#100% unapologetic for the anime music

[rottenbrainstuff]

Character Playlist: The Hero

Go get ‘em songs to listen to when it’s your job to go save the world

YouTube | Spotify

(Text below the cut)

(Cropped image of the tarot card The Star)

the hero:

The sky is falling and you just want to vibe, but somehow it’s your job to get up and save everyone

Somebody Told Me - The Killers

I Want You - Savage Garden

Elevate - ft. DJ Khalil

Dashboard - Modest Mouse

Fluorescent Adolescent - Arctic Monkeys

Too Dumb to Die - Green Day

By The Way - Red Hot Chili Peppers

Heavydirtysoul - Twenty One Pilots

Great Days - Karen Aoki

Walk Away - Franz Ferdinand

Weapon of Choice - Fatboy Slim

Stone Ocean - Ichigo

19-2000 (Soulchild Remix) - Gorillaz

Uprising - Muse

I Am The Fire - Halestorm

[geminipixels]

2010's Billboard Top “Songs” Family Legacy Challenge

1 decade of music hit's + 10 top charting songs + 10 generations = Musical legacy for the Sims 3.

Welcome to my first Legacy challenge rules made for the Sims 3. Even though the game is 15 years old, it still has an active community that loves a good challenge. This legacy challenge was inspired by how I typically play my own generational gameplay and, of course, Music. Since music is a very broad theme, however, I chose a decade to really base the legacy around that I was well familiar with: the 2010's. And thus this legacy challenge was made in a span of a week, with hours of researching billboard charts, listening to songs, interpreting song lyrics and translating it into the Sims 3. So whether you're looking for a new challenge to play, a music lover or just wanna spice up your gameplay, feel free to play this challenge I created.

Generalized Rules:

This is written as a 10 Generation Legacy Challenge. However, don't feel obligated to play it strictly as it was written. I based the generations based off the decade and chronologically ordered by the year. You are welcome to play only 3 generations, 5 generations. Mix and match generations. Play from Gen 1 to 5 or 5 to 10. It's your game, so play the way that make's it the most fun for YOU!

Each generation is tied to a specific song and artist. I decided to pick the song that charted the most weeks on the billboard for every year, as multiple songs charted as hits or made it to #1 spot, and even came close to 2nd as the Hit song for that year. So if you don't like a specific artist or song, feel free to skip said generation.

This was not made with Base Game compatible (Sorry.) When making the challenge, I tried to use traits and make rules that closely resembled the meaning behind the song. So if you don't have a certain pack or feature, it's okay to skip it or find a way to replace it.

I highly encourage the usage of Mods that enhance and optimized gameplay.

Cheat with Moderation. The aim of this challenge is to ultimately have fun and enjoy gameplay. Cheating is permissible if it correlated with the story. Cheating for a house at the start of each generation is fine, or for Twins during a pregnancy is 100% allowed. But avoid excessive money cheating or cheating skills.

Try to use at least 3 of the recommended traits. Completing every Goal isn't required, but mainly there as a guideline for story-telling. And Optional goals are 100% optional and for added challenges or gameplay.

Most importantly: Have fun and take creative freedoms with this challenge. I wrote it to be as open-ended as possible in terms of heirs and lovers. If some generations seem similar in your opinion, feel free to tweak the story to spice it up more or mellow it down.

Feedback is always welcomed. And if you do play this challenge, feel free to "@" me or post it under "2010's Billboard Family Legacy Challenge".

Generation 1: Tik Tok by Kesha

“Don't stop, make it pop, DJ, blow my speakers up. Tonight, I'ma fight un'til we see the sunlight.”

You were always the life of the party and natural social butterfly. Your family always judged you for being too “Free-sprinted” or “Outspoken”, but you were unapologetically yourself. You stood out from the crowd, were always confident, carefree and had no shame in having a good time. Despite what your family says, your friends all love you, and you're a natural inspiration to those you meet. Even with waking up with a hangover every morning or with unfamiliar faces, you're a natural leader and the creator of your destiny. Traits: Party-Animal, Charismatic, Social Butterfly, Friendly and Rebellious

Goals:

Have a bad relationship with any family/ Move to a new town away from relatives

Have at least 2 best friends and 5 good friends throughout your whole life.

Have a career that involves leading or being around people (Education, Military, Business, Politician…) or be self-employed and become your own boss-babe.

Must hook up with your future lover or spouse before officially dating them.

Spontaneously get a Tattoo and dye your hair halfway through YA. And again in Adulthood.

Go clubbing with your best friends every weekend.

Master the Charisma Skill and at least 3 skill challenges.

Optional Goals:

Throw a party at least once a week.

Master Mixology or Nectar Making skills as a side hobby.

Buy at least one club in town and rename it after yourself.

Name all your children after your favorite club drinks.

Generation 2: Rolling in the Deep by Adele

“We could have had it all… Rolling in the deep. You had my heart inside of your hands… And you played it to the beat.”

You were always the sweetheart of the family. Good-spirited, nurturing and very giving. You were always there for everyone and supported everyone around you, putting others before yourself. But you’d never expected for your Kindness to be taken advantage of by the one you loved most. Before you knew it, your perfect fantasy of a perfect family and happy marriage was taken before your eyes. After the Betrayal, you vowed to never be taken advantage of again and took matters into your hand. Traits: Nurturing, Perfectionist, Hopeless Romantic, Good, Shy

Goals:

Have a high relationship with Parents and Siblings.

Aim to be the perfect child of the family; Making Honor Roll, be Valedictorian, Joining after school activities

As a teenager, get into a relationship very early with a sim from a wealthy family.

As a YA, move in with a lover and get engaged quickly. 

Before wedding, find out lover is cheating on you with another sim. Immediately break off relationship.

Uh-Oh, there was an unexpected pregnancy. You keep the baby but raise them without then knowing their other parent.

After your tragic heartbreak, you decide to ruin your exes' life as revenge.(Up to player’s interpretation).

Be a strong example for your child. Reach the top Level of your desired Career and Master 3 Skills.

Optional Goals:

After the breakup with your high school sweetheart, you have a villainous era: Change two traits any of the following: Unflirty, Workaholic, Grumpy or Mean-spirited.

You give love another chance later in Adulthood and get into a relationship once you reach level 8 of your career.

You always wanted a perfect family but never got the chance: Adopt/foster 2 additional children.

Generation 3: Somebody That I Used to Know by Gotye

“But you didn't have to cut me off. Make out like it never happened and that we were nothing.”

Your whole life has felt like a mystery. As if you were cursed almost and nothing felt real. You never knew your other parent, your friends always seemed to disappear and occasionally, you even questioned if you knew yourself. Maybe it’s all in your head. Or Perhaps life enjoys playing a cruel joke on you. Are you the problem? Traits: Perceptive, Genius, Erratic/Insane, Unstable, Brooding

Goals:

Have a close relationship with your single parent.

As a child, make a best friend you always hang out with and visit, then never see them again after aging up until a Teen.

Never have a relationship with your other biological parent until teenage hood.(Or find out the truth of what happened between your parents.)

Master the Logic and Writing Skills.

Master a job in Law enforcement ( Private Investigator, International Super Spy or Forensic Scientist)

Have 3 failed relationships throughout your life. One of which results in a happy little accident.

Your Friends are always seeming to disappear; never maintain multiple friendships.

As a YA reunite with your long-lost best friend. Rekindle your relationship and get married. (Can have more children)

Sometime in your early Adulthood, your spouse mysteriously abandons the family at night and never is seen again.

Optional Goals:

Turns out your best friend from childhood was an occult (Marry an Occult sim)

Write only Mystery Novels based upon your life as a side income.

Just because your life was a mess doesn’t mean you’ll repeat the cycle for your child/children. Spoil and raise your kids to be the very best.

Generation 4: Get Lucky by Daft Punk ft Pharrell Williams

“We've come too far to forget who we are, So let's raise the bar, and our cups, to the stars.”

Well, you certainly have an interesting family history of heartbreak and mysterious tragedy? Grandparent had a heartbroken betrayal. Then one of your parents mysteriously left overnight, leaving the other heartbroken and confused.  It seems like your family forgot how to enjoy the little things in life and have fun? It’s a good thing you're around to lighten up your family legacy and “attempt” to break this angsty story. Traits: Lucky, Virtuoso, Natural-Born Performer, Flirty and Good Sense of Humor.

Goals:

Master the xylophone as a toddler and reach level 5 of one instrument before aging up into a Young Adult.

Always have at least 2 romantic interests at the same time when a Teenager.

Work in a musical job, profession, or start a Band with your close friends.

Perform in a club or play for tips every weekend.

Become a 3-star celebrity.

Idolized your future spouse. Date and eventually marry another celebrity/entertainer.

Master at least 2 skills in an Instrument, and reach level 5 in any additional instrument skills.

Optional goals:

Sometime being flirty and lucky leads to questionable choices: Woo-hoo with 5 sims through your whole life.

Travel to Paris at least once in your life. It’s the city of love, after all.

Who said getting lucky was always easy? Be rejected or fail twice with future spouse before finally dating them.

Make a family of prodigies - Every one of your kids must reach level 3 in some instrumental skill before becoming YA.

Generation 5: Happy by Pharrell Williams

“It might seem crazy what I'm about to say. Sunshine, she's here, you can take a break.”

You're a natural ray of sunshine. Always happy, cheerful and positive. Almost as if no-one could bring you down. Your positive outlook on life is infectious, sometimes obnoxiously so. Some people may call you a bimbo or himbo, telling you to get your head out of the clouds and be realistic. But all the negativity makes you smile and spread your positivity more. Whether they like it or not, nobody can put your light out. Traits:Schmoozer, Brave, Loves the Heat, Excitable, and Absent-minded or Easily Impressed

Goals:

As a child, your parents adopted you a furry friend. Become best friends forever with either a Golden Retriever or Orange Cat.

Join any social after school club during your school years. 

Upon aging up into a teen, make a new friend every sim week and maintain at least friend status or old friends.

Travel to Vacation world one summer with your family, and make 3 friends.

Work in a career that involves making people happy or protecting people (Firefighter, Singer, Acrobat, Magician, Lifeguard...)

Marry a sim that shares at least 3 of the same traits as you.

Spoil yourself and your lover at least once a week.

Optional Goals:

Live by the beach or beach inspired world

Collect everything from the summer festival

Master the Athletic Skill and Charisma Skill

Have a Honeymoon in Favorite Vacation world with your lover.

Have a total of 15 friends before you die.

Generation 6: Uptown Funk by Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars.

“Stylin', whilen, livin' it up in the city Got Chucks on with Saint Laurent Got kiss myself, I'm so pretty”

Everywhere you go, all eyes fall on you. You have a natural aura that screams, “You own the place” or “Look at me”. And the best part is you know it. Not to toot your horn or sound arrogant, but you know the truth-people want to be like you or be with you, you're the model sim after all. And if they don’t like you, you couldn't care less about irrelevant sims. You're not ashamed to live the high life because at the end of the day, you're the best and above everyone else. Traits: Irresistible, Star-quality, Snob, Dramatic, Mean spirited or Evil

Goals:

Have a strained relationship with all your siblings: They were always jealous they couldn’t be on your level.

Be best friends with parents. You were always their favorite child anyway.

Be a trend setter. Work in a career that you're the face of the company or runs the place. / Make money through owning properties or resorts and name them after yourself.

Live in a luxurious home or apartment.

Become a 5-star celebrity. Everyone has to know your name, one way or another.

Own 2 cars worth over $30,000 dollars. You have to show off your wealth around town.

Only date celebrities 3 stars or higher… You can’t be seen with just anybody, with paparazzi lurking.

Have a secret love child behind your lover’s back.

Be Hardly around for your kids. You don’t have time to raise them when you need to keep up appearances and make others love you.

Optional Goals:

Not everyone can handle your arrogance and natural aura - Have 5 “Haters”/Enemies.

Why leave your influence for just now? You're so great that you need to leave your impression in the future as well. Travel into the future and make a Utopia or befriend 3 sims.

People can’t seem to resist you, and you can’t blame them. Have 3 affairs throughout your life and never get caught.

Live in a city world (Or world with city life) and go to the hottest clubs in town every Saturday.

You're a Trendsetter. And you need to spread your influence as much as possible. Master the Charisma and Social Networking skills.

Generation 7: Starboy by the Weeknd ft Daft Punk

“ You talking money, need a hearing aid. You talking 'bout me, I don't see the shade. Switch up my style, I take any lane. I switch up my cup, I kill any pain.”

Your whole life has been filled with stardom, whether you like it or not. You come from a family with an impactful legacy of being influential or in the spotlight. Your parents themselves were high class, wealthy celebrities, leaving you and your siblings to inherit their spotlight while growing up. But growing up in the spotlight wasn’t as glamorous as your parents made it look. Stardom is filled with people praying for your downfall, fake friends, infidelities, no privacy and greed. It’s enough to make any person turn bitter and spiteful. You tried your hardest to reject it, but inevitably you learned to accept your celebrity status. But that doesn’t mean you won’t work hard to expose it, either. You are the Mf**ing Star-sim, anyway. Traits: Grumpy, Ambitious, Hot-Headed, No sense of Humor and Loner or Socially Awkward.

Goals:

Have a negative relationship with both your parents. They weren’t as great as they made the media believe.

As a child, don’t make any friends outside siblings or pets. You don't need fake friends, they only disappoint you.

Spend most of your time as a teenager away from home, either working or in after school activities.

Reach the top level of the Journalism career. Hollywood isn't gonna be exposed by itself.

Try to ruin your reputation twice but fail. People are so shallow and forgive too easily for some reason.

Always maintain a minimum of 2 celebrity stars. It's difficult to erase your family's influence.

Only get into a relationship when reached level 4 of your career. You're not really a people person, but finding love won't hurt?

Have only twins close to end of YA/ Once reached Adult life stage.

Optional Goals:

Expose your parents. Write a best-selling book about your parents' secrets and affairs.

It's difficult to find genuine people in the spotlight who aren't about clout or money. Marry a poor sim with the Good and Loner traits.

Reach level 5 in photography skills and level 6 of Social networking skills.

Have a secret celebrity expose blog that reaches 3 stars.

Generation 8: Shape Of You by Ed Sheeran

This Generation has 2 storylines to pick from

Storyline 1: "I'm in love with the shape of you. We push and pull like a magnet do. Although my heart is falling too. I'm in love with your body."

Growing in a small and tight-knit household, Your parents always allowed you and your siblings to pursue your interests. And from a young age, you wanted to be the very best, just like your grandparents. You had a competitive drive and always stayed motivated. You never understood how other’s could be so content with the bare minimum, like your twin. Furthermore, you two were complete opposites, but you didn’t let your twin hold you back. You strived for greatness and made a few rivals along the way. But it didn’t matter, as you weren’t letting anyone hold you back. Traits: Discipline, Athletic, Daredevil, Adventurous, Loves the Outdoors.

Goals:

Become better than your twin. Become an A student first, Join clubs first, make friends first…

Reach level 4 in Athletic skill before becoming a YA.

Make 3 rivals/enemies as a child and teen. You can’t help it if other people are sore losers.

Go to university with your Twin, and pursue a degree in Physical Education.

Meet future spouse at a college party, who's also pursuing Physical education and have a negative relationship with one another and start a rivalry with them.

Spend time at University trying to be better than your future lover.

Before graduating, you realized you and your rival aren’t that different. Retire the petty rivalry and hookup with them.

After graduating, your former rival and you become a power couple. Join the same career (Athletic, Military, Law enforcement, firefighter) and dominate the ranks together.

Optional Goals:

Get into a fight with your university rival once a week. Rivals to Lovers style.

Get max influence in Jock social group.

Try to get a perfect GPA in University and continue to outdo your twin.

Travel to China and learn the Martial arts. Master the Martial arts and Athletic skill.

Greatness only produces greatness after all. All of your children achieve Honor roll in their child and teen years.

Storyline 2: "Girl, you know I want your love. Your love was handmade for somebody like me. Well, come on now, follow my lead. I may be crazy, don't mind me."

Growing up, you always admired your parents' bravery and talent in journalism and writing. While your twin was constantly trying to be the best, you were the daydreamer. Preferring to stay inside reading books and daydreaming, about finding your soulmate. You didn’t care too much about school nor making as many friends possible, as you were too busy in your imagination painting your ideal life or dating a supernatural. While your twin was too busy being competitive and trying to be on top, you like taking life one day at a time. Why be like your twin a rush everything, when you can go with the flow and have things come to you? Traits: Clumsy, Artistic, Bookworm, Shy, Hopeless Romantic or Supernatural Fan.

Goals:

Have your best friend be your imaginary friend growing up. They were always more likeable than your twin anyway.

Join the book club as a child. Reading eventually inspired you to write your first novel as a teenager.

Reach level 4 of the writing skill before becoming YA. Master the Painting and Writing skills.

Go to university with your Twin, and pursue a degree in Communications.

Fall in love with a student in Rebel social group /Supernatural sim. Something about this sim seems to help you get out of your comfort zone and shell, and eventually becomes your soulmate you always dream of.

Spend the rest of University pinning after the sim and writing small novels based around them in spare time. Before graduating, finally confess your attraction.

After University, join a career similar to your parent in journalism or becoming a self-employed writer or become a film director.

Write only Romantic, Fantasy, and Drama novels based on your Romance with your lover.

Optional Goal:

Name your all your children after your favorite book characters.

Learn and master the Alchemy skill to impress your supernatural lover.

Have a dark academia inspired wedding and home with your Spouse.

Turn your imaginary friend doll into a real-sim.

Reach the max influence of the Nerd Social group.

Generation 9: God's Plan by Drake

"God's plan, God's plan. I hold back, sometimes I won't, yeah. I feel good, sometimes I don't (Ayy, don't)."

Despite having a great upbringing and supportive parents, growing up you always felt like the underdog compared to everyone else. You tried your hardest, and sometimes things failed to go your way. Kids used to bully you in elementary school, in high school you were rejected and left out. But if you learned a thing or two from your family, it’s to never give up. Your parent’s always did say you would reach your potential later in life. Traits: Unlucky, Loser, Overemotional, Eccentric, Commitment issues.

Goals:

Have no friends as child sim, with exception to siblings.

Switch part-time jobs and after school activities frequently. You can never find your true niche.

Have 3 failed relationships as teenager. Everyone seems to never want to give you a chance.

Change something about your appearance every week. (Ex: haircut/color, outfit, etc.). Maybe fitting in will help with being an outcast?

As a YA, move to an entirely new town or go to University. Maybe a fresh start is what you need?

Reach level 3 in logic skill and Level 4 in Athletic skill. This leads you to have a spiritual awaking and tap into your true potential. Change 3 traits to: Lucky and Charismatic and Irresistible.

Reach level 5 in 4 different careers.

Only befriend sims with compatible zodiac signs to yourself.

After your glow up, sims began to treat you differently but you never forgot your past. Become a heartbreaker and break 5 sims hearts.

Adopt or have a max of 2 kids.

Optional Goals:

Turn into a supernatural sim.

Master Inventing skill and invent 3 sim bots. You weren’t perfect but you can aim to make perfection overnight.

Being a heartbreaker is fun. Break a total of 10 hearts or ruin 3 sim relationships.

Never have less that $20k in your household funds.

Generation 10: Old Town Road by Lil Nas X

"Yeah, I'm gonna take my horse to the old town road. I'm gonna ride 'til I can't no more."

Your whole family legacy has been filled with highs and lows. Everyone wanting to make a name for themselves, but getting caught up in greed or power and even lust. But you always enjoyed the quiet and simplicity of life. Who cares about being famous or flashy luxury items? You won’t knock your family accomplishments, and you admire their hardships. But your enjoyment in life came from the purest form of being connected to the land and nature. After all, the most fulfillment in life comes from being connected to your roots right? It’s about high time you leave the city life behind… Traits: Animal lover, Equestrian, Eco-Friendly, Loves the Outdoors, Green Thumb or Technophobe(Extra challenge)

Goals:

Join the scouts as a kid and start a mini collection of bugs, fish, rocks etc…

Your siblings always asked for cars or the newest laptop, but you wanted an animal companion. Have parents adopt a horse for teenage birthday.

Move to the countryside or country inspired world as YA, away from family. You love them to bits, but you need a breath of fresh air.

Make a living by being a Farmer, Equestrian, Angler, or Gather. Complete related aspiration as well.

Always have a Horse and a cat/dog in the household. You just love yourself some furry friends.

Marry a fellow Animal lover and Green-thumb sim. Birds of a same feather do flock together.

Compete in the Horse races at least once a week.

Master the Horse Riding Skill.

Have 5 children. You always wanted a big family filled with happy children and animal companions.

Optional Goals:

Master Fishing and Gardening Skill.

Have all pets master pet related skills before death.

Live off the grid. Don’t have any electronic-based entertainment objects in your home. Rots the brain.

Name your kid’s nature-related names.

Embrace the traditional lifestyle. Grow all your produce for meals on your farm (With exception to meats/Winter time)

Build your own ranch or cottage from the ground up.

[talesfromthebacklog]

Adding to The Backlog: Christmas Sale Pickups.

This is the time of year I pick up the most titles (which I then work on for the rest of the year.). And why not? Everything is on sale! I actually budget for this time of year.

It’s “Tales From The Backlog” not “We buy nothing until I finish the backlog”. The backlog will never be finished.

So let’s go over what I got! Links for everything will provided. As I find people are more likely to engage if the work was already done for them. Me included. This is not necessarily a suggestion list. If you want to see if any of these games are actually any good follow my blog. But I do think it’s interesting to show people what kind of gamer you are, the games you’re attracted to, their difficulty level.

A gamer’s library says a lot about a gamer, in my opinion.

For Playstation 5:

Goodbye Volcano High:

TLDR: I put this one first because if you don’t see any of the other games on my pickup list, I AT LEAST want you to consider this one. This was the only Playstation title I picked up on sale (It is also on Steam). This is pre(historic)-apocalyptic coming of age visual novel with killer animation and music. I’m surprised I don’t see folks talk about this one more. It’s maybe the most stunning looking visual novel to come out this year. (At least at a glance)

Which is a hefty claim considering titles like Jack Jeanne and Virche Evermore: Error Salvation dropped this year. I can’t WAIT to play this one.

For Nintendo Switch:

Roots of Pacha:

I came back around to this one. It looks like Stardew Valley but with cavemen. You don’t see cavemen touched on a lot anymore so it seems different and interesting.

Wylde Flowers:

This is one see that keeps popping up in conversations and videos as a great cozy game. It’s supposed to be really good. I’m honest enough to admit that it being on the Apple app store as well as Switch makes me REALLY skeptical. But I’ve seen enough gameplay where I’m willing to take a chance.

Coromon:

I enjoy Pokemon-like titles. I don’t think we get enough of them. I love Pokemon. And you’ll be seeing my update on how I feel about Scarlet/Violet’s last piece of DLC the Indigo Disc here pretty soon.

However Pokemon is so domineering on the market that a lot of these smaller collector games get unnoticed. This seems to be a very unapologetic Pokemon-clone much like Monster Crown. Which is fine by me.

Nexomon + Nexomon: Extinction bundle:

Another very obvious Pokemon clone. But it’s obviously prettier than its Coromon counterpart. (Kinda wish the names were more unique.) I have nothing new to say here.

Monster Sanctuary:

Pokemon… but it’s a Metroidvania. $3.99. I swear the theme wasn’t intentional they just all popped up on sale at decent prices.

2021 Moon Escape:

This is from the same people who did Traumatarium. I did a review on that one a few months back. It’s on sale for $2.49. And this ISN’T my cheapest pickup for this year. The gameplay reminds me of Zelda or Star Tropics. But I don’t know much about it other than what the trailer already shows us. But also it was $2.49. It’s okay with me if it’s just okay. Not all games have to be 10/10.

Mythic Ocean:

I have a soft spot for ocean games. Even the more spooky ones like Subnautica or Dredge still have this serene element to them. Mythic Ocean is no different. You apparently help a pantheon of gods find themselves. Which in turn those choices shape the world around you. Sounds simple, short, and cute. It looked a bit explorable too? We’ll see. I’m unsure about that part. It’s on sale for $1.99. And this was my cheapest pickup this season.

For Steam:

Sonic Forces: Overclocked (Steam version REQUIRED for this)

I have, in no uncertain terms. Have played this game. I 100%ed it even. I like the game. Played better but I still like it.

HOWEVER. I haven’t played Sonic Forces Overclocked. Which requires the PC version of Sonic Forces!

This is a FAN MADE incredible mod that blows the original game out of the water apparently. This is, perhaps, my most high priority game purchase of the YEAR. And it’s only $10 to buy Forces right now. This is literally a no brainer.

Slay The Princess:

I felt like videos on this one sprung up seemingly overnight on Youtube. I watched someone play the demo and it was an awesome looking game. A horror visual novel about saving a princess is a neat little premise. This one was barely on sale, but I see myself playing this one soon because of the hype. The full voice acting is great.

Magical Diary: Wolf Hall

The original visual novel Magical Diary: Horse Hall was a game a friend showed me back in high school. Pretty innocent and cute. When this dropped in 2020 I was surprised the game got a sequel at all. The thing I remember most about Horse Hall was that there was a route where you could date Professor Snape. That wasn’t his name but… it might as well have been.

[jajanvm-imbi]

Babe wake up the Helluva Boss hiatus is finally over

Okay I have some thoughts. Was it perfect? No. Was it better than the last 3 episodes? Absolutely 100%

And before anyone comes at me, I like the Blitz and Fizz plotline, I really do. Blitz and Fizz might be my fave dynamic in the whole series, so seeing them interact was fun! But the fact that we got the worst episode in the entire series (Happy Campers) followed by 2 more episodes that were almost completely irrelevant to the main 2 plotlines (Oops and Mid-season Special) A N D the hiatus BEFORE literally anything about 2 sets of alluded reoccurring villains is baffling to me.

Anyway, my main issue with the latest episode is the split focus.

This episode featured both the return of alluded reoccurring villains The Cherubs and D.H.O.R.K.S, and Stolas finally freeing Blitz of their transactional relationship. Both developments are really good, the return of the Cherubs and the agents was long overdue, but I'm glad to see them back. HOWEVER, both of these super important developments had to share an episode, which I think is the problem.

Both of these events were waaaaaaaaaaay too important to share the focus of a single 20 minute episode, and because they had to share, it minimizes the impact of both developments.

Or in the HB fandom's case, everyone is gonna focus on the Stolitz shippy stuff and all but completely ignore the other half of the episode.

Both the first return of these alluded villains and the Stolitz stuff should have gotten their own solo episode to really highlight the importance of each event.

What makes this even more frustrating is that, like I said before, we just came back from a hiatus and the three episodes before that were almost completely irrelevant to the 2 main plot lines. The only actually important thing that happened was Stolas getting Blitz the crystal, and that was the B-plot to S2 ep6 and not the main plot??? Almost nothing important happened in the last 3 episodes before the hiatus and then when the 2 most important plot lines finally get the spotlight again they have to share an episode.

"Look My Way" wasn't even in an episode????? It was a separate music video????? Which is completely bizarre?????

I have nothing but respect for the Hellverse creative teams, truly. I admire their persistence and their individuality. I respect how they are so unapologetically themselves, making the content they like and nothing else. I adore the artistic identity of Helluva Boss (not so much Hazbin but that's in my review of the first 4 eps of the series if you're interested in reading my thoughts about that). The art style and the animation style are incredible, looking x100 better than most animated shows done by bigger studios recently. Their success is something to be admired for sure, leading the pack for indie studios everywhere to find their own success. But one thing I cannot wrap my head around are the writing decisions for this show.

If they really have such limited time and resources, why are they wasting time on irrelevant bullshit????? Or at least, why are they so adamant on doing everything all at once??? Why does the D.H.O.R.K.S + the Cherubs plotline need to happen at the same time as the Stolitz plotline as the same time as the Striker + Crimson plotline at the same time as the "Blitz estranged relationships" plotline as the same time as "Stolas' family drama" plotline????? It's the same exact issue with Hazbin Hotel except worse because Helluva has more episodes than Hazbin. Vivziepop and her crew didn't know if they were getting a second season of Hazbin until halfway through production of S1, which can excuse a good portion of writing sins (no pun intended) committed in Hazbin. HELLUVA BOSS HAS 4 PLANNED SEASONS. They have the time to pace these plotlines better. There is literally NO REASON why they had to cram every single plotline into every single season. By dividing the attention between all the different plotlines, none of the plotlines get enough meaningful attention. There are so many episodes between each plotline development and so much time between each episode, that everything gets muddled and nothing is impactful in the slightest. And on top of everything, some of these episode slots are wasted on completely irrelevant nonsense. Happy Campers was such a waste of time, and Barbie Wire's introduction was completely wasted on it. It was promoted as the "Millie episode" but it was actually another Moxxie episode caused by random Millie angst. The Mid-season Special wasn't even about the main cast or Stolas????? Blitz was only there to justify the episode existing because without him the episode would have no real reason to exist???? Most of s2 has been completely irrelevant with no real plot progression.

So much time was wasted on stuff the ultimately doesn't mean anything, or won't mean anything for a long time and as a result, two of the more important plotlines get shoved in an episode together. So the stuff that doesn't matter get full episodes and the stuff that does matter have to share episodes.

Or in the case of "Look My Way", IT DOESN'T EVEN GET AN EPISODE AND IT HAS TO BE A MUSIC VIDEO OUTSIDE OF THE ACTUAL SERIES?????????

Each of these plotlines should have gotten their own season, or at least the similar ones can share.

S1 should have just been about the main cast (IMP) and maybe Stolas. Maybe introducing some of the main villains like the Cherubs and D.H.O.R.K.S (kind of like how they actually did it but without eps 2, 5, 7 and especially 8. So really only like half the season lmfao)

Then S2 could have been about Blitz's past relationships, Moxxie and Millie's relationship and Stolas' family drama.

S3 could have been about Stolitz and Blitz repairing his other relationships

and S4 could have been the epic return of The Cherubs and D.H.O.R.K.S, with some foreshadowing sprinkled throughout the rest of the series

......or something

Idk but the point is that by trying to do everything all at once, none of the attempted plotlines are impactful and the series as a whole suffers for it.

I still find HB entertaining, but damn is it frustrating to watch.

Anyway that's all I had to say

[goodheartt]

𝐁𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐓𝐔𝐁 𝐂𝐈𝐆𝐀𝐑𝐄𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐒 - 𝐌𝐄𝐄𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐀𝐍𝐃

skunk has a band with his friends from high school named bathtub cigarettes. their vibe ?? angry midwest emo meets folk punk. we already know skunk is the drummer, so you might as well get familiar with the rest of the band !!

earl - lead vocals.

earl is twenty-two years old, non-binary trans-masc, uses they/them/theirs pronouns, and is loudly and proudly queer. when they aren't singing for the band, they are working as a bartender for a small dive bar right down the street from the bathtub cigarettes house. they rock a buzz cut that is dyed in a red and black checkerboard pattern. their favorite things ?? grape flavored candies, modello, roller skating, and black and milds ( specifically wood tip wine flavored ones ). earl can seem stand offish at first due to their protectiveness of their friends. to earl, the band is their family. once you get to know them, they will begin to open up, and show you how much of a goofball they can really be. earl met skunk for the first time in high school, specifically during their freshman year math class. they've been inseparable since.

mikey - guitar.

mikey is twenty-one years old, a cis-man that uses he/him/his pronouns, and is so unapologetically queer. when he's not rocking out on the guitar, you can find him making lattes at a coffee shop downtown. his hair is long and dyed black, the strands that frame his face have been dyed bright purple. his favorite things ?? malboro 100's, bush apple, fireball, cats, and skateboarding. mikey is incredibly scatter brained, bubbly, and goofy. he can be really unreliable at times and has been banned from making any group plans for the band ( due to him often forgetting he made the plans in the first place ). mikey met earl his junior year of high school and they have been best friends ( and partners ) ever since. earl keeps mikey on track, trying to steer their partner in the right direction. the two have been dating for five years now. mikey is always late to band practice even though he lives in the house that they practice in.

karp - bass.

karp is twenty-two years old, a trans-woman, and uses she/her/hers pronouns. karp is a lesbian and will not be afraid to tell you that, often making jokes about her shortly trimmed fingernails. when she's not playing bass for the band, she works as an apprentice at a local tattoo shop. yes, she is responsible for most of the bands tattoos. her hair is styled into a shaggy and choppy mullet that has been dyed lime green. her favorite things ?? menthol cigarettes, steel reserves, pop punk, roller skating, and animals. karp is incredibly kind an thoughtful, she would give her shirt off her back if she needed to. she met skunk in high school, specifically in concert band. she played percussion with skunk, and they hit it off right away. karp is the creator of the name 'bathtub cigarettes', drawing inspiration from late nights in her childhood trailer home, smoking cigarettes that they had stolen from their father with skunk in the bathtub.

martin - banjo/backup vocals.

martin is twenty three years old, non-binary trans-femme, and uses they/she/he pronouns. martin is bisexual with no preferences. his hair is styled into a mohawk that is dyed navy blue. when they aren't performing with the band, they work as a freelance artist, spending most of their time spray painting the sides of buildings with skunk. their favorite things ?? malboro reds shorts, montucky cold snacks, 80's grunge/punk music, and roller derby. martin has a very warm and caring heart, she is almost like a parental figure to the band. she loves to crack jokes and make others laugh. martin met karp in an after school board game club and was quickly introduced to the rest of the group. everyone quickly took them under their wing, seeing how perfectly they fit with everyone else.

[stars-tonight]

HIIIII

It has been a while since I’ve asked for a matchup and Im so excited to find someone still doing them! So I’d love to ask for one if that is okay! 

1- Could it be the long one with the headcanons? Thanks!

2-Romantic please!

3- Any character is fine! Surprise me!

4- I go by she/her and I would preferably like to be matched with a boy BUT if you see I’d be better with one of the girls then go ahead! 

5- My ideal partner is someone I can be myself with, someone that can match my energy or at least enjoy having it around. Someone that can be my partner but also my best friend. It would need to be someone that understands that we can have our alone time, BUT without being cold or uncaring! I like smart people, not necessarily book-smart, but someone I can have slightly deeper conversations with, even if it is about our likes or something silly, as long as it is not only superficial. 

6- Im an introvert that acts extroverted around the people they love, I can be silly/goofy, but definitely get more serious if the situation requires it. I am very passionate and emotional, I am working on my emotional intelligence but I feel everything a little too strongly, and have generalized anxiety. I am a hopeless romantic, and while my day-to-day life is very busy I can be very clingy. I'm a big nerd, regarding my academic life and my likes, I am naturally curious and it is not a personality trait but I am a STEM girl, so I am a science nerd BUT I am also an artistic nerd. Another thing is that I used to be a kind of doormat but I have grown to be myself unapologetically, not caring much about what people think of me, so, while I always try to be kind and polite I will, under no circumstances, let anyone make fun of or be rude to me or my friends.

6- I ice skate, read, play videogames and draw; I am not the best but I highly enjoy it! I also love musical theater but have only been in 1 or 2 productions, I do love to watch it tho. 

7- Give: Quality time and acts of service. Receive: Quality time and physical affection

8- My ideal date is a picnic followed by going to a museum/zoo/aquarium! 

9- I am Mexican! I am an INFP and an aries that leans to pisces! AND I have a cat that is my baby, BUT I do like all animals. 

Thank you so much for your time! 

🐝 anon!

headcanons

🥛 hinata definitely brings a lot of energy to the table

🥛 ultimate golden retriever boyfriend

🥛 definitely would be your best friend

🥛 in fact, he'd find it weird that there are some people who aren't best friends with their partners, like the roles are just synonymous to him

🥛 while hinata would definitely be super clingy and a loving partner, i feel like he'd understand you want to do your own thing sometimes too

🥛 he understands you have your own dreams and wholeheartedly supports you, just like he'd hope you can support his dreams

🥛 such as when he goes off to brazil after graduation

🥛 okay hinata is definitely street smart, NOT book smart ☠️

🥛 he at least has a sort of adorable charm that makes people like him anyway

🥛 hinata's also really passionate! i think he'd appreciate a partner with big dreams and who works toward their goals

🥛 and ofc he'd be right by their side for whatever they may need

🥛 he is also definitely a cheesy romantic, and 100% very clingy

🥛 so when you're together he'd definitely be clinging onto you like a koala

🥛 and he'd definitely want to spend a lot of time with his partner, whether it's in silence doing your own thing together or on a high energy date

🥛 if you have to end up doing long distance when he goes to brazil, he'd definitely text you good morning / good night every day and facetime whenever possible

🥛 will proudly show off all the new things he learned that day and will always always ask you how your day was

🥛 have you heard his inner monologues??? honestly he doesn't seem like the type of person to have these deep thoughts ('the lights are on but nobody's home' aah type of guy) but he secretly has lowkey philosophical conversations in his head

🥛 hinata definitely does not know how to ice skate

🥛 he just doesn't seem coordinated enough to stay balanced on those thin blades lol

🥛 but he'd be so entranced by musicals and would definitely beg you to take him to see one

🥛 ohh and hinata on a picnic date would be so cute!

runner up for you was yamaguchi tadashi!

A/N: oh my goodness hello my lovely 🐝anon! i'm so sorry for the long wait but i hope it was worth it for you 🫶

[astrologista]

Just saw Wish. I know it's getting hate, but... overall... I thought it was very... meh? Like literally meh.

(whinging)

The protag was likable, though a bit derivative in her motivations. The message was... ok, I suppose. The animation was fairly good in most places.

It does definitely have quite a few big issues, exacerbated by what it's trying so hard to be. All the pieces are there for a great movie, which is what's so frustrating about it.

For me, I felt that the textures and lighting in particular had some kind of issue. They look okay in some places, but the whole thing looked like it was un-rendered on purpose. Like it looked like the behind-the-scenes draft version before they do the final render on it. This was probably to give off a sense of "storybook" quality to the 3d models by rendering them all flat and matte but tbh it looks rather cheap for Disney. All the colors in the movie seem to also be quite muted. The color palette they chose is very cool and understated which made me want to take a nap. And since much of the movie takes place at night, that exacerbates matters a lot. There's also very little variation in setting, colors, or lighting, which makes things boring.

The songs are the biggest problem imo. I can't remember any of the songs at all, they're very forgettable to me. I'm sure there are kids who liked them and I'm not aiming to undercut that, but the fact of the matter is that these songs can't hold a candle to classic Disney songs. Classic Disney songs have a showtune quality. The melodies will stay in your mind for decades after hearing them once. The lyrics are perfectly suited to the characters and story. You want to sing along with them. And... these songs ain't that, sorry. It made sense when I learned that these songs were composed by musicians whose main background was writing Top 40 hits, not Broadway musicals. It sounds like the assignment was to try to be Lin Manuel-Miranda without paying for Lin Manuel-Miranda. They failed spectacularly at that. If there was one movie to get Lin Manuel-Miranda for, it would be this one. Had they done that and had a few absolute banger songs in this, it would have made a HUGE difference in this film's staying power.

As it is, I can't remember much about the music, so it's hard to comment on it. It wasn't offensively bad, just a very generic sound to it that didn't feel Disney-movie-esque (or at least, not major animated feature from Disney-esque. Certainly not 100-year anniversary material). The worst song is This Is The Thanks I Get because it had so much potential and they threw it away. The animation and staging during the song is great, it's actually the highlight of the film for me. They were clearly aiming for this to be the "Let it Go" of the movie, a huge hit that people talk about for a long time. And it's been a very long time since there's been a straight-up unapologetic villain song in a Disney movie, so I was excited for this one. Here's the problem. THE SONG IS NOT IN A MINOR KEY! Why? No, seriously, what were they thinking?? It has all the hallmarks of a big, grandiose megalomaniacal villain song AND IT'S NOT IN A MINOR KEY! The tone of the song is clearly meant to evoke fear as evidenced by the animation and clearly the storyboard artist was aiming for a big, frightening number. The song doesn't match that at all. Instead it's kinda happy? Playful? Like a Top 40 hit that your mom might play in the car? What the fuck? The lost potential is so sad because Maginifico could've been a great and funny villain. He's got the narcissism, comedic qualities, cartoonish mustache twirling and hot DILF-ness to carry the villain role. For some reason though, the big cartoon-y bad guy stuff feels a bit... restrained by the fact that he's trapped in a 3D model. Like the over-the-top maniacal 2D slasher faces that they keep trying so hard to give him just don't translate to 3D very well. He would've looked so much fucking better in 2D, I'm sorry. His voice work is done quite well, though - actually all the voice work in the movie is. (The goat was not that bad honestly)

Apparently one of the concept arts has Magnifico's wife (does she have a name) being evil as well. What the fuck, Disney, where was that?? They could've been an evil power couple, that would've ATE. They also whitewashed her, which... ok, interesting choice. It seems they were also going to have Star take the form of a boy and have a romantic arc with Asha which I'm glad they did NOT do, adding romance to a film like this probably would've served to make it even more generic.

As a movie for little tiny children I think this film is okay. For the Disney fans this was supposed to be a love letter to, let's all go watch Aladdin, Mulan, Lion King (THE ORIGINAL), Beauty and the Beast, and all the other films that weren't created in a boardroom lab. Wish has a generic look, a generic sound, a generic message, and as much as I support those who enjoyed it, I can't help but commiserate with the fans who are disappointed in the less-than-stellar Disney flicks of the past few years. It's like they are allergic to taking risks, hiring creatives and letting them work, or keeping greedy corporate hands out of their projects. Hopefully their revenues keep tanking until they get the message but it looks like Iger is still drinking pure copium based on his recent comments that "audiences don't want films with a message anymore". OK. Yeah, that's what you should take from this, Iger. Have fun continuing to censor your films, gotta get those bucks from the Russian and Chinese markets, pal.

[cynical-crypt]

~introduction~

 ~ hi! i’m jay :D ~ i love 2001-2008 fall out boy, homestuck, fnaf, eddsworld, supernatural, world of warcraft, mlp, OFF, khonjin house, and an array of other things! ~ i’m an artist, animator, writer, and musician. ~ i’m a leo (august 2nd) ~ i’m a music theory buff + i can tell you aaaaaaall about fall out boy... i know everything there is to know about FOB from 2001-2008 (pre-eowyg and pre-hiatus) :D ~ i love to write fantasy and sci-fi stories, i may post some here... ~~~ ~~~ ~ i’m com/proship and absolutely com/proship safe! i love you :) ~ if you’re anti-ship, simply block me and move on. any attempt at confrontation or any kind of harassment will land you on my blocklist and you will be reported to anybody who has a public blocklist. live and let live, ship and let ship, i do not care for what you have to say. respect my DNI and i’ll respect yours. ~ that being said, if you are aware of who i am (aka via irl or the handle i’m most known for online,) and you are anti-ship, please block me on everything. i will not change for you. i don’t care what you think of me if you discover this blog, i made it to be myself 100% unapologetically, and what you think is subjectively ‘bad’ isn’t my problem. get over yourself. ~ being proship does not mean i condone any harmful kinds of relationships in the real world. i don’t. ~~~ ~~~ before you follow me, know that i tend to go on long-winded tangents and spam-reblog (i will also post my own content.) i may also ghost this account for some time and then suddenly reappear and start spamming and then repeat. don’t expect consistency! thank you! :D

[babylulururu]

So I found a video of some known Tears of Themis JP VAs singing some songs for other projects. It's a common thing for seiyuus to do.

I decided since I know nothing about the JP dub of Tears of Themis I would give a vibe of some songs they have sung with a video I found here because it's late and I should be writing fanfic, but it's Tears of Themis's anniversary today (depending on the server and timezone) so I should do something for it.

Artem

I'm gonna be honest here, out of all the JP VAs of the main cast, I know his the least simply cause I don't really consume a lot of content with him in it. I know I'm doing my boy dirty, but he's just appeared as like a side character in Re Zero and this blue-haired dude in SAO and that was about it.

So when I find him singing basically happy pop idoly songs when I'm used to his CN VA singing softer stuff, my mind just kind of broke. Just imagined Artem on stage singing his little fucking heart out and possibly being forced to wear a pink frilly ass outfit to go along with it.

Wasn't really expecting that at all to be honest.

THEN I FIND OUT HE'S A DISNEY PRINCE HELLO???

He sang in Tangled. Now I'm obligated to draw Tangled ArtemRosa AU. I will make it happen. Of course this man would be a fucking disney prince. Because he can.

So overall vibes: disney princess and he can be an idol. best of both fucking worlds.

Luke

So I know his JP VA more than Artem's. By that I mean he did Pheniox Wright, was in the worst season of Pokemon, voiced a side character in Your Lie in April, and of course, even though I haven't watched it I must give him credit for Eren Yeagar.

Then I find out he did a song for Honeyworks so technically, he's touched the same universe as Fansa now and officially covered a GUMI song. Fun. His songs are more on the pop rock side, which is pretty cool. He still continues to fit the Rosa Miku phase headcanon I have.

Oh and I'm not 100% if it's a part of Disney Koe no ojisama but he did do a cover of Part of Your World. Pretty sick. LukeRosa shippers have fun with that.

Overall, kinda what I expected. Sunshine boy sings sunshine songs. Marius

First of all, before we begin I just want to let you know that he did sing Mickey Mouse March with a bunch of other VAs (including Diluc's and Zhongli's, off the top of my head), so that's a thing. Thank you Disney Koe no ojisama!

So given my background knowledge of his role as an absolute jerk in So I'm a Spider and the insanity known as Dimitri Fire Emblem, outside of...Mickey Mouse March, I was kinda curious about what other stuff he did.

Dude sounds like he just does anisong. Like all these songs outside of the one from the fucking Junglebook sound like anime openings. Are they? I don't know off the top of my head but this dude could make a living as an anisinger. Marius von Hagen, CEO of Pax and also sang the opening to My Hero Academia because he can.

That's my vibe and I'm unapologetic about it.

Vyn

Hi Vyn you're Joker Persona 5 and that's all it took to get my friend into the Tears of Themis rabbit hole.

Yeah, he kinda sang what I expected. Slower songs. Until we got to fucking Bibbity Boppity Boo and I know that shit is from the fucking Disney Koe no ojisama and I will mentally scar you with the image of Vyn singing this song with the most circus-like music because I can.

Overall traditional ikemen outside of bibbity boppity boo shit. You're very welcome my friends. But wait, there's more!

Kiki

My girl Kiki shares her voice actress with Rinko from Bandori. Or she did. She doesn't anymore, but I knew her voice from somewhere. I'm sorry she just sings Ringing Bloom better. Don't @ me.

But yeah rock girl vibes. Plays the keyboard. 10/10. Vibes I get from Kiki. Thank you Roselia.

Darius

Basically anisong as well. He can do rock and slow stuff, basically anisong.

Darius will be singing the opening of some fucking shojou anime. Those are my vibes.

OKAY SORRY FOR MAKING YOU READ THIS! I will take my leave now.

[snowsheba]

oh my god finished aveyond 3-2: gates of night. thoughts below cut

characters

mel i think it's very funny to kill a frog and then fish 71 moneys out of it. mel got paid 100 for the original job for gyendal and was like omg that's so much!!! now she kills a monster and makes 5k+ out of it. have you considered a different line of work queen

i liked that she had more lines this time. i do not like that most of them were arguing with lydia. however, i do like that most of her responses to lydia are either ignoring her or rebuking her when she's doing her classist thing.

stella again: stella is perfect. however, this game struggles with foreshadowing and i laughed really hard after seeing the introductory animation. her sad little see-saw as she fell........

i know this is a failing on the writers more than her but i do think it's rather telling that she compliments female characters on their appearance and male characters on their personality (exception of te'ijal, who is so Gender that i don't include her honestly).

edward man, fuck this guy. i mean not really. he's like. he's ok. he's a 5 out of 10. exceedingly average. astoundingly decent. wildly fine.

i am trying VERY hard to like him but so far he's either been the mouthpiece for the exposition or an explanation, which gets boring fast. his personality extends to "dislikes status quo but not enough to change it," which tracks for a prince. wish he was less boring. also wish he was less "let me tell you what to do and how to do it" even if he's right. (especially if he's right.)

te'ijal SHE BECOMES MORTAL? AFTER ALL THE HELP AND INSTRUCTION SHE GAVE? WHAT IS THIS.

te'ijal's entire personality and BEING are based around being a "fuck it we ball" vampire. there's gonna be a lot of angst in 3-3 isn't there.

galahad this man is stupid as all hell. it must feel good to be human again after starving forever, though! i'm happy for him. even if in this game he was mostly following along.

lydia what a BITCH (fond). i know she does some wack shit later on but so far she is hitting all the right buttons for me. i love characters who are just unapologetically assholes, and i was like "yeah that tracks" when i talked to her dad and he parroted back the classist stuff lydia's said before. honestly she might be my fave character so far.

also i get to buy her lots of dresses which is surprisingly fun!! kind of wish i could get stella new clothes.

ulf totally thought this guy was a mage before i played this game!!!! he is not!!!! i also did not use him to fight at all, so he was just tagging along, i guess. doesn't help he has basically 0 lines.

hercules is this where hercules the aveyond character gets his start? when i first encountered him in av4 i was like who's this dude. now i see that he is exactly the same? wild shit bro.

story

compared to 3-1 it's uhhh. it's moving fast scoob. i really thought it'd take longer to get these fucking keys but nope! nope!!!

also the entire orc kingdom is. how do you say. Problematique™? or at least the weirdly broken "translations" was bizarre. why are they saying shit like "i strong you weak" when mel presumably understands orcish. you know what i'm saying.

also i get weird about bulkiness/size/strength being directly related to intelligence. just in general having npcs call the orcs brutes and savages and then characterizing orcs as strong and dumb has troubling connotations for me as an american. also the fact they have slave pens kind of major sucks! but anyway. neither here nor there.

gameplay

literally """rented""" a keep for 10k. why do they say rent instead of purchase? you never pay rent again. also if mel is rolling in it you can bet she'd keep her dinky apartment to plot thievery and also make out with stella.

ok anyway, again, main complaint is lack of guidance. the oil is in the elven castle in a random locked chest? to distract the guard you need a music box, which requires you to have explored chateau whatever-the-fuck or remember there's a toymaker there?? to get the first key you need to find the candy but there's no indication said candy has anything to do with the key at all???

listen. i'm all for environmental storytelling and paying attention. but this is exactly why i think av3 sold so poorly: it is needlessly convoluted. at the VERY least the journal could have more guidance than "find hal." WHO IS HAL. WHERE IS HE. (he's the elf who gets stuck in the waterways.) i don't remember av1 being this confusing and av2 is extremely linear by comparison, so maybe i'm just bitching about nothing, but i am BITCHING NONETHELESS!!!!

oh also i think it's extremely funny that you have two magic users in your party and Only Two. one of them can't even do damage. #LetStellaCommitArson

conclusion

as always, a banger. aveyond has been and always will be my top favorite game series of all fucking time and despite my whining this one is no exception. onward!

[xoruffitup]

Annette: The AD Devotee Review

So I saw Annette on its premiere night in Cannes and I’m still trying to process and make sense of those 2.5 hours of utter insanity. I have no idea where to begin and this is likely going to become an unholy length by the time I’m finished, so I apologize in advance. But BOY I’ve got a lot to parse through!!

Let’s start here: Adam’s made plenty of weird movies. The Dead Don’t Die? The Man Who Killed Don Quixote? There are definitely Terry Gilliam-esque elements of the unapologetically absurd and fantastical in Annette, but NOTHING comes close to this film. To put it bluntly, nothing I write in this post can prepare you for the eccentric phantasmagoria you’re about to sit through.

While the melodies conveying the story – at times lovely and haunting, at times whimsical, occasionally blunt and simple – add a unique sense of the surreal, the fact that it’s all presented in song somehow supplies the medium for this bizarre concoction of disparate elements and outlandish storytelling to all coalesce into a single genre-defying, disbelief-suspending whole. That’s certainly not to say there weren’t a few times when I quietly chortled to myself and mouthed “what the fuck” from behind my mask when things took an exceeding turn to the outrageous. This movie needs to be permitted a bit of leeway in terms of quality judgments, and traditional indicators certainly won’t apply. I would say part of its appeal (and ultimately its success) stems from its lack of interest in appealing to traditional arbiters of film structure and viewing experience. The movie lingers in studies of discomfiture (I’ll return to this theme); it presents all its absurdities with brazen pride rather than temperance; and its end is abrupt and utterly jarring. Yet somehow, at the end of it, I realized I’d been white-knuckling that rollercoaster ride the whole way through and loved every last twist and turn.

A note on the structure of this post before I dive in: I’ve written out a synopsis of the whole film (for those spoiler-hungry people) and stashed it down at the bottom of this post, so no one trying to avoid spoilers has to scroll through. If you want to read, go ahead and skip down to that before reading the discussion/analysis. If I have to reference a specific plot point, I’ll label it “Spoiler #___” and those who don’t mind being spoiled can check the correlating numbers in my synopsis to see which part I’m referencing. Otherwise, my discussion will be spoiler-free! I do detail certain individual scenes, but hid anything that would give away key developments and/or the ending.

To start, I’ll cut to what I’m sure many of you are here for: THE MUSICAL SEX SCENES. You want detailed descriptions? Well let’s fucking go because these scenes have been living in my head rent-free!!

The first (yes, there are two. Idk whether to thank Mr. Carax or suggest he get his sanity checked??) happens towards the end of “We Love Each Other So Much.” Henry carries Ann to the bed with her feet dangling several inches off the floor while she has her arms wrapped around his shoulders. (I maybe whimpered a tiny bit.) As they continue to sing, you first see Ann spread on her back on the bed, panting a little BUT STILL SINGING while Henry’s head is down between her thighs. The camera angle is from above Ann’s head, so you can clearly see down her body and exactly what’s going on. He lifts his head to croon a line, then puts his mouth right back to work. 

And THEN they fuck – still fucking singing! They’re on their sides with Henry behind her, and yes there is visible thrusting. Yes, the thrusting definitely picks up speed and force as the song reaches its crescendo. Yes, it was indeed EXTREMELY sensual once you got over the initial shock of what you’re watching. Ann kept her breasts covered with her own hands while Henry went down on her, but now his hands are covering them and kneading while they’re fucking and just….. It’s a hard, blazing hot R rating. I also remember his giant hand coming up to turn her head so he can kiss her and ladkjfaskfjlskfj. Bring your smelling salts. I don’t recommend sitting between two older ladies while you’re watching – KINDA RUINED THE BLATANT, SMOKING HOT ADAM PORN FOR ME. Good god, choose your viewing buddy wisely!

The second scene comes sort of out of nowhere – I can’t actually recall which song it was during, but it pops up while Ann is pregnant. Henry is again eating her out and there’s not as much overt singing this time, but he has his giant hands splayed over her pregnant belly while he’s going to town and whew, WHEW TURN ON THE AIR CONDITIONING PLEASE. DID THE THEATER INCREASE IN TEMPERATURE BY 10 DEGREES, YOU’RE DAMN RIGHT IT DID.

Whew. I think you’ll be better primed to ~enjoy~ those scenes when you know they’re coming, otherwise it’s just so shocking that by the time you’ve processed “Look at Adam eating pussy with reckless abandon” it’s halfway over already. God speed, my fellow rats, it’s truly something to witness!!

Okay. Right. Ahem. Moving right on along….

I’ll kick off this discussion with the formal structure of the film. It’s honestly impossible to classify. I have the questionable fortune of having been taken to many a strange avant-garde operas and art exhibitions by my parents when I was younger, and the strongest parallel I found to this movie was melodramatic opera stagings full of flamboyant flourishes, austere set pieces, and prolonged numbers where the characters wallow at length in their respective miseries. This movie has all the elevated drama, spectacle, and self-aggrandizement belonging to any self-professed rock opera. Think psychedelic rock opera films a la The Who’s Tommy, Hair, Phantom of the Paradise, and hell, even Rocky Horror. Yes, this film really is THAT weird.

But Annette is also in large part a vibrant, absurdist performance piece. The film is intriguingly book-ended by two scenes where the lines blur between actor and character; and your own role blurs between passive viewer and interactive audience. The first scene has the cast walking through the streets of LA (I think?), singing “So May We Start?” directly to the camera in a self-aware prologue, smashing the fourth wall from the beginning and setting up the audience to play a direct role in the viewing experience. Though the cast then disburse and take up their respective roles, the sense of being directly performed to is reinforced throughout the film. This continues most concretely through Henry’s multiple stand-up comedy performances.

Though he performs to an audience in the film rather than directly to live viewers, these scenes are so lengthy, vulgar, and excessive that his solo performance act becomes an integral part of defining his character and conveying his arc as the film progresses. These scenes start to make the film itself feel like a one-man show. The whole shtick of Henry McHenry’s “Ape of God” show is its perverse irreverence and swaggering machismo. Over the span of what must be a five minute plus scene, Henry hacks up phlegm, pretends to choke himself with his microphone cord, prances across the stage with his bathrobe flapping about, simulates being shot, sprinkles many a misanthropic, charmless monologues in between, and ends by throwing off his robe and mooning the audience before he leaves the stage. (Yes, you see Adam’s ass within the film’s first twenty minutes, and we’re just warming up from there.) His one-man performances demonstrate his egocentrism, penchant for lowbrow and often offensive humor, and the fact that this character has thus far profited from indulging in and acting out his base vulgarities.

While never demonstrating any abundance of good taste, his shows teeter firmly towards the grotesque and unsanctionable as his marriage and mental health deteriorate. This is what I’m referring to when I described the film as a study in discomfiture. As he deteriorates, the later iterations of his stand-up show become utterly unsettling and at times revolting. The film could show mercy and stop at one to two minutes of his more deranged antics, but instead subjects you to a protracted display of just how insane this man might possibly be. In Adam’s hands, these excessive, indulgent performance scenes take on disturbing but intriguing ambiguity, as you again wonder where the performance ends and the real man begins. When Henry confesses to a crime during his show and launces into an elaborate, passionate reenactment on stage, you shift uncomfortably in your seat wondering how much of it might just be true. Wondering just how much of an animal this man truly is.

Watching this film as an Adam fan, these scenes are unparalleled displays of his range and prowess. He’s in turns amusing and revolting; intolerable and pathetic; but always, always riveting. I couldn’t help thinking to myself that for the casual, non Adam-obsessed viewer, the effect of these scenes might stop at crass and unappealing. But in terms of the sheer range and power of acting on display? These scenes are a damn marvel. Through these scenes alone, his performance largely imbues the film with its wild, primal, and vaguely menacing atmosphere.

His stand-up scenes were, to me, some of the most intense of the film – sometimes downright difficult to endure. But they’re only a microcosm of the R A N G E he exhibits throughout the film’s entirety. Let’s talk about how he’s animalistic, menacing, and genuinely unsettling to watch (Leos Carax described him as “feline” at some point, and I 100% see it); and then with a mere subtle twitch of his expression, sheen of his eyes, or slump of his shoulders, he’s suddenly a lost, broken thing.  

Henry McHenry is truly to be reviled. Twitter might as well spare their breath and announce he’s already cancelled. He towers above the rest of the cast with intimidating, predatory physicality; he is prone to indulgence in his vices; and he constantly seems at risk of releasing some wild, uncontrollable madness lingering just beneath his surface. But as we all well know, Adam has an unerring talent for lending pathos to even the most objectively condemnable characters.

In a repeated refrain during his first comedy show, the audience keeps asking him, “Why did you become a comedian?” He dodges the question or gives sarcastic answers, until finally circling back to the true answer later in the film. It was something to the effect of: “To disarm people. It’s the only way I can tell the truth without it killing me.” Even for all their sick spectacle, there are also moments in his stand-up shows of disarming vulnerability and (seeming) honesty. In a similar moment of personal exposition, he confesses his temptation and “sympathy for the abyss.” (This phrase is hands down my favorite of the film.) He repeatedly refers to his struggle against “the abyss” and, at the same time, his perceived helplessness against it. “There’s so little I can do, there’s so little I can do,” he sings repeatedly throughout the film - usually just after doing something horrific.

Had he been played by anyone else, the first full look of him warming up before his show - hopping in place and punching the air like some wannabe boxer, interspersing puffs of his cigarette with chowing down on a banana – would have been enough for me to swear him off. His archetype is something of a cliché at this point – a brusque, boorish man who can’t stomach or preserve the love of others due to his own self-loathing. There were multiple points when it was only Adam’s face beneath the character that kept my heart cracked open to him. But sure enough, he wedged his fingers into that tiny crack and pried it wide open. The film’s final few scenes show him at his chin-wobbling best as he crumbles apart in small, mournful subtleties.

(General, semi-spoiler ahead as to the tone of the film’s ending – skip this paragraph if you’d rather avoid.) For a film that professes not to take itself very seriously (how else am I supposed to interpret the freaky puppet baby?), it delivers a harsh, unforgiving ending to its main character. And sure enough, despite how much I might have wanted to distance myself and believe it was only what he deserved, I found myself right there with him, sharing his pain. It is solely testament to Adam’s tireless dedication to breathing both gritty realism and stubborn beauty into his characters that Henry sank a hook into some piece of my sympathy.

Not only does Adam have to be the only actor capable of imbuing Henry with humanity despite his manifold wrongs, he also has to be the only actor capable of the wide-ranging transformations demanded of the role. He starts the movie with long hair and his full refrigerator brick house physique. His physicality and size are actively leveraged to engender a sense of disquiet and unpredictability through his presence. He appears in turns tormented and tormentor. There were moments when I found myself thinking of Conan the Barbarian, simply because his physical presence radiates such wild, primal energy (especially next to tiny, dainty Marion and especially with that long hair). Cannot emphasize enough: The raw sex appeal is off the goddamn charts and had me – a veteran fangirl of 3+ years - shook to my damn core.

The film’s progression then ages him – his hair cut shorter and his face and physique gradually becoming more gaunt. By the film’s end, he has facial prosthetics to make him seem even more stark and borderline sickly – a mirror of his growing internal torment. From a muscular, swaggering powerhouse, he pales and shrinks to a shell of a man, unraveling as his face becomes nearly deformed by time and guilt. He is in turns beautiful and grotesque; sensual and repulsive. I know of no other actor whose face (and its accompanying capacity for expressiveness) could lend itself to such stunning versatility.

Quick note here that he was given a reddish-brown birthmark on the right side of his face for this film?? It becomes more prominent once his hair is shorter in the film’s second half. I’m guessing it was Leos’ idea to make his face even more distinctive and riveting? If so, joke’s on you, Mr. Carax, because we’re always riveted. ☺

I mentioned way up at the beginning that the film is bookended by two scenes where the lines blur between actor and character, and between reality and performance. This comes full circle at the film’s end, with Henry’s final spoken words (this doesn’t give any plot away but skip to the next paragraph if you would rather avoid!) being “Stop watching me.” That’s it. The show is over. He has told his last joke, played out his final act, and now he’s done living his life as a source of cheap, unprincipled laughs and thrills for spectators. The curtain closes with a resounding silence.

Now, I definitely won’t have a section where I talk (of course) about the Ben Solo parallels. He’s haunted by an “abyss” aka darkness inside of him? Bad things happened when he finally gave in and stared into that darkness he knew lived within him? As a result of those tragedies, (SPOILER – Skip to next paragraph to avoid) he then finds himself alone and with no one to love or be loved by? NO I’M DEFINITELY NOT GOING TO TALK ABOUT IT AT ALL, I’M JUST FINE HERE UNDER MY MOUNTAINS OF TISSUES.

Let’s talk about the music! The film definitely clocks in closer to a rock opera than musical, because almost the entire thing is conveyed through ongoing song, rather than self-contained musical numbers appearing here and there. This actually helps the film’s continuity and pacing, by keeping the characters perpetually in this suspended state of absurdity, always propelled along by some beat or melody. Whenever the film seems on the precipice of tipping all the way into the bleak and dark, the next whimsical tune kicks in to reel us all blessedly back. For example, after (SPOILER #1) happens, there’s a hard cut to the bright police station where several officers gather around Henry, bopping about and chattering on the beat “Questions! We have a few questions!”

Adam integrates his singing into his performance in such a way that it seems organic. I realized after the film that I never consciously considered the quality of his singing along the way. For all that I talked about the film maintaining the atmosphere of a fourth wall-defying performance piece, Adam’s singing is so fully immersed in the embodiment of his character that you almost forget he’s singing. Rather, this is simply how Henry McHenry exists. His stand-up scenes are the only ones in the film that do frequently transition back and forth between speaking and singing, but it’s seamlessly par for the course in Henry’s bizarre, dour show. He breaks into his standard “Now laugh!” number with uninterrupted sarcasm and contempt. There were certainly a few soft, poignant moments when his voice warbled in a tender vibrato you couldn’t help noticing – but otherwise, the singing was simply an extension of that full-body persona he manages to convey with such apparent ease and naturalism.

On the music itself: I’ll admit that the brief clip of “We Love Each Other So Much” we got a few weeks ago made me a tad nervous. It seemed so cheesy and ridiculous? But okay, you really can’t take anything from this movie out of context. Otherwise it is, indeed, utterly ridiculous. Not that none of it is ever ridiculous in context either, but I’m giving you assurances right now that it WORKS. Once you’re in the flow of constant singing and weirdness abound, the songs sweep you right along. Some of the songs lack a distinctive hook or melody and are moreso rhythmic vehicles for storytelling, but it’s now a day later and I still have three of the songs circulating pleasantly in my head. “We Love Each Other So Much” was actually the stand out for me and is now my favorite of the soundtrack. It’s reprised a few times later in the film, growing increasingly melancholy each time it is echoed, and it hits your heart a bit harder each time. The final song sung during (SPOILER #2), though without a distinctive melody to lodge in my head, undoubtedly left me far more moved than a spoken version of this scene would have. Adam’s singing is so painfully desperate and earnest here, and he takes the medium fully under his command.

Finally, it does have to be said that parts of this film veer fully towards the ridiculous and laughable. The initial baby version of the Annette puppet-doll was nothing short of horrifying to me. Annette gets more center-stage screen time in the film’s second half, which gives itself over to a few special effects sequences which look to be flying out at you straight from 2000 Windows Movie Maker. The scariest part is that it all seems intentional. The quality special effects appear when necessary (along with some unusual and captivating time lapse shots), which means the film’s most outrageous moments are fully in line with its guiding spirit. Its extravagant self-indulgence nearly borders on camp.

...And with that, I’ve covered the majority of the frantic notes I took for further reflection immediately after viewing. It’s now been a few days, and I’m looking forward to rewatching this movie when I can hopefully take it in a bit more fully. This time, I won’t just be struggling to keep up with the madness on screen. My concluding thoughts at this point: Is it my favorite Adam movie? Certainly not. Is it the most unforgettable? Aside from my holy text, The Last Jedi, likely yes. It really is the sort of thing you have to see twice to even believe it. And all in all, I say again that Adam truly carried this movie, and he fully inhabits even its highest, most ludicrous aspirations. He’s downright abhorrent in this film, and that’s exactly what makes him such a fucking legend.

I plan to make a separate post in the coming days about my experience at Cannes and the Annette red carpet, since a few people have asked! I can’t even express how damn good it feels to be globetrotting for Adam-related experiences again. <3

Thanks so much for reading! Feel free to ask me any further questions at all here or on Twitter! :)

*SYNOPSIS INCLUDED BELOW. DO NOT READ FURTHER IF AVOIDING SPOILERS!*

Synopsis: Comedian Henry McHenry and opera singer Ann Defrasnoux are both at the pinnacle of their respective success when they fall in love and marry. The marriage is happy and passionate for a time, leading to the birth of their (puppet) daughter, Annette. But tabloids and much of the world believe the crude, brutish Henry is a poor match for refined, idolized Ann. Ann and Henry themselves both begin to feel that something is amiss – Henry gradually losing his touch for his comedy craft, claiming that being in love is making him ill. He repeatedly and sardonically references how Ann’s opera career involves her “singing and dying” every night, to the point that he sees visions of her “dead” body on the stage. Meanwhile, Ann has a nightmare of multiple women accusing Henry of abusive and violent behavior towards them, and she begins growing wary in his presence. (He never acts abusively towards her, unless you count that scene when he tickles her feet and licks her toes while she’s telling him to stop??? Yeah I know, WILD.)

The growing sense of unease, that they’re both teetering on the brink of disaster, culminates in the most deranged of Henry’s stand-up comedy performances, when he gives a vivid reenactment of killing his wife by “tickling her to death.” The performance is so maudlin and unsettling that you wonder whether he’s not making it up at all, and the audience strongly rebukes him. (This is the “What is your problem?!” scene with tiddies out. The full version includes Adam storming across the stage, furiously singing/yelling, “What the FUCK is your problem?!”) But when Henry arrives home that night, drunk and raucous, Ann and Annette are both unharmed.

The couple take a trip on their boat, bringing Annette with them. The boat gets caught in a storm, and Henry drunkenly insists that he and Ann waltz in the storm. She protests that it’s too dangerous and begs him to see sense. (SPOILER #1) The boat lurches when Henry spins her, and Ann falls overboard to her death. Henry rescues Annette from the sinking boat and rows them both to shore. He promptly falls unconscious, and a ghost of Ann appears, proclaiming her intention to haunt Henry through Annette. Annette (still a toddler at this point and yes, still a wooden puppet) then develops a miraculous gift for singing, and Henry decides to take her on tour with performances around the world. He enlists the help of his “conductor friend,” who had been Ann’s accompanist and secretly had an affair with her before she met Henry.

Henry slides further into drunken debauchery as the tour progresses, while the Conductor looks after Annette and the two grow close. Once the tour concludes, the Conductor suggests to Henry that Annette might be his own daughter – revealing his prior affair with Ann. Terrified by the idea of anyone finding out and the possibility of losing his daughter, Henry drowns the Conductor in the pool behind his and Ann’s house. Annette sees the whole thing happen from her bedroom window.

Henry plans one last show for Annette, to be held in a massive stadium at the equivalent of the Super Bowl. But when Annette takes the stage, she refuses to sing. Instead, she speaks and accuses Henry of murder. (“Daddy kills people,” are the actual words – not that that was creepy to hear as this puppet’s first spoken words or anything.)

Henry stands trial, during which he sees an apparition of Ann from when they first met. They sing their regret that they can’t return to the happiness they once shared, until the apparition is replaced by Ann’s vengeful spirit, who promises to haunt Henry in prison. After his sentencing (it’s not clear what the sentence was, but Henry definitely isn’t going free), Annette is brought to see him once in prison. Speaking fully for the first time, she declares she can’t forgive her parents for using her: Henry for exploiting her voice for profit and Ann for presumably using her to take vengeance on Henry. (Yes, this is why she was an inanimate doll moving on strings up to this point – there was some meaning in that strange, strange artistic choice. She was the puppet of her parents’ respective egotisms.) The puppet of Annette is abruptly replaced by a real girl in this scene, finally enabling two-sided interaction and a long-missed genuine connection between her and Henry, which made this quite the emotional catharsis. (SPOILER #2) It concludes with Annette still unwilling to forgive or forget what her parents have done, and swearing never to sing again. She says Henry now has “no one to love.” He appeals, “Can’t I love you, Annette?” She replies, “No, not really.” Henry embraces her one last time before a guard takes her away and Henry is left alone.

…..Yes, that is the end. It left me with major emotional whiplash, after the whole film up to this point kept pulling itself back from the total bleak and dark by starting up a new toe-tapping, mildly silly tune every few minutes. But this last scene instead ends on a brutal note of harsh, unforgiving silence.

BUT! Make sure you stick around through the credits, when you see the cast walking through a forest together. (This is counterpart to the film’s opening, when you see the cast walking through LA singing “So May We Start?” directly to the audience) Definitely pay attention to catch Adam chasing/playing with the little girl actress who plays Annette! That imparts a much nicer feeling to leave the theater with. :’)

[urbxntwilight]

about me

hi im spoon. she/her or they/them

im more active on twitter - https://twitter.com/urbxntwilight (not anymore lol fuck that place)

ao3: @urbantwilight (I don’t use it very much maybe i’ll write smth someday)

follow me on albumoftheyear for my music opinions: https://www.albumoftheyear.org/user/karmiki/

feel free to message me if you want to fight with me about my music opinions

also my spotify: https://open.spotify.com/user/4mtpxnmr2aa9l3ojvv4rdqt09?si=3f3205c82dae4125

born in the USA

white girl (lol)

cissy (gnc)

bi

anime I like: lain, utena, evangelion, madoka magica, houseki no kuni, made in abyss, beastars, zombieland saga, kill la kill, little witch academia, yuri on ice, perfect blue

music I like: grimes, björk, kate bush, fka twigs, angel olsen, mitski, m.i.a., death grips, lemon demon, kendrick lamar, 100 gecs, charli xcx, alice glass, jpegmafia, lingua ignota, even more

im mainly here for jokes and laffs

i also run @grimespostarchive and @purplealbumoftheday

art and poetry blog: @karmikiart

terfs, pedos, nazis, proshippers and exclusionists will all be blocked no exceptions. im unapologetically pro-palestine btw if u sympathize with the IOF at all fuck you. DONT PISS ME OFF!!

that's all

[tilbageidanmark]

Movies I watched this week - 39

I spent over 50 (!) hours on the sofa this week, (enjoying myself 85% of the time)...

Sløborn, an ominous Danish-German TV pandemic series, very much like Soderbergh’s ‘Contagion’ and in ‘Black Mirror’ style. Normal life of a small island community between Denmark and Germany breaks down and completely collapses when it is hit by a lethal bird flue like virus.

It was extremely prescient, as it was shot in 2019, before Covid! Conceived as Si-fi, it looks today like TV, because the series was able to capture everything that happened around the world after January 2020 in accurate details.

With Roland Møller (of ‘Riders of Justice’). 7+/10

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My introduction to “The grandmother of The French New Wave”, Agnès Varda (Hard to believe that I never saw her films before!):

✳️✳️✳️ “Inspiration, Creation and Sharing...” Varda by Agnès, my first Varda is her last 2019 auto-biography, in which, at 90, she shared footage and stories from her life and work. The first sample clip (of meeting her Uncle Yanco in Sausalito) won me over, and the rest convinced me to catch up on everything I’ve missed through the years. What a wonderful artist!

✳️✳️✳️ Cléo from 5 to 7. A feminine film about female identity - a new favorite! A beautiful singer must wait 2 hours for the results of her cancer tests. With a magnifique mid-film scene (at 0;38) of the heartbreaking chanson 'Sans Toi', marking the beginning of her quiet transformation.

✳️✳️✳️ Vagabond, a story of a lonely, young woman, an unapologetic drifter, unglamorous, aimless, independent, desperately lost. Dark and nonjudgmental exploration of the refusal to conform to anything. 8+/10.

✳️✳️✳️ (For Sammy - Per our conversation). The Gleaners and I, "The eighth best documentary film of all time”, per ‘Sight & Sound poll. Derived from the famous painting by Millet. Simply wonderful!

✳️✳️✳️ One Hundred And One Nights, 100 year old Michel Piccoli “Monsieur Simon Cinema”, hires a young girl to reminisce with about the history of cinema. An unsuccessful Meta-film that nevertheless is a love letter for cinephiles. Populated by 3 dozens of Who’s Who of French (and World) stars, playacting in this symbolic, Fellinisque fable that draws upon the classics. Mastroianni, Depardieu, Belmondo, Alain Delon, Catherine Deneuve, Jeanne Moreau, Anouk Aimée, Fanny Ardant, Gina Lollobrigida, Jane Birkin, etc, etc..

(Photo Above).

✳️✳️✳️ The Young Girls of Rochefort, the wonderful, colorful, sentimental musical by Varda’s husband Jacques Demy, with the most beautiful woman in the world and her sister. Romantic eye candy set to music by Michel Legrand. A year later Deneuve would do Belle de Jour, and Françoise Dorléac would die in a car accident, 8+/10

✳️✳️✳️ Even better, The Young Girls Turn 25, Varda’s 1993 behind the scenes documentary and return to small town Rocheford, to show how it changed the town and left an impression. 9/10

“...The memory of happiness is perhaps also happiness...”

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The other Jacques Demy modern opera The Umbrellas of Cherbourg knocked me over all over again. Catherine Deneuve’s angelic beauty in this film made me cry for the duration like a baby. And not only at the train station when they say goodbye forever.

10/10

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Night moves, a tense thriller by Kelly Reichardt, about three radical environmentalists who blow up an Oregon dam. Slow and tense, and like her ‘First Cow’, watching it filled me with constant, low-level anxiety. The off-screen sabotage is placed at the exact mid-point of the movie: The first half is the preparation for it, and the second half shows the aftermath of the act. 7+/10

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2 unexpected Small Town gems by Miguel Arteta:

✳️✳️✳️ The good Girl, an odd and surprising mismatched romance between 30 year old Jennifer Aniston and Jake Gyllenhaal (22) as employees of a Texas big-box store that is always empty. Her voice-over reminded me of True Romance’s Alabama Whitman. 7/10

✳️✳️✳️ Ed Helms, a sheltered insurance salesman from the backwaters of Wisconsin, goes to an convention in the big city of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The nearly conventional story arc has some genuinely heartfelt funny moments. With Maeby Fünke, as Bree the prostitute and Sigourney Weaver as the ex-teacher he balls. Also a surprising drug party, where he smoke crack cocaine and loves it. 5+/10

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Same theme of people prostituting their own ‘morals’, the notoriously-prudish 1993 Indecent Proposal didn’t age too well. “Billionaire”-porn that asks the question ‘How much would you pay for one night with Robert Redford?’ Gratuitous semi-naked Demi Moore included.

Related: “Stop hitting the button!”

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Wildland (Kød & blod = Flesh and blood), an uncomfortable and claustrophobic Danish gangster thriller about a 17 year old girl who moves in with the criminal family of Sidse Babett Knudsen, her estranged aunt. 6+/10

“For some people, things go wrong before they even begin”

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Jim Jarmusch‘s Broken Flowers, a touching road film with Bill Murray, as an old ‘Don Juan’ who receive a pink, unsigned letter from an old lover, letting him know that he has a 20 year old son he never knew about.

Loveliest film of the week.

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The 2 films directed by Tom Ford:

✳️✳️✳️ A single Man, a sad and lonely gay professor, closeted in 1962 Los Angeles, is preparing to kill himself with a gun, after his boyfriend / love of his life had died in a car accident. Mute and haunting aesthetics in the fashion designer’s debut film, based on a Christopher Isherwood novel.

The ‘Stormy Weather’ dance scene between Charley and George. 8/10

✳️✳️✳️ Nocturnal Animals: Amy Adams is an unhappy owner of a fancy art gallery who receives a disturbing book manuscript written by her ex-husband, which symbolizes their relationship 20 years prior. Rarefied visuals and distinctive style.

Starts with an astonishing scene of obese old ladies dancing naked at Amy’s gala event. Michael Shannon rules as a dying Texas detective! 6+/10.

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Jean Vigo’s 1933 classic Zero for Conduct was so blatantly anarchistic, it was immediately banned in France until after WW2. In silent film style, it tells about a group of mischievous kids who rebel against the authorities of their old-fashioned boarding school. Part-inspiration for Truffaut's 400 Blows.

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Anatomy of a murder, Otto Preminger’s 1960 courtroom drama, with opening credits by Saul Bass. Crisp black & white cinematography, and with rape victim Lee Remick playing it as an outgoing loose girl of ambiguous morals, a modern floozy. 7/10.

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Blush, a wondrous, spectacularly-animated, wordless short by Joe Mateo. What starts as a riff on ‘The Little Prince’, ends up like the opening montage from ‘Up’. The obvious realization that this is a personal metaphor makes the story even deeper.

I watched it twice back to back. 10/10

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If You're Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast - 95 year old Carl Reiner asks a bunch of charming nonagenarian friends how they manage to live so well for so long. Their answers may (not) shock you...

Spry Dick Van Dyke (92) and half-his-age wife end the film with a lovely rendition of “Young at heart”

✴️            

Hi-school-level adaptation of Thomas Piketty's book Capital in the 21st Century. A breezy discussion of how slave economy and colonialist military repression 300 years ago turn into extreme capitalism of inequality & tax-avoidance today. America is now similar economically to what England was in the early 1800s. A tiny percentage of society controls almost all its wealth. (Full text of the book here).

✴️            

Ride the eagle, a flat new indie about a guy whose estranged hippy mother leaves him her cabin at the lake when she dies, but only if he complete a certain list of tasks. Could be so much better, but the actor playing the guy was just so terrible. Unlike JK Simmons who had a small role. Best detail, when he discovers that all the cabinets in the house are full with pot.

✴️       

Old, my first, (and possibly last), M. Night Shyamalan. The seductive premise of a secluded beach at a fancy tropical resort that ages everybody who comes there, turns into an unconvincing Twilight Zone bore.

...”(Gurgling sounds)”...

✴️      

First watch: I never saw (any) Planet of the apes before, and in spite of my misgivings, gave it a go. 100% anthropomorphic, it couldn’t visualize a universe different from the American mindset of that period. Preachy and very Rod Sterling-like. "It's a madhouse in here”. Pass!

✴️         

The latest Veritasium YouTube video about bowling current technology. Always interesting.

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Throw-back to the art project:

Planet of the Apes Adora. 

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(My complete movie list is here)

[freewalkerstudio]

I find the intersections of cultures interesting, specifically the intersections of cultures we are born into and the cultures in which we choose to participate. These chosen cultures may speak to us on many levels, be they emotional, intellectual or even subconscious. We may not know why we are drawn to something but we feel an innate pull to be involved. The free will of humans leads to the most interesting combinations of birth and chosen cultures, which furthers the breadth of manifested identities in the world. Because of my own life experience, I decided to investigate other people of color who choose to be artists and identify as alternative, goth or punk.

During this project I had the privilege to meet, photograph and interview some stellar human beings. People who are unafraid and unapologetic about their artistic choices in this world. I am so inspired by each and every one of you. Thank you for being you and giving me a glimpse into your world.

Ashley - “I just do what I think is fun!”

I met Ashley Norman at school, I remember the day well. She had on a really bright outfit and her makeup was weird and fun. She had drawn wispy lines around her eyes in white eyeliner, like an abstract Picasso portrait – each eye different than the other. I thought it was so unique and I was impressed by her call to push her style in a different direction than her peers. When I met back up with Ashley recently, I asked her, what was her inspiration and the pull to identify as an alternative artist? She said only this: “I just do what I think is fun!” Ashley said she is also inspired by her diverse background. For her, being Black, Korean and Dominican gives her much to pull from historically and artistically.

Selena - “I think the hardest part was me finding my tribe, my kindred spirits. You can’t always spot someone who is alternative all the time, just by looking at them. Sometimes it’s highly internalized and you would never know.”

Selena is an illustrator, whose artwork is centered around themes of alchemy and the occult. She expressed that her drawings of demon girls with detached limbs, reflected her inner feelings of being disconnected from her identity sometimes. I asked her when she started to identify as alternative and for her it was in middle school when she realized that music was so important to her but that she felt little connection to Rap and Hip Hop. “It’s kinda like, when you’re Black, you kinda assume that you’re supposed to like these things, and you kinda do, but…it doesn’t feel like it clicks. Whereas for me rock and alternative music clicked for me, I was more able to relate to the subjects in the songs. I was 14, rap music was not helping me cope with what I’m going through. With Rock, we are talking about anger, feelings, things I could better connect with. From there on out I wore all black and listened to My Chemical Romance.”

Roxas - “It’s totally 100% possible to thrive and be yourself.”

Roxas Timmons was my classmate at LaGuardia in the photo program. I remember the first day I saw them and thinking how committed they were to their style. As I got to know Roxas over the past two years, I have learned of their interesting origin story growing up in the conservative Midwest. Roxas likes to be fluid in their identity and although they mostly identify as goth, they also enjoy dressing as a clown, a ghost, punk, alternative and anything in between. They talked a lot about how music and fashion influences their photography, which is primarily driven by self-portraits. They recounted how they started dressing alternative little by little in high school and after graduating, fully went for it. “I meet a lot of people who always say to me ‘I wish I could dress like that’. I want people to know that they can. They can have a successful career and make their way in the world dressing like this.”

Jacqs - “The art that I give to the world is my self expression. Serving looks.“

Much like many of the people I interviewed for this project, Jacqueline Chavois is a total stranger to me. Stumbling across her Instagram account, I was immediately struck by her incredible style and the collections in her house, where she regularly photographs herself. I asked her about her split tongue and why she would choose to make such a drastic choice of body modification. “I feel like it connects me to my African ancestry because the body modifications – these painful rites of passage, I feel that my African ancestors were doing that. It annoys me when it’s seen as only a White thing. Definitely has indigenous, African, tribal roots.”

Shola - “The aesthetic I want to give off is to live that best version of myself and let it be reflected in the work that I do.”

Shola Aurora is a first generation Nigerian singer-songwriter, born and raised in New York City. He performs an hybrid of rock, metal, and industrial goth music. He is heavily influenced by Japanese culture, having traveled to Japan several times. Anime, video games and Japanese fashion are all major inspirations and play out in his artistic choices. I interviewed him in Saint Marks Place, an area where he was able to truly express himself as a young man growing into his identity. Shola talked about how he came to his own style by being exposed to Visual K, a Japanese branch of glam metal. “Visual K showed me that performing is more than just getting up there and singing a song, you can create a world or an experience. It inspired me to live the best version of myself that I could. It left my mind open in terms of what I was interested in doing. As someone who grew up in Brooklyn in the hood, as a black male, the idea of doing feminine things or wearing makeup is unheard of. It took a lot of personal growth for me to break through to that side of myself.”

Xero - “Everyone needs a little bit of fantasy.”

Xero Gravity is a 24 year old biracial Black/Jewish cosplayer and digital content creator who centers herself around diversity and inclusion in the horror and sci-fi realms. I asked her to speak about why these genres are so important to her. “I feel horror is the best lens through which to look at society’s fears as a whole. What people are scared of at a certain time says a lot about what people are going through. When you look at the history of horror, it doesn’t really look good for Black and Brown people like us. We have a very complicated history with the horror genre. I always bring the discussion of horror and Blackness back to Birth of a Nation, the first feature film. It features a white woman in ‘peril’ being hunted by a white man in blackface. Woodrow Wilson screened this in the White House and endorsed it as factually correct. At the end the ‘black man” is hunted down and killed by the KKK, putting the KKK in a favorable light. No one talks about how this is the scariest film ever if you’re a Black person.”

Uny - “My art is fashion. My art is clothes, my art is expression. The way I dress is a total expression of the way I view my world through my lens.”

Unyquee Loretta Ortiz is a seamstress and cosplayer who identifies as Black and Latinx. Born and raised in the Bronx, she spoke about how her heritage plays into her stylistic choices.  “I often wear a lot of African prints because I want to be connected to Africa in the best way that I can do it. I was raised around my Latinx culture so I go out of my way to make my Black heritage more visual. A lot of people don’t look at me and see Latinx because my skin isn’t as fair or olive, but I feel very connected to that side of myself because I grew up around it. Sometimes I think people tend to push that aside and want it to not be there because of how I look.”

[everydisneymovie]

Review #16: The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad

Post #18

5/25/2020

Next up is 1949′s The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. 

Enjoyment : [5]

I did not enjoy Wind in the Willows at all, it was long, boring and had terrible story pacing. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow however is a delight from start to finish. The animation jumps from slapstick cartoony to genuinely horrific and it is amazing to watch. I also think the music in Sleepy Hollow is rather catchy, with Bing Crosby going absolutely ham on the vocals. It is a great spooky treat.

Quality : [5]

The animation is very basic up until the Headless Horseman appears. The chase sequence is bold and experimental with it’s colors and tone. Everything else is just mediocre. The writing is also night and day, with Ichabod Crane being a wonderfully complex and flawed character, but Mr. Toad is a one dimensional asshat who never learns his lesson and the writing of the story does nothing to draw you in.

Hold up : [2]

Not at all in anyway actually. The only thing keeping this from being a 0 is just how good Sleepy Hollow stands up with its morals about hubris and the corruptive nature of greed. The morals in Wind in the Willows is skewed it genuinely made me feel a little sick. Mr. Toad is cruel, violent, misogynistic, racist and grossly entitled to whatever he wants. He causes pain and misery everywhere he goes, actively harming those who care for him. Instead of this acting as a character arc like it does for Ichabod, Toad actually gets worse with each passing scene, and he is never punished or called out for any of his actions. He avoids all consequences and wins through malevolence alone. I would never show this to a kid because they would end up like a trust fund frat boy getting daddy to pay off the cops every time he kills a person in a hit and run. I really cannot express how horrible the morals in the first short are.

Risk : [7]

We are just going to ignore Wind in the Willows since it takes no risks other than how unapologetically crass it is. Sleepy Hollow is the picture perfect example of a risky story. It ends on an ambiguously grey note, with the main character either dead or missing. Ichabod is flawed but we also see WHY he can’t get over his own flaws and he never gets rewarded for feeding into his of faults. That is the perfect way to handle a morally grey character and I think he probably the most complex character Disney has ever written. He is greedy, conniving, manipulative and a womanizer, but you see that this is born from his life in constant poverty and he often uses people because he doesn’t have other options. He is poor and hungry and he worms his way into other peoples lives so he can leech off their comfort. Kids won’t run into cackling super villain every day, but they will run into jerks. Ichabod is a jerk and an understandable jerk and that is leagues more interesting. The overall dark tone and the fact that there is no clear cut happy ending is great. The fact that we never really get 100% confirmation if Ichabod survived and it feels like the polar opposite of that Peter and the Wolf death fake out. 

Extra Credit : [3]

The aesthetic of Sleepy Hollow is delicious. I love the creamy autumn vibe and how the darkness slowly creeps into the story, not blasting full force from the start. I love that story elements are set up visually and there are character beats left up to the audience, not told to you directly. I gotta love that.

Final thoughts:

This movie isn’t a movie it is two animated shorts of such divergent qualities it feels deeply unfair to lump them together. The second short, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, is easily in the top 5 things Disney has made so far, meanwhile, The Wind in the Willows is hands down one of the worst. If you see a five, assume it is a 10 for Sleepy Hollow and a 0 for Wind in the Willows. You should never ever watch both of these shorts together, Wind in the Willows is absolute trash and the world would be better off if it had never been made. Sleepy Hollow on the other hand stands alone and it gains nothing by being paired with Willows. I will never forgive Walt for making me hate a Toad. He will pay for this. If I ranked them separately, I would say: Wind in the Willow: 10/50 The Legend of Sleepy Hollow: 29/50

Total Score: 22/50

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the list

[phil-dwyer-stan-account]

Hello! Do you by any chance have a headcanons for Jasper Hale? Or like Jasper and Alice?

Oh boy I’m excited. I haven’t thought about this too much before reading this ask so bare with me! I’m coming up with all of these on the spot. I’ll also reblog and add to this in the future if I think of more.

Learned how to play the banjo just to spite Edward. Whenever one of the Cullens refers to Edward as the “musical one” he coughs loudly until they mention him too. Whenever Edward is playing the piano (except when Jasper can feel that he’s even sadder than usual then Jasper leaves him alone) Jasper runs in with his banjo and plays a louder song over it.

Unapologetically blasts blue grass music so loudly that the entire house shakes until Rosalie rips him apart. Once he’s put back together he promises not to do it again. The longest he’s kept that promise is two weeks.

Needs to get away and isolate himself sometimes because feeling everyone’s emotions can be overwhelming. Alice knows where he is in case something bad happens and they need him.

Used to try to use his powers on Edward to make him a happier, but Edward told him to stop. Edward would rather deal with his emotions and Jasper understands that now.

Loves horses. Was absolutely devastated when he tried to ride a horse after turning and found out that animals are afraid of vampires.

Speaking of Old Town Road, Jasper is partially responsible for it breaking the record for most weeks at No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100. He bought 50 phones and created 50 new Spotify accounts. The volume is off but the phones stream Old Town Road on an endless loop. The Cullens electricity bill has skyrocketed in the past few months, but they can afford it.

One more thing about Old Town Road, it’s rumored that Jasper sent Lil Nas X’s manager a clip of his voice. And since all vampires can sing, it was the greatest voice the manager had ever heard. The rumor is true. Jasper, under a pseudonym, will be appearing on one of the future Old Town Road remixes.

He didn’t want to use a fake name, especially since he already has to use Hale in his every day life, but the volturi found out about the rumor. They sent a letter instructing him to figure out a stage name or back out of the project. They included a list of potential rapper names (all of them were terrible). The only option Jasper half liked from the list was “lil empath” until Emmett called him “lil pathetic”. Jasper cried.

Since he can manipulate emotions, he’s become the family mediator.

He pretends to be slightly annoyed when Alice picks out ridiculous high fashion outfits for him to wear. He always says, “I’m a simple country boy. I’m happiest in cowboy boots and an old pair of blue jeans”. But deep down he loves it, seeing how happy Alice gets when she’s put together a nice outfit for him fills him with joy.

He doesn’t like the Volturi very much, but he absolutely HATES Demetri.