#i have not seen the buffy movie but i just saw that he was in it and was like w h a t

[broke-on-books]

☕

The live action Scooby-Doo movies?

I did not see this ask until RIGHT now (first time on desktop since crab day, second time since Nov 5 2020 [which was DOUBLY experience since I got my phone taken the same day]) so I'm going to assume this ask got eaten on mobile because tumblr, HOWEVER you poked a bear with this ask anon (as I'm sure you knew when asking) SO without further ado: my Scooby Doo live action opinions

So when you say 'live action Scooby-Doo movies' I'm assuming you're talking about the James Gunn films, starting with Scooby-Doo (2002) followed by Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, just due to like, generally popularity and also the fact that I have actually seen those films. However shoot another ask if you wanted me to include Curse of the Lake Monster in this (because I will if anyone cares and turn this into a live-action scooby dissertation, i'd just need to like. watch the movie first) But anyways where I'm going with this is that this post is about the Gunn movies aka the ones with SMG, Freddie Prinze Jr., Linda Cardellini, and ofc our #1 man, Matthew Lilliard.

Okay so my take on these movies is... complicated. I wouldn't say it's as complicated as my feelings towards SDMI, because I watched the live actions way less as a kid and generally care less about them, but still no matter how much shit I throw at these two movies there are parts that I generally like (even love) that stops me from totally condemning them wholesale. Like the fact that these movies are FUNNY! There's so many moments from this duology that are just beyond iconic "like, that's one of my favorite names!" the whole thing with Scooby in the dress at the airport, ET. CETERA (like I can go on!)

The Gunn movies are genuinely SO fun and I can 100% see and understand how they've stood so well in the public view as a representation of Scooby. HOWEVER, this is where you start to see my problems with them. For the general American, (because that is the audience I'm familiar with) ESPECIALLY millennials and younger, who happen to make up the majority of both people on this site AND people I talk about Scooby with in real life, these movies, and the elements they introduced as "quintessential scooby tropes" are the base of their understanding of the Scooby franchise, along with likely some miscellaneous WAY episodes and maybe SDMI.

Which is where I get pissed off. In the pushing of the narrative of "breaking away" from the Scooby norm, Gunn basically invents (aka totally makes up) an idea of what classic era Scooby was like, cementing an idea of classic Scooby into the public mind that is totally disingenuous and just straight up false. For example, in attempting to portray Daphne as having taken strides to be seen more seriously in solving mysteries and defending herself, it pushes the narrative that in the classic era she WASN'T taken seriously, and only existed as a damsel-in-distress prop of a character, which is just not true??? Like yes, Daphne is clumsy, that's a part of her character, and her friends (because, fun fact, the gang ARE friends) joke about it sometimes because that's what friends DO. Framing that in some kind of sexist "that's all she does" lens is just total bull, especially as gang members fall into secret passageways/get lost etc. in WAY ALL THE DAMN TIME because that's how the plot functions! Like are we calling Velma ditzy for losing her glasses every other episode? Of course not, and Fred falls into passageways all the time, not to MENTION Shaggy and Scooby and all they get up to. Also one last thing on the topic of Daphne, like this idea of her mystery solving skills not being respected by the gang is just so supremely bullshit it amazes me sometimes, especially when she was the LEADER (or leader adjacent) through pretty much all of her appearances in the 1980s [Not that James Gunn could look at '80s era Scooby without spitting on it, but I digress]

AND THIS IS JUST DAPHNE! Like the perceptions pushed towards Fred (and Velma, but mostly Fred) through these movies are just as bad! Like okay, with Fred---In these movies Fred is just an asshole. I hate Gunn Movies!Fred. I mean yeah he can be funny but it's almost always so mean! Almost nothing makes me madder than a mean Fred by the way. If he's putting other gang members down (even halfway, like with his whole "dorky chicks like you turn me on too" line, which... ew) then to me something has gone very, very, VERY, wrong in your basic understanding of Frederick Herman Jones as a character. Like he's the cheerleader! He puts himself in between his friends and danger! He loves nets, and traps, and Elvis impressions, and wrestling, and the trapeze, and cars, and most of all he LOVES sharing the things he loves with his friends! (Sometimes to a bit of an extreme. No one wants to hear about your net facts, Fred) And the live action movies just don't understand that at all. And I know there's maybe something to say I suppose in that some of those aspects of his characterization hadn't been "established yet" by the time "Scooby-Doo" came out in 2002. But it's there if you look. For Fred Jones, being the leader means being the caretaker, (he's the Mom friend what can I say) and any version where he's cruel and arrogant and just DOESN'T CARE about his friends in the way he's shown to in the Gunn movies is just so far from Fred to me it's not even funny. And what makes it even worse for me is that this (or at least something similar) is the idea of Fred that has really spread to the popular culture. Just the "leader", the jock that makes the rules, the one that [insert X adaptation here] finally gave a personality and made interesting (something that has been said more times than I can count for pretty much every gang member, save Shaggy and Scooby).

And I haven't even touched on Velma, and how they gave her a bit of a early 2000s smart superiority girl complex against Daphne, plus the whole makeover thing and etc. etc. The Gunn Movies are pretty much what would happen if you took someone who hadn't seen Scooby since they were 7 years old (and honestly had a pretty negative outlook against it then) and tried to "fix" it, only his memory was so bad he just made up problems (and threw in a good helping of early 2000s style sexism with it) convincing pretty much the entirety of the popular culture that said problems exist and that Gunn was absolutely brilliant for fixing them (and then bringing up said "problems" whenever anyone wants to talk about Scooby) and this entire rant has been without even fucking MENTIONING what is probably the reason you, anonymous tumblr user sent this ask in the first place, to I, Swishy "Scrappy Doo Redemption Arc" Broke-on-books (dot tumblr dot com), which is his HIGHLY SUCESSFUL and utterly sadistic character assassination of my number one man, Scrappy Doo.

And I am going to try my damnedest here not to get totally into my highly passionate opinions over what James Gunn did to Scrappy in the first of his Scooby movies and how thoroughly it has pissed me the fuck off because I have been writing this post for over an hour now and if we start to really get into my feelings on this topic it will certainly be a couple of hours more but like. That Fucking Bitch. I give James Gunn personally a solid eighty-five percent of the blame for making my life as a Scrappy Doo fan UTTERLY unbearable with this stupid fucking movie alone, and just his Scrappy crimes would honestly be enough for me to say that I hate this movie, not even considering the numerous Scooby crimes I've been talking about here for the past million paragraphs, but the part about this movie that makes me the MOST mad the most pissed off is that it's actually a good fucking movie. James Gunn wrote two hilarious and entertaining movies that have become beloved in the popular culture for their successes in that arena, while at the same time pissing all over the core themes and messages of the franchise of which it was based, that of friendship.

TLDR; The Live Action Scooby Doo movies (written by James Gunn) are highly entertaining and fun pieces of media to watch, and are widely loved by the general public and looked at with fondness and nostalgia because of that. However, as a hardcore Scooby Doo fan (writing that phrase sounds so ridiculous but oh well) the existence of these movies and their impact on the popular culture can be extremely frustrating (despite any personal nostalgia said fan may have) due to their spreading of a misinformed picture of what "typical Scooby Doo" looks like. This picture is especially frustrating due to the fabrication or exaggeration of problems present in classic Scooby (such as sexism in regards to the girls), as well as giving more ammunition to other problems in Scooby fandom (such as oversexualization, and sexualization in general, which no one wants to see in regards to their children's cartoons, like HONESTLY.) Discussions of sexism and sexualization in Scooby (both of which ARE present and are issues, although not at their worst in WAY) can often lead to an overlooking of the issues that are very present and clear in WAY and have continued since then with far too little resistance (I'm 100% talking about the racism here) HOWEVER that topic deserves at least a dozen posts of its own that I am no way informed or qualified enough to even begin to think about writing. The Gunn Movies are frustrating to many longtime Scooby fans because of these reasons, but for me, and fellow Scrappy Doo fans there is also the added aspect of the demonization of Scrappy Doo in the live action movies and the affects that has had on the popular culture as well, making it uniquely inhospitable to like or enjoy the character of Scrappy. End post.

[acesammy]

if I had a nickel for every time donald sutherland was in a movie that was later adapted into a tv show that was so much better liked it all but made the movie obsolete, I'd have 2 nickels. Which isnt a lot but it's weird that it happened twice

[readingbookelf]

The Defense Rests - Spike

Summary: The Scooby-gang holds an emergency meeting when they find out you're dating Spike.

Pairing: fem!reader x Spike

My Writing | Taglist

You’re at Giles’ home, currently being yelled at by Xander, who apparently saw you kissing Spike last night. Instead of just talking to you about it, in private, he called an emergency meeting. Hence the yelling while everyone else just stares at you.

“Spike is a psychotic killer and you’re handing yourself to him on a silver platter. Have you forgotten how he came into our lives? What he was going to do to Buffy for his precious Dru? Who is also nuts in the head, I might add,” Xander practically yells in your face.

“I did not forget, but I’ve used my eyes these past few months. Spike has helped us out more times than one, even when he didn’t need too. Also he hasn’t attacked anyone in months…” you trail off at the end knowing the only reason he hasn’t attacked anyone is because of the chip the Initiative has planted in his head.

Xander scoffs, ready for round two, but Buffy jumps in.

“Xander, you have to admit he’s helped us out… a lot in the past few months. Figuring out who the initiative is, what they do, even fighting demons or helping out with the latest threat. I’m not pro-Spike and I still don’t trust him, but if he makes y/n happy then that’s enough for me. Also I’m the last one to condemn anyone for dating a vampire,” Buffy finishes with a wink towards you.

“Thank you, Buffy,” you whisper.

“So we’re going to ignore the fact he would kill us all if he didn’t have that chip in his head,” Xander asks.

“Xander, last week you admitted that Spike has grown on you. What about all the times you spoke about ‘everything we’ve been through together’ just to try and convince Spike to help out? Don’t you think you’re being hypocritical,” you ask softly.

Xander scoffs but doesn’t make another move to convince you Spike is the devil incarnate.

“And on that note I’m out of here. I’ve got a bed that’s calling my name,” you say before getting up.

“Don’t you mean a certain someone who’s waiting for you in your bed,” Willow quips, wiggling her eyes.

Everyone groans.

-----

When you walk through your front door, you find Spike on your couch watching a movie.

“Home already or you haven't left yet,” you ask the blond man.

“Home for the night,” he replies while smiling at you cheekily.

That smile never fails to make you weak in the knees. You let yourself fall onto the couch next to Spike while letting out the biggest sigh of your life.

“The scooby doo-meeting was that bad, huh,” he asks. “The end of the world again,” he chuckles.

You look at Spike and see the concern shining in his eyes. He puts his arm around you and pulls you close into his side. You let your head fall on his shoulder and nuzzle close.

“The end of the world for Xander,” you scoff.

“What do you mean,” Spike asks.

“You were right that someone was watching us last night. After seeing us together Xander followed us and saw us kiss. Hence the emergency meeting,” you explain.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Spike exclaims while jumping up.

Immediately your hand circles around his wrist. You give a little pull to make him sit down again. He sighs and sits down next to you once more.

“Who does he think he is? He’s dating a vengeance demon for god’s sake,” Spike spits out.

You rub his shoulder trying to calm him down.

“There was a discussion. I defended you. Buffy jumped in. Everyone is more or less okay with it. I’m kind of done talking about this, Spike. Xander’s opinionated. I’ve seen the way he was with Buffy and Angel.”

You shake your head at the end. The uncomfortable memory resurfacing. He was so mean to Buffy. It’s hard dealing with the supernatural world as a human. You realise how fragile your life really is. It causes Xander to act out like this, and it’s not an excuse, but it gives him some leeway when he explodes.

“I still hate that you had to sit through that meeting all by yourself. I should’ve been there. I’m part of this relationship,” he says fiercely.

You take his hand and squeeze.

“You were. There was this little annoying voice that sounded a lot like you edging me on while I was defending you…and calling Xander names I won’t repeat,” you chuckle.

A twinkle lights in Spike’s eyes. He presses his lips firmly on yours. A moan slips past your lips by the sheer force of it all. Slowly you pull away.

“I like you. You like me. And everyone else can suck it,” Spike says before kissing you once more.

[doctorcurdlejr]

Niko!! what'd you think of I saw the tv glow. I finally saw it last night and noticed you posting about it so I wanted to know your thoughts :)

Levi!!! I was JUST wondering what you were thinking about the movie after I saw you posting about it as well... we are so media discussion pilled in this way, it's awesome. ANYWAYS I've had so many thoughts since I first saw it and I've been trying to turn them into something coherent for a little bit now.

Ummm okay I have written 1k+ words about this movie, the suburbs, and escapism via teen TV.... clearly I was dying for somebody to ask this I guess so thank you for indulging me <3

First and foremost, I absolutely loved it! I've seen it twice now and the first time I watched it I got to see Jane Schoenbrun talk about the film right after. I already really liked it from that first watch alone. I found it so deeply relatable to my experiences - both in terms of growing up gay and trans, but where I am now in my 20s trying to navigate adulthood. Hearing what Schoenbrun had to say really cemented my feelings and thoughts about the film.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer was a big influence on the movie (it's why Amber Benson makes a cameo as Johnny Link's mom). Even though I don't have the same emotional link to Buffy since I never watched it, I recognize it as the same type of warmth I experienced growing up with Riverdale. When Owen says he feels like his insides have been scooped out but that he's too afraid to look and have that wrongness everybody knows is there be confirmed, Maddy simply responds "Maybe you're like Isabel. Afraid of what's inside you." Tears forming but not falling, breathing shallowly, I grabbed the paper and pen the theater keeps at the seats for people to order food with and wrote that line down - the slip of paper is still somewhere in my car. Writing it now almost feels lame in its simplicity, but it felt like my insides were being flayed open.

During the director discussion, Schoenbrun talked a little bit about this idea of how truly fucking bizarre it is to grow up in the suburbs. Like, when we think about the pinnacle of normality in American culture, it's the image of middle-class cis-hetero-white suburbia. At the same time, despite this cultural dream of normality, everybody is hyper-aware that the suburbs are one of the least normal things ever. So, the ACTUAL cultural understanding of it is that it's where we go to, like, passively kill ourselves (*George Costanza voice* WE LIVE IN A SOCIETY YOU KNOW!). This idea isn't new, I mean there are so many films and shows about navigating that specific bizarre dissonance from Rebel Without a Cause to Heathers to Twin Peaks. Probably half the pre-teen to teen TV I watched obsessively growing up, stuff like Strange Days at Blake Holsey High, Making Fiends, Truth or Scare, and eventually Riverdale, were never shy about being weird and morbid and saying "yes, the suburbs are exactly as bizarre and lethal in the ways you can already feel in your bones at 13." I Saw the TV Glow does a really good job of keying not only into that mental dissonance but more specifically into how those of us who have felt so intrinsically weird and different and wrong fell back on these shows like they were capable of doing the emotional version of a rescue breath maneuver after being drowned.

In high school, if there were two things about me that any person who even vaguely knew me could list off it was that I watched Riverdale, and I was a lesbian - and I was mocked more for the Riverdale. At that age, I was, without a doubt, the most miserable I have ever felt in my life. I rarely left the house because my family lived in a development that made me want to scratch my skin off when I walked out our front door. Owen didn't leave the house for days, afraid Maddy could somehow force him out. I sobbed constantly and frequently to depressing indie rock on the floor of my closet while hoping my family would just once read the (honest to god) KEEP OUT poster plastered on my door since I didn't have a lock on it. Owen didn't leave his room for days, afraid of what Maddy recognized in him. I didn't go on dates and kept my chest binder shoved to the bottom of my bookbag while wearing dresses that could've come from a how-to-be the perfect 50s housewife manual. Owen didn't leave his bed for days, afraid of Maddy touching his neck and Isabel's dress. I also watched Riverdale with the kind of zeal you see in a Pentecostal who has found God and started speaking in tongues to let you know it. I own a button that says, "Don't Make Me Go Dark Betty On You," I cherish it in a way that is only achieved by knowing exactly how corny and trite it is and then moving straight past that because well actually, and most people wouldn't get this, she's holding back something deeply dark and wild and- and disgusting. something painful yet intrinsically her. but i get it, obviously. or maybe not obviously! hopefully not obviously, but- basically, I'm just saying I get it: the experience of reflection and recognition through the other and all that.

Whatever, the point is that this movie is one big glaring trans allegory about how it sucks dog shit to live in the suburbs, and even at our most repressed we find these little snow globes of actualization in the glow of a tv screen that isn't afraid to show you the world you see. I've seen some people say that, like, in this context accepting or coming into your transness is this monumental death of self, which I get, but I feel there lacks a nuance in that because either way Owen is dying. Unlike Maddy who buries herself alive only to come out renewed, Owen doesn't kill himself upon facing the reality that the world is constructed to keep him miserable and the only way out is to take back what it is that the world wants to keep scooped out of him. Instead he just passively lets it drag him to a much more permanent death. This lack of suicide sucks in the kind of way that forces you to sit in your car on the midnight drive home and think to yourself am I letting myself suffocate because at some point knowing the misery became less scary than admitting I've been capable of doing something about it the whole time?

Clearly, I’ve been enchanted by the film’s narrative and meta-textual language. If you're familiar with it, you can see how Schoenbrun built this movie like a long-form dream episode of a canceled teen show filmed in Vancouver. Lynchian? Yeah, sure. Riverdalesque? THIS we cannot possibly deny. Schoenbrun said they included Amber Benson as an act of healing the inner rage experienced at Tara’s death in Buffy. This is a Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa ending Riverdale with a bisexual polycule after his gay Archie play got ceased-and-desisted type move. There’s probably more I could say about the soundtrack and the visuals, but I’ve hit over 1k words on this, so I’ll leave it at I enjoyed this movie a lot. :)

Maddy is an out lesbian who left town to escape the misery and found it strapped to her ankles. She slinks out, an animal pressed against the gymnasium floor, and says "I'm not telling you anything you don't already know." Owen looks into the camera and narrates. He cuts himself open with a box cutter, fully acknowledges what's there, and the movie ends with his suffocating apology parade for the unremarkable inconvenience of his excruciating suffering. You can be gay and trans, you can know it and you can stop repressing it, but you're not going to stop suffocating until you can find a way to destroy the part of you that truly deeply does want to die, reaching for the comforting euthanasia of normalcy. Stop visiting the dream of the life you want and make it into your reality with the same kind of unrepentant conviction seen in some underfunded but wildly ambitious teen television series. In other words: you must try to survive the ego death of being weird. A weirdo, who doesn't fit in and doesn't want to fit in!

[prose-for-hire]

Toil and Trouble:

(Second part Here)

Pairing: Spike x Harris!reader

Request: Not requested, promise I am writing my requests it just happens so slowly (sorry). I got a bit overwhelmed! So when I get a random burst of inspiration like this it helps get me back into writing what I’m supposed to be writing lol.

(As always reader is gender neutral unless stated otherwise.)

Desc: reader is Xander’s twin, they aren’t a scooby they have their own friends and Xander has always tried to hide the truth about demons from them. What will happen when reader discovers an unexpected house guest in Xander’s basement room?

Warning: mention of heavy drinking (Xander’s uncle) and dysfunctional families. Cigarette.  Reader has hair long enough to be tucked behind an ear.

You and Xander had always been close. They called you and your twin double trouble, when you were younger. You had been partners in crime, if you will. You spent a lot of time together despite your different personalities. You shared the same sense of humour but after that, you were almost completely different. The arguments you had between you over what movie to watch could go down in the history books. But five minutes later you would be sharing popcorn together and cracking jokes about the movie you were watching.

However, ever since High school there was something of a rift between you. You no longer told each other everything. He started it, in your defence.

Xander was evasive and him and his friends were incredibly secretive, especially around you. You liked Buffy and Willow fine enough but you were always only an acquaintance of theirs. You had your own group of friends in high school and again in college. What you didn’t know about Xander’s increasingly comedic and unconvincing excuses and explanations was that he was trying to hide from you the dangers of Sunnydale. The demons and apocalypses and life or death situations.

He felt he was protecting you, despite Willow’s pragmatic arguments in your favour all the Scoobies agreed to keep it from you.

Where Xander had moved into the basement, you had moved on campus for college. You had promised to come home and stay for your uncles birthday weekend, however, and annoyingly Xander had the excuse of work to miss the predictably dysfunctional meal that was being held in his honour. He had passed you on the way out in his pizza uniform, grabbing you in a side hug before he left with an apologetic glance.

As predicted, it was torture. You had sat there whilst your uncle drank his way through the meal and had seemingly made it into a game of ‘how many comments can I make before they snap’. It reminded you just how glad you were to have got out of the house. The only real reason you came back was to see Xander and he had dashed out of the door.

Once the meal was over and everyone had stopped talking after the inevitable argument that had been brewing since you had stepped through the door, you slid away to try and collect yourself. Rather than going to what had been your room, which had quickly been changed when you had left, you walked down into Xander’s basement.

It was dark, you hadn’t switched the light on. You were going to sit in the chair he had down there and wait for him to rant to him about your uncle. As you felt around for the chair, you managed to touch something unfamiliar, you and the chair let out a yelp at the same time.

You scrambled for the light and saw a man sat in the chair, no, not sat in it. Tied to it. Tightly, too. He was cute, just your type too. You couldn’t help staring at him, something he caught as he smirked in your direction.

“Like what you see?” He raised his eyebrows, eyes not leaving yours. When you grinned at his words, he swore he felt his heart soar in his chest. A feeling he quickly tried to beat back down again. He wouldn’t do this again, fall for someone like this. Not so quickly, so easily.

“I’ve seen better, I suppose” You beamed when he chuckled, moving to sit on the edge of Xander’s bed.

“Hidin’ are you? Gotta say, your family aren’t exactly winners, pet”

“And there was me thinking I had won the ‘rental lottery” You offered before explaining, “I was only really here for Xander and he didn’t even stay for dinner. Just needed somewhere to…”

“Relax?” Something in his voice told you that he understood. Or at least

“Yeah, I’m not gonna even ask why you’re here tied to a chair” You smiled, you had been the kindest human he had met since getting chipped. In fact, probably of all time. He didn’t really want to tell you what he was and make you leave him here in the dark. He was enjoying the company.

For the first time in a while, he was feeling like himself again. Or at least some version of himself. One he actually liked. He decided to explain to you how he had got here, perhaps a slightly edited version. Well, a heavily edited version. One that would also make him into the hero, of course.

He spoke like a poet, you were hanging on every word. Every syllable. The story was clearly edited, but you really didn’t care. You felt it in the emotion, in the feeling of what he was saying. That couldn’t be made up.

As he spoke, the night had gone darker and the streetlights had turned on. You smiled softly, both of you were feeling a little lost in your own ways. You felt connected to him, even after only a few hours of knowing him.

“You know, in the light from that streetlamp, you glow” He let the words hang in the air, trying to gauge your reaction. In that moment, you knew he had sensed it too. Some spark. Some potential.

“I need a drink. You wanna go to the Bronze?”

“Kinda tied up at the moment, love” He moved his palms to prove it, showing a flash of black nail varnish.

You leaned in and untied him, your face so close to his. The proximity made the atmosphere around you both intense, your breath tickled his cheek and he closed his eyes slowly.

Once the ropes were loose, he jumped to his feet instantly, gripping your elbow as if to steady himself. Tiny surges of electricity fizzled through you at the contact. Though he didn’t need it for balance, he just wanted an excuse to stand close to you. His hand moved towards you, eyes never breaking from yours, catching a loose strand of your hair and tucking it behind your ear.

He looked as if he was going to lean into you, closing the space. You swallowed thickly, his brilliantly blue eyes dipping to your lips just as-

The door of the basement slammed open, hitting the wall beside it. Heavy footsteps could be heard descending the stairs towards you. Spike stepped backwards and you already felt cold from the absence of his presence.

You turned to find your brother, mouth agape as he stared between the two of you.

“Wh- why is Spike-?!” words escaped your brother in his shock.

“His circulation was getting cut off, stop panicking”

“I’m not panicking. I’m not. I’m not. Stop looking at me like I’m panicking!”

“Kinda looks like panicking, mate” Spike said, rolling his eyes and sliding on his leather duster.

“Me and your friend hit it off, I asked him out” You explained, tugging on your own jacket.

“Goin’ for a bite aren’t we, love?” Spike’s eyes sparkled as Xander caught his intended meaning.

“Tell them not to wait up. Or better yet, don’t tell them anything-” You gestured upwards as you started to leave when Xander, clearly in an argument with himself on whether to tell you something he had kept secret for a long time, decided he needed to say something.

“He’s my hostage!”

“I’ll bring him back, God, Xander you are so annoying”

“Don’t I get a bloody say?”

“No!” You said together, which almost put Spike off you entirely until you smiled at him again and then he was wrapped around your little finger.

He had never met anyone like you. You were strong, clearly, but so in touch with your emotions. All throughout the conversation you had for the hours before Xander walked in had felt more of a connection than anything he had said in decades to any other.

“Y/n, he’s dangerous! You can’t take him! This is my foot, and it’s going down!” Xander pointed to his foot and you gave it a light kick as you replied.

“What is it with you? It’s always, it’s my turn with the hostage, you’re a minute younger you can sit in the sandpit and wait!”

“BOTH OF YOU, SHUT THE HELL UP! NOW!” A call came from upstairs, masking Xander’s yelp at your kick and  sent you both into a whisper argument that even Spike could barely hear.

“Ought to get goin’ pet, we could go for a nice, secluded walk after” Spike’s smirk widened as you nodded and started for the door. Xander’s panic had reached it’s peak, he was flailing his arms around in urgency.

“Y/n, there are things- complex things that you don’t know about. Spike is… Spike’s a…”

“Vampire? Yeah, Xander, I know. He’s whiter than snow, I’m not an idiot” You rolled your eyes at your brother, how dumb did he think you were?

Obviously Spike was a vampire or this hostage thing would be entirely too weird for you to get involved in. Plus, Spike had explained that he had been chipped by the Initiative and you had told him that you were definitely not (and never would be) part of your brothers lame little Scooby gang.

You knew all about demons and vampires and the like. You and your friends had been fending them off since high school, just perhaps not as well as your brother and the slayer. And what’s more, you knew all about the slayer too. You had accidentally walked into the library one afternoon when your librarian and Buffy had been fighting something spooky.

You had hidden so they hadn’t seen you but you overheard them say something about the chosen one, the slayer and then you had done some research of your own. You waited for Xander to tell you himself but it had been too long now and you had just never confronted him about it.

“How long have you known?”

“About as long as you’ve been keeping it from me”

Spike, who had weirdly known better than to get involved again, just stared between them. He was bored, he just wanted to spend more time with you. Who knew being chipped would have led to something like this? Finding someone that he lo-

Really liked. You just really like them, you nit.

“We’ll talk, Xander. Just, tomorrow, okay? I’m going out”

Spike grinned evilly over his shoulder at Xander as he slung an arm over your shoulder, whispering lowly in your ear as you walked away. You and your brother would have to talk, maybe shout at each other for a while. But it could all wait.

Spike lit up a cigarette and offered you took a drag as you walked by his side. The night was young and full of promise. Spike spoke almost non-stop on your way there, something he hadn’t found himself doing in an age. He tried to impress you with stories of past fights he had won, historical events he had witnessed. He just wanted to see you smile.

Yeah, you could definitely get used to this.

[burningexeter]

Since just like with a certain voice actress on a 2000s Cartoon Network show, there's not a lot of information on in this case writer/director Shane Acker, the man behind the dark, twisted, action-horror post-apocalyptic animated film 9 from you guessed it 2009.

So here's all the trivia that I could find on the guy if anyone's interested in reading for yourself:

• In an interview, Acker cut to the chase on why he hasn't directed a movie since aforementioned 2009 and here's what he said — "Have a lot of the movies I've been attached to as director fallen into development hell, yes. But the bigger reason is mainly personal, I've just been living my own life. I would absolutely love to direct another feature or anything really but at the same time, I'm enjoying what I already have in life. I'm kind of a schlub that way right down to the fact that I'd nowadays rather sit back on a nice Sunday, watch football and eat bacon and pepperoni pizza than deal with modern studio executives who probably get higher pay every time they yell and scream in your ear".

• He's already listed The Brothers Quay, Don Hertzfeldt, Jan Svankmajer and brothers Christoph Lauenstein as influences previously however recently he's named Terrence Malick, Edgar Wright, Gore Verbinski, Jordan Peele and Richard Kelly as some of his favorite filmmakers.

• Speaking of favorites, he's given some of his favorite movies — Donnie Darko, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Dredd, The Watcher In The Woods (1980) and The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian (surprisingly).... then he gave some his favorite TV shows — Tales From The Crypt, Bob's Burgers, Squid Game, Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Sons Of Anarchy.

• When asked what was it like working with Tim Burton since he was producer, Acker spoke high praise saying "I would work with him again if the time comes. Tim was a phenomenal producer who allowed for so much creative freedom while at the same time contributing his unique voice and view to the project".

• On the flip side, here's what he thought of the other producer Timur Bekmambetov — "He was very, very, very, very, VERY fucking russian as all hell. I'm surprised he was a Hollywood producer..... he was quite the interesting person".

• He does indeed have an idea for a new project that he not only wants to do but intends on having it be his second film as director, describing it as "The Incredibles crossed with Raiders Of The Lost Ark, it's an animated action-adventure with edge we haven't seen since honestly the early 2010s. I'm still deciding on whether it should be another PG-13 or an actual R".

• On modern media, here's his blatant thoughts on it so tough shit to any dope who reads this and gets offended because of stupid reasons — "I think it's been awful. There's barely any genuine storytelling now and instead it's all politics. It's all about representation, obnoxious wokeness, pandering, subverting expectations and shoving as much modern bullshit themes into them than actually telling stories with characters who you care about".

• He's most certainly not a fan of a certain film called Star Wars: The Last Jedi — "I know this is saying quite a lot since I've only been able so far to direct one feature but honestly I wish Last Jedi was never made at this point. Not only is it a truly terrible movie but it's created so much hostility, so much shilling, so much toxicity that it becomes unbearable. If this is that film's legacy than it's a failure".

• There is however one positive about all of this and it's that the one movie that he's excited for and interested in — what is it....

[pinksmonkey]

How do you know Byler is endgame? Let me know!

Explanation:

So today was my first day of grade 11, it went really well. I had lunch with my girlfriend, saw some people I met last year, and I like all the classes I have.

Anyway, I'm in a support class for students with high anxiety (I have generalized anxiety disorder), and I made a new friend in my support class. He's actually really cool and funny. He's a grade below me but we actually got to know each other because he brought up that he went to the same middle school as me, and that was really interesting because I haven't met anyone else at my highschool who went to that middle school.

It was really great and we had a lot of common interests, from RuPaul's Drag Race to the Saw movies, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, and of course Stranger Things. And that's actually what this post is about, because for some reason my friend is completely convinced that Byler won't happen in season 5. I was pretty surprised when he told me, I strongly believe all the evidence that Byler is endgame.

But that's totally fine, he hasn't seen all the evidence, and he's queer too so it's not coming from a place of homophobia. To me it seemed like he just doesn't have faith in the writers to create a queer storyline like that, he thinks it's just queerbaiting. And that's fair because he hasn't seen the evidence for it (he also at one point claimed Mike is straight, lmao), but when I playfully tried to tell him some of the proof for Mike being queer, liking Will back, and that they'll end up together, he was totally in denial.

Now this is all in good faith and not really serious as far as I can tell, he does believe Byler won't happen, but we're just discussing it in a playful sort of way. So at some point I'm going to send him all the Byler proof I've collected over the past few months, and it's going to be hilarious.

This has been kinda long and ramble-y, so I'm just gonna get to the point now. I was wondering if any of my fellow Bylers would like to share what you think is the best evidence for Byler being endgame. You can tell me in a comment, reblog, or in my asks (and I'll respond with what I think about it). Just share in any way you want, why do you know Byler is happening in season 5, and/or that Mike is queer and likes Will back. And at some point I'll send screenshots of all this to my friend, and maybe together we can change his mind on Byler. XD

[leahrocky]

The Pan-Dimensional Frisbee - pt 1.

I decided to list out all the hidden references / easter eggs I included in this story bc I had too much fun with it and I wanted to make sure anyone who was curious could see hahaha. So, if you'd like a deep dive into my pop-culture obsession... read below

Chapter One Title: "Across the Potterverse"

“We could be anywhere . We could die! Or worse, I could be fired,” Hermione said, fumbling with the grey frisbee now that she’d been shielded from the mud.  “Do I need to say it again?” Ron demanded.

 “there could be a universe out there that’s every bit the same as ours, except that shrimp don’t exist, or a universe where only shrimp exist—“

“What is he, then?” Ron asked. Hermione just frowned, focusing on the PDF again, and biting her lips to bite back the word. “Say it,” Ron said. “Out loud.” “Vampire,” Hermione said.

Hermione picked up a stack of papers, and read aloud, “Hogwarts Paper Company. We never let sleeping dragons lie.”

Where their fingers had once been, were now, what looked to be, wands . They were jointed where all the knuckles should have been, and ended in a familiar pointed tip. Wooden fingers, like a puppet’s.

Harry had never seen in the Hogwarts he knew. There were glass boxes erupting from turrets, like strange additional rooms and spaces. Instead of the gargoyles at the front, large whirring metal cameras turned on a constant swivel, and the grounds, instead of being empty and sprawling, were filled with strange looking obstacle courses that reminded Harry of an old muggle war movie he’d seen. 

She placed the aluminium packet on the table, and a glass dome rolled over it. Only a second later, the dome rolled away, and a full sandwich, alongside a fresh looking salad, appeared where the aluminium had been.

"don’t think I’d marry Cho. I mean, she’s lovely and all, but, no."

"Are we all still going to Nox’s afterwards?” Draco asked. “You still owe me a glass of Prosecco.” (this is a reference to an author i absolutely adore, NoxNoir :) I wanted to put them in the story in a fun little way. @ghostofnoir)

Chapter 2: Once More, With Feeling

You are about to enter another dimension… existing beyond time and space, and directly parallel to the universe of our previous story, a perfect identical match, except for one significant difference:

"Scared, Potter?” Draco asked. “You wish.”

Because right outside, instead of the ordinary muggle street he was sure he’d find, Harry saw the surface of the moon. (so, I decided to use inspiration from the movie Zathura for this dimension, and this dimension is actually supposed to be like a parallel universe travellers' like "safe zone" lmao. So if Harry and Draco just stayed there, they would have been fine. And it's why the fridge was covered in magnets... they were magnets from parallel universes)

On close inspection, they looked to be the sort of souvenir magnets typically sold in airports. All of them sported the name of some city, places like Los Cabos, Boston, Tokyo, and Frankfurt. Alongside places with names such as The Republic of Gilead, and Panem, that Harry wasn’t sure were real, as far as he was aware. However, the most shocking one of all was surely the one that said Diagon Alley, in glittery silver lettering, which Harry found himself staring at for several seconds. 

His hair, still that same platinum blond, was spiked up, in a way that reminded Harry of some singer whose name he couldn’t remember. (this is a double reference, lmao, because it's a reference to my main canon rewrite series where a character frequently compares Draco to the singer Billy Idol) (which is actually a reference to how Spike in Buffy gets compared to Billy Idol / Spike is a character whose redemption arc/enemies-to-lovers arc i find to have a lot in common w/ what I want for Draco)

“You know,” Harry said, steps slow, “I think we’re in London. And I think… I think that’s David Bowie—” (This is probably the most self-indulgent reference on the list lmao. Bc.... this universe is actually a universe from another fic I've written for another fandom lmao...)

“Two Blue Lagoons,” he said, the first name he landed on. ... "Well?” Harry asked as Draco grimaced. “How is it?” “Tastes like a hangover,” Draco said. (this is referencing a line from that fic--- "Eddie does get their next drinks. Blue shots called Blue Lagoons that taste full of sugar and the promise of a hangover.")

"Hey, hey, settle a bet for me, woudja?” the man asked, accent so American it almost hurt. “See my buddy over there,” he said, pointing with his thumb over his shoulder to some other man, who looked, from what Harry could guess, embarrassed, “he’s all outta wack because a few of your fellow countrymen ruffled his feathers, talking about werewolves in the moors. I told him they were just a bunch of hot air, but I think it’s still bugging him. So, I just thought I’d get a second opinion—-confirm that’s just something you say to mess with tourists, ain’t it?” the man said, finally finishing the sudden diatribe. (like I said, this is one of the main characters from that other fic of mine.... which is another doubled reference I'm so sorry lmao...) (because that fic was inspired by the opening of An American Werewolf in London... so this is the context)

“Besides,” Draco said, dropping his voice to a whisper that made Harry lean in to hear him, “there are pixies in the moors.”

“Pixies,” the man said, when his laughter finally subsided. “Ain’t that the name of a band?” (this is a reference to a line Richie says in my other fic: "Rumors? Ain’t that a Fleetwood Mac album?” Richie asks.)

"And then, to Harry’s horror, Hannah began to sing. "I’ve got a theory that it’s a demon… a dancing demon,” she sang, “ no something isn’t right there. ”

Chapter 3: Ron of the Dead

"You've... you've got red on you," Draco said, pointing to a swipe of red—blood, probably— on Harry's hand.

 “Oh… name was Brian. Brian Dumbledore”

[actuallylorelaigilmore]

2022 MOVIE OF THE WEEK #33

disenchanted. i......have been avoiding this review since literally months ago because just thinking about reviewing this movie makes me sad and tired. if you loved this movie, which i think some people must have because i’ve seen the occasional gifs from it on my dash, feel free to skip this. it’ll go behind a cut, because i suspect it’s gonna get long.

(spoiler alert: it got ridiculously long. how did i have five thousand words to say about this? and if anyone besides leander reads this i’ll be shocked but that’s fine cuz they were the one encouraging me to make it through this rant and if they hadn’t i definitely would have given up even trying a long time ago.)

and it is pretty much universally negative, because i could not have been more looking forward to this sequel featuring literally my favorite disney (noncanon but still mine) princess and it not only let me down (as sequels tbh do a lot so that’s not even surprising) but it sincerely broke my heart. 

in a ‘wow i’m being really overdramatic about a disney movie’ sort of way, but it’ll make more sense after i explain it, i promise. you had to be there, i think, to care as much as i do, and only @actuallylukedanes was, so it was also pretty convenient that i ended up watching this with them when they were gonna watch it with their partner and invited me to join. cuz they felt the same way i did about the sequel, which is how i knew i was not overreacting. 

it was also leander who advised me to start posting completed reviews of other 2022 movies since i was stuck on this one, even though i never posted them out of order before. (i ended up realizing in january that i totally forgot a movie from 2022, so it’s good i wasn’t as obsessed with perfect chronology anyway.)

the first warning sign i had with this movie was honestly its release. they had been talking about an enchanted sequel for so long that i had stopped hoping for one, and then when it was really happening they wouldn’t even put it in theaters!! i was so pissed off about that, because enchanted felt like a magical (pun intended) experience for me in 2007. 

it came out exactly on my birthday, when i turned 23, and @actuallylukedanes​ and i saw it in the theater to celebrate. we lived in utah then, and were happy rather than homeless, and we paid for the movie using a card that had a ‘reward’ system like a lottery where they told you they would at some random time choose a single purchase you made, and reimburse you for it. out of everything we paid for with that card, it was the tickets to enchanted that they made free.

and i couldn’t have been more excited to see enchanted back then, because it was a real live musical, and those have always been rarer than i wish they were, and the cast was ridiculously great. long before amy adams was making bigger movies, she had played tara’s cousin on buffy and a memorable one-episode character on charmed, and i had just always loved her an unreasonable amount like i had been waiting for her to be a movie star. plus i had discovered wicked in college and dove deep into other idina menzel musicals as well as every one of her solo albums (and singles that weren’t sold anywhere, which i downloaded illegally because that is called devotion) and was just generally obsessed with her for years. 

and then there was patrick dempsey, reliable dreamy star of grey’s anatomy (which i gave up on quickly but he was good in) and james marsden of the x-men trilogy i had watched a zillion times. (his character was not one i liked in that, but he was great as a comedic part of this.) i had grown up with susan sarandon and wasn’t used to her as a villain but she brought just the right level of Too Much, and her henchman was perfectly cast. they somehow managed to even make the child in the story not annoying, which can be really rare, especially when she has an actual role--but she’s great. 

the mix of animation and live-action was really fun, and when giselle’s dress goes from cartoon to sparkly 3d it was so swoony. truly like a disney fantasy sort of moment, they brought so much to life. and they did so even where it shouldn’t have worked! the basic plot of ‘two couples aren’t meant to be so they switch partners amongst themselves and then it’s perfect’ is not one i like in other movies, but here i’m just like, yeah absolutely, dance with patrick dempsey in your pretty dress, and let idina menzel go live in a fairy tale. 

but in addition to all of that, and the catchy, catchy music, what i really, truly loved about enchanted, and why it was one of my all time favorite movies to put on that i never got sick of (along with mamma mia and a few others, i really like musicals okay), is how much it turned out that i identified with giselle. how much she not only made sense to me, even as she was supposed to be this wide-eyed disney princess, but how she gave me language for things i was still figuring out, and i got so attached to that.

i was 23 years old. i had left home less than two years earlier, and i didn’t know i was autistic yet, let alone bipolar/anxious/adhd/disordered eating all knotted together. i hadn’t begun thinking about what it meant to be ‘developmentally disabled,’ and how unprepared that made me for adulthood, independence or being in a relationship. I had just leaped into all those things, and i wasn’t necessarily all that good at any of them. 

but there was giselle, singing her way through a world she didn’t understand how to navigate either, and it was okay because there was somebody who loved her for her exact weird self and a child who needed her. (substitute cats for child and you see where i’m coming from.) she was relentlessly optimistic but also cursed by forces outside her control, and she was full of creativity. 

my absolute favorite moment that giselle has in the whole movie, when it comes to why it was important to me, is when she experiences anger. at first she can’t even name it, and then there’s a kind of joy she finds in it, in having a new feeling...in having the FREEDOM to feel that difficult feeling, and not need things to be perfect all the time. until i saw that scene, i had never realized that my childhood had trained me to not be angry--before i was even conscious that had happened. and once i saw that scene, i started to wonder if maybe anger was something i was allowed to feel, after all. 

i think if you’re not me, or you didn’t know me at 21 (a fragile adorable unstable bby desperate to be rescued from my life), it might be hard to understand that, how i didn’t just love giselle for being giselle, but loved her for being the most me a character played by amy adams could be. 

up until i fell in love, and was loved in return (my only real wish thanks to moulin rouge), i collected tv and movie characters, made little lists of them, and they were always the ones i wanted to be like, ones i wanted to grow into. usually the snarky best friends, the deadpan wits, the ones who pined but never got the guy. (bby me didn’t think anything but ‘guy’ was an option.) i didn’t spend time claiming characters that were like me, that made me feel seen, until i was older. (i couldn’t, when i didn’t know who ‘me’ was.) so giselle felt like one of the first ones, with her autistic literalism and trust in humanity and her joy in everything. 

then flash forward fifteen years and they’re continuing the story. even more amazingly, they’ve brought back the whole central cast (minus the child actor, who i assumed they replaced because New Morgan sings and dances, but i didn’t look it up or anything). idina is much more famous now thanks to her frozen work and of course amy adams is amy freaking adams now, nominated but never oscared, but they both came back. the direct-to-streaming release worried me, but i saw a trailer and the movie looked way better than i kind of expected, so i was excited after all. and as mentioned above, i settled in to watch it with my family. 

^^^^and that is where this review left off, almost a year ago--because it was still so hard for me to wrap my brain and my heart around writing it. but at this point i’ve reviewed all the other movies i watched in 2022, AND i’ve watched almost 20 movies this year and reviewed most of them, and those reviews are just sitting in my drafts waiting for me to post them once i finish this. so here goes:

this movie was bad. obviously that’s a personal opinion or value judgement or whatever, but like...it was really, really bad. it bore no resemblance to the original and painfully reminded me how disney’s moviemaking these days is so soulless when it comes to trying to squeeze more money out of its existing IP. and i can handle fairy tale/princess modernizations that aren’t all that impressive (idina was in one of those as well, cinderella), but even those had parts that i liked or that were fun once i was grading on a curve for the whole movie. i can’t say the same for this one.

first of all, we’ve skipped time since the original, which makes sense, since everybody’s older. but nothing about the time progression makes sense, because offscreen fifteen years have passed, making amy adams 48 when this movie came out. giselle and robert have just had a newborn whose royal inheritance is what leads to the movie’s plot--at best, i guess we can assume amy was supposed to be playing giselle a lot younger than she, the actress, was. or maybe her andalasian genes make her immune to fertility averages? 

either way, though, that still doesn’t explain morgan. who in addition to becoming literally a different person (and i hope they only replaced her because the original actress opted out, because she was so great in the first movie i’d resent disney for dumping her just to make the new one sing and dance, or whatever other justifications they might have) is a teenager now. Original Morgan was nine years old in enchanted, or the actress was, anyway. if we assume they meant for Original Morgan to be only seven or eight as a character, that still doesn’t explain a now-high-schooler morgan in this movie. it has been literally twice as many years in real time as it would have to have been in this movie world for morgan to be this age! and unfortunately for the movie, it’s mainly about adults, who have aged the fifteen years you would expect. so that’s ridiculous.

but anyway. somehow, all the adults from enchanted look fifteen years older but morgan’s a teen, and her parents have had a shiny new baby. idina’s character moved with prince james marsden to his world, and literally everyone is depressed now except prince james marsden (and presumably the baby). giselle sees a billboard and decides that’s a plausible reason to uproot her whole family from the city she fell in love with and that the others were from even before meeting her...to move to the suburbs. 

at first, because of the impression i got from the trailer, i thought she would be moving to a perfect-seeming little enclave that was secretly evil, like a magical stepford or something, and that it would turn her evil and throw her family into peril. but the real plot is not that creative. it’s literally just the three of them moving to an ordinary suburb that (gasp!) doesn’t automatically fix their lives. instead, robert has a slog of a commute now, and in their own ways, giselle and morgan both struggle to fit in with their new local peers.

everything establishing this movie’s setup baffled me because it felt so random and flimsy, when the original was a beautiful sendup of classic disney tropes that managed to be subversive but still magical. i referred earlier to giselle deciding on a plausible reason, and i felt the same way about disney and this sequel: it felt like they decided this concept was a plausible reason to bring the cast back together, mix in a few new actors, and try to make money off the result (in this case by locking it inside their streaming service as though that would force new subscribers to disney+ instead of what i’m guessing actually happened, having less viewers for the movie than they would’ve gotten in theaters--cuz even i, the biggest fan of the original, wouldn’t have subscribed just to watch it).

but their ‘plausible’ setup is therefore that everybody’s feeling a bit meh in new york city. robert’s not excited about his job, morgan’s a sullen teenager, and giselle misses the days when everything felt magical and new and perfect. instead of recognizing that they have a freaking newborn, which i may not have experienced personally but have certainly heard is a difficult phase of life (especially the first time, for giselle), and that they simultaneously have a teenager, which anybody who’s ever been or met a teenager can tell you is a difficult phase of life for both the teen and their parents--heck, instead of just going to THERAPY when new york city is one of the few places it may still be easier to find access than everywhere else these days--they move to a random place where they know no one for truly no reason.

the movie wants us to believe that the reason is giselle seeing a billboard and believing its promise (or still being unusually literal?) but neither of those makes any sense because even if we had reason to believe that giselle hadn’t learned anything or grown in the last mysterious number of years and would truly treat a billboard like a promise rather than an advertisement (and i don’t think what we see of her in the sequel supports that idea) it’s still robert she’s married to now, and we know he’s always been someone who lovingly but firmly points that stuff out. 

morgan’s unhappy because she’s a teenager, she doesn’t actually want to move, and as much as robert loves giselle, i don’t believe at all that he would just let her have her fantasy of a fresh start without injecting reality into the situation--so i think the real explanation is that both robert and giselle, for their own reasons, are desperate enough to try it despite knowing it won’t be a magic fix. but then idina menzel and prince james marsden (i should remember their character names but i really don’t at the moment) pop into their new, still-unhappy-just-in-a-different-time-zone, lives and make everything even worse. way to go guys!

continuing the flimsy plot setups, they’re visiting to give a gift to the new baby, to basically proclaim how special she is and make morgan feel like she’s neither special nor giselle’s ‘real’ daughter. giselle is thrilled by the gift from her childhood home and her former prince remains as hilarious as ever (the acting in this movie is good, they’re just not given as much to work with; ‘campy humor’ was the only element they could successfully recreate for some reason). but nancy is clearly already Over It, the former new yorker not exactly as enchanted with prince james marsden as she used to be now that she has to live with his personality 24/7. 

you might expect this to be woven in with the central family’s ennui in some way, but you would be disappointed--that general intermittent eyerolly energy is never directly addressed and as far as we know by the end of the movie, she’s still with him. and i guess will remain so forever? because that’s the rule when you choose a fairy tale life?? even though giselle’s story was entirely about leaving fairy tales behind when they weren’t what she wanted???

maybe we’re supposed to read nancy’s reactions as like, lovable occasional annoyance at How Very Much her guy can be sometimes. but it didn’t come across that way to me; it seemed intentionally to mirror the dissatisfaction giselle and robert were struggling with. i could have been giving them too much credit there, i guess, in assuming deliberate parallels. 

but the real point is that the adults were unhappy in the city, and now, in the suburbs, they’re still not very happy. after the gift-givers go back to andalasia, giselle makes a wish using her baby’s magic present, wanting to make their family into a fairy tale...and she gets her wish. morgan goes from a strugglng teen to a cheerful girl again, running around singing and eventually having to be the savior of her family. robert goes from a commuting lawyer to a wannabe monster slayer, and giselle slowly transforms into an evil stepmother--while the women in town who’ve been snubbing her turn into an actual villain with henchwomen in tow.

from then on, it only gets more ridiculous. amy adams is an immensely talented actor, and like i said, i’ve loved her since she was on tv. but she is not doing her best work here, switching between normal giselle and evil stepmother giselle in response to a chiming clock in a way that reminded me of one of those over-the-top acts where a guy hypnotizes people and then can trigger them to be a chicken or something. it was just so over the top, and lacked any of the emotional depth the original movie brought to her character that made me care.

and poor robert, it was clear, they did not know what to do with. a convoluted exchange with prince james marsden before the wish created circumstances where he was carrying a sword around on his commute. that, i’m sure, was supposed to help make it seem like it made sense for him to become a giant fighter or whatever. but really, they had a sequel to make in which he had to be there because he was her happily ever after in the first one, except now robert isn’t a love interest anymore, there’s no drama between them--and the actor was never meant to be a major contributor to the musical part of these movies, so what’s the point of his story? to run around looking for monsters, totally separate, and mostly unnecessary, it turns out.

the fairy tale transformations mean that we go from watching giselle being sad and hurt in response to morgan’s attitude to morgan’s being mistreated by her now-evil stepmother--neither of which is fun. in giselle’s intermittent ‘good’ moments, she tries to encourage morgan to be free of her and get help, and eventually morgan does end up in andalasia with nancy (she’s also a cartoon at that point, i think). nancy helps her understand what might fix things, and the fact that it’s up to their teenage daughter (whose complaints the whole time have honestly seemed the most reasonable to me compared to her parents’ vague ennui) to save not just her own family but both worlds from doom...it doesn’t seem at all fair. but okay. 

the solution for making giselle good again involves morgan’s memories and singing and the idea that with the power of love it’ll all be fine, but what i remember most about it is that the scene is really just a vehicle for idina menzel to get her own song. which, duh--i was very disappointed that she didn’t sing in the original, and given the success of frozen, it would’ve been crazy for them not to showcase her more this time. 

but the song she’s given? it’s so bad. so very bad. the others i was watching this movie with spent a significant portion of the song time mocking it, and i couldn’t blame them. at a certain point, it just devolves into idina belting the words ‘love power’ over and over and over. you know how some words or phrases become completely meaningless if you say them too much? this definitely felt like that, like the big drama’s ‘solution’ was flimsy to begin with, and then they forced a song into it that wasn’t even a good song, and got idina to sing it. she’s so much better than that! it genuinely made me wonder if she has some kind of disney contract that left her stuck dealing with this.

somehow thanks to morgan, though, giselle does stop being evil by the end--i don’t remember exactly how that scene plays out so i doubt it matters too much--and ending the sort of wish curse she inflicted on everybody means they go back to living in a normal suburb. the woman who briefly became her villain nemesis apologizes in a ‘sometimes i’m a lot oops’ way, and giselle is just like ‘hey, me too, no big deal.’ 

and this brings me to my two biggest problems with the movie, outside of how much it felt like it was trying to destroy any love i still held for the original. 

this movie has no real villain. unlike the first one, where susan sarandon was camping it up in a delightfully appropriate way, and was defeated in the end...this movie falls into the same hole that so many New Disney Movies are determined to, for unknown reasons. we can’t have classic straight-up evil anymore; our heroes have to instead be facing antagonists that are less specific or even less corporeal. it’s family! who of course will no longer be in conflict by the end, and don’t actually need to be ‘defeated.’ or it’s emotions! and once they can be accepted rather than avoided then things will be okay again. 

i’m not saying that’s a bad thing, in general. i love encanto, and i thought turning red and inside out were great. but when you’re dealing with a now-franchise whose original style was to reference and gently mock and lovingly rework classic disney tropes...why would you toss that out completely and make a sequel that feels like the other movies disney makes now? why can’t people appreciate that beloved movies are beloved for a reason and you can’t just slap the ‘brand name’ on whatever you want and act like it’s just as good?

but yeah. this movie decided to have no villain by way of having two villains, both of whom were only temporarily villainous due to indirect magic and who became normal again once it stopped. they bear no real responsibility for being villains, because after all, they aren’t really. post-movie, it seems like they may even become friends! all’s well that ends well. 

which really annoyed me, lol, because it felt so incredibly pointless once i knew that was how it ended. our main character accidentally makes herself evil, makes somebody else evil, has to be saved from being evil while fighting the other evil, and the grand conclusion is that they just finish back where they started? how is that a story that moves forward, let alone a good story with some kind of point or even just a good-versus-evil win, fairy tale style? 

it’s like the main conflict of the movie is created by them having problems, but then the problems they were having...are solved because they’re no longer in conflict. which brings me to my second issue with the movie’s ending: apparently the ultimate lesson of this follow up to enchanted is that growing up means learning to settle, rather than believing in happily ever afters.

despite the cheerful singing at the end of the movie that tries to make us believe it’s just as great an ending as enchanted got, i was so underwhelmed and disappointed and tbh freaked out, that they reached that conclusion. the story we were given was giselle and robert and morgan are a family now just like they wanted but they’re all unhappy, so they move out of the city to seek happiness elsewhere. and it fixes nothing which instead spirals giselle into cursing the town but in the end everybody’s okay and there are no consequences and nobody’s mad at giselle cuz she didn’t mean to do it...so she and robert and morgan commit to trying even harder to be happy in their new suburban life.

and all i can wonder is, why is that the lesson? why is that the right place to end up? why couldn’t they go back to the city and figure out their problems there, since clearly suburbia wasn’t a fix on its own? there didn’t seem to be a real reason for requiring giselle, who loved the sparkly harsh city she landed in years ago, to become a suburban mom--or for uprooting morgan, or making robert become a ‘small town practice’ kind of guy. 

i guess what grates on me about it is that it has such a hallmark christmas movie vibe of just assuming their real happy ending would naturally be escaping the city, no matter how central it was to their original story and lives. whatever their deeper issues were that made them unhappy in the city, they haven’t addressed those by the end of the movie; they’ve just somewhat improved the issues that moving TO this new place piled on. 

therefore my logical brain goes, you were unhappy and tried to fix it by moving but that only made things worse. why wouldn’t you reverse the making-it-worse part by going back, and then continue trying to figure out how to fix it? i just don’t get it. and i may be kind of offended by it, because the giselle who i have always adored is a completely different person in this movie, and not because of some wish curse.

she’s older, and sad, and it’s like nothing about her life is fun anymore...and maybe there could’ve been a way to craft an interesting story out of that, though i don’t know what it would be off the top of my head. but we don’t get whatever that could’ve been. and we don’t get a sequel about our faves from enchanted having more hijinks and having a to fight a new tropey villain, in the style of the first one. what we get is a story about everybody from the first one not liking their lives and having to fight the fallout from that and then concluding that hey, at least the world didn’t end so they must be better off than they thought, time to make the best of it. it deeply depressed me.

and look--i’m not saying i demand happy endings always. i don’t even require happy endings mostly! but unless there is some requirement i’m not aware of that post-pandemic we are no longer allowed happy endings at all, this was not the movie world to bring back just to say ‘the best you can hope for is meh. good luck.’ giselle and everybody else deserved better.

i will say that there was one thing about this movie that i liked. exactly one thing, sadly, or at least only one i clearly remember. i was really excited about the casting before this came out, because i love jayma mays, and maya rudolph is reliably good always. once i actually saw the movie, i was bummed that jayma mays and the other henchwoman didn’t have roles worth including, but maya rudolph was as good as i expected. 

and since this movie was such a mess, she also just really stood out. she’s a ‘can do it all’ kind of performer, in a way that makes it look easy, and i feel like that’s the difference between amy adam’s background in a lot of dramatic roles and maya rudolph’s background in snl. they’re both super talented and both have range, but are a good fit for different things because of that. 

so there is one song in this movie and one performance (cuz it’s the performance of it that makes it good) that i genuinely enjoyed. it’s basically a face off between the two not-actually-villains, kind of like ‘anything you can do i can do better’ but sillier and maximum camp. it’s the only part where it felt like that was what the movie was deliberately aiming for, and both actresses are fully going for it while sometimes we’re watching them parallel on splitscreen...it was ridiculous but in an entertaining rather than cringe-inducing way. 

so that part is great, but also highlights even more what this movie could have been. if only they had let maya rudolph be a proper villain, the leader of a trio of new antagonists for our faves to face, that would’ve been potentially a great movie. she could have gone evil after getting her hands on the baby’s wand, then gone down fighting after the family consulted with their andalasian friends on how to deal with magically corrupted humans. the ending could have been more interesting with bigger stakes than ‘everyone survives and decides to play nice.’ 

heck, i could write that version of that movie! lol. but i won’t. because it would probably necessitate rewatching disenchanted and that is something i never ever want to do. that was a piece of my heart you fucked with, you jerks. and i’m gonna stay mad.

[bigstupid69]

I love your headcanons what kinda horror movies would the choir like - 🐀

Oh boy this is gonna be a lot I bet so I'll put my thoughts under the cut;

I'll give them both horror movie picks relevant to the time period (before and during 2009/8) and ones after

These are all movies I have seen before so I'm sorry about the repeats, and you may not agree.

Ocean

I'm so torn between having Ocean be absolutely terrified of horror movies or being like a horror snob. Y'know the type to criticize unnecessary amounts of violence and gore, and only actually enjoy films if there's some deeper meaning out of it. She seems like those type of insufferable people. Like the female equivalent of the men obsessed with American psycho. She definitely hates most campy horrors and slashers as well as things similar to the saw franchise. I think she'd definitely enjoy some of those genres by picking it apart with a feminist lens though. So I feel like she'd definitely be more of a fan of psychological horror, but definitely stuff that isn't absolutely terrifying to watch like Hereditary.

My picks are; Rosemary's Baby (1968), The Silence of the Lambs (1991), The Stepford Wives (1975)

More modern picks; Last Night in Soho (2021), Midsommar (2019), I'm Thinking of Ending Things (2020)

Noel

People who think he wouldn't like horror movies are completely wrong. Considering his ideals in his monologue, he would probably enjoy films with lots of gore. I think he'd definitely be into the saw franchise with Mischa. He'd also probably enjoy a lot of suggestive and or queer coded films as well. Also probably has a guilty pleasure for cheesy romance driven films, but he would not let anyone know that.

My picks are; Repo the genetic opera (2008), Rocky horror picture show (1975), society (1989), Re-animator (1985), the lost boys (1987), I think he'd also maybe be into the buffy the vampire series (1997-2003)

More modern picks: X (2022), terrifier 1 and , 2 (2016-2022), warm bodies (2013), only putting this here since it ran for a longer time but the vampire diaries (2008-2016)

Mischa

Mischa's "canonically" favorite film is Saw 5, so obviously he'd be into the saw franchise and films like that. I think he'd really just also be into slashers, definitely the kid who dressed up as ghost face for Halloween with the mask that could squirt out blood. I think he'd also like horror comedies quite a bit as well.

My picks are: The saw franchise (canon?), scream (1996), sleepaway camp (1983), Friday the 13th (1980), the evil dead, and evil dead 2 (1981/1987)

More modern picks: The cabin in the woods (2011), the purge (2013), the scary movie series (both modern and time accurate 2000-2013)

Ricky

A mix between cheesy/funny classics and pretty much anything sci-fi. Not sure if he's into that much gore in the films but definitely isn't as picky as Ocean so it's not a complete turn off. Regardless his favorites are pretty much anything sci-fi but he makes exceptions.

My picks are: Rocky horror picture show (1975), little shop of horrors (1986), Alien (1979), lifeforce (1985), mars attacks (1996)

More modern picks: Annihilation (2018), Nope (2022), color out of space (2020)

Constance

I also think she'd really be into horror, she'd definitely be more into campy films and also have a soft spot for classic horror movies from her childhood. She's definitely not innocent and does probably enjoy some more fucked up ones on occasion however.

My picks are: scream (1996), Jennifer's body (2009), Coraline (2009), Shaun of the dead (2004)

More modern picks: Wendell & wild (2022), Anna and the apocalypse (2017), the babysitter (2017), happy death day (2017)

Penny

I feel like she would watch a lot of varying horror movies. she'd enjoy ones she could connect to in a way, but also just enjoy less meaningful ones to her and are just full of camp. Along with Constance she also enjoys a lot of horror movies from her childhood especially because of being slightly detached to it because of everything she's gone through at such a young age. (headcanon but also kinda true)

My picks are: Carrie (1976), Coraline (2009), The shining (1980), all the previously mentioned classic slashers, not a horror film but this is only for my gf; heathers (1988), hocus pocus (1993), child's play series (1988-2019)

More modern picks: Pearl (2022), bodies bodies bodies (2022), Possum (2018), the fear street trilogy

[flaringgoosebumps]

I may just be reiterating what was said in this post (please read that one first) but anyway,

"Why do people want two teenage boys together so bad?"

This question only seems to come up about queer pairings, people don't seem to go out of their way to shame shippers of mlw pairings, especially in times where they should. For example, since literally forever and even in stranger things, there are sex scenes or implied sex scenes with teenager characters. The concern only arises with the mere idea that there would be a queer couple merely kissing or hell, even holding hands.

While I relate to everything @hey-its-bucky said, I have more reasons why I want Byler to be canon. Not just because queer people past, present and future, deserve to be represented and humanized and for their experiences to be validated but also!!

Queer representation in movies and tv are genuinely so boring! While I appreciate that we are getting representation, it is crumbs in comparison to what we could have. I'm tired of the whole shtick of a story centering about a young queer person trying to figure out who they are, in normal settings lol I don't find that appealing, it's not my ideal form of entertainment. I want Byler to be canon for selfish reasons.

I want a canon queer couple with proper build up in my niche interests! I want them to exist in horror and sci-fi and be treated just as important as cishet couples.

I deeply enjoyed fear street because while it did center around a few queer characters, it didn't center about them finding out they were queer. It centered around some fucked up supernatural shit trying to kill them and a girl desperately trying to save someone she loved. And we got a good ending! I want more of that!

I've seen very few queer pairings or characters in shows I've watched and a majority of them didn't get good endings

In Buffy the vampire slayer, Willow found out she was gay in the middle of the series and fell in love with a girl named Tara who also became a main character and they killed her off. Then they gave Willow a girlfriend that kind of felt rushed but that could be me being biased because they killed my girl!

Aubrey Jensen in MTV scream, was in love with her gf who was murdered in 2nd episode, then it's revealed she did some questionable things because she had a crush on her childhood friend (who didn't return her feelings) and they gave her a gf by the end of her story arc but it wasn't someone we saw build up with like??

There are shows I haven't even seen and I know their queer pairings are severed the same way.

Stranger things has the appeal of a lifetime! It's not a show that marketed itself as queer, but they planned for Will to be gay from the jump. They are building something and if they're building what we think they're building. It will be a game changer.

This is one of the most popular shows that is out, it is virtually inescapable even if you've never shown any interest in it or anything like it. If they make Byler canon, it would be a coming of age queer love story epic sci-fi saga. As far as I know, that hasn't been done before on film.

If they follow Leigh Janiak's lead with queer story telling, it would hopefully be the first of many stories that humanize queer people, and more than that, make us the hero, give us a happy ending, final girl(person lol) endings, romantic storylines on par with cishet people in the sense that it was planned out and executed in a specific way instead of just throwing someone in there and hoping that's enough crumbs for clout.

Representation matters for a multitude of reasons but Byler specifically, isn't just about representation to me. It's about good story telling and if they intended on making Will gay since they began writing and let that be the center of his character arc for an entire season and don't plan on letting him have the happiest ending possible with the guy he's in love with, what the hell was the point of bringing attention to it at all? Narratively. What the hell would be the point of that? Also what would be the point of building milkbones just to break it down so easily? Why would they go out of their way to do this to the characters they spent years on crafting just for no pay off?

The strangest thing would be if Byler wasn't their plan in the first place lol

[empressawesomecoolness]

Doctor Who: The Ultimate Speedrun Marathon - Series 3 (2007)

The semester’s keeping me busy but trust me I’m still trying to keep this speedrun going and get caught up on everything before May, so I’m glad to say I finally finished Series 3 yaaaaayyy! It was a lot of fun, especially in how it carried over from Series 2 into 10’s adventures with a new companion after Rose. Aight let’s get into it…

General Thoughts

Right off the bat, I loved Martha as a companion. Similar to Sylvester McCoy, I was familiar with Freema Agyeman from her stellar work on Sense8, so I was already a fan of her’s as soon as she popped up on screen. She’s got her own brand of intelligence and spunk that bounces off of 10 really well. Don’t get me wrong, I love that Rose was carried over from Eccleston’s tenure into Tennant’s, but I believe that Martha meeting 10 as he is for the first time in this series was beneficial to them building a better chemistry. Also, it’s great and refreshing to see the Doctor get his first black female companion in the show’s history. Overall, probably one of my fav companions so far, if not my favorite.

Not much to add in regards to David Tennant’s performance as the 10th Doctor, but I’ll heap praise anyways. He’s just as charismatic as he was last season, never phoning it in for even a second. All of 10’s big emotional and personality quirks can really be chalked up to Tennant’s clear love of the material, which was also apparent in the previous two Doctor actors I’ve covered thus far.

Besides the Doctor and Martha, Series 3 also had a really big moment that I was pleasantly surprised to see be built up so well: the return of The Master. Last time I saw that character in this speedrun watch-through, he was ‘90s Eric Roberts doing his best impression of an effeminate man. I was wondering how he’d inevitably return after his fate in the TV movie, so I genuinely felt the rug pulled out from under me when he was revealed to have been hiding right under my nose as Professor Yana in Utopia. Derek Jacobi played both the unassuming professor and the menacing Master really well, so props to him. As for his almost immediate successor, John Simm as the 7th Master, I must admit…. not really my thing. I will admit he had some great moments that made me truly hate him (which in turn made me like him more cuz well y’know he’s the villain duhh), but the over the top flamboyance just gave me major BBC Sherlock Moriarty vibes. idk, again I still haven’t seen the classic series in its entirety yet, so maybe that’s just how the Master is, but I’m inclined to believe Stephen Moffat is the common denominator in this specific characterization. Despite my criticisms tho, Simm’s chemistry with Tennant was really fun. Much more dynamic than the complete diva Paul McGann had to act off of.

Favorite Episodes

• Blink

• The Shakespeare Code

• The Lazarus Experiment

• Human Nature

• The Family of Blood

• Daleks in Manhattan

• Evolution of the Daleks

• Utopia

Favorite Moments

• The entirety of Blink was a really clever well done treat for me. It felt a lot like an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and it just played with Doctor Who’s version of time travel so well and to such great effect. The Weeping Angels are now some of the Doctor’s most iconic foes, which is well deserved because they are super memorable and scary as fuck. Also it was funny to see baby Carey Mulligan here lol

• The moment Professor Yana reveals himself to be The Master was so crazy cool. Like just a few seconds earlier when he started acting weird and jaded I was thinking “holy shit is he the Master he’s gotta be the Master” and I was right 😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎

• I appreciate that Martha mentions how William Shakespeare doesn’t look exactly like he does in the famous portraits we have of him. It’s still kind of a topic of speculation as to what exactly he looked like in his youth, so I liked that she’d pick up on that.

• “Come on. We can all have a good flirt later!” “Is that a promise, Doctor?” “Oh, 57 academics just punched the air.” I love this show

• They should induct Blink into the National Film Registry for preservation just for the introduction of the phrase “wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff” alone

• Captain Jack Harkness (great to see him back btw) is THE FACE OF BOE????????????????? not sure how to feel about that. points for creativity tho

• tryna just chill and watch The Lazarus Experiment then BOOM!!!!! MARK GATIS JUMPSCARE AHHHHHHHHH

• The sound of a militaristic drumbeat constantly playing in the Master’s head is a great motif. One of the things I did like about Simm’s portrayal was how well he got across the maddening effect of the drumbeat’s sound in his head.

• The series finale was soooo crazy. I loved how the consequences of the Master’s plan were shown to have been so hard to crack that it took a whole year for them to even get close to him. It really built up the Master as a new kind of villain for this revamped version of the show. Also, fucking good on Martha for busting her ass to travel the globe and gather the support of millions. She’s such a badass

• “Good old J.K.!” *thousand yard stare*

Alright, that about wraps it up for Series 3! I had a great time with this series, even if it took me a bit to get through. Time to crack on, though. Gotta keep this speedrun train going. Onto Series 4, which (for the most part) marks David Tennant’s final tenure as the 10th Doctor.

[filmmakerdreamst]

Ahhhh! I can't believe someone actually read any of my HSMTMTS posts let along liked some of them! Thank you so much, I felt so validated lol. I totally want friends in this fandom so yeah let's talk about it! It's a good time too, time to catch up int he hiatus :-D

eeep! Ok I'll tell you my HSMTMTS story!

I hated the High School Musical movies when I was little. Everyone was nuts about them and I just didn't get it. (Mind you, I had only seen bits of it at the time) Being an Artsy kid, there was no escaping them. I had to learn the songs in the School Choir, For Plays and in my singing lessons. It was hell. Could be that I wasn't a big fan of Disney. I grew up with gritty British kids TV like Tracy Beaker - so everything I watched on Disney was extremely sugary in comparison.

I did however watch the movies fully when I was alot older, and they weren't as bad as I initially thought, but they still didn't really do it for me personally. Maybe because I'm not the biggest fan of musicals I don’t know.

I was aware of HSMTMTS when it first came out. I had already been told that they were possibly going to do another High School Musical - which turned into a tv show instead. I did initially cringe at the idea but what intrigued me to it was Sofia Wylie (I was a big fan of Buffy in 'Andi Mack') But the clips I saw didn't particularly. 

I saw the Season One Finale moment where Ricky confesses his love to Nini and..they just seemed to be like every average Disney Couple to me. (especially since they were a carbon copy of Troy and Gabriella) Under developed, Cliche, Main Guy + Girl ending up together, Singing while gazing into each others eyes etc.  

I found the scene to be awkwardly co-ordinated as well. The way Nini immediately flipped round, to walking towards him smiling didn't strike me as very natural. 

Generally speaking the main couple of a show shouldn't put a viewer off from watching it if they don't like them, but it does to me a lot of the time. Possibly one of the reasons why I never got into High School Musical when I was little - so the clips I saw of the show didn't really interest me. Josh and Sofia's acting (especially Josh) was the only thing that stood out.

Its only until Season 2 came out that I saw the videos of Ricky and Gina -- I went.."oh hello. "

At first, I was like, this the typical  'plot device' loosing side of the love triangle ship where the girl unrequitedly pines after the guy that chose his inevitable endgame over her - so might as well forget it.  

The only thing that indicated to me in the few music videos and scenes (out of context mind) that I saw that Ricky might have feelings for her too was his eyes. 

Must give props to Josh in the eye acting department, because I feel like he expressed Rickys POV very well. 

I did see their chemistry and all that, but never thought they were ever going to go there because Disney Shows never do with those types of pairings e.g. where its less obvious and cliche. 

The Main Guy does not end up with a girl who was originally supposed to be a side character on a Disney Show. (And lets face it, someone who isn't white passing) That rarely happens. Typically, on those types of shows, especially today, the main characters end up with their 'endgame' from day one and thats it.

I also saw videos of her and EJ and I was like 'no'. Even before watching the show, I didn't find them to have that much chemistry - they just seemed pretty bland to me. 

I heard somewhere by the end of Season 2, they were  supposedly doing a 'Next Generation' in Season 3, and the original cast weren't coming back and I was like 'noo that means Ricky and gina won't happen' I don't know why i thought that.

Then I heard on twitter that the writers were going to explore Ricky and Gina in Season 3, and i was like 'SHUT UP! NO WAY' and my interest in the show peaked from mildly interested to INVESTED SO FAST. 

The show quickly went from (to me) a cheesy reboot to the Deepest Show on Disney.

I then watched the show in context, and honestly it proved me wrong (the show itself was better than I expected) Ricky did have feelings for Gina, but he was scared of them because she was new and also he felt guilty because he was actively pursuing his old gf before he made a connection with her. So as soon as she left, it's felt like to me that he saw it as an easy out and went back to the safety of his old relationship. But when Ricky and Nini got back together, it wasn't about being 'in love' anymore, it was about having a constant or dare I say, "familiar" relationship that he could cling on to because his family was splitting apart and he felt alone. 

And you can see in the Valentines Day episode, that he's clearly freaking out when she comes to his house and if Nini hadn't called, I'm pretty sure he would of got lost in the moment and cheated. Because sure, he loved Nini but what he really wanted was Gina. His attitude towards her in that Season doesn't make sense if you assume he doesn't like her that way. All these comments saying 'Oh Ricky misunderstood Gina's confession' are BS. If he misunderstood her, their relationship wouldn't have been as awkward as it was in that part of the season. 

Gina was the one who cut him out of her life, not him, because she recognised that he was going down hill. Ricky respected that decision and gave her space until she said it was ok for him to start talking to her again. 

Basically, I find them to have the deepest, most realistic bond on that show. It's not a "straight up romance".  It's not flowery or Disney-esque.  It doesn't have a typical A- Z plotline e.g. 'enemies to lovers' or whatever. It's beautifully complicated and 100% genuine. Plus Josh and Sofia's chemistry is Electric man!

Tell me about your story! Love to chat about it!

[just-here-for-iolaus]

Hercules and the Lost Kingdom

The great HTLJ/XWP/YH (re)watch continues!

I watched this movie for the first time the other day, and I think I liked it better than 'Hercules and the Amazon Women'?

Firstly: Renee O'Connor is in this one!

How much does Deianira act like Gabrielle in the pre-sea-serpent parts of the movie??

Another familiar face: Nathaniel Lees! ♥ (He plays Cheiron in YH, and I got excited when I saw him, lol. He plays the Blue Cult priest in this movie.)

Obviously I was disappointed that Iolaus didn't make an appearance, but I guess he's not the focus.

The movie opened with some people searching for Hercules to get help, just like the first movie did. But Hera kills two of them, and honestly the second guy just seemed very okay with it, idgi. Just calmly accepted that he was the one the rock was going to bash in the head. (Let's ignore the faulty physics of the scene. It's god stuff.)

Hercules trying to eat in peace... I actually felt bad for him when the giant showed up haha. Actually, to be honest, I was surprised at how happy I was to see him (Hercules, I mean). I think he's winning me over despite my Kevin-Sorbo-aversion.

Hercules hates god worship.

This is something we saw in the Amazon Women movie that is a pretty big focus again at the beginning of this one.

He turns down the villagers' offer to build a shrine to him (since he killed the giant). When he says he "wouldn't know what to do with one" this gets a laugh from Zeus, but I assumed he meant it literally.

Zeus suggesting that Hercules make a sacrifice to Hera is just so fucking tone deaf. Even if Hercules did try to honour Hera, I don't think that would help, and Hera just literally killed a man in Hercules's arms so WTF my dude. (Apparently one of 100 men she killed who were all sent to find him.)

Herc then interrupts a sacrifice to the gods and tells the people to irrigate instead. I like his pragmatic approach. At least this time he was giving them concrete, workable advice, and not straight up suggesting they piss off the gods directly.

When this character showed up I had a huge reaction!! Something set off whatever the positive version of alarm bells is. IDK if this character (Waylin) shows up in the show or something or the actor plays another character, but something deep in my memory was like 😍 for some reason. (And he was cute in this movie! ♥ But I've definitely not seen it!)

Just as an aside: How was Deianira able to just walk up to the palace and knock on the front door?? Multiple times?

As much as it was cute that Deianira really did have a father who was a handsome king that loved her so much he sent her away to be safe...... I hated that the reveal happened when only Deianira was with the king, and that he died right after. Like, everyone in Troy just has to take her word for it that she's his daughter (well I guess the one dude heard the King say her name). She comes out of the tent totally redressed and gives a speech and... everyone just accepts her as their leader immediately. Idk man, I don't buy it. But, I'm not one to follow monarchs, haha.

I hate Deianira flirting with Hercules and I'm really glad it wasn't mutual.

Again idk if this is him swearing off all women after Hippolyta was killed because of him, or if he thinks she's too young, or if he just really isn't that interested in women at all... Either way, I'm good with it in this movie.

The rock thing.

He tells the people from Troy that in order to be warriors and kill people, they need to be like a rock. "A rock has no mind or heart or hope or fear." BE HARD.

I gotta say this doesn't really feel like the Young Hercules characterization of Herc (which I know more), and I am not sure I agree with the philosophy. (I am reminded of Buffy saying that her emotions give her strength in S2 of BtVS.)

And I get that in the end, the rocks help them defeat their enemy, and that's fine as far as how cheesy a twist it was and all. I just don't agree with the philosophy and I don't want Herc to think this way. I want him to be able to have emotions and be happy and enjoy life and stuff and it makes me kinda sad to think he thinks he needs to abandon having a mind/heart/hope... Like, he's a demigod already, he will be strong enough to help people even without closing his heart off... Maybe this is a coping mechanism for him, idk. I look forward to seeing how this keeps up through the series (or not).

Short thoughts:

Once again I enjoyed Herc giving Zeus shit. (Re: helping them take Troy back from the Blue Cult.)

I wasn't a fan of the subplot with the guy from Troy that saw Herc as a love rival for Deianira.

"Cow-herd's way" was... dorky. It amused me.

Herc shouldn't have needed to pick up a piece of rubble to hit the priest with, if he was able to punch a giant to death. Maybe it was to spare his hand?

Herc not wanting a slave is totally in character, played into the previous themes re: god worship etc.

Deianira wtf?

Deianira is so ready to die for her people, to "fulfill her destiny". Okay, cool she wants to protect the people of Troy, but why is she so convinced that she needs to be sacrificed to the gods after she learns that she was saved from that as a child by her father? (I guess trying to avoid prophecies that are actually inevitable is a Greek thing tho.)

I don't love that Deianira became a helpless damsel, lost and confused, and wearing a billowing white dress while being threatened by a monster man... for Hercules to save. At least it's not to bone her?

WHAT IS THIS?

Herc gets yeeted out of there. It was really silly. I guess he's taking Deianira's place as Hera's sacrifice kinda (but not really)...

It should have ended here, tbh. We shouldn't have seen him again. We get a nice little wrap up that Troy will be okay. Perfect!

But then we get this:

And while it's, like, nice to know he didn't die, I guess... IDK him just getting yeeted back to wherever Troy is cut off from, and having someone need his help... feels like a much weaker ending to the movie. Maybe this was so the movies could be watched out of order and they wouldn't have to explain how he survived Hera in a different one. That's logical, I just don't like it.

So... final thoughts... I don't see this being one I watch over and over again either, but... I think I had a better time watching this one than the Amazon Women one. The plot didn't feel as cheesy/heavy handed. I felt a lot more connected to Hercules already, and the other familiar faces were nice, too.

I wanna see that one guy again! Waylin! Is he a recurring character or just the actor? Where am I pinging him from?? He was a delight.

[nancydrewwouldnever]

I already have a Detective fetish, so this is just undoing me. / You saw him in Narcos? Because this is giving me huge Javier Peña vibes, but Peña was more 70s

It's still on my watch list! My exposure to Pedro so far is Mandalorian, The Last of Us, GoT, Equalizer 2, Kingsman 2, WW1984, Great Wall, that Buffy episode from ages ago, and his Mentalist episodes.

Has anyone seen that crazy Nic Cage movie he was in? I want to see that one.

[kitkatt0430-recommends]

The next wave of my favorite of my FFnet bookmarks as I dig through old links. Some have been migrated to Ao3, so I'll provide those links where I can. Though it seems this batch is mostly FFnet links. As always, the story summaries are in my words instead of the author's to convey my own feelings about the fics.

The Weekly Hyrule News by BatNeko - A modern day Legend of Zelda AU. Zelda feels like she can only be herself when she's Sheik, Link's having a bisexual crisis, and Dark Link is too busy enjoying his new day job to care about what Ganondorf wants.

I love the genderqueer take with Zelda and Link getting hit over the head with the fact that he's bi because he's attracted to Zelda whether she's Zelda or Sheik, every moment with Dark, and just… it's a really fun fic that I've read several times and will continue to love forever. The ship is Zelda/Link and the rating is T. Sadly I could not find it on Ao3, so the link points to FFnet.

New Blood in A New Hope by Michael Weyer - First of a four part series. After a spell goes wrong, Buffy, Willow, and Xander find themselves scattered across a galaxy far, far away. And the Empire looms large over them all…

I don't think this series was finished the last time I read it so I'm excited to see the final fic Return of the New Blood is complete. The series does a great job of combining the Buffy characters with the Star Wars universe and it's a lot of fun to have them hanging out with Luke, Leia, Han, and Chewie. It's rated T and is found only on FFNet (that I could find, anyway). The ships wind up being Buffy/Luke, Leia/Han, Willow/Kasan Moor, and Xander/Mara Jade, though the first fic of the series is gen.

The Scruff Factor by JastaElf - In which Aragorn's scruffiness becomes an excuse for some highly entertaining elven hijinks of the ridiculous kind.

It's a silly K+ rated fic over on FFnet that is mostly the movie-verse except where it's heavily influenced by the books. An extremely silly fic for having a fun time reading.

Slayers of the Old Republic by Michael Weyer - When Buffy fails to escape the collapsing Hellmouth, she lands in a starship in a galaxy far, far away… just in time to witness Revan's defeat.

Another series by Michael Weyer, though this series is unfinished as it only makes it to the events on the Leviathan (two planets and the Star Forge left to go to complete the KotOR plotline). I still recommend it because it's a really interesting concept that I remember enjoying a lot. It follows the plot of the Knights of the Old Republic pretty closely, but still has a distinctly Buffy stamp on things and it turns out Buffy's not the only one who found her way to other worlds. Rated T and found over on FFnet.

Cry for Hyrule by Seldavia - There are more secrets beneath the seas than the former King of Hyrule wants Link to learn. But Ganondorf intends for Link to learn them anyway.

I particularly like this Wind Waker re-imagining because of how it plays with the idea of good and evil and the importance of knowing one's history. Ganondorf is still the King of Evil from the Ocarina of Time the same way he was in the Wind Waker game, but his character is given a lot more depth here.

The Darkest Gate by Lauhau - When an ancient magical gate opens, it transports Sarah far away to the world between the Underground and the Upper Lands. There an ancient evil seeks to invade both and the only two who stand between their worlds and destruction are Sarah and the strange Goblin King, Jareth.

I actually read this before I saw Labyrinth for the first time - honestly, you don't need to have seen the movie to enjoy it. But knowing the movie makes me smile now on re-read to see the way parts of it have been woven into the plot and background. It's not on Ao3, so the link is to FFnet. The rating is T and the ship is Jareth/Sarah.

Welcome to Stalag 13 by L J Groundwater - Colonel Robert Hogan arrives at Stalag 13 and immediately starts thinking of escape; but when he gets his chance, it seems fate has other plans for him as he's faced with the choice of going home or risking it all to go back and bring the final radio part needed at camp with him.

This is probably one of my favorite takes on how the setup from Hogan's Heroes came about. L J Groundwater wrote a lot of Hogan's Heroes fanfics and, honestly? I recommend every single one. If you're a fan of the show, then Groundwater's fics definitely feel like a series of love letters to what made the show so great. This one is rated T and found on FFnet.

One (Last) Chance by Kirsh - When Time Compression returns Squall to the day of his SeeD exam, he has to admit the reason why. He wants to save Seifer.

I've got a real fondness for FF8 time travel fics - after all the game's premise lends itself to the concept so well. This fic is a good take on it, with Squall trying to keep the timeline on the right path to defeat Ultimecia while trying at the same time to keep Seifer safe and feeling guilty that while he can change things to protect Seifer he's having to make choices that he knows will put others in harms way. I do wish it deviated a bit more from canon, but Squall's struggle with keeping to the timeline is pretty interesting too. It's a Seifer/Squall story on FFnet, rated M.

The Summoner's Knight by Ms_Starlight - Quistis is a Summoner without a Guardian and Seifer intends to change that, whether Quistis likes it or not.

A Seifer/Quistis (FF8 characters) fic set in the FFX universe, with the events of FFX taking place in the background. I do enjoy a good belligerent UST couple; Seifer and Quistis are definitely that in spades. The FFX fusion is well done - you can tell that Ms_Starlight really enjoyed both games a lot. Ms_Starlight's fics look to have all been cross posted to Ao3, which was nice to find. This one is rated T.

This Final Heaven by Ms_Starlight - An excavation into Ancient Centran ruins may be very well bringing about the restoration of Hyne. In order to find the truth, Quistis is going to need the help of former Sorceress Knight, Seifer Almasy. Who isn't exactly all that interested in getting tangled up in SeeD problems again.

This is another Seifer/Quistis fic and drifts into horror a bit in places, particularly with what happens to Squall and Rinoa, since Rinoa's Sorceress powers stem directly from Hyne here. And Hyne is, uh… very much not good. This fic is rated M (because there's sex, not for the mild horror) and is also cross posted to Ao3.