Melissa Wyatt

I'm a writer who writes things and this is where I write things about writing. And a couple of other things sometimes. Website: melissawyatt.com

[cherryysundae]

[guqin-and-flute]

i am reblogging this yet again because not only is it stunningly beautiful but its just such a lovely transparent moment of anxiety and uncertainty hes made so vulnerable by seeing sizhui with wn and knowing that this secret hes kept for so long is a hairs breadth from coming out you can SEE him panic and then Make The Decision to let it happen because what would be the point of stopping their connection? and he knows what its like to lose connections with loved ones. he wont take that from sizhui just to avoid the inevitable but you also see him think hard and fast about wwx saying he’ll stay back with them because he knows it would be all over and they would all figure it out of they were all three alone together and so many people argue this was stupid or mean of him but i will say again and again they are in *danger* trying to evade and catch a criminal mastermind who seems to have it out for wwx it would be extremely risky and imo cruel to spring a huge emotional piece of news on wwx when he does NOT have time or bandwidth to process it and you can see in this moment that it costs him to make that decision he wants wwx to know. he wants these two people he loves to find each other. he wants wwx to have peace knowing sizhui is well and he does not want to have to answer for keeping it from him but he will handle it. because it’s not the right time and i just love him so muuuuuuch (via @jingyismom)

[melissawyatt]

The other thing I always wish someone would bring up when people criticize LWJ for withholding Sizhui’s identify from WWX is that he is also considering Sizhui’s mental health. Sizhui does not remember who he was or what happened to him because it was so traumatic. He has trauma-induced memory loss and you don’t just say “Hey, WWX’s back, do you remember when you lived with him and then all your family members were brutally murdered in front of you and you were left for dead? Good times!”  You know that telling WWX would ease his pain but at what expense to Sizhui? Isn’t it kinder to let Sizhui recover his memories in his own time, which is exactly what LWJ did and it turned out well for everyone. Always trust in LWJ.

[pterribledinosaurdrawings]

[melissawyatt]

Too many times.

[grey-marsh]

I finally decided to start watching The Untamed and the opening so far looks like a 90′s PBS show

[melissawyatt]

It’s just what happens.

[out-in-the-open]

Lan Zhan Smiling What we can gather from this is that Lan Zhan’s biggest weaknesses are Wei Ying and little children.

[melissawyatt]

Lan Zhan’s gentle smile is a grace and a benediction.

[nprbooks]

In these scary times, writes our pal Glen Weldon, some people lean into the crisis and read the scariest stuff they can find. As a coping strategy, that’s FINE – but, “the rest of us are looking for exactly the opposite: art and culture that reassures us that things are going to be okay, that offers us a happily ever after.”

Check out Glen’s list of comforting things to read and watch – but one note: The movie version of The Princess Bride has the happy ending. The novel, though richer, is considerably darker.

As you wiiiiiiiiiish!

Petra

[melissawyatt]

I don’t get why this needs a trigger warning. The ending of The Princess Bride novel isn’t any darker than any fairy tale. In fact, if anything, it offers a realistic and ultimately more hopeful message than the blithe, blind “True love conquers all” of the film. I’m not one of those “the book is always better” people but in this case, it’s true. Sorry, lovers of the movie, but the film isn’t just different, it shies away from the themes of the book in an odd way.  The theme of the film is "True love conquers all. The theme of the book is "Life isn't fair." There is a lovable cheesiness to the film that is always winking at its own theme. "Ha ha! Twu wuv conquers all! But don't take this too seriously!" It won't touch the theme of the book but at the same time is abashed at its own theme. While the book also laughs but says "Ha ha! This isn't real--oh, but it is. It's real and it's not going to be exactly what you want it to be and that's life, kiddo." That’s not dark. That’s an arm around your shoulder and a trusted voice telling you that you will get through it and you will be okay. The movie can’t wholeheartedly commit to its own theme because it knows it’s nonsense. Many of the choices that make the film what it is but that diverge from the source material are in service to this shift in theme. Take Wallace Shawn's Vizzini. An out-of-the-box choice, he's hilarious. But at no time is there any sense of menace. Vizzini ought to be menacing. Did you ever for even one split second think it was a remote possibility that Wallace Shawn would cut Robin Wright's throat? Me neither and that's a problem. All the way through, I was never really afraid for any of the characters. 

Again, it's because of storytelling choices that diverge from the book. The movie doesn't want you to worry because true love is going to conquer all. The book wants you to be prepared because bad shit happens to even the strongest, the bravest, the most beautiful. 

See that's another thing that was dispensed with in the movie, the superlatives. Great sections of the book are devoted to discussing Buttercup's beauty and where she stands in world rankings of beautiful women throughout her life. The movie only gives us Robin Wright's face.  And it's not enough because it's important to know how very beautiful she is. In the same way, the book tells us that Fezzick is the strongest man in the world (and how that came to be and what it meant to him) and Inigo is the greatest fencer who ever lived and Vizzini the smartest. Until Westley comes along and defeats all of them until he, too, is taken under. It's important! But if you don't know the standings of the others, you miss the thematic significance (or what should be the thematic significance.)

Let's talk about Inigo and his iconic line "Hello, I'm Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." Cool line. So much cooler if you know the backstory. Oh, there's a backstory? Yes and it's bitterly heartbreaking because life isn't fair! Sure I know it was only a 1h 38m film and they couldn't include everything but Inigo has one of the most powerful journeys in the story and that iconic line doesn't gut you the same way if you haven't lived through the pain Inigo lived through. 

On a lesser level, making little mention of Count Rugen and his obsession with pain undercuts the terror of The Machine and what it does to Westley. The scream that lingers in the air and guides Inigo and Fezzick to him doesn't send chills down your spine like in the book.  Again, this lack--even fear of depicting and addressing real menace and real anguish creates not just a story that isn't faithful to the source but a story that is saying something else.

Even the frame story serves to underscore this. The film presents a crusty grampa bonding with his sick grandson because love conquers all. The book gives you a distracted distanced father who can't connect with his son even though he presents him with a gift of the heart.  We never learn if it works because that's how life is. It's uncertain. It's unfair. But it's more fair than death.

(And now on to some less exalted quibbles I have with the movie) WHY wasn't the sword fight on the Cliffs of Insanity filmed outdoors? It ought to be sprawling and exhilarating but it's hard to be sprawling and exhilarating when you are confined to a 20x20 soundstage in between papier mache rocks.

And the trek through the fire swamp looks like they kept cutting and sending the actors back to walk through the same set over and over. Don't get me started on the "lightning sand." It's snow sand! And there's an agonizing three page fight for Westley to find Buttercup and pull her to safety where in the film, they disappear and you wait and 10 seconds later, they reappear and Westley doesn't have to painstakingly remove the snow sand from Buttercup's every orifice so that she can breathe. Trivial? Maybe but it's important to know how harrowing that journey was for them when it ends in futility.

Etc. etc. So many little details that all lend themselves to the expression of the original theme.  

[melissawyatt]

A proposal to adopt “Lan Zhan” as an official endearment, like darling, sweetheart, babe. “More cream, Lan Zhan?” “Thank you, Lan Zhan.” “Kiss me, Lan Zhan.” And/or as a substitute for a breathy sigh of contentment. *snuggles under the blankies* “Ahhh, Lan Zhan.”

[melissawyatt]

Where all the hot eight wing bat king fan art at?

[recycledmoviecostumes]

This gown, first designed for Olivia De Havilland to wear as Catherine Sloper in the 1949 film The Heiress is said in the film to be “Cherry Red.” However, it was very common for costumes in black and white films to not truly be the same color described, especially as red often appeared black on black and white film. It makes sense that the gown would have been made a different color, and when it appeared again in the 1958 film Vertigo , we can see that the gown is a light purple with gold accents.

The gown was used numerous times in Vertigo, both on people and in one of Hollywood’s most famous props - the painting at the center of the film. Several paintings were made for the production including an unused version with Vera Miles as Carlotta, where she is very clearly wearing the dress. The dress appeared in the final painting for the film, as well as the painting replica of Midge Wood, as played by Barbara Bel Geddes. The dress appears in person in the film as well, being worn by Joanne Genthon as a woman hired to be “Carlotta.”

After that, the gown went on to be used three times in Bonanza. It was used two times in 1961, first in the episode The Courtship, on Julie Adams as Helen Layton, and then in The Countess on Margaret Hayes as Lady Linda Chadwick. In 1962 it was worn by Nina Shipman as Trudy Coombs-Harker in the episode The Mountain Girl.

Costume Credit: Melissa, James, Ann-Mari

E-mail Submissions: [email protected]

Follow:  Website | Twitter | Facebook | Pinterest

[melissawyatt]

Recycled Movie Costumes used my submission! (I’ve seen every episode of Bonanza way too many times.)

[melissawyatt]

Gusu Lan Sect | Which Mo Dao Zu Shi Sect Do You Belong To? (Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation)

Come and take this quiz to see which cultivator sect you are most suited to!

I’ve taken three of these now and get the same result so it must be true. I belong in the Cloud Recesses. Nothing to be done about it.

[helly-watermelonsmellinfellon]

You know, the only hyper-unrealistic thing in “The Untamed”(that Chinese show currently on Netflix) is that they sit in random wet/messy places, in pure white clothing, and it is never stained or smudged.

[melissawyatt]

Are you suggesting dirt would dare? To touch a Lan robe? 

[melissawyatt]

Yuzuru Hanyu's WORLD RECORD short program at Four Continents | NBC Sports There's such a story here. I relate to this so strongly and thought some of my creative friends might, too. Two-time Olympic gold medalist Yuzuru Hanyu, at the peak of his abilities, has struggled in the seasons following his historic 2018 Olympic triumph, and it's fascinating to consider why. Injuries aside, in the 2018-19 season, he decided that he would pay tribute to two skaters who inspired and influenced him, Johnny Weir and Evgeni Plushenko, using the music from one of each of their past performances for his short program and free skate. But the programs never quite came together and after an injury at Cup of Russia, he withdrew from the rest of the season.

But believing that he had not done justice to the programs designed to honor his idols, he brought both back this season and...still couldn't make them work. As a long-time fan, accustomed to seeing him not just interpret the music but to almost create it as he skates, it was difficult to watch him labor with what had always been effortless. And he stopped winning. Fans argued that he was being criminally underscored, which is true. But what can't be denied is that something was missing. And then abruptly, just before this week's Four Continents Championship, the news was leaked that he would not be skating Otonal and Origin but would instead revisit his Olympic programs. And...

Hanyu skated his short program today and it was transformative. Or maybe it was re-formative because it was a return rather than a change. From the opening movements as he closed his eyes and felt his way back to who he really is, almost literally shrugging off an ill-fitting skin, to the final spin, one hand reaching upwards, the other on his heart, reminiscent of a mea culpa and a promise. It gave him yet another world record but it also gave him back the thing that had been missing from those other programs, the thing he had lost: himself.

Still a perfectionist, still aiming for a goal no one else can see by saying he had hoped for a 112 score, when the 111.82 he was awarded was enough for a world record, that's just Hanyu. But it was Hanyu as Hanyu, not trying to be anybody else that achieved what is uniquely his.

For me, there are two lessons here. One is a lesson I learn over and over and that is that the ultimate job of the artist is to find the work that is theirs. When you find the work that you and you alone can create, that is when you are most yourself and you achieve that flow across the ice. As tempting as it is to look at those we admire--or envy--and think "That is what I need to be doing!" we can never fully reach that goal because, simply put, we are not that person and we don't bring their unique experiences and responses to the work. When we try to be someone else, when we pull on a skin that is not our own, we falter, we fall, we lose our connection with the work and through the work, the audience for the work.

The second lesson is that we sometimes mistake stubborn adherence to a goal (or to work that is not our work) as a positive trait when that kind of tenacity can hamstring us. As with Hanyu's self-imposed perfectionism which did not initially allow him to walk away from work that clearly was not serving him, we can lose a great deal of time and effort when we are blinded by the belief that quitting is always bad and wrong. That's not to say, of course, that you should abandon every project the moment it gets tough, but understanding why a project isn't working and recognizing that it isn’t working because we are at odds with it are valuable tools in avoiding frustration and allowing us the opportunity to find the work that we should be doing instead.

[redgeot-side]

The Untamed🐰EP3

[melissawyatt]

Look at that shitty little smirk on WWX’s face at the start of the gif in the bottom left corner, as he checks LWJ’s face to see if his words have hit home. 

[melissawyatt]

Fanvid - Wangxian - Every Little Thing He Does OMG. 

[ateex]

that mask looks hella uncomfortable

[melissawyatt]

The silver insignia on the Lan headbands, too. You can see the mark it left on Wang Yibo’s forehead in the tumble-out-of-the-icy-cave scene.

[draconym]

Sometimes I have an entire conversation with Ripley before stepping back and realizing how cool that is.

I arrive home late from a potluck and the house is dark. From the bottom of the stairs I say, "Hey Ripley, I'm back."

"Wanna come out," he answers, which is a pretty standard reply when I first get home. It's midnight, way past his bedtime, but he hasn't been out of his cage at all today because we're dog sitting my mom's very untrustworthy dog (with whom Ripley is unfortunately fascinated). So I say, "Sure."

As I walk into his room he lifts up a foot in a way I recognize as meaning "I'm ready to step onto your hand," so as I open his door I say, "Let's go in the kitchen." I offer him the chance to poop in the trash can, but he declines with a small clicking noise. I ask him if he would sit on a chair, but warn him that first I need to move Coat Shirt off of it (shirt is his catch-all word for clothing), and he makes a little "hm" of acknowledgment.

After he steps onto the back of the chair I say, "I've gotta go downstairs, can I leave you up here for a minute?"

"Okay," he answers as I leave the room.

Upon returning I say, "Thanks for waiting in here." It's taken years of practice for me to talk to Ripley like he's a person (he is), but now it's second nature. He gets insistent if I'm quiet for too long.

"Do want a carrot," Ripley says, leaning toward the fridge.

"I can get you a carrot." My usual reply when he asks for a healthy food. I hand him a baby carrot from the fridge.

He takes a couple bites and shakes the carrot around gingerly in his foot. "I like it."

"I'm glad. Can I touch you?" I reach out to pet his back but he gives me a subtle look: a twitch of his pupils and a fractional declination of his head that means "no thank you." Ignoring this is a serious offense.

"Okay, no touch. A kiss, then?" He leans toward me and squints: an invitation. As I lean back, he makes a trilling sound and smushes the top of his head against my face. "Thank you," I say.

After several more kisses I ask him what kind of bedtime treat he wants. "A peanut."

A lot of our conversation is verbal, sure, but a good deal of it is also nonverbal. Most parrots don't talk, but all of them communicate with their flock in very precise, intentional ways.

[melissawyatt]

Do want a carrot. 

[baoshan-sanren]

I made a comment to someone a while ago that I don’t believe Wei Wuxian to be a romantic. And I still don’t. Nothing I have seen in the novel, cql, mdzs, or the mdzs donghua has led me to believe otherwise. But this person also said they don’t believe Lan Wangji to be a romantic either. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about that since then, and came to the conclusion that they’re wrong. So, behold, a list of reasons why I think Lan Wangji to be the most hopeless romantic that ever walked the earth: 

He kept the bunnies Wei Wuxian gave him and worried about taking care of them (novel)

He adopted a child Wei Wuxian cared for

He burned himself in the same place where Wei Wuxian was burned

He hid Wei Wuxian’s favorite alcohol under his floorboards 

He injured thirty clan elders trying to protect Wei Wuxian (novel)

He got whipped thirty times for injuring the thirty clan elders (novel)

He got drunk and wanted Wei Wuxian’s flute (novel)

He composed a fucking love song and sang it to Wei Wuxian

He sided with Wei Wuxian over every sect and clan, even his own

He spent 13 years searching for any sign of Wei Wuxian (novel)

Feel free to add your own

[melissawyatt]

Lan Wangji isn’t a romantic? I mean, I guess not because anybody can be a romantic. But our Lan Wangji, he’s actually the king of the romantics. He teaches romanticism to would-be romantics. He’s the PhD of romantics. He’s Dr. Romantic. He’s Romantics R Us. The dictionary definition of romantic (n)? Yeah, he wrote that. He’s the seer in the temple of romance who knows all romantic things. He smells of strawberries dipped in champagne and lifelong devotion. 

[heartsoulbreathe]

Did you know that your interests are really cool?? The stuff that you find fascinating and the little facts you know aren’t lame. They’re what make you passionate and that’s a really cool thing

[melissawyatt]

Don’t encourage me.