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waldensblog · 2 years

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I find myself enjoying eclipse less than I did like 10 years ago. And I think it's for multiple reasons.

1. Edward turns up the dial on being terrible.

Like by the end of Twilight, I wasn't his number 1 fan, but I could at least see how Bella fell for him - even with the red flags. I still wanted her to not but I could get it you know (I was a teen once after all)?

Then in Eclipse when he should be trying to prove himself after New Moon, he is... Breaking her truck, conspiring with his family to kidnap her and keep her away from her best friend? Being SEETHINGLY angry when she does shit without his permission, yelling and scaring his own family - and it's just like... Dear Lord.

Then he's just doing a 180 and I'm like... Uh Bella? Don't trust that. Holy crap he showed a side of himself that all the love bombing in the WORLD won't make me unsee (and being older now, I cannot/will not overlook it as a reader). I don’t know if SMeyer wants us to overlook it and be like “oh look, Edward grows and changes!” but I sure as hell ain’t.

If Bella left his ass by mid-book that’d be cool, but nah, she’s forgiving him because he’s “changed” (I don’t trust like that) and she refuses to listen to everyone telling her it’s not healthy.

2. Jacob starts great, and then has his own 180 ?!?!

Like while Edward is being an asshat and kidnapping her, Jacob stages a jailbreak. He tells her things she needs to know (re Victoria. Even though it shouldn't be news...), and even tries to point out that Edward is controlling/abusive. It's easy to say "ah he just wants her to choose him" and yes obviously he does, but he isn't wrong when he points out needing your bf's permission to do anything is fucked. The first half of the book, I feel like it's leaning to her ultimately choosing Jacob because jfc the difference is staggering.

So we spend the first like 300 pages making Edward increasingly more villainous and Jacob seem like the better choice, and I’m cheering for her to dump Edward and go for Jacob, then, chapter 14 rolls around and Jacob undergoes a 180 where he becomes impatient in the truck and honking the horn, then forcefully kisses Bella and starts acting like a complete ass, even threatening suicide. What the fuck happened? Did Smeyer realize halfway through the book that maybe if she wanted to end the series with E/B that she shouldn't write Edward so awful and chose to compensate like this instead of reworking the first half of the book?!?! Like I’m reading this and wondering wtf happened? This doesn’t really feel like the Jacob from New Moon or the first half of eclipse to me.

3. Bella flipflopping on vampirism.

On the one hand she wants to be a vampire, like now, and spend eternity with Edward (but not marry him because she doesn't want to get married at 18 - just vamped forever, apparently).

On the other she has doubts and panics when she realizes how little time in her human life she has. She doesn’t know how to say goodbye, and she knows she’s going to miss so many people, especially her dad (though her mom, her former best friend, appears to have just dropped out of concern largely).

Then when people see her fear and say she can wait she insists that it's totally what she wants, which screams to me that she really is rushing into it so she can't change her mind and that's... A TERRIBLE reason, Bella.

And all that "it's my choice" rubs me the wrong way now that I'm older because she's too damn young to make such a permanent choice (a fact she partially recognizes, but the obsession about not being older than Edward seems to cloud her judgement) AND when your choice negatively affects everyone around you (her family, friends, potential victims) it just doesn't fly with me. Like no, I don't respect your choice to commit self-harm/suicide and become a potential murdery-monster in a cult just to stay with your first love wtf?!?! I’m with Rosalie on this one - she’s so far my fave of the Cullens even if she’s on thin fucking ice with me for going along with shit like kidnapping.

Reminds me of the Little mermaid and our collective reactions to Ariel’s “I’m 16 years old, I’m not a child”

Now... despite all of this, I can still rationalize it, I can still find a way to make it make sense in the context of the story - even if I personally don’t love them behaving this way.

I can understand Bella forgiving Edward and trying to make it work, she’s completely blinded by love (and in my mind, absolutely fucking under thrall or “dazzled” as she puts it), and she finds excuses for it. When Edward hears other people’s thoughts relating to how batshit insane he’s being, he probably starts lovebombing so she won’t run like the fucking wind. She, being young, naive and under thrall, doesn’t. I can rationalize it, even if I’d rather she start realizing the thrall/abuse and ditch his ass.

I can understand Jacob becoming a bit... desperate, and acting out. His best friend fucked off to Italy on a suicide mission to save her ex-bf who abandoned her in a very brutal way. That ex-bf and his family is directly responsible for him and all his friends shifting into wolves and needing to take all these night shifts looking out for Victoria and co., leaving them all sleep-deprived as they carry this burden they shouldn’t have to. That best friend then takes said ex-bf back, and has to sneak around to see him - but then gets kidnapped by said ex-bf and his family, calls him to tell him, and then he does a jail-break. Every time she comes to see him, she’s scared to go home and incur his wrath. She’s very clearly in an abusive relationship, but she won’t see it - no matter how many times you point it out, and there’s a matter of weeks before she literally kills herself and joins the cult that is responsible for all this shit. So I get it... I can understand how a 16 year old werewolf might go balls to the walls insane when he sees like 2 weeks left to stop this nuke - but that doesn’t excuse it. It doesn’t excuse it at all, and it’s just disappointing af to me, and leaves me wanting a redemption arc for this character who was such a cinnamon roll in New moon and who I was rooting for this whole time.

I can understand Bella being unsure what she wants, and fear making her hammer down on a decision. She’s still in love/under thrall, and when the doubts start popping up, she just wants to quiet them, because the idea of not being with Edward is painful to her. I get it - I’ve been a teenager in love, I’ve excused shitty behaviour, I’ve thought to myself “yes I will totes spend forever with him”. Of course, the worst thing that I could have done is marry the dude, whereas in Bella’s case... the worst thing she can do is... much worse than that, and she doesn’t want to think about it, because it’s either Vampire with Edward, or no Edward, basically - at some point, they’d break up, and she can’t fathom it. If only she’d just wait until Thanksgiving after graduation... ah the famous Turkey Dump.

Basically, the characters are all shitty to each other, and I don’t like seeing it, but I can still understand it. This time around, the fun of the newborn army and Victoria making a final stand isn’t as fun to me, because the books are really emotion/relationship driven more than plot-driven, so there’s so much characters being shitty to one another that it’s def making me enjoy it less than I used to. I think this was my fave of the series cuz of the plot - but now? Ehhh, I prefer New Moon. It still ultimately is “landing” for me in the sense that it makes sense, but... I’m not quite as excited to read this last half as I was the first half, or as excited as I was reading New Moon.

I’m also trying to figure out if it can reasonably end with Eclipse, because though I plan to re-read BD to give it an adult POV review, I remember hating BD, and I still hate the details of BD so I imagine it’s gonna be torture for me lol. If Eclipse ends on a note where I could reasonably headcanon/fanfic the ending I’d prefer*, then I’ll be happy enough with it.

So far, Twilight got 4/5 for me, New Moon 4.5/5, and Eclipse I’ll prob give... uhhh... 4? Maybe 3.5? I guess we’ll see how the rest goes. BD I can’t see me giving a passing grade but who knows.

*The ending I prefer will be the subject of another post after I finish Eclipse.

#twilight saga #eclipse #eclipse reread #twilight saga reread #anti edward cullen #anti cullens #jacob black #bella swan

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chuuguins · 3 years

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tag 9 people to learn more about their interests!

tagged by: absolutely no one but hey

MUSIC

fave genre? i suppose it's kpop, isn't it? besides that, i listen to a lot of pop and alternative music. throw in some musical theatre from time to time. i went through a major country phase back in the day too.

fave artist? kpop, loona. non-kpop, taylor swift.

fave song? blueming, by iu.

most listened song recently? sunflower, by iz*one or weekend, by taeyeon. i have a lot of songs on repeat.

song currently stuck in your head? lilac, by iu.

5 fave lyrics? all too well, taylor swift // home is you, megan & liz // house of cards, caitlyn smith // life sucks, ha:tfelt // personal best, maisie peters (cutting this down was so hard!!)

BOOKS

fav book genre? young adult contemporary or self help (lol)

fav writer? idek, i really don't read enough.

fav book? anna and the french kiss, to all the boys (only the first book) or every day.

fav book series? the charlie bone series, harry potter, twilight.

comfort book? anything i read when i was younger (saffy's angel, the clique series, stargirl, jacqueline wilson books), world ain't ready (i will not elaborate) and some of the random as fuck books on my audible account.

perfect book to read on a rainy day? i really don't read much so these questions are leaving me ?? ummm, something nostalgic? or.........choices?? high school story?? ldfskjldskjfldskj

fave characters? luna lovegood? haha, maybe that's because we share a name. also, lara jean song covey because i love her aesthetic sdlkfjdskl

5 quotes from your fave book that you know by heart? i genuinely have no idea, nor do i care much.

TV AND MOVIES

fave tv/movie genre? basically anything with a real life setting. i love slice of life stuff, though i enjoy a lot of different things. i also really like horror movies, my partner, sister and i love to watch them together.

fave movie? about time, heathers, god help the girl and your name.

comfort movie? i actually have a lot but lately it's been 13 going on 30. though my all time comfort movie is probably about time.

movie you watch every year? i have a tendency to rewatch movies really frequently so there's a lot of them, way too many to mention.

fave tv show? buffy the vampire slayer, parks and recreation, toradora.

comfort tv show? the above shows + gilmore girls and boy meets world probably?

most rewatched tv show? btvs, parks and rec and two of a kind. i will not elaborate.

5 fave characters? spike (btvs), meiko honma (anohana),

tagging: @kitsune-og @jikookfm @beaumontbash @parabataisarah @leondaltons @saivilo @parkjaeon @fairyshampoo @starryache @storyoflight

#misc: tag yourself #luna.txt #this was a lot omg #it's also so messy i have no idea what i was saying in some of these #my mind kept going blank #so if u read this......i'm so sorry #if u have already done it or can't be fucked then feel free to ignore the tag #not me realising i'm friends with more than nine ppl on this hell website #love that for me #if i didn't tag u feel free to do it anyway

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skullhaver · 4 years

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It's 2021, and I'm watching Buffy for the first time.

The Virgil on my Buffy journey is my long-distance girlfriend, who has loved the show for years. We just finished season 4, and I wanted to write about my favorite episodes so far. I suspect some of my faves are beloved by most fans, but others are weird, personal picks. Buffy fandom, please don't come for me.

I thought this post would be short but I was wrong.

Hono(u)rable Mentions: "Band Candy" S3E6 and "Halloween" S2E6

Both these episodes have fun premises where the Scoobies run around Sunnydale after it was upended by zany, chaotic dark forces. "Band Candy" is fun for devil-may-care teen Giles. "Halloween" is fun for 18th-century-ditz Buffy. These are both very good, and are the sorts of episode I can imagine happily rewatching in the future. I just have more to pontificate upon for the other episodes on this list.

10. "Ted" S2E11

I can’t say I enjoyed this episode, but it did take me for a wild ride. Probably nobody else has strong feelings about this weird story where Buffy's mom dates a stereotypical cheesy family man, who turns out to be a controlling abuser, who turns out to be a robot. I remember shouting at the screen, "Did Buffy just kill a human man?? Is it okay in the moral logic of this show for Buffy to kill a human if he's a direct physical threat to her??" I knew Buffy would have deeper stories than the monster of the week formula we'd seen so far, but this early in season 2, I had no idea when or how that would happen. This was the episode that finally taught me that Buffy is largely not interested in moral ambiguity, or in exploring what it means to be good or bad. Except for season-defining exceptions like Faith and Angel, evil characters are simplistically, essentially evil. But it was wild to believe for a moment that Buffy murdered her mom's abusive boyfriend and would have to live with the consequences.

9. "Helpless" S3E12

When Buffy tries to be genuinely scary, it succeeds with aplomb. The premise of this episode is dumb and contrived ("Giles has to remove Buffy's powers without her knowledge for a seeeecret test by the Watcher's Council") but the chase and fight in this episode are some of the most tense and spooky scenes of the whole series so far. Buffy's vulnerability makes the stakes feel real in a way few other episodes manage. And Buffy's victory is all the more satisfying because she can't punch her way out of this problem, she has to be smart and creative. The fridge horror, of course, is that Giles would endanger her like this in the first place, but that gets sorted out over the emotional arc of the next few episodes.

8. "I Only Have Eyes For You." S2E19

Another spooky episode, this one a classic ghost story of forbidden love ending in murder - but with the twist that the ghosts possess people's bodies to have them reenact their final moments. I love stories about breaking a doomed-to-repeat cycle. I love weird shit like the snakes manifesting in the cafeteria. And I really loved the choice to have Buffy and Angel come to understand their feelings about their own relationship by embodying these ghosts - especially how they embodied different genders than their own to better fit the "roles" of the haunting story, thus subverting the expected pattern. I found this episode clever, poignant, and effective.

7. "Who Are You?" S4E16

"Faith and Buffy switch bodies" is a wild premise, but the real joy of "Who Are You?" is watching Sarah Michelle Geller being an extremely talented actress for 45 minutes, portraying a totally different character. Watching Faith confronted by kindness and love from Buffy's mom, Riley, and her friends, then getting launched into an existential crisis over it is so great. Also, I just dig a good church fight.

6. "Hush" S4E10

As stated above, love an episode that reminds me that these people are talented actors! Featuring demons that render all of Sunnydale unable to talk, we get to watch great physical comedy right next to tense, silent fight scenes. The visual creepiness of the Gentleman and their straight-jacketed weird little helpers is hard to beat. "Hush" is such a clever episode that it ascends monster of the week status to become almost Twilight Zone-esque. Also, for the first time, Buffy sees Riley doing his Initiative thing, and Riley sees Buffy being the Slayer, but they can't talk about it?? That's good shit.

5. "The Wish" S3E9

Both "Something Blue" and "The Wish" feel like the writers decided to use fanfic premises on their own show... so obviously I like them a lot. But getting to watch a dark timeline AU with interesting world-building and attention to detail, a hilarious and horrifying Cordelia POV, AND a smirking kinky vampire Willow? Hello?? And the fact that the Wishverse comes up again in "Doppelgänger" (another truly fun episode) only improves my opinion. I imagine this is the kind of episode fans simply love coming back to.

4. "Restless" S4E22

This David Lynch-ass dream sequence was a weird choice for a season finale, but an extremely ambitious and cool episode. I should say up front that I love David Lynch-ass dream shit. There were creative and well-executed scene transitions as characters moved seamlessly from one dream room into another. Several memorably neat shots - Willow running between endless curtains as she tries to get onstage, Buffy alone in a vast desert with a weirdly high camera angle. And I got myself all excited thinking that the First Slayer would maybe become a different kind of antagonist - maybe not even fully revealed in this episode, or maybe an Id-like aspect of Buffy herself. But I forgot Whedon gonna Whedon, so the First Slayer had to be someone Buffy could punch in the end. And the First Slayer is sadly yet another primitive-themed, emotionally-stunted character of color for this show. Most of her lines in this episode are literally voiced by a white woman speaking for her, and of all the dumb quips to make, Buffy had a line about her hair being unprofessional? Also, I'm a lesbian, so the fact that the most explicit act of intimacy between Willow and Tara this show has allowed us to see occurs in Xander's horny dream sequence... it’s unforgivable, Joss. This episode was one of my favorites ever, deeply marred by some bad writing choices.

3. "Lovers Walk" S3E8

Spike, perhaps the best non-Willow character in this show, is back in Sunnydale, a hilariously heartbroken mess of a man, hell-bent on getting his former girlfriend Drusilla back. (Drusilla left him for a fungus demon.) So Spike breaks into a magic shop to get ingredients for a love spell, where he runs into Willow, who is getting ingredients for a de-lusting spell, because she is worried she and Xander will be too thirsty to behave appropriately in public with their actual partners, Oz and Cordelia. This is a hilarious moment just to exist. This is all the episode needed to do to satisfy me. But the fact that Spike then kidnaps Willow, and it ends with tragic stakes of everyone's relationships coming apart, not to mention me genuinely thinking Cordelia was dead for a minute there - wow. Chef’s kiss. The episode is balanced shockingly well between Spike being an ominous villain, and being the sort of lovable semi-evil (more gremlin-like) side character he'll become in season 4. What a wild ride.

2. "Graduation Day" S3E21-22

I'm counting this two part season finale as one because it's my list and I'll do what I want. "Graduation Day" feels like a quintessential Buffy episode executed to perfection. It has Buffy reaffirming her position as a moral heroine, sacrificing her own blood to save Angel's life even when she thought she had to kill Faith to save him. It has Buffy and Faith (or Buffy/Faith, as I prefer to think of them) getting to square off in a dramatic, tough fight. It has a lot of Mayor Wilkins, a character I truly adore for some reason. Nothing like a public administrator who plays mini golf in his office, wants you to chew with your mouth closed, and will kill a graduating class of high schoolers to gain immortality. The catharsis of the whole school getting to fight back against evil, instead of just Buffy against the world - a real joy. This episode misses the top spot for two reasons. "A special vampire poison and the only cure is the blood of a Slayer" is too contrived for me to let slide, and also I had to see Cordelia and Wesley kiss.

1. "Becoming" S2E21-22

Buffy’s season finales really do have good stories and satisfying payoff. First off, Buffy starts this episode by punching a cop and fleeing from the law. Later, Spike also punches a cop. A.k.a., Buffy said blue lives don't matter. Second - I haven't gotten a chance to comment on this yet, but all throughout season 2, evil Angel is such a joy to watch. As regular Angel, David Boreanaz makes exactly one face ("I am a kicked, angsty puppy") and bless his heart, it gets so tiresome. As evil Angel, he is so expressive, dynamic and terrifyingly creative in his badness. And I love his weird threesome energy with Spike and Drusilla. But also, it's so hard to watch Buffy suffer as she deals with her evil boyfriend doing evil things. Her ultimate choice in this episode, to kill Angel even as Willow's spell restores his soul, gave me some real big feels! Also, this episode marks the first moment of Willow doing big, plot-shifting magic on her own, solidifying her transformation from computer nerd to witch!

Also, shout-out to the many good smaller moments in this episode: Spike making awkward small talk with Buffy's mom, Buffy constantly dunking on Principle Snyder, and Giles being tortured by visions of Miss Calendar (RIP Miss Calendar, I was your biggest fan.)

"Becoming" is an excellent season finale and the kind of Buffy episode I imagine I will want to re-watch in the future just for nostalgia's sake.

#buffy the vampire slayer #guess i will tag this and just engage in pvp if it happens #buffy fandom in 2021 i don't know you but please be nice #this was fun to write #i guess i do like this show!

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jessicanjpa · 4 years

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What do you think about some posts pointing out where the Cullens are racist? I think some people are overreacting. Like the vampires and wolves are natural enemies and call each other all kinds of names at times, it’s in their nature. People also say my faves Esme and Carlisle should teach their kids manners but I know they have, behind the scenes...definitely Esme has, when she scolded Rosalie for the Fido thing at least!

I’m not the best person to answer this, being white myself, but here are my two cents:

Fans should always listen to each other about how certain elements in the story have personally impacted them (including positive impacts but that’s another post). We have a lot to learn from each other, and here in particular, Twilight fans of color have been speaking about the racist impact of various worldbuilding elements, lines of dialogue, plot points, etc. It’s especially important for white writers (and content creators in general) to listen so that we can move forward in ways that honor what we’re hearing. (more longwinded thoughts below the cut)

So for this specific example, sure--random werewolf A and random vampire B might joke around with these nicknames in any universe. But the reality is that we still live in a world where the subtext of those jokes is different when the white character is calling the character of color something like “dog” versus the reverse. (Here’s a good post that talks about some specifics, and here’s one by @writingwithcolor that has some discussion and links re: the broader issue of when characterization shouldn’t be handled this way.) I didn’t see this one either for a long time, and like you said, it took me by surprise at first because it’s about not handling characterizations equally (in other words I saw it and dismissed it as overthinking). But I kept listening and spoke with an indigenous Twilight fan about their own impressions, and decided I needed to edit the dog nicknames/jokes out of my own fanfiction. It’s a fairly easy element to omit (and readers, if I missed any spots please let me know), and doing so doesn’t even change the storyline.

In the case of the Cullens in general, I think it certainly makes sense to headcanon that they’ve all been racist, sexist, etc. at some point based on how old they are and what character traits they have individually; in terms of backstory racism Jasper is the obvious one, but that doesn’t exempt the others. Regardless of how much we love our favs or headcanon how much they’ve grown and learned over the years, that love should never stop us from listening or learning from issues like this. And I would advise extreme caution in labeling these types of accusations as an “overreaction”--whether you respond with the same headcanons or not (ex: how much racist intent there was in whatever scene) is your own choice, but when POC say “It makes me/us uncomfortable when authors/characters do x y z and here’s why it’s racist,” that’s beyond that kind of judgment because it’s 1) a personal account of racist impact and 2) not a matter of headcanon/reaction. And remember that there’s also accumulated hurt/harm from portrayals of characters of color in other books, movies, etc. throughout centuries of literature. And that also intersects with people's personal experiences with racism in their own lives.

I think fans often forget how powerful fanfiction can be when it comes to things like this. It’s important to learn to see when authors’/publishers’/characters’ choices were problematic (in various ways) so that we can grow as people in our own interactions and values, and so that we can move forward in a better way in our own content creation in the future. But remember that any fandom universe is also a living thing--the source material may be copyrighted by the author, but it also belongs to all of us. "Sure would have been nice to see" can easily become a fic/drabble that explores the issue in a way that can have a positive impact for years to come, all because you had the courage to bring what "would have been nice to see" alive.

It’d be great to see a BD gapfiller where Leah storms into the house and confronts Rosalie about the dog bowl thing. (With the pack mind, the racist impact of that scene would affect ALL of them, remember.) Or maybe Edward picks up on Seth’s thoughts about it. Show Jasper wrestling with the fact that he so easily called Jacob a dog in a moment of anger when he thought he’d left the racist stuff behind years ago. Maybe it turns into a conversation with Carlisle, who’s recently had a tough talk with Sam or Billy about his decision to move back to Forks in 2003 or thinking back to how it didn’t even occur to him to ask Bella was she wanted re: her own pregnancy. (Those two already shared, in my opinion at least, an element of shame re: their human past, so this could be a sequel to those earlier talks.) Or maybe a year or two post-canon the dog thing is still going on behind Carlisle and Esme’s back and Renesmee is the one who tells the grown-up “kids” to knock it off because it’s more obvious to her that it’s inappropriate. Going back to the Billy/Carlisle talk, get into it and have Billy explain why it’s been difficult for him to speak up until now. Go earlier on and show us the talk Billy and Old Quil had before that.

Or maybe you want to go in a different direction. Have some Cullen or other refuse to change after a conversation like this, and let Jacob or whoever win the day by exposing it. Let Leah’s confrontation with Rosalie go horribly instead of being a weird start to an unexpected friendship. Or let it go horribly and later on bring it around to an unexpected friendship. Go AU, go post-canon, write a gapfiller, tell us Ephraim’s thoughts in 1936. Redeem who you want, vilify who you want, ship who you want. Wrestle with the nuance or go with a good vs. evil narrative. Explore a new perspective through an OC or a minor character POV. Make it about forgiveness or reflection or healing or triumph or boundaries or ruined treaties or whatever you think is missing.

Just please don’t cross that line of telling others how they are allowed to react in their headcanons, writing, etc. That doesn’t mean you can’t talk about how those headcanons make you feel or unfollow/block someone whose take you don’t like to see on your feed. But just as they may not understand where you’re coming from, you don’t know everything about why they’re passionate about their own take on it (thinking about the Renee ask again here). Assuming the absolute worst about someone’s intentions and proclaiming those assumptions as if they were facts isn’t going to move the issue forward, and it’s sometimes a huge missed opportunity for people to see each other’s responses as “good, better, best” rather than “right, wrong.” Leading by constructive example—experimenting with how to do it better or resolve an existing mess—is so much more effective and will (hopefully) help start conversations instead of ending them. We’ll make mistakes and hopefully do better, but that’s better than not trying at all.

So if you’ve seen good fics/drabbles that address racist elements in one way or another, please leave a rec in the replies! (I’m adding one myself as soon as I post this.)

And, as always, please strongly consider donating to the Quileute Nation’s Move to Higher Ground project here if you haven’t yet done so. I’ve answered this ask with mostly in-universe chatter, but this is something the real Quileutes are actually asking for in the real world. A lot of the fandom discussion about racism is done on their behalf, which is good (or at least the intention is good), but boosting their actual voice is even better. Their predominant message to this fandom has always been for us to learn more about their real culture and history (check out their collaboration with the Burke museum and their own website), and donating is a tangible way we can show our support.

#inbox #racism #characterization #wolf pack #names #links #fandom drama #headcanons #fanfiction #writingwithcolor is a good resource because they have lots of mods who can handle various types of asks #social trust #fandom #sorry i know this was a meta answer to a simple question but i wanted to get it all out there at once #real quileutes #quileute nation #quileute tribe #mthg #move to higher ground

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twilightofthe · 5 years

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Tell me ALL your SW faves

Aaaaaa thank you! This took a while cuz this got long, lol sorry! Aight, so here’s ALL my SW faves for this ask prompt list!

FAVE MOVIE: Revenge of the Sith. 10000%. It just has everything! You get to see the Obikin relationship in all its glory, first and foremost, how much those two loved each other more than anything and knew each other better than anyone, and just how much they genuinely got along and then we got our hearts broken watching them have to fight after Anakin made his Goof Of The Millennium and just oooooof all the feels about my boys! Seeing Padmé and just loving her so gotdang much for being strong and wanting the best life for everyone, all while she was so scared and had so little support from anyone, and just couldn’t do it in the end. Seeing the end of the Republic, how after a thousand years, just, *poof*, just like that in like two days (yes, I know Sidious was planning it for over a decade but still), the horrific fascination on how Sidious was able to do that. Just the brilliance of Sheev’s character, how you despise him, but how brilliantly everything was pulled off. The angst of Order 66, how especially after TCW you love these characters SO MUCH and then you gotta watch them DIE HORRIBLY BY THOSE THEY TRUSTED, THOSE WHO NEVER HAD A CHOICE EITHER. Did I mention feeling so freaking bad for Obi Wan and his Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day??? Because I really do, he’s so good and kind and we see his life fall apart and ugh I love him. And y’all, watching Anakin Skywalker fall from grace like the brightest angel he was, you hate him for what he did, but you still can’t help but love him and cry for him and his loss because he was so good, and he did not deserve all this to happen to him but he did it to HIMSELF AAAAGGHHHH. Also, Obes and Ani were at peak prettiness this movie!! Just asdfkjglkdskajsrlk best movie love so diggity dang much

FAVE PAIRING: Oh, how EVER will I choose– Obikin. It’s Obikin, all the way, no contest. I know I’ve yelled about it a million and one times so I’ll save y’all the rant on how much I adore these disasters and their relationship and how I think they’re goddamn soulmates and the most interesting dynamic in the entire Saga. I ship them romantically and platonically and just everything, they’re so fucking important to one another and that’s why it hurts so much to watch them fall apart, and that’s why I’m so incredibly happy that they get to canONICALLY SPEND THEIR ENTIRE AFTERLIFE TOGETHER BECAUSE FORCE GHOSTS HELL YEAH. If I had to pick just secondary fave romantic and platonic relationships, hmmmm that’s hard. BUT, I’m gonna have to go with Kanera for romantic; SWR was what got me back into Star Wars and one of my favorite parts of it was watching Kanan and Hera, how much I loved them separately, but just how much they were a team together and I love them and I was unbelievably upset when Jedi Night happened (and I still have a rant about how animated Star Wars kills off their romantic couples in the exact same manner, pls ask me about how TCW’s The Lawless and Rebels’ Jedi Night had basically all of the same plot points that ended in killing off a romantic lead). For other fave platonic relationship, gonna have to go with Luke/Han/Leia BROT3 (separate from Hanleia as a romance, which is probs my 3rd fave). These disasters were the original Golden Trio, they saved the galaxy together all while yelling dramatically and having each other’s backs to the bitter end (or, at least ‘till the end of ROTJ lol) and I just love them as a team so dang much

FAVE TV SHOW EPISODE: Okay, since there are four TV shows, it’s only fair for me to pick one (or more don’t judge me) from each! Let’s see, from The Clone Wars, my fave eps have to be the entire Mortis trilogy arc in S3 because Obes/Ani/Snips family dynamic, Force Shenanigans, BEAUTIFUL scene designs, Anakin angst, just so many good things oof, and also Dooku Captured from S1, which I just adore because Obikin snark, annoying Grandpa Dooku, Hondo Fucking Ohnaka making everyone look so bad at their jobs, I just love it agh. Whoops that was technically four faves, so gotta do four for Rebels too! Gonna go wiiiiith World Between Worlds from S4 for Badass Ahsoka Tano, Ezra being brave and talented, Sheev being Absolutely Ridiculous, and just the overall Force Shenanigans cuz canon time travel y’all; The Lost Commanders from S2 because Rex is awesome, Kanan angst, and really good Kanan and Ezra bonding and Jedi awesomeness, Fire Across the Galaxy from S1 because of Ghost fam dynamics, Kanan angst, more Kanan and Ezra bonding, and just good stuff, and Twilight of the Apprentice in S2 (lol what about my username?) for being creepy and cool and maKING ME CRY ANAKIN YOU STUPID THRICE COOKED TOILET SEAT LEAVE AHSOKA ALONE. *cough* Ok, fine, I’ll stick with only one ep for the other two series. For Resistance, gonna have to go with the latest ep, actually! We get to see Kaz being clever and caring about his fam on the Colossus, really cool designs for Aeos and its people, Tam angst, and just everyone shining! For The Mandalorian, it’s gotta be the finale, Redemption, we get Din name, Armorer kicking everyones asses and me loving it, BABY YODA DOING THE HAND WAVE, Din getting over his issues with droids and connecting with IG only for IG to FUCKING DIE, DIN AND BABY YODA BEING AN OFFICIAL CLAN OF TWO, Taika just knocking this whole episode out of the park with the funny scouttroopers at the beginning who still deserved the ass-whooping they got for fucking murdering Kuiil and hiTTING BABY YODA YOU SLIMY FUCKNUGGETS–

FAVE CHARACTER: Alright, look, I can narrow it down to FIVE and that is IT. I just love too many Star Wars characters, I can’t go lower than top five! Ok, so my four favorites are Obi Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker, Leia Organa, Kanan Jarrus, and Finn Skywalker-Dameron-Tico (i SAID what i SAID.) AIGHT so for starters, a lot of my favorite characters in different franchises fall under various archetypes I have for faves. Obi Wan fits one of my more popular ones: “Old, reluctant and more than slightly-questionable parental badass with a mysterious past that makes you love them all the more when you realize just how beautiful and tragic and deserving-better they were when that past is revealed”. I latched onto this dude from the start when I just liked the OT (tho Leia was always my fave lol), and I wanted to know about him, and then when I finally started getting into the PT and TCW, it was just a steady stream of “oh no he’s hOT?” “oh no he’s sAD?” “oh no he’s nICE?!? REALLY FUCKING NICE AND A BIT OF A MESS HELP” and then I just totally latched on because he’s hypercompetent at literally everything and looks damn good doing it and boy do I have a thing for competence, charming as all hell and goes through so much and comes out strong despite the fact that fate hates his fucking guts and tries to destroy his life constantly and guys he tries so hard and he’s kind of messy sometimes and a bit of a dick and I love him all the more for it because he’s trying, none of that do-or-do-not shit, he is doing his damn best and deserves happiness and not Anakin tearing him apart. SPEAKING OF SAND MAN. Ugh, so I love Anakin to fucking death and that makes me REALLY MAD ABOUT IT BECAUSE HE MAKES EVERYONE ELSE I LIKE SAD. So I love Anakin regardless because he’s not your typical protagonist. He’s fucking brilliant, hot when he fights, is amazing at fighting and flying and building stuff and there’s that competence thing for me again, oh boy! He’s funny and kind and he cares. And somehow, this bitch manages to have the two most beautiful, amazing people in the galaxy in love with him and willing to do basically anything for him like the fuck?!? Jealous much??!?!?!?! I am!!!! He’s so fucking bright and it’s impossible to look away. He’s also a dorky, messy disaster who’s not good with people or feelings or emotions and he panics over stuff and doesn’t know self-control and is kinda really bad at his job a lot and pushes away the people who care about him and screws up literally all the fucking time and he always feels like he’s drowning and alone and I get to watch him crash and burn under the weight of it all. Basically, minus the anger issues and the child murder and the murder in general, I kinda relate a lot to Anakin. I feel like a self-hating mess who doesn’t know how to control my ow head and the world hates me a lot too. I can project my mental issues onto him, enjoy the good parts of him, live vicariously through the things he does that I can’t like be loved by pretty people and be hot and athletic and smart, and then when he crashes I can side-eye and remember that at least someone’s doing worse than me lol. So yea, I love this messy boi to death and he’s the one I get the best characterization reviews on, so I guess we have an understanding. Leia I loved since as a kid. I’d want to be her, brave, talented, smart, strong as hell and snarky to boot. I realize that Leia fits another fave character archetype of mine: “Powerful young adult raised for greatness, did not ask for all the horrible shit that’s happened to them, highkey wants a break and for the bad guys to just roll over and die, is generally clever, hypercompetent, and 100% done with everyone else’s shit, overdramatic as all hell and enjoys insulting people”. Her and Han were my first Star Wars ship and she just always made me happy seeing her kick names and take ass. She’s gone through almost as much hell or maybe more so than Obi Wan, she also keeps getting back up and fighting, she deserved SO MUCH BETTER than what the Sequel Trilogy gave her and you may quote me on that. She’s also gorgeous and I wanted to wear all of her clothes (bikini not included). I also love her relationship with Luke and I am so goddam happy it is now canon that Leia Organa did Jedi training and can use a lightsaber!!! She has a lightsaber!!!!!!!!!! Ugh oof I love her. Kanan fills the similar “mentor” archetype as Obi Wan does, but with a smidge of youth because he’s younger when he gets dropped into this role. He’s more of a punk, more of a mess, and oof. Basically I’ve said it a zillion times how Rebels resparked my love of Star Wars, but really, it was Kanan on the screen that did it. It happened when the Rebels season 3 premiere eps ended up on the TV and I saw it and I thought in order 1. holy shit that Maul fucker’s actually alive? and 2. Oh no sad blind Jedi man! He’s cool and mysterious and I want to know why he’s sad and who made him sad and also want to give him a hug!!! He was my fave character all throughout Rebels and his training dynamic with Ezra, struggling to help this kid all while flying by the seat of his pants because he had Issues and no clue what he was doing and no support and ugh, he was smart and brave and I’m so sad he’s dead and yea. Finn!!!! Last but not least!!!! He was my favorite character from The Force Awakens. People have said it before, but he was just so new, a rebel Stormtrooper stolen and brainwashed at birth, finding the good guys and fighting to do the right thing! Possibly Force Sensitive! Super duper cute!!! Funny and kind, dammit, when not many other people in the galaxy were!!!!!!!! I was so, so sure Finn was gonna be a Jedi along with Rey at some point, that might have been my biggest letdown when I saw TLJ, but ugh I just loved his enthusiasm and his war within himself, ultimately loving his friends and trying to do what was right at the risk to his own safety, even though that was why he ran scared in the first place!!!!! I shipped him with Rey and with Poe and now I am NOT above the post TROS Jedistormpilot shipping!!!!! Finn was just always the most interesting part of the Sequel Trilogy for me and I personally feel like they could have done more with his character.

FAVE ACTOR/ACTRESS: Aight, so I try my best not to “stan” anyone famous because literally no one is perfect and everyone’s done something problematic at some point and if I dare say I like a famous figure, someone’s gonna find something about them and come after me all “OMG THIS PERSON DID/SAID/IS X YOU MONSTER GO DIE!!11!!1″. In terms of performance, I think all the actors in Star Wars did a lovely job and I’m happy with all of them! If I had to crush on any, it would probs be Ewan McGregor, John Boyega, or Diego Luna cuz, uh, they hot. If I had to pick one I liked most, it would honestly probs be Carrie Fisher. Maybe that’s just partially from missing her now that she’s gone, but I really admire her advocacy and transparence for mental health, and she just seemed like such a funny, kind, strong person.

FAVE PLANET: Aight, this is HARD and I refuse to only pick one planet! Ok, gonna start off with Coruscant because an endless city planet made up of lights is amazingly gorgeous and it has a Jedi Temple stacked on top of a Sith Temple and is just so cool aaaaa. Also love Felucia just for being so bright and colorful and pretty. Mortis for being just as weirdly gorgeous and also Weird Force Shit. Lothal for the beautiful mountains, the wolves, and the fucking lightspeed center of the planet passage what, Dathomir is delightfully creepy to look at, Crait is really cool with the salt and the red and the ice foxes, Kashyyyk because Wookiees and it’s pretty and I love their treehouses. Basically if it makes me clap my dumb monkey hands and go “oooh pretty!”, I love it. The more “not like Earth” it is, the more I love it.

FAVE SPECIES: Hmmmmm, this is a tough one……. There’s just so many cool-looking species that we know so little about, ya know? I wanna say either Togrutas or Wookiees. Togrutas just because the character design is incredible and so fun to work with and also I love Ahsoka, and Wookiees because they have such an interesting culture and backstory and also I want to give Chewbacca a hug.

FAVE CONCEPT: Uhhh, not quite sure I get the question; you mean like just story concept in general? If that’s it, I’m gonna have to go with just the whole concept of the Force and the Jedi in general. I mean George, George my man, what the fuck? How the hell did you come up with this?!? Mystical psychic space wizards with magic abilities to connect with and use the sentient godlike life force that combined the entire galaxy together. Oh and also they have COLORFUL GLOWING LASER SWORDS?!?!? It’s honestly one of the most creative things I’ve seen in popular culture, and that makes me sad that Star Wars now seems to be trying to separate itself from what I think is its most interesting quality because “ugh not EVERYTHING should be about the Jedi guys!”, when like, y’all, without the Jedi, the entire SW universe is basically just another military scifi war story…… Just my opinion tho.

FAVE SHIP: Ok, since pairing was already up there, I assume this means actual ship? Well, uh, gonna have to be square with y’all, I’m a bad Star Wars fan for this part; I’ve never been the one to memorize ship names and designs and know the exact make and model number of some fancy ship, I’m real bad at that lol. I’ll say my favorite ship is the Ghost. Hera flies it and the Rebels Fam lives on it and it’s super cool and it makes me happy!

FAVE WEAPON: LIGHTSABER. LIGHTSABER LIGHTSABER. LIGHTSABERLIGHTSABERLIGHTSABERLIGHTSABERLIGHTSABER. Y’all, c’mon, what did you think I was gonna pick? xD Lizard brain want glowy shiny colorful big stick that goes whoosh!

FAVE BACKGROUND EXTRA: Again, not entirely sure what this means, but do you mean fave background character? If so, then it’s a tie between Wilrow Hood and his ice cream machine for the memes, that one clone in TCW who yeets a plate of toast at Cad Bane’s face, or that one background soldier who scoots between Han and Leia arguing in ESB and also Hera and Kanan arguing in Rebels (yes I do headcanon it’s the same guy lol)

FAVE MOMENT/SCENE: This one’s actually pretty easy. Anakin dying in Luke’s arms in ROTJ, and then his ghost showing up to Luke later at the Ewok party. I just care so ridiculously much about stupid Anakin and his stupid story and mistakes, and even before I was a prequels stan and had only seen the OT (and wasn’t a huge Vader fan, believe it or not), some part of me just felt so solemn, so fragile watching this, watching the giant monstrous machine falling apart as he fades away to reveal a weary, tired old human man, and it always made me wonder, what the hell happened to him to turn him into that thing? Seeing that young, beautiful man, basically Luke’s age, showing up as a ghost later, just the fascination, the tender look he shared with Old Ben, just how young he was, that made it all the more mysterious and knowing what I do now, it’s just so much better because my poor, horrible Disaster Man finally did the right thing and he finally found peace and it’s just the only ending I could be happy for Anakin with, And Luke, I always felt so bad for Luke, being so strong, so brave, finally getting his father back for like five damn minutes and then having to lose him again and just hurting for him but also knowing that it was gonna be okay because Luke had more family now, the ghosts, and Han and Leia and Chewie and R2 and 3PO and Lando and everyone.

FAVE KISS: Luke and Leia (HANG ON LET ME SPEAK) forehead kiss in The Last Jedi. I know (this one) isn’t meant as romantic, and I know the question is probs about a romantic one and I know that it’s not even a real mouth kiss. But. That Luke and Leia scene was my favorite part of the entire movie. Again, I was missing Carrie a lot, and ugh, after all these years, after not getting to interact the entire previous movie and not at all during this movie, the ONE scene with Carrie and Mark and the pure emotion of it all just knocked me out of my fucking seat. You could see how connected they were as siblings, how much Leia had missed Luke, how much he had missed her and how sorry he was for leaving, sorry for Ben, sorry for having to leave her again now, Leia knowing Luke was about to die, and just, acceptance. Love and acceptance. It was just a final, tender kiss on the forehead, and it was perfect and yeah. If I do have to pick a romantic lip smooch, it’s probably the Hanleia classic “scoundrel” kiss in Empire Strikes Back. I still remember watching ESB the first time as a KID and being all eeeeeeee are they gonna– YES they kissed they kissed they kissed finally! and that’s enough for me.

FAVE FIGHT: Obi Wan and Anakin on Mustafar in Revenge of the Sith. WIthout question. It’s brilliantly and precisely choreographed to show the intricate nuances of the Obikin breakup in alllllll of its painful glory. It breaks my heart every time I watch it because every time I watch it I still hope it’s gonna end differently. That Anakin realizes he can’t kill Obi Wan and ditches Sidious and goes back with Obi Wan to save Padmé. That Obi Wan realizes he can’t let Anakin die and saves him from burning and from Sidious and takes him back too. That Obi Wan at least puts Anakin out of his misery which would be godawful painful, but would save him from the horrid life as Vader. That while they’re fighting, a lava monster appears like in the concept art and Vader and Obi Wan have to put aside their differences and fight the thing and remember how much they mean to each other. But ugh, this fight was beautifully choreographed and was originally supposed to be a MULTI-MINUTE SINGLE SHOT WHAT THE HELL??? Oooof Hayden and Ewan did such an amazing job and the whole thing just rips my heart out every time in the bestworst way possible

FAVE LINE OF DIALOGUE: Now THIS is hard, I’m not the best at picking favorite lines. Hmmm, this is HARD. Let me think. Gahhhh, it’s hard because I have so many lines I like and I can’t even just narrow down a couple!!! Ultimately, it’s probably gonna be Yoda’s monologue from Empire Strikes Back: “Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter…” Just that entire line saying how basically all of us are more than the sum of our parts, that everyone is their own sparkling light made of stardust, I loved it as a kid and I love it now.

FAVE BOOK/COMIC: Answered here

FAVE HERO: Gonna go with Obi Wan! I already rambled about why I love him, but y’all……. I love him.

FAVE VILLAIN: Anakin Skywalker/Darth McFucking Vader. I loved him when he was a hero and the silly poor sad boy makes me sad when I see him as a villain all while being an overdramatic asshole and it just makes me wanna hit him with a newspaper for ruining his life and everyone else’s I love him.

FAVE OUTFIT: Answered here

FAVE CREATURE: I love Lothcats/Tookas! I just heckin’ love cats and now there’s spACE KITTIES WITH SUPER FOOFY TAILS AND BIG EARS OMG Y’ALL I LOVE THEM I JUST REALLY DO AND I REALLY WANT ONE SO I CAN CUDDLE IT ;_;

WHEW. That was all of the faves, thanks so much for asking me!!! Sorry this took so long to do, this was kinda a hell week haha!

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quietya · 5 years

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31 Days of quietYA with Destiny Soria

The Good Demon, by Jimmy Cajoleas. A contemporary Gothic horror that is deliciously eerie and atmospheric. A local preacher performs an exorcism on Clare to free her from a demon known only as “Her.” The problem is that now Clare wants Her back. She teams up with the preacher’s son and slowly begins to unravel the dark mystery at the heart of her small southern town. This story is an intriguing look at questions of morality, religion, and free will. Also creepy af.

Speak Easy, Speak Love, by McKelle George. A retelling of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing set during the Roaring Twenties, which in my opinion is more than enough reason to buy it immediately. The story follows the intertwining lives of six teens as they try to save a failing speakeasy in the midst of mobsters, prohibition, romance, and parental expectations. George is a deft hand at creating beautifully complex characters, and the witty banter is on point.

The Girl with the Red Balloon, by Katherine Locke. A time-traveling fantasy that is both heart-touching and heart-wrenching. When Ellie Baum finds herself magically transported to 1988 East Berlin, she joins an underground guild that uses magical balloons to help people escape over the Wall. As she gets more involved, she discovers a dark conspiracy that threatens the fabric of history itself. This story is brave, unflinching, and downright stunning. There’s also a sequel, although the first book stands well on its own.

Noteworthy, by Riley Redgate. I was a fan of Redgate’s debut novel, The Seven Ways We Lie, and her sophomore work is even better. When Jordan Sun’s low Alto voice keeps her from being cast in her elite boarding school’s musical for the third year in a row, she is forced to take drastic measures in order to secure her college future. She disguises herself as a boy and joins the school’s all-male a cappella group—the Sharpshooters. This novel is a fantastic exploration of gender norms and the intricacies of friendship and romance.

The Great Unknowable End, by Kathryn Ormsbee. I can never make lists of my favorite books without including at least one by my dear friend Kathryn, but that’s only because all of her books are downright spectacular. This one is like a Twilight Zone episode in YA novel form, set in 1977 small-town Kansas. When a mysterious countdown clock appears on the town hall, bringing with it strange occurrences like pink lightning and blood red rain, the citizens starts to fear that the end of days is upon them. Two teenagers—one from a broken family, one from a hippie commune—are forced to confront the choices they’ve made so far and the choices they want to make for their future, whatever that may be.

How It Went Down, Kekla Magoon. This one isn’t super “quiet” (it won the Coretta Scott King Award for Author Honor), but I still don’t think it gets talked about nearly enough. It’s a nuanced, heartbreaking look at the aftermath of a shooting in which Black teenager Tariq Johnson is killed by a white man who claims it was self-defense. No two witness accounts match up, and every day new information comes to light. The novel is told from the POV of Tariq’s family, friends, and community as they try to make sense of what happened and find justice for Tariq.

Slasher Girls and Monster Boys, anthology edited by April Genevieve Tucholke. This collection of short horror stories features some amazing authors, including Leigh Bardugo, Marie Lu, and Nova Ren Suma, to name a few of my faves. There are vampires and zombies and ghosts (oh my!). Do not recommend reading right before bedtime.

Destiny Soria is a Young Adult fantasy author and freelance writer. Her debut novel IRON CAST is about magic, mobsters, and two best friends kicking ass in 1920s Boston. Her second novel BENEATH THE CITADEL features rebels, seers, and stolen memories. She lives in Birmingham, AL, where she spends her time trying to come up with bios that make her sound kind of cool. She has yet to succeed. Twitter: @thedestinysoria Instagram: @thedestinysoria Website: destinysoria.com

#31 days of quietYA #ya books #quietYA #guest post #book list #destiny soria #iron cast #beneath the citadel #wndb #mogai

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grigori77 · 5 years

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Top 10 Horror Movies, like, EVER (reissued)

10. THE MIST

In 2007, writer/director Frank Darabont once again proved he does his best work when adapting master of literary horror Stephen King (after The Green Mile and solid gold masterpiece The Shawshank Redemption), this time turning to pure horror with one of the author’s lesser-known early novellas. The result is another tour-de-force cinematic blueprint, a taut, harrowing tale of humanity pushed far beyond the brink by unexplained supernatural events and the monstrous lengths normal people will go to to stay alive, as a small-town New England supermarket is cut off from the outside world by a mysterious, monster-filled mist. The Expanse’s Thomas Jane proves a complex hero, beefy yet vulnerable as local artist David Drayton, leading a high-calibre cast of Stephen King-movie/TV regulars – Jeffrey DeMunn (The Green Mile), Andre Braugher (Salem’s Lot), William Sadler (The Shawshank Redemption) and Frances Sternhagen (Misery) – and “newcomers” – Laurie Holden (who must have really impressed Darabont, since he subsequently cast her alongside DeMunn in The Walking Dead), Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’s Toby Jones (as one of the most unorthodox action heroes in cinematic history) and Miller’s Crossing’s Marcia Gay Harden, pretty much stealing the film as deeply unhinged Bible-basher Mrs Carmody, who goes from unsavoury town nut to fervent cult leader as the situation grows increasingly desperate. Darabont once again proves what an exceptional screen storyteller he can be, effortlessly weaving an atmosphere of mounting dread and knife-edge tension, as well as delivering some nightmarish set-pieces featuring magnificent Lovecraft-inspired beasties designed by The Walking Dead’s creature effects master Greg Nicotero. When cinematic horror was becoming increasingly saturated with “gorno” Saw-derivatives, this was a welcome return to old-fashioned monster movie thrills (Darabont himself was heavily inspired by the monochrome scary movies of his childhood, and longed to make the film in black-and-white – indeed, this is definitely worth watching at least once in the “director’s cut” B&W version he included on the special edition DVD release), and not only proved one of the best examples of King on screen to date, but also one of THE key horror movies of the “Noughties”. Not least thanks to that ending, one of the greatest sucker punch twists of all time – reputedly King was most envious of Darabont on seeing it for the first time, wishing he’d thought it up himself. Coming from the King of Horror, that’s high praise indeed.

9. 30 DAYS OF NIGHT

When Steve Niles, the undisputable master of post-modern horror comics, originally came up with the concept for his definitive work, it was intended for the big screen, but he ultimately wound up committing it to print because he just couldn’t get anyone to produce it. Interesting, then, that the comic’s runaway success led to its optioning by Sam Raimi and his production company Ghost House Pictures, Niles adapting the first volume alongside Stuart Beattie and Brian Nelson, with Hard Candy director David Slade at the helm. Of course, the concept was always a killer – for one month every year, the sun never rises over the Alaskan town of Barrow, a fact that a coven of hungry vampires have decided to exploit in a midwinter free-for-all feeding frenzy. Josh Hartnett manfully crumbles in what remains his best role as town sheriff Eben Olemaun, ably supported by Melissa George as his estranged fire-marshal wife Stella, Memento/Batman Begins’ Mark Boone Junior as hard-as-nails town loner Bo, Ben Foster (one of my very favourite actors) as a mysterious drifter with a dark agenda, and Danny Huston, who created one of the best ever screen vampires with nihilistic pack leader Marlow. It’s ironic that David Slade should have followed this with Twilight film Eclipse (although he was an inspired choice – after all, it’s the one that DOESN’T suck) – this is about as far removed from the toothless, blood-lite young adult series as you can get, an unrelenting, gore-drenched exercise in relentless carnage and ice-cold terror. These vamps wouldn’t be caught (ahem) dead sparkling – they’re man-shaped mako sharks, all dead black eyes and jagged teeth, gleefully revelling in slaughter and playing sadistic games of cat and mouse with the isolated townsfolk. This is definitely not a movie for the faint of heart, and it takes itself deadly seriously right through the unapologetically bleak ending, but it is nonetheless an endlessly rewarding thrill ride for the faithful, paying respect to all the great conventions of the genre while simultaneously ripping them to shreds. Brutal, bloody and brilliant, this is BAR NONE the best vampire movie of the post-Interview age, and very nearly my all-time favourite EVER ...

8. POLTERGEIST

1982 saw the release of TWO of my all-time fave horror movies, and the lesser (but no less awesome) of the two is what I personally consider to be THE DEFINITIVE haunted house movie. Tobe Hooper, director of the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, pretty much reinvented ghosts on the big screen with this thrilling tale of a small-town-American family, the Freelings, whose seemingly perfect home comes under the influence of a powerful supernatural force. At first the effects are harmless – moving furniture and the like – until a night-time thunderstorm signals a terrifying escalation and younger daughter Carol-Anne (Heather O’Rourke) is sucked through a portal into the spirit world. Long before he was the dad in The Incredibles, Craig T. Nelson had already become a pretty definitive cuddly American screen father as Steven Freeling, while JoBeth Williams is a lioness defending her cubs as mother Diane; then-newcomer Heather O’Rourke, meanwhile, is a naturalistic revelation as Carol-Anne, her innocent delivery of “They’re here!” becoming a genuine geek phenomenon all on its own, but the film’s real runaway performance comes from Zelda Rubinstein as diminutive Southern belle psychic medium Tangina Barrons, whose every screen moment is a quirky joy. As you’d expect, Hooper’s scares are flawlessly executed, the atmospheric tension ratcheted with consummate skill, even if the director’s characteristic gore is kept to a PG-13-friendly minimum ... then again, this was a summer offering from Back to the Future producers Frank Marshall and Steven Spielberg himself, who was also the main screenwriter. Indeed, his influence is keenly felt throughout – the suburban world the Freelings inhabit is very much in keeping with Spielberg classics like Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T. – and there have been consistent rumours that he was all but the de-facto director on set. The film (along with its sequels) has also gained a reputation for being cursed, with no less than FOUR cast members dying not long after (most notably Dominique Dunne, who played elder Freeling daughter Dana, who was murdered by her boyfriend just five months after the film’s release). Whatever the truth behind these rumours, there’s no denying this is a cracking film – taut, atmospheric and consistently terrifying while also displaying a playful, quirky sense of humour and lots of heart, it remains one of the most rewarding and entertaining screen ghost stories around.

7. BUBBA HO-TEP

Bruce Campbell is Elvis Presley! He really is! Although maybe he isn’t ... all right, TECHNICALLY he’s Sebastian Haff, a washed-up, long-retired Elvis impersonator languishing in a retirement home who claims he really IS the King (apparently he swapped places with the REAL Haff because he’d grown tired of fame). Meanwhile one of his fellow residents is an old black man who claims he’s the real JFK, maintaining that President Lyndon Johnson had him dyed black and secreted in anonymity with a bag of sand sewn into the gap in his brain ... confused yet? Well hold on, cuz there’s more – the retirement home in question has been invaded by the malevolent spirit of a cursed soul-sucking mummy, and only these two fallen heroes can save the day ... yup, writer/director Don (Phantasm and John Dies At the End) Coscarelli’s initially criminally overlooked but deservedly seriously cult adaptation of Joe R. Lansdale’s novel is as typically oddball as the rest of his filmography. It’s also his most moving and spiritual work to date – behind all the supernatural weirdness and quirky, offbeat humour this is a deeply-affecting meditation on the pains of growing old and losing your place in the world. Bruce Campbell’s Elvis/Haff is a tragic hero, regretting his current lot and pining for former glories, but he still has the odd little twinkle of his former charm and bravado (particularly during his interactions with his nurse, played with spiky gutsiness by Ella Joyce), while screen legend Ossie Davis is stately and charismatic as “the former President Kennedy”, even when he sounds REALLY crazy. Meanwhile the creature, “Bubba Ho-Tep” himself (Bob Ivy), is a fantastically weird creation, Coscarelli’s skilful use of atmospherics elevating him far above the “guy-in-a-suit” effects – he’s mean, cranky, and just as strong a character as his flesh-and-blood counterparts. Coscarelli really let rip on this one – it’s chock-full of his characteristic leftfield comic-scariness (Elvis/Haff’s early encounter with one of the mummy’s scarab familiars is a particular zany gem), visually inventive and frequently laugh-out-loud hilarious, but in the end plays out on such a heartfelt, genuinely powerful and moving denouement that you can’t help getting a lump in your throat, even while it is one of those movies that leaves you with a big dumb goofy grin on your face. It’d be pretty sweet if Coscarelli and his mate Paul Giamatti ever get their long-gestating “prequel” Bubba Nosferatu: Curse of the She-Vampires off the ground, but this is one that you can’t help loving all on its own. See this if you’re a Coscarelli fan – it’s his best work to date – see this if you love quirky, unusual and original horror ... hell, see this if you love MOVIES. This is a true GEM, not to be missed.

6. DOG SOLDIERS

My favourite werewolf movie is also easily one of the most offbeat – think The Howling meets Assault On Precinct 13 and you’re pretty close to the mark. Before visionary British horror director Neil Marshall had his big break with masterpiece The Descent, he made an impressive cult splash with his feature debut, a fiendish comedy horror in which a six-man British Army unit on training manoeuvres in the wilds of Scotland stumbles upon a pack of hungry werewolves and are forced to take shelter in an isolated cottage. With their ammo dwindling and their weapons largely ineffective against the monsters (not a silver bullet between them, of course), it doesn’t look likely that ANY of will survive the night ... setting the humour dial for JET BLACK, Marshall keeps the atmosphere tense and the substantial gore flying (I was amazed when I saw this in the cinema that it was only a 15 – even just ten years earlier stuff like this was GUARANTEED a solid 18 certificate), while the squaddies are a likeably foul-mouthed bunch with a winning, sometimes enjoyably geeky line in spiky banter (Marshall makes frequent references to everything from Star Trek and The Evil Dead to The Matrix and, in one of my favourite nods, Zulu). Trainspotting’s Kevin McKidd is brawny but enjoyably self-deprecating as nominal hero Cooper, Sean (son of Doctor Who Jon) Pertwee gives great earthy-shoutiness as Sgt. Wells, Darren Morfitt consistently steals the film as mouthy little bugger “Spoon” (short for Witherspoon), and Game Of Thrones star Liam Cunningham injects a strong dose of dark and dangerous as Captain Ryan, the special forces operative with a sinister plan, while Emma Cleasby is far from just a token female as zoologist Megan, who came to Scotland in search of the legend and seems to have found a whole lot more than she bargained for – she’s smart, tough and flat-out refuses to be a love interest, and definitely proved a good trial run for Marshall’s all-female cast in The Descent. It’s impressively paced – after an initial character-driven set-up so we can get to know the lads (including a fun little scare-on-top-of-a-laugh moment), the action kicks in fast and rarely lets up for the rest of the film’s tightly-packed 105 minute running time. The set pieces are thrilling and frequently fun (particularly Spoon’s ballsy little distraction technique), and the werewolves are impressively brought to life through physical animatronics created by Image FX (the Hellraiser effects team!) and a talented troupe of stilt-walking stunt performers – no cheesy CGI here! Altogether it marked a blinding debut for a singular, visionary sci-fi/horror talent who’s still making his presence felt – Doomsday was a delightfully old-school slice of super violent sci-fi in the John Carpenter vein, while tight, gruesome little Roman-era suspense thriller Centurion proved that a historical epic doesn’t have to be 2+ hours long with a big budget to impress, and Marshall continues to garner real acclaim through his extensive TV work on the likes of Game of Thrones. That said, I can’t wait for him to return to the big screen, preferably with more dark, edgy, blood-soaked fun like this ...

5. TREMORS

I’ve always had something of a bias towards horror movies that are also comedies, or at least that have a strong sense of humour throughout, and when it comes to funny horror movies, this brilliant throwback to cheesy 1950s monster movies is KING, baby! While it snuck in under the radar on its 1990 release, director Ron Underwood’s sleeper universally wowed critics, word of mouth helping it to become an impressive cult smash once it hit home video ... which meant I saw it at JUST the right time, the film quickly becoming a firm fixture in my favourites lists and a major milestone in my own geek development. The premise is simplicity itself – giant underground worms with tentacles in their mouths terrorise an isolated desert community – but underneath the goofy concept is a surprisingly sophisticated movie that continues to influence filmmakers today. Kevin Bacon was in a bit of a career slump at the time (Footloose had been SO LONG before), but this gave him both the shot in the arm he needed and one of his most memorable roles ever – odd-jobbing slacker Val McKee, who has to get off his arse and think big to beat the beasties; Fred Ward is the perfect foil as Val’s crotchety “business” partner Earl Basset, while Finn Carter is thoroughly lovable as scientist Rhonda LeBeck, a no-nonsense smart girl who can go toe-to-toe with the boys (and manages to lose her pants WITHOUT losing her credibility), but the film is consistently stolen by Family Ties star Michael Gross as tightly wound survivalist Burt Gummer – this might be Bacon’s movie, but Gross is the real star, deservedly becoming the driving force of the film’s various sequels AND the spinoff TV series. The film opens with a killer of a funny line, starting as it means to go on – frequently hilarious and smart as a whip, consistently defying character and genre tropes and wrong-footing the viewer almost a decade before Joss Whedon started doing the same with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, all the while balancing the belly laughs with some genuinely scary set pieces. The worms themselves (or “Graboids”, if you want to get specific) are spectacular creations, some of the most original movie monsters out there, and they still stand up well today, just like the rest of the film. A cornerstone of the genre that wins over new fans with each generation, this is one of those films that deserves to be remembered for a very long time, and looks set to do just that.

4. EVIL DEAD 2: DEAD BY DAWN

Nobody does screen chaos like Sam Raimi, particularly when it comes to his horror offerings – still his first and purest love. His original debut feature The Evil Dead is rightly considered the DEFINITIVE indie horror, and to this day remains the standard blueprint for all young, aspiring directors starting out in the genre ... it’s also a work of pure, unadulterated MADNESS once it gets going. Raimi upped the ante with this part-remake, part-sequel, the increased budget and proper studio resources meaning he could REALLY let his imagination run riot, and the results are a cavalcade of tongue-clean-THROUGH-cheek, jet black comedic insanity that STILL has yet to be equalled. Bruce Campbell returns as unlikely “hero” Ash Williams, thoroughly out of his depth and failing miserably to hold it together as the ancient tome of evil itself, the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis (“Book of the Dead”), unleashes a horde of undead demons on the isolated forest cabin he’s brought his girlfriend to. Wildly expanding on the supernatural back-story of his original, Raimi and co-writer Scott Spiegel also ramped up the humour, playing the horror on the blackest edge they can, albeit cut with a hefty dose of Tex Avery – Ash’s battle with his own possessed, eventually severed hand is like some demented skit out of The Three Stooges, while the absolute comedic highlight is the ridiculously over-the-top “laughing room” sequence, in which the seemingly inanimate objects in the cabin suddenly come to life and begin to taunt Ash; add in the great wealth of re-view-friendly visual in-jokes scattered throughout and this remains Raimi’s FUNNIEST film to date. Campbell clearly had a ball, throwing himself into the action with everything he had, and he’s ably supported by a meaty (ahem) cast that includes a very pre-Slither Dan Hicks as a seriously scuzzy redneck and Raimi’s own brother Ted, virtually unrecognisable as one of the maniacal Deadites (“I’ll swallow your soul!”). The creature effects from the great Greg Nicotero still stand up spectacularly well today (they remain some of his very best work), from hideous gurning beasts to insane fountains of blood, while Raimi’s direction is pitch-perfect, playing the humour beautifully while still (sometimes simultaneously) building up a near-unbearable atmosphere of unholy dread, and the climax is ingenious, beautifully setting things up for the enjoyably madcap trilogy-closer Army of Darkness: the Medievil Dead. Raimi has finally brought the trilogy the follow-up fans had been waiting decades for with the fantastically bonkers Ash Vs. the Evil Dead series, but this delirious masterpiece remains the franchise’s zenith. Groovy ...

3. JAWS

It may be the oldest film on this list (released in 1975, it’s THREE YEARS OLDER than I am!), but Steven Spielberg’s breakthrough feature has aged incredibly well. Indeed, it almost single-handedly changed the face of big budget cinema, establishing the idea of tent-pole summer blockbusters and blanket-bombardment advertising campaigns (in particularly it was one of the first to make heavy use of television to drum up excitement and interest), ultimately taking over $400,000,000 on its original release (the equivalent of multi-billion big earners like Avatar today) and paving the way for Star Wars two years later. Not to mention the film’s famous negative effect on beach-going for years after ... but under all that there’s a magnificent, masterfully-crafted film, still (rightly) considered one of the director’s best. The plot may be ridiculously simple – New England beach-community Amity Island is terrorised by a man-eating Great White shark – but there’s a stealthily subversive story here, taking old genre conventions and twisting them in new, unexpected directions (which would, ironically, form a template for a great many later horror movies); while the first hour is a slow-burn thriller, the second is more like a light-hearted nautical action adventure with added scares. The French Connection’s Roy Scheider virtually CREATED the everyman-out-of-his-depth hero with his portrayal of Amity police chief Martin Brody, a former New York cop who’s terrified of the water, Richard Dreyfuss is lovable comedic gold as rich kid marine biologist Matt Hooper, Lorraine Gary did a lot with very little as Brody’s wife Ellen, and Robert Shaw effortlessly steals the film as shark hunter Quint, a ferocious, scenery-chewing force of nature in the mould of Moby Dick’s Captain Ahab. The film is immensely rich in great character moments, from Hooper’s rib-tickling arrival on the island and the dialogue-free moment Brody shares with his younger son Sean, to the undeniable high point of the film, where a humorous comparison of scars (which has itself become a popular homage-magnet in film and TV) leads to Quint chilling account of his wartime experience onboard the U.S.S. Indianapolis (the ship transporting the Hiroshima atomic bomb which was torpedoed in the Pacific, leading to over a thousand stranded sailors being eaten alive by sharks); indeed, this is one of Spielberg’s most well-written films, sitcom writer Carl (The Odd Couple) Gottlieb’s polish of author Peter Benchley’s adaptation of his own original novel still zipping and zinging today, although some of the best dialogue was derived from the actors’ own on-set improvisations (most famously Scheider’s now-legendary “We’re gonna need a bigger boat.”). It’s also one of his most well-directed, with near-hypnotic tricks in editing and bold, adventurous choices in atmosphere-building, often a result of the shoot’s infamous difficulties – the animatronic shark (affectionately named “Bruce” by the director, and “the Great White Turd” by the crew) created by Bob Mattley (the guy who did the giant squid in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea) was impressive when it worked, but this was so rarely that the director had to devise several means of creating maximum tension WITHOUT showing the shark, which ultimately ADDS to the effectiveness of those scenes, particularly the “barrel-chasing” in the second half. None of these tricks, however, work better than the score from Spielberg’s most faithful collaborator, John Williams, based around a deceptively simple four-note melody that evolves into something spectacularly evocative, which has rightly become the film’s most iconic element. Humorous, intriguing, intense and still thoroughly terrifying when it wants to be, this is, bar-none, the finest man-versus-nature horror EVER MADE, and surely always will be.

2. NEAR DARK

I’m a fool for vampires (much like I’m a fool for redheads, but that’s a whole other conversation), so bloodsucker horror is one of my very favourite sub-genres. I’m also a big fan of Kathryn Bigelow – two of her most recent features, The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty, both pinged VERY LOUDLY on my radar (the former is my favourite war movie of the current decade), while her collaboration with then husband James Cameron, Strange Days (he wrote, she directed), rates high on my list of criminally underrated screen gems. So what do you think happened when she made a vampire movie? The results SHOULD have become one of the most celebrated and legendary features in the genre ... except that it came out in October 1987, two months after the admittedly cool and fun but far more glossy and dumb The Lost Boys. Needless to say in the wake of that, Bigelow’s film got kind of lost in the back chatter, nearly flopping at the box office and all but vanishing into obscurity ... until its subsequent release on video (quite rightly) earned it an impressive cult following. Myself included, because this movie is RIGHT UP my dark and dangerous alley. Collaborating with The Hitcher’s screenwriter Eric Red, Bigelow crafted a (largely) deadly serious modern day supernatural “western”, in which cocky farm-boy Caleb Colton (Heroes’ Adrian Pasdar) hits on cute drifter Mae (Jenny Wright, probably best known for her supporting turn in Young Guns 2), only to get WAY more than he bargained for when her kiss leaves him with a crippling hunger and one serious tanning problem. Pasdar’s all-knowing youthful swagger disintegrates as he tumbles further down the vampiric rabbit hole, while Wright’s fragile beauty compliments her character’s deep, soulful melancholy – the pair make for a compelling, tragic romantic centre anchoring the horrors that unfold as Caleb begins to lose himself to his burgeoning nature; even so, the true dark and twisted soul of the film lies with Mae’s predatory nomad “family” – Lance Henriksen is the definitive “dark father” as nihilistic pack leader Jesse Hooker, while his Aliens co-star Jenette Goldstein is his perfect mate as punk rock femme fatale Diamondback, and Joshua John Miller excels as Homer, the bitter old man trapped in a child’s body ... meanwhile Bill Paxton consistently steals the film as mad dog Severen, chewing the scenery to splinters with gleeful, feral aplomb and stealing all the best lines. It’s a potent, heady ride, taking itself pretty seriously throughout but deriving a subtle, inky black sense of gallows humour from the situation, and the set-pieces are intense and thrilling (particularly the shootout in a roadside motel at dawn, where shafts of sunlight become as lethal as bullets). At times it’s also powerful, soulful and bleakly beautiful, Bigelow’s heavily stylised visuals brilliantly augmented by the spiky electronic score from Tangerine Dream. It also subverts the classic vampire conventions with great skill and originality, with nary a cross, coffin or even fang in sight. Like 30 Days of Night, this is the perfect antidote for anyone suffering from Twilight-overload – the monster can be quite interesting when he’s the hero, but he’s just so much more fun when he’s the bad guy ...

1. JOHN CARPENTER’S THE THING

While I’m sure many will think I’m mad for preferring this over Carpenter’s other seminal horror classic Halloween, this one’s much more my speed, a perfect exercise in sustained tension, paranoia and white-knuckle terror. Critically mauled and under-performing on its release (it was labelled by many as a sort of “anti-E.T.: the Extraterrestrial”, which came out two weeks earlier ... and interestingly this opened the same day as Blade Runner!), it nonetheless became a massive cult hit now rightly considered one of the true DEFINITIVE horror movies. Faithfully adapting John Campbell, Jr.’s novella Who Goes There? (certainly more so than Howard Hawks’ admittedly entertaining but ultimately very kitsch The Thing From Another World), it revolves around the all-male crew of U.S. research station 4, Outpost 31, in Antarctica, who come under threat from a body-snatching alien entity that can perfectly imitate its victims after investigating the mysterious destruction of a neighbouring Norwegian facility. Carpenter regular Kurt Russell (Escape From New York, Big Trouble In Little China) is at his gruff best as helicopter pilot R.J. MacReady, the taciturn blue-collar Joe called upon to play “hero”, Keith David (Pitch Black, Carpenter’s They Live) angrily flexes his acting and physical muscles as hot-tempered researcher Childs, Donald Moffat crumbles as ineffectual station commander Garry, and screen legend Wilford Brimley effortlessly makes the exposition compelling as tightly-wound biologist Blair. The freezing Antarctic atmosphere perfectly complements the razor-edged suspense, the idea that ANYONE could be the creature lending every scene a palpable sense of implied threat, while the science of the fiction is thankfully largely put on the back-burner in favour of the story and scares; meanwhile there’s a cheeky edge of jet black humour throughout, from the scuttling disembodied head to Garry’s explosive reaction to MacReady’s improvised humanity-test. Rob (The Howling, Robocop, Fight Club) Bottin’s fantastically nightmarish creature effects are a magnificent achievement, still looking as good today as they did back in 1982, while master composer Ennio Morricone’s subtle, atmospheric score is a triumph of creepy, insidious subliminal effect. For me, this film is the definition of fear – the idea that the threat could be literally ANYONE, that you could even become that yourself, be taken over completely, body and soul, is absolutely terrifying, and Carpenter executes this potential reality with surgical precision from the intriguing, icy start to the bleak, desolate ending. Perfect.

#the mist #30 days of night #poltergeist #bubba ho-tep #dog soldiers #tremors #evil dead 2 #Jaws #near dark #John Carpenter's The Thing #my favourite horror movies #quality horror #Top Tens #decided I wanted to redo this properly cause finally got the hang of this mess

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canonskyrissian · 5 years

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5, 6, 12, 19

kiitti

5. actor/actress

fave: mark hamill, carrie fisher, billy dee williams, john boyega, kelly marie tran, ashley eckstein

least fave: adam driver

6. planet

fave: I mean cloud city is the home of my heart so I have to say bespin. I don’t have a choice here. it’s my home. (shout-out to naboo tho!)

least fave: I’ve never liked geonosis

12. moment/scene

fave: I have so many that I’m gonna say one per movie/cartoon

the phantom menace: duel of the fates. I know everyone says this but it’s just so iconic in every way!

attack of the clones: anakin and obi-wan’s high speed speeder chase in coruscant

tcw: every single hondo scene, wrecker yeeting rex

rots: battle of the heroes, as much as it hurts

rebels: ahsoka vs vader in twilight of the apprentice

anh: “somebody has to save our skins!” leia didn’t have to flex so hard but she did and I love her

tesb: luke vs vader, every single lando scene

rotj: the ending scene like tell me that party on endor isn’t the best shit ever THEY’RE ALL SO HAPPY!!!! also lando blowing up the death star like could he be more iconic???

least fave:

the sequel trilogy

19. outfit

fave: leia’s hoth jumpsuit takes the crown. special shout-out to lando’s classic tesb outfit

least fave: the gold bikini

#replies #bagginshieldisreal #sw asks

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austerlitzborodinoleipzig · 5 years

Text

Favorite programs of the 2018/2019 season

I thought since the new season is right upon us that I would list my favorite programs from the last one. So let’s start with the SP.

Also before I start, take the rankings I made with a grain of salt. Last one on the list means I absolutely adore them. First one, I love them but wouldn’t call them masterpieces. Between that, the order’s a bit random, so yeah...

Ladies

8 - Alysa Liu - Don’t Rain On My Parade (vid from US Nats)

I won’t go in a debate on whether Alysa’s win at Nationals was ridiculous, and yeah I’m aware that the amount of hype around this girl is stupid and unhealthy. And sure her jumping technique is far from ideal and her skating skills, albeit good for her age, not that good. And yes she has her entire career ahead of her so let’s not count the chickens before they’s hatched...

But her charisma, her performance and the sheer joy on her face when she was on the ice!...The song was well chosen, wonderfully tongue-in-cheek. And maybe she’ll turn out to be a fluke but what the hell. She won Nationals at 13! She already made history and whatever happens, that skate was one of the highlights of the season. When watching I was just smiling and smiling the whole time and no one had any right to rain on her parade.

7 - Alexandra Trusova - Kill Bill OST (vid from RusNats )

Thank God she ditched to black and yellow pantsuit with that horrid skirt. Sasha’s the only Eteri girl who had a good packaging that season. Both programs played to her strength and did a marvelous job of hiding her weaknesses. Performance and interpretation have never been Trusova’s strong point. But she was delightfull in that SP. She had fun and it showed. Also that 3Lz-3L right on the beat is just wonderful.

6 - Anastasia Gubanova - Take Five (vid from the Cup of Russia Final)

Okay so I have a soft spot for jazzy programs. Plus I love Nastya’s posture and carriage on the ice. I love her sassy spirit. I especially love the choreo for the arms. Nastya knows how to dance on the ice and the SP showcases that. Shame about the telegraphed jumps tho

5 - Marin Honda - Seven Nation’s Army (vid from Skate America)

First of all, Marin had the second best dress for the short of the season. Secondly that final spin alone makes the program a good one to my eyes. And finally the step sequence is just fire. And that final pose. It’s elegant, it’s sophisticated, it’s lovely. Marin Honda was never on my radar, but after her SP at Skate America I was hooked. She’s that good a performer.

4 - Alena Kostornaia - Departure Lullaby/November (vid from JGPF)

From a fairly ordinary Daniil G program, Alena was able to make a work of art. She’s that strong. (So let’s hope the same will happen with the Twilight FS). Each gesture is refined, detailed, carries a meaning. She skates through a gazillion transitions and is still able to keep the program’s flow. She can be elegiac, she can be intense. She feels the music and expressed it through her moves. She’s one of a kind.

3 - Satoko Miyahara - Song for the little sparrow (vid from Skate America because that was my favorite dress of her)

To date, my fave program from her. Okay Satoko is not one of my faves. I admire her skating bu I just can’t get into. I usually really like her SP but most of the time her FS fail to make an impression on me. I didn’t like her tango last season. But this program is exquisite. First of all the music choice is original, the spins and the steps are to die for

2 - Evgenia Medvedeva - Orange Colored Sky (to see what could’ve been we have to do a mesh up of Skate Canada and ACI)

Okay I’m cheating a bit here. We never saw it skated to its full potential, and she ditched it fairly early in the season, so... I’m left sobbing thinking about what could have been, because that program was a choreographic jewel. So inventive and fun (and I wish she’d skated it in a tuxedo, as Sandra Bezic proposed). Let’s hope she skates it some time in the future as an EX or even as a competitive program, and that she continues to work with Bezic.

1 - Wakaba Higuchi - Energia (Skate Canada is my favorite version. Some transitions were gone by the time of Japan Nats)

Okay Wakaba wins the Most Original Music Choice as well as Best Dress award. That dress is gorgeousn, and the illusion fabric so well done that I had to watch her SP half a dozen times to spot it. Also I want to say that Wakaba as impeccable tastes and I’ve never seen a bad program from her. They all range from “lovely” to “masterpiece”. That SP is fun, brilliant, out of the box. It’s a BOP.

Honorable mentions : Alena Leonova (Nocturne), Anna Kuzmenko (I Won’t Dance), Bradie Tennell (Rebirth), Poline Tsurskaya (And The Waltz Goes On), Ting Cui (Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini)

#figure skating #favorite programs #alysa liu #alexandra trusova #anastasia gubanova #marin honda #alena kostornaia #satoko miyahara #evgenia medvedeva #wakaba higuchi #ranking programs is my passion

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kida · 5 years

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what choose your own adventure books do you recommend? any specifically or just, like, the genre? side note: have you seen bandersnatch on netflix

so theres like three-ish apps featuring (good, well written) cyoa books: choices, choiceofgames & hostedgames. ive read...so many on all of these apps. spent a lot of money...you can be gay on any of these apps & their stories.

faves from choices: bloodbound, nightbound, wishful thinking, the freshman series, a courtesan of rome, desire & decorum (basically pride & prejudice but with more flavor cuz it features poc), endless summer, haunting of braidwood manor (actual ghost girlfriend is the main love interest), hero, high school story series was cute, it lives in the woods and it lives beneath (for real...best horror/romance on the app hands down), the elementalists (even...if i have my issues with it), the royal romance series (very very contrived and stupid sometimes but so dear to my heart), platinum (new bur promising), veil of secrets (v good murder mystery), perfect match (mystery...cyberpunk ish). ive read basically every book on that app. i have an opinion about every book. ive had it since launch. im poor

faves from choiceofgames: choice of rebels: uprising (very long, complex world. very good), tally ho (lighthearted, takes place in the roaring 20s in britain), grand academy for future villains, the superlatives: aetherfall, blood money (GHOSTS), psy high (basically sky high. yes the movie), werewolves: haven rising (part one of werewolf liberation/romance story. werewolves are basically an allegory for native americans like in twilight. yeah), gilded rails (kinda boring but very choice based and thought based. u run a railroad line and have to get married to inherit the line forever.), the mysteries of baroque (horror/romance. i actually loved this one), heart of the house (horror/romance, my actual favorite book...of them all. like for real, it was so thought out. the only sad part was that i still have yet to be able to save one of the love interests despite replaying this book several times since two yrs ago but whatever), heroes rise series + hero project series, versus series (these series are all connected), rent-a-vice (cyberpunk romance. looks into ... a lot), the martian job (be a pro scam artist on mars), sorcery is for saps (was cute. magic/fantasy).

faves from hostedgames: the harbingers head (i wanted to fuck the headless horseman. lets keep it real), the last wizard (fantasy romance savior thing. i dont know if i ever finished it actually but i remember liking it), community college hero series (sky high but in college tbh), the magicians burden, keeper of the sun and moon, zombie exodus series (safe haven was more banging imo then the other one), the butler did it (LONG.....i still havent finished it), wayhaven chronicles (VAMPIRES. SEXY. SEXY SEXY SEXY SEXY. i love this and will ALWAYS reread it), the courting of miss bennet (actually pride and prejudice. you play as lizzy but you can rename yourself...and redescribe yourself i think. romancin mr darcy is cunty), the grim and i (again i wanted to fuck the grim reaper but you make choices to move on from death. like actually death dead death)

and YES ive seen bandersnatch. it was so stressful LOL but i love when your choices actually matter.

#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #book recs #idk how long this was asked. and this is exposing how much of a no life i have. and yet here i am #nonny nonny #💌

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gotatext · 5 years

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TASK OO1 / OOC SURVEY.

[kermit voice] hallo.... its me

YOUR ALIAS & NICKNAMES — nora

AGE — 23

TIMEZONE — gmt

PREFERRED PRONOUNS — she/her

MBTI — enfp-infp border cos im an introvert who Masquerades as an extrovert :)

HP HOUSE — i spent 10 yrs of my life thinkin i was gryffindor.... to find out.... huffle....puff......

ARE YOU A STUDENT? WHAT DO YOU STUDY? — i fuckin wish! being a student was dope af i got stressed about essays like once a month and apart from that i was just chillin, surrounded by really intelligent people every day n livin it up on the party scene. adult life fucking sucks no one wants to have fun cos we all work fuckin tonnes of hours so we can afford to eat and get paid peanuts xx

ARE YOU ENJOYING IT? — im really afraid of bein one of those jock types who peaked in high school but i deff peaked in uni like 100% i was way more interesting 2 years ago

LINKS TO OTHER ACCOUNTS & SOCIAL MEDIA — im not showin u my instagram bc im a fuckin embarassment but this is pinterest , this is my personal blog, this is my writing / 1x1 blog i never use any more n this is my trash talking twitter where i mostly just cry about timothee chalamet and bash the tories.

DISCORD USER — kristine’s forehead vein#8664

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE FICTION GENRE? — i dont read fanfiction much but when i do u can be sure it’s slow burn angsty enemies to lovers mutual pining heart attack every time one of them accidentally brushes the other’s hand

TOP FIVE FAVOURITE FILMS — suspiria (2018 luca guadagnino version rogue i kno but i prefer the remake), the lobster, before sunrise, baz luhrmann romeo + juliet, eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, thoroughbreds (REC!! so underwatched pls watch it. compelling female characters), hunt for the wilderpeople (also so underwatched), swiss army man, call me by your name, atonement, moonrise kingdom, trainspotting, the florida project. i rlly like films ok

A BOOK YOU FEEL “CHANGED” YOU? — the song of achilles by madeline miller n also fen by daisy johnson

A MOVIE YOU THINK ABOUT OFTEN? — booksmart cos its fuckin dope

WHAT IS YOUR SIGN? — libra

ARE YOU INTO ASTROLOGY? — i like to pretend im super invested in it mostly to anger my friends but tbh.... i just use it as a rough guide for character creation.... its fun but i dnt .... fully invest in what it has to say..... altho i am the most unbalanced n indecisive bitch on earth so i guess they got that right !! i just live to please baybeyy!

WHAT PLATFORMS HAVE YOU ROLEPLAYED ON? — tumblr for about 8 year (omg) n before tht facebook..... i was very embarassingly in a twilight rp..... i wrote jane..... i also rped as a scene kid oc n when i was like 12 i was on some weird forum harry potter roleplay where i basically played a self insert with georgie henley as the fc......

WHAT OTHER HOBBIES DO YOU HAVE? — i used to have so many hobbies but now i jst lie in my bed staring at the ceiling. but before i was workin like a dog i loved reading, writing, acting in theatre productions..... going out on the town getting bevved..... big druggy EDM nights in warehouses tht probably weren’t liscenced for tht many ppl..... gigs... costume-design and making, spoken word poetry, acrylic painting n rollerskating but my sister broke my skates abt two years ago in vengeance and i’ll never forgive her that fuckin bitch

HAVE ANY PETS? IF SO, TALK ABOUT THEM! — no my landlord is a fascist

IS THERE A TV SHOW YOU RECOMMEND A LOT? — i’ll never stop reccing euphoria!! also i was pleasantly surprised by looking for alaska!! but i also rlly like bob’s burgers, parks and rec, good omens.... black mirror, n sharp objects. lovesick on bbciplayer (n netflix i think) is also rlly fun

ANY SHOWS YOU LIKE SOME MIGHT BE SURPRISED TO HEAR THAT YOU DO? — maybe love island, idk if i talk abt that much bc i am ashamed but i am so obsessed with it. i even got the love island game n got so invested in my fictional relationship w bobby tht i had to delete it

WHAT WAS THE LAST BOOK YOU READ? WOULD YOU RECOMMEND IT? — god god... i haven’t finished a book in ages.... i recently started reading milkman by anna burns, the bees by laline paull and everything under by daisy johnson.... bt the last book i read cover to cover was probs circe. defs read it. feminist and witchy

CURRENTLY READING? — i jst said this but the bees, everything under and less so milkman cos im finding milkman a bit tough

LAST FILM? REC IT? — i watched ladyworld the lord of the flies all-female remake n even maya hawke could not save it.... dnt get me wrong from an art film point of view i loved it but it felt a bit underdeveloped n a level media studies for me..... apart from tht?? the runaways (yorkshire film not released yet at a preview screening) and threads (also a yorkshire film from the 80s about nuclear apocalypse)

THREE MOVIES YOU NEED TO WATCH — portrait of a lady on fire, i work at an independent cinema n we recently had a preview screening and everyone said it was SICK, uhhhh short term 12, n the new eliza scanlen movie babyteeth

WHAT MOVIE DO YOU THINK YOU’VE SEEN THE MOST TIMES? — madagascar because when i was 12 my parents bought me a little television with a dvd player in it for my birthday and madagascar was the only dvd i owned for like..... the first two years of havin the absolute luxury of a tv in my room so i just used to watch it all the time n i now basically know the script inside out

WHAT ALWAYS PUTS YOU IN A GOOD MOOD? — nothing, life is pointless n i hate fun, let me rot in peace

WHO IS YOUR FAVOURITE MUSICIAN / BAND? LIST IF THERE ARE MORE THAN ONE. — ughhh god probably lcd soundsystem. gorillaz, the streets, tame impala, talking heads, soft hair, i also love lizz tho n also angry twangy guitar girl bands like girlpool, courtney barnett, best coast, cherry glazerr,

WILD NIGHT OUT OR QUIET NIGHT IN? — quiet night in my party days are over i cant even be bothered to go to the shops if its past 4.30pm and dark these days

ANY PHOBIAS? — clowns n rats

DO YOU LIKE BUGS? — absolutely not

BIRDS? — yes but not if they fly in my face

ARE YOU A CAT OR DOG PERSON? BOTH? — i love both i want one

BIGGEST PET PEEVE? — tory middle aged boomers who treat me like actual shit on their shoe because i work in the service industry like thats my choice and their poor economic decisions didnt mean i have to do a shitty job to afford to live bcos of austerity n cuts to arts funding meaning i cant get a job writing unless i self-fund :)))

FAVOURITE THING ABOUT THE RPC? — that everyone ive met through rp is a fuckin LAFF

TOP TEN FAVE FCS TO USE? — god .... diana silvers, timothee chalamet, margaret qualley, kristine froseth, froy gutierrez, zendaya, elle fanning, astrid berges frisbey, hunter schafer, leonardo dicaprio

FIVE YOU LIKE WRITING AGAINST? — herman tomeraas, hunter schafer, saoirse ronan, timothee chalamet, froy gutierrez

FAVOURITE TYPE OF FOOD? — linda mccartney 1/2pounder mozzarella veggie burgers, sweet potato wedges, tomato soup, mozzarella sticks, brownies

WORST FOOD? — green things like broccoli n sprouts gross. baked beans cos as a kid ppl used to do baked bean baths for comic relief / red nosed day a lot n i thought when they were finished in the baked bean bath they just put all the cold beans back in the tin. actually anything small that moves around on your plate. peas. spaghetti. sweetcorn. i dont like small things i cant control.

DO YOU PLAY VIDEOGAMES? IF SO, WHAT ONES AND ON WHAT PLATFORM DO YOU PREFER? — last year my housemate had an xbox n i went through a phase of obsessively playin fable 3 it was amazing. i had like 5 husbands and 3 wives and loads of kids but they all ended up leavin me cos i spent so much time out doing quests neglecting them

ANYTHING ELSE YOU’D LIKE TO SHARE WITH THE TAG? — this

LASTLY, HOW DID YOU FIND US? — im one of those bitches who was in this grp all the way back when it was swipe... so quirky and original!! i knew the band before u! anyway im goin now this has been sufficiently embarassing..... i am lame

#huntingtonooc #huntingtontask #huntingtontask001

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