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#Peter b: so when did the vampire part come into play?
p1nkshield · 1 year
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This is how I think Peter b found out Miguel likes empanadas
Peter b: Ok I think a good way to bond as coworkers is to share a bit about ourselves I’ll start with something easy! I was bitten by a radioactive spider and now I have spider powers.
Miguel: I was forced to get addicted to DNA altering drugs by my boss. The kind that effects you on the molecular level. I tried to get rid of it with a genetic splicer but one of my shocking coworkers put a spider in the mix to try and kill me and now I’m genetically 50% spider.
Peter b: WOW that is SO MUCH WORSE THAN I COULD HAVE EVER IMAGINED
Miguel: yes.
Peter b: OKAY! New, easier, question do you have a favorite food?
Miguel:… empanadas.
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cherienymphe · 4 years
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all of these stories are my favorite of favorites! a good number of them explore darker themes such as non-con, dub-con, manipulation, a/b/o, kidnapping, etc. so please heed all warnings.
➯ dividers by @firefly-graphics​
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Loki’s Very Special Girl
one of the first dark fics i ever read. loki is so deliciously deviant in this! this fic speaks to my praise kink.
My Little Bird
MY FAVORITE LOKI FIC OF ALL TIME! the writing is so beautiful and its such a unique concept. Loki’s fascination and obsession with the reader makes me wish i could live in this fic!
You Are Mine 
A wonderful stripper/prostitute au that turned me into niagara falls 
The Distraction
One of the best dark!Steve series out there! I’m sure most of you have read it, but there is no way I could not put it on this list. Made me want to be kidnapped by Steve Rogers
Little One
Its a vampire!Namjoon au that ends in a bloody fuck fest. Need I say more? The smut had me twisted into knots!
The Three of Us Pt. 2
An a/b/o JohnJae x reader fic that had me ready to kill someone while waiting for part 2. One of my fav a/b/o fics of all time! The smut is just...*chef’s kiss* It should be illegal to have made me that horny. 
Beastly Gods
The fact that this shit is free is proof that there is a God. No, but seriously, one of the best Taehyung fics I have ever read! The deception, the manipulation, the plot twists! This fic...is so sexy
The Hand That Feeds
Roo never disappoints! Loki is just...downright awful in this fic and I wanted to swallow every inch of him because of it. 
Haunted House
If I was an omega escort hired by Alpha!Tony and Alpha!Steve to play some hide and seek and fuck in a haunted mansion, I would not oppose. I would simply assume the position.
Calling to Join Them the Wretched and Joyful
*THIS IS NOT SOMETHING THEY FUCKING MADE, THIS IS SOME PROFESSIONAL LIKE... THIS SHIT IS IN DIFFERENT AREAS WHAT THE FUCK* Original! Never done before! Thor can catch these hands and Loki can catch these hands too after he catches this pussy!
Bagels, Bruises, and Broken Thongs
Peter Parker is hella rough in bed and its so fucking delicious to read. The way its written would put any porn video to shame! Has a wonderful fluffy ending
We Can F**k
Jimin is a cocky hoe who fucks you for two days straight! I love this Libran devil 
The Widow
Mob!Bucky? Say no more!
Bankrupt
There are no words to describe what this fic did to me. Steve and Bucky are in the mafia and they’re coming to collect your pussy. That is all
Even Sad Birds Sing
When will Steve Rogers kidnap me? Asking for a friend. Wonderfully written! I’m so used to Steve just taking what he wants by brute force, but in this fic? Mans said aint nobody got time for that and just drugged a hoe
Tastes Like Strawberries
I STG HARRIES ALWAYS BRING IT OK? LITERALLY EVERY HARRY WRITER SHOULD BE CHARGING FOR THEIR SHIT ITS ALWAYS THAT GOOD! The way everything is set up in this fic is just magnificent! Harry’s conflict is so sexy 
The Internship
When I say this fic was on my mind for weeks? I mean that. I both love and hate Steve in this fic its absolutely crazy! There’s also a twist ending, that tbh, I did not see coming 
Let it Snow
I LOVE THIS FIC SO FUCKING MUCH! Omega!reader trapped with Alpha!Steve? Gee, I wonder what could happen? FUCKING! THATS WHAT HAPPENS
Midnight Cathedral
Loki is a demon. That alone should get your loins burning
Kiss of Death
Loki is so sneaky and horrible omg! But yes, pin me down and fuck me Mr. powerful man
Irreconcilable 
Steve is a grade A asshole and I absolutely love it!
Wrapped in Red
One of my favorite Peter fics! There’s some dark!Bucky involved and the smut is just amazing
His Arms Are All Around Me and His Tongue in My Eyes
Easily the best dark!Peter fic I have ever read. The writing is phenomenal and even with how long it is, I still wanted more
What’s Your Escape
A wonderful Sherlock fic that is without a doubt my favorite! The game, the anticipation, the characterization of Sherlock! Everything is splendid!
Naïveté
This is a deliciously dark Ransom fic. Love the way it’s weaved into canon and the way Ransom makes sure he has reader right where he wants her
Golden Boy
One of the best dark pieces I’ve ever read. The characterization is so on point for Steve that this is something I could actually see happening. The internal conflict and his growing ire is just *chef’s kiss*
Bartered
A deliciously dark Steve fic that features some wonderful smut
The Devil’s Tongue
A wonderfully dark Sherlock fic that I literally couldn’t stop thinking about for days
Above The Law
I think about this Lee Bodecker fic at least once a week
Heaven Can Wait
This fic is beautiful! The development between the reader and Steve is everything
Dishonorable Discharge 
This fic is everything. Its so well written and is now one of my favorites. Sinfully dark 
Night Drive
This left me shook! A masterpiece of a Henry fic that had me on the edge of my seat
For The World
A wonderfully dark fic inspired by the handmaid’s tale that made me terrified of every man in it
More Than A Hobby 
This dark!Peter drabble feels like a full blown fic. He’s perfectly creepy and the smut is amazing
School Days
Steve is so creepy in this and his behavior is all too real and reminiscent of weird men irl. You can pinpoint the moment he’s decided that the reader is his
See you in the depths, That ain't a metaphor
The best Arvin fic I’ve read. The characterization, his infatuation with the reader, the way the other shoe drops. Perfection!
Lost In Translation
This is a sinfully dark Steve fic that will fuck with your head, and the added presence of Zemo only makes it better
Lay me in the tall-grown grass in a shallow grave
An amazing stucky fic with some of the best smut ever. So sweet it’ll give you a toothache
A Pound of Flesh
Easily one of the best dark Peter fics! Such a fresh take on an ancient Greek myth that will blow your mind
Dark Angel
Truly captures dark Paul in all of his glory. A wonderful Paul fic to step into the fandom with
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darklightmiwxo · 3 years
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Mcr history
[B]MCR HISTORY IN DETAIL:
This is MCR history it is long and in details. This is different since I'm adding many details that not many people know. Hopefully you will enjoy this. I worked hard on this. These I found in websites,videos,fandoms,MCR magazines,etc. From baby to today but by dates.
[B]Babies/young kids:
[I]Gerard way/Mikey way :
Gerard Way was born on April 9th 1977 in New Jersey. He is half Italian. He later on had a back problem that affected him for the rest of his life (scoliosis) Gerard is allergic to cats. Mikey way was born September 10th 1980. Gerard and Mikey were very close to each other. They became best friends. Gerard and Mikey couldn't go outside and play with other kids since new jersey was very dangerous with murders and kidnapping happening often so Gerard and Mikey would just play with each other. Ms Way said that when Gerard ran mikey try to learn to walk but instead he try to run but he fell on his face. Gerard and Mikey grandma help them get into art she would give them papers and markers for them to use.
Here is baby Gerard and mikey:
[IMG=STQ]
[IMG=KJ5]
[IMG=M8K]
[I]Frank iero:
[IMG=UBP]
[IMG=I87]
Frank was born on October 31 1981 in New Jersey. Who has Italian in his blood. Frank was a only child. His parents divorced when he was very young.Frank's dad and grandfather played drums in their own band. Frank went to the hospital a lot and had lots of health problems he had ear infections, broncadus and he has a weak immune system he also had asma. Frank became a vegetarian when he found out about animals getting killed so he decided to not eat meat anymore.
Frank visited his dad only in the weekends he would take him to bars so Frank would watch him play. Frank's mom was poor she couldn't even buy milk which was said by Frank.
[I]Ray toro:
[IMG=2LH]
Ray toro was born on July 15 1977 in New Jersey. He is Puerto Rican. He has 2 older brothers. Ray couldn't go outside to play with kids since new jersey was too dangerous.
[B]Kids:
[I]Gerard way/Mikey way:
[IMG=12Q]
[IMG=LA9]
[IMG=40Y]
[IMG=PIN]
Gerard and Mikey went to the same schools. Gerard would often draw since he loved to draw. Gerard and Mikey often share music to each other. Gerard was bullied badly at school that he had to change school. Gerard joined to be part of a play at his new school he was Peter Pan. He sang his part on stage. Later on middle school started and Gerard and Mikey stayed in the same school but they both deal with bullying.
[I]Frank Iero:
[IMG=HHZ]
Frank was bullied often at school. He went to hospitals often still. He is very close to his mother. Frank's father made Frank try to plays some drums but he didn't want to play drums he wanted to play guitar so they gave him a guitar he played a few notes. frank self taught himself.
[I]Ray toro:
His older brother knew how to play guitar he would often give CDs for Ray to hear. His brother taught him how to play guitar and Ray learned guitar.
[B]Teenagers:
[IMG=ZJE]
[I]Gerard Way:
Gerard Way learned to play a little bit of guitar. he gotten really good at drawing. He joined a band in high school but he got kicked out for not playing a song they wanted. He also wasn't good at guitar. So Gerard and a friend of him made a comic book together. But some how they couldn't sell it in a comic book store. Gerard spread all summer copying another art style of another comic book but soon he made his own style. Gerard was still bullied at school.
[I]Mikey way:
he dreamed to be in a band and it was always his dream.
[I]Frank Iero:
Frank played guitar well he would often get beaten up at school. Frank created a band called pencey prep with his school friends.
[I]Ray Toro:
Ray toro became a pro guitarist he learned to play metallica songs.
[B]Young Adults:
[I]Gerard:
He went to art school after he finished high school. They taught him some things. Gerard met a friend who introduce him to Ray Toro. Gerard art did well that he worked for cartoon network to make a tv show. Gerard was drawing for a show He was working on a show called the breakfast monkey show. Gerard and Ray made a song together for the show. The intro of the song. On September 11th 2001 Gerard went to New York for a final meeting for the tv show. On his way to the meeting he saw a plane hit a tower. Then another plane hit the other tower. Gerard watched people around him cry and with fear but Gerard said he didn't sad. He was afraid of what was going to happen to the world he though are you happy where your life is right now. Is this really important. So the meeting was canceled. Gerard went home and wrote the first MCR song "Skylines and turnstiles". Gerard met Oliver who worked at a bar he was his friend and he often chatted with him. Gerard asked him if he could be part of his band he was making.
[I]Ray toro:
Gerard called him. Ray haven't seen Gerard for a while since Gerard was always in his house avoiding human contact. He asked Ray if he could be part of his band. He told him to come over to check out what they were making he didn't have to join but he wanted him to come over. So Ray went over to Oliver's house. Gerard showed him the song he was making Ray joined the band.
[I]Mikey Way:
Mikey heard of gerards band. He heard their music and he loved it that he took bass classes and joined the band.
[I]Gerard way:
The band created a few songs then they went to eyeball records they were outside their door and they asked them if they could be signed they gave them their music for the label to hear. The label loved it so they signed them. A radio host who was there heard of the band and he said he will put them on the radio which he did and it gain them fans.
The band didn't have a name.
Gerard and Mikey worked in Barnes and novel. Gerard worked in the music area while mikey worked in the book area. Mikey one day looked behind a book and the reviews said tales of chemical romance so mikey thought what if you put my in front of it. Mikey told Gerard his idea and Gerard loved it he thought it fit the band with their music and the band in general.
[I]Frank iero:
Frank worked on a album for pencey prep once he was done they sign with eyeball record and started to do tours. Frank once went to a party and he saw a woman fighting with another woman she punch the girls face. Frank fell in love with the girl that girls name was jamia.
Frank heard of MCR since the label would gave random CDs to the bands part of the label. Frank said we often hear Mcr demos in the car when we go around town to do shows.
[B]Bullet era:
Gerard went to a bar with mikey and Alex from eye ball. They went for a drink. Gerard saw pencey prep playing their show. Gerard Said he was amazed by Frank who was destroying the stage with the energy he had he looked like he was playing for thousands of people and that was what the band needed. Gerard knew they needed a new guitarist since he couldn't play guitar. He met the kid and they became friends.
Pencey prep would often travel to many states in a podcast Frank said that pencey prep would work on their music in each other's parents basement. They rented a building in a warehouse which was shared with other bands they knew mcr during this time. They would play music in a small room in that place even one of the band members live in that place with some other band member of a different band. One day one of the members of pencey prep broken down the wall of the room they played in to make it bigger since it was 2 separated room they made it to one big room and that is where mcr did their album and other bands pencey prep invited. Gerard and Frank painted in that room together at night and the chemicals of the paint had made both Gerard and Frank high. They later on blame that another band that run a party and made a big mess broken down the wall and lying saying that they didn't actually break it. They did get away with it.
*casual interactions on YouTube podcast*
Later on Pencey prep tour with Thursday and MCR. MCR was poor but Frank was nice enough to let them use the back stage room.
MCR played a few shows and gain fans. The radio host said fans were obsessed with vampires will never hurt you.
They often ask him to play it.
MCR were recording bullets but Gerard had a teeth problem and also anxiety. His tooth hurt him so much he would hit his head on the wall,bang his head on a car hood and he would cry and scream so badly that he often went to the hospital. He also had fear. He was going to give up he said "I can't do this anymore" the producer yelled and slapped his face to get his shit together and do the recording. Gerard later on got surgery on his tooth.
Pencey prep broken up
[B]I am a graveyard
Frank's band that didn't go as great as pencey prep. Only three members of pencey were in this band and one of the members of pencey left. They played a few shows but then they broken up.
Gerard asked Frank if he could join the band since they needed a guitarist and Ray couldn't play every guitar part. Frank said yes you guys are my fave band. MCR created have already created a few songs without Frank but 3 songs on bullets had Frank in it. Like early sunset over Manhattan for example. Ray and Frank said their ways are different Ray was more the metal kid while Frank was the punk rock kid but it worked. Frank could play parts Ray couldn't play and Ray played parts Frank couldn't play.
I brought you my bullets you brought me your love was released in 2002. The radio host played the album on the radio. MCR opened for Thursday,taking back Sunday. Fans loved MCR and they gain fans. Soon MCR traveled outside the state's Gerard and mikeys grandma brought them a van for tour.
The band went on tour as they played for fans in small venues. Even the place was too small for the fans since many people wanted to see them. Brian their tour manager made Gerard meet the used. He met bert and thought he was crazy but they later on became good friends
(Very good friends they became boyfriends)
Gerard started drinking and doing drugs with bert. Frank and jamia became girlfriends and boyfriends. MCR were poor they didn't have much food or clothes. They said they were used to a hungry stomach. But other bands were kind enough to give food and clothes to them. Their album didn't make it to record stores. So fans didn't have a way to buy the CD it was limited. MCR didn't even have merch to sell. Gerard made his own merch called thank you for the venom.
MCR became more popular.
Gerard was sexually confused
In 2003 there was a party mcr attempted. This was planned. It was filmed.
Frank was with Gerard and jamia next to him.
A guy was fighting Gerard. Frank fighted the guy to protect Gerard he ran after the guy but Ray stopped him.
Gerard and bert tour together and they made a song.
[B]Revenge era:
Gerard and mikeys grandma died. Which affected the band they made a song for her.
Warner brothers wanted to sign MCR but they rejected many labels they soon said yes to them. The band gotten a tour bus.
They had a producer named Howard who helped them create a album the band would create something and they think he will like it but he hated it he told them what is this going to be, what are you saying. They soon made songs he would like.
Once the album was done they kicked out Oliver when they finished the bullet tour. They kicked him out for not playing well he didn't want to use drum beats. He mess up often when playing so they kicked him out. They gotten Bob who he played in other bands as a dj and they didn't know he could play drums. Bob is from Chicago. He was all about tech and that is what the band needed. He joined the band.
Gerard was on his worst of the drugs and achohol that it made him sick he was very depressed and suicidal they were going to finish the album when Gerard was going for a walk and he wasn't seen for 2 days Frank was asking for help for people to find him.
Gerard was found.
Gerard said he did men favors for cocaine.
(Gerard and Frank started to be more than just friends they became boyfriends. Frank was a swinger so he had both Gerard and jamia. She seem ok with it because if she wasn't Frank wouldn't date Gerard. This is part for the frerard shipper)
Three cheers for sweet revenge was release they started touring. They went to Europe and Japan. While in Japan Gerard was getting worst he was throwing up so much. He once throw up for 45 mins then he said he was done.
Gerard became clean.
Their first music video was made it was I'm not okay and they gotten popular the shows gotten bigger they played in bigger venues and outdoor concert places.
MCR were always dirty they couldn't shower for many days and they smelled bad their clothes were always dirty. They toured with fall out boy for a while even Jimmy eat world and other bands. They were nominated in the vma.
The album gotten awards later on.
They did a world tour.
Gerard gotten a girlfriend named Ellie (aka the crazy fan)
[B]The black parade era:
The band were done touring they created some songs in the tour bus (I don't love you,teenagers) they wanted to stay in a cheap house. So they stayed in a haunted mansion. Mikey said he was feeling lost and depressed when they were on their way to L.A and the haunted house was making his problems bigger. The mansion name is called the paramour house. There were rumors of ghost and the place being haunted. Celebs would stay there often to make music or work.
[IMG=I4P]
They stayed there for 6 months.
Mikey didnt want to stay in the room upstairs so he stay on gerards floor. He often sneak from the bathroom to sleep on the floor next to Gerard. Some friends of theirs ask who had one of the rooms which was where Mikey was suppose to stay in and Gerard looked at Mikey in a joke kinda way but Mikey didn't want to say it. Frank stayed in a room away from the other rooms, Rumor said that the actor of friends ran out the room screaming. Plus a singer made a song with a ghost. Frank said the room was fine but he heard stuff that he thought was a raccoon and he said if it's actually a ghost she has a bad voice. Water would often suddenly start in bobs room. While they often hear door slamming and saw a few ghost around. Gerard was going crazy he was writing words on the wall. Ray was playing a random song that Gerard was mad at him for not playing a song for MCR. Ray played the song really fast since he was very stressed. Mikey left the house to see a therapist he was seeking help for his mental health. But he would come to the mansion to record songs. All the band had a problem with depression,anxiety,self doubt,and stress trama. The band often hear door slams and Mikey said he saw a few ghosts. Bob said in a interviews for the alternative press book that the band often had family breakfast. They played music in the ball room. Bob said we have a support room we would put up notes if we have a problem and we would talk about it. One day Bob went to rays room and he saw Ray brushing his teeth he was shaking. He asked him what happened and Ray said he saw a old lady ghost walking down the stairs.
Gerard gotten ideas he showed his idea to the band and they use it they recorded songs. One day they were trying to finish the last song. The band went to get coffee. Gerard was left alone thinking of ideas when they band returned Gerard created the song. They were inspired by his words. The band quickly left the mansion they were tired of it. They gotten a apartment that they stayed in for a while. The black parade album was made. Soon they started to tour. They first open up for muse in their concert in the U.K they were the first American band to play in that arena then they brought muse to tour with them in america.
They made a music video for famous last words but frank knocked Gerard which tore the muscle of his foot that he had to use a cane. There is fire in the video that Bob burned his leg he got a 2nd degree burn and the burn infected his face area that it enter his blood and he went to the hospital it almost went to his brain thankfully they saved him.
One day the band were in virgina with muse. Frank didn't go out for dinner since he is vegetarian and Gerard slept over that day (hmm it seems like something else huh)
Ray,bob,and mikey had dinner with muse matt,chris,and dom. They gotten food poison by the restaurant that both bands were sick for many days.
When they went to the U.K they gotten hate by the British people since the news said that MCR is a cult leader because one MCR girl ended her life. They treated MCR badly but they didn't care they won over them.
Frank often was sick on tour.
Then project revelation (Gerard broken up with his girlfriend) they toured with mindless self indigent,linkin park,blink 182,and the killers. (The most gay era for Frank and Gerard)
Gerard falling love with lynz. He broken up with Frank. A month later he married her. The frerard fight happened.
(Rumor said that Ray saw Frank sobbing in the bathroom)
Frank broken his toes that he had a cane.
Break:
Frank married jamia.
Ray married his girlfriend.
Frank created leather mouth.
While Gerard was making his comic books since revenge. The Umbrella academy comic book gotten awards. And Gerard was working on doom patrol while making more umbrella academy books. Ray had a kidney failure.
Frank had to remove his wisdom teeth since it infected his mouth that it made his mouth and nose bleed. He also had stomach pains that he would take pills for it.
[B]Danger days era:
The band had children (gerard,frank,and ray)
The band thought they were running out of ideas. They made a song for a movie then they try to make conventional weapons but they gave up on it they scrap it and they then made the danger days album. Basic off Gerard ways comic book series danger days the true lives of the fabulous killjoys. The band became superheroes. Once they finished danger days they kicked Bob out over drama something to do with mikey cheating on his wife with another girl that Bob bullied him. Gerard kicked him out of the band. They gotten Michael who they made him the new drummer.
The band went on tour around the world.
Soon they finished touring they kicked out Michael for stealing in the band he was stealing band stuff.
Gerard decided to break up the band suddenly he didn't tell Frank
Frank didn't know about the break up so he was confused. Mikey divoide his wife.
[B]MCR broken up.
[B]During the break:
Frank created death spells in 2012 before the break up happened. Below I posted during the break wiki and Frank's band history wiki.
Frank created another band called Frank iero and the celebration.
Mikey was very depressed he taken drugs and he overdose in them that he was in a coma for many weeks. This also made Gerard depressed.
Gerard made solo music he created a album and was touring around places. He became a vegetarian.
Ray toro made solo music he created his own album.
Mikey joined a band called electric century.
Bob became a real estate agent also a plane flyer.
In 2017 Frank created another band called Frank iero and the patience.
Gerard worked more on his comic books.
Mikey married his girlfriend.
Ray was unknown in this era.
Frank was touring around the world. he went to Australia his band were in the car of the parking lot in the airport when a bus ran the car over it pulled Frank a few miles away from the car the band went to the hospital. Frank broken his arm while everyone else broken their legs and arm. Frank can't play the same again so he can't jump around stage and play guitar for a long time if not his arm will hurt he did not have surgery. Gerard,Ray, and Mikey went to Frank's show. Once a year mcr would bring their wife and kids and have a barbeque together to talk about plans.
In 2018
Gerard was working on the umbrella academy tv show and his other umbrella academy book. Plus more doom patrol stuff.
Mikey was making his own comic books also his wife had 2 kids by this time.
2019:
Frank created a new band Frank iero and the future violents his album barriers came out may 2019. Gerard release the umbrella academy tv show plus his other umbrella academy books.
Mikey release more comic books for collapser.
Ray collab with Gerard with 2 songs for the umbrella academy. They are cover songs.
On Oct 31 2019,
Frank's birthday was happening and fans said happy birthday to him. Frank then said it's raining outside today I can't do nothing today so we have to do something else. Then Frank tease a image he was the first one to say mcr returned then the other band members did it too. So MCR reunion happened MCR is back on Halloween
On Dec 20 2019,
It was the first MCR show since the break up in California 2019.
Now in 2020 MCR are touring now but due to the virus the band has to move some dates.
More dates will be added.
Gerard Way is working on season 2 of the umbrella academy tv show.
That's all of mcr history hopefully you readed all of this. Hopefully you enjoyed this. I will update this page if anything new happens. Check out the other wiki. If I forgotten anything I will add it here.
Here is info you can find for some of these.
[IMG=E5W]
[IMG=8BA]
[IMG=YCT]
[IMG=HRP]
[IMG=LAW]
[IMG=U2O]
[IMG=FJO]
There is another video I can't find but I saw it ages ago.
The other details I got them from the book in the first photo which you can get in the alt press website it's cheap but they got stuff in there about the band.
Please check out the wiki below they are part of mcr history too.
Thanks for having the patience to read this wiki.
Please share it.
I will add pictures later to this wiki. This took me hours to make this.
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Season 3 notes popping off
due to my desire to not completely fail all my classes this year i made myself slow down significantly while listening to this season, and the fact that the other person i'm listening along with had to catch up. We've managed to convert several other people to start listening and its pretty great.
ep 81: what does it even mean to be chosen by one of them? And if he was chosen by the eye. we know Gertrude wasnt? Because she cut the eyes out of the magazines?
ep 82: elias lmao. I understand why people like him so much bahshdhdk i thought he was gonna snitch on Jon but he didnt so he's fine. Ok but how do we think he knew all that stuff. Idk probably just institute connections. I love the fact that the recorder just wants to record stuff randomly bjahsjdhd. Elias feels a lot like Michael in the sense that he knows more than he should and talks in a way that implies he just wants to wait and see how things play out for his own benefit. I understand him knowing the things that happened but his description of her emotions implies something paranormal. Maybe he's connected to one of the entities. Which one I cannot guess.
ep 83: did a file get delivered randomly to the place he's staying at? Probably elias lmao. He thinks the mannequin is related to the stranger. Idk I would believe it.
ep 84: worms? I know he says earth worms but idk. Again? Is she making gordon golems out of trash? Martin popping off. You can tell the statements get to him more that they get to Jon. How come martin is so mad about it? I want to assume he just doesnt want her to get stuck there but idk. Jude Perry. The calliope organ. Jon heard a circus in one of the last episodes
ep 89: he's talking to perry? Like jude Perry? He says ... God? Is that what it is? Lmao. The Desolation. Jon is tired of ppl being vague and not telling him stuff lmao. Oh God Jon is so confused. Compel her? Is she assuming he has some kind of power? Does he have powers? Hmm. im agreeing with jon here please jesus christ why does everyone have to be so cryptic. Just say what you mean. "maybe you get an itchy eye" bahasjkdfklsjdf girl what. Agnes saved her? Oh this is the girl from the cafe story? So theres the Cult of the Lightless Flame? They worship whatever entity this is? The Desolation? Why do they all seem like they sorta worship her then? Is Gretchen gonna die oh god. fuckin michael. a different michael aaah. i see. dont do it shes gonna burn you. sir. please. sir dont you dare do- WHAT DID I SAY what did you think was gonna happen hhh.
ep 90: try to make it less obvious you're trying to get fired big T. Elias that doesnt sound like the most healthy thing to do. oh dear is this gonna be triggering for me. uuuuuh. uuuuuuuuuh. doesnt seem like it ok gonna keep listening. Jared. hmmmmm. Ok we've seen Keay and hotner or whatever his name was.
ep 91: Michael Crew. Oh is this the lightning scar guy. Mister jon sir did you just die. No? God everyone is so fuckin cryptic. Say normal things please. They all just like to go on about pain and agony and j e s u s c h r i s t we get it you got hurted by whatever thing. So theyre avatars? question mark? Jude Perry is an avatar of The Desolation? hhhh fractals. thats a spiral thing innit. Yup. messing with your perceptions. God they all talk about feeding their god and feeding that which feeds them and. hh what does that meann. Leave big J. please. uh oh. is it daisy? how come he has the web lighter still? the tape recorder just turns on sometimes you know how it is. So he can compel people? not that he knows it obviously but. a bit wack. powers go brr i guess? If the eye just wants knowledge i guess he feeds it by getting the statements? b/c i doubt it wants him to murder ppl or whatever.
ep 92: elias you all knowing fuck what do you know. (i guess all given what i just said) Lukas. Heard of them before. Mordecai Lukas. Loneliness. The lonely even. Jonah Magnus. Elias ur sounding like a bit of a dickhead rn. lmao jon's just like "i dont care" elias what is ur deal. Why does he want to tie her in. ohh i see. lmao theyre all just like "elias why" The Unknowing lol seems very much like something the eye wouldnt like. lol elias is gettin all philosophical. what does it really mean to be human. this still doesnt answer why gertrude wanted to destroy the archives tho.
ep 93: bahsjdfh he seems so dead inside rip. awww admiral. i love him already. ghh breacon and hope. purple mold. doesnt sound like anything we've seen so far. I think the funniest explanation for breacon and hope is that they dont actually serve the stranger they just kinda happen to be a random neutral party that cart around random spooky entity related stuff. ooooh. when we hear the slight static of the tape recorder it's cuz he's compelling ppl.
ep 94: the end! listen man they were all just grayed up for 4/13.
ep 95: the end also? death but also savagery/ animalistic shit. aww martin. lmao becerra. she's just been chillin in the corner.
ep 96: return to sender. haha minecraft go brr. prediction: breacon and hope? yup there we go. jon why is there an echo. are you in a stairwell? is he gonna eat it- yup. how did i call it. unsure abt what theyre talking about but ok. they kidnapped someone? Sarah Baldwin. ooooh that guy.
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ok im just putting this here so i have notes for when nicholas gets to this part. It seems like (from jon's conversation with jude perry) that the desolation and the eye are kinda at odds with eachother? like i guess not directly but it seems like they dont really vibe? so how could be with both. Cuz if he has the heat powers and shit then we know he's an avatar of the desolation. but then why does he have so much eye imagery. also he got burned intentionally? like jude did when she went on her monologue about the feeling of burning? but then why did he wear the eye pendant. it stops him from being burned all the way which seems like he's not fully accepting the fire or whatever.
Nooooo I lost like a bunch of my notes rip. I keep forgetting to save.
Ep 104: tim gives a coherent statement without jon even being there. Ugh. Fucking robert smirk. Dont like him. Joey. Dont recognize the name. The show must go on. Clown. The spooky circus?
ep 105: total war... shogun 2? jon is just understanding languages again. "if i understood mandarin or cantonese" are you sure you dont big man?
ep 106: havent we heard this one already? mans in space? oh no this is just another episode in space. fairchild... uuuh. cant remember. oh! this is related to that! this is one of the ppl from the other side. sounds like a Vast thing. oh he's the one that the dude saw? but that guy didnt have a face... she's sorta like jon. wanting to dismiss the statements. lmao i love the workplace gossip. ace jon for the win! oh cmon elias dont be a dick. sunny meadows or whatever. thats the place we heard about.
ep 107: oh great is it jude perry again. Third Degree. bahahsdkfj she was arrested. sorry but imagining this old british lady getting arrested is funny. she was trying to resurrect him. using the skin book. he's not feeling well. jon take a nap. i wonder if this is what happens when he uses his powers too much. He gets into The Zone when he reads statements lol. didn't we have a burning train car in anothre statement? is it julia fairchild? bahahahs "kidnapped. Again." poor jon honestly. julia... about her dad. daughter of the murder shed guy? hunting like your dad liked to hunt or normal people hunting. oh hunting vampires!
ep 108: melanie has been suffering. poor martin peter lukas why do you have to be like this. can he not just use the front door? does he have to bother the ppl doing statements?
ep 109: how come he cut her off? kinda rude tbh. its either jon's influence or there was smth he didnt want her saying. is it gerard on the table? this sounds kinda like smth from one of the university episodes. is it the closed eye on the hand? yup. he's like one of the students! if the thing listening in is elias then... he can do that without the tape recorder yknow. plus who's to say it wont just turn itself on again
110: who wants to bet its a leitner?
111: Lukas related to The Lonely. I used to not like Gerard that much but i like him more now. but i thought there were 15? ohhh thats right isnt flesh newer? gerry for the win honestly. finally telling jon things.
112: lol "again" no one ever tells any of these ppl anything. tim and basira are just out of the loop constantly. music, like the war episodes. The hunt or the slaughter? probably the hunt. so Daisy is related to the hunt right? basira likes the reading, she's doing fine at the institute. daisy's getting worried...
113: it just turned on randomly. what is it lol. explossives! oh boy. why do they always assume he turned it on intentionally. melanie youre not making me like you that much. which entity is this about i cant tell. lol he was disappointed it was just the end. The title Breathing Room made me think it was gonna be about the buried but i guess not. So many of these entities deal with death but the end is one that deals in just death. it has no need for fancy deaths, just death is enough
114: more hilltop road statements? the tree. oh boy. ok the tree has 8 arms obviously theres the spider parallels. was she taken into an alternate universe? oh no. jon tries to phrase things so he's not asking questions. thats honestly good. "sometimes i was kidnapped" oh dear. they got gertrude. daisy ur so odd lmao. who wants to bet they dont know the tape recorder's running?
115: silaca? or whatever? antique man? meat grinder... related to the meat is meat episode? oh wow. they buy antiques from him. maybe dont antagonize this creature which can kill you?
116: lol theyre all just so done with elias. music? is it like the one band that if you hear them you die or wtvr. oh its chess? i am very much confused. mmm stranger go brr. gorilla skin? oh shit the dance. woah. this is so good. this is so gender. the words are wonderful. "you can just say tim" lmao trying to fool elias never feels like a good idea.
117: except elias lmaoo. oh shit. leitner getting some use for once idk. bruuh poor melanie she has been thru so much shit. martin you can just say youre worried about jon. lol he's so accurate in his jon impression. lol who was that. was that daisy? lmaoo. oop hi tim. oh god i hope tim doesnt die. i feel like i wouldve heard about that? but im not sure. destroying the source of knowledge is gonna be hard for jon. yay jon! you did a good thing. let him rest.
118: go off martin lmao. awww poor martin. oh god the tape gets that squealy quality and its awful.
119: woah. lots of things happening. uhh. POP OFF TIM!!
120: lmao elias giving a statement about jon's dreams lol. damn jon doesnt even get his own dreams? has to stay Watching even when he's asleep? f in the chat this man goes thru so much shit. oh boy its peter. lol martin my beloved. idk i dont trust peter.
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sarahreesbrennan · 4 years
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How come between Season of The Witch and Daughter of Chaos, we skipped Sabrina's dark baptism and Tommy being resurrected/killed and went straight into the Greendale 13 threat? Loving the books so far, just curious. 🖤🖤
That’s a great question and I’m so happy you’re enjoying! I’m so sorry this reply is late, I am on unexpected deadline but I know I have a few Sabrina, Fence and In Other Lands answers owing and I am delighted the questions were asked!
There is a confusion that often arises because the category of media tie-in novels (books set in the world of a media property) has two main subcategories. They are similar and have much in common, but aren’t the same.
A) One is novelizations, which is basically a book that tells the same story as the movie/TV show/graphic novels, but through a different medium. The story covers the same space of time, and includes much of the same dialogue. It’s the same story told in a different way.
B) Two is tie-in books, which tell different stories that fit in before or after, or in the spaces between the story. Often tie-in books start with prequels, telling the tale of how the characters get to the place before the story began. It’s a different story but it’s crafted specifically to tie in with the larger story.
Both subcategories are set in the specific story world. Both offer insight into the characters, their thoughts and feelings, and secret motivations, but they are different kinds of story.
I had no idea of these distinctions before I started to write tie-in books myself, so I explain here because hey, knowledge is always useful. I’ve now read a lot of them, because I wanted to teach myself how to write them and because they’re fun, so I thought discussing examples might illustrate the difference.
The Iron Man novelization by Peter David is widely considered especially good. I’ve read it and I like it a lot: great echoes, perfect story beats. (I discuss it pretty technically because I was reading it in order to teach myself to write a novelization, as opposed to a tie-in novel. I have written a novelization, but not in the Sabrina universe and not under my name for contractual reasons!) It tells the story of the first Iron Man movie, how Tony Stark became Iron Man. A novelization means a lot of the (in this case funny and great) dialogue from the movie must be used, but then with a novelization you have to get pretty specific about why the characters said what they said, and how they felt when they said it. One thing I liked a lot in the novel was the insight offered that Tony Stark’s actions at the beginning of the story were frequently driven by sheer boredom--that he was a genius who wasn’t given enough scope for his genius, and was acting out. 
An example of a fabulous tie-in book is Tess Sharpe’s The Evolution of Claire, a book that ties in with the Jurassic World movies, a prequel of how the heroine Claire gets involved in the dubiously moral world of dinosaur park creation. So it happens before the events of the movies, but by reading it you understand Claire better, her ambitions and frustrations. Another such is Leigh Bardugo’s Wonder Woman novel, Warbringer, showing Diana’s much earlier years, and making you understand more deeply how Diana evolved her moral philosophy and her secret insecurities. 
There’s a great article in the Guardian about tie-in novels: https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2018/jul/17/tie-in-novelisations-star-wars-jurassic-world
To add to the confusion, stories can have both novelizations and tie-in novels. 
Star Wars famously had absolute masses of tie-in novels. The Star Wars universe is so popular it even has junior and adult novelizations--two different novelizations of the same movie. Patricia C. Wrede, a rather fabulous YA/MG SFF writer, wrote the junior novelizations of the Star Wars prequels. (I’ve read them but if you want to get started on Patricia C. Wrede I would recommend her Enchanted Forest Chronicles. Nothing to do with Star Wars, I just love them.) 
Star Wars also has category B, the tie-in novels. For instance, Resistance Reborn by Rebecca Roanhorse, which is a story that takes place in between the events of the movies The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker. I have also read this book. Very cool interstellar war and spies action, but also... for them that like that kind of thing, among which I would include myself... Poe ties Finn’s tie. Thank u Rebecca Roanhorse.
Similarly, there’s a novelization of Maleficent 2 (Maleficent 2: Mistress of Evil by Elizabeth Rudnick), but there’s also a tie-in novel set between Maleficents 1 and 2 (Heart of the Moors by Holly Black) telling you what happened in between the events of those movies. Significant things can happen in those spaces--deaths, courtships, mysteries solved and secrets told. A dungeon scene between Prince Philip and Maleficent is in Heart of the Moors. It’s very important.
So in a novelization, a retelling of a story through a different medium, you get the same events as in the story. But you might get extra scenes that cast a different light on the story, and you will get access to the inner thoughts and motivations of the characters.
And a tie-in book is usually set in between the seasons of a TV show/movies/issues of a graphic novel. It’s a story made to fit into a liminal space, and meant to shed light both on what happens in between the stories, but to cast light before itself and behind itself--so you might learn more about the characters’ pasts, or learn things about their feelings that will illuminate why they behave in a certain way in the future.  
For the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, I was hired to write tie-ins, so I wrote a prequel (Season of the Witch) which shows the summer before Part 1, the autumn when Sabrina turns sixteen and has to sign her soul away. It’s an adventure with a rusalka, but also shows us how Sabrina came to be 100% certain her wild witch cousin Ambrose would have her back, why she was insecure enough to do memory spells on her boyfriend (Harvey), and it’s an opportunity to know how the witch world works before our heroine does.
Then I wrote Daughter of Chaos, which happens over mortal New Year’s, right after the Christmas episode that ends Part 1, and before Part 2--because the show didn’t have mortal New Year’s. That was a new adventure that could also tell us how people felt after the events of Part 1, and why people might act the way they would in Part 2. It’s about bad luck spells and enchanted towns, but it’s also about coping with a break-up and how that can put you on a different path, about bereavement and trauma caused by magic, and about longing for affection. Plus it provides us the first hints about hell, before our heroine sees the sparks fly. 
Same deal with book 3, Path of Night, which happens between Parts 2 and 3, in the early spring while Sabrina’s boyfriend (Nick) is in hell. It’s a quest for an item of power to release your beloved from suffering, but it’s also about what happens when you ask a lot (too much?) from your friends, how you can climb out of trauma toward loving relationships (between mean-girl witches and wicked-witch cousins), and how trauma can take someone apart (nobody in hell is having a good time). Plus it provides knowledge about hell before our heroine gets it in Part 3, and glimpses pertaining to heaven.
This month my tie-in novel with C.S. Pacat’s Fence graphic novels comes out (September 29!) and it’s set after the events of volume 4, though the book Striking Distance also works (like Season of the Witch) as an entryway into a new world and an introduction to the characters (in this case a fencing team at an elite boarding school). You try to make every book a possible gateway, but a book 1 definitely should be. (Still, I read Vampire Diaries Book 4 first and caught on just fine, and I recall one reader who read Daughter of Chaos/Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Book 2 and was like, ‘I do not watch this show and did not read Book 1, but I get everything and also Nick Scratch can get it.’)
Another person reading the Sabrina books was like, ‘Sabrina talks a lot about her Dark Baptism in Season of the Witch but then it never happens, Sarah Rees Brennan!’ And this is true, because it happens on the show, and I wasn’t writing novelizations. I think writing Sabrina’s Dark Baptism and Tommy’s death would have been cool and heartbreaking, but I wasn’t meant to retell a lot of scenes from the show. I did snabble a few scenes, but only ones I could use specifically for the purposes of telling the new, in-between stories.
For both novelizations and tie-ins, you get the scripts of the media property you’re working with. Sometimes you get several versions of the scripts. Sometimes you don’t know until you watch the filmed version that scenes got cut. (There were several scenes I read about in the Sabrina scripts, which were cut later, that I used to inform the books. Plus sometimes it’s just fun to watch something and be like, I KNOW WHY e.g. SHE HAS THIS ACCENT/HIS SHIRT DISAPPEARED.) For both you get insights into the story, and especially insights into points of view, that I think you can really only get with books.
For both novelizations and tie-ins, you consult with the writers for the media property, are told things to do and things not to do, and have opportunities to do other optional research. (Things I have done in pursuit of better tie-in novels: written to Sabrina actors and asked them their character thoughts and how they played certain scenes. Forced C.S. Pacat to play with my kitten on a skype call while I took her notes about fencing and feelings.)  
For both novelizations and tie-ins, you have to write them fast, and you have highly specific contracts. Christopher Golden, who’s written many Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Daredevil novels, discusses some details here: https://iamtw.org/from-daredevil-to-buffy-christopher-golden/
So, that’s Options A and B. There’s also Mystery Option C, stories that blur the lines between the two, such as the events of a story told from the point of view of supporting characters, so you see both behind the scenes, the scenes and often before-and-after for the story proper. Tom Stoppard’s play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, focusing on Hamlet’s pals from uni. I don’t know what you’d call them. I just wanted to say that they exist too.
Thank you for reading! (Both this and the books.) I hope this was informative and not too dull. :)
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thisbluespirit · 3 years
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James Maxwell TV/Film List
More of a guide than a recs list, because old tv/film depends so much on availability.  It’s also hard as there’s nothing surviving that’s really like SotT for him (his voice is always slightly different, too & rarely the grand one from SotT) - I found it hard to find where to start back in the day, so I hope this makes it easier.  However, I have starred my favourites (rated for JM content only). 
I’ve divided things into categories and @jurijurijurious​ (or anyone) can make up their own mind as to what to go for.  (Also @jurijurijurious I have NO idea what old telly you’ve already seen, so forgive me if I’m telling you things you already know.)
Where to find it:  Luckily in the UK, it’s not too bad!  Network Distributing are the DVD supplier to keep an eye on (they do great online sales), you can find secondhand things cheap on Amazon Marketplace & eBay, and several Freeview channels show old TV & film, especially Talking Pictures.  I’ll note if things are on YT or Daily Motion, but they come and go all the time, so it’s always worth searching.
***
Film serials (ITC mainly)
British TV made on film in the US mode with transatlantic cash, so generally pretty light,  episodic (continuity is almost unheard of) etc.  Some turn up on ITV3 & 4 on a regular basis (colour eps). 
*** Dangerman “A Date With Doris” (ITC 1964)  James Maxwell is a British spy friend of Drake’s (Patrick MacGoohan) called Peter who gets framed for murder.  Drake goes to Fake Cuba to rescue him by which time JM is dying from an infected wound and faints off every available surface, including the roof.  It’s great.  On YT.  (The boxset is v pricey if you just want 2 eps.)
“Fair Exchange” (ITC 1964) JM is a German spy friend of Drake’s called Pieter who helps him out on a case.  Not as gloriously hurt/comfort-y as the other, but it does have some excellent undercover dusting. (Why  Patrick MacGoohan has JM clones all called variations on Peter dotted around the globeis a mystery.)  On YT.
The Saint “The Inescapable Word” (ITC 1965) This is pretty terrible, but  entertaining and James Maxwell plays the world’s most hopeless former-cop-turned-security guard. With bonus collapsing.  On YT.
“The Art Collectors” (1967).  JM is the villain of the week.  It does include a v funny bit, though, where the Saint (Roger Moore) goes for JM’s fake hair (and who can blame him?  How often I have felt the same!)  This one’s in colour so should pop up on ITV3 or 4. 
The Champions “The Silent Enemy” (ITC 1968).  Surprisingly good JM content as the villain of the week who drugs sailors and steals their clothes before realising that maybe he should have worked out if he could operate a sub before he stole it.
The Protectors “The Bridge” (ITC 1974, 30 mins.)  Not worth seeking out on its own, but ITV4 seems fond of it and James Maxwell gets to do some angsting and wears purple, so it’s worth snagging if you can, but too slight otherwise.
*** Thriller “Good Salary, Prospects, Free Coffin” (ITC 1975; 1hr 10mins, I think).  James Maxwell moves in with Julian Glover and runs an overcomplicated murdery spy ring where they bicker a lot in between killing girls by advertisement and burying them in the back garden.  What could possibly go wrong??  Anyway, it’s solid gold cheese, has bonus Julian Glover and a lot of natty knitwear.  What more does an old telly fan want?  (tw: Keith Barron being inexplicably the very meanest Thriller boyfriend.)  On YT but tends to get taken down fast.
***
Films
Design for Loving (1962; comedy).  Can be rented from the BFI online for £3.50.  Isn’t that great or that bad (or that funny either), but does have JM as a dim layabout beatnik, which is atypical.
***The Traitors (1962).  This is a low-key little 1hr long spy B-movie, but it’s also thoughtful and ambiguous with a nice 60s soundtrack and location work (it’s a bit New Wave-ish) and the central duo of JM and Patrick Allen are sweet and it all winds up with James Maxwell going in the swimming pool. One of the things where JM is actually American. (Talking Pictures show this occasionally & it is out on DVD as an extra on The Wind of Change.)  The quality of the surviving film is not great, though.
***Girl on Approval (1962).  A Rachel Roberts kitchen sink drama about a couple fostering a difficult teenager.  It’s dated, but it’s also really interesting for a 1950s/60s slice of life (and very female-centric) & probably the only time on this list JM played an ordinary person.
***Otley (1969).  Comedy that’s generally dated surprisingly well & is good fun, starring Tom Courtenay +cameos from what seems like the whole of British TV.  JM is an incompetent red herring & there are more cardies and glasses as well as a random barometer. 
Old Vic/Royal Exchange group productions
(Surviving works made by the group that JM was involved in from drama school to his death, made by Michael Elliott or Casper Wrede.  I like them a lot mostly, but they are all slow and weird and earnest & not everybody’s cup of tea.)
Brand (BBC 1959).  The BBC recording of the 59 Company’s (the name they were then using) landmark production, starring Patrick MacGoohan.  This was a big deal in British theatre & launched the careers of everybody involved.  It’s very relentless and weird but interesting & I’m glad they decided it was important enough to save.  First fake beard alert of this post.  It won’t be the last.  On YT & there is a DVD, which is sometimes affordable and sometimes £500, depending on the time of day.
***Private Potter (1962).  The original TV play is lost and this film has an extraneous storyline, but otherwise has most of the TV cast & gives a pretty good idea of why as a claustrophobic talky TV piece it made such an impact.  Tom Courtenay is Private Potter, a soldier who claims to have had a vision of God during a mission & James Maxwell his CO who needs to decide what to do about this strange excuse for disobeying orders.  Tw: fake eyebrows (!) and moustaches.  Only available on YT.
[???]One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch (1970).  Again, no DVD release (no idea why), but it is on YT.  I haven’t seen this yet, but it’s another Casper Wrede effort starring Tom Courtenay and apparently JM is especially good in it.  (I’m just not good at watching long things on YT and keep hoping for a DVD or TV showing.)
Ransom (1974).  A more commercial effort starring Sean Connery & Ian McShane; it gets slated as not being a good action movie, but is clearly meant to be more thinky and political with the edge of a thriller. JM’s part isn’t large but Casper Wrede shoots his friend beautifully, & it’s a pretty decent film with nice cinematography, shot in Norway, as was One Day.  I liked it.
[I think this post might be the longest in the world, whoops.  Sorry!]
Cardboard TV (the best bit, obv)
One-off plays etc./mini-series
Out of the Unknown “The Dead Planet” Adaptation of an Asimov short story; this is very good for JM, but hard to get hold of unless you want the boxset.  I think someone has some of the eps on Daily Motion.  (His other OotU ep is sadly burninated.)
The Portrait of a Lady (BBC 1968).  Adaptation of the novel; JM is Gilbert Osmond, so it is great for JM in quantity and his performance, but depends how you feel about him being skeevy in truly appalling facial hair.  Do the bow ties and hand-holding make up for it?  but he’s in 5 whole episodes, and Suzanne Neve, faced with Richard Chamberlain, Edward Fox, and Ed Bishop as suitors, chooses instead to marry the worst possible James Maxwell.  Relatable. XD
***Dracula (ITV 1968, part of Mystery & Imagination).  JM is Dr Seward, fainty snowflake of vampire hunters, who falls over, sobs and can’t cope for most of the 1 hr 20 mins.  More facial hair, but not as offensive as last time.  Suzanne Neve is back again, although now JM is nice, she’s married Corin Redgrave, who’s more into Denholm Elliott. Anyway, I love this so much because it turned out that I love Dracula as well as shaky old TV with people I like in getting to fight vampires and all be shippy.  Good news - TP keep showing M&I, the DVD is out, and there are two versions of it up on YT.
The Prison (Armchair Cinema 1974).  This is the one with Lincoln in it, but it’s not that great & JM isn’t in it that much, so depends how curious you are for the modern AU!  (But my Euston films allergy is worse than my ITC allergy, and I watched this when very unwell, so I may have been unfair.)
Crown Court “Fitton vs. Pusey” (1973) - part of the Crown Court series, set in a town full of clones who all keep returning to court.  JM is on trial for his behaviour in (the Korean war?  I forget?) although he ought to be on trial for his terrible moustache.  It’s not that great, but it is nice JM content.  He probably did it, but for reasons, and he wibbles & panics whenever his wife leaves the courtroom.  Also on YT.
*** Raffles “The Amateur Cracksman” (ITV 1975) - He is Inspector Mckenzie in the Raffles pilot & is a lot of fun.  At one point when there was a Raffles fandom someone in it claimed he was too gay for Raffles, which I’m still laughing about, because Raffles.  Anyway, watch out if you try to get the DVD because it is NOT included in S1, whatever lies Amazon tells. It is up somewhere online, though, I think.
Bognor “Unbecoming Habits” (1981).  Some down marks for possibly the worst 80s theme & incidiental music ever, but fun & has been shown on Talking Pictures lately.  JM is an Abbot running a honey-making friary that is actually a hotbed of spies, murder, gay sex and squash playing.  This is the point at which he chooses to strip off on screen for the first time, because strong squash-playing abbots do that kind of thing apparently.
Guest of the week in ongoing series/serials
Since even series with a lot of continuity tended to write episodes as self-contained plays (like SotT), these are usually accessible on their own.
Manhunt “Death Wish” (1970).  This is one of the most serialised shows here, but this episode is still fairly contained.  WWII drama about three Resistance agents on the run across France.  JM is... a Nazi agent & former academic trying to break an old friend (one of the series’ three leads, Peter Barkworth) with kindness, possibly??  (Manhunt is very angry and psychological & dark and obv. comes with major WWII warnings (& more if you want to try the whole thing), but it’s also v good.)  Up on YT, I think.
Doomwatch “The Iron Doctor” (BBC S2 1971).  “Doomwatch” is the nickname of a gov’t dept led by Dr Spencer Quist that investigates new scientific projects for abuse/corruption/things that might cause fish to make men infertile etc. etc.  JM is a surgeon who comes to their attention because he’s a bit too in love with his computer for the comfort of one of his more junior colleagues.  (I think it’s perfectly comprehensible & a nice guest turn, but it is hard to get hold of outside of the series DVD.  Which, being a cult TV person, I loved a lot anyway, but YMMV!)
***Hadleigh “The Caper” (S3 1973).  Hadleigh is a very middle of the road show, but watchable enough (lead is Gerald Harper, who’s always entertaining) and this is pretty self-contained as it centres around an old con-man friend (JM) of Hadleigh’s manservant causing trouble by pretending to be Gerald Harper, for reasons.  JM seems to be having a ball.
Justice 2 episodes, S3 1974.  He guests twice as an opposing barrister & gets to be part of some nice showdown court scenes.  Again, a middle of the road drama, but stars Margaret Lockwood, who was still just as awesome in the 1970s as she was in the 1930s & 40s.  On YT.
Father Brown “The Curse of the Golden Cross” (1974).  JM is an American archaeologist getting death threats; stars Kenneth More as Father Brown.  Just a note, though, that 1970s TV adaptations tended to be really really faithful and this is one of the stories where Chesterton comes out with an anti-semitic moment...  (JM was unconscious for that bit and, frankly, I envied him.)  But otherwise lots of angsting in yet another fake moustache about someone trying to kill him.
The Hanged Man “The Bridge Maker” (1975).  Confession time, I have v little idea what this one was about apart from Ray Smith being an unlikely Eastern European dictator, as this whole series went over my head and was not really my thing.  (Ask @mariocki they’re cleverer than me and liked it & can probably explain the plot!)  I don’t know if it’s available anywhere off the DVD but on a JM scale it was v good/different as he was a coldly villainous head of security & it wouldn’t be too bad to watch alone, but there was an overarching plot going on somewhere.
Doctor Who “Underworld” (1978).  This is famously one of the worst serials in the whole of classic Who, but largely because of behind-the-scenes circumstances, not the guest cast.  There is some nice stuff, though, esp in Ep1 (JM is a near-immortal alien who’d like to lay down and die but still the Quest is the Quest as they say... a lot) & it’s bound to pop up on YT or Daily Motion.  The DVD has extras that include v v brief bits of JM speaking in his actual real accent (which he otherwise does in NONE of these) & making jokes in character.  Honestly, though, this is the only DW where the behind-the-scenes doc is genuinely the most exciting bit as they desperately invented whole new technologies & methods of working to bring us this serial, and then everybody wished they hadn’t.
*** Enemy at the Door “Treason” (LWT 1978).  This is a weird episode but I love it lots - from a (v v good) series about the occupation of the Channel Islands.  (So obv warnings for WWII & Nazis.)  JM is a visiting German Generalmajor, but he’s come for a very unusual reason - to ask for help from his brother-in-law, a blackballed British army officer (Joss Ackland).  It’s all weird and low key and JM is doomed and nevertheless probably my favourite thing of his that isn’t SotT.
* The Racing Game 2 eps (1979).  Adaptation of Dick Francis’s first Sid Halley novel Odds Against (ep1) + 5 original stories for the series.  This is an interesting one - JM plays Sid’s father-in-law & they have a lovely relationship that’s central to the book BUT Dick Francis loved this adaptation and Mike Gwilym who played Sid and was inspired to write a sequel Whip Hand, which he tied in with TV canon - and adopted at least three of the cast, including JM.  Which means that all the Sid & Charles fanfic is also JM fic by default and it’s quite impressive. (There’s not much but it’s GOOD.)  On YT.
Bergerac “Treasure Hunt” (1981).  Not a major role, but pretty nice & it’s one a Christmas ep of the detective show (also set on the Channel Islands) that involved Liza Goddard’s cat burglar, which was always the best bit of Bergerac.
His guest spots in Rumpole of the Bailey (1991) “Rumpole a la Carte” and Dr Finlay (1994) are both really just cameos, but both series come round on Freeview; the Rumpole one is funny and the Dr Finlay one his last screen appearance before his death the following year.
Not worth getting just for JM: Subway in the Sky; Bill Brand and Oppenheimer.
These films only have cameos but some quite fun ones and they come around on terrestrial TV: The Damned (1962), The Evil of Frankenstein (1964) & (more briefly) Far From the Madding Crowd (1967).  (I think his cameo in Connecting Doors must be at least recognisable as someone spotted him in it just based off my gifs, but it’s not come my way yet.)  I’ve never been able to get hold of any of his radio performances, not even the 1990s one.
ETA: I forgot The Power Game! This is the one surviving series where he occurs as a semi-regular (at least until halfway through S1 when he went off to the BBC to be in the now-burninated Hunchback of Notre Dame).  This isn’t standalone, but it’s a good series and it is on YT.  See how you go with crackly old TV before you brave it but it’s the snarkiest thing ever made about people making concrete and stabbing each other in the back.  JM is a civil servant who tries to run the National Export Board and is plagued by Patrick Wymark and Clifford Evans as warring businessmen.
***
[... Well, now I just feel scary.  0_o  In my defence, I have been stuck home bored & ill for years, and often unable to watch modern TV while trying to cheer myself up with James Maxwell, so I didn’t watch all of this at once.  It just... happened eventually after SotT. /waves hand 
But if anyone feels the need to unfriend my quietly at this point, I understand. /o\]
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stainedglassgardens · 4 years
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Watched in May
A Russian Youth (Мальчик русский) Sicario Fedora LoveTrue The Platform Water Lilies (Naissance des pieuvres) The Assistant The Half of It Tomboy The Last Man on Earth Beanpole (Дылда) Mommy The Fall Girlhood (Bande de filles) Carnival of Souls Marguerite & Julien Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Portrait de la jeune fille en feu) This Magnificent Cake! (Ce Magnifique Gâteau!) Romantic Comedy Transnistra Eraserhhead The Farewell Emma. Late Night Charlie's Angels Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) The Ancestors Came Suicide by Sunlight Anthropocene: The Human Epoch A Perfect 14 Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist Free Radicals Aniara Vivarium La Pointe-Courte Diary of a Pregnant Woman (L'Opéra-Mouffe) Salut les Cubains Uncle Yanco (Oncle Yanco) GUO4 Atlantiques Sitara: Let Girls Dream Lions Love (Lions Love... And Lies) Živan Makes a Punk Festival (Živan pravi pank festival) Plastic and Glass The So-Called Caryatids (Les Dites Cariatides) The Octopus (La Pieuvre) Hyas and Stenorhynchus (Hyas et sténorinques, crustacés marins) Sea Urchins (Les Oursins) Bernard-L'Hermite (Bernard-l'Ermite) The Sea Horse (L'Hippocampe ou "cheval marin") Voyage to the Sky (Voyage dans le ciel) Le Vampire Freshwater Assassins (Assassins d'eau douce) How Some Jellyfish Are Born (Comment naissent des méduses) Shrimp Stories (Histoires de crevettes) The Love Life of the Octopus (Les Amours de la pieuvre) Acera, or The Witches' Dance (Acera, ou le Bal des Sorcières) Pigeons of the Square (Les Pigeons du square) The Slumber Party Massacre Jane B. par Agnès V. The Cranes Are Flying (Летят журавли) Crystal Swan (Хрусталь) Take Me Somewhere Nice Microhabitat ( 소공녀) The Unforeseen
Did not finish
Swiss Army Man (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, 2016) Braid (Mitzi Peirone, 2018) A Secret Love (Chris Bolan, 2020) Calder's 1927 Great Circus (Le Grand Cirque Calder 1927, Jean Painlevé, 1955)
Did not like
Sicario (Denis Villeneuve, 2015) The Platform (Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia, 2019) The Half of It (Alice Wu, 2020) Sitara: Let Girls Dream (Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, 2019)
I could take them or leave them
Fedora (Billy Wilder, 1978) LoveTrue (Alma Har'el, 2016) This Magnificent Cake! (Ce Magnifique Gâteau!, Emma De Swaef & Marc James Roels, 2018) Romantic Comedy (Elizabeth Sankey, 2019) Eraserhhead (David Lynch, 1977) Late Night (Nisha Ganatra, 2019) Charlie's Angels (Elizabeth Banks, 2019) Free Radicals (Len Lye, 1958) Aniara (Pella Kågerman and Hugo Lilja, 2018) Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (Cathy Yan, 2020) The Ancestors Came (Cecile Emeke, 2017) GUO4 (Peter Strickland, 2019) Živan Makes a Punk Festival (Živan pravi pank festival, Ognjen Glavonić, 2014) The Unforeseen (Laura Dunn, 2007)
Films I enjoyed
A Russian Youth (Мальчик русский, Alexander Zolotukhin, 2019): Went into this with the single aim of improving my Russian. Loved the back-and-forth between “the story” and the orchestra playing the score to said story. The “story” itself is also tragically moving
Water Lilies (Naissance des pieuvres), Tomboy, Girlhood (Bande de filles) and Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Portrait de la jeune fille en feu) (Céline Sciamma, 2007, 2011, 2014, 2019): I saw all four of Céline Sciamma’s films practically in a row! I liked all of them, don’t think I prefer one over another. And I recognise she’s a talented filmmaker, even though she’ll probably never be a favourite
The Last Man on Earth (Ubaldo Ragona and Sidney Salkow, 1964): A good... vampire-zombie film... that is worth sticking with even though you might find it too ordinary at first
Beanpole (Дылда, Kantemir Balagov, 2019): This story is fucked up! I liked it up to a certain extent, but I suspect it was mainly because of the historical and geographical setting. If you like post-WW2 Russia and this is the film for you
Mommy (Xavier Dolan, 2014): The portrayal of the titular mother hit a bit too close to home... This was my first Xavier Dolan film and I was not disappointed. Only drawback: Céline Dion’s song “On ne change pas” has been stuck in my head ever since
The Fall (Jonathan Glazer, 2020): It was... good? From the publicity it received on Mubi, I thought this was going to be a feature film, so yeah, I was disappointed, I loved Sexy Beast and Under the Skin so much
The Farewell (Lulu Wang, 2019): I really liked it, I think this didn’t get nearly enough praise -- but I was expecting something life-changing when I “only” found this very good
Emma. (Autumn de Wilde, 2020): This adaptation felt like Autumn de Wilde really, really wanted her film to be shown in as many classrooms as possible. It was enjoyable! I liked her additions to the book, and I appreciate the challenge she took up
Suicide by Sunlight (Nikyatu Jusu, 2019): A good short vampire film about Black vampires who are protected from daylight by their melanin
Anthropocene: The Human Epoch (Edward Burtynsky, Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier, 2018): Stunning visuals, sobering message. Somewhere between Koyaanisqatsi and Unser Täglich Brot in tone
A Perfect 14 (Giovanna Morales Vargas, 2018): This, by necessity, doesn’t cover everything on the subject of plus-size models, and practically speaking I didn’t learn anything -- but it’s well-made, and the personal stories of the main interviewees make a good, contrasted portrait
Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist (Lorna Tucker, 2018): I came out of this feeling as if Vivienne Westwood wasn’t that interesting of a person, which I’m sure wasn’t the director’s intention... still, it was informative enough
Plastic and Glass (Tessa Joosse, 2009): A short somewhat-documentary about a choir in a recycling facility. Good music
The Slumber Party Massacre (Amy Holden Jones, 1982): Finally saw this! Very surprised to learn this was written by Rita Mae Brown. It was good as far as slashers go and of course, it is nice to watch something from that era that is not appallingly sexist
The Cranes Are Flying (Летят журавли, Mikhail Kalatozov, 1957): I guess I had to read about this afterwards in order to see how unusual it was for the time it was made. While I watched it I enjoyed the way it was filmed but the story left me indifferent, and I thought it lacked subtlety
Crystal Swan (Хрусталь, Darya Zhuk, 2018): A very aesthetically pleasing story set in 1990s Belarus, about a young woman who wants to emigrate to Chicago for the love of house music... the story will keep taking you unexpected places from there. The costumes are perfect, the soundtrack is interesting. It does feel a little as if it were made for export, and I thought it relied quite heavily on stereotypes about Slavs
Take Me Somewhere Nice (Ena Sendijarević, 2019): This coming-of-age road movie about a Bosnian girl who was raised in the Netherlands and comes back to visit her father in hospital has everything... drugs, violence, death, even cute dogs. The pastel palette makes it very satisfying
Microhabitat ( 소공녀, Jeon Go-woon, 2017): This film about a woman with a minimum-wage job who would rather leave her flat than quit smoking and drinking whisky just spoke to me
La Pointe-Courte, Diary of a Pregnant Woman (L'Opéra-Mouffe), Salut les Cubains, Uncle Yanco (Oncle Yanco), Lions Love (Lions Love... And Lies), The So-Called Caryatids (Les Dites Cariatides), Jane B. par Agnès V. (Agnès Varda, 1955, 1958, 1964, 1967, 1969, 1984, 1988): I decided to watch all of Agnès Varda’s films that are on Mubi France and that I haven’t seen already, in chronological order. This feels a bit like a chore sometimes, but I find it rewarding. It’s strange to think that even a few years ago hers was a name I’d heard a few times but that didn’t mean anything to me. And I know I can be merciless when it comes to French cinema. Anyway... I like what I’ve seen so far (the above plus Cléo and Vagabond), I like that someone can just pick up her film camera and make a short about caryatids... generally speaking I like Varda’s approach to film that makes it seem more accessible to people like me. I don’t think all of her films are particularly good, but I like that she made all of them. I never did particularly like Cléo, and I didn’t particularly like La Pointe-Courte in spite of the fact that it was shot very close to where I’m from. Of the above, my fave was probably Lions Love, even though (or because?) it doesn’t very much feel like a Varda film. Uncle Yanco is a close second. I’ve got three feature films left now
Films I loved
The Assistant (Kitty Green, 2019): Unfortunately enough, this reminded me of an internship I did a few years ago... I found it uncomfortably realistic, and thus very good. Julia Garner is perfect, as usual
Carnival of Souls (Herk Harvey, 1962): I watched this because it is a classic, expecting it to be over-the-top and not nearly as scary as I found it... a very good surprise
Marguerite & Julien (Valérie Donzelli, 2015): It’s hard to talk about this in a way that will make people want to see it without making me sound like a huge weirdo but here goes. It’s a story about a brother and sister who are madly in love with each other. It takes place in a fantasy past and is told like a fairytale. If you think it’s impossible to turn this premise into a good film please watch this
Transnistra (Anna Eborn, 2019): With this film I discovered the existence of the tiny unrecognised state named Transnistria... I also discovered Alla Pugacheva, who is part of a great nostalgic Russian soundtrack with Kino amongst others. The story is one of those documentaries about youth that punches you right in the gut. Definitely recommended
Vivarium (Lorcan Finnegan, 2019): This is the type of what, for lack of a better term, I call “minimal science fiction” that I really enjoy. I’ve thought about it a lot since then. I don’t know why people generally didn’t seem to like it. I thought the premise was terrifying and nightmarish, and the actual film effectively claustrophobic. Plu:s Imogen Poots
Atlantiques (Mati Diop, 2009): This is the short, not the feature film of the same name. I’ve heard a lot about Mati Diop and I saw this the second it became available on Mubi France -- and I didn’t regret it. Can’t wait to see Atlantiques, long form
The Octopus (La Pieuvre), Hyas and Stenorhynchus (Hyas et sténorinques, crustacés marins), Sea Urchins (Les Oursins), Bernard-L'Hermite (Bernard-l'Ermite), The Sea Horse (L'Hippocampe ou "cheval marin"), Voyage to the Sky (Voyage dans le ciel), Le Vampire, Freshwater Assassins (Assassins d'eau douce), How Some Jellyfish Are Born (Comment naissent des méduses), Shrimp Stories (Histoires de crevettes), The Love Life of the Octopus (Les Amours de la pieuvre), Acera, or The Witches' Dance (Acera, ou le Bal des Sorcières), Pigeons of the Square (Les Pigeons du square) (Jean Painlevé, 1928, 1929, 1929, 1930, 1934, 1937, 1945, 1947; Jean Painlevé and Geneviève Hamon, 1960, 1964, 1965, 1972; Jean Painlevé, 1982): I didn’t know who Jean Painlevé was before I decided to watch The Octopus. As it turns out, I am a sucker for well-made nature documentaries, and since all of these are short films, I ended up watching them all, in order of release, over the course of one afternoon. It’s a little bit crazy that these were getting made as early as the 1920s, and I can’t imagine what it would have been like to see them in theatres nearly a hundred years ago. Anyway these are all good, although I wasn’t expecting the vivisection that seems to have been par for the course in the early days
*
Yes, I really did watch 65 films in May. It becomes a little less impressive considering a fair amount of those were shorts, but still. Unemployment!
I have access to Outbuster now in addition to Mubi and Netflix, this time through my boyfriend’s account. It’s a French thing I think, and very cheap, but I’ve only just tried it with Microhabitat. Of course it was the Mubi Library thing that just completely sent me over the edge, and I want to watch all the things.
In June I hope to finish Agnès Varda’s filmography on Mubi and maybe watch some more Tarkovsky!
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milan-chica · 3 years
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They served as Atty Gen the same time it took the same big they took on the same big fights to get California bow here in Delaware big fights helped change the entire country I know how much bow respected and her work that matter a Free Spirit Brave Soul Medical Assistant Leopard Heart T Shirt From AllezyGo lot to me to be honest with you as I made this decision so now we need to get to work playing this nation out of these crises we find ourselves. America cabinsand resolve to go offand find buckyand bring them back to normal meanwhile buck is off killing hydra scientistsand trying to become more human as you imagine with the shield team yeah finding out everyone’s hydra is a pretty big mess john garrettand grant were exposedand start shooting people in the faceand a big battle between hydra shield ensues in the cast that follows the us government declare shield a terrorist organization that’s fun for colson the gang john garrett breaks initials facilitiesand steals a bunch weapons from colson’s past ventures pheasant simmons end up in a medical pod which grant ward then chucks to the bottom of the ocean fits almost sacrifices himself to save simmons because they’re in love but in a fury shows up just in time to save them during colsonand team upand eventually defeat garrett to make schools in the new head of shieldand jesse were up to date his team now includes this dude called macand the studio tripletand this dude called patton oswalt after the spirit wasn’t hiding with the excellent disguise of a beanie however colson is now starting to experience side effects from being resurrected using cree fluids the main side effect is he start sketching a map of that ancient cree city for humans to find is that sin is brain now meanwhile the soon to be human is been running around the show for a while now called reyna goes to daisy’s dad calvin who is still looking for after all these yearsand tells him she’s found his daughter he really was sincere so he sets out to do that this has been the because he almost drownedand now he’s got brain damage simmons is nelson’s work undercover in hydra with the help of fellow shield agent bobby morse shield team lost recruit sassy british man lance hunterand some other people but they’re not as important agents also start fighting this inhuman called carl creel the absorbing that back over to calgary now he discovers it is usb stick with information on it that he would like to have however it’s currently in possession of guest to reva connors luke cage’s wife so he is jessica to find usb formand then orders her to kill reva jessica does it but it’s so dramatic that she manages to break free from kill race controland walks away he is then promptly hit by a bus just giving he’s dead but he survives in later forces a guy given both of his kidneys so he can live after all this jessica jones decides to become a private investigator while luke cage is pretty devastatedand also now running his bar okay now were going to go to space for quite a bit that is a still looking for those infinity stones after loki stuck to getting the tesseract so he lists run the accuser’s old cree crazy fanatic friend to help them in case you forgot the cree are still war with the no vampire the good police of spaceand it was a peace treaty involved that decree signed but ronan went rogueand started terrorizing secondary people send r is the capital of the vampire enemies a lot of weird names once i’m sorry anyway ronan with the help of dennis’s adopted daughters nebulaand gomorrah is now looking for the orb that contains the power infinity stone on places like praxis nine process nine at data know but so far no luck also grew rocket or start collecting bounties for example on this guy called balto so this point most everyone is looking for this infinity stone orb dennis wants it to come to the universe once it’s usand give it to the collectorand this random urgent wants it because it can probably be sold for a lot of money this merchant hires yonder in the rafters to get a form peter quill now going the name star lord is all grown upand despite what they taught him once to move away from the ravages so he locates the orband takes it for himself just before running into ronan’s henchmen started quill escapesand gomorrah center treated on the planet of zande are guerrillas attacked by gomorrah for the orband by writing group for huge bounty on his head in the end all capturedand sent to prison called the kiln where they meet tracks the destroyer tracks his family was killed by running under the command of panos so once revenge on both those guys which intends on getting through gomorrah in the end these unlikely five team up to get out of the kilnand plan to get the order to the collector so they can all get paid now you got the rogers were medic will the notochord who would uphold the lawand ronan once the orb on the tail is to know where a celestial head where the collector is peter so I love it gomorrah jackson arcata getting drunkand fighting but eventually through all these distractions they doand of giving the orb to the collector however one of the collector’s assistance to the stoneand a big explosion happens because it’s an infinity stone was as good markwell to take the stone back in a fit of junk vengeance just goes run into the planet a fight in a fight which she loses badlyand tries to kill more in spaceand gets the orb that peter saves her at the last minute right as a captured by the raptors ronan as the stoneand decides to betray santos giving it for himselfand paying to distressand areand then santos the crew now going by the name of the guardians of the galaxy eventually regroupand team up with the ravages to guard the galaxy they team up with another court as well a big clinic to bounces during which grid sacrifices himself to save his new friends eventually after some paddlingand dance off peterand russ the guardians grab the stoneand kill run with it saving the day in the process peter is able to hold the power of the stone for sunday does because he’s part celestial areas of the stones than of the court keep safe I wonder that’s agoand they often become kind of guns for hire also rocket pics of the twig from grits corpseand plants that create a new gruden baby form who grows with the team meanwhile the collector gets mocked by herod the duck ego the living planet celestial is my someone who held infinity stoneand realizes it must be some of his day yonder never delivered is a plan to get peter to’s planet they can join forces so we can consume everything everywhere nebula has escapedand is now hated by pretty much everyone in the universe but she really wants to kill her dad that us she tries to steal some superpowerful batteries from these aliens called the sovereign but is caughtand taken prisoner however there’s a giant monster called the obelisk that slowly drain those batteries power to the sovereign the guardians to defeated they greeted so if they get nebula as payment after they succeed however rogge still similar batteries because he’s kind of a dick that’s not a joke that’s pretty much what he did it still battery the summer discover this since in the fleet to kelly guardians but ego shows upand destroys that fleet reveals himself as peter’s dadand him peter gomorrah jackson egos helper mantis who can read people’s emotionsand make people feel emotions go back to ego’s home planet his body meanwhile rocket baby groupand nebula stage repair the ship meanwhile the ravagesand the undo off on some hooker planet celebrating the victory against ronan when yonder runs into sylvester stallone after all these years stone is a bit of foreshadowing that how yonder won’t have a nice rabbit your funeraland yonder is not too happy about it but soon after the sovereign approachand then ask them in the ravages to catch the guardians for them that’s the planet where the guardians crash landedand after b skirmish take rocketand baby group prisoner one of the ravages taser face please yonder was getting too softand stages of mutiny nebula helps the ravages take out jan doand then goes off to kill her sister onceand for all is really she just was to kill her whole family at this pointand his mentor killed the mutiny but eventually yonder rocket bondand escape with the very very slow help of baby groupand yonder’s number two crack when you gets a new arrow controlling mohawkand the murder all the ravages mastered’s in the coolest way possible meanwhile on egos planet egos teaching peter how to use his celestial powersand peter is loving it something seems off thoughand that is his beginning friends with tracksand wants to tell them about egos deep secret as in all the child murdering young to know as well that child murdering so him craband daily gruden rocket getting the shipand jump across the universe to save peterand the gang from ego nebula get steel spina first invites gomorrah but eventually they stop fightingand talk out their differences peter is getting really into ego so celestial thing welcome nebula discovered cave of the children under the surface peters advertised may goand almost as long would egos plan until ego reveals that he killed peter’s mom at which point peter steps out of itand the battle begins the process of all the cd the plantand transforming has already begunand the stuff starts expanding all over the universe including honor the guardians by egoand the sovereign as they just arrived peterand ego to get out in the weirdest way possibleand ultimately yet the guardians when an ego is no more in the process peter loses his celestial powers is not totally op when infinity work comes however to say peter yonder redeems himselfand sacrifices his own life freezing to death in outer space youngest funeral followsand all the raptures including stallone come back to honor him since they realized he wasn’t such a bad guy after all nebula gomorrah become somewhat loving sisters nebula leaves to find a way to kill santos which I guess takes another four years to get around to doing kremlin takes over yonder zeroand still reunites an old ravaged team then yonder’s honor the sovereign still pretty upset with the guardians create adam warlock to be the ultimate weapon against them though that’s also to take a few years to fully manifest also this old man has been an informant for these beings that watch the universe called the watchersand that’s all you need to know about them nowand go back to earth there’s this guy called jonathan sanborn who gets in an accident at the factory work sadand is paralyzed he seeks medical helpand physical therapy but those do nothing for so he hears about ties for the masters of the mystic art still hang outand has over there here he meets the one entries in the way of the mystic artsand eventually leaves as he can use the magic to walk again this year team is having more adventures mainly revolving around trying to figure out those weird drawings colson is doing this includes may find an agent with a mask that makes you look like me it’s probably burned onto a face that guy verna reinhardt also comes backand get his hands on the diviner again over hell’s kitchen not murdoch confesses at his church about his vigilanteand because he’s very catholic but decides to give it up anyway to make a city a safer place in the same area reporter called karen page discovers some shady activity involving money laundering going on with this companyand tries to tell one of its employees but wakes up the next morning next to his dead body holding a blade knife she’s accused of murder against nelsonand murdoch to defend her she’s doing some investigatingand so some people want to killed matt in his vigilante outfit safes are become known as the daredevil that karen such working as a secretary for nelson murdoch ever since that you turn invasion a bunch of house prices have dropped new york or something real estate related like that so they’re more russian gangstersand mobstersand all that taking advantage of the situation wasn’t fisk that the range kid from before returns him to make the city a better place but a better place for him isn’t better for a lot of people also he falls in love the woman called vanessaand start being people’s headsand with car doors those two things are mostly unrelated so that as daredevil fights back against him involving lots of dark hallwaysand alleysand beating up russians in bidding of ninjas called nobu in the process thought he discovers who he isand has a big scene of acting on the way that also provides a nurse called claire temple finds a new year’s at houston to his wounds wasn’t fisk also starts working with mme. Ways you really know why when I very dearly out there on how the world can the larry down cleanup every note and an been cresting to the returning energy are you willing to give out to joe biden here is my answer going on recollections can break your heart they can make to gain from the here was interesting to hear what the president experienced intelligent and actually believe in the rule of law was starting to see the soul of this nation and my favorite things to fix sacrificing your ideals or your commitment to family who better to introduce your children biden sleep joe biden is our dad now about it when I tell you what kind president our dad will be will be and honest caring principle to listen will be there when you need him tell you get to when you get when you will never let you down the rock candy strongly shouldering you can ever lean on every time you succeed will make your grandkids fielded what they’ve got to see others treat cream on the line get up no matter how many times he’s been knocked down
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sjrresearch · 4 years
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Horrifying History: Historical Games to Play for Halloween
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(This article is credited to Ben Price. For as long as he can remember, Ben has always loved playing, discussing, and writing about video games. Since receiving his B.A. in English, he now writes about them for a living.)
As we approach the midway point of October, scary season is in full swing, which only means one thing for gamers: horror games. Horror has always been a popular genre, from the iconic Resident Evil and Silent Hill franchises to more recent hits like Outlast and Until Dawn. Fans of horror have plenty of new releases to look forward to this year, with titles such as Amnesia: Rebirth right around the corner.
But anyone can go on about the best or upcoming horror games. How about those based around historical events and in historical settings? There are a handful of great picks in that category we’d love to shine the proverbial spotlight on. For history buffs that want to get spooked this Halloween, here are some video games that you absolutely want to check out.
Zombie Army Series
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Because we can never quite get enough World War II shooters in our library, Zombie Army Series sends us to an alternate 1940s. One where Hitler didn’t just overtake Europe. He did so with a swarming horde of the undead. Grizzly fiends pile onto players from all corners, ripped straight from the hands of Hell to devour the world and spread the Nazi plague.
The Zombie Army series spans four titles, each one more horrifyingly ridiculous than the last. As a resistance fighter, players mow down the undead across a decayed and dilapidated world. The series features period-specific weapons, which are useful implements in downing zombies. Though there’s underlying humor to the series, the atmosphere tends to be gloomier and a bit more fitting of the survival horror genre.
Zombie Army is a spin-off of the Sniper Elite series and even features some of those game’s delightful quirks like the brutally entertaining bullet camera.
A Plague Tale: Innocence
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If there’s anything that we’ve learned in the year 2020, it’s that there are few scarier things in this world than widespread, infectious disease. A Plague Tale: Innocence is set in 14th century France, and the player takes on the role of 15-year-old Amicia de Rune, who must protect her little brother Hugo as they evade Inquisition soldiers while also faced with the deadliest disease known to man: The Bubonic Plague. 
The story takes itself into scary and dark places, telling a compelling tale of a girl and her brother. Part of what makes A Plague Tale so scary is the fact that you, a young woman, are nearly defenseless in a world filled with dangers at every corner, from terrorizing soldiers to ravenous, infectious rats. While not 100% historically accurate, A Plague Tale offers players a look at an interesting period of European history that has rarely been touched upon in video games.
Bloodrayne
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Players step into the shoes of Rayne, a half-human, half-vampire in this hack-and-slash action game set in the 1930s. First beginning in 1933, BloodRayne takes the player through a warped version of Nazi Germany and other interesting locations in this unique blend of world history and vampiric lore.
The game certainly features some creepy monsters and enemies, from giant spiders to bats and straight-up demons. BloodRayne is an exciting, alternative take on German history that’s sure to offer a bloody good time for fans of fast-paced hack-and-slash games.
Call of Duty - Nazi Zombies
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The Call of Duty franchise has covered many different periods of world history, from World War II in the original trilogy to the war against Afghanistan in the Modern Warfare games and the Cold War in the Black Ops series. But one of the most interesting aspects of many Call of Duty games has to be the series’ classic Nazi Zombies mode.
First seen in Call of Duty: World at War, this survival horror side mode pits up to four players against the living dead, who attack in endless waves. In a somewhat humorous and ridiculous fashion, the mode depicts Nazi soldiers reanimated as the living dead. The mode also offers many different playable characters and usable weapons that vary in their levels of historical accuracy.
While it isn’t the scariest historical game to play this Halloween season, it certainly is one of the most fun. It may not be the best place to score an education on world history, but Nazi Zombies can certainly be a delightful trip into a bloody, rotting version of the past.
Nocturne
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Originally launched exclusively on PC in 1999, Nocturne is set in the late 1920s and early 1930s and follows a character simply known as The Stranger, an operative of a fictional secret American Government organization known as “Spookhouse.” Through the course of the game, The Stranger investigates several different cases where he must fight off various classic monsters such as zombies, vampires, and werewolves in locations like the jazzy streets of the Windy City.
The game feels very classic survival horror, in a similar vein to Silent Hill and Alone in the Dark with fixed camera angles and some rather wonky controls when compared to modern standards. With that said, Nocturne was considered very ahead of its time when released and is now considered a cult classic that’s been shrouded in obscurity.
Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem
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Released on the Nintendo GameCube back in 2002, this cult classic is perhaps one of the scariest psychological horror games of all time. With about half of the story set in modern-day, the other half takes place during multiple different periods of world history.
Playable characters include Pious Augustus, a Roman Centurion from Ancient Rome; Paul Luther, a Franciscan monk from 1485 AD; Peter Jacob, an English journalist covering the events of World War I; Dr. Maximillian Roivas, a wealthy doctor living in colonial Rhode Island in 1760 AD; and many more. Nearly every playable character comes from a different period, with the game spanning over 2000 years of world history.
The game plays very similarly to the Resident Evil series, with fixed camera angles and zombie-like enemies but with many unique gameplay elements, such as magic spell-casting abilities as well as a sanity meter that can affect the game in unpredictable ways. Eternal Darkness tested players with trickery that some would consider cruel, such as a “blue screen of death” error and a particularly nasty fakeout that appears to delete all save files.
With so many great choices, it looks like history buffs should have no shortage of scary games to play this Halloween season.
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At SJR Research, we specialize in creating compelling narratives and provide research to give your game the kind of details that engage your players and create a resonant world they want to spend time in. If you are interested in learning more about our gaming research services, you can browse SJR Research’s service on our site at SJR Research.
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kolbisneat · 4 years
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MONTHLY MEDIA: February 2020
Okay two months into the year! Here’s all the stuff I read/watched/heard/played/and generally experienced in February!
……….FILM……….
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The Favourite (2018) We were in the exact right mood for this and it was as weird and dramatic and well-acted as I’d hoped. It does a great job of shifting tone and the movie probably took an extra half hour to watch as we paused and looked up the accuracy of everything about Queen Anne and Sarah Marlborough. Everything about this movie (and the history it’s based on) was just bonkers.
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Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn (2020) Super fun! It was silly and heartfelt and shockingly violent (they did a great job of having like...a baseline of violence that was pretty lowkey and then really hitting you with one or two super gruesome moments). I haven’t seen Suicide Squad but this worked for me on its own. Also the fight choreography was incredible! There’s just so much to love here. Oh I would’ve liked to see a little more costuming from the other cast members, but understand why that didn’t quite fit into this. Anyway, good time at the movies.
Down a Dark Hall (2018) Very very okay. It’s a slow burn and has a gothic vibe. None of the characters get a lot of depth but they’re well-acted. It’s just like...a solid 6.5/7ish out of 10, you know? Like not GREAT, but also good enough that it was fine.
……….TELEVISION……….
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What We Do in the Shadows (Episode 1.01 to 1.07) So so good and I’m surprised I haven’t heard more people talking about this. It has enough of what I loved about the movie (charming characters and cast, fun play with what it means to be vampires, and a lot of comedy pulled from the contrast of the fantastical and the mundane) and there’s lots of new stuff as well (married vampires, american location, etc.) Really worth checking out and it makes so much sense to transition this to tv. The effects are fantastic and they don’t seem to be pulling their punches with the gore either. Very excited for more.
The Bachelor (Episode 24.05 to 24.09) I think the produces are wringing every drop of drama out of the interpersonal relationship between the women because Peter is such a dud. It’s a shame. If they took a risk and tried someone who broke the mould, then we’d get tv that breaks the mould. The only thing that’ll save this season for me is if Hannah B. comes back at the very end.
The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (Episode 3.04 to 3.08) A fun season, though I never really love magic plots where a the main hurdle is no magic. This is not why I watch a magic show. The eldritch horrors and spooky carnivals and insane spells are what I love. The writing feels like it’s veering into Riverdale territory, but I can’t decide if it’s always been that way. 
The Good Place (Episode 4.10 to 4.13) Oof. What a great ending. And credit to everyone involved that they created a series that set out to tell a specific story, explore specific themes, and did so with laser focus. Well-planned, excellent writing, and equal parts funny and emotional. Excellent stuff.
……….READING……….
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The Time Traveler’s Almanac edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer (Page 357/959) Such a great collection of short stories. I usually come back to this collection of time-travel stories when I’m in between books and it never disappoints. It’s also a great way to find new sci-fi or fantasy writers and to get a sense of their writing style without commiting to an entire book. Worth checking out if you like science fiction or, even better, time travel.
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (Complete) Having only a casual understanding of the story, I was surprised by how relevant it felt. The story of a “good” man who indulges in dark deeds, swears it’s not him, asks for pity from the reader, and yet continues to do this stuff feels veeeeeery topical. Maybe Jekyll was sympathetic when the book was written?
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Silver Surfer: Black by Donny Cates, Tradd Moore, and Dave Stewart (Complete) I really think Silver Surfer is becoming one of my favourite marvel characters because this book is exactly why I love comics. The writing is melodramatic yet sincere, the art is wildly inventive but coherent, and the story itself is a little sci-fi with fantasy elements. Absolutely worth checking out if you like Silver Surfer or crazy good art or bonkers stuff that doesn’t feel bonkers until you explain it out loud. It’s just a lot of fun.
Marvels by Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross (Complete) Art was/is/and will forever be stellar. I just can’t imagine how much time and love went into each panel. The writing is also wonderful and the overall story (life from the perspective of a civilians living in a world full of super-heroes) felt fully realized here. It’s fun seeing big comic book events from the point-of-view of a street-level photographer. With that said, I didn’t like the ending. I think it’s a good ending, but I didn’t like it. My gut tells me that it ended on a note that is contrary to the message being presented for 75% of the book. It’s one I have to think on a little more.
……….AUDIO……….
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Judy con Disfraz by Los Sirex (1965) So this is just one song, but I’ve been listening to a lot of foreign language covers of english songs and this one is probably my favourite right now.
……….GAMING……….
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Neverland: Fantasy Role-Playing Setting (Andrews McMeel Publishing) I got to play two different games of this over the month! My ongoing campaign is exploring the island a little more and are getting into lots of trouble. The one shot I did with the Mof1 Podcast should be out in March and it was great introducing a few people to both the island AND D&D in general! So great.
Curse of Strahd (Wizards of the Coast) The party finally escaped Death House! We’re starting to explore more of Barovia and I think the party is starting to realize just how deep in the forest they’ve gone.
And that’s it! As always, I’m keen to hear good things to check out so don’t hesitate to share a recommendation.
Happy Saturday!
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Spider-Force #2 Thoughts
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The text at the issue’s end advertising issue #3 includes the phrase ‘what-the-heck-just-happened’.
All too appropriate for this series.
 In issue #1 there was a sense of...confusion on my part. A sense of ‘why is this happening, who are these people, what’s going on’. Not for the over all plot but for specific elements, such as regarding Charlie. I thought maybe the consequent issues will flesh this out.
But with issue #2 I doubt that.
Some things were answered but other things played out in head scratching ways. In fairness I think it’s less a matter of what happened so much as the presentation of it.
I think the key example here is Ashley and Charlie’s relationship.
The idea that Ashley would seek to connect to a version of her grandfather isn’t an uninteresting angle per se.
However having her open up to Charlie and encourage Charlie himself to open up to her whilst they are literally tumbling through space is a baffling creative decision. I’m wondering if Priest went that direction to be funny (he does lampshade it a little) or if he just needed to cram it in there.
This baffling use of presentation applies to stuff that is initially confusing but gets answered later, but isn’t presented initially as something that is posing a mystery or a question in the first place. One example would be Charlie’s initial recruitment and him saving the falling safe. Another would be when we get 3 flashbacks in a row from the POV of Astro-Spider, Ashley and Charlie. When you first see this it’s very confusing because they don’t seem to line up and it’s not clear that we are getting flashbacks to all 3 characters. The fact that Charlie’s past was being dived into was immediately made clear when he yells for Astro-Spider to get out of his head. But it isn’t until way later in the comic that we find out we also got to see Ashley’s past.
Granted maybe that’s on my end because I’m not overly familiar with Ashley.
This brings up a point of debate regarding presumed knowledge on the readers’ parts. I have read Old Man Logan but it was a while back and shockingly I was more focussed upon Logan’s story than anyone else’s. And yet knowing the wider world building and Ashley’s angle would’ve made a point of alienation in the story much more accessible, but I was never told or reminded of that aspect. In contrast though Astro-Spider’s origin is clearly connected to the cosmic rays that created the Fantastic Four. And at first I didn’t bat an eye at that because of course I know the F4’s origins. But then I got to Ashley’s character and it made me realize if you didn’t know the F4’s origin you’d seriously be baffled by Astro-Spider’s. So at the end of the day I feel very much it’s a failing on Priest’s part that he doesn’t have some kind of exposition or explanation that will be more inviting to new or unfamiliar readers. After all it’s maybe one thing to presume general knowledge about Spider-Man when you are writing a Spidey tie-in for a Spidey event but quite another when doing that to presume they’ve also read F4 and Wolverine comics.
Even putting aside the issue of presumed knowledge there is a certain...cheapness to the modest exploration of Ashley’s character and her relationship with Charlie.
Now I read Old Man Logan a while back (and wasn’t impressed at all) and don’t remember everything about it. I also didn’t read all of Spider-Verse and skimmed a lot of the stuff I did ‘read’. So maybe I’m forgetting or in the dark about something in need of enlightening. But I don’t remember Ashley being a sexual abuse survivor. I don’t remember Ashley having particular connections to her grandpa Peter Parker.
These elements to her are thrown into this and the last comic and then exaggerated in order to give her some kind of emotional angle through her connection to Charlie. Now first of all throwing in so casually an abuse backstory for any character is pretty messed up (not helped when pages later the Inheritors are framed as pedophiles when...they’re really not at all). Second of all if Ashley really felt this kind of connection to her grandpa...wouldn’t that have come up earlier?
I mean she is emphasising a familiar connection with a version of Peter Parker who doesn’t wear the regular costume, has a drastically different character and backstory, isn’t even called ‘Peter’ and is barely a teenager not an older man like her grandpa. Surely there were other Peter Parkers around more closely resembling her grandfather. IIRC wasn’t Otto in Spider-Verse pretending to be Peter Parker initially? What about Kaine even? You could argue she connects with Charlie due to a similar backstory of being a child victim and growing up fast, but other Spiders were tough too and even if you disagree again it’s just sort of thrown in there. It’s lazy development.
It isn’t even that these aspects couldn’t be explored or make for interesting angles on what is ultimately a rather bland character. But they sort of just show up they aren’t conveyed or developed organically at all. The same applies to her over all relationship with Charlie.
If I had to guess the root of this is that there is too much going on in this comic. Priest simultaneously needs to serve the plot of the over all event he’s tying into but also wants to dosome character stuff and develop and flesh out his original contributions. And in 3 issues it just doesn’t work.
A street punk 13 year old Peter Parker who HATES Uncle Ben is a great idea.
A post-apocalyptic waste land criminal, childhood abuse surviving granddaughter of Spider-Man, who wants to connect some version of her long gone grandpa who represents the few good parts of her life is a great angle.
An astronaught Spider-Man who is a familiar face and leader of human survivors in space is a great idea.
A Spider Strikeforce on a suicide mission on a radioactive wasteland working against the clock is a great idea.
A morally grey clone of Peter Parker with a bloody past making tough decisions to serve the greater good is a great idea.
A Spider-Hero who just wants to protect the world for her baby’s sake is a great idea.
A Regency dressed totem vampire on the hunt for a crystal containing her father’s essence in space...is a shite idea but they can’t all be winners.
However when you do these things all at the same time...it becomes an inconsistent rushed mess.
Let’s tangent briefly to talk about a few (the only few) positives of the comic. The art continued to be good even though the new artists doing a few pages aren’t as good as the regular artists and the switch is very noticeable. And Astro-Spider...is a great idea. John Jameson as Spider-Man is something I’ve always been intrigued by but can’t recall ever happening before. This is different to what I imagined because I was thinking he’d be more traditional as Spider-Man not an astronaut version of Spidey. But it’s still brilliant, taking the most famous angle of John Jameson, the F4 and Spidey and smashing them together to create something visually dynamic and fitting for the world we’re in.
Okay the positives are over now lets get back to the problems.
Last issue the recap page seemed at odds with the internal comic story. The same is true for this issue but bizarrely the recap page is now saying something different so it’s at odds with the last issue’s recap page and still at odds with the comic itself.
We’ve gone from a group of Spiders not afraid to die to Spiders who’re willing to do whatever it takes. But last I checked that wasn’t true. Correct me if I’m wrong here but:
a)      Was Charlie really established as being willing to do whatever it takes, which in context probably means killing people? He’s more rough and maybe more violent than 616 Peter but is he that extreme really?
b)      In the Clone Saga Kaine killed people but he had a rule about hurting innocent people (some exceptions applied). Preeeeetty sure in his solo book at minimum the same applied or else he was in fact more against killing. Didn’t he NOT kill Kraven the Hunter specifically because of that? He also wasn’t ever willing to sacrifice anyone for the greater good last I checked. In fact this is one point I’m 99% resolutely sure is aggressively NOT in character for Kaine. For Otto sure, but Kaine as the comic implies. No fucking way. I dare you to prove me wrong.
c)       I know Spider Woman has had spy and HYDRA associations, but is she really of the Wolverine school of thought when it comes to killing. I’m possibly wrong but I don’t think her morals regarding how hardcore you get are that different to Peter Parker’s
So what’s the deal here?
Wouldn’t it be easier to just say this is a team of Spider Bad asses who’re willing to get more rough and violent than the other hero’s?
Part of Kaine’s (meagre) characterization in this story is in fact connected to the ‘whatever it takes’ angle of the story. Like I said this is very out of character for Kaine but it also makes the story more inconsistent. The rationale for Charlie’s inclusion has seemed to be implied variously as him being rougher, him being willing to die (based on what?), him being willing to do whatever it takes (based on what?), him being willing to save people from a falling safe (just like...pretty much ever Spider-Hero here) and now we’re hearing it’s because he’s bait.
Because the Inheritors are sort of like pedophiles apparently and they like that young spider meat, like veal I guess. Um....again correct me if I’m wrong but I’m pretty sure that’s bullshit, pretty sure the youth of their targets isn’t that big of a deal to them. But then again I’m also pretty sure that they can only drain the life forces of totems yet Verna bafflingly can just take ANYONE’s life forces...wtf??????
Connected to this WTFness is the fact that Charlie out of nowhere seems to just know  the Inheritors have a preference for young meat. How and when did he figure that out exactly? He didn’t even know about the Inheritors until less than 24 hours ago.
Speaking of time...let’s do a rundown of everything that’s happened between their arrival in issue #1 to the end of issue #2.
So they’ve shown up, Kaine’ sabotaged their transport devices, they’ve battled Astro-Spider, he’s given them exposition and they’ve talked, they’ve located and boarded his space ship, then they’ve had an alert from his space station prompting another skirmish, then they’ve gone into space, divided their team, gotten to their designated target zones and whilst all this is going on Verna got into the station with her gang and had killed over 30 people and searched the place.
And according to issue #1 aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall that...happens in under 15 minutes...
Fuck.
Off.
More than anything that time limit has irreparably wrecked the internal logic and consistency of this story.
Even moreso than the fact that the baffling fact that Solus’ crystal somehow ended up in space. I mean last I checked Mayday threw it into the radioactive world for Daemos to fetch. I’m not saying there is no way for it to have been lost and taken into space but no comic in the entire event has addressed that at all.
Skim Astro-Spider’s backstory and pages if you want but otherwise I recommend not reading this crap.
P.S. The explanation for the name ‘Inheritors’ seems inconsistent with the explanation given previously IIRC
P.P.S. Editing this in after the fact. But...
a) How and why does John have the ruby that turns him into Man-Wolf if he’s got Spider powers?
b) How and why does John know who Peter Parker is? It’s written as though he knows he was the hero Spider-Man but in this universe he wasn’t Ben Parker was. 
P.P.P.S. What was with all the PG swearing where they used safe versions of common curse words? It felt tryhard edgy to me.
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13x22 watching notes
I already miss Bobo
(sometimes I can still hear his voice)
It's 7:15 and I have yoga in a bit and the sun is shining directly on my screen where my cheap ass curtains don't meet but I am gonna start watching because what is flow and continuity in tone to these writers anyways. This is a "may as well rip the plaster off" sort of start.
Regular readers of my notes will know exactly how thrilled I was to have BL handling the big character driven everyone in the same room clusterfuck this episode promises to be and lil update: since then the promos have reassured me that nope they don't have tone or nuance and we're in for some quality characterisation.
This is a damage control set of notes, I assume.
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Blah blah plot recap. They cut the conversation from 13x20 to just Sam n Dean talking about going into the apocalypse world, then "we'll die together" which I can't work out in this context (I'm hoping against hope the recap isn't dictated by BL and TJW is cobbling it together) is irony that Sam then went and died, alone, or a yet-to-come omen of the end of the season. At least BL are handing us over to Dabb for the end of season nonsense so I have to rely on him having a wacky emu war of 1932 hits the present day through Shenanigans sort of season 14 premise to build up and fling at us to make us forget all this.
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I love Sam's "we're gonna drain you" speech layered over everyone dramatically walking into apocalypse world.
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Christ for half a sec I thought they were gonna recap Gabriel in Cas's crotch
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Did Lucifer only start calling Rowena "Red" when he was Vince or is that something I missed from season 11? Because hearing boring ass Lucifer say it just makes me miss when he was Vince.
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this is such a full recap of 13x21 I'm basically just writing fresh episode notes for it
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I don't think I saw anyone talk about how cool it was when Dean shot a vampire and exploded its head off. Like, understandably Sam was dead and it was a high-pressure situation but
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ALSO Cas says "he's gone" and he sure as hell didn't mean "I can't find him" he meant "Sam's dead" but that euphemism landed Cas so much fandom flak for not looking for Sam I am starting to feel like he should have just said "I saw eight vampires chowing down on every part of him they could reach" and traded Dean's feelings for clarity.
...
I love that Cas has evolved as a character to the point he uses a gentle euphemism to spare Dean's feelings because there was once a harsher version of Cas that would have said that.
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Are they going to recap the whole Lucifer conversation
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I mean it means we can't judge Sam at all for what he did
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HUGS
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Mary's like holy shit he's really here, all shaky hands and scared to touch him. Good. She was criticised so much from the promo for not caring, I'm gonna gif that in extreme slow mo close up if I get even one (1) pissy anon about her
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Dean hangs back, knowing that Sam walking in with Lucifer can NOT be good news, and asking "what happened" is basically already knowing what happened
Oh good we already have "I didn't watch the last episode despite the 40 minute recap" syndrome.
Just quickly to get us up to that point - Lucifer is playing all benevolent when Sam says "he brought me back" with the due horror of the situation. Cas, with Jack at his side, also glaring father-like-son, says "that's not what you do" in defiance of what Lucifer has done - good to call him out for his personality traits not matching his actions, e.g. there's always a catch and we know it, but to Jack if there is to be conflict, is in the face of Lucifer's actions and we're manufacturing that TFW judge Lucifer harsher than he deserves. Even when we know Lucifer said that he'd take Jack by force and Sam is pretty much protecting Jack to take this bargain.
Anyway. Cas asks "how did you get in here" perhaps in the assumption a: they're in a walled compound rather than open woodland with perimeter guards and b: that Gabriel didn't melt all the warding last episode meaning it's not even open woodland with perimeter guards and anti-angel warding, it's just a big ass open space that they strolled into. The implication in Cas's words is that it should have been much harder for Lucifer to show up, that this place is better defended, to the point of bafflement about that. It's a smaller thing, but it's irksome because I know BL don't read the other episodes because they've literally said it in interviews, which makes stray details stand out like a sore thumb, especially when characters sound stupider than they should - rephrasing this "why are you here" or "what's going on" would be a neutral way of asking without mis-characterising the situation or having it come across just... slightly odd. Just seems to be an implication that Lucifer didn't just stroll between the trees and through an open gate as his arrival and more specifically, that there were wards or barriers that could have done anything to stop him, and Cas is talking like it's inconcievable he got past them all - what all? :P
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Lucifer says "VIP pass - I'm with the band!" which is extra hilarious that I was missing Vincifer a minute ago, because it's downgraded him from that rock god status he wanted, and now he's acting like the whiny groupie and Sam is the rockstar, TFW and family the band, and Lucifer is desperate to get in with them. Of course the Vincifer arc revealed that Lucifer never was a rock god, a year before he fails at actually being God for the exact same personality flaws, but at this point the acknowledgement is pretty much just for kicks and giggles because seeing him mocked amuses me. Seeing him have to admit there's a higher order he wants in with and TFW etc are more important than him and this is like, backhanded grovelling... yeah.
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As soon as Lucifer redirects his attention to Jack, Dean comes storming in. Of course Sam is excluding himself from this conversation in raw shame and I can't even look at his face because it is the Worst(TM) but now we have Cas, Dean and Uncle Gabe defending Jack (BL politely not writing any Gabriel dialogue yet and every minute they don't is a minute I don't have a migraine so thanks guys, appreciate it.) and Dean sounds extremely protectively fatherly and Cas is also then weighing in with parental authority... Yeah, last episode Rowena said all 3 of them were Jack's fathers and it's a different dynamic from Claire but I like seeing Cas and Dean as a parent team and I won't apologise for that :P
But, again, Jack is only 7-8 months old with a still tuning moral compass, a teenager disposition, and Cas and Dean are making parental decrees about who he can talk to, and catching him in the middle of a fight over the right to have access to him without asking his opinion. It could possibly be more frustration over that than genuine desire to meet Lucifer that upsets Jack.
Because he's still like *SCOWL* at Lucifer, still being framed with Cas. Cas says he's "kelly kline's son" and I love that Cas continually reminds Lucifer that Jack had a mother too, and that for all her terrible writing in season 12 at the very least we established "human" and "generically nice and loving towards her baby" as traits to call on :P I like that Cas is determined to emphasise where Jack gets his personality from, and that Cas doesn't define Jack by his powers. But that is ignoring that Jack HAS powers and that does factor into his life in a... rather major way... especially as the way he's been flung around so far he's had so little time to develop a personality outside of having powers, except for Sam encouraging him to watch movies and TV to foster a shared taste before Dean could think to twist Jack to his cruel purpose and have another vote on movie night in his favour, so now it's Sam n Jack vs Dean n Cas and -
Anyway. I'm procrastinating.
Lucifer emphasising that he has powers, even if he gets carried away describing how ruthlessly he uses them, is a way of connecting with Jack that no one else dared, when in 13x06 all of TFW are just like, shit, when I had magic powers I unleashed Lucifer/went on a megalomaniac God rampage/hooked up with Crowley, and immediately all get too ashamed of themselves to sit Jack down and have The Talk so he freaked out and left and tl;dr that's how we're here.
Just, like, shit, show him all 3 Spiderman films where Uncle Ben tells Peter "with great power comes great responsibility", and you're set, guys. Sheesh.
-
"No. Kill him."
*Gabriel side-eye reaction shot with no dialogue but a fascinated amusehorror about what's going on*
I'm starting to get the feeling BL just plain forgot Gabriel was in this episode, but the rest of the peeps involved were like, uh, he's in this episode because where else would he be, so Speight just came to set like he was supposed to, and hung out in all the scenes as appropriate.
I will now watch and interpret this episode based on that fact.
-
Sorry, Jack's going through a lot of conflict because Dean just point blank ordered him to melt his biological father on the spot, and I'm bitching about how someone forgot to add any pointers for Gabriel's existence into the script, not even in a character stan way, just in a sheer disbelief way, because of my horror of this being an episode with double digit named important characters in it and all in one location and being handled by the writers who can't even deal with Sam and Dean having distinct personalities in a scene with 3 characters half the time.
-
Okay, Gabriel ad libbed a "Dean" in there. I'm assuming after like 3 minutes of contact he's quite chuffed to have a nephew and knows Dean can be too harsh so he was being protective.
-
But yeah, of course it was Dean getting too angry about Lucifer (rightfully too angry, but still, emotionally mis-handling it) and making Jack disappear that sets this off, because Lucifer can just be a hub of chaos based on his reputation and act chill in the knowledge it will infuriate everyone around him into acting irrationally. Dean's been especially anxious and angry this recent year - and is building up to something awful perhaps if he is possessed by the end of the season - so it makes sense with his history of acting irrationally and being harsh on Jack from the start of the season that at the end he causes this.
Look, I'm complimenting character choices as much as being baffled by them, but what is clear is I need to be this in depth to have a chance in hell of grappling this episode >.>
-
Long shot where everyone just stands there in mute horror and Cas is the only one who looks around like he might see Jack hiding in a tree.
Remember back in 9x11 where I was like... did they just confirm he can see through walls... and literally no one ever replied to me about this hypothesis because it was too batshit? Well I am gonna have to assume that Cas looking around like that would only make sense if he can X-ray vision Jack hiding nearby >.>
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Dean's like "He does that when he's scared. Way to go, dad!" despite the fact he was the one responsible for scaring Jack - I mean, Jack is probably FREAKED OUT about Lucifer showing up in general, but Dean's reaction is upsetting as well, especially when he's already emotionally in a bad place and now Dean is asking too much of him.
This episode is where all the stuff about fatherhood lands, and Jack is playing Dean and possibly Sam, while Sam, Dean, Cas and Lucifer are probably all playing shades of John Winchester.
It's a shame Lucifer changed his clothes because the Nick vessel was wearing up to a point always the same clothes that John had been wearing last time we saw JDM on screen, and that was a subtextual "brrr" about Lucifer in season 5 - that he was mirroring John in some ways.
We got enough parents here that they could literally all play, like, a seven deadly sin or something of John's.
Dean, of course, playing explosive anger. Sam seeming at the moment to play the part that shut down in horror and wasn't there for his boys and made all the bad choices for good reasons that exposed them to the bad stuff. Lucifer playing the abusive side that manipulates, uses as bait, and was in general dangerous - the John that Dean thinks of in 5x16 when not saying what he did when Sam ran away. Cas is playing the side that truly loved his boys, but saw their mother in them and there has been plenty of analysis of how this messed up the dynamic in any way from John withdrawing from Dean for reminding him too much to the parentification thing.
-
Gabriel is like, I'm not meant to be in this episode, so I'll just... go look for Jack... to explain why I was not in the following conversation.......
-
Lucifer drops the parent thing as soon as Jack is gone and switches to saying they "need" him to use against Michael, while bragging he "beat" him (good to know his ego and lying remains intact - the same boasting that got him in trouble with Heaven when he said he could make new angels and give them their wings back).
Cas immediately does the most #married thing I've ever seen him do to Dean - the "we're on a hike together and I want the trail mix in your bag honey so i'm just gonna open it up and get it out while we stand here" thing.
But with handcuffs.
Look, Dean n Cas are special and perfect in a way no one else can get on their level and sometimes it's because this is their dynamic.
-
Anyway Cas is being a BAMF to Lucifer and that is a good and important part of his characterisation this season.
Not Taking Shit!Castiel
or
as I call him
Party!Cas
-
I can literally see a manifestation of Jared that has left his body in distress, wrapped around Sam in a hug, as he's forced to casually ask Lucifer a question on screen that he didn't ask at any point on their hike down here but now the scene is about everyone else who was standing around watching (except Gabriel, who was never in this scene) so Sam gets to butt in with a question that literally anyone else would have been better suited to ask for both character and mechanical reasons.
-
Oh that "31 hours" thing was a total lie because of course Lucifer did no such thing. He knows the rift will probably close in either 24 from when it was opened or 24 from when he was punted through it, but that telling them a number that seems to add up that it's from then but plus an extra dose of grace, means they will let it close and they'll all be stuck here, and that's a tomorrow!Lucifer problem and in the mean time he can utterly fuck them over by thinking that they have a comfortable window to operate in. The countdown is meaningless, however. It all depends on if Rowena can strengthen and stabilise the portal on her end, and nothing else.
-
I love how the contracts are set up in such a way we got all the main stars, "And" Misha, and then we get all the guest stars, "And" Felicia Day. Also this episode is an over-stuffed mess.
-
RO RO
I didn't think she'd be in this episode, but we see her hard at work with... bagpipe music playing in her head/the Bunker's sound system? *shrugs, moves on* - anyway, either dramatic irony or Buckleming literally are working on the 31 hours thing depending on how much they read about other episodes. I hope dramatic irony. This is a dialogue-less insert so it's very possible TJW stuck it in to help.
-
"Are you good?" "I'm alive, yeah."
guys, you fuckers know "alive" ain't the same as "good" but in this case Sam's consequences for being alive are the chaos playing out with Lucifer and Jack so that's like... whatever, we can deal with it, so yeah he IS good, and no he doesn't have anything to apologise for, and in a way this is all fairly straightforward so yay!
Now hug
Oh shit, that never normally works
HUGS
\o/
-
"What are we gonna do about Lucifer?" "I'll handle it. I will, Dean. Let me handle it."
THE POWER OF HUGS. YOU RIDE THAT DOPAMINE RELEASE, YOU BRAVE BEAUTIFUL MOOSE
-
I feel like I spoke this episode into being by complaining "not enough hugs" as my tagline for last episode.
-
Anyway Sam is doing WELL because sure he is a guilt ridden bloodstained mess but he has inner strength and outer beauty so he can do this.
-
And Dean says "okay"
Which holy hell is a character growth of utter, sincere trust in Sam. Not that he wouldn't trust him because, you know, in some ways every moment of character growth is "we already covered this in the opening scene of 5x22 where we sat on the car and had a huge BM" because Kripke spitefully wrapped up the entire story pretty much to piss off every future showrunner when it came to deciding how to write Sam and Dean going forwards. But in the sense that Dean is trusting Sam not to turn this into a ridiculous tragedy again, perhaps. Since that BM was about Dean allowing Sam to die for the cause - as I've been following with Gabriel, I think there's a probable theme of learning to LIVE for the cause now, through a character whose main trait is to die to solve the cause and then run away and not deal with consequences, over and over. And Sam would embody it well to confront Lucifer with a desire to live and not to self-sacrifice, but to fix this so that their family can go home and have a belated pizza birthday party for Sam. FOR SAM.
You aspire to that pizza party, you magnificent moose. Get selfish. YOU DESERVE PIZZA. YOU'RE ALL INVITED
(Except Gabriel)
-
Nougat!
"Hi Jack, I'm your mom!" At the end of the season we're getting back to all the stuff that has been shoved down since the start. Jack has accumulated more parental figures than he knows what to do with and now he has to sort out how he feels about them, and how much each influences him.
Cas, his father who was supposed to be his guiding figure, the person he was searching for from the moment he stumbled naked and Bambi-like into our world (oh shit he's Bambi, shit. Stay away from Bobby!!) insists that he is most like Kelly, who only Cas can vouch for as a fellow person with a, like, personality, because hell knows if we or any of the other characters spent any time with her :P Cas is supposedly Jack's trustworthy rock, and his insistence that Jack is most influenced by Kelly rings true to the sympathetic audience who sees Jack as a nougat-centred boy. Named by his mother, of course.
"No one would blame you if one day you went looking for your dad" have they been holding this back since 13x23? I feel like this was all recorded then and they set up Jack's arc based around it. Because now he is flashing back to memories of Lucifer bound circa 12x13 or 12x15 when he was calling out to Jack in the womb (while dressed in those John Winchester duds). And in 13x09 they used this in a recap before the episode, and I was like this ain't the last we heard of it, and sure enough all the pressures that have been on Jack since before he was born are finally being addressed one way or another. Having held back the lines from Kelly - his Cas-approved moral beacon - telling him that there's nothing wrong with at least looking for your bio father no matter how much of a prick he may turn out to be - means that this is a pressure that's been on him since 13x03 and despite the fears in 13x09 that he was looking for Lucifer with this in the recap to remind us that Lucifer had been exerting his will on Jack since the womb... Now that Lucifer has found Jack, it's KELLY telling him that it's okay to at least be curious about him in a way that presumably resonates a lot with adopted kids who may have always known they had a terrible bio father but still felt curious/that pressure internally or externally to investigate their roots if only to find out who they themselves are...
I feel like this is an all the cards on the table moment, in any case - something Dabb set up about Jack which has been the secret behind the season, something only Jack knew up to this point, even from us the viewer, and we have been the most active participants in the story this season.
"Jack, don't let anyone tell you who you're supposed to be. You are who you choose to be."
Kelly has all the best words.
But yeah, this may not work well in the context that Lucifer has come seemingly in peace, Sam is hanging his head in shame, knowing the terms of Lucifer's non-violence are that Sam doesn't reveal that Lucifer was gonna storm in and steal Jack, and only making it easy for Lucifer to have access maintains his peace - that same peace in turn which sows the conflict simply by Lucifer existing there.
It plays into Lucifer's game that everyone who he has abused and or killed is there acting with justified rage at his presence, and telling Jack how to react to it based on their past experience. But Nougat is 7 months old and can not make these calls. Which means Kelly's words are now ones of conflict instead of the comfort that he's been choosing to be good and heroic like the real and fictional characters he wished to emulate.
-
Now we move on to Sam, the first living voice of comfort. "Maybe I'm not worth all this." "Your mom thought you were," Sam says, using her as a bridge from the parental authority (and he's also the one who brought her words to Jack). "So did Cas, so do I." It's building these steps of people Jack knows love him, the moral authorities he looks to, to Sam next. Sam's death worked so well last episode not just because of what it did to Dean, or even how the Lucifer thing was so wonderfully tuned both in Sam's personal arc to be in that room with him and the vampires, but also that Sam is the most hurt by and connected to Lucifer but he's the one walking him into the camp. But also that Sam was the one who reached out to Jack first of the living parents he encountered in life, and therefore caring for Sam and being upset by his death was such a horrible thing for Jack to experience, where we see his anger with Dean, Cas and Gabriel for not bringing Sam to him alive.
We get the montage where Jack's powers were in their early stage, harming people at random, and Sam empathised because of all he'd been through with his own powers. A connection that was so hugely imporant to both of them, that Sam could even start to guide Jack through who he was and how he was related to his powers, and feeling that he didn't belong.
Now we get Jack's mess up where they rushed in to Michael's place, and Kevin self-destructed everyone but him and Mary, and his connection to her - the grandmother sacred object to save and protect because she is Loved and Good and this is how all the men he knows relate to her. (I have talked about how Jack's represented accidentally ingrained toxic masculinity before >.>)
-
And the scene changes at this point, leaving us with Jack's reflection on not just his powers, but his own personality, and who he is supposed to be, whether it's his choice, his genetics, or just who he is in some intangible cursed way where he hurts people and all around him his choices lead to pain. And how much could Sam's guidance and trust help when even up to last week he was still getting people killed... Bleh.
-
Since it keeps on working... Someone hug that nougat child by the end of this ep?
-
Promo scene, now with context!
"Hey momma," Lucifer says, also defining Mary only by her relationship to her sons, and his own creepy interest in her.
She punches him because she is more than just momma
Cas continues to be a BAMF Party!Cas in the background but very in the background, hauling Lucifer away with a sharp word.
-
(Incidentally that means everyone from the opening was in this scene, except Gabriel, who they forgot to write into this episode.)
-
So this is post-shower Sam, and I'm gonna assume that he's either dressed in Bobby's clothes or dressed alike to Bobby, and either way it continues the Lazarus Rising parallels to Lucifer's creepy resurrection of Sam after he was dragged away underground after being torn apart in front of his brother - when Dean got back he wore Bobby's clothes for the first part of the episode. Finding Sam new clothes from AU!Bobby's wardrobe both puts him into this military camo jacket which almost certainly has some symbolic relevance at some point but at the very least is important for now that Sam's resolved to deal with Lucifer, and also just has the connection to Bobby.
-
Anyway now Mary has to break the news that she's planning to stay, after spending months defending and fighting for these people and very much getting embedded in the fight.
Dean looks on blankly, Sam shifts like he's realised what she's going to say as soon as she says "about that..."
-
And now we have that "need" thing again. Lucifer just said these people needed him to fight. Mary now says they need her too, for the same reason. One of them is probably a LIL MORE SINCERE than the other.
but Dean turns that into "we need you, mom. *WE* do." because she's the thing he needed the most, and this entire process is playing out now about how that even affects them.
And that "we" is sincere because the thing is, Dean might have learned a few times over that is sucks not to have Mary but as horrible as it is, he CAN cope without her but still hasn't been given a chance to fully actualise that in a healthy environment where Mary is not wildly endangered and dangled out of his reach for true character development (in much the same way his shit with Cas has been hovering on the edge since, like, season 8), but Sam - Sam needs her. Every time they lost a chance to find her, he slumped into utter despair. He only kept going as long as he did at the start of the season on the belief she could be retrieved and was alive, and his depression has been a strongly flagged thing since the midseason where he struggled with it bad enough he was having depression sleeps in 13x11, and 13x14 showed how bad it was, and his despair and desperation have been oozing off him.
Dean knows how much they need to bring Mary and Jack back, for SAM.
(Which is why I think there's something horribly disingenous about thinking Mary can just be written off to stay in the AU... Which is fine if you don't like Mary and don't think to look at it through the POV of how her being alive-ness has been wrecking Sam for TWO SEASONS now and taking her away again to teach Dean a lesson he's been through three times already (one of them being the entire run of the show 1-11) about how to lose his mother, just hurts Sam an incredible amount. He deserves that fucking pizza party, and he wants his mother to be more than a mirage that an alarm clock can shatter. And sure the story may not grant this wish instantly, but it's dreadful to want her gone for good because that will harm Sam on a MOLECULAR LEVEL to have an alive and well Mary teased in front of him but never to have her. We need to hold on to her returning in some solid way so that she can throw him a damn birthday party)
-
Ew, Lucifer calls Cas "old sport" fuck off with that, Gatsby.
"I am not your sport" he may misinterpret the reference (come the fuck on, Metatron must have read that book) but he does it in a way that at least gets in a sharp statement of party!Cas's new line of taking no shit.
But before he can decree for certain that he will not let Lucifer near Jack, refusing to accept Sam's deal without even really knowing that this WAS the deal, Jack shows up because he's at the very least taking some agency in all this.
And at this point, my nervous eyeballing of the clock suggests it is time I go to yoga. D:
-
I hope Gabriel shows up at some point again. The fact that he was gone looking for Jack but Jack has now been "found" by turning up voluntarily means that Gabriel vanished completely pointlessly unless they were just moving him out of the way because he's not in this episode :P
-
"Speak of the not-Devil" - in 13x09 they played on this with a "speak of the devil" preceding Jack's entrance. As usual, Buckleming taking a clever line someone else used, and turning it around in a way that's just a bit too silly and contrived >.>
-
"Son." "it's Jack."
Good. Please keep Lucifer at that arms' length. Regret will only come if you let him in >.>
-
"It's not a good idea to talk to him." "i'm not going to talk, I'm going to listen"
Sweetie, that's even worse. I know you're curious but oh boy Lucifer is evil, unredeemable and a master manipulator. I know what Jack means - he's not opening a dialogue, he just wants to hear what Lucifer would say to him, and not talking indicates hearing him out without weighing his words with any critical weight, but on the other hand, it can come across that he's going to sit and let Lucifer fill his head with whatever, without arguing or reasoning what he says, and it depends on how much you think Jack can resist being taken in by it
And in this scenario Lucifer's smugness and everyone else's horror of the situation already has a strong weight. We can HOPE that Jack prevails but I'm nervous that Lucifer might exert some magical influence over him as much as I feel like a season worth of Jack nearly is enough to make me feel like we are supposed to trust his instinct to be good, unaltered. If there is to be tension about it, that has to be affected.
-
Oh dear, now Dean's ranting to Mary about what he and Sam have been through, saying "we" about every statement, including "we've been possessed" but isn't it true that almost nothing has ever possessed Dean except a few small MotW moments of control? We statements possibly creating a dramatic irony gap to fill with Dean being possessed, if he is.
He says they never walk away ever, even when they should have, which is acknowledging at least that there were times when with hindsight they should have left each other well enough alone. Thing is he's talking about how he and Sam clung to each other when it was just them, but for Mary it's not about walking away from family here, it's about walking away from this war where people are being killed and she has been helping them to save people and to fight back against the angels. To her, leaving now just because there's a door back to her old universe - which she has felt adrift in ever since she was resurrected - is walking away. And this is a cause she can believe in far more than the bad cause she got in with the BMoL. There's a very very clear right and wrong here.
Dean is trying to argue that this isn't a fight that they can win, that Apocalypse World is doomed, and they're just going to have to leave it to its fate.
-
Sam is inclined to listen to Mary more often anyways, went with her on the BMoL thing, and this time reads it as her making up her mind, rather than her being right - he is telling Dean the argument is not worth it, rather than immediately that he understands where Mary is coming from. More than he has seen how Mary feels. I hope he says they should stay and help.
"Mom doesn't to leave these people."
...
"So let's take them with us."
-
I mean. I guess it works???
You just going to empty all the survivors of this war into another universe???
This feels... unsustainable.
-
Oh okay he wants to get them out the way long enough to work out how to fight Michael, then to come back and fight the fight. More like, the portal is the time pressure here, and on the other side of it is safety and resources and time to think.
Except for everyone who they can't take with them in the first place.
This episode is titled "Exodus" so I mean it COULD end up being about this exact thing, or that's referring to some other thing and this is just a concept they're floating but not what ends up happening. If they set off with the entire camp, they're going to be very vulnerable.
-
Anyway seems Mary likes the plan?
And she looks proud of Sam so that's something.
-
Dean says they've got 9 busting out. Uh, were they planning on taking AU Charlie and Bobby back with them? I am genuinely confused because the core team is 6, and they should PROBABLY not litter the AU and take Lucifer back with them so 7... Maybe Ketch if they take back everyone from their world who shouldn't be there? But who is 9??
-
Mary says 25 people which is not like... a whole army at least. I'm legit confused about the numbers, especially as it seems like more than 25 people at the camp, never mind that Mary was talking in 13x20 about how many people they had to look after now. I don't know, maybe it's just how many extras they could convince to come/plausibly film. But it's weird to me that this whole thing is... well, a thing.
-
Okay so Jack is all resolutely glaring at Lucifer, and Cas is allowed to hang out and stand there watching, so I guess this is ... something at least between them.
-
Mrghhh I hate Buckleming dialogue so much especially when Lucifer is saying it. Starting with "I don't know what to say" is admitting writing weakness, that they didn't have a hook or enough sense of the characters for them to come up with any declaration or question or comment that would have been more meaningful. Even just a sense of drama to have Lucifer introduce himself and Jack to immediately ask his first question.
"Why does everyone hate you?"
Because you SUCK
Also: apparently no one wants to tell Jack in graphic detail all the pain and suffering that Lucifer has inflicted to them personally >.>
And then, Lucifer said, yeah we've been waiting for this moment all season in a way, but not only is his blathering on but then when asked a hard question, it turns into an excuse to make him say "fake news" and sure the comparing him to Trump thing is funny a few times (I mean he was literally possessing a president when Jack was conceived) but it's taking tension out of this moment entirely. This should be for Jack, and he doesn't deserve this awful writing where nothing Lucifer says matters, because he's just rambling on in generalities and answers which sound like all the moaning he's ever moaned about.
Like, yeah, sorry kiddo, your bio dad is a whining whiner who has had the same line about how misunderstood he is as long as we've known him, which he usually says when standing on a literal pile of corpses he made while complaining no one gets him and everyone typecasts him as evil.
But yeah, Jack's question is just met with rubbish being spewed, instead of Lucifer even trying to explain the misunderstandings he's had personally with TFW
-
He's just talking about how humans suck and are easily led into temptation instead of focussing on why he feels the need to do that.
-
Oh him talking about Kelly to Jack is absolutely revolting. I'm confiscating the nougat child and BL can have him back when they earn him.
Thank goodness Cas is here to scowl at Lucifer for us.
"That's a vast over-simplification" thanks buddy.
But yeah he's right, the point is that Lucifer is talking in ways where he can rabbit on about ethics and shit without falling into real human pain. He doesn't talk about how his betrayed Kelly's trust, tried to kill her, or sent a minion to harass her while calling her the container. He talks about how awesome it was to kiss her. (And not even getting into him cheerfully talking about losing his virginity to Kelly like it was some sweet first love thing rather than rape by deception and some new gross evil he had discovered was a horrible thing to do to people.)
-
Also, fuck Buckleming for pretending they can stump Cas with "I was locked up for eternity so how did I do all this evil?" we literally have seen how. It's called the plot of the fucking show.
It's ethics as angels would learn it 101.
WE FUCKING MET GADREEL A FEW YEARS AGO, MAYBE ASK HIM
-
Cain who?
-
AZAZEL? You fuckers killed the last YED like 4 weeks ago
-
Fuck you entirely
-
That is in ratio of intelligence and easy answer on hand to presented moment, the biggest stupidity drop they've ever made. And that's saying something.
-
Somewhere Edlund is clutching his head and he doesn't know why but he doesn't feel so good.
-
ABBADON?
-
So, there's this place called "hell"...
-
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmrgghghhghghgfghfgghfhaskjfhaskjghfsjlasdjaghfs paskfh;asdgkflsdjg sgkjhlfk gha
-
Well, the zen from yoga lasted all of like 4 minutes of episode
-
Anyway now we have to deal with Lucifer's hurr blurr about waaah God locked me up because I stood up for myself and told the truth, which, again. One note character. He met Chuck and didn't even change. Rowena got more character development out of meeting Chuck than Lucifer did. Heck, I think even Cas got a little personal satisfaction just from ignoring him and finding a clearer sense that his path doesn't lie with God's validation.
And then he starts talking about how garbage humans are and we get Cas's reaction because Cas loves humanity, and Lucifer is like "he loved humans so much he couldn't see their flaws" and Cas is like excuse you I tell Dean to get his muddy boots off the chairs in the Bunker like six times a day but I still fucking married him."
-
But telling Jack how humans suck is not, like, the best path, because Jack has spent a lot of time bonding with humans.
-
"I had my reasons, I just want the opportunity to get better" dude, you are so the abusive fuckwad of a drunk father who comes stumbling in late to the kid's life, promising to do better while in no way capable of it because mean and selfish person...
-
Jack's micro nod to wanting to do better shows that despite every indication that this was one of the worst written conversations ever, Lucifer has somehow manipulated him with this nugget that Jack feels like he wants to be a good person and Lucifer's promise he wants to be a better person is affecting him, and A: Alex is a great actor to try and sell this and B: honestly Jack falling for that garbage rant is like... the second biggest stupidity drop ever >.>
-
Cas is like, fuck this entire concept you fucking fuckers, I'm out of here to go sit with Gabriel wherever he is. We're gonna... go skip rocks.
-
Nope, Cas went for emotional back up, seeing that Jack was starting to be suckered in by this and decided he needed Sam, Dean and Mary to come Winchester some sense into Jack
-
Uncle Gabriel is having a great side adventure
He is probably doing the equivalent of End!Cas in this camp.
-
Ew they're sitting together, just chilling ew ew ew ew ew
Lucifer going on about how Jack's grandfather is literally God, trying to stir a little egomania in Jack.
Remember in 13x07 when he was so excited to know if Jack killed anyone? If he had a killer instinct?
-
Yay Dean comes to shout at Jack and Lucifer, I have never been happier to tick the Everyone Is Irrationally Angry BL Bingo Square.
-
"Dean, he's in chains." "His mouth isn't."
That's the good side of Buckleming banter. Have we swapped writers?
-
"I need to know about my powers. My family." "Jack, we are your family."
Oh no, Cas is starting to sound a bit desperate. Pleading with Jack to remember he's their family. I don't wike it *hands Cas a blanket*
-
Sam showing up like, "You have no idea who Lucifer really is"
Like, I know it's horrible but could you go into graphic detail right about now?
Or... is he still bound by the promise to let Lucifer see Jack?
-
"Jack..." "Dean! He's my father!"
Aaaaack, so there's the slip from 13x01 where we thought he meant Lucifer but it was actually Cas, and 13x09 where he disowns Lucifer casually and talks about how they're his real family instead...
Oh ew I paused the screen on Lucifer looking all smug, hang on
Anyway, yeah. This is the first time Jack has proclaimed that, and I think this is revealing the greatest miscommunication this season - something we picked out a while back, in the first few episodes, about how everyone was so unwilling to tell Jack just how horrible Lucifer even was. I mean. I don't think he even knows for sure that he's the reason why Cas was dead? And does he know how Sam was destroyed by having powers BECAUSE he was raised to be Lucifer's vessel? And - even basic info like this, if not the murder and torture in his wake...
Without telling Jack the harsh truth, he's vulnerable to falling prey to Lucifer's manipulations, because for him, new to the world, it's just not a given that Lucifer is evil. Even "speak of the devil" is ironic, because they DON'T speak about him, and so that phrase is meaningless to Jack because it doesn't describe anything about evilness.
And I think this goes back in a way to the theme of confronting trauma, that TFW just do not talk about what has hurt them, aren't open when they ARE hurting, at least until it's too late, and so the damage that Lucifer has done to them, even when he can taunt he's in a room full of all his favourites to kill and torture, when he's killed Rowena twice, tried to kill Gabriel and Dean, and caused the worst suffering to Sam, they just aren't a Lucifer damage support group >.> And all season they never told Jack a full story about who they were, what they've done, and what has happened to them along the way...
-
Anyway I guess Edoras is moving to Helm's Deep now?
-
Ew Jack and Lucifer are walking together
I can't even see Cas in shot so I'm gonna assume he's bringing up the rear with Uncle Gabriel
-
I mean
I hope someone friggin told Gabriel they were leaving. He's gonna pop back to camp in half an hour like, so I looked everywhere and I could not find - waaait a minute. Where is everyone? Are we playing hide and seek? Sexy hide and seek? .... Nope, I've just been forgotten.
I'm not in this episode, am I?
-
Anyway Dean sends Sam back to lurk on the Jack and Lucifer conversation
Which leaves Mary and Dean free to chat!
Dean is like, I am listening but I am also sulking. About everything. Mary starts explaining that Nougat is getting hardened by war, having been fighting and losing people. Turning into one of them, a scarred, miserable Winchester.
I love that Mary is defending Jack, that she has spent so much time with him - more than anyone else - that she is the sympathetic character towards Jack. He's not an object to obtain to her, he's very much a kid who has landed in it and is doing his best.
And, of course, a surrogate for the sons she never got to know growing up, when they were being fucked up in the exact same way Jack is currently being fucked up, which means, hopefully, she will learn to relate to them better through seeing what Jack goes through??
And cut to Jack telling Sam that he was telling his father that together they can take down Michael. Which... Isn't super reassuring tbh, if you flip it to season 5 where Lucifer getting a surefire powerful boost like a Nougat to help him take out Michael would have been dooooooom and that is why they sent Jesse on a surfing holiday in Australia.
-
This also means Sam has to walk alongside Lucifer and Jack all chill and like... we're on a walk together
-
Ooops and Sam is like, but that's not the plan, and Jack is like, hi, while you were gone I fixated on killing my AU!Uncle Mikey.
-
Again, Mary reasons that Jack's interest in Lucifer is not unexpected, based on curiosity, and Dean complains about the threat that Lucifer corrupts him. Mary sounds both confident in Jack not being evil that it seems a little laughable to her, and also that Jack will soon see Lucifer's true nature.
And honestly, this is the longest Lucifer has held it together possibly EVER without doing something petty. Maybe just because with the handcuffs on he can't get irritated and melt people who are annoying him. I'm not sure how much restraint he has left not to say something wildly wrong. Like a homophobic relative at a family dinner with all your nice gay family, and you know Some Shit will leave their mouth sooner or later, even though they're playing it nice and got a pride pin before they knocked on the door.
-
Mary is proud of her big gay family
-
sorry that metaphor wandered off
-
not sorry.
-
Hi Cas, love it when you *gestures him walking innocuously around a corner*
"Hey, did you find him?"
"No, Gabriel isn't in this episode for some reason. I think BL have a restraining order?"
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LOL here he is! RUN LIL GUY RUN!
"ANGELS!"
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Aw no, the handcuffs. They were Dean n Cas's personal ones.
-
blah blah joke about impotence, Lucifer got to melt some things so he might be able to stay chill for a while longer having scratched the itch to murder...
-
I just took a lil break to complain to Mittens about the geography, she assured me Singer Salvage Yard isn't in South Dakota in the AU, and I'm just like... debating whether I think this is better or worse. it's a headache, for sure
-
Hi AU!Bobby! They immediately discuss how Bobby decided not to put his salvage yard in Sioux Falls because the weather sucks, and I am sitting here wondering if TJW looked at the script and was like... there's no Gabriel... they WALKED from Ohio to Bobby's on the way to Kentucky... I -
-
Why do they always give me their scripts to un-fuck?
-
AU Bobby makes me miss Bobby while simultaneously filling the void not having Bobby puts in me and I feel weird
He's telling them their idea sucks in colourful language and it's like oh I am home, but at the same time... it's not in Sioux Falls
-
Dean automatically protective of Charlie when Ketch is around and again, the weirdest feeling that Ketch killed Charlie hits me, but he still didn't and it's still just because BL like him so much they've made him their new toy.
-
Bleh more Jack and Lucifer
He's now explaining the archangels to Jack. Mansplaining, in fact, since Jack already knows.
it seems this was just a way to say they were both tortured by Michael in order to bond some more
Lucifer forces Jack to do a high five and Jack is baffled
-
"That's your Uncle Gabe" *points at him throwing rocks at a car* Jesus christ he's literally... off throwing rocks... I was kidding when I said he was off doing it earlier... I was kidding... holy shit they literally forgot to write Gabriel into this episode.... in the script it was "then there's your uncle gabe" without pointing, just, in the abstract, like, yeah, he exists, and Jack is like yeah I sort of noticed him existing. And then they both pause. Funny, that. Gabriel existing. Anyway - and they move on?
-
Woah, no, they're actually going to talk to him.
Hey, Gabriel, did you know you're in this episode?
His expression says, wow, no I did not. But now I hear them coming over, I need to Deal With This Shit
-
Lucifer describes him as "class clown" which is automatically reducing him back down to the Trickster, and of course he's said tricks are for kids and is trying to be all mature and the new version of Gabriel.
-
I hope new and improved Uncle Gabriel tells Jack what's what, even if it's just with eyebrows and pointed looks
-
"And you're an ass clown"
That works.
-
Oh ew, Lucifer immediately pulls Gabriel's torture on him as a hey how are you lol that was funny when you were tortured and metaphorically raped for 7 years huh?
Jack, again, seems to lack the context of what happened to Gabriel, the state they found him in, all the stuff we've seen on screen, so the dramatic irony of what we know vs what Jack knows...
Also how does Lucifer even know?
-
Oh whatever.
-
Gabriel has no time for this, and turns to walk off, like, fine, I didn't even want to be in your stupid episode anyway. Lucifer follows, Jack walking along beside him, eyebrows furrowed.
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Gabriel has a headache at Lucifer rambling on (and they've literally just forgotten about Raphael. Wonderful.) Anyway, super relatable.
Here he goes. "You think Dad was a bad guy and you were a victim?" Well Scout will be happy, Gabriel standing up for the ole God n Gabe relationship. I mean, much as it sucks, Gabriel still has a connection with Chuck that no one else does, just in personality.
"That was just your excuse." "For what?" "For it all, Lucifer! For it all!"
Thank fucking God for Gabriel. He wasn't even meant to be here so he's like the one person who can call Lucifer out, from outside the narrative, fed up of this whole stupid charade.
Gabriel is not a Buckleming character, he's here because he deigned to be, and he will leave on his terms too.
-
(I've legit been having issues that I keep thinking Speight-directed episodes are Gabriel episodes, and at this point he's such a meta character to me I literally think he's transcended the story)
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Nice of him to walk off screen with both middle fingers raised.
-
Oh my GOD how stupid was that trap that Charlie just fell for?
My unspoken comment from earlier that the dumbest drop in intelligence Buckleming ever inflicted on a character was Charlie's death feels like I should have said it, because making her fall for that dumbass trap was just... wow.
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Wow.
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Blah blah manufactued drama, Ketch has stubble now, apparently a conscience about not letting Charlie get killed because Dean was once attached to his world's version of her
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Goddd I am with Andy the sceptic about their fairytale world where everything is pretty. They don't want to abandon the fight, and like, there's a sizeable chance Dean and Sam just wanna shove Mary through a portal with them and call it a day.
Why are we getting this when we could be getting Sam and Dean learning from Mary how they need to fight for this cause against Michael? Whyyyyyyy. This whole plan is so stupid.
I mean, it wouldn't be wholly stupid for Sam to pop back through the rift, grab all the weapons he's promising, and come back to arm them, in their world, on their turf, somewhere defensible from angels.
Like, even the odds a bit so they can finish this fight so they can take Mary and Jack home and stop stressing about this
-
Now Sam's making his Inspiring Speech of the season, about how even if they aren't people from the AU and were never born there, all these masses of people fighting back are still like them and represent what they do. Like, how all the random hikers you might meet know vampire lore these days. Everyone's a hunter in these times.
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Andy narrows his eyes
-
cut to: Ketch being tortured and using American monopoly references to fuck with the angels.
he is presumably secretly American, because there's no way he'd casually think of American locations on the board unless he coincidentally grew up with an American monopoly board for some reason
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While complaining about this Mittens reminded me that Metatron made a reference to always winning by building hotels on the expensive square and that gives us an indirect connection between the two of them for some reason.
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Ooooooooh the exterior reveals they're being tortured in the creepy Gas n Sip.
Well. I wonder who is about to show up
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Twitchy!Castiel
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Who inexplicably looks 10 years younger than our Cas.
Dean really did a fucking number on him.
-
Anyways of course Castiel is the expert... He's terrifying when he gets going, and this one hasn't been Dean'd.
-
Our Cas seems to be doing some scary manhandling on this guy
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And some really scary looming
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Uhoh
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And that was with one lil look from Dean, like, go on, babe, read his mind and do what you do
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No, apparently he wasn't even reading the guy's mind, he was just hurting him
-
Lucifer's whining, in the least breaking news to ever break.
Gabriel's like, Dean told us to stay behind, because I'm not in this episode, so I have to babysit your dumb ass before you say anything else stupid to my nephew.
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"Do you see any version of this where he sticks by you?"
I mean that's probably what's stressing Lucifer out, knowing he has nothing to offer as a father. Gabriel is kind of enjoying it. And sitting watching Lucifer from a distance, where he can mock him. Again, he seems weirdly out of the story, the one person who isn't affected by all the bullshit and somehow has this glossy shine on him, un-Buckleming'd even as the empire crumbles around him.
It's like... he doesn't feel a part of all this because he's seeing clearly and calling out Lucifer in real time instead of standing dumbly while Lucifer poses questions to prove he's good that only a 7 month old babyman would fall for.
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"He's a kid.  He likes shiny objects and magic tricks."
:')
"But he's not like you. You can see it in his eyes." YUPPERS. He has Cas's eyes.
his father's eyes
-
(Thinking of which, I had to go back because my video went a bit wonky... am I right in thinking AU!Castiel has a bad eye? That's not meta interesting at aaall)
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Gabriel mentions his mother's bloodline, the Winchesters' influence... is Cas included in that?
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"He'll see who - what - you are."
"I've changed."
"Dude. It's me. I've known you since the stars were made. You can't change. You're incapable of empathy, love. You live to be worshipped! Or feared! Or both!"
And now Gabriel is calling out that Lucifer says that God made up all the lies about him, which has been his fallback for literally ever about how woe is me misunderstood God was so meeeean
It's like Gabriel and Lucifer were having that argument back in 5x19 and then Lucifer killed Gabriel and then 7 years passed and now they're alone together again and they just pick up where they left off.
Gabriel praising how humans are innocent and beautiful has weird overtones of how protective Dean was of the Scooby Gang and I think that is adorable.
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Gabriel is officially tearing Lucifer a new one after dropping by to be in the episode and I am gonna stan this fucker forever.
-
LOL he made Lucifer cry
-
God, I mean I am never ever going to feel sympathetic to Lucifer, but if Gabriel helps him like, sacrifice himself for Jack later at some point, I'm cool with that.
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AAAH AU CASTIEL IS THE WORST. I HATE IT. MISHA, NO
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Nice coat though.
In a horrifying way.
They did, however, find a coat that actually makes Misha's shoulders look huge in a sexy way
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you can hear the Cas voice in there, but it's so messed up.
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This guy is BFFs with Bartholomew I bet.
-
okay I'm rewinding and actually trying to pay attention to wtf he's saying.
-
It's so messed up that he's in a Gas n Sip. It's like showing how broken his soul is. And the fact his soul is a Gas n Sip absolutely murders me
-
Also AU Castiel doesn't have a soul, probably, unlike our Cas
-
He's mirroring Dick Frigging Roman while eyeing up Charlie and telling her there aren't many like her.
-
Castiel mirroring Dick in a Gas n Sip is how to cram in the most awfulness you possibly could to show a ruined version of Cas.
-
He's parting his hair on the other side.
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It seems Castiel pretty much has destroyed himself by psychically harming humans.
Can we rewind so our Cas stops torturing that other guy so that he doesn't remotely turn into this guy?
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OH NO, I was gonna ask where Jack was back in the previous scene but it seems he's flapped off to deal with this before I could ask him where he was.
Now he's gonna meet Worst!Castiel
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Meanwhile: stabby stabby, the rest of the Winchesters are here. Never mind, Cas got the intel from that other guy. Jack isn't going rogue :P
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I hope party!Cas doesn't meet worst!Castiel
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Party!Cas is beating up Worst!Castiel
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"More than one of us. Fascinating." "I've gotten used to it."
Party!Cas is basically just a bundle of one-liners in a trenchcoat.
-
LOL Dean freeing Ketch but will we ever be free of Dean x Ketch nonsense?
-
Sam randomly hugs AU Charlie because he hasn't got over the guilt of getting our Charlie killed, and can't separate the two on instint of seeing her face again and this is awful.
When I said more hugs I meant more NICE hugs
"Sorry"
She punches him in a hey it's cool we all freak out sometimes
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Oh jesus christ after the saving hanging Ketch by getting all up in his space, now I turn out to have had the screen paused on Ketch and Dean getting all cosy and looking at each other in alarming proximity
"oooh... hello. You saving me? It's about bloody time."
Dean looks furious
good.
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"You aligned yourself to humans?" "I *vastly* prefer them to angels"
Love you too, babe
"Don't think you are better than me. We are the same." "Yes. We are." *STAB*
Bye bye worst!Castiel
Man, I never thought I'd be glad to see Cas die, but that was satisfying watching Cas kill this awful version of him who had been utterly destroyed by being an angel while affirming to himself that humans are the best. And being an angel sucks and is destructive to his very sense of self.
I like that a lot.
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Long live Party!Cas
-
And we begin and end the season with a dead Cas
-
I mean we're not quite at the end but we're close enough that this counts as bookending symmetry.
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"For whatever reason, I have a good feeling about you two"
it seems a little worrying that apparently the entire lot unanimously voted to go to the pretty AU. I think they're making a joke that Bobby feels some sort of cosmic fatherly vibe towards them but in truth Bobby complained they were idjits with terrible plans quite often, as he did earlier... I'm not sure it's going to be good that everyone Exoduses with them and I feel like them celebrating a win with 10 minutes to go before whatever leads into the finale is a terrible thing. All in all we've got a last 10 minutes of a Buckleming episode vibe going on and I do not like it.
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Okay Lucifer helping Dean revive the bus is the weirdest cooperation I've ever seen on this show.
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Making Lucifer drive so they can keep an eye on him is the worst idea ever and I don't care what Dean justifies it with, Gabriel came rushing in from left field to say hey hey hey this is a dumbass idea and Dean's like shut up you're not in this episode but Gabriel is the one voice of reason here because he's the guy who's not in the episode so can see it for what it is.
Dean's supposed to always want to drive.
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Where is Nougat going?
Why are you even upset?
-
Oh, he's realised they're all fleeing to plan to kill Michael later and even though this plan was all worked out a while back he is reacting now - is it just that they didn't include him in the planning and he buckleminged between the cracks of an episode ABOUT HIM and only found out now...
He's like but I wanna kill Michael NOW
Okay, no, he's got a cool heroic mindset
but you know what, after hanging with Lucifer, there is something about how they've put Jack in a position where he is driven to Kill Michael just like Lucifer was originally driven to Kill Michael. Of course everything around them and the utter horror of worst!Cas proves that killing Michael is necessary for this world to even have a sliver of a chance of survival, but at the same time, Jack is now irrationally stuck on a mission purpose identical to the one that once powered Lucifer to start the entire apocalypse. And having Jack mirroring that need, to the point of irrationally leaving the party bus when the plan IS to regroup, arm up and return to kill Michael, shows that he has -
At least this one brewed up fast, because the longer you leave the apocalypse to stew, the more complicated it is to start a fight with Michael??
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Sam goes after Jack because he cares and then Lucifer saunters over because he wants to latch onto Jack, and once again we get Jack caught between two parent figures - in his flashes of choosing who he wants to be after thinking about Kelly's message he had flashes of both Lucifer and Sam - not Cas and Dean.
Look
I'm just sayin' as a random aside
which I should not be saying but I mean I hope I earned some sam!girl cred earlier so let me ruin this
because they're framing it as Lucifer vs Sam
it sets aside Cas n Dean
and they're like
A different set of parents on like, a different level. If Jack has 4 dads, Cas and Dean are one pair and Sam and Lucifer are the other... Thematically... but like... also Cas and Dean are weirdly in a different sort of world when it comes to relating to Jack apparently.
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Sam is all concern about Jack, Lucifer tries to talk Jack out of it with seeming concern which is really just about how he isn't very good at fighting Michael. Lol.
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UUUGHHHH Sam having to hear Jack say "my father makes a valid point" and then Lucifer claps Jack on the shoulder and walks off with him in front of Sam and it feels like Lucifer somehow retroactively has kicked off this whole nonsense JUST to spite Sam.
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Oh my GOD Dean isn't even ON the party Bus with Lucifer what the heck who PLANNED this plan
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I like Gabriel just chilling with like, an RPG launcher or something.
nice callback to last episode re: lol penis
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Also Jack is sitting with Uncle Gabriel in the jeep! Good! I hope he is saying lots of good sensible Nice Uncle Who Gives You Candy things to Jack, and then makes a coin appear out of his ear.
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Portal's closing
Run run run
-
Amazingly, Lucifer's maths about the portal were not wrong?
I mean... do we just assume that that was a lucky guess?
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Rowena has been reading the entire time, and I can tell why we haven't seen her since the start of the episode but it's still a total waste of her.
Maybe Gabriel was slipping off and hooking up with her whenever he wasn't in the episode.
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You know I am not 100% Rowena was in this episode either. I do appreciate her and Ketch making eye contact like, oh, you.
-
With 6 minutes to go you know some serious shit is about to go down
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JACK IS BACK
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Lol Sam is like no you stay here, Lucifer. Fuck you being in the same universe as Jack for any length of time.
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Okay we got a Mary and an AU Bobby here, good, good. And a Charlie! Wonderful!
The last 6 minutes of the episode might be all like, 30 people coming through the rift one by one to dramatic music.
If the Winchesters don't make it back then there's going to be one hell of a kegger thrown here by all the gnarly post-apocalypse peeps suddenly filling the Bunker unsupervised.
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CAS!
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He does not count as a responsible adult. Party!Cas is in the Bunker, currently unsupervised, with Rowena.
That is going to be a fucking wild kegger.
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Oh good they sped up the dramatic entering the portal bit when it was randos we've never met who are now all filling the Bunker
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Guys, you do realise if you leave BOTH archangels on the other side of the rift... you don't have any grace on YOUR side of the rift?
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I mean
that... did occur to you?
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Oh great the angels just crashed down on top of them and of all the people on screen, we get a close up of Andy the doubter dead. Nice going, BL
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Michael! Badass wings in the dust!
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Oh that's why Asmodeus did the ridiculous grace hurling. They wanted Lucifer to do it to Michael.
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Now Michael is doing it to Lucifer
Just... like... kill him for us... put us out of our misery...
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Gabriel, no, don't do this... D: If I have to watch you die again I'm suing.
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Like, worst time to suddenly show up in the episode.
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Dude you can not die,  you have to come back and run Heaven and bang Rowena on the weekends.
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Sam and Dean are like... just not running away.
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I'm suing.
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Gabriel better be behind Michael and stab him now
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I mean I'm just assuming he's standing behind a tree like, wow, it's amazing how often people fall for that
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"How did you think this was gonna end?"
I love you Sammy
You get the no.1 dad mug
-
Oh good, Michael is alone with a weakened miserable Lucifer. Can you just stomp him out of rage now?
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Cut to: Bunker kegger.
I immediately spot Cas and Dean standing together not in the main party, with AU Charlie. AU Bobby and Mary together, Rowena sitting down needing a rest, and Sam wearing just a t-shirt and chilling with her. Ketch and the girl from the vampire mine sitting either side of the stairs, probably both like ???? about events, from completely opposite directions.
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AU Charlie and Ketch are weirdly friends. I am so conflicted.
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FINALLY FOUND JACK
he doesn't look very happy. He's a corner child. Sitting in the corner. With a beer he is like 20 and a bit years too young to drink.
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Anyway guess Samwitch is still on the cards even if we can be really miserable about Gabwena or whatever you call it ending too soon.
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Cas and Dean are talking about I guess a toast to Gabriel, presumably prompted by Cas being really sad about Gabriel, probably because now there's no one to teach him magic tricks to amuse Jack.
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Cas really isn't much fun at parties, now I think about it
I'm not backing down from my stance. He just needs to get BETTER at parties.
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"Been here 5 minutes and he's taken over the joint"
I've wanted to see Bobby in the Bunker a million years and while I am miserable it's not the real thing, it does still feel at least kinda right.
*sighs forever*
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What is Jack going to do
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Why are people toasting Sam and Dean but not Cas
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Cas isn't toasting them either, he's standing there with his hands in his pockets like yeah I always knew these two idiots were the best, thanks for catching up.
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Jack continues staring into the void
Cas continues standing there
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Awww no why did you give us a closeup of Gabriel lying there? Also his eyes were wide open. What does that mean? I mean is it because no one's bothered to close them, or is it a symbolic thing?
anyway Michael you are not stabbing Lucifer fast enough. Don't bargain with him. He just wants to go be a pest in the main world.
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What the hell was that last look about? UGH. Do not want.
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tl;dr Gabriel is probably fine. He sneaked through the portal when no one was looking and flapped off. 
Rowena will probably get a series of bizarre sexy presents delivered to whatever hotel room she's in
Cas needs to work at parties
Jack is contemplating what the hell fathers' day even is.
134 notes · View notes
fiendishthingee · 6 years
Text
“Searchers after horror haunt strange, far places...”
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I was thinking of certain scary movies I revisit around this time of year and why, and ended up writing some stuff below.
The Dead Zone (1983, Dir. David Cronenberg)
This one isn't strictly horror but captures the bleak, wintry New England vibe of early Stephen King perfectly, and has what is to my mind Christopher Walken's most moving performance. One of the few times Cronenberg has cared less about disturbing you or ramming a philosophical point home than in using a solid narrative to explore the emotional experience of a man caught up in an extraordinary situation. One of those films that deepens in your mind the more you live with it.
The Haunting (1963, Dir. Robert Wise)
Shot widescreen in gorgeous black and white, this one is one of the crown jewels of haunted house pictures. From the first moments it has a rich sense of foreboding, like a whisper that sends chills down your spine. Great performances, especially from Julie Harris as a young woman who was never quite right slowly going insane.
The Spiral Staircase (1946, Dir. Robert Siodmak)
A small gem from the 40's, in which a young mute woman is terrorized by a shadowy killer in a big house during a thunderstorm (do these films exist in any other conditions?). Small town scares with a bit of a noir feel, and a very creepy score. One that you see and instantly calls to the part of your mind that remembers that one time you ran home a little faster as the sun went down, a breeze kicked up, and you were just sure there was something moving back there in the shadows.
Frankenstein (1931, Dir. James Whale)
An obvious choice, but no less incredible because of it. I deeply love the first batch of Universal monster films because of how simple and pure and cinematic they are. Limited production values but MASSIVE amounts of atmosphere and feeling. Some people might feel they are dated but I think love them even more because of that. I love history, and the dark corners of these pictures carry a sense of not just film history, but of the old world itself, and the rhythms it had before it was overrun with technology. Terrific performances by Boris Karloff and Colin Clive, plus a very evocative and theatrical "introduction" before the film begins.
The Bride of Frankenstein (1935, Dir. James Whale)
Same as above, though this is a much more polished, eccentric and entertaining film. James Whale had free reign to do what he wanted, and he cut loose, aided by a gorgeous Franz Waxman score and indelible work by Karloff and Clive (again), Elsa Lanchester and Ernest Thesiger (whose prissy Dr. Pretorious is one for the ages).
The Mummy (1932, Dir. Karl Fruend)
A different type of monster, but just as eerie and surreal. Another of my longtime fascinations is the culture of ancient Egypt (don't get me started on "Land of the Pharaohs" or "The Ten Commandments"), which this quick film indulges along with a dash of the inherent creepiness that was completely missing (IMHO) in any of that stuff Brendan Fraser did. Again, the stilted nature of some dialogue and performance is all part of the allure, making it all feels so alien as to fit the mood of the story perfectly.
The Innocents (1961, Dir. Jack Clayton)
Another black and white widescreen beauty, this one a more subtle, ethereal ghost story centered on a pair of children that a well meaning but naive nanny (Deborah Kerr) has been hired to look after. Buried secrets are uncovered and dark forces unleashed, but in a much more subtle and emotional way (for a modern equivalent, look at something like "The Others").  The use of shadow and space here will make your knees buckle in spots, and the general aura of uneasiness will raise the hairs on your neck.
The Changeling (1980, Dir. Peter Medak)
George C. Scott loses his wife and daughter in an accident, then moves into a large, foreboding mansion in Seattle to focus on his musical compositions and recovering emotionally. Obviously, things don't go as well as planned. The trappings of the haunted house genre are given a real emotional grounding, and the backstory feels organic and engrossing rather than just an excuse to throw in loud noises. Wonderfully acted, designed and photographed, a quiet nail biter.
Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983, Dir. Jack Clayton)
Though a bit Disneyfied, this one is still a perennial because of how it captures that mixture of wonder and fear that Ray Bradbury's work had, pitting ordinary people up against sinister forces closing in on the spaces we consider the safest (in this case, a Midwestern town where the only thing that changes are the seasons) and crystallizing the moment when a parent realizes how little power they have to protect their kids. Driven by two wonderful performances, from Jason Robards (weary and homespun) and Jonathan Pryce (deliciously malevolent), this film has a genuine feel for small town life, the way that autumn can seem both hopeful and menacing, and the perils of both wanting to grow up too fast and wanting to be young again.
Salem's Lot (1979, Dir. Tobe Hooper)
The first thing that I remember absolutely scaring the shit out of me as a kid was a moment in this TV production involving nails scratching a child's window in the middle of the night. I won't say more about THAT, but I will say that despite this being made for late 70's television, with all of the restrictions inherent to that time, it's still pretty damn creepy, which is both a testament to Stephen King's original book and to the level of skill and atmosphere Tobe Hooper was able to give it. The depth of creepiness and history isn't as rich as in the book, but there is an approximation of the story's eccentric sprawl that draws you in, plus the eccentric, nostalgic vibe you get from late 70's TV.
Go To The Head of the Class (from "Amazing Stories") (1986, Dir. Robert Zemeckis)
A spooky, spirited lark made just after "Back to the Future" became huge. Nothing ground breaking, just a fast, funny goof made with Zemeckis' characteristic visual spark for Spielberg's mid 80's TV show and featuring a wonderfully cracked performance by Christopher Lloyd pitched somewhere between Doc Brown and Judge Doom (roles he played on either side of this one).
Curse of the Demon (1957, Dir. Jacques Tourneur)
The fact that my own family was menaced by Satanists (angry at my father for hauling one of their leaders into jail) when I was 9 probably has a lot to do with why I respond to this film, in addition to the general air of menace and atmosphere that Tourneur was great at (see "Cat People" and "Out of the Past"). Concerning the curse put on a man who debunks cults by the nefarious leader of one, this is a quick, creepy psychological ride with a classy script that doesn't scrimp on jolts.
Horror of Dracula (1958, Dir. Terrence Fisher)
Innumerable vampire films litter the history of scary movies, and there are certainly some that may have more ingenuity and pizazz than this one. But something about this early Hammer film, with its chilly, heightened gothic atmosphere and a sense of reality being peeled away in front of your eyes, sticks with you. It may be Terrence Fisher's brisk, efficient skill for building horror, or it may be the iconic performances of Peter Cushing and the great Christopher Lee. Or it may just be that particular, peculiar English sense of impending doom these films have. I first saw this one on during an AMC marathon (before they ever had commercials) hosted by the director of the next film on this list, and it's easy to understand how it spoke to his own feeling for the inevitability of a malevolent force slowly closing in on you.
The Thing (1982, Dir. John Carpenter)
Cold, stark and unsparingly tense, I saw this at a drive in when I was 7, and it sunk its teeth into me before I ever knew who John Carpenter was. The sense of isolation and foreboding built into the Antarctic location extends to the feeling of the direction, acting, photography and even the musical score (a mix of Ennio Morricone and Carpenter himself). At its core is the idea that you can't trust anything, whether it's the physical elements around you, the man sitting beside you or even your own sense of self. The opening sequence, of a dog being chased by a helicopter in the snow, is just gorgeous and evocative, and Dean Cundey's photography throughout is lithe and lurking. I think this film is so powerful for me because it came at a very formative time, the period between 8 and 11 where I was developing an understanding of the larger forces in the world that were not benevolent, that did not have any compassion, and did in fact want to kill you.
Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982, Dir. Tommy Lee Wallace)
This one got a unduly bad rap out of the gate, as it went in a wildly different direction in terms of its story and had nothing to do with Michael Myers. Aside from that, though, this is very much in the early 80's Carpenter spirit, directed by schoolmate/editor Tommy Lee Wallace, shot by Dean Cundey and driven by an unsettling, dread soaked score by Carpenter himself. True, there is a definite B-movie spirit to it, with obligatory kill scenes that feel too calculated and acting (aside from lead Tom Atkins and the wonderful bad guy Dan O'Herlihy) that can be a little shaky, but overall it's a creepy, entertaining story about modern day witchcraft (with a TV jingle that will get in your head and stay there forever). Again, part of its appeal may go back to where I grew up, in a small, rural place where something always felt a little off, where bad things might be happening at any moment right under your nose, and the dark carried a powerful emotional force.
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comicteaparty · 6 years
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June 14th, 2018 CTP Archive
The archive for the Comic Tea Party chat that occurred on June 14th, 2018, from 5PM - 7PM PDT.  The chat focused on Obelisk by Ashley McCammon.
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✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨
COMIC TEA PARTY START!
Good day everyone~! This week’s Comic Tea Party is now officially beginning~! Today we are discussing Obelisk by Ashley McCammon~! (http://www.obeliskcomic.com/) For those new or in need of a reminder, discussions about the comic are freeform, so please feel free to bring up whatever you wish. However, every 30 minutes I will be dropping in a discussion question to help those who would like a prompt. These questions are totally OPTIONAL to answer, and you can pay them no mind if you wish. If you miss out on any though, they’ll be pinned for the duration of the chat once they’re posted~! Remember, constructive criticism is allowed, but the primary focus here is to have fun and appreciate the amazing comics that the community makes~! As a bonus, each chat a top comment will be picked and featured in the archives and on an ad for CTP! All that being said, let’s get started and have a great discussion!
QUESTION 1. What is your favorite scene in the comic so far and why?
🌟Draco Plato🌟
The story has flowed so smoothly so far that it'd be hard for me to pick a certain scene as a favorite. I've really enjoyed the fluidity of the art, with it's beautiful backgrounds and very human seeming characters. Evie has been quite interesting to get to know so far and I'm looking forward to learning more about her as the story goes on.
Her hair has been particularly fascinating to me, I adore how it's drawn.
✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨
i appreciate how shes been drawn with a variety of hair styles and clothing. its one of those unnecessary details that can add a lot of life and make everything feel less like a video game.
but man the backgrounds. those are some heavily detailed backgrounds with a lot of love and care put into them and they really express the world so well
if i had to pick a favorite scene id pick when we meet margot. i really like the slight additions of red because something about the wispy way its drawn expressives a hint of...something sinister
🌟Draco Plato🌟
I really enjoyed that too, it also I think was the point where the real feel of the story came into play
and I think we really got a much better grasp on evie(edited)
✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨
yes though for eve's character i enjoyed the current page aftermath a bit more. if only cause i like that she kind of had a really human reaction to being told to butt out of things that weren't her business XD
🌟Draco Plato🌟
oh yeah, for sure!
I'm really looking forward to seeing where the current story arc is heading(edited)
zestwitch
I love the whole comic so far but I gotta say the way the party scene was drawn is so memorable for me, the panel variation is so creatively done and makes each page feel so energetic
MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑
I liked the scene where Eve was partly hung over and came into the kitchen and her brother regaled her with all the info off a casual remark. I think part of what made that stick too was realizing in the post-script how it was based on REAL history.
🌟Draco Plato🌟
the party scene was especially well done I thought too! Really captured the feeling of what being there would be like
zestwitch
The comic also has so many small details in the sidelines that make the world feel incredibly well rounded and rich like I can tell a ton of research was put into this and that makes me so much more excited about where it's going
MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑
Speaking of how things are drawn, fascinating plan to really only have red be the outsider colour. Definitely makes certain things pop.
Yeah, I have no idea how much research was put into fashions and trends of the time period, but I have to imagine a ton.
🌟Draco Plato🌟
yeah i've researched that time quite a bit and you can really tell that the creator put a lot of work into accuracy
MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑
Speaking as someone who has almost zero knowledge of the time period, I find I can still appreciate it.
In modern day, they'd be all over that concussion issue from falling off a stool.
✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨
i liked eve being hung over too just because how it was draw i think had subtle details other comics dont really capture when its depicted. like just the way her face is like "what is life i hate this damn sun why am i awake."
MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑
Interesting how it led into the flashback memories too.
Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨
Oh hey there
✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨
hey super~!
Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨
Glad to be here!
✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨
yeah i thought it was interesting how the flashback memories were juxtaposed with that scene.
and how it transitioned to it
i also enjoy the hangover scene just cause i can relate to eve being partly aware of a thing but having no interest while the other person just rambles on passionately
and youre just like yeah okay
MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑
That may also be part of why I liked it. ^.-
I wonder if we'll meet this Alice.
🌟Draco Plato🌟
I really liked her hair and nightgown in the hang over scene
saetje
I agree the story flows so well it’s hard to pick a favorite scene- it’s also so early! But, if I’m honest? Margot’s introduction b/c dayyuuum
MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑
She did have a commanding presence.
saetje
my gay heart can’t handle her
I so appreciate all the research into costume and setting design as well! I simply adore period pieces so I appreciate the effort on that front
Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨
Daww~
✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨
QUESTION 2. Throughout the comic we meet an interesting cast of side characters, from Eve’s friends to the seemingly criminal Peter Murphy to Agostino. Was there any side character that caught your eye, and if so why? When it comes to Peter and Agostino, do you think we will be seeing more of them? If so, in what way? Will Agostino’s interaction with Margot affect him in some dire way? What do you think will happen if Eve meets Peter? Why do you think Eve isn’t fond of her brother’s new fiancée? Are there any other character details you think the comic might explore?
saetje
I really liked Agostino’s reaction to Margot, it’s so foreboding. I most definitely feel we’ll be seeing all the characters that have introduced so far, again. I must say the story so far has so seamlessly and entertainingly set up many relationships, varied characters, and intrigue to delve into that it’s exciting waiting for what comes next!
MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑
I admit, I'm curious about seeing Eve and Alice... wondering what it is she's not fond of, whether it's something about personality or just the way she dresses and talks to her brother...
saetje
I just feel like they’ve set up a lot of questions we want answered all wrapped up in a varied and entertaining cast
MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑
Agostino may be all hypnotized now.
saetje
yeah it’s possible- going a sort of Renfield on us?
✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨
yeah i do think weve got an interesting plate of characters going on here who are gonna have some future interesting and interactions with eve thatll take the story to unexpected places.
i really loved the way whatever happened to agostino was depicted
i can see why he freaked
though im really curious why only he was effected
Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨
I do want to add in this story looks like it could be fun as a live action flick, seems like it could work
especially for it's early 1900's setting
saetje
I could see it adapted fairly well!
MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑
I'm pretty sure he was affected because it was his blood left behind when he moved the crate into the place initially. They've already got a sample of him.
Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨
Glad you agree, Saetje.
saetje
But the comic as the media for the story itself here is still done really well. I like how the author plays with visual narrative and panel flow
Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨
Yea, it's done extremely well
MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑
Interesting that the owners (possible vampires?) are into antiques. I'd figure it'd be something that they could collect more blood samples from.
Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨
especially all the markerwork
saetje
Oh yeah. That was my take too, they already have some blood from him. But time will tell
MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑
Though I guess if you've got all those children's toys left over from 300 years ago... ^.^
...Then again, they came overseas with only the one box. So idk.
Do you think all the sites being investigated are owned by the same group?
Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨
lol
MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑
To tie it back in, maybe that Peter guy is their broker.
Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨
http://www.obeliskcomic.com/comic/chapter-1/p43/ OMG CUTE KID
Some quality family time. I hope everyone celebrating has a lovely holiday, and if not, I hope you have a lovely day anyway. I’ll see you all next week!
✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨
maybe it wasnt so much that it was a blood connection thing but in that the blood told margot hed been to the shop before and therefore wanted him to gtfo. since he helped with delivery.
on a different note i do want to say im in math's corner and super want to know why eve doesnt care for alice O_O
MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑
I'm pretty sure she was gtfo-ing him, but I still feel like it was through the blood somehow.
Related to what SJ posted, maybe it's because Eve helped to raise her brother, and doesn't like that the status quo is being messed with? Though Alice could also be real shallow, who knows.
Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨
Perhaps
MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑
Maybe Alice is also a vampire!
✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨
that could be. and again could just be personality. maybe alice just tried to get eve to do lots of thing eve wasnt comfortable with in an attempt to bond. or maybe alice aggressively tries to set eve up with ppl
the mystery increases!
MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑
The town is going to be completely taken over by vampires. Eve will be the only real woman left.
It's like that old tv show about the pod people.
draculing
(I will confirm or deny nothing but I love seeing everyone's thoughts and theories so far )
Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨
Hey there!
Pleased to see ya!
saetje
Welcome! Thanks for the lovely comic
Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨
And thank you as well~
MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑
Hihi draculing! I like tossing out crazy theories, don't worry about me.
draculing
Hi~ I'm in and out a bit but it's good to be here
Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨
also omg Marghot looks so handsome~
draculing
The comic is still so early on its cool to see that people are already guessing at stuff
✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨
thanks for being here draculing~!
MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑
Eve will win Margot's heart by teaching her to ride a bicycle.
draculing
And yes Margot is the Most handsome
Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨
She is and I love her (edited)
Everything about her looks and personality(edited)
she's so(edited)
dandy
draculing
She's a lady ;D
saetje
Yeah Margot is actually I was under the impression Margot is female? Or they-them?
Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨
Well that's not the first time I'vewgotten my genders confused
draculing
Margot is a butch woman, dw i definitely get that a lot
Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨
lmao
MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑
Heh. Probably the pants, I don't think ladies wore them much, but I know little to nothing of the time period.
saetje
Ok well I love Margot as I’ve said throughout this chat UM I can’t wait for vampire intrigue romance adventures
Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨
heehee~
And I made it to the end of the story so far
MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑
I get the vibe that Eve is into the ladies. The way she blushes sometimes, and is upset about not being married herself yet.
Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨
It sure has come a long way since it first started~
saetje
I... completely read Eve as queer? She also hangs out with a cast of LGBT folks yes?
draculing
They wore pants (or bloomers like eve's bike pants) if they were doing sports or being tomboyish but it was still pretty rare and not looked on fondly
Actual men's clothing was not a thing for women yet except for in theater/music halls
saetje
Er- that being what her friend circle is/the party scene as about
draculing
Or yknow... gay circles
Yeah pretty much!
saetje
I appreciate all the research you’ve done into period clothing and setting!
Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨
Oh really?
saetje
I really love horror/romance time periods and I love seeing all the different props and outfits
MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑
Cool about the info. I'd ship Eve and Alice, just to be contrary, except we know they don't get along. Unless... that's just what they want others to think. (edited)
Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨
I was actually about to ask how much you researched 1900's/1910's society and such
draculing
I wanted to establish that Eve has a social circle of other queer people and they aren't miserable or self hating
Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨
ooohhhh
saetje
I really appreciated the party scene tbh
draculing
Cuz thats all we ever get from historical settings usually
With lgbt characters
saetje
Yes!
Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨
LGBT characters are always welcome
saetje
As a queer person it meant a lot to me
draculing
Yeah its really personal to me and I'm glad it resonates!
Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨
I'm pro-LGBT to the end.
saetje
Because I love time period pieces but so many gay romances or lgbt characters are so depressing in that setting. I enjoyed that Eve has a friend group that celebrated themselves and seemed happy
Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨
^
✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨
QUESTION 3. As Eve hunts down a lost property, she runs into the mysterious shop owner Margot who somehow bought one of her father’s properties. Who exactly is Margot do you think? Why do you think Margot has moved into the property now of all times, and why do you think Margot chose to run an antiques store? Why do you think Margot was so defensive about Eve’s questions (despite there being simpler, more polite answers as Eve points out)? Do you think Eve will continue to interrogate Margot for information, and do you think she will succeed? Do you think it’s even safe for Eve to interact with Margot given what happened to Agostino? Do you have any other theories about Margot?
MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑
Margot is secretly a werewolf.
saetje
And I think it (the party scene) was a nice way to set up Eve as queer, it was, to me, obvious her preferences after the party scene without being voyeuristic or over the top of that makes sense? Just enough.
MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑
Seriously though, she must be part of some syndicate or something. To get that shop set up in so little time.
Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨
I have a feeling it may have something to do with that ring.
MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑
Or the djinn/genie inside it.
Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨
If it's not her well-sculpted legs
MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑
Or those of the djinn/genie.
So, actually, it's probably a bloodstone or something. I wonder if Eve will research.
Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨
Maybe.
I never thought "bloodstone"
MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑
Actually.... is it possible that Margot or her syndicate killed Eve's father in the first place?
saetje
I get the feeling there’s going to be some romantic Margot/Eve back and forth and I look forward to that, but I think ultimately Margot will be dangerous- or at least as it’s set up now, every storytelling sign points foreboding when it comes to Margot(edited)
MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑
"Sign over this property. Good, excellent. Oh no, you fell down a flight of stairs."
✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨
i feel like if they were responsible theyd know he was dead and not have the reaction that was had over it.
Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨
Yea
Thankfully he lived
MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑
Well, we only know Margot's reaction.
✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨
i definitely forsee eve pestering margot more. cause im willing to bet shes either 1) going to run into a dead end making margot her only option for answers or 2) shes gonna find peter and peter is going to make her super duper suspicious by saying things like "you dont want to know nun ya business."
MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑
"I'm not a nun!"
Eve strikes me as the type who might lurk outside the place to see if other leads show up. That could make Margot decide to just tell her stuff to get rid of her, since "just go away" failed.
✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨
oh i hope eve comes back and is like "im here to buy something you cant kick me out."
but yeah. margot is....isnt doing a good job of making her go away. there were so many better answers then the shifty eye nun ya business XD
MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑
That would be a clever way of doing things too. "The customer is always right." To be fair, Margot was pretty nice up front too, remarking on how she should have heard someone come in... it's only the details of how they got the place that seems to have vexed her.
saetje
Maybe she WANTS Eve to come back I feel like Margot knows how to throw a line and reel em in with intrigue and mystery
MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑
Also, did Margot arrive in the box? Or was she simply hired to deal with some other dude who now lives upstairs who is a vampire? Maybe SHE'S under control, thanks to the ring. And Eve frees her from the evil spell.
Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨
Maybe
The personality seems to hit at it
MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑
"Only a kiss can save me from this vampire ring."
✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨
i assume margot was in the box. i think margot is too commanding of a presence to be someone elses mindslave.
and thats true
it could be margot wants eve to come back
alternatively maybe margot hires peter and peter tells eve its in her best interest to stay away or something might happen to her brothers fiancee O_O
MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑
There is that, or at least not be taken in quite as quickly as seems to have been the case.
✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨
and eve will be like "great good thing i dont like alice"
MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑
"You don't want to kiss me? Oh, I guess I'll simply have to get Alice to do it..." "You wouldn't dare."
Eve's brother walks in and is all, uhhhhhh....
saetje
I get the feeling it’s going to be Hattie/Eve
I felt like that was hinted at too in the party scene?
MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑
That's possible. I admit I'm bad for the names, as usual.
Also, I like going for the improbable ships.
saetje
Hattie is the blond friend who took her to the party and there was a panel where it was like their hands almost touched/had been holding and left etc. just feels like it’s possible we might have a romance starting with Eve and Hattie with Margot in there messing it up. But again- so early rn hard to make predictions!
Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨
Yea.
MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑
Makes sense... was she the one who opened the old wine?
saetje
Yes I think so!
MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑
'kk.
✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨
i would like to see more of hattie before i put my eggs in that basket. i feel of all the friends she was the one i feel most distant from sadly :"D even though i thought her design was snazzy
MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑
Yeah, it could be a one way relationship there.
Maybe that's why Eve hasn't been hanging with them as much...? I think that was implied.
✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨
maybe although i assumed its cause shes still not quite over her father's death
grief does take time
QUESTION 4. As we learn from Eve, some documents on her father’s properties seem to be missing. Further, he seemed to know possible criminal Peter Murphy and mysterious Margot. Why and how do you think Eve’s father got involved with such people? Was it blackmail, some sort of under the table charity, or something else? Do you think his co-worker Alex knew about the dealings, or was it something private to Eve’s father? If it’s the latter, why do you believe he’d keep it a secret? Do you think Margot’s shop is the only missing property, or do you suspect Eve might find even more? Even if Eve finds the answers to all these questions, do you think she can or would do anything about the situation? Lastly, do these missing properties have anything to do with her father being dead?
MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑
Right, that's a good point too. Though you'd think that you'd want others to help console you.
Her father was apparently really good with records and bookkeeping. Maybe he was doing some work on the side that turned out to be shadier than he thought... the flashback seemed to imply that they might have had money troubles. What with Dad not being able to pay the nanny enough wages to keep her on.
✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨
could be. it was implied in that scene that he was also a single father too at that point right?
MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑
It was, yes. Maybe the mother died in childbirth?
So Dad took on shady business deals to help make ends meet. Probably why he sold off properties and kept it all locked in that box.
✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨
that seems very plausible for how he got involved. albeit alternatively, maybe thats why they have money troubles
is that he was secret selling properties for a low cost and had to cover it up so it wouldnt be discovered
MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑
True, hard to say which came first. Oh, that's a good theory.
Maybe Peter knows him... just went into business for himself after the death...
Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨
Maybe so.
✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨
peter and the dad were clearly best friends from primary O_O
im curious about his death cause i feel like it must have been unexpected? cause he certainly didnt clean up his affairs. in the sense that ya know he never said "eve by the way i sold some properties to vampires. surprise."
MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑
Yeah, that's a good point. Things were left in something of a disarray at the business too.
Interesting how his daughter has been able to take over.
"She has a ... STAKE, in the business."
draculing
(Re: research question way earlier, I have a lot of 1900s fashion catalogue reprints and PDFs of 1890s-1900s sears catalogues!! I love.. clothing as personality.. so details are important to me)
Lmao niceee
MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑
Oh wow, nifty. Is that part of why it's been set in the States, like that's where the catalogues are from?
Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨
Oh nice!
That sounds like a good way to get research, all those old catalogues~
Make sure you keep em safe! I bet they'd be considered collectables in this day and age.
draculing
Nah I'm just from New Jersey ;; i grew up going into NYC and went to school there so I have a big attachment to the history and feel of it
Aw i dont have anything original sadly, it would be real cool if i did
saetje
I own a few Edwardian sears catalogues too and it’s such a treasure trove tbh. As I’ve said, I appreciate all the detail you’ve put into your costume and setting design. Every character’s clothing choices really does say something strong about them
draculing
Its also a good setting for like.. the immigration/othering themes often attached to vampire stories
Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨
Aah
and yea that's understandable
saetje
Ohh that’s a cool take
draculing
It's not at the forefront of the narrative but each character's sort of.. class and life situation is involved in their design and that plays into it
Hopefully I'm not derailing the convo too much by jumping back to that!
MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑
That makes sense. Nope, just thinking theories over here.
Alice is secretly behind everything.
saetje
yeah we’re mostly just speculating based off what we have so far, it’s nice to get insight into the creation a bit!
✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨
nah your fine.
Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨
Seconding saetje
MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑
I was also trying to think about when the New York World's Fair was, but it was like, 1939, so never mind. I don't know historical details.
draculing
I've had a lot of stuff where I've realized "wait this hasn't happened yet how weird"
Like... the titanic sinking
If my comic hits 1910 will it address that? We just don't know
*1912
saetje
is there anything like prop wise you’ve wanted to put in and then had to go “oh wait. Not invented yet”
draculing
Ohhh yeah for sure
Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨
XD
MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑
Sliced bread?
saetje
Because I imagine there’s so many little things we take for granted now that they didn’t have back then
draculing
Or like.. finding references for very specific things??
saetje
Haha the bread point was too powerful
MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑
Napples likes the historical bread.
draculing
Like "what does a cereal box in 1908 look like"
Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨
I'm curious now too lol
MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑
Gotta watch out for cereal killers.
draculing
Its little stuff that gets you
A lot of finding the closest approximation and then winging it like "hopefully some big history expert won't swoop in and yell at me"
The historical fiction police
Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨
Heehee
Gotta keep all your facts 100% authentic
(and accurate)
draculing
It's a worry even though probably no one minds at all
saetje
Because vampires sure are real ha but I get it! You really want that authentic feel
Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨
Yea All that matters is your readers have a good time and enjoy the story(edited)
saetje
But yeah unless someone is just being pedantic I don’t think you’re going to get mobbed for a small historical mistake
Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨
Anyways seems like we're heading into the final minute of the CTP
✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨
tbf tho does happen. historical fiction police do tear things apart but theyre in the minority. i think you do a really great job and pay more attention to detail than a lot of other historical fiction ive seen.
MathTans the Pun 👑Prince👑
I don't notice such things at least. I enjoyed it.
Including the hairstyle, just to circle us all the way back. Nice crazy hair.
draculing
it's very cool and encouraging to see all your ideas about what's going on
Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨
Anyways, thanks for the comic, Drac~! It was a fun read and I hope it grows nice and strong.
saetje
Fair fair. I just think people who call out details like that on indie creators are lame
draculing
Thank you for reading it!
saetje
And yeah! It’s a gorgeous comic!
Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨
^
saetje
I can’t wait to see what happens next!
Superjustingo of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨
Me neither~(edited)
draculing
Can't believe we already spoiled that Margot is definitely a werewolf, the whole time
✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨
COMIC TEA PARTY END!
Unfortunately, the scheduled Comic Tea Party time is now up~! Thank you everyone so much for reading and joining this week’s chat~! We want to give a special thank you to Ashley McCammon, as well, for making Obelisk and volunteering it for our reading queue. If you liked the comic, please be sure to support Ashley McCammon’s efforts however you’re able to. All that being said, if you would like to continue discussing this week’s comic, we highly encourage you to do so~!
For next week, Comic Tea Party will focus on Fate by Anthea West. As always, please use the next several days to read as much of the comic as you would like. We hope to see you next Thursday on June 21st from 5PM to 7PM PDT for the chat~! Until then, happy reading~! Comic: http://www.fatecomic.com/
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aion-rsa · 4 years
Text
Zappa Director Alex Winter Talks Preserving The Mothers’ Inventions
https://ift.tt/397hxl6
Zappa is an intimate look into the innovative life and eclectic works of Frank Zappa, the composer. The Beatles, Brian Wilson, and Syd Barrett’s Pink Floyd pushed boundaries of what rock could do in the mid-1960s, but Zappa ignored any preconceived compositional restraint. He mixed rock with classical, jazz with chamber, and twelve-tone with Spike Jones. From his 1966 proto-punk, garage band debut, Freak Out, through the immediate experimental turns he took on Lumpy Gravy, We’re Only In it for the Money, and continuing through his career, Zappa’s music sounds unlike any other sonic unit.
Not only was Zappa a unique composer and bandleader, he was a ground-breaking film director, an innovative theatrical presence, and a voice of rebellion in worlds beyond music and the arts. His politics were far ahead of their time, and his critiques of society resonate strongly to this day. A vast majority of Americans know Zappa best because of his censorship battle with the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC), and the documentary censors nothing.
Zappa is not only the definitive documentary, but the only feature doc ever made on the pioneering founder of the Mothers of Invention with the Zappa family seal of approval. Not only did the family give director Alex Winter, best known as Bill from the Bill & Ted movies, permission to use the music and footage, they let him ransack the vaults. What he found there was a buried treasure in need of excavation.
Zappa’s storage area contained reels of unreleased music, archived appearances, home movies and hours of never-before-heard interviews, which allowed Winter to let Frank tell most of the stories himself. But first he had to save the vault material, which was disintegrating before his very eyes. He put together a crowdfunding campaign and raised over a million dollars to preserve the tapes.
Winter has been in entertainment all his life. He worked as a child actor in the mid-1970s, had co-starring roles in long-running Broadway productions like The King and I, Peter Pan, and The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up, as a teenager, and studied filmmaking from behind the scenes at NYU film school. Besides the Bill & Ted films, he also had memorable roles in the vampire classic Lost Boys and cult favorite Freaked, which he co-directed. Winter also directed the criminally under-seen 1999 suspense thriller Fever. The bulk of Winter’s work has been on hard hitting and revelatory documentaries, like Downloaded (2002), Deep Web (2015), and The Panama Papers (2018).
Zappa is just as revelatory, but a lot more fun and you can dance to it. That is, if you can dance to what the London Symphony Orchestra called “irrational” time signatures. Towards the end of the film, Zappa shows exactly that. Alex Winter spoke with Den of Geek about Frank Zappa, as a musician, artist and subject.  
Do you think Frank could have written the song to unite the world in Bill & Ted Face the Music, or would he have chosen to score the collapse of time and space or would he have made a double album?
Yeah, he would have told us to get lost and made like a quadruple album. No, I don’t. I think that he was so, in such a lovely way, so contrary that I don’t think he would have wanted to feel like he had that kind of pressure on him.
I read that you spent your Kickstarter money to preserve the material in his vaults. First, I want to say thanks for that and was there anything that actually was lost to the damage?
Yeah, a few things were lost. It was mostly the stuff that’s most sensitive like old film audio, like the audio track itself, the magnetic audio track was very fragile, we lost some of those. Some of that stuff was gone when we got to it and then some stuff really had like one run through a machine left before it was gone, so we were using extremely sensitive machines that had Sprocket LIS systems for digitizing and preserving that media. So, it was in various states. Some of the video was quite brittle. Some of that was gone but we got most of it and we got a lot of it. So that was good.
Besides the music, were there any unreleased films in the vaults?
Like full movies? No. We know what Frank made. I was able to preserve the negatives for Baby Snakes. We did include that in what we were preserving, so we found that there and we preserved it. So that’s nice and safe, that made me happy. But there weren’t full feature movies. There was a lot of Bruce Bickford Claymation that had never been used in anything that we found, a lot of which we put in the doc because it’s so good. And there were a lot of films, home films and there’s vast quantities of him just with a video or a film camera wandering around the house or around backstage or whatever, and that informed a lot of what we use. A lot of the stuff that we were using, he shot himself or just somebody who was in his house with him.
I love the editing, the scene with Frank playing with Moon Unit with the music behind it, was that something that you put together or was that something that was already edited in the vaults?
No. That was something that Mike Nichols put together, the editor. Mike really cut most of the media. We were even re-cutting Frank’s film media. We were really looking to tell a story and convey the narrative first and foremost, more than just presenting the stuff that Zappa had done. So, what we did was we started the film with things like the home monster movies that he made and the way he re-cut his mom and dad’s wedding footage. But we used that as a jumping off point for ourselves to start creating our own edits that made it, that felt like Frank’s world, but it was really just us.
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Your documentary gets into how his music was criticized for being impersonal. I personally think some of his most beautiful lyrics come out in his guitar, but do you think his humor desensitized critics?
I think his humor put off some people, I don’t think he was particularly worried about that. I think that for me, coming up with Zappa when I got Zappa, part of that “get” was realizing that he wasn’t a rock and roll musician who made rock songs with funny lyrics. He was an avant-garde composer who used humor, like an instrument. Like using percussion or any other piece of your orchestra. It was something that he did to elicit a certain effect with the music itself. And once I kind of clicked in my head, I really got for myself, I don’t mean this needs to be for everyone because it’s personal, but it was an entry point for all of his music once that I grasped that idea.
In some of your other films you’ve tackled some very heavy topics. What draws you to the subjects? And how long have you been thinking about doing Frank?
Well, we started putting a sizzle reel short together, Glen Zipper my producer and I, after coming off of Deep Web, the tech doc we made about the dark net and federal criminal trial of Ross Ulbricht and the Silk Road black market. And I’d been very embedded in that story for a few years and I was ready to do something that wasn’t tech oriented and wasn’t quite so bleak. Glen and I were wondering why no one had tackled Zappa’s story. It seemed like it was such a perfect story for a documentary, given that he’s a big popular cultural figure, but also as a person who had so many different facets to his nature, which makes for a very good doc subject. So, that was about six years ago and we started putting something together, and then I pitched it to Gail and then the ball very slowly started to roll.
You submitted an audition film to the Zappa family, what was the short film like and how was the initial reaction?
It was very much like this to be honest with you, Mike Nichols cut that as well, and we were interested in conveying Frank’s emotional inner life, and not just the kind of pop B reverent story about the Zap that we felt people either already knew, or wasn’t really truly that representative of who he was. So we created it, it was very short, it was almost like a mood piece. But it did convey the idea of telling a story mostly with archival and Zappa’s voice that leaned on his emotional, inner narrative and not so much on being a music legacy doc.
Your film shows him as a hero, both politically and artistically. How much did you know going in?
I knew quite a bit of what made me want to do it. I knew all the primary biographical details of his life. There was an enormous amount I didn’t know, and there was an enormous amount I discovered making the film, but I certainly knew the bulk of the landmark periods of his life. And then once we started the preservation project and I was able to really spend time listening to Frank talk, because there was so much media down there that had never been heard, that was just him speaking candidly to either other journalists or to friends, and this was stuff that wasn’t public. It gave me a window into his thinking that I didn’t have before, and that guided me tremendously.
I loved Ruth Underwood’s story about dropping out Juilliard after seeing the Mothers at the Garrick Theater. Has she ever played the triangle since?
It’s a good question. I honestly don’t know, my guess is not.
Do you think Frank’s PMRC activisms sidetracked some music he might’ve been making?
No, I don’t. I think that he was in a period of reflection at that time. He never stopped making music during that time. He kept cranking. He was cranking away all through that period. He also began to work on the Synclavier and had an enormous output of music with a Synclavier during that whole period as well. So there wasn’t ever really a period where Frank wasn’t making music, and the political commitment that he had to cultural and political issues, I think really helped him, given how bleak the state of the country was and the state of the arts in the country was. So rather than just sit on his hands and moan, he just got active.
You covered pretty much every era of his career, but what is your favorite period and why?
Well, my favorite of Zappa’s early albums is Hot Rats, so that period is my favorite period, though I equally love the orchestral music that he made, and I love the Ensemble Modern period as well. Which shows you that I liked him at both ends of his career. I don’t leave out the middle, but both of those eras moved me and I listened to them equally. If someone put a gun to my head and said, “You get to jump in a time machine and go visit Frank at any given point, where would you go?” I would go to the Garrick Theater.
I came up doing theater in New York. And I’m very inspired by the fact that he wasn’t taking off in LA the way he wanted to, and rather than change his sound or capitulate to some popular movement, he just left and further investigated his own artistic voice. I have huge respect for that, and I would have loved to have been around when he was just throwing spaghetti at the wall artistically day after day at the Garrick.
Do you think that he was inspired by the movements in NYC theater?
That question I do know. Funnily enough, that’s one of the first things I asked Gail. When I first started talking to Gail in 2015, and we were just riffing and I was just trying to probe her brain to get a better sense of Frank, I was convinced by what I knew of the Garrick, that Frank was plugged into all the incredibly avant-garde and cutting edge theatrical movements of that time, which were so flourishing in Berlin, London, and New York, especially. And I said, given how theatrical his music always was, and his performances always were, surely he was inspired by this. And she said, “No.” As far as she knew, he had no interest in theater at all, and had no knowledge of any of the innovations or any of the people who were spearheading theater at that time. Which I thought was somewhat surprising, but apparently this was just his thing.
I’m sure you’ve seen Brian De Palma’s Hi Mom!, which had a scene of confrontational theater. When I think about Frank bringing the Marines onstage to dismember a doll, it seemed like one was feeding into each other.
Completely. I’m very versed in that world and it’s a big part of what I care about, and also the work that Dario Fo was doing in Italy at that time was really powerful. A lot of antiwar and protest art, but really not politics. Art was before politics in terms of the way that the theater was constructed. And that’s what seems similar to me about Frank, there were a lot of political undertones, but the art was first. And I was surprised that he wasn’t plugged into that, because they were literally running on parallel tracks at that time.
I know that your parents were dancers and Frank made music that was very hard to dance to.
And hard to edit. You try editing to that, with the rhythm changing as constantly as it does in such intense ways. It’s tough.
Actually that’s what I want to ask, you’re also a musician, do you map out rhythms, do you count out things and try to chart them in your head as you’re listening?
Mm-hmm, I do sometimes, but with some artists like Zappa or Coltrane I really don’t. I just go with the flow because the flow is so specific and untethered to formal music. So I don’t with them, but I do sometimes. Sure.
What other rock documentary makers were you looking at when you were making this?
I was most inspired even not making a music doc. I’ve been very inspired by the photography and the film work of Robert Frank. This movie was very inspired by Cocksucker Blues. There are techniques that we were doing and ideas that I had that were pretty much just lifted straight out of that movie without being overtly plagiaristic. That’s probably my biggest influence in terms of something if I had to point to, but obviously Pennebaker’s work and the Maysles and all of that. And I also have great respect for the work of Brett Morgan, he’s done amazing things, I thought Montage of Heck was phenomenal and really did an amazing job of looking at the interior life of someone who’s also quite detached. So that was helpful.
Steve Vai talks about how Zappa pushed musicians and the other musicians said being in his band was like going back to school. What did you learn in your craft from making this?
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You learn a lot by being in the presence of genius like this. So I learned on an abstract level, I was inspired. I really respected the way he pulled from different genres and still made work that was his own. I was inspired to keep going, and it’s frowned upon to play in different media in our culture. People want to put you in a box, and I’ve never wanted to do that. I’ve acted and I’ve made films and I’ve made narratives and I’ve made shorts and I’ve directed all different kinds of stuff. And I would like to continue to explore like that and Zappa, he gives you the inspiration to feel valid in that way.
Magnolia Pictures will release Zappa on November 27.
The post Zappa Director Alex Winter Talks Preserving The Mothers’ Inventions appeared first on Den of Geek.
from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/360Aq7s
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k-hiphop-trash · 7 years
Text
DPR facts / profile
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“Dream Perfect Regime (DPR) is an independent, multigenre, music and video group. We create, direct, and edit all types of visual work as well as curate artists stemming fro a wide array of musical backgrounds and influences. Based in Seoul, our primary focus is to engage viewers by producing a unique and dynamic experience of both visual and audio output”.
DPR started with no major backing nor any financial support.
According to Chris, they all gather together to watch reaction videos.
CHRISTIAN YU
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His Korean name is 유바롬 (Yoo Barom).
He used to be known as Rome.
His nickname is DPR +IAN.
He was born on September 6th, 1990.
He was born in Sydney, Australia.
He studied at the University of Sidney.
He is a Christian and his Christian name is Paul.
He speaks both English and Korean.
He moved to Korean when he was 18.
He is a singer, producer, director and chief editor in DPR.
He is 174cm.
He is good at B-boying. He used to be in a dance crew named Kill.U.Strate with DPR Live. He met Dabin through b-boy.
He isn’t bisexual nor gay.
He watches anime.
Small things make him happy.
He appears in CL’s “HWA” video.
He can’t watch horror movies because he is really scared of anything paranormal and thinks he is alerting it even by talking about it. However, DPR guys took him to watch Hereditary by Ari Aster and he has also watched Midsommar.
He used to be a member and the leader of the K-pop group C-Clonw. On October 5th, 2015 the group was disolved.
He debuted on July 19th, 2012.
He likes football and surf, swimming and being in the water. He also likes making music, creating and watching Netflix .
Hemade “Zombie Pop” in about 1’5 hours for Adobe Commercial.
Since he’s being living in Korea over 10 years, he started losing his Australian accent due to lack of contact with it.
He likes cooking for him and his friends and likes watching their reaction.
He always wanted to try the food Balut.
He collects professional cameras.
He plays the drums since he was young. He used to be in a band and really liked Heavy Metal. Now he listens to many different genres like jazz, acoustic and hip hop.
He wants to create short films and also a movie to show DPR’s progress.
He is the founder of DPR.
His biggest inspiration is his mother.
He doesn’t like flying.
He directed Mino’s debut MV.
He has a dog named Lori and his first dog was named Snoopy. He also has a dog named Choco.
His favourite colour is green but used to be blue, so it might change with time.
He wonders what’s like to be a zombie and thinks it can’t be different from being dead.
He is sacred of dying alone and hopes this won’t happen as it would make him very sad.
Asa kid, he would let his imagination go and think movies like Peter Pan were real.
He likes the songs “Diamonds” by Tory Lanez and “Have You Seen That Girl” by GoldLink.
He grew up surfing and likes to keep doing it when he goes to Australia.
He likes women who are passionate about what they do and doesn’t care about their height. His ideal type is and “in the moment” kind of thing. One thing he wishes about her girlfriend is that she is passionate about what she does, whatever that is. He also likes girls that are independent and strong. He doesn’t specifically look for this qualities, but he would appreciate them.
His favourite cologne is Giorgio Armani.
He is friends with BTOB’s Peniel and B.A.P’s Zelo.
He watched the anime Death Note and even has a Death Note himself.
He likes anime and also watched the animes Shingeki no Kyojin, Berserk and Fullmetal Alchemist.
He took vocal lessons with GOT7’s JB when they were trainees.
He is a homebody.
He considers DPR and their fans as a family.
He likes werewolves better than vampires.
He said he wouldn’t mind being reincarnated into a tortoise, but a human reincarnation would be ideal.
He doesn’t know why, but as a kid he was obsessed with Leprechauns.
He isn’t scared of insects or snakes.
He does a lot of Instagram lives were he answers fan questions and a lot of memes come out of this.
He watches the show Black Mirror.
He doesn’t like to upload full body pictures because he is shorter than he looks and doesn’t want to create false expectations. But he is fine with his height either way.
He likes his hair dyed black better.
His favourite foods are those that fill you up. He likes kebabs and his favourite dish is steak.
He can’t really eat spicy food.
He likes tattoos and motorbikes, because of this, people think he is abad boy but he is actually very kind and funny.
He doesn’t know what it means to be “skinny legend”.
He likes the song “Evil Woman” by Electric Lights Orchestra.
He vapes.
In 2020 he modeled for Adidas.
His life moto is “BE YOU, if you do you, you’re living life”.
He needs glasses.
DPR LIVE
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His real name is 홍다빈 (Hong DaBin).
He was born in January 1st, 1993.
He was born in Korea.
He is also known as Jelly Man.
When he was 5 years old he moved to Guam.
He is about 169cm.
He is a rapper.
He used to work at Subway.
His most popular song is “Eung Freestyle”, featuring Punchnello, Owen Ovadoz, Sik-K and Flowsik.
He usually introduces his raps with the sentence “Coming to you Live!”.
His tagline “Coming to you Live!” is much like a live broadcaster reporting at the scene of a weather event to the viewers in real-time. This is related to the meaning of his artist name.
He didn’t take music seriously until he released “Till I Die” on his YouTube channel.
He wants to do his best in order to “give off the same lasting, meaningful impression a lot of artists that he admired, had on him. This kind of reflects hand-in-hand to why I ultimately chose my artist name to be LIVE”.
He came up with the name LIVE to remind himself of two motives: 1) ”to always LIVE LIFe in the present, both through ups&downs and through success&failures”; 2) “to always remain honest and true to one’s self and one’s craft”.
He is inspired by artists that create their own sound and colour.
He considers DPR his family.
He joined DPR around March 2015 and officially debuted on March 15th.
He likes the songs “Sacrifices” by Big Sean and “Colors” by Taylor Bennet.
His favourite song from “Coming To You Live” is “Right Here Right Now”. (He said this during an IGLive and he said that it was at the moment, so it might change).
He likes Skizzy Mars.
He is right handed.
He is a dog person.
He spent half of his life in Guam and half in Korea.
He prefers rice over noodles.
He says that being told to choose between Christian or Scott is like choosing between mom and dad.
He used to listen to a lot of rock music and one of his favourite bands was Paramore.
He got the scar on his forehead when he was five years old after he banged his head on a metal thing.
When he was younger he didn’t like americano coffee, but nowadays he thinks it can give you a lot of energy.
He already did his military service.
He likes tall girls.
He said he will not make an Snapchat soon since Instagram and Twitter are overwhelming enough.
He is right-handed.
He is excited to watch SMTM6 because Dok2, Jay Park and Dean are on the show.
After coming to Korea, he worked at a Subway for a couple months.
He is fluent in both English and Korean.
In his song “To Whoever” he mentions that he was bullied at school for his skin color.
He used to be in a dance crew with Ian called Kill.U.Strate and also was part of NEWE$T CREW.
CREAM
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He is a producer.
His real name is 김경모 (Kim KyungMo).
He was born on January 3rd 1988.
He is about 180 cm.
He is a member of the duo LAYBACKSOUND.
He plays the piano since he was 7.
He used to think it was important to be very good in one genre, but now he thinks it’s good to be well versed in different styles.
He can sing, and he does some vocals in LAYBACKSOUND.
He doesn’t speak English, he understands and speaks a little, but he himself has said through IGLives that he is not very good.
His favourite song from the album “Coming To You Live” is “Laputa”.
He made tracks 1, 2, 4, 6 and 7 from the album “Coming To You Live”.
He likes video games.
He has a cat named Lay.
His nickname “Cream” comes from his gamer ID.
He is influenced by classical music, jazz and hiphop among others.
CLINE
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He likes video games.
He was born on the 29th April.
In one of their IGLives, Cream was teasing him about an Internet girlfriend.  I did not watch this myself, I only read a transcrip, so I am not sure what this all was about).
SCOTT
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His name is Scott Kim.
He was born on 21st February 1992.
He is fluent in both English and Korean.
He was born and raised in the United States.
He is the production director (PD).
He is the one in charge of making the merch (according to DaBin they are currently working on it).
He gave DaBin a jacket as a present.
He likes rap and hiphop.
He met Ian through a mutual friend and they used to play basketball together.
He used to make regular videos with Amber for the YouTube channel “What The Pineapple”.
KANG GUN
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He has a cat.
He is the assistant director.
JUNGMOO JUN
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Has a son.
He was born on the 27th March.
Disclaimer: facts in italics are not confirmed or at least I haven’t seen any real proof. Feel free to let me know if there is any mistake.
Crds: IG@/dpr.fanpage & IG@/coolnightcrew
6K notes · View notes