#changed from “egotistical criminal” to .Vampire

[billygaysanguine]

does anyone ever think about how scapegraces speech patterns changed drastically after book 4 or just me

[gncrevan]

Faith, Violence and Eroticism in Park Chan-Wook's Thirst (2009)

contains spoilers

park chan-wook effortlessly jumps between genres - what starts as a religious horror soon turns into a romantic drama, then erotic thriller, ghost story, slasher, gothic fairytale, and peppered throughout is his trademark absurdist humour. song kang-ho gives a fantastic performance as a priest struggling with his faith and identity after turning into a creature that not only craves for blood but also sex. but i was especially impressed by kim ok-vin's extreme plasticity as she portrays a woman who holds all the complexity of being vulnerable yet tenacious, sincere yet manipulative, hurt yet cruel, loving yet egotistical. unlike the priest sang-hyeon, her character tae-jun finds freedom and empowerment in following her desires without regard for morality or empathy. their relationship forms the anchor and central conflict of the film, and is the framework in which the narrative explores the inherent eroticism and toxic violence of the vampire mythos. thirst is shot in atmospheric pictures that reflect the point in sang-hyeon's journey - symmetrical and baroque at first, gothic and noir as he transforms, uncomfortably intimate the more he has to hide, intensely vibrant during crisis, clinical and sterile as he dissociates from what is happening around him, bleak and almost existentialist towards the end. every filming decision reflects the changes in pace and tone perfectly. truly a labor of love that i think is criminally underrated within park's body of work.

[kryptsune]

World Building Wednesday! (AU edition)~

The Hunt (Fellswap)

*I am going to start off with some basic information just to start!* 

The Surface:  The surface has been overrun by corrupt leaders. It is very much the concept of big brother. They are a council that presides over the affairs of the world. If you are seen as a threat you will be immediately thrown into “prison” without a trial. They hold occasional public trials in the guise of being fair. Just as WTU claims, the very concept of magic is a threat to them so those that have it are quickly disposed of but leaders don’t always do the dirty work themselves. No. In fact, they use another source by means of execution…the monsters. More accurately it is very similar to the idea of throwing your enemies into a kind of gladiatorial arena. It is not technically considered an execution if circumstances lead to death. The humans are not stupid they know what is going on. Some believe in rebellion against the state and some wonder if the monsters could fix their corrupt world. Either way, the corruption continues and they are not above tossing innocents into “the pit” if it suits their agenda.  “The Pit” (aka the Underworld/Underground):  The underworld is broken up into different factions by location. The only location without a faction or any type of ruler is The Ruins, because of its size and its isolation this is where humans try to reach for some form of Salvation. Asgore, the caretaker, has made it into an encampment for those that have fallen (the innocent ones). It is almost like a refugee camp. Unfortunately very few make it to Asgore’s safe haven. He does his best. Poor goat dad. He is not like canon Toriel however as he will use violence if necessary as he knows that humans are simply using them as tools to get rid of who they deem criminal. There are signs of old campfires, broken tents, and habitation. Before The Ruins is, of course, the main factions. “Snowdin” is the beginning and Crimson is one of the most powerful in the Underworld. 

The Layout of the world: New Home= The Capital Snowdin= Magmire Waterfall= Windyspires Hotland= Tundra

The Underworld is backward to its original layout. The humans end up trapped in The Capital instead and they have to make their way to The Ruins to escape. So it would go like this: The Capital -> Tundra ->Windyspires ->Magmire. The closer the faction to the capital the higher the rank in other words because both Grimm and Crimson live in Tundra. Crim is the lord making him one of the most notorious. He is known for being a loyal “dog” to his queen. Whether that be out of loyalty or self preservation is unclear.  Each faction has a lord or lady that rules over it. The ones loyal to Toriel’s (As a side note she is known as the ice queen) regime and their supposed way of life. This also means the closest ones receive the most benefits. Tundra is the one with the most prestige and of course other monsters are trying to strip that title from its current holder, The Crimson Lord. Due to Crimson’s loyalty, he is almost exempt from any wrongdoing in the Queens’ eyes which means he can do pretty much anything he wants. Which is dangerous and I will explain why in a bit. I have a faction ruler list sitting here so I am going to add that to this as well. They are as follows, of course, this does not account for potential power struggles during the story:  The Capital -> QUEEN: Toriel Dreemurr Tundra -> Lord: Crimson         Lady: N/A Windyspires -> Lord? (I mean she wouldn’t want to be called a lady SHE IS TOO TOUGH FOR THAT!): Alphys         Lady: Undyne Magmire-> Lord: Grillby     Lady: Muffet “It’s Hunt or be Hunted”: The motto of this verse. After so many centuries of humans being disposed of by monsters they become aggressive. In addition the anger toward all of humanity begins to fuel violence in the monsters. The hunts deter monster on monster violence. It also adds fuel to Queen Toriel’s fire that one of the humans that fell down the first time killed her son. This of course is a lie as Asriel seeks refuge with his father in The Ruins. He helps as much as he can watch his mother lose her mind from afar. It saddens him but he refuses to be a part of this new world order. That is when they realized that humans weren’t just falling into the Underworld. They were throwing throwing the worst of the worst. Their undesirables, criminals, and anyone that dare went against their own agenda. At first, they just captured them and held them in the Capitals network of catacombs but then some began to escape causing damage across their “New Home”. Toriel wouldn’t allow it. A proposal turns it into a game of cat and mouse. The humans are detained and released and then the monsters hunt them down. It used to be about protection but now it’s become a sick twisted death game. The forests of Tundra are littered with traps and deadly pitfalls along with the rest of the locations.

The Brothers Grimm:

Grimm is the wilder of the two brothers and is very much a predator type. His name is derived from the mythos of the Grimm or Black dog. I wanted to keep that dark omen symbology in both his name and design. He slinks around in the shadows so that the black dog aspect is not far off. He also loves watching from trees.  He enjoys the catching and hunting aspect of his job and even plays around with his “toys” when he finds them. He will specifically call anyone “chew toy” in a mocking kind of way. That does not mean though that he will not spare you if he catches you. He is naturally curious by things. He also has a little skele tail too. Unlike his brother, Grimm doesn’t really have an ego he just finds his job fun. He is like a giant untamed wolf. Grimm has a love of sweets as well.  He admires his brother but he is not bound to his brother. In other words this is not a master, dog dynamic. He is, however, the more accepting of the two. If he is asked to do something he doesn’t approve of then he most likely won’t. Also just because he has the whole puppy thing going on doesn’t mean he isn’t smart and cunning. Again he likes to play around with those he finds sometimes not even dragging them back to his brother for a while. If you are a threat he will kill you but if you’re not you can probably get on his good side. If he thinks you are cute he will probably flirt with you too. He is not beyond that. He plays the part of the dog quite well. Crimson is more sophisticated. He doesn’t go out on “hunts” himself often as he has a faction to rule over but those brought to him will see first hand that he is an insufferable flirt. He is prideful, egotistical, and commanding. He also has a bad habit of keeping mementos from those he deems worthy (what those are… you don’t want to know). He is stern with his brother and seems very outwardly cold to most unless he is playing up his charm. He is not someone you want to make angry as Toriel considers him to also be the Bloody Lord. His weapon of choice is a rapier. His drinks of choice are red wine and champagne specifically the pink kind. Crimson’s incisor teeth also have that vampire point to them. They are longer than the rest of them. There is far more to Crimson than just a ruthless skeleton lord.

The Ultimate Unlikely Hunters: This backstory will involve Grimm and Crimson’s unusual infliction and conditions. They were both experiments under Rivers research team in the beginning. Having been weak monsters as children unable to gain any LV they had to think of a way to survive. They did not seem to possess the ability to wield magic. Tired, injured, and without hope Papyrus carried his baby brother all the way to Windyspires banging weakly on the metal plated doors. The Royal scientist at the time, Dr. River Styx, took the boys in. River cares about the two brothers and he gives them a choice if they want to become stronger as their souls are not capable of it on their own. Grimm takes the offer hoping it will save his baby brother offering to be the first test subject.  At the time Undyne was nothing but a teenage prodigy lab tech watching the events of soul manipulation take place. At first the process works. Pap is able to conjure new bone like attacks with magic and all seems to be well. The results cause River to start the experiment on Sans next. By this time complications have already begun to show signs. Pap seems to be more short tempered and aggressive even with little things. His mood swings cause him to lock himself up being monitored day by day. 

Sans has never seen his gentle brother this aggressive before forcing himself to look away as they have to strap him down for a follow up experiment. He tries to help his brother the best he can and takes on the older brother role due to Pap’s inability to think clearly. Even he is starting to change. The longer this situation continues the more Sans becomes numb to the feeling. That is until one day Pap’s condition takes a turn for the worse causing him to lash out, bones shifting and elongating. He drops to the ground in agony transforming into a skeletal beast like wolf tearing the entire lab apart.  Sans on the other hand continues to take care of his brother but he too is feeling some strange side effects to the soul manipulation. It turns out that each monster’s ancestry buried deep within their soul draws upon a primal power. Not all monsters were about love and compassion in the beginning. Bringing this primal trait to the surface causes adverse physical and biological changes within the two. Sans is more gradual as he starts to be in immense pain. His soul struggles to keep itself together but even he snaps lunging at a lab tech. He zeros in on their soul pulling it from their chest and sinking his teeth into it, draining it of its life force. The pain is suddenly gone. He realizes that he needs souls essence and power to keep that hunger/thirst at bay. It gives him extraordinary abilities. He remembers a long time ago reading about a monster that humans had such a fear of, the vampire.  As he comes into power he realizes that humans concentrated soul traits are even better than monster souls. The blood has a high concentration of soul essence which sustains humans as well as monsters (yes the monsters bleed in this). His brother learns to control this new beast within himself but not before he nearly claws his brothers socket out, hence the signature scar. Crimson has scars on his entire body from trying to reason with his once feral brother. They slowly work their way up to eventually ruling the second most powerful kingdom in the entire Underworld with exception to The Capitol. The constant hunts keep both the brothers conditions satisfied. No one is quite sure how the two skeleton brothers became this way after River’s disappearance, all except Undyne.       

*This is just to get started! If you have any questions about the characters, how the world works, the layout, story, any of that go ahead and drop me an ask I would love to answer them!*

[natuolicityfan]

Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards) started out as most women do in the comic book world – as a side story. Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) was the egotistical yet charming womanizer, a familiar superhero type. Felicity was the rambling computer nerd who was drawn to his mystery and cause. Their first meeting consisted of him chucking a bullet-ridden laptop on her desk before blaming a latte spill for the damage. The pair’s relationship would go on in that vein for a while: Oliver coming to her for help with his secret vigilante side job and Felicity using her STEM background to unknowingly put away some of the city’s worst criminals. Eventually, Felicity clued into Oliver’s double life and chose to join him and his partner, John Diggle (David Ramsey), in their quest to protect Starling City.

But over the seasons, Felicity morphed into something more than just Oliver’s techie sidekick – a played-out cliché in the superhero verse. The series molded her into a fully rounded character, one with agency and abilities that didn’t come courtesy of a cape.

The show that began as a bro-laden ode to everything a comic book TV series should be – fast cars, bulked up men, action, violence, and vigilantism – ended up giving us one of the most complex, realistic, and role-model worthy female superheroes on the small screen, and they didn’t have to dress her up in spandex to do it.

In the early days, Arrow placed Felicity on a kind of pedestal. While the show’s hero could reliably be found brooding in his knockoff Batcave over having to kill bad men, Felicity was his antithesis, a woman with brains and a bubbly personality. She infused humor and wit into the show but also seemed to sport a moral compass that never wavered. While Oliver and Diggle fueled the action, battling villains, infiltrating criminal networks, and littering Starling City with green arrows, Felicity stayed behind the scenes, guiding them by hacking into secure servers, breaching firewalls, and dismantling bombs.

Yet even early on she served as the show’s way of flipping the “geek gets girl” trope on its gender-confined head but more importantly, she was a female character of worth, one slowly developing her own story that didn’t solely hinge on being the love interest of the man saving the world. Though she nursed an affection for Oliver, she was refreshingly unconcerned with catering to him, often challenging him to abandon his black and white view of the dangerous criminals he pursued. And over the course of five seasons, Felicity helped Oliver, Diggle, and the team of vigilantes they would come to work with take down kingpins, mobsters, cyber terrorists, serial killers, super soldiers, and the League of Assassins, and she did it all without a hood or a mask.

For a series that began after the world discovered it loved watching billionaire playboys dress up in spandex to fight crime – thanks Batman, Iron Man, The Green Hornet – the decision to devote entire episodes and season-long storylines to the development of a supporting female character that was meant to last for just one season — Rickards has gone on the record, sharing that she initially auditioned for just one episode, but fan response kept getting her episode call backs — said a lot about the show and its commitment to an audience that didn’t originate from the comic book fandom.

Arrow was the CW’s way to draw in an older male crowd. The network’s bread and butter up until the show’s premiere had been teen romance and vampire drama. They wanted to age with their audience and widen their fan base and nothing does that quite like comic book heroes. The show’s second season midseason finale boasted the CW’s largest male viewership in the 18-34 age demographic, but despite drawing in legions of male DC fans, but the network’s demographics haven’t changed all that much: It’s still catering to a large female base. With the addition of fellow comic book fare like The Flashand Supergirl, the network discovered that the superhero genre had pull with young women too. That means we get to see more of Amell’s washboard abs on display as he climbs the salmon ladder, but we’re also getting characters like Felicity that might not have existed otherwise. A Jewish computer geek isn’t the traditional love interest, let alone superhero, but fan response to the character and her arc over the first three seasons meant Felicity slowly creeped into the spotlight.

In the season three installment “The Secret Origin of Felicity Smoak,” the show dedicated an entire episode to her back story. Raised by a single mom who worked as a cocktail waitress in Vegas, Felicity overcame setbacks and circumstance to go to college, graduate from MIT and work in a field dominated by men. She was reckless and impulsive, had a criminal for a father, and blamed herself for her ex-boyfriend’s supposed suicide.

The episode took what had been a hollow caricature of what a strong female lead should look like and made her deserving of the title. It gave her dimension and purpose: Felicity wasn’t relentlessly optimistic because her archetype was “bubbly blonde comedic relief;” she was hopeful because she had been through devastating situations and emerged better and wiser for them. After three seasons of watching Oliver struggle to accept his own flaws and responsibilities, to finally get a glimpse of the woman who offered him her unwavering support was a welcome change.

In seasons four and five, Arrow chose to expand the character further, having her face trial after trial while pursuing a romantic relationship with Oliver. Sure, that romance often hindered the storytelling — it also caused a legion of male fans to spew hate on the internet (there’s an actual “F*ck Felicity” forum on Reddit if you’d like to check it out) — but it did provide an opportunity for Felicity to gain more agency over her own storyline.

In the past two seasons, Felicity has been paralyzed, broken up with her fiancé, experienced great loss when her boyfriend was murdered, and failed to stop a nuclear bomb from exploding. None of these plotlines were handled particularly well — in fact, the way the writers chose to “solve” Felicity’s handicap in season four was downright offensive — but let’s pause for a moment to appreciate the fact that though Felicity suffered a major setback by being paralyzed, she still held onto her wit and enthusiasm for helping others; though she lost the love of her life, she still decided to stand by him, help him recreate a new Team Arrow and take down the man responsible for torturing him.

The show’s fifth season marks a return to what made Arrow great the first time around. New players have been introduced, a promising villain has caused problems for our hero, and romantic triangles aren’t sucking the life from otherwise intriguing premises. For her part, Felicity has morphed from the cheerful, dependable girl-next-door she was introduced as in season one to a woman hellbent on revenge, making questionable decisions to protect the people she cares about, and using her own talents to bring down the bad guys. In a way, she’s become what Oliver began as.

For some, this change in character might chafe. The comic books fans who want to see more of Oliver kicking ass and taking names see the amount of screen time devoted to a female character’s development as unnecessary. For them, Felicity pulls focus from the hero – it’s inconceivable that she might just be one — and if she isn’t fulfilling her role of being the beautiful blonde with a sassy mouth and short skirt, she’s unnecessary to the story. They don’t want the promise of more romantic entanglements, they want action For that other subset, the Olicity shippers, seeing Felicity go down such a dark path sparks fear. The chance for Felicity and Oliver to reconcile and resume their relationship is still very much alive and the farther Felicity strays from the woman we met in season one, the more distant that particular fantasy becomes – underground bunkers aside.But it’s not romance or her skewed morality that’s the problem, it’s the idea that Felicity can only be one of two things: a love interest or a prop. In both cases, she only has value because of her relationship to a male character, Oliver. Instead, what the show is trying to do, what it’s been doing since the beginning, is giving us a layered character, a complex woman who can be right and wrong, lovable at times and easy to hate at others, filled with the desire to do good but doomed by the probability she’ll end up making the wrong decisions in order to accomplish her goal.In that way, Felicity has become the most realistic (and relatable) superhero on the show. She’s not infused with metahuman abilities like Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) on The Flash. She doesn’t come from another planet like Kara Danvers (Melissa Benoist) on Supergirl, or drive a time machine like the team on Legends of Tomorrow. She can’t fight particularly well, shoot arrows worth a damn, or crawl through the streets at night in a cloaked get-up complete with an alter-ego, but she’s better for her perceived lack of powers.As we’re treated to more and more comic book superheroes on the big and small screen, diversity matters, and not just in terms of race, gender, and sexual orientation of characters but in the value they bring to the table. Watching someone like the Green Arrow battle evil in the world with a team of supernaturally gifted friends, an arsenal of cool gadgets, and highly stylized martial arts skills, is fun. Watching Felicity risk and sacrifice for the greater good and those she loves, making a difference using her unique gifts — her wits, her tenacity, and her perseverance — is empowering, inspiring, and real. She’s what a superhero shoud be.

[starcourtscream]

ist of rp favorites and least favorites ! / repost, do not reblog. tagged by.  @voidworn tagging. @vanishcd @strifexchaos @facetiious @ofsollicitudo @angrybabybeta @yourwxr @imworthfivedollars @goodwithabat & anyone else who wants to !!!

first name:  stephanie favorite fcs to play:  holland roden, indiana evans, brooke shields, hilary duff favorite ship you’ve ever had: honestly stydia, voidia, lydia x dexter ( @strifexchaos ), malydia favorite fandom you’ve been in: teen wolf, stranger things favorite song to give you muse:  usually anything by stevie nicks/fleetwood mac, idk why. least favorite fcs to play/play against: uhhh... magcon people i guess? lol least favorite rp experience: oh wow um. okay, listen --- this is gonna be a lot but someone needs to talk about the darker and uglier side of the rp community --- probably blacklisted by an entire clique because of rumors and accusations, sent ‘anon’ hate and direct hate from some immature brats who couldn’t handle my fave ships and bullied me about shipping them, gotten bullied over fluffy content, had partners not be real with me and fake ships they didn’t like/force chemistry to use me for activity... but what hurt me most was being replaced by a duplicate and told so by the other party when they used to say they loved me and i was their favorite and considered me their main lydia. i was honored, but mysteriously everything changed because they said they changed and pretty much dumped me for not being ‘fancy’ enough. look, please don’t do that okay ??? that affected me to where i’ve become quieter, more withdrawn and afraid to reach out to people due to fear of annoying them/getting lashed out at. i’m sometimes afraid to reblog content involving my favorite ships now because apparently in 2k17 ship shaming and ostracism/shunning is a thing and it did lose me some popularity. i’ve noticed and i’m upset about that for such a ‘progressive’ and politically correct fandom. then there’s the astronomical levels of inequality when it comes to the treatment of female muses. yes, unfortunately, it exists. least favorite genre of writing: i’m down with everything, but i won’t write anything drastically out-of-character or in a realm i personally feel lydia doesn’t belong in. i just don’t like putting her in scenarios that don’t make sense for her character or that contradict with who she is. i don’t like to write her with feelings she doesn’t have or force anything wildly uncharacteristic of her and i realize sometimes certain alterations are necessary in the name of angst but yeah... i’m really not a fan of that, thanks. my lydia is essentially lydia, not a mish-mash of whatever the situation calls for so the situation can persist. i just want to give her 100% authenticity. least favorite fandom you’ve been in: the vampire diaries... rip. least favorite thing people assume about your character: that she’s a ‘snake’ ( just because *gasp* someone had feelings for her since the actual pilot and always did even though another ship happened along the way !!! it’s not her fault !!! ) who ‘steals boyfriends’ ( listen honey, she got her man fair and square after an established breakup ) and doesn’t care about other peoples’ feelings ( i hate that one so very much ), that she’s selfish and narcissistic/egotistical and ‘cries too much’ with no real development ??? what eveN ??? EXCUSE ME ARE WE INVALIDATING A WOMAN’S EMOTIONAL SPECTRUM ??? **okay go back and watch the show. all six seasons, pay attention to why she was the way she was in s1-2 and how she was actually protecting her heart and her feelings even though she cared deeply for other people and just didn’t want to make herself vulnerable enough to be hurt again and how she would die for pretty much everyone around her now, then come back and fight me. i s2g i’m gonna make a powerpoint of why most lydia antis are wrong lmao. other characters you’d like to play: ocs, eleven, emmeline from the blue lagoon (80′s) ...idk because i’m not really in a ton of fandoms anymore since tw owns my soul

and, for the bonus round, bold whatever rp-related things appeal to you from the list below!

muse preferences: females / males /canons / ocs / corrupted / good / live action / animated /human / supernatural /other species / hopeless romantic / averse to love / younger (15-25) / older (25+)/ easy for you to relate to / hard for you to relate to.

plot ideas: accidentally married / affairs /age gaps / angst / apocalypse / arranged marriage / boarding school / college roommates/ criminals / enemies to lovers / enemies with benefits / exes / fake relationship / fluff /forbidden relationship / friends with benefits / online relationships / pregnancy / prison/ professor/student / road trips / rich kids / royalty /smut / supernatural / toxic relationships.

possible triggers in plots you’re okay with: abuse / bdsm / daddy kink / drinking /drugs / dub-con / gore / incest /kidnapping / murder / non-con /prostitution / stepcest / stockholm syndrome / torture.  i’m not really triggered by any of these but ??? a lot of these are irrelevant to lydia and uninteresting to me tbh.