#i know i know we've seen origin stories a million times. but like. i LOVE origin stories. i'm sure other people do too | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

skyeblue8 · 9 months

Text

𝐋𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐎𝐥𝐲𝐦𝐩𝐮𝐬 𝐯𝐬. 𝐇𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐮𝐯𝐚 𝐁𝐨𝐬𝐬 (𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐬)

Whether or not you're all familiar with the Webcomic, Lore Olympus is an award-winning comic created by Rachel Smythe that's essentially about a modern retelling of the Hades and Persephone myth with various other Gods and references in it, and what not. And, assuming you have a critical eye when it comes to writing, it's has become wildly disliked and even hated by a lot of critics and former fans due to the butchering of myths and gods (and a religion), unlikeable characters, poor character design, poorer handling of sensitive topics like SA and racism, and overall the author's inability to listen and take critism that would've helped her improve.

youtube

The reason I bring this up at all is because I have the nagging fear that Helluva Boss and, by extension, Hazbin Hotel, are going to be doomed to fall into the same pit of failure as Lore Olympus is, mainly due to a nagging pattern that I've noticed between the two:

The Writers. The two are relatively close in age and, in my opinion, immaturity in writing as evidenced by the various plot inconsistencies, character treatment and development, and poor world-building established in both media. On top of that, however, both have a significantly bad reception to criticism of their work in any way, shape, or form. We've seen this before in how Viv herself states that she's been told that she can't take criticism well since she was 17.

Now, it's one thing to have these claims as a teenager, it's another to have them as a fully grown adult and not learn to mature past this issue by now. The number one issue with ignoring criticism for so long, especially in your very popular work, is that eventually, it's going to show. Sooner or later, many of your fans, regardless of how they felt about your work prior, are gonna notice small flaws that gradually become bigger and more glaring the longer they are ignored.

Time and time again, this issue has arisen in Rachel Smythe's work, both in design:

As well as writing...

Speaking of which, I'm beginning to see a similarity in their writing issues in the fact that, evidently, neither creator had/has any set plan for how their stories are gonna be told. Readers of LO have seen that from the frequent additions of various, random plots with the previously established plots having not been concluded in a meaningful or tactful way, and we see this with Vivzie and Season 2.

Going off this, both Vivzie and Smythe show blatant favoritism towards their main characters or love interests that prevent other characters from having their own development (i.e., Millie), as well as keeps the main couple from having any sort of flaws that the audience would perceive as truly bad, thus removing any nuance to them.

We see this in Persephone and her character:

And we see the same with Stolas and Blitzo, mainly in regards to Stolas' past and situation with Stella, as well as Blitzø's own past as we're made to constantly feel bad for him despite him not being the victim. It's made worse since we've yet to know what he did to every single person he's wronged, but, for that, I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt until we see more of Season 2.

Lastly, and probably the most glaring thing for me, both Smythe and Vivize take inspiration from real-world religions (RS –> Greek Polytheism; Vivzie –> Christianity/Demonology). These religions are both widespread in their popularity and, thus, are important to millions around the world. Because of this, both should surely have a sense of obligation to not bastardize the stories and characters they referenced in their work and/or should make their likeness relatively similar to their original works so others who know of it are familiar with the characters.

Both creators have failed to do so at some point in time and have gone so far as to push the blame on their audience rather than admit fault and work to improve.

Viv with Beelezbub

And Smythe with Persephone and the other gods/Goddesses:

Worst yet, both use social media as a means of weaponizing their fanbase against those who have a few critiques about each work of media. Now, what I can say for Viv is that the severity of these issues hasn't fully hit her yet, whereas Smythe, despite her awards, is feeling the brunt of her poor writing choices from former fans and readers. While Helluva Boss is more new and doesn't hold as much overwhelming significance to me, I've been with Hazbin Hotel since the beginning before the pilot even aired.

It's because of this that my greatest concern is that if Viv doesn't start seeing through these issues within Helluva Boss and, really, herself, then both shows may be doomed to fail, without Hazbin airing in its entirety. Worse yet, it would be a major blow for fellow indie creators who look up to her as an inspiration, so I really hope she doesn't reach RS's level of infamy in her work. 🙏

*PS: For a better Lore Olympus's viewing experience, I recommend this:

#helluva boss critical #vivziepop critical #helluva boss critique #hazbin hotel critical #helluva boss criticism #hazbin hotel critique #anti lo #Youtube #anti vivziepop #anti lore olympus

171 notes · View notes

chicken-fifi · 1 month

Text

BTS Reaction | Your Niece/Nephew is Possessive Over You

Pairing: BTS Members x Fem!Reader

Requested by anon: May I please request part 2 of bts headcanons? when they try to get close to their crush (like hug her, wrap their arms around her shoulder etc.) their crush's niece or nephew (18 month old) won't let them. The baby is really possessive of their aunt and doesn't like anyone touching her.

A/n: for once i feel like i'm a little bit ahead and being rather productive, but i sill feel very much behind on writing.... anyways i have a funny story to tell that connects to this request. we've all heard about my story thinking my cousin's pregnant wife was fat because she hadn't gone to the bathroom in days right (if not i will find the story later). well that cousin has a younger brother to whom my late aunt is a godparent. every year for my aunt's birthday he would give her a hug and every year my younger brother would fight him for it because he didn't like other people hugging my aunt. he was very jealous and possessive. little ramble, but reminded me of this little memory. happy reading! also for the sake of the this reaction, the situations take place short after the each member is introduced to the niece/nephew from the previous reactions which can be found on the main BTS masterlist.

Tunes: n/a

Jin:

Initially your niece was very wary of Seokjin

Often eyeing him with a lot of suspicious

Especially when he was extremely close to you

It was your birthday when the little girl had first seen the strange man hug you

And while she had seen other people hug before

Something did not sit right with her about sharing her favorite aunt with someone else

She’s promptly separates the two of you giving him a very angry side eye

She’s come a long way we’ll say that

Suga:

We a stubborn niece here

She refused to even acknowledge Yoongi’s presence for long time

Everytime he arrive to any family function she’d make a beeline to you, pulling you away from him

If she feels you’ve spent too much time him over her

You better believe she will feign some sadness or injury to get your attention

But lord forbid she see him hugging you

She’s quick to stop that without a single ounce of hesitation shouting ‘no’ at the top of her lungs

It’s kind of hard to believe he won her over in the end

J-Hope:

This one honestly hurts me to think about

Hoseok also feels extremely upset about the fact that your nephew doesn’t like him one bit

He’d heard you talk so much about the boy and the aunt-nephew bond the two of you have this is so special to you

So naturally he gets excited to meet the boy he’s heard so much about

And that boy hates him

And he quite literally doesn’t know what to do with himself

With how important you’ve said he is to you

He’s afraid this is a deal breaker

If he’s near you and you’re nephew is present

He’s receiving the most judgemental and vaguely threatening stares from the boy

To think that boy would soon be clinging to him like a monkey

RM:

You niece loves many things that you love

Namjoon was originally not included in that list

Sharing you with him?

Nope.

Negative.

Not in a million years

She tries her hardest to keep you with her at all times

But remember she’s very intelligent

She knows you like him a lot

So she eventually caves and it’s for the better

Why didn’t she like him sooner!?

He gives her so much praise!

Jimin:

Jimin laughs at your nephew’s antics

He think it’s endearing that the little boy loves you so much

Even goes out of his way to get him riled up sometimes

But he doesn’t like it when the little guy screams anytime he goes near the two of you

It’s so cute

He’ll gladly get yelled at for the laughs

But he seriously needs to win the little guy over

And boy is he going to try everything he can think of

Silent hater

You nephew opts to simply cling to you while side eyeing Taehyung

Taehyung tries so hard to get the little guy to like him

And it’s so stranger that he doesn’t

He refused to leave the two of you alone in any room

Cockblock much?

He’ll gently push him away from you and take over any hugs and kisses

At some point though he does give in just a little bit

Jungkook:

Your niece does like Jeongguk

A lot actually

But she doesn’t like him taking you away from her

When he’s around you give him all your attention and not her

She doesn’t like that so she tries to get the two of you separate

She clings to you like crazy and just stares at him and pushes him away when she feels he’s too close

She warms up the quickest out everyone else though

It’s really hard not to like her aunt’s cute boyfriend

#kpop #kpop reactions #bts #bts masterlist #bts reactions #rm #jin #suga #j-hope #jimin #v #jungkook

38 notes · View notes

youngbugandtonystank · 1 year

Note

I’m curious, where did you get the comic pages for the alternate WEB timeline? The one with Peter and Harley, I mean? Is that canon?

Hi!

Yes, it's canon but in the sense of "they're in a different timeline" sort of thing. Similar to Peter #3 (Garfield's Peter: universe 120703) or Peter #2 (Maguire's Peter: universe 96283) they're both from different universes but they coexist in the MCU now.

The MCU's universe is called "Primary Marvel Universe" (616), that's the original canon one from the movies. In Multiverse of Madness you can see Strange go to the Illuminati Universe (838) where he meets Professor X, it's not his main canon timeline but that universe does exist in the canon MCU storyline:

Here you can see the list of universes the MCU has shown us so far.

Here's how Marvel explained the connection for the WEB one:

"The lovely thing about the comic books and the films is that between them we've seen a million different versions of the multiverse, a million different versions of these characters. Avengers: Endgame especially gave us the opportunity to go back in time and then split off in a different timeline," Pagan said. "So that's how we like to look at our activation that we have, if you think about when [the Avengers] went back to 2012 and Endgame, they had a shared history. The two timelines had a shared history up until that point."

"We will continue to have a shared history as we move forward, so there'll be a little bit of fluidity to that timeline, but clearly we live in a version of the multiverse where there are some characters who did not sacrifice themselves for us. They are alive and well and now welcome you to it."

Basically what they're saying is that the WEB timeline is the one (or one of them) where Tony didn't die after Endgame.

"We know what you're thinking - isn't Tony Stark dead?" As Pagan explains, "The Tony Stark who's showboating at Avengers Campus is obviously from a different timeline or universe than the Tony Stark who sacrificed himself in Avengers: Endgame (along with this version of Black Widow). So this Tony is alive and well".

"But [just like] in Avengers: Endgame, where they go back to 2012 and everything about the universe is the same up until that point, and then they divide start spinning off into multiple timelines, we see ourselves as having that same shared history, with what we’ve seen in the films. And then clearly there was just that point in time where they’ve split off and now have created in one timeline these new campuses for us to assemble alongside them."

I got them from the official W.E.B. of Spider-Man tie-in comic for the Avengers Campus. It tells the story of the members of W.E.B:

This is the new Cassie Lang:

In this universe Mary-Jane Watson and Gwen Stacy exist too.

#irondad #peter parker #tony stark #spiderson #marvel #mcu #tom holland #rdj #spiderman #iron man #avengers campus #web

42 notes · View notes

triflesandparsnips · 2 years

Text

A brief follow-up re: this shit right here

Am I using another gif of the exact same scene just so I can watch it again from a slightly different artistic perspective? Yes, absolutely.

Since posting my feral feels regarding this scene in OFMD, I've seen rather a lot of reactions, and to be absolutely clear holy shit I love everyone in this bar & grill.

I would like to break down the reactions, though, and provide some additional commentary because it turns out I have EVEN MORE FEELINGS.

1. "My heart, my eyes, I'm screaming, I'm gnawing wood" and variations thereof

Amazing, no notes.

2. "Now that Stede knows he loves Ed, his Game will become Too Powerful"

I feel it's important to state that the beauty of this moment is only possible because

"On-Purpose Queer-Coded Language To Identify Each Other Safely"

and

"I'm Gonna Be Real Careful With My Wording Because I Like Pretty Things But I Don't Need Broken Ribs Today"

are often indistinguishable in the moment. To Ed? Stede has just done an elegant bit of coded communication. (THERE WAS A HANKY FOR FUCKS' SAKE.) It's part of why he goes in for a kiss-- and then promptly does a quick slide into a homosocially acceptable bro-punch when Stede doesn't immediately lean in too. Ed's still doing safety checks, and he'll continue doing them for several more episodes, but he's definitely added at least one tick mark -- possibly the first tick mark -- in his mental "does Stede do ~dalliances" tally sheet.

To Stede, though? He got to Be Himself and he did it Right so Hooray he didn't get his Face Caved In. While my dude needs to take some time to consider why it's so important to him that he Be Himself around This Particular Guy in This Particular Way, he is definitely not reading from the same set of notes as Ed. His mental tally sheet? Is still labeled "is this a Friend y/n." Because in Stede's past even trying to form friendships ended up with verbal abuse and weirdly sexualized violence so, like, Stede has a VERY different starting point than Ed on this one.

(And tbh, I think @kohlrabisabi's reply to the original post really hits a lot of this well. Stede is absolutely just… doing an extension of his own learned "safe" behavior and it HAPPENS to correspond with what Ed "knows" safe behavior like that "means." From a queer narrative point of view it doesn't particularly matter that Stede does in fact turn out to be in love with Ed-- he still betrayed the shared language that was supposed to finally make it safe for Ed to believe there was an Understanding between them, and therefore the fact that Stede didn't show up at the dock isn't just heartbreaking, it's an actively traumatic experience for Ed as a queer man.)

(The flip side of this is that it's not particularly fair of Ed to depend entirely on The Secret Code of Gay to interpret Stede's full thoughts on this extremely life altering situation, and perhaps spending five goddamn minutes just talking openly and making sure everyone's on the same page would've saved us all a lot of toes, okay.)

ALL THIS TO SAY: Lol no, if Stede tries to woo Ed now, it's going to be awkward straight-guy courtship outta manuals because that's what he thinks you're supposed to do, it'll be amazingly awful and I cannot fucking wait. We'll only see our slow and coded queer seduction vibes when Stede is, once again, trying not to get stabbed by Blackbeard.

3. "How does a television show do this, how is All This Meaning done by thirty people in a clown car driven by HBO"

The queer experience is nonetheless the human experience; we've been humans for a long time and our stories tend to repeat a lot. Also, all art is collaborative, and the audience is doing the bulk of the heavy lifting when engaging with any work of art -- therefore it's not thirty people in a clown car, it's millions of people collectively recognizing a shared/lived experience as accurate within our own contexts and imbuing it with yet further meaning because our ability to do so has neither directly nor indirectly been contradicted by the narrative.

tl;dr: Magic.

#in hanky code yes Stede is theoretically telling Ed he wants to get fistfucked super hard if Ed is also into that thanks #I realize that's a little unfair to leave in the tags #but oh no guess you'll have to write a fic about it to punish me #oh nooooo #not that #our flag means death #ofmd #meta #stede bonnet #edward teach #ed teach #queer narratives #moonlight scene #homophobia #and all the traumas that come from living in a homophobic world

57 notes · View notes

navree · 1 year

Note

https://at.tumblr.com/navree/does-aegon-ii-wants-to-be-king-in-the-book/vuh0fivit443

I really love your insight on Book!Aegon and he is really the most interesting and compelling green to me in the book. It's kinda sad how they turned him in the show, they wanted to humanization him at first but then they decided to ruin it all by what they did in ep8&9 . I really wanted his line "what kind of a brother...." to be in the show. Also what do you think about Criston in the book? I get the impression that he is very ambitious and had really close relationship with Egg otherwise he won't be able to convince him to take the iron throne

Thank you so much for the compliment!

I actually like a fair bit of what they've done with Aegon in the show, like his ten million different issues, I just wish they kept the Mushroom to a minimum so we'd get less weird and unnecessary shit. But I would have also liked to see some more of the book characterization (well, "characterization" we don't know whether any of this is factual or not) and I would have liked to see some more of how he was convinced to accept the crown when he was already willing to let it go to Rhaenyra, especially when in the show he's got some level of genre awareness and is terrified of what the Iron Throne is going to do to him, as well as that eventual conversation about how he needs to do it for his family. Given that we've seen Aegon being really to put it all on the line for his family in the show, the way he was willing to take the heat on Driftmark for Aemond and Alicent's sakes, it would have been some good character moment too.

Criston's a bit of a hard read in the book, since the book is mainly focused on the Targaryen histories and as such, non-Targaryens, even heavily featured ones like Criston Cole or Alys Rivers or Torrhen Stark or any of the Conquest-era Martells don't get a lot of characterization. Which I think is understandable, if I'm a fifteenth century historian writing about, like, the York Plantagenets, I'm not going to devote significant time to also telling you about the personality of Eleanor Butler or even the Duke of Buckingham, not in any significant ways. Criston's story in the book is also incredibly different than in the show; for instance, he's already been the Lord Commander for nearly ten years when Viserys dies, whereas Harrold Westerling was still alive and kicking in the show and only retired out of disgust, rather than just dying of old age. There's also the fact that a lot of time stuff was flipped around to accommodate changed ages and whatnot, along with just Criston having been given a lot more character to work with; things like his Dornish hereitage, his commoner's backstory, his religious leanings, those are all show originals, none of that is mentioned in the book.

Criston doesn't seem to have been personally ambitious, not in any way that would have been remarked upon, but determined to advance the cause of the Greens and ambitious for them. Like in the show, Criston has a falling out with Rhaenyra (the circumstances in the book are murky) and then later becomes Alicent's sworn shield after the death of Joffrey Lonmouth, though in the book he's probably more profoundly grateful to her and tied to her because the death was actually an accident, and Alicent was the only one who seemed to point out that this is the risk people take when they enter tourneys and that Criston shouldn't be punished just for having won and just because Joffrey decided to ignore that risk. He's a much more personally loyal man to Alicent than his show counterpart, which is saying something because show!Criston is like.......extremely loyal to Alicent, I watched episode 9. He also seems to have filled a mentor type of role to her kids, though less overtly fatherly than in the show, given that Viserys was something of a present father in the book (leagues more than he was in the show) and just the fact that he just became attached to Alicent later in their lives than he did. But he was still close to them, the book makes a note of the special attention he paid to Aemond and how he helped him become a swordsman after he lost his eye, even before he was Lord Commander, and as you said, he was able to both figure out where Aegon was after Viserys died and lighted on the right way to convince him to take the crown. It does speak to at least knowing what kind of person Aegon was and what he valued enough to go against his initial ideals. Aegon also names Criston his hand, and Criston is trusted enough to be a major battle leader and also spend significant time with Aemond during his regency.

Criston in the book comes off as less of an intrinsically nice person and less good intentioned and proto-Jaime than he does in the show (I've discussed what I think of show Criston as a show character here); he seems snider and more motivated by spite and just wanting to win against people he dislikes than anything else, but there's still a nobility in him and a goodness in how he treats his fellow man (not just his apparent affection for Alicent's children even in the book, but also surrounding the circumstances of his death and how it happened, which I talked about here). Ultimately, I agree with Jaime that Criston Cole embodied the best and the worst of the Kingsguard: steadfast and loyal and uncompromising in the face of duty, unquestioning in the orders given and unflinching and determined in his role as protector and guardian and fighter; but also capable of subsuming his entire identity to those he serves even at the potential destruction of the realm, vicious not just on the battlefield but off of it (given the personal dimension to his issues with Rhaenyra influencing his role in crowning Aegon), and how ultimately his duty as Alicent's shield and supporting her put him on the path to being the Kingmaker and using positions intrinsic to the Kinsguard, like the Lord Commander being on the Small Council, to influence events and politics when he shouldn't have done so. Very different from his show character, but I don't think less interesting or less worthy of interest and further analysis.

#personal #answered #anonymous #criston cole #yeah it's hard to parse out character in the book because of the way it's written #it's a history textbook so they don't really talk about thoughts and feelings if you're not a targaryen ruler #i think the best way to describe criston is that he's somewhat nastier than his show counterpart #but also in his own way more like ned than his show counterpart #(as i mentioned show criston is giving major dornish jaime vibes and i stand by that)

7 notes · View notes

weaintashescltv · 2 years

Text

I just can't for the life of me come up with a believable emotional reason why, after an entire arc of working to come back together, Daryl would actively choose to go to Europe while Carol actively chooses to stay behind. I just can't and like I always say, it's the emotions that are supposed to drive the plot, not the other way around.

I know I might be in the minority here, but I thought given the circumstances, AK did a really good job of justifying Michonne's exit. With Daryl and Carol though...I worry more. A lot more, especially if AK doesn't have full control of the story which S11 so far seems to suggest. At best, I think it might be like putting a band-aid on a shotgun wound and who the hell can bear to watch that?

Even though no other characters can grab my attention the way Daryl and Carol can, especially as a team, I was willing to give the other spinoffs a chance as long as I got my Caryl fix too, but knowing Carol is simply gone from the universe, it just feels pointless to me. I suppose the easiest thing to do would be to have her join Daryl eventually, but like my secret friend pointed out, that doesn't feel like a story that's meant to span multiple seasons and in that case, I would love for Carol to have her own show in the meantime while we wait...once again...for a reunion.

What a Carol show would entail depends on where she lands in 11x24. If it were up to me and coming up with a strong narrative was all that mattered, the Caryl spinoff would exist as originally planned, I would first of all make sure the only reason Daryl and Carol are separated is because they were forcibly separated. I'd have Carol's story run parallel to Daryl's, similar to season 4B when they kept crossing the same paths and missing each other until that iconic Terminus hug. But since all of that is highly unlikely...

It's funny that you mention Judith because I think whatever the story might be, those two would make a good team. Not because Carol needs to repeat her maternal figure arc that we've seen a million times, but because the two of them have a long history, Carol being the one who saved Judith from Lizzie, and they are both trying to navigate how to go about their days while waiting for loved ones to return. It'd be a good opportunity to learn more about them through their interactions which, despite that history, have been very minimal (I imagine because of Carol's trauma). We don't know much about Carol's past outside of her marriage to Ed for example, and while Judith may be a legacy, she has also been pretty one-note. Whatever they get up to though, like Daryl's journey, I would need it to be temporary so those two can come back together.

#caryl #carol peletier #melissa mcbride #darylneedscarol #MT asks

16 notes · View notes

allthemusic · 5 months

Text

Week ending: 20 May 1954

A two-song week, as we head towards summer. Will we be seeing signs of summeriness? One song looks like it's got some flowers in it, at least.

Friends and Neighbourgs - Billy Cotton & His Band (peaked at No. 3)

We've seen Billy Cotton before, on the time capsule of a song that was In a Golden Carriage (There's a Heart of Gold), a tune written and performed for Elizabeth II's coronation. I assumed then that Billy was being wheeled out as a reprentative of something that felt traditional and British, an old-fashioned performer for an occasion that called for a bit of pomp and circumstance - that is to say, that Billy, at this point, was a bit of a relic, beign dusted off as a topic one-off.

Imagine my surprise, then, when I get this - a Billy Cotton original song, in the charts, apparently entirely on its own merits. I guess there's a chance some sort of cultural event catapulted this into the charts - a TV appearance, or a film, or something - but it does seem a bit random that a sound like this can just pop up unannounced, all old-fashioned and sentimental.

Actually, I think the last one's the key here. This is a sentimental song, taken from a sentimental/melodramatic music hall tradition that had metamorphosed into the "British dance band" scene at some point before World War II. It's out of place in the 1950s, but I can imagine a lot of slightly older record-buyers finding this a nostalgic throwback.

Musically, it's a little bit jazzy, but in a staid, plodding way, not doing anything particularly wild. There's a muted trumped, an accordion, a clarinet, and a strummy banjo, plus a whole group of backing singers who don't sound half as polished as backing singers in this era often are. This feels like it could just be a bunch of people you're mates with, which is kind of fun.

The lyrics are banal, all about how good it is to have friends and neighbours, and how they make the world better, how you can talk to them about your troubles, and how "Although you've not a penny / And you house may be tumbling down / With friends and neighbours / You're the richest man in town." It's well-meaning, and sweet, I guess.

I'm still confused as to why it exists, I'm afraid. I suppose it's a nice sentiment for people who're still in rationing, for goodness' sake: you may not have money currently, but you've got neighbours, at least. Trite, but hard to get grumpy at it, and it's not actively irritating me yet.

Someone Else's Roses - Joan Regan (5)

Oh, I like this. It's not summery flowers at all, it's heartbroken-and-angry-at-your-lover flowers! I don't know if that was a surprise, per se, but I did enjoy the story told throughout this song. It's by Joan Regan, who also did Ricochet, whose bouncy charm I enjoyed, and while the tone of this song is different, the theme isn't a million miles away. Again, Joan's playing the jilted lover, angry at her unfaithful man.

It feels quite modern in a way, the way that this song takes a little moment and spins it into a whole narrative. The idea is that Joan's love has somehow sent Joan some roses, but with a note that was meant for somebody different. We don't learn exactly how this happened, or the specific details. Are they still a couple, or is this an ex accidentally sending her things? All we know - in true tragic fashion - is that "The note you send I wasn't meant to see". And worse, it's "The kind of rose you always chose for me". Oh no! She's lost her love

While there's a rich vein of anger that could be mined here, Joan doesn't quite go down that route - a shame, I thought at first, because she did it really well in Ricochet. Here, though, we have a slower, soupier song, and so she goes down the brokenhearted route instead, singing about how she won't forget his love and - possibly the most interesting line in the thing - begging him "Won't you tell me it was really meant for me". It's a fascinating insight into her brain - she'd rather have the reassuring lie to cling to, even though she knows the awful truth. But if he would only lie to her, she'd have the plausible deniability to stay with her unfaithful man. Unfortunately, the fact that she's begging seems to suggest that he can't even be bothered with that - he's moved on, ad she's left out in the cold.

You could get a whole song out of that one idea, actually - it's a shame Joan doesn't dwell on it more. Instead, we get a brief instrumental break, and then the song's over. It never quite gets worked up as much as it could, given its emotional subject material, and Joan also doesn't quite let loose as much as she maybe ought to. She sings in a very prim, proper way, and I can't help but miss Ricochet a bit. It's not a bad song, but I'm just not completely sold on it yet.

Actually, that might just be a soupy ballad issue for me. I'm not often as convinced by slow, dramatic songs, and the more you drape them in strings and elegant twirls, the less I'm inclined to buy into whatever they're selling me. They're just too smooth and pretty, I get distracted. Soz, Joan.

Both of these songs were very melodramatic and sentimental. Apparently the British public were in a slightly sappy mood at this point in 1954. And well they might be, with summer round the corner and proper rock and roll still nowhere to be seen. I can't quite love either of these songs, but one of them, at least, made me stop and think about its lyrics for a while.

Favourite song of the bunch: Someone Else's Roses

#uk charts #1954 #billy cotton & his band #joan regan

0 notes

silenthorrorfilm · 2 years

Note

Horror movie time! Do you like them? Are you a thriller person or a gore person? Any favorite villain? What horror movie do you think is over hyped? What horror movie do you like the most? How do you feel about jumpscares? Twist endings? If you're not a horror movie fan, just talk to me about your favorite Halloween movies :)

i used to not like horror movies, like i was just a mega anxious kid so i didn't watch stuff like that but i would watch older monster movies like the original dracula, the wolf man, phantom of the opera, etc bc those weren't like SCARY yknow?

as i've gotten older though, i've def gained SUCH an appreciation for horror movies! in fact this month i've been trying to watch a new one every day :33

i've seen stuff from all over the board, so i'd like to say i know what i do and don't like. like i don't like movies where the Big Scary Thing is like, an animal, like Cujo or Jaws or w/e. It's never really appealed to me. i also don't love supernatural horror, just like generally, but i think it can be well-executed when mixed with other things. i also don't care for the cannibal subgenre, as it's just kinda culturally insensitive as well as not incredibly interesting or engaging generally.

as for stuff i DO like, i really do like gorier/splatter movies (sometimes referred to as "torture porn" movies, but mostly pejoratively and i don't care for that term), if they're done WELL. it can be hard to strike a balance between good gore and a story that warrants it, bc if you don't have enough it feels like there's no pay-off, but if there's too much you get desensitized and it feels less like a movie and more a sfx showcase. it can be mega hit or miss, but i still like seeking out movies that bill themselves that way. i also love a good slasher, i mean it's hard to go wrong, it's the most iconic subgenre of horror for a reason, like if you ask people to name a horror movie off the top of their heads chances are it's a slasher. and they're fun!! even when they're bad they can still be campy and good to watch, more to laugh at. i also like psychological horror, like stuff that feels like the protag rly is tortured mentally and sometimes as a viewer you're unsure if what's happening is actually happening or if it's in their head??? good stuff. that's why american psycho is one of my faves, you're left wondering if patrick really did kill all those people or if he's just imagining it, bc there's evidence both ways!!

oh!! and a trope i ADORE is like,,,murderous artists as the killer. like characters who are like "i need to kill people for my art, and they will be immortalized in it even if i kill them"??? good shit!!! no matter what kind of art it is, murderous artists rly scratch an itch for me ehehe,,,

some of my favorite horror movies overall are scream (1996), black christmas (1974), hostel part 2, peeping tom (1960), house of wax (2005), psycho, re-animator, and halloween (1978) ^^

as for over hyped, recently my boss recommended the cabin in the woods to me and i really really hated it. like it's trying to do the thing scream does really well which is sort of lampoon the cliches of the genre, but scream was made by someone who has a lot of love for the genre and clearly wasn't just banking on that as the only draw. the cabin in the woods was clearly written by somebody who hates horror movies and thinks they're all pointless garbage, like it's just so much more mean-spirited, and it made me hate it so so much. and it's not like it's saying anything that hasn't been said before, it came out in 2011, i think that whole "oh the virgin always survives the jock dies first they always split up blah blah blah" observation had already been made a million times in a million different and much more interesting ways, this is just trying SO HARD to pat itself on the back for making that point too. also, in the last 10 minutes a character we've never seen comes in and explains to the protags what's going on in the movie, which like if you need someone to come in and just drone exposition at the viewers to make them understand what happened in the movie, YOU'RE A BAD SCREENWRITER. but for some reason, it has like a 90% on rotten tomatoes and i'm baffled as to why. there are some others but i'll spare you bc this is already too long as it is jsjhsjhsj

#i have a letterboxd acc just to track my horror movie watching ehehe #behind the scenes

1 note · View note

daisiesonafield-blog · 3 years

Note

I’ve been seeing a parallel between Harry and John Mayer for a while with the way they’re presented to the media. John has been commercially less successful since the beginning of his career. I think a lot of people stopped listening, and he basically went underground for a while and came back with music and stuff he liked that was the opposite of what people thought. John has also talked about realizing people aren’t going to dig deeper to find out who he is beyond the top google searches. I think Harry feels the same way, and that’s partially why he has like no social media presence at all. They’re more similar than people think. They’re actually friends too, I believe.

Hi dear,

I get what you mean about their marketing, but I think that stems from the fact that they have/had similar fanbases, so their "product" is marketed in a similar way. It's essentially how most good looking young male pop stars are marketed. Similar too to Shawn Mendes, Justin Bieber, Justin Timberlake, Adam Levine, The Weeknd, and many others. They all have things that make them unique, have their own music and origin story - but the basic marketing formula is similar across the board. So I wouldn't say H and John are uniquely reflective of each other. Not much more or less than any of these other pop stars. They all are/were marketed to a primarily female audience, their love lives are constantly in the press, they've all been/are the "it boy" of the moment, they've all been marketed as "the desirable guy", and they've all had/have their lives speculated about left and right.

And as for them being friends, I'm not too sure. They're obviously in similar circles and we've seen them together at events - but I doubt they're super close friends that go out of their way to hang. But I can see them being friendly and having a good time together if they're at the same place or at the same event.

So, like I said in that post - we don't know how the end of this stunt will play out, so saying now that Harry is "gonna end up like John Mayer" is a bit premature I think. They could end it by having Olivia sing his praises, Olivia dumping him, Olivia breaking his heart, them being bff exes, Olivia and Jason being super happy in their respective lives with respective partners (or together?)...there's a million ways to go here.

And also, Harry's branding over the last few years has been aggressively that of the kind, caring, nice pop star. That is something they've worked especially hard on during Fine Line marketing and promo, to market him as a good person and not the typical asshat pop star. So if anything, I think they'll push this even more alongside any other marketing strategy they roll out when the stunt is over.

Note: in relation to this post

#harry's image vs reality #harry's image #horry #holivia #stunts #john mayer #PR strategy #harry's marketing #marketing #my current opinion #jul 16 2021 #jul 2021

25 notes · View notes

ibroughtyoumybullets-ningy · 2 years

Note

which is better? dr who, torchwood, or ace attorney?

i have no idea who asked this, but now we're gonna break some shit down.

doctor who

is it good?

eh, sometimes. it depends on your definition of 'good'. the show is problematic in a million different ways (especially if you're watching Classic) but it's also campy as ALL hell and yes that's a good thing.

doctor who will always hold a special place in my heart for a variety of reasons. Rose was a very important character to me growing up, and the show was where i saw my first queer character. alongside all that, the show's themes of how anyone has the power to stand up and be the hero, how everyone has that one thing that seems completely useless but is the key to saving the day, and to never stop exploring and asking "why?".

the show is more than just a mixed bag. it's thirty different mixed bags all tied together with some rainbow yarn masquerading as the same bag. there are very few people who will enjoy everything the show has to offer (heck, i don't enjoy everything the show has to offer) but there are very few people who won't enjoy at least some of it.

torchwood

is it good?

hahahahahahaha no. 💚. i say this with so much love for this stupid franchise. it's shit 💚. but, at the same time, it drew me in. beyond the first season and it's bizarre, dated nonsense, there's a surprising level of depth to be found here. torchwood connected with me in ways i really never expected it to, especially given its first season. it's deeply 2000s for better or for worse, but it managed to craft several character arcs and even just individual scenes that are going to stay with me for a long time.

on a different note, i also really appreciate (most of) how they handled the show's queer representation. having an all bisexual main cast is something unheard of from that era of entertainment. and, adding onto that, they don't make a big deal out of it. until the third season, there are no big coming out scenes or drama over characters being in same sex relationships. everyone's bi and it's treated as a normal thing.

don't get me wrong, this whole franchise is hit or miss. the episodes themselves range wildly in quality, the novels are (for the most part) pure garbage, but a lot of the audio dramas have ended up redeeming the franchise and helping it capitalize on that idea of 'doctor who but for Grown Ups™️' not with pointless sex and gore but with darker storylines and ambiguous moral implications the original series couldn't or wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole. is it for everyone? no. but it is for 2000s kids who like rtd doctor who.

ace attorney

is it good?

well. as a game, the gameplay loop can become very repetitive and exhausting after going at it for 10 hours straight (and yes, i've been there). and as a story it has a tendency to not only jump sharks, but organize an annual shark jumping and feeding festival. of course, no murders will happen at the shark jumping and feeding festival. why, such a thing would be completely unheard of! and i, Shar K. Bait, can guarantee no one has ever been fed to our sharks.

in all seriousness, i went into these games expecting complete bullshit. we've all seen the memes. so then i started Turnabout Goodbyes and it ruined my life.

i don't know how long the series will be able to hold my attention when i'm done with all the games (i still need to finish aa3, i have the Chronicles, aai should be here in a few days, and when all those are done i can play Apollo Justice, no clue yet where i'll play aa5/6 since i don't have a 3ds), but so far i'm interested. the writing and gameplay being intertwined the way they are is a nice balance, neither feels like it's overtaking the other and by shifting back and forth between courtroom battles and visual novel content neither outstays its welcome.

as far as this series of me rambling is concerned, ace attorney is probably the best constructed overall. but, it's a different medium (video game) so its production works much differently than that of television.

i didn't expect to get as invested into the series as i did. particularly, i really enjoy miles edgeworth's arc (part of the reason i was willing to fork over so much for aai cough cough) and i'm curious to see how his character is handled in later installments, since i've heard some of the writing goes downhill in the later games.

so which of these is better?

well, my dear anon, not to be a wishy washy bitch, but none of them. i can appreciate them all for different reasons and recognize that some have strengths the others don't. yes, doctor who is technically one of my oldest hyperfixations, but also i dropped the franchise for almost a decade because of a certain writer (who will not be named) completely killing my interest. i've only had torchwood for just over a year and ace attorney for a couple months, so it's hard to say if they'll slot themselves into a permanent hyperfixation slot in my mind.

but i can't truly call one 'better' than the other, as i go to them for different reasons and expect different things from them. i hope you enjoyed my breakdown on why. 💚💚

tl;dr - you're comparing apples to bobbins, they serve different functions in my life though i love them both

#ask #my dear anon. i know this isn't what you expected. but Everything™️ is shutting down due to snow.#which means i had time to sit here and spend like twenty minutes of my life composing this essay just for you

2 notes · View notes

dirtydragonthoughts · 2 years

Text

Constructicons Rising, Part 2 (IDW2 Galaxies Issue 2 Review)

Pitch: The Constructicons are training—they know their time is coming. They're almost ready to stand at their once glorious height. They just need a sign and some energon. When a mysterious benefactor arrives promising to provide both, how can the Constructicons resist?

Review

This was another set-up issue, this time focusing on the Insecticons.

I have to say, as a horror fan, I absolutely loved the angle this story was taking. It was dark, a little gory, and definitely promised big things. The question was whether it was going to pay off!

In essence, this little mini-series is telling the origin stories for both the Constructicons and the Insecticons. We get several pages of backstory on who Bombshell and company are, and why they're also stuck out in the middle of nowhere on a mining colony.

Bombshell draws the parallels between their stories plainly: they're both groups who are powerful, but also feared because of their abilities. Both groups were exiled – rather than killed – because they were seen as both dangerous and useful. And both groups are interested in returning home.

I have to say I feel a little bad for the Constructicons here. It's obvious that Bombshell is going to manipulate them into doing what he wants (or rather, what his boss Shockwave wants). The Constructicons are seen as useful tools, but Shockwave doesn't necessarily care about them as individuals.

Favourite Panel

This little statement of Hook's, about how the Constructicons used to be peaceful, kinda stabbed me in my heart. How might things have been different if they'd never combined? If people had never come to fear them?

Culture

Before he decided to go into construction, Scrapper's mentor got him a stint with Security where he picked up some fighting techniques. He didn't stay long, obviously, but it's another reminder that one of the responsibilities for a mentor is to show your mentee the possibilities of what they can be.

Physiology

Because they've been given such poor rations, Hook cobbled together a device that allows the Constructicons to use recycled waste as energon. It's injected (rather than drank) and apparently isn't pleasant. (Which makes sense – drinking recycled pee is a thing in space travel, but it's not something I'd want to dwell on.)

We also get another reminder that when Cybertronians are underfueled, they don't run very efficiently: they're slower, not as responsive, not as strong, and maybe a bit less creative. (I imagine it would be like having brain fog.)

Now, the Insecticons! They were forged with an extremely useful capability: they can turn raw materials into pure energon, a kind more powerful than anything else ever created. (So like in other continuities, we're seeing that there are different grades or types of energon.) After the Insecticons were forged, they were scientific curiosities, but then were turned loose as a roving clean-up crew. They would clean up unusable ground by eating everything there, and turn it into rich energon.

Then the war happened, and there was more stuff than ever to clean up – millions of dead. I LOVE IT. They ate the dead, converting it into energon... And that's why they grew to be feared.

I absolutely love this bit of their story. It's macabre, a little disgusting, but perfectly understandable.

Final Thoughts

Now we've got both players in this story on the field. I kind of wish the story had been restructured to drop some of these info-bombs in smaller chunks, with more action/plot in between, but that might just be a nitpick. I still enjoyed this issue, and I was interested to see where they took it next.

👍

#idw2 review #idw2 spoilers #transformers #maccadam #world building stuff

6 notes · View notes

red-the-dragon-writes · 3 years

Text

Today's post is not on the usual "writer blog fare" side. Instead I am going to introduce you to several fun facts about various animals on our planet and then talk about worldbuilding.

1. Lampreys are a kind of "living fossil"- a not-really-so-scientific term for a creature that has lived unchanged for a very long time, so long that we have fossils of them looking the same way they do now. They don't have proper jaws, just a circular sucking mouth with teeth set into it and a tongue designed to strip flesh off of what it touches. They're finless fish, look quite a bit like eels, and have this really alien, uncanny vibe to them.

[id: a long, slender bluish-silver lamprey sitting among rocks. It has a long snout, an eye, and then six small perforations in its side arranged at an even interval sitting behind the eye. The environment it is sitting in is very yellow and green in comparison. end id]

[id: an image of a lamprey from below. The snout ends in a round, flat mouth which is studded with teeth in four concentric circles. The teeth are smallest near the outer edge and largest in the middle, and look like very sharp round points. In the center of this ring is another, smaller circle, where the pointed, tooth-like tongue can be seen, as well as a hole for the lamprey to actually ingest food with. Its eye is visible, as are some of the perforations on its side. This one is a more mottled gray than the first one was, and less shiny. end id]

Sea lampreys, which are the kind i've sort of not really kinda researched, are a major pest in the Great Lakes, where they regularly attack fish. They can get up to two feet in length. Despite this, they are not particularly dangerous towards humans.

2. Horseshoe crabs are also "living fossils." They've been around and virtually unchanged for millions of years. They're not true crabs, and are more closely related to chelicerata species, like spiders and scorpions (and many more). There are a lot of cool features of horseshoe crabs, but one of their most extremely cool, to me, is their blood.

I'm not going to post any images of what I consider to be animal cruelty, so you'll have to take me at my word here, but this is a bottle of horseshoe crab blood. If you're sensitive to images of animal cruelty, I don't recommend looking for proof, but if you aren't, there are plenty of images of the blood coming out of the creature for you to verify this with.

E[id: a bottle of slightly frothy, opaque blue liquid. It is sitting in a row with several other bottles of the same material. end id]

I am a sucker for blue blood, I just think it's neat, so that's all I'd need as an excuse to slam some horseshoe-crab-inspired nonsense in my exceptionally gory and fucked up wips, and if you've been reading along with WiB you may have noticed that blue blood does come into play at some point! But that's not all that's neat about horseshoe crab blood. Unfortunately for the horseshoe crabs, but fortunately for us, their blood is literally the only source of an important compound used for detecting the presence of dangerous bacteria in certain pharmaceutical drugs. (Fortunately, there are replacements that will hopefully become more popular in coming years.)

Now that we've gone over all that, onto the worldbuilding!

I worldbuild by Rule of Cool. Let's just get that out of the way. Every so often people will ask me how my worlds get so expansive (not WiB, WiB i made up on the fly by cribbing from fanfic and like... BBC Merlin. Assume very little of this holds true for WiB) and the answer is largely that I take every interest I have ever had in anything and smash it all together and throw it at my wip to see what sticks. and then I just... like... reasonably attempt to figure out what the natural conclusions will be.

So: we have lampreys. We have blue-blooded ancient sea creatures with spectacularly important and valueable blood. We are writing this into a story that takes place on land, somehow.

- The first option, and the one I'm going to talk about most because I did it, is just to rule-of-cool it into a character. (Or a place, or an item, or whatever, but largely I do rule-of-cool on living creatures and think harder about the world around them.) If you've been keeping up with WiB, you may have noticed that (spoilers) Zero Point is some kind of fucked up magician with a lamprey mouth in their hand who shapeshifts and bleeds blue. This is where I got those inspirations from (along with, like, some other stuff. I promise there are no lamprey assassins, but- continuing in the trend of stealing from sea creatures- the bobbin worm is a spectacularly beautiful, spectacularly deadly creature if you're within its weight range. which is like, goldfish size, but. And cuttlefish are known to disguise themselves as other animals, and can change sexes if the male:female ratio where they are isn't ideal.)

So you can take the elements you like, and just kind of slam them together haphazardly, which is what I did with Zero Point. The trick to this kind of worldbuilding is just to avoid looking too closely at it. The magical assassin has a fucked up mouth in their hand? Yeah, okay, that seems kind of fucked up and creepy. What do they do at all times? They hide it under a glove. So the protags Just Straight Up Never Ask. And voila; it never gets explained, and it never has to.

Same with the blue blood. It shows up, it functions as a plot device because only Zero Point has blue blood; it is never explained or even delved into with much detail. And if it were, it would fall apart instantly, because the justification is literally just "i thought it was neat. No, no one else is like that. I don't even know why they are. i just felt like it"

- The second option is to consider the effects of the things that you're working with, and then work off of that.

Let's take Zero Point again. Strip them of their context (weird assassin with magical powers) and just like, consider the fact that this is a creature with blood that regularly retails for over $10,000 USD, is intelligent as fuck, shapeshifts, has a mouth in their hand that may or may not be their actual mouth, and can exist on land so long as they have suitable access to water. What does that mean for our setting? Surely they're not the only person like that; so you have a whole species of people who are sort of but not really amphibious, shapeshift, and maybe have magical powers, who knows. They can't shapeshift their fucked up lamprey mouths, maybe. That seems like a reasonable limit. So their blood is highly valuable- what does that mean for their relations with other people, or their culture? What kind of foods do they eat? How do they create a sense of culture as shapeshifters; is there even a way that they represent themselves in art? How do they interact with the world? Do they have a "true form" or not? Every one of these questions will spawn new questions. If you answer all of them you'll lose your mind, but if you answer at least ten you'll spawn a much more background-heavy world that can help to shape your story much more effectively than trying to just craft a narrative will. Sometimes it works very well for a story. Sometimes it gets you lost in the weeds.

- The third option is to reference something else, and build off that. Again, let's use Zero Point as the example.

In the original story that the WiB ensemble is from, Closerverse, which may have some mentions on this blog but honestly I have no idea, there is a city that I've done quite a bit of worldbuilding on. This city is called Hudson, and one of the major important features of it is that it is partially underground. (This is a reference to the DFZ of Rachel Aaron's Heartstrikers series). Hudson is intentionally run to be the worst, most unpleasant city in the world, and one of its features are its wildly intelligent, dangerous forms of aquatic life. The lowest level of this city is partially submerged, and all of these creatures plague the people who live down there.

Closerverse was also set during a period of early industrialization, and Hudson heavily referenced US history, especially 1900s-1920s labor history. Tenements, pollution, zero protections for workers, et cetera. Hudson is a nasty, miserable place, and everyone who lives there can feel the jaws closing in on them.

Anyway, in Closerverse you got these fucked up massive eel-like creatures (lampreys, but with extra features) that due to some rather significant meddling wound up growing legs and then got really massive and started eating people. They have blue blood, glow in the dark, and make fairly decent eating as long as they aren't eating you. And they're intelligent. Given the whole "mutual eating each other" thing, the eels and the people of Hudson have some pretty major animosity going on.

Most of Zero Point's stuff is really just me referencing the Hudson Eels, because I fucking love those. They're some of my favorite worldbuilding elements ever. But given that no one else in WiB has ever seen a Hudson Eel, let alone seen their blood get dry on things, or whatever, everything about Zero Point is wildly out of context. And that almost makes it better, because the whole deal with them is that they're mysterious and weird, and having them be a mysterious and weird reference to something no one but I know about most likely is like, fun and neat.

There are, of course, other modes of worldbuilding as well, but I typically aim to stick to the first two as much as possible. The cooler you make something, the more possible questions it raises; the more questions something raises, the deeper your world gets.

Although, a word of advice: sometimes animals just do things. Sometimes bodies just have features. Who would invent fingernails? But having them is mighty convenient, isn't it? For that matter, who would come up with a deeply logical and reasoned explanation for eyebrows- but not having those would be very strange, to us. You can get away with doing a lot by just having that be how it is, and not having the characters comment on it.

Also, the more "shaped" a thing should be, the more you'll want to take the second approach. For house design, something intentionally built, you'll want to know why it was built, and what purpose is this and that room, and why is it painted such and such colors. But if you're talking about adding a second moon, like... fuck dude, who needs to know why there's a second moon? Maybe if you have sailors you have to know what it'll do to your oceans, but that's the kind of thing you can kind of just say exists and move on. You'll figure it out; it gets pretty intuitive.

Anyway, happy worldbuilding!

#writing advice #long post #worldbuilding

7 notes · View notes

thewickedharlot · 3 years

Text

our favorite spotteds in 2021 so far...

Love paparazzi or hate them, they are a huge part of being famous. Lets take a look at some of our favorite candid shots of celebrities in 2021.

How could anyone not love this shot of Maxwell Harper. He was looking very handsome back in his trip from his January 27th trip to Heathrow Airport with Olivia Marie. We still think he can do better, but he was looking happy and healthy. Of course, we don't expect anything less from Maxwell Harper, but in recent months getting a good shot of Maxwell Harper has become increasingly rare. He hasn't often gone out since his attack. The look also seemed comfortable enough for the long flight from LA to London.

Its pretty rare for us to compliment any mens fashion, but Maxwell continues to kill it every time he goes out. The majority of mens taste in clothing is often boring, bland, and straight forward. We'll admit, this isn't the most colorful or exciting outfit, but we've scrolled through thousands of images of other male celebs in nothing but a t-shirt in jeans.

Unfortunately, not everyone can rock a long sleeved crop top. Especially not one with a collar, but Esma Rapport looks immaculate. She was spotted on the 21st of June after disappearing with several days. Everyone was much too focused on the rumors of her making more music to care about her outfit at the time, but since then I've seen hundreds of "dupe" recreations pop up on every fast fashion website, pinterest, and tiktok account out there. At least Esma can say that she was the original.

Even aside from the fashion part of it, we're so excited that Esma might be coming out with some new music. Have you heard the recent releases? Borrrrinngggg. We need something new and exciting to liven up our Spotify accounts.

The 18th of June was a busy day for paparazzi's trying to rush around and get every shot they could between the vast number of celebrities who were out and about that day. Among them was Farrah Prince who was leaving a meeting for what is rumored to be a reality show. While we can argue until we're blue in the face about if reality shows are good, bad, or somewhere in between..I do have a few questions. As

you may know, she's a well known influencer who has worked with big type of brands, so what would a reality show look like? A day in the life of an influencer? And don't they post all of that on their instagram story for fun, anyway? I kid, I kid. I am excited to see what that'll look like and there is no denying that this pap shot of Farrah is great simply because of how she looks.

Its pretty rare for us to get a shot of Essence Woods in anything but a skirt or dress so we particularly love this shot of her heading to some type of meeting in a cute pair of jeans, heels and blouse. Nearly immediately after this look the shoes, from her fashion line, went out of sale within the hour. However, it isn't rare for us to get pap shots of Essence. She's pretty constantly on the move and its usually a rare week that they don't see her at least going back and forth from the fashion studio building or some set. In recent weeks, seeing her has become a little bit more spotty, but we figure we'll see her soon again.

While Essence interacting with paparazzi can be hit or miss - sometimes ignoring and sometimes interacting - she hung outside of her car for a few minutes after her phone call to say hello and answer a few questions. Nothing scandalous, but still.

Not everyone likes the paparazzi's. While that's fine, Kylie Blue seems to go to the extreme to avoid them sometimes. She's often rumored to go to extreme lengths to avoid them getting a shot of her. Papparazzi picked up this hilarious shot of Kylie Blue going to extreme measures to hide them. For some reason, she thinks that them picking up her legs looking like they were dashing to the car is better than them getting a shot of her face. Her security (maybe?) seems to be holding another giant umbrella for either her to use or to hide from paparazzo on the other side of her. This obviously isn't a 'cute' look, but it is one of our favorite pap shots simply because of how funny it is.

Papparazi snagged this photo of Olivia Marie nearly three weeks ago after the latest scandal about her father's claims. If you're out of the loop, Olivia's father claims that she owes him millions of dollars and that he basically started her career. At the time of the scandal, Olivia's team hadn't made any sort of statement about what she thought about her fathers doing. Little has been said about it since the original break, but we'll let you know about any updates. She went out after that despite the article. We have to admit, her look here is pretty cute even if she did seem to be going out just to make a point that she didn't care about what he had to say. Fathers day must have been pretty awkward, huh?

#maxwell harper #esma rappaport #justice scott #essence woods #kylie blue #olivia marie

2 notes · View notes

ratskal · 4 years

Note

"*winks at y'all with both eyes*" My guy that's called blinking. But yeah I get where you're going. I wanna send two characters if that's ok with you? Broadway Genie and Jafar(specifically '92 version but you can pick whichever version you want).

Some days you just gotta wink w/ both eyes dude idk what you're talking about (in all seriousness ty for the ask! I love having an excuse to talk abt Aladdin) (not that I need an excuse) (but still)

Broadway Genie!

favourite thing: Is it weird to say how emotional he is? Because he can switch between being such a primadonna to this deep sadness at his imprisonment (we've talked about his "I'll be in my prison cell" line, bro that HURTED), to this overwhelming joy in "Somebody's Got Your Back" (his little squeal is adorable). JMI also does a great job at being so expressive in his movements that you can really get a good read on Genie's mood throughout the entire show, even if you had the sound off.

least favourite thing: This is less to do w/ his character and more to do w/ the show, but "Friend Like Me" and "Prince Ali" both feel too long to be practically right next to each other when they don't move the story a whole lot within the confines of one song, if that makes sense. I love the songs and the performers are excellent, but it messes up the pacing a bit for me.

favourite line: "Now Al, I promised myself a million times not to get too attached to you, but you and I have more than just a business arrangement and I can't sit back and watch you make the same mistake—" (I WANNA KNOW WHERE HE WAS GOING W/ THAT)

brOTP: Him and Al, of course. I love the idea that Aladdin was one of the first people that really meant something to him, since he was the first to really to treat him as a person.

OTP: I don't really have one (yet).

nOTP: I don't think I've seen any ships w/ him in the Broadway fandom, since it's so small, so I can't think of any off the top of my head.

random hc: Like in the 1992 series, Genie eventually returns to Agrabah (bringing back personalize souvenirs for everyone) and buys his own house there. He likes to travel, but he likes to be close to his friends / found family even more.

unpopular opinion: Are there enough fandom opinions about him that would make any of mine unpopular?

song: Marina and the Diamonds // The State of Dreaming

1992 Jafar!

favourite thing: I think he's unique in his villainy in that yes, he's very elegant and cultured, but he's also just a weird dude. He's not above making bad puns, he cackles so much that Hades calls him a freak, his lab is canonically a disorganized mess, and he's so obsessed w/ magic that he owns every magic book there is. Relatable.

least favourite thing: We didn't need to write him as attracted to a sixteen year old, thanks. I get that it's a reference to the original story, but it's not something I'm a fan of.

favourite line: "If you will not bow before a sultan, then you will cower before a sorcerer!"

brOTP: I think Jafar and Mirage make a good power duo.

OTP: MozenJaf, but in a very specific AU set after KoT where Mozenrath resurrects Jafar to do his bidding and Things Get A Little Gay.

nOTP: I'm not big on Maleficent / Jafar. I can see him having a thing for her, but I can't see her reciprocating.

random hc: He got the first half of the scarab key from Destane. It was the first time he ever met him face-to-face and he decided there that it would be the last time. Dude's creepy as hell.

unpopular opinion: He had no romantic or sexual interest in Jasmine. He knew that she hated being objectified and used it as a form of torture / was only interested in the attention she gave him, not that it was her giving him attention.

song: Panic! At The Disco // Emperor's New Clothes

#I'm on mobile rn #watch as the formatting fucks up lmAOOO #asks #thatrandomartistgenie

1 note · View note

saltyfilmmajor · 5 years

Note

This is that "came for thirst, stayed for SFM" anon. I was reading through your character breakdown in RN/Fallout and had a few thoughts. W/ regards to Ethan, you said "And he has remained able to keep a steady head on him, unwilling to sacrifice the needs of one over the needs of the many." As an audience, we've seen this development occur throughout the films. Compare him in MI:2 to any subsequent film and I think his experience with Nyah and sending her in to spy... 1/5

(2/5) even knowing the risks, to then having Nyah be the pawn used against him to give up the Chimera virus (before she injects herself) is the real beginning of Ethan's "need to protect the individual first" being shown. Compare that to the first film, where his motivations are all about clearing his name and finding the real mole. Even when his mom and uncle are in jeopardy, Ethan continues on his path instead of turning himself in to save them. With each film, he is shown to prioritize...

(3/5) his chosen family more and more. Throughout the series, we have actually seen Ethan prioritize his people over the masses, allowing dangerous villains to get away with things in order to protect individuals. Take GP, where he allows the original nuclear launch codes to be given to Cobalt in order to save the Russian scientist, knowing that if they failed, a much larger number of people would be injured by a nuclear bomb. With each direct threat...

(4/5) Ethan seems to shift to thinking about the masses on a more abstract level in order to protect the immediate life in front of him. He then has to "clean up" the messes that occur in order to save the world, because he would rather save the immediate life if he thinks he has time to stop the big kill. I'd be curious how Ethan would handle the trolley problem, since we never see him have to pick between an individual or the masses when life was on the line at the same time...

(5/5) Not even with Julia did this happen. I'm curious about your thoughts on this progression. BTW, your blog is my favorite guilty pleasure and your Tomrst pics are lit. :)

Hi Mysterious Anon! I’m so glad you like my blog!!!! And i love FUELING DISCUSSION ON MY FAVORITE SPY BOI.�� THANKS FOR REACHING OUT WITH THIS I ABSOLUTELY FUCKING LOVE TALKING ABOUT ETHAN HUNT AS A CHARACTER.

Anyway, I guess my thoughts on it boil down to Ethan experiencing rather traumatic experiences and in the first movie it is about clearing his name and also a little bit of vengeance. He just lost his whole team and Jack his best friend and roommate.

His progression to prioritizing his teammates I think stems from what has happened with Lindsay and Julia, and essentially everyone he has cared for he has watched die. So when we see Ethan do, quite frankly reckless shit, to save his loved ones it doesn’t feel out of character. Ethan’s is this guy who started cocky and a little immature but a good agent. Pretty content to be working for the government.

Mi1 and 2 function, as you said, as his progression. He is still growing up. In Mi2, in the beginning, we even see Ethan avoiding the IMF. MI1 is his origin story essentially, because, after that, he never places his full trust in the government, only his friends and family.

Ethan’s found family is what keeps him steady, it keeps him afloat and if he lost them, at this point, he’d have nothing left to lose. And I’d highly doubt he’d keep working for the IMF if that were to happen (I hope nothing like that does happen, I love all these characters.) I think he would become a vigilante because he still does want to protect people.

But his friends, those close to him, they are a tangible presence in his life contrast to the masses, who never know about what he does to help save them.

Contrast the first movie to the third movie, where Ethan kinda just is “eh” about his actual family. To where Ethan jumps off a building to get the rabbit’s foot, to save his wife.

That’s when we see just how far he’ll go.

“She’s dead anyway, and so am I.”

Like he is just like sick of losing the people he cares about.

Then compare that to when Benji gets kidnapped. THIS DUDE GAVE A KNOWN TERRORIST 50 million DOLLARS ( I WILL NEVER BE OVER IT, AND NOW THAT HAVE WATCHED 3, IT MAKES MORE SENSE OVERALL). And you know Luther tells him in no uncertain terms that Lane cannot get his hands on any of that money.

And what does Ethan respond: “He’ll never take me alive, I’ll make sure of it.”

HE IS FULLY PREPARED TO DIE TO SAVE BENJI’s life.

And given that that what remains of the syndicate, now knows as the apostles, are still kicking around in Fallout, it’s clear that, that the money Ethan gave lane helped them stay afloat.

Which helps kick off Fallout, to begin with. And Then Luther gets held at gunpoint, the entire narrative points out how had he not lost the plutonium, no one would be here.

Lane realizes that his team, is the thing that keeps him grounded and if he loses them, it would all be too much for him to handle.

Lane exploits human nature to get what he wants: Meaning he knows that by Kidnapping Benji he’ll get the disk, so with that logic, he knows he could break Ethan by killing all of his friends and loved ones. Which is like, Lane chill, I still like having his team alive.

I think Ethan prioritizes his friends' lives because he can’t be without them. And if he has them by his side, he works better and he can fix the resulting chaos that happens when he saves their lives. The inverse, however, will probably not be true, at least not anymore.

Ethan just holds on to his friends because they are what make his life better, worth living and without them, then what is the point. Which I think is such a heartwarming and tragic sentiment for this character to develop

Anyway, I hope these laid out my thoughts on the subject in a clear way and I had so much delight in answering your ask!

Have a good heckin’ day anon!

(and please enjoy this picture of that scene I was referring to in my previous essay, it’s just. I LOVE HIM SO MUCH AHH)

#mysterious anon #anon #Nancy's inbox #Salty Film Major™#Ethan Hunt #Anon thank for this i love talking about this franchise so much #Mission: Impossible #benji dunn #technically benthan but not really #benthan #Tom Cruise #Anonymous

19 notes · View notes