#I could have come up with original choreo for it but I was like ‘if we’re doing this we’re doing it right y’all are doing the official one’

[akaikami-cherryblossom]

I was dancing around to the Mackey and Kenta album and quickly discovered that B//TS’ choreo for Permission to Dance goes perfectly with Future Travel

[chuusheartattck]

THAT’S THAT ME ESPRESSO (TTME)

Chapter 18- Feeling lucky ☕️

10 minutes had gone by since Xiao last texted you. You were getting nervous since the reception desk lady has been staring at you ever since you walked in.

“Do you need something or are you going to just wait here?” She rudely asked.

What a bitch.

Just as you were about to answer, the elevator dings.

Xiao walks out and spots you. “You actually showed up.”

“I said I was sorry.”

Xiao only chuckled and began walking to the elevator. You turn to the lady and shrug before following him. You both got inside and he pressed the button for the 12th floor.

The elevator ride was filled with an awkward silence. None of you spoke a word. It had been a while since you last saw each other. The last time you tried to make plans, you did flake last minute. Not knowing what else to do, you checked your phone to see if Scara had texted you.

Nothing.

You turn to Xiao wanting to say something but nothing came out. Luckily, the elevator doors open and you walk out with Xiao following you.

“It’s over here.” He points to the left.

He opens the door to the practice room. You’re blinded by the bright lights. A giant mirror that covers the entire wall is on the right. The room being huge would be an understatement.

“I think Furina hates us because our practice room is half the size of this.” You look around in awe.

“That’s because Venti uses a bunch of backup dancers for his performances.” Xiao replies. “Plus Ei likes to go all out for the company.”

Inazuma Entertainment was no joke.

“So uh how are we going to do this?” You question. “I mean like with the performance how do you want it to go?”

Xiao sits on the floor to think. You do the same and sit down next to him.

He turns to you. “I was probably thinking something like we both do our sets one at a time on the big stage. Then come down to second stage where it’s closer to the audience for the cover.”

“I think that could work. Honestly I feel like you should go first. Your songs are depressing and mine is more upbeat. So it’d be a mood killer if you were to go after me. No offense.” You suggested.

Xiao let out a small laugh. “My songs aren’t that depressing.”

“Your newest song is one I’d listen to if I was going through a break up or something.” You replied back with.

“Like You Do is actually about missing someone.” He corrected you.

You repeated what he said in a nerd voice. He playfully rolled his eyes at you.

“Whatever. I’ll go first and we can work on the transitions to your song later. How should we do the cover?” Xiao asked.

You paused for a moment.

How DO you want it to go?

You took out your phone to look at the performance of the original singers with Xiao.

You did notice that Scara hasn’t texted back.

Maybe he’s busy?

“It looks like all they do is just stand around stage looking hot.” You mention as you turned towards him. “Do you know how to dance?”

Xiao raises an eyebrow. “Why?”

“Let’s choreograph a dance for the song.” You get up from the floor. “It’d be boring if we just stood there and did nothing.”

He looks at you for a moment before sighing and gets up with you. A smile forms on your face realizing he just complied with your decision.

“When I was a trainee I trained for dancing but I don’t normally do it for my songs.” He warns you. “I’m not sure how good I’ll be.”

You walk over to the speaker and begin to play a song.

“And that is why I’ll teach you a bit of the choreo for this song.” You say with a proud smile on your face. “I learned it when I was a trainee.”

.

.

.

As you were watching him, he actually wasn’t bad. If he was in a group he’d probably be the main dancer. It’s a shame he doesn’t use it to his advantage.

“How was it?” Xiao asked.

“I’m going to cut this short since you’re completely out dancing me.” You say pausing the music. “Let’s start making a new dance for the song.”

.

.

.

Hours have gone by and you two finally finalized the final choreo. You checked your phone for the time.

“Oh shit I didn’t even realize the time.” 11 whole hours have gone by since you had first arrived. It was now 9 pm.

Still though, no text from Scara.

What could he be doing?

“We’re basically done so we can wrap this up. Do you want to order food?” Xiao replies with taking out his phone.

“Uhh sure what do you want?”

“Anything is fine.”

“What about Wingstop?” You suggested.

“Ok.” He said while ordering. “What do you want?”

“Korean bbq, lemon pepper, and cajun.”

“It’ll come in 30 minutes.” He said while shutting off his phone. “I already paid for it so don’t worry about it.”

“Are you sure? You know you didn’t have to.” It was nice for him to pay but you were the one that suggested Wingstop in the first place.

“It’s fine.” He goes over to where the mics are. “Let’s try practicing the choreo with the singing before the food gets here.” Xiao passes you a microphone.

Just as you two were about to start, you notice him humming a very familiar tune. One a singer would hum if they were working late.

“Are you seriously humming my song?” You look over at him.

“It’s fitting for right now.”

You couldn’t hold back your smile. It felt nice that he knew the lyrics to Espresso. In the back of your mind however, you wished it was someone else who remembered.

.

It was already the end of the fifth practice and the music has just faded, leaving a lingering echo of its rhythm in the air. You and Xiao are standing close to each other, your breaths slightly heavy from the exertion of the practice.

Your bodies are almost touching, and the heat from the exertion mixes with the warmth of the room. Your eyes lock and you can only hear the panting from being out of breath. Your faces are only inches apart.

Xiao takes a small step closer, his hand gently brushing against yours.

A voice enters the room.

“Hey Xiao I got your- WOAHH.”

You both turn like a deer caught in headlights. You both take a step back trying to gain composure.

Of course it was fucking Venti.

“What are you two doing?” Venti was holding a Wingstop bag.

“Reading!” You quickly replied with.

Shit.

“Yeah more like reading each other’s lips.” Venti giggled while handing the bag to Xiao. “I picked up your Wingstop from downstairs. I knew you would be here but I didn’t know you were with Y/n. Just as I suspected, two know each other. Sorry for cockblocking though.”

You could only awkwardly laugh.

Would you have actually done anything with Xiao?

Venti speaks again. “Well since I’m here and I did pick up the food. I deserve to have some.” He says as he sits down on the floor. “Plus I have some questions for you two.”

Fuck.

You and Xiao sit down next to Venti. There’s now a heavy silence between the three of you. You both watch as Venti opens the bag and takes everything out. Acting like he paid for the damn food.

You watch Venti start stuffing his face. It was like watching a live mukbang.

“What? Don’t just stare at me.” Venti’s words could barely be audible with the amount of food in his mouth. “So how do you two know each other?”

“From the party.” Xiao said while grabbing a piece.

“You two knew each other from that long?” Venti looked surprised. “Damn. I knew something was up though. Can’t believe I was right. What are you two doing so late?”

You took a sip of your water before replying. “Practicing for the tcas. Didn’t you see on twitter?”

“No I deleted twitter for a while. Someone said I sounded like dollar tree Troye Sivan.”

Xiao snickered.

“Not funny. If anything I sound better than him.”

You and Xiao both looked at each other before bursting out laughing.

“Fuck you guys.” Venti huffed.

Another silence came. You had no idea why but it was difficult to talk to them. That is, until Xiao asked you a question.

“I’ve been meaning to ask you. How do you know Scara?”

You almost choked on your food at the mention of his name. Nonetheless, you quickly gained your composure. “He was in my same fifth grade class but he doesn’t remember since we never talked. We went to the same middle school but never talked there either. Junior year I was a TA for his math class. We would occasionally talk and I would help him cheat on the tests by giving him the answer keys. After junior prom is when we got close, and in the summer we would talk a lot. Same with the beginning of senior year.” You paused for a moment. “But during senior year he got distant so we drifted and it wasn’t the same as before. We took graduation pictures but that’s about it. I cut off contact with him shortly after.”

“Well now you’re texting him again right?” Venti piped in. Little did he know, he was being an instigator.

“Not really, we just text each other sometimes. It’s still not the same how it was before.” Reminiscing on the past made you realize how upset you were with how everything turned out. He was a dick before, and still is, but that doesn’t mean you don’t miss your guy’s conversations.

“You shouldn’t worry about him. He doesn’t seem to care.” Xiao finally spoke. “If I were you, I wouldn’t even bother.”

This confused you. “What do you mean?”

“I wouldn’t even be in contact with him still. Me personally, I would block him.” Xiao’s demeanor was different than usual. In his mind, he was panicking. He didn’t want you to be in contact with Scaramouche. It would ruin his chances with you.

None of you guys spoke after that. What was there to say? Even Venti couldn’t think of anything. It was obvious what Xiao was trying to do.

All three of you finished and Venti decided to leave right after. He only came for the food. Xiao offered to walk you to your car, the walk there was pretty quiet.

When you got to your car he finally spoke.

“Sorry for what I said earlier. It’s your choice on what to do.”

“It’s ok. Don’t worry about it.” You reassured him.

You hugged him goodbye and you got inside your car. As you were driving back home, you started thinking about how the day went. It was nice to see Xiao and talk to him, but it didn’t feel right. He was a nice guy, but you found it hard to be yourself around him. Maybe once you get to know him more it’d change.

The whole day went by and Scaramouche still has you on delivered.

Masterlist II Previous II Next

A/N: I hope you xiao stans like this chapter 🤭 I was craving wingstop while writing this if you couldn’t tell. The last two parts of act 2 will be very dramatic!! Also I created the storyline for my next smau (aka xiao centered) so i might post it soon if i feel like it ✊

ALSOOO lmk if you guys want your users to be added to this au and i’ll make you a twitter user :)

Synopsis: You’re a new idol that just debuted under ‘Fontaine Entertainment’ with your new single ‘Espresso.’ You just graduated high school which means all your classmates are shocked to see you into stardom. Including your old situationship, who happens to be an actor.

Taglist: @skyoverkill1 @quacking-simp @lolmeowing @astro-stars @kaitfae @sl-vega @scarawiki @yuminako @samyayaya @skyvella @kur0kki @practicoi @kukikoooo @scaraenthusiast1 @shutingstar @lloovvv @moonjellyfishie @miy-svz @xionri @lalalaloveallmydays @hearts4lizzzz @kathiwis @state-of-grac3 @morgyyyyyyy @scaradooche @theyluvkatt @meigalaxy @noirechomps @crimxeorcremeexistspeacefully @vxcmx @ariesloves @cayl33n @animeobsessed56 @heartsforni-ki @feikyuu @ichcocat @strayharmony943 @chscklvr @kunikissr

[giddyfatherchris]

Bunny threat

Pairing: bts x gn!reader (platonic)

Genre: crack? comedy? all good stuff haha

Warnings: None

Word count: 820

Requests: Open for stray kids and bts!

A/n: okay so funny thing. I wrote this a billion years ago, and forgot it existed (tbh i also forgot i had this account lol). Since i want to bring this page back to life i thought i could update the original version (and correct some grammar mistakes lol) and bring it back as my first official post. So here we go! I hope you like it :))

*gif is not mine

“Stop practicing and come eat!” shouted Jin for the fifth time.

You were all at the studio rehearsing a few new choreos for an upcoming performance. It was now 8:00 pm, and the delivery guy just came in with his precious cargo. As soon as the good smell of the local Korean meals filtered into the room, your seven friends instantly stopped what they were doing to rush on the food like starved men. 

“Y/N! Come before Taehyung eats everything!” urged Yoongi. You faintly heard him scold his younger brother, as he was probably trying to steal said food. 

“Won’t be long. Just let me get this last move right!”

Still in the dance studio part of the room, you just couldn’t be satisfied with the execution of a certain move. It wasn’t precise enough, and you couldn’t eat without having this part right. It would be a defining moment in this new choreo you created for the boys, so you had to get it right. 

Minutes passed, bowls emptied themselves, and you still hadn’t eaten anything. 

“Y/N, stop it now. Too much is like not enough!” advised Joon with his father-like tone. His concern and the smell of the delicious food almost made you stop, but you took a deep breath to focus and went back to dancing without a word. 

“Tae has gotten to the bowl of samgyeopsal!” tried J-Hope to make you rush in to get your hands on your favorite dish. 

“Mmmmmm, SO GOOD!” added the boy while making huge slurping sounds, though you weren’t sure if those disgusted you more than they made you envy him. 

They sat still, waiting to see if you would stop your tireless rehearsing, but you were so intent on doing it perfectly that it felt like they didn’t even exist. 

“They really won’t come to eat.” pouted Jimin while he looked at Namjoon with the saddest puppy eyes. 

“Makes me think of someone,” mumbled Yoongi, not without earning an annoyed sigh from the talented dancer. 

“Alright, Jungkook, I think we need to take drastic measures.” sighed Joonie, already wincing at the idea of your reaction. 

The youngest boy simply nodded, finished his bite, and headed out of the little room without saying a word. The other boys stared at the door, waiting for what was coming. It started with the music stopping abruptly, then you whining, “Oh please, one last time! I was starting to get it. AH JUNGKOOK LET ME DOWN! JEON JEONGGUK!” Some laughed, but they all winced when you started screaming like a lunatic. Jungkook entered the room with you thrown over his shoulder, screaming and whacking his back. He dropped you on a chair and went to his plate with the most unbothered expression. You opened your mouth to start whining again, but Jimin and Tae were faster and stopped you by dropping a steaming portion on your plate.

“Eat. You don’t want to overwork yourself, don’t you?” encouraged Jimin with a caring look. You reluctantly looked at the bowl he nudged in front of you.

“And if you faint, you will forget all the progress you have made, and you will be back to step one,” mocked Yoongi with his nose still in his plate. You rolled your eyes at his remark but still felt a pang of stress from the thought. 

“Funny, but seriously," You started getting up. "One more time, and I’ll-”                                                                                                                                                   

You were cut short by a pretty mad Jungkook as he reached for your wrist across the table. 

“If you get up one more time before you’ve eaten all of this goddamn plate. I will tie you down to this chair and feed you each bite until you’re done, and I won’t be gentle this time.” 

He uttered his threat in a growl, and just at the thought you gave up, suddenly plopping down on your chair. Once he felt your body relaxing he let go of your hand, still looking at you, then at the bowl until you ate four big spoonfuls of the dish. Only then did he focus again on his own, going back to being the cute little bunny he was. All the other members stared silently at you guys, too shocked to say a word. Until they exploded in laughter, you and Jungkook quickly joining in. The bantering followed right after, the atmosphere finally lightening up.

“Don’t be upset Y/N. We just want you to be okay and healthy, but don’t worry we'll help you with the choreo,” assured Jimin as he stood up, finished with his plate, and encouraged you to follow through. 

“Thank you, but… I still have some food left, and I don’t want Jungkook to put his threat into execution.” 

They all laughed at your comment as the brown-eyed boy on the other side of the table shot you a huge bunny-like smile.

[likeathunderoverflow]

Songs I would give my left kidney for Ateez to cover:

(and let me know if you like the picks or if you have a different suggestions, my delulu ass can handle it lol)

As a group? I seriously debated between the classic boy bands but they do so many ballads that I decided to lean more into a song that could be performed. So I chose It's Gonna Be Me by N*SYNC. In case you haven't seen the original performance, PLEASE watch it and then tell me Ateez wouldn't slay the puppet strings.

If Jongho sang Gravity by Sara Bareilles I would immediately evaporate. He would do it such justice and those light airy notes? UGHHHHHHHHHHH. But also, I would listen to Jongho sing the instructions to IKEA furniture so I'm not sure I'm the best judge.

Mingi, in the vein of being an emo kid, should definitely cover Teenagers by My Chemical Romance. He'd get to fix off and scream to his hearts content. Can you imagine the eyeliner? The tight black skinny jeans? I'm already sweating.

Ok hear me out, Wooyoung would absolutely kill He Loves You Not by Dream. The choreo? The cheeky little smirk? Absolutely finishing by dragging San on stage to rub it in our faces? Nailed it. Bonus if he gets all the guys to be back up dancers and flirts with each of them throughout the song.

Hongjoong is like the King of Covers at this point but picture this: Bad Reputation by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. Eighties punk rocker look, bringing back the mullet which I love, LEATHER PANTS. Just light me on fire now.

When it comes to San, he just has such a musical theater voice to me, in the best way possible. Which is why I would jump off a building to hear him sing Once Upon a December from Anastasia. YOU KNOW it would slap and I would be a sobbing in a puddle of my own tears. I can almost hear it.

Yunho deserves a heartbreaking love song. He's always listening to these songs like Man Who Can't Be Moved that are about lost love or trying to reconnect. His vocals demand something that can show his range of emotional talent which is why I picked The Night We Met by Lord Huron. I would be devastated but grateful.

Seonghwa is girly pop incarnate. He would absolutely slay a Britney or Christina song, HOWEVER -- I wanted to go a little more modern, maybe a little more edgy. Which is why Hot To Go by Chappell Roan was my pick. Preferably him with the pink hair and sparkly high heels.

And finally, sweet baby Yeosang. He was the hardest not only because of his lower register but also because I thought a lot about his music taste and what he might like to sing. And then I remembered that Would You Go With Me by Josh Turner exists and all I could think about were those low notes.

Thanks for reading!

[goginaporter]

rina + iconic couples in media

this is my fun way of responding to the alternate universe prompt for @rinaweek <3. rina and their parents in every universe, finding each other and falling in love. alsooo this post was slightly inspired by this absolutely brilliant edit linked here (x) and if you want rinatroyella or rinajacey edits, please lmk and I'll send my favorite ones <3333

troyella

the essays that can and have been written about troyella and rina are extensive (and I'm happy to do a longer form one in a separate post). but from being the new girl x boy who's never moved, girl encouraging boy to audition for the musical and actually commit, kissing in the rain, starring in the school musical together, to making a huge commitment to the other person on a stage in front of a bunch of people, rina is quite literally troyella reincarnated. and yeah, lots of people can argue that troyella is perfect as is, that they didn't need another version. and on one hand, i agree. but the way in which rina takes core parts of troyella's story while standing on their own as a ship is beautiful and truly does justice to the original franchise by anchoring the story around these two, both individually and as a couple, just as was done with troyella in the original trilogy. my favorite troyella parallel moment from s4!

4x01 - ricky sneaking into gina's room just like troy would come into gabriella's room through her balcony

4x02 - the note ricky gives gina in the hallway to meet in their secret staircase is just like the note troy slips in gabriella's locker in hsm to meet on the rooftop. (honorable mention to them auditioning for and getting the roles of troy and gabriella in this ep as well <33)

4x03 - of course, it has to go to their rendition of can i have this dance. their voices sound gorgeous and though the choreo they do has similarities to the original, they've made it their own.

4x04 - this one is kinda reaching but I wanted something for each ep! in hsm2, sharpay forces troy to sing a song with her, one she prepared for the talent show, instead of allowing him to go on a date with gabriella. in a similar vein, though with considerably less scheming from dani's side, dani is selected to replace gina as gabriella because she is so busy with the movie, though this is done behind her back.

4x05 - has to go to the rain kiss obviously. although troy and gabriella only ever kiss under sprinklers, it's the same vibes. there's also a still (not included in the scene) of the rain kiss of ricky holding gina's waist as she throws her arms up that's so reminiscent of troyella in the rain during cihtd.

4x06 - ricky and gina running down the hallway at the beginning of the episode feels like a direct parallel to troy and gabriella running to auditions in hsm. also rina fighting to save the show is super similar to gabriella (and troy once gabriella convinces him) pushing for the theater department to put on a show about them for their spring musical.

4x07 - they're literally playing troyella in this ep so I could say so much. i'll just use this space to talk about how much I love them in a night to remember and how much it looked like they were dancing at their wedding. I will say that terri, gina's mom, telling ricky about gina's movie with a smile on her face, reminds me a lot of gabriella's fans setting troy up to talk shit about her on camera to convince her to focus on the decatholon. also reflects sharpay telling troy about stanford, again with a smile on her face.

4x08 - again, this ep is rife with toryella coding because they're literally playing troyella, but the show goes super meta in having them sing the right here, right now reprise as ricky has just found out that gina is potentially moving across the world to film her movie, just as troy finds out about stanford and struggles with gabriella not being there for the rest of their senior year. on a much less angsty note, ricky singing love you forever to gina has the same vibes as troy choosing gabriella and going to school close to her, not to mention that lines in the song directly reference the song "high school musical" (which you can read more about here <3). gina also deciding to move the movie to salt lake is very much her "I choose basketball but I also choose theater but more than all of that, I choose gabriella" her version is "I choose filming this movie but I also choose theater but more than all of that, I choose ricky" just a beautiful perfect scene all around.

these s4 moments only scratch the surface of the troyellarina tether but i'll stop ranting for now and move on to rina's teen drama parent sets.

jacey

after s1, tim federle did an interview where they asked him about him about the ricky / nini / gina triangle, he directly mentioned dawson's creek in guiding his writing process, stating that at the center of his thought process was "how do I surprise audience members with who they're going to ship?" (x). for those who don't know the jacey lore, to make a long story short, their love triangle centered around joey, pacey, and dawson. joey and dawson were childhood best friends and joey has a crush on dawson. pacey and dawson are best friends and joey and pacey do not get along initially. after events of life, dawson asks pacey to "look after joey" at the beginning of s3, the two get super close and eventually catch feelings for each other and they secretly date as they figure out a way to break it to dawson (sound familiar?). they do break up but come back together at the end of the show and are endgame. the parallels between jacey and rina exist both on and off screen. dawson and joey were the initial endgame for the show, just like rini was the show's s1 endgame. however, electrifying chemistry between katie and joshua (jackson) & sofia & joshua (bassett) in their respective shows changed everything. rina is one of the strongest examples of continuing this legacy of disrupting the initial plans concocted in the writer's room to make way for insane chemistry. some of my fave jaceyrina parallels

rina and jacey having a formative, chemistry presenting moment in a car (rina in 1x05 during homecoming, joey and pacey in 1x during their science project)

the sheer parallels between them in 3x19 of dawson's creek and 3x08 of hsmtmts with their kiss scenes. just watch here (x) and here (x) to see. the "stop me" "wait" parallels actually make me go crazy

joey tutoring pacey in 3x09 and gina (presumably) becoming ricky's tutor after 4x06

i'm rewatching 3x09 in preparation for this and jacey has a scene where dawson catches them talking about pacey helping joey with a ballroom dance scholarship thing in exchange for tutoring and he asks them what no one can find out about and a) pacey sucksssss at improv just like gina it's like that 4x02 scene with rina and ashlyn and b) it also feels like rina with the chocolates, again with ashlyn LMAOOO in 2x04

ALSO in this ep (wow it's a goldmine), when dawson and jen catch joey and pacey ballroom dancing, they're forced to join the class and the instructor psychoanalyzes both couples. for jacey, she mentions that the tension and bickering between them suggests their underlying attraction for one another. this is literally what val (their choreographer!!) does after watching rina perform wdykal in 3x05

too much to explain for the final scene of this episode but i just encourage everyone to watch 3x09 to get the same sense of a major scene in a coat check and an ensuing apology

pacey telling joey he remembers everything in 3x22 and ricky telling gina he's never forgotten a thing she's said in 4x03

pacey telling joey that the simple act of loving her is enough for him and that she's "off the hook" and ricky telling gina that of course she has to go and be a star, as well as singing lyf not knowing that she was staying in slc, so he just wanted to let her know that he loved her for the sake of it, not to convince her of anything

pacey having to tell joey something but lying to protect her (and ricky having something to tell gina but lying to protect her (3x07)

naley

another paragon of teen drama royalty is naley. literally the best people ever and it makes sooo much sense that rina is similar to them because they're actually rina's grandparents. naley birthed troyella, who birthed rina. a beautiful family tree. anyways, naley doesn't seem to, on the surface at least, seem to have a lot of parallels to rina. a shy tutor girl and a cocky basketball player who get married after knowing each other for less than a year? (though I will go down with my headcanon that rina gets married super duper young, will not be taking any arguments). despite this, at their core, naley's love for each other is so reminiscent of rina's love for each other, not to mention some incredibly direct parallels that the two have, listed below:

nathan dropping haley home after a party & ricky dropping gina home after homecoming ("yeah, this is my house" & "so, this is where I live")

connecting over dubious circumstances (nathan requesting haley as a tutor/getting close to her to get back at lucas & gina convincing ricky to stay in the show so she could get gabriella, attending hoco with ej to psych nini out but instead connecting with ricky)

nathan putting haley's hand to his heart after telling her it's racing (it was because of drugs but still, it beats for haley) and ricky putting gina's hand on his heart after telling her that his heart's racing (i'm telling y'all this scene is the same, just with the characters and setting swapped)

alllllll of naley's s2 angst is like the intense and more painful version of rina's angst in s4

naley invented rain kisses (even if they existed before them, no they didn't) and rina obviously does justice with their own rain kiss in 4x05

when nathan proposes to haley (their first proposal), he tells her that "I could love you forever." audience, what's the title of ricky's love song for gina? i rest my case

haley being nathan's tutor and gina being ricky's tutor <3333

nathan sneaking into haley's bedroom to study and makeout and ricky sneaking into gina's bedroom to sing and makeout

nathan and ricky being haley and gina's biggest fans when it comes to their careers, putting their success over their personal feelings (nathan collecting clippings of haley's tour, paying chris to let her record music & ricky decorating gina'ss trailer, encouraging her to go to nz to be a star)

rina served cheerleader x basketball player (though at different times and both were fictional but wtv) just like naley

this was super nonexhaustive as rina also has parallels to jam, mondler, sethmer, romeo & juliet, and so many other ships. however, I'm lazy and didn't want to write all of those out. maybe I'll return to them another time, but for now, pls enjoy this <3333

[tartrat]

Night Kapyy but he's been tied up until he turns back to normal.

thus he has the mouth of a sailor like this (mainly because i thought it would be funny), so i used symbols in place of letters where i could for those words.

I had fun making this. Didn't want it to be super detailed. I also did the last two squares first and originally put names for the speech bubbles but i decided against it for the other two squares and didn't want to go back and fix them. I'm trying to get better at writing dialogue but every time i do it reads as sort of robotic. Its probably because i can't have a conversation without coming off as awkward and its just affected me when i try to write dialogue lol.

How does this work with the twins headcanon? The levitating extreme coach, or the guard, is the one who convinced Kapyy to get help which ultimately led him being sent to Wasterra where he unknowingly met his twin. Though it did take him a while to actually convince him, as Kapyy was being stubborn saying that he was fine, even though the guard could see straight through him. Like he wouldn't admit that they are friends but he cares about him. He finds it easier to talk with Talia because he isn't constantly worried about her like he is with Kapyy. Let's say Si'ha Nova personally got him to do this as she thought he was being antisocial, he's still getting payed though but at least he's probably enjoying it.

Then Night Swan got Kapyy and these two had to tie him up until he's normal again and so that no one gets hurt. Mainly Kapyy, as if he wasn't tied to that chair he'd run and do that thing that whilst running he turns his head round to taunt them and he slams into a wall like a looney tunes character. He'd eventually tire himself out trying to free himself.

Honestly i can imagine a map to End Game by Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran and Future with them as the coaches. I always thought that that song would make a good trio map. Might make a concept for that now, i know what most of the choreo would look like lol. Watch me learn blender and make it an animation or something.

I wanted to a quick bonus drawing, where Kapyy is back to normal and half asleep asking if he's back to his old self ,even though he has been for about an hour, and Talia is with him making sure he's ok, but now i want to turn my idea for it into a proper drawing. I just want to draw the two being siblings i know that's all i post and none of it really makes sense.

[wander-wren]

been listening to epic (the musical) (the concept album) a bunch and my brain has been hatching lots of ideas for how to stage it, so i will share them with you, good people of tumblr.

some caveats: i don’t pay attention to any extra streams, videos, etc, so most of my context is purely the music plus some things my friend tells me. therefore i will completely be making shit up on occasion, like in the gaps between some songs. i also know that jorge has said the dream is to do some really crazy cirque de soleil shit onstage, and i don’t really know enough about that to include it!

additionally, i will be trying to keep practicality and realism in mind, but this is still pretty far-fetched and assumes we have a large stage and near-infinite backstage storage at our disposal. to be fair, the odyssey has a LOT of different locations and you can’t make a story called epic without some massive set pieces. also, my experience is mostly deck crew, idk lighting stuff or choreography or anything, so i’m just going to try my best with that.

all onboard? epic. commence troy saga:

vocab notes

stage left and stage right refer to the audience’s left and right. upstage means away from the audience, and downstage means closer to them. midstage/center stage are self explanatory. most theatres (i think? i’ve only seen a couple) have multiple curtains that can divide the stage horizontally, called travelers. i think that’s it.

the horse and the infant

i want lights down everywhere but stage left, where there is a big sort of plywood cutout loosely in the shape of the trojan horse, with of course the interior of the horse painted on it. odysseus and a couple of his soldiers are here

i originally thought you could build a small space jutting out of the horse for them to crouch in but you would have to have some serious counterweight on the other side. it would look cool tho. even if you do do that, odysseus doesn’t stay there long because that’s a pretty cramped and uninteresting position to be in.

when the soldiers all say “yes sir!” the first time, the rest of the lights come up, revealing the city of troy, which is represented by some more painted plywood backdrops of the city at night. they’re all on wheels. the lights should still be fairly dim for the vibes, and pretty blue and orange to match the album. y’all are gonna learn quickly that i loveeee putting sets on wheels.

also more of odysseus’s men are there! as odysseus names each of his men, they do something kind of related to whatever he says.

when they say “yes sir!“ the second time, well, you can do some funky group choreo there. it’s kind of hard because technically they’re not attacking yet, just sort of demonstrating what will happen. shrugs.

once odysseus calls out penelope and telemachus…my stage had these ramps on the side next to the stairs with walls, and we would put people and sets there all the time. so depending on the theatre layout, they will appear there on stage right periodically through the entire show until odysseus gets home. throw a lil spotlight on them. bam.

naturally, when odysseus yells “attack!” the rest of the soldiers charge into the city and some trojan soldiers can enter stage right to fight them. the trojan horse flips to reveal the other side is painted like a gate/the city. slowly, the city backdrops roll offstage left, and the fighting greek/trojan soldiers move off with them. the music here will probably need to be lengthened to allow for this.

simultaneously, a room for the titular infant has been set up. probably like two half walls and a crib and a fancy decoration or some such. i’m thinking some kind of projection of like, silhouettes of odysseus to represent his vision and the eagle that represents zeus.

then zeus enters stage right and has his little convo with odysseus, stepping back to sort of dramatically reveal the crib to him. he and odysseus talk, nothing special happens, zeus spookily exits stage right as he sings his last line about odysseus choosing the blood on his hands

of note, i want 90% of the cast to be soldiers in this scene. as the soldiers die, odysseus’s little ensemble can shrink, and the dead soldiers can be double cast as the various enemies and their sidekicks. the exceptions to this are penelope, telemachus, zeus, and athena.

just a man

i want to be very specific about when odysseus looks at the audience for this one. it’s such a private, pivotal moment that i want him to avoid acknowledging that anyone except him and the baby exist. the two main points i think he can look at the audience are when he says “close your eyes, and spare yourself the view” and the “forgive me”s.

otherwise not much special in this song, its just odysseus holding a baby. he can act like he might drop it, from the wall, just so the audience is Aware, but it’s definitely important that by the end of the song what he does is ambiguous

i know the musical is meant to be sung through and so i want to avoid having moments where the stage goes dark for scene changes, but there are points where it’s unavoidable bc of the crazy set this thing has to have. so, we will put one right at the end here, keep the music real quiet for the audience to just sit and absorb this song

full speed ahead

when the lights come back up, we’ll have odysseus’s ship on stage left-centerish (odysseus should always be traveling from left to right, basically, since ithaca is stage right) and that’s all

dadada we introduce eurylochus and polities, then set for the island starts coming out on stage left for polities to comment on. the island sets can all be painted backdrops, so then theres two sides for some variety, and the same set of rocks/plants/trees arranged in different ways to show its a new place. i want the colors and things to be very bright and just this side of unnatural, because this isn’t home, they’re strange lands.

the boat can slowly be going off left as odysseus and polities make their way onto the island at the end of the song, which ofc flows right into the next

open arms

polities and odysseus wander across the stage for this, nothing exciting.

definitely can do some fun costuming with the lotus eaters when they pop up. i’m thinking of the trolls (or the hidden folk, i guess?) from frozen on broadway. but creepier, maybe

not a note but i just love this song i love polities so much <3 my bestie

once they get the location of the cave, they can start walking back left and the lotus eaters can go off, taking/rearranging their set as they do because it’s about to be a new island. lights go down there as well. odysseus slows his steps to stop roughly center stage, or center-left depending on how big the stage is. he looks conflicted about what’s just happened. polities slowly walks off as he sings

athena comes out of somewhere. i think it would be fun for her to pop out from behind the set as opposed to entering from the wings. when she says “have you forgotten your purpose? let me remind you,” lights can come up on the right, kind of yellowy? i imagine ithaca as being very yellow for some reason. maybe some flickering to represent going into a flashback.

i know it’s not the original idea, but i think having a second actor play younger odysseus fighting the boar and stuff would be best/clearest. i have NO idea how to do the boar bc i feel like it would look kinda silly any way you did it? but that happens

athena this whole time is standing outside of the yellow light, narrating the flashback to odysseus. when young!ody starts calling her out, he doesnt look directly at her (because he’s bluffing, of course), until she steps into the light, which both symbolizes her dropping the spell and entering the flashback story

young!ody leaves and athena returns to odysseus after the last chorus, as she says “i still intend to make sure you don’t fall behind.” she gets very close to him to warn “don’t disappoint me” at the end, which makes odysseus look at her stubbornly. lights down, unfortunately, for another scene change to the cyclops cave

[telomeke]

Current Tag Game

Tagged by @colourme-feral in this post – thanks dearie! 💖

Current time: 9:59am (when I started this! it's now much later but I'm not gonna re-write...).

Current activity: Had a work deadline last night so tidying up the aftermath (deleting unwanted files, etc.).

Currently thinking about: How the project submission for work went. Annoyed that I skipped gym this morning just in case there were last minute changes to the project submission and we'd have to re-submit today; but now that's not needed I'm missing legs day. Also thinking about munching on something extra because breakfast was too light (hardboiled eggs, grapes and blueberries – all originally meant as a post-swim snack, re-purposed to become breakfast since gym was canceled). Maybe fry up an omelet and sausages, or grill some salmon? 😋 Or shall I just munch on some creamy Whittaker's milk chocolate since lunch will be soon and anything heavier might spoil it? 🤔  

Current favorite song: I don't know if they qualify as favorites, but songs will enter my brainspace and then swirl around in there for a while, refusing to leave. So I'm constantly listening to them (on YouTube, not Spotify; don't have a smartphone) and/or singing along in an effort to exorcise the earworm. At the moment the playlist in my head is:

I Don't Think That I Like Her Anymore (Charlie Puth)  Charlie constantly amazes me with his superhuman ability to churn out catchy melodic turns and unusual aural takes on percussion sounds for his backing rhythms (e.g., the light switch in Light Switch). This song continues with his quirky stylings, and I'm loving the pounding bass coming in to frame the heavyweight sock-it-ta-ya message of the song's chorus after the light plaintive vocals of the introductory and intervening verses. The second (melodic) line of the chorus ("Cause they're all the same") is so simple and yet so perfectly fitting after the bold hook of the first line – I find myself asking each time I hear it how could anything else ever fit better? And then it builds and builds to a big finish, at the end of each chorus and also at the end of the song – that key change from B Major to C# Major is quite a genius step, retro yet so fresh. (But still... C sharp? 👀 OK if your electronic thingamajig can auto-transpose but hell on a trad keyboard.) I know this song is from a year ago but I'm not simply wallowing in nostalgia (oh all right, so yes I am a bit) – there is nonetheless a BL connection that first got me hooked on this. The cast of my current fave I Feel You Linger in the Air did their own take on the TikTok Kpop dance challenge of this song (linked here, with other TikToks here) and they're just so cute dancing along. Nonkul attempts a little elbow jab in homage to the original choreo, while Bright gives up after a couple of bars and just goes on doing alternating wrist twirls like those you sometimes see in Southeast Asian dance… 🤣 Alee and Tian seem like they're having fun, as does Attila, but who knew Khun Robert could actually look this good, all goofy and charming when he smiles doing a silly little jig?

‌

All I Want for Christmas is You (Mariah Carey)  Ever since Ms. Mariah broke her icy containment after Halloween (see this video here 😂) I've been singing along, getting in the mood for carols, fruitcake and Christmas decorations because it reminds me of time spent with (departed) family. Happy because those are happy times worth recalling, but also bittersweet because those loved ones are no longer around.

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One of Your Girls (Troye Sivan)  While I tend to feel a pinch of resentment whenever Aussies of European origin seem to get opportunities in the West more easily than non-white people do, I have to remind myself it's the system and not the talent that is at fault. So credit where credit is due and I'm a fan of what Troye has done with this and his earlier releases (like his video with PP Krit 😃😍). One of Your Girls is just so beautiful and languid as it teases with its message, and consistently Troye is breathtakingly beautiful and languid in the video, teasing us with an offering of the forbidden. I'm feeling things I never thought I would. 😮 The choreography is pretty daring too. (Especially that crotch flare – where did they tuck the dangly bits? I'm wincing as I watch.) Also shout-out to all the different representation with the models. 😍

‌

Then I'm Gonna Give You Up (Rick Astley)  This is Rick Astley spoofing Rick Astley (more explanation linked here) and just so funny. Especially since the original song is already iconic on Tumblr.

‌

Fast Car (Luke Combs)  Another nostalgia trip, this is an absolutely stellar rendition of the already phenomenal original by Tracy Chapman. Almost like Marc Cohn's Walking in Memphis with its sense of urgency and of bottled emotions about to explode, maybe just a shade less of Marc's full-throated growl in Luke's voice, but earthshaking nonetheless. In these 21st century times (and in my corner of the world where BL and queer rep cross my dash all the time) I love that Luke (a married man with a wife and two kids, looking for all we know like the straightest of the hets) didn't change Tracy's line "So I work in the market as a checkout girl", paying homage to the original and smashing at the gender-obsessives everywhere in a quietly powerful way.

‌

Currently reading: My language study textbooks; not much time for anything else though I do miss having a good work of fiction to keep me company whenever the slate of Thai drama dips in quality.

Currently watching: I Feel You Linger in the Air – a really impressive work, solidly-grounded in its universe with overhanging familial, social and political intrigue that threatens to overshadow (but never really does) the chemistry between Khun Yai and Jom.

I've fallen in hard love with this and just hope that Tee Bundit will display the wisdom associated with his name (for those as linguistically-obsessed as I am, Bundit is the homologue for pundit in English, pandit in Hindi and pendita in Malay) and wrap up the finale with more finesse than he has done on his other shows. (Something tells me though that the sense of foreboding you get while watching IFYLITA is partly due to the dread that Tee is going to rush and stumble through the last bits, leaving viewers less than satisfied with the ending like he did with Lovely Writer, Hidden Agenda and Step by Step.) However this goes, I'm a new fan of Nonkul and Bright's acting, and can't wait to see more of them.

As to what else I'm watching – I'm still trying to finish Only Friends, if only to be able to say that I've finally watched a Jojo show all the way to the end. It's not for me, though it has some moments that shine (like Neo's performance, and all the shirtless scenes) but I struggle to find anything that satisfies on a more cerebral level. I'm not opposed to sensuality and messy drama being foregrounded over more intellectual underpinnings (all hail KinnPorsche) but for me it doesn't go earthy and raw enough to make up for whatever else it doesn't do.

Current favorite character: Pat and Pran from Bad Buddy will always be on this list, but because I'm currently enjoying IFYLITA I'm sure I've been visited by Por Jom, Khun Yai, Khun Ueangphueng, Ba Prik, Ming and Khun James in my dreams lately (and also a certain racing piglet 🤣).

Current WIP: All in my head, but I have a final wrap-up post on Bad Buddy locations percolating, as well as one on the graphics in the show (that give us hints of Pat and Pran's interior worlds).

Tagging names I've seen more than once cross my dash and/or notes:

@neuroticbookworm @airenyah @alexis-mika @belladonna-and-the-sweetpeas @wen-kexing-apologist @twig-tea @pandasmagorica @respectthepetty @dribs-and-drabbles @waitmyturtles @dimplesandfierceeyes @writerwithoutsound @bengiyo @grapejuicegay @lamonnaie @lurkingshan @callipigio @italianpersonwithashippersheart @recentadultburnout @kattahj @theheightofdishonor @fiddlepickdouglas @dc-alves @brazilian-whalien52 @slayerkitty @silvercrystal1 @dudeyuri @ranchthoughts @suni-san @chawarin-panich @lurkingteapot @solitaryandwandering

and anyone else who'd like to play. 😍 Apologies if you've already been tagged; point me to your post if so! And apologies if I've forgotten to mention anyone; if I follow or if you follow me please know you are loved and do play along if you wish! 💖

Also a special tag carved out for the lovely @visualtaehyun as a part-apology; you've tagged me before on a couple of other games and I wrote out about half of my replies – but then work deadlines became urgent and got in the way. Ruefully I had to abandon those posts (especially since they're now weeks out of date). So this is my way of saying thanks for tagging me on those tag games, sorry for not replying, and I hope you'll play along with this one because I love getting to know like-minded people on Tumblr! 💖

[seokjinsonlyone]

most to least likely to end up with someone black

hoseok: idk i just get this feeling this vibe likeeeee it just make sense i see it like the way he carry himself like just look at the chicken noodle soup mv and tell me u can't see it and he literally has a song with j cole and if he in there with coleworld he is def in there wit da fam and then we got the whole time he had tinashe as his lockscreen and we all seen the my universe video like he took ole alien girl home idc idc and overall he just reminds me of my grandma so it make sense

jimin: no limit babe like i've seen this man bark at the thought of usher; and in general this year especially including his album jimin has just really been existing in spaces i didn't expect him to see and i am more than pleasantly surprised. like originally when i first made this he was near the bottom idk why bc he's literally performed to take you down but yeah he def up there now. like y'all remember that photo of him wit da choir for set me free SPEAKING OF SET ME FREE F YA OPPS?1!!1 HENNESSY AT NIGHT⁉️ LIKE IF BLACK PEOPLE HAD A REPRESENTATIVE BRAND OF LIQUOR IT WOULD BE HENNESSY LIKE COME ON and then just his personality is soooo i can't explain why he's all the way up here in this list properly but source: trust me bro

joon: listen we all know that joon be looking and be listening like he has a song with erykah badu with wale with anderson paak he be listening to musiq soulchild he is just made for a black woman (me) but he is a little further down on the list than i expected to put him only bc joon is just so korean and he loves korea and being korean that he might wanna keep it the country idk he definitely down for it tho we know he be looking and frfr this is just insurance for myself so if it don't happen i won't feel publicly played bc i called it but just know imma be somewhere on a ledge with my head in my hands wondering if i should do it or not okay kskslsk

yoon: u know i originally had yoongi near the bottom of the list solely bc he was a workaholic homebody and i was like he is not ending up with nobody much less somebody black if he spent all his time in his studio but now he in his social traveling era and i'm just like 🧐 bc clearly he has the ability to uphold foreign relationships (i.e. max, halsey...) and then i think about how he had all black backup dancers for his tonight show performance like i mean i'm not sure how much say they have in that kind of thing but it felt real deliberate to me and then there's the fact that yoongi just has the ability to look comfortable like he fit in anywhere like i'm thinking of that one photo where he was with one of juicewrld's producers and made homeboy look like he was the outsider in his own studio and then on tour it's clear that he got that dawg in him like he can handle his own he can handle ME which is crazy bc i be looking at men and knowing i'm way out of their depth but i'm telling you yoongi had the power to make me not look at jimin which is an insane ability so I'M JS idk if he would but he fo sho could if he wanted he got that lil poker face going so i'm not extremely confident but i can see it

jungkook: i’m not gon mention the fact that he said he liked girls with healthy sun kissed skin after that trip to la on american hustle life imma just leave that out i’ll also leave out normani at the bbmas what i will talk about is them meeting ms megan now ik jk claiming he ain’t shy no more but he still don’t be saying much except for when he met ms megan homeboy was showing up and showing out dancing talking teaching the choreo cackling for no reason man was grinning from ear to ear whole time nose got the workout of a lifetime from being continuously scrunched ALSO i mention this at least once a week but that r&b playlist he had going while he was folding his underwear???? my naega my naega u ain't listening to bryson tiller unless u is down for the cause but all this to say that it's really up in the air with him like as much as he could there is equal chance that he could not like he just got that pop propensity that sways him to the dark side but i could also see him ending up with someone east asian just as well which is fine with me or at least as fine as i can be knowing he's not with me

jin: as he is a permanent member of my bias line it really do hurt me a small amount that he is at the bottom of this list but i know my man 💅 i know mr “you can’t stop me i’m beyoncé” wouldn’t care about the racial difference at all like as long as y'all could communicate it's good in the hood and he is literally built like a black auntie like he would do so well at family functions rizzing up everybody from yo parents to yo grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins he would fit so well but like can i see it happening in reality??? idk idk he is the most unpredictable man i've ever come across so i can't say nun definitively

tae: there's a lot of reasons why he could why he should like idk man i can just see it in his eyes and then there’s like how much he loves old school soul music and his reaction to h.e.r. at the award show that shall not be named and like how he was meeting john legend and i’m also thinking about how social he is and how he likes to befriend everyone like the potential is there it's right there mind u i'm ignoring the current state of affairs but considering how enamored he is with europe like literally dressed up as a nobleman or whatever for his photobook and when he went to that old people jazz lounge and he is really into golf y'all i just don't see it fr but ya know anything's possible

[noonaishere]

Music of the Heart [J.YH] - thirty-three | Crom3r

Hongjoong was going over the notes you made for the choreos and making notes on the songs files accordingly. Maddox was sitting next to him, observing and adding his own input.

You posted the trailer for an upcoming mashup yesterday and were currently scrolling the comments to see how everyone was feeling about it. It was the tiniest of little blurbs of a trailer, but your fans were already losing their minds. You smiled. 

“We need a new name.” Maddox said.

You put your phone away. “A name?”

“A production name. We had one when--” Maddox stopped himself from saying the old member’s name, his eyes darting from Hongjoong and back to you “--our original third member was in the group. We should think of a new one.”

“Am… am I in the group already?”

“YES?” He shouted.

You laughed nervously. “Oh my god.”

“We need a new one.”

“Okay, I believe you. What was the old one? I forget.”

“I don’t want to hear it.” Hongjoong said. “He made up the name and I’d rather not think about him right now.”

Maddox looked at him, a small frown on his face. “Fair. But… let’s you and me think of a new name, t/n.” He got up and joined you at the table and put his notebook down between the two of you so you could both write on it.

What proceeded was a two hour long brainstorming session where both of you were looking up names, looking up what they meant, writing them down in case they might sound good, trying to come up with something that involved all three of you, but still trying to pay tribute to the fact that Hongjoong had been at Wonderland the longest.

You leaned back in your chair and sighed. “We should give up and order food.”

“No! I think we can do it!” Maddox said, and patted your arm.

You sighed again.

Maddox looked at the scribbled notes on the paper. “Hongjoong… Hong…Hong-something?”

“You don’t have to put my name in it.”

Maddox waved him off. Hongjoong rolled his eyes and went back to what he was doing.

“Hong…. Hong…”

“Hong Kong.” You suggested flippantly.

He glared at you. “This is serious.”

You smiled. “Hongjoong, what chinese characters did your parents use for your name?”

“Uh… I think ‘Hong’ is ‘wide’ or ‘vast’ and ‘joong’ is ‘center’.”

You stared at him for a moment. “What’s the meaning they intended?”

“‘To be the center of the broad world.’ Why? What were you thinking?”

“I thought it was a sports position like ‘wide center’ or something.”

He thought for a second. “Isn’t that ‘wide receiver’?”

You waved him away. “I don’t know sports.”

He chuckled and looked back at the screen.

“Center of the world, huh?” You thought. “Like a… like the pin that holds a compass needle to the back.”

“That’s a nice metaphor.” He said, not turning.

“Like a… like a… an immovable point that always guides you to where you need to go. Like… a guiding star, like…”

“Star Productions.” Maddox said.

“Too simple. Like…” you thought hard for a few seconds. “...Polaris? Like it’s the pole star and you follow it to find your way, and then we could put a compass in the ‘O’ when it’s an image.”

Hongjoong chuckled. “That’s way too much about me.”

“Well… I got nothin’.”

The room was quiet for a few moments, you looking up at the ceiling and Maddox reviewing the scribbles.

Then Hongjoong spoke up: “What about ‘Cromer’?”

“Cromer?” Maddox said.

“What’s that?” You asked.

“Like an hourglass. It turns on a centerpoint - so you have that aspect you want - but the sand represents like… the lots of little experiences we each have. I’ve been here the longest and you’re brand new, Maddox is in the middle, so it has the time aspect.”

“Hmm… maybe.”

“And we can write it out with a ‘3’ as the ‘e’; so it’s three of us and we all make up ‘Crom3r.”

“Oh… I kind of like that,” Maddox said.

“See? This is why you’re the captain.” You said.

Hongjoong sighed at the nickname. “Well… at least that’s figured out.”

“Crom3r.” Maddox said. “I like it.”

“It’s just weird enough to warrant a meaningful explanation, but the 3 in the written version makes that part obvious at least.” You offered.

“Definitely better than just ‘Star Productions.’”

“Yeah, I’m sure someone’s been using that since like… the 80s or something.”

Maddox chuckled and wrote out ‘Crom3r’ onto the notebook, trying to figure out what kind of font might look best with it.

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Send an ask or leave a comment if you want to be added to the tag list! 🎵

luvvvx • iamthehotdemon •  hrts4hanniehae • rachs-words •

[jiminsass-istant]

https://www.tumblr.com/jiminsass-istant/740934106304626688/bye-bye-old-bts?source=share

There’s a lot of assumptions here I don’t agree with. The west is embracing new jeans and they haven’t had physical promo like bts did. The reason why bts is not getting really embraced by the gp is cos the music they promote to the west is generic meaningless boy band music which is very unrelatable. And authenticity is a big thing in the west. If they gave Mots7 or any of their albums before that the level of promo dynamite or butter had, they would have gotten more of the gp appreciation.

Hybe is not just only promoting jk, but they were also hampering other members promo. Look at how lackadaisical they were with shipping jh, Jin & RM albums. How poorly they scheduled Face, the many issues we faced during Face era that jk never experienced. We had to tag them for basic things that a label should already know about. How they shaded jm in their own article and are several times refusing to acknowledge his no1. It goes beyond promoting one member and more into trying to stifle the rest to present an image the label has the power to make a pop star. And is probably also why they give this promo to songs the label premade and not the artist’s authentic music that the artists makes

Thanks for the ask, anon. I'll share my thoughts to your ask in parts: (and sorry for the long essay in advance, kindly read, i swear i get to a point lol)

Western GP (New Jeans vs BTS): Can I be very very honest? New Jeans music is extremely catchy and has that hyperpop element that western audiences eat up. With rise of artists like PinkPantheress, hyperpop is gaining even more popularity, and Y2K aesthetic is back. NewJeans are all that- the music and aesthetic both. I'm not sure what were their digital promo methods, but perhaps playlisting on streaming platforms? And the collab with Apple was very strategic too. Let's also not forget they have english chorus in their songs and went viral on tiktok. New Jeans are in top 5 kpop groups in tiktok. I cannot speak for NewJeans much, because I have only listened to their songs, and do not follow them.

Let's talk about OT7 songs promoted in the US first- as in Dynamite, Butter and PTD. Let's take Dynamite - a very well crafted product, basically a completely American song with American references and MJ inspired choreo. It was meant to catch western attention and did its job. But the problem was- it was a single, not an album and it didn't really showcase the range of their artistry. Yet it did the job of exponentially increasing the fanbase. It was pandemic time, people were in their rooms, with internet and Youtube. Those who were meant to find BTs, found them.

Could BTS have achieved long lasting attention with MOTS 7 promotion? Honestly, it's hard to say. BTS's music is not conventional. You will never hear a BTS song and think- 'oh! i've heard something similar', in fact, sometimes it is even difficult to comprehend what genre their songs are. A different language, a different genre, 7 different voices, with no two albums that sound similar, no viral tiktok songs. Do you know how difficult it is to crack the western market? It is a lot of information to feed. I will come back to the MOTS 7 issue later.

How does one build a fanbase for a band like BTS?

BTS's popularity and long lasting fanbase has always been formed by the story they sell. Bang PD, right from the start, wanted to show the world 7 authentic, real boys who wanted to share their original thoughts, happiness, feelings and struggles. Added to this, their underdog story. Yes, their struggles from older days are all real and valid, but knowing that story makes you relate to them. Because, aren't we all some type of underdog before we achieve something big? People have often been drawn to BTS via word of mouth, friends, 'i just wanted to know their names' and ending up watching the Taylor Guide, 'my wife took me to their concert and now all my friends love BTS', 'they taught me how to love myself' etc etc. BTS has always inducted fans who were searching for something in their lives, or are curious, or are 'willing to learn'. You cannot sit an American down and show them a BTS US interview and ask them to listen to the album and make them a forever fan. Do you know how people in the west don't watch an international film just because they refuse to read subtitles? The language barrier might be easy for armies to overlook because we are invested, but it's not easy to convince a monolingual westerner to start reading subtitles to get into an entirely different fandom.

To sum up my points above:

BTS sell their story and relatability and group dynamics, which is not possible just through basic promotion. One has to dive into BTS voluntarily and go through the plethora of content, one by one.

BTS songs are usually not tiktok viral for some reason, considering how big of an act they are. Barely any bts tracks have gone viral- BST remix, black swan instrumental (maybe), PTD dance challenge to name a few. I don't know the reason why because I have barely ever used tiktok. Because armies only interact with each other on that app and even then, they don't use bts songs as audio.

The pre-requisite is to be backed by a western label for radio, playlist, western ads etc. Because the US won't allow an outsider label to make money off their GP, simple. It just takes away the money that could have stayed with western labels.

Coming to individual member (JK) promoted in the US: I did mention in the post of mine you have linked- that Golden lacked depth. Quoting my own words directly - " While they paid attention to heavy promo, charts and playlisting for Golden, they failed to create a connection with the music- which seems highly non-personal and lacking in depth and has a non-interesting concept. The promo did do the work of making jk a common name, showcasing his talents and introducing him to the industry. But for a lasting impact, they have to create better stories with the music. Idc, army are acting too defensive when people are disappointed that he didn't write his songs. It's okay to not write, but the very least singers can do is connect to song meanings and relate to personal experiences during the promos."

And anon, you are right, to have a lasting impression in the west, one needs authenticity. Actually let me list down the non-compromisable parameters required for success in the US-

Affiliation to US based label/Connection to industry mammoths. (Give money to US/US based part of the company)

English song/ lots of english lyrics + recognizable genre

Character/ brand of the artist (which the audience calls 'authenticity', but is actually the 'brand' of the artist created by the label. People hear the artist's name and know what to expect. You hear Olivia Rodrigo and you know you will get teenage, angsty, heartbreak tracks.)

Last but not the least- tiktok push. (somehow extremely essential today)

Hybe gave JK 1,2 and 4 from above list. They tried to build up on his character, but it is incomplete and lacks depth. The character they have built for him is- Korean hearthrob who can sing and dance, inspired by Michael Jackson, the ONE member to look out from the massive band BTS (Justin Timberlake trajectory). They gave him catchy songs directed at het women, dressed him up in clothes fitting that image and made him perform live at TSX. Thanks to the massive ads and promo, people know him now. But unless he shows the true depth of his character and brand to the GP, a lot of people (non-army) won't look forward to his future works. And whether we like it or not, him not being being able to interact freely and share his thoughts in english in the interviews is still a drawback for him. (personally, i wish that was not true).

Even when some celebrities of colour get the limelight in US pop culture, it's because they are connected to the US. They emerge as this messiah for their 3rd world country, can speak english and work for US labels and production companies. The US gets to keep the money and awards, and also gets to flaunt 'diversity'. It has always worked like that when the west opened the doors for a POC.

MOTS 7 would not get GP acceptance without being backed by a US label. And would a US label ever accept a full Korean album with all Korean artists? Why would they invest in an artist of a foreign language? Can Bang PD's assistant call up US radio and get them to play Dionysus? No. But if Scooter does it, they will pay attention.

An English speaking artist can convey their feelings through words on a radio, but how will a Korean artist do that on the radio with no subtitles, to an audience who refuses to read subs in the first place? You know how the US GP reacted when Parasite movie won an Oscar, right?

Ever since 2017, BTS have tried for that hot 100, did everything they could, backed by their Korean company, tons of US interviews and what not. But at the end of the day, they had to compromise with meaning and depth and churn out an all english, MJ inspired, disco pop track which finally gave them their #1. I am not downplaying the significance of Dynamite, or saying that it's a bad song. But I simply mean that only a marked shift in genre and strategy gave them that #1.

Anon's words: "Hybe is not just only promoting jk, but they were also hampering other members promo."

You are absolutely right. The only properly done solo work was that of Yoongi I feel. He knows his priorities and influence on the company, and has always had a very strong connection to both inside and outside the company. I'm not sure if D-Day was mismanaged, though am sure some yoongi biased army will have things to point out. All the other members have faced mismanagement. Jimin the most, I feel. Even recently, there's a Weverse article where they wrote that "jhope led the contemporary dance with Jimin", in spring day. All respect to Jhope where he deserves because he is the dance leader indeed, but he did not lead the contemporary dance in spring day, as amazing as he is, respectfully.

Anon's words: "It goes beyond promoting one member and more into trying to stifle the rest to present an image the label has the power to make a pop star."

I felt the same thing. I share the same sentiment with you here. The way they downplayed Like Crazy's achievements was disappointing and hurtful. That day it became crystal clear to me that Bighit did NOT see that achievement coming. None of the member's releases was meant to make this much noise, not before their Scooter backed project. They grossly underestimated the extent army can go even for 1 member (arguably the 2 most popular members in US are Jimin and Jungkook). Honestly the type of promotions JK got would never be given to other members because the other members would NOT agree to singing english songs that have zero depth and zero connection to their own feelings. JK was willing to take up that offer because.. well it's his choice. It was a golden platter, why not take it up? His image is moldable, he can sing whatever he is given and has the talent to pull it off. No matter whom we bias, JK has been the center of almost all BTS songs, a non-replaceable voice. But at the end of the day, the reason he was the one member who Bighit wanted to stand-out from the group was, it was his consent and agreement to everything the company planned for him.

I do wonder what it would have been like if all members received that kind of promo with their own artistry. But the entire premise of them being backed by Scooter/US collapses because they refuse to sing songs written by Scooter's writers. So I also agree with anon when they said "And is probably also why they give this promo to songs the label premade and not the artist’s authentic music that the artists makes."

Instead, Hybe is focusing on the other kpop groups under them. It's like the 6 members were just given their own individual management teams to manage their solo works lol. At least, let's be glad that the 6 members are getting full creative freedom for their work. I just want their solo works to be better managed. And I hope their managers, and planners, especially those on Jimin's side have learnt their lesson and come up with a foolproof promo for their next projects. I don't expect anything from BangPD, that man has been showing a certain pattern I don't want to discuss. (solely because i refuse to think what goes on in his mind).

As fans, all we can do is support the solo works we feel connected to and support BTS as a whole in future OT7 projects.

[kassandrasdisciple]

~~~Joker: Folie à Deux Spoilers ~~~

This is hideously long, I am so sorry.

Housekeeping

I really wanted to like this Movie, I saw the first one and was sufficiently whelmed; it was certainly a movie. However when trailers came round for Joker 2 and it was starring Gaga in a musical I was hyped, she's known for her brand of choreo dancing and out-there outfits, so i thought she'd be at home in this dancing clown's world.

Furthermore Harley might patch my biggest gripe with any Joker origin story which is that they miss the point. Joker was made as a formula break. Batman, the world's greatest detective, would fight the ecoterroist, the man who loves his wife and the catburglar with facts and logic™ but the Joker was a wild card (pun intended). He was used sparingly because he had no motive other than Chaos and he was uniquely only interested in Batman, not riches or love. However for this to work he has basically no backstory, he's just the clown prince of crime, you undercut this character by weiting a backstory, and that was my biggest issue with Joker I.

The way writers have gotten around this however is by making him interesting by proxy, and they usually use Harley. We don't know much about Joker from the animated series but we do know alot about him in how he treats Harley. As such, I thought introducing her to the second movie could allow for them to remove so much focus of Arthur's backstory and inner thoughts and start building him up into the Joker of myth, filtered through Harleys eyes.

However none of this actually happened; infact so little happened I have to ask you all to watch this movie so you don't accuse me of misrepresenting this train wreck. I usually give any non-Indie project some leeway as it's easy to walk back an indie project and only waste 100 dollars vs in a multimillion project, No one wants to tell the boss you need to start from scratch and waste 10 mill, now in this case? I would've watched the final product as an executive and said scrap it all, and then fired the writers that I'd accuse of using AI. With that let's get into it.

The Good

This is gonna be meanly short but I really tried.

Makeup & costume

This was phenomenal and I don't even say that in pity to bulk the good section, I'd genuinely say this surpasses most films and shows. The costumes looked properly dulled or muddy, most looked fitted for the actors and although I'm not a historical costumer they seemed to fit? Joker firmly breaks from the current trend of fresh of the line clothes that look costumey and captures a city on the brink.

Makeup is also beautiful and this is a production for the craft to shine in, both Phoneix and Gaga are made up perfectly depending on the scene, juggling Glam, Weariness and Clown-core beautifully. I also loved the story of Gaga's clown makeup, with her slowly gaining more with each musical break from reality. However I will say I dislike they didn't go full face like Phoneix had, does feel slightly like they refused to de-feminise Gaga.

Cinematography & Sets

Also beautiful, I will preface that within the narrative your really only shuttled between a prison complex and the courtroom which is quite disappointing, however where they go hard is the musical breaks from reality, these beautiful backdrops and lighting, along with perfect use of angles is phenomenonal, my standout being the tap dancing number (I believe the song is The Joker).

My favorite shot comes early in the film and it's when the four guards are escorting Arthur in the rain and open Umbrellas in the colours of the Joker, it's on the nose but I do love that pallete and it was a cute detail.

Confirmation of POV

This is a smaller one but I was thankful they used multiple POV's. It was draining in the first one to have to second guess if something actually happened, Joker II confirms the 6 murders happened and has shots from Harley's, the guards, and other prisoners POVs, creating a more concrete version of events than it's predecessor.

Stand out performances

I will admit I have always conflated character writing and acting knowing full well that the best actors can't resuscitate a poorly written character (looking at Malekith/Christopher Eccleston) however I'm flawed so I won't comment on Gaga's or Phoneix' acting as I won't be sure what's writing and what's performance.

Kicking it of, Harry Lawtey as Harvey Dent. I feel like he really captures the character of pre-2face Harvey, a brutal prosecutor with a bit of a prideful streak. He still wants to help Gotham but he's not one to humanize villians and Lawtey's tone when he talks about Arthur envisions this perfectly.

My second pick would be Leigh Gill as Gary Puddles, I will say production does their best to cram the most jokes at a little person's expense into Gill's time on screen which im not a fan of. However when Mr Puddles breaks down over how witnessing a murder affected him; how powerless he felt and how he can't function in day to day life anymore. It really hit me, it goes in the face of the narrative spinning around Arthur, how even if he's trying to be morally neutral his actions aren't just murders in a vacuum, he hurts even those he was close with. It was an amazing scene and that was solely to Gill's performance.

The Bad

This might be ungodly long and I have to say now, this might not even be all of it.

Everyone loves Arthur

I need everyone who called Rey a Mary Sue to tell me how Arthur isn't. It is unfathomably strange how everyone in this universe believes him to be the biggest social activist since MLK. 2 years since his murder spree, where on TV he said he killed the business men for shits n' gigs and then gave a milquetoast speech on how we live in society, he still has fans, hundreds, maybe thousands. We hear before the interview his first exclusive tell all is coming soon, so assumingly he's not been talkative since. Yet he has a whole social movement, he has a movie and not just that but in the on screen scenes every character is all about Arthur.

Keep in mind that the multiple POV's make this Movie more solid that the first, knowing that the amount every character centre's Arthur is insane. Harley has no character to the extent I'm calling it Girlboss Sexism where the second Arthur lays eyes on this Jezzabel he stops taking his meds and regresses on all his progress for love. She's girlbossing because she makes the joker worse not the otherway around, however it is still Sexism because we could replace her with the 1 ring and the plot wouldn't change. I have no clue why she's so obsessed with Arthur, or why she does anything other than "I Love The Joker". Outside of singing I think she gets maybe 10 minutes of dialouge which is being generous, to call this move a dualagoist movie would be to lie.

Harley isn't the only one bending over backwards for the most uncharismatic man however. We have Ricky Meline (His prison lackey who FUCKING DIES and the cop, Arthur and the narrative forget about) we have no idea why he idolizes Arthur, actually we can include the whole prison who start kinda-riots several times in support of him.

We have the defense, Maryanne Steward, and even though it's her job to defend Arthur, the level of faith this woman shows to him is frankly dumb. Oh, also he non consensually kisses her twice, both times she's never does more than reproachfully look at him, and doesn't even consider firing him as a client.

This isn't mentioning the BOMBERS who blew up the courthouse on a vague line, the prison guard who flip-flops between getting him into music class then beating him, or the jury who cycle between distressed and sympathetic. Let's be clear this man is pathetic, he has no personality other than sometimes manic, other than that he's despondent. He should not have this much support, it feels like a power fantasy for incel school shooters.

The plot

I've gone into it above the level of distortion the plot does for Arthur but really to call it a plot would be generous. We start with Arthur in prison awaiting trial, with no Harley and we end with Arthur in prison maybe awaiting trial/execution and no Harley +stabwounds. Nothing happens. I never thought my obsessions of phoneix wright and legally blonde would have an antichrist baby called joker: folie à deux but they did and the world won't know peace. The musical numbers don't advance the plot, the entire thing is setting up a court verdict we don't hear, and the opening animation posits a question I don't think even the writers know the answer to.

In the opening animation we see Arthur the clown be replaced by Joker the clown who goes on to shoot the talk show host, we don't know if Joker also killed the 3 business men, his coworker or his mum but oh well. The movie starts and we find out the court case hinges on if Joker actually exists so they can use DID as a grounds for insanity. Let's be clear, even if Arthur has DID, in the 60s/70s he's getting the death penalty, courts don't care about mental health now, you think they did more then? Secondly even if he's doesn't you spend 5 minutes with this man and you know he's so disassociated even without medication that he's got enough grounds for an insanity case. Either way we'll never know, the opening seems pretty clear that this is DID and is seems like Joker is provoked multiple times into fronting during court, but Arthur's ukulele apology to the jury at the end seems to make the answer be he's always been fully aware, which is frankly ludicrous.

The long and short being that there are no plot threads from either the first movie or this one that are answered, open-ended or no, which for a character study movie is abysmal.

The Ending

I was actually laughing by the end, and that isn't a compliment. This started with Arthur trying to stop Lee singing, mirroring the audience's views of this sad excuse for a jukebox musical, and finished when they snuck in one last unanswered question for the finale? Why was someone visiting Arthur? Was is Lee? Why? Did she miss him? Did she want to sing at him again? Was it baby batman?

Oh yeah, there was also some random shanking Arthur. I will admit, I was surprised by how blatant an answer was given in this duology of unexplained threads of films this was. Why is the joker older than batman by loads? I think we all inferred from Arthur's billions of fans that one of them will be Joker Joker but apparently this was the one question that needed a concrete answer, we even saw how he got those scars. It was unnecessary, and honestly I would've rathered seen Arthur get the chair as a send-off. It also posses the question of if the real Joker of this universe will have the same Harley or are Gaga's days numbered? (We don't have to worry, it's tanking so hard there won't be a third one).

In conclusion, the conclusion was a perfect summation of the entire movie, that is that, Harley had no actual role, Arthur was boring yet people are obsessed with him, and we're still stuck in this fucking prison.

Rapid fire time

I don't want to expand these into full points but some further issues -

This is super harmful to the representation of mental health, I won't go fully into it because I will double this post, but as someone who has a grab bag of everything this is on the same level as split bad wise.

God's O gods why was he uncuffed for the majority of the movie.

That jury took an hour? I would've set a speedrun, also why are you letting him get closer, he might whip out a gun or worse a ringlight and a camera.

I shouldn't of watched this a month after quitting smoking, this was just a cigarette Ad.

Is that how this universe's Harvey got 2face'ed because if so that is disappointingly light.

I had to Google every side characters name because they where all so unremarkable.

Why secure Gaga and then do a jukebox musical.

They did a live broadcasted trial for the first live broadcasted TV host shooting AND DID NOTHING WITH THAT CHEKHOV'S GUN.

This was actually chekhov's military arsenal, so many things I thought they'd circle back to, like the dead lackey, the tell all, or the expose interview on prison conditions, and they went nowhere.

The opening animation was ugly I'm sorry, it wasn't even a good homage.

The musical numbers where just I feel numbers so they ground the film to a halt.

This was the first movie I've ever had to turn my phone back on just to check the runtime for.

WHY SECURE GAGA IF YOU WON'T LET HER BELT.

TL;DR

My gods this was long, I think I've thought more about this film than the writers did, my new conspiracy theory is that this was a test for AI writing of major motion films. I cannot fathom how people are defending this Movie, if you've made it this far, firstly I'm so sorry you read all that, Secondly, please let me know in detail WHY you liked this Movie. I know you exist, I've seen the reviews and comments, I want to know genuinely because to me this Movie was holistically bad, I went in with my heels set to enjoy and be the contrarian who likes it and I was swept skywards by a deluge of shit.

This film ends as it begins but with 2 hours of your life lost and a legion of your braincells lost.

Thanks for reading.

[miasiegert]

Day 2, and one workshop photo of MY work

Before I say ANYTHING, hello to Wichita folk from Chaz. :) He was shocked (and delighted) at how much people enjoyed the show and we absolutely are brainstorming things for the future. So a huge thank you for the support and kindness. It meant a ton to him (and obviously me and David as well!)

Day 2 was a roller coaster... for ME!

I'm very suspicious because everything is going so well. Too well. Things never go this well. So I decided it was time to start really stoning some costume pieces that I hadn't before while David got supplies.

Then I got a phone call, never a good sign, from David asking me could I get the padlock open for the gate.

Padlock? What Padlock?

There are no concrete answers, only a guess... but it's believed that people who share a lot to store their boats left and padlocked the gate behind them so I was TRAPPED in the costume shop (which is a completely different building/drive away from the theatre) all alone with no food and had been the entire day while David couldn't get me.

Some chaos to get a key and get out, and David decided to go to the night time run through for notes. Chaz told me to take tonight off because I went through ND hell as there was a loud beeping noise nonstop and I had to turn my headphones up louder than normal (I usually watch a show in the background--today was "Power Book III: Raising Kanan" from Starz) so it hurt then the panic of being alone and trapped.

Anyway, what I *Did* realize was that I absolutely can share a wip of Bedazzling more of the Reba!Suit because that is my costume, that has been seen onstage before, there is no actor in it, no full costume, and it's MY original design.

Way back, we had very cheap acrylic rhinestones because we were too poor for better ones. Now, we're mixing in preciosa and swarovski with some crystal and glass ones. We have not removed the acrylics YET because a lot is carefully plotted fill ins and until I have enough time to REALLY thoroughly do it, I don't want to remove any sparkle.

So, for your pleasure (or not, Idk, maybe you don't care) this is the epaulets and belt for the Gumbie Tap Suit that's my design. If you notice a few interesting things with the waistband/tail, that is because it's got four strong snaps for the waist. There's stretch but not as much as some of our other specialty fabric, and different tappers prefer different tightness. We're hoping to add some snaps as this Jenny is between sizes and really wants a snatched waist (she didn't want to take the costume off--never seen anyone so happy before!)

I will be adding gold, yellow, and orange to it. I added purple to Misto in two shades and some AB crystals.

I forgot if I said this or not but I was requested to rhinestone Misto's shoes for his song number. I can't wait to show people pictures. I'm pretty sure there will be video. The last time I saw a very flippity Misto was my first pro production where an INCREDIBLE cheerleader/gymnast/hiphop dancer was cast. It was incredible to watch. This choreo is really fun and Misto's actor's manner actually does come across as shy and aloof at first... then super excited and happy. METHOD ACTING OR JUST HYPED ABOUT COSTUMES??? The world may never know.

I think people will REALLY like Rumple and Mungo a LOT. Cassandra is FANTASTIC.

Also anyone here have Starz? I need to gush over "P-Valley" and cry over "Hightown" s3 with someone! "Raising Kanan" is good but not hitting me in the feels the same way.

[tuiyla]

Ranking potential 100th episode redo songs based on how much sense they would have made

Thanks to The Wrap we still have the list of 30 songs fans could vote on for the cast to redo in the 100th Glee episode. Now I don’t think this was the way to go and fans should have only voted on, like, 3 songs, but ~9 years later here I am to fully criticize it.

Needed to happen

1. Don’t Stop Believin’

Let’s just get it out of the way. Obviously. Obviously this was the right choice and they did it well in the episode.

2. Landslide

Are you KIDDING ME that this was an option and fans didn’t choose it imma travel back to late 2013 and THROW HANDS. Jail, jail for all who voted. Jail for a thousand years, I can’t even look at you. You choose Valerie, a song that was already perfectly fine as a Santana solo and had no emotional significance in-universe, over a potential Holly-less revisit of Landslide? I hate you all. Anyway my thoughts on what should have happened are well-advertised.

3. Born This Way

Imo this should have been the group number of the first half. But crucially, with the newbies getting big roles since that’s the point of a redo. Sadly the newbies got paid dust in the two-parter so I doubt they would have gotten to sing on this but after DSB it’s the closest we get to a fitting anthem for the group and so it’s my choice for top 3.

Yeah I can see it

4. My Life Would Suck Without You

After Born This Way we just get a bunch of other potential group numbers but crucially I would have only wanted any two out of these, tops. This song comes in fourth because of how fun the original is and how I wish we got a choreo retrospective later on as well. The OG summed up the first 13 so well and a similar look through the eras could have been fun. And this time around it wouldn’t be a quasi Rachel solo. I would have loved to hear Marley on this.

5. Loser Like Me

I find the original one really rather cringe what with Finn singing half of the underdog anthem, and most of you know I have complex feelings on the underdog themes anyway. The only reason this is so high is because I like what they ended up doing with it in 5x13. In fact I much prefer that acoustic version and again I wish the newbies could have been involved but it’s a sweet moment for the senior quartet.

6. We Are Young

I’m biased because this is one of my very fave ND numbers but I think it could have been an appropriate one to revisit. I’m not sure how different a new take could have been but obviously we need different solo distributions and bonus points if we have a mirror held up to the Pezberry moment from the original. The club is all happy and coming together and Rachel almost reaches for Santana’s hand like she did last time but then remembers they’re still feuding. Yes yes delicious.

7. Somebody to Love

Arguably one of the most important group numbers and something that could have been ripe for revisiting. Just because of the tone of the song it’s not the best group number choice but it could even be a tribute to Finn. Maybe a bit redundant to have both this and DSB.

8. Keep Holding On

I’m fine with reprising this in theory and even prefer Puck’s version on most days. I also like how both version are tied to Quinn. But I just have this bias against the original for Finchel and general s1 frustrations reasons and don’t think what they did with it in 100 was all that original. It was okay and I’m glad it made it over other songs but eh. Could have done without it.

9. Lean On Me

Similar situation to Keep Holding On and I might only be ranking it lower because this one didn’t make it. But I can see it happening though in context we’d need to tweak things to make it work.

10. Somewhere Only We Know

Hesitating about that because I really don’t think they should have redone Warbler songs for a variety of reasons. This one feels so personal to Blaine and Kurt that it would almost feel inappropriate to redo and give the new context of the whole club but at least as a song it would fit. A real teary eyed rendition. Again, my preference is as a group number.

11. Get It Right

It’s on thin ice but depending on execution I could see it. Definitely should not be a solo but tied to different storylines, preferably somehow to the Pezberry feud and Quinn’s existential crisis.

Maybe

12. Like a Prayer

These are all biiig maybes because again you only need so many group numbers and very few should have been duets or solos. But can’t lie, Like a Prayer is probably the song I wish Santana had been featured on so I’d be willing to ignore story context to hear her on it. Also has all the group number perks of songs mentioned above.

13. Defying Gravity

Eh, not a huge fan of this having been featured except for Mercedes also getting to sing it. But I don’t see a reason why we needed another two solo version from Kurt and Rachel and the Jonesberry conflict they squeeze in to justify this is not only forced but leads to one of my least fav scenes. It’s okay, they sound good, I get the significance. It’s an eh.

14. Dog Days Are Over

This is our first one where I really am just like, why mess with perfection? It was perfectly good as a Mertina duet and if we don’t have them repeat it that’s rude, and if yes I’m not sure what the new twist could be. Not saying it had no potential but I think it’s one of those cases where the OG is good enough.

15. Toxic

Apart from being the greatest song in existence there was no reason to redo it. The OG had no huge story or emotional significance. BUT, the execution of the revisit was much better than anything I could have anticipated. It’s here in the middle because truth to be told, as much as I am a hardcore Toxic fan I would not have voted for it. Am I glad Toxic s5 exists? Omg, hell yeah. But I think if we take horny reasons out of the equation there’s not much left there. The UHT are iconic but how about we give them some friendship scenes instead. Can’t believe I’m coming across as a Toxic s5 anti lmaooo to be clear I am very, very happy we have this performance. I just have to also think outside the horny box.

16. Bad Romance

So again, why mess with perfection. I don’t see a need to redo it, not with a different context and definitely not with different singers. If we want to revisit a Lady Gaga song, do Born This Way.

17. Bust Your Windows

Why mess with perfection coupled with a plain...why? It’s only a maybe because it is a better option than the songs in the last category but honestly, barely. I don’t see a context where I would have needed a rehash of this.

18. Valerie

Sigh, okay, so do I mind that we have a Brittana duet version of Valerie? Of course not. And I think the context the writers came up with is actually really good and sweet and the Brittana fan in me loves that. But we didn’t need another Valerie. Heather keeps up with Naya on it and the dancing with Jake and Mike is fun. But we simply did not need Valerie again. I’d like to highlight the why mess with perfection point again, as well as pointing out how Valerie had no in-universe significance. In the fandom, it’s Santana’s signature solo but it’s just not backed up in universe with that significance. Again, they made a cute Brittana moment out of it but I’ll die on the hill that this duet should have been landslide. Or rather, I’ll die on the snow covered hills amiright.

19. Forget You

Wow this is really, really thin ice now. It might slip on a banana peel right down to the bottom category. I don’t know what the concept would have been but we don’t need Miss Goop to do it again so I can only think of a big (actual) group number and again, the newbies featured. It just didn’t have the weight of the other group numbers though. A big, big big maaaybe. I guess if we have to have Goop sing.

Who would want this

20. Dream On

Who thought this should be revisited? And I like this GCV but I don’t think to myself, man I wish the Glee Club did Dream On. Several people would have sounded great on it but that’s not enough to hit my criteria.

21. Gives You Hell

What a baffling choice. Particularly in season 5 where Finn’s passing casts a shadow on everything. Once again, maaaybe for the newbies but why would they care for this song.

Actually, it’s mostly the same for the remaining songs. We didn’t need revisits, they weren’t that iconic and held little overall significance:

22. Safety Dance

23. Sweet Caroline

24. Raise Your Glass (I can’t believe this one made it as the group number of 100 omg that’s so mad, why would ND care about a random Warblers song)

25. Take a Bow (WHO wanted this)

26. Hey, Soul Sister

27. Telephone (why?)

28. Total Eclipse of the Heart (I’m glad it was cut)

29. Imagine (no no, no thank you)

30. Roar (are you KIDDING why would they revisit something they performed 5 minutes ago)

[boysplanetrecaps]

Boys Planet, Episode 7 Recap Part 2: Law and Man in Love

Ok! It’s time to recap some more performances from the second mission of Boys Planet! In this recap, I’ll be covering the first two groups from episode 7 -- Law and Man in Love. Let’s do it!

Feel free to skip to 3:25 to get past the recap and teaser and the promise not to cheat. Our first team is…

3:25 LAW by Yoon Mirae and Bibi

The guys come out and say hello. Stylist noonas did ok here, though I don’t like the stuff tied around Zi Hao’s and Hanbin’s waists -- looks uncomfortable to dance in. 

As they’re introducing themselves, the judges talk about how it’s a team full of good dancers, and how Park Hanbin is a really tough leader. 

Just wanted to give Lee Yedam a little love. Look how cute he is!

The host asks Han Yujin what was the toughest thing about rehearsing, and it’s time for a flashback.

Just as a reminder, our team of lawbreakers is: 

Trainee name (rank)   Star Level test Challenge 1 age final star level

Han Yu Jin (4) Kick It /Backdoor - K / 15 ⭐⭐⭐

Park Hanbin (22) The Real /Hot Sauce - K / 20 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Wang Zi Hao (29) Veil /Kill This Love - G /21 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Na Kamden (31) Rush Hour /Backdoor - G / 21 ⭐⭐⭐

Lee Ye Dam (42) Gambler /Love Me Right - K /20 🌟🌟🌟🌟

When we last left them, they were a bit worried about who would handle the rapping, but they were confident that Kamden and Yujin could write the rap, while the other three would make up the choreo. 

Now it’s time for them to rehearse in front of the judges. We find out that Han Yujin couldn’t sleep the night before because he was that worried about which dance judge it would be. 

Look, I know it seems like I’m joking around about how much I hate that dance teacher when I draw horns and goatees and stink lines on him, but seriously, this is upsetting. Han Yujin has obviously been studying dance and performance for years, so he’s used to getting negative critique at least sometimes. But he’s only 15 years old, and this dance teacher has fucking TRAUMATIZED him. Yujin is outright terrified of him. 

When that abusive shitforbrains walks into the room, Yujin says, “my heart almost exploded” from fear. In fact, Yujin is so scared that his heart is pounding so hard that Kamden can feel it even through Yujin’s shirt and ugly windbreaker. (Lee Yedam, on the right, also looks pretty scared -- look at the set of his jaw.) 

This really isn’t cool. Hey dance judge? If you’re out there? Fuck you. Fuck you for traumatizing young adults or really people of any age. And for what? What was the point of it? It’s counter productive. Yujin dances better when he’s confident. Nearly all of these trainees already want to do well, so you’re not motivating them. Because of you, even amazing trainees like Yujin live in fear of being scolded. This is straight up abuse and I don’t know why it’s tolerated.

Ok. Deep breath. 

So the Law team is going to perform for the judges, and Yujin is on the verge of a panic attack, and it’s just his almost supernatural self-control that gets him through it. They perform well, and the judges say they do it really well, but encourage them to change it more to make it their own. The judges ask to see their original choreo, so Yujin has to show the choreo he made up himself. We also see Wang Zi Hao present his choreo, which is obviously very krump-styled and powerful, but we don’t linger over it because only Yujin gets a storyline. The dance teacher compliments them, and gentle happy music plays, like Yujin has triumphed over adversity, but like, he hasn’t. He just has been doing as well as he always has, and this time, the judge didn’t assault him. That’s not a triumph, that’s… absence of assault. 

The staff member asks him whether he’d rather have LipJ or Fuckface at his next training session, and he says the latter. And you might say, oh well if he wants to work with the psycho, he must like him deep down, right? But the thing is, there’s such a thing as a trauma bond. Children are often weirdly loyal to abusive parents, and many partners are loyal to domestic abusers. It’s a thing that happens, and doesn’t mean that abuse doesn’t also exist. 

We cut to the big group trainee self-eval show, and this time, Yujin sort of chokes and the whole team kind of falls like dominos. They get a lot of negative feedback and decide they have to work harder. So next we have a montage of them training like crazy, with the formerly blue-haired Park Hanbin pushing them to do the moves over and over and over. 

I’m trying to think why Hanbin’s methods work so much better than Matthew’s, and I think it’s because first off, because he isn’t following an abstract schedule he made up ahead of time. That’s important. But also, he always presents what they’re doing as something they’re doing because they all want to. It’s not him making them perform - it’s reminding them they they all want to do this, even if right now they’re tired. He also is pushing himself at the same time, and not micromanaging their every breath.  You’ll notice that the other trainees really respect and like him, and it really feels like the respect goes both ways. 

Performance

The original, on street man fighter 

The full cam 

This is a pretty great song -- if I were a dancer I think I’d pick this one.  

My Take

Well, that was great. Loved it. I even watched all five fancams! The flag thing was kind of unnecessary but really, it was great overall.

What’s kind of funny is that watching the full version, I think Lee Yedam stands out the most. He’s great -- he moves so well, with both power and lightness, it’s great. And obviously Wang Zi Hao is fantastic too, so much strength and agility, when the camera actually deigns to show him to us. But when I was watching Yedam’s and Zi Hao’s fan cams, I’d get distracted if Park Hanbin or Na Kamden came into frame. Especially Hanbin, who brings so much life and personality to his performance. I’m not saying that Hanbin is the best dancer in this group, but I’m saying that his fan cam is the most fun to watch of the five, and Kamden isn’t far behind. So yeah, it’s weird -- the full cam edit seems to favor Lee Yedam, but Park Hanbin and Na Kamden are waiting in the margins to steal your attention, like bias wreckers. As for Han Yujin, for me I guess he may have even been the weakest just because this song is powerful and he looks too reedy and young for it, to my eyes. But I still think he also did a great job, and his unexpectedly deep voice in the rap was a nice surprise. 

All five of them did a great job, really and truly. Yedam, Zi Hao, and Yujin brought it with the dance, Kamden did great with the rap, and dance and stage presence, and Hanbin had the facial expressions and leadership to bring it all together. So many talented trainees!! I would have pressed A for all of them. If I was only allowed to vote for one of them, I don’t know what I’d do. Cry, I guess. And then I’d probably vote for Lee Yedam because I think he needs the support the most. 

The Editing

Oh man, this is like, Yujin’s very own music video. Everyone was great, but it’s Yujin who gets most the focus and the instant replays. It’s kind of irritating, honestly. I like Yujin, and I’d like him just as much if MNET wasn’t focusing on him so much. I mean, even during Lee Yedam’s killing part, they focus on Yujin.Later on, when Yujin does that little kick move, with the breaking glass noise, honestly it barely lands in the full cam version, but they play it THREE times and show FOUR different reactions to it in the edited version. WHY? 

There’s also some focus on Hanbin throughout, in a way that also feels heavy handed. They also show this shot of a woman at 16:53 clearly shouting “Park Hanbin!” (You have to read her lips but it’s obvious.) 

They also focus way too long on Yujin’s ending fairy move that he apparently stole from Sung Hanbin. I DON’T CARE. Unpopular opinions: I don’t like ending fairies. I think it’s weird and getting weirder. Like, we’re just codifying Kpop performances so much that all these weird little aspects of them are getting more and more exaggerated. It’s like, Fisherian runaway selection or something, and it’s getting out of hand. But I digress.

The Voting 

So, the boys are waiting in the folding chairs of doom to find out who did the worst. Hanbin expects it to be him, but it’s poor Lee Yedam. He gets 608 votes, which seems to be a high score for the worst on a team, but obviously it’s not what he wanted. You can tell he’s heartbroken, and his team is astonished.

God, Yedam is trying to smile but he’s so devastated. It looks like Hanbin, left, is smiling, but trust me, he’s not happy that Yedam got a bad score. It’s an incredulous smile, not a happy one. Yedam interviews that he wonders if he doesn’t stand out on stage. Aww, Yedam!!   

I’m trying to figure out why audiences don’t really respond to Lee Yedam. Part of it might be that he’s largely been ignored by MNET all along. But I also think it’s because he’s kind of short. He’s 5’4 or 5’5, and that’s fairly short for a guy. It doesn’t bug me at all. I’m pretty short myself, and I’ve learned that it’s a lot easier to be with a shorter guy -- physically, I mean. You can reach each other in the important ways. So, short girls of the world, give short guys a chance! 

But yeah, I am reluctantly coming to terms with the fact that Lee Yedam is probably not going to make it much further in this competition. That’s a shame. The guy is pure, 100% talent. 

So who won? Turns out it was Hanbin, with 757 votes. I mean, I get it. I also loved his performance, and he’s ranked reasonably high --22nd. Also, he did show his abs that time, and that might have moved the dial a bit. 

Everyone is really happy for Park Hanbin, especially Na Kamden, who graciously says he was really happy that Hanbin won since his leadership helped the whole team succeed. And again, the reaction of the other trainees tells you a lot about the kind of person Hanbin is -- it really seems like he's universally liked.

Hanbin, who in the past was a bit blustery about his talent, seems to have calmed down a bit and gotten a lot more humble. I think he was blustery before out of anxiety -- I bet he’s like me, calmer when he has a group of people to lead. He gets the last word: “To be on the stage, all five of us took on separate roles. And everyone played their roles well. I think all five of us did a really great job.”

20:24 MAN IN LOVE by Infinite

Huta calls up the next team and mentions that they’re even performing with a live band. The judges begin singing the song, and Onestar sings it in a particular way to mock Red House Jung Mingyu behind his back, so that’s… nice. 

They come up, and Huta asks Kim Tae Rae 💖what their goal is with the performance, and then this happens:

Backstage, the judges say, “Kim TaeRae used to be a really good singer,” and I’m like, “USED TO BE?”

It might be a translation issue, but I don’t think so. So, doobly doobly, it’s time for a flashback!

I’ll remind you that our men in love are: 

Trainee name (rank)   Star Level test / Challenge 1 /age final star level

Kim Tae Rae💖 (11) The Real /Back Door - K /20 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Jung Min Gyu (27) My House (Red) /Very Nice - K /23 🚫

Lee Dong Yeol (40) Who /Very Nice - K /24 ⭐

Choi Woo Jin (51) Nunu Nana /Hot Sauce - K /18 ⭐

They’ve elected Dongyeol their leader, probably because he’s a member of Up10tion (along with our now free-flying Lee Hwanhee). Their sitch is that Dongyeol is a decent singer but not fantastic; TaeRae is great; Mingyu is LOUD; and Woojin is sort of… lost.  

Flashback to first training session with the judges. Kim TaeRae 💖is so excited to train with Master Lee that he’s standing there smiling like this.

So they sing, and TaeRae 💖sounds fantastic, and Dongyeol sings… he sings fine, I mean he’s mainly a dancer in Up10tion. Mingyu is loud. 

Woojin’s rap is pretty bad -- it makes Anthonny make this face -- 

And it’s all what it is. Right? 

But no. The judges aren’t happy. 

That’s Bobby from Ikon the left, with a stuffed animal wearing a jacket that matches his jacket. Heck yeah, why not. 

If you don’t know, Bobby is great. Bobby’s been on ever reality show, he’s done all the things, he’s Bobby.  Ikon sings “Love Scenario” and “Killing Me” and is pretty great, though it sucks that they lost BI. Bobby is a genuine rapper, and he’s also a YG guy, so he got married and had a son and stuff and his agency didn’t even care. Maybe that’s his little son’s stuffie? Or maybe it’s his. Bobby don’t give a fuck. If you don’t love Bobby, you should, because he’s super talented and super sweet. 

Side note: we catch a glimpse of I-chan among the waiting trainees, with an eyepatch over his right eye. That’s, what, the fourth trainee on this show this season who had to wear an eyepatch? What is happening at MNET? Is the ghostly hand coming out of the cabinets at night to poke them in the eye?

When it’s TaeRae’s turn to hear from the masters, it seems that they’re criticizing the style of his singing, rather than the quality. They say he’s “pulling the sound back” which makes him sound too old, and elongating the sound a lot. I don’t understand what the criticism is about, but it seems that TaeRae understands. But I think he’s disappointed that he didn’t get praised. I’d feel like that too, in his shoes. When it’s the ONE thing you know you’re good at, it’s nice to get praised for it. 

Later, they find this poster in the hall:

The show is pixelating out who wins and loses, and I’m just giving you the direct translation I got online. I think “fodder” is a funny term for last place!

Anyway, we find out that team Man in Love is the “fodder” team and that Choi Woojin is the “fodder” member. (It’s also incidentally revealed the General Park Gunwook is the “first class member”.) The members of Man in Love are understandably a bit worried. But Dongyeol says that at least they had the lesson today to help them understand their problems so that they could work on them, and I think that’s a great way to look at it. Good job, leader Dongyeol! 

We see them rehearsing, and TaeRae 💖is trying to alter his singing style to sound lighter. We also see TaeRae helping Mingyu sing better, and Dongyeol trying really hard to try to help Woojin with his singing and rapping. 

Dongyeol is still helping Woojin later on in the dorms, with TaeRae assisting. 

Also, Dongyeol is still wearing the official pajamas! Cute. 

As we head into the performance, TaeRae’s voice over tells us that they still have a ways to go, but  they helped each and grew as a team, and he hopes they’ll have a good performance. 

The Performance

The original 

Man in Love came out in 2013, same year that gave us Hush by Miss A, Ringa Linga by Taeyang, Rum Pum Pum by f(x), I Got a Boy by SNSD, and Growl by some group called Exo. To me, it sounds more old fashioned than any of those songs do -- that’s not a criticism, just a comment. 

The raps:

Woojin

Every morning (yours), every time I think (my heart), 

you took a step closer (at your step), your scent penetrated before I knew it. 

Mingyu

Why are you so kind when you eat (when you eat), at night (when I sleep), it all starts with you

I froze up. The moment I saw you, I wanted you. Do you want to go to my house? 

Cute, Mingyu! 

My take

Well, you guys know how I feel about TaeRae💖.

It was both delightful and a tiny bit disappointing. Most of the time he sounded wonderful, but his high pitched ad lib sounded a little strained, as we’ve seen in his other performances. (But his falsetto oooh was lovely). I also think he might have been a little nervous because sometimes it sounded a little like he was running out of air, especially in the first few lines he sang. That isn’t to say he didn’t do well here, because he absolutely did. Like I said, a lot of the time he sounded amazing. And um, there’s this.

Even when he’s exhausted and having to hold that stupid ending fairy for ten minutes or whatever they have to do, he still looks like this. I can’t. 

Ok, there were other guys on this team, right? Well, there’s Dongyeol, who held down the fort as lead vocalist and leader. He did exactly what a lead vocalist should do. Red House Mingyu did a lot better than I thought he’d do, and was actually fairly on key, though it didn’t exactly sound good. He gave off a “someone’s uncle came up with the group” vibe. And poor Woojin. When he sang he actually sounded nice, but the rapping was unfortunate. I guess he kind of fell on his sword, because no one else in the group was willing to rap? I think he improved from when he first rehearsed in front of Bobby, but it still was pretty bad. Aww, poor guy. He’s not a bad singer, but oh boy does he NOT have a sense of rhythm.

If I had been voting, I would have pressed A for TaeRae and Dongyeol, but I think I would have had to press B for Mingyu and Woojin. I think that’s my first actual genuine press-B moment of these recaps. And of course if I had to pick a favorite it’d be TaeRae💖. 

The editing

Solji says that TaeRae sounds like Master Lee, and Master Lee kind of nods. 

When Mingyu sings, they show the judges kind of laughing, but in an approving way. Then when he raps “Do you want to go to my house?” of course they have to cut to blue house Bak Doha, and then get reactions from tons of other trainees.

We also see this blonde girl in the audience at least four times -- her sign says Kim TaeRae 김태래.(That thing that looks kind of like an H is an “ae” sound.) 

If a blonde foreigner likes him, shouldn’t YOU??????????????????

Afterward, the judges say that without TaeRae the team would have been in trouble, and repeat that TaeRae sounded like Master Lee. We don’t hear a kind word about Lee Dongyoel, which is a shame because he really did a good job doing the kind of thing he’d do in an idol group -- singing decently but not ostentatiously, looking cute, and being a good teammate.

Dongyeol interview that Woojin and Mingyu did well, and it’s true that they were on key and ok to listen to. Woojin actually sounded nice when he sang. 

The voting 

We cut to the crowded room with the folding chairs of doom. The first place got 740 votes, and of course it’s TaeRae💖.

Not a single person in the room or watching at home is surprised. I do want to know, though: who are the 100+ people who pressed “B” on his performance? Do they not have eyes or ears? Maybe they’re just the kind of people who hate everything, or are there to only vote for their single trainee they like, like maybe Ricky. (No hate to Ricky -- he seems like a sweetheart -- but his fans are a bit nutso.)

Lee Dongyeol interviews that he knew that TaeRae would win from the beginning. I like Dongyeol -- he seems to have his shit together as a person.  Mingyu says that TaeRae played the main role in the song, and thus deserved to win -- I think Mingyu is also a really decent fellow. TaeRae says he’s grateful that his team believed in him, and that he hopes he can join the next performance too. Naturally, we don’t hear from Woojin at all, because MNET hates him. 

And that’s the end of this recap! See you in the next one, when we cover Rush Hour. I’ve gotten the impression that Rush Hour is going to be a mess so… yeah!

Thanks for reading, and if you’re enjoying the recaps, and you want to, feel free to share them wherever you think you might reach people who’d enjoy them too. Or not, it’s fine. I’m glad you’re here. :) 

[its-your-girl-geekerella]

My Issues With the New Matilda (Spoilers Ahead)

Before I start, I have a disclaimer: I haven't seen the original musical, but I did see the first regular movie from 1996. However, I had listened to some of the songs prior to seeing the musical. Anyway, onward!

First of all, I liked this musical. A bit disappointed, yes, but still, I liked it. Oftentimes, I feel that creators of redone musicals or movies tend to miss the point of the original.

Matilda is supposed to be a story about a girl who finds that she doesn't have to put up with everyone's unfairness in the world, so she does things as her own form of rebellion. She helps kids in her class, as well as helps her teacher get back what was rightfully hers. In this musical movie, however, she's already basically found herself, she's a genius, and the only "moment of exploration" she goes through is when she finds out she has telekinesis, which isn't an internal thing at all.

Literally, within the first ten minutes of the movie, she's rebelling against her parents.

Matilda doesn't really learn any lessons, which I find weird. Matilda says, "if people do mean things to you, you can just do mean things back," to which Mrs Phelps calls after her, "two wrongs don't make a right, Matilda!" (Matilda then responds, “Unless they do. In which case you've just made a right out of two wrongs," which I think is the best line in anything ever, but that's beside the point.) Later, Matilda is about to do something (I really don't remember), and Mrs Phelps' words come back to her. However, nothing bad actually ends up happening, and Matilda doesn't have to face the consequences of her actions. So what was the point of Mrs Phelps' warning?

Another thing I want to talk about is Matilda's relationship with her parents. The entire time, Matilda is struggling with them (mostly her father), with them telling her that she's a dirty little rascal and never appreciating her, even from the day she was born, because she wasn't a boy and she liked books.

In the end, she has a moment with them that felt extremely weird. Her father actually calls her "his daughter," which is a redeeming moment for him because he kept calling her a boy the entire movie. She asks, "Did you just call me your daughter?" I definitely thought one of two things was going to happen: either 1, Matilda was going to reject him and say something like, "I am NOT your daughter! You have disrespected me for years and..." etc. OR 2, Matilda was going to forgive him in a wonderful father-daughter redemption arc.

But neither of those things happened. Instead, Matilda just stands there while arrangements are made for her to live with Miss Honey. THEN--here comes another father-daughter missed opportunity-- Matilda helps his hat finally come off his head, and he says thank you. And then...

No, actually, that's it. Nothing else happens. He leaves and that's that. Like, WHAT?! There was so much they could have done with this scene! So much opportunity! Even if Matilda were still to live with Miss Honey, they still could've had a cute little moment with her father. It just wasn't redeeming enough for me.

Lastly, I'd like to speak on these "revolting children".

The entire time, Miss Trunchbull is talking about how "Children Are Maggots", and how evil they are. Obviously, this is incorrect, as children are disobedient at times, but not necessarily EVIL. However, I find it extremely sad that the entire time, Miss Honey tries to convince her otherwise, only for Miss Trunchbull to be proven correct. As soon as Miss Trunchbull is scared off, the children sing a whole song about how they're revolting and trashing the school.

You spend a good portion of the movie trying to get rid of this woman, just to prove her right anyway???

Anyway, the songs were bops. I know everyone loves Revolting Children, but personally, I loved Quiet and My House. My other two favorites were When I Grow Up and Naughty. The School Song was really clever. The choreo was banging as well.

Overall, the movie is really good. Despite the weird relationship and character arcs, I really enjoyed it and have seen it twice.