gregrulzok

[gregrulzok]

The Date Everything "100+ dateables??? They won't have my type, I have a special type... MY TYPE" meme, except I'm not basic so they actually don't have my type and so I won't play it

[gregrulzok]

A crucial part of Daniel's character is something I feel the fandom kind of overlooks.

Daniel is a voyeur. An eternal observer.

Daniel Molloy, the reporter who doesn't chase a story, doesn't chase gossip or celebrity news - he talks to regular old people. Bartenders and grocery store clerks and babysitters. People his age, a little older, a little younger, new mothers and lovers and gamblers in debt and everyone and anyone.

And the significance of it can be hard to see through it's subtlety, but it's clear as day once you lay it out - he feeds off of human suffering.

Vampires see flashes of people's lives as an after effect of their feeding, their fears and worries and unfulfilled desires, their happy memories and sad nostalgia.

Daniel Molloy feeds his curiosity, his ego, his dark desires by observing the very same thing. By drawing it out of his victim not through violence or blood, but by a quiet conversation he gets to record and keep forever.

That's WHY Daniel becomes so obsessed with Vampirism - particularly and especially after Armand had given him some of his blood. Through Armand he can see the lives of all of Armand's victims, their emotions, their suffering - and he can't get enough of it. He never could, even before Armand, he loves human memories and feelings, he loves human struggle and desperation - the blood is just another, more powerful, more all-encompassing vessel for it. That's why he craves it, that's why he's addicted to it, that's why he wants so badly to be a vampire.

And Armand, through taking small sips of Daniel's blood, can surely taste his suffering too - he sees glimpses of the hardships the man he loves went through, sees his story unfold (the only one in the series to ever find out, even the reader is never told what Daniel's life was like). The sips are small, restrained, and through them he derives not only nourishment, but the pain of his lover.

And Armand isn't like Daniel - there's no indication he particularly enjoys the suffering. Sure, he's eccentric and strange and very sadistic, at times, but Daniel is the one who loves the sheer feeling of agony. Armand is sad, melancholy, especially when feeding from Daniel, especially knowing his boy is addicted to that feeling that he's had to live with, and deal with, for centuries.

Should he choose to finally kill Daniel - take more than just a sip, just a glimpse - he'll have to see all of his life, all of his misery, all the tragedies and trauma and fears and insecurities. And in turn, Daniel would have to see his - and as much as he may enjoy it from perfect strangers, from people ges only just met - won't it be different to see Armand's past? Armand's painful, long, complicated, horrific life?

Can Armand endure knowing and being known to that extent?

And isn't that why Daniel loses his sanity when it finally does happen? When he realises the dreadful cost of his new immortality, when he realises what it feels like to bare witness to the suffering of those you love, you cherish?

Or are the model cities he keeps building just another way of being an observer, not a sign of understanding his mistake and trying to cope with it through an attempt at a deeper knowledge of his victims like he has with Armand, but rather an indication that he will always be a slave to his base desire to know human pain?

[gregrulzok]

But... They did ????

The major conflict is the first stage of Stede's transition into a "proper" pirate, and thus the first stage of his ultimate downfall into arrogance and pettiness, thus inversing Ed's journey from Poison into Positivity.

The major conflict is that while Ed attempts to heal, Stede attempts to fill the space he leaves, and this is our very first time seeing what nudges him into it - it's his first time resolving a problem of this scale by himself, and his first time killing someone. The major conflict is whether Ed can face up to what he's turned Stede into, now that he himself is trying to gain distance from that lifestyle Stede idolizes and craves. The major conflict is that Stede gets a small taste of victory and competence and celebration from his crew, and in the subsequent episodes it will go directly to his head.

That's way more interesting and compelling than some villain of the week.

Welp...

[gregrulzok]

I'm about to be a hater so if you like Min-su look away

Anyway season 3 only intensified my opinion I literally don't get what's there to like about him. He's a 27 year old (I said 28 last time, I believe I was wrong but it doesn't change much and also I don't care) grown ass man, and his ONLY role in the story is to be a pathetic wet rag and then, THEN he goes on to just . Torture a drug addict?

Like I'm sorry if he had that kind of grit and brutality in him he should've used it to protect Se-mi. Taking revenge on Namgyu when he's literally succumbing to his addiction (which is an ✨illness✨ by the way) isn't a righteous cool move, it doesn't benefit Se-mi in any way, it's literally Min-su just flexing on someone who, due to literal symptoms of a debilitating illness, no longer has the power to defend himself, because Min-su was humiliated, because he was a fucking wet rag, and now he wants to make sure everyone knows how big his cock is, actually

And before anyone says anything no, I'm not saying Namgyu did nothing wrong, Namgyu is a bastard and a prick, but at least he's an ENTERTAINING, PROACTIVE bastard, and by the time Min-su finally grew enough balls to get around to getting his revenge he was reduced to being essentially helpless.

You're not cool for standing up to your bully if your bully is severely incapacitated by an illness. If my high-school bully gets his spinal cord severed and I go to beat him up that doesn't make me a hero.

Fuck Min-su.

[gregrulzok]

The quickest litmus test to determine if someone's an actual queer ally or not (if they claim to be one) is to ask them what their fursona would be

They may then tell you, or tell you what they think it could be, or say they've never really thought about it before (and maybe even ask what you think)

These are all valid

However, if they respond with revulsion and disgust, or offence, or anger, then bingo ! They're a fake ally that says they're okay with gay people, but will turn their back on you the moment you get too "weird" or "cringey" or different

Voila

[gregrulzok]

Our Flag Means Death but it's a modern(-ish?) Biker AU, where Stede just has a massive midlife crisis, leaves his family and fucks off into the sunset to go and accidentally form the gayest biker gang in town

And Blackbeard is a leather daddy, anyway,

[gregrulzok]

One thing that sticks out to me is that when Stede refuses to see Ed initially, he asks Izzy whether Stede knew who was asking for him - and Izzy says he "seemed to, yeah". Despite the fact that he never told Stede anything.

So like. Was he intentionally trying to sabotage their meeting and maybe even hoping to set Blackbeard against him by not telling him

Or did he (not unreasonably) assume that Stede would have already known the name Izzy Hands (if not his face), and therefore also know who his boss was

Was it a mistake or did he just do that for fun

[gregrulzok]

Our Flag Means Death is like if two men with debilitating ADHD tried to Prince-And-The-Pauper each-other without realising, failed miserably, and ended up falling in love instead

[gregrulzok]

GOD the cinematography of OFMD is absolutely mental

It starts off with everything being very bright and colorful, so while Stede DOES stand out with his outlandish outfits, he looks like he BELONGS to the world, while Blackbeard in his leather all black outfit sticks out like a sore thumb

Then, slowly, the whole world becomes dull, and as Ed transitions to wearing neutral tones, he's the one that blends into the background. Meanwhile Stede is SATURATED still, making HIM stand out

And in the last shot, when they're in their respective proper outfits, everything is bright and the contrast is high, meaning that both Stede's colorful outfit and Ed's black one can fit into the background without out-weighing each-other

It's always a tug of war with them down to their very designs

[gregrulzok]

The primary sign of a good show is that it inevitably leaves me acting like an idiot

For example, I've been going around all day saying "Edward Teach, Born on a Beach" under my breath and giggling

[gregrulzok]

Watched the fourth episode of Our Flag Means Death and I'm genuinely losing it a little bit ?

Seeing Stede look at Ed for the first time, then focusing on the painting of the lighthouse - then cutting into the scene that explains that it's a failed symbol of his marriage, which was meant to signify guidance, given to him by a person he didn't love and now re-introduced with a new person in his life - and THEN, THEN introducing HIS gift to his wife, the model ship, which was rejected, ONLY TO CUT OUT to Ed holding that same ship and proclaiming how much he likes it?

AND THEN THEY SAVE THE (real) SHIP BY BECOMING A LIGHTHOUSE TOGETHER?

WHICH THEY THOUGHT OF AT THE SAME TIME???

OHHHHHH I don't care WHAT the end of episode cliffhanger is trying to imply, they're gonna FUCK

[gregrulzok]

DND Character Concept

An eccentric Tabaxi Wizard who makes a living studying and selling ancient magical artifacts - nothing unusual, except the strange sheen of golden spots on his snowy fur, and the lingering questions. Why does he know so much about ancient magical objects and customs, and yet so little about practical, modern magic?

Over the course of the adventure the party starts being targeted by a mysterious cult, one that seems to have the Wizard especially terrified. When he first hears rumours of them poking around the town they're in, he insists they take off to continue their travels as soon as possible. The party grows more suspicious as he hides his face in any confrontation with them, avoids casting magic or speaking of they're anywhere nearby, even in battle.

Eventually, their relentless pursuit and his paranoia culminate in the reveal - he's not an ex member, or their victim - he was their false idol.

The mortal body is nothing but an outer shell, a vessel in which the cult managed to trap an ancient, powerful magical entity. They stripped him of autonomy over his powers, locking them behind intricate magical rituals only they know how to perform. They presented those rites and ceremonies as "prayers" and used his magic to convince followers that their sacrifices and worship was making their wishes come true, performing "miracles" by tapping into the magical energy of the entity against his will.

After his escape, he remains near powerless - his magical energy is still within him, but he'd only ever harnessed it intuitively, inherently. With the channels blocked, the only way he can access even the smallest residual bits of it is to study as a Wizard from scratch, and to use artifacts - many of them sourced from his home realm - to supplement his powers.

[gregrulzok]

Also Laszlo Cravensworth is like a strangely Aspirational character to me?

He's charming, confident, and completely lacks any shame or inhibition. He doesn't give an absolute fuck about what anyone has to say about him, he's just chasing whatever is in his best interest - but it rarely ever interferes with anyone else, and he doesn't have qualms about helping others provided there's either something else in it for him, or maybe just that he doesn't have much of anything else going on and he feels like it that day. He's genuinely extremely intellectual for his own time, he just hasn't kept up very well. He loves the absolute shit out of his wife and is very attentive towards her.

I don't know, he's just cool as fuck.

[gregrulzok]

I love love LOVE how the mockumentary style of What We Do In The Shadows moves from being a framing device to an actual storytelling one

The crew either intentionally or unknowingly obscuring certain details of the story to create a quasi-unreliable narrator that changes the viewer's perspective on events until the characters just have a straight talking scene that suddenly opens up the whole picture is SO fun and while I think they COULD'VE pushed it further, that would've fundamentally changed the show. As it stands it's just a subtle detail I enjoy so much

I think my favourite example of it is Laszlo and Nadja's polyamoury

The first few times it comes up with Gregor, it's very much framed as though Nadja were cheating on Laszlo (in the pilot she definitely acts like she's cheating, and I think that was maybe the intention before they dropped that premise in the show proper) - until the reveal is dropped that Laszlo, actually, doesn't give a flying fuck about her sleeping with someone else, but rather that the guy she's sleeping with consistently makes HIS WIFE (!!!) upset.

And like. This isn't a reveal to Nadja. She knows he doesn't care - she knows HE sleeps around, too. It's a reveal to the viewer, and because it's an in-universe show, it gives the impression that the documentary crew either intentionally framed it as cheating for the drama, or just didn't know that they had an open marriage and assumed it WAS drama and rolled with it

And aside from being just a fun aspect of the show it's also interesting commentary on the nature of documentaries/reality TV and how much they leave out just by their very nature of being A. Just a small snippet of whatever situation and B. Directed and presented by humans through their inherently subjective lense

It's just good stuff

[gregrulzok]

So I know this is most likely a jab at the fact that "Hobbit" is a copyrighted term. But here's the thing.

Tolkien claimed that the word "hobbit" supposedly meant "hole-dweller".

D'you suppose a mistranslation to common made "hole-dweller" sound more similar to "ass-fucker" than intended?

[gregrulzok]

"Fiction doesn't affect reality" FALSE 🗣️🗣️🗣️ KUKO HARAI FROM HYPMIC MADE ME BUDDHIST 🔥🔥🔥

[gregrulzok]