#i love doing everything on one layer until its time for me to add a background. then im like 😦

[bogfaery]

rendering this rn

[madynacht]

A few people have asked me about kitbashing art from retrograde minis so I decided to make a tutorial on it!

First off I recommend installing paint.net, I find it has everything I need for what I make but as long as you have some sort of art program that has layers it will work. But I'll be showing stuff in paint.net since its what I know. Here's the link to paint.net, its free! https://www.getpaint.net/ First step you need to do is to make sure antialiasing is off, just select the paintbrush or eraser and select the following two options:

This will give the paintbrush and eraser a hard edge, which are vital to working with pixel art. Heres a comparison:

Now we can get to the actual kitbashing. There are two methods I know of, the first is the one I primarily use and the other my lovely girlfriend @gay-dollish-catgirl uses. Both are useful for different circumstances so I encourage mixing them up! The first method is what I called layer and erase and I find it is the easiest. First get the two colours you want for your mech, usually the base colour and then the accent colour. You can get these by downloading from retrograde minis, taking a screenshot of the web page, or using the All++ option if you have patreon membership, which I personally recommend to support the creator! For this example I'll be using this tortuga in platinum and scarlet:

I recommend fiddling around in paint.net to get used to the tools, especially the magic wand tool, I could do a tutorial on that alone, and if anyone wants that I can! For now we will focus on the kitbash. Next you want to put these in the same image and layer them on top of each other. First add a new layer, which you can do in the layer window here:

This will create a new layer above the selected layer, which you can then drag around above or below the existing layers. Next, take your other coloured mech and place it above or below the current one, with the base colour you want being above the accent layer. In this case I want the platinum to be the base colour and the scarlet to be the accent so Ive organized them like this:

Now we can actually get to doing the kitbash, and from here its simple. All you do is erase from the base colour layer to reveal the accent layer underneath, make sure you have the base colour layer selected too, other wise it will seem like nothings happened... that happens to me a lot. But if you did it right erasing the top layer should reveal the bottom layer and cause it to show through like so:

From there just continue to do so for any other parts you want to be the accent colour

Once you have all the parts you want coloured done, merge the layers together with the following button:

Once its merged you can just start over with a new colour, doing the same technique to continue adding to the mech until you are happy with the end result! I recommend experimenting with the tools and shortcuts in paint.net! Now for the other method which admittedly I'm not as good at but I wanted to show off anyway! This method involves creating a colour palette and manually replacing the colours. First find the part you want to replace, which in my case is the top of the mechs head

If you look at the colours on the head you can see there are actually only really 4 different colours, which if I colour them differently you can see:

It looks a bit weird but can help visualizing that there are only 4 different colours. What you then need to do is make a palette of 4 different colours to replace the existing one. This can be done several ways, by taking the existing colours and tweaking them, taking them from another image, or just playing with colours and eyeballing it. I find the first option to be the best for me

Eventually youll get something like this! It will take some time fiddling with colours to get it exactly right but once you do you can make some pretty funky looking colours with this technique! As an end note be sure to save the files in PNG and not the PDN format, the PNG format is more widely supported, and PDN should only be used when you want to keep the layers, which can be useful if you want to reuse stuff from a mech for later! once again Im not an artist, so Im not sure how helpful this will be, but if it gets a few more people making mechs then that is my goal! If anyone has any questions please feel free to send me and I'll answer them as best I can! If anyone makes any mechs using my techniques please lemme know so I can check them out and reblog them too!

[a-couple-of-notes]

went back to see wicked again and i feel almost as insane about it as the first time.

so, the movie centers (as it should) on elphaba's arc--she's discovering her true power, shedding her need for validation, defying gravity. but this go-around, i kept thinking, what's glinda's arc? like, yes, obviously, her arc across the whole story is a fall and a redemption; she gets everything she wants, hates the fuck out of it, loses what's important, and finally finds the courage to rebuild something truly good. but i'm talking specifically this movie, this part. i mean hey, jon chu, you said you were making part one its own satisfying narrative! (he did, we'll get to it)

and yes, okay, you can say glinda starts part one as a selfish, privileged antagonist to elphaba and over the course of the movie becomes her friend. but i don't buy it. that friendship is solidified by the ozdust ballroom, so there has to be something else.

and i realized: glinda's arc in part one is about realizing she's not as powerful as she thinks she is.

glinda starts the movie thinking she can always get her way through making everybody like her. she thinks she can become a great sorceress if she studies under madam morrible. she thinks she can get the perfect boy if she just tosses her hair.

but then elphaba shows up. and over the course of part one, glinda gets humbled again and again. glinda can't do magic, while it comes naturally for elphaba (notice how glinda is always the one pointing out elphaba's magic/power in this tremendously sad combination of awe, adoration, and jealousy). elphaba earns madam morrible's faith, while madam morrible constantly makes digs toward glinda. elphaba proves herself the better person when she asks for glinda to join the sorcerer seminar, while glinda's offering was initially completely insincere. and elphaba turns fiyero's head (absolutely no one can convince me glinda doesn't clock what's going on, she's far too smart and obsessed with elphaba not to). and over the course of part one, we see glinda move from outrage and disdain at being outclassed to accepting and supporting and loving these things about her best friend, even as they make her jealous.

and like, yeah, glinda needs to be humbled a little. she's selfish! she's a bit of a brat! she says really insensitive things and no one has called her out on it until elphaba! but i think this arc for glinda adds an extra tragic layer on top of the tragedy cake. just as elphaba's mounting belief in herself was always leading to her leaving, glinda's growing humility was always leading to her staying. by the time defying gravity hits, glinda knows in her heart elphaba is more powerful than she is, in every meaning of the word. she knows the seriousness of the animals' plight (look how she shakes her head at elphaba when nikidik says the Lion cub is happy to be in the cage!) and she knows that, unlike elphaba the great sorcerer, she can't do anything. she can only survive.

i'm not saying that the glinda at the beginning of the movie would have gotten on elphaba's broom, but she would have certainly believed she could fly. this glinda doesn't. elphaba, quite fittingly, brought glinda down to earth, for better or for worse.

[riverphoenixsgothwife]

lawlight fic rec list

so i’m gonna do a series of these, starting with my favorite death note ship! make sure to pay attention to all warnings on these fics. enjoy! if you have a ship you’d like me to make a rec list for, please just send me an ask! i don’t want to be obnoxious, and i’m not saying they’re good, but i (slackjawbitch on ao3) have some lawlight fics up!

♡ = a favorite of kitty’s

angst

♡ 1. i’m drowning; please save me: L looks at Yagami Light and drowns. There is no other way to put it. As the days pass and blend into weeks, L looks at Yagami Light sitting next to him, the harsh lines of his face creased and determined, and he swallows water.

L looks at Yagami Light and he cannot breathe.

great characterization, always makes me very emo, and is probably a pretty major influence on my writing. one shot. 1,817 words.

2. always waiting for you just to cut to the bone: And then, breaking through the pounding in his head he hears what would be the last words out of that wretched man’s lips.

“I love you.”

fic for teh death note drama (2016) canon! title is unfortunately from a t*ylor sw*ft song (/silly) but this fic is so good and sad.

3. Our Bodies, Possessed By Light: L. Lawliet is a gifted photographer who believes he has understood the light and its secrets. Light Yagami is a young, unstable and slightly crooked model. Together, they kill time.

modeling and photography au. make sure to read all teh tags and warnings for this one; there’s nothing gross, but some potentially triggering subjects for some people are in here. multi chapter. 81,218 words.

4. Hearts and Spades: Which would you choose? Love or death? RaitoL, slight AU.

short but sweet piece featuring that classic fanfiction dot net era vibe, an emo-ass playing card metaphor (/pos), and a recounting of l’s death scene that made me sad over him all over again (also /pos). and also light being obnoxious, but it’s death note, so that’s usually a given, lol. one shot. 1,801 words.

5. Not Quite Drowning: Sometimes Light ponders happiness. L/Light

a short lawlight and light character study. i like it a lot, and i don’t usually like light, so that should tell you something about how well i think it’s written! one shot. 424 words.

♡ 6. Water, water, water: In the bath, they forget they’re a detective and a suspect; they remove these identities along with their clothes, layer by layer until there are only the handcuffs left. And them; facing the other in the eerie calmness of their bathroom.

At least, it’s how Light sees it.

i really love this one! make sure to read teh tags, as eating disorders and drugs are mentioned, for example. angst with a happy ending! one shot. 3,504 words.

fluff

1. Silver Bells: Silver bells...silver bells...

They’ve made it. Everything is okay now, when they’re dancing in the candlelight.

really, really cute! i recommend it as a palate cleanser to make you feel better after reading a sad one, lol. one shot. 1,255 words.

♡ 2. New Year’s Eve: "I've seen fireworks before," he says. "This is... so much... more."

just a cute little new year’s eve lawlight fireworks show! this one is also from 2009 which is kinda cool to me, haha. i like this author’s descriptive language a lot. one shot. 507 words.

♡ 3. Do Gay Penguins Go to Hell?: Too many New Year snacks bring about a family discussion between L, Raito and their daughter about healthy diet, common sayings and nature of good and evil. And gay penguins, of course. AU

a really darling kid fic, based on teh stupid, homophobic controversy over that adorable kids’ book about teh gay penguin couple. one shot. 3,791 words.

4. A Feeling: It's LxLight fluff! This takes place after Light was confined and lost his memories, chained to L. : D SO YUS. SOME FLUFF FOR YAH D: Hope you leik it :D

very cute “l and light cuddle and kiss” fic, written by a scene kid in 2008, which is extra points with me! one shot. 1,006 words.

alright! i will add to this rec list as i find more fics, and i would love it if people would send in their favorite lawlight fics!

[dovalore]

parkour civilization but i think way too deeply about the fighter layer

lore and design thoughts under cut

oh yeah, buckle up for this one

design notes - apf

ah yes, emf's species my beloved (i will not stop interpreting skins as them) ex1 ex2

apf's albino, so his eyes are bright red and his fur is completely pale

also yes, that's his full name here, it's not an abbreviation of anything

but he also answers to ghost if that helps

which kinda leads me to my next point, in a way. i associate this song with him (caution: loud)

the other song i associate with him is this (SPOILERS FOR FFXIV DAWNTRAIL) (specifically the third story dungeon) (you will not escape my love of ffxiv even in parkciv)

his tail isn't broken, its just kinked and has been for his entire life

despite looking like they could snap off if you pinch them, apf's horns are actually really sturdy

fighter boots have spurs on them, kids get a trainee version that have a stud in the back instead, y'know for safety reasons

wears dark clothes to make himself stand out less, the sleeves of his hoodie got progressively more tattered until he got sick of trying to stop them from falling apart so he tore them off himself

he uses bandages to substitute their absence, if he wraps them just firm enough, they won't get caught and tear on things as often. probably. he's making do

his tail isn't wrapped because it restricts its movement too much, which is dangerous when he uses it for balance

he does have two eyes, but he's also got a long ass fringe that seems to almost always cover one of them

design notes - seawatt

he's just a little guy!

there's not too much going on with his appearance at the moment, but he is wearing the same necklace as he is in this, it's just being covered by his paws (i also don't... really have an actual design in mind for it so it's still just kind of a vague thing)

lore

meta: initially it was just gonna be present apf, but then i thought about naphia's animation and i was like, yeah! let's add his past version as well, why not include seawatt? he's in the video and a fighter too, then it kinda just has a domino effect from there (i am deeply unwell about parkour civilization)

the colour of the effect particles around present apf is specifically F82421

apf's parents disappeared when he was still small, but he was taken care of by the adults around him, seawatt's parents included

apf and seawatt are roughly the same age and have been friends basically their entire lives

because of his upbringing, apf sees basically everyone as family, so everything he knows about the world and parkour comes from his family

one of the more prominent figures in his life is ms ami, his (and seawatt's) mentor. her lessons were absolutely vital to his development as a fighter and later on, his survival after the fighter layer was erased

seawatt might be the the one that introduced brewing stand jumps to the series, but even his considerable skill with them pales in comparison to apf's. granted, he didn't have to use them in life or death situations as often as apf did, so the gulf between their skill level really only becomes a thing post erasure

of course apf knew that his layer was going to be cut off from the rest of parkour civilization, everyone there did. but he couldn't just leave them there to fend for themselves, especially not when most of the people who took care of him as a kid were growing too old to do parkour

the difference between him and seawatt is that he understood why it had to be this way because he happened to be there when the champion briefly returned to say goodbye to an old friend

so after the layer was wiped, apf spent most of his time scavenging for food and blocks, most of the former would be given away to the people he was looking after

as time passed, he didn't have to push himself as far to look for food because... well, the number of people he cared for gradually dwindled, be it from natural causes or... other reasons

by the time seawatt returned to the fighter layer, there was only one person still being watched over by apf

he didn't get to see them before being taken to the master layer though, so he has no idea if they're alright. he'll ask to go back once he's able, though

design note i'm putting here instead of up there because it has more context now: yeah, he was designed to look unfriendly despite being the exact opposite of that. just like our first impression of this guy and then like, actually knowing what he's like in the series

not entirely based off the fact that he gave his last piece of steak to evbo when he went to face the parkour villain, but remembering that particular detail while drawing kind of just solidified this specific image of him in my mind as someone who really cares for others despite everything

[lafiametta]

Loved your meta on Igor and agree so much, he was one of my favourite characters this year. I just wanted to add a thought or two of mine about the ending.

A important moment imo that surprisingly few people are talking about is the moment they just look at each other after he stops her from hitting him again. It's the longest time they share eye contact in the film, they miss each other gazes a lot and when they do you at each other, it's not with eye contact, they're not SEEING each other. Even when she initiates sex she has a 'mask' on even as he staring at her. When the mask finally slips after he tries to kiss her, he looks at her as if he's seeing her for the first time, and he probably is (A+ acting from both of them, this movie would've have worked with any of the cast but particularly those two).

And it's so important that he pulls her in to hold her after she's been so brutally rejected throughout the film ( in the script, she collapses on him, while he still holds her as she cries, its different-and how I though it would be when i read the summary before seeing it). Him actually seeing her and pulling her closer feels important for me, even if it's just for a moment

Love this! And you're totally right: in that moment he really is seeing her without the mask she puts on for everyone else. (And I suspect he already knew the mask was there, even if up until that point he could only see hints of what she was actually like underneath it. Even her name is like another layer she hides under, although he makes it clear his interest is in the real person, not the girlish nickname: “I like Anora more than Ani.”)

He's been quietly watching her almost the whole time they've been together and seen her be all kinds of things — defiant, furious, combative, sarcastic, demanding, resigned — but it's the first moment she lets her guard down and shows her vulnerability to another person. It would have been easy enough for her to scream and push herself off his lap and get out of the car. Instead, she just freezes, waiting to see what he'll do. Now that he's seen her, the real her, will he reject her (as you so accurately put it) like everyone else in the movie has? Will he call her a whore or a fucking bitch or a disgusting hooker?

Even with her hair shielding part of her face, we can see her start to crumble, her chin wobbling. Igor can see it too — the scared and hurt girl who's been putting up a massive front for so long — and he reaches for her, pulling her in close, offering comfort and acceptance. It's only then that she feels safe enough to let go and surrender to everything she's feeling. (Will that feeling of safety last? It's hard to know — Ani's built up some big walls and it would take a lot to bring them down.)

I think it's also true that in that moment, she sees him too. It's not quite the same, because he doesn't wear the mask like she does, but it's a realization that's been slowly growing since the plane ride to Vegas and fully dawns on her only once they're in his car. For all her bluster about him being a “fucking psychopath” with “rape eyes,” she trusts him enough to sit near him as they watch the local news and share a joint. There's no way she would have been comfortable doing that the day before.

The idea of visibility and being seen is such a interesting current that runs through the movie. Ani's entire livelihood — her whole persona — is wrapped up in being seen, but only in the most superficial way. Even to Ivan, she's an ornament, an accessory, something that literally drapes off of him as they party or as he plays video games. Igor, on the other hand, does his best to be completely invisible, not just in his nondescript clothes, but by his silence, the way he backs up and blends in, his habit of shielding himself underneath his hoodie. It's not until the very end, in the final minute of the movie, that both of them are really seen — and not coincidentally, by each other.

[void-chara]

@mcytblrholidayexchange gift for @irrealisms !! you had lots of prompt ideas for writing, but not for art, so i hope you're happy with eclipse federation misery and agony compilation, plus song lyrics

lyric credits: Temporary - Chase Petra / Stranger - The Mechanisms / Easier - The Crane Wives (appears four times) / Two Birds - Regina Spektor / Little Soldiers - The Crane Wives (appears twice) / Heretic Pride - The Mountain Goats

feel free to ask if you want me to adjust some text to make it more readable or something, i think it looks fine but i know different peoples eyes and devices are different, and if i had more time i would definitely have spent more time messing with the colors on everything

speaking. of time. im really sorry i took so long ._. i kind of suck at estimating how long projects will take and how much time i have. thanks for being so patient!!

oh, also, some lyrics and drawings have story reasons for being grouped together, and some went where they looked good. uh. ideally id make sure everything had reason for its location, but this is one area where i did correctly estimate my time, instead of getting stuck in the planning phase.

also in the process of typing all this ive already gone back twice to change stuff in the images and re-add them to the post lol

OH also!! the part where vitalasy jumps off to his death! is as far as i can tell NOT canon accurate!! all the footage shows him jumping off the prison, since thats where he respawns. i didnt think to check this until after id already drawn most of the stuff, and already had the prison drawn, and i didnt want to reorganize the drawing. im telling myself that we only see a few of the later deaths and so theoretically the first one could have been jumping off a grassy ledge somewhere but its still bothering me and i needed to mention it.

anyway yeah really hope you like it i tried some new stuff with this one im not sure how well it turned out and thanks again for being so patient!!

EDITING TO ADD SOME MORE WORDS!!! i love talking about my art! so first, all the text on signs and stuff i did go back and look at videos and vods to make sure was entirely accurate, and i wrote all the words entirely by myself. for the lyrics and other text(death message and DELIVERANCE), i used a text tool first to make sure the words would be neat and where i needed them, and then traced over that on a new layer and deleted the original text layer. my handwritting fucking sucks always no matter what, this was a very necessary step. also! this is officially the first thing i have drawn entirely on my phone, rather than on my ipad like i used to do! also i dont use a stylus of any type i just draw with my finger lol.

[ryuichirou]

can you pretty pretty please with extra sprinkles on top drop the speedpaint for your most recent rookvil art? i wanna see how you did vils pretty dress and everything else cause its all so beautiful

I am so happy you like how it looks!! I would love to make a speedpaint, but unfortunately, I didn’t record it + the base for the drawing was actually done traditionally with a pencil. A lot of my drawings are done this way, actually…

Even though I can’t drop the speedpaint, I’ll do the next best thing and explain my process for this specific drawing step-by-step. It’s actually not that complicated!

Here is how the sketch looked initially. As you can see, I shaded the dress very crudely; in fact I was kind of upset with how the dress looked at this stage. Ironically, I ended up not doing much to the pencil shading, and it still turned out okay somehow?? Anyways, the first thing I did was to prep the sketch for the colouring stage: I adjusted the contrast, fixed Vil’s face, and erased some dirt and imperfections.

Then I create a new layer, set it to Multiply (this way I can colour the sketch without disturbing it, as if I was just colouring a digitally done lineart) and do a base colour layer. There is a gradient in Vil’s hair and Rook’s belt buckle, but other than that, all the colours are flat at this stage.

Before doing all the shading needed for this sketch, I add details such as makeup and tights. If you want to know how I did these, let me know, but I basically looked at a tutorial once and then simplified it lol

Now, the dress.

To be completely honest, there isn’t any proper technique to what I did, everything is always just trial and error and an hour of me going “does that look good? NO IT DOESN’T >:(“ until both Katsu and I are satisfied. This time I was lucky, because it didn’t take very long, and the “solution” was pretty simple.

Starting with the base colour. I turned off the sketch layer to show that it is indeed completely purple. And it looks kind of bright at this point, almost too bright even, especially considering that the dress is supposed to be mostly black, or at least dark purple. But bear with me.

Next I added some highlights (new layer, set on Overlay or Screen, depending on what looks best). Usually I would add the shades first, but I wanted to make the fabric look more “shiny”, you know, the type of fabric that would reflect the floor and make this highlight under the boob lol.

And after that I just went ahead and added black gradient (on a new Layer) from the bottom of the dress to make it look darker, silkier and a little bit more interesting for the eye. I erased some parts of the gradients as you can see, because it looked too dark on the highlighted parts… could’ve just placed the black gradient layer under the highlights layer and saved myself a headache, but hey, where is the adventure in that.

Finally, it turned out looking like this. It looks better than it used to look like initially, but there is one more thing to do. We don’t get to do this one too often, so it always excited both Katsu and me: THE SPARKLES!! Somehow, making the dress sparkly makes everything much better.

How do I do the sparkles: I use the star brush… or was it a snow brush? I use this brush when I draw both of these things lol + when I draw anything sparkly. I would’ve given you this specific one, but I don’t really remember where I got it from, and I honestly think that any starry or snowy brush would work wonderfully as long as the specs are small enough.

After that is done, I just shade the rest of the drawing. Nnew layer set on Multiply, the shading is done with darker purple/red + darker blue, whatever looks better on any particular material: the skin really likes warmer colours, but Rook’s suit looked bad with red shades, so I adjusted it to blue.

And here is the post where I talk about how I colour hair! Good thing I already wrote that one, this post is getting long lol

And the last step is to add details. The original sketch was done in a rather small (smaller than A6) sketchbook, so I couldn’t draw all the details like Vil’s earrings and stuff properly. Basically I just paint on a separate layer on top of everything.

And there you have it! I hope it makes sense, please let me know if you have questions.

[searchforahero]

everything is so delicious, but first i HAVE to ask about jeantim

ough i love this one T0T they're so everything

basically basically. do not think about the timeline too hard, but after jpv comes back to being a crime fighter in gotham and helping the bats, it becomes blatantly obvious that he's avoiding tim. he'll work with him when absolutely necessary but keeps his distance and flees immediately anytime he sees tim out of the masks.

he also goes back to school because grad student jpv is cute and its my fic so i can do whatever i want lol <3

ANYWAYS so he's avoiding tim, he's hardly even subtle about it and it grates on tim, not only is it frustrating during missions, but a part of tim had hoped that when jpv came back to gotham they could be friends again. they got along so well before the azbats thing, and tim misses it, and he misses jean-paul.

so he gets pushy with it. trying to corner jpv after patrol to force him to chat, showing up at gotham U to ambush him, and just generally being a bit of a stalker.

jean-paul is having none of it. it's obvious tim makes him anxious, and he's more withdrawn than ever whenever tim's in the room. at first tim wonders if jpv blames him for what happened during knightquest (i'm never going to get over tim blaming himself for azbats because he made jpv's costume too edgy. this guy can fit so much self blame in him), but it quickly becomes obvious that jpv isn't annoyed, he's anxious, scared even.

meanwhile. jpv is kind of dying in a puddle of nerves and guilt, he still feels horrible for how he treated tim when he was batman, and the memory of how easily he hurt tim (specifically thinking in robin '93 #1 because. choking :]) haunts him. ALSO he definitely has a developing crush on tim but those feelings are buried so far under the guilt that it just kind of adds another layer of nerves without him really recognizing it for what it is.

the short of it is, he's avoiding tim because he's bogged down by so much guilt that he's convinced himself that tim shouldn't be around him. as soon as tim figures this out he becomes even more determined and goes a little too hard on pushing jpv's boundaries. this eventually leads to a blow up argument between them, but they manage to resolve it and learn to be comfortable with one another again. and they fall in love while it's happening <3

i have written so many variations on this scene, and i'm still not fully satisfied but. here is the scene at the heart of this fic :]

Jean-Paul's apartment is tiny, there's a kitchen slash dining room slash living room, a shoebox bedroom, and a bathroom that hardly fits the necessities. Tim is currently sitting at the two-person dining table Jean-Paul has sitting under his window. The nature of a table so small has their legs knocking under it and their faces so close Tim can see each detail of Jean-Paul's eyes. That is, until Jean-Paul lowers his head to his hands, letting his hair cascade over him in waves, obscuring him from view. "You should be afraid of me Tim! Every time Nightwing comes to town he gives me a dirty look, Bruce doesn't trust me, and I'm scared of myself!" He cries. "How can you trust me to watch your back in the field when these same hands you believe will defend you have been used to bring you harm?" He looks miserable, even with his face blocked by his hands and hair. Tim stands up from the table, the wooden chair he had been sitting on drags across the floor and Jean-Paul looks up, suddenly alert. When he sees Tim his eyes crease in anguish. Tim walks over to his side of the table and gestures for Jean-Paul to stand, he does without protest. Without speaking Tim reaches for Jean-Paul's hands, taking one in each of his own, and lifting them between them. Confused, Jean-Paul asks "What are you doing?" Tim smiles at him gently and asks "You trust me right?" Jean-Paul hesitates before responding "Every time we speak I think I trust your judgment in character a little less, but yes Tim, I trust you. How could I not?" With that confirmation Tim continues moving Jean-Paul's hands, bringing them up to rest by his shoulders, then wrapping them one after the other around his throat, so Jean-Paul's thumbs are resting just under his Adam's apple. His hands are soft against Tim's skin. Most of the people in their business have their fair share of calluses, but Jean-Paul's are still soft, despite his use of a sword. His gloves must protect his hands from growing rough. When Jean-Paul finally gets a handle on what is happening he asks Tim "Why are you...?" "You ask me how I can trust you, I want to know what you are thinking right now." "Your neck looks so small under my hands. I could so easily wring the life from your lungs, I don't understand why you would make yourself so vulnerable to me." Tim smiles at him sadly before expanding, "And do you want to? Wring the life from me that is?" "Well, no, but I remember how it felt, back then, when I wanted to. All I wanted was for you to understand, even if I had to use force to get there." "And that's why I trust you." Tim keeps his hands pressed to Jean-Paul's against his throat, before pushing down. Jean-Paul's gentle hands push back against the force, before he rips them away entirely, staring down at his hands like they're holding a weapon, and are not the baby-smooth hands of a techy college student. "I don't understand." "You could hurt me. You've wanted to hurt me, but now when given the opportunity to do so, you react with nothing but horror." Tim brings a hand up to Jean-Paul's face, forcing him to look away from his hands and back to Tim. "You regret what you did enough for the both of us, you're not going to hurt me Paul, it would tear you apart.”

[technicolorfamiliar]

Contraband (Blackout) Dir. Michael Powell 1940

This one has been on my rewatch list since I first saw it last year. It was one of the few films in the epic Connie watch-a-thon that felt like it had some kind of curative powers, in the surprising way some movies do. I never expected it to lift my spirits and lighten my heart the way it did.

10/10 no notes. I absolutely love everything about this movie. Except the randomly shoehorned "White Negro" scene. It's so out of place in an otherwise pretty progressive film. That cabaret act literally could have been anything, why choose that?? (I couldn't find a lot of info about the choreographer, but it sounds like he was into romanticizing and exoticizing African and Caribbean people in his work… which is not great, but pretty typical of that time I guess. Ugh.)

But otherwise delightful, a romp from start to finish. Apparently someone on IMDB slammed Contraband for being "camp expressionism", but honestly? Hell yeah. I'm 100% here for it. In fact, "camp expressionism" my new favorite genre if it means cute, quirky, risqué, well-directed, well-shot, romantic spy comedy with a tight script and excellent performances.

I've also seen people comparing it to American screwball comedies of the era, but that doesn't seem quite right or even fair. Contraband, thanks to Powell, Pressburger, the editor, and the cast, has a very light touch compared to the comedies coming out of Hollywood in the '30s and '40s. It's not as heavy-handed, it doesn't beat its message to death with over-done gags or affected performances. Michael Powell even said the movie was "all pure corn, but corn served up by professionals." And that's the Powell and Pressburger difference, baby.

The comedy in the script is executed with relative subtlety. The movie isn't telling you HERE’S THE FUNNY BIT, LAUGH NOW the way screwball, slapstick Hollywood would. You almost have to be looking for the humor here to catch it, and it pays off. It's a cheekier type of comedy, not really driven by jokes and punchlines. And as someone who never really liked American comedies of that era, I really appreciate this kind of film. It's silly, even outright stupid in some scenes, but it's not playing down to it's audience. I mean, the whole brawl in the night club is almost like the big fight at the end of Blazing Saddles where more and more people keep joining in, but the action stops for half a second while someone delivers a line. It's stupid. And I love it.

The espionage stuff in is a little convoluted and kind of treated as a throw-away. But really, if you're not paying super close attention to that part of the story, you're not missing much. The spy plot between the British and the Nazis is really just there to give the lead characters something fun to do, and you know what… that's ok with me.

The cinematography also helps elevate Contraband above just being a regular old comedy. Featuring the London blackout is actually really clever. It forces a number of scenes into almost total darkness, which was a risky move and could have been a huge mistake, but it adds yet another interesting layer to the film, visually and in terms of story. There's an unusual POV (possibly handheld?) tracking shot, when Andersen and Mrs. Sorensen are walking up to her house in town, that's just lit by their flashlight. We don't see either of them, except for her hand briefly putting the key in the lock, until after they enter and the camera pans around the hall. And there's a moment a while later when they're in the basement after being tied up where Connie's face is entirely in shadow -- we know he's looking at her, but his expression is completely hidden in darkness. On paper, it sounds like a bad shot, a mistake, but this "expressionistic" lighting and camera work adds a little extra special sauce that I for one greatly appreciate.

The supporting cast is all generally pretty good. Hay Petrie is fun in a double roll. There's the scene in the rowboat where he looks like he's going to get sea sick… despite being the first mate who practically lives on a ship. Little character touches like that throughout the movie make it delightful: The girl in short shorts doing exercises in her room when Connie bursts in on her, the line delivery of the woman who works in the kitchen with Uncle Erik, the guy outside lighting his pipe during the blackout letting those two cops HAVE it. I love a character actor driven movie, all these people in bit parts adding so much color to the story. Brilliant.

Valerie Hobson is so good in this. First of all, she's a boss bitch with an incredible wardrobe. Every look she's serving is iconic. The tweed jacket and headscarf that matches her blouse? The dress with the crazy angular shoulder pads? The big, wide-brimmed hat? Slay. She's authoritative without being shrill, she's got a confident swagger you don't see a lot of actresses getting to showcase at that time. Still, she's not really a femme fatale either. Mrs. Sorensen is independent, intelligent, stunning, and into dangerous spy shit because she enjoys it. She's someone I'd want to hang out with, but would be too scared to talk to because she's so cool. I mean, she almost missed the train at the end because she went back to get Andersen's watch! I have two words for you: Wife Goals.

Sadly, it sounds like Val didn't really get to do a lot of other fun roles outside of the two films she made with Connie. Which is a real shame. Someone on Letterboxd said they're better together than Tracy and Hepburn, and I fully agree. Val and Connie have a natural chemistry that neither feels feel too personal or too studied. Their on screen work together feels easy, without all the baggage and volatility of IRL romance.

The first time I saw Contraband, I think I was simply charmed by Connie as Andersen. Getting to see him as a fun, heroic, romantic lead is incredibly satisfying. But this time around I realized how funny he actually is. He's is so cranky, he starts the movie already at like an 8.5, he's so fucking over it. It's one thing after another -- Mrs. Sorensen won't wear her life jacket, British contraband control wants to hold up them up, someone stole the landing papers, and of course it was Mrs. Sorensen AND Mr. Pigeon. He's so grumpy from the get. (My theory is that he's hangry. He's temperamental and irritable up until he gets a decent meal at The Three Vikings. So relatable.)

It was fun to rewatch this one to catch all the comedic beats Connie is doing with his gestures and facial expressions. They're choreographed, but not affected or over done. His timing and delivery is subtle and finely tuned, which is always funnier than an actor who deliberately plays up the laughs. For example, the long pause after Mrs. Sorensen corrects his pronunciation of the name of the restaurant, he furrows his brow and looks around and finally mutters, "…VI-kings." His comedy is so understated, which keeps the rapid-fire pacing of the bits from being obnoxious.

Andersen is an interesting guy, too. I feel like his macho vibe is just a mask he wears as captain of his ship. He's so used to being That Guy, but, based on Connie's performance, I get the impression that deep down Andersen doesn’t really subscribe to all that traditional masculinity. Later in the film it's easy-ish for him to eventually drop the façade, adjust his expectations, becoming more flexible, malleable in his ideas about sex and gender. This of course is because Conrad Veidt was in reality a proto-feminist wife guy. Andersen isn't played like your standard manly man movie heroes of the time, because that's not who Connie was, that's not an image he wanted to project or support (and I feel one reason why Hollywood couldn't figure out what to do with him in the '40s, but that rant is for another post).

Andersen and Mrs. Sorensen are pretty evenly matched. In fact she has the upper hand and more progressive, dominant role especially once they arrive in London. On his ship, he's the boss, but on shore he's met with one disadvantage after another. Mrs. Sorensen has to be the one to pay for his bus and cab fare, confidently navigating her way through the blackout like a pro. Meanwhile, Andersen is pretty much a bumbling fool, a sidekick to Sorensen's spy adventure. But he's not totally incompetent either (I MEAN IT LOOKS LIKE HE KNOWS WHAT HE'S DOING WITH THOSE ROPES, HE IS A SAILOR AFTER ALL *eyes emoji* *sweating emoji*), he's the one who comes up with the plan to rescue Sorensen from her Nazi captors (although I get the impression she probably would have found her own way out without his help). But what's great is that he doesn't do it alone, he goes back to The Three Vikings to round up a small army of Danish essential workers to back him up. And I love how Connie plays the whole last act of the film like he's actually on an adventure; you can see Connie the actor having the most fun ever getting to be the big movie star hero, tussling with cops and Nazis, solving puzzles with glee, getting the girl -- who is just as much of a badass as he is -- in the end. It's so good. And it's so much fun to watch.

There are so, so many wonderful little touches in this movie, many of which I only caught during this second watch. I have a page of scribbled notes I wrote while I was watching that ends with, "The cutest shit I have ever seen!" From the performances to the writing to the technical details, it's hard not to fall in love with this one. Contraband is easily one of those films I could rewatch over and over again and never get sick of it.

OH I can't believe forgot about The Boys:

The goodest boys.

[animehouse-moe]

A Sign of Affection Episode 2: To Affection

God, there's so much to talk about with this episode. Ajia-Do and Morishita have absolutely maximized the potential of anime as a medium in expressing this story to its fullest, and that leaves me with endless amounts of things to talk about, so I really just want to get right to it.

How about I talk about Yuki's world first. This is a very very broad topic, but I think it's incredibly important in understanding other aspects of this story.

Yuki herself expresses a very key point: she doesn't want her hearing to define her world. It's not that she detests it or anything, but that she has an insatiable desire to explore a world outside of her own, and the episode expresses that wonderfully.

Also, can I just speak on the visuals for this sequence really quick? Incredible double edged sword. The idea of the glass mural as a reflection of the outside while providing visuals of Yuki's experience at the school for the Deaf that she went to is phenomenal. It alludes to the fact that a greater world exists outside of what she's experience as a person so far, but intends to reflect the protected world that Yuki's only experienced up until now. Really really incredible idea of framing her experience and desire to grow within something so simple.

Anyways, that desire manifests in her decision to go to college, to experience the things that she only saw in TV dramas or manga, to explore a life outside everything that she's known up until now.

So that explains Yuki's approach to life post-secondary school, but there's so much more to her experience of that life. We as viewers are secondary to the characters of this world, and the series continues to express that wonderfully through perspective.

Where you might use visual isolation to express a character's focus, A Sign of Affection takes it a step further, in several senses of the word. The idea of Yuki's "focus" differs from the way that a traditional anime will focus in on something. While both worlds are honed down to their essentials, the idea is expressed much more casually and symbolically with Yuki. And of course, it hinges on her hearing. At times, when with the perspective of another character, we'll hear a lot of background noise- people talking in different languages, the clamor of a busy room, and all sorts of other things- but all the while we'll remain visually isolated from that noise. It's a wonderful expression of the layered approach to Yuki's world. Visually we're meant to follow her experience, but there's time where the episode wants to emphasize the difference that hearing makes in a scene, and it's great. It's a perfect balance of all sorts of things that adds a great deal to how we contextualize the scenes in which Yuki focuses on things like Itsuomi.

And then there's the more explicit and spoken aspects. In the same way that there's style and intonation to speaking, Yuki points out those aspects within sign language to add more depth to the experience. Instead of stumbling over her words, Yuki talks about how her fingers are moving awkwardly, or how Oushi's (her childhood friend) sign language tends to be very pointed but also has more frail and weak pieces that betray his concern over Yuki.

I really love these sequences because in the same way that you might look to a face for emotional expression, they keep that focus on the hands to express the slightest details for viewers to cue in on. It's such a wonderfully conscious execution of the work.

You know what, since we're on Oushi we'll start the dive into his character because boy is it good.

He's meant to be the childhood friend of Yuki, and you immediately grasp the connection that the two share as we begin with a translation of their sign language conversation between one another before moving into fully voiced dialogue. It's really really great at showing the experience and understanding the pair share, and is perfect against the backdrop of the lack of translation when either uses sign language with another person.

It shows the lengths that Oushi goes to communicating with Yuki and Yuki alone, and that his goal is to explicitly meet Yuki where he believes her to be most comfortable.

And that's a hugely important idea. It's not necessarily that Yuki herself prefers talking exclusively in sign language, but that Oushi engages with her exclusively through it. The context clues given in regards to other characters greatly supports this. Her mother talks directly to her and Yuki will sometimes use a white board to communicate, Rin and Yuki use a mix of sign language and typing to communicate, and even with Itsuomi there is a variation in how they converse.

And that idea is perfectly personified by this comment made by Oushi later on.

This series is all about Yuki's world, and how people view and interact with Yuki within that context. And in this case, Oushi believes that Yuki's world needs to be protected no matter what. That she's a frail girl that lives in a dangerous world and that she shouldn't be putting herself at risk like that.

It's just such a great and nuanced idea to place in the series. Oushi's seen Yuki grow and develop from a young girl, maybe even struggle with learning or meeting the world head on. He still sees the young girl that could struggle or be alone out there, and he can't shake that idea from his head. He'll always see Yuki as that even though Yuki has shed that form.

And then the episode places that sentiment against Itsuomi? Incredible incredible idea. Where Oushi represents a closed off world for Yuki, Itsuomi is the representation of her dream to experience something greater. He meets her head on and engages with her in neutral terms. That is, he'll interact with her both in how he's interested in (e.g a lot of physical contact and proximity) and in how Yuki prefers. He puts effort into learning sign language, simplifies his sentences to make it easier to read lips, but then he'll also use text a good deal in the same way that Yuki does.

That value in how the two approach interaction with Yuki creates a wonderful picture that's summarized with how Yuki views her experiences in their respective worlds. Oushi's is a very gray and lonely one, while Itsuomi's is a open and bright blue sky.

And let's not forget Rin! I love her character and her engagement with Yuki, you can really feel the depth of their friendship vs Oushi and Itsuomi.

Rin initiates a lot of conversation with physical touch (like tapping on the table or poking Yuki), and makes sure to use a good deal of visual cues when talking verbally. She also has no issues with conversing over text, but she's a little less inclined to work with sign language. And then there's the idea of Yuki sharing emotions via physical contact, it's a really subtle idea but it's wonderful expression of her character and her familiarity with Rin.

All the same though, Rin is still learning and making mistakes here and there, as Oushi points out. It's a simple piece, but it's really great at showing that while nobody's perfect, it doesn't mean that you can't learn or grow within that context.

And just to tie a neat bow on this before I can go off the deep end and talk even more about things: this little bit of symbolism with birds.

For reference, this bird is a Japanese Wagtail, so the it's not just the idea of freedom that's expressed with these birds.

Of course the first image is meant to embody that idea as Yuki and Itsuomi out in a wide open blue sky, but the second image provides much more detail and value.

For example, the idea that one bird exists in shadow while the other is in light. It's the simple idea of the separation between Itsuomi and Yuki while Itsuomi is in Laos. You can also take the idea of them sitting on tree branches versus in the sky as a lack of freedom or openness because Itsuomi isn't around for Yuki.

Anyways, a Japanese Wagtail is a bird that within Eastern cultures such as Japan, is meant to symbolize the ideas of hope, renewal, and perseverance.

Evidently, the species of bird isn't the piece that symbolizes the romance, but rather the resilience of Yuki within this context. However, you could take the idea of how aggressively wagtails defend their territory from other potential suitors as the idea of the bond or romantic connection forming between Yuki and Itsuomi, but that's a totally different story.

But there it is, another incredible episode of A Sign of Affection. It's really outstanding how well Ajia-Do and Morishita have come together to create such a full bodied experience for viewers. Such a fulfilling and enjoyable experience.

[flowerslut]

Haha despite not having posted in 10 years, my blog shows my teenage angsty self so perfectly i will never delete it :) I have a question if its alright, one of the things I love is the way you've written the relationship between Rosalie and Jasper. I always felt they must be close and Rosalie wouldn't share her human last name with him if they weren't. However they both had a very different violent past and i imagine it being difficult at the beginning. How do you think they bonded?

THE PERFECT TIME CAPSULE BLOG I love to see it thank you for preserving such vital history 🤝

I'm so happy you asked this because I answered this pretty thoroughly a few months ago here in this ask. but I love that you ask it in reference to their starkly "different violent" pasts, because like yes!!!!! they're on opposite ends of the spectrum there! sure they both have 'fucked up' backstories, but in this case Pretzels is Not The Same and I looooove zeroing in on this to add another layer of "rosalie was definitely not okay with their arrival NOR SHOULD SHE HAVE BEEN! *gestures to jasper's Everything*"

rosalie was a victim of a horrific crime who was changed via carlisle to save her life. jasper was very much not a victim at the time that maria found him and was changed as a form of recruitment for a very different army in a very different war. now of course there are arguments to be made about jasper being a victim in this circumstance, and while there is nuance to it (after all, what would drive a 16 year old to run away from home in the 1860s to join a brutal, deadly war that they'd probably end up dying in if they stuck with it?) I typically have to disagree when people like to try and pass jasper off as this innocent little baby Who Knew Nothing Better 🙄. but I digress, this isn't about jasper. this is about rosalie's and jasper's contrasting starts to immortality which I find so interesting

I love rosalie and jasper's relationship for sooo many reasons and this completely different start to 'life' is a big one! rosalie was a victim of intimate partner violence who was changed into a superpowered bloodthirsty immortal vampire. after this she sought revenge, killed her killers but did it without spilling their blood, reclaiming some measure of power despite now existing in this life she never wanted and pretty goddamn miserable because of it. jasper was a perpetrator of violence even before he gained immortality (even without "seeing any real battle" or whatever bs line they gave him in the movie) which only escalated when maria found him and he was gifted with his own superpowered bloodthirsty vampirism. then, surprise! his has an extra superpower! which helps him to control this army and continue this cycle of violence, but slowly it begins to wear on his mental state until this "monster of the grisliest kind" becomes a depressed meandering nomad destined for suicide if we're being real here

again, I won't get into it too far or this answer could be another 1k+ words long, but even in eclipse, jasper doesn't try to dodge responsibility or moralize when he's telling bella his story, he just tells it as it is. (which I've said before but I adore as a character choice. it makes him so much less bastard-man-coded than edward because of it. and thank GOD 💀) but I find it so so so interesting that the two cullens (hales) that bella has less of a grip on are the ones who come from such violent backgrounds! but! on different ends!! of this spectrum of violence!!! it makes it that much more meaningful to me when you see them take each other's sides in midnight sun, as they seem to acknowledge that if someone's gotta make the tough choices, it'll be them 🤩 ugh I just love them so much, yknow?

[fandoomrants]

So I have this love-hate thing for the whole Hunger Games because while I've seen the movies and read the books and I've been hyped and I've waited for each movie, gone to see it, etc, and I usually don't like First POV in books yet everything in them is so brilliant... It gives me chills. Because I can't say the writing itself is a masterpiece in terms of language used, although it's brilliant because it fits the perspective of a teenage girl, it's raw and doesn't sugarcoat anything, the way everything is presented is amazing and that's the whole appeal actually.

The Capitol, for example. They're shown almost as the bad guys, not just Snow but all the citizens because they find the games interesting and don't do anything to stop them. And District 13, which was believed to be destroyed and then we find out it's not and in the beginning this is like some light in the tunnel but then we slowly realise that Coin and Snow aren't too different and they're both power hungry and cruel in their own ways while at the same time we meet people from the Capitol who aren't bad and genuinely want to help and change this reality. And all the layers that get revealed until we reach these conclusions along with Katniss...

But what really scares me is that... This isn't entirely unlikely to happen in the future. Like, we already have distopian novels that have influenced real reality shows and we have way too many shows about survival and all of that, the only difference is that people aren't dying there (but you know what, there have been death cases in some! They cancelled one season or Survivor in my country years ago because someone died) so really, the line here is thin. And if it's not really about the games really happening, then there's the political situation. That's even more likely to happen one day. These thoughts have always been holding me from truly getting in this fandom.

And now revisiting it when I'm much older, I see other sides of it. And I think I dislike some things even more but at the same time... I can't help but find some understanding of the Capitol citizens. And no, has nothing to do with TBOSAS and young Snow. If anything, this scares me even more because what do we see there? A character we already know and despise that suddenly people start liking him because he looks good (no judgement here. I admit he looks good. I just can't simp), and people finding the games boring in the book/movie itself and then also people seeing the movie complaining about the same part with the games because it wasn't as interesting as the ones in the OG trilogy? The Capitol is basically the same as almost every one of us.

And let's face it - we see the Capitol and its citizens as bad because we get to see it in the OG trilogy through Katniss's eyes, a girl which was brought up in poverty and knows what real hunger and dealing with this life is but this is almost like comparing a third world country to... Almost every other country. Because the Capitol is loud, it's obsessed with crazy things, shows, fashion trends, etc but this is not too far from our own lives. And we as an audience are shocked by them just because we see them compared to the Districts and their life but in fact, we're living in a world which is so much closer to the Capitol than it is to any of the districts. And it's the same thing happening with Snow. He's charming and uses it to his advantage, and is played by a good-looking actor and people like him just the way people like Snow in TBOSAS.

And another thing I've already seen people commenting on but I still wanna add is that we have these movies which I believe are good adaptations but most of the characters are played by older actors. Like, go look at some actual teenagers and imagine them in these scenes where children are killing and dying... (When's the last time y'all saw a 14yo? Imagine this being an actual victor of these games...)

So yeah, these things really make me think how it's a brilliant story but the concepts we see there are so messed... (And a good proof is how I have way too many thoughts of the games and their making and wanna know more despite how wrong they are...)

[mononijikayu]

12 & 14!!

this is based on this thing i reposted and nonnie here asked about it!!! so if you want to ask more, just look here!!!

anyway, hello nonnie!!! thank you for asking questions. i'll answer them now~

12. how does receiving and or not receiving feedback/support impact you?

i think it affects me significantly. i like having interactions with people. i'm an ambivert leaning very well to introversion. but i also love people. i love talking to you all and enjoying conversations with how the story is and how it makes you feel. or how i can make it better, how i can write more cool and well.

i want it all. humans are no islands after all. and i don't want to be an island. i wanna be someone that can just be holding warm hands with you all!!! so, please be my friends here too~ interact with me happily~ <3

14. how do you write emotional scenes? do you ever feel what the characters feel? do you draw from personal experiences?

i draw a lot from what i experience and what life i live and what i see and know. everything is real and genuine to me. it is life lived over and over again and i'm just writing them in ways that i think could be good. i'm just writing another life in the thousands i've already lived and done.

needless to say, in order for me to write, i need to be overwhelmed by the situation. as much as i write fast, i also let myself become consumed by the situation and the moment.

i tell myself, 'kayu, if you were this person, how do you think you'd react? in this life, in another life, in another universe? how would you do it? how do you make this as honest to god human as possible?'

for any scenes, but for all emotional scenes, for deep emotions, i really lock myself in there. i am the person in that moment, i am in that box for a moment.

it's like im acting, but through the page i write. i imagine the scene in my brain like a director also, im watching behind a camera and readying to say cut when it gets to the point i like.

for example, in therapy. this is based off the song therapy from tick tick boom. that song played so many times while writing, i think i sing so much of it while doing the dishes or going on a walk.

but i watch the clips from the scene it was intergral to and the various layers of emotions in that scene and even as far for covers of the song from other singers.

so the song becomes so overwhelming and then it heightens my emotional response too. because when im overwhelmed with emotion, my desire to get it off my chest becomes just as overwhelming. so i end up wanting to get it off my chest. that's when i start to imagine the scene.

okay, what does the character want? what does nanami's wife want? they're going to therapy, but does she even believe the marriage is salvagable? is therapy even something that works when it comes to this situation?

okay, if not, then how does therapy lead her to finding something to reflect about herself and her wants and her needs? what can therapy contribute to who she is and who she can be?

that seems likely, actually, so add that. write it now then polish and polish later. if it's not good, take it out. okay, repeat the song. repeat the clip. live in the moment. okay, this scene was badly written, take it out. write something new.

my process is like that. i become one with what im writing, with the inspirations, with the themes. i let myself become what the story is. i think in some ways, it is nuts, but its how i go about things.

i suppose that's often why im in my head most of the time. a lot of interesting things go on and a lot of interesting people to meet all the time. but you can only do so much until you get sleepy.

and sometimes, they also dont appear in dreams. but that's okay, there's always a next day. i'll meet those people again and live their lives with them again.

thank you so much for asking these questions!!! i hope these answers satisfy your curiosity <3

[cenviswasteland]

okay from best to worst top three! klapollo krisnix wrightworth go!! with explanations duh - 💾

oh guess what i just found in the bottom of my drafts. sorry floppy disk you asked me this in march and now its almost june. my bad pestie

anyway i would LOVE to. im gonna cut the post here because it ended up getting pretty damn long and i wanna save the mobile users some pain

[[[hey welcome back thanks for clicking a button]]]

a little preface first: i don't think any of them are the "worst". im a multiship freak and i think all three of these are best and worst in their own way. id love more info on what you MEAN by "best to worst" because that's so very vague. do you mean in terms of relationship dynamic? do you mean in terms of personal perception? do you mean how much i like them?? since i have no idea what exactly youre asking me here, im just gonna shove a whole bunch of headcanons in your face and hope for the best. xoxo follow me

3rd place - Wrightworth / Narumitsu

the iconic, original gangster, blah blah blah. forever cute. theyre just kind of a little bland to me. like i feel as tho we've explored basically everything there is to explore in wrightworth with the exception of the seven year gap? eh maybe thats a terrible take who knows. theyre still lovely tho i love the seemingly constant stream of gayass lawyers on my feed. everybody loves narumitsu!

2nd place - Klapollo

i really don't have much to say about klapollo either. theyre cute as hell and they definitely have a lot more to ponder on (considering that the only game we really get klavier in is AA4 [no DD doesnt count klavs ass got fucking Visited and he was written so poorly thats NOT my klavier gavin]). and generally speaking im an AA4 fiend its my favorite game in the entire series and so im biased. also, another pretty constant stream of gay lawyer content. shout out to hyundere who made like constant beautiful klapollo content until the One Piece happened lol [im a one piece enjoyer too dont come for me this is not criticism]

1st place - Krisnix

my GOD krisnix. theres a lot of things that go into me enjoying krisnix, but the biggest one is the fact that they have the fucking wackiest, least defined relationship in all of AA4. (also, another AA4 exclusive lol). with the 7yg in play, theres so much room to play around. and most of krisnix really exists in their questions and the vagueness of their relationship. theres like a billion things to ask. how does this relationship develop? how did they meet? what were they like for seven years? what led up to phoenix suspecting kristoph in, yknow, the Everything that happened in AA4? what kind of relationship did they even have? were they "friends" that just happened to pull each other into their gravity? were they holding hands and cuddling every night? were they practically strangers until one of them needed to "blow off steam"?

and not to mention these people are both private/secretive as HELL (phoenix is probably the cagiest man ive ever seen ever. and kristoph, aside from being a man with a fucking army of skeletons in his closet, gets an unfortunately small amount of screentime in the game and not a lot of time to get into the meat of his character/backstory [see: black psyche-locks]). that adds another layer. they certainly dont talk about each other. so how did... All Of This happen?

SO. MANY. QUESTIONS. and in general i like my ships a little more "toxic". and i mean. if you know ANYTHING about AA4, krisnix is pretty mutually toxic. i could totally make another post tearing into the inner guts of their dynamic and relationship-- hell, i could probably make FIVE.

moral of the story: krisnix forever. poggies.

anyway yeah i hope this uh. answered all your questions? how the hell do you end a tumblr post

[gaylittleguys]

2024 movie recap

New watches:

2024 releases:

I Saw The TV Glow: AUGH. Amazing. Definitely top movie of the year. Heartbreaking and gutwrenching, stunningly beautiful and extremely hitting all the boxes of things I love. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a movie that captures the feeling of suffocating in yourself that this does. Had to get it on dvd though I have yet to prepare myself to rewatch it… haven’t stopped thinking about it since I saw it in July.

Smile 2: ACTUALLY really really good! I didn’t really like the first one (which I watched the day before seeing this) but 2 is LEAGUES better. Really makes use of the premise and is scary and unsettling AND has some really sick practical effects!

Cuckoo: I really liked this. I didn’t see a lot of talk about it, though. It was weird and PLEASE watch it without looking anything up. I went in pretty much blind and it was great. Hunter Schafer is amazing and we should get Dan Steven’s to play more unsettling European creeps

Abigail: Dan Stevens again lmao. This was really really fun it was everything it needed to be! Watch this vampire child attack the fun cast of characters!

The Wild Robot: sooooo cute 😭 such a gorgeous movie too. I cried most of the way thought it (positive) (bc it was very cute) aughhh the robot learning emotions got me augghhhhh noooo

Dune 2: I actually didn’t like it as much as the first half, but that’s also a pretty high bar to be fair. Stunning movie.

New to me:

Brazil: wow! Definitely taking a lot of inspiration from 1984, this has such an interesting intricate world. Not as ‘weird’ as I had been told, but definitely a surreal dystopian journey.

Dark City: I have no idea how I hadn’t heard of this movie until this year??? I loved it, such a strange distinct style, and the kind of weird story I like. Near the ending I think it wasn’t quite as strong as the rest of it, but really good!! Check it out!!

Silence of the lambs: watched for the first time somehow. I did really like it, it’s extremely well acted, and sickeningly tense. It’s objectively a really amazing movie, definitely worth its status as a classic. But. It’s really hard to ignore how much it pushed real life transphobia which adds another layer onto an already difficult watch.

(Sillay) anthology horror: Campfire Tales, The Monster Club, and Creepshow. Apparently I’d seen some of Campfire Tales before?? It was silly, very campy (ha) very much the caliber of stories told around a campfire. Monster Club was unique, the in-between story was a lot more memorable than the actual tales, much help from Vincent Price. I LOVED Creepshow, it was 100% up my alley and was such a treat, a really fun homage to old horror comics.

2024 was the year of Alien a bit lol, watched the rerelease of the original in theatres for my birthday, which was fantastic. Watched both Prometheus and Covenant in a weekend while sick, and Romulus as well. I don’t think Prometheus deserves the dislike it got, Covenant was pretty bad (except for the little chestburster guy) and Romulus was fun and had some excellent practical effects.

The Exorcist (1973) and The Pope’s Exorcist double feature was a blast, I think The Exorcist would have hit better at the time or if I was more religious, but I liked it. The Pope’s Exorcist was a BLAST however it was very fun and kind of bad and I do keep telling people about the Catholic Avengers ending and the funniest sequel bait I’ve ever seen

Redline kicked ass what a fun movie and just stunning to look at. Lu Over The Wall was so so good too, I loved how gloopy the animation was.

Nimona was honestly kind of disappointing for me :( I was definitely holding it to the book which I loved and was rly important to me as a teen. It was cute and would have probably been better if I didn’t have something to compare it to, but honestly it felt a little toothless? I wanted to like it a lot more than I did. Rip goldenloin’s hair too 😔

Cursed and Wild Country: my only 2 werewolf movies this year :( I’m falling behind… Cursed had the bones of a good movie, you can really tell it was screwed over by the studio. The sfx are great and the werewolf suit is fantastic, but they ditch it to use ugly cgi or just have the werewolves in human form 😔 Wild Country was fun in a kind of bad way! The werewolves look kinda like boars? Bears??

The Sudbury Devil and The VVitch: New England religious horror lets gooooo. The Witch was great, loved the sense of atmosphere, and it was really immersed in the time in a way that’s rare to see. The Sudbury Devil was definitely trying really hard, but I don’t think it quite achieved its aims. It’s disorienting in a confusing way, not a surreal way, and it doesn’t feel as grounded in the time somehow, although I do like its commitment to period accurate pronunciations! A strange watch.

Barbarian: REALLY good. Nauseating horror. Didn’t know much before going in and I think that was a good choice!

Donnie Darko: was ok. Seemed like it was Trying to be really smart without reeeaaallllyyyyy saying anything smart. Was expecting it to be weirder than it was.

Blue Velvet: 4th times the charm on finishing this lmao. I did like it, but not as much as Lynch’s other work I’ve seen.

Singing in the rain: this one’s a classic for a reason!!!! It’s great!!

DnD delayed double feature: Dungeons and Dragons (2000) was uh. A journey. I actually would not really recommend it as it was stretching even a so-bad-it’s-good watch with friends. I don’t know why a dnd movie is seemingly so allergic to having anything dnd-ish in it. Not even Jeremy Irons as the villain and his strange blue lipped henchman could save this. The cast of heroes are completely forgettable and contribute somehow basically nothing to the plot. #ripSnails. HOWEVER, the new one, which I’ve seen before, is great!! Really fun to watch again with my dnd group. :)

Legend: what the fuck. Just check this out. How’d this get made. What’s going on.

Honourable horror mentions: Tucker and Dale vs Evil, Bloody Valentine, High Life, Infinity Pool, The Others

Rewatches:

The Green Knight: yesssss my beloved green knight ❤️ bought the special dvd for this this year. The people I know have seen this are pretty split on it, but I love it.

Jaws my angel ❤️

The Thing my love ❤️

Dead Poets Society: hadn’t seen this since I saw it in high school, still heartbreaking. What a good movie.

The Last Unicorn: didn’t really like this as a kid, but I hadn’t seen it for a while. It’s soo pretty. I really loved it on this rewatch.