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elliespuns · 2 months

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Can we talk about how talented the the last of us concept artists are? Not only does it paint a picture for us but it translates to their emotions & personality’s through there facial expressions.

The first bottom picture reads ‘Dina starts to doubt if the bloodshed & distress are worth the outcome as she dresses Ellie’s wounds’.

You can see the embarrassment & pain on Ellie’s face while being taken care of, while Dina concentrating on how to sew up her wounds is doubting if all this revenge is good for Ellie.

‘Ellie feels a deep love for her son, but her trauma threatens the safety of the tiny family. Below the concepts of Ellie carrying the baby while doing routine chores around the farm’

Those one shows the love Ellie truly has for JJ & Dina, but her PTSD & trauma is so bad that she physically nor is mentally stable enough as much as she tries (also LOOK AT JJS LITTLE SHOES!!! So cute!!)

‘The prologue to the game gives us our first & only look at Joel’s daughter, Sarah. Although Sarah is much more innocent, it was important to establish her as a down-to-earth girl who shares many qualities with Ellie. Sarah’s look needed to feel authentic & clearly show her relationship with Joel, while at the same time establishing her as a distinct character with her own sense of style. Her facial features are based on the actress who played & voiced her, Hanna Hayes’

I love that they really made Sarah her own concept art, yes she is important to show the relationship with Joel but then again putting her in a way that she IS her OWN character & not just a side character. & it really shows & connects to how Joel really finds & connects to Ellie seeing the light of Sarah he needed after all those years, something to fight for again, something to look forward to no matter how much Ellie hurt him, because deep down he saw her as a daughter when he denied his own feelings in chapter 1. Ellie knew she wasn’t his daughter, & made it clear in the second game. Showing how much her relationship changed with Joel going from. “I see you as my dad” to “ I am Not your daughter.”

Artists: Hyoung Taek Nam, John Sweeney (pic 1 & 2) , Alex Neonekis, John Sweeney (pic 3), & I can’t find the artist for Sarah’s concept art

Anyway, I’m gonna not go anonymous anymore! But I’ll add my emoji just in case - 🕸️

This is such a beautiful ask. What always got me about the concept art was how fitting it was to the final results of the game. When you think about it, the concept art was created long before the game even started developing. There were just some ideas and concepts (hence the art), but no scrip (at least not the whole thing, maybe like scraps), and yet when we look back at most of these arts, we can see how close they are to the characters we learned to love. This is what I call a precise job. You can see the game was done with love in the heart.

The scene where Dina is taking care of Ellie is so well done. Be it on the concept art or on the screen, There's so much pain in Ellie in that scene; you wouldn't even have to see that she's all shaken, covered in blood, and crying. All you can do is close your eyes and listen to her voice when she speaks to Dina. Chills.

What I always found very interesting about Sarah, though, was why they chose to make her blond. This makes me even more curious about Joel's ex-wife because, this way, Sarah looks more like Tommy's daughter than Joel's (not suggesting that's true, lol). Looking at the concept art, there are versions of Sarah with darker hair. I wonder why they decided to make her blond all of a sudden. As if it had a reason and they were planning to show us a little of Joel's (blond) ex-wife in Part 3? Hm, who knows?

#the last of us #tlou #ellie williams #ellie tlou #dina nolastname #dina tlou #sarah miller #sarah tlou #joel miller #tommy miller #the last of us part 2 #tlou concept art #elliespuns answers

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meowzilla93 · 3 months

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So I’ve seen so much ragging on Baxter calling himself a rebel or a bad boy, and it hurts me! ( I know most of it is in jest, its okay!) But I wanted to explain how he really IS what he claims to be, even though may just seem like a privileged individual

(I really had to reduce this from an essay to fit tumblrs character limit, I am talking like a 2k word essay, so its condensed but covers my points lol also please keep in mind I have taken canon information and given my interpretation of the information to this)

Lets look at the definition of a Bad Bay archetype – a cultural archetype often defined as a male who behaves badly, especially within societal norms. Qualities associated with this archetype is confidence, independence and/or assertiveness (though there are the negative connotations such as manipulation, dishonesty or a lack of consideration for others, but we are not focusing on those as these do not reflect Baxter)

And what is a rebel? At its core, it is a person who resist any authority, control, or tradition. Rebels like to change up the status quo, refusing to conform to societal pressures and controlling figures.

So lets look at Baxter Alexander Ward’s life:

Brought up in wealth

Was sheltered and raised with certain values

Parents were controlling and dictated a lot of his life

Was never treated like a child, but as an adult his whole life

More than likely taught to think himself above everyone (which he confirms)

Raised with very bigoted, misogynistic, homophobic and just cruel morals and notions

If we look at those specific points, where does the Bad Boy archetype fit first?

By the time he reaches 19 years of age, he wants to be able to make connections outside of the circle of money he was raised in

Though he keeps up appearances for his parents, he tends to thumb his parents way of life, not wanting to become the same type of people they are

Rather than endorse their way of thinking, he becomes more open and accepting

(this boy might have mighty expectations for himself, but for others, he will never expect more than they can provide)

He is the very thing his parents do no approve off; Pansexual, accepting of others, opposite to what they want

By the time he is 19 years old, he is already snubbing his parents and their values, wanting to move outside of their circle of life and live his own life. There is the understanding that he was already sleeping around in high school, and considering his partners would be of all genders, the rumors circulating him would affect the image of the family, which his parents would not approve off. His visual looks, moving heavily into the black/ white monochrome and more alternative fit outside the expectations of what his family would expect of him. He dresses as he pleases, not as someone else would want him to.

These may seem like little actions, little acts of rebelling against his family, but these are MASSIVE in the context of his life. To flip the entire narrative that he learnt from his parents, and continues to do so in every way that he is able to. Sure, he gets a fake ID to just get a car to sight see in and get booze for himself to drink when out for dinner or even at home. But these acts are against what his parents expect or event want of him, what their social circle would expect of him, and as such, he fits the Bad Boy narrative within THAT social circle. And that is what matters in this context.

So, of course, this feeds into the rebel label. Going against everything he was taught, becoming the opposite person his parents expected of him. Resisting the control that his parents try and enforce on him and finding ways to escape the grip of expectation. I repeat myself a lot here but its that constant push back on what his parents expected of him, the morals, the views, the way he should handle himself and what they wanted of him. Baxter's rebellion is deep,y rooted in a sincere desire for authenticity, change and self-discovery, making him a truly compelling character.

Baxter at 19 years old was the Bad Boy Rebel of his families social circle. From the outside he just seems like a typical rich kid that was a bit strange, but from the inside, that’s where the rebelling sat.

Baxter at 24 is the man that continued in that path of rebellion. He further cut himself away from what his parents wanted, stood on his own two feet and tried to become the type of person he could be proud of. He separated himself from their morals, their visions, their actions. His mother who held charities to make connections and get a tax kick back? He does it to actually help people and does it almost pro-bono, no expectation to gain anything further from it. His father who holds a franchise and makes money from others manual labor? He takes the labor from others and takes it on himself to ensure that the day that they have (be it wedding or birthday or another event entirely) goes swimmingly and they have less stress than where they started.

Baxter continues to be a Rebel and Bad Boy as he grows and matures, as he continues to shun the way he grew up and becomes a better person for it.

There are probably other key points I have missed, but these are the ones that stood out to me, cementing the idea that Baxter Alexander Ward is a through and through

Rebellious Bad Boy

Thank you for coming to my (slightly unhinged) TED (tumblr) Talk.

#baxter ward #our life beginnings and always #olba #our life #olba baxter #meow drabbles!

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andrewwtca · 1 month

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when are we reborn? a messy Final Fantasy VII Rebirth essay

FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH SPOILERS AHEAD

I just finished Rebirth yesterday. It took me 72 hours. There were some things that I didn’t love—but I loved the majority of it, and god were the things I loved amazing. This is genuinely one of the greatest video games I’ve ever played and one of the most immersive stories I’ve ever witnessed. This is what video games can be. I’ve seen some people call it a must-play and I have to agree. It’s just such an experience.

And, in my typical fashion, my brain already started to literary analyze. The game presents so much in nearly every aspect a theorizer or analyzer would want, leading me to wonder what its forefront means. So behold a very messy impromptu essay about the meaning of Rebirth.

what’s in a name?

Let’s start with Remake. What does its title serve to do? It informs about what the story will give us from three angles: first, a meta angle. It’s letting us know that this is, obviously, a remake of FF7. Secondly, it provides a narrative angle. It’s letting us know that everything we hold true about the world of FF7 will be remade. We learn this through the inclusion of the Whispers, who provide a literal narrative reason for why the story is different this time around. Destiny and fate are now active forces in the narrative. And finally, it provides insight into the characters. It tells us that what we are going to see is the same characters but in a completely new light. This is especially true with Cloud, who we see in the original (hence dubbed ‘OG’ and ‘the OG’) act stoic and standoffish until hours and hours in the game. In Remake, we see the ‘true’ Cloud shine through very early on, through his kindness and headaches.

And Remake is also just a badass name for the series. The Remake trilogy. That’s just good.

What is the meaning of Rebirth then? From a meta angle, we can see that it’s giving birth to a completely new world, one we never got to experience in the OG. With its tens of quests and hours upon hours of side content, we are witnesses to a rebirth of what FF7 is and can be. From a narrative angle, rebirth refers to the establishment of new timelines. The world is reborn time and time again, branches of the original timeline that are usually doomed to end in disaster. (Hence, Sephiroth Reborn.) And finally, when considering the characters? That’s where the word rebirth truly shines.

role call

FF7 is praised for having such a strong cast of characters. While some people may fairly argue how this holds up over the compilation, the OG has a diverse, fun, and just alive cast of characters. From a vengeful man learning how to let go of his anger to fight for justice and his daughter to a teenage ninja wanting to liberate her country, we get such a colorful range of stories that it’s no wonder FF7 attracts such a wide range of fans.

And it’s not just as individuals: as a team, the characters are a delight. They are the essence of found family with a connection to one another that highlights the true theme of the game: that the true way to combat capitalism, threats to the planet, and evil as a whole is through love. It’s hard for me to even pinpoint a single relationship that highlights this the most because they’re all so important to the narrative of each other’s character growth.

We have Cloud who inspires the cast and the cast helps learn him to accept and love himself. We have Aerith who teaches the cast about the world and the cast gives her friendship that she never felt in her life. We have Tifa who teaches the cast about willpower and the cast teaches her self-confidence. We have Barret who teaches the cast about the will to never give up and the cast gives him the steps to giving up his pursuit of revenge and fighting for the ones he loves. We have Nanaki who teaches the cast about their authentic selves and the cast lets him be his. We have Yuffie who teaches the cast about the importance of community and the cast gives her a community that unconditionally cares for her. We have Cid who teaches the cast about finding new dreams and the cast gives him a way to achieve those dreams. We have Vincent who teaches the cast about responsibility and the cast teaches him about self-forgiveness. We have Cait Sith. This is the most bare-bone summary of what they bring each other emotionally, not even touching on individual relationships or their place in combat.

But when talking about this story from a meta perspective, what actually ties these characters together? In the OG, it’s a bit unclear. They all have some reason for fighting Sephiroth and they all have some reason for wanting to save the planet. They have some introduction that gets them on this wild train ride, but what was the reason for putting this cast together? What lets them build this relationship?

Remake and, in particular, Rebirth makes it simple: loss.

giving and taking

With all that Rebirth gives us, we have lost so much. In going from Midgar to the rest of the world, we’ve lost the familiar steel sky, we lose the familiar streets, and we’re thrust into the unknown journey. All our characters lose their normality: Cloud is no longer a slum merc, Barret is no longer with Marlene, Tifa is no longer a bartender, Aerith is no longer a flower seller, and Nanaki is no longer an experiment. (Note for that last one: loss is not always a negative experience.)

In this unknown journey, we are constantly exposed to these two extremes of gaining and losing. Following the Bandits' journey, they lose their bandit identity, gaining one of a corporate entity before forgoing that one and returning to their roots, but in a new light. Following Kyrie’s journey, she constantly tries to gain a new life as a merc but due to her laziness, loses it before reuniting with her grandmother, the Angel of the Slums, and re-establishing her life in a new light. It might seem like they are gaining, losing, and then returning to their original state, but that original state is gone. Just like how Sector 7 may one day exist again, the plate is gone, those people are gone, and things cannot go back to how they were.

Zack’s entire episode is about this loss of normality. His normal before Nibelheim was Shinra. His normal after Nibelheim was the labs. His normal after the labs was that struggle to survive and take care of Cloud. And finally, when he makes it to Midgar? The world is ending. He’s gained a second chance and he’s about to lose everything for good this time, when he’s already lost so much of his identity. With Aerith unconscious, he has lost any sense of direction and doesn’t know where to go or what to do. He just wanted to start where he left off, but where he left off no longer exists. He has no choice but to forge forward.

All the different timelines show him gaining something: in the timeline where he goes after Cloud’s cure, he gains apathy toward the end of the world. In the timeline where he goes after Biggs, he gains a will to keep going, to reclaim his life. In the timeline where he does nothing, he gains access to an entirely new world; that ending doesn’t quite hit the mark, but it follows the pattern. With all that Zack has lost, at the very end, he gains something, for better and for worse. He has forged forward, through loss gaining something new.

The very game starts with that showcase of loss: Cloud’s retelling of the Nibelheim Incident. Despite his version not being accurate, this tragedy is the epicenter of Cloud’s character and goes on a tidal wave of losing and gaining. It starts with something lost: Nibelheim burning. And then, something gained: Cloud’s status as an experience. Lost: Cloud no longer knows who he is in those experiments. Gained: Zack saves him, and his status is now free. Lost: Zack dies. Gained: Claiming Zack’s memories, Cloud Strife, First Class Soldier is created.

Or, in other words: Cloud is reborn. Again and again, Cloud is reborn. Once as an experiment, again as a free, comatose man, and once again as a SOLDIER (see: a mentally ill, conscious man). Cloud ‘dies’ and is ‘reborn,’ and he is constantly redefining himself, whether by choice (such as in Advent Children) or against his will (such as pretty much every other moment in his life.)

This theme of loss leading to rebirth is shown masterfully in the beautiful Trial of the Ancients sequence. We have Nanaki who loses his freedom, even loses his name, becoming Red XIII. We have Tifa who loses her home, loses her father, and loses everything she’s ever known. We have Yuffie who loses Sonon, leading to an extreme mental breakdown. We have Barret who loses his wife, loses his best friend, and loses his home indirectly due to his actions. And we have Aerith, who loses her mother and loses the only life she’s known.

Not shown in the trials, we know what the others have lost: Cid (whose backstory in OG was his losing the ability to make his dream of going to space come true) who loses so much freedom due to Shinra and loses Elmyra. Vincent who loses Lucrecia and loses his place in life. Cait Sith (see: Reeve) who loses the lives of thousands.

These characters do not know the extent of each other’s losses—they are not even aware of each other’s losses. But they are connected through it. They have all lost so much; and yet, they are reborn.

Nanaki becomes Red XIII who becomes a new, loved Nanaki. Tifa becomes a bartender who becomes a warrior for the planet. Yuffie becomes a part of a new team who becomes her true glowing self. Barret becomes a father who becomes the leader of an AVALANCHE branch. Aerith becomes a new daughter who becomes a florist. Cid becomes a pilot who becomes the team’s pilot. Vincent becomes a non-literal vampire who becomes a leading force against Sephiroth. Cait Sith literally died and was literally reborn.

They are reborn from their memories and through their love. Their loss carries them forward, oftentimes hindering them from connecting with others. And yet, it is that hindrance that connects them. It is the struggle that connects them. What they lose in immediate friendship, they gain in lifelong comradery. For example, Cloud and Barret couldn’t see on the same planet, let alone eye-to-eye when they first met, and they, throughout Remake, became each other’s ride or dies.

Even we, the players, are reborn in the story. We experience the loss of Aerith once again in a new light, in a new tragic twist, and we have gained so much by the reimagining of her character and here we are again, losing.

With every step we take, we are leaving the one behind us. They are footprints that we have made, footprints we cannot erase, but we have left them behind us. And we continue to forge forward a new path. We cannot be born again, for we are already alive. Yet we can reinvent ourselves with the knowledge we have.

who we are

So, who gets to be reborn? All of us.

Every gain is a loss and every loss is a gain. There’s loss, gain, and grief everywhere. Grief is love lingering, and there is love everywhere. Grief is loss and grief is gain. These characters have lost so much, have had so much grief piled onto them that it should surely destroy them, and yet they gain: they become new versions of themselves, for better and for worse.

That is the meaning of Rebirth and that is the message of Rebirth: love, live, lose, and then do it all again. That is what ties us together in life. Love and loss are two sides of the same coin like life and death. There cannot be one without the other. And if you let loss overtake you, you stop living; much like Sephiroth. He let the loss of his normality define him. He lost everything and was reborn one last time as a monster.

We lose every single day. We lose keys and we lose arguments and we lose our minds. And we gain every single day. We gain friends and we gain insight and we gain new ways forward. And so, we are reborn every single day. Every step we take, every word we say, we are redefining who we are, who we want to be, and who we can be. Just like how all of Cloud’s new hobbies (dancing, crossdressing, photography, cards, chocobo racing) in Rebirth give him a new path forward, so too do all our choices. Our fates are up to us, just as it is up to them. We are the ultimate harbingers of our destiny.

So when are we reborn? Every single second we are alive. So make the most of life, and above all, love and lose.

I hope this ‘essay’ was readable. I hope you gained something and hopefully didn’t lose your mind. Thank you for reading!

#ff7 #ff7 rebirth #rebirth spoilers #media analysis #literary analysis is my special interest #andrew's essays #meta essay #ff7 meta #if there's any big issues lmk I wrote this on 5 hours of sleep while fasting #they just make me feel things #grief and love and all that...

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floareadeaur · 1 month

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I'm the anon who asked for hcs with ferid in intimate moments. I also think that such labels as 'vanilla' or bdsm don't fit him, I don't think that he would care about this stuff, and neither do I. But I couldn't find any better words to describe what I wanted to say. I also didn't want to write a long essay about it lol. I am curious about vampires' nature and how their emotions work.

First of all, I thought that you are a reliable person that can actually see Ferid for who he is. I also knew from the beginning, when I started reading the manga, that Ferid, and many other characters, aren't how the fandom perceives them as. It is sad how so many characters in such amazing mangas and animes get so misunderstood by the whole fandom. I knew that Ferid had many 'secrets' and that everything he shows to the world is simply a facade. I knew that he had hidden motives and he may be an antihero. I understood that he was actually a lonely and generous soul, besides all his masks that he puts on to hide this vulnerability of his. I don't want to write an essay about him, so I'll just say that I agree with everything that you write about him.

Second of all, because I realized that there's finally another person that can really understand these characters in OnS, I decided that it is best to ask for your opinion on this matter, since it confused me. I thought for a long time that all vampires are asexual, but I saw how many vampires in ons break the stereotypes of vampires in their universe. So I've been wondering for a while if Ferid can also feel lust. I like your writings and your perspective about him. I can also feel that you genuinely love Ferid, even if he's fictional, because of how much of your soul you put in these analyses and stories. I guess that the Seraph of the End fandom perceives Ferid like how so many other people in the ons universe view him as. That's why so many characters in OnS are driven to do something for their love for someone, but Ferid may be the only character who REALLY was unloved, alone and misunderstood his entire life. I sometimes wish that Kagami would add a love interest for Ferid that could understand and love him, even if the manga is not about romantic love, rather about familial love.

But it's worse when you're a ferid kinnie and the fandom also thinks that you kin him for being 'creepy' and a clown with daddy issues. LIKE WTF IS WRONG WITH THIS FANDOM?? I am part of many fandoms but this fandom is the worst one that I have ever been in. If I were Kagami and I saw how this fandom is, I would honestly kms. So much effort is put into these writings of Kagami, only to be misunderstood and fetishized by the whole fandom.

Hello!

Honestly, I did not expect to receive such a message. Usually, the feedback here is non-existent. I can say that it is one of the most beautiful surprises of my existence on tumblr. Thank you!

I prefer this type of communication, where people who read this blog talk openly and honestly with me, saying exactly what they think, what they like about what I write, or what they love about this series. Or, last but not least, what frustrates them about fandom.

Maybe it is because that is how I feel a real human interaction here, or maybe I just love discussing everything in depth!

Do not worry about using those terms. I have a very long opinion about the origin of "BDSM", or the way today's society influences such labels. All I can say is that, as you pointed out, I do not see Ferid falling into such "mechanical" labels.

I do not see many characters being into these labels, honestly. But I guess it is easier to classify characters under such categories in a black-and-white fashion.

To touch more on the topic you opened in the previous question, about what Ferid would be like intimately, I deeply emphasize his need to live truly, authentically and freely, as who he really is.

That is why I think he manifests very naturally and organically from an erotic perspective and just loves passionately, as it is said. Showing his real personality, being vulnerable. Love for him must be genuine.

Perhaps many do not notice this. But this character has extraordinarily sharp and objectively correct discernment.

For Ferid, good is good, bad is bad. His understanding of the world and values is not distorted. That is precisely why he is so angry that his world, including his soul, is created from darkness, from a curse, a putrid origin. Because he realizes well what normality would be, something that does not exist in OnS. And he longs for this good and harmonious ideal.

That is why he is so frustrated and angry at those who should have given him genuine love: his parents, his older brother, Rígr. Remember how he tells Rígr, in their discussion in chapter 91, how he believes it is a father's duty to teach his son "the meaning of life". And beyond any irony, Ferid is right. It is the duty of the parents, the older brothers, the figures who have authority and responsibility over the little ones to genuinely love and care for them.

But Ferid was only objectified and used by all these people who played a fatal role in his existence, especially considering that he was a child, or at most a teenager when he interacted with them, meaning that he was an extremely impressionable being, an easily marked, vulnerable one.

And on the principle of his own universe, he tries to pay back all these people. Revenge is not something that makes him happy, given the ideal of a good universe that he would like, so he suffers.

But this tangibly demonstrates how Ferid knows what true love is, but has never met it. He tries to create it, going so far as to change the rotten origin of the universe that created his soul and holds him captive.

For me, this shows a special nobility of soul, a huge potential that Ferid has.

That is why I believe that if Ferid met genuine love, especially romantic, erotic love, he would give everything for it.

Of course, it is a situation he never encountered before, and he needs some time to get used to it.

That is why I described him in the previous answer as appearing "frozen" sometimes, stiff.

But if she truly loves him, Ferid opens up and resolutely offers a love of the same kind.

Ferid needs to be seen as human. A human person is not a label. How Ferid is not a label. A human person has a complexity of nuances, a paradox of experiences and feelings. Perhaps the hardest thing is seeing someone as human, not projecting your expectations onto them and just understanding that person.

In his love for his beloved woman, Ferid could be seen thus, humanly, in his complex reality with all the nuances. And he would see her that way too.

For the first time, he, who always truly reads people, would find something so harmonious in her being: the ability to be seen as himself through someone's eyes.

That is why I mentioned in several of my posts how Ferid would love to look into her eyes. Because her gaze would remind him of the sky, the place where he always looked for love and got no answer. But in that " sky " beyond her vivid, warm eyes, he now finds all he has sought all his life.

That is why I think that the way he would make love to her, how he would "be in bed" would be deeply derived from the way he loves her and how he feels loved by her.

I think it can be called "adoring" the way Ferid would make love to her. The way I portray every such scene with him in my mind is extremely organic, natural.

Their erotic intimacy would be a dive into the very lives of both.

It is precisely for this reason I see that Ferid has this tenderness and meticulous care for her. And at the same time that he leads her and is so dynamic.

Ferid simultaneously offers his sensitive fragility, his determined ability of leading to his woman. All in a lively, passionate form.

Thus I see that his every touch is so " consistent", " decided ".

It feels like a true dedication to her, how Ferid gives everything to their love, and I think this topic could be fleshed out more by me.

How the way Ferid touches his woman gives her safety and symbolizes how his true potential is given to a cause that makes Ferid truly happy. Why she loves him.

Why she loves Ferid Bathory, why she is melted in her intimacy with Ferid Bathory.

This subject is almost never touched upon in the writings of a fandom.

And that can lead us to what you were saying, why you love this character, why I love him.

I believe that the author of OnS has created vivid characters. Each character has a real human consistency. They are organically written, realistic for their contexts. That is why I think that each character can be admired, if we try to understand them as human beings in their universe.

I, at least, look at Kagami's works from a writer's point of view. I analyze literary, what were the intentions of the writer. Maybe that is why I also see these characters as living human entities in their fictional universe.

And I try to understand them like this. Before romanticizing, forming a romantic attachment, or a fantasy, I am focused on humanly understanding these characters and keeping their "living breath" further in what I write and analyze.

I think this is necessary in the understanding of some literary characters, especially when they are penciled in this way by the author.

Now, as I said, everyone understands everything as they can and as they want.

There was a time when I was so saddened by what you say, that the fandom does not understand any of the author's message. But I have realized that I had rather enjoy what I love than discuss what other people's opinions are.

Especially, Kagami said something that impressed me. He said how he never imagines "the voice of the fans" when he writes and that he is not interested in writing anything popular. He also said that he only writes from his heart, exactly what he feels and that he will always do only that, and how he strongly believes that if he does that, he will find his niche of readers.

There is a saying in my native language, "what comes from the heart touches the heart" and I think it is very appropriate for Kagami and OnS.

The author writes from the heart and his writings touch some hearts, as he touched mine, or yours.

This is nice and motivating enough for me so I can just enjoy this series that I love and ignore any unpleasant opinions of some strangers online.

At the end of the day, fandom does not define a series. As I said before, the canon material does not change. It is always there for those who want to read it, reread it, analyze it.

Thank you for answering me. It really means a lot. And yes, I can say "I love" Ferid, even if he is fictional. I love the humanity of the character and the way I can feel him "alive" in his universe. The way I can even discover myself, understanding him, and growing as a person, developing my soul and mind. This is what I do with Ferid, with this series, and I consider that the author has achieved his purpose as a writer with me!

In the end, you are right. It is ironic and sad how many in the fandom see Ferid just like most in his universe, but maybe that is the charm of this deep character.

Do not forget, he is named " unparalleled ".

Everyone in OnS does anything for the ones they love. But Ferid wants to change the very putrid origin of the world, the laws of the universe that created people out of hatred, just to have harmony, a real meaning, authentic love.

This universe has been corrupted since its creation, humanity is cursed and trapped as in Hell, and Ferid wants to solve this vicious circle, to break it.

I think this shows the nobility of this character, that he really is "one of a kind". And even though I wish he had someone to truly love him, I understand and appreciate the author's intent. The hidden nobility in Ferid's tragedy is something truly beautiful to me.

I would go into more detail about how Ferid would love his woman, how he would make love to her. But I feel like my essay is getting too long.

Please write me any questions you have. Just like that, just like now. I will gladly answer.

I think we can have some fascinating discussions!

Thank you so much for this heartfelt message!

Have a nice day to you and whoever finds this post!

#ferid bathory #owari no seraph #seraph of the end #ons #sote #ferid bathory x reader #ferid bathory imagines #ferid bathory analysis

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ladydisdainblog · 1 year

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I've been thinking how for the show set in 60s The Marvelous Mrs Maisel approaches the importance of communication in a very modern way. Good example of that is when Rose went to Paris. She felt invisible by her family and Abe indeed was deaf to a solid percent of an information around him. So they had a conflict, expressed their frustrations and both of them compromised a bit. Whole Paris adventure helped them become more open to the world, reconnect with each other and, most importantly, with authentic selfs. Taste of an independence helped Rose to stood up to her family. And parisian pluralism reminded Abe about his ideals so seasons later he got a job that doesn't bring the worse at him and can influence the world in a more visible way.

Which brings us to Midge three major relationships in her story: with Susie, Joel and Lenny.

Midge and Susie have one the most healthy relationship on the show. Since the beginning they see each other for who they truly are and inspite of being polar opposites never truly antagonize each other's views and lifestyles. They bicker and fight often but always reconnect and apologies. They tries to explain to each other why they are upset or angry or resistant if they struggle to see different perspective. And they also listen.

Then there's Midge and Joel's marriage being a sugarcoated mess at the beginning. They don't show to each other their flaws: Midge literally disguises her humanity and imperfections with makeup and Joel hides his insecurities and dissatisfaction. So eventually things get ugly, they start to fight and express their frustrations more. But also they now tell more truth and didn't hide from mess that happens in their lifes. Their relationship now admittedly dysfunctional but at least they are growing as people. (Ofc there's also constant implication that they're in denial and never truly got over each other but the show never managed to convince me that it's valid so I gonna ignore that bst and just go with the take that ugly truth liberated them).

And at last there's Midge and Lenny. Both are speakers who made words their form of art and salvation. Both love to connect with an audience. Both want to impress each other so badly but also have tremendous respect for one another and could never be insincere. They capabile to a brutal honesty when it's about the most important thing. Comedy. Their talent helps them to hide an unspoken between funny remarks and light conversations. In fact, they each always know exactly what other have in mind. But also they kind of don't know a shit because the deepest desires and all seriousness of feelings can only have weight when it's communicated. So when they choose not to talk about it, not give their connection a name they make a conscious choice in order not to be on each other's way. They could discuss it and give a relationship a try, but their baggages are so massive and drak and requires some serious sacrifices and navigation in order to live a full life together. It could in theory worked out but in a process someone would compromise and loose the essential part on themselves. So by activity denying this truth Midge and Lenny show love and respect for each other. They don't want be the reason the other is unfulfilled or give up their authenticity.

#tmmm #the marvelous mrs. maisel #midge x lenny #midge x joel #midge x susie #i wrote this at 3 am and it probably doesn't make much of a sense

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howtotrainyouragents · 2 months

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Agent H’s TV Reactions

Spy x Family Season 1

A spy is tasked with creating a fake family to infiltrate the enemy country, only to unwittingly marry an assassin and adopt a child telepath

-MY EMOTIONAL SUPPORT FAKE FAMILY

-I love that this a story about survivors of war. About how they fight for peace. About how they heal through love and relationships with each other. I love that it’s an action story, a drama, a comedy, a slice of life

-You can tell that this is an anime that really loves the story and source material. It is truly done with such love and care and attention to detail

-I really wish that the opening/closing scenes were canon/shown because I want to see them going on vacations and dance around their home TT. I also want that scene of Loid at the train looking up at Yor on the balcony. I also love the scene in the second opening scene of Yor hugging Anya by the window

-The teacups theme song is my new comfort song

-I have such a crush on Loid. The tousled “at home” hair will be the death of me.

-HE’S SUCH A DAD. Have him make a corny dad jokes and HE’S THERE

-I love that Loid’s complaint of Anya is that she’s unpredictable. Like, yes, the best spy in the world, the man who can predict and prepare for any situation in the world, is having his ass handed to him by a four year old

-Meanwhile it take Anya about 48 hours to learn that no matter how cool your parents are, all parents are lame

-I know it was for the interview, but I think Loid genuinely meant it when he said he found a kindred spirit in Yor. The moment at the party I think is when Yor starts to fall for him, but also when Loid recognizes that they are alot alike, that she “may be the only person who can accept him for who he is right now.”

-Also, Loid absolutely fell in love with Yor when she first knocked out that bad guy

-Yor being the emotional support and rock of the family. The way she supports and cares for Anya and plays with her and gives her advice (however helpful it is XD). And the way that she supports Loid, breaking him out of his anxiety. Like in the restaurant in the third episode, he’s totally spiraling about the interview, and she doesn’t know what’s going on in his head, but she knows to take them to the park for fresh air and perspective and it’s just what he needed

-The scene of Loid and Yor comforting each other as parents is one of the most foundational scenes of the story

-I saw some people a while back being like “Twilight is going to get too soft and eventually do something emotionally and jeopardize Operation Strix” You mean, the interview???

-Anya punching Damian is one of the greatest scenes of all time

-The dodgeball episode is one of the greatest episodes ever made XD

-The penguin park episode may be my favorite. Whole family working together without knowing what the others are doing. Yor kicking a guy into the ceiling. Loid winning the penguin for his girl. Loid wanting a vacation then STOPPING and deciding to just work harder because he loves his girls so much

-BOND IS THE BEST BOY

-My heart broke with Sylvia’s simple “I had a daughter once like her.”

-The Loid reflection while they’re at the dog park broke me

-Loid being proud of his daughter jumping two boxes and jumping rope five times

-In any other show Nightfall would be the most iconic, fan-favorite character ever made, and (we love her too!) the only reason she’s not here is because she’s competing with the fucking Forgers

-Yes, Loid, you should switch to decaf

-I love the episode of Yuri tutoring Anya because for how intense Yuri is about work and his sister, he really is just a 20 year old kid. And I just love seeing this big kid get so exasperated with this little kid, and I hope they get more bonding in the future lol

-Shinybluebirdwizard pointed it out that Becky Blackbell is pretty much the only character remotely living as her authentic self and that is fucking hilarious

-Damian always being ready to fight when it comes to Anya

-I would be very curious to learn about Japan’s role and viewpoint in the Cold War because it’s interesting how this is Cold War Germany inspired

-I had a separate post about the tennis arc. Let's see if I ever write it up...

-Loid going out of his way to reassure and support Yor just because he wants her to be happy. I am ride or die for this couple

-Loid ep 6: Yor is sad, I should reassure her!

Loid ep 15: Yor is sad, I should take her out on a date!

Loid ep 24: Yor is sad, I should take her on a date and ask her to marry me! Like, bud, the reaction does not equal the situation. With all of Loid overthinking I’m genuinely trying to understand how he thought honey-trapping Yor would be beneficial for the musssion. Like I know why he does it but Loid, what was your reasoning there

-The last episode was so good!! The hat tip mirroring the first episode. The importance of love and care and communication and trying to be there for each other. The final words summarizes the whole story, and the teacups song playing through Loid's words. Anya’s at bliss even when he has no idea what’s going on in her head: They don't understand each other but they love each other and want to do their best for each other. That's it. That's the whole story.

-Extremely important question: Is Loid licensed to be working as a psychiatrist. Because on one hand, obviously it’s just a cover story. On the other hand, Loid has never half assed anything in his life and cramming years of worth of medical school and passing a licensing exam just to make his story airtight is exactly the kind of thing he would do. Endo, respectfully are you listening. Endo, please, I need to know this

#wowwwww i never posted this huh #sxf #spy x family #agent h #agent book reactions #loid forger #anya forger #yor forger #yor briar #loid #anya #yor #agent tv reactions

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avoxrising · 5 months

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Ahh ok I just saw TBOSAS! Thread about my thoughts (Spoiler warning!)

I’ll be editing this post as I think of more things

ps sorry for any errors, I am using voice to text on my phone

Please add yours in the comments!

Hot Takes:

- I am so glad that they decided to keep Lucy Gray’s ending a mystery like how it was in the books. I think it was emphasized even more as a mystery in the movie as she sings a song about her being a mystery a few scenes beforehand, and Dean Highbottom even echoes that what happened to her was a mystery when talking with Coriolanus. I truly do believe that Snow lived the rest of his life wondering if he had actually killed Lucy Gray, and fighting with the demons inside of him regarding all the deaths he had caused (not that he had regret or remorse except for maybe killing Sejanus). I don’t think anyone ever found out what really happened to her.

- The best parts of the entire movie was the scenes where Lucy Gray is singing. Someone literally needs to remove that man’s whiny voice from the audiobook and replace it with Rachel‘s voice, singing the actual songs, because I cannot listen to any other rendition of any of those songs after that, and the audiobook did an extreme injustice to Lucy Gray.

- I really didn’t like the way that the first third of the movie was put together. They did it in three parts just like how the book did, but the first part felt really disjointed for me and felt very non authentic to the rest of the series compared to the other two parts.

- My biggest issue with the whole movie was the fact that they changed a lot of small details that were in the book and it felt really unnecessary to change the very small things. For example, in the book, Arachne dies because she is feeding her tribute at the zoo, and the tribute grabbed a hold of the knife from her and slits her throat. In the movie, however Arachne is taunting, her tribute with a glass bottle, and the tribute grabs the bottle, breaks it in half, and stabs the broken neck of the bottle through Arachne’s neck. Also, you don’t see that moment of hesitation from Coriolanus. He immediately runs over to her and starts trying to help.

- My girl Clemensia deserved more screen time

- I’m glad Arachne died, her character was really annoying

- I’m not sure if they were trying to make Lucky Flickerman funny or not but he wasn’t

Theories/Easter Eggs:

- I’m pretty sure they didn’t mention this in the book but in the movie Granma’am tells Coryo that his father was killed by a rebel trap in the woods by district 12. This further connects Coriolanus Snow to that area of Panem and his deep rooted hatred for rebels.

- Lucy Gray mentions to Coriolanus right before she leaves the cabin in that scene that she’s not made of sugar and my mind immediately went to Finnick and I think that could also be why Snow hates him

- Lucky’s reference to Caesar when he’s canceling his restaurant reservation and mentions the high chair!

- I don’t know if anyone got a better look at this, but in the reaping day scene with Dean Highbottom, he is walking down the aisle of the room in the Academy and you can see a plaque in the back with the name Heavensbee on it and it seems like it might say Founder of Panem or something like that. I couldn’t exactly read it because the dean was standing in the way, but I thought that was really interesting.

- I really do think in the beginning of the book/movie that Coryo is trying to do whatever he can to keep the Snow family name and status high in the capital however, I don’t think he truly realizes what he’s capable of until he is thrown into the arena and kills Bobbin from eight. You can literally see a physical shift in him on screen after that point and when he comes home to Tigress and explains how powerful he feels, you can really see a similar look in his eyes that you do in the original trilogy. He was really a psychopath from the beginning, he just didn’t realize it until he was in the arena himself, and understood “true human nature” (it’s not human nature to be a psychopath. Please get some therapy.)

Notable Things Changed/Cut Out:

- OK so it’s completely understandable that they would have to cut out a lot of things from the book as the movie was only two hours and 45 minutes long whereas the audiobook is 16 hours long but let me tell you they cut out a ton

- As we knew going in, they removed all the scenes with the neighbor who he got the guitar from and his little shop thing that he had so that was expected but they also removed a ton throughout the entire movie.

- They completely removed all of the funerals of the mentors who were killed, and did not even mention the deaths of the twins. In fact, a lot of the attack in the arena, and the aftermath was kind of glossed over.

- Arachne’s death (see above)

- The district 3 tributes’ usage of the drones as weapons (removed)

- Jessup’s rabies death scene was toned down a ton. It only took one water bottle to kill him in the movie, whereas in the book, I remember reading that a ton of water was thrown his way.

- Took out all of Clemie after snake scene.

- No mention of the erasure of the games. If you hadn’t read the books and just saw the movie you would probably be wondering why Haymitch never mentioned another Victor from 12 because the movie doesn’t explain anything about how the capital wants these games to be forgotten.

- I haven’t read the book in like six months but I swear in the book the tributes got rabies from rats at the zoo but in the movie they say they got it from bats on the train and I just like that’s a really weird detail to change if that was changed

- I really was not expecting for Lucy Gray to yell “kiss my ass” with that much enthusiasm/aggression at the reaping

Things the Movie did Really Well:

- Make you hate Snow

- I honestly feel like the movie did a way better job of giving you a look into Snow and how evil he is compared to the book. I think it helped that on screen you could see his body language and how he acted around people without hearing his own internal monologue like we get in the book. He is a very unreliable narrator.

- Tigress! I am such a Tigress Stan. She could see exactly the path Coryo was headed down, and you could literally see her heart breaking as she watches him become more and more like his father, who she says, was a man full of hate.

- The “career pack”~ now I know it’s not technically a career pack because none of those tributes trained, but seeing Coral and her alliance in the arena, when we know based on the books that alliances were super uncommon in the games before then, was really interesting to see. It makes me wonder even more about Mags’s games and how alliances played a part in that.

Overall Thoughts:

- I cannot in good conscience ship Snowbaird after watching that movie. The movie does a way better job than the book showing Coryo’s decent into madness and I could do a whole other post on this but holy shit he is an evil man. It’s not like we’re getting a glimpse into the good version of Coriolanus before he was corrupted, this man was corrupted already. We get to literally see scenes of him poisoning and killing people in this movie and got some people still think that shipping him with Lucy is a good idea/cute. I hope that girl ran off into the woods and lived her best life because she deserve way better.

- The movie was honestly way less graphic than I thought it was going to be. It is rated PG-13, but I felt like they toned down a ton of the injuries and graphic scenes the book described. I would say The Hunger Games movie was much more graphic than this one was. If you’re not a fan of gore, I would say the only part do you have to worry about is in the arena, they do show the effects of rabies and a few injuries/deaths, but there’s overall not a ton of blood. They do show the hangings of people in District 12, but they don’t dwell on it too much. Even Arachne’s death is super quick compared to how it was explained in the books and really not his bloody as Suzanne wrote it.

Overall I give it a 6.5 out of 10 which is much lower than I thought I would be giving it however, I feel like this may be my least favorite hunger games movie. I don’t think any movie in the world will ever beat catching fire or maybe even the first hunger games but I even felt like Mockingjay in some aspects was done a lot better than this film. The casting, however, was spot on and the cast did such an amazing job.

I will still probably go watch it again this weekend, and I definitely recommend going and watching it, just know that there will be things that you will appreciate a lot more from the books and that doesn’t make the movie bad. I just feel like in comparison to the other movies they did the books a lot more justice than this one did to it’s book.

#hunger games #tbosas #sejanus plinth #sejanus deserved better #coryo snow #snowbaird #lucy gray baird #lucky flickerman #clemie #dr gaul

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liquid-geodes · 1 year

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H E R E ✨

I'd say his backstory is relatively the same as canon, the only thing that changes is that he decayed realistically.

I don't think this one needs any warning, but you can still ask to tag

Had he known the morning prior would have been the last sunrise he'd ever see again, William would have admired it longer. Now he was trapped, in a prison of his own making no less. It wasn't his fault, was it?

No. No he was only trying to gather the rest of the family... the rest of the lost souls.

Perhaps this was for the better, perhaps this was exactly where he needed to be. They would be together now, until the end of time. Never aging, never dying. Finally, he could put them all back together except...

He wasn't sure where he was.

He had known, at first at least, despite his sudden loss of vision, something the springlocks must have taken of course, or perhaps the years of decay is what took his sight from him. Whatever it was, it didn't matter now, not when there was still work to be done.

He had been moved, that much he knew, away from Freddy's, away from the family he had finally managed to gather. The voices that took him were unfamiliar, but undoubtedly young. Too young to have ever remembered his name, too young to know what they were dealing with.

Too young to know that they never should have taken him to something involving Freddy's.

Fazbear Frights. That was the name of the location he had been brought to. At least, that is what he was certain he had overheard. It was true what they said, that losing one sense heightened the rest. His hearing had become incredible after decades of living in darkness, so much so that he was certain he could hear their heartbeats quicken in fear as they approached his seemingly deactivated form if only he'd focus hard enough.

Disgusting. Authentic. Springtrap. That was what they had called him. How... fitting, the name had been, although they wouldn't know just how on the nose the nickname truly was. No one seemed to notice the mummified remains that made their home inside the old suit, writing off the smell as nothing more than years of abandonment. After all, it wasn't unreasonable to assume mice had found their way inside the contraption to make their home, right?

William, no. Springtrap spent his nights acclimating himself to his new surroundings. An old arcade cabinet here, a hallway there, an entrance to the ventilation system next to what he assumed was an emergency exit door on account of the alarms that would blare whenever he tried to open the door. He had been able to get a good lay of the land before their first nightguard had been hired, though he didnt stick around long once Springtrap decided to have his fun.

Then of course there was the next one, slightly older than the last, but still unwilling to put up with the animatronic's games.

Then there was Hudson, his favorite little play thing by far. How he wished he could see the look of terror on that one's face. Hudson wouldn't even approach him during the day, while he was feigning inactivity, for fear that the animatronic would come to life and hunt him down.

No, he couldn't hunt him while the lights were still on. Where was the fun in that? How was it fair that Hudson could see what Springtrap couldn't?

It wasn't. So he'd wait, until the clock chimed and alerted him that it was midnight. Six whole hours to make the nightguard regret applying to this job.

He hadn't even meant to kill Hudson, then again, he never really laid his hands on the kid. How could he? The closest he had ever gotten was during a chase in the hallway one night, but the kid had thrown so many objects in his panic, masking the sound of his retreating footsteps... Springtrap never did figure out which direction the kid had ran. The next morning was when he had discovered that he had hid in an oven in the makeshift kitchen area. Someone or something had turned it on while the kid was hiding inside, burning his favorite nightguard alive.

Of course, Springtrap had a certain... inclination towards who could have been to blame, but he could never be sure. He could feel her presence, the same as he had the night he had been springlocked, but he had no way of knowing if the Marionette was in the building with him currently. Seeing was believing after all, and Springtrap didn't exactly have vision on his side. He could feel his way around the various decorations on the walls all he wanted, but nothing would tell him with absolute certainty that the thing he was touching was connected to the proper vessel.

Before the new nightguard had been hired, a sound system had been installed throughout the building, "to heighten the customer's experience with these old tapes" the manager had said. It, however, only served to disorient and distract Springtrap while he tried to navigate his way around. Between the new audio cues and the incessant sounds of the subpar ventilation systems, he wasn't sure how east his next hunt would be.

The new nightguard did eventually show up for his first shift, and Springtrap knew the faulty ventilation would go out eventually, giving him a brief moment of blissful silence to try and locate his new prey's location. He had made it all the way to the room just in front of the fake office, a thick piece of glass being the only thing standing between him and his new playmate. He brought his hand up and loudly slammed his open palm against the material, if only to confirm his location based on the sound the two materials would make when they collided, but the startled shriek of terror that tore from the nightguard's lips told him everything he needed to know.

In the distance, he could hear the quiet question:

"Hello?"

It successfully drew him away from the office, if only to try and find where the noise was coming from, or more importantly, whoever had made the noise.

Had he been able to see through the glass in front of him, he would have been met with the familiar face of someone from his past.

#dave posting #link's asks #link writes #blind springtrap au #fnaf 3 springtrap #fnaf 3 #fnaf michael afton #five nights at freddy's 3 #five nights at freddy's #fnaf #fnaf what we found #fnaf william afton #william afton #michael afton #fazbear frights

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daiyu-amaya · 3 months

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Can we get more headcannons for your fics? 🥺

I'm hyper-fixated on my fic The Devil's Trap, so that's what this will be for/from! Also, I wrote a lot so under the cut lol

Since Mario and Luigi lived in Brooklyn they've seen and been involved in a mugging. (Poor Luigi just gives them his wallet-Mario gets loud and in the face of whoever is trying to mug him) Both brothers will attempt to stop someone else from getting robbed or hurt. Don't even get them started on the whole New York pizza versus the Chicago pizza! And they are picky about Italian food since their Ma cooks authentic Italian dishes.

Luigi has a collection of sunrise and sunset pictures from both worlds by him and Mario and loves taking pictures of just about anything. He's taken a few from his room in Boo's castle and one of a sunset from the ramparts.

Mario is now a bit more relaxed living in the mushroom kingdom takes time to paint. During the rainy season, Luigi likes to knit which usually means someone (Family) is teasing him for being an old lady and Mario likes to bake during the cold seasons, which he also gets ribbed for.

Dogs normally like Mario but not Luigi, and the opposite for cats. Ferrets like both of them but there was an incident where a ferret bit Luigi and wouldn't let go even as he spun around the room screaming for someone to get it off of him. Mario doesn't like snakes but they love to curl up with Luigi who isn't too concerned by the behavior for some reason (He thinks they are cute, but Mario thinks he's weird)

Both brothers have some size kinks...

Luigi knew he liked people taller than him (Spike and Destiny Del Vecchio) But when confronted with King Boo's humanoid form well-

Mario hates being called small even if he's only 5'2. But he likes that Peach is taller because that means She has long legs and he is most certainly a butt-and-leg guy) I mean perfect height to get a great view of her butt for sure.

Also, I've kind of head-cannoned Luigi really had a thing for Destiny, I mean He had a big fat crush on her clearly by the way he said her name in the movie lol I mean I have him down as gay but maybe he's andro?

Both brothers have dated, not successfully before the events of the movie. Luigi, somewhat worried about his family's opinion dated a few women and knew without a doubt that they were not his thing even if he harbored a crush on Destiny for a long time.

Mario won't mention the time he got high with friends and kissed a guy, or the fact Donkey Kong grew on him a bit. He's married now so that's not going to be a thing lol

Peasly knighted both brothers, partly because he didn't want to marry Peach and knew Knighting Mario would allow those two to marry if they wanted, and partly because he hoped that he might get with Luigi-who was oblivious to that one, but Mario wasn't! As usual! Daisy had a good laugh at the oblivion and ribbed Peasly a couple of times for it.

Daisy, Rosalina, and Peach decided it was safe to invite Luigi to girls' night because he was a relaxing friend to be around when he wasn't freaking out about whatever. Plus put a few glasses of wine in his system and he's way more chill. Give him something stronger and he's a big ol flirt.

Mario is one of the rare few who are truly allergic to alcohol, went to a party when in high school and had to go to the hospital poor guy.

King Boo...This jerk has been a pain to write because there is so little known about him. So I gave him the back story that he and his family were murdered by a rival kingdom many years before any of the kingdoms as we know them were formed, their castle burned to the ground while they were in it-Boo himself stabbed and died before the fire could kill him.

Bowser is allied with Boo but would probably throw him under a bus if he thought for a second it would help his cause and Boo is aware of that.

#creative writing #fanfiction #super mario bros #mario and luigi #answering asks #asks #and yes I know Mario isn't 5'2 offically

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ficklecat · 7 months

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OC Interview: Emmanuel Domingo

(dialogue responses to the OC interview prompt)

1. Please state your full name and occupation.

“Emmanuel José Domingo Alvarez, or Manny Domingo for shorter. I’m a physical trainer and a grad student, hoping to become a physical therapist!”

2. Tell us a little bit about yourself.

“I am a proud Guatemalan and first generation American citizen of my family, and first to go to college too, which I am so grateful for. I love the outdoors and playing sports; I’ve been an athlete since I was a little kid, as little as a baby, because my father says I kicked a lot before I was even born!” (laughs) “Let’s see…I have two wonderful partners, Phineas and Violet, who I adore with all my heart, and my dream is to build my own physical therapy practice and help people pursue recovery and healing at any shape, size, or condition!”

3. How would you describe your childhood?

“I think I had a wonderful childhood, despite missing a few things. My father did everything he could to make my life better and easier than his was and he made good on that promise. Growing up without my mother here was hard sometimes, but I was still surrounded with so much love and support, I didn’t want for anything even when my papà didn’t have a lot to give. I could do sports and make friends and I got good grades and made my papà proud, which was enough for me. I am very fortunate.”

4. When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

“I wanted to represent Guatemala in the Olympics! I still think I could honestly, but that would mean a lot of work to change my current path, and I’m quite happy with where I am now!”

5. Do you have any role models? Tell us a little bit about them.

“Ah, so many! My papà, of course, he is my hero. A few athletes, notably Erick Borrondo, who was the first and only Guatemalan Olympic medalist. Serena Williams, but also Alok Vaid-Menon and Blair Imani. I look up to the people who I feel embody the spirit of being authentically who they are and fighting to reach their potential, or helping others to do the same.”

6. Are you introverted or extroverted? Why?

“Absolutely extroverted. I can’t help it. I love learning about people and meeting new friends. Phineas jokes that I’ve never met a stranger, and that’s true!” (laughs)

7. How would you describe yourself in three words?

“Passionate. Loving. Determined!!”

8. What do you like to do for fun?

“I love it when the three of us go hiking or to the beach together. Or cooking dinner with Violeta. She is a wonderful baker! I enjoy testing recipes with her. If I’m by myself I mostly enjoy going for a run out in nature, or watching anime. I can binge a whole series in a weekend if I’m not careful!”

9. What's your greatest achievement? Why do you consider this your greatest achievement?

This was answered in an ask, check the tag to find it!

10. What's your biggest goal? How do you hope to achieve this?

“I want to be able to help people achieve the best versions of themselves. I don’t know if that can count as a goal so much as an aspiration but it is something I think I’ll never achieve only once, but rather will always work towards. I get a lot of fulfilment and energy from helping others, it enriches me and makes me feel purposeful. I think because of this I will never truly be done working towards this goal because I know in my heart I’ll always be looking for ways I can help, moving from one to the next. It’s a good thing for me though, it makes me excited about the future.”

11. What does your dream room/house look like? Would you mind showing some inspiration pictures?

“Honestly I’d love to live in my childhood home! My father and I have been fixing it up, he’s been remodelling a few of the rooms and I help him some weekends. We have so much tied to that place, it’s a very special and comforting space. It has high ceilings and lots of natural light in the front room, a gorgeous sunroom where papà keeps some of his herb garden, and the kitchen is coming along with new cabinets and countertops. Little by little! If not that exact home I’d love something like it - warm and inviting and bright, with space for me and my loved ones to enjoy each other’s company.”

12. How would you describe your style?

“Athletic and comfortable. I am usually at the gym working with my clients so I am always dressed for that. Which I don’t mind, I feel stuffy in other clothes sometimes. If I’m not wearing gym clothes I’ll at least like to wear some decent shoes, and I always bring a hoodie or jacket wherever I go. I like being prepared.”

13. What's your favorite song?

“Ahhh I love music, this is a hard question! My go to answer for this question is usually What I Got by Sublime, but there are so so many more - Sweet Honey by Slightly Stoopid, Longview and When I Come Around by Green Day are also favourites —ah! Too many to name!”

14. Where are you happiest?

“Outside! Even on bad weather days I love being in nature. I often like to go on walks or lay in the sun on my patio or in the grass on the campus green. No matter what mood I’m in nature can always manage to bring me back in some way. It’s as close to a cure-all as I can get.”

15. Who is the most important person in your life? Why?

“It’s impossible for me to pick just one person, I love too many to say one is more important than the other.”

16. Do you believe in soulmates? Why or why not?

“I believe with all my heart that Phineas and Violet are my soul mates. I also believe my father and mother are soulmates. But I believe soulmates aren’t just lovers, you know? They’re friends. They’re mentors. They’re whoever makes you feel like your life is worth living. Maybe that’s not a soulmate to some people but it is to me.”

17. Have you ever been in love?

“I am so in love! I have been in love since I was very young. I continue to love just the same, even more now I think, because I know what it means to feel it.”

18. Have you ever been kissed?

“Oh most certainly. I don’t think I’ve gone a single day in recent memory where I haven’t been kissed. I’m so lucky for that.”

19. Describe an average day in your life.

“I like to get up early and start the day with black coffee at the window. It’s a good time to get myself some alone time and prepare for my day because no one is awake yet usually. After coffee I’ll have breakfast and then get ready for the day. I try to keep all my classes in the morning so that I can train my clients in the afternoons and evenings, so I work out after lunch before training, or if I have time I’ll try to get a workout in after breakfast and before classes. I try to keep busy so I tend to book clients until late, and typically I’ll be finished with my day around six or seven. Dinner with my loves is usually after that, and then I’ll do homework or study or spend time with them after that!”

20. Describe your nighttime routine.

“I try to walk every night for a little bit, which usually means I get to walk with Phineas and his dogs most evenings. Or if he isn’t up for it I’ll take them myself. I like doing that, they’re sweet and it makes me feel helpful. After that I’ll enjoy whatever Violet and Phineas have planned - for them, it’s usually movies or shows, and we like to take turns picking what to watch together. Sometimes we’ll play a game or I’ll play cards with Violet while Phineas reads, but my nights typically end with the two of them no matter what. After all that, I’ll shower and get in bed - Violet sleeps in and Phineas is an insomniac, so I’m usually the first to sleep, but they still like to cuddle up with me even if they don’t sleep right away, which is so very lovely.”

21. (Make up a question) Tell us a “low-stakes” unpopular opinion you have.

“Oye this might talk me out of a job but - exercise is free! You don’t have to buy anything, you can just move! The myth that there’s a right way or proper way to exercise is silly to me - go walk, jump up and down, dance in your living room! Exercise is free and it can be anything you want it to be! I dislike the narrative society has created that tricks people into feeling like movement needs to be competitive or prescribed or on a membership basis. You can do whatever you want, you can move however you want - my father used to chop wood in the back yard to work out, we didn’t have a fire place! There are less rules than you think, have fun!”

#manny #OCs #oc thursdays #oc ask game #oc prompt #axel’s brainpals

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megah3rz · 2 years

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i think gens insistence on being a bad, shallow person is very interesting bc.. we don't really see it backed up. he actually continually proves through his actions that he really isn't shallow or bad at all. wish we knew more about his backstory.

but i think. maybe he actually did something morally questionable. in the novel it's kinda implied that he often won his shows by cheating and that he has thrown people under the bus, basically. (tsukasa accuses him of lying when gen says that he just wanted to play fair, that's why he accepted the loss - and gens like "aw u saw right through it". this is paraphrased from memory so probably not that accurate lol)

i wonder if this cheating is why he insists on being shallow? or was there something else? (maybe something family related? as that seems to be a sore topic for him)

either way, he's warning people about himself because he feels guilty - he didn't like doing it and he doesn't enjoy seeing people sad.

i'd also like to mention that gen did not seem to enjoy the whole cheating thing.

- he kept count of the cards in his head despite not having to (that's how he knew that the transmission was wrong) which tells me that he's proud of his skills and wants to use them

- he said he wanted to enjoy the chance of playing against tsukasa without cheating

- he's implied to have no real friends basically (by tsukasa saying "aren't you the same?" after gen says that he's alone)

i think this all implies that gen was rather miserable in his career.

i think gen might have been between the chairs in a way. he enjoyed the money and the admiration stardom gave him. he loved doing the shows!

but then he had to compromise his authenticity for a chance of staying in the playing field. and that probably took the joy out of it. which is really sad because i think he truly loved mentalism and magic and being an entertainer.

which is why he bloomed beautifully once he was given the chance to just be himself. i think the KoS really saved him.

yeah idkkk this is kind of a mess but i was bored and restless and i was rotating him in mind. feel free to add your own opinion/interpretation! but note that i can be very slow to respond

#asagiri gen #gen asagiri #dcst #dr stone #dr stone spoilers #plss inagaki i need his backstory u cannot tease us in an interview like that and not say anything more!!!#also can i just say that i really love the novel. i could talk about it for hours.

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in-the-red-notebook · 1 month

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"Ray's a Laugh" - Richard Billingham

What should a photo book be? A container for work? A physical reproduction of a bunch successful images? Or a work unto itself, in the tradition of the artist’s book, where book is the final formal goal ? To me, Ray’s a Laugh offers a high-water-mark affirmation of the latter. The body of work in this book is greater than any one image, the edit and sequence is brilliant, and the book speaks and lives for itself in an astounding way, a self-contained parable in its own humble world.

The work in this book was made in Billingham’s parents’ apartment in a small town in England, and centers on his father’s shut-in alcoholic lifestyle and his relationship with Billingham’s doting, caring mother. It’s a complex portrait of the whole family, posing playfully as a document but in reality functioning much more as impressionistic drama.

This work joins the likes of Larry Clark’s "Tulsa" and Nan Goldin’s “Ballad of Sexual Dependency” in the discussion of ethical/exploitative photography—is it right for Billingham to publish work that shows his family in extremely personal, vulnerable, and sometimes graphic situations? Is it right for him to characterize them as he does—deeply flawed, but charming and loving? Is it exploitative to aestheticize their poverty? These questions are complicated, but I think that given the personal nature of the work—Billingham’s own family being the subject—it’s hard for me to really condone or criticize the work either way. I don’t think of this book as benevolent or as evil, but as existing in the gray area of exchanging the privacy of loved ones for artistic honesty. I truly hope that this exchange was made in good faith.

As to the aesthetization, if we give Billingham the benefit of the doubt about the work being “authentic” (even if it’s such a flimsy adjective), it can be argued that the real, cynical commercial exploitation of poverty and addiction aesthetics is done downstream, when work like this starts popping up on moodboards for advertising and editorial photography, in commercial contexts, etc. On this topic, there’s a really fascinating publication called “Opioid Crisis Lookbook” that interrogates the culture of addiction and recovery from within the current North American opioid crisis, and I think it’s really good reading for anyone interested in this discussion. PDF here: https://theopioidcrisislookbook.com/issue-1/

Aside from the moral quandaries, I don’t mean to be grandiose when I say that to me, this book is a testament to the power of photography; a reminder to pick up the camera and observe, because something photographed is so different from something remembered. The work rides a fine line between earnestness and what could be considered callousness: gritty, dynamic photographs ostensibly about the reality of an alcoholic family member that are somehow stubbornly light-hearted and whimsical. Billingham engages in something like anti-humanist humanism, breaking up somber, revealing portraits with funny, detached snapshots of almost baroque scenes unfolding in the apartment day to day. This complexity makes me think about a consistent, obsessive photography practice, close observation of the intangible, and the simple, revealing power of a photograph.

In Ray’s a Laugh, Billingham is able to approach and re-approach the same people, the same spaces, and the same ideas, over and over, over the course of several months. The result is this magical, complex book that really satisfyingly blurs the lines of truth and fiction, and tragedy and comedy. What I think most draws me to this book is Billingham’s extremely present voice. He seems to function half as a family photographer and half as a photojournalist, moving jarringly back and forth between tenderness and a distant ambivalence. This is what endures for me, the ever-looming fiction of the work, which seems to almost allow the pictures to be more truthful and honest, at least about Billingham’s feelings. I think he offers us a way to see his family in the way that he does, focusing on silver lining and humble moments of joy while acknowledging pain and imperfection. This, to me, is the “magic of photography” Billingham reveals: the camera’s capacity, after a long while, to show who is behind the lens almost as clearly as who is in front of it.

I’ve come to the conclusion (sadly a bit late in the year) that what I would like to do is find some kind of concrete subject or container within which to make a project. I picture this as a body of work about a group of people, or a specific place, or maybe a subculture. I think I’ve had a tendency in the last few years of photographing to kind of reject the idea of any concrete focus, instead approaching my practice as “carry a camera everywhere, and let photographs come to me.” I’m reaching a point now where I’m frustrated with my “pile,” hundreds of one-off photographs tied together maybe only by my own experiences. When I first started photographing, Wolfgang Tillmans and Daniel Arnold were front and center in my mind. Their work, at least as I’d seen it presented, was less about concrete things and more about espousing a “way of seeing” (hence the MoMA show name “To Look Without Fear”). And while I think finding a primal, almost subconscious visual language is invaluable to a photographer (being able to look at a photo and regardless of subject having a feeling that this is ”a Noor photo”), my thinking on it as a conceptual framework has shifted. I think I was originally aiming for a body of work that was chaotic, all over the place, and vastly dynamic in subject matter. I now find this kind of framework to be a crutch for an under-edited project. In terms of Arnold, and in terms of books, I much, much prefer Matt Leifheit and Eve Lyon’s edit of Arnold’s work to that of his monograph, Pickpocket, because the former edit is tighter, more vulnerable, and “says” so much more than the latter collection of already-instagram-famous street photographs. I’m now much more interested in honing in on something, both through re-editing my old pile (over and over) and through changing what I’m photographing, so that I have some specific guiding light.

For final critique this year, I want to focus on an edit that is more intentional and revelatory, and most importantly, more vulnerable. What photographs have I been omitting that have more of myself in them? What can I do to narrow the perspective and get at something deeper? Thinking forward to this summer, I have set the goal to find some kind of “container” for what I shoot. I haven’t yet decided on one, but I’m thinking of things along the lines of “5th avenue, between 14th and 42nd,” or “Little League Baseball in Prospect Park.” Something I can go back to, week after week, something I can slow down and observe. I’m also including in this goal the qualification that I may break out of the container as I see fit. Through this container, I hope to apply my photographic intuition --which until now has been the whole story--to a more self-contained world.

PS. Mack recently reprinted Ray’s a Laugh with a new, expanded edit in a larger size than the original. It kind of feels like a deluxe edition album; I like the new plates that were added but only because I liked the original work so much. I feel like the expanded edit and coffee-table size (which kind of gives it what I call the “Phaidon vibe” :/) detract from the magic of the original’s concise edit and humbler physical size.

-Noor

#noor

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ladyhindsight · 1 year

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but i would also add

(chain of iron spoilers!)

i think you will be happy to know that cordelia finding out the reason the "nice" characters are treating alastair horribly doesn't impact their relationship. for once something about that crap felt authentic to me - cordelia knows alastair better than any of this people so obviously she isn't horrified to find out about what he did, and she does feel frustrated at his behavior but not more than she already did before. thank freaking god

my sibling and i have a very complicated relationship full of tension and all, but there's no freaking way i would give a damn if i found out he spread rumors about people's parents at school in the past, sorry, this is not realistic and not how siblings work

i'm truly enjoying reading about the carstairs family, my personal opinion is that they are by far the best thing in this series, and i love how we can see how much alastair care for cordelia without the writing trying to shove that down our throats. but that has a reason. alastair is one of Those Characters that you can freely like or dislike without being "wrong" - the book isn't really trying to manipulate you to do either

the downside: funny how it took MONTHS for cordelia to fully require to know why is alastair being so mistreated. it has just been happening since the end of the previous book because of fucking course the golden characters have all the right to treat someone like shit unprovoked for a past beef in the most cringeworthy "he was mean to us back then, now we can gang up to be mean to him back" energy

how all that stuff ended up playing into alastair's romance side plot requires a very long rant i can't type now. but i just know you would have opinions on all of this

- R

Oh, that does make me happy. Somewhat. If Cordelia was written immediately changing her affections over some guys he doesn’t know that well, I would’ve probably just ended things there. I kept hoping for that authenticity, and I am glad that there’s even a tiny bit of that. I don’t think there is much my brother could do—and obviously I am not talking about extremes—that would in any way change our relationship. Clare’s characters loyalties are flimsy things, nonexistent sometimes if we consider Alec and Isabelle, when it comes to the Golden Characters and being on their side, so this does ease my mind a bit.

Alastair is reminiscent of Gabriel and Jessamine. Gabriel was written doing bad stuff and being antagonistic, while Matthew is reminiscent of the Good Guys being treated “poorly.” Like I’ve said previously, Gabriel either wasn’t surrounded by the manipulative elements in the narrative versus Will. I’ve read a bit of their (Alastair, Matthew, James) days in the Academy, and like you bring up in you other message that I haven’t answered yet lol, his character has that nuance unlike the main heroes. These are the sort of themes that are consistent from one series to another, because it is often characters like him that end up shining the most to me.

I actually had to stop reading GoTSM because I started to have too many thoughts and negative feelings about the whole thing, the whole ganging up on Alastair aspect of things, and I figured I should try and keep the blog somewhat consistent as to the progression, but I think I'm just going to read Chain of Iron next and embrace the absolute mess that this blog has become.

#Alastair Carstairs #Reply

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the1975attheirverybest · 11 months

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I had a random thought today.

A lot of fans right now are expressing disappointment because this era was supposed to “be about sincerity” and yet Matty is the least sincere he’s ever been.

Does that still make this era about sincerity? People have been talking about it more than ever and his behavior has sparked some super deep conversations about the nature of sincerity and it’s relationship to fans

Don’t get me wrong, Matty is annoying me a lot with his performance art lately, but you can’t say it’s not working. This era is about sincerity. But more about defining it and less about doing it.

I mean, I don’t know. I think, for Matty, defining it and doing it are one and the same thing. And the performance art feels, to me, like the natural progression of his work anyway. Like his music is always self-aware and self-referential. So, when you’re constantly taking that up a notch, this feels like the next natural step. It’s the whole “post modern” thing. In postmodernist culture, art always knows it’s art/ different from reality.

Of course, in defining or doing it, he’s never going to give it to us straight up. When has Matty ever said or done anything without entertaining that the opposite view might also be valid? Or without twisting things and overthinking and deconstructing?

To me, though, the paradox is that the performance and the sincerity turn out to be parts of each other. Take the whole “A Theatrical Performance of An Intimate Moment.” Let’s ask ourselves this: can intimacy/ intimate moments be constructed, scripted, performed etc? Wouldn’t that be the literal opposite of intimacy? Cuz intimacy is about authenticity and vulnerability right? Presumably, if you script things, plan them ahead of time, put on an act, you’re not being intimate, right?

Except for Matty, he is! His performance of that persona IS what allows him to ask those questions about what’s more important art or people? In episode 1. And it IS what allows him to have that moment of realization that he wants family and a private life when he’s talking to Hann. The stuff he did with Atvb. It’s all real. When he talks about being a confused dude with leftist politics but all he does is “watch stuff and wank.” He’s being honest, sincere, vulnerable. When he “cries” and hugs the guys and says that he’s sorry he makes everything into a bit because he’s afraid that if hr let himself be truly open, he’d risk feeling things for real. That’s the most sincere he’s ever been! And he ends up actually crying with songs like I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes).

I think his biggest trick is setting up this “persona” that lets you expect the unexpected from him. It’s chaos. You never know what he might do or say next. But it’s just a safety net for him to be open and sincere. Like, if this persona dude can say and do whatever the fuck he wants, then he CAN be sincere too. That way, he’s dealing with the scariness of being vulnerable. Cuz he’s doing it “behind a mask.” But he’s still doing it! We all perform versions of ourselves based on what we think our loved ones want to hear or say. I’m not the same person with my parents that I am with my friends or partner (former partner now) or with my students, or with my dissertation committee. We all wear masks to an extent. Matty just took it to the highest level possible and asked “what happens if we take this to its logical limit?” Turns out sincerity and performance aren’t as different or separate as they might seem.

That’s how I think of it anyway. Could be totally wrong. Who knows….

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notrailers · 1 year

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Let me start off this review by saying I think may be my film of the year (definitely between this and Banshees of Inisherin). What is puzzling is that this never got a true wide release. At most, it showed in around 600 theaters. For reference, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever played in over 4,300 theaters. A filmmaker as famous as Spielberg probably deserved more showtimes, but audiences are not flocking to non-franchise films.

The Fabelmans is an autobiographical look at Steven Spielberg’s life, from his introduction to filmmaking, to his family dynamic and how he got to the inspiration of why so many of his films include broken families and missing fathers.

The immediate draw is his love of cinema. It it what was sold about the movie. And we explore every aspect from Sammy (as Steven) getting his first camera to being tasked with directing his high school’s beach day. Filmmaking is the entry point, but it leads you to the deeper theme.

That theme is the dissolution of marriage and learning to cope with a fracturing family. Real-life Steven created this film as a way to sympathize with his father (Burt in the film), while his character and the film itself sided so firmly with his mother (Mitzi). This obviously came from a realization later in life of the sacrifices his father made and the burdens he had to shoulder.

This is, I guess, where I get into spoilers.

Mitzi fell in love with Burt’s best friend, Benny, who the kids call Uncle. Benny is played by Seth Rogen and I suppose this is a good time to start talking about performances.

Seth Rogen as Benny: I have heard people say and thought to myself while I was watching this in theaters that this is literally just Seth Rogen. He never becomes the character. It’s like when you’re playing a video game and it goes to a cutscene and your character looks wildly different from anyone else around. What really takes you out is when he does his trademark laugh. I wanted to like him and I think an actor like him was a good casting choice, but not Rogen specifically.

Michelle Williams as Mitzi: She is eccentric, quirky, a wild spirit and is a perfect foil to Paul Dano’s Burt. She has an artist’s heart and loves to create and explore. She just wants to have fun and play things dangerously, this is what draws her away from Burt and to Benny. Benny is the class clown who doesn’t take anything too seriously. He is the less stable of the two men, but that is not what Mitzi is after. Williams puts on a performance that excels in balancing the love she feels for her kid, her husband, and what she truly wants from her life.

Paul Dano as Burt: Paul Dano is one of my favorite actors and his ability to command the screen while not being boisterous is top tier. He can mold into any role. The Fabelmans is no different. As believable as he was as the Riddler in The Batman, he is just as believable as Sammy’s father. The entire emotional arc hinges on Dano’s ability and he does not disappoint. He has to become the bad guy of the family, but because Spielberg has become sympathetic to his family’s situation, he does not come across as evil and is not shown in a bad light. While Sammy’s parent’s divorce was the result of Mitzi, Burt took the blame out of the love he felt for his wife.

Gabriel LaBelle as Sammy: Steven Spielberg himself. I can’t imagine the weight he had to carry playing arguably the most famous director alive. There was an authenticity from the actor and honestly this whole film hinged on it. Sammy had to be conflicted about his ability, his social standing, and his religion. He had to balance out his parents, his sisters, and Uncle Benny. He was sufficiently awkward and a genius filmmaker by high school (the special effects for the war film were a stroke of creativity that I don’t think I could conjure in my lifetime).

This was the best film of the year and I feel like nobody has seen it. The Fabelmans has so far been a box office bomb and the death of original filmmaking continues. It is nearly impossible for a non-IP like Top Gun or Marvel to do well that has a $50-$100 million budget and even then Black Adam was a box office flop, but DC feels like an outlier for big studio performances.

The man who made E.T, Close Encounter, Jurassic Park, on and on, could not release a successful film about his life. To me, that is incredibly sad and concerns me for the future of theatrical releases. I adored everything about this movie and it was perfect. Please go see it if you can.

Rating: 5/5

Would I Recommend? With my whole chest.

#the fabelmans #steven spielberg #paul dano #film #film review #movie review #letterboxd #cinephile #cinema #movie

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