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whateverisbeautiful · 8 months

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♥️ Ranking Richonne

#13: I Love You (S8E14)

Ahhhh probably one of the most anticipated exchanges between Rick and Michonne, and of course, it was sensational. This scene powerfully reiterated that these soulmates truly mean the world to each other. And after seasons of communicating those special three words through every look, touch, kiss, and conversation, we finally got to hear Rick and Michonne directly say what's always been true - they love each other 🥰 Wholly, Deeply, and Forever...

This ily moment, adorably spoiled by our lovely captains 😋, is so tender and heartfelt while also being so natural and clear that these two have been verbally expressing I Love You’s for a while.

(Side note: I know there’s often debate on Rick’s hottest season lookswise, and really you could make a great case for any season, but lemme just place my vote here for season 8 right quick. 😊 Something about Season 8 Rick was extra fine. I feel bad cuz he was in pain all season, which I truly hate to see...but Rick was looking real right even while everything was going wrong ijs. even tho I think Rick Grimes' TOWL era is about to take the cake 🤭)

Something I so love about Rick and Michonne's relationship is that whenever they go through hardship they ultimately step closer rather than apart. They always eventually close the distance, which was evident in this lovely 'I love you' scene.

And I feel grateful that after experiencing such a devastating loss of their son, Carl, (why, TWD, why? 😭) and having to go on their journeys of grief, Rick and Michonne find their way back to each other truly in this moment. It doesn’t always go that way when a couple loses a kid as we’ve seen from other characters in this very series. But for Rick and Michonne, what they have is so unbreakable that, even in the hardest storm, their love still shines through, rises above, guides, and centers them.

So reflecting on Richonne's I Love You scene will forever have me like...

There’s also a beautiful and heart-rending honorable mention scene in this ep where Rick wipes Michonne's tears and Michonne opens up with Rick (and even makes reference to her son Andre 😭) while trying to help him heal at Hilltop instead of running out and about to get away from his grief.

But Rick still has a bit of savage Rick to get out of his system, so he and Morgan go hunt down some saviors first.

(Side note: while we're talking season 8, this 100th ep kiss in the season 8 premiere also deserves a big honorable mention because...🥵🔥🔥)

When Rick returns to Hilltop after wildin out with Morgan, he’s finally gained clarity on what he needs to start focusing on and who he needs to be healing with. Which leads to him saying those three very special words to the very special woman in his life. 🤗

So the scene starts with Rick returning to his room in a clean fresh tee, showing a clean fresh start to me. (Also Rick + a white tee has been a great combo since season 1, y'all) And he finally knows it’s time to let his wife and son guide him and read Carl's letter.

Michonne enters sorta hesitant I think because when Rick and Morgan returned they def looked like they had dabbled in the dark side out in those woods, and so she might be wondering what headspace Rick's in after whatever he just did.

But the thing about magnets is they always find their way back to each other and so Rick's not grown more distant but rather more aware of how he needs to navigate this season with her.

She finds him holding the letter, and Rick first says, "Thank you." Again, I love that Rick always thanks Michonne. Like as early as when they were strangers in s3, Rick has always vocally expressed gratitude for Michonne. And, in this moment, he knows how much Michonne has been his rock during this unbearable time as well as still fighting for their son Carl and his wishes, and so Rick thanks her for it. Her presence in his life is invaluable and he knows it.

Also, I adore the shared breath they both take when he says this. #TheyAreOne. And Michonne's so relieved that Rick has arrived at this point in his grieving journey.

Then Rick says he’s sorry which is also great cuz he knows going out and handling all this alone is not how magnets do. And Michonne is so understanding when she says, "You don't have to be."

It's just more proof that she is the exact kind of loving presence Rick needs in his life because she’s so good at both accountability and empathy. (Also in 4.09, Rick tells Carl sorry, and Carl also responds with, "You don't have to be." 😭)

And then Rick, knowing how blessed he is to have Michonne love him and stand with him through it all, turns to her and so tenderly says, "I love you." Beautiful x10. 🥹✨

I love how melodic it's said. 🥰 It’s this lovely quiet moment and Rick says it truly like it is a reassuring reminder of something he has expressed to her often and feels deeply.

I love that he turns to really look her in the eyes and has this little nod and subtlest smile when he says 'I love you.' And you just know he genuinely means this. It’s so great, and I could replay it 1000 times idc.

And Michonne really does complete the perfection when she so movingly says, "I love you too." 🥹✨

Again, you can feel how much she means this. The emotion on Rick's face, when he hears his wife say she loves him too shows that he also can feel how much they both mean this, especially as a small tear can be seen. They are everything to each other. 🥲

(Side note: One of the many reasons why I was so elated to hear Rick call Michonne his wife in that TOWL trailer (which I'm still there btw - haven't left since I first heard it 😋) is because we who love their love story of course already knew he views her as his wife (since 2016) and that he'd refer to her as that in the spinoff series, but by saying it in the trailer it showed that this isn't some big reveal they have to wait to say in the new show. Michonne has been his wife for the longest. Rick has viewed her as his wife for seasons. Their marriage is not a new TOWL development, it is an element of TWD. And scenes like this ily scene in season 8 make that crystal clear. (also I cannot wait to hear Rick call Michonne his "wife" even more and to hopefully hear Michonne call Rick her husband 😊)

I adore that we had so many moments of Rick and Michonne communicating 'I love you' to each other in different ways leading up to this point, and then this scene gifted us with the actual direct ILY exchange between them, and of course it was perfect and proof that...

I really feel confident this wasn't intended to be R&M's first time ever saying "I love you" directly either. In this scene, both of them seemed to communicate it in a way that said this is something they've said before and often. (like it feels like they don't show Michonne's facial expression upon hearing Rick say 'I love you' because this isn't a first. She's heard that man tell her this several times before 😋)

I like to think that why these season 8 'I love you's carry so much weight right here and now is because it might be the first time they've said it to each other post-losing Carl. 😭

How heartwarming is it to know that even in a sea of pain, Rick and Michonne still want each other to know that while their whole world has been changed, the one thing that hasn't changed is their love for each other. 🥹

Their love story is just heavenly. To go from staring at each other through a prison fence and thinking they’d patch her up and then she’d be gone to now declaring their love. Perfection. 🙌🏾

And ILY’s do not seem like a phrase either Rick or Michonne take lightly or would just say to anybody. For them to express this and fall in love with someone, the connection was going to have to be deep and special. And what they found with each other is the deepest love so of course they can tell each other these 3 words with ease.

And because Richonne is the gift that keeps on giving the scene doesn’t stop there. Michonne then approaches Rick and lovingly takes his face in her hands as they share a sweet kiss. 🥹

And only Richonne can make their movement after the kiss feel as passionate and intimate as the kiss itself. Cuz after finally connecting like they’ve been longing to do, Rick and Michonne stay in the moment, looking deep into each other's eyes before leaning their heads against each other with that blessed mirror giving us all the angles. 😍

I love that mirror, y'all. 😋 I'm deeming that mirror and the set designer who placed it there some Richonners cuz, baby, they knew what we needed to see...

The way Rick and Michonne touch each other is always electric, and I love that they seriously feel like one as she rests her hand on his heart and he gently moves his hand up her side. These actors are so gifted at not wasting a single moment or action because they communicate Richonne's love in every second of a scene.

(and when richonne inevitably does that signature forehead touch in TOWL, after years apart...y'all I just might ascend to the heavens right then and there 😇)

It’s also sweet the way Michonne looks at Rick before leaving for him to have this time alone to connect with his son and read the letter.

Having the scene end with Rick reading his son's letter in a whole mirror as opposed to the shattered mirror he saw himself in earlier in the ep, is lovely. And it speaks to the power of Richonne that Rick could arrive at this point, ready to slowly but surely start healing.

“I love you” really is communicated in every Richonne scene. And while season 8 was a weak one overall, one thing it did well was illustrate the stunning strength of Rick and Michonne’s exquisite and powerful love.

And I love knowing that, thanks to TOWL, we're sure to have some more Richonne "I Love You" moments in store. #GiftThatKeepsOnGivingAndGiving 😌

#richonne #top 30 #number 13 #rick x michonne #twd 8.14 #reveling in richonne #twd towl #the ones who live

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elixirfromthestars · 2 months

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WELCOME TO MY CAFE! ˖°.₊˚☕⊹♡

I miss interacting with fellow writers and readers, so I decided to host my own little writing challenge ♡ Between juggling grad school prep and an internship, I wanted to do something to keep me connected to this lovely community, so welcome everyone to my cozy little cafe :)

The writing challenge starts today and closes on September 29th (National Coffee Day). I will be reading + reblogging every fic. The masterlist will be posted at the end. (if you see this anytime later or can’t make the deadline do not fret, if anything below inspires you, you are welcome to write and tag me and I will add your submission to the masterlist♡)

Below are the rules, prompts, and guidelines ♡

who you can write for: all marvel characters are welcome / any fictional sebastian stan or chris evans characters are welcome too (any characters they’ve portrayed based on real life people will not be accepted though!!) (please keep it to x reader fics only!!)

some general guidelines: Below I’ve provided a number of different prompts and songs for inspiration ♡ Anyone can use them and mix and match however you’d like!! If you use any please let me know somewhere in the post! If none of them below inspire you, to stay within theme please include either a cafe or coffee somewhere in the fic :) 18+ fics are welcome, just please add warnings! Any length of fics are welcome, but if it’s over 500 words please add the “keep reading” option. If you write something as part of a bigger series please write your submission as a standalone ♡

˖°.₊˚☕⊹♡ This is a sweet and cozy little cafe, but of course, there is always a possibility of rain. If anything below inspires an angsty fic, then by all means go ahead and write it! Your submission does not have to include fluff!

what is not accepted: no dark fics, anything involving minors, incest, rape, noncon/dubcon

how to enter: please tag me and use #elixirscafe when you post ♡ i’ll leave a like to let you know I saw it and reblog it once I read it :) if i haven’t responded to your post send me an inbox or dm please and thank you!

Happy writing! My inbox is always open for any questions or comments!! ♡

What table are you sitting at?

♡ Coffeeshop AU

♡ Soulmate AU

♡ Bakery AU

♡ Regency Era AU

♡ Western AU

♡ Neighbor AU

♡ Pen Pal AU

♡ Small Town AU

♡ Royal AU

♡ College AU

Would you like a sweet treat?

🍩 ༄ؘ “No, I’m not letting you go. It’s too early to get out of bed.”

🍰 ༄ؘ Saying I love you for the first time.

🍪 ༄ؘ “ Would it be alright if I borrowed your sweater? It smells like you.”

🍫 ༄ؘ “ You...you learned how to cook my favorite meal?”

🧁 ༄ؘ “ I’m not going to get sick, you baby. Just let me hold you.”

🥧 ༄ؘ “ What else do I need when I have my whole world in my arms?”

🍮 ༄ؘ “ I’m only doing it because you’re cute.”

🥯 ༄ؘ “ Could you hold my hand?”

🥞 ༄ؘ “ I’ve seen the way you look at me when you think I don’t notice.”

🍞 ༄ؘ “ I like hearing your heart beating when I put my head on your chest.”

🍯 ༄ؘ “ Why don’t you tell me what I can do to make your day better?”

🥐 ༄ؘ “ I’ve tried to forbid myself from falling in love, but now I can’t help it.”

Do you like the music in the cafe? Which song should I play next?

˖°.₊˚☕⊹♡ Feel free to use the lyrics below, the entire feel of the song, or any other lyrics in the song! The playlist is below in case you want to go through and listen to the songs while you write ♡

Apple Cider “ And I don’t even like you that much. Wait, I do, fuck. Call me at midnight. Let’s give this a try.” Beabadoobee

Apple Juice “ Don’t let goodbyes come too easy. Love me, just let me know that you need me.” Jessie Reyez

Apple Pie “I found you under an April sky, and you feel like city life, apple pie baked just right. Home is wherever you are tonight.” Lizzy McAlpine

August “ And I can see us twisted in bedsheets. August slipped away like a bottle of wine.’Cause you were never mine.” Taylor Swift

Bubble Gum “ Sorry I didn’t kiss you, but it’s obvious I wanted to.” Clairo

Caramel “ Love like a landslide, I kiss you goodnight. It used to be easy.” 5SOS

Cardigan “And when I felt like I was an old cardigan, under someone's bed. You put me on and said I was your favorite.” Taylor Swift

Chai Tea “ I love sippin’ chai tea, with you across from me. I love hearing your voice, talkin ‘bout nothing.” Audrey

Champagne Problems “ You had a speech, you’re speechless. Love slipped beyond your reaches, and I couldn’t give a reason.” Taylor Swift

Chocolate “ I need more time off with you to turn you on. And I want to wake up without the alarm. A thousand eyes on me constantly, but I just want you.” Ziggy Alberts

Cinnamon “ It’s a slow cinnamon summer. Your spell is pulling me under. Rowing in a wooded hollow. Showing me the moves to follow.” Jome

Coffee Breath “ Make me fantasize,'bout you baby. And you smell so sweet, like fresh-picked daisies.” Sofia Mills

Coffee Cup “ So we’re swapping our cups, and after a while, we’re swapping a glance. And I can think nothing better than starting the year with a drop of romance.” Anthony Lazaro

Espresso “ Now he’s thinkin’ ‘bout me every night, oh. Is it that sweet? I guess so. Say you can’t sleep, baby, I know. That’s that me espresso.” Sabrina Carpenter

Grapejuice “ I was on my way to buy some flowers for you. Thought that we could hide away in a corner of the heath. There’s never been someone who’s so perfect for me.” Harry Styles

Honey + Tea “Girls like flowers, clever poetry. That old adage doesn't work on me, but conversation and a cup of tea. Boy, you had me at philosophy.” Mōzi

Milk & Honey “ So come meet me in the garden, where the angels sing. We’re mixing up milk and honey, soft lips divine. Slow cherry and lay me down, oh, she’s coming to set me free.” Jessarae

Pancakes for Dinner “ I’ll try to hide the way I feel, but I’ll just wanna shout. What do I have to lose right now?” Lizzy McAlpine

Thin Mints “ If you let me lova ya like I wanna, write you all the poems like Whitman. You can take my Thin Mints, if you let me love ya like I wanna.” Evan Crommett

Too Sweet “ I think I’ll take my whiskey neat. My coffee black and my bed at three. You’re too sweet for me.” Hozier

playlist for the songs above can be found here: 🧸

to my lovely mutuals, please don’t feel pressured to participate or share, just thought I’d share this with you all ♡

@peteyprecious616 ♡ @malum-forev ♡ @rosepetalsinwinter ♡ @inkedreverie ♡ @nickfowlerrr ♡ @missraion ♡ @pocolottie ♡ @sweetiebarnes ♡

#marvel writing challenge #mcu writing challenge #elixirscafe #writing challenge #bucky barnes x reader #steve rogers x reader #peter parker x reader #natasha romanoff x reader #tony stark x reader #loki laufesyon x reader #matt murdock x reader #sam wilson x reader #thor odinson x reader

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the-hawthorns-ocs · 1 year

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Soothsayer Spindle'stare

MY ABSOLUTE FAVE OC EVER! MY SKRUNKLY!!!!

Character Bio:

Kinship: The Hawthorns

Queer (loves wife <3); what's a gender? (agender); it/she

Age: 3 cycles, 11 moons; ~31 Hyrs

Voice Headcanon: Entrapta - She-Ra - And The Princesses of Power (but like if she smoked a pack-o-sigs a day???)

Title meaning: -stare = uhh stares, like a lot, its weird, does it blink???; Soothsayer specific -> this cat can see into your soul and across the vail of death and see what your future holds

Role: Soothsayer

Mother: River'riddle

Father: Monarch Bat'flight

Siblings: Monarch Light'fall

Mate: Worm'soil

Other notable kin: Heir Night (nephew)

Extra Notes: her name was originally Garlicnose but after a series of polls I have decided on Spindle'stare as it's new name! Hooray!

Character Summary:

this ones long bec she's my blorbo, sorry not sorry :P

Soothsayers are born absolute weirdos, that's actually how a Kinship can tell that a cat is probably a Soothsayer. They are all not entirely there, because they walk the line between the living and the dead, this gives them the gift of foresight into the future and the ability to commune with the dead, but it also makes them distant, odd, they act like their minds are often in a whole other plane from regular cats.

In Spindle'stare's case, its just really kooky, an absolute creature. Though she is also very traumatized, which is kinda a given for Soothsayers... but it's even worse for her. As a kit her connection to the Stars was almost entirely cut off, and was instead taken over by the Dark Maw... The Maw wanted control over the Hawthorns, and becoming their future Soothsayer's spiritual source was one of the best ways to do this.

Deep deep down I think that Spindle knows there is something off about her spiritual connection, but she doesn't really process this at all. She pretty much believes that she has a normal connection and is totally talking to the Stars and not the Dark Maw. Sometimes she gets a random breakthrough connection to the Stars and is bombarded by so many messages and warnings from the ancestors she is pretty much unable to process it and just becomes even more confused and overwhelmed, acting even more strange than normal.

As a result of the Dark Maw's hold on Spindle, the Soothsayer has not been able to aid the kinship in ways it should be able to. During Spindle's training and apprenticeship the Kinship went through a horrible illness that killed many many cats, everyone questioned why Spindle was unable to receive prophecies foretelling these deaths, or guiding them to a cure... Spindle was simply helpless and useless in a time what the kinship needed a spiritual guide the most... This event has left the Kinship not all too trusting of Spindle's guidance, and has left Spindle lost and confused as to why the Stars do not with to help her.

Though Spindle seems like an old kooky lady she is actually only around 4 cycles old aka. in her early 30s in human years. Spindle was littermates with Monarch Light'fall, they were extremally close, and Light was often the only one who could keep her stable, in the present, and more herself. Spindle was devastated at Light'fall's death and she fell deeper into the spiritual plane as a result, only Spinde'stare's mate Worm'soil is able to bring Spindle into clarity these days, and it is far more difficult to do so.

Spindle spends much of it's time with her mate Worm'soil, they are one of the few cats who are not creeped out by her, they understand her and love it deeply despite it's strangeness. They were childhood friends, and grew even closer during the era of illness in their youth... both of them bonded over the extreme pressure on them at the time, Spindle with the expectation of life saving prophecies and omens, and Worm with the health of the Kinship as a Healer apprentice.

The two of them are now two fucked up middle aged women(ish) who are just trying to survive their high stress roles in their very problematic kinship... They can often be found hanging out on their lonesome together, with Spindle buried in Worm's fluff <3

#I forgor to post this for mothssss im sorry T-T #cryptid's the hawthorns #spindle'stare #warrior cats #warriors ocs #soothsayer #xenofiction #warriors #warrior cats ocs

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mask131 · 1 year

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The thing that I always found abominably fascinating and insanely mind-blowing with the Earthsea series is that it breaks all the worn-out, over-used, “seen everywhere” cliches of fantasy people complain about today and try to avoid.

Tired of your typical Europe-setting? Here is a world of islands influenced by a lot of various non-European civilizations!

Tired of having a white-predominant cast? Here is a series where people of color are the dominant ethnicities and the white are the minority and bizarre barbarian foreigners from far away!

Tired of having the heroes go on grand and perilous monster-slaying quest to fight some dark overlord or fetch a magical item? Here are books where the villains are elusive, abstract and philosophical threats, where the quests to defeat them are very down-to-earth, solitary and rely more on self-search and the understanding of human nature rather than great exploits.

Tired of seeing the same old-worn out fantasy races tropes? None of this here!

This book series was created with the intention of subverting, avoiding or breaking the new tropes and stereotypes that were rising up with the success of Tolkien’s work. It was made to be different and ground-breaking and stereotype-crushing, and it worked extremely well, becoming a classic of fantasy literature and influencing the genre massively... And yet, people only rediscover it today, and know about it today somehow. (Well a “large” today including the dozen of last years of so).

This series is the perfect example of the “new” fantasy that rises up in the modern era, as an attempt to “break off” from the “traditional” or “cliche” fantasy... And the first book has been sitting there since the END OF THE 60s!!!

There are more examples I could point out of books that present to us a completely out-there, trope reinventing, stereotype breaking form of fantasy - and that yet have been there since the 70s or the 80s, or even before! As I went back in time to see several of the “classics” of fantasy literature, I came to understand something - a lot of the “cliches” and “stereotypes” and “over-used tropes” of fantasy people complain about today were not at all dominant for a very long time. If you believe the words of many people out there, you imagine fantasy never had black characters or queer characters or non-European settings or non-Tolkienesque plotlines until the 2010s or something... Which is not true. Fantasy was such a varied, bizarre, diverse genre in its literary form all throughout the 20th century, and many “old” works of the first generations of the post-Tolkien fantasy are basically what people want to see today as “pattern-breaking and fresh new fantasy”.

The Tolkienesque-fantasy and all of its cliches and stereotypes were not so much dominant as just present in a handful of massively popular and widespread works - the case of the Shannara series can be pointed out, as its first book was PRAISED at the time for being able to recreate a Tolkien story in the 70s, and it was because it was mostly a copy of the Lord of the Rings that it got so popular (and why it is not well-liked today). And then the 80s rolled and early D&D reignited the flame of the Tolkien-inspired fantasy. By the 90s, it seemed Tolkien had been used and over-used to death, and people didn’t trust it all anymore... Which is why David Eddings’ Belgariad series was created. Its key point was to take back all the elements of the traditional epic fantasy story, but reassemble them, freshen them up, twist them slightly, all of that to re-create a by-the-book BUT fresh, new and interesting series. It was an attempt at prooving that, with innovation and some twists and modernization, the Tolkienesque fantasy would not die - and it worked massively well. And then in the 2000s, the Lord of the Rings movie sealed the deal.

All these works make it look like fantasy had always been copying or taking inspiration from Tolkien. But it is false. It is true that most of the classics are tied to Tolkien, but not always in imitation or re-creation - in the case of “Earthsea”, there was a willing attempt at getting away and inverting the Tolkienesque fantasy to create a fantasy that went the very opposite direction. Same thing with the Elric Saga, also designed to be the reverse or opposite of The Lord of the Rings, and which in turn became the classic of another new genre of fantasy: dark fantasy. And Conan in all that? People forget that the Conan the Barbarian series were just as influential for fantasy works as Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings was. The Elric Saga, again, was created to completely reverse and avoid the Conan-like fantasy. A similar thing was done with Leiber for his “Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser” series, which was designed to break away from the Conan “heroic fantasy” style and reinvent the genre in a new direction.

There are so many “old” and “classic” works of literary fantasy that actually do not feel like a “classic” at all because they have all the vibes, elements and expectations one has from a non-classic, non-traditional fantasy... BUT THEY ARE THE FOUNDATIONS, they are the basis and classics and inspirations of fantasy. And it all shows this huge gap between what people think fantasy is, and what fantasy really was - it is a fascinating case study of how one specific trend somehow got over the entire genre. Imagine a world where people think Gothic novels can only have a vampire or the ghost of a judge, and must be Bram Stokers-inspired, and that everybody points out they are tired to see Dracula-expies everywhere... Only to discover the stories of Edgar Allan Poe and be baffled by them and their “inventivity” and “breaking of patterns”. I’m sorry, that’s the fastest comparison I can make, but this feels just like that. There is this strangely specific idea of what fantasy is today forged on a few items... I think, beyond the massive success of Tolkien and imitators, D&D probably is also to “blame” for how people see fantasy today.

But even then, D&D took inspiration from so many non-conventional works of fantasy... Yes many became “classics” now, though often ignored by the masses - The Elric Saga, and Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser were big influences. But take the Jack Vance series “The Dying Earth”, another big inspiration on early D&D. Take that. This series is from the 50s - FROM THE 50S - and yet it is a unique genre of sci-fi fantasy that I haven’t seen much being done around, and it creates such a weird, whimsical, bizarre, surrealistic fantasy world, it feels completely unique. And again, it is a classic of the 50s and 60s.

I don’t really know where I try to go with this but the important thing is: when someone wants to read “non-traditional” or “non-Tolkienesque” fantasy, or “non-stereotyped” fantasy, it is possible, instead of searching for every new author nowadays (not a bad thing to do that though), it is possible to just go back in time, look back at the books of the 70s, 60s and 50s, and find there a novelty, a freshness and an inventivity that is lacking in a mass production of modern day fantasy. And that such a thing is possible is truly crazy for me. I don’t know if such a thing happened with other literary genres, but it is insane that sometimes in fantasy, to see “new” things you just have to look back into the past.

#fantasy #fantasy literature #tolkien #tolkienesque literature #earthsea #ursula le guin #the dying earth #the elric saga #i don't know if I should tag them all #this is really just a random shot here #fantasy stereotypes #fantasy cliches #fantasy tropes

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yurimother · 2 years

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Yuri of Absence and The Chair of Yuri: Combining Lesbian Manga and Science Fiction - The Secret Garden

This article was originally written in 2021 as part of The Secret Garden, YuriMother's exclusive series of articles, available only for Patrons. If you want to access other articles and help support Yuri and LGBTQ+ content, subscribe to the YuriMother Patreon.

In the “olden days” of Yuri, which is really to say anything in the ‘00s or earlier, there was not much variety in the mainstream Yuri market. If you wanted to read a manga about the romance between two women or watch an anime with clear lesbian elements, choices were between a sweet school story or a classic tragic school Yuri story. As I have mentioned many times recently, one of the most significant advancements in the recent Yuri genre is the advent of sub-genres. Once considered an element or subgenre itself, Yuri hosts various works from isekai to feminist literature. However, one of the most curious and certainly most well-known subgenres is science fiction.

Yuri science fiction is in the spotlight right now, with everything from visual novels like Synergia to webcomics like Ratana Satis’s Soul Drifters. However, one of the most prolific and rightly celebrated titles is Iori Miyazawa’s Otherside Picnic. The series began publishing under Hayakawa’s Bunko JA imprint in 2017, and over the past few years, it exploded onto the scene. It has an upcoming sixth book, a manga adaptation serialized in Monthly Shounen Gangan, healthy overseas publishing, and of course, an anime adaptation helmed by Kase-san and Stiens;Gate director Takuya Sato. It has garnered praise from critics CBR, Anime News Network, and Erica Friedman of Okazu. I wrote glowing reviews for the first few books, complimenting its worldbuilding, pacing, and characters. However, Otherside Picnic did not spring out of anywhere. Indeed, it is the product of gradual shifts in Yuri and sci-fi storytelling and Miyazawa’s genius theories and knowledge of the genres.

The mixture of Yuri and science fiction is not anything new; it predates most other forms of Yuri save Class S school romances. You may not picture many of these when you think of modern Yuri sci-fi, but as early as 1975, we had Yuri stories like Boku no Shotaiken that included small sci-fi elements, in this case, transferring the mind to another body. Over the next two decades or so, a time during which so few Yuri titles surfaced, it is occasionally referred to as Yuri’s “era of Darkness,” multiple titles sci-fi titles including Dirty Pair, Project A-Ko, Bubblegum Crisis, and Iczer featured science fiction settings and Yuri elements. At this time, Yuri was not much of a genre as we think of it today, but more of a factor inserted into a larger narrative. Think of Yayoi and Shion from Psycho-Pass for a more contemporary example. In fact, except for Iczer, none of these titles feature any outright lesbian characters, just female casts with “Yuri-ish” moments of women standing close together and being companions.

These titles feature two key elements that many current series have shifted further away from, soft sci-fi and Weak Yuri. Soft, as opposed to hard science fiction, is the more established of these two scales. Science fiction can be separated between outlandish and impossible ideas, sometimes known as science fantasy, and those based in reality, research, and the hard sciences such as physics, astronomy, and mathematics. Sorting works between these two labels is, ironically, not an exact science, and fans and critics alike argue about their precise definitions. However, let us consider soft and hard science as a spectrum, with outlandish premises like Dragonball on the soft end and the reality-based concepts of Space Brothers at the other. One can sort most titles along this continuum. M Alan Kazlev does an excellent job dissecting this scale in further detail. Many of the titles we enjoy today, including Otherside Picnic, inhabit this transitory space, as it is not fantasy. Still, its reliance on anthropology and psychology’s soft sciences may put it a small step below more grounded hard sci-fi. Still, it is far above the aliens and superpowered robots in ‘80s anime, so we shall consider it hard sci-fi for the sake of this argument.

*Note: Many science fiction circles use the abbreviation sci-fi for soft science fiction and SF for hard science fiction. For ease of readability and common vernacular, this article uses “sci-fi” for both instances.*

Sci-fi Yuri did not break out of soft science fiction territory until very recently. In the 1990s, Yuri underwent dramatic changes thanks to Sailor Moon and Revolutionary Girl Utena, which helped reform it as a genre rather than a feature. Maria Watches Over Us revived S Yuri traditions, and new titles were set in schools and focused on modern girls’ lives. In the 2000s, Yuri magazines began serialization and featured stories such as Kisses, Sighs, and Cheery Blossom Pink and Strawberry Shake Sweet (both serialized under different names). Despite being primarily aimed at adult women, the magazine found success with male audiences, prompting new stories appealing to men and boys. These works reintroduced action and science fiction into the genre with pieces like Kannazuki no Miko: Destiny of the Shrine Maiden, Blue Drop, and Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl (Yuriboke does a better job breaking all these down). However, all these were still vehemently in soft sci-fi territory, with Kashimashi’s only surreal element being an alien because the author was, to simplify grossly, unable to fathom the existence of transgender people (coming full circle from Boku no Shotaiken). Possibly the only contemporary mainstream hard sci-fi title to include Yuri and enjoy a modicum of success was Qualia The Purple. However, this series did not have the genre-defining power that later works would.

However, what changes between these series and those mentioned earlier is the Yuri itself. The relationships become much more explicit and central to the plot. You can deliberate whether or not Bubblegum Crisis is sapphic, but just try sitting someone down and arguing that Kannazuki no Miko is not built around the crux of two women holding romantic interest in each other. Yuri science fiction author Gengen Kusano proposes a dichotomy similar to soft and hard sci-fi to analyze these titles, Weak and Strong Yuri. He explains it in his own brilliantly convoluted and philosophical way, but in short, Weak Yuri relies on using logic and the mind to make the real imaginary, while strong Yuri is about emotionalism and realism, making fiction into reality.

Strong Yuri is Yuri that focuses on realism through feelings and emotions. Kusano describes it as fiction characters having real emotions. They have strong connections and affection for each other that are real and powerful. The audience experiences the feelings between the characters as they are felt and portrayed. Think of how emotional the exclamations and love, sorrow, confusion, and affection are in titles like Bloom Into You and Citrus. In a sense, they can be so strong that they transcend their fictional confines and become real, as they are experienced by considers, a stage called “radically Strong Yuri.” Most explicit Yuri, which is not subtext or suggestive content but in-your-face lesbianism, is Strong Yuri, although not all Strong Yuri is outright depictions of lesbianism; it is a square rectangle situation, not all rectangles are squares, but all squares are rectangles.

Weak Yuri is cemented in the areas of thought, logic, and epistemology. It deals with the theory of mind, the ability to attribute mental states to others or ourselves. For example, when we see someone smiling or laughing, we may not feel their emotion ourselves, as we do not have direct access to their mind, but we recognize that they are happy. In Weak Yuri, one uses their theory of mind to observe facts and deduce the existence of a Yuri relationship, even if one is not present. So-called “Yuri-ish” titles like Yuru Camp or K-ON! do not outright state or depict romantic or sexual attractions, but is attributed by the viewers onto characters. Said observer witnesses the interactions between girls and, using that factual and observable data, puzzles out a lesbian attraction they prescribe to the subjects, whether real. Shipping culture relies on Weak Yuri’s logic Kusano’s most extreme, “Radical Weak Yuri,” the relationships of real people, like idols, become imaginary through these projections.

Blue Drop and Kashimashi may have been soft Sci-fi, but unlike the soft sci-fi, Weak Yuri series of the twentieth century, they featured Strong Yuri and placed it more as a central aspect of the work with other elements built around, rather than as a side element. The next revolution in sci-fi Yuri came when hard sci-fi titles began production. A few of the principal players here are Kusano himself, Otherside Picnic Creator Iori Miyazawa, and editor Rikimura Mizoguichi, all of whom feature in the viral Yuri Made Me Human interview of Miyazawa. Most of the theories and ideas discussed in this article, including Kusano’s Weak and Strong Yuri arguments, came from these seminars.

It all started with Kusano’s existential widescreen Yuri baroque proletariat hard sci-fi Love Live AU fanfic of the popular ship NicoMaki, consisting of Nico Yazawa and Maki Nishikino. The revised edition of this story, Last and First Idol, was published in 2016 and became the first debut title to win the prestigious Seiun Award in 42 years. Satoshi Maejima’s post-script essay at the end of the Last and First Idol collection gives far more detail into these works’ history. However, Idol was the first prominent story to feature Yuri in a hard sci-fi narrative. It was not perfect. In fact, in its push to feature gruesome content and insane hard sci-fi that Yuri is pushed to the wayside during most of the story.

*Author’s note: The first time I read Last and First Idol, I was completely unaware of its contents, which was a shocking experience; the story comes with a severe content warning).

Last and First Idol did not create a woven hard sci-fi, Strong Yuri narrative. However, it was a definite proof of the concept, a testament that the sprawling details and imagery of hard Sci-Fi could work with Yuri relationships. Kusano’s next short story, Evolution Girls, which would appear alongside Last and First Idol in the collection of the same name, saw the author focus more on emotionalism and create a Strong Yuri work. Nevertheless, Last and First Idol was a massive success. Future hard proof that Yuri hard sci-fi was coming in force came in December 2018, when Hayakawa Shobo ran a special edition of its long-running S-F Magazine featuring Yuri stories. The issue, planned by Rikimura Mizoguchi, proved so popular for the second time in its then 59-year history, the magazine had to reprint before release.

While Kusano was developing theories on Yuri and Hayakawa Shobo worked to push the public eye onto Yuri sci-fi, author Iori Miyazawa was refining his own Yuri premises, ones that, though he did not know it at the time, would not only see Strong Yuri and Hard sci-fi standing side by side in the same story but would synthesis the two into a unique product that could attract new fans and expand the borders of science fiction and Yuri. The work in question, of course, is Otherside Picnic. This light novel series about girls journeying to another world to hunt creatures from occult internet lore is to date Yuri science fiction’s best execution.

As Miyazawa admits, he strives to create Strong Yuri by focusing on emotionalism and realistic characters. However, such character-driven narratives are often at odds with hard science fiction, which requires dense walls of text to explain the complicated science behind its concepts and world. Miyazawa avoids this trap by utilizing Yuri tropes, specifically scenic Yuri and “Yuri of absence,” and integrating Yuri relationship into these explanatory literary lectures. Examining the latter first, rather than using narrative or exposition dialogue to unravel the intelligence behind the world or elements of science fiction, Miyazawa uses the relationship between Sorawo and Toriko.

In Otherside Picnic, explanations of the mysterious Otherside come primarily from two sources, dialogue and Sorawo’s inner monologue. When Sorawo and Torikko discuss a nuance of the paranormal creatures they investigate, it no longer becomes a large infodump but a Yuri scene about their relationship through their interactions and responses. According to both the strong Yuri theory and Yuri’s traditional definition, these emotions and discussions are the crux of the genre – stories about females’ relationships. Similar emotionalism fills Sorawo’s inner monologues, specifically in the frequent romantic admirations of Toriko. Thus, an explanation existing in that same space becomes Yuri, as it mirrors the same emotions and attraction. Merely by placing the usual exposition into interactions and relationships, Miyazawa was able to open hard science fiction to new readers, who may have been apprehensive before because of these text walls.

Miyazawa’s other secret weapon is, as he describes it, “Yuri of absence.” Relying on the principles of Strong Yuri, that Yuri is fiction made real through emotions, Yuri of absence extends these parameters outside of characters. As Strong Yuri relies on feeling, not observable data like characters, anything that invokes two women’s feelings together is Yuri. It could be a song, or an empty bench, as one can imagine two women on it and feel emotions tied to that. Of course, taken to its extreme, nearly anything can then be Yuri, as I have joked before, gesturing to an empty chair proclaiming, “Behold, a Yuri!” However, Miyazawa uses this Yuri of absence sparingly, rendering it closer to scenic Yuri’s intimacy.

Scenic Yuri, a particular type of Yuri of absence, focuses exclusively on setting and imagery, a feature that works particularly well in science fiction as according to Masahiro Noda’s “sci-fi is all about images.” Traditional Yuri uses character interaction and supplements it with images and sights that help communicate characters’ emotions and intimacy, like fleeting shots or descriptions of the sky. Take the shot from Kase-san and Morning Girls where Yamada stands by the bus stop. The distance between the girls, the tree in the foreground on Yamada’s side, and the pole on the right all invoke emotion and help tell the girls’ story, distanced by their differences and upcoming life paths. Now remove the girls, the scene remains, as does its meaning and emotions, whether the characters are present or not.

Scenic Yuri is employed vigorously in more male-targeted S Yuri (a minority of the Class S genre). Here, the imagery provides intimacy so that the voyeuristic viewer could look into the characters’ private and forbidden lives, specifically the girls in all-girls schools. Take the shot from Strawberry “Mo Man May Enter Here” Panic. The sweeping view of the Strawberry Dorms atop Astraea Hill, a place where men are forbidden, gives the consumer an exclusive inside look at the private home of its subjects. Otherside Picnic uses these same scenic Yuri principles in its descriptions. In this case, the intimacy does not come from a place where men are prohibited or a shot describing women’s relationships. Instead, the reports of abandoned ruins and deserted open fields where only Toriko and Sorawo exist provide extreme intimacy. It is an emotional view of two of the few women in this world with nothing but each other; thus, Yuri.

Yuri science fiction is easily the most exciting place in the genre right now. Its creators are experimenting with new theories and storytelling methods to expand the boundaries of what science fiction or Yuri alone could never do. The subgenre has undoubtedly come a long way from its Weak Yuri roots and continues to grow. Industry leaders like Miyazawa and Mizoguichi will continue to push into this excited and uncharted territory, using tactics new and old to bring together Yuri’s emotional and romantic core with science fiction’s epic and provoking imagery. I have few doubts that we have seen all these pioneers have to offer and that Last and First Idol and Otherside Picnic are just the beginning.

Sources

Friedman, Erica, and Kishiji Bando. “Shoujo Yuri Manga Guide.” Yuricon, 29 Mar. 2011, https://www.yuricon.com/oldessays/shoujo-yuri-manga-guide/.

Hanson, Katherine. Yuri No Boke 百合のボケ〜百合が好きだ〜: Sci-Fi Yuri Anime and Manga. 17 Feb. 2012, http://yurinoboke.blogspot.com/2012/02/sci-fi-yuri-anime-and-manga.html.

Kit, et al. Tomo Choco Podcast Episode 58: A Trip to the Otherside. https://directory.libsyn.com/episode/index/show/tomochoco5287491142565609/id/14974343. Accessed 18 Feb. 2021.

Komatsu, Mikikazu. “S-F Magazine’s Yuri-Themed Issue Gets Reprints Before Release.” Crunchyroll, https://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2018/12/18/s-f-magazines-yuri-themed-issue-gets-reprints-before-release. Accessed 18 Feb. 2021.

Kusano, Gengen. “[R-18] #SF #矢澤にこ【SF合同サンプル】最後にして最初の矢澤 - 節足原々（セッソクハラハラ）の小説.” Pixiv, https://www.pixiv.net/novel/show.php?id=4992326. Accessed 18 Feb. 2021.

M Alan Kazlev. “The Scale of Hardness in Science Fiction.” Futurism, https://vocal.media/futurism/the-scale-of-hardness-in-science-fiction. Accessed 18 Feb. 2021.

Masayuki Sakoi. Strawberry Panic S01:E21 - Like a Flower. Madhouse, 2006. tubitv.com, https://tubitv.com/tv-shows/558933/s01-e21-like-a-flower.

Maser, Verena. Beautiful and Innocent: Female Same-Sex Intimacy in the Japanese Yuri Genre. ubt.opus.hbz-nrw.de, https://ubt.opus.hbz-nrw.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/695. Accessed 18 Feb. 2021.

Miyazawa, Iori, et al. Yuri Made Me Human, Part 2. Translated by Kati_lilian, 24 Aug. 2018, https://teletype.in/@kati_lilian/S1yjBCJgH.

Miyazawa, Iori, and Rikimaru Mizoguchi. Yuri Made Me Human — Interview with Iori Miyazawa. Translated by kati_lilian, May 2018, https://teletype.in/@kati_lilian/SJA8KwjjN.

Moore, Caitlin, et al. “The Winter 2021 Preview Guide - Otherside Picnic.” Anime News Network, https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/preview-guide/2021/winter/otherside-picnic/.167892. Accessed 18 Feb. 2021.

Nicki “YuriMother” Bauman. The History and Future of Transgender Representation in Yuri - The Secret Garden, January 2021 | YuriMother on Patreon. https://www.patreon.com/posts/45495024. Accessed 18 Feb. 2021.

---. “Yuri Is for Everyone: An Analysis of Yuri Demographics and Readership.” Anime Feminist, 12 Feb. 2020, https://www.animefeminist.com/yuri-is-for-everyone-an-analysis-of-yuri-demographics-and-readership/.

Pinansky, Sam. Interview with J-Novel Club’s Sam Pinansky. Interview by Erica Friedman, 1 Oct. 2019, https://okazu.yuricon.com/2019/10/01/interview-with-j-novel-clubs-sam-pinansky/.

Sarantos, Constance. “How Otherside Picnic Breaks the Yuri Genre Mold.” CBR, 10 Jan. 2021, https://www.cbr.com/otherside-picnic-breaks-yuri-genre-mold/.

“「SF冬の時代」は雪解けを迎えた早川書房・溝口力丸 Vol.1.” KAI-YOU Premium, https://premium.kai-you.net/article/201. Accessed 18 Feb. 2021.

Snapshot. https://www.cbr.com/otherside-picnic-breaks-yuri-genre-mold/. Accessed 18 Feb. 2021.

Takuya Satou. Watch Kase-San and Morning Glories. Sentai Filmworks, 2018. vrv.co, https://vrv.co/series/GYQWD1X1Y/Kase-san-and-Morning-Glories.

Walter, Damien. “Science Fiction vs SciFi vs SF: What Is the True Definition?” Damien Walter, 7 Aug. 2018, https://damiengwalter.com/2018/08/07/science-fiction-vs-scifi-vs-sf-what-is-the-true-definition/.

YuriMother. “LGBTQ Light Novel Review - Otherside Picnic Vol. 1.” The Holy Mother of Yuri, 12 Dec. 2019, https://yurimother.com/post/189635367305.

#Yuri #otherside picnic #the secret garden #miyazawa yuri #yuri of absence #scenic yuri #lgbt #lgbtq #lgbtq+#queer #gay #lesbian

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i-heart-hxh · 7 months

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Does Gon have green hair or black hair? What colour are Killua's eyes? Which version of the anime do you like better?

Hi, thanks for the fun questions!

I like to go off the manga as the actual canon because that's the most direct way of seeing Togashi's intentions, rather than decisions made by an anime production crew. Togashi tends to color Gon's hair as either black or green or both. (Just some examples, there are many, many more out there of course!)

Because of the frequency with which he uses green, I think it's fair to see Gon's hair as either a very dark green verging on black, or black at the roots and then green towards the tips. Of course not a "natural" hair color in our world, but neither is Killua's or that of multiple other characters, so I'm sure there's a wider variation of natural hair colors in the HxH world. (Obviously, this is a very common thing in anime and manga, haha.)

Togashi occasionally colors Killua's eyes brown for whatever reason, but he uses blue considerably more (and so does the colored version of the manga/both anime adaptations) so I definitely think blue is his intended choice for Killua's eyes.

As for which anime version I prefer--ultimately I prefer 2011 because it follows the manga much more closely and I absolutely love how it adapted Greed Island through Election Arc especially. It really hit its stride through those arcs. I've also written about issues I have with the characterization of Gon and Killua in the 1999 anime. That said, I think both series have pros and cons, and I do enjoy both and also have issues with both to some degree as well.

Some of 2011's pros and cons in my view:

Pros:

Follows more of the manga

Follows the manga much more closely than 1999

Amazing voice acting--particularly from Megumi Han and Mariya Ise (Gon and Killua), but there are tons of other phenomenal performances as well!

Really impressive animation in many scenes

Amazing production consistency for a series with as long of a run as it had, gets even better as it goes!

A nice soundtrack and OP/EDs

Overall polished and satisfying series and overall well-adapted from the source material

Even increases the emotional impact of some of the scenes

Added cute Gon and Killua content that I personally enjoy (Huncyclopedia, trailers, some added scenes, etc.)

Cons:

Doesn't leave out a lot, but what it does leave out is strange and frustrating (Kite stuff, Kon, Leorio scenes, etc.)

The aesthetic could be better IMHO. The character designs are fine, but I would have preferred them be just a bit more grounded in some cases (think like 1999). The color palette is very bright and cheery and looks somewhat fake or artificial in a way.

Feels overly light at the beginning when compared to the manga, oddly tonally dissonant with the later parts of the series and makes the series hard to recommend to some people IMHO

Some strange uses of the soundtrack, early in the series in particular

1999's pros and cons:

Pros:

Really gorgeous aesthetic and use of cel animation

Often amazing visual direction

I love the character designs overall, particularly as drawn by some of the specific animation directors who worked on it

Darker, immersive atmosphere

Some of the soundtrack is beautiful!

Some of the added content is neat and/or funny

LeoPika city

Nice OPs/EDs

Fun and sometimes goofy additional content like the musical, radio shows, etc.

Cons:

Adds a LOT of original content and changes things from the manga, definitely not all of which I like or agree with. Some of the additions/changes are frustrating to me.

Gon and Killua's characters and dynamic in particular are changed a fair bit in ways I don't always enjoy

Slooooowwww pacing

Too visually dark at times and can be hard to discern what's happening

Weird fight choreography at times

Even with how much I love that era of anime, it sometimes feels really dated--even older than it actually is, IMHO

These are overly simplified and I'm certain I'm leaving out a lot, but hopefully that gives you an idea of how I feel about each!

I sometimes wish we could have an anime that mixes together the pros from both and erases some of the cons. I feel like a theoretical blend of both versions would potentially be amazing, but at the same time I know we're very lucky as a fandom to have two anime adaptations with their own unique strengths and weaknesses, and I'm grateful for that!

#hxh #hunter x hunter #gon #killua #2011 anime #1999 anime #anonymous #asks #my posts

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conflictofthemind · 6 months

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Not saying this means anything especially since TBSOAS (the book) only came out in 2020, more of a “hey this is weird” post but:

I’ve always thought these two looked / were similar as two wavy blond haired blue eyed men, and it definitely helps that they both premiered (in the case of film Corio) within one year of each other . But there’s like, more than that? And some of it is very strange?

First off, they are two characters who since the start of their chronological stories teeter between ‘good’ and ‘evil’ with a lot of forces in their life, including their evil scientist mentor, pushing them towards the dark side by use of manipulation tactics. Henry is much more of a direct victim to this than Corio is though, and the latter also does have more good influences in his life.

“Fueled with the terror of becoming Prey, see how quickly we become Predator?” - Dr. Gaul

“I could restore balance to a broken world… a predator, but for good” - Henry Creel / 001

Also, can I mention how both TBOSAS and TFS are set in the same exact time period? The Hunger Games uses retro futurism since the entire story is set centuries from now, but the era is clearly inspired by the late 50s to early 60s, especially given that it takes place 60 years before the main series.

Now here’s the actual weird part that had me making this post.

Both of their origin stories center on a romance with a female co-lead that ends with them killing her (heavy question mark). That’s not the weird part. It’s the way that the plots of both of these origin stories and said female characters are based off of old European folk-songs that were popular in Appalachia. TFS is based off of ‘The Tale of Barbara Allen’ and TBOSAS is based off of ‘The Ballad of Lucy Gray’ - Stranger Things just bothered to change her name to Patty Newby. Barbara Allen (Patty) appears as a covey sister of Lucy Gray in TBSOAS. Naturally, both of these characters are singers which plays a role in their respective stories.

I just have to say, it’s a very obscure source of inspiration to happen twice like this. There is a little part of me that thinks Kate Trefry and the writing crew on TFS might have been fans of The Hunger Games. But who knows.

Suzanne Collins wrote the TBOSAS prequel to answer the question of ‘nature vs nurture’ and how much choice villains have in becoming their future selves - which is the exact same question that is actively being posed by Stranger Things in regards to Henry.

And then how I got started on this line of thinking again today - the older adult versions of these characters both kidnap the respective sweet boy love interests and hijack them against the main characters. For strategic reasons and, in the case of Peeta, emotionally torturing the main character so she gives up. Will and Peeta are just both so similar as characters; soft and sensitive, traumatized, painters, both the poor underdogs with (seemingly) unrequited love for the protagonist though Mike isn’t really the protagonist.

I’m not sure if there’s actual inspiration being taken here. I typically assume not on the basis that I’m someone who can find connections between any pieces of media I enjoy. But the whole Appalachian folktale angle of it all is strange to me.

While I don’t think Henry was conceived with this in mind, it’s possible the inspiration sprang up during the further fleshing out of his backstory and into writing The First Shadow. Maybe it will even have an impact on the final season.

One of the things I liked about TBOSAS was the theme of the past coming back to haunt Snow in the future through Katniss and the music Lucy Gray created living on through her. If this was in any way inspiration, I’d love to see Vecna haunted by how similar Will is to him and especially the ways that he is different and able to do better.

#stranger things #henry creel #vecna/henry/001 #will byers #not going to put this shenanigans in the hg tag but uhh go everlark and byler parallels

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pokemon-card-of-the-day · 1 month

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Pokemon Card of the Day #3242: Ninetales (Expedition)

Ninetales could hit hard. Really hard. With enough Energy, it could KO any Pokemon in the game. It also had to discard the Energy it wanted to use to attack, which made it really hard to use consistency. Fire was a type that had ways to recycle Energy back into play, so support did indeed exist. The issue for a lot of these e-series cards was that there was almost always a ton of competition in any format that used any other cards. Ninetales, however, was so strong in the right spot that it was going to be tough to quite replicate that, and that gave it a bit more of a push into main formats than you'd probably expect from it.

80 HP was very average for Stage 1's of the era. There were a lot of Pokemon in this range where the strongest attacks could make it fall, but not every deck was getting there and doing so usually took a lot of effort. 2 hit KO's were far more common, so Ninetales had a chance to do its job. The Water Weakness was a pain against things like Dark Feraligatr, Kingdra, and Swampert depending on the format. The Retreat Cost, being just 1, was very reasonable. It was still probably nice to keep something like Switch around just in case you needed that one extra Energy on the next Ninetales or if your supporting Pokemon got hit by Pokemon Reversal or Double Gust.

Mislead needed a Fire and a Colorless Energy. 2 coins were flipped, and if either was heads, the Defending Pokemon was Confused. This was really annoying to deal with before the Ruby & Sapphire cards came out since the coin flip was needed just to retreat, but switching cards still got out of it if those were available so this was more of a desperation play. It didn't do any damage, after all.

Ethereal Flame technically started at 30 damage for 3 Colorless Energy. Realistically it was more, but you had to discard all Fire Energy attached to Ninetales to use it. There was no choice here, and no damage varying once you chose it. Each discarded Energy added 20 damage, so you were getting 90 for 3 and that could go up from there. Ninetales could KO a lot of notable Pokemon with the right support. Sadly, Typhlosion was based on a coin flip and was therefore a bit unreliable with this much discarding. It took Blaziken in Ruby & Sapphire to get some consistency to this, and it was there where this had a chance to shine.

Ninetales had a bit of time in the spotlight. At the start of the e-On format, Ninetales was one of the best ways to use Blaziken, hitting extremely hard like very few things could. Once more sets were released, Ninetales got left behind, less because it was bad (it was still solid until it rotated) but because things like Rayquaza ex and Blaziken ex were even better. In earlier formats, Ninetales was usually worse than using Magcargo in Neo-On despite the higher damage ceiling because Magcargo was more likely to get off multiple attacks and was often strong enough to do what was needed anyway, while it was pretty good in e-card due to the slower pace of play giving more chances for Typhlosion to hit those flips. The main moment was still in early e-On with Blaziken, where it was one of the most popular decks for a while and something everyone had to prepare for.

#pokemon #pokemon tcg #card of the day #ninetales #expedition

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jazzystudios82 · 2 months

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Diabolik Lovers - An Angel's Embrace AU: Akira's relationships with the Sakamaki family (past) 🥀

Akira at 14 (Image above was made in a Picrew).

WARNING: Diabolik Lovers is a dark series with mature themes and topics. Discretion is advised. . . .

NOTE: This is all for an upcoming fanfic that is still in development. Some of the information written here may change in the future.

——————————————————————————

Karlheinz Sakamaki 🍷

Karlheinz is Akira's father.

Akira is the first of the many children that the Vampire King fathers over the years.

However, unlike with his younger sons, Karlheinz would put in effort to be a part of Akira's childhood and teen years. A major part of this is because Akira is his heir and because of Karlheinz's infatuation with his mother, Angelica.

Karlheinz educated Akira at an early age on various topics: the arts, literature, mathematics, science, and etc. This was all done to help him succeed, even if they weren't his favorite subjects due to Akira's young age, though he did like literature the most.

One of Karlheinz's favorite things to do with Akira and Angelica was to read stories with them when Akira was four, which was around the time Beatrix, Karl's second wife, got pregnant and gave birth to her and Karlheinz's son Shuu.

Karlheinz didn't really care if Akira got to meet his younger brothers or not, just as long as it didn't distract him from his studies.

When Akira expressed interest in sword fighting and architecture, Karlheinz allowed him to get into them as hobbies.

Karlheinz had decided not to involve Akira in his "Adam and Eve" plan, which was to bring in a new era of demon kind to help them "prosper". Karlheinz knew that not only would Akira be too old when "Eve" is chosen, but because he knew that Angelica would never grow to love him if this happened and if she were to find out.

Whenever it comes to asking a parent for help with "technical" problems, Akira always goes to Karlheinz.

Akira does think his father is a bit weird from time to time.

Because of Akira's status as Karlheinz's successor, Akira is often taken to important meetings with other high ranking demons to get to know how things are done.

However, despite Akira being Karlheinz's favorite son, they do not have the best relationship, as Karlheinz is not a good person: like Cordelia with Ayato and Beatrix with Shu, Karlheinz is rather strict with Akira when it comes to his studies and how he presents himself in front of other noble families.

This would only get worse when Akira gets older.

Karlheinz would always get on his case about wearing his finest clothes when at public outings, find a fiancee despite only being fourteen at the time, and many other things. However, it is possible that Karlheinz did this with him only wanting the best for his son, and because he's not used to showing proper familial affection, Karlheinz simply did what his father Johan did for him when he was Akira's age.

When Akira would be killed by vampire hunters at the age of nineteen, Karlheinz had felt many emotions. Shock, anger, sadness, and even regret, just to name a few. This, combined with Angelica's depressed state, is what made Karlheinz decide to bring Akira back from the dead, since he was more than capable of doing so.

And so, Karlheinz created a serum to bring Akira back from the dead in his lab. However, while he was successful, Akira was brought back without a soul, causing him to become vicious, feral, and extremely dangerous, which was made clear when he attempted to kill Karlheinz, and he was almost successful until his father injected him with a drug to make him sleep.

Ever since then, Karlheinz locked Akira in a padded cell in his castle in Eden so his son wouldn't hurt himself or others around him. While Akira stays locked away, his father began to conduct thorough research to locate Akira's soul so he can truly have his son back.

This was the norm for a good couple of years up until Akira grew sick and tired of being treated like an animal and escaped after he attacked Karlheinz. While lost in the woods, Akira encountered Carla and Shin Tsukinami, the two last pure blooded members of the Ancestor Race. Though that is a story for another day. . . .

Angelica Amor-Sakamaki 🎶

Angelica is Akira's mother and the parental figure who was a constant in his life.

Akira was Angelica's first child, and on the day he was born, his mother made a vow to shelter and adore him, as she never wanted him to feel unloved in any way.

As a first time mother, Angelica did everything she could to make Akira happy, though she took care to make sure that her son wasn't too spoiled.

When he turned four and Beatrix gave birth to her eldest, Akira wanted to be present for the birth, though both Angelica and Karlheinz said no since they thought him witnessing the birth would traumatize him.

During his childhood, Akira would often ask Angelica to read to him, Shuu, and his other eventual younger brothers.

Like his mother, Akira developed an interest in the art of sword fighting, and with his parents' permission (particularly Karlheinz's), Akira would practice sword fighting with his mother.

Whenever it comes to asking a parent for help regarding "emotional" problems and issues, Akira undoubtedly goes to Angelica.

As Akira got older, he tried to become more independent and would try not to "bother" his mother with his problems, since he believed that he should be able to solve them himself.

Akira is very protective of his mother, even when he was a little boy. This was mainly due to Cordelia's torment and when he'd see his mother getting harassed by some of the purple haired woman's past suitors.

When Karlheinz would get more and more strict with Akira, Angelica would come to her son's defense and try to have his father be more lenient with his studying and training as his heir.

Akira was aware of his mother's past marriage, and the unfortunate fate that befell her first husband Wolfgang. As a child, Akira would ask her what he was like when he was alive, but as a teenager, the pink haired young man would cease his questions as he'd notice his father's frown whenever Wolfgang is brought up.

One of his favorite activities to do with Angelica is to go horse back riding, specifically through the forest near their home.

On the fateful day when he and his mother accompanied Shuu to visit his human friend Edgar, Akira had to take his mother and younger brother back home almost immediately when they discovered Edgar's village on fire, since Angelica had sacrificed her own personal safety to protect Shuu from some flaming debris. After the incident, both boys took great care of the pink haired woman in their own ways, Shuu with trying to make her chicken soup while Akira worked on a salve to instantly heal the burn scars on her back.

One day, while things seemed to be going well, the Sakamaki mansion was attacked by a group of vampire hunters who aimed to kill Angelica and Akira. While Akira and his mother made sure to have the boys hide in the secret panic room, Akira was quick to notice one of the hunters had attempted to stab his mother in the back with a sword made of a special silver that was capable of killing vampires. Thinking quickly, the then nineteen year old Akira pushed his mother out of the way, taking the blade for himself, though not without ripping out the hunter's throat in the process, effectively killing him.

This event made his mother enter a depressive state. Angelica refused to eat or drink blood for days, leave her room weeks, and cry herself to sleep for months. Angelica would eventually pick herself back up again to be there for the boys, even though the death of her firstborn still weighed on her mind daily.

When Akira was (improperly) resurrected by Karlheinz and was locked up for his and others' safety, the pink haired young man would remain an amnesiac for a good portion of his adulthood since his father was having difficulty in returning Akira to the way he was. However, during his slumber, Akira would have little bits and pieces of his memories play in his mind, though the faces of his loved ones were always blurred out and he couldn't remember their voices properly.

Shuu Sakamaki 💛

Shuu is Akira's younger brother through their father, Karlheinz.

When Akira first heard of his stepmother Beatrix's pregnancy, a four year old Akira became excited that he was getting a new sibling. He'd even try to feel her then rounded belly for the baby's kicks, only after asking for permission of course.

When his baby brother was finally born, Akira was given permission by Karlheinz, Angelica, and Beatrix to hold the blonde infant while the blonde haired woman rested. Akira was doing his best to stay still and not disturb the baby since he was practically vibrating with excitement. When a sleepy Beatrix announced that the baby's name would be "Ririe" (yes, that's his actual birth name), Akira thought that it was a bit of an odd choice for the baby, since he believed that he looked more like a "Shuu" than a "Ririe".

After getting permission from Karlheinz and Beatrix, Akira would then start calling his baby brother by that name.

Whenever Akira's friends, who were the children of Karlheinz's business acquaintances, he'd often show off Shuu in a way that'd let them know that he was a proud big brother.

He'd play games with baby Shuu whenever he and his mother Angelica would visit Beatrix's part of the mansion, though Akira's visits would grow faint when his training with Karlheinz began.

The two wouldn't reunite until Shuu himself was four years old, making Akira eight.

Due to Shuu being the second eldest, he was allowed by his mother Beatrix to be around Akira so he could either become his second-in-command or the next heir if Akira, for whatever reason, couldn't become the next Vampire King.

Akira has given Shuu the nickname "Blondie".

Shuu especially liked going hunting with Akira and his older friends, since it made him feel like as if he was a "part of the boys".

Akira was one of the very few people who knew of the existence of Shue's friend Edgar. When he seemingly passed away, Shuu entering his apathetic state made Akira's heart break for his little brother.

When Akira passed away, Shuu was obviously devastated, as it reminded him of the sudden passing of his only friend Edgar. And it only got worse as his mother Beatrix and Cordelia began to compete with each other even more since this meant that either Shuu or Ayato could become the next head of the family.

Due to Akira's killers being humans, it made him despise mortals who came from the same church as they did, making it difficult for a certain blonde haired girl when she'd come to the Sakamaki mansion years later.

Reiji Sakamaki 💙

Reiji is Akira's younger brother through their father, Karlheinz.

Like with Shuu, Akira was around for the birth of Reiji since Beatrix and Angelica were on good terms, unlike her and Cordelia.

Akira also liked playing games with a baby Reiji and a one year old Shuu during his free time.

Akira has given Reiji the nickname "Pigeon" as Reiji's hair reminds him of the gray feathered bird: he also often shortens it to "Pidge" since he thinks it sounds cuter. However, despite Reiji thinking that the nickname was childish, he doesn't mind his brother calling him that in private. He does mind if it is done in public and if someone else tries to call him that.

Like with Shuu, Reiji was allowed to interact with Akira as he was also being trained in becoming his third-in-command.

He has much admiration for his older brother, as Reiji saw him as the "proper gentleman", except for when he teases him.

When Reiji turned eight, he was allowed to go alongside Shuu with Akira and his older friends for hunting and playing croquet.

Reiji would get annoyed whenever he saw Shuu spending time with Akira and Angelica. He thought this wasn't necessary as Shuu already had the love and attention of their birth mother Beatrix, though he never said a word about it.

When Reiji burned down Edgar's village, he'd help Akira with creating a salve for Angelica when she got hurt protecting Shuu from the fire as he felt immense guilt for his part in her getting hurt. Though Reiji never told Akira, Shuu, and Angelica about what he did for obvious reasons.

When the mansion was attacked by vampire hunters, Reiji, alongside Shuu, had to keep their younger brothers from panicking since they were worried about their safety and that of Angelica and Akira's. Reiji assured them that they were fine, as both were experienced with self defense techniques and sword fighting.

Unfortunately, when Reiji and his brothers exited the safe room with the help of a servant, they found a sobbing Angelica holding the bleeding dead body of their older brother.

Reiji was completely silent during the funeral and alongside Subaru, sticked to Angelica's side the whole time.

After Akira's death, Reiji got closer with Angelica then he did with his mother Beatrix, as his mother put more and more of her attention on Shuu since he now had more of a chance to become the heir.

Reiji had all of Akira's books placed in his room for safekeeping. Due to him having to help Angelica with looking after the house and its residents, Reiji doesn't really have much time for himself to read. However, during those rare moments when he does, Reiji finds himself reading some of Akira's old favorites.

Ayato Sakamaki ❤️

Ayato is Akira's younger brother through their father, Karlheinz.

Unlike with Shuu and Reiji, Ayato and his triplet brothers weren't allowed to meet Akira and his mother Angelica until they were four years old. This was due to their birth mother Cordelia's hatred for the pink haired woman for giving birth to the eldest son/heir, therefore seemingly getting the love and adoration of their shared husband, Karlheinz Sakamaki.

When Akira first met Ayato, who was four at that time, it was after he hurt himself in the gardens. After Angelica took care of him, she went to speak with Karlheinz while Akira stayed with Ayato to make sure that he wasn't lonely.

It didn't take long for Ayato to like Akira, as he saw him as a cool and fun big brother.

Ayato would go to Akira and his mother to be comforted whenever Cordelia punished him for doing something she didn't like, such as trying to get out of his immense studies.

He'd get jealous whenever he see his brothers playing with Akira and Angelica whenever he had to study.

Akira would call Ayato "Little Red" as a nickname, which Ayato thought was embarrassing.

Whenever Akira would hangout with his friends, Ayato wanted to go with as he thought they were "cool". He'd get envious whenever Shuu, Reiji, and Subaru were allowed to hangout with them while he, Kanato, and Laito weren't.

When Cordelia would throw Ayato in the lake and leave him to drown as a punishment, Akira and his mother would be alerted by Kanato and Laito and rush to his rescue. After giving him a bath, new clothes, and some hot soup to warm him up, Akira would stay with Ayato and distract him and his brothers while Angelica entered a screaming match with Cordelia about what she did.

Akira would always come up with silly games and dances for him and Ayato to play.

One time when Ayato needed to go to the bathroom, he went to Akira's room and asked him to come with because he was scared to go by himself.

During the mansion's attack by a group of vampire hunters, Ayato wanted to go out of the panic room so he could help Angelica and Akira, and would get upset whenever Shuu and Reiji told him to just sit still and wait until someone came for them. When a servant came to retrieve them, Ayato saw his stepmother weeping as she held Akira's bloodied and motionless body.

Ayato was wrecked when Akira was killed by the vampire hunters. He silently cried when they put the coffin underground, as he didn't want his mother Cordelia to notice and berate him. After the funeral ended, he and his brothers slept in Akira's bed in his old clothes, and they imagined that he was still there with them.

When Cordelia put even more pressure on Ayato to become Karlheinz's successor, Ayato felt disgusted, as it wasn't even a year since his brother's death: it was only six months at that time.

Ayato would unofficially make Akira's old room his place for alone time whenever he has a fight with his mother or brothers that gets out of control. This continued even after Cordelia died.

Kanato Sakamaki 💜

Kanato is Akira's younger brother through their father, Karlheinz.

Unlike Ayato, Kanato and his other brother Laito were able to interact with Angelica and Akira early on since Cordelia wasn't as strict with them.

Kanato thought Akira was a bit weird at times, but he ultimately liked him since, like his mother Angelica, took the time to get to understand him and be patient.

Due to Kanato's sensitivity as a child, there were very few people who could calm him down with ease: these people include Angelica, Akira, and Laito.

Kanato LOVED playing all sorts of games with Akira, but his all time favorite was Hide-and-go-Seek.

Since Akira isn't super fond of sweets, Akira would often give him his after dinner, especially if it's raspberry pudding.

Whenever Cordelia would have 'relations' with another man near or in front of Kanato, Akira would take his brother away to his room to make sure he didn't see too much of what was going on. While his mother Angelica would handle taking care of explaining to Kanato what was going on and how he should leave when it happens, Akira would distract him by playing games with him.

When Akira got older and would attract would be suitors, Kanato got annoyed with them and would stand near his brother as if he was a bodyguard.

The event that took Akira away from Kanato nearly destroyed him. After the tragedy, Kanato would stick to Angelica like glue.

Before Akira's funeral, Kanato did consider making his body into one of his 'wax figures' so his body could be preserved, but decided against it when he learned that Angelica had planned to have his body cremated and put bits of his ashes in charms that'd be given to the brothers respectively. Kanato has his charm hidden in Teddy for safekeeping.

Like Ayato and Shuu, Kanato's hatred to mortal humans mostly stems from the vampire hunters who took Akira away from him.

Laito Sakamaki 💚

Laito is Akira's younger brother through their father, Karlheinz.

Just like with Kanato, Laito was free to interact with Angelica and Akira early on since Cordelia was more concerned with her eldest son Ayato.

Since they had similar joking personalities, Laito would often participate with Akira in teasing their brothers.

Laito likes to borrow some of Akira's old clothes from when he was his age since they were still fashionable.

He often plays with Akira's old toys that he had from when he was around his age.

Whenever Cordelia would punish Ayato by throwing him into the lake, Laito and Kanato would go to Akira for help, who'd in turn inform his mother Angelica about the event. Laito would help Akira with taking care of Ayato.

One day, Akira would notice that Laito was acting rather off. He would notice whenever Laito would recoil a little at a woman's touch: whether it was Angelica gently putting her hand on his shoulder to get his attention, or the maids that assisted in helping him getting dressed for special events. What really captured Akira's attention was the sight of small bruises and the smell of Cordelia's perfume on Laito's body, and when Ayato told him that Laito would sometimes disappear in the middle of the night from the bed the triplets shared in their room.

After discovering what Cordelia was doing to Laito, Akira's blood boiled and he was seething with rage, but he kept his anger down long enough to ensure that Laito was fine and that he did nothing, and that the situation was not his fault in the slightest. While Laito pleaded with Akira not to tell anyone, Akira managed to convince Laito to at least tell Angelica about Cordelia's abuse so she could help him, even promising him that he'd be with him during the whole thing.

After Angelica was informed, she had Akira take Laito the the physician while she went to confront Cordelia, which Akira learned about later after he managed to get Laito to sleep in his room (he slept on the floor with a spare blanket and pillow).

To this day, Laito is grateful for Akira for helping him with what his birth mother was doing.

Akira's death shook Laito to his very core, as he never thought that a strong vampire could fall victim to a weak human. Like Kanato, Laito would stick to Angelica like glue and would steer clear of Cordelia since she was still around during that time.

While Laito isn't one to collect things like stuffed toys like Kanato, Laito does have a teddy bear in his room that was made from on of Akira's old shirts. This is something that all of the brothers have, but Laito is the only one to have his on display.

Subaru Sakamaki 🤍

Subaru is Akira's younger brother through their father, Karlheinz.

When Christa's pregnancy was announced, Akira was a little shocked to learn that his secondary mother figure was going to give him a little brother, but really excited. He'd even talk to the unborn Subaru during Christa's final trimester.

Between Cordelia, Beatrix and Christa, Akira was closer with the white haired woman since she and his mother Angelica were close childhood friends.

When Subaru was born, Akira was confused when he saw that baby Subaru was separated from Christa and given to his mother, since he thought that Christa would want to spend some alone time with her son before introducing Subaru to Angelica and him. It wasn't until Angelica told him about what happened to Christa that he'd understand.

From that day forward, Akira would help his mother with raising Subaru since Christa couldn't. He even helped Subaru with learning how to walk and talk.

For the longest time, Subaru believed that both Angelica and Akira were biologically related to him, as no one in the mansion ever really told him otherwise or spoke of his birth mother Christa.

It wasn't until his sixth birthday that Subaru learned the truth from his father Karlheinz, who told him everything that happened to Christa and why she was unable to raise him.

At first, Subaru didn't believe his father and thought he was lying, but it gnawed away at him the longer he kept it to himself. When Subaru finally asked Angelica and Akira if it was true, they sat him down and told him everything he wanted to know: it is important to know that Angelica and Akira did plan to tell Subaru eventually, but in a more relaxed setting and when they thought he was ready.

Despite now learning the truth, Subaru's love for his stepmother and older half-brother didn't change. In fact, it made him quite protective of them as he feared that Karlheinz would "break" them like he did with his birth mother.

Whenever Angelica wasn't able to visit Christa with Subaru, Akira would go with his brother and check on his stepmother, but only when he 100% sure that Christa was in a stable mood. He'd never risk Subaru's safety.

Subaru was nicknamed "Akira's shadow" since he'd follow him everywhere at balls held at the mansion of parties the whole family was invited to.

When an unstable Christa would lash out at Subaru for "ruining" her and tried to make him kill her, Akira, like his mother, would remind the white haired boy that he was not the monster Christa was making him out to be, and that it was not his fault that Christa is the way she is now.

After Akira's death and funeral, Subaru became much more sullen and angry. He'd focus on putting his energy in protecting Angelica and eventually his sister Sofia as he believed that he failed in protecting Akira when the vampire hunters attacked.

Richter Sakamaki 🗡️

Richter is Akira's uncle through his father Karlheinz.

As a child, Akira wasn't quite sure on what to feel towards his uncle Richter. The older vampire never really stayed at the mansion for long as he was constantly traveling the world.

Akira would get confused about why his mother disliked Richter, he was aware of their rivalry from their school days but he never knew why it started in the first place. He assumed that it was probably something silly and thought that they should make up.

However, one day while a young Akira was playing in the gardens, he overheard Richter badmouthing his mother Angelica with Cordelia, Karlheinz's first wife and one of Akira's stepmothers, since they thought they were alone. Hearing this made Akira decide that Richter was a terrible person who deserved his mother's scorn.

They never really interacted much during Akira's teen years, even before his demise.

Cordelia Sakamaki 🫀

Cordelia is Karlheinz's first wife and one of Akira's stepmothers. She is the mother of his younger brothers Ayato, Kanato, and Laito.

Akira was only four years old when he first met Cordelia, and as soon as she decided to be rude to him and his mother, he decided right then and there that he hated her.

He especially hated it when Cordelia would badmouth his mother behind her back to his uncle Richter in the gardens when the two adults thought that they were alone.

However, Akira did try his best to be civil with her in public and around the triplets, since he didn't want to cause any unnecessary drama.

During the small period when Cordelia would send her lovers to bother and harass his mother Angelica, Akira, after getting to leave her alone and unintentionally at Kanato's mercy, would in turn send rats and bugs into her room while she slept. Though Cordelia would automatically assume that it was Akira that sent the vermin, she never had any clear cut evidence.

One time as a petty form of revenge, Akira once put a single blueberry in her ice cream. Cordelia isn't allergic to blueberries or even dislikes them, she was just confused as to how it even got in there in the first place.

When Cordelia began to abuse the triplets, Akira, with help from his mother, would do whatever he could to either prevent any more harm coming to them or at least comfort them if he couldn't stop it in time.

It wasn't until Ayato's near death experience with drowning, Kanato witnessing his mother's affairs and bleeding vocal chords from her making him sing too much, and lastly the sexual abuse of Laito that Akira decided that enough was enough. After informing his mother of what was going on, and making sure all three of the triplets were ok and safely asleep in his room (since Cordelia hated going anywhere near him), Akira decided that was his moment to strike.

Akira visited Cordelia in the dungeons at night, as she was being punished on Karlheinz's orders for what she had done. After giving her a good scare, Akira threatened to convince his father to increase her punishment if she didn't do as he said and listen to his demands. The orders he gave her were simple: agree to hand over custody of the triplets to Angelica and to leave them and his mother alone. If she failed to comply, then he'd make her life a living hell when he became the next head of the family.

Frightened, Cordelia agreed. This encounter led to the purple haired woman's dislike of the young man to grow and fester. After she was released from the dungeons, Cordelia's reputation worsened after word got out that she agreed to let Angelica become the triplets' legal mother, creating a theory among gossiping nobles that Karlheinz's true favorite wife was none other than Angelica.

This pushed Cordelia over the edge, causing her to hire a group of vampire hunters to kill Angelica and Akira. She gave them clear orders to only kill them and to leave the triplets alone, as she still wished to use them for her own gain.

After Akira's death and Angelica's descent into depression, Cordelia began to plan on ways to get Ayato to become the next head of the family. But after the triplets learned through one remaining hunter Karlheinz kept alive for interrogation that Cordelia had a hand in their older brother's death, the three of them planned together to murder her for taking Akira away from them.

Beatrix Sakamaki 🪡

Beatrix is Karlheinz's second wife and one of Akira's stepmothers. She is the mother of his younger brothers Shuu and Reiji.

Akira's relationship with Beatrix is nowhere near as bad as it is with Cordelia.

In fact, they had a pretty decent relationship, though the two weren't close when she was alive. This was due to Beatrix putting in a majority of her attention on Shuu and her unintentional neglect of her youngest, Reiji.

Despite that, Beatrix did think that Akira was a nice young man with good manners, which allowed her to feel comfortable with letting Shuu and Reiji spend time with him. It also helped that when he was four, he'd bring flowers from the garden everyday for her and an unborn Shuu as gifts. He also did this with an unborn Reiji.

When Akira died, Beatrix felt a wave of varying emotions. While she felt immense sorrow for Angelica for the loss of her son, Beatrix began to once again compete with Cordelia over which of their eldest sons would become the next heir. This naturally made Angelica and Shuu distance themselves from her.

Christa Sakamaki 🪞

Christa is Karlheinz's third wife and one of Akira's stepmothers. She is the mother of his younger brother Subaru.

Christa was basically a secondary mother figure to Akira before the incident took place due to her close friendship with his mother Angelica. When he was a baby, the white haired woman would look after him whenever his mother had something important to do that required her full attention.

She even looked after him when Angelica needed rest, as Christa saw this as practice for when she and Karlheinz have children of their own one day.

When Akira was a year old, he called Christa 'mama', which nearly made her cry with tears of happiness.

When Christa's mind shattered (because of Karlheinz), Akira, alongside his mother, wasn't allowed to go anywhere near her without a guard present in case she was in an unstable mood and tried to hurt him.

When Subaru, Christa's son, was younger, Akira would help him with planting white roses near her tower in an attempt to make her feel better.

Akira's relationship with Christa definitely soured after he learned that Christa denounced his little brother Subaru as her son and that she tried to pressure him into killing her. However, he still felt bad for what happened to her, so he would try to send her little gifts every now and then to make her feel better.

When Akira's death was announced, Christa bursted into tears over the news, as in a way, he was the son she never had.

Years later, when Christa heard from a few gossiping maids that Karlheinz was keeping a feral pink haired young man in the dungeons who bore a striking resemblance to Akira, this made the white haired woman realized that Akira was somehow brought back to life and was being kept as a prisoner. However, Christa can’t really do anything about it as she’s locked up, and whenever she asks a servant who comes to give her her meals about the rumors, they’d tell her that it was nonsense and not to worry about it.

~ Bonus: Kino Sakamaki 🤎 ~

*Please excuse the poor image quality, this is the best I can do right now. Also, ignore Kid! Carla and Kid! Shin. Respectfully, this section isn't about them.*

Kino is Akira's younger brother through their father, Karlheinz.

Since Kino was abandoned as an infant in a Ghoul town, he never knew of his heritage and that he had brothers, with Karlheinz's other children being in the same boat.

Despite being taken in by his best friend Yuuri's father, Kino still wished to know why he was seemingly abandoned and who his parents were.

One day, Kino attempted to steal some bread for him to eat, and the owner of the bakery attempted to beat him with a rolling pan up until he was stopped by Akira, who happened to be around the area as he was coming back from staying with his grandfather, Gabriel Amor. After paying for the bread and getting Kino something more to eat, Akira made sure to take Kino back to his place safely.

Though Kino was stubborn about the whole ordeal, he was grateful that Akira managed to save him from the baker when he did, as he'd normally give the dark haired boy some bruises from whenever he's caught stealing.

A few days after, there were a few Ghoul kids, some who were Kino's bullies, that'd ask him about Akira and how he knew the heir of the Bat Clan. Kino would say that he didn't and that he was just a stranger, but there were a few who didn't believe him and thought that he was just keeping things to himself because he thought he was better than them.

A week later, Akira would return to the Ghoul town to check on Kino, though this time he wore a disguise so the Ghouls wouldn't recognize him and cause a scandal for his family. While Kino didn't want his pity, he'd later warm up to the pink haired Vampire since he treated him and Yuuri with kindness and would scare off the bullies: it also helped that Akira would bring them good food and nicer clothes.

When it was Kino's birthday, Akira gifted him some konpeito (star-shaped candy) and a telescope since he knew the dark haired boy was interested in the stars. Kino appreciated this very much and shared the candy with Yuuri and would use the telescope constantly.

One day, during one of his visits, Akira revealed to Kino that he made plans to help the Ghouls rebuild the town so that everyone could have better housing and more room to garden so they could have better food. Kino loved this idea and even asked if he could be involved.

However, the day Akira's death was announced to the demon realm broke Kino's heart. While most of the Ghouls hated Karlheinz and his family because of their wealthy status and couldn't care less about Akira's demise, Kino mourned the loss of the young man he considered a friend, maybe even an older brother.

Kino still thinks about Akira every so often, especially when he uses the telescope the older male gifted him.

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Hope this wasn't too sad for y'all. 😅

If so, I am so sorry. . . .

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maple-the-awesome · 1 year

Text

We'll Meet Again...I Know When || Chapter 27

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x GN Reader

Words: 4,779

Overview: Given your old-fashioned personality and obsession with all things 1940s to 1980s, it’s no wonder that most people refer to you as an ‘old soul’ who would’ve rather lived back then than in the modern era. Little do they know, you already did, but with your previous life as Hollie Stark cut short, you’ve been left with some…unfinished business, to say the least. Top of your list? Finally getting to marry your thought-to-be-lost fiancé.

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CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN: GOODNIGHT AND GOOD MOURNING

Bucky counts two rings of the doorbell and six knocks. Second ring in case the first wasn't heard, six heavy knocks in case the doorbell might be broken, and yet despite this extra work, he never actually had any real expectations for the door to open on its own. Unfortunately, he gave up hope on that a few weeks ago.

Setting some bags down by his feet and cursing when they immediately tip over, he uses his new free hand to fish through his pocket, succeeding in not only finding his keys, but the correct one to unlock this blasted barrier before him.

Per usual, he's greeted with an eerily dark hallway that seems fitting for the start of a horror movie. Shuffling through the door with another curse as the same pesky bags get caught on the handle, he kicks it shut behind himself then calls out into the darkness as if it would reply, "Hey...It's me!"

Unfazed by the greeting of silence, he leaves his boots and coat there before making a b-line for the kitchen, pleased to leave all his grocery bags there to officially free himself of their incontinent weight. He goes to the fridge first, not to put anything away, but rather to grimace at the barren sight inside. Some condiments, a little bit of milk, veggies that look past their expiration date, and a half rack of beer…Good thing he went shopping.

Walking around the bar and into the living room, Bucky almost makes the mistake of going further which would've taken him right past the couch and, more importantly, the motionless lump lying there. When he does spot it in the corner of his eyes, he sighs - for some reason he still has a reason to sigh despite this having become a despairing routine as of lately.

Slowly, he steps over the few empty beer bottles on the floor and squats next to the couch where his frown only grows deeper as he pokes the lump, "It's past noon...You should get up and eat something - You need to get up and eat something."

He only gets a groan in response, but at least that's better than continued silence.

"I bought groceries. I can make something if you want?" Nothing, "...Or I can even order some take-out. Anything particular in mind?"

"...I don't want anything..."

Bucky inhales, although he tries not to make it sound so sharp. Standing upright and grabbing the empty bottles, he heads back into the kitchen, “...You’ll make yourself sick living off of beer alone, you know?”

"For your information, I had ramen yesterday."

"I'm proud of you," He's truly sincere, not that you'd believe that, "That means today, we can have something other than beer or ramen. Now, what do you feel like? I was thinking we could just do a simple, early dinner. I got some frozen pizza. Maybe we can have that and do a movie night or somethin' - just enjoy an easy going, lazy day. What do you say? I wouldn't mind another marathon of Lord of the Rings. You still keep the extended cuts under the TV stand, yeah?”

He’s rambling and normally, you find it enduring, however today - and for the last few weeks - his voice has been a distant echo in your head; nothing but a dull mumble against the terrible thoughts that overtake your care and concern. It makes you feel shitty in every way possible. Bucky visits every day without fail, armed with unlimited patience and kindness that he somehow manages to smother you in without actually smothering you (it’s been painfully obvious that he’s desperately trying to give you some space while still being present).

"Oh yeah, and I also got your favorite. They had it next to check-out. 'thought you'd like some," Even when a candy bar is waved in front of your face, your eyes barely shift to it before disappearing from sight when you curl further into your blanket sanctuary.

"...No thank you.”

Although his smile does wobble a bit into a frown, Bucky forces himself not to break; not here, not in front of you. He’d be an absolute hypocrite to complain, after all, it was him who spent several years moping which (unintentionally) dragged you into quite a lot of trouble. You pulled him from that hole, giving him the support he needed to move on from his past as hard as that had been. Now it’s his turn to return the favor.

Still - and he’s afraid he might be thinking selfishly with this, but there are days where he just wants to pick you up, throw you over his shoulder, and force you to go outside for once because the worry is eating away at him right now. It’s been weeks since the Snap - Well, five years for everyone else, but only a few measly weeks since the two of you had been thrown into this whirlwind of events that have left you both shaken.

It’s strange to think you can close your eyes and find out five years have passed. It’s even stranger to be thrown into a war for the universe immediately after, receiving no chance to process everything going on until you’re left with nothing. Natasha, Tony, Steve…The people who you cared for are gone and you never got to say goodbye - not in the way you wanted.

You were so damn happy, too. At long last, you had fixed your life, surrounded by people who were close to Hollie or at least understood that you were once her. No more pretending nor biting your tongue; you were free to just be you, both as Hollie and (Y/n). To think, you were actually excited for your future for the first time in, well, years - decades, even…then it all came tumbling down within mere minutes…Now you’re left with the shattered remains yet again and can’t help but ask yourself: how many more times? When will you have suffered enough?

"...(Y/n)...” Bucky breathes your name and you notice the crack behind his voice as he kneels down beside you, gently moving a strand of hair away from your face, “I’m not asking for you to be okay or to move on. I’m just asking that you take care of yourself a little better. You’re not eating, you haven’t left the apartment in days - I don’t even think you’re really sleeping either. I -...I’m getting really worried about you, darling…”

He has a point. You know he has a point because this isn’t the first time you’ve been here. If anything, you should be an expert on grief and recovery, having learned from experience that wallowing doesn’t bring anyone back…so why do you still feel like utter shit then? You should be a productive member of society, counting your blessings and moving on because you’re lucky enough to even be here. So many people have it worse than you. Bucky, for example. He lost Steve, too. He tries to brush it off, but you see the pain in his eyes. Steve didn’t die or anything. He just…left. He left both of you willingly despite the suffering you’ve already been cursed with…He abandoned you both with it and while you want to be happy for him and happy that he got to be with Peggy in the end as they both deserved…you can’t help feeling pissed…betrayed even…

Bucky has a right to be mad, too. He should have his own time to grieve for himself instead of being stuck in this dark apartment babying you. Even if he has already moved on (not that you’d believe it), that would be all the more reason for him to go live his life. Why does he keep fussing over you when he should be taking care of himself?

“I’m getting really worried about you, darling…”

…You wish you could make Bucky happy. You want him to be happy, having moved on from all those awful things HYDRA had done to the quiet, simple life he desires, yet selfishly at the same time, you don’t actually want to let him go. You’re stuck in this awful limbo where you want to throw in the towel and give up on everything you’ve worked so hard on throughout the years, after all, it sure didn’t take long to crumble around you, but at the same time, you’re so tired of feeling alone…You don’t want to go back to that life even if it means desperately grasping at strings and dragging poor Bucky down with you…

At long last you peek out from behind your blanket, lazily gazing up at the man in question. There was once a time when you would shamelessly swoon at the thought of having his affection and admittedly, you’re heart still flutters at hearing his concern for you, however after the Snap, you can’t help feeling numb inside as if your heart is covered in frozen ice that even Bucky can’t chip away…at least, that's what you had begun to believe until finally getting a good look at him.

Your heart speeds up so suddenly it makes a wave of nausea run over your entire body, making you feel a bit more awake than you had been before. For once you find energy for something and that's to wiggle your arm out from under the blankets, reaching until your fingers manage to touch the top of his head.

"...You cut your hair," You observe so stupidly, avoiding his eyes as you focus only on his new haircut which is quite the change. Yesterday he had his hair pulled back into a bun while complaining of the heat, however today, his long locks are gone, leaving a rather short yet soft fluff behind.

"Yeah...'got it done this morning," He slightly bows his head down towards you more, burning through all his willpower not to fully lean into your touch. He’s as cautious with his movements as he is in watching your expression and asking the question, “Do you like it…?”

You finally allow yourself to look at his face, your fingers just barely running along his cheek on their way to falling limb against the couch again. For a brief second anyone could miss, your lip quivers, but you do good to press it back the same way you blink away any tears threatening to make an appearance. Maybe Bucky notices, maybe he doesn’t.

"...It’s a good look on you,” You inhale, eyes drifting over his facial features to catch every detail because at this point you’ve abandoned all caution. You’ll accept in this moment that you’re being selfish and you’ll also decide not to care, “...You clean up nicely, Barnes. Who would’ve guessed?”

Bucky beams - quite literally, he beams with a boyish grin and glitter to his eyes after hearing you say something more akin to your usual self. Oh, how he’s missed your teasing. Sure, your voice is cracked and barely more than a whisper, but it’s progress he won’t object to. He also doesn’t object to you slowly sitting up while running a hand through your own messy air and sighing at your headache.

“So, um…A movie marathon, you said?”

“Unless you have anything else in mind?”

You press your lips, never letting the hand fall from your head. There’s a voice inside who tries to argue, reminding you that it’ll only end in more heartbreak if you try yet again to pick up the pieces of Hollie’s life, but God, it’s so damn difficult with Bucky’s adorable, hopeful smile. He’s attached to you even without understanding the truth. He cares for (Y/n), he worries about you…That’s supposed to be a good thing, right? You wanted that - wanted to know that he could love you as you, not as just Hollie, however there’s a side of you that doesn’t feel quite right about it for some reason…some reason you’ll ignore.

“...No. A movie night sounds fun…”

Baby steps - that’s what it took for you to start functioning again after Bucky’s supposed death seventy eight years ago; lots and lots of baby steps. Misery doesn’t disappear overnight which is a cruel truth that hasn’t changed between then and the modern era, although misery does fade overtime if you can successfully focus on the things you like and the things you still have.

You might not have your family to pull you out of this funk like last time, but at least you have Bucky (a bittersweet switch, if anything). He’s kept you distracted with different movies he wants to watch and recipes he’d like to bake. He’s always around, in fact you’ve already told him he can keep that spare key to your apartment because honestly, neither of you can remember that last time he’s actually stayed at his own.

Once you stopped stubbornly pushing him away, Bucky was allowed to bear witness to some of the demons that have been haunting your mind since the Snap. It’s safe to say you’ve done your fair share of crying in front of him, letting your frustrations slip as you curse Thanos and the universe and anyone who can possibly be linked to causing your current pain. You’ve expressed your anger with Steve, your sorrow over Natasha, and mourning for Tony.

You’re thankful that, no matter what sobs or curses have escaped you, Bucky has never filled the gap with unrealistic promises that everything will ‘be okay’. You’ve grown tired of hearing that from others, so it’s been refreshing to have someone instead hold you during your moments of vulnerability while promising that they’ll always be there for you when life gets rough.

Thanks largely to Bucky’s encouragement and support, you’ve gotten better. Not ‘better’ as in fully fixed, but ‘better’ as in you can find the strength to go on errands into town and ensure you’re maintaining a healthy diet again.

Life seems to have returned to a small sense of normal again, strongly reminding you of your stay in Romania which you had treasured so much. Coffee together in the mornings, afternoons discussing each other’s day, movie nights, and take-out dinner…It’s no wonder that your parents have inquired about your ‘boyfriend’. Your relationship sure seems to be leaning that way from the outside looking in (more than it ever has before) and, despite how desperately you try to ignore it, sometimes you find yourself drifting too far into the domestic bliss the same way you had in Romania, dangerously letting your guard down until you’re ripped back into reality by an unwanted and awful reminder…First it had been Steve appearing in your apartment those seven years ago, now this…

“You know…” Bucky’s voice easily gains your attention, earning a pleasant hum as you curl your head closer to his chest in acknowledgment.

It’s hot out today meaning the air conditioning’s been blasting with a box fan rumbling mere feet away, yet you’ve still filed no complaint towards cuddling close to his side on the couch while binging an entire season of The Office.

Despite your patience waiting for a response, it doesn’t come too promptly. Instead he awkwardly adjusts his arm around you and swallows before speaking, “...We should go out to dinner tomorrow night.”

You’re both blind and deaf to his shyness, merely perking an eyebrow without taking your eyes off the screen, “Why tomorrow? Are you on a diet that says you can’t eat dinner on Tuesday nights?”

Usually he’d chuckle at such a comment, and he nearly does, a short sound making it past his lips which he quickly bites back, “N-No, I mean, we’ll still eat dinner tonight obviously, I was just trying - I’d like to go somewhere nice together. Sit down dining, type deal.”

Finally understanding the hint, you become a bit nervous yourself, “How ‘nice’ are we exactly talking? Red Robins kinda nice or um…make a reservation nice?”

“Nicer than Red Robins…” He rubs the back of his neck with a shrug, although you don’t get a chance to voice your concerns because he skillfully spots them first, “Don’t worry about money or anything like that. I’ve been saving. I was thinking I’d treat ya’ - take you out to dinner someplace special for the evening…I promised after all.”

Bucky’s eyes widen in surprise when you push away from him so quickly that you almost fall off the couch. It would be one thing for you to just turn and look at him, however your movements are desperate as if his touch had suddenly burned you. The way you’re actually looking at him doesn’t help, either. You appear as if you’ve seen a ghost, face pale and eyes wild as you stare.

“W-When?”

“Huh -?”

“When did you promise that?” You whisper rather cautiously, only further confusing the poor man.

“In Wakanda? A week or so before you came there I promised that when we see each other again, I’d take you out to dinner - as a thank you for everything you’ve done for me,” Bucky frowns, visibly concerned about your behavior, enough so that he hesitates to reach out to you, “Are you alright -?”

“- I…I don’t know if that’s a good idea…‘sounds kinda like a date, don’t you think?” You try to calm your heartbeat through deep yet casual breaths, even attempting a poor laugh at the end of your sentence, however it’s clear such struggling is useless; that damage has already been done.

Bucky bows his head in shame while slowly retracing his hand, “...Would a date be so bad?”

You open your mouth only to close it, fearing the nausea that bubbles within your stomach. This isn’t how you expected your reaction to be. You’ve been dreaming of this moment, desperately hoping for the day Bucky asks you out so that you can finally rekindle that relationship you once had and miss dearly. It would have to be by his own terms, you decided long ago, not wanting to push him by making the move yourself, however secretly, there has been another reason for waiting - a certain anxiety that has interested in relevance over these last nine years.

"The second I get back, I'm taking you out to dinner - a nice place, too, I've been saving.”

“Let me do this for you, Hollie. Eight o'clock sharp. Houghton's. I'd say wear something nice, but you look dazzling in anything."

It isn’t easy having lived two lives. It isn’t easy having the memories of a different person - although still you - who remains in pieces only inside your mind and personality. You’re Hollie. You’ve maintained certain traits of hers and you continue to love all that she had…but you’re also (Y/n). You don’t look the same and you endured a new childhood, in a new world, with a new family…While in your own eyes, you’d argue that this change is minimum, equivalent to the way a child changes into a teen and a teen into an adult, there’s has always been a fear hidden within your heart that others might not see the same.

What if someone who knew you then doesn’t like who you are now?

You were able to set that question aside for the others. Steve knew Hollie as a friend. You were close, although your interactions were limited and rarely were you alone. Frankly, you became closer during your time as (Y/n) when each other's support was needed more than ever. Tony knew Hollie as an aunt when he was very young. His image of you was built upon four years of vague memories with your care and support being at the forefront; that’s all he expected from (Y/n)...Neither of them truly compared to Bucky, a man who loved Hollie in more ways than one and got to know her best despite your short time together.

What if he doesn’t like who you are now?

Bucky loved Hollie - he still loves her. You saw her picture in his wallet once when he brought groceries over. You’re okay with that part alone, however you worried that if you immediately told him from the very beginning that you’re the same person as that girl in the photo - from that first day you found him in DC - would he have only loved you because of Hollie? Because the concept of being with you was his only chance of being with her again?

It’s ridiculous and foolish. You act jealous of yourself, although you honestly believed it to be in the best interest for both of you. You don’t want to exist solely as a living memory, not an individual, and you don’t think it would’ve been healthy for Bucky, either. He needed to love you for who you are now. He needed to move on in some way.

He has moved on. Hollie’s still kept close to his heart, yet he’s sitting here now asking for you. He’s spent months - no, years probably - loving you and looking to you as a means to finally be happy. This is exactly what you wanted…so why do you still feel so shitty inside?

"(Y/n)!”

You turn your head. You can tell by his eyes that Bucky didn’t mean to raise his voice, but at least it gained your attention at last. Cautiously, he reaches for you again, this time committing to the action. It’s only when the cold metal of his thumb runs along your cheek that you realize you’re crying.

“...It doesn’t have to be a date. We don’t even have to go. Don’t -...Don’t worry about it, alright? It’s not that big of a deal?” Oh, but it is. Bucky’s such a terrible liar. If it truly wasn’t a big deal, then why did his voice crack with a dejected undertone?

“I-I’m sorry…I’m sorry. I’m just…being emotional for no reason at all,” You huff mostly to yourself, miserably attempting to rub the tears away with the edges of your sleeves. Bucky has much better luck at it, carefully using his thumbs and palms to catch your tears. All the while, he searches your eyes for any sign of harm which almost makes you forget your sadness…almost…

Meeting his gaze, you move a hand of your own to his cheek, smiling softly, “I’d love to go on a date with you, James.”

“But -”

“- I’m afraid.”

His mouth snaps shut after your whisper and it takes him a second to meet it, equally as silent, “...Why?”

You don’t answer too promptly yourself. A keen eye would notice your hesitation as you heavily debate your next action, although you hide it well behind the admiration you seem almost drunk on while running your hand back into Bucky’s much shorter hair. For years you’ve bit your tongue and danced around your inner thoughts which has been a tiring endeavor for sure, enough so that in a moment like this, you’ve lost the willpower to keep the act up, choosing to instead speak directly from your heart regardless of the risk.

“...You’ve always been so good to me, James. ‘a real knight in shining armor…You know, I was so alone before I met you, not thinkin’ I’d ever find someone who could keep up with my nonsense. Others figured me to be crazy, that or they were intimidated by me being too ‘unique’, as my family put it. Whether I tried to change or not, it didn’t matter because if I wasn’t different to the world, I was different to myself. There was no winning and my displacement only seemed to grow with age. ‘started to believe the universe cursed me for some reason - that I must’ve done something terrible in my past or perhaps I was simply too happy at some point, leaving an overdrawn balance now…I didn’t want to do it anymore, but then you came around again. You gave me hope - meaning, even.

“I feel happy with you - very happy, as if I can breathe easy and just be myself without ever worrying about judgment again because as long as you like me, that’s all I need to know that I’m not crazy,” Bucky opens his mouth, but he doesn’t get a chance when you gently place a finger to his lips, “You mean sooo much to me, James, in fact I don’t think you’ll ever be able to truly understand the full extent of my love for you…and that’s what scares me. There’s…Well, there’s something I need to tell you, but I’m afraid that whenever I do, you’ll push me away. Whether it’s because you don’t believe me or you get mad at me -”

“- I could never get mad at you, darling -”

“- You say that now and I'm sure you believe it, but once you hear what I have to say, you might change your mind -”

“- I don’t think that’s possible -”

“- James -”

“- You said that I might not understand the extent of your love, but I don’t think you understand mine,” He interrupts more sternly, slowly grasping your wrist and lowering your hand over his heart. He holds it there and doesn’t let go, a hint of shyness in his eyes, “You mean a lot to me - you have meant a lot to me for a while now. Around you, I feel relaxed a-as if all those things HYDRA had done never happened. I start to think that I might actually deserve a happy life by your side and even if I don’t, then fuck it, I don’t find myself caring. I want to be with you anyways because every second that I’m not, I’m restless like a piece of me is gone…Being here with you, I…It’s a feeling I haven’t felt in a long time…There’s nothing you could say to make it suddenly go away.”

You chuckle apprehensively with a shake of your head, letting your gaze finally fall from his, “...I bet I could…”

“I highly doubt it,” He rolls his eyes, leaning close enough for his own quiet laughter to be felt. You steal a glance at his lips, nearly giving into your own temptation to touch them, although you hesitate there instead.

“You don’t know -”

“- I don’t need to then -”

“- This is serious, James!” You plead weakly, trying to pull your hand from his and move off his lap where you just now notice he’s brought you, yet it should be of no surprise that he’s stronger than you and won’t let this matter drop so easily without resolve.

Your actions cause his concern to return and he becomes serious once again, his stormy eyes watching you so very carefully with his bottom lip puffed out in a pout, “...What’s really wrong, (Y/n)? I don't get it. You just said that you love me too and that must be true - I believe that it's true because, I mean, why else would you have stuck by my side after all the shit I’ve dragged you into? I-If I have to do more to prove my love for you, I will, if that’s what has you so worried - Or if you’re not ready for a relationship yet, that’s fine, too. Just…tell me what’s wrong so that I can fix it. No more beatin’ around the bush…Please, darling…”

Suddenly, your eyes feel so stern watching him despite the tears that fill them as you slightly bow your head in what you would deem as shame, although he might mistake it for anger given how persistent and strange you’re behaving. He’s all ears, though. Maybe slightly taken aback by your vulnerable speech, but this isn’t the first time you’ve expressed your inner thoughts with him since the Snap and he’s here to listen without judgment as he’s always been. He just hopes he didn’t make you uncomfortable by overstepping.

Usually you're the one to make him flustered. He thought all of your prior flirting meant he was safe to ask you out, however he’s now starting to second guess all of that. He hasn’t dated since Hollie, after all. He’s been out of the game for so long, it’s completely possible that he read the situation wrong. Then again, you just admitted to loving him, so what’s stopping you? You had assured long ago that you have no actual fiancé, he's certain you aren't dating anyone else at the moment, and you've both gone in public countless times together, so surely you aren't ashamed to be seen with him even despite his muddy past. Is it too soon after the Snap? Are you just not ready for commitment? Why are you suddenly acting so hesitant as if you haven't spent the last several years longing for each other?

"...Bucky," He shallows somewhat nervously when you whisper his name, meeting eyes once again, "...I'm Holiday Stark..."

NEXT CHAPTER ->

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emptymanuscript · 1 year

Text

You know, I just saw a post supporting the writer's strike and saying there are plenty of old shows to watch... and it occurred to me that it might be good to share some shows we love just in case people haven't seen them yet.

Places that make it easy to find where to watch things: Reelgood and JustWatch. Check both, they sometimes conflict, get it wrong, etc.

My Recs (in hopes others will add) (admittedly the low hanging fruit):

The X-Files, 1993, 11 Seasons, free on freevee, available on Hulu, can rent or buy other places. If you haven't seen X-Files, you're missing out. It was a smash hit in the 90's for a good reason. Two detectives, a believer and a skeptic, try to solve unsolvable mysteries in the midst of grand conspiracy. And find, somehow, that as much as they annoy each other, they need each other.

Babylon 5, 1993 / 1994, 5 Seasons, free on Roku and Tubi. An Epic Space Opera that never quite got the success it deserved. It is one of those things whose influence is written all over modern sci-fi and fantasy without much acknowledgement. This is the interplay of empires and mythology, double dealing and political cruelty.

SPACE: 1999, 1975, 2 seasons, free on Crackle, Peacock, Fubo, Pluto, Freevee, Plex, Shout, and Roku. I dare you to listen to the theme song and not feel the groove of this classic campy space opera. When Earth's moon is ejected from orbit to hurtle through the galaxy, the people of Moonbase Alpha have to confront new alien weirdness every week. Part of what makes it so good is that the show takes itself completely seriously, there's no wink and nod in here.

Kindred: The Embraced, 1996, 1 Season, available as a slime tutorial. It's Vampire: The Masquerade as a cheesy soap opera. There are constant reminders of what the clans are like in the most pointed, ridiculous dialogue you can imagine. Had the lead actor not died, this show might have found its place in a couple of more seasons, as it is, it is deliciously campy and dumb. Days of our LARP.

Profit, 1996, 1 Season, available as a slime tutorial. What if the Antagonist was the Main Character. Profit was ahead of its time. It would be right at home in the modern streaming era but it absolutely didn't fit in its own day and age. Profit is dark and twisted (For people who follow me, see if you can find an early inspirations for JJ) with mature and uncomfortable themes. One of its benefits is that it was network televison, so it couldn't show all the gratuitous violence and sex that it would be given if it was made today. It's psychological violence and murder off screen, which, if you let yourself get into it, can grow into worse things than can be shown. Profit is about power, greed, and ruthlessness and what happens when someone even more ruthless and immoral than you shows up.

Farscape, 1999, 4 seasons and a TV movie, available for free on crackle, peacock, popcornflix, shout, freevee, pluto, roku, and tubi. In spite of my picture, this is live action space opera, but it is looney tunes, literally in one episode. This is what happens when the Jim Henson company decides to make a space opera as far away from Star Trek as possible. It's zany, over the top, sometimes hilarious, often creepy, and there's only one human who is far out of his depth.

Blake's 7, 1978, 4 seasons, available on BritBox, and you should be able to find all of it with a little searching on youtube. Like Farscape, this show focuses on escaped prisoners but when they find an advanced spacecraft, they decide to become freedom fighters against their fascist regime instead of just trying to escape. Darker than most of what you could find on US tv until fairly recently. These are wounded people in hostile space.

The Outer Limits, 1995, 7 seasons. Free on Roku. This is a sci-fi anthology series. Some episodes are more interesting and thought provoking than others but overall a lot of good stories.

There are now 12 series with 44 seasons between them totaling up to 880 episodes of Star Trek. That's about 3 months straight of 24 hour programming if you ran it back to back with no pauses at all. That's a lot of show. Mostly on Paramount+ but it's probably not terribly difficult to find the material less officially. It may not all be your cup of earl grey but there's a lot to try out to see if you like it.

1899, 2022, 1 season (cancelled), available on Netflix or wherever else one finds shows. This is my only modern show because I know it didn't get a lot of viewership in spite of being brilliantly twisty. 1899 is one of those shows that it is very hard to talk about without spoilers. I think it is however immediately obvious that the cruise ship Kerebos, en route to New York, is not at all in the situation it appears to be in. It is magnificently multilingual with the ability to communicate when you can't speak each other's language front and center in the narrative. It's sadly cancelled and the creators are on record that they don't want to finish it in another medium so we'll never know exactly what happened but there is wonder to be had from this first season.

Magnum P.I., 1980, 8 seasons. Free on freevee and Roku. 1 season available with Amazon Prime, rest for rent or purchase. Mix a lovable goofball naval vet with PTSD and a very stiff necked British curmudgeon vet with PTSD and you get a fun mystery every week in paradise. Magnum shrugs off most of his work and pawns it on to his friends getting by on charm and some wit.

Murder, She Wrote, 1984, 12 seasons. All available for free on Roku. 6 seasons available for free on freevee. Note that one of the primary writers for Murder, She Wrote was J. Michael Straczynski, this is the job that got him the ability to make Babylon 5. Jessica Fletcher is a charming and clever lady who has retired to the placid sea side village of Cabot Cove to write mystery novels but somehow always ends up at murder scenes. It has been estimated that if Cabot Cove was real, it would be the murder capital of the US.

Tales from the Crypt, 1989, 7 seasons, available as a slime tutorial. To get it to lucky number 13, I present another great anthology show. Every episode a different tale of the macabre or horrific. The crypt keeper is a charmingly gruesome host and there are a few episodes that have stuck with me since I first saw them in the 90's.

Hopefully one among these number can fulfill your needs and if not, hopefully someone else will tack on a few more. I know I left out plenty of my own favorites. There's lots to see while your current faves are on hiatus. There might be a brand new fandom waiting for you.

#writer's strike #tv recommendations

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skaruresonic · 5 months

Note

I think the argument about Sonic's inconsistency is, like many things, one of those criticisms that actually was born from a somewhat solid foundation but got warped over time by virtue of the Sonic fandom being what it is

Because to claim that Sonic is an inconsistent series in terms of general quality and direction...well that's actually true. I'd even argue it's undeniable, as the series has gone from the highs of the Classics to the lows of 06, to gaining back its momentum with the likes of Gens and Mania, to losing it again thanks to Boom and others. Even direction wise: sometimes it's silly, sometimes it's dark, sometimes it's both, other times it's who knows what?

Of course none of this is unique to Sonic, but the series has had so many ups and downs (while also being the target of many internet personalities and such) that a lot more attention has been given to it

Let's also consider that most of the fans that we see flinging these takes around are, most likely, folks who grew up with the 2000s games aka the period when Sonic was arguably at his most inconsistent, in terms of tone, quality and even gameplay style, so to many Sonic being inconsistent is like an inherent part of the series' identity, thus making it that Sonic has always been inconsistent...to them

Because to imply that Sonic has ALWAYS been inconsistent since day one, since the early 90s, would not only require some interesting mental gymnastics but it would also be pretty weird: how can a series that is so inconsistent become one of the best selling of the 90s, able to keep the pace with Mario? Able to survive through thick and thin for decades?

At the end of the day this is just another way of unleashing one's own frustrations on and about the franchise, frustrations that are even somewhat justified in some cases but, like it's often the case in the radioactive wasteland that is the Sonic fanbase, these frustrations take on some twisted forms

Hello. Hi. I grew up with those games just as much as they did. Just stating for the record that not everyone in this Adventure-era-fan Chili's is like this.

Not necessarily saying that every Sonic game is homogenous, but like... One man's inconsistent is another man's versatile. I had no problem playing gritty ShTH and colorful Sonic Advance 3 side-by-side, because to me it was just Sonic, you know? Not that I didn't have opinions about those games, but back then I was in more of this "yay, more of the thing I like" headspace.

Besides, quality is so subjective, it's difficult to say what counts as "inconsistent" from one person to the next. I for one think ShTH is an underrated masterpiece

I think, overall, as we move forward, we tend to lose the historical context in which these games were made, and that influences people to judge the series through a much harsher lens.

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I mean. They did it with "Classic Sonic games don't reward instant speed at all times, therefore they're not good games, therefore they only trick you into thinking they're good," they can certainly do that to the games' narratives.

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Maybe there is some grain of truth in there, but like all needles in haystacks, it gets buried under avalanches of bullshit.

To be completely honest, with Sonic being as old and as storied as it is, I don't see the point in calling it "inconsistent" even on a quality or marketing level. I don't see any reason to single out or focus on the inconsistency as if it's something special. Because if we judged everything according to that metric, every single franchise in existence would be "inconsistent" as well.

That's why I called the sentiment a thought-terminating cliché; it pretends to impart genuine information when people only use it when they want to end the argument. We've already lost the original context in which the argument ought to be used, if it even existed to begin with.

#asks

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adarkrainbow · 11 months

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Spooky season fairytales (7)

And finally, my last "spooky season" post! With seven posts of movie (and series and books) recommandations, plus additional reblogs, you'll have plenty on your plate for this Halloween!

And for this final post, I will go into the world of horror movies. I am here speaking of pure horror movies - not fairytale movies, not dark fantasy movies... BUT! Horror movies that were inspired by or heavily references fairytales.

Let us begin with a classic of classics when it comes to fairytale horror:

The Night of the Hunter, the 1955 classic movie. While technically not a horror movie per se, as many call it a "thriller" or a "film noir", it is very close to the horror world, and it heavily draws from fairytales!

Everybody knows by now the plot of this famous masterpiece. Black-and-white, heavily drawing from the silent movie era, "The Night of the Hunter" tells the story of how a dangerous serial-killer pretending to be a preacher worms his way into the household of a widow and her two children, hoping to find the money the deceased husband had hidden... As he kills the mother, the two children have to escape his clutches and wander throughout the American countryside in search of a new hope, while being hunted down by the evil figure...

When Charles Laughton decided to adapt the novel this movie was based off, he called it a "nightmarish mother Goose story". And, faithful to this description, he made sure his movie would be a dark Mother Goose fairytale. A tragic family drama forcing children to flee through the wilderness... Young ones fleeing from their wicked step-father, and seeking comfort in a kind grandmother-figure... A dark story filled with threats and creepy sights that ultimately ends well... Most significantly, the antagonist of the story, Harry Powell, played by Robert Mitchum, is actually designed to be the fusion of all three most famous male antagonists in Perrault's fairytales.

As a sinister serial killer who murders his new wife in a story about greed, he is Bluebeard. As a monstrous father-figure who hunts down two children across the wilderness to kill them, he is the Ogre. And finally, he is the Big Bad Wolf - but in this case the references are more to the early 20th century cartoons involving the character, since some of the mannerism of the villain, coupled with dark-humor slapstick scenes, clearly evoke the cartoonish Big Bad Wolf one can see in pieces such as Disney's Little Pigs cartoons.

Overall, this movie would be best described as a "realistic take on Perrault's fairytales". Remove the magic and the intemporal nature, and you've got this story.

Psycho, the 1960 classic of Hitchcock, also deserves to be on this list. Just like "The Night of the Hunter", it is another black-and-white, stylized thriller-movie about a serial killer, adapted from a novel it overshadowed. But whereas Night of the Hunter was purposefully designed as a fairytale, Psycho has little to do with it.

So why is Psycho on this list? Because while it wasn't designed as a fairytale piece, it ended up being a "fairytale horror movie". You see, many before me have pointed it out and analyzed it, but "Psycho" reuses a setting, a plot and characters that are eerily similar if not completely parallel to fairytales. The most notorious example is that Psycho is usually called a "modern Bluebeard". Indeed, we are yet again dealing with a male figure murdering women in the context of romantic/erotic relationships, and a forbidden room (well, a forbidden house) hiding a female corpse... [Note: Given Psycho's huge success, I do not think I need to put spoilers warnings]. In a lesser way, Psycho can also be read as a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood. A charming male figure seemingly harmless and playful charms women... only for them to end up being murdered. The erotic undertones and the fact the male murderer little dresses as an old woman accentuates the Little Red Riding Hood parallels.

But more generally, one can tie up this movie with a lot of fairytales that all share the similar canvas of - the seemingly sweet young man is a murderer killing women (for example Grimm's The Robber Bridegroom, which also has an elderly mother-ifugre), or the mother-in-law is a deadly antagonist (the second part of Sleeping Beauty where the prince's ogress-mother wants to kill Sleeping Beauty).

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre sees us leave the world of more "quiet" and "suggestive" black and white movie for the gritty, disturbing, repulsive and yet morbidly poetic and nightmarishly oniric world of... what stood between the slasher-to-be-coded and the redneck-horror-yet-to-be-created.

Did you know that this movie began as a Hansel and Gretel project? Oh yes! It all started out with a project to make a movie out of Hansel and Gretel, a dark and adult movie. As this project was settled, the influence of "Night of the Living Dead" reshaped the creation, and an attempt at re-creating the feeling of this movie was worked on... Then it was just a question of adding disturbing real-life facts, from the social rot of the Rust Belt to the life of Ed Gein, and you've got this classic of horror. The Hansel and Gretel origins of the movie still remain - the heavy topics of food and cannibalism, the treatment of young adults as cattle, teenagers being lured into the depths of the woods to a seemingly peaceful but in fact deadly house... You can also read in it a dark retelling of "Goldilocks and the Three Bears". Youth enters an unknown house uninvited and must flee when the three beasts that inhabit it come home... Except the beasts are here human serial-killers.

But the thing that should be highlighted with this movie is that... Despite being a disturbingly realistic piece with no actual magic or fantasy in it - it is the story of disturbed, mentally-ill serial killers in the depths of the dying American South - this movie has something magical to it. Or maybe "eldritchian". Most people agree that this is an actual Southern Gothic movie, and there was a fascinating video essay on Youtube about the cosmic horror aspect of this movie, and some would even classify it as a "folk-horror" piece... And there's a reason to all that.

Once again, this is probably due to the original direction of the movie as an "Hansel and Gretel" story, but despite being a "realistic" piece, the movie makes itself oniric and unreal. It uses very simplified and thus symbolic presentations and framings of the world that evoke this dark fairytale feeling - the clear cut between night and day, the unfolding of the story between a sunset and a sunrise, the limited locations that are the road - the house - the woods. There is a true "passage into the Otherworld" as the characters leave the sane, rational, civilized and human side of Texas to enter the disturbed, insane, monstrous and nocturnal domain of the antagonists, where very human taboo is systematically broken. There is something very Lovecraftian in the madness and degenerescence presented here by the murderous family, which adds to the "cosmic horror/eldritch horror" feeling when you consider the ritualistic way the various murder and grave-robbings are performed, and the extremes nature imposes on the character (scorching hot sun, pitch-black night), and the astrological foreshadowings...

Finally, the antagonists themselves are just fairytale monsters. They are modern ogres, human yet monstrous dwellers of the desert woods, beast-like man-eaters all too disturbingly human. They are the robbers killing and eating people in the woods from the Robber Bridegroom. And while they are "realistic", as in they are just insane and (possibly) inbred serial-killers, there is so much mystery left around them that they become almost supernatural. We never know their names. We never know their exact relationships to one another. We never exactly know where they came from and how they came to be as such. Just like the monstrous families of trolls and giants in fairytales, they just happen to be here, and are just known by their role. And of course, the presence of the vampiric impossibly-still-alive grandpa adds the final touch to the nightmare that truly breaks off from reality into the full uncanny valley of the fantastic in its literary sense.

Two for the price of one! Dario Argento's duology of "Suspiria" and "Inferno". (Yes there is a third movie forming a trilogy, "Mother of Tears" or "The Third Mother", but we will NOT talk about it).

These movies are staples of Italian horror, of the supernatural side of the giallo genre, and of witch horror movies in general. Suspiria is now a well known classic : a young American girl gets enroled into a German dancing school, but strange events, mysterious disappearances and gruesome murders led her to invastigate strange, eerie and oniric conspiracies - with the final twist (now what the movie is famous for) being that a witch coven is located in the school and killing people in their occult rites. Inferno, the sequel, deepens the mythology brought in Suspiria: after his sister mysteriously disappears in a New-York building, a young man comes to investigate the reason she was so afraid recently. A book about the existence of three evil witches hiding their dark magic within three different buildings - and the one the young man's sister lived in might have been one of those buildings...

These two movies follow the typical codes of the giallo (bloody murders with intentionally-unrealistic effects perpetuated by masked assaillants with a whodunnit structure), while having Argento's typical touch (the use of unnatural red, blue, green and yellow lights giving the whole movie a surrealistic and oniric tone, very unique soundtrack choices), and ultimately delve into occult and esoteric horror as they are filled with a web of evil witches, human sacrifices, deadly curses and terrifying undeads, all inspired by the Three Mothers invented by Thomas de Quincey.

However another very important if not fundamental aspect of Suspiria should not be ignored: it is a Snow-White movie. One thing that tends to confuse people when watching Suspiria is why women in their 20s such as the protagonists are acting extremely childish. The answer: they were supposed to be children. The movie was originally written to have a child protagonist, and all the students in the dance school being children - but since the murder of children as a no-no in 70s Italy, it was decided to make them adult... However Argento wanted to make a horror version of Snow-White, about an old witch targetting and murdering young girls to gain more power. So what he did was keep the original dialogues, and then create a strange set where everything was of the wrong size - too great, too tall, too big, with for examples door handles at the level of people's chests rather than hands - to have the adult protagonist look and feel like a child inside this strange academy. More obviously, Argento heavily references Disney's Snow-White in his movie - from the use of heavily saturated colors and of extremely unique, colorful, almost surreal architecture, to the presence of a neon-glass peacock in the witch's lair designed after the peacock motif of Disney's Evil Queen.

Inferno, the sequel, as a continuation of Suspiria, also has a basis and roots in a fairytale - this time Hansel and Gretel. But the references are more sparse and trivial than in Suspiria, where the fairytale theme was very present. You have a sister and a brother lured into a witch's house ; it is strongly implied if not outright confirmed that the witch's coven are cannibals ; and the movie ends up with the witch burning down. But beyond that, Argento wanted to focus much more on the "Three Mothers" mythology than to make a true fairytal rewriting.

[A warning: if you want to watch Inferno there are depictions of animal abuse. So be warned, it isn't for animal-lovers. Well the guy who performs the animal abuse gets brutally murder as a consequence, but still.]

"The Shining" is one of my favorite horror stories, and I am the first to admit it isn't a fairytale story at all. It is a familial tragedy about alcohlism, isolation and domestic abuse, interwoven with the supernatural story of a little kid with powerful psychic abilities being targetted by the ghosts and demonic entities inhabiting an hotel symbolizing all that was corrupted and wrong with upper-class 20th century USA... And the movie is certainly one of the best horror movies of the second half of the 20th century.

But there is something in Stanley Kubrick's movie that is not present in Stephen King's novel. Or rather it is present in just a few lines of the entire novel, and Kubrick had the great idea of expanding it as a recurring underlying, secondary theme... Fairytale references.

People have already written articles about it, but Stanley Kubrick decided to insist and even add fairytale references across his movie, so that, when you decide to look at the story under a certain angle, you realize there is a "dark fairytale" undertone to it. Of course, the famous behavior of insane-Jack as the Big Bad Wolf from the Three Little Pigs, with explicit references, comes to mind. But there's also the fact that The Shining is a familial tragedy about a parent figure becoming a monstrous threat - something very common of fairytales. The supernatural notably acting by having warning messages coming from nowhere and previous victims appear to the future ones recall of how in fairytales involving murderers (like Bluebeard variants, or The Robber Bridegroom, and other variants) there will always be disembodied voices, or ghost of previous victims, or talking trees warning the protagonist. And the line of Wendy evoking "breadcrumbs" to find her way through the kitchen is working with numerous other elements of the story: the labyrinthic Overlook Hotel works as the forest in which children or girls get lost ; there is the same clear rich vs poor plenty vs hunger dichotomy as in Hansel and Gretel, the woman in room 217 has been compared to a fairytale witch, and some even pointed out that the strange decoration of the Overlook rooms can evoke whimsical candy-buildings.

Of course, the movie also offers clear subversions of typical fairytale tropes - a wicked father figure rather than the wicked mother ; or how the benevolent helper called in the role of the typical "Woodsman" actually completely fails...

So, while not intended as a horror-fairytale, Kubrick's The Shining is a great horror movie which happens to have an underlying fairytale angle you can read the movie under.

And let us conclude with... The Visit! Another movie by the very controversial M. Night Shyamalan, who produces among the best and worst movies we saw recently.

I haven't watched The Visit yet, though I plan to - but I have to include this because of how obvous the fairytale references and the fairytale theme is. Two children at sent by their mother to live with their estrange grandparents. The grandparents are nice and kind, though a bit strange, with bizarre rules and a possible start of dementia. However, the longer they stay there, the more the children start noticing a much more disturbing and dangerous behavior from their grandparents...

This movie is basically a real-life take on two fairytales intertwined together - Hansel and Gretel (with explicit references such as the grandmother asking the children to climb inside the oven to clean it) and Little Red Riding Hood (the same feeling of arriving at your grandmother's house only to realize there is something WRONG with your grandmother). And the whole thing comes with a final twist that actually clearly set this movie in the line of so many American urban legends such as "The killer on the backseat", "The old woman with hairy legs" or "The clown statue".

Ad what's a urban legend if not a modern-day fairytale? Or rather a modern day orror fairytale...

#spooky season fairytales #spooky season #fairytale horror #horror movies #dark fairytales #suspiria #inferno #texas chainsaw massacre #the visit #shining #the night of the hunter #psycho

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