#the full song is sad but this verse was so much more just

[stanfordsweater]

secret santa for @alulaspeaks ♡ an ode to season eleven x the national

all that matters now, all that's ever mattered, is that we're together. so, shut up and drink a beer.

[dwonfilm]

There’s no life after you. | Dean Winchester x Reader (one-shot)

Summary: Dean felt like he had no other option than to push [Y/N] out of his life completely. When he and Sam find a case in her hometown, he’s hit with all of the emotions he’d tried for so long to bury.

Warnings: swearing, mild-angst, mostly sadness and ending with fluff.

Pairing: Dean Winchester x Reader

Flashbacks are in bold.

Dean and Sam had found a case in Reno, Nevada—a city that had a lot of memories particularly for the older Winchester. Sure they’d worked a dozen or more cases around here over the years but that wasn’t the type of memories that kept playing on his mind. He only wished it was that simple. Sam had opted to take the backseat, needing some extra rest on the drive and Dean usually drove his precious ‘67 impala anyway. Ever since they’d found this case, the eldest Winchester was uneasy. Not because it was anything special, from the details online it seemed like it was just another vamps nest—maybe even just a handful travelling together.

No, what began to plague his mind was something that cut much deeper than that. All he could think about was you.

It had been roughly two years since he’d last seen you. Every other second of the last year and half had been him fighting the urge to reach out, knowing two things for certain. One: you’d be far better off without him holding you down. Two: even if that wasn’t the case, he’d really hurt you the last time you spoke and despite how much he missed you.. you’d likely never speak to him again—but that’s what he’d wanted right? You to move on, you to live a life that wasn’t plagued by the dangers of all things supernatural. Find a good man, a normal man, settle down.. get married and have kids. Not have to worry about tending to someone who had spent his entire life broken. Shaking his head to try and rid himself of these thoughts, it seemed the universe had other plans.

It seemed at some point in the drive his playlist had changed and delved into the ‘divorced dad rock’ side of things—the first few notes of what he recognized as a Daughtry song began to play. Seemingly just as they’d finally crossed the state lines into Nevada, the lyrics began..

“Ten miles from town and I just broke down, spitting out smoke on the side of the road. I’m out here alone, just trying to get home to tell you I was wrong but you already know. Believe me I won’t stop at nothing to see you so I’ve started running.”

Now Dean knew exactly what song this was and it damn sure wasn’t helping with his desperate need to stop thinking about you. He reached out to change the song but when the chorus hit, he stopped and his finger merely hovered above the button.

“All that I’m after is a life full of laughter, as long as I’m laughing with you—and I think that all that still matters is love ever after, after the life we’ve been through. ‘Cause I know there’s no life after you.”

It was as if the song was delivered down by the hand of God himself, which only made the ache in Dean’s heart that much worse. He’d been in pain ever since he left two years prior, but he had no right to be—he knew that. After all, the reason he didn’t have you by his side was because he left. It was because he walked away. Deeply he’d sigh as the next verse again would line up with the exact thought in his head.

“Last time we talked, the night that I walked burns like an iron in the back of my mind. I must have been high, to say you and I, weren’t meant to be and just wasting my time. Oh why did I ever doubt you? You know I would die here without you.”

Death had truly paled in comparison to how he felt seeing the look in your eyes. All of the pain, the hurt as he watched you break in front of his very eyes. You’d been together three years in total, but what you didn’t know—what he refused to tell you is that his worst fear was becoming a reality. Lucifer had threatened you in order to make Dean comply with his demand. He’d figured out the only way to get to the elder Winchester was through you, seeing as Lucifer himself needed Sam for his own personal vendettas. It wasn’t long after this that Dean knew he had to get as far away from you as possible. All the pain and suffering he’d endured in his lifetime would be nothing if your death was due to him. He couldn’t live with that and more importantly, you deserved more than that out of this life.

“All that I’m after is a life full of laughter, as long as I’m laughing with you—and I think that all that still matters is love ever after, after the life we’ve been through. ‘Cause I know there’s no life after you.”

Sam began to stir in the backseat, which he’s caught sight of through the rear view mirror and so Dean quickly changed the station. He’d use Metallica specifically to shift the mood before his brother woke up and started asking too many questions. Questions that Dean wouldn’t have the answers to and he was already battling his mind to keep it all at bay.

Gripping Baby’s wheel tightly in his hands, he’d continue to path to Reno. About fifteen minutes later was when Sam’s eyes actually opened. “Mornin’ sleeping beauty.” Dean said with a (fake) smile on his face. “Ha-ha, very funny. Wait.. how long was I out? Are we in Nevada already?” He asked, rubbing the sleep from his eyes and noting their desert-like surroundings. “I don’t know, hours Sammy. Yeah we’re in Nevada—about an hour or two ‘til Reno.” Just saying the name of the city was enough to have him nervous again. There was a brief bit of silence between the brothers, Sam had a thought on the tip of his tongue but he didn’t know whether he should say it. Dean’s eyes had fixated on the road ahead and he sensed that his younger brother was gonna bring it up—bring you up, he’d always really liked you. Besides that, he could always seem to tell when things were troubling Dean despite his best efforts to hide it. “You know you could-“ Sam started but knowing it was coming, the elder brother immediately shut it down. “Sam, don’t. Please. I can’t and you know that.” Dean’s voice was shaky and that let him know that he’d already been thinking about things far too long. “You’ve been thinking about it. I know you, man. You think I didn’t see the look on your face when I told you we had something in Reno?” He sighed, knowing that his older brother was struggling with this didn’t make him feel good but he also knew it was making Dean feel worse. “Sammy, please.. I don’t wanna talk about it anymore.”

Sam would shake his head but he let it go, rehashing this with Dean while he was attempting to drive wasn’t gonna end well for either of them. Not to mention an hour and a half of odd tension in such a small place wasn’t ideal either. Instead, the younger brother’s eyes averted from the front of the car altogether as he turned to gaze out the window next to him. Sighing partially in relief and partially from the lingering thoughts, Dean would fully place his attention on the road and on the directions to this particular motel. They needed to get in, solve this case and get out before he did something he’d been trying for quite some time not to do.

Surprisingly this case was a little more difficult to follow through on, these vampires were incredibly elusive and their nest wasn’t the easiest to find. However, after a couple days lingering around they finally located the nest and were able to kill the three vamps that had been killing the locals. As it had become part of the job, Sam and Dean went out to a local dive bar to celebrate the victory—but Dean was trying to do more than that. He was trying to drown the lingering thoughts of you with whiskey, swallowing the liquid and letting it gently burn his throat. This would end up having the opposite effect and only made him think of you more. Over the first hour and change the brothers spent at the bar, three separate girls tried to hit on Dean but he didn’t really pay them any mind. Around the two hour mark the elder of the brothers decided he needed some air, getting up and walking outside. Dragging his dominant hand over his face he was doing anything to cling to that last bit of pride that he had. You were better off and he knew that, but every day that had been lost it was eating at him slowly. He needed a distraction and so he walked over to his precious car, getting into the driver’s seat and sighing. One flick of the wrist and the lights would come on, the radio coming in clear as day: it was that goddamn song again.

“You and I, right or wrong, there’s no other one. After this time spent alone it’s hard to believe that a man with sight could be so blind, thinking about the better times.. must’ve been out of my mind. So I’m running back to tell you.”

Again it seemed like the universe had intervened and Dean Winchester was far too drunk to fight it. Tears threatened to spill from his eyes and right now, all that he needed was you. He opened up the driver’s side door and got out just to come face to face with Sam, who had been worried when he couldn’t locate his brother in the bar. “What is it Dean?” He asked, noting the emotional state it was clear he was in—confused but not entirely. It wasn’t like him to be so open with his emotions, but you’d helped him with that. “I need to see her, Sammy. I can’t do this anymore.” There was enough emotion in his voice for his younger brother to know what he meant. Nodding Sam would approach the driver’s side door. “I’m driving, we’re not risking it with you.” Dean normally would protest but right now? All he needed to do was get to you. It didn’t matter how, he just needed to fill the void that he’d put there himself.

“All that I’m after is a life full of laughter, without you god knows what I’d do.”

Dean’s eyes were technically gazing out the window, but that’s not what he saw. His mind was flashing different images in rotation—one happy memory with you followed up by something he’d done to chase your memory away after he’d run away.

“All that I’m after is a life full of laughter, as long as I’m laughing with you and I think that all that still matters is love ever after—after the life we’ve been through. I know there’s no life after you.”

It seemed fast, but it had probably been about thirty minutes of time that had passed. Not that you lived very far at all, if you were even still at the last address the Winchesters had for you—Sam took a longer route hoping that Dean would sober up a little more before talking with you. Anyone would be able to smell the whiskey on him at this moment, but his words needed to be coherent if there was any chance of you hearing him out. It seemed that he had sort of the same idea because even when the impala had pulled into the driveway, he just sat there. “What if she doesn’t wanna talk?” Dean asked, somber tone to his voice as his eyes remained fixated on the front door of what he hoped was still your home. Mind racing almost as fast as his heart. “Dean, if I know anything about [Y/N], she’ll at least listen—even if she’s incredibly pissed and still hurt.” Sam reassured his older brother. Dean sighed again, not wanting to waste another second and also wanting to see have some alcohol in his system for this conversation. Slowly he opened the passenger side door and stepped out onto the asphalt driveway. Gently closing the door, it had still alerted a dog inside the home who was barking just a little bit every couple of seconds. He carried himself up the few cement steps, turning to see the front door closer than ever. Now more memories of the last time he was here were coming back.

“Dean, please.. why are you doing this? You can’t possibly just have stopped loving me, that’s not..” Her sobs were breaking his heart but he knew this was something he had to do. “Why are you walking away from this? From us? After everything we’ve been through.. after the life we’ve built from the ground up.. you’re just throwing it all away.” She felt as if there was a fire in your chest, she’d been sobbing so intensely for what seemed like forever. Mascara and eyeliner were smudged and made a mess of the space underneath her eyes. “Say something, Dean—please.. why are you pushing me away? What did I do?!” Every word became far more intense and the actual words were hard to discern from the sobs. Dean had just been staring at the floor since the words left his mouth. Three years next to her and he never imagined this day would come, but if you died just so Lucifer could get one up on him? He’d never survive. He’d never be able to carry the weight of your death or your blood on his hands—so this was the only way you got to live a long and happy life without him putting you in harm’s way. “[Y/N/N] I.. I just don’t think we were meant to work out. I’m sorry, I just-“ he was cut off by her intense sobs hearing him saying it again. “Please Dean.. don’t do this.. whatever I did wrong, whatever’s not working we can fix it. Please..” She pleaded, voice already hoarse from the crying and the wailing. “Sweetheart you didn’t do anything wrong. It’s me, I’m just, not made out for this relationship stuff.” He’d barely lifted his gaze again to meet her own, but only for a second. Seeing her like that was too hard for his heart to bare. “Why Dean.. please.. it’s been three years. Three years of this and we can talk about it. Whatever it is we can move past it together, don’t you love me anymore?” She sobbed out, arms wrapped around her own chest as Dean looked up to her face and met her gaze one last time. “Honey, I’ll love you ‘til the day I die.” Sighing he turned to walk out the front door, closing it and never looking back. He couldn’t look—his heart had already shattered.

Now here he was again, roughly two years later, taking the last few steps to fully stand at your front door. Lifting his hand which had formed a loose fist, he’d knock three times upon the wooden material of the door. There was no answer and no sign that anyone was home other than the dog barking that he’d heard moments prior. Dean was about to turn and walk back down the pathway when he heard the doorknob turning after the lock clicked out of position. “Do you know how late it is, what do you nee—“ her eyes widened when she realized who had just knocked at her door. “D-Dean.. what are you..” she felt her bottom lip quivering. Dean could tell this was the last thing she’d ever thought would happen. “Hi, sweetheart. I-“ before he could get another word out of his mouth, he was met with a harsh slap to the side of his face. His eyes fell as he collected his thoughts, waiting before speaking again. “I deserve that. I deserve that and so much more. [Y/N/N] I’m so sorry.. I’m so fucking sorry.” He got out, not being able to look back up at her just yet. “You’ve got some kind of nerve showing up here, this late at night.. Dean you broke my heart and you stomped on it to boot. Why do you think after two whole years that I’d listen to whatever the hell you have to say?” It was obvious that there was sadness and hurt laced within her voice, more so than the anger she’s trying to push forward. Slowly his head tilted back into its usual position and his eyes found hers again. “I know there’s no life after you.” It was all he could say in that second and her expression softened, before she’d built the wall back up. “You came all the way to quote a Daughtry song?”

“No, I’m quoting that damn song because for the three days Sam and I have been in Reno I’ve heard it everywhere. My car, in a store, hell in my head—[Y/N] I’ve been trying every day since I left to push your memory from my mind. I wanted so badly to forget about you and know that you were free to have a normal life. I also know that I’ve got no right to stand on your doorstep telling you how much pain I’ve been in since the second I walked out this door two years ago when this whole fucking thing is my fault.” He paused, tears slowly falling as he tried to blink them away. “[Y/N] I was afraid. I was so afraid.. I couldn’t lose you like that-“ Again he was cut off but just by her words this time. “Dean you did lose me, you pushed me away—fuck you pushed me out of your life altogether. You’re absolutely correct, you don’t have any right to stand here talking about your pain. I didn’t eat, I barely slept, for weeks after you left. All I did was lay on that couch and sob. Endlessly. After I couldn’t physically sob any more I thought, there has to be some kind of monster or witch doing this and so I researched for weeks and still barely ate and slept only a fraction more. All I came up with was dead end after dead end and so I finally had to realize the truth.” She sobbed out, pausing to try and steady her own voice. “You chose to leave on your own.” She’d opened her mouth to continue talking but now it was his turn to sob out, which caught her completely off guard. “He made me feel like I had no other choice..”

Now you stood with a perplexed look on your face as tears were streaming down your cheeks. “What.. who-“ before the question could even fully leave her lips, the man she loved began to speak again. “Lucifer. He needed Sammy, you know all that one true vessel shit, so he couldn’t hurt me that way. He knew any threat he put to Sam wouldn’t stick because deep down I knew that Lucifer needed Sam alive and well to complete whatever sick and twisted plan he had thought out.” She felt both her heart and her stomach drop, figuring out exactly where this was going. “[Y/N] he said he’d kill you and not think twice. I couldn’t.. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if you died all because I love you. I wouldn’t be able to breathe knowing that your death was my fault and I’d never get your blood off my hands.” His confidence had wavered, the alcohol mostly wearing off. You sighed, a silence falling over the two of you as you attempted to process what he’d just said. “Dean.. why didn’t you just talk to me? Tell me what he said and we could’ve talked about it.” She asked, the venom gone from her words and a sadness settling over them. “I was scared. I didn’t know how to admit that I was scared especially to you, I’m the one that was supposed to keep you safe. I know that’s not an excuse and I’m not trying to excuse me hurting you like I did—that image of you hugging yourself and crying the hardest I’d ever seen someone cry has haunted me all this time. I never wanna hurt anyone but I damn sure never wanted to hurt you.. at all—let alone like that..”

Again a silence fell between them, it felt like a lifetime between their words and the action she’d finally take. Stepping forward she used both of her hands to cup his face, both having glassy hues due to all the tears. “I forgive you, Dean.” She said almost in a whisper. He felt his heart racing and he eyes searched hers for any sign that this might not be true. Seconds felt like hours but he couldn’t find any sign of deception and instinctively, he plunged forward to connect his lips with her own. It had caught her off guard but she was returning the kiss with an explosion of passion. They chased the other’s lips in a back and forth motion until they both couldn’t breathe. After pushing the limit a little further they’d separate but remain forehead-to-forehead. “I know there’s no life after you.” She spoke in a soft tone before pulling Dean inside of her home and re-locking the door.

[jucyfruit]

Julien Baker Track by Track - An Interview with Apple Music

“Everybody is scared of death or ultimate oblivion, whether you want to admit it or not,” Julien Baker tells Apple Music. “That’s motivated by a fear of uncertainty, of what’s beyond our realm of understanding—whatever it feels like to be dead or before we're born, that liminal space. It's the root of so much escapism.”

On her third full-length, Baker embraces fuller arrangements and a full-band approach, without sacrificing any of the intimacy that galvanised her earlier work. The result is at once a cathartic and unabashedly bleak look at how we distract ourselves from the darkness of voids both large and small, universal and personal.

“It was easier to just write for the means of sifting through personal difficulties,” she says. “There were a lot of paradigm shifts in my understanding of the world in 2019 that were really painful. I think one of the easiest ways to overcome your pain is to assign significance to it. But sometimes, things are awful with no explanation, and to intellectualise them kind of invalidates the realness of the suffering. I just let things be sad.”

Here, the Tennessee singer-songwriter walks us through the album track by track.

Hardline

“It’s more of a confession booth song, which a lot of these are. I feel like whenever I imagine myself in a pulpit, I don't have a lot to say that's honest or useful. And when I imagine myself in a position of disclosing, in order to bring me closer to a person, that's when I have a lot to say.”

Heatwave

“I wrote it about being stuck in traffic and having a full-on panic attack. But what was causing the delay was just this car that had a factory defect and bomb-style exploded. I was like, ‘Man, someone got incinerated. A family maybe.’ The song feels like a fall, but it's born from the second verse where I feel like I'm just walking around with my knees in gravel or whatever the verse in Isaiah happens to be: the willing submission to suffering and then looking around at all these people's suffering, thinking that is a huge obstacle to my faith and my understanding, this insanity and unexplainable hurt that we're trying to heal with ideology instead of action.”

Faith Healer

“I have an addictive personality and I understand it's easy for me to be an escapist with substances because I literally missed being high. That was a real feeling that I felt and a feeling that felt taboo to say outside of conversations with other people in recovery. The more that I looked at the space that was left by substance or compulsion that I've then just filled with something else, the more I realised that this is a recurring problem in my personality. And so many of the things that I thought about myself that were noble or ultimately just my pursuit of knowing God and the nature of God—that craving and obsession is trying to assuage the same pain that alcohol or any prescription medication is.”

Relative Fiction

“The identity that I have worked so hard to cultivate as a good person or a kind person is all basically just my own homespun mythology about myself that I'm trying to use to inspire other people to be kinder to each other. Maybe what's true about me is true about other people, but this song specifically is a ruthless evaluation of myself and what I thought made me principled. It's kind of a fool's errand.”

Crying Wolf

“It's documenting what it feels like to be in a cyclical relationship, particularly with substances. There was a time in my life, for almost a whole year, where it felt like that. I think that is a very real place that a lot of people who struggle with substance use find themselves in, where the resolution of every day is the same and you just can’t seem to make it stick.”

Bloodshot

“The very first line of the song is talking about two intoxicated people—myself being one of them—looking at each other and me having this out-of-body experience, knowing that we are both bringing to our perception of the other what we need the other person to be. That's a really lonely and sad place to be in, the realisation that we're each just kind of sculpting our own mythologies about the world, crafting our narratives.”

Ringside

“I have a few tics that manifest themselves with my anxiety and OCD, and for a long time, I would just straight-up punch myself in the head—and I would do it onstage. It's this extension of physicality from something that's fundamentally compulsive that you can't control. I can't stop myself from doing that, and I feel really embarrassed about it. And for some reason I also can't stop myself from doing other kinds of more complicated self-punishment, like getting into co-dependent relationships and treating each one of those like a lottery ticket. Like, 'Maybe this one will work out.'”

Favor

“I have a friend whose parents live in Jackson, where my parents live. They’re one of my closest friends and they were around for the super dark part of 2019. I'll try to talk to the person who I hurt or I'll try to admit the wrongdoing that I've done. I'll feel so much guilt about it that I'll cry. And then I'll hate that I've cried because now it seems manipulative. I'm self-conscious about looking like I hate myself too much for the wrong things I've done because then I kind of steal the person's right to be angry. I don't want to cry my way out of shit.”

Song in E

“I would rather you shout at me like an equal and allow me to inhabit this imagined persona I have where I'm evil. Because then, if I can confirm that you hate me and that I'm evil and I've failed, then I don't any longer have to deal with the responsibility of trying to be good. I don't any longer have to be saddled with accountability for hurting you as a friend. It’s something not balancing in the arithmetic of my brain, for sin and retribution, for crime and punishment. And it indebts you to a person and ties you to them to be forgiven.”

Repeat

“I tried so hard for so long not to write a tour song, because that's an experience that musicians always write about that's kind of inaccessible to people who don't tour. We were in Germany and I was thinking: Why did I choose this? Why did I choose to rehash the most emotionally loaded parts of my life on a stage in front of people? But that's what rumination is. These are the pains I will continue to experience, on some level, because they're familiar.”

Highlight Reel

“I was in the back of a cab in New York City and I started having a panic attack and I had to get out and walk. The highlight reel that I'm talking about is all of my biggest mistakes, and that part—‘when I die, you can tell me how much is a lie’—is when I retrace things that I have screwed up in my life. I can watch it on an endless loop and I can torture myself that way. Or I can try to extract the lessons, however painful, and just assimilate those into my trying to be better. That sounds kind of corny, but it's really just, what other options do you have except to sit there and stare down all your mistakes every night and every day?”

Ziptie

“I was watching people be restrained with zip ties on the news. It's just such a visceral image of violence to see people put restraints on another human being—on a demonstrator, on a person who is mentally ill, on a person who is just minding their own business, on a person who is being racially profiled. I had a dark, funny thought that's like, what if God could go back and be like, ‘Y'all aren't going to listen.’ Jesus sacrificed himself and everybody in the United States seems to take that as a true fact, and then shoot people in cold blood in the street. I was just like, ‘Why?’ When will you call off the quest to change people that are so horrid to each other?”

(x)

[rainbowdaisy13]

TTPD The Anthology Summary Part 1 *IMO*

This is viewed through a queer lens because I believe she is fucking done playing nice so now she’s throwing it in our faces—FUCKING SEE ME

1) Fortnight—

I was supposed to be sent away but they forgot to come and get me/I was a functioning alcoholic till nobody noticed my new aesthetic

*MIGHTY GOD we start right out the gate sad as hell—no one noticed her queer flagging both quiet and loud and that pushed her from being a functioning alcoholic to a not functioning one. She then says to the fans who refused to acknowledge her truth “I hope that you’re ok but you’re the reason” FOR ME BEING INSANE

*Mentioning wanting to kill people that’s a first and I love it

*I love you it’s ruining my life OUCH 🤕 yes that sounds like something straight people deal with 😑

2) TTPD-

*I’m sorry I can’t remember what mutual said this, but I love love this as coming from Karlie’s perspective. It absolutely fits. She ground Taylor in a way no one else can

*First mention of suicide—both can’t live without the other

*Were crazy—owning the demons together

*The wedding ring line—GOD

3) MBOBHFT—

*I see this one as Taylor viewing herself as a commodity, also as someone who is broken and needs to be fixed so that she remains lovable. It also gives me Cardigan vibes without the redemption arc

4) Down Bad—

*Love this Alien Abduction theme. Melody is even spacey sounding. The entire song uses alien motifs and I adore it. Fave line “they’ll say I’m nuts if I talk about the existence of you” Brilliant 👽 Also the concept of an Out of this World Love

5) So Long London—

*Cool opening—beautiful when they layer her own voice

How much sad did you think I had in me? 😫

*I see this song as a My Tears Ricochet 2. Taylor giving all her youth to someone for free. You say I abandon the ship but I was going down with it—I truly believe she tried and begged them to let her come out for years and she was always shot down—2 graves 1 gun, more murder imagery

*So Long London, so long Big Machine

6) BDILH—

Absolutely beautiful and heartbreaking song

These people only raise you to cage you 😫

*Sarahs and Hannahs/braided hair/church/Elders making decisions—giving cult/LDS vibes

Stay away from her -Elders are yelling this—to who? Taylor? So Taylor needs to stay away from HER interesting

*Shed rather burn it all down than listen to them complain about her sexuality and how it impacts them

My good name, it’s mine alone to disgrace —absolutely shots fired at Scott Swift

*Soliloquies line is incredible—“I’ll never see” is such a burn 😆

*This isn’t a phase, this is who she is!!

*YOU AINT GOTTA PRAY FOR ME!! GET THEM ALL BITCH—SHOW THEIR ASSES

*This is my choice!!

GET 👏🏼 THEM 👏🏼 ALL

NO YOU CANT COME TO THE WEDDING PERIOD

7) FOTS—

*Pretty Baby, much like Babydoll is reserved for women and gay men and theys and thems. We don’t call straight men this 😒

*Fresh out the slammer—realllly trying to get these idiots to understand that she’s felt jailed /caged/trapped

My friends…Watch me daily disappearing 😫 fuck

Wearing Imaginary rings 😫😫😫 Says hello to paper rings says hello to imaginary lockets

*It’s gonna be alright she did her time!! 🥹

8) FLORIDA!!!—

I adore this song—my second fave on the album and absolute fucking banger. So glad Florence agreed to this they makes an amazing duo vocally—main vibes—Florida is the place Taylor wants to go to fucking escape the mess she lives in day to day. Anything goes, everyone is there hiding from something—the law, family, winter—nothing is too weird or unaccepted—and a certain someone has a house there 😎

My friends all smell like weed or little babies 😆

Florence’s verse is chefs kiss—Earl had to die vibes, watching bodies sink into the swamp, just full on misandry I LOVE IT—is that a bad thing to say in a song?? 😆 GET THEM ALL

Also I bet this song made Swifties uncomfortable 😆

FUCK ME UP FLORIDA 🤘🏼🤘🏿🤘🏾

9) Guilty as sin?

The Gay Longing/Gay Sex Song

*Another* suicide reference—but she’s just joking right swifities?

👀

No no that’s fine she just described an orgasm and if she’s not touching the person, let’s assume the pic below ⬇️ is like HEY THIS IS THE SEX IM SPEAKING ABOUT—it’s very much giving The Man pose for getting dome👀

And then the Jesus reference is just chefs kiss—gay sex is seen as sin and unholy by idiots and she said ok then bitch, what if I tell you the sex is so good we ARE what’s holy??

👀

She literally said messy top lip kiss and got away with it like 😆😆😆😆😆😆😆

10) WAOLOM—

I just……this may be my favorite song of hers ever. It’s absolutely incredible in its intensity, rawness, and truth as well as being a banger

Every lyric screams her pain

My bare hands paved their path/you don’t get to tell me about sad/ If you wanted me dead you should’ve just said

I leap from the gallows and I levitate down your street —Witch Imagery again!!

WHOSE AFRAID OF LITTLE OLD ME

👹YOU SHOULD BE 👹

Shots fired again at Scott Swift!! Let’s hear one more joke—they mocked her pain because they truly thought they could convince her she wasn’t gay 🫥

GODDDD 😫

Put narcotics into all of my songs—“a drug or other substance that affects mood or behavior and is consumed for nonmedical purposes, especially one sold illegally—a drug that relieves pain and induces drowsiness, stupor, or insensibility”

SHE SAID I HAVE TO USE MALE PRONOUNS AND FAKE REFERENCES TO MEN IN MY LYRICS SO YOU IDIOTS STAY STUPID AND HAPPY

and that’s why you’re still singing along 😎

Just WOW

Brilliant and Heartbreaking and RAW

🤍🤍🤍 We love you Girl 🤍🤍🤍

[outro-jo]

i don’t understand but i luv u

pairing: hoshi (soonyoung) x reader

type: imagine

warnings: crying, mentions of food, korean language

song inspo: here

a/n: please read info before requesting!

masterlist | info

some said it was weird, your relationship but it made perfect sense to both of you. from the minute you and soonyoung laid eyes on each other everything just stopped and started anew. colors were suddenly brighter and more vivid—well, at least it felt like it. the language barrier did make things harder but soonyoung assured you that it never mattered. he worked harder to communicate with you the best he could and you learned korean as often as you can. it was the distance that hurt the worst at times but despite the hour or day, you always found time for each other. 

luckily, you were able to work it out to see soonyoung before things got crazy with another album release and preparation for another tour. soonyoung was elated to see you again and hold you in his arms. the first day was filled with all the spots in korea he wanted to take you to. all the shops and restaurants that you just had to visit. the following day, surprisingly, he wanted to take you to his parents house to meet them. thankfully, joshua agreed to go to help smooth the language barrier challenges. his parents were to kind and welcoming to you. his mother prepared all of his favorite dishes and insisted you tried them all. you recognized the same warmth in her that soonyoung inherited. his father was more quiet but a sweet presence, opting to observe more than he spoke but he left you with words of approval.

“he thinks you will make a wonderful addition to their family. he wants to make sure you stay well.” joshua translated.

the two weeks went by far too quickly and sadness started to settle in your heart, but soonyoung had one more thing he needed to do before you returned home. with one more full day in south korea, you awoke that morning to a text: “please meet me in our studio.” with directions to the building. you quickly dressed and rushed down the busy streets. after getting lost a few times, you finally found the purple lights that led you right to woozi’s studio. soonyoung greeted you with a hug and ushered you to sit in the seat woozi gave up for you to sit in. the studio that once held woozi, vernon, minghao, and wonwoo emptied until it was just you and your boyfriend. across from you, soonyoung pulled up another chair, holding a note pad in one of his hands.

“baby, i want to play you this song. you inspired it.” he told you. 

“나는 기다릴 수 없어” (i can’t wait) you said showing him you had been practicing just as much as he was.

soonyoung gave a shy smile and looked down to the floor. he cleared his throat and set the computer screen up to play. the notebook he had was handed to you and you could see all the writing, what you assumed to be lyrics and your boyfriend filled the studio with his song.

a guitar riff slowly faded in followed by a steady beat. five seconds in and you could already tell it was a beautiful song. you recognized your boyfriend’s soft voice leading the first verse and read along with him. 

“When I saw you, on frozen space, heightened senses. When I only see you, my heart gets jealous of, even my eyes…” 

it was perfect. a song that of course was how he was feeling but something that articulated your feelings just as well. soon you noticed tears staining the lyric sheet below you, not even realizing you were crying. your heart swelled along with the music and you found yourself singing along with the catchy chorus. how did you manage to find someone so different from you with hurdles that would divide some couples, but it was the person you knew you were meant for. as the song ended, you noticed you were sobbing and finally looked up to soonyoung who was crying too.

“it’s so good, baby. i love it.” you cried before he pulled you into his arms. 

soonyoung pressed kisses to your temple and held you close to him. “i love you.”

“나도 사랑해요” (i love you too) you echoed his sentiments.

soonyoung did everything in his power to make the rest of the day special for you and the two of you shared a tearful good bye the next day. after you boarded the plane, you noticed there was an email in your inbox. 

“i’m always with you.” 🐯

you put in your earbuds and clicked on the audio file. the song soonyoung had written started playing in your ears. it played on repeat until you saw him again. 

[catsburgers]

chat this MIGHT be dialtown! (closeups under the cut!! ft. their songs and why i paired them w/ the ones i did)

randy - today today (jack stauber)

the lyrics fit him heaps and it actually makes me a little sad. i didn't write out the entire verse bc i ran out of space but the full part is

"Today, today, is one of those days That carries you slowly into next time And as folks walk by, you see with your eye "Hold me" is repeatedly given

and by GOD is that him. pathetic sad sopping wet man who just needs a hug please give him one oh my god

norm - chemical overreaction (will wood) (you'll notice a pattern later on)

that song has a very midwest cowboy feel to me (the line "Nettles on my saddle and a badge on my vest" is a very big give away), and yeah he IS a chemical overreaction like.. yeah. the line i picked was just the one that stood out to me the most

"My mouth is dry and my eyes are red I’m chewing on sand ‘cause the desert’s in my head" uhh yeah

typegingi - popipo (lamaze-p)

i honestly couldn't think of a song for them because they are just So. if you asked me to make a playlist it would be full of vocaloid bc i feel like theyd listen to it. it plays 24/7 in their mind

"ぽっぴぽっぴぽっぽっぴっぽ (x11)"

oliver - things to do (alex g)

oliver was someone i struggled with admittedly, i was gonna go for a lemon demon song bc honestly he gives those freak vibes (he IS two trucks and i stand by that) but i feel like things to do fits too. like read the lyrics its so him (or i have a very skewed view of these characters idk sorry)

"Hold on tight to this time, this place cause Everything you know will be erased You were born inside your head and That is where you'll be when you are dead"

karen - willard! (will wood)

please listen to willard! its so her pretty please pls pls plssss. tired bank worker thats so so tired but wants to see the world. plss...

"You know I couldn't hurt a fly, my friend I'm not the type to step on ants I've nearly cried for moths that die at porchlight lamps More for the plights of mice than men See, I myself have been stepped on so many times It's started to feel like my place I've failed to fit in into those nests that scrape the sky Is there room for me in your cage?"

bigfoot

i did his route over a year ago and didnt do it again during my replay sorry bigfoot fans love you :(

EXPLODES I LOVE EXPLAINING THESE

god/hobo - mr capgras

ITS HIM. LIKE IDKK ITS SAUR HIM.

"What you feel and what you do Are those things really you? And if not, then what is? (Never never never) So, my God, what’s wrong with you? And I’m still asking who that is"

roger - i bet on losing dogs (mitski)

hes so mitski coded its insane. we havent got much from the dialtown teaser but we DO have his dsaf personality to go off, and he was a complete mess in that.

"I bet on losing dogs I know they're losing and I'll pay for my place By the ring Where I'll be looking in their eyes when they're down I'll be there on their side I'm losing by their side"

peter - a pearl (mitski)

all dsaf holdovers are mitski coded bc it was born into their body the moment they became a phone guy. once again not much to go off in dialtown and ik he seemed rlly chill in what interaction we had but god he is my fav and you can pry my mitski from my cold dead hands. also yeah i reused his art from my dsaf drawing sorrry i didnt think it was worth it redoing the exact same ref

"It's just that I fell in love with a war Nobody told me it ended And it left a pearl in my head And I roll it around every night"

mayor mingus - everything i wanted (billie eilish) / laplace's angel (will wood)

ok i couldnt pick between these two, theyre so different but so similar

everything i wanted is rlly her, like even the title is so mingus. she's dialtowns mayor, she has everything she wants, except her grandfathers recognition and she'll never get it.

"They called me weak Like I'm not just somebody's daughter Coulda been a nightmare But it felt like they were right there And it feels like yesterday was a year ago But I don't wanna let anybody know"

laplace angel is also her to a lesser degree, the song is about the difference between good and bad, and UGH we know mingus is evil but she's also hurting and thats not an excuse and [explodes]. the little (hurt people? hurt people!) that's officially in the song title is also her. like the term "hurt people hurt people" arehghks. the repeated "if you were in my shoes, you'd walk that mile/you'd see i wear the same size as you" like. shit if ppl were in her shoes WOULD they do the same thing?? probably not!! but she feels like she HAS to do these things and assumes that everyone else would do it too. yk. i love mayor mingus so much

"You, could you take a look at me? (Man no more than animal is made of moral chemicals) Am I bad, am I bad, am I bad, am I really that bad? (Any form mechanical, thank you God) Ooh, whatever you think of me (From the hordes of cannibals, to psych wards of hospitals) If you were in my shoes, you’d see I wear the same size as you (It’s a small world after all) Oh oh right!"

billy - ???

demons dont get songs.

finally

jerry - half decade hangover (will wood)

hes sooo. even the title is him. like yeah he WOULD be hungover on the job if i was jerry id be pounding vodka by the litre. 12 german shepards each with different illnesses. yeah pass me the margarita (i have never had an alcoholic beverage in my life).

"Wonder how I didn’t die This is not my life, I’m no survivor, I only happened to survive Wonder how I sleep at night Well I count pink elephants, blessings, and skeletons"

if you read to the end, thank u so much (and please go seek therapy). if you have any other song suggests lmk in the replies!! but dont tell me songs wont fit i MIGHT cry. these designs r mostly canon but i added my own flair to them (namely typegingis entire design, god/hobo having dog ear antenna (inspired by my own dt oc having cat ear antenna), peters springlock scars, mingus being way more cat then orignally and also making rogers suit just a LITTLE too big for him, showing how he really isnt fit for this position in his job. he'll grow into it eventually <3)

[vintageshanny]

Elvis lovers - it’s that time again! This week’s question is…..what are your top three live song performances? I definitely have not heard all the live stuff that’s available, so I’m really excited to see all of your answers and add them to my playlist! ❤️❤️❤️ Don’t forget to put the reasons why it speaks to you! Reading about everyone’s love for this man just makes my heart swell. 😘❤️

Such a Night (March 25, 1961 Pearl Harbor) - This concert is amazing, and this song in particular just puts me in a good mood. The little growling noises he does throughout are just so sexy, and the song is so upbeat. I love that you can hear the playful dynamic between him and the audience. There are so many amazing songs from this concert that he rarely performed again - Reconsider Baby, It’s Now or Never, I Need Your Love Tonight. And the corny jokes are already in full effect! He was really just his dorky self on stage, and I love it so much!

My Babe (Elvis Live 1969 Disc 9 - August 25, 1969 Las Vegas Midnight Show) - This is one of my favorite blues songs, and I was so excited when I first saw that Elvis covered it. (If you like blues, listen to Little Walter’s version. It is a great song, and I wish that Elvis had sung all the verses - I’d love to hear him sing “When she’s hot there ain’t no coolin’ her.” 😉😍) The amount of sexiness he oozes in this vocal is almost criminal. When he sings “she don’t, she don’t, she don’t, oh God,” I bet every woman there felt something…unspeakable. And the grunting! Whew…I need to recover from just thinking about this performance. 🥵 Really everything from this first Vegas run is just superb - the bluesy arrangement for Heartbreak Hotel is another favorite for me.

Funny How Time Slips Away (Elvis on Tour Disc 3 - April 14, 1972 Greensboro) - I love this song so much, and this particular version just does things to me. Right before he starts the song, he asks them to turn the house lights up, and when he says “I-I-It’s funny because I-I-I can’t see you really,” his sweet little stutter just melts my heart. Then when he sings, “How am I doin’? Well I’m sweatin’ a little bit baby, but I guess I’m doin’ fine,” it makes a lot more than my heart react. 😉😍😂 I just love how you get a feel for his interaction with the audience in this performance, and I like when he says “let her have it, man, let her have it” to security (I think about someone trying to get a scarf). My other favorite live performance of this is at Madison Square Garden. In that one, you actually can hear him stutter while singing a line, and I love that he goes up and hits that falsetto note when he sings “Remember what I told you,” and then drops way back down. I think he just had a lot of fun singing this, considering it’s kind of a sad song.

Runner-up goes to You’re the Reason I’m Living (March 22, 1975 Midnight Show). I think this is the only time he performed this live (someone correct me if I’m wrong), and it feels like just a beautiful dedication to his fans. Again you can hear his sweet stutter before he starts, and I like how you can hear him direct the band on what to do during the song. He performs the song so beautifully and then concludes by saying “That was, probably you could tell, totally unrehearsed.” Um, no, I could not tell that at all because it was amazing! ❤️

Again tagging past participants, but if you love Elvis and his music, please join in! 😘

@whositmcwhatsit @be-my-ally @thatbanditqueen @ellie-24 @plasticfantasticl0ver @lookingforrainbows @prompted-wordsmith @flwrs4aust @iloveelvis @argeriant18 @loving-elvis @alienelvisobsession @ab4eva @manebioniclegali @deke-rivers-1957 @rjmartin11 @c-rosenn @elvisalltheway101 @satninroses @doll-elvis @devilsflowerr @missmaywemeetagain @presleysdarling @troubleinapinksuit @cryingabtab @generoustreemystic @samfangirls

[dragonfly0808]

Musa’s Discography Pt.2

First Full Album. Written throughout the second half of s3 and the first month of summer. Published int he summer between s3 and s4

This one again didn’t have a specific theme though I did try to go for a vibe. Like, this is Musa writing to cope with everything that’s going on whilst trying to ignore her mental health issues so there are one or two ‘darker’ songs when she couldn’t write smth happy or at least not act like everything is fine.

Not sure if I worded that correctly. Here goes:

Afterglow by Taylor Swift.

This is perfect to me as an opening track right before Rivusa have made up she writes this because well… it just fits a lot and I think it’s perfect to open an album that’s kinda Musa just trying to look at the brighter side and ignore the bad shit going on or trying to act like everything will be fine

The Louvre by Lorde.

I see Musa writing this towards the start of summer as a fun summer track to distract herself as she tries to figure out where to stay

Best Friend by Conan Gray.

This was written in bits and pieces over s2 and s3 and it’s just about the squads, I can see her basing it off of the platonic soulmates, like the final part is a super old recording of Sky when Stella told him an ex called her before s1

New Romantics by Taylor Swift.

Another fun summer song to cover up the sadness in an iconic way. I love this song way too much, it deserves more hype

Blue by Madison Beer.

Another track co-written by Helia, story-based. This is the first time the tiniest bit of darkness slips through mostly on the production

Exhale by Sabrina Carpenter.

One of few songs where Musa is fully honest and lets herself go a bit, but I still don’t really count it as one of the ‘darker’ songs. She wrote this before gaining Enchantix

Tornado Warnings by Sabrina Carpenter.

This one was one that she wrote in one night with Helia when neither could sleep and after Musa had lied to her therapist pre-Enchantix, so they just took the phrase ‘lying to my therapist’ and made up a little story as they do

Out of the Woods by Taylor Swift.

This song is peak Rivusa s3 for me, like- just both of them being so bad at relationships but wanting to be in one regardless and just UUGGGGHHHH love them

Sober by Lorde.

First slightly ‘darker’ song, was meant to be a summer bop but turned a bit darker. Here is where the album goes on a tiny spiral. I say tiny cause she won’t really go ‘dark’ till the second album

Stay Numb and Carry On by Madison Beer.

First song she wrote after gaining Enchantix. Kinda wrote a few nonsensical lyrics before pulling them together for the verses and the chorus is just how weird she felt after gaining Enchantix

Follow the White Rabbit by Madison Beer.

Another song she wrote soon after gaining Enchantix. Co-written by Helia cause that song to me is Helia-coded when he’s in a bad mental space…

Tell Em by Sabrina Carpenter.

More light-hearted, wrote it after Tecna ranted about Timmy and about how if they did started dating she’d be stressed about people knowing. Started writing it in s2 while Tecna wouldn’t shut up about Timmy. ‘Cause I’m falling down like I’m summer rain’ Idk why but to me that’s such a Tecna-coded line

idontwannabeyouanymore by Billie Eilish.

Probably the darkest Musa gets in this album, I almost see this as the mirror of Exhale. This was after she kinda processed everything that happened after gaining Enchantix and a few intense therapy sessions

Shadows by Sabrina Carpenter.

It just fits so well at first. I can see her writing this about lit the whole squad before gaining Enchantix, it doesn’t fit as much after that.

Giant by Yuqi.

This would kinda be her way to close the album in a more ‘positive, don’t worry I’m totally fine, I’ll be alright ajajaja rise up like a giant yeah…’ way. Basically she wrote it as a way to tell everyone don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine

Now, on to, the extra tracks of the deluxe version! Oh yeah we’re getting way too specific!!!

The deluxe version comes out after she’s taken in by Tecna’s family.

Deluxe version includes:

skinny dipping by Sabrina Carpenter.

Wrote this during her time at the Wujin Festival whilst the squad went backstage to chat and have fun, performed it on her last day. Little details about almost everyone ‘Oatmilk latte in your name’ is Stella. ‘Arguments in your garage’ is Riven/Timmy, ‘Shannon’s being Shannon’ imagine she said Lexie. Etc.

Bigger Than the Whole Sky by Taylor Swift.

Wrote this while Tecna was in Omega, didn’t want to publish it originally but Tecna cried when she heard it and said she should

i love you by Billie Eilish.

Written during the Rivusa fights and the reconcilation. Very vulnerable so she was hesitant to include it at first but decided to go for it

Labyrinth by Taylor Swift.

Written by Helia about Flora, it was originally a poem. Musa loved it and together they modified a line or two to make it into a song

The Best Day by Taylor Swift.

Musa wrote it whilst sobbing after the Crystal Labyrinth, she wanted to write about the good times she remembered and kinda just sing about her mom’s life instead of her death if that makes sense. Decided to include it in the deluxe version last second cause it felt so personal

decode by Sabrina Carpenter.

This is about her dad. Written after the Wujin Festival and Musa choosing to stop trying to mend their relationship.

That was a long one phew… that’s the first album!!! Yay!!!

Part 1

Winx Rewrite Masterlist

[cinnamon-galaxies]

The Heart Wants What It Wants (song-fic)

~~~~~~

Pairings: Obi-Wan x gn!reader

Warnings/Tags: gender-neutral reader, song-fic, sad (but no angst), bitter-sweet ending, mentions of break-up (the whole story's about break-up tbh)

Summary: Months have passed since you and Obi-Wan broke up, but you still suffer from a broken heart. As you spend the evening at your favorite cantina, you finally manage to get on stage and sing that song that's been floating around in your head for weeks. But you don't expect to meet the Jedi you still love with all your heart.

Song: 'The Heart Wants What It Wants' by Selena Gomez

Words: 3.3k

A/n: This one broke my heart during the writing process.

~~~~~~

~~~~~~

The air inside the cantina pressed down on you, mirroring the heavy feeling inside your chest. It's been months since the breakup happened and you and Obi-Wan parted ways. But it felt as if it wasn't even a week ago he left you alone crying on the floor in distress. You've tried to do what people recommended to get over the breakup. You tried to focus on yourself and your well-being, tried to distract yourself with the company of other people or had some quality time just for yourself. But since Obi-Wan was gone your mission was gone as well. You both had been assigned to uncover a deeply rooted conspiracy about a secret separatists base on an Outer Rim planet. And it has been an experience that would affect your whole life in the most unexpected ways possible. You didn't just meet an old friend again, after years, but created a bond with him that slowly put down the roots for something that grew to be so much more than just friendship. Your relationship with Obi-Wan has been defined by a trust that would make you both put the fate of your lives into each other's hands. It has been defined by harmony and a very special type of banter you've never experienced with someone else ever before. You both had become lovers and you've sworn an unbreakable commitment to each other. And that's exactly when the Jedi order started to unfold its influence on you. While the Clone Wars had evolved into a complex tapestry of political intrigue, moral ambiguity, and personal sacrifice, the Jedi order had started to test your limits and in the end suspected something between you and the Jedi master. The order has always had its feet standing between you and Obi-Wan, like an unbreakable monument of a greater power that was impossible to avoid. The whole time you've been aware of the fact that there was no such future for your love as you can find on the ordinary streets of Coruscant. And that's when you both had decided to part ways.

You took a deep sigh and tried to turn your attention to the small stage in the back of the room where a young togruta performed a song. She had a beautiful voice and her facial expression revealed her full commitment to the meaning of her song. She stood on stage as if she was a professional actor but she was in fact just an ordinary woman who took the opportunity to show off her talent at The Va'Belær's weekly Open Night. This was an event in your favourite local cantina where anyone could take the opportunity to go on stage and perform anything. It really didn't matter what it was. You could show off a special talent, tell a story or some funny jokes... Or you could just...sing a song. You've never missed out to attend the event, watching the locals perform and get at least a little bit of distraction for an evening. You even considered to participate as well but haven't quite felt the last spark that was missing to finally find the strength to stand up.

But tonight would be different, you thought as you listened to the beautiful voice of the togruta echoing from the high brick walls. Tonight you would finally go on stage and sing the song that's been haunting your mind for weeks.

As the last verses had left the togrutas lips, cheerful applause flooded the cantina and you used the moment to push your chair away and stand up. You smiled at the togruta as you both exchanged places and you pulled a tiny piece of paper with the song name written on it out of you pocket and handed it to one of the staff members. As you stepped on the creeking piles of the stage everything felt fine until your gaze wandered around the large room. Suddenly an unpleasant feeling of nervosity rushed through your veins as you met the gaze of the curious audience. Your legs started to shake, fortunately hidden under your thick garments, but empowered by the sudden fear of failure that lured somewhere deep in your mind—not consciously awake but still there making you regret your decision for a brief moment. But that's not what you've wanted. And there was nothing to be ashamed of as you knew yourself that you had a great singing voice. It was only a matter of the fact that noone ever heard it before. Not even Obi-Wan.

Let's change that, you thought. You rose your hand to give the staff a signal and the music started to play. You took a deep breath, eyeing the microphone in front of you, and started singing: "You got me sippin' on something. I can't compare to nothing I've ever known. I'm hoping that after this fever I'll survive..." Your gaze wandered around the audience again, analyzing their reactions to your performance. Excited faces met your gaze and people ended their conversations to fully give you their attention. This made your nervosity and fears evaporate and you dared to touch the microphone, pulling it further to you as if it was the person your song was about. Your voice slowly became louder and grew more powerful with each verse that left your lips. "I know I'm acting a bit crazy. Strung out, a little bit hazy. Hand over heart I'm praying that I'm gonna make it out alive."

Obi-Wan had enough of his thoughts constantly revolving around his mission. He was tired but at the same time too overstimulated to go to sleep, so he decided to head to The Va'Belær, a cantina recommended to him by the locals. Just for one night he wanted to be alone from Anakin and enjoy a drink, and—hopefully—good music.

The windy air felt cold on his skin and he pulled his cloak tighter as he walked down the dimly-lit streets. Speeders drove past him making whirring noises but besides that and a few chatting passengers the city was quiet.

What a calming atmosphere, he thought. So much more relaxing than the nerve-wrecking turmoil on Coruscant, and the peaceful surroundings on this small Outer Rim planet built a high contrast to the war and destruction.

Obi-Wan laid his eyes on a limestone structure at a street crossing not far away. A glowing sign with vertical letters saying 'The Va'Belær's Cantina' marked his destination and the almost quiet atmosphere of the city allowed the jedi to notice the low rhythm of a slow song. With every step he got further to the cantina the music and it's rhythm became louder, but was still muted enough that the song wasn't recognizable. As his hands slowly pushed the door open a hauntingly beautiful voice enchanted his ears, singing a song about a love that's gone and left a broken heart longing for the one who had once made it whole. It was filled with a bunch of emotions that were similar to those circling in his mind for months now—suppressed by the importance of his mission, but still present enough that every quiet minute felt as heavy as if a Bantha stood on his chest.

He took a deep breath and hesitated. Was this really a good idea to enter the cantina when the first song that entered his ears happened to remind him of the worst heartbreak he's ever had to go through? He took a moment for himself and listened to the siren-like voice putting as much love, pain and longing into their song as possible.

"The bed's getting cold and you're not here. The future that we hold is so unclear. But I'm not alive until you call. And I'll bet the odds against it all. Save your advice 'cause I won't hear. You might be right, but I don't care. There's a million reasons why I should give you up. But the heart wants what it wants. The heart wants what it wants," you sang, your eyes were weary of those heavy emotions that pressed down on you. It was such a relief to eventually get rid of the painful clod in your chest that you never talked about with anyone. To let all of your emotions float into your song, reach the public and echo into the farest parts of the universe. The force that you so significantly tried to hide washed off in waves, filled the room and flattered the audience with an affecting warmth—keeping them fully focused on your performance as you dared to push more and more emotions into your voice with every verse that left your lips: "You got me scattered in pieces, shining like stars and screaming, lighting me up like Venus. But then you disappear and make me wait. And every second's like torture, heroin drip, no more so finding a way to let go. Baby, baby, no, I can't escape."

A sudden warmth, familiar but at the same time strange to him, reached the unraveling storm in Obi-Wan's chest and calmed him down instantly. He recognized it as the force that hit him with a flattering touch and reached out to him as if it was about to tell him a secret. There was another force-sensitive individual in this cantina—and it was not his former Padawan Anakin.

With another deep breath Obi-Wan eventually pushed the whole door open and stepped fully inside the warm hall. His gaze wandered around the guests who mostly focused their attention on the performance while he searched for a free table. One was left, right in the middle of the audience. To ensure his view at the stage he looked up to the singer and a shockwave rushed through his body. He instantly held his breath as his heart skipped a beat when his gaze fell on a face that once had been the most familiar to him. Y/N.

As you sung the next pre-chorus you saw the door open in the corner of your eye. A familiar presence stepped into the cantina and you knew exactly who you were about to encounter. An undefined shivery feeling ran through your veins and you turned your gaze towards the new guest, meeting the pale face of Obi-Wan who didn't put much effort into hiding his heavy surprise by your presence.

Stop the song, a voice that resembled your own whispered in your head. You were about to lose focus and out if a sudden it got hard to follow the song, it's rhythm and the lyrics. Without an interruption you tried to use the force to calm yourself and as a rush of comfortable warmth washed over you you found the strength to put even more power and emotion into your voice. As if you were a professional actress in the theatre you suddenly found yourself entangled in your role and let your eyes wander over the jedi's presence. His robes were hidden underneath a thick brown cloak. The hood rested behind his neck so his whole face was uncovered. He looked the same like always, almost as if nothing bad has ever happened between you and him. But that was only the first glance that belied normality. While you studied his face you recognized the subtle hints of a shadow that laid on his soul. His blue eyes were surrounded by rather dark circles and also his cheeks gave him a slightly sick appearance. He still struggled with your breakup and within a part of you you felt happiness arise while the other part increased its ache. You both could've had everything. You could've been perfect. If not the code stood between you, monitoring you with a suspicious glance. If it was just that you both could be free to love each other the way you've ever wanted...

Captured by Obi-Wan's blue eyes you sag the bridge: "This is a modern fairy tale. No happy endings, no wind in our sails. But I can't imagine a life without breathless moments breaking me down, down, down, down." You slowly lowered the volume of your voice and decreased its power until it sounded dramatically weak, influenced by your broken heart. Your eyes were locked with Obi-Wan's who still hasn't moved the tiniest bit. With a breaking sound in your voice you sung the last chorus: "The bed's getting cold and you're not here. The future that we hold is so unclear. But I'm not alive until you call. And I'll bet the odds against it all. Save your advice 'cause I won't hear. You might be right, but I don't care. There's a million reasons why I should give you up. But the heart wants what it wants."

Your voice became even weaker until almost a whisper was left and you felt tears pouring into your eyes. You used the force to soothe yourself, calm yourself down and lock the tears back to where they belong. Thousands of memories flooded your mind. Slow and passionate kisses followed by raging desire as you began to undress each other. The way he had looked at you, his blue eyes fixated on yours. The small and inconvenient touches when you were out in public that calmed you down instantly. And the hundreds of spoken promises which all became insignificant within an hour and turned into an echo of the unconditional love you both had once shared with each other.

"The heart wants what it wants... The heart wants what it wants... The heart wants what it wants... The heart wants what it wants, baby... It wants what it wants, baby... It wants what it wants... It wants what it wants... The heart wants what it wants, baby... It wants what it wants."

The melody faded away as the song ended and soon got replaced by roaring applause.

You took your eyes off of Obi-Wan as you lifted yourself from the dirty piles and bowed to the audence. The song that felt like relief in the first few verses had soon turned into an unbearable ache in your chest and thus the first thing you did after you stepped down from the stage was heading to the bar.

"Please give me your heaviest shot," you ordered from the bartender. A slight understanding grin sneaked onto his face and he nodded before turning around. With routined movements he mixed a few drinks into a cup and placed it in front of you.

"Thank you," you said and grabbed the cup when a shadowy silhouette moved in the corner of you eye and sat down right next to you.

"I never knew you have such a beautiful singing voice," a familiar voice said and and you placed the drink back on the counter without taking a sip.

"Thank you," you replied cold, keeping your gaze focused straight on the cup. You didn't really understand the feeling inside your chest as it was a mixture of distressed pain and a sudden excitement that both got engaged in a fight that couldn't end well... Hearing his voice after that long time was weird but at the same time comforting. As if a silent wish came true. But instead you've wished to never encounter with him again—or at least that's what you made yourself believe. In the end it made you happy to hear his voice again. To see him again. If the happiness hadn't been suppressed by that undescribable heart-wrenching pain deep inside your guts, clenching them together as much as possible.

"You probably didn't enter this cantina to chat with me. So what do you want here?", you asked him and eventually took a deep sip of your drink. The liquid burned on your tongue as it ran down to your stomach, distracting you from the emotional roller coaster for a brief moment. That drink was indeed strong.

"I aimed to distract myself from my mission for an evening," Obi-Wan explained offhand and you nodded.

"The same mission about the rumoured separatists base?" you asked, still not even slightly looking at him. It was too painful to see his presence, his beautiful face and the always so cocky smile on his lips.

Obi-Wan nodded. "Yes." You heard him exhale loudly as if he was unsure how to continue. "It just turned into a neverending odyssey, both confusing and nerve-wrecking at the same time."

"A Jedi openly talking about wrecked nerves is new to me," you pointed out with a sarcastic undertone. Actually, you didn't want to talk to him. But on the inside you didn't want to stop either.

"Don't act as if this surprises you. You are the epitome of wrecked nerves."

"But at least I'm no a Jedi." You once had been part of the order but that was many years ago. You were still a padawan when you parted ways with the Jedi and their awful principles that took you hostage. And it's been just a few years since you've met Obi-Wan again...

Silence fell over you and you both found yourself lost in memories of a time when everything seemed to be petfect. When you were together and at least could pretend to live in an ideal world. Obi-Wan as a Jedi knight, a leading general and the great negotiator, and you, a mercenary grey Jedi with a penchant to bounty hunter businesses. So weird but at the same time efficient combination of professions that had worked out a little too well.

Obi-Wan's voice cut through the melancholy air. "Y/N."

You turned slowly, your eyes finally meeting his. "Yes?" You asked with a voice much weaker than expected. The distance between you seemed both vast and infinitesimal. The unspoken words hung in the air, a palpable tension that begged to be addressed and you felt a tingling feeling creep into your stomach. The urge to just kiss him was unbearable.

Obi-Wan, his gaze unwavering, spoke: "Your song... You still love me, don't you?"

You held your breath, tears crawling up your eyes but you managed to hold them back. "Yes," you replied with a stomp nod and your throat tightened so much it began to hurt. "I still love you, Obi-Wan. And I always will."

You saw him struggle with your words. The muscles in his jaws tightened visibly as he seemed to be lost in thoughts.

"We chose our paths, Obi-Wan. The Force had different plans for us", you continued to break the silence.

Obi-Wan locked his eyes with yours. You both studied each other's faces when, suddenly, he reached out, his hand hesitating before finding yours on the bar. "Sometimes the Force tests us, challenges us to find a balance between duty and the heart. The Jedi who created the code must have forgotten the suffering that comes from denying affection. I've felt its tug, Y/N, and I can't deny how much I miss you."

You closed your eyes, overwhelmed by the flood of emotions. "What do you want from me Obi-Wan?" you asked with a cracked voice. You were about to lose control over the force that restrained the dashing flood built up within you, rough and reckless, about to break through.

Obi-Wan let out a deep sigh, a watery expression hidden in his eyes, then took his hand off yours. "I love you, Y/N. More than anything. No matter what the code, the Jedi, demand: the heart wants what it wants. And I can't bear making the same mistake I did when I was young. Meet me at those coordinates in three rotations." He pulled out a piece of paper and scribbled a series of numbers on it before handing it to you. His blue eyes locked with yours and you could see an emotion within them that you thought to never see again. Then he stood up from his seat and left the cantina, leaving you alone with a undefinable, burning chaos in your chest.

Your gaze fell on the paper in your hand. Meet me at those coordinates in three rotations, you repeated his words in your head. I will, Obi-Wan. I will...

[plushpinkfox]

thoughts on the movie, pt. 2

spoilers ahead (for real this time)

going to make a bullet point list of all the things i noted about the movie

i got up to watch this at 3am est and i have a full day of school today so idk. wish me luck i guess

i think it's a cop-out to make honora mean, actually, because it kind of defeats the point of the whole honora/vanessa and sophie/agatha thing. i know it's easier to exemplify sophie's Evil in the books because we can hear her inner monologue, but she wasn't even that Evil in the movie before they dropped her in the school

like she was kinda bitchy sometimes, sure, but all the "Evil" and "violent" things she did were in defense of agatha so i don't know if that really counts

THEY MADE VANESSA MIXED SO THEY COULD DO THE SISTERS THING. CALLING IT NOW

some lines of dialogue made me cringe too hard. i like the bit with eric or whatever his name was in the beginning but the "god i hate this town" had me foreseeing the reviews

some of the cgi looked fine and then some of it just. looked bad. i think it was really funny how they tried so hard to do primarily practical effects, and you could see it in things like the Trial by Tale, but i feel like it was kind of counteracted by the blood magic storyline? it doesn't matter if your whole Trial is practical effects if half your movie is full of ugly cgi pools of blood and nondescript magical energy blasts

speaking of nondescript magical energy blasts and bad cgi, rafal was so fucking stupid. like what

that fight at the beginning with the kit young duplicates? guys. guys come on. when he said "blood magic" i was like No.

idk i guess it just didn't really coalesce for me

i thought i would be able to contend with kerry washington's dovey performance in this movie but i really generally couldn't, especially after they basically decimated the "agatha's been beautiful all along" storyline

she was a little too manic for my taste. i liked her at some points and at other points she was kind of pissing me off

that anemone backstory made me laugh. you go girl

OK A CHANGE I LIKED: i thought gregor charming was corny. i thought opening a grocery store was corny. i thought his whole deal was a bit stupid. BUT HAVING TEDROS KILL HIM?? MY JAW DROPPED THAT WAS SO MUCH WORSE THAN THE BOOK

like having ted kill a random child is bad, obviously, but having him kill a recently mogrified established character was like WHAT

the modern music really fucked it up for me. i think this movie would have been just fine with the score and the special song they recorded for the credits. i think it made it way cornier than it needed to be and i really couldn't forgive it by the end

like you HAD to have a verse of brutal in there? this is not do revenge i thought i was hallucinating

sophie makeover scene demolished (which is sad but whatever) but what really got to me more was the fact that there was no nuance to any of the supporting cast at all? like how are you going to tell me that hester spits sparks in her face one day and then within the week is bowing down to her.

i feel nitpicky but it really is just the basics of a character. tell me why anadil and dot were literally indistinguishable in their character. portrayed exactly the same. sort of hester too.

the soman cameo actually did make me jump. like i already made a joke about this but i did a double take

i think tagatha was cute and i liked how they actually talked more before this but i think this could have been executed similarly while still keeping the whole "agatha is a witch" thing. case in point: they become friends early on, agatha tries to protect gregor-stymph, tedros kills gregor-stymph and gets confused why she's protecting a stymph and comes to the conclusion that "she must be a witch", sophie takes advantage of it to get with tedros, etc. tension. (i might be insane for this so if i am let me know)

i don't think it would have taken much to establish it as the snow ball and the no ball and i think sophie's point would have been more effective if they did

cate blanchett has a nice voice but i didn't vibe with the inconsistent storian narration; it sort of just felt like she was interjecting to explain things to us that the audience at the test screening had a dubious understanding of. like in the tower it was fine but throughout the rest of the movie it was sort of irritating that the movie assumed we couldn't infer what was going on and very rarely did what was going on ACTUALLY require background narration, even if you hadn't read the books

sophie had a very inconsistent characterization in the movie. agatha was consistent but sophie basically switched from good to evil overnight. i understand the point was she felt betrayed and was swayed to evil, but i think the movie made her stupider than she was known to be in the books and underestimated her intelligence, which makes me sad

i felt like the movie utilized a lot of tools to try and explain what was going on to the audience (rafal's monologues, storian narration, dovey and lesso) instead of just trusting that we could understand it on our own so it came off as very exposition heavy but not in like. an understandable way

very frustrated with the consistent erasure of queer characters. hester and anadil confirmed for like a split second in a scene where they dance together at the no ball, but they aren't established enough for the general audience to know that they're queer and it definitely could just come off as best friends

dovesso for a single goddamn second at the end where they look like they're about to kiss and then just go for the most awkward hug in the entire world which just??? really got to me. the whole lady lesso thing was fine, i guess, but i was really hoping that dovey and lesso's enlarged presence in the movie would lead to some depth to their book-based friendship. i know that's my fault for expecting that, but like. i didn't expect "blood magic" either so whatever

part of the problem with the queer character erasure too though is that they were never really that defined in the books (thanks soman) so a lot of it is just really suspicious and doesn't end up REALLY panning out, so they had an excuse to ignore it in the movie

noticed how they made the agaphie kiss at the end very chaste, so that and vanessa being mixed definitely is foreshadowing some sisterhood there

also the line where agatha says "she's like my sister" had me laughing my ass off. they know

i definitely liked sofia wylie the most in this film, but i think sophia anne caruso did the best with what she was given. i think both of them did their best with a rather shallow script.

ANOTHER THING I LIKED: i had my criticism of the no ball scene and i think the ending was rather convoluted and uhhhhh not great in general but i did honestly like the whole "good attacks" thing. i wasn't sure if they were actually going to follow through on the whole good becoming evil and evil becoming good thing but i think they did that well, and sophie's transformation into grand high witch ultimate at the end after her haphazard side-switching was actually okay imo

now did it lead into a stupid-ass castle-crumbling rafal fight? yes. but at least agatha got to fucking STAB HIM WITH EXCALIBUR??? i was hyped. also i thought it was good that rafal explained how he corrupted good and made them vain, that was nice

would have been funny if they did the original book ending but i understand why that wasn't really feasible

overall: mid. that is my review. mid.

i had a good time watching it! i really did! and i read some reviews, and they're about what i expected (which is sort of disappointing but i'll live), but i had a good time and i think that's what really matters here

i'm glad that it wasn't boring and that i'm able to write so much about it and i'll be able to talk about it for a while and follow through on the production of THE SEQUEL THEY MIGHT MAKE LMFAOOOO

THE WORLD WITHOUT PRINCES SETUP????? I COULDN'T BELIEVE IT

hit my limit

[bxngthedoldrums]

a petekey reading of so much (for) stardust

aka you knew i'd do this aka i didnt take four literature classes in college for nothing aka make sure your tinfoil hat is SECURED to your noggin aka dear lord forgive me for committing sins of petekey in the year of 2023

look. i have to do this or i don't deserve this blog. amen

~ love from the other side

okay. yea, immediately the "you were the sunshine of my lifetime" thing is sort of sus, because we all know pete wentz and anytime sun or summer is involved it's Something. this is solidified in "summer falling through our fingers again" in verse 2, but it's interesting that he uses "ours" in this lyric bc i feel like recently most of pete's summer lyrics have been pretty self-inflicted. it's impossible to not note the whole "inscribed like stone and faded by the rain" in the bridge v. "the tombstones were waiting" line in bang the doldrums. i shant even elaborate u can pick up what i'm laying down!

~ heartbreak feels so good

i think this song is pretty light on petekey imagery but "light from a screen of messages unsent" kinda reminds me of "some nights it gets so bad i almost pick up the phone" in ginasfs but i could be reaching for Sure. let's be real that's all i do

~ hold me like a grudge

honestly i think this is one of the worst petekey offenders on the album. this one had me gawking at my screen as i read the lyrics. "thaw out my freezer burn feelings for twenty summers" ??? be SERIOUS pete... "part-time soulmate, full-time problem" yeah I GET IT I GET IT !!! the whole thing reeks of 2005 summertime fling

~ fake out

"do you laugh about me whenever i leave?" bonkers ass line,,this reminds me of pete's lj writing in those years after 2005,,,"my mood board is just pictures of you, but i'm not sad anymore" YEAH. this is SO pete holy fuck. that classic wentz obsession,,"we did for futures that never came and for pasts that we're never gonna change" this line's got me on the fuckin FLOOR. also classic pete!!! his perchance for nostalgia is just insane and he really feels it huh

~ heaven, iowa

i dont even know how to get into this one. "kiss my cheek, baby, please/would you read my eulogy?" SICK and TWISTED evil!!! evil!!! "i will never ask you for anything except to dream sweet of me" jesus h christ the melancholy is off the charts but holy fuck this song is so,,,tender? i dont know wht to say but i know this was written w summer of love intention. i know this in my heart. "scar-crossed lovers, forever" OKAY I KNOW !!! this song is DEVASTATING verse 2 is fucked UP and the bridge is too!!! "closed my eyes inside your darkness and found your glow"???? i cantr og on

~ so good right now

i can't really discern any particularly petekey lyrics in this one right away but the whole "i cut myself down to be whatever you need me to be" is pretty fucking wild

~ i am my own muse

there's some really sad lyrics in this one ab the whole future-not-going-as-planned thing that comes up so frequently in pete's writing but honestly the whole "let's twist the knife again, twist the knife again like we did last summer" thing made my head explode. every lover's got a lil dagger in their hands!!!

~ flu game

im not gonna sit here and type out ths whole fucking song but oh my GOD bro. this song to me is a really nice callback to pete's older style of lyricism but that comes with the self-deprecation and all the other really sad shit. it's beautiful! it's horrible! i love it!!! its about mikey i cant even pul out a few lyrics just LISTEN

~ baby annihilation

another fucked up one that literally anyone else in fob should have vetoed but OKAY?? "time is luck and i wish ours overlapped more or for longer" MAN SHUT UP. "self sabotage at best, under your spell/but you know what they say, if you want a job done right, you gotta do it yourself" ..........dude. if you're like me and you've poured over pete's oooold lj posts from the mid 2000s you already get it, but if you havent,,,go do it and get back to me bc this is TOO MUHC im unwell. "what is there between us if not a little annihilation?" i think i hauve covid

~ the kintsugi kid (ten years)

this song is really fucking sad actually. there's so much fear of being forgotten on this album and it's showcased really beautifully in this song,,,mayhaps not the most obviously petekey song but god damn

~ what a time to be alive

this song's about covid and quarantine n it's pretty easy on the whole suffering from a fling in 2005 thing! good job pete and fob

~ so much (for) stardust

this song is kinda suspicious but there's very few lines that really solidify it as a petekey song,,, altho "i think i've been going through it, and ive been putting your name through it" is a really interesting lyric. and OF COURSE, "in another life, you were my babe/in another life, you were the sunshine of my lifetime" happy xmas war is over

[not-alien-girl-v]

The Evans as Ethel Cain Songs

Tate: HEAD IN THE WALL!!!!!!!!! ok this is so so like omg right ok so like if you get it you get it so. so the raping part was so tate langdon and "Shooting up our old school when we get bored of shooting up Fuck the cops, and fuck god, and fuck this town for ruining us They'll put holes in all we own and in our heads, pumped full of lead You always told me i could only leave you once we're both dead" tate langdon coded you can try to argue with me about this but you're going to be wrong about it so

Kit: most of miss anhedonia's songs are all too toxic for kit so all i'll say is like specifically the one part of crush where its like he looks like he works with his hands and smells like marlboro reds is so kit but the rest of the song is more tate you feel me. and also thoroughfare because kit is american man with a truck coded. you get it.

Kyle: hard times :((((( and i don't want to elaborate so much on it because it makes me sad that most of kyle's narrative is based on his trauma with his mother and even in death he just continues to get used for his body.

james: i am feeling knuckle velvet and also lilies ok so for knuckle velvet the line ‘you come in so hard, gore me through the heart’ that just yells james directly into my ears idk what to tell u and for lilies ‘you’re like an angel, nothing can touch you, but i wanna hold you, i wanna love you’ like ok sure that could be any evan character cuz he’s beautiful like an angel but when i hear angel and beautiful in the context of evan peters im gonna think of mr march and mr march ONLY also like the entire first verse is SO james it’s like i can picture the exact scene in his silly little hotel room so vividly in my mind it’s like it’s a real scene from the show

kai: my little piece of shit <3 so for kai im feeling dog days and sunday morning. from dog days ‘you walk a fine line between god and animal, you’re just a feral dog i worship in bedroom ceremonials’ and also ‘cut me up and take me like the bread and blood at church’ like ok the kinkiness mixed with violence mixed with religion mixed with worshipping a man who’s literally just Some Guy that’s kai anderson shit right there. for sunday morning ‘when i go home at night i think about the ways that i can get out of the hold you’ve got me in’ mixed with ‘everything hurts except for you’ ok kai anderson kai kai kai anderson

and that’s all i have to say i don’t fuck with the other characters so this is all y’all get from me

[popculturebuffet]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Protecting a World that Hates and Fears Them

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

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

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

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

It also makes what follows..

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Change is Constant

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Yo Jeff Drop the Verse

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[astriefer]

Thomas writes songs about Alastair in his head, we all just know it. They're sweet and revering, a potion made of love and trust.

Now with Cot out, let me add the bitter, more angsty version: Thomas writing songs about Kit.

After things settle down and they have time to process what's happened, Thomas is a trainwreck, he's gasping and crying at the funeral and he cannot pick up the shreds of his heart, left beyond repair and scattered on the ground to cut at him each time he breathes. His sister died. His world collapsed. He tried to build himself back, slowly, with cuts on his hands, just for the world to crush him under the sole of its fit.

So he joins patrol after patrol. This evil is different, but what does it matter? It came from the same source. So Thomas fights.

At some point Alastair confronts him the way he deals with the agony is destroying him, gnaws at him, and it must stop. He encourages him to find an alternative. He guides Thomas to bed very gently that night, telling him he loves him and that he must try, that there's always a different way.

He eventually settles on poetry.

Thomas's way of grief is coming up with songs and poems in his head about what he feels.

Thomas made them in his head for some time. He told no one and shared them with no one. He didn't think they were very good, or that he had a poetic mind as good as others. But he does it anyway if only to try and pour his pain into the world and set it free.

The sharp agony, the feel he is stumbling on his own without Kit, without him to make him laugh and smile, how much he misses him and how the world seems lacking without him by his side. He breaks down and pieces himself together every time, all the time. Because like a broken clock, time has flown differently since his cousin, the brother of his heart, has passed.

Alastair returns from patrol one day to find Thomas sitting on the couch of their flat, face in his hands, a single piece of paper with barely a sentence written on it. He can only rock Thomas, lull him to restless sleep full of bright lilac eyes full of laughter he used to see all the time.

On other nights, Thomas is drowning in pages of pages of words he wishes he could say. Regret, for all the times he listened half-heartedly. Anger, that Kit slipped so fast from life's delicate hands. He isn't mad at his Kit, he is furious at life, that let the kindest and brightest man he knows slip away. Wistfulness, for he wishes he could hear the laugh of his cousin - no, brother - one more time, like he used to do all the time.

He finally shows one to Alastair. And he has to look away because the crushing sadness that settles on his lover's face is just too much to bear.

Alastair composed melodies to some of Thomas's poems, each note stark and bare and full of meaning, with the thought of a hole in his and his loved ones' heart that would be empty forever.

They play one of them to the family on Kit's anniversary day. Cecily and Gabriel's sobs can be heard starting the second verse, Anna is hugging herself, and Thomas is in shreds. They all are. What can be said, now, that would make it better?

Nothing, Thomas knows, while the notes and the words he wrote are echoing around them, surrounding them. Nothing will change the fact the the brother of his heart is gone.

[beautifulpersonpeach]

My Ranking of Seven's Versions

The other versions are so much more satisfying than the original. Isn't it funny? Anyway, I'm so grateful these versions exist because Seven was the first disappointing project for me in Chapter 2, before we started getting remixes. It was the only 'just okay... good' song from the guys so far, in my opinion, which dampened my appetite to support it. But a few of the released versions are in my top 20 rotation now. They're actually good. And I'm happy we get to hear JK in more well executed styles.

Plus, with all the hoopla around Seven's versions lately (lol), I thought it might be a fun exercise to rank all the key Sevens so far. :)

8. Alesso Mix

A waste of time.

*

7. Summer Mix

It starts out really promising and then, just sort of fizzles out without really going anywhere.

*

6. Island Mix

Starting it with acappella is a solid choice. The chord choices and instrumentation in the pre-chorus, elevate this version to something better than the original. Too bad there's no real soul in the standard drumkit beat used throughout (save the bit just before Latto's verse).

*

5. Lofi Version

I typically love lo-fi so I wanted to love this, but it couldn't get more than a "Hmm, okay. Potential." from me. Sad really.

*

4. Explicit Version.

I like how Jungkook says "fucking". He stresses the right syllables and sounds both cute and filled with sin at the same time. I also feel the explicit version is closer to the original intent of the song.

*

3. Nightfall Mix

The violins? The insane bass riffs on Latto's verse?? The high notes??? The serve???? Listen, this song is the Jungkook complement to Like Crazy by Jimin. I don't mean they're equal in every way, but that stylistically Nightfall mix should be listened to, with Like Crazy, because every element I mentioned above - strings, bass, high-notes, cunt - all of that is most associated with Jimin. In my mind at least. Anyway, this is in my top 3.

*

2. Band Version

The only difference between this and the original is that this uses a live band. An actual live band plays the accompaniment and it sounds like a completely different song. So much more dynamic than the og. Jungkook's vocals are so crisp in this version too. Overall, it's a full summer delight.

*

Festival Mix

Nothing screams 'Summer' more than festivals.

[byullielle]

That Mind Mine to Lose // Han Jisung x Gn!Reader

yes another song-inspired fic, it's the 3RACHA brand atp; odds by NIKI, but only the line 'What I'd give to make that mind mine to lose' because I am the biggest genius!Jisung enthusiast A look into how Jisung shares his creative processes with Y/N, and although they don't get it too much they're still overall amazed and endeared by the sheer passion Jisung has for his job.

Tags: Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Kissies, Music Terminology (author doesn't know wtf she's saying style), Est. Relationship, Petnames (baby, darling, jagiya/jagi)

Disclaimer: wrote this to NIKI's entire discography because idk what it is but in my mind she's so...jisung coded (???) i suggest listening to acoustic guitar-heavy music while reading

A strum then a tap against the fret board, and then another strum, before a full chord comes out, the grunting. Even with your back turned you could see your boyfriend's cute little pout, lips pursed out while bending to write something down on the notepad on the coffee table.

You're heating up cups of tea and coffee for the both of you since he is deemed energetic enough to not stay cooped up in his room and provide you a little show about how he works on his songs. And while you make snacks and a drink the guitar has been playing partially for the past 10 minutes. It isn't a full song, but the humming, half strums and taps to the fretboard with some of his own mumbling and light singing provides the comfiest atmosphere to man. You love watching and hearing Jisung work, always so entrapped in how he concentrates then suddenly lifting his head to smile at you. It turns your heart into mush and would render you wanting to bash your head against the wall because of pure cuteness aggression.

Your Jisungie was one energetic beast. Always running off the walls, dancing around the house, and on a tangent about everything and anything—and it wasn't that you didn't love him for that, but there was just an entirely different vibe when Jisung is in the zone but with your presence in the mix. It's comforting and healing, as Felix would put it.

Putting the plate of warm cookies and your mugs on the small tray, you carry it to the living room and set it down on the coffee table, "Jagiya," you let out in barely a whisper because he has his guitar encased in his arm and eyes closed as if he's pulling some lyrics within the galaxies of inspiration behind those closed eyes. You sit on the velvet armchair right across your couch where he was working, not wanting to invade his personal space.

He smells the coffee and opens his eyes, beaming up at you to see the snacks. "Sweet!" he beams up at you and reaches out to take a cookie, "Baby, what are you doing there? Come sit here," he pats the spot next to him. "Are you sure?" you ask but already stand from your spot.

"Of course! I need some of your powers so that I could think of things," he chuckles, placing a kiss on your cheek immediately right after you sit down, then another on your lips after you set your drink down. You couldn't help but giggle, cupping his face quickly before pressing one last peck on his lips, letting go before settling down on the couch. "What are you working on?"

"I wanna make it sound like, soulful but bridge should have some high point," he visualizes with his hands in front of him, twisting and turning as he interprets it physically, "Like, if a sad song had a happy beat, there's supposed to be a hook that lets it sinks in that it's a sad song," he rambles on, and you nod along, trying your best to revision what he's trying to achieve although you're probably thinking of two different things.

"I have like, a verse and the bridge but it's still missing a whole chorus and two more verses,"

"Well, let's hear what you've got, if it's alright," you request, which makes him look over to you with heart eyes, absolutely smitten by your request as the tips of his ears turn pink, pressing another kiss to your lips. "Okay," he replies before pulling the notepad closer, but you take it and hold it up for him.

"Thank you darling," he smiles before clearing his throat. He strums a few chords, making you sway gently against the fine melody he's making, a bit choppy but not like you could do any better. He starts singing, lyrics still unrhyming but still holding weight, his voice and the chords of the guitar melding properly and you giggle at the sudden dissonance after he plays the wrong chord. He carries on until it's over.

Then a comfortable blanket of silence envelops you both. You set the notepad down and gently clap for him, delight spread all over your features as he chuckles shyly, rubbing the back of his neck. "I think it's starting to sound nice," you honestly say, knowing he hates it when it's a simple 'sounds good,' because he needs to know how it sounds to you. And you love him so much for valuing your opinion because you could be credited for half his work at that point. Which was something both of you often joke about.

"It's like...you know when you listen to a song for the first time not knowing its lyrics so you assume its a happy, acoustic song?" you try to explain to him more specifically, "That kinda vibe,"

"I see," he nods. "Well, I'll work on it more tomorrow," he shrugs before strumming the strings one by one, "Wanna sing for you jagiya, is that alright for you?"

"I'd love to!"

With your tea encased in your hands, warming you up, Jisung takes a sip of coffee and a bite of a cookie before starting to position himself properly. He starts out a few testing strums, then fully plays chords familiar to you. As he plays, you sway to and fro, eyes closed and taking occasional sips of tea, his voice relaxing every muscle in your body.

God, did you love Han Jisung. Your creative and talented genius.

if you wanna send in a prompt or an ask or just say hi feel free to do so!!