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imtrashraccoon · 8 months

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He's still being a manipulative piece of crap in this one, what else can I say? At least there's glimpses of a good person somewhere in his soul?

@owl-bones

First Day, Previous Day, & Next Day.

Bad Sansuary: Killer - Stitched

Word Count: 1,349

It was nice not having to worry about going to work lately. You'd always worked so hard, so having a little impromptu vacation was probably something you deserved, even if you couldn't do everything you wanted to do because of your bum ankle.

You were currently camped out on the couch watching whatever happened to be interesting on tv. It wasn't a bad way to spend your day, although you'd been doing this for a couple days now and it was starting to get slightly boring.

Well, until Killer suddenly popped into existence in the middle of your living room anyways. He had his hands in his pockets and causally glanced around the room before his gaze fell on you.

"oh hey, did you miss me, angel?" he asked in teasing tone.

You crossed your arms and gave him a stern look. "Hardly...you have some nerve showing up here again," you grumbled.

"aw, you're not still mad at me for that, right?"

"Yes, I am actually. It's not fun being in pain and having to hobble everywhere you know."

He chuckled and proudly planted his hands on his hips. "well, lucky it's your lucky day, because i'm here to cheer you up!" he exclaimed in an enthusiastic tone.

You were unamused and just looked up at him blankly. "You're so lucky I didn't tell either Axe or Dust what you did. They were pretty concerned you know when they saw me..."

He waved you off and seemed completely unaffected by your mild threat. "they can't exactly hurt me, cutie. not without someone else noticing and asking questions anyways..."

You realized he was talking about their boss, whoever they were, and shut yourself up before you could retort. You didn't know much of anything about them but from what little you had inferred, mostly from Dust, they weren't one to be messed around with.

"aw...don't cry again. i didn't mean anything awful by that, okay?"

You huffed and crossed your arms. "I wasn't going to cry!" you insisted.

Killer hummed quietly and gave you a skeptical look.

With a sigh, you looked down at your feet and how your ankle was still tightly wrapped up. What was his problem anyways? Why were you constantly agitated whenever he said anything?

"You're literally the worst," you muttered under your breath.

He chuckled and moved slightly closer so he could leer over you. "why thank you! i try my best~" he purred.

You smacked his shoulder.

While you hadn't hit him hard, you instantly regretted doing so when the corners of his permanent grin quirked up slightly. A chill ran down your spine at the dangerous look he gave you.

"oh, i see how it is now..." he murmured. He stared down at you before slowly poking your forehead with a boney finger as if he was pressing an imaginary button.

You tried to swat his hand away but he only used his other hand instead, continuing to poke and prod at your face and arms. It wasn't like he was trying to tickle you either, just bug you incessantly until you got frustrated.

You tried to swipe at him again, but he was ready this time and effortlessly sidestepped your attack.

"is that all you got, angel cheeks?"

Oh he did not.

You took a deep breath and counted to ten.

He reached out and poked your cheek.

That was the last straw. With a fury that could rival an enraged mountain lion, you launched yourself at him and just barely managed to latch onto his ribcage.

He seemed momentarily surprised by your assault, before his hands came up and hooked around your waist. You couldn't tell if he was trying to fight back or keep you from falling and you frankly didn't care right now.

You didn't care though. Throwing your whole weight against him, you forced him off balance and both of you landed in a pile of limbs on the carpet. Ignoring the stinging from the impact, you wasted no time trying to pin him down.

Killer seemed to recover faster than you'd expected and he quickly began to fight back. Although, he was far stronger than a skeleton should be and it was actually challenging to keep him from shoving you off. He was mostly just trying to hold you up with his arms and wasn't attempting to use his legs at all, possibly because of your bad ankle?

"Ha! I got you..." You were out of breath and probably going to have several bruises, but you'd finally managed to restrain his wrists against the floor by his head.

He was completely unbothered and if anything, looked kind of amused by this situation. He tentatively flexed his bones and you responded by applying more pressure.

"good job," he responded softly. "you got me..."

You narrowed your eyes at the obvious sarcasm in his voice. While you'd been trying your hardest while wrestling, his attempts to fight back had seemed lackluster at best. Almost like he had wanted this to happen...

You shifted your left leg to readjust the way you were sitting, but when you felt the carpet brush against your bare skin, you gasped. Glancing down proved your worst fears to be true, and there was a large tear on the left knee of your favorite pair of leggings. You quickly released him and rolled onto the floor to examine the tear much more closely.

"aw...it was just getting good too," Killer grumbled quietly. He sat up and scooted over to you, throwing an arm around your shoulders. "what happened, cute thing?"

"I...tore my leggings..." you muttered.

"get another pair then? it's what i do whenever that happens."

You huffed and looked back at him. "I can't, at least not one that's the same. I bought them years ago at a thrift store and the company doesn't make them anymore."

His bonebrows furrowed slightly but he couldn't seem to formulate a response.

"They were my favorite pair too. I don't think I could properly mend them but even if I could, they'd never be the same..."

You struggled to your feet and grabbed your crutches. Weirdly enough, Killer didn't make any more snarky comments as you hobbled to your room to change into something else.

He hung around for maybe two hours afterwards but you noticed he had grown oddly quiet. He had always seemed like the type that couldn't shut up even if he tried, so it was a bit worrying. Whenever you attempted to ask if he was okay and reassure him that you weren't mad about this, he'd brush you off and talk about something unrelated instead.

It was only after he left, that you decided to take a another look at the leggings again. Maybe you could look up a tutorial online to figure out the best way to mend it or something. Except, they weren't on your dresser where you'd left them and even though you looked all over your room, they were nowhere to be found.

That is, until the next morning, when you found them folded up on your kitchen table with another note.

"hey angel cakes, they're not the same but i hope you don't mind. if you ask me, they're even better this way. i hope you like them! killer <3"

When you unfolded the leggings, you discovered that not only had they been mended, but whoever had done so had added some intricate embroidery to both knees. The stitching was rather elaborate and it looked like a light green vine with several small red hearts. You had to admit it was kind of pretty looking but you weren't sure if it was better per say. You'd have to wear them to find out.

It begged the question though, why had Killer done this for you? And why had he taken it upon himself to try and fix things when you'd gotten hurt from his prank? He was still being as mean as ever and you didn't understand at all what he was going for at this point.

#badsansuary #raccoons drabbles #undertale #killertale #something new #killer sans #killer sans x reader #reader #female reader #have some empathy dear #oneshot

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mariacallous · 3 months

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Well, if you’re just joining us, the nation has delivered an all-night victim impact statement. Labour has won a landslide and the Conservatives have suffered their worst ever general election result. Keir Starmer – the prime minister – has promised “national renewal … to fight until you believe again”. Liz Truss has failed to save South West Norfolk, let alone “the west”. That is the big picture (if not the whole picture, with turnout and Labour’s vote share notably low). Meanwhile, it’s incredible to think that only a short while ago we thought we’d eradicated measles and Nigel Farage. Both have now been brought back, largely by the same people.

But look, after the 3am to 7am shift, no one will be able to say the right doesn’t do comedy. There were moments worthy of entire Netflix specials as in sports halls and community centres various Dickensian grotesques were ushered into their Christmas future, live on stage. Alas, it was going to take more than buying the Cratchits a turkey to get out of this one. Jacob Rees-Mogg heard his fate standing next to a candidate wearing a baked bean balaclava. He’ll be crying into Nanny’s starched bosom today. Committed sewage apologist Thérèse Coffey was pumped into the sea in Suffolk Coastal. Andrea Jenkyns had the middle finger given to her by the voters of Morley and Outwood. In Welwyn Hatfield, Grant Shapps chanted “supermajority” five times into the mirror, and then it came for him.

Then again, Michael Portillo losing his seat was supposedly 1997’s big moment. So perhaps the question is: in two years’ time, which current hate figure will be presenting a cosy travelogue on Europe’s most picturesque illegal migration routes? Alternatively, do remember that one person’s onstage humiliation is another person’s milk round for directorships in the arms trade.

Speaking of absolute weapons, hat twat George Galloway wimped out of his own count in Rochdale, presumably out of fatigability. He lost to Labour. There was jubilation for the Lib Dems, who finished not a million miles behind “the natural party of government”, and for the Greens, who won all four of their target seats. The SNP can now squeeze its MPs round the flip-down dining table of a motorhome. Referendum arguments may move to Northern Ireland, with Sinn Féin now that nation’s largest Westminster party.

As for Reform … Farage won in Clacton, a constituency for which he will now have to hold surgeries, presumably by Zoom link from his hot desk in the US presidential colon. Or as he put it in his victory speech: “This is the first steps of something that is going to stun all of you” – at least confirming his political abattoir will be bolt-gunning its victims unconscious first. Farage is the horror version of Inside Out, where Mendacity is only just holding off Racism at the control console. His cultural hinterland extends to a single Goodbye, Mr Chips DVD he got free with the Sunday Times in 2008, and the idea that this hollow chancer should still be one of the most significant politicians of the age says everything about the age.

Anyway, back to the Conservatives’ four-hour in-memoriam reel. Penny Mordaunt, Jonathan Gullis, Michael Fabricant, Gillian Keegan, Steve Baker, Alex Chalk, Johnny Mercer, Michelle Donelan, Victoria Prentis, Liam Fox, Mark Harper … all out, along with many more. So many cabinet ministers fell that the ones who live may actually develop survivor guilt. It’s currently unclear how gruesome things will be among the extant Conservatives in this post-apocalyptic world. As a fictional president once wondered of Dr Strangelove, will the living not end up envying the dead? Far from it, Strangelove reassures him, forcing down an involuntary Nazi salute. What will abound is a spirit of bold curiosity for the adventure ahead!

Speaking of which, 13th fairy Suella Braverman finally turned up, holding on in Fareham and cooing: “I am sorry that my party didn’t listen to you. The Conservative party has let you down.” Expect to see her humbly attempting to disembowel fellow survivors Jeremy Hunt and James Cleverly in the forthcoming trial-by-combat for what convention demands we style as “the soul of the Conservative party”.

At his count, Rishi Sunak explained he’d already conceded the election in a congratulatory call to Keir Starmer, adding, “I take responsibility for the loss.” In Downing Street, he confirmed he would be standing down as Tory leader in some sort of due course, stressing, “I have heard your anger.” Then, instead of yet another speech straight from the Tortured Prime Minister’s Department, this one offered humility and magnanimity, as well as a pointed reminder of the positive (and fragile?) progress that saw him become the UK’s first British-Asian prime minister. What a contrast to the relentless negativity of his past six weeks. Sunak’s campaign was conducted like a gender-reveal party where the device that’s meant to release the puff of blue smoke accidentally functions as a pipe bomb and burns the house down.

It also closed out several years of mindboggling chaos, dysfunction and national decline. They won’t be playing anything from this album on the Conservative party’s Eras tour. The Tories have cycled through five prime ministers over the past eight years, to the point where they were recently found going through the rubbish, pulling the first guy back out, thinking, “Actually, he doesn’t look half bad now,” and making him foreign secretary. This is the behaviour of addicts.

Not that they have the monopoly on erraticism. Any dispassionate view of these results suggests the fabled post-Brexit “realignment” is more of a dealignment – the huge sweeping gains of this or that political moment able to be reversed in previously unthinkable timespans. Volatility might now be our defining electoral characteristic, and a rise in sectarian politics cannot and should not be ignored. Because hey – what’s the worst that can happen with that one? Meanwhile, many people who derided the simplistic “Get Brexit done” slogan in 2019 have pretended not to notice that the winner here went out under the even more gnomic banner of “Change”.

Yet in the wider global context, what a win. One summer evening in 1914, the foreign secretary, Edward Grey, famously remarked: “The lamps are going out all over Europe.” In our own times, a darkening has recently felt at hand, as hard- or extreme-right parties have gained ground across the continent, to say nothing of the US. But here – in this country, in this moment – a different direction has been taken. That matters today, and anyone not on the wingnut fringes, who hopes to avoid those gathering shadows, should wish Keir Starmer good luck with his task. For plenty who would snuff out the lamps are also rising – increasingly, they walk among us.

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girlfriendsofthegalaxy · 7 months

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tuesday again 3/12/2024

beat breath of the wild and have no real interest in rot13’ing spoilers for a seven year old game. also early thoughts on the first couple hours in tears of the kingdom. so if you don’t want to see that don’t read the playing section

listening

there is a particular piece of exploring ambient music that plays in a particular cave in genshin impact's fontaine and i adored it. i kept going back to that cave to trigger the music. it reminds me very much of Erich Wolfgang Korngold, who won several Oscars for early Technicolor swashbucklers-- The Sea Hawk, The Adventures of Robin Hood, et al. this particular piece leans into it the most and really grabbed me bc that's what Fontaine is all about: the romanticism, the folk heroism, the seafaring swashbuckling. i wish they leaned into it a bit more across fontaine, but i haven't played since i got fired and had to give my laptop back so perhaps the last patch has more similar music?

the use of bells in this is super great and pulled my attention first, but the way it ends-- a sort of sliding violin halt, some woodwinds fluttering up, a flute twining in. i hope their composing team wins some fuckin awards this year bc all the genshin music is good but the fontaine music is really a cut above.

youtube

either you've seen enough lavish technicolor adventure movies to know what the fuck i'm on about or you haven't, i hope this makes sense for why i was so excited about hearing this particular style in such an unexpected medium. here actually listen to this

youtube

reading

The Water Outlaws by S.L. Huang, i think a post on here influenced me bc it promised gay genderfuckery but i put it on hold SO long ago i could not tell you when that was or what the post was. it’s not NOT gay and genderfucky. but that’s really not the point of the book. this also wasn’t the easy read i was expecting it to be. let's yoink both the photo and the pitch from macmillan:

Lin Chong is an expert arms instructor, training the Emperor's soldiers in sword and truncheon, battle axe and spear, lance and crossbow. Unlike bolder friends who flirt with challenging the unequal hierarchies and values of Imperial society, she believes in keeping her head down and doing her job. Until a powerful man with a vendetta rips that carefully-built life away. Disgraced, tattooed as a criminal, and on the run from an Imperial Marshall who will stop at nothing to see her dead, Lin Chong is recruited by the Bandits of Liangshan. Mountain outlaws on the margins of society, the Liangshan Bandits proclaim a belief in justice—for women, for the downtrodden, for progressive thinkers a corrupt Empire would imprison or destroy. They’re also murderers, thieves, smugglers, and cutthroats. Inspired by a classic of martial arts literature, S. L. Huang's The Water Outlaws are bandits of devastating ruthlessness, unseemly femininity, dangerous philosophies, and ungovernable gender who are ready to make history—or tear it apart.

this book kept me company through a particularly bad bout of insomnia and i did enjoy my time with it, i'm glad it exists in the world and i'm glad to have read it essentially in one sitting. if i owned a hard copy, i don't think i would hang on to it. it was Fine, it's simply not for me. a bit too chewy and for bigger fans of Chinese history and/or wuxia i think.

there is an extremely large cast of characters (i often found myself referring back to the dramatis personae) and quite grim in parts. sexual assault, cannibalism as revenge, a very realistic war. a lot of really terrible, really grievous things happen to bodies. the fight scenes are clear and competent and will in fact unfold in your head like a martial arts movie.

it does take quite a while to get going and unfolds more like a TV show than a political thriller movie. this is a fat fucking book. this is a twenty hour audiobook. it strongly benefits from shifting POVs over its length, Huang is particularly good at differentiating tone and what each character pays attention to for maximum effect. she's also really good at one of my favorite things, displays of political deftness where you can’t see how someone would have made any other choice. some really top tier leftist infighting

while it is gay and it is genderbending, i would not say discussions of sex and sexuality are at the forefront. this is a group that has been pushed to the margins for their gender and sexuality, but this is a book concerned with how they survive and there isn’t a lot of space for discussions that aren’t about survival. there’s no fucking on page, but this book did not advertise itself as a romance or erotica so i don’t fully understand other readers' criticisms here.

this is a very competently written book. i am not going to remember it in a month's time. i don't normally emphasize it to this degree bc i feel a little bad about going "meh" at this tale of women fighting for societal and personal freedom, something i too have done but with less gore, but there is a wide gray sea of books that are simply fine and i don't particularly love or particularly hate bc they weren't quite what i needed or what i expected at the time. so it goes.

watching

there is a revelation in Yellowstone season 3 episode 7 (picture unrelated i just like having a picture for each section) that made us (me, my bestie, my bestie’s husband) all SCREAM and have to pause it and leave the room for a moment to compose ourselves. the amount of Things per episode that happen in that show. they really fuckin use all of their forty-four minutes.

i watch so little modern prestige tv i i keep thinking about why this has its hooks in my brain so, and i think this is the same concept as homestuck and soap operas and war and peace: once you get sucked into a huge sprawling semi-nonsensical drama you are In It BayBee

playing

i didn't know lizalfos could do that. i don't like that. stop it.

somehow i had never gotten up to this platform near dueling peaks stables and was rewarded with...some arrows. but the sun rising turned the marsh all gold, and all the atmosphere shading was firing on all cylinders, and it looked real pretty. the weather in breath of the wild is fun.

i had been under the impression that the divine beasts had been slowly siphoning away ganon’s energy or something and had not realized that they were lining up shots and were the equivalent of little laser sniper dots. hearing that joyous musical cue and watching ganon get got by that tremendous beam of light was maybe the funniest moment in the game???

anyway did finally beat breath of the wild!!! did tear up at the end! im annoyed that the postgame just vworps you back immediately pre-castle but i get it from a game architecture perspective.

at the very last bit of the fight i fell off my horse who got stuck against the beast’s leg taking damage and i was SO scared it was going to kill my horse but we were ok!!! i think i overprepared for that fight. the thunderblight light ganon fight was way harder imo.

popping that map back open postgame and seeing a cheery little 43% completion in the corner was. good god. i had 105 shrines and 66/77 side quests, all but four of the shrine quests, and like 250 koroks. i guess the koroks count for way more than i thought??? or perhaps i didn’t actually discover as many named places as i thought??? i would probably have more coherent thoughts about the end of this game if i were not Extremely Depressed and wasn't able to immediately jump to tears of the kingdom. as it is, i feel sort of "huh. ok. that's checked off. next task: ganon But More"

on to tears of the kingdom: i love zelda with her little bi bob. i do NOT love link with longer hair. give him his ponytail back

i loooooove these little grotesques on the temple of time-- i was spoiled for the end of tears of the kingdom bc i watched my bestie’s husband play through the last three hours. i have just enough context to make everything more confusing. also, i was fully expecting the time skip to be like several thousands of years but it’s like a month at most???

it is So Funny to me that the lord of the mountain in the last game is an extremely rare occurrence you have to go visit at a specific place, and in this game he just wants his appy slices :) this is an excuse to talk about other rideable animals: i started a new switch profile to replay botw lo these many weeks ago, forgot to choose that one when starting totk, and don’t have any of the horses i spent the last month with :( the horses from my first playthrough several years ago are, quite frankly, not very good stats wise.

i went right to hebra to start the rito quest (where is the divine beast??? what has happened to the divine beasts???) but keep getting my shit kicked in one blow so i think i will fuck around the castle and do some more shrines. my overall impression is that this game is way more fiddly. there’s more Stuff to combine and keep track of. i wish i could premake fire and ice and bomb arrows instead of having to select them every time. that’s a lot of button presses in the middle of a fight. also my controller is succumbing to some fatal connectivity issues so this portion of the tuesdaypost may be slower for a bit. i will scrape up some money for a new controller bc this is a real loadbearing activity but it’s going to take a minute to ship to me i assume.

making

listen i deep cleaned my living/dining and bedroom today in a fit of remarkably productive anxiety, that’s about all that’s happening this week. i finished repainting some large frames, i framed one thing but don't like it, i fucked up framing another thing and i have put it back in the closet to simmer/until i remember how to measure things again

#tuesday again #tuesday again no problem

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meanscarletdeceiver · 9 months

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also, not quite related to Great Hate but is related to some stuff said therein; I don't think any of the Skarloey/Arlesdale/Culdee Fell books are bad (honestly i rate them all very highly) buuuuuut if there was ever another attempt to adapt the books for television or television-adjacent-media, I would probably just opt to cut the non-North Western Railway stories out entirely. (the railways wouldn't be straight up Not Canon, there just wouldn't be episodes based on the stories about them.) They're a bit of a narrative cul-de-sac in terms of the overarching story of The Books, and while they are all excellent I feel like the opportunity cost of adapting those instead of expanding on the existing North Western stuff would be too high... Insult to injury is that by doing this, you don't really impact the North Western stories at all besides a little bit of Oliver the Western Engine's content and that can be adapted around (as has been done before...)

Ooh. You make a compelling point about how you could have a very good adaptation by cutting out the smaller-railway stuff.

At minimum, if one did not want to take their literary axe that far, the writers should very much take the opportunity to come up with a better way to manage the narrative of the multiple railways. I agree it's a big weakness that the RWS flips back and forth after introducing other railways — it doesn't always feel like all these books are in the same series and the going back and forth can be jarring. It's understandable, since Awdry was constrained by writing them in the order than he created them. But with distance there is a chance to reconceive things in a better way.

TVS Series 4, I think, made a vast improvement by grouping all the narrow-gauge stuff together — showing the Duke rescue before Peter Sam's and Sir Handel's S.R. breaking-in is awkward, of course, but having a whole half-season devoted to the narrow-gauge railways helps the narrative flow immensely. Sadly I think for the rest of the TVS they fall into the same choppy waters Awdry did. Obviously plenty of people do like the narrow-gauge episodes despite all, but they are definitely not set to best advantage when a handful of them feel kinda randomly sprinkled within the other stories. The improvement TVS continues to make however is finding ways for "the big engines" and "the little engines" to interact, as in creating more and more locations with mixed gauges.

Anyway your idea of a fresh television adaptation of the RWS is so enticing. My ideal series would be 30-minute adult-TV-esque episode dramas (hey, we're dreaming). You could have a significant number of episodes that take a birds'-eye view of Sodor rail and, instead of being organized around One Character Gets Put in a Situation, are organized by some new development (a new service, coal shortage, dieselisation, key person retires, labour strike, etc.), then you can have an A and a B plot on two different railways and see the fallout.

(Usually the North Western would be one of the two railways in focus, just coz a lion's share of industrial activity and travel on the island is going through them. But can you imagine how cool and special an episode it would be to have a Depression-era episode where we see the Skarloey and Mid Sodor Railways trying to pluckily adapt and eke out their survival? And we could see the Skarloey, who seemed to be in the more precarious position at the beginning, still squeaking through at the end with one engine, one engineer, etc., and downer ending! at the very end we see the Mid Sodor is ruined. Cue silent montage of putting up "Closed" signs and boarding up windows and selling off Falcon and Stuart over sad music.)

It would, indeed, necessitate coming up with original plots, especially for the smaller railways (even if, again, the North Western probably will get a big share of screen time), but the fandom has shown that there's plenty to be done there. However, the goal is to cover all the classic RWS stories — just putting them into a larger context and thinking about the island's arc over the course of a season. Fleshing out the dramatic bits of lore.

The openers for most of the episodes would be, like, a little slice-of-life showing miners or dockers or farmers or housewives going about their life for a minute or two until the Pressing Need is shown and a hint of what the railways are gonna do about it appears; a bunch of men in top hats and tails shaking hands over some new venture; new track is being laid; or some piece of news reaches Sodor and then! opening theme song and then we cut to our engines <3

#so sorry jamie's ask just sent me on a 20 minute daydream and i was typing all the while #if this makes no sense kindly just ignore it... i'm having a great time watching my new favorite imaginary television show #chatter #the railway series

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concerningwolves · 10 months

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today's disconnected but related Thoughts are about how stories should exist within "containers", and how problems in long-running TV series are typically introduced when the writers don't use those containers properly. I'm struggling to articulate it in a coherent order, but:

● an audience needs to be able to see some kind of boundary enclosing the story, otherwise it doesn't feel satisfying. This is why we have set plot structures like Freytag's Pyramid and Fichtean Curve which so many stories follow. Most storytelling formats lend themselves to this – novels, certain comic books and graphic novels, plays, and films all have a beginning and an end. You open the book or enter a theatre or switch on the telly, and you experience the story, and then it ends. The story might live with you afterwards, if it affected or resonated with you or made you want to analyse it, but if the creator did their job well you'll at least feel closure with it on a mechanical level (i.e., plot and character arcs have conclusions that you can see fit within the framework of the story, even if personally you didn't like or agree with something). The Good Place is an example of a TV series that did this very well, because the writers had a set vision for the series and they executed it.

● A lot of TV dramas and serials operate on the premise of being ongoing – a story that stretches on without any defined end in sight. This can be done well, but sometimes the story gets bloated and stale, or it ends up like separate swatches of cloth instead of an interwoven tapestry. I'm not saying this means every TV series automatically fails to tell a story in a satisfying way, or even that the series that don't are inherently bad. It works differently from books or films, and therein lie its strengths as a storytelling medium! For one thing, TV is excellent for character-focused stories, and these can go on and on for ages and still be enjoyable and entertaining (even if not "good" by critical artistic standards). There's also more flexibility in TV than in a film; the ongoing format lets writers string out rising and falling tension, and focus in and out on different plots/subplots across a far larger scope.

● The way these shows work is the overarching medium of the series contains smaller stories in the form of plots. The boundaries between one plot and the next usually need to be permeable, too – a plot arc should conclude satisfactorily, yes, but the things that happen in it ought to resonate with the larger narrative afterwards, otherwise it'll feel pointless to the audience. Ghost Whisperer is an example where the creators failed to do this, repeatedly: each of the five seasons introduces a new concept which seems to be building towards some kind of climax, and then... doesn't. Characters vanish from the story never to be mentioned again. Huge events that ought to have life-altering consequences for the characters only have consequences for a few episodes, and then it's swept under the rug. The series had its appeal in a fun concept and lovable characters, but was let down by the execution. By contrast, medical drama Grey's Anatomy has been going successfully since 2005. It has some continuity issues (like interns vanishing without explanation) and some plots are better than others, but on the whole it takes its status as a long-running story seriously and does it quite well.

● The streaming model and the way TV writers are treated is a factor, too. Even where the boundaries of a story have been pre-defined and could be executed well, the creators often don't have the chance. (and I'm sure the same is true of long-running manga/comic books/graphic novels, although I'm focusing mostly on TV here). Ratings, network politics and actors' personal lives/ambitions have a huge impact on what happens to a TV series, and the popularity or apparent success of a series doesn't always guarantee its continuation. Just look at Netflix's habit of axing series after 2 seasons! Or at Good Omens, which despite being written by Neil Gaiman, having a huge fanbase, and a pre-set story which would be concluded in three seasons, hasn't yet been officially greenlit for season 3 (afaik). The industry has created an environment where stories are commodified, and that's not an environment in which stories can flourish.

#fragments of essays

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rankingthehousewives · 5 months

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Eight years later, or, "I'm not getting older; I'm just getting bolder."

Hi divas,

It's been the better part of a decade since I first posted this list, and a lot has changed: for me, for Bravo, and not least for the various superestrellas herein. I'm forced to fess up to some clunker opinions (Stacey Forsey is not a better Housewife than Vicki Gunvalson; Teresa Giudice is [heartbreakingly, devastatingly] not actually in love with her brother), and a few overall sea changes in the way I conceptualize the show and Bravo in general.

First of all, I underestimated the delight of the Housewives blog/news cycle, which has only refined as an apparatus since the posting of this list. A key component in being a Bravolebrity is one's ability to titillate with delightfully brain-bending headlines (Teresa Giudice 'can’t relate' to Jen Shah’s prison sentencing: 'I would never do something like that.') and to shock and delight with one's antics, public snipes, absurd feuds, and assorted felonies. When I first compiled this list, it was after my first watch of each of series, and I didn't understand that a good chunk of the captivating material occurs offscreen, as a thrilling little adrenaline hit during an otherwise mundane day. If I had to make a list like this again, I'd take that into much more rigorous account.

But I wouldn't make a list like this again, because fundamentally... I really like all of these women now, at least as highly edited TV characters! Shock twist: they're all now tied in my heart! I see them all as rich and necessary players in the show's milieu, and I honestly think that my individual moral judgments of them are totally irrelevant—and, in fact, I think the show works best approached as non-judgmentally as possible. I respect that each viewer will have their own individual lines in the sand as to what is and isn't Too Far, informed by their own personalities and experiences, and I can't ask for carte blanche approval of these problematic women and their problematic ways. But for me, I have genuinely come to appreciate Kyle Richards and Jeana Keough and THE Mary Schmidt Amons, and of course I still love Phaedra and Tamra and Sheree and all of the other beautiful Botoxed gladiators who have taken to the Coliseum (and The Traitors season two) for our collective entertainment.

I think part of what's brought me to this conclusion is that in the current era of BravoCon and celebrity superfans and Peacock exclusives, the social media discourse has gotten increasingly tense, heated, and even abusive—between fans and other fans, certainly, but also between fans and the talent. People frequently direct really cruel messages to the Housewives and other Bravolebrities without thinking of the impacts of those sorts of messages, individually and en masse. I think a ranked list like this one, with its favourites at the tops and least favourites at the bottom, isn't a great format for communicating the nuance of these programs at their best, and for expressing my appreciation for these many strong, interesting, entertaining women who love vaginal rejuvenation and axe-throwing. Basically, I think we're too quick to judge, and I think I judged too quickly.

I still get really sweet messages from readers about this list (please forgive me if I haven't answered yours!), so I won't strip it from the web, even though I disown a lot of the opinions underpinning it. If you're reading this in 2024, or later, just know that I almost universally wish I were kinder and more thoughtful in my appraisals. And, hey, thanks again for reading.

If you're interested in keeping up with me eight years later, I write, produce, and host a podcast with my friend, Josie, called Bittersweet Infamy. We cover infamous non-fiction stories, including an excruciatingly in-depth dive into the Salahis' white house crash with lots of bizarre celebrity cameos, from Shaq to Sugar Kiper to Bai Ling. Three and a half years in, we're revving up for our 100th episode, so we'd love the well wishes.

If that's not your vibe, then please continue to enjoy the weird and wonderful worlds of Bravo—and please, by all means, make it nice.

xoxo

P.S. RHOSLC kicks ass.

P.P.S. Luann is still my favourite.

#bravo #the real housewives

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she-saved-the-world-a-lot · 6 months

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Welcome To The Blog

I have a question -- how many times did Buffy save the world? -- and I will do my best to answer it. Sure, I could probably google it, but what's the fun in that? I'd rather come up with my own way to determine that and analyze one episode at a time. Gives me an excuse to watch the entire show yet again.

Some definitions are necessary before I start. I will be considering only the seven seasons of the TV show BTVS, and maybe the five seasons of ATS, not any other media, not the comics and ABSOLUTELY NOT the movie. I will be fairly narrow in my verdicts of "saving the world," there will have to be clear indication that the threat being faced is "world ending," or "an apocalypse," or "will kill all humans." However, I'm also interested in counting threats that would seriously upset the status quo of the world. With that goal, I'm planning on categorizing each threat as follows:

Apocalypse Now-ish, for end-of-the-world stuff;

It's The End Of The World (As We Know It), for things that would transform the setting of the show in a substantial way, breaking verisimilitude;

Another Day, Another Slay, for things that only threaten life and limb but would have little impact beyond.

These categories are independent of whether the enemy being faced is a Big Bad or a Monster Of The Week, or of whether the particular episode is part of the season arc or filler. Sometimes a Big Bad is just trying to have a good time, and sometimes Monsters Of The Week try to destroy the world. Those are different axes of categorization, in my opinion.

This blog will, by necessity, contain major spoilers for TV shows that ended production about two decades ago. If you are reading this and haven't yet watched Buffy/Angel and wish to do so unspoiled (good for you!), please block this blog. Come back later! If you have already watched the shows and want to check my math, I would be thrilled to have you follow this blog!

Let's get started.

#buffy the vampire slayer #buffyverse #btvs #buffy summers #angel the series #ats

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maybe-not-a-robot · 3 months

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Media Log 2024 Entry 11 - Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone - 3/5

This looks familiar.

EDIT: reduced score to 3/5. I want these scores to be more subjective, so I reduced it because I didn't enjoy 1.0 very much.

(Sensing a theme? blame @duskdishwasher, she's the one streaming them for me.)

Right out of the gate, I want to establish something: This entry is going to be surprisingly negative for a 4/5. What you need to remember is that, fundamentally, this movie is still the first six episodes of the Evangelion anime.

1.0 is... honestly, a little disappointing. But I'll start with the positives: the animation, mostly. The animation of the movie is pure mechanical animation porn, mixing digitally drawn animation with elaborate CGI to present some of the most detailed and well-animated views of Tokyo-3, the Geofront, the Evangelions, and the angels out there, alongside redesigning the angels to be a little different - most notably, the newly morphing Ramiel at the end of the movie. It looks wonderful, and the movie uses it very well!

However, where it falls flat is the story. As I said, it is still, fundamentally, the first six episodes of the Evangelion TV series, which are a masterpiece, but it's the first six episodes crunched into only 98 minutes. The pacing isn't bad, but it loses a lot of the slower, thematically impactful moments from the TV series, and because of that, it loses quite a bit. It doesn't axe them all, but it gets rid of enough to make their exclusion feel very noticeable. It feels a little like a recap movie that also points towards a lot of later plot elements really early, way earlier than in the show.

In the end, I think 1.0's biggest flaw is its lack of derivation from the TV series. Unlike The End of Evangelion and the end of the TV series, there is a very good reason to compare 1.0 and the beginning of the TV series... and the comparison, in my eyes, is not in 1.0's favor.

None of this is to say 1.0 is bad... I just think it's worse. And a lot of shows are worse than Evangelion, so that's not really saying much. It stands alone, but it's not a good substitute.

#media log #media log 2024

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biggoldbelt · 2 years

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Classic IMPACT! Episodes From September 2009 Available Now on IMPACT Plus

Classic IMPACT! Episodes From September 2009 Available Now on IMPACT Plus News / November 10, 2022 / by IMPACT Wrestling Staff Click here to start watching Episodes of IMPACT from September 2009 are available in HD for the very first time NOW on IMPACT Plus. Here are some highlights to look out for in those episodes: LAX explodes as Homicide betrays Hernandez to join World Elite on the September…

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#IMPACTonAXSTV #aj styles #AXS TV #booker t #features #Highlights #impact #Impact Plus #Impact Wrestling #New #Scott Steiner #sting #Tag #title #Wrestling #Wrestling News

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frostbittenfemme · 10 months

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Project Eugenesis. Flatline.

Those words echo straight through her, they haunt her. The TV remote slips out of Wild’s servo, dropping to the floor with a thud.She stares blankly at the screen for what seems like age, but she’s not watching, nor listening.

A voice as clear as day rings in her audials, the voice of someone who terrorised her, who haunted her. It’s like he’s here in the room with her.

“Project Eugenesis spark fragment 007-D implantation attempt. This will be the 13th implantation attempt into subject 001.“

“Implantation attempt failed, spark fragment 007-D froze upon contact with subject 001’s spark.”

A blood curdling shriek from the medic brings her back to the present, it’s echo ricocheting its way through the house as Wild sinks her claws into the tv, instantly covering it in a layer of jagged ice. Sparks zap from the wiring as the small femme rips it from its wall mount, tossing it half way across the room.

Wild doesn’t care about the blue glow spreading from her servos up her arm, she ignores it. Instead letting out an angered screech, sweeping items off work surfaces. Glasses shatter on impact, the shards simply blending in with the ice and snow Wild leaves in her wake. So many thoughts rush around in her mind. The news tells her that Flatline’s still alive, still experimenting, playing god and causing pain and suffering. She’s not been free this whole time. Still under his control, she’s still nothing more than an experiment to him.

She’s going to make him pay!

Her fear of being caught no longer exists. Instead it’s replaced with a wrath that has been suppressed for far too long and just as it’s broken free from it own cage so does the frigidness that lives within. She stares down at her glowing blue servos, gaze slowly moving up her arms until she’s staring at her own chest. The outlier lets out a primal scream, a blast of arctic cold shooting from her frame, freezing anything and everything in the house on impact.

Wild wastes no time, storming through the house, leaving spires of ice to grow in her pedesteps. She heads for the corridor, lined and decorated with her weapons. Weapons from her past long gone but not forgotten.

She claws at the ice on the wall, carving through it like it’s nothing breaking free anything she can get her servos on. First it’s the pair of handheld axes; Avalanche and Blizzard. Permafrost blades that sit atop handles carved with their names in ancient Cybertronian. Her trusty weapons that she wielded in the Pits of Kaon. “Time for you to come out of retirement.” She comments, digit running along the edge of the blade. The femme moves her hip armour to the side, hooking the axes on the inside of her skirt. For now they must stay hidden away. Wild runs her servo across the wall, feeling for a change in the texture of the ice. Servo coming to a halt on top of a raised piece. Once again she claws into the ice, ripping fragments away until she reveals the treasure underneath.

For a moment she pauses, servo hovering atop of the weapon underneath. So many bittersweet memories attached to it..

Wild carefully scoops up the staff from its place on the wall, running her digits along the cracks in the metal rod. Her staff; Frostbite as it was so affectionately named by its creator, a courting gift made to work in tandem with her powers.

Maybe now she can make it live up to its true potential. The femme holsters the weapon on her back; nestled between scars.

Sufficiently armed Wild heads out; paying no heed to the destruction she’s leaving behind.

No more hiding.

It’s time to Hunt.

#❄️ic❄️#event: project eugenesis revived

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thegreatzombieartisan · 2 years

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A Brief Swim Into Adaptations, Fan Fiction, & the Tolkien Fandom

To cut to the chase: adaptations are separate entities from a book. Different mediums demand adjustments to storytelling. If an adaptation is technically well-executed, then I theorize that viewer approval largely hinges on how much they expect the adaptation to match their reader experience.

Personally, I don't want to sit through 12 hours of predictable film nor 5 seasons of TV. And other Tolkien fans demand it. To each their own.

It's a common saying that adaptation is fan fiction. It can have large overlaps for sure. To me, it boils down to intent. Adaptation seeks a faithful translation of source material. Fan fiction creates a story from source material with discretion to faithfulness. Adaptation = Galadriel as a warrior. Fan fiction = Galadriel as a Nazgul (I’d watch it).

Adaptation decision-making is a combo of creative vision, practical production needs and politics. Many fans don't consider this when faced with changes. Example: in the PJ's LotR, Glorfindel got axed. Arwen rescued Frodo instead. A decision related to time, importance, and politics. Plus, in 2001, a major film without female roles would be accused of sexism and limit audience appeal. Both would've impacted box office numbers & award nomination. With Glorfindel axed, Aragorn’s backstory changes and so does his character arc somewhat. So on and so forth. None of these changes stemmed from PJ's own preferences.

The Tolkien fandom is notorious for a strain of pedantic and vocal desire for purity. I could go much deeper into Tolkien fanboys. But for now, I’ll focus on one big component: Tolkien left readers with the literary version of the Winchester Mystery House. Per his prerogative, massive (un/intentional) blank space open for interpretation. Particularly in deep lore, which isn’t novelistic, but rather, synopses. People fill in blank spaces differently. Also, what other fandom requires readers to study the author for interpretation of said blank spaces?

Another factor is a fan’s goal for consuming the adaptation. Is it for entertainment or communion? All in all, the Tolkien fandom is a tough crowd to please.

Studio-produced adaptation relies on fandom money and/or time. People deserve to get what they “paid” for based on communicated expectations. If film producers/show runners claim it’s Tolkien then the work would, at minimum, reflect aligned themes, motifs, and symbolism in storylines, dialogue, and visuals. Moreover, devout Catholicism aligned. I do think RoP does a good faith attempt with Tolkien’s own intentionalist views through Galadriel. Otherwise, call it Tolkienesque.

However, while compelling, the show’s “touching the darkness” theme reflects show runner JD Payne’s Mormon’s beliefs more than Tolkien. So if Galadriel doesn’t eventually feel pity for the orcs she expressed genocidal rage toward in the next 4 seasons, it’s arrogant fan fiction. I sat through 8 hours of time and I get to call it out. Beyond that, creativity in blank spaces is fair. Case in point, Disa singing.

Technical execution is a separate area. Even fan fiction demands narrative logic and flow is valid. If nothing else, make it make sense within the context given.

More another time.

Thank you for reading! Your likes and reblogs are appreciated. Got feedback?

What did you like? Got theories or insights to share?

Disagree? I love good faith debate and sparring!

Need clarity around points? Got feedback on readability?

Spot an inaccuracy? Hey, Tolkien's work is complex. Drop it in comments or DM.

#critique #tolkien #doylist

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lana-starscream · 11 months

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How do I watch WOW Women of Wrestling?

Glad you asked! It's complicated!!!

WOW Women of Wrestling airs on weekends (mostly) at all different times on your local CW channel in syndication! If you want to watch it on TV, go to www.wowe.com and look up your local times by searching your zip code!

TV? I only watch things through streaming!!

okay fair enough! the official WOW Youtube page puts up the trimmed matches (nothing before or after, starts with the announcer and ends right after the bell) on Mondays after the episode airs. A few days later they put up all the trimmed matches together in one clunky upload. Any backstage promos or vignettes are uploaded separately along the way. Personally, I do not like this, as it cuts out all the fun character based stuff that WOW revels in.

HOWEVER: the entire first season of the Viacom reboot is up on Youtube here, nothing cut out at all: Youtube Link.

This season can also be streamed on PlutoTV (under WOW: The Next Generation), and Freevee TV. This is a great starting point for any new viewer!

But wait!! There's More!!

WOW has been running (on and off) since 2001, and the very first run and the only PPV they have had to date (WOW Unleashed) is uploaded on Youtube!

and here is a Youtube playlist for Unleashed:

Here is what they call Season "2"

and Season "3"

After this they relocated to the Belasco, and there were a few episodes that were only streaming on the website, but they're floating around Youtube somewhere. (i'm sorry i might edit this w links later)

They were picked up by AXS in 2018/2019 and this is where they had "rebranded" themselves around Tessa Blanchard. Yeah, I'm sorry too. Her aside, the AXS season was a lot of fun and had a few ladies from Impact Wrestling as regulars (probably because of the AXS partnership at the time). It's also the last version of the show before the Viacom reboot, and many of the wrestlers in the new reboot are from this season. This can also be streamed on demand Pluto TV, FreeVee TV, and Youtube.

Enjoy getting McLane-Pilled like I have!

#wow superheroes #wow women of wrestling #how do i watch wow #let me tell you how you watch wow #women's wrestling

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