#the first video i ever saw was the part 2 trailer because i was watching a game thing

[ellies-enrichment]

this is the second last of us anything i ever saw because i love ashley and i watched it for her

[cleolinda]

The Scariest Movie I Ever Saw in a Theater: The Ring

I'll tell you up front that the story I'm going to tell you is about "The Ring (2002)," in the sense that it is about The Ring in the year 2002.

See, I don't know what The Scariest Movie Ever is. A quick google says that the consensus is The Exorcist (I haven't seen it, because I never felt like scheduling a day to freak myself the entire fuck out). But horror is specific, and not just to a person, but to a time and place, even. When I saw The Shining as a teenager in a well-lit living room with other people, I didn't even really flinch, but I bet it would play very differently to me now. I don’t think The Ring is at the top of anyone’s list, but twenty years ago, I had a personal interest in it—at the time, I was running a dinky little Geocities site devoted to movie news. Links curated and compiled from all the other, bigger sites I followed—basically, it was the linkspam format I have used on multiple platforms, including here on Sundays. And so, as someone who followed theatrical releases pretty closely for two or three years, I saw the trailer for The Ring, and I immediately knew it was going to be huge.

To locate you in time, this was just after three self-satirizing Scream movies and the Overcomplicated Serial Killer films of the '90s. The Ring was something completely different: chill aqua-blue color grading a good 5-6 years before Twilight; a mournful Hans Zimmer score; no jokes, no quips; and a slow, inexorable sense of doom. Grief, even, given that the movie begins with the death of the main character's niece. What immediately struck me about the first trailer was 1) the melancholy of it, and 2) how much it doesn't explain. Onscreen, you get the title cards,

THERE IS A VIDEOTAPE IF YOU WATCH IT SEVEN DAYS LATER YOU DIE

Concise! Understandable! A woman (Naomi Watts) is freaking out upon discovering that her young son has just watched it! Admirable job setting up the premise and the stakes of this entire movie in thirty seconds flat, without even any dialogue. That's all you need to know, and thus, the remaining minute of the trailer can do whatever it wants, and what it wants to do is be fucking weird. Echoing voices, TV static, a closeup of a horse's eye, ladders, a girl with dark hair, people reacting to things we don't see, drippy doorknobs, rain. Characters don't give us the whole plot in convenient soundbites of dialogue (like they do in a later trailer); we just hear lines, overlapping, murmured out of context—

did you see it in your head? she talks to you... leading you somewhere... showing you the horses... you saw it. did you see it in your head? she shows me things. Everyone suffers.

That you saw it has lived in my head ever since, and not once have I charged it rent. But the "best" part is Naomi Watts screaming at the end, because you don't hear her voice; you only hear this heartless telephonic beeeeeeep. It's 2002 and I'm watching this trailer, thinking, I have no idea what the fuck I just saw. This is going to be huge.

And it was, to the tune of $249 million on a $48M budget.

At risk of recapping what you might already know, Ringu, aka Ring, is a media franchise that spiraled out from a trio of Koji Suzuki novels into Hideo Nakata's film Ringu (1998), a landmark of Japanese horror, plus several other movies, some TV series, many comics, and even a couple of video games. The overarching story is about a murdered girl/vengeful ghost named Sadako Yamamura whose rage and pain have created a cursed video tape, you watch it and you die unless you pass the tape around like a virus, seven daaaaays, etc.

The "ring" in question is the rim of a well. Keep that well in mind.

The movie I saw is the U.S. remake, which itself had two sequels. (The iconic Sadako is now named Samara Morgan. Keep her in mind, too.) Director Gore Verbinski moved from The Ring to Pirates of the the Caribbean (!), and so Hideo Nakata himself would direct The Ring Two. I... honestly have only seen the first one. And I was right, it was huge, and it kicked off the American J-Horror Remake genre, for better or worse. But what gets forgotten about The Ring is its marketing campaign, which I followed pretty closely for my doofy little news site.

It was inspired.

The story of The Ring is partly the story of the sea change in the media landscape—how we watch movies. And the story of its marketing is a picture of the very last years before social media changed the wilderness of the internet into something that feels so big, like a billion people could see anything we say, and yet so small—only a tame handful of places to say it, owned by three or four companies, and corraled by algorithms.

Back around 1997-1998 or so, I worked at a video store (Movie Gallery, where the hits were there then, guaranteed) for about a year and a half. By the time I left, we had started adding DVDs to the VHS tapes on the shelves, but we hadn't replaced the entire stock. Video stores might have transitioned fully to DVD by 2002, I'm not sure, but people still commonly had both VCRs and DVD players in their homes. And I remember that The Ring was sold in both formats when it eventually hit home video. Which is to say—you know the analog horror genre today? Marble Hornets, Local 58, The Mandela Catalogue?

Analog horror is commonly characterized by low-fidelity graphics, cryptic messages, and visual styles reminiscent of late 20th-century television and analog recordings. This is done to match the setting, as analog horror works are typically set between the 1960s and 1990s. The name "analog horror" comes from the genre's aesthetic incorporation of elements related to analog electronics, such as analog television and VHS, the latter being an analog method of recording video.

Okay, but this is just what home media was like, and 2002 was at the very tail end of that—boxy black VHS tapes that degraded with time and reuse were just how we lived. At the same time, I'd been using CDs for music since about 1991, and all our software installs came on CD-ROM discs; a "mixtape" by that time had shifted to mean a rewriteable CD rather than a cassette tape. In college, I—well, I'll plead the Fifth as to whether I downloaded mp3s via Napster, but I was also taping Mystery Science Theater 3000 on VHS over the weekends. It was Every Format Everywhere, All At Once, and we kept half a dozen kinds of players around for them. Here in 2023, we stream and download everything invisibly, unless we choose to engage in format nostalgia. (I've already run into the problem of Apple Music deleting songs I really liked, due to this or that licensing issue, because I was really only renting them.) The year The Ring hit theaters was the edge of a last shimmering gasp of physical media where iTunes had only come into being the year before, and iridescent discs were still mostly what we used, but cassettes, both video and audio, were still viable. And so, people did not think it was terribly weird when they started finding unlabeled VHS tapes on their windshields.

Movieweb, quoting TikTok user astro_nina:

"Their marketing strategy was essentially 'let's get this tape viewed by as many people as possible without these people being aware of what this is, sort of raising intrigue," she says. One way they achieved this was by airing the tape, which allegedly marks its viewers for death within seven days, as a commercial with no context. The video would air between late-night programming "with no words, no mention of a movie, for like a month...so people would run into it and it would just go on to the next thing, and people would be like, 'what the f--k is this?'"

I remember seeing the Cursed Video as an unexplained ad at least twice, by the way. That TikTok also indicates that DreamWorks straight-up sent copies of the tape to Hot Topic stores, as well as planting them under actual movie theater seats. While running my movie site, I heard at least one story of someone finding a tape on the sink counter of a restroom at a club. Did the marketing department actually plant tapes in bathrooms—or did a freaked-out recipient leave it there, hoping to dodge the "curse"?

(I haven't embedded the Cursed Video here, by the way—but I could have. If you'd like to see the American take on it, you can watch both the full version and the shorter variant that appeared in the movie itself. A text description of what the fuck you're even looking at is here [content note for both: blood, insects, animal death, body horror, and suicide by falling]. The original version from the Japanese film is shorter, and it's eerie rather than gruesome.)

BUT WAIT, THERE WAS MORE: DreamWorks had something of an alternate-reality campaign going with a handful of in-character websites. This was only a year after Warner Bros. ran the groundbreaking "The Beast" ARG for A.I.: Artificial Intelligence: "Ultimately, fifty websites with a total of about one thousand pages were created for the [A.I.] game." (I lurked in the Cloudmakers Yahoo group.) Marketing for The Ring did not go anywhere that in depth, nor did it need to; it was both a smaller film and a smaller story. I saw at least two “personal” websites (seemingly amateur and a little tacky, like my own), but the one I particularly remember was about someone who owned/trained horses? I'm not sure if it was meant to be the actual Anna Morgan character—Samara's mother—or maybe someone who had noticed that the Morgans' horses were disturbed? I'm not even sure anyone even remembers this but me. Reddit users dug up a few other archived websites, but they're about Sadako, the curse and/or videotape; they aren't as subtle or character-oriented as the site I remember. (Honestly, I wonder if weird shit like "What Scares Me" or "SEVEN DAYS TO LIVE" were made by fans rather than a marketing department, but who knows.)

[The “About” page from Seven Days to Live on the Internet Archive.]

[The entirety of An Open Letter on the Internet Archive. “UPDATE” is a now-blank pop-up. I would bet $5 that it was originally a pop-up of the cursed video.]

I need to point out here that Facebook did not exist in 2002. It would not exist for another two years, and Twitter wouldn't exist until 2006. Even MySpace was not a thing until the next year. I didn't start my Livejournal until October of 2003. What we had, for the most part, were independent forums and blogs. We also had Creepy Internet Fiction like "The Dionaea House" and "Ted the Caver"; their use of the blog format, of people out there seemingly living their lives until something fucked up went down, gave the stories the shape of reality. And it helped that these blogs had comment sections, sure—sometimes more story unfolded there—but for the most part, an author could "abandon" a blog, and you'd just find the story there via word of mouth. Like the Ring blogs I remember, it wouldn't seem strange if no one replied to you, whereas today, you'd have to hire a writer to sit on Twitter, or Reddit, or even Tumblr, and interact with people in character. Could you do something like The Ring's mysterious, weird-ass blogs today? Would anyone even notice?

So: It's 2002, my head is full of Alternate Reality and eerie images and you saw it, and I'm hype as hell to go out and see The Ring. I'm perfectly happy to go see movies by myself, so I went in the early afternoon (best time to get a good seat). The movie ended up being a sleeper hit, and the first weekend, the public was still sleeping on it, so there were only 7-8 other people in that theater, grouped in maybe two clusters. I was off in my own little pool of darkness in the upper right quadrant. Functionally, once the lights went down, I was alone.

Despite some middling reviews at the time, The Ring is something of a horror classic nowadays. If you want a scary movie this Spooky Season, check out The Ring. Or don't, because it nearly killed me.

We're at the last, I don't know, third of the movie? And Our Heroine has tracked down the origin of the Cursed Videotape to some creepy mountain motel or whatever. SPOILER, it turns out that it was built over the Cursed Well (everything in this movie is cursed) that Our Villain was thrown into—that's why Sadako/Samara is a vengeful wet murder ghost crawling out of TVs now. While investigating this decrepit hotel room, intrepid journalist Rachel and her, who is it, her ex-husband? her kid's dad, idk, discover the well under the creaky old floorboards. And then, wouldn't you know it,

NAOMI WATTS FALLS INTO THE WELL

NAOMI WATTS FALLS INTO THE FUCKING WELL

THAT'S WHERE SAMARA'S BODY IS

[The rather slapstick moment when Rachel falls into the well. Does not include what actually happens next.]

I go absolutely rigid in my seat. Naomi Watts is splashing around this dark-ass death swamp of a well and I know, with as much certainty as I have ever known anything in my life, that Samara is about to pop up in all her pasty, waterlogged glory. All the sad creepy dread, all the desperation to figure out what the fuck all that shit on the tape was and stop Samara from killing Rachel's son, all the horrible contorted victim faces, all the alternate reality I’ve been soaking in, it has all come to this. I have to leave the theater. I cannot be having with this. I have to be gone from this place. My legs do not work. I cannot feel them. I am frozen. I want nothing more in this life or any other to get up and leave this cavernous pitch-black room, and I cannot. I start praying for death. I want you to understand that I am not trying to be flippant or humorous. This is genuinely what went through my head. I was too scared to even think, "You know, you could just pray to pass out or for motion to return to your limbs or something." No, I sat there in The Ring thinking, Please for the love of all mercy just let me cease being.

You know that scene in Mulholland Drive (also starring Naomi Watts)? Winkie's diner and the EXCRUCIATING tension? It was a little like that, except I wasn't watching it, I was experiencing it, and Samara was my dirt monster out behind the diner.

Except that the jump scare didn't actually happen. I mean, yes, Rachel finds Samara's body down there, but—I don't remember exactly, please don't make me go watch it again to tell you what actually happens. It's played more sympathetically on Rachel's part, as I recall, and she and her ex get Samara's body out so that she (Samara) can have a proper burial.

And then it turns out that this is not the end of the movie. It turns out that Rachel has Fucked Up.

I think I was relatively okay through the rest of it, although the climax is Samara emerging from a TV in her full glitching swampy glory to scare [SPOILER] to death. I don't recall praying for death twice. There's a point when you're so exhausted from fear chemicals that you're like, yeah, this might as well happen. Bring it, Soggy. I did have a hard time prying myself out of that seat afterwards, though, and my mom says that when I got home, I had the classic thousand-yard stare. How was the movie?

"It was great," I said, and I meant it.

I've seen things that were objectively scarier (I watched much of The Haunting of Hill House from behind a pillow, to be honest), and it's not like I've never experienced fear in real life. But I respect when a movie that can make me feel so intensely, and there's something weirdly precious about the way horror is a safe roller coaster, as it's often been said. So I love telling the story about The Time The Ring Nearly Killed Me—a movie that actually made my body stop working—and I love thinking of how embedded in a specific time and place that movie was for me. The last gasp of VHS when the Cursed Videotape still seemed plausible; the way the internet was still wild and weird and free; where I was in my life, keeping up so avidly with all the movie news, and finding myself in such a little pool of darkness early one afternoon. It's the scariest movie I saw in a theater; that's the alchemy of circumstance.

[makeste]

update part two: THE SPOILERING

~*~THIS POST IS ENTIRELY ABOUT BNHA MANGA SPOILERS.~*~ IF YOU ARE NOT CAUGHT UP WITH THE CURRENT EVENTS OF THE BNHA MANGA, PLEASE DO NOT READ THIS POST. I do have a separate "hey guys I'm back" update post here which is spoiler-free!

THIS POST, THOUGH, IS NOT SPOILER-FREE. IT IS THE OPPOSITE OF SPOILER-FREE. IT EXISTS SOLELY FOR THE PURPOSE OF DISCUSSING THE BIGGEST, MOST SPOILERLY SPOILERS EVER. IF THAT IS NOT YOUR DESIRE, PLEASE PROCEED AWAY FROM THIS POST WITH ALL HASTE.

I am, however, assuming that something like 90% of this blog's readership does, in fact, know exactly what this post is about, which is why we are going to TALK ABOUT IT right here and right now underneath this tidy read-more.

okay, so! gonna stick with the random imaginary Q&A format from my other post just to make things easier.

1. "wow makeste, way to randomly go on spoiler lockdown hiatus for NINE WHOLE MONTHS only to MAGNIFICENTLY DROP THE BALL by running smack dab into THE BIGGEST BNHA SPOILER OF ALL TIME."

I know right??

2. "so what do you have to say for yourself."

short version: I made the critical tactical error of existing as a human being in the general vicinity of the internet in early August 2022. very poor move on my part. rookie mistake.

long version: so there I was, minding my own business, watching the trailer for BnHA season 6, as one does. when out of nowhere, YouTube's algorithm decided to be all "OH? THIS PERSON LIKES MY HERO ACADEMIA? BOY DO I HAVE A RECOMMENDATION FOR THEM." next thing I know, I'm scrolling through my YT home page and ALL OF A SUDDEN THERE'S A DETAILED PICTURE OF MY SON'S MANGLED BLOODY CORPSE, RIGHT NEXT TO AN ALL-CAPS DESCRIPTION READING -- I SHIT YOU NOT -- "BAKUGOU REALLY JUST DIED!!! THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING!"

seriously though. that is word-for-word verbatim what it said. the internet literally got right up in my face and said "OHOHO!! LOOKS LIKE SOMEBODY FORGOT TO DELETE LITERALLY ONE SINGLE MHA-RELATED VIDEO FROM THEIR WATCH HISTORY! TIME TO DESTROY HALF A YEAR'S WORTH OF PAINSTAKINGLY DILIGENT SPOILER AVOIDANCE IN ONE EARTH-SHATTERING BLOW!" and just like that, my miraculous fate-tempting seven month spoiler-free streak came to an end. the sequel to blah blah SIXQUIRKS. something something BAKUGOU DIED. JUST THOUGHT WE'D SHARE THAT LITTLE UPDATE WITH YOU. HAVE A GOOD ONE, AND DRIVE SAFE!

so naturally my first reaction was basically just. looooooool :) :) :) what the fuck.

here I am. a working mom. who left her seventeen-year-old fictional son in the care of a 36-year-old Japanese man for the better part of a year because HE SAID he would take good care of him. Jump Festa 2022!! quote unquote!! "I’ve said this to Okamoto [Nobuhiko]-kun in LINE, but Katsuki will be having his greatest scene in the manga in future developments. I hope people who like Katsuki and hate Katsuki will look forward to it." bruh. we have the receipts right here! "greatest scene," he said! oh, goody, I said! something to look forward to when I finally have the time to catch up! "yes," Horikoshi smiles evilly. "something to look forward to, indeed." this fucking guy. can you even believe.

and just to be clear, when I say that I was otherwise 100% not-spoiled up until this point, I mean it. one hundred percent. I had absolutely ZERO knowledge of anything past chapter 339. the last I saw of Bakugou, he was hanging out with the rest his class showing off his cool new moves to Deku and being blindsided by Aoyama's betrayal and stuff. then bam. seven months later, fate mails me a postcard of him lying on the ground with a bloody hole in his chest. like WOW, OKAY. ZERO CHILL. OF COURSE THIS WOULD HAPPEN THE ONE TIME I DECIDE TO GO ON HIATUS FOR TWO HUNDRED DAYS, SMDH.

anyway so that's my story.

3. "so exactly how spoiled are you?"

lol I'm not even sure. I guess my best answer would be, "SOMEWHAT?"

or, if you don't mind reading more words, I can tell you exactly how spoiled I am by summarizing the Things That I Do Know in a bullet list.

THINGS THAT I KNOW

all of this apparently takes place between chapters 359 and 362, with 362 being the big "oh he DEAD dead" chapter. I think. based on all the fics that have since cropped up on AO3 with ominous chapter 362 spoiler tags.

I am pretty sure Bakugou was fighting either Tomura or AFO when it happened.

I have this vague idea that somehow his heart exploded or something?? like I don't really know the details, but that's what I've been able to glean.

apparently Jeanist and Edgeshot were involved in some sort of effort to save him?? but apparently that didn't work out too well I guess. OR DID IT? I actually do not know.

I have the vague impression Edgeshot may have also died, somehow, as a result of those heroic efforts. OR DID HE? again, I actually do not know at all. this is basically the knowledge equivalent of me overhearing half of a phone conversation between two people who were trying to recollect half of a phone conversation that they in turn overheard, several months earlier.

lastly, I know that Bakugou was apparently carrying around his All Might trading card from waaaay back in his chapter 118 flashbacks, in his pocket or something. because he's a giant fanboy nerd. who wanted All Might to sign it. but was too shy to ask I guess. "WHO COULD HAVE SEEN THIS SENSITIVE SIDE OF HIM COMING?? BAKUGOU CARES ABOUT THINGS??? HE REALLY DID LOOK UP TO ALL MIGHT JUST AS MUCH AS DEKU THE ENTIRE TIME??? WHAT A DEVASTATING REVEAL?!?" is how we were supposed to react to this, I'm guessing, lol. but I'll have you know that SOME of us have already written approximately 1200 essays on how much of a secretly sensitive All Might weeb Bakugou is, and so WERE ACTUALLY NOT SURPRISED AT ALL! yeah that's right! TAKE THAT HORIKOSHI. TRYING TO CATCH ME OFF GUARD AND MAKE ME CRY. WELL YOU WASTED YOUR GODDAMN TIME, because I would have cried anyway! and I did cry! and I will cry again!

anyway so yeah. and I think the card got blown up and/or otherwise destroyed somehow, just to add insult to injury. which, don't tell anyone, but between you and me, I'm not sure what he expected. "let me just take my precious limited edition All Might trading card, my most prized possession, along with me into the intense final battle with the final villain. for good luck or whatever. there's no way this could possibly end badly." did he even bother to put it in a zipper pocket. wtf were you thinking Katsuki. again I do not actually have the slightest idea since I have not actually read this chapter lol.

anyway! so that's everything I know! and let me just add to that a quick summary of things which I in turn do NOT know, the short version of which is: Literally Everything Other Than What I Just Typed Above. including but not limited to:

whether Bakugou actually was fighting Tomura, or AFO, or both. ??

who was fighting with him (except that for some reason or another Deku wasn't there, because I guess he fucked off to go do something else?? you and I fell into the exact same trap there, Deku. "surely Kacchan will be fine and dandy for the next five minutes or hours or days or however long while I go take care of this Other Important Business." yeah, you would think so, wouldn't you? BUT WE LEARNED OUR LESSON, DIDN'T WE.)

what Deku’s reaction was (but I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say: PISSED)

literally anything else about the context of this fight, including where, when, and why it took place.

literally everything else that has happened in the manga since chapter 339. for real you guys. I just have to stress again how utterly out of the blue this was for me. to read this spoiler completely without context. WHAT HAVE THESE CHILDREN BEEN DOING FOR THE PAST NINE MONTHS. I'm terrified to learn the answers lol.

anyways but moving on now to the most important section of this post, starting with the one question which I think is by far the most pressing and important, and which I can thankfully answer with a single sentence.

4. "so... do you think he actually is dead?"

no lol.

but since you insist, here is my list of Reasons Why I Don't Think Bakugou Is Actually Dead, based on my nonexistent knowledge of the events of the past 40 chapters, and the actual context and details of his death. and I guarantee there is not a single point here which has not already been discussed to death on thousands of other blogs, but dammit I've been stuck without an outlet for all these thoughts since August, so the hell with it:

so for starters, in my experience, characters whose older selves narrate the story From The Future ("in that moment, there were no thoughts in my head... my body just moved on its own") tend to be pretty immune from dying, overall. just throwing that out there.

from day one, the series has made it very clear that this is the story of how Izuku becomes "the greatest hero" (more recently retconned/updated to become a pluralized "this is the story of how we ALL became the greatest heroes").

also from day one, Katsuki's narrative arc has been set up as a (first contrasting, and then later evolving to be more complementary) parallel to Izuku's, down to them having the same goal.

as the series has progressed, that concept of "becoming the greatest hero" has been further defined as "becoming a hero who always wins no matter what, and always saves everyone no matter what."

Katsuki in particular has expanded on this idea to emphasize that the greatest heroes are the ones who save EVERYONE, no matter what. "I made a pledge! I will achieve absolute victory, every time! we're taking this 4-0, no casualties! the strong don't settle for anything less!" and more recently, "because to live up to those ideals and surpass All Might... we gotta save you, the civilians at U.A., and the people on the streets. because saving people is how we win."

therefore, any victory in which either Katsuki or Izuku dies in order to defeat AFO is not a perfect victory, and will not result in them becoming the greatest heroes.

this is also a flagship Shounen Jump manga and the spiritual successor to the Big Three, meaning this would basically be the equivalent of killing off Sasuke or Zoro or Rukia. a.k.a. not gonna happen ever lol.

on top of that, it's also Horikoshi's tribute to Western comics, particularly those produced by Marvel, a.k.a. the guys who practically invented the No One Ever Stays Dead trope.

and last (actually not last but this really is getting too long) but not least, the number one reason why Katsuki cannot and will not actually die: because AFO does not get to win. seriously. he just doesn't. he got to kill All Might's important person and be all smug and cruel about it. he killed Nana's family and was all smug and cruel about it. he's tormented generations of heroes by deliberately targeting the people they love most. and so even without me knowing the actual context or circumstances of Katsuki's supposed "death", I have no doubt that's why it happened, because that's what AFO does. and that's who Deku loves. and so of course AFO would try it, yet again. that's his fucking modus operandi

but, because he is the final villain, we know he is going to lose in the end. and so this, imo, is the biggest and simplest reason why Katsuki isn't dead: because if he is actually dead, then AFO wins. even if he himself dies in the end. he gets to go down knowing that he took a part of the hero with him. he gets to hold on to that one last triumph. even though he loses, he keeps the hero from winning and saving, and he gets to savor that.

so, since we know that he's NOT going to win, because this is a "good guys win" type of story and not an "evil prevails, sorry, it's called REAL LIFE, bitches, enjoy your tears" type of story, that means that Katsuki is not actually dead. or will not stay dead. either way. period.

anyway so yeah! that's basically the gist, though by no means are these all of my comprehensive thoughts, and I can safely promise you many more rants to come, especially as I prepare to take on the challenge of reading through 39 new BnHA chapters with the foreknowledge of my son's untimely not-death looming in the back of my mind the whole time! looking forward to that! both ironically and unironically! should be interesting to say the least lol.

so on that note, one final q&a before we conclude:

5. "is it cool to discuss other manga spoilers with you?"

I would prefer not to, mainly in the hopes of trying to preserve as much of the "pure" unspoiled liveblog experience as possible, both for myself and for anyone else who cares to actually read said liveblogs. I do already feel bad for depriving people of the experience of watching me naively frolic my way through the upcoming arc(s) all BLISSFULLY UNAWARES lol. instead you'll have to settle for watching me timidly cry my way through while yelling at every single character who blindly tempts fate with their stupid foreshadowing comments. and don't even try to tell me there won't be foreshadowing comments. I know what type of story I'm reading. and more importantly, I know exactly the type of person who's writing it. ~*~gReAtEsT sCeNe~*~. you son of a bitch. THIS ISN'T OVER, HORIKOSHI.

anyway, so basically I would prefer to be as spoiler-free as possible, same as always. but I also no longer have the time or frankly the will to police every potential spoiler out there, so at the end of the day I'm pretty much just going to leave it up to you guys! also because I figure that at this point, WHAT'S THE WORST THAT CAN HAPPEN lol. (but for real there's probably a ton of important stuff that could easily be ruined still, so yeah if you don't mind let's just try to steer clear of all that lol.)

[anacecherry]

Ace Lore

Everyone in my friend cycle is posting their lore and Louie gave me the idea to make my own as well so here we go. Kept switching between 3rd person and 1st person because I felt like using both so the phrasing may seem weird

This isn't in any order I wrote them down as they came to my mind

Named Ace because of Among Us

Had a Danganronpa phase in 2020

Was a mod in dr-transparents

Also had a dr edit blog have fun trying to find that one

Used to be homophobic but one day during breakfast I asked my mom if being gay was a sin and she just thought for a second and said no so I stopped being homophobic

Dad in jail (out in march 9 😎)

Watched the entire mcu once

Goes to one of the greatest schools around the area and its shit

Watches how to learn Turkish videos despite being turkish

Has been pirating movies ever since I started using computers because I didn't know you had to pay for it until 3 years ago

Has an """uncle""" and """aunt""" thats younger than me (the aunt is a toddler)

First experience with the sonic franchise was that flash fangame based on sonic advance 2 and I thought Knuckles was a girl

Has an evil twin named Allo, who likes reddit and men

Knows every single frame of animation in Rise of the TMNT

funneylizzie follows me. I forget about that a lot.

The only person that never misread Penosh's og url

.w batman

Will :handshake: me

The CEO of Rise Casey Jones (Cassandra)

The mere sight of Cjj is enough to fill me with rage

Got kicked out of a toh youtubers server bc I tried to explain the owner that the potion coven was, in fact, a real coven and not just a track that they only teach at Hexide

Once woke up and saw a short weird girl with long black hair watching me from the side of my bed, she disappeared after I closed and opened my eyes again. No it wasn't sleep paralysis.

Has a sunflower seed addiction

I was Penosh's first follower I think that should be here

The 6 kittens we took care of after their mom died, most didn't last 2 months alive, the 5th one ran away like an idiot and the 6th lives with our neighbors and hates us

Most likely had a crush on my middle school best friend

Says "Lan" a lot in real life my friends think it's funny

Grew up near the sea so Im immune to the smell of fish

Remembers her first earthquake in 3rd person

When I clear out likes it takes a long time and I end up rebloging a lot of posts, and it might happen again & will be real big this time so be prepared

The Ralsei icon is traced from the og sprite from Deltarune and I will never ever change it it is a part of my identity now

Url used to be tsundere-blue-cherry before I changed it

The first time I remember throwing up might be one of my core memories. did you know you cant talk when you're just about to vomit

Has headaches forever ever since elementary school

Had a budgie named Şans that flew away because mom kept forcing us to keep the windows open

When I was ~6 I a dream where a Caillou toy that I had came to life and I got so scared that I tore it apart and ran. When I woke up I checked the drawer I put the toy parts in and he was still there and greeted me I screamed and slammed it shut and never looked at that drawer again

Ayıcık the teddy bear

Had 2 imaginary friends and one of them was a mirror

Diagnosed as American

I have cherry in my url but cannot eat cherries bc when eating cherries I realized it had worms in it and it happened twice and I have not been able to eat cherries without drowning in anxiety ever again

My youngest sister called my middle sister Dede despite her name not having those letters in it and the word dede meaning grandpa in our language. We started calling her that as well

Had a dream, before the sonic 2 trailer came out, where the trailer released and it was normal except Boom Knuckles was there as a separate character from normal Knuckles and had his model from the show

Made up number lore when I was younger

Uses light mode

[go-go-devil]

2, 7, 8, 10 for the animation asks :D

2) When was the exact moment when you realized just how much you admire animation as an art form unique from other media?

Honestly I fully believe the EXACT moment arose when I rewatched The Secret of NIMH for the second time as a 14-year-old. I had already enjoyed it when I first saw it back when I was 7, but seeing it again with a maturing brain and a finer eye for the craft of 2D animation really made me appreciate how well made the film was, both in terms of technical achievements and story

Of course, this also lead to the faithful event of me looking up the trailer to the movie on youtube and seeing in my recommendations a trailer to a film I had never heard of called Watership Down. I clicked on that video, and the rest was history ;)

7) What is your favorite cartoon series?

Fuck that's too hard of a pick! If I was forced to, though, I would probably swap between Bojack Horseman and Spongebob Squarepants (Seasons 1-3) depending on whether I'm in the mood for depressing or joyful eccentric animal people 🐴 🧽

8) What was the first adult animation you’ve seen?

The very first one HAD to have been The Simpsons. While it took me until I was 9 to actually become obsessed w/ the series I know for a fact I caught it on TV several times before when I was younger

While Simpsons most likely predated it, I do have a very clear memory of the 1st time I ever saw South Park. I believe I was either 5 or 6, seated all alone in the living room at my nanny's house while everyone else was in the kitchen partying, and while flipping thru the channels I caught the last 10 minutes of the episode where the boys and Jesus Christ try to save Santa Claus from a group of terrorists, at the scene where Jesus riddled with bullets and dies. The funny part about it was that I wasn't even scared by it. I legit thought I was watching a serious drama just because Jesus was killed in front of a group of children and just accepted it XD

10) When did you first discover anime?

Technically the first anime I can remember watching were Hamtaro and Pokemon, with Yu Gi Oh following shortly after. However, the first anime I watched after learning what the term anime meant was Death Note. It was a pretty significant moment for me since it was the first cartoon I ever got obsessed with that wasn't made for children, and thus taught me that animation isn't something that's exclusive to kids like me. After that I absorbed as much "mature" anime as I could find to show off how cool I was (and by mature I of course meant shows for teenagers lol)

[pnf-lover98]

Some thoughts on Good Omens season 2

Last night I finally finished watching the new Good Omens season, and now that I’m officially done screaming about it, I would like to take my time to share some thoughts on this much awaited season 2. Brace yourselves guys, this is going to be a long boi.

Thank you so much for this new adventure, @neil-gaiman, and for making come true my impossible dreams of having Beelzebub and Gabriel canonly together! 🙏

When I first read that there was going to be a season 2, my immediate first reaction was ‘oh no’. I’m generally not a fan of the word “sequel”, because you can never know if a ‘part 2’ is going to be the best thing ever, or if it’s going to be the death of what you used to consider a masterpiece. I love the first season to bits, and when I bought and read the book right after finishing watching, I found the original Good Omens to be just as amazing as its series version. There were scenes that I liked more the way they were written in the book, and some that felt better in the show, but book and series were both amazing in their own ways. And I surely didn’t want a sequel to potentially ruin all of those good memories. But when the first news started to come out about this GO2, I started to feel some hype.

After around 1 year spent in the fandom, and a total of 4 years spent loving the book/series, when I actually got to watch the new season I couldn’t help but feel disappointed by the vast majority of the episodes. Because it looks exactly like the first season, with the costumes, and the sets and everything, but it feels nothing like it.

The first Good Omens did so much for me, also in terms of helping me fight my personal demons. You guys probably don’t know much about what I am like as a person, as I pretty much only share my art here on this blog. But in real life, I have a fairly awful high sensitivity to blood - and specifically if the blood is associated with scenes of violence or where a character is in pain. I have little to no barriers to defend myself from what I get thrown at in movies and media, as I have nearly no ability to put up walls between me and the characters I am looking at. If someone is in pain, then to some extent I’m in pain as well, and if I come across a particularly violent scene, it usually doesn’t take much for it to show up somewhere in my nightmares. Back when the trailer came out for the first season, it took me two months to finally decide to give in to the temptation and watch the show on Amazon Prime. Because this was a series with real actors (I usually trust cartoons more because it’s a safer space) that revolved around angels and demons, no less! And every time Crowley looked deep into the camera, my mind was taken back to Bipper’s snake eyes from Gravity Falls, and on how many nightmares and bad memories the GF fandom gave me when fans aggravated what Bill Cipher did in canon. Bill was such an evil demon, why would I have ever wanted to risk watching other demons in action? But when I did watch the episodes, I saw just how safe GO was. The worst thing that those demons, who called themselves to be so evil and so cruel, did was to set fire to a convent, show their sharp teeth or turn into slugs. There was no blood, no form of violence, no guts shown, no monsters that could make me feel uneasy. And after getting acquainted with Crowley as a character, his snake eyes eased the discomfort I felt towards Bipper’s. By the end of the series, I had no issue looking at him ‘eye to eye’, the bad memories replaced by new positive ones.

What I came to feel towards Good Omens was complete, whole-hearted trust. GO wasn’t going to hurt me, nor in the book nor in the show. So, the first and most important thing that hurt me (in a completely personal way) in this season was just how everything became drastically more bloodied. How gruesome Furfur’s video looked and sounded, how odd it was to have brain-eating zombies with clothes covered in blood of their victims, how terrifying the Resurrectionist guy was. I straight up skipped all of the part where the guy tells Aziraphale and Crowley about his job, because the single sentence “criminals’ bodies were no longer enough” sent a massive alarm ringing in my head, making my heart sink. I knew where things were heading to, because several months ago I came across the same kind of horrible topic in some sort of documentary - and the concept of what was said that day so many months ago hit me like a train, leaving me sat up in my bed at 5 am, concretely dreading the possibility to fall asleep again and have another bad dream. Judging how sharp of a moral U turn Aziraphale did on the whole ‘digging up bodies’ topic, stating that it 'relieves human suffering', I’m guessing that my decision to skip was the right choice. And all of that gruesome stuff, that to me couldn’t help but feel completely uncalled for (Did Crowley really need to tear away the mask of a demon who had a wounded/decomposing chin to find out that they were all demons, when he had a minotaur-looking guy right next to him?) completely destroyed that trust that the first season created in me.

But aside from this, the rest of the episodes didn’t really convince me also because I felt the pacing to be very uneven (episode four was 40 minutes of Aziraphale and Crowley’s shenanigans, with no mention of Gabriel and his yet to be solved mystery, and no screen time for Nina and Maggie either), and this unevenness often made the scenes boring to watch. Because as much as I like Azi and Crowley’s shenanigans, I would have much preferred to have them more evenly intertwined with their present situation, instead of having long chunks of the episode that make you forget about the rest of the characters and then a sixth episode so intensely filled with stuff. None of the new characters that were introduced really lit up a spark of interest in me. If you ask me who I would like to make fanarts or write stuff of, I would tell you none of them. Nor Shax, nor Muriel, nor Furfur nor the smallest appearances like the eyepatch demon. But I guess it’s going to take some time for me to see if I will really make no fanarts of anybody, because it took me a rough month after the first season before I took interest in Beelzebub’s character and started making fanarts of them.

Talking about my beloved Beelz, the one single character that I liked the most in S1 (and in the Tadfield Airbase scene in book Omens)... I didn’t like Shelley Conn in Lord Beelzebub’s role. I have nothing against her as a person, or as an actress, it’s just that this Beelz looked and moved and behaved nothing like the Beelz I spent 4 whole years liking and being familiar with. Even if she did grow on me a little bit in the last episode.

There were still amazing parts in every episode, it’s undeniable. David Tennant’s acting remains top tier - from his facial expressions, to his funky walk up in heaven. It was nice to have some of the original crew back (I was particularly delighted to have Dagon and Eric back, for example!), and it was a very fuzzy and nice feeling to have so much of what I used to see every day across the fandom represented in canon screentime. We saw Crowley making stars and being a high-ranking angel in his past (much like the ‘Crowley was Raphael’ theory that I’ve always liked), we saw Beelz turning into swarms of flies, we got the hall of Hell where the damned get assigned to the various brackets and it looked exactly like I envisioned it to be…

… And above all, I got an impossible dream come true. All through these past 4 years, I’ve been a major Ineffable Bureaucracy fan. What started out as a ‘Why not?’ turned into me writing over a dozen fanfiction, drawing several fanarts of them, coming up with several possible backstories that could lead them to be together eventually. A small ‘why not?’ turned into me having the time of my life for over a year, projecting onto those two impossible lovers all of my dreams of the perfect romance I never had in real life. But we were such a small fraction of the fandom - the most popular of the minor ships, according to someone in the fandom that made a pie chart based on the number of Ao3 fics and of fanarts for each ship, but still a rough 3 percent at best - and deep down I knew that there were no chances of us getting canon. I was disappointed by this thought, of course, but I eventually got to be fine with it; maybe the best part of our ship was that, not being canon, each fan could build an entirely different story for Gabriel and Beelz. Maybe the best part of our ship was this huge choir of harmonizing and dissonating voices.

I went into this season 2 with a completely relaxed mindset about this. “It’s lost or it’s found”, I told myself; if we’re getting something it’ll be a miracle, but if we won’t get anything it won’t be the end of the world. But having such an impossible ship to become canon so out of the blue, and with such a sweet series of clips…! I could see so much of the old fanarts in what we were shown; how many of us (me included) have had them hanging out in bars on Earth? And I still remember clearly how there was this one artist who drew one comic where Beelz had a fly coming out of their mouth like canon Beelz did! Seeing those flashbacks unfold brought me an unmeasurable sense of joy. The kind of squealing with skipping up and down, kind of joy no less. “If this is a dream, don’t wake me up!” I told my computer screen, as I kept my hand covering my huge grin in disbelief. And out of every possible backstory that could have led them to get together, what we were given was very close to what I would have personally chosen for them, and to what some of my favorite fanfictions chose for them.

In conclusion of this long rant… This Good Omens 2 was a big rollercoaster of emotions, for me - but I would dare say that it was like this for everyone who watched it. And you can be sure that, as soon as I’ll set a foot down from the rollercoaster’s cart and my head will stop spinning from the fear and the thrill and the overwhelming joy of the unexpected, I’ll start making new Good Omens content. Thank you to everyone who took their time to read everything.

[lovelypurplefox]

Will I ever continue with the Pokémon games?

So, I was not aware that there’s another Pokémon game coming out called “Pokémon Legends Z-A”. I haven’t watched the trailer for it. Not a big fan of the title; I wish it was just called “Pokémon Legends Z”. Pokémon X is my very first game which introduced me to the franchise besides my best friend and this one might be interesting.

I saw it while scrolling Bulbapedia last week, on Twitter, and recently a YouTube video talking about Palworld. So it’s real. Apparently, it was announced a while back.

But I don’t know you guys… I dropped Legends Arceus because it was hard for me to get into it. Scarlet and Violet, while it had a good story (I can’t give an opinion on the DLC due to me not getting far in part 2), it suffered from performance issues and I’m worried that this new game will have issues. I always see people complain about the issues (mostly on Twitter). And I take a lot of breaks away from social media just to rush through the games so I would ‘t worry about spoilers but when I’m away from social media, I’m missing out on stuff (I have FOMO!).

I don’t know if I’ll continue on with the Pokémon games. I still love the franchise, but it’s too much for me (I feel Pokémon fatigue). Plus, I’m more into drawing rather than video games (also, I’m working on my original comic) and I rarely play them; depending on the game’s difficulty, it makes me rage (looking at you 5+ star Tera Raids). I think I rather go back and play the Pokémon games on my 3DS or just the ones I own on my Switch.

If it ends up being good, I’ll buy it.

[superbdragoncollection-stuff]

An analysis of the new Planet of the Apes movies, having seen the latest trailer.

There are two things missing from the new Planet of the Apes series, the themes about deliberate destruction of civilization, and the themes of civil rights. The removal of those elements undermine the entire point of the series.

I used to think it was irrational that I didn't like the new Planet of the Apes movies, especially after I hadn't seen them. Mostly I don't want to see them because I find the premise annoying, antithetical to many themes of the franchise, anti-science, and other ridiculous things. I'm a big fan of the old series, I sought out EVERYTHING once upon a time. I found comics, I found all the movies, I found the cartoon, I found the TV show, I found the video games. But I have never EVER wanted to even see the new movies. I had an irrational hatred of them ever since I saw them.

Then I realized something. I thought it was shallow I hadn't seen any of them, but it's hard to see them when they've just been remaking my least favorite installment in the franchise three or four times. I saw Planet of the Apes, Beneath, Escape, and Battle, 1, 2, 3, and 5, but never Conquest, 4, because it seemed sad and depressing. If I'm seeing that movie being remade over and over and over, no wonder I don't want to see them! A die hard fan like me didn't want to see the original version, and then they just remake that movie three times?! Sometimes it is a legit point of critique if a fan can't watch an installment, or finish reading it.

Having heard from someone who has seen it though, the themes that do exist within the new films make it less powerful emotionally. They've cut out all the aspects that made the original series compelling. You can have natural disaster, you can have science gone wrong, the problem is attaching the Apes name to it. One of the fundamental parts of Planet of the Apes is that the films, the ape takeover is not the result of hubris, or by accident, it is explicitly a deliberate tragedy. It is stupid, but it is by no means foolish or an accident. It is deliberate.

You don't fall into nuclear war by accident. You don't stumble across total atomic annihilation. You knowingly and deliberately cause it. One has to first invent the atomic bomb. Then one has to make more. Hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands. You have to make the infrastructure to build and deliver them. You have to have the political will to keep them. None of this is by accident. It may be fired by accident, but for that to even be possible requires an awful and cruel and deliberate mindset to begin with. You can't point your car at someone, jump out at the last second, and claim the car killed them. One can't duct-tape a gun to someone's hand, tell them they have to shoot someone or else they'll die, and avoid all blame. Nuclear war is not pride, or arrogance, it is the homo sapiens' own inhumanity. It is the stupid and cruel desire to hit someone else with a rock. Taylor screaming at the end might be a funny meme, but when you watch the entire film, it's chilling. All you hear is this poor astronaut cursing the men who destroyed his civilization, as the waves crash against the shore. To say that nuclear war happens because we didn't know any better is just as bad as saying slavery happened because we didn't know any better.

The civil rights connections are another key piece missing from the puzzle. First of all, there are tons of references to it in the original franchise. In the first film, Taylor is sprayed with a fire hose, a sight that people in 1968 would've been seeing on the nightly news. He is denied the rights to a trial, his buddies are experimented on or stuffed and put on display in a museum, all things that people were becoming aware of. Lynch mobs, the Tuskegee Experiment, the thousands of bodies put on display in American museums without proper burial.

In the 1974 TV show, the first episode has a kid ask why they can't let the humans know about the spaceship. His father says, "because humans know their place! If they knew others could build a thing like this, it would ruin everything! They might think they're equal!" "But father, these humans are obviously better than we are--" The kid is smacked around, "Never say such a thing again!" You have people thinking about zero-sum equality now, still thinking that if someone gains equality, someone else loses it.

Something established in the book and the third movie is that the apes did not become sapient by accident. The humans knowingly and deliberately wanted slave labor, and so they altered the apes to create that labor. Conquest makes this explicit, with a black man showing sympathy for obvious reasons. There are obvious commentaries on human slave labor, and the resulting righteous anger. It is unrelated to the nuclear war, and it is not human arrogance or hubris that does it. It is the result of an inherently selfish desire.

The story is not that apes or humans are better, it is that treating people badly is wrong. We have always known slave labor is wrong. Slave revolts date back thousands of years. Spartacus was the Third Servile Rebellion. Yet people do it anyway. We know it is just as wrong as nuclear war. Oppenheimer cursed what he did. The first anti-nuclear war books came out in the late 40s and early 50s. Yet we still built thousands of bombs and people to this day expect there to be a winnable nuclear war.

So, the new movies decide to cut out all the civil rights aspects, and replace the nuclear war with a virus. Okay, do they try and replace it? No, not really. One can argue they are trying to say that apes are better than us, or that humans are better. And neither works.

Their "replacement" is insulting, and undermines the entire situation emotionally. The apes are accidentally created by something really selfless, an Alzheimer's cure, that accidentally spreads a plague. Everything is entirely by accident, and by stupidity. One might even go so far as to say it is racist, bigoted, and defends pro-colonizer sentiments. It depicts the entire situation as an accident, a buffoonish mess caused by people who were so stupid they didn't realize that coughing up blood on someone was bad.

I once had a professor say that the empires Europe built across the world were by accident. "Oh, whoops, we were just biting off a little territory at a time, we didn't mean to cause this!" He also asked who gets up in the morning to oppress people. This was wrong. The truth is that there are those who think it is their right. Europe knew exactly what they were doing while they conquered half the globe. This is what it feels like, like that professor wrote this. It removes all culpability from the humans, and blames science, rather than our own flaws. It insists that trying to cure a terrifying and ugly disease is wrong, and that we deserve to die for that. At the same time it insists that it was all an accident, no one is really to blame. You can't claim the apes are oppressed in the same way because they didn't know they were sapient! That is not only stupid, it undermines the entire concept of slavery within the story, that enslaving people is bad. Because slavery is not an accident. By making it all an accident, it makes it feel like it was written by the people in Get Out. It doesn't say that all slavery is by accident, it echoes the sentiments of its defenders.

By portraying the apes as seemingly better, it undermines the point. Taylor in the original says that "it seems some apes are more equal than others". For all their vaunted superiority over humanity, they are just as vulnerable to our same flaws. The point is that being cruel is bad.

Did I mention the guy running the company that made the Alzheimer's cure is black? And there are pretty much no other black actors in the new franchise, compared to the two named and heroic black characters in the original franchise. I know, I know, it's not great even by comparison. When a 70s series is beating you out for positive black representation, while you have none, that says a lot about your franchise.

You can't just swap out one disaster for another with a franchise that relies on the disaster being human made, and not accidental! The only acceptable alternative in this case would be deliberate germ warfare. The point of the original series is that we did this to ourselves. Nuclear weapons are bad, and they are not the result of a mistake, or an accident. Slavery is bad, and exploiting people deliberately is wrong.

Beneath the Planet of the Apes is the darkest ending in the entire franchise. An old doomsday bomb goes off, and wipes out Earth. We hear a narrator say "In one of the countless billions of galaxies in the universe lies a medium-sized star. And one of its satellites, a green and insignificant planet, is now dead."

The problem does not lie in humanity, or in apes. The problem lies in the concepts of war, cruelty, hatred, and selfishness.

[nimbus2224]

Bad Batch Season 2 Reaction *Spoilers*

Warning: This is the spoiler version of my reaction to the Bad Batch Season 2 trailer so if you have not watched it yet, I highly recommend you do so. I’ll be breaking down a really big (or at least big to me) reveal that occurred which I think you’ll probably want to see for yourself to get the full shock. :) 

The non-super-spoiler/TLDR version is that I’m cautiously optimistic, somewhat terrified, and can’t spend time thinking about my favorite Star Wars character basically every day since I’ve watched this trailer. X_X I’m hopeful but also worried about what this story might be because of a particular, unexpected reveal.

Just to get this out of the way, I like the cinematography, the lighting, the animations, the character models...Just like in Clone Wars, the animation style really has come into its own over the years and this alone got me excited for this upcoming season. :) I actually like the new armor designs and coloration. It seems a bit haphazard but I suspect it may parallel a shift in perspectives for Bad Batch. I also like that Omega is getting older and seems a bit more capable in the trailer. I hope this means that she’ll be less likely to be constantly taken hostage like she was in the previous season. I would like to see her have more realistic responsibilities and behaviors not only as a member of the Bad Batch, but as a literal child who now has been exposed to her fair share of troubles. 

I’m not saying she should be immediately traumatized or that the show should center around her grappling with mental issues that sprung up. Instead, I hope this season will explore her role not only in Bad Batch and as a clone, but function a little better at giving us an idea what being at war and hunted is like through her. How does she feel knowing that her family is quickly aging and will one day not be able to care for her? Will she ever become unwilling to participate in a mission when she finally realizes the danger? How will she help in her own way where it doesn’t feel like her life is being placed in direct danger? What are her feelings about what happened during the war before Order 66? How does she feel about regular clones and will she also accept them as her family?

____________ 

*Spoiler version*

Ok, so now that we’ve got the spoiler warning out of the way! Onto the reaction!

Like I said earlier, I’m both excited and terrified about what this next season might hold all because Commander Cody is featured in the trailer. I recognized him in the part of the video where he and Crosshair were walking around the hallway and then, yikes!, point their gun at what appears to be Omega and another young person. XC But it wasn’t until I saw him without the helmet that I was forced to say, “Yep, that was definitely Cody.” and that made me both really happy/excited and really sad. 

Excited because this is literally my favorite Star Wars character (and one of my favorite characters EVER, if not top favorite) --- a character that I spent so many years enjoying drawing and writing about what I thought he was up to off screen in Revenge of the Sith, the EU books, and then Clone Wars. This is a character that I feel, in some way, positively guided me through my teen years and helped me heal from negative experiences. 

Gut punch:

Seeing him again, and immediately thinking, “He’s going to be the bad guy, isn’t he. He’s going to get killed.” was a gut punch. :( This might sound stupid but even though I was bitter about Cody not getting many stories or screen time in Clone Wars, I held onto the fact that this meant that his character wasn’t in danger of being used as a complete opposing foil to Rex --- which is where I think a lot of viewers just organically gravitated anyways. Which is fine, there’s nothing wrong if you see Cody as Rex’s opposite/foil. 

I’ve always viewed Cody as the precursor and forerunner to basically all clones (save for Alpha, who I believe may be the first named clone to ever exist in Star Wars --- which is extremely fitting considering at the end of Alpha’s introduction he specifically states going back to Kamino to teach other officers with the Jedi’s blessing to allow names instead of numbers). For me, Cody lays the groundwork for the type of struggles clones endure (finding identity, being their own type of leaders outside of the kind of ‘divine mandate’-ish way Force users look at it, not being super powered but existing in a super powered universe and surviving...) I much prefer the idea that Rex’s character arc in Clone Wars had him starting at much of the same place as Ahsoka (which is why he really rubbed me the wrong way) and then grow through his experience with being in bad/morally grey situations, learning humility and the value of being a servant leader, into someone who actually ended up more like Cody in the end (ironically). (I should make a blog post about those thoughts as well.)

Seeing him alongside Crosshair was alarming, unless they’ve somehow magically joined the rest of Bad Batch, which I doubt since they point their guns at what I think was Omega and someone else. :( So it feels like they’re setting him up to be a villain of some kind --- either crazy and brainwashed due to the inhibitor chip or, equally as bad, somehow completely drained of all humanity, intelligence, and empathy and now just a pawn of the Empire like Crosshair. And then he’s brandishing a knife defensively (RIP whoever he’s fighting, lol) and that’s never a good sign.

Yes, the creators own his story and can do whatever they like with it but I was really hoping that he could just “ride off into the sunset” and be forgotten by Disney. :L I didn’t want to see him and Rex fight because there’s only one way that would turn out: Rex, protected by eternal plot armor, would be the victor. I didn’t want him to reprise his role as the sacrificial clone whose only purpose was to die to preserve the same hero(es) (like Climber, Hardcase, Echo kinda, Waxer, Fives, etc.). I didn’t want to see him fight any heroes for that matter because that would mean that the Cody we see in the books and Clone Wars has crossed over a moral line that I believe defines who he is: Cody intrinsically values life (his orange-painted armor would signify as such according to Mandalorian color-meanings) and aware of right vs. wrong. For me, it would signify a failure for Cody to apply the same logic and empathy he displays throughout Clone Wars and the EU, and thus his character would essentially be dead.

Nimbus goes full-clown for a hot minute >_< :

This might be going ‘full clown’ here but I always (even before the inhibitor chips --- a concept I still dislike) saw Cody’s strange execution of Order 66 as him choosing the thousands of lives under his command over Kenobi’s. When I watch RoTS, I never saw him intending to kill Kenobi but rather to do a ‘fake out’ where really only he and the gunner would be responsible for the Jedi actually escaping --- Obi-Wan sadly believing that Cody had intentionally attacked. This would make sense to me as a carry through of the kind of person Cody is --- think the “I’ll do it myself’ scene from Cherynobl --- so that instead of an entire legion paying for a failure to kill Kenobi or protect against Kenobi’s attack, only he would be responsible. This is why I think, realistically, at the end of RoTS Cody would be almost immediately executed because his failure to make sure Kenobi was dead resulted in catastrophic damage to Vader, which Sidious was not pleased with at all. 

Remember, Cody is a brilliant strategist who knows the rules, knows when to make the exception to those rules (i.e. not killing Slick on sight or shooting Kenobi himself), and is able to come up with a new plan on the spot. If he could tread the knife edge of this problem, then why wouldn’t he be able to think his way out of the Empire --- because he would immediately see that it’s values do not align with the people-centered values he upheld throughout the Clone Wars. A complete 180 from saying “Cities are just buildings, it’s the people who make them homes.”, reprimanding Boil for using derogative terms for Twi’leks, and clearly having a history with 99 and Bad Batch in season 2 would be so jarring/unfortunate. Ok, enough of this headcanon before this post turns into a full-on book. x_x

The dilemma and danger of being a side character:

I guess, where I’m going with this, is that I’m tired of Cody being tied to Rex and to Order 66 as those two things are the only things that define his character forever. It bothers me that, while doing so much good for the clones, Clone Wars ended up showing that it’s only the ‘special’, hand-picked clones like Wolffe, Bad Batch, and Rex who can be redeemed/saved or do anything meaningful --- who exist as individuals outside of which Jedi they were assigned and have backstories longer than a single paragraph (Gree, Cody, Bly, and so many other clones had such rich histories in the EU that are basically erased now). 

Every time someone says Cody is “by the book” like it’s a condemnation (gonna write my own post about this because it deserves its own separate rant, lol) or that he wasn’t individualistic...it’s basically like saying all other clones not directly featured in Clone Wars or from the 501st were just meat-droids that mindlessly followed orders. As we see in Bad Batch, there’s so many reasons why each clone made the choices they did. I thought the Umbara arc did a great job reiterating the plethora of reasons clones have to follow orders, change their minds, and basically be believable characters in complex, morally grey situations.

It’s because of this characteristic that I’m not hopeful for how Cody will be portrayed in this new season of Bad Batch. Just reading some of the comments where people hoped that he would lose to Rex (and literally die) or stay with the Empire made me feel fearful for how this is going to play out. I don’t think the showrunners will forgo the popular “death battle” in exchange for a more thoughtful portrayal of a good person coming to terms with or explaining what happened during Order 66 and trying to escape. Again, this show and Clone Wars really does a number on the more grey or nuanced stories in favor of a pure black and white plotline. And that’s too bad. 

Predictions/Hopes:

I would love to see Cody subtly trying to get his brothers out of the Empire or make a difference there, before escaping. Maybe my theory of the Empire killing off clones to quell possible rebellion, especially clones like Cody who are known to have failed to kill their Generals during the Jedi Purge, causes Cody to gather clones to escape. Maybe he learns about the Dark Trooper project. *shudder* 

I would love to see him and Rex work together, now no longer under any ranks or being commanded by Jedi but instead by themselves. They can talk for as long as they like now, talk about their pasts (would love to hear stories about Cody and Alpha training Rex), mourn those that passed with Cody. Cody divulging that it’s possible Obi-Wan survived. I would love to know that he was one of the clones that was able to go on to live a civilian life, passing on what he had learned throughout his life to others.

I would love to have Omega and Cody interact positively in some way, maybe he tells her a story or teaches her something useful (like hand to hand combat or a trick to strategizing/anticipating enemy movements). It would be a terrible waste, I think, to have the literal first named clone in Star Wars (second if you’re counting Alpha from the EU) --- someone who literally helped lead the way for other clones, like Rex and Gree, to be allowed to show their individuality --- not to have some moment with Omega related to that aspect of his character. I would love for Cody to, for once, be able get a chance to tell his story and do more than just be support for Rex or whatever Jedi of the week was there (sorry, getting bitter about this all over again X’C). 

And I’m not asking for the show to be about him, because that won’t happen. I just want him to be treated well instead of being morphed into a flat plotpoint for another character to bounce off of instead of dance with. Even if that other character is Crosshair or Gregor (maybe he can help sway Crosshair). Especially in a show about clone troopers, it could show how each clone important and a dying culture in the Star Wars universe with valuable knowledge, past experiences, and individuality that’s not categorical by which side of the Force they’re on. Regarding the desire of many fans for Cody to oppose Rex and the others, I’d argue that it’s actually less cliche for an intelligent, thoughtful character to seek to make amends and repair the damage he unknowingly caused due to the inhibitor chip.

It’s not cliche for a character who has a track record of valuing life, selflessness, wanting to raise his brothers out of ‘facelessness’ to live as people instead of meat droids, and knowing evil when he sees it, to buck the Empire and what it made him become. It’s not cliche to show the value of different types of people rebelling in different types of ways. One doesn’t have to be sassy, aggressively confident, or so powerful the plot orbits them to be a good person or rebel against oppression in a unique and thoughtful way. I just want a good story, even if it’s bittersweet (which is basically a given), which a plot and motivations that make sense. 

Whatever happens, all I can say is that I will have to bring a box of tissues with me because there is no way I’m making it through any episode of this show without crying. TuT 

Thanks for making it to the end! :) Hopefully I didn’t annoy anyone with my rant. Sometimes, I feel like I don’t speak up for my favorite characters enough and just gush out with all my thoughts. I don’t expect it to change anyone’s opinion, least of all a showrunners, but just wanted to share my ideas about this lovely character. What are your thoughts? Are you excited for the next season? Do you think Cody deserves a good ending or should he continue at the same level he’s at? What do you think a conversation between Cody, Hunter, Omega, or Rex would go like?

Lastly, whatever you’re going through right now, directly or indirectly, I hope you’re doing well and that there’s a brighter tomorrow for you. <3

[feelingofcontent]

DNP Rewatch: Dan and Phil’s Story of TATINOF - Official Trailer

Date video was published: 09/28/2016 (X)

DNP Main Channel Rewatch: 320

I’m not going to write a post for the full TATINOF documentary either, since that is not a normal free video on their channels, but I will for this and the other “bonus” clips they posted.

0:02 - the in-studio talking bits are a little awkward

0:04 - hitting us right with the original PINOF

0:06 - the clip this video is from is privated now...giggly Dan 🥺

0:09 - Dan’s smile as he thinks about that, aww

0:10 - ahh, Phil’s Video Blog and HELLO INTERNET...so much origin story!

0:15 - and PINOF 2 clip...Probably because this is an option in part of TATINOF

0:16 - and Christmas cookies?! I don’t remember all the old video clips being part of this. This was the first joint DNP video I ever saw when I started watching them 🥺

0:19 - the UK set really was so much smaller than the USA one

0:27 - I love the map drawing scene. All that planning that eventually paid off

0:29 - the fact that they included part of this scene even in the trailer...what.

0:31 - awww, poor sleepy Phil

0:38 - I love all the rehearsal footage too

0:43 - Phil air-quotes and Dan eye crinkles 😊

0:46 - this shot of them sat together in the bus looking at the city might be my favorite single shot in the whole documentary

0:52 - domestic bus moments

1:03 - they really are just trying to make each other laugh all the time, huh

1:07 - SO sweaty

1:11 - having to be prepared to be filmed so often must have been a bit exhausting though

1:14 - “the people who have given us everything” awww

1:19 - this shot was used in the trailer for the TATINOF show movie too

1:20 - dancing rehearsal, lol. Dan looks intense and Phil looks scared

1:26 - love the montage ending in confetti

1:30 - awww, nice Dan

I love behind-the-scenes stuff in general, so I really like that they did this for TATINOF. It’s fun hearing them talk about the planning process and everything (even if parts of the documentary are “staged” too).

[inverrerdise]

Series O: Whole Concept Film Breakdown

Please be aware that there is a lot of content in this concept film that may be triggering. I do talk about these things in this breakdown.

TW: use of guns, blood, confinement, disembodied hands (nothing gory though), just general mean/cruel behavior

(if I missed anything, please let me know and I will add it)

With that said, this post will mostly be drawing connections between the concept film and relevant themes/theories in other Verivery content.

The general concept of the film seems to be the VRVR counterparts tormenting their other versions (aka Verivery). I'll go chronologically in the order of events that occur in the concept film.

Also, I wrote this around the time the concept film first dropped, but wasn't sure if I would ever post it or not. I haven't checked to see if the post is consistent with anything about Undercover. Please enjoy, and thank you for your everlasting patience with me as I finish out another semester! <3 Undercover Breakdown hopefully coming in the near future!

Yongseung:

Yongseung is the first person we meet in the concept film. He walks into a crowd of people who are whispering about him. He tries to block out their voices, but it is difficult and he desperately tries to find an escape.

What's interesting about this part of the film, is how similar it is to Yongseung in his Mood Film for Round 2: Hole. In the mood film, Yongseung is trying to block out the whispers of others, and struggles to find any silence.

Hoyoung:

In the concept film, we find Hoyoung in a room filled with pictures of eyes in the air and on the floor. To me, this suggests a theme of surveillance, which is an idea that has often been associated with Hoyoung, in previous MVs, most notably Get Away and Trigger, where we saw that it was usually VRVR Hoyoung who was keeping a close eye on the Verivery members.

Now, with the context of the events of O and his Individual Film, we see how this theme of surveillance feeds into Hoyoung's own inner darkness and trauma. We know that he has an overbearing mother, who constantly wants to be aware of where he is and what he is doing.

We also see another detail carried over from Hoyoung's Mood Film for Round 2: Hole. At the end of his mood film, when he faces his shadow, a series of eerie faces appear on the shadow's face. These eerie faces would also appear in the Trigger MV. These faces make yet another appearance in the concept film where we see the VRVR members watching Hoyoung. The members are Hoyoung, Kangmin, and Gyehyeon. A series of faces appears on Hoyoung first, followed by the other two members flanking him on either side. Hoyoung's faces are the only ones that turn red at any point, however.

Yeonho:

Yeonho's individual scene in this concept film is also very reminiscent of his mood film. He is trapped in a chair, and wires are all around him. This is not unlike in this Mood Film where we find Yeonho trapped in an electric chair, surrounded by wires, and being controlled by his VRVR counterpart.

Here, he is trapped and helpless to watch as his hands control themself and he is helpless to do anything. We see Yeonho use a keyboard at his desk in his Individual film as well while he is gaming.

Minchan:

Minchan's scene in the concept film got me so excited because it marked the return of two really big recurring items in Verivery music videos: the blindfold and the compass. Now, I have discussed these items at length before in other posts. In fact, some of my very first posts in this blog were about the blindfolds in Verivery mvs lol.

The blindfold goes back to around Tag Tag Tag era, but the red blindfold that really became distinct to the lore first appeared in the 3rd concept trailer for the FACE it trilogy, right before G.B.T.B. (in which the red blindfold was very regular). The blindfold has been worn by many of the members at this point, and is not distinctly associated with any particular member.

Minchan finds himself blindfolded with that red blindfold, and tears it off, only to find himself alone in a room with a rapidly whirring compass.

Unlike the blindfold, the compass is strongly associated with Minchan. I believe Thunder is the first time that we see Minchan with a compass, and since then it has appeared in every MV in some way, with the exception of 'O'.

He stumbles back onto a bed, and watched the compass whir in distress, helpless to do anything without any directions.

Add more onto how this connects to his trauma? Hospital bed and overdosing? Has no direction, feeling lost in his own life with school and stress and under pressure every way. Also his search for his friends.

Dongheon and Gyehyeon:

Their scene is combined together. We see their VRVR counterparts mocking them in away. VRVR Dongheon uses a camera, an item that is of no surprise. One the first couple watch throughs, I thought VRVR Gyehyeon used a flashlight to create the light, but on another watch through I realized it was actually a shard of a mirror/glass that he was reflecting light with. This left me a little at a loss of what a tangible connection might be. The one thing that the shard reminded me of are the broken shards of the barrier from G.B.T.B., which would be an interesting connection if that was the case.

In this scene we see how some of the information we gathered from Dongheon and Gyehyeon's lives in the Individual Films is used against them by VRVR. From those films, we learned that Dongheon lost his family in car accident. We also learned that Gyehyeon likely lost a friend (we don't know in what way) and seems to play an active role in the lives of his current friends and looking after them in multiple ways (more details in my 'O' MV breakdown).

So it is interesting to watch how these two are put together to play out to experience their traumas. Dongheon seems to be disoriented as a car approaches, and Gyehyeon desperately shoves out of the way, not wanting to lose a friend again. Meanwhile, VRVR eggs them on.

Kangmin:

Next, we cut to a gruesome scene of Kangmin passed out in a pool of blood, a gun by his hand. We watch as the blood recedes back into his body and he wakes up. He then stands up again and picks up the gun, putting it against his head.

VRVR Kangmin, looking annoyed, has no choice but to leave their huddle and confront Verivery Kangmin. The two meet face to face. Kangmin pulls the trigger, and VRVR collapses.

To me, this scene feels like a direct pick up from the events of Trigger. In Trigger, we watched VRVR Kangmin shoot Verivery Kangmin. It feels like this short scene, shows that Verivery Kangmin is not done fighting VRVR Kangmin. He may have let the darkness win before, but not anymore.

We know that VRVR Kangmin and Verivery Kangmin have been at odds for a very long time. This opposition first becomes physically apparent in Tag Tag Tag, but it is very likely that it has been going on earlier than that. In Kangmin's Mood Film for Trigger, we see the two Kangmin's literally at odds with one another, the VRVR version trailing Verivery Kangmin with a gun. And In Kangmin's Individual Film, a gun appeared on his lock screen and open the portal.

[mittensmorgul]

do we know why the boys were not allowed to have facial hair on the show? i feel like it was more in character than to assume sam and dean had to time to just always be clean shaven in the middle of apocalypses, being demons or possessed, fighting gods ect. on the flip side, im still confused as to how cas grew facial hair in purgatory when i didnt think that was something that happened to angel vessels?

Hi there! There's actually quite a bit going on in this question (I think this is my way of saying sorry it's taken me a few days to get to it :'D)

I'll start by saying I don't think it was a matter of "not allowed" to have facial hair, but it's actually more complicated than that. Not to mention Dean especially was almost never what I'd call "clean shaven" outside of when they were beginning a hunt and posing as FBI.

There's a video I think on the s1 dvd's called something like "a day in the life of Jared and Jensen". Wait... I found it on the youtube...

It's only about 10 minutes long, and if you haven't seen it, it's worth watching all of it. It was shot during the filming of 1.20 Dead Man's Blood, so they hadn't even been at this a full year yet. About 2 1/2 minutes in, they go through hair and makeup, and talk about shaving.

Back in s1, Sam had to be more clean shaven to look younger, and Dean had to have a bit of scruff just to look a bit older. So at first it was to visually make their ages more obvious. But it's also about continuity on camera. Remember, each episode of supernatural was filmed over eight weekdays (with a couple days for weekends in the middle). Episodes are NOT filmed in scene order. It would make it almost impossible to show normal, chronological beard growth over the span of two weeks of filming, you know?

If they film scene 38 first, then scene 12, then scene 19, then scene 2 over the course of four days, their facial hair has to remain believably consistent, not grow and shrink :'D So having a designated easily duplicatable facial hair style (and hair cut, because head hair can grow noticeably in two weeks, too, especially when it's as short as Jensen's on the sides/back) makes visual continuity actually possible. Especially when they're filming entire EPISODES out of airing order.

Think about Jensen's beard in the AU bunker battle scene in the beginning of 15.04. That was the first episode filmed of s15, and those were the first SHOTS filmed of s15 before Jensen shaved off his hiatus beard for the rest of the season. Those scenes were probably filmed in a single day, two at most, before he had to resume "standard Dean." Also think about Demon Dean's slightly longer hair that went back to normal, or Sam's beard from the first three episodes of s14 before he shaved in 14.04. Those times the longer hair/facial hair was used to show a lack of self-care for various reasons.

I think Cas's Purgatory beard was used to show the same. He was doing "penance" in his own mind, but I do think it was also the seeds of his entire depression arc that would run right through 15.18 and then never get an actual resolution (sorry, I had to at least grumble about that a little bit...). I remember Jensen saying when he asked why Dean was clean-shaven in Purgatory and Cas wasn't, he was told by someone that "Dean has knives," and would actually continue shaving for some reason, while Cas wouldn't even bother using his grace/powers to maintain his appearance there.

I don't believe the show has ever made any sort of statement about angel vessels NOT growing hair/facial hair. Plus by this point in the series, we really do have to consider that Cas's body, not as much his vessel anymore. Jimmy was long gone, and the last at least two times Cas had been resurrected, that body was also remade for him. We're at least two degrees of remove from that being a normal vessel, so even if angel vessels aren't "supposed to" grow hair or change their appearance, Cas would have an exception asterisk attached. :'D

The thing is, we HAVE seen other angels change the appearance of their vessels. I mean... Lucifer, for one, especially in s13. He grew scruff, looked messy, etc. And it was explained to be a result of having been imprisoned and his grace seriously depleted to the point he couldn't even perform small magical tasks for himself.

So why did Cas grow scruff in Purgatory? Because television is a visual storytelling medium. If you had a friend in real life who usually looked like Cas normally does, and then saw him after months and saw the guy Dean found in Purgatory, what would your immediate thoughts be about how that friend had been doing lately? Did similar thoughts about how Cas's last few months in Purgatory alone, running from Leviathans, staying alive primarily to keep the Leviathans focused on HIM instead of on Dean?

I think the phrase "run ragged" applies to Cas's Purgatory look. Sometimes facial scruff combined with smudged on dirt is the fastest visual shorthand for "yikes this guy has had it rough lately." Hence his "get clean" scene in 8.07 restoring him entirely to "normal," including clean-shaven and a decent haircut somehow. I think he'd been entirely able to have given himself that look in Purgatory, but he just never bothered to. For whatever reason, Dean did bother. And that was part of the visual narrative telling us that Dean still cared, and that Cas (outside of his mission of keeping the leviathan away from Dean) didn't.

Like, even when Cas was human in early s9, when he was on the run and homeless, even when he was given opportunity to shave his scruff (at the beginning of the episode while brushing his teeth, and at the end after showering at the bunker and before being kicked out) he still retained the scruff. The next time we saw him in 9.06, when he was settling into his "new human life" as a sales associate, even though we understand he's still technically homeless, he's actually maintaining his appearance, demonstrated by his care for himself and the fact he bothered to shave. For him, it was a visual signifier of his growing to accept himself.

To go way back up to that video above, in the makeup trailer are dozens of photos of different looks for each of them. Yes, some are purely silly, but even as shown in 6.15 The French Mistake (the "I'm a painted whore!" scene) are a few similar continuity photos. Every day of filming, every change to makeup and hair (including FX makeup showing wounds, bruises, etc.) has to be documented for the sake of continuity. Or you'd have an episode with alternating scenes of them having longer/shorter/longer facial hair over the course of what's supposed to be a single day on screen. The easiest way to maintain that continuity is character consistency, only having a drastically different look occasionally, for a specific reason.

So why couldn't they have chosen to go with a beard for an entire season? It's just as easy to maintain beard consistency day to day on set as it is to just have them shave to scruff, right? Crowley did that... he was clean-shaven the first few seasons he was on the show, and then grew the beard, so why not Sam and Dean?

As I said above, the visual language of the show actually means something. These aren't real people who might casually decide to grow facial hair for fashion reasons. They're fictional characters being used to tell a specific story. Their appearance and their clothing choices are visual shorthand to give us information about their current mental state, their internal priorities, etc. It's all part of the story, and in this story, Sam and Dean generally care enough to maintain their chosen physical appearance. They only seem to grow beards when they're either being run ragged or otherwise lack the ability to care for themselves, whether by choice or by circumstance.

I think it's less "they were not allowed to grow beards" and more "this would not be in character in the visual language of the show."

[vinceaddams]

obvs feel free to keep this private, but I got recommended the UFH channel by a friend of mine, haven't gotten around to watching anything from it. I trust your judgement on the content, but my friend considers it her main resource 🙃 of course, since you only watched a few videos you might not be able to answer this, but was there any specific really bad/unacademic approaches I should keep my eye out for that my friend might have adopted? we work on a historical festival together so im concern

(I was going to answer this privately but then it got really long and turned into a post I want to post.)

Oh dear! Well, It appears that the lady behind that channel only cares about the 20th century, so maaybe she’s got good stuff on the 20th century at least? I don’t know, but the 2 videos that I saw were so incredibly awful that I’m highly suspicious of all her stuff. 

The first bad thing about her channel is that her videos all have a one or two sentence caption and nothing else. (I clicked on a few more just to check) No sources listed, no links of any kind except to her merch store. I don’t recall her mentioning any particular sources for any of the things she said in the videos either, she just declared them very matter of factly. 

Good historians cite sources! Bernadette Banners’ video on the history of PPE has so many source links she ran out of room in the description box and had to put the rest of them on a page on her website.  (Oh poo, now I feel a bit bad because I love Karolina Zebrowska but she really needs to do better with leaving source links. But she does talk about doing research, talk in a more nuanced way, and doesn’t present herself as an expert or academic, unlike the UFH lady.)

Good historians also embrace nuance, and aren’t afraid to say “I don’t know” or “I was wrong”. Presenting things in a “this person did this one big thing, and then this happened, and that caused this” kind of way isn’t good because history is more like “all these things happened and as far as we can tell it appears to have influenced this, which was also connected to this other stuff that we don’t know all that much about”. History is foggy and complicated, no matter how much the general public wants it to be simple.

Her description of herself also seems a bit... misleading? In her about page on youtube it says “Amanda Hallay, a college professor specializing in fashion, costume, and cultural history.” but if you look at the CV linked on her website the only degrees she has are in creative writing and art history. I’m not saying a person can’t be really knowledgable about something without a degree, but her whole online presence is about being a “professor” who teaches this stuff so I find it weird.

And if the 1850′s-60s video is anything to go by, she presents things in a shockingly unprofessional way. She starts off by saying she thinks these fashions are ugly and ridiculous and that she has some “theories of her own” on them. @marzipanandminutiae has a post with a lot more about what was wrong with that video, and a few others I haven’t seen. She claims that hoop skirts were oppressive cages when in reality they were a liberating garment that allowed women to achieve full skirts without the heavy layered petticoats they wore previously. 

She posts a photo of a naked lady and says “Now lets start with a beautiful naked lady and cover her up with ugly and unflattering clothes. Now this sexy naked lady isn’t so sexy” I wish I was making this up but that’s almost word for word what she said. Along with a whole lot of untrue or exaggerated stuff about Victorian modesty. She says dresses with layered flounces were called “pagoda dresses”, which isn’t a term that anyone has ever used for those dresses. She says this is cut down from a longer video she uses for teaching class, and I find the thought of this being presented in a classroom quite appalling.

After spending about 95% of the video talking about womens fashion in an extremely condescending and disdainful tone of voice, she posts what appear to be the 5 biggest and most extreme examples of 19th century moustaches she could find, presenting them as if they were what every man looked like.

This part really grinds my gears, because she says “I haven’t said anything about menswear because there’s really not much to say.” She posts photos of suits from 5 different decades and says they’re basically all the same, and also basically the same as a modern suit. Excuse you, there is A LOT of difference between menswear of the 1850′s and the 1890′s. Yes the changes over the decades are more subtle, and the colours are often more subdued than in centuries past, but it is absolutely not (as she claims) “the century when men stopped doing fashion”.   I personally am not hugely interested in 19th century mens fashion, and can tentatively date things in the first few decades but after the middle of the century I can’t. But people who are interested and who study that era can tell the decades apart. Because they’re different. And there is SO MUCH to talk about! Suits for different levels of formality, accessories, waistcoats, sportswear, sleepwear, knitwear, swimsuits, loungewear, underwear, etc. are all extremely different from their modern equivalents. 

It’s perfectly fine to only study womens fashion if that’s what you’re interested in, but it is not okay to then declare that the history of mens fashion is worthless and nonexistent. Simply not being interested in a thing is no excuse for publicly shitting all over it. (I’ve seen people do this more than once. We already have so few men who do historical fashion stuff! Stop putting off newcomers who might be interested!!)

The fact that her online presence is so closed off is also highly unusual. Comments are turned off for her videos, and the only social media link she has is to a private facebook group. (There is also a link to a fb page, but it appears to have been deleted.) Turning off comments is of course the personal choice of the one posting the videos, but the fashion history side of youtube usually tends towards pretty decent comment threads, and people often have nice little discussions and learn stuff in them. Here it looks like she doesn’t want discussion, doesn’t want to be contradicted or asked for sources, doesn’t want to learn new things.

I had never even heard of this channel until I saw @marzipanandminutiae mention it, nor have I ever heard any of the many historical costumers/youtubers I follow mention it, yet somehow it has 55k followers? I don’t know the demographics that watch it (especially not with the comments turned off!) but I’d wager that videos like the 1850′s-60′s one I suffered through are mainly watched by people who like hearing things trash talked, rather than people who actually want to learn about fashion history. The same sort of people who loved that Beau Brummell twitter thread, which was also full of lies and unsourced garbage. People like to believe the past was way worse and grosser than it was because it makes them feel like we’re smarter and better now.

Lastly, the whole premise of the channel is just bad. Calling any one thing “The Ultimate Fashion History” is a bad idea. Her channel trailer says “Youtube’s number one channel for original fashion history content” “we’ve got it all, fifty thousand years of fashion history”. You can’t have one channel that’s the ultimate resource for ALL of fashion history! It’s a huge, HUGE subject, and even if she did do actual good research she’d barely be able to scratch the surface of fifty thousand years. That’s like saying one channel is the ultimate source for all of science, or all of music, or all of cooking. No one thing can come close to covering all of it. I will deign to admit that she’s at least right to call it “original”, because she has some very original lies I haven’t found anywhere else. 

Most people who study fashion history/historical sewing have one or several eras they like best and find most interesting, perhaps with occasional jaunts into other eras. This way we can focus and get a much better understanding of the eras that we find most interesting, rather than just a vague notion of everything. 

For example: I’m most interested in 18th century menswear, and so far have mainly researched and sewn 1785-95 stuff, and more recently some 1730′s. I usually focus on fashionable civilian clothing, so I don’t know as much about working class clothes, and next to nothing about military and other occupational dress. Even with this narrow area of interest, which I’ve been obsessed with for many years, I still have so much to learn! I could never make anything claiming to be the ultimate source for 18th century menswear, because I’m just one person focusing on some aspects, and there are other people out there who research other aspects of it and their work is just as important. It’s all so big and so much, even if you narrow it down to one era.

Amanda Hallay is basically holding up a bucket of saltwater and calling it the ocean.

I haven’t watched any of her 20th century videos, so maybe they’re better than the older ones I watched. I don’t know. (But even if they’re actually good they still don’t have source links.) Edit: okay, nope, turns out they’re just as bad! They appear to make up the vast majority of her videos, so if she’s most interested in the 20th century then maybe she should just... make her channel more clearly 20th century focused instead of trying to paint it as a channel for all eras?

TL;DR, the main bad things about that channel are:

Lying and making ridiculous claims, not citing ANY sources. Spouting easily debunked myths.

Stating things matter of factly without any nuance, even though history is foggy and complicated.

Being extremely judgemental about historical fashions and talking about how much she hates them and thinks they’re ugly, which really isn’t appropriate for a fashion history teacher. You can hear the disgust in her voice and it’s awful and I hate it.

Comments turned off on all her videos, leaving no way to communicate or have public discussions. Unknowing viewers are left to accept her statements as fact without any outside opinions.

Claiming one channel is the ultimate channel for an incalculably enormous subject. Says it covers 50,000 years of fashion history when it’s mostly just the 20th century.

I would like to add that I am not what I would consider an expert either, and have no formal education in fashion history beyond the one college class that was part of my 2 year sewing course. I have learned mainly from books and the internet, and as I said earlier I still have a huge amount to learn. I’m sure a more knowledgable historian could put things better than I have. 

But I’m confident in stating that primary sources are needed to back up a claim! Sometimes even widely accepted beliefs turn out to be entirely unfounded myths, like that one about doctors using vibrators to treat “hysteria”. Total nonsense someone made up in 1999.

Wow this post got way longer than intended. Anyways, yes, I do not like condescending slideshow lady.

[kyotakumrau]

2020.12.21 The World You Live In at Zepp Tokyo, 2nd event report

Fujieda again started with greetings, introduced himself and Takabayashi and then asked for applause for the band members.

And we got quite a surprise!

Kaoru and Toshiya came on stage!

Thus making Tokyo the only place where band members changed for each slot/session. As much as I'd love to see Kyo again I was happy as my friend only went to Tokyo and she's Toshiya's fan😊

F: please introduce yourself.

Kaoru: you already did lol. I'm Kaoru.

T: I'm Toshiya.

F: the last video you just watched was different from other sessions. The trailer for the concert film screenings that will start from February. It's something only you know right now. As you can imagine from the title it will be something similar to this, with the band members coming for the talk after.

K talked a bit about the situation as well.

T: it's still difficult to hold concerts, but this is something we can do. So I hope you will look forward to it.

Next F started the 'merch items introduction corner', he passed the items to the members.

K: I was watching the 1st slot and we talked about them in Osaka, too. (he talked more about the items and what members said)

F: yes, everything can fit in the pouch so it's a very useful item. You can buy all merch items and put then in the pouch and take home like that. Let's look at Toshiya's big pick key chains (he pronunced that very carefully😂)

They talked about members signs and company logos when suddenly K requested to have to lights in the venue set brighter so he could see everyone.

After that F announced they wil start with questions from the fans, passed the part of papers to others, but K gave his to F saying it's better if he chooses.

T: ok, I have a good one! 'It was Die's birthday yesterday, did you send him a birthday message? And are there any memorable presents you've received in the past?'

T: I got a bicycle. I was really happy at first, but then it was stolen from the parking area.

F: when was it?

T (I didn't catch it but from the context it must have been quite early on in their career)

F: during the tour?

T: yeah, we were always giving each other something for our birthdays, every year, but as years passed it got more difficult to choose something good and we then just stopped.

F: how about you, K?

K: I got a Mickey Mouse, about this size (he showed us with his hand, about 1m tall).

F: 'how do you deal with feeling tired?'

K: I go for a massage.

F: only during the tour?

K: anytime.

F: when the most? When writing songs?

K (laughing): but we're always writing songs

T: for me it's sauna.

F: do you often go when just staying at home?

T: for example after the gym

Ta: 'what did you eat most often during the stay at home period?'

K: ...what did I eat, what about you, Tooru?

Ta: sausages.

The whole venue kinda rotfled 🤣🤣🤣

F: that's cute😆

Ta: it's something I can usually only eat at home.

K: ...something I was really into...(still thinking)....(thinking)

F: for me it was Jiro-ken ramen.

T: at home?! So you weren't really staying at home?

F: I gained some weight after the overseas tour. I started to diet then, and one day a week, a cheat day, I could eat whatever I wanted. My cheat choice was Jiro, either at the restaurants or to take away.

K: ...what was it for me...

F: maybe nabe you talked about before? (in Osaka)

K wasn't impressed 😆

T: canned mackerel for me.

F: for when you drink etc? No, just like that?

They all laughed here a bit.

Suddenly K jumped in with a new topic.

K: in Osaka you talked about the theme behind Kyo's outfit, you said it was pink but he pointed his green hair as the main point.

F: that was difficult.

K: tbh I also thought the main idea was pink (he also talked about Kyo's use of Kansai dialect)

T: 'what were you able to do after becoming an adult?'

F: there's a lot of food people start eating when they grow up.

T: food topic again? 😆

F: for example for me it was raisins.

T: as I get older I can drink more. When we just debuted I couldn't drink at all.

F: drinking wine?

T: おっさんだから・'cause I'm an old guy.

K started talking about the food he couldn't handle when he was small but the next question kinda made me forget it 😅

' 'wet cat food is actually quite good, have you ever tried?'

F: I have a cat and sometimes when I give my cat wet food some will get on my fingers. I'd just lick it. You know some of it, the mackerel or tuna, it looks so good.

T: please send me a video when you eat cat food next time.

😂

(but to be fair most of canned cat food in Japan is 100% fish🤷‍♀️)

K: 'when you can tour again what local specialities do you want to eat?'

F: motsunabe in Fukuoka

T: miso type?

F: of course (if not Shinya would kill him)

K: what did you eat in Sendai?

F: bento

K: in Nagoya?

F: nothing special

T: we had normal bento, but it was miso katsu (Nagoya's style cutlet)

F: but if it's not in a restaurant it's not the same. Anything you want to eat, T?

T: Beki soba from Niigata.

F: have you tried it before?

T: when we went there on a tour, I really like soba.

They talked but more about food, tare katsu, okonomiyaki from Hiro and Jiro again.

T: is Jiro really that good?

F: 😍

K: I've tried it before, but it's (just) okay.

F: it's all about how the noodles taste (type of flour etc)

(more food talk, choosing between salt and tare options)

K: 'what's your favorite onigiri (rice ball)?'

F: how about you, K?

K: I don't eat onigiri.

T: Me also, but if I have to choose it's sujiko/salted salmon roe.

K (about not eating onigiri much): right, you only eat soba.

T then told us the story how much he loved salmon roe even as a child. When he was quite small he went shopping to the local supermarket with his grandmother. When he saw salmon roe in the shop he just started eating it directly from the shelf/container. Of course when his grandmother and supermarket staff found out it got very noisy, but because he was so young it was forgiven.

(back to onigiri topic)

Ta: salmon for me.

F: oh that is nice, I love the most tamago-kake-gohan rice ball (TKG is a very simple, traditional Japanese breakfast dish - just rice with a raw egg eaten with soy sauce, sometimes other toppings), the Newdays chain is selling them

K: the chain operates only in this area, no?

F explained that there are Newdays in other places too, fe Sendai. He also really got into explaining all pros incl the tasty gooey filling inside of the rice ball.

K (imitating F) oh that's nice 😂

F: 'it got so cold recently, what's your favourite season?'

T: spring or fall, I don't hate winter but I definitely don't like summer.

K: fall. (he said as this year wasn't too cold he could go out a bit during breaks)

F: so 2~3 weeks ago was your fav time.

K: here in Tokyo at least.

F: 'as we're staying home much more now do you have a recommended tv series or a channel?' (not just a movie)

K: Cobra kai.

F: ah, you tweeted about it.

K: it will be on Netflix next month, the 3rd season.

K talked about The Karate Kid (Japanese title 'Best Kid').

F: I don't know it.

Ta: me too.

K (shocked): you're serious???

T: I know, of course.

F: 'Best Kid'? 'Best Fit?'

T: just stop it🙃

F: how about your recommendation, T?

T: The BOYS on Prime.

K: I haven't seen it, but it seems interesting.

T: it is! I also like BOSCH. I'm just watching like after work and so on.

After that K talked about how cinema with the capacity reduced by half was nice because you could put your bag on the seat next to you etc, but recently came back to the full house (Demon Slayer did that...)

F: 'how do you feel being in front of people first time in a while?'

T: I'm sorry it has to be done this way

F: don't say that😆

(missed K's reply)

T: it's tiring to be in front of people.

F: but we do it in an interesting way.

T: yeah.

T: 'what's your favourite game? Even including older ones like famicon?'

K: games?

T: Spelunker on Amicon😆

T/K in agreement: where you die so quickly

K: PS5 is so popular, I didn't win.

F: it seems Kyo won once but the information he submitted had a mistake.

K: I applied for Sony's lottery and Big Camera's.

F: you don't want PS5, T?

T: recently I don't play.

K: what about the... what was it Tsushima?

They all reacted with 'ah'

F: what kind of game is it?

K: don't ask me😅 but it looks interesting.

T: it seems to be very popular abroad.

F: 'what's your favourite way to eat ozoni?'

(A new year soup with rice cakes)

Ta: the soy sauce based soup, with grilled mochi.

F: but what ingredients do you add?

K: isn't that way too detailed??

Ta (tries): spring onion etc

K listed grilled mochi, spinach, carrot etc. Then he told us about his family tradition to properly make rice cakes for New year, pounding was so loud even if you wanted to watch tv, you couldn't. But then they had enough for a month.

T: soy sauce style.

F: with miso or?

T: I said soy sauce.

F: what ingredients?

T: rice cakes, spinach, and what is that... (he started to make circles with his hand) ...?

F: naruto?

T (yeah that/nods)

F: in my family we do soy sauce, rice cakes, carrot, fish cakes etc.

K (ignoring F comment that they should finish now, in a teasing way): what about osechi, which dishes do you like?

F: konbu maki or kurikinton.

K: how about you, T?

T: that egg dish that is kinda like this (he gestured the shape again)?

Ta: tatemaki?

F: datemaki!

T: I think it's datemaki.

K: I like that beef roll with carrot and green beans inside (its 牛肉の八幡巻き)

F (making very dreamy face): Aaaaaaah that😍 green beans are so good.

F: ok, thank you all.

K: what about Tooru (Ta)?

F: it's time, sorry.

Last comments.

Toshiya: thank you all for gathering here despite the COVID situation. It's difficult to do concerts now so we tried doing film screenings. In difficult times like this it's not only about the band members, there's our staff and also the venues. I'd love to play concerts again, please wait for us.

Kaoru: it is a difficult situation to share my personal opinion... if we can't do the concerts in a way everyone can enjoy... enjoy, it will affect our relationship of mutual trust. I think this (COVID) situation will continue for some time still, so I think it's better to go with the film screening events. But we will keep checking the situation. Please stay healthy and I hope all of you will come to watch it.

[royallyprincesslilly]

Title: F*** Your Contract {One-Shot}*

Henry Cavill x Famous Reader

Warning: Cursing, Angst, NSFW, Mild Smut, 

Words: 3.1k

Summary: Reader is a successful actress in her own right and has been in a relationship with Henry for the last year. The relationship has been difficult to maintain because the two of you are always on opposite sides of the globe with little to no time to spare for the other. Henry makes a surprise visit out to the set of your sci-fi movie only to find you in a situation he did not expect.

 ***Loosely Edited/Proofread***

🖊🖊🖊🖊🖊🖊🖊🖊🖊

“I miss you so bloody much.”

 You leaned back on the couch you were sitting in and sighed as you rested your head on your hand that was braced on the back of the couch.

 “I miss you too baby.” Henry groaned as he leaned back on the headboard of his bed. He looked amazing. Henry rubbed his chest and your eyes dropped to his very hairy chest. You loved it. your eyes ravaged him slowly. You didn’t even realize when your teeth sunk into your bottom lip.

 “Don’t look at me like that love, please.”

 You smiled and shook your head. “Can’t take it?”

 Henry laughed loudly and you smiled at his full-on smile, the one that showed almost all of his teeth. You called it his dork smile. It was one of those smiles that looked like it should come with a snort. You loved it more than anything.

 “I think you know the answer to that. It’s been what, two months?”

 “Almost.”

 He groaned and hit his head back on the headboard, sank down just a bit then bit his bottom lip. “Wanna go in the bedroom?” You snorted from the way he rose his eyebrows. It gave him the most delightful mischievous look. A look you knew he gave plenty of times as a boy.

 “Why?”

“Well, I just thought you’d want to get more comfortable as you get more naked.”

 Again, you laughed loudly and shook your head. “I don’t know what kind of woman you think I am, but I don’t just get named over FaceTime. There has to be a reason.”

 Henry pouted and gave you the sad puppy dog eyes. You almost felt sorry for him—almost.

 “I thought helping out your poor, lonely, affection, attention and love deprived boyfriend get through the next month or two of separation would be something you’d be open to.”

 You gave a look as if you were thinking about it. “Hmm, okay, I mean it doesn’t sound like a bad job, but there is just one thing. If I go in that bedroom, get naked and comfortable for my poor, lonely, affection, attention and love deprived boyfriend; what’s in it for me?”

 The camera slowly scanned his muscular bare chest down to his impressively defined abs. your jaw dropped as you gawked at his beauty. He was gorgeous, he knew it and you knew it. for a brief second the camera fell to his lap where you saw a noticeable bulge that made your mouth water. The next thing you saw was Henry’s face which was decorated with a smirk. He knew just what he did.

 “Yep. Going to the bedroom now.”

 You got up from the couch and made your way through your hotel room to the bedroom. Once inside you arranged the pillows at the foot of the bed and placed your iPad before them using them as a wall to angle the device. When you climbed in you adjusted it to ensure he had the perfect view.

 “There you are beautiful.” His smile was the best thing you’d ever seen, and it reminded you how much you loved him.

 The night was spent using FaceTime for just what it was meant for—human connection of the most intimate kind.

 Two weeks later the two of you had barely had any time to make your planned FaceTime dates. His filming schedule picked up and yours went haywire. You missed him. The number of times the two of you missed each other with your attempts to talk was crazy, either you were asleep when he called or he was in the middle of a scene, or even the service connection was bad thanks to him being on location. You both were getting antsy to see the other.

 “Is your head in the game Y/N?” You shook your head and looked at your costar Tyler whose smile was wide. He was a cutie.

 “Hey Tyler, yeah. Is yours? The most intense scene of the movie.”

 He shrugged then fanned you off. “Eh, not that intense for me, more so for you. I have the easy part.”

 He was right. You looked around at the six crew members that would be the only assigned for the particular scene that was being filmed. You’d done a very good job of compartmentalizing things. It was a job and nudity wasn’t really a big deal for you. you shrugged.

 “Eh, it’s just boobs.” Tyler laughed and nodded.

 “You’re right, just boobs. No big deal. We’ve all sucked one.”

 You laughed louder and pinched your lips trying to stop.

 “See, that’s the spirit. A guy like you has sucked more than one I’m sure, just add mine to the list.”

When you first read that there was nudity in the movie you never once hesitated with wanting the role. It was a good script, a chance to work with a great director and you knew the film would do well on release. A minute tops of nudity was no big deal; Emelia Clarke was fully nude for one or more of her scenes in Game of Thrones and she handled it like a boss and looked amazing.

 “All right Y/N, Tyler. Ready?”

 You stood and nodded along with Tyler and walked to the set that was made up for the scene. When Tyler took off his robe he wore a modesty cloth that covered his unmentionables but showed off just how buff he was. You could tell why some girls went crazy over him; you though were immune. You loved, wanted and craved only one man.

Tyler took his place and soon you did as well right on his lap. As you waited for everyone to take their places you got into the mindset of your character for the scene. “I’m sorry,” Tyler began.

 “What? For what?”

 “I know we’re both professionals and can get through this but I’m sorry for what I’m about to do, just the principle.”

 You smirked and nodded. “Apology accepted.”

 “All right, ready Y/N?” You nodded and untied the robe you wore. One of the set workers approached and peeled it off just as you covered your breasts.

 “All right, in 3, 2, 1.”

 At one, you lowered your hands in prep for action and began the scene. Your lips meet in a passionate kiss which prompts both of you to moan. Tyler’s hand raises to your back and claws down your skin to stop at the flesh just before the swell of your ass. You begin grinding on his lap. Suddenly Tyler stands and holds you against him in the air easily supporting your weight. He then plops you on the desk. His lips leave your lips to trail to your neck before kissing along your collar bone. You drop your back onto the desk and arch giving the view of a bridge. You look directly into the camera that is in front of the desk and play up the pleasure your character was supposed to be feeling.

 Just off to the side, you saw Henry watching. The pit of your stomach fell and that was when Tyler cupped your breasts in his hands and dropped his mouth to one of your nipples. Fuck, you thought. The tight clench of Henry’s jaw was hard to miss. He was angry. Closing your eyes, you tried to blot out the image of him in your head and stay in character and in the scene. Tyler moved to your other breast and nipple and you hugged his head to your chest. That was when the rocking started that was to imitate the motions of sex. You panted and moaned as you raked your nails across his back. Tyler kept one hand on your breast as he lost himself to the character and the scene.

 When you heard “cut” Tyler grabbed a robe from one of the set workers and covered you first. “Thanks.”

 When you sat up Henry was gone. Panic raised in you. “Uh—can we take ten or fifteen please?”

 “Sure, Y/N. Prep for scene thirty-four.” You nodded and scooted off the desk while putting on the robe. You hurried to your slippers and quickly walked off the set and looked around. You didn’t see him anywhere. He could have left and after nearly ten minutes you began to think he had. when you opened your trailer door and stepped inside there he was with his back turned. you didn’t know if you should run and throw your arms around him and tell him how much you missed him and loved him or apologize profusely.  Before you made a decision he turned and the anger in his eyes was so clear that you knew this was the beginning of a fight.

 “What the bloody hell Y/N!”

 “Calm down,” you began.

 “Calm down? You’re kidding me. I just walked in on you having sex with your co-star.”

 “Sex, really Henry that’s a big exaggeration.”

 “Is it? Your nipples were in his mouth, his hands were on your breasts. What the fuck was that?”

 You hadn’t gotten around to going into detail about the sex scene. When you told him about the movie you mentioned there was a sex scene but eluded that it was a mild one.

 “That was anything but mild. That was porn!” He was angry and you knew his anger was rising.

 “Okay I’m sorry, I should have been straight with you about how graphic the scene was. I just knew it would make you uncomfortable.”

 “Uncomfortable would be knowing you’re filming a sex scene; this was way past uncomfortable. Do you know what it feels like to see that?”

 You took a few steps to him, but he stepped aside not allowing you near him. “No. you are not going to try to make this go away like you do everything. Do you know what it feels like?”

 “Henry, this is my job. It’s your job too. I don’t go off the rails when you have to shoot scenes like this. I’m sure in The Witcher has scenes like this, I’ve played the video game and I was at the screening for the first season.”

 “That is completely different. I told you everything about that. I gave you a play by play of what to expect. You were not left wondering anything or surprised by anything. That—that was a surprise Y/N!”

 “It’s in my contract,” you blurted out.

 “Fuck your contract!” His voice boomed off the walls of your trailer and you knew whoever passed could hear.

 He was right. You should have told him. you didn’t expect him to be in the audience watching. You didn’t expect to see him for another few weeks. How were you supposed to prepare for him to walk in? You sighed, closed your eyes and tried to think of a way to make this better. When you looked at him you could see how furious he was. There were levels to Henry’s anger. There was being bothered, being annoyed, pissed, angry and downright seething. He was seething.

 Slowly you approached him as if walking to a skittish deer who would bolt at any second. You had to take this slow if you had any hope of smoothing this over.

“Baby,” you softly began getting closer. When you were a few inches from him you stopped. It was a strategy.

 “Look, I know I should have told you exactly what the scene was, I should have, and I didn’t. I’m sorry.” Slowly his eyes met yours, he searched yours for any hint of a lie.

 “Is there something going on with you and him?”

 “What! No. Oh my god, no baby. Tyler and I are just friends, costars. There is nothing there. You and me, we’re real.” You closed the space between you and clasped his face in your hands. “You mean everything to me. You and only you. I love you, Henry.”

 It killed you that this one omission had him questioning you. “Tell me you get that.” He shook his head and stepped back from you, again creating space.

 “Y/N, I—I can’t be here right now. You’re touching me and I hear your words, I do, but I can’t just forget what I saw.”

 You stepped closer again, it had him stumbling back to sit on the couch there. You took the opportunity to straddle him and press your lips to his in the same breath. He moaned and tried to push you away but instead, he pulled you closer and intensified the kiss. Soon his lips were battling yours and his tongue was wrestling yours into obedience. Your moans mingled together, and chaos ensued with the both of you ripping layer after layer of clothing from his body. When he was finally naked he pushed the robe off of you and threw you over the couch. You panted in anticipation for what you knew was to come.

Henry slammed into you pulling a scream from your throat. It had been months since you’d been together like this. He didn’t wait for you to adjust to him, he snapped his hips forward again and set the pace early letting you know just what this was. He was angry, he was trying to get it out but wrestled with his love and need for you. when you tried to throw your backside back onto him he pushed you down onto the couch restricting your actions. He held your hips in place and plowed into you with bruising thrusts that turned into fast and shallow storks. You couldn’t keep up and gripped the back of the couch hoping it was enough to hold you together as he tried to rip you apart.

 “Fuck! Are you mind Y/N?”

 “Yours!”

 “Do you deserve it?”

 “Yes baby, I deserve it. Fuck me!”

 Henry didn’t need to be told twice. The pace in which he fucked you increased and the force behind his thrusts was giving you whiplash. You moaned and screeched and held on for dear life.

 “What’s my name?”

 “Baby.”

 “What’s my name Y/N!”

 “Henry.”

 “I can’t hear you.”

 “Henry! Fuck!” You didn’t care how loud you were at this point, everything he was doing felt too good.

 Henry grunted loudly once, then twice and you felt his release, even as he released his thrusts didn’t slow down for several minutes. Then he pulled from you and dropped onto the couch panting. You moaned and already felt the soreness from the pounding he’d just delivered.

 “Baby.” You touched his cheek and felt his jaw clench.

 “I need to clear my head Y/N.” He stood and dressed in silence then walked out of your trailer. He was definitely still seething, and you had no idea what you would do or how to make it right.

 You tried your best to finish the day on set and tried to remain present and focused, but it was difficult. Everyone could tell you were distracted, but no one brought anything up. you kept an eye out for Henry, but he didn’t come back and you were worried. Between takes you called him and left him two messages, both of them apologizing and reminding him how much you loved him. you knew he knew it but what else were you supposed to say.

 When you left set it was nearing two in the morning and you were exhausted. The drive to your hotel was not a long one. You stared at your phone the entire time fighting the urge to call him yet again. You knew when he was this angry calls and texts were not his priority. He needed to cool down. He hated arguing and went out of his way to prevent arguments and defuse the situation. Usually it meant he walked off and left you be for a few hours. This was different though; he’d seen another man with your nipple in his mouth. It wasn’t something he was prepped for either. You knew it was a major blow to the ego. You hated seeing the video of his sex scenes and made it a point never to be anywhere near when he filmed them.

 When you got off the elevator on the floor of your penthouse you felt horrible. Hoping a shower would help, you immediately got in and washed the day away and used the hot water and steam to relieve some of the stress and tension that was in your body. An hour later you only felt a little better. As you checked your phone you groaned seeing not one message from Henry. It was now almost four in the morning. He could have gotten back on a plane and left town for all you knew. Angrily you called him and rolled your eyes when it went to voicemail.

 “Look, I get you’re pissed at me and you didn’t want to see what you did and it’s my fault you did but it’s not fair to ignore me all day Henry. It’s been hours. I don’t know where you are, I don’t know if you’re hurt. This is not okay.” You ended the call and tossed your phone to the side and dropped onto the bed and sighed out.

 You heard the chime of the door and walked through the penthouse to the door. When you opened it there he stood with his elbows braced on the sides with his head hung. When his eyes met yours, you could tell he’d had a few drinks, but you also saw sadness and vulnerability.

 “I’m sorry,” Henry began. Those words melted away any annoyance you felt. You stepped to him and threw your arms around him holding him close. He slightly bent and lifted you into his arms. With your legs wrapped around him, he walked inside and to a seat.

 “I’m sorry baby. I should have told you. I’m sorry,” you expressed.

 “I was jealous—am jealous.  To see someone touch you like that, be like that—it cut me up. I love you Y/N. you have to know that.”

 “I know baby, I love you too. It’s only you for me. You have to know that. I don’t care about anyone else.” After searching your eyes for a few seconds, he nodded and rested his forehead on your chest and sighed out.

 “I’m a jealous man,” Henry finished.

 “You have no reason to be. You have me, all of me—for as long as you want me.”

 His eyes locked with yours and he caressed your cheek before he spoke.

 “Forever.”

 You smiled and softly kissed him. “Let’s go to the bedroom,” you whispered. Henry smiled and gave you a rakish look that had your belly doing backflips before he stood and carried you to the bedroom.

[disney-rapunzel-merida-vanellope]

Predictions, speculations rumors and hopes for Spider-Man no way home

Cause I’m so excited!!!!

(To comeback to this once we have footage and then once the movie is out and watched)

- Both Andrew and Tobey will appear as their Spider-Man versions. I’m sure of it. I want them to have more screentime than iron man did in homecoming but not enough to overshadow tom’s spidey. Idk what’s a good balance. I kinda feel like in spiderverse, miles was way to overshadowed by the other spider people.

- It’s a sinister 6 movie. Doctor octopus and electro are back. Misterio was not confirmed dead. The Scorpio was teased in homecoming. I think that 3 spideys is enough to fight 6 villains. I heard the sinister 6 members varies sometimes in the comics and the mcu is known for having teams will different members than the ones in the comics but we’ll see. I wasn’t at all counting on the vulture to comeback, but I found out yesterday about Adrian on the vampire movie trailer so now I’m counting on him. Liz gonna be so disappointed in you old man

- Some people are saying that mj or ned will die... I think the movie will be way to dark for that and it’s already crowded af with the 3 spideys and at least 2 confirmed villains. But then I thought about aunt may... people complain a lot about the absence of uncle Ben or how it was a plot given to tony but what if marvel switches it for aunt may?????? I’m not ready

- Other rumors include Ned being transformed in whatever he becomes in the comics.... but this also just seems way too much for the movie.

- At first I was thinking that Peter was gonna be transported to tobey’s world where he is fighting doctor oc and then andrew’s world were he is fighting electro but I think they will do like spiderverse and everything will happen in the mcu dimension

- Daredevil will appear, for court scenes

- Doctor strange will have more screentime than he did in ragnarok but not as much as tony in homecoming

- Peter’s identity reveal as Spider-Man will be shown to us handled by the school via a midtown high news will all the main classmates being interview and shit kagdiegfidgfkdjod can’t wait for flash’s reaction!!! I wish they’d show us Liz but I don’t think she will appear

- This movie better be long and I mean at least 2h30min long. AT LEAST

- Tom said this was the most ambitious solo superhero movie ever. In my opinion, that title presently belongs to Captain America civil war, so I’m freaking excited!!

- The movie will start with a villain scene like the previous ones. I love how the mcu spidey movies always start with the villain. Then, after the marvel logo, it will pick up right where the credits scene left of cause I think someone shared a photo of the set that had that lamp post

- Some people are saying he will get a new suit, but I’m not sure.

- The movie is set during Christmas. So, if the movie starts of where it left, then we will either see a time jump of some months, or the movie will progress fast. I don’t want a time jump cause I wanna see Peter deal with the consequences of not having a secret identity

- Which brings me to the next point: I don’t want the identity reveal to be erased. I don’t want time travel, mind erasing, illusions. I really want this identity reveal to be serious in his life. I also don’t want the movie to be mostly set on other realities. I want the characters to come to his. But I mean.... it’s called no way home so he will most likely spend a big part of the movie trying to get home aka his dimension......

- also... what does that mean for mj and ned’s screentime?? I want quality trio scenes

- Some rumors said kristen’s mj and Emma’s Gwen will be back and as much as I want Gwen back I don’t think this rumor is true... not even because she’s dead, cause electro will comeback with a completely new design so gwen might still be alive in that dimension but I don’t think they will be in the movie

- I think it would made sense to include prom and graduation in the last movie but idk since that would make the movie take place during a whole year since I expect it to begin where it left of in the summer vacation time and we know for sure about Christmas time scenes. Maybe this one won’t be the last mcu spidey movie... I’m praying

- I hope happy is in this! I loved his relationship with may and Peter

- It would make a lot of sense for pepper to appear but the actress is done with the mcu so..... this is the problem with many marvel movies that we have to accept. Some actors just don’t wanna participate in more than 1 movie and some have been doing this for so long that they don’t wanna do it anymore. It’s understandable but so frustrating sometimes 😭😭😭

- The people in the movie will be devided between team spidey and team misterio (also proven by set pics)

- I can totally see this "who side are you on" being played in a news montage. And mister Del Mar being interview cause he knows Peter and he’s been saved by Spider-Man

- Some people are saying flash is going to have a bigger role and I hope

- I hope brad appears. He’s the real villain of far from home

- I want this movie to be action packed. I imagine it like infinity war where stuff happens and the heroes react. Like a ton of action from start to finish.

- some rumors explained why electro isn’t gonna be blue by saying cause he is todey’s electro and not andrew’s

- I watched a YouTube video about a leak from someone saw the storyboards. The beginning was very solid but then it got just too weird for me to believe. But they said Peter will go to the New York sanctum (?) in search of a spell to rever the identity thing and doctor strange doesn’t have such thing so he tells him to get a lawyer. This makes me believe that those photos already released of the trio, Peter, mj and Ned, are in this part of the movie. Maybe they arrive at the sanctum and search a lawyer on the computer. Tho idk if the location looks like a sanctum to me.... some people were thinking Hawkeye’s basement or something but I don’t think so

I think this is all I can think about rn.

I’m super excited for the movie.

I’ll probably keep updating this as long as we get rumors or news or footage and eventually the movie, just to see how right or wrong I was in the end

The movie comes out in December, meaning 8 years after I first watched the amazing spider man. We’ve come a looooong way