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popculturebuffet · 1 year

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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem Review and Analysis: This Films What Makes Me Feel Alright

Hello all you happy turtles! It's time to grab some pizza and party sized cool ranch doritos and pull your old high school sketchbooks out of some ancient backback in your closet, it's time to talk TMNT: Mutant Mayhem. As a massive TMNT nerd who was beyond hyped for this film coming from the powerhouses of both Point Grey Pictures and one jeff rowe, how did the film stack up? How did it spin kick on it's own? And why did they think Bebop nipple piercings were a good idea? All this and more under the cut, with FULL SPOILERS so if you haven't seen the film, you've been warned.

A New Coat of Ooze: Mutant Mayhem's story of how it came to be is oddly familiar: a massive movie company who has an iconic IP has no idea how to use said IP on it's own, and taps creators who have had some recent noticable and well loved succeses to make them a hit.

If that sounds familiar.. it really should as it was sony's creative desperation to get something spider-man centric only they would get profit from out that lead to Into the Spider verse and i'ts sequel. So it's funny and endearing to me that a film that wouldn't of gotten away with it's utterly unique and grungy art style without spider-verse.. happened for pretty much the exact same reasons.

Like with spidey, Paramount.. really didn't know what to do with TMNT for a while. And it's weird because when they first aquired the heroes in a halfshell from mirage, they had a pretty solid plan: the 2012 show, while messy as it went on, started out really promising and was a huge hit. The IDW comics prior to it were a massive hit for the company and are STILL around today, having outlasted other long term idw liscenses like transformers and having kept a consistent continuity for a decade while also leaving room for crossovers with ghostbusters, the mighty morphin power rangers, the goddamn batman and now street fighter.

So what went wrong? Simple.. they tried WAY too hard to mimic the transformers formula with their theatrical film, Ninja Turtles, not only not getting that audiences were tired of "Micheal Bay makes a weirdly sexual comedy about your childhood and it may have robots", but what really made the franchise work. The sequel from what i hear is slightly better but it just wasn't enoguh. Not helping is they quickly lost their shit on the tv front, as after the 2012 series concluded, they launched the creative, hilarious, and gorgeous Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.. which proceded to last only two seasons because it wasn't an instant hit, aka the same issue most nick shows fell into, not helped by the fact that Nick also seemed to pick up Cartoon Network's bad habit of hating action shows. We DID at least get a really good Rise film that gave the series a nice epilogue, but it's still sad it sputtered out so fast.

So Paramount turned to something they really weren't using.. their film animatoin department.

Paramount Pictures Animation is neat to look into as it had a steep rise.. then fell right off a cliff. It was a bit spottier at first, producing two of the charlie brown films, Bon Voyage Charlie Brown (And don't come back) and my beloved Race for Your Life Charlie Brown... mostly for this theme song.. okay ENTIRELY for the theme song.

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And scattered experiments like Cool World, which was so good Ralph Bakshi punched a man over what they'd done to his idea, Bebe's Kids, and Beavis and Butthead Do America.

It wasn't till the late 90's and the nick boom they really started seeing success with the rugrats movies, jimmy neutron, spongebob and even the failures like Hey Arnold and Wild Thronberries were still neat. And yes i'd like to talk about any and all of these films at some point, they made up my childhood etc etc.

Eventually they got a cushy partneriship with dreamworks, still releasing the ocasional original effort like Rango, Barnyard and TinTin (The last of which I WILL be covering next august, I simply didnt' have room in pirate month this year. Once dreamworks left.. it seemed like Paramount genuinely had no clue what to do with the animation divsion. We had things like Sherlock Gnomes or Wonder Park, and the ocasoinal spongebob movies but it's clear that with Nick constantly cutting itself off at the knees they had no idea what to do. The closest they got was the turdtastic loud house movie and the totally awesome Rise of the TMNT films on netflix, but they just had no idea what they were doing. I mean it's telling that their trying to get extra paw patrol tickets by promiting a double feature with saw X. I.. I wish that was just some stupid joke I made as it's comedy gold. Eventually they came across an idea: Stay the course in focusiong on ips they own.. but bring in someone who knows what their doing to create something truly jawdropping.

So for Mayhem Parmount brought in two proven successes. The first were producers Point Grey Pictures, helmed by friends, writing partners and permenant teenagers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. Rogen has made quite the name for himself as a producer. While Point Grey started as mainly a way for Rogen to produce comedies starring himself and a pre-outing as a sex monster james franco, over time Rogen has proven to be REALLY good at making adaptations, with point grey having had a hand in both the Boys, which I haven't seen but seems to be a MASSIVE improvment over the original comics , which isn't hard but it's still nice they tried, and Invincible, one of the best superhero shows PERIOD and a fantastic adaptation that changes what needed it, moves around pieces and ultimatley creates something really special. So tapping him to adapt a big property like this was a no brainer. He even had animation experince thanks to Sony Pictures Sauage party and while this was Point Grey's first family production, it's clear it wasn't too hard for Rogen to adapt. As for their director they picked a hell of one: Jeff Rowe. For those not familar with him Rowe helmed the Mitchells vs the Machines, sony's first post spider-verse success and the film that helped codify the 2d on 3d style that spider-verse made popular and peanuts pioneered. And it was clearly just ont hes trength of word of mouth alone as Rowe went right from machines to mayhem and only got better. From interviews, the two worked really well together: Rogen was hands on but didn't make the mistakes lord did of being way TOO hands on, simply pitching neat ideas, adding to the film and clearly being heavily involved, while still letting Rowe steer the ship. Rowe in turn learned to have a good work life ballance and give his employees one, preventing the kind of nightmarish working conditions present on other flims such as, sadly, Across the Spider-Verse.

For the direction of the film Rowe was a fan of the franchise as a kid, specifically the toys. He recalled a really sweet story about he and his dad spent a saturday trying to find Tokka and Rahzar and really loved the toys designs and uniquely grungy astetic. As such Rowe really didn't lean into or heavily research the rest of the franchise. Which set off my alarm bells when I read it in a review close to release: after all a LOT of bad adaptations come out of the person adapting it not giving one iota of a shit about the source material. Eventually though I realized I was .. over panicking. What jeff meant was more "I don't want to be overly reverent to the material and see what we can do on our own with the basic concept' rather than "THE TURTLES ARE GOD YOU FOOLS GODS. GODS I SAY!". There are still little nods in there and bits taken from other series; There's a mention of the turtles taking in a knicks game (something that happened in out of the shadows), April's design borrows heavily from her design from Rise while still being unique, Donnie has glasses like the bay movies, there apparently was a miyamoto usagi sticker on a notebook (thanks tv tropes for noticing), and there's a TON of refrences to the 87 continuity as it's clearly the one rowe knew best. And while I do get a LITTLE tired of that being the one continuity most creators seem to lean on the most, I don't hate it and plan to binge the whole giant thing soon I just feel there's a LOT more turtles to pull from, paticuarlly the idw comics, the nods are neat stuff like them having their belts form that series, the various obscure mutants. The Ninja Rap even shows up. Rowe and Rogen clearly love them some turtles.. they just wanted to do something new with it and I completely love and respect that. The biggest swing and the one that's paid off the most was leaning on the teenage aspect. Rowe and Rogan were baffled that no other version of the franchise had done the obvious: Have actual teens voice the turtles. There are reasons for that: For the various tv shows it's simply easier to know the va's wont' age out of the roll, and to the 2012 and rise series credits, they both still tried to make the turtles feel younger and had va's that still made them sound sorta like teens, paticuarlly rise... but it's not at all a bad concept and i'm shocked it took this long for someone to try it.

Another aspect was having the boys all record in one booth. Rogen had the idea.. but Rowe had to explain that it'd be a sound mixing nightmare.. but eventually agreed to it when they tested it out and he saw how much having the four actors playing the turtles riffed off each other and just how much material they got out of the boys adlibs. It adds a natural feeling to the boys conversations: it feels like four teens riffing who just happen to be turtles. It was indeed an audio nightmare.. but the nightmare was worth it and Rowe was greatful and apologetic to his sound crew.

The final bit was simply taking from teen movies, the film even outright has the boys watch Feris Buller's Day Off, which gives me one of my faviorite lines in the film, courtesy of Raph: "Being in high school means you can hyjack a parade whenever you want. "

There's more to get into as we go but with the film opening decently and paramount being so confident in the film pre-release they announced a two season tv show and a sequel, the future looks bright for the green machines. So now we've seen how the pizza gets made let's see how it came out

Perfectly Sketchy: Rogen and Rowe's "Teenage Energy" philosphy went into the design. Rowe wanted to find a unique look for the film, but it was a bit of a puzzler at first: There's SO many incarnations of the tmnt, which one do you pick for this? Do you go with the mirage comics, the 87 cartoon? 2003? the next mutation if you huffed some paint? In the end Rowe decided

Instead he made a brilliant decision: if the film was going to feel teenagery, then why not have it look like the sketches teenagers make in their notebooks? It's an idea that just oozes brilliance and still fits the franchises history like a razor decked claw glove. Part of what made the early comics stand out was it's sketchy, frank miller-esque style, and the toys stood out for largely echoing that as much as you could in three dimensions at the time. So it still fit.. but did something entirley new with it. As as a result the film has a look that simply nothing else has: porportions on most things are off, the backgrounds arne't hugely detailed , did you when you were a teen?, but still pop gloriously, and the characters all have SOMETHING that would be off model anywhere else. One of the thugs in the turtles first act of vigilnate justice, for instanc,e has a weirdly crooked head with indents. It's a look that's perfectly stylitic, fits the series history, and it's a kind of weird that perfectly complintes a series that was already having our heroes fight space dinosaurs by the third issue. I especially love how the shurikens are not even yet still throw perfectly and Mikey's hey arnold head. It's a look that pops with creativity and the crew really took to playing with. It's a style that will, much like spider-verse lead to this, undoubtly lead to more unique swings and I cannot wait to see what people come up with as a result

Protecting a World that Hates and Fears Them

The film's core comes from a rather genius decision to simply pick apart a key part of the franchise... the fact Splinter keeps the boys isolated from humanity for most of their lives and encourages them to stay hidden. Now credit where it's due some continuties justify it well enough: sometimes splinters hiding from shredder, or already had a sweet rent free sewer apartment he set up for no reason, trying to find his lost son and complete his family while avoiding a mutated alley cat or simply was waiting till the boys could defend themselves. They often have a lot of enemies... but even that shouldn't mean they can't get an education or have friends. April and Casey stick by them no matter what. They should be able to at least try for a normal life or the idea of them WANTING more than hidnig all the time should really come up more. The only ones that have really tapped into this are the IDW continuity which is just now having the boys integrate post armageddong game, out of the shadows which from what i've read has a throughly intresting subplot about the boys wanting to become human and leos' resistance to the idea (which also makes him come off as a bit of a jackass honestly as it's not his choice and "We're turtles end of story" is not an excuse). We've had the turtles say move into an apartment but this is the first to just flat out ask: why CANT the boys at least try to live with humanity instead of under them? And if so why did splinter keep them apart?

It's part of what really grounds the boys in this incarnation and makes them feel so damn real. The other of course was the decision to have actual teens play them and riff off each other. We get them making unteiotnally douchey digs at each other, such as the other three mocking Leo attempting a batman voice, casually talk about how they'd like to meet drake or have brunch with tom brady, which leo no you can do better man, or do some goofy shit while april marvels at their stupidity.. and then double down when told it might make people like them less. By making the biggest attempt so far to make the turtles FEEL like teens instead of young adults, an evolution the franchise has been undergoing since the 2012 cartoon and honestly reaches it's apex here, it makes us feel for them that much more; These are just kids who simply want to be loved and accepted, like any teenager. That awkwardness, wanting to fit in, wanting to simply belong.. it's one of the most painful parts of a teen and transplanting that to the tutles wa sa brilliant move. One of the earliest scenes is what sells this the most: the boys going to see Ferris Buller's Day off.. and just wondering what it'd be like to be normal. That lost shot of them sadly returning to the sewer... looking on screen at something they only wish they could have... it's so heartbreakingly beautiful.

The reasons WHY Splitner restricts their time in the outside world and refers to humans as "the demon scum of the earth. They lust to destroy that which is diffrent than them"

Giving Splinter a deep fear of humans is a brilliant move. It's something that really coudln't be done in most incarnations as he's been the pet of a martial arts master who treated him well, said martial arts master living in a sweet sewer apartment after being clumsily blamed for murder, got reincarnated as a rat after dying in ancient japan, a martial arts master who turned his back on his heritage because his clan let his family die, became a movie star, fucked a spider lady, had said spider lady put him in gladatorial games, then got depressed after becoming a rat but gladly adopted his sons. Here they strip that away and we're left with a splinter who was just a rat who was yelled at by other animals, shooed by humans just for trying to survivie and whose only friend was a cockroach.. who he ended up eating after humanity killed the poor guy. Finding the boys also abandoned in the sewers and covered in ooze, as oozual, not only made him into a rat man.. but also gave him the one thing he never had: a family. We also get a REALLY adorable montage set to de la soul's eye know that makes me REALLY glad the copy right hurdles around them are gone so we don't have another spider-man no way home situation because the song both slaps and has a nice soothing tone that really fits. We'll get more into the music on i'ts own later, I just really love this montage.

It also makes what follows..

We see that Splinter GENUINELY tried to go out into the world.. and the result was humanity throwing things at him despite carrying 4 small children and said children nearly being hit by a car. It's a really unsettling sequence. While yeah everyone going "rat man" and throwing things is a bit on the nose... given how a LOT of humanity acts to LBGTIQ+ persons, People of color, diffrent religions I could go on but i'm depressed enough as is, it's not really that much of a stretch that they'd throw things at a rat just trying to show his sons the world. It reminds me a LOT of the x-men and it's honestly weird to me that the othe rbiggest mutant franchise int he world HADN'T taken a page from them sooner.

It gives the film nuance: Splinter IS objectively prejudiced, leo even says so directly, but you can see how those prejudices formed and why he's so terrified for his own kids. He's worried a world that hates and fears them will also hate and milk them.. a runner that while awkwardly phrased, I don't think Seth or Jeff have heard of the term milking before, is hilarious, especially the usual refrain of "we don't even have nipples. " He just wants them safe and happy and you can tell he really does love them. He taught them the martial arts to protect them.. and the how is also really clever and a really fun idae: instead of "I learned it from a book" Or "I happened to be owned by a ninja master" or "I was reincarnated" we instead get him teaching them.. via martial arts films, instuctional videos, and the ocasional youtube thing. I love it because it honestly makes way more sense than it should as shown in the animation: splinter watched the films, learned the movements himself and then taught the boys. It's also a nice bit of meta text as Jackie Chan himself is a practicing martial artist who makes martial arts films and did his own stunts. One of his films is apparently even in the montage. It's one of my faaviorite takes of the film.

One of my faviorite scenes is Splinter's biggest pet the dog moment: the pizzza party. Splinter brings in a bunch of pizza hut pizzas

It's neat because it both clearly misses the point, Splinter really dosen't seem to get that simply bringing down a bunch of pizzas to have a human style prom and having kelvin captain kirk cutout won't fill the void inside. I mean I could think of a lot of uses for a chris pine cutout, i'm not saying it's a bad gift and it's sweet he's trying SO HARD to get his boys to open up and Jackie Chan just nails the dad energy on this one. It's just clear that they don't want to stay there there whole lives as safe as that is.

What brings it to it's head is one of the films more brilliant decisions. Originally, while I haven't found many specifics the film had other antagonists: Baxter Stockman was originally the boys teacher (they went to school during the course of this film in this draft) and became the fly again, while Shredder was TCRI"s heavy in earlier drafts. Both were nixed, the former likely due to abandoing the school plot and the latter for the entirely on the mark decision that it was just too much. Shredder.. is THE arch enemy to the turtles. The one constant in every universe. So it makes way more sense to save him for a sequel and let someone else take the reigns. As Rowe has teased Shredder's going to be a bit of a wakeup call: just as the boys think they have it figured out .. in comes shredder to kick their asses. Which really has happened A LOT across the franchise, with it being a regular tradition that the shredder beats the shit out of the turtles the first time they fight. Even in IDW where they do rally and turn the fight on it's head.. he still easily handles them all one on one before they rally as a team. It makes sense to save their ultimate test for a sequel while still giving them one hell of a trial by fire

Instead we got Superfly, who better fit into the fantastic racisim narritive. If the boys want to get love and acceptance by fighting for a world that hates and fears them x-men style.. it only makes sense they have a magneto on that other end.

Like Magneto Superfly has a tragic backstory behind his hatred of mankind.. Superfly was the creation of Baxter Stockman and what they did with Baxter both completely floored me.. and drove me to tears. Instead of what he is normally, either a put upon target coerced into villany who strikes back at both the turtles and those who wronged him, or a narcsitic monster who will gladly do whatever he wants and kill anyone in his way, here... Baxter is just a deeply lonely old man who just wants a family. At worst he steals from TCRI.. but given we see their a horrifying company who wants the mutants as weapons and will gladly torture teenagers for a buck, it's not hard to side with him. It's really nice ot see a heroic baxter.. and sad to see him go so quickly.

It puts Superfly's hatred in perspective: like splinter he saw just what huamanity does and how his kind is treated and grew up having to raise his younger siblings. Like Splinter he seems to really love them. And like splinter his attempt to take his siblings topside.. went horribly wrong with them being chased by an angry mob for just..c oming to a snack bar. But it's right after that we get the clear diffrence: Splinter just ran in fear and while he trained the boys ot protect themselves, he just wants a line between himself and humanity. Superfly.. wants them all to pay. He wants to mutate the world that killed his dad and drove him and his siblings into hiding. The only way they can be accepted.. is if humanity is mostly gone and what's left are enslaved.

IT's that sadistic streak that ultimately defines him as a villian: the turtles just want to be accepted, splinter just wants to be loved, the rest of the mutant "cousins" just want a home and have been indocrinated and browbeaten into thinking there isn't another way. Superfly.. wants things his way: he wants blood, he wants revenge and if anyone stands in his way no matter their age or being his family he will kill them. It's that anger inside that makes him a true monster.

And that extends to his own family. Superfly's an abusive parent to Splinters flawed but loving one: The rest of the mutants turn stone quiet when he subtly/notsubtly threatens the turtles if they happen to disagree, and during the chase not only are they all desperate to get the thing back but Wingnut in paticular gets the most telling line

Wingnut: Superfly's almost here and he's not going to be as nice about this! Leo: You're not being nice! Wingnut: He'll be less nice!!

While the other mutants SEEM jazzed during the bowling alley scene, it's very clear later none of them were that enthused about the idea. Both sets are afraid to speak to their parental figure.. but the diffrence is clear in motion: the boys hide from splinter because they know he'll say no, it's a standard teenage thing and as seen with the pizza party when Splinter finds the various knick knacks they've picked up on their heroic journey, his response is to try to bring the surface to the sewer. It's awkward as hell and dosen't remotely work.. but it's still a sweet gesture and you still feel bad for him when the boys quickly leave to finish their half assed plan. Splinter ultimately wants what's best for his kids and even if he's not always right in carrying that out, I never doubted he actually loved his children.

This all brillantly comes to a head towards the end: While Splinter plans to just.. isolate the turtles after their nearly milked, the one time he seems GENUINELY angry the whole film, he still wants to save April, the one good human, who warned him the boys were in danger in the first place.

This leads to a touching bit in itself: the boys COULD fight the other mutants, their trying to do a genocide after all.. but instead the boys.. just talk them down. I mean i'm used to this kinda thing by now, most animation these days is about forgivness, but it still works: earlier when meeting each other the turtles gladly bonded with their cousins, who i'll talk about in more detail later: Mondo and Mikey were both chill, raph finally found some people who liked to hit stuff, presumibly while blasting Limp Bisikit, it was really sweet. THeir relutance to stop them added a nice dimension to things: they UNDOUBTLY want to stop superfly's plan.. but they genuinely like their cousins and see them as good people in a bad situation. Likewise the cousins are utterly destraught at the fight afterwords and miss the turtles. These are simply at the end of the day teens 20 somethings and whatever scumbug is who just wanted to not be chased iwth torches.

So it's utterly heartwarming when the turtles and splinter simply offer their home. They may not have humanity.. but they'd have each other. It's also YET ANOTHER idea that seems obvious in retrospect but most turtle series never really thought of: why.. can't other mutants stay with them? They usually order suplies and stuff descretley anyway or in this case take them out of nescsity, if they can afford pizza for 5 people reguarly, why NOT let other smove in. I mean I get it meta wise, you dont' want to overcrowd things. But it's a nice thought i'm glad gets realized: that the boys aren't alone and now have a whole new family to lean on.

And of course Superfly can't take that. To him there's only one way to go: never stop making them pay. I'll also say I like just how poweful superfly is: he's got strength inunerablity, and super smarts, which I thought was a nice touch. I assumed he woudln't have baxter's intellegence and I'm glad to be wrong. He's only stopped and only then breifly by sheer numbers.

What follows is a LITTLE on the nose, with superfly just.... saying outight he and splinter aren't so diffrent, down to both having said "You'll be safe if you just LISTEN TO ME".

That part.. dosen't quite work for me. What does work is the animation on splinter during the struggle between everyone else and superfly.. the dawning realization of what he is as Superfly states the obvious and his determination as soon as Superfly says "the diffrence is i'm not a punk". Superfly just wants to get revenge on a world that hates and fears him.. Splinter just wants his sons to be happy. And he finally realizes that even if there's a lot of risk involved, they DESERVE to live out there with everyone else. There is something better than hiding or murder.

I also like how Superfly.. drops the pretense: once his plans done he just goes on a massive kaiju attack: I also like how fucking horrific his form is: the whale part's a bit goofy at first.. but then you see how much STRENGTH that gives him as he destroys it. Even if we get the ocasional joke (I didn't need that horse is gold), for the finale Superfly is just a nightmarish, imposing threat that threatnes to run our heroes lives and also maybe end them. The glee he takes in crushing the boys alive... it's fucking terrifying.

I also love the bit of the boys panning... seeing all the destruction.. and seeing the media blame them too. Their trying to HELP people.. and get blamed. I'd suggest moving to krakoa but a lo tof shit has went down and living with one old man full of fear and regret is what started this whole caper. And the boys.. fight on anyway because it's the right thing to do. Despite all the hate... someone has to stop superfly. And in doing so.. April makes sure they get the glory and praise they deserve anyway.

Finally I love splinter's turnaround right before the final fight... where he admits he was wrong.. but hasn't FULLY turned around on humans. He's simply realized he can't let his baggage with humanity weigh down his sons. And it pays off brilliantly during the time square fight, as when Splinter is downed.. someone helps him up. And what I love is that while it COULD just be someone who saw April's newscast clearing the turtles and other mutants.. it's left ambgious. As far as we know it was just a nice guy and gal helping an old man up regardless of if he was a giant rat or not. It dosen't paper over all the films flaws with the rat man mob scene but it does help quite a bit.

The film brillantly tackles prejudice and I like how unlike most films.. there's no easy answers. Our boys have to do something big and loud to get accepted and it's not guaranteed to shield them, as seen with the stingers. THey find friends , activites and get what they want.. but it's likely not the end.. but that's okay. The important thing is for the first time the turtles are out of the shadows and into the sun. And it suits them. Seriously this last twist was brilliant and i'm shocked it took a tmnt this long to just.. let them be public since 87, and since media has evolved, it means when we get to the series we can actually explore what that means: how will they adapt? will everyone accept them? will april realize Leo is into her and it wasn't just a friend thing? there's a lot of questions I can't wait to be answered.

Change is Constant

I didn't have a good segway so.. CHARACTERS! MY WHEELHOUSE. LET'S GO.

Starting with the boys, their more of a package deal here. They still have unique deisgns, takes on the cores of their personalities, all you'd expect from a good tmnt adaptation.

What changes it up a bit is the recording together: while most sets of turtles have great chemistry, this one.. really feels like their brothers thanks to the shared recording: they talk over one another, dunk on each other and goof around. This has always been a thing, and part of the franchises charm, but how they do it here feels more real, helped by the fact they clearly took some adlibs in. Both the BTS bit where they try to comfort Donnie only to both mangle the lyrics and writhe in pain and the bit with the new york accents both sound like the boys just started riffing on the prompt given, didn't stop and they rolled with it because it was comedy gold. It also means a LOT more pop culture refrences.. but it works. It dosen't feel like too much

Admitely I don't know how current the refrences are to ACTUAL teens, but they work well enough and don't feel like their horribly date the film. Plus it'd be.. weird to have a turtles work that didn't reflect it's era in some way, as all 4 cartoons and most films and comics reflect their time either in writing or in the general vibe.

The downside to this is the turtles indvidual personalities, while present.. get kinda underplayed. Leo and Raph make it out fine enough: After the radience that was Rise Leo and ben schwartz being at his peak slacker doofus (while also still being badass), we're back to Leo being Teachers Pet. But thankfully like the 2012 film they play with it: like that Leo his brother's don't really respect him as a leader, but rather than the usual raph snarling at him like wolverine, here it's more just their his brothers, they woudln't respect him anyway and benig their dad's mouthpiece just makes them ignore him harder. He's the dutiful son but he's simply outnumbered. Raph dosen't get a ton of spotlight, but gets enough to be a fun little murder baby and probably my faviorite of the 4. Instead of the usual brooding loner, sometimes ultra violent sometimes just sassy, often both, here he's more an obnoxious older brother who picks on leo the most, is happy to do dangerous stunts and badly needs therapy. He's essentially Reese from malcom in the middle as a ninja turtle. He still loves his brothers and loves a good scrap, but he's got some issues to adress.

Mikey and Donnie likewise aren't bad but kinda one note: Mikey gets it the worst: he's a bit goofy.. but since they ALL are this incarnation it dosen't stand out as much. He gets some nice bits and one hell of a impariment shot, but not much else.

Donnie fairs better, but suffers from the unintended consequences of a good choice. As part of grounding things a bit, Donnie isn't a super genius. He's just a snarky little otaku who does really like tech, but on the resonable level of a teenage boy. As a result he dosen't get as much to do as most donnies as he's not hotwiring shit as often or making super lasers. It works for me, it's intresting to have a donnie whose just a normal kid who happens to be really nerdy, but it means plotwise he dosen't have as much to do as Raph as the ringleader to the boys mischief or Leo as the leader of the band during hero stuff. I get why: they only had a hundred minutes and it's remarkable they crammed as much in as they did, but it's something I really hope the series can course correct. I don't mind the boys riffing and hope it continues, but I also hope we get them more as their own people too.

As a final note I love Leo's crush on April. IT feels like a better realized version of the Donnie one from 2012. Instead of waffling over wether april notices or just dosen't want to turn him down which..

And then having it go from cute to "spiraling obessive dickhole", here April notices something's weird, but is clearly more intrested in the "giant talking turtles who can help my rep" thing and thus dosen't really pry. It only REALLY crosses into that at the end when he transparently asks her out.. and she waits till prom to ask "wait this is a friend thing right". But that could be nerves or her being just as scared of her feelings as he is with his. It also helps that while he's intrested in april romantically the two do bond: out of the four he' sthe most empathetic at her barf reputation, priortizes her not out of his crush but because she asked for their help and later works with her at her club. It's still somethign the series could work on, but for "a way to both mine jokes and get leo to go against his dad's wise council" it works fine. It's better than "how dare you ruin my ship you bastards" and "Mikey stop being a sex creep. "

So moving on to April herself, I mostly like this version. She's the third time this franchise has gone with a teen april and the third to have her POC. I've liked the turn to teen april as instead of being a big sister to the turtles, and essentially another authority figure when they already have their dad, she's on their level and it opens up fresh possiblities. Mayhem is the first with this take on april to have her be a reporter again, and it's honestly nice to see that work at a school level, having her TRIED to be on their equivleant of channel one.. and end up puking. And i'm not a barf joke man but walking back into the theater after a bathroom break to see her ralphing to "UnwritteN" may be one of my faviorite cinema moments of 2023, up there with walking back into Barbie to find she and ken now had cowboy outfits they'd apparently stolen.

I also love how it gives her a personal stake: she just wants to be loved same as the turtles and like them realizes this isn't WHY to do this. She also provides a nicely needed straight man to the goofier brothers without being reduced to the old sterotype of "Joy killing female foil. ", something her fellow teen aprils and most aprils in general have thankfully achieved. April is just a person and reacts with annoyance to the boys because their going on a 4 minute tangent saying new york sterotypes while mike does a rumpshaker.

We do have to unpack that mostly though and that comes from April being kind of a dick at time's. She's pressuery when the boys are undercover with SUperfly's gang.. even though she can HEAR what their saying.. and thus hear that he's clearly indocrinated the others and that the boys may not want to harm THEM. I get her not wanting Superfly to succeed, his plan is fucking horrible, but even for a teen it's weird she dosen't see the nuance. She can also be a bhit short with them, though the latter I acknolwedge in hindsight as being like the boys: she's a teenager and teens aren't perfect. This is still a great april and continues Ayo's streak this year of great voice acting roles.

The other mutants are great. I was worried: While the cast for them is fucking stacked and Seth called in a lot of his rolodex to fill it out, and himself as credit where it's due he tends to show up in shit he produces and bring his absolute best rather than showing up because he can, i've seen plenty of films fall flat because they tried to add too many characters from the source. Just this year I felt one of the biggest issues with Transformers; Rise of the Beasts is that they tried to jam so many autobots and maximals in, a total of 10 but didn't bother to give any of them but optimus, bee and mirage an actual character.

Here while the characters are one note, they have charming designs and work more as a unit like the boys, but are still friendly and likeable enough that your fond of them like the turtles and happy when they join the family. The breakout is easily natasha dimoscu's wingnut. I already loved wingnut, but this is easily the best verison: she's cheery kind and gets some great subtle jokes, the wifi one is fucking great as is her swiping Donni'es akira voices. All of them are pretty charming though. The only one to not really feel like a character is Hannibal frog, a sad waste of hannibal burgess, but everyone else gets something fun to do: Bebop and Rocksteady are rageholic morons who then get a sweet character arc as they realize their rage is because Superfly ENCOURAGED them to be constantly angry, and it's fun to see a version of them that's genuinely heroic. Not so fun is Bebop's pierced nipples.

I am genuinely baffled by this design choice. I don't doubt Bebop would get pierced nips, it' sin character. But why Seth thought anyone would want to see that, why he made HIS CHARACTER HAVE THEM, OR WHY HE MAKES IT SO PROMINENT will be a question that will haunt me for years to come. Or until we get creators commentary to explain why he hates viewers eyes. For the record I have nothing against nipple piercings, I just question why anyone thought giving them to Bebop was a good idea. OR their so large or

I also like Scumbug and i'm happy to see Splinter in his first relationship where his partner hasn't died horribly or put him in gladiator games. I did not need to see them make out with clone high level tounge. I"ll let this discord conversation with my good friend @kammieceleek handle the heavy lifting.

I mean their a cute couple but please, NEVER AGAIN. NEVER AGAIN. NEVER AGAIN. NEVER AGAIN. NEVER AGAIN. NEVER AGAIN. NEVER AGAIN NEVER

Anyways capping us off we have TCRI, who are decent enough. I like remaking them as this sort of paramilitary goon squad that shows the worst of humanity. Cynthia herself.. is fucking great. I like that to anyone familiar with Krang, it's DAMN obvious who she either is, or is a stand in for, with the name, apperance and Maya Rudolph somehow doing the Pat Fraley krang voice and tics while also doing a thick german accent. She's a brillaint combo of over the top hammy.. and an utterly sadstic monster, shocking the boys just for speaking, not carring that they don't really belong to her, and willing to kill them just to get her super weapons. She's what a remade krang should be: still over the top.. but also dead seriously terrifying. My only complaint is she's a bit OBVIOUS as a sequel hook. Like Rowe was really banking on that sequel and i'm never a fan of when films do this when they don't KNOW this story will continue. It is clearly, with the film slowly picking up more and more money and more than enough in merch, but he coudln't of known that.

So with that we just have one bit of buisness to wrap up

Yo Jeff Drop the Verse

The soundtrack for this flim is liquid gold. It's so good to my ears and full of such nice cuts. Guardians cemented my love of needle drops in film in tv: If you can pull it off well do it. And this film does it so damn good. The film skews to hip hop, likely due to wanting a "Tony Hawk Pro Skater" vibe, which really does fit teendom well. I will admit it's also pretty explicit here and there, so kids may be disapointed to find they can't stream these songs, but it's still a stacked selectoin

So before I break it down track by track, something I regret failing to do with spider-verse as like this reveiw it was massively behind, I whipped up a playlist as Parmount's own leaves out several tracks. While I get the what's going on bit being left out as that bit is a good suprise why it has'nt been added weeks out from the film I don't know. You can find it here

Ante Up is a song i've heard maybe once or two here, but is a perfect gag for the opening grocery run, while still showing off just what our boys can do.. even if their doing it for some party sized cool ranch doritos. Which is still a great reward.

Danke Scheon shows up in the clip of feris buller. This dosen't really count but I do think the film is a perfect fit, since John Hughes was an inspiration for this film, and it's an idealized version of the freedom the boys desperately want. Not a John Hughes film I was ever a huge fan of, but it works and that "You can hyjack parades whenever you want" joke is so damn good.

Now we come to a track I wasn't familiar with but is easily my faviorite now: Eye Know. I"m glad more films are using De La Soul's music, mostly because it makes ME want to know them better as I haven't heard much and even after really enjoying three is the number, thanks to the weird rights limbo it wasn't avaliable to stream ad nauseum when No Way Home came out. Thankfully just a few short months ago, the whole De La Soul catalogue is up. This song is a really gentle, really fun love song with one heck of a chorus, and it nicely meshes with Splitner raising his adorable little children. It's one of my faviorite scenes of the movie.

The next track is another perfect selection but for something more hilarious and badass: While Push It To the Limit verges on a parody of training montage music it works for one where we find out the turtles and splinter learned ninjitsu from movies,, instructional tapes and whatever they could scrounge up. HOw their learning is awesomely rediculous, so it needs backing that's cheestastic.

Love is an Illusion by Ronnie Walker was nice for Leo falling for APril. It's a really crisp, dreamy love song so it fits.

Okay look i'ts only there for a second, but I can't tell you how much I love Ninja Rap making a cameo on this soundtrack. The soundtrack is cheesy good and one of the more iconic ninja turtle songs for a reason. It's not as good as say Pizza Power or the various awesome theme songs, but it's goofy fun that fit the film it was in. It's also one of Vanilla Ice's better songs, though that isn't huge compettion especially since he made a weird as fuck sequel I still can't comprehend that was also compeltely ninja turtle free for some reason.

Cavern By LIquid Liquid is fun, a nice chill beat to meet turtles to.

Dance by ESG is already a fun song and fits the boys going full blast on their plan well. THat's.. about it. THankfully I have more for unwritten. I'm not a fan of Vomit humor most of the time unless you have a paticuarlly inspired twist like say. a mad scientest making everyone in the room vomit at a bar as a thought experiment leading to an image like this

That's just beautiful. But i'm just not a gross out guy, so this gag working for me was a lot... setting the most embarassing moment of April's life to FUCKING UNWRITTEN, a song I heard 998 times over the course of the 2000's as every fucking movie and tv show overused the hell out of this throughly mid song, it was transedeant. First and only good use of unwritten. Well done.

Now we come to what's easily the best musical bit of the movie. And it has some steep competition from Eye Know and another song we all know is coming, but the No Diggity Scene is just one of those sequences that once you see it you know "This shit is iconic". This is a scene that's now etched in tmnt lore and for damn good reason. It's also a brilliant way to get up to the chain to superfly and have a few weeks of sluthing and our heroes getting better pass as our heroes easily blaze through some goons and those shots of EACH turtle getting to burst in and lead the assault?

And look I admit this montage hits a sweet spot that was also started by guardians: setting an action montage to music that somehow fits despite having no right to. In this case a mellow smooth as hell jam perfectly complmenting some frantic action. So fucking smooth.

Wake Up in the Sky grew on me as let's face it, a song that has bruno mars saying fly a dozen times nad saying he's super fly works. I just don't like it a lot because trap is'nt something that fits me musically. I prefer more intricate beats or at least a really solid one thorugh the whole thing. The more relaxed beatwork here isn't for me, but I can't deny it fits Superfly's big debut well.

Fitting me much better is the use of Shimmy Shimmy Yay for the bowling scene. It's fucking great, a song that's never not awesome and that's also a bit low key while being way more my speed.

The use of BOTH major versions of What's Up? .. is an easy close second for best use of music int he film and one of the most brilliant masterstrokes. And this all comes to Seth Rogen. When the chase scene wasn't quite working, he suggested the slackcircus version of he man. It's also awsome in that the song's themes of isolation PERFECTLY fit what the mutants are going through. So not only did they manage to stick one of the best meme songs in human history in a feature film.. but they did so with it being ENTIRELY relevant. The switch from the 4 non blondes version to slackcircus is fucking genius and the song adds nice manic energy. It'll also hopefully give this song a rightful ressurgence as the heman cover is , while hilarious, also GENUINELY good. The original ain't too shabby either.

The boys version of butter is hilarious and got me to listen to the original which is alright. Mr. Lonely isn't a bad song, and perfectly fits Splinter's mope session.

Finally we have can I kcik it, an objectively awesome song. It fit the trailer perfectly and it fits our ending as our heroes are finally allowed to mingle with the surface adn get their happy ending beauitfully. A beautiful ending to a beautiful film.

So overall mutant mayhem is fucking awesome. If you haven't seen it after all this go see it, support the hard workers who made this film possible by supporting the ongoing strike and thanks for reading.

#teenage mutant ninja turtles #tmnt mutant mayhem #mutant mayhem #leonardo #donetello #raphael #michalangelo #april 0'neil #screwloose #superfly #bebop #rocksteady #jeff rowe #seth rogen #nickelodeon #scumbug

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autumntouched · 2 years

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What do you think made Nat want to be a pilot?

Day 3 of Ode to Phoenix:

The story of why Natasha becomes a Navy pilot is much darker so keeping things light for now and sticking to her first desire to fly.

Also, so sorry in advance! I'm turning these around in less than 24 hours so there won't be much research or editing. Please let me know if there are any glaring/ignorant mistakes. Just a note that this story takes place in pre-9/11 airports when Natasha's parents would have been able to walk them to and pick them up from the gates.

For you @sylviebell

Inspired by real life pilot Beverley Bass featured in the song "Me And The Sky" from the musical Come from Away.

Summary: In the wake of her parents' divorce, a five-year-old Natasha adjusts to having to travel to see her dad and gets a lesson in flying.

Nothing Between Me and the Sky

Natasha presses her face and hands to the glass, watching the bags being loaded onto the plane. She looks for her brand new pink suitcase among them but can’t see it yet. What if it gets left behind?

Luca stumbles into her, and their heads knock together.

“Owee!” she complains, momentarily distracted by her brothers’ shoving match. “Say sorry Luca!”

“Don’t be such a baby, Nasha,” Sebastian taunts. “He barely touched you.”

Natasha looks for Mama to tell Sebastian and Luca to stop, but she’s chasing down Gabby who’s wriggled out of her stroller once again. Sebastian used to be nice. He used to let her play with him and read her his Tintin books. But he hasn’t been that way since Daddy decided he didn’t want to live with them anymore.

Luca will do anything to be on Sebastian’s side, so he sticks his tongue out at her. “Baby! Baby! Nasha is a baby!”

She turns to face them fully, her hands curling into fists. “I’m not a baby!”

“Are too,” Sebastian says, a mean grin spreading across his face. His dark eyes dare her to argue with him.

Natasha’s cheeks and neck heat with anger. “Am not, stupid!”

“Sebastian!” Mama’s back with Gabby on her hip. “You’re supposed to be in charge of your brother and sister. And Natasha, what have I told you about calling people names?”

Their mother glares at all of them, but none of them will break sibling code and point fingers at who started it. Even at five, Natasha knows better than that. “It’s not nice,” she mumbles. She drops to the floor and pulls her knees up to her chest. No one’s nice now that Daddy’s gone, even Mama sometimes. Before she would have given each of them a chance to explain what happened. At least, Mama doesn’t make her apologize. She’s distracted by the gate announcement over the PA.

Gabby kicks her legs and stares down at them with her thumb in her mouth. It’s not fair that she gets to have Mama all to herself while the rest of them go to Colorado to see Daddy.

Natasha crawls over to the window and sits back on her heels. She already misses Mama, even though she misses Daddy too. Her throat hurts like she’s going to cry, but Sebastian will start to make fun of her again if she does so she stares hard at the cart of luggage. What happened to her pink suitcase?

Natasha rests her forehead against the glass and glances over at the American Airlines plane. How does something so big get in the air? It looks heavy.

It’s not long before Mama touches her shoulder and holds up her red Hello Kitty backpack. “My suitcase isn’t on the plane!” Natasha tries to tell her while putting her arms through the straps.

“They’ll put it on, sweetheart, and it’ll be there when you get to Denver. It’s time to board.” She motions Luca over. “Hold your sister’s hand, please.”

Natasha snatches her hand behind her back, still mad at him for stepping on her. “I don’t need to hold his hand. I’m not a baby!”

Luca doesn’t look like he wants to hold hers either and glances pleadingly up at Mama. Gabby kicks Natasha’s shoulder twisting to look out the window. “Airpane!” she shrieks, pointing at the plane. “Airpane.”

Everyone’s hitting her, and Mama doesn’t care. Natasha crosses her arms and marches toward the door that leads to the plane. She wishes she could fly away by herself and never have to see any of them again.

Luca runs up beside her. “Mama says you have to hold my hand,” he grumbles. “Or you’re going to get in trouble.”

“I don’t like you! You didn’t say sorry,” Natasha refuses, keeping her arms crossed. She steps out of the way of a man hurrying to the desk before his duffel bag hits her in the head.

“Mama said—.”

“Mama said,” she repeats. It’s what Sebastian does when he wants to annoy them.

“Stop it, Nasha!”

“You’re going to get in trouble.”

She glares at him. He’s not supposed to tell on her. “You’re going to get in trouble,” she dares him.

Luca frowns, his blue eyes calculating, and then lunges at her. Natasha turns and runs for the gate. He’s right behind her and faster. A tug on her backpack pulls her up short and nearly off her feet. “Stop it, Nasha! You’re going to make Mama mad.”

Before she can turn around, a pretty woman in a blue uniform leans over the desk. “Are you the Trace family?”

“Yes,” Mama says, hurrying up behind them with a crying Gabby kicking in her stroller. “Luca, Natasha, and where—Sebastian!” Sebastian drags his feet to join them. The passengers lining up at the gate are looking at them in mild annoyance. One woman rolls her eyes in disgust.

“I hope they’re not sitting near us,” she complains loudly to the man in a business suit beside her.

Natasha moves closer to Luca. Sebastian must have heard the lady because he steps in front of them, a hard look on his face.

The pretty lady introduces herself as Tanya and tells them she’s going to help them onto the plane once they’ve said goodbye to Mama. Mama hugs and kisses each of them. Natasha hugs her back hard. She doesn’t want to let go. “I love you, Mama!”

“I love you so much, sweetie pie.” Mama cradles her face, her eyes a little shiny like she might cry too. Mama kisses her cheek and draws her in for one last hug. Natasha presses herself into her mother’s softness and inhales the smell of her perfume. It smells like flowers and princesses. “Be good for Daddy and look out for each other, okay?”

Natasha nods and squeezes tighter. When she lets go, Natasha blows a kiss goodbye to Gabby and takes Luca’s hand. They follow Tanya and Sebastian down the gangway to the plane. She looks back over her shoulder to see Mama waving to them until the people lining up behind them block her view.

While they wait at the front of the plane for the flight attendant to seat them, Natasha peaks into the cockpit and is surprised to see someone with shoulder length blonde hair bent over a clipboard.

“Are you a girl?” she asks in surprise. She’s never seen a girl fly a plane before!

The woman turns, a large smile on her face. “I am,” she says with a funny twang in her voice. “Are you flying with me today?”

“I think so,” Natasha says shyly. She looks around at all the buttons and knobs. There are so many. She wonders how the woman knows which ones to press. “Is that how you fly the plane?” she asks, pointing to the black yoke in front of the pilot.

“Want to come take a look? Be my co-pilot for a little?”

Natasha nods eagerly. She lets go of Luca’s hand so she can step into the doorway that leads to the tiny, mysterious room. The woman waves her closer. “I’m Captain Bass. What’s my co-pilot’s name?”

“Captain Natasha.”

That makes Captain Bass smile and deepens the laugh lines around her eyes. She looks very nice and brave. “A pleasure to be flyin’ with you today, Captain Natasha. Want to see how we’re going to take off?”

Natasha nods eagerly, resting her hand on the chair so she can lean forward to see all the things the captain points out to her. The actual co-pilot is a girl too! They let her touch some of the buttons and tell her about the big engines that will help them get in the air.

“See this, Captain Natasha?” asks Captain Bass, pointing to the yoke. “This is what steers the plane. When the plane’s going fast enough, we’ll pull back on this here to lift us off the ground. And when we’re ready to land, we push forward. Want to practice?”

Natasha nods eagerly.

The pilot gets out of her seat, and Natasha’s heart skips excitedly. Could she really get to see what it’s like to fly a plane? To look through the window and see the sky and the clouds in front of her? “Can I?”

“Up you go,” Captain Bass says, and Natasha climbs reverently into her chair. She can feel how important it is, the sense of weight it holds to be at the helm of something so powerful. A thrill rushes through her as she settles into the captain’s imprint and imagines herself being tall enough to look through the windshield. One day she’ll know what all of the panels and controls mean and how to use them to send something so heavy soaring high enough to make the world below look like a landscape of toys. She could fly other girls to see their daddies or mommies.

The pilot crouches beside her and shows her how to hold the yoke, and Natasha can hardly believe that something so small moves something so big.

Captain Bass holds up a headset. “And this is what I use to communicate with air traffic control. They’re the ones who know everything that’s going on and keep us all safe. One of the most important things about becoming a pilot is learning to be a good listener because you need a whole team of people to help you do your job well. Are you a good listener?”

“I’m a good listener,” Natasha promises, staring seriously into the pilot’s kind eyes. They’re as blue and clear as the sky. Natasha hopes she grows up to be just like her one day. It feels like this woman could do anything.

Captain Bass smiles and reaches into her bag. “Then looks like you’ve earned your wings, Captain Natasha. These mean you’re a pilot now too.” She hands Natasha gold wings like the ones on her chest and helps her out of the chair. “Maybe your parents can help you put these on.”

“My parents aren’t here,” Natasha says sadly, looking longingly at her new wings.

Understanding passes over the captain’s face. “Maybe we can see if Miss Paula can help you put those on, then.”

“I’d love to,” Miss Paula says. Natasha looks up to find another nice looking woman waiting for her in the doorway. The flight attendant takes the wings and pins them to her sweater, careful not to stick Natasha’s skin. “If you need anything during the flight, sweetie, you just let me know, okay? Let’s get you seated with your brothers.” She puts a hand on her shoulder to steer her down the aisle.

“One more thing,” Captain Bass says. She extends her hand and Natasha shakes it like a grown up. “Good to have you aboard, Captain Natasha. Thanks for your help getting everyone safely to their destination today.”

Natasha smiles proudly and touches the wings on her chest. She waves goodbye to the pilots before Miss Paula leads her to her brothers’ row and helps her put her backpack under the seat and buckle up between them.

“Where did you get those?” Luca asks, pointing to her wings.

Natasha sits up straight just like Captain Bass. “The pilot’s a girl like me! She made me a pilot too.”

He frowns and argues knowingly, “You’re too little to fly a plane.”

“Am not!”

“Are too!”

Sebastian looks up from his book. “It’s just pretend, Luc. Leave her alone.”

“It’s not pretend,” Natasha insists. “I am too a pilot! I just flew the plane.”

Luca laughs at her and shakes his head. Her oldest brother shrugs, bored. “Okay, whatever. Just stop arguing about it. Why are you being so annoying?”

She bites her lip and looks down to hide how much that hurts. She doesn’t like when Sebastian is annoyed with her. Luca looks at her haughtily and mouths, “Are not.” Then he pulls out some of his coloring books and ignores her. With no one to play with, Natasha cranes her neck to look out the window over Sebastian’s shoulder.

The airport and Bay slide by as they taxi from the gate. She knows Captain Bass wouldn’t leave without her suitcase so it must have made it onto the plane. When the plane pauses on the runway, Natasha closes her eyes and imagines the cockpit. As the plane gathers speed, she pretends she’s there, hands on the controls with the open sky in front of her. And when the nose lifts off the ground, she’s the one pulling back aiming the plane to the clouds.

Ode to Phoenix Masterlist

#natasha trace fic #phoenix fic #phoenix headcanons #natasha trace headcanons #monica barbaro #ode to phoenix #natasha phoenix trace #28 days of phoenix #talk to me #i love your notes

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c-kiddo · 11 months

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new mt eerie fan anon here again just to say i got SO excited to see you mention Real Lost Wisdom explicitly bc it's one of my absolute utter favorites of the whole ive listened to so far like... that bit you pointed out specifically, i immediately scrawled it out and taped it to my wall bc it just resonates so hard. and every other song yeah... two paintings made me sob uninterrupted for whole spans of minutes it's so good. and yeah i totally feel the change in tone, as the albums progress from the space of raw grief to an equally raw space but with a bit more distance, a bit more moving forward and wider reflection. it's so gorgeous. im so thankful bc this artist's music lets me tap into emotional and intellectual spaces i feel like i dont visit enough, and it's both really intense to be confronted with it and really relieving to go into it guided by such beautiful art. and like, the Thoreau-like nature themes and gorgeous poetry of it all, always twined with the textured grit and dirt and groundedness (pun intended) of the feelings and thoughts it explores, it all just feels human in such a special way and it's just. so good, god. it's truly so good, i feel so lucky. it speaks to a part of my heart that needs profoundly to be spoken to in that way and its great.

aw yea, :') there must just be something about Real Lost Wisdom that really resonates too for me, because i didnt even remember the name of the song but kept humming that section, kept playing it in my head without thinking it. maybe ill put it on my wall too

ya ya for sure, there's a distance to Now Only, a kind of opening and cold air feeling i think. he references cold air and wide open mountains a lot - this part of Tintin in Tibet especially. . i love the chiming sound after too

but the whole thing feels open to me. cold but not harsh, kind of like its settling but also moving and expanding. definitely more distance in actual time from the trauma and grief too. its more reflective and less immediate. i love that he takes time to expand on ideas (i remember him talking about this in an interview but cant find it rn) from A Crow Looked At Me about his own life but also about Geneviève because thats kind of what he's been doing making now only and her art book, is i remember reading him saying that he just wants people to know how great she was, and thats part of why he kept talking about her.

also yes, yesyes i agree so much about all the rest that you said - the poetry of it all, the references to art and artists (tintin comics, nikolai astrup, wolves in the throne room, night palace by joanne kyger (which is on the cover of a crow looked at me) etc).. its so lyrically dense and the songs are so long but its so sparse and airy too, but not in an empty floaty way, it has grit and super intense humanity, and yes so grounded . makes me want to scream and makes me feel so still .. i just kind of adore it

#i feel lucky to have found a cd of it here.. and also the cd itself has a drawing of a seal poking its head up from underwater.#referencing the line from near the end of Crow pt.2 ..#i almost cried when i saw it .. . idk if its geneviève's castrée's drawing or not . kind of looks like it could be. its very nice :' )#asks #replied eventually !#i think i could go on forever abt this album ive listened to it sm #oh also funfact if anyone else is doing deepdives into mount eeries inspirations and things - he has photos of all his bookshelves on his #website . so you can see all his books and things #i just like that as an idea of something to do to show people your inspiration . cool comics and zines and poetry and things

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aboardthescheherazade · 11 months

Note

Hi 👋 !

35, 36, 41 and 42 from"The Adventure of Tintin" Asks

(Sorry about the wait!! I had a LONG day at work IRL ahah)

35. If you were in Tintin, which character would you want to be in?

I assume this means means be a canon character, or a be a character somewhere in the setting? If it's the latter case, I think I'd like to be a civilian in Brussels...you get to live a quiet, scenic life, and you know the Marlinspike crew will tip your local business well

36. Which version of Tintin is your favourite?

I try not to be biased, but I'm most partial to the 1991 TV series version of Tintin - it's likely a combination of nostalgia and of how sassy he is in the English version sometimes. A lot of times, my mind will "hear" Tintin's 1991 voice when reading his dialogue in something. (Except for earlier comic series Tintin; the "voice" sounds more like Finn from the Adventure Time pilot.)

41. Any Tintin OC?

Definitely! There's two I've created, Marlene and Lash (the latter of whom I really need to do more with), and a few characters from the comics I've sort-of adopted. They're the actress sitting next to Rastapopoulos in Tintin In America and the antique store owner near the end of The Broken Ear (both canon characters by like...literally one panel lol)

42. Any Alternate Universe for Tintin?

None that I've created...I really only just play around in the AUs my friends write, but if I had to pick one, I guess I use the Modern AU most. There's a lot of fun in to be found in making jokes about modern culture around the main cast, but also, there's a lot of potential to be had in writing about more serious concepts.

(Note: I've had this concept for several weeks now, and I insist it is not based off of current events happening at this time of writing.) Imagine someone is blatantly using AI to manipulate footage for Bordurian news broadcasts. It's creating tensions with Syldavia, and Tintin is alarmed by how the altered footage is helping the far right in Borduria. Something is going on in Borduria, but when even international news outlets are getting fooled by these alternate broadcasts, Tintin decides to take a case no one else with his publishing network will take, and goes to Borduria to go undercover as a regular citizen...

Meanwhile, Captain Haddock joins Tintin at the last minute as an excuse to get away from Abdullah, who has just been left in the Hall's care. However, the night before they all leave, Haddock is forced to hear Skibidi Toilet videos from down the hall for two hours. He struggles to help Tintin in spite of hallucinating "the bloody Skeetzy-Bee Loo song or god knows whatever"

#asks #tintin #modern au

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rainydawgradioblog · 7 months

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A. Savage showed me I can write a decent song (I’m delusional)

My first major purchase after arriving in Copenhagen last summer was a ticket to see Andrew Savage’s European tour in February. The legendary Parquet Courts co-frontman played Ideal Bar in Vesterbro with his band Midnight Stew to a crowd of me and 99 tall mustachioed film bro-looking Danish lads in their 20s and 30s. I fit right in wearing my artsy new A. Savage “Riding Cobbles” t-shirt, as Andrew convinced me with his lovely little tunes to write a song of my own.

Andrew’s visual aesthetic had me straight to Ticketmaster before his latest album Several Songs About Fire even dropped. Everything he rolled out in promo shoots, cover art, and concert merch was drenched in David Hockney meets “The Adventures of Tintin” meets the doodles on the back of my middle school binder.

Paired perfectly with the cartoony visuals, the music of Sevel Songs About Fire boils down melodies to a uniquely simple formula. Nothing is overcomplicated, leaving plenty of room to feel every chord change and focus on his glorious rusty voice, which is down-to-earth but also smooth enough to make me think he could burn the house down singing Frank Sinatra hits if he wanted. Andrew’s style makes great songwriting feel like something that anyone with a shitty guitar can do, and that’s not meant to sound shady.

Another major draw to Andrew’s music is his lighthearted pessimistic humor that he throws all over his lyrics. It’s the same humor that my dad’s college buddies who never had kids embody. You can tell he’s got a weird whimsical take on the world in the way he phrases his feelings. “My weekly dinner of popcorn and Coke / Every Friday, like communion that I took as a joke” in the intro “Hurtin’ or Healed” is objectively a bit bleak but you can’t help but smirk and hope you're as witty as him at age almost 40.

I can thank Andrew and his band Parquet Courts for my appreciation of art punk and a lot of the politically charged folk rock I obsess over today like early Courtney Barnett and Fontaines DC. The band’s pop art aesthetic and funky yet punky take on indie rock recontextualized a lot of harsh punk aesthetics into something that made a lot more sense to me when I was first getting into music. Album’s like Wide Awake and Human Performance were palatable but gritty enough to slap some taste into my teenage brain.

Where Andrew’s solo work deviates from Parquet Courts is his more laid back take on songwriting, packed full of energy without doing the most. He’s got a handful of chords and progressions that are standard but still sound so uniquely his own. Hearing a song like “Le Ballon” or his latest single “Black Holes, the Stars and You” put Andrew’s skill at building tension and emotion with just a few particular chords and subtle melodies on full display.

Most of the emotion conveyed on Sevel Songs About Fire is rooted in finding comfort in simple pleasures and observations in a life far from a sense of home. Living all the way in Denmark, I listen to “Riding Cobbles” bumping down the cobbled Copenhagen streets, “My New Green Coat” while wrapped in my new thrifted Bob Dylan jacket, and “Mountain Time” watching the geese fly in Vs like they do in the Cascades back home.

To me, the album is music to ramble to– it’s the music you listen to with your thumb out on the side of the road with a knapsack tied to a stick over your shoulder. I listened to the new album for the first time while waiting for trains between Berlin and Copenhagen, anticipating a long bus ride to Stockholm the next day. Being on exchange often felt chaotic, trying to experience as many new things as I could without a lot of regard to my ability to settle down, and Sevel Songs About Fire is exactly that. Andrew mentioned during his set that he loves touring because he has the unique ability of finding a sense of home in a lot of places, something I wish I was better at.

After Andrew’s show, I picked up my very own $35 guitar from the charity shop down the street and started thinking about tiny observations or inanimate objects that made me feel any kind of something. However insignificant these things seemed, they were unique to me which is exactly why Andrew’s music is so important. Several Songs About Fire was never about reinventing the wheel but more about a unique perspective and personality using the bread and butter of what makes a great song.

I beg of you please listen to Several Songs About Fire and after you’ve realized it’s your favorite album ever I’d give his debut album Thawing Dawn a listen. For more political indie rock stuff I’d listen to Parquet Court’s Wide Awake and if you like it even punkier, try Light Up Gold.

You’re welcome!

Mead Gill

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mnovenia · 9 months

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H-7 then H-5 till I meet you again 광광!!

I just feel like crying, and the song said: amugodo duryowon mara! I'm not afraid of anything that will come my way. Reflecting back since Bali Camp, so much has changed, every areas of my life seem ALIVE, CLOSER TO GOD, VERY PERSONAL, INTIMATE, FULL OF TRUST, FUN, EASY, LIGHT, NO WORRY that what I can say. And God gave me bonus by putting some sort of Godly magical romance too, that I still praying for and willing to believe and surrender to God.

And I witness how God works, He didn't stop working even when I forgot to pray about, when I think someone might not do it seriously, when I think it might just be a wishful thinking. Even now I still not sure about many thing, but one thing I sure of, my life will change forever once GwangHui comes to Bali, which is in 5 days. Really?

Hmm, I said to him today, can't believe I get to say see you soon. Well our communication is quite intense these days as we're counting down the days. Visa, my own misunderstanding, housing, phone, prayer with pastors, etc. He said: nuna im nervous, i'm going to meet Ps Paul tonight. Nuna it's 7 days left. Nuna I'll call you, Buchangnim OoOoOoOo etc.. The funniest thing is when I'm trying to ensure his room @ Tintin: out of 53rooms available there was only 1 room available 205 which next to mine (NOWAY), I asked again, ok 217 will be available on Jan 2nd, oo perfect I said, numberwise its a bit far from mine. Till I checked myself, the room is behind me -__- which means he can see all my laundries and we can have some sort of romeo & juliet relationship (sumpah ya ini impian gw dr smp bisa sbeelah2an di drama korea ky ChunYang, Business Proposal & smua yg kebetulan lainnya -___-). Trus ga lama kemudian sih ada room 223, then I think ok let's make video & make GH choose, but before I did it, someone took the room already. So I told Bella which one is better? Next to mine or behind me? She called me rightaway giggling. OMG this is just so funny.

Well I think what I know is, both me and him we're completely on the same path. We're focus on what God wants us to do in life, we don't go to the left or right but straight according to His words, what we care the most is expanding God's kingdom and be a witness of how God words, be obedient to His command even it doesn't make sense to the world, we both has dream of having Godly family but in the meantime we're working our best to fill our days with ensuring young people to be Jesus' disciples, enjoying God's grace, covenant and promises, we trust God will provide for us in job and financial, we're willing to learn each others' language/cultere/differences/age gap with respect and carefulness to not hurt and make stupid decisions. And what I'm trying to remember clearly here is: if being in relationship with him bring glory to God, if it what God wants and intend us to do, if it shapes us to become more like Jesus and selfless, if it becomes our testimony of how God works in our waiting, if we're capable to be example of building Godly family, then I know it will worth to be pursued. Not only for my own romantic fulfilment, not for filling my pride and own benefit, not because of korean syndrome, not because I want to rush thing as I get older, not because that temporary fling and childish cling, but just because of God's grace, His mercy, His will not mine, so here I state on the 2nd to last day of 2023, NOT MY WILL GOD BUT YOURS :)

And for you Gwang Hui, thank you for appear in my life, thank you for such joy and precious time we spent, for pursuing and being obedient of what God put in your heart, for listening to me and communicate with me while being careful and weird sometimes in my opinion. Thank you for showing what faith looks like in your silence but your action speak louder than any man I ever met. Since the first time to tell me about staying in bali over our trip to GL, when you told your dad when I was in Korea, when you told your relatives during chuseok time, when you handed your resignation letter, when you waited till your time to disciples your Sun is over, when you told me about your last day of work, your willingness to learn Bhs Indonesia, visa, applying to BIH, learn about choir, cafe, korean dermatologist, coming to Indonesia Service, setting up meetings with your Pastor before making any decision, your finance plan, your honesty and transparency with me, for telling me about your days, I RESPECT YOU, A LOT KIM GWANG HUI :) and I can't wait to adventure this journey, another exciting chapter in our lives that God provides, to witness together what God will do through us. May God lead us, protect us, make His will be done GREATLY through us and our ministry. I can not wait to see you again :)

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wollemi-whump · 9 months

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1, 5, 11, 23

Your favorite movie released this year

Five Night's at Freddy's!! I honestly only got into the games a few years ago, but I absolutely loved them and became super obsessed with it. I watched a ton of lore videos and playthroughs of the games, so it was really nice to understand all the references. I thought it was such a nice love letter to its fans but also a really interesting and new story for everyone. Josh Hutcherson was fantastic in the movie, and I loved the tone of the movie. Really awesome. I realize now that it was only the second ever movie I've seen Josh Hutcherson star in (and no, the first one wasn't The Hunger Games; it was Journey 2: The Incredible Island)

5. A movie musical you like

I honestly haven't seen many live-action movie musicals. Of those, I would have to say Grease. Of animated ones (which I've much more though still not many in general), I would definitely say Mulan. Love the songs in that movie, especially "I'll Make a Man Out of You". Was very excited when I found out that Mulan was voiced by Ming-Na Wen (whom I've watched in Agents of Shield).

11. A movie you wish you could un-watch

Ooo that's a difficult one. I'd say it's a tie between Gone Girl and Green Room. I didn't particularly enjoy either movie; it was more like I couldn't tear my eyes away even if I wanted. Green Room is, without exaggeration, the goriest and most violent movie I've ever seen. I've seen a lot of violent movies like John Wick and had little to no problem with the gore, and also I'm a whumper! I love violence! But Green Room was... wow. A lot. Pretty disturbing content in general. Gone Girl I just didn't like. I was so annoyed by the characters that I was honestly just upset the whole time. Its one redeeming quality was the minor side character played by an actor I had seen in one House MD episode and loved. Yes, I'm serious lmao

23. An animated movie you like

Mulan! Lol! Some other ones I love are The Adventures of Tintin, Ratatouille, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Coraline, and Into the Spiderverse!

Thank u for the ask!! :D

#wollemi ask #wollemi post

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weirdthoughtsandideas · 10 months

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If DCLA characters had Tumblr part 5 🕺🏼

💍 queenoftherink Follow

How many times can my cousin end a sentence with ”eh”? Today she was like ”what’s that face, eh? Be happy, eh? We’re gonna skate today, eh!”

🇺🇸 clueless-american Follow

Been following you for a while and didn’t know your cousin was from Canada!

💍 queenoftherink Follow

She’s from Mexico. Not everyone is from fucking North America on this website.

🛼 rollerskatingonthemoon Follow

Mexico is a part of North America though 😅

💍 queenoftherink Follow

Luna i’m trying to defend you here which does not happen often, so be quiet.

6 notes

🎤 singing-is-who-i-am Follow

Anyone want my dad I’m sick of him

💍 queenoftherink Follow

I never had a dad (nor ever missed one, I have mommy issues not daddy issues).

How is he? What could I expect from getting him?

🎤 singing-is-who-i-am Follow

I guess pros:

- He does care about you

- He can be sweet

But cons:

- He will not respect your boundaries ever

- He will SPY ON YOU because he does not trust you even when he says he does

- He will keep you locked inside your house for years just so he can control you

- He keeps treating you like a child. And I don’t mean ”he sets boundaries” or makes reasonsble decisions, I mean BABY TALKING to you, can’t accept the fact that you are older than 10 (and some things he does I would even be embarrassed about at age 10)…

- Example of the above, just the other day he tried to literally feed me?? Like he grabbed my fork and went ”open up!”… sometimes I’m literally afraid to come home to find how he switched out my bed for a baby crib or something

- Boyfriends??? No no. He won’t accept that. He makes a scene if they dare to stand next to me. Actually he’s like this with boys in general.

- Have kicked out boyfriends AND friends because he’s mad

- I literally had to attend a school in secret because he wouldn’t let me attend it

- My aunt could not say she was my aunt because if she would, he would take me away again, as he wanted to escape everyone of my mom’s past

- Oh Yeah. My mom died and instead of taking care of it and maybe… idk help me grieve he just took me around the globe, moving to a new country all the time, escaping everything. It wasn’t until we moved back to BA that I started getting to know stuff. What did he think would happen if I found out more about my mom?? That I would… ”become too sad”??

- When I complained that I feel controlled, locked up and miserable he just acts like I am overreacting and ”can’t understand” why I am like this

💍 queenoftherink Follow

I think I got daddy issues just by reading that.

I am sending you my pity.

7 notes

🎀 italys-biggest-bow-collector Follow

So Cat’s Eye is an anime that I have never heard the japanese version of before. And ?? why is it SO DIFFERENT

Like it’s good but. So different from the version I grew up with.

👩🏻‍🦱 dangerously-beautiful-ant Follow

I’ve never seen this anime. What version did you grow up with?

🎀 italys-biggest-bow-collector Follow

This

🤌🏻 luz-camara-y-accion Follow

You’re telling me that’s NOT what the original theme song sounded like?

🙍🏻‍♂️ my-name-is-tomas Follow

But that came out it 1985! How could you see it when you weren’t even born?

🎀 italys-biggest-bow-collector Follow

Have you heard of fucking re-runs, Tomas?

15 notes

🛼 rollerskatingonthemoon Follow

I feel like Tintin

📸 felicityfornow Follow

In what way?

🛼 rollerskatingonthemoon Follow

Idk I just feel like him.

1000 notes

🍓 chico-fresa Follow

Petition for @rollerskatingonthemoon to change her url to chica-delivery

🛼 rollerskatingonthemoon Follow

Why?

🍓 chico-fresa Follow

So we can match

🛼 rollerskatingonthemoon Follow

Why would I wanna match?

🎸 beanie-guitarist Follow

Respect her decision for individuality and not matching ✊🏼

🍓 chico-fresa Follow

Who even are you? You don’t know us.

🏳️‍🌈 creyendoenmi Follow

Wait, you don’t know who HE is?? That’s literally so easy to figure out what

🎸 beanie-guitarist Follow

Shhhh let him be confused it’s funny

18 notes

🌼 punk-not-dead Follow

💬 Anonymous asked:

Hi! Can we hear more childhood stories from you? You seem to always have such interesting ones to tell

🌼 punk-not-dead replied

So I mentioned previously that my childhood enemy’s mother once babysat me and my sisters when I was like 8. Let’s call her ”Priscila”.

So she and my mom used to be friends, probably only due to the fact that they had children at the same time so they could bond over that, because they have nothing else in common. Now, while I did not get along with her daughter, I did not have much against her. Until this night.

It was me (8), my twin sisters (5) and my second youngest sister (11 months). We at first did not bother our babysitter that much. We just sat on the couch watching TV. That was until she turned it off. We all protested and she said it was not good for us to watch so much TV. I argued that there was a show we did not want to miss and she was like "I don't care, you can't watch it". I didn't listen to her and put on the TV again. She got visibly annoyed, and once again turned it off. One of the twins asked what we are supposed to do instead and she was like "I don't know, find something to do."

So, naturally, we decided to play evil witches. I knew how to make water boil on the stove, so I put it on while the twins carried our sister towards the boiling water. We were just about to lower her into it when Priscila ran inside. Now, we weren’t ACTUALLY gonna boil her, we were just playing! But she was not amused. She snatched our sister and yelled at us and we were like ”you told us to find something to do so this is what we do”. She concluded we must be hungry if we have turned to cannibalism, so she made us some dinner.

Now here's the thing: We are picky eaters. Our parents did not tell her that. Or they did, and she just ignored it. Because she cooked something, I don't recall what it was, and we just refused to eat it. It was too much sauce, and different stuff touched each other. She just called us spoiled and that we need to learn to eat. We TRIED, but we could not get it down our throats. I took one bite and felt like throwing up. It was physically impossible to eat it. But "because she could eat it", she argued all of us could. Then our youngest sister needed a diaper change, so Priscila had to go away with her. I honestly think she took one for the team, so that Priscila woud be distracted for a bit.

Because, as she was gone, we just threw her food in the trash, went to get ice cream from the freezer and then decided to go watch TV. Well, I went to watch TV. The twins decided to go wake up the spirits that live in our house (my house is haunted, I don't have time to explain it). I guess Priscila has never changed a diaper before because she was gone for like 30 minutes (again, she has a daughter herself, so idk why she sucks at taking care of children). When she came back, the room was pitch black. I had to turn off the TV so that the chance of a spirit being awoken would be bigger. Suddenly all the lights flickered, and our great-grandma's spirit awoke. She's kind, but she does not like strangers, so she started yelling at Priscila. Priscila got super scared and ran out of the house and called my parents to get home, because their house is possessed! Our parents were like "yeah we know calm down".

Our great-grandma was tired and went back to rest after a while, and Priscila was now convinced it was a prank. We told her no, we just wanted to see the spirits, it was totally unrelated to her. But she wasn't too sure and she forced us to sit on the couch and not move for the rest of the evening.

She never babysat us again after that. She told our mom we were devils and my mom was like "I don't think I want you to babysit anymore".

🌟 supernova-number-one Follow

Like sure my mom is terrible but I even pity her for having to spent time at your house. You are devils.

Also, she told me that when I was a baby, all she did was feed me and put me to bed. My dad was the one changing diapers and wiping baby vomit and stuff. If he wasn’t home she apparently just let me sit in my waste because she refused.

10 notes

🏳️‍🌈 creyendoenmi Follow

I’ve made 5 shirts in 3 hours! Feeling productive today

🌼 punk-not-dead Follow

How can you make so many clothes in like speed time?

I tried to make myself a voodoo doll in middle school and the thread went up immediely and the legs hung loose. Then I gave up and never did anything sewing related again

🏳️‍🌈 creyendoenmi Follow

I make clothes by magic I guess.

But girl I need to see your voodoo doll?!

🌼 punk-not-dead Follow

Other leg and arm is gone. I suck at sewing so bad it got up immediately. My voodoo dreams ruined

30 notes

🎸 beanie-guitarist Follow

Good thing with your bestie's parents knowing you since you were like 7: They treat you like part of the family, they always make you feel welcomed, you feel safe with them

Bad thing with your bestie's parents knowing you since you were like 7: They sometimes still see you as you were as a little kid and because you spilled juice ONE TIME when you were 8, now every time you drink juice they always go "don't spill it now"

🎸 beanie-guitarist Follow

Also I found out from my own parents that they had a discussion with bestie's parents about when we would start dating or realize our feelings, because they were convinced we were in love. They weren't COMPLETELY wrong but that's another story...

🎸 beanie-guitarist Follow

Ok people really wanted to hear that story jeez

To make it simple: I did sorta have a crush on her for many years. It's the reason I MOVED TO ANOTHER COUNTRY. She sorta had a thing for me too, but she also had so much else going on and... well, she said it was ok that I said this, but she's not as good with romantic commitment, she feels more comfortable with friendship - especially since she was getting used to a new country she had moved to and stuff, and just being friends with me like always was one of the things that was the same. And I get that. Though, I think I kinda was more pushy to be something more with her at that time, I guess moving to another country for her really gave me the confidence. But, there was some drama, we sort of fell out for a while, mostly because there was this other boy who... well we're friends now but back then he was an asshole (he has not figured out it's me who has this blog so it's ok), and he constantly tried to flirt with my bestie. And she had not even gotten much romantic experience AT ALL, so having him be all over her AND then also me, I guess it made her feel harder to commit even more. I dated another girl for a while and then I realized that girl was horrible, and I just... took it upon myself and kissed my bestie.

Everything was wonderful for a while. We had so much fun, I was filled with joy. But, we never told our parents. I was so happy I forgot to call mine, and with her parents we just pretended like nothing. But I really feel like they felt like something went on.

Anyway, I realized eventually that I was more into this relationship than her, and I did not want to ruin things between us. She really tried, I know how much she loves me, but it just wasn't the right time in her life (apparently she had a crush on me some years later but then it was the wrong time for ME, so we sort of missed each other lol). So, we broke up. This was achy, but tbh, soon enough we went back to just be the best of friends like always - and we even got closer! Trying out dating was in the end actually a really good experience for us to have, and I am more happy to have taken that chance rather than never trying.

Anyway, remember how we never told our parents we were dating? Well, we also did not tell them we broke up. Since they had sort of figured out we were dating even if we didn't tell them, they CONTINUED to think so for so long. Like, my bestie dated a guy over the summer after we broke up, she never told them. I swear that it took them almost 6 months at least to realize.

#to think this post was just about my bestie's parents teasing me about juice I spilled a decade ago #and now i'm telling a personal story about the reason I moved to BA

90 notes

🎤 singing-is-who-i-am Follow

So my dad is really against me dating boys, so I sometimes wonder what would happen if I dated a girl. How would he react? The same way? Or would he let it go because he was not prepared for it?

🎀 italys-biggest-bow-collector Follow

I have wondered this same thing about your dad…

#tbh one time I felt like kissing you on the mouth in front of him to see his reaction

3 notes

🏳️‍🌈 creyendoenmi Follow

I started a post like this before, but I started conversations in reblogs and stuff there, so I am remaking it: What were some early signs you weren’t straight?

This is not just for gays, but for every sexuality! 🙌🏼 (except for straight)

💍 queenoftherink Follow

Oof this is interesting because I guess I sorta always knew I was bi, even before I knew what bi was. But I didn’t really have a crush on the same gender until I was a teenager… and I didn’t really put a word on it until a certain confrontation with my guardian…

But I think an early sign was the fact that I had this imaginary friend that I pretended came to me at night and slept next to me at night. I always loved her comfort and warmth. At one point I recall I felt almost in love with her (I was like 7 but I did feel ”butterflies in my tummy”), so I abruptly switched her gender so that I could be in love with a boy. And then this imaginary friend sometimes was a boy, sometimes a girl, and sometimes neither.

So I guess I came up with a genderfluid imaginary friend that I sorta had a crush on, although it could also have been my need for comfort? But immediately feeling like I needed to change my imaginary friend’s gender if I felt I had a crush on them, yeah… maybe that says something.

🛼 rollerskatingonthemoon Follow

Does constantly wearing the pan flag in the clothing pattern count? 🤣🤣

💄 not-homophobic-goth-girl Follow

idk… just girls, you know?

👩🏻‍🦱 dangerously-beautiful-ant Follow

^ You described it perfectly omg

✌🏼 arodarmivida Follow

^^ Omg this. I had struggles coming up with a good answer and you just took the words out of me.

69 notes

💍 queenoftherink Follow

So I guess I gotta tell the story of the ”confrontation” with my guardian since many of you have been asking.

I had a crush on a girl once. I had never had a crush on a girl before, so this was very odd for me. Now, my guardian could see that something was going on, and that I did not tell her. And she is weird; she does not really care about my life, but if I don’t tell her stuff, she will get mad at me for ”keeping secrets”.

Nonetheless I got closer to this girl I had a crush on, we spent a lot of time together. And we sorta had… a little thing going on. I never told my guardian since I couldn’t see how she would find this interesting. Also I wasn’t sure how she felt about two girls…

But somehow, she found out. I guess she spied on me, or forced her assistant to spy on me (which is arguably more creepy. Imagine being a grown man and a part of your job is spying on a teenage girl). She went inside my room one night with a strict expression, as she asked:

”Do you feel attracted to other girls?”

I was taken back, not prepared for that question. I immediately got nervous and went ”no, I like boys!”

”Yes, but do you feel attracted to other girls, too?” she asked. I asked why she was asking this, and she was like ”Just answer the question”

So I said ”…yes” and felt very guilty, as if I had been doing something wrong.

My guardian was silent for a moment, and then she went ”…very well”. Then she left the room.

We never talked about it ever again.

#it was kinda that confrontation that led me to realizing I was bi ?? #like I knew but I hadn’t admitted it to myself until then

22 notes

#violetta #soy luna #if dcla characters had tumblr #some posts I think they may write in spanish and it’s just ’translated’#but the first post? that one was written in ’english’#lol #the voodoo doll is mine irl i made it when I was 13

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