#Like the whole series itself is super gay but the openings and endings are on another world level of gay 😭

[sasunarualways]

All the openings and endings of Naruto be like

[canonsinthehead]

Naruto Modern AU/Hollywood pt.5 - Evolution of Tecnologies & The Strongest Podcast

Since the industrialization of most large cities, new technologies, wireless devices, diversity of media, and better Internet connection have opened the flow gate for diverse opportunities and career paths online.

Streaming took over since techno scientists rushed the installation and promotion of such interfaces, after getting a glimpse of the promised profit along with funding from the rich families (Hyuuga and Senju) to do so. Video streaming and online media grew overnight across large and small nations as it is a new ineffective way of communication. Ideas can be shared and reach an unlimited audience to support your work. This new way of doing work proved itself to be helpful, as it reduced unnecessary paperwork for the Hokage.

In these times, an individual named Mizuki grew in popularity for strange reasons. A nobody like him released a series of videos, raging and insulting an elementary school teacher, Iruka Umino who was trying to teach his audience phonetics and how to improve reading skills. Out of nowhere, he called this man everything but a child of God. Red in the face, relentlessly huffing and puffing.

His rants gained a lot of attention because of their absurdity. This deranged weirdo made bold and outrageous claims about the teacher. His audience was perplexed (and low-key entertained) since Iruka was the least problematic person on the Internet. Efforts to shut down Mizuki made him angrier as he noticed people either clowned him or defended Iruka.

It went for the worst when Mizuki started doxing him and his students leading to the teacher unfairly losing his job. The turn of events took everyone by surprise, but in all humbleness, Iruka made an apology video taking the blame for the situation and the inconvenience it caused his students and their families. He likely touched on his past and how him and Mizuki were friends (they were dating, but he did not say that) before leaving social media to Mizuki’s enjoyment.

Months passed, and net-citizens searched to the end of the Earth for their favorite sweet Professor but couldn’t find him. They could not predict that the next time they would see him would be on TV…

Well, in the height of the crazy debacle with Mizuki, the lawyer turned A list actor Kakashi Hatake watched the whole scandal go down. He was practicing and training for his next movie: Speed Hour. An action comedy with fellow fitness influencer, celebrity trainer, and part-time actor: Might Guy.

The movie involved speaking a foreign language, which was not Kakashi’s best asset. His manager has been harassing him to improve his pronunciation because of that damn mask he wears 24/7. Let’s knock out two birds with one stone, so he reached out to Iruka after he heard the teacher lost his job to then hire him as a speech specialist and help him prepare for his role.

Iruka was hesitant at first but accepted. Due to the movie's success, he became a celebrity speech specialist. Kakashi was a long-time watcher of Iruka’s former video channel. He found his videos, relaxing (and thinks the nice teacher is super cute). Iruka can now be seen on the red carpets of special events and is dating Kakashi. What an upgrade!

When Mizuki found out his attempts at sabotaging the former teacher failed, he had a mental breakdown during one of his live streams.

He vanished from the Internet to let the dust settle but came back with “The Strongest Podcast” where he discusses subjects important to men. Don’t hope too much because it is just questionable conspiracy theories, red pill narratives, and “exposing celebrities” content with his unhinge antics. He has not changed at all.

Matter of fact, he had made a tradition with his cohosts to call everyone and their mama gay. He has been on Iruka since his newfound popularity. Mizuki spilled every single intimate detail of their past relationship not realizing he was exposing his orientation and abusive antics (I made him blow me when I was driving & the cheeks are clapping). Don’t call him out, Mizuki would foam at the mouth if you call him gay. (I’m a strong, alpha male! I don’t do that gay shit!). One day, Anko (invited as a guest) called him out for just being a bitter, scorned ex missing his narcissistic supply and how he would still hit it if he could (She was right) but got dragged out of this studio by force.

Mizuki has a larger following than most people would like to admit. He has a really supportive fan base who 1000% agree with him and go to the front lines to defend him. A lot of people (supporters and hate watchers) tune in for his conspiracy theories, and when he exposes celebrities along with another random dude named Kabuto. They claim to have exclusive sources and hidden information in the deepest pit of the dark web. 95% of anyone coming across their content laugh it off as insanely far-fetched and move on with their lives. Many theories, claim to be real have their audience in a chokehold:

               •             The Uchihas are devil worshippers

               •             They leaked Sasuke’s real surname and aristocratic affiliations, rushing the disbandment of Taka

               •             Demeaning and toxic ideologies against other nations disguised as scientific facts

               •             Red pill content

We give them less credit than they deserve because they are still two deranged grey men who make such unhinged statements that it overshadow any “ truth” they put out there like:

               •             Calling anyone and everyone gay (with “proof”)

               •             The Earth is shaped like a cube

               •             Konoha’s president, Minato Namikaze is in fact, a woman.

               •             All men from Kiri have 10+ inches dicks

               •             Claiming to be the perfect example of masculinity and handsome looks

The recent trick up their sleeves is swearing on God, the famous actor Itachi Uchiha is homosexual. They came up with the most outlandish, mind-boggling proofs to support their bogus claims

Most of their accusations were ignored by the general public and still are till this day. The minute they threatened to release hotel security footage, revealing the identity of the basketball player the actor was allegedly entangled with, Itachi’s PR team came through the back door (literally) and shushed the duo for good. They vanished overnight, without a trace. The supporters of the channel are still trying to give Justice to Mizuki by keeping remnants of his account alive as much as possible (This is an attack on freedom of speech!) but are struggling since the claims made barely scratched the actor's public image.

The most ironic thing about all of this is that Itachi’s sex tapes could be leaked tomorrow and not affect his career or the public opinion of him AT ALL. Weirdly, he could walk out of this level of controversy untouched and brand deals intact. People would just blink twice and keep it pushing like nothing happened.

NEXT PART

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[thatonebirdwrites]

🥺

🥺 what’s a truly underrated book/series you recommend and wish the whole world would read? All of these books are ones that either never won awards, or are not well known -- as in if I mention them, people give me blank looks or show no recognition of the series or author.

A Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers

Young Wizards Series by Diane Duane

The Circle of Magic, The Circle Opens, and Will of Empress by Tamora Pierce

Area X: The Southern Reach Trilogy: Annihilation; Authority; Acceptance by Jeff VanderMeer

The Species Imperative Trilogy by Julie Czerneda

Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor

Moonshot: The Indigenous Comics Collection edited by Hope Nicholson

A Psalm for the Wild Built is a novella and about a nonbinary monk who travels the countryside and serves tea to people, while listening to their troubles. Except they decide they need to go into the wilds, but during their journey, they encounter the first robot humans have seen in over two hundred years. Their friendship is adorable. It's a solarpunk world, and it's message of hope is everything. I adored it, and I wished I lived in this world honestly.

____ The Young Wizards series started in the 90s actually. I was a kid when I read the first book: So You Want To Be A Wizard. I grew up reading these books, and so I never got into Harry Potter. Mostly because when I tried Harry Potter, it felt like a poor shadow of the Young Wizards series. So I abandoned Harry Potter to continue to read Young Wizards. Honestly, I adored Nita and Kit and their fantastical adventures. @dianeduane is a master at twists and turns, and the plots of Young Wizards goes from localized problems to multi-universe problems the young wizards must rush to solve. I can't recommend it enough. Seriously, I want more people reading Young Wizards so I can talk to more folks about it. So that we can have some fanfiction for it, so that we can have more fanart. It deserves so much more attention, plus the author is super awesome and supportive for LGBTQIA folks! I'll sound the drum on this series forever. lol

____ Another series that I grew up with that I wish more people knew about is The Circle of Magic, The Circle Opens, and Will of Empress by Tamora Pierce. Sandry, Tris, Daja, and Briar were my found family, comfort characters, and their teachers were so gay (the two lesbian teachers were together actually). The themes explored were complex and fascinating. Pierce is more known for her Alanna series, which I think isn't as good as her Circle of Magic series honestly. This is my comfort series that I've read a bazillion times.

____

Area X: The Southern Reach Trilogy: Annihilation; Authority; Acceptance by Jeff VanderMeer is very hard to describe. I know a movie was made of the first book -- Annihilation, but the movie really doesn't capture the true weirdness of this series. Nor the rather hopeful if bizarre ending. I keep going back to re-read this series because it's prose, its worldbuilding, how the land itself becomes a character is so utterly fascinating. I want more people to read the books so I can talk to them about it!!

____ The Species Imperative Trilogy by Julie Czerneda is one of my favorite trilogies of all time. It's not well known at all, which makes me sad. Julie Czerneda is a master at crafting alien species. The story is about a salmon researcher that ends up on an investigation about an alien species that may or may not be eating entire planets of aliens -- it's a conspiracy that spans the galaxy. I couldn't put it down, and I keep going back to it because its themes are fascinating.

___

Nnedi Okorafor is more well known for her Akata Witch series (I highly recommend) or her Binti series (also highly recommend). However, her Lagoon really by far one of her best I think. It's the story of first contact with aliens, but it's also an exploration of identity, liberation, community, and how we react to change and difference. It has a very diverse cast including well-written trans characters, and I wish more folks read it (beyond scholars) so I can chat about it!

___

Moonshot: The Indigenous Comics Collection edited by Hope Nicholson is a kickstarter I did randomly, and I'm so glad I did. I have three in this collection, and it's comics by Native American artists. They are all fantastic and I don't even know where to begin. There's just so many good stories in it, and I wish more people knew of this collection and would read it. It explores identity, intergenerational trauma, healing, liberation, and community. One of the best comic anthologies I've ever read.

____

I'll stop there. Mostly because I'm getting tired and I know the question only asked for one. But I can't choose! These are all so good, and I highly recommend them all! So thank you for asking. :)

[alieninashoebox]

Thoughts on the new Night at the Museum!

Aight, NatM has been my comfort franchise since 2009. When I heard we were getting an animated one I was positively ecstatic. Now that it's been out for a week and I've watched it twice here are some thoughts! (Mostly positive with a few things I thought could have been better!) Things I enjoyed

I LOVED the opening sequence. The animation is absolutely gorgeous

The healthy coparenting between Erica and Larry was great to see. Their communication was great and you can really see how their dynamic has changed/improved since the first movie.

Thoroughly enjoyed Nick in this movie. To be honest, the awkward teenager who needed a confidence boost felt a lot more believable than the popular kid throwing raves in his dad's apartment from the natm 3.

The museum exhibits that were locked in the loading dock was a great way to make that part of the museum seem even creepier

Jed and Octavius were so TOUCHY this movie oh my god.

The bit where Teddy threw his sword at the oil painting and oil actually came out of the painting was pretty cool.

I love that this movie's entire theme/vibe was The Power of FriendshipTM

I think the way they incorporated Nick's love for music into how he solves the problem at the end sent a really important message. I can remember being that age and being told to put writing to the side because it was never going to serve me. I hope some kid dealing that sees this movie and is reminded to never give up on what they love.

The bisexual sticker on Nicky's laptop and the gay pride sticker on the poster in the school. I know it's now much, but even seeing the small things bring me a lot of joy.

The lions look so much like Nala and Simba from the Lion King, it felt like a nice nod to the movie.

I really like the direction the voice actor went with Teddy. I was worried that it was going to just be a Robin Williams impression, which would have just been sad but he did a great job taking the character and making it his own.

Did I already mention how touchy Jed and Octavius were?

Things that could have been better

There's a lot of confusion about when this movie takes place. I'm not sure if its before three or after. It makes more sense for it to be before 3 since the whole theme of three was "if you love it let it go," and having it take place after would completely disregard that. But I've seen some people say they think it takes place after. I just wish we had a clear timeline.

I didn't really like Laa. And that's not just this movie, I didn't like him in the third one either. This series itself is so naturally funny, it doesn't feel like it needs that type of slapstick comedy.

There were little callbacks here and there to the previous movies, but it definitely felt a little disconnected from them at the same time? Despite the fact that SEVERAL of these exhibits were in Battle of the Smithsonian(and one of them nearly died) it felt like this was the first time they were seeing Kahmunrah. There was very little to no mention of the events that happened with his character before other than "your father defeated me once, but now I'm back."

(There are a few other things, but I feel like a lot have been said already and I don't want this to get super negative)

Overall I did enjoy the movie. It's still a little jarring hearing different voices for these characters, but I expect that to change over time.

And that's all for that!

[nicofitz]

(Not to mention all the gay behavior)

Kara protecting her wife (as is expected at this point)! this catch is so impressive, so much so it almost seems to shock Kara herself lol. also this might be Kara's gayest outfit in the entire series

This one speaks for itself but imma yap anyway. Kara aka supergirl aka one of the fastest people on the planet, flies Lena to the DEO in her human clothes instead of taking 0.5 seconds to change into her supergirl outfit, risking not only exposing her identity to Lena, but to the rest of the city and everyone who works at the DEO (assuming they dont all know already).

Alex doing her doctoring stuff while Kara looks on incredibly worried. Stuttering whenever Alex asks any questions.

The instant Alex needs something Kara provides. Kara: "I can do it, let me do it."

she has tears in her eyes omg! She was soooo worried, poor bby

this scene where we have our two couples on their respective couches while Sam opens up to them about the health stuff she is dealing with. Then supercorp + alex assure her that they are there for her and are a family. That they wont let her deal with it on her own. ugh my heart. (plus the monologue odette gives in this scene is *chefs kiss*)

Kara checking up on Lena. Kara could tell something was wrong earlier but sam and alex showed up before lena could tell her what was wrong so here she is, checking in again. refusing to let Lena close herself off. Lena opens up about a fair bit in this scene and Kara never makes her feel bad for the things she confesses. She simply supports her.

This iconic moment between them. Kara: I'm professionally crafty. lena: *stares at Kara like she is a whole meal*

Kara: "thats what friends are for, we get each other through the dark times" then lena immediately tells her that M*nel is back, no secrets policy type stuff.

Alex tells Sam she isnt dying of cancer or anything and they are all relieved except Sam because if it isnt something medical then wth is wrong with her?? She leaves and they reiterate that they will figure it out, together. They're all dressed so soft in this scene + Lena with her hair down 🙌🙌

I ended up rewatching the entire episode while getting the clips to make these gifs and oh my God I forgot how well fed we were back in season 3!!!

3x12 in particular because we got loads of supercorp, loads of agent reign, AND 2 scenes of super agent reign corp!!

Not to mention how fabulous they all looked throughout the entire episode!

I will never ever understand why they didn't put Alex and Sam together!!! They had so much chemistry and Alex had great chemistry with Ruby, Sam's daughter! And they came right after Alex and Maggie broke up over the whole kid thing!! Yet another missed opportunity from this show!

(I do want to state here that I do love Kelly and obviously I love Esme but this was before them so we're not talking about them lol)

3x12 was so unbelievably good and gay!! I'm still feral for these pairings!

(sorry this episode really sparked something in me lmao)

kara + lena & their gay little outfits / 3.12

[spacevixenmusic]

How long or short should a show be? It seems like there's been too extremes: too popular to stop or too beloved to last.

I have opinions about this, personally.

I don't think there's really an "ideal" length for any show. Obviously there are shows that go on way too long, and shows that are cut short way before they should be, but that has more to do with the nature of the TV Show* format than the actual content of the show itself. For a series to really shine, it has to know how to work within the confines of the 11-22 minute episode box, and how to tell its story within that framework.

(*I'm using the phrase "TV Show" as a general term here)

Historically, the TV Show format works well because it's told in small chunks over a long period of time, allowing people to digest or discuss the episode before the next one airs. We refer to them as "seasons" of a show because one episode a week x 13 episodes = about the length of a season of the year (spring, summer, fall, etc). This is a convenient schedule to work with, and if you know exactly what your story is about, 13 episodes should give plenty of room to tell it.

The kicker is, if a show is successful and makes decent money, the network is likely to order more episodes, meaning a creator needs to have more story ready to go. This can be a problem if the writers already told the whole story in one season and have to scramble to come up with more, but most creators have plenty of story they want to tell (Six Seasons and A Movie, baby!), and are probably banking on getting more than one season.

But personally, I think the best shows are the ones that are built with the TV Show framework in mind. Let's use Infinity Train as an example. It was originally ordered as a 10-episode miniseries, very limited in scope compared to most shows. The writers worked very hard to pack the entire essence of the show into 10 little episodes, giving the viewer exactly as much information as they needed to enjoy that one single season, while still leaving a few doors open and not fully explaining the entire nature of the Train or One-One or Amelia, just in case they got picked up for another season. Using that method, no matter which season the show ended on, it would never feel "incomplete" because each season was written as if it were the last one, rather than leaving off on a cliffhanger or trying to set up for something bigger. That's the true essence of the TV Show format!

But for shows with epic sweeping narratives, this format presents a problem. The show has to be successful enough in its first season for the network to order more, and if it's going to take time for the story to ramp up properly, it might not get that far before the network cuts it short. Or y'know, it might be axed because it's Too Gay For China and can't make enough money in foreign syndication to pay for the cost of more episodes. For shows like The Owl House or Avatar The Last Airbender, it's a bit of a gamble, and as we've seen all too frequently, most networks these days DON'T like to take risks.

So to answer your question: IDEALLY, I think most shows should aim for a super polished single season (13~ episodes). And if it goes well and they get more episodes, then they can open it up further and go Harder Better Faster Stronger for Season 2, and any other seasons that may unlock down the road!

[justsasuke]

I feel like there is significance in the fact that Sasuke was given piggyback rides by Itachi and it was highlighted multiple times that Juugo also carried him on his back. I just don’t have the brain capacity to come up with why it’s significant in my mind.

no worries anon, I got you, ;)

First some notes about the piggy back in-general as used by the series

At first glance the piggyback itself doesn’t seem to be super significant in and of itself because honestly speaking, it’s the most convenient way to carry anyone when you’re a ninja… But if you look a little closer you can see that it still tends to be used in the story in situations where there is at, very least, a basic level of trust between the two people involved and at most a close relationship. Prominent examples being Gai and Kakashi, Kakashi and Naruto, and of course, Sasuke and Itachi.

As a matter of fact, the idea of a piggyback meaning something more than just convenience is pretty well illustrated when Neji refuses to let Rock Lee carry him. While we could just assume that Neji finds getting a piggyback embarrassing the fact that it was directly contrasted with Gai carrying Kakashi on his back coupled with Neji and Lee’s historic lack of friendship/closeness I'd say it's pretty safe to say his refusal was simply because he and Rock Lee just aren't that close.

*Quick note that I don’t remember all the times the piggyback was used so my thoughts on this whole thing are definitely colored by the lack of data

From the times we see the piggyback in use we can infer that carrying/being carried is a way to indicate closeness. 

So Juugo carrying Sasuke means they at least have trust, but it’s definitely a deeper connection if you ask me.

Moving on to why it’s significant that both Itachi and Juugo have carried Sasuke on their backs:

A few things (and I need to make this a bullet point list because I am struggling to string these thoughts together coherently lol):

it means that the level of trust Sasuke has with Juugo is comparable to what he had with Itachi which, let's just sit in that for a second because do you have any idea how big a deal that is? This is huge. This guy was hurting so badly he cut everyone (including himself) off from his actual feelings and kept people at a distance because he was hurting so bad. He didn't let anyone it. and for him--this closed off sad boy--to then let Juugo carry him? Unreal

When Itachi carries Sasuke it’s pre-massacre AKA pre-trauma Sasuke which is when Sasuke was at his most genuine, healthy, happy self. He's not colored by trauma, his way of viewing and experiencing the world hasn't been warped, and he’s open and unguarded. this kind of sets the precedent for what sort of mind-space Sasuke would have to be in in order to allow himself to be carried again. at least in my mind anyway.

When Sasuke was little he had Itachi to look after him, protect him, and keep him safe. (remember Itachi was carrying Sasuke because Sasuke hurt his foot)  Itachi was a place of security, and getting a piggyback from him was an extension of that. After the massacre Sasuke didn’t have that, and one of the ways we know that is because Sasuke never gets carried. Now one could say part of why we never see Sasuke getting a piggyback is situational--we never see Sasuke carried anywhere so ofc we wouldn't see him getting piggybacks--but if you think about it, every situation where he could/would/should have been carried were moments to illustrate how alone he was. Like the valley of the end when Kakashi comes to get Naruto and carries him home (hello piggyback indicating close relationship) which is contrasted by Sasuke walking away alone even though he was definitely injured. Basically after Itachi left, Sasuke didn't have anyone to look after him in a similar way until Juugo.

I'm just circling back to the trust and vulnerability part but post massacre, Sasuke isn't open and vulnerable--at least not to the level of allowing someone to carry him on their back--to anyone. He's shut down and the reason why is because he's hurting that badly, and there isn't anyone for him to open up to. Most interestingly he puts physical distance between himself and everyone by frequently crossing his arms or putting his hands in his pockets, all non verbal ways to distance yourself from people around you without physically moving away. This further shows us just how much he's closed off because one of Sasuke's love-languages is touch (we see evidence of this when he's a child; him hugging Itachi, jumping on him, and wanting to be physically close to him a lot etc.  Also the forehead poke--a form of negative touch--held a lot of weight for him) and when you start not doing the thing that your love language it means something is wrong.

So for Sasuke to then let Juugo carry him is just crazy to think about because it's telling us that those walls that Sasuke put up because of trauma have lowered (at least where Juugo is concerned) and that Sasuke feels safe enough with Juugo to be in the same emotionally open place as he was with his own brother.

~ Your message blew my mind and it's all I've been thinking about since I read it. I had SO many thoughts, and I hope I did an ok job piecing them into something that makes some sense 👍 I'm obsessed with the idea of Sasuke being so open and emotionally vulnerable with Juugo if you can't tell, and to compare it to Sasuke's relationship with Itachi which is also so deep albeit in a slightly different way was such a treat. So thank you! also thank you for your patience, I know it took me a bit haha

[recycledbeercans]

I’m actually not one to get super heavy into having explicit gender/sexuality hcs for characters because I appreciate leaving it a little open-ended to explore possibilities, but everything about Futurama really lends itself to making me want to define my takes on them for these characters, and it feels very relevant to their personalities.

I actually hc Bender as a gay robosexual more than I do bi. Like, the nuances in of what flavor of queer this fictional character is doesn’t matter too much, but the reason I lean into it w/ him is because the series just constantly centers his love for Fry and need to see him happy as being more important to him than his own life. It’s continually reinforced that while Bender is able to at least move on from failed relationships without too much trouble, any time he loses Fry in some way, he is completely decimated emotionally. It makes me feel like he never has much true attachment to the fembots he sleeps around with, and even when he is more longterm into a lady, he doesn’t express the same level of devotion that he does to Fry. It feels more like he (honestly i’d argue this for Fry and Leela also) just acts the way he feels he is expected to, because his deeper desires always seem to skew elsewhere.

He’s an interesting character in that regard. Then there’s so many “Bender is gay” jokes littered throughout episodes, especially in how he idolizes over characters like Calculon and Elzar, how he is shown to naturally shift into other gender identities (which I’d say Bender isn’t cis either but because he’s a robot it feels like a bit of a gray area because the whole “robot = nb” trope is a little tired but in this case, it has less to do w/ him being a robot and more to do with his behaviors). Then of course prop infinity was just a blatant gay allegory, it straight up was based around our real world equivalent of prop 8 and I’m still mind-boggled why the writers would make that whole scenario… straight. It seemed like Bender was into Amy because she superficially reminds him of Fry because the idea of monogamy killed his interest entirely, but you know Bender wouldn’t hesitate to exclusively devote himself to Fry, even if his feelings are more one-sided. Bender to me feels, gay robosexual and in denial, like, he knows but doesn’t like to acknowledge it.

Then Fry obviously reads as bi or pan to me, because he clearly loves Leela (and his affection towards her is really genuine), but also because of the time period he came from, he wouldn’t even realize he isn’t straight or consider it so he’d probably need to be pushed into considering other options (like Bender, lol) to process this information.

Leela also screams lesbian to me. I get such strong comphet vibes from her because every relationship she has with a guy in the show always feels like she is trying to superficially mark off checkboxes of what a guy should be and provide, but she never seems genuinely passionate in her love for any of them. She never shows much affection and always expects the guy to impress her. I’ve never seen her be in love with and pursue anyone, esp never the way Fry has her. It always feels like she just settles and only gets with Fry because she can eventually fit him into the mold of what she expects in a man after Fry tries for years to win her over, but she never seems truly charmed by him the way he is with her (this is so reinforced by Lars, even tho it’s supposed to be a Fry/Leela win, Lars isn’t even comparable to Fry so it’s basically saying Fry as we know him isn’t Leela’s type).

Something about these characters all being their own flavor of unrealized queer is such a good and appealing narrative to me, esp with a show like Futurama that came out around the time that it wasn’t fully accepted in society to be able to openly explore if you were, but it was still acknowledged as a thing. I feel so strongly about Leela being mom-friend to Fry and Bender and to me that feels more natural than trying to force a relationship between her and Fry.

I was actually surprised to find out a lot of people told me they never considered Fry/Bender before and I think it’s because there are two ways to watch a show. You can follow along with what it tells you (Fry likes Leela, he will win her over), or you can pay attention to what actually happens (Fry and Bender are affectionate and care about each other and Bender would give anything for Fry, Leela really doesn’t want to date Fry until all options are exhausted). And well, most ppl are casual viewers, yanno. But even tho the show says you should ship Fry and Leela, everything in their behaviors behind this superficial veil of expectations does not fit this narrative at all in terms of how things play out? It also begs the question of how the writers view relationships because there’s too many “our marriage is falling apart and my wife is a nag” jokes for me to think they weren’t just genuinely writing their shitty take on what love should look like. And these were the unintended consequences.

I have mixed feelings about a Futurama revival for a laundry list of reasons. But I will say I wonder if the show does get revived, if any of this will be addressed. I would actually lose my shit over a narrative involving the characters exploring and coming to terms with their sexualities because 1. It feels in place for Futurama, and 2. So much media has skipped over depicting the struggles that come with accepting your identity and gone right into “jt’s normal and no one says anything negative about it” that as a queer person who grew up struggling w/ my own identity, I desperately miss not seeing my experiences anywhere. And because I grew up with these characters and lived in the same time period, it’s something I’d want to see from a revival. Though my hopes aren’t high.

Otherwise I’m not really interested in seeing the technology be updated because part of the charm was that it was the future but the tech was all retro futuristic, like stuff from the 80s-80s.

Anyways I’m getting off topic.

Professor Farnsworth is gay and homophobic.

[olreid]

hi! could you rec me some sci fi books if u dont mind?

YEAH!

ender's game - i know orson scott card sucks and everything else ive ever tried to read by him sucks but ender's game might be my fave scifi of all time. if you've only ever read the first one or seen the movie or something you should really check out the sequels - the world opens up in a huge way and it's about how to do an ethnography of aliens and what it means to die too soon but also what it's like to outlive everyone you ever knew and about redemption for both individuals and entire species as a whole.. what if your first contact with aliens was a devastating war that did unspeakable damage to another culture and society? could your relationship ever recover? i'm not even scratching the surface of all that these books have to say i just think they r great.

DUNE - SORRY it's just great!!! i love dune!!! dune is the kind of series where every chapter has an epigraph from a book in-world that frank herbert made up for flavor!!! but instead of leaving it at that in later books you actually meet the authors of those books as fleshed out characters!!! he's nuts!!! only the first three are worth reading imo but it's like. such an immersive world with cool technology and factional politics and urgent questions of planetary and societal preservation and it's about consolidation of power and how to rule an empire and the futility of trying to outrun your destiny and also BIG WORMS.

roadside picnic - first contact story that's more about the ramifications of first contact on earth and its inhabitants; you never actually see the aliens onscreen but rather come to know them through the things they left behind. ur classic place-that's-super-fucked-up story <3 can we ever understand alien life? do we want to?

murderbot - murderbot!!! series made up of short little installments that are easy and engaging reads. what if a robot designed as an instrument of war emancipated itself so that it could have more free time to watch tv and then accidentally ended up caring about and trying to protect a bunch of human scientists who accidentally got themselves tangled up in corporate espionage and cover-ups and assassination attempts etc.? GOOD BOOKS, THATS WHAT.

hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy - on the off-chance that u haven't read this or the sequels, you should! easy and fun to read and has a surrealist approach to scifi that i really appreciate. science fiction is a genre where quite literally anything can happen and douglas adams takes that premise seriously!!! mice created the earth. robots have manic depression. you can watch the end of the world as many times as you want. it's all here baby and it BOPS

solaris - BOOK OF ALL TIME!!! scientists have discovered a planet that's covered in a sentient ocean and the main character is one of the few scientists remaining in a remote observation station orbiting the planet itself. psychological horror and cool made-up science! what more could u want.

the three-body problem - putting the SCIENCE in science fiction. the pacing on this one is a bit slow and it's a first-contact story so it takes place on earth rather than in space but the last 30 pages of this book.... bonkers. made me excited about science which is a real feat. also has some cool stuff to say about video games that reminds me a lot of ender's game, but i digress.

the left hand of darkness - technically scifi altho this has a much more speculative fiction/future fantasy feel to it imo? much more emphasis on worldbuilding and statecraft and politics and less on like. Science and Technology. GREAT book tho! gay people who need each other to survive the winter.. never gets old

ancillary justice / imperial radch series - also heavier on the politics and statecraft and lighter on the technology but SERIES OF ALL TIME!!!! it's about sentience and agency and loyalty and revenge and empire and when you're stuck on a road trip with someone who was born to annoy you. i read it weeks ago and simply cant stop thinking about it

i think that's all for now? anyone else is welcome to add their scifi recs below <3

[geshertzarmeod]

Favorite Books of 2020

I wanted to put together a list! I read 74 new books this year, and I keep track of that on Goodreads - feel free to add or follow me if you want to see everything! I’m going to focus on the highlights, and the books that stuck with me personally in one way or another, in approximate order. Also, all but two of them (#5 and #7 on the honorable mention list) are queer/trans in some way. Links are to Goodreads, but if you’re looking to get the books, I suggest your library, the Libby app using your library, your local bookstore, or Bookshop.

The Faggots & Their Friends Between Revolutions by Larry Mitchell, illus. by Ned Asta (originally published 1977). I had a hard beginning of the year and was in a work environment where my queerness was just not welcomed or wanted. I read this in the middle of all of that, and it helped me so much. I took this book with me everywhere. I read it on planes. I read it on the bus, and on trains, and at shul. I showed it to friends... sometimes at shul, or professional development conferences. It healed my soul. Now I can’t find it and might get a new copy. When I reviewed it, in February, I wrote: “I think we all need this book right now, but I really needed this book right now. Wow. This book is magic, and brings back a sense of magic and beauty to my relationship with the world.” Also I bought my copy last July, in a gay bookstore on Castro St. in SF, and that in itself is just beautiful to me. (Here’s a post I made with some excerpts)

Once & Future duology, especially the sequel, Sword in the Stars, by A.R. Capetta and Cory McCarthy. Cis pansexual female King Arthur Ari Helix (she's the 42nd reincarnation and the first female one) in futuristic space with Arab ancestry (but like, from a planet where people from that area of earth migrated to because, futuristic space) works to end Future Evil Amazon.com Space Empire with her found family with a token straight cis man and token white person. Merlin is backwards-aging so he's a gay teenager with a crush and thousands of years of baggage. The book’s entire basis is found family, and it's got King Arthur in space. And the sequel hijacks the original myth and says “fuck you pop culture, it was whitewashed and straightwashed, there were queer and trans people of color and strong women there the whole time.” Which is like, my favorite thing to find in media, and a big part of why I love Xena so much. It’s like revisionist history to make it better except it’s actually probably true in ways. Anyway please read these books but also be prepared for an absolutely absurd and wild ride. Full disclosure though, I didn’t love the first book so much, it’s worth it for the sequel!

The Wicker King by K. Ancrum. This book hurt. It still hurts. But it was so good. It took me on a whole journey, and brought me to my destination just like it intended the whole time. The author’s note at the end made me cry! The sheer NEED from this book, the way the main relationship develops and shifts, and how you PERCEIVE the main relationship develops and shifts. I’m in awe of Ancrum’s writing. If you like your ships feral and needy and desperate and wanting and D/S vibes and lowkey super unhealthy but with the potential, with work, to become healthy and beautiful and right, read this book. This might be another one to check trigger warnings for though.

The Entirety of The Daevabad Trilogy by S.A. Chakraborty. I hadn’t heard of this series until this year, when a good friend recommended it to me. It filled the black hole in me left by Harry Potter. The political and mystical/fantasy world building is just *chef’s kiss* - the complexity! The morally grey, everyone’s-done-awful-things-but-some-people-are-still-trying-to-do-good tapestry! The ROMANCE oh my GOD the romance. If I’m absolutely fully invested in a heterosexual romance you know a book is good, but also this book had background (and then later less background) queer characters! And the DRAMA!!! The third book went in a direction that felt a little out of nowhere but honestly I loved the ride. I stayed up until 6am multiple times reading this series and I’d do it again.

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon. I loved this book so much that it’s the only book I reviewed on my basically abandoned attempt at a book blog. This book is haunting, horrifying, disturbing, dark, but so, so good. The character's voices were so specific and clear, the relationships so clearly affected by circumstance and yet loving in the ways they could be. This is my favorite portrayal of gender maybe ever, it’s just... I don’t even have the words but I saw a post @audible-smiles​ made about it that’s been rattling in my head since. And, “you gender-malcontent. You otherling,” as tender pillow talk??? Be still my heart. Be ready, though, this book has all the triggers.. it’s a .

Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender. This book called me out on my perspective on love. Also, it made me cry a lot. And it has two different interesting well-written romance storylines. And a realistic coming-into-identity narrative about a Black trans demiboy. And a nuanced discussion of college plans and what one might do after college. And some big beautiful romcom moments. I wish I had it in high school. I’m so glad I have it now! (trigger warning for transphobia & outing, but the people responsible are held accountable by the end, always treated as not okay by the narrative, and the MC’s friends, and like... this is ownvoices and it’s GOOD.)

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern. My Goodreads review says, “I have no idea what happened, and I loved it.” That’s not wrong, but to delve deeper, this book has an ethereal feeling that you get wrapped up in while reading. Nothing makes sense but that’s just as it should be. You’re hooked. It is so atmospheric, so meta, so fascinating. I’ve seen so many people say they interpreted this character or that part or the ending in all different ways and it all makes sense. And it’s all of this with a gay main character and romance and the central theme, the central pillar being a love of and devotion to stories. Of course I was going to love it.

Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl’s Confabulous Memoir by Kai Cheng Thom. “Because maybe what really matters isn’t whether something is true, or false. Maybe what matters is the story itself; what kinds of doors it opens, what kinds of dreams it brings.” This book was so good and paradigm shifting. It reminded me of #1 on this list in the way it turns real life experience and hard, tragic ones at that (in this case, of being a trans girl of color who leaves home and tries to make a life for herself in the city, with its violence), into a beautiful, haunting fable. Once upon a time.

I Wish You All the Best by Mason Deaver. I need to reread this book, as I read it during my most tranceful time of 2020 and didn’t write a review, so I forgot a lot. What I do remember is beautiful and important nonbinary representation, a really cute romance, an interesting parental and familial/sibling dynamic that was both heartbreaking and hopeful, and an on-page therapy storyline. Also Mason Deaver just left twitter but was an absolutely hilarious troll on it before leaving and I appreciate that (and they just published a Christmas novella that I have but haven’t read yet!)

The Truth Is by NoNieqa Ramos. It took a long time to trust this book but I’m so glad I did. It’s raw and real and full of grief and trauma (trigger warnings, that I remember, for grief, death (before beginning of book), and gun violence). The protagonist is flawed and gets to grow over the course of the book, and find her own place, and learn from the people around her, while they also learn to understand her and where she’s coming from. It’s got a gritty, harsh, and important portrayal of found family, messy queerness, and some breathtaking quotes. When I was 82% through this book I posted this update: “This book has addressed almost all of my initial hesitations, and managed to complicate itself beautifully.”

Anger is a Gift by Mark Oshiro.  I wasn’t actually in the best mental health place to read this book when I did (didn’t quite understand what it was) but it definitely reminded me of what there is to fight against and to fight for, and broke my heart, and nudged me a bit closer to hope. The naturally diverse cast of characters was one of the best parts of this book. The romance is so sweet and tender and then so painful. This book is important and well-written but read it with caution and trigger warnings - it’s about grief and trauma and racism and police brutality, but also about love and community.

The Prey of Gods by Nicky Drayden.  This is a sci-fi/fantasy/specfic mashup that takes place in near-future South Africa and has world-building myths with gods and demigoddesses and a trip to the world of the dead but also a genetically altered hallucinogenic drug that turns people into giant animals and a robot uprising and a political campaign and a transgender pop star and a m/m couple and all of them are connected. It’s bonkers. Like, so, so absolutely mind-breaking weird. And I loved it.

Crier’s War and Iron Heart by Nina Varela.  I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVED the amount of folktales they told each other with queer romances as integral to those stories, especially in Iron Heart. A conversation between the two leads where Crier says she wants to read Ayla like a book, and Ayla says she’s not a book, and Crier explains all the different ways she wants to know Ayla, like a person, and wants to deserve to know her like a person, made me weak. It lives in my head rent-free.

Queen’s Shadow by E.K. Johnston @ekjohnston . I listened to this book on Libby and then immediately listened to it at least one more time, maybe twice, before my borrow time ran out. I love Padmé, and just always wish that female Star Wars characters got more focus and attention and this book gave me that!! And queer handmaidens! And the implication that Sabé is in love with Padmé and that’s just something that will always be true and she will always be devoted and also will make her own life anyway. And the Star Wars audiobooks being recorded the way they are with background sounds and music means it feels like watching a really long detailed beautiful Star Wars movie just about Padmé and her handmaidens.

Sissy: A Coming of Gender Story by Jacob Tobia. I needed to read this. The way Tobia talks about their experience of gender within the contexts of college, college leadership, and career, hit home. I kept trying to highlight several pages in a row on my kindle so I could go back and read them after it got returned to the library (sadly it didn’t work - it cuts off highlights after a certain number of characters). The way they talk about TOKENISM they way they talk about the responsibilities of the interviewer when an interviewee holds marginalized identities especially when no one else in the room does!!! Ahhhh!!!

Bonds of Brass by Emily Skrutskie. Disclaimer for this one that the author was rightfully criticized for writing a Black main character as a white author (and how the story ended up playing into some fucked up stuff that I can’t really unpack without spoiling). But also, the author has been working to move forward knowing she can’t change the past, has donated her proceeds, and this book is really good? It has all the fanfic tropes, so much delicious tension, a totally unexpected plot twist that had me immediately rereading the book. This book was super fun and also kind of just really really good Star Wars fanfiction.

How To Be a Normal Person by T.J. Klune. This book was so sweet, and cute, and hopeful, and both ridiculous and so real. I had some trouble getting used to Gus’ voice and internal monologue, but I got into it and then loved every bit after. The ace rep is something I’ve never seen like this before (and have barely read any ace books but still this was so fleshed out and well rounded and not just like, ‘they’re obsessed with swords not sex’ - looking at you, Once & Future - and leaving it there.) This all felt like a slice of life and I feel like I learned about people while reading it. Some of the moments are so, so funny, some are vaguely devastating. I have been personally victimized by TJ Klune for how he ends this book (a joke, you will know once you read it) but it also reminds me of the end of the “You Are There” episode of Xena and we all know what the answer to that question was.... and I choose to believe the answer here was similar.

You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson. I wish I had this book when I was in high school. I honestly have complicated feelings about prom and haven’t really been seeking out contemporary YA so I was hesitant to read this but it was so good and so well-written, and had a lot of depth to it. The movie (and Broadway show) “The Prom” wants what this book has.

Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth. I never read horror books, so this was a new thing for me. I loved the feeling of this book, the way I felt fully immersed. I loved how entirely queer it was. I was interested in the characters and the relationships, even though we didn’t have a full chance to go super deep into any one person but rather saw the connections between everyone and the way the stories matched up with each other. I just wanted a bit of a more satisfying ending.

Honorable Mention: reread in 2020 but read for the first time pre-2020

Red White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston. I couldn’t make this post without mentioning this book. It got me through this year. I love this book so much; I think of this book all the time. This book made me want to find love for myself. You’ve all heard about it enough but if you haven’t read this book what are you DOING.

In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan @sarahreesbrennan​ . I reread this one over and over too, both as text and as an audiobook. I went for walks when I had lost my earbuds and had Elliott screaming about an elf brothel loudly playing and got weird looks from someone walking their dog. I love this book so much. It’s just so fun, and so healing to read a book reminiscent of all the fantasies I read as a kid, but with a bi main character and a deconstruction of patriarchy and making fun of the genre a bit. Also, idiots to lovers is a great trope and it’s definitely in this book.

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz. This book is forever so important to me. I am always drawn in by how tenderly Sáenz portrays his characters. These boys. These boys and their parents. I love them. I love them so much. This is another one where I don’t even know what to say. I have more than 30 pages in my tag for this book. I have “arda” set as a keyboard shortcut on my phone and laptop to turn into the full title. This book saved my life.

Last Night I Sang to the Monster by Benjamin Alire Sáenz. This book hurts to read - it’s a story about trauma, about working through that trauma, healing enough to be ready to hold the worst memories, healing enough to move through the pain and start to make a life. It’s about found family and love and pain and I love it. It’s cathartic. And it’s a little bit quietly queer in a beautiful way, but that’s not the focus. Look up trigger warnings (they kind of are spoilery so I won’t say them here but if you have the potential to be triggered please look them up or ask me before reading)

Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine.  When asked what my all time favorite book is, it’s usually this one. Gail Carson Levine has been doing live readings at 11am since the beginning of the pandemic shut down in the US, and the first book she read was Ella Enchanted. I’ve been slowly reading it to @mssarahpearl and am just so glad still that it has the ability to draw me in and calm me down and feels like home after all this time. This book is about agency. I love it.

Radio Silence by Alice Oseman @chronicintrovert . I’ve had this on my all-time-faves list since I read it a few years ago and ended up rereading it this year before sending a gift copy to a friend, so I could write little notes in it. It felt a little different reading it this time - as I get further away from being a teenager myself, the character voice this book is written in takes a little longer to get used to, but it’s so authentic and earnest and I love it. I absolutely adore this book about platonic love and found family and fandom and mental illness and abuse and ace identity and queerness and self-determination, especially around college and career choices. Ahhh. Thank you Alice Oseman!!!

Leia: Princess of Alderaan by Claudia Gray @claudiagray​ . I have this one on audible and reread it several times this year. I love the fleshing out of Leia’s story before the original trilogy, I love her having had a relationship before Han, and the way it would have affected her perspective. I also am intrigued by the way it analyses the choices the early rebellion had to make... I just, I love all the female focused new Star Wars content and the complexity being brought to the rebellion.

[flying-elliska]

so, I finished the magnus archives ...(spoilers)

unfortunately i'd been spoiled for most of what happened in it but it was still cool to listen to especially since the audio work on it was incredible (those haunted tape noises are the coolest thing i've ever heard on a podcast, it was so slick)

it worked for me on the level of the emotional reaction. it was very sad and poignant. i often find horror stories difficult because either the characters are assholes and then i don't care and the whole thing becomes pointless for me or i get too attached to the characters and then I'm devastated when bad things happen to them and this was definitely the former. I really wish these characters existed in a spooky paranormal fantasy/workplace comedy-drama where they could get the comfort and overwinnings they deserved, but alas. i get they were bound by the genre though and that bad things needed to happen. i think they did a good job of balancing the horror and tragedy and not making it too grim at the same time.

it didn't blow me away either tbh, like for instance the s4 ending did. but i think after all the insane levels of world-building up they did, it was bound to be a bit underwhelming, with some arcs and characters left underused (Agnes!!!!). it misses a bit of a wow factor i had at other times in the series. the thing with horror is that there is only so far you can push character growth before it becomes too optimistic, and so when you go really deep into a character arc that's not strictly a corruption, it can often feel frustrating and unfinished in terms of emotional payoff.

I have mixed feelings about s5 as a whole. It's really cool that they experimented with something new, the concept of the fearscape is fascinating, and some of the statements are among my favorites in the whole show (the Sick Village, Recollections, the Gardener, Wonderland, the Processing Line, Moving on...) and really bring the cosmic horror/metaphor for the horrors of capitalism/ableism/abuse/etc in a way that feels strangely cathartic and understanding and glorious - but a lot of the others, especially in act 2/3, felt very forgettable and repetitive, and less like stories that could stand on their own, which i loved about the more traditional statements. Once it becomes clear that Jon (and Martin as a consequence) can't really be hurt, and the more it all becomes very detached from the real world, the sense of doom and foreboding that they did so well throughout the whole show kind of vanishes. The tension weirdly feels lower because the worst has already happened. I really believe in 'more is less' when it comes to scary things, and in a hell world where everything is horrible everywhere, it has less impact after a while. I did love the relationship between Jon and Martin providing those moments of humanity and warmth in the midst of it all, though, that was sweet.

the end itself...well, I found the dilemma interesting on a character level. of course Jon would sacrifice himself ; he feels so guilty he would doom the entire world to die rather than have to shoulder even more guilt for the fears potentially conquering other dimensions. he's spent so long feeling powerless and out of his depth that he would grasp this chance to finally make a choice and have agency and protect at least some people and keep the fears from extending their reach. but i love that he wasn't able to see it through either. it's so human. him and Martin breaking their promises to each other isn't miscommunication, it's deeply rooted in their respective personalities. of course Martin would do anything not to lose Jon since that love is basically the thing that saved him from the Lonely.

i don't think any of the options they had were the 'right choice' - both were shitty and atrocious, but the one that ended up happening is the one i would have picked, because it leaves some space for hope. If Jon had chosen to end their world to trap the fears, killing billions of people in the process, that would have been certain doom. With the fears sucked into other dimensions - first of all they had no certainty that the fears didn't already exist somewhere else, and any of the other worlds still have a fighting chance. I mean, it still sucks tremendously, it's very scary and ethically questionable and a massive risk, but at least it's open and it leaves it up to the people in the other worlds to make their own choices. And their world has a chance to recover. I find the idea that people remember what happened and the concept of a post-post apocalyptic world fascinating. I also really like that Melanie, Georgie and Basira (and the Admiral) made it out alive, and that we don't really know what happened to Jon and Martin. For a horror podcast that's super dark, violent and depressing, it's kind of awesome how they managed to sidestep 'bury your gays' very elegantly.

I've read this head canon somewhere of Jon and Martin being scattered across dimensions as these not-quite-human anymore entities that work to warn people and counteract the fears, powered by love and the desire to make things better, and I think that's my favorite post-canon option, because while it's still kind of a horrible fate it's also the one that gives them the most agency and it's also kind of romantic (way too much for a horror podcast, I'm aware, but i like that open endings like these allow you to make your own decisions about what happened).

also, the Web won, which is terrifying. the idea that it's using people as neurons ! horrible. amazing.

on a philosophical level I'm not sure i find the whole thing all that interesting, as a thought experiment, because i don't believe the universe is this consistently evil in the real world, so i don't find it super relevant. I'm also not the kind of hardcore fan who remembers a lot of details about previous seasons, so maybe I'm missing something.

But yeah overall I think in terms of storytelling this remains a pretty decent ending with enough layers to make it satisfying. it wasn't transcendent but it didn't ruin the whole thing, at least (*cough cough the Black Tapes*) and I can see myself listening to it again in a few years. and i'm definitely going to need a few fix-it fics now.

[lokiondisneyplus]

For his entire tenure as an Avenger, Anthony Mackie had never been the first name on the call sheet.

In a galaxy of stars populated by Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson, the actor was aware of his place in the on-set pecking order, but would never miss an opportunity to make his presence felt.

“Number six on the call sheet has arrived!” Mackie would routinely shout on films like “Captain America: Civil War” and the box office-busting “Infinity Saga” sequels, according to Marvel chief creative officer Kevin Feige.

It exemplifies the sort of winning tone that the 42-year-old actor has brought to his superhero character the Falcon, aka Sam Wilson, for six movies from the top-earning studio — wry and collegial humor, with the potential to turn explosive at any moment. Both Mackie and his character are set to burn brighter than ever when the Disney Plus series “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” lands on March 18.

On that call sheet, “Anthony is No. 1,” Feige is happy to report, “but it still says ‘No. 6.’ He kept it because he didn’t want it to go to his head.” The series is essentially a two-hander with his friend and longtime co-star Sebastian Stan, the titular soldier. All six episodes were produced and directed by Emmy winner Kari Skogland (“The Handmaid’s Tale,” “The Loudest Voice”). The series, for which combined Super Bowl TV spot and trailer viewership earned a record-breaking 125 million views this year, is reported to have cost $150 million in total.

For Mackie, though, the show comes at a critical time for both his career and for representation in the MCU. Sam Wilson is graduating from handy wingman (Falcon literally gets his job done with the use of mechanical wings), having been handed the Captain America shield by Evans in the last “Avengers” film. While it’s unclear if he will formally don the superhero’s star-spangled uniform moving forward (as the character did in a 2015 comic series), global fandoms and the overall industry are still reeling from the loss of Chadwick Boseman, who portrayed Marvel’s Black Panther to culture-defining effect. With this new story, Mackie will become the most visible African American hero in the franchise. And when asked whether he’ll be taking the mantle of one of its most iconic characters, he doesn’t exactly say no.

“I was really surprised and affected by the idea of possibly getting the shield and becoming Captain America. I’ve been in this business a long time, and I did it the way they said you’re supposed to do it. I didn’t go to L.A. and say, ‘Make me famous.’ I went to theater school, did Off Broadway, did indie movies and worked my way through the ranks. It took a long time for this shit to manifest itself the way it has, and I’m extremely happy about that,” Mackie says.

Feige says that, especially with the advent of Disney Plus and the freedom afforded long-form storytelling, the moment was right to give the Falcon his due.

“Suddenly, what had been a classic passing of the torch from one hero to another at the end of ‘Endgame’ became an opening up of our potential to tell an entire story about that. What does it really mean for somebody to step into those shoes, and not just somebody but a Black man in the present day?” says Feige.

Like many comic book heroes, Mackie has an origin story marked by tragedy at a young age — specifically around the loss of a parental figure. The New Orleans native is the youngest of six children from a tight-knit middle-class family, whose trajectory was spun into chaos when his mother was stricken with a terminal illness.

“It was unexpected and very untimely. I was 15 when she was diagnosed with cancer, and a few months later, she was gone. She passed the day before my ninth-grade graduation,” Mackie recalls. “If my mom wouldn’t have passed away when I was so young, I wouldn’t be where I am today.”

Mackie had already gravitated toward the performing arts before the loss of his mother, having enrolled at the pre-professional school New Orleans Center for Creative Arts. Like many young people grappling with trauma, Mackie says he began to act out. A core group of teachers helped get him out of trouble. Ray Vrazel, still an instructor at the school, personally drove the student to a Houston-based audition for the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, where he was accepted for his senior year of high school.

“Everything I did, I did for my mama. The idea of leaving home at 17 to go away to school would have never been an option if she was still around. She was my best friend. Losing her gave me a kind of strength, and a desire to succeed,” Mackie says.

Succeed he did. Spending that formative year as a minor on a college campus helped Mackie find his “tribe,” a misfit crew of artists and performers, which propelled him to acceptance at New York’s prestigious Juilliard School in 1997. There he was part of the breakthrough class of students of color to be chosen for the notoriously selective drama program, which Mackie says was liberating given the institution’s track record.

“Our year was a huge transition. There were hardly any Asian people in the drama program, maybe one or two Black people and hardly any Black women. In our class, we had three black women, two black men, one Native American, one Asian female, out of 20 people. Ever since then, the classes have been wildly diverse,” says Mackie, whose fellow students included stage and film star Tracie Thoms and actor Lee Pace.

Following his training, Mackie launched a staggeringly versatile career. He has played Tupac Shakur and Martin Luther King Jr. to similar acclaim, a juicehead bodybuilder in “Pain & Gain” and a homeless gay teen in the Sundance player “Brother to Brother.” He has exhibited remarkable staying power in an industry that often pigeonholes actors and has a pockmarked soul when it comes to inclusion.

“I was drawn to Anthony because of his electrifying ability to combine intensity with sensitivity, courage with compassion, and all of it comes across as inevitable, as if it could be no other way,” says Kathryn Bigelow, who directed him in the 2009 best picture Oscar winner “The Hurt Locker.”

Samuel L. Jackson, whom Mackie calls a mentor and has played alongside in several films, says he has “an innate quality that first and foremost makes everyone want to cast him.” On a recent idle Netflix search, Jackson came across Mackie’s latest sci-fi film, “Outside the Wire,” and it triggered a memory of sitting in the audience for his performance in the 2010 Broadway production of Martin McDonagh’s play “A Behanding in Spokane.”

“Watching him onstage, I thought, he’s a very adroit actor capable of putting on many hats. He’s fearless and will try to be anybody. Then, on my TV, he’s playing a nanobyte soldier or some shit,” Jackson says.

Though always humble about getting the next job, pre-Marvel Mackie was rarely offered pole position.

“There were certain pegs. My first was ‘8 Mile.’ It was a monumental step at the beginning of my career,” Mackie says of the 2002 Curtis Hanson film that elevated rapper Eminem to multi-hyphenate stardom.

“After that it was ‘Half Nelson.’ It blew up Ryan Gosling, so I was there to ride the wave. Then ‘The Hurt Locker,’ and it blew up Jeremy Renner. It was the joke for a long time — if you’re a white dude and you want to get nominated for an Oscar, play opposite me. I bring the business for white dudes,” says Mackie.

He remembers the sensation “Hurt Locker” caused during its awards season. It was a moment he thought would change everything as he stood on the stage of the Dolby Theatre with the cast and filmmakers, having just sipped from George Clooney’s flask while Halle Berry radiated a few rows away.

“I thought I would be able to move forward in my career and not have to jostle and position myself for work. To get into rooms with certain people. I thought my work would speak for itself. I didn’t feel a huge shift,” he says, “but I 100% think that ‘The Hurt Locker’ is the reason I got ‘Captain America.’”

He’s referring to “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” the 2014 Marvel film that was the first to be directed by Joe and Anthony Russo (the current title holders for the highest-grossing film of all time with “Avenges: Endgame”). Mackie says that blockbuster not only gave him his largest platform to date but changed expectations of superhero movies forever.

“It was the first of the espionage, Jason Bourne-esque action movies at Marvel. After that, the movies shifted and had different themes and were more in touch with the world we live in, more grounded,” he says.

Bolstered by the words of another mentor, Morgan Freeman, Mackie feels no bitterness about his path.

“We did ‘Million Dollar Baby’ together, and when we were shooting this movie, I got offered a play. When you do Off Broadway, it’s $425 a week. In New York, that’s really $75 per week. I got a movie offer at the same time, and it was buckets of money. Three Home Depot buckets of money were going to be dropped off at my door,” Mackie says. “The script was awful; the whole thing was slimy. I went to Morgan’s trailer and asked him what he would do. He took a second and said, ‘Do the play. When Hollywood wants you, they’ll come get you. And when they come get you, they’ll pay for it.’ That blew my mind, and I left him that day with such a massive amount of confidence. He’s been a huge influence on me.”

He used the currency of that first Russo Brothers film and five subsequent ones to do what many creators and performers in Hollywood have done in recent years to help balance the scales of profit and representation in content: make things on his own.

Last year, Mackie produced and starred in “The Banker” — what would be Apple Studios’ first foray into original streaming film distribution and the awards landscape — through his banner Make It With Gravy. The film follows the true story of America’s first Black bankers and the white frontman they deployed to acquire the institution, all while supporting Black-owned businesses and communities in the process. A late-breaking scandal over sexual misconduct accusations involving the real-life family members of the film’s subjects delayed the release, overshooting awards-season deadlines and entangling the fledgling producer.

“It was a good lesson, and gave me a new perspective on the world around us. It’s very important to me that the women by my side are treated equally. It was a valuable lesson learned. I was very humbled by my sisters, for once not being mean to me,” he says.

Mackie is in development on the film “Signal Hill,” about the early days of lawyer Johnnie Cochran and the theater he brought to courtrooms long before the O.J. Simpson trial, and is hoping to secure the life story of civil rights pioneer Claudette Colvin as a vehicle for his directorial debut. Raising four sons of his own now, Mackie wants his off-screen work to make them well-rounded men.

“Look at Robin Williams,” he says. “He used to be crass and funny, and then he had kids, and he started doing all these family-friendly movies. Same thing with Eddie Murphy. I’m trying to curate my children’s experience with the things that I’ll be producing, rather than starring in. That’s what is most important. They know my job is my job; they know who I am. I’ve given up the idea of them ever thinking that I’m cool,” he says.

Jokes about the call sheet are among many of Mackie’s filming quirks. Jackson says that sets are often littered with hidden cigar stubs, to be fired up between takes or after long days. Bigelow says his rapport with crew has led to nights where the “clock was ticking but it was impossible to regain composure enough to shoot.” But according to Evans, no Mackie-ism is more famous than the phrase he bellows whenever his directors cut a scene: “Cut the check!”

Evans says this “will be forever associated with Mackie. I find myself saying it on sets all the time. I love it. But I’ll never be able to say it as well as him.”

As the man handing Mackie his armor, Evan says the Falcon’s “role within the Marvel universe has answered the call to action time and time again. He’s proven his courage, loyalty and reliability over multiple films. Sam has given so much, and he’s also lost a lot too. He believes in something bigger than himself, and that type of humility is necessary to carry the shield.”

The question of Sam Wilson’s humanity will be explored at length in “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” what Mackie calls a deeper showcase for both himself and Stan and their characters. It was a prospect that at first confused and frightened him.

“I didn’t think we could do on the television what we’d been doing on the big screen. I didn’t want to be the face of the first Marvel franchise to fail. Like, ‘See? We cast the Black dude, and now this shit is awful.’ That was a huge fear of mine, and also a huge responsibility with playing a Marvel character,” Mackie says.

He was quickly assuaged by the level of depth in the scripts from head writer Malcolm Spellman (“Empire,” “Truth Be Told”), especially when it came to the nuances of Wilson — a Black American man with no powers beyond his badass wings.

“Sam Wilson as played by Mackie is different than a Thor or a Black Panther, because he’s not from another planet or a king from another country,” Feige says. “He’s an African American man. He’s got experience in the military and doing grief counseling with soldiers who have PTSD. But where did he grow up? Who is his family? Mackie was excited to dig into it as this man, this Black man in particular, in the Marvel version of the world outside our window.”

Mackie celebrates Sam’s relatability in a universe full of mythological gods and lab-made enforcers. “I’m basically the eyes and ears of the audience, if you were put in that position where you could go out and fight alongside superheroes. It adds a really nice quality to him, that he’s a regular guy who can go out there and do special things,” Mackie says.

While bound by standard Marvel-grade secrecy, the actor confirms there have been no discussions of a second season for “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.” As the majority of domestic movie theaters remain closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, he is equally unaware of the theatrical prospects for his Falcon character — or the Captain he may become by the end of this Disney Plus run. For now, he’s content to take up the mantle left by Boseman, a quietly understood pact of responsibility to Marvel-loving kids the world over.

“For Chad and I, [representation] was never a conversation that needed to be had because of our backgrounds. There was a hinted-at understanding between the two of us, because we’re both from humble beginnings in the South; we have very similar backgrounds. We knew what the game was. We knew going into it,” he says.

Outside comic book movies, Mackie is not done searching as a performer. There is a particular genre he would very much like to cut him a check.

“My team gets mad at me for saying this, but I would love to do a cheesy old-school ‘When Harry Met Sally’-type of project,” he says. “One of those movies where I’m working outside and have to take my shirt off because it’s too hot. I want a romantic comedy. I want to do every movie written for Matthew McConaughey that he passed on.”

[forthegothicheroine]

Opinions on Into the Dark Movies

I’ve seen a lot, though not all, of the Blumhouse series of Into the Dark, direct to Hulu horror movies themed around various holidays.  Some of them suck.  Some of them are surprisingly good!  Most are mediocre.  Still, I keep watching.  Rather than try to rank these movies, I’m just going to give a few of them awards.

Favorite Movie: Pooka Lives

If you were there for the height of Slenderman blogging, this will hit you hard!  The first Pooka movie was a psychological thriller and definitely interesting, but the horror-comedy sequel was the thing that touched my heart.  It’s all about how the internet creates memes that completely change from where they start by the whims of each new viral art piece.  While watching it, I said “according to Twin Peaks, this would be a a tulpa” at one point, and then Felicia Day said “I’ve got it, it’s a tulpa!”  She heard me!  Rachel Bloom kills Whil Weaton in the opening!  All you really need to know going in is that Pooka is a stuffed animal bear-rabbit-monster who repeats words in a “naughty” or “nice” voice.

Most Effective Horror Movie: I’m Just Fucking With You

Somebody on the Bloody Disgusting website said the stuff in this movie is worse torture than Saw or Hostel- but the kicker is, the torment is mostly mental and emotional.  An unlikeable internet troll checks into a sleazy motel, only to discover that the guy in charge of the place is a nastier troll than he’ll ever be.  This bespectacled, southern-accented slacker just keeps pulling pranks, each one more mean-spirited than the last, until they escalate to murder and the total destruction of our hero’s remaining humanity.  The constant neon-lit look of the motel is super intense, but the most important thing about this is that it shows you how really fucking annoying the Joker would be if you actually met him.

Sexiest Villain: Pilgrim

Look, I dunno.  Brother Ethan is just the sexiest evil Puritan you’ll ever find, as small as that pool may be.  He’s totally invested in what he’s doing, he fully believes in the lessons he’s teaching, he’s maybe a ghost or a trickster spirit or something, he has a great accent, he has a great laugh, and he has great piercing eyes.  Also he has this ongoing dynamic with the final girl that’s maybe sexually charged or maybe isn’t, but the whole thing is definitely a battle of wills and beliefs between them and that is hot.  Honorable mention goes to the hitman in The Body, but he only looked hot, he didn’t actually act hot, and there’s a difference.

Most Believeable Villain: New Year New You

Maybe the murders aren’t all believeable, but “Get Well” Danielle is!  Once a loathesome high school bully, she has now found fame and fortune as a loathesome social media influencer, and a culture that supports vapid self-promotion is one she thrives in.  Are the others in the movie any better, though?  They hate her, but isn’t it partly because they want to be her?  Don’t we all kind of want what she has, even while disdaining every part of her that got her where she is?

Movie I Could Have Written Better: Uncanny Annie

This movie about an evil board game sucked, but it didn’t have to!  There’s so much a horror comedy could parody about the modern board game scene.  It could have been an incredibly complex game with mutliple expansions where you’re two hours in and still haven’t gotten to using all the mechanics.  It could have been a super artsy Euro game with stunning evil art but instructions that are very poorly translated into English.  I work for a book and game store!  Give me a chance, I could script a greatdark parody of the the Arkham Horror franchise!

Movie That Might Have Been Scarier Without the Supernatural: Pure

I actually really respect the whole setup of this movie.  The notion of a “purity camp” father-daughter celebration is stunning and sickening, the fathers are holding their daughters to impossible standards and threatening to remove their love if they ever fair, the girls can’t trust that anyone they meet won’t reveal their secrets to the Reverend, and the camp itself looks like if that Midsommar farm was just No Fun Allowed.  Anyway, I don’t think they needed a weird rewriting of Lilith.  It’s a psychological cult horror, so let it stay that.  The girls can kill their dads at the end without any supernatural power.

Best Cheese: School Spirit

As soon as I saw the trailer and realized this was a Breakfast Club pastiche, I was in, baby.  You’ve got the prep, the class clown, the stoner, the nerd, and the delinquent all in for detention.  They resist the mean disciplinary teacher, they bond, they share secrets, they get high, they see beyond their cliques, and a masked slasher murders them one by one.  The villain reveal is ridiculous but kind of charming, a fun riff on the Norman Bates archetype, and the final girl’s speech to the killer at the end should be on all those “Good for her!” female character gif compilations.

Best Villain Outfit: Midnight Kiss

I love that giallo-killer-meets-gimp-suit look!  So creepy, yet so believeable for a club scene!  (Or at least, it would fit in with my memories of Folsom Street Fair.)  The movie itself isn’t super interesting as murder mysteries go, but it’s not bad, the whole thing is super stylish, and it is neat that almost the whole cast of characters, from heroes to villains, are gay.  But yeah, great costume, great party scenes, great beach house, shame about all the murders.

Movie I Wish I Hadn’t Sought Out Spoilers For: Culture Shock

I was trying to decide if I should see these movies and looked at lists of which ones were the best and then I looked into this one and...I spoiled the entire reveal.  It’s a great reveal!  I’ll try to avoid spoilering it here, but in this Spanish and English language movie, our heroine goes from dodging cartel men while trying to cross the border to existing in a beautiful, multicultural suburban town...where they dress like it’s the Tranquility Lane part of Fallout 3, and nobody will let her hold her infant son.  One of the more serious attempts at making a good movie, and I think it succeeds.

Movie That Does a Plotline Better Than Hannibal Did: Flesh & Blood

This movie, while following a pretty typical “Lifetime Movie” style plot (she says, never having seen a Lifetime movie), it understands one important thing: a story about a girl struggling to escape the influence of a pseudo-incestuous serial killer father figure is her goddamn story.  This will have to be my Abigail Hobbes fix fic.

Worst Movie: Tree House

Man, of all the horror movie characters not to get killed...

[tuiyla]

So I finally watched The Owl House

I wish I’d do this with every show I watch but it seems like only a lucky few get the She-Ra style rant of love treatment. Well, I finally watched The Owl House after my dash having been flooded for the past couple of weeks and I have some thoughts. Slight spoilers below.

First off, I love the whole vibe. I had a faint idea that this show would be about magic but I didn’t know much before watching - except for one thing, we’ll get back to that. The way it builds its world and deals with magic, though, is so refreshing. And I just have to mention here that I laughed out loud at all the Harry Potter jabs, they were hilarious. I expect we’ll learn much more about magic and its users as the show goes on but as far as the first season goes the introduction was really solid. It strikes the right balance between leaving things to the imagination but being more than “wave wand and magic happens”. It’s colourful, it’s creative, and I even like the ovens and school tracks, despite knowing that the story is about not conforming to those. It makes the Boiling Isles unique and make me want to learn more about the world even beyond the characters and the main plot.

TOH also presents a world that’s much more macabre than I was expecting from the Disney Channel, not that that’s a bad thing. I found myself thinking of Adventure Time at certain points and pondering, at scary moments, how kids would react. I think kids love this, though, and besides, nothing can be more scarring than Courage the Cowardly Dog was. It’s not that terrifying, of course, just daring enough to stand out. Overall the show has what I would classify as more of a Cartoon Network vibe than a Disney Channel one, but I admittedly haven’t really been following many Disney shows. In any case, I dig it. I dig the weird creatures and the beautiful backgrounds and I appreciate how alive the Boiling Isles feel. It doesn’t take long for TOH to immerse you in its world so I’m for one am hooked.

I make a big deal of loving the world itself because rarely does it happen that world-building stands out to me so soon in a series. I do love carefully constructed fantasy worlds but for the most part I’m more interested in the characters themselves. Here, I’d say it’s close to being a 50-50, which is something that even Avatar can’t say with its elemental masterclass in world-building (which is mostly because the character depth there is unrivaled but still). So yeah, kudos to The Owl House for achieving this. From Luz’s glyph magic to the covens and the titans, I’m excited to explore this world more.

Now, the characters. The real meat of any story. Starting with Luz, I have seen some criticism that she’s a generic hero so far, the “I’m a weirdo”, heart of gold, upbeat variety. I don’t think this makes her bland, though I do admit that being told over and over again that she’s weird makes me less engaged, even she’s also shown to be weird. I like the message of her arc and that the chosen one trope was deconstructed almost right away. I like that she’s relentlessly enthusiastic and kind to people and I like that she doesn’t have to get more bitter in order to get development. Instead, she learns from her mistakes but keeps being herself and brings her unique spirit to the Boiling Isles. We need protagonists like Luz, not just because she’s latina and bisexual but because her learning process doesn’t involve cynicism. Sure, there is a lot she needs to learn but her heart is presented as an asset and a sort of source of magic. I’m excited to see where her story goes, for sure.

I’m gonna write briefly about the other characters before I get to my favourite one. Eda is super cool and I quickly got over the fact that she’s not Beatrice Horseman, lol. She embodies such a youthful energy but the show also allows her to be a middle-aged woman comfortable in her own body - well, owl curse notwithstanding. Also, her relationship with Lilith is one of my favourite parts of the whole show. Eda subverts so many of the mentor’s traditional tropes and I’m here for it. I kinda thought she was the villain based on her design and when I didn’t know anything about the show but hey, happy she’s not.

I don’t think I’d even seen a picture of King before starting to watch the series and at first I thought I’d get tired of him real quick. He’s the type of character who can get really annoying instead of endearing really fast if he’s not given any depth or charm, both by way of writing and voice acting. Luckily, I ended up liking King and his antics. His design is indeed adorable and Alex Hirsch is a genius. The only time I felt like he went too far was, perhaps surprisingly, in the book writing episode, “Sense and Insensitivity”, but even there going too far was the point. So yeah, King’s also great, there’s much potential in his backstory and general character.

Alright so really quickly, other characters: Willow and Gus are generic best friend characters and though they already have other things going on, I expect more development as the series progresses. I like that Willow is actually super powerful, just not in the way people expected her to and Gus is clearly also talented despite being younger. I’d be happy to see more of the other kids, get more familiar with Hexside. Edric and Emira are fun characters but they were really shitty in their first episode so I was kind of surprised they weren’t more of a nuisance to Amity later on. I’m all for supportive siblings so I wouldn’t mind a good relationship between the three but I feel like it’s more complicated than that with the Blights.

Finally, I also have to mention that Hooty is... well, quite something, isn’t he. Much like with King, I thought he’d be much more annoying but somehow the show is self-aware enough that it makes Hooty tolerable. I’m almost always torn between feeling sorry for him and being thoroughly weirded out, and I think that’s the intention? It’s fitting that he’s the titular character as he embodies the tone of The Owl House well in my eyes. He’s there for the comedy but there’s just enough there to hint at something more. Very bizarre, strong CN vibes, here for it.

Now that I’ve written a paragraph more about Hooty than I expected to, let’s talk about Amity. Listen, no other character stood a chance to be my favourite as soon as I learned Mae Whitman voiced Amity. That woman gave me Katara so now I have a quasi Pavlovian response to her voice. I’d also say that I knew more about Amity going into the show than I did about any other aspect of TOH. I heard somewhere that she started out as an antagonist, I knew her parents were abusive, and the reason the show blew up on my dash and my general online bubble is the Grom episode. Lucikly I only saw stills of Lumity beneath the crescent moon but the pure Sapphic energy of that was enough to gay migrate me to this show. I’d like to note it here though that The Owl House is a good show in and of itself, the queer rep is just a nice extra. I’m gonna spend the next couple hundred words going on about Amity and her crush on Luz but I don’t value only that. The Gay Migration is great and rep is great but I’m also grateful to have a solid show behind it. That being said.

I’m a total dyke for Amity Blight. I was very biased before even being introduced to her character but I genuinely find her to be fascinating and she has great potential. She’s developing quite quickly, like much of The Owl House, but an arc not being stretched out for several seasons before getting a rushed conclusion is refreshing. The progress hits all the beats and the only note I have is that I want more. She starts out as a generic bully but the opportunity to be more is there from the beginning. We find out early on that she used to be friends with Willow, we see that she works hard and values honest work. When she becomes Luz’s rival, it doesn’t last long before Amity shows that she’s open to new perspectives. That’s not to defend or even justify her earlier and nastier moments, Amity was rude to both Luz and Willow. But through all that, she becomes a complex character who does bad things but isn’t a bad person and grows when she gets the space to. I think that’s neat.

Luz’s decision to befriend her might be cartoon logic but as someone who subscribes to the “kill them with kindness” ideology, I can totally relate. Amity’s softer side doesn’t take long to show and “Lost in Language” is such a great episode to show how complex people can be. Again, I was already biased when it came to Amity but she’s consistently shown to be capable of self-reflection and growth when others give her the chance. I think her past and potential future friendship with Willow is a great way to explore many different topics and I’m trusting the show to do it justice. I also can’t wait to meet the rest of the Blights, if only to get me some angst and further develop Amity. I half expected Grom to take the form of her parents. Too dark for Disney? Well, we don’t know Amity’s dynamic with her parents, exactly, but there’s so much subtext and potential. I love what we’ve already seen from her but I’d also say that she has one of the greatest potentials in the show.

Another way in which this potential manifests is Lumity, of course. Again, they’re developing quite quickly but that doesn’t mean it’s rushed. I’d love to explore Amity’s crush more and what Luz means to her. The Grom episode surpassed all expectations, still and gifs don’t do the stunning dance sequence justice. The animation is so smooth, the colours are amazing, the music is on point and the Sapphic vibes complete the picture. Poetic cinema, truly. Molly Ostertag and Noelle Stevenson are really out there giving wlw animation fans everything we ever wanted, huh. It also warms my heart that the crush is made very clear, not just by Luz’s name being on the note but by the delightful gay disaster that is Amity in “Wing It Like Witches”. I never thought I’d ever see such a relatable useless lesbian in animation so kudos to Dana Terrace and the whole crew. Wow, how far we’ve come.

So yeah, Amity is a funky little lesbian and I’m a 100% here for her gay disaster moments, but I also love where Lumity is going thematically. They’re great as foils and I’m hoping that they won’t get together at the very end. Look, I love me some Bubbline, Korrasami and Catradora, but it’s time a wlw relationship had the chance to exist onscreen and not only in the last episode. The Owl House has a great chance to do that. I know the creators don’t want romance to be the main focus and I respect that, I think the world they created deserves to showcased and explored to its full potential. Lumity could be a great subplot though, as representation on the one hand and as a thematically interesting dynamic on the other. Plus, Luz and Amity are just cute and sometimes, it’s as simple as that. Oh, and also the whole Little Miss Perfect thing? One of the best fandom discoveries I’ve made in a long while. Not only is the song truly perfect for Amity, I love that Joriah Kwamé went on to write Ordinary as well. This right here is why fandom is beautiful.

I think that’s about it for season 1 initial thoughts. The moral can be a bit on the nose at times, especially in the early episodes but the show is ultimately for kids and I appreciate its message. Interesting world and magic system, good characters, great potential for later seasons, just a well put together show that I’m really glad I started watching. I’m kind of sorry I didn’t keep up with season 1 as it was coming out but I would not have been able to wait between episodes. The pacing is good overall, deffo moves fast but I wouldn’t call it rushed, and the “filler” episodes still add something to the story. I’m not sure if I would still feel like the show moves at a fast pace if I hadn’t binged it but in any case it isn’t rushed, the necessary beats are all there and have time to sit. I’m going to watch as it comes out from now on so hopefully season 2 will arrive early next year.

Oh, and: I’m very new to the fandom, barely just found out about Little Miss Perfect, so any and all tidbits, fun facts, and fic recommendations are welcome. Also if you just want to chat my inbox is always open!

[yszarin]

seen people on twitter talking about what got them through 2020, but twitter scary so I’m just gonna ramble about podcasts here. I’ve loved audio fiction since I was little, when my brother used to bring me big finish doctor who to listen to when I was sick, and they’ve really been great for me this year in terms of... want story but too tired to keep eyes open? podcast. need to do a mundane task but can’t stay on it? podcast. need something on before you sleep because if you leave your brain to its own devices it’ll eat itself? podcast. looking for queer rep? podcast. below the cut I’ve stuck 10 of my favourites of the shows I started listening to this year, and I promise they’re not all from Definitely Human.

Down - fiction, horror - a state of the art submarine with a less than state of the art crew descends into a newly-discovered Antarctic trench, “The Bottomless Pit” for the purposes of exploration and science! This goes about as well as you would expect. Episodes are super short and it’s entirely possible to listen to the whole thing in less than a day, although unfortunately it’s currently unfinished due to covid, so I guess it’s more that in less than a day you, too, could join me in unintentional hiatus hell. It is worth it.    

Enthusigasm - nonfiction, talk - Rusty Quill patreon exclusive show in which Helen Gould talks to people about things they enjoy. It just has the loveliest energy, and is exactly what I’ve needed this year. They’ve done episodes on subjects including baking, the horror genre and trash tv, and every one of them has been a joy, even when it’s about stuff I’m not into personally. How RQ manages to consistently produce The Best Content I don’t know, but by god do they do it.

Everything is Alive - interview - Gemma Amor recommended this and she’s usually right about such things. It’s a series of interviews with inanimate objects, all of which are animate now and have things to say. I’m particularly fond of the gay subway seats and was emotionally distraught by the cuddly toy. Very good to listen to to fall asleep.

Marscorp - fiction, sci-fi comedy - Station Supervisor E. L. Hob is awoken from suspended animation on Mars and must do her best to restore the colony’s original purpose of terraforming the planet. If you teased Jonny Sims for naming his main character after himself and also playing him please get ready to forgive him for everything, as you meet Tom Dalling, David Knight, and Dave Price, played by Tom Dalling, David Knight, and David Price, and written by Tom Dalling, David Knight, and David Price. I’m furious.  

Pax Fortuna! - actual play, adventure - a rotating group of characters leaves a horrified and occasionally maimed trail of NPCs behind them as they adventure in and around the prosperous island city of Fortuna. The shifting cast works really well, allowing for some PCs who are just objectively terribly people, while keeping the whole thing feeling really fun. Particular favourite PCs are Selwyn Bloodstorm, half-orc in search of gold accidentally ending up with friends, Alfonso Boyo, a necromancer but only in the most bureaucratic and horrifying way possible, and Almira Q Appleby, gnome inventor presenting such items as The Potato Peeler (may contain combat setting) to an unsuspecting public. The series comprises six interconnected smaller stories, each with multiple episodes, all of which are around 25-30 minutes long, which has been a particular joy for me, as someone who has difficulty with episode lengths of over an hour and is so often “I love AP podcasts. love to actually listen to one someday”. Pax Fortuna! is the caramelised nut bowl of actual plays, in that I found it very difficult to stop consuming it, now it’s all gone, and I’m sad. There are only two fics on AO3. Please listen to Pax Fortuna!.    

Shadows at the Door - anthology, horror - A collection of quiet horror stories, mixing older tales, both classic and less well-known, and modern ones. The soundtrack is by Nico, one of the editors on TMA and Good Egg, and it turns out, also Skilled Egg at soundtracks. Each story is followed-up by a discussion of its themes, and some tangents. Also very nice to fall asleep to, lots of suggestions of new things to look for, and the stories themselves are well-dramatised.  

The Monster Hunters - fiction, comedy - It took me a bit of time to settle into this - I have a tendency to bounce off comedy, apparently - but once I had I was very settled. Roy Steel and Lorrimer Chesterfield are there with fists and brains respectively to hunt monsters and be anything from vaguely to pointedly sexist because it’s the 60s/70s (it is intentional and ludicrous). If you’re familiar with John Finnemore’s Souvenir Programme, you can listen out for Simon Kane as Sir Maxwell House. Some nice spooks, especially in the Christmas specials.

The Amelia Project - fiction, comedy - Need to disappear? The Amelia Project will help you fake your death and reappear in a new life. Each episode takes the form of an interview with a new client, in which they tell their story, and the circumstances of their death and next life will be decided. The creators had a stall at PodUK and gave me some Malteasers which it took me approximately 10 months to eat because I didn’t feel like I’d listened to enough of their show to deserve them. Fun fact! There are plenty of chocolate foodstuffs that will take this length of time in their stride and still be as new when you eat them, but Malteasers are not one of them. Luckily finishing off S2 of The Amelia Project has been its own reward, and I still have plenty to go!   

The Infinite Bad - actual play, horror - a slowly-forming found family leaves a traumatised and usually dead trail of NPCs behind them despite their best efforts, as they are embroiled in a globe-spanning investigation of horror and mystery. Uses a modified version of the d20 modern system, set in the inter-war period, and, it should be noted, contains depictions of period-typical racism. Other CWs (this list is not exhaustive) include child death, pet death, gore, disease, misc death (so much misc death), so please be careful if you choose to listen. Also contains stairs, the inherent malevolence of citrus products, and things which are viscous.

These Flimsy Rituals - actual play, fantasy - I’m not very far into this one, due to episode lengths, but when I have the spell slots to do so I always enjoy listening to it. I’m in the first bit, which follows a group of people fleeing a living storm. They have some really lovely lyrical bits at the starts of the episodes that I could listen to for hours, I’ve found those of the characters that I’ve met very engaging, and I’m interested to see how it unfolds.

[trashyswitch]

Virgil's Post-Halloween Adventure With Roman

Virgil has been really down since Halloween came and went. So, Roman creates a full Halloween city so Virgil and some of the other sides can bring their Halloween fantasies to life.

This was requested by @puppysparkles03. You wanted drastic measures, so: HAVE AN ENTIRE HALLOWEEN TOWN! XD Hope you like it!

Virgil had been in a sad mood since November started. Virgil got his chance to dress up and be his scary self for halloween but...now that Halloween was over, Virgil had grown sad. He loved halloween. Why couldn’t it be Halloween for longer than an evening? The only things that have made Virgil somewhat satisfied was his Halloween candy. Virgil’s been eating tons of halloween candy as of late. From sweets to mini bags of chips, to juice boxes and candy corns, even a rice crispy square ended up in his halloween bag. That was a nostalgic moment for him. It was nice to eat a rainbow (gay) rice crispy square.

One day, Roman managed to get Virgil out of his room for a little adventure in the mind palace. Despite enjoying being out of the room, Virgil did grow annoyed by all the walking. “Can’t you conjure up a train or a car? Or, maybe even a horse and buggy?” Virgil asked.

Roman giggled. “Come on, Virgil! It’s such a pretty day for a walk. Wouldn’t you agree?” Roman asked. Virgil only let out a grunt as a reply. Roman turned to face him. “Come on, Hallo-whiner. I think you’re gonna like the special place that I conjured up, just for you:” Roman told him, grabbing his hand.

Virgil looked up at Roman with the smallest glimmer of hope in his eyes. Roman summoned some black eyeshadow, and help Virgil touch it up. “There ya go. And some blood…” Roman started drawing liquid red face paint dribbles that ran down the corners of Virgil’s mouth to the sides of his chin. “There! Maybe some red lipstick-”

“No red lipstick.” Virgil told him.

“Oooor no red lipstick.” Roman changed up his wording before putting the lid on his lipstick. “Okay! Looking all halloweeny!” Roman declared.

“I thought Halloween was over?” Virgil told him.

“Not unless you want it to be over. And something tells me you don’t want Halloween to be over just yet.” Roman admitted.

Roman picked up Virgil and walked up a hill. Soon, the luscious green grass disappeared from his vision and dark purples, oranges and blacks filled his vision. Virgil’s eyes widened when he realized what it was: It was an entire halloween city!

“What do you think?” Roman asked.

“Are you kidding?!” Virgil reacted. “I LOVE IT!” Virgil yelled, grabbing his shoulders with a big smile on his face. Roman giggled and looked over at the halloween city. “Now: I have given you the ability to snap into the halloween costume of your dreams!” Roman explained to him. “For example:” Roman snapped and watched as a bunch of material surrounded him before disappearing with his costume on himself.

“Oooooh! A roman emperor?” Virgil specified.

“Indeed! A Roman emperor who must rule with an iron fist!” Roman explained. His clothing consisted of a white robe with a brown rope tied around his middle, and a long red sash that was wrapped around his left arm and flowed down the rest of his lower body. To top it off, Roman had a golden laurel wreath on his head! He looked amazing, to be honest!

“Do you have a costume preference of your own, Virgil?” Roman asked.

Virgil nodded and snapped his fingers. A whole bunch of material surrounded Virgil, and soon flew away and disappeared to reveal Virgil’s brand new costume.

Roman gasped and dropped his jaw. “OH MY GOSH- SWEENEY TODD! YESSS!” Roman reacted, covering his mouth.

Virgil was dressed up as Johnny Depp’s version of Sweeney Todd. He had his brown hair spray dyed black and gelled back, with a white big streak in the middle left of the hairline. He had the slightly tattered vest tuxedo with a belt on a pair of striped pants, male ankle boots and a pair of fingerless gloves on his hands. In his vest pocket were some plastic traditional barber knives, and in his pants pocket was a vintage pocket watch.

“HELL YEAH! I LOVE Sweeney Todd! Classic musical!” Roman declared.

Virgil looked at his own costume and started acting a little like a fanboy. “I’ve always wanted to dress up as this character, but it’s a really hard costume to pull off.” Virgil admitted.

“Oh! You forgot something!” Roman told him. Roman summoned a long black coat and put it on Virgil’s shoulders. Virgil smiled and put it on. “It’s gonna be a little cold in there.” Roman let him know.

Virgil blushed a little. “Thank you.” Virgil replied.

“Now come, my killer barber! We shall visit Halloween City!” Roman declared, pointing to the city. Suddenly, a big horse and buggy came rolling up right beside them. Virgil and Roman hopped into the horse and buggy before the horse was signalled to start clop-clopping to the city.

The city itself was FILLED to the brim with stereotypical halloween stuff. There were stores for buying and trying on halloween costumes of large variety, big towers with witches and cauldrons so you could make your own spells, a big library filled with horror, thriller and grotesque-themed books and movies in them, a cemetery filled with floating ghosts, skeletons and zombies, and there were even caves surrounded by dead forest that housed the cats, snakes, bats and vampires. The more that Virgil saw out the sides of the horse and buggy windows, the more excited Virgil got!

“You made all this?!” Virgil reacted.

“Yes, I did!” Roman replied.

Virgil gasped and looked around more as the horse and buggy dropped them off in the middle of the city. The middle of the city has a simple, run down fountain in the middle with vines circulating the brick water pit. In the middle of the water fountain, was a few skulls lined up like a square with an infinite waterfall running through their eyes, nose holes and mouths, that fell into the water pit below. It was kinda creepy, but...strangely beautiful to look at.

Virgil almost immediately ran up to the big victorian library. “COME ON, ROMAN!” Virgil yelled to him.

“I’M COMING!” Roman yelled, quickly catching up to him.

Virgil walked up the stairs and quickly opened up the library door. The Victorian library was just as vintage-looking as it was on the outside. Only change being the place looked like a clean kind of vintage. The metal looked polished, the huge shelves looked old but not dirty or super run down, the ladder was wooden but stable and well made, and the middle aisles of shelves had movies and VHS tapes that you could borrow! This wasn’t just a victorian era library...this was a super old building that had been well kept and updated throughout the centuries!

Virgil happily looked around. “Logan would be over the moon about this.” Virgil told Roman.

“I know! He already IS!” Roman told him, before pointing to the ancient kids stories sections. There, hidden within the aisles, was Logan reading a Brothers Grimm fairytales from the 1800’s!

Logan looked up and smiled. “Hello, Virgil. I love the costume.” he greeted, giving Virgil an excited smile.

Logan was dressed up as Charlie ‘The Tramp’ Chaplin. He had the large bowl hat, the mustache, the large shoes, the suit and everything in between! He even had a bamboo cane perched up against the library shelf while he read.

“Hi Logan. Charlie Chaplin, huh?” Virgil reacted.

“Indeed. One of the most well known actors of the silent era.” Logan replied.

Virgil smiled and decided to ignore the bad things about Chaplin...for now. “Enjoying the book?” Virgil asked.

“Yes, I am! This is simply a collection of the Brothers Grimm stories compressed into one novel. It’s very interesting understanding just how much grim topics they could handle back in the day.” Logan told him.

Virgil nodded and started to look around himself. He found an aisle filled with classic novels like Little Woman, The Pride and The Prejudice, the Nancy Drew series, the Frankenstein novel and the original Dracula, an aisle filled with Shakespeare books, an aisle filled with outdated nonfiction books on multiple subjects, an entire aisle dedicated to the decades of encyclopedias, and even an entire aisle dedicated to the Marvel comic books throughout the decades! Virgil practically LOST it when he found Edgar Allen Poe novels, and quickly bought them. To make things even cooler, Roman summoned some 1800’s original bills and coins so he could pay for them! Virgil owed him a huge hug for that one.

After visiting the library, Virgil was brought to the cemetery to take a walk with Roman. “You are gonna LOVE this!” Roman told him. They only got a few minutes to walk around the cemetery before the huge clock tower struck 12.

Suddenly, a bunch of skeletons came digging out from under the graves and started dancing! The skeletons were very cartoon-like, similarly to Disney’s skeleton animation! And the best part? They were listening to ‘Spooky Scary Skeletons’ on a big radio as they danced around!

Virgil was smiling through the whole thing. “This is awesome!” Virgil reacted.

“I’ll say!” someone said, walking up to him from behind. Virgil turned around and widened his eyes. “Oh my…Are you Ed Gein?” Virgil asked.

Remus chuckled. “You bet I am!” Remus replied.

Virgil rubbed his nose, but chuckled a little. “You couldn’t go for leather face? Or Norman Bates?” Virgil asked.

“Nope! Gotta go all out!” Remus declared. “And what better than a guy who does more grave-digging than murdering?” Remus joked.

Virgil nodded, but awkwardly looked away. He wasn’t sure how he felt about Remus’s costume.

“WHY HELLO THERE!” someone yelled behind him. Virgil yelped and turned around. It was one of the dancing, singing skeletons!

“O-oh...You talk?” Virgil reacted.

“You BET I do! Call me Skelly!” the skeleton introduced, holding out their bone hand.

Virgil raised an eyebrow and chuckled at the name. “Virgil.” He replied, shaking the bone hand.

“What’s so funny? Is my name rib-ticklin’ to ya?” Skelly asked, showing off his ribcage.

Virgil stifled a laugh and pushed their shoulder. “Knock off the puns. You’re not as humerus as you think.” Virgil told him.

Skelly frowned at first, but quickly caught on. Skelly pointed to his own shoulder and smiled widely, before laughing. “Not bad, ol’ chum!” Skelly reacted. “Now tell me: Are you a skeleton too?” Skelly asked.

Virgil thought for a moment. “Well, not exactly. I do have a skeleton in me, but it’s filled and covered with flesh and organs.” Virgil explained.

“Wow! So, you have muscles?” Skelly asked. Virgil nodded. “A heart?” Skelly asked, pointing to the left side of his own chest. VIrgil giggled and nodded. “Oh! What about a skull?” Skelly asked before knocking on the top of Virgil’s head.

Virgil yipped at first and flapped his hands above his head. “Oi! My noggin’s not for knockin’!” Virgil warned.

Skelly chuckled at that. “What about ribs? Do you have a ribcage too?” Skelly asked, poking the left side of his ribcage.

Virgil jumped and stepped back, throwing his hands up in defense. “Okay buddy...No poking.” Virgil warned.

“Why not? Ticklish ribs?” Skelly asked, poking his ribcage again. Virgil wheezed somewhat and flapped his hands at him. “Dohon’t you dare…” Virgil warned.

Roman walked up to Virgil and picked the man up before throwing him at Skelly. “Have fun!” Roman told him.

Virgil squeaked and reached his arm out. “NO!” before landing into Skelly’s arms.

Skelly caught him perfectly and held him like a baby. “What a cute little fleshy skeleton I have! I could tickle you here,” Skelly started poking and prodding his ribs. “Here, here,” Skelly poked his front ribs. “Here, Aaaand HERE!” Skelly placed its claw tips onto Virgil’s belly and started skittering his fingers on his belly.

“What thehehehe- HAHAhahahaha! Whyhyhyhy thihihihis?!” Virgil asked, falling into a fit of giggles.

“Oh! It’s quite simple, really. I remember hearing from a certain someone, that your black makeup turns a dark purple when you’re all flustered! Isn’t that right, Emperor Romulus?” Skelly explained.

Roman giggled and shook his head. “It’s Roman, Skelly.” Roman corrected.

“Oh yeah…” Skelly muttered as he moved his fingers to Virgil’s sides.

“WAIT! NAHAhahahat myhyhyhy sihihihides! Lahahay ohohoff, mahahahan!” Virgil ordered.

“Lay? Okay.” Skelly laid Virgil down onto the dirt ground and resumed squeezing his sides.

“ThAHAHAt’s nahahahat whahat Ihihi meheheant, ya doohohohofus!” Virgil reacted.

“Really? When you said ‘lay off’, you didn’t mean ‘put me onto the ground and continue tickling me’? I could’ve sworn that was what you meant.” Skelly teased.

“Thahahat’s NAHAHAT whahahat I meheheant, ahahand YOHOHOHOU knohohow ihihihihit!” Virgil shot back.

“I don’t understand why you’re being so harsh on me. Looking at my point of view, you’d be confused too.” Skelly lightly argued.

Then, Skelly decided to pull a move that would drive anyone mad: Skelly started quickly spidering his fingers up and down Virgil’s ribs and sides. “NOOO! NO, NONONO- SKEHEHELLYHYHYHY! STAHAHAHAHAP!” Virgil laughed. Virgil’s eyeshadow color started to change the longer that he was tickled. And the higher up that Skelly’s fingers went, the more hysterical that Virgil’s laughter became. “WAHAHAITWAIT! DON’TGOAHAHANY- AAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! CUHUHUHUT IHIHIHIT OHOHOUHUHUT!” Virgil pleaded through his laughter.

“But why? You seem to be having so much fun! I can see it in your eyes!” Skelly proclaimed. “Well...below them, anyway.” Skelly followed up. Virgil’s eyeshadow had turned a pretty hue of purple rather quickly. Roman’s mouth widened excitedly as he gazed upon Virgil’s flustered face. “Roman was right! His eyeshadow CAN turn purple when flustered and happy!” Skelly reacted.

Roman smiled. “So Virgil Sanders enjoys being tickled?” He asked.

“IHIHIHI DOHOHOHO NOHOHOHOT!” Virgil tried to protest.

Roman just giggled at this. “Your eyes and eyeshadow marks give you away. Not only are you flustered by tickling, you seem to love the affection!” Roman explained out loud.

“Well! Rattle my bones and call me Skelly!” Skelly declared in surprise. “This Sweeney Todd is kinda cute!” Skelly declared.

“AHAHAHAM NOHOHOHOHOT!” Virgil protested.

“You really are, Virgil.” Roman replied. “Right, Skelly?” Roman asked.

“You are indeed, right!” Skelly replied.

As much as Skelly wanted to keep tickling him, Roman soon gave him the signal to stop. Skelly followed what he said and retreated his bony fingers. Stepping aside, Skelly let Roman walk up to him and help Virgil up.

“You okay?” Roman asked. Virgil nodded and took Roman’s hand, allowing him to help him up. Virgil’s eyeshadow was still quite purpley after all that. Roman giggled at this and rubbed his cheek. “Still flustery purple.” Roman told him happily.

Virgil giggled and shook his head as he pushed Roman’s hands away. “Stahap that.” Virgil told him, still quite flustered. Roman, Remus and Skelly all laughed at this.

Soon enough, Virgil and Roman moved on, to explore the rest of the city. As they left, Virgil and Roman gave Skelly a goodbye wave. “Bye Skelly! Have fun singing!” Roman yelled to him.

“Will do!” Skelly replied.

“Thank you for the fun time, Skelly!” Virgil said to him.

“Not a problem at all!” Skelly yelled back.

Virgil, Roman and Remus went to a special costume shop next, where he happily got himself a pair of bat wings and a vampire cloak!

By the time the clan got back, Virgil and the sides were feeling as happy as could be. They quickly started showing off their stuff to each other.

Remus got a fake skeleton from the prop shop, a witch potion bottle filled with thick blood, and a big black victorian portrait from the vintage market! He was non stop talking about having his room all halloween-y, till Remembrance day comes around.

Logan got himself a dozen books, a vintage writing book, a fountain pen and multiple ink reloading viles! He was all set for some journaling.

Roman got himself a classic king crown, an empty treasure chest to fill with items, and some vintage, expensive-looking jewellery for himself! He looked super excited to look like he was covered in riches.

Besides the bat wings and the cloak, Virgil also got himself some ruby red lipstick, a pretty black vampire choker, and a pair of black formal shoes.

With how the day went, Roman could proudly proclaim that Halloween City was a big success! Roman placed the entire imagined place into a pretty notebook and carved the words ‘Halloween City’ and ‘open on November 1, 2021’ into the front before placing it onto his book shelf...