The Haunting of Hill House: Olivia Crain’s Robe
↳ “Carla Gugino adds that another tip-off is Olivia’s clothes. Olivia’s wardrobe throughout the series is exquisite, but Gugino says that the red velvet robe she wears toward the end is supposed to be blue in real life, ‘but when we see it, once the house has taken her, it turns red,’ she explains.”
it’s that she’s so unfriendly.
she doesn’t smile unless she wants to – to the point where her boss occasionally makes a quip about how she just did a great job and could smile about her achievement if she’s up for it maybe. she certainly doesn’t do the Obligatory Female Social Smiling thing.
she doesn’t wear makeup. i mean, obviously the actress is wearing makeup. but just enough that she shows up on camera. olivia’s look is pale and hard; her eyebrows kinda disappear; her lashes are short and blond, no mascara; her lips look a little chapped. this is a woman whose beauty routine consists entirely of using conditioner in the shower so her hair doesn’t turn into a static puff.
she doesn’t wear sexy underwear. we see her in undies every so often, when she gets in the suspension tank for the brain machine thingie, and it’s a plain black set of skivvies, and the camera doesn’t linger. she has no shame about it, either, no coy show of modesty. she just drops the robe and goes ‘hook me up’. the camera is more interested in the electrodes than the panty shot.
she doesn’t have to be twice as good as the guys. she doesn’t have that desperate drive to prove herself that female cops on tv always have. she’s not pushing back against sexism. she’s not even acknowleging it. she is a juggernaut. people can get on board, stand aside, or get run over. she is not asking your permission, and frankly isn’t interested in your opinion. when jackasses pull sexist shit, she either draws a battle line and dares them to step over it (”call me sweetheart again”) or just gives them that blank, eerie stare like she’s deciding whether to catch them under a cup and let them go in the bushes out back or just squash them with a rolled up newspaper.
she’s a misogynist’s worst nightmare: a woman who doesn’t even care that he exists, let alone what he thinks of her, and over whom he can exert no control whatsoever, not even if he’s technically above her in the chain of command, harris, you poor asshole, you are so doomed, i almost feel sorry for you.
- create a family tree for a character you’ll never get the chance to play
- make yet another tiefling
- find race and class combos you haven’t had the chance to play yet
- dig up an old character and revamp them
- make playlists for your characters. get emotional when you listen to them
- start writing backstory for your backup character
- come up with elf names by mispronouncing common words
- check your groupchat for updates you know won’t be there
- speculate on how you’re all going to die next session
- listen to dnd podcasts to both ease and worsen the void in your soul
- buy another dice set
FFXII Appreciation Week: Day Five [Favorite Quote] – “The choice is yours to make, but don’t give your heart to a stone. You’re too strong for that, princess.”
“Social media isn’t evil. There are neuroscientists in some of these companies, but for the most part I don’t think it was done maliciously. But advertising is the business model. And if advertising is the business model, our attention becomes the product. Two variables matter to the bottom line: the amount of users and the amount of time they spend on platform. And what gets measured gets optimized. So our phones have become slot machines. We scroll and scroll and scroll, and eventually we hit something that gives us a dopamine reward. It’s by design. Because slot machines make more money in the US than theme parks, baseball, and movies combined. Both Vegas and Silicon Valley know that our brains can be manipulated if presented with a certain set of choices. Obviously addictiveness isn’t the only feature of these platforms. They’ve empowered so many voices. I’d just love to live in a world where our most influential technology didn’t measure its success by the time it took from us.”
drst:
ok so i know that when we were all young fanchildren we all watched this movie and sighed dreamily. but i am here to tell u that this movie is even better than u remember
1. the main conflict in the movie is the arranged marriage. i’m gonna stop right here, because princesses in arranged marriages are a classic fanfiction trope that we are all trash for. don’t lie to yourself. but it gets BETTER. not only is there an arranged marriage… the guy she’s arranged to marry is actually a really chill dude. u like this dude. u know they would be good friends and partners. he would make a good king. but sHE DOESNT LOVE HIM!!! she doesn’t love him. and it would be so easy for the narrative to say ~oh look at this selfish girl she has a handsome titled good man ready to marry her she’s so SELFISH for wanting passion and true love, so naive~ (see fuckboys: i’m so nice and handsome why doesn’t she love me she’s horrible) instead the narrative presents her not marrying him as a perfectly valid choice and one the viewer sides with her on. the narrative supports her choice and makes it clear it was the right decision. ADDITIONALLY, the solution presented to fix the arranged marriage problem is to DESTROY THE PATRIARCHY. like???? don’t fuck with me this movie is perfect
2. literally the other main conflict is the love interest. he’s essentially a conman trying to convince mia to fall passionately in love with him so he can steal the throne. but along the way… he falls in love with her. THIS IS LITERALLY THE PLOT OF THREE THOUSAND FANFICTIONS PEOPLE
3. speaking of fanfiction…this movie is one. like, i’m not even joking. the first princess diaries movie essentially compiled the first 3 books into a movie, but the sequel wasn’t based on the books at all. disney just pulled something out of their asses and was like “this will make the fangirls happy”
4. at the beginning of the movie mia graduates from princeton’s woodrow wilson school of international affairs… literally one of the best international studies programs on the planet.. then she’s flown to a castle…where she’s a princess..and has hot men falling all over her…and wears ballgowns…like…mia is such a mary sue but somehow the movie manages to avoid making her one AT ALL
5. also holy shit??! mia doesn’t just stand around looking pretty as a princess.. she’s clearly really smart and genuinely cares about the people of genovia and does her best to serve them well even to it’s hard work… like damn mia is fucking committed to being a good queen she’s not just a princess because castles make good backdrops for romances
6. the queen/joe YAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS u fucking know u shipped that shit
7. THE ENTIRE MOVIE IS ABOUT FUCKING THE PATRIARCHY. MIA IS PORTRAYED AS KIND AND SENSITIVE BUT THAT ADDS TO HER APPEAL AS A RULER NOT DETRACTS FROM IT. AT THE END OF THE MOVIE SHE’S LIKE “fuck these rules written by old white men, i’m gonna make my own less sexist rules” AND THEN SHE FUCKING DOES?!? SHE FUCKING CALLS OUT THE SEXISM OF THE LAWS AND THEN CHANGES THEM. HELLO WOMEN IN PARLIAMENT! GOODBYE BOYS CLUBS! A WOMAN IS FULLY CAPABLE OF RULING ON HER OWN WITHOUT A MAN AND SHE FUCKING DRILLS THAT INTO THEIR GODDAMN HEADS
8. chris pine. what a hot piece of ass amiright
9. the number of times something fucking bizarre happens to mia and she theoretically looks into the camera like she’s on the office is comedic gold honestly. the maids?? flirting with her arranged husband?? climbing out a window?? the fAKE LEG!? mia is just trying to live her life but the universe keeps fucking it up. i feel u mia.
in sum i have n o idea how the fuck this movie got made but goddamn is it not god’s gift to man
You forgot:
10. It’s women working together that foil the plot. Uncle Gimli’s maid is the one who tells Chris Pine that his uncle sabotaged the romantic night out in order to discredit Mia, aka the love of his life. The last we see of her is her eating pear-flavored popcorn with her feet up.
11. Also the arranged fiance, when she dumps him AT THE ALTAR, he THANKS HER for saving him from just doing his duty and not actually living his own life.
12. Lily. Everything about Lily. “Should I shoo him or should I shoo him? Tell me who to shoo and I’ll shoo.” “My hello is insignificant. Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, come with me.”
Julie Andrews mattress-surfing.
Also this was the first time Julie Andrews sang post-surgery, when she didn’t think she’d ever since again, and the director was all “Okay, we have to get this in one take, because the actors will be emotional” but the crew TOTALLY LOST IT and still managed to get it in one take, even though apparently as soon as she started, it was just TEARS EVERYWHERE.
Also, I was reminded by Twitter that the screenplay was written by…
Shonda Rhimes.
elphabaforpresidentofgallifrey:
Simple people.
your expectations for female characters become so fucking high after reading/watching fullmetal alchemist because of shit like this. Arakawa spoiled us. Opened our EYES. The sheer wasted potential of every female character in every other piece of media…your fave could never
Taliesin, would you like to describe what they see emerge from this small stone temple?
File this under “super obvious yet I always seem to forget it.”
I don’t write romance (I totally respect people who do, though!) but this is also great writing advice in general! What is preventing the protagonist from achieving their goal?
Why can’t these two people be together now?
Why can’t the mystery be solved now?
Why can’t they overthrow the evil overlord now?
If you don’t have a solid answer for these questions, that’s a good indicator that the plot could use some more work.
Also test your answer a little bit. If it’s as thin as they’re just refusing to sit down and have a simple conversation, you might want to re-think how things are going.
As a beta reader/editor, I tend to ask this question a lot: “Why are they doing it this way when there’s a much easier path available?” That’s not to say that they should take the easier path, because that would usually be boring. Instead, the point is that the question needs an answer–either eliminate the easier path or give them a very clear reason for not taking it. (And if I’m asking the question, that reason isn’t as clear as you think it might be.)
I find it very difficult to root for characters who have a sensible option available and just don’t take it. If the only reason is “Because there wouldn’t be a story otherwise,” you haven’t actually found the story yet.
And this is why the Big Misunderstanding as a primary plot device is almost universally disliked.
i'll apple your turnover 