#worth the price of admission

[mermaidsirennikita]

IAD Hero Power Rankings: Part... V?

Almost forgot that a new sexy babe entered the villa and took over today!!!

Rydstrom Woede, demon (king), Kiss of a Demon King

Pros:

--called Sabine a "good girl" even when she's actually being a bad girl

--is explicitly a dom

--the first time he smiles is after she flips him off

--is into spanking

--takes Sabine to a bar and everyone leaves the bar because she's evil and he's all "awwww baby I don't understand why they don't like you :(" when she's committed, like, war crimes... down ridiculous...

--his big comeback to his enemy is like "lmao well I'm about to make your girl's eyes roll back in her head SOOOOOOO EAT IT CUCK"

--has two elaborate fantasies in this novel: a) suspending Sabine from the ceiling and edging her until he lets her grind against his face B) watching Sabine cuddle their cute baby. The duality of demon king

Cons:

--I mean I guess he did some pretttttyyyyy dubious shit to Sabine, but only after she did them to him

--met a woman and became her friend and talked to her for days and literally didn't remember fucking her once until she reminded him.... I thought it was funny

--that time he went at Sabine's tits for so long that the next day she was all "THEY HURT SO BAD" so I assume he was like a newborn baby or something

--"I don't have any fetishes!!!!" has every fetish known to man

--was so down ridiculous that he went to try and kill himself to save her... this is a pro... but I'm gonna pretend it's a con

--is pretty hard on Cade who was just trying!!! his!!! best!!!!!!!!!! but again this is only mildly a con because his disappointed dad thing is hot

2. Conrad Wroth, vampire, Dark Needs at Night’s Edge

Pros:

–exceedingly good at removing obstacles between him and what he wants

–a virgin and SUPER embarrassed about it in a way that is INCREDIBLY precious (when he finally fucked this woman and went “So I was good?” I almost fucking wept)

–murder puppy only wants death and blood (until he discovers………… other things)

–a natural born dirty talker

–BABY BOY…. BABY BOY…./EVIL

Cons:

–has erectile dysfunction for a significant part of his book, he gets better but I was so sad for him

–I mean, is fully insane and wants to murder his entire family, but nobody’s perfect and Nikolai kinda deserves it

–wears sunglasses indoors

–got aroused while buying underwear for her and had to limp home

–made Bowen MacRrieve sad and that makes me really upset because I love Bowen MacRieve

3. Bowen MacRieve, werewolf, Wicked Deeds on a Winter’s Night

Pros:

–is a werewolf general

–was celibate for 1200 years after his lover got so scared of his wolf form that she gored herself on a tree stump (lmao)

–spent those 1200 years trying to bring her back to life

–great at catching and preparing seafood

–breeding kink (wants to put all the bairns in Mariketa)

–kinda into bondage…?

–gets hard at the thought of Mariketa’s carnage, even when he is the carnage

–update pro: gets sent to a party by himself so that Mariketa can run an errand and just sits there confused and miserable at the bar by himself waiting for her to show up even though he knows people there; I imagine this is much like that SNL skit about a dog park for boyfriends, where the shy boyfriend hides under a picnic table

Cons:

–kind of a fuckboy (will say his dead lover’s name when he comes, ONE TIME, but “Mariketa” and “Mariah” begin similarly so)

–doesn’t like it when Mariketa chant incantations into her mirror because it creeps him out

–breeding kink (casually tries to get her to stop taking birth control)

–makes fun of Mariketa’s vibrator, even if I found that actually hilarious

4. Lachlain MacRieve, werewolf, A Hunger Like No Other

Pros:

–chewed his own leg off to get to Emma, pinned her to the ground in broad daylight, and inhaled her neck like a fucking FREAK

–actually pretty good at being the werewolf king (saves Bowen from his own stupidity multiple times, much daddy, very authoritative)

–saw Emma kill her own dad and basically swooned

–is absolutely down to get his blood sucked… through his penis (I believe he says that’s the only way he’ll accept BJs now…?)

–gets by on missing 150 years of progression purely on intimidation, which I personally find deeply sexy

Cons:

–I mean yes Lachlain is one of the rape-iest IAD heroes even if most of that was werewolf instinct and burning alive for 150 years

–doesn’t know how to use an iPod

–but will max out your credit cards

–a werewolf supremacist (is this a bad thing…?)

–says “Kiss me like you want to live” which I guess I should put as a con because it’s non-consensual but whatever I was dow–

5. Cadeon Woede/“Cade the Kingmaker”, demon, Dark Desires After Dusk

Pros:

–extremely loyal to his brother (which I found cute)

–orders ahead to get pre-packaged food for Holly to accommodate her OCD, while helping her Walk on the Wild Side

–was the first guy to 69 with his heroine in this series

–stalked Holly for like a year (stalking is love)

–gets adorably tongue-tied around her, but not in a lame way

Cons:

–lied to Holly for like… that entire book lmao (even though it was fun)

–is called the Womb Raider for a reason, apparently (a little tooooo potent)

–sort of fucks with Holly’s birth control, in the sense that he made sure she was super fertile, but to be fair Holly did not… actually… take birth control

–threw out Holly’s OCD meds, though I chalk this up to the year the book was published

–just sort of drove around giving Holly head for WEEKS while Rydstrom was getting sexually tortured, so like…. maybe doesn’t have GREAT priorities…. maybe has the best priorities… Rydstrom was fine…

6. Nikolai Wroth, vampire, The Warlord Wants Forever

Pros:

–deeply efficient and good at his job (being a bloodthirsty warlord), which turns his mate on as much as it should literally everyone else

–scars all over

–very family-oriented, which means he’s extreeeeemely daddy, and very much uses that in the bedroom

–will try to make nice with your bitchy sisters for you

–is receptive to therapy, even if the therapist was his beaten and bruised brother whose advice was basically “do better”

Cons:

–did steal Myst’s chain and used it to make her come on command; which, while I liked it, was very much non-consensual

–insecure about Myst’s history as the greatest femme fatale of the last couple millennia (though he gets better and decides to be a sex-positive feminist)

–that time that he turned his little brothers into vampires against their will

–was so down bad that he literally started to waste away when Myst didn’t let him get off for five years

–does not properly heat his manor

7. Sebastian Wroth, vampire, No Rest for the Wicked

Pros:

–basically a virgin when he meets Kaderin

–Gentleman in the Streets Freak in That Random Nightclub Where He SNAPS

–joined the mile high club remarkably fast

–throws out all his principles for her

–Speaks Like Dracula but in a “I vant to suck your clit” way

Cons:

–borderline beta, or as beta as a murderous centuries old vampire warlord can be

–a little tooooo accommodating of Kaderin’s bullshit

–could have been more demanding, to be honest (Bowen and Lachlain would noooot have been as patient as he was, which some would like but I was a little weary of)

[krakenshipwreck]

kraken ig understanding the narrative 12/6/22

[adaginy]

Delay with lungs stories. Had a board game event to go to [vax req'd, wore a mask], a zoo outing with friends, now two days of resting cleaning and chore-catchup before friends visit for a weekish. I slept for 9 hours two nights ago and felt amazing. I slept for 9 hours last night and I feel exhausted. I am jealous of the toddler who joined us at the zoo and was floppy sleeping dead weight afterward. A+ to my boss who noticed I'd taken two days off before the weekend, then one day of work, then a week off, and asked if that was intentional or would I like that day off too.

[tragicallyunaesthetic]

what people are fundamentally misunderstanding is that halloween ends is a hilarious movie. is it a good horror movie? no. is it a respectful end to the halloween series? also no. but my god is it funny to watch corey burst into michael’s sewers and start screaming at him in such an insane way that even michael is bewildered and like what is wrong with this guy

[fictionadventurer]

I went into Ruth expecting a dreary read. How could a Victorian "fallen woman" story be anything other than dark and depressing? So I was shocked right from the beginning to find a sweet, gentle, romantic story. The dressmaker's apprentice who sits in the coldest, darkest part of the workroom because that's where there's a panel painted with flowers that remind her of her country home? How could I not adopt her as a favorite character? Ruth's innocent, romantic outlook on life gave us some beautiful descriptions of the scenery of both city and countryside, and my imagination went on overdrive to create very vivid images of the story. Even the love story, which we know is going to go very wrong, starts out sweet, with a kind, charming love interest who only shows flashes of just how wrong his character is going to go.

Even after Ruth's fall, the story is so gentle, putting Ruth among kind people who are willing to risk and sacrifice a lot to help her. And then the story gets almost too gentle--after some initial struggles with depression, Ruth resolves to bear her troubles patiently and work toward virtue, and her sweet, too-innocent character gets flattened out into someone who's just Good. Life just goes on, with things generally going well, and every potential turn toward drama results in someone deciding to be reasonable, which can make the story drag.

But, in a story like this, the lack of drama becomes the plot twist! It is refreshing to see characters who don't always jump to the worst conclusion or take the worst action, who pause and consider the whole story and act like decent human beings.

And in the places when the drama does kick in, it's good drama. Painful drama. It's also (especially in the last section of the story) melodrama. There were sections of the book where I was rolling my eyes at the cookie-cutter Victorian path the story was taking--but then there'd be one line or one moment that would just stab me in the chest because of how beautifully specific it was to this story. Just enough to elevate it from something bland to something unique and fascinating.

I often had the thought that this book could be about a third of its length without losing anything--yet it should also be just as long as it was. If the story cut all its repetitive musings about Ruth's regret, and used that space to develop the side characters and and show the plot instead of telling us about it, it would be a much deeper story. I found myself wishing Gaskell had reworked this one later in her career--the way that North and South was a more skillful reworking of the issues explored in Mary Barton. In a way, she sort of did in Wives and Daughters, with the story of Molly the quiet innocent getting tangled up in the intrigues surrounding her headstrong, flirtatious stepsister Cynthia serving as a more layered, personality-flipped version of the story where headstrong, sheltered Jemima gets tangled in the story of quiet, sweet Ruth and her past romantic intrigues. (The doctor at the end of the story also feels like a proto-Mr. Gibson).

Yet I'm still fascinated by the themes specific to this story. Contrary to expectation, this "fallen woman" story isn't about sex, or gender, or how unfairly women are treated (though it does touch on that in the end). It's about sin. It's not questioning why Ruth's behavior is considered a sin or looking to dismantle the society saying that it's a sin. It comes from the Christian perspective of saying that sin is real and harms people--so how are we going to deal with that?

The story shows lots of people struggling with temptation, failing, and dealing with the consequences (or harming others with the consequences). Sin is always a case of either not caring enough to do the more difficult, good thing, or a case of "the ends justify the means", where people rationalize their bad behavior as something necessary in this specific case. It always leads to harm, but some people--and some sins--suffer greater consequences in the eyes of the world, whether or not they deserve it. I wish the story had developed and resolved this theme better in places, but the raw material there is fascinating food for thought.

This book is Gaskell at her preachiest, but also Gaskell at her kindest. It explores deep, difficult issues in a very loving way. As a story, there are ways it could be better, but I'm very glad I read it. Perhaps I'm making a point to be kinder to it because I know it's the type of story that today's readers tend to judge harshly. But amid my issues with the story, there are some lovely images, some great messages, and some wonderful characters that going to be living in my heart for a long time.

[danggirlronpa]

Do you have any wlw fanfic recommendations? Like, favorite fanfics that really explores the relationships/character, could be angsty, could be fluffy, could be toxic doomed yuri, could be any catagory of fics! Not just limited to couples, could be polycules too. You don't have to answer if you don't want to too btw! I just thought it would be interesting to see what your favorites were & I'm always looking for more wlw fics! <3

Anon, I truly do wish I had some recs to give you. But a funny story about looking for F/F fics,

[messifangirl]

Not bragging but he looked right at me so 💁🏻‍♀️

My luck at trying to see Messi varies. He came with Argentina to NJ once and I went in 2015 but he was hurt and didn’t play. I flew to a Copa game in California in 2016 and he was hurt and didn’t play. Then in 2017 he came to NJ again for a Barcelona summer tour so I got to see him play a half but realized I was gonna have to fly to Barcelona if I really wanted to see him lol. So later that year I went and he got hurt about 52 minutes in.

I was sure I was jinxed 😂

I flew to Barcelona again, this time w @ciiromessi and @purpleyulin and FINALLY got to see him play a full game and even score a goal against Atletico which 🤯

The Paris years aren’t worth mentioning lol

Figured I would have to fly to Miami to see him again but wouldn’t you know it the semi finals for the league cup were in Philadelphia 🙌🏼

I won’t tell you how much I paid for these tickets but it was worth every penny to see him play again 💕

[feydfuckernation]

Lion every day i find something new we have in common i LOVE dan stevens lmao

he was so good in the guest!! i’m fake bc i haven’t watched legion or downton abbey akdjshs but i have seen vamps (2012) which is 👌 and i highly recommend if you haven’t seen it 😂

that is because we have TASTE 😌

in all seriousness tho i literally CANNOT recommend legion enough. i've always been partial to x-men ever since i was a kid and i genuinely think legion is, for many reasons, one of the best marvel productions out there. it's stunning and weird and it's one of my favourite tv shows of all time. i recommend going into it as blind as you can to really get the full experience.

as for downton abbey i was actually surprised at how much i enjoyed it! i only really watched the first three seasons because i was there for dan more than anything else, but i honestly got really invested in it and i actually really enjoyed my time with it! it's one of the few things me and my grandmother can actually agree on and when the first movie came out i actually convinced my mom to come see it with me and we had a really fun time.

[prezs]

bought and then refunded one of the most awful dating sims i've ever played. to commemorate its memory as i get my money back, please enjoy this screenshot that made me choke on my water and then laugh so hard it literally hurt

[power-chords]

American Fiction was outstanding by the way. I am not an unbiased party; "writers writing about writing" and "fucked up family who loves each other but can't communicate" are my catnip and kryptonite, respectively. But it's so, so good and I would happily watch it again in the theater (which I am going to force my mother to do with me because the lead character is, like her, the sole writer in a family full of doctors). If this is Cord Jefferson's first film I can't wait to see what he'll do next. Please please please go see this movie, I want nothing more than for it to be a runaway hit at the box office.

P.S. Sterling K. Brown stole absolutely every scene he was in which is incredible if you are sharing a screen with Jeffrey fucking Wright (who was also, as always, a pure delight to watch). And John Ortiz is a leading man TO ME.

[its-not-a-pen]

fifth generation film recs!! it’s a longer list than i usually compile (and i’ve still got more i wish i could include), but i hope this is a good resource as you look for films to watch

THE CONTEXT

the red detachment of women (1961) - third gen

two stage sisters (1964) - third gen

the last emperor (1987) - for a sense of the international film scene these directors were entering into (also director bertolucci apparently consulted a number of fifth gen directors about the cultural revolution while making the film)

the king of masks (1996) - fourth gen

EARLY FILMS

yellow earth (1984) - zhang yimou was the cinematographer for this one! (chen kaige directed)

the black cannon incident (1985)

dislocation (1986)

the big parade (1986) - i haven’t actually watched this one yet but it’s considered an important early work

red sorghum (1987)

ju dou (1990)

life on a string (1991)

raise the red lantern (1991)

farewell my concubine (1993)

to live (1994)

not one less (1999)

the road home (1999)

LATER FILMS

the emperor and the assassin (1998)

happy times (2000)

hero (2002)

together (2002)

house of flying daggers (2004)

curse of the golden flower (2006)

the founding of a republic (2009)

a woman, a gun, and a noodle shop (2009) - an adaptation of blood simple (1984), which i would recommend you watch first

sacrifice (2010) - a reimagining of the orphan of zhao, which i recommend you’re familiar with first

coming home (2014)

legend of the demon cat (2017)

shadow (2018)

the battle at lake changjin (2021) - also haven’t gotten around to watching this one, but like i know i ought to

BONUS FILMS

code name: cugar (1989) - it’s bad

the great wall (2016) - also bad. BUT it’s got pedro pascal

hope there are some films here you like!

WOW that was fast! Thank you so much this is such a great list!

[undercat-overdog]

So does Tolkien ever actually explain why Sauron is so strange? Lots of Maiar decided to follow Melkor, but Mairon is the only one to go and do things on his own after Morgoth’s fall and become a Dark Lord himself. Is it because any other more independently minded ones were kinda killed/ taken prisoner during the War of Wrath (WW)? The only thing I could find about Sauron and the WW is that at some point he turned and fled the fighting (the Lost Road p.333). So he technically betrayed 2 Valar, not just Aule. Whereas the Balrogs that survived/escaped still wait in hiding for their master. Why is Sauron so unmaiar-like?

Hey anon, I am so sorry for the delay in this! There were life events and then catching up on work after life events and angst events and this is super rambly and I’m not sure answers your questions well.

Also, I had no idea about S and the War of Wrath in BoLT! Thank you!!! (My BoLT knowledge is worse than terrible.)

Tolkien writes a surprising among on Sauron and spends some time discussing Sauron's motives in the Notes on Motives in the Silmarillion essay (which I love dearly, it's great). But before I get into S in particular, I do want to note that I think that most of the named Maiar we see on page are unusual, in that they enter Elven history and interact with incarnates; most Maiar don't (Annals of Aman even mentions that the number of Maiar is unknown and that few have names). Even Gandalf, in his Olorin days, would sometimes hang out among Elves without a fana, going among them invisibly (creeper). The Maiar we see tend either to be the most powerful ones and/or the ones who actively live among and interact with incarnates. Sauron is both.

(I think the power thing does make a difference in Sauron's career goals, in that he's able to pursue them. He doesn't just desire to make himself a Dark Lord but has the ability to. Pre-Morgoth, he was "chief of Aule's people" and then the chief of Morgoth's, his steward when Morgoth was imprisoned, S ruling on his own if not in his own right. Sauron is also able to concentrate his power into the Ring. (On Motives begins with Sauron was 'greater', effectively, in the Second Age than Morgoth at the end of the First.) So S had the ability as well as the will.)

As for the Maiar more generally, I don't think they have an ontological need or desire or drive to serve. A few are associated with many Valar (Melian's at various points with Vana, Este, and Yavanna; Gandalf interns with everyone; Osse, Ulmo's supposed vassal, is said by Ulmo in UT to "obey the will of Mandos, being a servant of the Doom", which imo is just fascinating and also gives us an Osse who has connections to four Valar - including Aule in this, since it was he who sent Uinen to bring Osse back from Morgoth). We also see a lot of the named ones go off and do their own thing, either actively going against the wishes of the Valar or forgetting about them (Saruman and Radagast, respectively) or just chilling on their own (Melian, who's into her husband "the tall" 😏). The Maiar are "of the same order as the Great [=Valar] but of less might and majesty," being "spirits of the same kind [...] but having less might and authority." It's a difference in degree - and the difference in power is a very great difference - but Valar and Maiar aren't fundamentally different on a metaphysical level; they’re the same species, if we can use species to describe their kind. The order of authority (Valar > Maiar > Elves > etc) is decreed, cultural, an order but one that individuals are able to go against. I don't think Sauron's going against his nature in wanting to be a Dark Lord in his own right, he himself the King of the Earth, he himself the object of cults. (Tolkien addresses the Cult of Melkor that Sauron sets up in Numenor in On Motives too, basically coming to the conclusion that it was the most expedient method for S. I'm sure our boy appreciated the drama of it too; he likes his terrible fun.)

I do think that Maiar differ in level of... individuality? personhood? personality? In that some are closer than others in their way of thinking and viewing the world to incarnates than others are, and that Sauron is at the far end of that scale. He's a character with a personality, if that makes sense? We also know that there are incarnates whose psychology he understands very well and thus can tempt them, often successfully. Gandalf says he doesn’t understand minds who don’t work like his, but Sauron clearly understands plenty of incarnate minds, and his own must work in a similar way. Sauron also has his individual quirks, such as his sense of humor, which he maintains even at the end (finding Ungoliant amusing). He’s a creator too, and a master one, even sharing Tolkien's own hobby of conlanging.

As for why S wants to rule the world: it's an outcrop of his original desire to make the world a better place by putting it in order and reforming it. Tolkien puts it better than I do in On Motives, when he's describing Sauron at the end of the Third Age:

Sauron had never reached this stage of nihilistic madness [that Morgoth did]. He did not object to the existence of the world, so long as he could do what he liked with it. He still had the relics of positive purposes, that descended from the good of the nature in which he began: it had been his virtue (and therefore also the cause of his fall, and of his relapse) that he loved order and co-ordination, and disliked all confusion and wasteful friction. (It was the apparent will and power of Melkor to effect his designs quickly and masterfully that had first attracted Sauron to him.) Sauron had, in fact, been very like Saruman, and so still understood him quickly and could guess what he would be likely to think and do, even without the aid of palantiri or of spies; whereas Gandalf eluded and puzzled him. But like all minds of this cast, Sauron's love (originally) or (later) mere understanding of other individual intelligences was correspondingly weaker; and though the only real good in, or rational motive for, all this ordering and planning and organization was the good of all inhabitants of Arda (even admitting Sauron's right to be their supreme lord), his 'plans', the idea coming from his own isolated mind, became the sole object of his will, and an end, the End, in itself.*

*[footnote to the text] But his capability of corrupting other minds, and even engaging their service, was a residue from the fact that his original desire for 'order' had really envisaged the good estate (especially physical well-being) of his 'subjects'.)

(Though I will note that Sauron absolutely lets his various foibles such as his nasty sense of humor or his aesthetic (only the black horses, pls) or cowardice or cackling villain drama occasionally override that need for order and efficiency.)

Thank you again for the ask, and I hope it explained some of my thoughts on Sauron’s peculiarities <33

[pentimint]

totk commentary it's good 👍

[thepalestrose]

RWBY has always had amazing music, but the scoring in this episode was just... incredible. The soundtrack as it jumps between the fight with WBY+J and Neo, and Ruby's existential discussion with the Blacksmith, just perfect

[legendaryrooftopscene]

Just finished my Triage rewatch with my buddy (her first time seeing it) and that show is SO slept on. Solid plot, solid acting, good characters with excellent character development, heart-wrenching and sweet romance, plus Jinta???? Y’all it’s so good pls watch it

[thealphaaxolotl]

God Castle in the Sky is so fucking good