Keep seeing "Watcher" fandom and getting excited because I think it's about the Maika Monroe film, and then it's just some YouTube stuff. I'm officially out of touch

Appreciate the love. I put "John Wick" because it's essentially the populace's catch-all term for "gritty revenge movie". If I put "A Ringo Lam movie" or "A Bittersweet Life" or "Beast Cops" or "The Stool Pigeon" or "Blue Ruin" or "Kalank" or stuff like that, I'll feel super smart but Herbert F Normie in the street will have no idea what the hell I'm on about. I watch enough movies as it is! It's like, my whole personality! (I genuinely had no idea that a post about "Monkey Man" would take off like it did, you can tell I'm new here)

Did anyone have "Dev Patel makes working class trans rights John Wick, with a spiritual angle and a message saying fuck Modhi" on their bingo card? (I also appreciate that the movie didn't do the usual: "Break the cycle of violence" but instead went: "Nah mate, channel that shit and put it into being FUCKING BASED! Kill that fucking guy! Fuck him!")

Kind of surreal that 20 years ago, we had movies marketed on the Star Power method ("Mr and Mrs Smith" and "The Breakup" and the string of Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller comedies, hell, even "The Mexican") and now it's... just gone, evaporated. Kind a fun little thing to examine when looking back at cinema. Who gets arses in seats now?

It's only minor, and my review is to follow, but "Abigail" is an absolutely wild fucking ride, and I highly reccommend it. Can we, as a society, get Dan Stevens a gift basket for his insane roles, Melissa Barrera one for being based as fuck, and Alisha Weir one for her star making turn? Also, Kahtryn newton is wonderful, as is Kevin Durand

I love "Mass Effect" for a lot of reasons. One of them which sprang to mind is that the hardest Persuasion Check in the entire game is not convincing the main villain to shoot himself in the head to stop the space robots controlling him, but to convince Ethan Jeong, company man, to do the right thing by the people of Feros, as people prospering would profit them more than writing off the place.

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“Where do I stand on the – on the WHAT? The “Transgender Question”? Well for one thing, sir, I recall the last few usages of that particular phraseology. A group of millions is not a question – I have not yet finished speaking – not a question, but a demographic.“

“The Romans had their castrated priestesses, the Hindus their Hijras, but my god, let us take to the barricades because Uncle Al came to Thanksgiving in a skirt and pantyhose! It’s the province of rubes. Hayseed reactionaries and the worst effluvia of America’s suburban colon.”

“And Chapelle! My god, Chapelle. Embarrassing as only a true great can become in his declining years – I speak here with complete self-awareness; kindly hold your barbs – as he tires of innovation and falls back into the soporific cushion of the lowest common denominator!”

“One joke stretched until you can hear its joints popping like some poor bastard broken on the rack. “Oh my car has pronouns, I identify as a bird, I’m trans-Chinese.” The laziness of it – shameful. You should see the transgendered roast themselves; there’s true scorched earth.“

Because this is the same site where I saw one of the world's shittest takes ("Stephen King is an anti-Semite because It has a character bullied for being Jewish"), I am beyond dread-excited for the flurry of takes on "Civil "War".

Reading "One Piece" for the First Time (Part 7B)

We shall likely get more crew members soon, in a sort of BioWare "one of every race" kind of way, so allow me to make predicitons since this world has no fucking rules: 1. A Merman. (God I want a merman so fucking bad. Not a mermaid, but a fucking mer man.) 2. A vampire, or some fucking ghost. Something spooky. 3. An edgelord villain going through a redemption arc, whom the fanbase will lavish sumptuous rounds of oral sex upon because I know anime and this fanbase scares me. 4. A robot, since there are no fucking rules here. 5. A parrot/bird man, because it's pirates. Come on man!

SUPER jealous you got to meet that author of my childhood, a wonderful series of books which got me into reading. They stilll have that wholesome, mesmerising style, and though they follow a formula it is how you expand upon and enjoy the formula which counts (for the record my favourites are "The Pearls of Lutra", "Rakkety Tam", "Mattimeo" and "Lord Brocktree")

guys I had this realization the other day that Redwall works really well for reading aloud, and kinda half-remembered something about the author reading to kids? So I looked it up to see if I had made a connection.

And it turns out, yes, actually, because he read aloud to kids at a school for the blind. But all the books they gave him to read were depressing. So he wrote Redwall, a story about heroism and courage and making it through struggles, and filled it with so many sensory, visual details so he could give them something better and I just-- that's so wholesome-- help

Reading "One Piece" for the first time: Part 7 This is more like it, maybe I'm just getting old, but I like that there is more character interplay, interactions and bouncing off of each other, true conflict, not quite merely a rubber idiot roudhouse kicking a nuke into the King of Ferrets or whatever the fuck the author has this week. The Idiot, The Himbo, Meme in Progress and now The Giga Chad and the Brothers Chucklefuck are in a tiny boat looking for the Cartographer with a Brain Cell, who jacked their ship and buggered off whilst they were recruiting the Giga Chad and battling a man made of guns. Now they've arrived at basically Hawaii, which appears to be Nami's village. It's pretty enough, and being ruled over by a hench fishman and his fish man army who are extorting the place, oh and his nose gives Usopp's a run for its money. Knowing this series they'll probably actually do that... Anyway, she's betrayed them all only not really only she has only nobody in the crew seems to believe her. It's endearing, yes, that they all believe that this girl they've known for about 8 minutes would never betray them, but also: guys. Come on. Giga Chad I get: he's horny. But the rest of you? Arlong is the villain here, and I dig him, he's one of the better ones so far. I am surprised at the restraint, again, in having fish people appear but it does raise questions about genetics and the like: do they reproduce with eggs? Is it asexual? Are there fish women somewhere? Oh God.

DO NOT SHOW ME BUSTY FISH WOMEN! THIS SERIES IS HORNY ENOUGH! PLEASE GOD NO! So, they see the palace run by King Scalestorm, and Zoro's first thought is: "I mean, we can take them." Naturally the brothers chucklefuck (Johnny and, the other one) tie him to the mast. Alright, that's a funny joke, series, touche. I appreciate the sense of humour this manga has, but when it swings for the fences emotionally thus far it does seem out of place. Is the cham in the series that it goes to 11 when there are emotions involved? That is the vibe I'm getting.

Meme in Progress Usopp continues to endear himself as my joint favourite guy, by simply strolling into the village and figuring everything out: apparently the houses were all just flipped over and cast aside like they'e kids with fucking Tonka Toys throwing a tantrum. Correctly, he deduces: "Nah mate, I ain't going NEAR that." See Usopp, you and me can hang. Like, you're a person, with identifiable normal feelings, you're a justifiably ordinary guy in this universe of mavericks and people who punch God in the face on their way to buy bread and splitting the Earth open with a wave of their hand. He meets a grouchy seeming lady, and a boy she's yelling at for trying to get himself killed in the path of revenge against Arlong, and he's an endearing little scamp by standing up for the kid. Good Guy Usopp. I like you, you're one of the few characters here I'd actually just hang out with like a normal person. Arlong has corrupt cops (sorry, cops) under his payroll and basically does what he pleases. A good villain here, he's what a pirate is: and I like the whole eugenicist bully angle. What's the bet that that never comes back as the author gets bored and moves onto, oh I don't know, fucking cockroach tanks piloted by cyborgs or something. Nami is attempting to get a shed load of money to buy her village out from under his thrall. Conflict! Nice! It's a cool thing where Zoro just attempts to kill himself to test if Nami is actually evil enough to let him die, and true to form she dives in to save him, though more likely was the fact that she was attempting to stop him from murdering the water. The insanity is kept relatively tame here, which is my kind of jam: I HATE people who recommend stuf with "oh it's mental, you'll love it!" Like, no, I need contrast to the insanity, it needs to build, it needs to balance, it needs to let release tension and steam. It needs plotting and pacing and character and growth. It's why I'm never playing that fucking piece of shit "Exalted", stop recommending it to me, Tobin and Sam, fuck! Anyway. The Idiot is, thankfully, out of the way for most of this, chilling on his boat and napping, but unfortunately he has Giga Chad with him, so we have less Giga Chad this chapter. But that is fine, as we get more of the nonsense of the crew and a villain I actually like. My friend who got me into this, however, also raises a good point: if there are fish men, what is sea food? Are they eating the young of the fish people? Because I am team Arlong if that is the case. It's nice to have this character development, and some stuff for Cartographer with a Brain Cell to do, even if none of them buy her "betrayal" for an instant - but that fake stabbing of Meme in Progress was pretty cool, good job guys! And it ties into this desperation and world building in the village - people left at the mercy of criminal gangs because cops won't help, as 1. They are cops. 2. There are dudes who can tear apart the skies with a yodel, or whatever fucking bullshit super power the author has pulled out of his ass this week Good job, world and character and stuff. So anyway. The Himbo takes out a palace of dudes all by himself, and the Giga Chad kicks the ocean so hard that his boat fucking flies. THERE we go. I was starting to think you'd lost your touch, old boy. So now Johnny and the other one have legged it, and the Idiot is napping rather than fighting. I for one appreciate it, it has been a tad dull with him doing stuff. Also I think Sanji wants to fuck a mermaid, and Nami. And Nami AS a mermaid. Follow your dreams, bro. They are going to square off with fish mafia man, and try to save this village. So knowing these guys that means they will befriend the fish man and destroy the place.

One of the many things I love about "Akira" (and "Monkey Man", come to think of it) is that there is a dickbag sleazy politician, but he is not the main villain or even the focus of the plot, he is just some grifting shithead. They are part of the problem, yes, but removing them will not remove corrupted structures and pillars of the inequalities of society. I like mature writing like that. Also he just, fucking, has a heart attack in an alleyway, alone and with cases of money he was stealing.

Spoiler alert: It fucking rules. Trans rights, and fight the fucking power, motherfuckers!

🥺🥺🥺

Fuck yes. Monkey Man is a wild fucking time. Watch it, savour it, relish the craft, and love it.

Dev Patel on the transgender representation, including the hijra community, in Monkey Man (2024).

Did anyone have "Dev Patel makes working class trans rights John Wick, with a spiritual angle and a message saying fuck Modhi" on their bingo card? (I also appreciate that the movie didn't do the usual: "Break the cycle of violence" but instead went: "Nah mate, channel that shit and put it into being FUCKING BASED! Kill that fucking guy! Fuck him!")

Loving ".hack//infection" for many reasons, but for now I love that I can go and fight the evil villains trying to put people in comas and crash the world with the players/party members I have connected with most and who happen to have nothing to do with the main plot: "My name is Natsume and I am a highschooler and librarian who came to play this game so I could overcome my social anxiety and make friends." "My name is Sanjuro, I'm a South Dakota based Japanese language teacher and Japanophile who plays here to better my understanding of the Japanese language." Come on fuckers, we're saving the world! You've NO idea what that thing is, how dangerous it is, or what is going on! Time to kick some ass!

Reading "One Piece" for the first time, Part 6 So the Idiot now has a chef. The battle between him and Don Krieg is very "Shonen Anime", very "Bleach", I'm a little disappointed he's essentially written out these wacky crew members to have it be a showdown between Luffy and Man Made of Guns. We know what this elasticated strider of tomfoolery can do, we've seen him battle a murder clown and a cat man. Have some fun with the fights, guys! Don't be like fucking "Bleach", God "Bleach" fucking sucked, Jesus fuck, that sucked ass... Such a promising start and then it fucking sucked more than a porn star in a wind tunnel. Tangent. Anyways, they kind of drag out the "we don't like you, Sanji you jerk" gag from the chefs, and the "we're tough guy chefs!" gag longer than they should do. Nobody backs down over anything here, which is... a choice. They've got this great setting, lots of fish restaurant stuff and potential for carnage, throwing tables or putting heads in pots, playing racks of knives like xylophones with a man's skull, come on guys: give me Van Damme in "Sudden Death"! You have Sanji, the chain smoking guy who kicks stuff, you're halfway there! Still, Sanji seems cool. Then a guy is hurled from the fucking ocean attached to a fish to give an update, and that guy Gin decides to just walk off the poison and take his asshole captain away with him (guys, he keeps shooting you all in the head, and dragged you to deadly waters where Cringe Master Dracule killed a bunch of you. Drown him whilst he's unconscious, give us an ambitious villain here!), but at least Dracule is gone, fuck that idiot. So now Sanji is part of the crew, mixed bag this one? On the one hand we got Sanji and his cool stuff and little introduction, and the restaurant was kind of cool, but I am mixed on the villain, and wish there was more character banter and interaction: people fly out at us thick and fast, and it would be nice if they bounced off each other more. Still, there's time (fuck me is there time, Jesus H Christ look at that chapter count...) and my current theory is that the "D" in our lead idiot's name stands for "Deez Nuts" I like the Red Leg chef guy though.