#i LIKE it when the Doctor is instinctually cruel and has to be talked out of it and actively choose to be kind

[wayward-wren]

I'm hoping episode 3 let's Ruby see the dark side of the Doctor. I feel that adds a very important dynamic to a Doctor-companion relationship, when they see how dark he can be and still choose to travel with him early on.

Rose watching Nine drag Cassandra back to die. Eleven yelling at Amy "Nobody human has anything to say to me today!" Donna begging Ten to stop drowning the spider babies, and then again to go back and save someone in Pompeii.

Fifteen has been FUN and I know he can do emotional range, I've seen his fear and his tears already. But I want to see him dark, and I want to see Ruby respond to that. I think it would add a LOT of depth to their relationship and is something missing.

Plus showcasing the Doctor's flaws (selfishness) will make him a much more interesting character. I want to see some conflict between the Doctor and Ruby.

[timeisacephalopod]

Nebula & Tony

I saw your post about ficlets and I don’t know if you accept non-slash requests. But I think it’d be cute to see Nebula and Tony bonding together about daddy issues and mutual lost post-IW.

**

I’m perfectly happy to take platonic pairings! This is a personal fav of mine too :) Also thanks for the happy birthday yesterday!

**

Nebula tries to reach out to him but Tony smacks her hand away. “I’m fine,” he all but growls at her. He’s not fine but there’s nothing she can do to help him either. What’s an alien know about human biology? Besides that he’d be happy to die about now, after Peter...

“You’re dying, you idiot. Are all humans this ignorant to their own biology?” Nebula snaps at him, angry. He hasn’t seen her look anything but angry in the short time they’ve known each other. 

“No. But there’s nothing here for me but death.” That’s fucking cruel after the snap. He lives just long enough to watch everyone he loves die, then he’s left to wonder about Pepper, Rhodey, the rest of the Avengers. And Strange just... how the hell could he just give up the stone? Whatever, what’s done is done. And now he dies and all for fucking nothing. Its not that he expected his death to be meaningful, loss rarely is, but he thought he’d at least die doing something good for the world. Instead he dies after failing to save half the fucking universe. Raw deal.

Nebula rolls her eyes, “you’re as dramatic as Quill. Lie back, I know the basics of human anatomy,” she tells him and he frowns.

“How and why would you even know that?” And how do aliens seem to know so much about humans when humans only just found out about them? That makes no sense and Tony refuses to believe all those bunk alien stories of the past. He’s sure a few have validity but most of them are obvious horse shit that all follow the same pattern. 

“It was part of my training, lie back or I’ll push you back and you won’t like that,” Nebula tells him, sounding like a bad villain out of an even shittier movie.

He rolls his eyes and carefully lowers his body onto a piece of ship, staring up at the orange, barren sky. The plants, when there used to be some, must have absorbed light differently than the plants on earth. Flora probably looked a lot like earth in the fall all year round. That would have looked cool. He also wonders what that’s doing to his system if anything and figures maybe Nebula will know the answer to that. “We should get off this planet soon. I don’t really want to know what a lack of a moon will do to it.”

Nebula makes a noncommittal noise as she returns to his side. “We’ll get off this hellplanet when I’ve fixed you,” she tells him.

Tony frowns, looking back up to the sky. “Why do you even care?” he asks. “You could fuck off and leave me to die, I probably wouldn’t even be that mad about it.” Truthfully if he wanted to he could probably get off this planet too. What was it Obie said once... that it wasn’t the suit that made him dangerous, it was his brain. That he could be dumped in the middle of the desert with nothing but cactus needles and sand and he’d still manage to fly out of there. There’s tech all over the place around him. He’d be able to leave no problem if Nebula left him to die.

His words bring a slight pause to Nebula’s actions- mostly her feeling around his wound and shit it hurts but he’s had worse. Finally she looks up. “I’m sorry about your son,” she says softly, blinking rapidly and it takes Tony a moment to realize she’s close to tears.

“He wasn’t my son, technically,” Tony murmurs.

“I was adopted too,” Nebula says. “Thanos was an awful father. I... I didn’t know a parent could care that much about their child. I watched Thanos throw a moon at you and you got back up seconds later but your son... I didn’t know people could make noises of pain like that and I’ve tortured my fair share of all sorts of species. You didn’t deserve any of this,” she murmurs softly. “This nanotech is impressive,” she adds.

Didn’t deserve- Nebula doesn’t even know the half of it. And May, fuck, if she survived this she’s going to lose her shit worse than he did. First her husband, then her nephew? And Peter’s parents when he was a kid- that woman has suffered more than anyone should. “I didn’t make for a very good father figure,” Tony tells her. “Not that I had a great role model myself. And thanks- took me time to figure out but a suit that responds to my thoughts and is instinctual means faster response times. Not that it helped,” he notes more to himself than her.

For a long while Nebula ignores his words, instead focusing on medicine that she does, in fact, seem to know a lot about. Including how to dose a human with foreign anesthetics. When she speaks again its as she’s stitching his wound, warning him that the nanobots are still in there because, for the moment, they can’t be removed from his system. Tony knew that already though, and Nebula is running low on resources. He’ll need more than the average post mission workup. He probably needs hours of surgery, which is a fucking shame since the damn doctor died. Not that this was his specialty but still.

“I don’t know a lot about good parents, but I know a lot about bad ones. Thanos shed a few tears for Gamora after he killed her. You sounded like you were dying after Peter faded away. At first I thought it was your wound, not emotional distress. When you show more pain at the loss of a child than you do at a stab wound that went clear through your body I know you care too much to be an awful parent. His suit was like yours, too. You made it,” she says and he nods. “Lots of defense strategies too- his first course of action is always to retreat, if I made a good analysis of his use of the tactical gear. And I know I did. You didn’t want him in a fight unless he needed to be there.”

Doesn’t matter if that’s all true, he still got the kid killed. He should have gotten Stephen himself, damnit. But that would have left Peter dealing with whatever the hell kind of alien that was and- there’s no easy way out of that and it doesn’t matter anyways. The past is the past unless you’re Thanos.

“So what’s the deal with Thanos and his ‘children’ anyways? Seems more like you were all his pawns more than anything,” he says to change the subject.

Nebula sits on the small piece of ship beside him. “That’s exactly what we were- mercenaries to do his bidding. He trained us, ‘loved’ us, sent us to do whatever he felt was necessary to do.” She pauses in her words for a moment before sighing. “I’ve done some... unspeakable things.”

“Because you were put in a position where you didn’t have much choice,” he tells her softly, resting a hand on her most-definitely-some-kind-of-metal arm.

She stares at it for a moment, confused, before shaking her head. “No. I wanted to do those things. Took pride in them. Something like that is unforgivable. I don’t know how Gamora lived with it- she had to do worse things than any of the rest of us. She was his favorite.”

Tony half smiles, “I know a thing or two about that. My father was a weapons developer- taught me to be one too and that’s no excuse for what I did, all the damage I caused with my bombs, guns, whatever. But I wasn’t really left with much of a choice either.” Howard would have killed him, and that being literal isn’t out of the question, had he not taken on the family business. He used to think it was a bad thing, when he was a kid, until Howard literally beat that out of him. Its an honor to serve your country, and all that. Never seemed to consider what happened when your country is wrong, or when the wrong people get ahold of the right weapons, or who got caught in the crossfire of a war they never wanted to be in and can’t move away from without money, luck, and a country willing to take them in.

“You seem to do okay. Like Gamora,” Nebula says and Tony can hear the sadness in her voice.

He shakes his head. “I’ve made too many mistakes to be anything like your sister. She sounds brave.”

Nebula blinks rapidly and nods. “When we were kids, all I wanted her to do was save me. She was always better than me, better than all of us, and I thought for some stupid reason she could help me with that skill. Stupid and childish, I know, but I guess children will think childish thoughts. Of course she chose to save me the one time I wished she wouldn’t have.” She describes Gamora, how she saved Nebula when she wished she hadn’t for the fate of the universe. How Nebula tracked them down to try and kill Thanos and save Gamora herself. How only Thanos left Vormir.

Tony listens because she needs someone to talk to, and because he needs the distraction from the look on Peter’s face when the fucking kid apologized like he was wrong somehow for dying. God, that hurts his heart more than the shrapnel and reactor ever had. “You did everything you could,” Tony tells her, giving her arm a gentle squeeze he isn’t sure she’ll feel. She does because she looks down at his hand in confusion for a moment before looking away, obviously still not clear on what that was.

Fuck, she must have lived a life that was some awful if she can’t even recognize comfort. At least Tony had Jarvis, Anna, and Peggy. Jarvis was always soft and sweet, Anna too. Peggy was a hard ass, always on him to do better but when he needed her she was always there. Once, when Howard got really bad, aunt Peggy beat the living hell out of him. Told him next time she’d kill him and make it look like an accident if he ever put his hands on his wife or kid again. He didn’t do that again either, but it left him to figure out ways of psychological torment that didn’t leave bruises and left Tony a lot more damaged than a slap.

“I didn’t do nearly enough,” she murmurs. “I should have done more.”

God, does Tony ever feel the same way. Carefully he lifts himself into a sitting position, conscious of his wound and the nanobots are conscious of it too, and he wraps his arms around a confused Nebula. “What’s this?” she asks, confused.

It’d be funny if not for the circumstances. “Its a hug. Humans do it for comfort.”

“Do you... need comfort?” she asks and Tony lets out a half a laugh before his stomach and the nanobots remind him that’s a bad idea.

“No, you do,” he says, leaning into her mostly because he’s tired, he’s only just feeling it now. HIs eyelids droop a little and Nebula sighs.

“You made a good point about the affects of the missing moon on this planet. That’s the fifth time I’ve seen that star in the last two hours and I know the planet doesn’t normally spin this fast. We need to go,” she says, extracting herself gently from Tony. He props himself up for a moment before Nebula picks him up and he lets out an indignant squawk. “This is called ‘carrying’ we do it when people are injured,” Nebula tells him and Tony lets out a small laugh that’s as bad an idea as the first one was.

“Usually humans give a little warning first. Just for future reference,” he says and Nebula shakes her head, walking towards a ship with him. 

[numinousmysteries]

Vanquish by Wisdom Hellish Wiles (1/?)

Oh, boy. I started a thing. 

@fictober

Vanquish by Wisdom Hellish Wiles Post-Season 10 Heavy spoilers for Season 11 trailer

“Victory and triumph to the Son of God Now entering his great duel, not of arms, But to vanquish by wisdom hellish wiles. The Father knows the Son; therefore secure Ventures his filial virtue, though untried, Against whatever may tempt, whatever seduce, Allure, or terrify, or undermine. Be frustrate, all ye stratagems of Hell, And devilish machinations come to nought.” - John Milton, Paradise Regained

“For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.” - Romans 5

Chapter One (on AO3)

Dana Scully has never been thirty minutes late for work. Even when she was battling cancer, she’d show up minutes before nine, dressed impeccably even if her sunken eyes and pallid skin betrayed her brave façade. It wasn’t unusual for him to arrive earlier than her. That was typically because he’d come in early to re-examine a detail of a case or a years-old file that had kept him up the previous night. In fact, there had only been a handful of times when she was late at all—and those were from the precious few months they’d been sleeping together and she’d slink out of his bed to go home and shower. Even then, never thirty minutes late.

He ached to call her and make sure she was alright. He wasn’t sure if she’d be appreciative or annoyed, though. He’d been careful not to push the boundaries of their fragile, slow-healing relationship. Ever since they became partners again it felt like one step forward, two steps back. She had come over for dinner and a movie a few times and let herself rest her head on his shoulder, but she still went back to her apartment each time and never invited him over.

He hoped she wasn’t late because she’d had to return to her apartment after leaving some other guy’s place early in the morning. He knew it would just kill him if she came sauntering in with that just-been-fucked grin that used to be reserved for him. The first time they slept together he thought the most beautiful sight in the world was Scully’s face mid-orgasm but moments later he learned he was wrong. It was really post-coital Scully—warm, soft, smiling post-coital Scully.

She was now thirty-three minutes late. He decided to wait two more minutes before calling her. He stared down the secondhand on the wall clock and then heard his phone ringing on the desk.

“Mulder,” he answered.

“As in Fox Mulder?”

“The one and only.”

“Mr. Mulder, this is Dr. Stein at Georgetown Medical Center.”

Fuck, he thought. Nothing good ever came from surprise calls from the hospital.

“Dana Scully was admitted to the hospital this morning after a minor car accident. She sustained a mild concussion and lost consciousness, so we’re just keeping an eye on her. You’re listed as her emergency contact so I thought I should notify you—“

“Yes, of course. I’m on my way.”

The jealousy he’d felt moments earlier gave way to panic. What a cruel twist of fate it would be that after all they’d been through, something as ordinary as a car crash could take her away from him.

On the way to the hospital he repeated the doctor’s phrases “mild” and minor” in his head, trying to reassure himself that she was fine. He tried to tell himself that he’d get there to see her sitting up in bed convincing her doctors that she didn’t need to be kept for observation. She’d tell him it was nothing and he was silly for rushing over there. Still, he drove above the speed limit the entire way.

The scene in the hospital felt like a painful rehash of all the times he’d done this before. The yelling of her name, the orderlies’ futile attempts to get him to calm down, and then finally being shown to her room. Through the door he could see her lying motionless in the bed, her eyes closed.

A short, balding man in a white coat approached him at the doorway to her room.

“Mr. Mulder?”

“Yes, are you Dr. Stein? Why isn’t she awake?”

“We gave Ms. Scully a mild sedative—“

“Why did she need a sedative?” He barked over the doctor’s head and tried to focus on her form in the bed to see if he could make out the rise and fall of her chest with each breath.

“Like I said on the phone, she was knocked unconscious in the accident. When she came to she was very agitated, probably shaken up from the crash, so we gave her something to relax her for a bit. We did a CT scan and it doesn’t look like there is any additional bruising or bleeding in the brain. She should be awake shortly.”

Mulder nodded. He pushed past the doctor into the room and to her side.

“Scully,” he whispered. A jagged purple bruise marred the delicate skin of her forehead at her hairline. He traced its edges with his fingertips before smoothing her hair with his palm. She felt warm and her coloring was good which he found reassuring. He pulled a chair close to the bed and sat down, bringing her right hand into his lap and holding it with both of his. He didn’t know if this was acceptable in their newly restored partnership but he needed to touch her to prove that she was here and she was safe.

He was silently praying for the universe to protect her—his own form of prayer that she’d recently called “dark wizardry”—when her eyes fluttered open.

“Hey,” he said. He’s kept holding onto her hand and was relieved when she didn’t pull away. “We have to stop meeting like this.”

Her eyes darted around the room before landing on him. She looked alarmed and tried pushing herself up to a seated position. He instinctually brought his hands to her shoulders, and tried to keep her from moving too suddenly and further hurting her head.

“Easy, Scully, you were in an accident. Do you remember what happened?”

“Mulder,” she whispered, fear in her voice.

“Yeah?”

“Mulder, I’ve seen it. I’ve seen how it begins.” Although her voice was barely above a whisper, she spoke with urgency.

“What are you talking about?”

“You were right. You were right about everything.”

“Scully, slow down. You were in a car accident on the way to work. What did you see?”

“The alien colonization of the planet,” she said, focusing intensely on him. On any other day he’d laugh at the possibility of Scully imagining an alien invasion in a sedative-laced dream, but her eyes were so full of terror that he knew this wasn’t a time to try to lighten her mood with a joke.

“You were right all along,” she continued. “The plan was set into motion in 2012 but it’s going to start in earnest now and if we don’t do anything billions of people will die. You were dying, Mulder, I barely got to you in time.”

She told him her vision of the outbreak of an alien virus, her learning that Monica Reyes had betrayed them, and the scene of finding him near-death on a gridlocked bridge. It was so shocking he nearly wanted to run and find the doctor and demand another brain scan to show her concussion was far from mild.

But she spoke so lucidly that he doesn’t believe this was just a hallucination from being sedated. As she spoke, he tucked a piece of hair behind her ear and rested his palm on her cheek. The monitors tracking her pulse and heart rate beeped more frequently as she breathlessly told him what she saw.

“The only way to save you—to save everyone—is to find him before they get to him.”

“Find who?”

“William. Our son.”

He felt his stomach turn and her jaw clenched under his hand.

“You have to find him. And you have to stop him before he unleashes Hell on Earth.”

“William will do that?”

“Yes,” she gasped. “He has the power to stop all of this but if they get to him first they will use him to complete the plan and wipe out the human race.”

“You don’t believe me,” she said, sighing. “Now I’m getting a taste of what that feels like.”

He gave her a tight-lipped smile, the most he could manage as her eyes filled with tears. “No, Scully, I do. I do believe you. But I need to know how you know all of this.”

“I saw it.” She paused. “He was in my head and he showed me all of it. He’s in trouble and he needs us to find him.”

“William was in your head?”

“Yes. I can’t explain it, but I know it was him. I could feel him. I know this sounds ridiculous but I swear, Mulder, nothing has ever felt so real to me.”

“I understand. I had the same feeling years ago. I know what you mean. But I don’t understand, why did this happen to you now?”

“He needed to tell me.” She jolted up again and his hand fell to her hip. “Mulder, there isn’t any time. You have to find him.”

“Do you have any idea where he is?”

She blinked quickly and tears began to run down her face. She shook her head. “No. But you need to go now.”

[aquarianwisp]

Hi I'm getting out of a 2 1/2 year abusive relationship & i have mental health issues already so my depression & anxiety r sucking my energy worse than usual. I am glad to be moving on but that doesn't mean it's easy. I would like to focus on health & healing, letting go of built up negative emotions, & building upon my inner strength in order to get me through this tough time. Spiritually, mentally, physically, magically. Any advice is really so welcome. Thanks so much. Blessings shinto!

Hey Hun,

I’m really sorry I didn’t answer this straight away. Essentially I am a busy lady, with a hubby and a job so I’ve not really been able to do much else. I do hope you can forgive me!Anyway, I’m sorry to hear about the difficulties you are experiencing. I too have been in an abusive relationship in the past. And many people ask you, why didn’t you just leave? Thing is, it’s not that simple. It really really isn’t that simple. And only abuse victims who have been in situation of an abusive relationship can really understand how leaving is so seriously difficult- not only emotionally on yourself, but mentally, financially, and even sometimes physically- when a partner even can hold you captive, follow you or harass you when you try to leave. And what about relationships? You soon find out who and who isn’t your true friend, when you really need people around you but they got nothing but judgmental or cruel things to say. It’s hard. It’s not as easy as just walking out the door and not looking back. 

Abusive and traumatic memories cause the mind to act very strange. Not only can they affect the conscious and logical mind, but they dramatically affect what scientists refer to as the “animal or instinctual” brain quite dramatically. Take for example the trauma that a soldier will suffer. A person who spends time in a war zone for long periods may instinctually react to stimuli that are known to not be dangerous in the logical mind. For example, a soldier may jump to the ground and take cover during fireworks, when both you and I may think they are nothing to be afraid of. This is how abuse can so dramatically damage people, and it is a really deep problem, because none of us are really aware of our animal brain, we are only really aware of the conscious mind. This same thing is also why it is so awful to tell someone to just get over a mental illness! They physically cannot because their animal brain has been re-wired from the trauma to protect the body!Abuse can be compartmentalized in the brain, buried in the subconscious, and memories can even be entirely blanked out or sections of them will be almost “censored” in order to protect the psyche/ego/and/or the self from what is painful and harmful. And this can be both good and bad. Good in a sense that the body has it’s own mechanisms to preserve the self, but bad because buried memories can cause inflammation, physical illnesses, mental health disorders etc. There is a known link between emotional energy and physical illnesses (in most cases). And as a abuse survivor I can speak from experience when I say that you will find your own struggles will take their own unique toll on your physical body if you do not learn how to deal with them effectively and in an appropriate setting. I really recommend that alongside the treatment of a trained medical professional including a doctor and a psychologist or psychiatrist, that you take time to engage in meditation- you could take classes or do yoga practices, or learn a practice such as Reiki (Bonus certificate in Reiki!) to help the mind remain calm, focused, and in touch with the self. I also recommend that you seek treatment from a spiritual healer and ask them to assist you with understanding your sense of self and to also connect you with the instinctual and animal part of the mind. The reason here being that if you can connect with the instinctual or animal psyche, you can use the logical mind to start up a dialogue in yourself that will show you a different point of view on your trauma. This is something that meditation does really well, as you may find more with practice- that meditation will take you deep within your self, present you with a memory, and ask you to understand it from a more logical point of view rather than with the emotions.You’ll find that seeking help from a spiritual healer, or even just reading into and practicing some healing arts such as reiki on yourself as a complement to the treatment of a doctor, that you can really over come a lot of deep and tough emotional issues with time. Personally anyone can do healing, but I believe that it is better for abuse survivors to find assistance from someone who knows and understands how to perform healing, and will be able to tailor a healing that can deal with your needs. So that’s why I recommend asking assistance from a qualified healer if you have suffered abuse(Although that doesn’t mean you can’t do it yourself, since you know yourself more intimately than anyone. It’s just that there are some issues are actually really serious and painful to deal with, so people need qualifications to help people heal without harming them further.)I really recommend listening to TED talks on youtube. They explain abuse from a scientific perspective, and even bring in some spiritual leaders to discuss spirituality and it’s ability to assist in mental health, abuse, trauma, and physical illness. I listen to these talks myself, and they really help to understand how the mind works. I think with time, and the assistance of spiritual healing, you will find that buried deep in the self is a beautiful being of love and joy that will bring you deep fulfillment after a long time of suffering. And you deserve that!

[peanutdracolich]

Peanut Dracolich watches Horror: Frankenstein (1931)

A classic monster film that I had never before yesterday (when I actually watched it) seen. I have also reverted to stream of thought while watching so... erm enjoy.

I like the little opening bit where they give you the warning about how scary the film is. It's charming somehow. As for the actual start. The opening credits has creepy eyes and creepy music, with creepy Count Orlaf style face in the background. Nice and creepy... unfortunately you're making me expect a very different movie monster.

And then there's a funeral, with our Doctor and his hunchbacked assistant watching it. I feel sorry for the gravedigger who puts that work (shown in part) into burying the dead gentleman, when these two knaves are just going to undo it. Bad knaves.

"His leg is broken. His brain is useless. We must find another brain!" The acting is... different from in modern films, not bad, not better, but it just feels different; in many ways more attention grabbing with  certain element of the unreal to it.

We get some comedy antics from the hunchback... who drops the normal brain when he hits something and makes a noise that scares him (he is stealing a brain from a medical college being frightened is acceptable) and grabs the abnormal brain instead. This is... This worries me. Not because I find it horror inducing, but because it misses much of the beauty of the book.

We meet Elizabeth and... Victor? Victor isn't Frankenstein? What? They're consolidating book elements, speeding up the timeline. This is an acceptable divergence, but I instinctively don't like this Victor as a change. I will try, and in fact am actively already trying, not to let 'they changed it now it sucks' color things too much, but... Thing after thing is setting it off. This is making me think as much of the Reanimator, itself a retelling of Frankenstein, as Frankenstein. It's not really an adaptation of the book so much as another story inspired by it. And I must watch and judge it as such.

Still it is a charming film, despite these things I've stated. It is... slower paced (despite shorter length) and less hectic than I am used to, leaving it a bit less gripping than say Covenant or Alien, but simultaneously I am enjoying it even as I allow myself to be in part pulled out by writing this.

We see the covered face of Frankenstein's monster and he begins to talk about the glory of the brain of a dead man living again in the body that he has made... and it makes me want a very different story about body disphoria, and the feelings of one who has been brought back in a different, new body. I'm sure there are such stories now.

Still it doesn't feel like this is intended as a horror movie. While there is a certain grim and horrifying aesthetic, there is no sense of building fear, even as the storm builds (which should in a way be in and of itself a building fear). I'm going to say part of the blame falls on me both in the writing of this, and the familiarity with the story (even having never seen the film).

Even so as they gather in Henry Frankenstein's lab there is a certain suspense. Apparently X-Rays, or maybe Gamma Rays, bring life to the dead. Good to know. I will accept this as science fiction because it was the 1930s, I would laugh at this as absurd in something made now.

I actually go silent as the body is raised into the storm. Lightning produces this ray that gives life? Wait, what? I shut off that part of my brain. Because Frankenstein's rejoicing is gripping... even if one might say it was melodramatic, over the top, and hammy, I like it.

Henry's smugness is shattered when his old teacher tells him that it was the criminal's brain that was stolen. It's a beautiful moment as his face changes. And you get a bit of horror as the monster approaches, the sound of footsteps, the look on Henry's face, the way they turn out the light to keep the monster in darkness and then the Monster's face. It's very well done.

We get a nice little bit with the monster being treated like it was mentally stunted and we see that like an inconsiderate college roommate, the monster does not like lights out... Well it doesn't but really we see that fire freaks it the hell out. And what horror we had has been lost for now.

The monster is in the dungeon and Fritz wants to whip it and threaten it with fire. Fritz is a cruel person and the monster is like some child unable to communicate with the humans around him and mistreated by his cruel older brother. I pity the monster. Of course as I write "I pity the monster" he is in the process of killing Fritz off screen and tries to attack Frankenstein and his old teacher when they investigate. Given how Fritz treated him I can't blame the monster. Fritz deserved it.

The old professor wants to murder the monster. Frankenstein lacks the spine to stand on his principles. They open the door armed with a torch and a syringe. It braves the torch but is stabbed cruely from behind, and fights off those who would kill it in an act of instinctual self defense, Henry's life saved when the syringe takes its effect upon the creature.

Victor... WHY IS HE NAMED VICTOR AND FRANKENSTEIN IS NAMED HENRY? Victor arrive ahead of Elizabeth and Henry's father, and the three hide the body. The Baron Frankenstein comes off as almost comedic here.

Henry is unwell. I don't call him Frankenstein because he is Henry, Henry is not Frankenstein. His professor promises to dispose of the monster and Elizabeth, the Baron, and Victor von Imposter take him home.

As the professor writes a note that he is going to perform a disection, the creature begins to stir in his 'death'. The professor even checks for signs of life and as he's listening for (or to?) its heartbeat it reaches upwards and grasps him by the back of his neck and with brute strength ends his life. Then it is time for the creature to skulk about the windmill till it can escape.

Henry and Elizabeth in the sun in a scene that calls to mind the book's nightmarish nautre. Of course the movie lacks that nature. You've not tasted of Victor von Frankenstein's feverish dreams. You've not felt his madness touch you to the bones. But knowing it you can feel some echoes of it, knowing how the story ought to go... THEY CHANGED IT AND NOW... actually while it feels like a bit of a 'dirty trick' it's a good effect and a scene that otherwise would be weak can borrow some effect from the book. It's actually sort of impressive.

Of course the effect islost in the later wedding scenes, but they are by no means bad scenes. There is a charmingness to them.

Is that a real cat? There is a little girl with a cat. I have lived my entire life surrouned by cats. Sometimes it looks real. Sometimes it looks horribly drugged, mouth hanging wildly open as if it was possessed by some dark force. Maria's cat is the most unsettling thing thus far in the moive. Though in general, even ignoring the cat, the scene with Maria is scary. You don't know when or if the monster is going to do something to the dear little girl who thinks nothing of approaching this massive man who does not talk, and has open wounds, and a deathly pallor.

Without malice he throws the girl into the lake to see her float, not understanding her cries that she is being hurt. It is a tragedy and makes the creature a tragic figure; as he was in the book. Yet in the book the tragedy was because he was an intelligent being, a being perhaps as smart as his creator, he was Adam to a hateful God. Cast out by God, and hated by mankind, he raged against God, and turned to wickedness to avenge himself. He was tragic in and for his intelligence. Here the creature is tragic for it might be like unto a man, but is a danger in its stupidity, it's mind underdeveloped and unable to exist in the world lest it destroy without even realization that it does so.

Boris Karloff has a good presence to him, his shambling approach, which in many ways ought to be more comical given how slow it is and the comedy routine of Elizabeth barely missing seeing it, manages to have a certain terror to it. It would be easy to take it as comical, just a little decision to ignore the menace of the man beneath the make up.

Henry's decision that a wedding is impossible while the monster lives is... a little off. The monster isn't truly after him or his family, it's just a lost wanderer. The lynch mob is called to ready with no indication that they know who the he they're looking for is. Though they have dogs to guide them so they're working off his scent? I don't know. Maybe some spirit caller talked to Maria's spirit for a description? Seriously the question as to 'is this a lynch mob for the creature or just anyone who is a stranger' is bothering me. I could accept the former, he's a child murderer even if one that is mentally incapable, but the latter is just sort of... guys... are you that backwater that there couldn't be more than one traveler in the region?

At the same time, the creature has hung someone to death or after kill them. And when it kills Henry it knows enough to hide the body, though is spotted in the process. It's mentally rather cunning in its own way. Though obviously didn't know what it was doing when it killed the girl from its reaction... The fact that no it's not hiding the body of Henry, but bringing him to the reanimation machine merely unconscious is a sign of greater intelligence than I gave him credit for. Knows enough to toss the body of Henry off the windmill as a threat to the mob too... I mean it just gets the windmill lit on fire but...

The Good: Boris Karloff - He's got presence even without words, much more in fact than Christopher Lee's portrayal of the creature.

The Bad: THEY CHANGED IT AND NOW IT SUCKS - It's not a movie of the book at all, and the book is a vastly richer and more fulfilling story.

The Ugly: Victor: This character does nothing except allow Elizabeth someone to talk to in one scene. WHY DID YOU GIVE HIM THE MAIN CHARACTER'S NAME? WHY? WHY?

Also the film could be read as a pretty unflattering presentation of the mentally handicapped. I'm not even going to touch on that, but there's that itching feeling throughout.

The Final Summation: It's not scary. As a horror film this must be judged. While it has tense moments, and the creature's first appearance has that tingle, it's not scary. It is a charming film, a nice little story that can be watched in 70 minutes if you aren't highly sensitive to unfortunate implications that were fairly common in the period (I notice more than I normally would because I kept having trouble not referring to the creature as mentally disabled). It is from an older day of film making and I feel like I could have gotten up and gotten something premade to eat or something to drink and not completely ruined my appreciation, while at the same time not feeling any scene had no purpose except to pad time. There are scenes that one wouldn't want to miss, and there are scenes that are 'less important', but it was a nice... relaxed film you could say. Even typing out like this I didn't feel like I was missing something in the frantic mess, and yet it was engaging enough to keep me entertained. It was refreshingly different in that regard even if not necessarily my preference. Still I do intend to watch more Universal studio monster films this month, and it was better than I expected due to my love of the book and knowledge that THEY CHANGED IT AND NOW IT SUCKS. That said the book is the better story with more grip upon the heart and mind of the reader, and much more ability to stir thought and wonder with the touch of the dreadful sublimity of the nature of life and death and the power of Creation and what it means to have it placed in the hands of man. If you have not read the book it is a classic of Science Fiction and Horror, and one that is worth the time even if not necessarily for all. If you have not watched the film... take it or leave it; it was an enjoyable enough film if you let it be but having seen it due to its part in the building of 'horror' movies I do not find it essential viewing as a horror film unless you seek an understanding of their history and evolution.