#Point Of This Post Time this is a spiritual sequel to that post where i was like 'is he really that moe or'

[todayisafridaynight]

cant wait for y8 to give us flashbacks of arakawa Back In The Day so i can be bludgeoned in the brain with the fact he was In Fact a scary yakuza and not just my favorite silly geezer who loves his family that lives down the block

[theneighborhoodwatch]

which character do you think is the most sus and why

honestly i think everyone has at least one trait that makes me Wonder about them, so. i'm just gonna list those under the cut instead. i've gone over some of these in more detail in previous speculation posts, but i don't wanna just link to them for the 48545674567456th time, so consider this a spiritual sequel to that old ass conspiracy board i made. any links are to stuff that isn't readily available on the actual website. anyways:

wally:

do i really need to explain this one

okay i'm just gonna pick one of the less obvious things: have you ever noticed that his bio uses present tense the most? like after the little introductory blurb it introduces him as "wally is" as opposed to everyone else's "(x) was"? someone in my discord server pointed that out once and i haven't been able to stop thinking about it.

barnaby:

what little we learn about his relationship to wally from the website is Odd; both of their bios mention not only that they were best friends, but that this was stated Multiple times throughout illustrated pages and the like, as if someone was really desperate to impress upon people that These Two Are Totally Besties, We Swear. you'd think this would be a poor attempt to disguise there being some animosity between the two, but that doesn't seem be the case, either.

other than that, though, barnaby actually seems pretty normal - perhaps deceptively so...

frank:

has a first name that ends in a consonant and a surname that ends in a long "-ee" sound, as opposed to everyone else having a first name that ends in a long "-ee" sound and a surname that ends in a consonant.

is noted to have no canonical backstory; the only other character who falls into this camp is wally.

is an entomologist/lepidopterist (or at least an Enthusiast about those subjects) in a town where the only wildlife present seems to be bugs. this was first mentioned in an ask from 2020, so normally i would hesitate to put this here, but post-website launch concept art never shows there being any non-insect (or at least non-arthropod) wildlife, so i think it is Likely that this still applies.

there are Conveniently little to no notes regarding the construction of his physical puppet - all that the WHRP seems to have been able to confirm is that it did actually have a head-spinning mechanism.

julie:

hails from a cave in what is Explicitly noted to be the same forest that surrounds home; post-website launch concept art definitely seems to allude to there being something in those woods, or at least the general idea of julie wandering "out of bounds."

has the most detailed family background by way of her siblings having actual designs and names. her bio clarifies that they didn't live in Home, but no other characters with family members seem to need this clarification. is the implication that This level of detail for side characters is unheard of? then again, barnaby's mom also has a name and design...

can speak to flowers/plants, which definitely sheds a new light on whatever might be going on in this may 2021 concept art. i've seen a lot of people interpret the title of this piece - "liar!" - as an accusation from julie towards someone else (most commonly frank) but given that that the script linked in the february 2023 audition post establishes that julie is capable of lying about what a plant tells her for her own convenience, albeit in a far more playful context... who's to say that she isn't the liar?

sally:

her puppet is all but outright stated to have required more puppeteers than any other character.

having a character who's a playwright/director and whose house is built to resemble a mini theater in a story that relies so heavily on the fourth wall (or lack thereof) as a source of horror feels like a very... Dangerous combination.

some people have tried to draw parallels between her backstory and that of old testament satan, buuuut i'm not entirely sold on this. it feels a bit too outlandish even for me, considering that any remaining christian imagery seems to have been relegated Solely to wally and/or home.

her introductory blurb seems to have a nod towards poppy? "She’s a fire-cracker who is willing to let her imagination run wild in the name of a new adventure, albeit at the occasional expense of her more cautious neighbors." that aforementioned audition script Also all but outright confirms that this is about poppy, given her and sally's interactions there, i.e. sally trying to get poppy to come out of her shell by casting her as the lead in her next play and Clearly thinking very highly of her, but pushing her past her limits just a bit too far too fast. again, much like julie and lying, it's all in a playful context, but i wonder... sally, are you paying enough attention to your friends?

i could also make a joke about my sally/poppy agenda, but. i will refrain. for now.

poppy:

is the only walk-around puppet to not have a live-hand variant.

her puppet also apparently has no surviving photos of it? or at least not any photos of it in its entire eight feet of glory.

in a similar vein to the possible relationship between sally being a playwright and welcome home fiddling with the fourth wall so much, i feel like poppy being a recluse in a series where one of the Main Themes is supposed to be "what happens when a Home becomes just a House/what it's like to live in a decaying home" is a very convenient setup for horror - one that Excites me as much as it scares me. if something happened to her, i wonder, how long do you think it would take for someone to notice?

eddie:

his theme color, purple, is used very sparingly in his actual design compared to the rest of the cast and their colors - it only shows up on his eyelids and maybe the inside of his bag? even designs like poppy and howdy's make more use of their respective theme colors than eddie's. it being on the eyelids is an interesting choice, too, given the eye motif that's been present throughout so far. eyes are the windows to the soul and all that.

purple also makes an appearance just outside of his post office, in the form of a sprig of lavender with a butterfly on it - and, well. something about purple signifying secrecy/hidden truths, perhaps?

according to this post-website launch concept art, the only two clocks in the entire neighborhood are: A) the street clock between howdy's shop and eddie's post office, and B) the watch upon eddie's wrist. both also seem to share some design elements with him (and maybe sally?) - namely, the eyes.

and of course, his backstory. or rather, the fact that his backstory is so half-assed that it's a running gag that he can't remember his hometown and the most we know about his mom is that she has the same job and She Exists, Probably. like that's fucked up in the context of welcome home, right? we can agree on that?

howdy:

howdy is an adult and yet Not a butterfly. he never actually pupated he just got Bigger. this is never explained or addressed in-universe as far as we are aware.

and also this is in the presence of a lepidopterist, aka a guy who should Definitely be aware of the fact that howdy should have pupated by now. foreshadowing for a future point of contention? a future alliance, even?

howdy. the shipments. where are your shipments coming from howdy.

home:

much like wally, this one is so obvious that i feel stupid for even dedicating a bullet point here. just fucking look at anything on the website talking about or involving them. this house is All Unsettling Trivia.

imagine i am beaming this brian david gilbert clip directly into your brain whenever i discuss their relationship with wally until further notice

like i've said before, i don't think they're evil evil (or at least, not evil without reason) but i do think whatever they and wally have going on is, like, Not Healthy. they have codependent swag imo.

[prokopetz]

It might still be too early for this kind of question, but what have been your favorite video games you've played in 2022? :3c

Given what the release schedule over the next three months looks like, yeah, it's probably jumping the gun, but what the hell. I'm going to arbitrarily restrict my consideration to games actually published in 2022, or else we'd be here all week, though.

(I make no apologies for the high concentration of sequels on this list. I know what I like!)

Amber City is a spiritual sequel to 2017's Flood of Light, and its gameplay is in much the same vein, being an atmospheric walking sim with light point-and-click puzzle elements. If you enjoyed the idea of The Witness but wish the puzzles didn't hate you personally, this might not be a bad one to check out.

Blossom Tales II: The Minotaur Prince isn't going to break any new ground for those who’ve played its predecessor, though it's somewhat more adventurous in its dungeon design; if you enjoy casual 2D Zelda-likes, you'll probably enjoy this. Fans of 1980s fantasy media may also get a kick out of its pop culture pastiche elements – let’s just say the narrator is definitely taking advantage of the fact that his grandkids have never seen Labyrinth!

COGEN: Sword of Rewind is a Mega Man Zero style hack-and-slash platformer that does one of the first interesting things I've seen in years with the time manipulation formula, essentially merging your "mess with time" gauge with your health bar. The damage-boost routing in the speedrun is something you need to see to believe.

Curse Crackers: For Whom the Belle Toils is a retro platformer from the makers of 2020's Zelda-like dating sim Prodigal. Comparisons to Celeste are, perhaps, unwarranted, as the mechanics are very different, but I felt something familiar in the role of momentum in its flow of play. Visually, it's incredibly pink, which is something I always appreciate in a game.

Dungeons of Dreadrock is a short logic puzzler that one could be forgiven for mistaking for an old-school roguelike at first glance. Each level is a set-piece that borrows from the conventions of the grid-based roguelike genre to create situations where only one sequence of actions leads to survival, and challenges the player to find it..

FAR: Changing Tides swaps Lone Sails' landship for, well, an actual ship. The engineering sim gameplay remains largely unchanged in spite of that. Some of its elaborations on the previous game's formula don't work as well as they might have, being challenging more due to the limitations of the physics engine than anything else, but the frustration factor wasn't high enough to ruin my fun.

A Game with a Kitty 1 & Darkside Adventures is me flagrantly breaking my own rules, since everything in this anthology actually came out in 2005–2008 – it's just the anthology itself that's a 2022 release; I'm mostly throwing it in because this list was otherwise light on free-to-play titles. It all held up remarkably well on a replay earlier this year, though.

Gunborg: Dark Matters is a run-and-gun precision platformer that seems to have flown entirely under the radar, having just 11 reviews on Steam at the time of this posting. I'm not sure why – I mean, it's got a great soundtrack, and you play as a woman with a sword the size of a surfboard. What else do you want?

Jack Move is a JRPG-style title that blends self-consciously silly 1980s cyberpunk with contemporary anime aesthetics. I have to confess that I'm cheating a bit by including this one, as it's been out for all of three days at the time of this posting, and is the only game on this list I haven't played; I have, however, followed its development for some time, and I've had a lot of fun with the various demos the dev team has put out over the years, so I'm confident in plugging it here.

Recursive Ruin takes a page from 2019's Manifold Garden and basically asks "what if it was super fucked up?" The recursion here is fractal rather than directional, with progress "inward" eventually leading right back where you started. The story is naturally pretentious as hell; whether that's a criticism is a matter of taste.

RUN: The World In-Between wears it Celeste influence on its sleeve, but really takes more from classic endless runners like Canabalt. The "procedural generation" is just the same dozen or so puzzles for each zone being strung together in various orders, and the story is thinner than the trailer makes it look, but if you're a fan of the "running from left to right set to awesome music" genre, you could do a lot worse.

Submerged: Hidden Depths picks up where 2015's Submerged left off. The gameplay is substantially similar, though with a heavier focus on exploration puzzles and fewer linear set-pieces. Even so, it's not exactly what I'd call challenging – it's better approached as a pretty walking sim with light parkour-puzzler elements.

System Purge is about as basic as it gets for a precision platformer. No fancy moves here: you run; you jump; you get your face melted off by a laser. There's actually quite a bit of blood and gore, which is something I rarely have the stomach for, but the game is short enough that the lurid bits don't overstay their welcome. Fair warning!

Taiji is... well, remember when I said Amber City is a good one to check out if you like the idea of the Witness but wish the puzzles didn't hate you? This is one to check out if you do enjoy it when the puzzles hate you. There's a lot here that will be familiar to fans of the latter, though the puzzles are somewhat more varied owing to the fact that colouring grids is a more flexible game mechanic than drawing lines.

Vain Ascendance is a a roguelite precision platformer whose art style and mechanics put me strongly in mind of 2018's Overclocked, though the dev teams are unrelated. When I've plugged this game in the past I've been teased that my obsession with games about red haired women who can air dash is showing, but this I must protest: her hair is purple.

As for unreleased games available in demo or early access versions that I've tried out in 2022, I'll keep it brief, since these aren't proper recs, but you might have a look at any of Dormiveglia, Garbage Girl Louise, Gigasword, Keylocker, Koa and the Five Pirates of Mara, Little Witch in the Woods, Rebel Transmute, Rose & Locket, Ruin Valley, Shards of Gravity, Star Hearts: Launch Point, Undergrave, Venus Looks for Jupiter, Vermillion Descent or War Girl.

[somaspice]

Disillusion, an Oneiric Dungeon Crawler

Disillusion, and its sequel DisillusionST, are games I've been following intently, ever since I found out about them on a niche vaporwave forum three years ago.

The sequel is still in the works, but recently has garnered quite a bit of attention as Vinesauce played it on stream. Such attention is well deserved, as the dev's artstyle has come into his own, and the game showcases many extremly charming vingnettes reminiscent of early 2000s point and click games.

However, for this post, I'd like to focus on the original work. While Disillusion is much more primitive in every aspect compared to the demo of ST, it still manages to be a very worthwile experience.

As flawed as it might be because of it's janky combat and color-vomit art direction, the execution of it's main concepts is still very worthy of praise.

In the original game we play as Golem, an amnesiac soul climbing a tower with the intent of achieving either nirvana or reincarnation.

(My interpretation of the MC, made in Blender)

As it turns out, there are many wayward souls in the same journey. Most of them, however, have become lost and succumbed to insanity, as the more time one spends in the tower the more one's memories begin to meld with everyone else's.

In our travels we meet and become allies with Melpomene, the muse of tragedy. She asks for our help in defeating Mara, the buddhist version of the devil, who has perched itself on top and trapped all of the wayward souls. She intends to use the tower to transform itself into a god and remake the universe in it's image.

As for the game itself it is mostly a silly, psychedelic romp through a kaleidoscopic dungeon. Even though it's main themes are spiritual and introspective, the game is mostly meant to be fun and light.

For example, there is a sidequest where in you have to smuggle sweet corn for the obese monarch of a fish kingdom.

Because of this, the game can go from an off kilter-joke to something quite somber in the span of minutes.

It's definitely weird, but it adds to the experience in my opinion.

Wanting to truly immerse myself (and make some fun content), I asked the dev the recipe for one of the game's healing items, a PBJ sandwich. PBJ stands for pickled pork, beans, and jelly. It's supposed to cure poison.

I cooked it up and felt a bit poisoned afterwards.

In any case, if you want to hear my full thoughts and see my culinary experience, you can check it out in the video review on my youtube channel.

See ya next time.

[myevilmouse]

I finished re-reading Dis Manibus for the hundredth time, and it’s still 100/100. You made me enjoy Luke as a character, and I think you really highlighted his compassion and gentleness, which not all stories do well. I also loved the Thryce, of course.

Two questions, if you don’t mind: 1) At the end, is Luke coming to like Pryce due to the residual influence of Thrawn, or does he genuinely like her as a person? Maybe a bit of both? 2) I vaguely remember a sequel being mentioned on your blog. Do you still intend to write one someday?

Thank you so much for this amazing note @mireilleblue! So happy to hear Dis Manibus holds up on the rereads!  And your words about Luke and Thryce just turn me into a puddle of happiness.

I do not mind questions at all (I love asks!) and in this case you gave me an excuse to talk about a fic that is a fave!  It was such an unexpected story that really wrote itself, and it was a real pleasure to get it on the digital “page.”

I am putting the answers to your questions below the cut because there be spoilers if anyone hasn’t read the fic! Anyone who would like to, please come back later and... 😊

So to your first question, the answer is definitely “a little bit of both.”  My idea was that Luke, being Luke, can see the good in everyone, including Pryce.  Early on, he believes she can be reformed and forgiven, even if she doesn’t see that as a real possibility.  He admires her resilience and skills, and because he is so compassionate, he tries not to judge her for the sins of her past (even though he does have initial reservations about it, he is able to trust in the Force enough to let them go).

But when he wakes up after hosting Thrawn, there is most definitely some spiritual residue coloring his perception, as you know.  Our first hint is this line:

“Something twinged inside him, an immediate sense of concern. Luke wasn’t quite sure where it came from.”

And then it continues to manifest in subtle ways, from being warmed by her compliments, his reaction to her touch, the way he knows how she wants to argue as if they had done it “a thousand times”, etc. 

Luke has the presence of mind to recognize these traces of Thrawn, and while Pryce doesn’t understand it, she also obviously senses something isn’t quite right when he “sounds like” Thrawn.

Poor Luke, complicating his own life to help others (he’s good at that).  But as the ending indicates, he’s ultimately at peace with how things turned out.  However, my intention with the last line regarding Luke’s dreams.was to suggest that Thrawn’s psychic residue may be quite a bit stronger than expected.

Now…about that sequel...

I think at this point it’s fair to say I probably will write it. I went into a lot of detail about it in this old post below (another wonderful ask from @beebee-76) that you can read if you would like spoilers for what is to come.

If you don't want to spoil it, I'll give some more general thoughts:

The point of Dis Manibus was, as I mention in that above post, to get Luke and Pryce to hook up…that was my original and only intention, and well, you can see that didn’t work out (not that I am complaining!  I love when stories write themselves).  But I do feel like there is more to Luke & Pryce's story, especially now that we know a little bit of Thrawn’s influence and love has seeped into our handsome Jedi’s soul.

So the sequel would explore that.  When I came up with the concept for the sequel, fully formed like Athena from the head of Zeus, I decided “well, if I just type it up for everyone on the Thryce Discord, then I won’t have any more desire to write it.”  Well hah, the joke is on me because this is one plot bunny that is not leaving my pasture, just hopping about, grazing, and reminded me occasionally that there is a rich and emotionally very complicated tale to be told. 

In the meantime, if you’d like more Dis Manibus content, I wrote a little drabble from the "someday sequel" here:

and the amazing @blackmonitor did some glorious fanart inspired by it here.

Thank you again so much for this wonderful ask and your kind words—it just makes my week to know you still love it! Readers like you are gifts. Please have this pic in gratitude!

[compil]

predictions about "The Second Coming"

trying to cope with my post-s2 pain by keeping my eyes forward and looking to the future, as per usual :) here are my predictions for what the Second Coming's gonna be like

note: this is all in good fun! i know nothing but i love to overthink :D

the "second coming" alludes to both the Christian concept of Christ's return, and also W.B. Yeats's poem.

there are variations between different sects of Christianity regarding what is to happen in the second coming, and Good Omens will certainly have its own spin on it too. the bottom line for most (if not all) versions is that Christ / God will come to judge humanity, punishing the "wicked" and rewarding the "good" with eternal life in His kingdom. another common idea i saw was that the Coming won't literally be a physical apparition, just a spiritual one that sets off a series of events.

in Yeats's poem, he offers a bleak view where humanity is altogether damned, by evil or inaction. he points out that this is due to the moral weakness of humanity, despite their pretending otherwise. in Good Omens, this is a more suitable allegory for heaven rather than humanity, which commits acts of immorality under the guise of good.

Yeats further describes that a pitiless beast with the head of a man and the body of a lion will awaken, replacing the role of the savior in the Christian prophecy. i'm guessing that in Good Omens, this will be something heaven sends down to humanity for the final reckoning.

fun fact: the 3rd season is supposedly based on the sequel Pratchett and Gaiman conceptualized for the novel, and the working title for this unwritten sequel was "668: The Neighbour of the Beast"!

also, neil gaiman said there are clues in the opening sequence of s2. among the line of characters following aziraphale and crowley, one of them touts a sign with "The 2nd Coming" written on it, as they pass by elevators with angels riding them to the ground. after that, they pass by a cinema with a poster of "Arrival". idk if y'all know any other movies by that name but the 2016 one with Amy Adams (a personal fave <3) immediately came to mind — vaguely summarized, it's the one about aliens who come to earth to gift humans the skill to speak their language and perceive time the way they do (non-linearly). maybe in Good Omens, God will give humans some special technology / ability too? it could also just be emphasizing that whatever it is coming down from heaven, it'll be beast-like / monstrous, and it will try it's darndest to communicate with said humans for some reason or another, like the aliens in Arrival. or maybe they're gonna do something with non-linear time, seeing the distant past and future, the beginning and the end — this one has lots of minisode potential :}

do you guys have any other guesses about the next season's plot? spotted some clues? lmk!

[bobbyinthegarden]

My Review of The Secret Garden (2020)

Spoilers for The Secret Garden (both the book, and this film), and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë.  

I said that I wanted to do some in-depth reviews of the various different adaptations of The Secret Garden (the film versions and other retellings), and I thought it might be fun to work my way (roughly) back in time, beginning with the most recent adaptations, and working my way back in time. I do plan on also reading some of the sequels/retellings/graphic novels that exists as well, but I’m going to start with the film adaptations.

So… I re-watched The Secret Garden (2020) and I have some thoughts.

Before I get into all of my opinions, I’d like to highlight this clip of Mark Kermode talking about the film, I think he hits the nail on the head and is very fair about the film, I agree with him, here’s a link.

There were some things that I liked, which really stood out to me about the film, it is gorgeous, the aesthetics, set design and costumes are all really great, both for the interiors and the exteriors. The film looks beautiful, cinematography and editing were also good, the camera movements feel very dynamic and the editing around many of the more fantastical elements in the film was also clever. Likewise with the performances; nobody here is going to win any acting awards for this film specifically, but none of the performances are bad. There’s an Aurora song in the closing credits. I’m an Aurora fan, so that was nice.

There are things to like here, and I’m sure if I were a child watching this film with no prior knowledge of The Secret Garden, that I would have enjoyed it well enough, though I don’t think that it would have stuck with me in the way that The Secret Garden has stuck with me since I was a child.

The films has made A LOT of changes to the source material. I said in my review of the 2015 adaptation of Heidi that I’m not of the opinion that absolute fidelity to the source materials is necessarily the best way to adapt a novel to the screen. There are plenty of adaptations that I like which deviate significantly from their source material, either in tone or plot, Bladerunner and The Shining are both good examples of this, and in my Heidi review I also mentioned Anne with an E, which alters the tone of the original Anne of Green Gables to great effect. So the fact that this adaptation of the story makes changes to the original is not a great sin in itself, I simply feel that a lot of the changes that they do make are underthought and, in some cases, confusing.

For example, the events of the book have been moved forward in time, taking place in 1947, rather than the Edwardian Era. This could be an interesting change, as 1947 was the year that India gained its independence from Great Britain, and so could be used to serve as a commentary on the colonialism that is present in the book. It doesn’t though. The updated setting adds nothing to the story. @marysfoxmask​ made a really interesting post about this which I’ll link here, and I entirely agree, and I don’t think I need to add anymore commentary on the topic.

@isfjmel-phleg​ also wrote an interesting post unpacking her thoughts about this adaption and I agree with many of her points too. Here’s a snippet from that post:

Making Mrs. Lennox and Mrs. Craven sisters/twins is straight out of the musical and 1993 film, and it’s overdone. Lilias was Mary’s father’s sister, which actually is more thematically appropriate (of course she’s unrelated to the woman who’s the book’s worst example of parenting), and I’d like to see a version where this is the case. What if it’s Mary’s father who’s distant from grief over losing a sibling? There’s room in the text for that interpretation; he’s said to be “always busy and ill.”

And I completely agree with that as well. Mary’s character arc shifting from a story about a neglected and emotionally stunted child finding spiritual and emotional growth through the cultivation of a garden, into the story of a child who needs to reconcile with her dead, neglectful mother, seems like an extremely odd interpretation to me. Both Mary and Colin’s parents get way too much focus here and are framed much more sympathetically (they even show up as ghosts), to the point where the relationship between the two sisters feels like a more significant presence than the relationship between Mary and Colin. As a consequence of giving the parents more emphasis, there are a number of characters from the book whose roles are reduced, particularly Ben, who is not present in the film at all, and Dickon, whose role in the story is greatly diminished, we don’t even meet him until 50 minutes into a film - and we meet Colin at 25 minutes in (which annoys me personally, since Dickon is my favourite character in the book). All of this leaves Dickon feeling like a mostly superfluous addition to the story, which is a shame because I know Amir Wilson can turn in a good performance when he needs to.

One thing that Mark Kermode talked about in the video that I linked above is the framing of the ‘magic’ in the story. Here’s a quote from that:

“When we find the magical garden itself (…) what you get more of is the sense that this is the garden of [Mary’s] imagination, the garden of her dreams, and there is a magical element, which is played the up […]. What you lose is the central theme that is in the novel which is that toiling in the garden, it’s working in the garden, that makes the garden have it’s restorative powers.”

Here the ‘magic’ is much more literal, treated more like a mystical forest or fantasy realm (like Narnia) rather than a place that the characters might care for. This, to me, is the fundamental most flaw of the film, as it just completely disregards the themes of its source material, opting instead for a story that is significantly more escapist and fantastical in tone, rather than the grounded story of the novel.

Okay, heading into very spoiler-y territory now, so if you don’t want to know what happens in the end of the film, stop reading now. I’m also going to spoil the ending of Jane Eyre, so be aware of that.

Final warning.

So, in this version of the story, the house burns down at the end. On a level, I do understand why this change was made, it gives the third act a greater sense of danger and ups the stakes quite a lot. I very firmly believe that Frances Hodgson Burnett was heavily influenced by the Brontë sisters when writing The Secret Garden, there are a number of similarities between both Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre, and I plan on writing a whole post about that at some point. For now, we’re just going to focus on Jane Eyre. Jane, like Mary, is an orphan, who goes to live at Thornfield Hall, a vast house in the moors. During her stay, she frequently hears mysterious wailing and crying in the night. In The Secret Garden, this is revealed to be coming from Mary’s sick cousin Colin, while in Jane Eyre, it is revealed to be a woman named Bertha, who is the wife of the master of the house, Mr Rochester, and who is plagued by violent insanity. At the climax of Jane Eyre, Bertha sets fire to  Thornfield Hall, burning the house to the ground. I am almost 100% certain, that  Misselthwaite being set on fire in this adaptation, is a nod to the influence of Jane Eyre on the original book – in this case, it is Mr Craven who sets fire to his own house, in a fit of drunken confusion and grief. As an element of the story, I don’t hate it, but I don’t think it was set up very well either. It just kind of happens randomly. Fire isn’t established within the narrative at all, it’s not set up, and it’s not part of a motif either. It’s Chekov’s gun, but you never see the gun before it goes off. In Jane Eyre it works since fire is a frequent motif within the story, often used as a metaphor for Jane herself, as the narrative repeatedly associates her with images of fire, brightness, and warmth. It could have worked here, but it mostly just feels random and not very well thought out.

With all of these underthought changes, I think that the thing this film suffers most from is the fact that it is an adaptation of The Secret Garden. The film disregards many elements the plot, themes, setting and characters of the original book, but fails to truly divorce itself from the source material. I think that the resulting film would have been better if they had simply disregarded the book entirely  and instead used the story as inspiration to create something new and original. But that’s just my opinion.

I’m sure that I’ll have more to say about this film in the future, but I’ll sign off with another quote from Mark Kermode’s review, which sums up a lot of my feelings quite well:

“It’s a strange mix. It’s perfectly fine. I don’t think it’s one of the classic, timeless adaptations, but it is a story that will always work if you treat it with a certain degree of respect […]. It’s not great, but it’s not bad, it’s a perfectly workable adaptation of something which I’ve seen adapted better.”

I couldn’t agree more.

[autisticandroids]

this post is a spiritual sequel to this other post. and also this one.

trying to make um. several amvs about season six (three? at the moment? lol? or actually one is mostly season nine but it's still relevant here) and the problem with season six amvs and honestly any amv which tries to grapple with cas' relationship to other angels is that they will um. they'll come out more deancrit. than they need to be.

because like. okay. microcosm. let me pull from this post:

number one: the other angels (i). cas' betrayal of rachel in frontierland is a synecdoche for this. and like the thing that happens in frontierland is that rachel finds out that cas is working with crowley and immediately tries to kill him, and he kills her in self-defense. i have a longer post that breaks this down a little more here, but okay here is the list of things going on in this scene:

1. cas is working with crowley. that is not meaningfully a betrayal of the other angels. 2. cas lies about working with crowley because he predicts, rightly, that the other angels, unused to any kind of moral complexity or existing in a world where you have to make choices, and still steeped in angelic prejudice against demons, would object to him working with crowley, and he would not be able to convince them it was a good idea. 3. rachel finds out about this lie, which IS arguably a betrayal, but honestly i don't really know if it qualifies. 4. she immediately tries to fully murder cas because angels have no conflict resolution skill, because, again, they have never learned to make choices really. like, they have spend millennia being tortured and killed for small acts of disobedience, and getting brainwashed and lobotomized every time they experienced emotional growth. so they have no real gauge on what's an appropriate thing to kill each other over and they don't have any way of resolving any sort of conflict. 5. cas kills her in self-defense. 6. this is all framed as a tragedy. rachel is not vilified and cas mourns her and holds her as she dies.

number two: the winchesters (i). specifically, the man who would be king. this is not meaningfully a betrayal by cas. sam, dean, and bobby find out that cas has been doing something without their permission and immediately turn on him and declare him and enemy, despite the fact that he is working to save all their lives and trying to solve a literally apocalyptic-scale problem that they've been ignoring and dismissing. they are betraying him here, not the other way around. dean takes point on this betrayal of cas but the others are also fully on board.

so the thing about tmwwbk and the rachel thing is that they're fundamentally kind of the same? except that, well, rachel dies for it. like, both the winchesters and rachel turn on cas for something that doesn't make a lot of sense and they probably shouldn't turn on him about.

but in rachel's case, it's portrayed as a tragedy that cas has to kill her, but a necessary one. rachel is wrong, and it's sad that she's wrong! we don't really want rachel to die! but at this point the only option is for her to die or for cas to, and well, cas is our friend, but also, cas is right. he's right to be working with crowley, and honestly he's right to be hiding it, as well. rachel like, loses. and it's sad but it's kind of no one's fault. things were always going to shake out that way because of the nature of cas' position, and of newly freeminded angels. but rachel is wrong and she pays the price. and that's the tragedy. not that cas betrayed her, but that he defended himself and killed her.

whereas the winchesters kinda uh. they win. they succeed. in the end, cas is the one apologizing to them. he's the one making it up to them. the narrative frames them as right at every turn. and they're allowed to do a lot more damage to cas than rachel is. like, the biggest damage cas experiencing from that is, well, the grief of her death, and the realization that the people around him will betray him if he's honest with them. the winchesters are actively cruel to him and fuck with him a lot (including threatening and trying to kill him).

so if i'm making a story about season six, the way i will frame rachel is as a tragedy. the way i will frame balthazar is as a tragedy. the way i will frame cas killing all the other angels is as a tragedy. but with the winchesters the biggest tragedy is like. how they treat cas lmao. so if i'm making an amv i'm not going to get maudlin over him betraying them because like, he didn't. not in the same way as he did rachel or balthazar, or even the other angels.

and that's kind of how i feel about every time there is a conflict between dean and the other angels over cas' loyalty: i'm more inclined to portray the angels as tragic because they lost.

like, in stairway to heaven, hannah very much does hand cas an angel blade and tell him to kill dean, in a way that's very like... girl ok escalation much? and in fact is very reminiscent of rachel's angel conflict resolution skills. but the thing is, number one, dean started it by bringing in the blade and (hannah believes, because she has no logical reason not to) killing tessa, and number two... dean wins this one. cas very much does abandon his brethren and do what dean wants him to after this. which is the tragedy. and like it was always going to be, because of hannah's angel conflict resolution skills, but she and the other angels are also the loser there. plus like the whole angel conflict resolution skills thing is, in itself, tragic, because it's because they've never had a chance to learn. so if i put stairway to heaven in an amv dean is probably gonna look like the villain even though in canon it's more like, well, both dean and the angels think that being involved with the other is disloyal and they force cas to choose.

or like, for a better example, naomi. naomi (and her ilk, the leaders of heaven) are just objectively much worse than dean. like tfw may be a cult but heaven as it originally stood and also as it becomes while it's falling apart (see: season eight) is much worse. just in terms of how members of the cult are treated and controlled. but at the same time i do see naomi as kind of a tragic figure because she is keeping order the only way she knows how. again, she loses. dean wins.

so like in amvs, i end up portraying cas choosing dean over the angels as uniformly tragic. but that's not because they're a better choice. rachel and hannah had their hearts in the right place but were just as wrong as dean, and naomi is objectively much worse. the tragedy is that cas is forced to choose at all, or that he's in a situation where he has to lie because no one will understand, or that his relationships are breaking down. but in the end, dean always kinda wins in those scenarios. the other angels always lose. so the sad part is with the other angels.

and like, in fanfiction, i can handle similar topics with grace. there's more room for nuance. but in an amv you have to work with what the show gives you which often isn't much and trust the kuleshov effect to convey your meaning which is a very inexact science. and i don't have a good answer.

[mosraev]

Lyrics through the decade 11/11

I've decided to collect all the songs I've made through the last decade and share my favourite snippets with you guys. The pictures for the backgrounds will (as much as possible) be pictures I've taken the same year as the lyrics were written. The full lyrics may or may not be made official someday.

Part 11; 2023

And so we've reached the last part of this series ending with the songs I've made this year. Granted, there's still four months left of the year so there's still a chance that there'll be more waiting for us down the line which is exciting. Like the last few years I've so far continued the very introspective songwriting strategy this year so hopefully you like it so far.

More info under the line

Stay creative, my fellow foxes 🦊💚

Song 1(pic1); Burden/Monsters

This is a sort of spiritual sequel to Golden last year where I in january just after getting forced on sick leave with a burnout/stress diagnosis I wanted to try to reframe my experience so I'd not feel so bad for 'failing' the system instead see it as the system failing me.

Featured lyric: Gifted child, repeat after me:

You're not a burden.

Song2 (pic2); Off My Chest

This started out as a silly response to käärijä's song Paidaton Riehuja where I talk about wanted to go shirtless as the rapper does yet finding it hard to do given society's view on afab bodies. In the end it turned into an almost sincere little longing song about dreaming about a time after top surgery.

Featured lyric: It's not like I want to look like the Marvel boys or the supermodels.

[I] just want the option of going torso commando.

Honorable mention: See the little green man dancing cha cha in the stands?

I want to join his shirtless riot.

Song 3 (pic3); the Moon Howling at the Wolf.

This song is pretty special given that it was one I never imagined I would write. It was a very spontaneous and organic process where two people met by accident in a sofa and 20 minutes later half a song was made. The title referencing one of the first impro lines I made (yet it didn't made it into the final version). Btw if you want to learn more about the experience you can check this post out.

Featured lyric: The world can be a scary place with an ugly face,

yet I believe if you show me your true colours,

I still wouldn't leave.

Song4 (pic4); the Balloon

This is the newest fininshed song I've made this year - it is just over a month old at this point! It is an open letter to the person I was when still in denial/in the closet where I reassure my past self that while things may be bleak for them at the moment, good things are in store if they dare seek it.

Featured lyric:

((Extended)) It's all okay to not fit in,

I promise there'll be a better tomorrow

if you let the balloon go.

[chesthighwater]

by thé way. wips roundup that absolutely no one asked for

first of all in the daudmartin brainrot corner we've got

sequel to bctbk, as promised. i have a major "plot" point planned, and then it might go one of two directions... we shall see :3c

the high overseer martin/assassin daud fic that i've posted a few excerpts from. essentially daud manifests himself into the abbey suggestively asking for ~spiritual guidance~ (lol) and things escalate from there. this has to get finished at some point because its like one of the first things i started writing for them. it deserve to see the light of day

a mildly humorous high overseer martin/spymaster daud fic. kind of a challenge for myself also- i find spymaster daud hard to imagine, and am not that used to writing daudmartin where they're not constantly trying to one-up/double cross each other/at each other's throats flirtatiously. presumably will not be nsfw (or at least, i'm not planning on it, but i make no promises. can't know where the ol inspiration will take me).

oh heres another high overseer martin thing! who wouldve thought! this time with Responsibility and Abbey Politics and Decisions. and working through issues. so many fucking issues. this one is actually actively in the works so ill leave it at that for now ;>

daudmartin pwp with genuinely 0 plot. like, negative plot. this thing defies plot. i can barely even tell you if it's an au or what, i might sprinkle a few nonsexual sentences in if i'm feeling generous but that's it. other than that it's literally just about martin being very quiet during sex and daud trying every trick he has in his book (which admittedly isn't many) to change that instead of like, communicating

augh speaking of plot-defying pwps. "what if overseers had (some appropriate equivalent to) confessions". there is some lore in here obviously but the entire point of it is confessional dirty talk. i dont KNOW

[REDACTED] pwp which im not even gonna advertise itll just appear one day and if you find it you found it

mostly unplanned ideas that i might flesh out: sokolov portrait thing. some dunwall noir stuff purely for martin in a cassock reasons (and sexualising religious guilt reasons. if i knew anything at all about priests i'd be working on this much faster). something involving the outsider appearing to martin (this might just get absorbed in a more well fleshed out idea at some point). martin Suffering More, because i want him in a situation where his wit fails completely (more desperation! more excuses! i am weak for this i really am.). something involving some more Action- fighting together against an acute threat? i think there should be more fighty martin out there. i am the change i want to see in the world

(not including the various snippets for the eternal serkonan vacation au which i already laid out there)

in the thief crossover brainrot corner (i bet you forgot i allude to thief crossovers in my description!)

also a sokolov portrait thing, but i have it way more planned out. corvo really, really wants garrett to sit in for a portrait (especially now when he's officially the empire's shadiest most mysterious spymaster ever). he reluctantly agrees, but Under One Condition.

a sort of relationship chronicle via heart lines. definitely starts with corvo's diplomatic mission and possibly ends with some happy dh2 era content. obviously i have the heart lines planned out.

possibly something involving more political intrigue/royal drama type stuff? i'm lucky enough to have access to someone who can give me some really good examples/plots if i fail to come up with anything myself.

(this is just a thief thing but i have had a viktoria/lt. mosley thing running around my brain for AGES. i want to explore how their relationship develops so bad. i know they have literally one interaction in canon but they are my blorbinas and i have mentally expanded their backstories so hard the story is basically begging to be written at this point)

anyway if you read this unreasonably unnecessarily long post i love you. i am sending you a kiss. wanna get married

[fioreofthemarch]

pin it, jack

Hello there, my name is Rachael. I write Legend of Zelda fanfiction, and have a loving fixation on the lore, people, and geography of Hyrule. I’m a realism nerd, and often start my writing by opening up a map.

You can find me on:

Archive of Our Own

Twitter

Masterlist of my works below:

Longfics and multi-chapters

From the Ground Up - Love, War and Robots. Link and Zelda embark on a Hyrule-wide odyssey to rebuild their kingdom and their relationship, but sinister forces, painful memories and political machinations hide around every corner. Post-BOTW, Zelink. From the Ground Up Artwork Masterpost is here.

The Ballad’s Beginning - A spiritual sequel to FTGU, and a prequel to BOTW telling the story of the reign of King Rhoam. The Prince who never wanted to be King, now finds Hyrule’s whole fate rests on the decisions he makes. 

The Rise and Fall of the Yiga - A story of the birth and re-birth of the Yiga Clan. Overwintering in Akkala Citadel, the new Master of the Yiga reckons with preserving her people’s culture and finding a place for them in the new world. 

Where the World Ends -  Setting out to explore the Lomei Labyrinths, Link and Zelda uncover clues that point towards their original purpose and the great secret that they contain.

On The Life of Queen and Consort - a lifelong friend and advisor of Queen Zelda tells the story of her reign 

Hateno Housemates - a year in the life of Link and Zelda as they settle down together in Link’s Hateno house. 

All that was tangled came undone - BOTW/Kimi No Na Wa (Your Name) crossover. Knight-in-Training Link and Temple Acolyte Zelda find their paths intertwined by an inexplicable phenomenon: they have begun to trade places.

Oneshots

have and hold - Maybe it’s just fun by the fire, but Link wants it to be more, and each time Zelda leaves him all the same. Mature. 

Oasis abandon - Link and Zelda attend a wedding in the Southern Oasis and learn to live a little 

A Traveller’s Guide to Hyrule Reborn - twins Mina and Mills Copperblade set out to document the changes to Hyrule in the first twenty years of Zelda’s reign 

Various tumblr oneshots - some are requests, some not, all BOTW 

[kinogane]

Fu, Xenoverse, and Canon Divergence as Fandom Exercise, Part 1: Xenoverse 1 and 2

Or, “I Played Through Legend Patrol and My Only Takeaway Was About a Xenoverse Sequel I Have Until Now Devoted Zero Thought To, Part 1: Why is Xenoverse 2 Like This™”.

A bit under two years after the first Xenoverse game, Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 was released in fall of 2016. The most recent piece of DLC as of this post, starring characters and content voted in by fans, released July 7, 2022, nearly six years after launch.

Somehow, a Dragon Ball sequel game that by all accounts was poised to be the spiritual successor to the Budokai Tenkaichi games, and the release schedule that implies, has post-launch support more akin to a live service game. Considerably more sporadic support, granted, but support nonetheless. Which from the outside (and even from the inside) can seem utterly baffling. Why this game? Why not the first? Why not a 3?

The only thing I feel reasonably safe asserting is that it's because the people in charge saw intermittent DLC as more profitable than a whole new game, which in turn implies a large enough playerbase to purchase said DLC. As for why there is a large enough playerbase, there's a part of me that would like to think it's in no small part to a surprisingly robust and healthy modding scene on the PC, but a more likely reason is the simple fact that it fulfills a shockingly underserved niche of Dragon Ball character creation. The launch of the fastest-selling video game system in the Nintendo Switch just a few months later, paired with a Switch port within a year of launch, may have also played a part as well.

The Switch port in particular is interesting, not just in terms of implications it may have had on playerbase numbers, but also as the single platform where Xenoverse 1 is not available. While the story is by far one of the least important aspects of Xenoverse 2, it is still ostensibly a direct sequel to a game that Switch-only players do not have access to.

The developers' solution was to release a bespoke Legend Patrol DLC that included Xenoverse 1 base and DLC story content, two years after launch, which itself was just released to other platforms three years after that, which is roughly around the time of this post.

As someone who jumped straight into Xenoverse 2, I'd caught a fair amount of Xenoverse 1's story beforehand from watching playthroughs and... didn't think much of it. So when I saw people talk it up, in no uncertain terms, as better than Xenoverse 2's story, I was a bit intrigued. Xenoverse 2's story was very much nothing to write home about, and I remembered close to none of it, but what I remembered seeing of 1's didn't seem that much better, either? I don't know. I did watch an edited playthrough, maybe I'd have a different opinion after playing it myself.

And now, having gone through the Legend Patrol and rewatched Xenoverse 2′s story content, I'm... still not of the opinion that Xenoverse 1's story is better in a noteworthy way. I guess it might be marginally better in terms of escalation? I recognize that my view of it is probably compromised by playing through 2's story myself first, but really the only lingering thought I had after it concluded was that they were really transparent about setting up Towa and Mira as the next major antagonists.

(It also has a scene where all the characters laugh and the camera pans up. Two of them, in fact. Which is... a choice.)

To (briefly) recap Xenoverse 1: the initial changes in time your character is sent to fix are the result of interference and energy harvesting by Demon Realm duo Towa and Mira. When one of their plans proves too much to fix, Demon God Demigra interferes and helps you out of the jam; not long afterward, you defeat Mira and send Towa packing, at which point Demigra quickly takes over as the primary antagonist and time criminal. After defeating Demigra, in a brief ending scene, Towa is seen retrieving a surviving portion of Mira, promising that they will have their revenge.

As I said, really transparent.

So, come Xenoverse 2, sure enough, it's Towa and Mira who are the major antagonists. You initially get into scuffles with some movie villains new to 2, but it doesn't take long before the duo assert themselves as the big bads. I won't recap Xenoverse 2, but what I will say is that unlike 1, which very deliberately left the loose end of Towa and Mira hanging, 2... doesn't really have a comparable cliffhanger. Towa and Mira are gone, everyone has a big ol' feast courtesy of Shenron, caterer supreme, to celebrate the birth of a new... timeline? Universe?... and that's it. Credits roll.

(They all laugh twice in 2, as well, but hey! The first time it zooms out, and the second time it pans to the left! Groundbreaking!)

Now, I know vanishingly little about video game development and release schedules, let alone the schedules for the Xenoverse games in particular, so this is largely speculation. But given the turnaround between Xenoverse 1 and 2, it seems likely to me that at least partially through Xenoverse 1's development, if not right from the get-go, they knew a 2 was going to happen, and wrote in an obvious lead-in to 2 as appropriate. And you would think that if a Xenoverse 3 was in the books, then they'd probably do something similar to set it up in 2, but they... didn't? What's up with that?

There is one fairly obvious answer, but before I address that, there actually are some loose ends in base Xenoverse 2, both in the form of post-credits content. In the first Xenoverse game, there is post-credits storyline that ostensibly involves cleaning up after Demigra's demise, but is rather transparently a post-hoc justification to work in fan favorites Bardock and Broly into a game that otherwise does not acknowledge any movie not called Battle of Gods.

Xenoverse 2, meanwhile, uses its two post-credits story missions to pose some questions. The first mission fills in the gap of what happened with Mira and Bardock before Towa retrieves Mira and reveals that Bardock just... vanished.

Interestingly enough, you get the option to speculate that Bardock either disappeared or is fighting elsewhere, which I suppose sets up some intrigue as to what might happen if he resurfaces, I guess?

The second mission shows a deviation in Future Trunks's (that is, your Trunks's) timeline. Whereas in the main story, you stop Trunks from tagging along with Future Gohan and Trunks accepts letting Gohan die, in this timeline Trunks knowingly violates the rules he, you know, upholds as part of his job, and joins Gohan to fight the androids, eventually defeating them, saving his mentor's life, and discussing the prospect of preparing for the future threats.

Notably, you do not step in to correct things; you (the player) control Gohan and play out the distortion, and while your superiors, the Supreme Kai of Time and Elder Kai, remark that this really shouldn't stand, the Supreme Kai of Time merely asks you whether or not you think the timeline should be fixed or not, then... says she'll make an unspecified final decision? And that's it?

This has proven to be controversial (or at least, as controversial as anything involving the story of Xenoverse 2 can be). The implications are a bit staggering. While it's never confirmed if the Supreme Kai of Time ended up correcting that distortion or not, just the mere fact that she was canvassing your opinion on it and seemed to entertain the possibility of letting it slide sure makes it seem like the person in charge of keeping the the flow of time consistent is willing to overlook a major deviation or two in the interest of... throwing her employee a bone? Throwing a version of her employee a bone?

All in all, a weird choice and execution for what is the last bit of story content in Xenoverse 2. But it does confirm the extent to which Trunks and, to a lesser degree, the Supreme Kai of Time herself is amenable to changing history for the better. (Which now that I type that out is entirely nothing new with the former but, you know, ehhhh.) Which combined with the observation that this mission is the one notable instance in all of Xenoverse 1 and 2 that a distortion works toward the heroes' benefit, raises a big question: if correcting a timeline necessitates disadvantaging the good guys, would that be enforced? Should it, even?

Something to keep in mind, maybe.

(to be continued)

[frankbedbroken]

frankcore april 2024 update!!

monthly playlist, monthly post, sorry i'm too twitterpilled and i tend to be stingy with reblogs here idk. anyhow, this month's update is even more guitar music heavy than the last one, and i can't say i'm very happy about it!!!!! (/lh /hj i'm just mad because i spent years shitting on rock while simultaneously listening to rock and other adjacent genres and now people can call me out for it) it also doesn't help that this is my messiest month in terms of structure of the playlist and track selection, though there are some patterns in here.

for one, there's a fair bit of indie pop, specifically twee pop for the most part but with a few outliers such as hazards by great area, (which is more in line with the whole hypnagogic pop sound of artists like dean blunt and lolina (fka inga copeland), latter of which owns the label that song was released on, but also with some trip hop influences) and follow the light by broadcast (more ambient pop-esque than some of their other tracks i've heard, bit more hypnotic both in atmosphere and theme, i would say). of course, you've got heavenly, one of the most important acts related to the twee sound, then there's the softies that (as far as i can tell, i'm not actually super knowledgeable in the genre still lol) go in a more subdued direction with not as much punk influences as other acts like the aforementioned heavenly or another sunny day, and last but not least, my irl friends' band: cosas raras pasarán! it's been around a year and a half or so of going to every gig they've done so far, seeing them evolving and honing their craft as time has gone on, and i couldn't be happier to see them finally releasing at least a bit of what they've done so far to the public at large, it warms my heart and i'm very excited for whatever comes in the future <3 this last point leads me to the next subset of tracks i'd like to single out: there's a bit more music from my country as well this time around! firstly, sandwiched in between the twee pop tracks at the start of the playlist (this sorting-by-bpm approach is not working as well as i would like, turns out), ¿quién me defenderá de tu belleza? by amigovio, solo project from the former lead singer of indie pop group carmen sandiego, where it's mainly taking cues from synthpop and adjacent sounds, reminding me a bit of the approach javiera mena had towards pop and indie intersections during the esquemas juveniles era (very much a positive). and secondly, kira1312 and guitarbaby's fastcar, a very solid pop rap / r&b crossover with production that feels very in line with a lot of the edm trap sounds around the mid-2010s, think artists like sam gellaitry or monte booker, which is something that feels very unique and singular in the scene, it's a style that's definitely guitarbaby's own and it makes me interested in whatever she's dropping in the future. as for the pop and r&b side, occupying a large chunk on the list also: a folky and classical influenced art pop / singer-songwriter offering from clarissa connelly (the whole album is pretty damn good, but the opening track here is straight up stunning); delightful k-pop and city pop crossover from loona's spiritual subunit artms (essentially a rework of haseul's plastic candy from last year, which was one of my favourite tracks from that year, but a very welcome flip still); the lead single off of tinashe's upcoming project, a sequel to last year's excellent bb//ang3l, and heading in the direction of the club-ready trap knocks of needs from that album; submerged house and r&b from dawn richard with impossibly memorable vocal snippets (that "do you love me... anymore..." vocal got stuck in my head for the whole month after it came up on shuffle) and atmospheric production; a taste of ms. xcx's upcoming album and a very obvious addition to this month's list, i mean, come on, it's charli AND gesaffelstein on production, of course i'm going to love it; the comeback of the ever mysterious and ellusive r&b vocalist clara la san, once again delivering on her particular blend of cloudy, ambient-like production and wispy yet alluring vocals; a very solid blend of modern 2-step production with synthwork and melodies that draw inspiration from 80s sophisti-pop and contemporary r&b from bautibit; and finally a crossover of pop, footwork and accelerated funk br from duda beat, genre globetrotter that still manages to bring everything together well for catchy and compelling pop compositions.

over on the electronic side: a woozy collage of r&b idioms, dubby atmospheres, ragga vocals and broken drum beats, courtesy of the seekersinternational crew (their no parasites ep from last year is almost always in rotation for me, it's just absolutely gripping stuff for me); the comeback of mr. jamie xx, finally rolling out stuff for the release of his upcoming album, featuring an impossibly charming old-school house groove accompanied by some classic horns and vocal chops; psychedelic breakbeat to hope for a better tomorrow while seeing the sunrise to from vegyn and lauren auder; and finally mind-blowingly complex post-everything-club sound design from fitnesss (hopefully a teaser for an upcoming LP? pretty please?) and lag switch as well as little snake.

elsewhere: a couple of tracks from the new british rock / punk scene that nerds on the internet love to talk about, represented by fontaines dc and black midi; my favourite drain gang related track of the month and the competition was pretty tough believe it or not considering all they dropped during the month (it was a tossup between tldr and the track bladee and ecco did with varg2™, ultimately picked the former because it's crazy to hear ecco rap again after a long time); wonderfully jangly yet somber and melancholic midwest emo from germany, courtesy of the short-lived group 125 rue montmartre; and finally, probably the most baffling inclusion on the list, suffocate by knocked loose and poppy, i think this might be the first time i have anything metal related on these lists, but i don't know, this one just really works for me: it's rhythmically super interesting and engaging (the reggaeton breakdown!!!!) and the vocals hit that sweet spot for me where i find the tone of the screams appealing, which is sort of a make-or-break when it comes to this kinda stuff for me.

non-dsp available highlight of the month is 90 down the block by xaviersobased, i'm still yet to hear a full project from his but i can definitely understand the hype behind him, in the way that he incorporates the rhythms of late 2000s rap into more modern plugg and cloud rap production, all wrapped together into a dizzyingly loose and carefree sound that's incredibly interesting

tube it!!!

[sunkendiaries]

Blog Post #3

"Pressure”(Ezra Clayton Daniels) "The Most Strongest Obeah Woman of the World"(Nalo Hopkinson), Ouanga/Love Wanga (1936) Candyman (dir. Bernard Rose) Candyman (dir. Nia DaCosta)

I lived in Chicago from 2010 to 2022, during that time I received my undergraduate and began a true deep dive into horror. I had dabbled a little while as a teenager watching what I could find at the time on cable network television primarily Wes Craven, John Carpenter, and Stephen King but not till college …studying photography…taking a Porn and Censorship course … did I watch French Extremist Horror for class and finally think I was brave enough to dig through my schools extensive DVD collection for all the horror I could find.

I found the original Candyman my Junior year, I was still living in the dorms then off State St in the center of the Loop in Chicago. I accidentally had a streak of watching films I didn’t know took place in Chi … I had watched The Relic and then Child’s Play (for the first as an adult) and was shocked to realize both films had been shot just only a few block away from where I was living at the time. That hardly compared to the genuine fear I had watching Candyman and seeing that the architecture of the dorms mimicked that of Cabrini Green and Helen’s Apartment complex - down to the restrooms and the mirrored cabinets that could easily allow access to neighboring dorm rooms.  CHILLS. I had learned a lot about Cabrini through the mandatory Chicago history reading pushed out to all freshmen but hadn’t heard about the movie. 

For me the first film from a white perspective gets the tone right … for the most part, a lot of my rich white and sheltered peers at school looked at Chicago as a predominantly black and brown city and stepped outside either in fear or sought to analyze Chicago as an anthropological research site. So though it may not have been purposeful Bernard Rose paints an experience I lived through like Bernadette working through financial and racist bias within academia while next to white peers who believe they are making groundbreaking work still seated within their white guilt, privilege, and bigotry. Candyman has always been about art, writing, and the historical discourse of redlining, gentrification, hate crimes, and the consumption of the black body and black trauma for white audiences. I once had a screening (24-hour Horror movie marathon) themed around The Lips, The Teeth, The Tip of the Tongue. Link It was split across three days Taste, Chew, Shallow - the last day Swallow I pair Candyman with Ganga and Hess and it opens up a dialogue connecting the two films around martyrdom, transformation, and the use of spiritual transcends.

Nia DaCosta’s spiritual sequel is hands down one of my favorite films. Prior to/during filming I was working at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, had curator friends who lived in the Marina Towers, and had become friends/acquaintances with featured artists in the film. It was so eerie to see my world once again reflected at but now with more knowledge about myself and the world. It was and still is dizzying and nauseating to watch I have rarly experience watching cinema. While also being so powerful narratively, metaphysical, and thematically. Not to mention it boosting the careers of real-life young black artists and cementing their work within the history of Black art and Cinema.

The mirroring structure, the callbacks, the new black perspective on Cabrini, The black female lead, the equality and diversity of the cast (specifically having queer actors play queer roles), the READING of the art world, and the pigeon-holding of black creatives - all brilliant, considered, and still truly terrifying. 

Lastly linking the two films to Pressure also opens up a lot of the same points and I kind of imagine that within his pressured familial environment may reflect some of the same insecurities and concerns Anthony may have that lead to a different type of internal dismantling and enviable combustion. 

[sounmashnews]

[ad_1] Rahul Dev has been roped in for the much-anticipated 1920 sequel which is being helmed by none apart from Vikram Bhatt’s daughter Krishna Bhatt. In an unique interview with ETimes, Rahul spilled some beans on the movie. “It is a father-daughter story and I play the role of the father in the film. It's a pivotal part of the project and lends depth to the complexity of the narrative. My character is an upright, honest cop with a sense of vulnerability when it comes to his daughter.” Vikram Bhatt has been one of the best in Bollywood in terms of horror movies. Has Krishna Bhatt taken from her father on this regard? “That he is but Vikram Bhatt has also made a comedy called 'Awara Pagal Deewana' which was in fact my second film and films like 'Ghulam' and 'Aitbaar'. As far as Krishna is concerned, I feel she's a chip of the old block, yet retains her own style, which is bound to mature and develop more with experience. As a director she's very giving and gives her actors space to perform”, the actor averred. Horror as a style stays below explored in Bollywood. Sharing his ideas on the identical, he added, “I feel that we are experimenting much more today. Filmmakers are taking risks and have the courage to narrate newer stories. Today, directors and production houses are more forthcoming in breaking norms. Even the audiences are changing and have become more open in their choices. Globally, the exploration has been larger as their audiences are larger. Narratives are not necessarily linear. They have been ahead of us in terms of cinema budgets etc. Conventional norms have been broken in their films.” When requested if he has ever skilled paranormal actions, Rahul said, “The very fact that science has no explanation for all that has been spotted in space is evidence enough. Personally, for me, a feeling of spookiness might have been there post watching a scary movie or reading something on those lines in the middle of the night but I have had no tangible experience. With an assurance I can safely say that science is limited. For instance, I can't logically explain what spiritual masters of the very recent past and current times have done for the betterment of mankind.” Ask the actor to call the scariest film he has watched to this point and he replies, “’Shining' by director Stanley Kubrick is what comes to my mind. It has a top class performance by Jack Nicholson and during the course of filming is where the steady cam first came into inception.” [ad_2] Source link

[iam93percentstardust]

Promises Not Meant to be Broken Sequel 😍😍

ooh fun fic! i don't know if i'd ever write an actual sequel to promises but i've got a sort of spiritual successor that's been percolating in my mind for years for a sort-of-but-not-really-fix-it for the five years post-infinity war where the team actually works together to rebuild the world (and also where the time travel is never possible but that's beside the point and also sad)

Anonymously tell me which of my fics/one shots you wish I would write a sequel to