#i think i missed a lot of the subtleties but i’ve been watching some interviews and trying to write as well as i can for these characters

[jesuisgourde]

gay/queer references in Peter’s journals

Again, I have probably missed stuff due to going through pretty quickly and also due to having stared at this document for so long, everything has kind of blurred together.

Sometime close to the day that Carlos & I watched 'Love And Death on Long Island' (and afterwards paraded through the tea rooms of Picadilly) we both filled in application forms and were tres excited to be invited to the same group 'interview' - twas more like an audition though. I got the part. Carlos never. This did not bring any animosity - we both know that success for either of us is magnified a million times if it is shared by us both.

from 'A Diamond Guitar' by Truman Capote "Except that they did not combine their bodies or think to do so, though such things were not unknown at the (Prison), they were as lovers. Of the seasons, spring is the most shattering: stalks thrusting through the earth's winter-stiffened crust, young leaves cracking out on old left-to-die branches, the falling asleep wind cruising through all the newborn green. And with Mr Schaeffer it was the same, a breaking up, a flexing of muscles that had hardened. It was late January. The friends were sitting on the steps of the sheep house, each with a cigarette in his hand. A moon thin and yellow as a piece of lemon rind curved above them, and under its light, threads of ground frost glistened like silver snail trails. Tico Feo had been drawn into himself - silent as a robber waiting in the shadows."

Then a meet with Bounds Green's African prince outside whitechapel tube, rugged lookies at I in military attire & to a ruptured Albion rooms tidied in hours and now lids drawn heated on the eyes. A young looking fella has a crush on me.

Jackie/Camillia/Marie/Kate/Chris/V. churchill Jackie/Evelina/Jasmine/Sachi/Dalston/Sussie Sandra/Carlene/FP/Jay/Dalston/Kraut

There sat a young black man, perhaps in his early or middle twenties. He looked for all the world like the archetypal rude boy. Clean, cheap reebok, nike, adidas variously rolled, laced & zipped about his lean, spreadeagled body that hung loosely about the waiting room chair. Gold & tattoos adorned his person, and a blank animal look was attached to his clear face. He sat before me in a row of four empty chairs, staring at polished floor or the mundane television. A balding white man minced in & all perceptions were suddenly proven to be false as they embraced and snuggled up to each other, giggling & whispering & touching each others noses.... very much in love, fingers crossed for the blood tests.

[Image: an article from Gay Times of an interview with Peter. For some reason, the portrait included alongside the article is of Carl wearing a grey and black t-shirt.] Name? Peter Doherty Age? 22 Where are you? I'm on the motorway just north of Southampton. What kind of day are you having? (Vaguely) Erm... quite misty. Something's waiting around the corner, but there are no corners on the motorway, so we'll just have to wait and see what lies ahead. Maybe something will happen tonight.... What's this we hear about you once being a rent boy? Well, when times are hard, duty calls. How long ago was it? When I was 19, about three years ago. How do we know this isn't just a Shaun Ryder-type lie? 'Cause if it was, it would make me a complete scumbag and I'm not, and I'm not interested in that kind of pantomime. It wasn't a very happy time. I didn't really enjoy it. Why did you give it up? (grimly) Well, certain people disappeared... and anyway, ultimately I found myself no longer in such a vulnerable position anymore. Dawn broke, and I realised that it was a beautiful world after all. Have you done any other dodgy jobs? All of us in the band have tried to deal, but it's not good if you like the drugs too much. You just end up using them yourself! I once was a gravedigger. I used to do it with my mate in Willesden Green cemetery. We didn't actually do the digging, a machine did that, but we used to have to fill them in. It was pretty grim work. So are you gay then? Love is love, wherever it comes from. I'm not anything, really. I am a very sexual person but... I dunno, I believe in liberty... The Marquis de Sade has a lot to answer for... Do you get a lot of gay fans? Yeah - well, there's one guy in particular. He's very shy and he follows us around. He brings in letters and cards and stuff, but he's very quiet. I think John (the bassist) is the main pulling power in the band. Are you jealous about that? Nah! I've known him too long.

You know I'm alright i dont even care i like it when they stare & stare call me queer, dear oh dear a million things & what I wear He's real hard when he's with his mates but I'll saw him again & he was too late

Dear NME I'd have thought after the Gay Times piece, the interview with Rapture fanzine & our recent gig at the Slum Club everything would be clear. No it still remains to give a big hearty fuck off to all these twisted suburban types calling me a liar. Vulnerable young men & women all over the world find themselves victims of circumstance.

she was dressed in suit & tie & lightly etched-on moustache. 'I've always wanted to kiss a bird in the back of a taxi.' she says, running her hand up the fishnet ladders of my thigh. Stepping onto the front line in Bow puddles, elevators, buzzing doors,

[Image: the original page in the book has been preserved. Two paragraphs have been boxed off with biro. They read:] “...cast Richard Burton and Rex Harrison as bickering queer barbers and then much more uncompromisingly in William Friedkin's adaptation of The Boys in the Band (1970), which introduced some of the plainer four letter words in the English language to the screen for the first time. 'Who,' asks Cliff Gorman, in his brilliant portrayal of the most effeminate of the homosexual group as they gather for a soul-searching party, 'Who do you have to fuck to get a drink around here?' Other homosexual manifestations to occur in movies around this time included an elliptical but unmistakeable male fellatio scene in John Schlesinger's Midnight Cowboy (1969) when Jon Voight, as a broke and disillusioned Texas stud importunes in a New York cinema....”

[Image, top left: a blurry photo of John onstage, playing bass. Image, top right, sideways: a photo of the band onstage. Carl and John are on the left, sharing a mic. Peter is on the right, playing guitar and singing into his own mic. Image, centre left: a torn photo of Peter sitting in a chair, shirtless, playing guitar. Only his bottom half from the chest down is visible. Image, centre left: a torn photo of Peter sitting in a chair, shirtless, playing guitar. Only his top half from shoulders up is visible. Image, bottom left: a torn fragment of a photo. What looks like a denim-clad knee and a yellow carrier bag are visible. Image, bottom middle: a photo of someone's knee in torn jeans, taken from under a table. Image, bottom right: a torn photo of Carl in a black sleeveless shirt, posing with his fingers in his mouth.] [A paragraph from the original page of the book has been left exposed and boxed off with black biro. It reads:] “The Boys in the Band was displaced by an immeasurably more powerful portrayal of homosexual groups, Fortune and Men's Eyes (1971). Set in a Quebec prison, this disturbing, factually based drama vividly recounted the corrupted of a heterosexual convict trapped in a tough, potentially vicious homosexual society. In one horrifying scene, a weak, put-upon prisoner is gang-banged by his fellow inmates; in another, the 'hero' is blackmailed by his cellmate into accepting him as his lover for the duration...”

Like a cat on a hot tin roof Like a macho man in a roomful of poofs I have tried in my way to be free.

[Written in Peter's handwriting] Jerome... is that how it's spelt? [Written in someone else's handwriting] Yes it is [Written in Peter's handwriting] Can I read you something? [Written in someone else's handwriting] Yes please.....

I insist, new book of Albion, befuddled by drugs I may yes about 2 but I do not miss out entirely on the subtleties of the inhuman relation ships that are this the mainstay of my stay here in one bounce of a loaf. Boys are fooled into fooling with boys. [...]

More general references/some extra explanations:

“The boy looked at Johnny” is a line from Patti Smith's song “Horses,” part one of a three-part song called “Land.” In the song, a young man named Johnny is assaulted by another man in a locker room; he then mentally journeys to other fantastical lands and visions. A lot of people interpret it as being about gay sex, although some people interpret it as being about a stabbing.

Peter quotes and references Jean Genet's writing and works about Jean Genet many times. While Genet's works are nearly all about crime and prison (one of Peter's main interests and points of fascination), all of his works are very explicitly gay. The Thief's Journal is more about Genet's various lovers than it is about his criminal history. Our Lady Of The Flowers is about a drag queen and her criminal lovers, and is also extremely erotic.

(“Jerome” is Jerome Alexandre, vocalist of The Deadcuts, who was friends with Peter and Mark Keds.)

[into-the-afterlife]

Why I Ship Johnny/Female V: Part 2

[Part 1] [Part 2]

This is Part 2 of my essay series on why I ship Johnny and female V. Back in part 1, I covered why I ship female V specifically with Johnny and not male V, as well as some thoughts on Johnny’s sexuality. This time, I’m looking at Johnny himself. (Content warning: there is some discussion of rape and how rape is handled in fiction.)

Johnny, ambiguity and age-old romantic tropes

Look, I’m just going to come out and say this: part of my interest in this ship is thirsting over Johnny. And when I’m interested in something, whether it’s an intellectual, creative or sexual interest, I like to do what I always do – analyse it to death. So what is it about the actor, the performance and the character that makes Johnny as attractive as he is?

Keanu Reeves himself, obviously, can’t be ignored here. He has a gorgeous face and voice, but crucially, he’s distinctively beautiful. Obviously, everyone has the right to be into what they’re into, and I don’t want to shame anyone for their tastes. But I do not understand people who are into the blandly beautiful. Sure, there’s nothing wrong about, let’s say, Chris Evans. But what’s right about him? Where are the snags that catch your attention and hold it? Where’s the life?

Reeves, meanwhile, is attractive because he’s unusual. He has long, dark hair, but he’s regularly photographed at public events with it mussed-up. He has a chiselled face, but his cheekbones are high enough that he looks alien. He has all the charisma of any Hollywood actor, but, whether this is him as he is or an especially well-calculated image choice, it comes off as genuine. When watching interviews with him, you feel less in the presence of a star and more an especially fascinating stranger at a party, one who, despite bursting with witticisms and stories, somehow wants to talk to you most of all.  

There’s also an element of age ambiguity here. Reeves is in his fifties, and while age suits his looks better than youth did, it shows. Meanwhile, Johnny the character is in his thirties when he dies, and to match this, the animators smooth out Reeves’ face and darken his beard. They also give Johnny the (unrealistic but glorious) organic arms of a dedicated bodybuilder. So what Johnny ends up with is the presence, confidence and charisma of an older guy, combined with the physicality of someone younger. It’s potent, to say the least. It also adds to Johnny’s uncanniness as a character. He’s caught between maturity and youth, life and death, humanity and machine; he’s hard to pinpoint no matter where you look. And whether you express this academia-style, as, ‘the gothic associates uncanniness with sexuality’, or internet-style,  as, ‘I’m a monster/robotfucker’, this is, as the kids say, pretty damn hot.

This uncanniness, as well as Reeves’ looks and performance, also offset some of the more unlikeable aspects of Johnny’s personality. This is best illustrated by the concept art created for Johnny before Reeves was brought on board. (Found courtesy of the lovely folks at r/LowSodiumCyberpunk.)

As you can see, they had a lot of Johnny’s look already nailed down. But this makes the differences all the more startling. This Johnny looks like he’s been dragged through the wringer. His hair is messier, and he seems to be getting premature wrinkles and balding. He’s strung-out, with a genuinely hopeless cast to his face. His look is also a lot more dated. While our Johnny has elements of the old rocker, the jean jacket, bandana, V-necked black jumper and aviators clipped to the tank top root this Johnny inescapably in 1980s music and fashion.

Why is all this relevant to shipping Johnny with V? Partially because I’m shallow, I’m not going to lie. But it’s also because making Johnny look like this would have made him much more obviously an intrusion. A guy dressed like this next to 2077’s booty shorts and space buns is like a ghost in a ballgown next to a woman in jeans. He’s not just out of time; he’s been irrevocably left behind. Johnny’s face here also has much less in the way of possibility. Where our Johnny says, ‘maybe your life would be better if you listened to me’, this Johnny screams, ‘my way is hopeless, but you can’t ignore it’. It’s leaning much more into the tragic aspects of Johnny’s character and of the genre of cyberpunk. And don’t get me wrong – I love that artwork, and think that angle would be an interesting artistic choice.

But making Johnny a tragic intrusion like this removes the element of seduction, so to speak, from his character. What makes Johnny attractive, ideologically, sexually and romantically, is a balance of certainty and uncertainty. On the surface, he’s passionately, blazingly certain of his politics, his music and himself. If you’re taking a leap of faith, whether that’s fighting against the corpos that rule your life or hopping into bed with an engram, what draws you to it is the kind of confidence that makes you doubt your own certainties. Yet too much of that can be off-putting. Nobody wants a partner who’s so cocksure (pardon the pun) that they don’t listen to what you want, and nobody wants a political ally who’s gone so far into their own rhetoric that they can’t convince those outside it.

Therefore, the common factor across all the ways Reeves’ looks impact our perception of Johnny is the balancing of two seemingly opposing things. Keep that in mind, because it only gets more relevant the deeper into this ship, and Johnny’s attractiveness, we go.

Of course, Reeves’ looks are far from the only thing he brings to the table. His acting, across body language, facial expressions and voice acting, is incredible. I want to take a look at his voice acting, as well as his voice generally, first.

I’m not familiar enough with the subtleties of American accents to pinpoint why, but Reeves’ accent sounds slightly different to the more generic accents of other famous actors. Perhaps it’s because he’s Canadian. Either way, his consonants are less harsh on the ear than other A-list actors, his vowels less elongated. He speaks slowly, sounding as if he just woke up. His voice is mellow and soothing; it’s the sort of sound you could take a bath in.

(For reference purposes, I’m listening to this Cyberpunk trailer as I write this, as well as, um, this video that I’ve watched far too many times. XD)

Obviously, to play Johnny he has to modify that laid-back aspect of his voice. But it’s interesting how his natural voice and his ‘Johnny’ voice bounce off each other. Reeves is able to pull off a much more belligerent Johnny than many actors could, precisely because of that laid-back quality his natural voice has. Think of that ‘impressive cock’ line. It’s made as funny as it is because of the total lack of shame in how Reeves delivers it. But in the mouth of an actor like, let’s say, Robert Downey Jr, that level of shamelessness would just come off as annoying. Reeves uses his natural voice to amp up Johnny’s, for lack of a better word, Chad-ness, far beyond the place another actor could manage. Because he has that base of softness, he can go hard on Johnny’s arrogance.

Why is this relevant to Johnny’s attractiveness as a character, as well as why Johnny/F!V are a fascinating ship? To develop a character well, you have to have an extremely solid base to start on – and that base is where a lot of writing and acting falls down. The audience has to know intimately what a character is usually like, or who they seem to be, before burrowing into the character further is made effective. That equal hard/soft approach means that when Johnny does soften later in the game, it seems both unexpected and inevitable. Even as the harsh tone and words were conveying one thing, that softness underneath was always conveying another. But the fact that Reeves can go hard on the arrogance makes that change much more impactful than it would be in another character. Once again, we’re seeing an equal balance of two seemingly opposing qualities, not openly leaning towards one or the other.

There’s also some aspects of the body language Reeves and the animators give to Johnny I’d like to focus in on. While I’m not an actor, nor am I a psychologist, and therefore am likely to have missed things, there were a few things I noticed when going through footage of Johnny in pivotal scenes. (If you spot something I haven’t talked about, please reply or reblog! I’d love to get a back-and-forth discussion going.)

Over and over again, Johnny’s body language has two layers. There’s what I’m calling the ‘douchebag’ layer, which is where Johnny seems insultingly relaxed. The scene when V and Johnny first meet, as well as the scene at the diner, have two great examples of this. Johnny gets into V’s space, but it’s slow, catlike. There’s no urgency when he leans in, nor when he stands over V.

Similarly, at the diner, he tells V he doesn’t want to kill her anymore – something pivotally important for their relationship and the plot - while putting his arms behind his head and his feet up on the table. It communicates, at least on the surface, a real sense of disrespect. ‘I don’t give a shit’, says his posture, ‘whether you hate and fear me or not’. His threatening slowness when they first meet, meanwhile, communicates that he doesn’t think V is a competent opponent. Why should he hurry if he can get her any time?

At least, that’s what it looks like. Take a look from 9:40 onwards here. Sure, he swings his legs up on the table – but not before hurrying into the diner booth and tapping his fingers rapidly on the table. Even when he gets into that relaxed posture, he’s bouncing his leg the entire time. Those catlike movements I talked about when they first meet? If you look from 5:42 here, they’re there. But they’re also interspersed with banging his head incessantly against the wall, pacing back and forth and glitching unpredictably all around the room.

This is where the second layer of Johnny’s body language comes in. Underneath all that casual condescension, he communicates constant, frenetic energy, even anxiety. Even in his default, idle animations, it’s extremely rarely that Johnny communicates real coolness and calm. He covers constantly racing thoughts and feelings with a slick persona.

What this does is very like the hard/soft balance of the voice acting I talked about earlier. Because the ‘douchebag’ layer of body language is the most obvious one, you pick up on that first. But the other layer is there throughout Johnny’s entire arc, and it goes into your brain on a much more subconscious level. Then, when Johnny’s guard does come down, it seems like a natural development of his character while still being a surprise. Once again, there’s that knife-edge balance between two disparate qualities. And for me, attraction always lies in the space between.

There’s also something highly sexual about the way he gets into V’s space when they first meet, the way he stands over her. When first playing the scene where they first meet, it felt like watching the moments before an act of rape. You see him first as he leans over you while you’re still in bed. He beats you to the ground, smashes your head into the window, and towers over you while you’re collapsed on the floor. Given the context of him taking over your body, the overtones are unmistakeable.

But again, crucially, that frantic body language and his lines are the complete opposite of how someone behaves when making the kind of power play that rape is. The pacing, the panicked words and the fact that he’s caught off guard all communicate disempowerment. While it’s still a violent, frightening scene, it’s not a monstrous one.

Why is that relevant to discussing Johnny’s attractiveness, and Johnny/V? Because rape fantasies and male domination are some of the oldest tropes in the book for M/F romantic arcs. Done properly, they play on desires of sexual submission without explicitly acknowledging the kink, depict the eroticism of that liminal space between humanity and monstrosity I talked about earlier and allow you to fantasise about being deeply wanted. Of course, that last bit isn’t a factual depiction of rape in real life. But in the fantasy, the story, the idea of being ravished is partially about being special, being so uniquely attractive that the guy loses all control of himself. If you have a more conservative or repressed view of your sexuality, the ravishment/rape fantasy also allows you to fantasise about sex without seeing yourself as a slut. (This post is a great look at that last idea as applied to the movie Labyrinth, if you want to find out more.)

The idea of sexualised monstrosity is also everywhere in the tropes used to characterise Johnny. He’s a troubled rockstar, an angst-ridden artist who died tragically young, a violent political rebel, part human and part supernatural creature, a charismatic, cocky, seemingly heartless guy, who just might have a heart if you look deep enough. What all these tropes have in common is the promise of both reassuring humanity and fascinating, exciting monstrosity.

Reeves’ and Johnny’s looks combine strangeness and humanity. Reeves’ voice acting moves between soaring arrogance and languid softness. Johnny’s body language combines fear and overconfidence. And the use of age-old romantic tropes in an unexpected context, as well as the use of these specific romantic tropes, knit all the effects of the other things together to create that balance between the human and the strange. He’s unusual enough to be interesting, human enough to seem real and associated with all our cultural symbolism of an attractive man. With all that going on, how could you not find him hot as hell?

But the thing about these tropes is, they’re also so common they’re clichéd. Not just in fandom, but all across Western media and art. So what lifts Johnny and Johnny/V out of being something generic? What makes them so fascinating that I’ve written thousands of words about them? What, in short, makes them different?

That’s what I’ll go into next time.

[Part 1] [Part 2]

[phantomofthepairofdice]

George A. Romero’s “The Amusement Park”

George A. Romero might be the man who most directly served as my gateway to critical movie watching. Unlike a lot of the filmmakers who helped me mature my understanding of film as a medium of art rather than a disposable experience, my love for his work has only deepened as opposed to having a twinge of cringe at the pretense with which I embraced some movies and directors that I’ve grown cold on or outright pivoted into disliking. Where, for the latter, they served a valuable purpose but were perhaps able to do so as a result of being digestible or, in retrospect, lamentably simple, Romero’s movies have not a single thread of posturing to something “important” woven in. Romero was always handy in using the backdoor of theme and metaphor to deliver ideas, as opposed to a direct scolding or information session.

At their very best, his movies achieve a balance that few films can when it comes to being experienced as being equally enjoyable and intellectual - while never sacrificing one for the other. There’s almost an elegance to the inelegance that comes from working so far outside of the studio system. The low budgets of his independent fare give a scrappy, tactile quality to locations and do little to glamorize and gussy up things like frequent collaborator Tom Savini’s chunky, visceral makeup effects. His run in the 70s is especially potent as a result of the low-budget aesthetic. The Crazies, Martin, and Knightriders would lose a certain verisimilitude to their outsider art mission statements if they had a glossy studio packaging. 

I’ve been hesitant to write up my love for the late, great Romero since it feels like a daunting task to distill the endless rivers that flow from the massive glacial totem that is George A. Romero. The same thing can be said for a lot of people whose work I have deeply seeded respect and love for like Jonathan Demme or Robert Altman. I know that art and movies are reduced when treated like rites of passage or items on a checklist for credibility, but I have this overwhelming feeling that I want to come correct when it comes to folks like these. It feels like a responsibility to be comprehensive, eloquent, and effective in describing them, their work, or their massive impact on myself.

Well, I finally got enough reason to put down some words when I found out that a bizarre, long-thought-lost missing puzzle piece of this titanic personal hero was going to be released. Not only that, but I could see it in a relatively safe way in a theater. What I was lucky enough to see projected on a bright wall in a dark room was something that filled me with equal parts pleasure and stomach-churning uneasiness. One of the greatest compliments I can give to the film is that felt like it would make a terrific pairing with Carnival of Souls.

The Amusement Park is a film that Romero was commissioned to make by The Lutheran Society about senior citizens being disregarded by society. After having seen what Romero concocted up with screenwriter Wally Cook, it’s no surprise that the film was shelved, and thought destroyed. Like all of Romero’s great films, The Amusement Park operates with a keen but unpretentious metaphor and allegory at its heart. What makes this project immediately different is that it’s bookended with a direct address to the camera from its star, a charming and hammy Lincoln Maazel, breaking down the mission statement and intent of the symbolism within it. What follows is an experiential concept piece that disorients the viewer in an attempt to have them empathize with their elders’ terror and loneliness at the hands of ageism, elder abuse, and death. It’s an effective plea for human decency and a disquieting, haunted trip to hell outside of heaven’s waiting room.

The runtime is under an hour and plot takes a back seat to sensation, so I won’t go into too much detail for the sake of preserving the set pieces’ potency. What I will do is highlight a few moments and stylistic choices.

The Amusement Park is very angry and very sad. The camera is mostly handheld and takes on a documentary texture when it focuses on the faces of other elderly park goers. There’s a lament for the life that these poor folks are trapped within cut between a venomous glare at the ancillary characters who disregard or assault the senior park guests. Romero’s usual distaste for the wealthy resurfaces most notably in a scene where Maazel’s man sees a rich and “proper” man dine on lobster and smoke a comically large cigar before looking back at the old man in absolute disgust. He’s served a slop of beans and bread on a paper plate. Like a lot of the film’s ideas, the dichotomy of circumstances trades subtlety for effectiveness. What makes this scene unique is that when the old man offers to share his meager rations with the other hungry guests, they show no restraint – it’s a nasty collage of shots with bread being torn and people shoved.

The real standout sequence comes as our unnamed protagonist follows a young couple into a fortune teller’s tent while they ask to see their future. The spritely lovebirds want to know if they’ll be still be together in their old age, but the fortune teller offers warning that in order to see their future, they’ll need to see it in its entirety. The couple’s youthful ignorance shows a general feeling of invincibility that many of the young characters have throughout the film, but once they see what the soothsayer has to offer, they are forced to reckon with the ominous vicissitudes that appear before them.

The editing of the sequence is jarring, cutting between the disparate time periods – flash cuts between the crystal ball and the eyes of the woman behind it are slammed into what looks like a documentary or news interview with a building manager who laments the raise in taxes and how it keeps him from fixing the dangerous, dilapidated, low-rent housing behind him. This is an institutional crisis. The film cuts to narrative footage of that same young couple, now old and desperate for emergency medical attention. Outside, a high school marching band blares and trots forward with a brash, spry pace. It’s as if the band is flippantly taunting the old women, life trampling on without her and her bedridden husband. The wife’s attempts to reach their doctor are moot. Chaos overwhelms a quiet passing. Upon seeing his own mortality, the young man targets the protagonist and attacks him in a flurry of confused anger.

The movie has an episodic structure, and some of these interludes work better than others. While I do think that the movie is quite good and a must-see for any curious fans of the director’s career (he even has a great cameo), I certainly wouldn’t hail it as a masterpiece. Working for hire within the specific constraints of an educational film and off of a script that he didn’t write (a rarity within his career), there’s some serious clumsiness to the some of the story beats and how underlined the symbolism is. I also greatly missed the seamless integration gallows humor that spices up even the bleakest of Romero’s other projects. What’s here in terms of levity occasionally undercuts the horror. That being said, its mission to imbue experiential empathy for old folks was undeniably successful in this viewer - the packaging may be a bit busted, but the product is fresh and satisfying. Like The Crazies or his Dead films, the ever-approaching specter of death is the driving force behind the melancholic terrors of the piece. Romero’s knack for satisfying but somber endings is present here as well. Images from this - like the holy men closing up shop - stack up alongside some of the other hauntingly effective moments from Romero’s movies that are emblazoned in my brain like the closing montage of Night of the Living Dead, the opening sequence of Martin, the roaches in Creepshow, and the wall of hands from Day of the Dead.

While it feels weird to offer praise to a man alongside a short review for a movie he was, by all accounts, not terribly impressed with, this is what I’ve chosen to do. *shrugs* I’ll never write the perfect tribute or quite distill the gratitude I have for certain people and the gifts they gave me (along with countless others). I can selfishly make that a burden and never actually put it out there for fear of imperfection, or I can be grateful and embrace the luck that I’ve been able to see another work from one of those people. Especially after watching this, I’ll choose the latter.

The Amusement Park is now available to stream on Shudder.

[razberryyum]

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The Untamed/陈情令 Rewatch, Episode 4  (spoilers for everything)

(covers mainly MDZS chaps 13 and 14)

WangXian meter: 🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰

(a 🐰 is earned every time there is a WangXian scene or even when they’re just thinking of each other…more than one 🐰 can be given based on the level of WangXian-ness in a scene)

I loved and enjoyed all of Wei Ying’s “Notice me Wangji-senpai" moments in this episode, but my favorite has to be the one above: the way he tried to play off Lan Zhan totally ignoring him by blaming the other man’s hearing makes me laugh out loud every time I watch this episode. It’s just too adorable. Even though Lan Zhan is clearly still annoyed with him, I like how it’s also obvious that Wei Ying is slowly but surely burrowing his way into his psyche and taking hold there by either not leaving him alone or just being himself which is ample to constantly draw Lan Zhan’s attention to him. It‘s as if Lan Zhan’s life was a calm pond and Wei Ying was a beautiful, lively carp that suddenly decided to just jump into his waters without permission, taking liberties by swimming and splashing around, basically causing ruckus in every corner of his pool. Naturally, Wei Ying’s actions perturbs Lan Zhan to no end at first, but at the same time, he is also leaving an undeniable impression, so that eventually, when this carp leaves Lan Zhan’s pond, he can’t help but constantly think of Wei Ying and even miss his disruptive presence, thus naturally paving the way for the escalation of his affections that follow later on.  

Whereas with Wei Ying, I think he simply enjoyed irritating this fuddy-duddy at first, but eventually, his light-hearted teasing probably became just a little more meaningful and he started looking forward to getting a reaction out of Lan Zhan because it provided him with genuine joy and satisfaction, until those feelings grew into just joy from being around the other man and interacting with him.  

Ultimately that’s a big reason why I love their relationship: the development and progression of their feelings for each other makes a lot of sense to me. The phrase “opposites attract” has never been more applicable in terms of Wei Ying and Lan Zhan, but at the same time, they still share enough things in common—such as their moral code and belief system—that makes them absolutely just perfect for each other.  I can imagine a future for them right from the start, whereas with other couples in stories, regardless of their sex, I’ve had difficulty believing they should be together other than because the plot requires them to be. I think the drama really succeeded in showing us why it’s completely logical that these two people would be drawn to each other, that they almost can’t help but be drawn together, by actually showing us all these little precious moments between them as they occurred, which the novel for the most part only described in an after-the-fact manner. While subtlety has its merits too, I do appreciate the more clearly illustrated path The Untamed decided to take for WangXian.

Along those lines, I also appreciated how CQL chose to show us the first time Lan Xichen and Jin Guangyao met and their instant connection. Honestly, when I first saw this moment…

I immediately thought they were going to be a couple too, like Wei Ying and Lan Zhan, and I was totally on board, until I found out from reading comments here and there that I shouldn’t be because this ship was bad news. I was disappointed of course and even tried to withstand its alluring call for a while, especially after reading the book and finding out exactly why this wasn’t a ship I wanted to board since it was on a one-way ticket to hell and heartbreak basically. But the drama just made it so damn hard to resist, and before I knew it, I was lowkey hooked.  Much like with WangXian, I was surprised at how much the show was getting away with in terms of XiYao:

I mean, big bro Xichen totally stroked Meng Yao’s finger there, right? First time I saw that, I remember rewinding a few times just to check and and make sure and if it’s just an optical illusion, that’s a damn convincing trick. Amusingly enough I thought at first Wei Ying was seeing the same thing and was reacting in disbelief to that moment, until I realized from his angle, there’s no way he could have seen that small gesture and he was just responding to that (ugly) incense pot.  

After finishing the series, I have to admit I’m pretty much a full-on XiYao-shipper now, which is really out of character for me because I usually prefer ships with happy endings. I have to blame, or rather, give credit to the two actors portraying LXC and JGY (Liu Haikuan and Zhu Zanjin, respectively) for conjuring up these feelings in me because they had so much chemistry together, which honestly at times rivaled that of Xiao Zhan and Wang Yibo’s chemistry. I just love how LXC’s expression softens every time he interacts with JGY and even from their first meeting, it’s obvious there were genuine feelings of respect and gratitude behind Meng Yao’s reaction to LXC.

Take the moment above as an example: the extreme admiration emanating from JGY after seeing LXC exhibit his fluting powers had to be for real since there was no reason to react just for Nie Huaisang’s sake. I can totally imagine hearts fluttering all around him as he looked upon XiChen with those wide, innocent-seeming puppy eyes of his. And when he bade his farewell to big bro later on in the episode, I loved how the camera lingered on LXC’s hands as Meng Yao moved away after saluting him, just to reiterate the intimacy of their brief physical contact.  

I also appreciated the small, seemingly trivial moments before and after he meets up with LXC in that scene, where Meng Yao is first ignored by the two male sect disciples walking by him and then later on by two female disciples. Contrast that with how LXC immediately praises Meng Yao and recognizes him as his peer from the get go, going so far as to refer to himself by his own name (“Xichen”) just to reinforce their equality, it’s no wonder JGY was instantly drawn to him. I would go so far as to say he probably fell for LXC right from the start; doesn’t even matter if it might be only in the platonic sense, man was smitten no matter how anyone chooses to categorize his feelings.

XianQing? No thank you

When I first watched this episode, I still had the stormy cloud of fear that Wen Qing would eventually be the love interest that comes in between Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji hanging over me due to some rumors I came across prior to even watching the show. As a result, every time Wen Qing and WWX would have a scene together, I would view it with trepidation as I was certain it was yet another building block to something undesirable, with the ultimate goal of mutating the relationship at the core of MDZS. If I’m going to be honest, I don’t think I was even able to rest easy until after Wen Qing’s passing and knowing for certain that the “danger period” was finally over, even though I had already grown to like her character. I still have complaints about how they altered her personality for the live action, but at least now, when I watch the scenes she shares with Wei Ying, instead of being filled with anxiety, I am actually more fascinated. I can still see the ghost of what Team CQL had initially intended with Wen Qing and WWX in a lot of their scenes together, before the fans’ uproar thankfully forced the producers to change their minds and stick with the source material.  This scene wasn’t one of those moments, but with revisiting each episode, I actually look forward to picking out which scenes were feeding into their ship because of the way they were shot and how the two actors were directed to perform during the scene, especially Meng Ziyi. I’m glad I can actually sit back and have fun with all of this now.  

XianNing? I can’t

I can see why some folks support this ship, and upon first viewing I thought this was a cute moment as well, but of course, I simply can’t go there since my heart already belongs to WangXian. And now, after having read the novel, all I could think about is how much I wish we got the archery contest at the Cultivation Conference. I’m glad we got to see it depicted in the donghua; it was as amazing as I hope it would be, but it’s a shame we didn’t get to see it in the drama. Since the producers had mentioned releasing specials of extra scenes that they couldn’t fit into the flow of the show, I hope the archery contest will be one of them. I don’t know where it would fit in in the timeline though…I guess it could happen while they were all held hostage at Nightless City, so the reason for the archery contest will have to be changed, but then maybe that’s the impetus for Wen Chao’s decision to force everyone on that dangerous quest to the Xuanwu cave: he’s so pissed off at losing at archery on his own turf that he decides to try to get all the sect kids killed.  Either way, I hope we get to see the contest in live action form one day.

Wei Wuxian is so smart

I loved this scene. I love how WWX schooled everyone with his inventive fourth reason. He’s so awesome. That’s really all I wanted to say about it.  

Random Bits of Randomness

I don’t think there’s anything wrong the color function on my tv, so please explain to me how that can be considered “purple” in any universe??

All I could think about in this scene is how disgusting that fish must have tasted cuz it looked awful, and I think Xiao Zhan even mentioned in an interview that it was gross. What probably made it taste worse was the fact that he kept on eating it from the stomach side, which can be really bitter. I think Wang Zhuocheng (Jiang Cheng) was eating it from the same side as well and I just can’t help grimacing every time I see this moment.

Odds and Ends:

I don’t really have any questions from this episode, but I did wonder if Wen Qing ever actually attended classes while she was at Cloud Recesses or did she just spend all of the time wandering the back hills, throwing her needles at barriers, cuz that’s not suspicious AT ALL. Unless I just happened to have missed her every single time in class, even though you would think it’s easy to spot her red in a sea of white…if that’s the case then I probably need to get my eyes checked.

Also, I wish we got to see Shijie draw her sword. She carried it around in the beginning, but I’m kinda bummed that we never saw her actually use it. I’m sure she is completely capable and would’ve looked just as badass as the boys.

And bless Uncle Lan for his brilliant idea of making Lan Zhan enforce the disciplinary action on Wei Ying, thereby allowing the boys to have valuable alone time in the library pavilion to further nurture their bond. In retrospect he probably regrets that decision, but as far as I’m concerned, that’s one of his best one he’s ever made.  

[sugar--pie]

Recently I made a post talking about Barlee’s recent tweets and how I personally believe it doesn’t kill off Klance. I recommend reading it before you continue reading this HELLA. LONG. POST. As I might refer back to it a few times.

Edit: just want to add in here, that Barlee said those tweets weren’t about Klance, and that they were about Shiro being Rep. She also said she doesn’t know the end result of the series though... so I’m still gonna keep this post. But a lot of the things I talked about in that post about Klance in general, I’ll still refer to. Please remember to read my edits at the end too! Thanks :)

Okay.

So even after I made that post, I still had a major panic attack and slowly lost hope in Klance again. Idk, I’ve fallen way too deep into this it’s not even healthy probably, it felt like literal heart break. And I’m not even LGBT, I have another reasoning behind why I’m not really for Allura/Lance... and Season 7 kinda fuelled it a bit more. But that’s not what I’m here to talk about. That post will be made after Season 8... if I manage to somehow be horrifically incorrect about what I’m going to talk about here. Which... I highly doubt I will. But I’ll keep a cushion to be safe.

I’m going to make bullet points:

One of the biggest problems the Klance fandom had before was that they put the Klance GogglesTM on for everything. Some specific things in the show were obvious yes, or at least it should be to everyone, but some things were stretched out way too far.

One of these scenarios is the theory (yes theory, this was never confirmed to be true, it’s just an assumption) that Hunk was given what was meant to be Lance’s arc with his family.

Reason why this became a theory was because of Barlee’s Tweets. And this is kind of where I started to lose hope again.

If Hunk was given Lance’s arc then that must mean Klance was written out. Because it was all about Keith and Hunk, when it “should’ve been” Keith and Lance.

However, I was seriously thinking about it as my last few morsels of hope started leaving me during work UNTIL BAM! IT HIT ME!

Yeah. Klance gogglesTM. Fans have grown to projecting Klance on to everything. And that includes Hunks arc, but trust me when I say this. Hunk was never given Lance’s arc. This is meant to be Hunks arc, through and through.

Keith was also included in Hunks arc because he is the one who didn’t have a family from the start. Including Keith in Hunks arc is demonstrating the growth Keith has had throughout the series.

Hunk was admitted to being the most underdeveloped character in the show. I remember it from an interview (video I believe) where Joaquim and Lauren say they had trouble with Hunk when creating him because, comparing him to his 80’s counterpart, was a lot different and they had trouble putting him in certain roles.

That is really lame, don’t get me wrong, but this explains why Hunks arc in Season 7 felt rushed and out of place. Hunk only mentioned missing earth or “not wanting to be a paladin” once in the beginning. And he wasn’t super upset about it.

Lance on the other hand was. He was vocal about missing earth, He was shown getting upset, leaving the room and opening up to Coran about it. This is where I think people mistook what Lance’s arc was meant to be. Even I misunderstood because of this scene.

however, this is where I’m going to point out, that yes, this is the start of Lance’s arc (“Lance and Keith’s arcs have been the only two that have lasted the entirety of the series” - incorrectly quoted by Joaquim)(I’ll expand on this a little later), but Lance’s arc isn’t about family.

I know, shocker. And it should’ve been obvious from the get go. But oooooh nooo, it wasn’t because we focused too much attention on Lance missing his family here. But let me ask:

How many times in the show has Lance voiced about missing home besides this scene? Yeah... try making a list for that lol. That’s because we took it way out of context and made it a bigger deal for Lance’s character when... it isn’t. Lance’s arc was never about family or missing earth.

Writing a show, you need to make sure the characters move into the spot they’ll need to be in. They used Lance missing earth in order to make him go off on his own, and have Coran follow.

Why you ask? It should be obvious. This could be a stretch but a very realistic one: Lance needed to be by the Crystal with Coran when it explodes, to ultimately, lead to the Bonding moment. Boom.

Lance’s Arc started here. Lance’s arc is a Romance Arc and it’s been in our faces the whole time.

He’s had more scenes voicing his charm and making it known from the get go.

He’s flirted.

It’s canon he wants to fall in love with someone.

His blog talked about crushing on Allura and wanting to be called pretty.

He’s the most feminine coded character as he enjoys generally feminine tropes like taking care of his appearance, even more so than Allura, who has only ever referenced being “girly” by having her hair done by mice(?) and wanting something sparkly.

This is also why Lance’s romantic life is such a focus not only for us, but when being talked about at Conventions. He’s the only one to have a canon romantic endgame. Gee, should’ve been obvious there what his arc is about.

And what finally made me realize Lance’s arc is a romance arc, is remembering when Lauren and Joaquim told us during a discussion that “Lance doesn’t know what he needs. We know what Lance might look for, but it’s not necessarily what he needs.” Lance being the only one known to have a canon endgame, ties into this.

This, made me realize. Lance’s arc, will be him realizing what he needs. I think it’s already leading up to it, personally because of this season alone. But arguably, it started picking up once Keith left in Season 4.

So No, Lance’s family arc was never given to Hunk because Lance was never meant to have an arc based around his family in the first place. We knew Lance missed his family and earth, but it wasn’t the main focus for him so that’s why all we saw was this glorious reaction to seeing his family again. And why the only lead role out of his family is Veronica.

(Keep in mine Keith is made out to be a focal point within this scene as well. Hunk too. I’ll bring this back up.)

So... now that I’ve covered the ground work in this long ass essay. Let’s continue the essay!

Now that we know Hunks arc was never meant for Lance, and Lance instead has a Romance Arc, let’s consider his endgame options:

In my post about Barlee’s Tweets, a lot of people assumed she was referring to a lot of things implying Lance will just end up in a rushed relationship with Allura, and I was one of these people too at first. But then it made me think. There was a lot, and I mean a lot of Keith and Lance interactions, and most of those, as I said in the Barlee post, demonstrated the trust and teamwork between the two right away, as well as had undertones and subtlety towards romantic intentions. Keith also has been a focal point in generally Lance centric moments, like above when he runs to hold his family. Hunk makes sense of being present because it starts the “family” portion of his arc this season. Keith however, only makes sense if he has purpose in Lance’s Arc, otherwise he wouldn’t be a focus and made apparent that he’s watching Lance reunite with his family. Make note that Allura was not.

The game show for example, If Lance liked Allura so much and was meant to end up with her, he would’ve picked her to leave. But instead, he chose Keith and also had a very sweet reasoning behind why, including a very dopey fond look on his face.

That’s why I love Pidge’s reaction in that scene because she practically sums up pretty much everyone��s reaction. Even mine. All of them were probably expecting him to pick Allura, (maybe even himself) but nonetheless, they weren’t expecting him to pick Keith, even Keith himself.

That’s why Keith reacts the way he does. I guarantee you he panicked.

Filler episodes in Voltron have always foreshadowed in some way, I wouldn’t be surprised if having Lance and Keith choose each other isn’t blatant foreshadowing.

Overall, there was more Keith and Lance interactions that included romantic subtext, compared to Lance and Allura, this season alone.

This is why it confused me a lot if the showrunners did write out Klance. They wouldn’t have included such strong scenarios with the two in this season if that’s the case. Not only this season but also the smaller ones that implies something more between the two in season 4, and season 6.

This is the point I’m going to bring in something interesting I read in this post. The OP said it’s probably a reach (when are they ever not?) but this is where I think Allura randomly having feelings for Lance, comes into Lance’s Arc.

Like we’ve been saying since the beginning, Allura has been what Lance has wanted from the start. But in OP’s post, they mentioned how the only time Lance had shown insecurity and being unsure of himself this seaosn, was right after his scene with Allura (and Veronica teasing him about it). That was the only scene that caused insecurity.

THIS IS SUPER IMPORTANT TO POINT OUT YALL.

Lance had been secluded from season 4-6. He started getting closer to Allura, but then Lotor came along and changed that.

This is where I believe “what Lance wants isn’t necessarily what he needs,” makes sense. Allura has started having feelings for Lance, but then ending up together would be, as said by Lauren, “a disservice to both their characters.”

Allura getting feelings so soon kind of proved to me after realizing all this, that, no she isn’t Lance’s endgame. Like we’ve been saying Allura is what he wants. But not what he needs.

But who... pray tell.. is what he needs.

Keith.

I know, I know. This is the part where the typical Klance Goggles would probably come in. But I’m serious about this guys.

The moment Keith came back into the picture, Lance had been put into a more important role.

Keith listened to him, trusted him immediately and asked Lance to take over multiple times. Lance never had a moment of insecurity because everything fell back into place, and Keith made him feel useful again. Lance was once again the Red Paladin and Keith’s Right hand.

Tying in Lance being vocal about Keith “running away”, I don’t think people are far off from thinking Lance actually opened up to how he actually felt when Keith Left. And even showing worry when Keith said he’s going back for Acxa. Might as well put it in a present and wrap it up with a little bow.

Keith is ultimately what Lance had been needing the whole time. And Lance, I believe, will realize it. He’ll figure out that Allura isn’t what he needs, and because his moment of insecurity stems from an interaction he and Allura had, is also foreshadowing it too.

Throwing back to when I said Lance and Keith have had the longest arcs since the beginning, (quoted by Joaquim himself), this would explain why Lance’s finality to his arc hasn’t happened yet. It’s because it includes Keith, and Allura (possibly even Acxa which I explained in the Barlee post) and will most likely happen in season 8. The ultimate slowburn endgame.

This is where the bonding moment will be acknowledge.

They’ll also acknowledge two important scenes; Keith’s almost sacrifice, and Lances actual death (which included parallels to their season 1 bonding moment with Lance and Allura.)

And also “the other part” to Keith’s reason for leaving the team for the BOM.

Parallels are for a reason. And oooh boi.

Did my brain manage to restore faith back in Klance. Yup. Even if I’m the ONLY ONE LEFT IN THE FANDOM, I know what I’m talking about here. And if Allura/Lance do end up canon after all when it really makes no sense to, I will be one confused fucking bitch.

I believe I covered everything my jumbled brain puked out. So please, keep the faith Klance fandom. There is more story to unfold!

Edit: and technically I’m already again a really confused bitch. The Barlee post might be useless now, since she specifically stated she was referring to Shiro. And he was the intended rep.

I’m not upset again I’m just downright confused once again. Butttt... at this point. Maybe stuff will be answered in season 8. But overall, a lot of my points in this still stand!

Edit 2: Ultimately (I say this a lot), the one thing I knew from the start, is that Keith and Lance would have something to do with eachothers arcs, and arguably, they have, considering Lance and Keith’s arcs have been the longest arcs in the show. So even if Klance isn’t endgame. At this point, they have definitely become best friends and have grown on their own and with each other. And that, is still a very, very beautiful thing. No they don’t have to be together romantically. But they can and will be by each others side for a long time after the series ends.

Because that’s what Klance is. Lance and Keith, back to back. Thank you for reading. :)

[bbclesmis]

Los Angeles Times: Dominic West on the near-erotic bond between Valjean and Javert in ‘Les Miserables’

Since the original publication of Victor Hugo’s novel “Les Miserables” more than 150 years ago, the brutal conflict between the convict-turned-savior Jean Valjean and ruthless pursuer Inspector Javert has been dramatized countless times on stage, screen and even radio.

Although most of the versions have been dramatic, the most dominant and popular adaptation of the 1862 novel is musical. The Tony Award-winning “Les Miserables,” launched in Paris in 1980, has been featured on stages around the globe, and its colorful characters, luscious ballads and rousing anthems have been embraced by millions of theatergoers.

Dominic West is not among them.

The actor who came to prominence in the landmark HBO series “The Wire” and is starring in Showtime’s “The Affair,” has never seen “Les Miserables” on stage. And he didn’t make it all the way through the 2012 film version starring Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe.

Still, he understood how immensely popular the musical is. Which is one reason he had doubts about taking on the role when he was approached about playing Jean Valjean in a new dramatic six-hour adaptation of “Les Miserables.”

“I thought, ‘What’s the point?’ ” West said as he sat in the front courtyard of a boutique hotel in Santa Monica recently. “They’ve made a very successful film, and the stage musical is so successful. Then I read the script, and I realized there was a lot more to it. In living memory there’s been no six-hour version, no long-form version of the novel. The story you’re familiar with and the characters you’re familiar with are seen in greater depth.”

The miniseries, which debuts April 14 on PBS’ “Masterpiece,” also stars David Oyelowo (“Selma”) as Javert, Lily Collins (“Rules Don’t Apply”) as the doomed seamstress Fantine and recent Oscar winner Olivia Colman (“The Favourite”) as the abusive innkeeper Lady Thenardier. Andrew Davies, who has written adaptations of everything from “Pride and Prejudice” and “Bleak House” to “House of Cards” and “Bridget Jones’s Diary,” adapted Hugo’s novel for the project, which was co-produced by “Masterpiece” with BBC Studios.

The bleakness and brutality of Hugo’s vision is vividly depicted, alerting viewers immediately that there will be no catchy songs or light moments in this “Les Miserables.” “Masterpiece” executive producer Rebecca Eaton said there are compelling differences that should appeal to fans of the musical and devotees of Hugo’s work.

“The musical is great, the songs are great, but sometimes it covers up the story,” Eaton said in a phone interview. “What we’ve done is the narrative, with all its intricacies and subtleties that you just don’t get in the musical. We’re going much deeper. I love how Andrew humanizes and animates these 19th century tomes. He really went for the highs and the lows, and is making a political statement about poverty and class.”

The depiction of the virginal Fantine’s fall into degradation and prostitution, for example, is explored in chilling and horrifying detail. One of the highlights of the musical is “Master of the House,” a comic ode to the crooked operation of the inn run by the Thenardiers; in the “Masterpiece” version, the couple is much more menacing and manipulative.

And viewers who remember West as detective Jimmy McNulty from “The Wire” or are used to seeing him in various states of undress and in steamy sex scenes in “The Affair” may be startled when he is introduced as Prisoner 24601. He is almost unrecognizable, shorn of almost all his hair (“They cut my hair off with a knife and fork”) and wearing a lengthy and unkempt beard.

But it’s his performance, along with Oyelowo’s, that is at the center of this “Les Miserables,” and Eaton maintained that viewers will be captivated by how the two actors play out the life-and-death battle between Valjean and Javert: “To watch these two is just mesmerizing, My weakness is actors, and when I’m in the presence of first actors, it’s just wonderful.”

Among the most prominent film adaptations was a 1935 Oscar-nominated film starring Frederic March, a 1998 film starring Liam Neeson and Geoffrey Rush, and a 2000 French miniseries starring Gerard Depardieu and John Malkovich.

West became a believer in this latest version after reading Davies’ adaptation, and Hugo’s novel.

“Reading the book was the most pleasurable reading experience I’ve ever had,” he said. “I think it’s the best book ever written. It’s even greater than Tolstoy. Valjean is the greatest hero in literature. His story of redemption and the battle he has against his adversaries and against himself make him such a compelling hero.”

As Valjean, West had to connect with both his brutal side and his tenderness: “He’s been imprisoned for 19 years for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his starving nieces and nephews,” he said. “He knew when he went to prison that they would all die in starvation.”

He added, “What’s central to the book is Javert’s view of the criminal, which is they are born and cannot be redeemed, and Hugo’s more enlightened view, that you’re a product of the way people treat you. If you’re brutalized for 19 years, you will be a brute. His evolution from violent brute to pillar of the community and then romantic hero is what’s so extraordinary about his character arc. Behind this beast is this great compassionate soul.”

Then there’s the core of “Les Miserables” — the clash between Valjean and Javert.

“There’s an almost erotic bond between Valjean and Javert,” West said. “Javert is nuts about him. We kind of hint at it. In these things, you always look for the strongest impulse, and that’s always sex and love.”

However, there was not much love between West and Oyelowo during the shoot.

“I kept trying to get to know David; I kept asking him out to dinner, and he was very aloof,” West said with a laugh. “I thought, ‘Boy, is he unfriendly! He’s a bit snooty.’ And then at the end, we finally went out — it was his birthday — and we had this great night. I said, ‘Wow, we should have done this months ago,’ and he said, ‘No, no, I was deliberately avoiding you.’ It was very clever. You do have a rapport with someone you hang out with on a set, and he didn’t want to have that. He was bloody right.”

He laughed again. “He has everything I lack. He has immense discipline, whereas I’m incapable of not wanting someone to be my friend. He’s perfectly able for the benefit of the work to keep his distance. I admire him hugely as a person and as an actor.”

Both he and Oyelowo are executive producers of “Les Miserables.” “I had never done it before,” West said. “David was good at it. He’d watch stuff and come out with useful notes the next day. I had a lot of opinions about the production until we got into the shoot. Then the only notes I had was, ‘Could you hold on me a little longer? I think you’re missing a bit of magic.’ ” He burst into a loud laugh. “Of course they ignored me.”

West credits his role in “The Affair” with being a crucial tool in helping him prepare for “Les Miserables.” The Showtime drama, which explores the impact of an extramarital affair from different perspectives, is in the midst of filming its fifth and final season.

“There was never a light moment on ‘The Affair,’ “ he said. “It was always emotionally expensive stuff. Lots of grief and emotion. It taught me a lot. I don’t think I could have done Valjean without being on that show.”

Even then, it took time for West to understand Valjean. “What I found so difficult to understand is why he surrenders himself to Javert. Why does he feel he’s a bad guy when all he did was steal a loaf of bread? That took me a very long time, to realize what sort of psychology Hugo was anatomizing there,” West said. “He’s been so brutalized, told that he’s an animal for 20 years. He believes he’s not worthy of love, he believes he’s not worthy of living in normal society, he believes the only thing he deserves is the brutal life of the prison.”

As happy as he is with “Les Miserables,” West is also coming to grips with wrapping up “The Affair.” which also stars Maura Tierney and, until last season’s plot twist, Ruth Wilson. ”Five years is a long time for television, and I’m ready to move on, for sure.”

Although he is looking forward to new projects, he is also constantly reminded of his past — particularly “The Wire” which has only gained in reputation since its original five-season run, which started in 2002. The multilayered series about the narcotics scene in Baltimore is regarded as one of the most significant and compelling dramas in recent TV history.

“It’s really extraordinary how it’s grown in stature, and I feel very lucky to have been involved,” West said. “People always come up to me and say they’ve just watched it. If it came out now, I think it would have been lost in the sheer volume of great projects. But in some way, it can be said it catalyzed this golden age of television and to have raised the bar. For me, it’s been the gift that keeps on giving.”

[marshmallow-the-vampire-slayer]

MTVS Epic Rewatch #210

BTVS 7x22 Chosen

Stray Thoughts

You know what? I don’t think I am, Buffy.

1) You know the baddy’s fate is sealed when they dare call Buffy a bitch, right?

2) Watching Buffy ax Caleb right in the balls and then make puns about it fills me with infinite joy.

3) I think you all know by now I’m not a Bangel shipper, so I wonder how Angel shippers feel about Buffy and Angel’s last on-screen conversation being about Spike. Doesn’t it feel a bit like a wasted opportunity? It’s not really OOC for Angel to act jealous and possessive (even though in the universe of the show he’s spent the last two years approximately being in love with Cordelia, so why does he think he has any right to question Buffy’s love life? Anyway, I know that’s the writers' fault – how they always blatantly ignored whatever was happening in each show for the shippy crossover moment – but the end result is that Angel looks like a two-timing asshole who can’t make up his mind about what or who he wants.) But like, the world is ending, this is what you want your last conversation to be…?

4)

He is. He is a 200+ years old man-child-pire.

5) The cookie dough speech, though? One of my favorite speeches in the show…

I'm cookie dough. I'm not done baking. I'm not finished becoming whoever the hell it is I'm gonna turn out to be. I make it through this, and the next thing, and the next thing, and maybe one day I turn around and realize I'm ready. I'm cookies. And then, you know, if I want someone to eat… or enjoy warm, delicious cookie me, then...that's fine. That'll be then. When I'm done.

I think it’s one of the finest messages the show delivered, and it’s especially important coming from Buffy herself, someone who was seldom not in a relationship.

6) Callback #1…

This parallels both  Angel’s first appearance in the show in Welcome to the Hellmouth as well as his exit from the show in Graduation Day Part 2.

7) Oh, Xander…

8) Of course, the shipping wars wouldn’t be complete without Spuffy talking about Angel. Guh.

9) Iconic!

You know, one of these days I'm just gonna put you two in a room and let you wrestle it out. There could be oil of some kind involved.

One can only dream!

10) This gives me a lot of feels… It’s such a small gesture but it means she finally trusts him.

11) You see what I mean when I say the First was fucking idiotic? Always giving Buffy the precise information she needed in order to defeat it? I mean…

None of those girlies will ever know real power unless you're dead. You know the drill: Into every generation, a slayer is born. One girl in all the world. She alone will have the strength and skill to— There's that word again. What you are. How you'll die. Alone. Where's your snappy comeback?

Like, seriously, do you even want to destroy the world? You’re not trying real hard!

12) Yeah, you fucking are!

13) See? Cut to the next morning, Buffy is telling the others her plans, inspired by none other than the First itself! I don’t think she would’ve thought of it if he hadn’t mentioned the fact that they needed the potentials to have real power, the power of a slayer.

14) Sweet, innocent Dawnie!

WILLOW This goes beyond anything I've ever done. It's a total loss of control, and not in a nice, wholesome, my girlfriend has a pierced tongue kind of way.

BUFFY I wouldn't ask if I didn't think you could do it.

WILLOW I—I'm not sure that I'm stable enough.

GILES You can do this, Willow. We'll get the coven on the line, and we'll find out how they can help.

DAWN Oh! "Pierced tongue."

15) This line always gives me chills!

16) Although their conversation is cute…

ROBIN Faith—Make me a deal, all right? We live through this, you give me the chance to surprise you.

FAITH What would be the surprise?

ROBIN You do know the meaning of the word, right?

I really don’t see the point in spending precious minutes of a finale on these two. If we needed Faith to get closure with anyone, that was Buffy.

17) I don’t actually hate Kennedy on this episode. Wow. I never thought I’d say that.

18) How the mighty have fallen…

Although I think I missed the part where he was a “highly respected watcher”... 

19) And then this scene…

I’ve talked about it before, so I’m going to leave you the link in case your interested to know what I make of it as a Spuffy shipper.

20) Oh, Anya…

ANYA So that leaves me and the dungeon master in the north hall?

ANDREW We will defend it with our very lives.

ANYA Yes, we will defend it with his very life.

XANDER And don't be afraid to use him as a human shield.

ANYA Good, yes, thanks!

21) aNDREW HAD A FUCKING SPEECH PREPARED, I CAN’T!

22) Now, this is what this season should’ve been about…

23) And callback #2…

24) Ok, this is one my greatest movie/tv pet peeves. Why would anyone cut their hands? I get it, you need blood or whatever. I can think of 10 parts of your body you could get it from which wouldn’t be as inconvenient as your hand. Like, how do they continue doing things with a fucking open wound on the palm of their hands? It doesn’t make any sense! And it’s always the fucking hand! WHY!?

25) This is probably the scariest shot in the show, isn’t it? (even if the CGI wasn’t that great…)

26) Oh, man, this speech still gives me chills!

BUFFY So here's the part where you make a choice: What if you could have that power... now? In every generation, one slayer is born... because a bunch of men who died thousands of years ago made up that rule. They were powerful men. This woman is more powerful than all of them combined. So I say we change the rule. I say my power... should be our power. Tomorrow, Willow will use the essence of the scythe to change our destiny. From now on, every girl in the world who might be a slayer... will be a slayer. Every girl who could have the power... will have the power... can stand up, will stand up. Slayers... every one of us. Make your choice. Are you ready to be strong?

I love it. I do. It is an empowering moment, it’s Buffy and the slayers breaking free from the Council, taking back the power that was imposed onto them, choosing that power.

The irony is not lost on me, however, that Buffy is making the choice for – and therefore removing the agency of – every single potential slayer who is not in that room. She did ask the ones living with her, but what about the rest? What if they don’t want that power and its responsibility?

In spite of this, it still holds up as one of the greatest moments in the show.

Side note: I read somewhere (or saw an interview?) about how this speech was much longer, and how SMG delivered the whole speech in its entirety without making any mistakes, and when she ended everyone was so in awe at what she’d done as an actress that they started clapping. She is a great actress, isn’t she?

27) And our Willow has come full circle, hasn’t she?

28) Iconic shot!

29) Bless you, Anya!!

30) …

R.I.P. Anyanka Emanuella Jenkins, former vengeance demon, self-appointed American and defender of capitalism, arch-nemesis of bunnies, hater of subtleties, teller of truths.

I know the way Anya went pissed off a lot of people, especially because it’s almost a blink-and-you-missed-it moment. I do, however, feel that someone had to die in this way. Someone important, I mean. Not every main character death in the show could have a big preamble and a huge aftermath. Sometimes you see death coming, but other times, it happens in an instant and it’s done. That’s especially true in big battles like the one in this episode. There is no time to stop and mourn because if you do, you might end up on the dead pile yourself.

We see later how the only ones concerned about Anya are Xander and Andrew. That makes sense, too, in my opinion. Anya was never a true member of the Scooby gang. She was merely there because of Xander. I’m not saying that was okay, I’m simply stating a fact. In fact, I’ve voiced my annoyance about the way Buffy and Willow treated her several times. (This is proven by how little thought was given to her feelings after Xander left her at the altar…) It hardly matters anyway, because if she wanted to be remembered and missed by anyone, that most certainly was Xander. Her life revolved around him, for better or worse.

But, apart from this, I think this was a fitting way to finish her journey – from vengeance demon, to inadequate teenager, to girl in love, to working gal, to scorned lover, to vengeance demon again, to humanity connoisseur and admirer. She overcame her fear of death and she embraced her humanity, and she died stupidly fighting for what she believed in, just like humans do.

31) I think this is one of the most underrated puns in the show.

32) Have you noticed how they are killing the Ubervamps with… stakes? Retcon much?

33) Oh, bollocks, indeed…

34)It kind of breaks my heart when Spike says that he can really feel his soul like he didn’t really believe it was actually there until now.

35) Oh, god, my Spuffy heart…

Does Buffy really love Spike, though? 

36) "I wanna see how it ends.”

R.I.P. Spike. Sort of. Not really.

37) I really like this shot…

Buffy just stares at the open road, her life ahead, her future, thoughts she’d never before allowed herself to indulge in because death was always around the corner. But now? There’s literally a world of possibilities…

38) Callback #3…

You left like you arrived, Spike. Goodbye home, sweet home.

39) Bless you, Andrew.

XANDER So, did you see?

ANDREW I—I was scared. I'm sorry.

XANDER Did you see what happened? I mean, was she...

ANDREW She was incredible. She died saving my life.

XANDER That's my girl. Always doing the stupid thing.

40) I just love the fact that the original cast members are the only ones in the last shot BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT THIS SEASON SHOULD’VE BEEN ABOUT. EHEM.

41) I just…

WILLOW Yeah. The First is scrunched, so... what do you think we should do, Buffy?

FAITH Yeah, you're not the one and only chosen anymore. Just gotta live like a person. How's that feel?

DAWN Yeah, Buffy. What are we gonna do now?

Buffy:

ME:

I will try to form a coherent thought because as I write this, I’m still bawling my eyes out. This ending is especially poignant for me because Buffy is my favorite character, so all I’ve ever wanted was her happiness. It’s been seven years. Seven years of heartbreak, pain, mourning loved ones, non-stopping fighting. Seven years of feeling the weight of the world on her shoulders. A girl, alone in the world, fighting the forces of evil. Never allowing herself to look forward because that always leads to disappointment and crushed expectations. But now? Nothing is stopping her now, nothing is holding her back. The open road is right ahead, and she can go and do whatever she wants to.

The show had to end with a final shot of Buffy. This was her journey, and though it’s far from over, that smile assures us that yes, she will be fine.

I guess it gives all of us a little bit of hope.

42) Is Chosen a perfect episode? I don’t think so. I think too much time was wasted on ship moments and side characters. There’s a lot of talk but not the kind I usually enjoy the most. It’s only half-way through the episode – when they get to Sunnydale High - that you really get that feeling of “Oh fuck, this is really the end, this is actually happening!”

But I do think it’s a good ending, nonetheless. There’s an epic battle – although I do enjoy the season 3 battle much more… - there’re callbacks and special character moments, there’s closure and there’s death because it wouldn’t be Buffy if no one ever died. (You lied, Giles.)

More importantly, it does what series finales ought to do – it pays tribute to its characters, and it’s a gift to the fans. I don’t think we should ever measure the quality of a show by how good their series finale is, you know? When I think of this show – and we all know I think about it a lot – it’s not “Chosen” what comes to mind. It’s everything that came before it. Chosen is a celebration of and a tribute to all of that. And as such, it is a perfect finale.

43) Thank you to everyone who has ever read one of my recaps, you are the reason I pushed through even when I felt like giving up. Thank you for sharing my unconditional love for this show. I love you all, too.

44) If you’ve got this far, thank you for reading! If you enjoy my recaps and my blog, please consider supporting it on ko-fi. Thanks!

[wannabealexjenningscoffee]

From Alan Bennett to Unforgotten: how Alex Jennings became the most chilling man on TV

“Next time, spare us the Hannibal Lecter schtick.” So said DI Sunny Khan (Sanjeev Bhaskar) to killer GP Tim Finch (Alex Jennings) in Sunday night’s finale of the superior ITV whodunit Unforgotten.

It wasn’t just one of the most memorable lines of a mesmerising series but also an apt comparison. This was a doctor who had abused his position of trust; a manipulative multiple murderer who displayed the cold-blooded cruelty of a sociopath; who spooked viewers and on-screen adversaries alike as he sat in prison-issue clothes, calmly detailing his sickening crimes, a sly smile of satisfaction playing across his lips.

It’s testament to Jennings’ chillingly charismatic turn that he bore comparison to Anthony Hopkins' Oscar -winning big-screen bogeyman. And all the more impressive that Jennings conveyed Finch’s unsettling secrets without any scenery-chomping histrionics or even on-screen violence. This was a slow-burning performance of rare subtlety. One of a group of four old schoolmates who’d rented a country cottage for Millennium Eve, Finch initially seemed the least likely suspect to have murdered local teen Hayley Reid, then buried her body under the central reservation of the M1. Predatory TV presenter James Hollis (Kevin McNally), swindling salesman Pete Carr (Neil Morrissey) or homeless, bipolar artist Chris Lowe (James Fleet) all behaved more erratically and looked better bets.

As the six-part drama unfolded, though, Jennings’ sinister creation gradually moved front and centre. We heard how Finch had violently threatened an elderly patient. His traumatised first wife Derran (Siobhan Redmond) insisted he’d mentally, physically and sexually abused her, with the Polaroids to partially prove it.

His daughter Emma (Jo Herbert) began to realise her father wasn’t as even-tempered as he appeared. His meek, mousy second wife Carol (Amanda Root) was in denial yet knew deep down that something was badly amiss. Finch was arrested on suspicion of murder in the penultimate episode but Sunday’s finale delivered a queasy twist. The “trophies” found in his cellar - a pair of knickers, a scrunchie and a necklace - didn’t belong to Hayley Reid as detectives had assumed, but to another, earlier missing girl.

In hypnotically intense police interview scenes, Finch impassively confessed to more murders - on the gloriously prosaic proviso that he got a cup of tea first. By the time the credits rolled, we knew he was a serial killer who had claimed at least five adolescent female victims, probably many more. His horrifying lack of remorse even contributed to heroine DCI Cassie Stuart (Nicola Walker) taking a sabbatical from the force. From his self-contained body language to the unconvincing way he called people “mate”, from his rural leisurewear to his reptilian movements, at first Finch’s villainy was hard for viewers to put their finger on. He just felt... not quite right. With his 6ft 2in frame, dancing blue eyes and enigmatic smirk, Jennings eventually revealed the true monster beneath the Barbour jacket and false bonhomie. Showing Lecter-like levels of self-regard, Finch was quick to point out the difference between paedophilia and hebephilia. He took time out to discuss the nature vs nurture debate. “I’m pretty much a textbook psychopath,” he confessed, barely batting an eyelid. “Above average intelligence, superficially charming, zero empathy.” Brrrrr. Don’t have nightmares.

Unforgotten was Jennings’ second show-stealing TV performance so far this year. He had already attracted rave notices in the BBC’s hugely entertaining dramatisation of the Jeremy Thorpe affair, A Very English Scandal As Liberal MP Peter Bessell, confidante and right-hand man to Hugh Grant’s rakish Thorpe, Jennings had one eyebrow permanently raised in amusement at his leader’s antics. Jennings was wonderfully wry as the womaniser, chancer and closeted homosexual who ultimately testified against his friend at trial - only to be castigated for having already sold his story to The Sunday Telegraph.

Coincidentally enough, it was in Grant’s defining role that Jennings himself almost found film stardom. He was originally cast in the lead role of hapless Charles in Four Weddings And A Funeral, only for financing to fall through. By the time the production got back on track, the goalposts had moved. “Bugger,” as Charles would doubtless say. Before this breakout year, 61-year-old Jennings was best known for roles as real-life royals. He has played both Richard II and George III. Opposite Helen Mirren in 2006 film The Queen, he gave an unexpectedly empathetic portrayal of Prince Charles. More recently, he stole scenes as the side-burned, scheming Leopold I of Belgium in ITV’s lavish costume romp Victoria.

This arrived on our screens at the same time as his excellently oily, embittered turn as David, Duke of Windsor (formerly King Edward VIII) in hit Netflix epic The Crown . Like the rest of The Crown’s roles, Jennings’ part has now been recast with an older actor and admits he “won’t like” watching his replacement. “I was attracted to Unforgotten partly because it meant not playing a member of the royal family,” he cheerfully says. “And wearing modern clothes, which I never do. I had to de-posh myself. I’m not posh at all, actually, but I’ve sort of acquired this poshness as the years have gone on. And I have done a lot of posh.” Born in Essex and an alumnus of his local comprehensive in Hornchurch, Jennings is indeed no toff. Instead, he does actual acting. He mastered the Leeds accent to portray playwright Alan Bennett in 2015 film The Lady In The Van, opposite Maggie Smith in the title role. “I grew up revering Maggie and Alan,” he says. “I have to pinch myself that we’ve become friends.”

Three years earlier, he played the writer on-stage in Untold Stories, based on Bennett’s childhood. “Alan was on at me not to be too plaintive or cosy,” Jennings recalls. “He doesn’t want to be seen as the sort of Wind in the Willows, moley kind of person some people think he is. He wanted me to be tougher with it.” Lady In The Van director Nicholas Hytner, with whom Jennings has a longtime collaborative relationship, ranks Jennings among the pre-eminent actors of his generation and has hailed him as “a John Gielgud for the 21st century”.

With his greying curls, care-worn features and subversive twinkle, Jennings has a face that lends itself perfectly to period roles. He has also inhabited other real-life figures, including former US president George Bush Nazi architect Albert Speer, Dad’s Army actor John Le Mesurier and composer Benjamin Britten. He has said the key to playing such roles is to act, not impersonate becaue the characters “mustn’t become Spitting Image puppets”. Before the screen royals and rogues, Jennings enjoyed a stage career remarkable for both its versatility and success. A revered regular with both the RSC and the National Theatre, he’s a three-time Olivier Award winner for Too Clever By Half, Peer Gynt and My Fair Lady, making him the only actor to have won in the drama, musical and comedy categories.

Whether it’s on-stage or in supporting screen roles, Alex Jennings has spent more than three decades being consistently brilliant. He has earned this late-life flowering as one of our most compellingly creepy TV actors. Let’s hope that Unforgotten’s Doctor Death is just the latest in a long line of meaty parts to get his teeth into. And on that thought, we’re back to Hannibal Lecter again...

Credit: By Michael Hogan 2018 Telegraph.co.uk; London

[shireness-says]

Nobody’s Business

Summary: Life's a dream, but when it's time for the Lost Girls to put out a new album, everyone's got an opinion. Try as she might to ignore the interference, some days, Emma just can't deal with it. Rated T. ~2.3K. Also on AO3.

A/N: I’m back, with another installment of Maybe I Won’t Die Alone! Previous installments can be found here, here, and here (in order), or on AO3, and I definitely recommend you read those first. 

This one is beta’d, for the first time in this series, so huge thanks to @snidgetsafan! Thanks, babe!

Rated T for just a bit of mild language.

Tagging @kmomof4 and @shady-swan-jones since i know they’re particular fans of this verse. If folks ever want to be tagged in my stuff, let me know!

Without further ado, enjoy!

Killian is in the living room, keeping an eye on Wiley and trying to keep up with the boy’s active imagination when he hears the side door slam closed. He assumes it’s Emma; she’s been gone all day, and though it’s a bit earlier than she had anticipated returning, Killian is confident only his wife would enter the house with such a trademark lack of subtlety. She’d been out for a magazine interview today; with the upcoming release of the Lost Girls’ latest album, publicity was slowly ramping up, resulting in more and more engagements of this sort. Emma has never been wild about the publicity aspect of her job, far too private to enjoy talking to strangers about things that are none of their business. She had been more hopeful about the prospects of this interview - surely a respected music industry magazine would stick to the relevant content - but if the force of that door-slam is anything to go by, things didn’t go nearly as well as they both hoped.

“In here, love!” he calls, before turning back to their suddenly-excited toddler, who’s anxiously watching the doorway. “That’s right, lad, Mama’s home,” he says, before whispering conspiratorially, “Why don’t you go make her something?”

The previous week, Killian had ducked into a thrift store with Wiley after seeing a box of records through the window, and the little boy had discovered a plastic kitchen set that he immediately fell in love with. Killian hadn’t ended up leaving with any records - the box had been full of mostly amateur worship songs - but the play kitchen had wound up being purchased and loaded into the back to the car, immediately followed by a stop at the nearest toy store to purchase more plastic foods. Wiley had been enthusiastically “feeding” everyone ever since. No one particularly cares; it’s adorable, and besides, Killian’s read about how good imaginative play is for young minds. Hopefully, if Emma’s in a foul mood, one of Wiley’s pretend concoctions will cheer her up.

The woman herself appears moments later, stockinged toes on display after already removing her boots and face still covered in the thick makeup needed for the dramatic interview photographs. She looks exhausted, with more than just that bone-deep fatigue associated with raising a toddler; there’s an emotional fatigue as well that wasn’t present when she left the house that morning.

“Mama!” Wiley excitedly chirps, rushing her legs and managing to bring a smile to Emma’s face.

“Hey, little man,” she murmurs, bending down to drop a kiss on his chestnut curls. “I missed you.”

Wiley holds on for a moment longer, letting his mother love on him, before breaking his grip to rush back to his play set. “I made you something!”

As their son plates his latest creation - what appears to be the mound of peas, a disproportionate banana, and an egg - Killian catches his wife’s eye. “How’d it go?” he asks, only to receive a shake of the head in response. She may not want to talk about it right now, but Emma ought to know after all this time that he’ll coax it out of her, one way or another. Before he can begin, however, Wiley’s back with the plate for his mother’s inspection and appreciation, effectively allowing her to avoid the conversation.

Emma makes all the prerequisite munching noises as she pretends to eat their son’s hellish plastic concoction, causing the little boy to beam. “Very tasty, kiddo, thank you so much,” she replies, handing all the remains back.

Killian intervenes before Emma can find any more excuses to avoid whatever’s bothering her. “Hey buddy, why don’t you make a feast for all of your stuffed animals? Mama and I will just be in the other room.” Wiley barely hears him, already invested in whatever his brain is dreaming up next, but nods in that absent-minded way Killian could swear he picked up from Emma.

Emma rolls her eyes, but doesn’t resist when he leads them to the adjoining office. Killian isn’t quite sure why they both insist on keeping an office; it’s never used, more of just a place to keep a desk with a printer and some files. Killian strongly suspects that they have an office just because it feels like the thing to do - the kind of thing every picture-perfect family has in their picket-fence house with 1.8 kids and a dog. Emma’s been known to occasionally camp out in there to write, but its main appeal right now is the draw of a private, child-free space and a comfy chair.

“What’s wrong, love?” he asks, again, settling into the armchair as Emma remains standing, pacing with leftover energy and irritation. When she doesn’t answer immediately, he resorts to jokes, attempting to cheer her up. “Are we getting divorced again?” he asks, mock-seriously.  Every so often, a tabloid tries to claim that their marriage is disintegrating - a claim which amuses Killian and irritates Emma to no end. Usually, when he makes jokes about the situation and how ridiculous the very idea is, it can draw a reluctant smile out of Emma, but she seems beyond that point today, his attempt at humor only deepening the furrows in her brow.

“Hey, hey, darling, it was a joke. An awful one at that,” he soothes. Her pacing is starting to make him a little dizzy, so he pats his lap in an invitation to come sit. “Tell me, what happened? I know something has, or you wouldn’t be this upset.”

Huffing a sigh, Emma collapses into the chair next to him, leaning into his side and shoulder with her legs thrown perpendicularly across his. “I just want to help, love,” he murmurs into her hair, pressing a kiss into the blonde curls, only slightly put off by the unnatural hairspray scent and dry, plastered texture.

“I know,” she admits. “It’s just…” Sitting up straighter to better look him in the eye, she circles her arms around his neck before continuing. “It was just a bad day. One of those interviews where all the questions are awful, and then Mary Margaret called right afterwards, which didn’t help. I know, I’m probably overreacting, but… it just gets to me.”

“I know, Swan,” he murmurs, rocking her gently in the same way he does with Wiley. “I’m not blaming you. If you want to vent, I’m a willing ear, you know that.”

There’s silence for a long moment, only broken by Wiley chattering away to himself in the next room, before his love finally breaks and opens up. “I was looking forward to this, you know? I thought I’d get some good questions about the songwriting process or how we’ve evolved as a group or things like that. It’s a music magazine, for God’s sake, not some gossip rag. You expect the questions to be a little more in-depth.”

“Makes sense to me.”

“Yeah, well, clearly, it didn’t make sense to her. It just devolved into this whole conversation about being a working mother. You know I’m happy to talk about our kid, but that was the entire conversation. How did I feel now about  having such a demanding career that would take me away from my son? She said it like that too, like she was trying to guilt me. Not to mention, does she understand what I do? Arguably, I’ve got more flexibility in my career than most women! I write from home, I can bring him to the recording studio if I want, everything’s based out of London now so I don’t have to travel halfway around the world just to create a new record… For God’s sake, I can bring him with me on tour!” she explodes, pitch progressively rising, tossing her hands in the air in outrage. “We’ve already planned on it, both you and Wiley coming with me! I don’t have to be separated from my kid any more than millions of other women across the world, and in fact, probably less! But because I’m a ‘public figure’ —” Emma mimes air quotes around the last words, a sure sign of her irritation — “we’ve got to make it a whole big thing. And from a woman, at that! She, of all people, ought to know that I didn’t stop being my own person when we had Wiley! But no, she’s some brash young thing who thinks she’s an Insightful Reporter, all while asking the most cliched and overdone questions she could. What, am I going to have to specifically ask to be interviewed by mothers from here on out in hopes that they’ll know I don’t want to talk about my kid 24/7? That it’s fine - heck, encouraged to ask me other questions? I probably should have expected this, going into major interviews and publicity for the first time since Wiley was born, but trust me, that does not make it any less frustrating,” she finishes, finger stabbing the air in emphasis.

“I know, love,” Killian attempts to soothe, rubbing a hand along her spine. It must work, because he feels her tension lessen, Emma once again slumping against his side with her arms around his neck instead of the wild gesticulating she’d been engaging in earlier.

“She did start asking about the writing eventually, but I think I was too pissed off to really be grateful for that. Not to mention, she was still asking questions that assumed being a mom would automatically change the meaning of all the songs I write going forward. Which sometimes it does, yeah, but… can’t I just write a song because it’s fun? Guys do, all the time. A lot of my stuff isn’t personal in the least. There doesn’t need to be some big ‘deeper meaning’.” The air quotes make a second appearance, but they’re less forceful than previously, which Killian takes as a good sign. Huffing a put-upon sigh, Emma continues. “And then, of course, Mary Margaret calls, and —” she stops abruptly. “You know I love them, right, her and David? And that I’m happy for them?”

“I do know that.” Even if he hadn’t Killian would have said it anyways, recognizing that they’ve entered the part of the conversation where he’s just expected to agree. Thankfully, it’s true - Killian knows very well how much she adores her brother and his wife.

“I love Mary Margaret so much, but she is driving me crazy with this baby talk! If it was just about her own upcoming kid, fine. She’s pregnant, she’s excited, it’s to be expected. But she keeps trying to convince me that we should have another! Even if she is my sister, how is that any of her business?” Emma pauses, looking at Killian expectantly, and he hurries to respond.

“It’s really not.”

“Exactly! It’s none of her business. I mean, Wiley isn’t even three - there’s still people out there who try to count his age in months!”

“People you rather hate,” Killian points out reasonably, only to receive an impatient look from his wife.

“I do, because it’s more of a pain to say 32 months than two and a half, and I shouldn’t have to do math, but that’s not the point. The point is - what’s the rush? Why is everyone pressuring us to have another? Why do they think they have the right to do that? Not to mention, I’m so happy we have Wiley, but honestly? Those last few months before he was born were kind of miserable. Mary Margaret’s still at the point where the bump is cute and everyone talks about how she glows and she doesn’t always need help getting out of chairs. Let her come pester me about having another when she feels like she’s the size of a house and her shoes don’t fit and people keep asking if she’s sure she isn’t having twins, because it’s a lot less fun then.”

Killian remembers that stage, remembers how grouchy Emma was, and he can’t blame her for her reluctance to be subjected to that discomfort again. Mostly, he just wants to tell his sister-in-law to mind her own damn business, but that would probably be frowned upon. Still, he hears Emma’s point loud and clear, and agrees wholeheartedly; they should be the only ones making decisions about their family.

Emma must take his silence as dissent or concern rather than an introspective moment, however, as she moves a hand to his face, gently rubbing his cheek with her thumb. “Hey, I’m not saying I never want another kid. I’m just saying —”

“— not now. I know, love, I agree. Let’s try and get out of the terrible twos before we even start contemplating adding to our little crew.”

Emma smiles softly, her thumb still stroking the apple of his cheek. “Thanks.” They spend a moment just staring into one another’s eyes - just as sappy as they ever were - before Emma leans up to press a gentle kiss on his lips. “I really do love you, Jones.”

“I love you too, Swan,” he replies just as gently, a small smile gracing his face.

After a another moment to themselves, Emma stands and stretches, groaning dramatically. “I suppose we should go make sure the kid we already have hasn’t torn the place apart.”

“If you insist,” he teases, accepting the hand she offers to help haul him up. Upon regaining his footing, Killian dramatically kisses Emma’s hand, resulting in a eye roll from the lady (but one he’s sure is disguising a smile). Before she reaches the door, he pulls her back for one last word, hands still entwined.

“I’m sorry you had such a rough day, love.”

Emma just shrugs in response. “Me too. I feel better after venting to you, though. And hey, we’ll deal with it together, right?”

“Of course, Swan.”

(They always do.)

[movieshdblogs]

Candyman Full Movie Online (2021) Free Candyman Movie Review

Candyman Full Movie Online (2021) Free Candyman Movie Review

Topic: Candyman Full Movie Online

After more than 20 years, Candyman is back on the big screen, so let’s talk about that Candyman is a simple reboot of the Candyman series and what I mean This is intended to reboot the Candyman franchise and stand alone as a story but is a direct follow-up to the original Candy from 1992.

Watching now A little background on my experience with the Candyman franchise I’ve only seen any of them for about two weeks and for the past two weeks I’ve watched In the previous three movies, I watched all the specials, a bunch of interviews with Tony Todd and Virginia Madsen and so I tried to get to know myself

The new candy maker and what is your experience with the franchise before watching this movie saying that, let’s start with the best first

The thing you have to talk about about this movie is that it was beautifully and professionally shot, everything is deliberately framed so the choice of shot is amazing the way it goes from the shot

Watching now To shoot scene to scene is done with a lot of intent especially when you start getting into some killings and the way you use mirrors Things that happen up appear

He’s trying to communicate our main character’s transition and kind of what’s going on with him, he suddenly starts revealing things

Background but enough to be able to determine that it is a movie that has everything thought through during its design Each of these scenes,

where to put the camera and how to capture everything on the same lines the way they visualize the killings and The candyman’s craftsmanship is handled very nicely whereas most of the movies do it kind of like blank slant guys

Shows people tears or someone stands there and suddenly a hook passes through them or something

Watching now The movie finds all these different ways to love subtly hinting that it’s what’s going on so you try to put them together

What you see until you are surprised at the actual murder that happens and it all goes into the way these shots are framed Using mirrors and just a very creative way to visualize the way candy manifests in this world, there are even times when you think that Candyman Full Movie Online

The scene turns and in fact, we see the end of the scene, which is a murder, and if you don’t pay attention, you may miss and so on

The audience trusts the framing of the shots to pay attention to the small details that happen and because the series is very connected with the folklore

Urban legends and background stories the film finds a way to communicate a lot of that in different and interesting ways besides that Just doing flashbacks and so it’s just a lot of artistic flair throughout the entire movie and as I mentioned before this is a minor reboot and so it’s Candyman Full Movie Online

Designed so that you can watch it after not seeing anything in the past It gives you everything you need to know and all the links with the original movie are

He dealt with some of the folklore within this movie the same way the original movie dealt with all that folklore and these backstories shared from

Watching now Decades later, that’s what this movie does to the original and so it actually ties in very well with Candyman Full Movie Online

The story, but it’s not just past things that actually happen that intertwine in this story and put some of that story into motion in exciting and innovative ways.

So, respecting the past builds on the past while not requiring you to watch it but nevertheless, I recommend watching the 1992 movie before watching it This is because this movie is basically going to spoil this movie for you, so it makes sense to watch it in

A proper arrangement and finally I appreciate that it’s a high-level, homeless horror movie, it’s about a guy with a hook in his hand that cuts his throat and runs people through but nothing is done for the schlock’s value only nothing is done by winking at the camera they take the material very seriously

He tells it with a bunch of finesse and deals with some social issues, but I also had a lot of problems with this movie so let’s move on to the bad stuff.

The first thing that comes to mind here is that the character division is very unusual and what I mean by that is our lead character Candyman Full Movie Online

Watching now

He is an artist and you would expect that he would interact with a reckless art critic at some point in the movie really well in this movie.

Three or four characters are buzzing art critics and with a movie that doesn’t have a particularly large cast, that’s a huge percentage of

The cast are reckless art critics, so when our characters interact with people, they have these high definition conversations about art that

I couldn’t get attached or didn’t care about it and it felt like these characters had become too repetitive at one point in time another problem with

The story is that it’s only 91 minutes long and it looks like they need to flesh out the last 20 minutes a bit more when they start Candyman Full Movie Online

Connecting all the side characters to each other, the backstory of new legends and social commentary that are sped up and blurred into Candyman Full Movie Online

The last 15 minutes and I was trying to put it together because it felt like she was trying to get to the next plot point to get to the big end and me

They think they need to slow down a lot of that to explain exactly what was going on and why they’re making their statements, in the end, a little bit more

Watching now

Meaningful but at the end of the day, my biggest problem with this movie was dealing with the social commentary itself now of course the original movie was obvious It a political and social commentary but it was a subtext and was communicated through the story

There is a point in time in the original where Helen says two The murders are there and the cops do nothing a white woman gets assaulted and we get some rest and that’s a very clear political statement but it was also motivated

The plot is an action that happens to her and her response to her to communicate that idea in the new movie our main characters are introduced and They immediately get into a discussion about the racial effects of gentrification and when they don’t discuss gentrification they understand Discussing our main character’s art

Which is mostly based on racial oppression and inequality, the original movie had sub-tones and guarantees about inequality but it was all driven by

In the story here the characters just sit in circles discussing racial gentrification, racial inequality, and police brutality from ideology

Watching now

Perspective If you want to communicate a message through a great movie, tell a story that challenges my preconceptions and my experiences

Show me the world through someone else’s eyes, one of the most important sayings of cinema is the show, don’t tell the audience to trust making connections Understand and draw their own conclusions, this film does not trust its story to deliver its message or the audience to understand

Everything is just explicitly stated, there is no room for interpretation, no subtlety or nuance, no place to have a conversation with Friends then about what all that “no” means.

The writers and director just mentioned what they think of what they’re trying to say the most A ruthless way you can do it, and in case you don’t get it within the last 10 minutes of the movie, just double and triple their thoughts to slam them in there. In your face it’s frustrating

Because the movie was shot very accurately but the social commentary was too fast before I give you the final score Be sure to join me below in the comments section and let me know what you think of the new Candyman and what your experience with the past has been.

Movies Also, I’m going to rank all 4 Candy Man movies in just a couple of days, but if you want more horror content from me, check out this playlist now

Watching now

It’s there that I graded a bunch of classic horror franchises while appreciating all the craftsmanship that went into curating the shots that offer

It kills in an interesting way and relates to the 1992 movie, I wish the same literal was applied to how it communicated its message instead.

From saying it in public, I wish it had been told throughout the story In general, I give the candy a C-plus on the entertainment scale, it’s 5.5, and I You can’t make a single recommendation on this because it’s going to be polarizing if you really like very clearly socially aware horror movies.

Message You are likely to absolutely love this movie if you prefer your social commentary to be subtext and primary score, this movie will result in more accuracy It might be too harsh for you

[segadores-y-soldados]

Talon: Clawing to the Top

Alright, everyone, craziness went down today, but one of the things I’m most HYPED about is the confirmation that Talon is run by a council of leaders.

Most importantly, these leaders disagree with each other.

This is a big deal.  We know so little about Talon’s structure that it’s great to finally get some news on the internal hierarchy of the organization.  Some of the things I’ve pulled together are statements or implications made by Blizzard, some of it is just putting the pieces together, and a lot of it is pure speculation.  I’ll try to keep it clear what’s what.

To start off with, I’m going to be dropping my main hypothesis:

[Main Hypothesis]: the “global conflict” that Doomfist’s faction within Talon has been trying to spread is the Second Omnic Crisis.

[Subset Hypothesis]: the group within Talon that is trying to prevent this is none other than Sombra and Reaper.

As a sort of guide, when I say [Factual Lore] these are things you can double-check in Overwatch dev interviews, Chu’s GDC talk, heroes’ biographies, etc.  When I say [Implications], I’m talking about trying to read in between the lines, to assess what certain things are trying to hint at or indicate.  When I say [Hypothesis] I’m just speculating and constructing a discussion point.

We’re gonna go way, way far back, all the way to the beginning:

The First Omnic Crisis

[Factual Lore]: As many OW fans know, in the universe of Overwatch, a major war occurs between humanity and robots called Omnics.  This war occurs approximately 30 years from present time (2046-2047) or 30 years in the past from current Overwatch time (2076-2077).  This war was a global near-apocalypse for humanity, called the Omnic Crisis, which was prevented by a task force of at least five people - Gabriel Reyes, Jack Morrison, Ana Amari, Reinhardt Wilhelm, and Torbjörn Lindholm - who conducted mainly small, infiltration missions to destroy Omnic bases or factories called Omniums.  This task force was called Overwatch.

[Implications]: What you may not have realized is that the Crisis likely caused a massive shift in how many aspects of the world function.  Blizzard - specifically lead writer Michael Chu - has called the genre that Overwatch dabbles in as “firm science fiction.”  They describe this as being “between soft science fiction and hard science fiction,” with the former lacking explanations for how things operate or work, and the latter being too detailed in descriptions.  The Overwatch development team opted for a middle ground where some things are explained or at least “feel natural” to the audience - London now has a massive skyscraper metropolis in it, there are robots working in various cities, the world has moved onto cleaner technologies, etc.

However, in doing so, there are some interesting subtleties that many Overwatch fans appear to have missed.

Primarily, the gasoline and oil industries - along with possibly “current auto makers” - appear to have died out.

Consider this:

The United States by and large lacks a consistent, cheap railway system for passengers.  There are definitely a few passenger rails and certainly predominant subway systems in some major cities, but overall, almost no one travels cross-country by train.  If you have time, driving by car is arguably “cheaper” and if you have money, picking a plane saves you on time.

But in Overwatch, almost nothing runs on gasoline, and while cars exist, they hover.

The most decrepit and underutilized building in the Route 66 map is the gas station, which is falling apart.  Compared to the Diner, which is still being operated, and the other buildings (probably maintained by Deadlock), the gas station is in a wretched condition.

More than that, McCree’s comic gives us the implication that new passenger railways have been built in the United States.

It makes...some sense, especially if we consider that the world is shifting towards using fusion power in everything.  LumériCo is a major example: the entire country of Mexico is in the process of switching over to making everything run on an electricity grid powered by LumériCo fusion cells.  By the time the game takes place, the world of Overwatch has flying cars, express trains everywhere (including a not-train-friendly place like the U.S.), and fusion power.  It doesn’t need gasoline or oil anymore, not in the same quantities is does in our world.

What we should probably question is how much of this is due to the Crisis.  It’s extremely hard to say.  We know that Mexico and parts of Centroamérica lost major sources of power in an event called La Medianoche - The Midnight - which LumériCo President Portero cites as a major motivating goal in moving Mexico towards a “sustainable” energy source.  We don’t know much about other countries during the Crisis, but we know Australia lost a significant amount of land (which they eventually conceded to a surviving “Outback Omnium”), and we now know that Nigeria struggled with an Omnium and the OR-14’s.

Another thing to consider is how much of this was post-Crisis Overwatch’s involvement.  If Mei is any indication, Overwatch was at one time committed to restoring various ecosystems, including melting ice caps and permafrost (which is part of what Mei was studying).  If Overwatch is somehow enforcing sanctions on companies that damage environmental resources, it seems likely that they could’ve had a hand in “killing off” gasoline and oil companies.

So here’s the real question:

What kind of crazyass political and social power does it take to kill off whole technological industries?

Why do I bring this up?

Because some people will see war as the ability to advance human industry (spoiler alert: this character was released on the PTR today and his name starts with a D and rhymes with Boomfist), and other people will see war as a killer of older technologies.  Some people profit in wartime, and other people profit in peacetime.  One need only to look at the U.S.’s economic boom in World War II or the military-industrial complex to see how it works.

What better way to usher in another new technological era than to force the world to war?

[Implications]: We know that Blizzard has been touting the Post-Crisis Omnics as a cheap labor force in various parts of the world, specifically in the United Kingdom.  Part of why Null Sector emerged was as an extremist reaction to the treatment of Omnic laborers.

Furthermore, these tensions between the humans enjoying Post-Crisis prosperity and the Omnics suffering as they work to support it have not subsided.  In Alive, we see that Mondatta has returned to London to speak about encouraging harmony between humans and Omnics, and we know that tensions continue to sizzle in Australia, Russia, and Korea.  Numbani is the deviation, not the new standard.  All the Overwatch characters have varying reactions to places like the Shambali Monastery in Nepal and Numbani in Nigeria, ranging from outright disgust and hatred to acceptance and hope.

So tensions are not exactly smooth in the present Overwatch world - we have shifting technologies and a psuedo-class-based struggle with a new labor force that lacks rights.

The world is poised on the edge of something very, very big.

Something that has yet to be really, truly explored by Blizzard.

News Announcer in Recall: The Second Omnic Crisis continues to devastate Russia.  The conflict between Omnics and humans has now claimed over fifteen-thousand lives.  So far, the international community has been reluctant to intervene.

The Second Omnic Crisis

[Factual Lore]: What’s been quietly building in the background of all these lore drops is a new, Second Omnic Crisis.  Currently, the only character directly engaged in the war is Zarya, who was stationed at the Siberian front against the revived Siberian Omnium, but D.Va also appears to be semi-engaged in a building battle, being drafted into MEKA to fight a monstrous Sea Titan that emerges from the ocean to wreck havoc on parts of Korea.

[Implications]: What gets really interesting is Talon’s role in this.  Talon appears to be anti-Omnic, assassinating a major, peace-loving Omnic leader for seemingly no purpose.  Perhaps they want the war to spread?  Perhaps they want to fan the flames of discord and chaos?

Talon is also the organization that sets out to kill Katya Volskaya.  At first glance, this seems like Talon is trying to aid the Omnic forces, but consider the scenario that results if they had actually killed her: with Katya’s death, the company is thrown into chaos.  No one but Katya knows where they are getting their new technology from, so mech production stalls.  The new mechs are not deployed to the Siberian front, resulting in a major technological weakness.

This would permit the Second Omnic Crisis to overwhelm the human forces there, and spread outwards to the rest of the world.

[Factual Lore]: Jeff Kaplan: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uKkAyLPJe0)

“One thing you may not have known is that Doomfist is a prominent member of the Talon leadership.  So, contrary to popular belief, Reaper is not the sole leader of Talon - there’s actually a council of leaders who oversee Talon - and sometimes they agree with each other, and sometimes they disagree with each other.  And Doomfist is a very important member of that Talon council.  Now, Doomfist’s ideology is that he wants to see humankind become more powerful, and he thinks the way for that to happen is through conflict.  So it’s kinda a harsh worldview, but he really believes that we as humans get stronger the more conflict that we endure.”

[Factual Lore]: Doomfist’s biography

“Recently freed from imprisonment, Doomfist is determined to plunge the world into a new conflict that he believes will make humanity stronger.”

“As the new Doomfist, Ogundimu rose high in Talon and helped to orchestrate a conflict that the organization hoped would someday engulf the world. However, before their plan came to fruition, Ogundimu was defeated and captured by an Overwatch strike team that included Tracer, Winston, and Genji. He was imprisoned in a maximum-security facility for years, where he waited patiently for events he had incited to play out.”

(Things that occurred while Doomfist was in prison: the collapse of Overwatch, the ‘return’ of the Siberian Omnium, the death of Mondatta, Anubis attempting to break out of confinement, Deadlock and Los Muertos expanding their power.)

Finally, he sensed that the time had come for him to return. He broke out of his prison and recovered Doomfist's gauntlet in a one-sided battle with Numbani's newly unveiled OR15 defense robots. Now, he has retaken his place in Talon's inner council, ready to spark a war that will consume the world once again.”

[Factual Lore]: Doomfist on King’s Row:

“Omnics will not be kept down forever. The ashes of the Crisis still smolder.”

[Hypothesis]: the conflict Doomfist wants to see expand to engulf the war is the Second Omnic Crisis.

Someone - whether Doomfist himself operating out of the Helix prison, or a follower of Doomfist within the Talon Council - approved the assassination of Mondatta, hoping this would incite more Omnic riots and encourage Omnics to engage in a large scale war once again.  Someone else approved the assassination of Katya Volskaya.

Something that’s important to consider, however, is that Volskaya has a partnership with LumériCo, a company which is currently profiting off of the last major technological switch that occurred either due to, or in the wake of, the First Omnic Crisis.  Furthermore, LumériCo has a partnership with Vishkar, which is also benefitting from doing construction projects in peacetime.  And Volskaya itself is getting technology from Omnics in Numbani, a city that promotes peace.

Killing Katya Volskaya had the potential to set off a massive chain reaction in which all these corporate alliances fall apart, effectively breaking down the current technological and economical structures that maintain the present world of Overwatch.  Furthermore, Katya Volskaya is seen as a hero to the Russians, and her death would have angered them and motivated them to fight further.

It seemed like a prime opportunity for the faction within Talon that wants to spread global conflict to make its move.

But the assassination failed.

Quite deliberately.

The One Who Pulls The Strings

In Infiltration, we reach the revelation that Sombra was actually the one who cause the assassination mission to fail, quite intentionally.  Even though she had a major opportunity to kill Katya Volskaya, she chooses not to, and instead threatens to blackmail her with proof of her trading “with the enemy.”  We end the scene with Sombra saying that she’ll “be in touch” with Katya over what exactly Sombra wants the CEO to do.

Alongside this, we’ve seen other “major Talon missions” fail - rather spectacularly.  The biggest issues it that Sombra isn’t directly involved in at least two of them.

[Factual Lore]: Reaper is sent by Talon, along with a squad of “standard grunts” to steal the remaining Overwatch agent list from Athena in Recall.  His team fails to subdue Winston, and Reaper fails to 1) gain the list and 2) stop Winston.

[Factual Lore]: Reaper and Widowmaker are sent to retrieve Doomfist’s Gauntlet sometime after Overwatch was Recalled.  They encounter Winston and Tracer who try to stop them.  They fail to retrieve the Gauntlet, and are forced to escape.

[Implications]: In BOTH shorts, Reaper has at least two opportunities to shoot Winston at point-blank range.  In BOTH instances, Reaper chooses not to - in Recall, he briefly incapacitates Winston by...knocking part of a spaceship on his head, and in the Museum Heist, Reaper goes out of his way to step on Winston’s glasses, an act that pushes Winston into rage mode and effectively makes him and Widowmaker lose the battle.

This is combined with the fact that Reaper consistently “fails” missions - often acting completely “irrationally” for a man who has spent like 30 years knowing how to use dual shotguns and leading a major black ops division.  In the Old Soldiers comic, Reaper has an opportunity to shoot Soldier: 76 in the head at point-blank range, and choose to attempt to incapacitate him instead (eventually, Reaper foregoes his shotguns altogether to fight hand-to-hand).  In the same comic, he later rematerializes near Ana, and rather than shoot her, engages in hand-to-hand combat instead.  

Reaper has failed to kill every ex-Overwatch agent he has come across in every canon material piece he has been in.

In Infiltration, Reaper chooses not to shoot at a Volskaya employee who knocks himself out on a mech.  Rather than wraith after Katya, Reaper instead engages in a seemingly monumental task of fighting one-on-one with a goddamn battle mech.

So just to reiterate:

Reaper - a man skilled in black ops, stealth, and lethal close-range fighting - has consistently chosen to not use any of these abilities in several major Talon missions.

Why?

[Hypothesis]: Reaper and Sombra want to see the Talon leadership fail.

For Sombra, this is almost certainly the case.  She actively undermines an assassination mission, and she states outright in her Origins video that she wants uncover the weaknesses of the people who “run the world.”  As I suggested in my Doomfist essay, I think it is incredibly likely that Sombra believes assisting Doomfist in his freedom will cause possible leaks in at least two places: Helix in the Temple of Anubis, and the pro-Volskaya Omnic faction in Numbani.

With the newest information about Talon, I’d also say that Sombra anticipates there might be a third place for an information leak:

The Talon leadership.

We know that the Talon council members do not always agree with each other, possibly about missions, objectives, and ideologies.  Doomfist may be able to rally a faction of the Talon leaders, but by critically undermining them in key missions, Sombra has put immense pressure on them to make hastier, more precarious moves.

Reaper is possibly a part of this.

Consider: Reaper not only failed to kill Winston in Recall, but by fighting him, actually encourages Winston to take the final step towards initiating Recall.  We already know that the Talon leadership - and specifically Doomfist - found Overwatch to be a major roadblock to the conflict they wanted to achieve.

[Factual Lore]: Jeff Kaplan:

“Obviously Overwatch is a world group that is opposed to conflict and is trying to create peace throughout the world, so therefore it leads to Doomfist and Overwatch definitely being at odds with each other.  You add to the fact that it was Winston who put Doomfist behind bars for many, many years, and Doomfist’s hatred of Overwatch is at an all-time high.  Now that Doomfist is free, he plans to use Talon to implement his worldview on the rest of - not only Talon - but the rest of mankind altogether.  So the story’s gonna get very interesting, now that Doomfist is in the mix.  I think it’s gonna be awesome that we learn more about Talon through Doomfist and his interactions with heroes like Widowmaker and Reaper.”

Think about it like this:

Things Gabriel Reyes/Reaper knows roughly about the time of Recall:

Winston has been hanging out in Gibraltar being listless for awhile.

The Talon leadership has approved the assassination of Mondatta.

The Talon leadership is starting to make moves to put their plan towards global war into action.

Gabriel Reyes actually fought to prevent the First Omnic Crisis from resulting in the outright destruction of humanity.

Doomfist and Winston hate each other on a very personal level.

Doomfist hates Overwatch on a very personal level.

Winston is the main Overwatch agent to have stopped Doomfist in the past.

It took creating Overwatch to stop the First Omnic Crisis.

It might take recreating Overwatch to stop the Second.

Everything Reaper has done from Recall onwards (Old Soldiers, the Museum Heist, Infiltration) has arguably been “sloppy” to the point of being “suspicious.”  If this hypothesis is true, he has managed to maintain some levels of plausible deniability - and more importantly, we should keep in mind that the only characters who canonically know Gabriel Reyes is Reaper are Soldier: 76 (Jack Morrison), the Shrike (Ana Amari), and Sombra.

[Implications]: Reaper is downplaying his true abilities to undermine Talon missions and weaken the Talon leadership’s unity and stronghold.

Once again, it seems like releasing Doomfist could be a great rallying force for the Talon leadership...except that now Winston and Tracer are putting the band back together on the other side of the Mediterranean.  And oops, no one has managed to capture Soldier: 76 or the Shrike yet, so those two are still loose.  And oops again, no one has managed to kill Katya Volskaya.

And oops again, new “heroes” like Lúcio and D.Va are starting to inspire people to believe in hope again.

And oops x10, releasing Doomfist caused child genius Efi Oladele to make a brand new, anti-Doomfist hero in Numbani - Orisa.

These are a lot of “pressures” Talon has to now face in their efforts to fan the flames of war.

And everyone knows that when you put more weight on things, you can eventually stress them to the point of cracking.

And then breaking.

If the Talon leadership is as disjointed as Jeff implies, and coups occur as frequently as Doomfist’s backstory implies, Talon is beginning to flounder.  It seemingly had the run of the world in the wake of the Fall of Overwatch, but in the Post-Recall world, things are starting to get more complicated.  The Second Omnic Crisis is not spreading - it is stagnating in Russia.  Riots in London have not necessarily resulted in the return of Null Sector.  The ex-Strike-Commander of Overwatch is still alive (and the ex-Strike-Lieutenant is too, although it is not known how many people within Talon are aware of this).

[Factual Lore]: Sombra:

“I’ll find out who really runs the world.  I’ll find their weaknesses, and how to exploit them.  And when I do - I’ll be the one pulling the strings.”

It is not entirely clear if Sombra is blackmailing Reaper into helping her.  As Chu has stated, Sombra is one of three characters to know his true identity, and their in-game interactions certainly imply that they have an a tenuous alliance, with her teasing him about a personal nickname.

Sombra: What's the plan today, Gabe? You don't mind if I call you Gabe, do you?

Reaper: Stick to the mission.

But their other interactions also show a cautious trust with one another:

Sombra on Oasis: So what are we doing here, boss?

Reaper: I need to pay a visit to a friend.

---

Reaper: Try to stick to the plan, Sombra.

Sombra: Look, someone has to be ready when all your careful planning doesn't pan out.

[Implications]: The last set of lines implies that - not only does Sombra know who Reaper really is - she also knows his personality.  While Reaper plays the part of a seemingly arrogant Talon mercenary, Sombra is aware that underneath the mask, Gabriel Reyes is still a skilled tactician and careful planner.  It is also implied that she is aware that these skills did not prevent Overwatch and Blackwatch from collapsing, and must consider making countermeasures in the event they “fail” again.

More importantly, the last set of lines imply that the two of them are collaborating on something - “a plan.”

What kind of plan?

It’s not clear, unfortunately, but it certainly is tantalizing to speculate over.  Just hours ago, Michael Chu responded to a set of tweets asking if Reaper is part of the Talon leadership or if he is “just a nerd working for Talon.”

Chu’s wonderful response?

I’m desperately waiting to see what kind of interactions Reaper and Sombra will have with Doomfist, but we know there are at least two datamined lines:

Reaper: Why can’t Doomfist do his own dirty work?

Reaper: what kinda name is Doomfist anyways?

Now, these lines might not make the cut.  They’re pretty old and a lot of the story has been reworked since the game was released a year ago.  Reaper in particular has undergone a number of big story shifts.  What is interesting are the two potential hypotheses for this:

Reaper is working to undermine Talon to destroy it from the inside.

Reaper is working to undermine Talon’s leadership to orchestrate a coup.

Sombra’s goals seem to fall in-line with the latter moreso than the former, and I’m inclined to believe that Reaper - whether he’s being blackmailed or not - is also aiming for that.  But in order to orchestrate a coup from the inside, you have to be willing to push boundaries and shake things up.  Releasing Doomfist is an ideal trigger for that because:

Helix may attempt to reclaim him, and possibly send out the Raptora Squad (Pharah’s group) to arrest him.  This leaves the Temple of Anubis unguarded - and Sombra wants to get access to that.

The pro-Volskaya Omnic faction in Numbani might slip up, resulting in another information leak that Sombra can exploit.

Doomfist is being pushed into a fight with Winston and/or Orisa, resulting in the Talon leadership either losing their rally point (Doomfist) or losing yet another “big mission.”

There is no situation where Sombra (and possibly Reaper) actually lose because - assuming they want to see Doomfist and the Talon leadership fail - every possible situation works out in their favor.  They either gain information, or Doomfist is re-arrested, or the Talon leadership splinters and cracks.  None of this actually outright harms Sombra or Reaper.

And all of this is because Reaper keeps “failing” his missions.

As Jeff said -

The story is going to get very interesting.

[kyberled]

- share the latest entry in your diary/journal. (!!!)

Interview my muse || I lost this one

[[Adding in a key for this, ‘cause Braig’s journals, unless they’ve been properly formatted for archival purposes, they’re kind of a mess. So:

Normal text is written in black ball-point pen.

Italicised text is written in red ball-point pen. 

Bold text is written in green fountain pen. 

Bold and italicised text is written in red fountain pen.

[Text written in square brackets is scribbled in the margins.]

{Text written in these fancy brackets, and in a smaller font, is a description - eg, if it says ‘{a picture of flowers}’, that means that Braig’s drawn a flower there.}

A series of lines like this: | , || , ||| , |||| , |||| are tally marks.

XX/XX/XX

Long day today. Not a bad one, though. Finally back in the Temple, and it was one of those missions where I actually wound up missing my classes. I never really liked desert planets. I think I’m still shaking sand out of my hair. [{A drawing of a small, triangular building with little hills on either side.}]

Anyways, to conclude the summary from yesterday, we got the last of the droids rounded up and dismantled. Solahst Vurrr was harder to get together, especially since he wouldn’t stop running away. I admit, watching him zip around like [running low on Alderaanian Jasmine. Pick up some from Mrs. Toduwieedoo’s next walk.] that made me wonder what it’d be like to have that many legs. On one hand, it’d make getting around a lot easier, but on the other, sleeping might be a bit weird, as would, I can imagine, hugging people. Actually, if you grew up like that, you’d probably be used to it. {A few stars are drawn.} He still creeps me out, though. Anyone who initiates a video call while in the process of eating their own eggs is no good. I still can’t tell if he was messing with us, or that was actually his idea of a nice snack. I’d have to ask one of the culture teachers, most likely. On second thought, I’ve decided I don’t want to know.

We put Vurrr in one of holding cells on the main ship. The one that didn’t get shot down. I asked Obi-Wan if {green smear from a flower being pressed} we were going to interrogate him, but he said that he’d rather leave that for when we got back home, if we were going to handle it at all. I was kind of relieved, admittedly. Vurrr doesn’t sit well with me. 

Not much happened after that. Went home, spent probably an entire rotation in the sonic, then fell asleep. The usual ‘thank the Force that’s over’ routine. Vurrr’s in the prison now, so, I guess he’s not our problem for the time being. Woke up and went to class. We’ve got a book report in tactics, so I’ve got to look into that. [Topics: Subtlety and Subterfuge, by Marlis R. Tyroo The Importance of Understanding Terrain, by Col. Meebur Gascon Excerpts from the Sith Wars, as compiled by the Temple Archivists ]  Talked more about the Living Force in FS, and whether or not the Force constantly renews itself, or if it’s the same Force now that it was hundreds of years ago. I feel like I should ask Master Yaddle about that one. Went through the usual physical training, but got pulled out of the typical saber classes to work on Vapaad. [I think Master Xi’Gol’Ah is jealous. I can’t blame them.] I tried not to let Master Windu know how tired I was, but I think he noticed. He was going pretty easy on me. I think Gramps is tired, too. I hope we get to stay in the Temple for a while.

{The bottom of the page is decorated with small figures in various hastily-scribbled poses, each baring a lightsaber. It appears as though Braig started to label them, but gave up after the second and scribbled the writing out. There are a few spots of what looks to be dried tea droplets near the edge, and one corner has a spiral doodled in. The bottom corner of the page is dog-eared.}

[callmehawkeye]

Watched in 2019

Big Little Lies (Season 1): This is such a solid cast and story, albeit predictable. I loved it as a mini-series and do not understand why it needs a second season; but I’ll be watching regardless. 

Taylor Swift Reputation Stadium Tour (2018): IIIIIIIIIII don’t think this setting is the best for Taylor. I go back and forth on her as a person often, but dig over half her catalog. The big theatrical show doesn’t quite suit her particular stage presence. She is great when just talking to the crowd with her guitar or piano. Regardless, she was definitely having fun, it was entertaining enough, and it’s cool she put this up on Netflix so I don’t have to amputate a body part to afford a ticket.

If Beale Street Could Talk (2018): Without a doubt, this is perhaps the most genuine and fulfilling depiction of a (hetero) romantic love story put to film I’ve witnessed in recent memory. The actors and their chemistry were breathtaking. 

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018): Hands down the best Spider-Man movie to date. Soundtrack was perfection. Story was great. Characters were amazing. I want to protect Miles with my dying breath. Unique animation. Deservedly kicked Disney’s ass this award season.

Bumblebee (2018): Oddly endearing? Easily the best Transformers movie, and the only one I’ll recognize.

A Star is Born (2018): I’m sure I’d like this more if I weren’t a fan of the other 3. Lacked subtlety. Overhyped. It’s fine. The only best part was the rehab scene.

Fyre Fraud (2019): The Hulu documentary about the disastrous Fyre Festival. Superior of the two, in production and scope.

Abducted in Plain Sight (2017): WHAT. THE. FUCK. A must-see for true crime enthusiasts. 

Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes (2019): This is more or less the same thing if you have already spent a little more time on this case than the average person. Good content for first-timers.

Girlfriends Day (2017): A nice, fast watch to pass the time.

Fyre Festival (2019): The other Fyre Festival documentary. To me, the lesser because it is produced from people who were on the inside. Which you’d think, “Oh so then they’d know.” But their bias and attempts to scrub themselves from the narrative are obvious.

The Favourite (2018): This made my little queer heart so happy. Great characters. 

Everybody Knows (2019): A little on the nose in the mystery itself (just watch the actors in the background). But the performances were great. Loved the setting. Appropriate ending. Good job.

Isn’t It Romantic (2019): I loved this. I feel like I’ve written something exactly like this before. Very endearing and satisfying to watch.

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019): It felt a little long, unsatisfying at some parts and rushed. But it’s a great bookend to a great series.

They Shall Not Grow Old (2019): Very impressive filmmaking and editing. I loved learning how they accomplished it in the featurette at the end of the screening.

Arctic (2019): Now THIS is how you make a survival movie. 90 minutes. No romance. Brutal reality without becoming melodramatic. Mads Mikkelsen cast in the lead...

Don’t Knock Twice (2016): Pleh. I hated the pacing and editing. Called out the “twist” immediately as a joke because I didn’t expect this movie to be that nuanced (magic done without permission, even with the intent to be good, is bad magic).

Captain Marvel (2019): My god this was so much fun and rejuvenated my interest in the MCU. I’m absolutely dreading Endgame and not for the reasons you think.

Greta (2019): Great performances, absolutely tense, very creepy and fun.

1922 (2017): What a great fucking motif.

Climax (2019): This was quite the sit. A literal 90 minute bad LSD trip from an up-close perspective. God I hated it.

Michael Che Matters (2016): I’ve never seen a standup special start so strong and progressively get weaker like this before...

Us (2019): As I said on Twitter --  it seems to me primarily casual or non-horror fans think Us is the greatest horror film of all time and is going to rejuvenate or “save” the genre. Then primarily veteran fans think it’s weak and vague. I think both viewpoints are shortsighted and formed from either category being stuck in their perspectives. For me, the movie was neither. (I loved it).

The Beach Bum (2019): Another movie I can’t believe I sat all the way through.

Leaving Neverland (2019): I stand with Wade and James.

Queer Eye (Season 3): Who needs antidepressants? Not me!

Homecoming: A Film By Beyoncé (2019): Beychella reigns once again!!

Dancing Queen (Season 1): This was very sweet. I never thought I could sit through anything with insufferable dance moms, but Justin/Alyssa makes it so engaging and watchable. Stupid to end on a cliffhanger, however.

Avengers: Endgame (2019): ..............B+ At least it was a million times better than Infinity War. And I had fun.

Booksmart (2019): This hit so close to home. Sure, the coming of age movie is nothing new. But there was something liberating about the characters in this one that were terribly stereotypical and much more relatable. To me, anyway.

Long Shot (2019): Great music, great relationship, great laughs. This was a fun, solid watch of a romcom.

Hail Satan? (2019): I want to inject this documentary directly into my veins.

Amazing Grace (2019): The live footage of Aretha Franklin recording her Amazing Grace album at the church in Watts.

Meeting Gorbachev (2019): I got to see this documentary at a theater where Wener Herzog himself was hosting a Q&A and introduced this film. Maybe it made me more biased to liking it. But I honestly felt like I learned a lot.

Missing Link (2019): First movie of the year I didn’t complete/walked out of. I let it have an hour. First time I’ve ever been disappointed in Laika. I can’t believe it. It was so dull and I kept waiting for something to happen.

Little (2019): This was sweet. Issa Rae is dipped in gold. BUT it felt like there was an outline, not a script. Lots of dropped threads. And a weirdly out of place, glaring, punching-down trans joke??!

Tolkien (2019): Wow. I really liked this. Great pacing, shifting between time frames. Even better performances and relationships. Made me think of my own fellowship a lot. This is how biopics should be done.

The Biggest Little Farm (2019): WONDERFUL documentary covering the years of building up a sustainable farm from less than scratch.

The Hustle (2019): God, this was a long, humorless sit. At least Anne looked stunning.

The Sun is Also a Star (2019): This isn’t more realistic than romantic comedies, or teen love films. But it’s more enjoyable than most. The leads are great and have electric chemistry. New York is framed beautifully.

John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019): I am blessed by this Keanu Reevessance.

Fleabag (Season 1): This is probably going to be the best thing I watch this year.

Fleabag (Season 2): Yup. Confirmed. Something very special would need to come along from June to December to change this mindset. I highly recommend this. Watch it. Go in blind. Watch it!!

Pavarotti (2019): I enjoy documentaries where I feel I really learn about the subject. Beautiful music, beautiful memories, beautiful life.

Rocketman (2019): I wish more biopics were like this. It was wonderful and such a grand time.

Lorena (2019): A deep dive into the Bobbitt case, including the woman herself. I have such empathy and love for Lorena. You should watch it and learn about the incident yourself.

The Last Man in San Francisco (2019): Go in blind. Don’t look it up. Just go. it’s the most beautiful film I’ve seen so far this year. I wish there were more male protagonists like this.

Toy Story 4 (2019): I was so skeptical. It more than exceeded my expectations. Just go in prepared to have your heart ripped in two.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019): They’re learning. Out of the newer films, this one has the less amount of people. Now make another film like this, only extend the monster fight scenes. Less. People.

Child’s Play (2019): This was fun. Not much more to say. More Aubrey in things!

Men in Black International (2019): Honestly, this was better than the second or third ones. I legitimately enjoyed myself. It was funny. The cast was charming. The otherworldly aliens were interesting. And I’m so proud of Les Twins.

Grace and Frankie (Season 5) :This is always a good time for me. I love watching this show when I want to take a break from more dedicated watches. I love these actresses with all my heart. June Diane Raphael is goals.

Midsommar (2019): This was such a fun aesthetic to watch. I was so uncomfortable throughout.

Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am (2019): Ugh, my hearrrrrtt.

Maiden (2019): Documentary about the first all-female crew who competed in the 1985-86 Whitbread Round the World Race. The woman next to me in the theater was the same age as the women featured in old footage and modern day talking head interviews -- and she was just sobbing by the end. Solidarity.

Frankenstein’s Monster’s Monster, Frankenstein (2019): 30 minutes well spent. Fucking hilarious.

Stranger Things (Season 3): God, what a fun season. I am still Steve.

Queer Eye (Season 4): I need 54 more seasons, kthx.

Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019): My absolute favorite battle sequence in a Marvel movie. Such a good time.

Hobbs & Shaw (2019): My first and last Fast movie. Goddamn I was so bored.

Bring the Soul: The Movie (2019): Wow, this was brutal. I get it wasn’t all of the footage, but they seemed to mostly focus on members being sick and injured and miserable. I didn’t understand the love for this movie when all it did was highlight how exhausted the boys are. I suppose it was meant to be inspiring, but I only felt bad for them. I just ranted about them needing a break and thank god they finally have one -- apt timing!

Burn the Stage: The Movie (2018): I went back to the earlier film with the hopes of... Higher hopes. And they were fulfilled. Such cute and uplifting footage.

Blinded by the Light (2019): God I love Springsteen. This movie is a great homage to his music. It’s not a straight-up musical, and that’s lovingly the point. Some things never change.

It: Chapter Two (2019): This was a slog compared to the first part. Much like the miniseries. Much like the book.

Parasite (2019): I, a college student with very little free time -- let alone free time to go to the movies -- saw this in theaters twice. I tried to go a third time but then finals happened. Go see it. Go see it blind. I'm not really doing end-year lists anymore but this is without a doubt my favorite film from 2019.

BTS World Tour: Love Yourself (2019): Most fun I've had in a theater in some time. I feel like I curled up into the tiniest ball at some point out of pure joy that couldn't be contained.

Frozen II (2019): This was quite plot-heavy for a sequel. I loved how many songs they were. It's an acceptable sequel. A lot of weak themes and choices, however, if you think about it for more than a few minutes. Overall delightful. 

Jojo Rabbit (2019): Speaking of delightful. Taika Waititi continues to be my favorite living writer-director. This is such a solid portrayal of Nazism without glorifying it. Always go the Mel Brooks route and make it a comedy; they can't turn it around and make the imagery propaganda. I have high hopes for Roman Griffin Davis and his future career.

Knives Out (2019): This was quite fun. I love a good mystery with a large ensemble cast like this. It didn't blow my mind of anything -- I saw every turn coming -- but that's just because I credit it to being such a lonely kid who read so many mystery novels.

2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014

[miraclejin1204]

Mandatory bughead post #2: My thoughts on Bughead and why it is important.

I’m aware that the words ‘bughead’ & ‘important’ in the same sentence seem like a misfit but there is a good reason why I’ve chosen to write it so. This thought came to my mind whilst trawling through the morass of ‘ships’ & ‘ship-wrecks’ on tumblr & twitter about Riverdale. 

Now, I’m not someone who watches a lot of TV shows ,however, Riverdale was a serendipitous discovery that happened to me two weeks ago. 

I have been a fan of Archie comics since I was little & my two favourite characters were Jughead & Betty, in that order. Watching Riverdale was a revelation as it brought me back to the Archie’s world and I saw it in a new light. I went into it without expectations.

What I was not prepared for was how Bughead would gently creep up on me and reign over my entire existence in such a short span of time. 

You see, I have had a few ships, some fleeting and some enduring,some canon and some fantasy, however nothing as rabid or as intense that’d induce an “I’m SHOOK” moment. Until bughead happened.

When I used to read the comic books, I had wanted Archie to one day wake up & realize that Betty was the one for her, because I could so relate to her as a kind & sweet girl, being taken for granted every time and with a history of unrequited love. I’m 30 now and life-experiences, especially of the bitter kind has certainly changed my perspective about these things, especially about romantic relationships. No more suffering fairy-tale princesses for me. 

In the comics, although Jughead and Betty were my favourites and they always were good to each other, the thought of them as a potential match had never crossed my mind. I was intrigued and amused by Jughead’s woman-hating stance and had imagined that one day an extraordinary woman worthy of him would come and sweep him off his feet.I had no concept of sexuality and its associated complications that we see today, it was only a pure and innocent fantasy in my mind. 

I had only been familiar with the ‘classic’ and humorous golden age Archie comic digests and was unaware of the modern reboots and the various universes. Therefore, when I started watching Riverdale, I was immediately hooked to its modern,quirky & dark narrative and had my assumptions broken down bit by bit with each episode. When I started with the show, five episodes were already in so I binge watched them in a single night, which left me with little time to process the minute details and subtleties, which is why I missed noticing the growing chemistry Betty and Jughead. 

It was only when I began exploring the show on the internet and understood the whole narrative and tone of the show,re-watched the episodes, saw the interviews, trawled Tumblr & youtube and accidentally saw the leaked bughead kiss is when it hit me like slap on the face and a swift kick in the ovaries. It nearly felt like enlightenment!

Once I had seen and felt it, there was no going back. It was a like a virus firmly implanted in my psyche. I resurrected my dormant and inactive tumblr and twitter accounts only to ship bughead. I’m sure fellow bughead fans know the drill of our coming undone so I won’t go into much detail. 

Coming to the next part. Riverdale or rather Bughead has come into my life as a breath of fresh air when I am going through a very dark and stressful phase. I have been going through a very difficult divorce from a man, who caused mental abuse and cheated my family of money & absconded and left me to deal with the consequences and legal battles, triggering my anxiety,fear and depression. A man whom I had trusted with my everything and was completely vulnerable to, used me and left me with a deep fear and mistrust of relationships, trauma and some very hard learnt lessons. I’m an eternal romantic but a part of me has become cynical about it. 

Riverdale is a unique show as is evident in its excellent writing,for those who care to notice the nuances and characterisations. The symbolism, fore-shadowing, word-play, subtle body-language cues of the characters, parallelism and of course, a quality mystery is the gold-standard of writing. Can we also talk about the wonderful and talented cast who have given life to the characters? The show is a slow burn and not for those with a shallow mind who are looking for popcorn entertainment with a lot of mindless drama and illogical  and unstable romantic pairings based on lust and superficial chemistry,

Bughead is not just a run of the mill ship that people are fangirling over. It is beautiful union which tells you the story of two woefully young and tender yet jaded individuals, thrown together by a tragic fate, who are battling the darkness within and without, fighting for something that’s bigger than them and their personal problems. They are fighting for justice, light and hope. In spite of their struggle with their personal demons. Can you imagine what they are going through? For any child, parents are the safe space when the world around them crumbles, but both Betty and Jughead’s parents let them down with lies, manipulation and broken promises and the possibility that their families could be the perpetrators of murder. Under such horrible circumstances, they find the safe space with each other.  

They both are mature beyond their years, insightful, righteous, kind, compassionate, supportive and caring and there for each other without being asked. They communicate with their heart and eyes (sometimes with heart eyes too ;) ) It is not a connection based on lust and hormonal surges. Something very old-fashioned and real in the era of hook-ups. An oasis in a desert.

People who keep harping on about how there is no chemistry at all between Jughead and Betty and that it was rushed and illogical, then I’m sorry that you’re oblivious to everything that is going on in the show. They have been friends since childhood.

I think we do not give the writers enough credit for writing something so profound and refreshing in spite of it being a teen drama. A homeless, abandoned, rudderless boy, an outcast who is bullied, selflessly helps a  girl find her sister and uncover the truth, not because he wants to get into her pants. A stifled, lonely yet nurturing and loving girl giving strength, support and courage to a lost and scared boy failed by his father and society. They are each other’s guardian angels.

So I ask this to all the haters..can’t you see this? Are you so blinded by your superficial hate and violent desire to stuff your ship down everyone’s throats because it gives you some sort of false sense of control over others that you have lost the ability to objectively see what the show is striving for through this beautiful narrative within the confines of what is ostensibly a teen drama? Can we not rise above our pettiness of mindless and hostile shipping to learn from it? Everyone is free to ship whomever and whatever they want but it is another thing to be so vitriolic and spiteful towards the others to have your way. Isn’t shipping supposed to be all about love anyway? Bughead is so much above all this petty drama, it is transcendental.  

There’s so much that all of us, teens and even adults can learn from this ideal of a super healthy relationship that both television and our lives need. We need to move away from toxicity both in entertainment and our lives. Can we not be inspired to work on ourselves and build supportive, organic and nurturing relationships? This should give so much inspiration to the teens of today. With Betty & Veronica, the show strives to re-build the idea of strong, female friendships which seems to have become an alien concept in the world of ‘frenemy’ culture. Why can’t two girls be healthy best friends without the assumption that there is something sexual between them? People are hating on Bughead also for a fact that they are a heterosexual couple. As I see it, love is love in any shape or form.

Also, I do agree that all sorts of representation must have a place in popular culture and thankfully it is happening. However, those who are unhappy with Bughead saying that it erases Jughead’s asexuality, I disagree. Are you saying that Asexual people can’t fall in love? That they don’t deserve an intimate bond with another?

Now, in the larger Archie comicverse, Jughead was never portrayed as being an asexual, he simply was smarter and wiser and had other priorities compared to his hormone crazed pals. He was always the voice of reason. I’m sure that there are people like that, not everyone who doesn’t choose to be a crazy, horned dog is asexual. Besides, Jughead is shown to be asexual in only one version of the comics. There can be multiple variations of characteristics in the larger universe. Riverdale chooses its own narrative and characters as it sees fit for the context of the show. Therefore, in this version, Jughead isn’t asexual or aromantic. There is no erasure of any kind. Even if he were asexual, I’m sure that Bughead still can have a loving and healthy relationship.

It is my personal opinion and I am not trying to belittle anyone or trivialising the serious issue of representation in anyway. However, I do feel that in today’s world where there is so much hate and strife, showing love and companionship in its true and purest form is the most important issue here, first and foremost. It doesn’t really matter whatever is the sexuality or orientation of the characters in question. So, let us all keep our differences aside and show our love and support to something is for the greater good. Love is universal and not restricted to a specific type or form. Besides, it is fiction,let’s remember that. 

I also think that we must avoid pressuring or attacking the creative team, actors and show runners into bullying them to change their vision for the show. That truly doesn’t serve any purpose other than being detrimental to the quality of the show and making the team de-motivated. Let’s all appreciate the hard work and love everyone has put in to present to us something that is so beloved and cherished by all.

Why is showing a healthy, supportive, wholesome and stable relationship necessary? I can tell you why, because I have suffered greatly in an unsupportive, toxic and abusive relationship that was all about selfishness and greed with no regard or love for the feelings of the other person. Where one person only gave and gave and the other only took everything. I was left drained and battered and I’m still bearing the burden of its ruins.

So, when Bughead came along, it was catharsis and relief. It was about having the hope of bright sunshine in the pitch black darkness. It was about selflessness and having high standards and working for the greater good, something that is bigger than us. It was about women not wallowing and pining after some boy who had little value or regard for them and not allowing a man decide the course of their lives .It was about unconditional love and support without labels. It was pure beauty and art, like a perfect symphony.

Bughead isn’t merely escapism. It is the light of goodness that illuminates our hearts and fills us with compassion and hope for something beautiful. It is the delicate flower that grows in the parched desert of hopelessness and deceit.

Let us protect it all costs.

[nightmareonfilmstreet]

[REVIEW] STILL/BORN Brings the Fear of Parenthood to Life

For many, being or becoming a parent can be scary. For the young couple in Still/Born, parenthood is downright terrifying. Still/Born, the directorial debut from talented writer/director Brandon Christensen, is a wickedly fun horror romp with blood-pumping scares and shockingly smooth production. The film follows a couple trying to raise their newborn child after experiencing a tragedy, while trying to fend off sinister forces. More specifically, the synopsis on the official Facebook page states:

Still/Born follows Mary, a new mother who lost one of her twins in childbirth. As she struggles with the loss of one of her children, she starts to suspect something sinister is after her surviving child – a supernatural entity that has chosen her child and will stop at nothing to take it from her.

On the surface, the film seems like a straight-forward supernatural-horror. But when you start to peel back the layers, the film has a lot more to offer than around-the-corner jump scares. Don’t worry, there are still plenty of those and they are good, but I’ll get to that in a moment. Co-written by genre film Titan Colin Minihan (Grave Encounters, It Stains the Sands Red), Still/Born is one of the scariest and unique films you’re going to see all year.

  The film comes out of the gate guns blazing, as we watch Mary giving birth to her children in the very first scene and something is obviously wrong, telegraphed by the reactions from Mary and Jack (played by Christie Burke and Jesse Moss, respectively). It’s not a spoiler as the film has used this opening scene as a trailer and it’s the perfect scene to do so, setting the tone for what’s to come in the first few minutes. It shows that the film isn’t just going to be telling a demonic ghost story, that there are real dangers in this movie as well.

After losing one baby, Mary is on edge and keen not to lose another one. As the young couple settles in to being parents, so do the frustrations that lead to dark thoughts from Mary. While on the subject of Mary, I have to give a lot of credit to Christie Burke. She was asked to do a lot and most the film hinges on her absolutely fantastic performance, evident by her convincing facial expressions in the opening scene and the rest of the film. She carries the film emotionally and Still/Born does an amazing job putting you in this house with Mary. There’s also a realness to seeing new parents struggling with their new roles. So many films will show how excited the mom is to be a parent, but we rarely see the paranoia of making a mistake or in Mary’s case, of something out to get her baby. Speaking of the couple, though Burke’s Mary is undoubtedly the star, Jesse Moss’ Jack might be one of my new favorite horror husbands and deserves a shoutout.

Another thing that makes this film so fun and immersive is the setting. A haunted house flick is only as good as its setting, and a good portion of the film is set in the couple’s residence. The film takes place in a fairly large, but standard suburban house. The film’s smooth cinematography does a great job at presenting the home, focusing on the layout of its rooms and foreshadowing scary moments to come. And with Mary spending most her time in the house, you really feel the cabin fever she is also experiencing. (A little fun fact for the film: the movie was shot primarily in Brandon Christensen’s parents’ house.)

I really love how good of a job this film does setting up the atmosphere of the film, from the house to the film’s hauntingly beautiful score by Blitz//Berlin. The music is a springboard for moments in the film, as certain motions and scares are timed to the music perfectly. This brings me to my next point: the scares. The scares in this film are not only expertly crafted, but we get a variety of them as well. People often criticize jump-scares, but when uses them so effectively. But there is also a wide variety to the scares. I’ve mentioned the house and the music, which contribute to the atmospheric scares of the film. Though the house is big, you still feel a bit claustrophobic never leaving the house.

  Getting so wrapped up in the production and real life horror, I sometimes forget about the supernatural element to the film. In the film, Mary believes this evil entity is out to steal her baby. Part of the film is first distinguishing if the entity is even real or if Mary is just spiraling due to her postpartum depression. The film does a great job balancing the supernatural elements with the human ones, but do think the latter is executed cleaner and in a more compelling fashion. Our monster has some solid make-up/practical effects but the mythology left a bit more to be desired. I will give our baby-stealing perp some credit for her creativity, who know you could scare someone so many different ways using a baby monitor?

I don’t want to give away too many of the scares or supernatural elements, so I will touch base on the psychological element of the film. Postpartum depression is a real thing and something that’s never really been explored in too many horror films. While other films wants to dazzle you with their over-the-too moments, Still/Born succeeds on its subtlety just as much as the jump scares, if not more. Though the demon is scary, Mary’s descent into madness is even scarier, as she increasingly becomes more dangerous. The film sneakily does a bate-and-switch with our protagonist and pulls it off masterfully, which makes for an emotionally impactful third act.

From start to finish, Still/Born is an absolute thrill ride. Yes, there are some deeper themes at play but this is a fun horror movie. Ever since seeing it premiere at The Overlook Film Festival, where it took home the award for Scariest Film, I’ve been itching to revisit it. Christensen was out to create an experience and with the superb production design, it’s a film that begs to be viewed on the big screen and as loud as possible (limited screenings are going on now, check your listings!). This film has it all from heartwarming moments to heart-stopping scares, a balance you wouldn’t expect from a first-time director. I was so impressed that I just had to sit down with Christensen for an interview, so be on the look out for an NOFS exclusive.

I think the quality of this film is a testament to vast amount of talent the horror genre has to offer right now. Whether it be bringing in a band versus a composer for the score or the young duo penning the script . It’s also a very accessible horror film, mixing the supernatural with a real-life horror that a lot of people can relate to: parenthood. Last but not least, the film has insane re-watchability (I’ve seen it 4 times already). Brandon Christensen has a bright future ahead of him, crafting an eerie thriller with a top-notch leading performance from Christie Burke. In this recent horror renaissance, Still/Born is a gem you don’t want to miss. The film is available on VOD and will be headed to Shudder soon!

3.5/4 Eberts

  Still/Born is now playing in select theatres and VOD platforms as of February 9th, 2018.

  The post [REVIEW] STILL/BORN Brings the Fear of Parenthood to Life appeared first on Nightmare on Film Street - Horror Movie Podcast, News and Reviews.

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Sun Kil Moon: Common as Light and Love Are Red Valleys of Blood

In retrospect, Sun Kil Moon’s 2014 milestone Benji was less of a breakthrough than a breakdown just before Mark Kozelek became definitively mean and petty. Even with Benji’s life-flashing-before-your-eyes earnestness (the repentance! the forgiveness! the laughs! the tears!), its lessons seem to have gone unabsorbed. Common as Light and Love Are Red Valleys of Blood comes in at 130 minutes. This is after two Sun Kil Moon albums—2015’s Universal Themes, 2016’s Jesu/Sun Kil Moon—that left no one thinking, “I wish these were twice as long.” Kozelek knows that Common as Light isn’t an easy sell. In a particularly forgettable number called “Seventies TV Show Theme Song,” he admits, “All I know is this reminds me of the theme to ‘Barney Miller’/It wasn’t intentional, just adding a song on the record for filler.” It’s not the only lyric on here that simply describes what the music sounds like, or dares you to stop listening. These are by-and-large the most confrontational songs Kozelek has ever put out, but strangely they’re also some of the more exciting ones he’s written since developing his post-Benji spoken word style.

While recent records have found Kozelek lambasting his vinyl-collecting fans and putting the fear of God in the minds of bloggers who miss his Red House Painters days, here Kozelek directs his fury more broadly. He makes three things absolutely clear: he hates iPhones, he hates Twitter, and he hates the twentysomethings who read Twitter on their iPhones. If there’s a theme to this record (the way that, you know, acting in a Paolo Sorrentino film was the theme of the previous Sun Kil Moon LP), it’s that the world is fucked, man, so get off your phone and respect your elders (especially Mark Kozelek). Many songs attempt to reflect Kozelek’s anger following mass shootings to varying degrees of profundity. The awkwardly chipper music in “Bastille Day” creates an effect not dissimilar to Smash Mouth playing the intro to “All Star” on loop while their singer threatens the audience. This mode, as one might imagine, doesn’t add up to a particularly moving collection of songs.

It does, however, make for some surprisingly great moments. In “Philadelphia Cop,” which slowly evolves into a eulogy for David Bowie, Kozelek lands a bitter jab: “If you’re a man in charge claiming you’re a staunch feminist, then give a woman your job or shut the fuck up, Queen Bitch.” In the well-meaning “Lone Star,” he helps save a suicidal woman’s life and tries to convince North Carolina officials to amend their transphobic bathroom laws. The slow, ominous “Sarah Lawrence College Song,” finds him performing a small gig for a group of college students, which obviously leads to him berating them for how much their parents pay for tuition. He replies, “That’s what Walmart pays me to use my music in commercials,” but quickly changes his tone: “Maybe I can go to their school one day too, ‘cause they all seem like really nice people.”

Many of these songs follow similar patterns: Kozelek snaps and sympathizes in the same breath. When he jokes with his colorblind building manager that he wants his tiles “gray… like your hair, man,” he comments just a second later, “Hey, I got a little gray too, I’m not picking on you.” The reason why similarly quotidian story-songs like “Gustavo” or “Jim Wise” hit so hard was because they resulted in double portraits: You learned more about Kozelek through his observations of others. On Common as Light, Kozelek fills the whole frame, increasing the humor and anger, but sacrificing the subtlety. If the diaristic style he developed on his last few releases has been generously compared to novelists like Karl Ove Knausgård or James Joyce, then these songs feel more like Larry David or, at their most vulgar, “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.”

Curiously, Kozelek plays a ton of synth here—a foreign sound for any Sun Kil Moon record. “I’ve found that when you put an instrument in someone’s hands that they aren’t used to playing, interesting things happen,” he noticed in a recent interview. A lot of this does sound new, which is becoming more difficult as he becomes more prolific and the world catches up with him. Phil Elverum cited him as an influence for his upcoming Mount Eerie album, and you can hear pieces of “Carissa” in “Ravens,” just like you can hear “Sunshine in Chicago” in “Okkervil River R.I.P.,” or “I Watched the Film the Song Remains the Same” in Father John Misty’s “Leaving L.A.” Kozelek’s work continues to ripple outward, even as he retreats further and further into himself. Just last year, a pitch-perfect parody made the rounds, mimicking Kozelek’s style to the point of tricking a few people into thinking a new EP of his had surfaced. The irony is that those pensive, guitar-based songs already sound completely outdated—representative of a different Mark Kozelek from a different time. Such is the nature of his work. Kozelek has always been his own most restless listener, and part of his motivation is simply to keep himself interested in making art, whether that means changing his band name, starting his own record label, or turning his own songwriting process into his muse. “Maybe you’ll hear it and think, ‘I prefer your older songs,’” he sings in “Seventies TV Show Theme,” “Well, maybe the world has changed and I’m not that songwriter anymore.” In spirit, Common as Light resembles his classic work more than he’s willing to admit. After all, his previous epics Rollercoaster and April were emotionally exhausting listens, unfolding with the intensity of a man trying to pack everything he knows into one record. As disorienting and overwhelming as any of Kozelek’s defining albums, Common as Light patiently reveals more of the artist to anyone who’s still paying attention.