#(again LMM don't interact)

[grandwretch]

genuinely I was already so excited for that documentary bc it's been in production for years and he's done really great history documentaries before and my special interest almost never gets new content bc it's fucking. 300 years old now

the fact that it's going to be so star studded is at once a thrill and also gives me pause bc never does Hollywood ever get the revolution right (LMM do NOT interact) but I'm literally foaming at the mouth to see who voices who like. please God let Joe Keery voice Benedict Arnold and the doc talks about how cool he was during the Canadian campaigns I've been so good this year

also please let Washington be centrist fuck as per reality. PLEASE let them at least MENTION how integral Stueben was to winning the war.

and above all else

let be Gilbert be voiced by someone with a hot accent 🙏

[feerz]

Ranking all the Jesuses from every version I've watched/listened to so far

without further ado let's get into it 🙌

Ian Gillan - 1970 Original concept album

The True Doer that you cannot outdo. The og who made this role what it is today. And since the og album was were I got my start and obsession with jcs, I have a huge fondness for him. There's just something so- so... about him. His vocals? Insane, fantastic, the golden standard. His Gethsemane is Everything. He raised the bar so high (literally lol) and made this role harder for everyone that came after him and I respect that. I also love his characterisation. He is a rockstar and he knows it. Adore this whiny ass messiah and his dramatics. 9/10

Ted Neeley - 1973 movie

Sad little mouse man. He's like some small rodent to me. His gethsemane is iconic, but beyond it I don't care to much about his Jesus. He's perfectly inoffensive, but I find him a bit boring. Poor guy also had the disadvantage of performing against Carl Anderson, who's too powerful and who commanded every scene he was in, outshining Jesus. Tedsus is not for me personally, but he's definitely not bad. 6/10

Camilo Sesto - Madrid 1975 album

I like him! He reminds me of Ian's Jesus but sadder (love to see it). Really good vocals. That 'POR QUE' ate. And his Gethsemane in general too. I don't have that much to say besides that, but Señor Sesto is really good in this role. 8/10

James Whitson - San Jose Civic Light Opera's 1990 production

Uhhhhhhh. Watched this in a discord watch party and for half of it we were thought this was Ted. It wasn't. Don't really know what to say, there wasn't anything really memorable or notable about him. Also has the disadvantage of being pared up with Carl Anderson, except it's even worse here. If Carl was anywhere near him, no chance I was paying attention to Jesus. Um... he chased Santa out of the Temple! That's something! 3/10

Steve Balsamo - 1996 London revival album

Steve Balsamo Jesus, my dearly beloved. How can you not love him. Just rewatch his Gethsemane for the 1000th time. His vocals are out of this world, man has organ pipes in place of vocal chords. Props to him for actually crying in gethsemane and still killing it. Absolutely fantastic. And his beautiful hair and those brown eyes really add to it. He's such a sad pathetic man, it's great. No complaints 10/10

Glenn Carter - 2000 movie

I'm shaking, please buy him brown contacts. I am a glensus hater, although I have to admit that during my second viewing I didn't dislike him as much. Easily my least favourite gethsemane (lmm excluded), except his delivery of "what you started, I didn't start it", that was surprisingly good. Again, I'm a hater but bonus points for the entertainment factor. 4/10

Paul Nolan - 2012 Broadway revival

BORING! Sorry your trouple doesn't save you from being so incredibly bland. It's like looking at a white wall that has just been painted over and you're watching it dry. Gethsemane is solid vocally, I like his interactions with others. But Jesus himself? No thanks. The staging of the crucifixion was so great, but then there he is with his mouth agape like a baby bird being fed and unconvincing "suffering". Also, no blood? 3/10

Ben Forster - 2012 UK Arena tour

THIS IS THE ONE. My roman empire. My most dear blorbo. He's been living in my head rent free for months. I love him so much. He's just so incredibly stressed out and angsty and pathetic and constantly on the verge of a complete mental breakdown. His gethsemane is my favourite. Just pretty much everything I could want from a performance of it. The way he curls up on the floor? The little moments when his voice breaks a bit from emotion?? The knee thing??? Great, fantastic, stunning, no notes. Also I adore his costuming, finally Jesus is given something more interesting. 11/10

John Legend - 2018 NBC

Hot take, but he's not nearly as bad as people make him out to be. He's just fine. I do enjoy his voice, Poor Jerusalem is especially good. Although I don't love his acting in the second act, but I really liked him in the first one. This Jesus just seems really nice and friendly and I love that. Gethsemane is solid vocally, even without the G5. Anyways he's not bad at all! 6/10

Andrew Latobesi - 2018 Villanova College

This was another wildcard from the watch party. Jesus didn't stand out much because we were all a bit distracted by Judi. And Mary. He was bland and the acting was not fantastic, but this is a high school prod, and for what it's worth he's not bad. Gethsemane was solid enough considering everything. The crucifixion surprisingly hit, good crying there. ??/10 since I don't think it would be fair to rank him against all those adult professional performers.

Jack Hopewell - 50th Anniversary North America tour

The only Jesus that made me cry while watching. He suffers real good (and looks very pretty while doing so). He's just so- so... I just wanted to wrap him up in a soft blanket and give him a kiss on the forehead and feed him soup. Tbh I think he's one of the best vocally too. His high note is my fav. Gethsemane in general is just great too. Love how much he's just some silly guy who then has to face the Horrors. He's just very cute :] 10/10

Jeangu Macrooy - 2024 Netherlands national tour

The most poor little meow meow Jesus ever. He's so pathetic it's great. Him smiling and being happy was also so cute. Really good vocals too, man killed those high notes. His gethsemane too... Jeangu Macrooy absolutely steels the show and it's fantastic and incredibly heartbreaking. Want to see his performance again so so badly. In the meantime everyone should check out a snippet of his performance 10/10

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[radioshackraider]

Changes on Episode 3 of Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief

Only one episode to write about here, but still some changes made, so lets get on with it. The Changes I noticed: We don't hear the whole prophecy this time. Originally we see Percy receive the full prophecy from the Oracle, but this time we don't. We don't even get to see him being told to visit the Oracle. The oracle's prophecy is delivered differently, but that's to be expected since Gabe's poker playing is online in the show, as opposed to as a group. The oracle seems different? I want to say it was less of a full body in the books and more of a limbless torso type deal, or at least that's how I always interpreted it. Percy is given the choice of the entire camp to have on his quest, instead of basically being forced into taking Annabeth and Grover. Which, IMO, makes him choosing to pick Annabeth feel weird. They've barely interacted at this point. His reasoning for picking her makes sense, but also doesn't because it later comes up that he doesn't trust her, thanks to the prophecy. The Bus Journey only has 2 of the 3 Furies. Annabeth takes a more active role here, as well as showing familiarity with Alecto. Alecto being named is important as she isn't done so in this book originally. The Bus Journey has reminded me that we didn't see the Three Fates during episode 1. We've seen them in promotional material, but their absence so far is noteworthy, and I wish I had noticed it sooner. The bus isn't blown up, and as a result Alecto survives it long enough to hunt the Trio down to Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium. Speaking of Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium, lets talk about Medusa. I originally was going to say that she comes across as VERY different to how she was in the book, but after thinking on it, she isn't. Sure, she has a bit of a disagreement with Alecto, "saving" the trio from her, but that's about the only major change from the book. She was introduce as sweet and kind to children in need, and that's exactly what she was here. She's far more open and honest with the trio about her intentions and identity, and feels far more sympathetic as well, but at the end of the day she's still largely the Gorgon we know from the book, turning innocent people to stone and selling them. The biggest difference is how she died, which was ingenious frankly. Using Annabeth's Invisibility Cap to make it so they couldn't see her was fantastic, and the kind of thinking one should expect from a Daughter of Athena. We see someone (Who, SPOILERS, is Hermes), deliver Medusa's head to Olympus. Something we didn't originally see in the book, and frankly means nothing currently, without us knowing that Lin Manuel Miranda is Hermes. Which honestly makes it feel like a very weak inclusion. I assume it's going to pay off when we see Hermes again, but without any kind of knowledge on who LMM is playing, it kinda just feels pointless to me.

[kingedmundsroyalmurder]

Retro-Janeing: chapters 10 and 11

"It was dreadful to think you out never to have been born… that your own mother wasn't glad to have you." Jane doesn't quite realize it, I'm sure, but she is describing Phyllis' mom's experience. If I have my family tree correct, Phyllis' mother is the third of Mrs. Kennedy's children by her first husband. She knows keenly what it's like to have a mother who isn't glad to have her. Aunt Sylvia got out through marrying someone her mother approves of -- this to her is the correct path for Robin as well. Getting divorced and remarrying would get Robin out of her mother's house and Jane too. Even if it's not a love match, or a perfect marriage, it has to be better than grandmother's house. Which, of course, is why grandmother wouldn't hear of it.

Phyllis knows a great deal about this whole situation. Do we imagine she's known for a while, either because her parents told her directly or because they discuss it around her a lot? Or do we imagine that after the dreadful family conference about Jane going to the island that Phyllis' parents told her what they knew? Either way, this is so far the most functional family unit we have.

Meanwhile, I think this is the first mention of Irene, and already we set up the tension between her and grandmother. This book does this thing where it kind of throws characters at you and wants you to keep up. Blue Castle did it too, to an extent, but it had fewer characters so it's easier to keep track. But clearly it's a thing LMM likes to do -- to toss in a reference to a character and then introduce them properly later. It builds the world as more realistic -- and in this particular case serves to put the reader into Jane's shoes as the name washes right over her -- but I don't always love it. We're a ways away from it yet, but one of my complaints about this book is that there are honestly too many characters in it, and it's not helped by half of them just being dropped into the narrative one day as if they've always been there.

Do we think the staff at St. Agatha's sent inquiries to the house as to whether Jane was ill? Becoming noticeably thinner in a few weeks is generally a bad sign. Or was that kind of checking and watching not in the school's purview at this point? Wouldn't have done any good, but I am curious about a full outside perspective of Jane.

What is grandmother worried about, when she restricts Jane from writing more than once a month? I can't figure out if she's hoping that breaking the bond between Robin and Jane will mean Jane wants to stay on PEI permanently, once she meets Andrew, or if she just is so wedded to being jealous of Jane that she can't bear the thought of Jane and Robin communicating freely for any reason. (Or, possibly most likely, is she worried that Jane will be happy on the island and tell Robin as much and entice Robin to leave again?)

So Robin thinks that Andrew doesn't love her anymore. Furthermore, she has lived her whole life with her mother, and so she thinks Jane loving her will taint Jane in Andrew's eyes. After all, back in chapter one we get this about grandmother: "And Jane felt, if she did not yet know, that grandmother did not like mother loving her so much." At Gay Street, love is a zero sum game. Neither Jane nor Robin have any reason to expect things to be different on PEI.

Enter Mrs. Stanley. This book has never heard of the law of economy of characters and on some level I respect that. Like I said earlier about Irene, it makes the world feel more complete. And we don't get a character sketch of Mrs. Stanley either, beyond her name and why she's going to the island and that she isn't impressed with Jane. Which is also more true to life than some books -- our lives are indeed filled with meetings with strangers we only see once and never again. It's fun as a reader to get little sketches of every character who interacts with the protagonist, but it's more true to Jane's lived experience to know nothing at all about this woman and have her vanish from the story after this one interaction.