octoberwitchsblog

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how dare they use hayao miyazaki's aesthetics to glorify US imperialism, those are supposed to be for japanese imperialism

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i'm honestly still pissed that babygirl and nosferatu came out the same day and both deal with women being afraid/ashamed of their desires and yet, because it takes a hyper-realistic approach to sex, people deemed babygirl "cringe" ?? SEX IS CRINGE!! that's the whole point of the movie !! it's a story about a woman who's so ashamed of her desires and of herself that she's incapable of having an orgasm with the man she actually loves and decides to start a toxic affair with an intern because he understands her desires and doesn't shame her for them !!! nosferatu has a monster that thrives on ellen's shame, that feeds on her guilt and on her repressed desires to hurt her !! both movies deal with women being ashamed of their unconventional desires and unsure as to whether or not those desires are born out of traumas or are just a part of who they are ("does evil come from within us or from beyond ?") !!! the desires in themselves are never shamed by the filmmakers, it's the way that we reject them by deeming them CRINGE that's the problem !!!! the sexuality in nosferatu is hyper-stylized because it falls into the vibe of the film, it's like a dream (nightmare), a tale, whereas babygirl never shies away from how embarrassing and silly sex can be and yet people were still out there expecting a basic instinct style thriller. it's not a thriller !! it's about getting rid of shame to connect with your partner !! it's cringe because it's real !!!!

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Shiera Seastar and Brynden Rivers

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you agree. reblog

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(very small) dunk and egg blender animation practice

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I love you ocean, I love you beach, I love you seashell, I love you fish, I love you moon, I love you sun, I love you stars, I love you mermaids, I love you ships, I love you sailors, I love you surfers, I love you weird deep sea creatures, I love you pearls, I love you fossils, I love you treasure chests, I love you houseboats, I love you anchors, I love you waves, I love you sea foam, I love you sea glass, I love you-

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the knitting will continue until morale improves

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Lou in NYC, 1980. Shot by David Gahr.

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if sinners (2025) taught me anything, it's that it IS actually always about race.

you can be oppressed, and still promote and maintain the very same systems of oppression onto other marginalized people. being oppressed in one dimension doesn't allow you to be exempt from oppressing in other dimensions. the "villain" of the movie, remmick, being from the time period of the english colonization of ireland, all the while wanting to take a piece of sammie's own culture from him, use him for it. and this plot point coming after remmick witnesses the significance of sammie's playing within his culture, for his ancestors and how it would shape Black culture in the future.

even in today's society, ive noticed that people treat Black people like a commodity. our worth is only as much as other people decide it to be, and that's usually dependent on how much the oppressor can take from us. for example, the controversy of"internet slang" and how it is blatantly just AAVE with a bad disguise on

do you listen to Black musicians? do you watch Black movies? do you engage with Black creators? do you defend the racist tendencies you notice in your friends, in your family, or do you stay silent? do you listen when Black people tell you you've said or done something racist? do you actually care about not being racist, or do you just not want to look like you're racist?

i just think people have a very specific take on what racism is, and that if they're not committing KKK-levels of violence on people, then they're not racist. or if you've experienced oppression in one form, you cannot possibly be engaging with oppression in another form. but the ways in which we interact with other people and the world will always be through the lens of race, because that is simply what it means for oppression to be systemic, especially in the US and our current political climate

anyway 10/10 movie. highly recommend

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thinking about the vampire remmick in sinners coming from a same place of oppression as the people he's terrorizing, thinking about him using the music that his oppressed ancestors played to perpetuate the cycle of domination that they were a victim of, thinking about him trying to use his background to make sammie think they're on the same side when he's trying to take his gift for himself and use it for evil, thinking about him using his talents to destroy communities instead of healing them and bond his people together the way sammie does, music as the vessel of love through generations of black people against a white man that wants to take it for himself, vampirism in the movie being represented as a continuation of the south's racism, one that wants to appropriate the culture ("your memories become my memories") by using it to destroy the community, ryan coogler... genius i'm afraid

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THE FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS (2025)

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Elia Martell, princess consort of Rhaegar Targaryen, and her children, Rhaenys and Aegon

I like how while Elia isn’t in the books, she haunts the narrative just as much as her husband – down to her daughter’s kitten literally haunting the Red Keep.

Artist notes below cut for freaks who like that

Oh god this took so long. Oh god why did I let it go this far. Here's the original sketch. Referenced from JookPubStock… I think. It's been so long.

This painting is quite blatantly inspired by Franz Xaver Winterhalter’s The Royal Family. It's decidedly rococo/neo-classical and wayyyy too late for ASOIAF but I don't care.

Elia Martell is described as flat chested and quite sickly. I see her being easily exhausted and therefore wearing dresses that do not weigh much, so as to not put pain on her shoulders and tire her out. I also gave her a strong nose because I am very fond of Pedro Pascal’s Oberyn, Elia’s brother.

Elia is wearing a simple ambigious renaissance dress with small sleeves and a light corset. Kind of cobbled together from looking at Hans Holbein the Younger’s works. The fabric the dress is cut from is however meant to be Dornish – I drew inspiration from this beautiful Ottomanian textile.

Her crown is completely made up. I searched “sun crown” and was greatly inspired by the works of jewelry maker SunFlames.

King Aerys refused to touch his granddaughter Rhaenys because she “smelled Dornish” which tells me Rhaenys probably favored her mother.

Rhaenys was difficult. I looked up what renaissance children wore, and the answer is they wore exact copies of what adults wore. I don’t know how, I feel like the moment you were done with a sleeve the child in question would’ve outgrown it. I decided to freestyle it a little.

Aegon is wearing a christening gown. As far as I can tell the Faith of the Seven doesn’t mention baptisms… but considering the catholic inspiration I think it makes sense. Also I think it's sweet.

They both have deep indigo eyes. My personal headcanon is that Targaryen eyes are purple in the same sense that Elizabeth Taylor’s eyes were purple. Moreover the definition of colors change over time. During the Middle Ages, there was no word for the color “orange” – instead you would say red or yellow. Similarly a lot of languages will use the same word for blue and green.

HOWEVER, this is something that has come with later generations – the first Valyrians had inhumanly violet eyes, which I will be doing concept art for… sometime.

Finally here’s what I know you're REALLY here for, and the part of the painting which I am the proudest of – the 3D model of the chair and table which I made in Blender because I couldn't find a good reference for a renaissance era chair from the angle I wanted.

[octoberwitchsblog]

Parthenope is not dead, Parthenope has no grave; she's been living as a beautiful young woman for five thousand years, running on hills, running on the beach.

Parthenope, Paolo Sorrentino (2024)

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‘sadness is a condition of motherhood.’

TARGTOWERS. ALICENT HIGHTOWER WITH HER CHILDREN, 1.07, 2.01, 2.02, 2.05.

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if you needed to use AI in your film you should not be eligible for an Oscar nomination

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When Mina is doomed to turn into the very thing that harmed Jonathan, become the thing that he hates most, and yet he pledges he shall present his neck for her to drink her fill from, and share her fate in dark matrimony. When she asks him to read her the burial service because she is dead and he must bury her and he obeys and he becomes her chief mourner. When she thus gives him the freedom to let go, and he acknowledges it and says I see what you're doing but I choose to take care of you and I always be armed to protect you from monster or man. When she chooses to face her fate on her own terms by going to the Castle, separated from him. When he tells her to do as she wills, and offers her his own gun so she can have control of her destiny once she arrives to the gates of hell. When Jonathan and Mina Harker.

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The Room Next Door (2024), directed by Pedro Almodóvar.