#Literally lived for his and Bernie’s dynamic

[happy74827]

So… I just watched Godzilla x Kong: New Empire and I just have two things to say {spoiler free}

-Kong and Zilla are so sibling coded

-Trapper.

…That’s all. Goodnight 🫡

[consistentsquash]

SEXPOSITION!!!! :D @danpuff-ao3!!!!

Sorry not sorry about the capitals screaming because this stuff is lit. It's 630 pages single bookbinding!!!! OMG. Danni really said go big or go home!!

Original rec list on Tumblr - The goal of this list was to rec Snarry fics great about using sex for exposition with a huge dick to word count ratio. The Big Dick Energy of these fics are totally 110% matched by the Big Dick Energy of the bookbinding Danni did :D Also I probably am the luckiest reccer and maybe one of the top 1% (suck on that Bernie!!!) because Danni bound my rec list and whoa total honor :D :D Better than getting into Library of Congress :D

lots and lots after the cut :D :D it took me forever because my roof was like 50% roof and needed to fix that but pic time now :D :D

Ok, this book is from Busy Bee Book Bindery! It's got the coolest seal ever :D :D Also look at the special guy on the right :D we are flying :D

Also from the side

Also check out The Table of Contents!!!

1. Entwined by rexluscus

Danni picked the perfect symbol for this fic. It's dirtyhotbadwrong and its really really codependency :D

2. Pink Slip by Cluegirl

To be honest the corset is the One Image which just stays in my brain forever about the fic. I mean Voldemort one and the Order folks are now "fosterlings" and things are really dirtybadhotwrong but the corset imagery lives in my head rentfree :D Danni really got that one right :D :D

3. made to be broken by @theshopislocal

Really love the feather/light/vulnerability vibes of the symbol. It totally matches the beautiful fic with vulnerable Snape written in classic Snarry slash vibes.

4. Warm by @perverse-idyll

Warm :D Total vibe match for the PWP established relationship comfort read vibes of the fic. Because this is the Snarry PWP and established relationship fic as far as I am concerned :D

5. Green Grow the Rushes, O by eldritcher

I mean this one really is the perfect symbol again :D Harry has a jackal's head like Anubis because he is that good bad at Animagus stuff. The Snarry bestiality fic/creature fic as far as I am concerned :D

6. The Unforgivables by Dementor Delta and Cruise Director

I love love love the super direct symbolism of the wand in this fic :D It's just like Harry :D Kind of Slytherin and sneaky, kind of Gryffindor and risktaking :D Also lots of dumb luck and it works out :D

7. No Sex, No Galleons by Ziasudra

I mean literally nobody is paying Snape a ton of Galleons for his services :D Bad joke but I really love the symbolism of that for the fic which has a ton of characterization and dynamics around the concept of worth <3

8. Contempt by @danpuff-ao3

The most Snarry fic of 2020s for me <3 I am pretty much totally burned on Snarry because I feel satisfied and a big reason for that is Contempt. It was so brilliant, perfect and I don't really feel like reading new Snarry at the moment :D Also a perfect image for the fic. Innocence, guilt, beauty, ugliness, imperfection, flaws, penetration lots and lots of symbolism in that <3

9. Mostly Harmless by EmilyWaters1976

The imagery of the manacle is super on point for this fic which is dark, dubcon bittersweet with a happy ending :D

10. Death and the Open Mind by Loup Garou.

The final fic is super long at like 43000 words. I mean!!! That's like 150 pages!! 150 pages!! Danni is insane and brilliant. I really love the skull rose imagery which is perfect for the fic which is dark, dirtybadhotwrong and really really beautiful.

Also the intro :D

Also one of my fav parts from Contempt

Going to bed with Severus — to actually sleep — is Harry's favorite part. It's a bit awkward because they haven't discussed it, but Severus doesn't dissuade Harry from following him. The bed is lumpy and creaky and small. Severus is too bony to be a comfortable bedmate. Harry latches onto him all the same.

Also one of my fav parts from Warm

It was everything Harry wanted. It was the sort of sex he'd thought he could never have, and it made him so giddy he almost laughed out loud.

Also one of my fav parts from Green Grow the Rushes, O.

He has done his best to ward the boy in. He has done his best to follow the boy. But the boy is no longer a boy. With Minerva's voice, with a jackal's head, with skulls on his torso dying off one-by-one, he is godly and bestial, of no father's seed, of no mother's make.

Also of course back of the book

Also This got here by OWL POST

[argentisms]

THE SAINTS CAN'T HELP ME NOW, the ropes have been unbound i hunt for you with bloodied feet across the hallowed ground

THE EXTENDED ARGENT FAMILY. (2/2)

GERARD ARGENT | allegedly deceased in 2023 at 79 -- private security consultant & federally licensed arms dealer, hunter

CHARLOTTE ARGENT (NEE BOUCHARD) | deceased in 2005, at 59 -- stay at home mother, matriarch.

charlotte and gerard were the perfect match for one another -- the two each come from prominent families in the hunting community, and immediately hit it off when they met back in the 1960s. they marry young, and start their family soon after, determined to carry on their family legacies. they raised their four children with the same ideals and disciplines they grew up with, leaving no room to question their tactics. gerard was the clear leader, holding his control over his children through manipulation and carefully placed influence. while charlotte had a gentler approach, balancing out her husband's harsh ways of parenting with more compassion and understanding. together the two have four children -- chris, gabriel, bernard, and kate. though it's never actually confirmed, it's clear that the eldest of the four is gerard's favorite. given the tradition that women are leaders, charlotte called the shots for the family business -- while her husband executed them, often literally. unfortunately, an unexpected cancer diagnosis takes charlotte's life before any werewolf can. charlotte passes in 2005, buried in a family plot in the south of france, rocking an already fragile family dynamic.

GABRIEL ARGENT | deceased 2021, at 49 -- private security consultant & federally licensed arms dealer, hunter.

LEA DUBOIS-ARGENT | 52 -- trauma surgeon, matriarch.

in gabriel's case, second born means second place -- the argent has committed his life to living up to his parent's expectations, in both academics and the family business, only to fall short to his older brother. because of this, there's been a rift between the two since they were kids, finding in adulthood that distance is what makes the two able to deal with one another. thus, gabriel relocated to europe -- france in particular. it was decided gabriel would handle hunting affairs overseas with bernie, while chris maintained things in the states with kate. while in college, lea dubois enters the picture -- a no-nonsense surgeon to be, who's skills with the scalpel are quickly put to the test. the two marry, having three children of their own: beau (25), lucas (22), and louis (18). lea and gabriel are the mirror image of charlotte and gerard, training their children to be hunters as soon as possible. the two take a far more understanding approach, but make few exceptions regardless. after charlotte's passing, lea takes on the role of matriach for the family that's in europe, while victoria does the same stateside. despite their dedication to hunting and the code, gabriel and lea still fall short of unobtainable expectations, something that inevitably sends gabriel into an early grave. an attempt to prove himself to his father, gabriel takes on a hunt on his own -- his body is found a week later, torn to shreds from what is believed to be an animal attack. his death is nothing short of devastating, sending lea and their three sons further into the family business. as a child, allison only saw her aunt, uncle and cousins once or twice a year. she'd grown up thinking they were odd, and way too into hunting deer -- but had a good relationship with them nonetheless. after graduating, allison spent two years travelling, which included visiting/living with her aunt lea on and off, often visiting different countries with her cousins. while living in france after her mother's death, allison mostly lived with her aunt lea and cousins. she spent the majority of her time distracting herself by training with the latter, learning a majority of her combat skills from them.

BERNARD 'BERNIE' ARGENT | 49 -- cryptozoologist, parapsychologist, hunter.

there's no question that bernie is the black sheep of the argent family. while he's trained just the same as his siblings, his interested lied in the lore and knowledge of the supernatural -- rather than just cutting them in half. this turns into a career in cryptozoology, as well as parapsychology. a reputation for being a bit of a kook and a hippie made it easy to hide in plain sight, able to learn about the supernatural without arousing any suspicion. while bernie found this to be the perfect way to travel across europe, studying lore to add to the argent's ever growing bestiary -- his parents never approved of his career path, gerard going as far as calling him a disgrace to the family despite the knowledge they've gained from his traveling.

KATHERINE "KATE" ARGENT | deceased in 2023, at 43 -- 'private security consultant & federally licensed arms dealer, 'unemployed', hunter.

kate has always been the odd man out of the four argent children, being the youngest and the only girl. while the women in their family are trained to be leaders, kate has always tried to find her place as one of the boys. in true argent fashion, it was motivated by the need to prove herself to her parents -- before the thrill of the hunt and adrenaline that comes with it overtook the need to make her parents happy. there was a certain excitement that came with chasing a werewolf through the woods, playing a long con that would kill an entire family of them. despite working in the family business -- both hunting and arms dealing -- it quickly became apparent that kate was reckless, which was something that ultimately lead to her death.

[ruby-whistler]

i made a list of the vibes of the hermits i watch, so you might want to check some of them out! this is just mostly jokes, but i thought all of the more “serious” propaganda was missing something, so have what truly makes hermitcraft worth it; the players’ unique styles!

will be back on my dsmp stuff asap but it’s the first day of season 8 and i would really appreciate if you checked them out through the links provided :]

Grian; [ episode one link ]

vibes of a 17 year old mcyter, is actually 27 and married

noo not my red jumpah!

chaotic capitalist

someone is making the server better through order? *starts another war* whoops, hand slipped :D

he built a- he rebuilt his entire megabase in survival, above a giant lake of lava, in the nether, on hard mode, upside down??

“watching as scar dies over and over in my trap is peak comedy and i’m tired of pretending it’s not” but it happens like 5 times i every season

video editing is very main-stream and good for short attention spans!

*sad montage over losing stuff he’ll get back in 15 minutes because he’s rich*

pesky birdd! great elytra flier! amazing builder! will tnt your house! poultrymannn!!

wholesome, chaos incarnate, talented architect

why won’t mumbo respond to my messages it’s been two weeks :[ (clingy)

doors???????????? your house has doors???? no doors for you good sir!

will laugh a lot at a lot of things, esp when he’s with his friends

genuinely just so fun to watch

Mumbo Jumbo; [ episode one link ]

perfect british accent

mustache man (warning: he has no mustache irl)

*fails ten businesses in a row* iskall please help

redstone is his element

“it’s actually quite simple” i like your funny words magic man, now can you repeat how in the hell you made a that fancy vault work-

filmographer?? i think? met up with grian irl

him and grian have a robot son named grumbot. that has nothing to do with the vibes but i had to mention him because he means a lot to me.

tries to stay out of wars and server politics until someone (grian) drags him into them

minigame maker, makes the hermits competitive and that is scary (also very funny) e. g. button, hermit challengesss!

“it’ll be fineee” *que shot of everything on fire behind him*

makes his base a living being and then all his neighbors end up feeding it instead of him

conspiracy theorist. bumbo baggins. the usual.

very entertaining videos that help you learn more about minecraft mechanics!

GoodTimesWithScar; [ episode one link ]

wheelchair creator with literally the best vibes

so wholesome i. he is so cool he makes me so happy :’D

*extremely cool announcer voice* ooooo hello there my fellow miners and crafters, good timeees with scar heree, and welcome backk to the wonderful world of hermits and crafting, and we’re flying over-

commentates everything extremely well

spends tenths of hours on builds within a single video and doesn’t bat an eye

lore for all of his builds! he builds these amazing bases to tell a story!

“i wanna see white flags! white flags, outside your base, by-“ wait no wrong anti-rebellion army leader

all videos have a clear objective

mostly building, but he loves hanging out/helping his friends!

loves disney movies! wants to go to space! :D

kind-hearted, always makes everyone else smile

can be chaotic but usually just tries to have fun and make sure everyone else has fun too

*flies into a tree on half a heart* wait what why did i die D:

scar. scar please eat. you’re going to die for the tenth time this video-

the non-chaotic capitalist, has extremely creative shop designs

a danger to himself, but also the kind of person you can’t be angry at for long

BdoubleO100; [ episode one link ]

the guitar music at the beginning of his videos brings a smile to my face, it just has such an immaculate mood

*camera pans over him as said music plays* ladies and gentlemen welcome to another episode of hoimycraffff

the way he talks is extremely endearing

one of the best builders on the server - probably best builder of interiors in existence

able to make a palette using any number of strange blocks and then make amazing builds using it

built a whole castle as a backdrop, then built an entire giant mountain for said castle

extremely sensitive to short jokes, usually gets pranked by others because his reactions are always so funny

his daughters show up from time to time in his room while he’s recording and it’s so cute

*has no way to see the sun but still knows it’s nighttime* gotta go schleep!

scar, pointing at him “this is why we can’t have nice sunsets”

(scar dies because of mobs every time bdubs isn’t on the server to sleep)

likes to be accomplice because he isn’t the one being made fun of (/lh)

*shoots himself in front of a confused grian because he thinks the guy wants his face again when he’s actually just looking for a netherportal*

is usually the underdog so it feels good when he wins

they’re all actually such great friends so it’s genuinely funny to watch

he himself is amazing at entertainment and just a very cool guy

ImpulseSV; [ episode one link ]

what’s going on everyone, my name is impulse and welcome back to hermitcraft!

always speaks with a smile in his voice

has a good dynamic with basically everyone

great co-worker and always helps out if he can

had his base turned pink during the swap, and instead of changing it back afterwards, he dyed his skin’s hair and clothing pink to match it

very cool and original building style!

makes a lot of farms and sells what he gets in his few shops

makes money to be able to do more stuff and make more farms

blows up most his base ever so often to rebuild parts. you know, like a normal person does in minecraft survival.

the grind is never over

the guy who always gets all of the work done on the school project and proceeds to be chill about it

always has very cool side-projects going on and puts his heart into all of them

pog timelapses!!

Rendog; [ episode one link ]

*short, funny scene from the video at the beginning slowly fades out into great music

dogs howling as the half-dog half-cog logo comes up*

greetiiings cyberdogs and citizens of the interbubs! this is ren diggity dawg coming atcha, in another minecraft episodes varuuummm the hermit. craft. server. (hey!)

we’re kicking things off today my friends, from the- *location name on screen*

that intro gets me hyped every time

he’s a furry who talks in bro language it’s great i swear - very atypical but fun

he transformed an entire biome into a star wars planet for his base

his building skills and dedication are incredible

horny (just a little bit)

the only person who cared about mycelium in the whole rebellion

does a lot of roleplay-themed stuff and mysteries to be solved

“b-dubba-dubs one hundred”

extremely upbeat & sweet guy

adds -age after everything “biddage” “flyage” to make it sound Cooler

amazingly positive always and funny as hell

mcc winner!! wooooooooo :D

always tries to be where stuff is happening and interact with people

very entertaining editing style

Iskall85; [ episode one link ]

drives joke into the mud and then picks them up and does it again which is funny

starts videos with one-off bits

iskallman!!! the superhero literally no one needed and yet there he is

only has one (1) braincell when with mumbo

they both do and they’re hilarious together every time

like when they laughed at squeaky noises for ten minutes straight. guys please you’re adult men

bernie the leaf master

omega (something) of doom!!

encourages gambling (in a videogame)

he has so many jokes he keeps using i can’t possibly fit them all in here

basically a wildcard

i have no idea what he’s doing this season

i have no idea what he’s doing ever actually

tame chaos, confusing to the point when it’s funny again

really great builder as well!

mostly for younger audiences but his videos are a good watch in general

feel free to send asks about hc! i’m already loosely involved in hermitblr but yeah, my dsmp followers aren’t immune :] /lh /j

[marjanefan]

Beyond the Bottle Episode- How Inside No.9 uses a single location

Contains discussion of plot points/ spoilers for Twelve Days of Christine, Bernie Clifton’s Dressing Room, Diddle Diddle Dumpling, Tom and Gerri, Love’s Great Adventure, Misdirection, Lip Service, The Stakeout , La Couchette, Nana’s party, Last Night of the Proms , To have and to hold

One of the many interesting aspects of Inside No.9 which many commentators has praised the show for is how each episode manages to tell its story within a single location. It could be argued the location is a character in each story in its own right. I cannot possibly do justice to the many ways the show utilises single locations to tell its various narratives but hopefully this essay will give an interesting introduction.

There is a convention on television of setting an episode of an established show in a single location. These are referred to as ‘Bottle episodes’. Many successful television shows (particularly comedies) have a bottle episode, and they can be found across genres with episodes such as Breaking Bad’s ‘Fly’, Mad Men’s ‘The suitcase’ Dr Who’s ‘Midnight’ and a personal favourite Peep Show’s ‘Neither zone’. Bottle episodes are often used to explore the relationships between central characters in more depth and occasionally allow long held secrets to be revealed. These points are all worth bearing in mind when examining how Inside No.9 utilises single locations/spaces.

The show works with several genres (sometimes within the same episode!) such as comedy, horror and psychological thriller. These genres routinely use a single location to help to create a particular atmosphere, explore how characters interact and play with narrative forms- all things Inside no. 9 do wonderfully. Pemberton and Shearsmith have discussed how these genres, particularly horror, have informed their work. Directors such as Hitchcock (who made films such as Lifeboat, Rear Window and The Lady vanishes ) have utilised single locations in their narratives to create suspense and explore character dynamics. The concept of Inside no.9 grew out of the Psychoville episode ‘David and Maureen’ was inspired by the Hitchcock film ‘Rope’ which is set in a single location. Pemberton and Shearsmith have also performed extensively on stage and bring this experience to their ability to set a story within a single location. It has been commented that many episodes would work well on stage.

Pemberton and Shearsmith also build on the traditions in the horror genre of using a single location such as a haunted house to create atmosphere and tell a compelling narrative Indeed the horror episodes of ‘Inside No.9’ such as ‘The Harrowing’, ‘Séance Time’ and ‘ Private view’ acknowledge and pay tribute to these horror conventions.

Spoilers below

In episodes such as ‘Sardines’, ‘Nana’s party’, ‘Last night of the Proms’ , ‘Empty orchestra’ and ‘The referee’s a wxxxer’ the single space represents the claustrophobic and dysfunctional relationships of the characters. It also represents how central characters are trapped by their secrets and the unhappiness of their lives. This can still lead to a considerable amount of comedy through the frequently uncomfortable interactions of the characters and the various misunderstandings that occur. It is no accident that three of the five episodes listed occur at family parties. These episodes explore the tensions and difficult dynamics of families and the impact of a mixture of enforced joviality and too much alcohol of these events can permanently have on family relationships.

In episodes such a ‘La Couchette’, ‘Hurry up and wait’ and ‘Zanzibar’ we see strangers who otherwise would not have met thrown together in a small space, and the comedy and tension that ensues from the interactions that result. It is interesting to compare ‘La Couchette’ to Hitchcock’s ‘The lady vanishes’ – both of which are set on trains and which deal with characters who are thrown together dealing with a moral dilemma.

In episodes such as ‘The Riddle of the Sphinx’, ‘Tom and Gerri’, ‘Cold Comfort’ and ‘Simon says’ the single space becomes representative of the psychological conflict between the main characters, with control of the space itself being one of the areas of conflict. It is worth noting several of these episodes revolve around a character allowing a stranger into their lives by allowing them into a personal space such as their home, and the subsequent upending of their lives.

Some episodes also uses a single location to explore the psychology of its central character.

In Diddle Diddle Dumpling the house reflects David’s emotional state. It is all too neat and ordered, reflecting David’s emotional repression and failure to deal with his grief. The house also is filled with twinned and paired objects (Is this deliberate on David’s part?). It has been noted that ‘Diddle Diddle Dumpling’ is almost Kubrickian in the care and attention of the set design and uncanny atmosphere it creates. This is probably down to director Guillem Morales.

In ‘Tom and Gerri’ the deteriorating state of the flat reflects Tom’s worsening mental state. The growing number of empty alcoholic drink cans and bottles, junk food containers, and general mess reflect Tom’s growing dependence on alcohol, depression and lack of self -care.

Two of the most interesting uses of the single location are ‘The twelve days of Christine’ and ‘Bernie Clifton’s dressing Room’.

‘The Twelve days of Christine’ uses Christine’s flat as the backdrop for memories of significant moments of her life. The meaning of the flat changes as her situation in life changes. It goes from a carefree single pad to family home to a place where she must raise her young son alone. It is worth noting we see the day Adam moves in and apparently moves out (Jack’s first day at school).

‘Bernie Clifton’s Dressing Room’ uses the church hall as a space where Tommy and Len discuss and reflect on their different experiences of their career. The church hall is filled with mementos and props from Tommy and Len’s career and becomes the place Tommy tries to make his peace with his past with Len and how their personal and professional relationship ended. It is very probable Tommy set up the room in the particular way to prompt these memories (We see Tommy moving items around in the opening sequence). Just to discuss the specific use of location in a few other episodes.

I have previously written about ‘The Stakeout’. But just want to discuss again how in my opinion one of the central themes of the episode is how men relate and interact with each other. Thompson and Varney’s relationship plays out in the confined space of the police car.

In ‘Love’s great adventure’ the Mowbury’s house (specifically the kitchen) represents the Mowbury family itself and the strength of their commitment to each other. Patrick will always be made welcome into the family home in-spite of his problems and Alex will find support and company to help in his grief there.

In ‘To have and to hold’, the actual house itself conceals a major secret. The whole foundation of Adrian and Harriet’s marriage is quite literally compromised by what is at its foundations.

In ‘Lip Service’ the hotel room with its slightly sleazy and uncomfortable atmosphere of the hotel helps us understand Felix’s unhappiness and lonliness. It also puts the lead character into a space he is not familiar with which in part helps bring about events at the episode’s conclusion.

Sets are frequently full of detail, helping to add information about the characters and the situations they are in. In ‘The Riddle of the Sphinx’ the props reflect Prof. Squire’s long and illustrious career. In ‘Last night of the proms’ the clutter of the house reflects a family which is burdened by difficult debates about national identity and destiny and which is trapped in its past. Stubagful in his review of ‘Misdirection’ makes the point the fact we are given so much to look at in Neville Griffin’s studio it helps distract us from what is actually happening and how this complements how the episode comments on the art of the magician.

Inside No.9 continues to find interesting new locations to set its stories in and continues to show how you can use a single location to tell a compelling story.

[officialleotolstoy]

Oh Dolokhov/Hélène Brainrot We’re Really In It Now, aka Dolokhov/Hélène playlist annotations!

I stole several songs from a playlist my friends have and I’m not gonna put those on this list, I won’t pretend I came up with those

The ship playlists (since they aren’t for canon couples) are very much based on my headcanons. We don’t get to see them interact literally ever so I’ve just extrapolated what I can. Several of these songs are at least alluding to sex, I don’t really think they actually slept together for various reasons I can enumerate if someone asks, but it’s more about the vibes of the song.

Casual Affair - Panic! At The Disco

It’s literally in the title. Bestie how much more explanation do you need? I don’t even like this song but it’s got the right energy

Those Nights - Bastille

“Aren’t we all just looking for a little bit of hope these days? Looking for somebody you can wake up with?”

Being drawn to each other because of mutual loneliness is a Thing in my interpretation of their relationship, and this hits the nail on the head.

But It’s Better If You Do - Panic! At The Disco

“Praying for love and paying in naïveté”

Again, mutual loneliness and desperation for anything resembling love. Also the “isn’t this exactly where you like me” bit fits because they won’t admit to liking each other outside of their weird intimate moments.

Hurricane - Panic! At The Disco

“Drop our anchors in a storm”

The circumstances of their lives arent super fun at the moment so they find refuge in each other but in a very weird kind of unhealthy way! “We are a hurricane” sort of alludes to knowing that you’re causing problems/your relationship isn’t great.

Almost (Sweet Music) - Hozier

“I’m almost me again, she’s almost you”

It’s about not really being In Love but kind of convincing yourself you are because it makes you feel better in the circumstances. I don’t think either of them were fully into their relationship for various reasons. Not as in they didn’t want the other, more that they were both too aware it would never work for long.

Hall & Oates - Satchmode

“I want to be in love again, with you”

This one’s about wanting the idea of love and companionship more than you actually like the other person, which I feel like kind of fits. This song is framed as one person in love with the other and one hesitating, but i think this works for both of them to hesitate.

Feel Something - Jaymes Young

“Touch me, someone, I’m too young to feel so numb”

The I have tried like six times and I can’t word why I think this song works. I don’t even like it, I skip it every time, but I think it’s got something to do with loneliness and desperation for love driving them to look for it in places they wouldn’t normally? Who knows. Send me an ask if u do.

Another Place - Bastille

“Don’t make promises to me that you’re gonna break”

They could never actually be together for SO many reasons and I think they’re both pretty aware of that. They have no desire to pretend that their relationship is anything other than what it is (“we only ever wanted one thing from this”).

When You Were Young - The Killers

“You sit there in your heartache, waiting on some beautiful boy to save you”

I do not think Hélène expected Dolokhkov to save her from anything except maybe monotony and loneliness, but this song slaps and if I can stretch the lyrics to work, I will

broken - lovelytheband

“I could be lonely with you”

Almost every song on here (including this one) is just. We’re messed up and I know we won’t really find love in each other but we might find solace for a while and be less lonely so uhhhhh wanna kiss me or what

Bleed Magic - I DONT KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME

“You stand up, stand up, before I drag you down”

They are NOT good for each other! Toxic relationships uwu

Sweater Weather - The Neighbourhood

I believe in bi4bi Hélène/Dolokhov

Enemy Fire - Bea Miller

“Sweet words from a serpent’s tongue”

This song is kinda complicated and parts of it don’t fit but the energy of “everything sucks including you but at least we can hide from the suckiness together” is sorta there. Originally I just added it for the soldier vibes because I was testing out songs but I realized i can fit some of the lyrics so on the playlist it goes

Angel of the Small Death and the Codeine Scene - Hozier

“Her sweetened breath and her tongue so mean”

They are horrible and cold to each other as a love language. This song is essentially just “Wow my evil scary gf is so hot” and you’re right Fyodor. She is.

Shut Up and Dance - WALK THE MOON

I won’t lie this one’s mostly a joke, I just think the vibes of telling someone to shut up as (maybe because) you’re falling in love with them is Dolokhov/Hélène energy. Ignore all the parts about wanting to be with her forever and her being his destiny that is not why I added it.

Lone Ranger - Rachel Platten

“I’m just gonna leave, ‘cause baby I’m a lone ranger”

I do not think Dolokhov was intending to stay with her forever at all. Very rude of him. However, she probably also knew it wouldn’t last forever, she’s not stupid.

House of Memories - Panic! At The Disco

“Promise me a place in your house of memories”

This is very much post-duel, their relationship has fizzled out but it was pretty important (do I mean emotionally or to the plot? I’ll never tell) and deserves to be remembered.

American Beauty/American Psycho - Fall Out Boy

“I’m the best worst thing that hasn’t happened to you yet”

SO MANY of these lyrics are so good for them like. Hélène’s beautiful Dolokhov’s a psycho... “you take the full truth and you pour some out” can you imagine them being open and honest with each other? Yeah, me neither. “We were pity sex” They were just sad and lonely! That was what allowed anything to happen at all in my head (not sex but bear with me it’s not my fault those are the lyrics). “All those dirty thoughts of me, they were never yours to keep” because Hélène is married to someone else, they really have no right to think of each other that way.

Sk8er Boi - Avril Lavigne

“He wasn’t good enough for her”

UNIRONICALLY THIS SONG. Hélène’s complaints about Dolokhov staying with them are just the quoted lyric. “They had a problem with his baggy clothes” yeah Dolokhov’s not as rich and bougie and the rest of them and he’s certainly rough around the edges. And then the skater boy ending with a successful music career vs Dolokhov ending with a successful military career and a great reputation and both the women in the songs having sad endings...I’m not wrong.

Headfirst Slide Into Cooperstown On A Bad Bet - Fall Out Boy

“Does your husband know the way that the sunshine gleams from your wedding band?”

The affair vibes. The AFFAIR VIBES. And the concept of “I will never end up like him [the husband]/ behind my back I already am” in reference to using Hélène and deciding he hates her right after deciding she’s hot...okay! I see you kinning Pierre, Dolokhov. You ARE being just like her husband :/

You Give Love A Bad Name - Bon Jovi

“Shot through the heart and you’re to blame”

This is just Dolokhov’s massive I Hate Women monologue condensed. Stop blaming beautiful women for YOUR attraction to them maybe 🔫

Death Valley - Fall Out Boy

“Don’t take love off the table yet”

This is not a table sex joke this is not a table sex joke this is not a table sex joke this is n-

I didnt add it for that reason it was about a vibe but then. I realized. Now the original reason doesn’t even matter.

Nobody Puts Baby In The Corner - Fall Out Boy

“I’ll be your best kept secret and your biggest mistake”

Tell me the quoted lyric does not SCREAM Hélène/Dolokhov. You can’t. Also “I’ll weigh you down I’ll watch you choke/You look so good in blue” really captures hatred as a love language.

This is Love - Air Traffic Controller

Ok I stole this from my friends’ playlist but I did want to explain it because it’s not JUST Dolokhov and Hélène in my mind. The whole jealous fool second verse gives me Pierre around the duel energy as well

Bad Boy - Cascada

“Be my weekend lover but don’t be my friend”

Bernie Sanders voice I am once again asking you to hear me out about the unironic meme songs on my War and Peace character playlists. It’s got the refusal to admit that she actually likes hanging out with him down. The line “after some time you just pushed me aside” referring to Dolokhov teasing Pierre about their affair because he got bored. “I dont need you in my life again”...YEAH I’m fairly sure they dont interact in canon again after that.

Hayloft - Mother Mother

“My daddy’s got a gun”

This song started playing on accident once when I was listening to this playlist and I was like huh. It fits though. The gun thing is twofold: 1) Though he is not her father, Pierre does have a gun in the duel and 2) I think Vassily would happily shoot Dolokhov for his relationships with Vassily’s kids. It’s also just the general forbidden love vibes mixed with the violence vibes.

affection - BETWEEN FRIENDS

“I’m looking for affection in all the wrong places and we’ll keep falling on each other to fill the empty spaces”

Have I been clear enough about my thesis that their relationship is based in mutual loneliness? Also, I like the acknowledgment that this is in fact the wrong place. I think they’re both very aware of that.

Walk Away - Franz Ferdinand

“Yes I’m cold but not as cold as you are”

This song is for them post-duel. Especially the “I cannot stand to see those eyes as apologies may rise/I must be strong, stay an unbeliever” because 1) I hear the word eyes, I think of Dolokhov and 2) I think she’s too smart to believe any apology he would give her, she knows he doesn’t really mean it. The song kinda reads as someone trying to convince themselves they’re happy that the relationship is over, which I think is definitely what happens for both of them.

Van Horn - Saint Motel

“Tell me do you hate me? Or do you wanna date me?”

Obsessed with the dynamic of “I like you but that’s embarrassing for both of us I’m gonna act like I hate you instead”

[isuzukuretsuki]

Alright I finished Crimson Flower and after letting my thoughts marinate for a bit, I decided to do a very long write up on my thoughts. Despite the fact that I made a beeline for black eagles the moment I got the game because I had an extreme feverish passion for El at first, my thoughts on this route are unfortunately mostly negative. This is the first and only route I played so far, and I know very little about the events that transpire in the other routes.

Five thousand disclaimers that these are just my opinions that may or may not change when I play the other routes and it’s not meant to discredit folks who like Crimson Flower. Also there will be spoilers.

For starters, I think the story does a terrible job at convincing you that Edelgard’s actions are justified or even necessary. This route felt less like fighting to change the world for the better and more like a savage conquest with every chapter being El going like “we gotta kill this guy now” and I’m like “but why” and El’s like “WE JUST GOTTA”. I guess the right way to say it is that El’s route lacked emotional impact. I could not celebrate her victories with her because my only reaction was “was that really necessary” and “buddy why”. It ultimately felt like El was simply solving problems by creating more problems.

Instead of just saying “I want to uproot a societal system from its core so I have to overthrow the Church”, the story opts for El to give incredibly vague and wishy washy reasons on why the Church Is Bad. Something something, they’re not really humans and twist history??? The story forces you to do some crazy mental gymnastics to try and see El’s side of the story when everything just boils down to “Crests are Bad = Church is Bad”.

In Part 1, there was a lot of build up of the church’s obvious corruption and how they’re not to be trusted, but the build up falls flat because the story tries to make the reveal of Rhea’s beast form be the damning thing to convince the player that the church is so terrible that they have to be stopped even at the cost of thousands of lives... and well... in a franchise where almost everyone is secretly a dragon, that just did not sell me. 

We’ve been knew that Crests Are Bad but does that justify sacrificing thousands of lives to upheave the church? I dunno man..................................... the story doesn’t really put much effort to convince you that this is the Only Way and it doesn’t feel like El has put much thought into trying alternative solutions before jumping straight to murder because it was the easiest solution. Which sucks because I think exploring El’s methods and mindset would definitely make for an interesting conflict. The whole idea of if war is never justifiable, is it better to let everyone remain suffering under the status quo forever? El’s belief that nothing will change unless she takes direct action has validity to it, but the game just expects you to agree with her from the get go so El never truly has to stand firm and defend her values.

Edelgard’s decision to unify Fodlan is something I really, really side eye. She’s straight up invading sovereign lands and putting them under her own rule of her own volition. While yes, Church Is Bad, barging into someone else’s land uninvited to dictate how they rule their government and “fix their society” is ultimately something I find incredibly self righteous and arrogant. This idea of “fighting for peace” through not just instigating a war, but going on a violent conquest just seems... disingenuous to me? How does she plan on dealing with the lingering resentment from the folks whose land were conquered? She’s just replacing the crest system with an Empire who will murder anyone who stands against them which... makes her literally no different from what Rhea was.

The above point is mainly due to her whole tirade into the alliance which just felt extremely unnecessary, especially when Claude was trying to keep the alliance in a neutral stance. El’s reasoning for conquering the alliance because “some of the nobles oppose me” was really flimsy like... maybe they wouldn’t oppose you if you just left them alone instead of making them choose between handing over their independence or having their land burnt to the ground. 

Her dialogue with and about Dimitri is ridiculous because she criticizes him for being consumed by hatred and obsession and “losing his path as a king” but...... bruh, you’re STILL invading his country, so even if Dimitri wasn’t a raging murder man, he’d still oppose you because did you just expect a king to simply Hand Over His Land and not defend himself????? 

The absolute worst, worst part of CF isn’t even Edelgard herself but how the other students react to her. It feels like none of the beagles and especially the other house characters except Lysithea have any real reason to side with her, and even if they did (which wouldn’t be surprising because we see how the crests ruined so many lives), these valid reasons are never brought up and it’s overshadowed by almost everyone lamenting “is this bloodshed even necessary?” (news flash: probably not). But why the FUCK are you guys even siding with her in the first place if you're gonna regret it afterwards or don’t actually agree with her? You don’t just side with an instigator of war with half baked resolves, and the convictions of these characters aren’t even quarter baked. 

This wouldn’t be too bad if not for the fact that the beagle kids themselves also seem to have more reasons to turn on El than to fight for her. Especially when Edelgard has done nothing to ever prove herself trust worthy. Hell, CF is kicked off with Edelgard betraying everyone and revealing herself to be the Flame Emperor, which is literal admittance to her association with the slithers. Yet no one seems to put two and two together and just decides to blindly trust and follow her without second thought because... why? Who knows!!! As Sothis so eloquently puts it, they’re all boulders just rolling down whatever hill they’re on, and I could not stand how little agency and independent thought that the other characters showed. It felt like El was the driver while everyone else was just strapped into the passenger seat, mindlessly going along with the ride. No questions, no thoughts, no challenges, and to top it off, it doesn’t even feel like any of them truly believe in what they’re fighting for because they never bring up the validity of El’s ideals or the consequences of her actions. 

The beagles had the group dynamic of a wet paper bag. Lysithea is the one of the only characters who actively shows any real agency for fighting for Edelgard and firmly voices how El’s goals compare to her personal values, which is a stark difference to everyone else who has a "¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I guess this is my life now” type attitude to an infuriating degree. 

Byleth siding with El also has me doing extreme shifty eyes. I can get behind them making an emotionally charged decision to defend her from Rhea but holy crap I saved you from Rhea because I didn’t want you to die, but that doesn’t mean I’m giving you the okay to murder all your classmates!! The game expects the player to take a huge leap of faith when siding with Edelgard, thinking “she has to have a proper explanation for this” and cue.... no explanation ever, until like... five years later. El’s relationship with the beagles felt disingenuous because she actively breaches the trust of others, lies to others, hides crucial information from others (slithers, anyone?), and nobody cares. She straight up lies about the church nuking Arianrhod and it’s never addressed.

The issue with the slithers and Byleth’s dad is even worse because it is never addressed until well into the route, and it’s brought up by not El, but fucking Hubert. Not to mention El is giant jackass to Byleth after their dad died even though he died because of her damn accomplices. We’re supposed to just lie down and accept the slithers’ presence because “well they’re necessary for our plans” even though we curb stomped the entire continent by ourselves, so I dunno why we can’t just shank them now. The slithers literally did nothing aside from chill around, maybe blow up a city or two to spite El. It’s ridiculous how the organization who is directly responsible for El’s abuse and trauma has no on screen resolution when frankly, I think the slithers deserve El’s animosity far more than the church. 

Despite my extreme criticism towards El, I want to stress that I don’t hate El. In fact, I love her character a lot and I think she’s really fascinating. However, I think CF really shot her characterization in the foot because it doesn’t feel like El really grew or developed or changed. She stubbornly believed that her actions were right at the beginning and by the end of the game, she still believes her actions were right because the story doesn’t really bother to try and prove her otherwise. I just think she’s much more suited as an antagonist, and I’m excited to see her portrayal in the other routes. Sorry El, I love you, but I would never in a million years side with you.

To end this salt fest on a positive note, I will say the route had three things I enjoyed: the ending, Mercedes and Jeritza’s support, and Edelgard and Lysithea’s support. Seriously, I would not have so many complaints if the rest of the route had the same amount of emotional tension and feeling as El and Lysithea’s support. I enjoyed the ending fairly much; the final battle in the burning city was epic as hell and so was the final cutscene. The scene where El sobs in Byleth’s chest after Byleth’s heart beat returns was extremely touching to me. So because I liked the ending enough, at the very least I was able to finish the play through on a somewhat content note. Also random side note but Edelgard’s seiyuu is amazing.

Anyway my order from favourite to least favourite beagle kids are Dorothea > Edelgard > Ferdie > Bernie > Linhardt > Petra > Hubert > Caspar.

tldr: my experience with crimson flower

[bearpillowmonster]

Onward Review

The biggest complaints that I've heard about this movie were that the ending is better than the actual movie and that it's not as funny as most Pixar films. This was okay for me, I don't see Pixar movies for the comedy anyway, I originally saw the trailer and thought it was just alright, looked average, then I got super excited for it, then more trailers came out and then reviews and I just kind of fell out of it, wasn't sure if I wanted to see it in theaters...well I didn't, corona made sure of that, there was actually a plan to go though, what corona also made sure of was that it ended up on Disney+ so I could see it anyway...

In the end I expected a fun movie, but not much beyond that and what I got was pleasantly good, my least favorite thing was the trailers (other than putting Magic by the Cars in there) because they make it seem dull and spoils some things that I was expecting by the end of it, it's a movie where I don't think you can explain, just experience. And while I do like Chris Pratt, Tom Holland, and Julia Louis Dreyfus, that doesn't sell me on the movie because that's a good bit of stars, sometimes they let that go to their head and think that alone will sell a movie but I stand corrected, they do a very good job.

Mixes with the world, I like how orderly it is but it's so much so that it's a bit too easy to pick apart and be like "Well that's going to happen later on." predictable with its teases. They basically structure it around learning the spells and creating memories with dad, who is actually pretty cool, we see his legs (obviously) but they give them a lot of character, and sometimes it's like "how can he hear?" but the body language says it all, there are points in this film where he straight up stands up for his sons...Get it? As a pair of legs. The top half they give him just reminds me of Weekend at Bernie's, luckily they don't try to make him talk but Barley acts like he's always been there "Check it out Pop, Ian's still a bit naive." it's pretty charming the kind of relationships they build on their journey and it makes the world they live in blend in that much nicer. The dad is also an accountant which is what my grandfather was, who also died of an illness, who was more of a dad to me and I also have his grey college sweatshirt (wearing it as I'm writing this review actually) but my brother 'did' get to see him, he was an infant so he won't remember much so I can connect to this plot a decent amount and it did give me feels throughout but it's not like when I heard "bring your dad back for a day" I was like "This is for me, this is genius, I wish I could do that." That's whatever, it's not the concept that interested me or made me see this or even made this movie for me, it was the delivery and it did so pretty well.

It conveys that convenience can come at the expense of wonder, interest and excitement. I think they could've taken this one step further with Barley. Throughout the movie, he's seen as this, well, "dude" but sometimes it seems a little over the top and annoying (on purpose I'm sure), the mom even flat out says at one point "One is afraid of nothing, and the other is afraid of everything." that is literally the dynamic. What I think would make it better and make Barley more interesting overall is if they had him bored, actively looking for something to entertain himself with, practically begging for a quest, to see that he's desperate, that everything in the town is the same old, same old and give him a reason to be obsessed with this nerd stuff. Which they don't really explain where the dad got the staff but that's no big deal.

Is it the best Pixar movie? No, but it's nowhere near the worst either, I'd put it right in the middle, above Cars and Planes and all that but under stuff like Inside Out, Toy Story, and The Incredibles. There's this one scene that I call "the training wheels" which has nothing to do with it but you'll understand when you see it why I dub it thee, I can't get that scene out of my head and is kind of the point where everything started boosting and climbing its way up, I'm not sure what people meant by "the movie is bogged down because the ending is better than the actual movie." I mean yeah, it has to build up, that's obvious enough for any movie but it's not diminishing the rest of the movie either. I certainly see this as a literal meaning, "Onward" is kind of like Pixar saying "more original films" after a slew of sequels, a new era if you will.

[charliejrogers]

Rocketman (Or What You Should Watch Instead of Bohemian Rhapsody)

Like everyone has said, this is the movie Bohemian Rhapsody wanted to be. In fairness, Malik's a better Freddie Mercury than Egerton is Elton John, but that's about the only thing it has over Rocketman. Besides, it’s hardly a fair comparison. Despite John’s more elaborate wardrobe (which is lovingly recreated again and again throughout the film), his mannerisms are hardly as flamboyant as Malik’s, making the role inherently less challenging. And to his credit, Egerton sings his own songs (and quite well too!).

Actually comparing Rocketman with Bohemian Rhapsody, this movie has an actual story and compelling character arc. It doesn't tip-toe around its star’s troubling amounts of drug use or around his sexuality, both of which here are vitally important to its story and character arc such that it earns its R-rating, instead of trying to sanitize matters for PG-13 profit. Some scenes make Call Me By Your Name look tame (that peach be damned!).

But the real difference is in two key aspects. The first is in its approach to the music. It’s not all just imitated concert performances. Some of the songs are staged and choreographed like a musical which move the plot forward, often to great effect (the “Honky Cat” and “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting” sequences stand out). But even those songs relegated to concerts are still performed in a manner that avoids being a mere imitation. Most notably his US debut includes a magical sequence where John begins floating while leading the crowd to “Crocodile Rock” (an annoying song which this movie somehow redeemed). But whether in a concert or staged like a play, the songs are always carefully chosen so that the lyrical content reflects some aspect of the story or the characters’ moods. There's no 20-minute long, gratuitious concert recreation such as what ended Bohemian Rhapsody and its insistence on recreating almost all of Live AID.

But the second (and probably more important) key aspect is that this movie doesn't have to pretend it's about anything other than Elton John whereas Bohemian Rhapsody had to pretend it was also about the other three dudes in Queen. #ShowMeTheSachaBaronCohenCut

So, yes, the movie passes the low bar of being better than Bohemian Rhapsody, but it's not a masterpiece. It did seem like this was originally written to be a musical that was later translated to screen, and as such some theatrical devices just don't work as well. The story of John’s life is framed by his first AA meeting in the late 1970s / early 1980s, but it’s not merely a series of flashbacks. Characters from his past can appear at the AA meeting and interact with John, but the other members of the AA meeting are still silently present without response. Having the adult John hugging himself as a child  in front of his fellow AA members just doesn't work the same way on screen as it might in theater. And are we to believe that the AA crew just sat there and listened to Elton's entire life story?! Didn’t anyone else want to speak that day?! It was an odd framing device.

Furthermore, when other characters suddenly burst into song, the effect can be weird. For example, in an early scene from John's childhood, family members sing lyrics from 2001’s “I Want Love”; my ability to suspend disbelief was a little strained. I get that the movie was not firmly grounded in realism. That’s quite obvious from the start. But there was simply just too much dissonance in watching a movie how a young boy named Reginald Dwight later becomes Elton John in which that child sings a song that will be written 40 or so years later.

That inability of mine to reconcile “movie truth” with reality is probably what keeps this from being a an even better film. One of the great abilities of biopics about artists is getting to understand how the world’s great art came to be (both literally in terms of the process and their emotional underpinnings). That’s what we love about Frida, Pollock, Love & Mercy (Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys), Get On Up (James Brown), and (to hell with it) The Disaster Artist. But in Rocketman, as in reality, Elton John doesn’t write any of the words to his songs. He’s the music man. Lyrics? That’s the job of his much beloved friend and collaborator, Bernie Taupin. So there’s something inherently false in scenes, like the “Tiny Dancer” sequence, where Elton John is singing a soliloquy as if he’s speaking his inner truth, when we know that these are someone else’s words. Accordingly, the burst-out-into-song conceit works best when Bernie departs from Elton after a tense dinner while singing “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.” The knowledge that these are his own words make them that much more scathing.It’s a seemingly small quibble, but one that I just couldn’t ever really shake.

And that’s a shame because this is overall a good movie that tackles a lot of important themes and issues that affect many LGBTQ+ folk. There’s cold and distant fathers, homophobia, domestic violence, mental health issues, substance abuse issues, difficulties coming out, complicated family dynamics, etc.

And yet for all that heaviness, there’s a lightness and freedom to the film. Knowing from life and from the film’s own framing device that Elton John will find a way to get it together gives us hope, even when watching his darkest moments. It’s a personal, and sometimes magical, film in a way that Bohemian Rhapsody could never be. It allows Elton John to give us a peek into his world and allows us the chance to celebrate with him that he’s still standing.

*** Stars (out of 4)

Capsule Review: This movie made “Crocodile Rock” enjoyable again.

[pfenniged]

Opinion: Bohemian Rhapsody versus Rocketman. GO.

Okay, I’m going to preface this with saying I’ve been a classic rock nerd all my life: One of the first songs I remember hearing was the Traveling Wilburys’ ‘Handle with Care’ on cassette, and my Dad pointing out each of the iconic rock idols in the band, hence being obsessed with George Harrison from an early age and listening obnoxiously to Bob Dylan and ELO (The other being ‘Do You Love Me’ by The Contours). I was the kid in high school who only had classic rock on their iPod, had a crush on John Entwistle and George Harrison. When I travelled to England for the first time, I literally spent the majority of my spending money getting these boss limited-edition Who Converse sneakers at a mod shop in Kent, and returned at sixteen to Canada thinking I was IT. xD 

My point is, I’ve always been a classic rock nerd, so I think I like to know a bit about what is represented versus actual events, etc. I’m also aware there’s a divide between critics and public reaction, especially in terms of Bohemian Rhapsody. 

That being said, I honestly think Rocketman is a better film in terms of using Elton John’s music to evoke and illustrate different points in his life, and therefore a better film for the snooty classic rock fan. By having the music demonstrative of different points in his life, it felt less to me like a discography (Which is what Bohemian Rhapsody felt like to me), and more of a study of the person behind the music, and what makes them tick. Taron Egerton also sang all the music in Rocketman, which honestly, puts him head and shoulders above Rami’s performance, although I think most people would agree, no one could recreate the vocal talents of Freddie Mercury.

I also think Taron’s performance was more nuanced and more realistic, which is what I like about Elton John. No matter how much of a twat he acts like, he (usually) admits to acting like a twat. Rocketman didn’t shy away from that, and it made an infinitely more interesting character study before that. You understand at the end that Elton is sensitive but creates a persona to create a bravado outside of that: You also have a really unique perspective in a platonic soulmate relationship between a gay and straight man between him and Bernie Taupin, which I love, and is rarely represented on screen in terms of queer relationships. It’s really unnatural, and clearly written by straight people usually, but it’s usually OMG A GAY MAN THAT MUST MEAN HE MUST WANT TO SLEEP WITH EVERYONE AROUND HIM (Which is completely untrue; does a straight person want to sleep with everyone around them? Not usually).

It also doesn’t shy away from the worst aspects of Elton’s character: That he can be downright cruel and lash out if he feels like he’s being attacked, his issues with bulimia, drug addiction, and alcohol abuse, his dependency on the opinion of his parents, when basically it shows what absolute jealous losers they are and how they were disgustingly jealous of their son’s talent, enough to wish he’d never been born. That makes the film ten times more interesting, even without it being the ‘character’ of Elton John. 

It also acts as a great character study of being gay in the late sixties early seventies, and the attitudes there. I found in Bohemian Rhapsody, that really was never addressed? I think it tried to address the cultural divide between Freddie’s family and him, but in real life, Freddie never ‘came out’ to his parents, so I think it was a bit of revisionist history on behalf of Brian May and Roger Taylor. 

I also honestly didn’t think the portrayal of Freddie was particularly nuanced, besides the typical ‘he’s getting too big for his britches’ late second half split that happens in any rock movie. I felt like they were afraid to display any qualities that were too far gone in making him an ‘unlikable’ character, because he’s passed on now and seen as a rock god. But I also found the performance a little boring, to be honest (I felt it was earnest, but Rami didn’t really have a lot to work with).

Live Aid was also moved up in the timeline, which is fine, and expected to make a narrative for a rock band film, but the one thing I didn’t like about Bohemian Rhapsody was that it felt like it was made for a really casual fan? Which is fine, but it really felt like, as previously mentioned, they were just going through the discography of their greatest hits, rather than having them serve any bigger purpose. Now we’re going to have a scene of “We Will Rock You,” now John Deacon is going to write the bass line to ‘Another One Bites the Dust,’ that sort of thing. 

Then, when Live Aid DOES happen in the movie, it’s basically a shot for shot remake. Which is fine, if you haven’t seen the actual Live Aid performance. But if you have, the last twenty minutes of the film basically feels like a pantomime of a better performance with more electricity in the air.

I also didn’t like how they basically played off John Deacon as a joke most of the time, when he literally is responsible for some of Queen’s best songs. I know he’s essentially retired now, and Roger and Brian were basically in control of the script, etc., but seriously. Half the songs they highlight in the film (’You’re My Best Friend, Another One Bites the Dust, etc.) were written by John. Even at the stupid reunion scene, Freddie’s like YOU HAVE A ROLE BRIAN, AND YOU HAVE A ROLE, ROGER, AND DEAKY, WHEN YOU MAKE THAT FACE, and I’m like REALLY. IS THIS ALL THIS FUCKER DOES. XD

Lastly, I honestly just found the insertion of Mary Austin as a major part of the film irritating. I know she played a large role in his life, and I’m not trying to take away from that, but considering the questionable things she’s done in the past towards Freddie’s partner (I.E: Kicking him out of Freddie’s house like literally a month after he passed away, refusing not to be in the first car in the funeral procession with him, not allowing him to take the cats him and Freddie shared with him, etc.), I’m not a huge fan. I also didn’t particularly like where they had that whole scene where Freddie is attempting to explain he loves her platonically and she just comes out dramatically and basically says he can’t be bisexual and basically pitches a huge bitch fit and decides his sexuality for him and yells, “YOU’RE GAY.” Maybe that’s what truly happened, but it just felt disingenuous to who Freddie was as a person (From what I understood, besides saying he didn’t feel sexually attracted to women, he didn’t particularly care what gender people were that he was with), so it just felt to me like they had to have a straight woman in the film to code that Freddie could be in love with a woman so therefore ‘acceptable gay’ (Hot take). Plus she was basically the relatable stand-in for the audience, so we’re basically supposed to take her side  so Freddie’s more ‘queer’ experiences were more relatable. YEESH. XD At least Elton had it right when he said his film was rated ‘R’ because he ‘hadn’t led a PG-13 rated life.’ xD

And that’s what I really liked about Rocketman: You could feel it was written from the perspective of a queer person, or at least with the input of a queer person (obviously). The platonic friendship angle, the fear and coming to a realisation about coming out angle, the fact that many gay men, especially back then, were abused by partners in power dynamic relationships, and even subtle aspects, like that whole scene of ‘Tiny Dancer,’ where Elton is literally surrounded by a party of straight people hooking up, and he’s on his own. He doesn’t fit in, even though he’s literally ‘the star of the show.’ He’s not like everyone else, and can only hope to be like everyone else forlornly and have that love connection he wants so desperately. That’s what I loved about Rocketman, and that’s why I’ve rewatched it several times, while I literally only watched Bohemian Rhapsody once: It’s real narratives and experiences we don’t usually get, and it doesn’t cater to someone’s ‘idea’ of what a certain rock star is. It’s more creative, unique, and nuanced than Bohemian Rhapsody could ever be, and I’m still bitter (along with Elton John), that Egerton won the Golden Globe for Best Actor, but wasn’t nominated for an Oscar, probably because Bohemian Rhapsody was released the year before, and they didn’t want two actors playing classic rock gods to win the Oscar two years in a row. 

But anyhow: I have a lot of feelings about this and thank you for asking. xD

[laliberty]

n CBS’s 60 Minutes, Senator Bernie Sanders recently praised the achievements of communist Cuba. An interviewer asked him about his 1985 comments that Cubans supported communist dictator Fidel Castro because he “educated their kids, gave their kids health care, totally transformed society.” In response, Sanders defended those comments, by stating that when “Fidel Castro came into office, you know what he did? He had a massive literacy program.”

But Castro did not give Cubans literacy. Cuba already had one of the highest literacy rates in Latin America by 1950, nearly a decade before Castro took power, according to United Nations data (statistics from UNESCO). In 2016, the Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler debunked a politician’s claim that Castro’s rule significantly improved Cuban healthcare and education.

In today’s Cuba, children are taught by poorly paid teachers in dilapidated schools. Cuba has made less educational progress than most Latin American countries over the last 60 years.

According to UNESCO, Cuba had about the same literacy rate as Costa Rica and Chile in 1950 (close to 80 percent). And it has almost the same literacy rate as they do today (close to 100 percent).

Meanwhile, Latin American countries that were largely illiterate in 1950—such as Peru, Brazil, El Salvador, and the Dominican Republic—are largely literate today, closing much of the gap with Cuba. El Salvador had a less than 40 percent literacy rate in 1950, but has an 88 percent literacy rate today. Brazil and Peru had a less than 50 percent literacy rate in 1950, but today, Peru has a 94.5 percent literacy rate, and Brazil a 92.6 percent literacy rate. The Dominican Republic’s rate rose from a little over 40 percent to 91.8 percent. While Cuba made substantial progress in reducing illiteracy in Castro’s first years in power, its educational system has stagnated since, even as much of Latin America improved.

Contrary to Sanders’ claim that Castro “gave” Cubans healthcare, they already had access to healthcare before he seized power. Doctors frequently provided free healthcare to those who couldn’t afford it. As the Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler noted:

As for health care and education, Cuba was already near the top of the heap before the revolution. Cuba’s low infant mortality rate is often lauded, but it already led the region on this key measure in 1953-1958, according to data collected by Carmelo Mesa-Lago, a Cuba specialist and professor emeritus at the University of Pittsburgh.

Cuba led virtually all countries in Latin America in life expectancy in 1959, before Castro’s communists seized power. But by 2012, right after Castro stepped down as Communist Party leader, Chileans and Costa Ricans lived slightly longer than Cubans. Back in 1960, Chileans had a life span seven years shorter than Cubans, and Costa Ricans lived more than two years less than Cubans on average. In 1960, Mexicans lived seven years shorter than Cubans; by 2012, the gap had shrunk to just two years.

(Today, life spans are virtually the same in Cuba as more prosperous Chile and Costa Rica—if you accept the rosy official statistics put out by Cuba’s communist government, which many people do not. Cuba has been credibly accused of hiding infant deaths, and exaggerating the life spans of its citizens. If these accusations are true, Cubans die sooner than Chileans or Costa Ricans).

Cuba has made less progress in health care and life expectancy than most of Latin America in recent years, due to its decrepit health care system. “Hospitals in the island’s capital are literally falling apart.” Sometimes, patients ”have to bring everything with them, because the hospital provides nothing. Pillows, sheets, medicine: everything.”

As The Washington Post’s Kessler noted:

Reporters have also documented that Cuban hospitals are ill-equipped. A 2004 series on Cuba’s health-care system in Canada’s National Post said pharmacies stock very little and antibiotics are available only on the black market. “One of the myths Canadians harbor about Cuba is that its people may be poor and living under a repressive government, but they have access to quality health and education facilities,” the Post said. “It’s a portrait encouraged by the government, but the reality is sharply different.”

Under communism, Cuba has also fallen behind on more general measures of human development. As the progressive economist Brad DeLong pointed out:

Cuba in 1957—was a developed country. Cuba in 1957 had lower infant mortality than France, Belgium, West Germany, Israel, Japan, Austria, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. Cuba in 1957 had doctors and nurses: as many doctors and nurses per capita as the Netherlands, and more than Britain or Finland. Cuba in 1957 had as many vehicles per capita as Uruguay, Italy, or Portugal. Cuba in 1957 had 45 TVs per 1000 people—fifth highest in the world …Today? Today the UN puts Cuba’s HDI [Human Development indicators] in the range of … Mexico. (And Carmelo Mesa-Lago thinks the UN’s calculations are seriously flawed: that Cuba’s right HDI peers today are places like China, Tunisia, Iran, and South Africa.) Thus I don’t understand lefties who talk about the achievements of the Cuban Revolution: ‘…to have better health care, housing, education.’

As Michael Giere notes, Cuba was prosperous before Castro’s communists seized power:

A United Nations (UNESCO) report in 1957 noted that the Cuban economy included proportionally more workers who were unionized than in the U.S. The report also stated that average wages for an eight hour day were higher in Cuba than in “Belgium, Denmark, France, and Germany.”…PBS explained in a 2004 retrospective, that

“Havana [prior to Castro] was a glittering and dynamic city. Cuba ranked fifth in the hemisphere in per capita income, third in life expectancy, second in per capita ownership of automobiles and telephones, first in the number of television sets per inhabitant. The literacy rate, 76%, was the fourth highest in Latin America. Cuba ranked 11th in the world in the number of doctors per capita. Many private clinics and hospitals provided services for the poor. Cuba’s income distribution compared favorably with that of other Latin American societies. A thriving middle class held the promise of prosperity and social mobility.”

But after Castro took over, the prosperity came to an end:

Castro’s destruction of Cuba cannot be over dramatized. He looted, murdered, and destroyed the nation from the ground up. Just one factoid explains it all; Cubans once enjoyed one of the highest consumption of proteins in the Americas, yet in 1962 Castro had to introduce ration cards (meat, 2 ounces daily), as food consumption per person crashed to levels not seen since the 1800s.

Hunger became so widespread that a visiting Swedish doctor, Hans Rosling, had to warn Cuba’s dictator in 1992 about widespread protein deficiency among Cubans. Roughly 40,000 Cubans had been reported to have been experiencing “visual blurring and severe numbness in their legs.” Rosling investigated at the invitation of the Cuban embassy in Sweden, and with the approval of Castro himself. Rosling travelled to the heart of the outbreak, in the western province of Pinar del Río. It turned out that those stricken with the disorder all suffered from protein deficiency. The government was rationing meat, and adults had sacrificed their portion to nourish children, pregnant women and the elderly. Dr. Rosling told Fidel Castro about this.

During this period of widespread hunger, Bernie Sanders was peddling the myth that hunger was non-existent in Cuba. In 1989, he published a newspaper column claiming that Fidel Castro’s Cuba had “no hunger, is educating all of its children and is providing high quality, free health care.”

[safflowerseason]

What would Amy think about Bernie, Biden, Warren, and Trump?

What would Dan think about Bernie, Biden, Warren, and Trump?

Hi! What a fascinating question! I also saw your q about Dan, but I’m actually going to talk about them in the same post, if that’s okay, because I think it’s more interesting to think about them side by side :-) (and also because fundamentally…I think Dan would just follow Amy). Also, I’m approaching this question as if Dan and Amy are considering Bernie, Biden, and Warren as candidates, and thinking less about their politics. In Veep, one’s policies always matter less than..literally everything else. 

Also, I’m just going to assume that we’re talking about S1-S6 Amy and Dan, not Dark!Amy or Sex-Psychopath Dan of S7. Both of them belong at Fox News, to be honest. And in general…so much has changed from the earliest seasons of the show! I’ll get into this in more detail below, but Veep is fundamentally a show about establishment politics, and right now, we’re in a moment where multiple politicians are trying to tear down that establishment. So in that sense, it’s a difficult comparison!

As for Trump, I’m going to sidestep this question, slightly, because I think Trump is now too “big” for Veep comparisons. On his own, without being propped up by a corrupt Congress and evil billionaires, Trump is a narcissistic buffoon. But he has now become the face of a much larger and profoundly anti-democratic, racist, oligarchic, and patriarchal movement. I find it hard to talk about Trump now without placing him in the context of the global struggle for a more just, equal, open, and healthy society. And Veep…is not really equipped to explore these fundamental questions about how to make the world better, and how to fight those in power who actively want to oppress people. Veep, in its best years, was interested in the everyday grind of establishment politics: the banalities, the absurdities, the miniature power plays, the balance between political ideals and the dirty reality of achieving those ideals. Trump and his ilk are only interested in enriching themselves to the detriment of everyone else, and that…lack of nuance doesn’t really fit with Veep’s approach to politics. Mandel-era Veep is more focused on the narcissism of politicians, to be sure, but he completely skips over the real-world stakes of that narcissism. So neither era of the show is really structured to deal with the realities of Trump in 2020.

So I’ll just say that Trump is of the opposite party than Dan and Amy, who are political strategists working for a Democrat-equivalent, and so they’d never consider working for him in the first place. Amy, especially S1-S4 Amy, would find him nothing more than a repulsive, empty gasbag shouting into the void. Dan might recognize and respect Trump’s ability to manipulate the media (the one instinctive skill Trump possesses), but he’d never go work for him. Not to mention…the version of Dan who is visibly disturbed by Teddy’s harassment of Jonah would never work for a man who has sexually assaulted multiple women (and likely raped women as well).

As for the others, it’s a really interesting question! It’s a lot easier with these kinds of “Veep/real-world” questions to focus on intra-party dynamics, which was one of the show’s sweet spots.

Biden sort of strikes me as a Doyle-like figure…he’s been around forever, but doesn’t exactly inspire much political fervor. Doyle, like Biden, would probably be a pretty limp-dick candidate. It’s hard for me to see Dan or Amy getting very excited about Biden in the face of other candidates with more charisma. If this were a regular political primary (ie, no Trump), I think they’d both pass him over in favor of someone younger. (Also, if it were a regular election year, there’s no way Biden would be running. Notice how Doyle is done running for things in the Veep universe). Dan, especially, seems to be drawn to politicians who perform (superficially) well on TV, such as Danny Chung or Tom James. Still, because Biden has been around forever and has a lot of establishment friends, they can’t exactly write him off. Biden is capable of pulling a lot of strings behind the scenes that can change the entire political landscape in an instant (see Jim Clyburn’s last minute endorsement in the South Carolina primary). 

As for Bernie…the thing about Bernie is that he’s a very anti-mainstream politician, and, for better or for worse, Dan and Amy are absolutely mainstream political strategists. They are not interested in upending the status quo. Amy did not invest in Selina so early on because she was planning to burn down DC and establish a feminist political utopia. Yes, she absolutely has more progressive causes, but Selina would never eschew Wall Street donors because she believes the whole system is fundamentally broken and billionaires are inherently immoral. (Remember, Selina is the daughter of a corrupt millionaire, who herself married a corrupt millionaire…)

I was reading a Vox article about this the other day (it was a conversation between Ezra Klein and Matthew Iglesias about what a Biden administration vs. a Bernie administration would look like.) I felt this line summed up S1-S4 of Veep perfectly: 

“To the extent that the “establishment” means anything to me, it does mean that kind of nexus of Democrats who migrate back and forth onto K Street and other business community-type things. That wing of the party will have its share of the pie in a Biden administration.” 

This is what Veep S1-S4 is exploring. There’s an ever-evolving migration flow that exists between the White House and Capitol Hill and all the lobbying and consulting firms. Dan and Amy do exactly this in S4—they leave the White House and migrate to lobbying. And while to the audience it’s presented as a big change for both of them, in the big scheme of things, it’s really not. And this is what Ben proposes to Dan and Kent, regarding BKD, because it’s just the natural order of things for D.C. “lifers.” Eventually, you parlay your White House/campaign experience into some downtown consulting firm (if you have more of a conscience, you work for a big non-profit, and if you really have no conscience, you go work for Wall Street). Maybe, if you have a candidate who really blows up, you’ll end up in the White House again, but also maybe not—it doesn’t matter, you can still make a very, very good living consulting for congressmen and influencing policy from the outside.

Anyway, so because Bernie positioned his candidacy as an insurgency against the D.C. establishment, I don’t think Dan and Amy would support him, even if they might appreciate some of his policies, and even though he obviously stands at the head of a powerful political movement. Dan and Amy are establishment strategists, and they are pragmatists above all. D.C. politics is all about making alliances with people you don’t actually respect, and Bernie has, according to some, never really played that game.  

As for Warren…I can definitely see Amy being drawn to her, especially S1-S4 Amy. I do think Amy is drawn to working for women, for a variety of reasons. I could see her, like, consulting on Warren’s campaign from afar…probably to try and reign in Warren’s idealism. Dan would probably get all riled up about Warren’s wonkish tendencies and how they translate on camera. Warren was more willing to play with the establishment than Bernie was, so I think Dan and Amy would be more open to working with her even though her ideas were similarly radical. 

We do see, in S5, Amy and Dan working to elect Jonah…but he is presented as far less anti-establishment in that season. And then in S6, his stupidity just becomes a tool of the Tanzes, an evil billionaire if there ever was one. So…for me, answering this question really comes down the establishment dimension of Veep as a show. Dan and Amy aren’t revolutionaries. In so much as they want to effect change, they want to do it from the inside of the existing political system. 

[feitanswife]

Things I’ve discovered after existing g in the Fe3h fandom for a while:

you all SAY you love Jeritza but no one wants to WRITE about him. Cowards, all of you.

people who ship Claude and Dimitri are the most hilarious bitches alive and so galaxy brained because the entire ship dynamic is just

Dimitri: *going batshit*

Claude: well time to devote my entire life to saving this dipshit from himself.

And that’s beautiful

Sylvain is literally the fandom punching bag, probably cause we all relate to him just a little too hard

Ingrid is more popular than Dedue when it comes to like, general fanfic content. And I can’t say I’m surprised but I am incredibly disappointed.

Another good ship: Claude and Lorenz. Very good “two dumbasses can’t even notice the obvious mutual pining” content. True dumbass ho energy with these lads. I’d like to formally request some post-support ending mutual pining yearning “why do you have to live in a different country bitch get over here so I can hug you” content, please

Y’all sleep on Bernadetta and Sylvain, seriously. Emo kid duo up in here. You know he goes and hides in her room while his angry exes try to track him down. They’re besties who get married to please their parents and live together in a happy, open platonic partnership with their 5 adopted children and 57 cats. Bernie’s dating Yuri and Sylvain is dating Felix and all of them have game night sleepovers and it’s good.

If you don’t think that local Disaster Bi Balthus isn’t crushing hardcore on Holst you’re wrong. If you’re willing to settle for Raphael and Ignatz’s ending having Ignatz marry Maya, YOURE WRONG. LET THE DAMN BOYS BE BI DAMNIT

[lottabank]

name: evelyn charlotte banks nicknames: charlotte , lottie , lott , char , charlie , charmander , etc. but she no longer goes by evelyn in this lifetime age: twenty three physically , sixty seven biologically sexuality: panromantic / sexual pronouns: she / her , cisfemale  species: vampire sign: gemini spotify: here pinterest: here

hello moon beams and star shines , this is late but i’ve just been busy with work ! i’ve got the time to try and finish stuff now , so i’m gonna work on trying to do my daughter’s intro. if you’d like to plot feel free to hmu via tumblr im or ask for my discord bc i’ll gladly give it. i also play rune ( shadow graced human ) so yeah it’s snottie back at it again , anything you want to know about me or lottie alike hmu or just read below to find out more about my sweet serial killer vamp princess

── the high council is prepared to hear the story of EVELYN CHARLOTTE ‘ LOTTIE ‘ BANKS , a VAMPIRE while noted as a WANDERER. we might of mistaken them as MADELAINE PETSCH. appearances may be deceiving, with immortality being so common among supernaturals. this being has walked the earth for NINETY years, and their face reflects an age of TWENTY THREE they’re a CITIZEN of estonia and will be residing in TALLIN.

during their stay of the harvest they shall work by day as a STRIPPER to blend in with the mortal crowd. however, at night you might find them as AN ESCORT / ASSASSIN. they’re UNHAPPY about the harvest, however, they plan to please the high council.

PERSONALITY.

vampire beauty queen , primadonna , self-proclaimed princess. this darling girl has always loved attention , luxury , all things beautiful and transitioning to the darkness only heightened that love. so much so that she will do just about anything to satisfy her own wants or needs. lottie is ruthless , verging on sociopathic. she is delicate , but she is dangerous. she is by no means unfeeling though , nor incapable of love. she can be sweet , she can be soft , she can be pink cheeks and bright smiles just as she can be bloody lips and deranged laughter. she is genuinely kind , loving and gentle unless your death would make her happier than your being alive.  

ruling planet: mercury — the planet of communication body parts: shoulders , arms , hands element: air good day: fascinating , original , resourceful , charming , wise , adventurous bad day: restless , distracted , two-faced , judgmental , depressed , overwhelmed favorite things: cell phones , fast cars , trendy clothes , obscure music , guitars , books , clubbing least favorite things: small-minded people , dress codes , authority figures , silence , routines secret wish: to have all the answers how to spot her: mischievous twinkle in her eyes,  humming , talking with her hands where you’ll find her: taking pictures , behind the bar , in a chat room , playing devil’s advocate keywords: communication , collaboration , synergy , cleverness , wittiness , inventiveness ,  ingenuity

charlotte’s energy circulates in a quick and frenetic way , witty wordplay and dynamic dialogue are her forte. she is great for brainstorming and socializing , but craves “ twin flame ” and kindred spirit energy and is always up for an intellectual meeting of the minds. 

under the influence she can find herself with the gift of gab , talking and conversing with others for hours hopping from pop culture trends to deep political topics. beware of when she becomes a “ gossip girl , ” as she can crank up the rumor mill. as renowned dr. bernie siegel says , “ we have the ability to cure with either ‘ words ’ or kill with ‘ swords. ' ” 

the essence of charlie’s energy is fascinating , original , resourceful , charming , wise , and adventurous. some negative manifestations can devolve into more restless , distracted , two-faced , judgmental , depressed , and overwhelmed energy. 

lottie has a tendency to ride the roller coaster of life , spiraling skywards one minute and plunging into lows the next. if you can keep up with her vibes though , you’ll have one hell of a thrill !

charlotte exhibits great creative synergy , instantly connecting people to each other. always inclined to spend time with friends and focused on changing the world one idea at a time.

a little bit older and wiser , more flexible and comfortable with change than others. she can “ chameleon ” herself to fit into a variety of situations. 

can come across as clever and quick-witted , eager to dish out the juiciest pieces of news and happenings to their friends via text message and social media. in case that’s not enough , she’ll probably send you a snapchat story for good measure.

lottie loves fast cars , trendy clothes and any wacky gadgets or games they can tinker around with. part of the fun ( and curse ) of this fiery red head is that you’re never quite sure which personality you’re going to experience. will it be the vivacious , pun-dishing jokester or the snarky , mean-spirited critic ? if you’re willing to see fifty shades of crazy , she’ll color your life in thrilling ways !

BACKGROUND.

evelyn charlotte banks was born june fourth , 1930 and was given the dark gift in the early fifties ( so you’ll definitely notice some call backs to that time period ). she has grown and developed and adapted throughout time better than most , but you can take the sock hop away from the girl but not out of her. she remembers her life before , but doesn’t dwell on nor even really miss it.

she grew up in your rather classic straight lace upper middle class suburban family and community with her perfect nuclear family. the town they lived in was small , close knit , and everyone knew everyone but especially who evelyn’s family was. 

she was in a lot of pageants growing up and was even platinum blonde for most of her human life , because she was so afraid her red hair would keep her from being successful.

when she was eighteen years old with big shiny dreams of silver screens , luxury , and eyes all on her was all she could think of. she left her family and their small generational hometown in georgia for bigger , better things in none other than hollywood. 

she was on her way ,  so desperate to be in the movies and be like marilyn monroe but shortly after is when she became ensnared by darkness and evil.  she wasn’t very successful at all in the beginning so , she started wearing tighter , shinier outfits when she was on stage when suddenly she started getting actual recognition. 

she wasn’t acting like she had intended , but it turned out her voice was good enough to land her plenty of lounge singing gigs in multiple joints. it was one particularly dark , seedy , dangerous joint that only opened once the sun set completely and closed upon the sun rise that she finally started to get propositioned to do so-called ‘ film gigs. it was also in this place where she met him for the first time. 

( tw: cult ment. ) her maker is very old and before she ever knew he was anything more than a handsome older gentleman she was fully under his control. he was something of a cult leader who for the most part glamoured his ‘ followers ‘ , but that was never necessary with charlotte. she was thoroughly and completely in love with her maker , she even ‘ married ‘ him and lived on his compound.

( tw: rape ment. , assault ment. ) it wouldn’t be for a few more years that he would finally turn her ,and only after he found her brutally beaten and raped for nothing more than a snuff film. her maker found her on the verge of death and wasted no time in saving her life by bestowing his dark gift upon her. 

( tw: murder ment. ) to say that lottie felt indebted to and fell in love with her maker to the point of obsession was an understatement , she would do anything and everything he asked of her including murder not in the name of feeding.

( tw: death ment. ) the films she was in were kept in the dark underbelly of the industry and no one was none the wiser , not to mention everyone thought she was dead after her last film.

so , she eventually did make her debut in film and was even on the silver screen finally. this only lasted for as long as she could get away with not aging before eventually she disappeared off the radar with her maker. the two traveled far and wide for a long time , but eventually went their separate ways even though lottie wanted nothing of the sort her maker commanded she live her own life without him now.

( tw: murder ment. ) she has since become something of a murderer ?? she prefers to call herself an assassin but it’s rare anyone actually pays her to murder anyone. you could even call her  a serial killer if you take into account that her victims are almost always men of the unsavory variety , but she has two sides to her personality and it’s not like she’s full maniac.

ETC.

if you know what yandere means she fits that description very well , and if you don’t know what it means well:  a common term in otaku fandom , a yandere is a person ( usually female ) romantically obsessed with someone to the point of using violent means to get them in their arms. often can be seen featured with a sharp weapon and a psychotic grin.

pretty much she comes off as this sweet , lovely , beautiful woman with lots of talent but in reality she can switch that off in an instant and literally kill you without any hesitation if it benefits her or someone she loves.

anyway she has been in estonia for only a bit now , but how long is flexible. she probably likes the scenery and the supernatural presence , but she’s honestly not a country mouse at all. 

also not that she needs money , but there is very little she loves more than attention and money. she works at a club as live entertainment on occasion , singing or stripping or bartending or occasionally doing , mostly for the attention but also if she’s in need of money.

[destructiveurges]

“We Are All Going To Die” by Black Oak Clique (USA)

An open letter and anti-manifesto to Climate Offensive, Extinction Rebellion, Earth Strike, and other nonviolent movements

When the world ends, people come out of their apartments and meet their neighbors for the first time; they share food, stories, companionship. No one has to go to work or the laundromat; nobody remembers to check the mirror or scale or email account before leaving the house. Graffiti artists surge into the streets; strangers embrace, sobbing and laughing. Every moment possesses an immediacy formerly spread out across months. Burdens fall away, people confess secrets and grant forgiveness, the stars come out over New York City...and nine months later, a new generation is born.

(CrimethInc.)

We’re going to die?

"The Earth is not dying, it is being killed, and those who are killing it have names and addresses." But us – me, you, even those who are killing the earth? We’re going to die.

In the worst case scenario, you drown, you starve, or you succumb to heat stroke. Not figuratively. You will drown, you will starve, you will succumb to heat stroke. Perhaps there’s the small chance that you will survive the mass migration to the last reaches of habitable land in and around the poles.

Perhaps.

But let’s be realistic here: In all likelihood, you’re going to die. A slow, horrible, excruciating death at that. We would like to say this is the future we’re hurtling towards at an ever-increasing rate. But it isn’t: it’s the present, the material, graspable present. Islands are sinking into the ocean. The poverty-stricken are freezing to death on the streets. People are burning to death in gigantic wildfires. The collapse is not to be a single event. It’s a process, and it’s currently underway. In the best case scenario, death is liberation. Perhaps the real “you” – your body, your consciousness, your soul, what have you – won’t die, per se: instead, the abstract “you” – your way of life, your social relationships under capitalism, your system of meaning that’s been drilled into your head since day one – will die.

Can’t we reform the system?

No. We can’t. The system is the problem, and the system runs deep. The problem isn’t just capitalism. It’s also the state, but it also isn’t just the state. It’s the ideology of consumption itself: that beings – plants, animals (including humans deemed to be subhuman), fungi, even inanimate natural “resources” – are objects to be bought, sold, and eventually, consumed. This ideology is perhaps the deepest ideology we have. It permeates every form of knowledge: from science, to art, to politics. It seeps through our language (one must think how often we refer to feeling, living beings – ones with the capacity to suffer – as “it.”) It permeates our relationships. It is the very basis of our societies, if it cannot be deemed our “society” itself – the group of capital-h Humans deemed to be worthy enough to be circumscribed by the abstract Community, that constructs itself in opposition to literally everything else.

Your favorite pet politician isn’t immune to this. Not Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, not Bernie Sanders, not Jill Stein. Not the Democratic Socialists, not the Green Party, not the CPUSA, and not anyone else, either. Perhaps their hearts are in the right place – but sadly, that isn’t enough. To quote the amazing piece Anarchy Works by Peter Gelderloos:

Some people oppose capitalism on environmental grounds, but think some sort of state is necessary to prevent ecocide. But the state is itself a tool for the exploitation of nature. Socialist states such as the Soviet Union and People’s Republic of China have been among the most ecocidal regimes imaginable. That these two societies never escaped the dynamics of capitalism is itself a feature of the state structure — it necessitates hierarchical, exploitative economic relationships of control and command, and once you start playing that game nothing beats capitalism.

What about nonviolence?

Concerning nonviolence: it is criminal to teach a man not to defend himself when he is the constant victim of brutal attacks.

(Malcolm X)

The struggle against ecocide was never nonviolent, and it never will be, because it cannot be. That’s because ecocide is violence: violence against me and you, against animals (wild and domestic,) against the trees and the grass and the water and the mountains. Climate insurrection is self-defense. Strict adherence to nonviolence – that is, the rejection of violence – is complicity in the face of ecological destruction. It is not “offensive,” it is not “rebellion,” and it’s not a “strike” at climate change. Many of us do not have the privilege of being nonviolent – namely, those of us who already marginalized. We will be the first to go. We’re the rural farm workers and their families being sprayed with pesticides. We’re the houseless freezing to death in polar vortices. We’re the indigenous peoples whose homes are being swallowed by the sea. We’re the poor who will not have the capital necessary to complete the long trek north to the last remaining habitable lands. If we aren’t violent – if we don’t rebel against the system that oppresses us – we will be crushed. Don’t be complicit in our death, in your death.

What’s climate insurrection?

Perhaps the only hope me or you have. It’s destroying that which destroys us - by any means possible.

Wouldn’t that hurt the movement?

No. A better question would be: what has “nonviolent” protest won us in the long run? The answer: absolutely nothing. Many supposedly “nonviolent” movements, such as the Civil Rights Movement, were incredibly violent. There were hundreds of riots throughout the United States, and of course, the existence of armed paramilitary groups such as the Black Panthers, or the Brown Berets. One could make the argument that this narrative of nonviolence is pushed by the very people whose power would be threatened by violence, because violence means (perhaps immediate) change. Hence: why those in the US celebrate Martin Luther King Day, a federally recognized holiday; but not Malcolm X Day. Even the most-oft example of nonviolent resistance, the Indian independence movement, was not so. Bhagat Singh, who after his execution became a folk hero of the cause, was inspired by French anarchist Auguste Vaillant to bomb the British Raj’s Central Legislative Assembly. Less than a year before, he had assassinated a British police officer in retaliation for the death of the nationalist leader Lala Lajpat Rai.

Wouldn’t it be counterproductive?

Counterproductive to what? Getting meaningless reforms passed? Getting empty pyrrhic victories in the legal circuit? Performing impotent marches through major cities that don’t achieve anything other than receiving lukewarm press from second-rate newspapers? Ask the battery hen liberated from cramped cages by animal activists, or the old-growth forest protected indefinitely by logging saboteurs (and all the animals who call those forest home): is direct action productive?

Anarchist action— patient, hidden, tenacious, involving individuals, eating away at institutions like a worm eats away at fruit, as termites undermine majestic trees — such action does not lend itself to the theatrical effects of those who wish to draw attention to themselves.

To quote the great illusionist Georges Méliès, "I must say, to my great regret, the cheapest tricks have the greatest impact."

If insurrection is so great, how come people aren’t doing it now?

They are. You just haven’t heard of it because the media is smart enough to hide it. Hearing about the heroic stories of those who fight back would be too dangerous for most to hear – it runs the risk of radicalizing them. Movements like the Animal and Earth Liberation Fronts, have been waging war against ecocide since the 1970s.

I don’t want to go to prison.

We dream of a world without prisons.

I’m scared.

We’re scared too, friend. We should be, but we should be

strong, too

What can we do?

We’ll let the great animal activist Keith Mann speak for us.

Labs raided, locks glued, products spiked, depots ransacked, windows smashed, construction halted, mink set free, fences torn down, cabs burnt out, officesin flames, car tires slashed, cages emptied, phone lines severed, slogans daubed, muck spread, damage done, electrics cut, site flooded, hunt dogs stolen, fur coats slashed, buildings destroyed, foxes freed, kennels attacked, businesses burgled, uproar, anger, outrage, balaclava clad thugs.

What if I don’t have the ability to fight?

You do, even if you can’t physically. Despite the tone of this letter, we aren’t totally opposed to above-ground action. In fact, in some cases, we think it’s necessary. Groups like the Earth Liberation Prisoners Support Group and the Animal Liberation Front Supporters Group are active in representing and advocating for operatives. As Sinn Féin, the Irish political party once associated with the militant IRA has been described:

Both Sinn Féin and the IRA play different but converging roles in the war of national liberation. The Irish Republican Army wages an armed campaign... Sinn Féin maintains the propaganda war and is the public and political voice of the movement.

What happens next?

We don’t know. But with any luck, we’ve laid out our options.

(via Heresy Distro)

[makingnewenemies]

Hi Hi Hi. Here is a little blurb I wrote off the top of my head about all my friends on this year’s Group Picture Vol. 8. I love them all. I love their songs. And I love that we still keep up this stupid tradition; and somehow the comp keeps getting better and better. Thanks everyone! Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays :) - walt

Sour Guy - All Those Plans Were Wrong

Last summer Kris Schobert (Sour Guy, Walter Etc. / Mitty core member, Ernie…) was admitted to the hospital… and then again… and then again…. I think he spent like a month total in the hospital. It was not chill. But when he got out, the whole experience gave him a bit of clarity and new perspective on his life and the decisions he has made thus far. I won’t speak any further for him, but Kris… hey, nice song! And your quality home recording production and continuation of the WMAHMO slop sound doesn’t not go unnoticed! This song made me tear up in a coffee shop the first time I heard it. 

Slaughter Beach, Dog - Big Band

Slaughter Beach, Dog are randomly GP staples by now but also one of my favorite bands and greatest friends. This song is a bit of a sound change for them, swapping mid tempo soft rock John K Sampson vibes for a theatrical late 60’s / 70’s sound that is a bit more light hearted than normal and I LOVE IT. It’s catchy, it makes me laugh, yet its so true. Glad to have these boys back this year.

Teal & Jer - Alphabet

Portland’s dreamiest duo Teal & Jer (Chain, Riled, Loose, lots of projects) bring a quirky alt edge to our otherwise bland and boring comp. Without them, we’d just be us. I personally would like to hear more Teal solo work??? Teal???

Milk Flud - Rodeo

If you don’t fuck with Milk Flud then you can get out.

Chase Hoyt - Health

Chase Hoyt (Ubu Roi, Feed, Chaz and the Minions of Chaz, The Rodeo…) is a GP fixture by now, and important asset to MNE because it’s his classic rock sensibilities that balance out the overload of folk / indie rock that we swim in. This song not only has a comically true message (health is the most important, i agree Chase) but the vibe, especially the chorus, has my head bobbing and me feeling like I’m on a grassy hillside at an outdoor concert in the 70’s, but also one glass of wine deep making homemade pizzas at an Air BNB with a girl I love, and that is a nice combo of feelings. “Let’s wrap it up / I’ve embarrassed us all enough”

Dry Goods - Learnt Nothing

You hear that flawless acoustic finger picking? That masculine story telling voice that sounds somewhere between a suburban Bob Dylan and a cowboy singing to the emptiness of the high desert? Yup, its Russell Park AKA Dry Goods and FKA Weston Bookhouse coming at us with another folk masterpiece, but this year adding in some new elements we aren’t quite used to- namely some cruisey guitar solos! Rumor has it Dry Goods is in the studio recording a new album right now and I would not be bummed out if this song were on it.

Byronius Punk - Beautiful Things

I just spent 3 weeks with Byronius Punk (Ian Farmer of Slaugher Beach, Dog / Modern Baseball) at his studio The Metal Shop in Philadelphia making a record with his beautiful mind and his new drum machine- so this song really hits home for me. I could write an essay on why this is the perfect Group Picture song- my three main points being - 1. It is a song about the act of creating. (“in everything that exists there lies a certain beauty / I want the world to know how much it all means to me”) which is exactly what Group Picture aims to celebrate. 2. It’s a song written and performed by someone who is usually more in the background of his bands (bassist / backup vox / recording engineer) but here has a platform to express his own individual style and skills, which is exactly what Group Picture wants to promote. 3. It has a Milk Flud name drop, which is a classic and classy GP / MNE move. Thank you Ian. You rule.

Dante Elephante - It Bothers Me

Dante Elephante are Santa Barbara legends and their new album “Rare Attractions” shows them evolving their sound into more loungey and ethereal territory. I am so glad they have joined GP this year, because I see singer / songwriter Ruben almost every weekend when he DJ’s at The Tavern in Ventura and I drunkenly annoy him / vaguely fan boy out on him. Dante being on Group Picture is a sign that our friendship extends beyond Saturday nights at the Tavern. Also their album vibes hard. Check out Rare Attractions on Spotify.

Peanut Butter Cups - Highest Quality

Petition for Aaron Kovacs (Peanut Butter cups, Lauren Records CEO, Winter Break and Summer Vacation drummer) to finally put out a full album? This catchy lo-fi pop rock is undeniably infectious. Fun fact: I’ve been hanging with this boy for almost 10 years and I’ve never heard him sing, but then he sends me these recordings and I’m like wtf your voice is so cool! If he makes a full album, MNE will put out the LP and still give him 100% of the digital income. That is how much I like Aaron’s style. 

Anika Pyle - Young Love

I once wrote a song with the lyric “I’ll probably see her on tour but she won’t be on Group Picture this year.” I’m so glad I was wrong. Welcome to GP Anika Pyle! Anika (Katie Ellen, Chumped) plays raw emotional pop rock songs and this gem “Young Love” is just the tip of the iceberg. When her vocals max out at the end of the tune and you get a little bit of musical goosebumps, that is the feeling you get for a full 30 minutes of watching her play live. Anika, please come in and stay for a while! 

Walter Etc. - This Would Only Happen to Me

Ok ok enough of the soft emotional bullshit. Here’s a song about someone coming to kill me! It’s 100% true. If you’re reading this, help!!!

Jake Lee - Good Run

Jake Lee (Bleeding Gums Murphy) strikes again with a lo-fi indie gem in which we hear Jake Lee reflect on his gaime from last year. Sounds like he made some interesting choices and is coming to terms with them? Or did I miss the mark, Jake? He is and always will be one of my favorite songwriters and his voice in this fuzz effect is not a bad look, I have to admit. The only way my life would be better is if Jake made a full album. Cheers homie.

Babytooth - State Quarters, OR

Technically, this is Babytooth’s official debut on Group Picture, but Portland, OR singer / songwriter Isabel Zacharias had a song on the comp last year that blew me away. It was her vocals and lyrics that hooked me then, and are still yanking me now. Now backed by a full band that gives dynamic range to her songs, it was still that first line “now you know you want a girl without a phone” that had me nodding “yup i love this”. Fingers crossed for Babytooth to become a GP staple.

Trashbike - Weasel

Trashbike is Bread (Blowout, Walter etc., Donkey Lips) and his homie Ru playing the pedals. He told me he wrote this song while stumbling home from the Bye and Bye. Bread is like a sexy emo prince, can’t you hear it? This song rules and I really hope Trashbike is more than just a one and done GP band. I would listen to a few albums of soft songs like this, wouldn’t you?

Banned From Japan - Vegan X

Welcome back to the Socal Valley punk rockers Banned From Japan! If you know that singer / songwriter Matthew Earle has been sober for a few years, this song is hilarious, simultaneously poking fun at vegan straight-edge and himself. The music rips and his vocals are catchy af. Fat Wrecks Chords come and sign Banned From Japan asap!

Walter X - Winter Shy

Ok. This is a bit meta. Walter X (Michael Mahaffie and his WMAHMO / Walter Etc. hardcore chip tune cover project) covers an old Walter GP song as his own GP song. Pretty niche MNE content! This song, in this Lifetime-esque style, his vocals so clear but so gruff, those guitar harmonies, the creative intro and chip-tuney bridge…. this literally gives me chills and is so much better than the original. I encourage anyone reading this to go check out his own original music under the name Jump Cut. It sounds just like this but with Michael’s own songs, shedding the limitations of the musical simpleton Walter songs.  Also, check out the full Walter X album on Spotify! What a talented dude…

Curling - Genkai Trip

Curling released their MNE album “Definitely Band” this year and the musical arrangements / song structures absolutely floored me. Genkai Trip is a song that got left off the album, but lives on through GP! Singer / guitarist Bernie Gelman noted “There's some pretty wacky guitar overdubs where Jojo and I each doubled some guitar parts while the other person was playing with the trem on the guitar, so you get this really weird detuning effect.” and yup that is Curling in a nutshell for you. Always excited to play around with gear and recording techniques that are way beyond my level.  I think this is an extremely underrated band and highly encourage the world to check out Definitely Band on spotify!

Ali Muhareb - DIY Hell

Ali? What the hell did you even make this song? It’s intriguing in the verses and then when the chorus busts out it sounds like if Dough Martsch were an up and coming artist in Portland in 2018. I actually had to text Ali to ask what these guitar sounds were and, if anyone is interested, he responded, “I compressed two guitars together through a virtual amp. And they’re both running through this sick pedal I got called the Data Corrupter.” For sure Ali! Thanks for a bad ass tune.

Dakota Loesch - Don’t Solve My Mysteries

I’ve been listening to a lot of Dakota’s music (solo, Animal City, Lemp Lungs) recently. I keep coming back to it, and its not a mystery. After hundreds of songs in his pocket, songs like “Don’t Solve My Mysteries” still sound musically and lyrically fresh, like Dakota has never had writer’s block in his life. When I listen to his music, I feel like it vicariously breaks down my own creative barriers. For instance when I first heard this song and he dropped the hook “just don’t solve all mysterious” I had that knee-jerk urge to ditch what I was doing and go write a poem or something. His will to create is just that contagious. Combine that with the Casio-keyboard bedroom drum machine vibe that I love so much about his songs like “The Basmati Rice” and you have a 10/10 GP banger. 

Jerbear - Nowhere Girl

Jerbear is Jeremy Murphy (Teal & Jer, Riled, so many) and he is the king of a few things: weird bad guitar tones, asymmetrical organic song structures, rad lyrics that I never understand, and a voice that is universally loved. He stole my heart with Cranberries in the Cosmos on a previous GP, but I think Nowhere Girl takes the cake. Jer- when do we get the full solo album? Please don’t fall into the category of GP lost wonders. You’re not too shabby at this music thing! 

Hemingway - Catch My Cool

Catch My Cool is a B-side from Hemingway’s You Will Never Be Happy.

I played drums in Hemingway at this time and I always vibed that Benny didn’t really like the way this song came out int he studio. I don’t get why? That vocal melody, soft sad and surfy guitar leads… it makes me wanna hold hands with a girl on Christmas Eve while walking down some bougie street looking at Christmas Lights. It sounds like a Starflyer 59 worship track and I love it for that. Benny, you made a mistake. This song should have made the album. 

Alex Maddox - The Hypocrit’s Dilemma

I’ve heard Alex play this song when we get together to jam, and he always laughs it off as a Walter Mitty rip off song. But honestly, this is what I wish WMAHMO would write about if we made a folk punk record today. If you listen to this song knowing that Alex Maddox was a guy who quit his high paying job to travel Europe in his van, surfing and skating and working on farms, the lyrics to this song are way more wanna-be Walter Mitty. The song depicts a transformation in his paradigm and is completely raw, authentic, and sincere. Alex inspires me to chase a wholesome life that is designed for and by myself, rather than the obvious and sterile template that is provided for us, and this song exemplifies that 1000%. 

Uncle Uncle - Nira (I’m Alive)

We played with Uncle Uncle last year in Santa Barbara and I honestly think we should have opened for them. They are actually a good band, both live and recorded. Stylish, friendly, and comically laid back- they might be the quintessential Santa Barbara band. A semi-new band, Uncle Uncle is gaining momentum quickly, and I won’t be surprised when the day comes that Kevin and Dom big time me on State st. Til then, I’m just glad I get to claim that they were on a Group Picture. 

Humphrey Orlando - Set U Free

Ah, Humphrey. No, Humphrey accompanied by Toast. Two legends as old as MNE itself. What is there to say? I could listen to their wandering ballads til I fall into the Big Sleep, and still the melodies linger on…