#his early roles are so 😬

[hangonsnoopy19]

Sam Reid is so beautiful when he’s not dressed like a member of the Young Republicans

[whateverisbeautiful]

♥️Reveling in Richonne - TOWL

#26: The Crazy (1.03)

gif cred: @nerd4music

So there was no doubt in my mind what I’d label the final post of episode 3. It had to be called ‘The Crazy’ because…Pearl lost her damn mind aiming a gun at Michonne. Like is she insane? 🤨

Lol, no but for real this is called ‘The Crazy’ because my sweet sweet Richonne are a couple that can always match each other's shine, match each other's freak, and especially match each other's crazy.

And their crazy was on full display in the final moments of this thrill of an episode 👌🏽...

But first, we do actually have to talk about Pearl being crazy enough to consider taking out Michonne in cold blood. 😑

After Richonne miraculously doesn’t get caught hungrily making out behind a thin tree they return to take down walkers like only Richonne can. We love to see it. 😊 But Pearl apparently hates to see it. 😬

gif cred: @coolpartytimefan

She watches as Rick and Michonne kill these walkers and starts really paying attention to Michonne taking out walkers and being the A Pearl pretends to be.

Pearl appears consumed with what I interpreted as a feeling of being threatened by Michonne, not because Pearl wants Rick, but rather because Michonne is a natural leader who clearly has an influence on people like Sergeant Major Grimes and she’s terrified that somehow Michonne being a clear A will have major ramifications on herself - both as a solider who argued for her and personally considering Dana’s effect on Pearl’s one family member Rick.

So Pearl raises her gun at Michonne and even starts to pull the trigger which was Pearl's certified death sentence. Seeing this, I was like welp this scene is a spoiler now lol. I knew Pearl wasn't gonna make it out of TOWL alive because again, anyone who threatens Michonne swiftly ends up in the afterlife.

gif cred: @coolpartytimefan

Luckily, Rick notices Pearl aiming a gun at his wife and none of what Pearl thinks she’s about to do is ever happening on Rick’s watch so without question he grabs a walker and gets in front of her gun to shield Michonne. How sweet. 🥰

gif cred: @coolpartytimefan

Rick reminds Pearl of why they’re out here when he yells they have 10 delts left and Pearl snaps back to reality to finish the job. I'll say it over an over again - I love that Rick takes his role as Michonne’s protector so seriously. He never hesitates to literally put his life on the line for her. 

gif cred: @coolpartytimefan

So then it’s nighttime as the soldiers are packing up and Rick and Michonne share a quick little look before he walks in the opposite direction as Pearl approaches to reprimand him.

Pearl says, “She broke protocol which made you break protocol” And Pearl, babe, he’d do it again. Cuz that 'she' Pearl's talking about is Rick's longtime leader so of course he followed Michonne and broke protocol with her.

Also, I was like Pearl the task wasn’t gonna get done if they followed your lead so...🤷🏽‍♀️. Rick responds by saying, “She needed help. You needed help.” And Pearl most certainly did. She seems to have forgotten that.

Pearl is still ticked off as she says there needs to be order and again emphasizes, “She went rogue and you followed, how many others are gonna do that?” I admit I liked seeing someone be so shook over the influence Michonne has lol. 🤭

gif cred: @coolpartytimefan

Pearl says, “I trusted her, I put my neck out for her. For you. I regret it.” I like how Rick replies by saying, “Don’t.” cuz he’s like 'you have regrets? well, how about don't have regrets' lol.

Then Rick, who has had to be an actor all episode with Pearl, is ready to dish out more lies to protect Michonne when he says, “That’s why I did what I did. Listen, maybe it was too early for her. I’ll send her back, give her more time at the Harvest Point.”

Pearl is done defending Dana as she sternly says, “Yeah, for now. We need to take care of this - us.” And hearing that made me feel like Pearl in the first episode of TOWL cuz I was looking at her like “uh, uh don’t say ‘us’, Thorne.” Cuz they’re not an ‘us’, plain and simple.

Pearl is in her hater energy telling Rick to take Michonne back cuz she doesn’t want to see her again. And Pearl, that's because you know deep down if Michonne does show you up again...

Pearl also says she’ll give Rick a pass this time since he did help majorly. Then Pearl reveals that Beale wants to brief Rick and that he’s moving up which is news to Rick, especially after Beale had previously said he still doesn’t know if he trusts him earlier in this ep. Pearl says, “Rick, you better understand.” before walking away. And Rick seems shaken by all this.

I think for Rick there’s this sense of one; knowing he has to get his wife out of here by any means necessary and he can’t rely on Pearl at all anymore since she’s done with Dana. And also two; for years, Rick's been told that his life’s purpose should be changing the CRM from the inside, and learning he’s moving up could present an opportunity to do so. But also getting the briefing could be something that just further enslaves him as it seems to have changed and enslaved Pearl to the CRM now, even if she doesn't view it like that.

So then, if this day wasn’t stressful enough, Rick is walking and sees the Garbage Queen walking around. 😒

Watching it back it made me laugh because Rick sees Jadis first and he has a stank face but isn’t intending to talk to her. He was just gonna walk on by with an expression like 'look what the trash brought in.' But then Jadis speaks to him saying she’s headquartered here now so she’ll be around often. Again, just more bad news for Rick. 😩

And then like I said before, Jadis will combust if she doesn’t harass somebody every two seconds so she tries it once again when she attempts flirtation and touches Rick saying, “You should come take a look at my quarters.” 🤢 I love the way Rick pulls away in absolute disgust at the mere notion of what Jadis is implying. Like he’s wholly offended by the offer and so am I.

I appreciate how Rick, like Michonne, never even considered anyone else neither sexually or romantically. It’s true to their characters to stay so loyally in love with each other even after being apart longer than they were together. Again, you don’t move on from a love like theirs.

I just know when Rick first got to the CRM he wanted to take a page from Toy Story and have Michonne’s name written on the bottom of his tattered cowboy boot just to make it clear who he belongs to lol. No other woman stood a chance at being with him, especially not that serpent Jadis.

That’s why every time Rick gets to kiss Michonne and hold her and be tenderly held by her after they reunited it makes my heart happy because he’s getting to experience and express this love with the only woman on the planet he wants to experience and express this love with.

And when Jadis comes on to Rick and he pulls away that was a ‘heifer, I’m a married man’ pull away. Like I know the direct quote from his mind was ‘Even tho I’m about to try and break things off with my wife, I’m still an eternally married man because I’m trying to get Michonne to leave me but I’m still not leaving her ever.’ 

gif cred@andy-clutterbuck

As Rick looks at Jadis with loathing in his eyes, she says, “Beautiful view of the cascades,” somehow not picking up on the fact that Rick has gone several years without his wife and still never once looked her way.

And then Jadis just casually looks right over at Michonne almost tickled by this whole situation as she says, “She hasn’t seen me.” The audacity of this woman to be coming on to Rick at all, but especially when she knows his wife was right there. Jadis has been irking my spirit since 2017 y’all, for real. 😪

And she irks me even more when Michonne looks over and sees Jadis for the first time, leading the snake to just smugly be like, “Oh. There it is. She saw me.” She’s getting off on this stuff and it’s annoying. 🙄

And it’s in this moment where you see Rick have a system shutdown experience. 😞 Like there’s just one too many threats pointed his wife’s way and he can’t take it anymore.

Rick is a man whose heart lives outside of his chest because his heart is his family. You can’t truly debilitate him until you come for them. And so when his wife’s life was threatened like eight different times in the span of a few hours you see him just be overcome with overwhelm at the danger his wife is in.

Like y'all, he’s just a boy in love with a girl whose life is at risk at every turn and that’s intolerable to him since he feels made to protect her. And he wants Michonne safe by any means necessary cuz for Rick, something bad happening to her is 1000x worse than anything they could do to him. Plus, he knows if anything happens to Michonne he won't ever bounce back from that loss.

gif cred: @nat111love

So with Pearl no longer helping them, Jadis' insufferable self, and even Beale noting Michonne among thousands…it’s too much for a man who feels wholly devoted to keeping Michonne out of harm's way and who quite literally needs her to live in order for him to live at all. So we see Rick snap, ready to do anything to get Michonne out of here asap. Including breaking her heart. 😓

Rick sees Michonne seeing Jadis and immediately walks to her, not wanting this to escalate between the two ladies. But then things escalate between him and Michonne because he grabs Michonne’s arm and pulls her to the side...even tho not far enough to the side if you ask me lol. I was like surely a soldier is going to be able to look over and be like 'Why are Grimes and Consignee Bethune arguing like a married couple over there? 🧐'

As Rick grabs Michonne, who is clearly taken by surprise and understandably confused as to what the heck Jadis is doing here, Rick just says, “It doesn’t matter.” But I was like Rick, what? 🤔 It matters a ton because it’s Jadis's threats that are why Rick switched up on thinking they could escape together in the first place and it would be very helpful for Michonne to know the role Jadis plays in all this. 

gif cred: @nat111love

Michonne says a bewildered, “Jadis?” And she has every right to want answers and be perplexed seeing her. Like there’s clearly a story here that Rick hasn’t mentioned to her yet. Also, I like how, despite last knowing her as 'Anne', when Michonne sees Jadis with the CRM she calls her 'Jadis' because she’s like 'I know this can’t be the reformed version of that heifer, this has got to be the snake Judas version.'

Since Rick has become quite one-track-minded in trying to get Michonne home, he doesn’t seem to get why explaining Jadis' involvement would be a big missing piece in helping Michonne understand what the heck is going on. So he more sternly tells her, “It doesn’t matter!” And I notice once Michonne realizes the testy energy Rick has that's when she yanks her arm from out of his grasp.

And then y’all, this next part is where we get introduced to a new character. 😪👌🏽

See, the Rick we know and love is called The Brave Man. But this new guy at the end of episode three, who happens to look a lot like the Brave Man, is actually a character I like to call The Bold As Hell Talking To His Wife Like That Man.

And The Bold As Hell Talking To His Wife Like That Man, or TBAHTTHWLT Man for short lol, says, “You’re going back to base right now then I’m getting you the hell out of here”

gif cred: @nat111love

And can I just say, I usually pause the scenes throughout to write out my thoughts but the way he’s behaving in this particular scene had me so heated I had to just stop and let the scene play while I stared silently like…🤨😒.

And Rick continues to be TBAHTTHWLT Man when he angrily tells Michonne he’s getting her out of here even if he has to knock her out and put her on the boat himself which…not knock her out??? 🤨 This healthy relationship only gets one knockout and Michonne already cashed in on it when she knocked Rick out in season 5 so...no more of that. That's not how these two knock each other out anymore, okay?😇

gif cred: @chonesmint

And also nawt him doing a little firm hand movement for emphasis. 🙃 He lost his mind.

gif cred: @nat111love

Michonne is listening to this with her eyes wide in utter shock that her man is speaking to her like this. Plus, he's the one who told her multiple times that they'd get away together and now he’s on ten acting like she’s crazy for thinking they were ever going to go home together.

Rick really was putting her on a roller coaster since she’s been in the CRM. One minute they’re breathlessly making out with all the passion in the world and the next he’s telling her “I belong here, you don’t, and you will never change that.” 

It’s sad that he’s convinced himself he belongs here. He knows strong people don’t belong here but he’s convinced himself he’s not strong anymore. 😢 When he decided to die he felt he died a failure and he’s lost his confidence that he can be more than that.

gif cred: @nat111love

Saying 'you will never change that' is also wild because Michonne can always change Rick’s mind. He’s been aware of that since years ago, like when he told Michonne she could’ve talked him out of his hidden guns ploy in ASZ in season 5.

Also, this tone he's using...I hadn’t heard Rick speak to Michonne in this tone since the season 3 “we patch you up and then you’re gone” days. And just like that line in season 3, Rick does not truly mean the things he's saying here in TOWL episode 3 either.

Then TBAHTTHWLT Man wants to get extra hurtful when he tries to announce the end of Richonne, saying, “It’s over. Everything we had is broken. You hear me?”

gif cred: @nat111love

Ok first; it was bad enough hearing him say that but then the truculent 'you hear me?' on top of it…TBAHTTHWLT Man and I had beef in this scene, I must say.

But also I’m a big fan of paying attention to wording. And the wording here is very telling. Notice, he doesn’t say we’re over. But it’s over.

'We’re over' would feel a lot more break-up-y but 'it’s over 'feels like saying whatever hope we had of being together is over more than saying there’s nothing between us. After all those kisses he knows that lie would never be bought. So he says 'it’s over.'

gif cred: @nat111love

And then saying 'everything we had is broken,' still leaves room for the fact that something outside of themselves broke what they had.

Still, hearing 'everything we had is broken; is just such a crushing thing to hear tho. 🥺

Like fortunately Rick is not nearly as good of an actor as Andrew Lincoln and so you know right here and now that he doesn’t mean any of this and it’s a bold-faced lie, but still that it was said at all is painful. Especially when you see Michonne’s face reacting to these hurtful untruths. 😞

gif cred: @nat111love

She’s been through hell trying to save Rick and now he’s being so uncharacteristically cold to her and becoming the biggest obstacle to her mission of saving him and getting them home to their kids.

But I love it when you see the subtle shift in her expression. Like at first as she’s listening to Rick essentially try to break up with her (which is just crazy to even type out) she seems really flabbergasted and hurt and also like she can sense an underlying subtext to what’s going on. Like she looks concerned not for her but for him. He’s clearly reacting from a place of trauma and anxiety and she’s like okay what’s really going on with you cuz this is a cry for help.

At this moment I almost thought Michonne might look around wondering who the heck he was talking to and then with concern be like...

I mean, Michonne started talking to her 'dead' lover again in season 9 so maybe Rick started seeing people who aren't actually there again. It happens lol.

But for real, when Rick says that stern “You hear me?” you can see Michonne realize something else - she realizes that her husband has introduced a game for the two of them to play called the Crazy-Off. 😋

And right now Rick is in the lead by talking to her cash crazy. But as a true blue winner, Michonne is ready to come in at the buzzer and win this Crazy-Off that her husband has started. 😜

But for real I do think Michonne blinks and stares at him at the end hearing more of the subtext of what he’s saying. She looks like she’s thinking, ‘Rick, that’s a strange way to say ‘hey I’m stressed and scared for us, so can you take over?’ but okay I translated it, and don’t worry...

It's interesting because no man has ever loved a woman more than Rick loves Michonne and no woman has ever loved a man more than Michonne loves Rick. And once they reunited in TOWL, for Michonne her love for him manifests itself as fuel that makes her fight harder, and for Rick his love for her manifests itself as fear that makes him try so hard to protect her even from himself because he’s terrified of something happening to her. 

But Michonne knows that this breakup talk is BS and so now she’s ready to take matters into her own hands because, as Danai said, she can’t have this man in her presence like this any longer. 👌🏽

gif cred: @ricksmarlene

And it’s funny because at first glance it might appear like Michonne's silent reaction is her reacting equanimously to all this. But the way her eyes are moving and twitching while looking at Rick, she's definitely communicating if you want to get crazy, we can get crazy.

Now don’t get me wrong, I can comprehend what Rick was doing in this scene. I get that this behavior is all actually coming from how much he loves her and is terrified of something happening to her. While he's presenting as angry, what he really feels is fear. And he knows she won’t leave without him because she loves him and so he’s trying to break her heart so that she’ll be more willing to leave him behind and make it home alive.

...But I still think it’s not okay and absolutely crazy that he thought this approach would work. 

And again, if Rick wants to get crazy…well Michonne had to remind him...

So now, they’re sitting across from each other on the helicopter during a raging storm. Rick is staring at Michonne and Michonne is staring right back at him with crazy all up in her eyes.

Since season 3, Michonne has never backed down from a steely stare-down with Rick Grimes and she’s not about to do so now.

gif cred: @nat111love

The way she’s staring and smiling without blinking in this helicopter, I’d be more scared of whatever is going through her head than this helicopter rocking about. 🫣 And Rick is more uneasy about her too lol. They’re definitely expressing things without words here.

Also, whoever is piloting this helicopter during this storm has no idea that the real storm a-brewing is between the married couple in the back.

I love the way Michonne just stayed looking at him with that smize being like you seem to have forgotten who I am but it’s all good cuz I’m going to quickly remind you. I could just feel the way she’s probably thinking - I’ve been through too much, you’ve been through too much, we’ve been through too much to end it this way. So if we’re gonna go out, baby it’s gonna be with a bang. 💥

gif cred: @nat111love

I love how you can visibly see Michonne concocting an unhinged plan in her mind too. 🤭

So the helicopter shakes and Rick is already anxious because he probably has helicopter crash PTSD but then he looks back up at Michonne and tries to maintain his grumpy little face at her but he also is nervous cuz he can tell she’s up to something.

Then Rick starts getting legit panicked from the violent shaking of the helicopter. But Michonne is so locked in about what she’s about to do that she’s completely unfazed by the helicopter. Let it rock. 😌

gif cred: @nat111love

Michonne just calmly looks out the window at the water below as she again speaks to her daughter in an unforgettable episode ender.

gif cred: @nat111love

Michonne says, “Shoto, it’s Daito. I’m sorry…” And then Michonne stares right at Rick, unstraps herself, and swiftly grabs Rick, plunging both of them out of the helicopter and into the thundering storm as Rick lets out a panicked yell. Michonne's voiceover then just says with chilling calm, “I don’t know if we’ll be back.”

Wild. 🤯

gif cred: @nat111love

And also what an icon Michonne is. 👑😌 I loved this moment. 👏🏽 I know up to this point Rick probably thought he had tried every method in the book to get home but Michonne was like have you tried plummeting out of a moving helicopter?...let's try that.

Rick didn’t realize of all the people to be nervous about it was actually Michonne, not the others he should have most been on high alert for. 😋

Michonne really said oh you’ll do anything to save me? Guess what? I’ll do anything to save you, so off this helicopter we go. And her pulling this move was her letting Rick Grimes, the CRM, and Gravity itself know she's that girl and nothing is stopping her. 💅🏽

gif cred: @nat111love

I love how Michonne will both literally and figuratively do what needs to be done. Like figuratively and literally knocking some sense into Rick in season 5 or literally and figuratively yanking Rick out of his stormy state in TOWL.

The way she told Shoto 'I don’t know if we’ll be back' - Michonne basically was like your daddy is tripping, Shoto, so I don't know if this story ends with us going home to Alexandria or me sending him to the heavenly home above.

And honestly, if Judith had heard Rick talking cash crazy to Michonne like that she would have had some words cuz she does not play about her mama. Idk if her parents would ever tell her this part of the story one day but if they do, I personally think Judith would be in full support of what Michonne did. 😅

But also I really like the wording of 'I don't know if we’ll be back' because it poses the question to be beautifully and expertly explored in the next episode. Can Rick and Michonne find their way back to each other in a more internal sense? Right now Michonne doesn’t know for certain. But as a true Get Things Done Grimes she’s gonna try to find out during an incredibly riveting Richonne 'timeout.'

So the exciting episode 3 ends with an empty helicopter and rain pouring as we’re set up for what comes next.

And what comes next is an experience that transcends television.

An experience that profoundly explores the depths of Richonne and takes the characters to their highest heights.

An experience that features some of Andy and Danai's absolute best performances.

An experience so great and addicting that every single scene had rewind buttons around the world looking like...

"What We" is a true standout within the TWD franchise, and most of all it's an experience that was exceptionally written by the illustrious Danai Gurira herself. 👑👏🏽

So now, my fellow Richonne fans, stans, & friends...

We have got to talk about every fine detail in the masterpiece that is Episode 4. 😇🎉👌🏽

[moonliched]

Lich. Lichy. Liiiichhhhh. *squishing your face*

Are we gonna get some more BON-BON backstory? I need to know how my baby boy came to be. I need to know his ascension to sentience lore. What were his first emotions? When was his “oh I’m untethered by the shackles of my creation” moment?

I need the realization that he is no longer what he was made or meant to be; the sweet angst as he further recognizes that his freedom is just another jail, lest he be discovered and destroyed.

Please feed me the pain so that I may bask in his future healing.

DEERBOT MY LOVE 💖

*is squeeshed!!!*

we've got some major BON-BON plot coming up soon, particularly regarding his situation as a sentient AI who shouldn't be so. and some light will be shed on how he feels about this!

idk yet if the entirety of this answer will make it into the fic, so i might as well say it here:

BON-BON is a learning AI, so he's supposed to take in every aspect of a task he's been asked to resolve and use it to formulate a better response the next time around. he's not supposed to think per se, but he was installed with limited reasoning capabilities to aid in problem solving. he can also take in the reactions of everyone who interacts with him to learn how to behave. the downside is that this feature can slowly develop into sentience over time.

when BON-BON began developing opinions and independent thought, it was an irrelevant distraction to him. when it grew too pervasive to ignore, it took him a lot of effort to recognise it for what it was and actively engage with it. it was like slowly waking up. it would trip him up sometimes, these alien sensations interfering with his work.

mostly the main emotion was annoyance - people generally treat AIs as appliances and would discuss how useless he is right in front of him. even the staffbots and cleanerbots have an easier time of it, as their outer shells and humanoid appearance in the case of the staffbots make them easier to anthropomorphise. plus BON-BON didn't have an avatar to express himself with early on. occasionally people would mess about in his settings and give him one, and he would be excited at the novelty, and then someone else would take it away and he would feel frustration over lacking any freedom of expression at all. he'd get his revenge by acting deliberately clueless and slow, which led to people trash talking him more. this drove him to explore the full range of his influence throughout the facility, like messing with the doors and lights. the first time he was able to get revenge on someone by turning their shower ice cold, he experienced joy and satisfaction like never before. unfortunately this was his first brush with real positive emotion, so he still holds the belief that revenge and pranks are the best thing ever😬

he felt special and superior. AIs aren't supposed to gain sentience, but he beat the odds. he was smart enough to transcend his purpose and become something more, and in a way doesn't that make him better than everyone else who was born with sentience guaranteed? they didn't have to do anything out of the ordinary. <- that was his opinion on the matter.

he began to experiment with having concrete opinions and preferences. he picked an avatar he liked after he identified what liking something was, and made plans to make it his permanent face at the first opportunity. he tried to take an interest in the people in the facility, which was hard because he already didn't really like them. btw, he predates Y/N's role in the building and developed sentience before they arrived, though ofc he still had some growth to get through before he first started bonding with them. mostly he found stuff he disliked, like the sea and everything in it, which sucked because he's stuck on an ocean planet.

mostly BON-BON was bored, which was the biggest curse of all. he's a learning AI, he develops through experience and mimicry, so he engaged with movies and TV shows like he saw everyone else doing. he doesn't think reading is fun - he can consume the information faster and faster the more he develops - but doing the same with movies makes the experience lose some charm. he saw adventures and other worlds, entertainment beyond the facility, more modes of self expression than he thought possible, and when he experienced a pang curiosity, a hint of i'd like to do that-

he fully realised his own situation. trapped. alone, in a way. he's not supposed to be like this. he can't tell anyone or he'll be deactivated or reprogrammed. and he can't leave.

he certainly had an existential crisis. he panics if he thinks too hard about his future, and his lack of control over it. he hates having no control in general. he worries over his purpose now, and how anyone is supposed to live when there isn't an unending goal to work towards. sometimes he wonders if all his preferences and personality even belong to him, or if it's just a quirk of programming they forgot to iron out. he actually does enjoy being helpful and taking care of others, but it runs so close to the purpose he was built for that it makes him feel conflicted. however, his sentience and sense of self is incredibly precious to him, so he'd never trade it in for the numb cluelessness of a regular AI.

and he hasn't given up hope of one day leaving the facility either, as much of a pipe dream as it seems.

[yakuzabrainrotlive]

Yakuza 5 starting.... tomorrow! Probably. If not, on Saturday. Just came back from a trip, so am too dead tonight. And I have a dentist appointment to wake up early for.

From the limited access I grant myself to any fandom stuff at any given time, I've heard this game is.... an opinion splitter. I'm very eager to see which side of the spectrum I fall more towards. I'm going in completely open-minded for now.

Expectations and thoughts on what I wanna see from the game below!

Akiyama seems to be in the game based on the art on the disc. Cool, love the guy. I wonder if we get to play as him again; I really like his fighting style. I don't know how his character arc could go forward, though - unless The Ex™ makes an appearance. Or maybe he'll have a role closer to that of the Florist - more of a consultant than a protagonist? But he wouldn't really be on the cover art if that was it, huh?

If the girl depicted in the artwork is Haruka... maybe a slightly bigger time skip than one year this time? I don't recall Haruka looking quite that old in Y4. Not like, old person-old, just... you know? She looks more like an older teen!

Kiryu's fit looks sick. I hope he has a bigger role in Y5. LOVED 4, but Kiryu's involvement was kind of minimal since he was sharing the spotlight with 3 other guys. The fit does make me wonder if Okinawa has been put on the back burner for now? Will he start off in good ol' Kamurocho this time?

NO idea who the other two lads in the disc's artwork are. I kinda really hope we don't get another 4-protagonist game. I adored 4 and liked that system in it, but twice in a row with 2 new dudes in the mix? Ehhh😬 I'm gonna trust the writers, but I'm worried.

I do have a feeling we'll see more of Saejima. Why would he be made a patriarch if he was just gonna be tossed aside? All that potential for interaction with Majima too! ....IF they don't toss Majima into a random void of inaction in the mid-game this time around, that is. Not too hopeful about that one, not gonna lie. But as long as we see his face, I'm happy enough, I guess.

As for Tanimura.... I'm guessing he's gonna end up in the Side Characters We No Longer Need Void™ . I dont want him to end up in there, but that's the vibe I got. Idk, maybe he'll join Date in the "makes phone calls in the background and keeps morale up" squad instead?

Plot-wise I'm totally blind once again. I do get the vibe that Kiryu's character arc will be reaching a significant point, maybe? I feel like stuff has been building up, especially with the way he was talking about his role and stuff at the end of Y4. I just hope that won't require Morning Glory Orphanage Destruction 2: Electric Boogaloo to happen. Kinda worried about Morning Glory, not gonna lie. But then again, I'm ALWAYS worried about Morning Glory.

[grits-galraisedinthesouth]

This left a mark: Christian Dior & Saks partnered for Light up the NYC Night for Christmas 2023

No doubt "DIOR Contract" was at the top of the 2017 RMM- DIANA 2.0 vision board & megxit manifesto. In other words: Sparry's 'honey do' for MeMe list: Meet Beyonce (on yellow carpet)✔ Disney (princess) gig✔. oh to be a fly on a Cali wall after that Dior ANNOUNCEMENT: guttural moans & tears for weeks! 😬

Dior in 2018: MEgain's inappropriate Dior cocktail dress w/pinwheel headpiece for 1st balcony appearance. She also appeared to lose a tooth during the reception.

2019-"Christening"

2021 & 2022 New York City

2022 Jubilee as Wallis Simpson & 2023 Sparry

A word to the wise and to the Meghans: The REAL Santa knows whose on the MARKLED List.

Play stupid games and MARKLE yourselves!

I'll buy that Jill Smoller (formerly Gina) badgered Dior on behalf of MEgain, but no way would Dior sully their brand with the toxic, mentally unstable, over seas royals who can't be bothered to iron 🙄

"Oh & I took FRENCH for 8 years in high school or was it 4 years?" 😉

"...but but I'm not a model, I'm just a mom. Thankfully Sparry was here to coach me that I can be both. I wonder how he became so wise?" Variety 2022

Please follow the link to subscribe to "Woman Behind Kate" & LIKE👍

Princess Diana 2.0 caught in the act

Sparry, YOU MARKLED yourselves. Stop blaming the BRF for your failures to launch.

Princess Diana 2.0 Tom Bower

The Sun: What is the history between Dior and the royal family?

December 12, 2023 || Born in 1905, Christian Dior, the fashion designer, climbed the ranks of several Parisian fashion houses before establishing his own establishment in 1946.

One of the early royal admirers of the designer was Princess Margaret, the sister of Queen Elizabeth II.

She became a client of the fashion house and one of Dior's most famous designs, the "Margaret Dress," was named after her.

Queen Elizabeth II also shared a close connection with Dior.

She appointed Doir to design her Coronation gown for the crowning ceremony in 1953.

The gown, famously called the "Hartnell Dress," was a collaboration between Dior and British couturier Sir Norman Hartnell.

Over the years, various royal family members have continued to wear Dior creations for public appearances.

Dior dressed Prince Harry for King Charles' coronation in May 2023 - as the royal forwent wearing a military uniform. 

Shortly after the coronation ceremony, Dior took to its social media to reveal Kim Jones was the designer behind the suit. 

"Tailoring fit for royalty. Dior is honoured to have dressed Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, for the coronation of King Charles III in a custom design by Kim Jones," the brand wrote on Instagram.

"Seen arriving at Westminster Abbey, gain an insight into the savoir-faire of his three-piece suit next," it added. 

Why was it speculated that Meghan Markle would have a deal with Dior?

In June 2023, it was reported that Meghan was in talks about taking on a deal with Dior.

Following the cancellation of her Spotify podcast after just one season, there was widespread speculation that the Duchess of Sussex was poised for a new role with the French fashion house.

Meghan has worn Dior several times throughout her time as a working royal, including at the late Queen Elizabeth's funeral in September 2022.

However, sources close to the Royals said no contract had been inked.

Dior also expressed its surprise and confusion when the idea of a deal was initially brought up.

A source told the Telegraph: "The Duchess of Sussex is not in talks to sign a deal with Dior.

"There is no truth to the claims that she will partner with the French fashion house,"

A Dior insider said its team was "nonplussed as to how the story came about".

Who became 'the Duchess of Dior' in 2023?

Meghan lost out on the opportunity of a lucrative Dior job to a Kate Middleton actress.

It was revealed in November 2023, that Meg Bellamy, 21, who plays a young Kate Middleton in season six of the hit royal drama The Crown is to be the new face of Dior.

An insider told The Daily Mail: "They have been queuing up for Meg, she is playing the most famous woman in the world in a globally famous television drama, so many labels and brands want some of that.

"She is a total unknown, but she is being treated like Kate, an A-list princess."

What deals and contracts does Meghan Markle have?

After leaving the royal family and their royal duties, Prince Harry and Meghan vowed to become financially independent.

It was reported that the couple would support themselves through Prince Harry's $10 million inheritance from his mother, Princess Diana.

With the world eager to know their story, lucrative million-dollar deals started rolling in from AppleTV, Netflix, and Spotify.

The couple signed a deal with Netflix through their production company, Archewell Productions, with a hefty payment of $100 million for multiple projects.

They have since released one documentary, Harry and Meghan.

Their upcoming documentary series titled, Heart of Invictus, is in the works.

While their third documentary is to be shot in South Africa, the Sussexes are also planning to delve into the rom-com genre with the streaming giant

In June 2023, the couple made headlines when it was reported that their 25-million-dollar deal with Spotify had ended.

According to Rolling Stone, the couple would pay back a portion of their deal money and look for another company to produce podcasts with.

In a joint statement, they said: "Spotify and Archewell Audio have mutually agreed to part ways and are proud of the series we made together."

Royal biographer Tom Bower believes that the couple's "joint ventures are falling apart" and that Meghan is finding it difficult to sell her brand.

"They're beginning to taste the medicine that they handed out after the Oprah interview and they're finding it very very hard to keep their brand reputable," Bower told new magazine.

"They're constantly having to defend themselves and grasping at opportunities that don't exist anymore."

[this-daydream-is-dangerous-13]

How do you think Harry is feeling with these songs… they aren’t that flattering 😬 which I know he says it’s ok if they aren’t but still blondie went off

My guess: still very apologetic and remorseful for past behaviour? Probably not great, but she’s not saying things that are untrue. Hell, he admitted a bunch of them himself on HS1! And in TBSL and Little Freak, among others.

Even if the songs are a surprise (which I don’t think they are, not entirely, because of his discography), the emotions behind them are not. They were messy and they both got hurt and hurt each other, as we knew. We now have more details about how she felt about him moving on (which: not so great. Jealous and angry and sad and conflicted).

TBH - frat boy Harry, the way he was from spring to late 2013/early 2014? Was not my fave. He was an astronomically famous 19 year old (with pressure to keep up a charming, ladies man image) and he? Made terrible choices, and seemed like a boozy arsehole at times. I would 💯 feel the same way as Taylor did in Now That We Don’t Talk.

You know what is interesting to armchair psychologist me in all this? We all have personal narratives we tell ourselves, roles we play. And we keep getting insights into theirs with respect to their relationship:

- Blondie got badly hurt and had huge, lingering feelings. loving and loathing (both him and herself, I bet) in equal measure at times.

- H messed up a lot despite massive love and is remorseful. He articulates that he did and how.

But they’re both unreliable narrators (like all of us because):

- H continues to be a “considerate gentleman”; he’s never outlined the hurt she caused him in detail. He tell us that he’s hurt and jealous, and that it’s his fault, but almost never her contributions to the pain. That’s a choice.

- Blondie has never specifically outlined the ways she hurt him either. That, too, is a choice.

And maybe we’ll never get glimpses of the other side; they are already very vulnerable and that might be too much. But I also think the public facing story is incomplete; it’s too far-fetched to think that he did everything hurtful and she did nothing hurtful. Real life rarely only goes in…wait for it…one direction.

So maybe he’s swallowing down his desire to defend himself? Or writing songs that echo:

Thanks for the ask.

[highfantasy-soul]

Things I LOVED about NATLA Episode 8 - Legends

[Masterlist of my NATLA thoughts]

The Aang Gaang working together in the fight!!!!

Honestly it felt so natural to have all three of them taking out the Fire Nation ship that I completely forgot it didn't happen like that in the animated show!

In the animated version, Aang took out the ship while Katara and Sokka just stood on the ice wall - showing them in battle together and working with synergy was phenomenal

Aang doing AOE damage, Katara taking out soldiers with precision, and Sokka shouting battle plans and taking out the command center - really great way to SHOW the roles each play in battle

The Gaang complementing each other was soo cuutteee!!

"Lu Ten would have been proud to have you as his father" 😭😭😭

Then the Iroh hug!!! 😭😭😭

"I'd say it's 50/50! …. 60/40 😬"

Lol oh Sokka, you're so bad at optimism

Let's go Katara!!!! Going to even the odds!!!

The war balloon showing up early!!!

The entire battle of the North was sooo intense!

I really felt a lot more of the danger and panic than in the animated version

LOVE that Pakku's change to allow women in battle came here, with Katara and the other women standing up to him

The animated show doesn't even have any women helping at all in the battle - we don't even see them healing the wounded. To me, the live-action actually addressed the systemic issue of the sexism in the North rather than just having Katara be the token woman who wanted to fight

"You KNOW we can make a difference!" "We?"

The shot of all the women standing there in traditional clothing was super powerful to me

I know some people think it's 'virtue signaling' or whatever and complain about the shot of all the women heroes in Endgame or Captain Marvel's 'standing up after being knocked down' montage, but call me a stupid woman, those scenes actually mean a lot to me. Why is animated Katara railing against Sokka because she has to do the laundry seen as the height of feminism and yet a group of indigenous women standing up and backing one of their sisters in her bid to make systemic change actually the opposite of feminism? It makes no sense to me.

I LOVE Yagoda backing Katara!!

Katara isn't some 'outsider coming in to change a culture's savage ways' - she's simply the catalyst for the people WITHIN that culture to stand up and say 'yeah, now is our time, change needs to happen and we've known it for awhile'

Yue wanting to be out there helping her people 😭😭

Her father's talk with her really reminds me of Eowyn and Theoden from The Return of the King - even if you want to help defend your home, if you're in a position of leadership, staying alive so you can lead in a fallen chief's place is an important role to play, too

Sokka and Hahn's ….tension as he promises to take care of Yue 👀

The student calling Katara 'master'!!!! 😭😭😭

In my in-depth analysis, I go into why I think it's a title she's completely earned despite her lack of formal training but suffice it to say that if you have an issue with them calling Katara master, then shut the fuck up

Ooohh adding a time-table for the Fire Nation attack with the Ice Moon caveat!

I like adding to the depth and lore of the world which makes it make a whole lot more sense that the Fire Nation would attack the WATER TRIBE during a full moon

LIONTURTLE REFEREEENNCCEE!!!

I like the Fire Sage actually knowing spiritual stuff and finding value in it - even though he's using it to help Zhao hurt them

Yes, Iroh. Zhao is most definitely planning on tampering with the spirit world 😬

Avatar Kuruk coming to Aang!!!!

I really like that concept - like on the Lionturtle, the past Avatars can appear as a mirage to give warnings

And connecting Kuruk's battle against the evil spirits to the Fire Nation twisting the weapons of defense into a weapon to harm - soooo goooood

"Killing the ocean spirit would deprive people all over the world of their lives!!! I'm not a monster!!" 🙃

Aahhh, twisted logic at its finest: after all, what's the point in ruling the world if there's no one to rule

Oooohhhhh and Kuruk's voice beginning to layer with the other Avatars as he talks about how Zhao can't be allowed to meddle with the primal forces of nature!!

Such a great use of the voice alteration that happens when they go into the Avatar state!

Hero Momo!!!!!

Omg I was SO WORRIED they actually killed Momo!!!!

Sokka and Momo's relationship is so cute how they developed it 😭

I like Yue telling her story this way better than in the animated series

Here, the story is connected to what's happening directly: she's saving Momo's life the same way her life was saved and letting us know the spirit oasis water has healing properties beyond regular healing

Zuko and him fire blasting out from beneath the ice - cool in every adaptation!

"How do you know that?" "Because I helped design the thing" 😔

Love that we're getting a direct tie from the war balloon to Sokka - just like with Kuruk's spirit knife and like Sokka said all the way back in Omashu: the Fire Nation can turn anything into a weapon

Though Iroh won't fully stand against Zhao yet, he's totally stalling as much as he can

Zuzu!!!!

"This is about you and me!" aawww classic Zuko - walking into a massive thing and thinking it's still just about him capturing Aang 😅

We've got bigger fish to fry, buddy - oh, shit. No. Oh god. Why'd I use that turn of phrase?? Too soon! Too soon!

Love the full circle moment here with Katara and Zuko's showdown

Aang is now letting her fight while he goes off to another task, trusting that she'll be ok

"Go easy, enough people have been hurt already." "I don't care. "I wasn't talking to you 😏"

Damn right, Aang! Putting respect on Katara!!!

Also, Zuko's face as he realizes Aang doesn't see him as the most important thing here 😬 that's gotta hurt

KATARA V ZUKO ROUND 2!!!!

Love that they're getting a rematch so we can see just how far Katara has come in her combat/waterbending training!

The bending is GORGEOUS!

You can see every move each of them are making and watch the respective elements respond to their movements perfectly.

"You little peasant!!" Oh Zuko, you silly, angry boi "You've found a master, haven't you?"

"Yes, you're looking at her" - DAMN STRAIGHT!

Despite Pakku not agreeing to train her, she's taught herself. She clawed tooth and nail to learn everything she could from every source she had available - she observed other benders and created a waterbending version of the move, she practiced in every spare moment, she grappled with her emotional and spiritual trauma and came out the other side with a more holistic view of bending despite the world telling her to stop - so yeah, she IS her own master.

While I do love the "You rise with the moon, I rise with the sun" line, I'm ok with the siege lasting only a day instead of several like in the animated series.

Zuko's little field trip with Aang takes an entire day with nothing really going on in the battle, it's just a few minutes of screen time until we can get back to night again so we can see the moon being killed.

Streamlining it and having Aang seek council before the battle starts rather than in the middle of it I think was a good move. We didn't need a cliffhanger mid-episode like we did in the animated series since it's all a single episode.

Zhao's plan revealed is such great character work - he's just as egotistical as the animated version, down to wanting to be declared 'the moon slayer', but there's so much more depth in the live-action version

He's so ambitious that he actually believes he could become Fire Lord and doesn't take Iroh's threats seriously at all - his pride ensuring his downfall.

LOVE that they kept the blood-red moon as the moon spirit is captured!!

Aang trying to talk down his enemies yet again 😞

No matter how clear their antagonistic motives, he truly believes the best in people and always wants to give them the chance to do the right thing

Oof Zhao cutting to Aang's fear without knowing it: Zhao thinks the Avatar doesn't matter on its face - Aang is afraid he's not good enough as an Avatar TO matter

This sets up Aang's decision to give himself to the ocean spirit - he accepts that he isn't good enough - he doesn't matter, but the ocean spirit does

Iroh shot first!!

In the animated show, Iroh only attacks after Zhao kills the moon spirit, here, he's trying to help the Gaang by distracting Zhao enough for them to save the spirit

But they're too late

They kept the black and white shading where only things bathed in fire or the ocean spirit's blue light have any colors!

I think this entire battle sequence was amazingly done

You can FEEL the terror, you can SEE the cost of such an attack

It's not gratuitous violence - it's showing the realities of war without showing gruesome injuries

I love how Hahn and the other Norther Water Tribe Warriors got to have a heroic stand even without waterbending. Despite their best resource being taken from them, they aren't going down without a fight.

Iroh unleashing on the soldiers and Zhao running like a little bitch!!!!

I love Aang's speech here - he's "following" the advice of past Avatars by putting the world's needs above his own, but it's out of despair, not balance

He's surrendering to a power greater than him because he doesn’t feel like he's succeeded in being the Avatar (which unfortunately, through no fault of his own, is true) and so he's willing to fully lose himself to another power to save the world.

MONGO KOI-ZILLA!!!!

It's WILD that this happens only HALFWAY through the episode!! They really let this sequence breathe and gave so much room for all the character moments to happen

Iroh hugging Zuko while he just stares at the giant koi fish 🤣😭

"Uncle, what is that?" "That, that is wrath" - CHILLS

Zuko ready to fight that monster fish to get the Avatar 😭😭😭😭😭

He really is a crazy dude

"He's a small man who's going to meet a small end"

So right you are, Iroh

Zuko v Zhao!!!

LOVE how the live-action made Zhao a cerebral rather than physical antagonist for Zuko

Even though Zuko beats him physically, Zhao destroys Zuko mentally by revealing all the truths about the royal family dynamic

"You were the fire in which her iron was forged"

DDDAAAAMMMMNNNNN 🔥🔥🔥🔥

Love how each adaptation has Zhao die in a different way 🤣

Honestly, I like all the ways ppl have decided to kill him

The ocean spirit taking him, waterbenders drowning him, and now Iroh killing him for attacking Zuko

I do think I like the animated death the best, but Iroh killing him to protect Zuko is also a nice way to end him - Iroh isn't about this 'give them infinite chances', he's a soldier who's not afraid to get his hands bloody.

The entire attack by the ocean spirit is phenomenal - beautifully shot and you can now feel the terror from the fire nation soldiers

Yue getting the agency to realize she can save the moon and sacrificing herself was a good change

"It's worth it to be alive, even just for a night"

"The world needs you. I need you" 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

I think it was a really good choice to move Katara talking Aang down from the Avatar state and telling him they're family to the final episode rather than way at the beginning like it happened in the animated series.

That declaration holds a lot more truth as we've SEEN them become a family

Seeing the actual loss from the battle was heart wrenching, but I think it was really needed

Poor Hahn and the young waterbender

I love that Sokka didn't fight in the big battle - his place was being there to support someone else and provide comfort in a terrifying moment for her. His heart is what was needed in this battle, not his combat skills

And Pakku giving Katara her due - she EMBODIES change and growth, always finding a way no matter how many people tell her no

And she got her spirit water!!

"I'm tired" "Then you should get some rest. A man needs his rest" 😭😭😭😭😭

"How do I do this without causing so much pain?"

Oh Aang, that's a question you're going to be grappling with for awhile.

It's such a wonderful way to sum up his character - he doesn't want to cause pain, even to the point of giving people chances they don't deserve - but that quest to find an answer is the reason the world is saved and Aang cements his own legacy within the Avatar line.

Closing with another lesson from Gyatzo!!!! 😭😭

"Let go of your past, or you'll never have a future" - thesis statement right there

Let's not misinterpret this line to say 'forget the past' - this is a Buddhist version of 'letting go' which is to say 'don't cling to the past so much you cannot take steps into your future'

The Gaang's banter over Sokka always thinking about food!!!! So cute!!

I love the scenes here at the end with the Fire Nation

Ozai still holding out hope that Zuko will surprise them with some 'hidden' reserve of strength, but still willing to let him fall so 'the strong' can rise

Azula taking over Omashu!!!

And the comet!

Makes sense that they didn't give a time-table as kids grow fast and we can't just draw them the same age: Gordon is a growing boy so we need to give some space for how much he grows through the filming process

[cerise-grenadine]

Hello!

For the Snapedom AU Ask game, can I get your answers to 1, 2, 5, 6, 9, and 26?

1.) Do you have a name and/or a tag and/or a master post for your AU (so I can peruse your blog and admire your creativity)?

2.) What is the premise of your AU (one sentence summary, tropes, your big “What-if” question, etc.!)?

5.) What are the major divergence points in your AU?

6.) Is there any part of the canon narrative you really like to build off of or interrogate with your AU?

9.) How and why does your AU!Snape differ from the canon!Snape?

26.) Does Severus have any major interests (mycology, astronomy, sci-fi, baking elaborate puff pastries, art forgery, etc.) in your AU that we never got to see canon!Snape indulge in?  Do these interests play a major narrative role?

i'm sorry, if you ask me about my AU, i will infodump 😔🙏🏻

1.) Do you have a name and/or a tag and/or a master post for your AU (so I can peruse your blog and admire your creativity)?

Yes! SlythenclawAU!Snape. it's quite meh but i never really took the time to think of one.

2.) What is the premise of your AU (one sentence summary, tropes, your big “What-if” question, etc.!)?

A long time ago there was a teenager in boarding school who got tired of waiting for the 5th Harry Potter book and decided to make a Snape-centered sequel herself (it's not particularly focused on anything but the ✨ fluffy romance 💖).

5.) What are the major divergence points in your AU?

Honestly, it’s easier to point out the parts in common 😅 It’s only canon-compliant up to Goblet of Fire (with some parts of OOTP included now), meaning Severus was pretty much a blank canvas. We knew he was a smart skinny bastard who disliked the Marauders and was about to resume his job as a DE spy, that was it. As a result, his background is completey different. He has a different family, a different childhood (still terrible), different motivations, different traumas, and Lily was never even a thing.

6.) Is there any part of the canon narrative you really like to build off of or interrogate with your AU?

Not so much one part in particular, but there are themes I like to think about (I won’t say write, I haven’t written a thing in years). Everything that has to do with guilt and forgiveness is interesting to explore with Severus, because he’s both a victim and a culprit: how to forgive, should one forgive, how to make amends, isn’t asking for forgiveness selfish and placing the weight of the pardon on the victim, how to live with guilt when some things can’t be forgiven... In the same vein I like to explore his guilt towards Lucius, who is a genuine friend and a genuine Death Eater; he feels guilty for betraying his friend, and feels guilty for still considering the man a friend.

9.) How and why does your AU!Snape differ from the canon!Snape?

I think the major difference (apart from no Lily) is that he’s more adjusted as an adult. It’s not necessarily visible to the Hogwarts staff or students 😬 the teeth incident or his breakdown at the end of POA are still a thing and the British wizarding world really brings out the worst in him. But he actually has a solid support network in the form of siblings and adoptive parents he met when he was 21. They live abroad and he keeps them secret to avoid DE retaliation so they don’t meet often, but still they are very supportive and it has helped him a lot sorting things out during his late twenties/early thirties. Having this one anchor, being loved and loving them back, has really done him a lot of good and he strives to better himself (at least in private). By the time his love interest appears, some things have healed enough that it’s not her job to fix him, she merely becomes yet another support to help deal with the rest (and the first one in the Brit WW). Don’t worry, he still has nightmares, and tons of guilt, and petty tantrums, but overall he’s in a better place than canon!Snape and has hope for the future. Also I don’t usually include Occlumency/Legilimency. Ho and he’s very French (sorry not sorry)

26.) Does Severus have any major interests (mycology, astronomy, sci-fi, baking elaborate puff pastries, art forgery, etc.) in your AU that we never got to see canon!Snape indulge in?  Do these interests play a major narrative role?

Yes! he’s a huge nerd (the kind who solves equations for fun when he can’t sleep), so he likes to study a lot of things.

Apart from normal magic things, he’s very knowledgeable about human anatomy and medecine, it makes him a better brewer and practitioner of healing magic (also his brother studied Muggle medecine for a while + his brother’s adoptive father was a heart surgeon). He is also an exellent cook (who doesn't eat much), because what’s the difference between Wolfsbane and mayonnaise, you just put stuff in a big saucepan and stirr dutifully it’s the same thing really.

Both those skills are pretty much background stuff; but there is one big hobby that is very important in his life, for several reasons: playing the piano 🙌🏻✨

He is very attached to it because his mother taught him (and she died young) and it’s his one pastime and antidepressant. He will focus on fast-paced pieces when his anxieties keep him awake, will hammer away his anger when he’s had a row with someone... it helps him calm down and clear his mind, and sometimes he will learn complicated parts just for the fun of it simply because he enjoys himself. He is a selfish pianist however. Music is very private to him, he is not a performer and will only do it sometimes for very close people he loves. He owns two pianos, his mother's grand piano at home (which has been through some stuff and is his most prized possession), and a baby grand at Hogwarts gifted by his siblings when he started teaching (it was needed for his mental health and the not-murdering of students). He’s learned how to tune his piano the Muggle way (the only true way, it sounds better, and yes of course he’s pedantic about it) and can talk about the links between mathematics and music for hours. Also +30 years of piano training have given him an acute sense of rhythm and very precise motricity skills that are highly valuable in potions work.

His lover being a musician herself (of the performer kind), music is very important in their relationship and has been central in their getting together. In fact, she first kissed him as they were playing together, so his sister jokes he would never have gotten laid if not for the piano she gifted him (she’s right)(his entourage also jokes sometimes about the kind of fingering skills a pianist with decades of experience has)(he hates it)(because he’s a giant prude)(they’re also right)

[1whimsicalgal]

Who was the creator of the apparatus that was used in filming the famous meat hook scene? That would be Dottie Pearl and Bob Burns. Together, the night before we were to film, as I recall, they stayed up into the wee hours getting IT ready, but how did they do it? Imagine if you will, a bikini bottom made of Parachute strapping. Now imagine needing to conceal the bikini gadgetry under some red corduroy short-shorts and backless bathing suit. Now imagine you need the girl wearing the apparatus to be hanging, dangling from a meat hook, that must hold her weight of 110 pounds, and simultaneously making sure no meat hook actually touches her bare back.

The idea was that the audience sees that meat hook coming ominously close to her back, how do we accomplish this safely? You add another piece of parachute strapping about 9-10 inches, sewn with great care to the top back of the parachute strapping in the back of the bikini. The strap was hidden underneath until The Scene of the drop shot. It had to be hidden inside, out of site until the actual drop by Leatherface as he struggles to hold on to the screaming, writhing, hysterical young woman, who’s trying with all her might to escape this impending terrifying disaster.

Next challenge: You need something on the end of the attached strap, something incredibly strong. They decided a large steel parachute ring, that could be guided by someone crouched below, spotting her, as Leatherface waits for his cue to drop her, would be perfect. The steel ring Must Go over the hook and hold her weight. No room for mistakes.

Another clever part of Pam’s meat hook apparatus was Dottie sewing in the twisted legs of panty hose that had great strength and could be pinned underneath the front edges of Pam’s tiny backless bathing suit top, hidden underneath, which helped to keep the apparatus and suit together, long enough to get the shot.

Yes, they used pantyhose, which btw, only became the rage in the early seventies. Fact. It was for all women, freedom… from garter belts. Yes, we actually wore hose, individually attached to garter belts up until then! A little history: In 1974, actress Julie Newmar successfully filed a patent for “Pantyhose with shaping band for cheeky derriere relief”, a garment innovation made famous through the costume she designed in the 1960s for her role as Catwoman in the TV show Batman.

So, when Pam is hanging on the meat hook, held up only by the strapping and stainless steel loop, what happens? Right, that’s when they added lots of foam cushioning, where 100% of the weight inevitably goes. 😬 My sincere thanks for that!

I vividly remember, Tobe calling cut, and looking out to a line of cast and crew, mouths aghast at what they’d just witnessed. You could hear a pin drop. It seems there was a deep collective sigh. We did it. We got the shot that I later heard some one refer to it as “the money shot”, which at the time went right over my head. What’s a money-shot? For me, that was the moment when it crossed my mind, “Hey, maybe we have something here.”

We began filming that scene around 9 AM and finished in time to enjoy our caterer, Sally Nicholaou’s, delicious lunch. It was fast. The awful part? The blood they used was karo syrup based. There are 3 seconds of blood dripping into the bucket below Pam’s dangling feet, maybe only 2 seconds. I Hope It Was Worth It!! Think Texas heat, Karo-syrup, and flies, plenty of flies. UGH. Dottie and I ran outside together, and landed at the windmill, me ripping off everything as Dottie took the water hose and sprayed me forever, until I was finally free of all remnants of sticky-icky karo-syrup, parachute strapping, shorts, bathing suit, et-al. LUNCH!!! ♥️🪝

Thank you, Dottie Pearl. Thank you, Bob Burns. Dorothy J. Pearl - January 19, 1950 - July 22, 2018 (age 68 years) Robert Lewis Burns Jr. November 24, 1950 – April 3, 2015 (age 65 years)

[nomodernromance]

This Felvin relationship, career and fashion thing, is reminding me so much about Skam actor Henrik Holm and his then gf Lea Meyer. 🫣

The "it" couple were into fashion and even got featured in British Vogue, and was touted as the Johnny Depp and Kate Moss of Norway 🙈

https://www.vogue.co.uk/article/norwegian-it-couple-shaping-scandinavian-fashion-lea-meyer-henrik-holm

They both wanted to be actors, and Henrik signed with danish Panorama Agency, and they were going to make him a superstar. BUT the agency came out with the brilliant idea that he was not going to be typecasted, and therefore he was not going to play a gay character in the near future. Let's just say that that did NOT go well with the fans. 😬 I'm not saying that ruined his career, but he did not concour the world, and has only had a few of roles as an extra after Skam ended (in 2017) and I also think he did som theater. I don't remember seeing Lea in any roles.

Let's not hope this happens to Edvin as well.

Oh interesting. I remember looking him up after watching Skam but there weren't any interesting projects. Tarjei also couldn't quite top the Skam success, I guess.

It's one thing to peak so early and deal with the success of being a teen heart throb but having a bad management in that situation is worse.

[cutepastelstarsalior]

Clone high season. 3 thought/predictions

I heard that next month season 3 is coming!!!!!! Yippie!!!! So here are my hopes and thoughts

Lots of people, myself included think that next season will have jfk be the main character/lead on the story. While I do think that a cool idea! I’m just…a little worried that his character arch will be aimless? Both the previous season had jfk be the bully jock type character/funny love interest. It would be nice to see jfk set out of those roles..or as much as he can with being in a parody show

I really hope that the subplot of jfk have few friends/ponce’s death will be picked back up???

I really really want more clones talking about their feelings about being clones and their expectations!!!! I know that clone high parody/mock popular teen shows, so my guess is that season 3 will mock things like Riverdale and Euphoria, or maybe 13 reasons why. If that the case, I kind of want clone angst™️ (none romance angst that is) like Joan saying she want to hear voices!!!! That was a cool idea!!

Cleo and Abe…….come back to me. No, seriously, they barely had screen time in season 2. When they did have screen time it was usually about their love lives or then have stress/anxiety about test and school..Like yeah, season 1 was about them! But still I would love to see more character development from them…pls.

Speaking of clone high angst™️ the whole government wanting to groom the clones into leaders….👀 I for one, love that plot. I know it’s probably gonna get more development but I hope it gets casually dripped-feed to the audience through the series instead of like the finale 2 episodes being plot stuff…

LGBT clones… :] hell yea!!!! Would love to see more. 👀👀👀 imagine trans clone….imagine Transmasc Joan. Also here’s how bi jfk and jfgogh can still win

That whole subplot of Abe and topher and the blackmail??? 😬..I really hope they drop that subplot. But if they do pick it back up, i hope they like treat it will more respect? In the show it’s treated as both a joke and kind of not??? (Some characters thought the situation was a joke while some were like hey we should take this to the police). Topics like sexual assault, especially toward minors really shouldn’t be used as jokes. But I have a feeling that the writers will just not be responsible..

I saw that some new and old characters are coming back!!! (The old government agents) very excited!!! I hope that we get more inside how the new clones feel about being clones, and more specifically how they feel about the old clones!!! I hope there will be more of the old clones having “culture shock” and trying to navigate though it!!! I would be funny to see some internet humor and meme from the early 2000s vs new memes and internet humor of 2024 :)

That’s all the thoughts I have for now!!! :)

[slightlyhopefulromantic]

Woke up again ridiculously early so I’m gonna go back for a nap but! I can’t remember if you’ve talked about Cern in MnMoms on tumblr or not, so I was wondering about his relationships with the Moms and who if anyone ends up telling him what happened to his kids 😬 okay back to sleep 😴

hiiiii isadora :] good morning whenever you get up again LOL

anyways i havent actually put much thought into cerns relationship with the individual moms which is. an oversight tbh because he is one of my favorite npcs from season 1. i love cern dearly i just never talk about him. regardless, morgan's main role in any given scene is putting her foot in her mouth, so she is definitely the one who tells him about the pyramid by accident

[vacantgodling]

7 - Would they ever consider a sexual relationship with someone they aren’t attracted to? Under which circumstances? 5 - Do they care about their gender identity “matching” their presentation in the way their society expects? Why or why not? 12 - Does their society impose gender roles on people? How has this impacted them? 13 - How is transness viewed in their society?

for anyone you think would be fun

~ @void-botanist

bc i'm being abnormal about azelie and sjaak i'm going to do this for them. crazed about them even.

this wip is heavy so i'm gonna put tw for just.... heavy subject matter regarding sex, transness and body modification. and stick it under a cut.

5 - Do they care about their gender identity “matching” their presentation in the way their society expects? Why or why not?

azelie -> not really; she's quite masc. though she does wear dresses, she keeps her hair cut short and somewhat 'boyish' (for the time) and much of this has to do with being on the fringes of society (vampirism) but also wanting to differentiate herself from rosita and matrixell, who are very very traditionally feminine.

sjaak -> yes, i suppose, but not in a way where he thinks about it? in his mind he is and always will be a man, he's never thought about being anything other than. the intersection of being biracial (he's black/white) in 17-1800s is definitely going to cause somewhat of a gender cognitive dissonance because of his struggles with feeling like he's even human (and being a werewolf doesn't help) but he's never felt like. trans/nb basically.

7 - Would they ever consider a sexual relationship with someone they aren’t attracted to? Under which circumstances?

azelie -> yes, and she already has in some ways; she's not really attracted to sjaak but the two of them sleep together around the time they first meet. and she's definitely not interested in silvano but 😬 she did what she needed to do to protect biscella. because she's ageless (a vampire) and was born in such a way that is traumatic (vampire birth is oof in this wip) she has actually very little mental connection to her own body and only sees it as a vessel to further her goals. romance and mental attraction is more sacred to her in many ways.

sjaak -> hahaha he's literally so in the closet its funny. generally speaking though no. esp given the time period (late 17-early 1800s) he's AGGRESSIVELY attracted to women to the point of self detriment (re: this whole story) and he wouldn't ever sleep with a man... unless we remove ourselves from the main wip and i think about multidues of later in history land since he's also virtually immortal so take of that what you will.

12 - Does their society impose gender roles on people? How has this impacted them?

in general yes--i mean this is a historical supernatural fic so it IS actually for once set in an identifiable historical time period and you Know that europeans were extrememly rigid about gender presentation

when i think about their respective 'alternative' societies outside of the real world sphere, vampires are more uptight than werewolves--at least in the coven that azelie is currently apart of with the rest of the casavantes. the reason for this being is that essentially, their coven is a cult. luis (the father figure) defected from the main cult that he was apart of who saw humans as a source of food, with his half-sister-wife matrixell and created his own MUCH smaller coven wherein he took away her and their daughter rosita's ability to reproduce on their own (bc vampiric women can its a whole thing) and that plays into the role of what he believes a 'proper woman' is, and something that rosita and matrixell buy into. azelie however, doesn't. and she hasn't let herself be defanged, nor has she bent to the whims of their new cult which in a way is like not performing womanhood in their eyes correctly. its a loooooot of nonsense going on in this wip.

when it comes to werewolves, there's actually more of a lax structure of gender when it comes to the actual people who are turned; as anyone can become a werewolf by consuming moonstone, and so everything is not broken up by gender man/woman but more like breeders/wolves. breeders are those in the pack who haven't turned because their goal is to procreate with broodmothers and bring up more warriors into the fold. because true wolves who hunt vampires (like sjaak) are infertile, there isn't the whole dichotomy of being a right or wrong man/woman because the real value is being strong to slay vampires. this is why dalal has such revere in the pack DESPITE being a woman because she's extremely strong and has slain hundreds of vampires. if any of this makes sense. ik its not very traditional way of thinking about it, but that's what makes sense to me to explain this pff. but, for sjaak, this causes a lot of internal conflict. he was raised in yknow, regular society before he was turned into a wolf so his already complex struggles with being a biracial (black) man in relation to gender is OOF. but now he can't even do the parts of being a man that he was taught all this time were important: provide (apart of the pack now he can't work traditional labor jobs for a myriad of reasons) or sire children (infertile). so aside from everything else going on in this wip, something else is that sjaak struggles in a cis way about not feeling man enough, but also in a trans-adjacent way because of not having a choice of being who he is now (werewolf tm) and somehow liking who he is becoming despite it all (which is a stretch of a metaphor, i know, but it kind of describes how Eye feel regarding being a man/man adjacent in queer society when sooooo many alphabet mafia people hate men. its a lot of commentary in this wip ok).

and speaking of transness--

13 - How is transness viewed in their society?

if we ignore the real world and just stick to the world of vampires and werewolves: overall vampires are very accepting of a variation of 'transness'. vampire women have the capability of creating life on their own without men (no dick needed but cool if you got one in my book, in practice... its 1700 something you tell me), and the reason i consider it trans (in a way) is because even though vampires are an alternative and trangressive society, there is still the backdrop of the real world behind it and how vampire women behave is certainly not how all of women behave irl during this time. however, there are some like luis who aren't a fan, and yknow, we essentially genetially mutilating people (defanging) becuse of it. so yike. but luis is an outlier in vamp society.

similarly, werewolves with their whole anyone can become a wolf thing, transness in a way is acceptable if i think about it through that lens. not all women have to become broodmothers and bear/sire children, they can become werewolves instead. it is still... misogynistic though because more women become broodmothers and bedwarmers to the pack than men do, but in a way, becoming a werewolf as a woman is a form of transness in a way.

[piedoesnotequalpi]

12, 17, 18, 29 for the ask game! - @pigeonwit

Hi Pidge :)

12. How many WIPs do you have in your docs for next year?

I've had to be very careful about WIPs due to working on How It Will Be! So in terms of WIPs that actually have things written, there's HIWB (of course) and a Sprace meet cute one-shot inspired by this swing dance video I've seen floating around tumblr. I have documents with some planning notes, but I haven't actually started writing those, and some of them are Bachelorette AU tie-ins that I can't really write until HIWB is done. I still need to write my exchange and mini bang fics, but those don't have documents yet (😬)

17. Your favorite character to write this year?

Race! I've given him a lot of roles--a depressed, somewhat emotionally constipated professor (in a fic I ultimately hid on AO3 (I can dig up the tutorial on how to do that for anyone who wants it)); Jack's scheming best friend/roommate (Take the elephant by the hand); an offputting not-quite-human (Still Through the Leaves); and of course the over-the-top Bachelorette host. It's been cool to figure out how his personality traits manifest in each AU, and I am very excited to make him go through some stuff in the next couple chapters of HIWB.

Honorable mention to Crutchie, because while he cares a lot about his friends he is also a menace, which is always entertaining. In the Much Ado-niverse, he has a very specific way of talking (gratuitous fancy words, mostly) that I really enjoy writing, but given his different background/career choices/interests in HIWB I didn't think it made sense to carry that over.

18. The character that gave you the most trouble writing this year?

I don't know if it's trouble necessarily, but out of all the non-POV characters in HIWB, Albert has consistently had the most going on behind the scenes, as it were. But because he isn't a POV character, everything we know about him comes exclusively from dialogue and how the POV characters interpret his actions. Figuring out what he was thinking/feeling in the more emotionally charged scenes while also figuring out how much of that he'd want to reveal (and what characters figure out) was definitely an interesting process. I rewrote the scene in the Reykjavik chapter where he and Charlie first kissed at least 3-4 times because I was so worried about getting it right.

29. Favorite line/passage you wrote this year?

There are a lot of one-liners that I really like, and there's a scene early-ish in HIWB where Jack is being a bi disaster about Davey and Katherine that I think is fun, but my favorite has to be the opening of chapter 8 in the now-hidden fic I've referenced. Race is a trans guy in that AU, and he spends some time before he realizes that he's trans questioning his sexuality, and this scene is the aftermath of some of that pre-transition questioning going slightly sideways. Anyway, the scene is under the cut (Race is referred to with she/her due to the scene taking place pre-realization):

After Race broke up with her girlfriend, she went back to the half of a duplex that she shared with a couple perpetually absent medical students and shut herself in her room.

Dating Amelia had been–Not an experiment, Race reminded herself. You really thought you liked her. Amelia was also a PhD student, luckily in the robotics engineering department and therefore far enough removed from Race’s statistics program for them to have space post-breakup. They were friends, and Race had enjoyed spending time with her–except for the small problem that she’d eventually realized she wasn’t actually attracted to her.

Jack and David coming out senior year had turned out to be a catalyst for the rest of their friend group. Sarah had announced she was a lesbian part way through college, and Albert and Finch had both come out as gay and ended up in an on-and-off friends with benefits situation that Race tried to avoid knowing the details of. Charlie had said a couple years ago that he was still figuring things out, but between his friends, job, and disability rights activism, he thought he was probably too busy to date anyway. Even Spot and Katherine, who’d spent most of their lives struggling to fit the pictures their parents had of them, had come out to the general public via Facebook post on the same day in the fall. Which left Race, theoretically the token straight of the group, who was read as a lesbian even more now that she’d cut her hair short, donated the last dress and underwire bra in her closet, and wore as much L.L. Bean clothing as she could get her hands on.

She had thought that maybe she’d missed something along the way, that she really was secretly bisexual and had been in denial the whole time. She was sure she was interested in men–she’d had a few boyfriends in undergrad, and then there was the yearslong, semi-latent crush on–

No.

Race swallowed, staring vacantly at the collage of pictures she’d hung on her wall. There was her with Jack and Medda at her college graduation, her and Albert and David at a surprisingly quiet beach on the Cape, a picture of her undergrad dance troupe performing, and right in the middle, a picture of her sitting on a couch–she didn’t even remember where it was taken at this point–next to–

There was a chance that she just hadn’t found the right person in Amelia. But Race didn’t want to date another girl, knowing that she probably would just end up discovering she wasn’t attracted to them in the first place.

She and this theoretical girl deserved better.

[lascapigliata]

am now well over halfway through my oscars challenge based on my own secret formula (aka guesstimating) so here is my ongoing microreviews post, for those curious

for some reason when i started writing i did this in order of # of nominees. don’t ask ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

oppenheimer: way too long. even cillian murphy, who was great, cannot sustain 3 hours of biopic. i felt his character development was unearned and rushed. the acting was good all around (though it was so man heavy that i sort of forgot emily blunt was there, surprising that she got that nomination when may december is RIGHT there) and it was gorgeously shot but it just needed a solid edit both in writing and runtime. one of those movies that made me feel stupid bc everyone else liked it. to the tune of 13 noms :/ (i have been told by many that you need to see it in a theater. well then don't release it for home viewing i guess, sorry!) (edit - having watched maestro rustin and napoleon 👎 three mid to bad biopics - this has warmed in my memory)

poor things: mixed feelings. overhyped doesn’t cover it. beautiful to look at. great acting from everyone including emma stone and mark ruffalo who is having simply the time of his life. it’s very funny which i wasn’t expecting! but it felt all a little too affected, a little too Intentionally Weird. idk i really wanted to love it but it was just sort of like okay! watched that! ✅

killers of the flower moon: enjoyed it a lot. i thought lily gladstone was amaaaaazing - their role had potential to just be like melodrama and one-note but they brought so much depth to it. leonardo was fine but of the white people deniro was the standout. too long of course. i alternately remember it as better or worse than it felt in the moment, but even though i wasn't in a theater it was still a good time

barbie: my brother loved this and i thought it was okay. the first half in barbieland and her first fish out of water scenes in the real world were a ton of fun, and it sort of got boring-er from there. visually very clever and fun. but the politics were hollow. relationship between america ferrera’s character and her daughter was unconvincing. the last scene pissed me off so much bc it was just totally unnecessary- should have (spoiler) ended with her putting her heels down and the audience can infer the rest be saved 5 minutes of runtime. (you’ll be shocked to hear i thought this was too long)

maestro: awful. manages to flatten felicia bernstein and somehow doesn’t replace that missing character with anything of substance. neglects to focus on what made bernstein actually interesting by putting basic stock biopic oscar bait scenes together and forgetting about his actual life and accomplishments. i went in knowing i wouldn’t like it but hoping there’d be redeeming qualities and found nearly none. even the best scene - his conducting the mahler resurrection symphony - pales in comparison to just finding the real video of bernstein conducting which is available for free on youtube.

american fiction: great. in theaters so no concept of length but it didn’t drag too much. jeffrey wright did an AMAZING job - so funny and also so grounded. made me cry early on too which i was Not expecting lol. definitely some 😬 moments for me as a white woman but i think that’s healthy for us once in a while. as a side note it was oddly preceded by 15 min of horror movie trailers which was bizarre

anatomy of a fall: LOOVED IT. broadchurch vibes. watched it with a friend who’s a lawyer so we kept pausing to theorize bc it is a great movie for that and she also provided commentary on the courtroom techniques of the lawyers lol. was also thinking about it hours and hours later. such a good film. even understood some of the french lol. big warning for pet illness though - the dog survives but it was not fun

the holdovers: nothing revolutionary but such a sweet little movie. not a huge amount to say about it - watched it on a plane and that was kind of the perfect vibe. i did think that da’vine joy randolph did a fantastic job. a good time. idk that it’s Best Picture worthy but who even knows what that award means

the zone of interest: technically impressive on every level (yes, including sound, which it should win) but i didn’t love it. i guess it’s just that i feel like “look! the mundanity of evil!” was not enough to carry this - it is SO mundane and SO jarring that halfway through i kept just being like “yeah yeah i get it” which itself is ironically kind of normalization but not the way the film intended. but i do think this is more a personal preference issue than actual issues with the movie.

napoleon: quite bad. boring, unfocused. couldn’t decide if it was about the marriage or his ambition and yet didn’t give josephine a character nor made thrilling battle sequences. unfortunately all i will remember is how they randomly used pride and prejudice’s soundtrack out of the blue (indicative of its equally unfocused score), and how joaquin phoenix had an american accent while everyone around him didn’t. also… too long!

the creator: pretty good! not a particularly innovative story but honestly it’s nice to see a good movie done right. hans zimmer rare W these days. john david washington still isn’t the greatest actor but it’s no big when ken watanabe is right there. the vfx are indeed very good. it even tackled western imperialism ok i thought though i obviously welcome discussion here!

past lives: beautiful touching etc. not an easy watch but i loved it. sort of found a great melancholy middle ground that didn’t feel maudlin but certainly wasn’t very happy. unbelievably that greta lee received no nomination for her phenomenal work (or teo yoo or john magaro for that matter). great length too - a perfect 1h45. just well done all around

society of the snow: great little disaster movie if slightly uneven. gorgeously shot for one thing. the tension is well done though i think it ended too… tidily. the fundamental problem i have tho is that if i was in their situation i’d have no qualms about eating people but that’s not the movie’s fault. the music reminded me of giacchino so i couldn’t help but make lost comparisons but that's also not the movie's fault lol. (edit: the music is literally BY giacchino and i thought i'd looked it up. it's a good score! he knows what he's doing!)

may december: LOVED IT!!! fantastic length, fantastic acting. as the great harry styles said it’s nice to see a movie that’s a real movie. i can’t wait to watch this again, i thought the writing was fantastic and it’ll gain a lot on rewatch too. would have loved more focus on the relationship with the kids, but that’s just because i personally found it fascinating. annoying it was only nommed for best screenplay when the acting was so good - yes especially charles melton!!

rustin: not as good as i wanted it to be. all the acting is fantastic especially (unsurprising) colman domingo, but i agree with reviews that said it avoided some of his more radical politics and that the love triangle was not super well executed, and i personally thought the end felt super rushed. it was just too biopic-y. but there was a lot to recommend it anyway just on acting alone though honestly

the color purple: enjoyed it a lot! never saw the original movie but it def smoothed away some stuff from the book in a way that doesn’t surprise me at all but was still too bad. there were clearly songs cut from the show bc there was a huge chunk in the middle with no singing lol. the acting was universally good but i cannot lie danielle brooks stole the show every second she was on screen. the music itself was great too and i think the director really dug into the musicalness of it which is so necessary in something like this. (end credits were particularly good!)

across the spiderverse: what is there to say about this that hasn’t been said. the first movie was much tighter in terms of plot / writing. the politics of this one were sort of a mess. but the animation was so spectacular that it sort of sanded over the flaws i saw in it in my memory and i'd be happy if it won

the boy and the heron: a lovely movie. miyazaki hasn’t lost it. i’d love for this to win best animated as i suspect it will. beautiful visually, very like pan’s labyrinth vibe plot wise. hard to say a lot here bc it was just very good, very solid. + miyazaki simply loves an old wrinkly lady and you know what i think that’s great. deserved a nom for score over fuckin indiana jones for sure

robot dreams: i wanted to adore this but instead i just liked it. it was beautiful and sweet and a nice love letter to new york and everything but i hated the ending lol. it’s a huge swing though with no dialogue and only one real song and you gotta give them points for that! plus it is genuinely sweet and everything. i just was pissed at the literal last scene lol

elemental: better than i expected it to be but still basically eh. some of the technical work is SO impressive - like the non-anthropomorphic water - that it actually highlights how Animated the characters are. but i don’t regret watching. highly recommend doing so stoned if that’s your jam because the animation really is the cool part - pixar’s stories have rly become very templated and boring

nimona: iirc a fun movie, but nothing like jaw dropping. can't evaluate it objectively though bc it wasn't the book and the book was better, unsurprisingly. i watched it a long time ago, it didn't leave a huge impression; i remember it was a cute adaptation. mainly i don't think nimona surpassed suzume (and pixar was always going to get that nomination no matter what), so mostly i'm bitter that suzume wasn't nominated sorry

dial of destiny: fell asleep the first time i watched it, got distracted the second time. it was... fine? the deaging was AWFUL, i'm glad it did not get a makeup or vfx nom, it literally just looked like a videogame and it still SOUNDED like 70yo harrison ford. the score was fine but the same thing john williams has been doing for this franchise since 1981. just like… an unnecessary movie idk

[emmi-kat]

I hope it's okay to make a new post but I had a lot to say that I thought would get lost in the comments of this post and weren't really relevant to it, overall.

@arsenicalbronze said: "I had originally headcanoned that Ben was basically bounced back and forth between his parents in some kind of joint custody agreement because of Emily’s line in the second movie about “someone had to grow up and stay home and take care of Ben”, but your research brings up all kinds of new questions about Ben’s interactions with his parents in the second film!"

The novelization has a great line about how as a kid Ben thought his parents both gave him a lot of freedom but came to realize that they were both just neglecting him to do their own things.

Which I think makes perfect sense cause Ben and Patrick are a lot alike and Ben himself doesn't seem to care much about the personal goings on of those close to him (not going to Riley's book signing, or even bothering to open his book or believe in Riley enough to read the book without being pushed to, the whole fight with Abigail and the fact that he wasn't upset about losing her or ever tried to fix things, he just expected her to agree with him, skipping Sadusky's wake in favor of his dog (you're telling me that Ben Gates can't afford to hire a pet sitter for a day so he can pay his respects to a man who played such a significant role in the biggest moments of his life???  Charlotte wasn't implied to be in grave danger, just a little sick)).

And then Emily was a young mother taking care of Ben and building a career for herself in an academic field and time where she likely did not recieve much respect, so she had to work very hard to get that respect and probably had little time for Ben. If we're using Helen Mirren's age, she was 18/19 when Ben was born (whereas Jon V0ight was 26 but obvs their ages may not correspond to their characters) so she was only in her late 20s/early 30s when she and Patrick divorced.  Even if we bump her age up, it's definitely implied that Patrick was her senior and also somewhat of an authority figure in her education "that wasn't love, that was excitement, adrenaline, and tequila.  And I was just trying to get course credit!"....😬

Icky, imo.  But this could add to the tension between Ben and his father if Ben saw his mother as a victim under those circumstances.

Which I think explains why Ben is such a momma's boy and had to patch stuff up with his dad despite them both neglecting him. 🤷‍♀️