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plumsaffron · 5 months

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On why people are so hard on Wallflower, I think part of it comes from how redemptions in EQG were starting to get repetitive around this time, with Juniper and Vignette in particular being seen as the worst among the villain redemptions with being too rushed.

Plus her motivation being seen as too weak. The face she only lashes out at Sunset for "ignoring her" does feel a bit weak considering how everyone else (Trixie clearly showed she ignores her all the time and even the nicer characters like Pinkie and Fluttershy still ignore and forget her) did the same thing, so why would Wallflower only be mad at Sunset specifically for that if everyone else did the same thing? I do think if they had sorta tweaked Wallflower's motivation from "You ignore me so I'm gonna ruin your friendships" to "You bullied and humiliated me so I'm gonna ruin your friendships", it'd probably be seen as a smoother backstory with less flak. And it is even hard to figure out how much of Wallflower's being ignored was the others' fault and how much was it self inflicted considering she states she always used the Memory Stone to wipe everyone's memories of her all the time so her being ignored is partially her own fault too.

Probably. Anyways though.

They're more of antagonists to me compared to First Movie Sunset, Principal Cinch, Filthy Rich and maybe KL and SZ. But whatever

Not even mad at Juniper Montage. Pinkie Pie but mostly Rainbow Dash were idiots who honestly had it coming. Like bruh did y'all remember what y'all did? Regardless of it being right and she getting what she deserved. You saw her face of contempt and later on y'all come to chat with her in the mall where she hears that annoying dance magic song haunting her. And the two basically rub it in their face her schemes got her to be an usher. Common sense machine broke (which is sad cause they've faced worse or other dangerous threats previously). The real problem though is that her ambition of a dream was taken away thanks to Sunset Shimmer and her friends was devolved into this maybe you actually want a friend by Starlight. They also ignore the part where Starlight Glimmer technically is the reason why the seven girls were about to fall into an endless void. Then Juniper Montage has to apologize first for some reason for some conflict they began to be like oh we forgive you. Like it should be the other around.

Vignette on the other is just an imbecile. I wouldn't say it was rushed for her either. She may be a scrub but she didn't know her go away device was actually like spawning people in a limited size container. She was pretty detached and didn't really have anything of friends.

I would go far as to say Supernova Zap and Kiwi Lollipop were just fugly as Abacus Cinch and Filthy Rich because Sunset didn't deserve to be time loop tormented because of some stupid Perfection Manure. Clowns didn't care and attempted to add a ban Sunset and Pinkie Pie interfering in their time loop to achieve their idea of perfection. They couldn't even like look for like another time in the dang future. 3 weeks of time torture for Sunset and they didn't care they wanted to continue til they go it right. Those dweebs had no purpose and didn't care who they were affecting. They only whined because their time loop was broken. Then they played a song with Sunset and Pinkie Pie. Now that is what rushed really is. And worse. It was not deserved at all. Heck I might even say First Movie Sunset going good suddenly feels rushed (though she's the only one who actually payed besides Montage but unlike her Twilight gives Sunset The Human 6 Pass. Thus meaning it would not be a start from scratch luck). Sometimes I'm juggling considering if Montage's was less artificial or even less rushed feeling than Sunset's ever but whatever.

Now onto Wallflower Blush. Some may wonder why doesn't she go after everyone else? Why is it Sunset? It's pretty simple if one remember what Sunset has done in the past and everything before being defeated. Like she changed but not everyone is going to simply be like I forgive you. Heck Sunset even hates how she used to be and doesn't want the past to haunt her. Songs included oof.

Wallflower, unlike everyone else, is seen as an anomaly. She wasn't as forgiving or conforming as everyone else simply because oh Sunset helped save them quad times so lets be friends now and forget. I mean that's nice but eh.

One must remember that Sunset is in association with popular girls or her defeaters. So that also makes things easier for her while also making Wallflower be like what is this crap?

However, imagine this. A person ruining you or others around you for a long time and now look they said sorry and now everyone is treating the biggest meanie well while they still proceed ignoring you entirely. Now look. Girl somehow is deemed best friends of the year with her main friends. Like no one else got this reward instead. Idk seems bias. They also didn't thank her for handing that to Sunset or rather Sunset herself at least.

The jerk rose to the top or rather she was at the top and honestly she immediately gets back at the top now that's she's good. Meanwhile you are at still in the same place. Bruh these ignorers now saluting a girl who tried to destroy a girl's way out and property and possessed y'all or us and almost destroyed her soon to be defeaters? And again all the other crap she's done (framing, threatening her pet (ugh I hate that they didn't make Spike The Dragon human), being a part of why Twilight's human world variants are no longer friends for a long time till Twilight fixed that. Fear, terror, using Flash as a means to rise, etc.) Like what kind of quick forgiveness nonsense is that? I'll say quick because all it really took was Dazzlings to be defeated in the second movie for the school instantly forgave her. Like Wallflower is definitely upset with all else. She did sing a song about it but it's just she sees Sunset as a root above all the rest. Why will be explained below somewhere.

So why not go after the jerk. There's no real difference with the others of before. Like Wallflower doesn't like that occurrence but Sunset thing can be viewed as unfair nonsense. Like imagine someone humiliating you and others for a long time, end up being the owner of your favorite products or is the mayor of your town and they just somehow stay winning oh and bonus; all those facing worse treatment or similar are now their best associates and they treat this jerk as awesomeness. Wallflower sees everyone as fooled by Sunset's change. She sees Sunset as fake but that will be explained somewhere below.

Anyways. What could be worse than a person causing terror upon the students and staff and making no one is able to rebel. And she had Snips and Snails as loyal followers to her cause. Well what if that people appear to have changed but now everyone is on her side and soon become dependent on her. And seeing her as all that. And having an iconic cast of friends thanks to Princess Twilight. To Wallflower it's like Sunset transcended from a disaster to everyone's dependency. The ultimate trick she could see that can be done by Sunset because it seems were fake to her how everyone else simply or quickly just let go.

So yeah I really don't think revenge upon a real jerk is a weak motive. I'd say Cinch Supernova Kiwi and Vignette Valencia are weaker than Wallflower's. (I'm excluding Juniper's because I feel what occurs between movie and mirror magic are too different to me (mostly cause they human six had that coming)).

Regardless it really doesn't matter if Wallflower's motive or reason is viewed as weak. I'll explain why it being deemed weak becomes a worthless take.

The thing that people tend to forget is the context, the situation, and the event. They choose when they want to claim something as weak but will ignore what I just said above. Her problem is Sunset. It was just the wrong place and the wrong time. Pretty much a ticking time bomb. What's consistent is her state of given up or feeling she has no value. People forget the part where Trixie indirectly helped reawaken the bad times with proof images on an old year book. It doesn't help that Sunset straight up forgot Wallflower was right there and shut the lights off on her. Like dude you bumped into Wallflower after singing your dang song when she's trying to get you attention for half the We've Come So Far song.

Anyways. Another thing is people fail to see things from Wallflower's side. And you know what else. It's clearly shown that Sunset is being the actual problematic one. So sad that I am unable to say that I'm surprised that it is ironically Invisible to many. Literally she's proving her right after times Wallflower was considering maybe she was wrong but nope Sunset just manages to not prove her wrong. Her actions against Wallflower aren't helping, but fulfilling how Wallflower sees herself and Sunset and others. You would think that there would be chance but somehow there's a lack of resonance or consideration still despite putting herself out there. Only to be once again Invisible or ignored and then threatened. And fools acting like Wallflower is the problem. BRUH, Sunset Shimmer is not helping. She was fulfilling. Trixie had to get Sunset to realize things but it was kind of too late and Sunset pays briefly. But as you know it ends after; Wallflower defeated Empathy Apologies Understanding Friendship blah blah blah

This is the tragic tale of when fandoms or viewers are too hero or protagonist side oriented. So much denial to the point of tricking themselves against another and the chances of seeing different are slim. It's even worse when another character canonically tells a protagonist to change your perspective but the viewer(s) like oh Antagonist must be bad they can't be actually right must find something to thrash them upon as a distraction. The protagonist or hero must always been right. I have to refuse to admit if they screwed up.

Be mindful that Wallflower Blush didn't erase the memories of everyone each time (well not known) until seeing Sunset again in Forgotten Friendship. She says only little things when she first found the memory stone. And eventually got used to it. However it's very vague. I doubt it was everyone anyways. The only time she erased everyone memories was the when she erased everyone's or her friends good memories of Sunset. You also see that she tends to bury it instead of merely keeping it all the time with her.

Again it doesn't matter if it was self inflicting as her being flat out ignored has been occurring for a long time before she ever found the stone. Here's something else. You'd think having a clean slate would make these people react different but it only showed no matter what, they would do the same thing to you or treat you the same. One could see it as it's them still. The Memory Stone unfortunately became a smokescreen meme template used for solely blaming Wallflower instead of realizing that she's been bound to the same fate with or without it. Like no one else changed their ways. Which is quite ironic considering they easily changed for Sunset.

How much of no difference of the memory stone being used is like Wallflower having the ability to ctrl z a person answering 2 + 2 as 22 but they somehow pick any number that isn't 4.

It's funny how memory stone gets claimed as an excuse to ignore all the crap that happened to Wallflower earlier because oh no now it's her fault. Let's ironically forget of everything else before. It's like oh you now put your hand in water after being dumped with hot water and you didn't know you were putting your hand there but earlier hot water keeps being dumped on your face for a long time but since you put your hand in water a few times or are used to it at times because you don't see a new day, everyone should ignore that you were always dumped with hot water on your face and it was going to happen regardless if you had your hand in water or not. It's your fault completely now for everything that the rest dumped on you.

This is the summit of what refusing to admit an antagonist can be actually screwed over does to a viewer. One must find an excuse to egg them. But you know what. Her being ignored by them is how many may do unfortunately.

The actual problem though is when Wallflower throwing herself out there and saying what's been going on with her. Everything is told and yet despite it all she was ignored. Much melancholic state already. Then imagine being grabbed and someone invaded and skimmed your memories and are acting like you are the problem after like you were considering maybe I was wrong about them because she lifted your mood up. Then her friend is like who are again? Like WHAT!? Then you put you went out your way tell what's been going on. All your feelings put out there and you discover the one who went into your memories is going through your bag. Really and asks what did I do to you I don't even know you. And then they prove you that it appears that they were a facade the whole time. HUH?! Now that's disrespect right there. Explain my life. PFT *SIGH MASSIVE* This is the real deal? Who the deemed as the best with her friends. So they are fooled by her it seems.

LOL!

Will say this. The self inflicted is not the memory stone. It's actually Wallflower staying in a toxic environment. Hmm that'd be nice. Leaving such. Still... Many don't know they could or might not be able too.

#Wallflower Blush #Sunset Shimmer #Trixie Lulamoon #Forgotten Friendship #Anti Equestria Girls Fandom #Anti MLP Fandom #Supernova Zap #Kiwi Lollipop #PostCrush #Juniper Montage #Vignette Valencia #Pinkie Pie #Wallflower #PlumSaffron #ask plumsaffron

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starrrbakerrr · 7 months

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What's your favorite character from The Hunger Games trilogy?

Why do you like them?

Your favorite scene or quote from them?

Do you like the actor/actress' performance who play them in THG movie series?

Thank you :D

@curiousnonny

(I am so shit at answering asks. I’ll start to reply then stop to finish later, and then forget about it until weeks later and I still won’t have a concrete answer so I continue to put it off until I finally finish and post🙃) but anyway…

Hiiiii @curiousnonny

It’s a given that Katniss is my favorite character, and it’s hard to articulate my favorite things about her. I think see myself in her, and I think she’s a character that’s often misunderstood in the book but also by readers. This is mostly the fault of the movies in my opinion, and I think they framed her as this badass girlboss archer who takes no prisoners and is the breadwinner of the household (which is how District 13/the Rebellion framed her as too). And I think Katniss is incredibly strong and all those things, but I don’t think people a lot of people understand that she has to be strong if that makes sense. Or it’s just not acknowledged enough.

And I guess this segues into my opinion about Katniss in the movies. Jennifer Lawrence is an incredible actress, one of my favorites. Silver Linings Playbook is my favorite drama movie because of her performance. And to be honest, few people could play Katniss and I think JLaw is one of the few people that are talented enough to have a convincing portrayal. But I read the first book (and CF I think, I don’t remember the rollout with the premiere of the movies) before the movie was announced, and I had this picture of Katniss and all the characters, and I had an image of Panem. The movie didn’t match that. Even small stuff like the film making the cornucopia silver instead of gold bothered me. I was 11/12 lol. I’m not the biggest fan of the movies as adaptations of the book. I actually didn’t see Catching Fire and Mockingjay pts 1 & 2 until March when they were on Netflix 😭. That was also when I reread the books for the first time and reading it in adulthood really enhanced my perspective of the series (thus 1/2 of my blog). There are amazing actors in movies and the script is good. There’s little to no cringe like Twilight. And Josh’s Peeta in CF is something so special to me (that’s bby boy fr they really underutilized him in these films). But ultimately I don’t connect much with the movies because they left out some things I consider foundational to the story (leaving out Madge also bothered me). I enjoy watching them as entertainment, but I wish there was a better adaptation of the story out there as someone who loves film/tv more than books. It was a missed opportunity.

I haven’t read the prequel yet, I plan on it before the film comes out. I’m really excited to see how the movie will compare with the book so fresh on my mind, and if it’s a better adaptation then the trilogy.

#also like his name is buttercup why is he a tuxedo in the first film #he was fully described was there some shortage of tabby cats then #doesn’t make sense to me #the hunger games series #ask

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rkmuse · 2 years

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The Twilight Naysayers

RKMUSE28

All the people, directors, media, public who believe the media, and anyone who is in the mood to criticize the Twilight Saga. I don’t know who started this horrible rumor but it’s time they correct it.

#1 -The media is not a fact finding institute. They shoot from the hip and if they’re wrong, they feel no obligation to right that wrong. It becomes another story. It’s unheard of that a 17/18 yr. old woman, and a 21 year old man should be saddled with negative trash over a saga that has made more money, and still is making more money, than any saga in history. Why do you suppose that is if it’s a horrible saga?

The media and studios thought they could destroy the two leads to the Twilight Saga and saddle them with the brunt of criticism over 5 Twilight movies. Was it largely due to the fact that they both decided to make small independent movies, and the studio lost out on making money off of them positively, so they went the negative way, and the media followed with negative stories on everything and anything they did. Thank God Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson were too smart for them to succeed. Directors who joined in the mantra were probably jealous that they themselves didn’t get assigned to direct those 5 movies. The media took free reign for terrorizing two young people for the headlines in their often untruthful stories. The media had no reigns on their stalking. They were chased for years. Paparazzi went beyond decent trying to obtain photos of their personal life. They have restraints now compared to what they had back then.

Those movies are still making money. That is proof of what the public sees and likes, compared to what the media and studios want them to see and unlike. Today Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart have WON. They have their privacy to a degree, and they have both overcome the barrage of negativity and have NO REGRETS about their roles in the Twilight Saga....and they shouldn’t have any. They should be proud as hell that they were able to control the renegade media and find some of the privacy they’ve always wanted.

Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson have a huge fan base that is behind them for the privacy they sought, and found to some extent. Who would want to endure 15 years of their life surrounded by scrutiny because they both wanted to make the movies they wanted to make? Was that the dues they had to pay for not doing follow up studio movies? Rob has the role he’s always wanted. The Batman. Kristen is an Oscar nominated actress who was jipped out of the Oscar, received more awards than any other nominated actress for a movie about a princess, but lost the award to a movie about a con woman? How does that happen? We’ll never know or will we?

Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart are the most exciting actors today because of their work. They don’t even need the cover anymore, but it’s understandable that they would be redescent and untrusting to draw any attention to themselves personally except the facade gifted to the media to occupy their time for public entertainment.

Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson may know they have the backing of a fan base that began with the Twilight Saga, and who do not believe what the media writes, or the pictures the paparazzi photoshop. There’s is more than enough information for a book or two? As Rob said, maybe he’d tell his story if he were getting paid for it. I hope he does and I hope he’s paid for it. Over a decade later, it’s now a Pattinson call.

#rkmuse28

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shortkingvi · 2 years

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I've read a few books that were marketed to me as like 'and its top ten queer books' and after putting it down i was just like oh so that actually just took time off my life like did we not have an editor?? did we just let this person write whatever no proofreading for narrative under the guise of 'its gay?' I'm not even sure what I'm upset about im trying to understand like is it bc queer writers have wobbly new writer legs? bc we havent been given the same amount of practise opportunities as the wider cishet authors have had? is it bc its a smaller pond so we just have fewer gems comparatively due to numbers alone?? is it just a failure of editors ??? feels like Good Queer content is so hard to fine comparatively to like more 'sword lesbians' and 'twilight but gay', not to gatekeep at all im just disheartened

omg guys LOVING these asks today LOVING the opportunity to pontificate on the media industry

so basically i think this is a twofold issue and i will answer this as such:

first, i believe that the same can be said for books directed toward young women. there’s a reason john greens and stephenie meyers and books like divergent are arguably barely readable and yet widely marketed and pushed toward preteen and teen girls. the reason why is because teen girls, like queer people, are NEVER the target demo. speaking as a person in marketing and media, the target demo is almost always men 18-34 or adults 25-54

this results in a lack of care or even consideration that queer people or young women deserve complexity or well executed stories! because we are always the afterthought!

the second issue here is somewhat a fault of internet fan culture. because of the prevalence and popularity of things like fanfiction or fancams or compilations or AUs or other things along this line, queer consumers oft enter into consumption from the lens of someone either already knowing the characters or someone SPECIFICALLY looking for queer as the backbone of the product

i can’t tell you how many people i’ve seen saying “oh i’ve never watched the show/movie but i watch comps of the queer ship and read fanfic about them!!” like??????? do you not realize the issue here? fanfic and compilations presuppose knowledge on the product, meaning they do not teach you how to consume a narrative, fill in blanks yourself, or establish your own thoughts on the successes or failings of the product

which means!!! when these people begin to recommend books or other media to your their frame of reference is “it’s queer!” because even if they’ve consumed the whole product, they’re hardwired to think that all consumers are searching for solely queer rep and not like,,,,,,, well-executed queer rep. it’s genuinely a side effect of the filter bubble era and the assumption that no one cares about narrative because my uwu gay little website rarely interacts with plot and regularly only focuses on ships

romance and sexuality and identity and love is good. it can strengthen and develop a narrative beyond where you might expect it to be. some of the most beautiful stories live and die based on whether their romance delivers on what it attempts to. however,,,,,,,,,, we are humans beyond who we love just as characters and plots exist beyond those same parameters. i wish people would try and remember that

little add on here that of COURSE i would never begrudge or belittle someone who consumes a product solely because it’s queer, particularly young people who are newly out. i was there once. as a kid raised in a catholic family who went to a catholic school all her life, i salivated at any glimpse of myself in media. i don’t fault any young person for this. BUT! at the same time, you do eventually need to become critical of the media you consume

you should never let corporations and conglomerates trick you into thinking half assed narratives are worth it solely because they’re a little diverse because then we’ll never truly break the chains of capitalism, rainbow capitalism, and heteronormative hegemonies that seek to push us to the fringes and give us the leftovers not deemed good enough for cishets. that’s all

#anon i apologize for the long response but i do agree wholeheartedly #also not to be one not but if you haven’t read it yet……… baru is right there waiting for you #asks #anon

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channeleven · 1 year

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American Nightmares Review

I used to be a big fan of Ralphthemoviemaker, still am, but it’s not as big as it was then. From the influence he has over his fans, to him unironically enjoying modern Marvel movies, seriously Thor Ragnarok is hot garbage. One of the videos I saw by him was his coverage of independent talk show Scorch PFG TV. I decided to do my own research on the guy and located his IMDb page, and it had a listing for a horror anthology film.

Now, I love horror anthology films, though preferably the B-grade ones, as those have more character. in general, horror anthologies have the opportunity to go any way, as they’re really just a collection of self-contained stories most of the time, you never know what you'd get with them. I loved Terror Tract, Tales from the Hood, Creepshow 2, Campfire Tales, Tales from the Crypt, I also like most old religious thrillers, b-movies and Sonic games from Adventure to Unleashed, so take my musings with a grain of salt.

I told myself, if this movie were to ever pop up on YouTube, I would check it out and do a review of it. And here we are today. I mentioned this movie in my review of Campfire Stories, and I think it’s appropriate this would be next on the chopping block.

Background

This movie is an enigma. It has nothing much beyond an IMDb page. The film was helmed by two directors, Rusty Cundieff and Darin Scott. Both had previously worked on films like Tales from the Hood, which I actually enjoyed. The sequels? Not so much. Because of the socio-political themes of Rusty’s prior films, something I immediately picked up on in Tales from the Hood, I can expect the same here, but my issue is not that they’re present, but because of how its carried out without much nuance. Stuff like The Twilight Zone worked great because of subtlety. Hint hint.

It's fair to assume this was produced on a very low budget, probably because it was. The film was produced by Patriot Pictures, a low profile company specializing in low end genre films, and it was released by Moonstone Entertainment in 2018, with Quiver giving it a wider release in 2021. Looking at the cast, this seems to be a who's who of washed up actors looking for any form of publicity. The film stars Danny Trejo, of Breaking Wind fame and Jay Mohr. Not ringing any bells? He stared in Action and appeared in an episode of Night Visions, and both of those are objectively good TV shows, don't get it twisted. Vivica A. Fox is also in this, bless the soul of her career. Also this was one of the final roles of Clarence Williams III, who starred in Tales from the Hood hence his involvement at all.

The Film

You can check out the movie on Tubi, and a YouTube upload will be included too: https://tubitv.com/movies/544844/tales-from-the-crib-american-nightmares

youtube

This is a horror anthology film, featuring Danny Trejo hacking into the computers of some millennials to tell them some stories. Right off the bat, we got some neat star power, James Duvatl, Vivica At F-Zero-X, Noel G, wait who? Yeah, they think 1337 is the way to go.

The opening crawl is hammy at best. The anthologies I've mentioned before, even those beyond, establish a certain vibe or atmosphere. This just suggests they know what they're doing is low budget and destined to be on a rack at your local Dollar Tree. Best way to compare this intro is to that of Noon Blue Apples, or New World Order. It throws in a lot of imagery, but it is relevant to the theme of obsession over conspiracy theory, there was a method to its on-the-nose nature. Whereas this, it’s your alphabet soup of social causes and topics that spell out the lack of subtlety we’d be in for. Hell even Tales from the Quadead Zone had a better intro, and even less of a budget.

After the last shot shows people that really love Christianity, we get the age all classic cliche of making computer hacking look more exciting than it actually is. Naturally they scour for porn. I could rage about women's rights, or I could just consider this to be a constant cliche. Said cliche is mercifully ended, as Danny Trejo hacks their computers, likely wanting to become the next Joss Wheadon and cover shit up through activism. I may be half right on half of what I said. I'd question if hacking is similar to TV interference, but I don't want to know.

Anyway, without any delay, we have our first story, and an issue I wanna bring up. There's a lack of a flow between the segments and the framework. In other films like Tales from the Hood, Crypt, Quadead Zone, Campfire Tales, and Terror Tract, the story is brought up after something related to it is before. Here, the stories are just told as they are, coming without any prior prompt. I dunno, it just breaks the flow some.

Mates

Unfortunately due to a lack of detailed plot information, I'd have to guess most of these stories as I go along.

So this one starts of with a woman and her deadbeat boyfriend. We get some serious whiplash at the start, cutting between the woman at a bar and her talking with her friend somewhere else. I have no idea what this is building up to, all I wanna do is tell her that being single won't be the end of the world. You really wanna be tied down in a relationship that probably won't last? Think about it.

The main woman, Shanika? Runs the risk of getting driven off of Twitter for her love of straight relationships, and gets a package, not one attached to a man but a box, not attached to a woman but, wait it's an envelope, which isn't a euphemism.

It looks like this story is gonna go into the evils of internet dating, or she would set up her own demise with the creation of an ideal man. If it were up to me, I'd say the twist is her definition of a perfect man is the asshole who got this started in the first place.

So far the quality of this... is at 240p, so I can't complain about the quality, and I had a good joke comparing this to something by Charles Band. Check out Kill Joy and you'll see what I mean, and for a great movie recommendation.

And soon, Shanika meets long, tan and unsure of who he's looking for. Credit where it's due, this dating scene doesn't seem too forced. I mean you gotta force yourself in these situations so it's always gonna seem forced. I mean it's less forced than the sex scene. I'm just saying, if you make The Room's sex scene look more natural, then this is unnatural. I blew it.

At this point I'm still speculating. Is her date like a vampire, who sucks out souls and energy from women through sex? Actually no, I spoke too soon. He is a robot, and the dating site she found sent him as part of a free trial. I mean I guess that makes sense, how else can the perfect date be crafted? I honestly didn't know what to expect. And that includes how her deadbeat old boyfriend was in on it, to teach her a lesson relating to perfection.

I assume he's gonna die soon. He is more hammy than a comedic actor trying to play an abusive father. Yes, that was a Tales from the Hood reference. For however shitty he is, I admire his patience, he allows Shanika to dig through her purse to find a credit card so she can activate the robot again and let him get killed. You don't find patient individuals that often anymore.

Oh wait he was getting the robot, apparently he's as patient as he is strong to lift human AI, also can't believe how hilarious he is. So yeah, he tries to strangle her, the robot saves her and that's essentially the end. He could lift him but he can't so much as punch him in the face. But wait, he shoots him, and the bullet... hits the shooter in the chest? Death by convenience, go figure.

Though I understand the broader implications of having AI in our lives, something you can control can make life easier. Marriage is always a gamble.

Anyway, back to the hackers, almost abruptly, maybe Danny's just shooting the shit with those willing to listen to him? Our next tale, point blank, deals with judiciary concerns. If this is a story about Brett Kavanaugh I'm gonna be pissed, it’s a groaner no matter where you lean politically.

The Prosecutor

Oh gee, white judges cracking down on black defendants, how is this gonna go down? This was years before June the fifteenth at least when things really went down, and look, of course I don’t favor prosecution based on race, I just don’t like it if its portrayed in the most straightforward way possible because you can make immediate guesses to what happens, and know who is gonna die at the end.

So, is the crook innocent? Is the prosecutor who's running for governor racist? Did he kill the people the crook is accused of killing? Is this gonna be where I find Scorch because he’s credited as an inmate on this.

I'm probably more concerned this is gonna be a rehash of a story from Tales from the Hood, where a black gangster is put into a prison system which is actually an attempt at redemption which he blows. Rusty, Just because you directed both movies doesn't mean you should copy them. But wait, he didn't, the real killer was found, and the prosecutor, Mooreland, doesn't want to change the verdict. So he's gonna die, this is clearly a message about our corrupt legal system, and showing me how inconsistent the movie is with its accents, southern or not southern, that is the question.

Apparently this segment is big on family. Either this is a metaphor or setting up the end twist, or maybe Mooreland is a huge Fast and the Furious fan. Nah, it’s meant to establish a dilemma and character quirk.

With the crook escaping from prison and a sudden power outage, I feel like poetic justice is about to happen. After a scene of the crook reading the bible and praying to God, I mean before, he breaks into the house and shoots at Mooreland. Is this a nightmare? A stab at religious hypocrisy? Did he actually kill his family? Did Mooreland have a hand in killing the crook's family? There’re some pretty obvious routes to take, especially since this movie takes an incredibly straightforward route.

I'm not in suspense, or interested, I'm not even 30 minutes into the film. So it cuts back to the crook in the cell. Was this a revenge fantasy? Was this actually why he was on death row? Did he use telepathic means to conduct the murders? No, poetic justice. The crook kills Mooreland's family, and he is framed for it.

Okay, how? Did the crook break out of prison? Did he make a pact with a demon? Those would’ve made more sense, but no, Mooreland is arrested and executed, I take more offense to reducing a legitimate issue to a ill-thought out horror tale that can vindicate the average Dhar Mann video.

What's next? Wait, a confederate flag? Nevermind.

White Flight

A white family moves out of a neighborhood with black residents, they suffer in the end that’s about it. Read on for the long version.

Let me reaffirm this, while going on a tangent. My problem with most movies like these is predictability, they carry these messages out with no nuance. It’s a bit like that movie Karen, remember that shit? Where they took a meme and reduced it to a bare basic degree. People focus so much on representation alone that they do not pay any mind to the quality, it is shit like this that blurs the line between representation and good writing, and half the time it’s just used for the sake of it rather than doing a meaningful portrayal. They made Betty DeVille a lesbian in the Rugrats reboot because she looked the part, I bet, they gave Barney a stereotypical haircut and dye to indicate a trans identity, and don’t get me started on the wet fart that was High Guardian Spice, I think some already know.

Now what the hell am I talking about? A show or movie can deliver a message about modern issues, but this is a show or movie, and a compelling story is needed to tie it all together, and more importantly avoid making it too on the nose, otherwise it feels less like they want to give it any meaning and just appeal to people who would accept it no matter what. There’s portraying racism, then there’s reducing it to incredibly basic elements.

Either that or I don’t know what the hell I’m talking about, but unlike Turning Red, this is a low budget poorly written horror anthology through and through, and there’s more meaning to my inane ramblings than what this movie has to offer on portraying real world issues, which this is what it’s about, a collection of stories mostly themed around social issues.

We will now return you to your regularly scheduled crap.

We see a man walk up to a house. This man apparently has telepathy, because he could knock on a door even though he's nowhere near it before jump cutting to the front of it. We meet our dead meat Thomas, and shock of all shocks, its exaggerated to the point of being stereotypical.

Oh and he's a racist cop too, all he needs to do is be ultra-conservative and he’d have everything. By the way that was a joke, I’m not political I just wanted to seize an opportunity.

So, Stromas McWallaceByrdMetzgerPerezWaters gets a package, and it's a means of sending them to an all white area, a literal fucking dimensional transporter. As if our sense of disbelief can’t be any more limited. I mean I can accept it if the movie was good, Tales from the Hood had paranormal occurrences which suit the horror element, in case anyone says so, but everyone has limits.

And now for a strange trivia factoid about this movie. Another familiar actor from Tales from the Hood appears in this, Duane Whitaker. He played a corrupt cop in the first story of that movie and was notably the first to die, spoiler, he has better luck here. Wings Hauser is a no-show though, and I bring him up because he has appeared in multiple b-movies.

The racists get sent to a dimension where minorities don’t exist, and adding to some cartoonish cringe, they even have an over the top sign to that effect. So, what do you think the twist is gonna be? Will the transporter make them black in the eyes of everyone, doing the Watermelon Man twist? Well, it seems so. After an alarm is sounded, a police car door is slowly opened and a man is seen drinking in a diner. These are apparently important enough to show, but wait, they are, the sequencing is just total ass.

Okay quick delaying the inevitable, we know they're gonna get hassled.

But what is the actual twist? The people in this town aren't racist, they just didn't want people with black hair. It's stupid, but you know what? I'll take it. I didn't see it coming, and it kinda fits with the discussion on racism, and there is a lynching... a baby lynching, and he gets arrested. This is sorta like the end of the first segment in The Twilight Zone movie, but at least the actor in this got to live to see another day, or maybe a little longer. However, the way they phrased their tagline, it causes the twist to feel forced. Is this because people with black hair don’t have a term like blondes or brunettes to go for a stronger twist?

So, they set this up like a very basic racism revenge plot, but threw in a twist, no matter how stupid it was, which still fits the allegory they were going for. This has the most palatable twist I've seen in the movie just far, and I still have a ways to go.

After that, we get insight that the millenials spammed nudes of a girl who owed one of them money on social media, and I assume they're gonna die, and this is looking to make Feardotcom look like a great movie, it’s already free to watch.

So I did a little looking around, and I either have only four or five stories to go.

The Samaritan

I noticed a theme around clowns for the first few seconds, let's see where this goes. And that’s another thing about the lack of a proper flow, random things happen with no proper transition, I mean... best you see it for yourself to hopefully get what I mean.

After close to a minute of establishing shots, a man and a woman hold up a sick man for... ransom? Rent payment? Is he a hitman? Does he work for tips? This next scene has him offered to dress like a clown. I'm lost, I'll be right back.

So apparently the woman with the money collector is a prostitute with a pimp, and dressing as a clown is a sexual favor, where the payer is actually a murderer, turns out to be one anyway.

After finding her pimp asleep with his eyes open, she attempts to escape. I'll give it this, I like the mannerisms of the psycho in this. Could make for a b-grade Joker if anything. Somehow, upon giving a ghost her crucifix, both girls kill the clown. There was no socio political slant, though the clown actor once played John Wilkes Booth in The Ridiculous 6. This was actually a nice little diversion, I’ll give it that.

Okay, seven minutes to the hour mark, no use quitting now.

Hate Radio

Believe it or not, it's not what you think. It's not about racism, it's about everything including racism. Alec Baldwin's long lost twin brother, or Hugh Bluff, is our lead in this. Hugh Bluff? Why not Hugh Jastle? It's every right wing stereotype stuffed into one. This would've been a perfect time to have Scorch do his best Alex Jones impression, but I guess Rusty is a huge Opie and Anthony fan.

It's an AM radio show, meaning this movie would be right down Cinema Snob's alley.

Okay, with the over the top nature presented here they're not going after moderates at least. I can understand there are plenty of dickbags out there that function like this, but the issue here is a lack of a balance. We're equal, not one above another. Otherwise we're gonna see a white Martin Luther King Jr. one of these days, you want that on your conscious? A continuous debate that would inspire more hatred than anyone's comfortable with?

Look, I don't agree with anything he's saying, I promise. If you want to see a good story with a hateful radio show host, check out the Tales from the Darkside episode Devil's Advocate, or the Night Visions episode Dead Air.

He gets a call from New Mexico, and rather than the caller voicing his grievances with Woodrow Wilson, well you can guess.

Best case they're going for a show don't tell approach, or maybe it is tell because they just keep stretching this out. Again, I don't agree with a word coming out of this guy's mouth, or the callers for that matter, but it did do one thing for me, it made me appreciate commercial breaks.

Things are straightforward after that, butthen... Make America Great Again.... okay, just a statement, not gonna complain about that, just them including an image of Donald Trump for good measure because they think we’re idiots who’ve been living under a rock. I just take offense to the people thinking I’m stupid for not picking up on subtext.

Hey guys, he's a Republican, he's bad. We assume you don't know that because we have no respect for your intelligence. Take our side you dummies, otherwise you're as bad as this potato sack we keep parading around.

The deal with this is that this man is turned into a woman, also evil portrait. It worked better in Tales from the Hood with a racist man inhabiting a plantation and him getting attacked by living voodoo dolls, he deserved what came to him and it makes sense in the grand scheme of things.

He turns into the woman in the portrait and out of awareness for how bad the effect would look, covers any parts that would need to be seen to properly display the change. Also a bad wig worse than Kate Mara’s on Fant4astic. This movie has a fascination with dragging scenes out, at least right here. It seems most of the budget was put toward that fake penis that fell out.

Though it may be racist to do so, I'd have to question Cundieff and Scott on their closeted sexist beliefs. They gave Hugh giant breasts, with clear clevage. Hell I'd even go as far as to consider this a touch transphobic because of how exaggerated it is.

Or maybe I’m just trying to one up these guys.

If I say I'm glad it's over, it's because this dragged on for so long I got the sum of it well before it ended. I was able to pick up everything in that overlong tirade at the start, so I have an idea how this ends. She claims that women deserve to be killed by serial killers, or something similar, and the same thing happens to her. And I guess the killer is one of the callers from before, somehow I was able to piece that together, I'm smarter than this movie gives me credit for it seems.

So what's the moral of this story? Just transition to a female actor if you're gonna make a TG look half-assed. Also don't leave discussions on sexism in the hands of someone who thinks lowly of their audience's intelligence.

The Healer

Is this gonna be about religion? Evangelics? Faith healers. Yeah.

So the plot of this is that a faith healer uses fake holy water for his miracles, and he is a fraud. It's obvious, and making me hanker for Moses Gunn in that episode of Tales from the Crypt. At this point I'm surprised they have an African American as a villain, I mean to be fair the first segment did. I'm forgetting already.

Clarence Williams III comes out of nowhere and knocks out the pastor, who's name is Bishop Love. Apparently Fazion doesn't talk much about his conniving brother. Anyhow, this is about the kidnapper's daughter dying, owed to the faith she put in Bishop's false faith.

Also the kidnapper knows voodoo now, plaguing Bishop with imperfections fraudulently dealt with.

Okay, think we have one more, right after the wraparound. Things go all occult real fast. I consider Jesus to be my lord and savior, but at the same time I'm so desensitized to basic horror this just doesn't phase me.

Thy Will Be Done

...if it ever starts. They linger on a summoning scene. Wait, is this the final segment? No, that would've been a neat little twist.

I assume this story is about pregnancy or something related? Yes it is, she gets kidnapped by an anti-abortion cult, and I’m just gonna guess what happens? She wants to abort the child fearing evil will come of it, they don’t want to, evil comes of it, and this is a pro-abortion segment.

It very well is, and it was there I just called it quits. I don’t know what the hell happens at the very end, but I don’t care, maybe those millennials die at the end, I don’t know, it’s probably gonna be incredibly predictable and a waste of time.

Final Thoughts

This has to be the worst horror anthology movie I ever had to watch, regardless of where one leans politically. As a horror anthology it doesn’t work because it’s simply not scary. Hell, even compared to most cheesy b movies things are just so cartoonishly over the top that it would make Battlefield Earth look dignified.

And when this movie incorporates real world issues that are relevant to today’s standards, that just makes it worse. I’m more mad these issues are not approached with the seriousness they deserve, and sensible people should feel the same. This means as a political thing it doesn’t work because rather than engaging the audience or confronting issues they resort to over the top tales that come off as a mockery of issues rather than anything legitimate. The only thing this works as is satire, but even that is weakened by most segments.

Fear of a Black Hat is considered to be Rusty Cundieff’s best film, and frankly, even though I do like Tales from the Hood, I’m beginning to feel like Cundieff is a one-trick-pony. Just previously Rusty and Darin Scott both directed Tales from the Hood 2, a terrible movie.

Bottom line, I don’t hate this movie because I disagree with the messages, I hate the movie because it handles them incredibly poorly, and coming from someone with a hearty appetite for trashy movies, this hurt, it really did.

And by the way, Scorch appeared as an in-mate in this movie, but without the signature crusty voice, lest Ralph’s fans decided to pull a fast one.

#worst movie #worst movies #horror #horror anthology #review #movie review

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amplesalty · 1 year

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Halloween 2022 - Day 27 - Black Sabbath (1963)

And so as you hear these words Telling you now of my state I tell you to enjoy life I wish I could but it's too late

Okay, so we’re overrunning slightly but I’d still say that 26 entries within the 31 days is a respectable effort, especially when compared to some of those years where I stopped not even halfway. So, since we’re pretty close to the end, Halloween’s going into overtime and we’re going to see out the full 31 as intended. But looking back over the list so far, there’s certain bases we haven’t covered so far this year. But worry not, look at how efficient we’re being with today’s choice of movie:

Anthology film? Check!

KARLOFF film? Check!

Foreign film? Check!

Film from the 1960’s? Check!

With that last one we’ve now covered a film from every decade spanning from the 1930’s to the 2020’s, the 30’s probably being as far back as we’ll go this year. Maybe one year we’ll try to see how far back we can go. I’ve already seen some of the more notable films of the 20’s in Nosferatu and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari but that’s probably some more in there, lot of Lon Chaney films around that time. I feel like the 1910’s and 1900’s might be a stretch.

We’ve certainly covered a lot of the big hitters when it comes to anthology horror; Creepshow, V/H/S, Twilight Zone, Tales from the Darkside, Cat’s Eye...so we have to look slightly further afield for new entries. Well, I suppose there are the various V/H/S sequels if I wanted something not as original, I hear 94 is pretty good amongst those. Black Sabbath is the work of Mario Bava who is apparently quite the big name in the Italian Horror scene but isn’t one I’m overly familiar with my then again my frame of reference isn’t the best when it comes to this sort of thing outside of being aware of the odd Dario Argento film. Sabbath takes a slightly different approach with it’s different segments being adapted from stories by Anton Chekhov, Aleksei Tolstoy and Guy de Maupassant. I’ve heard of at least two of those! Maybe they were trying to be seen as a bit more highbrow considering they were adapting the works of these well respected authors. Or maybe it was cheaper to take the work of a bunch of dead guys rather than pay someone new to write a script.

Rather than have an overarching narrative as some of these movies tries to do, Black Sabbath goes the simple route by having little intros by KARLOFF himself. There’s probably not many people that could give a sinister edge to a humble title like ‘The Telephone’ but bless him, he manages it. Apparently the running order of these different stories changes depending on the version you see but mine started with The Drop of Water.

Oh, and to address the elephant in the room before we start, yes this was the inspiration for the name of the band.

Bloody hell, Helena Bonham Carter’s looking a bit rough, isn’t she?

No, this would be a late psychic medium who left grave warnings for anyone that may mess with her belongings after she passed. A nurse is called in to help prepare her body but is drawn by the precious sapphire ring upon the lady’s finger. Figuring no one would miss it, she rips it from the corpse and pockets it, only for strange things to start happening. After closing the ladies eyes, she soon finds them open once more, staring at her. Things don’t get any better when the nurse gets home, with weird noises and the lights going out inspiring great fear within her.

And the sudden sight of the old woman laying in her bed near enough sends her over the edge. There’s something borderline hilarious about the sight of this corpse floating across the room, arms outstretched like she wants to choke this nurse out with this stupid look on her face.

When the neighbours raise the alarm about the screams they hear, the police arrive to find the nurse’s dead body and a strange bruise on her finger where it seems like a ring has been ripped from her finger. One of the neighbours can only look on nervously...

It’s a rather simple affair of revenge from beyond the grave and the corrupting power of greed. It’s like that cartoon, One Froggy Evening, with the singing frog that people think will lead them to untold wealth but only brings them misery. One is left to imagine how far this cursed ring could go, how many victims the old woman might dispatch as one person after another unknowingly takes hold of what will ultimately lead to their demise.

The Telephone is a rather more tangled affair, seeming like a run of the mill ‘THE CALL IS COMING FROM INSIDE THE HOUSE!’ type story as a young woman, Rosy, is on the receiving end of a increasingly threatening series of phone calls that have the eerie ability to pinpoint exact details on what she is wearing and doing inside her own house. But as the story rolls on, more and more details are slowly revealed that raise questions on the relationship between Rosy and the man on the other end of the line, and how they’ve now come to be in this position where the man has promised she will meet her end before the dawning of the morning sun.

Again, it’s a simple story but does meander down a path of intrigue as the possibility of this lady maybe having some skeletons in her closet. It reminded me of Psycho a little bit in that respect, how I went into that movie with this idea in mind of his innocent victim who actually had this more shady background than I was expecting.

The real meat of the movie is in the final segment The Wurdulak, described very much as a vampire but with the distinction that the creature favours feasting on the blood of loved ones. That adds a potential layer of nuance to the vampire mythos, instead of just being a means of sustinence, you could get across this idea that it’s almost an act of love within itself, that the Wurdulak wants to help it’s family by having them join them in eternal life. It does lead to scenes more reminisce of something from a zombie movie, where people have to be talked down, that the creature in front of them is no longer the person they once were, that the right thing to do is put them to eternal rest, even if the idea of putting a stake through the heart of one of your family is abhorrent.

It’s here that KARLOFF takes a more starring role as the family patriarch who returns home after time hunting a local villain. He had previously warned his family to kill him if he returned home after 5 days had passed because it was likely that he would have become a wurdulak. But even though everyone establishes that 5 days have indeed passed, no one seems to want to take on the grisly responsibility of bumping him off.

Even his surly demeanor and dishellved look do little to persuade them to commit this patricide. Why, he even orders his son to kill their beloved family dog after it incessantly howls after his return. So much dog murder this year.

But that’s nothing compared to his greatest evil...

BAD TOUCH! VERY BAD TOUCH!

KARLOFF is fun in this one, really gets across the ill-tempered and changed nature of this once beloved family figure who has now returned and risks cursing 3 generations of this bloodline. The heavy makeup on his face really underlines some of the crazes expressions he has throughout. This even features a more whirlwind romance than that which we saw in Cat People. That one at least seemed to be suggested to be taking place over a relatively prolonged period of time, here we have this passerby get embroiled in the whole family Wurdulak drama and declare his undying love for one of the women the same night after her husband gets killed off. Geez, the body’s not even cold yet, let the lady mourn a little first eh?

Overall, the film is nothing out of the ordinary with the various stories following similar lines to ones I’ve seen before but it’s always cool to see KARLOFF. It did take me a second to remember the Italian way of dubbing pretty much all of their cinematic work though, apparently even so far as to get the original actors to redub their lines. KARLOFF is doing his voice so I wonder if he had to go back to redub. I’m not sure why they do that or how persistent it was over the years. I could see that for an isolated period if equipment wasn’t up to scratch to record out in the field but they surely can’t still be doing it now? It certainly throws you off for a second when the lip syncing is a little all over the place.

What I will say about the movie though is that it is very visually interesting. I remember Susperia being the same so maybe that’s just an Italian thing? I think a lot of these movies of the time are similar though in just how vivid the colours are. I know there were different colour techniques going on in the early days of colour films so maybe it’s that or they just had a habit of really ramping up the colours to really sell the whole thing as a concept.

The Drop of Water especially having a lot of fancy scenery, opulent settings and use of filters that run through various colours. Lots of reds and purples in use, the visuals really add to the whole segment.

#Halloween 2022 #Black Sabbath #Anthology Horror

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sokayisaidiot · 3 years

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Why Tommy is one of THE BEST written characters in existence.

Alright, that’s it

Here I give you my fuckin Take on why Tommy is one of the best written characters out there and can easily compete with best-selling Novels like Percy Jackson and Harry Potter. I’m sick of a trashing that doesn’t even make sense. So buckle up. Here I will tell you why Tommy has one of the best written characters in history of Books and Movies. Remember, I write this all in my perspective and take many examples of other character books as well

Before this all starts, I will also talk about the main characters of some series, since Tommy has the reputation of being a “main” character.

When I look at the books I’ve read, I see a large range of characters and there way of making the story interesting.

Now, to establish a good character, we need key points of motivations, to make them relatable and bla bla blub:

Personality

Part of the story

Their Powers

Flaws

Relationships

Prized Possessions

History/the backstory

The moral and story the character tells

First tho, I want to explain some words I’m going to use here!

Mary Sue/Gary Stu:

Those are characters who are flawless, have missing chunks of personality and mostly one way written. They are easy to achieve when you are trying to make your character look badass.

Examples in some Fandoms are

· Rey Skywalker (Star Wars Sequels 7-9)

· Hermione Granger (Harry Potter Movies)

· Bella Swan (Twilight)

Tree-System:

Imagine a tree. You plant something small and soon you have something giant with many branches, roots and connections. You have the seed you plant and with caring and care you let it grow. Then you have somewhat a sapling. The tree grows with the care and soon you have a tree with many branches.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Personality

Negative:

Tommy’s personality is very brash and out of control = He’s barely containable in fights, going off to do his own risky plans and starting two or so fights. He can’t forgive a person very easily like Eret, who took it a long time to get forgiveness and Techno, as he shot Tubbo at the Festival. He makes decision that also cost his life like the duel because he hates losing

Tommy can be very lazy, giving the thought he wouldn’t have to do the hard work = Shown when he tries to steal the hearts of seas from Eret or potions from Techno, bargain with “drugs” by Puffy and Ponk or gives other people the work he doesn’t want to do like he did with getting cobblestone

Like a child, he often clings to close people and annoys others for attention = His desperate attempts to have company or someone praising him shows, when he tries to get Philza’s approval (or a pat on the back), constantly looking out, if Tubbo’s either okay or where his is,

He doesn’t like to wait or doing things in the long run = He constantly asks when something is finished, when they could go or in his exile, when he was allowed to go back to L’Manburg

He doesn’t show often his cooled down, scared and vulnerable side = He often overshadows his trauma with a facade of jokes and bad hidden hurt he brings out. When he talks about something bad, he’s clearly confused, not really knowing on how to understand it. Also he runs away from things he can’t control a panic attack like visiting the final control room or looking away from the holes in Logstedshire

He runs without head into a battle so often as possible = Only when they had their final showdown for the disc, Tommy was seen preparing in story, thinking it would be his last fight

---

Positive:

But as he has negative traits, his positive shows to many people clearly.

His unwavering loyalty to the closest of people = His loyalty to Tubbo, Wilbur And L’Manburg are, were and always will be a part of him. He stands against anyone who goes against that, even if it means pain in many ways.

Passionate about dear projects of his = You can see Tommy talking about his discs or see an video where he would spent days getting different discs. Those things are very known to be rare things, so for Tommy to possess it gives him somewhat power. L’Manburg was the same passion, even a bit more, as you can see he was ready to give up his most prized disk. The last and in the moment is his hotel

Bravery like no one makes him as one of the dangerous person on peoples hitlist = He stands up for others. He stood up to L’Manburg. He in the end didn’t care that he lost a life. When he sees a foe, he won’t stand down and submit, he will fight against the oppression and tell them that in the face. During the mission to get a visa, he stood against Schlatt, even if they were clearly in the loose of people and disadvantage. Or getting an apology of Sapnap for killing Niki’s fox. Fighting against 5 people with just one ally while the other is a hostage.

His leadership = There are not many people who can take it up, but Tommy is an exception. He can coordinate people with his loud voice and somewhat thought plans. He is charismatic, even if he’s not so good at it like Wilbur, he still can motivate people to fight for themselves or others. He’s seen to lead others into battle and taking in the fighting part a leading role

Unselfish. That’s one of the most arguable things about Tommy`s character = You can´t look at a kid and say he is selfish because he wants to get something dearly back. Especially Tommy, after he gave the things up, he cared about. But if something is happening again, he will lay it down to do the other thing. As seen by the egg, he had a hard time thinking what to do. He, in a long time, didn’t want to be catalyst for something to happen. Not when he in the moment could have stopped it. So doing this act for himself ones, was a good decisions, since they clearly weren’t ready for war

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Part of the Story

Outside of the story:

Let’s all just get something “straight”. What would Dream SMP without Tommyinnit. Now. Don’t get me wrong. All the creators on the SMP are amazing. They are all wonderful and deserve every bit of Attention and fame they get. But just imagine.

We heard from Tubbo, he was the one, who got him into the SMP. Schlatt and Wilbur came because of a “visit”. Quackity was added because TOMMY said he was bored. And from that, we got somewhat of a tree system. As Tommy was invited and drawn into conflict by Sapnap (shoutout to best boy!), he got more people.

He also has the highest viewership and kind of shortest streams, since he is doing college next to Youtube and Streaming. He can’t give up his high viewers since all of those 200.000 (average) – closing 650.000 People (doing something like a big lore stream in prison or the disc final), choose to watch him.

Also a reminder again, Tommy has his storyline as does everyone else. When we saw Tommy and Techno during the partner up arc doing something with the dogs, they saw the start of the red vines arc BUT said they were on the wrong storyline. Tommy was asked by the eggpire writers if he wanted to be a part of the story and he said yes. Why do you think he nearly says nothing about the egg. He leaves it to the writers. Also, it was said by one of Wilbur’s Character descriptions, that Tommy was okay with others doing something with his character, while Techno was more reluctant with his.

Let me say it again, every creator is awesome and individual! Nobody should be compared to others. But with Tommy coming to the Dream SMP, there really was a change in the game.

Remember, that’s because we also have a BT (before Tommy) and AT (after Tommy) Timestamp in the wiki!

Inside of the story:

Now, with Sapnap, Alyssa, Ponk and Tommy in the first ever big conflict its shown the importance. People assume Tommy is one of the conflict bringers, even though he was dragged in it by having something stolen by Sapnap and then forced to fight with him, to get it back.

The Consequences he’s got where having his discs get stolen. This is what Tommy’s biggest character motivation was the first two seasons. Those discs are known on the server and when you think about gifting something to C!Tommy, it would be a disc.

Techno = Disc Wait

Badboyhalo = Disc Pigstep, Chirp

HBomb = Disc Pigstep, Wait

Tubbo = Stal

LazarBeam = Far

Tommy is a openminded boy who longs for funny little adventures and pranks, since he is just a young person. It’s in his nature.

So why, when he does something, are people looking on him?

Because the things he was and is a part of some of the biggest events. And him being so loud and brave and rash lets him stand out. If you look at the old (hah) Revolution of L’Manburg, who can you hear talking the most and the loudest? Tommy and Dream. They were the most outgoing about the war with Sapnap, Tubbo and Wilbur following. Fundy was more quieter (thankfully he has so much more lore now).

Tommy’s character is known to fall or be dragged head first in almost every conflict. He has connections to who? Mostly everybody. So of course he’s connected big parts to the stories.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Powers

Okay. Every “main” character or character with huge importance to the story has some kind of power. Looking at Dream, who is a “demigod” or Ranboo who I don’t even have to talk about. So what about Tommy?

Well. He doesn’t have any. Tommyinnit is one of the people, we get to have as an “human” character

Hannah = nature “Spirit”

Karl Jacobs = Timetraveller

Antfrost, Technoblade, Ranboo, Fundy = Hybrids

Dream = Something something green blob

Awesamdude, Puffy, Philza, Sapnap, Eret, Schlatt = Adding Features (wings, eyes, body parts)

Badboyhalo, Skeppy = completely different species apparently

Tommy has, as we know of the moment, a not confirmed power. The assumptions of the egg are not clear, since we haven’t seen those interact in a while. All we know is, Tommy didn’t get hurt, destroying a part and not feeling anything, while being in contact. That in canon considered.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Flaws

As talked before in personality and also in an assumption, we see the pattern of loyalty and brashness repeating.

Flaws are the most important parts of a character. It shows the struggle of their adventure and learning how to live with it.

Percy Jackson learned loyalty is nothing, if you don’t have someone to project it on.

Harry Potter and Luke Skywalker learned being a hot head didn’t really bring him forward and it’s important to have a plan

Frodo Beutlin learned that it is okay taking care of yourself and what attachment means

Anakin Skywalker learned fear is controllable and it shouldn’t be a remaining part of your life

Tommy learned over the time that his rashness could hurt others, loyalty couldn’t come back to him like he gave it out and he learns even more in the coming future.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Relationships

Tommy’s relationships is a mess of strings. Some are badly knotted and some are very clear.

A characters connections is an important part for the character himself.

Relationships in life are

· Enemies(-figure)

· Rivals(-figure)

· Friends(-figure)

· Family(-figure)

· Lover(-figure)

· Complicated family(-figure)

· Complicated friend (-figure)

Relationships are a part of everyone’s life. Not with everybody is a good relationship holdable. Either it’s because their hurting each other or another person. People change and that’s a part of life.

Tommy realized, even tho it hurt, that Techno wasn’t good for his mental state and health. It went against everything Tommy ever stood for.

And Tommy and Tubbo’s relationship wasn’t really that broken. It’s normal for friends to fight. Normal for them hit their heads in. Tommy and Tubbo were surrounded with people who were, at the time, a terrible addition to their mental life.

The Dream SMP doesn’t talk it out, hell the talking club was just destroyed because they preferred fists over words. So why do you think everything is going out with a fight, if it’s all they learned.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Priced Possessions

Every character has to something a connection.

Might it be Percy Jackson and his sword

Might it be Harry with his glasses, broomstick and wand

Frodo and his stupid ring

For Tommy we all know it’s his ender chest inside and secret chest. He keeps many belongings in his chests and always has been one for those things. He kept flowers, compasses, Friendship signs and most importantly, his discs.

The care for something of items are important. Might it be a teddy, old photo or jewelry. People get protective over it, because it holds sentimental value to the person.

If you ask me, to let go of my teddy bear, I will show you my middle finger. Probably beat you up too.

You can’t just throw out your memories into a fire or pit of lava. This is just showing you never had a care and everything you had a memory with it before would have been gone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

History/Backstory

We don’t have much here, but still something to work with.

A Hero doesn’t have an easy live. And it’s an said thing that every Hero needs an origin Story.

Tommy, said not really anything about his past.

All we know is that Tommy didn’t have anyone, presumably an Orphan, he knew the sleepy bois already a long time ago and he never learned on how to ride a bike, saying he never really had a family.

Signs that he didn’t even leave half a good life are:

· his knowledge on stealing and preferring this over working for it

· Liking to live in weird spaces like carved out holes in sides of hills (his hobbit hole or the basement by Techno) or living in his tent over a hole house

· His liking of cobblestone and dirt, which are easy gettable blocks

· Holding his goodies and friends close to him

· Craving for attention or contact in general

And now for the part with the dream SMP.

We saw how it changed him. We saw his trauma and all the bad things that happened to him.

And that’s why we say his actions came from those past experiences and things. We are NOT excusing them, but showing. Past trauma CHANGES a person. It brings experience and a heavy amount of pain and anger. ESPECIALLY at a young age, you will change due to your experience in life. You will grow worried and anxious. Tommy did that. He grew more anxious, angry, scared and also experienced.

Stop saying trauma doesn’t explain it. Yes. It does. His lashing out came from his past and negative experience. Imagine growing up in a world where this is the norm. War and banishing. As well as death. Tommy has reasons why he is acting and does stuff.

Understand it. You don’t have to forgive him or anything. But understand it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The moral and the story the character tells us

When we see Tommy, we see a boy who went nearly through it all. Mental/Physical Abuse, Abandonment, War, Suicidal thoughts, betrayal, Death, etc…

He doesn’t show forgiveness for his abuser. Still has signs, that he fights with the past abuse, but he tells us a story of learning from past mistakes, that even in the darkest hours, there’s a way out. Things will, can and be ugly and those are dark hours, but in no way should you think that it’s over. Life is more than one way and can always turn into a new direction.

Life takes something old away from you. Life gives you something new. You lose someone, you find someone new. Friends can turn into enemies. Enemies can turn into friends. You can meet the weirdest people. You can meet the most amazing people. You can be alone and in the next second, you’re not. You will often lose, but you also can win if you give everything.

Life can be weird and that’s okay.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My Fazit (that’s german)

The thing is, he is very real for many viewers such as myself. He acts like how many teenagers his age reacts.

He doesn’t be “baby”, because he shows the “ugly” sides of trauma. He shows that attachments are good and you shouldn’t forgive your abuser. In no way. He shows that acting out and lashing out are two things that happen, when you have been in wars for many times and nearly just know that.

He has many flaws and mistakes but those make him even more real. He is showing how he is growing.

As a person, friend, (pseudo-)family.

He is real to many of the viewer since he doesn’t have any powers that are existing in our world to solve their problems. He knows that nobody would have helped him and Tubbo against Dream if he didn’t pay others.

Also that you can’t be friends with everyone and that it’s okay that not everybody likes you.

Tommy´s character is the most human and realistic character in a way of how we would react. We are humans who are lashing out and who are having ugly sides.

And also please stop saying that, since I really can relate to Tommy and I don’t want to be feeling like a “bad-written Character”…

And Don’t even get me started on Tommy’s acting dude!

He is one of the best actors and that one livestreams! In from off 200.000 – 600.000 People!

On the face cam alone is so much to see…

· You can see his face with each emotion shifting,

· when something funnily weird happens, he looks dead eyes in the camera

The voice acting…

· His breathing,

· the stuttering in his voice,

· THE GODDAMN EMOTIONS IN HIS FACE

HIS MUSIC CHOICE!

· He changes the music fitting for the situations as in fighting scenes or funny moments.

· He also has some funny bits with his music.

· Like a goddam DJ!

The ingame character

· His movements and head stares

· The jumping around when he gets overactive

· Long stops when he thinks or is sad!

You can see, I am a person from Tumblr and saw way too much bullshit around tommys character.

Stop critiquing him so badly.

You could say, I woke up and chose violence

>:D

#tommyinnit #mcyt #dream smp #character analysis #dream smp character analysis

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pink-n-spooky · 3 years

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Teen girls aren’t allowed to enjoy anything

and here’s my long ass essay about it :)

In youth pop culture, as well as pop culture in general, it’s generally a given that music movies, books, clothing, and other things that gain popularity will eventually fall out of style. On face level, this isn’t always a bad thing, but rather more of a function of society: when something is new, many people are interested, and as time passes, that number dwindles. Backlash and criticism is also a normal function of society, which can be very beneficial when done in good faith and with constructive purpose.

However, it’s quite notable that an overwhelming amount of criticism falls on things that generally have a large fan-following of teenage girls. This can cause them to feel embarrassed by wat they’re interested, or feel that being made fun of is inevitable.

In reality, though, things gain traction for a reason, and things widely loved by teenage girls aren’t often given the same analysis and consideration other things in pop culture are given.

While there is certainly media that isn’t beneficial and could negatively affect young girls, the things they like often go ridiculed by society due to a lack of consideration and deep analysis, as well as the constant sexist want of society to bring down young girls.

Older people in general have been known to blow off things popular in youth culture, which can sometimes be attributed to just not knowing or caring about it. On the more intense side, some are infuriated by it—and not always without reason. But when it comes to things that are popularized by teen girls, a deep and proper analysis is often not given. Instead, they focus on the surface-level negatives.

The Hunger Games is a clear example of this. The series, which revolves around a teen girl forced into a game where she has to murder other kids, is widely condemned as being far too violent and a potential threat to the innocence of young girls.

On the first look, it’s clear that this widespread opinion doesn’t stem from nothing; the series is violent, and mainly young girls read it. However, if one goes even a bit beyond the surface level of the series instead of being initially outraged, it actually shows a complex society and story of revolution with themes of corrupt media and propaganda, separation of class by wealth, and way both sides of a political argument or war can be corrupt.

Take the 12 Districts in the series: the Capital is at the top with the most wealth and ability to abuse, and lowest number Districts are under the illusion that they’re the same. Author Suzanne Collins develops this complex idea in her story by showing that while people in the Districts have different levels of wealth and resources, in the end, they’re all still forced to put their children to death.

In the grand scheme of things, they’re all just as powerless against those at the top. It reflects the nuances of Capitalistic societies and class divisions in a thoughtful way. This can actually really benefit girls, especially since the protagonist is someone they can see themselves as.

A much more widespread example of the ridicule young girls endure for the things they like is fashion. Overall, fashion for girls has progressed in a way that over time has become more diverse and accepting. It’s not uncommon to see girls in long jeans and sweaters, but it it’s also not uncommon to see them in more revealing clothes like crop-tops.

The way girls dress is taken issue with by many adults and even school systems, shown by dress codes that often ban shirts—even if they only reveal a girl’s shoulders. These girls are often told they’re being too provocative or dressing for boys, which strips them of their individuality and is certainly not the case. Many girls dress this way because they want to.

Furthermore, the diverse and growing willingness to be experimental with what they wear shows something wildly different than the harmful predetermination: reclamation of their bodies. Throughout history, girls have been shamed this same way—often more intensely. So, by defying these criticisms, teen girls are showing they feel more free and more confident in what they look like and are perceived as, which is something everyone should want for them.

When things like this are torn down by others, it can affect the girls immense negative ways and cause them to lose confidence. When the benefits are ignored by society, this is often what happens. The positives of more experimental and unique media and styles that interest young girls are at best ignored and at worst ridiculed when not given proper analysis and understanding.

While some criticisms of youth girl pop culture can be attributed to ignorance and lack of poper analysis, it would be even more ignorant to ignore the root of these issues: sexism.

When comparing the things young boys take interest in with what girls of the same age do, one clearly causes more outrage than the other. This can be seen by the blind outrage thrown at things like youth romance novels.

When the young adult romance book Twilight came out, real criticisms of the story were often drowned out by people making fun of its fans, which was majorly young girls. They were ridiculed by people often much older for liking something perceived as stupid. This can discourage girls from allowing themselves to enjoy such things, which is harmful because books like these often give girls hope and bring just pure happiness to them, which is immensely important as they grow up.

Furthermore, young girls are often criticized for liking the same things boys do to a much further extent. Video games, which are often violent, are traditionally played by boys. While these games draw a lot of criticism for aspects of violence and shooting, it has nothing to do with the fact that the audience is boys.

Girls, however, are often personally disparaged from playing such games because they’re too “masculine” and just not made for them. This discourages young girls from finding out what they enjoy and forces them to limit what they take part in.

In the end, even with the hate they often undergo, young girls haven’t stopped boldly and unapologetically enjoying what they love, but it is through their perseverance that they’re able to do so.

Final note: If we’re being honest, we all have a bit of internalized sexism and judge without thinking about potential effects on others. Sexism won’t cease to exist easily, but if we only take the time to consider our motives—even subconscious ones—we can help stifle our biases and most importantly, create a healthy environment where girls can express themselves.

TL;DR

Society loves to put girls down and make fun of everything they like, which stems from sexism and lack of analysis. In reality, there’s often real, important purpose to the things they enjoy. I also definitely used The Hunger Games and Twilight as examples :)

p.s. i am also in love w katniss<3

#the hunger games #hunger games #writing #team peeta #btw #essay #analysis #katniss everdeen #catching fire #mockingjay #twilight #pop culture #women #feminism #sexism #fandoms #equality #society #modern culture

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thekatebridgerton · 3 years

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The Economics of Bridgerton and why it got renewed so fast

So I’ve been seeing some people complaining about why Bridgerton got renewed so fast when other shows deserved it more, its not that great of a show blaha blah blah. And I thought I’d let you know a little something about the Economics of a TV show and how that translates to what gets renewed and what gets axed. Ready? here we go.

First of all viewer, get this straight, You as an individual don’t matter to the Network in the bigger economic scheme of things. What you do matters. What you consume matters, and ultimately how you spend your time matters, but you and your delicate sensibilities as a person? not so much. Because the only thing that matters to the Network and everyone involved in making that show is PROFIT

Networks obtain profits, from things such as Merchandise, advertisements and in Netflix case, subscriptions to their streaming service.

The higher the views in a show, the more money those three things above bring. More people watching the show, means more ad revenue, more merch revenue, more subscriptions bought and renewed, more social media exposure, more people buying whatever Netflix has to offer. Which enables Netflix to produce more of that content you like to consume so much. And by produce I mean, invest in things such as sets, costumes, actors, screenwriters etc

You see why a Network who only cares about profit would be particularly eager to have many viewers already accounted for BEFORE a premier right?. But how do you gurantee that people will consume a product before it has even been released?

How does Netflix guarantee that Bridgeton season 1 will be watched by millions before it actually happens? don’t people need to try the product before forming an opinion about it?. It’s not like they can be 100% sure they will get enough viewers to justify the money already spent filming S1. Except that...Bridgerton already came with viewers guaranteed.

Let me explain Julia Quinn has already built up a fanbase of millions of people who love the Bridgerton books. If all else fails for the Network they still have the safety net of all those millions of people who would tune in and watch Bridgerton S1 if only to support their beloved author, and their beloved series. These viewers were already guaranteed before S1 even started filming., even if Bridgerton had been a failure, the Network (Netflix) would still get enough revenue to cover production costs.

Ever wonder why reboots are so popular these days? see the above. It’s not exactly because of nostalgia, it’s because of profit. Why invest in something new and original when you could do something that’s been done before and guarantee yourself viewers even before you start filming. A reboot or a retelling can give a bigger safety net to Networks and Studios who simply don’t want to suffer economic loss if a project fails. Of course reboots and retellings are kinda souless right? we can all see right trough their money making schemes. It’s not fun for the viewer and more risky for the Studio or Network.

You know which is the most lucrative option? A BOOK ADAPTATION. Like Bridgerton, and most recently, Shadow and Bone. This product comes with millions of viewers attached, the viewer is willing to be used for their money making scheme, because they want to be surprised, they want to see even a figment of the world they could only read about be put into a screen. And if it’s really good the viewer (consumer) will reward the Network (producer) with the profits they have been chasing so much. It’s quite frankly a brilliant business strategy.

So if you ever wonder why things like the After series, fifty shades of grey, the kissing booth series and to all the boys series and even Twilight, got greenlighted so fast. Think about where the profit line is? and how many viewers were guaranteed before filming. It’s the same reason production hires big name actors or TikTok stars with cero experience in Hollywood. (The amount of viewers they can guarantee by being in the movie, that matters to the Network and the Studio.)

If people watch Bridgerton, it makes profit, if it makes profit, then resources used in other projects will be allocated to filming Bridgerton, possibly delaying the greenlight for other shows that did not bring in as much revenue during the same quarter.

Cancelations occur when a show doesn’t make as much revenue in comparison to other things offered by the same network. It doesn’t matter if it was good, well written and beloved. If the show did not make as much profit for the network as other shows competing for their time slot and production resources. It’s going to get axed.

As far as I’m concerned, I know I’m very lucky that Bridgerton is extremely popular and that Netflix doesn’t need to spend much money doing promotional campaigns. Lots of people watch it and want more of it. I’m one of them, my favorite show will be on air for a long while and that makes me happy

Bridgerton can reach a demographic of diverse races, diverse nationalities and diverse ages, ranging from 15 to 60 year-olds. Which multiplies the amount of viewership the show receives by a million, at least compared to other shows targeted at smaller and less diverse demographic groups.

So tell me dear viewer, how many guaranteed consumers does your favorite Tv show have? are you sure the competition doesn’t have more? I will leave that for you to think about

#bridgerton #bridgerton meta #this needs to be said #glad I got that out of my chest

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kaypeace21 · 3 years

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Rebel Robin podcast (ep 3 &4 analysis)

For those who haven’t read them yet. Here’s the analysis for podcast ep 1&2. Analysis of Rebel Robin book-here. And eastereggs from rebel robin novel- here.

So the main things I noticed in ep 3 was how Robin spying was shown as a huge NEGATIVE-and Mr Hauser got upset over her doing so. Robin listens to mr. Hauser’s phone call (like Karen with Mike in s3/ us gov spying on calls in s1) & on a different occasion Robin also eavesdrops on a private convo he is having with someone else in his classroom ( like El spying on Mike talking to Lucas in s3). And when he finds out about this he tells her how wrong it was to spy on other people like that. In the past, I also talked about how the theme of spying is shown for many other st characters ( in the show) and how it isn’t romanticized like people think it is- here .

Anyways , Ep 3 ends with a call from a h*mophobic teen( Dash) telling Robin to “stay away” from Mr. Hauser cause he’s “dangerous”. Why he thinks he’s dangerous is solely for the fact he’s gay.I think this theme may come into play in s4 Hawkins (in relation to the satanic panic). In ep 4 Robin jokes to (gay) Mr. Hauser : “ So what are you into... satanism?” (Sadly most queer people have been told over and over we’re going to hell for being gay/lgbt+. it’s sadly an almost universal experience.) For those unaware- the ‘satanic panic’ was a right wing christian movement in the 80′s that WRONGLY associated certain things with supposed satanism. Just some of the many things they demonized : rock music , stephen king , wearing black, horror/fantasy media, and of course queer people and d&d (hellfire club - the name is a a xmen ref but in the show it’s probably an inside joke about the satanic panic and people being scared of d&d). We see foreshadowing of the satanic panic hinted in s3 (in relation to d&d)- on tv the narrator asks if “satanism” (pans to d&d set) is to blame for the odd occurrances in Hawkins. And given how the s4 el-trailer had the clock say 3:00am for the “witching hour” also called “the devil’s hour” since it’s supposed to be a subversion of jesus dy*ing at 3:00 pm. And the possibility s4 may take place around Easter. I think we’ll see that religious (Christian) extre*sm causes many people in Hawkins to interpret the supernatural as ‘satanic’. And no , I’m obviously not talking poorly about all religious/christian people).

After this Mr. Hauser jokes how Hawkins is like “lord of the flies” and how he “worries” what would happen if teens were left to their own devices-like in the book. The themes in the book mostly focus on the dangers of ‘mob mentality’ and how human beings can become v*olent and turn on each other- if the safety of civilization disappears...

This I believe is foreshadowing - i mentioned in a post a while back (here). How movies on the s4 list had the theme of : a supernatural event indirectly causing towns people to act irrationally and turn on eachother v*olently. Despite literal monsters attacking them from outside (they chose to turn on eachother instead). In the end some townspeople become the real monsters via mob mentality/v*oence/false witch hunts (the mist, the birds, etc). In ‘the birds’ (while people are hidding in a store)- they wrongly blame certain characters for the supernatural chaos. Similarly, in ‘the mist’ (crowd of townspeople are trapped in a store) and some start interpreting the monsters as being sent as punishment by god- some town’s people start quoting the bible and saying the only way to stop the punishment is to start “sacrificing the s*nners and nonbelievers”. BIG YIKES.ST references mapple street (where the wheelers and sinclairs live). It’s based on the twilight zone ep of the same name “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” .The ‘monsters’ of that episode -were the townspeople turning on eachother because they incorrectly think their own neighbors are part of an invading supernatural army. The enemy was actually the paranoia/mob mentality-not the supernatural force they feared. And yes i do think this concept is linked with 80s satanic panic and will cause some town division/obstacles for our heroes to deal with . **I also think the s4 bts of the Hawkins blood clinic-may be used to show h*mophobia (linked to satanic panic) in the town. Like in one s4 movie “paradise lost”the punk rock boys who were into black clothes, rock music , horror/stephen king books- were accused by the town’s people of being gay AND have demonic powers that are k*lling fellow town’s people.

Mr Hauser says he thinks steve Harrington is Ralph from lord of the flies. And Robin disagrees saying he’s Jack. Personally- since this was when Robin didn’t know/hated Steve. I think Mr hauser is right that Steve is Ralph (one of the oldest boys) who’s “commitment to civilization and morality is strong”. But Jack (perhaps the popular s4 kid Jake?) and his savage crew take control of the group and start trying to attack Ralph and his friends (steve’s crew- over satanic panic?). How this begins is -

Jack, torments Ralph and others. And some kids begin to develop savage personalities, after someone claims to have seen a Beast (demongorgan?) in the woods. This creates fear among the boys, which allows Jack to access more power.Ralph gets into an argument with Jack, who splits from the tribe. Many of the other boys follow Jack, who uses fear to manipulate the boys into leaving Ralph. And Jack’s crew begin attacking Ralph and his friends.

----------------

Ok, next topic of ep 4- the sentimental part of my brain got emotional when hearing how upset Robin was. And than Mr Hauser-telling her she’s wrong and she’s not “broken” or “rotten” and “nothing about her needs to be fixed’” (got me right in the feels) . As a queer person- I feel like every lgbt+ kid/teen needs to hear what Mr. Hauser said to Robin.

However, the analytical part of my brain -did notice some easterggs/ series parallels.

The convo starts with them talking about music Mr hauser likes (such as Bowie). And transitions to Mr Haauser asking about things she likes, whether she’s being bullied, and he later tells her “ DON’T let other people’s small mindedness make you fell bad about yourself. you don’t need to change yourself-no matter what anyone else says” . And Mr Hauser than says him calling her the “weirdest girl in Hawkins” was a compliment (not an insult-like she initially assumed).

This is remarkably similar to certain scenes in s1/2. In s1, Jonathan mentions musicians he likes such as Bowie, asks Will about what he likes, and tells Will “don't like things cause people tell you you’re supposed to-especially not him (their dad who called him h*mophobic names)” . In s2, Jonathan tries to cheer Will up after asking if he's being being bullied. And calls Will “a freak” (and says it’s a good thing) and he should be content with being a “freak “ and compares Will to Bowie ( who was openly queer since the 70s) .

In ep 4, Robin also mentions how sad she is that her parents won’t let her ride her bike anymore cause their paranoid about her safety (like what happened to Will in s2).

Robin (before Mr. Hauser comforts her) says she feels like she has a “rot” inside her . This is a s2 eastergg that could be linked to either Will or El. Will says his now-memories are “growing”, spreading”, and killing.” Later Kali says the emotional pain caused by her father caused a “wound” to “spread”. Later allusion-Brenner tells El she has a “terrible wound “ (“a rot”) that Will “grow, spread, and kill.”

The reason Robin rants about feeling like she has a “rot” inside her is because she’s being bullied, and lost all her Hawkins friends and says “maybe I’m broken maybe there is just something about me that drives people away? I’m the only common denominator-there’s something wrong with me! There’s something inside of me that’s just rotten and there’s nothing i can do to fix it”. Which 1)-poor Robin. 2) I feel like could easily be How Will feels in s4(who will be the same age as Robin is here in the podcast)- his dad abandoned him, all his hawkins friends are gone , the st s4 movies have h*mophobic bullying in them (and he was bullied in the past). In a interview Noah said Will in s4 “doesn’t really get along with people-it’s just him and Mike.” I think it fits more so with Will than El . But they may feel similar: it’s implied in s4 audition tapes she’ll be bullied too, she moved away from her friends, and her father (Hopper) fake “passed away.” It could easily be how both Will and El feel in s4- that there is something “broken”/ “rotten” about them . In fact, in the rebel Robin novel there is even a character named Sheena. Sheena reminds me a bit of a mix between Will and el . She is very quiet, queercoded, and is often bullied. And she finds mean notes and other things stuffed in her locker- placed there by bullies. A bit like how Will found the zombie-boy note in his locker. A teacher doesn’t stop her bullying just blames her and says “ This wouldn’t happen if you made it just a smidgen easier for PEOPLE to understand you.”(sort of reminding me of that Noah quote about s4 Will not getting along with most people/Jonathan saying not to change himself cause “people” say to). But sheena can be another name for Jane (there was also a 80s show character named Sheena who was psychic) so ...maybe foreshadowing of el/jane being bullied in highschool? Along with Will?

*It’s not a eastergg/parallel...just speculation. Unlike the rebel robin book... in the podcast (in multiple episodes) almost every time she opens up to Mr Hauser about her problems she says it’s ok for him to do the same and she’ll be supportive and listen. However, Mr Hauser (so far) always rejects her offer-much to her hurt/frustration. In ep 4, she asks if he has someone his “own age” he can talk to about his problems-which he says he does. Now... since in ep 4 Mr hauser is paralleled to Jonathan maybe Jonathan will have someone his own age to talk to about his problems (maybe his new friend Argyle?) We see similar to Mr Hauser giving advice/pep talks to (gay) Robin. Jonathan is always giving advice/peptalks to our (gay-coded) Will. But so far- Jonathan has no one he really emotionally leaned on in the same way (Will does with Jonathan). I also wonder if Will in s4 starts gets tired of how he always confides in Jonathan (but Jonathan never does the same with Will in return)? Like Robin with Mr. Hauser?

#robin buckley #steve harrington #will byers #el hopper #jonathan byers #stranger things #stranger things theory

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bronyinabottle · 3 years

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MY LITTLE PONY: A NEW GENERATION (G5 Movie) THOUGHTS

It’s finally here. The beginning of Generation 5. Though before I get into the movie in some detail I’m going to reiterate one more time what G5 means for my content and a non-spoilery summary of the movie.

Again, I will say that the movie nor will the G5 series coming later have much of an effect at all on any of my blogs. The revelation in Secrets of the Dragon’s Tear that life itself is also magic means that a world that implied to have no magic for years would mean the extinction of all life (Perhaps resulting in the wasteland we saw in the Season 5 finale). There may be something I’ll probably do at some point on a certain different blog. But even then, that may likely be a one-time thing and probably come around the time the series is starting to air.

That said, just because I’m continuing with mainly G4 content doesn’t mean I disapprove of G5. In fact, my non-spoilers thoughts on the movie is I think it is a good start for this new generation. There are questions I have that I’m not sure will be answered (Though many of those questions are the same ones I had in my Trailer/Preliminary thoughts) quickly enough. But the movie is structured well enough, in fact it’s probably a better movie as a whole compared to any of the movies G4 had (The 2017 movie, Rainbow Roadtrip, and all 4 Equestria Girls movies). As the 2017 movie was fun, but it jumped around a lot, sometimes scenes transitioning too fast. And while Rainbow Roadtrip may have been this on purpose, the entirely slice-of-life story taking up a long length… made it something of a less interesting plot to follow. It feels like some of that special could of been cut to at least a two-parter length and keep the same beats they hit. And while i have a soft spot for the 3rd and 4th Equestria Girls movies, I’ll always say a full-length pony adventure feels better suited for what I want to see out of MLP then spin-off movies with high school movie cliches and weird pony/human world shenanigans.

So movie-wise I’m not a G4 purist. It’ll take some time to see how Gen 5 compares to Friendship is Magic when we get to the series. As I feel it’d take a lot for it to surpass G4 in my mind. But I’m going to try to be as fair as possible and judge on it’s own merits. The implied connection to G4 by referring to G4 being ancient Equestria is going to naturally get the staff and hasbro pressured by fans to tell us what happened in-between the generations. Because that’s the trap they put the writers in when they made it so they want to try to say it’s in the same universe. That’s the double-edged sword Hasbro chose to have, trying to appease the G4 fanbase and keep at least some of them around. But at the cost of questions both nitpicky (Such as character design being inconsistent) or actual honest questions that need to be known (Why did magic disappear, and what happened to the Alicorns) for some of us to truly see this as the same Equestria.

After the break, I’ll have more spoilery thoughts

Even for a brief moment, it was nice seeing the Mane 6 and 2D animation. The former because of course those are the ponies many of us that saw all of G4 loved. And the latter, because while the animation wasn’t bad in this movie. I’m one of those who’d prefer to have 2D animation in an animated film. As in most cases aside from Pixar, it’s just a strong preference of mine. If this had the animation of the 2017 MLP movie but otherwise everything else was generally the same here, I feel that would of have been great.

I wish they didn’t have to have Sunny’s dad die off-screen, as he seems like he could of been a compelling character. And not to mention if perhaps he has any connection the “ancient” days in any fashion. But *sigh* I get it, it’s an old trope where part of the character’s offscreen growth is not having their parent(/s) around.

On a side note there’s quite a few times during the beginning of the movie that somewhat foreshadow what happens to Sunny later. 3 times where she had a fake horn and wings on her. Once in the flashback, then 2 separate times when she’s doing her protest where she has her own costumed wings and horn. As well as the helmet and mechanical wings.

Also, there’s no way around it. Some of the discussions this movie are going to get quite political. (Namely one part of Sunny’s song that could be seen as having a double meaning of a jab at Trumpsts regarding “Building your wall”) From the very premise in the early times, we know that the inspiration for the story was last year’s Black Lives Matter protests. Which honestly, I do support the message they’re going for. Having an anti-racism message to tell kids from the very beginning and making a focus on it is important when in G4 it only got briefly touched upon in Bridle Gossip and the Heath’s Warming Eve play. Although it certainly rose up to some form of prominence with Season 8 and onward. Still, while you can argue if G4 executed the anti-racism message well. it does come with something of a problem that the series finale left Equestria in the least divided it’s ever been.

And personally, I feel it’s a terrible interpretation of time to say “Well, it’s a realistic take. Racism has existed for years in our world. Same should go for the ponies” and while yes, racism is still rampant in today’s world. That said, that ignores that if we went from The Last Problem to the start of G5. There’s a huge difference between our world and Equestria. There is no ancient civilization that we look at like “Yeah, those were the golden days of world peace” when normally the “Golden age” was reserved for the high classes of Ancient Greece or Rome. It was most decidedly not perfect, with slavery rampant and wars for the sake of expanding an empire. While if you look at The Last Problem’s Equestria, you not only have peace between the three main types of ponies. But you literally have non-pony citizens in Equestria. You can see a dragon handing off a flower to a pony which can imply cross-species romantic relations. With the Friendship school still going strong, and was the reason that the world was saved in The Ending of the End. While perhaps it may be too glowing to say that future is perfect for everyone even in-universe. It’s certainly a hell of a lot better outlook then comparing to how we view even the so called Golden age of ancient civilizations. The Last Problem’s Equestria implies it looks to ally with every country outside of Equestria, not conquer them.

So it should still be a valid question on just how this world collapses to the point it gets to where G5 is at the start. I at least assume that it’s not the fault at all of any of the Mane 6 nor Twilight. Or at least I hope it isn’t, as I’d rather the MLP fanbase not have to deal with a The Last Jedi Luke Skywalker situation. (Where after the joyful end of the original trilogy, things go wrong as Luke almost murders the son of one of his best friends and his sister despite trying to hard and succeeding at redeeming his father who at that point in the canon was a galaxy-wide known ruthless mass-murderer.) I assume we’re at a point where everyone of the Mane 6 sans maybe Twilight are presumed dead. And even in Twilight’s case, there’s a chance that G5 decides to say that G4 overestimated the whole Alicorn immortality thing. Though I wouldn’t put it past Hasbro to have some event where the Mane 5 of G5 meet the Mane 6 in some special event whether that’s a a Season finale or a sequel movie/special. Where either the Mane 6 return in a limbo situation similar to the Pillars at the end of Season 7 or Time travel gets involved. They may even string us along on answering just what in the heck happened until they involve a meet-up with the Mane 6 in that way. Though I hope they don’t, I’d really like the beginning of the series (Or I guess this supposed special coming up in Spring supposedly?) starts to answer some questions. G5 should get a chance to stand on it’s own, but I hope the writers are actually well aware there will be so many questions people have and address them in the show. A cynical part of me feels like they’re likely to string us along until at least the Season 1 finale.

Onto the characters for a bit. I think Izzy Moonbow was absolutely the most stand-out character in the whole movie. She was energetic, funny, and aside from “The pegasi are bad news” she along with Zipp and Sunny were the most averse to the way the world was. She was already the most popular due to the tennis ball memes. But now it feels like she legit stands on her own and most certainly deserves to be the most popular character of G5 thus far. Behind her in a bit of a surprise to me was Zipp, who I thought would be mainly a Rainbow Dash-expy. Though she really helps out Izzy and Sunny in Zephyr Heights. Despite having Twilight be my favorite pony from the very beginning of G4 all the way to the end, I didn’t feel as strongly about Sunny for some reason. So she’s in the middle of the pack, she could grow on me later. I just don’t know if I click with her as much as I did with Twilight. As for the last two, while I don’t hate either of them. Either one could be the lowest of the 5 for one reason or another. Pipp (Although I will say she's probably my favorite character design out of the 5) feels like she doesn’t do a whole lot in the movie and it takes until she’s forced to be an outlaw because the other choice was to get imprisoned like her mother was. So she may come off as quite pretentious, though it’s arguable Rarity was the same way early in G4. But she definitely grew later. Could be the same case for Pipp. And as for Hitch, he has shining moments in the film. But what might hurt him is the fact he was such a bad friend to Sunny up until the campfire scene. “I’m the last real friend you have. You really want to lose me too?” is not a healthy friendship. Hitch may have been Sunny’s friend the longest, but it definitely feels like Izzy connected immediately. I don’t know if this show will get into shipping any of the main characters between each other mid-show, but if they do. I hope it’s between Izzy and Sunny currently, cause Hitch and Sunny just gives bad vibes even with Hitch getting better later.

None of the songs I felt were particularly too special. Though I think the closest was Sprout’s “Danger, Danger�� song that has similarities to Smells Like Teen Spirit in some parts of the song since I tend towards more rock/metal-esque music.

I touched upon it earlier, but there’s perhaps a stand-out reason for why the G5 movie outdid the 2017 MLP Movie. They have the typical “Our heroic group splits after a sad moment before coming together again for the climatic good end” in Sunny seeing that that the two crystals don’t instantly bring magic back, and when Twilight left the group after an argument that happened with Twilight trying to take a pearl. They perform the same purpose in the movie. But the crystals not working, crushing Sunny’s hope for a little while works better into the story. Where as Twilight’s part frustratingly brought the sea pony scene to an end too quickly and/or doesn’t feel right of Twilight to have done that. It felt forced in the 2017 movie, but works out in the G5 movie. Especially since a part of it is that it’s not the crystals themselves capable of bringing magic back. But it’s the journey going after the crystals that brings the ponies themselves their magic back.

Just a small note on dictator Sprout, he tries to cause a war. Though admittedly the film seems to treat him as a joke the entire time despite his seriously evil ambitions. With the only repercussions is he gets a wishy-washy answer on if he was a good sheriff from his mom. I don’t quite know how I feel about that yet, but I wonder what they’ll have in mind for Sprout given his actions. He and his mom are the only ones that feel like a true antagonist. Though they seem to be ok with things fast when the magic comes back.

But anyway on to the ending, we see that Sunny becomes an Alicorn. Which I guess with no other real Alicorns around, I guess it makes sense to alicornify her since she’s the real leader behind what united the leaders of each type of pony again. Though there is of course this weird thing where her horn and wings don’t seem like as much a part of her body compared to very obvious connected wings on Twilight when she got hers. Sunny keeps her horn and wings to the end of the movie, and has colored streaks in her hair. Though I do wonder if that;s truly permanent. If it is permanent, I suppose at least they got to have a headstart and have it established at the end of the introductory movie rather then have it shock people at the end of a shortened 3rd season. I still feel like Twilight had well earned her alicornhood considering that besides what she did in the series. She has a whole childhood and time as a teenager learning under Celestia. Which had to mean something, and I’m not sure Celestia just leaving her to live the rest of her days with her friends in ponyville was that. Sunny has no doubt been trying countless time to try to spread friendship throughout her life even after the tragedy of her father’s passing. So there’s no doubt she’s been through a lot, and may indeed be worthy of being an Alicorn at this point. Though in terms of screentime before Alicornhood it's definitely a lot less then Twilight had. And it is at least nice to see that it is possible for non-unicorns to become one. (The only case of that we sort of got was a children's book that may or may not be canon that implied Cadence was a pegasus before she ascended)

Though you have to wonder if the visual differences such as Sunny’s alicorn horn and wings, the cutie mark only on one side (Yes I know that’s how it was normally in the MLP generations before G4. But a distinct visual difference between shows is still noticeable even if the context of G4’s cutie marks on both sides of the flank was about it being easier on the puppets for Flash), and how animals can have wings or weird round shapes such as those bunnies when G4 has normal looking animals. There’s enough striking visual differences for any nitpicky G4 to say “This isn’t the same Equestria”. And if someone tries to say maybe some sort of evolution happened. That’s still trying to put a little too much real world logic on this fantasy world. And evolution tends to take millions of years to have such dramatic changes. Not 1000 years or so, there should still be normal looking animals at this point and time. And these small details are probably going to be the things most ignored but nonetheless can build a case that this isn’t the same Equestria. Even if they touch on the important questions like how magic disappeared and what happened to the Mane 6, there will be details they make different that will add to the case that this is it’s own universe if it doesn’t quite matchup with what was remembered about G4. There will be fans who will be that nitpicky to call G5 out of continuity for small details like that. That is again the trap they put themselves in when they decided to try to say it’s the same Equestria.

All-in-all though, I think that’s at least a good enough chunk about my thoughts on the movie to end off here. If there’s something I missed or something from the movie you’d like me to give a particular opinion about or elaborate on something feel free to ask me here. G5 is indeed off to a good start, just I will be along the many hoping some questions get answered sooner then later. And I’m not sure I’m confident in getting anywhere until a Season finale or a 2nd movie. And it’ll be a year before the series starts proper (Though again I guess there’s a 44 minute special coming in Spring to try to hold us over). But I could definitely see G5 finding it's own following, now there's just the inevitable clashes between some of the more vocal fans of each generation bickering at eachother. But hoping there will be enough that take the movie's lessons on divisiveness to heart and be able to enjoy both even if there may be preferences.

#mlp #my little pony #g5 #mlp g5 #netflix #my little pony the next generation #my little pony movie #generation 5

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thestalkerbunny · 3 years

Note

What are your favorite twilight zone episodes?

Oh god you get me; you aBSOLUTELY get me. So fun fact about me, I LOVE the Twilight Zone. I doubt any series of horror has enthralled me in such a captivating way as the ‘Zone’ did as a kid. The Horror in that show is just so real and authentic because of the time period. So I”m gonna do you what I think is the personal best episodes for me-pictures included!

So let’s get to Stalky’s Top Ten ZONE EPISODES

10: The Masks

A dying wealthy man is down to his last few hours of life on the eve of Mardi Gras and his spoiled selfish heirs are there to watch him die and get what is theirs-with the catch, until midnight they must wear hideous masks that compliment their awful personalities. This one always stuck with me because The sheer anticipation of what will happen in the end and the fact that all their heirs are just so very unlikable, it’s very much like the movie ‘Knives Out’ but much more tame-nobody gets murdered, but just the ending thrilled me the first time I saw it

9: The Monsters are Due on Maple Street

A Street full of neighbors experiencing a black out turn on each other in violent mob mentality of the blame game. This is a CLASSIC, This is true pure and realistic horror because it really asks the question ‘how well do you know your neighbors and do you trust them’ it also was very much a product of it’s time in the era of the Cold War were even in your own neighborhood, even your neighbors could be a ‘communist’ in disguise. The Ending was a real rug jerker for me. For those of you who haven’t seen the ending-you gotta go watch it. Just less than 15 minutes of your time. Iconic. They did a remake of it once but it didn’t HIT the way it did the first time.

8. Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?

A Bus making a stop realizes that there is one extra person among them is not accounted for and they may not be of this world. Now THIS is the originally ‘Among Us’ There is one more person on the manifesto and we gotta find out who the imposter is. This one just felt so witty and just the energy of the Moustache guy really stole the show for me as well as the diner chef. The twist was GREAT and I still catch myself thinking about it sometimes when I’m in a ‘ZONE’ mood

7. The Midnight Sun

The Earth is slowly falling into the Sun. We watch as a woman falls apart as the whole world around her burns. Now being a southern girl with a house whose ac loves to just BITE it in the DEAD of summer I FEEL this episode with all my soul. If you’re ever the littlest bit chilly, you watch ‘Midnight Sun’ and you can FEEL yourself melting along with this poor suffering woman in this apartment complex. Just watching these poor people just lose their minds to the heat is so real because just slight temperature changes just make people irrational and insane.

6. I sing the Body Electric

Children get a New Grandma! A ROBOT GRANDMA! This one is such a heart warming episode and concept, like if you don’t like scary stuff but still wanna know the Twilight Zone, you watch ‘Body Electric’ It’s very much a ‘Mary Poppins’ sort of story and it’s sweet and the way it explains what happens to the Grandmother once her job is done should be applied to all robots concepts of the afterlife. Plus the store the family goes to in order to make their custom grandma is kinda spooky. Like build a bear. But for Grandmas.

5. Number 12 looks JUST like you

In Future, You can be anyone you want to be, because the cosmetic surgery is Mandatory. One girl protests it. This one breaks my heart because for some people, this is reality, they’re pressured into changing even though they’re happy with their looks but society refuses to accept them. You know how in cartoons there’s the trope of the popular girls being surrounded by identical clones. That. It’s that. It’s often confused with another iconic episode that talks about how beauty is about perspective and what people will go thru to try and be the standard for society.

4. Night of the Living Doll

A little girl’s doll decides to teach an abusive Step Father a lesson. TALKY TINA WALKED. SHE FUCKING STRUTTED THAT RUNWAY MAMA. SO CHUCKY/TIFFANY/BRAHMNS/ANNABELLE COULD FUCKING RUN. She was the ORGINAL Doll that is up to NO GOOD. We are ROOTING for Talky Tina. She is a QUEEN. WE STAN A LEGEND. The Dad is such a douche bag I do not feel bad at ALL for what happens to him.

3. One for the Angels

A sidewalk sales man stalls for time to save another’s life from Death himself. This one is a sweet one, the salesman-Marky-is just so genuine and the ‘bumbling type that’s loved by kids’ and he’s a clever character, if you like the cheating of death story-you’ll love ‘One for the Angels’. And even if it ends a bit sad-it’s a happy kind of sad, a sad where you know that this is the good happy ending even if it’s a little bitter.

2. The Hunt.

An Old man and his Hound explore the trail to the afterlife. This one speaks to my backwoods southern heart-because there are dudes who are just that passionate and affectionate about their hounds. It also does the whole thing where the path to hell looks just as pretty as the one that lead to heaven. It feels like it’d be the kind of bluegrass song I’d hear about a guy narrowly missing ending up in Hell because he doesn’t want to be apart from his beloved dog.

HONORABLE MENTION: The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtle

A Young man dies....and comes back to life? Again another southern themed episode that speaks to me, mainly because Wake Culture is a thing where you have to sit up with the body to make sure they’re REALLY dead. Just the whole set up to the ending really just fools you. It’s the kind of story I feel like I would set up. I think I HAVE set up that kind of story with ‘The Diver Boy’ Comic

1. The Obsolete Man

Nothing I can say can compare to the perfection and the dark statement that The Obsolete Man makes. Nothing hits home that hard in that way. A horrible future where people get to decide what is obsolete and once it’s obsolete, it must go away forever.

#TSB Ask #The Twilight Zone #Long #Long Post #Twilight Zone #Episodes #Anonymous

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spade-riddles · 3 years

Text

Submission:

I’m a lesbian just a year older than Taylor and I’d never heard of that “All Over Me” movie, tbh. But you know what I had heard of? You know what was absolutely HUGE in the community when it came out in 2006?

“Loving Annabelle.”

Younger bloggers don’t like to talk about this on Tumblr because the age gap relationship is considered problematic in the post MeToo era. But I was around at the time and this was one of a handful of lesbian movies we had, and I can tell you, EVERYONE watched it. It was like Spashley in “South Of Nowhere”. Or “The L Word”. We clung to every scrap of representation we could find back then, even if it wasn’t amazing, because it was all we had. Especially if the women actually got to have sex in it, and they didn’t die or get dumped for a man in the end.

And “Loving Annabelle” was HUGE. It had a badass heroine and a sexy older woman. It had actual chemistry between the two leads. It had a killer soundtrack.

The premise of the movie is that a senior at a Catholic boarding school starts a relationship with her teacher. She is already sexually experienced and is the one who pushes for the relationship, which does end up with the teacher being fired regardless. But you can see why people would have problems with the premise today. However I feel like I should say, in the movie it is very much played as two women with an age gap falling in love, when the timing is wrong. Many lesbians in age gap relationships, or femme/femme relationships, felt really represented by the movie. It was also one of the few movies to show a woman trying to reconcile her love for other women with her Catholic faith. For a lot of reasons, this resonated with people.

Pretty much every fandom back in the day had its “Loving Annabelle” influenced AU for their lesbian ship. Whether you like it or approve of it or not, it was big at the time, and if Taylor was gay back then (as evidence suggests she was) then it would be nearly impossible for her not to have checked it out. And if we’re not projecting 2021 standards of wokeness on teenage Taylor (which I think would be pretty unreasonable to do) then yeah, I think she would have liked this movie.

She was in a relationship with a (slightly) older woman. She had her own journey with her faith. She had a thing for blondes. Hell, the lead character in the movie even wins over her love interest by playing a song for her on guitar!! I absolutely think this movie appealed to Taylor back then. It even explains something that has always seemed a little odd: the music video for “The Story Of Us”. The song is probably about Taymily, even though the hetsplanation says it’s about John Mayer or somebody. And Taylor sets the video in what looks like some kind of American Catholic school, from the uniforms?

I think this was Taylor’s way of hiding her truth in the video. She keeps calling back to “Love Story”, with the lyrics and the book and the school setting, but then she includes these uniforms, even though she didn’t go to a high school like that. And they’re so similar to the “Loving Annabelle” uniforms, I feel like it was Taylor’s way of sneaking in her truth with Emily.

In some of the cutaways she even looks like she’s having an emotional breakdown sitting on the teacher’s desk. (What would she be doing hanging out in the teacher’s office if she was a student in love with another student, like the video wants you to think? It’s weird.)

But the biggest piece of evidence this movie had an impact on Taylor is the soundtrack. There was a whole soundtrack created for the movie by the band Aurah. The main song is the one from the love scene, called “All Over Me”. And now we find out Taylor wrote a song, in the Taymily era, with those lyrics? Too much of a coincidence.

You want to know what’s even weirder? Someone made a post about this song in the Kaylor fandom, about a year ago. They were comparing the lyrics to “Delicate” and saying how “Taylor” the themes were. I was on the fence about it back then but the more I think about it the more I think they were right. It just went back earlier than they thought. I can see younger Taylor being inspired by this movie.

(PS: if people want to clutch their pearls about this movie can they please just not? If “Twilight” is allowed to be a guilty pleasure movie for the straights I don’t see why lesbians can’t have our one flawed thing. The actual way the characters treat each other in this is way healthier, despite the teacher/student set up.)

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luci-in-trenchcoats · 4 years

Text

Soldier Boy (Part 2)

Summary: The reader spends the day with Dean getting to know him some more when she catches him in a lie and discovers one of his most dark secrets...

Masterlist

Pairing: Superhero!Dean x reader

Word Count: 2,600ish

Warnings: language, mentions of death, angst

A/N: Enjoy!

____

“So how old are you, Solider Boy?” you asked the next day as you walked around the park.

“Thirty,” he said with a smirk.

“Solider Boy’s been around since the second world war. So. How old are you really?” you asked.

“I was eighteen when I was injected. I’ve aged very slowly. I do age, but it’s slow. They...I shouldn’t talk about this stuff,” he said, kicking at the ground with his boot. “Ah, fuck it, it’s in the news anyways.”

“The compound V?” you asked and he nodded.

“First successful try right here. I was still going through puberty so it took,” he said. “I guess. The science is very complicated they said. They just said you want to serve your country and I signed up.”

“What year were you born?”

“January 24th, 1926,” he said. You paused and he chuckled. “I know some women aren’t into older men.”

“I must seem like a child to you,” you said, walking again and crossing your arms.

“You’re twenty nine. I’m thirty. What’s such a big deal about that?” he smiled.

“You’re sweet,” you said. You dropped your hands by your sides, Dean taking one of them in his. “Old man ain’t wasting his time.”

“Keep it up, kiddo,” he laughed. You laced your fingers together with his hand and smiled as you looked at him. A flannel and t shirt. Jeans and boots. A baseball cap on his head. He looked so ordinary and yet he was the first superhero in existence. “I’m sure you’re wondering if I ever had a family.”

“A bit. It’s okay. You don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to,” you said.

“No, I want to. I don’t talk to anyone anymore. Aside from the people at Vought to try and get in The Seven but that’s like beating a dead horse at this point,” he said.

“What do you mean?”

“Apparently I’m too similar in the market sector as Homelander. Go ‘merica and color scheme and that shit. I didn’t ask to be the leader or anything. I just...want to get off the kiddie squad, go do real shit out there, help people, not the stupid stuff I do now.”

“Maybe that’s why you don’t fit on The Seven. You want to help people, you don’t care about the photo op,” you said.

“I’m gonna keep trying,” he said. “But to answer your other question you didn’t ask, no, I never had a family. I had parents and a brother but they’ve all passed away. All my friends are gone. It never seemed right to love a girl and have a family and watch them all grow old and...honestly I didn’t want to watch my children grow older than me and die. I can’t imagine anything worse than outliving them.”

“You’re a good man, Dean.”

“I had the occasional acquaintance, don’t get me wrong. But it was always casual, no titles, nothing formal.”

“Is this casual?” you asked. He shook his head and you bumped his shoulder. “What’s different this time?”

“A chemical made me this way. Maybe a chemical can unmake me this way. We are so advanced now compared to back then. Maybe I can age normally with some other combination. Maybe I’m stuck like this forever. I just know that the numb pit inside of me woke the fuck up when I met you and it has been quiet for a very, very long time.”

“My mom’s quiet a bit older than my dad. Age gaps don’t scare me,” you said. He chuckled and you held onto his arm. “You don’t sparkle like the twilight guy though right?”

“Oh my God, no,” he laughed. “No sparkles here. I do make sparks when bullets bounce off of me though.”

“Well now you’re just bragging,” you said. You rested your head on his arm, thinking back to a movie you used to watch as a kid, Solider Boy the lead in the thing. “Dean.”

“Hm?”

“Why did you just lie about not having a family?” you asked, pulling away from him. You knew you could have let it go, should have let it go for the sake of the mission but damn you were pissed off at him for lying to you. You crossed your arms and he frowned, going over to a nearby bench. You sat down next to him, Solider Boy rubbing his hands together. “You were in this movie my brother loved so I watched it all the time. He was a huge fan and he would never shut up about you. I never paid much attention but I remember. You had a wife and kids once.”

“You’re gonna leave after I tell you this part,” he said, a sad smile on his face.

“I’m gonna leave if you don’t tell me the truth right now. You will never see my face again. You promised you would not lie to me. Out with it Dean.”

“I wasn’t always a good person. It’s very...difficult to stay good when there’s so much bad around you. When there’s no consequences.”

“What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done?”

“My son and daughter died hating me, thinking I was a monster. They died because of me. That was the breaking point for me. I walked away after that, I started over. I’d turned into this thing I didn’t recognize. I became Soldier Boy. Dean Winchester...he died back in that war. Not until the nineties did I realize what had happened to me. So I left. Went away from the world. Brought Dean back to life and Soldier Boy came back but different. Good this time. Greed, corruption. It’s not happening this time. Then you said...you made that comment about me being naive, that I’d turn eventually into an asshole supe like the rest of them. I’m terrified of that happening to me again. Maybe that’s why I like you, cause you’ll remind me not to be a monster again.”

“Why do you call yourself a monster?” you asked quietly.

“The first time I killed someone, I was mortified. The last time I did it, I laughed. It made me happy. I hurt him before I did it even. I stopped caring about people. My wife wanted a divorce. I thought she was hot, she fit my image. I told her I didn’t want one so she took some pills and told me she’d rather die than live with the devil. My kids were young adults, late twenties. I snapped at them when they blamed me for their mother’s death. My son hit me so I pushed him and he hit his head. My daughter ran out, afraid of me and was hit by a car. They died because I didn’t want to lose my image. I wasn’t even that upset at first. I thought a widow superhero, that’ll boost my numbers.”

“If that didn’t…” you said, Dean running his hands over his thighs. “What made you change?”

“I found a drawing my daughter had made me when she was small,” he said. He took out his wallet and unfolded a laminated sheet of paper holding it out to you. It was done in crayon, a few stick figures with one of them wearing a superhero outfit and the word “daddy” written above it. “She loved me once. I ripped it away from her. I found that cleaning out the house and I realized what I’d done. I’m worse than any bad guy there ever was for doing that to them. I stopped caring. When you stop caring is when you lose those bits of your soul. They break off until there’s nothing left. I am a monster, Y/N. Nothing I ever do can make up for it and save whatever shattered pieces are in there. But I owe it to my kids to be good and stay good.”

You handed the sheet back and he tucked it away, his wallet going in his pocket as he stared out at the trees across the path.

“I understand if you would no longer like to see or speak to me again. Or if you want to slap me in the face. That’s also acceptable,” he said.

“What year was all of this?” you asked.

“They died in ‘92. Then I ran away to Kansas, worked as a farmhand for a while,” he said. He rubbed his palm and stared down at his lap. “Just...be careful at night and try to stop walking down alleys for me, okay?”

“Why are you saying that?”

“I’m never going to see you again after you get up from this bench.”

You stood up and he let out a sigh. You took a step to your left and sat down closer to him, turning your head as Dean looked so horribly confused at you. You couldn’t walk away. It wasn’t an option. But while you knew you couldn’t walk because of the mission Butcher had you on, you didn’t want to. There was so much self-hate inside of Dean he hid well and part of you ached that he considered himself sub-human.

“Y/N, what are you doing?”

“Dean. What happened to your family was horrible but they were accidents. Your daughter, your son. Your wife, did she even let it sink in for you before she did that? If I was married to someone and they suddenly asked for a divorce my gut reaction would probably be no too. I’m not saying you didn’t play a part but those were her actions that trickled down and affected the rest of you. Letting yourself become corrupted means you’re human. We all make fucking mistakes. Yours are a little big, I admit that. But you try to make up for it. All you can do after the fact is try and you’re doing that. There’s a soul in there Dean. If there wasn’t this wouldn’t be eating you alive. Cut yourself a break. I gotta process everything you said but I’m not walking away. Promise you will never lie to me again and I can promise you that I won’t judge you, no matter what you’ve done.”

“I’ve been around 95 years and I’ve never met anyone like you,” he said. “That’s a good thing. I will never lie to you again. I swear. I’m sorry. I was...frightened of telling you who I was deep down. I like you. I’ve never felt like this before. It’s the first bit of happiness I’ve felt in a long time and I don’t want it to go away just yet.”

“It’s okay that you were scared. Maybe on our third date we can have a less intense conversation. We can talk about how you’re older than sliced bread,” you teased.

“You youngin’s don’t know how good you got it,” he chuckled. You took his hand into your lap and he smiled. “Not a monster to you?”

“No. Just be a good guy and I’ll be happy,” you said. You leaned over and kissed his cheek, Dean looking you up and down.

“I wish I knew you when I was a dumb kid that let them shove that stuff in me. I never would have said yes if I had a girl back home.”

“Well, from now on, maybe just ask if you think I’d be proud of what you were doing. If the anwer’s no, maybe don’t do it,” you said.

“I’m gonna keep that one,” he said. “Also did you subtly drop that I’m getting another date despite all of that?”

“You told me the truth, even though it was hard. That’s why I like you too,” you said. “Plus you’re really old so you must have like, sex down to perfection by this point.”

“Gonna blow your fucking mind,” he teased. “Eventually. I know things are different nowadays but…you’re special. You’re not a hookup.”

“When you’re ready, you let me know and we’ll go from there, okay?” He nodded and you gave him a hug, Dean hesitant at first but he quickly relaxed into it. “You alright?”

“Been a long time since I had a hug is all.”

“You need one, just come to me,” you said. You sat back and he smiled. “So. Let’s go do something fun. You look like you could use it.”

“Night,” murmured Dean as he kissed you at your doorstep that evening.

“Night,” you said, not moving away from him just yet. His ears perked up and he forced himself away. “Trouble?”

“Yeah. Nothing major. I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said.

“Bye Dean,” you said, watching him take off running far faster than any human man could. You smiled as you locked up, a loud thud coming from your kitchen. You unlocked the door and looked around. “Hello?”

“For such a nice house you have an incredibly small kitchen,” said Butcher as he walked out with the bottle of your nicest bourbon.

“Oh come on, that was a housewarming present,” you said.

“I swipe you some more,” he said, taking a long swig. “How’s it going?”

“Good. We got close today but Butcher you seriously can not come back here again. Dean was this close to coming inside tonight.”

“Dean. I thought he was Solider Boy.”

“You know what I mean.”

“You want to wind up like his last broad did? You give him the puppy dog eyes and then we make a move,” he said.

“I’m starting to think we might get further with sugar over spice. Billy he wants to make up for his past. If he gets into The Seven he could be a serious asset.”

“Are you going soft on me?” he asked, an edge in his voice.

“Let me work him the way I know best. Trust me,” you said.

“Don’t forget what this is for. You call when you’re ready,” he said. “Don’t take too long.”

He left out the back and you sighed, running your hands over your face. Sure, Dean had done some bad things in the past but who hadn’t? He wasn’t playing you, he had no reason to. The part of you that wanted revenge was still there but he didn’t cause your brother to die, not really. He was simply a prime target at the moment.

You swallowed and went to the kitchen, taking the bottle of alcohol to the family room. You sat on the couch and took a swig, letting it burn your throat.

You didn’t want him to get hurt. You liked him. A lot. Maybe you could convince him to go away, be someplace safer. Your head turned when you got a text, the alert saying it was from Dean and him asking you if you wanted to get out of the city and go hiking tomorrow.

Maybe that’d be a good time to tell him the truth. He was bound to find out eventually and if he got mad, at least you’d be the only one in danger. Billy’s voice was at the back of your head but you ignored it. He’d been angry for too long, couldn’t see the good in people anymore. Dean wasn’t what you thought he was at first. He was good deep down.

You’d tell Solider Boy the truth tomorrow and hoped you lived to see the next day.

______

A/N: Read the Final Part here!

#spn #supernatural #dean x reader #au!dean x reader #spn fanfiction #dean winchester x reader #superhero!dean x reader #dean winchester x you #supernatural fanfiction

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wunderlass · 4 years

Text

Why it isn’t okay for a white man to play characters of color.

So. The issue that will not die.

(Nor should it).

As has previously been discussed, there’s been some what-about-ery regarding the Tyler situation compared to, say, Jeanine or Amber. Specifically, about why it isn’t okay for a white man to take roles intended for POC, but why POC playing races or nationalities that do not completely align with their own is not the same thing.

First, we need to look at the numbers. We’re going to stick with US TV for now, using the statistics from this GLAAD report about regular characters on broadcast TV in the 2019-20 season.

Out of the 879 roles available on shows airing that season, 264 - or 30% - were white men. 43 (4.9%) were Latina women, 85 (9.7%) were Black women, and there weren’t even enough Native American roles to make up a category on their own They’re part of the 66 or 7.5% (total! for all genders!) roles for other races. These numbers in no way reflect the demographics of the US.

What does that mean?

It means that Jeanine is up against every single other Latina actress for Latina roles, but she’s also up against the likes of Floriana Lima, who has repeatedly taken Latina roles despite being Italian-American.

It would have been wonderful for Liz Ortecho to have been played by a Mexican-American actress. I am sure Jeanine is dying to play a Cuban-American character. However, how often do you think she’s going to get that opportunity? If she sat around waiting to only play Cuban-American characters, she would never work.

Instead, she has to widen the pool to other Latina characters, or even go for the “ethnically ambiguous” roles, as she has done in the past. But she is unlikely to get ever get cast in a leading role as an explicitly white woman, because she doesn’t pass as unambiguously white.

Michael Trevino is in a very similar situation. He’s not in that position on RNM, because he’s a Mexican-American man playing a Mexican-American character. Excellent! But once again, how often do those opportunities come along? He’s played white characters before, but especially as he ages and his face shape alters to make his features more strongly “ethnic”, he’s going to face less chances to do so.

Amber does not pass as white. She is not Latina but she’s playing a Latina. Why? Because if she waited for roles for Native American actresses, she would never work. Despite her father being a casting director specialising in NA roles. The work is not out there for her if she limits herself in that way. The same goes for Kiowa Gordon.

Heather is in the same category as them, but she faces another twist to these limitations. She is Latina but as Gina Torres, another Afro-Latina actress, has commented in the past, Latina women are expected to look a particular way; you are categorised as Latina or Black, not both. Heather has stated before that she would like to play a Latina character but the number of Afro-Latina characters is slim. The one time she did play an Afro-Latina character, the nationality of her Latin roots wasn’t even specified.

In the meantime, she will be able to play Black characters of multiple nationalities (including Egyptian, which she has done) even without any heritage tying her to that. She faces these issues because Hollywood does not care enough to differentiate between people of the same race but differing ethnicities. Black people are interchangeable, Latinx people are interchangeable, Indigenous American people are interchangeable.

Which brings us to Tyler. Tyler is a white man. Tyler is, theoretically, able to play any of the 30% of TV roles which fit his race/ethnicity and gender. If he is a capable actor, he will have no trouble finding work within those limitations, unlike any of the people named above if they try to only play characters who match their own heritages.

And yet, what he did, was take a role explicitly earmarked for a MOC - one of the few such roles available. He got his big break, but in doing so ensured an actor of colour did not get theirs. And then he did it again (and again).

Tyler’s career would not have suffered if he had not claimed a role not intended for him. That is white privilege. Others have undoubtedly suffered when he, and others like him, have claimed heritages they know do not belong to them in order to advance themselves.

Tyler has spoken about being known as one of the “few” working Native American actors - but herein lies the rub. If NA actors cannot get work, they stop seeking it. They find other career paths instead. We will never know the talent that has been pushed out of the industry because of the scarcity of suitable roles.

It is a structural issue, definitely, but nor is Tyler an innocent in this matter. It also hasn’t just come into popular consciousness in the past couple of years, because it was being discussed around the time of the Twilight movies a decade ago. Actors like Kiowa are still having their careers stymied by it.

The ideal future is for a world where there are enough roles for everybody, of every ethnicity, to be able to play their own heritage and never be out of work. But we’re so far from that, and that means we have to hold white people to a higher standard than POC, or any discussion of anti-racism in fandom is nothing more than hot air.

#roswell new mexico

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