#and then seeing some of the reactions from their studio directors is just :/ :(

[colourstreakgryffin]

Hallo again! I am the one who asked about Val, it wasn't a request I was asking if you write for him so here we go!

Could it please be where reader is Valentino's son ( or just child if you don't write for male reader ) and Valentino can't find someone to trust-worthy to babysit his son so he just take him to work since reader is non-verbal anyway and won't be much of a bother?

So reader now comes regularly with him and see the other Vees as family. Perhaps Vox as another dad/uncle and Velvette as a big sister ( or any family role for them ).

Thank you for giving a look to my request!

Ooh! Right! Okay, okay. I can try this out. To be honest, Val is a monster but something tells me he wouldn’t be THAT bad with a kid of his own and yes, I do write male readers. Female, male, transgender, genderfluid(if that’s possible, idk how but I would do it anyway), nonbinary/GN! But anyways. Let’s try Val out as a dad!

Valentino- Silkworm Caterpillar

Everybody who knows the director of the Pentagram City’s Porn Industry, Valentino, is aware how much of a bastard he is; cruel, abusive, exploitative but nobody had ever suspected that he would actually one: have a son and two: treat that son better than he’s ever treated anybody, even his on-and-off boyfriend, Vox

Your dad’s an insufferable man-child but yet, he is actually pretty good with you. He doesn’t really like much things, other than you. He is awful but he feels kinda soft and fluffy whilst he is around you. You’re basically his soft spot

Valentino needs hugs and he will get them, no matter what may step in his path. You are non-verbal and mute so he cannot communicate with you properly, he just acts on his affections for you since he believes it’s fine

Valentino is that type of wingman-father. He always encourages you to get out of your comfort zone and boosts you up to look even better. He’s a close friend to you and you can hang out with him in casual settings where it almost seems like he is just your uncle, not your father

Valentino always offers to get you what you want, he is a father that spoils his seed rotten. Want a drink? He’ll get it. Want a phone? He’ll get it. Want more hugs? You’re getting them rather you want ‘em or not. He likes it when you smile and he does very much have favouritism towards you, where he almost never raises his voice to you

Valentino is actually protective, believe it or not and he is defensive over his son. Rather said son be above ten years old, he doesn’t trust a single being in Hell. Not anybody in Vees, not any under their luck bum he picks up for hire, not any one of his assistants. Nobody. He doesn’t ever want to leave you with somebody who can cause a threat

Valentino doesn’t really want to resort to this but after some more time. He decides to stop leaving you in the Vees Tower. You’re alone and you need him so he begins to bring you to his porn studios but what he does is that he glues you to other devices so you don’t have to be uncomfortable with watching pornography

Valentino is relatively soft and gentle. Even somebody as deranged and sick as him has a moment of love and affection and it’s in his son. He could be the most pissed off and at his absolute worse but when he is greeted by his offspring, he swallows back everything to be doting to you

Valentino calls you his silkworm because you’re a little caterpillar to him. He’s the moth, you’re his caterpillar and he’d pop you on his back and spread his wings for you if he had to. He enjoys your reaction of surprise and awe at his rather beautiful moth wings. He can understand where it comes from, it’s incredible. Isn’t it? He likes it when you’re proud of him or in awe of him

Valentino is aware of your deafness. You’ve been deaf since he had you… back in human life. Believe it or not, but he did and he actually cared to get you hearing aids but after you two died, he lost a hold of hearing aids and he has literally no other methods to help you

Valentino also much prefers you like the Vees themselves and the effort proves worth it since you end up viewing his on-and-off boyfriend, Vox as a stepfather and Velvette, their close friend, as a surrogate big sister. Valentino finds your point of views on his fellow rulers rather adorable and will playfully tease you about them

Valentino is learning sign language, since now of this time, sign language has been fully developed but he is struggling and his temper makes him go from trying to giving up to trying again. He’ll get there eventually, all for you

Valentino out here doing aggressive sign language and failing a whole lot

[leosxrealm]

003 — ɴᴏᴛ ꜰᴏʀ ʜɪᴍ

★— pairing(s): Max Verstappen x Male! Leclerc! Reader

★— warning(s): none!! possible grammar mistakes, hints of angst

★— (a/n): idk a lot about modeling either so i just made up what i think would happen there. we're finally building up the plot (barely started), not proofread!

★— character information | series masterlist

19-22

September 3, 2019

"Tilt your head to the right... just a bit... yeah, just like that." You did as you were told. You hear the sound of the camera and the lights flashing. The photographer takes another quick shot.

The director goes to check the pictures that were taken recently. The photographer gives you a quick nod, a little something he does to indicate he liked the pictures.

"Okay everyone!" the director claps his hands to get everyone's attention, "15-minute break, and then we do the last shoot for the day!"

There was a chorus of sighs of relief from everyone around you. It looks like everyone else couldn't wait to leave the studio either.

You return to the changing rooms along with a few of your coworkers. You had gotten to know some of them over the past few months and could now confidently call them your friends.

You pick up your phone from your makeup station. Opening it, you see a couple of texts from your friends and brothers. Clicking open your brother's contact, you answer his recent messages.

"Tell him to come up," another model who you've befriended said, looking over your shoulder. "Is that even allowed?" you ask. He had been in the industry for far longer than you; he was sort of like an upperclassman to you.

"Friends and families come to shoots all the time," he said emphasizing the word 'all', "Usually you have to get permission and stuff but it's the end of the shoot. Nobody has enough energy to care." 

"Oh."

He pats you on the shoulder, getting up from the chair beside yours, "You will have to go downstairs to get them. The security won't let them through." "Thanks, mate," you call after him, he throws a lazy smile your way, disappearing into one of the changing stalls.

"Uh...you guys can sit on the couches over there," you say pointing to the couches near the makeup stations, "and we have snacks over there," you say pointing to the opposite side of the couches, "and right next to that, we have refrigerators. Help yourself with the drinks."

You show your brother around for a bit before settling on the makeup station with your name on it. Your makeup artist gets to work immediately, getting you ready for the last shoot, when you hear your name being called. You let out an exhale, mentally preparing yourself for the last of the shoot.

---

"Damnnnn... you're actually good at something," Arthur says, chuckling at his own little joke. "At least I look natural," you retort back, earning a punch on the arm from your twin. 

"I look natural in my photos," he says back defensively, looking at Charles for some kind of reaffirmation. Charles turns his head, deciding not to comment on his younger brother's awkward poses for photoshoots. You snicker at your older brother's reaction, earning a smack on the back of your head from your twin. 

"Okay... Are you two hungry? What do you want to eat?" Charles finally intervenes, before you two decide to start a full-on brawl. "Man...," you whine out, "I'm starving." 

"Me too," Arthur adds with a scowl. "We couldn't even get food because someone," he gives you a stink eye, "can't even finish up by the time they said they would."

You roll your eyes at him, ready to retort back when Charles' car comes into view. "I call shotgun!" you say, running towards the car. "Bitch-" Arthur runs to catch up, leaving Charles behind. Charles shakes his head, long given up on you two. Freaking kids, he thinks.

You look in the rearview mirror, at Arthur's scowling face. He scoffs looking out the window, still pissy about having to sit in the back. You laugh at him (again), resulting in him kicking your seat. Charles finally decides to cut in before the two of you destroy his baby. 

Charles mentally celebrates when the restaurant comes into view. At least he won't have to worry about his baby getting destroyed for another hour or two. He sighs once again, pushing the both of you inside. Freaking kids, he thinks (once again).

"Oh yeah, what happened to that girl you were dating?" Arthur asks just as you were about to bite into your food. 

---

18-21

You raised your hand, ready to press the doorbell, before lowering it back again. Taking a deep breath, you ring the doorbell. You cleared your throat while waiting for the door to open. Hearing the door open, you look up.

Max sucks in a deep breath, not expecting to come face-to-face with you. Is that a suit you're wearing? Are those flowers in your hands? "Wha-what are you doing here?" He questions you, suddenly remembering how to speak.

"Oh... Um... I'm here for-" you begin to say before stopping abruptly. You look up suddenly, and Max thinks it's to look at him, but instead, you look behind him. The corners of your lips lift up into a soft smile.

(a/n): i'm sorry the title is so lame😭 anyway any guesses what's happening?

ᴛᴀɢʟɪꜱᴛ (ᴏᴘᴇɴ): @miloformula123fan @its-ares @fangirl-dot-com @wolf-knights @zyonsay @1obsessedwithfictionalmen7 @fevndue @erinpiastri @woozarts @sebastianstansblog @badblondebisexualboy @lovecarsgoingvroom @kurating @saintraikkonen @v3lnys

[feelbokkie]

BF!SKZ reacting to idol!reader fainting on stage (maknae line)

☀️Feelbokkie M.list☀️

Hyung Line

**Requested**

Bf SKZ reaction to idol reader fainting on stage from malnourishment?? It can be a text reaction or anything that’s easy for you. Angsty and fluffy if u want. Thank you! 💖

genre: angst, a bit of fluff

pov: 2nd person

description: BF!SKZ's reaction to idol!reader fainting on stage from malnourishment (not proofread)

pairing: maknae line bf!skz x fem!idol!reader

warnings: swearing, mention of food, referring to an eating disorder, mention of throwing up

word count: listed below (3,862 total)

©feelbokkie (2023) — all rights reserved. reposting/modification of any kind is not tolerated.

한 지 성 (Han Ji-Sung) (1,072 words)

You were excited when you found out that you would be able to perform a song with your boyfriend Jisung during the KBS End of Year song festival. You were practically bouncing off the wall during every meeting. Your relationship was private. You were allowed to go public with your relationship, but you both opted to just stay quiet about it for now. Which didn't give you a lot of opportunities to be near each other during events. If you were going to go public with your relationship, you wanted it to be on your terms not because of a scandal or rumor.

Everything was going well with the performance until it came time choreograph the song. To avoid conflict between your groups, an outside choreographer was brought in. Because of the song that was chosen, one that you and Jisung pushed for, it was decided to have everyone do a partner dance. Everything was going well until you were partnered with Changbin. It would have been fine until you realized that your younger, thinner group member was paired with Jisung. At first, you thought you were over thinking things. But then you overheard the choreographer and the director talking about how you and Jisung didn't go together visually.

Your weight has always been one of your biggest insecurities. You only became more confident when you became an idol. You and and Jisung had been talking recently about going public with your relationship. If two big names in the industry were comfortable to talk shit behind your back knowing that you were somewhere around, what were fans going to say? You didn't expect their comments to affect you as much as they did. Comments about your weight or appearance never really got to you. Sure, they hurt but they never did any real damage. At least, not immediately. But for some reason, the comments lead to you crash dieting and working out harder and running the dance.

***

Jisung kept his eyes on you during the performance after watching you stumble through simple moves. He knew something was wrong. You had become more irritable over the past few days. He made a joke to you about being on your period and you nearly bit his head off. He assumed that you were stressed about the show and decided to leave you alone for now until you calmed down enough. But then he noticed something weird earlier.

At the start of the show, the studio provided meals for everyone, being sure to get everyone their favorites. Both your groups ate together since your performance was one of the first up. He thought it was strange you weren't eating along with everyone else. He watched as you actively engaged in conversation with everyone, waving your chopsticks around with a bit of food to look like you were eating while talking. He noticed how you would often take that piece of food, put it back in your bowl, and grab another one. He thought he was seeing things until it was time for you guys to head on stage and he watched you throw your bowl away, upside down, and leave the room.

He didn't realized it wasn't a one time thing until he watched your body sway and eventually collapse. He was quick to jump to your side and catch you. Everyone else on stage watched what happened and mimicked you fainting so it would look like it was part of the routine. Luckily for all of you, the song was finished and the boys helped Jisung lead your now waking body backstage. You were still out of it, barely able to move your own limbs and the added blackness on the stage made it difficult for Jisung to help you off on his own.

"Can someone get me a juice or something?" Jisung says to nobody in particular. He wasn't the brightest person all the time, but when it came to you, he was a genius. He figured that you haven't been eating for a while by the way you've been acting all week and when you guys were supposed to be eating.

"I'm fine, Ji." You mumble out as he and Changbin help you sit down.

"Okay, but a little juice wouldn't hurt." Jisung was being uncharacteristically calm for someone who has social anxiety. With the amount of people crowding around the two of you backstage, added with the trauma of watching your eyes roll to the back of your head as you fainted, anyone would be certain that he would be having a panic attack right now. Chan tried to clear the crowd a bit to avoid that from happening, staying near the two of you in case Jisung's anxiety caught up with his brain.

"Is it sugar free?"

"Absolutely," Jisung shoved the bottle in your mouth before you could question him further. He felt bad lying to you. He knew that you would probably spiral later when you found out, but you needed something in your system. And lying about the juice being sugar free was easier than trying to wrestle food in your mouth like Chihiro forcing Haku to eat part of the emetic dumpling.

"It tastes like it has sugar." You say after you have a sip.

"Don't you know that things taste sweeter when you're dehydrated? Here have some more." It shocked Jisung how easily lying came to him, but under the circumstances, it was fine.

"Okay, whatever you say, Sungie." You clearly were not okay yet with how easily you were going along with what Jisung was saying. Normally there would be a little push back, a sign that your lack of food and overall exhaustion were getting to you.

"And a little snack?"

"I can't eat right now, I still have another performance to get through."

"That's not until towards the end of the show. And you just finished a performance. You did so good I think you deserve a reward." Jising grabbed two buns from Minho who must have gotten them from the craft services and brought them when he realized what was going on.

"I don't know,"

"Hey, I performed too! I deserve a reward. I'll have one with you, okay?"

"I guess," You hesitantly take the bun from Jisung, taking a small bit. He smiles softly at you.

"And after we're done working, we can head back to my dorm and just chat."

이 용 복 (Lee Felix Yong-Bok) (898 words)

I should have noticed sooner. Felix blames himself for you fainting during your music bank performance. On some level, he knew you were starving yourself. He knew you had issues with food and your body. He's helped you get over it before, but it's never been this bad. Normally, he would catch you falling into old pattern and helped you stop it before it escalated. He knows all of your tricks. He knows to watch your plate if you're being extra talkative while you're eating. He knows that sometimes you need to sit someone and eat with them. He knows that if he's giving you something to eat that he has to either take off the nutrition facts or take away your phone so you can't look it up. He knows that if you ever make him food, he has to make you eat some of it too. He knows that if you're feeling anxious, depressed, or having trouble concentrating that something is wrong. But for whatever reason, you fell through the cracks this time.

He didn't notice your smaller portions. Or how much time you were spending at the gym or in the practice room. Or how you spent all that time working out or dancing because you looked up the nutrition facts of something you ate well after he was gone. He didn't notice how you were cold all the time, he assumed it was the weather. He also assumed that your frequent headaches were due to stress from working on a new comeback. He didn't know that you were constantly weighing yourself or comparing your body to the bodies of your members constantly. That you had read all the comments that fans had made about you being the "fat" member of the group. That they called you a squirrel or a pig, and not in a cute way that fans did for other idols. He didn't know that some days were so bad that you cut all food out altogether. He didn't know that fans were praising your sudden weight loss. And for that, he blamed himself.

All he knew is that he heard that you had fainted and his brain instantly went to you not eating. He got permission from Minho to leave dance practice early and went straight to where you were.

***

By the time Felix made it to the hospital, you were awake and sitting up, staring at a cup of jello that was given to you. The nutrition facts were missing and your phone was confiscated by your manager. Some of your color had returned thanks to the iv that was currently pumping nutrients through your thin veins.

"Y/N?" Felix asks slowly. It was almost like you were in a trance that was only broken by your boyfriend's voice.

"Lix? What are you doing here?" You were genuinely confused. The lack of food in your body and hitting your head earlier caused some cloudiness in your head.

"I was worried so I came to check on you. You fell hard." Looking at you, really looking at you, he could see for the first time how much weight you had lost. A couple of more weeks of this and you would have been nothing by done. How did I not notice before?

"I'm fine, just tired." You offer him a small smile. He walks deeper into the room, finally making his way to you.

“Yeah?” He doesn’t want to get too close. He doesn’t want you to see that he’s been crying. Because it’s his fault you’re here in the first place. If only he’d notice sooner.

“Yeah,” you shift in the bed, making space for Felix, “I bet they’re having a field day online.”

“Don’t think about that right now.” Felix knew how bad it was online. Some fans were genuinely concerned about your rapid weight loss and now your collapse. Some made memes. Others were being absolutely vile about it. The thought of it alone made his blood boil. How could anyone say those things about you? How could they say them and still call themselves fans?

“I just wanted to fit in with my group…” You whisper so quietly, Felix almost misses it at first.

“What do you mean, my love?”

“I’m sick and tired of sticking out like a sore thumb Felix! We did a fan meet up last month and I was going to sneak of on two fans to surprise them. They were were looking for me and do you know what they said? ‘She’s not exactly hard to miss.’ And I know they weren’t talking about my hair color. I just want to look like the rest of my members. I want to be easy to miss." Felix sits next to you on the bed, embracing you tightly so you couldn't see the tears welling in his eyes.

"I know... I know that nothing I say right now is going to make you feel better. But I wish you could see yourself through my eyes. Through the eyes of the people who love you."

"I know. You always tell me how beautiful I am, but I can't see it Lix. Maybe you need glasses or something." You sniffle.

"Even if I had glasses, I would see you as you are. Let's talk about this a little later. What flavor jello did they give you?"

김 승 민 (Kim Seung-Min) (1,126 words)

It's not often that your schedule lines up with your boyfriend Seungmin's. It's even more rare that you would be scheduled to appear on an idol show while he's one of the guest hosts. Your relationship is private, not because your companies don't want you to reveal your relationship, although they do prefer it that way, but because you didn't want to deal with anyone else getting involved. It got to the point where you two would act like you didn't even know each other at events. It was especially hard watching Seungmin trip during the ISAC and having to pretend that you didn't care.

Today was no different, you two knew that you would have to slightly change how you act when you two were in public after this. You two couldn't simply pretend that you didn't even know who the other was, Seungmin was going to be interviewing you for an hour. The stress from having to be professional and keep your relationship a secret was eating away at your nerves ever since you found out. Seungmin seemed unfazed by the ordeal. He was good at keeping his hands to himself and being reserved. You were the one in the relationship who was big on skinship and displays of affection. If someone was going to accidently going to reveal your relationship, it was going to be you. It was easier when could just hide with your members on the other side of an event and avoid bumping into your boyfriend.

You haven't been eating properly because of the stress of accidentally outing your relationship on television. Any time you tried to eat you would think about the variety show and your stomach would get upset, forcing you to throw up the contents of your stomach. It was easier to eat very little or not eat at all. You haven't eaten anything in the past couple of days and it was worrying your members when they watched the makeup artist actually have to add color to you because you were so pale.

"Y/N, you actually wrote and choreographed your group's latest single, is that correct?" Seungmin asks during the interview. You guys had played a few games and answered a few questions, now you were transitioning to the debut performance of your group's newest song. If the stress of trying not to reveal your relationship wasn't enough, you also had to deal with the stress of a song you worked on entirely alone being released in the world.

"Yes I did. It was my first time doing both songwriting and creating choreography, but I am grateful for my group and my leader in believing in me and working with me." You speak into the mic. You tried to avoid making eye contact with Seungmin all morning but you did for this question. You knew that the internet would have a field day and label you as a disrespectful hoobae. At least it would avoid dating rumors.

"Well, I am looking forward to it." You can tell that the smile on Seungmin's face is genuine. He's really proud of you and your work on the song. He knows how much you stressed over it and had to drag you away from working on it to rest more than once.

Feeling hot, you quickly moved into your starting position with your group members. You only had to get through this performance and one more game and you could go eat.

Half way through your performance spots began to cloud your vision. It's a technically difficult dance and you were using more energy than you had left in your body. As you moved to the center for your solo, you collapsed. Your members slightly froze, still dancing while staring at you until the music stopped. It was drilled in all of your heads to keep dancing no matter what happened. Seungmin froze in his spot, not sure if he should race over and check on you or just leave that to the professionals. Before he could make a decision, you were waking up and the medical crew was helping you off stage.

***

You were sitting on the side with the hosts, watching your group members restart the performance, holding an ice pack to your head and drinking an apple juice. It took a few minutes for them to figure out how to adjust for your absence. One of the medical staff members checked your blood sugar and saw that it was dangerously low. It would take too long for you to recover in time to dance, and everyone was on a tight schedule.

Seungmin stood next to you the whole time, hand on your knee. You kept gently pushing it off. There's too many cameras around for him to be comforting you openingly like this. The only people who knew that you two were dating were both of your group members and your staff, he was breaking one of your rules just by sitting next to you. Touching your knee was crossing the line.

He was worried, watching you fall like that was enough to frazzle him. He knew you were stressed and that the idea of performing your new song was getting to you. He just didn't know how much it was getting to you. He thought you were just sick, but when he heard that your sugar was low, and the fact that your face was noticeably thinner, he put two and two together and realized how bad you've been.

When you're members were done dancing, you joined them back on stage. Seungmin still hoovered near you, watching your every move to make sure you don't faint again. You tried your best to avoid him, to avoid a scandal, but he didn't budge.

***

"Min, I'm fine." Seungmin had dragged you to his dorm after the taping and had trapped you in his room, wrapping you in a blanket.

"You haven't been eating and you passed out." He laid down next to you and pulled out his phone, scrolling directly to a food delivery app.

"I don't even have a concussion, just a bump. The doctors cleared me too."

"You still need to eat something. I'll order us food and we'll take a nap."

"You know, we're going to get in trouble for how you were acting on the show today."

"I don't care. You can't expect me to not worry after watching you hit the floor like a sack of flour." Seungmin turns to you and strokes your cheek.

"I was that graceful, huh?" Seungmin wraps his arms around your waist.

"As funny as it sounds, I was really worried. You need to eat, idiot, even if you're stressed."

"I know, I'll work on it."

양 정 인 (Yang Jeong-In) (766 words)

"In-ah... Jeongin, are you okay?" Chan asked the youngest member who was frozen, staring at the screen.

In was not okay. He and the rest of Stray Kids were backstage in one of the green rooms. They just finished performing and they stayed around to watch your group. He was gushing about you to the boys as they watched you perform. It all came full stop when they watched you pass out on stage.

"I'm sure she's okay. I'll go with you to check." Chan pulled Jeongin up and dragged him to the door.

You were not okay. Physically, maybe; you had missed a few meals over the past few weeks. Mentally, definitely not. Last month you were on a competition show with your group and you were eliminated because of a mistake that you had made. None of your group members blamed you, even the fans were on your side, but you knew that it was completely your fault.

You punished yourself by working harder and restricting your diet. today was supposed to be your first performance back after your upsetting elimination. And the stress was eating at you. Your diet became more restricted and you worked even harder to make sure there would be no mistakes this time. You just had to get through one performance and then everything could go back to normal, but unfortunately, your lack of food got in the way and you ruined your performance yet again.

***

"I'm so sorry guys, I tried not to fuck everything up again but--" You cried out from the couch in one of the green rooms.

"Y/N, stop worrying about that right now and let the medics take care of you." You leader reassures you. No matter how much you convinced yourself, none of your member were mad at you for passing out during your performance. In fact they were quite worried and the fact that you were currently sitting backstage crying and profusely apologizing to them instead of taking care of yourself worried them more. Everyone knew how bad you felt about your performance in the competition, but nobody knew how bad it actually was.

Chan knocked on the door and slowly walked in with Innie in tow. Your members, who were all hovering over you, saw that your boyfriend came to check on you and decided to give you space. Jeongin walked right past Chan and went straight to you, engulfing you in a hug. You know your boyfriend isn't big on skinship or public displays of affection so his actions catch you off guard. Chan pulls your leader to the side and talks to her in private.

"Innie, I fucked everything up," You whined into his shoulder as soon as you settled into his hug.

"Shh, no you didn't." Jeongin rubs small circles on your back, trying to calm you down.

"I passed out, mid-performance, on live television. How is that not fucking up?"

"Excuse me? Miss L/N is extremely dehydrated and I'm afraid that crying is only going to put you at risk of fainting again, or worse." One of the medics says sternly. Since you were brought backstage and fully awake, you refused any sort of medical attention. You were still in the mindset that you deserve it as a punishment for a horrible performance.

"I don't want to get better. I don't deserve it, I deserve to die." Everyone in the room froze at your words. It was so out of character for you to be this dramatic. Sure, you've said the same exact thing before as a joke, but given the circumstances, everyone knew you aren't joking this time. Innie pulls you out of the hug and stares at you in the eyes.

"Yah! Y/L Y/N, don't ever say that again! You don't have to punish yourself every time you make a mistake. It's not the end of the world. Not eating isn't going to solve anything." You've never seen In mad like this before. He normally keeps his emotions to himself, especially in a crowded room like this. But your current state and how you were talking scared him.

"But--"

"I don't want to hear it. Not until you let the medical staff take care of you first. Please? For me?" His face softens as he watched you start to cry harder.

"F-fine." You sigh defeated. The medical staff takes their cue and start hooking you up to an iv before you change your mind. Innie holds your free hand as he keeps quietly reassuring you that you didn't do anything wrong.

—

Buy me a coffee?

—

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[fsfghgee]

To everyone who still believe that Bi-Han is evil and will become Noob again, remember that...

He is the only Sub-Zero now. Kuai-Liang, his younger brother, is Scorpion from now on. So, he can't die and become Noob again. Besides, if Bi-Han was so evil like some people claim, Liu Kang wouldn't have made him heir to the title of GrandMaster and keep him by his side even after he let his father die. So, he is not pure evil. He is a neutral character, but one sucker for power. And even his brother says he was corrupted by Shang Tsung when they...

Netherrealm Studios' Narrative Director Answers All of Our Mortal Kombat 1 Lore Questions

We talk to Dominic Cianciolo about reimagining Sub-Zero, Scorpion, and more.

I think one of the more talked about, and not so much controversial, but definitely more talked about changes is the identity of Scorpion and it now being Kuai Liang; Can you talk a little bit about why you decided to make that change?

DC: A couple of reasons. One is we were looking at, okay, how do we refresh this relationship that everybody knows? And how do we amp up the drama between the two characters? And so the notion of Scorpion and Sub-Zero being brothers, which I think go way back in the day, that was somebody, even [co-reactor John Tobias]... it was his ideas early on, it was a way sort of wrapping up the tension. And the sort decision of do we continue with Hanzo and make it a blood brother or an adopted brother or blood brother Kuai Liang? There were opportunities that are presented in having it be Bi-Han and Kuai Liang as Scorpion, and something wouldn't be available to us if it was the same traditional place. We wouldn't be big enough of a change if it was the guy that we knew.

I think something that people have to keep in mind as we're playing through this story is that this reboot is different than the 9 reboot in that the Mortal Kombat 9 reboot was sort of speed run through the story of the first three games. This Mortal Kombat 1 is the jumping off point for a whole new universe. I'm seeing fan reaction to things and that kind of stuff, they're expecting people to sort of complete their arcs in this one story. No, we're just getting started with stuff. So there are going to be people maybe on their way to certain places that people are familiar with, but they're not necessarily going to get there in this point because we're just getting started.

[lokiondisneyplus]

For 30 years, Dan Deleeuw has worked in visual effects, from “The Mask” to “Armageddon” to “Night at the Museum” — but he always had a dream that one day, he might get to direct. That opportunity finally arrived in 2019, when “Avengers: Endgame” directors Joe and Anthony Russo — who’d worked with Deleeuw on VFX for their three previous Marvel Studios productions — hired him to shoot some additional photography for the behemoth production. That gig led to second unit directing jobs on 2021’s “Eternals” and 2023’s “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” and then, finally, to the main directors chair for the second episode of Season 2 of “Loki.”

Deleeuw, who oversaw visual effects on Season 1 of the show, presumed that he was hired because of his proficiency handling the action beats of the episode, in which Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and his TVA compatriot Mobius (Owen Wilson) pursue a rogue TVA trooper (Rafael Casal) to 1970s London, and then later reunite with Loki’s variant Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) at a McDonald’s in 1980s Oklahoma. But Deleeuw says that executive producer Kevin Wright told him he was hired as a director because, even when working on visual effects, he “always talks about story.”

Deleeuw also discussed how both he and Ke Huy Quan — who joined the show for Season 2 — were surprised by how Hiddleston approached rehearsing the show, why the production decided to have Sylvie working at McDonald’s — and his reaction to the recent decision by Marvel’s VFX artists to unionize.

Since Sylvie is living in a branched timeline, did you ever discuss having an alternative version of McDonald’s, rather than the actual McDonald’s?

We started saying, OK, she’s gonna settle down on a timeline, what restaurant do we use? At that point, there was a pitch for RoxBurger — you know, the evil corporation in the Marvel Universe, Roxxon. But it didn’t tell a story other than it was like this faux-restaurant. And so McDonald’s came up as a suggestion. And McDonald’s is timeless, in a way — it crosses countries and borders. Everyone started talking about this nostalgic moment they had with McDonald’s. So quickly getting the audience cued into what Sylvie’s feeling — being on the run so long and seeing normal people, and just wanting to have that and leave everything else behind — we’re using McDonald’s to set the audience in a place where they can pick up on that pretty quickly. That’s what kind of sealed the deal on using McDonald’s.

Rafael Casal in Episode 2 of “Loki.” Courtesy of Marvel Studios

What was one of the biggest surprises about the experience of directing this episode?

Something I’ll always try to do on any other show that I direct: It was the openness to collaboration that Kevin Wright had, particularly encouraged by Tom Hiddleston and his experience in the theater. As the scripts were getting closer to being done, we would invite all the directors to come in for their different episodes. All the actors would come in. The writers are there. And we had a week-and-a-half, two weeks where we went through every single script, and just rehearsed them and played with them and made them better. It was just this wonderfully creative moment on the show. Once we got shooting, we had a really good idea of what we wanted to do. Ke [Huy Quan] sat next to me. He saw it all happening, Owen and Tom playing with lines. He leaned over and he’s like, “Is this normal?” I’m like, “It’s normal for them!”

You’ve been working with Marvel for over 10 years now, largely in visual effects. Did you always have an ambition to direct as well?

Yeah. In high school, in college, we did small films — public access, back when there was public access. It was something I always wanted to do. Even from the visual effects standpoint — designing the sequences and doing animatics — telling the story was something I gravitated to. When I got to work with the Russos, they definitely were encouraging of that and gave me the opportunity to shoot additional photography on “Endgame” that led to me doing second unit directing. I just always approach something from a story standpoint. So Kevin Wright saw that I had that kind of brain, and invited me back for Season 2 to direct.

How did he pitch that to you?

Being at Marvel for 10 years, there’s a little bit of a rumor mill going around. So I knew that they had hired Justin and Aaron, and then heard that Kasra [Farahani], the production designer, had gotten an episode. I was like, “Ah, there’s one left!” And then Kevin called me one day and he’s like, “Yeah, so, how’d you like to direct a ‘Loki.'” “Yes!” It was as simple as that.

Last year, several VFX artists who’ve worked on Marvel projects expressed pretty deep frustration with their working conditions, which contributed to the recent decision to vote to unionize. What has your experience been with those issues?

I support everything they’re doing. I’ve been in it for a long time. The number of hours in visual effects have been ingrained in the system for years. From the very beginning, we always had that crunch time. We take a couple months off, and we come back to it again. What you’re seeing now is, the shows are so much bigger, and you’ve got so many shows. A lot of the artists on set, and especially in the visual effects houses, are going from one big show to the next big show to the next big show. 

There has to be something that makes a better work-life balance, for the artists’ sanity and for their families and just their creativity. Otherwise, you’re getting diminishing returns. It’s your crew. You have to take care of them. That is something I think we have to think about and work out.

How did your experience in visual effects have influenced your approach to directing this episode, especially with regard to the VFX?

I can tell a story with something that isn’t there. In the original draft, there was a car chase. It didn’t make a lot of sense why Loki would be in a car chase. We decided we wanted to go a little bit more towards the dark Loki side and move away from a traditional chase. I was imagining one day, “What could Loki do?” and came up with the shadow gags with the horns and things like that. 

Was anything you did that a director who hadn’t worked in visual effects might not know to do?

You already know what it costs in terms of time and difficulty, and when you’re trying to get through your day, what you’re going do to [VFX artists] if you try to shoot without getting the blue screen just right Because I know the consequences, I’ll fight harder for getting it right, so the artists don’t have to deal with it. Getting into post-production, you know how much you can use an effect to help with storytelling, in terms of if you need to change the set a little bit, just to make it make sense for where Loki is. There’s an editor we have at Marvel, Jeff Ford, who’s cut a lot of the films. Jeff is a master. He doesn’t change his cut to fit the footage, he changes the footage to match his cut. I think that’s an insightful way of knowing how to use  some visual effects in post, without getting get too carried away with it. 

[chaos0pikachu]

Did you see the ending of Last Twilight? What did you think of it?

Personally I tuned into LT for 1 episode and it just didn't catch me at all but I'm nosy, so I've been reading the posts that cross my dash. I won't say I know everything but from the reactions of the people who have watched it - it's clear it's not good.

Then I came across a post that was smt like: We don't trust Jojo. We can't trust Aof smt smt. And that got me thinking.

You've said you don't like GMMTV shows, iirc. That they are more a product being sold than a story being told. And that's what I remembered reading the above post.

I also realized the last GMMTV BL to hold my interest was The Eclipse and even that went messy towards the end. Somehow GMMTV continues to make bad shows and continues to keep getting praise for it(until people realize this is a shit show from the get go). Though I am glad that people are recognizing how well made the BLs from other companies are. I think part of it has to do with being palatable. Even at it's worst Only Friends was nowhere near horny enough, like many other BLs, and that was GMMTV's horniest show. Also they put their stuff out on YouTube which makes it accessible to everyone. That ease / lack of barrier to entry means a majority of the fandom, especially new fans would end up at GMMTV. Then there is the fact that these shows just keep getting recommended. If someone made a shows to watch list - some GMMTV show is on there with a warning 'badly done ending'.

That makes me think GMMTV has gotten cocky. They want to pump out as much as they can and suck as much money as they can from the fans. I get running a business but it's detrimental to the company in the long run when none of it's BLs in a whole year managed to stick the landing. Perhaps they just don't care. It reminds me of corruption. Think of it in a metaphorical way. It's a short term solution that creates some money but will create long term problems. (Well I don't think GMMTV will be affected that much. It's just an interesting thought.)

So what are your thoughts?

~ Fork Around

omg is hating gmmtv shows becoming ✨my brand✨ cause that would be so fucking funny

for home players I don't actually "hate" gmmtv or the studios shows I just think fandom, at large, overhypes them to fuck when in reality all the ones I've watched I've found them to be thoroughly mediocre in regards to both narrative and film making.

To answer your first question, no I didn't watch Last Twilight, not out of any moral~~~ reason or whatever the hell, just cause I didn't want to. It didn't look interesting or appealing to me so I didn't bother. I'm picky about what things I watch b/c I'm hella fucking lazy lol am I gonna spend 12+ hours watching a mid show from gmmtv or am I gonna spend that same amount of time watching like, Marry My Husband? The latter, I'm choosing the latter. Hell, I'd rather watch Wing Chun which has less budget than Last Twilight does b/c Michelle Yeoh even at her earliest can act circles - also bonus Donnie Yen as her love interest!! - around any actor at gmmtv.

God people are gonna now think I think all the gmmtv actors can't act, I don't think that, the ones I've seen range from bad, to fine, to good. Calm down I'm not after your faves, and I can only name like four dudes that are signed at gmmtv anyway.

Then I came across a post that was smt like: We don't trust Jojo. We can't trust Aof smt smt. And that got me thinking.

man the folks in fandom who keep deifying directors should like, stop. Y'all are just setting yourselves up for disappointment. It's giving Joss Whedon's fanbase for real. Like Spielberg directed Schindler's List and Ready Player One okay? No one director bats a thousand every round.

Somehow GMMTV continues to make bad shows and continues to keep getting praise for it(until people realize this is a shit show from the get go). [...] I think part of it has to do with being palatable. Even at it's worst Only Friends was nowhere near horny enough, like many other BLs, and that was GMMTV's horniest show. Also they put their stuff out on YouTube which makes it accessible to everyone. That ease / lack of barrier to entry means a majority of the fandom, especially new fans would end up at GMMTV. Then there is the fact that these shows just keep getting recommended. If someone made a shows to watch list - some GMMTV show is on there with a warning 'badly done ending'.

Okay so like, I've had a lot of thoughts about this in general since gmmtv shows do make up a mass majority of The BL Fandom in general.

The way I would break this down is into factors:

Parasocial relationships (between the audience and actors)

Palatable Brand (queerness packaged in a non-threatening and non-challenging way with simple, low stakes stories typically about acceptance, and romance aka squeecore romances)

Accessibility (being available on youtube for free)

Easily consumable (b/c the shows are low stakes and non-challenging they're really easy binge watches, and since gmmtv puts out like 50 of these things a year fans just move on to the next one really quickly. Have y'all noticed that there's like, a general lack of fan works in BL fandom? It's usually just weekly episode meta posts and weekly gifsets but not a ton of fan art and fanfic is made for these shows)

Consuming vs Engaging (a trend I see in general in regards to BL fandom is this seemingly need to watch like as many BL shows as possible even moving on as quickly as possible to the next show instead of sitting with the show and building a community around said show, the only exceptions I've really seen to this is kinnporsche and slightly love in the air & bad buddy)

I'm gonna break these things down further underneath the cut:

Parasocial Relationships

"Parasocial relationships are one-sided relationships, where one person extends emotional energy, interest and time, and the other party, the persona, is completely unaware of the other’s existence. Parasocial relationships are most common with celebrities, organizations (such as sports teams) or television stars." (source)

Gmmtv is really, really good at creating para-social relationships between the audience and their actors. How many people were willing to give Ray the benefit of the doubt and write sad woobie meta after one singular episode of Only Friends simply b/c Khao was playing the char? How many people were rooting for SandRay and TopMew simply b/c they liked FirstKhao and ForceBook?

Not everyone, obviously, but from my observations on tumblr, twitter, reddit, and youtube, a fuckton did this. Even unintentionally, I saw fans do this. Like ignoring Ray calling Sand a whore, or just...everything about the clusterfuck that was Top and Mew's relationship. Double standards were abound in Only Friends fandom when it came to how fandom treated chars like Mew, Ray and even Sand (especially Ray) in comparison to Boston. Not gonna get into that here - wait for the podcast episode to drop y'all - but it's an example.

Branded couples are gmmtv's bread and butter when it comes to their BL. They sell sticker sheets and postcard packets like these actors are kpop idols. The gmmtv house party thing or whatever trends on twitter. The studio directly encourages fans to grow attached to their actors specifically so they foster a para-social attachment so they can sell you the next six ForceBook, or OffGun or whoever show with the same or slightly different concept - this time they're in an office au! this time they're in a coffee shop au! - its just RPF at this point with extra steps. Not everyone~ obviously but a good chunk of people watched Dangerous Romance b/c they liked Perth and whoever his partner is. A lot of people checked out Cooking Crush b/c of OffGun.

I'm not saying this is a "bad" thing, one of the reasons I'm interested in watching Abigail is b/c of Melissa Barrera. So like I do get it, but as much as I enjoy Melissa her character in Abigail might be like, badly written. Who knows. I really enjoy Angie Jolie but lord knows she's had some awful roles and films.

Because of this emphasis on branded couples and para-social relationships, this effects the quality of the story b/c not every actor they pick for whichever show is the right actor. Earth was the wrong actor to play Jim in Moonlight Chicken, he just was. When Wen says he "likes old people" or someone makes a boomer joke about Jim I'm like that's a 29 yr old man. It takes me directly out of the story. It's no different than Jennifer Lawance playing a 40+ yr old woman in American Hustle at like 26. It's ridiculous.

Why NOT pair Mix up with an older actor who could also better play a world weary older man? Because it's not about The Story, it's about how much merch gmmtv can sell you or how many tickets they can sell to an EarthMix fan meet.

Palatable Brand/Easily Consumable

Gonna get myself in trouble, look gmmtv is a mix of Disney for gays and CW for gays. All the shows from gmmtv I've watched have 1) followed a very basic romance arc throughline, 2) been overall non-challenging in terms of narrative ideas or risks and 3) are straightforward in both film making style and narrative direction.

I have not watched every single gmmtv show nor will I cause again I am fucking lazy, but out of the ones I have watched this is how I feel about them.

Their shows tend to be about self-acceptance and romance. Which is FINE. I'm not saying this is a bad thing!! It's just boring after the 65th show about the subject. Especially when gmmtv doesn't care enough to cast actors that are right for the roles and give their crew a second light or five more nickels to the budget.

Sorry but 2gether is a poorly filmed show. 1000 Stars, imo, is thoroughly overhyped for how poorly paced it is, and how thin the actual story is (wait for the podcast ep on THAT lmao)

But these shows are comfortable and comforting. This is a neutral statement. You can like squeecore shows all you want I'm just saying that's part of the mass appeal of them. They're like the MCU films, they suggest the ideas of leftish politics just enough but don't really say anything further then that. And at times even enforce some harmful rhetoric - like the slut shaming in only friends and this ending to last twilight. They're just comfortable, easy shows that people can watch First and Khao in, enjoy their scenes, and then immediately move on to the next First and Khao show - hope they play street racers next! - without much of a thought.

Because these shows are pretty "safe" in terms of the depiction of queerness and sex it also makes them more palatable to mass recommend. When people make lists for what to show non-BL watches I usually see a lot of these "palatable" shows, stuff with straightforward romances, a couple kisses, fade-to-black sex. It's less based on genre preferences and more based on "what's the least scary thing we can recommend to folks". You see ppl do this with anime too. Everything gets lumped together under the sub-genre which is a shame (and also feels a bit xenophobic but I ain't getting into that).

But like, if I knew my friend was into fantasy gay shit I'd recommend them like, The Sign for live action, Drug and Drop for manga, Revolutionary Girl Utena for anime, Word of Honor and/or Legend of Yunze for (censored but still super gay) live action. I haven't read any fantasy bl/gl manwha yet so drop recs if y'all have some.

Accessibility

This one is pretty self-explanatory. We've seen how accessibility can increase a shows reach from Avatar getting a resurgence when it appeared on Netflix, where as, a show like Playboyy is gonna have a smaller reach since it's mainly available on streaming platforms like Gaga.

Consuming vs Engaging

gmmtv puts out the most Thai BLs period. This is just a fact of the industry. When you put out that much the quality of your media is going to go down - again we saw this with Disney regarding Star Wars and the MCU - because the goal is to sell merch not the stories. (Disney gets most of their sales via their parks and merch not their box office returns).

I see a lot of Big BL Blogs recommending gmmtv shows all the time, and I see a lot of these blogs and the fandom at large consuming these shows rather than engaging with said show. It becomes more of a challenge to watch 49 BLs, writing a quick meta post/review on them, and then moving on to the next one. There's a lack of higher end engagement, people aren't sitting with these shows and exploring the nooks of them. The empty spaces, the potential.

Probably b/c there's not a lot TO explore in regards to gmmtv shows, they all end pretty definitively. The couple goes through their couple journey, end up together, usually with marriage or an engagement, either way the promise of being together forever. Which is, again, fine, there's just not a lot of meat there to explore further.

This isn't specific to gmmtv shows - Domundi's shows come to mind regarding this too like Naughty Babe ends very definitively - but people just move on to the next one. They write episode-to-episode meta, end of show meta/recaps, make some gifs, move on to the next thing. It doesn't help that a lot of characters in gmmtv shows are thin and their worlds are empty.

But I think what attracts people is the constant churn of content. gmmtv shows are like tiktok videos, you scroll, watch, scroll to the next. Keep things quick and moving.

Where is the BL fanfic???

Moonlight Chicken only has 389 once you remove 1000 Stars, My School President, and Thai RPF works. Only Friends has 809 but only after also removing Only Friends RPF, Thai Actor RPF, 1000 Stars, The Eclipse, The Eclipse RPF, and Moonlight Chicken. 1000 Stars only has 292 once you remove similar crossovers (and a lot of RPF). My School President is down to 609 fics once you get rid of all the RPF and crossovers.

For comparison, kinnporsche has 11,444 fics even with all the RPF and crossovers removed.

I'm losing steam here at the end. These are a lot of thoughts, and I know they're not 100% articulate. These are just some general feelings and observations regarding gmmtv shows and fandom.

I'm NOT saying all~~~~ gmmtv show "bad" - though most I do think on a technical level are filmed very averagely with only MLC and Not Me breaking any molds - nor is anyone "wrong" or "bad" for liking idk Cooking Crush or Cherry Magic. I don't care like what you like bro.

I do think fandom overall overhypes gmmtv shows for a lot of factors - whether it's b/c they like the actors and feel that para-social pull towards them, or b/c they just like the squeecore comfort of these shows, or some mix of both - I think fandom would have an easier time if they just treated gmmtv shows are they are - average.

It's fine to be average and made for mass consumption. I like cheetos too dude. These shows don't have to be the peak of queer cinema to be valid, or for you to be "valid" for liking them. Why do any of us need to be "valid" in terms of the media we engage with? Who fucking cares? Like what you like, it doesn't have to be The Best Thing To Ever Gay for you to be valid for liking it. It doesn't have to "be important" either it can be gushers or twizzlers eat your snacks and enjoy life.

Just stop telling me it's a 4 star steak dinner or getting mad when you're charged 60 dollars for gushers.

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

the way izzy was received by this fandom rlly is the worst combo of how fans responded to kylo ren and how fans responded to, like, tyler durden or walter white.

anything i could say comparing izzy fans and kylo fans was already said in this fucking incredible post by @chuplayswithfire. but basically: izzy is a huge cunt to everyone in this show but fans take him at his word when he talks about being hardworking and competent, they minimize and excuse his actions and act like he's an innocent traumatized baby, and they focus on him, a shitty white antagonist, instead of any of the other interesting characters of color they could be paying attention to

but imo the thing that rlly makes a difference between izzy and kylo, and the thing that makes me compare him to those other two white dudes i mentioned above, is that unlike the movies kylo ren is in, ofmd is actually well-written

the first movie in the star wars sequel trilogy was pitched, written, filmed, and literally released with no ending for the trilogy in mind. the writing for the next movies was adjusted based on fan reactions, and major plot points were decided by studio executives deciding which events would make the movie more profitable. i should not have to explain to you that this is a terrible way to write a movie series. or a television series. or literally any kind of fucking story in the world.

our flag means death, or what we have of it so far, is not that. there's fully developed characters with given realistic motivations, instead of one-dimensional props that are jerked around by a constant tug-of-war between writers, directors, and studio executives. there are narrative plot points that are woven expertly throughout the story, not hints of storylines that are completely forgotten about by the next franchise, or storylines that were finished that are getting dug up again. there's a central theme to ofmd, unlike the new star wars movies, where the theme seems to be "how can we milk this fucking franchise for all it's worth." there's no goddamn queerbaiting

i'll admit that i've never actually seen breaking bad, and everything i know about it i've learned via tumblr osmosis. but from what i can tell, it's actually a very well-written show, and the whole point of the show is that walter white is the epitome of entitled and abusive white man who thinks he's super tough and badass and that everyone should listen to him and do whatever he tells them to do (lmao, sound familiar?). he ruins his life and the lives of everyone around him and idk he might die in the end. anyway dont do drugs.

fight club i have seen, and i can confirm that this is a fantastic movie that features, you guessed it, an arrogant white guy who represents the classic violent male power fantasy. the narrator, deeply depressed because he's a beta male, watches jealously from the sidelines as tyler durden starts seeking violence, first from just meeting up with random guys for consensual beatdowns, but it escalates as more and more men start joining the fight club (wow! the title of the movie!) until the club morphs into a terrorist group. also if you haven't seen it there's a Big Plot Twist that i haven't mentioned and it's pretty good. love that movie.

anyway the point is that both of those men are very obviously. shitty fucking guys. classic macho men (even tho tyler durden's fashion sense is fantastically fruity, for some reason) who crave power over others and respect in the form of fear. the whole point of their fucking characters is that in any generic action movie, they would be the heroes

and so many fans just. completely fucking miss this. there are hoards of dudebro fan guys who relate to these characters and go "wow, he's just like me!" and absolutely do not get the point of the thing they're watching. it is fucking baffling to see

anyway that's izzy stans!! an truly groundbreaking combo of your classic female fans who woobify evil white men and classic male fans who miss the entire point of characters who are written to subvert the expectations of what kind of role a character like izzy hands, walter white, or tyler durden would be expected to play!!!!! izzy hands is written to be an antagonist and the personification of toxic masculinity that ed is trying to escape from, and yet people are acting like he's the show's third protagonist.

because izzy would be a protagonist, in a different and much shittier story. and even though we all watched the same show where he very clearly is not the protagonist, people are applying that role to izzy and not actually looking at what role he plays in this show.

[spiderdreamer-blog]

2023 at the Movies: A Year in Review

2023 has been an odd year for American cinema in particular, between overall tepid box office outside of a few big hits and the combination of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes affecting release dates as well as promotional tactics. (Just so we're clear, this is a Union Solidarity Blog) But it was a fascinating year artistically nonetheless, especially on the blockbuster end. What this list aims to achieve is sort of a capsule review of the theatrical releases I saw (not counting streaming-only films even if I ended up seeing theatrical releases ON streaming) and how I felt about them in capsule review form. And even then, there's still stuff I need to catch up on like Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, Oppenheimer, Elemental, or Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. Anyhoo, on with my list, in chronological release order:

John Wick: Chapter 4: Much like its titular hero, there are perhaps some signs that this franchise could benefit from taking a bit of a rest. Some of the worldbuilding is going from knowingly absurd to just plain absurd, and a couple early action beats, while fun (NUNCHUCKS), are a little familiar in terms of director Chad Stahelski's neon-as-fuck aesthetics. Ultimately, it's not too much to derail things, as Keanu Reeves proves a capable grounding lead like always, and the Parisian third act is giddy, comically overblown violence in the grand John Wick tradition that reaches an unexpected poignancy. The supporting cast might also be one of the best in the series; while Asia Kate Dillion's unflappable Adjudicator is missed from the last installment, we do receive Bill Skarsgard doing an OUTRAAGEOUS French accent as a smarmy villain you really want to see dead by the end of this, Donnie Yen as a clever, funny spin on the blind swordsman trope, Rina Sawayama is both badass and touching, Shamier Anderson stands out by dialing down, and my beloved Clancy Brown has some of the best implicit "are you fucking kidding me" reactions I've seen in a while.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie: I was honestly dreading this for a while. Illumination Entertainment is a perfectly cromulent animation studio who makes films that, with a couple exceptions, represent pretty much everything I dislike about American family filmmaking: loud, hyperactive, deficient of nutritional value, and did I mention loud? But the trailers started impressing me in terms of how well they adapted the candy-colored toybox Nintendo aesthetic to a wider theatrical scope. And if nothing else, casting Jack Black as Bowser would probably be pretty awesome (spoiler alert: he was). Thankfully, it manages to be an immensely entertaining, zippy adventure film that minimizes potential annoyances at nearly every turn. This is primarily thanks to a ready-to-play, enthusiastic voice cast (outside of Black, I particularly like Pratt and Day's brotherly dynamic and Anya Taylor-Joy doing a Disney Princess-esque comedy action spin on Peach), a smartly simple story structure, and leaving a lot of potential open for the future like Seth Rogen's lovable ready-for-spinoff-movies Donkey Kong. It may not rock the boat, but it was better than it had any business being, and that counts for a lot in my book.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3: The Marvel Cinematic Universe and I are admittedly on a bit of a break. Not because they're doing anything WRONG per se, just that a lot of their shows and movies haven't enticed me as much in the past year. I did get out to see this, though, which is both the best all around MCU film since Endgame and very possibly the best film of its own trilogy. James Gunn pulls out all the stops emotionally for his Marvel swan song (godspeed to you over at the still-in-progress trashfire that is Warner Bros. Discovery, good sir), crafting a beautiful, resonant journey for all the characters. The ensemble cast fires on all cylinders, for one. While Bradley Cooper is the obvious vocal standout as Rocket takes center stage, it's assuredly the role of Chris Pratt's career (other non-Mario/Marvel directors, take note! You can in fact have this guy be funny, credibly tough, AND sympathetic instead of missing out on the other two), Zoe Saldana navigates a difficult emotional dance, Pom Klementieff finds real heart in Mantis, Dave Bautista is still one of our most interesting wrestlers-turned-actors in the choices he makes, Karen Gillan has slowly become of the MCU's MVPs as Nebula, Will Poulter is endearingly dunderheaded as a comedic take on Adam Warlock, and Chukwudi Iwuji proves a truly vile villain who exemplifies the maxim of "if you really want an audience to just HATE a motherfucker, have him torture cute animals". And of course Gunn's musical tastes remain impeccable, such as a Beastie Boys needle drop that prompts a truly bitchin' fight scene (oddly the second time this specific song happened this year in a Pratt-led vehicle). It's funny, it made me ugly cry at SEVERAL points, and I got to see a psychic cosmonaut dog beat people's asses with her mind. What more could I want?

Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse: Into the Spider-Verse was a revolution and a revelation for what the American animated film industry could accomplish artistically and technically. How could a sequel possibly live up to it? Across does, against all odds, proving to be the Empire Strikes Back to the original's Star Wars in terms of going darker/more complex on the emotions and to greater visual heights (albeit with the caveat that maybe next time, we can manage the production better and not crunch people so much). Co-directors Justin K. Thompson, Kemp Powers, and Joaquim Dos Santos (who I've stanned as one of our best animation action directors from Justice League Unlimited through Voltron Legendary Defender) craft a propulsive narrative that asks big questions about who and what Spider-Man is. And while those will have to wait to be fully answered in the third installment, what it sets up is no less compelling or thrilling. Shout-outs in particular go to Hailee Steinfeld, who has to anchor this film with Gwen as much as Shameik Moore's still-iconic Miles; Daniel Pemberton for an outstanding score; Oscar Isaac for giving rich complexity to Miguel O'Hara, who could have felt like a boorish bully in lesser hands; and Jason Schwartzman for not just proving he transitions REALLY well into voicework between this and projects like Klaus, but being by turns pathetically funny and terrifying in ways I've never heard him be as the Spot. Can't wait to see where that goes next time in particular.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny: "Pleasant surprise" comes to mind. While I never hated Kingdom of the Crystal Skull as much as most, it was definitely a little underwhelming as a possibly final Indy adventure. (Not helping is that Steven Spielberg immediately turned around and made an infinitely better indy movie in the form of The Adventures of Tintin) So I was curious to see how going to the well for seemingly the real final adventure would work this time around. Thankfully, director James Mangold proves he has a good eye for creative action, even if nothing here quite reaches the heights of the original trilogy, and Harrison Ford does some of his best acting in ages as a weary, burnt-out Indy; one always got the sense that THIS was much closer to his heart than Han Solo. Phoebe Waller-Bridge is a terrific foil to him, joyously amoral (or so she says), while Mads Mikkelsen finds a new spin on coldly cruel cinematic Nazis; he has a tense reintroduction scene that had me squirming in my seat. Add in a slam-bang ending and a touching epilogue, and I'm pretty happy with where things end up for our favorite archaeologist. A solid B+, which we could use more of nowadays.

Also they Poochie-d Shia LaBeouf, which is hilarious to me on several levels.

Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One: The Mission: Impossible franchise has undergone a curious metamorphosis from where it started as one of many oldies TV adaptations in 1996 to a purposefully old-school action franchise. Director Christopher McQuarrie has become a pro at these over the last three installments, and Dead Reckoning (now no longer a part one, as the back-in-production followup will be retitled) has lots to offer both large and small for action fans even outside of the continued spectacle of Tom Cruise Possibly Wants To Die On Camera. Obviously the big stunt sequences remain a draw, like a terrific car chase through Rome or the climactic journey onboard the Orient Express because trains are ALWAYS bitchin' locations in movies. But just as good are pleasures like a tense cat-and-mouse game in an airport where nobody's quite sure whose side Hayley Atwell's thief Grace is on, Henry Czerny coming back to the franchise after 27 years and looking as shiftily patriotic as ever, Pom Klementieff on this list for the second time looking really hot as she whoops ass, and Cary Elwes getting an unexpectedly choice exposition monologue. Plus the whole deal with the A.I. villain ended up being, uh, fairly relevant.

Barbie: A brilliant human comedy from an unexpected source. This could have gone wrong in so many different ways, I can easily imagine a version that's WAY more lugubrious and, crucially, much less funny. But director/co-writer Greta Gerwig has quickly become one of our best talents between this and the wildly-different-but-has-more-in-common-than-you'd-think Little Women (I also still need to see to heard-it's-excellent Lady Bird). With an infinitely clever script (I love in particular that the "real world" is just as ridiculous in its own way as Barbieland) and Sarah Greenwood's impeccable production design, Gerwig and her cast craft a feminist fable that remains light and funny even at its most strident and angry. Margot Robbie has never been better, hilarious and gut-punching by equal measure, America Ferrera ends up as the unexpected heart of the piece, and Ryan Gosling is absolutely hysterical as Ken while still making him intensely sympathetic. He and Robbie deserve Oscar noms in particular. No, I'm not kidding. Might expand this one to a full review at some point tbh.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem: I missed this in theaters and regret it immensely, given that this is a hilarious, cheerfully irreverent take on characters who've really managed a surprising amount of relevance in the modern age. Actually having teen actors voice the Turtles makes them feel so authentic, and they're matched well by an equally game cast like Ayo Edebiri's thoroughly modern April O'Neill, Jackie Chan as a more bumbling-but-heartfelt version of Splinter than usual, and Paul Rudd going full surfer bro as Mondo Gecko. And of course the scribbled-notebook underground comics vibe of the animation is a neat bit of full circle aesthetics if you know these guys' origins.

Wish: All of you are wrong and being dumb about this movie. It's not that I can't grok some of the criticisms as being legitimate, to be fair; for example, the songs, while very good on their own IMO, don't always hit the iconic level of a Frozen or Encanto. But the vitriol with which they've been expressed, and this odd narrative that Disney is in the toilet artistically and needs to nebulously "fix" things, is something I can't at all agree with. It's gorgeously rendered, for one; yes, I would potentially like to see a return to full 2D animated films for the studio at some point too. But if they're gonna experiment even marginally with CGI, I applaud co-directors Chris Buck and Fawn Veerasunthorn making it look this painterly as a starting point. And as with a lot of modern Disney, there's real richness and inner life to these characters. Ariana DeBose is a winning heroine as Asha, who feels distinct from other "princesses" by essentially being working class and unionizing the kingdom. And Chris Pine as Magnifico is a Disney Villain for the ages, blending real complexity in his relationships with scenery-chewing madness. (Also am I the only one who got major "studio executive/CEO" vibes off him?) If this is "mid" or "bland" Disney, I really question what some of y'all are seeing that I seemingly can't.

Also I liked the 100th anniversary references, sue me. The last one in particular gets points for quiet charm rather than grandstanding.

The Boy and the Heron: Hayao Miyazaki, anime's favorite grumpy old man, comes back out of retirement for like the fifth time. Seriously, remember when Princess Mononoke was supposed to be his last film 25+ years ago? I'll believe his "last film" is truly his last when he's in the cold, cold ground. Regardless of the continuing saga of Old Man Won't Retire Because He Seemingly Can't Be Alone With His Own Thoughts, this is a brilliant, haunting spectacle of animation that might be a new favorite for me. Some have called it confusing, whereas I go for "dreamlike", possibly his most to date. Nearly every frame is suffused with longing and melancholy (though this also has some of Miyazaki's best comedy in a while), and, oddly like Wish, this feels like a true career reflection, if a bit more fraught and questioning what legacy truly means. Joe Hisaishi contributes possibly his moodiest, most dissonant score, with little of the bombast or whimsical charm that typifies his music, but it works unfathomably well. Credit also to the dub, with Robert Pattinson as funny and menacing as you've heard, but Luca Pandoval is also excellent as our stoic lead Mahito, Florence Pugh manages to be both a total badass and a funny old woman (it makes sense in context, I promise), Christian Bale puts forth a fascinating two-step with his boisterous father, Gemma Chan and Karen Fukuhara nail some complex emotional turns, Willem Dafoe nearly steals the whole thing in under two minutes, Dave Bautista makes a real meal out of a part not much bigger than that, and Mark Hamill finds resonance as a tired old man.

[artsywriter25]

Let’s talk about Kung Fu Panda 4

Okay, so we finally got some updates on KFP4, the plot, the director and what to expect to see in the film. My reaction to this is….mix.

On one hand, I’m so happy we got something! But on the other hand, I’m just really nervous and I don’t like this deflated feeling. So I’m writing this out to share my thoughts and wanting to hear what the fandom thinks. I’ll try not to make this too long or sound like a rant, I’m going straight to the point and talk about the good and bad about KFP4.

=

So first let’s talk about the director: Mike Mitchell

……Oh boy.

Ok I’m not gonna give the guy any crap, I’m willing enough to give him a chance. Yes I know he directed Trolls, but he also directed Shrek Forever After. I looked back at that movie after The Last Wish and it’s not really that bad. It was actually sweet and serious in some parts. And that’s what I hope this director will do, have the 4th film at least serious in some parts and don’t make it too goofy or jokey where it feels awkward.    

Now on to the story and this is the best way I can summarize this from a few articles I’ve read:

“ Po is getting promoted to be the spiritual leader of the Valley of Peace, but he has to choose someone to take his place as the new Dragon Warrior. He catches a theft fox who he could see potential in their skills but they don’t get along. But Then a Chinese sorcerer known as ‘The Chameleon’, has summon Po’s past villains from the dead. Now Po and his (student?) must journey together and stop this new villain. ”  

So judging by the information that we got, it sounds like many years have passed since the third movie. Po becoming leader actually worries me because it’s probably hinting that Master Shifu may pass away and now Po has to take his responsibilities (This is just a guess so sorry Shifu fans!).  

There is also this fox character they have mention in the articles which they can’t seem to get the name right and they keep flipping their gender. First it was misspelled as Shen, then it was Chen and Zhen so I’m just gonna call them Fox for now on.

I wonder what kind of story arc will they give Fox. What’s their backstory? What kind of lessons they must learn? Does Po see himself in them or are they both different with different views? These are some questions I hope they answer. Giving Po a student to teach was a direction I theorized DreamWorks will go down and I’m glad they did. The trilogy had Po as a student, now taking the role of masterful teacher, it make sense to passed down those experiences to someone. I can really image the funny shenanigans they can get in to, along with the Furious Five. I think it would have been awesome if they each had a student too and they all come together fighting the villains with the skills they were taught. If there’s one thing I’m really worried about is the Five getting pushed aside for this new character or Fox ending up being a perfect character. Have Fox be flawed, have them be a kid we can relate and root for and something that the kids will like too.

Now let’s talk about my most favorite thing of all: THE VILLAINS!!!

OH MY GOD MY FANGIRL IS TRYING TO TAKE OVER! TAI LUNG, SHEN AND KAI ARE COMING BACK!! AND I DON’T KNOW IF THIS IS A GOOD OR BAD THING!!??

I am shock, like I never expected they go down this route. Story wise, I understand why the three shouldn’t come back as they served their purpose as villains, but no, they are bringing them all back. A actual animation studio is listening and giving the fans what they wanted??

DreamWorks must be watching their fandoms, that’s the only explanation I can think of. They must have saw all of our fanarts and fanfics and went like “Oh damn, they really love are villains…you know what, let’s bring them back.”

So how will this affect the story? I honestly don’t know, maybe Fox has to learn all body, mind, and spirit in order to help Po and the Five.

Now what I’m really surprised is they choose a chameleon to be the forth villain. I did some research this morning, and there’s not that many species that look intimidating. But if they could make a peacock threatening, I’m sure they can make a chameleon threatening too. I even looked up about sorcerers in China and I think they meant shamans. Chinese shamans are known to be wizards or spirit mediums, this could mean the Chameleon may have some connection to the spirit realm, which I hope they explored more on. I read some of this under Wikipedia, its very interesting.

=

And that’s all I have to say for Kung Fu Panda 4. I am a little worry for this film but I’m not gonna get worked up about it, I’m gonna stay positive that it will work and I’m sure it will. The only thing that could save this film is the animation. I think KFP is perfect for that hybrid spiderverse animation.  

But what do you guys think and are you still excited for the sequel?? If you wanna discuss anything about this I’m all ears. 

[nancydrewwouldnever]

from Chris that we heard in the GQ article. Why work around someone being difficult and hard to pin down if you can just focus on other clients you have who are hungry and eager to take work?///

I really believe this is the issue here. I think he is difficult and believes he knows best, so his team isn't able to do for him what they are doing for others. They're some so so actors getting really good projects but I think they have let their teams have some control and have shown they want to do it. I don't think Chris was ever in position to have full control the way he does, I think the only time an actor should have the full say is when they are at the level of Leo, Cruise, Pitt or someone other big actor. A lot of people like to come at his team both agents and PR for various reasons but I would say its mostly Chris, he shoots himself in the foot a lot of the times and its not much his team can do. They all seem to be doing a decent job with others.

This is one issue and then the other is I think a lot of good projects are probably not coming his way by the choice of studios and filmmakers. I think his lack of successful experimentation has led many studios and directors to think he isn't capable of certain roles. I've seen enough of his projects outside marvel to say he can do it if he wanted to, but he really does need to work on his crying, emotional scenes. I've never ever been able to feel those parts from him and a lot of meaty roles consist of big deep emotional breakdowns, or crying, or "lost everything what do now" scenes. In his scene in the Snowpiercer towards the climax, I kind of laughed when he started crying, I couldn't feel any real emotion from him, it seemed very technical. Same with the DJ emotional breakdown scene and the scene in Gifted. Some may feel the opposite but imo I think this is one area he needs to work on.

To me the most telling "emotional breakdown" scene was the one in Puncture in the phone booth. There's the huge moment where the character is supposed to be having this huge emotional breakdown and you sort of see him have a kind of physical reaction where he almost runs up against an invisible wall, like there's just some impediment in him reaching that deeper emotional level for the scene. As the viewer, it really took me out of the scene.

[bcacstuff]

About the film/TV/acting thread…I think people need to remember that film is a director’s medium, stage acting is more an actor’s medium, and many argue that TV is a writer’s medium. Whether you like Sam’s acting or not, he was trained more classically for the stage. That’s more common in the UK than here in the states. I have worked for years with actors and I can see Sam’s stage training. I can see it in small areas where many might not notice. Film acting is a completely different thing. The continuity is different, the “ in the moment” is different, the reaction and action are different., the “ bigness “ of it is different. There are things that can happen in film that could never happen on a stage. Whatever anyone thinks of Sam’s film acting (or any other film actor for that matter), much of it is dictated by and shaped by a director.- and honestly, how much the camera loves them. There’s loads of things about acting that many people just don’t understand- especially the training and directing of them. It’s also key to remember that actors cannot “ become” another person. Only themselves in different circumstances and must use imagination, physicality, timing, and action (not physical- the action that drives the story), and reaction. If you don’t like his work, any of it ever, then he’s not your kind of actor. If you think he’s great at some things and mediocre at others, much of that is on directors. They decide what we see, what drives and shapes action, even where we should look. They decide how to push an actor, and the safer the environment a director creates, the better work they can get from the actor. Vulnerability on stage/camera also depends strongly on that trust. Perhaps he needs a really strong director paired with a strong script. Actors have their own processes and ways of “ getting there” or being in the moment. Even the amazing, brilliant Meryl Streep says she doesn’t like to talk about or analyze her process. She thinks that will break the magic….Just a long winded Theatre teacher’s two cents.

You might be a theater teacher but I so disagree with many things you wrote.

We already gave more than enough examples why a theater trained actor can be a very good tv or movie actor on screen. One doesn't count out the other. We already gave examples. James McAvoy, Tom Hanks... many more are theater trained and started out in theater or even still do theater.

Even during the last Oscar ceremonies many winners said how much a project is an ensemble accomplishment. It's not only the director. I could easily translate that to my orchestral experience, it's not only the conductor that determines a good or bad concert. it's each musician in the orchestra and the teamwork they're committed to. The one or two soloists isn't gonna make it any better than the sum of all of it together.

I could also translate the theater vs screen to the concert hall vs studio to music. It's different for sure, and in the studio you can take many takes and choose the best one, where the concert hall has the adrenaline of a live performance with the emotions of an audience as an advantage. It doesn't mean an concert musician can't work in a studio.

I don't think we even need to 'understand' all the loads of things about acting. As an actor you should be interested in it, yes, but as a viewer not so much. As a musician I certainly don't think my audience needs to understand every detail of making music. My audience should never hear how difficult a piece is, or how many hours I studied that 3 bars of a 500 bars piece of music, as the technique I need to use there needed a lot of rehearsing. My Gosh, no, never. They need to listen and get themselves carried away with the music.

And as a musician, when I'm not happy with how a conductor interprets a piece of music and is somehow preventing me to give my best performance, I'm going up there and talk with him to get us both on a same level of understanding. Again, ensemble, teamwork.

The 'they' in your story is never what decides it. At the end of the day it's the individual doing the work. It's the football player playing the ball and not the coach. And it's the way one can make themself a part of a team that determines the quality and success. If an actors performance is less because of the director, than the actor should consider not to work with that director as it clearly doesn't click.

[wen-kexing-apologist]

I know it's been a hot sec since Only Friends ended, but I have love your analysis but have some thoughts about Boston's ending in the context of the show's themes. You said in your reflection that it reeks of branded pairing and interference. Could this be the point!

We know Boston is the photographer which has lots of implications for his character and sexuality, but photographers also have a unique interest for directors, and can even be stand-in characters for the director's perspective. Boston's non-monogamous approach to dating estranges him from the clear pairing off of his friends in traditional couple units, as if in a legal marriage, in the same way that a more radical director like jojo might feel in response to the contractual obligations of the branded pairs by studios.

Getting back to the brilliant title of "Only Friends," you could start to see it as a commentary on some of these issues. Only friends can refer to the limits of being excluded from the status of boyfriends, or, in a more official manner, being excluded from the status and benefits privileged through marriage. But we also know that the actors for Boston and Nick were the first chosen by jojo & co before the branded pairs. Only Friends can also refer to these two actors previous roles within the BL genre as supporting cast that lacked the narrative possibility and the contractual obligation to become a couple by the end of the series, to remain only friends to the romantic leads.

Perhaps the ending is supposed to feel empty. There is a veneer of campy happiness to the last scene, but most of the online audience reactions seem to understand that what we felt we saw was a tragedy. Jojo seems too perceptive of a director to have created that reaction by a failure to realize how the viewers would feel about Boston's fall and exclusion. It actually seems really impressive to have what is basically the foundational definition of a comedy (the couples get together in the end) feel so sad--Ton's absence replaced by a picture of what they used to be before the mandatory coupling. Then the guest comes in, played by Mixx, a member of yet another contracted pair. "I booked a single bedroom. I'm here alone." The malevolent theme of the series kicks in as the cast looks from him to one another and offers to be his 'friend,' as if that was allowed. Is it a coincidence that Mixx shared this summer that he'd be taking a break from acting, thus escaping his contractual coupling!

It seems to me like jojo used the guise of the BL genre in 'Only Friends' to critique the genre (and more traditional gay political ideals) and we all felt the pain and disappointment we were supposed to feel about what we're being robbed of.

You're more versed in the genre and jojo's previous works tho so what's your take

I am glad you are interested in my take, but I'm not sure that I have one. I think your read is a perfectly valid one, just as I also think saying this wasn't intentional commentary and GMMTV interfered is a valid one, just as I think saying Jojo and Ninew dropped the ball at the end and this was ultimately their responsibility is valid.

I think it would be based as hell if Jojo and Ninew did what they did at the end of Only Friends and obliterated some of their messaging as commentary against the current BL structures, but I don't think we have a way of knowing that. I think I am generally more forgiving to the narrative and to Jojo and Ninew than others might be, but that doesn't make me correct or other people wrong. I don't think we have any way of knowing what went on behind the scenes, in the writing room, with the directors, with the studio execs to get to where we got. But I have found other pieces of Jojo's more legible in their intent at the end.

Overall my hot take is that ultimately I am glad this show was made, regardless of overall fandom reaction, regardless of how the narrative was perceived, because I think it is important for GMMTV to get more comfortable mixing and matching their branded pairs, to get GMMTV more comfortable with higher heat in their BLs, to give Neo a really difficult role that he absolutely blew out of the water. And while international and tumblr reactions were on the displeased or angry side of the spectrum, I don't know that that was the case domestically, and it did well enough to have a few nominations in the most recent awards show. So regardless of what myself or anyone else thinks about Only Friends, I think it did enough to perhaps show GMMTV proof of concept for general fandom interest in more mature BLs from an intimacy and messy relationship perspective. And, depending on the reactions they saw, maybe it showed them that at the end sticking to the branded pairs ended up hurting the show.

[my-mt-heart]

I've been rewatching all of the deleted Caryl scenes and I was wondering if you could explain why important Caryl scenes were cut in post-production? Why would you cut scenes where we can see character development? Why cut scenes that deepen Caryl's bond? I don't get it.

Generally speaking, scenes can get cut for a multitude of reasons. Sometimes the showrunner/EP(s) don't know if something is going to tie in well with the story until they see it cut together. Often, they also have to cut for time. But I don't think a lot of people realize that it isn't just one person, the showrunner for example, making every final decision. There may be multiple EPs with creative control who don't see eye to eye, and then there's the studio at the very top of the hierarchy which will have its mandates.

TWDU in particular seems to suffer from having "too many cooks" and its allowed some of them to downplay Caryl's relationship without having any real creative or business reasons to do so. It's incredibly frustrating because it undermines the story that was already unfolding, the one so many fans became invested in. We want the relationship to be honored, explored as deeply as possible and established as romantic, which means we need to see the connective tissue. We need the explicit beats to show Caryl's growth, not vague dialogue suggesting a story happened offscreen or ambiguous shots we have to dig and dig to find our own meaning to.

You mention rewatching deleted Caryl scenes, presumably from earlier seasons of the flagship, but it's also unnerving, if not more so, to think about what was edited out of S11 that could've made all the difference to the fans who waited years for explicit canon.

And what does that mean for "The Book of Carol?" As an EP, Melissa will get to weigh in on the cuts, but the way that it works (with a non-writing EP having to give notes to the showrunner and producing director who can address the notes or not before the next cut goes to the studio), makes it far too easy for the same people who wronged Carol and Caryl in S11 to do so again. She's also the only woman in a position of power while all of the directors for the season, the other EPs with creative control, and the AMC execs share a (mostly white) male perspective, so there's the added concern of being seen as "difficult to work with" whenever the need to push hard for something important to her and the fans arises. I bring this up not to suggest that Caryl fans should lower their expectations (they definitely should not do that), but as a reminder to keep being vocal about making Caryl explicitly canon and whatever else they want to see. I sincerely hope AMC will take the right measures to bolster Carol's and Caryl's story in post. If anything gets manipulated again, the best they can hope for is mixed reactions, just like the "I love you" scene in S11's finale.

[fallloverfic]

"Nimona" the movie art style inspiration

This tweet basically summarizes a big thing I've been thinking about when looking at reactions to the Nimona teaser and footage releases.

But actually we have to go back to 2012 first, when Paperman the short film released under Disney (it was attached to Wreck-It Ralph).

For background, Nimona is a webcomic turned graphic novel by Nate Diana Stevenson. The adaptations rights were purchased by Fox in 2015, who assigned it to Blue Sky Studios to make. Disney purchased 20th Century [Fox] Animation in 2019, and shuttered Blue Sky before the film was complete, cancelling the project in February 2021. The film was picked up by Annapurna (production), DNEG (animation, with use of Blue Sky materials), and Netflix (distribution/marketing). It will premiere at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in France on June 14th, 2023, show in limited theaters on June 23, 2023, and be on Netflix for general streaming on June 30th, 2023 at 3 AM EDT. Anyway, Paperman.

Cannot stress enough that this short was really groundbreaking. While Nimona the movie adaptation didn't start life at Disney, 2012 was long before Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse came out in 2018 (or when it started production by 2015 or so). In point of fact, we knew back when Nimona was cancelled in 2021 (or earlier) that it was planned even then to use an evolved version of Paperman's art style. Notably, the short's animation supervisor was Patrick Osbourne. (Paperman's director, John Kahrs, also worked at Blue Sky prior to this, and the composer, Christophe Beck, is also composing the score for Nimona, but let's focus on Osbourne).

(Also kind of... random theory, a lot of people are criticizing the office building sequence in the Nimona teaser footage cause they think it looks "unfinished", I think because they're confusing intentionally minimalist "modern" design with being "unfinished". But a part of me kind of wonders if the design itself is some sort of homage to Paperman, which largely took place in an office building, though also it's just an office building, it's not surprising the design is minimalist).

Anyway, Feast the short film was released in 2014, and it was directed by Osbourne.

Osbourne was later one of the original directors for the Nimona film before it was cancelled by Disney in 2021 (the article is from June 2015, and leads with the fact Osbourne directed Feast, and notes that he also worked on Paperman). Watch both the Paperman and Feast shorts, you'll see the same style there. Again, 2014 is a lot earlier than 2018.

And then of course Blue Sky (original animation studio for Nimona prior to the Disney cancellation) released The Peanuts Movie in 2015. DNEG has used a lot of Blue Sky Studios materials in their production to complete Nimona. A number of Blue Sky folks were brought back on to work on the project, as well. And based on leaked stuff from around the Disney cancellation, we know the stuff carried over (in the articles it's framed kind of like it leaked when the film was officially revived in April 2022, but the footage on the article came out around/before Nimona's cancellation in 2021).

Folks also need to remember that just because film A released after film B doesn't mean that film A was inspired by B, particularly with the long production schedules of animation (and in the case of something with as rocky a production history as Nimona).

From what I can tell, both Nimona and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse began production around the same time (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was in talks around 2014/2015, and seemingly was in at least pre-production by early 2015; Fox bought the adaptation rights for Nimona sometime in/around early June 2015). While Nimona was still in production when Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse came out in 2018, it had been in production for around three years at that point. Certainly it was developing for a long time, even before it was cancelled in 2021 (6 years versus Spiderverse's 3), and projects stuck in development hell do make 180s sometimes. I just kind of doubt they just saw Spiderverse, or even the marketing materials for it, and completely redesigned things based solely on that, given what we know of the development plans and who they picked for the project. Comparatively, The Peanuts Movie also had a very long production time, seemingly, with the idea originating in 2006.

Whatever the case may be, and no shade on the amazing beauty of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (gorgeous, amazing film, please watch it if you haven't), I highly doubt we have Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse to thank for Nimona the movie's existence/appearance, or later films or shows using similar styles. At best, I think there's a non-zero possibility that the 2018 success of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse helped encourage Annapurna, DNEG, and Netflix to give Nimona a chance in 2021-2 to revive it after Disney shuttered Blue Sky Studios in 2021, but I doubt that's why the film looks the way it does, and the fact that what already existed for Nimona the film would have been a key convincing point there (e.g., here's our project that kind of looks like that/is planned to look that really popular thing).

[animehouse-moe]

Bocchi The Rock 12: Making Anime History

So, Bocchi The Rock (hopefully Season 1) is now finished. I'm not great at rating things or keeping track of rankings and the like, but this show is one of my only 10/10 series this year. It's not in a "this is my favorite out of everything I've experienced" way, but just looking at what they've done. You just take a look at almost anything out there and try to find something that Bocchi is outright beaten in. Animation? Direction? Character acting? Bocchi has it all, and it damn well knows it because it put all of it on display in its finale.

Just take the opening music work for example. It's such a massive expectation subversion. The girls don't kill it, it's not stardom, it's hardly even really a focus on the surreal. It's the girls' perception of the talent show. Some of them are nervous, some of them are really into it, there's slight miscommunications and Bocchi is on edge. Just look at this, Ryou and Kita are both facing Nijika directly, while Bocchi is only slightly turned.

They're all on edge in their own ways, and the direction really shows that. There's not any crazy moments of animation or direction, it's an almost cut and dry musical sequence in comparison to what they've done before. But what really separates it is the crowd. You get to see the familiar faces, you get to see Bocchi search out into the sea of people and find those familiar faces. You get to see Bocchi's reactions to the cheering, to the smiles and enjoyment of everybody in the crowd.

It's an eye-opener that is there for one specific purpose. Comparison. To see how far they've come, they can't have perfect performances every time they're out and about, they can't have revelations every time they step on stage. Instead of that, it's showing how far they've come, even if they're nervous and slightly awkward, you get to see Kita's eyes dart around and make contact/sync up with Bocchi and Ryou, you get to see their response to the crowd, and how in tune all the girls are with each other. The songs weren't for showing off their ability or making it cool, they were to show that the girls have come far enough to see outside their stage, outside of their individual performances.

Of course, it's Bocchi The Rock, so there's a catch. And it works so incredibly well as a wake-up call and tonal shift to take the episode where it really wants to go

From here it plays out like typical Bocchi. The grand sense of tension and excitement evaporates and is replaced with the oddball humor and wild creativity of the staff in stuff like Bocchi going Super Saiyan, or the real photorealistic backgrounds and environments that the show is so well-known for, or even Nijika going to town on a drum set with a pair of guitars as drumsticks.

I could write about every last frame of Bocchi, and I'd probably love doing so. Every last detail, every little piece that forms this puzzle, all of it has intent, purpose, passion, behind it. It's not a half-assed "get it out the door" adaptation, and it's not a director trying to leave their mark on the work.

It is the insane love child of the staff that have worked tirelessly to make something that stands out as an incredible pillar of anime and animation. It is their blood, sweat, and tears distilled into a surreal and near indescribable adaptation that does leave the team's mark on the material. Not because they changed it, but because they nailed it.

Bocchi The Rock is more than what awards can give credit to the series for. This is a first time director. A FIRST. TIME. DIRECTOR. This is their first full anime project undertaken, and this is what they produced. This staff, on a short and somewhat tight schedule, produced this. The creativity of this team, and subsequently Cloverworks, is massively understated in the community.

This is a studio that's brought God knows how many stellar adaptations at this point. They brought us Bocchi and Spy x Family part 2 this season. They brought Shadows House S2 in Summer, Spy x Family Part 1 in Spring, and even though I'm a big Dress Up Darling hater, they did incredible work on it in the same season as Akebi's Sailor Uniform.

Bocchi The Rock is a reminder of what the anime industry is. Ever changing, ever evolving. The "best" studio, the greatest work never being chained down to a single name for a long period of time, never being able to dominate in all genres of anime. But more than how volatile the industry is, it reminds viewers of what anime can do. How far it can take itself, how thin it can stretch its reality, how wide its reach can be. It's a reminder of the limitless potential that anime and animation holds, and how much more we still have that we can explore.

Bocchi The Rock is a literal rock-star of anime and should be recognized as such. Incomparably incredible.

[neilsanders]

i've been waiting forever for you to open your asks because i love your animations so much, they're so fun.

i've been doubting that i might ever make a livable career out of my art; but then i saw that you did some vault guy animations for fallout and i realized that there's a niche out there for everybody, including me! so, thank you.

I had a little rummage around on your bloggo but can’t see any pictures you cheeky fellow! I love to draw lots of dumb stuff, I think the key for me is to be working outwardly, as in making work with other people in mind, but without compromising too much on your personal taste. It’s the old thing of making what you want to see, but hoping that there’s enough people out there to warrant it as a commercial venture. Blah blah blah, I just draw lots and lots then sift through them to find things that work for me in the moment, then try and flesh those out a bit. That said it’s easy to have integrity when you’re not relying on it as your main income source. I’m an art teacher four days a week, so making art is the fun in my day rather than a stressful challenge of tight deadlines and huge expectations.

Working with Ivan Dixon and Greg Sharp at Rubberhouse was a dream come true, they had loads of great creative projects where we got to animate in authentic styles from the thirties, forties and fifties! I didn’t know what Fallout was when they put me on the gig, hadn’t played many games since the PS2 generation. The studio has disbanded now with Greg running Truba Animation and Ivan being a co-director at Studio Showoff, but they’re each still running amazing 2D productions.

As far as finding your style and audience goes I owe a lot of it to contributing to and running @loopdeloop-blog , it’s a monthly animation challenge where we would all make something dumb around a theme and then get together and have a public screening. It’s a very surreal feeling to be at a screening with everyone watching something you made and taking in their reaction. We’re just getting it back up off the ground after things got all screwed up with covid, you should check it out! It’s a great way to get animators out of their caves to socialise each and I’ve made so many lasting friendships because of it.

Here’s a loop think I spent almost all of my free time on one month back in 2012 for a LoopdeLoop screening, no idea what the theme was… but I guarantee I wouldn’t have worked so hard on a personal project without wanting to impress everyone at the screening as a goal.