#everyone was in character costume and I was keenly aware that it was just me and my boxers and I was str-essed

[novelconcepts]

It’s not that I enjoy my usual anxiety dreams of “back in school, forgot to go to a class all semester, and now the final is happening”.

But I DO find it vastly preferable to “got tossed onstage in a play I don’t know and am expected to act my face off”, so…let’s just…run that back.

[plussizefantasia]

Shaggy and Velma

Flufftober Day 25: Costume Party

Peter Parker x f!reader

Word Count 1.0k

AN: I have officially finished writing all of my prompts for Flufftober, I'll be proofreading the last few before I post them. The problem is, I've really enjoyed all the writing I've been doing and how much everyone has liked my stories. So I want to ask for some requests that I can write after my short break! If you could send a request that would be amazing. As always, Reblogs and Feedback are really appreciated, and I'll see y'all tomorrow!

divider credit @royallaesthetics

“I am not wearing that.” You deadpanned at Peter who was smiling toothily at you. In his hands, he held one of those awful foam costumes, a matching set. “I am not wearing a piece of foam that makes me look like jelly on toast, not to a party.” You didn’t think that gaveling a couple's costume was a bad idea you thought it might be fun but you drew the line at food.

“C’mon Babe, match with me.” He encoded his strongest pair of puppy dog eyes and aimed them right at you.

“I will match with you, just not as PB and J” you laughed. “What about Shaggy and Velma.”

“Who would be who?” He asked.

“We’ll you’re the smart one so you’ll probably be Velma and I look good in green so I’ll be shaggy.” You shrugged.

“Do they even make male Velma costumes?” Peter began scanning the store for a gender-bent version of the character. 

“Probably not but we could always go to the thrift store.” You suggested

And so you did, two hours and the thrift shops later you had your costumes for the costume party on the NYC campus that your roommate had invited you to.

Parties weren’t your thing but when you had told Peter about it, he had gotten excited. “I’ve never been to a college party, or a Halloween party, or any kind of party that wasn’t a birthday party.” So you cast aside your desire for a cozy night in with your boyfriend, watching movies in spooky pajamas and eating candy that you go from the gas station. You went costume shopping with your dork and basked in the joy that radiated from him all day.

Now, the two of you were about a block away from the party, you’d decided to walk, partially because you didn’t have a car and partially because you wanted to be able to check out other people’s costumes on the way. “Do you think people will know who we are?” Peter asked you. You looked down at yourself, wearing a short corduroy mini skirt and a green top tucked into the waistband, along with a pair of old brown dress shoes you usually saved for special and formal occasions. Then your gaze landed on Peter, you were surprised that you had found the orange turtleneck right away but it fit him well. He also wore a pair of red jeans that you had to force him into a pair of glasses that you popped the lenses out of.

“I’m sure baby, we’re killing it right now.”

“We are, aren’t we?” Peters's voice got soft and he looked at you. He placed a kiss on your temple and kept walking. 

When you arrived at the warehouse the party was at, it was obvious that most of the people there were not in college. Party crashes weren’t rare, but it did mean that Peter would need to keep a close eye on you. This many strangers in one place was bound to be trouble. You had made him promise that he wouldn’t be Spider-Man tonight, that was your condition for going to the party at all.

“I’m not going if you’re going to have to race out of there right away and leave me there.” He agreed it was fair after all, you hadn’t wanted to go, so leaving you alone wasn’t the nicest thing he could do.

So instead, he danced with you, he held you close and he laughed with you when you saw funny costumes. Multiple people complimented you on the outfits you were wearing and every time it happened you watched Peter perk up just a little bit.

As the night wore on, you got a little sloppier, not drunk. You wouldn’t get wasted when you were so keenly aware of how many people you didn’t know and how far from home you were. But you were loose and Peter wasn’t. It’s not like he didn’t have anything to drink, he just metabolized it way too fast.

By three a.m. the party still hadn’t wound down, but as Peter watched you yawn and lean on him a little more than usual he decided that it was time to go.

“Wanna go home, babe? Put in our PJs and watch a movie?” You eagerly nodded and grabbed onto his hand. 

It wasn’t easy getting you home, you seemed to trip on every little thing and had a serious case of the giggles but eventually the two of you made it back to his apartment. Peter helped you up the stairs and in past his door. When your eyes landed on his couch you groaned pleasantly and flopped down onto it. Burying your head in the throw pillows you had bought.

“C’mon babe, we gotta brush our teeth and change into PJs”

“Don’t wanna, comfortable”

“I know babe, but you’ll be mad at me tomorrow for not making you do some sort of routine.”

Even tipsy you knew that you would want to take off your makeup before you went to bed, so even though you groaned and whined the whole time, you let Peter help you take your makeup off, and brush your teeth and hair. 

Peter gently guided you into the bedroom where he pulled out the Halloween PJs you had bought for the two of you before you knew that you were going to the party. He helped you into them, his eyes never starting from your face as he did.

When all your routines were done and you were ready for bed, Peter pulled you to his side and kissed your head like he always did before you fell asleep.

“Thank you for coming with me Shaggy,” you laughed.

“You’re welcome, Velma” was your deeply sleepy response, as soon as the words left your mouth, your eyes shut and you fell asleep immediately.

[luna-rainbow]

Hi there. 👋

What's your opinion on the characterization of Zemo between TFATWS and Civil War? Not being an avid watcher of the mcu myself before seeing TFATWS, I didn't even recognize Zemo from Civil War until my friend told me they were the same person. On a rewatch, they don't at all seem like the same person, despite being played by the same actor.

There's 3 Zemo-related asks sitting in my inbox so I'm going to answer them in canon-chronology order. I know a lot of my mutuals aren't fond of Zemo, so feel free to skip.

Honestly there is not a single character whose characterisation stayed consistent between the movies and TFATWS.

Personally I really liked CACW!Zemo as a character, his plan's many loopholes aside. His goal and motivation were tangible, logical and had personal significance. He was keenly aware of both the ethical and legal transgressions of his actions, but did them nevertheless. Part of it was Daniel Bruhl's very sympathetic delivery of his lines -- soft-spoken, slightly rueful, but unwavering as he drilled through people's defences. There is also specific meaning I read into his character which...might be me over-reaching, but added to my disappointment in TFATWS.

I read that TFATWS!Zemo is apparently more like his comics counterpart, but to me he seems more generically MCU than the man we saw in CACW.

EDITED BECAUSE TUMBLR SWALLOWED MY PRE-PUBLISH EDIT GRR.

CACW!Zemo was framed as an Everyman. His first scene opens with its focus on Karpov while the flustered voice of a faceless passerby outside apologises for crashing his car. The next thing Karpov knew was he was getting waterboarded.

That was Zemo's defining characteristic (say what you will about M&M but they did their character introductions right) -- his ability to appear affably ordinary. Not only did he fool Karpov, he also fooled the psychologist, snuck into the German compound and then out of it into Siberia. This trait is backed up by his costuming - he spends the entire movie in unassuming dark clothes, neatly dressed but utilitarian and unremarkable. Compare this with his furry cloak and form-fitting turtle-necks (?) in TFATWS that screams for unnecessary attention.

His second key characteristic is his ability to read people -- and dare I say -- empathise. Noticeably, there's almost always one line in his exchanges with other characters where he swiftly picks their emotional weakness.

To Karpov: You'd only be dying for your pride. To Bucky: You fear that if you open your mouth, the horrors might never stop. To Steve: How nice to find a flaw. To T'Challa: I'm sorry about your father.

More importantly, he doesn't just have a shrewd grasp on the mentality of people, he's also incisive about the flaws of the world and himself. He frankly admits that he's not here to change the world to fit his ideal, it's simply because he's made a personal promise to his family and he was dragging everyone down to hell with him because he could no longer fulfill that promise.

For me, the two lines that added nuance to his character were:

Sokovia was a failed state long before you blew it to hell.

An empire toppled by its enemies can rise again. But one which crumbles from within? That's dead... forever.

The second line was foreshadowing what Steve and Tony were about to watch, but I've always read it as also a callback to the first line about Sokovia. His pain came from the helplessness of watching Sokovia crumble from within — Hydra had set up camp inside Sokovia, which made it fall apart long before the Avengers took notice, and resulted in it being quickly cannibalised by surrounding nations. Zemo and the other Sokovians didn't try to rebuild, because they knew the country had already died (I have to say this is kudos to Bruhl's delivery of the line "I lost everything, and so will you" because he said it with so much grief). Ultron was simply the final nail in the coffin, but it came too soon. Zemo wanted to bring the same pain to the Avengers, who were also falling apart, and that video was going to be their final nail.

Next, Zemo's background: in CACW he was Sokovian Special Ops. He had tools and resources that a trained man good at his job would have access to, and not from the cartoonishly obscene assets and network he's shown to have in TFATWS.

To Karpov: When S.H.I.E.L.D. fell, Black Widow released Hydra files to the public. Millions of pages. Much of it encrypted, not easy to decipher, but I have experience... and patience. To Steve: I've thought about nothing else for over a year. I studied you, I followed you.

Zemo's shown to achieve his goal through the hard work of an obsessive but not-extraordinary professional, rather than via the privileges of having a personal butler and private jets and beautiful estates. Zemo's goal was also the tangible and personal goal of a father dealing with the loss of his family and nation; not the vague and grandiose goals of...I dunno, fighting ill-defined "supremacy".

The thing is, that might have been true for CACW!Zemo, who took on an entity that symbolised privilege and oppression. The Avengers were a metaphor for American interventionalism. They swoop in and dismantle the threat, but then what? They go home, but the people they've "saved" have nothing left to live for or live on.

To paraphrase a line from a Jdrama I'm currently watching about Japan on the brink of destruction -- "You think your job is done when you save these people's lives. My job is to ensure they still have something to live for."

Zemo's beef was the arrogance of a group of technologically superior people, using their vastly more abundant resources, to concoct a "protection" that Sokovia neither asked for nor needed. Protected by the power imbalance between the US and Sokovia, they had no way of recourse, then as the US lost interest, other countries and the UN watched apathetically as Sokovia was swallowed up by its neighbours.

Like my other post about Sam -- Zemo's stance in CACW was anti-establishment. Zemo was the ultimate Underdog who tricked the US government, CIA, the UN, multiple governments, the Avengers, all of whom were in his view domineering and in some way complicit in the downfall of Sokovia. This was "the empire" that he wanted to make fall - the powerful countries who collude to protect their own interests, leaving poorer countries scrabbling for scraps. Though the conflict was centered on the Avengers, his attacks disrupted the trust first world countries had in each other.

I'm sure other people might read it differently, but to me, Zemo was the determined Everyman who brought the "gods" to their knees.

This is why TFATWS!Zemo made no sense to me. His Everyman status was wiped to make room for a rich privileged baron. His modest pragmatism is redecorated with flair and flourish. His canon grief and trauma, like Sam's, are completely absent.

His empathy - like every single TFATWS character - no longer exists. When faced with a desperate young woman threatened with the loss of her home and her found family, hunted by rich countries protecting their own assets, who has taken matters into her own hands and taking on the "gods" of her world...TFATWS!Zemo is blind to her pain and instead mocks her for being a "supremacist". What the actual bollocks.

TFATWS has reversed everything he stood for. He is now rich and privileged; he pontificates about the supremacy of super soldiers but acts to protect the superiority of wealthy countries; he's focused on eliminating Karli as an enhanced individual instead of using his aptitude at seeing the bigger picture, of a world that needs a champion for the poorer folk.

Almost uniformly, the reframing in TFATWS has made the characters into advocates of protecting the status quo...when previously they had each been fighting against or victims of the establishment. Zemo is now the antithesis of who he had been, but the narrative tries to convince us this is better.

[kryptsune]

Hi you are an amazing writer i was wondering if you have any tips on salvaging a story that was derailed by a brain fart cause uh i was writing a short story that turned out to be longer and harder to read for anyone thats not myself and now i cant barely look at it... so can i have tips or advice please?

🌼Sorry for the late reply on this I wanted to be able to take the time to give you my own personal advice. First of all, thank you for the kind words :D I am so happy that you enjoy my writing. 

Tips tips tips. Well, there are a couple of things you can do and I have personally done myself. If you feel as though a story has gotten out of hand there is nothing wrong with that at all. I never planned to have either Felldritch or Wonderfell having their own fics in the first place but I enjoy writing for them so much that it was a logical progression. It is difficult for me to assess your personal investment in the project and from what I am reading it seems you no longer are passionate about it?  The truth of the matter is that writing has to be something you enjoy in order to do stories. Sure you can pump out chapter after chapter but it won’t have that spark and why would you put yourself through that suffering in the first place? Sometimes stories are hard to read for others just because of their personality. I have a lot of friends that enjoy my work but haven’t read the story because it is massive. That is something I am keenly aware of often. Welcome to the Underworld is not for the faint of heart or for casual readers and I understand that. It’s not for everyone. I appreciate it when people at least try, however, it is a good way for me to gauge interest at the very least. 

I will break this into 3 parts. The first will be revaluating your current story/project and the second will be things you can do that might make it easier for your readers if you still feel you want to continue it and lastly what you can do to possibly get that passion back if so you can “look at it again.” 1. Evaluating your project: As artists and creatives, we tend to latch onto our work because we put our own personal investment into it. I usually use the analogy that it is like our child and it can be difficult to care for sometimes and yet rewarding at others. This is the first thing you want to do if you are working on a project. Always evaluate. Do you enjoy it anymore?  Do you feel stuck? Is it just not going the way you want it to? Writer's block maybe? All of these can be factors into why you may not enjoy it any longer. 

I felt this with WTU for the longest time and now looking back on it...it was for the wrong reasons. I felt that no one wanted to read it after hours upon hours of writing and editing. It made me sad and I didn’t understand why. The thing is I have changed my mindset when it comes to this. It is hard for me to accurately gauge who reads my work without some kind of feedback but I have a goal. I set out to write an extensive and world built Fell verse and I am going to do it. It’s important to me and it is rewarding just to know that I can do a project as large as the three acts of WTU. Ask yourself why are you writing the story? What are your roadblocks? This will help you come to a decision. 

2. Easing the Readers: If you read my writing you will notice I have a tendency to write a fair bit. Every chapter of WTU ranges from about 15-20 pages of text 11 point font in google docs. That is a lot. I actually have not gone and calculated the word count on it but yeah, a lot. There are simple things you can do however to make the reading a little more digestible for people. 

a. Formating: I never had a problem with reading large blocks of text. That was how I was taught in middle and high school. That said others struggle with large blocks because it makes it difficult to read from a visual perspective (the irony that I am using block text right now). What you can do is break up your paragraphs more often. I have started to do this with older WTU chapters seeing as there are a lot of text blocks. It is a simple and relatively hassle-free way to make it easier. 

b. Pacing: I am by no means the expert of fics however there are some things that I notice in fics that tend to pop up quite frequently. I am not saying to change these things by any means but to evaluate and possibly adjust when needed. PACING. I can’t tell you how many stories I have read with poor or confusing pacing. What I mean by this is that the story is either holding too long in a certain scene or there is no breathing room. WTU and a lot of my fics have dark undertones to them which creates drama and emotional payoff, however, doing this constantly and throwing problem after problem into a story is hard to swallow. The readers need a break. This can be anything from levity to simple character interactions. Not everything is fights or angst. 

This also goes for fics that have none of the former as well. There are so many that are a slice of life and that is fine! Enjoy your cute fluffy fics that said if there is no conflict then what is the point of continuing to read the story? What is holding my investment? Sure the characters can be written well but the point of storytelling is connection. A perfect butterflies and rainbows story is all well and good but you can’t connect to it. That is not how life is. (I am pontificating a little bit but I am honestly really tired of having to explain to people that my fics are M for a reason. No NSFW stuff but rather real-life mental and psychological and emotional situations.)

c. Characters: This kind of also ties into what I was talking about before. A flawless character... is a boring one. Some of peoples favorite characters are the villains, why? Because unlike their heroic counterparts they feel real. They go through things and make their own path. If they just chose differently then things would be different. A lot of times (and no offense to fandom) I find that people make stereotypes of a character. It’s all surface-level stuff. Think about what makes you, you. What have you gone through that causes you to think a certain way or react to things? Our lives are made up of experiences and moments and characters are the exact same way. Most don’t realize this since I hint it throughout the story but everything tells a story. The character's costumes tell a story whether that be the place they live of their own personal style. Why does my Red wear a collar with a seemingly half-broken, fused, and burned chain link? I don’t know... you tell me. 

It’s a storytelling technique called breadcrumbing. This is used to hint to some sort of plot or payoff. A foreshadowing at times. It is an incredibly useful and engaging tool if done properly. I would use my “why does Red do what he does” example but its been beaten to death so I will use Boss as my example instead.   

Boss is the Head of Royal Guard having bested Undyne a long time ago but not everyone was happy with the change of the Guard and that is communicated in character dialogue. In fact, you can use this method to hint to character connections as well. Boss has claw marks in both his scarf and his left eye socket. So.... who could do that kind of damage? If you have read the story *mild Snowdin spoiler* Frisk meets Doggo. An Australian cattle dog-wolf mix that has no love for the current Captain. He was tossed out of the Royal Guard after altercation... maybe attacking a certain lanky skeleton perhaps? It’s not directly stated but certain visual ques could lead someone to that kind of assumption. 

Intertwine your characters, their relationships, their life events. All of this will create far more dynamic storytelling and investment.

d. Planning: Returning back to potential writers' block... I find that something that personally helps me is outlining. I have all of my stories planned out from beginning to end while the middle can be moved around accordingly. That said in every single chapter I outline the main points I want to communicate. It helps with the organization but also keeping your thoughts on track. If you feel you need an extra chapter for character development then you can totally plan that out. Don’t be afraid to change things. It’s your story do what you feel is best for it! 

e. Editors/betas/outside eyes: This is a huge one and can be a little challenging at first. It is helpful to have others look at the work. Those that you trust. Have them look for grammar or even pacing and character inconsistencies. It can be hard to get a critique on your work that you love so much however this makes you far better writer IF IT COMES FROM A REPUTABLE SOURCE. 

I need to clarify this as you cannot please everyone. I have rejected critiques from my beta readers in the past, not because I think I know better but because even they can’t account for your overall thought process. What they think is superfluous may come to have a payoff later on and it needs to be in there for that payoff. That can be anything from character development to plot.  You have to be strong in your conviction. Say yes and no when appropriate and always be kind to your readers. They are taking time out of their lives to help you with your work. The same goes for the betas. Be respectful and kind when giving CONSTRUCTIVE feedback and don’t be offended when the author does not agree. 

3. Breaking the Block: Breaking any kind of block is not easy. In fact, it is a constant nuisance in any creative field. That said there are some simple things that you can do to help. The best example I can give is taking a break. That can range from person to person but generally, sometimes you work on something for so long you need to set it aside and look at it with fresh and new eyes. It is ok to take breaks, hiatus, or just work on something else for your own mental well being. Here are a few things you can do to utilize your break effectively.  a. Don’t even look at it: Some people just need to get away from it all which is totally understandable. I would be farther along in my own fics if I did not break so much but I am determined to put my best foot forward even if it takes me longer. I am also an artist in the drawing and painting sense so I juggle that as well. If you notice my blog right now there has not been much going on in the way of writing because I’ve switched gears. There is nothing wrong with that but I pick my battles. 

b. Work on another project: There is nothing wrong with working on something else just for a change of pace. We are not machines and therefore monotony breeds complacency or burn out in this case. One of the reasons I have 2 other fics is because sometimes I hop from project to project. I know not everyone can mentally do that but it helps me recharge for the main project that I feel worn out on. 

People have also been wondering where TLC (Tender Love and Care) my Red X Frisk fic has been. The truth is that fic is my downtime fic. I do it when I am able to. In fact, as I work on my multiverse boys references lately I have been working on the second chapter of TLC because its a nice change of pace from doing something like Felldritch or the other two.

c. A little at a time:  Any type of project can be overwhelming so taking chunks of it at a time helps compartmentalize it a little easier. Try to write as much as you can a day. It’s not much but by the end of the week, boom, your chapter is done. 

You shouldn’t push yourself or beat yourself up either. I find that I always feel guilty about taking some leisure time because I could be creating more content but that’s unhealthy. Take the time you need and enjoy your games or books. I personally am enjoying the heck out of Animal Crossing right now. 

All in all, I hope some of these tips help a little. Since I do not know what you are working on or why you feel the way you do about it. It is hard for me to give direct advice. What I can say out of all of this is enjoy what you are making. Enjoy the journey and the process. At the end of the day, it is your investment and if you don’t enjoy it what is the point?

 It is nice to get feedback on things, trust me I know sometimes it feels like pulling teeth, and there are clear signs of burn out. We are not art machines, give it some time, reflect, evaluate, and you will find your way. If you really want me to dig deeper to give you specific con crit advice then you are free to DM me. My ask box is also always open! 

[voidvoyeur]

some phat ass meta nobody asked for that i cba to come up with a title for rn.

one of the best analogies i’ve heard applied to michael’s character is that he embodies a camera, and i don’t just mean this in way of his voyeuristic and invasive surveillance of haddonfield (established from the very beginning with the audience looking through his eyes), but how his character is directed in halloween as a personification of the cinematic make-up that serves the purpose of horror: setting, shot composition, editing, costuming, lighting & colour, all that film theory stuff. everything about the film is composed in order to cause suspense and ultimately terrify the audience, ‘everyone’s entitled to one good scare’  but the force of nature within it -- a.k.a. fear is directly projected through his figure by his recording of his victims, and in extension, his role as the embodiment of cinematic fear is exposed by laurie.

one moment where this is exemplified is when laurie sees him staring at her from her bedroom window and the camera shot alternates between the two characters, her face in medium close-up and his figure being watched from her perspective from a high angle. these shots remain the same as the camera passes the audience’s attention between looking at laurie, then laurie’s POV looking at michael, back at laurie ------------- then through laurie’s POV of michael no longer being within her sight, as if he was never there or even edits himself out of the shot. the reason i put that elongated hyphen is because michael disappears within that unseen space, and us AND laurie not being able to see that is where the fear & horror lies.

i also think this is why laurie is so successful as an empathetic audience proxy protagonist. while it is a trope that the final girl in slashers has a sixth sense for the foreboding threat of the slasher villain, there is another dimension with her in which she can recognise -- in her consistent visual recognition of michael -- the filmic devices of suspense itself, and her reaction to them is the same horror as the audience.

this is  what i feel distinguishes halloween from slashers that followed, in that it is so keenly self-aware of HOW it wants to achieve fear within a modern context, and it does this by not establishing michael in one solid interpretation but by enacting a symbol who represents a myriad of possible meanings (the most prominent in the film being loomis’ ‘he’s evil!!’ monologues, but on the meta level i prioritise -- as horror film devices itself). the explanation & exploration of michael having some kind of supernatural element (eg. curse of thorn narrative) never really worked for me, but neither do entirely pschologically based interpretations that consider him wholly human (rob zorb). i often find when writing him that i try to keep him in a space of objective ambiguity where his name as The Shape is enforced, in that he exists as a liminal shape.  

liminality is a concept i’m ridic obsessed with... the term itself boils down to what is ‘inbetween’  so like .. concrete analogies being purgatory or stopping at a service station on a road trip or the within of ‘within the blink of an eye’. often it’s applied to transformative experiences such as adolescence and coming-of-age narratives -- and the cast of characters in halloween being this age only amplifies michael’s function all the more. michael’s character only exists as a catalyst and dictator for other’s transformation. in most cases this in his taking of people’s lives, bringing them to their death, or in the case of laurie -- the perpetration of the trauma she suffers through and fights against, resulting in her breakdown at the end of the first film BUT THEN her triumph at the end of the 2018 sequel. 

what i love love LOVE is that we never see visual evidence of michael having this same personal degree of transformation -- only the smallest semblance through his mask. when he is a child, we are pulled out of his perspective when he is being unmasked thus witnessing his identity as a child who has murdered his sister. we don’t see him experience adolescence. the next time we see his face, he is now an adult and wears the white william shatner mask.. but we never see the actual process of him putting it on UNTIL laurie rips it off him. i like to see this as laurie unveiling his identity for the symbolic device of fear within the film that he is, but it is also significant in that only she, as someone who recognised his function (refer to paragraph 2 & 3) is able to offer him that. any sign that michael experiences a transformation is in the matter of a second, whereas laurie’s transformation carries through as the crux of the majority of the film’s run-time.

i think h2018 did a Pretty Good Job of addressing this theme, especially the mask in only relying on fragmented close-ups of michael’s unmasked face. and while it connotes a degree of psychoanalytical motivation in michael actively preferring to be perceived as a masked identity in a much more slow and deliberate way (masking at gas station). it’s less so in this film that laurie unveils him but instead, experiencing the trauma she has, her instinctive response when first seeing his face is to destroy its reflection -- making it clear that she wants to dictate the conditions of any transformation for him by destroying any potential for it  --- in retaliation to the way he dictated hers in the first film. 

halloween is as much laurie’s franchise as it is michael’s. the theme song itself, while it is primarily associated as a representation of michael, i see more as an emotive analogy for laurie. she is the empathy-inducing heart of the film, and the tempo of the theme is emulative of a fearful pulse -- even moreso is there a distinguished beat in the 2018 version. not only this, but the name of the tracks in the soundtrack that reversion the theme evolve into ‘the shape burns’, composed for the scene where laurie looks down at michael in the trap (establishing who has the higher ground in their dynamic that has been constantly shifting through the role of hunter vs. hunted, but solidifies who wins when it comes down to the end). michael is confined below laurie in the trap she has built because she choreographed the entire scene of his burning, fire representative of the transformative rite of cleansing and destroying, depriving michael of his function of dictating transformation, leaving him powerless and reclaiming it for herself. the last track being called ‘halloween triumphant’ speaks for itself :^)