#wristcutters: a love story

[ajthecinephile]

Wristcutters : A Love Story

[z34l0t]

[hiddennotions]

[bitter-sweet-coffee]

don’t mind me, just posting one of my favourite scenes from my favourite movie that makes me fucking burst into tears. because i’m totally doing fine hahahaha

[justletmereadmyfic]

Introducing the Sandman/Wristcutters: A Love Story (the indie movie) AU that I may but probably won't get around to writing.

Dream (given name, Murphy) is the socially-awkward, clinically depressed middle child of a senator and old money socialite, and a complete disappointment and disgrace to his parents, not the least reason for which is that he got his high school girlfriend pregnant, and then chose to keep the child and stay with the mother to raise it together rather than quietly aborting it before the press caught wind.

(It didn't even matter, in the end. Two-year old Orland choked on a small toy and died, and Calliope moved back to Greece with her family after the funeral. She never forgave him for the fact that Dream was supposed to be watching Orland when it happened.)

After Dream is kidnapped for ransom, which his father refuses to pay on the basis that he "does not negotiate with the criminal element" (Dream is eventually rescued by SWAT, but not before losing an ear and a finger) and Dream is told by his father, "Thank Christ it was only you and not your older brother," (who is following their father into politics), Dream decides to step in front of a train.

Only to discover that suicides go to a purgatory that is almost exactly like the world they were trying to escape, but somehow marginally worse in every way (some key distinguishing features: colors are duller, there are no stars in the sky, and everyone has physically lost the ability to smile).

Dream now finds himself working at a video rental store to make rent at his tiny apartment that he shares with Matthew, a boisterous guy who got extremely drunk at a party celebrating a friend's promotion, and gave into the intrusive thought, "what would happen if I just yanked the wheel really hard right into that guard rail?" while driving home.

After running into an old acquaintance from school (suicide after losing his life savings to crypto speculation) and learning his sort of girlfriend Kiana committed suicide about three months or so after he did, Dream decides to go looking for her, assuming that she killed herself in order to join him in the afterlife.

(She did not. She joined a suicide cult run by a man calling himself Sto-Oa, given name Stewart, and killed herself to join him, as he promised he would be King in the afterlife, and she his queen. But Dream won't discover that until later.)

Dream and Matthew head out on a roadtrip to find Kiana in Matthew's shitty van, and along the way pick up a hitchhiker named Hob, who is insistent he is not a suicide and doesn't belong here (he died of an overdose after taking adderall that had been laced with fentanyl), and is looking for "whoever is in charge here" to make his objections.

I am partial to the idea that the other Endless, or some of them at least, do exist as members of the Endless in this "Dream has always been human" AU. Possibly Destruction as Kneller (he does love his dog, after all), or Delirium sneaking into this part of the afterlife to hang out at Kneller's camp. And of course Death will need to make a cameo.

[gagesfall]

Once upon a time there was a crooked tree and a straight tree. And they grew next to each other. And every day the straight tree would look at the crooked tree and he would say, "You're crooked. You've always been crooked and you'll continue to be crooked. But look at me! Look at me!" said the straight tree. He said, "I'm tall and I'm straight." And then one day the lumberjacks came into the forest and looked around, and the manager in charge said, "Cut all the straight trees." And that crooked tree is still there to this day, growing strong and growing strange. (Wristcutters: A Love Story, 2006)

[ana103]

Zia: I'm not going out tonight. It just makes me depressed.

Eugene: So, what you gonna do? Kill yourself?

[rezervuarkedisinin]

[idletongues]

Turned an old friend into a meme. We still have the same sense of humor. Totally post Tumblr vibes.

[serenity-hqs]

꒰  .*˚ ༘  ┈  is it destiny? or is it chance ?

welcome lee seungjoo (løren) !  from this moment on, you have 48 hours to add admin luna or your spot will be freed again. thank you for joining us !  ♡

[z34l0t]

[hiddennotions]

[bitter-sweet-coffee]

you don’t understand. i love. fuckin. symbolism. and like. little things. in lore. that MEAN THINGS!!! EVERY LITTLE THING MEANS SOMETHING IN WRISTCUTTERS OH MY GOD. like. the concept of a second world full of people who off’d themselves but it’s a slightly shittier world. but then. THE ENDING. AND THE REASON WHY. AND LIKE. THE FACT THAT A MOVIE THATS PURPOSEFULLY DREARY AND MONOTONOUS AND ABOUT DEPRESSION AND DEATH HAS A HAPPY ENDING BECAUSE LIFE CAN BE GOOD IF YOU CHOOSE TO FIND BEAUTY IN IT. AND HOW WHEN YOU’RE IN A DARK PLACE YOU DONT REALIZE HOW MUCH WORSE IT CAN GET WHEN YOU GIVE UP ON YOURSELF. BUT IF YOU MISS THE WAY THINGS WERE YOU MIGHT FIND PEOPLE OR THINGS THAT REMIND YOU OF WHEN YOU WERE HAPPY AND THAT IT’S NEVER TRULY OVER FOR YOU. AUDJDNEKFOO

like i’m not saying anything too specific because this is a movie you need to see yourself. you can’t read the summary beforehand and then go in because you will not understand the impact of the ending if you don’t watch it and get all the little bits that build up gradually throughout. so please. go watch this movie it will fix you and then we can talk about it

[pixiexbites]

[deramin2]

(Spoilers for Critical Role Campaign 1)

I don't have any expectations for wherever FCG will stay dead or come back somehow because I've spent 9 years watching Sam Riegel totally subvert my expectations in a narratively compelling way.

But I will say that "FCG shouldn't come back because it would lessen the impact of a narratively perfect death" is EXACTLY what people were saying about Percy's first death after C1 E68. (The first televised character death.) If he had to have an end, it was a fitting end that, while tragic, neatly tied up the thesis of the story. Would Taliesin even want him to come back? With Whitestone saved and Ripply killed, was there even much left to explore?

They found Percy's death letter telling them he loved them all but please bury him in a ditch with all his designs so he could be forgotten by history. He was so sorry for all he'd done and he could never make it up.

But they tried anyway, having to wrest Percy's soul away from Orthax. The players knew what they said in the resurrection ritual was meaningful along with their rolls. But they did not know they were also having to convince Taliesin. If they'd tried to appeal to Percy's soul in the wrong way, dice be damned, Percy was going to refuse. What we got was really meaningful and powerful roleplay (especially from Marisha and Laura) that did convince Percy along with successful rolls.

Being brought back did not at all weaken Percy's own sacrifice or the impact of his death. It forced him to confront everything he'd been running from. It forced him to see that there were people who loved him and would not let him throw himself away for them. They didn't want a martyr, they wanted their friend. It utterly changed the trajectory of his character.

There's only four ways I can think of on the table to bring FCG back:

True Resurrection — Incredibly expensive high level spell. They would have to find the materials as well as someone who both can and is willing to cast the spell in the middle of a war to stop a second Calamity. None of this would be easy. The ritual could still fail. FCG could decline to come back and the other players would not know that until they went to all the effort. The Raven Queen views True Resurrection as heresy which is why they didn't try it on Vax. How would a second chance change them?

Reincarnate — Lower level and cheaper spell. FCG would come back as a fleshy being instead of an Aeormaton. Would the experience live up to FCG's fantasies about it? How would it change them to realize they are truely alive, and always were, but are now also mortal? Reverse Veth story? Wild ass Pinocchio retelling? What does it mean to get a second chance but everything about you is different?

Wish — I think this would count as duplicating True Resurrection. High component cost and requires a high level magic user. (If it's duplicating a spiral there's no risk of no longer being able to cast Wish.)

Hag Deal — They do know a fatestitcher Hag who likes them and limes making deals even more. Orym may be able to just extend his existing deal. What are the consequences for the deal marker as well as FCG? Would the robit feel responsible for that person's fate? How would that affect how they feel about coming back and the meaning they need to make from it.

I don't think there's a right or best option because whatever we speculate on, the actual result will be full of meaning and very poignant. I can't imagine that Bell's Hells won't try to bring him back. They've lost so much already. They couldn't bring back Eshteross or Bertrand or Will & Derrig. They couldn't live with not even trying. Maybe their method works, maybe it doesn't. But at least they tried.

And if FCG does come back, they have to live with knowing that even though they saved their friends and put an end to Otohan, they also hurt their friends by treating themselves as disposable. They forced their friends to confront that each of them might have done the same and that's deeply unhealthy. It will change the character development tremendously.

My favorite film and play genre is where the protagonist dies (or nearly dies) (usually self-inflicted) at the beginning and has to journey through purgatory to find themselves again before they can return to the living. Films like Wristcutters: A Love Story (2006) or Castaway on the Moon (김씨 표류기 2009). Death matters because it reminds you to live. The journey is finding meaning in both life and death and coming back utterly changed.

[qatos]

Wristcutters: A Love Story (2006) by Goran Dukić.