the semester I was writing my 12 page [17 with full citations and images] paper on Fun Home & Alison Bechdel for my Women in American Art History class, and she had written one of the introductions for a later edition of Cruse's book because he was a huge influence for her)

anyways um in conclusion comics r cool <3

[mst3kproject]

Invasion of the Star Creatures

I promised you guys something truly awful this week, didn’t I?  Well, how about a space invasion ‘comedy’ (big emphasis on the air quotes there) produced by Samuel Zarkoff to be a double-bill with The Brain that Wouldn’t Die?  The closest thing it has to a star is Frankie Ray, whom MSTies might know as the writer of Laserblast.  He also wrote Zoltan, Hound of Dracula, which I really, really need to see one of these days.  Film Historian Bill Warren described Invasion of the Star Creatures as ‘so helplessly bad it’s almost unwatchable’.  Let’s find out if he was right.

Fort Nicholson is the world’s center for atomic research, despite apparently being staffed entirely by idiots.  The two biggest idiots are, unfortunately, our main characters.  Their names are Philbrick and Penn.  No, I don’t know which is which.  No, I don’t care.  I’m gonna call them Rick and Rick With The Squeaky Voice.  The first ‘comedic’ sequence involves Rick With The Squeaky Voice sitting in a barrel pretending he’s going to space, and getting his ass set on fire.

That sets the tone for the whole movie quite nicely. It’s stupid and it’s not funny, and it never gets any better.  In fact, as we shall see, it gets significantly worse.

For some reason, Rick and Rick With The Squeaky Voice are assigned to a mission to explore a cave recently exposed by a nuclear test.  This turns out to be the base for two seven-foot space women, Tanga and Pona, and their tuberous minions, the Vege-Men, and the entire party is soon in their clutches.  The aliens say that they have come to save humanity from destroying ourselves through nuclear war, but naturally the army isn’t into that.  Rick With The Squeaky Voice discovers that kissing the women puts them into a daze, allowing the two idiots to escape, but of course nobody back at Fort Nicholson believes their story.  Is it really up to these two to stop Tanga and Pona from heading back to their home planet with their report?  We’re doomed.

I don’t remember which review it was, but I once invited you to imagine a movie in which every character is Dropo or Watney Smith.  This is that movie.  This is proud of being that movie.  The aliens try to read the two Ricks’ minds and one is completely empty while the other is full of superhero fantasies.  Pona calls what she sees ‘completely illogical and infantile’, which is a fair description of the whole movie.

There’s a sequence where one of the army men shoots a rattlesnake that was about to bite one of the Ricks, and then cries because ‘he might have had a family’.  They try to lampoon the thing in old movies where the characters walk through the same set from different angles by doing it without cutting away or changing the camera angle, but it just looks dumb.  The Colonel gives a long-winded speech about the merits of getting straight to the point.  A forced march stops for a lovely picnic and wine tasting.  A guy gets his ass kicked by a Vege-Man and declares, “that’s the first time a salad ever tossed me.”  There’s a running ‘gag’ about fans of ‘Space Commander Connors’ recognizing each other’s secret decoder rings and immediately going into a full-on geek-out.

None of this is funny, much of it is downright embarrassing, and the worst part is that the writers have no idea how to include their attempts at comedy in the story.  Rather than the hijinks advancing the plot, every time something that’s supposed to be funny happens, the whole thing comes to a dead halt.  This gives the impression that the movie is stumbling around in the dark with no idea where it’s going.  It finally seems to settle on a plot when we find out that the spaceship is about to leave and must be stopped.  After some bullshit the Ricks convince the Colonel (and only the Colonel) to help them take on the aliens.  At this point I was thinking that this movie was pretty terrible but it hadn’t actually pushed me to the point of being tempted to turn it off…

And then it got racist.

The last ten minutes or so of Invasion of the Star Creatures are a downward spiral in which it seems like they gave up trying to be funny in favour of being actively offensive. First, they encounter what’s supposed to be a group of Native Americans on horseback.  Rick With The Squeaky Voice tries to get their attention by saying “hey, Kemosabe, I wanna buy some blankets!”  The Natives don’t speak much English but they do a lot of grunting, and threaten to kill the Colonel because they think he’s General Custer (?!).  Then they kidnap everybody and force them to smoke the peace pipe and drink firewater and the white guys only escape once the Natives have passed out.

Holy shit.  Not only is this repulsive, it is, as previously noted, irrelevant.  It has no effect on the plot other than to waste time.  The Natives do not help them defeat the aliens and neither does the Colonel, who is also in a drunken stupor.  And then, just when we think this can’t possibly get any worse, the defeated alien women declare that they must throw themselves on the mercy of the Earth Men.  This turns out to mean marrying them, and the dialogue specifically likens marriage to slavery, which Tanga and Pona seem to consider a point in its favour!  The end of this movie left my head spinning.  It’s like I watched a guy get ‘comedically’ knocked over by a punching bag for forty-five minutes and then he suddenly turned around and punched me in the face.

(Hey, I just realized… remember how I said the cave was exposed by a nuclear test?  The dialogue emphasizes how this whole area is irradiated and dangerous – and then totally forgets about it.  It’s never mentioned again and the characters take off their protective gear and never put it back on.  So… that was useless, too.)

There is stuff in this movie that could have been funny.  The secret decoder ring stuff almost got a smile out of me once or twice, because the characters seemed so earnest in their love for ‘Space Commander Connors’ and his lore.  The ‘Vege-Men’ also had potential.  We get to see a greenhouse room where they’re grown to be the women’s slaves, and the seedlings are hands or feet sticking out of flowerpots with a few leaves around them.  This is fairly amusing and I could see it being the juvenile form of a sentient plant on Star Trek TOS.  Adult Vege-Men are actors in stupid carrot costumes that they obviously can’t see out of very well, which should have been funny just because it’s so terrible, but Invasion of the Star Creatures is so bad you can’t even laugh at it ironically.

The idea of using a bumbling idiot as your main character, let alone two bumbling idiots, frankly baffles me.  Rick and Rick With The Squeaky Voice are supposed to be the guys we, the audience, identify with.  We’re supposed to like and root for them and to perhaps be able to imagine ourselves in their places, but the only thing I feel for them is contempt.  Why would anyone want to see themselves in these guys?  Perhaps it’s an attempt to say that anybody can be a hero, but the two Ricks don’t even qualify as that.  When they save the world, it’s basically by accident.  The ending, which rewards them with promotions, medals, and beautiful wives from outer space, actively makes me angry because they didn’t earn any of that!

Invasion of the Star Creatures works very hard at being pointless, and there’s very little in it that comes anywhere near a theme.  If any such thing exists, its in Tanga and Pona’s insistence that they’re here to save humanity whether we like it or not, and how the humans react to that idea.  The women say it would be a shame to see a young civilization destroy itself because nations were too stupid to work together.  Rick and Rick With The Squeaky Voice reject this entirely, which is supposed to be a joke: these guys are in the army, so if humanity transcends the need for conflict they’d be out of a job.  The rest of the plot then seems at pain to emphasize that humans cannot work together, and do not want to.

After all, the two Ricks’ attempts to summon help come to nothing.  The Native Americans never understand that these men want assistance, and the Colonel thinks it’s all a Space Commander Connors game before sliding under the metaphorical table, having never done anything useful.  The Ricks themselves spent most of their time arguing and complaining and in the end succeed only through good luck on their part and poor timing on that of the invaders.  Usually a story that begins with ‘aliens want to save primitive humans from ourselves’ would end with ‘the aliens were wrong about us’.  Invasion of the Star Creatures seems to want to say the aliens were right the whole time!

So there you have it – Invasion of the Star Creatures.  It started off kinda bad and not funny, then swirled down the cinematic toilet into outright offensive, racist, sexist drivel.  I’m trying to think of some small thing I can say about it that’s nice, but I’m having a very hard time.  I guess I kinda liked the rumbly noises that represent the alien language – that was more fun than just having the actresses spout random gobbledygook.  Other than that, I’m at a loss.  The actors suck, the sets suck, the effects suck, the costumes suck, and everybody involved was a bigoted dickweed.  Fuck this movie.

[themanicgalaxy]

SPN 7X4 Defending Your Life

I'm making an exception today, because I've figured out QUITE a bit about my own stress response

oh right the monster Dean killed

also to recap: my period has every sign of starting(including cramps) but nothing, I've been horribly nauseous all day, I feel a hunger response when I'm DEFINITELY not hungry(stress eating and it's the only thing that makes the nausea subside) and headache(altho that could be the lack of sleep). Also emotions all over the place(Crying, happy, very on the hat etc)

and the WORST part is I can NEVER tell until I have physical reactions. I can NEVER TELL WHAT MY EMOTIONS ARE WHAT DOES THAT MEAN I THOUGHT I WAS PERFECTLY OK OR NOT FEELING ANYTHING

ooo chase scene

gHOST CAR

ooo good segway into intro

that cut coping mechanism does NOT seem like it's healthy

mONSTER OF THE WEEK

oh COME ON HERE's THE LYING

the visuals are cool

"license to kill"

no come on sam that was a good one.

"dead and sober, dead and crappy" no Dean, please, you need to figure that out

ah yes tortured soul

FL OW ER SH O P

that was suspicious

oh

it's just because she's dead and dead at 10

oh

the CAr

"makes you wonder if the guy who was drunk ran her over" *drinks beer*

O H H H H H HSIDOFAHPAS

GHOST RIDER

at least I know they're nerds, whoever wrote this

is it manifesting their guilty conscience

aw but the dog is so fluffy

*lies down, bounces back up again* lmaooo

Dean is Tired

didn't they DEAL With a ghost car?

it's people that kept going?

DEAN IS RUNNING ON SO MUCH EMPTY AHAHAHA

A H CUZ HE DIDN'T SLEEP BECAUSE THE GIRL HE KILLED

that took me as second

"If I ate apples" DEAN

also they're really doing license plate shots above how Cool the Impala is shots now, lil thing

"you won't even believe me" ahaha

...courtroom?

fUCKING NEAL'S TAVERNNNN

we kind of specialize in crazy ahaaha

"except that's complete crap"

"everyone judges all day long"

He just..takes punishment?

ahahah N O P E GREY AREA

no this is way more watchable

SA M SOUNDS SO TIRED AHAHA

*whispers* "stay put"

he DOES look good though

ok fine just gonna tune out the flirting

they ARE both pretty

is it that guy

the creepy guy in the shadows

how much is in scotch I have no idea

ah the red, what people were clawing

THAT'S NOT HOW OSIRIS WORKS but fine ok let's go

THAT'S NOT

ok fine

"it hones in on people who feel guilty, N OW WHO DOES THAT SOUND LIKE TO YOU" oh boy literally both of them got it that was hilarious

this does seem like he's talking himself into a role

the salt...might not work for osiris

shit she really is pretty

AH RED SAND ok ok yeah I see it ok

a h egyptian shit

ALL YOU NOTICED WERE THE SYMBOLS LMAOOO

THAT DOOR SLIDE WAS SO FUNNY

He's cool though, I like the pagan shit

"Sam, you're not a lawyer" "yes I was pre law" "pre"

"good one" "I saw that on the good wife"

THIS IS HILARIOUS

J O

oh no

the mining itself sucks but this concept is good

took his breathing away?

It reads a bit as excusing them for everything

She backs them up at least?

I miss her

see here's the thing, it kinda reads like they're out of ideas, but like...it's a good concept

ah so the stuff at the beginning was them showing their guilt

I like how he just says "them's the breaks"

yeah like Dean is ever gonna believe he's innocent

"dog food" oh they so desperately wanna say dog shit

"they want to be judged" echoes Dean

SAM IS TALKING COMPLETELY OUT OF HIS ASS

HE'S GETTING HIM OUT OF HIS GUILT COMPLEX OH THANK GOD FINALLY

"that it just...blows"

no one, including Dean, ever questions it, so the grief stews

oh

he does actually have some way with words

Dean please tell the truth

mate I get the impulse but still

dammit

ahaha Temporary but Long Temporary

"make sure it's a sharp piece" lmaoo

man I miss Jo

ah here we go

sam: u h

JOOOO

"you deserve better" on both ends

Dean Eldest Daughter Syndrome

"hunters are never kids, I never was"

he does Internalize things

that's why we kin

90% crap

"i get rid of that what then" "you really wanna die not knowing" HOLY SHIT

HOLYSHIT OH MY GOD OH MYGOD

ah the gas stove

"he's making me do this" oH NO

"just kind of faded...maybe a little bit happier"

hell was Sam's slate? huh

"I kind of feel good, Dean" I am glad he's happy, I don't know if I agree with the message

1. SAMMM. Dean was acting off the shits, so he had to step up and exasperatedly handle everything, and piece stuff together. Like mans is actually quite smart and quite resourceful when he has to be, and it's nice seeing that. It's also fun FINALLY seeing him lighthearted again, even if I don't like how.

2. Dean's guilt complex. Man internalizes a lot of things, and while they BARELY make sense(thin veneer, easily cracked) he hides it enough so that no one asks(and he represses so he certainly doesn't), and he can continue feeling guilty. Now here's the thing. He feels guilty, Sam doesn't, the middle ground is where they should be(taking responsibility) and they like...never do it.

3. monster of the week. No but having monsters switch to grey instead of black and white, and having Dean comment on it is SO good, because he's like...that Masculine Parody/Ideal depending on who's writing him, and like he was written to be the hero. any gray was always overridden by that. But with kripke gone, they start actually doing grey, and there's nothing simple anymore. Like I like with how off the shits it got, they still kept the theme of "it's more grey now" but like kinda for real(where Dean and Osiris said the same thing). ALSO, I think it would be useful as a scale back. I know they'll not do it because EVEN BIGGER DBZ LAZER is fun, but I think having more monsters of the week by choice and not "oh god we have runtime" would be really good, because that's where this storyline SHINES! it's got a lot of characters, a lot of lore, and a lot of issues to pick through, a monster of the week is WAY more effective than a longer story, and would help the scaling back issue.

4. pontificating about the season/why it's easier to watch. Like is this season as good/vibey? probably not really, but honestly I can actually stand watching it. Like it's very cringe in places but also, it doesn't hurt me or make me feel uncomfortable as kripke stuff does. It matches the vibe of "after work/school show" perfectly for what it is.

5. the vibes/Osiris. I like the idea of osiris and going to the bars, and the courtroom and the RED! SAND!! I got that one. But I'd also like to say that Dean saying the SAME thing that osiris said was like...he's not villainized, but I think they're trying to make him slowly grow as a character. It's like sympathy/he sucks kinda/we like him for him a sa character and I think that was really neat.

also barkeep lady pretty holy hell

6. it felt a little bit like excusing tho. Like if Sam is the good one, then it felt like excusing them of the harm they cause people. I want them to change their behavior! not beat themselves up over it or think it's fine cuz he went to hell because of it!

I'm so glad Sam is happy again but N O

7. J O. the "no autonomy, he's making me do this," the being able to see through things(and no longer hungering for something that she doesn't really know) (like...she wants SOMETHING, has it crawling under her skin but doesn't know what, and that's gone when she's dead) and that whole thing where she asked Dean if he wanted to die as a persona. Oh my god.

8. Dean persona. Yeah the whole thing where he had to convince himself to be a womanizer, the "I"m 90% crap line" OH MY GODD THAT HIT. That man is also a persona. maybe a commentary on american masculinity in general, maybe not. Also, eldest daughter syndrome, he internalizes everything and everything is his responsibility("I didn't get a childhood")

I feel like you can also make an argument how trauma makes you the extreme of something(uncaring for smol sam, internalizing for Eldest Dean), and it breaks your ability to do what you need to(empathetically do your fucking job and not be pieces of shit).

I see why this show was so popular amongst mentally ill people(myself included) holy christ

[gellavonhamster]

i watched dracula's curse (2002) and it’s so bad that it’s almost good

Okay, I’m not going to divide it into what was good about this adaptation and what was bad because a lot of it is Good Because Bad (i.e. hilarious), so here’s what I can say about it in general (under read more, since I accidentally wrote a lot):

It’s an Italian-German 2002 TV miniseries and it’s a modern!AU. The events take place in the early 2000′s in Budapest and partly in Romania

The special effects are not even early 00′s cinema, it’s early 00′s TV. Dracula transforming into animals and the way the Brides fly are particularly funny to watch

The acting is... not good. For the most part, the actors can manage when the camera zooms on them, but when there’s a lot of them on screen at the same time, it is often clearly visible that some of them are just. Standing there.

Nevertheless it’s kinda cute??? It has all the characters, and they love each other the way they’re supposed to.

The story begins at some charity gala in Budapest with Jonathan (an American businessman) proposing to his Italian girlfriend Mina, then their friends Lucy, Arthur, and Quincey arrive (Jonathan invited them because he’s been planning the wedding in secret). Seward they all meet for the first time at the gala, and by the end of the evening he’s already roaming the streets hand in hand with the rest of them, drunk and singing. It’s adorable and probably the closest thing to the OT6 That We Deserve I will ever see on screen. I couldn’t take a normal screenshot but just so that you get the vibe:

Here, have a tipsy Lucy smooching a tipsy Mina on the shoulder too:

And then at night Lucy falls when sleepwalking, and all of them (including Seward, who stays the night with these awesome people he just met) fuss over her, and it’s pretty cute too

(in case you’re wondering if that’s Quincey wearing the least amount of clothes, of course it’s him) 

Van Helsing is an Italian doctor called Enrico Valenzi and he’s kinda hot

Dracula goes by Mr. Tepes and looks young in Budapest, where he first meets Jonathan and his friends. In Transylvania, he looks old and pretends to be the uncle of Mr. Tepes. He can walk by day, apparently, but he doesn’t show up in the mirror. There’s a scene in which he meets Jonathan and Co. at the opera, stands right in front of a mirror, and none of them notice he has no reflection

When Jonathan arrives at the Romanian border and tells the Romanian guards he’s there to sell real estate to a Romanian citizen, they laugh at him saying that no one in Romania has any money to buy houses, and then aim a gun at him? Okay???

Jonathan’s car breaks and he gets beaten up by some locals for no reason (*venomous sarcasm* nice Eastern European representation! wow!!! *venomous sarcasm over*), and then “uncle Tepes” picks him up in an actual horse-driven carriage. I remind you, this is a modern!AU.

Everything in the “uncle’s” castle looks like it’s still 19th century at least. Jonathan forgets his luggage in the car, so Dracula offers him to pick a change of clothes from the ones available in the guest room, and it’s all, like, frilly shirts and old-time waistcoats and cravattes and top hats

Dracula wears a Bela Lugosi-style black cloak. It’s probably supposed to look menacing, but against the 21st century backgrounds it just looks comical

Lucy isn’t dating any of the suitors at the beginning of the story. She asks Arthur if he would marry her after Dracula starts drinking her blood, because she feels scared for the reasons she cannot understand or explain, and wants to have him by her side, but in the beginning they’re just friends (though it’s made clear that he’s been in love with her for some time). She and Quincey make some sex jokes, but in general they’re just bros (also, when she and Arthur and Quincey arrive at the gala, all three of them dance together, I loved that). She lowkey flirts with Seward when they first meet, but they’re just friends too.

Jonathan and Lucy have some nice friendship moments! During that drunken roaming around Budapest, there’s a moment when Jonathan shows his friends his new car, Lucy jumps in immediately, and they drive around and almost crush it. When Lucy is in the hospital after the first attack, Jonathan, who has already escaped from Dracula’s castle and been to hospital himself, pleads her not to meet with Tepes anymore, begs her forgiveness for introducing her to him, and kisses her on the forehead with tears in his eyes. In general, all friendships are pretty sweet, even though everyone (except for Mina, Van Helsing, and maybe Seward) is a little more of a dick than in the novel.

In particular, Jonathan is a bit of a dick in the beginning, lowkey obsessed with earning more money and stuff, but his Romanian experience makes him evaluate his priorities

Arthur here is a lot like Marius in Les Mis. I won’t elaborate

Quincey’s doing some money swindles and being all “Fuck the law! The most important thing is to get rich!” but he’s not, like, a total bastard, he’s still likeable enough   

When Lucy’s dying at the hospital, she briefly regains her human self and asks Van Helsing to keep Arthur safe and give her peace :(

Dracula walks up the wall (not even climbs, just walks up the wall. Gravity? Hasn’t heard of her) on his way to attack Mina, and it looks HILARIOUS

Renfield is there, but he kind of does nothing. We just see him twice talking about his Master, and that is all, it isn’t shown what happens to him afterwards.

The Brides aren’t killed in the end (the only time we see them is when they’re trying to seduce/feast on Jonathan). When Dracula yells at them for touching Jonathan, they huddle together for protection, which is kinda sweet. They look like an early 00′s Russian pop girl band (trust me on that)

Quincey dies when the men come to Dracula’s house in Budapest to purify the earth in the boxes - he rushes to protect Arthur, and Dracula breaks his neck :(

Have I mentioned that the special effects are Horrible because I just remembered the scene in which a thousand rats come together and turn into Dracula and it looks so damn funny

I loved it that at first Arthur keeps refusing to listen to Van Helsing’s vampire hypotheses, but after Quincey’s death and Mina’s blood baptism, when Van Helsing sinks into despair and thinks that everything is lost, it is Arthur who begs him not to lose hope

Mina is the one to kill Dracula. She hides a stake on herself, and when he comes to her at night and takes her into his arms, she drives it through his heart. At the end of the movie, is is shown that the vampire bite is still on her neck while Ominous Music is playing, so it is left ambiguos if she’s going to become a vampire anyway. I’d say she isn’t, because during the last scenes (Quincey’s funeral), she’s in the church and feels fine there, but then again, Dracula here has a Holy Bible in his library which I don’t think he did in the book, so the vampire lore is all over the place.

In conclusion: a wild ride, very trashy, but also fun and has the same everyone-loves-each-other vibe as the book, so I’m willing to forgive some things.