#he's a boring angry man with no aesthetic appeal. and that's all.

[tyrannuspitch]

but i do feel the need to register a direct complaint, again, about thanos's utter lack of charisma. his concept has so much potential but his actual execution is giving me literally nothing. like oooh there's an ~insane~ gangster warlord on a floating throne in an asteroid field who cuts deals with terrorists and kidnaps tortures and mutilates children to turn them into living weapons who he then calls his "daughters" all in pursuit of a bizarre fanatical ecofascist masterplan to kill half of all life. and then he turns around and delivers mediocre lines in a tone best described as "mildly annoyed". no tension no stage presence no menace no humour no fucking pizzazz. MAKE AN EFFORT!!!

[clxvdy]

Normal Friday ~

Mauga X G/N Reader <3

Big, loud, obnoxious - all of these were things that applied to this weird but relatively charismatic guy.. in a way at least. Kind of a psycho to be exact. But there was just something that pulled you towards him.

Today was Friday. You went to work, as usual, not expecting a peaceful and stressfree day, but to your surprise it was exactly what you weren’t expecting - a peaceful and stressfree day. Strange. You got ready to do your daily ritual - stand behind the counter and make coffee. However, it was in fact something you enjoyed doing.

Customers walked in and out. The well decorated cafe just had the smell of freshly baked cookies and coffee in the air. The chairs and tables had a pretty beige colour, not to forget the beautiful windows you could look out of while enjoying a nice cup of coffee. Preferably hot, of course. They were decorated with nice ivy plants. A truly aesthetically appealing place. Who wouldn’t want a nice flower to look at while working or studying?

The cafe was quiet. You could almost hear your own heartbeat while looking around the place in order to find something to stare at for the next couple of minutes. As you doze off, you’re woken up by a loud and obnoxious voice. A big, big man walks into the cafe. His hair is long and chunky and in the colour black, a white strand to add extra flavouring. His teeth were sharp, as if they’re just made to tear things open. His eyes as red as blood. What the hell is this guy?

“Hey beautiful, is there a chance you could make me a cappuccino?” He said with a deep and husky voice.

He smirked at you and leaned towards the counter. You backed off, no words coming out of your mouth. He was kind of terrifying but you did what he asked for, since you were afraid he is going to chomp you with those fangs. You slowly handed him the cup and smiled with a drop of sweat rolling down your forehead. He surprisingly grabbed it gently and said:

“Thank you very much, beautiful.”

Stop calling me beautiful! Who do you think you are?! You blushed slightly at his words. Your mind was filling up with his words.

You saw him turn around in the empty cafe. He was too big … to fit in the seats. You walked infront of the counter and lead him to the garden. People loved picknicking out there. He followed you, however you felt comfortable. He sat down on the grass and started drinking his coffee.

You went back to the counter but it was so boring. Nothing to do.. no one to talk to.. nothing to make… ultimately you grabbed a piece of strawberry cake and decided to bring it out to the huge guy. He was still sitting and drinking his coffee.

“The cafe is very empty today despite it being Friday.” You said expecting an answer from him. You sat down and looked at him. He hummed and smiled back at you. Why the hell is this guy so friendly? It doesn’t add up with his looks.

“Are you going to eat that cake?” He asked and pointed at my hands.

“No… would you like to eat it? I mean.. I uh brought it out for you .. what’s your name..” you stutter. As he notices you fumbled over your words, he grabs the plate - gently - and starts chomping on it.

You were left in shock. He just… took it!! But.. agh!

“Hey! I never said you could have it!”

“What you did say is that you brought it out for me, love.”

You looked at him with an angry expression. He smirked and continued eating his cake.

“I’m sorry love.” He said and gave you the cake back. You took the plate and started eating the parts that he took a bite from. You totally forgot your hunger in the morning. He smiled at you and pat your head.

“I like you. Mauga. What’s your name?”

You looked up at Mauga… so that’s his name! Your cheeks became slightly red. You knew exactly that you’re going to close the cafe and sit there for hours talking to Mauga.

what the flip guys my first thingy on tumblr?!??

Mauga is just bbg… I believe he can be gentle 😭🫶

[lesser-mook]

Miles isn’t bad, just overrated

”wild to me”, as in how could you not like him?

  Mind you they’re leaving out continuity, origin differences, the fact some aren't mantles but actual RANKS (GL), Fate/Nabu is more an Entity than a mantle. (debatable, yes)

Barry to Jay is Jim Hammond Human Torch to Johnny Storm’s Torch- existed in different times

 Hammond was an Allies soldier

Johnny is a modern Superhero whose power is cosmic in isolation

Leaving out context to make a moot point. 

I was there day one Miles’ story began, and i loyally bought his stuff. 

He ain’t all that, the main selling point is the cultural modernization that he represents, he’s an urban, black Spider-man and that’s mainly why people latch onto him.

Not that he’s in anyway compelling or interesting in a unique sense, cause he is an individual person, but the urban aesthetic mainly is what people fell in love with. And that’s 100% fine-

But it’s when you start deflecting that fact and start acting like people have an issue when they don’t like him and you just can’t for the life of you understand “why why why, don’t you like him” vs other knockoffs:

Mind you, i’m probably one of the lesser yet avid Supergirl criticizers on the net, and i’m not even talking about the show, that’s too easy, comics 100%. That requires research.

So there’s no double standard, Kara Zor El is a blue eyed blond haired girl next door archetype cosplaying as Superman, her entire appeal is to get women into the lore but she ended up being taken in by straight men as a fanbase, majorly. 

Why? 

Because she’s got a dynamic character arc? (She’s had some decent runs, nothing phenomenal)

An arc that at one point changed the landscape of DC? 

Her tragic downward spiral of self-destruction and wrapped up in a beautiful act of redemption & sacrifice?

NOPE that would be someone else, who i often WISH was Supergirl in the first fucking place.

But despite Clark Kent-PRIME being a better character (in concept, not the best characterization compared to Supertoken, but his arc was solid), somehow hasn’t gotten a single chance in the animated media.

Young JUSTICE didn’t choose him. They chose Kara to end off S4, because we haven’t had enough of her the past 15 years, she’s so deep like that.

And yes: The most you can say is she more trauma due to her actually knowing Krypton, having friends, her family or seeing it explode- 

But the premise of her entire origin is why she doesn’t work. Jor-El just happened to have a brother who just HAPPENED to be a scientist who just HAPPENED to have the same exact idea (not trivializing Kal’s survival at all) to save his daughter & not himself or at least get his wife and daughter away safely. 

No just copy & paste. So Superman miraculously has a cousin, the COUSIN trope. 

Kara Bore-El is a Fanfic OC made canon.

Her being an angry/edge-lord sometimes doesn’t mean she’s interesting- solely because they don’t DO anything with that anger or trauma and or they don’t commit to it. (Red Lantern Kara)

You know who’s trauma DC used to make an interesting story (excuse me) SAGA, an interesting SAGA? Superboy-PRIME. 

I DIGRESS.

As you can tell, i cannot stand her despite her innate general appeal. Why? Writing, purpose, originality, DC forcing her desperately, purpose and lack thereof. 

The takes of Kara that land, FOR ME, are the ones that say or do something different from the version mainline canon, and allow her to be her own thing off of Clarks coattails in some way, minor or major. 

*DC Nuclear Winter Kara Zor El, i like her.

And the fact that she’s a cutesie R63, usually. Is the only reason why she remained relevant for this long, same with Powergirl, up until people literally forgetting she existed because her contribution to the picture was big tits and a little bit of ego.

Injusitce 2 brought her back, attitude and all.....aaaand then she went back into obscurity, nobody gave a shit after 2 weeks. WHO saw that coming? 

Same with Miles, token.

Miles not bad, not a bad kid, not the worst take on Spider-man. Just overrated.

Some people need to just admit what they like about him is the aesthetic surrounding him, and stop pretending we just don’t get what it is that’s wrong with other people regarding him.

Cause i guarantee you majority of people stanning this kid has NEVER read that issue where he fought that nobody villain: Kangaroo- which is technically where his first fight as a masked hero began.

Doesn’t mean you have to read every single issue to speak on the matter (Because i need to catch up on some of his stories myself), but the point is with all this support for this character, how invested are you really in this boy beyond what’s fed to you by Hollywood.

It means: Do you actually give a shit? Are you invested, or are you just talking?

It means don’t act stupid for the sake of feigning confusion when you know exactly what’s up. 

Like he should be or has to be liked and anything less is a problem or something.

Most people big him up because he’s a POC Spider-Man, period. 

If they (Marvel/Bendis) had any balls they would’ve made Miles more like Kaine, give him some anger issues & do something with it, make him a Spider-Man Foil. 

Or SOME kind of major flaw that made him having powers a serious problem- and how he uses his powers, is different enough from Peter in sheer application to where he’s not your average Spider-Man by just how he moves.

Because Prowler Miles is what I’ve been needing, that’s an interesting story right there. 

No Quirk, but running shit anyway.

Like Deku & Allmight having roughly the same power, initially, but Deku uses his strengths so differently by S2-S3, he literally moves & fights nothing like All Might anymore. He’s his own aesthetic.

Even Full Cowling isn’t something Allmight’s really known for or any of the Veestige, it’s a visual distinction between Deku and the rest.

And that’s one of few things i can actually praise of the franchise without a complaint.

That should’ve been Miles.

And no, some sparky fingers ain’t unique cause Jessica was doing that shit decades before Miles was a concept, but nobody talks about that tho.

The Invisible Woman shit? Sure i’ll give him that i guess. It’s pretty cool. But again, SUSAN been on it too!

Moreso this alternate Miles’ arc is moreso learning the values of a hero in his own way, at his own pace, while maintaining enough moral differences from Parker to be a different situation. 

Say he’s 18 when he gets his power, slightly older than when Peter got his,14-15. 

Have the first 9-12 months be him using his powers for himself, a “fuck the world” attitude, until he does something deathly serious in a fit of rage or self defense, that he can’t undo and regrets for the rest of his career. 

Anything like that would’ve been more compelling.

You can’t tell me that doesn’t sound like a more interesting story, i didn’t say “better”, i said “interesting.”

Not just Peter Parker but recolored.

Again, I was there since the beginning, 2012, day one i was buying Morales comics “Because he looked liked me”, and guess what, I was NOT impressed.

The staying power wasn’t there, the justification of his looking like me (and yes he looked just like me) WAS NOT enough to warrant long term investment because while he did look like me, Miles was NOT me. Period.

I liked that both his parents were alive, ofc they weren’t an entirely black family unit, of course. 

But i liked his pops, Jefferson being a cop. His mom was good peoples, and what happened to her was...something.

But the kid overall was boring, he didn’t speak to me, he just mirrored my melanin, big deal.

Lo and behold, just looking like a person isn’t enough to justify staying power, who knew? Just being black doesn’t mean i relate to you, who knew?

That was the day i realized, true “Representation” is NOT skin deep. It’s about character, who you are as a person. Period.

Between Kaine and Morales, it’s not even a Contest. 

One has enough distinctions moral & mental to be a completely separate franchise and SHOULD'VE been in movies by now, R Rated ofc.

And the other is just a glorified What If DLC.

But ofc guess who gets a honorable mention, twice in the MCU. The Black Spider-Man ofc: 

Because he’s compelling, interesting, a long standing character in the Spider-man lore? 

No that’s KAINE, hell i’m still looking for Madam Web’s respect, on god..

I’m STILL waiting for MAYDAY (rightful heir to the mask) to get her big break! The fact that Miles was able to skip the line in front of her, is insane to me.

Miles is likely going get to the MCU first before BEN, Web, Mayday and KAINE combined, because he’s the black Spidey.

Again, you can like him if you want, but don’t pretend for a second why people don’t like him is some mystery.

Miles looks exactly like me, i repeat and i cannot stand him as a concept- i gravitate to Venom, Kaine, Miguel, Spider-Man NOIR, Mayday, etc.

And Miguel is technically the POC Spider-man BEFORE Morales, half Mexican, but Miles is black+latino in current day, so let’s just forget all about O’Hara until some corny Spiderverse movie makes him relevant again in the post credit scene, now everyone’s going to love Miguel because he’s going to be in the next movie.

Mapping out the main reason i can’t stand normies sometimes, bandwagon mentality.

And it sucks cause we got him in Ultimate Spiderman XD, Edge of Time, Shattered Dimensions, so the man had some momentum getting off the pages. So what was the hold up with getting this cat in a movie? Or a Mini series like TNAS Spider-man most people forgot?

Miguel is a legit cool dude, careerman, sly, very different aesthetic, different time, different Spider-man. He is NOT Parker, trust me. 

Miguel O’Hara should’ve been gotten his own show or movie. And on that note, that obscure underwritten Spider-man Unlimited, was a Spider-man 2099 cartoon that didn’t know or it 100% knew it was trying to be 2099

But our boy Miles gets to skip the goddamn line in front of established more interesting characters that have done their time since before the Century turned, get mentions in the MCU and 2 animated movies, if that’s not AA energy i don’t know what is. 

NOW THAT’S wild to me.

[mollysdarkthoughts]

Types of gamers that I think Class 1.A are: Part 2

Genre: sfw headcanon. Fluff n’ crack?

characters: Midoriya, Kirishima, Tokoyami, Todoroki

warning: Swearing, like a singular curse word. 

Midoriya:

Pro hero games. It's all just pro hero games. The dude doesn't deviate from his special interest, and that includes his free time. He will critique them carefully. He's on the lookout for false information and gets annoyed when it's not true to the real Hero. One time, he found that the game's version of endeavour was more purple than red, and he couldn't stop talking about it for a good three weeks. He doesn't do this to upset anyone though, he's just very thorough. Also, a person with a high aesthetic set up. All Might related, as you can imagine. He'll try to play other games when they're suggested to him, but it doesn't feel the same. So yeah, a man with a particular taste.

Kirishima:

Can't handle the seriousness. Playing games with a high-stress level break it for Kiri. He doesn't play a game for the adrenaline, the story, the graphics; he just wants to play something fun (Let's face it, there are plenty of fantastic games in the industry that are in no way fun to play). So, seeing how serious Uraraka, Bakugou and Mina get, it kinda puts him off. So angry all the time! To be honest, he'd rather spend his days playing the sims, Mario cart, animal crossing, Zelda, etc. Those games are fun, and you don't take them too seriously most of the time. Denki plays with him a bunch more than the others since they're both just there to have fun. They both live on one island in animal crossing, and it's the best shit ever. Like, they poured months into that beauty. And no, the 'LordExplosionMUrderKIng' that sometimes visits is definitely not Bakugou. I have no idea what you're talking about.

Tokoyami:

Story-driven? Yep. That's what Tokoyami loves most in a game. He doesn't get the appeal of many games that make you do things just for the sake of points, scores and achievements. He wants to discover more about the world the developers created. Games with profound lore give him significant highs. Skyrim, Mass effect, Papers Please, Detroit: become human were the classics he would go back to. Horror games were initially his favourite, but the scares and story all got too similar, making him bored. Also, dark aesthetics usually trigger Dark Shadow to loom around. Tokoyami doesn't want to play a game knowing his quirk is staring over his shoulder, watching every move he makes. (Psst…He’s an undertale fan)

Todoroki:

He never had the time to play video games. It was a part of childhood that he never got to experience. Endeavour says it's a waste of time and was a childish hobby. So, of course, he had to give it a go. He only really likes games with characters he enjoys learning about and interacting with. God of war became a favourite, as the relationship Kratos had with his son hit really close to home. Night in the woods was also a favourite. He enjoyed playing Mea, and he loved Gregg and Angus's relationship. Izuku tried getting him into the Pro Hero games, but it always ended up with Todoroki choosing his father and purposefully making him fail or do dumb shit. But he enjoyed himself, and that's all that matters.

[thegalarianstarshowcase]

Judging: Tobias

@cosmoscourge​​ Tobias! Your judging is here!

“TOBIAS!!! By Zacian I can’t believe- you’re here! You had me all worried that you wouldn’t be showing up at all! Of course you would show up under an alias and in disguise!” Spirit said as Raihan and Leon made their way back to their seats. Piper sat in silence, tears running down her cheeks.

“Please note, luv, I’m not angry with you. Not at all!” Spirit added, “That was...a lot to take in. I’m...I’m just happy you’re here. Really I’m overjoyed that you didn’t miss this!” the joy in Spirit’s voice sounds strained, but its hard to tell if he’s biting back anger at Leon still or if he’s lying over how feels seeing Unima’s former champion here.

“I had my own suspicions during our battle, but obviously I couldn’t confirm anything until the end,” Leon said as he sat down. “Granted it was hard to form a lot of thoughts during that, I felt a little like I was fighting for my life.”

“Spirit I got a question for this before we start scoring.” Raihan said as he sat down,

“Yes? What is it Raihan?”

“Can I score Ursula lower now? After seeing that in Tobias’ appeal?” Raihan asked.

“No! We’re not editing scores most of the way through!” Spirit replied. “Now sit down and do your judging!”

“Alright alright well lets get to it then! Not gonna lie, I had a little trouble keeping up with well...everything. That battle really had me on my toes the entire time! Its been a while since I’ve had that much fun!”

“We’re all glad you had a good time Raihan, but please keep focused.” Spirit said gently.

“Yeah yeah well, I liked a lot of visuals for your appeal. Being in the simulation was pretty cool! And of course being one of the ones battling you was once again, a blast. I’m scoring your aesthetics an 8 out of 10. Your story was...god everyone’s really showed us some traumatic shit tonight, but, you sir have really shown us some traumatic shit. I’m sorry for what you went through. It almost feels wrong to give you a score on it, but at the same time with the ending of the appeal...it was pretty dark man. Like dark where its kind of uncomfortable for what I did catch. So I’m giving your story an 8 out of 10 as well. My overall opinion of your appeal though is still a 10 out of 10! What you shared really took a lot of guts to do so. Not to mention I can’t say I didn’t enjoy it when I got to be in it! Kind of at least...but yeah. This makes my total score for you a 26.”

Finally, now that it is her turn to judge, Piper speaks. Well...she doesn’t speak, she laughs. A loud, booming, overjoyed laugh as she wipes the tears from her cheeks.

“I would find your appeal boring you said? I would cry from boredom you said? My my Mr. Yamekawi...or well should I said Mr. Mendellssohn? You really had me going there!” she grinned. “I am crying but... oh its from beauty, truly! To see how your hate destroyed everything around you, knowing that change is...well a sham. Goodness I think this may have been one of my favorites of the night!” 

“I admit the visuals of your appeal were incredibly impressive. The way it invaded my mind and kept my eyes on it. Not to mention you using it to hide attacks and perform an excellent finishing blow? Wonderfully done! Though it didn’t have quite the impact the other parts of your appeal did through its story and meaning. So for this I’m giving your aesthetics an 8 out of 10.  However the story you told was my personal favorite of the night. I loved viewing the darkness of your mind, and the ending? Who doesn’t love a good, dark ending, hm? For that I’m giving your story a 10 out of 10. My overall opinion of your appeal is also a 10 out of 10! This was just excellent Mr. Mendellssohn. This makes my total for you a 28!”

“I...can’t believe Piper didn’t give a single insult. Not a one.” Leon said.

“I know, I didn’t think that was possible coming from her,” Spirit replied, only for Leon to ignore him entirely. Spirit frowned.

“Fine ignore me. I don’t care.” he said.

“We’ll talk about this later Spirit. Maybe if you apologized I’d be willing to be friendlier-”

“Apologize for what? I didn’t...nevermind. Lets just wrap this shit up.” Spirit huffed.

“Alright well...I admit I do not share the same opinions when it comes to teh visuals of your appeal, Tobias. I really enjoyed our battle, but things got a little....too dark for me. I know this was something very personal for you but... I found it hard to keep engaged for a lot of it. I almost broke myself out of the illusion if I’m being quite honest. So for your aesthetics, I’m giving you a 6 out of 10.”

“You would score someone lower for bearing their soul, huh?” Spirit mumbled. Leon grit his teeth and continued to ignore him.

“However, I will acknowledge it must have taken a lot for you to share this story. Truly, thank you for coming to the Stars Showcase. Thank you for striving to get better even now. For your story I’m giving you 8 out of 10. My overall opinion of your appeal is also a 10 out of 10. The battle was fantastic still, and I wish you well on your journey of recovery, Tobias. This makes my total for you a 24.”

“You know Tobias, I should have realized it was you when you showed up in Light Yagami cosplay. How the hell did I not...I’m not going to harp on that anymore.  I think out of all the judges I liked your visuals the most! The way you build up the destroyed cave to tell your story, what you showed us you went through...the fact your pokemon kind of vored each other. It was both disturbing, and highly intriguing to watch. So for your aesthetics, I’m giving you a 9 out of 10.”

Spirit pauses there. He can’t help but feel that despite Tobias’ story being well...so personal. It was almost a targeted attack. Tobias was getting better while he was...

It took a lot of will for Spirit to keep the frown off his face. “Thank you for sharing something so...personal with us. But I think I have to echo the comfortability sentiment, so I’m giving that a 7 out of 10-”

“Spirit, I don’t think its fair to score the story lower. The visuals yes, but Tobias did just air out a lot of traumatic things to us-” Leon started.

“Its my score, Leon. I’ll do what I want with it! Besides he’s not the first person to air out some terrible trauma for them at this event. You haven’t questioned me at any other point, why start now?” Spirit scoffed. “Besides its not like you might not end up doing something similar. Imagine if I did an appeal and basically confessed I was still in love with you via it. Would you not score it lower based off of that?”

“...still in love with me? Spirit you do realize this isn’t-” Spirit was quick to cut Leon off again.

“Hypothetically jackass! Don’t fucking read too much into...never mind. Forget I even brought that up in the first place. Forget it forget it forget it! Anyway Tobyyy. My overall opinion for your appeal is going to be an 8 out of 10. I enjoyed it, I really did, but also I’m a little miffed you didn’t ask me to battle you. Of course you were probably worried about losing to me, hm~? My total score for you is also a 24.”

“You’ve earned quite the array of bonus as well, Mr. Mendellssohn. You receive a +15 for using gigantimax. A +10 for using six moves on both your pokemon, another +5 for well...making cry with the sheer beauty of your appeal, and finally a wooping +6 for winning your battle, with bonus points given from myself, Raihan, and Leon. This makes for an outstanding total of 36 bonus points! Please turn your attention to the screen for your final score!”

Total: 138 POINTS.

[positivecorrelation]

Who knew the other side could be so green?

“What do you want from me?” Marshall finally asks irritated down to every single bone.

“What’s your beef with me?” Colson asks and smirks.

~~~~~

Everyday this same freaking routine. They’ve got nothing in common yet this one annoying neighbor seems to believe they need to have a tea party or some shit. Every. single. morning. 

Small talks aren’t Marshall’s thing but this Colson guy has made it a point to annoy him with his unwanted ogling of Marshall’s body. Instead of civil talk all they do is verbally fight each other. Flirtation veiled in snarky comments, that’s Colson’s idea of being an excellent neighbor. 

That guy even got a dilapidated car siting in front of his house. Something about art and aesthetic appeal or some equally boring crap. Marshall’s pretty sure that the car’s there only because Colson knows how much it irritates him to see stuff like that. Also, it gives Colson the perfect view of Marshall’s porch and him working on his car.

~~~~~~~~

“ Hey  Marshall, is there anything you want me to do?” Colson asks cheekily knowing full well what would be the answer. 

 “Staying where you are is the only way forward.” Marshall grits out as he searches for the cleaning oil in his tool box.

“Yeah, yeah whatever. Do you know how much I enjoy watching you do all this, everyday, with my own eyes?”

The pin-drop silence from the other side is his only answer but Colson knows Marshall’s listening so he continues.

 “You see, the thing with recorded videos is that, they just don’t have that fire. That thorny attitude and of course, those priceless bitter words of yours.” 

 Marshall turn his head so fast he almost gives himself a whiplash.

“You did WHAT?” Marshall practically shouts while looking everywhere, frantically trying to find out the hidden cameras. 

That little shit is so dead.

“Man, I’m so fucking horny and... and angry right now, I’d even risk the cops just so I could smash your face in.” Colson announces rather loudly.

That’s it. Somebody’s going to prison tonight.

As Marshall decides to confronts the guy and finally talk some sense into him, preferably with his fists, Colson decides to go for the kill.

“Hey. listen to me asshole, I’ve had enough.” Colson starts while shooting daggers at him. 

Marshall looks on confused. Good.

“Tonight, we’re going on a date, alright. That’s final. No backsies. We’ll even take that car of yours that you love so much” Colson informs him before abruptly standing up and retreating back to his own house, shaking his head all the way, laughing quietly.

“What the.. It ain’t happening, Colson.” Marshalls yells at his neighbor’s retreating back.

“7 p.m. and wear something fancy.” Colson shouts back before slamming the door happily.

[kattahj]

Ten highly acclaimed films I just don't vibe with

Here's my top ten list (in no particular order) of films that other people just looove and I don’t like at all, with comments as to why.

If you're wondering, "What about X film that's also vastly overrated?" chances are I didn't see it. Or maybe I did, and I actually liked it. You can always ask!

I won't be arguing with anyone about these choices, and you can't change my mind.

The Godfather

In fairness, I barely even remember this movie. I just found it really boring. It's the quintessential "serious men do serious things", which is my least favourite genre in the world. (I do have some movies I like even within that umbrella, such as "12 Angry Men" and "Seven Samurai", but they're exceptions from the rule.)

Forrest Gump

Heyyy, let's make a movie that touches on most major issues in modern US history without saying anything of value about any of them! And also, let's make it super schmaltzy and stick an insultingly maudlin portrayal of a person with an intellectual disability in the center!

This is the movie that put me off Tom Hanks. I quite liked him before that, but Hollywood leaned hard into "Tom Hanks can do no wrong, you obviously like Tom Hanks!" with every movie he was in afterwards, while I was all, "I still haven't forgiven you for Forrest Gump."

It was utterly rewarding to hear the song "Gump, the Magic Movie", which addressed at least half of my issues with this film.

Also, sidenote, I read the book the film was based on and found it really heartless and mean-spirited, so they kind of went in two different directions with the same material, and neither was appealing.

The Matrix

Keanu Reeves seems like a good man, but God, is he a boring actor. Though in fairness, everyone in this film has zero personality. The whole thing is too wrapped up in the aesthetics and in philosophical concepts that aren't as mindblowing as the directors think.

Se7en

The serial killer cheats on his own rules. That annoys me. If your schtick is to punish people for their sins, you can't suddenly switch into punishing them for YOUR sins.

Avengers: Infinity War

I like some of the MCU films, but I have found that I much prefer the heroes apart than together. I thought the first Avengers film had about half an hour of good material in it. The two following had substantially less. I didn't bother to see #4. This one consisted mainly of people introducing themselves and explaining plot points to each other, plus boring action scenes.

The Dark Knight Rises

In fairness, I had lots of fun seeing this film, because it was so pompous and I found that so funny. I laughed in a lot of places where I wasn't supposed to. (The FLAG is in TATTERS!) Anne Hathaway was legit likeable, though.

The Shining

I'm mostly lukewarm on The Shining, I don't really hate it, but it just plain doesn't work for me. Mainly because if you want the full horror of a character slowly descending into homicidal mania, it helps if he doesn't start off being a total creep right away. Jack Nicholson isn't credible as anything BUT a giant asshole. Now, The Babadook, that one did it right!

Citizen Kane

Nothing about this guy makes me even the slightest bit curious to learn his secrets.

To Kill a Mockingbird

I don't outright hate this film, but I used to watch "I'll Fly Away" as a kid, which is basically TKAM with black people actually having substantial roles. After that, both book and movie version of TKAM come off as awfully white-centric for a story about racism.

Titanic

It reminded me of John Hughes' most irritating films (i.e. anything with Molly Ringwald), with a super basic, clichéd love story. The main difference being that this film had a gazillion dollar budget. I found it wryly amusing that when it swept up the Oscars, it won pretty much everything EXCEPT script and acting.

Like Forrest Gump did with Tom Hanks, this movie put me off Leonardo DiCaprio. Again, to the world he could do no wrong, to me he had something to make up for.

There's also the fact that it's three hours long and has water sloshing about in the entire final act, which does not make for a fun cinema experience. :-P

I always love Kathy Bates, though. And the orchestra, that was genuinely tragic.

[daily-dose-of-imagines]

(っ◔◡◔)っ ♥ Matchup ♥

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hi hi admins! I hope you both are doing well and taking good care of yourselves~ im kinda new to Tumblr and youre one of the first blogs I followed and I absolutely love the writing from both of you, its so amazinggg. this is also my first time submitting a matchup request and I have no idea if im doing this right at all, so I apologize in advance if I made any mistakes. I go by charlize/cj, and i use a female pronouns so she/her works for me. for the matchup I would prefer to be matched up with male characters. im 5'3 with long brown hair, brown eyes and a tan complexion. im and introverted extrovert so I tend to keep to myself unless im around people im close with, then I can be really loud and an extreme crackhead. I have been told that I have a competitive nature and that I have an intimidating aura, and I can take charge when needed. im very passionate about the things I do and always want to make sure that I am constantly improving, but I have a bad habit of becoming hot-headed at times :/ im an infj-a for the myers briggs personality and also an achiever for the enneagram test. according to my friends I come off as quiet and reserved, but if I am talked to ill be polite and hold a conversation (basically ill only talk if I have to T-T). I also make sarcastic remarks at times, but at other times I can say random stuff like “does lightening McQueen need life insurance or car insurance?” type of thing. my favorite things are dancing, kbbq, listening to music, drawing, trying new boba places, and photography. I have several aesthetics and incorporate a lot of black into them, but my go to aesthetics are street wear/hype beast, grunge/e girl/ alt. im fine if theres nsfw in the matchup (if there are nsfw themes in matchup im not sure, like I said im new to Tumblr I am so sorry T-T) lastly, I would prefer to be kept anonymous.

can I be matched up with (male) characters from mystic messanger, free, and haikyuu please?? thank you so much for reading my long ass match up request, anyways stay hydrated, get enough sleep, and dont stress yourselves out too much!

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Hello and thank you for requesting with us! Thank you for following us and I hope that you like the boys that I paired you up with!

>Admin 𝕋

★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★

𝐼 𝓈𝒽𝒾𝓅 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒽...

You and Rin would be such a perfect match for each other! Just solely on the fact that you are competitive, for one thing. Rin is competitive too, and I would feel like if you and Rin were to be together, both of you would be able give each other a push to be better, to thrive to be the best person you can be. Be it from daily life or to a career you want to pursue; just make sure it stays healthy and doesn’t ruin the relationship! He is also a bit extroverted himself, so he will like with how you are an ambivert, someone who can be both. He’ll like how you can go from quiet to rambunctious all in the same breath. He wouldn’t ever get bored!

For appearance, he will definitely like the fact that you are shorter than him, he’ll boast about it constantly. Having brown hair, brown eyes, and a tan complexion is something he will definitely see and like. Let’s be honest here, Rin wouldn’t care much for appearances, but when he sees you with brown hair and brown eyes, and you tan skin, all of a sudden, it’s his favorite look. Now, whenever he sees people like look like you, he is instantly attracted to them. In his mind that is a compliment!

Rin himself is quite a character. He is also pretty intimidating when people first meet him, much like you, but then see he is such a big softie who needs constant hugs, to which you will just have to give him! He will love your crackhead energy, thinking it would be such a bother to have someone who couldn’t match his energy whenever he is excited, or whenever he just wants to be lazy!

He will love your sense of style and definitely will want to try and match it with his own sense of streetwear. He would want to look like a bad ass couple with you, and be your hype man, tell you how awesome you look, and how cool you’d seem to be! His favorite type of colors would be darker colors, so you incorporating black all the time would be better for him, since he can match better with you!

For nsfw stuff, he’d be dominating, and would want to have you submit to him, but like I said before, he is a big softie, so what would really happen is that he would get too embarrassed by the whole ordeal, then you would be the one on top!

He would absolutely hate you puns and jokes though, so if you see him angry, that’s probably why.

I picked Akaashi for you because of his limitless sarcasm, that I think you would appreciate. Also with the fact that with you being an ambivert, you can definitely match his laid back and quiet attitude, and then pick up the slack when you and him around your friends, since you know that he won’t! Another thing, it that he will love how intimidating you seem to be, but you are actually a big softie. He will really love that dynamic you have going on!

Appearance wise. Bruh, that would be at the bottom of his list as to why he loves you. But, the most appealing thing about you physically to him would be your eyes. Only because they hold your soul, and he loves how they glimmer when you smile or laugh. Other than that, he would love you more so because of your personality, and how well you mesh with him.

He will love how passionate you are to your dreams, and how much you want to succeed. And he will be there when you go too hard on yourself, telling you that you need to pace yourself and make sure that you are properly taking care of yourself. He will be quiet and cautious when taking care of you, using more of his actions more than his words, so don’t take it for granted!

He would like your aesthetic, how you have so many different types and how you can pull off all of them! He would also like how many likes you have from dancing to photography. Akaashi would ask if you could take of things he likes, or if you could take selfies of yourself so that he has pictures of you for him to put in his wallet, so that he can have you with him at all times!

For nsfw, he would be very dominate, unless he’s lazy and doesn’t want to do all the work! But for the most part he would want to be the one to give all of the pleasure you deserve, inside and out!

And for your little puns and jokes, he would roll his eyes at them, would hate listening to them, but he sees how you laugh at them, and sometimes they are not as bad as they seem.

Bah, freaking Zen, literally so much like, so perfect for you! He isn’t as intimidating as you are at first glance. If anything, he is the opposite of you, Zen first looks like he wouldn’t harm anybody, but then you will the intimidating parts, such as his anger or his lust. Another thing about Zen, that I think would be perfect for you would be the fact that he is extremely extroverted, but can also become easily drained. And with the fact that you are both, you would be able to help him with his ups and downs, when he is extroverted, but then when he is drained and would rather be more introverted. You would essentially be his battery! Since you are both!

Appearance wise, Zen would be the type to care a little more than the other two, but nonetheless he would still love how you look! He would love how tiny you are, and would love how you are kind of the opposite of him, with your brown hair and brown eyes and tan skin! He would love all of it! Wouldn’t even think about the bad sides of you, if there were any!

Like the other two, he would love the fact that you are so passionate to succeed! But he would be the one to worry most, whenever you overwork yourself! He would tell you to take a breather, make some tea for you, and then force you to relax when you don’t listen to him the first time! He would make you get into a little play fight with him so you can get your mind off of stuff, and he would be really sarcastic with you too! All for you, so you can ease the tenseness in your mind and body!

He will like how you love boba and photography and dancing! Literally all the things he likes! He is a star after all! He would want to learn choreography with you, or get boba with you, or maybe even start photography with you so he can take better selfies with you and for himself! He thinks it is very admirable that have those types of ambitions! For how you dress, ho boy, he would absolutely love the hype beast outfits, literally his favorite thing to see you in!

For nsfw stuff, this boy has a beast of his own and would not let you sleep, he would love your body and would want to touch all of it, constantly wanting! He would not let you go until he was satisfied, or you were completely exhausted!

He would be the only one out of the three that would like hearing your dumb jokes and puns, thinking it makes you cuter, trying to hard to make him laugh!

[purpledragon57]

Dragon Reviews: Tokyo Mew Mew

I recently finished watching the magical girl anime Tokyo Mew Mew. I’ve been meaning to get into the habit of writing reviews for things I watch, and I had quite a lot to say about this show, so it seemed like a good place to start. Full review under the cut. Apologies in advance for any misspellings - the subs were incredibly inconsistent.

I’m going to break my thoughts up into categories, starting with the characters and ending with the overall plot and themes:

The Magical Girls

I like the overall visuals of the magical girls. The outfits, transformations and attacks are all good looking and mostly well animated. The outfits hit a good balance between uniformity and individuality, which I like.

Personally I didn’t enjoy the girls very much as a group? The best magical girl teams are fun to watch even when they’re just hanging out, but the Mew Mews’ dynamic just didn’t click with me. Most group interactions consisted of arguments and running jokes - they barely seem like friends half the time. This also made it hard to feel invested when things get emotional or during battles

On to the girls as individuals:

Ichigo was a perfectly fine magical girl protagonist. I liked the focus on how her magical girl and regular identities affect each other, and how this wove into her romance plot.

Minto was my favourite initially because I love Tsunderes, but ultimately she was more annoying than anything else and her arc wasn’t particularly interesting to me. She still has the best transformation though.

Retasu is the Shy Nerdy One, which made me like her initially, but there wasn’t anything that really stood out about her most of the time. I think maybe she was supposed to be a ‘straight man’ to the others’ wackiness (esp. Bu Ling), but her demeanour is too reserved to really pull this off in an entertaining way. I liked that she provided a side romance, but it never really went anywhere, which was disappointing.

Bu Ling is best girl. Her childish behaviour and Wacky Antics can get a bit annoying, but she’s cute and genuine enough to avoid being grating. I like her incredibly friendly and determined attitude. Also her focus episode was great and made me cry a little bit.

Zakuro is great just for having punched Kish in the face. 10/10 most satisfying scene in the whole series. On a more serious note, I think Zakuro was the most unique character on the team, but I’m not really sure what to make of her. She’s kind of cold and distant with high standards but occasionally soft, but I don’t really understand why she is this way. There’s hints that she has some kind of tragic backstory and possibly ulterior motives but I feel like this is never properly explained??? Maybe it’s something that didn’t translate well from manga to anime. It’s weird.

The Villains

This segment is gonna get spoilery so skip it if you care about that. The tl;dr is that the villains just kinda suck.

I just have to say it, this show had the ugliest villain designs I have ever seen in a magical girl series. I hate their outfits and the massive ears just look weird.

The Aliens have the theoretically sympathetic desire to return Earth to it’s old state now that their race is dying out on another planet - though doing so will wipe out humanity. This could be an interesting motivation, but unfortunately they are way too self-righteous and hypocritical about this and it just gets annoying. It’s possible this was the point but it’s still tiresome.

The most grating example of this is when Kish gets wounded in a fight and the other Aliens have the audacity to get angry at the Mew Mews for hurting their ‘friend’, even though neither of them showed anything but dislike for Kish, and they’ve been hurting the Mew Mews all the time.

Thoughts on the villains individually:

Kish is the most complete character of the lot - he at least succeeded in getting me to hate him with a burning passion. When he’s not busy being disturbingly possessive of Ichigo, he’s an obnoxious brat but largely a fairly competent villain. He also has the most braincells in the group, being able to come up with almost successful plans and figure out the big bad’s true intentions before the others. I think if his arc had been better paced he’d be a pretty solid MG villain over all.

Tart is just the ‘bratty child’ villain archetype, which I always hate. His relationship with Bu Ling is cute and actually has a satisfying payoff though.

Pie is just confusing. He has a ‘priorities orders over morality’ thing going on but it isn’t made very clear why he’s like this, and his last minute redemption-by-'death’ comes out of basically nowhere. The other villains are annoying but Pie is boring, which is even worse.

Deep Blue is just a generic pure evil villain once he actually becomes a character and not a voice in a void. He also had a possession plot line, which is a trope I like, but they didn’t do anything particularly interesting with it.

The Supporting Cast

Quick shout out to the Blue Knight for being the first time I’ve seen a mysterious ally character get introduced without their secret identity being immediately obvious. It’s fun to try and figure out what’s going on alongside the protagonists instead of knowing straight away.

Masaya was my favourite secondary character. His relationship with Ichigo felt a bit flat at first but after we find out what it is specifically that they like about each other I was sold. Cute and wholesome.

Ryou was an ok character. I feel like his story lines were kind of underutilised?? Feels similar to Zakuro in that he had hints at being a deeper character but couldn’t get me to connect to him.

The other guy felt like barely more than a background character. I can’t even remember his name and most of what I remember about him was ‘makes cake’ and ‘gives exposition’

Presentation

Besides the magical girl designs, I didn’t really like the visual aesthetic of this show. The colours are mostly either too saturated or too bland and the way the characters are drawn is not appealing to me.

The animation mostly ranges from passable to janky, besides the transformations. I remember some of the late-series fight scenes just consisted of awkward loops and quickly cut together stills and it looked more hilarious than intense. Intense facial expressions are sometimes so exaggerated they become laughable.

The voice acting is mostly fine, and sometimes really good, but sometimes it gets really overwrought. The amount of screeching in the last few episodes made me want to slam my head against a wall.

Plot & Themes

I thought it was interesting how much emphasis they put into the puberty metaphor. The Mew Mew powers come with a bunch of uncomfortable side effects (acting more like an animal, sprouting animal parts at inconvenient times, etc.) and the show spends a lot of time focusing on Ichigo’s emotional reactions to her body changing. I haven’t really seen other magical girl shows explore this aspect as much.

Obviously one of the biggest themes in the series is the environmentalist message. This theme gets pretty heavy handed at times but since it’s a children’s show I’m willing to give them a bit of a pass. I think it would have added a bit to show the girls being more environmentally conscious in their day to day lives or something but it’s fine.

Like I mentioned in the character sections, some character arcs and story lines are just kind of left hanging and it’s weird.

The plot about the aliens’ families back home is just flat out ignored at the end????? This was the most bizarre to me because they spent the whole show trying to reshape the Earth into somewhere they could live but then at the end they just leave. You can’t just ignore the plight of a slowly dying alien race like that, what the heck.

For some reason at the end they pull out of their bittersweet ‘powers are gone forever’ ending and have the girls randomly transform and leave to fight some unspecified enemy. I don’t know if this was supposed to be sequel set up or the staff decided it would be too sad or what but it was weird and dumb.

Conclusion

Tokyo Mew Mew is a weird mixed bag of genuinely good ideas but unsatisfying execution. I will say it isn’t really bad, it’s just that I’ve seen most of what it does done better in other series, so it doesn’t really stand out to me for the most part. My experience may also have been skewed by the long breaks I took between episodes at times - perhaps the pacing just seems worse to me because of this. Though on the other hand the fact that I had so little motivation to watch it quickly is a bad sign in itself. If I’d watched this show when I was younger perhaps I would have enjoyed it more.

Overall Rating: 6/10

PS - I get a vague impression that some of it’s flaws may be adaption problems - perhaps I’m wrong but it sometimes gives that ‘weak adaption of good source material’ vibe.

Have you seen Tokyo Mew Mew? What did you think of it? And if you have read the manga, do you think it’s better than the anime?

[manifestoonmoralmanlove]

Soulless Riffing: Brainless Ch.14

I got a supernatural action/romance book series as a gift that’s just riddled with stuff that I hate….and as a steampunk Victorian London action romance story filled with werewolves and vampires…it’s yeah gonna be easy to poke fun at.

I just want to say, it’s totally cool if you like this story or ones like it!  It’s certainly a better caliber than a lot of what I make fun of…however…I can’t help but want to make fun of it.

Over here for the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7+8, 9, 10+11, 12, and 13.

AAAAAAAA FUCK IT HERE GOES!

Chapter 14

HOW DOES LORD MACCON GET OUT OF BEING STRANGLED BY A MALFUNCTIONING MACHINE!?

He’s safe in 2 short paragraphs.  Akeldama wipes it’s forehead with a hankie and that’s that.

Alexia gets all indignant about HOW WAS SHE SUPPOSED TO KNOW HOW TO SUBDUE IT!? Even though Akeldama told her outright how to subdue it like 10 pages ago and she did a shitty job.

BUT WHAT ABOUT HITLERHUFF VAN BRAUN!?

Within 3 pages it’s revealed that Lord Akeldama’s harem of fabulous servants/blood banks show up with a knocked out FAILEDCLIMAX SHITPACING!

Faps, I thought you were using Nazi/villain jumbled words for his name?

THIS TERRIBLE WRITING FEELS LIKE A CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY OKAY!? I STAND BY IT!

So they heal Lord Akeldama and begin to like do that boring shit after a crime scene has been neutralized. And lord this writing is fucking bad.  She spends round bout 8 pages trying to wrap this scene up but there’s a lot of talking in circles about shit that nobody really cares about. “What about those other vampires?”

“Some were questioned but most of them needed to go get blood.”

“What about the other werewolves?”

“They were questioned and sent home.”

“What happened to them Draculas?”

“They needed to get blood, but they helped illuminate what the bad guys were doing.”

OKAY LIKE, WHY ARE YOU MAKING THIS ENDING TEDIOUS!?

They also set some time aside to talk a few times about getting Lord Maccon clothes. He started with a cloak but then they found pants.  Also Biffy fixed Alexia’s hair.

WHY ARE YOU MAKING THIS ENDING SO FUCKING TEDIOUS!?

But eventually Prof. Lyall drags a sleeping Alexia home.  Alexia’s family is upset and wants to know what happened. Prof. Lyall IN HIS INFINITE WISDOM instead of telling the truth tells her mom she was visiting Lord Maccon.  So her mother goes to beat the tar out of her sleeping 26 year old daughter cause I don’t know if you have gathered this or not but she’s a BAD PERSON!

The good professor prevents this from happening and at that very moment…fucking QUEEN VICTORIA SHOWS UP! Her mom faints, cause of course she does.

Queen Victoria is like,

“Sup my good bitch, we’ve been watching you since you were born cause you’re a soulless.  Are you getting married to Lord What’s-his-face or what?”

Alexia responds that they’re planning on it.

Queen Victoria is relieved because she wants Alexia to be the muhjah for the SHADOW COUNCIL and like you can’t be single and on that cause like WHAT WOULD PEOPLE SAY!?

Allow me to interject just as things are happening for a complaint.

This book spends a decent amount of time on WHAT’S PROPER for a lady of WEALTH.  But to me a lot of this shit is just bigoted, tedious, misogyny. Do people really get aroused at the prospect that if the angle of your curtsy is off you’ll be disowned by your family and friends!?  

Faps, reign in the sass! This is a fantasy where the readers get to indulge in the fun stuff. Suffocating dresses, being rich, and going to balls.

IT’S TECHNICALLY FINE, BUT I CAN’T RELATE TO THIS APPEAL, AND AS A BITTER AMATEUR HISTORIAN I’M ANNOYED AT HISTORICAL TIME PERIODS BEING MISREPRESENTED AND GLAMORIZED FOR FRIVOLOUS AESTHETIC PURPOSES! HURUMPH!

So Alexia basically remarks that the shadow council is ½ military styled Werewolves, and ½ vampire political advisors.  Which…apparently is a huge insult?  Prof. Lyall scolds her, and we’re supposed to act shocked when Queen Victoria reacts with bitter amusement rather than getting angry.  Huh? How is this an insult? I think the implication is that average folks would consider it a BAD THING that the government is using SUPERNATURALS to their advantage???? But like they’d be A class morons if they didn’t? I DON’T UNDERSTAND! THIS IS ALL VERY DUMB!

Anyway Victoria wants her to be the muhjah, which is the Soulless peacekeeper between the werewolves and vampires.  

Alexia asks, “Why me?” Which is apparently her being ~difficult~ Prof. Lyall even says that she’s being difficult out loud.

Are we at the Mary-Sue stage that the protag questioning why she’s being handed immense power on a silver platter is her NOT GETTING HOW GREAT SHE IS!?

The queen says she seems suited for the position because she’s ~well-read~ and ~a talented investigator.~  The fuck did she investigate?  She was invited to a vampire den (which she didn’t need to do anything to receive) and the matriarch just blabbed shit that other investigators already knew without much prompting from her. Also she got kidnapped.  Well read? She’s a raging ninny and at this point I don’t need to count the ways. HAHA whatever!

She’s got her dream job and is marrying her dream man. OH HAPPY DAY!

We leave off this ~last~ chapter with how MacDougall stole her umbrella during the genocidal lock-up, was super sad she got married, moved back to America and “He married a veritable battle-ax of a woman and happily allowed himself to be bossed around for the remainder of his days.”

Dude is living the dream! But like, book? Are you just fine with the fact that he was helping torture people to death to learn the secrets of how to genocide?  Were you just mad he’s not a Chad and therefore unfuckable to NORMAL women?

I don’t get you, and I’m kinda glad I don’t.

Say something Nice Faps:

Despite my confusion on the topic, I’m glad they wrapped up MacDougall.  Like since the story doesn’t take the genocidal stuff seriously, it’s hard for me to.  So MacDougall, wherever you are, please sandwich me with your perfect battle axe wife. <3

The queen wasn’t characterized as humorless and insufferable

It’s almost over

[docholligay]

An unnecessarily lengthy ode to the deadlock disaster children

Decided I had to submit this instead of comment endlessly on your post… because I just love Ashe and McCree so much more than I could have ever predicted?? I would feel about characters from this game?? You already know this but you did ask for reasons, so I’m gonna give them to ya.

I was drawn to Ashe when I first picked up the game because I tend to prefer longer ranged weapons and also because I took one look at her and said ‘i choose you, criminal lesbian.’ I didn’t even watch Reunion for a little while, but I was/still am so into her weapon-focused kit and the challenge that learning to play her even relatively well has posed (I still run out of bullets and boop myself off ledges more than I care to admit). So for Ashe far more than McCree, there’s a gameplay element to her that does actually factor into loving her as a character. 

I wanted to play McCree a lot when I first got the game, because cowboy, and because me (the prism of my experience of rural life has affected a lot of what I see in mcCree and is probably a solid chunk of the reason I was able to write him into a character I liked) but his gameplay was just too hard and I didn’t love him like I did Tracer, so there was no reason for me to continue. 

Obviously we have very little canon for her, but I love a lot of what we do have. I love that she’s quick to anger and bossy and pretty selfish and quite good at what she does. I love that she clearly cares about McCree even as she isn’t prepared to ever let go of her grudge against him, that’s the kind of tension and conflict that I am always so into, perhaps in part because I have so much experience with it personally. She’s got high expectations of everyone, probably too high, and she prizes loyalty above all else - feels very relatable to me, tbh. I love her aesthetic and her ridiculous voice acting and I really really really love BOB’s mannerisms and general role in her life.

If and when I am ever tempted to do something with Ashe, I think the most interesting thing to work with would be her sort of spoiled brat mentality, and how that hits up against Actual Cowboy Ethos (I utterly, utterly reject the idea of the Deadlock Gang being a biker gang, at least before Ashe took over. I’ts a boring choice made for aesthetics.) The idea of her having conflict with everyone who taught her everything she knows and completely thinking that SHE’S RIGHT really intrigues me. 

As far as headcanons/my writing of her goes, though, I feel like I’m trying to flesh her out as a character who experiences a lot of growth, but never ends up much closer to perfect or even to good (because I don’t think she’s good, I don’t really have any interest in redeeming her at all, though I think humanizing her or exploring the ways that she can be relatable is interesting). I think one thing they did really well in introducing her (and some of the others, obviously Fareeha is similar) is that she’s a person who’s had an entire life, a childhood and a young adulthood and is now a grown woman. I find that super helpful in thinking about what particular things make her immature when she’s first meeting McCree and starting the gang, and then how she addresses or doesn’t address those things as she gets older and has to adapt. I also like that she’s a criminal, clearly not a good guy character, but also doesn’t at this point have a direct tie to the Big Bad organization of the franchise - I’ve not shared many of my ideas for where my fic series is going, but I like the idea of her flat out refusing any/all offers from Talon to team up for several reasons. Like having Vishkar and Lumerico and even Volskaya as sort of villainous presences, keeping Deadlock and Talon separate helps the world feel less manichean/more realistic to me, so I actually hope there’s not a move to tie everyone together too neatly.

I also have NO desire to see her team up with Talon except maybe in selling Talon weapons or something. BUt that’s business, not teamwork. I see Ashe as left with basically a name of the Deadlock gang, but without anyone but BOB who REALLY has her corner. 

I do wish that the whole 'her parents ignored her entirely’ and 'she’s richer than god’ things had been considered a bit more in relation to one another - it doesn’t make any sense to me at all that her parents would continue to bankroll their at large criminal daughter that they don’t care about at all, for instance. My other major gripe with how she’s been handled is actually about her legendary skins - let her look like herself, Blizzard!! Let her have her white hair and red eyes instead of just blatantly embracing the fact that you made another same face white woman who you will play Barbie with and give her dark hair or blue eyes whenever it’s more convenient. Also make her look her age, damnit. 

You’re completely right and all of this is dumb. But I’m not shocked, tbh. LET OLDER WOMEN LOOK IT!!! LET WOMEN BE OLDER!!! 

ANYWAY, her origin story and Reunion give me a lot to work with. ESPECIALLY because I’m not at all convinced that Reunion is the first time she and McCree have seen each other since he left the gang, or at least I feel very strongly that it shouldn’t be the first time. There are a lot of things about how they both act that I’ve chosen to read as suggesting this is kind of a recurring thing, he shows up and makes her mad and messes with the gang but neither of them will actually hurt the other, and then she has to go back to acting like he’s her nemesis when really he’s the one person who can make her break her own rules about punishing betrayal. I’ve got no particular investment in Blizzard telling their stories that way, but to me it makes a lot more sense than that confrontation being their first meeting after 20 years.

I haven’t decided what I think about McCree and Ashe’s relationship in specific, only in broad strokes, and I chalk a lot of that up to my general reluctance to engage with Ashe and what Blizzard seems to be trying to do with her. I’ll have to come up with something, if only in passing, but yeah, I dunno. 

AND SPEAKING OF MCCREE. He’s so sad, I love him. While I don’t see him joining Talon usually, I definitely agree with you that he just kind of bounces around from group to group and place to place throughout his life, and to me that’s in part because I see him as just kind of taking things as they come at him, but also because he’s so deeply convinced of his own 'badness’ and guilt that, without someone else prompting him like Ashe or Gabe, he’ll just default to running on his own so as not to hurt or disappoint anyone, including himself. But even as he’s convinced that he’s not a truly good man, he still works to do the right thing in the ways he knows how and feels cut out for. And I love that he’s polite, and that he seems largely to be pretty unflappable but is willing to get angry and express that anger when something is important enough to warrant it, and also that he’s a fuckin terrible dresser. 

Yeah, I think McCree is a tumbleweed, and he’s always looking for something, and he never really quite finds it, at least not for a long time, Eventually, in the fullness of time, he becomes a sort of officer for Overwatch, in my world, but even there he feels that he is doing a good and useful thing but does he “fit”? Will he ever be settled like Pharah? Loved like Tracer? Who knows! Not him! He’s just a cat dad doing his best. 

Idk, I was skeptical of getting into a game that wasn’t first-and-foremost narrative driven, but I’ve found that many of the characters are set up in such a way that even though they’re not fully fleshed out, there’s a lot to work with that’s super interesting and fun to me, so Overwatch has been an incredibly pleasant surprise. I love others, too, but these two appeal directly to my two greatest weaknesses when it comes to fictional characters (bitter lesbian who yells and sweet guy who tries really hard to do the right thing even though he fucks up a lot because the world is complicated), and it’s very fortuitous that they’re actually linked to one another within the lore. If my faves were like, Zen and Reyes, for instance, I don’t think I’d be as jazzed about the franchise as I am. But I lucked out with these two losers, and as always I love the way that you’ve written McCree (can’t wait to see what you do with Ashe) so I’ve gladly incorporated fanon into my thoughts and feelings about him, so it’s kind of just been a perfect storm for me, and now here I am writing excessively long submissions to you about why I love them.

Yeah, I think it works out nicely when you find a character that the franchise loves too. I did not go into Overwatch expecting Tracer to be my favorite, not even remotely. I expected it would be Widowmaker, actually. But Tracer just got me, something about her sense of goodness without naivete, her courage and her brightness. She’s the hero with the strength to get up and still see that corner of blue in the sky. ANd then go shoot a man to keep it. 

[crazy-hand-official]

on hole

ok so this posts been a long time a comin’ but i finally feel like im drunk enough to talk about (and never shut the fuck up about) one of my favorite bands... Hole

hole’s music has meant a lot to me since i picked up Live Through This at some boring ass used cd store that also happened to sell erotic fantasy novels about good fathers. but anyway. holes music is for women with bad fathers. women who are kind of fucked up and angry about it, too. women who have trauma and scars and are kinda gross. women who were wronged but somehow by the grace of god empowered in the face of their horrible experiences. 

or at least it feels like that, dont it?

that was the main appeal of hole to me, anyway. i fell in love with this album around the second or third listen through. i was like, damn, shes pissed. it was so refreshing to hear a woman just screaming out her frustrations. how cathartic must it have been to be able to not only get it out, but also be taken somewhat seriously? of course hole never got the recognition they deserved. im of the unpopular opinion that they were waayyyy better than nirvana. without sounding kinda sappy... you know what fuck it im not apologizing to any of u. hole totally made me embrace womanhood. it influenced my own, much beloved way to just exist. 

but also i guess i just really love tunes. 

ps im not here for the courtney killed kurt debate lmfao!!

ok so heres the part where i write my onions about their four studio albums 

Pretty On the Inside

their first album and admittedly, my least favorite (that doesnt say much because i still really enjoy it). its sound is much more abrasive. love employs her most guttural screams in this one, but ill get to that. to its credit, its the most experimental but many interpret it as amateur guitar screeches and song bits just hashed together. and maybe theyre right! but what band doesnt have that not-quite-there-yet first album? its an unrefined, beautiful mess. A song title or two is spelled wrong. Garbadge man is one that comes to mind. and for some reason, its just... fitting. its an artistic mistake left in and its so dumb but thats the fun in it! thats the punk in it! they dont give a fuck so why should you? this album is a messy bitch. 

track im gonna nut about: mrs. jones

this song is apparently about a back alley abortion, and its just as brutal. love is screaming, just guttural sounds and expletives and nauseating lyrics. when i first heard it, i was absolutely entranced in the atrocity of it all. shes sweating, panting. i will follow you down the sick drain

other favorite tracks: teenage whore, good sister bad sister, pretty on the inside

Live Through This

their most popular album also happens to be my favorite! the start of it all...

i havent shut up about this album since day one because i just like it so much! she refines her skills and just comes out with a successful album that ties an array of horrible themes and wraps them up in a pretty pink bow. its soft aesthetic covers the dark, sickening themes that make the album. rape, anorexia, self harm, self hatred, violence, abuse... the list goes on. someone i one knew asked me why women with bipolar disorder and bpd love hole so much and i had to bite my tongue but to be brutally honest we probably like it because love had the nuts to scream about taboo themes that are so hurtfully common in our lives. just like how the depressed rally behind the smiths. oh that and the musics awesome. but anyway, the cover is a beauty queen the moment shes crowned. its supposed to represent someone who has fought, clawed, and fucked her way to the top. but look! shes the queen! shes the beauty queen! everyone will finally love her and treat her with respect! and all she had to do was sell her soul. all she had to do was get abused over and over to the point of breakdown. but she made it, didnt she? i mean, look how pretty the crown is!

favorite track im not gonna shut up about: i think i would die

im gonna be super lazy and just copy and paste what i wrote up one time when i talked about this song before:

wait nevermind i cant search for my post through my tag because tumblr is broken. something about breastmilk? ill update once i find it lmao. 

other favorite tracks: violet, softer softest, miss world

Celebrity Skin 

i dont have as many onions on this one. supposedly, love didnt want this album to become ‘the widow album’, but theres a song or two about kurt’s death snuck in there. this albums loud, but not nearly as angry as the first two. in fact, when shes not singing catchy pop tunes about how jaded she is, shes being sincere and heartfelt. all in all, its a fantastic album and my second favorite that hole has to offer. 

favorite track of the album: heaven tonight

ive heard two stories about what this songs supposedly about. on one hand, people say its about two lovers. the girl wants to lose her virginity to the guy, so she drives (recklessly) to his house and dies in an accident. she’ll never grow old, she’ll go to heaven tonight. on the other hand, i heard that love just wanted a fun song to sing to her daughter, frances bean. either way, it makes me want to dance. so idk if its about teenagers fucking or about a little girl who just needed a song, but its cool.

other favorite tracks: awful, celebrity skin, reasons to be beautiful

Nobody’s Daughter

years later, hole released their final album. when i first heard it, i was disappointed. the first track was great, but then.... i noticed her voice had deteriorated significantly due to her smoking and other vocal abuse. and i thought, damn, i really wish she released this when she was younger. she sounds normal when she screams, but i guess to compensate when singing softer parts, she does this kind of weird weird thing when enunciating that... ok i cant pinpoint or describe what exactly it is but it kinda sucks. ‘honey’ is the only hole song that i dont like very much, and its the best song to use as an example when trying to explain how her voice got all fucked. now, we cant all be bowie (whose singing voice only got better after years of smoking). but still. 

anyways, i listened to the album again, and i mean really listened to it. and actually! the smoker voice is the beauty of it! its a woman who is past jaded and past giving fucks about anyone or anything. its songs from a woman of experience. and she still sounds badass! her voice is so rough, she sounds like she could still fuck anyone up. its exciting. 

favorite track to get all sappy about: letter to god

i really found an appreciation for this song. this is a song about someone who cant be saved. and isnt that fucked up? youre so bad, so hated by all of those around you, but no one can hate you as much as yourself. and you try everything to pick yourself up but just nothing works. and everyone has their two cents in what they think will help you. but youve tried every med in the book and youve tried this and that and the other thing, and you come to the conclusion that you just cant be saved. youre drowning. so what do you do? you turn to god, a supernatural all-mighty being. but shit, i hope he can help you. because if he doesnt, fucking nothing ever will. so go write him that letter.

  i never wanted to be the person you see

other favorite tracks: nobodys daughter, skinny little bitch

and thats what i have to say about that!

[benevolentcalamity]

You’ve never really been one for school, provided that the knowledge doesn’t really get you anywhere in life and the only well-paying jobs require an attentive brain that’s constantly going. For you, the process of school days is waking up at six in the morning - four hours before your brain is fully functional -, hurriedly eating breakfast, catching a bus, and spending eight hours in an environment that only teaches you how to hate everyone around you.

You don’t recall how or when you got at the Academy for Gifted Juveniles, nor do you really remember why it even appealed to you. All you remember is that you were exceedingly good with poetry, constantly hoping for some form of inspiration as you flipped through uninteresting novelty or webpages on your laptop. Nothing.

Except for now.

One morning, after eating breakfast, you’d taken to the library, hoping to find a few good novels around here to read on your spare time in your bedroom. The Monokubs don’t really care what you do, though they do seem to get a bit aggressive when bored. When you saw Kaede - you could never understand her, to be perfectly honest with yourself - get executed so brutally and the blue Monokub die along with her, that hammered the fact into your head.

You’re constantly going through certain genres, picking up a book, flipping through it, and putting it back. Pretty, aesthetically pleasing covers are what stick out, yet their contents are bland and boring. The girl falls for the jerk, the apple falls close to the tree; nothing sets any of these novels apart. Looking through fantasy one more time, you decide ‘screw it’ and grab five books randomly, holding them to yourself and making it to the door.

Just due to poor luck, you barely register the door opening from the other side, colliding hard with someone coming in and losing your grip. One book falls on your foot, the pain knocking you down to your knees and palms. It’s all a blur of colors for a moment, and you take a moment to register what had just happened despite it being very much clear.

“Are you alright?”

Realizing the person you’d bumped into had spoken, you grumble a quick “Yes” before moving to recollect your books. As if in remorse, they bend down, bandaged hands - you’ll ask why when you’re not angry - collecting the books nearby before sliding them to you. You nod in thanks, placing your books upon them and picking up the stack, standing. It’s here that you decide to look up to see who you had bumped into.

Your heartbeat skyrockets at the sight.

Standing there is a young man, tall and fair, decked out in what you at first guess is some sort of military uniform. Upon closer inspection, however, you almost hit yourself realizing that it’s not a military uniform but rather a regular men’s school uniform with some modifications. The red on his arm indicates him being part of a club, but you can’t tell what it could possibly be. It takes you a moment before you notice he had just spoken to you again.

Catching yourself, you blush. “I-I’m sorry, could you repeat that?” You ask politely. “I’m not myself today.”

Only slightly irritated, he nods, cat yellow eyes almost piercing into you. “I was attempting to warn you that you should be more wary, even in mornings,” He replies, his voice what most people would call ‘ASMR’. The sound sends pleasurable tingles up and down your spine. “I’m without reason, however, to get particularly angry at you, so you can relax.”

You nod, gulping a little. Adjusting your hold on your books, you shakily reach out your hand. Though, before you can get out a proper introduction, he beats you to it.

“Forgive me, we’ve not been properly introduced,” He hums, reaching and gripping your hand. The bandages feel a little grubby, but you won’t comment on it. “I am Korekiyo Shinguji. But, I would like to ask you to simply call me ‘Kiyo’. I’ve been told it’s easier on the tongue this way.”

Lord, he’s eloquent...

Your heart feels like it’s about to break out of your body and drop onto the floor. “[Name] [Last Name]... It’s nice to meet you.”

“As it is to meet you, [Name],” He nods, his previous irritation nonexistent. “If it’s no inconvenience, please tell me what you have been doing here. I can only guess from the book genre you’re carrying that you’re bored.”

“I am,” You reply. “I’m not really used to talking to people, so to be perfectly honest, I’ve been planning to spend the day reading and writing.”

“Ah, I see,” Kiyo hums. “However, I must say that such a thing is a displeasure to hear. Isolation is a detriment to individuality as it is to general society. That will not do.”

You tilt your head. “I... guess you have a point, but what brought this on?” You ask.

“Ah.” His hand falls from his shoulder to fondle the pocket watch looking thing hanging from his neck. “You must forgive me, [Name]. From an anthropological point of view, to be separated from people is a problem.”

It clicks. “You’re an anthropologist?” You ask.

“Indeed,” Kiyo replies. “I came because it’s quiet. I despise loud noises.”

“Yeah, same here,” You respond. “Though, only for a little bit. I am planning to return to my room.”

“If it’s what you insist upon, I will not stop you,” He says. “But, I’d like you to know that it would please me if you’d take some time to spend with the others. Being sociable will greatly benefit you, I’m certain.”

“Well, I...” You don’t feel like spending time with the others, given one of them is possibly the creepiest boy you’ve ever seen and another is very big and very weird. “... Kiyo, neither of us feel like being where there’s a lot of chatter, and it would probably do me some good to spend time with someone. So... Maybe we could read together?”

Suddenly, his interest seems piqued. “It pleases me to know you’re willing to spend time with me. I won’t object. Allow me to direct you to some of these books over here; I’m with a lot to tell you of and we’ve much to discuss. Worry not; I shall never bore you.”

The two of you then proceed to spend about two hours discussing books on culture and romance, given sci-fi seems to bore him and horror absolutely disgusts him. It’s not that you’re surprised at the latter - nobody’s even trying in the genre anymore -, though you would have expected him to show at least a little bit of intrigue in it. Curiosity killed the cat, you suppose.

One particular book - one on older Japanese culture and the like - catches your fancy, and you point to an illustration as the two of you continue to learn. For the first time, you’re enjoying learning and you’re constantly wanting to learn more - something Kiyo seems to sense.

“What’s the red rope about?” You ask. “I remember that section about the Red Strings of Fate; is this linked?”

He chuckles. “This, [Name] would be Shibari - or Kinbaku, to be more precise. It’s also what would be referred to as BDSM,” He replies. “But no, it’s with no link to the Red Strings.”

“BDSM?” You echo. All he does in reply to you is stare deep into your soul like he’s silently asking if you’re truly this deep in the dark about the subject. “... Please stop looking at me like that.”

“My apologies. It’s been quite a while since I’ve come across someone unfamiliar with it,” Kiyo says, looking back down at the book. Wait.

“You’re familiar with Shibari?” You ask, to which he nods.

“Yes, I am. Very familiar, actually,” He replies. “I’d be happy to show you what I know, if you so desire.”

Any sorts of implications go flying straight over your head. “Sounds interesting. I might just take you up on it,” You nod, giving him a big smile.

“Good,” Kiyo nods, eventually glancing at the clock far off to the side. “Ah. The others might come looking for us. Best go to make sure they don’t assume anything incorrectly. It might deter them from an actual murder.”

You shudder.

“Come, [Name]. We shall discuss more later,” He tells you. “My, I don’t remember the last time someone’s listened so intently and wanted to learn so much. I feel as if we’ve made excellent progress.”

“I’m excited for our next session, if you’d like to call it that,” You nod. “I’d really like to learn more about these things.”

The look on Kiyo’s face is unreadable aside from palpable approval. “Come, [Name].”

All you can think of while the two of you go down the hall to find the others is, I’ve made a friend.

[hurl-a-can]

For the fandom asks: 001 Lord of the Rings 003 Anders from DA Pretty please ^^

Lord of the Rings 

(I’m more of a Silmarillion fan - but you said LotR, so let’s do LotR…:-))

Favorite character: Boy, that’s tough. OK, I’m gonna say Elrond. Survivor from the 1st age - and there’s that Fëanorian connection. Or maybe Treebeard. Because hooooooom, motherfucker.

Least Favorite character: I don’t think I have one, to be honest. I could pick a few in the movies, but in the books? Nope. Either I love them or I love to hate them.

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon): I’m not much of a shipper when it comes to Tolkien’s legendarium, not as far as romantic or sexual ships go. I’m all about brOTPs and friendships when it comes to Tolkien, with very few exceptions. I guess Aragorn & Arwen is kind of aesthetically appealing due to its connection to Beren/Lúthien and Thingol/Melian, its symbolism and the bittersweet note that it ends on, but I’m nowhere near as emotionally invested in those two as I am in the friendship between Legolas and Gimli or in whatever the fuck is going on between Sam and Frodo (and no, I don’t read that relationship as romantic or sexual and never will). 

Character I find most attractive: If we go by headcanons I have for the book, then it’s gonna be Elrond, Faramir, Legolas, Glorfindel or Aragorn. (In the movies it is totally a tie between Elrond and Saruman. And Haldir.)

Character I would marry: Can I say Elrond again? Either him…or Samwise Gamgee.

Character I would be best friends with: Frodo, Gimli or Legolas, I think. And Pippin.

A random thought: I think Legolas’s hair is actually light brown. I also suspect he’s into shrooms.

An unpopular opinion: The long descriptive passages, the songs and ‘Concerning Hobbits’ are fucking awesome.

My Canon OTP: Like I said. Not much of a shipper when it comes to Tolkien and especially not when it comes to LotR. Anyway, I’m gonna say Aragorn and Arwen because it’s kinda important.

My Non-canon OTP: Don’t have one.

Most Badass Character: Éowyn!!!

Most Epic Villain: Old Man Willow. Ha! (Didn’t expect that, did you?) OK, just kidding. Old Man Willow is quite a frightening entity in his own right, but I’ll just be boring and say Sauron. Doesn’t give me quite as many chills as the Nazgul and isn’t quite as cool as the Balrog… But he’s definitely the most epic.

Pairing I am not a fan of: I’m indifferent to most of them. If the fanfic is good, I’ll enjoy it, regardless of the pairing. 

Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): I’m fine with the bookverse characters. I’d appreciate if Eowyn maintained more of her edge even after meeting Faramir, but I’m not super salty over it. As far as the movieverse goes… I guess I can live with Legolas and Gimli getting reduced to Mr Lean Mean Killing Machine and Mr Comic Relief (it kinda works in the film), I’m fine with how Faramir is handled (for the most part) and I get the reasoning behind most of the changes made to the characters and the narrative. But I’ll never forgive Peter Jackson for what he did to Denethor.

Favourite Friendship: Probably Legolas and Gimli.

Character I most identify with: Bilbo.

Character I wish I could be: I wanna be Legolaaaaas!

Anders

How I feel about this character: Conflicted. I’m absolutely NOT a fan of what he did. I get why he did it, though. As angry as I get with him at the end of the story, I’m still much angrier with Isabella at the end of Act II (I sometimes wonder why SHE doesn’t get anywhere near as much bad rap as Anders…at least Anders did what he did for noble reasons).

Any/all the people I ship romantically with this character: Hawke, Fenris (if it’s handled well - which ain’t easy given how unlikely that ship is), HoF (if he lives)He’s not one of my favourites though, so I don’t really seek out Anders related content much.

My favorite non-romantic relationship for this character: His relationship with HoF - and definitely his friendship with Varric. Or with Hawke (if Hawke isn’t romancing him - which, in most of my PTs, he isn’t).

My unpopular opinion about this character: Is there such a thing as unpopular/popular opinion where Anders is concerned? I mean, no matter what you say, *someone* is always gonna get terribly pissed off. (I think both Anders fans and Anders haters need to calm the fuck down).

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: No particular wishes for Anders. Well, maybe one: I guess I would like to see how the whole spirit possession thing affects Anders as a Warden. What becomes of Justice/Vengeance when the Calling comes?  

Favorite friendship for this character: Hawke.

My crossover ship: Don’t have one.

[hyercns-blog]

( the cuteST )

a bitch is Tired rn after pulling my usual shit, aka staying up until 5am for no reason only to stick out a two hour lab, cry while doing my connections page on my late lunch/packing break and napping in the car, so excuse the seeming lack of enthusiasm lkfdsjglk. hey i’m kat, i’m 20, canadian, and my current means of life rn are chocolate, drag race ( i.. am team anyone but b*b* rn, no offence but my girl needs to come back to earth and stop rubbing me the wrong way sdfgkjgfd ( i think sh*ngela deserves it most despite being more of a tr*xie stan tho js ) ) and 3am you in me listening parties with myself four months after its release rip !! i’m a uni student and in love with sowoo so you don’t wanna know the agony that comes with picking one over the other. you can hmu on d*scord if you’d like ( just find me in the gc and message me from there fkskf ) and this is so boRING, it’s like the life is sucked out of me omg. anyways hyeran, a whole.. other positive muse bc jesus, how many of these do i have rn ?? this is so out of hand man, but nonetheless here’s a bit abt the brat:

- ̗̀ wait, wait, was that JEON SOMIN i just saw? damn, it was actually just that TWENTY TWO year old MUSIC PRODUCER/BARISTA, YUN HYERAN. speaking of them, did you hear that they’re known as THE VIRTUOSO around gangnam? i guess it makes sense considering they act so EBULLIENT & LOYAL but at the same time so MAGNANIMOUS & DIFFIDENT. they’re also apparently a PANSEXUAL FEMALE OUTSIDER who uses SHE/HER pronouns. ( kat / 20 / gmt-3:30 / she/her )

yun hyeran, a daegu native with an older and younger brother, an ambivert and an all around baby

tbh this is a copied intro from a few months back and i don’t have the time to perfectly incorporate her recently developed bg, so pls anticipate a small bio with that explained HERE

buT she became involved in music through her father, who studied it in uni and ended up becoming a music instructor with a focus on piano, flute and vocals

her and her mom.. also her older brother, didn’t have the best relationship when she grew older, which seemed to die altogether when her parents divorced and her mom left. but her and her brother’s still exists, it’s just that he’s a bit of a toxic influence on her and she tends to distance herself from him

went to uni in seoul to pursue music like her father ( a daddy’s girl too like ) and found her way into the world of production !! by junior year, she’d transferred out of her original program and majored in that instead and has loved it ever since; she recently graduated

moved to gangnam bc.. idk, she just wanted to KDFJSGLGKFD

impulsive brat

would visit jeju island when she was younger bc her aunt lived there

she adores said aunt, her dad’s sister and the maternal figure she Deserves, so overall jeju holds a special place in her heart

for the time being, she works full-time as a barista at the café just a block from her cute little studio apartment while looking into internships at record labels for her to take on a little further down the line ( no rush bc it’s already quite competitive and she’d rather enjoy what she has going now )

she’s also making something of an income as the creator of an acct on youtube and soundcloud for her music, something she’s had for abt two years now

she’s not even close to making it big yet, and she doesn’t mind if she never works for a moderately to highly popular label — though she should if she wants to get by

among the aesthetic, lo-fi music crowd ( one of those yt accts with a livestream for certain playlists that go on for hours, rip ) where for the most part, it’s personal faves mixed with her own works, and has a substantial following as of now. but has an interest in experimenting, with mashups ( as a lover of them ?? i couldn’t help myself sgflkdsjg ) for example, with a small fear of how that change would be received

this is so short now that i’ve shortened it immensely iK, it’s a little infuriating if you ask me ljkgdfjls

in terms of her personality and other things:

she’s a very loyal person, v e r y. while like i said ( and will elaborate on in her bio ), her relationship with her brother is Not Great, she hasn’t completely given up on him. maybe for the time being, but her being someone who’s open to the idea of people changing for the better somewhere down the line, leaves a bit of room for her to possibly change her mind if he does enough to allow her to consider it

so she can be a bit of a doormat in some cases, it all depends on how she sees the person that determines if that’s the case, but she generally won’t let you off if you’re being dumb/an ass to someone or if she gets advantageous vibes from you for example ( given she can.. be a little naive and is a p gentle soul ) so.. idk fgklsj good luck to the 99% ig ??

she does have a slight dependency on others despite her thinking all signs point to the opposite, and even though her and her mom never rly had a good relationship she still reels from the neglect/abandonment some days so handle her with Care if she deems you a close pal

spontaneous tbh, moving to gangnam was a little last minute on her part, for one

she’s a bit reclusive when focused on something, if she tells you she’s working on a track, it’s essentially a head’s up that you might not see her for a couple of days depending on how soon she gets it done — lowkey that bitch™ who makes up an illness to her boss, so she wouldn’t even show up for work if it’s more than just her fucking around

bc admittedly, a lot of what she posts is fucking around and liking it, her more thought-out and effort packed projects are hidden away on her laptop

a bit insecure with her work and just her general disposition ?? those first few points above mess with her a lot and leave her disheartened so.. my poor child

v strong overall, takes people’s shit and if it gets to her, she gets over it p fast. doesn’t dwell on much and will be courteous to you even if she’s declared you too toxic to stick around 24/7

isn’t exactly one to get angry ?? she’s basically just disappointed or annoyed at best 99% of the time, it takes a lot to get her beyond that

positive, ugh. maybe not sickeningly sweet, but still. kinda explained parts of it above and i’m 95% gone mentally rn, gotta spare that for other little details gsjklf

a cute bean who wants the best for everyone

uhhh

has a good understanding of english, her mom’s an american national so she grew up with it being spoken in the house at times

prob speaks it better than i speak french, but still wouldn’t consider herself fluent

plays piano and bass guitar, but knows her way around a flute and tenor sax ( you don’t know how tempted i was to say clarinet bc of jiwoo gjflkgds )

prob had some kind of little amateur rock band with a few music majors and took up bass for the hell of it lmao

loves animals, leans towards cats or big dogs. corgis and those little spaniels get a pass tho

speaking of, she has a cute little calico kitten ( i’m shit with pet names so if lucy sounds lacklustre.. you know why rgkjls ) who she Loves, her baby !!

sweater, ball cap and basic t shirt junkie

those glasses somin’s been wearing a lot of lately ?? hyeran wears them too but.. actually needs them, not even close to a fashion statement

doesn’t don much makeup unless someone’s dragging her to a party or something

thaT’S when she looks a little more like a classy early twenties bitch.. which lbr, is hard enough when adulthood is a whole Train Wreck for the most part LGFJSDL

not a heavy drinker, but the textbook definition of a lightweight so.. she’s always praying for anyone who has to deal with her dgfjklsfg

lattes are her livelihood

a bit of a hopeless romantic, just a bit, but god help her nonetheless

her favourite subject in school was literature/writing and reads quite a bit on her breaks at the café

favourite music genres.. it’s easier to say what she doesn’t like/finds boring, which is prob country and some aspects of edm/pop, not into punk/metal either

these are super basic but.. i’ve gotta get myself together for the day so this’ll do for now i hope ??

so if you’d like to plot, im me here or on d*scord ! i prefer the latter personally, but whichever’s easiest for you. i have a list of a few of the specific wcs i have in mind ( for the time being, catch my lazy ass avoid listing all the basic ones and revising a few i have on an old blog ) for hyeran up now, which you can find here, so just lmk if any of them appeal to you !!

[back-and-totheleft]

Rider on the Storm

Oliver Stone--Hollywood outlaw, cinematic high priest of the lost generation, America’s reigning Angry Young Man--has dismissed the haplessly out-of-touch: those within earshot as well as those not in sync with his favorite decade.

“Get out there! Take a chance! That’s what the ‘60s were--the cutting edge! Ride the snake! Now! Now ! Remember that? Go to the limits! Challenge authority! Challenge your parents! See for yourself! Get in touch with your senses!”

That fusillade is being delivered by arguably Hollywood’s most successful protester. Yale dropout, drug-taking, decorated Vietnam vet turned auteur , Stone has delivered take after take on the ‘60s and their children--"Salvador,” “Platoon,” “Wall Street,” “Talk Radio,” “Born on the Fourth of July"--coming at his theme every which way. Drugs! War! Money! Politics! Stone has made movies to exorcise his and his generation’s demons, annoying the industry with his excesses, filmic and personal, earning a round of grudging respect for ballyhooing a 20-year-old Zeitgeist all the way to the bank. He is even a producer these days, taking home a nice percentage of the gross. The Outsider has become Establishment. Hey, Oliver, what’s that sound, everything going round and round?

After nearly two decades in the business--writing or directing about a dozen films, earning five Oscar nominations, including two awards for Best Director--Stone has mastered the art of turning the counterculture into a mainstream, bankable product. Today he is Hollywood’s most consistent practitioner of point-of-view filmmaking, yet one who just as consistently falls on his own sword.

His films, lofty in their intent to capture the New Left values of the ‘60s, frequently come up short with undistinguished if competent craftsmanship and an in-your-face moralizing. Critics regularly fault his work. The New Yorker’s Pauline Kael wondered in a review of “Platoon” whether Stone was “using filmmaking as a substitute for drugs. . . . There are too many scenes,” she went on to write, “where you think, It’s a bit much. The movie crowds you; it doesn’t give you room to have an honest emotion.” If Stone disdains such caviling as aesthetic elitism--"Critics say that; audiences don’t. I won’t ever make boring movies, ever!"--he nonetheless has his sharpshooter’s eye trained on his place in American film history. Stone still hungers for the imprimatur of artist.

“We don’t practice repression in this country, we practice triviality,” the director says, standing in a Hollywood sound stage on an early winter afternoon. “I try to make films that are bold and on the cutting edge, with ideas that are greater than me--and I try to serve those ideas.”

Now, Stone is set to unveil his latest homage to his generation--"The Doors,” the much-anticipated movie about the legendary ‘60s band, starring Val Kilmer as Jim Morrison, the band’s charismatic lead singer and lyricist. It is Stone’s first film since “Born on the Fourth of July” won him his third Oscar three years ago, and at $30 million it’s his most expensive production to date. It is also his least overtly political--something of a first for this filmmaker who is regularly accused of being anti-American--but one that is not without risks.

With few exceptions--such as “The Buddy Holly Story"--movies about the music industry are notoriously poor box office. And with “The Doors,” Stone is bringing to market a glossy tale of sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll come round again in a new age of conservatism. It is a film for the ‘90s, with a controversial protagonist who practiced a particularly lethal brand of hedonistic nihilism; Morrison died of an apparent heart attack in Paris 20 years ago at the age of 27. Stone has taken a calculated risk in opening “The Doors” in today’s sexually nervous and unexpectedly jingoistic climate--the AIDS crisis and the country embroiled in its first real war since Vietnam. “I think we all feel on the edge of imminent disaster,” says Stone about his film’s upcoming release. “One always has that feeling.”

Even by the ‘60s’ break-the-mold musical standards, the Doors were considered sui generis--a home-grown Los Angeles band whose organ-rich, Eastern-sounding melodies, combined with Morrison’s vicious but poetic lyrics and undeniable stage presence, captured the growing alienation of an entire generation. From their first album--"The Doors” in 1967--to their last--"L.A. Woman” four years later--the band’s raspy mysticism and intellectual lyricism embodied the dark side of the ‘60s.

At the center of the band’s appeal was Morrison, the pouty, drug-ingesting “Lizard King” who became something of the Prince of Darkness in an era that did not lack for antiheroes--a figure extolling themes of undeniable attraction for Stone. “Look, I’m in my 40s,” the director says. “So I suppose this film is about the formation of our generation--the values we shared. People were out there, experiencing things, changing things. There were no limits, no laws. . . .”

Brian Grazer, an executive producer of “The Doors,” perceived two outlaws well-matched. “Oliver was my first choice as the director,” Grazer says. “He does what nobody else does--he takes dark, difficult subjects and turns them into hits.”

But hit making, as Stone likes to maintain, is not his goal. Rather, he single-mindedly goes after what he thinks of as the truths of his generation, wherever that search takes him: Vietnam, Wall Street, rock ‘n’ roll, even the Kennedy assassination. He describes the J.F.K. murder, the subject of his next film, which he will begin shooting this spring, as “the most covered-up crime of our era.” Although risk-taking and possibly radical in their intent, Stone’s films are increasingly mainstream, made with ever-larger budgets and more prestigious producers--Hemdale, Carolco and now, with the Kennedy film, Warner Bros. Success, for Stone, is a double-edged sword.

“Success?” asks the director, slightly startled. “That didn’t become popular as a concept until the ‘70s. Yeah, I have much more freedom to make the subjects that I want, but I don’t see myself as Darryl Zanuck. I would feel bad if I got indulgent. All good films come from people with an independent spirit, those who push. But the power of perception in the world is such that fringe ideas, when they are accepted, become mainstream--that because of their success they become a cliche.

“ ‘Platoon’ was a major innovation in our perception of what that war was. I thought ‘Born’ was a fairly radical statement; it took 10 years to make that picture--everybody passed on it. Once it was made and got eight Oscar nominations, it became a successful Hollywood movie. If it had not been successful, it would have been considered an outlaw film. Now, with the Kennedy film--why haven’t they made that already? Because people were fearful that it was uncommercial. I hope I was destined to make that picture.”

Those who know him suggest that Stone is indeed struggling to reconcile his renegade past with his current role as emerging power broker. “Oliver is conflicted about his success,” says one industry executive. “He hasn’t allowed his political sensibilities to get in the way of taking large amounts of money, and he struggles with that.”

“It isn’t about getting successful and having a career,” Stone says. “Going against success as a formula and embracing failure, like Morrison, where death becomes the last limit. . . . You mustn’t let money or power corrupt. I don’t feel in any way that I have compromised. I want to stay truthful to my era.”

STANDING HERE IN THE CAVERNOUS SOUND STAGE, Stone is putting the finishing touches on “The Doors.” While ostensibly another ‘60s film, “The Doors,” colleagues say, is actually a further cinematic echo of the director’s own persona as self-exiled prodigal son. As one actor puts it, “Although Oliver’s films seem to be about social issues, they are really about him.”

In conversation, Stone is by turns boyish, combative, thoughtful and overheated, one who seems to delight in spewing hyperbole as much in person as he does in his films. A husband and a father, he insists that his one regret is, “I didn’t sleep with all the women I could have.” A former drug user once busted in Mexico, he now calls cocaine “the biggest killer I know” but still salutes hallucinogenics as “fascinating.” A relentless advocate of the ‘60s, he disparages Woodstock as “a bunch of Boy Scouts getting together.” A most famous veteran, he is nonetheless disdained by some members of his old unit as a self-righteous blowhard with little sense of humor and a skewed perspective. (“He is very opinionated, over-generalizes the facts and bad-mouths people who have different points of view,” says Monte Newcombe, who served with Stone in Vietnam.)

As is well known, Stone made his mark as a movie maker five years ago when he turned his own life into film--"Platoon,” the 1986 Oscar-winning Vietnam War film that chronicled the director’s 1967-68 tour of duty. The movie won Best Picture and Best Director and grossed more than $160 million. Stone has made similar connections in his other less overtly biographical films. James Woods in “Salvador,” Charlie Sheen in “Wall Street,” Eric Bogosian in “Talk Radio,” Tom Cruise in “Born on the Fourth of July,” all played characters close to the director’s “male, Type-A personality,” says Bogosian. “Oliver makes movies about men under pressure.”

In “The Doors,” Stone evinces a similar fealty to Morrison, a contemporary of the director’s and a man also known for not tempering his excesses. “Jim had a thing where he went to the limits--women, drugs, alcohol, the law,” says Stone, who plays down some of Morrison’s excesses and recut parts of the film to make Kilmer’s character more likable. “His lyrics were earthy--snakes, fire, earth, death, fear, eros, sexuality. But he was also close to the French symbolist poets--Apollinaire, Rimbaud and a little Dylan Thomas. That combination--the high end and low end, black and white, vulgar and refined--I liked that contrast.”

It is a marriage of opposites that also fits Stone, who is described by those who know him as intense, passionate and smart, a prodigious director and writer whose early reputation for womanizing and drug taking never hindered an equally relentless work ethic. “He has the curiosity of a child and an incredible drive,” says Kenneth Lipper, an investment banker, author and consultant on “Wall Street.” “Oliver uses his films as an excuse to search out the facts--the truth--of a situation.”

Others who have worked for him say Stone is a masterful taskmaster who will manipulate, taunt and pressure cast and crew into sharing his commitment to the subject at hand. “He likes to do a lot of sparring to challenge you,” says actor Willem Dafoe, who starred in “Platoon” and “Born on the Fourth of July.” Adds Bogosian: “He expects you to be a self-starter and thick-skinned when it comes to criticism. And if he senses you can’t take it, he will move away from you fast. Being on a set with him can be very punishing. But at the end of the day, everyone wants to be around him.” Kyle MacLachlan, an actor best known as FBI man Dale Cooper in television’s “Twin Peaks,” who co-stars in “The Doors,” says simply, “I miss working with Oliver.”

With so many of the director’s oft-related demons so readily on the surface, so out there, it is a challenge to sift through the rhetoric. Ask Stone what he is looking for in his self-inflicted Sturm und Drang , and he scorns the question as “so obvious. OK, the 49ers to win.” But in the next breath he turns philosophical, cribbing from Milan Kundera, the celebrated Czech novelist: “the ‘Lightness of Being.’ We’re all looking for equanimity of our souls.”

HE IS TALL, ABOUT 6 FEET AND JUST SHORT OF formidable, with an arresting collision of cultures--French-American, Jewish-Roman Catholic--etched into a face that is all but haggard from years of hard living and late hours. Bleary-eyed, dressed totally in black, Stone is sandwiching in an interview in the midst of back-to-back editing sessions for Friday’s release of “The Doors.”

Surrounded by his editing crew, he holds court in a room that seems the extension of himself as both polemical filmmaker and erstwhile Peck’s Bad Boy--everything state-of-the-art and bigger-than-life. Extra-large leather sofas, screen the size of a football field, giant neon clock ticking off the frames. The sequence being edited this day is quintessential Stone. On screen, Morrison, played by Kilmer, heaves a television set at the head of Doors’ keyboardist Ray Manzarek: MacLachlan in flowing locks. The result--exploding glass and screamed epithets.

Stone flashes his signature gap-toothed grin. “There was a sound vacuum, and it’s making me crazy,” he says about the morning spent laying down extra decibels of breaking glass. “Sound abuse. I’m accused of that all the time,” he says. “But this is the noisiest film I’ve ever made. I have to gauge how much the audience can take after two hours and 15 minutes.” In Stone’s hands, “The Doors” is less an illustrated history of the band’s genesis or Morrison’s peculiarly tortured life than a visceral recreation of the world of ‘60s music. The approach is similar to the sensuous verisimilitude the director achieved in “Platoon,” the first Vietnam War film made by someone who had served. “I don’t want to reduce the ‘60s to a formula or say this is all-inclusive,” Stone says, “but it is about the texture of the ‘60s . . . how music was the big common denominator.”

Producer Grazer says the film is less linear and narrative than “a film made from a real rock-music point of view. Oliver has made a movie that shows that world as dangerous and erotic. It has a real feel for the period.”

Much of that feel comes from the director’s personal affinity for The Doors’ music, which he first encountered in Vietnam. He found the band “visceral and mystical,” Stone says. “The Doors were not a mainstream band like the Beatles or the Rolling Stones. Jim hated that whole teeny-bopper thing. There were decency rallies held against him.”

That Morrison’s grave site in Paris still has the faithful trekking to touch the headstone has only burnished the mystique of the tortured songwriter with the Kennedyesque jaw and the black leather pants that would, on occasion, not stay zipped. A well-known abuser of alcohol, drugs and women, Morrison was arrested in 1969 on obscenity charges after exposing himself during a Miami concert. “He was a pirate, a free soul, an anarchist,” Stone says. “I loved his spirit--a combination of James Dean and Brando, sexiness combined with sensitivity and rawness.”

Morrison’s persona transcended not only his performances but also his death in 1971, which Stone recalls as “like the day Kennedy died.” The revival of so-called Doorsmania, as Rolling Stone magazine referred to it, began 12 years ago when director Francis Ford Coppola used the band’s Oedipal song, “The End,” in his 1979 Vietnam film, “Apocalypse Now.” In 1981, the lurid, controversial Morrison biography, “No One Here Gets Out Alive” by Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugerman, the singer’s manager, was published. That same year, “The Doors’ Greatest Hits” was released and made it into Billboard’s Top 10. By 1981, Rolling Stone had Morrison on its cover with the headline, “He’s Hot, He’s Sexy . . . He’s Dead.”

Hollywood chased the Morrison story for nearly a decade while the Morrison estate and the surviving members of the band battled over the movie rights. Eventually, Grazer’s Imagine Productions held all the cards--a hefty $2-million development package--largely through the assistance of veteran rock producer Bill Graham, who shares production credit on the film. Grazer took the project to Stone--who had just passed on the on-again, off-again “Evita"--and Mario Kossar’s Carolco Productions, which had signed the director to a two-picture deal.

For Stone, directing “The Doors” brought several new challenges. “It was a very complicated screenplay to write,” says Stone, who shares screenwriting credit with J. Randal Johnson, who had done an earlier draft. Using his usual reporter’s approach, Stone plowed through “250 transcripts from people who had known Jim. It was like ‘Citizen Kane’ in a way--everyone had a different point of view.” Stone shot the film last spring with 30,000 extras for concert scenes in San Francisco, New York, Paris and Los Angeles, including the L. A. clubs Whisky a Go-Go and The Central, which doubled as the old London Fog.

Recreating The Doors’ sound on film proved more difficult. Kilmer, a baritone like Morrison, was cast after Stone interviewed hundreds of actors. Perhaps best known as Ice Man, Tom Cruise’s nemesis in the film “Top Gun,” Kilmer had been so eager to land the role that he recorded an entire Doors album, substituting his own vocals for Morrison’s. In a similar move, Stone decided to obtain the rights to The Doors’ master tapes minus Morrison’s lead vocals. He then spliced the original soundtracks with performances by the actors--Kilmer, MacLachlan, Kevin Dillon and Frank Whaley, who learned to play instruments for the film. The film’s final cut contains 25 Doors songs, including such classic hits as “L. A. Woman,” “Crystal Ship,” “Light My Fire” and “The End.” The music was recorded with “a little bit of Jim Morrison’s vocals--and in the concert scenes I have mixed in the actors’ voices, and I defy you to find the difference,” Stone says.

Kilmer describes Stone as “a person of vision and integrity. He has lived triumph and horrors. And I can tell you his life does not pass unexamined. Look at his body of work. It pulls from his introspection, knowledge and vast intuition.”

Indeed, ask Stone what he hopes the reception for his film will be, and he launches into another paternalistic eulogy for the ‘60s. “A lot of people will want to see this the way they wanted to see Tom Cruise in ‘Born,’ so they can be given an alternative way of looking at things,” he says. “These kids have grown up with Travolta and disco, the high-tech world of the ‘80s, and maybe they have never even seen that there is a different, an alternative, lifestyle, a world we’ve lost touch with.”

“WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE BAND OF THE ‘60s?”

Stone is asking this over lunch of Thai soup--hot as napalm--set out for him and his guest in an upstairs conference room. With Stone, that isn’t an idle question; it’s a password, a test of character, sort of like the soup he’s ordered--beyond an ordinary mortal’s standards. “Come on, it’s good for you,” he says laughing at his guest’s discomfort. “It puts hair on your chest.”

Shying away from risks is the ultimate sin with Stone, the only child of a privileged Manhattan couple, a stockbroker father and socialite mother. Stone wore a coat and tie every day to prep school, wrote weekly essays for his father--who paid him 25 cents each--and embarked on his well-documented fall from grace as soon as he was able. Says one old friend: “Oliver grew up with a lot of contradictions in his life--Jewish father, French Roman Catholic mother who was this semi-Regine-type character. Oliver led this sort of Eurotrash jet-setter’s life--even after his parents were divorced--where nothing was normal.”

“My mother was never in bed before 3 in the morning,” Stone recalls. “She used to take me to France in the summers, and she was a great fan of movies, took me out of school to go to double and triple features. She was this kind of Auntie Mame person. ‘Evita’ would have been my homage to her.”

His parents’ divorce when he was 16 years old, Stone says, “was like parting the curtains of a stage play and seeing what was really there. I found out about a whole lot of things--affairs--I had been blind to. After that, I felt I was really on my own.”

The divorce also coincided with a larger rupture--Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, the de facto starting gun of the ‘60s. “I had no faith in my parents’ generation after that,” Stone says. “By 1965, I was in Vietnam"--first as a teacher and a merchant marine, later as an Army enlistee.

He briefly attended Yale University, his father’s alma mater, which he says he “hated, especially since it was before women were admitted.” Stone dropped out and headed for Vietnam.

He was wounded twice and earned a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart in a tour of duty that was later chronicled in “Platoon.” “He was never a regular GI Joe,” recalls Crutcher Patterson, a former member of Stone’s platoon. “He was pretty green, a loner and moody, always writing things. Whenever we got a break, he would stop and write a little descriptive story about it.”

During his brief Army career, Stone abandoned the idea of being a writer--he had written a novel at 18--to become a filmmaker. “Being there was a very sensual experience, and I started thinking in visual terms,” Stone says. “In Vietnam, all your senses were awakened. You had to see better, smell better, hear better. It was very sensual, with the jungle six inches in front of your face. You couldn’t think along abstract lines--you had to become more animalistic or you wouldn’t survive.”

He bought a still camera and started taking pictures even before he left for home. Once Stone returned to New York, “I got a super-8 right away and started making home movies.” He enrolled at New York University’s film school, where he studied under director Martin Scorsese, drove a cab, married Najwa Sarkis--an official at the Moroccan mission to the United Nations--and made “short, crude 16-millimeter films that were really screwed up,” Stone says. “They were arty, kind of abstract poems with a touch of Orson Welles and the French New Wave filmmakers--Goddard, Resnais, Bunuel. I was trying to get away from a normal narrative line.”

He was also pursuing a similar line in his personal life. Arrested for marijuana possession in Mexico 10 days after his return from Vietnam, Stone became well known for using drugs, an experience that later informed his screenplay for Brian DePalma’s “Scarface.”

“I started smoking cigarettes on the plane going over to Vietnam,” says Stone. “Once I got there, the guys I liked best had been around drugs for ages, and I started doing acid and marijuana. I also got into the music. I had never heard Motown before then. Jefferson Airplane and the Doors. Jim was the acid king. It was all part of the Zeitgeist. “

It was a taste for substance abuse, topped off with an appetite for pursuing women, that Stone, newly divorced, took with him to Los Angeles in the mid-1970s as an aspiring screenwriter. He soon had a reputation notable even by Hollywood’s standards. “He always had a million women in his life,” says one female former friend. “I don’t think he missed too many.”

In Hollywood, Stone wrote “Platoon,” and although it would be more than 10 years before he would get it made, the script earned him attention as a writer of unusual force.

“I was looking for a writer for ‘Conan’ ” recalls Ed Pressman, an independent film producer who worked with Stone on “Conan the Barbarian” and several films since, including “Born.” “His agent showed me ‘Platoon,’ and I was very taken with it. His script for ‘Conan’ was a great screenplay. Like Dante’s ‘Inferno.’ ”

The success of that film led to other screenwriting assignments--"Midnight Express,” “Scarface,” “Year of the Dragon” among others--all white-hot, unsubtle stories, the type that increasingly became Stone’s signature. He won his first Oscar for “Midnight Express,” which led to his first directing opportunity--"The Hand,” a marginal thriller starring Michael Caine that failed at the box office and temporarily stalled Stone’s directing career. Eventually, he was able to make the low-budget “Salvador” through Hemdale Productions, followed by “Platoon,” a $6-million film that Orion picked up from Hemdale and that saw grosses in the hundreds of millions. After that, Stone was admitted to the big leagues--directing Michael Douglas in “Wall Street” and Tom Cruise in “Born on the Fourth of July.” The latter film, based on Vietnam veteran Ron Kovic’s life story, won Stone his second Best Director award but lost out for Best Picture to the crowd pleaser “Driving Miss Daisy"--a loss that Stone took particularly hard. “We made over $60 million with that film--an incredible success. I guess it was just not meant to be.”

Today, Stone has remarried and divides his time among homes in Santa Monica, Montecito and Colorado with his wife, Elizabeth, a former nurse, and their 6-year-old son, Sean, who plays young Morrison in “The Doors.” Stone hasn’t lost his concern for current events: “I’m praying for our soldiers, who are making the ultimate sacrifice in the Gulf War, but I don’t think Bush ever intended to negotiate. There was a military-industrial complex that pushed us into this.” Friends add that the director’s only real interest these days, in addition to making films, “is trying to set up other films.”

Have Stone’s demons finally gone AWOL? “I didn’t say I didn’t miss my old life,” he says with a half-smile. “I love the concept of suburbia, but I also love going to New York and Europe and Asia, meeting new people. My wife and I are different that way. I have a restlessness that never stops.”

Indeed, as soon as “The Doors” opens, Stone is off to Dallas to begin shooting his version of the Kennedy assassination, a film that Stone describes as “the untold story of a murder that occurred at the dawn of our adulthood. It’s a bit like ‘Hamlet.’ You know, the real king was killed, and a fake king put on the throne.” Suggest to Stone that some of Camelot’s luster has tarnished since 1963, and the director says quietly, “There has been an incredible disinformation campaign put out about him. A lot of misinformation. I am using everything I have to get this film made.”

Ask Stone if he likes where he is positioned now in the industry and he laughs. “Oh, this is the part where you’re going to quote me, right? The outlaw director.”

If Stone is cagey about self-definition these days, friends seem equally divided. Some, such as Pressman, who produced “Blue Steel” and “Reversal of Fortune” with Stone, say the director “is at the top of his game. I was always mesmerized and excited by his personality, but now he is much more comfortable with himself and a lot easier to work with.”

But another Hollywood executive suggests that “Oliver has not changed much. He really hasn’t mellowed. He is conflicted about his ‘financial’ success. But that’s how Hollywood respects you--they pay for what they respect, and his movies now make money.”

Stone does seem to be a man with his eye fixed perpetually over his shoulder, one who keeps a daily diary and who describes the art of filmmaking as giving vent to “that other person that is in you. The shadow self, the one that is always walking behind you. The real you, the deeper you.

“I’m not going to say I’m a lone soul here, wandering through my own soundtrack,” he says. “I enjoy the community of people who love movies. And I like using the power that I have to make things happen. But will I be doing this forever? Maybe I’ll be working in Eritrea or the Sudan, or maybe I’ll become a journalist for Rolling Stone.”

Stone has spent several hours over lunch, repeatedly waving off his crew, but now his impatience is tangible. “I still don’t like the answer I gave you about the ‘60s, how this film relates to this current generation. I felt stupid. I was doing a lot of ‘ums’ and ‘ahs,’ ” he says, suddenly obsessed with his image.

“I don’t want to believe in generation conflict, but it’s there. I feel distant from my own generation, out of step with the people my age who went to college. I always identified more with the Charlie Sheen generation, that younger group who came up, because it gave me new life. I was able to act out my own history through them, skip a generation and go back to it again. Believe me, that’s exciting, and I’m grateful for that chance because our tribal rituals are the same. It doesn’t have to be Jim Morrison or Vietnam; it’s about going out there and finding yourself.”

-Hilary de Vries, “RIDER ON THE STORM : With ‘The Doors,’ Director Oliver Stone Exhumes the ‘60s in All Their Lurid Excess,” Los Angeles Times, Feb 24 1991 [x]