#I’d like to do more stuff involving Alex

[arsonistsam]

Time and again, the women in Supernatural are either treated as disposable objects or manipulative bitches.

to all the fridged and frigid bitches x Mother- Florence + The Machine

[boneyardbob]

Whoops I said I’d post this like three days ago my bad. Head canons for the masks in Marble Hornets! I may post a bunch of shorter stuff that are general headcanons soon. Also if you want more details on this lmk I’d love to dive deeper @forgottenporkbun @monszsterz

Here's my headcanons for the masks. Honestly I could go on like a huge, rambling essay about why I think these things, my inspo for these ideas, down to the details of what they feel like and how they work but Imma try and keep this short. I plan to put all that other stuff in my fics anyway and if you're reading this you'll probably wanna read my MH fics so you'll figure it out eventually. The idea that Tim and Brian made their mask with stuff from Hobby Lobby is REALLY funny but I have to stick with the idea the masks are gifts from The Operator (TO). Tim got his in college because if he was given it at any point while in the hospital, it would probably be found and taken away. TO waited until Tim was free before gifting it. Its when their "relationship" begun. TO switched from this unfamiliar, constantly looming monster into this warped guardian angel. This is obviously very fleeting because by the time Jay runs into Tim in MH, he's forgotten this entirely, or repressed it, and is back to viewing TO how he did his entire childhood.

During the tail end of college, while filming Alex's project, is when this Masked Era began and it ended for an unknown reason a quarter of the way into MH. My timeline isn't great but roughly that's the situation we're talking about. This is when we get all those videos of Masky and Hoody stalking Jay and Alex. I don't think I could fully call Tim and TO's relationship that of worship but that's the closest I can get. Tim knew what he was dealing with was some kind of unimaginable creature, but it could feel human emotions FOR HIM. At least if he listened. If Tim did what TO wanted, then in return he got benefits. At some point he understood TO needed him-either to keep living or to stay grounded to earth, and things got a little extra toxic. I imagine its a LOT like the Fears and their respective Avatars in TMA. I use you to get food, I give you powers that make it easier for you to get food, win win.

These benefits were really only accessed when wearing his mask. The more he wore it and the more work he put in for TO, the better things got. At the very least it instantly cleared up his lungs so he could breathe easily, he no longer suffered from migraines, he didn't have any hallucinations that weren't purposeful messages from TO, and most debilitating affects from mental disorders were gone so he wouldn't feel depressed or anxious. Fuck if I had a magical mask that made me neurotypical and took away my chronic illness I'd kill people in the woods too/j. More benefits were added on with time like growing stronger, healing faster, its kinda giving the vampires from Twilight ngl. My RP partner and I make a LOT of Twilight vampire jokes about them. It also spiraled Tim into a euphoric mania, giving him the energy and desire to sprint around the woods all hours of the night. This was an addictive sensation that had him craving his mask. He had to share it with someone.

His closest (and really only) friend at the time was Brian so he opened up to him about it and eventually got him involved. Because of Tim's medication and natural resilience to TO he eventually got OUT of this cult-like situation but Brian couldn't. He got to the point he was constantly under that mask and if he took it off for long enough, he'd probably suffocate and die. This explains why he ends up homeless, constantly in his mask state, and seems to have uncanny abilities. He just disappears into thin air, he seems to be doing physically GREAT despite living on a mattress in the woods with no source of food or money, and we only ever hear him cough. That ties back into my idea their vocal cords melt due to the TO disease. He can take the mask off for short bits of time. Its not like an astronauts helmet, more so an oxygen tank while hiking a tall mountain.

[hkthatgffan]

I recently had the chance to message legendary Gravity Falls fan artist @kiki-kit about her work on Lost Legends. This is the transcript of the questions I asked her. You can watch the full video where I go in more detail on stuff below!

Full Video Here!

This July will mark the 5 year anniversary since the release of Gravity Falls Lost Legends. So, as we near that, I thought I’d try and see if I can get some more information about the book as a way to celebrate the occasion. So, I decided to reach out to a person who not only worked on the book, but is a Gravity Falls fandom legend as well.

Prior to even the D23 announcement of the book, Alex had tweeted out asking people to send him examples of work from various fan artists. From these, he picked a bunch of artists from the fandom to contribute to the book. One of these artists was Kiki-Kit. Long time fans will know that name instantly as Kiki’s art is some of the most prolific and most widespread GF art out there and so her being part of the book was a truly deserving achievement for an artist of that degree.

In Lost Legends, she was the illustrator for the story Don’t Dimension It. She’s still somewhat active on Twitter, so I sent her a DM, asking if she’d be down to answer a few questions. After a few days, she responded.

I asked her 6 questions and also got some close friends who also are fans of her work to send some too. Here’s what we talked about...

Question 1: How did you get involved with Lost Legends and how involved with the book were you?

I remember way back when Alex had made a tweet asking everyone who their favorite fan artists were, and he had specifically asked for comic artists. I wasn't on Twitter at the time, but I know a few people had put my name in there! I wasn’t really expecting much to be honest, but about a month or so later I received a dm on Tumblr asking if I wanted to be part of a "gravity falls anthology", and I screamed.

Question 2: Were you aware of the stories in it beforehand (both the one you worked on and others) or did you get sent prompts or rough ideas by which to base your work for it off?

Nope! I didn't know anything about anything before I received the script several months later, all I knew was that there were at least going to be other comics alongside mine.

Question 3: Were there any stories or ideas that didn’t make it into the book that you know of? This can include whole stories that never made it in or just ideas or cut parts from stories, like a cut scene from Don’t Dimension It.

The only story I knew of before the book came out was my own, and I'm pretty sure that the script I had been given had already been through the wringer, so aside from a couple shortened lines thanks to comic restraints, not much changed script wise.

Question 4: In relation to question 3, would you be willing to share anything from your work on LL that would be okay to be public now? Like behind the scenes stuff that perhaps was not in the B&N version of it?

Before there was Stanbel, there was a hideous akira-blob Mabel. She lives on only in my nightmares.

Question 5: How do you feel the story you worked on (Don’t Dimension It) tackled Mabel’s character (given at the time Lost Legends came out, Mabel’s reputation in the fandom was in a weird place) and did you find the story to be fitting or out of the ordinary for Gravity Falls in terms of approach and execution? Basically, did you feel it was a Gravity Falls like story or more so leaning in terms of fan service or not too GF like?

This was a question I really wanted to ask, mainly out of my own personal interest in knowing more about the choices in terms of why the Mabel arc was done the way it was in Lost Legends. And Kiki gave a really interesting response….

I was of the group that felt like Mabel was a bit too selfish in the show, I still enjoyed her character and loved her a lot, but I was hoping for an apology from her by the time the show ended. I knew that the story I was drawing was going to be divisive among the fandom, and I had already accepted the fact that there were going to be people who really didn't like my story, but I liked it! I wouldn't have said that Mabel caused the whole of Weirdmageddon, but I otherwise felt like the story was pretty solid and a nice little end to Mabels character!

Honestly, as the years have passed since that book came out and my take on the Mabel situation has matured as I have as well, I agree in a lot of ways with what she said. There was definitely room for a story that corrected Mabel’s character in ways, but I also feel the story went too far in making her out to be the cause of Weirdmageddon. It was a strange approach that the story took to be honest, but I’m glad we both agree on it while also still enjoying the book. And finally…

Question 6: Overall, looking back on it, do you feel Lost Legends still holds up well as a Gravity Falls book, or do you think the book could’ve done a better job in either storytelling or what stories it focused on? If the latter (or even if you got any), what stories would you have wanted to see be told in the book or have done differently if you were the writer?

I still really love the book a lot, but maybe I'm a bit biased haha! If I was to change anything about it, I would've really loved a story dedicated to one of Stan and Fords sea-fairing adventures, or at least some sort of future story set a few years forward, but I'm otherwise happy with what we got! I'd be even happier if the comics had continued though, like those IDW mlp comics, that would be niiice, but alas! I doubt it.

So agree on that honestly. It would’ve been great to see a Stan and Ford story or something in the future. Though I personally would’ve loved to see a Wendy story or maybe even a Mabel and Ford bonding story more so. It’s just one of those fan hopes I really had then that never did transpire I guess, eh.

Now, for some extra questions I asked Kiki that came from friends who I mentioned this too…

First off, a bonus question I asked her…

Are you still in touch with Alex or any Lost Legends contributors? And considering The Owl House references that were in the book, did you know or find out anything about the show back then that you got to be early on in the know of?

Ahaha, no, I haven't really spoken at all to Alex since the comic release, and I never really got the chance to talk to anyone else involved in the comic outside of the editor Eric. The burn-out I was left with afterwards made it hard to reach out, and that coupled with my already really bad social anxiety kinda didn't do me any favors haha. As it stands, the comic is but a star in my resume and a large part of my heart. Maybe Alex remembers me, and maybe someday I'll get to work with him again, who knows! As far as TOH goes, I only knew about some issues Dana was having with the shows opener at the time, from what Alex told me, she really fought for that nice fly-through shot! Any other information I knew beforehand had nothing to do with the comic and more with I have friends that work for Disney and did a little bit of stuff for the show, lol

Friend Question 1: What was the experience like being asked or approached for helping with the comic and how did you go about planning the pages?

Like I said, when I got the message I screamed, I was excited for weeks, but I didn’t actually get the script until I think august or september? Drawing a comic from a script is pretty straight-forward, each panel is given a brief description and dialog if needed, from there all I had to be aware of was the flow of how someone reads it, it's sorta like a zig-zag down the page. Start from the left, work your way to the right, and so on. Screen direction and dialog bubble placement help a lot in getting it to read nicely. Personally, I feel like I still have a way to go in my comic drawing abilities, but I think I did pretty well for someone whose still fairly new to it!

What I find interesting about this answer is that Kiki-Kit mentions August or September 2017 as the time when she got the script. So, almost a year before Lost Legends came out. Which is kinda surprising as this shows that the book was already written out by the end of that summer. Which means that when Alex revealed Lost Legends at D23, he pretty much had already finished most of the book by that point. That’s an interesting insight to learn.

Friend Question 2: This one's more fandom related given at the same time LL came out, there was also the Grunkle dating sim. How did you get involved with the game and how did you come up with the sprite art designs?

Oh my god haha! Okay, so, funny thing is that the time I worked on the comic ended up between my time on the dating sim. @sovonight was the one who organized the whole thing, and she came to me asking if I wanted to work on the sprites, and I enthusiastically said yeah. Once the general story events were laid out, we all started brainstorming what it was that we wanted the boys to be wearing. Really, more specifically, what Stan would be wearing. I'm pretty sure his blue shirt/white pants combo was mostly inspired by his blue hawaiian/white pants vaca outfit from an episode in s1, and everyone was really digging the biker jacket a lot haha we were going nuts. Stan basic outfit was the hardest to get down honestly, every other outfit was super easy to figure out, but it was all a group effort! In the end, I designed the sprites before the comic, and they were the first things I finished afterwards.

And that basically was everything. I wanna give a huge thank you to Kiki-kit for taking the time to answer all the questions I had. She was very insightful and shared a lot about the behind the scenes aspects of Lost Legends.

She was super enthusiastic about her work on the book too which I truly respected and it really reminded me personally about the excitement I had then for the book which I guess I’ve kinda forgotten about over the years. I have such fond memories from that time and it was great to learn a bit more about the book that now rests on my shelf, from someone who worked on it. I can’t believe it’s almost been 5 years since then.

But with that said, this was my Q&A with Kiki-Kit.

If you’ve read up to here, then thank you.

[celticcatgirl2]

Gender and sexuality and how they can change over time can be such a funny thing so I had one friend as a kid who at the time had just came out as lesbian (tho now I think they may be transmasc of some sort ot another but I’m not 100% sure so I’m just using they/them) and I was at the time sorta trying to very awkwardly perform straight male identity^tm and like faking stuff I just wasn’t really actually experiencing to feel normal but I was also like not an asshole about gay people. So anywyas they had said soemthing when where hanging out at Barnes & noble and we where looking through calendars and there was one with some scantily clad women on it and this friend was Liek “oh I like that one…don’t judge I have needs you know!!!” And I to both try to I guess show support and also do the middle school performance of “yeah I’m totally doing the normal teenage boy things” was like “nah I get you it’s rhe same here ” even tho it WASN’T at the time like that at all a thing I was actually personally experiencing. Which feels also like an odd story cause now I DO have my own experiences of attraction and aesthic appreciation of women (albeit still probably not quite the same way due to the idiosyncrasies of my aspec stuff) that I could probably connect with more authentically.

I kinda wonder what happened to this person they where pretty cool and talked about like marvel stuff with me in elementary/early middle school we kinda lost contact and I don’t really have a way of getting back in touch r but I wish I did I kinda just in general have fond memories of hanging out as kids and kinda wonder how we might be able to relate now espically if them being trans in some way like I vaugely heard is true…

Heh this was just gonna be a funny story about childhood that’s even funnier with how the people involved’s identity’s changed over time but I I geninuely miss my old friend now….

I Remeber they were into My Chemical Romance and knew all about Umbrella Academy WAY before the Netflix show….they liked the teen titans cartoon and identified with Raven at the time (tho there’s a strong possibility this part may have changed) I hung out at their house and we watched like the 2000s X Men and Elektra movies and also scary movie I’m pretty sure, before they came out as lesbian out parents would tease us about “liking each other” but we where really just friends and it was just needlessly awkward.

At that bookstore some weirdo evangelicals tried to prostiyze to us and I was trying to comfort them after the fact and we ended up laughing at the whole concept.

We had a pretty cool music teacher we both liked allot in our small private K-8 cause liked all the DC Marvel stuff like we did (and in their case I think they knew more about like actual music stuff too lol)

I know this is a long shot I don’t even know if they’re ON tumblr but I’m gonna tag a bunch of relevant terms and see if they’re out there. If you’re NOT this person please reblog and boost this and increase the chances of them finding it…and if you ARE this person idk if you Remeber me but I’m Alex we went to High Point together, you probably changed allot from what I vaugely heard at the end and well I have too perhaps in similar ways I’d love to reconnect with you and catch up and see we’re where both at now. You were a pretty cool friend and I genuinely hope you’re thriving now I know you’ve had allot of difficulties over the years and I genuinely wish the best for you….

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

For Taskmaster s18e03, I said I’m not liveblogging that one, because I was exhausted after a long and shitty week that involved a significant spike in anxiety, and once I’d finally reached the weekend and could have some blessed relief from trying to go to work through this, I just wanted to curl up under my weighted blanket and passively consume my comfort show. The week of Taskmaster s18e04, there was no liveblogging because I didn’t watch the episode that week, because I was busy dealing with a significant escalation in the sudden spike in anxiety issues, having panic attacks at work, terrified of losing my job, getting called into a meeting with my boss to discuss my “performance issues” such as [list of anxiety symptoms that included “hand wringing” and “rapid breathing” and other things that I normally try incredibly hard to cover up at work but it turns out that two weeks of being too burned out and anxious to mask is enough to ruin everything], became unable to function for a bit.

Anyway, today there will be liveblogging, because I saw a doctor, got a prescription for new anxiety meds and a note for six weeks of medical leave from work, so suddenly, I have a ridiculous amount of time on my hands, enough time to easily make watching Taskmaster take 2 hours instead of 1 (which is what happens when I stop to liveblog, for some reason, even though it doesn’t seem like it should take that long). My life is an absolute mess, but bright side, there’s time for Taskmaster!

I’ve started and abandoned several different posts in which I explain what’s happened lately, because venting on Tumblr is a go-to resource when I'm having a bad time and want to express that, but while I was in the middle of it I didn’t have the energy to write anything – hence the lack of any posts for a little while – and this one sort of feels too real-world big to share on Tumblr (…I reserve the right to go back on that if I feel differently later this week and want to write a post about how hard it is to be a therapist for autistic and often anxious kids, while trying to appear to be a person who does not have any of these problems of my own). So instead, I’m going to return to Tumblr posting with:

Thoughts on Taskmaster s18e04, written as I watch it (five days late):

- I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the insulting intros where Greg Davies implies Alex Horne is right-wing in a really specific way are the funniest ones.

- My immediate thought after hearing the prize task category: Cobra Kai DVDs. I know a lot of people who say “badass” unironically (I may… occasionally, in the right environment, which is not Tumblr, be one of those people myself), and they all talk exactly like Johnny Lawerence. Karate Kid movies would work as something that actually are badass, but no one uses the word there (the good guys would never use such a word because they’re too busy using the force, which is magical in an only slightly racist way, while the bad guys are too purely evil to say fun stuff like “badass”), Cobra Kai drops some excellent uses of the word in an accurate context.

…I wrote that whole paragraph before remembering that Cobra Kai was released way too recently to be out on DVD. Burn them yourself, then, that’s even better. Piracy is badass.

- Emma Sidi’s prize has big “owned this anyway, wanted to bring it in, found the prize category where she could most easily shoehorn it” energy. But fair enough. If I owned a statue of a baby angel with sunglasses on, and I got called up to Taskmaster, I would do the same.

-

[Sam Campbell voice] I've got nothing but love for the boys from above...

- I get Babatunde's slang ("ends") that confused Greg, because I have seen Ahir Shah's latest stand-up show. I am still unimpressed by sneakers, but I'm pleased that I apparently know more British slang terms than Greg Davies. I feel very cultured.

- Rosie Jones' prize initially had me thinking "I'm sorry, but Josh Widdicombe ruined tattoo-based task fulfillment for everyone else, way back in season one. This would be fine out of context, but in context, no temporary tattoo will ever look any good next to his permanent sacrifice for Taskmaster." But by the end of her explanation, she had me more on board. Threatening to kill someone for a couple of prize task points is pretty good.

-

This has always been true. I'm just sorry it took the TV industry until you were almost 50 years old to realize it, Zaltor the Merciless (by the way, let's bring back that nickname).

- Bad art of a bad ass. I knew you wouldn't let me down, Zaltor. Four episodes in, and his prizes are a sea of lies, puns, and one that's just an historical reference.

- Not fair scoring. Emma and Babatunde's prizes were both better than Jack's.

- Ed mentioned on the podcast that there was a continuous argument with Andy Zaltzman about how far to take the costume, when he wanted it into the realms of the impractical. It appears he won on this day, as he enters the task with not just the helmet on but the face mask down, gloves on, bat in hand. Good day to be Zaltor.

- Oh, I like this. Nice simple task with lots of different ways to interpret it, a bit more time than usual (half an hour is a lot for the UK version, this days). This has the "vibe" of one of the NZ tasks, in a good way.

-

...Jack, are you under the impression that the stuff you've already said about how "identity politics" and "cancel culture" and "mental health problems becoming too fashionable these days" (I might be particularly annoyed about that last one at the moment) are ruining society isn't enough in that direction to make people dislike you? You probably don't need to push the envelope a lot further than that, we get the idea.

-

- I've recently re-watched the TV show Starstruck, and I'm pleased to see that Emma Sidi in real life is the same person as her character on that show.

- ...Zaltor, I would like to apologize for not having assumed that your full costume was complete with the jock strap. Obviously that was there too.

- I like Emma's literal interpretation, but this seems like a case where you maybe do want to steal from previous seasons, perhaps Rob Beckett with the pea. Just put the envelope in a wheelbarrow and push it around the garden for the whole time. Or, if you want to argue that "farthest" means it ends up far away and not just that it moves a lot, leave the grounds and push it down the sidewalk for 30 minutes.

- Now that I know Emma's outfit is meant to be Cluzo, I can see it so clearly. Like I said before, it's a perfect character to invoke. Hey, I've just remembered I have a ridiculous amount of time on my hands for a while, I should actually re-watch those movies.

...Oh God, they're going to be racist, aren't they? I remember that when I was a kid, because I loved the Pink Panther movies so much, my dad showed me another Peter Sellers movie The Party, and I know I definitely should not go back to that one, the racism in that one was overt enough to be quite clear even in my memory ~25 years later. Pink Panther can't be as bad as that, can it? I might have to find out. I'm sure Jack Dee would say that even asking this question is ruining society.

- Oh look! Rosie Jones is making chocolate milk (apparently, according to those barbarians in Britain).

- Oh, no, according to Greg in the studio, it's actually a smoothie. I was joking about it being chocolate milk because it's not actually that, but it's definitely not a smoothie either. British people need to sort out their drinks labels.

- This is a bit weird, but for some reason, this shot of the house before Jack Dee comes outside is the first time since I've started watching this season that I've had a moment of: "Oh my God! I know that place! I saw it! I saw that house!"

Taken when I was in London on July 30, 2024:

I saw it! The little TM on the door! I walked beside those hedges! That's so cool!

- ...I'm not a fan of Jack Dee, and therefore, I'm not a fan of having to admit that he is doing exactly what I saw a few minutes ago I thought would be the correct way to do this task. Down to using the wheelbarrow. Fine, he gets credit for that.

I am, however, a big fan of getting to say: I saw this! I saw that road he's walking down! I walked all along there! If you follow that along the river for about 25 minutes, you get to the bandstands where they did location tasks in the earlier seasons!

Jack Dee:

Taken by me on July 30, 2024:

Annoyingly I don't have a picture of the exact spot where Jack is walking in that picture, slightly further along. But it's pretty close.

- Jack Dee:

My picture:

I mean, that's fucking cool. It's a lovely walk.

- ...Yeah, Jack Dee's attempt was fun. The editors get some credit here too though, nice choice with the music and shooting it like a reflective movie scene.

- This could be a Bugle monologue. The stuff Andy Zaltzman is shouting at that inanimate object, I could absolutely see a character in his Bugle lies shouting that at something. It turns out that Zaltor the Merciless has been pushing the envelope for years!

- Interesting choice for Babatunde to put milk in the envelope and then reveal that he can't drink milk.

- I can't get over how much fun Andy Zaltzman is having on this show.

Closest we'll see Andy come to breaking apart a cow, given that he wasn't there on that one night in 2003.

- That should have been one point for Baba and two for Emma. Emma did push it, just not very far. Baba hardly did anything. A bowl isn't even that different from an envelope, he didn't push it literally and he barely pushed it metaphorically.

- I'd have gone five points to Andy and four to Jack because Andy pushed it in two different ways ("pushed the envelope" into telling him the information, the way a cop might "push" any suspect into a confession; and "pushed the envelope" by using extreme rule-breaking methods to get that confession) while Jack only used one. But they were both good, to be fair, I don't have a big problem with doing it the way Greg did.

- Going with the hot dog costume on a location task, that's an interesting choice. I'd speculate about the logic behind that choice if I thought there was any rhyme or reason to Baba's decisions on this show.

- How appropriate. A creepy Halloween-type task for the creepy abandoned theme park location (since the first episode, I have learned that it is Thorpe Park, which is definitely not abandoned, but they've still done a very good job so far of making it look like a creepy abandoned theme park in the location tasks - a place that seems like enormous fun to run around doing tasks, probably less fun to attend as an actual theme park).

- Laugh all the time and don't walk too fast - I need to take back what I said about them not adapting the tasks for Rosie Jones. This one was clearly created to just be what she does anyway. Good stuff.

- Where are they? Does Thorpe Park have an actual maze, or house of mirrors or something, where they're doing this? Or did they build a whole creepy maze just for this task?

- I love Emma having no time for Alex's bullshit. Nope, not playing your creepy maze game. Let's get out of the horror movie.

- A few attempts in, and I'm getting the impression that this task isn't great for opportunities for the cast to be funny or show creativity, but is mainly made for a lot of opportunities for creepy shots of various people walking around a maze like an horror movie. Which is also fun. Sometimes the editors have to have fun too.

- Wait, they're letting Babatunde get away with that? I watched to the end of the task before writing this, since I assumed they'd penalize him. That was definitely running in the maze, he broke that rule hard. Andy sped up for maybe two seconds right at the end, Baba sped up for ages. They could all have done it in thirty seconds if they'd been allowed to run like that (...except possibly Rosie). Absolute bullshit, especially as it's getting doubled.

- I like "It's a wind-up" turning into a catchphrase for Emma Sidi. Good Taskmaster catchphrase.

- I also enjoy the running theme of Emma Sidi being incredibly supportive of Rosie Jones, all the time, no matter what Rosie is yelling about. I noticed it several times over the first few episodes.

- This is one of those tasks where the criteria is about number of errors rather than "fastest wins", so I'd take ages trying to guess the pattern before starting, and probably run into the fifteen-minute time limit. I'd probably also run around the house looking for clues before picking anything.

- I see Baba and Jack are also borrowing from early seasons, going for the Frank Skinner with the pie approach. Just try to magically sense what's in there with no strategy whatsoever.

- Ohhh, I see. Don't trust sound people and make-up artists becuase they're sneaking a locket into your pocket. To be fair to Baba and Jack I don't know if I'd have gotten that any faster; I was thinking there would be some alphabetical pattern.

- Rosie Jones straight-up robbing the crew. That's why they booked her.

- Oh, that's rough for Rosie, getting penalized for picking five pockets of her own, even after working out that it was on her, before finding the locket. Basically losing out because she happened to choose an outfit that's full of pockets.

- Well I'm pleased that this time it was Andy, not Jack, who had the same instinct as I did. Run around outside the lab, looking for clues, before picking any pockets at all. Unfortunately, it appeared to yield nothing. Good try by bringing in a bit of wood and seeing if he can claim it's a locket, though. I like Alex sounding slightly annoyed when replying "It's not a locket and it wasn't in a pocket." Like he's had enough of Andy's bullshit throughout these tasks.

- Oh, they brought back the Richard Red Herring from season 13! That's fun.

- Alex rolling his eyes after Andy announces "I'll use [my remaining 4.5 minutes] wisely" is pretty funny too. Come on, Zaltor, you can do it! You're so close, by saying you know it needs to be "an alternative pocket".

- This image should be the Taskmaster promo poster:

- Andy's slow journey from being sure he can find useful clues, to trying to come up with lateral locket definitions, to saying he never liked lockets and giving up, is even more of a "tragic old man reflective movie scene" than Jack's walk along the river.

- Emma! Yes, you go, Emma! That's actually quite an Inspector Cluzo move, to not do anything but just accidentally fall into getting the correct answer. I was thinking that during the earlier attempts, too - there must have been time between the crew sneaking it into their pockets, and when they started filming this task. Did these people just never put a hand in their pocket in the intervening time? I'm constantly reaching in my pockets to make sure all my stuff is where it should be. Fucking right, Emma.

- I was thinking this was quite a classic Andy Zaltzman approach, trying to come up with a new definition for "locket", but I had no idea how Zaltzman he'd gone until he revealed in the studio that he considered checking in a snooker club.

This was what I wanted when the season 18 names were first announced - to get the joy of seeing people who don't already know Andy Zaltzman, react to Andy Zaltzman. But I was thinking about seeing that on Tumblr, and maybe occasionally having a peek at the subreddit. It hadn't thought about how much fun it would be just to look at the contestants' faces, such as these ones when Andy explains that he thought the answer might be snooker:

I've been hugely enjoying Emma in the studio throughout this season. Her defences of her own prizes and task attempts are always fun, very eager and earnest and insistent. I also like how quick she is to jump in and defend Rosie Jones all the time. And it's fun how she seems to frequently be the opposite of Andy, just shocked that he could ever think any of this is a good idea. (A view that she confirmed on last week's podcast, saying she called Andy a prick in the studio even though she basically agreed with him, but "He was annoying me.")

- Even more references to older seasons in the live task, with Patatas the cat being back once again. I briefly wondered if that monster is the one from the season 10 live task, but I've checked that task description and it's not the same.

- ...Have now finished watching the live task, still don't really understand what was meant to happen. I guess they were supposed to take longer than that to get to 22. I also guess that live tasks are the only ones they can't drop from the edit if they turn out not to work. All right. These things happen.

- Well that was a good time. Can't wait to hear Andy on the podcast explain why he never puts his hands in his pockets. And the nice thing about having a breakdown that delays my Taskmaster watching by five days is I only have to wait two for the next one! That's good.

[the-californicationist]

Hayatim 🖤

If you're ever in a mood to write for Alex and this idea pleases you, it's yours -

hear me out: farm-hand Alex - Romeo and Juliette type stuff. Alex x f!reader (nsfw)

• He's on holiday, visits some family in the country side, he can't keep still though so he opts to work around the farm.

• The neighboring farm (who are beefing with his family) - they have a niece who is also in town for the festive.

• Alex and Neighbor girl, they're aware of the beef, find it so stupid. But they're not getting to that.

• They don't meet officially but when they do, it's without names + or the ever looming beef present. They stumble on each other out at a lake ,*sparks* flying. Alex is adorkable while neighbor girl is abit more reserved and subtle with her interest.

• They're bumping into each other, not often but like glimpse from a distance. They still don't know each other's names, she calls him Farm Boy and he calls her Siren (bc of the water where he saw her).

• So when they bump into each other again at the farmers market with their respective family members- it's on like a scone 💀 because they have no personal involvement in their families fueding but wanting to know and date the other person?? a mission since everyone in town knows what's up with their families and they're trying so hard to at least get one date.

• They can't catch a break so they're behaving like teenagers, sneaking off. They decided the best place was 'their' lake - Alex does the romantic stuff , he's so sweet that way.

• One minute they're talking and watching stars and the next they're both feeling stars because they're tangoing like devils.

Do with this as you wish💋

Ahhhhh! Omg this is so good. If I didn’t have a WIP list a mile long, I’d add this to it 😭♥️♥️ ughhhh so lovely! Someone write this fic so we can read it ✌️🩷

[oddballwriter]

The EMH crew and the MH crew with a reader who is an SFX artist?? I took schooling for creating fake injuries for film! Blood effects, cuts, corpsing, bruises, burns, frostbite, guts- All that! I love to hear about gruesome details. I’d never pull a prank like pretending I was injured though, just fyi. Also a horror film junkie. ^^ Most people are surprised by all that, being a short, incredibly soft-spoken and polite lass.

꒦꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒷꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒷꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒷꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒷꒷꒦

Warnings: mentions of wound makeup effects and looking like you've been attacked (obviously just makeup)  

Author’s Snip: I know you said that you wanted the EMH guys too but I could only have my brain think up for Evan so I hope that's okay.

I’ll shut up now. Enjoy! And don’t be afraid to request.

꒦꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒷꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒷꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒷꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒷꒷꒦

Jay

He thinks it's pretty cool that you can do SFX makeup wounds

He would be interested in the whole process of making a base and doing the details of the effect

Jay would probably recommend you to some other film friends just in case they wanted someone who could do that type of makeup

I wanna say that he would let you practice so makeup effects on him so that you can get used to having putting it on a actual person

Though I feel like he'd hate the feeling of the process since usually the thing you are placing on him is wet and feels funny

Alex

He fucks with this so hard

He doesn't seem like the type of make a film or something that involves your work and skills, but similar to Jay, if he knows someone who might need that, he'd recommend you to them if they don't have much options

One of his favorite things to see is when he walks into your place and he sees you doing the effects on yourself

It's so weird, in a funny way, to just walk through the door and he just sees you sat at a desk with makeup junk scattered around and you look like a bear just went ham on you but are acting totally fine

Like "Hey, Alex." "Hi... (y/n)."

Brian

He wants you to have him be your model for when you practice a new effect or something

Please let him be your test model

He can't really sit still sometimes since some of the brushes tickle and it makes him giggle

But otherwise, he tries his hardest to be still so you can do your work

I honestly imagine you two being that one photo of the girls where one of them is doing the others makeup

You know the one

Tim

He thinks it's pretty neat and likes to watch you do the effects and all that

You do scare the shit out of him sometimes cause he'll just come to your place and you look like a walking murder victim

It's like "Hey, y/N. How's it g-HOLY FUC-oh... oh never mind. You're fine."

And then he just kinda laughs it off

He's okay with you looking like that once he knows that it's just makeup but one thing that he hates is when you're taking it off and you're like... peeling it off

Idk he thinks that's just... unsettling to watch

Evan

He also fucks with it and thinks it's rad as hell

"Ew" /pos

He loves it when you work on new effects

Honestly would love to be a test model like Brian but he's a little more squirmy

This boy can't sit still, he just can't

You have to look him in they eyes and tell him to stop moving so much

You guys are also the picture of the girls

Would honestly try to kiss you while he has the stuff on and it's still drying

[moviemunchies]

[Yes, person who asked, I did get around to re-watching Madagascar, though a bit late for its anniversary.]

Oh thank goodness, a Dreamworks movie I like. Glad to be back on these. Okay, I do have some nostalgic attachment to this one–I first saw it in theaters (and I haven’t seen it since, though I do listen to the soundtrack sometimes).

Marty (a zebra), his best friend Alex (lion), Mellman (giraffe), and Gloria (hippo) are animals in the Central Park Zoo. Marty dreams of one day living in the Wild, though his friends discourage this–especially Alex, as he’s a superstar, the zoo's main attraction. The night of Marty’s birthday, he escapes, and when his friends go to rescue him, they’re branded as unfit for captivity and shipped off to a wildlife preserve in Kenya. But the zoo’s penguins (also caught in the escape attempt) hijack the ship and the four friends slip off to wreck on the island of Madagascar.  Shenanigans ensue, and no small drama, as Alex has been fed on steaks his whole life and doesn’t have a clue where to find more.

It has been a long time since I saw this movie, and I was worried that if I saw it again I wouldn’t like it as much. I don’t know if I’d ever say I was a maniac for the film–I didn’t see the sequels in theaters, after all. But I liked it. I enjoyed it. I thought it was hilarious. I was scared how I’d re-watch it. I didn’t need to worry though, because I still like this movie. And it’s still hilarious!

Okay, mostly. I think there are some pop culture jokes and references that are unnecessary and drag things down. Plenty of the humor and drama stands on its own without those pop culture references. It seems like, after the making of Shrek, a lot of family films decided that they needed these allusions to “appeal to the parents” or something? No. No you don’t. Not this many of them, anyway. I don’t pile too hard on these because again, the movie has a lot of jokes that work fine on their own, so it’s not too big of a problem.

This is a movie that asks a fairly interesting question: how would anthropomorphic zoo animals survive in the wild? There are a lot of movies that sort of act as if zoo animals, or pets, would just adapt immediately towards the wild, and that’s not what happens here. The one who has a clue how to survive is Marty, who has been dreaming of this for ages; and even then, he doesn’t have fresh water. And noticeably, his ways of survival involve building things, a very human way of surviving in the wild.

And of course: what is Alex going to do? He can’t eat plants but if he’s been given steaks his entire life, he doesn’t have a clue how to get food for himself! This is a major part of the Plot! I appreciate that very much.

[It’s weird how the sequel ignores the question of ‘What does Alex eat if not his friends?’ when it’s such an important element in this movie.]

I will admit that the character design took some getting used to. I recall not actually liking it when I saw the first trailers. And I was still not sure when I started the film the first time. It works, though! It makes the movie have a visual identity that’s different. It’s good to see an animated film with an artistic identity–there was a while we had (before Into the Spider-Verse showed its influence) that everyone was seemingly copying a Disney/Pixar style, and this movie is nothing like that.

All the characters in the movie are fun! I think sadly, Gloria and Melman aren’t too developed other than the general traits, though that’s kind of okay–Marty and Alex are the leads here, and those two still get enough to be entertaining. There are movies in which side characters are basically non-entities. And they get more stuff to do in the sequel, which is good. The penguins are also great fun to watch on screen, and I’m not at all surprised that they got their own television series and movie (though I am sad that the movie didn’t do that well).

It’s far from the best of what Dreamworks can do, but it’s definitely moving in the right direction. It’s pretty good, pretty funny, and pretty memorable. It’s not a must-see, unless you’re a huge fan of Dreamworks or CGI animated films, though at the same time it’s a fairly good time if you need something to watch.

Last side note: Do you guys remember this had a tie-in video game? I mean, all movies did back then, but this game had an insanely addictive shuffleboard mini-game. I don’t know how, given that shuffleboard sounds ridiculously boring in real-life, but for whatever reason I couldn’t stop playing this mini-game.

[littlecello]

Lazarus responses all in one place for better readability wahoo

belphegor1982 Holy cow, we really dodged a bullet there. Thank you for the write-up! I hadn't heard of Lazarus at all before. And now I'm very thankful that the fandom still exists and thrives! 💜

WE REALLY DID LOL. You're very welcome, glad to have been of service! And omg I feel the same ahhh! It's made me really appreciate the little space we built for ourselves over all these years 🥹

-

bisexualroger Was lovely to meet you and fern too! 😊 I definitely agree with this. I’m really glad I went for the experience, I’d have been gutted to have missed it, but ultimately yeah the shortcomings (especially with regard to how they handled the politics of the police 😬) mean it’s for the best we never got Lazarus the show. 

AHHH YES!! Seriously you all made my entire day 🥹🥹🥹 And god yeah, I am also genuinely glad to have been there, because the questions and forever-wondering would have killed my fandom-mojo I think. But now it's done the opposite and I am ENERGISED! I want to re-establish the best parts of the fandom as opposed to what we witnessed in that room! Seriously, all those cis-het men laughing so hard at all the bad jokes made me feel so uncomfortable.

-

youstupidplonkIt was so wonderful to meet you!! You’ve put this into words so much more eloquently than I have managed so far. I really do agree that the way they joked about current politics, both in the police and around the climate felt very out of touch. As you’ve said especially because the main demographic keeping this fandom active is young (from what I can tell) liberal people Thank you again for saying hi to us and taking the time to write this wonderful analysis ❤️❤️

LIKEWISE AHHH!! Your outfit was fantastic btw!! And I'm glad you feel my analysis hit the spot - hearing all the laughter around us and stuff made both Fern and me feel really lonely and out of place at times ghfkjgs. We're both really glad we aren't alone with our sentiments 🥹

-

fleurdeneuf oh wow, thank you for sharing all of this! i'm relieved the show won't be happening.

You're welcome!! It would've felt wrong not to do a little report on this, seeing as the event wasn't well advertised and tickets sold out so quickly. We've got to include the whole fandom in this! 💪

-

partywithponies I think it was very shallow as well in that it was almost entirely Life on Mars with barely any Ashes to Ashes to it at all, and coincidentally, Ashes to Ashes isn't as well known overseas. It didn’t feel for the fans, it just felt like what they thought would sell better. Poor Shaz didn't even get a single vague reference the entire event, and Alex, the literal third main character of the franchise, got one passing moment in the entire pilot.

I agree to some extent - they definitely went for what they felt would have the most recognition value. I do however think that they at least set up quite a bit of Alex involvement, seeing as she's the one who hits Sam and Gene in 2024 (or at least it's heavily implied that it's her). As for Shaz, I have to be cynical and say that with Matt and Ashley being old white men... they've probably forgotten about her and/or don't think she's important. Unfortunately.

Either way, I guess we can both agree that it's a good thing Lazarus isn't getting made as a TV show haha!

-

On a personal note, thank you all for your warm reactions to my little report :') I have to admit I was a bit trepidatious about posting it because of my (and our) negative feelings about it, as contrasted to what Fern and I perceived as a really enthusiastic response from the audience that was present... But I see now I needn't have worried. The fandom I remember and love is still here, and I can't thank you all enough for that. 💚

[tenleaguesbeneath]

Alex/Steph, 20

20: Lazily

Alright, so I'm first going to say I don't have necessarily the best handle on Alex as a character and also anything with her involved is going to get into people's inner lives in a way I can't say I have a lot of practice writing, but that's why this is exciting! Also, this is going up, like, first-draft quality, unbeta'd.

(prompt list is here and I am still taking them)

so! here we go.

A knock at Alex’s door jarred her out of where she’d been zoned out, half asleep, her ribs aching. She groaned loudly in response, and heard the door opening.

“Hey, Alex,” Steph called from the doorway.

“Steph!” Alex answered, the bruising on her ribs giving her a painful reminder that it wouldn’t let her get away with shouting no matter how enthusiastic she was about seeing her girlfriend.

“I brought groceries.” Steph gave Alex a warm glance as she walked past her bed, straight to the kitchen, heavy canvas bags hanging from each shoulder.

“Thanks.”

Steph set the bags down on the countertop next to the fridge and turned toward Alex’s bed. “How are you feeling?”

“My bruises have bruises.”

“Anything I can help you with? Pain meds, water, snacks, your gummies?”

“Tylenol would be good. And water.”

Alex closed her eyes and listened to the sound of the sink running as Steph filled a glass for her. As Steph’s footsteps approached her, she propped herself up on her elbows and then sat up, her muscles complaining the whole way.

“Thanks, Steph,” Alex croaked, taking the glass. She reached for the pill bottle on her nightstand.

“Here, take it easy, Alex,” Steph said, grabbing it first and opening it before passing it to Alex.

Alex took a long swig of water, then two pills, and drained the glass.

“Thanks.”

Alex lay back and closed her eyes as Steph busied herself putting the groceries away. Recovery after falling down the mineshaft was both dull and pain-filled. That the doctors had told her nothing was broken wasn’t much comfort. All that meant was that it could have been worse. Not that she needed the reminder of that. Every time she opened her mouth her muscles ached where they were grazed by the bullet. A few inches to the side and she could be dead. Then there was the bruising from the fall. It hurt to move. Hurt to cough. Hurt to breathe, sometimes, and definitely to laugh.

Maybe she could write a song about that. It’ll be easier to think when she’s not in as much pain.

Steph came back, her footsteps light on the floor as she approached the other side of Alex’s bed, by the door. Alex felt the ripples in the mattress as Steph sat down and flopped over.

Alex opened her eyes to see Steph propped up on her side, watching her. Steph met her gaze, softness in her eyes, a purple haze radiating from her.

I hope she’ll be alright.

“On the bright side, docs said I should expect to make a full recovery,” Alex reminded Steph, answering her unasked question.

“I hope they’re right,” Steph said, her aura fading.

“You’ve been a big help, Steph,” Alex mumbled. “You and Ryan both. I don’t know what I’d do without you two.”

“You’re not alone, Alex.”

“I know,” Alex said, rolling slightly toward Steph, her chest muscles screaming at her for daring to ask them to move. “I’ve been alone so long, and now… I don’t have to be.”

It’s scary, Alex didn’t say. For years “help” always had conditions attached. Be helped, but be helped with what the helper thinks you need. Be helped, but only inasmuch as it makes you more convenient to be around. Be helped, but by people who think you’ll probably never live on your own. Be helped, but only by people who will drug you if you tell them about your burden.

Haven Springs was nothing like Helping Hands Group Home, and Steph and Ryan were nothing like anyone there.

But as scary as it was, she had grown to trust them, even with the weird stuff, and they trusted her in turn. Steph had volunteered to stay in Haven Springs as long as Alex wanted to, and Ryan had believed her that morning at the town council meeting, even over his own father.

Now Alex relied on the two of them, her girlfriend and her first real friend, for basic things like groceries.

It beat having to limp across town hauling a heavy grocery bag, for sure.

Alex felt Steph’s fingers tracing along her forehead, brushing her hair out of her face. Her eyes fluttered back open.

Steph was still there, still looking at Alex. Her gaze was gentle, tinged with a nervousness that Alex needed no magical power to see. Behind that nervousness, Alex saw the desire that had always smoldered between the two of them.

“C’mere, Steph,” Alex said, reaching out with her hand to brush Steph closer to her. “I’m not gonna let falling down a mineshaft spoil my first week with my girlfriend.”

Steph rolled toward her, hesitantly, propping herself over Alex. Alex reached up to brush Steph’s hair aside, holding it out of the way as Steph brought herself in for a kiss.

Their lips touched, parted, Alex catching Steph’s bottom lip between hers. Even with her eyes closed, Alex could see the golden light emanating from the two of them. She lifted her head to push closer to Steph, sheer enthusiasm drowning out the protests of her aching neck. Steph’s hand went to her cheek, guiding her back down onto her pillows as Steph reciprocated the push.

When Steph withdrew, the joyous golden light remained as her weight shifted in the bed. Alex opened her eyes to find Steph on her side, nestled next to her, and for the first time, Alex felt that maybe things in Haven Springs were going to be okay.

[onyx-archer]

A Follow-Up Post About Stringbean (Sort Of)

Well, I didn’t expect my first real post on Tumblr in... *checks notes* about 4 years (that wasn’t just OC art related stuff) to get any steam, but it’s doing pretty okay. Probably because it’s about The Owl House, but hey, so far (at time of writing), nobody has said my take is bad or anything. I look forward to eventually seeing that, but until then, I wanted to make a follow-up post to address Stringbean’s role in the story, and why it’s one of the few things that I was disappointed by in the specials. Spoilers will be discussed here, much like the last post, but I’ll put it under the cut as per usual.

So... Stringbean. If there are any specific things that I can point at and say “the cuts really hurt this,” Stringbean would be one of them. In fact, of the things cut, Stringbean is the biggest casualty of Disney’s Apple Blood fueled bender. The Collector and Hunter are the other big two casualties, as far as characters are concerned, and the stuff involving the Human Realm is the biggest bit of the story next to Luz’s Palisman as far as I’m concerned. I might make a post about Hunter in the future, since he’s a topic I have a lot of thoughts about too, but that will have to wait. If people actually want to hear my thoughts, then by all means, let me know.

Now, before I get too deep into this, I want to address the Owlbeast in the room: I’m speaking from a place that involves a great deal of speculation on my behalf, and unless Dana reads these posts and tells me I’m right, take stuff I’m saying with the appropriate amount of salt you deem necessary. Obviously, when talking about a character or plot element that had it’s potential affected by the powers that be in a negative way, you can only really speculate on these things. I’m looking at how things could have been in relation to how they are, and I’m far from an authority on the subject of the story of The Owl House.

Stringbean, as previously mentioned, is a plot element that I feel was cut off at the knees when the show got cancelled prematurely, and naturally didn’t have the most room to breathe as far as plot is concerned. It’s clear that she, much like Hooty’s Origin Episode (which we know was a thing Dana and the TOH crew wanted to do) was more or less cut. I say it that way because of the imagery within The Titan’s eye in the realm in-between seems to imply Hooty was a creation of the Titan, and Stringbean DID appear, albeit in a functionally neutered form. This is basically how most plot/character threads that could have gone somewhere that were set up in Season 2A ended up by the end.

As stated in my previous post, I firmly believe that the early stages of Season 2 (i.e. most, if not all of the first half) were written back when the show got greenlit for a second season. A lot of media, especially cartoons, have a long period of preproduction before we hear so much as a peep from the creative team or the production house reveal that stuff to the general public. Cartoons in particular generally have a long creation pipeline. Unless you’re South Park, you typically can’t get away with lackluster writing. Disney, being one of the cornerstones of animation, likely has tight production schedules, but they’re likely still at least 6-9 months on the low end.

Dana has said that she was just told one day, likely weeks after it was decided, that the show was getting cancelled. I’d hazard a guess and assume that she and her writing team for the show had already submitted plot outlines and basic script stuff for approval for early episodes of Season 2, up to a certain point. I believe this to be the case because Standards & Practices are pretty quick to demand rewrites and the like, as seen with Alex Hirsch’s little montage of actual things they told him to change on Twitter on Gravity Falls’ 10 year anniversary. 

That’s the thing with creative projects where you have to answer to a studio with investors: you have to do what they say, and while you can fight certain decisions, you’re ultimately not in charge of your own creation from a business angle. This isn’t always a bad thing, but it largely depends on the state of a show. This can ultimately save a show from having a terrible conclusion, or it can highlight just how little the team had left in the tank (see Star Vs.). Either way, you are beholden to people who are largely not creative types, and are more about doing smart business. Whether or not the business decisions they make are actually smart or not is irrelevant, as the intention is doing right by the company’s pocketbook.

Now, none of this is to say that I’m gonna kiss Disney’s ass and say that Dana should have planned things better just in case the show got cancelled, because that’s often not how I think creative people think. It’s my belief that if you get a single season, or even a single movie, to make what you want to make, you’re going to do your best to have everything fit within that timeframe, and you’ll kill your darlings more liberally because you want to make the best possible representation of your vision within that limited amount of “space.” When you get greenlit for more though, you start thinking about those ideas that you had to push to the side, and you want to do more with them. You then start thinking in a more “long-term” sort of way, insofar that you’re thinking with what I like to call “trilogy brain.”

I think this is something that is born from how a lot of stories tend to have conventional 3 Act Structures, and seeing a trilogy of things rather than a duology slots into that part of your brain that recognizes the 3 Act Structure. It’s one of those “you may not have noticed it, but your brain did” kind of things. That why I firmly believe that if you’re greenlit for a second season, and you have the ideas for more story beyond the first season, you immediately push for a third season before you so much as lift a finger for season 2. This way you can fulfill the feeling of a 3 Act Structure, and you get room to tell your more complex ideas. Don’t push your luck beyond 3 seasons though.

“Well Onyx, that’s all well and good, but how exactly does this relate to Stringbean?”

Simply put, I believe Stringbean is one of those things that was written before the cancellation was finalized that was set up and needed to be resolved in some capacity, even if not the way that Dana wanted, because the set up was likely already approved. I feel this because Season 2A and Season 2B feel like they were written with two different mindsets: 2A is pre-cancellation, 2B is post-cancellation. While they could certainly edit parts of the plot for 2A to minimize the damage dealt by a cancellation, it seems pretty likely to me that some things just couldn’t be cut out without pissing off the fans. It was a very “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” sort of things.

Stringbean’s eventual existence ties into Luz’s growth as a Witch, and the idea that Witches earn their magic staffs (aka their Palismans) when they are “ready,” which presumably refers to a point of magical maturity or something to that effect. Eda directly says that Luz will earn her staff one day, and that was enough to get people thinking about Luz earning her staff. It’s kind of like how Hunter appearing in “Young Blood, Old Souls” was written before the team even knew they were cancelled. That episode was already in the can by then after all. They couldn’t just not use him going forward. Yeah, they could have downplayed the role in his case, but the fact that they didn’t tells me that Season 2A was written without the knowledge of that cancellation in mind, and by the time they knew that was a thing, they’d likely already been greenlit to start production with what they had, and could only make minimal changes to reflect the truncated run time.

Stringbean’s role is very clearly trimmed down to the bare minimum, and you need only look at how Stringbean is used in the episode following her debut (aka, the finale of the series) to see what I mean. Her impact on the story had served what little purpose was left after the cuts in “For The Future,” as I have to assume that Titan Luz was something that was planned for the finale before the cuts. I imagine elements of the Titan form date back to early planning for the series, and were considered the logical endpoint for the way Glyphs work lore-wise.

Now, I want to briefly explain why, in my last post, I think that Stringbean would have been used in a more climactic moment than what we got in “For The Future,” had the series not been cancelled too soon. Or rather, I want to address a misunderstanding caused by that thought. As stated near the beginning of this post, I was speaking from the stand point of what I assume would have been the case, based on my reading of the way the series was set up versus how it ended up because of the cuts. I don’t think we would have gotten “For The Future” had the cuts not been made. Maybe we would have had an episode by that name, sure, but the events of Season 3 are very clearly speedrunning through things to make the best possible end product within the very tight restrictions born from the circumstances of the show’s cancellation.

As said earlier, I think that Season 2A and Season 2B were written largely pre-cancellation and post-cancellation respectively, so the story we got in Season 2B is likely a truncated version of what we were going to get had we got a proper Season 3. They had to make the best of a bad situation, rather than continue on like nothing changed and hope Disney would change their mind. Otherwise, The Owl House very well could have ended on the same sour note that Star Vs. did, and it would have likely stung more than that show’s ending did due to how much better a show The Owl House is considered to be when compared to Star Vs. I obviously don’t much care for that show, but I’m sure even the most devout fan of Star would tell you the show lost it’s spark somewhere along the way.

Stringbean’s execution very much feels like they planned to have the reveal likely serve as the Season 2 finale or even the mid-season finale for Season 3, had we got the story as the team likely intended when stuff like Eda’s mention of Luz being able to earn her staff one day, or when Luz got her piece of Palistrom Wood in “Hunting Palisman.” Otherwise, Luz could have just gotten a Palisman in that episode. It very clearly was something that was written before the cuts, and couldn’t just be swept to the side either. If they scrapped that part of the episode, then Luz would have been better off adopting a Palisman like everyone else. If they didn’t, but then act like Luz never got the piece of Palistrom, the audience would be like “hey, wait, why hasn’t Luz carved her Palisman yet?” Likely, as a result of the cuts, they were stuck in a tricky situation, and ultimately decided to go with what we got because at least then we’d get something rather than nothing.

The reason I suggested adding the idea of Luz and her Father coming up with the idea of a Snakeshifter together was, in part, to give Stringbean’s debut an extra layer of emotional depth. It’d do more to make the best out of what we got, it would have potentially had Camila’s words about understanding her daughter mean more, and it would give the mention of Luz’s dad being dead more narrative and emotional impact. Of course, I’d ideally prefer this to be part of a more fleshed out Season 3, and a less truncated Season 2B, but that’s what fanfiction is for.

Anyway, I spent a lot of this post talking about industry stuff, and less about Stringbean, but to be fair, the industry stuff is why I feel Stringbean was narratively kneecapped. Anyway, as always, feel free to let me know what you think. You can reblog it without writing that stuff in the tags if you want by the way.

[queenofbaws]

Queenie’s Fluffy New Year!!!

Hey friendos! I hope you’re out having a fun time as 2022 winds to a finish and 2023 comes up to greet us! If you want one convenient place to find all the fluffy New Year’s prompts I’ve filled so far, look no further - just check under the readmore for both tumblr and AO3 links! ;P

I don’t know why on earth I thought I’d be able to get all these NYE prompts done by, uh, NYE, so keep your eyes peeled the rest of this week as I work my way through the rest!

Have a safe, happy, and wonderful new year my friends, you’ve made this one incredibly sweet for me! 🥳

Don’t Threaten Me With a Good Time - Abi/Nick - The Quarry If there was one thing Abi wasn't expecting to happen at the New Year's Eve party, it was Emma daring her to kiss Nick at midnight...and if there was a SECOND thing Abi wasn't expecting to happen at the New Year's Eve party, it was Nick WANTING to kiss her at midnight. tumblr AO3

A sweet solution for a New Year’s resolution - Laura/Max - The Quarry It's New Year's Eve, and wouldn't you know it, Max just found his list of resolutions...from last year. With the clock bringing them closer and closer to midnight, closer and closer to a new year, Laura promises she'll help him cross them all off, no ifs, ands, or buts! No matter how much Dora the Explorer that involves. tumblr AO3

Let There Be Light! (Or Something Suitably Glowy) - Ashley/Chris - Until Dawn Here is what Chris Hartley knows: (1) If something CAN go wrong in the Washingtons' lodge, it WILL go wrong (2) A NYE party is literally the WORST possible time for a random blackout to occur (3) He needs to stop going along with Josh's stupid plans (4) If he trips down the lodge's awful stairs in the dark he will most certainly die (5) Ashley Brown is totally holding his hand AND wearing his hoodie This wasn't the party he was expecting, but man, he's not about to complain. tumblr AO3

Cheers! - Fliss/Conrad - Man of Medan New Year's Eve parties are sort of MADE for guys like Conrad - they're an excuse to cut loose, drink a little too much, and generally be on your worst behavior. There's just one problem: It's hard to get your party on when you're missing your long-distance girlfriend as much as he is. Which is a lot. A whole lot, actually. (Alex's horrendous bartending skills aren't helping either.) Luckily for him, Julia might just have a few surprises hidden up her sleeve... tumblr AO3

Ring-ring-ringing in the new year - Sam/Josh - Until Dawn Sam didn’t realize just how much she missed the usual tradition of celebrating New Year’s Eve at the Washingtons’ house until they cancelled to do family stuff. She also (and here’s where it gets complicated) didn’t realize just how much she wanted to celebrate with Josh. Enough to stop pretending she doesn’t have a crush on him, maybe. Enough to call him while he’s at his family party and tell him, too. tumblr AO3

A different way to toast the new year - Chris/Josh/Ashley - Until Dawn It was hard to say when it had started, their strange little tradition, but the appeal of the New Year’s Day blaze was hard to deny: While everyone else was sleeping off the festivities of the night before, their resolutions already halfway abandoned by the time the hangover wore off, the three of them hunkered down in the Washington’s sprawling backyard and, well, did something a little more actionable than making themselves a million stupid promises to go to the gym more. They roasted the old year like a stale old bag of marshmallows. tumblr AO3

nearly midnight, near to you - Abi/Nick - The Quarry When Abi decides she has to leave the Hacketteer's New Year's Eve party early, the rest of the gang decides Nick should be the one to walk her home. It's awfully dark outside at that time of night, after all! And icy! And you never know when you might bump into a, uh...roving band of drunken sorority girls. He'll thank them later for pushing him out the door to walk with her...he just doesn't know it yet! tumblr AO3

An Entirely Predictable Proposal Problem - Ashley/Chris - Until Dawn Ashley isn't the world's biggest fan of surprises. She's...jumpy. That's why Chris has done his best to make it very, very, VERY clear that something big, something special, something involving a wedding proposal, is going to happen at the New Year's Eve party tonight. There's just, uh, one tiny problem with that. He may or may not have...hmm, how to say this...lost the ring. Maybe Ashley IS in for a surprise after all. tumblr AO3

Say cheese! Literally. Please just say it! - Chris/Josh/Ashley - Until Dawn There is, of course, an inherent danger that comes with trying to be the wisecracking jokester in your relationship: If you're not careful, your significant others might just, uh...take you seriously. And then go out of their way to get you "the one thing you said you wanted for the New Year's Eve party." And then expect you to remember whatever dumb thing you said at the time. New year, same old Chris - he can't remember exactly what it is he told them he wanted so badly, but it's pretty safe to assume it was some kind of cheesy joke, right? Right??? tumblr AO3

Let's Have Another Round - The Kirkwall Crew - Dragon Age II First Day at the Hanged Man was a lot like any other day at the Hanged Man – the booze was bad, the food was worse, and everywhere you looked there was someone sleeping off the night before with their head in their arms. If there was any difference at all, and you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone astute enough to say there was, it was that the tavern’s usual air of bone-deep resignation buoyed up a touch or two until it was more like…exhausted resignation. A far cry from the celebratory cheer spreading across the rest of Thedas like a plague, sure, but refreshing nonetheless. Usually, anyway. It was usually a refreshing change. Today, not so much. Not without Hawke there. tumblr AO3

[maya-matlin]

Hi! I’d love to hear your view on Julian and Brulian? Like other people have pointed out, he had a whole different personality initially before they decided to lean into his dorky side. But even when they wisely tried to make him adorkable, there’s just something about him I don’t fully love and trust—maybe it’s the actor’s line deliveries, or the way even as an adult he’s so fixated with a group of high schoolers from a school he didn’t even attend (a movie and then a documentary in which he inserts himself lol?!), or just how he he seemed less of a real character than just a love interest for Brooke. And honestly I thought he had more chemistry with Alex! I love the idea of Brooke with a sweet but strong dork, but as much as I like some brulian gifsets, when I actually watch their scenes they just don’t click for me. I hope this makes sense!

I like Julian fine. He wasn't one of my favorite characters, but I thought he mostly fit into later seasons OTH. But I have to admit that there were several occasions where I would compare him to Lucas. It wasn't just within his relationship with Brooke. Julian was friends with Nathan, close with Jamie (even making him his best man!), was involved with both of Lucas's main love interests and like Lucas, created media. Even though Clay was technically Lucas's replacement, Julian was the one primarily serving that role. His characterization was kind of all over the place. Like you said, Julian literally changed personalities based on the season. I'm not sure if it was a deliberate shift in the writing or if Julian's personality changed because of Austin Nichols. I have no insight on this. I haven't watched a single interview with Austin and have zero behind the scenes tea other than he dated Sophia for years.

In terms of weak performances, the worst was by far in season 9 when Julian fell into a dark hole after leaving his son in the hot car. I wasn't at all sold on the angst or Julian's pain. Julian was just selfishly throwing himself into danger and inserting himself into Nathan's kidnapping arc just to make himself feel less guilty. It didn't suit him. This is a perfect example of comparing Julian to Lucas. I completely understand that the Lucas/Dan history meant the two teaming up was highly unlikely, but Chad 100% could have pulled off the tough guy stuff in that context. Then at the very end of the series, Julian essentially replaces Lucas when he writes HIMSELF into the story of Lucas's high school life, stealing the moment where he makes the winning shot at the state championship. I mean, it was probably just Mark Schwahn's petty bullshit, but still.

LOL yeah. Looking back, Julian's introduction was kind of sketchy. To a degree, I think that was intentional. Julian showing up as Peyton's jilted ex was a misdirect. We were meant to think he was going to cause trouble for Lucas and Peyton only for him to end up with Brooke instead. So with that knowledge, it turns out Julian decided to read Lucas's book and, like the entire world apparently, realized it was the greatest story ever told and became personally invested.

You're making complete sense! I feel the same way. I'm aware Julian is a good man and was a loving, devoted husband to Brooke, but I just don't feel it. The actors were doing everything right and the writing was solid, but there's just no passion. It's nice, but it's not particularly exciting. I'm happy for Brooke, but my feelings don't go beyond that. When it comes to Julian/Alex, I pretty much agree. I'm mostly glad they never got together because their friendship was so good and genuine that it didn't need to be muddled up with relationship drama. But at the same time, they pulled me in far more than Brooke and Julian ever did.

My stance is pretty much that it should have been Brucas together with Naley in the final episode. Julian was only in Tree Hill for Brooke. Peyton wanted out of her hometown, even attempting to leave multiple times to go to Jake, and really only came back for Lucas. Both Brooke and Lucas had a lot of love and nostalgia for their small town and seemed truly happy returning to it after college. It just makes sense.

[candlekeep]

Transcript:

February 8, 2023

Cdawg — For Ed, did you have any input into the Baldur's Gate III video game?

Augustoc — I'd like to expand this question: How much input do you have in different sources of media? I'm curious about how these 4 kinds of media compare in regard to Ed's level input: 1. An official WotC published module, like Princes of the Apocalypse 2. A semi-official DMs guild supplement that you co-authored 3. A novel set in the Realms, but written by a different author, like Brimstone Angels (gosh I miss those so bad) 4. A video game set in the Forgotten Realms, specifically Baldur's Gate 3

Cdawg — I'm also curious, after all these years, if Ed has played any of the Forgotten Realms games and if so, what he enjoyed most about them.

Ed Greenwood — Warning to all: computer games have the strongest NDAs, they never get removed, and so I can often say little.

I have played a FEW of the FR games, usually in demo mode. My perennial problem was that I was writing on Macs, and the games were designed on Macs but released for PCs. My secondary problem was time: as in, I didn't have any to spend on playing computer games. I made a few exceptions, the Lucasfilm game LOOM for example, and have been known to play Solitaire during boring business calls, but...no time. Sigh.

And as for my involvement:

1. An official WotC published module, like Princes of the Apocalypse: I don't get to see the main text, but I get given a writing assignment (e.g. for Volo's Guide it was huge batches of Volo and Elminster back-and-forth comments, and an intro; about a quarter of those comments got used) and do it. I always give extra, in hopes the lore can be used elsewhere and elsewhen. It's more important to get the Realms out there than to get paid or credit or control...

2. A semi-official DMs guild supplement that you co-authored: Border Kingdoms is official, Thay is not, because we broke the "stay on the Sword Coast" rule. For both of those, Alex Kammer bankrolled, directed the art, oversaw the layout, and wrote the adventure. Alan Patrick did new classes and monsters. I did world lore, from Shel's tour to designing the heraldry to the daily life details. My jam. 

3. A novel set in the Realms, but written by a different author, like Brimstone Angels (gosh I miss those so bad): Erin is a good friend and for all of those novels she was consulting with me and with Brian Cortijo, "the" Cormyr expert, to get details right (like what plants they would find if camping in this spot, or what local officers would be stationed where, etc.) We wrote back and forth often, and still check in with each other...and if you love fantasy, I HIGHLY recommend Erin's new series; the first book, EMPIRE OF EXILES, is out now and she's working on the second. 

4. A video game set in the Forgotten Realms, specifically Baldur's Gate 3: When it comes to video games, companies like to keep things VERY secret from non-staff. Sometimes Wizards would involve me in the approvals process (where companies send stuff, or ask stuff, of Wizards), and I have on several occasions (Turbine's anniversary release of the Haunted Halls, for one, and something NDA'd that I just did, for another) voiced NPCs or narrated voiceovers, or both.

Ed Greenwood — For Baldur's Gate III: almost none. Baldur's Gate II: I wrote hundreds of titles for books that player characters can find in the library, and provided NPC backstories and local lore (Realmslore "colour").

-- From the Greenwood’s Grotto Discord server.

Please support Ed Greenwood’s Patreon for Forgotten Realms lore!

[a-mag-a-day]

MAG 94 - mowing the lawn (can't believe it took me so long to realize I can just wear headphones and listen to podcasts! I already did listen to music a few times when mowing the lawn. But tbf we only had installed Wifi for every corner of our property late that summer…)

JON "And… you’re… sure you’re okay with this? And with me recording?" GEORGIE "I mean… no? But… You told all your stuff, so… I mean, it’s just fair. I think." - I think Georgie does feel a bit bad about her outburst earlier…

GEORGIE "But where I was anxious and self-conscious, she was angry. I never met anyone who could skewer the pompous dickheads like she could." - No wonder she ended up liking Melanie xD

"Obviously I wanted to know who the woman was, and I demanded Alex tell me, but she just told me to… Well, she said she didn’t want to say, and pushed her now-cold lunch away from her. I wasn’t letting her get away that easily, and I pressed the point." - There, pushing when others are not ready to talk about stuff. Honestly, with Georgie being so extremely nosy herself, were there any theories about her being eye-aligned back then?

"I mean, there was no way that there could be something in a university building causing students to collapse, and nobody was taking any steps to deal with it." - I mean, if everybody collapses who comes near that corpse, then nobody's getting out to tell the tale?

"So I did what I felt was the only thing I could do in that situation. I told her I’d go with her if she wanted to take a second look. She didn’t, but we went anyway." - There again. She wants to know! This does however also explain why she's so upset about Jon trying to push for more and more knowledge since it ended quite bad for her, barely escaping.

"But everything ends, even the universe, even time." - Foreshadowing? That the End will get them all eventually?

JON "I kind of wish I knew, uh, knew even one person who genuinely wasn’t involved." GEORGIE "Maybe that’s why you thought of me?" JON "Hm?" GEORGIE "I mean, it’s been years, and there must be other old friends you lost touch with. Maybe you did know?" JON "Yeah, maybe. I, uh…" - That sounds about right though. Maybe Jon was already able to sense people with a "story" at this point, but just wasn't aware of it.

I feel Georgie is making up for lost time of asking no questions

She accepted a person into her home who was running from the authorities not asking anything about it. And I think the questions and frustration of Jon not telling her but still getting in trouble kept building up until it just came out in this overly pushy form.

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

Fucking finally! I haven’t watched the new Champion of Champions yet, I’ve had a weirdly anxious weekend and I want to enjoy it so I might save it for tomorrow night and hope I feel better by then, though I do have to balance that with wanting to avoid spoilers so maybe I’ll just watch it tonight. However. The important thing is that now that COC3 has happened, they have finally announced the season 17 cast! So we’re all allowed to stop pretending we didn’t see the names that leaked all over the internet months ago! Hooray! Here are some unsolicited opinions.

I mean, obviously I won’t pretend that one of those names didn’t jump out at me significantly more than the others. I sure know how to get on a bandwagon. Last year, when the s16 names were leaked, I took that as my sign to do what I’d been sort of meaning to do at some point eventually, and watch all Sam Campbell’s stand-up stuff that’s on YouTube. Meaning that by the time the names were officially released, I got to look like I’m really well informed on the less TV-famous comics because I already knew his stuff. When in fact, I didn’t know anything about him beyond his name and reputation until I saw he was going on Taskmaster.

The same isn’t true in this case, it’s almost entirely a coincidence that I happen to be getting really really into John Robins’ radio show in the run-up to his Taskmaster season. I’d had those radio shows on my list for ages, of things to eventually get to, sometime, when I’ve knocked everything off my list and have several hundred thousand hours to spare. I got into his stand-up early last year, long before any Taskmaster s17 names appeared, and this made me even more sure that I want to hear his radio show someday. So I tried it out at the same time as a few others, and then it did just happen to become the one that had a few really compelling episodes in a row early on, which hooked me and made me really want to hear the next one instead of mixing it up, and now I’ve abandoned all the other ones and reached episode 102 of their XFM/Radio X stuff in a few weeks.

I say it’s almost entirely a coincidence because I did see those names in September, and vaguely thought I’ll probably enjoy Taskmaster even more if I’m even more into John Robins by then. But it was going to happen anyway.

This one really is right at the top of my dream Taskmaster contestants. Not just that it’s a comedian I really like, but specifically a comedian who’s exactly the type of Taskmaster contestant. Hyper-competitive, but not in a jock way, more in an anxious obsessive controlling way. I made a post a while ago about how I’d read some people on a different website talk about the possibility of John Robins on Taskmaster, and they said this would be bad because his pedantry and competitiveness would be annoying, and he’d ruin the show with his tendency to not let a single thing go. And I said, God that sounds great. Please, Alex. Please let your angry golf buddy come ruin the show with his pedantry and competitiveness and refusal to let a single thing go. And then he did!

…I had an audio clip from a recent radio episode that I was going to post to expand on this, but I’ve decided to save that for another post, actually, and keep this one focused on the s17 lineup in general. So I will say: obviously, John Robins will be my favourite going into it, and if his approach to the show is at all consistent with the persona he’s displayed for the last 10+ years of his comedy career, he’s in a with a shot of rising to one of my favourite Taskmaster contestants ever. I can’t wait to see how he ruins the show. And how big he goes on the Freddie Mercury costume that he’s definitely going to wear.

Having said all that, I’m going to be honest about the fact that I wasn’t that excited when I first saw the full list of names. This is because there were already significant rumours about John Robins, even before the definite names linked, so while I was pleased to see his involvement confirmed, I’d been hoping the full list would have an additional name for me to get excited about. Which it didn’t, really, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be good, quite possibly very good. It just means they happen to have grabbed people from sides of comedy that I don’t know much about.

The League of Gentlemen people are a weirdly large hole in my Britcom knowledge, and I’m not sure why, but I’ve never had much of a desire to change that. I’ve had their stuff recommended to me lots (Psychoville and Inside No 9 and I know there’s other stuff), but I’ve vaguely looked at it, and have always thought it doesn’t really look like my thing. Though I have no good reason for this. I have some sort of vague negative association with that group of people in my mind, and I don’t know why it’s there.

The only guess I have is that I watched BBC Sherlock as it came out, and that became a bone of contention for me at the time. I thought it was a well made and good show with some glaring flaws – a few “this plot isn’t a clever or watertight as they think it is” flaws and a bunch of “this seems like it was written by men who think that as long as they can convince other men they’re really smart it doesn’t matter if their portrayal of women is fairly misogynistic”. And that latter opinion was backed up by my brother, who thought it was a work of impenetrable genius and anyone who was a word against it was just a bitter feminist who wasn’t smart enough to understand it, and sometimes we’d fight about that. This caused the name “Mark Gatiss” to be marred in my mind.

So it’s possible that that’s what happened. That a few years ago I looked up the League of Gentlemen things to decide whether to add that to my list, the name “Mark Gatiss” left a bad taste in my mouth and made me think I don’t like the look of this, and that made me decide I’m not interesting in finding out about Steve Pemberton or Reece Shearsmith either. Which is, of course, a terrible reason to write off some very accomplished comedy people. Because they worked with a guy who wrote a show ten years ago that I used to fight with my brother about.

The point is that I know very little about Steve Pemberton, but I am open to letting him win me around. I did recently hear a radio episode from 2015 in which John Robins was listing people who’d be at some event he was about to attend, people whom he considered famous at way beyond his level so he was excited about the idea of being anywhere near them, and one of the people he listed was Steve Pemberton. Reminds me of that 2007 radio episode where Russell Howard talked about Liza Tarbuck in similar terms. Hope he has a good time getting to share stage with him. I have no more than that to say about Steve Pemberton, because I really know absolutely fuck all about Steve Pemberton. I shall watch with an open mind and hope he’s great and changes my mind about all of this.

I know only slightly more about Sophie Willan, and that’s only because a couple of years ago she went on The Russell Howard Hour and was an entertaining enough guest so she stuck in my mind. She’d just won a BAFTA for her sitcom Alma’s Not Normal, and she spoke endearingly about the stories behind it and what it was like to write and make and then have it go so well, and the interview made me really like her and think that show sounds good. Though I’ve never actually seen any of Alma’s Not Normal. She was also quite good on WILTY last year. And those are all the things I know about Sophie Willan.

Nick Mohammed I guess I have a similarly unfair reaction to as I do to Steve Pemberton, in that the thought of him immediately puts a bad taste in my mouth simply due to his association with something else that isn’t his fault. Specifically, the third season of Ted Lasso was so absolutely fucking awful that I’m not sure I want to look at anyone from it ever again. I think it doesn’t help that there are suggestions that Jason Sudeikis being possibly terrible in real life may have been a small part of the cause of season 3 being so terrible, which has caused my brain to associate the actors with the bad writing. Even though Nick Mohammed did not write any of it. And I did hear some Brett Goldstein stand-up last year that I really enjoyed and he seems cool, so it’s possible that not every person who got cast on a bad show (or in this case, a good show that turned bad) is also bad.

I did watch Nick Mohammed’s filmed comedy special when I first saw his name on the s17 list, called Houdini. It was… not really for me, but I can appreciate that it’s well made if you like that sort of thing. It’s Nick Mohammed in character as Mr. Swallow, acting out a comedic biopic (but also a genuine biopic, it took me until about halfway through the show to work out that this wasn’t some parody or fictionalization, they really were trying to tell his life story) of Harry Houdini. Which I guess Nick Mohammed picked because he also does magic and admires people who have previously done magic to a legendary level. If you’re into magic and/or character comedy, then definitely check out Nick Mohammed’s special Houdini. I just happen to not be much into either of those things.

Although, I am curious to see whether Mohammed’s skills might come into play in Taskmaster. Because he does sometimes do actually magic when performing stand-up as his character Mr. Swallow. I’ve seen him do it in some short TV spots, where he’ll do a card trick, and he’s doing the trick for real, which you can tell because it doesn’t always work perfectly. But it usually works well. Those tricks involve a very impressive ability to memorize positions of lots of cards at once, and to do some other fiddly sleight of hand things, and that’s a real-life skill that Nick Mohammed has and most don’t. It reminds of Paul Sinha’s season, when he mostly performed terribly, but every once in a while there would be a task that tested one of those skills in which Paul Sinha is leagues and leagues more advanced than the average person due to his quizzing experience. Like that studio task where they had to name all those bird species, or the house task where they had to memorize the positions of cards. Paul Sinha was incredible at those, it was so cool to see. I’ll enjoy it if Nick Mohammed gets a similar chance to show that off.

Beyond that, I don’t know a lot about Nick Mohammed because I haven’t seen him be himself much. He sometimes turns up as a guest on TV shows, but normally as the character Mr. Swallow. And of course I’ve seen him in character on Ted Lasso. I don’t know what he's like when he’s not doing that.

I do know he was absolutely hilarious on the latest Catsdown Christmas special, which aired a few weeks ago. I think that show was running out of steam even before Sean Lock died and should definitely be respectfully put out to pasture by now (also, Jimmy Carr is getting harder and harder to be someone I can just tolerate in the background, as he throws his lot in more and more clearly with the right wing), but I’ve watched every episode they’ve put out and I will keep doing so until they stop (and I have to admit the one the other night with Lee Mack and Harriet Kemsley and DO’D was pretty good). And I thought Nick Mohammed absolutely stole the show on that Christmas special. I watched it with my parents and the Mr. Swallow routines from Dictionary Corner had all three of us laughing really hard. So that bodes well for Taskmaster s17.

Finally, I’ve saved Joanne McNally for last because I know almost nothing about her, and I’m probably being unfair by judging her based on this. I think the only things I’ve seen her do are a few guest spots on Joe Lycett’s Got Your Back (where she wasn’t doing stand-up or anything, just following the script, so it’s hard to get a read on her from that), she was on the Katherine Ryan Backstage but didn’t make much of an impression and I don’t remember what she did on there, and she did an episode of Alan Davies’ As Yet Untitled.

I watched As Yet Untitled a few years ago now, and thought she came off badly enough on there to make me dislike her even though I knew pretty much nothing about her. That’s because she told this story:

...I don't want to be all killjoy feminist "actually this comedy story told on a fun comedy show isn't funny, it's stalking and harassment and a component of emotional abuse", but this comedy story told on a fun comedy show isn't funny, it's stalking and harassment and a component of emotional abuse. I've known several people who have been in this situation with an ex-partner, and it's not funny, it's terrifying.

Now, I'm aware that not every single story on As Yet Untitled is 100%, down to each detail true. (I learned this last year, when I got probably disproportionately indignant about seeing that apparently you're allowed to steal someone's stand-up story just because they didn't like your penguin in 2002.) So I assume that Joanne McNally's story has, like plenty on stories that get told on panel shows, been wildly exaggerated or (hopefully) even made up completely.

But even if that's the case, even if none of that story really happened, it still doesn't make me like Joanne McNally to think that she considers that to be a quirky and funny story, rather than one where it looks like she's bragging about committing harassment. That's not great. And unfortunately for her, it's just about the only thing I know about her, so it has shaped my entire opinion.

I will hope she was just making up a wildly over-the-top story to get attention on a panel show, and it does not speak to her underlying character, and I will try to watch her on Taskmaster with an open mind. But I will be going in with some level of bias against her.