#i need 5 more movies with them as nemeses

[rockingtheorange]

We don't talk enough about the lit murdering expression on Alex's face as Henry arrives driving in his James Bond manners

(And then calls him out for being drunk at the wedding)

[the-little-prophet]

BDRP Questionnaire 2019

Posting this on Charlie since I actually talked about him quite a bit! Let’s gooooo

Characters: Berlioz, Hades, Kiara, Nala, Andrina, Merida, Charlie, Apollo, John, Su, Ashleigh, Nemo, Jun

Pick one of your characters and talk about their growth (we recommend choosing an older character, but it’s up to you!) What about their story has surprised you? What are you proud of? How have they changed from their original inception to now?

This one goes out to Charlie. I pitched Charlie very deceptively-- claiming he was a prophet, aligning him, at first, with Calliope, making it look like Charlie’s magic was of the classical, Cassandra-inspired kind. But all along, I knew that what I wanted Charlie to be was more of this sci-fi/fantasy blend as an homage to his movie’s sci-fi bend too. This year, I got to actually reveal that Charlie is a time traveler after two years!! This is very exciting for me! I’ve enjoyed being able to lean into Charlie’s new image systems with this reveal, even though I’m out of my depth and breaking like 67 different time travel rules, probably lol. Still, it’s been great to take him to that place, and to invent Future-Charlie as both a deux ex machina and an expression of identity/choice/free will etc etc. I did not have Future-Charlie in mind when I created Charlie, so that was something I was proud of coming up with!

Pick another character and talk a little about where you WANT them to go. What are your plans for them going into the new year?

I’m going to talk about Nemo if only because everyone else feels like a spoiler lol. Nemo, as a relatively new character though, is still full-speed-ahead on his initial goals that I outlined for him in his application. Now that Nemo’s been established in the school and he has this little group of buddies, I want:

To focus on his wing. I want Nemo to push himself, get himself in a spot of trouble, potentially injure himself.

Reveal his wings to at least one mundus friend

Continuing to infuse his posts with body image issues. This is a slow build kind of plot that really is like...the broth of Nemo’s plot-soup, lol, while training for his placement is the chicken and belonging at school is the noodles….it needs to be this throughline more than like, para a, para b, para c. at least for now.

Pick a thread or a plot that you’re proud of and talk about why you loved it.

I could pick a lot of threads here lol it’s honestly so HARD. But I think I want to shout-out to the Charlie/Jim first kiss thread because it surprised even me and Hannah. We initially planned for the first kiss to be just that-- one kiss, then we done, Jim and Charlie go on to be friends. But like in the best of cases, Jim and Charlie’s palpable chemistry actually informed more of Charlie’s arc and opened up avenues previously closed to me/Charlie since Charlie had been so SHUT to the idea of love. So! I really loved that thread. Also because like, I literally made Charlie experience the big bang after his first kiss. And THAT’S the BEST way to use magic in my opinion. Like when you can infuse magic with an emotional catharsis-- I think the other time I did that super well was similar actually, when Herc kissed Kiki’s cheek and she grew a tree in his room lol. So yeah! Some of my best writing in that thread, amazing chemistry, big surprises. It was an absolute pleasure.

In terms of your own writing, identify 1-3 strengths and talk about why you think it’s one of your strengths.

-Image systems. I dragged myself for this, but I think it’s something that really helps me find a character’s voice and make myself excited to RP them! Also, I think it’s what people like about my writing sometimes. Maybe. IDK, lol. -Complex Emotion: I’m stealing this from my mentor who said I’m good at creating complex emotion and so you know its true. My most introverted characters get the bulk of this naturally--they are introspective and feely and give themselves the space to think and feel. But I really want to try to inject more into my extroverted characters. I think I’m doing well for Nemo, who had undiagnosed anxiety and so that informs a lot of his personality in very interesting-- very OPPOSITE-- ways as Berlioz; Nemo struggles with being alone because ‘alone’ means he gets too in his head. That’s been really fun for me and why he’s quickly become one of my fave voices to write (I know, u all thought it was because I am in love with Jimin (true), but no its bc Nemo is an anxious, big feeling baby and he’s always so Alive to me, plus i was made to write a fairy it was always my destiny.)

In terms of your own writing, identify 1-3 areas of improvement.

-Dialogue: PERSONALLY I feel like I’m not great at dialogue. Some posts are better than others and I think I’m good at like…..texting dialogue? IDK. I feel like I struggle in paras though to craft good dialogue. It’s just, rn, average dialogue. Of course not every post needs to have hilarious, punchy, great dialogue. But do my characters sound different? Am I doing all I can to create rhythm and speech patterns? -Filtering: Im being very picky rn, because actually I don’t do this too much, but I do it enough where I’m like, I gotta go read some really stellar writers adn ban myself from using “Feel” and “think” for like a whole month. What I’m talkinga bout is like: Ber realized/ Ber thought / Ber knew. That kind of writing is totally fine, but that’s about it. I need to come up with more creative ways to talk about feelings and abstract concepts!!!

-Character: I know everyone is probably like………….how dare lauryl put this here. But listen. I don’t think I struggle with character on RP. But outside of RP? Oh boy! The THING about RP is you MUST create a character, that’s your vessel for writing here, and so you do all that development plus u got the four years of worldbuilding informing that character, and literally EVERYTHING CHARACTER DRIVEN ITS...THERE IS NO OTHER WAY.  Outside of RP though I think I have struggled because my natural affinity is worldbuilding and shit like that. I’m type 5 baby, I am attracted to characters who let me poke at things I don’t know anything about, like even Jun, part of it really is like, petitions and grocery store management lmfadsofij. SOOOo idk I just need to be able to focus on crafting characters that are compelling vessels for the cool shit I like to do outside of RP.

Pick one of your plots, or even just a character, and come up with a list of 3-5 “mentor texts” where you can look for inspiration or research, then write a short (2-4 sentences) why you picked those texts. JOHN DARLING BREAKS INTO FAERYLAND 1. Call Down the Hawk/Raven Cycle: It’s no coincidence that my reread of Raven Cycle last winter played a pretty big part in inspiring this new version of John. The descriptions of the magical forest Cabeswater and the hunt for Glendower have the same kind of contemporary fantasy vibe that I really like for John. And of course, Ronan’s dream magic is very much intertwined with the faery realm feeling like a dream (and Ashleigh, obviously, as a dark faery who can manipulate them). More than that though, the attention paid to the psyches of each character and how they drive the plot forward is just… /chefs kiss. 2. The Mabinogian: I want to draw from these classic Welsh/British stories and incorporate them in creative ways! Or just as, like, motifs are something. :) I have tried to do this but would like to be a lot more intentional, instead of just being like lmao let me look up some random shit for this one reply~ 3. The Hazel Wood: This book deals with characters coming into the real world from a book world! This kind of goes along with the Mabinogian as I kind of ish want to do something similar, only treating the Mabinogian as a historical, cultural text as opposed to a fiction. This book also focuses a lot on fairy tale tropes (like numbers) which I really want to incorporate in John’s stuff. I want to ideally write some of my own fairy tales-- I have one in mind actually through Ashleigh but it’s related to John too since he’d the scholar of said stories.  

And now, a wishlist!

-Exploring Nemo’s disability. This is slightly challenging for me since we don’t have many fairies, but I’m brainstorming some ideas and hope to really kick it off in January, leading up to his Talent Placement Test.   -I really want to have a lot of town-centric plots for Jun. Would love to rp with the police officers! I want to have Jun try to get some ppl arrested tbh ahah, like, Fflew for loitering, or maybe reporting Mitte. I would love some arch nemeses tbh-- Mitte does seem like a good one. AND I want to submit at least three petitions next semester!! Maybe i should make that two!! Still!! -Do some Bonfamille plots. I already have something I’m really excited about and have already planned here so this is a teaser… -Keep writing essays. The fairies have been great, getting me really inspired to do these.What’s been an amazing mental exercise, and why I cannot stop writing these, is thinking about how the political philosophy of Pixie Hollow informs how it functions: technically, socioculturally etc. It’s really fun for me to basically build a communist thought project and then enact it for real. I feel like I’m learning a lot about...well, societies, lol, and how the material factors endlessly bleed into, and shape, ideas and beliefs (and vice versa). Also, I literally have to do these because when Nemo is IN the Hollow and I want to write him getting a glass of water, I’m faced with a lot of technical questions: do fairies have running water? Does he have to get it from a stream? How do they keep things cool? Etc etc. And that’s why I go off on these, and I’m excited to keep doing them, as many as I can, with feedback from my fellow fairies. Also, do want to do ones that are NOT fairy related, so we’ll see about that. -Write John backstory. He’s gone on a few other adventures and I’d like to actually one-shot those maybe lol. -Alternate Charlie Timeline: This is something that’s bopping around in my head and I haven’t found the perfect way to make it happen, but I want Charlie to travel to an alternate version of his life and get stuck. When I figure out the right way to do this, my partners will also get to rp alternate versions of their characters lol. That’s fun right!! Of course it is, we do it all the time with AUs, but this one obvi be more personal and more closely tied to canon.

OPTIONAL: Why do you RP? First and foremost, I RP because it’s writing for the sake of writing-- joy for joy. I think this is even more important this year as I’ve had to focus on mentorship writing outside of RP. RP became the place where I didn’t have to think so hard about making everything make sense, lol. It gave my brain a break so I could be less judgmental of myself and just have fun and do the most ridiculous stuff...and some of my fave stuff iS ridiculous because of that...like Nemo and Sindri making flower crowns or the ASC nonsense. It’s this kind of light, fluffy, low-stake (but still High Stake) stuff that provided me endless joy when I needed it the most. Second of all, I RP because I really want to invest in people’s creative energy. I think doing so gives back to myself. Building canon, helping people brainstorm, seeing people grow-- I feel like a proud mom when I get to have this kind of mentorship role myself. I talked to MK about this, but even though Sam left to go off and do greater things, that’s like-- to me, it was a lot like he was graduating from this weird BDRP school I’ve helped create. I felt nothing but pride and happiness for him and really felt like, if BDRP was to explode tomorrow, I ACHIEVED the thing I set out to do when, four years ago, I sat on my computer and drafted BDRP’s mission and vision and committed myself to this admin role. And THAT’S what I want ideally-- for BDRP to be this collaborative place that doesn’t focus too much on what makes sense, on sitewide plots that force people into roles. I have always wanted plots like ASC and John’s search for Excalibur to be able to exist side by side, and I think we’ve done that. Now we just have to tend this garden, don’t we, haha? May BDRP bear many delicious fruit.

[spellsword177]

Sixteen Favorite Animated Disney Villains

In my post last week, I mentioned that my picks for the most evil animated Disney villains were not necessarily my favorite villains.  What follows are my sweet (or possibly not so sweet) sixteen villains.  Remember, this is only my personal ranking and may not reflect what you might consider the “best” Disney villains.

16.  Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland

"THAT’S VERY IMPORTANT!  Jury, write that down.”

I’ve always enjoyed how she can be both terrifying and funny at the same time.  It’s a good thing Wonderland seems to run on nonsense as this royal obsessed with croquet and decapitation, would not have made it in the real world.

15.  Yzma from The Emperor’s New Groove

"To the Secret Lab!"

She is probably the funniest Disney villain with her overly complicated schemes, disastrous henchman, and constantly flying the face of viewer expectation. Her movie was also original in making a meta comment on the villains somehow beating the heroes to the secret lab being unexplainable.

14.  Gaston form Beauty and the Beast

"Belle, it's about time that you got your head out of those books and paid attention to more important things... like me."

The most interesting thing about him was how he started out as the stereotypical hero and swapped places with the stereotypical villain over the course of the film.  He demonstrates mob mentality perfectly towards the end.

13.  Judge Claude Frollo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame

"And he shall smite the wicked and plunge them into the fiery pit!"

Cold, cruel, and fanatical.  This beast of a man frequently abused and killed the innocent in order to enact his form of law and order.  I can see what many people love about him as a villain.

12.  Oogie Boogie from The Nightmare Before Christmas

"Ashes to ashes and dust to dust! Ooh, I'm feeling weak... with hunger!"

He sings one of my favorite villain songs and threatens Santa Claus with torture and death.  It’s only a pity he didn’t have a larger role in the film.

11.  Dr. Facilier from The Princess and the Frog

"I'm a royal myself on my mother's side."

A villain tempting the heroes with what they want rather than what they need, all while singing a Jazzy tune.  He was easily the best part of his film

10.  Evil Queen/Grimhilde/Witch from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

"Now, I'll be fairest in the land!"

She was cold as the Evil Queen and creepy as the witch after going through an awesome transformation sequence.  It is only a pity her scenes with the prince were cut due to the difficulty in animation at the time.

9.  Magica de Spell from the Scrooge McDuck Comics and DuckTales

"Hello, Scroogey. I've missed you."

None of Scrooge McDuck’s nemeses have been has dangerous as Magica de Spell.  I have enjoyed both voice actresses who have played her.

8.  Lady Tremaine from Cinderella

"I never go back on my word!"

Lady Tremaine will always hold a special place on my lists as she was my first Disney villain growing up; her vicious smile is forever etched in my brain. That VHS tape was comparatively indestructible against the last of the video cassette tapes released.

 7.  The Headless Horseman from The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad

“YAAH, HA, HA, HA, HA!”

That terrifying laugh always draws you in.  He was one of the few Disney villains to actually give children nightmares.  I always remember the part where he seems to sail through the air leaping after Ichabod Crane.

6.  Chernabog from “Night on Bald Mountain” sequence in Fantasia

“...”

Dark and disturbing would be the best way to describe him.  Perched high in his mountain he silently calls to his minions for a night of reckless frolicking. He was also a villain who haunted children in their dreams.

5.  Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty

"Well, quite the glittering assemblage! Royalty, nobility, the gentry and how quaint, even the rabble!"

It may not be a popular opinion, but I have enjoyed all versions of Maleficent.  Whether she’s a wicked fairy godmother bitter over not being invited or a misunderstood victim of King Stefan’s ambitions.

4.  Shere Khan from The Jungle Book

"Now, I'm going to close my eyes and count to ten. It makes the chase more interesting... for me."

One of those who could be described as “deliciously evil.”  No animal or man (save Mowgli) would dare go up against him.  My favorite scene has to be when he confronts Kaa.

3.  Jafar from Aladdin

"I think it's time to say 'good-bye' to Prince Abubu…”

Manipulative, sarcastic, and diabolical.  It was always fun to watch Jafar scheme with Iago.  It was always a pity his villain song in the original film was reduced to a reprise of “Prince Ali.”

2.  Taka/Scar from The Lion King

"Long live the king."

He has perhaps the best villain song of the bunch (not counting “Yo ho, Yo ho! A Pirate’s Life for Me”).  Like most villains, his biggest weakness was his followers who failed to kill Simba as ordered.

 1.  Ursula the Sea Witch from The Little Mermaid

“So much for true love!"

She was clever and manipulative, but wasn’t known for playing fair.  Her song and dance routine was fantastic, and her plot to sabotage Ariel was genius.  It was a pity she couldn’t appear in the sequels having died at the end.

[weekendwarriorblog]

The Weekend Warrior July 16, 2021 - SPACE JAM: A NEW LEGACY, ESCAPE ROOM: TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS, PIG, ROADRUNNER, GUNPOWDER MILKSHAKE, and More!

We’re starting to get into the thick of summer where we’re likely to get two or maybe even three wide releases a week, and that’s definitely the case this weekend, even if it’s likely that Marvel’s Black Widow will continue to run rampant and should stay at #1 for a second weekend in a row. I also was busier than usual due to the Emmy nominations yesterday, but I now hopefully have a few easier months until the actual Emmys. (Famous last words.)

We actually have two sequels this week, one a sequel to a movie from a few years back and the other a sequel (of sorts) to a movie from 1996, so yeah, released a few months away from the 25th Anniversary of its predecessor. That always goes well.

We’ll start with SPACE JAM: A NEW LEGACY (Warner Bros.), the long-awaited sequel/reboot of the 1996 movie that captured Michael Jordan at the height of his popularity and paired him with the Looney Tunes i.e. Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, etc. For years, Warner Bros. and various parties have been trying to make a sequel, but it took basketball superstar, Lebron James and no less than Ryan (Black Panther) Coogler, to finally get the sequel made.

Directed by Malcolm D. Lee (Girls Trip, Barbershop: The Next Cut), the sequel involves James and his son Dom (newcomer Cedric Joe) having issues that are taken advantage by an A.I. named Al G. Rhythm (played by Don Cheadle) who brings James and Dom to the Warner Bros. “Server-verse” for a basketball game that teams James with the Looney Tunes against his son and a group of super-powered NBA and WNBA stars i.e. The Goon Squad.

Yeah, it’s a similar concept as what led to the 1996 movie that capitalized on Jordan’s popularity and threw in other NBA greats like Charles Barkley and Patrick Ewing, plus a little Bill Murray, and then lots of Warner Bros’ popular toon characters. That original movie opened with $27.5 million in 2,650 theaters in mid-November 1996 against the second weekend of Mel Gibson’s Ransom, but it went on to gross $90.4 million domestically with the bump from the holidays (which A New Legacy doesn’t have). In some ways, the movie was a response to the success of the 1988 hybrid Who Framed Roger Rabbit, which included many of the Looney Tunes, despite it being a Disney movie.

Looney Tunes movies (and even movies based on WB properties like the Cartoon Network) haven’t done particularly well since the first movie with Looney Tunes: Back in Action opening in November 2003 with just $9.3 million and grossing just $20.5 million domestically, which isn’t good. Space Jam: A New Legacy is Warner Bros’ first attempt to bring its toons back to theaters, and the company will be watching it closely since it has already started production on Coyote vs. Acme, a CG animated film featuring the age-old nemeses.

As far as basketball movies, the comedy Uncle Drew, which also starred Lil Rel Howery oddly, that opened with a decent $15.4 million in the summer of 2018 and grossed $42.6 million domestically, but that’s without the name brand of “Space Jam” or the beloved toons that will be a bigger selling point to kids than the basketball.

Working in Space Jam’s favor is that it’s a movie both for adults who were kids when the first movie came out, as well as modern-day kids who love sports or the toons, and that should help drive business over the weekend. What is likely to hurt is that the reviews, so far, have been absolutely TERRIBLE - 35% on Rotten Tomatoes, and while that might not put off the kids, it certainly will put off their parents.

The movie is also debuting simultaneously on HBO Max, just like other Warner Bros. movies this year, although as we’ve seen with Godzilla vs. Kong and Mortal Kombat, that doesn’t necessarily hamper how a movie might do in theaters. One thing that’s changed is that Disney announced its PVOD numbers from Black Widow’s Disney+ debut over the weekend, which might change people’s tunes about feeling the need to go to theaters to see a movie like this, and that certainly might affect Space Jam’s opening weekend, but I think it will mean an opening in the mid-to-high $20 millions vs. something in the mid-$30 millions. It also doesn’t have too much family competition until Disney’s Jungle Cruise in two weeks, so it should be able to make $70 million in domestic theaters even with it being readily available on HBO Max.

Mini-Review: I’ll freely admit that I don’t have the long-term nostalgia for the original Space Jam of so many others. In fact, I only saw it for the first time a few days ago on my TV set, which may be the way many will see Space Jam: A New Legacy due to the fact that it’s on HBO Max. It’s just another casualty of my ‘90s when I wasn’t seeing many movies and also wasn’t going to see “kids’ movies.” But I do have a soft spot in my heart for the Looney Tunes, and HBO Max even did a pretty good job with its revival last year with some new shorts.

Unfortunately, this is more of a Lebron James/Warner Bros jam, to the point where you might wonder whether Lebron dictated how he wanted to be depicted to the gaggle of writers, and then Warner Bros came in and said, “Make sure to mention how great all our other properties are as well!”

The general plot involves Don Cheadle’s dumbly pun-named Al G. Rhythm -- I promise you’ll cringe everytime you hear that name -- trying to get attention by creating a showstopping basketball game between James and his son in a video game designed by the latter, and for whatever reason, it’s James who turns to Bugs Bunny to put together a team. It’s nearly 30 minutes before we finally see the Looney Tunes together, and that’s probably the best part of the movie, as Bugs goes to visit different worlds in the Warners “server-verse” to find his compatriots. I won’t spoil some of the movie worlds it visits, but these are some of the movie’s funniest scenes, although the laughs are fleeting since they’re relatively short gags. They're ruined by the movie going overboard in an attempt to throw James into some of these worlds, particularly the DC Comics superhero-verse, which seems like it might be influenced by the cartoons but never quite achieves that style of animation.

An hour into the movie, the Tune Squad is turned into 3-dimensional CG, as they face the Goon Squad team of NBA and WNBA all-stars transformed into creatures with superpowers. It's just unable to recover as the movie’s last hour focuses on that game, which is fine other than the fact that it's an awkward combination of the CG players with the audience being all sorts of background cosplayers acting as if they were found on Hollywood Boulevard or Times Square. This is the first time in a long time where I felt that the background actors ruined every scene... and then, of course, James and Cheadle are in there in a guise that seems to be a mix of human and CG.

I’ve been a fan of director Malcolm Lee for quite a long time, but Space Jam: A New Legacy is just an absolute disaster of a mess. Not that any of that matters much, because James is clearly a better ball player than he is an actor, and that fact keeps any of the movie from really gelling or offering much in terms of fun or excitement. I wanted to like the movie or find out what so many kids seemed to enjoy about the original movie 25 years ago, but sadly, that just never happened.

Rating: 5/10

The movie I’m looking forward to the most this week and will probably have seen by the time I write this is the high-concept horror sequel, ESCAPE ROOM: TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS (Sony), which follows up a little over two years since the original Escape Room. This one is also directed by Adam Robitel and starring Taylor Russell and Ben Logan as survivors of an escape room created by an evil corporation doing experiments to see how people will act. The movie benefitted from putting terror into a very familiar and popular world of escape rooms, which obviously have not been quite as prominent since COVID racked the land.

The original Escape Room opened the very first weekend of January 2019, which has seen a lot of horror hits over the years, and it proved to be a wise move by Sony since it opened with $18.2 million despite the lack of any big stars. It also had better legs than most horror movies, grossing $57 million domestically and $98 million overseas. It also did quite well in DVD and Blu-ray sales, which meant that the sequel was greenlit fairly quickly.

Unlike Space Jam: A New Legacy, the Escape Room sequel is coming out a little over two years since the first movie, which is good since more young people will remember it. Another advantage it has is that it’s ONLY playing in theaters, plus it’s also getting a full 9-hour advantage by opening on Thursday afternoon, so it could make quite a bit of money before Space Jam shows up and takes over the second spot behind Marvel’s Black Widow. It’s also PG-13 so teenagers who might not have much interest in other movies out there (or they’ve already seen them) will be able to see the movie as a group without adults.

That said, I’m not quite sure the Escape Room sequel can open anywhere near the first movie only because it’s getting a summer release where it might not be getting quite the attention of other high-profile movies out there. I’d like to think it can pull in somewhere around $15 million and maybe moviegoers will surprise me since that first movie was generally popular and its sequel can’t be viewed on some streamer day and date. We’ll see if it can then translate that into a $35 to 40 million domestic total, since I’m not sure it can match the take of the original at least domestically.

My review for Escape Room: Tournament of Champions is over at Below the Line, and you'll see that I liked it quite a bit.

This Week’s Top 10 Predictions:

Since I don’t think that Space Jam: A New Legacy will make $40 million this weekend, that keeps Black Widow at the top for a second weekend in a row.

1. Black Widow (Marvel/Disney) - $35 million -57%

2. Space Jam: A New Legacy (Warner Bros.) - $27.8 million N/A

3. Escape Room: Tournament of Champions (Sony) - $15 million N/A

4. F9 (Universal) - $6 million -48%

5. The Boss Baby: Family Business (Universal/DreamWorks Animation) - $4.8 million -46%

6. The Forever Purge (Universal) - $3.8 million -47%

7. A Quiet Place Part II (Paramount) - $2.4million -28%

8. Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain (Focus) - $2.1 million N/A

9. Cruella (Disney) - $1.9 million -20%

10. The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard (Lionsgate) - .9 million -47%

This week’s “Chosen One” is Rosalynde LeBlanc and Tom Hurwitz’s documentary, CAN YOU BRING IT: BILL T. JONES AND D-MAN IN THE WATERS (Kino Lorber), which is a surprisingly good documentary that combines a classic work of contemporary dance with how it originated from out of the AIDS pandemic of the ‘80s. Bill T. Jones was running the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company with his love and partner Arnie Zane, when the latter died from AIDS, and the deaths that followed led Jones to create “D-Man in the Waters.” Decades later, LeBlanc is performing “D-Man” with her college dance class, and she, along with Cinematographer Tom Hurwitz, ASC, capture that experience and embellish it with interviews with Jones and the original company performers.

Honestly, I’ve always been a bit reticent about dance and movies about dance, even though I’m almost always find that I enjoy them, like, for example, Wim Wenders’ Pina and the Cunningham doc from a few years back. The same thing happened with Can You Bring It, where I went in expecting to hate it or not find it interesting, and nothing could be further from the truth. FIrst of all, the original dance performance is something to behold, because there’s just an amazing physicality involved, which is why it’s amazing to watch LeBlanc (and the Jones himself) discussing the conditions in which the piece was written, but also getting some historical context about New York City at the time and how it was left ravaged by AIDS.

Hurwitz has tons of experience with documentary but LeBlanc is a relative newbie, but the two of them working together create a fantastic portrait of Jones, his amazing choreography work, and how the world of dance has been improved by the existence of his work and younger dancers trying to recapture the spirit of the original work. As I said, this movie was a pleasant surprise by how much I enjoyed it, since it woudln’t normally be my thing, but if you have even a remote interest in NYC’s iconic contribution to dance and how it was torn apart by the ‘80s AIDS crisis, you should give this a look.

Can You Bring It opens at the Film Forum this Friday, plus it will also be available via Virtual Cinema nationwide. Also starting at the Film Forum on Friday is its first series since the pandemic, a comprehensive Humphrey Bogart hardboiled retrospective with 19 films in 35mm and DCP.

You can also read my interview with Director/DoP Tom Hurwitz over at Below the Line later today.

A movie I’ve really been looking forward to seeing is Morgan Neville’s ROADRUNNER: A FILM ABOUT ANTHONY BOURDAIN (Focus Features), which does for the famed celebrity author and chef what Neville’s previous movie, Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, did for Mister Rogers, really going in-depth into the life and career of the celebrated and opinionated foodie. Bourdain committed suicide in June 2018, leaving a lot of his friends and fans wondering why he would take his own life when he was at the height of his career. Neville’s film looks at that, but it takes some time before it gets there.

Oddly, even though I was a huge Bourdain fan and even moreso after reading his book, “Kitchen Confidential,” this isn’t my favorite movie Neville has made, and I’m still trying to figure out why. Sure, there’s tons of extra never-before-seen footage from the taping of his various world-travelling television shows. They do show us another side of Bourdain that maybe we didn’t get to see from what was eventually aired.

I guess I was disappointed that Neville didn’t try to talk to Asia Argento, or maybe he did, and she declined? (I was hoping to talk to Morgan Neville for Below the Line about this movie, but it wasn’t meant to be.) Bourdain’s friends and co-workers on the show talk about how Argento’s inclusion into Bourdain’s life disrupted the creation of his television show, particularly the Hong Kong episode Argento directed, which apparently wasn’t without its problems, even before it was yanked from CNN after Bourdain’s death. No one blames Argento for Bourdain's choice to kill himself, but it would have been nice to get her take on the man for a more complete profile.

Even so, one of my biggest issues with the movie -- and this is where I prove unequivocally that absolutely NO ONE reads this column -- has nothing to do with Neville’s filmmaking prowess or storytelling ability, but more to do with the complete inability by many that talk about his death to understand why there have been so many prominent suicides by hanging: Bourdain, Michael Hutchence of INXS, Chris Connelly of Soundgarden, and quite a few more. When you make the decision to end your life by hanging, there’s only two ways it can go: you fail miserably i.e. the rope snaps, the knots aren’t tied properly... or you die. Even if you have second thoughts while you’re standing on the chair, once you drop, you’re dead even if you merely slipped. This is why hanging has been such a popular form of execution for hundreds and hundreds of years. It’s hard to screw it up. Unfortunately, when you’ve decided you no longer want to live, and you decide to hang yourself, it’s much easier to succeed in doing so… and for better or worse, I’m not sure that Neville or any of Bourdain’s friends interviewed have ever been to that point where they tried to hang themselves to really understand that. It’s minor and probably will be a non-issue to most seeing this movie, but having been at that point of hopelessness myself (probably for far different reasons than Bourdain), that bothered me a little. That sort of context would have helped people who watch the movie understand Bourdain's last moments.

Despite those issues, Roadrunner brilliantly captures the spirit and tone of Bourdain’s character as depicted on his various television series. That's why Roadrunner is a movie that mostly worked for me as a fan of Bourdain’s amazing writing and television work.

Focus continues to give its movies semi-wide releases, and this one is going pretty wide into 800 theaters, so it might be able to peek into the top 10, maybe?

Another movie coming to theaters is Michael Sarnoski’s PIG (NEON), starring Nicholas Cage as Robin Feld, a reclusive hermit of a man who once was a legendary Portland chef. He’s now living on his own in the middle of nowhere with his truffle-foraging pig, but one night, some people break in and steal the pig, thinking that it’s their path to fortunes. Robin isn’t having any of it, and he follows his pig’s trail to a fight club and then to the father of one of his main buyers (Alex Wolff).

Even though I’ve known about this movie for some time, I didn’t really know that much about it. Like man, I expected it to be a straight-up revenge action flick a bit like John Wick, but the only thing this has in common with that is that this as terrific a showcase for Cage as an actor as that was for Keanu Reeves. Spending much of the movie completely bedraggled and beaten-up, this is still a far more subdued performance for Cage than some might be expecting, and a slower and more subdued film with only a few moments achieving anything that could be considered “action.”

Even so, this is such a great vehicle for Cage, and Alex Wolff is also quite good, plus there’s a foodie aspect to the movie that should make it a great double feature with Roadrunner. It should be expected with so much of it involving truffles, which not many people outside of chefs and gourmands know much about

Some people might go into Pig with the wrong expectations of this being some sort of genre revenge flick, but it’s in fact a pretty solid character drama, truly showing off Cage’s terrific ability at creating character, so hopefully, it will find its audience even it might not be the one some might expect.

Rating: 7.5/10

Pig will actually open in a few hundred theaters nationwide so plenty of opportunities to see it that way.

Netflix has a duo of high-profile films this week, including the action-thriller GUNPOWDER MILKSHAKE (Netflix), starring Karen Gillan and directed by Israreli filmmaker Navot Papushado (Big Bad Wolves). Gillan plays Sam, an assassin for a group called The Firm, a second generation assassin no less since her mother Scarlet (Lena Headey) was also an assassin. One day, she finds herself on the bad side of a crime lord whose son she killed (on a mission) and finds herself having to fight off dozens of killers as she tries to protect that man’s 9-year-old daughter Emily (Chloe Coleman).

I can’t believe how much I absolutely hated a good part of this movie, because I generally like Gillan and some of the others in this movie, but I don’t any of them are doing particularly good work. For instance, Paul Giamatti is in full-on scenery-chewing mode as head of the Firm, but there’s also a great trio of women known as the Librarians, played by Michelle Yeoh, Carla Gugino and Angela Bassett, who I wish were in the film more than they actually are, because they literally are the best part of the film. (I also was pretty disappointed by Coleman’s bland performance lacking any of the personality she showed in My Spy, in which she was very funny.)

Basically, it feels like this is another filmmaker who has seen Tarantino’s Kill BIll a few dozen times and thought they could do something just as cool. The fact that it’s so flagrant and obvious in its ripping that movie off, it’s almost impossible to fully enjoy it. What’s really missing is Tarantino’s knack for sharp writing, because the writing in this movie is just terrible.

I thought the score was probably the most interesting aspect of the movie, but even that was highly derivative of what Tarantino has done. Even the needle drop choices during the bigger action pieces feel too much like something Tarantino might do, but generally better.

Sure, there’s some cool action scenes, and the last act generally gets better once Headey and the Librarians rejoin the fray to fight off a cadre of henchmen, but the writing never improves, so it’s just a movie that relies on far too many “oooo… Cooooool!” moments that never really come together.

As much as Gunpowder Milkshake tries to be cool and stylish, it always feels like it’s trying too hard without understanding why movies like Tarantino’s and others work so well. Any of the bad-ass fight sequences are constantly marred as soon as there tries to be any sort of talking or story.

Rating: 5.5/10

The third part of the horror series based on R.L. Stine’s books, FEAR STREET PART 3: 1666 (Netflix), will hit the streamer on Friday, this one being a prequel to the previous two movies, taking place in 1666. I’m still behind on this series, but looking forward to a night where I can finally watch all three.

I definitely had more movies to watch than usual that I just didn’t get to include some of them like Martin WIlson’s directorial debut, the horror-thriller GREAT WHITE (RLJEfilms/Shudder), which stars Katrina Bowden and others, about a tourist trip that turns into a nightmare when five passengers on a sea plane get stranded miles from the shore and try to survive as they run out of supplies and run into, you guessed it, a shark. Sounds like my kind of movie, but I’ve just been swamped.

I was pretty tickled by the premise for Jean-Paul Salomé’s MAMA WEED (Brainstorm Media/Music Box Films), starring the wonderful Isabelle Hupert as Patience, a French-Arabic translator for the Paris anti-narcotics police unit who interprets calls between the city’s top drug dealers. She’s taking care of her aging mother and one day she hears the son of one of her mother’s nurses, so she tries to protect him but ends up with a huge cache of hash, so she becomes a drug dealer herself, becoming the persona of “Mama Weed.” Nominated for a César for its screenplay, the movie will open in select theaters this Friday and then be available On Demand on July 23.

Another doc of note is Aisling Chin-Yee and Chase Joynt’s NO ORDINARY MAN (Oscilloscope), which tells the story of American jazz musician Billy Tipton who had spent his entire career passing off as a man, unbeknownst to his wife and son that he was born female. It’s an intriguing story that unfortunately got mangled by the talk shows after Tipton’s death in 1989, but the filmmakers use an interesting way to tell the story rather than using talking heads. I haven’t actually watched it yet, but it sounds intriguing. It will open at the IFC Center in New York and the Landmark Nuart in L.A. on Friday.

Debuting on Hulu this week is the amazing six-part docuseries called MCCARTNEY 3, 2, 1 (Hulu), which as you can safely assume is about Beatles founder Paul McCartney, covering his sixty-year career as he talks with producer Rick Rubin in a studio filled with instruments and tapes of some of the great songs that Rubin mixes different elements up and down to discuss how they were done with McCartney. I generally love music docs, but this is something truly special that I expect to rewatch many times over the next few years.

Netflix also has a new docuseries called HEIST (Netflix) and is debuting a doc about tennis great, Naomi Osaka, this week. Meanwhile, the anthology prequel series, American Horror Stories, debuts on FX and FX on Hulu this week, as well, so it’s a pretty busy weekend, which was bound to happen after last week’s bye week.

Other movies out this week that I didn’t get to include:

Die in a Gunfight (Lionsgate) Out of Death (Vertical) Casanova, Last Love (Cohen Media) How to Deter a Robber

Next week, two more new movies, including the action prequel, SNAKE EYES, starring Henry Golding, and M. Night Shyamalan’s new thriller, OLD.

[hiverforesteevee]

Teen Titans Fridge Highlights

My favorite entries from Teen Titans’ Fridge page on TV Tropes

Some of these entries may be edited/abridged/modified, but for the most part, these are copy/pasted directly from the page.  I didn’t write any of these, I just compiled them here for my own amusement.  Go to the site for even more intelligence and insight on this fantastic show!

SPOILERS

·        "Things Change". Season 5's big idea is that Beast Boy has to learn to grow up. We all thought the Brotherhood of Evil, his old nemeses, would do it. We thought his early days with the Doom Patrol would handle it. Nope, by the end of the Doom Patrol cameo, we learned his first name. By the time the Brotherhood was beaten, he made a brain freeze joke (all the Titans groaned at that one). No, the point of the last episode wasn't to sink ships. It wasn't a desperate attempt to write off Terra. It was there to remind you there are more things than heroes and villains out there. Terra lost her powers and she was glad for it; she couldn't handle being a hero or villain. In the last scene, Beast Boy finally gets it through his head that there is more than Black or White morals out there and is finally ready to move onto the next stage of his life.

·        The much-maligned episode "Troq" is usually accused of being anvilicious about how racism is bad. And it really is, but there are two subtler, much braver aesops hidden within it. One is that racism isn't always confined to Card Carrying Villains. Val-Yor's presented as a genuine hero who really is (all Alternate Character Interpretations about the Locrix being innocent victims aside) trying to save the galaxy. At one point, he even orders Starfire to leave him behind and save herself - and yet he's also a racist bastard toward Starfire. Now usually, in a television show where an otherwise sympathetic character is a racist, he'll learn his lesson by the end of the episode, which leads to the Broken Aesop that it's somehow up to the victim to win over racists. But Val-Yor doesn't change, and the Titans instead accept that there will always be people like him, and simply refuse to tolerate his behavior and tell him he has to leave. This is actually a much more subdued and realistic aesop than the usual message that either only complete monsters can be racists, or that any racist who's not a complete monster can always be redeemed by the victim working hard enough to prove herself.

·        Many people who thought of, when asked if he faced prejudice, Cyborg saying that he was "half robot" as a cop-out from saying that he was black. However, when thinking about it, race isn't the only source of discrimination as what Cyborg could've been referencing is that the handicapped (physically disabled people, amputees), which he's technically a part of, are often discriminated against as well. So it wasn't Cyborg copping out of referencing himself as part of the more-expected minority group rather than referencing a more-overlooked one. Also, considering how little Starfire knows about Earth's culture, customs, and even very language, she probably wouldn't know what "being black" is, not to mention know anything about racism towards blacks, but she'd be much more likely to understand the idea of being handicapped or part robot, and Cyborg realized that.

·        "Stranded", despite being a (very fun and cute) filler episode, has this incredibly well done subtle theme of miscommunication and breakdown in communication running all throughout it. The Titans are in space because a satellite space station stopped broadcasting. The Monster of the Week's power is a sonically disruptive scream that breaks up radio waves (among other things), directly leading to the Titans mistakenly separating and being scattered on the alien planet, out of contact from each other. All three conflicts of the episode involve mixed signals regarding communication - Starfire and Robin's misunderstanding of their feelings and the nature of their relationship, Cyborg's feeble attempts to instruct the mechanically inept Beast Boy on how to fix the T-ship, Raven's inability to convey her annoyance to the miniature egg-people following her. The symbolism is particularly noticeable when Robin and Starfire are discussing the definition of 'girlfriend'; not only does obscuring fog spring up concealing the two from each other, but then they discover a wide chasm has appeared between them. It's pretty freaking brilliant.

·        In "Snowblind", the team meets the radioactive hero Red Star. The character who spends the most time with Red Star and forms the greatest bond with Red Star is Starfire. Random choice? Probably not. See, Red Star is the hero's second identity. His original hero name in the comics, from his first stint in the Teen Titans comic was Starfire.

·        During the theme song, when the lyrics say "when the world needs heroes on patrol," it shows Beast Boy on screen, an ex-member of the Doom Patrol.

·        Also, when the lyrics say "With their superpowers they unite," it shows Starfire on screen, who is the reason the Teen Titans formed.

·        And when it says "Never met a villain that they liked," it shows Cyborg, who had a crush on Jinx in Season Three, foreshadowing her Heel–Face Turn in Season Five.

·        When Raven shows up, the lyrics say "When there's evil on the attack, you can rest knowing they got your back". This foreshadows Trigon's coming to Earth, and how she gives her friends some of her powers, to protect them from his spell.

·        For Robin, "They've got the bad guys on the run, they never stop until the job is done" is sung. The latter part hints at the lengths to which Robin will go, particularly against Slade.

·        It's debatable, but there's also one for Terra, since her powers are earth-based, and she severely lacks control over them. "'Cuz when the world is losing all control..."

·        Raven's frostiness toward Terra is extremely saddening when you realize that the reason for it is that at least partially because Raven, The Empath senses all of Terra's issues and sees a part of herself in Terra. Terra's out of control powers kind of demonstrate the danger Raven could be if she doesn't meditate and it scares her. This is made worse by the fact that with dangerous powers that are really hard to control, Raven could have been exactly what Terra needed to mature into a real hero and the best possible one to teach her to control her abilities.

·        In "Lightspeed", Jinx rather aggressively (she pretty much shoved See-More out of her way after he mentioned it) denies—twice—that the Egyptian necklace she was trying to steal from the museum brings good luck. Why? Because she secretly hoped that it did, and that was partly why she was stealing it.

·        In Lightspeed, Kid Flash questions why the Hive Five are called such with six members. The villains couldn't think of an answer, even though it was standing right next to them. Billy Numerous is never just one person, physically or mentally. Their numbers are constantly being shifted between six to six hundred. So he's considered a variable rather than a core aspect. Alternatively, it was a subtle way of pointing out that Jinx doesn't really belong there, and foreshadowing her eventual Heel–Face Turn, since that's basically what the whole episode is about anyway.

·        In Go, Starfire doesn't fly until after her shackles are removed. This seems odd until you remember that a Tamaranian's flight is powered by joy. It's likely that until Robin removed her shackles, she couldn't muster any joy while being reminded that she was a slave to the Gordanians.

·        Why are BB’s prehistoric forms so inaccurate? Because his shifting relies on him having a good idea of what the animal he's shifting into looks like. Since it's unlikely that he's ever seen a real dinosaur (not counting birds), he would have to base dinosaur/pterosaur shifting off of any portrayal he has actually seen. And since he's a nerdy movie buff, chances are those portrayals aren't from books or documentaries.

·        In "Winner Take All" Speedy tells wildebeest "may the best man win" before changing to "may the champion win" when Wildebeest seems to take offence at being called a man. The implication in the episode is that he isn't a man because he isn't human, but issue #16 of the tie in comic shows he isn't a man because he is actually a small child.

[peachlover94]

Gladiator Voltron I: LOTG - concept movie treatment

GLADIATOR VOLTRON I: LIGHT OF THE GLADIATORS

written by Robert D.C. Barnes III (PeachLover94) Inspired by "Voltron: Defender of the Universe" created for World Events Productions by Peter Keefe, John Teichmann and Toei Animation Based on "Lightspeed Electroid Albegas" created for Toei Animation by Saburo Yatsude (Kozo Morishita, Akiyoshi Sakai, Shozo Uehara, Hiroshi Okawa and Toyohiro Ando) 30 East Trillium Circle

The Woodlands, TX 77381

936-231-8467

TREATMENT: 07-22-2017                                               2006.cosmo@gmail.com NOTE: This proposal is the property of New Frontier Cinema (PeachLover94 's production company) produced in partnership with DreamWorks SKG (Storyteller Distribution Co., LLC), World Events Productions (WEP LLC) and Toei Company, Ltd. Any unlicensed exhibition, copying or redistribution without written consent of the mentioned parties is strictly prohibited. All rights reserved.

Gladiator Voltron I: Light of the Gladiators

Story Treatment

The Logline

In the Middle Universe, three teenagers on planet Albega find three giant humanoid robots for a science fair project competition. They then find they have found the Gladiator Voltron that protected Albega in the past, and they now must pilot Voltron to stop the One Empire of the Derinja.

Main Characters

1) DIEGO ♂ - Age: 14. Full Name: Diego Daisaku Enjoji Rodriguez. Species: Terran. Homeworld: Aoba City, Planet Albega (Earth colony in the Hyperion Galaxy/Middle Universe). Physical Features: A Human phenotype with an age-appropriate height, Brown eyes, Olive skin tone, Round human ears, Black hair in a layered shag style, and age-appropriate register of voice. Diego lives with his mother Valentine on Albega, and is just starting to come out of his shell after his father died in a household accident. His aptitude with technology and even preference for trying to employ creative strategies to defeat anyone who threatens him and his friends makes him the perfect pilot for the Black Alpha of Wisdom. 2) JACOBY ♂ - Age: 14. Full Name: Jacoby Tetsuya Jin Scott. Species: Terran. Homeworld: Aoba City, Planet Albega (Earth colony in the Hyperion Galaxy/Middle Universe). Physical Features: A Human phenotype with an age-appropriate height, Blue eyes, Caucasian skin tone, Round human ears, Brown hair in a Pompadour style, and age-appropriate register of voice. Jacoby is seen as this bike-riding "big man on campus", but he is somewhat jealous of the family that both Diego and Alexis have as he lost his parents at a young age, with him having to live on his own for a while. In battle, the Blue Beta of Courage chooses him for his wild streak and willingness to fight for what truly is right. 3) ALEXIS ♀ - Age: 14. Full Name: Alexis Hotaru Mizuki Vekoma. Species: Terran. Homeworld: Aoba City, Planet Albega (Earth colony in the Hyperion Galaxy/Middle Universe). Physical Features: A Human phenotype with an age-appropriate height, Green eyes, Caucasian skin tone, Round human ears, Light Brown hair in a Hime style, and age-appropriate register of voice. Alexis may seem like a regular girl's girl at first glance, but she has no patience for bullies picking on others which makes her at times violent. Her immense drive for a good fight to test herself outweighed by her penchant for trying to help out anyone feeling down is what destines her to pilot the Red Gamma of Compassion. 4) RODRIGUEZ ♀ - Age: 35. Full Name: Valentine Saeko Asabuki Rodriguez. Species: Terran. Homeworld: Aoba City, Planet Albega (Earth colony in the Hyperion Galaxy/Middle Universe). Physical Features: A Human phenotype with a medium-tall build, Brown eyes, Olive skin tone, Round human ears, Brown hair in a Pageboy style, and medium register voice. Valentine lives with her son Diego and has to pull long shifts at work to provide for her son ever since her husband died in a household accident. It is she who told her son the story of how Gladiator Voltron saved Albega back in the distant past. When it seems as though Voltron is returning, she joins the Alliance to help her son fight the Derinja. 5) WILSON ♂ - Age: 15. Full Name: Riley Goro Kumai Wilson. Species: Terran. Homeworld: New Harlem, Planet Albega (Earth colony in the Hyperion Galaxy/Middle Universe). Physical Features: A Human phenotype with an age-appropriate height and robust build, Brown eyes, Dark Brown skin tone, Round human ears, Brown hair in an Afro style, and age-appropriate register of voice. At first, he is the link between the three heroes (Diego, Jacoby and Alexis) and their fellow classmates, teachers and their family - the civilian world. Riley is the first to encourage them to compete in the robotics tournament which leads to them discovering Gladiator Voltron, and he becomes their tech support in mission control. 6) VEKOMA ♂ - Age: 42. Full Title: Professor Jonathan Mizuki Vekoma, dean of Science at Aoba High School. Species: Terran. Homeworld: Aoba City, Planet Albega (Earth colony in the Hyperion Galaxy/Middle Universe). Physical Features: A Human phenotype with a medium-tall, Green eyes, Caucasian skin tone, Round human ears, Dark Grey hair with a light mustache, and low-medium register voice. In his approach to science, Vekoma is more of a hands-on kind of professor, wanting to nurture students' curiosity by showing results of science and technology in action. Helping to rebuild his daughter Alexis, Jacoby and Diego's robots after sabotage, he helps them recover and form the Gladiator Voltron. 7) ZAMAN ♀ - Age: 35. Full Title: Professor Jennifer Danko Kibi Zaman - Associate Dean of the Aoba High School Science Department. Species: Terran. Homeworld: Aoba City, Planet Albega (Earth colony in the Hyperion Galaxy/Middle Universe). Physical Features: A Human phenotype with a medium-tall build, Blue eyes, Caucasian skin tone, Round human ears, Blonde hair in a medium-length straight style, and low-medium register voice.  She mostly teaches lecture-based science and technology classes, tends to be more stern and strict with her students, and is apparently only behind Vekoma in status at Aoba High. But when Gladiator Voltron is needed, she is one of our heroes' strongest supporters.

The Background

Long in the past of the Hyperion Galaxy, the three-piece fighting humanoid robot known as Gladiator Voltron was known as Albegas by the peoples of the planets the robot visited. Albegas or Gladiator Voltron was a sentient being, renown across the galaxy for its feats of heroism and bravery. Ultimately, this led to Voltron developing something of an ego, as it challenged both the wicked Overlord of planet Deram and the goddess Rhea to battle it for supremacy in the galaxy. Rhea, having sensed the egotism brewing in Gladiator Voltron/Albegas out of simple ignorance of its own power and not out of sinister malice, defeated but spared the robot as she pondered what punishment would do it best. In a rage, the Deram Overlord disguised himself as Rhea and tried to destroy Voltron while succeeding at slaying Rhea. With her last acts, Rhea managed to save Gladiator Voltron/Albegas by splitting it back up into its three component humanoid robots - the Black Alpha of Wisdom, the Red Gamma of Compassion, and the Blue Beta of Bravery - that when all are combined together do they form Voltron. They were flung through space until they crash-landed on Albega, there to spend a great deal of time defending it from the forces of evil in the Hyperion Galaxy until some force caused it to go into dormancy until the time was right. Now the time has come for Gladiator Voltron's return to battle the Derinja. The Premise

It is said that the Gladiator Voltron Force story arc of Voltron: Defender of the Universe would have been adapted from the 1983 anime series Lightspeed Electroid Albegas - but was to be adapted to be part of a much bigger storyline. Here, the Voltron story takes on a more urban fantasy/mecha science fiction as even though it is set on an Earth colony planet in the Hyperion Galaxy, the overall locale would not seem that far off from anything on contemporary Earth. Taking the team of heroes premises of the Japanese Super Sentai/Power Rangers series, the teen high school dramedy of Mean Girls, and the appeal of robots found in both the Gundam and Transformers franchises, Voltron is ready to launch. In this four-quadrant five-act mecha science fiction epic, three very talented teenage students named Diego, Jacoby and Alexis go to Aoba High School in the year 2981. Alexis' father is the well-regarded science teacher Professor Vekoma who is chairing the upcoming science fair and robot battle. On a hiking trip with their friend Riley Wilson to find ideas for both the science fair and robot battle, the three find a trio of giant humanoid robots buried in a cave. Bringing them back to Vekoma, the three teens soon discover the robots are able to join together to form the mythical Gladiator Voltron - Defender of the Middle Universe. Can they join together to stop a Derinja attack that threatens their planet? The Nemeses

Aside from normal human squabbles and quandaries that face three teens trying to survive, Gladiator Voltron and its team of pilots have to contend with the new horrible menace threatening the Hyperion Galaxy. Many of the Derinja Drules of Planet Deram takes on a dark cult-like atmosphere that reeks of Jonestown, the Branch Davidians and their like. Most of the Drules are humanoids with light purple skin and red eyes. With fleets of starfighters and space battleships; as well as armies of tanks, super soldiers and Robeast mecha monsters, Derinja Drules are aimed at making the Drule Empire a major if not the only superpower in the Hyperion Galaxy, with only Voltron daring to stand in their way. 1) AZ'A ♂ - Age: Late 40s/Early 50s. Species: Derinja Drule. Homeworld: Deram. Eye Color: Red. His full title is Emperor Az'A of the Planet Deram. Emperor Az'A is a strong worshiper of the deity present across his entire planet, known only as the Deram Overlord, and is devoted to conquering the world and ruling it in the Overlord's name. He is highly devoted to the cult of personality that his people grow and till around him, and wishes to make them, and himself, all-powerful. Proclaiming himself as a savior, he enjoys, and is happy to cause, the suffering of others, sacrificing innocents in horrific ways, torturing enemies and brainwashing them into becoming subordinates and enslaving other races. 2) ROBEASTS - Wherever one goes in the Empires of the Drules, there will always be such things as Robeasts to challenge the Voltrons and threaten the peace of the Near, Middle and Far Universes. Robeasts from Planet Deram sent to battle the Gladiator Voltron are the humanoid monsters created through advanced science and technology, most often from prisoners of war that are reared in Lord Az'A's cruel gladiatorial combat, though some of them are simply giant robots piloted by Spartan troopers. A platoon of fifteen robeasts is ready at a moments notice to travel with fighters, tanks, space battleships and Spartan trooper armies to lay siege to Voltron and or whatever may get in their Empire's way. 3) BI'OS ♂ - Age: Late 60s. Species: Derinja Drule. Homeworld: Deram. Eye Color: Red. Hair Color: White. His full title is Vizier Bi'Os of the Planet Deram, intending to inherit the throne after the coup he is planning takes place. As he only kowtows to the Overlord of Deram, it is often rumored that Bi'Os is the one stroking Az'A's ego to throw him off the scent of Bi'Os' own attempted bids at becoming Emperor of the Derinja Drules. A natural-born kiss-up and backstabber, he lives for nothing more than destroying any "invaders" that could make a pass at the Empire and generally making the Derinja Military and other Drule forces out to look like fools, imbeciles and other pejorative words not to be listed. 4) SPARTANS - Say hello to the mixed organic and cybernetic shock troopers of the Derinja. They serve as the backbone of the Derinja military forces. Their drones have no built in weapons, instead using the same weapons as their organic counterparts. Drones are capable of squad-level infantry tactics and understanding vocal commands. These androids can somewhat resemble fellow Drules, appearing to wear this green-purple armor. In fact, some of the living soldiers appear identical to their own Drones. In addition, Derinja Drones can be used for scouting environments full of every kind of hazards, are more durable, and have no fear of utter destruction to claim victory for Emperor Az'A's nation. 5) DUST'OX ♂ - Age: 40s. Species: Derinja Drule. Homeworld: Deram. Eye Color: Red. Hair Color: White. His full title is Gunnery Sergeant (or General) Dust'Ox of the Deram Forces. He is quite the sadistic, leather-lunged and powerful fighter who willfully kills and berates anyone who gets in his way. His loyalty to Deram's Overlord and Az'A, as well as adherence to military hierarchy is without question and only obeys the commands given to him. His aggressive fighting style relies primarily on the use of his strong limbs, an energy sword and terrifying piercing claws. He is also athletic, able to dodge and move around quickly to evade attacks. This is despite his large size, topping at about eight feet.

The Heroes and the Twist

We first meet Alexis, Diego and Jacoby in their 9th grade science class at Aoba High School on planet Albega. Before that, the three often ran into each other and kept eyes on each other from afar without the others knowing. Later, they become teenage versions of the Kirk (Ego), the Spock (Superego) and the McCoy (Id) triumvirate so often found in analysis of the Freudian psyche. Deep down, they would sacrifice their lives for each other, but they sometimes have petty squabbles and do not always trust each other. But the discovery and reactivation of Gladiator Voltron with the three as its pilots forces them to take charge so to become the super force of space explorers prophesied to save Albega. The Story Breakdown

Prologue

1) From days of long ago, from uncharted regions of the Universe, comes a legend. The legend of the Voltrons: Defenders of the Universe. Three mighty robots, loved by good, feared by evil. As the Voltrons' legend grew, peace settled across the galaxies. On Planet Earth, a Galaxy Alliance was formed. Together with the good planets of our Solar System, they maintained peace throughout the Universe until new, horrible menaces threatened the galaxies. The Voltrons are needed once more. This is the story of the super force of space explorers. Specially trained, entrusted and sent by the Alliance with the ancient secrets of how to assemble and restore, Gladiator Voltron: Defender of the Middle Universe.

Act I

2) We open on the bedrooms of 14-year-old students Diego Rodriguez, Jacoby Scott and Alexis Vekoma as alarm clock bells ring. They are waking up on their very first Monday of the September equivalent - marking the start of their high school days. Alexis washes her hair in the shower, Diego brushes his teeth and tries to find clothes for the day, and Jacoby finishes combing his wet hair as he scurries to get dressed and head down for breakfast. The three are soon out the door and walking towards their secondary education institution - Aoba High School. Even as the morning sun breaks, we see something out of the ordinary - two moons remain in the sky and are setting toward the western area.

3) Diego arrives in his homeroom class taught by the associate science professor Jennifer Zaman. Another boy named Riley Wilson who attends classes with Diego, Alexis and Jacoby - but not all three at once - decides he should help out the three who feel lost and alone on their first day of high school. Lunch soon comes, and Diego finds a place to sit by himself as a social wallflower and self-perceived outcast in the cafeteria. Alexis comes to join him followed by Jacoby as they soon introduce themselves to each other and find that the three of them perceive themselves as the outcasts and drink to their independence from the many stereotypical yet with some truth cliques common to high school.

4) Far away on the dark and spooky planet of Deram, Emperor Az'A leads a mass of his followers in worship of the planet's deity - the Grand Overlord of Deram. They chant and bow in admiration for the Overlord when Az'A's personal Vizier known as Bi'Os reports one of their skull ships (space battleships able to carry Stinger fighters) has returned with slaves and sacrifices for the Overlord. Pleased with the announcement, Az'A orders a slave be brought in for his approval. After seeing the prisoner and removing the beating heart from him, the Derinja Emperor orders the now-heartless prisoner be lowered into the lava pit for the Overlord to receive. He and his followers cackle wildly at the spectacle.

5) The shrieking cackles of the Derinja, a vassal faction of the Drule Empire in the Galaxy Alliance echo across the Hyperion Galaxy back all the way to Albega. It is back at the high school that we find Alexis in the middle of a heated tennis practice session just as her coach calls for the team to hit the showers and prepare for their next class. While all the other classes have been somewhat humdrum for Alexis, Diego and Jacoby; the science and technology class taught by Alexis' father Professor Jonathan Vekoma is shaping up to be nothing short of riveting and meaningful. Vekoma's hands-on and practical approaches to science win his students over, but Diego is lost in something of a hidden funk.

6) Back at Diego's house that night, Diego is just about to turn in when he looks at a framed picture on his bedside nightstand. As he looks, tears come to his eyes. The picture is of his family which includes his father who was killed in a nasty accident four years before this moment. His mother Valentine Rodriguez comes in to say good night when she sees her son reminiscing. She hugs Diego and tells him she misses her husband and his father too. Hoping to help her son be able to get through the night, for now, Valentine sits by Diego's bed and begins retelling the story of how the mighty robot Albegas - or Gladiator Voltron - was humbled and then returned to save Albega in the past to her little boy.

Act II

  7) What a coincidence is is that the night Valentine tells Diego the story of Gladiator Voltron that Emperor Az'A chuckles that not even the titular mighty robot will be able to return to stand against the Derinja. His cackling is soon caught by a transmission from across space in the Milky Way Galaxy - from Chief Commander Hazar Dorita Teles of the Drule Empire himself! Az'A, Bi'Os and Dust'Ox listen intently as Hazar delivers a stern warning to them that to underestimate the mighty robot Voltron will be their utter doom, for he should know thanks to the recent fall of his underling and rival Commander Zabar. Dust'Ox declares that the planet of Albega will make a perfect target for destruction.

8) Later that week on the first Friday of that month, Alexis is stirred to hear Professor Vekoma announce the winter science fair and robotics tournament. Teams of three students will build three robots to compete against other teams' trios of robots in battles for prizes and a chance to win free tuition to the college, university or academy of the winning team's choice. Diego, Jacoby and Alexis are assigned to be one team by recommendation of Riley. The field trip up to the San Rialto Mountains arranged by Professors Vekoma and Zaman to learn about the symbiotic nature of the water, rocks and plants will be the perfect time to the three to get ideas on what to create for the science fair robot tournament.

9) The following Wednesday; Alexis, Diego and Jacoby are on their way with their classmates and science professors to the San Rialto range for their field trip. When the three see one of the cheerleaders wanting to pick on some of the shyer girls in the class, Jacoby and Diego futilely try to restrain Alexis from getting violent with the cheerleader. Coming to the shy girls' defense, Alexis is made the new target of the stuck up cheerleader's scorn as she declares Alexis as deserving of staying an outcast as much as the shy girls next to them. Simply shrugging off her rival's taunts, Alexis moves the shy girls away from the bus while backhandedly flipping the middle finger in the direction of the cheerleader.

10)  In front of legions of Derinja Spartan troopers, companies of laser tanks, and fourteen Robeasts waiting to board the mighty fleet of skull ships, Dust'Ox addresses his forces from his Robeast Reptoking. The Robeasts known as Octovore, Mechabeak, Demoncrab, Scalestrike, Death Hornet, Yellow Belly, Death Mantis, Hypnokiller, Hornback, Kingfish, Roachman, Dinoslasher, Mantaray and Dire Spider lead the legions of Spartans in cheering for Dust'Ox and their battle. Proudly, Dust'Ox proclaims their victory shall be a day remembered through history. With that, the Derinja forces begin to load onto the skull ships to prepare for blastoff on the campaign to conquer planet Albega once and for all.

11) Jacoby spots a mysterious trio of caverns as the students and Professor Vekoma pass them. Eager to find out what is buried in them, Jacoby calls for Diego and Alexis to follow him to the caverns. They are different because they have symbols carved outside their arches of entry - A for Alpha, B for Beta and Γ for Gamma. Inside each is a giant humanoid machine, all in a state of dormancy. The three rush back to Professor Vekoma and Professor Zaman to bring them to analyze their findings. As the students are unperturbed by the caverns but in awe at the machines inside, Vekoma tasks Diego, Jacoby and his daughter Alexis to climb inside these machines and see what exactly they are.

Act III

12) Diego climbs into the cockpit of the black robot in the Alpha Cavern, Jacoby takes the blue robot in the Beta Cavern, and Alexis chooses to examine the red robot in the Gamma Cavern. Seating themselves inside, they turn the controls thinking the machines are still dormant. This, however, causes the ground to shake and the caverns to collapse - but not before the students and teachers evacuate the caverns. Vekoma and Zaman watch as the three robots come together to form one giant robot (Red forming the forward legs, lower torso, lower backpack and hip; Blue the torso midriff, aft legs and upper backpack; and Black the head, upper torso, arms, hands and upper legs) amazing the others.

13) Back on planet Deram, Az'A and Bi'Os are in a temple dedicated to the Overlord as they bow and chant their dark hymns down into the deity present across their world. The two Derinja Drules vow that Albega shall fall within the next few Earth days and become theirs to exploit all they please, but the Overlord cautions them not to be so overconfident and take the advice of Commander Hazar. If there is even a ghost of a chance that some force like Voltron could return, through willful or ignorant underestimation will Voltron bring irreparable ruin to the Derinja and the Drule Empire. In response, Az'A promises to destroy Voltron and stir more chaos to help the Overlord grow to overpower the Drules.

14) The other students and the professors are both amazed and confused as Alexis and Jacoby are at a loss for words. Diego, however, is blown away with excitement and ecstasy that one of his childhood bedtime stories has come true. He cannot contain his enthusiasm as he calls out over megaphone that they found the perfect robots for the science fair's tournament - Gladiator Voltron. With such a thought in her mind, Alexis asks her father the professor if they could fly the robots back and meet the rest of the class back at the school - to which Vekoma says yes, but the robots will need further analysis after school. Disassembling Voltron, the three students fly the robots back to Aoba High School.

15) Valentine Rodriguez has gotten the day off from work to pick up Diego from school that day when she sees the three giant robots flying down toward the school that seem to have appeared out of the bedtime story she told her son. Climbing down out of his black robot, Diego rushes into his mother's arms with the biggest smile on his face she has seen in over four years and excitedly tells Valentine that the legend of Gladiator Voltron has turned out true. Valentine is simply dumbfounded as Diego introduces his new friends Alexis and Jacoby to her and they are called to the large science lab the size of the nearby open air gym hall where the robots land on their feet and await the professor's work.

16) Hyperskip exit signatures are the only confirmation to the Galaxy Alliance-built early warning and defense satellites in orbit of planet Albega that the One Empire of the Derinja - the Drule Empire's Hyperion Galaxy branch - are making their move. Dust'Ox orders his Spartan troopers to the drop ships and Stinger fighters to destroy the satellites and make haste for the planet. Down on the planet at Aoba High, our heroes are watching and listening intently with Riley as Professors Zaman and Vekoma try to analyze the robot Gladiators. Suddenly, the robot Gladiators' cockpit eye shields glow as they kneel down to face their human onlookers. The spirit of Voltron speaks to them via telepathic links.

Act IV

17) Diego, Jacoby and Alexis are stunned to find that it was not sheer fate that brought them to Voltron, but certain traits about them that made them worthy in the eyes of the robots they found. Diego is shown to have a knack for technology and an ability to think up the craftiest solutions to seemingly intractable problems - which make him perfect to pilot the Black Alpha Gladiator of Wisdom. Jacoby's inner bravery that forces him to fight for what is right, and his ever wild streak have marked him to be the Blue Beta Gladiator of Courage's pilot. Finally, Alexis is chosen by the Red Gamma Gladiator of Compassion for her empathy and care for fellow humans to get everyone their own happily ever after.

18) Alexis walks over to her father as Riley and Zaman communicate with the Gladiators. Having heard the story of how Gladiator Voltron, once known as Albegas, was brought down and then tricked by the Overlord of Deram; our heroes suddenly get nervous about the prospects of real fighting and try to book it out of there. The Gladiators tell Diego's mother Valentine and Alexis' father Professor Vekoma that their children will soon see the need for Voltron and to just give them a little time. In the meantime, Dust'Ox is leading his strike platoon from his Reptoking Robeast to attack the cities surrounding the Aoba district. Buildings are collapsing and people are being shot in the streets by Spartan troops.

19) The news of the attack on Albega reaches both the Galaxy Alliance and the Drule Empire. At Galaxy Garrison on Earth, Star Marshal Matthew Satoru Wasaka Graham contacts Captain Newley aboard the Explorer to return to the planet and deliver a space fleet to Albega to see what they can do to stop the Derinja in their tracks. In the meantime, Commander Hazar contacts his liaison in the Drules' Denubian Galaxy jurisdiction - King Zarkon Daibazaal, ruler of the Galran Empire of the Drules on Galra or Planet Doom. Zarkon is utterly enraptured and a little jealous that he himself could not lead the charge on Albega, but Hazar warns him that the Gladiator Voltron is on the planet ready to fight.

20) Not wanting to be forced into a dangerous war; our heroes rush out of the gym to the field in a panicked hysteria with Riley barely able to keep up with them and trying to bring them back. They soon see a Derinja drop ship landing on the field with Spartan troopers to seize all in their way. Instinctual fight or flight kicks in as the four students find themselves surrounded. This time, they choose to fight back and start giving the Spartans hell by doing gymnastics and martial arts moves on their tormentors. When three Spartans grab Riley and try to carry him away; Alexis, Diego and Jacoby grab the commanders' swords and start cutting down the enemy soldiers to save the friend who united them.

21) Heavy laser fire from approaching skull ships rocks the ground and causes earthquakes in a perimeter around Aoba City and many of the surrounding suburban areas. The quakes are even felt at the school. The air raid sirens sound, and the news reports of Derinja forces attacking other cities on Albega calls for serious action. Diego, Alexis and Jacoby choose to suit up and fight with their Gladiators to save both themselves and the planet that is their home. They rush to their Gladiators and initiate their launch procedures. Vekoma, Zaman, Riley and Valentine rush to the underground cellars of Aoba High where a secret Galaxy Alliance control room had been built in the event of planetary emergencies.

Act V

22) Diego, Jacoby and Alexis (in that order) launch their respective Gladiators from Aoba High School toward the downtown area to save the planet if they can. In the control room, Riley detects Drule-allied Stinger fighters of the Derinja coming down to strafe the city, which forces the three to use their robots' laser cannons to shoot down the enemy starfighters before they reach their target. Zaman arrives in the control room and reports that Derinja skull ships are preparing to deploy laser tanks to the surface. The three strafe the skull ships and bring them down just outside the downtown area. Now it is just the Robeasts trapped on the planet in the downtown area left for the Gladiators to contend with.

23) The Gladiator Voltron Force arrives in downtown Aoba City and gets to work battling the Robeasts. Valentine, Zaman, Riley and Vekoma watch from the control room at the school and call out tactical commands to get an edge on the Derinja forces. Alexis takes the Red Gamma against the Scalestrike, Hypnokiller and Demoncrab Robeasts; Diego and the Black Alpha go one-on-three against Mechabeak, Dire Spider and Yellow Belly; while Jacoby plunges forward with the Blue Beta on the Roachman, Dinoslasher and Death Mantis while trying to avoid destroying buildings and other civilian property that could result in the deaths of innocent people. Just barely, they are able to take the Robeasts down.

24) Only Octovore, Mantaray, Kingfish, Hornback, Death Hornet and Dust'Ox in Reptoking are left to challenge the three. This is the signal Diego takes to call for forming Voltron. Activating interlocks, connecting their dynotherms, bringing up their infracells, and setting their mega-thrusters to go; the Gladiator Voltron Force is go to form and battle. The sight of the Gladiators coming together to form Gladiator Voltron stuns and horrifies Dust'Ox and his few surviving Robeasts. Octovore, Mantaray and Kingfish find themselves on the wrong end of the Electroid Arrow Bows that Jacoby through Voltron fires. Our heroes soon close in on and destroy Death Hornet and Hornback with the Solar Spear Trident.

25) Dust'Ox prepares to charge as Gladiator Voltron ignites and forms its Blazing Sword. News of Dust'Ox's impending defeat reaches the Drule Homeworld as Commander Hazar monitors the battle closely. Hazar knows the return of any Voltron will be certain doom for the Drule Empire. Simply trusting in both themselves and the spirits of their machines; Alexis, Diego and Jacoby telepathically compel Voltron to surge ahead sword first and slash right through Dust'Ox. Voltron then pumps its fists as Dust'Ox and his Robeast explode behind them. As soon as the All Clear signal is given, the students and teachers of Aoba High School rush out to cheer for Alexis, Diego and Jacoby saving their planet.

26) A Galaxy Alliance representative, Deputy Star Marshal Willard Tosuke Dewa Steele, arrives in front of Aoba High School aboard a shuttle arranged by the Vehicle Voltron Force. Steele congratulates Professor Vekoma on locating Gladiator Voltron and staging a brilliant defense of Albega from the Derinja forces of the Drule Empire. But credit must go where it is due, as Steele congratulates our heroes on pulling together to prove themselves worthy of joining the Galaxy Alliance and the Voltron Forces. Diego, Alexis and Jacoby raise their right hands and jump for joy in celebration that they are now the Gladiator Voltron Force that protects the Middle Universe as the camera freezes on them mid-jump.

Epilogue (Preview Summary for Gladiator Voltron II: Sword of the Damocles)

27) And with the defeat of Gunnery Sergeant Dust'Ox; the names of Voltron, Gladiator Voltron and Albega would once again strike fear in the hearts of the Drule Empire and its Hyperion Galaxy vassals the Derinja. Even so, Professor Vekoma is determined to be able to locate and destroy the Derinja's secret orbital headquarters as well as free the people of Deram from Az'A and the Overlord's control before enlisting the help of the Galaxy Alliance to destroy Deram. In the meantime, the three pilots of Gladiator Voltron try to parlay their newfound fame into helping out their friends and family while exploring themselves. But the Derinja Commander Da'Ri and Vizier Bi'Os have an ace in the hole...

[msingleton]

WEEK 13: Ten Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Copyrights~

1. Copyright protection in the United States exists at the moment a work is “fixed” in a tangible medium: a draft of a book, a musical recording, a YouTube video. It doesn’t need to be “published” to the public.  You don’t need to register a work with the U.S. Copyright Office, but doing so provides important rights, including the right to sue in court for increased damages, as well as obtaining attorney’s fees.

2. In the United States, copyrighted works are generally entitled to protection for the life of the author, plus seventy years. Recall the cliché of the “starving artist” who dies before his art becomes famous? This duration allows for the author’s inheritors to reap a fair share of the profits of the author’s efforts and recognizes the fact that authors sometimes do not live to see or enjoy the fruits of their labor.

3. Copyright extends to protect derivative works. Derivative works are works that are based on a pre-existing work. That excellent spec script you wrote for Game of Thrones that you’re hoping to shop to HBO?  That homemade Star Wars movie sequel you self-financed and filmed that you want to screen at your local theatre?  Copyright issues are one of many reasons why such efforts will not likely be successful.

4. Augmented reality and virtual reality are a new frontier in copyright. How does copyright impact those crazy Snapchat selfies you create or those Instagram filters?  How does copyright impact the industrial models and designs that you create in a virtual space?  The issues are too numerous and complicated to be discussed, but suffice it to say that they affect everyone who works or plays in those spaces.

5. Copyright doesn’t protect ideas, facts, or titles. Anybody can write a book about young wizards, and there are certain genre tropes with wizards that we expect:  wands, robes, pointy hats, etc. But only J.K. Rowling can write a book about a young wizard named Harry Potter, with a distinctive scar on his forehead, his well-known cohorts, and their nemeses.

6. Registering a copyrighted work is reasonably affordable. Unlike patents, where the registration process can cost thousands of dollars and the assistance of a patent attorney is essential, the copyright registration process is intended to be able to be done by a layperson, and the filing fee is typically between $35 and $55.

7. Works don’t need to have the “©” or the author’s name listed to be entitled to copyright protection. The best practice is to use them if feasible.  Just because a work doesn’t bear the “©” symbol doesn’t mean that it is in the public domain.

8. Copying and pasting an image online is likely to trigger copyright issues. Doing so and simply attributing the author is not a defense or excuse for copyright infringement.  Do a search for any copyrighted work on YouTube (ex. music, tv show clip), and you will see scores of the potential infringement and the poster’s attempt to avoid infringement by attributing the actual owner.

9. Not profiting from infringement is not a defense. “But I didn’t make any money from it and did it for free!” said the above-referenced filmmaker of the Star Wars fan film.  That may impact the damages paid to Disney/Lucasfilm, but it won’t allow the filmmaker to avoid an infringement claim.

10. The concept of “Fair use” is more complicated than you might think. Fair use is a copyright defense (not an excuse or exception), that allows a copyrighted work (usually a small portion) to be reproduced.  There is no clear-cut rule for defining what constitutes fair use, but there are a number of factors that must be considered, including the impact on the market for the copyrighted work, purpose or intent of the use (commercial or educational), etc.  The point is not to assume that your intended use automatically falls within the fair use defense, without consulting an attorney.  

Article: https://boylancode.com/ten-things-probably-didnt-know-copyrights/

The Copyright Office website (www.copyright.gov) offers a lot of user-friendly information about the registration process.

[stormx49]

Modern Demons

Sot System, Planet Dessara: 2100 Hours. For once on this barren planet, rain falls from the darkened clouds; something that I've never seen the time I spent here. With red lightning flashing in the distance and the sound of thunder following soon after. "KRA-KOOOOOM!" Roaring wild like an untamed beast, the thunder made its presence known. But I won't back down, not until I confronted the past once and for all.  I've come back to Dessara, and I want to see what changed over the last few decades or so, and while I could walk through the sands, I decided to take a different form of transportation. I cruised across the sea of sand using a hoverbike, leaving behind a trail of dust behind me as I looked around, seeing nothing more than droplets of rain splattering on the lens of my biker goggles and the occasional streak of lightning arcing across the murky skies. Can't complain about the temperature, it felt cool for once, preventing my snow leopard fur from poofing up from the usual intense humidity. I also felt the black hair flowing behind me, along with the bristles that covered my body. As I drove onwards, going at speeds up to 100 miles per hour, I saw more than the weather, but neon glows in the distance where Ciudad de Polvo used to be. Metal spires ascending above the Earth, how the times changed indeed.   Wanting to see it for myself, I made my way closer to the City of Dust... guess that title's not fitting anymore but it's what I called it during my days here. And once I had arrived, I saw a toll booth at the entrance of the city; so I slowed down and stopped at the toll booth, looking at the man stationed there. His blue eyes matched my own as he looked at me, his expression conveyed his lack of passion for this job of his. "Please present your ID or pay credits to enter Cráter de neón." The Neon Crater huh? So that's what it's called these days...   "Sorry sir, I don't have any credits, I have American dollars on me, will that do?" I asked the guard, and he shrugged at me in response. "Sure, we take dollars, that'll be 25 U.S Dollars to enter the city." Lordy is that an expensive toll... but I had to see what's going inside; so I dug into my right pants pocket and pulled out a twenty and a five, giving it up to the man. "Here you go, sir." I replied. Quickly swiping the cash from my hand, he opened the gate. "Thank you, enjoy your stay at Cráter de neón." I nodded and rode on into the city with the gate closing behind me slowly. I rode on the paved roads and looked at the surroundings around me;  Feeling quite dystopian with holographic advertisements, promoting sex, drugs, and guns.   Scents of smoke and rain filled my nostrils as rode on, soon heading up a holographic path, glowing red as I saw people on the curbs, either begging for money or waiting to jump someone and murder innocent people for whatever they had in their pockets.  Ciudad de Polvo was always a seedy cesspool, it just looks like the city got a facelift to me, without any actual changes made. Though it was kinda disorienting to find the old places I used to visit, there used to a be a watering hole I went to, now it's just a stand where they sell cheap porn magazines.  Then I looked towards the sky, seeing a red bolt of lightning hit a skyscraper; but in actuality it was an electric collector, powering up this city. I kept driving, keeping my eyes towards the road... should've kept my eyes on the camera as well though now that I look back on this escapade. At the time it didn't matter when in reality it should've.  Finally, I got off the road and found what to be a nightclub, looking like it would belong in the 1980's. "Hellhole." That's the name of the club? Charming. Still, it was good as any place to stop and I needed a pick me up. So I parked near the entrance, near the glowing orange neon sign and turned the bike off. Pocketing the key in the right pocket of my black jeans, I hopped off the bike and got my paws wet on the pavement, not even the black gauze wrapped around my feet protected them. My leopard tail wagged a bit to become limber while I straightened out the green plaid cover on my left side, it was hiding something for self-defense. I didn't need my goggles, for now anyways, so I took them off and let them hang above my onyx colored sleeveless combat armor. Then I walked towards the door, but the bald bouncer man stopped me before I got a paw in the door. "Sorry, you're not on the list." He grunted at me. "I'm a paying patron, I need a drink." I replied, telling him the truth. "It'll cost you to get in then." Glad to see bribery hasn't been changed since the last time I wasn't here. Sighing, shaking my head, I'd rather comply then start something. "How much?" I asked. "60 credits, or 80 bucks." Oh for heaven's sake that's expensive. So I dug into my pocket yet again, pulling out four 20 dollar bills and gave it to him, in return he opened the door for me with a poo-eating grin on his visage. "Welcome to the Hole." He greeted as I walked inside. 105 dollars spent so far, out of 200 I brought with me, so that left me with 95 bucks. Hopefully, I have enough for a drink and my way back home later. My first step in and already I could hear synthetic music blaring above the levels of 11, it was an assault on the audio senses. I think the track was called Fakheet if memory serves correctly. Once I got inside, it was mostly shrouded in the dark; save for a few orange and red lights flashing about. People were dancing, at least, I assume they're dancing and not just flopping about the place like a fish out of water. It was like a rave, a normal sight during the '80s. I wanted no part of that, all I want is a drink and be gone. So I headed to the bar, where there were a few customers getting drunk off the gourd; I sat on one of the black stools and looked at the bartender, he too looked bored to death like the tollbooth operator. "Got anything non-alcoholic!?" I asked, raising my voice so that I can be heard. He nodded then went to the fridge and grabbed a cold bottle of Coca-Cola, sliding it towards me. I grabbed it and pulled out my other 5 and gave it to him. "Keep the change!" For once on this planet, I got a smile, one that was actually genuine.  I smiled back and popped the lid open by smacking the bottle against the corner of the bar top and began to drink it. Looking around as I listened to the beating of the bass, the lights were quite bright in the dark, I also the name of the club pulsating yellow. Despite being a high tech city, this wouldn't look out of place from the Terminator movie.  As I drink, I wasn't aware of 2 guys coming in, but they weren't dressed in casual clothes; oh no. Clad in armor with glowing blue lights and gear insignias on their chests, it seems some things haven't changed since last I was here. Those cameras I passed by earlier, turns out they belonged to my mortal nemeses... The Blue Gears. Anthro hating scum, they were when I was stationed here on Dessara, and back home on Earth... looks like they never left Dessara and when they spotted me, they pulled out their guns; one being a Pharo SMG, the other being a sawn off shotgun. Looking at the mirror above me, things were going to become chaotic. When I saw the Gear soldier aim his SMG at me, I spat out my drink and leapt over the counter as the bullets began to fly, causing some innocent bystanders to be perforated by bullets, others fled the nightclub. Luckily I avoided being shredded (although the bottles of liquor got shattered), now it was time to go on the counter-offensive. Brushing the kilt aside, I grabbed my version of Storm's latest firearm: the Cicitar SMG. Pulling it from the sling, I loaded a 30 round mag filled with 9x19mm rounds into the grip, put the weapon on full auto and grabbed the charging handle, pulling it back and letting it go to put a bullet in the chamber. "SHHHICK-CLICK!" Time to let the bullets fly.  Once the gunfire stopped, I felt alcohol pour onto my fur and my armor as I popped up, shoulder against the wire stock, aiming down the sights and putting the green glowing front post onto the SMG wielding Gear, then I pulled the trigger. "RAT-TAT-TAT-TATA!" Firing at a rate of fire at 650RPM, bullets exited the barrel while spent cartridges were ejecting from the front, and the Gear in front of me was gunned down, staggering backward with blood splattering against the wall.  He won't be getting back up anytime soon.  However, his partner in crime was still standing. In response, he unloaded both barrels into me, right at center mass. I was knocked back against the wall and felt a pounding in my head, but my armor took the pellets well, keeping my flesh from being penetrated, though one of the plates fell off, exposing the left cup of my green frilly bra. Down, but not out. I put my SMG over the counter, slightly tilting the weapon to the left and emptied the remainder of my magazine. Blind firing paid off it seems because the shotgunner got outgunned.  Taking out the Gear caused him to collapse in a pool of blood. Panting, I got to my feet and looked at the corpses of the Gears. My gut told me that this was only the beginning, it was time to get the heck out of Dodge, so they say. As I walked over to their corpses to search for any extra supplies, I dropped the empty mag from my Cicitar and grabbed the spare mag from my right pocket, inserted into the grip and primed the gun before holstering it again. Once I got to the corpses, I pilfered both of them; and while the shotgunner didn't have anything, the SMG soldier had something interesting: a BP-02 "Pup" Grenade Launcher. A single shot, break open grenade launching pistol. I grabbed it and opened it, finding there was only one shot, but it was all I need. I closed the pistol, holstered it in the right hip of my jeans and headed out of the club, putting my goggles on the way.  I quickly got on my bike, grabbed the key and revved it up, then dashing out of there. There was no way I can go back the way I came, if my hunches were correct, they barricaded the way out. However I knew a back route out of the City of dust, and towards the village I stayed at.  So I drove towards the electric collector.  However, I wasn't out of the woods yet, not by a long shot. More Gears were coming up behind me, riding their sleeker hoverbikes and armed with various firearms, they were out for my blood and fur, but I won't give either to their grubby, racist hands. "Let's bust this ghost!" I heard one of them cry out, the rest cheered in unison. ...Really? That's what they got? I swear this is like a really bad '80's action flick; cheap quips and all. I think they got a futuristic version of the lever action shotgun from the Terminator 2 movie, at least 2 of them for sure. They aimed their guns at me and fired buckshot at my way and they even did the one handed flip cock thingy. Now's not the time to nitpick at my current premise, I swerved to the side, avoiding the buckshot and tried to lose them, however, it proved futile quick, so I pulled out my SMG, and when one felt brave to get to the left side of my bike to blast me, I retaliated with full auto fire. Annihilating both the driver and the gunner, their sleek hoverbike began to wobble out of control and flipped over me, I barely avoided being decapitated by ducking, and watched the bike crash into one the gun shops. An explosion rang out, sending fire and glass everywhere. But this chase scene kept going on, and soon there was a tunnel up ahead, I turned the headlights on and jetted inside, with the Gear bikers following close behind. With only one light illuminating my way forward along with the darkness surrounding me, I needed to be on top of my game. Once more I had to swerve to avoid the oncoming gunfire, and one biker got up too close and blasted his shotgun at me from the right, my armor taking the blow with chunks of armor falling to the wayside.  Wincing, the sound of tinnitus entered my ear; drowning out the sound temporarily. For his action, I gave the Gear Gunner a hard elbow to his face, causing him to fall off the bike and his lever action to fly up into the air. I pulled hard to the left, rode up the wall of the tunnel while holstering my SMG and once I was upside down, grabbed the shotgun with my left hand, flip cocked it and pointed it down at the driver.  They can make their quips all they want, but as for me? "BLAM!" Actions speak louder than words. The Gear got a faceful of buckshot from above and he fell off his hoverbike, and as it rolled away, I rode back down towards the right, once again right side up. 2 down, I think 2 more to go if I recall. Maybe 3. Soon my hearing went back to normal, the ringing faded away as another hoverbike came up towards my right, rather than trying to gun me down, they tried to knock my vehicle off course.  I felt the jolt of their bike running into mine, losing speed briefly. I threw the shotgun right at the rider, causing him to fall off and the bike veered out of control. With plenty of fuel in the tank, I pushed ahead, soon seeing a light at the end of the tunnel and felt a cool breeze where the exposed parts of my armor were; though I'm used to the cold.  Exiting the tunnel put me near what looked to be flood control tunnels, with some stagnant water underneath the bike. It splashed up water on both sides of the bike, drenching my fur a bit but I could see a ramp quite a ways away, that was my ticket out of this place.   But before I could escape, there was an ambush I had to contend with; some of the Blue Gears had some XMV-850 Miniguns set up, barrels spinning and ready to unleash a flurry of bullets at me. With a wall of lead coming at me, I had to react, I swerved left and right, avoiding turned into leopard carpaccio. No way can I deal with them all, only 17 rounds left in my SMG, and I was holding onto my 'pup' grenade launcher until I absolutely needed it. I had to get out fast, already I felt a bullet graze my left cheek, the burning sting caused me to grimace with crimson blood trickling down. Desperate times called for desperate measures. This hoverbike model I'm riding had some turbo boosters installed, in case I really needed to go fast. Might sound like a deus ex machina, but as I mentioned, had to do something to stay alive.  I flipped open the panel on the right side and pushed the red button and twisted it forward. Responding to my action, the thrusters began to glow white hot, causing the boosters to turn on and accelerate my speed to over 250mph, allowing me to evade the oncoming fire with precision. Winds were blowing in my face, thank goodness my eyes were protected as I was heading for the ramp leaving a white trail behind me. I could barely hear one of the Gears shout at the other troops. "Get mobilized, Erika's going to escape!" He cried out my name, barking like a dog to his minions. It didn't matter, I rode up and off the ramp, heading over the laser grid fence and landed back onto the dusty roads with a thud. Thinking I was in the clear, I ventured forth, but I should've known they won't quit, not for one bit. Following the long, winding path, I began to make my way towards the Azures Village, I haven't seen it in forever and I wanted to see if the rumors were true. I eased off the turbo and the bike began to slow back down to its normal speeds. A brief moment peace help calmed my nerves, but it was just that; brief.  Sounds of gunfire behind me and bullets whizzing past my ears kicked the adrenaline back up.  There were at least 4 behind me, unloading their machine pistols; it was time to end these fun and games once and for all.   With my grenade launching pistol tucked away in my pocket, I knew an old ambush point towards the northwest, so I veered off road towards a narrow chokepoint.  The sandstone walls grew taller and the path growing thinner, I had to be careful to not let the bike scrape against the wall. Testing my navigation and driving skills in one, I was about half a mile out when I saw an uphill path towards the right, that's where I needed to go,  Easily turning into the path, I climbed up the hill and onto the flat top above. From there I put the hoverbike on park. Pulling out the grenade pistol, I waited, that choke point was a dead end and knowing the Gears, they went right down into the trench, lined up like ants at a picnic.  Normally I don't like killing others, but I did this for two reasons. One: The Blue Gears attacked me, and Two: they've taken so many innocent anthro lives, justice had to be done. I had to take it into my own hands... the last few years I avoided conflict, feared to face the Gears after what they did so long ago. But hiding wouldn't do anything then, and it won't do a thing now. Soon I can hear the Gears coming down the line, as predicted, they were bumper to bumper and going slow, in fact, I can hear them cursing about me. "Where'd the little bitch go!?" A female Gear whined. "Keep your eyes open, Erika can be anywhere..." Another Gear warned, but it wouldn't help. I aimed the barrel down towards them... I knew I said I don't make epic one-liners earlier, but I couldn't help myself in this case. I whistled loud down towards them, causing them to stop and look around. "Hey, Gears!" I called down to them, left index finger wrapping around the trigger. "Catch!"  With a sharp pull of the trigger, I fired the 40mm High Explosive grenade downwards. "TIIIIING!" The high explosive rapidly descended into the trench, landing right in the center of the line of hover bikes, once the grenade impacted with a bike, it exploded with immense force. "BROOOOOOOOOM!" A plume of smoke and orange fire, along with shrapnel ascended high into the air, it was bright and temporarily blinded me, but once my vision came back, I looked down and saw embers flutter up towards the night sky. No one could've survived that, so I chucked the grenade pistol down into the trench and into the wreckage. With the deed done, I revved up the bike and resumed the ride towards the Azures Village, uninterrupted this time. Once upon a time, the Azures Village was a place of peace, tranquility, and love; with clean waters coming from the waterfalls up the cliffside, fresh fruit growing every day, it was home.  The tribe who resided there were all anthros, and their elder, Thom Radmus, took me in like he was my father... my actual father.   But of course the Gears had to try and eradicate the village, thinking this was an easy job; but they underestimated us. We may be timid on to the outside world, when we were provoked, however, we were viciously territorial and defended our village at all costs. There were times we nearly lost the Azures to the Gears... no thanks to my sister, Ayala. Regardless we prevailed time after time, but that was before the time Storm came to my village, it was a reunion, both good... and not so good. I was supposed to take Storm to the COABEL unit stationed there to be teleported home... turned out the Gears occupied the base and it was supposed to be an easy job. Turned out it didn't go that way, my sister lead them and succeeded in defeating me... putting me in a situation where Storm had to mercy kill me... It's still something that haunts both of us to this day. Though I've been resurrected since that day, I still have nightmares about what happened then.  In order to silence the demons once and for all, I needed to go back to the Azures. However, since then... things changed. Liandri found the village and ordered genocide on the village, and while my kind bravely fought them off... they perished. Now the village is used for their Deathmatch arena, where millions watch the blood sport on live holovision.   While the area's usually closed off to visitors, there was one spot that Liandri had opened up to me personally, it took a lot of convincing to the president of Liandri, but he eventually agreed to open the spot up. That spot is the mass grave up by the bridge over the waterfall, where the roars drowned out the sound the rainfall, at least the lightning finally stopped I made my way towards the graveyard. Along the way, I took off my goggles, tried to think of a speech to say to the fallen, and grabbed some flowers growing from the bush, being white roses that were blooming in full. The thorns may dig into my fur, but I didn't care at the time. Following the glow of the blue fireflies, they lead me to the graves. Carved in stone and standing tall with their names etched into their tombstones, there were at least 30 of them, some men, some women... and even some of them children, all massacred at the hands of the soulless, corrupt Liandri.  Walking over to each and one of them, I dropped a rose over the mound of dirt, trying to hold back the tears. Once I got to the last tombstone, my knees grew weak and I collapsed, weeping with tears of sorrow flowing down my face; the rose slipped from my grip and onto the patch of the dirt. This was the grave of the man who took me in as his own, taught me to be strong, to believe in myself, helped me when I had PTSD induced nightmares... "Here lies Elder Thomus Radmus: 1945-2015 Leader of the Azures Village, Guardian of Peace And beloved father to those who loved him May he be free of the Hells on Dessara And reunite with our Captain: Erika Kinderington." It hurt... it still hurts...   But I have to remain strong, for I am the last of the Nakotans... and now the last member of the Azures Village. I carry their memories with them, and I will fight for them, for Elder Thom, for Storm, for Phoibe... For them. Til now. Til the end of time.

[tessatechaitea]

What did you think of Batman #35? Did you like it?

My recent feed should answer this question for you. But I suppose you want some personal, face-to-face anonymous time with me. I get it’s exciting to get a personal response from me and who am I to keep me from other people? I would want to kill myself if I couldn’t have unfettered access to the shining gift to humanity that I am.

So now that you have me trapped in the corner looking desperately for a way to avoid this conversation but not being able to come up with a reasonable excuse to avoid it that doesn’t involve violence, I’ll go ahead and answer your question:

Batman #35 and the previous issues in this current arc have been some of the best Batman comics that I’ve read in years. And I’m not just saying that because Tom King is pretty much a personal friend of mine (I mean, he has liked one or two of my tweets, so, well, we’re practically fucking). Every character (even Jason Todd) is pitch perfect. Unless pitch perfect means something different which it might based on the Pitch Perfect movies.

Dick telling Damian about Batman’s reasons for feeling guilty about looking for happiness? I fucking cried. I wept! I cried out to the heavens in the sudden realization that I *do* care that my father would rather be drunk and in Japan than telling me he was proud of me and my mother treated me like dogshit because she just assumed I was going to disappoint her the way my older sister did! No, not really. I mean, all those things happened. I just still don’t give a damn about them.

So what I’m saying is, it was pretty good. 3 out of 5 stars!

By the way, are all the anonymous messages I’m getting from the same person? No wait! Please don’t answer that! I’d rather imagine I have more than one person interested in my brilliant and imaginative thoughts!

Edit: After seeing my nemeses at Weird Science gave this issue a serious 7 out of 10 star review, I need to make sure everybody knows I was joking about the 3 out of 5. I would assume people would understand because I basically just ate Tom King's ass before saying 3 out of 5 stars. But then this is the Internet where 90% of people can't parse facetiousness. This issue actually gets 7 out of 5 stars! The reviewing ability of the guys at Weird Science gets 3 out of 20 stars.

[survivorsolomonislands]

Episode 10 “The One Where This Tribal Council is a Mess” (Zakriah)

(here we go yall lmao- pippa)

All along it was always me and Aro and that's how it's gonna continue to be until we're both voted out anyways. Idk Mitch has lied to me already twice now and I don't play baseball so there's no third strike here. Ofc Willow and Allie flipped on us and ofc it's just me and Aro like it always has been. And I can't wait to get 10th.

(a while later)

These people aren't even good at lying and Willow was trying to help me literally all along and she was right there literally was nothing she coulda done about it!!! I feel awful that I ruined any trust I had with her and I feel awful for cultivating a relationship with the wrong rookie on numakira. I'm just so fucked up rn and I knew it was happening too.

(later)

She's over here apologizing to Mitchell and NOT ME for this last vote when I literally just left the alliance chat! So that OBVIOUSLY tells me she has no intention of trying to work with me again after this and that pretty much me and Aro have no shot to make it any further in this bih

(even later)

Most of what I just said was very spur of the moment and I don't even remember half of it but tbh me and mitch are on the same wavelength rn and us and aro's lives basically depend on MY MORTAL NEMESES lexi and rtp

(so much later)

Mitchell and Zakriah's guide to surviving Tumblr Survivor: Solomon Islands Merged Tribe. Step 1) Vote with Allie against LA Step 2) Form a vets alliance Step 3) Steal Willow from Allie

(later isn’t even an option anymore)

LEXI AND ALLIE ARE IRL BEST FRIENDS WHAT THE FYCK IS THIS

(3 years later)

MITCHELL IS A FUCKING DETECTIVE HOLY FUCKING SHIT THIS GAME IS TOO FUCKING MUCH HOW IS LEXI SO FUCKING STACKED WITH PREMADES IN THIS GAME I THOUGHT ME/ARO/LINUS WAS BAD WHAT THE FUUUUUUUUUCK

(everyone has died, Zak is the only one left)

NO HOLY SHIT SERIOUSLY THIS IS LIKE WHEN IN A MOVIE SOMEONE FINDS OUT THAT THE PERSON THEY THOUGHT WERE INNOCENT AND LIKE THE GOOD GUY IS ACTUALLY THE DEVIL AND HAS BEEN BEHIND EVERYTHING THE WHOLE TIME AND THEIR FACE IS LIKE FLASHING EVERYWHERE THEY LOOK THAT IS L I T E R A L L Y ALLIE HOW DID WE NOT FIND THIS OUT SOONER OH MY LANTA

I just wanna say, Jacob, I voted Matt for you.

So there's literally no possible way I can win immunity - one of my two friends in the game exiled himself from the challenge and that leaves me next to be picked off from winning immunity along with Aro, LA, and maybe Allie too tbh. It's basically Allie/Lexi/Willow's comp to lose at this point and there's literally not a single thing I can do to give myself any edge to win at all. Out of nine people competing in this challenge only one person is working with me, and in a challenge that's essentially a popularity contest, 2/9 gets you nothing. I'm willing to accept the fact that Mitchell and I are completely screwed, and it's not helping that Mitchell is quite actually ostracizing himself from the rest of the people. I'm honestly praying he's hiding another idol from me at this point.

i know it's been a while since my last confessional and i don't wanna make a long one rn but allie's bitch ass

SO the plan for right now is to get the majority to split the vote between 2 of Me, Mitch and Zak. Willow is willing to flip with us so we can get ahead of the split and put 4 votes against Lexi or Johnny and get our minority asses back in this game. Not gonna lie Im having a blast being at the bottom with Zak and Mitchell even though Mitchell is kinda rude towards Willow >.> . We are basically the 3 amigos/ Witches Coven of the season but we will be successful know that!

Oh my GOD if I pull this off... If i pull off this 4-3-3 vote tomorrow night it WILL be the single best play I've ever made in a game. Like I'm honestly shaking. This is either aboutta go so horribly wrong and Willow is lying to us all or it's gonna go extremely well and I won't know until it's either me joining Jacob, Dana, and Matt on the jury or it's Johnny joining them. I have a vote negator, but my history with vote negators has not been a fun one. I would kill to have an idol, but if I make it through this vote, which would literally be the biggest miracle ever, I fully feel like I can retake control over my fate in this game. All hope may NOT be lost!!!

(a little bit later)

ooookay... So I just lost literal years of my life planning a Johnny blindside and now he's trying to take out Allie!!! Everyone is literally fucking VYING FOR OUR VOTES right when we thought it was a clear majority against us! What the fuck this game is so hilarious I don't know what the fuck to even say right now!

(yall thot huh)

Wow I can't believe we just orchestrated a 4-3-2-1 vote. Like imagine how lit it would be for the two people voted as most likely to be voted out next in the challenge were to literally take the 3-2-1 cirie patent vote and upgrade it to a fucking 4-3-2-1 vote! Im beyond shook at this like ive been spending the last three days absolutely certain I was gonna be the next voted out and now as far as I'm concerned I should only be seeing my name once or twice this round. I feel like ciera rn bc I'm making a big fucking move! Game changer Zakriah razzak!

Okay so I need to start writing more confessionals. BUT HOLY FUCK SO MUCH JUST HAPPENED. Okay so first to start off I won individual immunity, and I even had a one rope disadvantage, like how the heck did I do that! I mean it was just Touchy Subjects, but still, I never thought I was gonna be able to win a challenge lmao. Also I'm too tired to finish writing this confessional so I'm just gonna submit and write more tomorrow goodnight lmao.

If everyone's telling me the truth, which why would they, we get to make the sole decision on whether to keep around Johnny or Allie - the two people controlling the whole game. And the best part is that either one of them getting taken out is one less rookie to pick off me/mitchell/aro (and rtp and lexi but screw them), and then that plus my flare gets us at the very least a tie if we piss everyone off with this vote. But, hey, they left us in the dark last time, it's time for some revenge anyways! And then, after we finally get the upperhand again, we can avenge Dana too! I'm still out for blood rtp

(ive avoided this for days)

Mitchell is saying this tribal council is essentially a sitcom episode and if it is it would be called The One Where This Tribal Council is a Mess

(he’ll be gone soon, don’t worry)

Literally we're looking at rtp targetting johnny but voting with allie bc he doesnt think theres numbers to get out johnny and so its "supposed" to be a rudimentary vote split against me 4-3-3 a la queen daisy peacebeuponher but IN ACTUALITY what we're looking at here is johnny reneging and trying to blindside allie in some kind of mess of a 5-3-2 vote WHEN REALLY willow is "using" the three of us to get out JOHNNY in a FUCKING CRAZY ASS 4-3-2-1 vote that's gonna be something like johnny-aro-alie-me and i honestly... LOVE THIS

OKAY SO LET'S FUCKIN DIVE RIGHT INTO IT going into last tribal something was a miss bc of a certain miss willow sayin cryptic ass shit like "i'm sorry i can't stop what's about to happen" and so i knew then that we were fucked. the suspense of waiting was alleviated by allie basically saying she flipped and it wouldn't be on me; i could've guessed it would be matt since she hates matt, but i never thought she'd actually flip and do it bc i don't see how any of us would benefit from leaving a solid 6 to form a very volatile merge but WHATEVER and then i exposed allie and lexi's pregame relationship and close irl friendship and thought i'd blown myself up, particularly after wILLOW TOLD ME SHE FUCKING ALREADY KNEW INSTEAD OF TELGKIEFFREFIURHDIF TELLING ME TO CHILL, and NOBODy seemed to think that it was a big deal. combined w that, i fuckin bought my ass a trip to the cave and couldn't compete in immunity so FUCK me but  then also... good things zak guilted willow HARD about what allie made her do, which was particularly effective bc willow already felt like it was bad for her game. so while allie is saying we should vote LA, then saying johnny and RTP told her no so we can't, i'm like... we need willow rn to flip on this dumb twerking girl who is so far up these kids' ass yet MIRACULOUSLY still has willow up hers??? and zak does in fact guilt her into trying to get everyone else to split the votes so we can do something like get LA out or whatever but i'm sittin here like... alright... who gotta go? and it comes to me. johnny the frat boy, my lover and archenemy!! miss chrissa and dana send their regards bitch!! it seems to me that johnny has a certain degree of control over LA and Luca, and as long as he's in a potential rookie or nuTemoana faction could be reunited or resurrected on his behalf. i don't want that. the game gets more open with him gone. so zak laid the groundwork for willow's flip, and i get to her and convince her the flip gotta be on johnny. it's almost too good to be true. a 4-3-3 vote agaisnt mr frat boy keeping i, mitchell kalabang, still in the game w my f3 of zak and aro and now w miss willow on our side??? FUCK YES and then zak finds a flare that allows him to burn someone's vote at a tribal council, which means if willow stick w us worst-case scenario at the f9 is rocks. things are fallign into place, i'm so JFIOHWEIODFH EXCITED BC it's gonna be HUGE and it's almsot too good to be true when johnny's frat boy ass says he wants to get out allie w me, la, zak, aro, and him. ????? johnny wants to flip on her ass bc of my expose about her and bc she's controlling willow. little does he KNOW that willow already flipped against allie and on HIS ASS and that allie is no longer a threat bc people know that she and lex are friends. so now johnny thinks it'll be like 5-3-2 or something but in actuality it'll be more like 4-3-2-1 johnny-aro-allie-zak which makes me sCREAM THAT"S  SO FUDI*CVJOWDIS FUCIING EBEAUTIONFGD BEAUTIFUL AND ICONIC but THEN RTP FIWEODJFD  COMES TO ME AND ASKS TO MOASMDFUIBHWENDS make a move against johnny and i'm all ike ???D<EKODJFKLJWD iorhejdgio YOUWDFI(JF hwo are you people giving such a clear mnoritjy THISF IOWJDMFIO much POWMERUIOFMWEIOFDJ POWER and he can't get LA on board so he resigns himself to the split vote between aro and zak tellign me about it even tho it's supposed to be a secret but little does he know that i already know about it and i also know that it's a farce bc willow flipped and that it's not even happening bc JOGNY flipped and rtp targets johnny who targets allie who splits the vote betwween aro and zak w rtp bc he can't get the votes aginst johnny while aro and zak are gonna tke out johnny bc WE have the votes and i'm CRYIORJHdf cryin i really think we might actually get the 4-3-2-1 and if that fucking happens i'll literally fuvkcixghnfei shit myself on call somehow i mitchell kalabang am coming out on top?? and i like johnny legitimately to some extent and he might want to work w me, but johnny has also lied to me and has multiple other deals and alliances, and i can't work w that if he's gonna keep shit shady. zak and aro have been loyal and honest to me since day 1 so i'm ridin w them boys and i hope you use all the money you're in charge of as treasurer of the frat to drink yourself into a stupor so as to neuter the humiliation ur gonna feel at being outmaneuvered by fuckin willow. ALSDOJQSOFD speaking of shady miss allie like... first she flip, then i find out she got a #secretpairbeware, and i'm like ???? this BTIHDCIH she might wanna F3 w me and willow but AGAIN how am i gonna play w u when u say shit like "i know you said you didn't wanna do this and take out matt and i respect it so i got literally the entire rest of the tribe to do it instead and against u without telling u haha we still good tho i own you and control you" she seriously got so cocky after that and so self-righteous in defending herself about the lex thing and it's like... girl how the FUCK am i still savin ur ASS after tonight LMFAO the #obvioustension i've felt between me and LA is gone i think, we've had some rlly good chats lately and welp it's gonna suck for her when i now snake HER but whatevs!! and RTP and i are prob good now too considering he told me about his johnny plot and then about the split. considerin i'm gonna do his work for him and oust johnny he shouldn't be too mad lol ! idol searching i fucking went into a cave and my choices were octopus and moray eel and y'all had to be fuckin kiddin ME but ofc the cave fucks me up AHFUIEWHD AGAIN and no second idol for mitcherell kalabganfger but whatevs Somehow, everything has lined up to give me an unprecedented amount of power for someone who felt helplessly on the bottom after Matt, who I feel was an actual tick in this game harming me more than helping me with his poor gameplay and social skills, was voted out. I think I've played an influential role in getting this vote together and in forming a group that can now move solidly forward. I just... if this all works I'm going to cry because RTP going for Johnny going for Allie going for Aro/Zak who're going for Johnny without RTP knowing is a fucking sitcom episode. I can't fucking breathe. If the 4-3-2-1 is what actually happens tonight i might literally cry laughing on call for tribal. mitchell kalabang is not dead yet!

also biggest VILLAIN?????? how the fUIHEWDRHJIernfuier what've i done this season but been lied to and love dana i jsut... and they fucked up w what they said bout luca bc now he's pissed and i'm all like... come to papa :)

IM STILL SO WORRIED EVERYONES LYING TO ME THOOOOO

Okay so, in Touchy Subjects I tied with Johnny in the category "If you could not win the game, who would you most like to see win". And I'm very confused by this because I literally thought I wasn't a threat to win at all. Johnny I understand, he's the one controlling everyone, he's the one calling the nuTemoana shots, and so if he made it to the end he would win no doubt. But me on the other hand, I haven't exactly done much, like I've tried to make good social bonds with everyone, and been honest with everyone, but yeah other then that I'm kinda confused how I got the majority in that category. Onto another topic though. I never thought I would ever say this, but I'm actually pretty damn excited to go to tribal tonight. I have individual immunity, so basically I 100% made it to single digit placements, which is amazing!! Anyway onto the vote. It's going to go great because Johnny thinks Allie is going home, but in actuality Johnny is going home. I guess I sorta convinced Allie, Lexi, and Ryan to split the votes on Zak and Aro. So the vote should go 4-3-3, if all goes according to plan. I'm really hoping this works bc Johnny wont expect it, and it'll get the biggest threat out of this game. I really like Johnny though so I hope he won't be too mad and that we can be friends once this is all over.