#Miguel thinks he’s such a little trickster
Text
Yooooooooouuuuuuuuuu!!!!!!! You SUCK!
0. The slow burn
1. There are too many! TOO MANY!!
Part 1 - the bad day
Part 2 - the injury
Part 3 - the sleepover
Part 4 - the lovesick teenager/the gym
Part 5 - the eyedrops
Warnings: nothing explicit. Just some spicy behaviour 🤭.
----------------------------------------------------------
He sauntered towards the biology lab, stopping to lean against the doorframe when he reached it.
“Arañita,” he called out to her, trying to get her attention. She turned to face him, and immediately, her eyes lit up, her lips stretching into a delighted smile when she saw him. His heart skipped a beat at the sight and he straightened, trying to ignore the feeling. “How do you feel about Norse gods?”
She flashed him a sheepish smile at the question. He'd unlocked her love for all things mythology once, when they'd been sorting through all the mission reports after a particularly busy week. He’d sat silently at his desk while she’d talked his ear off about all her theories on life and gods and religion and the universe. She’d felt a little guilty after, but he’d just waved her concerns away with a soft smile, mumbling something about not even noticing how much time had passed. She’d felt a warmth bloom in her chest then, her heart slowing down at the way he made her feel so comfortable just to be herself. She set her equipment down and bounced over to him, her mind racing through the catalogue of stories she’d collected. She wasn’t as knowledgeable about Norse gods as she was about Greek ones, but something was probably better than nothing.
“They're okay. Loki's probably my favourite - but only because of Tom Hiddleston. I practically memorised all his lines!” She grinned, a dreamy look in her eyes as she thought about it. Then she returned her attention to him. “But I only watched his movies though. Otherwise I'm a DC fan.” And again, he had absolutely no idea what the hell she was talking about. The only part he'd understood was her saying that Loki was her favourite - an upsetting fact, and not just because of how infuriating the trickster god could be. He sighed and crossed his arms over his chest.
“Of course he is.” He turned to go then, gesturing for her to follow after him. “Vamos, arañita. We have a new mission I think you’re going to love.”
“Ah! My first official mission!” Pav exclaimed as they made their way over to the control room. “I'm so excited!” Hobie raised an eyebrow at his enthusiasm, unamused.
“You've been on missions before.” Pav rolled his eyes, the grin still plastered across his face.
“Yeah, but not big ones!” he argued. “Not with Spider-dad!” Miguel flinched at the term. The kid had only recently joined the Spider society - he'd only become a Spiderman a few weeks ago, after all - and ever since then, he seemed to have made it his personal mission to get under Miguel's skin. More so even than Hobie. Teenagers.
“Don't call me that,” Miguel warned him. X sidled up to him, bumping his arm with hers.
“Calmate, Miguel,” she reassured him. “Es solo un niño.” (Calm down, Miguel. He's just a boy.) He relaxed at her soft tone, at the comforting feeling of her arm pressing up against his. But then the kid kept going.
“Ki?” Pav called to X from behind them. “Kya kaha tum, Spider-mum?” (What? What did you say, Spider-mum?) Miguel tensed again, clenching his fists in irritation this time.
He understood the ‘Spider-mum’ part - the part that made it even worse. Because it had to mean something, the fact that even this kid was referring to the two of them as ‘mum and dad’. He felt her take a step closer to him again, her fingers brushing against his wrist gently. He glanced up at her in question, his features still set into a hard frown, but she just smiled at him, curling her fingers all the way around his wrist this time. He relaxed once more, trying to enjoy the feeling of her slender fingers grasping his wrist - as opposed to thinking about how badly he wanted to twist his hand around and take them in his. X turned to call over her shoulder, completely oblivious to the thoughts running through his mind. “I was just telling him that you're just a kid, Pav.”
He didn't hear Pav's response, so focused was he on the fact that she was still holding onto his wrist, even as she began speaking to Pavitr in Hindi. Or Punjabi. He and Preethi would always chastise her for how she'd get the two mixed up, but then she'd counter them with the argument that ‘you still understand what I'm saying though, right?’. And then they’d sigh and give a begrudging nod of agreement before continuing their conversation. He stopped when they'd reached the control room, his stomach sinking in disappointment when she finally let go of his wrist. “Okay, so, we're going to be fighting a Loki today.”
“A what?” Pav asked, confused. His words were drowned out, however, by X's unexpected exclamation of panic.
“What?!” she shrieked, causing all of them to turn to her in surprise: she was usually pretty soft-spoken, always having to repeat her words because someone hadn’t heard her the first time. “How the hell do you expect us to fight a literal god, Miguel?!” He kept his stunned gaze on her for a moment longer, then he relaxed, his expression softening into a smirk as he reached out to take hold of her wrist.
“Calmate, arañita,” he echoed her words from earlier, tugging her closer to her. “Es solo un hombre. He’s just like any other power-crazed idiot we’ve fought before.” (Calm down, little spider. He's just a man.) Her brows knitted together as she looked up at him, her lips parting in horror at the very suggestion. She didn’t even seem to notice how close they were now, his warm breath fluttering the loose strands of her hair away from her face.
“He is not ‘un hombre', Miguel, he is ‘un Dios’!” she argued, causing his lips to twitch in amusement. Hobie glanced between them, still puzzled.
“Uh, English, please? Someone?” he asked. X turned to him, abandoning her conversation with Miguel.
“Loki is a Norse trickster god who can shapeshift and manipulate people and stuff.” She slid her gaze over to Miguel, her eyes narrowed in irritation. “He’s also the cause of Ragnarok - the twilight of the gods. And the entire world!”
“That’s just one myth, arañita!” he shot back, trying hard not to smile at the annoyed expression on her face. She was so cute when she was mad at him, her nose constantly wrinkling in frustration as she frowned at him. “He’s basically another Mysterio in my world.”
She folded her arms across her chest, irritated by how he clearly wasn’t taking this seriously. “Is he the same Loki from your world?”
He shifted uncomfortably, knowing she wasn’t going to like his answer. “No.
“But we’ll be fine, arañita!” he reassured her quickly when she’d opened her mouth to respond. “We’re basically gods too, right? And besides, there are four of us and only one of him.” She huffed and turned on her heel, marching over to Pav and Hobie as she ranted at him.
“Oh, right! We’re gods too! We’re definitely not going to die when he tries to kill one of us!” She placed one hand on Pav’s shoulder and the other on Hobie’s. “Pav, Hobie, if anything happens, the codeword is ‘Spider-dad’.” She turned to look at Miguel over her shoulder, smirking when she saw his features harden into a scowl.
“What’s … What’s going to happen to us?” Pav asked her, his voice wobbling with panic. X shrugged, letting her hands fall back to her side before she made her way back to Miguel.
“I don’t know,” she admitted, her tone far too nonchalant now. “Maybe he’ll try to mind control us or something. Turn us against one another. So? Are we ready?” Pav’s eyes widened in horror.
“Wait, what?!” he screeched, definitely not ready. “We’re going now?! After you just told us he doesn’t die and has mind control powers?!” Miguel tapped on his watch, opening up a portal to Hobie’s world - the world the Loki had ended up in.
“Vamos. We’ve wasted enough time already.” He stepped through the portal, ignoring Pav’s cries of protests.
“Wait! No! I still have questions!” Hobie grabbed onto the back of his suit, dragging him through the portal before he could get another word out.
Miguel sighed as they surveyed the scene below them from a nearby rooftop. Just like every other Loki from every other dimension, the first thing he’d done upon arriving to Earth was try to enslave a whole bunch of people to do his bidding. The god stood now at the head of a crowd, everyone down on their knees before him in a show of deference. Probably not because they wanted to, however, but more likely because he’d forced them to. Miguel turned to X, wanting to discuss their plan before they went in, but found her gaze trained intently on the god, her teeth nibbling on her lower lip as she studied him carefully. He frowned and stepped in front of her to block her view.
“Arañita.” She raised her gaze to him, startled by his sudden appearance. But then her heart began slowing down, like it had recently come to do whenever she was with him, he’d noticed. She swallowed hard, then gave him a sheepish smile.
“Sorry!” she apologised, practically able to hear the scowl in his voice. He ground his teeth together, a new feeling taking over him at the way she’d been looking at the Loki: not anger, exactly, but something more … unsettling. Something that wormed its way into his stomach and sat there, weighing heavily on his insides.
“So,” he began, trying to ignore the feeling for now, “he doesn’t know there’s four of us.” He pointed a finger at Hobie and Pav.
“You two will distract him,” he instructed before turning his attention to X. “You will hol-”
“Distract him?!” Pav exclaimed, interrupting Miguel. “Why do we have to distract him?”
“Would you rather hold him down while I paralyse him?” Miguel suggested instead. Pav shook his head quickly, gulping at the very thought.
“Distraction it is.” Miguel nodded in satisfaction, then turned back to X.
“X, you’ll tie him up so I can bite down on him,” he told her. “Then we can paralyse him for long enough to bring him back to his dimension. ¿Bien?” She began nodding in agreement, but then quickly stopped, her lips twisting to the side in thought.
“Wait. Can you bite him? Can you penetrate his flesh? Is his flesh penetrable?” she asked. “Oh! Wait! Does he even have blood? I mean, he can’t transport the venom around his body if he doesn’t have blood! Then it won’t work. What if doesn’t work?!” She clutched her cheeks at the thought, looking up at Miguel in terror. He grabbed her wrists and pulled her to him.
“Again, arañita: just a man. This isn’t the same Loki in the stories of your world.” She inhaled slowly, then let it out. She nodded again and he released his hold on her, letting her hands fall back to her sides. “You ready, arañita?”
She took in another deep breath, then turned her gaze to the Loki, a determined look on her face.
“Vamos,” she agreed. “Let’s do this.”
Pavitr swung back and forth between the nearby buildings, working hard to avoid getting hit by the Loki as he tried to distract him.
“So, how did you spell your name again?” He ducked, narrowing missing yet another ball of glowing light that had been hurled his way. “L-O-W-K-E-Y?” Loki snarled at him, his gaze following the young Spider’s every move as he leapt from building to building.
“Insolent mortal. How dare you insult a god!” Another blast, another miss. Hobie watched as he hung upside-down from a nearby lamppost.
“Not my god, mate.” He pulled himself up to perch on the post. “Honestly, not even sure there is a god.” He shot a web at a building and flew across to it, sticking to the concrete surface and escaping another blast.
“I am a god, you fool!” The Loki replied, aiming another ball of light at Hobie. He flipped off the side of the building, jumping over to a bus stop instead.
“Then, boy, do I have a list of questions for you,” he chuckled. Then Miguel leapt from a rooftop, landing on the ground just after X had shot a web at the Loki. But he was gone - vanished into thin air as if he’d never even been there at all. She looked up, her gaze meeting Hobie’s as they stared at each other in confusion and horror.
“Come now,” Loki began, his smooth voice coming from the alleyway between two buildings on the other side of the street. “You didn’t think I was foolish enough to believe that these … children were working alone, did you?” He flashed them a victorious smirk as he pushed himself off the side of the building and strode over to them.
“I mean, we normally do work alone,” Pav muttered softly, offended by the insult. The Loki ignored him, instead studying X and Miguel more carefully as he continued making his way closer to them.
“Based on your … physicalities, I take it you’re the leader?” He pointed to Miguel, waiting for his confirmation.
“I find that rather offensive,” X admitted, tugging her hood back as she pulled her gaze away from Miguel. She bit her lip when her gaze landed on the god, suddenly nervous to be in his presence again.
“My lord,” she added, giving a quick bow. Miguel let out a huff of irritation.
“¡Arañita!” he chastised her. She looked up at Miguel again, then returned her attention to the Loki. He smirked at her, and she swallowed hard at the look, inching closer to Miguel. He was even more handsome than his movie counterpart from her dimension: perfection personified, with strong features and a powerful build, not a single hair out of place, not a single blemish on his glowing skin. His emerald eyes narrowed as he noticed the way she continued to shuffle closer to Miguel. Then suddenly, he was Miguel, face still covered by his mask as he strode over to her. He stopped when he was just in front of her, his hand rising to take hold of her chin and tip her head back so she was looking up at him. “Then tell me, sweetheart: how can I make it up to you?”
He didn't know what the god was showing to X, why it was making her go weak at the knees, her rosy lips trembling as she gazed up at him. But he did know that he absolutely despised the way he was touching her, his fingers clasping her chin as he smirked down at her. Miguel growled and leapt forward, needing to drag the god away from X. But Loki blasted him back before he could reach her.
“Y-You …” she began softly, her body sinking into his touch of its own volition. Holy shit, he was so hot, her Miguel, all hers. She glided her hands up his broad chest and stretched onto her toes, leaning forward to murmur in his ear. “You can …”
Her voice was a whisper, her warm breath tickling his neck as she slid her hands down his arms. She was cute and soft and he might not have minded kissing her full lips if she wasn't already so in love with this other man. Loki turned his head to glance at Miguel, still picking himself up off the ground where he'd fallen. Miguel gave another enraged growl and Loki flashed him a wicked grin. Maybe he would kiss her anyway.
She sucked in a breath at the feeling of his hands on her waist, trying to focus on that instead of the lack of the familiar scent she'd come to associate with him: nutmeg and wood, warm and tangy. Then, when she was sure he was sufficiently distracted, she spun around, webbing his hands together before dropping to the ground and sliding away from him. She held tightly to the leash she'd attached to his bonds and looked over at the real Miguel - her Miguel - yelling at him to get him to focus. “Now!”
He pounced immediately, tackling the Loki to the ground and pummelling him with his fists. They continued struggling until suddenly, he found himself on top of X, her small form wriggling beneath his grasp as he pinned her to the ground.
“He swapped our positions!” she said. “He tricked us!” Miguel sat back quickly, releasing his hold on her and letting her slip out from underneath him. He stood and held a hand out to her, helping her up so she could dust herself off. Then she stepped towards him, cautiously bringing her hand to his face and reaching out to brush his fingers along his cheek.
“Are you all right?” she asked him, her brows furrowed in concern. She trailed her fingers down the side of his neck, her hand landing on his shoulder as she slid the other up his chest. Her gaze travelled over him as she assessed him for any damage. “He didn't … He didn't hurt you, did he?”
F*ck, she felt good, her warm hands roving all over his body, the strawberry scent of her filling up his senses. He clenched his fists, trying so hard to not touch her, to focus on the mission at hand. “No, I'm … I'm fine, arañita.”
His voice came out low, husky, and she let out a soft hum of consideration in response. She stretched onto her toes to wrap her arms around his neck, pressing herself into him so that her soft curves sank into the hard planes of his body. Coño, she was soft. She dragged her fingernails down the back of his neck then, prompting his head to fall back at the sensation and his hands to find their way to her hips.
“Maybe we should go back,” she suggested, pressing her lips to the side of his neck. He sucked in a breath, tightening his grip on her as she began moving them against the thin fabric of his suit. “He's too powerful.”
His voice was a whisper when he next spoke, all his energy directed towards maintaining control of his thoughts. “Ara … Arañita.”
All of a sudden, she stumbled away from him, and the world came back into focus as she transformed into Loki, desperately clutching at the syringe in his neck. He pulled it out and stared at it in horror, then spun around and plunged into X's neck - the real X. Her eyes widened in horror as the last few drops of liquid sank into her skin. Loki stumbled again, his hands wrapped around his throat as he choked and sputtered. “What did you … What did you do to me?!”
He sank to his knees, but all Miguel could focus on was X and the way she reached a hand out to him, starting to lose her balance as well. “M-M … M-Mi …”
“¡Arañita!” He ran to her side, catching her just before she hit the ground. His heart thudded in his chest as he lowered them to the ground, beating so rapidly he thought it might explode. He scanned her body quickly, trying to figure out how to help her. This couldn’t be happening, this couldn’t be happening again. He couldn’t sit back and watch another person he cared about … in his own arms …
“A-Anti … dote.” Her fingers twitched by one of the pockets in her belt, then she started convulsing, her small body shuddering in his arms. He grabbed her belt, ripping the pocket open and pulling out the antidote. His hands trembled as he removed the safety cover, and he had to use his bodyweight to pin her down so he could stop her arm from shaking long enough for him to plunge the syringe into her vein. Por favor, por favor, por favor, please let him have given it fast enough, please let her be okay, por favor, por favor, por favor. The words played in his mind on a loop and he didn’t dare take a breath as he waited, still clutching her tightly against him.
“What’s happening?” Pav’s voice came from behind them, soft and hesitant as he peeked over his shoulder to sneak a glance at X. He gasped when he saw her lying in Miguel’s arms, eyes closed, chest barely moving with shallow breaths. Miguel tightened his grip on her.
“She used-” His voice cracked and he had to swallow down the lump in his throat before he could continue. “She used Scorpion’s venom.” It was like someone had doused Pav with a bucket of ice-cold water. He rushed over to X’s other side, dropping to his knees beside her.
“Will she be okay?” She’d stopped shaking. And, according to her watch, her vitals were steadily rising again. But she still wasn’t opening her eyes. Why wasn’t she opening her eyes?! Suddenly, they flew open and she sucked in a deep, wheezing breath. She looked around, dazed, then her gaze landed on Miguel, leaning over her, holding her tightly in his arms.
“Miguel?” Her voice was dry, just a whisper, but a wave of relief swept through him anyway and he squeezed her against him. She was okay, she was okay, she was okay. “Miguel?”
Her voice was muffled by his chest as he continued clutching her fiercely against him. He eased his hold on her, allowing her to pull back and look up at him question.
“Loki?” she asked him, her voice still weak.
“Got him!” Hobie called out to her from where he was standing over the prone, webbed up form of the fallen god. X breathed a sigh of relief and moved to stand, but fell back down again almost immediately, sinking back into Miguel’s arms. He bent down and lifted her legs up, carrying her so she wouldn’t have to walk.
“Go help him,” he told Pav, gesturing over to Hobie. “I’ll take care of X.” The young man nodded and zipped away quickly. X curled up against Miguel’s chest, suddenly shy at the feeling of being carried in his arms.
“Miguel. I’m okay,” she reassured him. He dug his fingers into her sides.
“No, arañita, you’re-” He paused, trying to calm himself down before he spoke. “You’re going to the med bay. And you’re not leaving until they say you’re okay.” His tone was firm, harsh, and the both of them remained silent as he brought her back to HQ.
Tags: @leahnicole1219 @heubstr
#miguel o'hara#atsv miguel#miguel spiderman#miguel spiderverse#miguel x reader#miguel fanfic#miguel smut#miguel x oc#spiderman 2099#spiderman 2099 x you#spiderman 2099 x reader#spiderman x reader#spiderman fanfiction#spiderman 2099 fanfiction#atsv fanfiction#across the spiderverse
23 notes
·
View notes
Text
- tobias ‘he’s an idiot but by luck he’s my idiot’ foxtrot carrying off the love of his life in a box b/c he pulled the runeterran equivalent of nearly throwing hands with a 13 year old fhsjkadlfhsjdkahfkjsadhf
like ooooh this is going straight into the long, long, long list of blackmail he’s accrued over the years (tbf graves probably has his own equally long list on him in return it’s fine)
- this is mostly funny but I also find it kind of touching just how desperately graves jumps towards T.F. at the end there haha. turn into little creecher? go to bae he fix
the less glamorous way to go down on one knee for your man but needs must
- (this is more of a canon-wide thing but graves always defaulting to ‘we’ like that’s how deeply he sees them as a Team/unit? also still very touching to me)
- there’s a part of ‘on the way to piltover’ where lulu is involved and that fic just became even more amazing with the idea that this is how they already knew her fsakjdfhas (it’s a great fic series, go read it if you haven’t already!)
-
bye u gay losers
I LOVE that even after all that they’re still waving them off all friendly like ‘good luck with the dumbass husband, see ya!’. (also SO GOOD that tf/graves is the character duo the writers pull out when they need someone who’ll do some morally questionable stuff without there ever being any feeling of real threat or malice, if only because they’re too incompetent hahaha. just a pair of ineffectual bumbling comedy protagonists mostly interested in a) money and b) each other, tulio and miguel indeed)
- interesting that this is rat town, so it’s around where graves grew up! on the outskirts/down towards a harbour, I’m guessing, most of the vibe of the rest I’ve read about the place indicates something a bit more huddled and dark and slum-like
- fun little detail: tf is reading his cards at the beginning:
and he’s already gathered them up and is ready to leave when lulu arrives like 30 seconds later haha. trickster boyyyy (if you pay attention to his face when he says “you got” that is also VERY much an expression that says ‘honey we fucking tALKED ABOUT THIS already WHY do you never listen’ lol)
-
their matching movements here are so subtly amazing -- first tf extending his hat towards graves with the ‘I told you so’ smugness and then graves faintly copying the same gesture towards Giant Lulu like ‘you’re helping me out here, right???’. and for all that this is so completely a comedy short and it’s not all that deep... the feeling at first that tf left him there on his own like another sort of mini-betrayal, only for it to turn out he was actually focused on saving him the entire time, and he doesn’t even care about any of the rest? such a good little emotional through line for how a bunch of their relationship works these days while they’re building the trust back up, it’s kind of sweet (like I KNOW it’s absurd to get a bit emotional over it while graves is transformed into a little comedy critter for the duration, but that sense of him just like barelling towards safety and Home in tf and them walking off together? both hilarious and also I’m like :’) that’s Partnership babey)
- when he’s getting up graves actually gets the serape tangled over his head and he needs to shove it off with his arm ffaskdhfsd
- I know the actual reason is that riot cannot for the life of them decide how yordle lore actually works and also, again, it’s just a comedy short for the hijinks it doesn’t really matter, but I like to think that tf sees through the protective glamour yordles have around them either because he genuinely doesn’t mean them any harm or because of some card magic stuff, while graves sees through the glamour because he’s literally too dense and grouchy to see anything but what’s actually there haha. the magical equivalent of ‘that sign can’t stop me ‘cause I can’t read’
- nothing more to say here they just so dumb and pretty
(graves is so Lorge tho 👀)
- pls tell me these two get away from bilgewater before the ruined king unleashes his full babyrage, these are my emotional support idiot husbands don’t let anything bad happen to them
#tf x graves#twistedgraves#league of legends#you should have seen my face when I saw the end of the shotgun I was like ':O is it -- it can't be -- but it IS!!'#I'm guessing they might have put in tf and graves here b/c they already had the models ready and everything after the last short#pardon the shitty youtube screenshots but they were the best I could do I am not good with tech lol
260 notes
·
View notes
Note
hey! thank you for everything that you do! you are awesome. im just wondering if you any fic were Stiles is fae? thank you!
We sure do. - Anastasia
till the moon has taken flight (to the waters and the wild) by WindyRein
(5/10 I 1,426 I Not Rated I Steter)
It's not fair! But he knows already that life isn't fair, doesn't he? He can feel the bitter smile curling his lips.He, if there is such a thing anymore, floats and is torn apart and doesn't exist. (but that would be kind, wouldn't it?)
Bloody Secrets by cywscross
(1/1 I 3,085 I Teen I Steter)
Stiles has silver in his veins.
Peter could’ve done without finding out this way though.
Somewhere to Start by Lissadiane
(1/1 I 3,352 I Teen I Sterek)
Stiles has always known that he isn't quite human - the plant life that tends to sprout around him whenever he gets upset or excited gives it away. He's never really fit in among the regular people in Beacon Hills and is determined to wait it out, go to college, and find somewhere to belong. He's forced to abandon those plans, however, after he desperately agrees to enter into an arranged marriage to save his father's life.
An arranged marriage with an angry, sometimes furry dude with trust issues. It's all very Beauty and the Beast, without the singing candlesticks.
Dance Under the Moonlight by Therapeutic_Steter
(2/2 I 3,440 I Mature I Steter)
Fae!Stiles saving Peter from Pack's stupidity and washing his hands of them. Please?
The Other Side by Green
(1/1 I 3,769 I Explicit I Steter)
Stiles doesn't know anything about his father, only what his mother told him, that he's human. Despite her words, Stiles has had his doubts. So when the queen sends him through the veil, he's nervous and isn't sure what to think.
Seven Years Falling by InfiniteAlexisA
(1/1 I 3,880 I Not Rated I Sterek)
“I don’t mean to!” Derek yelled throwing his hands in the air.“DON’T YELL AT ME!” Stiles screeched, his entire body going up in flames.This is what Derek gets for dating a fire elemental.
we're not so different (you and i) by colferstilinski
(1/1 I 5,621 I Explicit I Sterek)
For many of the fairies that lives here, Utopia is their sanctuary—haven, in other words—and why shouldn't it be? It never rains on this stretch of meadow, the clouds in the skies always pink with interest and it smells like the breaking of spring every dawn and dusk.
Stiles detest it, the least to say.
It’s too much and he hates swinging along with the status quo with the other fairies. Yeah, with their blooming shades of colours and the shimmering, silken tunics they don on and fuck, the limitless sparkles. There’s even a new trend going on with the younger generation where they gather allium blooms to form a flower crown, oh—with added glitter!—and it makes Stiles wants to roll his eyes.
-
Or the fic in which Stiles is a fairy and wants to escape the horrendous, boring world of fairyland to have an adventure. And by adventure, he means meeting Derek. The plant. Or... not-so plant.
Cold Iron by the_problem_with_stardust
(5/5 I 5,641 I Teen I Sterek)
Derek thought the disaster that ended with Kate Argent almost burning down his family home was a relationship worst-case scenario. So, when Dr. Deaton reveals that his current girlfriend is not what she seems, Derek is ready to swear off romance forever. In an attempt to escape his well-meaning (but insanely overbearing) family, Derek volunteers to take over remodeling the small cottage that was left to the Hale siblings in his grandmother’s will. Connemara is nothing like California, and Derek feels like his luck just might be looking up.
salt and a waltz by The Byger (Byacolate)
(1/1 I 7,433 I Explicit i Sterek)
"Not that lubed-up Q-tips aren’t the sexiest thing in the world, but I kinda want to know what it’s like, you know. To be impaled on your huge dick without actually being impaled.”
“It was about to get sexy there, but you shot the mood right in the face.”
In which Stiles is a faerie and Derek is sick and tired of not being able to fuck him.
Don't You Wanna Be My Sky? by WhoNatural
(1/1 I 9,420 I General I Sterek)
Stiles got ratted out by the Realm Guard for sneaking off with Scott a total of seven times before his dad buckled, promising sabbatical once Stiles reached Faehood, and enough Earth culture in the meantime to have him talking like a born-and-bred Californian teenager.
He just didn’t have the tan.
(Or, in which Stiles is a Frost Fae sent to the Earth Realm on the Fae version of Rumspringa and immediately falls head-first into a Coffee Shop AU)
No Love in Idleness by Elpie (Horribibble)
(2/2 I 11,687 I Explicit I Sterek)
Stiles is the sole grandchild of none other than Robin Goodfellow, the most mischievous faerie ever to wreak havoc among the Folk and Man alike. To the people of Beacon Court, he is at best a merry wanderer of the night.
At first, Ser Derek is inclined to agree, but the little bird on his shoulder has quite a bit to say about that.
Trees are always a relief after dealing with people (except when they aren't) by ravelqueen
(1/1 I 15,889 I Mature I Sterek)
Derek Hale decides to become a hermit before he reaches 25. Too bad he picked Beacon Hills as his retirement home.
(Or the one where Stiles is a wood nymph/pixie/human hybrid who falls in love with his new grumpy werewolf neighbour)
Broken People Get Recycled by poemwithnorhyme
(1/1 I 16,389 I General i Sterek)
Nothing is ever just calm in Beacon Hills. No, something always has to go wrong, and this time, it's Stiles' turn in the spotlight. That doesn't mean he has to like it. Post S2 AUFae!Stiles
The Magic's in the Coffee by xxxillusionxxx
(8/8 I 17,596 I Explicit I Sterek)
Ever since the tall, muscled, leather-clad werewolf had begun his daily coffee routine at the Skullery—a horrendous name in Stiles’s opinion, but his boss was a skeleton who thought he was terribly clever—an impromptu competition developed among the baristas.
When Trust is Everything by hellbells
(12/12 I 27,913 I Teen i Sterek)
For a secret to remain true then only one person can know it; if not then it will come out. Beacon Hills is the converging point of several secrets all wrapped up in the supernatural. For Stiles, the unravelling of several will let him find peace, love and safety in the arms of his true mate. The only question is can he trust a Sourwolf and his pack well enough to show his true self.
It just might be the one thing between Beacon Hills and safety!
(Or observe the really awkward distrustful courtship between a Sourwolf and a hidden Fae Mage)
A Little Bit of Sunshine by 100KlicksAway
(21/? I 29,600 I Mature I Sterek)
Stiles woke with a start, dreams of pixies flitting around his head. He’d dreamed… He’d dreamed that he was a wolf? Or…. He wasn’t sure. Something with fangs… His mouth had been dripping blood in his dream, and when he woke, he could still taste the thick copper taste coating his mouth.
Stiles has been working hard for the pack since Scott was bitten. They leave him out more and more frequently, though, until Stiles realizes that he's strictly unnecessary. Then, the pack's activities throw him into danger and he ends up in a shitty situation with no one helping him.
Stiles leaves Beacon Hills. He doesn't care anymore, he just... Needs out.
The Last Chills of Winter by LeeHan
(1/1 I 42,525 I Explicit I Sterek)
“He didn’t magically charm me,” Derek shot back in his defense.“Oh, so he just regular charmed you?” Laura said with a smirk.“What? No,” Derek growled.“Was he hot?”“No! He just—“ He just had a laugh like a sun shower. Fuck.
We Follow Darkness Like a Dream by GreenasCole
(10/10 I 51,106 I Mature I Sterek)
When a mysterious note is left on the Stilinski's door it leads Stiles and his best friend Scott out into the woods on quest for answers about Beacon Hills's most infamous tragedy. After a surprise encounter with a monstrous wolf the two boys are hurled into an ancient and terrifying world, only for Stiles to discover he was secretly a part of it all along. Will he manage to survive the insanity of Fae politics and avoid the enemies that are suddenly crawling out of the woodwork to find a place in this new world? Or will the very revelation of his existence be the catalyst that plunges both worlds into war and chaos? And why can't Scott just stop teasing him every time he catches Stiles looking at their new "friend" Derek too long?
Laughter in the Dark by Starshaker
(13/? I 56,148 I Mature I Sterek)
Stiles is a fae. A trickster spirit with too much curiosity for his own good and a knack for getting into trouble. When he's just trying to help things don't go to plan and coincidences don't seem to end up for the better.Trapped, isolated and aching to get home, though it's better than what Gerard would have had planned for him initially, Stiles learns to deal with his new set of circumstances.
The Fairy's Wolf by kuki
(57/? I 90,602 I Explicit I Sciles)
In a world where non-humans mingle with humans in public schools until they became of age, about high school age, going instead to a specialty finishing school, a young halfling fae fights to stay with his friends. His fear of losing touch with his best friend, a young Alpha werewolf, has the pair pushing their relationship to the edge; and their relationship has the world on the brink of war.
-or-where I apparently ship Skittles hard now, hate myself with this work load on top of my school work, switch up species because f-u that's why, make up mythology, and try to give Derek a nice life.
Where You Still Remember Dreaming by yodasyoyo
(15/15 I 95,612 I Explicit I Sterek)
“What’s your name? I can’t keep calling you Balto.”
“What’s yours?”
“Stiles.”
Derek raises an eyebrow. That isn’t his real name. There’s no way. But now he thinks about it, he has a vague memory of someone, probably Uncle Peter, telling him that with the fae, names have power. “I’m Miguel,” he says.
“Lie.”
“Are you trying to tell me your real name is Stiles?”
Stiles runs his tongue across his teeth and considers Derek carefully. “Fair enough,” he says, “Miguel it is.”
Grabbing his groceries and pocketing the change, Derek turns to leave; he’s nearly at the door when Stiles calls out, “By the way, Miguel, if you’re interested, it’s two for one on bags of kibble at the pet store down the street.”
Derek doesn’t look back, doesn’t hesitate, just raises a hand and flips him off on the way out.
205 notes
·
View notes
Photo
DOUBLE BONUS BLUE
So my sister @feral-deer went to Disneyland Florida for her honeymoon (and frankly just in time it seems x.x) and she brought me back an Alebrije as featured in the movie ‘Coco’. She even picked out the most ‘dinosaur looking one’ for me she said. XD
But...I’d never seen Coco! I had actually avoided it as I felt it was Disney stealing form ‘The book of life’. But I had heard some good things and my sister lent me the DVD before the lock down. This way I could understand where my ‘Spirit Guide’ creature was about (TECHNICALLY they’re a Mexican art from developed in the 1930s but I do like how Disney entwined them into something more spiritual).
He sits on my coincidental skull shrine.
So here is my little dino. I feel like maybe it should have been more angular and more of a ‘dinosaur meets a flowery armadillo’ thing. Maybe I’ll, come back to it later.
As for Coco...(long-winded babble below about the film and belated spoilers).
Well it is a good film, it’s got heart to it and the titular ‘Coco’ was wonderful. I enjoyed the songs, the visuals and it’s perfectly serviceable as a classic Disney film. And has a real heart-warming ending and a good touch on how life exists through memories. it’s definately worth a watch if nothing else.
But they totally stole the base story form ‘The book of life; and it shows. ‘The book of life’ was pitched to Pixar first and it was initially rejected and considering Disney tried to trade mark ‘Dia de los Muertos‘...yeah they’d totally do something like that.
Overall the feeling from those who worked on ‘The book of life’ was ‘Hey! You get two cakes!’ in regard to Disney also making a day of the dead film so there is no hard feelings it seems (asides form aforementioned trade mark).
This website does a great job of showing the similarities and differences and shares my overall feelings about the films:
https://sweetanimatedfilms.wordpress.com/2018/01/21/coco-vs-the-book-of-life/
But Coco had these unresolved or unclear bits that felt like they came about because they were piggybacking.
- Miguel sort of...falling into the land of the dead. No reason given. The dead family briefly suggest it’s because he stole from the dead and is now ‘cursed’ but it’s super glossed over. @scifer and I think it's because the idea of a family member playing music is ‘cursed’. Miguel sort of drops lines like ‘I’d play even if I die” and “I’ must be cursed” through the intro. But Disney films are usually more on the nose than that. In ‘The book of life’ the main character is killed in order to get to the land of the dead. It felt like Disney couldn’t have a child dying but wasn’t sure how to approach it otherwise.
- The dead have these Alebrije animal spirit guides...sort of. They only feature here and there and it’s not clear why they have them. The dead in this world don’t seem to make a ‘journey’ or have trials they have to go through. Its almost like normal-life in fact (complete with bureaucracy!). So why do they need a guide? Where was Hector guide? Pretty sure he needed one! They were such a cool idea but felt really under utilized.
Heck- Dante (who turns out to BE an Alebrije - which make sense as the breed were meant to be guides for the dead) could have dragged Miguel into the land of the dead to help Hecktor, who Dante is meant to be guiding to peace in the afterlife. There. Fixed two points.
- Finally, the ending has the bad guy get his posthumous comeuppance in the living world and the family get over their 50-YEARS OR MORE utter HATRED of music. How? How did Miguel explain or find evidence of that one? I thought they were going to show Miguel finding his dads song book in the tomb or something like that.
When he lost his dad’s photo and I thought it would have been good (and even a bit dark) if Coco never regained her memory of her father, but instead remembered who Miguel is. Then she gives Miguel a secret earlier song book (or even hidden letters with songs) belonging to her father Hecktor. With the evidence he wrote the songs, and was coming home; and the family along with the towns folk then remember Hecktor more fondly. Thus giving him more ‘life’...in the afterlife (and then punish Ernesto de la Cruz by abandoning his shrine because they agree there must have been ‘foul play’).
I don’t know. I am throwing muddy ideas at the walls here. Disney films need the bad guy losing and the heroes ‘winning’- it doesn’t have to be perfect story wise (but it should be >8O ).
All this is serviceable in the terms of a Disney film and doesn’t out right break the plot, but they stood out to me. This is not to say that ‘The book of life’ doesn’t have its deus ex machina moments, but it felt like the plot was more thought out and grounded. It also had the excuse that it was a story being told by trickster gods to modern day children.
Speaking of which- when is present day Coco supposed to be based time period wise? Miguel had video tapes of 50′s-60′s films, so was this the 80′s?
17 notes
·
View notes
Text
13 Not-So-Scary Movies to Get You in the Halloween Spirit!
Contributed by Kris Rustic, host of Obscure Anomalies podcast
Halloween is around the corner. Everywhere you look a horror movie is playing. For me, I love it. There is just something about being scared while knowing full well you are safe. But not everyone is into that sort of thing. My wife is one, so I tried to find lists of not-so-scary movies but was having trouble coming up with one, so I decided to write my own.
Please keep in mind, I did try to keep the list more kid and family friendly.
13. HOCUS POCUS
300 years have passed since the Sanderson sisters were executed for practicing dark witchcraft. Returning to life, thanks to a combination of a spell spoken before their demise and the accidental actions of Max, the new-kid-in-town, the sisters have but one night to secure their continuing existence. With the help of his younger sister Dani, his high school crush Allison, and a magical cat, it is up to Max to save the children of Salem.
A must see on any Halloween movie list. Full of light-hearted humour, this film is loved by people of all ages.
Watch it: Amazon Rent or Buy
12. CASPER (1995)
Furious that her late father only willed her his gloomy-looking mansion rather than his millions, Carrigan Crittenden makes a plan to burn the place to the ground. That is, until she finds a map leading to a treasure hidden under the house. But when she enters the rickety mansion to seek her claim, she is frightened away by the mansions ghostly inhabitants. Determined to get her hands on this hidden fortune, Crittenden hires afterlife therapist Dr. James Harvey to exorcise the ghosts from the mansion. Harvey and his daughter Kat move in and soon Kat befriends Casper, the ghost of a young boy, who is “the friendly ghost.” But not so friendly are Casper’s uncles--Stretch, Fatso and Stinkie--who are determined to drive all “fleshies” away. It is up to Harvey and Kat to help the ghosts cross over to the other side.
I may get some flack putting Casper this high up on the list, but hey, to each their own. Casper is a fun little film filled with the right amount of supernatural scares placed inside a package that every age can enjoy.
Watch it: Starz; Amazon Rent or Buy
11. THE WITCHES
While staying at a hotel in England with his grandmother, Helga, young Luke inadvertently spies on a convention of witches. The Grand High Witch reveals a plan to turn all children into mice through a magical formula. When they find that Luke has overheard, the witches test the formula on him. Now, with the help of his grandmother and new friend Bruno Jenkins, Luke the mouse must fight back against the evil witches.
Based on the book of the same name, The Witches is a classic. This may be one of the more frightening films on the list but is still children-friendly. Besides, who doesn’t want to save the world as a mouse.
Watch it: Amazon Rent or Buy
10. THE MONSTER SQUAD
The Monster Squad is a club of friends who idolize the classic monster-movies, especially their non-human stars. One day, Dracula, the Mummy, Frankenstein’s Monster, and other classic horror icons, all of which the club idolize, arrive in town in search of a magic amulet to destroy all the good in the world. It is up to the five friends to save the amulet from destruction and use it to cast the monsters into limbo.
One part The Goonies, one part Ghostbusters, and one part Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, the Monster Squad is a true cult classic that was way ahead of its time.
Watch for yourself and find out if the “Wolfman has nards.”
Watch it: Amazon Rent or Buy
9. BEETLEJUICE
Adam and Barbara are like every other happily married couple -- who just happen to also be dead! Before they died, Adam and Barbara had spent their vacation to decorate and make the house their own, that is, until the fatal car crash. Unfortunately, a new family is moving in, and not quietly as they make plans to redecorate the house with the help of an interior designer. Adam and Barbara try to scare them out, but end up becoming the main attraction to the money making family. They call upon Beetlejuice to help, but Beetlejuice has more in mind than just helping.
While having a special place in my heart for taking place in Connecticut, Beetlejuice is an all around classic starting Michael Keaton and a young Winona Ryder.
Watch it:: Amazon Rent or Buy
8. PARANORMAN
Norman Babcock has the ability to speak with the dead -- and he often prefers their company to that of the living. Norman learns from his estranged uncle that a centuries-old witch’s curse on their town is real and about to come true -- and only Norman can stop it. When zombies rise from their graves, Norman and his ragtag team must summon all their courage and compassion to the limit to save his fellow townspeople. Taking place in the fictional town of Blithe Hollow, this stop-motion film is a beautiful take on the Salem Witch Trials.
I have to admit, I slept on this movie when it first came out. I had no interest in it at all, but then I watched it and became an instant favourite. The humour is a little more blue for a “children’s” movie, but the lesson learned in the end is valuable for all involved. Did I mention it is also well known for being the first mainstream animated film with an openly gay character?
Watch it: Sadly it is not available for streaming on Amazon, Netflix, or Hulu at this time, due to licensing agreements
7. FRANKENWEENIE
Young Victor Frankenstein is a science nerd and an outsider at school, but he does have one friend, his dog Sparky. Sadly, tragedy strikes, taking Sparky away from Victor. Heartbroken, Victor is given an idea of how to bring Sparky back to life. The experiment is a success and everything goes fine, that is, until his fellow students learn of his secret and use it to resurrect their beloved lost pets. Frankenweenie is a heartwarming tale of a boy and his dog, and the lengths we would go to keep our beloved friend.
I consider Frankenweenie to be the sister movie to ParaNorman. Both are stop motion and came out in the same year. The difference is Frankenweenie takes you back to the classic universal horror icons in a brand-new way. Did I mention it is in black and white and has that classic monster movie feel?
watch it: Rent on Youtube
6. NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS
What happens to the Pumpkin King when he tires of being just that, the King of Halloween. Jack Skellington is bored of the same annual routine of scaring the people of the real world. One day, he stumbles upon Christmastown, full of bright colours and warm spirits, bringing a new lease to Jack’s life. He plots to bring Christmas under his control, only to find that the best-laid plans of mice and skeleton can go awry.
Originally I intended only one movie per director, but I don’t think you can begin to discuss family friendly Halloween without Tim Burton, especially because you cannot have a Halloween list without Nightmare Before Christmas. In all fairness, this is the perfect movie to finish out the year with.
Watch it: Amazon Rent or Buy
5. COCO
Miguel dream of becoming a musician, just like his idol, Ernesto de la Cruz. The problem, his family has a generations-old ban on music. Desperate to prove his talent, Miguel steals Ernesto’s guitar and finds himself in the colourful Land of the Dead. With the help of a charming trickster named Héctor and Miguel’s dog Dante, Miguel must find his way back home, meanwhile learning the truth about his family’s past.
All bite. Coco is a Dia de los Muertos movie. I know some of you will complain that it is not a Halloween movie. Truth is, the spirit of Dia de los Muertos and Halloween are close enough for me to warrant inclusion into the list. The scenery and background is gorgeous, the story will tug at the heartstrings, and you will get to learn a little about the culture behind Dia de los Muertos, even if a bit Disneytized.
Watch it: Netflix
4. HALLOWEENTOWN
On Halloween, while Marnie is arguing with her mother Gwen, the kids’ grandmother Aggie comes to visit. Aggie wants to start Marnie’s witch training before her 13th birthday or Marnie will lose her powers forever. But there is another reason for Aggie’s visit. Something dark and evil is growing in Halloweentown, and Aggie wants help to defeat it. While Aggie and Gwen are arguing, Aggie uses magic, which Marnie observes. After Aggie leaves to return to Halloweentown, Marnie, Dylan and, unknown to Marnie and Dylan, Sophie follow her onto the return bus. Soon afterwards, Gwen follows the children to Halloweentown. While there, Aggie and Gwen are attacked by the dark force. Marnie, Dylan and Sophie have to race to get the ingredients to activate Merlin’s Wand to stop the evil and save Halloweentown.
A classic made for TV Disney movie, this film (and all sequels) are a perfect Halloween movie for all ages, and albeit a little cheesy at times. But who doesn’t love the occasional cheesy movie?
3. SCOOBY DOO AND THE WITCH’S GHOST
When the Master Gang Scooby meet a famous horror writer Ben Ravencroft (who may or may not be based off of Stephen King) during their last mystery, he invites them to his small hometown of Oakhaven, Massachusetts to join in the annual Autumn Fest. Ravencroft tells the Mystery Gang about the history of his ancestor, Sarah Ravencroft, who happened to be an evil witch and is supposedly haunting the town of Oakhaven. The gang decides to help the town and solve the mystery of the Witch’s Ghost.
This was tough to pick. We have Scooby Doo and the Ghoul School, Scooby Doo and Zombie Island, I mean honestly any Scooby Doo movie could fit. But I picked Witch’s Ghost for three simple reasons: takes place during the fall, witches, and the Hex Girls, a fictional all-female Goth Rock Band.
Watch it: Amazon Prime, Boomerang Channel on Amazon
2. MONSTER HOUSE
13-year-old DJ is obsessed with his creepy neighbour, Nebbercracker, and his eerie house. After all, rumours of his past have run rampant in the town. But one day, DJ and his friends witness the house come to life. Unable to find an adult that will believe him, and with Halloween vastly approaching, it is up to DJ and his friends to find a way to destroy the house before innocent trick-or-treaters meet their end.
At times, this film is a little on the frightening side, at least for the younger ones. The characters are well thought out and put together. While the animation is not ground breaking, it looks great and fits the movie perfectly. A perfect film for those looking for a fun, clean movie this Halloween.
Watch it: Amazon Rent or Buy
1. GOOSEBUMPS 2: HAUNTED HALLOWEEN
While collecting junk from an abandoned house, best friends Sonny and Sam come across an unpublished “Goosebumps” book. Opening it, they release Slappy, a mischievous talking dummy. Hoping to start a family, Slappy kidnaps Sonny’s mother and brings fourth all of his ghoulish friends (creatures and monsters from the Goosebumps novels) to life, just in time for Halloween. The sleepy town becomes overrun with monsters, witches, and other mysterious creatures. It is up to Sonny, his sister Sarah, and Sam to save their town, his mother, and foil Slappy’s plans.
Goosebumps (2015) is a pure nostalgia ride with a brand new feel and Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween is no different. Trading in some of the humor for a little more horror feel, the movie has a little bit to offer for everyone.
Watch it: Netflix
The truth of the matter is, this list is not perfect and may never be complete, but it is a great starting point to the ever growing list of the Not-So-Scary Halloween movies. I feel in writing this, I have left so many great films off, so I have a list of some runner up films that just barely missed being on my top 13.
RUNNER UPS
HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA
Dracula and the classic horror monsters are afraid of humans. In an attempt to take a vacation away from humanity, Dracula operates a hotel way off in the woods. One day, a brave human makes his way to the castle, where the human and Dracula’s daughter “Zing”.
ADDAMS FAMILY (1991)
A man claiming to be Uncle Fester, the missing brother of Gomez Addams shows up at the Addam’s household. The family is thrilled, however Morticia begins to suspect the man is a fraud as he cannot recall details of Fester’s life. With the help of a lawyer, Fester manages to get the Addams evicted from the home. Can the Addam’s family save Uncle Fester? Can they get their home back?
DOUBLE DOUBLE TOIL AND TROUBLE
The Farmer family is in debt and might lose their house. The Farmer Twins discover the somebody mean and shrewd is responsible for all the family problems. The determined twins try to trick at their evil aunt out of her magic moonstone to save their family home.
THE ADVENTURES OF ICHABOD AND MR. TOAD
Two animated adaptations of classic literature adapted by Disney make up this film, which is the only reason it made the runner up list as Mr. Toad, while good, has nothing to do with Halloween. However, in the “Legend of Sleepy Hollow” the gangly schoolmaster, Ichabod Crane, falls for the beautiful Katrina Van Tassel. Caught in a love triangle with Katrina and Brom Bones, Ichabod fears the local legend of the Headless Horseman. Is the legend more truth than lore?
ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS MEET THE WOLFMAN
Alvin loves monsters and monster movies, though he is terrified of them. Stuck with Werewolves on the mind, he believes his next door neighbour is one. Reluctantly, Simon helps Alvin investigate the neighbour. Meanwhile Theodore is bitten by a strange dog, and finds his inner “inner monster” and starts behaving like a werewolf himself.
Did I miss your favourite Not-So-Scary Halloween movie? Let me know what it is in the comments below.
_________________________________
Enjoyed this piece of high strangeness? Share it with your world!
#halloween movies#family movies#not scary movies#halloween#halloween spirit#movie list#top 13 halloween movies#top halloween picks#halloween for everyone
9 notes
·
View notes
Text
ROTTMNT: Human AU, some design HCs and random HC
@bootyyshaker9000 This is so long i'm so sorry i just gonna make a post about it i don't wanna flow your dms or anything, so I wrote this down in paper and in spanish so forgive me if my english is shitty and it took so damn long, btw HI!!!~ How you doing honey?
My Heart Ache a Lot (cuzhessopreciousicantbrah)
~ My son Mikey I can't let anybody hurt you. (Btw, Leon call him Miguelito). He struggles a little with puberty, mostly with ocasional acne. His brothers constantly remind him of being careful to not get scars from pinching the pimples obsessively.
~ MIXED BRAH U CANT' TELL ME OTHER WISE, 1/2 cups of african-american and 1/2 cups of latino spice and PUFF yOU GOT CINNAMON ROLL THAT COULD ACTUALLY KILL YOU.
~ Cocoa skin (with that yellow undertone, you know?). Thin hair, curly, natural and the most bouncy-est(?) hair, a little above the chin lenght, tied up in a bun when he's busy making art.
~ Button nose, surrounded by some freckles. With really big, almond eyes. His face gets pinkish when it's to damn hot, he's doing to much work or is REALLY angry.
~ I think I gotta bring up how nice his smile is, he got that smile, that shows up just his upper teeth row, the upper lip disappears and it goes way up his cheeks and then it sinks in his dimples. Art.
~ Mikey ain't that young but his height, complexion and even facial features makes him look a lot younger in comparison to his brothers, he could be like 25 and ppl would still think he's in highschool, never aging ppl.
~Had this beautiful dreads, with the tips colored differently once in a while. Now he's growing his hair to have larger dreads, so he can paint em a different color each and have em in high up-do, like a rubberband ball.
~ Mikey would wear every fucking color, get the fuck away with toxic masculinity p l e a s e. Fits anything 10/10. But loves sports clothing (Matching ones are the BEST) he find's it refreshing and really comfy since Miguel is really active, so if he's needs to go usain bolt he GOES OFF and you can imagine sneakers don't last with him. Probably, every single piece of clothing he owns has at least a minor stain from some sort of paint.
~Wears headbands, sometimes really neat designs and then straight out "what the hell is this vomit stain garbage Mikey?" (from Donnie, mostly).
~ Has fake piercings. He's got several in his ears. He wants to have em for real, older brothers just keep telling him that "when he gets older".
Plus: We all know how the turtles are sneaky sneaky, tricky tricky and rad skillyz skillyz being ninjas but in this human AU his brothers got nothing on him like he's flexible as hell, he comes down the stairs like the exorcist bitch or that other bitch on the ring and scares the shit out of Leon and Raph, can touch his calfs with his neck that kind of stuff. And he doesn't run, he travels back to 1955 to save Marty McFly ass.
Leonardo DABinci
~ Not so long ago I made a post about how Leon is a Latino, quote:
"I can clearly see how Leon is totally a Latino. Like: thick wavy hair, with really small monolid eyes, and medium light skin (latinos know what the hell i'm talking about, those kids that get told they have "ojos de chinito" and rock the neapolitan tanning: caramel where the sunlight hits, milky way where it doesn't and pink when it's too much sun for the day) and then Donnie is this asian™ bean, so, sometimes they are mistaken as blood related brothers (Mostly cuz the eyez) and the stripes are the tanning y'all."
~ In addition, recently someone WOKE™ me up and reveled to me as in a prophecy, that Leon is Half-Chilenian, Half-Argentinian.
~ TBH yall, i just want my boy to do his thing and do them Fornite dances while some dope ass cumbias are playing, this is straight up my dream for real.
~Leon got those damn thick eyebrows more than Raph, plucks em to give em shape.
~Has a lot of scars. Leon is very active as Miguel but he is a troublemaker. Got several scars from fights: face, knees, knuckles, arms, legs. And that one time he came running to get his juice, slipped and smashed into the stove glass.
~Has wavy thick hair, keeps the top messy and fluffy and the rest shorter, undercut typo.
~LEON. USES. GLASSES. Period. But don't use em regulary, mainly cuz he's so active and sometimes clumsy and would rather not buy glasses everytime he goes out.
(Donnie, probably): "Leon, why don't you use your glasses? You are making your eyes even smaller trying to read that sign"
(Dumbo): "No, no! que dices weon? I only need the glasses when i'm reading!"
~Loves stripes in his clothing. In any shape and thickness.
~Low-key uses Donnie button up shirts because he does think Donnie looks so well in em, but he's a little more broad than him (Thicc bacc, bicc arms) so he had tear some up, or pop a button or too.
~Guy who would wear anything and don't give a shit if he doesn't have a defined style. One day he's with that graphic tee, flashy bermudas and some sandals and the other day using some jeans, saggy big sweater, a beret and some fine boots.
~ Loves boots more than sneakers. Got good traction with em. But no one can replace las CHANCLAS i'm telling you, he's so comfortable flipping & flopping.
~ He's hairy. Really hairy. Don't shave, except the faice. He's got that baby face and the trace of where the beard could be. It ain't that thick sandpaper beard aftershave tho, Raph taught him the tricks to the silk road.
~Them sideburns tho, neAT-O.
~He ain't got former training, just some random stuff he's learned from Donnie and Raph. Nontheless, he's the trickster and can go dirty on fighting just to save his ass. But sometimes, his big mouth saves his dumb ass from trouble. (2/100 times, the other 98 times it makes it worse)
~Plus: He's into parkour a lot. Takes Mikey out so he can tag some walls uphigh. These trips are the reason he gets in fights more than his other brothers, he's gotta stick out for his brother in case shit goes down, but mostly because he's a loudmouth and sometimes he deserves it cuz he starts the fire tbh.
The thing goes RAP - PHA - PHA
~ Raph, my soft boy. He still BIG™, ain't ripped like a physiculturist, gotta admit, abs are in fact chocolate abs but got a chunky yet funky tone to it. Big ass arms, to strong to carry my depression and smash all my worries.
~ Obviously African-American, I just imagine this warm undertone to his skin. Thick eyebrows (plucks out his unibrow, and nothing more, that natural angled eyebrow perfect as it is).
~ Hairy complexion (but not as hairy as Leo) to pull out a balbo beard, faded to his hair, then starts the faded high top, (not that high tho) with that cotton natural hair (raph is just my dream tbh).
~ My boy rocks denim everything. But got this particular worn off denim jacket he treats like one of his extremities. It's kinda saggy, old, several splashes of god knows what substances... But he wears it like the most precious thing, his brothers got him for his birthday, selling candy bars and other sweet goodies. Made him cry like a bitch.
~ Snaggletooth fang. I got this random HC that Raph got it in a fight with one of his brothers when he was younger. His first tooth after his decidious teeth, he was so happy, finally "maturing" in his words. In his younger years he struggled a LOT with angry issues, (mainly, as the oldest, he understood a little big more about the rejection above the city for mutants, and built up this feeling of despite).
One day, one of his brothers made him really fucking angry, they got in a physical fight, that ended with his crooked fang, but yet, Raph is BIG and he can't measure his strenght sometimes. Then, his brother is crying in pain, screaming how bad can he treat his brother, as if he didn't love them, just as the people above.
He wasn't angry cuz the teeth (cuz he showed it off, like it made him an adult already), he broke down because he was always feeling so damn angry, being the oldest and yet he was beating their younger siblings over some dumb shit and treated them like people in the surface would. Raph is challenged each day, when he sees his face in the mirror, with the tooth projecting outwards as reminder of all the rage he had to let go to protect their brothers, to make a change on his perspective and emotions, to keep their family and himself happy.
I think this mind set change was the thing that settled Raph as a leader. He got stronger, not physicially, but mentally and emocionally, for the sake of his family.
This HC can be translated somehow to the Human AU but i'm not sure the origin of Raph's rage yet.
~ Would wear any shirt that has anything he likes, PLUS if it is in red. He just loves red. He's the only one obvious with their color preference. Red caps, shirts, jackets, pants and tons of sneakers.
~ Likes jeans but loves that kind of bermuda cut shorts and not all the way down pants. He's got some C A L F S with capitals.
~ Luckily, he does wear matching socks. (We can't see Don's most of the time but Raph shows more leg so).
~Wrist wrist wrist wrist wrist wrist. Loves wrist accesories and probably would wrap around anything on his wrist.
~He's got that classic™ Rock Lee from Naruto bandages from training and work out and sometimes he's just to tired to take off the shin pads.
~Don't show em much but got some big ass brass knuckles in his pockets in case someone messes the fuck up with his brothers. (He would easily let go if it was just him, he's a master of templance, but be warned: not with his family)
Plus: Got one tatto, in his back, below the neck, this celtic rune (we know that celtic runes have several meanings, so he took one with various that would fit him) a Gebo, that can mean partnership, generosity and sacrifice.
DONNA TELL EM
~ For starts, Donnie is my asian bean. Creamy pale skin, monolid eyes, with that puffy under eyelid, of course noticeable dark circles, but he got that EYESMILE BOI. (You know that people who kept straight face but the eyes are just screaming happiness??? That kind of eyesmile)
~ Hair black, thin, straight cut (his hair is kinda wavy) at his shoulder's lenght, got that fade styling in the back tho, usually wrapped in a high ponytail/bun. (Mikey loves to mess with his hair).
~ He's got that thin eyebrow hair, so, he fills em up to make them thicker, so gives him more of an assertive feature. (Also he is jealous of Leo and Raph eyebrows, nontheless edge so sharp to cut a bitch) Got that hairless complexion so not much about facial hair.
~ Obviously keeps them THIGHS™. (So far, to me their complexion on the show is the same as in the human AU so... ) Jeans were invented to the sole purpose to fit Donnie so well.
~To wear, jeans are a go to, but damn sweatpants comfy AF. Big old sweatshirts, swearters and hoodies. Underneat, digs button shirts, short or long, never with flashy prints, yet some minor deco, (to him is all in the elegance....). Raph and Donnie share an interest on sneakers, so he can wear like 1 hoodie for 10 days straight but a different sneaker each.
~But wears missmatched socks like the fuck out of here BOI, looking neat and clean and you come out with this yeeyee ass bullshit.
~ Donnie hides the fact that he's riPPED under the hoodies and sweatpants often, (he's tall as shit and his brothers calling him spagethi bOI don't help much) so people make the assumption he's the weakest of his brothers. He's the only graduated on black belt on Karate and knows his shit on MMA. On his younger years he was indeed saved many times by Raph's strenght, Mikey's swiftyness and Leon's cunning. This "being the weak" complex got to his head and started training solo. His brothers are amazed of Donnie's self-improvement and he often disguises it as the "i did it so i wouldnt be the weakest, you better watch out when i supass yall" but they all know he suffered inmensely seeing his brothers hurt because of him, so if they go down he does too, to protect them.
Plus: Complementary headphones with neon designs, blasting nightcore, dubstep and DnB songs with every Donnie purchased.
BG:
In my AU, these kids grew up really poor. They learned the value of hardwork since they were really young. Like in the Teetle Universe, people see them as misfits. Especially, because they are a "patched up family" (they are not blood related) and being looked down by the economic factor, mostly.
They got some real internal issues. But, the only thing that keeps them sane is how tight their brotherhood is.
Donnie and Raph have a job and go to college. Struggle a lot with their younger siblings rebellious stage.
Leon and Mikey go to highschool and do some baked goodies or art comissions to have some sort of income. Ain't fond of school that much, real troublemakers.
April it's a freshman in college and has much more accomodated life, but somehow, she's always felt she doesn't belong to anywhere, until she meet our boys. April learns a lot of life hardships while hanging out with em.
This would be, basically the series:
April meets this guys, this is sort of a slice of life anime, with lots of comedy and fun shots, however it develops around April learning valuable lessons that will help her as an adult, about friendship, loyalty, respect, empathy and kindness, after all the things the boys are going through.
I'm not sure how am I gonna accomodate Splinter in this, but eventually I'll figure it out.
I'm not got at drawing but i'm gonna try to make some of their designs.
48 notes
·
View notes
Photo
—Rosa Rivera, in the Land of the Dead <3
I'm not very fond of AUs, but there's a kind of fic in the Coco fandom that I really like a lot: retellings of the movie with a little divergence or some sort of role reversal/role switch.
Some of the fics I've read and enjoyed the most over these months are like this. Like Elegy, my very favorite, in which Imelda is the one who gets cursed in 1942, after Ernesto's death, and visit the Land of the Dead to find out the truth (Elegy isn't a retelling of the movie, but follows a similar plot). Or Shaken by How Long it Took, an actual retelling of Coco, but with an important canon-divergence: Miguel found the wedding photo of Héctor and Imelda years ago (with Ernesto as padrino) and he knows since the beginning Héctor is his great-great-grandpa. This fic is sooo sweet and heartwarming, because both Héctor and Miguel develop a beautiful relationship. Fluff and family bonding.
Other examples are The search for the Female Mariachi, with a role switch between Héctor and Imelda (so she was the one who left and the one who guides Miguel in the Land of the Dead). Or Miguel, a fic with a complex multi role swaps (still on-going). And I'm sure there are more that I've missed.
The last one I've read is Rosa's Journey, a fic that FINALLY follows a plot I was eager to find: Rosa's the one who goes to the Land of the Dead, instead of Miguel. I've been thinking about it a lot. How would've Coco been if the main character was Rosa? I got very excited with Rosa's Journey, though the role switch isn't just between Miguel and Rosa, but between Héctor and Imelda as well (she's the one who left, again). There's a completely new villain, too: Ernesto doesn't exists and Imelda's colleague is a woman named Earlina de Paula. I've loved this fic and, to be honest, it's been a pleasure to read a Coco retelling with female characters in all the main roles (except for Héctor, obviously).
But this last fic let me thinking… what about a Coco retelling in which the only difference is who goes to the Land of the Dead? I mean, what about a Coco retelling in which Rosa goes to the Land of the Dead, but there's no actual role switch? Miguel is the one who wanna be a musician, he's the one who runs away, he's the one who's about to steal de la Cruz's guitar… but then, Rosa follows him, catches him in the cemetery and almost by mistake gets cursed by picking the guitar for Miguel. How many things would've changed then?
The idea got stronger and stronger, because it's a kind of story I would love to read. Rosa loves music too, but she loves and admires her family. She despises her great-great-grandpa for being a jerk. She doesn't idolize de la Cruz. She's sassy, funny, smart, sharp. So what kind of relationship would she develop with Héctor, who's salty, sarcastic, has no more fucks to give and also despises de la Cruz? I mean… wouldn't they be the perfect duo?! I've realized the relationship between Héctor and Miguel in the movie is kind of tense most of the time, because the kid adores Ernesto and Héctor doesn't want to disappoint him but knows the true face of that fucker. But if the kid had been a bit warier about Ernesto, their bond could've been very different. And, let’s be honest: taking care of Rosa would remind Héctor of Coco ALL THE TIME.
So I couldn't help but start writing my own retelling, because I couldn't stop thinking about it. In this story, Rosa lives the adventure that was meant for her cousin. The motivations and relationships between characters are very different. She meets a family she loves, she finds herself forced to look for a great-great-grandpa she despises and joins a trickster who has a lot in common with her. And it's being a joy. I'm writing it in a row (7 chapters by now, I'm in the battle of the bands) and I'd love to post it when I finish. But I wanted to share a little bit, because I'm enjoying it very much. So, if you're interest, here's a sneak peek of chapter 4, when Rosa and Héctor meet each other :D
Before reading: please, remember English is not my mother tongue and this is actually the first time in my life I write fiction directly in English (instead of translating something previously written in Spanish). Though I've been a writer for 20 years now, I'm not good at English. This is the first draft and it hasn't been revised. I have no beta readers, either. So any kind of tip, feedback or whatever would be very appreciate. Enjoy! :)
(...)
She thought she had lost him in the crowd, but spotted him again very quickly. It wouldn’t be possible to get too far with that limp, though he strode across the gallery with firm determination. He was crumpling the officer's warning and throwing it aside.
"Hey! Hey!" Rosa sprinted to him. "You, err… ¡señor! Do you really know de la Cruz?"
The man huffed loudly and began to turn. "Yeah, who wants to—" Then he saw her and shrieked so stridently it seemed to echo around the whole hall. "Y-YOU'RE ALIVE!"
Forget the curse: she was going to die tonight by a heart attack. Blind by the panic rush, she grabbed the man by the suspenders and pulled him rudely into a near phone booth to get out of sight. He pressed himself against the farthest corner, still as scared as if he'd just found himself trapped there with a chupacabras instead of a girl. He seemed about to start screaming again and she was going to throw up, seriously, she was going to.
"Stop yelling, por Dios!" she demanded frantically. "Sí, I'm alive! And just in case you haven't notice, I shouldn't be here right now! I'm in a big trouble and need de la Cruz's blessing to go back home in the Land of the Living!"
"You need— You just— Wait, what?" He was babbling, but then frowned. "Wait there, that's weirdly specific…"
Rosa grunted in frustration, rolling her eyes to the ceiling. Okay, this needed a direct approach. "He's my… great-great-grandfather."
"He's your WHAT?!"
"STOP YELLING!" She shook him, so on edge she didn't even notice she was shouting herself. "I need his blessing now, okay? A family blessing! I just wanna know if you can help me or not!"
"Okay, okay, okay, wait." He waved a hand to shush her and looked aside, a deeper frown shadowing his face as he focused on his thoughts. Some very complex thoughts, it seemed. "Wait, wait, waitwaitwait…" He started tapping on his chin, as if trying to figure something out, and Rosa started tapping her foot impatiently.
"Look, I don't have much time."
"It can't… but what if…"
"Could you just answer my question, ple—?"
"Yes. Yes!" He brightened up and flashed a wide smile at her. "Yes, you're going back to the Land of the Living!"
"No, I'm not, if we spent the whole night here!" Rosa put her hands on her hips, but then noticed his wild expression and grimaced. This guy's mind seemed to be racing even faster than her own, no brakes. Perhaps he had already lost it in full. "Aaand now it's when I start regretting all of this…"
"Nononono, listen up, niña!" He bent down a little, snapping his fingers under her nose. "I can help you, but you can help me too! I can help you, you can help me, we can help each other, but most importantly, you can help me!"
"Whoa…" Rosa couldn't but stare at him, raising an eyebrow. "And I thought I was desperate…"
He narrowed his eyes and tilted his head, his shoulders drooping. "Oh, you've noticed? How sharp!" Okay, that sounded far too salty. "Desperate is my second name, chamaca, nice to meet you."
"That's not very comforting…"
"Hey, hey, hey, look at the bright side! Since I'm desperate to cross over, I'm also desperate to get you to go home! Take it as a guarantee of my honesty, I'll help you!"
She narrowed her eyes, too. The guy was really something, but he didn't seem dangerous, despite his ragged appearance. Rosa was used to identify and avoid creepy men; they all had some kind of energy around them that gave her bad vibes just by being close. But this one just looked like… Miguel. A taller, older Miguel, as harmless as her cousin. She knew she couldn't trust a stranger and she would keep her eyes open, but maybe this could actually work. She glanced at Dante, checking for approval, and the dog was so calm she relaxed a bit.
"Okay then, don Despair." She shot him a smug gaze. "And what's your first one?"
"Héctor." He smiled and offered her his hand.
"I'm Rosa." She shook it and kept the grip to pull him out the booth. "And we're going right now, because I'm chased."
"That's new." She could hear his frown even without looking at him. "Chased by whom?"
But there was no time for explanations. Rosa had just put her feet in the hall, when a well-known female voice called out her name from the distance. She finally spotted her family far away, rushing down the staircase of the upper platform. And the punch of stress and dread hit her hard again, making her heart jump and her stomach twist.
"¡Ay, Dios! Come on, come on, COME ON!!"
She pushed Héctor to the exit, ignoring his complaints, and the three of them bolted to the street. They zipped through the revolving doors so fast that several skeletons broke apart as they slammed against the glass. But she couldn't stop now. Rosa leaped down the steps of the stairway in pairs, with the clack, clack, clack of Héctor's footsteps tripping at her side. Dante passed them by and threw himself into the crowd that filled the place, disappearing between legs and skirts. Too many people, too many. Rosa collided with some passersby who yelled at her, and she babbled apologies and turned around again and again, increasingly disoriented and scared, surrounded by unknown skeletal faces and too bright colors. She was already panting frantically.
"Dante!" she cried out in distress.
"Don't get lost, chamaca!" And suddenly Héctor was at her side, one hand keeping his hat on his head and the other one gripping her wrist to drag her across the plaza. "Over there!"
Rosa had only two seconds to peek over her shoulder one last time, to the Station. She couldn't see her family anywhere. If something went wrong, how…?
Dios, what I am doing?
They rushed together down more stairs and loped off through a few side streets, in that never-ending getaway. At last, they reached an empty, arched alley, far darker and quieter. He finally let go of her hand there, puffing.
"Whoa, that felt like a breakout. You're chased by the authorities, by any chance?" He gave her a questioning look. "Not that I mind, you know, and I know better than to ask unpleasant questions, but this is—" He trailed off when he saw her face and his little smile faded. "Oye, oye, ¿chamaca?"
Rosa wasn't listening. With her back against the alley's wall, she fought to catch her breath, shaking. This was madness. What a mess. Her heart seemed to be fiercely beating in her throat, and she could still see Mamá Imelda's eyes on her with that furious frown. Oh, Dios, she had just run away from Mamá Imelda! From Mamá Imelda! Had she lost her mind? She gaped in horror and cupped her own face, panic bubbling inside her chest once more.
"Hey, chamaca!" Héctor was snapping his fingers again to wake her up. "You okay?"
Her last bit of self-control cracked. "Do I look like I'm okay?!" Rosa shouted in a high-pitched voice, hyperventilating now. "I'm frigging cursed and I'm in the frigging Land of the Dead and I have to find a frigging celebrity before sunrise or I'll be frigging dead and— Oh, Dios, I can see my finger bones already, I CAN SEE MY FRIGGING FINGER BONES!!"
"Rosa!" Héctor grabbed her shoulders and shook her slightly. "Calm down! No yelling, remember? Stop the 'frigging' thing. It's okay, you're gonna be okay. You looked so clear-headed a moment ago it was almost a bit scary, you know. I'm sure you can handle this. You have a plan, right? Just focus."
He talked as if she wasn't right before him in a full panic and he knew her since forever, both things untrue. But his voice was soothing and sounded very reasonable. It reminded her of Tía Victoria and the way she had calmed her down in the cemetery an… hour ago? Two? It seemed like a lifetime. You're a very sensible little woman with a lot of common sense inside that head… Would Tía Vico still think that way? She didn't think so. Rosa groaned and buried her face in her fists. Breathe in, breathe out. Dante pressed himself against her leg and nuzzled her thigh, whining. His warm was comforting, and her pulse began to steady. Yeah, panic wouldn't help her to go back home. She had to focus. She had made a decision and she had to think how many things were at stake. She had to keep cold-head and make this work, whatever it costed.
She had to get de la Cruz's blessing.
"Sí," she whispered finally, and then she straightened up and looked Héctor in the eye. "Sí, I have a plan."
"Great!" He smiled reassuringly. "We'll make it, chamaca. Don't worry, sí?"
Rosa nodded and swallowed. "Gracias. Sorry, I just…" She tried to elaborate, but gave up with a grunt. "That… pinche Miguel!"
"Miguel?"
"Mi primo." Rosa took off her glasses and pressed a palm over her eyes for a moment, praying for her headache to give her a break. "He was about to do a very stupid thing and I tried to stop him. Then I did a very stupid thing and got myself stuck in here. Everything's been a roller coaster since then, I feel as if running for hours. But enough of that. How do we get to de la Cruz?"
"Hey, hey, slow down!" Héctor looked suspiciously hesitant. "First of all, we should do something about all that… that…" He waved towards her, from head to toe. "All that flesh of you. We won't get far if you don't blend in, you need a disguise. Got any makeup or face paint? Something we can use?"
Rosa rushed to unzip her pockets and sighted in relief when she found her little brothers' face paint still there. She only had white and black, and the old red lipstick of Tía Gloria, but that was enough. Héctor gave her a nod of approval and led her up the alley, till they found some crates and took a seat. Dante sat by their side and watched them closely, so incredibly happy again. The dog had relaxed after fleeing the Station and seemed very at ease around the stranger. Rosa took it as a good sign. Even if Héctor was a trickster, he had made a point before: his priority was crossing over the bridge, that much was obvious, so it was unlikely he could mean any harm. There was no point in hurting the only person who could help you.
"Hold still, hold still," Héctor murmured, so focused on her makeup that Rosa straightened up and held her pose. The quietness was very welcome after all the stress, she didn't mind the pause at all. But it was also pretty surreal to be sitting there, with a skeleton painting her face just as Tía Gloria would've done if she hadn't ended in that crazy place.
Perhaps she had just knocked herself out by falling from de la Cruz's sepulcro and was hallucinating the entire thing.
She really hoped so.
A few minutes later, Héctor finally looked satisfied. "Ta-da! The perfect calaverita!" He took a small mirror out of his pocket and held it in front of her. Rosa put on her glasses again and whistled in disbelief, actually impressed. It was a regular calavera makeup, but he'd got creative with the lipstick and had drawn beautiful patterns in her cheeks and around her brows. "Wait, no hood?" he added, peeking over her shoulder to the jacket's back.
"Err… no."
Héctor sighed dramatically. "Ay, okay, your hair. Let it down, we must hide those ears."
Rosa obeyed and he quickly parted her hair in two halves for a twin braids hairdo. He worked so fast, so I-know-perfectly-what-I'm-doing, that she couldn't help whistling again. "You know, you look pretty skilled at braiding," she scoffed.
Héctor chuckled, though his smile seemed a little bittersweet. "I used to make a lot of braids, a long, long time ago. Got any other—?" Rosa held up a second rubber band before he asked for it. "Girls, always ready."
"I must, with this hair."
"This hair's gonna save your day, chamaca." He arranged the braids to cover her ears and put back her diadem as if crowning her. "Okay, ya está. That diadema will keep them in place. Collar up! Perfect, I think we're done. Just…" He looked thoughtfully at her legs. "We should get a skirt. Long to the ankles."
"Oye, how old are you?" Rosa complained, and put her hands on her hips again in annoyance. "Now you talk like my abuela!"
"If Ernesto is actually you're great-great-grandpa, I assure you I'm old enough to be your great-great-grandpa too." Héctor pouted and crossed his arms. "But the point is we can't paint your fleshy legs. Can you unfold that hem?"
Grumbling under her breath, Rosa tried to pull the cuffed hem of her capri jeans as down as she could. It was disturbing to see the curse creeping up her legs, her feet fully skeletal by then like ominous ankle socks.
"Okay, now listen to me, Rosa: this world is not much different from your own, so here are the golden rules." Héctor lifted three fingers. "Stay close, don't get lost and never follow any weird guy to any weird place."
She shot him a dry glare. "You serious?" she blurted out. "I'm in a really weird place with a really weird guy right now!"
"This doesn't count!" He waved a hand dismissively. "We have a deal! And I would never harm a fly, far less a little girl or any other human being."
"Right the kind of thing a weird guy would say." Rosa rolled her eyes. "Look, I can take care of myself, don't worry about that."
"Oh? And how you—?"
He couldn't finish. As fast as light, she took off one of her flats and swatted him hard in the cheekbone. So hard that his skull spun around. Héctor shirked and grabbed his head to stop it, looking at her with wide, dumbfounded eyes.
"You'll never see me coming." Rosa gave him a smug smile and a sassy shrug, before putting her flat on.
"That…" He was speechless. "That felt familiar…"
"Did it?" She raised an eyebrow. "How many women have hit you with their shoes?"
"Just one, but she hit hard enough to be unforgettable." For a tiny moment, he seemed about to smile fondly, but covered it with a cough. "Okay, okay, I trust you, so back to business! There's something important you must understand, Rosa. This place runs on memories. If you're well remembered, people put up your photo and you get to cross the bridge and visit the living on Día de Muertos." He put a hand on his chest with a tense smile. "As you've probably notice by now, that's not my case."
"You've never crossed over?" She frowned, getting serious.
"No one's ever put up my picture. But you can change that!" He took an old photo out from his inner pocket and handed it to her. It was black and white, with a young living Héctor who looked a very little older than her own big brother. His eyes were big and bright, and his smile seemed to cross his whole sharp-angled face. She scanned it intently, feeling that something was off but not getting what. Dios, how old actually was that guy? How old was he when he died?
"So… this is you."
"Muy guapo, eh?" he joked, waving his brows.
Rosa snorted. "So you want me to put up your photo on my family's ofrenda when I get home… in exchange of getting me to my great-great-grandpa."
"Well, yeah, about that…" Oh, no, that suspicious hesitation again. "Actually, de la Cruz is a tough guy to get to, and I need to cross that bridge soon. Like tonight. So, you got any other family here? You know, someone a bit more… ehh, accessible?"
Rosa stared at him, poker-faced. She couldn't think about her family without fretting again, but she couldn't afford another panic attack either. Héctor was really desperate; if he found out she'd just run away from her relatives, they would never make their way to de la Cruz. He could even try to take her back to the Station right away. So she hardened her look and narrowed her eyes, in what she hoped to look like an 'are-you-frigging-kidding-me' expression.
"What part of 'I need de la Cruz's blessing' you didn't get?" she hissed, trying her best to look offended. "Did you really think I'd be here if I had another option? It's de la Cruz's or nothing!" Rolling her eyes with a lot of drama, she huffed and pushed the photo against Héctor's chest. "I should've guessed you only wanted to get rid of me as soon as possible. Well then, don Despair! I won't bother you anymore, good luck with your bridge. Let's go, Dante!"
She stood up and strode away.
"Wha— Waitwaitwait!" Rosa was already half way to the alley's entry. "Argh! Okay, okay, niña, fine! Fine! I'll get you to your great-great-grandpa!"
Rosa stopped and waited while Héctor trotted towards her, limping. When he reached her, she flashed him a bright smile.
"Lead the way, guapo," she teased.
Héctor pouted again. "You're pretty terrible, you know that?"
And this time, she felt extremely proud.
#coco#pixar coco#coco fanarts#coco fanfics#my art#hector rivera#rosa rivera#let them have the abuelo-nieta relationship we all deserve XD
112 notes
·
View notes
Photo
For the week of 11 March 2019
Quick Bits:
Age of Conan: Bêlit #1 expands Marvel’s Conan franchise further with the beginning of this limited series featuring the early days of the notorious pirate Queen of the Black Coast. Tini Howard, Kate Niemczyk, Jason Keith, and Travis Lanham deliver a compelling story setting up the tragedy of Bêlit’s early life and her one-track mind for adventure on the high seas.
| Published by Marvel
Amazing Spider-Man #17, after two preludes (one branded, one not) and a simmering sub-plot of Taskmaster and Black Ant kidnapping the villains running for months, finally gives us part one of “Hunted” from Nick Spencer, Humberto Ramos, Victor Olazaba, Edgar Delgado, and Joe Caramagna. And it’s essentially more set-up. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still great, building anticipation for the hunt to really start in earnest, but it’s a slow build.
| Published by Marvel
Animosity #19 starts trying to pick up the pieces after the fall of the Walled City. There’s some very interesting questions raised regarding survival and existence from Marguerite Bennett in this one, as both the animals and humans try to figure out a way to bridge the divide.
| Published by AfterShock
Asgardians of the Galaxy #7 concludes this arc with Sera and the Ravagers, as they team up to help refugees and Ego, the Living Planet. I still think it’s weird to see essentially the movie version of Yondu in present day 616 continuity, but Cullen Bunn keeps this fun. I suspect that Sera/Angela fans will still be disappointed, though.
| Published by Marvel
Assassin Nation #1 is the exciting debut of this action thriller, somewhat in the vein of Skybound’s other title Die!Die!Die! mixing elements of extreme violence, action, and a bit of humour, from Kyle Starks, Erica Henderson, and Deron Bennett. It’s a damn good set up, immersing us into a world of assassins jockeying for a number one spot, screwing one another over and turning on them for the highest bidder, with two interesting hooks of “Chekhov’s Gun” trying to figure out who’s trying to kill him and Bishop searching for who killed his husband. Phenomenal art from Henderson, with some very inventive death sequences.
| Published by Image / Skybound
Avengers: No Road Home #5 takes it up another notch as the Avengers continue to battle against Nyx and her children, this time narrated by Scarlet Witch. The fight on Nightmare’s front gets particularly interesting as we see how scary Hulk has really become, along with a humorous fight between Hawkeyes. Sean Izaakse and Marcio Menyz really turn in some incredible artwork here. And the final scene is pretty savage.
| Published by Marvel
The Batman Who Laughs: The Grim Knight #1 isn’t something I was going to pick up, but I saw some gushing about it from people I trust and decided on a last minute purchase. Like the rest of the Batman Who Laughs mini-series, this is dark, giving us a “Batman” who picked up the gun that was used to murder his parents, and, though technically proficient, isn’t really for me. What I do really appreciate, though, is the artwork from Eduardo Risso and Dave Stewart. It is gorgeous, with Risso continuing to explore some of the softer, painted style that he’s used in Moonshine and Hit-Girl. It really is worth the price of admission.
| Published by DC Comics
Buffy the Vampire Slayer #3 continues to be one of my favourite comics each month. Jordie Bellaire, Dan Mora, Raúl Angulo, and Ed Dukeshire are presenting a story here that so perfectly captures the spirit and fun of the television series, while also just being a great original tale. It’s fun to see the old faces in new situations, but it’s also an enjoyable story in its own right, introducing us to the characters and tossing them into the chaos.
| Published by BOOM! Studios
By Night #9 gives us Jane’s mom’s history with Charlesco and more or less the origin of the portal and the experiment. It’s particularly interesting as John Allison, Christine Larsen, Sarah Stern, and Jim Campbell tell the story in the visual style of an early ‘90s comic. There’s even a nice little nod to the Marvel Bullpen in there.
| Published by Boom Entertainment / BOOM! Box
Calamity Kate #1 introduces us to Kate, Vera, Jade and a world of monster hunting in this debut from Magdalene Visaggio, Corin Howell, Valentina Pinto, and Zakk Saam. Between this, The Girl in the Bay, and the forthcoming Dark Red, I’m loving the higher profile that Howell is carving for herself. She’s a great artist with excellent versatility.
| Published by Dark Horse
Catwoman #9 is a fill-in issue from Ram V, John Timms, and Josh Reed that’s one part revenge tale and one part heist, resulting overall in one hell of a good single issue. There’s a nice sense of rhythm and pacing to the story that fits with the theme of the heist, with some great artwork.
| Published by DC Comics
Cover #6 brings what has been one of the most unique, ambitious, and inventive uses of the comics medium I’ve seen in a long time to a close, with a bit of conversation and some gorgeous art from Brian Michael Bendis, David Mack, Zu Orzu, and Carlos M. Mangual. It get even more meta this issue, along with the usual multi-layered storytelling that delves into the comics world.
| Published by DC Comics / Jinxworld
Cyber Force #9 more or less completes the gathering of the team, presenting a bit of a quiet moment to collect themselves before setting up a confrontation with Cyberdata. There’s some interesting soul-searching between Dominique and Ripclaw on whether or not with the change they’re still them. And, as usual, the art from Atilio Rojo is pretty much worth the price of admission on its own.
| Published by Image / Top Cow
The Empty Man #5 has some gorgeous artwork by Jesús Hervás and Niko Guardia, especially among the repeating cycles of the opening and closing scenes.
| Published by BOOM! Studios
The Flash #66 brings back the single issue Rogue profile format for an origin story of the original Trickster, James Jesse, from Joshua Williamson, Scott Kolins, Luis Guerrero, and Steve Wands. Great art from Kolins and Guerrero.
| Published by DC Comics
The Freeze #4 concludes the first arc, with a very satisfying reveal of the serial killer and confirmation on a few other ongoing plot threads that nicely serve as a hook for future arcs. I’m really enjoying this one. Dan Wickline, Phillip Sevy, and Troy Peteri are telling a very compelling story here about essentially rebuilding society from a very different form of cataclysm, with some wonderful character-building and enough intrigue to keep you on your toes.
| Published by Image / Top Cow
Grimm Tales of Terror #13 is one of the better recent issues, with Joe Brusha, Umberto Giampà, Fran Gamboa, JC Ruiz, and Fabio Amelia diving into the story of a true crime writer investigating a serial killer in Detroit utilizing the signatures of other famous serial killers. There are a few really nice twists throughout the tale.
| Published by Zenescope
Gunning for Hits #3 throws a few wrinkles into Martin’s plans for Stunted Growth and Brian Slade as Slade’s bodyguard, “Mr. Gladstone”, causes problems while trying to extort Martin. This continues to be a dense, but satisfying, read every month. It feels like Jeff Rougvie, Moritat, and Casey Silver are just packing in as much content as they possibly can.
| Published by Image
Hawkman #10 features a larger than life confrontation between Hawkman and Idamm. Bryan Hitch, Andrew Currie, and Jeremiah Skipper deliver nicely on that widescreen epic feel of the assault on London.
| Published by DC Comics
Hit-Girl Season 2 #2 gets up close and personal with the uglier side of Hollywood as Kevin Smith, Pernille Ørum, Sunny Gho, and Clem Robins continue their arc featuring the adaptation of Hit-Girl’s side of the story from Kick-Ass by the film industry. Things get a little complicated.
| Published by Image
House Amok #5 concludes what has been an excellent, mind-bending series exploring truth and delusion and the power of family, from Christopher Sebela, Shawn McManus, Lee Loughridge, and Neil Uyetake. This finale doesn’t give any easy answers and actually raises a few more questions, all with some gorgeous artwork from McManus and Loughridge.
| Published by IDW / Black Crown
James Bond: Origin #7 begins “Russian Ruse” with Ibrahim Moustafa and Roman Stevens taking over art duties, joining Jeff Parker and Simon Bowland in this tale of essentially piracy in the Barents Sea. Nice set up of the Russians’ duplicity here and an inept Commander not listening to Bond’s observations.
| Published by Dynamite
Justice League Dark #9 unleashes the Lords of Order against pretty much everyone, causing death and destruction as they try to “cleanse” reality of the chaos they think infests it. Between them and the Otherkind, things aren’t looking particularly cheery for existence. Incredible artwork from Alvaro Martínez Bueno, Miguel Mendonça, Raul Fernandez, and Brad Anderson.
| Published by DC Comics
Little Bird #1 is an experience. Darcy Van Poelgeest, Ian Bertram, Matt Hollingsworth, and Aditya Bidikar launch a dystopian future where a theocratic America seems to rule with an iron fist and a pocket resistance holds out in the Canadian Rockies. There’s a bit of a feel of Akira here, and Grendel: God and the Devil, maybe even a little Martha Washington, but still with its own unique elements and some seriously awesome art from Bertram and Hollingsworth.
| Published by Image
Livewire #4 concludes the first arc with a nice bit of soul-searching as Amanda comes to terms with what she did during Harbinger Wars 2. Between this, Age of X-Man: Prisoner X, and this week’s Shuri, Vita Ayala is definitely on fire right now. They’re doing some great character-driven work and it shines in this finale. Also, Raúl Allén and Patricia Martín can do no wrong. The layouts on this book are stunning.
| Published by Valiant
The Magnificent Ms. Marvel #1 is the beginning of a new era for Kamala Khan from Saladin Ahmed, Minkyu Jung, Juan Vlasco, Ian Herring, and Joe Caramagna. Using a kind of fable narration, setting up something new for the future while dealing with a continuation from Kamala’s current status in the presents, is a nice approach from Ahmed. It also marks a good jumping-on point for new readers as it recaps more or less what you need to know about Ms. Marvel’s history. Beautiful art from Jung, Vlasco, and Herring.
| Published by Marvel
Murder Falcon #6 is an epic, face-melting issue. Daniel Warren Johnson and Mike Spicer give us a bit of a tearjerker as Anne comes to terms with her situation with Jake and finally finds her voice. It’s really incredible. Also, giant monsters and metal.
| Published by Image / Skybound
Oblivion Song #13 jumps ahead three years for a new status quo, a few shuffled faces, and new situations for many of the cast of characters, providing an excellent jumping on point for new readers. There are some interesting bits about harnessing the flora and fauna of Oblivion for medical advances and the growing mystery about what the Faceless Men are doing. Gorgeous art as always from Lorenzo De Felici and Annalisa Leoni. De Felici really does some amazing reaction shots.
| Published by Image / Skybound
Old Man Quill #3 advances the Guardians’ story a bit further as they celebrate what little hope they’ve brought to the Wastelands, while hell in various forms circulates around them. It certainly pretty bleak, even in the good times.
| Published by Marvel
Outer Darkness #5 drops hell on the crew’s head as they crash on a relatively inhospitable ice planet with an ancient evil prowling and the crew at “Each Other’s Throats”. Also, naked cat girls. John Layman, Afu Chan, and Pat Brosseau are doing an incredible job with this mix of sci-fi and horror and the stakes seem to have been raised this issue.
| Published by Image / Skybound
Shuri #6 begins a two-part guest arc from Vita Ayala, Paul Davidson, Tríona Farrell, and Joe Sabino as Shuri travels to New York in search for the Lubber. Great art from Davidson and Farrell and Ayala has a wonderful feel for Miles and Shuri’s voices.
| Published by Marvel
Spider-Gwen: Ghost Spider #6 continues to suss out a new role for Gwen now that her identity is public and she’s returned to her own Earth. The character building that Seanan McGuire is doing here is pretty spectacular, especially given how strong the interpersonal relationships in the series were to begin with under Jason Latour and Robbi Rodriguez. Also, the art from Takeshi Miyazawa and Ian Herring is perfect.
| Published by Marvel
Star Wars: Age of Republic - General Grievous #1 is the last of these Age of Republic one-shots from Jody Houser, with Age of Rebellion coming next from Greg Pak and a rotating team of Chris Sprouse, Marc Laming, and others. This one focuses on Grievous and is a nice look into what he traded of himself in order to become the even worse monster that we see in the prequel trilogy and Clone Wars.
| Published by Marvel
The Stone King #4 concludes what has been a wonderful light fantasy adventure Comixology original series from Kel McDonald and Tyler Crook. There’s an interesting throughline in the story of responsibility for family versus responsibility for the greater society that comes to a head here, along with misunderstandings continuing to cause conflict. It’s not exactly a happy ending, but there is a set up for something more down the road that I’d love to see. Beautiful artwork from Crook.
| Published by Kel McDonald
Supergirl #28 concludes her jaunt with the Omega Men and the Supergirl clones, opening up more questions about The Circle and the destruction of Krypton. I’ve enjoyed the circuitous route Marc Andreyko has been taking us on to advance Supergirl’s mission, tossing bits of side adventure in growing out of her search, but it feels like we’re going to get down to brass tacks soon. Great art again this issue from Eduardo Pansica, Julio Ferreira, FCO Plascencia, and Chris Sotomayor. Pansica does some great horror and creature work and it shines through in the Kryptonian monstrosities.
| Published by DC Comics
Superman #9 tells of Jonathan’s ordeal trapped on Earth 3, tortured at the hands of Ultraman. Great art from Brandon Peterson and Alex Sinclair during the Earth 3 sequences. It’s also interesting to see that dream still haunting Superman.
| Published by DC Comics
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder in Hell #2 continues to be revelatory. Mateus Santolouco, Marcelo Costa, and Shawn Lee are doing some incredible work as Shredder continues to be plagued by nightmares, demons, and the undead as he tries to figure out his way through hell and his status as a vessel for the dragon god’s spirit. Over the years, Santolouco has grown exponentially as a storyteller and this is just a masterpiece.
| Published by IDW
Titans #35 continues the team’s nightmare excursion to Unearth, fighting a possessed enraged Beast Boy, Raven’s angry aggressive side, and Mother Blood as we head into the series conclusion next issue. This is a very entertaining story from Dan Abnett, Bruno Redondo, Christian Duce, Marcelo Maiolo, and Dave Sharpe, really putting the team behind the 8-ball wondering how they’re going to get out of this mess. If they get out this mess.
| Published by DC Comics
Tony Stark: Iron Man #9 continues the “Stark Realities” arc, nicely advances Controller’s assault on Stark Industries, the eScape users causing havoc, the mole within Stark, and the corruption causing Tony’s current simulation, from Dan Slott, Jim Zub, Valerio Schiti, Paolo Rivera, Edgar Delgado, and Joe Caramagna. Some really interesting possible revelations about Tony during this issue.
| Published by Marvel
Transformers #1 begins a new continuity, a new universe, a new era for the Transformers, from Brian Ruckley, Angel Hernandez, Cachét Whitman, Joana Lafuente, and Tom B. Long, as we start off some time in the past of Cybertron, before Autobots or Deceptions, as Bumblebee watches over a newly-forged Cybertronian as he makes his first decisions. We also get bits of an uprising of “Ascenticons”, though their ideals and motivations aren’t really explained, just showing a disagreement between longtime friends Megatron and Orion Pax (not Optimus Prime yet). It’s not bad, with some nice bits of humour, and there is an interesting mystery for a cliffhanger, but it is slow. The art is nice, but like the story there’s nothing flashy about this right now. I’ll certainly give it a few more issues, but there’s really nothing “bold” about this new era. Don’t expect something radical out of the first issue, this one plays it pretty safe.
| Published by IDW
Winter Soldier #4 delves into RJ’s father, Richie, attempting to get back into his life. It’s heartfelt and bittersweet, with Kyle Higgins, Rod Reis, and Clayton Cowles delivering a gripping tale with one hell of a set up for the final issue. Reis’ art remains absolutely incredible.
| Published by Marvel
Wonder Twins #2 is more fun from Mark Russell, Stephen Byrne, and Dave Sharpe. There’s some nice commentary on the state of corporate run prisons in the United States in amongst a humorous send-up of z-list villains in the Legion of Doom’s farm team, the League of Annoyance. Great art from Byrne.
| Published by DC Comics / Wonder Comics
Other Highlights: Accell #19, Auntie Agatha’s Wayward Home for Rabbits #5, Blackbird #6, Dark Ark #15, GI Joe: A Real American Hero - Silent Option #4, Go Go Power Rangers #18, The Goon #1, Head Lopper #11, House of Whispers #7, LaGuardia #4, The Life and Death of Toyo Harada #1, The Long Con #7, Marvel Action: Spider-Man #2, Marvels Annotated #2, The Maxx 100 Page Giant, Prodigy #4, The Punisher #9, Radio Delley, Rick & Morty Presents Jerry #1, Riverdale: Season 3 #1, Runaways #19, Spider-Man/Deadpool #47, Star Trek: Discovery - Captain Saru, Star Wars: Han Solo - Imperial Cadet #5, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #42, Wonder Woman #66
Recommended Collections: Astonisher - Volume 3: Black Hat, Batman vs. Deathstroke, By Night - Volume 1, Defenders: The Best Defense, Infinite Dark - Volume 1, Mata Hari, Moonstruck - Volume 2, Rick and Morty vs. Dungeons & Dragons, Shadowman - Volume 3: Rag & Bone, She Could Fly, Sleepless - Volume 2, Star Wars Adventures - Volume 5: Mechanical Mayhem, Strangers in Paradise XXV - Volume 2: Hide and Seek, Trout - Volume 1: Bits & Bobs, Vampironica - Volume 1, The War of the Realms Prelude
d. emerson eddy knows a muffin man.
2 notes
·
View notes
Photo
Great Character Writing: Héctor Rivera
“You can help me! I can help you! But most importantly of all, you can help me!”
I never expected it to be endeared to a skeleton man in the way I am to Héctor Rivera, but here we are! It’s amazing how our expectations of this character are set-up and later subverted. So, he is my topic of discussion for today!
When Miguel and the audience first meet Héctor, he comes off as a selfish, yet lovable trickster, trying to get past security so he can visit the world of the living. We don’t know exactly why he wants to go there, but for a guy who tries lie and con his way out of every situation, we’re lead to assume it’s for selfish purposes.
He’s also fun, goofy and the butt of many jokes. The story uses him for many slapstick gags involving his limbs coming off, and the other people in the Land of the Dead call him Chorizo because they all think he choked on one when he died.
The turning point where he truly becomes more than a joke is when we see play music. Music, being such a central part of the movie, is what allows Miguel, and by extension, the audience, to see a caring and melancholic side to Héctor.
He plays a jaunty tune for old Chicharrón, just before he disappears in a “Final Death.” It’s a tender, bittersweet moment with gentle humour (”There are children present). When he goes, Héctor has a drink in his honour. (As an aside, no I don’t know where the drink goes if he has no organs to process it.) On our first viewing, this is the point where Héctor is no longer just some goofy guy who choked on a sausage.
On second viewing, the moment Chicharrón fades away, the deeply sad expression on Héctor’s face shows not only sadness for his friends final passing, but for the possibility that it will happen to him too.
After Héctor and Miguel, again through the power of music, Héctor discovers that Miguel does have family other than Ernesto. The kid lied so he could get his “great, great grandfather” to give him his blessing to go home AND be a musician. Héctor is understandably furious that the kid put himself in danger, and put off placing his photo on the ofrenda, all so he “live out a musical fantasy.” When Héctor tries to forcefully take Miguel back to his family, the kid snaps at Héctor for being selfish, which is quite ironic, given how Miguel is acting. Even though the audience can see that Héctor isn’t just out for himself now, Miguel is too caught up in what he wants to see that.
When Miguel and the audience finally meet Ernesto, he seems to be everything Héctor is not: successful, popular, strong and macho. He’s the ideal that Miguel wants to live up to!
You know, I did all my own stunts!
But of course, Ernesto isn’t as great as he first seems. With his ostentatious parties that constantly replay footage from his own movies, it’s obvious that Ernesto is an egotist who cares about his reputation more than anything. Ernesto is a very effective foil for Héctor, who has little but goes out of his way to find Miguel so he can help him get home. And then, the reveal comes in the lead up to the movie’s third act ...
“I just wanted to go back home!”
Ernesto not only took Héctor’s songs, he took his life and family from him. Poor Héctor was a young family man (the director said he was only 21 at the time of his death) who was tired of life on the road and wanted to return to his wife and daughter. Héctor is not at all the shady character he appeared to be in his first scene where tries to trick his way into the land of the living. He’s a victim of an ambitious, callous man, unafraid to do anything to “cease his moment.”
Miguel, and the audiences, perceptions are now completely shattered. Héctor is no longer “Chorizo,” the hapless trickster who chocked on a sausage, and Ernesto is no longer the “good guy,” Miguel thought he was. Even though the movie was dropping strong hints that neither character was what they seemed on the surface, this moment completely flips our earlier expectations of these characters!
When Miguel tearfully apologizes to Héctor as he realises how selfish he’s been, we learn the truth about Héctor.
“She’s ... forgetting me.”
He wanted to be reunited with his daughter, who’s been forgetting about him. And his daughter is Miguel’s great-grandmother, Coco, who suffers from dementia. Miguel, relieved that his great-great-grandfather is not a murdering asshole, realises that the creative, artistic part of him that always made him feel different, came from Héctor. And here, as we go into the third act conflict of trying to get Héctor’s photo back from Ernesto and send Miguel home, Miguel’s (and our) perception of Héctor has come full circle. He’s gone from the goofy, selfish trickster, Chorizo, to a gentle and artistic family man who just wants to see his daughter again.
Coco asks the narrative question of what kind of person Miguel will choose to be. The movie plays with Miguel’s changing perceptions of these two men, and because he’s the point of view character, we see those changing perceptions through him. In the end, he has to choose if he’s going to be like the self-serving and callous Ernesto or the flawed, yet good-hearted and loving Héctor. Our expectations of Héctor our subverted in a way that gets us to feel a deep and love for this character.
Buy me a coffee/Patreon
60 notes
·
View notes
Text
I’ve been writing this down since the day after Coco came out, and I just watched it again and remembered the post existed so here you go, a list of things not to think about regarding Hector.
Hector was murdered by his best friend, and then Ernesto practically bragged about it by making it a key plot point in one of his movies that he played constantly as a highlight reel in both the lands of the living and dead. (Not a sad thing for Hector since he didn’t know, but just... the absolute fucking GALL of Ernesto to do that!)
Hector made Remember Me as a love song to his baby girl, which was then sung into the ground as a cheesy love song. Can you imagine how much that in itself would have hurt him, not even including the betrayal of his friend who stole that song (since he didn't know he'd been murdered by said friend)?
Just don’t imagine Hector dying, and then all these people come into the land of the dead as they died all obsessed with said extremely personal song, singing it constantly and reminding him of the fact that he’ll probably never see his baby girl again.
Don’t think about the fact that he had to find out from other dead people about how Ernesto’s career took off through stealing his songs and guitar once he died, and didn’t ever credit him.
Don’t you dare think about the Dia de los Muertos’ following his death. Not the early ones he could convince away by saying how could they know he was dead, and instead being plagued with anxiety about what his family must think, not to mention homesick; and certainly do not think about the ones later where he knows they’d HAVE to know he was dead, and realizing he was purposely being left off the family ofrenda.
Don’t think about the fact that Hector clearly had seen Imelda at least once after she died based on their initial interactions, and the man who was LITERALLY MURDERED because he wanted to go home to his family had to spend GENERATIONS in the afterlife knowing that his wife hated him, his ancestors would avoid him on principle because Imelda hated him, and for all he knew his beloved daughter hated him too. And he’d never get a chance to explain that he was trying to come home to them when he died.
Do not remember the pained look on his face after he DID finally get a chance to explain, with the help of someone more credible than him (Miguel) in Imelda’s eyes, only to have her say she didn’t care about the circumstances. Don’t think about the fact that you could tell he knew she was justified in feeling that way, based on his complete lack of argument afterwards, but he looked crushed nonetheless.
Do NOT think about the fact that Hector somehow kept a smile on his face while KNOWING there was only so much time before he'd disappear, and clung to the clearly impossible hope that somehow he could con his way into the land of the living just one last time so he could see his daughter again, since there was no hope in his mind of getting through to Imelda.
Just... FUCKING HECTOR.
EDIT: I keep saying ‘see his daughter again’, but that has connotations that simply aren’t there. This isn’t to reunite with his daughter. This isn’t to get to tell her what happened to him. This is to literally SEE her. All he wants is to be with his daughter. All he’s physically capable of is getting to be a fly on the wall of sorts, to see what her life is like, to see what she LOOKS like, to see that she’s happy… something he just hasn’t gotten to do because his picture isn’t on the ofrenda.
EDIT x2: One last thought I swear!This one’s a mixed bag of emotions. DO (or don’t) think about the way everyone greeted him in Shantytown. Think about what he said when he was warned to avoid Cheech while he was fading. Hector has been described from the very beginning as the ‘lovable trickster’, but I feel like it’s been at least a little exaggerated to distract himself and the others of shantytown from their shared fate. How many people’s final deaths was he present for, if only so he could make sure no one would be completely alone and unwanted during this painful and permanent time? How many friends, new and old, faded before him? How many times did he wonder, in the back of his mind, buried by unwavering, almost foolish hope what his final death would be like, and who, if anyone, would be there for HIM during it?
EDIT x3: It was noted that my second additional reblog got cut off, so I’m editing this post just to fix a couple major grammatical mistakes made and officially add the edits to the original post.
#coco spoilers#spoilers#Coco#Maddie rants#Feel free to ignore#I have a lot of feelings about Hector I'm so sorry#I hate to say it but I may even add to this later as things come up
109 notes
·
View notes
Text
Alright, so let’s talk about Coco
I’m mostly just gonna stick to my first impressions/thoughts about the movie(as well as the short that played before it), though there might be some spoilers.
Speaking of the short, why don’t we just get that out of the way first? All in all, it actually wasn’t that bad. I wasn’t too impressed with Frozen in the first place(I was in that group of people who was sick to death of it early on), but Olaf was the only character I genuinely liked. I was sort of expecting this to be the short that finally broke me and made me get sick of Olaf, but nah. If anything, I found his mission to look for family traditions for Elsa and Anna to be a sweet gesture and kind of endearing. Not to mention in doing so, we actually got some nice development for the townspeople. Even if it’s kept to holiday traditions (surprisingly Christmas traditions isn’t the only thing that pops up in this short), it gives a nice bit of world-building to the kingdom of Arendelle, which was nice.
Really I think the thing that was working against the special the most was that it came out at the wrong place at the wrong time. I remember hearing a rumor that this was going to be a holiday special that was suppose to play on ABC before plans fell through - and that’s kinda what this feels like. This feels like the holiday special no one was asking for and no one wanted, because the audience bought tickets to see Coco, not this. And having this get scotch-taped to the beginning of Coco gave this impression that they were trying to force-feed more Frozen stuff. So, yeah. I can certainly see why so many people were pissed off at the extended run-time. I think maybe if they stuck with their original plans or just released it on DVD, or hell, a DVD bonus feature for something, then maybe it would have been better received. As is, not a bad special, but I wish I could have watched it some place else.
One last thing I kinda want to point out because it was an interesting thing to spot (at least to me). If you’re not paying attention, you’ll miss it, but one of the townspeople is voiced by John De Lancie. some of you may know him as Que from Star Trek, and Discord from My Little Pony. I only bring this up cause I remember pausing mid-thought to focus on the voice because it sounded so familiar. I don’t know why, but I felt so blind-sided because I still associate that voice with discord more than any other character. I wasn’t even paying attention to what the other characters were saying because for a hot second or two, this was all I could think about:
Anyways! I’ve rambled on about the Olaf special long enough.
Coco was amazing. Yes, I cried. Yes, I started buying music from the soundtrack as soon as I was heading back to the car. Man, this felt like it was a long time coming. It felt like only yesterday that I was joking about how people were gonna start flooding my inbox asking me if I saw the movie.
Alright...where to start. Cause there’s a lot of good stuff to talk about. I’m actually impressed with the character design. I mean it. Something that I was kind of worried about when the movie trailer first came out was that the skeleton designs weren’t gonna look great, or they were gonna reach uncanny levels because of the addition of the eyeballs in the sockets. And...yeah. Some of them look kind of strange, but most of them look pretty good. The designs of the Alebrijes (which I think the movie stated are spirit guides) were also really fun.
Without giving too much of the story away, for those of you worried that it’s gonna be too similar to Book of Life’s story, it isn’t. In fact, the two movies don’t really share that much in common outside of the movie centering around Dia De Los Muertos and the main character wanting to be a musician. The families on both movies are opposed to the main character’s dreams, sure, but it’s for different reasons, so I don’t really count this one all that much. I could talk about all the similarities and differences, and which I prefer, but I can make that in a separate post if people are really that curious about my thoughts on these two movies back to back. But picking a favorite isn’t necessary for talking about Coco.
Speaking of music, I really liked the music in this movie. Especially one song in particular, and it’s the main one that the movie focuses on. I adore the progression of both how the song is played, and how the meaning and importance of the song changes as the movie goes on. When you do find out what the original intent for this specific song is suppose to be, it kind of makes the first time you heard it all the more tragic. There were a few other songs I liked as well, though I don’t have too much to say other than I really liked them.
Oh gosh there were some really good characters in this movie. I really like the family Miguel has. A lot of them were fun, and even the stricter members of the family had some good character development. I never got this sense that any point, one of the family members were being strict or trying to prevent Miguel (the main character) from playing the guitar or listening to music that it was to be malicious or mean-spirited. Though I do consider some actions to have been a bit overboard, but I think that was part of the point. They present the issue in a way where it’s understandable why the family considers music to be a curse, even if the viewpoint is ultimately misguided.
Miguel was a really fun character. I really like how there was a nice balance between kindness and a bit of selfishness, too. It never felt like he went too far in the other direction. Writing for kid characters seems to be a constant challenge in fiction, I’ve noticed. so it’s always nice to see one that’s written really well.
And now, getting to the character I’m sure you’ve all been waiting for me to talk about. Oh, Hector. I can see why so many people have been asking about you specifically when it comes to the boneheads comics. Gotta admit, now that I’ve actually seen the movie, I’m still not changing my stance, though it pains me to do so more in particular. I ain’t opposed to work on a few cameo sketches one of these days, though! I just, I really love how this guy’s character was handled throughout the movie. When you first see him, you think he’s just gonna be a wise-cracking trickster, or a villain, or keep a lie that’s gonna blow up in his face near the end of the movie. But then, you get to learn more about him and why he is the way he is, and why he’s desperately trying to get to the land of the living and it’s just...man I really like this guy. He’s funny, sweet, and surprisingly resourceful. He’s a bit of a scoundrel at times, but again, you learn why that is and it’s great. All in all, great skeleton. I approve.
I think that’s about all I got to say without going into heavy spoilers. I guess if I had to list some draw backs, there are a few cliches that pop up in this movie, especially ones that are more common with modern disney/pixar movies, but I didn’t mind them all that much. So, yeah. Coco was awesome. Go see it. Definitely recommend it.
#atomi talks#atomi discussion#first impressions#coco#spoilers#coco spoilers#not really but I'm tagging it as such just in case
589 notes
·
View notes
Note
You write such amazing analysis on the characters, I was wondering if you had any particular thoughts on Hector's personality when he was living vs what he's like 90+ years after death. Like, my gut reaction is that the goofiness and trickster mentality can't be purely post-mortem but at the same time... 90+ years is a long time to shake old habits and learn new ones, and he was so young that he was probably still developing as a person/adult when he died...
aieee!! really, I should be asking you this (would love to know your thoughts if you’re game), you’ve written what is my favorite piece of coco meta here!
This is a great question with endless answers - what little we do know about Héctor in life is either from an unreliable source (Miguel’s opening narrative, Imelda’s carefully constructed depiction of the past as a hook to persuade Miguel) or from the condensed accounts that are his flashbacks (but that could also be projections by Héctor or Miguel, as opposed to objective accounts), so I think one could go any number of ways with him and create plausible, satisfying narrative.
I like your gut reaction, and tend to also think that his goofiness and trickster mentality were already present in life, his goofiness especially. He has such a wide range of motion too, and while that speaks for years spent learning how to manipulate his bones in order to cross the bridge and dodge the police, it’s also easy to picture him as loose-limbed, as unabashedly physical with his gritos and inventive dancing. I tend to also see him as clumsy outside of performance, in part because of how often he’s described as staring “dreamily” into the distance in the novelization, in part because he’s so tall and didn’t have many years to grow into that in life (perhaps only starting to do so by the time he died).
As far as his tricks go, I guess I tend to imagine it as a matter of degree: whereas in death he’s constantly crossing boundaries - breaking his body apart on purpose, moving between realms high and low, unsettling gendered roles and social norms - in life I could see him testing boundaries on a smaller scale with far smaller stakes. There are existing takes on this that I really, really like where he does things like cause small-town mischief with animals (@theysayitsonlyapapermoon’s Las Mañanitas and Lo Siento), where he steals things too small to be missed (also Lo Siento) or comes up with ways to rig the system and pay less (@somanycandles’ The 9:15 from Santa Cecilia) or stories to get out of trouble (@pengychan’s Halfway) or into shows (@slusheeduck’s The Liberties You’re Taking). This sort of mischief is well within the bounds of what a teenager without much money would do to gain attention or access to adult venues, and Héctor definitely has the charm and probably the motivation as well to pull those tricks off (even more so if one situates him within the context of the revolution). Much as I love the idea of him already cross-dressing in life, Ernesto’s complete inability to recognize him in drag (and general machismo - would it even cross his mind that the imposter-Frida could be a man?) makes me think this was something Héctor started doing after death, or only pulled with the twins and Imelda (as in @im-fairly-whitty’s Old Habits Die Hard).
That being said, my sense is that something changes for him after marrying Imelda/having Coco. Keeping in mind that the flashbacks could be his own projections of how he imagines himself having been, that they might project a distorted image (especially the one of him singing to Coco), I still can’t help but think that he comes across as quite serious in them - serious and smartly dressed even at home, as though representing something for his family. For all his awareness that Ernesto would probably hate him for leaving, for all that he could have disappeared for a cigarette and gotten on a train without Ernesto knowing any better, he makes the gesture of saying goodbye to his friend, even staying on for the fatal drink when he clearly has no real desire to do so (his look out the door). Even if the decision to leave was completely spontaneous and spur-of-the-moment (I tend to think it wasn’t, that it simply took him a very long time to work up the courage to tell Ernesto his plans, but the flashback can be understood differently), there’s something considerate about his behavior, a desire to make good and keep this bridge from igniting in flames - a move to stay within the boundaries of friendship, as opposed to crossing it, as Ernesto certainly will (being “of the cross”) - and it makes me think he was beginning to see himself as an adult who’d overcome the need for tricks and games and lies, an adult with responsibilities who didn’t need his own behavior to reflect upon his family or put them at risk. It’s of course also implied that he’s exhausted, that he’s tired of sleeping in bad beds and playing with a partner who doesn’t love music in a way he can respect, but that can be read as a form of yearning for stability. One could of course make this more complicated and add that he perhaps also feared Imelda might see through him to his insecurities, that she might leave him for someone wealthier, someone who could offer greater stability to Coco - the sorts of paranoid mantras that go through people’s heads when they’re far from home - if he didn’t clean up his act, that sort of thing.
Once dead and prevented from crossing the bridge, of course, the rules change… but I’ve gone on so long already, I won’t ramble on any further. Thank you for the ask, it’s such a pleasure to think with you!
194 notes
·
View notes
Text
Movie Reviews: Coco
Could it be a Pixar Movie that I actually like fully?!? I take a look at the Pixar movie that first started out controversial to best movie of 2017 and beloved movie since Zootopia!
This will contain spoilers a little bit. I’ll try not to spoil too much but just a heads up if you don’t want this movie being spoiled.
Now most that know me for quite a while, do know that I kinda have this thing with Pixar. I don’t hate Pixar movies but I can never really like them fully.
For me, there’s always something missing from a Pixar movie that often keeps me from appreciating the movie in it’s full content. It just causes me to like the movie for the atmosphere it brings, such as the nostalgia in Toy Story or the scenery in Cars. I also appreciate that it’s original, but I can’t ever grasp it fully. Even with a movie I could sorta relate to like Finding Dory, which is my second favorite Pixar film. I have a disability myself and I know the struggle it is, but for whatever reason, even that movie just falls a little flat for me sometimes.
I follow WaltDisneyConfessions and found out, I’m not the only one that thinks this. A lot of people feel like something is missing from their Pixar films, even when the characters are relatable and passable and the story is good, there’s still something missing from them. It’s kinda hard to explain why and what it is. Maybe Pixar is just trying way too hard to be original without any honesty to what they’re creating or maybe because it’s not based on anything, perhaps just base too much on real life or real imagination, it’s a little too closer to home and thus it doesn’t feel that creative.
However, if that were the cause, why is Zootopia, an original film based on real life situation is beloved so much? Well, maybe it’s because the characters are so relatable. I always found Dory to be a little unrealistic when it came to her disability, while Judy I totally can get by with. Also Zootopia does hit a hard ball when it comes to the message of prejudiced and bullying even. I could relate to Nick’s problems rather than Dory’s a little more.
Now let’s get to the Pixar film that even people who aren’t fans of Pixar, love so much including me, Coco!
Coco is a movie about a boy named Miguel who wants to be a musician but his family refuses to let him, due to his great-great grandfather leaving the family to be a world famous musician. His family was torn a part by music but stitched back together by a family business of making shoes. Miguel tries to do a contest by stealing the guitar he believes belong to his great-great grandfather Ernesto de la Cruz, the famous Hispanic musician, in hopes that if he wins the contest, his family will let him be a musician. Unfortunately, once he steals the guitar, he ends up in the after life where he meets his dead relatives and a cast of colorful characters, including a charming con-artist name Hector. Miguel will soon discover a mystery involving his family and realize things aren’t always what they seem.
So if anyone knows about the controversy around this film, it was because this film was announced around the same time another Day of the Dead movie, The Book of Life came out. Everyone claimed that Disney and Pixar were ripping off Book of Life, when the movie was already being made years before hand.
People, if we can have a trillion movies about Halloween and gazillion movies about Christmas, why can’t we have a couple Día de Muertos films? It’s not like Disney owns the holiday, though they did try to do that, bad move on that part. Still, even when I hadn’t watched watched Book of Life, I knew this movie was going to be different than Book of Life.
In Book of Life, from what I read, it’s about romantic love and how Día de Muertos came to be. In Coco, the movie is about what the holiday is about which is family and never forgetting where you came from. Your past helps shapes you to the person you are. Shoot, even those that refuses Miguel’s dreams actually helps make that passion even stronger.
The characters are relatable and lovable, my favorite being Hector and Imelda. I haven’t seen a couple this cute in an animated film since I dunno...I guess Victor and Victoria from Corpse Bride? I’m not usually big on animated official couples, because it usually just feels force, but these two just you can tell why they belong together! They’re exact opposites but they attract so easily!
Imelda is strict and cold but you can tell she loves her family very much and does understand Miguel’s passion and heartbreak. She just does what she thinks is best to keep her family together. Then you have Hector, who is a charismatic trickster that has a heartbroken story himself and behind all that charm, is a broken man that just wants to fix the mistakes he’s made.
Miguel is a relatable kid. He can be a brat but there’s a good reason he is that way. He acts just like any kid would if they find out their family doesn’t support what they do. It can be heartbreaking and I never found him too annoying. His passions are understandable and the lengths he will go to achieving his goals make him fit well into the great kid characters in animation, next to Gosalyn (Darkwing Duck) and Jade (Jackie Chan Adventures). He and Hector are great duo and team and are always fun to watch on screen.
The one character I really don’t like is the Miguel’s grandmother Elena. I understand why she’s like the way she is but it’s like, how blind in your ego and ideology do you have to be to not realize your kid is upset in front of you, because you just crushed his dreams?
I mean, giving King Triton credit, at least there was a moment where he felt bad for hurting his daughter, Ariel and you could tell Imelda felt hurt by what Miguel was going through too. I just felt like Elena was more one note compared to the rest of the characters. Maybe that’s the point, but I felt like she could have had more dept and more clarity to her reasons. Like why was it so important to her of all people to pass down the legacy, instead of say Coco or say if she was the sister of Coco. I just don’t get how the grandma aka daughter of Coco would be just as strict as the great great grandmother. I dunno, maybe that makes her more realistic since people put their reasons aside. I just didn’t care for her.
Now for the dog, Dante. A lot of people have a love hate relationship with this dog.They either love him or hate him. Phantom Strider once said he absolutely despises Dante for being such a stupid dog. I dunno, I’m like “He’s a dog. He’s doing what dogs do. Not all dogs are bright. I should know. My last dog would run into the walls and patio stands of my house.”
Dante is good for a comic relief and granted he does do stuff to help the main character out so I didn’t find him too annoying. He’s not in scenes for too long and most of the scenes he’s in, he’s trying to help out Miguel. So I give him a pass.
Do I need to even talk about the animation? You know that if it’s Disney or Pixar, it’s top notch! Some people found the lines on Coco to be a bit too realistic and uncanny valley territory and I can see that, but it didn’t bother me so much. As for the music, it’s a hit or miss for me. It’s nice that this technically isn’t a musical, so when the characters sing, it feels natural here. It’s decent and I’m sure a lot of the Latino community fans will love it and those that are a fan of traditional Mexican culture music.
Over all, Coco is a wonderful movie about family, traditions, the beauty of Mexican culture and a great touch upon Día de Muertos . It’s beautifully animated and the characters are wonderfully charismatic! Give it a watch if you haven’t yet. It sucks that this will be the last original Disney film we get in a while, but hey, least it was a great film to end on before the hiatus of their original works. I give Coco a rating of 8 1/2 stars out of 10!
8 1/2 Stars
Level: Great!
24 notes
·
View notes
Text
Coco Review (Late)
Coco is honestly such a visual masterpiece when it comes to its appeal and theme of The Day of the Dead, which is a tradition known by members of Spanish culture everywhere. It’s colors, characters, story, and aesthetic practically screams the Pixar formula. I’d like to talk a little about it since I’ve watched it about 6 times over the past two weeks, and I have a lot I wanna say about it. Also, major spoiler warning for those who haven’t seen the film yet.
Yes, I’ll admit, I saw this movie pretty late. I kept seeing that people were saying it was super good, and I just never really got to catch it in theaters in time. Maybe the discourse over it being a rip-off of The Book Of Life kind of got me turned off for it, since I thought it was all ridiculousness. But when I did eventually watch it, I regretted not seeing it on the big screen. It made me cry at 1 in the morning with its twists in the story and the characters’ growing involvement in the story itself too. Surprising enough, none of my friends at school have seen it except for the Spanish classes, which makes sense, but I still wish I had more people to rant about it with.
One thing I should mention is that I had no idea of the connection with the title of the movie and the character it’s based around. I was blind to everything, and I somehow couldn’t guess anything at all. It’s as if I didn’t think, I just watched. Even some of my family members guessed the twists the first time they watched it. But here we go.
First thing I wanna talk about is the story. The story takes place around Miguel, a wanna-be musician who’s entire family banned music after it tore their ancestors apart years ago. After trying to play in the plaza on the night of Dia De Los Muertos in inspiration of his idol Ernesto De La Cruz, he gets sent to the Land of the Dead and tries to get back home before its too late, and to reveal the identity of his great-great grandpa that tore the family apart so long ago along the way too. One thing I want to point out is that the changes they made to the story during production are pretty detrimental to the movie, since it’s previous idea was about a boy trying to learn to move on past his mother’s death, only to find that the Day of the Dead is about remembering the ones you lost and keeping their memories alive. While I think both story ideas, the one that happened and the one that didn’t happen, proved their family-centered point, Coco’s message of family always coming first shines through in both. But the fact that the entirety of the story was centered around a father-daughter relationship really hit hard for me and considered this a very powerful movie to me.
The characters in the film are absolutely lovable. Miguel, while being the main protagonist, is such an adorable young dreamer and his relationship with his skeleton companion that he meets in the Land of the Dead, Hector, is strong as soon as you see them preforming at the talent show and singing Un Poco Loco. Even Hector turned out to be my favorite character throughout the whole movie.
Hector is such a layered character and seems to want to make the rules for himself when we first meet him, my first impression of him being a sneaky trickster, and that was it. But after we found the significance of him wanting so desperately to cross the bridge to the mortal world, his smug exterior began to melt and his true loving colors began to show. He turned out to be more of a complex character than I ever thought he was going to be, and I couldn’t be happier with how they handled his conflict of returning to see his daughter after so many years of being forgotten by his family. Even when Miguel said that he only cared about himself and ran away from Hector, even rewatching that part kind of hurts, because the real reason he wanted Miguel to put his photo up in always in mind. The complicated relationship we see between Hector and his wife Imelda really got to me, the fact that she was still angry at him for so many years for leaving her alone with a child to achieve his dream, even after finding out that he tried to come home, but ultimately was stopped by literally the last character I could’ve ever guessed. The past relationship between Hector and Ernesto was so unexpected to me, and it got dark fast, but I’ll talk about him now.
Now the villain of this film, Ernesto De La Cruz, was pretty easy to guess for most of my family, but not for me. I went into the movie completely blind and had no idea what to expect at all. He was viewed as Miguel’s idol, his whole dream of being a musician revolving around how successful and talented Ernesto was. But what a way to reveal himself as the villain, finding out that he stole everything from Hector after they played together and Hector grew homesick. Ernesto was so desperate to succeed, he practically murdered his own best friend to have his songs. It upset me so much that Miguel’s own idol, and who he believed to be his great-great grandpa, turned out to be such a fraud and a terrible person. But I like that that’s another message this movie conveys. Sometimes our heroes have done bad things. Pixar handled this antagonist pretty well, but definitely didn’t dive into who he really was, which is weird to say since they showed both his good side and his bad side within the film. Basically, all he cares about is succeeding and his own reputation, and the fact that he turns his back on everyone he knew just to achieve that dream and “seize his moment” just broke me.
But the fact that the true identity of Miguel’s true great-great grandpa was revealed to be Hector, and the daughter he was trying to see was Miguel’s great-grandma Coco made me so happy afterwards. I knew their connection was strong ever since they preformed together, and the fact that is was probably the first time that Hector got to preform and sing with his own family in a long time made it all the more powerful for me when I watched it a second time.
The ending of the movie has got to be what made this movie what it is. In the end when Miguel returns home and desperate to jog Coco’s memory so Hector’s not forgotten, music was what tied the whole family together, even when it tore it apart all those generations ago. The song Hector used to sing to Coco as a child was played by Miguel, and it brought the light back into Coco’s eyes. She even began to tell Miguel stories of how her mother and father would sing the most beautiful songs together, and it proved that Hector wasn’t forgotten, and wouldn’t ever be. It tied the movie together in the best way possible.
For the movie itself, the story of family being more important than everything is something that more animated films should cover, so children in this age can grow up with these messages and lessons. And the fact that the Mexican culture is represented in such an honest and beautiful way makes this movie especially special.
Coco is a great movie. And will stick with me for a long, long time.
7 notes
·
View notes
Text
Blog post #9 For this blog post I will about will be about taking a closer look at children’s movies and their Messages. The movie I have choose to write about is the Disney “Coco” which was released in 2017. This movie was about a young named Miguel who has dreams of becoming an accomplished musician like his idol Ernesto de la Cruz. But because of his families ban on music, Miguel becomes set on proving himself as a musician he travels to the beautiful world of land of the dead to find de la Cruz a famous musician who he thinks is his great- great-grand father. While in the land of the dead he meets a trickster named hector and they then embark on a journey to find out the real reason behind Miguel’s family history and why they hate music so much. While on this journey Miguel learns that de la Cruz isn’t his great- great- grandfather and he is a fake and a killer. And that hector really is his great- great grandfather. This is just a short summary of what this movie is about. There is so many hidden messages in this movie the first message to me is Miguel stood strong in something he believes in even if it meant losing all of his family. It’s like nobody would tell him why being a musician was such a bad thing or why it wasn’t allowed in this family. And that his great-great grandfather was a musician and he was a bad guy and ran off on them. So Miguel put himself out on the bridge and went in search of the real reason on why he did because he was thinking hey I loving playing music and I want to know what im getting myself into and he wanted to know what happen to his great great grandfather. Another message in the movie is your ideal is not always who you think they are, and you will always just cant believe what you see its always a back ground story. In Miguel’s case he looked up to del Cruz so much he was blind to the fact that he was really the bad guy and a killer and when he figured all of it out he tried to kill him. Another message that the movie coco has is that you should always chase your dream even if nobody believes in you. Cause you must always try and never give up Miguel could have just stopped playing and loving music like his family wanted him to do. Another message is be yourself Miguel struggled to be himself and really and fully devoted himself into really seeing that music is his true passions, even though his family wanted him to join the family business. Another message in the movie is that Miguel did the whole “ the best way to prove a point is by doing it” meaning his family kept saying being a musician is bad your great great grand father was one and he ran off on us cause he was a musician. Miguel basically was like I’m going to prove you wrong you wrong and show you being a musician isn’t bad and its something I love to do and it make me happy. Another great message in the movie to young adults never lose your principles while following your dreams Which means you have to accept that you have to disconnect from the people you care about for some time to pursue your aspirations , The whole conflict in the animation began when the father left his family to go after his dream of becoming a musician. Which in turn led to the wife hating and prohibiting any form of music to be played in the family. A tradition that was passed down to three generations. Another messages would have to be to the adults Tell your story, and those before you to the younger generation so that those great stories will live om forever and ever and will always bring joy and laughter to the younger generation. In a way its like teaching the younger people on down that this is the mistake and mess up I’ve mad or people in the family have he and you don’t need to do what I’ve did and end up like me cause I wan t you be better than me. Basically the whole saying monkey see monkey do. Another message in the movie is a very wise and important one is family matter in the movie we see Miguel run away from his family and in some way resent his family because they couldn’t see the love he had for music, but towards the end we see that Miguel’s granny was getting ready to die and he was stuck in the land of the dead and couldn’t be there with her and he misses his mom and siblings and uncles and he cries out that he misses them. The big picture is no matter what your family does how bad they piss you off and wont even agree with you on your choices that you are making or doing in your life, cause at the end of the day your family is still you family and they will always love and be there even if yall don’t agree or see eye to eye on everything they will always be your family cause you cant change who your family is. Even if they are a little weird. The last and finally message is that sometimes following our heart can be dangerous because in the movie we see that Miguel went to the land of the dead to look for his great great grandfather who he had never met and who he thought was “del la cruz” who as a famous musician. One he almost got stuck in the land of the dead looking for this man he could have been lost forever and never have seen his family again the last part is that he almost got killed cause he was about to expose the secret of the man that he looked up to as an idol.
0 notes
Photo
This week's Random-News-Digest comes a little early... because it feels appropriate somehow!
PS: Is it because I won't be able to post a Kyuranger recap-view today? Perhaps... ^^;
Disney Live Action
There might be some backlash surrounding "Beauty and the Beast". With mixed reviews dividing critics, and the inevitable comparison to the animated classic that sounds rather... overly pessimistic (no kidding, like this thinkpiece for example), perhaps? Not to mention countries (like Russia, Malaysia, and others) flaming the movie's rating 'just because' of an LGBT character (lame excuse, huh?), eventhough the actual consensus is that the movie is nothing more than 'family friendly'. But that doesn't mean this remake is stopping anytime soon. In fact, prior to release last weekend, it was already tracking to a record breaking number, judging from the advance ticket sales. The remake has become the family film with the most pre-sale on Fandango. It has bested fellow Disney's titles "Finding Dory", and their Marvel Studios' "Captain America: Civil War" and "Avengers: Age of Ultron", placing it as a record breaking in the outlet's 17 years of history.
And the result? The opening weekend in North America has even leaped ahead the forecasted number of $120-140 million. It cleared out $63,8 million on Friday alone, thanks to a mighty $16.3 million received from Thursday-night preview. Giving the overall weekend result a heaping sum of $170 million! Successfully proving the House of Mouse's box office powerhouse status. It's a number that is more than their own "Finding Dory", that previously holds the record for PG title's opening weekend. And more than that, surpassing a certain dour DC Film of last year, setting up a new record for March opening. Similar success can be heard in the United Kingdom region, as the movie stands tall and proud with an 'A' Cinema Score (as of writing). According to reports, this movie appeals audience of cross-generations, particularly in the way the tougher and independent Emma Watson's Belle resonated with younger women. Other studios opted to avoid the movie, giving it a relatively free competition. Thus explaining why it's such a huge hit despite some negative backlashes. So have you seen the movie yourself? I'm going to... probably this week if not tomorrow *grins*.
In a rather disheartening news, we might want to enjoy all the glamour singing and dancing of "Beauty and the Beast" as much as we can. Why? Because we probably won't see much in "The Lion King", and likely won't get any in Disney's live action version of "Mulan" as well. Director Niki Caro said so in an interview with Moviefone (via Variety), though she noted that her children aren't pleased about it. That's a little disappointing, if you ask me. Because if there's one element Disney can highlight to separate it from those many other live action adaptations for Mulan (Remember, SONY is also producing one), is by turning it into a fullblown musical. Only Disney has songs in their version, and ones that are very memorable too to both fans and public. Instead, Caro's currently envisioning it as a "big, girly martial arts epic" that will be "extremely muscular and thrilling and entertaining and moving". Wait a sec... muscular? HUH? "Mulan" will arrive on November 2nd, 2018. I guess we'll have to wait and see how muscular and not musical it will be...
Disney Pixar
Last year, Disney Animation released two titles, while the Pixar division only had "Finding Dory". But this year, it's the other way around, because Pixar will be the one releasing two while Disney Animation is in fact sitting the year out. The first will be "Cars 3", a sequel that practically noone asked for... eventhough it has a high possibility to score big in the box office. But it's the other one that critics has been buzzing about. "Coco", a movie that will tell a journey about a young boy who journeys the Land of the Dead. A story inspired by Mexican festive "Day of the Dead".
The first teaser for "Coco" has been released, and looks like the critics are indeed on point. Easily reminding us of the critically acclaimed Oscar winning "Inside Out", this gorgeous looking trailer introduced the main star of the supernatural-themed movie, Miguel. The young aspiring musician is voiced by newcomer Anthony Gonzales, and along with his dog Dante, his character will team up with Hector the charming trickster, who is voiced by "Mozart of the Jungle" very own Gael García Bernal. Aside from the two leads, latino celebrities like Benjamin Bratt, Ana Ofelia Murguia, and Renée Victor also lend their voices as the deceased singer Ernesto de la Cruz, Coco's Mother, and Granny. Lee Unkrich and Adrian Molina are co directing, while Darla K. Anderson is producing.
The visual looks stunning, and the teaser alone is enough to make me feel all those melancholic goosebumps/feels. But I don't know about you, for some reason, I'm sensing interesting similiarities to Disney Animation's "Moana" on the main character. While on a certain extent, also Pixar's very own "The Good Dinosaur" that somehow failed to live up to many people's expectation. Suffice to say, this can be good or bad. The good news is, Unkrich and Anderson respectively directed and produced "Toy Story 3", which was by far still the best iteration of the franchise, and remains to be one of the most memorable animated movie of all time. That's a reassuring fact, but as always, we can't say anything until we see the movie with our very own eyes. Can't even tell why the movie is titled "Coco" as well, right? That's why we should plan ahead to catch it when it opens in November 22, 2017. Agree?
DC Films
As Ben Affleck opened up about the fact that he's been struggling with alcohol addiction and had just completed rehab, comes another not so surprising news. Script for "The Batman" that he has spent extra time developing with Geoff Johns, is being completely rewritten from scratch, following the announcement of Matt Reeves as the new director. With this in effect, the movie might not begin production until 2018, because Reeves' schedule is occupied with "War of the Planet of the Apes" until June.
It's unclear whether the new script will stick to or at least mirror the original plan or not, but this put the current casting report into an undeniably halt. Which means, yes, unless he shows up in this year's "Justice League", we can't really count on Joe Manganiello to show up as Deathstroke now (why not, go and play Kraven on Marvel then? *grins*). In fact, Reeves won't be meeting any talents until July. If you ask me, this is just another pessimistic indication that Affleck's role as Bruce Wayne might very well be numbered as well. Let's just hope this doesn't get into a weird loop. Unfortunately, with a series of non-stop drama to what seems to be the 'easiest' DC solo movie to pull off (due to the character's popularity and already massive fanbase), it's easy for fans to get negatively worked up about the movie, eh? So to those who are still insisting that there aren't any problems with DC Films? I sincerely offer you my condolences...
Meanwhile, the tentatively titled "Suicide Squad 2" has a writer in negotiation. Nope, not David Ayer, who is currently oversexualizi... er I mean, working on Margot Robbie's "Gotham City Sirens". This is a new writer, but not so new for Warner Bros. One that gave birth to that trepid-quality "The Legend of Tarzan", Adam Cozad. Yep, WB seems to LOVE running around in circles, huh? Appointing the same people over and over again, eventhough they honestly should have looked for better or more suitable ones for the job. No offense to Cozad, but while the Alexander Skarsgard-starring movie was indeed watchable, it was also (honest opinion)... NOT that great. Not just that, his "Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit" was equally... bland. So obviously, this does NOT inspire confidence to us all. But we really can't judge a movie by its screenwriter alone, can we? After all, it also depends on the director, whether he can realize it perfectly or even better on screen, or does the complete opposite instead. Things like the latter happens all the time, right? There were buzzes that WB wanted Mel Gibson, whose Oscar-nominated movie "Hacksaw Ridge" catapulted him back to the spotlight. Yes, his high profile would help the movie, but even that sounds like an uncertain prospect for now.
By the way, "Aquaman" has also been delayed for two months. To those who actually expected the movie to arrive earlier? Allow me to offer you another sincere condolences. The movie that was supposed to come out on October 5th, 2018 will now premiere on December 21st, 2018. It will now be swimming in the spot previously occupied by the also delayed "Avatar 2", which is arguably, a better release window. Looks like WB is back to being openly bullish though. Because it's making a direct challenge to SONY's Animated "Spider-Man" that will feature Miles Morales. This delay practically means that there might be a long 1 year gap for DC movies following this year's "Justice League". Or at least, that's the current situation. Why?
As a direct response to what's happening with "The Batman" and "Aquaman", looks like WB is actively pushing to... shoot one more title this year! Wait, what? Of course, the goal is obviously to have a second movie up next year. But is this a wise move? I'd argue that this is somewhat concerning, because we all know that rushing into things doesn't usually end up good. In fact, many seems to think the same way, that it's better for WB to take a back seat for a while and rethink their strategy before moving forward. I say, just give it a rest and be content with one title, will ya WB?!
Candidate titles for this rushed production include "Gotham City Sirens" that as far as I know is currently in writing process, "Suicide Squad 2" that we know has a writer in talks to work on it, "The Flash" that has no director and currently undergoing page-one rewrite as well, super director Doug Liman's "Dark Universe" that... I have nothing to say about because I couldn't care less, and "Green Lantern Corps" that is also being written. The good news is, WB is NOT insisting to have one ready if it's not up to standards. So if things doesn't go as plan, "Aquaman" might end up swimming solo to carry the DC flag for the year.
The bad news though? That new Squad or Lantern movie could potentially fill in the missing piece. How? Because apparently WB wants to hire David Goyer as the director to one! I don't know about you, but just the thought of the so-called 'DC architect' writing Lantern's script (alongside Justin Rhodes) alone is enough to make me worried. Lest we forget, the story of "Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice" originated from him! And how about "Blade: Trinity"? Not to mention this is the same guy who thought She-Hulk is a sexual object! But seriously, don't be surprised if WB does end up honoring him with the gig, especially judging from Goyer's long history with the studio. After all, like I said above, WB loves running around in circles... and falling into the same wormhole over and over again.
Spider-Man Universe
This one's intriguing, and a direct follow up to what happened in the previous category. As soon as WB pushed back "Aquaman", immediately SONY Pictures jumps in to venture and claim the open water. Yes, by placing "Venom" as the replacement title on October 5th, 2018. More comic book adaptation should make fans delighted with joy, especially Marvel's. Because remember, there's an 8-months Marvel gap between July 2018's "Ant-Man and the Wasp" and March 2019's "Captain Marvel". But I wonder if this... by all means, merely the studio's way to answer WB's bullish challenge? Hmmm...
The issue with this title however, has begun to rise up due to one particular concern: Will this movie be canon to this year's "Spider-Man: Homecoming"? I'd argue that it'll likely exist in a different universe than the one with Tom Holland's Peter Parker. Many seems to think that way, especially if we take note of the development news surrounding it. Which obviously means, it will NOT be part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Don't forget, a Spider-Verse scenario has totally been made possible now, thanks to "Doctor Strange"! But that didn't stop fans from getting, well, negatively concerned. Why? Because in the comics, Venom technically exists because of Spider-Man. A great amount of creative liberty will need to be taken for this movie to work in a world without the web-crawler. And that can be quite fatal in execution. On the opposite side, it has the potential to limit the Symbiote from being used in the MCU too. Which means, we will never see Holland's Parker dealing with the alien super villain! And even I, am not pleased about that...
Anyway, the movie is said to be using a freshly submitted script written by Scott Rosenberg and Jeff Pinkner, not the one written by Dante Harper. Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach, alongside Amy Pascal are producing. Alex Kurtzman was reported to be in charge for the directorial duty before, but this latest news confirmed that the movie doesn't have a director yet. Which means, Kurtzman is likely out of the picture. It's unclear what plot this movie will go through. Perhaps Venom will go straight into Agent Venom, thus he's always been a hero and never on the dark side? Or it will tell the story completely from a villain's point of view? It's anyone's guess, and we'll have to wait and find out. But with the movie arriving in just 19 months, I suspect more information will crawl to headlines really soon...
The Matrix
Do we even NEED a reboot for "The Matrix"? I'd argue NOT, but as long as it keeps the money going, Hollywood seems to think the opposite. In case you didn't get my point, yes, WB is currently in early stages to relaunch the 1999 franchise. Because their DC properties didn't sell as much as they hoped? I'm not surprised if that's one of the primary reason. Zak Penn, who did the first draft for "The Avengers", is currently in talks to write. Actor Michael B. Jordan is being mentioned as the potential lead, likely as a younger Morpheus who was originally played by Laurence Fishburn. Apparently no talks have been made though.
Interestingly, it's currently unclear if the Wachowskis sisters as the original visionary creators will be involved or not, because it's producer Joel Silver who approached WB with the project. Actor Keanu Reeves, who gained huge popularity thanks to the movie, had even stated that he would love to do another sequel or a reboot, ONLY if the Wachowskis are returning. Admittedly, its two direct sequels ("Matrix Reloaded" and "Matrix Revolutions") were not received at the same level, both critically and financially in the box office. But even so, Penn is playing coy but surprisingly optimistic about this movie. He even vaguely hinted about whether it's going to be a REMAKE, a REBOOT, or even pure RE-RELEASE. Remember, this is the guy who co-wrote "X-Men: The Last Stand"! So I think we should be a little cautious with his words...
With that said, regardless of whether it is the right or wrong thing to do, I'm sure we might be seeing another journey to the Matrix in the coming years. Why? Remember, this is the exact studio that produced "The Legend of Tarzan", eventhough we don't really need another one. One that has spin-offed "The Lord of the Rings" into not-one-but-THREE unnecessary chapters of "The Hobbits", and currently doing the same to "Harry Potter" with last November's release of "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them". So yeah, we WILL get another Matrix movie. You can count on it.
Marvel Studios
A sad news might be brewing over Marvel Studios as well last week. Or at least, a somewhat sad. Actor Chris Evans had an interview with Esquire recently about politics and others. When talks eventually hit upon his sore muscles, an after-effect generated through workout session obviously to prepare for "Avengers: Infinity War" (he starts filming in April), the outlet made a bold statement by writing "After that, no more red- white-and-blue costume for the thirty-five-year-old. He will have fulfilled his contract.". Of course, this put everyone into a quick frenzy. Many sites immediately interpreted that Evans would be putting down his Captain America role, after the concurrent Avengers production. Mind you, everyone's forgetting that Evans has had similar situation a few years ago when he said he wanted to focus on directing, which eventually forced him to backtrack a bit and debunked media's interpretations. Since I believe he didn't blatantly say with his own mouth that he won't play the role again to Esquire, I don't see why it's nothing but similar scenario of misunderstanding or quick assumptions.
On the other hand, he HAS been around since 2010, so it makes logical sense if he simply wants to 'move on'. Even Hugh Jackman has bid farewell to the Marvel character that made him a household name, right? Let's just treat this as if it's 'true' now, for the sake of conversation. If Evans DOES decide to not extend his contract, does this mean we might expect to see his Steve Rogers sacrificing himself for the greater good in one of these upcoming Avengers titles? Or... is this merely a huge red herring, considering Rogers HAD already put down his shield at the end of Civil War, thus Captain America is technically no more in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? If you ask me, Evans can always return in future movies but in a mentor figure or some sort that doesn't require action scenes (no need to workout) and can be filmed in a more lenient schedule. The same thing has happened with Robert Downey Jr., right? I don't see how Marvel Studios won't offer the same opportunity to Evans, whose trilogy by far remains to be the best one in the MCU. But worst case scenario, at least we can still see him as the character until 2019... *sigh*
Anyways, speaking of filming, apparently this concurrent production will take part in Old Town Edinburgh this week. Scotland's Cockburn Street, the Royal Mile, and Parliament Square are expected to be featured. Perhaps it's filling in for Nidavellir, home of Eitri the Dwarf King? According to the report, "dozens of A-listers" are expected to be present. Now this is... intriguing. Because as we already learned earlier, Evans will not join production until April. We can add to that, Jeremy Renner's Hawkeye and Elizabeth Olsen's Scarlet Witch, since both have also confirmed that they will start in April as well. So WHO are these A-listers, then? So far, we know Robert Downey Jr., Chris Pratt, as well as Peter Dinklage have all been involved from day one. Tom Holland was among them, but he should be doing reshoots for "Spider-Man: Homecoming" right now. The same with cast for the "Game of Thrones"-esque "Black Panther" which is filming in Atlanta and certain parts of South Korea. Brie Larson (assuming Carol Danvers is in one of the movies) is promoting "Kong: Skull Island" around the world with Tom Hiddleston and Samuel L. Jackson. The latter has even vaguely say he's not involved in these movies. The only characters who seems to be unheard of is the cast members of "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2"! Does this mean, it's them who are expected to show up?
Speaking of "Guardians", James Gunn recently confirmed on The Adam Carolla Show, that actor Sylvester Stallone will play a significant role in his upcoming movie. And he's not alone, because his character will be related to another character, who is played by Smallville's alumn Michael Rosenbaum. Thanks to that, the actor who is famously known for his portrayal of Lex Luthor in the TV series, has come out and admit the fact himself. Nature of Rosenbaum's so-called major role, as well as Stallone's, remains a huge mystery for now. Gunn specifically said "We do have a couple of characters who are very important to the Marvel universe, who are going to make their debut in Guardians Vol. 2, that people don’t know about". Emphasis on the words: 'Very Important', 'Debut', and 'Don't Know About'. The first two is obviously meant to tease future developments in the cosmic side of MCU, but the third is the most curious. Considering Gunn has the penchant for including obscure character like Chris Sullivan's Taserface, and also reimagining one like Pom Klementief's Mantis, Stallone and Rosenbaum could practically play... anyone! Who do you think they are playing? Richard Rider and Sam Alexander? Adam effing Warlock, which would be a fantastic casting? Or Mar-Vell and his son Genis-Vell as a lead up towards "Captain Marvel"? Yondu's comic book team mates StarHawk and Martinex? ...Or someone else? Speculate on!
Marvel TV
First Black Bolt. Second Crystal. Who's next to be spotted by public eye? Medusa, Auran, and Karnak. Yep, Serinda Swan's, Sonya Balmore's and Ken Leung's character have been seen during the production. Thanks to Reel News Hawaii, of course. Unlike Black Bolt or Crystal though, these three didn't look as clear. All we can see is Medusa's long red hair and her purple dress, while Karnak's possibly hidden in a green hoodie, a costume that's probably inspired by his comics version's latest run. Auran looks very vague, but doesn't resemble her comic book counterpart. Maximus is supposed to be there too, but I honestly can't see him anywhere. Is he supposedly hiding? Or that guy with the hood is Maximus all along? Hmmm...
They are filming a rather intriguing scene as well. This one shows the black-suited King and red-haired Queen, escorted by Auran in their front, walking through a line of... humans. A Royal Entrance? But who are those humans wearing gray-colored garbs? Just a wild personal guess, but quite possibly they are people who is lining up for Terrigenesis. Because that's the way it is in the comics, right? Only people given permission by the Royal Family can unlock their true Inhumans nature via the Terrigen Crystal. Then again, judging from the supposedly huge fountain, it might simply be a scene with the King and Queen taking a leisure stroll in the courtyards, addressing citizens. There aren't any more information about the scene, but it's nice to see more cast being caught by candid cameras. I wonder if we'll see Gorgon and Triton next, then?
X-Men Universe
I honestly can't decide if this should go to a 'Marvel TV' category or not, but here's a good news from the other TV side of Marvel. "Legion" has been renewed to Season 2. Yes, FX has renewed the Noah Hawley's series, which shouldn't be a surprise considering the strong reviews by both critics and audience. FX Programming President Eric Schrier even called it as "stunning achievement" because it's a "wholly original take on the superhero genre". He meant that for a TV series, perhaps? After all, "Guardians of the Galaxy" already did an original take on the genre before this. Schrier's words also confirmed that Hawley will be returning for the second season, but didn't confirm when it will be available. Easy money is that it will be released on Winter this year, or even the start of next year.
I haven't personally seen it myself, so I can't tell whether it's really that good or not. After all, just knowing that this show exists in that messy FOX's X-Men Universe is enough to dissolve any interest I have for it into thin air. Which seems to be the case with other audience too, so I'm not alone. But you know what? This renewal has definitely pigued my curiosity. Many media has also branded this show as 'unique', 'weird', and the likes. And sometimes we need this kind of materials as part of our straightforward lifes. Beside, it's only 8 episodes, so it doesn't demand much of your time. So yeah, I'll be checking it out real soon. Though I'm not sure when. LOL.
Netflix
Things are certainly looking... BAD for Marvel's "Iron Fist". While I currently reserve my judgement until I've seen the series completely (not just one or two episodes), knowing that it's sitting at a 16% score on Rotten Tomatoes is undeniably disheartening. I mean, eventhough I rarely check out the site's TV section, this is probably those few moments where I've stumbled on a TV series being awarded THAT bad in the critics' aggregator site. Interestingly, there's a contrast in public's reception. Marvel fans seems to enjoy it, while others, particularly more professional critics (who are equally Marvel fans, not haters), do NOT. This is concerning, because that means the series has divided people in two. I can't bear to imagine how general audience would response to it! But is this a mixed review then? Not necessarily. It's a situation that easily reminds me of a particular movie that was released March last year. Yes, "Batman v Superman"! "Iron Fist" has a much lower score than that boring movie (that ended with 27%) too, so imagine the irony. Hold on, let me correct that. At least audience are liking this show, as evident by the high score (86% with an average rating of 4.3 out 5, while "BvS" only gets 63%). That part CAN be called as ironic.
For the time being, as in just a few days following its release, it's safe to say that the much anticipated series has succeeded to become the most critically-panned live action adaptations that Marvel ever produced. Again, I don't know if such sentiment will last or not, or that people might appreciate it more after seeing the entire series. Moreso, whether this trepid reception will have a negative ripple effect, affecting the upcoming crossover Marvel's "The Defenders" that had just wrapped production. We can't really judge anything, because unexpected things can happen. As I said, I haven't seen this debut season, but has already begun lowering my expectation. I used to be looking forward for this particular title so much, and I honestly don't want to get all disappointed about it. So imagine the anxiety I'm feeling just to watch it.
With that said, we all need to remember one important thing: Don't ever think about blaming the lackluster quality on Finn Jones. He's only an actor, not directly involved in the story and all, and even if he has given great efforts, there's no helping when the material is already weak. If you want an actual scape goat, then look no further but to Marvel TV President Jeph Loeb (who allows too many productions happening, eventhough I don't think his division have yet the resource and proper control to do so), and also showrunner Scott Buck (who has the authority to whip this show into something better, at least critically speaking). Now let's just hope the combo won't be messing up with "The Inhumans" as well. Otherwise I might be really pissed...
The King of Fighters
2nd DLC character for "The King of Fighters XIV" has been announced! This news caught me off guard, since I didn't expect it to arrive this soon, though probably owing that to the way "Street Fighter V" is dishing out its 2nd season DLCs. But never mind that, because my speculation was correct. That crouching tall guy is indeed Ryuji Yamazaki. Just like Whip, the genuinely creepy-crazy deranged-brute feels like a natural inclusion to the roster, due to his, uhm, unique berserking fighting style. I'm not a fan of his character, but I AM a fan of him as a fighter. Because maaan, Yamazaki can sure pack a scary punch, and such a fun one to main with. Intriguingly, his official reveal video somehow hints that he might be teaming up with Whip after all, no matter how odd that might sound (Yamazaki is a known criminal, while Whip works for a government-sanctioned task force).
And also, as I said, there are 4 and not just 3 characters. Just look at that updated silhouette. That alone is solid proof that we're going to get 2 more along the way. Well... unless the 3rd character is a four legged Centaur, of course. Now the question is, WHO will these two characters be? I've speculated the left one due to the hair style. But the right one? Assuming it's not a newly designed character, nor a crossover from other franchise, that fighting stance easily reminds me of the mercenary agent Vanessa who debuted on "The King of Fighters '99 Evolution", Malin who debuted on "The King of Fighters 2003", or Psycho Soldier's latest member Momoko who debuted on "The King of Fighters XI". Neither has been playable again since "The King of Fighters XII", but have shown up in the Team endings for "The Women Fighters" (just like Blue Mary) and "Psycho Soldier" (alongside Bao). The speculation gets narrowed down, once you start connecting them into a team alongside Whip and Yamazaki. Yes, only Vanessa make sense in this theory. What do you think?
For now, Yamazaki doesn't have an official release date yet. But using Whip as the example, I'm sure we'll hear more about that in the near future. In fact, we might need to prepare ourselves for the confirmation of the 3rd character, very soon...
Nintendo
I'm going to close this week's (and probably month?) R-N-D with a quick news from Nintendo. According to Wall Street Journal, the company is planning to double the production of their new hybrid game console, the Nintendo Switch. Manufacturers might produce 16 millions and not 8 as planned. This will be effective in the coming fiscal year that begins on April 2017, and ends on March 2018. This news didn't come officially from the Japanese company, which until now remains silent about it. But even if it's just a speculation, it certainly makes a lot of sense. There's a huge popular demand of the console in the market. Especially if we factor the massive popularity of "Zelda: Breath of the Wild" that has taken the world by storm, and the possibility of "Pokemon Stars" becoming a reality. Many gamers who are currently holding back, would at least be tempted to purchase, as more fresh titles coming in the next months. Some have even stated that they are only waiting for the right software to purchase one.
Speaking of games, looking forward to play "Sonic Mania" on your newly purchased Switch? Well, you're going to have to wait a wee bit longer. The game has been delayed to Summer, with SEGA officially stated that it was intentional to ensure the quality of the product. The company announced this on the Sonic the Hedgehog's SXSW 2017 panel, while previewing a new stage for the game, the >"Flying Battery Zone". At the same time, the company also revealed that Project Sonic 2017 has been officially titled as "Sonic Force". To be honest, before seeing the trailer again, I've completely forgotten that it works as some sort of sequel to "Sonic Generations". Which means, we're going to play two versions of Sonics, modern and classic. In fact, Sonic Team Studio head Takashi Iizuka even described it as "an evolution of Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations". Not just that, apparently there will be an additional 'style' that will be revealed in the coming months. A short gameplay footage featuring a level that focuses on modern Sonic has been made available for public. That DOES remind you of "Sonic Generations", huh?
Interested about these games? I know I do, eventhough I haven't managed to get the hybrid console. Then again, now that Nintendo is increasing the production, the likelihood of the product running out on stores is now close to none. At least until March 2018. So plenty of time for you and me to continue saving and get one for the Summer or Holidays, right? Good for us... *grins*
#Random-News-Digest#random thoughts#news#movie#Disney#beauty and the beast#Mulan#Pixar#coco#dc#batman#aquaman#venom#Marvel Studios#Avengers#infinity war#guardians of the galaxy vol. 2#black panther#captain america#TV show#The Inhumans#legion#netflix#inspiration#Iron Fist#game#kof xiv#nintendo switch#sonic the hedgehog
0 notes
Last Seen Blogs
emmeriex
i had the time of my life fighting dragons with you
superluckyphili-blog
Another Lucky story of Phili :)
cili-rwby
Wow I love RWBY
senseisense
Sensei Sense
matindera
Untitled