FNAF SPOILERS! SCROLL! TALKING ABOUT THE SPRINGLOCK SCENE!

i’ve seen so many people discussing the springlock scene in both negative and positive ways and i think it brings up really cool points about how matthew played that scene and balanced fan expectations with his own characterisation.

i think the discussions around this movie have rlly exposed the disconnect between fanon and canon in fnaf, especially talking abt the core games in isolation, bc frankly in the game universe (ignoring the books) we get Very Little characterisation for William other than the obvious, but Matthew managed to add so much in the way he talks and his body language.

in the reveal scene, we see afton at arguably his peak. in his first scene, he comes off as somewhat demeaning and judgemental until he recognises mike’s name, at which point he seems to have this nervous energy, rushing to cover it up but stumbling slightly, his reaction to the tables being turned even slightly is massive.

this is a man who committed multiple mrdrs in essentially broad daylight, hid the bodies in the most obvious place, and still got away with it, and then kept the crime scene as a trophy of his actions, and an ongoing prison sentence for his victims. he has been in complete control for decades, and is confident that he can deal with any kind of threat quickly. his confidence in his reveal is palpable

it changes when vanessa shoots him. the whole parallel with vanessa and the animatronics is hugely interesting too- how william refers to the animatronics almost endearingly as “kids” when he wants them to obey, how both vanny and the animatronics have an unearned loyalty to him, almost a pseudo-adoption through what he did to them, taking them from their parents and keeping them under his thumb, forever stuck as naive, forgiving, obedient children. vanessa breaking from that control shakes him, but the mask slips back into place almost immediately.

then, he’s outsmarted by the brother of one of his victims, and the child he planned to end next. his pseudo-children turn on him and he can no longer manipulate his appearance or shed his skin to escape. he explodes on them, and his language is incredibly telling that he is being dishonest.

he calls them small, trying to belittle them into submission, even though they are ten feet tall metal animatronics powered by rage. he is grasping at straws to regain control, and failing miserably.

finally, the springlocks go off. the locks in the movie look more like a ribcage, so the first two likely puncture his lungs. they’re slow, and painful, but he doesn’t scream or beg or sob. he grunts and groans, gritting his teeth and only letting out sounds of pain that sound almost involuntary. there is no way in hell he would visibly let himself show weakness or pain in front of these creatures that he believes he has control over. he isn’t brought to his knees until there are eight metal spikes embedded in his abdomen. he doesn’t let the mask fall for even a second, until he literally PUTS THE ACTUAL MASK ON and finally collapses. even then, he’s fighting for consciousness, twitching and writhing with no control over his body. william afton thrives on control, and his soul will not rest until he gets it back.

it’s why he keeps the pizzeria- he always comes back. he can’t help but return to the scene of the crime, putting on his old costume, continuing his killings. he revels in being a constant threat on the horizon. and now, he knows he is going to die, and he knows the suit will bring him back, and noone will be able to get rid of him then. so he puts the mask back on, and waits.

in terms of the sfx- they’re pretty accurate. with stab wounds, you need to leave the knife in the wound as long as possible for best chance of survival, as it stops the blood from escaping. in terms of the springlocks, there wouldn’t be copious amounts of blood as the locks are keeping the wounds filled- which is good because it means a slower, more painful death.

oh! oh! i know how to do edit the save files! okay so first go into the saves folder, just called "saves", and scroll until you see a folder titled "Fallen". there'll be a bunch of files in it, ignore most of them except the one called "clan_cats"- this is where the cats are held! you can do a bunch of things here but most of them aren't relevant to getting lee into the clan- do CTRL + F to do a search function (if that doesnt work youre on a different type of computer than i am and i have no clue. sorry! D:), then just type in Lee.

there you'll see Lee, he'll have a bunch of words and stuff IGNORE THAT and change a couple things for him to join the clan:

"status": "loner" to "status": "warrior" (or elder, whichever you want, just keep it in the commas). this part is near the top, just like 5 lines down

line directly below status is "backstory"- i dont actually know what his backstory would be listed as but it doesnt matter bc you're changing it to "loner1" (keep it in the commas)

scroll like ALL the way down until you see the next character section, that'll be visible by the }, } bit- then look like 5 lines above that until you see "outside": true, set that to false instead (no commas for this bit)

and that should be it! if it doesnt work or you need more clarification D: sorry D: but hopefully its fine and then WHAM. lee has joined the clan (it wont have an event blurb about him joining btw) (it thinks he's been part of the clan like forever) (but thats fine probs) !!! - 🪶

PS: 5 bird facts please >:D

oh shit it worked. well. i guess Lee is joining the clan now

Me: I won't fall for the snarky white-haired elf this time.

Astarion: *exists*

Me: DAMMIT.

Listening to the Bifrost Incident while pulling an all nighter to finish my essay on why Cinders is the best version of Cinderella because I procrastinated on writing it because I kept getting distracted but recordings of their shows and by reading the fiction and trying to convince myself I am not totally obsessed with the Mechanisms in the most stupidly academic way possible

Love it when you can see the plot twist coming from a mile away but even though you brace yourself it still hits.  Big fan of “going up a really tall hill on a well-lit roller coaster you can see the whole layout of from the line” plots

OK, SEVERELY rambly post incoming but - Anderperry Stardust (2007)/ The Little White Horse AU, anyone?

Rundown: I think many of us are familiar with Stardust, originally a Neil Gaiman book but also a great film, starring Claire Danes as a falling star and That Guy Who Plays Daredevil as the lad who promises to bring her to the girl he's infatuated with. The Little White Horse is, to the best of my knowledge, more unknown, but equally very good (for sentimental reasons, I think of it much more highly than Stardust). Published in 1946 by Elizabeth Goudge, it tells the story of thirteen-year-old orphan Maria Merryweather, who moves to her cousin Sir Benjamin's Moonacre Manor in the West Country, where she finds a) a thriving cosy community and a long family history, b) the little white horse of the title, c) a longstanding family feud cutting off Moonacre from the sea, d) her imaginary best friend Robin, real and in the flesh, and e) some of the most deliciously-described food that has ever been or will be. It's a great book even past the rose-tinted glasses of my childhood. Go read it. (The one (1) marring is that you can't find a bloody edition that doesn't have a JK Terfling quote pasted onto the cover, because apparently it was one of her favourite books, but fuck OFF, I'm reclaiming it now. Thou shalt not keep the cosy low fantasy from me.)

Anyway even though I mention Stardust this isn't really part of the AU I have in my mind, except for the bit with the Star, because Todd as a main character who thinks he's a very forgettable bland boy-in-the-corner until he finds out he's a star is a great thought to me. Particulars on /how/ he's a star to be fleshed out later! (I only thought of this AU about two hours ago, lol.)

In my mind this is how it goes - nebulously Olden Times setting (TLWH is set in 1842, so perhaps then). Todd is around seventeen/eighteen and Geoff has just graduated from university, and gone off around Europe, accompanied by their parents. Months go by. Something happens - he's never given the liberty of knowing, but Geoff and their parents stay in Europe, and the townhouse in London is sold, and Todd is packed off to stay at a distant relative's - Keating, as it turns out. It's a blessing in disguise, because Todd is finally away from his family for the first time in his life and around people that appreciate him. He begins to bloom under this new care - but there are strange family secrets only now being revealed to him, and dark forces beyond the valley which threaten to disrupt the haven he's found...

The rest is very cosy fantasy, featuring Mr Perry as the local uptight vicar locking horns with Keating at every opportunity, Neil as his withdrawn but friendly son just longing for a rebellion, and more! (Read: Charlie is here and he is Outrageous as usual. Read also: Pitts as a sailor because I think he'd like it.) Right now I'm thinking of adding an equivalent of Monsieur Cocq de Noir for a villain (Mr Perry is NOT the villain), and Cameron can play a part there so I can give him a good redeeming! Here are a couple of extracts from TLWH to show the kind of mood/tone we're working with:

Thematically, I REALLY like the idea of Todd as a star because it allows me to work in a very fun trope, of "not of the rose but near the rose" - when a character perhaps is shy and a little quiet and reclusive, but inspires other people around them to brilliance and greatness. (Honestly I do think this kind of goes in with the film, where it's not just Keating's teaching but Todd's reaction to it and his presence that galvanise Neil to continue.) This ties in really well if Todd's a star and adds to the overall self-confidence journey - plus I was really thinking about the sun/moon motifs! They're very prominent in TLWH (Maria is a "moon" Merryweather and Robin is a very sunny boy), and I really want to implement them here with slight twists. I think of Todd as a sunny moon; yes he's warm and caring and cheerful but once you go a little closer it's more of a luminosity rather than a blaze, there's a coolness and quietness to him I like. You know, a quiet character doesn't always have to be quiet because there's something "wrong" with them, sometimes they're just like that. For Neil it's the opposite, he's a moony sun; under the thumb of his father he's polite and decorous and demure but somewhere under all of that there's a very loud and booming laugh and a healthy sort of ruddiness. I don't know, I just like sun/moon motifs!!!!!!!!!!

(On a more personal note: this AU, which I already love very much despite not having known very long, would be above all a careful love letter to the West Country. It's been lovely living around here almost all my life and by this time in September I'll be hopefully up very far north at uni, so I'm pre-emptively kind of :') about it. Mutuals who are at uni/college how on earth did you cope?)

help me its so dark in here

I know it's been a week but I'm still thinking about 💚💜✨THEM✨💜💚

liu wei featuring his homie (gay) and homie (platonic)

decided to rewatch oli's christmas song stream from last year and remind me again why the fuck oli/sausage is a rarepair again. he sings no less than five romantic songs about sausage (admittedly two of those are just different versions of santa, baby). one of them is him and sausage singing baby it's cold outside together. oli literally left heaven to find this man. what. what am i seeing that everyone else isn't hello.

live footage of me doing combat on tactician difficulty

^^^ Exactly!!

This is why Ronance should be canon. Robin and Nancy are already integrated into the whole Upside Down of it all, they're flushed out as characters and we love them because of it, and we wouldn't have to worry about a new character taking over possible plot lines for the two of them along with the rest of the characters.

If they made Ronance canon:

1) We would get to see Nancy be with someone who respects her, sees her, and understands her, but also challenges her in ways Steve and Jonathan haven't. We would also get to see Robin have a girlfriend for (I'm pretty sure) the first time in her life.

2) We would just get to see more fun dynamics between Ronance and then also the drama with Steve and Robin and their friendship. Like imagine how confused and hurt and overwhelmed he would feel about Robin being with his ex-girlfriend and how guilty and worried Robin would feel being in a relationship with Steve's ex, especially because I have no doubt he told her everything that went down between Nancy and him at that Halloween party. And also because the Duffers were trying to push Stancy on us so hard during season 4 with Steve saying he imagined/was currently imagining a future with Nancy and six kids.

It would definitely put a strain on his friendship with Robin and Robin would be so upset and feel so bad that she hurt her platonic soulmate and broke "the bro code." Nancy would feel guilty and try to break things off with Robin but then as soon as she does that Steve gets on her ass about not hurting his best friend and he would eventually get over it after he saw how happy they were together. Because ultimately that's what he wants. He wants his friends to be happy, but it would still sting for a long time after.

3) I would hope we would get Nancy confessing to Mike about her feelings for Robin and then in turn Mike confessing that he thinks he might like Will as more than a friend (because let's be real the Duffers are going to be burned at the stake if they don't make Byler canon by the end of this series) and we get the same scenes but it's with Robin and Will. I like to imagine it as the scene in season 4 that was switching between Nancy and Fred/Jonathan and Arygle about the not coming to see each other on spring break thing.

4) We would get to see both of these characters have their happy endings. I imagine Nancy would still be attending Emerson and Robin would follow her (I would have no doubt that Robin could get in because she's fucking smart as hell, like girlie learned 3 languages for fun and she translated Russian without an ounce of knowledge about the language) and because Steve is Robin's platonic soulmate he would follow her. They would live together and Steve would probably go to the community college there and they would share an apartment while Nancy lived in the dorms until she could save up enough to move in with either just Robin or Robin & Steve because again, platonic soulmates.

I'm not trying to upset anyone who ships Vickie and Robin. I would too if only she didn't appear to be so similar to Robin like with the rambling. I (personally) love the whole opposite attracts shit with Ronance and I think they have more chemistry than Robin and Vickie do. But like the post I linked said, the Duffers have the entirety of season 5 to make Vickie a fleshed out character with an entire character arc and storyline while also making the audience fall in love with her, and they would somehow have to do it without taking away from the characters we already know and love.

This, along with the reasons above, are why I ship Ronance and, personally, why I think they are the better ship. I'm sure there are more (PERSONAL!) reasons, but these are the only things I could think of off the top of my head.

i wish he would stop Coming back