What would Harry, Ron, and Hermione do?

I saw two movies in theater this weekend, which is something I did a lot more frequently pre-pandemic. Yesterday I saw Scream 6 with a friend (with whom I saw last year's Scream in theaters and watched Scream 4 for the first time on streaming). I'd been super excited for it because good grief do I love this franchise, but while actually watching it I felt disengaged and vaguely disappointed. It's an adequate entry in the franchise, but there's no escaping the fact that this is just a franchise now, with all of the accompanying mediocrity you inevitably get when you churn out one installment a year. The writing was flat, the jokes weren't funny, and except for one scene that had already been played out in trailers, the Ghostface scenes were fairly boring. Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega are good in their roles, and I appreciate the sister dynamic, but it's hard to care about any of the other new characters, which makes their deaths (or survivals) pretty meaningless. There's no comparison to poor Tatum in the first movie, whose horrific death feels like an actual blow because of how good of a friend she is to Sidney.

To an extent, I don't think there's much the Scream franchise can do at this point to satisfy older fans because you can't compete with the nostalgia factor of the OG (especially without Neve Campbell!). I'm sure #6 was much more fun for new fans who were introduced to the franchise last year. Seeing 65 today in comparison made me realize that since you can't compete with nostalgia and since we're not going to get a sequel with Sidney, Gail, and Dewey, what I really want is actually a Scream reboot with the same vibes. Which is exactly what 65 gave me today.

65 is a silly movie in which Adam Driver plays an alien who crash lands on Earth 65 million years ago and has to battle dinosaurs in his quest to reach an escape pod with the only other survivor, a young girl who lost her parents. Is it a ridiculous movie with mediocre writing? Absolutely. Did it give me very similar vibes as the OG Jurassic Park in terms of appealing acting and great dinosaur jump scares? Absolutely. Did it manage to do this way better than last year's Jurassic World Dominion, even with Laura Dern and Sam Neill? Abso-fucking-lutely!

In that sense, 65 was far more satisfying than Scream 6. Both were mediocre, but one had all of the baggage of a franchise while the other had all of the vibes of a franchise without the baggage (plus Adam Driver!). It makes me understand a little better why I gravitated toward the Scream TV show a few years ago, even though it was not, objectively, a good show. It had enough similarities to the OG Scream to hit that nostalgia factor, but the characters, unlike in Scream 6, had no idea that they were in a franchise.

I was so devastated by the SPN finale that I wrote and posted fic last Saturday for the first time in over four years. It's 2,500 words of me working out my SAM-WINCHESTER-FUCKING-DESERVED-BETTER feelings. I cried multiple times while writing it.

For context, S15 established early on that characters who have been to Hell, such as both Sam and Dean, are not allowed into Heaven. I therefore have MANY NOT-NICE FEELINGS toward the writers about the fact that Dean was so at peace with dying and Sam was able to let him go. I also have many feeilngs about the fact that Sam was left ALONE after losing his mom, Cas, Jack, AND Dean...

Title: Carry On: Coda
Summary: Sam prays for answers, because Heaven can’t take souls that have been to Hell.
Word Count: 2.5K
Warnings: Suicide ideation

Sam prays.

To Jack, first, as he carries Dean’s body out of the barn.

Jack, please, bring him back. Please bring him back.

To Amara, as he parks the Impala in the bunker’s garage and trembles in the driver’s seat, wondering if he has the strength to carry Dean’s body inside again (he’d do it in a heartbeat if it meant history would repeat itself; if Dean woke up with black eyes and Sam had to chase him down and cure him again that would be fine, it would be fine).

Amara, please, bring him back. I’m sorry we lied to you. I’m sorry we tried to kill you. I know we don’t deserve it, but please, please, please bring him back.

To Chuck even, in drunk desperation, and then hates himself a little afterward.

Chuck, if you have any powers left, please, please bring him back. We’ll be your favorites again, we’ll do anything you want, we’ll fight whatever apocalypse you throw at us, I promise.

But no one answers. Dean’s body stays cold and dead, and Sam can’t bring himself to carry him inside after all. The bunker already doesn’t feel like home anymore, but Sam can’t taint it any further. He won’t smooth out Dean’s rumpled bedsheets and blanket to lay a corpse on it. He leaves Dean in the car, with Baby, and the next day, he finds a crossroads.

Continued on AO3

This is a tiny 1,200 ficlet- tbh more like a vignette or a timestamp than an actual ficlet with a narrative of its own- that I wrote during NaNo this year.  I can't post the WIP snippets I really want to because in theory they're part of my RPBB (which I doubt I'll actually complete in time, also tbh), but this is an id-dy, entirely self-indulgent Sam + Bela scene in my Bela/Dean post-series AU (that I've posted several fics from).  It takes place anywhere between 6 months to a year after Bela and Dean officially start dating.

( "Sam? Can I talk to you for a minute?" )

I wrote flash fic!  I hardly ever do that!  But Kelsey gave me an awesome prompt on Tumblr for a meme where a friend writes the first line and then you write five more (spoiler alert, I wrote a lot more than 5 sentences).  So the first sentence, "He danced the way...feel like a normal girl." was written by kwritten.

Title: Passing Through
Pairing: Claire Novak/Ben Braeden

He danced the way he told jokes, more like your middle-aged father than the secret boyfriend you snuck in your window, and she thought if she put her feet on top of his he’d twirl her away, maybe even make her feel like a normal girl.

( Read more... )

kwritten asked for Black family headcanon!

( Not very long and all about the ladies! )

lynzie914 asked for my favorite Buffyverse ships!

( OTPs )( Other ships I like: )

lynzie914 asked for my favorite Bela scene(s)/episode, and I was only too happy to oblige.  Beware: Here there be flailing.

( FLAIL! FLAIL! FLAIL! )

Okay, technically it is now the 14th where I live, but it's still the 13th somewhere in the U.S., so we'll pretend that I'm posting on time:

Kelsey asked for a pimp/yelling-about-feelings post about the Engelsfors trilogy, and I am SO HAPPY TO OBLIGE.

Everything above the cut is a spoiler-free rec.  Below the cut are spoilery opinions.

If you’ve been following ellievanna on Tumblr for the past few years you’ve probably heard her flail about this trilogy before (that is where I heard about it) and for good reason.  Engelsfors is a Swedish YA fantasy trilogy written by Sara Elfgren and Mats Strandberg.  The books are The Circle, Fire, and The Key.  The first two are available in English, and the third is supposed to come out in February 2015 (I might have emailed the American publisher requesting the date because I was so desperate…).

The basic premise of the trilogy sounds a lot like BtVS: demons exist and want to terrorize the world and only the Chosen One can stop them.  However, in Engelsfors (which is the name of the town), there are actually seven chosen ones, and they all possess different powers (e.g., invisibility, mind-control, mind-reading, etc.).  The Chosen Ones also have a Giles-like Watcher, there’s an interfering, patriarchal Council, and high school represents everything evil, but that’s about where the similarities end, and I promise, nothing feels like a rip-off of BtVS.

Despite the similar premise, the trilogy is actually very creative and clever.  One of the things I love most about it is that in both books, I genuinely had little to no clue what was going to happen next.  A lot of American YA urban fantasy trilogies feel formulaic (girl discovers mysterious heritage and/or powers, mysterious asshole who sekritly has a heart of gold is sometimes helpful/sometimes a butt-munch, cue lots of smoldering and longing, oh wait LOVE TRIANGLE WITH THE LIFELONG LOYAL BESTIE, throw in a little plot at the end, etc.) (can you tell I’m cynical about YA urban fantasy), but there’s nothing formulaic about Engelsfors.  For being a fantasy series, there’s also a healthy dose of horror and contemporary realism (IDK if that’s the right term for it, but basically, dealing with real life issues like mental health, divorce, etc.).  The series blends genres seamlessly, organically integrating the girls’ magical problems with their non-magical problems so that the plot never feels bogged down.

Other great things:
+ The series deals very thoughtfully with mental health, depression, divorce, bullying, drinking, drugs, suicide, and LGBT issues.  The girls are around sixteen when the books start, and they feel like teenagers (and they get to cuss!  Go Sweden for not censoring!).  I’ve rarely seen American books address so many complications so holistically and respectfully.

+ The protags are far from perfect, and the narrative acknowledges it.  Arrogance has consequences!  Mistakes are not swept aside! The stakes are high and actually matter!

+ So!  Much!  Lady!  Love!  This book is ALL ABOUT WOMEN and female friendships (and more than friendship), and it’s just so lovely.  Plus, it’s about how these friendships develop, because the protags are all very different, and they clash a lot and have to learn how to work together and care about each other, and that is another thing you don’t frequently see in American YA- stories that focus on female friendship.  If you want stories about female friendship and empowerment, look no further than Englesfors.

Basically, I can’t say enough good things about this series, and if you like YA urban fantasy, I highly encourage you to read it.  Although, to be perfectly honest, I might recommend waiting until January 2015 so that you don’t have to suffer in wait for the third book like I am…  If you have any questions at all, please ask!  If this post convinces even one person to read the books, I will be absolutely delighted.

( Okay but don't read this part because SPOILERS )