A biweekly post updated every other Saturday detailing my continual struggle to complete my extensive movie, show, and anime list.
Movies: 1
Melancholia (DNF)
This one was on my list for a long time, and on paper, it looks like something that would be really up my alley. It’s highly symbolic of depression, and indeed, “melancholia” is a way I often describe the state I’m in. I call it “the melancholia,” because sometimes I’m a pompous, artsy ass. The title of the movie refers to a rogue planet of the same name set to crash into earth and destroy all life. Justine, played by Kirsten Dunst, attempts to forestall thoughts of the inevitable through marriage, but her despair is palpable throughout. No one seems to care about her feelings, and she’s constantly berated, gaslit, and made to feel bad for her inability to be happy. They are angry with her for being upset, but no one ever seems to ask her how she feels, though we, the audience, assume it’s because the world is ending, and the farce she’s forced herself to go through cannot make her forget that. It is an excellent metaphor for depression with the added facet that this is happening to everyone (the planet will destroy us all of course), but only Justine (the depressed) is unable to handle it. She tells her mother that she’s frightened, and her mom kicks her out of the room.
A biweekly post updated every other Saturday detailing my continual struggle to complete my extensive movie, show, and anime list.
Movies: 1
Coco
So there’s definite similarities between this and The Book of Life, but it’s Disney so you know. I love how Dante, the dog, can still see Miguel when he crosses over. Granted Miguel didn’t die like the MC in the fore mentioned did. He played de la Cruz’s guitar and that opened up a pathway. I want to research Dia de los Muertes now, and I wish I knew Spanish because there are so many bilingual bonuses in this.
A biweekly post updated every other Saturday detailing my continual struggle to complete my extensive movie, show, and anime list.
Movies: 2
John Wick
I’d been seeing a revival of memes about this in comparison to Game of Thrones and another Jo(h)n’s horrendous treatment of his dog (poor Ghost, though he did finally get his pets in the end). I initially had no idea the catalyst for the titular character’s killing spree was the murder of his dog, but it was so much deeper than that when I watched it. First, it was a puppy, a PUPPY.
Before the battle between the living and the dead occurs, I wanted to get my predictions out there, and instead of writing, I thought I’d make an audio post. It’ s just me talking for 45 minutes unedited because there’s just no time.
If I discussed something that you originated and didn’t credit you, please let me know so I can remedy that.
I hope you all enjoy!
I must really love you guys, or I love the sound of my own voice (let’s be honest…I love the sound of my own voice), because this gave me so much trouble. I couldn’t just add the media to WP because it kept giving me an error message even as an mp4 so I had to upload it to SoundCloud and embed. Regardless, it’s done, and I have cake.
The Question of the Week is posted every Sunday and will consist of a question followed by my answer and explanation to the same. Some questions will only require a simple answer that could potentially be followed by an explanation. Many questions will be writer oriented, but not all. Everyone is encouraged to answer in the comments and discussions/follow up questions are more than welcome!
What’s your favorite Christmas movie or TV special?
Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas is probably my favorite Christmas special, yet I always cry a bit at the end of A Charlie Brown Christmas when they decorate Charlie Brown’s sad, tired Christmas tree, it perks up, and they sing “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.” I don’t know why. I’m not religious, but I am sentimental, and (admission time) I cry over something at least once a day. A beautiful passage of music will move me or I’ll see/read something poignant. It’s really not hard for the Shameful Narcissist to bring the waterworks.
The Grinch gets me because I love the Heel Face Turn (shock…) and redemption stories (double shock). Side note: If you go to the TV Tropes link, you’ll see the Grinch is the poster child FOR the Heel Face Turn.
It always amused me how his eyes went from red irises surrounded by yellow to the “more wholesome” blue, because of course that’s what happens when you turn from evil to good in children’s stories. Either way, the message of the Grinch is one we still sorely need. It’s ubiquitous and eternal since, despite the fact it centers around Christmas, it’s not really religious.
What’s your favorite Christmas movie or TV special? Is it something you’ve loved for a long time or is it new to your heart?
I suppose I should say my obligatory Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Happy Holidays since it is the big day for the first and continues for the second. While Christmas morning was always the most exciting time of my youth, I find in my old age, I enjoy Christmas night much more. I can relax, play with my toys, and recuperate from the day’s festivities. I also still have a ton of dough left to make so I’ll probably bake that and eat a ton of cookies.
The Question of the Week is posted every Sunday and will consist of a question followed by my answer and explanation to the same. Some questions will only require a simple answer that could potentially be followed by an explanation. Many questions will be writer oriented, but not all. Everyone is encouraged to answer in the comments and discussions/follow up questions are more than welcome!
What’s your favorite Christmas/Holiday episode?
As luck would have it, I’m currently watching one of my favorite Christmas episodes right now: Family Guy “Road to the North Pole,” where Brian and Stewie travel to Santa’s workshop so the megalomaniac baby can kill the jolly old man due to a mall Santa slighting him. Of course once they reach the pole, things aren’t quite what they expect. It has one of the best songs in the series, “Christmas Time Is Killing Us.”
I’m also fond of the Futurama Xmas episodes where the Santa robot tries to kill everyone out too late on Christmas Eve,
My favorite Christmas episode though is from American Dad. Season 8 Ep. 7 “Season’s Beatings.” Stan is thwarted in his dream to play Christ at the Crucifixion, because he doesn’t have the abs for it per Father Donovan. The minister gives him the job of playing Santa Claus, but Stan’s disappointment is compounded with rage when he finds out Roger’s gotten the role since the drunken alien has absolutely no respect for Christianity and only did it because it sounded fun. Stan proceeds to beat the shit out of Roger on national TV, which gets him thrown out of the church. The only way to reverse the excommunication is to either donate $10 million, find the Holy Grail, or kill the antichrist, and as luck would have it, Hayley and Jeff recently adopted a toddler who would up being said antichrist! What else can be said at this point besides shenanigans ensue.
What’s your favorite Christmas episode? This question is more geared towards specific television shows. I’ll have one about Christmas specials next week 🙂
The Question of the Week is posted every Sunday and will consist of a question followed by my answer and explanation to the same. Some questions will only require a simple answer that could potentially be followed by an explanation. Many questions will be writer oriented, but not all. Everyone is encouraged to answer in the comments and discussions/follow up questions are more than welcome!
What are you planning for your Halloween costume?
Yes, it’s finally that time of year again. The god awful summer heat has broken, the days are growing shorter as the night encroaches upon the afternoon. It’s wet and rainy in my corner of the world, but I’d take this any day over oppressive humidity, and it’s time to plan my Halloween costume!
I’m probably going to do a long neglected Cosplay Confessional post to flesh out the details of this (and to also discuss the alternative option).
After I saw Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens and loved it hard, I thought about how freaking easy it would be for me to be Finn.
I actually have really short hair. *shock* I know that silver hair is totally not mine lol. All I really need is the jacket…which I just bought yesterday. This is a marked difference from my Halloween costume last year, which was super elaborate and a wee bit expensive.
My alternate costume was Smokey Quartz, the newest fusion from Steven Universe.
But I’d need to find a gigantic yo-yo, buy a new wig, plus I don’t have three arms. Granted, I’d just scrap the latter, but it would rankle me, because I’m a perfectionist. I saw an amazing cosplay of this a few weeks ago, but I can’t find it. Annoying.
What are you planning to be for Halloween? Is it the typical “spooky” fare (e.g. witch, ghost, vampire, etc.) or is it a character/cosplay?
One of the YouTubers I follow made a video of this, doing them all in one day. I shall do the same here in blog form and invite anyone who wishes to share their own answers and tag me so I can see them!
I know this is supposed to focus on the show, but since I’ve read the books some of my answers may incorporate that.
***Spoilers for Game of Thrones and A Song of Ice and Fire***
Content Warning: Some discussions of rape as it pertains to the narrative.
Day 1: Favorite Male Character – Tyrion Lannister (living), Rhaegar Targaryen (deceased)
Day 2: Favorite Female Character – Daenerys Targeryen but Brienne of Tarth is a close second. Also Lyanna Mormont is the baddest bitch.
Day 3: Favorite House – Team Targaryen all the way
Day 4: Favorite House Motto – “Winter Is Coming,” but “Fire and Blood” is a close second.
Day 5: Favorite Moment – Hm, this is a bit tough. Well in the fourth book A Feast for Crows, I absolutely love when Cersei gets her comeuppance, at least the beginning part of it when she realizes the High Sparrow knows all about her lies since he tortured the Kettleblacks, and Osmund (or one of them) spilled the beans.
In the show I get chills when Dany obtains the Unsullied army, speaks to them in Valyrian, and has Drogon burn that slave master to cinders (that scene provided some inspiration for one I wrote for my latest project). I can’t spell out what she was saying, but I can still hear it, and the memory is chill inducing as well
.Finally, the scene in the latest season where Jon beats the ever loving shit out of Ramsay Bolton is like Christmas Morning on repeat. The Winterfell banners coming down again was sweet icing on a bloody cake, nor can I leave out Sansa’s satisfied smile as the bastard’s own dogs eat him alive.
Day 6: Favorite Song – I love the opening theme. I have quite a few versions on my writing playlist, and I often listen to it on repeat.
Day 7: Favorite Episode – I really don’t think I can name one. I don’t really think of the episodes as separate entities, but part of the greater whole for the story. The season finale to 6 was pretty boss though.
Day 8: Least Favorite Male Character – Randyll Tarly. This took some doing because while I detest Ramsay Bolton, think Euron Greyjoy is a complete monster, and am obviously not fond of Joffrey, they at least either have some Freudian Excuses (Ramsay and Joffrey) or are intriguing enough in their depravity (looking at you Euron) to warrant my interest. Randyll is an absolute ass who exemplifies the Dickhead Dad motif even better than Tywin Lannister. He threatened to kill his son Sam literally because he’s fat and scholarly, not considering that the latter is something the world needs and the former isn’t a crime. Granted in this medieval based feudal society, I get the fat hate…kind of. I mean it makes more sense than the fat hate we still have since people back then couldn’t understand all the mechanisms, but all the same, Randyll would’ve wasted an immense amount of genius just because his son didn’t live up to his literally bloody standards.
Shit I completely forgot about Qyburn! The show paints him as much more charming, but holy fuck is he a Josef Mengele copy. I have a pretty major issue with characters who experiment on other humans and treat them like specimens in case you didn’t know. I think I may hate Qyburn more than Lord Randyll
Day 9: Least Favorite Female Character – Cersei Lannister, but I really don’t hate her. Out of all the female characters I can think of I definitely like her the least. Like some of the above, she does have some Freudian Excuses along with living in a deeply misogynistic society where the doorways don’t even exist if you’re a woman. I believe this very mechanic made Cersei what she is, vindictive, spiteful, and wanting power for the sake of having power. Because the belief exists that women can’t rule, Cersei thinks people are opposed to her rule due to this when in reality they’re opposed to it because she’s a shitty ruler. It’s cyclical and maddening. She doesn’t care about anyone other than herself and her children as extensions of herself, and while I think Tywin and feudal society shaped her into this, there are other female characters like Catelyn, Brienne, and Dany who defy it for the sake of ruling fairly.
Day 10: Stark or Lannister – Stark all the way. Ironically, since my favorite character is Tyrion, but he’s sort of a Lannister outcast. I like Jaime, too, but he’s on the outs as well since he lost his hand and defied his father. I don’t like the Lannister attitude of superiority. Tyrion never had it and Jaime lost it with his hand.
Day 11: A scene that made you cry – The Sansa rape scene. That’s all I’m going to say.
Day 12: A scene that made you laugh – I laugh quite a lot with the show. Anything with the Hound is often hilarious, and I quite enjoy the Jaime/Bronn dynamic and the Tyrion/Bronn one. Bronn’s a good foil.
Day 13: Favorite Quote – I reference this one all the time. It’s spoken by Tyrion in A Clash of Kings and is frankly the way I view reality until and unless we can break the cycle..
“It all goes back and back,” Tyrion thought, “to our mothers and fathers and theirs before them. We are puppets dancing on the strings of those who came before us, and one day our own children will take up our strings and dance in our steads.”
Day 14: Favorite Ship – Rhaegar and Lyanna. Should I break out some pictures?
I don’t think he abducted and raped her like Robert believed. The dead king was a spurned lover; of course he’s going to think the worst. Ned’s thoughts are the most telling as he doesn’t seem to harbor any ill will towards Rhaegar and it was his sister who was supposedly a victim of the prince’s desire.
I also love Brienne and Jaime, and I’m not averse to Dany and Jon. I think the Jon/Sansa pairing is icky. Even if they are cousins, they were raised as brother and sister.
Day 15: Favorite Friendship – Tyrion and Bronn as mentioned above, but I like the friendship/respect aspect of Jaime and Brienne’s relationship, too. Also Sam and Jon. Arya and the Hound was pretty bad ass.
Day 16: Favorite Scene – Um I just answered this in “Favorite Moment.” I equate them to be similar enough.
Day 17: Most Annoying Character – Robert Arryn (Robin in the show). Again he has the Freudian Excuses (it’s really common in this story, refer back to Tyrion’s quote). He’s even more annoying in the books, but there are some interesting theories out there about his “seizures.”
Day 18: Most Naive Character – Sansa in the beginning. She’s supposed to be the deconstruction of romanticism so it makes sense that she’d initially be naive. Tommen is up there, too. Poor sweet Tommen.
Day 19: A character that you like but used to hate – Jaime Lannister, but that’s the way his arc is shaped. Also Melisandre. While I still can’t stand the sanctimony of her Red God religion, her crisis of faith followed by the resurrection of Jon Snow made me see the Red Woman in different (fire) light. Theon is in this category, too. I can’t hate Theon after all he’s been through. Yes, he did do some terrible things, but he did not deserve what he received. No one deserves that. Maybe Ramsay…
Day 20: A character that you hate but used to like – Catelyn Stark/Lady Stoneheart, though I can’t really say it’s hate. I pity her, but disagree with what she’s doing. Death turned her into the dark mother, and I can’t blame her for that, but now she’s pure vengeance without course or justice, and someone will eventually have to take her down.
Day 21: A character that you’d bring back to life – Is there any question that it would be Ned Stark? He’s the number one, but I’d also love to see a world where Khal Drogo still lives as well as Dany’s and his child. I wouldn’t have said this in the books, but Show Oberyn is on that list, too. I loved his portrayal.
Day 22: A character that you’d kill – Euron Greyjoy. He needs to be stopped like NOW. False advent and dark apotheosis is on a bloody horizon. Trust me. I’m kind of an expert on the signs.
Day 23: Dragon or Wolves – This is literally a fire or ice question hehe. I love all the direwolves, but I have to go with dragons. Since I also think there’s going to be an ice dragon we may get the best of both worlds.
Day 24: Favorite Place – I’m partial to Winterfell, but I’d also hang out at the Citadel, since I’m a fan of libraries. Of course I’d have to pull a Sarella/Alleras the Sphinx and masquerade as a boy, but it’s well worth it for the abundance of knowledge at hand.
Day 25: Best Warrior – Jon Snow is considered the best swordsman in the land, but the Hound was up there, too, and Brienne of Tarth beat the candy of him. I would love to know if Jaime would’ve been a match for her when he had both hands.
Day 26: Best Strategist – Stannis Baratheon. Pay no attention to what the show did to Stannis. The technically rightful king of Westeros is a brilliant tactician and general.
Day 27: Favorite Death – Ramsay Bolton. I really hate him.
Day 28: Saddest Death – Is there any question??!!! Hodor D: Like this poor man saw the instant of his death when he was a young boy and THAT’S ALL HE COULD SAY FROM THAT MOMENT FORWARD. The more I think about it the more horrifying it is. He said his last words for the rest of his life.
Day 29: Best “Game of Thrones” player – For now I have to give it to Littlefinger. He’s playing everyone like a harp, though Sansa is (hopefully) becoming a tune to his game.
Day 30: Who you want to win the Game of Thrones – Okay so there’s not gong to be a “winner” per se, at least not in the books. I think the entire feudal order is going to be completely obliterated, the Wall is coming to come down like Jericho, fire may rain from the sky, and the world will be made anew (like Euron says, but fucked if he’s going to be the new god. Hell to the no). In the end an entirely new order will be established by those who survive, and I don’t think there’s going to even be a throne, but if there is, Dany’s going to win it.
If you decide to do this, please tag me in your post so I can see your lovely answers!
This is less a review and more of what I hope will become an open discussion. I had absolutely no idea that going into Stranger Things, I’d come out with so many other narratives on my mind, but it was not only chock full of 80s aesthetic without being the least bit campy, but it also reminded me of many other stores of not just that decade but others prior and since.
While this is not a review, it will still spoil the entirety of the first season, as I’ll be discussing all aspects of the show in regards to other stories, and the discussion will spoil those narratives as well.
All of the doors are about to be opened Dustin, don’t worry! Also, I love Gaten Matarazzo.
***Spoilers for Stranger Things and every single narrative in bold.***
Stand by Me – We’ll get this one and The Gooniesout of the way since Stranger Things was heralded as being reminiscent of the adaptation of Stephen King’s novel The Body and that classic 80s treasure hunt/coming of age tale, though ST was quite a bit darker and more horrifying than them both. Also, oddly enough, in looking up the Wikipedia links for both movies, I discovered they both take place in small towns in Oregon.
E.T. – There’s a picture of all of the kids on their bikes with Eleven in a hoodie with the hood up. I can’t find it right now, but I recall the scene from one of the latter episodes. If I knew exactly where it was (and I wasn’t being lazy), I’d screenshot it from my Netflix app, though…maybe it’s better I don’t since I don’t want to get in trouble. Anyway, that was a definite visual reference to E.T., but just the idea of government officials hunting down a special entity set in the 80s, and the children the entity befriended trying to keep them safe has E.T. all over it. Now El’s not an alien…or so it might seem, but the Demogorgon certainly is. We’ll talk more about aliens and special children’s connections to them in a later entry.
I’d like to thank Movie Reviews and Other Stuff for nominating my blog for this award! It’s been a few weeks since it occurred, and now that I’m on vacation, I finally have time to properly thank him and respond.
Here are the rules:
Post the award on your blog.
Acknowledge the blogger who nominated you.
Answer the 11 questions that have been assigned to you.
Nominate 11 deserving bloggers for the award.
Ask 11 questions to your nominees.
Question #1 – What made you want to start your blog/website? I think I might have answered this in another blog nomination, but I’ll try to reiterate. There may be some copying and pasting if I can’t think through my brain fog. I find it exceedingly difficult (especially now that I’m dealing with some unknown health issues that cause fore mentioned brain fog and other things) to fully express myself verbally sometimes even though I’m told quite often that I speak eloquently. I suffer from l’espirit d’escalier more often than not, but I have a great deal to say about a variety of topics. I wanted to use this blog as both my sounding board and soap box for my essays and writing, the latter or which is the most important thing to me. I’ve been through the rigors of publication submission and rejection and am currently in the extended latter phase of that now. With this blog I don’t have to worry about any threshold guardians to what I want to put out into the zeitgeist even if it may initially reach only a limited audience.
TL;DR I started this blog so I’d have my own place to say what I wanted.
The Shameful Narcissist Speaks 
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