Wear My Name

oh my freaking gosh yes

I WANT ONE

imagine a dragon who hoarded librarians and every so often knights come to rescue them and the librarians get very upset because the dragon is quiet and reshelves everything neatly and the knights are Very Annoying

can I just

happy bday, king, please go to a dentist

wanna help a bitch? take a look at my redbubble (gonna upload more designs and stuff!)

Rey is a morning person. Ben is not.

—

You have no idea how long this took. You can tell I kinda gave up by the end but i have to admit it was fun! @the-music-keeper

I didn't even think of those scenes like that

The anatomy of interrogation

There are two torture scenes in The Force Awakens. Both involve Kylo Ren and a gurney, and those are pretty much the only features they have in common. While I don’t presume to know the filmmakers’ minds, I would be very, very surprised if the scenes weren’t deliberately staged so as to form a contrast with each other.

To briefly set the scene, Kylo is summoned to interrogate Poe after the normal ‘lines of enquiry’ fail. Kylo addresses Poe with sardonic humour, asking Poe if he is “comfortable” before proceeding to put him through agony by forcibly invading his mind to extract the information he needs. Kylo is ruthless and efficient, getting straight to the task after briefly indulging his ego with some comments intended to mock Poe and his captive state. This is a standard scene of cold, villainous efficiency that you could find in almost any film of this type.

The situation with Rey is played entirely differently, and is - suffice to say - infinitely more interesting. Kylo is crouched before her when she wakes up, having seemingly remained with her, watching her, after taking her captive on Takadona. When Rey asks where she is, Kylo replies “you’re my guest” - there is no trace of his former dark humour here, since he genuinely seems to mean it. He removes his mask when Rey expresses fear at being “hunted by a creature in a mask”, and gets close to her, coming close to touching her face. Instead of immediately focusing on the information he needs, he is drawn to Rey’s emotions - he comments on her loneliness, her hope that Han Solo will become the father she never had. He identifies with her feelings, and generally seems distracted and unfocused. The interrogation ends with Rey turning the tables, penetrating Kylo’s mind as he had vainly attempted to penetrate hers. He flees to Snoke in a state of abject shock.

In short, whereas the Kylo who interrogates Poe is firmly in command and entirely focused on his goal, the Kylo who interrogates Rey is a complete mess. In his own twisted way, he shows compassion for her - he wants her to be comfortable with his presence, so removes his mask; he wants her to share her memories and emotions with him, so tells her not to be afraid; he wants to spare her the hurt he believes his father will cause, so tells her Han Solo would prove disappointing. While his goal is nominally to extract the map to Luke Skywalker from Rey’s memories, he seems to forget that that is his purpose as soon as he gets close to her - instead, he is self-indulgent, greedily grasping at the first memories, hopes and feelings he finds upon entering Rey’s head. His behaviour, then, has little to do with his official role as enforcer and interrogator for the First Order. It’s the behaviour of a man with private concerns and obsessions, a man who forgets himself when faced with the inner thoughts and feelings of a simple peasant girl.

Kylo’s behaviour is difficult to interpret or write about because it is riddled with contradictions: Kylo demonstrates both an abundance of empathy and almost no empathy at all. While he attempts to share in Rey’s feelings as he discovers them, he pays almost no attention to the fact that tears are streaming down her face. While he can draw out memories and emotions from her, he seems incapable of responding to them in a truly sympathetic way. He filters Rey’s emotions and experiences through his own - her friends are dismissed as unworthy because that is how he perceives them, her affection for Han is denied and discounted because of his own hurt, her feeling the Force becomes his own experience. He is supremely selfish, concerned with gratifying his own curiosity, vanity and fascination at the expense of Rey’s selfhood. 

And that’s why her booting him out, sending him running to his master with his figurative tail between his legs, is so delightfully satisfying.

I’m TRYING to love myself but SOMEBODY *glares in the mirror* is having a TANTRUM

Not Sailor Moon related, but I'd like to share this gifset/analysis of cinematic parallels between The Castle of Cagliostro and The Great Mouse Detective with you. This was a Patreon request, so consider this post a preview of what you might see if you subscribe (Tier 1 starts at only $1/month)!

Today I would like to do a quick piece showcasing some of the cinematic parallels between Hayao Miyazaki's The Castle of Cagliostro and John Musker & Ron Clements' The Great Mouse Detective. Famously, both films' climaxes take place inside the workings of a clock tower. As many Disney animators, Musker & Clements included, are known to be fans and admirers of Miyazaki's films, it is quite likely that TGMD's climax is an intentional homage to TCoC. Here are five similar scenes from each film (reproduced as animated gifs) that I would like to discuss in particular:

The Villain's Entrance: Notice that both the Count and Ratigan take advantage of the clock tower's gears to sneak up on their enemy. Their figures are similar - large, hulking bodies, swishy red capes, and an unusual head shape. In the Count's case, his head shape is changed by his goat-shaped helmet, while Ratigan's angular pointed rat ears contrast heavily with Basil's rounded mouse ears. Interestingly, the Count moves vertically, while Ratigan moves horizontally. Both villains are temporarily thwarted by their respective Damsel in Distress warning Our Hero about the impending attack. 

An Unfair Battle: Both films feature a battle to the death on an unstable surface - Caglistro's being on moving clock gears, while Mouse Detective's battle is on Big Ben's clock hands which are slippery from the rain. As mentioned earlier, both the Count and Ratigan have large hulking bodies which visually contrast between Lupin III's and Basil's lanky and significantly shorter frames. The Count and Ratigan are also armed (with a sword and rat claws respectively), whereas Lupin III had to improvise with a long wrench. Basil is completely unable to defend himself, which accords with his characterization as being entirely Brains, not Brawn. Lupin III is an adventurer, so he fares much better in this battle, but it is still heavily weighed in the Count's favour.

A Near Miss: Both movies feature a brief scene where one of the "good guys" is nearly crushed by the clock gears, only to survive from a split-second escape. Both Damsels, Clarisse and Olivia, are relatively passive in the battle and are heavily protected by Lupin III and Basil. Clarisse, being a young adult rather than a little girl, is noticeably braver and more proactive during the battle. There is brief tension when Lupin III almost looks like he will be crushed, but because of his reputation for getting out of any jam, the audience never has to worry about how he will escape. In comparison, Olivia is helpless to save herself from being crushed, and Basil has to take advantage of his knowledge on the physics of clockwork to rescue her. The scene with Olivia is significantly longer, drawing out the tension.

The Villain Unmasked: Both battles take a turn when the villain is literally, and figuratively, unmasked. A gleeful Lupin III shatters the goat horned helmet, instantly making the Count look less intimidating and more like the pathetic man he is. His stance immediately changes from murderous and dangerous, to bewildered and annoyed. The result reminds the audience that for all his ambition and bluster, the Count is just a petty criminal with delusions of grandeur. Ratigan, in comparison, shatters his own "mask." Merely spotting Basil and Olivia trying to escape from him shatters his mind, and he destroys his own illusions of good breeding and sophistication. Ratigan might be a charismatic and brilliant criminal mastermind, but when he doesn't get his way, he reveals himself to be nothing more than a feral rat.

Falling From The Clock Tower: Clarisse, who is more proactive in this battle than Olivia (for understandable reasons), attempted to knock the Count off the tower to prevent him from activating its secret. He kicks her off him in retaliation, but she and Lupin III managed to fall into the water. They are miraculously (if implausibly) unharmed, and it eventually turns out that their falling off the tower saved their lives, as the Count would be gruesomely crushed between the clock hands triggered by the secret mechanism to point to midnight. In comparison, Big Ben itself is what causes Ratigan's demise. The tolling of the tower's bells (also at midnight) would be already deafening for a human, but are completely disorienting for a rat. Disney are known to kill off their villains by having them fall off something (so as to imply their deaths rather than showing a body), and Ratigan's death is another example. Interestingly, Ratigan's fall from the tower is implicitly shown to be fatal, which contrasts with Lupin III and Clarisse's survival. The films' respective target audiences also are a factor in how their villains are defeated - Cagliostro is aimed at an older audience, so while the Count's death is not explicit, his demise is far more visceral. Knowing exactly where the Count's body is (and what has happened to it) is a more potent image; we know Ratigan likely won't survive his fall, but we don't know where his body will land.

They're pretty good movies, y'know.

and a couple of Jigens

I hope season two comes as fast as Chris does

The YOI fandom (via naminaee)

YASSS PLEASE

I would have followed you.