#I mean I like Gladstone for a reason

[lizardsfromspace]

The backlash to the snub of Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig (for directing) at the Oscars is bizarre for a lot of reasons, but one of them is that they're going with a "the Academy hates women directors!" narrative even though there is a female nominee for best director this year, Justine Triet.

But this one quote is just. Jokerfying

...Margot Robbie was kept out of Best Actress by Annette Benning's nod for Nyad. That's the one everyone hates and thinks is undeserving, too. But instead the stakes being Barbie Is Feminism And If It Loses Feminism Loses means you have to dismiss a film written & directed by a woman, and single out...Lily Gladstone? She's insulting a film about a real survivor of real Native American genocide to burnish Barbie. She's not only insulting actresses and female filmmakers in the name of feminism, and attacking sex workers, she's dismissing the stories of real women too

And, again: Poor Things, Killers of the Flower Moon, and Anatomy of a Fall didn't keep Barbie out of Best Actress! That was Nyad! But that doesn't fit her narrative about how the Oscars only like it when women ~suffer~ so she has to bash *checks notes* the first ever Native American nominated for Best Actress instead

(To be fair I checked the article; she doesn't mention Nyad once; it doesn't mention Justine Triet once, either)

I mean the Academy did give it eight nominations. America Ferrera, Ryan Gosling, adapted screenplay and Best Picture. The Academy obviously considered it important. Ferrera's nom is likely entirely down to the monologue scene, too, so it's not like they're mad about that.

(actually a lot of people are going "hohoho, didn't it just prove the movie's point that they only nominated Gosling?" like. They very much did nominate America Ferrera, can they like. Read)

And her case doesn't make the slightest bit of sense bc, again, the surprise nom that deprived Robbie of a Best Actress nom wasn't a dark movie about feminine suffering, it was a Netflix sports biopic

[darkpurpledawn]

Things to read if you like Good Omens

I've excluded other books by Neil and Terry here, since that's a fairly self-evident starting point. Here are various works that share some similarities with Good Omens (book and show and fandom).

If you want Pratchett-esque writing and a similarly irreverent attitude to the creation, maintenance, and disposal of the Universe, check out The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. Not an obscure pick by any means, but highly recommended if you haven't got to it yet for any reason. The humor and especially the attitude to matters of cosmic import are very reminiscent of Good Omens.

If you want star-crossed queer lovers on opposite sides of an existential battle, check out This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. It's sweeping epistolary science fiction about agents from two factions fighting for control of reality. Not a personal favorite of mine but I think I'm an outlier, so highly recommend giving it a shot!

If you want historical shenanigans, hilarity, and a plot involving two people ineptly attempting to avert the apocalypse, check out To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis. One of those admirably genre-defying books, its conceit revolves around time travel as a means to study the past and some unexpected calamities. Bonus similarities: the Victorian era, put-upon employees, and clumsy matchmaking. This IS a personal favorite.

If you want something with worldbuilding akin to, uh, Good Omens E-rated fanfic (and you're okay with E-rated art), check out the graphic novel Fine Print by Stjepan Sejic. Deals with demons gone hornily awry!

If you want a humorous adventure from the perspective of an outsider charged with a mission it doesn't entirely like, check out the Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells. The protagonist is a socially awkward security android who gets embroiled in a mystery when a mission runs into catastrophe.

Happy reading!

[scottpetersen]

As shown in the episode ‘The House Of The Lucky Gander!’, The Golden Cricket’s song did nothing but bore Scrooge and his family half to death despite the fact that, as Scrooge mentioned earlier that episode, the song is said to hold the answer to life’s greatest mysteries like “How did we get here?” and “What’s our purpose in the universe?”. I could be reading way, way too much into this but I think the reason for that is because the universe has no answer to these mysteries but rather questions. What I mean by that is that the universe asks us how we got here, what our purpose is, etc. and we give the universe our answer to its questions, not the other way around. For example, the universe asked Donald Duck what his purpose is even if he’s going against seemingly insurmountable odds and he answered it is to persevere and protect his family by persevering through the Luck Vampire’s deadly obstacle course to prevent his family from being trapped in his resort forever. And the universe asked Gladstone Gander where he would go if presented with immense good luck and he answered that he’s going to make his life as leisurely as possible by using his luck to do just that.

[cartoon-brainrot]

Could you please describe the Dad Donald AU? I’m interested in this.

WHEN I TELL YOU I JUMPED OFF MY SEAT,,

No one usually asks about my AUs so this was a surprise!

Now, at first I was a bit confused because,, “Dad Donald AU” is very generic, so my first reaction was “WHICH ONE” because I have around,, 10? AUs? I think? So yeah!

But then I thought that maybe you meant the “Dad Donald AU” Series from AO3 because my fic is in that series! So to explain really quickly, that series will just be a sort of collection of all the fics where Donald is a dad, to either the triplets or Lena or both! Or even April, May and June! My usual theory about Donald being Lena’s dad is either her being adopted by him or her being his actual, biological child!

I have a couple of AUs (by a couple I mean dozen) and I will make art and/or fics about all of them, so do not worry about that!

Now, the main theme is Magica using Donald’s DNA to create Lena, because let’s be real here, no way she could create Lena from her shadow for one simple reason!

Here is an illustrated guide :)

And also Lena is more similar to Donald than the triplets are, so I like to headcanon that Donald is her biological father most of the time!

BACK ON TRACK-

The Dad Donald AUs are many, and I would love to talk about them, but since that would take forever, I’ll just make you guys a list and you can ask me about the ones you find more interesting! I think I’ll start writing snippets of them as well!

The biological Dad ones are around,, 6? Or so? Then there’s just the ones where he takes care of Lena or straight up adopts her, and of course, takes care of the triplets! In special cases, also the girls and/or Gosalyn!

- The Ducks (fluffy AU where Donald lives at Quackmore institute, currently making fanart for it)

- Stuck on the Moon (Donald gets stuck instead of Della, except Lena is with him, so he raises her on the moon)

- In the Depths (Where Donald gets stuck into the ocean by saving Della from the Spear, and Lena is semi-raised by Gladstone while she tries to find her dad)

- Undercover PK (Donald raises Lena but has to disappear because of FOWL, Lena spends her time with Gladstone at McDuck manor- the others don’t know about Lena and Donald, it’s a long story)

- Singer AU (Of course, I had to do it. He’s a singer named Misfortune and adopts Lena, who, obviously, becomes his Number one fan)

- Magic AU! (Where the triplets have magic and Donald teaches them how to use their powers, Lena tags along from the very start because she’s also interested in magic)

- Adoption AU (Where Donald sees homeless Lena and after the third or fourth time meeting her, decides to adopt her. She becomes the triplets’ older sister!)

- His girls (Daughters au! Donald is Lena’s biological father, but he’s also adopted April, May and June! And a baby Shamrock he just rescued from FOWL!)

- Golden Luck (Where Louie inherits Gladstone’s luck, but he doesn’t let that stop him- Donald is their parent, so Louie uses his luck to help him out)

- College buddies (Drake and Donald are college buddies and when Drake decides to adopt a girl, Donald helps him out, since he already raised April May and June and has adopted Lena already!)

I think that’s most of them? Let me know which ones you find more interesting and I’ll do a in depth description! Maybe even add some concept art or snippets/comics! :D

(Shamrock’s a girl cus personal headcanons, tell me if you’re also interested in that and I’ll explain why!)

[cloud-navi]

So I finished DuckTales (2017), my thoughts:

⚠️ Spoilers ahead ⚠️

- Bradford Buzzard:

His feelings for hating adventure and chaos is valid but he should have told his grandma to fuck off and got therapy instead of trying to destroy it. Also its not his fault that Della took the Spear of Selene even if he told her about it.

You can’t have one thing without the other, there must be chaos if there is stability and vice versa.

- Webbigail Vanderquack and Bentina Beakly (Agent 22):

It was a good twist, but it makes me question where FOWL got Scrooge’s DNA to make Webby and why her exact clones (sisters) aren’t perceived as Scrooges kid like Webby is.

My theory: “The Papyrus of Binding only appears to a direct heir of Scrooge McDuck” I think it mean’s physically and emotionally. If June and May are Webby’s clones that means they are just as much Scrooge’s physical child as Webby is, except they don’t have a relationship with Scrooge. Scrooge even before knowing Webby was his kid thought of her like his Grandniece, like family, making her an heir like the boys.

For how much Beakly talked about how important and strong a family is together when getting the boys to talk to Scrooge again in Season 1, it doesn’t make much sense to have her go in alone without informing the family of what she knows of FOWL from SHUSH.

Goldie O’Gilt:

I love her so much, except in the ImpossiBin episode, there she was okay. At the end of the ImpossiBin episode Goldie calls Scooge assuming he took the fountain of youth when they agreed to keep it for both of them, (she went back to steal it for herself so she says). They made progress in the Youth Fountain episode and having Goldie call him about it being gone kinda defeats the whole purpose of their bonding in that episode. Except I understand they needed a character to tell him it was gone like the other missing mysteries but I find it defeated the whole point.

Lena and Violet Saberwing:

To me it looked like Violet’s parents adopted Lena and I’m all for that. Also love the hinted gay rep with their dads.

Magica De spell:

While it was Scrooge that blocked her spell, it was still her spell that she shot that turned her brother into a raven. Theres no reason or obligation for Scrooge to have caught him and give him to her when they were both terrible people. If anything her brother got a new chance at life as a raven instead.

I wish there was kinda a redemption arc when she was training Lena, if not for Lena a little redemption for Gladstone because I like those two.

Fenton Crackshell (GizmoDuck) and DarkWing Duck:

I like Drake with Fenton regardless if he’s Drake or playing DarkWing but I feel like he needs to accept that GizmoDuck is also a hero. Bro needs to know the difference between hero and vigilante.

Fenton is pretty bbg too <3

Launchpad McQuack:

Giant himbo and I love him so much.

Daisy Duck:

Love her, not much else to say. She had standards, that was clear when we heard what she said while driving away from their second date except she still fell in love and was willing to put up with Donald enough to go rescue him and keep going out. Overall a girl boss <3

Huey, Dewey and Louie:

While Dewey should have come forward earlier about looking for Della I understand his intentions more then Huey did when he found out. Louie was right, its not okay, but in the beginning Dewey was just trying to find if she was alive or not, not where she was. He was sorry because he ‘got caught’, he was genuinely sorry. It’s difficult to want to tell someone you’re finding all this stuff about someone you all seek when none of you know if they’re even alive or not. Dewey didn’t want them to lose hope that Della may be alive even if he found out she might not have. Yes he should have told them but I understand he didn’t want to them to be more hurt that she’s unalive instead of just missing. Also they aren’t even teenagers and communication skills are ass with teenagers what makes you think they’ll be any better as 10 year olds?

Again, their anger is misplaced when they’re mad at Scrooge for building a Spear of Selene.

Scrooge McDuck (sugar daddy?):

I like his character and I feel theres a bit of development through out the show with him and the kids, to be a teacher you need to be able to learn from your students.

While yes, he shouldn’t have built the rocket right there he also didn’t tell Della about it. Not his fault she left. Also the audacity to find out it wasn’t really his fault or the fact he nearly went bankrupt looking for her and they didn’t apologize at all.

Donald Duck (DILF):

Literally the best man in the whole show. He put his family first the whole time even when he should have taken breaks except he stepped up. We know that he had some form of falling out with Scrooge because of Della but even so he stepped up to take the kids and stayed in DuckBurg instead of moving anytime in the 10+ years they lived there. I have a feeling they stayed because he knew deep down that he could somewhat still count on Scrooge if not Beakly. Why else would he have stayed and gone to Beakly to watch the kids, granted he didn’t want to talk to Scrooge, Scrooge still took them in and watched them while Donald was off getting a job.

Donald may not be their bio-dad, but he is no way a fucking Uncle. He raised those boys by himself for 10+ years, through their formative years and until they were old enough to know he wasn’t their bio-dad. He stepped in to be a parent because Della chickened out and chose to go to space even when he told her she shouldn’t so she can be with her kids.

Donald Duck, not an uncle, a father.

Della Duck (cool-ish weird Aunt):

My opinion has not changed, she still isn’t a mother to me. Della is an estranged aunt that comes by and is the ‘cool aunt’. She willingly, without obligation, without threat, consciously CHOSE to leave her kids. Regardless of if she knew she would get killed or stuck in space, “there were too many variables” -Huey. She had a fight with Donald that specifically told her that it was a giant, dumb fucking idea with kids on the way. The idea that anyone would accept her back as a parent so blindly is so dumb. Yes she’s their egg-layer, but there is no way in hell she is their mother. A MOTHER would never choose to leave their children unless they positively fucking had too (obligation for safety). Whether or not she regrets it holds no power because she still chose to leave for a stupid reason.

Season 1 finale: “Get away from my kids” by Donald Duck will forever hold more power and significance then anytime she ever says it because she gave up parent rights before they were born. No parent would willingly, without valid cause like their safety (not fucking exploring space for funzys) would leave their child.

Over all:

Scrooge and Donald are DILFS and Della can get bent.

[justaboot]

For platonic starters

“You are literally too stupid to insult.” (Gladstone and José)

"Get your foot off my knee-"

"Maybe if your knee wasn't on my half, you wouldn't have a problem-"

"Your half!" Gladstone exclaimed, "Fine, how about you take that two thirds of the bed, and I'll take the blankets you're hogging."

"The blanket you have wrapped completely around your feet?" José fired back.

"Oh, for pity's sake!" Scrooge snapped from across the dark room, "Donald give them a blanket from your bed."

"What?" Donald squawked as Della made an indignant noise beside him. "Why us?"

José yanked an edge of the blanket from Gladstone's fingers.

"Because we got stuck on the lumpiest pullout in the cheapest hotel this half of the equator," he said.

Gladstone yanked it back.

"He's Donald's friend," Della said, "Why do I have to freeze, just because Donald had to bring a tagalong?"

"Thanks, coz."

"No offense, Gladstone."

"Even if we didn't have the one-man-bedhog over here," Gladstone said, "I'd still be freezing over here, and I need my eight hours for the festival tomorrow-"

"To do what?" José said, "Pretending it's soda you're sipping from the audience while Donald and I perform for our millions of adoring fans?"

"What does that mean?" Gladstone said.

"Oh, help," José said, "He's literally too stupid to insult. My pillow!"

Gladstone punched his pillow into place under his head.

"Pretending to sip what, now?" Scrooge said.

"How about that blanket, Donaldo?"

"Fuck yourself."

"Oi!" Scrooge said, "Language!"

"Are you kidding?" Donald sat up, steaming, as Della snickered behind him.

He kicked her.

"What," he said, "So Della's allowed to call me a 'tragically missed opportunity for an abortion' last week at breakfast, but I can't say-"

"The only reason Mom and Dad didn't waste you was 'cause they could tell that I was gonna be a winner."

"Uncle Scrooge!"

"She didn't swear," Scrooge shrugged.

"I'm gonna-"

"Do what, you failed-miscarriage piece of- let go of my hair!"

"Donald!" José said, "Your cousin's gassing me out under this blanket!"

"Better out than in," Gladstone said, "Besides, be glad you have some blanket- no, don't let it out!"

"It's the middle of the night!" Scrooge exclaimed, "Would you all just-"

"Uncle Scrooge, she bit my-"

"Uncle Scrooge! He-"

"Della, get your cousin-"

"Donald, please! This blanket-"

"Why can't ye all just share?!"

"Easy for you to say!" Gladstone said, "From the man with a bed to himself."

"From the man who paid for the damn room, himself!"

"Uncle Scrooge, language!"

"I'll give you, language, nephew- Oi!"

"Move over, I can't-"

"Oh, no," Scrooge said, "Begone, lassie, you're not-"

"He bit me, look, there's blood-"

"I didn't ask, you're not sleepin' here-"

Gladstone threw back the blanket before making a rush for Della's empty spot.

"Oh, no!" Donald said, "You're not- oh."

He gagged as Gladstone pulled the blankets up.

"The buffet wasn't that bad!" Donald said, "What's wrong with you?"

"That's what I said!" José exclaimed.

Donald gagged, rolling out of bed.

"Ze, move over-"

"Lass, get out of my-"

"Don't come over here, Donald," José said, "It's just as bad-"

Donald gagged again.

"Della, move over-"

"Do not-"

"Get away from me, douchebag-"

"Fine."

"OW, you stepped on my-"

Scrooge grunted as Donald scrambled over the both of them, throwing himself down on Scrooge's other side.

"Abso-lutely not," Scrooge snapped.

He grabbed Della by the ankle, hauling her bottom half up and out of the way as he ducked out beneath them.

"Wait!" Donald said, "I don't want to sleep with-"

"He smells like leftover Gladstone-"

Scrooge kicked the fold-out bed.

"Out."

"But señor, I-"

"Out!"

José rolled out of bed, and Scrooge pushed him towards the twins.

"Keep them from killing each other," he said, throwing himself into the fold-out.

"That's not fair," José said, "Why does Gladstone-"

"You know what?" Della said, "I'd rather have Gladfarts than you."

Donald kicked her in the back as she jumped out of bed, and Gladstone threw back the covers for her.

Someone knocked on the door, and Della gagged.

"Oh, it is bad over here," she said, "Gladstone, get the door. Air it out while your're there."

"The person on the other side does not deserve this," José muttered.

Gladstone smoothed his hair before crossing for the door. The bright light had everyone groaning, but the crisply coifed, uniformed woman cleared her throat.

"Apologies for the interruption," she said, wrinkling her nose. "But we've had several noise complaints."

"What about smell complaints?" José called.

"Well, we know you had a...full room," she said, "And the honeymoon suite has recently opened up. Now, usually we wouldn't, but it's already paid for, and-"

"Take him away!" Della called.

"Thank goodness," Gladstone muttered, "I'd be happy to take it off your hands, ma'am."

"Just this way..."

The room finally fell blessedly, blessedly silent. Its occupants drew a deep breath, and the stillness almost felt holy.

"Hang on," Scrooge said into the darkness, "How did I get the pull out?"

He was met with three identical, thunderously loud snores.

[semper-legens]

153. This Is How You Lose The Time War, by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

Owned?: Yes Page count: 198 My summary: Red and Blue, time-travelling agents working for rival agencies, start writing to each other just to gloat. They write in fire, in animals, in plants, in tastes and colours - but what they don’t realise is that they’re growing closer with each letter. If they are caught, they will certainly be killed. But Red and Blue are falling in love… My rating: 5/5 My commentary:

I've spoken about this book before. It took me a long time to read This Is How You Lose The Time War initially - I knew about it as I follow one of the authors, Amal El-Mohtar, on social media thanks to her being featured in a Blake's 7 podcast I was listening to. It's been long enough since my first read-through, however, that a reread would be both an interesting prospect. I remembered some things about the book going into it, but not all of the details, which is always fun when you're reading something like this. Overall, I still really liked it, for many of the reasons I highlighted in my first writeup of the book. So, let's get into it!

First of all, I absolutely love the lyricism and poetry of the prose here. Long-time readers of this blog might remember that I like my prose on the purpler side, and this does not disappoint in that capacity. The words are archaic and modern, teasing and serious, playful and sombre all at once, and the overall impression is of a hazy dream, the kind of thing that would get endlessly quoted online to show how deep and cultured the person doing the quoting is. Not that I think that's a bad thing. It very much fits the tone of the piece and the impression of these two endlessly smart, endlessly devoted women. And I absolutely love how the letters between Red and Blue are themselves written - not just pen and paper or keyboard and screen, but found in smell and touch and taste as much as sight and hearing. It's a very sensual experience, by which I mean that it involves all of the senses. This is a book that you can feel, deep in your soul. (Now who's wanting to sound deep?)

Red and Blue are incredibly engaging protagonists. Blue is from some sort of biopunk flower place, where everything is grown and everyone is supposed to be encompassed in a sort of hive mind, led by the Garden. Red is more cybernetic, with hacking and connecting to computers being her thing, and she's led by the Commandant. Nevertheless, they both employ very similar methods in their fight to change time to favour their particular future, perhaps highlighting the similarities between their two shadowy organisations despite their very different backstories. They're two very similar women, but I found their voices to still be unique and distinguishable, both in the narrative style of their chapters and in the letters they write to one another. And, of course, the fact that this is a love story between two women is a huge selling point for me. We see their relationship go from slightly flirty rivalry to deep and pervasive love, the kind that would have both sides ultimately desert their original function and devote themselves entirely to each other.

Overall, this is still an incredible book, and I would still highly recommend it! I'm sure it'll be popping up on this blog again in due time.

Next up, snapshots of life in Weimar Republic Berlin.

[destinylordoffreaks]

So I need to share this random thought I just had with you I don’t know how many of you guys watch or have watched DuckTales I grew up on DuckTales like vintage DuckTales but I’ve also seen the 2017 DuckTales which I enjoyed greatly one thing I know about the ducktails fandom is that for some reason a large part of the fandom ships Magica de spell And Gladstone gander

now I don’t know how many of you have seen the episode where is Scrooge‘s crimes are way to against the crimes of his enemies and all that crazy court in the sky nonsense that that episode was, but it reveal that Magica de spell‘s biggest grape with Scrooge is that he didn’t help her save her brother when he got turned into a bird right I mean he was already a bird but you get what I mean so here’s the thing

Gladstone is so lucky that if Magica de spell had just asked the idiot to find her brother and/or to find a spell to turn her brother back, it probably would’ve just fallen into his hand, and her brother would’ve just divebombed out of the sky and landed gently in front of them 

I just need to know if anybody else has had this thought

Oh, and for the record, my favorite DuckTales character is Donald Duck. He always has been even though he wasn’t in a lot of the original series but I also grew up on the Donald Duck shorts and for some reason he just really resonated with me so he’s also my favorite of the mane six Disney cast. 

[dearreader]

the thing that’s annoying about the barbie oscar’s discourse is that people are now using og as an excuse to be racist or are trying to defend margo not getting nominated for one reason or another. but that’s not the point. like yes i’m overjoyed and thrilled that the front runner is an indigenous woman (who is the first indigenous woman to be nominated in this category) and i’m hoping she wins. but that doesn’t mean i’m not pissed about the back that ryan goslings ken is getting more praise and admiration then margo robbie’s barbie is.

like the film is very much so feminism 101, which despite people bitching online was always the point as it’s meant primarily for children and it helped a lot of teens and women be introduced to the topic of feminism because they’d never learned it before, there were woman leaving bad relationships and teenagers crying because they felt seen in america ferreras monologue. yes, the film didn’t go to heavy into intersectionality but it still showed a lot of woman what they needed to hear and is also going to show young girls that it’s okay to not be perfect. this film was always meant to highlight woman as a whole.

so why is it that everyone is going crazy over ken? why are there 75 remixes of “i’m just ken” or the “kenenough” sweaters everywhere? why is ken getting more love and praise than barbie? THATS THE ISSUE! if ken hadn’t been nominated for best supporting actor i don’t think as many people would be upset (though their still would be discourse), but it’s the fact that KEN was nominated over BARBIE. the male antagonist is being given for love and appreciation than the actual lead or the director. like even ryan gosling is saying this is BS.

this is just a pointless rant but i’m just genuinely annoyed that everything i’ve seen is either racist or trying to call out how everyone upset is just angry because white feminism (which there is a lot of that, see the LA times article about this) when it’s actually more about how a film that’s feminism 101 is being snubbed and only praised for its male achievements.

like, whether or not margo or greta deserved to win is a whole other conversation to have. but the fact their not even nominated is a big issue with hollywood and the academy as a whole and it’s literally being perfectly demonstrated.

again, im excited that lily gladstone is the front runner because that is a HUGE achievement for feminism, but we can still acknowledge the elephant in the room

[gemsofgreece]

Opinion on Poor Things (maybe unpopular):

I finally got to watch the movie a few days before the Oscars. From the rest of the nominees, I have also watched Barbie (won't get it), the Killers of the Flower Moon and I intend to watch Oppenheimer. I won't have time to watch any of the rest before the awards.

The funny conclusion I landed on after watching Poor Things is that I liked it for all the reasons that most others considered as only secondary virtues.

The acting is cool, including obviously Emma Stone's, but I am not exactly sure it's Oscar-worthy but then again I don't know how good the other nominees were, except for Lily Gladstone, whose performance was subtle yet amazing. However, this one which has also its own share of fan admiration, was in my opinion too subtle for its own good. Like, yeah, that perfectly accurate face of internal resignation but is it award worthy when it's the same face for nearly four hours? Back to Stone, I have this feeling her performance is more praised due to how risky and demanding it was (almost certainly the riskiest performance by a big name in Hollywood) rather than for how excellent it was in itself.

It's interesting how this movie did not pass the message to me at all. I got what it meant to explore; sexual liberation, freedom, living the moment, enjoying life, women taking their place in the world and fields gatekept by men, the fragile male ego but... for a movie that is so supposed to be about finding yourself, exploring the world and living your life, it's amazing that it did not generate a single (1) emotion in me. Ironically, I didn't get how Bella was better than other conventional ordinary people resigned in their misery and societal expectations. How was Bella happier or wiser than any of those? When she ate 100 pastries and then threw them up? When she drank so much, she passed out in a corner and had a headache? When she had countless sexual encounters that eventually were mechanical and made no difference to her? When her impulsiveness led her to the [SPOILER] man that she once killed herself to avoid? Where exactly do we see her being assisted by her lack of filter and inhibitions? Furthermore, her empathy is entirely unconvincing (regarding the injustice and misery in the world) because in most other scenes she seems to be totally capable of cruelty. I am making all these points, not so much as a critique to the movie but because I was baffled by so many people saying "Bella was an icon and she had figured out how to live life and we are all trapped and unable to follow her example". How many pastries and bad fucks it takes to find the meaning of life?! Um, no. In the end, Bella ends up [SPOILER] back in her home studying anatomy, things that she could have done anyway as she grew without ever leaving Baxter's side. I am not saying it was wrong of her to leave or to make those choices she made (although of course several were just stupid), I am just commenting on how surprising it was that many people viewed this as a new positive take in life when we weren't even rewarded with one deep emotion. Bella hardly loves, hardly hates, never truly connects with nature (apart from an one second long scene in the beginning and those walks in sunglasses which are still very superficial) and the sense of being and still basically does not "understand" the world despite all the philosophy she reads. There is nothing profound about her. She has grown in the end but she is not changed. She just likes anatomy and sex. That was the case in the beginning and that is in the end. Oh, plus she throws some wordy meaningless sentences with a totally expressionless face. I guess the pacing was a little off and a better one could have helped make these themes be explored more thoroughly. But it's unacceptable for a movie of such a premise to not provide any heartwarming feeling or any thrill. It's just a very bizarre comedy. It does that well. But Bella is not really an icon to me. Nobody in this movie is a role model about how to view life. Maybe for how to NOT live it. Just a lot of diverse clutter but no real happiness or living.

The funny thing is that the most Oscar worthy aspects of this film were the technical ones and the direction (and I don't say this because I am Greek). I found Lanthimos' direction ingenious, eccentric, gripping. The cinematography and the visual effects are truly beautiful. The music and the costumes are very interesting as well.

I expect Nolan to take the Oscar, even though I haven't watched the movie yet, because 1) America and 2) I bet his direction was conventionally flawless and this certainly is appealing to Hollywood. But I really wish Lanthimos got some acknowledgment for this. Then again Lanthimos should have done a better pacing in the third part of the film or explore emotions better. On the other hand, Nolan's movie is three hours. I need to watch to see how effortlessly those 3 hours pass. Scorsese with his effing 3,5 hours won't get it either, however I will say that the premise of the movie was far more heart-wrenching and shocking to me. I had no idea this was an actual thing happening there. Killers of the Flower Moon was for me far more thought-provoking than Poor Things (or Barbie but I consider Barbie far inferior to all the rest).

I still gave Poor Things an 8/10 because it is enjoyable to watch.

P.S It took a short of a few seconds to be certain Robert Downey Junior should take the supporting role oscar and not Mark Ruffalo with his far too cartoonish performance.

[korkorali]

#I have Ideas(TM) on how I would want to handle the island scene #which in turn bleed into 'ideas on how I'd remake the show if I could'

#okay wait bestie where's your tangent analysis @justaboot

And that's all you needed to say in order to get me into full tangent mode so buckle up, I have no idea where this is gonna go!

(Posted as its own thing and put under a cut because hoo boy it is long- seriously, open at your own risk)

First thing's first- I'd make it so that Della's attempts to evade the pursuing Moonlander ship lead to both the Sunchaser and the Moonlander crashing on the deserted island. This would be so that the 'comedy' aspect necessary could be largely carried by a third party -a very confused Moonlander who is pretty sure that none of this is healthy- which would allow for the main cast to focus less on having to become comic relief. And I'd also have it happen for one other reason (which will become quite relevant later).

But the biggest thing I think about the island scene is that it had a lot that it wanted to do (show the twins interacting again for the first time in ten years, show that Della really isn't as okay as she'd like to admit, wrap up Louie's arc, allow the kids to interact with Donald again for the first time since the beginning part of the season), and didn't really have a bunch of time to do it in.

So to change that, I would make the deserted island scene it's own full episode. (Which would subsequently mean changing Moonvasion from a two-episode finale into a final arc- which would still really start with Timephoon).

It would allow for it to cover a lot more, go into more depth with the characters and their interactions with each other, starting with...

Della and Donald's first interaction with each other to be fighting. That'd be a very big part of what I'd want the episode to be about.

They're both exhausted, traumatized, angry, relieved, scared- they've got a whole cocktail of emotions brewing inside of them and they're just so tired of it all.

The episode before The Island would basically end with Della and the kids crashing onto the island and having Donald enter screen. It'd also end with Scrooge and the gang having 'beaten' Lunaris (thanks in large part to Fethry and Gladstone having shown up just in time), which, again, will become relevant later.

The episode would start in largely the same way as the island scene but a little more drawn out, with Donald and Della just sort of stuck in a 'is this actually real? Did I die and just not notice it?' trance before the kids snap them out of it.

And once they do, once they finally approach each other for the first time in ten years and the kids are all waiting with baited breath to see what'll happen... they don't fight.

Not at first.

They also don't cry and hug each other either. They just- greet each other. Awkwardly. Stilted, like they've forgotten how to act around each other. (And they haven't, but they're so scared, they don't want to ruin things and everything is going wrong and they don't want this to go wrong and after so long apart are they even the same people anymore?) So they to be polite, like 'How are you? What's happening? Why are you here? It's good to see you, how's life been?'

And of course the kids would think it's weird- they're twins, and yet they're acting like complete strangers around each other!

But as the conversation progressed, things would start to get more heated. 'Why weren't you around? Why didn't you try to find me? Why'd you leave Scrooge? Why didn't you send any messages? Why didn't you tell the kids about me?' Before they knew it, it'd turn into a full-on screaming match, ten years of pain and regret and loneliness and 'why did you leave?' all forcing it's way to the forefront, unable to be held back because of all the pain running through everybody's minds right now.

And the big difference comes in in that they wouldn't stop fighting. They wouldn't suddenly go 'I missed you' and have everything be okay. The kids would step in and pull the two of them away from each other, so that they wouldn't end up fighting while they've got a hostage (the Moonlander, whom the kids -namely Webby- would've tied up in the background during the whole fight) to talk to.

The moonlander explains what's happening as they're interrogated, and the kids start making plans to get off the rock. Della immediately objects, saying that they need to stay put, and looks to Donald for backup (after all, she knows her brother, right? After everything they've been through, and everything the kids have said about him, she knows that he'll probably advocate for the kids staying out of danger, too).

And Donald instead sides with the kids (which hammers home that Donald has indeed changed to Della). They need to get off the island and go help. And immediately they start making plans to fix the Sunchaser to fly out.

To which Della still objects. Much more heartily, this time. Everyone's a little concerned at the heat to her objections, which she brushes off by insisting that everything's fine, that they're all fine here, that Scrooge has it handled, that they're safer here, that they can't leave her behind, that all their needs will be taken care of, that all these thoughts of bravado and being able to leave in the first place are just going to hurt and they should just give up now, that they're obviously just delirious from lack of oxygen and should change out their Oxy-Chew, she has some spares in her pocket that they can use if they...

Oh, no.

And everything would come crashing down around Della in that moment. It'd click in a really ugly way for her- she's not on the moon anymore. She isn't.

And yet, she's still acting like she is. And has been the entire time- she stopped acting like 'Della' and she doesn't know when, but she realizes that every time something's happened since she came back she's first reverted to 'Moon Della' problem-solving than anything else.

And that'd be overwhelming in and of itself, and including the fact that the sun is glaring down overhead and the kids are staring at her like she's grown a second head (like she's been afraid of ever since coming back) the fact that she doesn't actually know if Scrooge will be alright or not and that's killing her inside (it would've been so much nicer if she could've grabbed him and loaded him on the Sunchaser as well) the fact that Donald is staring at her with that concerned look that she was sure she'd never see again (it's been so, so long)- it's all too much. She needs space.

So she runs away. Deeper into the deserted island, despite the cries of the rest of her family.

The episode would refrain from following Della in order to stick around with the kids and Donald. They all have some stuff to talk about after all, despite all of them being very worried about Della.

And they'd talk (I think they should all get to air out their grievances at their names at least a little), and hug, and try to decide what the next course of action will be. Most of them want to try and find Della, but Donald assures them that she'll be fine, and it'd be better to figure out how to get off this rock before they 'go and try to kidnap her to get her outta here' (He's still a little upset with her).

That being said, at least at the start all of them head out to go search for her as a group (and have a talk about how 'She's a lot different than you made her out to be'/'I don't think she's the same Della who left you behind'/'She really missed you'/'And I know you missed her too')

One by one, after they've said their piece to Donald (most of which are some variation of 'give her a break, she's been through a lot'), each member of the search party would fall back to the beach. They aren't getting anywhere, they need to get work, and they need to trust that Della will come back to them.

In the end it'd just be Donald and Louie, and Donald would mention something about how if Louie has something he'd like to say about the subject, it's okay if he wants to share it. Donald would be happy to hear it, even if it kinda hurts.

And Louie just shrugs and asks Donald what he would've said to them if he'd been there when Della returned. What he would've said if they'd had issues with her coming back and didn't know how to handle it.

Donald would say that he would've assured them that they didn't have to forgive her if they didn't want to. That just because she came back, just because she's sorry, just because she didn't want to hurt them, doesn't mean she didn't. And they're not required to forgive her- even if they do want her to be a part of their life.

And Louie would just say 'Then right back at ya. If you don't wanna forgive her, then don't. If you do wanna forgive her, then do. If it's more complicated than that, then let it be complicated.'

After that (and maybe a little bit of Donald hiding his tears) Donald would say that he should get back to the others to make sure they hadn't killed the hostage, but that he trusted Louie, and if he wanted to keep searching then he should.

Which Louie would do- and only a little bit after Donald left, he'd find Della. Alone in a small oasis, on her back, staring up into the sky.

Now going way back for a moment before continuing (you remember how I said this would bleed into 'how I'd change the show in entirety?'), something that'd be vaguely important to this scene would be a change to Glomtales.

Specifically (a 'canon change' that I've seen talked about on the internet before and gone 'ooh yes gimme' to) that Della didn't head out with the rest of the family on the adventure. Instead, she stayed behind with Louie while he was grounded- which would change a lot of the issues with Glomtales in my humble opinion.

It'd make it more interesting because it'd really hammer home just how alike Louie and Della are. Mainly by having her thwart his every escape attempt by always being one step ahead of him (because she knows the mansion, knows how she would attempt to escape, and knows the order she'd most likely do it in).

It'd also allow for them to have a talk in the Glomtales episode as well- because Louie pointed out in Timephoon that 'Hey, you did the exact same thing, you know' and it would have been really really great to have had Della be able to respond 'Yeah, I did. Look at how that turned out, kiddo.'

She would've sat him down around the end and explained why she was so insistent that he needs to not keep messing around in the way he has been (because it reminds her way too much of how her childhood was and that didn't exactly lead to a healthy outcome), definitely also accidentally pull back the curtain just a tad on the fact that she is not okay (which would lead to Louie mostly just being concerned about her instead of listening), and would allow her to say, specifically-'Your family will always try to be there for you. We will always gladly be your safety net. But having the best safety net in the world means jack if you refuse to use it. And if you keep going doing what you're doing, you might end up in a place where we can't reach you.' (Which, sidenote: I think is what they were attempting to get across in the show, but just kinda fucked up at.)

And largely Louie wouldn't really take what she said into consideration until The Richest Duck in the World, where he'd very quickly find himself in exactly the position Della described.

Anyways, all that said, going back to The Island. Louie finding Della, alone, not doing the greatest.

And Louie would do what Louie would do. He'd head over, lie down right next to her, and make some dumb quip, which she'd snort at and return. ('Seems a little difficult to stargaze in the middle of the day.' | 'Hah- after the moon, any 'starry night sky' on earth just looks completely blank.')

And they'd finally talk. Della would get to explain how she didn't see this coming, and how much that sucks. And Louie would be like well it's not your fault Lunaris is a conniving ass, but Della would shake her head. It's not that she didn't see this betrayal coming (well, she didn't, but honestly at this point in her life it wasn't much of a surprise), but how she didn't see- this. Herself. Breaking.

She never saw this coming. Maybe she just hadn't been looking, but she never could've believed that she'd break like this. That she'd carry this- weight around, even after the moon. (She'd escaped the moon, after all. She really thought she'd be able to leave it all behind.)

She was Della Duck, for crying out loud. She always claimed that nothing could stop her, and yet- here she was. Unable to move on.

And Louie would agree. She couldn't move on- not by herself, at least. But what was it she'd told him, again? 'Family was a great safety net, but only if you actually used it' or something like that?

There was no shame to be found in breaking sometimes. You couldn't be expected to keep moving forever, without any breaks, until the end of time. Hell, he broke all the time- and took breaks all the time too, which helped a lot.

And there was no shame in asking for help, either. In admitting that you cannot solve every problem on your own, that you can't see every problem on your own- sometimes stuff affects you in ways you'd never be able to catch on your own.

But she wasn't alone anymore. She had family. And she could break now (well maybe not now-now, since the world was kinda ending at the moment), let herself shatter. And they'd all be here to help her pick up the pieces.

Della would 100% be in tears by this point, and Louie would bust out the song for her and Della would finish it (because that's just a beautiful scene), and Louie would get to explain to her after she asks that Donald sang it to them every night when they were little.

And that would be what finally gets her up and ready to head back. Ready to talk to her brother again, to face the world.

So the two would head back to the beach, where the Sunchaser is still kind of in disarray (without Launchpad around, none of them know how to fix it quickly), though the Moonlander has managed to get the rocket in pretty much tip-top shape by this point.

The kids notice that Della's back first, and immediately run to give her a hug (she apologizes profusely to them for her 'episode' back there, and promises not to react so poorly to one should it happen again), then back off to let her and Donald talk again.

And, again, they're back to that- awkward stage. They've forgotten how to interact with each other.

Della makes an effort to resolve this by lightly punching him on the shoulder. 'You refused to tell 'em anything about me, but you sang my song for them every night, huh?'

And Donald would snort and bandy back. 'Well hey, it was a good song. ...And even if I couldn't manage to talk about you, I thought they deserved to know a part of you, at least.'

And finally (finally), it'd come crashing down for both of them. Della was back. Donald was back. After ten (well more like eleven but who's counting) long years, they were finally back together.

Cue the waterworks. They'd immediately launch into a hug that looked like they were trying to squeeze the air out of each other, blubbering unintelligibly all the while.

Then the scene would be cut short by a loud booming noise. Off hundreds of miles out in the distance, the large Moonlander mothership would be seen blasting up, up, up into space.

And they'd breathe a sigh of relief (and maybe a little disappointment from the kids). Apparently things had been resolved while they were away. Lunaris was retreating. They were okay.

And then the mothership would turn around. And everyone's stomach would drop.

And that would lead into the final (or maybe penultimate if I wanted to be really self-indulgent) episode of the arc, which would start with the end of the episode before the island- Lunaris's defeat at the hands of Scrooge (well really Glomgold, Gladstone, Fethry, and Mitzy). The group is celebrating, momentarily not paying as much attention as they should. Lunaris takes the opportunity to run back to the ship and launch it into space. Everyone's like 'ah damn, wish we hadn't let him get away, but still- a victory's a victory.' At least, until the ship turns and they realize that he's going to try and do a suicide run into the earth. Which is good for absolutely nobody.

And as they realized this, a battered Moonlander radio that had fallen out of one of the ships nearby would start blinking.

Back on the island, the group would be freaking out. What could they do? What was gonna happen? The earth was doomed, everything they did, everything they tried to do- all for nothing.

And Della would look to the fixed up Moonlander ship, steady her shaking hands, and move towards it. And Donald would notice, understand exactly what she was going to do, and immediately run to object.

And they'd have an argument that, while we never saw the first, mirrors the last fight they had before Della went up into space the first time. Which Donald would hint towards by saying stuff like 'I just got you back, I can't lose you again!'

But Della would manage to cut him off eventually. This time was different. She wasn't running away. She knew the risks, she knew that this probably wouldn't end well.

There'd be a whole argument of 'It's the only thing we can do! Would you really be willing to let the whole world die for one person?' 'Yes!' 'Then what about the kids?'

Complete silence.

Della would tell Donald that she knew what he'd pick. If it was between her or the kids, she knew who he'd choose, every time. Even if it would kill him each time. Hence why she wasn't making him choose.

She'd then look over his shoulder and ask the kids if they'd ever seen what the stars looked like outside of the city. When they'd mention that no, they hadn't, she'd offer to show them.

With strengthened resolve and clear minds, the group would all head into the ship and fly up, up, and up to go meet Lunaris's vessel.

But there'd be a complication. Maybe caused by the earth moving out of orbit, maybe just pure coincidence, but as the Moonlander ship made its way into orbit, it'd slowly get harder and harder to see. To navigate. Maybe Della was just cursed, or maybe some force in the universe just really hated her guts- the second time she rocketed up out of earth, she was greeted by another cosmic storm.

But this time would be different. It had to be different- her whole family (obviously much more important than the world) was relying on her now. So instead of waiting, instead of trying to brave it herself- she immediately flips on the radio and tries to hail someone who could guide her through the storm.

And back on earth, Scrooge would pick up the blinking radio and his niece's voice would come out of it. Tinny and slightly shaking, but still putting on a brave face. As she says 'Hey, so promise not to be mad, but I might need your help,' he'd realize what's going on. It's happening again. His going to lose his whole family. Again.

Except- it wasn't happening again. Because this time it wasn't just him and Della. This time Donald was there. And Beakley. And Webby, and Huey, and Dewey, and Louie and Fethry and Gladstone and Launchpad and even Glomgold for crying out loud!

It wasn't just two people acting like they were gods this time. It was a whole group, a whole family, with a mission.

Since the mothership touched down close to the Money Bin, Scrooge could quickly get the remains of the earth team to the long unused command module. A little bit of blowing off dust and very shoddy science, and they could get it working- mostly.

It was nothing fancy, nothing wonderful, but all their heads combined they could figure out a way to track the mothership through the cosmic storm, and lead the space team to it.

What would follow would be a bit of a cat-and-mouse game between the mothership and the Duck ship, with the cosmic storm acting as cover and sort of a mask for both ships. They'd both be flying blind- but the Ducks would have the earth team to guide them. (Mostly Scrooge and Beakley, though Gladstone, Fethry, and Launchpad would help as well- Glomgold not so much. He would be trying, though, and that's gotta count for something, right?)

And all combined, they'd manage to do a decent job! They'd deal significant damage to the mothership, especially when taking into account just how small their ship is in comparison.

But even with all of that, disaster would still strike. In the form of a lightning bolt from the storm getting a lucky shot and frying their systems, leaving them dead in space (it would be specified that it was only temporary, though- the Moonlanders had built in backup systems that'd take over should a cosmic storm fry them after Della told them her tale). Which would already be bad enough- and then the storm would clear.

Granted, that would bring momentary relief to Della (flying through it would not be comfortable for her for pretty much the entire time) it would quickly be replaced by dread. Because without the cover, without the engines- they're sitting Ducks. Lunaris would very easily end them.

Thankfully though, it would end very similarly to how the Moonvasion ended regularly: Penumbra would come flying in at the last moment (in the original Spear of Selene, no less) and blow up the ships engines, momentarily leading to a tense moment where it seems like she died- then she slams onto the window of the Ducks' ship, and it'd be okay.

For the space team, at least. When their systems were fried momentarily, they'd also lose the radio. So earth team -specifically Scrooge- would have to sit in anticipation and dread as it really did seem like everything was going wrong exactly like it did last time.

And then the radio would blip back on, the signal would come back, and the earth team would rejoice. Everyone would rejoice- the earth would get pushed back into position, the space team would land back at the mansion and everyone would get to have a 'We Just Successfully Averted the End of World and Nobody Died! Thank Fuck!' Party.

(And if I was being really self-indulgent -which I totally haven't been already- I would make the 'holy shit we actually made it' party it's own final episode, maybe with a little bit of the 'fighting the big bad mothership' part for the beginning.

It'd actually largely be after most of the other people had left or had passed out in one of the guest rooms, and would be a bit of a mirror to the first episode of the season- Game Night. But this board game night would be -relatively- more chill, and just a thing focusing on what the Duck-McDuck family does to cool down after a large adventure like that.)

So yeah that's like- a little bit of my tangent of 'How I Would Change Ducktales If I Wanted To Make It A More Dramatic And Plot-Heavy Show'

If you got this far I hope you enjoyed it (and I feel real sorry for you if you didn't)

TL;DR: I'd make it so that the Moonvasion finale was instead a final arc, and I'd make The Island a full episode in its own right. I'd also make it so that they fly up to meet Lunaris in a space fight right after The Island, leaving Scrooge and the other cousins to guide them through a cosmic storm

[the-marron]

@dobranocka, as requested:

I haven't managed to finish Priest's Tai Sui this year because reading on the phone is tiring for me, so that's a fail 😓 I also didn't finish Journey to the West yet (for the same, pdf-shaped reason).

But!

I have five book recs that I read this year and I absolutely reccomend if anyone is interested!:

Min Jin Lee's Pachinko

An amazing story, and so beautifully written too! Different family members offer different point of views, different values and different struggles, and the author tackles this with a great dose of skill and understanding, leaving the judgement to the reader. Thank you for reccing this to me, Ascel, I loved it.

2. Yan Ge's Strange Beasts of China

A collection of urban fantasy stories... or is it? Loved the ideas, loved the execution, had a nice crisis about one of the stories. The only thing I have to complain about is that the Polish version looks nicer, I mean, look at it:

Again, recced to me by Ascel, thank you dear, you give me the best stuff to read 🥺 (I will give it back to you, I promise. One day)

3. Rin Usami's Idol, Burning

A very short but poignant story about fandom and the bond between the fan and the idol - this is all I can say without spoiling anything. Once again, I must say, I like the Polish cover better:

4. Jang Eun-Jin's No One Writes Back

I cried. Badly. I have nothing more to say, this novel is just beautiful.

Also, again, Polish covers agenda:

5. Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone's This is How You Lose the Time War

The form, the concept, the references to so many works that I will probably keep on hunting those down in the future as well, just to feel like an accomplished Pokemon collector and DID I MENTION EPISTOLARY ROMANCE???

I had lots of fun reading this one, short as it is, and I still talk about it fondly, to the point of flinging it at my sister with a 'READ THIS'. Funnily enough, the Twitter Vash person did me a solid here.

Anyone has got some recs for the next year? 👀

[tokuvivor]

Duckverse June Week 3: Sport Day

And now, I give you…

It’s All in the Numbers

One afternoon, Huey was sitting in his room, reading, when Dewey came in, a small envelope in his hand.

“Hey, little bro,” Huey began. “What’s up?”

“Soooo…” Dewey began. “I, uh, wanted to ask you something.”

“Okay?” Huey implored.

“I was wondering if you wanted to go to a baseball game with me,” Dewey spat out.

Huey raised his eyebrow in confusion. “Wait, what?” he asked.

“I’m not joking, dude,” Dewey replied.

“Really? You want me to go to a baseball game with you? Why not Launchpad?”

“He and Gosalyn are doing some kinda father-daughter stuff.”

“Okay, that rules out Gosalyn, too, then,” Huey reasoned. “Webby?”

“She’s doing a sleepover with Lena and Vi.”

“Mom?”

“She and Uncle Donald are doing a “cousins’ night out” with Gladstone and Fethry.”

“Okay, besides them, why me?” Huey questioned. “I’ve never been that super into sports. I mean, you’ve seen me announce with Launchpad. He certainly had it down better than I did, especially with wrestling.”

“I don’t know, you might find it interesting,” reasoned Dewey. “Besides, I don’t know where in the heck Louie is. Probably somewhere binging Johnny and Randy’s new show. Please?”

“Okay, I’ll go,” Huey replied. “And I’ll try to seem interested.”

“Yes!” Dewey cheered, hugging his brother. “You’re the best, Huey.”

“Thanks, but don’t let Louie hear you say that,” replied Huey.

A few hours later, the two brothers arrived at Duckburg Field. This was a summer league game, which meant that collegiate baseball players from all around the country were playing on teams like this, in the hopes of one day making it to the big leagues.

The Duckburg Gulls were taking on the Rouen Renegades, and Dewey had made sure to come prepared.

“Here,” he said, handing Huey a blue baseball cap. “Put this on, so you’ll fit in better. Don’t want our guys thinking you’re a Renegades fan.”

“Okay…” Huey replied, a bit confused, but he still swapped out his usual cap for the Gulls cap. “What now?”

“We scope out a seat. They aren’t as rigid with seats in these kinds of leagues as they are at higher levels,” Dewey explained. “Mostly because just about all of the seating is grandstand stuff.”

The two picked a couple seats along the first base side of the grandstand.

“Alright, I think we’re good on the view part,” Dewey reported. “I’ll get us some food. Do you want anything in particular?”

“Maybe just a lemonade?” Huey replied, unsure of what to think.

“You got it. I’ll be back soon. In the meantime, soak it all in.” And with that, Dewey was gone.

Huey’s eyes wandered around. There were all kinds of different fans-families, work groups, couples, even some people coming on their own.

He then looked down at the program that Dewey had picked up. On it, there were different statistics printed for both Duckburg and Rouen. “Okay, this seems promising,” he said to himself.

Huey was amazed at how many different statistics were printed. It honestly surprised him that so many numbers went into baseball.

He noticed there were percentages printed on the hitters’ stat lines. He looked at the first one, labeled “AVG”. He decided to figure out what it meant.

Huey went down to a player with a .290 average. He went through the various numbers to the left of it, until he picked up on the formula: it was his total of hits (9) divided by his total of at-bats (31).

But a lot of the other averages displayed on the page didn’t seem as straightforward. Huey decided to look up “baseball calculations” on his phone. And lo and behold, he was able to find a webpage that had what he was looking for.

“Wow,” he said. “This is incredible.”

“What’s incredible?” came Dewey’s voice from behind him. The blue-clad triplet had returned from the concessions area.

“All these statistics for the different players,” Huey replied. “What exactly is the standard, though? What would be considered a viable goal for a player to reach, stats-wise?”

“It depends on the player,” explained Dewey. “Some go more for speed, others rely on power, some even try for a balance of both. Like Ronald Racuña, Jr.” When Huey looked confused, Dewey clarified, “Professional outfielder.”

“Okay,” Huey replied. “I think I got you. Honestly, you were right, Dewey. This is very interesting. I think I’ve found my angle when it comes to watching this.”

“Alright!” Dewey cheered. He was glad that his older brother was able to find something he could latch onto when it came to baseball. He handed Huey his lemonade. “We’ve still got some time before the first pitch. I’ll tell you what I know.”

“I’d like that,” Huey grinned.

Even though Huey and Dewey didn’t usually have things in common, they loved spending time together, whether it was with any of their family, friends, or by themselves. And now, they figured, they could add something new to their list of things to do together.

[mygreatadventurehasbegun]

Killers of The Flower Moon

I really wish I had seen this movie in a theater. It came out during a really busy time for me, and I only had one free day where I could go, but something came up and I missed out. But the movie finally dropped on Apple TV and so I made a point to watch it last night.

Damn, this is a great movie.

It is three and a half hours long and it doesn't feel like it. There were moments when I thought maybe 10 minutes had passed when it had actually been a half hour. The pacing is perfect and not a second of that time is wasted.

The only reason I noticed the time was that I had to keep pausing the movie...to grab my dinner, answer an email, run to the bathroom, etc. So, I would recommend that when you watch it to have zero distractions. Put your phone in another room if you have to.

Because this movie has a ton of characters and is full of intrigue...characters are constantly plotting or talking around what they mean that if you look away for even 30 seconds you will miss something important.

Every performance across the board was fantastic, but I was especially impressed with Lily Gladstone as Mollie. She brings such a quiet strength and dignity to a character who is going through absolute hell.

And this movie also looks phenomenal...there are so many gorgeous landscape shots and beautiful cinematography...another reason I wish I had been able to see this in the theater.

I don't really want to say much else about the movie itself...it really just needs to be seen. Though I will say, a couple of actors popped up in the movie that I didn't realize were in this...and there is one cameo at the very end of the movie that I 100% did not see coming...it was a very nice surprise that I wouldn't dream of spoiling.

This movie come out on Blu-Ray in a couple of weeks, and I am absolutely going to grab myself a copy.

[albiclalepsza]

Ok. So I'm going to rant a little about the nominations.

I love that Past Lives and Anatomy of a Fall got nominated for best picture. If Past Lives wins I'm going to be so happy, apart from Godzilla it's my favorite movie of the year.

Margot Robbie got snubbed, which is such a shame because her performance in Barbie was phenomenal. Especially since both Ryan Gosling and America Ferrera got the nominations (my theory is that it's because of how viral Ferrera's monologue went and how popular everything about Gosling is). Keoghan also didn't get the nomination when he acted his ass off so much. Gladstone got the nomination thankfully, hope she gets an Oscar, that scream she lets out when she finds out about her sister's death was genuinely bone chilling, the rest of her performance was stunning too. I'd like to see Natalie Portman nominated too, she was great in May December.

When it comes to animation, at this point I'm wondering what does Pixar have to do to not get nominated??? Elemental is aesthetically the most boring movie ever, can't say what the plot is like since I couldn't be bothered to watch it but it's probably really bland in story aspects as well. I haven't heard of Robot Dreams before but probably everything on the list is infinitely better than fucking Elemental. I hope Nimona wins, both because of how great it was both as a movie and in its message, and partially because I want to see Disney humbled after they cancelled it for being too queer. But both Across the Spiderverse and The Boy and the Heron are great too, so they could win as well.

Nothing You Can Take From Me from The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is not on the list for the best og song which is sad, such a bop.

For some fucking reason Indiana Jones got nominated for the score, probably because it reminded the people voting for the nominations what the Indiana Jones theme sounds like. It just reuses the motifs from the previous scores without doing anything interesting. They don't have the guts to nominate Godzilla, which actually did phenomenal things with classic sound themes and complimented them with new ones.

Godzilla got a nomination for the best effects but with that competition I don't think it'll go to them. If someone gave me the means to pick nominations they'd get a few but well, I don't have that power. Rye Lane also didn't get anything. It was really visually interesting so I hoped they'd get at least one nomination somewhere, but no.

My most out of pocket picks, if someone would hand me the power to nominate shit would be John Wick 4 for best cinematography and Full River Red for best og score and best og screenplay, but since that's a Chinese production that was never going to happen.

So yeah, as per usual, a pretty disappointing year, will probably get worse when they actually announce the winners. Fuck you Academy Awards, see you in March.

Sorry @finch-connor but I haven't seen Fallen Leaves yet so I didn't put it anywhere

[monstrousproductions]

I trust your taste

Can you recommend some fiction books? Fantasy is highly appreciated!

Oooh what a sign of trust!! OK so I don't actually read a huge ton of fantasy, so I'll do my best with a couple of non-fantasy that I just can't resist mentioning at the end.

Also, this got... a bit long... so I'm putting it under a Read More lol

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K Le Guin - classic fantasy about a boy who becomes a great wizard. I realise this is likely one you've already read, as a fantasy fan, but it's a classic for a reason! Absolutely beautiful, and really powerful for me as a Quaker because of its rejection of the idea that fantasy must always be about The Goodie winning over The Baddie by doing killing better than them. If you've read it already, read it again lmao Also there's a new audiobook that came out a few years ago read by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith which is just brilliant.

The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin does come with a decent load of content warnings so do tread carefully if necessary, but it's also the best fantasy I've read in YEARS. The book is split over three different narratives in a world where magic users are an oppressed class, and again the audiobooks are amazing, read by Robin Miles.

Meanwhile I very much do NOT recommend the audiobook for Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb, though I did enjoy the book when I read it. The audiobook is, I believe, read by an American putting on what he thinks is an English accent, and um. Well. It sure is something. It's pretty classic fantasy too, and one of those books that you're like "what in God's name do you mean, this wasn't intended to be gay??"

The Heavens by Sandra Newman always makes my rec lists because it made me cry a lot and it's just very beautiful. Again the narrative is split, one taking place in an alternate, utopian present and one in Elizabethan England, with the narratives linked by the fact that the Elizabethan stuff is happening in the dreams of the woman in the present.

My favourite book ever is Fire & Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones, it's about an unlikely friendship between a girl and a young man with lots of fae things and that brilliant blending of magic and reality that DWJ does so well. It's so much my favourite that when I recommend it to friends, I ask them to please not tell me if they didn't like it - just pretend you didn't read it haha Honestly I recommend any DWJ, but F&H is my baby <3

Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees was one of those books I read once that just stayed with me. It's about a Perfectly Ordinary English Town that sees an influx of fairy fruit and has to deal with that, and while I'm fuzzy on remembering the details, I know I loved it!

And then because I actually read more SF than fantasy as a general rule, here's a jumble of SF titles that I adore (though I'll spare you the waffle!):

the Imperial Radch triology by Ann Leckie about a troop carrier who becomes a person (she also has a fantasy book - The Raven's Tower - if that appeals more and all her audiobooks in the UK are read by Adjoa Andoh who I would simply die for)

the Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells, about a security bot who becomes a person (audiobooks are read by Kevin R Free, of Nightvale fame, and they're brilliant)

This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, about two soldiers in warring time-travel factions sending letters to each other (also made me cry)

To Be Taught If Fortunate by Becky Chambers, about space researchers who change their bodies to adapt to the worlds they find and what ethical issues they come up against

The City We Became by NK Jemisin, about people who become living avatars of the different districts of New York to fight an alien presence (also a good audiobook - Robin Miles again)

All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai, about a man from a utopian timeline suddenly stuck in our timeline instead (good audiobook too)

Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel, about a travelling theatre troup in a world where civilisation collapsed after a terrible pandemic (obviously tread carefully wrt how upsetting that might be for you!)

And then it isn't SFF in any strict sense but The Man Who Was Thursday by GK Chesterton (Simon Vance does the audiobook I like) is just very very fun and good and I like it a lot. Also the Lord Peter Wimsey novels, for the same reason!