#the woman murdered her abuser with a monster's head LIKE THAT'S SO AWESOME

[nomattertheoceans]

I've been reading the Percy Jackson books for the first time over the past two weeks! Just finished "The Battle of the Labyrinth" last night (which btw is my favorite of the series so far!!)

I have now gained a new obsession but it might not be what you think

[ninja-muse]

October was a month of tense, dark, violent books and I'm hoping to get some palate cleansers into my November reading before I completely OD on rebellions, murder, battles, and oppression. Not that I expect this to happen because I took home a true crime ARC last week and I know what's likely coming for me at the library, but hey. We can hope!

My reading count is once again lower than I'd like it to be, mostly because I refused to cart all 752 pages of Menewood back and forth on my commute and so it took me three weeks to finish in the bites of time I have at home for reading. (Also because I spent a week writing up a storm.) And my other stats are kind of equally disappointing as a result. Oh well, I guess. It is what it is.

I did get my hands on three anticipated library books though! That was good (and I hope the library keeps up the pace), but it's a shame that two of the three weren't as good as I was hoping they'd be. And equally a shame that I wound up DNFing the new Patricia C. Wrede… I was really hoping that might cut through all the doom and gloom, mid-month.

I need a good November, basically. I'm feeling a bit slumpy.

October was also a month of awesome 2024 release announcements and discoveries. There are so many books coming out I want to read, and a couple I didn't know where coming that showed up in my ARC haul. There's a genderbent fantasy retelling of Zorro, folks! Freya Marske, Micaiah Johnson, and Seanan McGuire are releasing exciting things! We're getting a sequel to one of my favourite SF books of last year! Someone is using American folktales to comment on race relations!

I'm sure my 2024 TBR will be an utterly normal and achievable number of books. And I'm sure all this excitement has had nothing to do with my slump.

I've still got a fair ways to go to hit my 2023 reading goals too. It's possible I might reach them. It's equally possible I might not. Wish me luck, I guess? And if you have any fast, light reads with which I can continue to not read the dark, heavy books in my goals, please pass them on!

And now without further ado, in order of enjoyment…

Menewood - Nicola Griffith

War is coming to Deira and Hild has vowed to protect her lands and people.

9.5/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (bi), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (sapphic, mlm), mute secondary character, 🏳️‍🌈 author, #ownvoices for queerness

warning: pregnancy, death, war, death of a child, animal death, grief, sexual assault, mentions of rape

Like Every Form of Love - Padma Viswanathan

A writer digs into the strange, complicated life story of a man she befriended in a marina.

8/10

major 🏳️‍🌈 character (gay), Indo-Canadian author, 🇨🇦

warning: child abuse, domestic abuse, pedophilia, molestation, misogynistic character

After the Forest - Kell Wood

Greta wants to get on with her quiet life but her wayward brother Hans, suspicious villagers, and her memories of a certain witch’s cottage won’t let her.

7.5/10

warning: cruelty to animals, misogyny

Into the Windwracked Wilds - A. Deborah Baker

Avery, Zib, and their companions find themselves in the Land of Air—where the queen likes making monsters

7.5/10

Saga, Volume 9 - Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples (illustrator)

Bad people are catching up to Alana and Marko’s family.

7.5/10

main characters of colour, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (gay, trans woman)

warning: major character death, blood, violence, sex

Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obulafon - Wole Talabi

Shigidi has incurred a debt to an old Nigerian orisha, who’ll erase it if he and his partner pull off a nearly impossible heist.

6.5/10

major and secondary Nigerian characters, major 🏳️‍🌈 character (pansexual), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary character (bisexual), Nigerian author, #ownvoices for race and culture

By Any Other Name - Erin Cotter

Will Hughes, unemployed actor, finds himself thrust into danger when his mentor Christopher Marlowe dies.

7/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (gay), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (bi, lesbian)

warning: murder, fire

My Roommate is a Vampire - Jenna Levine

There’s a room-to-rent in Cassie’s low, low budget. The (hot) guy renting it acts like he’s from the 1800s but surely he’s just quirky.

6.5/10

Jewish protagonist, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (m/m)

The Remarkable Retirement of Edna Fisher - E.M. Anderson

Edna has been Chosen to stop a dragon menace. Highly untraditional but hey, it gets her out of the nursing home.

6/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (ace-spectrum), Black secondary characters, Latine secondary characters, secondary character with anxiety disorder, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (gay, sapphic/asexual), 🏳️‍🌈 author

DNF

The Dark Lord’s Daughter - Patricia Wrede

Kayla and her family are kidnapped to a fantasy world. Apparently she has magic and they think she’s the next Dark Lady?

Black secondary characters

Currently reading:

The Water Outlaws - S.L. Huang When Lin Chong is convicted of a crime she didn’t commit, she finds herself allied with infamous outlaws.

Chinese cast, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (lesbian, genderfluid), mute secondary character, Chinese-American author, 🏳️‍🌈 author, #ownvoices for race, culture, queerness

warning: death, violence, torture

Music from the Earliest Notations to the Sixteenth Century - Richard Taruskin A history of early written European music, in its social and political contexts.

Stats

Monthly total: 9 Yearly total: 109/140 Queer books: 3 Authors of colour: 2 Books by women: 7 Authors outside the binary: 1 Canadian authors: 1 Off the TBR shelves: 3 Books hauled: 0 ARCs acquired: 5 ARCs unhauled: 4 DNFs: 1

January February March April May June July August September

[hafanforever]

It’s Good to Be Bad

I’ve described in previous analyses that I have a strong affinity for villains in fiction, including those by Disney. But like any fan of Disney, there are villains that I love and ones that I deeply detest with every bone in my body. So for my last analysis of the year, I will discuss my five most favorite and five least favorite Disney animated villains, though I also want to list a couple of other characters as honorable mentions to explain why I like or hate them.

The reasons I have for liking my favorite villains are simple, if not somewhat shallow, because I don’t exactly have deep reasons for liking them. Regardless of how evil, sadistic, cruel, and ruthless they are, I like them primarily because they are funny or charismatic. But it’s so much easier for me to list why I hate my least favorite villains, which is largely attributed the kinds of traits they display (most of which I cannot stand in people), their motives for being evil, and how they carry out their evil deeds while showing their evil natures.

This essay has turned into a longer one than I anticipated, so I am adding the “Keep reading” feature. Before I begin, I want to thank my dear buddy and soul sis @minervadeannabond for coming up with this title. Here is yet again another analysis of mine for you to enjoy, sis! 😁😄😉❤️

Most Favorites

Scar - Since The Lion King was the very first Disney film I ever saw in theaters as a child, and the first one I remember well from my childhood, many of my favorites Disney things come from it, including Scar being my #1 favorite Disney villain. Yes, he is a sadistic, tyrannical, narcissistic, cold-blooded murderer, but I think it is because of his cunning, smooth, elegant, charismatic nature and how pivotal he is to the story, particularly with how much he turns out to be a dark reflection of Simba, is why I love him so much. Furthermore, his song “Be Prepared” is my favorite villain song and among my favorite Disney songs of all, further showing how much The Lion King has given me Disney favorites since I was a child. 😁

Hades - Another one I remember well from my childhood, Hades is undoubtedly one of the funniest villains from the Disney animated canon. Although he is as cruel, evil, ruthless, and sadistic as any Disney villain, Hades is also so fast-talking, sleazy, sarcastic, cheeky, and hilarious that it makes it hard for me to take him seriously as a menacing villain. And while he constantly goes into fiery rages and blows his hot-headed top when furious, these help make Hades far more a comical, rather than scary, figure. Heck, when I was a kid, I always laughed, rather than got scared, whenever he unleashed one of his temper tantrums (except when he blows up at Meg with “I OWN YOU!!!”). And James Woods’s performance, especially since he ad-libbed many lines, helps make Hades such an unforgettable and memorable, if not lovable, character. So yeah, Hades’s wisecracking, talkative personality made him a memorable villain for me as a child, and I’ve loved him for it ever since. 😆😂

Ursula - Much like Hades, Ursula is sleazy, scheming, and cunning, yet wisecracking and comical at the same time. Besides her dry sense of humor, Ursula’s eccentricity, flamboyance, and elegance have always been the traits that drew me to her, and Pat Carrolll’s performance of the character is pure excellence. 😉

Maleficent - Despite being an incarnation of pure evil, including with her self-proclaimed title as The Mistress of All Evil, to me, Maleficent is by far the coolest, most badass Disney animated villain of all! 😆👍🏻 Yes, she curses Aurora with no true motive whatsoever, and she’s sadistic, ruthless, blasphemous, and murderous, but her display of her ill temper and dark magic just makes her totally awesome, most especially when she zaps her minions for their stupidity and incompetence upon learning they were only looking for a baby during their 16-year search for Aurora. 😁

Ratigan - Again, Disney has an evil, murderous, sadistic villain in Ratigan, but I love him because he is very collected, calculating, sophisticated, and charismatic, not to mention Vincent Price delivers such a great vocal performance as the character. 😉 What I also love about Ratigan is the moment when he undergoes what is known as a villainous breakdown, which is when a villain snaps and goes utterly crazy. During the film, Ratigan has some moments of losing his cool, but just as quickly manages to become calm and regain his composure. However, upon seeing Basil and Olivia escape from him inside Big Ben, along with Basil having having foiled his earlier scheme to kill the queen and take over England, Ratigan finally snaps, turning from a formal, sophisticated, composed rat to a highly feral, aggressive, savage one. It is the moment when Ratigan reveals the monster within and looks like a true rat, with an aggressive expression, hunched back, elongated claws, and running on all fours. The fact that Ratigan’s breakdown juxtaposes what kind of rat he was for the majority of the film is why his villainous breakdown is my favorite of any Disney villain.

Most Hated

Gaston - I have stated this before in “Bride and Prejudice”, but I pick Gaston as my #1 choice as my least favorite Disney animated villain. And it’s not just because of his extreme vanity, egotism, chauvinism, and arrogance, which are the very traits I hate in people, but because of his inferior, sexist, misogynistic views of women. Gaston is THE walking definition of toxic masculinity, the fictional example of the worst kind of man, the epitome of what men should NEVER be! 😡😡😡 He thinks men are the superior gender and that women are inferior to men, with their only purposes being to serve men and be their sex objects. And since I am a feminist who believes in gender equality, I dislike men who have low, sexist opinions of women, and Gaston fits the profile of what I think is the worst example of such a man. I could go on and on explaining just why I loathe this monster of a man with all my heart, but you can just read the aforementioned analysis to find out more.

Lady Tremaine - If it weren’t for Gaston being my #1 pick because of his extreme sexism and misogyny, I would pick Lady Tremaine. She comes such a close second because her motivations for abusing, oppressing, and being so cruel to Cinderella are petty and stupid, ESPECIALLY because Cinderella never even did anything to deserve such treatment from her in the first place! 😠😡 Lady Tremaine hates Cinderella and is very jealous of her purely because Cinderella so much better-looking and kinder than her own daughters and herself. So they abuse her and make her their servant to make her miserable and unattractive so that they can look better than her instead. Additionally, Lady Tremaine has a deep-rooted obsession to be above Cinderella at all costs that she resorts to lying, manipulation, trickery, and cheating in order to stay above. I particularly loathe it when she manipulates her daughters into tearing up Cinderella’s dress just so that she can appear fair and keep her word regarding her side of the bargain (she says ”if you can find something suitable to wear”, and once it’s wrecked, it’s no longer suitable) while simultaneously making sure she doesn’t have to keep her promise since she never wants Cinderella to go in the first place. All that being said, do these sound like justifiable excuses for hating a completely innocent woman? I DON’T THINK SO!!! 😡😡😡

Claude Frollo - Now if weren’t for BOTH Gaston and Lady Tremaine coming first, Claude Frollo would come on top as well! 😡😡😡 Frollo is without a doubt in my mind the most evil villain in the Disney animated canon. Unlike most Disney villains, he is COMPLETELY devoid of any likable or redeemable traits, making me have nothing but feelings of pure hatred for him. Ruthless, cruel, blasphemous, racist, and evil to his core, Frollo holds a deep-seated hatred for the gypsies and seeks to eradicate them from Paris, making him not only murderous, but genocidal, especially since he seeks to kill them simply out of his own racism, supremacy, and superiority. Throughout the years in his quest to eliminate the gypsies, Frollo murders Quasimodo’s mother by violently kicking her, causing her to fall and hit her head on the stone steps of Notre Dame, then tries to burn Esmeralda at the stake, declaring that she must be killed because she has been practicing witchcraft. After killing the mother, Frollo even attempts to drown baby Quasimodo simply because of his deformity. What makes Frollo even more evil besides doing his deeds is that he is a judge with control over the city, yet he proves himself to be corrupt and hypocritical by violating the laws to accomplish his dark, sinister deeds. Perhaps what makes Frollo the most evil villain of all is that he is in complete denial about how evil he really is. He has a delusional belief that he is a good, religious man doing God’s work by trying to purge the world of evil, when all he really does is twist his “faith” and hypocritically use it for his own evil purposes. What’s worse is that Frollo never once takes an ounce of responsibility for his crimes; he makes excuses to justify his actions, painting himself as guiltless and his victims as the only ones at fault. So with Frollo being such a blasphemous, hypocritical, racist, genocidal, murderous, corrupt judge who never believes he is doing anything wrong and always lays blame on the victims of his misdeeds, I can’t say there is a single thing about him that I like, and I’m happy he met his death in a fiery blaze! 😡🔥

Mother Gothel - A character I see as being an amalgam of Gaston, Lady Tremaine, and Frollo, the reasons why I hate all three of these villains are also found in Gothel: vanity, narcissism, oppression, mental abuse, trickery, manipulation, dishonesty, hypocrisy, and flat-out cruelty. First of all, Gothel’s vanity, narcissism, and obsession with her own beauty makes her extremely insufferable and annoying, not to mention the fact that she hoarded the flower to herself for hundreds of years just to stay alive shows how incredibly selfish and possessive she is. And due to her selfishness, she kidnaps Rapunzel, hides her in a tower, lies to her about the outside world, and continually mentally abuses, manipulates, oppresses, mocks, and belittles her just to ensure that Rapunzel will never leave the tower and the flower’s magic in her hair will keep her (Gothel) alive and young forever. On par with her narcissism, Gothel is shown to be a very spoiled, childish, immature woman who seeks to always have things her way and throws tantrums or other emotional outbursts when she doesn’t get her way or what she wants, especially the very moment she wants it. Furthermore, Gothel possesses a martyr, or victim, complex, which is shown perfectly when victimizes herself and places all the blame on Rapunzel whenever any sort of conflict befalls their lives and relationship, especially when they argue. So with all these flaws in mind, like Gaston, Lady Tremaine, and Frollo, I can’t find any good reason to like Gothel at all. “Mother Knows Best”? More like “Gothel Knows Worst”! 😠😡 

Governor Ratcliffe - I said above that I hate Gaston because of his bigoted, low views of women, and prejudice is the main reason why I hate Governor Ratcliffe. However, his prejudice is in the form of racism, the kind of bigotry that I hate the most. Ratcliffe displays this attitude towards the Native Americans, considering them savages and seeing himself as better than them all because of his race, which makes him a white supremacist. Besides his supremacy and superiority regarding his race, Ratcliffe is intensely greedy and selfish since he wants to keep any riches found for himself and believes that the Virginia land and anything he finds on it is his for the taking. In relation to his bigotry, he is also quite delusional and self-righteous, which makes him believe that any theory he has is right and he refuses to believe otherwise or listen to reason. For example, Ratcliffe dismisses Wiggins’ correct assumptions on why the Indians attacked the settlers and John’s claim that there is no gold in the lands after Pocahontas tells him this. The hatred I hold for Ratcliffe is significantly less than the other four listed here, but the reasons I gave are virtually like those I gave for Frollo, so I’m confident with Ratcliffe and his place on my list.

Bonus Mentions

Hans - Hans is a villain that I place in the middle between my most loved and most hated villains, because I love him for WHAT he is as a villain while I simultaneously hate him for WHO he is as a character. I have said it to friends and some of my other analyses before, but one of the reasons why I love Frozen is because it took many of the traditional fairy tale elements and tropes used in their preceding films, and turned them upside down. So rather than having another prince as the heroic male lead in this film, Frozen twisted that trope around by making him the villain instead. And when Hans finally reveals his true nature, you realize that he has fooled not only Anna and the other characters who interacted with him, but first-time viewers as well! So while I love Hans for being a villain who keeps his true nature under wraps for the majority of the film and almost gets away with his crimes because of it, I also hate him because of how cold, cruel, callous, ruthless, and sadistic he really is. When he reveals his true nature and explains his plan to Anna, he mocks her intelligence, naïveté, and desperation for love while explaining just how easy it was for him to deceive and manipulate her into being a pawn in his plan to take over Arendelle. Throughout the whole scene, Hans smiles wickedly and sadistically, clearly showing the delight he is getting from tormenting Anna and watching her suffer while he explains his scheme and extinguishes all light sources to accelerate her death. It’s also easy to see his sadism when he announces his plan to murder Elsa, and that he will get even greater joy out of carrying out the act itself (which we see when Hans smiles widely while swinging his sword over Elsa’s head as he tries to kill her on the fjord).

Chi-Fu - While he is not a true villain, and not even evil at all, Chi-Fu is a very detestable character, one whose guts I hate completely because he has the same traits that make me hate Gaston: arrogance, conceit, egotism, bigotry, superiority, and misogyny. Prejudice against women is a main theme in Mulan, and Chi-Fu is the one man whose prejudiced opinions never change. While Shang and Mulan’s fellow soldiers initially hold views that women are beneath men, they learn to change them after Mulan proves herself a capable warrior in the army (even after her disguise is revealed), most especially when she helps save China from Shan Yu’s reign of terror. Despite the majority of his bigotry being aimed at women, Chi-Fu is also detestable because he shows it towards nearly everyone else, except the Emperor. As the second-in-command to the Emperor, Chi-Fu sees himself superior to almost everyone else around him, which enhances his pompous, elitist, arrogant attitude. Because of all these antagonistic traits, I loathe Chi-Fu while I don’t hate Shan Yu at all, even though the latter is truly pure evil and genocidal! 😠😡 It just goes to show that some people who are neither necessarily good nor bad can be even more contemptible that the most malevolent, murderous people.

[shellku]

Film Challenge

Okay guys. Finally did it. As requested.

Have you ever left a theater before the movie was over?

Yes. Only once.

If you ever left a theater what was playing: Savages

Craziest (Random) movie you’ve ever seen:

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

“And thanks for all the fish” -Dolphins

Most disturbing film you’ve ever watched:

Crimson Peak

A film you only watched because (Tom Hiddleston ) was in it: Crimson Peak

A minor role (or movie) with a major actor you greatly enjoyed: Sebastian Stan as Jefferson/The Mad Hatter in Once Upon A Time.

A minor role (or movie) with a major actress you greatly enjoyed: Emma Watson as Pauline Fossil in Ballet Shoes

A movie everyone should see at least once: The Princess Bride

A movie you thought everyone has seen but apparently not: Who framed Roger Rabbit?

A movie you’ve tried multiple times to watch but never get through it: Silence if the Lambs

A movie that legitimately surprised you:

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. While it came out in 1980 I didn’t see it until much later obviously. I wasn’t even ten when I watched it the first time, I and was genuinely shocked.

Movie that you enjoy, that surprises people you enjoy: Scream (1996)

A movie you associated with Religion and it turns out that tracks: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe

A movie you watched a lot as a kid but your not sure why exactly you watched it so much:

Hook. (And) The Sandlot.

My first movie that made me question my sexualité: The Priâtes of the Caribbean.

Sections

Anime

First Anime: Fruits Basket. Vampire Knight.

Anime I watched with my (brother): Full Metal Alchemist

Anime I tried to get into and couldn’t: D Gray Man

Anime I was surprised I enjoyed: The Neverland Promise. (And) Soul Eater

Anime I always liked (even when it confused people): Black Butler

Anime that makes me cry: Your lie in April

Anime that I love but now makes me sad too: Sword Art Online

Anime I’m just not into: One Piece

One that was recommended that I enjoyed:

Blue Exorcist

One that was recommended that I was ehh on and did not finish: Attack on Titian

One I probably should watch: Pandora Hearts

One I watched Randomly : Castlevania

One that I did not watch until (college) that everyone seems to have watched: Sailor Moon

Cartoons

Cartoons Everyone should see:

- The Peanuts.

- Garfield.

- Scooby Doo.

- Tom and Jerry.

- Pink Panther.

Cartoon I never liked: Spongebob

Cartoon I hate now: Kiayu? Idk. The one with the bald kid that whines a lot. Ugh.

Cartoon I can make myself ‘watch’ with the (niece/nephews): Paw Patrol

Films you would Recommend:

80s: The Breakfast Club

Book Adaption 80s: The Outsiders

Murder Mystery:Murder on the Oriental Express

Jim Henson pick: Labyrinth

(Suicide) Satire:Heathers

Romance: Titanic

‘Horror’ Movie: The Lost boys

Horror Movie: The Nightmare on Elm Street

Spy Flick: Saint (1997)

Mind trips: The Sixth Sense.(1999) Donnie Darko.

Stephen King: The Dark Tower

Stephen King Miniseries: Rose Red

Studio Ghibli: Howls Moving Castle. Or. Kiki’s Delivery Service.

Action Comedy: Miss Congeniality

Adventure Comedy: Jumanji

‘Dark’ Comedy: The Addams Family

Romantic Comedy: Legally Blonde

Tim Burton

Tim Burton Animated: The Nightmare Before Christmas

Tim Burton Live Action: Edward Scissorhand

Tim Burton Musical: Sweeney Todd

Dreamworks

Favorite Dreamwork’s Film:

Rise of the Guardians (and) How to Train your Dragon

Disney:

Unpopular Recommendations:

The Black Cauldron (and) The Great Mouse Detective

One that is still rather disturbing: Pinocchio

Best Soundtrack (Golden Age): Fantasia

Best Soundtrack (Modern): IDk?!

Classics (Golden) everyone should see at least once: Snow White (and) Bambi.

Wartime Era Pic: The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr.Toad

Silver Age or Bronze Age: Both!!!

Disney Renaissance or Post Renaissance: Both! If I absolutely had to choose though, Renaissance.

Moana or Lilo and Stitch: Lilo and Stitch

Frozen or Tangled: Both

Soul or Monsters Inc: Monsters Inc

Toy Story I and 2/ or/ 3 and 4? Toy Story I and 2.

Underrated: Candleshoe

Disney Holiday:

Live Action Halloween - Hocus Pocus

Live Action Halloween Series- Halloweentown

Animated Halloween- Frakenweenie

Live Action Christmas- Miracle on 34th Street (and) Eloise

Animated Christmas- Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas, Mickey’s Twice Upon a Christmas, (and) Winnie the Pooh: A very merry Pooh year.

New: The Nutcracker and the Four Realms. (2018)

Disney Reimagined/Live Action:

First that made you rethink the story: Maleficent

Favorite ‘Princess’ Story: Beauty and the Beast

The Surprise: Cruella

The one you worried about but we’re happy with in the end: Lady and the Tramp

The one you worried about but ending up enjoying anyway: Aladdin

The one that was good but you could have done without: The Lion King (which really surprised me!!!I like it but I didn’t love it. Which for me was so strange since I’m a fan of the original and the play.)

The one you had high hopes for and had a mixed reaction too: Mulan. (Ended up really liking it, but I miss Mushu. )

‘Modern’ Shakespeare Adaption:

10 Thing I hate About You (The Taming of the Shrew)

Clueless (Emma)

and

The Lion King Series. (Kid appropriate)

The Lion King: Hamlet

The Lion King 1 1/2: Rosencrantz and Guildenstein

The Lion King 2: Romeo and Juliet

Vampire Pictures:

90s: Interview with a Vampire

2000+: Twilight Series

Tv Series: Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Vampire Action Series: Underworld

Classic: Bram Stoker’s Dracula

Dracula with a Twist: Dracula Untold (2014)

Fun Supernatural Flicks :

Witches: The Craft

Male Witches: The Covenant

Fairytale: Red Riding Hood (2011)

Ghost Hunters: Ghostbusters

Multiple Supernatural: Van Helsing (2014)

Werewolf Romance: Blood and Chocolate

Kid Friendly Live Action: Casper

Kid Friendly Animated: Hotel Transylvania

Supernatural Series:

Multi: Supernatural

Animated: Sabrina The Teenage Witch. (And) Scooby Doo.

Witches: Charmed

Fairytale: Once Upon a Time

Darker Fairytale: Grimm

‘Superhero’ Movies:

90s: Batman. (And) The Crow.

Series: Marvel’s Cinematic Universe

Classic Animated: Batman the animated series

Modern Animated: Harley Quinn

Girl Power: Wonder Woman. (and) Birds of Prey.

Something Different: Deadpool

Younger Audiences/Nostalgia: Teen Titans (animated)

Harry Potter

Favorite Film: Idk. Can’t choose honestly.

Least favorite character portrayal: .. Ginny Weasley?

Someone you loved: (so many..) McGonagall

Someone you loved hating: Bellatrix LeStrange

Someone you just hate: Dolores Umbridge

First time you cried: I cried for Sirius and Remus in Prisoner of Azkaban.

First time you jumped: Snakes or Basilisk. Chamber of Secrets. (I think I was 12?)

Someone who was so spot in acting on you can’t see them as anyone else now: Luna Lovegood

Someone who was so good even if the look wasn’t perfect: Emma Granger as Hermione OR Alan Rickman as Severus Snape.

Someone who’s injury hit you harder than the books: Colin Creevy.

Someone who’s death hit you harder than in the books: None. They hit but not as much as the books.

A scene you found just breathtakingly pretty: Christmas at Hogwarts

A scene you found creepy (even when you knew it was coming): Nagini uses a corpse as a mask.

For any Potter heads. Some things that bothered you about the Harry Potter films:

- Where is Charlie Weasley?

- Where is Peeves?

- Where are Neville’s parents?

- The green/blue/brown eye thing. (This is not against Radcliffe. Some special effects could have fixed this easily)

- HarrY DiD YOu PuT YoUR NaMe IN tHe GoBlET of FIRE?! 🔥

- In Sorcerers Stone, Why did you change the snake at the zoos breed??

- “Voldemort” versus “Voldemor”. The silent t.

- Hermione’s. Yule. Ball. Dress. Color. Blue. Not pink. She specifically changed the color.

- Fluffy. Hagrid’s adorable Cerberus was originally bought from a Greek man. Why change it to Irish? I like Ireland but it was a Greek man due to where Cerberus’s initially came from right???

- Harry’s first Weasley sweater color

- Why does Harry only see his parents in the Mirror of Eirsed? Where’s the rest of the family?

- The Underage magic rules aren’t well explained in the movies making the 3rd year summons even more bonkers sounding

- The Patil Twins Yule Ball Outfits. They could have been soooo beautiful. Like this is the Yule Ball! The Twins would have (in my opinion) much more elaborate traditional Indian styled dress robes?? Idk.

- Love Movie Hermione! But some moments take away from Ron. Like when Ron defended her in the Chamber of Secrets. Hermione didn’t know what the slur “Mudblood” meant in the books. Ron had to explain it.

- Dobby needed more screen time. Some stuff Dobby did went to Neville because so many Neville scenes were cut.

- Where’s all the secrecy from the books when communicating with Sirius- “Snuffles”? Something Harry’s godfather insisted on to keep him safe.

- Snape’s title of “The half-blood Prince” is not explained. Neither is it made clear that Severus was also abused horribly at home throughout his childhood. Also that like Harry Dumbledore did nothing to help Severus when he was a student. (Or maybe Tom Riddle when he grew up in an orphanage. I’m sensing a pattern)

- Dumbledore should have still spelled Harry during Dumbledore death scene. No way would Harry just stand there if given the choice.

- Ron was not quite as ‘dumb’ in the books and a lot of his funny moments were cut from the movie. Which makes his jealousy moments all the more unbecoming. He also comes off a bit more arrogant in the movies. (This is not against R Grint. Who is awesome) The movies gave Ron the short end of the stick.

- Weasley/Malfoy Fued. Who else wanted to see Arthur and Lucius have a fist fight in a bookstore? Exactly.

- Albus Dumbledore isn’t all Sunshine and Daisys. He does some really messed up stuff yet no one ever seems to question this.

- Remus was the last Marauder. Yet his and his wife, Tonk’s, deaths are barley acknowledged.

- Also Teddy. Harry’s Godson.

- Harry’s and Ginnys relationship is not built on. It’s just there. Ugh. Heck Movie Ginny isn’t that great. You don’t know much about her except: She’s the only girl in Ron’s family. She’s the youngest Weasley. She’s obsessed with Harry. She’s a good Quidditch player. She has a temper. She was possessed by Riddle’s Dairy when she was eleven. She’s obsessed with Harry.

- Draco is essentially Harry’s antithesis. Where is he in some critical scenes in the movies?

- Where’s the Luna love???? Harry’s pretty rude to her in some scenes.

- There is no S.P.E.W. And Hermione’s more ruthless side is gone.

- The guys hair in The Goblet of Fire. Get a hair cut. Please.

- Some of Molly’s less than Stellar Moments. (Ex. When she believed rumors about Hermione and so treated he coldly. How horrible she was to Fleur. Ect)

- Fleur. Fleur and Bill still get married but the objections to the wedding aren’t as presented in the movies. Not is Molly’s and Ginny’s extreme dislike of Fleur. Or when Arthur apologizes to Fleur. Or really any of Fleurs best moments. The whole courting process is skipped.

- House Elves. The House Elves of Hogwarts.

- Percy Weasley. The ‘betrayal’. The returned Weasley sweater. Him turning to protect his family and fight for Hogwarts at the last minute. All gone. Which involves being forgiven by the Weasley Twins not an hour before Fred dies.

- The connection of the Black sisters. Specifically Adromeda - mother of Tonks. Who is Sirius cousin. Who married Remus Lupin. Tonks and Remus the parents of Teddy.

- Dean Thomas is pretty much gone.

- Rita Skeeter. Illegal Animagus. Hermione kept her in a jar.

- The movies didn’t allow Radcliffe to be sassy and sarcastic enough. Harry Potter is one of the sassiest boys to ever walk through the halls of Hogwarts!

- Harry didn’t fix his wand in the last movie.

- The history of the Marauders.

- The history explaining why Snape could never be comfortable around and trust Remus Lupin.

[brightbeautifulthings]

Complete Tales & Poems by Edgar Allan Poe

"'For the love of God, Montresor!' 'Yes,' I said, 'for the love of God!'"

Year Read: 2020

Rating: 2/5

Context: Starting two years ago, I’ve picked an intimidatingly long classic to read over the course of a year. I have a problem with trying to read books as fast as I possibly can, so if I set myself a thousand page novel, I’ll try to pound it in a week, and it will just be a miserable experience all around. So, a year is a nice compromise. I’ve hit the major Poe horror stories in the past, and I’ve been thinking about rereading them, but I couldn’t decide where to start. Reread my favorites? Read the ones I’ve heard of? What if I’m missing something awesome? As usual, my go-to answer is to read them ALL. For more thoughts on individual stories, see my monthly blog posts. Trigger warnings: character death, torture, live burial, cannibalism, decapitation, animal abuse, injury, severe illness, racism/xenophobia, anti-Semitism, ableism, slurs, mental illness, bitter ranting from the reviewer.

Thoughts: My edition, with an introduction by Wilbur S. Scott, is probably not the edition I would have picked, since I prefer more notes or even essays to help me out with books that are 100+ years old. Context is helpful. Somehow though, my dad and I ended up with the same edition, so we decided to read it together. My dad loves all things horror (I come by it naturally), and we’re both longtime Poe fans, especially if you happen to put Vincent Price in one of his film adaptations. Scott’s introduction is particularly pretentious for a book we probably found in the bargain bin, and he manages to criticize the horror genre for not being “literary enough”. This is an Edgar Allan Poe collection, right? Way to alienate 90% of your audience right from the start. You can’t snub an entire genre and then attempt to explain why people like it. Like a lot of critical writing, it tells us more about Scott than it does about Poe, and I was circling his typos to entertain myself by the end of the introduction.

It did not get better. In short, I actively hated so much of this collection, and it's my most arduous and least enjoyed year-long read to date. To be even shorter, the only stories I found worth reading for pleasure were the horror ones I had already read and loved, and I'm afraid to examine too closely whether that has more to do with nostalgia and pop culture than the stories themselves. Poe has a way of lingering on pointless descriptions and belaboring a point to its absolute death, alongside an aggressively pretentious tone that suggests the narrator (and, by extension, Poe himself), knows everything there is to know about everything and you're an idiot for even asking. His true talent may not be horror, but in turning what might have been a good story into an intellectual soapbox and hammering it the point of absurdity. It would be different if the stories actually were intelligent instead of ridiculous. I’m happy to talk Aristotelian ethics, but the point is never to intellectually engage the reader–-it’s to show how clever the writer is.

On the whole, it seems like Poe struggles with telling a straightforward story, and I can’t tell if it’s because the short story genre has changed so much since then or because he’s so busy trying to show readers how smart he is that he forgets that stories have very specific components like suspense, exposition, or rising action (or endings). Most of them consist of some narrator speaking the entire time (I have all kinds of problems with this, from, “You just ruined the twist of your own story” to “No human talks for thirty uninterrupted minutes unless some idiot gave them a microphone.”), and few of them have anything resembling action, plot/character development, strong themes, or closure. There’s an essay-like quality to some of them (“The Imp of the Perverse”, “The Premature Burial”) where he seems to be trying to tease out a concept on an intellectual level, sometimes for pages and pages, before he remembers that he’s telling a story with characters and what could loosely be called a plot. I could do without all the intellectualizing, verbal grandstanding, and narrative cartwheels; just tell a good story, please.

And he does, sometimes. It's clear why Poe remains an essential part of the horror canon because those are easily the best stories in the collection, and I don't think that's just because I'm a horror fan. Horror seems to age better than some other genres because certain things remain consistently scary over decades or even centuries--being buried alive, for example. “The Fall of the House of Usher” is permeated by a feeling of bleak foreboding, culminating in some truly terrifying images, and “The Tell-tale Heart” is one of the better examples of Poe’s rambling narrator who thinks a lot of his own intelligence and slowly unravels over guilt. Both scared me to death when I was a kid, and I’m happy to see that they still maintain a high creep factor as an adult. (I also had the Great Illustrated Classics Tales of Mystery and Terror as a kid, because all a story about being buried alive needs is an illustration!) “The Cask of Amontillado” has long been one of my favorites (because there is something deeply wrong with me, probably), and “The Pit and the Pendulum” and “The Masque of the Red Death” are both top-notch horrifying, the latter a classic plague story that's a little *too* relevant to the times just now (but, you know, also one of my favorites). The clock symbolism is some of the best in the entire collection. Why, pray tell, would you be afraid of time?

The tolerable stories are the detective ones and the adventure ones, in that order. I can see why Poe’s detective stories like “The Gold Bug” and “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” spawned a genre. I was getting clear Sherlock Holmes vibes from his character, Dupin. However, it reaffirms that something is a classic because of its effects on literature as a whole and not because it’s still all that accessible. Just because something is the first of its kind doesn’t mean it’s the best of its kind; in fact, it usually isn’t because that was only a starting place. I can’t help feeling “Murders” would have been more compelling as a horror story than a detective story. Murdering gorillas are cool; listening to someone talk about murdering gorillas, much less cool. I was extremely irritated by his hot air balloon stories ("The Balloon Hoax", "The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall"), but apparently Jules Verne loved them, which makes a lot of sense. I was getting a lot of Verne vibes from things like "A Descent Into the Maelstrom" and even the utterly long, boring, and racist "Narrative of A. Gordon Pym." It's clear they had influence on other writers, even if they're not the best examples of their genres.

Which brings us back around to the bad. It's not worth my time or yours to list all the terrible stories in this collection, but I can briefly summarize what I found so terrible about them. First, Poe is tragically, emphatically unfunny. The things he seems to find humorous are either in very poor taste now (his tasteless descriptions of mental patients in “The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether”), or they’re outright ridiculous, almost slapstick, like the woman who gets her head stuck in a clock and is subsequently decapitated by it in “A Predicament,” which is an odd sequel to “How to Write a Blackwood Article.” I’m sensing that Poe is making fun of intellectuals or would-be intellectuals here, but with so much time and cultural distance, it’s hard to tell. In any case, it led to a running joke (“I’m going out for groceries!” “Don’t stick your head in any clocks!”). Somehow, I doubt this is the major takeaway Poe was hoping for.

Worst of all, they don't age well on representation either. Poe seems at pains to offend every single minority he possibly can throughout his oeuvre. There are a lot of horribly racist depictions of African Americans, snide comments about Jewish people (or the much more obvious anti-Semitism in “Four Beasts In One” where a mad king has a thousand Jews killed--really?), and blatant ableism (“Hop-Frog”). It's at its worst in "Narrative of A. Gordon Pym," a novella that spans over a hundred pages, that is basically a tedious, xenophobic setup to paint the native population of an island as the most horrific and duplicitous monsters imaginable. (The narrator previously ate one of his shipmates, so can he really afford to throw stones here?) For inexplicable reasons, that story isn't finished, and by that point, I was grateful.

Poe's poetry is a little easier to work through than his prose. I love "The Raven" with its lilting rhymes and dark message, and "Annabel Lee" is very pretty, both ubiquitous in popular culture. I also liked "Dream-Land," "Al Aaraaf" (where Ligeia makes another appearance), and "Alone." Most of the poetry has pretty simple rhyme schemes, the subjects mainly love and loss. There's an excerpt of an unfinished play, "Politian," included as well, but it didn't make much of an impression on me. TL;DR: I stand by my initial opinion, which is to read his horror stories for pleasure and, possibly, his detective and adventure stories for genre purposes, and to skip the rest. I'll probably be looking for a smaller edition of the stories I like. This one is a massive hardcover, more like a book you put on your coffee table to look impressive than a book you actually read (but I don’t have a coffee table, so it’s actually just taking up more room on the shelf than any one book has a right to).

[holylulusworld]

911 for love (7) – A close call

Summary: You are twenty-five, independent, smart and still a virgin. Annoyed by your friend's comments you want to get rid of the problem by calling a call-boy. Little did you know you will meet two things…love and handcuffs…

Pairing: Cop!Dean x Reader, Bobby Singer, Cole Trenton, Garth Fitzgerald, Michael, OFC's Parks & Miller

Warnings: angst, characters death, blood, caring Dean, language, mentions of sex, a hint of fingering, attempted murder, mentions of murder/knife play (non-sexual)

911 for love Masterlist

Two weeks later…

Face buried between your thighs Dean enjoys the noises he can press out of you. For the last two weeks, he made you scream his name more than you can count.

Here you are again, crying out as he didn’t stop after he came deep inside of you. Dean is determined to make you fall apart for a third time, using his thick fingers.

“Dean…” Hands finding purchase at his shoulders you try to make him stop but Dean is not budging as you push him away. “It’s…oh…god…”

Body trembling you fall back onto the pillow silently cursing your boyfriend's name.

“There she is, my lovely girl…” Smirking Dean looks up at you from between your legs, not sorry at all as you lie boneless on your bed. “Alright. Let’s talk about you moving into my house.”

“Can I catch my breath first, Dean?” Panting heavily, you watch Dean lie next to you, gently moving his fingers over your skin.

“You lost weight, Sweetheart. I want you to eat more…” Punching Dean’s arm you shake your head.

“I told you that I want to live healthier, Dean. We still can eat pizza once a week and ice cream but from now on we will eat salad too. Especially you will eat vegetables with your meat.”

Poking your finger into Dean’s arm you smirk as he flexes his muscle. “Don’t do that…”

“I hate to admit it, but I need to become fitter to make you cum even harder.” Now there’s a cocky grin on Dean’s face, telling you he has dirty things in mind.

“Dean…we barely know each other. I can’t move into your house after being your girlfriend for two weeks.” Dean doesn’t react for a moment before he covers your body with his tall frame, pecking your nose.

“You skip the whole ‘let’s get to know each other’ thing when you already know. All I can say is that I never felt more comfortable around a girl. I love everything about you, Sweetheart.” He does this tongue thing again and your resolve fades.

“You want me to move into your house?” Ludicrous you look up at Dean as he silently nods, smiling as you whimper every time he kisses your lips. “Okay…”

“Okay? AWESOME!” Jumping up Dean grabs his phone to call his brothers number. “Sammy, she said yes…” Dean exclaims, and you toss a pillow at your boyfriend he tells his brother you agreed to move into his house.

“Dean! I barely agreed and you tell your brother?” Dean doesn’t react as you get up to glare at him. He only gives you a dirty grin while his eyes roam your bare skin.

“I for sure enjoy the view, Sweetheart. How about we have a look at my house, and you can decide if you want to move in?” Now Dean’s eyes darken and you smell the trap.

“You only want to get me into your house to not let me go again.” Wetting his lips Dean nods, not ashamed at all.

“I told you that I will not leave your side ever again, Y/N. Let’s pack a few things an check my house out.” While you get dressed Dean tells Garth about your plans only to earn a scoff from Cole.

“Winchester, we can’t let her leave the apartment. We got no clue who the killer is and if he’s still after your girl. I will not risk my career only as you want to bang your chick in your house.” Cole snickers as Dean’s jaw squares.

“Your career? That’s all you think about?” Grabbing Cole’s shirt Dean presses his colleague into the wall, glaring at him as his fist wants to collide with Cole’s face.

“Dean, maybe he’s right. We can stay here and look at your house later.” You want to calm Dean but he won’t give in this time. Cole kept him away from you, and Dean won’t forgive him that easily.

“I can come with you too.” Garth offers as Cole struggles against Dean’s strength. “We can’t keep Ms. Y/L/N hostage in her apartment. She hasn’t left it for weeks.”

“Captain Singer said she has priority. We need to make sure nothing happens to her. You know he blames himself the last victim died as we observed another woman instead of her.”

“I know, Cole but…” Garth sighs as you give him a cracked smile.

“Dean, Garth. I hate to admit it but your colleague is right. We shouldn’t leave my apartment while that crazy guy is still out there.”

----

“You want what?” Bobby curses, pacing around your living room. “We can’t just bring her to your house, Dean. I love you like a son, but this goes too far.”

“Bobby, in my house, she will be safer than anywhere. You knew how dad was…” Glancing at his friend Dean silently pleads him to help him bring you to a safe place.

“John was the best in securing a house but even tho your house is safe, we still need to protect Y/N.” Bobby points toward Cole and Garth, sighing as Dean won’t give in.

“Let me at least show her my house and we can come back here in a few hours. I don’t think the killer will try to get close to my girl while I’m around.” Dean shows Bobby his hidden gun, smirking.

----

“How did you make Bobby agree?” Sliding your fingers over Dean’s thigh you lean your head against his shoulder as he drives toward his house.

“Bobby agreed as two officers will follow us the whole day. They will bring us home too. Don’t you worry. We will check my house and Miller and Parks will stay by our side.” Dean explains he knows both men for years.

“Are those men the same who were around the whole time?” Glancing at the house getting closer you smile as it looks like a home you can imagine raising your children in.

“No. Miller and Parks are new. One of the other officers called in sick, Langston, I think.” Scratching his chin Dean wonders why he knows Langston but not the guy helping him to get into your apartment. “Odd…”

----

“What?” While you follow Dean the two officers split. Miller is following you and Dean while Parks has a look around the house to make sure no one is sneaking around.

“You good, Dean?” Miller knows Dean for years so he can see something is bugging his colleague.

“I don’t know.” Shaking the thought away Dean takes your hand in his, leading you around the house to show you the living room. “I renovated it not months ago. The fireplace is new.”

“It’s beautiful.” Sliding your fingers over the fireplace you smile as Dean tells you he rebuilt it with his brother's help. “I like it…”

“Miller, we got an emergency call. Two colleagues need backup.” Parks runs into the house, panting. “There’s a 133 * going on, maybe a 134 * too, Dean. Can we leave you alone? We asked for back-up. Cole and Garth will be here in half an hour.”

“Go, get the bad guy. I will lock the door and have my gun close by. No reason to be worried.” Dean’s heart is racing but he doesn’t let it show. “Tell anyone my girl is safe in my house…”

“Got it, Dean. We see us later.” Parks and Miller rush out of the house to enter their patrol car.

----

“Cole, relax.” Garth glances out of the window as his colleague pushes the car to its limit. “Dean is a good cop, you know that.”

“Parks and Miller got lured away from his house. Now I can’t reach Dean. I don’t know how, but I’m afraid the killer did all this to get Y/N and Dean alone.” Garth’s throat is dry, letting Cole’s words sink in he tightens the grip at his gun.

“Cole, drive faster…I’ll call Bobby for back-up.”

----

“Officer?” Dean told you to not open the door or answer it but the officer protecting you over the last weeks, guarding your building stands at Dean’s front porch and you don’t know what to do.

“My name is Michael, just call me Michael. We know each other for weeks now.” The officer says and you tighten the grip on the door handle. You don’t know why but you got the feeling you shouldn’t open the door, so you step back, giving the officer a fake smile.

“I’m sorry but Dean locked the door and I’ve got no key. I better call him. He’s upstairs, Officer, I mean Michael.” The man smirks, loving his name leaving your lips and before you can blink he gets his gun out to fire at the lock.

Shrieking you take a step backward, panting as you hear a heavy boot kick the door open. “You seem so lonely, Sweetheart…” Michael snickers and you shudder as he abuses the nickname Dean used lovingly.

“Michael, I’m not lonely. Dean is here…” You take another step backward as Michael steps inside, putting his gun away to look you all over.

“I don’t think so, Y/N. I saw him drive away; his car is gone. We’ve got time…” Smiling Michael gets his favorite knife out, the one he uses to carves his name into his victims while they are still alive. “I will finally enjoy you…”

“Why are you doing this? Why did you kill all these women?” Voice trembling you walk backward till you stop in your tracks, locking eyes with Michael.

“My mother…” Head tilted Michael smirks. “Was a great woman. Did you think she was a monster? No. I’m not some stereotype serial killer.”

He steps closer again, a cold smile on his lips. “I just like hearing a woman beg for her life. All these lonely, horny and desperate women, calling a call boy to not feel lonely…perfect victims…”

Snickering Michael looks at you, still this smile on his lips. “Being lonely is not a crime, asshole.”

“All of them let me into their apartments, stripped for me, even let me handcuff them. Kinky sluts for sure. Now let me see how well you will sing my song…” Michael smirks as he wants to step closer but then he gasps before he falls to his knees.

The sound of a bullet ending his life echoes through the house as Dean steps out of his hideout.

“You okay, Baby Girl?” Nodding you rush to Dean’s side, not looking at the dead man on his floor. “I’m sorry I had to ask you to do this, but we had to be sure.” Slinging an arm around your shoulders Dean leads you out of his house, kissing your hair softly.

----

“How did you know?” Bobby asks while the paramedics check on you.

“I knew all Officers by name, only that guy being so nice to help me get into Y/N’s apartment was an unknown face to me. When Parks and Miller got lured away from my house I was sure someone must’ve known they would be with me.”

Dragging his hand down his face Bobby silently curses. “This is a disaster, Dean. One of us was a killer. No one will ever trust us again…”

“Bobby, honestly I can’t think about the consequences of Michael’s crimes right now. I will fill my report, bring my girl home and make sure she’s alright.” Dean walks toward the ambulance, smiling as you hold tight onto his jacket.

“Do we know why Michael helped Dean to get into her apartment?” Cole watching Dean gently stroke your hair. “This doesn’t make sense to me.”

“I guess, he thought Dean would bring her away from you, Garth and the other officers. With only Dean around, he had a chance to get close to Y/N.” Bobby hands Cole a file, showing pictures of you and Dean at the door of your friends, in the Impala and outside your apartment complex.

“Shit. How could we not see this coming?” While Dean leads you toward his car Cole looks at the pictures again.

“I don’t think anyone would’ve thought the killer could be one of us. Now let’s clean this shit and tell anyone we got the bad guy.”

* 133 = Possibly dangerous person * 134 = Kidnapping

911 for love Tags

@bmrobichaud, @waywardrose13, @delicatefirespyplaid

SPN Forever Tags

@donnaintx, @screechingartisancashbailiff, @fallen-wolf22, @sister-winchesters99, @mogaruke, @the-is13, @helloitsmeamie203, @strayrosesbloom, @thewinchesterco, @hobby27, @kittycatlover18, @gh0stgurl, @marvelfansworld , @sandlee44, @hawaiianohana31, @unlikelysamwinchesteronahunt, @katpatrova17, @notyourtypicalrose , @heyitscam99, @flamencodiva, @echoesofpassion, @cocklesbelli, @voltage-my2dlove, @fandom-princess-forevermore @thenamelesschibi, @lauravic, @fandomsrourlives, @wittysunflower, @drakelover78, @lemondropirwin, @lonewolf471, @wronglanemendes, @spnhollis, @void-imaginations, @jay-and-dean, @shatteredabby, @juniorhuntersam, @helpmeluci, @neii3n, @goodgodimaweirdperson, @alltimesamantha, @chonisberonica, @supernaturalonice, @stuckys-whore, @shadowkat-83 @officialmarvelwhore, @wecantgiggleitsafandom, @meganywinchester, @shikshinkwon, @miraclesoflove, @yolobloggers, @lu-sullivan, @maniacproffesor, @hollymac79, @straycuties9, @kayla-2000, @ilovefanfic86, @gracefultrenchcoat494, @babygirls-fav, @sadn0va, @spnwoman, @amiquette, @linki-locks11, @geekofmanyforms, @eggingamazinglove, @jessica-marsh09, @spnficgirl, @shut-themoonscone, @thequeenreaders, @countrygal17a, @kteelou, @soryuwifeyxx, @kricketc28, @atomicfandombomb, @defenderrosetyler, @shortwinchester, @maybesomedaygayyyy, @tmiships4life, @deanmonandnegansbitch, @exo-nova, @laxe-from-outer-space, @sabascio, @that-place-called-middle-earth, @the-broken-angel-13, @bunnybaby89, @pandabiiissh, @maddiedott, @fandom-imagines1, @lilulo-12, @theoneandonlymelol, @mblaqgi, @sea040561, @clawsandshotguns, @justsomedreaming, @differentstudentrunawaysposts, @hhiggs, @deepmuffinspymaker, @certaindeanwinchesterforcastiel, @cassiopeia-barrow, @mep6811, @jo-like-josette, @supernaturalenchanted, @mscarter213, @trumpettay

Dean/Jensen Forever Tags     

@spnfamily-j2, @supernatural-bellawinchester, @butifulsoul125, @lyinginthegingerlocks, @deans-baby-momma, @spn-dean-and-sam-winchester, @20gayneen, @janicho88, @thefaithfulwriter, @dreaminemz, @negans-lucille-tblr, @akshi8278, @midnightsilver16830, @mrspeacem1nusone, @ria132love, @caligraphee, @the-witch-in-silence, @multisuperfandom, @deansgirl-1968, @justanotherwinchester, @jadesupernatural, @squirrelnotsam, @gaveherhearttotheliontattoo, @roonyxx, @jason-todd-squad, @thevelvetseries, @spnsuper17, @adoptdontshoppets, @woodworthti666​, @frederikkeborup, @psychicforest, @luciathewinchestergirl, @michellemxndes​, @addictedtofictionalcharacters​, @gabifernandessn​, @magssteenkamp​

[braincoins]

Unusual Halloween Movies

Tired of Jason, Freddy, and Michael? Want something new this year? Boy, do I have some treats lined up for you! I’ve used JustWatch to list the streaming options (though these are US streaming options; I maaaaay be up for some streaming fun on Halloween...). I’ll tell you right now, this list can almost perfectly be broken into three categories: Horror-Comedy, Sci-Fi Horror, or International Horror.

American Mary -  A medical student drowning under tuition debt finds a lucrative practice when she enters the world of body modification. ngl, I remember liking this movie but it’s been a bit since I saw it, so for the CONTENT WARNINGS I’m going to straight up rip the MPAA here: Rated R for strong aberrant violent content including disturbing images, torture, a rape, sexual content, graphic nudity, language and brief drug use

Ava’s Possessions - Ever wonder what life is like once all your demons have been exorcised - literally? Now that Ava is free of the demon that once possessed her, she’s out of a job, down a few friends, and facing charges for the acts of violence her demon did. The only way to get out of trouble is to go to the demon-equivalent of AA. CONTENT WARNINGS: mostly blood and bad language; some mild sexual content 

Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon - A journalism grad student interviews a young man in training to be the next slasher killer, ala Jason/Freddy/Michael. An absolute treat of a movie for anyone who loves slasher films; it’s about 3/4 mockumentary, 1/4 actual horror film when she realizes that, no, really, he’s going to go kill all those co-eds. CONTENT WARNINGS: Blood, gore, naked boobs (”Ugh. Is that REALLY necessary?” “Now, Taylor, who’s telling this story?”), sex, occasional panty shots (because, again, slasher films). 

Bubba Ho-Tep - OH MAN another one I had to go back and add in ‘cause REALLY NOW. Elvis is in a nursing home (at least, he says he’s the real Elvis) and he and JFK (who is played by Ossie Davis - who you will note is NOT white) have to fight off a resurrected mummy who sucks the souls of the living out of their assholes. Bruce Campbell stars. HOW IS THAT NOT AWESOME ENOUGH FOR YOU?! CONTENT WARNING: Um... look, I think you kinda already know what sort of content to expect given what I just told you about the story.

Bulbbul (Netflix Original) -  (Hindi Language) During the 19th century Bengali Presidency, something - or someone? - is haunting the woods around a lord’s estate, killing men in gruesome ways. The lord has left his estate in charge of his young wife, while his younger brother, who’d been away studying in London, returns to hunt down whatever is causing these mysterious deaths. CONTENT WARNINGS: child bride, blood, and what Netflix calls “sexual violence”, meaning a rape scene so graphic (despite not showing any nudity or genitalia) that it is GUARANTEED to make you uncomfortable. The movie was written and directed by a woman, so there is nothing intended to be “sexy” about this at all. If you can make it through that scene, though, there is a definite payoff for it. (Or should I say “payback”?)

Eli (Netflix Original) - A young, incredibly sick boy with a fragile immune system is brought by his parents to a clinic for an experimental treatment that may be their last hope. But all is not as it seems within the walls of this place... perhaps literally. CONTENT WARNINGS: mostly just language, a few mild jump scares. People get set on fire at one point. No biggie. 

Errementari: the Blacksmith and the Devil (Netflix Original) - (Basque Language) Based on a Basque folk tale. Eight years after the First Carlist War, a government official comes to a small, impoverished Basque town asking after the blacksmith. Everyone tries to warn him away; the blacksmith is an evil, evil man. But he is on the trail of some Carlist gold that might be in the smithy, and the prospect of the gold wins him some helpers. And while everyone is distracted by that, a young orphan girl manages to get onto the blacksmith’s property. And what she finds there, no one could have expected... CONTENT WARNINGS: I took a screenshot of Netflix’s list of warnings just because it amuses me:

[sings “One of these things is not like the others...”]

Europa Report - Look, I really can’t recommend this enough for fans of found-footage features and people who can stand slower-paced, constantly-building terror. An international mission is sent to investigate Europa, one of the moons of Jupiter. (Those of you who are fans of real-world space exploration know that Europa is considered a prime target for extraterrestrial life within our solar system.) Contact was lost with the mission for a long time, until the data streams came flooding into Earth all at once. And what they showed... CONTENT WARNINGS: Like I said: slower pace than most horror/thriller movies. It builds slow and steady. There’s really not much in the way of blood and gore, though; an excellent example of terror without resorting to buckets of red corn syrup.

Event Horizon - Hellraiser in Space? Hellraiser in Space. Except the Lamentation Configuration is a fucking SPACE SHIP. Also, props for genre-savvy cast. CONTENT WARNINGS: EYE SCREAM. Blood, gore, and, no really, THE EYE THING. Did I mention the gore and the blood? Oh, and language. And blink-and-you-miss it nudity & sex.

Grabbers - Strange creatures are attacking a small Irish coastal town and the only way to protect yourself is... to be drunk? CONTENT WARNINGS: I mean, it’s Irish and everyone’s drunk, so bad language (by American standards) is a given. That’s... really about it, unless you have a tentacle phobia.

Green Room -  An up-and-coming punk band show up to play a gig and realize too late that they’re playing at a Neo-Nazi club. And when they happen to see something they... really shouldn’t have, it becomes an all-out fight for survival. Same director as Murder Party, though this movie was made later with a much better budget. CONTENT WARNINGS: Violence, blood, gore, and yes, some dogs die because they were trained to be vicious attack dogs by Neo-Nazis. :( Also, the most important content warning of all? PATRICK STEWART PLAYS A NEO-NAZI. (You think I’m joking, but for someone who grew up with him as Jean-Luc Picard, it is downright unsettling to see, okay?)

Life - Think Alien meets Europa Report (above). The six-member crew of the International Space Station are given a sample from Mars that might contain actual extraterrestrial life.  CONTENT WARNINGS: Blood. No, let me say that again: BLOOD. Sounds of bones breaking. Alien creature entering someone’s mouth and killing them from the inside (probably through a combination of choking them/asphyxiating them on their own blood/devouring their blood? It’s not clear, it’s just UNSETTLING).

Murder Party - This is what happens when snobby art school brats try to kill someone. (Read: it doesn’t go well.) Fuckin’ bop of a Halloween song over the end credits, too. Also, at least two characters are canonically bisexual. Same director as Green Room, though this movie was made first (with a much lower budget). CONTENT WARNINGS: bad language, blood, gore, nudity, mild sexual content (the nudity is supposed to be “artistic”). The dog probably DOES die, given the circumstances, but it doesn’t happen on screen, at least? And the dog gets some pretty decent comeuppance first... Also, 1000000% accurate cat representation. 

The Perfection (Netflix Original) - A former cello virtuoso (virtuosa?) gets in touch with her former teacher and meets his new star pupil. An instant connection is formed between the two women... or is it? (Yes, there are lesbians!) CONTENT WARNINGS: oh chaos, where do I start? Bugs under the skin, hacking off body parts, blood, gore, mild sexual content, sexual abuse, and the movie itself is complete and utter MINDFUCKERY. Did you like “Tales from the Crypt” as a kid? You’ll probably dig this. 

Ravenous - With apologies to all Native Americans, but at least they did get actual Native American actors for those parts (George is played by a Pueblo actor; his sister Martha is played by an actress of Menominee and Stockbridge-Munsee descent). A soldier who won a questionable victory during the Mexican-American war is given a hero’s status and then an exile to a remote fort in the Sierra Nevadas. Not long after he arrives, a would-be settler arrives with a harrowing tale, calling for help for what few survivors there are of his wagon train. The two friendly Native Americans at the fort issue warnings that go unheeded, of course. CONTENT WARNINGS: Blood, gore, cannibalism, PTSD.

Slither - James Gunn’s 2006 Feature Movie Directorial Debut! He wrote it, too. An homage to B-movie gore flicks like you’d see at the drive-in. I am just copying and pasting the IMDB summary ‘cause I love this movie too much to be concise about it: A small town is taken over by an alien plague, turning residents into zombies and all forms of mutant monsters. (Oh, but don’t forget the nasty, slithery blood worm things!) CONTENT WARNINGS: Nasty, slithery blood worm things. GORE, BLOOD, GORE, GORE. A very uncomfortable sex scene. Michael Rooker.

They’re Watching - An American TV crew filming what is essentially “House Hunters: Eastern Europe” stumble into superstitions, folklore, and... TERROR!! MWAHAHAHAHA. No, seriously, I LOVE how it’s basically “What if some HGTV crew wound up waaaaaaaay in over their heads, in a horrible and bloody way?” CONTENT WARNINGS: Blood, gore, and NO WI-FI.

[thecorteztwins]

I just love how much of the 80s was just Shaw not having any idea what the FUCK just happened and/or just trying to avoid the fuckery happening around him in the Hellfire Club.

Like, literally one day this member comes in like hey I’m sponsoring this new lady here, her name is Selene, she’ll be our Black Queen, and Sebastian is like yeah that’s not how this works you don’t just get to be Black Queen and Selene responds by just trying to MURDER HIM ON THE SPOT by bringing the floor to life and crushing him. He manages to break free but by his own admission, she nearly succeeds. Shaw is SCARED AS FUCK of Selene after that, he acts cool around her but his thought balloons reveal he’s ON HIS TOES 24/7 as he should be And this SAME DAY, like probably within FUCKING HOURS of this random woman nearly killing him out of the goddamn blue, Rachel Summers and Magma start FUCKING SHIT UP at the Club bigtime because they have beef with Selene and have tracked her here, like there’s lava and earthquakes and telekinesis and the place is just COMING DOWN and Shaw is like hey what the actual fuck is happening here because he has no idea WHAT this is about And then the X-Men BURST THROUGH THE GODDAMN WALL RIGHT NEXT TO HIM because they’re here to save Rachel and Amara and they start threatening Shaw and he’s like LISTEN THIS WAS NOT MY GODDAMN IDEA And it gets sorted out and they all go home and Shaw is just left with this MASSIVE EXPENSIVE PROPERTY DAMAGE MESS And then Emma gets it in her head to kill Selene. I do not recall if there was a reason or not? Like I don’t think Selene ever made a move against Emma, she was too busy messing with Shaw who NEVER MAKES A MOVE BACK AGAINST HER LOL but I guess Emma saw Selene as a threat to her, which Shaw was not (there is a 2000s retcon of Shaw having been Emma’s abusive lover/mentor but that was written like...twenty years after this, they’re originally just equal partners working together because they just had similar goals at the time and I really prefer it that way)   So Emma starts training this teen girl Firestar as an asassin who is gonna kill Selene for her and Shaw is just like, cool, awesome Then like next thing he knows, EMMA’S SCHOOL BLOWS UP because Firestar realized she was being used and DID NOT LIKE IT and it’s the middle of winter so poor Emma is out there huddled under a blanket and Shaw brings her some coffee (which is just inexplicably hilarious to me, it’s just such an odd image) and Emma is like “look she made me promise not to go after her but YOU CAN” and he’s like oh my god Emma I’m not doing that like he just wants NO PART IN THIS even though taking out Selene would be GREAT for him, like his just knows not to get involved in anything between these Queens or with redheads who blow up buildings LIKE HE CLEARLY REMEMBERS WHAT HAPPENED WITH THAT LAST TIME And finally, Inferno happens. The entire CITY gets infected with demonic energy, resulting in inanimate objects coming to life and becoming monsters. Like there’s this truly HORRIFIC scene of an elevator EATING PEOPLE that has NEVER LEFT ME. The Hellfire Club is affected and endangered by this as much as anyone else, and they end up having to fight for their lives against attacking demons. And of course yet again Shaw has NO IDEA what the fuck is happening but he’s decided who to blame---MAGNETO! Like Shaw never messed with Selene or Emma in the Hellfire Club but BOY DID HE FUCKING HAVE A HATE-ON FOR MAGNETO and honestly I think it’s because Magneto is the only one he DARED mess with (or...roll around shirtless with, that was a thing) So he’s just on top of a Manhattan skyscraper, PUNCHING DEMONS IN THE FACE while saying this is MAGNETO’S FAULT because clearly Magneto must have lost control of Illyana (Shaw, honey, Magneto never controlled Illyana) Just Punching demons and blaming Magneto I love it so much. (You could ALMOST feel sorry for him if he were not SEBASTIAN SHAW. As it is, he had all this coming and honestly it was HILARIOUS like everything is just CONSTANTLY NUTS around him and it’s great)

[ice-cream-nekogirl]

What am I now? What am I now? What if I'm someone I don't want around? I'm fallin' again I'm fallin' again I'm fallin'

-’Falling’ by Harry Styles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRDKoMcgavw

I’ve seen and read a lot of fanfictions where it’s told from the POV of one character and that inspired me to write this but... it’s not happy... much... and Harry Styles’ song just also inspired me to write out this fairly sad piece because that song is such a tearjerker man..

I like to this of this as an inside look of the witch's mind and thoughts as well as her opening up about her issues.

WARNING: This small piece contains mentions and/or references to suicide and intrusive thoughts. Reader discretion is advised.

Interestingly... I've come to realize that Amy's behavior makes sense if you know what Borderline Personality Disorder is and what the symptoms are. Many of which she actually checks out for. I study a lot of psychology in my spare time and to my surprise, Amy ended up showing some symptoms even though I swear to God it wasn’t my intention, it just kinda... ended up like that.

For more info or insight on BPD: 

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/comic-perfectly-shows-jealousy-looks-232343129.html

https://psychcentral.com/lib/loving-someone-with-borderline-personality-disorder/

Amy’s POV:

Apparently most children get their quirks at the age as early as 3 or 4, but when I was 4 years old I didn’t get mine. 5, 6,7,8,9, still nothing. That was it, I guess that just meant I was going to be quirkless forever, on the bright side at least I would be part of a minority that I could one day fight for I thought. If I’m gonna be quirkless I would own it. That’s what I told myself.

But then one day when I was 9 years old I woke up over my bed, floating around my room until my mom came in to make sure I came down safely. She told me everything, how her side of the family has a bloodline of witches that dates all the way back in the 1800’s and one of my great great great grandmothers or something had the same genetic affliction. Just like that everything became different, when I thought it was awesome at first, started to learn just what I am and who I am, and the history of all the great witches of the past. Slowly but surely I discovered more powers about myself, more powers I would one day learn.

Everything was brilliant… until the following year my parents were killed by witch hunters. Dad wasn’t even a witch, he was just an ally, he loved my mom and I more than anything, and they killed him for that. Worst part? When the heroes got to me before I could get barbecued, they didn’t even kill them.

I suppose that’s where it all begins though, after that they decided I wasn’t going to be safe enough here and that my new powers that were manifesting would be too much for them to handle. And because they didn’t want to deal with me, they called on the other witches on the other side of the world. From then on out, I had to leave my old life behind, my best friend and his family who treated me like family. I went from orphaned, to abandoned, to a bloodbath. 

As soon as I got to New Orleans everything else was just as unsafe. Asshole frat boys, an actual Minotaur man, fucking zombies, voodoo witches and of course MORE witch hunters trying to kill us. And also an immortal racist, a Frankenstein Frat boy, a tongueless butler who has tea parties and sex with dead teenage girls, a wicked voodoo deity and an old, axe-wielding serial killer that was once a ghost in Robichaux. Yup. But that’s just a perfectly average day at Robichaux, and a perfectly average day in my fucked up life.

At least I had my sisters like Zoe, Madison and Misty, and Ms. Cordelia and how can I forget Ms. Myrtle? That woman needs to be a fashion icon and I will do justice by her and make sure the world knows who she was. And even Ms. Fiona. The bitch who used to be in charge was pretty badass, I mean if it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t be the strong, independent witch bitch I am today. Yeah I have a ton of issues because of the borderline emotional abuse she dished out on me and the other witches but still...

My new sisters were by far the least terrible part of the entire thing. Which is why it still breaks my heart to think about how some of them died, because not all of them came back... 

Through all of that I kept myself up though. I learned how to fight back and fight alongside my sisters. I learned how to be strong, how to rely on myself and my sisters because we knew that no hero was going to come to our rescue. I had to be strong, I had to have thick skin and an elastic heart. Yeah that’s right I referenced Sia, she’s an awesome singer, just like Stevie Nicks. Amazing women, inspiring...

Sorry, getting off-topic. Anyhoo, I’ve realized though that it’s better that way. Being with the witches showed me the truth of the world, how the world looks at us and how it wants us to look. We have to be perfect, we have to be charming, we have to smile and look pretty. Why? Because the heroes have to be there to save the cute and pretty damsel in distress so they can feel powerful. 

This idea of heroes and villains is really all just bullshit... all of these villains I’ve seen thus far... they’re kittens compared to the evils and horrors I’ve seen here. It’s not just New Orleans, but I mean Bloody Face was a monster back in the 50′s, then the man who made the Hotel Cortez, he was pure evil and still haunts that hotel to this day. James Patrick March. Evil. Pure Evil and he murdered just to feel something, innocent people who didn’t deserve it. Dr. Arthur Arden, a.k.a Hans Gruper, the Nazi doctor who hid under a disguise and performed horrifying experiments on humans in the insane asylum of Briarcliff. Instead of helping those poor people, he just murdered, butchered and tortured them for his sick experiments. So many lives ruined, mutilated. The victim’s last moments were nothing but pain and a desperate wish for death until he put a bullet through their heads.

Murders, monsters, all of them. They all murdered for fun, and then even normal people were evil, the ones who valued their pride and selfish desires over anything and destroyed innocence itself just to achieve that. 

Those are the real evil people. All For One? Overhaul? Shigaraki? They couldn’t slice a loaf of bread with the amount of sharpness they had all put together. 

Those ‘villains’ that All-Might and my friend Midoriya have fought thus far are nothing compared to the monsters I’ve seen. They’re all a bunch of kitty cats, but I’ve seen and known killers. Real killers. Real monsters. 

A woman from an old asylum once said that ‘all monsters are human’ and she was right, because the monsters I’ve seen were humans. The worst of humanity and I've seen it all. What heroes choose to ignore though is that it's in all of us, and that those who choose not to do shitty things is what makes a hero apoarently. What a crock of shit...

But I guess monsters are just another thing that the heroes like to glamorize so they can fight and save the world from what they deem as the real monsters of the world. When I showed that I wasn’t a sweet and gentle girl as he believed, Midoriya looked at me like I was a monster, which just proved to me that he’s a part of what I’m fighting, and that that’s what this society wants, a good little girl who does good things all for the sake of this society. And I’m a monster because I’m not a good little girl, my sisters aren’t good little girls, no, we’re not a bunch of sad girls who are just waiting to be rescued, we’re witches. We’re not giving those motherfuckers the satisfaction of saving the poor damsels in distress because we’re not, we’re powerful and we don’t owe them anything, not a thanks, not a hug, not a flash of our tits and especially not a goddamn smile that men just love to see on women. 

Men like that are afraid of women like us, they’re afraid of women who aren’t afraid to get ugly and dirty our hands with blood. Afraid of women like me. And I learned how to fight, I was able to keep myself flying, because that was my first power, flight. I can fly based on how I feel, or on how much willpower I put into it. My power comes from my emotions and no fucking misogynist can tell me my emotions make me weak because I can do anything I want based on how I feel and how much willpower I have.

Lately though, it’s been nothing but willpower, as the older I get the more I realized that I’m not loved in this place. I wouldn’t be missed if I disappeared and I know it. I know it. But in life young people like me have to keep going even though we’re also gifted with the power of being painfully aware of all the bullshit that adults try to tell us is the truth, but we know better than that, they just don’t get that we’re not as stupid as we look. Although the sad part is, some of us ARE and they buy into the bullshit and try so hard to be the perfect little shitheads these assholes want us to be.

I can’t do that though, that’s not me. I wish it was sometimes though, who knows, maybe if I was that kind of person then maybe I would be liked by everyone, but that’s not me. Maybe that’s why I won’t be missed, maybe that’s why I’m forcing myself to fly every damn day just to make it through. Forcing myself to pretend that everything’s fine and smiling like a fucking idiot just to make everyone happy and not let them be miserable as me, but this shit’s hard, it’s hard to act like you’re okay when you’re not.

And I’m too aware of this shit, too aware to be truly ignorant and I call people out if I think they sound ignorant. So I’m not surprised when they end up leaving me or trying to tell me to be nicer and that I shouldn’t be blaming anybody or anything just because I’m a cynical and miserable bitch. Yeah, I’m a bitch but I can’t help it. At least I know my shit, I’d rather be a miserable bitch than an ignorant one.

Yet here I am, constantly miserable, constantly thinking and constantly aware that I’m nobody’s favorite person.

That’s just it. I’m not surprised by anything, because everything I do, everything I say, there’s always something bad behind it, that’s the idea I give everyone. I know it, it shouldn’t bother me but apparently, I can’t bring myself to fly because I’m happy, because I’m not. And then there’s always something that shows up in my life, something to make me feel some type of way, not a good way though. I can’t help the way I react to some things, I wish I could though, a normal person would be able to just go out and live life the way everyone else does. But I’m not normal. I never was. And every single day I’m reminded of it, every single day I remind myself it.

Every time I fly it’s through willpower alone, not because I’m so excited that my feelings can make me fly. No, lately I haven’t been able to feel a goddamn thing, and ironically that’s what hurts the most.

For someone who’s first gift was flight and for someone who’s powers allow them to fly, I’m just… falling. 

Constantly, every time I fly, I just feel like I’m falling as the weight of this world just keeps beating me down until one day I eventually hit rock bottom.  I don’t expect anyone to catch me, not even my loved ones. I feel like I’ve hurt them enough. Everyone I love, I end up hurting in some way because I’m just a jealous, overzealous, toxic and cynical bitch. I don’t deserve them and they don't deserve this. All this poison, all this anger and problems, I don't want that for them.

So I don’t tell them that I’m falling when I’m flying. If I’m gonna fall, I’m not going to drag them down with me.

Rock bottom almost doesn’t sound like a bad idea at this point. There are times where I get so frustrated with everything, so angry and so pissed off that I need to get away from everything and everybody and I let myself fly upwards. I just fly as high as possible, so high that I’m in the clouds and I can no longer see the rest of the world beneath me. 

God... sometimes I get so high that I just want to stay up there. I want to stay feeling so high and so powerful like nothing can stop me. I’m invincible when I’m up so high. And yet that honestly terrifies me too, because when I’m up so high I forget everything, even the things and the people I don’t want to forget. How could I ever want to forgive some of the people I love the most? 

When I remember them, that’s when I regain my vision and I start to see how high I’ve gotten, and how far it is to go back down. Everyone can see me and they can see how far I’ve gone, even up that high I can still see their disappointed faces and that just no longer makes me feel so invincible anymore. Because then I start to think ‘here I am’ up on top and yet I’m all alone up here. 

Sometimes when I’m up that high is when I start to think about just letting go of the willpower and letting myself fall from such a distance, close my eyes and just let everything go. Let the gravity just bring me back down until I hit the ground.

 And then I wonder, would that matter at all? Would it be better that way?

But as usual, I can never think of a fucking answer… other than that I should probably just go back home because I have people waiting for me. Ashlen, Hitoshi, Katsuki, Madison... I hope they're not too worried about me... I know they want to see me come home even though I’m the last person I want around, and I honestly don’t know how they want me around. 

Yet I guess it’s enough to make myself fly a little more, just to go back to them, because in the end I feel a little bit of something when I’m with them. They’ve moved my wicked heart, even when I think I’m better off dead, they make me fly. 

I don’t know if I saved myself, or if it’s them who saved me, because frankly it’s too late to save me, but I’m still here. I’m still here so I can go home and see them.

God... I haven’t been home for a while, but I’m on my way back home, I know they’re waiting for me, probably worried about me too.

Ash, Toshi, Katsu, Mads... You guys don’t have to worry, I’m coming home now. After all, I wouldn’t miss seeing your smiles for the world. 

[thetollofthebells]

FULL NAME: Quasimodo “Quasi” [ Technically his surname is Frollo all things considered... ]

GENDER & SEXUALITY: Cis male, demisexual.

ETHNICITY & SPECIES: Romani [ depending on what you believe his true back story is! ], human.

BIRTHPLACE & BIRTHDATE: ~it’s a mysteryyyyY~ He was born sometime in winter, but is of course found on Quasimodo Sunday.  I head canon him to be a Capricorn earth sign.

GUILTY PLEASURES: None, really.

PHOBIAS: Betrayal by those he trusts.  Because what Frollo did to him fucked him up for a really long time post-movie.

WHAT THEY WOULD BE INFAMOUS FOR: Being ugly, unfortunately. But also for having the PUREST heart ever and [ as the fandom will tell you ] the prettiest eyes and most angelic voice ;]

WHAT HAVE THEY/WOULD THEY HAVE GOTTEN ARRESTED FOR: Defying the most powerful man in Paris to save the woman who was kind to him that one time Honestly, nothing.  He’s too honest to break the law lol.

CHARACTER YOU SHIP THEM WITH: SHIP.  WITH.  ME.  YOU.  COWARDS. But in all seriousness, I ship him with my OC from my fic [which is a monster of a fic lemme tell ya], Elsa, and Rapunzel. <3

CHARACTER MOST LIKELY TO MURDER THEM: Frollo, though I think that goes without saying for everyone in the movie.

FAVOURITE BOOK GENRE: Honestly anything he can get his hands on.  Being literate is such a gift to him.

LEAST FAVOURITE BOOK CLICHÉ: Shitty cookie-cutter characters with no substance.

TALENTS OR POWERS: Incredibly strong from all the bell ringing, and he’s very light on his feet regardless of his bulky appearance.  And of course he’s able to craft detailed and beautiful work artistically.

WHY SOMEONE MIGHT LOVE THEM: Quasimodo is the most genuine angelic guy you can meet, tbh.  He’s always thinking of others first and how his actions could affect them before he acts.  Plus I feel like his voice is extremely soothing, especially when he’s comfortable with you and able to keep his stutter under control, though it’s still nice even when he does stutter. [Thanks Tom Hulce~!] He’d be a good one to cuddle up with if you’re worried about something and just listen to him talk.  And his eyes are a really pretty color. Honestly, he’d be the best person in the world to be in a relationship with because he’s so fucking wonderful. Did mun ever grow out of her childhood crush on him? The world may never knowwwwwww

WHY SOMEONE MIGHT HATE THEM: I mean, hate is a strong word.  I would say that people would get annoyed with him, sure.  He’s kind of self-depreciating and always woefully pessimistic.  Plus his teachings throughout his life had been so engrained in him, its difficult to get him to loosen up/forget.

HOW THEY CHANGE: He goes from being completely dependent on a man who abuses him emotionally and physically every day to breaking free of that hold.  Learning that there are things about him that he can offer to other people regardless of what he’s been told in the past.  That’s pretty freaking awesome.

WHY YOU LOVE THEM: This is SUCH a complicated question to answer because I honestly love everything about him.  He’s such a genuine person despite all he’s been through, and honestly, I feel like he’d be a prick if he was your regular run of the mill dude.  His appearance plays such a large part in his personality and makes him almost more endearing.  Once again, when I was a little kid I had such a HUGE crush on him [to which my parents were like “uh...did u watch the movie?”] and to this day, he’s still my Disney husbando.  He’s just such a wonderful character and has so many complex parts to him, it’s a shame he gets overlooked or just thought of “the guy who doesn’t get the girl.”  He couldn’t have gotten the girl, not because of his looks, but because that’s what made his character so well rounded. OKAY PIX SHUT UP WE KNOW YOU LOVE QUASIMODO OKAY STOP

Tagged by: @murroyilodel [ thanks bb! <3 ] Tagging:  @elisethetraveller, @crossingredqueensrealm, @frollothings, and anyone who’s bored!

[sebeth]

Crisis On Infinite Earths #5

Warning, Spoilers Ahead…

 Psycho-Pirate’s master is very upset – he’s destroyed the two prime universes, murdered the Monitor, and he still isn’t able to level up!

The Monitor - via pre-recorded message – reveals the he used his death energies to create a netherverse that absorbed the Earth-1 and Earth-2 universes.  However, the two universes are merging and will cause the other’s destruction.

Alex Luthor (son of Earth-3 Lex Luthor and Lois Lane) reveals the Monitor left him with instructions to save the two universes.  The rapidly aging Alex is now a teenager.

The Flash and Red Tornado are prisoners of the mysterious master.  Psycho-Pirate abuses poor Barry out of sheer boredom.

Lana Lang for WGBS-TV reports on the current insanity of the newly-created planet. In one city, you have dinosaurs, Neanderthals, Viking ships, blimps, horse-drawn carriages, and buildings from the 30th century.  

Sinestro himself has a “What the hell?” look on his face – and he’s seen some stuff!

Alex Luthor and Harbinger have gathered an assembly of heroes and villains.  Big two page spread of the assembly.  We have the Legion of Super-Heroes, the Outsiders, Infinity Inc., the Metal Men, Cave Carson & his team, the Teen Titans, the Sea Devils, the survivors of Easy Company, Dr. Light II, Swamp Thing, All-Star Squadron, Ragman, Riddler, Captain Boomerang, Kamandi, Rag Doll, Star Sapphire, the Persuader, Elongated Man, Steel, Hawkman, Hawkwoman, Captain Comet, B’Wana Beast, Bir Sir, Solomon Grundy, the Mist, Aqualad, Tula, Lori Lemaris, the Blackhawks, Phantom Stranger, the Cheetah, Robotman, Per Degaton, Dr. Polaris, the Creeper, Cinnamon,  Monsieur Mallah, Phobia, the Legion of Substitute Heroes, Batgirl, Batman, Earth-2 Robin, Earth-2 Superman, Earth-2 Huntress, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern (John Stewart), Martian Manhunter, Celsius, Arion, Scalphunter, Green Arrow, Killer Frost, Firestorm, Deathstroke, and Plastic Man.

The main thing I love about George Perez’s artwork – the man is not afraid to draw a large group of characters.   The groups are never standing in straight formation either.  The characters are reacting and interacting.  A few examples:

1)      Easy Company is clearly freaked out by Swamp Thing.

2)      Beast Boy (Changeling) re-uniting with the missing Cyborg.

3)      Aqualad and Tula assisting Lori Lemaris.  Lori can’t stand because she’s a mermaid.

4)      Solomon Grundy is very annoyed.

5)      Couples are standing next to each other: Nightwing/Starfire, Brainiac 5/Supergirl, Lightning Lad/Saturn Girl, Bouncing Boy/Duo Damsel, etc.

6)      Elongated Man, Plastic Man, and the Metal Men are using their stretching abilities to great effect.

Lois Lane – also from WGBS-TV – interviews people on the street:  Tomahawk and Grixx of Ceti Alpha 6.   Poor Tomahawk doesn’t even know he what a television is – only moments ago he was fighting with George Washington’s troops.

Back to the assembled heroes.  Adding to the roll call:  Sargon the Sorcerer, Firehawk (the Western character), Black Orchid, Gizmo, Deadman, Gypsy, Penguin, Brother Blood, Validus, Jemm (Son of Saturn), Amethyst, the Warlord (Travis Morgan), Catwoman, the Atom (Ray Palmer), Jonah Hex, Vibe, Captain Cold, Earth-2 Wonder Woman, Ocean Master, Dolphin, and Black Canary.

We take a quick peek at Rann where Adam Strange battles monsters from the pre-historic era.

Superman steps up with the big hero speech: “Maybe I’m wrong talking for everyone but I will. Send us back. Let the doubters decide. But I promise you this, if we can save the worlds that remain, we will!”

The series has consistently shown Superman as the standard bearer of the DC Universe – the one you turn to when the end of the world is here. It has also demonstrated the struggles Clark has with the role: he has fears and vulnerabilities but has to ignore it and order to be the “shining light” for the other heroes.

A team of Green Lanterns, including Arisia and Katma Tui, arrive on Oa.  They discover the Guardians in stasis but are quickly taken out themselves.  

Lois Lane is attacked by a sabretooth tiger but is quickly saved by Earth-1 and Earth-2 Superman.  

Rip Hunters and his Time Masters are adrift in time.

Alfred and Jason Todd call for aid as Anthro, Embra, and a host of Neanderthals are invading Wayne Manor! Batman responds and he brings back-up. The back-up consists of Earth-2 Robin, Earth-2 Huntress (logical as they know the secret identity and are part of the family, Katana & Halo of the Outsiders (Batman’s team, also in on the identity), Nuklon (he’s trustworthy), Per Degaton, Kung, the Brain and Monsieur Mallah, Poison Ivy, Plastique, and Weather Wizard.  What?! Bruce is obviously not concerned about maintaining his secret identity at this point.

We have a brief panel of Batman putting his arm around Jason Todd’s shoulders. Jason is in civilian attire, not in his costumed identity. Earth-2 Robin (an adult Dick Grayson) is clearly looking at the duo with an unhappy “Who are you” expression. Again, George Perez – master of small details.

Unfortunately, my adorkable Anthro has no dialogue. The world is missing out on what would have been an awesome Alfred-Anthro interaction.

Starfire, Sun Boy, Firebrand, Firestorm, Polar Boy, and Killer Frost head to the Soviet Union to assist Red Star.  Killer Frost has reverted back to her lovable “I will kill you all” self.

Red Star refuses the aid until Starfire reminds him: “It’s our world. Please, we have to work together if we’re to save any of us.”

Red Star concedes: “Your words should be heeded by all. I apologize. You are right. Perhaps if we all survive, the politicians will remember this cooperation and build a better world for us all.”

Good luck with that!

Psycho-Pirate is still picking on my poor sweet Barry.  Meanwhile, the master is transforming the Red Tornado from machine into a primal force.

The Legion, The Justice Society, Zatana, and Sargon are attempting to combat the out of control weather only to discover that it’s being caused by the Red Tornado. Wildcat’s spine is shattered by a lightning bolt – he will never walk again.  We also get a quick two panel glimpse of Yolanda Montez.  Yolanda will become the second Wildcat.

The heroes and villains unite to save the universe.  Alex Luthor informs the group there are five universes that need to be saved.  

The master reveals himself to Psycho-Pirate and Flash:  Call me…the Monitor!”   A very corpse-like Monitor.

We end on Earth-X: “An earth where World War Two had continued for more than forty years.” AKA the home of the Freedom Fighters (Uncle Sam, Phantom Lady, The Ray, the Human Bomb, and Black Condor).  

So…Five Universes to save…

We have:

1)Earth One

2)Earth Two

3) Earth X

4) Earth F – Marvel Family

5) Earth C – Charlton characters – Blue Beetle, Captain Atom, Question, Nightshade

Earth One and Earth Two are DC’s golden and silver age characters. The remaining three earths feature characters from various comic book publishers DC bought out over the years: Charlton, Fawcett, Quality, etc.

[magic-and-myths]

Dragonfly Masterpost

Recently I’ve gained an immense amount of followers (thanks so much I love all of you, keep writing you’re all worth it) and I thought I’d get y’all up to speed on where Dragonfly is at.

Summary: Dragonfly is a high/Celtic fantasy story in which I break every single expectation and hope any fantasy reader has ever had. I also explore the depths of humanity, the repercussions of physically existing gods, and whatever the hell magic is. It centers mostly around young adults and immortal beings (it’s a good mix trust me), and is a little gory for YA but I’m not exactly sure what age group I’m aiming for.

Characters: I have four main characters, and one antagonist who I love more than anything.  We have Rin, the shy but knowledgeable bard who may not be very good at fighting, but that doesn’t mean he won’t try. He worships Tora, the goddess of the night sky, and his faith is absolute. He’s the hardest for me to write because my faith is very shakable  while his is not. Fern is a druid who travels with her lovable animal companions Sanji the stag, and Mira the screech owl. She’s always looking on the bright side and being a ray of sunshine (this is also hard for me to write), but if anyone threatens her adventuring family or her god (Kolesh, god of nature) she won’t hesitate to beat the crap out of them with her living wood staff or awesome botany skills. Zoe is genius inventor and engineer with rune crafting skills that are completely unmatched. She’s brash and confident and will never back down from any fight. She abandoned her origin god, Tunosi goddess of knowledge, in favor of Halor, the god of strength. If there’s the slightest bit of trouble she will instantly be in the fray, throwing flaming punches or pulling various explosives out of her signature enchanted dress that HAS POCKETS?! Kaya is the main focus of the first book. She’s a conjurer of immense power but limited social skills. As a child she was abused and then abandoned after her only parent figure, her sister, died (more on that later). She begged all the gods for help, and when none came she decided to fend for herself. This has led her to become an unfiltered pessimist, and an anarchist whose been trying to overthrow the gods for years. Despite this, she’s caring and always ready to help someone in need, just maybe not to trust them. “What’s the point of having power if you don’t use it to help a little kid?” And last but not least is Luma, the antagonist. At the start of the novel Luma has been dead for eight years. She was slain in a struggle known as the Wasting of the Wandering Woods, cut down by the Brightbringers, armored knights loyal to Orathia, goddess of the sun (it was in this battle that Kaya’s sister was killed).  Luma is a chosen one. She was born with a gift for magic. She can physically see it, flowing around the world. This has allowed her to master all eight types of magic when nobody other than the gods has even managed more than one. She believes (correctly) the gods have become corrupt, vain, and complacent, and is doing her absolute best to get them the frick outta town. Even if she has to kill every civilian that gets in her way.

World: Oh boy is this the best part. I have spent years with this world stuck inside my head, and now it’s coming out. So everyone, meet Arcana. Arcana is a forest covered world, geographically based on the North Eastern portion of North America. It’s an old world with old rules and threats that boil just beneath the leafy green exterior. It’s ruled by eight gods, eight forms of magic, and eight chaotic beasts called “terrors.” It is not a world of kings, or empires, or armies. It’s a world of individual people, doing their absolute best to survive in conditions that are so far out of their control. You see, magic and gods are dangerous to have around, and if you don’t have a god or magic on your side the people who do are going to murder the crap outta you. You won’t find any civilization larger than an alliance of city states, and even those aren’t safe.

Plot: Surprise, Luma’s back! I’ll bet you didn’t see that coming. Haha I got you. After discovering that the woman who murdered her sister is no longer dead, Kaya sets off on a quest to kill her. She somehow manages to find Rin, Zoe, and Fern who tag along on this world saving quest. However, when Kaya realizes that she’s doing exactly what the gods want her to do, and that Luma might be her best shot at overthrowing the deities that failed her, she has a choice to make. She can side with the her sister’s killer and cleanse the world of hypocrisy and corruption, and leave nothing but ash behind, or she can side with the gods that she so despises and save a world that will always be ruled by fear.

Title: At this point you’re probably thinking “wow Nathan Dragonfly is a super badass title, how did you come up with it?” Well first off, thank you dear reader, I’m flattered. And secondly: I made up a myth. In Arcana there’s an ancient myth that when the gods were creating animals, the created the dragonfly. But soon they became jealous of its beauty, and sought to destroy it. However they had made the dragonfly too fast, and could not catch it. So now the dragonfly lives on, both faster and more beautiful than the gods, but always having to look over its shoulder. The dragonfly is never safe. You can probably tell that Kaya is a dragonfly. While she’s not beautiful in the typical boring way, her soul is ablaze with beauty and strength far beyond what the gods could imagine. And she’s much faster than they are. (now you all can see why my name’s magic and myths we have plenty of both here).

What it’s not: If you’re looking for any of these things then I’m sorry, because they are not going to be in Dragonfly. I hope you find them though, sometimes I’m sad I’m not writing about them. 1. a chosen one story. Nobody in this book was chosen for anything. They’re all fighting and running and living and dying on their own strength and merit. There are no prophesies. Although I do include some predictions of the future from Tora in the night sky, they’re mostly to validate how much prophesies do not belong in this story. 2. a battle saga on an epic scale. I mentioned this earlier, but there are no massive armies in Arcana. I find them unrealistic in the setting and very impersonal. If someone is swinging a sword in this story you know their name, and why they’re swinging. 3. a romance. There is little to no romance in this book. Feel free to ship all you want, but chances are that nothing is making it into the final cut. This isn’t because I’m a heartless monster who wants all of my characters to die alone and afraid. I just think that romance is going to get in the way of the story that I’m trying to tell. And we need more I-will-die-for-you platonic relationships anyways. 4. anything edgy. While some of my themes and situations can get really dark really fast, writing edgy just isn’t my style. There will be very few dramatic or somber moments in this book. My characters are human, and they try to undercut fear or awkwardness with humor just like anybody. My writing style is made to not take itself seriously. Characters will poke fun at names like the Wasting of the Wandering Woods. Why so much alliteration? Was this made for a children’s story? 5. filled with fantasy races. I’m going to do my absolute best to represent humans from all different races, as far as fantasy races go we have jack squat in Dragonfly. I find that humans are dramatic, complicated, and interesting enough on their own; they don’t need help from outside species. While I do have various creatures like fae and spirits and dragons, they are not widespread or civilized. Humans are all we have, and oh boy is it still enough.

[brutashaswin]

Could we have a fanfic with Bruce talking about his father ? 🙄 (P.S I love your fanfictions)

Thankyou so much!!! I’m so glad you’re enjoying myfics, they’re a ton of fun to write! Hope you like this one :) (Fair warning,it’s my longest yet and it takes a hot second to get into the part on Bruce’sfather. I think the build-up is worth it, though!)

Disclaimers:I haven’t seen either Hulk movies, so I’m not entirely surehow they’ve handled Bruce’s father in the MCU. I loosely based this off of theBrian Banner’s Wikipedia page, which I thought had the most potential for myfic. It gets pretty dark, and has mentions of child abuse and the death/murderof Bruce’s mother. Please read with caution if any of these topics make youuncomfortable!

Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Banner

Chapter One: (NYC, presentday)

Natashaleaned over the edge of the sink, her throat burning. Her mind was racing,trying to figure out what was making her sick. As a spy, she had naturallydealt with all kinds of poisons, but the effect she was experiencing now wasunlike anything she’d ever felt. She didn’t eatanything unusual, she wasn’t particularly nervous, she wasn’t on her period….

Atthat, her entire body froze in shock. 

Ohmy god. She thought. I’m late. 

Sherummaged through the medicine cabinet to find the pregnancy test that shealways kept in the back. (Just in case of emergencies, like this.) As shewaited for the results to show, her legs felt like jelly and her palms weredamp with sweat. Finally, the screen revealed a little pink plus sign.

Shewas pregnant.

“Bruce!” She called,tears welling in her eyes. She ran out of the bathroom and into the masterbedroom, where Bruce was curled up under a pile of blankets.

“Bruce! Honey, wakeup!” 

“What is it?” Hegroaned, rolling over to face her.

She kneeled againstthe side of the bed and gently ran her hand down his arm, keeping her eyestrained on his face.

“I’m pregnant.”

Bruce’s eyes widenedand his jaw slackened. He was barely able to stutter, “P-p-pregnant?”

Nat’s grin got evenwider, her voice nearly reaching a squeal. “Yeah, I took a test andeverything!”

“Oh my god!” Hecried, his face lighting up as he pulled Natasha into his arms. He stood up andkissed her forehead as she wrapped her arms around his neck. Hot tears of joystreamed down their faces as they held each other closer, savoring this perfectmoment and wishing it could last forever until….

Natashajerked awake, and opened her eyes to a concerned looking Bruce. He had one handon her cheek and another on her shoulder. 

“Hey, you okay?” Hemurmured, pushing a lock of hair behind her ear.

“Yeah, I’m okay. Itwas…just a dream. A really good dream.”

“Good.” He said,kissing her on the forehead. He outstretched his arms lazily, and she snuggledagainst his chest. They laid there together in comfortable silence, until theirheartbeats became synced.

“Hey Bruce?”

“Mm?”

“I think I’m ready to adopt. What do you say?”

Brucegently pulled away so that he could look deep into Natasha’s eyes. His face lit up with a warm smile as he leaned back into give her a passionate kiss.

Whenthey broke apart, she giggled and said, “I’ll take that as ayes?”

“Absolutely, 100%yes.” He said, the cheesy grin never leaving his face. 

“I love you so much,Nat.”

“I love you too,Bruce.” 

Chapter Two:

Thescent of coffee and cinnamon spread through the Banner-Romanoff kitchen. Duringlazy weekends like this, French toast at 1:00 in the afternoon was typical.Bruce had just finished flipping the last pieces of bread as Natasha walked inwith the mail. 

“Anything good?” Hecalled, as she took her slippers near the front door.

“Ah, let’ssee…water bill, honeymoon postcard from Pepper and Tony, and…” she paused,eyeing an ordinary white envelope. “Something from…Hennessy Funeral Home?It’s for you.” 

“Huh. Wonder whatthis is all about?” He said, taking the letter from her and ripping into it. He skimmed it, and his facefell. He sat down at the kitchen table and said nothing.

“What is it?” Natasked, sitting next to him and resting her hand on his arm, which was clenchingthe letter.

“They…they want meto pay for my Dad’s burial.”

“Your dad? I thoughthe died years ago.”

“To me, he did. Buthe…he’s been staying in a mental institution since my Mom died. His sisterpaid for it, but then she died too and then…” his voice trailed off, nottaking his eyes from the letter.

“You started paying for it?”She added gently, placing her free hand on the small of his back.

“I couldn’t let himgo, Nat. All I could think of was him hurting some other woman like my Mom. Ithought, at least this way, he’s out of my life and away from other people.”

“I understand, hon.You did the right thing.”

“I’m not sure. GuessI’ll be spending the rest of my life figuring that out. It’s just…if we’regoing to be parents, I want to make sure I never repeat his mistakes.”

“You won’t. You’re agood person, Bruce, and you’re going to be an awesome dad. But we don’t have to rushinto anything if you aren’t ready. We’ll tackle the world together, just likewe’ve always done. Right?”

A smile finallycreeped on Bruce’s face as his body relaxed under Natasha’s touch.

“Right.”

Chapter Three: (Ohio, 1974)

“Hey, you okaybaby?” 

“Yes, mama.” 

Rebeccawalked into her son’s room and carefully shut thedoor. Bruce was curled up on his bed, his body shaking and his eyes stained redwith tears.

“Good.” She mumbled,kissing his forehead before sitting down on the foot of his bed. 

Shegently pulled the covers off him and brushed his curly hair off of hisforehead. “Come here, sweetheart.”

Brucegot on all fours and crawled into his mother’sarms. 

“Why don’t you leavehim, Mama?”

“Oh Bruce, it’s notthat easy. I love him.”

“But I don’t love him. And he doesn’t love you.”

Rebecca paused inhurt, hesitating before speaking again. “Well…sometimes the people that don’tlove us are the people that need our love the most.”

“But he hurts us. Wewouldn’t get hurt ever again if you just left him.”

“Honey, we can’tleave. I’m sorry. I wish we could, but we can’t.”

“It’s not fair.”

“I know, baby.”Rebecca kissed her son’s forehead and rocked him in her arms. “I know.”

Chapter Four (Hennessy MentalInstitution, 1989)

Themetal cell door slammed behind Bruce as he turned to face his father.

BrianBanner sat huddled in the corner of his cell, tall and scruffy and shrunken. Thestraightjacket he was wearing made him look all the more menacing, and at thesame time, pathetic.

BettyRoss gave Bruce a reassuring nod from behind the bars of the door. He becamepainfully aware of skipping a shave that morning, and how similar his browneyes looked to the broken man that lay at his feet.

“Hi,dad.”

Brian’sface contorted into a sinister sneer.

“Brucie.Come to pay your old man some respect?”

“AuntSarah asked me to check in on you.”

“Shetold me you were graduating, Brucie. Top of your class.”

“Yes.I’ll be starting my doctorate next fall.”

“Hmmph.Figures you’d be a doctor. Good for nothing, freeloading know-it-alls trying tomake themselves important. You’ll fit right in.”

Bruce’sglare, tinged with the slightest hints of green, replied for him.

“Yourmother though, she’d be disappointed.”

“Don’t.”He warned, clenching his fists to prevent them from swelling with rage.

“Shethought of you as some kind of angel vigilante. Wanted you to be a lawyer. Ofcourse, you know how I feel about lawyers, they’re the reason I’m in this messin the first place!”  

Brianlaughed a sickening laugh that chilled Bruce to the bone and made his bloodboil.

“Youknow why you’re here.” Bruce growled.

“Andwhy is that, Brucie?”

“Becauseyou’re a LUNATIC.”

“Andwhat makes me a lunatic, exactly?”

“Becauseyou KILLED MY MOTHER!” Bruce yelled into his father’s face, getting dangerouslyclose to slipping out of his mind and into the monster’s.

“Bruce.”

“WHAT?!”Bruce turned to the source of the second voice, only to see Betty’s expressionchange from concern to utter terror.

“We…weshould go.” She stammered, her eyes darting from father to son. He wasn’t surewho she looked more afraid of.

Adeep wave of shame washed over him, and he felt every last bit of the Hulkleave his body.

“You’reright.” He said, giving her an apologetic look.

“Bye-bye,kiddo.” Brian jeered as his son turned his back to him. When Bruce didn’trespond, he cocked his head and waved to Betty. “Bye, sweet-cheeks.”

“Goto hell.” Bruce replied, not bothering to look over his shoulder at him.

Bruceslammed the metal door for the final time, vowing then and there that thiswould be the last time he saw his father.

Chapter Five (Present Day)

“Hewas a bastard.” Bruce muttered, kicking a pebble at his father’s tiny tombstone.

“We’renot here for him.” Natasha said softly, taking his arm and leading him severalrows down, to a grave marked with several vases of pretty flowers and the nameRebecca Banner.

Brucekneeled down and placed a bouquet of flowers in one of the vases.

“Petuniaswere her favorite…I got them for her for Mother’s Day the year she…” he lookeddown at his feet and took a deep breath. Natasha never let go of his hand.

“Shewould have loved you.” He continued with a small smile.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,she loved ballet. And she took her coffee the same way you do.”

“Twosugars, six creams?”

“Exactly.”

Along moment of peace passed over them. The wind caused the flower petals toflutter like a butterfly’s wings, and the sun felt warm and comforting againsttheir skin. Bruce gradually lightened his grip on Natasha’s hand.

“Ithink I’m ready.” He said finally, looking at her with complete adoration.

“Okay.Let’s go home.”

Asthey got into the car, Natasha’s cellphone began to ring with an unfamiliarnumber. She answered it and put it on speaker.

“Hello?”

“Hi,is this Mrs. Romanoff?”

“Yes,it is.”

“Goodafternoon, Mrs. Romanoff! This is Angie with the Adoption Agency. I was callingto inform you that we’ve found a child that was an excellent match with yourfamily’s profile, and they would be delighted for you to come and meet them.”

[doorsclosingslowly]

2,3,15?

Thankyou for the questions! also sorry this took me half an eternity to answer

2. What character archetype am I attracted to?

Whenever I do a list of past and present favourites to work out patterns, the similarities I see in them change in line with my present storytelling interests, lol. Also, I’ve never found anything that all of them have in common, but it’s much easier to draw a straight line through three dots than through twenty. A perennial favourite: Someone who willingly turns themselves into a monster in order to protect the people they love. Castiel, season six, eating souls to become strong enough to beat Raphael in heaven’s civil war. Anakin, murdering children because he’s led to believe the Sith have the power to stop Padmé’s death. The thief king, turning to Zork in order to avenge his village that’s been melted into occult artifacts. I like tragedy, and it’s never anything but a complete disaster, earning the hatred of those they destroyed themselves to protect both through the original awful choice and because it tends to corrupt them from their original purpose. Although I’m mostly interested in the aftermath of it, in what you can rebuild after that kind of act, in what is left after you made the wrong choice. Also, that mix of desperation and awful decision-making skills and thinking of your very self as a tool and at the same time, incredible arrogance (they and they alone can help, they make this choice against the wishes of those they’re claiming they’re acting for, and they believe they can make that choice and stay in control)… Plus, on the most basic level, I like characters that are loyal to people over ideas, and this is basically the worst-case-scenario of that trait

3. First ever ship and why.

Inu Yasha had this five-manga arc where the Shichinintai were the villains. They were a band of seven mercenaries executed a long time ago that the big bad revived with splinters of the soul jewel, and I loved them. I wanted more of them, so I made up this fan comic I never drew about how they met and helped each other and I navigated Japanese webrings looking for fanart by clicking every link because I couldn’t read a thing and didn’t know google translate existed (or it didn’t yet? idk) and also I found fanfic. Most of it was Bankotsu/Jakotsu (the leader and his crossdressing right hand, and also 2/3 of the attractive ones. one of the others was a head atop a bulldozer by the time he died, they were awesome). Now, I was really young and this was also the phase I had where I only listened to music in languages I didn’t understand so I wouldn’t get annoyed that everything was love songs, but I wanted to read about them so much.

That’s basically still my opinion on shipping. I want to read about characters interacting, and I’ll read that interaction written as platonic or romantic, except in very few cases

15. Most loathed character. EVER.

I don’t really hate characters. One thing that used to make me hate characters was finding them super boring and being forced to spend a lot of time with them anyways, but by now I’m very picky in what I consume because my attention span’s mostly shit, and I skip scenes or backspace a lot, so that’s not much of an issue anymore. Also I’m too detached when reading things I think–on one level, if the story’s good, I’m feeling what the POV character is feeling or a side character I’m weirdly into right now, but at the same time I think about the phrasing and thematic choices and scene and story construction. It’s hard to hate the villain when on another level you’re like, “okay here in their argument they’re subtly reversing victim and perpetrator, good depiction of manipulation, legit creepy, must take notes for my own writing” haha

Something that still usually makes me dislike a character is mismatch between my own perception of them and the perception of the text. Specifically, a character being presented as cuddly or decent when canonically they’ve hurt people.

(Side note: I generally enjoy disagreeing with the text, and a lot of what I like reading or writing is exploring the personhood of someone the text presents as a monster. For some reason I just find disagreeing about whether someone is good–essentially: whether their victims count–much more stressful than disagreeing about whether someone is irredeemably bad.)

So, Chuck/God from Supernatural. It’s not really a grudge against the character per se, his first episode was one of my favourites, but reading fic with him usually pisses me off. It’s just that the SPN universe is deeply deeply horrifying, unjust and cruel. And I don’t mind the dystopia, but making me enjoy friendly fanfic depictions of the god character was always going to be pretty impossible in a universe based on the type of christianity that SPN uses. Not a problem of evil thing, but the eternal torture version of hell is fundamentally morally abhorrent, and anyone who creates it or allows it to exist while having the power to stop it cannot be good. (Purgatory is bleak and the idea of eternal existence is viscerally terrifying for me, but it’s basically “Life is hard 2: now with only monsters”, whereas hell is punishment. It’s not bad things happening because people make choices, its very purpose is to hurt people.) I’m still not over Bela Talbot’s arc. I know she never met Chuck or any angel but I loved her and seeing a woman who made a deal with a demon as a child to escape abuse who’s then dragged off to hell never to be seen again… I can’t read about Chuck without thinking about her

[benito-cereno]

The Haunting of Netflix House 5: The Netflix Dimension

What’s up Octobocops, it’s Halloweason. Let’s get spooked. Here are some movies of the horror and horror-adjacent genres that you might watch by yourself or with a party of friends or with the spirit of a long-deceased duke who lives in inhabits your house. This is part five; you know the goddamn drill by now.

Previously, on The Haunting of Netflix House:

2013: The Haunting of Netflix House

2014: The Haunting of Netflix House 2: Your Sister is a Netflix

2015: The Haunting of Netflix House 3: The Season of the Netflix

2016: The Haunting of Netflix House 4: The Netflix Master

A couple of notes for those who are new to the list:

This is being posted on October 2, 2017. For humans of the future who find this, the links may not all be up to date. Some might even expire by November 2017. Click at your own risk.

I try to offer both breadth and depth of options on this list, but it is by no means exhaustive. I’m sorry if a favorite of yours got left off. There’s a chance I just haven’t seen it yet. Feel free to reblog and add some of your favorites, but please make sure a movie is actually currently available on Netflix before jumping my shit about some nonsense I “forgot,” please and thank you.

This list is based upon movies that are available on Netflix in the US. I have no idea what is streaming on Canadian Netflix or British Netflix or Slovenian Netflix. How would I know this. Why would I know this. Please do not expect me to know this. Feel free to be the Canadian/British/Slovenian Benito and make your own list applicable to your own countryhumans.

Horror movies, by their nature, have horrific things in them. Most of these movies are violent; lots of them deal with torture, abuse, and mental illness. If some element of this jumps out to me while I’m writing these up, I’ll mention them, but if you are sensitive to or have issues with certain types of content, you might look an individual movie up on Common Sense Media first to check for content warnings.

While there are always good horror movies to be found on Netflix, if you really like scary movies, you should just get a Shudder subscription (or even just the free trial!). It has an unbeatable, well-curated selection.

All right let’s get to the goddamn movies what say

Classics (this section seems to get smaller every year):

Jaws (this is about a shark)

The Fly (the Vincent Price version, not the Jeff Goldblum one)

Gremlins (technically a Christmas movie, obviously, but maybe you’re a rebel)

The Sixth Sense (is this a classic? I mean probably your mom has heard of it, so)

Horror Comedies:

Tucker & Dale vs. Evil (highly recommended)

Little Evil (new from the maker of Tucker and Dale; great cast; more than the Omen spoof it looks like; recommended)

Troll Hunter (not horror in the traditional sense; not a “Halloween” monster; found footage style; subtitled; awesome)

Young Frankenstein (maybe you’ve heard of this one)

The Host (subtitled; not a “Halloween” monster)

Ravenous (fucking rules)

Housebound (recommended)

Patchwork (in the vein of like Re-Animator and Frankenhooker)

Deathgasm (the best the best the best; watch immediately)

The Bar

Haunted House/Ghost shit:

The Awakening

The Pact (recommended)

The Babadook (highest possible recommendation; how have you not watched this yet)

Under the Shadow (recommended; basically the Iranian Babadook)

The Canal

We Are Still Here (Barbara Crampton is in this; her name will be mentioned a few more times on this list because she is apparently a major selling point for some people)

Last Shift (haunted police station; recommended)

The Legend of Hell House (love this one; love Roddy McDowall)

I Am The Pretty Thing That Lives in the House (very slow paced but atmospheric)

Coraline (yeah, the scary stop-motion one)

Vampire shit:

Stake Land (non-traditional vampire rules; not really my jam but some people love it; no idea if the sequel is good)

Byzantium

Night Watch

Werewolf shit:

Late Phases (old blind guy vs werewolves; pretty good)

When Animals Dream (hit some similar thematic notes to Ginger Snaps, but completely different tonally; subtitled)

Zombie shit:

Train to Busan (this rules; subtitled)

Witch/Demon/Pagan shit:

At the Devil’s Door (from the maker of The Pact; not as good, still interesting)

The Void (Lovecraftian cult shit; very cool visuals and practical effects)

Baskin (subtitled; super gory; also, the protags are asshole cops who tell transphobic stories and say homophobic slurs and talk about bestiality at the beginning, so heads up; worth a watch if that doesn’t bother you)

The Devil’s Candy

Hellions (this is not *great,* but it looks good and is heavily Halloweeny)

The Wailing (fucking amazing; subtitled)

Found footage shit:

V/H/S (lots of sex, violence, and sexualized violence

V/H/S/2 (same)

V/H/S Viral (same but in a different way)

The Den (ChatRoulette the horror movie; highly highly highly recommended)

Creep (recommended)

They’re Watching (not super amazing, but it’s wild af and I kind of love it; what if House Hunters International renovated a witch house?)

Man Vs (pretty okay)

Slasher shit (needless to say, these are gory):

Wes Craven’s New Nightmare

Curse of Chucky (way better than you think it is)

Clown (the haunted clown suit movie so good that Marvel said, “Yo, this guy should be in charge of Spider-Man”)

The Windmill (it’ll do fine if you’re just looking for a new slasher; tbf it is probably  the best windmill-themed slasher ever made though)

Other shit:

Monsters (really good; not “Halloween” monsters)

It Follows (hey, what’s up, it’s the best horror movie of the past decade; highest possible rec)

Sleepy Hollow (what section do Headless Horsemen go in? Dunno; the movie not the show)

The House at the End of Time (highly recommended; subtitled)

Honeymoon

Starry Eyes

White God (DOG REVENGE)

They Look Like People (this is a slow burn, but super highly recommended)

Extraordinary Tales (animated anthology of Edgar Allan Poe stories narrated by famous people; a mixed bag, but cool)

Darling (okay, so: this is a really beautiful and atmospheric film that I, generally speaking, recommend; however, it is kind of “artsy,” there is not a lot of dialogue, it is in black and white, there are some light strobing effects, rape does not occur on screen but is implied to have happened in a character’s past)

The Hallow (scary fairies)

Tales of Halloween (an anthology, so a mixed bag; okay overall, but it’s definitely Halloween-y)

The Invitation (highest possible recommendation)

Beyond the Gates (I actually did not like this very much, but some people might find it interesting, especially if you like--wait for it--Barbara Crampton)

Turbo Kid (this is not really horror, but if you like horror, especially splatter stuff, you will probably like it; it is good as shit)

Gerald’s Game (new shit from Mike Flanagan and it’s really great. Deals with lots of hard issues like abuse and such so maybe take a look at content issues if you are sensitive to that kind of stuff. Also definitely not for the squeamish, so head’s up. That said, it’s really really good)

80s/90s shit:

Hellraiser (not my style, but maybe you like this stuff, iunno)

Children of the Corn

The Craft

Non-Supernatural Thriller/Violence shit (these are violent):

Hush (Mike Flanagan directs; home invasion with a deaf woman protagonist; fucking rules)

The Silenced (haven’t actually watched this yet, but it looks good; don’t *think* it’s supernatural?; presumably subtitled)

The Eyes of My Mother (black and white; super bleak; beautiful and highly recommended)

Kristy

Dig Two Graves

We Need to Talk About Kevin (very bleak)

The Bad Batch (from the director of A Girl Walks Home Etc; only kind of horror-adjacent; Jason Momoa and Keanu Reeves are in this)

Sun Choke (visually beautiful but super art-housey, also lots of mental illness and abuse stuff in this one; also *Barbara Crampton*)

Zodiac (biography of Ted Cruz)

I Don’t Feel at Home in this World Anymore (so fucking good; very funny also)

Nightcrawler (basically a vampire movie, but with a camera instead of fangs)

Horror and Horror-Adjacent Documentaries (all the good horror docs got moved to Shudder):

The Nightmare (a doc on sleep paralysis and night terrors that is so-so as a documentary, but super effective as a horror film)

Witches: A Century of Murder (history of British witch trials, reenacted; two parts)

“But, Benito!” I hear you cry. “I don’t have Netflix for some reason! What about some other streaming services?” Yeah, all right. Here are some quick hits that are definitely not exhaustive. Just a couple of party jams you might enjoy if you’ve burned through the Netflix list.

What’s on Hulu though

10 Cloverfield Lane

Monster Squad

Fright Night (the original; a must watch if you haven’t seen it)

Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2

From Dusk Til Dawn

An American Werewolf in London

Hatchet

Pumpkinhead (check this one out if you haven’t seen it)

The Blob

I Saw the Devil (amazing)

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (either version)

Shaun of the Dead

The Loved Ones

Wolfcop

The Thing

Rigor Mortis

Borgman

The Descent

Bloodsucking Bastards

Willow Creek

Berberian Sound Studio

Plus a bunch of shit that’s also on Netflix

What about Amazon Prime you idiot

The Girl with All the Gifts

Them (not Them!)

The Witch

Hell House LLC

Neon Demon

Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Nosferatu

Green Room

Little Shop of Horrors (the Corman one, not the musical)

The Blackcoat’s Daughter

The Bay

Society

The Last Man on Earth

The Last Exorcism

What We Do in the Shadows

Amazon Prime is hard to navigate so that’s all. If I left off a favorite, it’s not because I don’t like it. It’s because it didn’t pop up in the first 20 pages of search results.

Tell me some good Shudder ones

The Innkeepers

A Tale of Two Sisters

The Gorgon

Lake Bodom

Prevenge

All the Phantasms (maybe not Ravager)

Shrew’s Nest

Noroi: The Curse

The House of the Devil

Black Sunday

Let the Right One In

Murder Party (highly recommended, esp for Halloween)

WNUF Halloween Special

Ghostwatch (play this at your party if you want to fucking win Halloween)

This list could be a million more entries long. Shudder rules.

What about Crackle/Vudu/YouTube/etc

Please shut up

As usual, please do me a solid and only circulate the current version of the list, so people aren’t clicking on dead links and thinking I’m an idiot. Again, this list is not and could not be completely exhaustive, and if I left off your favorite movie, I swear I was not targeting you personally. And, again, some of these movies are more interesting than they are good AND horror is a highly subjective experience, so your mileage may vary on some of these.

If you enjoyed this list, perhaps consider checking out some of my other Halloween-related posts:

a primer for spooky stories

a primer for Lovecraft specifically

a list of “essential” horror movies

a list of “essential” silent horror movies

a list of “essential” horror comedies

a list of suggested horror double features

a primer for Hammer horror

a list of cool movies starring Christopher Lee and Vincent Price

this list of resources, including short films and even more scary movies

a suggested Halloween playlist

a primer for spooky classical music

the scariest 20 minutes in radio history

free to play spooky games

and my general Halloween tag, which includes short films, movie trailers, comics, stories, and more

Also maybe consider checking out my Letterboxd profile, where I rate and review movies of all types (but primarily horror) all year long and from all sorts of sources, in case you’re wondering what’s good on more than just Netflix. Also also, maybe take a look at some of my comics, several of which are appropriate for Halloween times.

Happy Halloween, nerds!

[stompsite]

Can Violence Be Okay?

As some of you know, I’m basically gonna die real soon unless I can get heart surgery, but that’s expensive. I make money by writing essays about games. If you like my work, please share it around, because personally, I’d like to keep on living. If you wanna support me, I’ve got patreon, ko-fi, and a critically acclaimed game out. I’m also looking for work as a designer or writer, so if you know of anything, let me know, please? I’ve worked on well over a dozen AAA and indie games doing everything from emergency script rewrites to helping devs improve their investment loops. I’ve put a lot of time into the 29 years of my life so far, and I’d like it to pay off, lol. But seriously, my mortality is distressing, so if you know how I can get my heart fixed and put a roof over my head, I want to hear from you! 

Dishonored 2 is one of my favorite games. I’ve written about it at length before. I’ve talked about some of my problems with the game (doing the right thing in D2 feels like an easy choice compared to D1), but I mean, man, I still love it. When it first dropped, though? Man. I had A Problem with it.

Dishonored 2 was so good until I got to the end and got an ending that didn’t match up with my feeling of where I was at when playing the game. There I was, being the best Corvo I could be, running around trying to save my daughter Emily, realizing how bad things had got in Karnaca while I’d been away, and wanting to do my best to keep everyone safe and improve the empire.

At the end, the game told me that Corvo ruled the islands with an iron fist. What had happened? Why was it doing this to me? I didn’t ghost every level, but I certainly approached things non-lethally where I could.

Turns out that the game doesn’t like it when you kill monsters.

I mean, sure, if you kill, like, a rat, the game doesn’t seem to care, but if you kill a witch, the game gets mad. Apparently, the game considers witches to be people. I did not--I felt the game had led me to believe that witches weren’t actually people. So when I made the choice to kill them, the game saw it as Corvo choosing the path of violence… but that’s not the decision I made.

Let’s rewind a bit.

One of my favorite story archetypes is about people without power who, through cleverness, ingenuity, and grit, overcome those with power. It’s not just about being an underdog, it’s about being underestimated, devalued, even downright abused. It’s about the defiance that comes with that, and overcoming the expectations someone has.

I don’t know exactly why, but I’ve always liked these kinds of stories. It frustrated me to watch my wealthier peers pick on the poorer ones. It insulted me when I was essentially told “wow, it’s remarkable that you’re so intelligent for someone so poor” after I won a scholarship. I had to protect two disabled students from one of the richer students in school because he wanted something they had and they didn’t want to give it to him. I have watched people with power hurt and abuse those without. Heck, I’ve been at the mercy of people more powerful than me before. I don’t like that. When I can tell someone’s struggling with the power dynamics of a group, I do my best to help them feel more comfortable in that space.

One thing I liked about the first Dishonored game is that the Empress, Jessamine, is portrayed as a good person who wanted to do right by her people, but she was actively sabotaged, and eventually murdered, by the nobles whose power she threatened. That kind of story is alluring to me; getting justice for Jessamine and delivering Dunwall from the powerful, punching up like that… that’s awesome as heck.

It was kinda weird when Dishonored 2 shows up and indicates that maybe Dunwall didn’t actually improve that much after the nobility was killed off/not killed off (I was mostly nonlethal the first time). D2 never really confronts this head on, at least that I can recall. Instead, it feels like two different stories. There’s the personal story of “someone hurt your family and took your home and you should take it back,” and then there’s the idea of “you’re fighting for justice for people who are downtrodden by the people who took your home.”

These are both great, but after the fact, it did seem kinda strange that Corvo, literally the dad of the Emperor, as upper-class as you can get, is playing the part of the underdog (or Emily herself, who I haven’t played because I wanted to hear Stephen Russell’s voice again). Like, there’s this implication that he and Emily haven’t really fixed anything at all and maybe kinda betrayed Jessamine’s legacy with that? I dunno. It’s really the only criticism I have of Dishonored 2 anymore, and I mean, the game’s still a 10/10 for me. It’s one of the only games that can grab hold of my attention and actually distract me from the pain I’m in.

Arkane has done such an amazing job with their games; I get to be someone else for a while. I can block out the health problems for a while and just fall into another space and experience relief from my awful life. I will never be able to thank everyone there for making such pure and wonderful games.

So Dishonored 2 has this kinda odd relationship with privilege and power and how it contextualizes its protagonists, but then along came Death of the Outsider, which solved this problem by letting you play as Billie Lurk, who, for my money, is the best protagonist in Dishonored history. I love playing as Billie. I love that she’s not an upper class person, just a normal person with cool tools and powers.

Anywho, back to the violence.

So, one thing I love about Arkane games is that they have amazing gamefeel. It’s like saying a drink is smooth, right? Like, it just feels right. I’ve never played an Arkane game that felt bad (maybe Arx Fatalis does, but I’ve never played it!), and I feel like, with every successive release, they only get better at making great gamefeel. Buuuuuuttt… it feels like since Dishonored, every Arkane game is a test. You can’t just do what feels good; you’re taking a test.

When the witches came along, I’m not gonna lie, it felt good to let loose. They’re just as powerful as I am, so it’s not like it’s an uneven playing field.

But… that wasn’t my first reaction. I’d encountered the witches before in The Knife of Dunwall and The Witches of Brigmore, and they’re portrayed in those games as unequivocally bad. Still, for Dishonored 2, I was trying to play stealthy and nonlethally, so I decided to knock them out at first. When I found out I could take their powers in one mission, I decided to try that, and then figured that when Corvo stopped Delilah, he’d probably arrest them or something.

Then, an unfortunate bug occurred (kudos to Arkane for fixing it really quickly! I think they had it solved in a couple days or something amazing like that) where some of the witches were dying when I was trying to render them unconscious. I couldn’t get the nonlethal option to work.

But I wasn’t that concerned, because I felt the witches needed to be killed.

Why?

Because they’re horrible, and I think they seem closer to Vampires--supernatural monsters--than people. 

I mean, listen to their dialogue. Look at what they do to the people they kill. They even backstab each other--one of their idle dialogues is about stealing from another. Another is about brushing her sister’s hair so she can gain trust and then stab her sister in the throat. The witches are hostile too--it’s not possible to approach them peacefully. They react to you like you’ve just invaded their vampiric crypt.

The mechanics don’t really leave room for interacting with them sympathetically; there’s no chance to talk to them, work with them, or anything. You can knock them unconscious, but it feels weird, even unconscionable to do that to people who are talking about stabbing each other in the throat.

I’m okay with knocking someone out when the heart says something like “He wasn't always like this. One of his works still hangs in a museum,” or “If he looks sad, it is because he mourns the child he lost,” but I had to look up a list of the heart’s lines about the witches because I couldn’t think of a time when the heart ever said anything good about a single one of the witches.

So, they have magical powers, want to do nothing but kill us, and they’re even happy to kill each other too. Read some of the notes--it’s indicated that they’re sadists. They take delight in killing anyone and everyone. The environmental storytelling seems to indicate the same thing; nothing good comes of a witch’s presence.

When I first did my quick gut-reaction post about Dishonored 2, I fumbled to articulate why Delilah bugged me. I felt like the game tried to excuse her at every turn. She had a bad life. She was a bastard child and treated poorly. Given my propensity for liking underdogs who were underestimated and mistreated, you might think I’d like her too. But I saw what she did. I saw what she’d chosen to become.

Many of the witches are contextualized in this way. I think the actual target of the museum mission--sorry, I’ve forgotten her name, it was 18 months ago--has this whole long backstory about being a rich lady who was going to get married off to a man she didn’t love who was kind of a shitty person anyways.

In reading all of the lines in the game that the heart has for witches, most of them are about enjoying drinking blood, murdering families, and abusing children. One woman struggles to remember the person she was before, but that reminds me more of a vampire’s thrall than anything else, and the game never does anything with that. No “please, I don’t want to do this,” or anything.

They became witches, and are now visiting a far greater violence upon the Empire. As one of my friends pointed out--and I’m inclined to agree--the Empire kind of deserves it, at least in Dishonored 2. It’s not a good society. I mean, it’s weirdly forward thinking in some ways, right? Like literally all of the romantic fiction I’ve encountered in the universe is LGBT stuff. But then in other ways it’s a mirror of the 19th Century British Empire, abusing people and nature in equal measure. Like I said, Jessamine seemed to be trying to fix those things, but she died, and Dishonored 2 indicates that Emily shirked her responsibilities to be a better Empress.

But.

I mean.

Literally all of the heart dialogue we have for them paints them as bad people. The nicest person we have is one who despairs because it’s easier to hurt people with each passing month.

One of my friends has argued that these were all women who were mistreated or whatever, but the heart doesn’t tell us about that. It isn’t saying “her husband used to beat her, so she relishes the power she has” or anything. None of these lines speak to a culture of misogynistic violence. Instead, we have a woman who “spent a month killing those who had slighted her.”

Slighted.

Not abused, beat, hurt. Slighted.

There is, as far as I’ve seen, precisely one person who was a victim: “Beaten and abused, she was barely sane when she heard the coven's call. Now she does the same to others, wielding her power like a barbed whip.”

I’ve been abused. It’s not something I like to talk about at length, but I was molested by an adult male (thankfully not my parents!) at the age of 11. I was abused by an ex who wanted to destroy me the way her mother had destroyed her, and those actions included gaslighting, emotional blackmail, and a ton of other things I don’t really want to talk about. I’ve been physically and emotionally abused for my genetic shortcomings.

I learned, a very long time ago, that almost all abuse comes from people who were abused. I’ve met people who are very angry, and I’ve heard people say “ah, well, it’s okay for them to lash out, because they were abused, so it’s only natural.” Heck, I’ve been one of the people who lashed out. It was only an emotional outburst, but it remains one of the worst things I’ve ever done. I will never stop regretting it.

I understand wanting justice. I understand wanting someone to hurt for what they did to you. I still have nightmares I don’t talk about. I’ve sat with friends who’ve had it so much worse than me and done everything in my power to give them what comfort I can.

But the witches are different. They chose power. And they chose vengeance. Should we justify that? Would I be justified if I started murdering everyone who looked or seemed like the people who had wronged me? Does anything excuse the murder of a bunch of academics in a Karnacan museum? The witches speak with sadistic dialogue. One of the notes left behind by someone trying to hide in the game’s final level makes it abundantly clear that their behaviors are monstrous.

So. Uh.

Look at Gary Oldman’s Dracula.

Dracula’s whole thing is actually super sad, right? Like, the love of his life died while he was out fighting bad dudes. She was tricked into committing suicide, so he renounces God and gets cursed into becoming a monster. His origins are tragic. It’s unfair what happened to him. But I mean, he still murders people and stuff. Dude’s gotta get stabbed in the heart. Sure, it’s cool that his wife got reincarnated as Mina Harker and all, but his whole kidnapping her and trying to turn her into one of his thralls is still bad.

The reason that killing Dracula is good is because Dracula has power and he is a monster. These witches have power and they are monsters. They hurt people--not just the ones who deserve it, but the ones who don’t. In the Brigmore witches, it sure as heck appears to be that they’re preying on the poor. It’s not like they’re out there fighting a revolutionary war against the nobility, and that their magical powers tip the scale. No, they’re killing everyone, even like… public works dudes. It’s an indiscriminate process. They’re killing people they don’t even know.

What makes them not monsters? They have power, and they use that power with cruelty. Dishonored’s world is not a good one to live in, but there is nothing the heart has for us that says that these women were victims. In many cases, they were perpetrators before they got their powers.

Corvo may be kind of a shitty ruler, by seeing a ton of problems during the time of Dishonored 1 and not addressing them leading up to Dishonored 2, but he’s one of the only people who can actually fight a witch; I think the only people actually capable of fighting them are the creepy religious zealots who enjoy torturing people for fun (why didn’t Corvo shut that down?).

So I was thinking about all of this when I killed the witches. They weren’t human anymore. They were indiscriminately murdering anyone who stopped them. Their leader, Delilah, had been portrayed in two stories already as a monster, and while her backstory was tragic, she took that tragedy and used it to excuse being a murderous monster, who ruined the lives of everyone she met, regardless of who they were.

I would have had a much harder time squaring off against a witch who was using her powers to put a stop to her abuser. Like, I, personally, would probably not hunt down the man who hurt me as a kid and put a sledgehammer through his brains, but I mean, in a game, if a witch went to murder a man who molested her, I definitely would be treating her like a person.

These witches, I felt, after listening to them talk, listening to the heart, and watching them act so casually around the bodies of the people they murdered, weren’t out for justice. They weren’t trying to fight back against an oppressive and cruel society. They were monsters. When a witch is wandering around talking about going for a swim later or wondering how the new girl’s doing, it might seem fine, but to be so casual as she walks past a pile of bodies… that’s monstrous. Murder is not a casual act.

Corvo (or Emily, if you played as her) is the only person who can stop the witches, even if you reject the Outsider’s gifts and play without any powers at all. They outclass everyone else, and they kill for the thrill. Someone has to stop them. It’s urgent.

A friend of mine got really upset with me for killing the witches. He said that these were women who’d been mistreated and society deserved to burn. But I mean… if you’re a random guy in a library, are you gonna be able to stop a squad of guards who throw innocent people in prison, kill people’s dogs for meat to sell, or murder innocent people? What about a groundskeeper? What can he do?

The game does not, as far as I can tell, back up the assertion that the witches were victims given power. There is no justice--they’re psychopaths who tortured children and animals, who murdered families, who relish in the carnage. The few women seen as good are losing those memories. Their existence as witches is a tragic one at best, and they’re so reminiscent of horror characters who lose themselves through possession or vampirism that I don’t know how to justify refusing to stop them.

A cop once told me about how he fought a man on PCP. The man had beaten his partner unconscious and was trying to choke him to death. Apparently this huge guy didn’t even feel their tazers and they weren’t supposed to shoot him. This cop ended up in a knock-down, drag out brawl with a man who wasn’t feeling any pain. He ended up bashing a pyrex bowl over the guy’s head so hard it shattered before backup arrived. He told me “if I could have shot him, I think I would have.”

To me, this brings up the question: is it possible to be violent in a game for a constructive purpose? There’s that old quote, misattributed to Orwell, that says something like “we sleep soundly in our beds at night because there are men who visit violence upon those who would do us harm.”

I must admit, I’d love future Dishonored games that involved dismantling the monarchy and trying to find a better, fairer government. I’d love to visit Pandyssia and dismantle traditional colonialist tropes. I’d like to grapple with questions about the ethics of violence, because that’s a subject that interests me on a personal level.

But I must admit, I was surprised when Dishonored 2 did everything to portray its witches as these inhuman, incredibly powerful beings, and then punished me for trying to protect the weak from their unbridled power. To me, my actions were heroic, because I was fighting a corrupted and almost unstoppable power in order protect the innocent. This is a game that let me save Aramis Stilton, a man who had fought for workers rights and was destroyed by the Duke for it.

(as an aside, I love Stilton; he grew up poor and earned his wealth honestly. He earned everything he had, so of course the nobility didn’t think he deserved it, because rich people think the only honest way to have money is to receive it from one’s parents. He never forgot where he came from and tried to do right by his workers, so the nobility destroyed him for it. Restoring his mind through time shenanigans is one of the most… most right things I have ever done in a game. I felt fortunate to be given that option)

I think, if the witches were human, if they were victims who deserved better, then the game should have supported that through its mechanics and narrative. But the heart--which, last I knew, told the truth--told me that they were monsters, and those that weren’t had lost their humanity and were on their way to becoming monsters.

I would love other ways to solve problems. When the heart tells me that this man beats his son so hard his bruises last a month, I want to put a stop to it. But what can I do? My only verbs are “knock out” or “murder.” Should I knock out a monster that rejoices in slaughter? Or should I put it down so that it won’t kill again?

Dishonored 2 is one of my favorite games of all time, but I felt that the ending only considered whether I had performed violence, not whether that violence needed to be performed. In my own life, I went through hell and chose not to come out of it a monster. I don’t know how to justify these women performing child abuse, animal abuse, and murder. Like vampires, they are monsters. No matter how tragic their origins, they prey on the weak and defenseless. I don’t like violence, but I think maybe there are times when it’s an unfortunate requirement. They might have been powerless at one point, but in the game, their actions showed they did nothing but punch down. Personally, I think we should punch up or not at all.