cactus-stephen

[cactus-stephen]

When the live action casting for Link and Zelda gets announced and you’ve never fucking heard of either of them

[cactus-stephen]

Supernatural ➯s1e01

[cactus-stephen]

[cactus-stephen]

From my rotting body flowers shall grow

[cactus-stephen]

All that is gold does not glitter,

Not all those who wander are lost;

The old that is strong does not wither,

Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,

A light from the shadows shall spring;

Renewed shall be blade that was broken,

The crownless again shall be king.”

[cactus-stephen]

“i can’t remember most things that happened between ages seventeen and twenty eight.”

on dean’s 17th birthday john made him go on his first solo kill, where he had to salt and burn the remains of two nuns who were in love and died for it. it fucked him up bad enough john didn’t make him do a solo run for a long time after that.

at 29 he meets castiel.

[cactus-stephen]

it's been said so so much but John Winchester meeting Cas would be hilarious and tragic and would probably not bode well for John, but seriously—

John would have to watch the tax accountant looking guy bring Dean tea in a honest to god porcelain teacup while he's researching a case. Quiet thank yous with bowed heads. Dean patting Cas' shoulder then do the Darcy hand clench. He'd have to watch as Cas heals his son with his wide palms and Dean gets all flustered. He'd have to watch Dean jump in front of guns for the angel who cannot be harmed like he's some sort of damsel in distress. He'd get a glimpse inside Dean's wallet while he pays for gas and see the printed out picture of Cas in a cowboy hat. Dean slipping in front of him and call Cas "sunshine" with no sarcasm behind it. He'd come back from the diner's bathroom to hear them deep into debating if ketchup's a vegetable. Cas' feathers in the Impala's trunk. Dean's mixtape in Cas' truck. Constantly texting. The staring. The handprint.

John Winchester would have to see for himself all the ways Dean became himself through his relationship with Cas. All the ways Dean spilled out of the mold John made him fit into, once he wasn't around anymore.

[cactus-stephen]

Just finished reading the Hunger games trilogy.

I wanted to capture the book versions, but the film adaptations still have an iron grip on me, so you might see some similarities

[cactus-stephen]

Bringing out the oldest joke in the book

So old I can taste the dust

[cactus-stephen]

as a fat person who's always clamoring for more interesting fat characters in media, I honestly think one of my all-time favorite depictions of a fat character is Jumba from the original Lilo and Stitch - both visually and personality wise

from a design perspective, even though he's an alien, he has so many little anatomy quirks that make him a more believable fat character than many fat human designs in other media. I love the realistic sag and layering of the fat on his arms, the lack of neck definition, the rim of chub around his face and upper back, the way his back is rounded. his clothes pull taut and pinch in anatomically accurate places (e.g. shoulders are firmer = smoother outlines, the sides and back are squishier = bumpier outlines).

and he's stylized so well! all these great details boiled down to some simple shapes and pen strokes. IMO the Lilo and Stitch art style is extremely appealing - it's warm and clean and visually pleasing, but every character is super unique. Jumba isn't supposed to be pretty, but even though he's a very large, very fat, bald older guy who spends most of the movie in crop tops, the way he's stylized and staged makes it clear the audience is supposed to find him interesting to look at, and variably intimidating/cool/powerful/capable. he's often funny, but the physical aspect of his comedy is derived from being so hefty the other characters struggle to prevent him from barreling ahead and doing whatever he wants; being fat makes him come off more in control of the funny situations he gets into, not less. also, because the art style is what it is, a lot of his character acting also just makes him look kind of cute ... though that's universal across the cast

I also really like the fact that his size clearly gives him both realistic advantages and realistic disadvantages. along with having a stronger sense of agency in the comedic scenes, his size in combination with his impulsivity also makes him a more intimidating antagonist. you never know what he's going to do, and his size makes it difficult for other characters to stop him when he's made up his mind. at the same time, it seems to take him longer to catch his breath, he sometimes grunts when moving around a lot to imply it takes more effort, and he clearly struggled to find clothes that fit him when putting together his disguise. I think it's awesome that the character's size impacts how he interacts with the world so much, and again, in relatable ways

and personality wise, it is ALWAYS great to see fat characters portrayed as intelligent - not only is Jumba an accomplished scientist, he's also crafty and witty! a few quiet scenes imply a philosophical side, as he ponders on Stitch's existence and feelings as a living weapon. with Stitch explicitly being made in his own image to an extent, I'd argue there's even room to interpret some of the things he says about Stitch being hints to how he sees himself; we never learn much about Jumba's past, but it's clear he's a social misfit and strongly defiant. I don't think it's a stretch to assume some of what he said to Stitch about being a monster who can never belong anywhere was intended to read as projection (which makes it all the more heartwarming when both of them find a place to belong on Earth)

it's also a nice twist that toward the end, Jumba is the one who is unexpectedly compassionate toward Nani, while Pleakley tries to urge him to ignore her. again alluding to a level of emotional depth and intelligence that is often missing from even well-intentioned depictions of fat people. his character isn't even fully explored, and yet he's one of the most dynamic and interesting supporting characters in a movie full of fantastic characters. the audience is expected to find him fascinating and even sort of mysterious, and he is!

the sequels and spinoffs were more merchandise-driven franchise fluff for kids than the artsy direction of the original movie, but even so, I remember Jumba went on to become Lilo's lovable, amoral uncle figure, which I also thought was so fun as a kid. I love that they committed to the fact that he was more caring and compassionate than he seemed. not only was he a cool evil mad scientist character, but he was also eventually ... a friend ...

and he was even gay

[cactus-stephen]

Just made myself so so sad thinking about Aang's marble trick because from a physics perspective, keeping dense spherical objects afloat on an airstream is not trivial, and he's doing it in a tiny little space without moving his hands. Bending is usually very gestural. So. Everyone in the era of the show is, at best, impressed THAT it is airbending. But Aang's an incredibly young master airbender. He wouldn't be acting like this was the bestest trick ever if it didn't take at least some skill; he's a goofy kid but he's also a prodigy. I bet other airbenders were absolutely blown away (pun fully intended) at the level of precision and force and minimalism of movement on display and now there's no one who understands at all why he expects accolades.

[cactus-stephen]

the funniest thing about dean and cas gotta be that dean collected castiel's ashes, spread them lovingly in a meadow by an old windmill, because it was "a real calm, zen sort of place" and dean believed cas would love it. while cas gripped dean tight and raised him from hell and then... left him in his grave and made dean dig his way out--

[cactus-stephen]

Bugs when you lift up a rock

[cactus-stephen]

say what you will about jensen ackles but in 2005 he made the active decision to pitch dean’s voice lower not because he felt like dean’s voice was naturally low but because JDM’s voice was low and he thought dean would try to talk like his dad

he’s the ultimate dean studies enthusiast. he said dean is a performer from day One.

[cactus-stephen]

Imagine you work at some fucking roadside diner in buttfuck nowhere and you have to wait a table with three dudes who aren't from around here and the guy with the long hair immediately pulls out his laptop with what looks like cult shit in the web browser and asks for your worst salad option, and the guy in the trenchcoat sniffs the pepper shaker and declares the molecules to be very sharp and the guy with the greenest eyes you've ever seen calls you sweetheart and then proceeds to engage with intimate eye contact with trenchcoat to a degree that is downright indecent and then orders the heart attack special on your menu and every time you walk past their table they're talking about that gruesome murder that happened in town and the pretty guy is feeding the trenchcoat guy fries while the hair guy talks about desecrating corpses

[cactus-stephen]

So funny to me that the same guy who immediately senses something is off with Dean after he gets the Mark of Cain

Literally never notices that he forgot Sam’s soul in hell, nor can he determine what’s wrong with Sam after spending considerable time with him

And I won’t even mention the selective hearing for prayers. They really had a profound ass bond huh?

[cactus-stephen]

"Don't worry, Sammy! As long as I'm around, nothing bad is gonna happen to you."