#'what in the top gun is a maverick' legit like what

[jisungshotfirst]

Omg Kevin snapped, ily king

[bookoftheironfist]

Please take a moment out of your day to check out this incredible 80s-style Iron Fist fan film created by @sky-liam! Sky very generously shared with me the inspiration behind the film, as well as insight into the filming process, fight choreography, and thematic sensibilities:

"As a former martial arts champion, I wanted to show authentic Kung Fu techniques (we were lucky to get an action coordinator who's worked on Chinese martial arts movies). I have a background in Shaolin Kung Fu and competitive Wushu, training and competing for many years, and living in China for a year-and-a-half as well (majoring in Chinese language in college). Going back to some of the original issues of Iron Fist, what really grabbed me was how Danny has trained so long with one goal in mind, and then feels completely lost when he isn't able to complete his revenge on Harold Meachum. I felt like this story was something that anyone could connect to, because so many of us have had that moment where we finished school, or got a 'good' job, and then realized that attaining that single-minded goal didn't actually satisfy us, and we were still searching for something. I also connected with moments from Iron Fist: The Living Weapon when Danny was practicing Kung Fu almost like a drug to keep himself sane. And I connected it to the idea of all those things we do without even thinking because they've become a part of how we define ourselves."

(Behind-the-scenes photos, courtesy of @sky-liam)

"What was most important to me was this sense of [Danny] not being compatible to the world around him; being the Living Weapon but having no target to aim at after Meachum died. Martial arts and fighting becomes a drug to stay above water instead of a means to preserve life. I started Shaolin Kung Fu as a kid and eventually studied Mandarin in college and lived and trained in China for a year-and-a-half, competing in tournaments and working in Kung Fu films there. I wanted to make sure Danny used techniques from actual Shaolin forms (similar to the kind of stuff he'd learn from the monks in K'un-Lun) and also spoke some of the language he picked up while living there. "I knew our fight director, Alfred Hsing, from the Wushu competition scene, and he had also trained in Beijing and worked with Jet Li for several years. He used a lot of 'in-camera editing' in his choreography - that is, setting up short sequences of the fight that were designed to be shot from a specific angle, thus highlighting the best stuff while eliminating wasted camera setups. Of course he also played a version of Steel Serpent in the final fight with Colleen and Danny. "Kara Wang, who played Colleen Wing (and not long after went on to shoot 'Top Gun: Maverick') trained for about three months to complete her fight scene. Our other actors were former athletes with martial arts experience and we also rehearsed choreography for several weeks before shooting. We were able to get many locations for free (the parking garage, the apartment, and the plaza in Monterey Park that doubled for Chinatown) through business and personal connections. "The original short film was about 15 minutes long, and had a lot of voiceover that gave an insight into Danny's inner monologue. We made a few changes to the costumes and events (such as Danny wearing clothes he bought off the rack after coming back to the States, Meachum dying from a drug overdose), which was similar to what was done for the 80s and 90s Marvel adaptations where certain details would be changed for budgetary reasons. In the end, there were some issues with some of the footage in the narrative scenes of the film, so I decided to recut it like a VHS trailer from the 1980s or early 90s would be. "My goal in the end was to highlight some of the grittier story elements of Danny Rand, and to show Iron Fist doing some legit Kung Fu. I hope fans of the character can enjoy it!"

A huge thank you to Sky for sharing this amazing project!

[welcometololaland]

2023 in summary - slightly less productive than 2022, with way more speed bumps than usual (lying catatonic in bed for a month was not on the agenda, surprisingly). Here's to a better 2024!

Fandoms: I added to the chaos this year by jumping into Top Gun Maverick, but Ao3 tells me my beloved in 2023 was 911 Lone Star. I also wrote more RWRB fics, so that rounded out the holy trinity.

Total words (on Ao3) in 2023: 404,508 of posted fic (with a few thousand yet to go). 2023 pushed my total word count over 1 million 💜

Total words (unposted, in my Google Docs but written in 2023):

40k approx of Pet Store AU (co-write with @strandnreyes)

14k approx of Call Me (co-write with @rmd-writes)

44k approx of Eurotrip (although I think I only wrote about 15k of that in 2023).

3k of The Ring-In 2.0.

1k of Christmas fic.

31k of 10 Things I Hate About You AU.

11k of Product Placement.

so...like a LOT of unposted WIP.

Most recent fic: a long time ago (we used to be friends)

Longest fic: the fic above at 166k approx (my longest ever! for now...)

Top fic by kudos: Fifty First Dates (the oodie agenda reigns supreme)

Top fic by comments: Cursed is a State of Mind (cursed coffee is a hot topic)

Projects for 2024: Finishing something of the above? If my most recent RWRB fic does okay, maybe I'll dedicate my whole summer to Eurotrip? Idk. I keep running out of steam worrying it's going to be a flop lol.

What I want to read: SO MUCH. guys. I'm so behind. I'm so, so sorry. I need to finish Knave 3 by @liminalmemories21, the Gabriel fic by @wandering-night19, the prompt fills by @strandnreyes, first aid by @heartstringsduet, the angsty fic by @carlos-in-glasses, bottom carlos that came out the other day by @goodways, the food fic by @reyesstrand, fear kidnapped tk fic by @birdclowns, the boxing au (is it out yet?? i'm seriously so pathetic) by @cold-blooded-jelly-doughnut and legit so many other things that are just not at the top of my mind yet. OH and i am frothing at the mouth to read accidental couples therapy firstprince by @cha-melodius and i heard that @cricketnationrise and maybe someone else wrote a fic about oodies?? @celeritas2997 send me the links!!!!!!! and the percy jackson au by @inexplicablymine @read-and-write- and @happiness-of-the-pursuit. also i never sat down and finished to build a home part 3 @freneticfloetry i owe you that please don't think i've forgotten!!! okay guys do you see how frantic my brain is now? please don't judge me i'm sure there's WAY MORE i'm just forgetting. everyone send me their reading lists!!!!!! i finally have time!!!!! also i'm gonna put @celeritas2997 sweet sweet voice in my ear and listen to her podfic to calm me down. OH AND ALL THE SNOWFLAKS (@everwitch-magiks @clottedcreamfudge @athousandrooms @dustratcentral @three-drink-amy @indomitable-love @villiageidiot @rmd-writes).

Lolaland over and out! (Maybe, maybe there is time in the year for a couple more thousand words...)

[goddesspharo]

Are you going to write a mobster AU for The Bear?!?!?!

So that post was because it was missing-Michael-Clayton-hours (…happens more often than you’d think) after I had just finished watching a bunch of stupendously bad movies yesterday, but I haven’t been able to stop thinking about this since so…that’s a very strong maybe if it makes it out of the “wouldn’t it be neat?” phase of brainstorming? First, I have to finish the last chapter of the Top Gun Maverick spy!AU, a fraudulent zodiac, after which I will never write another TGM fic again because GOD, why can’t I stop making every part 20k??? What am I doing, writing a 22-episode season of Alias?

But I can’t stop thinking about how The Bear as a mob story works sort of perfectly ALREADY? They’re basically the Corleones already - Donna Berzatto as a slightly more unhinged Vito Corleone!!! In war with Uncle Lee! Hot head Mikey making me wail look how they massacred my boy! Carmy just wants to run a legit restaurant that’s not a front for dirty money, but also you never go against family! Richie as the wartime consigliere that Tom Hagen could never be because Richie solves problems with his fists of fury and he’s sad a lot. And Sydney who is too smart for all of this as Michael Clayton meets Miss Sloane. (Maybe this ENTIRE thing is just my excuse to write Richie/Syd!!! Like everything else!!! With like a dash of Carmy/Syd for plot reasons?? The plot being sadness and bad decisions!) Everyone’s getting fucked and everyone’s getting fucked over and blood is thicker than water except of course when it’s not.

(Did I scribble an outline on my commute to work this morning and does it say FAK = FREDO??? I admit nothing.)

[t-nd-rfoot]

ask game!! 5, what's your relationship status and why is it "married to user rassvetsky"??? hehe.

jokes aside, i'm very curious about your favorite pieces of media and such so i can be like "one of my favorite people liked this. they wouldn't like this for no reason." and consume them as well and bother you later with my thoughts on them. so!! 18, 36, 37, 94!! you don't have to answer all of them, or any of them— ilysm and i hope you have a wonderful week, love 💞

5. what’s your relationship status?

As seen above, I am virtually married to @rassvetsky 😌 who needs a reason for love!!! ILY VI 😂💗

Okay for the legit questions now (and omg I love this)

18. favorite tv show?

At the moment, 911 all thanks to @beachbabey and @nobody7102!! This show actually got me back in a groove of watching since I barely watched anything for the past two months. Am really starting to love situational shows like this and Grey’s Anatomy, and the characters (at least the ones I’ve met so far) are so wonderfully written. Also, they’re firemen 😌

Now, if the question is favorite TV show of all time…I will literally not be able to decide, so I’m going to list as many as I can (in no particular order):

This Is Us; Grey’s Anatomy (though I stopped watching after ***** ****, spoiler alert just in case anyone sees lol); Brooklyn Nine-Nine; The Good Place; Bodyguard; Peaky Blinders; On My Block; Agent Carter; Gilmore Girls; E!’s The Royals (major guilty pleasure); Outer Banks; Teen Wolf; Grace and Frankie; Maid…just to name a few 🫣

36. favorite movie? 

If you thought the answer to my TV question was overwhelming, this one is just as or even worse 😂

Top Gun/:Maverick (obvi); Flipped; Cheaper by the Dozen (‘03); The Parent Trap (‘98); A Cinderella Story; Yours Mine and Ours; When the Game Stands Tall; The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants; Step Up (only until the 4th); Ready Player One; The Nanny Diaries; Love, Rosie; almost everything Disney/Pixar…I could go on

37. do you read a lot? whats your favorite book? 

I haven’t read anything recently, but I love The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd! Literally so exciting with a fun and pretty unique concept. Another one that’s pretty personal to me is The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. Extremely relatable. In terms of series, the Crazy Rich Asians trilogy is a fave! And special mention to Windfall by Jennifer E. Smith.

94. favorite lyrics right now

(Can’t name specific lyrics so songs it is!) Since I’m on my k-pop mode, I cry at the lyrics of All My Love by SEVENTEEN every time I listen to it 😭 and also love anything Reese Lansangan, NIKI, and Lizzy McAlpine!!!

Omg sorry if these were so long, but literally if you want any media recommendations, feel free to message, my love! I have a full list of almost every single movie and TV show I’ve ever watched and I’d love to talk about these with you 💗

Unusual asks

[mariaferero]

CIA in North Island (Part 1)

Bob Floyd x OC

A new team member joins for a big mission at Top Gun

-----------------------------------------------------

"Are these rules legit?" I chuckled, gesturing to the sign behind the bar with three rules. It read; 1) No hats. 2) No touching the dozens of model airplanes that hang from the ceiling. And 3) No cell phones on the bar.

"In fact, they are." The bartender chuckled, offering me a smile. "Haven't seen you around here, did you recently get relocated? The names Penny."

"I'm Lou, and I'm not a sailor." I murmured awkwardly. "I did, however, get sent here for work."

"Well, welcome. Can I offer you a drink on the house as a welcoming gift?" Penny smiled, reaching for a glass.

"A vodka lemonade would be great." I smiled back, making sure to slide my phone into my pocket, before I looked around at everyone else scattered throughout the bar. It was obvious this place was overrun with people on base here, but it was funny to see a mixture of both in-uniform and out-of-uniform people chatting and drinking around the place.

"Here you go, Lou." Penny declared, placing the glass in front of me.

"Thank you." I sighed, relieved to have something in my hand so at least I felt less awkward sitting here alone.

"The crowd making ya anxious?" She almost whispered, leaning on the counter in front of me.

"Just a bit." I laughed awkwardly. "Bars aren't as much fun when you're alone."

"Agreed. If you want, you could help me serve drinks, as long as you have a general idea of what the hell is going on." Penny tried to lessen my nerves.

"Alas, I have zero idea of what's going on. So I think I might just end up making more work for you." I laughed, tossing back a sip of my drink. "This is really good."

"What can I say? It's hard to mess up a vodka lemonade." She shrugged, whipping down the counter when some sailors approached. They ordered, and I continued to people watch as a large group of in-uniform sailors came in. "Well, look what the cat dragged in." Penny laughed, reaching for as many bear cups as she could.

"Always the charmer." One of the younger-looking guys chuckled, grabbing the first beer before making a beeline to the pool tables. He was quickly followed by two others after they chimed thank you to Penny.

"Maverick, this here is Lou. She's new around here." Penny said, sounding like a mother trying to help her daughter make friends.

"Lou, nice to meet you." The older-looking man smiled, offering me a hand, which I took.

"Maverick, you wouldn't happen to be Captain Mitchell, would you?" I murmured, the call name maverick ringing a bell from my briefing files for this job.

"In fact, I am. The Pete Mitchell." He nodded, taking a sip of his beer.

"I'm Agent Taylor. I'm working with your team at Top Gun." I explained, taking a sip of my own drink once I'd finished speaking. Having a drink always made me feel less like I was supposed to be filling airtime.

"Of course! We don't get many non-navy newbies around here." Maverick smiled. "Those goons I walked in with are the team you'll be advising if you want to go introduce yourself." He offered, turning his attention fully to Penny. Taking that as my cue to leave the two to themselves, I turned, watched the group laughing and playing together at the pool table, and decided against approaching the group. I would meet them tomorrow anyway. Instead, I put some money down, took my drink and made my way outside to the beach to watch the ocean. It was surprisingly quiet and peaceful outside considering how rowdy the bar was.

"Rooster if you start singing tonight, I swear I'll stab you with this cue!" One guy did yell from what I could understand. Nonetheless, someone inside started playing the piano and singing along.

--------------------

Straightening out my blouse and blazer one more time, I took a deep breath before entering an airplane hangar of North Island Air Station. There were a few rows of desks and a board taking over the space, the noise of planes filling the air from outside.

"For this mission, we have one of the head CIA agents who deal with this division of issue joining us to help explain the more specific details of the situation." Cyclone –I guess my coworker in this instance– announced his back to me and I approached from behind the board. "Don't traumatize them, please. Not everyone is ex-military, and thus not everyone knows how to handle the energy." His declaration was followed by a chorus of yessirs and head nods.

"Don't count her out before she even starts." Maverick chuckled, leaning against a desk, sending me a wink as he saw me over Cyclone's shoulder.

"She?" The man questioned, confusion lacing his voice.

"Yes, she. I met her last night." Maverick nodded.

"I thought it was a man..." Cyclone trailed off, awkwardly scratching his neck.

"I get that a lot." I laughed, making myself known. "Agent Taylor, nice to meet you all." I smiled, nodding towards the group of flight men.

"Of course, so sorry for the confusion, Agent Taylor." Cyclone tried to keep going, turning to me. "This is Captain Mitchell, though it seems the two of you have already met. He can introduce you to the rest of the team. I need to go deal with something." He quickly spewed out before nodding at me and practically running away.

"Impressive." Maverick chuckled, watching Cyclone's figure retreat. "I wish I could do that, get the man out of my hair more often."

"What can I say. Perks of being a CIA agent, you scare people, I guess." I laughed, shrugging, taking another deep breath before turning my full attention to the people scattered at desks. "What's everyone's call sign? I had a list, but I need to put names to faces."

"The name's Hangman, miss." The cocky blonde one from last night beamed, leaning back in his chair ever so slightly. I offered him a nod, moving my attention to the guy next to him. "Payback." "Fanboy." "Rooster." "Phoenix." "Coyote." "Bob." It took a fair amount of self-restraint not to chuckle at the last guy's callsign after everyone else's relatively 'cool' names.

"Wonderful!" I chimed, turning to Maverick. "I was informed that there would be more recruits."

"Initially, yes, but since this group did a mission a few months ago and now have experience together, we decided to keep the group small this time." The older man explained, pushing himself off the desk to come to stand next to me. I nodded, accepting the information more easily than I probably should have, considering this was not information shared with my supervisors. "Would you like to explain this situation?"

"Sure." I nodded, turning to the group, squaring my shoulders. "The CIA has been tracking a white supremacist group in northern Italy for some time now, and we have reason to believe they are collecting a stash of nuclear weapons. Luckily, they are kept on an island off the coast, just far enough from the coast of Italy and France that blowing them up is considered safe."

"That sounds simple enough, so why are we needed?" Hangman pipped up, earning an eye roll from Rooster behind him.

"You see, the issue is the island has a volcano that has recently become slightly less dormant. Some of my superiors want me to say it's active, but in all honesty, it is just active enough that it cannot be considered dormant anymore and just enough that if this mission is performed incorrectly, it will become legitimately active." I explained, crossing my arms over my chest. All recruits nodded along with understanding.

"Perfect. Well, this will work similarly to our uranium mission training. This time you will be flying MiG-25 Foxbat. The goal is to get in and out fast with accuracy. We will be sending two teams, just like last time, except I will not be joining, so Hangman, step it up and dial down the attitude. The practice planes are programmed with training info, and we will be flying demo runs asap." Maverick added, turning to me. "Is there anything I forgot?"

"If this goes wrong, you do not only have to worry about the volcano, but if the group gets their hands on you, it will not be pretty. They're known not to have boundaries or morals." I nodded, signaling that was all I had to say.

"Alright, let's get moving." Maverick declared, taking a step towards the door.

"What? No wager this time?" Rooster piped up, a smirk painting his face.

"Did you not learn your lesson last time?" The captain rolled his eyes. "Agent Taylor, in your opinion, what's a reasonable punishment for if they die in the simulation?"

"What was it last time?" I chuckled.

"Two hundred push-ups." Phoenix explained, leaning back in her chair, an annoyed expression taking over her face at the thought.

"How about one hundred pull-ups? That seem reasonable?" I suggested, honestly, with no idea if that made sense.

"Perfect. Agent Taylor, come with me; we will watch from the tower. The rest of you, get your asses into the planes." Maverick commanded, gesturing for me to follow him.

[cursepoem]

Year in Review 2022 — Part 6 — Top Ten Movies

10. Top Gun: Maverick (dir. Joseph Kosinski) I'm an easy mark here, ever-fascinated by the arc along which Tom has orchestrated his career, and whatever we call this current era. To call him a singular performer sells it short; it's hard to think of a single artist or performer in any field that has functioned in such a way, throughout all these enigmatic phases. There's a very reasonable impulse to draw him in the lineage of Jackie Chan and Buster Keaton, but neither of those guys were fucking sex symbols, they didn't have the spectre of an actual cult lurking just out of frame, they never played Frank T.J. Mackie! (No fault of their own, obviously.) Tom has just had so much baggage, both earned and not, so much meta-text informing his work and our reading of it, and through it all he continues to exude the same magnetism all the while contorting himself into this physical martyr for our entertainment. He simply cannot exist unless he is killing himself onscreen for us, physically, metaphorically, all of it. And what's more, the guy just really fucking loves movies. The near-maniacal agency he's asserted on virtually every level of production, the collaboration he's cultivated with McQuarrie, deep down the man still has this childlike wonder with what movies can do, and say what you will about the guy, but after everything that is a beautiful and rare thing that should be protected at all costs.

So on to Maverick. This is the perfect vehicle for the Tom experience; he gets to employ all the painstaking precision while pouring on the nostalgia to remind us all what going to the movies is about. Sure, I expected to enjoy this movie, but I was not prepared to feel the depth and swell of feelings that I did. It was e-mo-tion-al. For something as obvious and dumb as Hangman's third act reversal to genuinely send my lip aquiver means you're just doing something right from a moviemaking perspective.

9. Pearl (dir. Ti West) Ti West is a guy I root for, but do not exactly ride for. He's at his best when playing with pastiche, devoting himself to classic genre tropes and aesthetics often beyond even the point fetishization, and the results are varied. He's a guy that seems to have more good ideas than you can actually point to in his movies, which isn't necessarily a knock or even his fault I don't think. It's no coincidence that his best achievement by far is also the first time he's really spent exploring character, when his other films were often antagonistic to them (I'll never get over Greta Gerwig's death in House of the Devil). Pearl is such a refreshing turn, a promise that yeah, there might be more to this guy than his VHS-era horror movie dioramas lead on.

And really, it's Mia Goth who deserves all the credit in the world here. Looking at her filmography, the choices she makes, the artists she seeks out, she has proven herself to be a legit little weirdo in the best possible way. That so many people try and fail at faking this quality makes it all the more satisfying when someone like Goth genuinely goes all in. I honestly feel fortunate that these two have found one another; in Ti West, Goth has a director who will never tell her no, who will push her to go bigger, broader, past all reasonable sense. And that's precisely what his movies have always needed, something larger than the scaffolding he's so complacently proficient at building. Her performance her is manic and fascinating, animated and chaotic in a way that repulses and seduces in equal, unsettling measure. But for all the goose-stabbing, all the apocalyptic dance numbers, all the immolation, the most striking part of her performance is a shockingly tender monologue. The camera stays still for what feels like the first time all movie and the unexpected deftness of the writing shines through with what is revealed. All the while, Goth delivers it masterfully, vulnerably, and it somehow works. Between that scene and the insane closing credits alone, this was one of the best performances this year.

I also have to mention how cool it is that these two pulled a trilogy out of nowhere. Even though I didn't really care for X (it's pretty much the worst of West's tendencies all at once), shooting the two back-to-back and announcing a third feature the same week that Pearl opened shows that West in some new and totally invigorated mode. Beyond the effect of his collaborator, he's found a way of working within budget constraints that seems to energize and inspire. It's almost dare I say it Soderberghian, and you know i'm an easy mark for that. Here's hoping that MaXXXine reaches the bar these two have set with Pearl.

8. Triangle of Sadness (dir. Ruben Östlund) Östlund is a Renaissance painter of cringe, able to cull a veritable gyre of political and philosophical tension out of a single moment of everyday awkwardness. Triangle is deliberately uneven, pushing you away and winning you over in turns throughout; there is ample exposition (thankfully more thematic than plot-wise, though) leading up to the (unfortunately literal) explosive setpiece before becoming a much more raw movie in its back third. In stranding his principals on a desert island, stripping them of signifiers of wealth and the power structures they suggest, Östlund literalizes his metaphor in a pretty ingenious way. He takes on the familiar tropes and gags from any shipwreck scenario while turning a cynical eye on his characters as they establish new, lopsided power structures informed by altogether base and sometimes arbitrary human currencies.

Between this, the loathsome Glass Onion, and The White Lotus, we're seeing a whole lot of commentary on the rich, with this year's Infinity Pool signaling that we're far from through here. To me, this is a fool's errand, a surface-level pandering to what's left of Twitter, willfully turning a blind eye to anything deeper than limp satire. Dear lord the last thing I need is to be explained that Elon Musk is bad, actually, by Rian fucking Johnson by way of Edward Norton, of all people. Triangle at least has the benefit of being mostly fun.

7. Petite Maman (dir. Céline Sciamma) Sciamma's latest is as haunting as it is clever, throwing out all the usual trappings of its magical realist framework to instead delve into the rich emotional resonances that it allows. The result is heartbreaking and beautiful, a tender meditation on memory and family that, looking back now, suggests a brutal double-feature with Aftersun, both films artfully interrogating the relationship between child and parent through time. Can't think about either too hard or for too long or I'll lose my shit.

6. Three Thousand Years of Longing (dir. George Miller) This one was an unexpected gift. Not knowing how Miller would follow-up Fury Road after so long, and with the threat of a prequel ever looming, I had no clue what to expect from this very welcome diversion. Miller's fairytale hits all the beats you would want it to, its delightful frame narrative soaking up all the chemistry of the leads before giving way to lush enactments of timeless parables. It's a joy to see the use of all the memorable visual effects flexed in Fury Road to be employed here for such a different outcome. DJ Big Driis plays his djinn with such a believable world-weariness, so perfectly balancing his desperate impatience with obligatory deferral. The games he and Tilda play around one another,

5. AmbuLAnce (dir. Michael Bay) What a fucking banger. Instant classic, already firmly cemented in the Bank Heist Mount Rushmore. What is there to say, really; this is a movie that has your jaw on the floor, heartbeat racing, adrenaline pumping for the entire duration. Any movie that can elicit such an intensely visceral reaction surely can be forgiven its faults, none of which are anywhere egregious enough to puncture your awestruck suspension of disbelief or distracting enough to interrupt the breakneck pace. And pace is everything here, rushed along by the plunging drone shots that punctuate the converging plotlines, new tricks alongside the maestro of explosions' familiar touches. Whoever is asleep at the wheel of the Fast franchise better be taking notes; the past few entries have all been desperately missing just an ounce of the juice that Bay squeezes out of every shot here. They just don't make 'em like this any more, and with this one, Bay seems to put everyone else on notice to step the fuck up.

4. Tár (dir. Todd Field) Let me just get this out of the way up front so there's no confusion on where I stand here: Lydia Tár is a real person and she did nothing wrong. The third feature from the acclaimed co-inventor of Big League Chew, Tár revolves around an absolute powerhouse of a performance. It is a rigorous and commanding film, one that demands your attention and almost punishes you for being anything less than totally enraptured by it. It is rare that I would use the word "relevant" to describe a movie and even rarer that I would consider that quality to be among a movie's strengths, but I was honestly taken with how it handles some very contemporary cultural questions. The Juilliard scene is so jarring, the tension between us not yet knowing if the film is condoning the diatribe of its title character or poking fun at it. The discussion that it invites can be a fruitful one, and one that should lead to somewhere more nuanced than this aforementioned binary so long as we avoid the pitfalls of certainty that both of its principals cannot seem to stray from. I found it surprisingly satisfying to see a scene like this play out here alongside so many lesser, groan-worthy attempts to tackle "cancel-culture" (to think that that Spotlight-but-make-it-Me Too movie was out around the same time! I could barely make it through the trailer.)

Beyond the cultural conversation though, and honestly in its own way strengthening it, this is a ghost story, one that unfolds with a masterful subtlety. Mood and tone take over, warping the shared perception of both the viewer and title character as guilt deepens and takes on external forms. It's reminiscent of Personal Shopper in these ways, where we feel haunted not by what is depicted but how. Through this haunting we're able to see with a sort of dramatic irony how Tár internalizes and navigates the thorny trappings of her own life and fame and influence that she's so confident in dispelling when it comes to others. For her, it is not even a question of forgiving some genius virtuoso or other for their shortcomings or foibles; she barely acknowledges they exist at all; art and genius absolve. We watch her squirm as the heat gets turned up, making frail attempts to cover her tracks all the while deluding herself into thinking she's maintaining the haughty guard of her persona. The eye on her remains cool and almost objective, Field's deft restraint allowing us to bring our own experience into the character. I think that's a lot of what's polarizing about the movie, and what makes it so powerful; it's become so rare that we are allowed our autonomy as an audience, that we're not told precisely how to feel about characters we can easily deem either good or bad.

Also, for as seriously as Tár takes herself, the film itself has a wonderful and cutting sense of humor, from Cate Blanchett threatening a child to the hilarious knife-twist of the closing scene.

3. Decision to Leave (dir. Park Chan-Wook) One of the deepest and most wrenching love stories I've ever seen on film. Decision to Leave is in some ways more grounded than the sumptuous The Handmaiden, but twists and diverts from its detective story frame in unexpected ways to follow these two doomed and inextricably linked characters. With these last two especially, Park slyly belies the early notoriety earned with his still shocking Vengeance trilogy, revealing himself (or maybe just reminding us) that he is just simply one of the most skilled and creative technical directors out there. Decision to Leave is unforgettable, it is mean, it is precisely my kind of feel-bad flick. That chainmail glove is just about the coolest shit I've ever seen.

2. Nope (dir. Jordan Peele) The most effective proper spectacle in recent memory, assisted greatly by understated promotion, impeccable sound editing, and a sublime sense of scale. Peele has such a sense of the enigmatic, weaving all these striking, unforgettable images that resonate with one another as his films unfold. In an age where trailers tend to show every major plot point, we take for granted just how unsettling and captivating it can be to not know where a movie will go from once scene to the next. The opening of Nope is so transfixing precisely because you have zero context and Peele exploits this tension to its fullest throughout.

One of the many things that astounds me about Nope is just how many narrative and thematic levels it's operating on. This is a movie about making movies, about the new and brutal ways that American people are becoming further disenfranchised, about a reflexive type of contemporary isolation, about desensitization and stunted attention spans, about legacy ... I guess it's about aliens, too. It's a western, it's science fiction; the use of genre does so much to inform each of these readings. It's so packed full of ideas and nothing is wasted, nothing is arbitrary. As with Arms Across America Us, here Peele continues creating his own winking Mandela-effects; don't lie and tell me you didn't scour the internet to see if Gordy's Home was real or to research the identity of the "Plate 262" rider. Peele has such a way of capturing, of inventing, a collective imagination.

As with his other features, the casting here is spot-on; Peele has an incredible way of working with actors, of capturing chemistry. Keke Palmer and Daniel Kaluuya are so much fun to watch together, such perfect foils to one another. Steven Yeun's Chris Kattan monologue is an absolute all-timer.

With each effort, Peele makes me think more and more of Hitchcock, of Shyamalan. I watch his movies and just feel so fortunate that we have his singular voice right now, especially at such a nadir of moviegoing. This guy is operating within a rich tradition of the spectacular, masterfully employing genre to interrogate potent and present anxieties. His works are time-capsule pieces, perhaps the most telling of our era. I just want him to keep making whatever the hell he wants with whatever amount of money he needs to do it.

1. Aftersun (dir. Charlotte Wells) This movie just simply does things I've never seen before, operating in some of the subtler and more poetic reaches of what cinema is capable of as an art form. We're witnessing memory as it is formed and recalled simultaneously. This is slowly revealed in flash-forward, leading up to the jaw-dropping climax that is stirring to the core, a frenetic fever-dream frame narrative that punctuates the softness of the impressionistic and nostalgia-drenched camcorder brushstrokes. Paul Mescal's character is a ghost haunting the reflective surfaces of resort swimming pools and mirrors, an indefinite form captured obliquely against the screen of a turned-off television. His daughter can only ever conjure him in these fleeting and enigmatic ways; he is not his own person yet to her, only sketched in the ways she that sees and needs him. Such is the inevitable tragedy of the relationship, made all the more harrowing by the simmering turmoil he bares in private that she can only naively intuit. This film is so intimate and personal it almost feels like my own memory, my own aching and secret guilt reflecting on the selfishness of childhood, on taking something precious and formative for granted after it's too late to recover. This movie just fucking wrecks me in irreconcilable ways the more I think about it.

[aaronsmith94]

Thoughts After My 7th Viewing of Top Gun Maverick 

Bob during the whole God Damn movie.

2. We can do a 3rd Top Gun movie on Rooster's PTSD alone.

3. Rooster appears to hate water or at least natural bodies of water, the way he stares down the ocean as he launches off the carrier caught me this time. He also does a distasteful look at the water again when Maverick is telling him to eject.

4. Cyclone's I am very pissed but also turned on at the same time when Maverick completes the run in the allotted time.

5. Ice continuing to work until his very last breath, it's something I think they got right. He knows his outcome, and what is going to happen next and instead of worrying about it he continues to focus on what he can keeping Maverick flying and bringing Bradley back home. I'm positive Ice was working until his very last breath, It's very much "The Show Must Go On" and I love it.

6. The fact that they stamped a set of wings into a 20,000-dollar casket for Ice. Like I hope it's a prop that's used over and over on film sets because it's the legit model for POTUS and FLOTUS. (Joys of having family in the funeral biz)

My Hangster thoughts go on below the Keep Reading, disregard if it's not your thing.

7. We can hate Hangman for bringing up Goose but the way Jake looks at Bradley after doing that stunt Jake finally relaxes realizing Bradley can interact and do what he's supposed to do when pressured.

8. Rooster had to console Hangman when Coyote was in G-lock, you can not tell me Jake wasn't freaking the fuck out when that event went down. I hope there's a deleted scene of Bradley and Jake both having to listen to the ordeal of Coyote then hearing Phoenix and Bob had a bird strike.

9. The events of Number 7 were the realization that the feelings for each other are still too damn strong and it's the turning point.

10. The eye contact they have on each other when Jake tells Bradley to "give them hell," watch how they speak with their eyes the next time you watch it. Jake is pleading for Bradley to come back home safe in the way he stares him down.

11. The eye contact when they are back after the mission, I know we were all wanting the Hug but again their eye contact with each other speaks volumes, I think that's their way of communicating. They know each other so well it just takes a look at each other with their eyes.

[snicker-doodles]

so this is basically my thought process for how an Icemav marriage might work in the real world setting

DADT was repealed in 2011. 

In 2012, the first openly gay general in the United States military literally came out by asking her wife to pin the general star on her uniform during her military promotion ceremonies (read the article here), and since then she still got promoted twice more before finally retired after 35 years of service. But, her wife is a civilian.

So next, there are the fraternization rules to think about, which I’m not sure how it works, but I read that it’s possible to get married as long as both are officers of the same rank at the time of their wedding, and if in the future one of them got promoted to a higher rank, then their spouse simply will not be stationed under their chain of command. So it’s technically possible?

Now about the Icemav marriage

Technically, it’s possible that they’re still of the same rank in 2011, considering all their achievements, both maverick and ice were likely to be promoted at the same pace, so, as long as they got married as soon as DADT was repealed, then it should be fine.  

But then Ice started to get promoted to a desk job, while maverick chose to fly instead of doing boring desk job, so he often refuse to be promoted, which means he can no longer be stationed under Ice’s chain of command. If this is what happened, then they won’t be able to live together, and can only see each other during Mav’s leave.

Or, actually, Maverick doesn't have to be afraid of promotion, since there's actually a real life maverick in the US Navy who got promoted into an Admiral but then literally change the rules so he can keep flying (read the article here).

Here’s an excerpt from that article:

“While most officers his age and rank plant themselves behind desks, the Naval commander at Point Mugu prefers to streak through the sky at supersonic speeds in one of the Navy’s hottest fighter jets.

As the ranking officer in Ventura County, Rear Adm. George H. Strohsahl Jr. has rewritten the rules so he can fly regularly with other Navy pilots above the Pacific Missile Test Center.

He juggles his schedule, sending his secretaries into momentary panic, to join the fraternity of hotshot pilots at Point Mugu who routinely fly in tests of the nation’s latest high-tech missiles.

“I’m like a kid in a candy store,” the admiral says. “If left to my own devices, I’d be flying 12 or 14 hours a day.”

At 52, this two-star admiral ventures into the airspace in a way few his age or rank have gone before.”

So

I think, instead of choosing to remain a captain, someone like Mav is more likely to want to be promoted to avoid any fraternization problem and then do this kinda stunt. So at the time of TG:M, it actually made sense if Mav has become an Admiral, at the very least a 2 star Rear Admiral like Cyclone. I mean, imagine all kinds of trouble Admiral Mitchell got himself into, since, you know, not only he’s insane, but he would actually have real power to abuse here, lol. 

Now picture this:

Mav is the Naval commander at Point Mugu in California, while Ice is the COMPACFLT stationed in Hawaii. Well, the fleet HQ is actually at Joint Base Pearl Harbor–Hickam in Hawaii, with large secondary facilities at Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego, so, maybe they have a house in San Diego, and Ice spend half his time in Hawaii and half in San Diego? legit don’t know how it actually works lol. But in TGM, Ice did have a house in San Diego, so. 

Mav didn't pull Bradley’s paper, so the Kazansky-Mitchell family is basically A-OK. 

At some point Hangman was a pilot under Mav’s command, while Bradley was under Ice’s command (this is technically possible as long as Mav and Ice never adopted Bradley legally, let’s just say Carol passed away after Bradley became a legal adult in this scenario), they were sent to Top Gun together, and their rivalry actually started from Ice and Mav wanting to have the pilot under their charge to be the winner lol (a bet is definitely involved).

Better yet, half the dagger team at some point was under Mav’s command while the other half at some point was under Ice’s command before he eventually became COMPACFLT, and they somehow have a friendly rivalry of sorts, with Hangman as the leader of Mav’s kids and Rooster as the leader of Ice’s kids (I mean, it kinda made sense if you consider how Hangman and Rooster fly). 

These 12 are basically best of the best at this point, considering who has trained them, so when the mission came, they all got called back to Top Gun, with Mav as their instructor.

Hangster definitely have that on-again, off-again relationship with sooo much UST, and with the rivalry between team Mavdad vs team Big Boss Ice, that special mission training would definitely be so much more fun lol.

Other head cannon in the “What If: Feral Admiral Mitchell” Universe:

After getting married, Adm Kazansky and Adm Mitchell kept their own name, cause, hyphenating their last name would be just too much trouble, although, in the privacy of their home, Mav would call Ice Admiral Mitchell-Kazansky, and Ice would call Mav Admiral Kazansky-Mitchell, and they would fight about which one sounds better (Bradley will not take any sides thank you very much).

There’s definitely a chat/support group for Adm Mitchell’s ex and current secretaries.

Maverick is crazy, but he’s good at his job, so basically all the higher ups just turn a blind eye as long as he gave them results, and then give him some form of punishments if he went a little too far, like maybe burying him in paperwork, forcing him to go to Navy Balls, and many other things that Mav would definitely hate.

When Mav pulled some crazy stunts that got him in danger or badly hurt, Ice would punish him by withholding sex and/or leaving to live in Hawaii for longer than necessary. But, as long as Mav is not hurt and the problem he caused is just properties damages or the likes, Ice will just let him be, Admiral Mitchell can go and clean up his own messes thank you very much.

In the beginning, people will go to Ice and complain when Mav causes trouble, but eventually they stop cause they realized that Ice actually love watching them suffer cause of his feral husband.

Anyway, that's all for now k bye 

[geekgemsspooksandtoons]

Prey is the true Predator 3

...yes...I am going to start out this post by saying that...a few minutes ago. I literally had just watched Prey, the 2022 film in its entirety. That includes credits...even before seeing the film, I had wondered about what my reaction would be. And that would be including two. Because I want to express my feelings on what I had just watched. This is all just my opinion. Including as a long time Predator fan and...still a Yautja fanboy. I have some things to say.

The first way I will talk about the film will be as an extremely happy, and very surprised fanboy. Be warned, this will all be in caps lock, and I will sound very immature. This is what I feel like. Here we go.

HOLY FUCKING SHIT! I AM SO SORRY FOR EVER FUCKING DOUBTING YOU DAN TRACHTENBERG AND PATRICK AISON! WHY COULDN'T I SEE THIS IN A FUCKING MOVIE THEATER?! THIS FILM IS AS GOOD AS THE FIRST TWO FILMS THAT I LOVE SO DEARLY! AND SOME WAYS IT'S SO MUCH BETTER THAN THE FIRST FILM! WE HAVE A PREDATOR FILM THAT IS NEAR THE LEVEL AND POSSIBLY EVEN BETTER THAN THE ORIGINAL! IT SEEMED FUCKING IMPOSSIBLE! THIS WAS A FILM I DIDN'T KNOW I NEEDED BUT I GOT IT! I AM SO FUCKING HAPPY MY REACTIONS DURING AND AFTER THE FILM ENDED HOLY SHIT DUDE!

Now...that is out of the way. The second way is to view the film more...maturely...like an actual critic. But not like a full review or anything. But seriously...

Good God...I had thought about crying after the film ended, and even now. I may be overreacting. But watching this film...after the shit I had to endure in 2018. I worry if this was in theaters, I worry of how I would be in the audience...because oh my God...it's strangely funny. But really, I am so fucking happy.

I've seen some good films this year. Such as The Batman, Top Gun Maverick, and Elvis. I'll also put in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 because I love that film as well because I'm a long time Sonic fan too. But this is just me, but this may possibly be my favorite film of the year. 

I swear, I feel like reinstalling AVP2 2001 sometime now because of this. Because again, whatever everyone else feels. Even though I haven't been in a huge Predator mood lately. But I'm again, so happy with what I had just witnessed. 

Yes, the acting is great, Amber Midthunder is awesome, the direction for this film is awesome, the score is awesome, and the Feral Predator himself...I love him too. Again, this is all my first reaction. But again, when I watch films, I...critique them as I watch them...so much about this film was good. And I'm being legit, I was pacing back and forth saying oh my God while the credits were going on. 

I feel like Prey is the true Predator 3 film we should've gotten years ago. Because good God, and I finally put Patrick's name in the caps lock paragraph. But seriously, I shouldn't have doubted Dan and Patrick's work on this. 

Prey, Predator, and Predator 2.

That is my Predator trilogy. Just like how I see Alien, Alien Isolation, and Aliens as my Alien trilogy. And I wouldn't want it any other way. Yet I have just read Dan Trachtenberg has stated there are discussions for additional installments after the release of this movie. Because alright, I'm intrigued. Because this man and Patrick gave us what is SOMEWHAT the "Aliens" of the Predator franchise. I am so glad this is becoming so successful. After the shit Predator has endured, this franchise deserves it.

Good God, this film is better than any of my fan fiction ideas. Because this film gave us something new, something really good. And my ideas were basically...they're still cool. One of them was basically Terminator 2, but with Predators. Including me heavily using the comics which...might be a bad thing at times. I still love the expanded universe that was introduced in the 90's.

I love this film. I think I've made that clear enough. Even if before seeing it, I saw and read certain spoilers by mistake. But that didn't take away from my enjoyment of the film. My experience was still so great and seeing the film for myself...I loved it so much.

I'll reveal that during the Predator scenes I was so overjoyed seeing. Particularly two scenes with the first "Reveal" to the characters where I kept saying "Ah" a bunch. Holy Crap, Feral is basically the kind of Yautja I wanted to see in a film in a long time. Especially in that scene with the other antagonists. But again, there's so much other good stuff. Even if I rewinded certain scenes a few times. This was again, a movie I didn't know I needed. 

So yeah, I fucking loved this film.

[indynerdgirl]

There's something I've noticed recently in Top Gun fanfiction - people are writing pieces set in the late 80s & early 90s, but are including things like modern cellphone usage. I tend to notice that happening more in fics by younger writers.

And it got me thinking that we actually now have almost(?) two generations of fic writers that legit don't know what it was like to live a life without a cellphone/smart phone or things like streaming services, Door Dash, and Uber.

I understand the old adage of "write what you know" but it's extremely jarring and will totally take me out of a story when a 13 year old Bradley has a cellphone to call his mom or Maverick. Because he would have been 13 in 1997 (going by the birth year from the info sheet in the movie) and cellphones really weren't affordable for the general public until just around 2000. In fact, it wouldn't be that unusual if Bradley didn't get his first cellphone until his senior year of highschool which would have been '01/'02 (I was born in '87 and didn't have my own cellphone until junior year in '04). And don't forget the first iPhone didn't come out until 2007 (the same year Netflix started streaming services).

I still distinctly remember babysitting my younger siblings in the mid to late 90s and my parents having to leave the phone number of wherever they were going & what times they'd be there in case I had to get a hold of them.

If you had the money, you might have had a legit car phone. That was a phone that was installed in your car, usually mounted to the dashboard or to something in the center console. My grandparents had one and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. It looked kind of like this one.

And if you did have a cellphone in the late 90s, it was basically a brick. This is what my mom's first cellphone looked like (and you actually had to pull the antenna out for it to work).

So, you know, if you're unfamiliar with a certain time period (and this honestly goes for anybody wanting to write anything set in a time other than the present), do a little research or if you're able, talk to someone who lived through that time.

[a-student-out-of-time]

Connections Review Part 3

Storm Maverick- Category 5

And we return! This will be the final part of the Connections Arc. I had initial plans for this to be 2 parts but sadly Maverick got too big and therefore he required his own part. This is by far the most divisive part of the Arc as everyone seems to be content with the time travel and harems, but as soon as Maverick ‘Motherfucker Hellspawn’ Storm got relevant it all went downhill for some. So, what do I think?

So, this is part is less ‘What is Maverick doing’ and more of what I think of Maverick. As you guys know, I am aware that Maverick is a lot older than people seem to recognize as he has his origins in Askthedespairkids. And in the context of that blog, Maverick is actually a pretty good character. You have to remember that the blog was saturated with OCs and a lot of them suffered from severe sueness or edgy syndrome. I will not make names and I will not say who made the worst OCs because that’s the easiest way to start an internet war, but the two big reasons I got bored of Askthedespairkids and quit reading is due to how poorly written a lot of these OCs were and they hogged a lot of the spotlight, and the canon characters ended up being regulated to the side-lines, which didn’t tickle my fancy at all. True, Maverick was very over the top and what he ultimately ended up doing to his former classmates in Class 75 is incredibly graphic and probably worse than some of the executions and murders canonically, but I would rather blame the general OPness of that blog. Now this is on the Mod’s terms Maverick can hopefully be hit with the nerf hammer a bit more so he isn’t as ridiculous as he was in Askthedespairkids. Furthermore, you can’t call Maverick a Villain Sue and not apply that to Junko Enoshima, because yeah, she is a Villain Sue, that’s why I don’t like her.

But things are different now. Maverick is standing on his own, against only a couple of other OCs and canon characters. Furthermore, the Mod’s writing skills have improved since the Askthedespairkids days so there’s a bit more pressure on Maverick. I think there are two issues I find with Maverick. The first is that I didn’t like him making a move during this arc. The arc was fine just focusing on time travel and the various harems and relationships of the characters, adding Storm just bloated the arc and made it much longer then needed, I feel like Maverick could have been revealed next arc and the next next arc would be the next arc we are currently getting into. This gives me serious Oncoming Storm vibes where an Arc is ridiculously long and a build up to a (hopefully) big payload. Now let me make this straight, this Arc is a million times better then Oncoming Storm, I don’t think any future Arc would be as bad as Oncoming Storm, as that was long and boring whereas the previous stuff was interesting, its just that adding Storm made the Arc very bloated and artificially extended the length of the arc making it tedious. Perhaps a forewarning to the Mod when they decide to include someone like Mikado and Junko into the story. The second issue with Maverick is…he’s basically a poor man’s Junko. At the moment I’m really struggling to find any meaningful differences between Maverick and Junko. With Juu being around we already have our big bad villain for the second Session and if I’m right, Session 3’s main villain is going to be Mikado and Session 4’s villain is Junko. I know Maverick is important to the backstories of Umeko and Kyoji, especially Kyoji, but aside from tying up those loose ends, what is the point of Maverick? Does he exist to give the Quantum Crew a practise run against Junko? And yes, his threat level is higher as he’s kidnapping an obscene amount of people and is able to block us Anons, but Maverick shouldn’t know we exist. I really, REALLLLY hope there’s a logical explanation for that because if Maverick is somehow able to sense the Anons and see how much of a threat we are, then the accusations of Maverick being a Villain Sue do hold water.

Overall, I will be more critical of Maverick now then I was back then because he enjoyed being next to poorly written characters but that safety net no longer exists and there’s too many glaring similarities between him and Junko. Now for his actions yeahhh…. I did warn you guys that Maverick is that special kind of evil but I don’t think it was until Nikei revealed about all his foster families committing suicide that it really hammered home. It’s basically vindication of what I said before. The stakes are a lot higher now because previously yes there was all the girls being kidnapped but it was just Tokyo and one demographic, but here lots of people all across Japan are vanishing and being brainwashed by Storm, so the pressure is on for the Quantum Crew to stop him. And some familiar names as well as Damian, Aiko’s pen pal and Hiroyuki, Kiroko’s younger brother have gone missing alongside Kanon. Kanon vanishing means I think Leon is going to be important next arc because we did promise Leon that Hajime & friends would help her and he’ll be willing to throw his lot in to save his cousin. And the pressure is even more on because Yuki’s been taken as well, having traded Mikado for Storm. This is going be big, especially for Sora as she’s been struggling with how much she cares for Yuki and this will be a real test to see where her allegiances lie. Especially as its unknown what happens if either Yoruko or Sora dies, because if Hajime dies, time rewinds and he uses a life but what if Yoruko and Sora get offed? They don’t have lifelines so what happens if Hajime resets, does Yoruko revert to her old self or does Sora get erased from existence as she isn’t supposed to be ‘born’ yet?

Kyoji also got some development as we see him bonding with Monaca and the newly reformed Kanade, and it’s a very ironic twist that the two characters who are often nicknamed as ‘Satan’ in the fandom are now more or less siblings. As good as a caretaker he is for them though, his recklessness and self-loathing issues are still there as it prevents him from seeing Miaya despite a meeting between them being sorely needed and thinking she won’t want to see him again even if that may not be the case, and wanting to deal with Storm ASAP despite legit concerns that it could be a trap. Thankfully Chisa and Chiaki were able to talk some sense into him and rein in some of his more destructive behaviour. Given how manipulative Storm is and we have not one but two characters who are willing to go off the handle, possibly three if Nikei jumps the gun again, its going to be a very intense arc coming up as not only do the Quantum Crew have to fight against Storm and his backers, but also keep some of the more hot-headed members of the team from being reckless. The new members of the Quantum Crew are pulling their weight though as Kazuichi offered insight into the tech that Storm could use, Chisa obviously helping to keep sanity in check and Ibuki had one of her lucid ideas and managed to suggest how Storm delivered all the VPN password codes to his victims in a way that isn’t unnoticeable which is just mailing them a vacation brochure. I’ll admit, this was really clever by the Mod as that went over my head when it was delivered, but I should know about Chekhov’s Gun, which is don’t include something if its not going to be relevant later. Lesson learnt and I need to be more alert to detail now.

And that concludes the Connections Arc as the QR Code was scanned and they saw the welcome message from Maverick and Kyoji cursing Storm’s name. And my ranking shall be a C-. It would be a solid C but the inclusion of Maverick bloating the arc out and the fact that now he’s not being propped up by terrible OCs means the writing flaws of the character are starting to become more apparent and his similarities with Junko makes me question if he is a necessary character in the story or not. I will withhold too much judgement until the next Arc concludes but I did enjoy the Arc until the Storm part so its not enough to drop into D territory so C- it is. Either way, I’ll be watching the next arc with great interest and hopefully my new method of cutting down on needless wavering is making this easier to read. See you once the Storm calms down! -Review Anon

//Once again, thank you for the reviews. And admittedly, yes, I do wish I’d held off on introducing Storm’s plans until the ongoing plot threads were resolved and everyone came home. I can see all this being the beginning of the current arc and it probably would’ve worked better. That’s definitely the biggest flaw I can see with the last arc, though it’s important for setting stuff up and my desire is not for preparations to drag out, but for us to get to what’s important.

//After the Oncoming Storm, I’m wary of writing any more long preparation arcs, especially when I’m stuck in a long depressive episode ^^;

//I’ve never claimed to be a perfect writer or even a good one, but I’ve tried to improve on my writing since my early days. I had very little idea of what I was doing back then and it really does show. I only ask that you all go into the next arc with an open mind and not let past experiences of bad writing color your opinions, which I’m sure you won’t.

//I won’t spoil anything, but this upcoming arc has what’s probably my hardest decision as a writer to date and I’ve decided to committed to it, even if it hurts to think about. 

//I do hope you look forward to what comes next ^^

[icemankazansky]

7, 9, and 13 for the Storm series please :)

Ah, bless you! I'm so excited to talk about this.

7: Where did the title come from?

For the first story, "The Eye of the Storm" is referenced explicitly in the text.

They didn’t speak for a long time. Ice’s jaw was tense; his eyes were on the storm raging outside the glass. The rain beat down all around them, making the car seem a separate world, a little island of protection in the midst of the downpour. The eye of the storm.

Maverick and Iceman live in this kind of chaos, a high stakes environment, and they had to find another, safer space to be together, so that's what I was getting at there.

Then I called the second one "Hurricane Blues," which just came to me like titles never do, and so I had to keep up the naming convention for "Lightning Strikes Twice." I'm working on Storm 4 right now, and the working title is "Tropical Depression," but I'll likely change it before posting.

9: Were there any alternate versions of this fic?

Nope. I wrote all three of these stories very quickly for their size (although, obviously, with a considerable wait between the second and third stories), and not a lot got cut from any of them. I generally don't do alternate versions of stories so much as I rework them.

13: What music did you listen to, if any, to get in the mood for writing this story? Or if you didn’t listen to anything, what do you think readers should listen to to accompany us while reading?

For "The Eye of the Storm" and "Hurricane Blues," I legit don't remember. Sorry! But for "Lightning Strikes Twice," and a lot of the Top Gun fic I'm writing these days, I actually have an Ice/Mav playlist I listen to. It gets me in a good headspace for it, and "Earned It" has a fantastic rhythm for writing sex scenes.

[distant-rose]

3, 8, 14, 44

3. Least favorite part of writing.

The actual writing part. Like you should see me when I’m in the shower. I can plot anything and words flow through my brain like there’s no tomorrow but once I sit down in front of an actual computer? Blank. Nope. Nada. Nothing. It’s incredibly frustrating at times because I have all of these ideas and then no words to make them happen.

8. Favorite trope to write.

Oh my god, best friends to lovers. It’s kinda my life. I went from being besties to falling in love with him. I actually don’t know if there was a point where I wasn’t ever not in love with him to be honest. So, often times when I write AU, I would often write my couples as ride or die friends who always had each other’s backs who finally realize they’re in love.

14. What’s the most research you ever put into a book?

Okay. Okay. I put a fuck ton of research into the majority of my projects. I had this wonderful Top Gun AU planned out where I tweaked the plot and actually planned on being more authentic and accurate in my depictions than the actual movie. Legit, I looked up the names and locations of actual naval cruisers and how to become a naval pilot. I legit looked up what courses they would take at Annapolis and what bases they would be trained at. I was legit going to do Killian as Maverick and Emma as Iceman because, c’mon that was the real romance of that movie, but then someone else did Top Gun and I was like “I refuse to be accused of copying them.” So yeah. So much research into a project that never happened but that’s par the course for me.

44. Best piece of feedback you’ve ever gotten.

Someone literally wrote me five fucking paragraphs of commentary on A Once and Future Thing and most of those paragraphs were focused on my original characters Jim and Beth and how much they loved their dynamic and comparing it to Emma and Killian’s and it was kinda the moment where I was like “holy shit, someone actually fucking likes the hot garbage I post.”

Ask me questions from new ask game for writers