#Personally I think War! is the best song in the album

[hiddenreamers]

Unlikely pair

SUMMARY: Where Oscar is dating a musician known for strictness and harsh comments on survival shows. To everyone's surprise, the unlikely pair is nothing short of perfect.

yntheone made a new post:

Close your eyes, take my time Let's remember this moment

Photograph (prod. Offonoff) is out on Thursday

Comments:

user1: WHATTT

user2: this is not a drill I repeat this is not a drill

user3: girl you can't just drop this on us and bail 💀

user4: is this real or is this my ambien

user5: i see the saga of blurry pictures continues

↳ user6: it's a vibe, you hater 😤

user7: omg is this the song realoffonoff played on his live the other day??

user8: who is this and why is it not me 😩

user9: she destroyed everyone on Don Mills Daebak remix just to turn around and do cute rnb songs 😭 queen shit 👑👑

oscarpiastri: can't wait ❤️ liked by yntheone

↳ yntheone: ❤️❤️ ↳ user10: the last person I expected to see here ↳ user11: 🤨🤨 well that's suspicious

user12: You need to do an entire album with realoffonoff !! Cigarette was amazing 😍

↳ user13: oh my godddd do you think cigarette was about the same guy? ↳ user14: definitely ?? i mean how can you listen to yntheone sing she wants you to be addicted to her like cigarettes and go "nah I'll pass" ?? brain damage ahh behaviour

yntheone tagged oscarpiastri in a post:

Do you really think you're that good??

(He is.)

Comments:

user15: babe wake up new roman empire just dropped

user16: not the caption 💀💀 quoting herself like the queen she is

↳ user17: giving trainees war flashbacks lmao

user18: he better know how to fight 😤😤 im throwing hands

user19: this can't be the same person who tore apart trainees on live tv 😐 since when is she all lovey dovey

↳ user20: if you had Oscar Piastri smiling at you, you'd be lovey dovey too

user21: out of all the people I suspected to be the guy from a blurry picture, this man wasn't even on the list ??? there's opposites and then there's THIS

↳ user22: ya I'm genuinely surprised someone as calm as him can keep up with her ↳ user23: yall are forgetting he's keeping up with Lando Norris

oscarpiastri: I really am liked by yntheone

landonorris: he's not as good as me but I guess he's still kind of ok

↳ danielricciardo: you might want to rethink that mate ↳ landonorris: blocked

user24: I'll just assume every love song she's done has been about him

↳ user25: Cigarette?? Moon?? Photograph?? Make the Move?? He better know the poetry that she's written about him or he gon catch these hands ↳ oscarpiastri: I do know and I appreciate every word

user25: finally Mclaren found someone who can actually pull off the papaya and not look silly

user26: yntheone is taken?? worst day of my life tbh

user27: imagine all the contestants on survival shows that will come in mclaren merch 💀💀 we're about to unlock a new level of embarrassment that shouldn't be possible

user28: this is the best golden retriever black cat couple, everyone else can go home

user29: for his own sake, I hope he knows what he's gotten himself into 😩😩

↳ user30: no better racing motivation than remembering your girlfriend is famous for roasting people in front of the entire nation

f1fans_official made a new post:

oscarpiastri and yntheone on their little New York trip 🥺🥺

Comments:

user31: yes I watch f1 for the rivalry and driving

↳ user32: these two are the main plot

user33: am I the only one bothered by the fact that she's a rude bitch??

↳ user34: yes sis you're the only one who can't tell between a rude bitch and a professional realistically evaluating wanna-be artists

user35: no thoughts head empty thinking about my favourite paddock couple

user36: i can't even be mad she's taken my man 😞😞 they look cute together

user37: hope they don't break up I can't take going through my parents' divorce twice

user38: if Lando and yntheone become friends we're going to see the most iconic duo of all time

↳ user39: the Lando slander is about to get serious 💀 ↳ user40: Oscar is gonna be bald by the end of the year because of them lmao

oscarpiastri tagged yntheone in a post:

Resting and recharging before the next race weekend

Comments:

user41: it's giving he asked for no pickles

yntheone: no need to thank me, I know I'm the only thing you need 😴 liked by oscarpiastri

↳ oscarpiastri: wouldn't have it any other way ❤️

user42: forget guard dog boyfriend, Oscar's got a guard dog girlfriend and I'm here for it

↳ user44: feminism

landonorris: guys help me she's scary

↳ yntheone: I know where you live 🥰🥰 ↳ oscarpiastri: yntheone I'll hold your bag baby ↳ user43: forget the office this is the sitcom i'd watch ↳ georgerussell63: the bigger the distance from angry yntheone the funnier it is

user45: honestly why would he go for a manly rude bitch?? there are so many better women out there, just sad

↳ user46: have you considered the fact that men are not a monolith and have, in fact, individual preferences? or is your IQ too low to comprehend that?

user47: I will tell my children this is the royal pair

user48: can't wait for her the sample Oscar and add him to a beat 🔥🔥

user49: ok now I get why she wrote absolute bangers about him 😍

user50: if she's in the stands cheering him on, FIA should give Oscar a penalty for unfair advantage 😤😤

[vintagegeekculture]

I remember a friend of mine had some LPs that were Star Wars themed disco albums, and it brought back a very weird memory from back in the 70s (yes, I'm old!) of listening to a Star Wars disco mashup on the radio. What was all that about? I also remember something like that for Close Encounters, too.

You remember correctly, and this went on for a long while. In 1983, disk jockeys around the country played a record that involved an Ewok rapping the plot of Return of the Jedi in Ewokese. This made it to #60 in the Billboard Top 100.

This is hard to explain to people who weren’t there….but in the wake of Star Wars in the late 70s and early 80s, scifi was so beloved and mainstream that the orchestral music for nerdy scifi and fantasy movies about outer space were remixed and sampled into Giorgio Moroder-esque Italo-Disco dance numbers. And the most astonishing thing is, instead of being consigned to convention acts the way “horse famous” Brony dubstep acts are, this received national airplay on the radio, reached the pop music charts, and were played in discotheques. And incredibly, this continued for years and expanded from Star Wars into Star Trek, Wizard of Oz, Black Hole, Close Encounters….

All of this was the work of one specific person: Meco (or Dominico Monardo). The term “ahead of their time” is thrown around a lot, but Meco really was: a combination producer-songwriter and Italo-Disco pioneer in the style of Giorgio Moroder, he did several things that are now absolutely standard: he used remixes and sampling before hiphop made that standard for musicians, he wrote “fandom music” on a Moog synthesizer decades before Bronies turned their conventions into cringey dubstep concerts with songs like “Everypony Dance Now.”

It's stunning to me that Meco has not been rediscovered, considering every single trend in the culture essentially went his way.

The most startling thing about Meco’s Star Wars disco album, the one that got the ball rolling on this trend, is this: I always assumed it was some kind of cash in created by a record label mandate, a label executive’s completely cynical choice to hop on a hot new trend. That isn’t a crazy thing to think at all, since Star Wars is and always has been the most merchandized and sold out scifi property ever. But it wasn’t! You see, it was all the product of a single man’s specific vision: Meco had to convince his record label to make the record because they were skeptical.

When Meco went to see Star Wars in 1977 on Opening Day (what an experience that must have been) with his friend and fellow Italian chest hair/gold medallion enthusiast Tony Bongiovi, he was already an experienced producer-songwriter who had worked with Gloria Gaynor, Diana Ross, and formed DCA, the Disco Corporation of America. If you've ever listened to Diana Ross's "I'm Coming Out," Meco actually played the trombone solo in that song. Seeing the Star Wars movie for the first time, though Meco thought the movie was nothing short of a religious experience. Originally, he wanted to do Star Wars music as a b-side on a Gloria Gaynor album, but expanded the idea into an entire album.

In Meco’s own words:

"When I think about what I did, nobody came to me, nobody said 'Meco, why don't you do this.' Nobody says 'Here's some money go make a record of this movie.' It was just my own... It was magical, it was just out of this world when all that happened."

Not only did this album hit platinum, not only did it actually outsell the Star Wars soundtrack, his remix of the Star Wars theme also went to #1 in the charts. It’s actually the best selling instrumental single of all time. A record, that, incidentally, it holds to this day.

Dick Clark, host of American Bandstand, had this to say about Meco:

"In 1977, Meco Monardo accomplished something no one else has ever done to the best of my knowledge. He was the first one in history to out-sell the soundtrack of a motion picture with his own distinctive version of a film's music. The music was totally danceable, and broke new ground. It's no wonder the STAR WARS THEME went to # 1. I loved his treatment of music from THE WIZARD OF OZ. Again, Meco created something innovative. The fun and the excitement gave a whole new feel to that totally familiar and well-loved music."

Like a lot of studio producers, Meco had an insane work ethic and hit when the iron was hot: he did an album about Close Encounters that exact same year, but also did a Star Wars Christmas Album, one of the strangest pieces of Star Wars kitsch around.

One of the most interesting things about the Star Wars Christmas album is that one of the songs, “R2D2’s Wish You a Merry Christmas” is the first professional vocals by John Bon Jovi, who was Meco’s friend Tony Bongiovi’s seventeen year old younger cousin (he was initially known as John Bongiovi). It's incredible to hear a squeaky voiced teen Bon Jovi on a kitsch album about a robot Christmas.

1978-1979 was really his best year. Meco made an Italo-Disco remix album entirely devoted to Superman, and at this point, Meco had the pull to get access to John Williams's sheet music for the score before the music even came out. In my personal opinion it's the best of them because he has to recreate it entirely with his own instruments, leading to a very unique sound.

He also did an album based on the Wizard of Oz:

And a combination album of Star Trek/Black Hole. It's probably the earliest remixing date of Goldsmith pieces of music: the Motion Picture Theme (which is now associated with the Next Generation - hearing it done in Italodisco is uncanny) and the Klingon Theme:

Incidentally, I think the design here of the Meco Enterprise, which had to be modified for legal reasons, would make a wonderful canon starship if anyone wants to be inspired by it. It reminds me of the same concept that would be used in the very next film for the Reliant-class of ships.

Meco eventually retired from music in 1985, but unfortunately he is no longer with us, as he passed into the next dimension in 2023. I think he showed us that creativity is often about transformation, and was inspired to make his art by a legitimate awe of space, the cosmos, and human imagination that the scifi movies of the 1970s and 80s provoke.

[premiumbitch]

TYPES OF FANS TO SCRIPT IN YOUR DR ! ⋆𐙚₊˚⊹♡

hey loves! I decided to make this post for all the shifters who have fame drs! I personally think the idea of specifically scripting how people in your fandom are is a very cool idea, might be extra for some people but me... I enjoy scripting every detail of every crevice lmao anyways I hope you guys enjoy! :)

⋆⛧┈┈┈┈﹤୨♡୧﹥ ┈┈┈┈⛧⋆

THE CULT-LIKE DEVOTEES ♡ //

This fraction of the fandom doesn’t just admire the person they stan—they worship them. To these fans, their favorite celebrity is more than an artist; they are a living deity. Over time, they have built an entire belief system around their idol, complete with sacred rituals, celebratory holidays, and unofficial scriptures containing their most iconic quotes, song lyrics, and interviews.

Their gatherings resemble religious ceremonies, where they discuss their idol’s achievements as if they were divine miracles. Some members have gone as far as to tattoo symbols or words associated with their idol onto their bodies, believing it connects them to something greater than themselves. They refer to their fandom as a spiritual movement, and excommunication is the only punishment for anyone caught disrespecting or doubting their leader.

Critics often debate whether this level of devotion is concerning, but despite the cult-like aura, these fans remain organized, influential, and fiercely protective of their idol. They ensure their favorite celebrity's career flourishes, and their sheer numbers make them a dominant force in the entertainment industry.

THE RICH ELITE FANS ♡ //

While some fans support their favorite artist by streaming their music and buying albums, this particular group takes things to an entirely different level. These fans are wealthy, and when they spend, they spend big. They are the type to single-handedly buy out entire album stocks, ensuring their idol dominates every chart. If their favorite celebrity announces a concert, they purchase thousands of tickets, sometimes just to prevent scalpers from profiting off of them.

Money is not an issue for them, and they use their financial power to uplift their idol’s career in ways no ordinary fan could. They fund expensive projects, purchase extravagant birthday gifts, and even invest in massive advertising campaigns—Times Square billboards, Super Bowl commercials, and magazine covers promoting their favorite artist are all courtesy of them.

Beyond financial support, these fans are also highly connected. Some are CEOs, politicians, or heirs to powerful families, capable of pulling strings in ways most people can’t even imagine. If a brand disrespects their idol, that company will suffer—whether it be from an organized boycott or an unexplained financial downfall. The industry knows better than to cross them.

THE UNHINGED STANS ♡ //

These fans are chaos in human form. Their minds work in ways that no one can fully comprehend, and their humor is so unhinged that outsiders often find themselves both horrified and entertained by their antics.

They are known for flooding social media with the wildest takes, creating viral memes, and saying things that toe the line between absurdly funny and completely insane. One moment, they are writing detailed analyses about their idol’s artistic impact, and the next, they are threatening to physically fight anyone who so much as breathes in the direction of a hater.

Their obsession manifests in strange but hilarious ways—some have entire rooms dedicated to their idol, while others write fanfiction so outlandish that it becomes infamous across multiple fandoms. They are unpredictable, unstoppable, and absolutely terrifying to those who don’t understand their sense of humor.

The best part? Their loyalty is unwavering. They would go to war for their idol without hesitation, and their dedication is so intense that even non-fans can't help but be entertained by them.

THE LOYAL PROTECTORS ♡ //

Unlike casual fans, who simply enjoy an artist’s work, these fans treat their idol’s career as a mission. They are not just supporters—they are defenders.

Their digital archives contain years’ worth of receipts, ready to be deployed the moment a scandal or accusation arises. If someone tries to cancel their favorite celebrity, they will immediately launch a well-researched counterattack, using past statements, statistics, and undeniable proof to dismantle the opposition.

Beyond their skills in damage control, they have infiltrated various online communities, industry circles, and even entertainment journalism. Many of them work as PR professionals, social media strategists, and content moderators, ensuring that their idol's reputation remains spotless. Some even maintain direct contact with their celebrity, acting as unofficial advisors when necessary.

Their presence is so strong that public figures fear speaking against their idol, knowing full well that the backlash will be swift and merciless.

THE SECRET SOCIETY OF FANS ♡ //

While most fandoms operate openly, this particular group thrives in the shadows. Their identities remain a mystery, and their influence is whispered about rather than publicly acknowledged.

No one knows exactly who they are, but their actions suggest they are high-ranking individuals in society. Some believe they are government officials, elite hackers, or powerful industry insiders who have taken a personal interest in ensuring their idol’s success.

Their methods are calculated and often untraceable. If a journalist writes a negative article, it mysteriously disappears within hours. If an enemy tries to sabotage their idol’s career, their own reputation suddenly crumbles without explanation. Some conspiracy theorists even claim that this group has rigged award shows, manipulated voting polls, and orchestrated industry shifts to benefit their chosen celebrity.

Their existence remains unconfirmed, but the evidence of their work is undeniable.

THE SUPER INTELLECTUALS ♡ //

While most fandoms contain passionate supporters, this group consists of some of the most intelligent individuals on the planet. Professors, researchers, and literary scholars dedicate their time to analyzing their idol’s work, treating every piece of content as though it were a classic novel or historical document.

They have convinced universities to offer courses on their idol’s artistic influence, written peer-reviewed articles about their impact, and even debated industry professionals on their significance. Their level of analysis is so detailed that even skeptics begin to question whether their idol is actually a misunderstood genius.

Every time their idol releases new content, they dissect it in ways no one else would even consider—breaking down themes, symbols, and deeper meanings that casual fans overlook. If anyone dares to claim their idol isn’t talented, they will effortlessly destroy them with a dissertation-level argument.

THE MEDIA MANIPULATORS ♡ //

These fans are masters of digital warfare. They control the internet with terrifying efficiency, making sure that every narrative surrounding their idol benefits them.

They know exactly how to manipulate social media algorithms, ensuring that positive news about their idol dominates trending pages while negative press is buried within minutes. They flood comment sections, report harmful content, and flood search results with favorable articles.

Many of them work within the media industry themselves—journalists, social media managers, and digital marketers who understand how to sway public opinion. Their work is so seamless that most people don’t even realize they’re being influenced.

THE FANATICAL STREAMERS ♡ //

To these fans, streaming is a science. They have developed complex algorithms, spreadsheets, and AI tools to maximize their idol's streaming numbers.

They hold scheduled streaming marathons, coordinate across different time zones, and organize mass listening events. They even educate new fans on the most efficient ways to stream to ensure chart dominance. Some have gone as far as to create automated streaming bots, making sure their idol's music is never off the charts.

Their dedication is so extreme that even music industry executives acknowledge their impact.

THE AESTHETIC CULTURE CREATORS ♡ //

These fans determine what’s cool. They create stunning fan edits, viral TikTok trends, and fashion movements inspired by their idol. Other fandoms copy them, influencers follow their lead, and brands scramble to appeal to their aesthetic.

Their work is so influential that even people who don’t listen to their idol’s music still engage with their content.

THE CELEBRITY CONVERTORS ♡ //

Their goal? Make everyone a fan. They strategically target influencers, actors, and musicians, ensuring that their idol’s reach extends into every corner of pop culture.

They have converted entire celebrities into die-hard stans, leading to unexpected collaborations, viral moments, and industry-wide recognition. Even those who initially had no interest in their idol eventually find themselves drawn in.

Hope you guys found this helpful, requests are appreciated! <3

[hotvintagepoll]

Propaganda

Judy Garland (Meet Me In St. Louis, A Star is Born, Summer Stock)— Judy is the GOAT when it comes to classic movie musicals. The voice of an angel who deserved so much better than she got. She can sing she can dance she can act she's a triple threat. Though she had a turbulent personal life (her treatment as a child star by the studio system makes me mad as hell like Louis b Mayer fight me ((she was made to believe that she was physically unattractive by the constant criticism of film executives who made her feel ugly and who manipulated her onscreen appearance by capping her teeth and using discs in her nose to change its shape and Mayer called her "my little hunchback" like imagine hearing that as a child and not having damage)) she always goddamn delivered on screen and in any performance she gave. She began in vaudeville performing with her sisters and was signed to MGM at 13. Starting out in supporting parts especially paired with mickey Rooney in a bunch of films (she's the best part tbh) she eventually transferred to the lead role. She is best known for her starring role in movie musicals like the iconic Wizard of Oz (somewhere over the rainbow still hits hard and is ranked the top film song of all time), meet me in St. Louis (Judy singing have your self a merry little Christmas brings tears to the eyes she is that powerful), the Harvey girls (she looks like a technicolor dream and sings a catchy af song about trains), Easter parade ( dancing and singing with Fred Astaire), for me and my gal, the pirate, and summer stock ( with pal Gene Kelly who she helped when he was starting out and he helped her when she was struggling). But she also does non- singing just as well like the clock ( her first movie where she sings no songs and is an underrated ww2 era romance), her Oscar nominated a star is born ( like the man that got away she put her whole soul in that and I have beef with the fact she lost to grace kelly ((whom I love but like still not even her best work)), and judgement at Nuremberg (a courtroom drama about the nazi war criminal trials). Outside of film she made concert appearances to record-breaking audiences, released 8 studio albums, and had her own Emmy-nominated tv series. She was the youngest (39) and first female recipient of the Cecil B DeMille award for lifetime achievement in the film industry. Girl was a lifelong democrat and was a financial and moral supporter of many causes including the civil rights movement (she was at the March on Washington and held a press conference to protest the 16th street Baptist church bombings). She was a friend of the Kennedy family and would call jfk weekly often ending the calls by singing the first few lines of somewhere over the rainbow (she thought of them as Gemini twins).She was a member of the committee for the first amendment which was formed in response to the HUAC investigations. Though she died far too young and tragically she remains an icon for her work and her life. As a girl who didn't feel like i was as pretty as everyone else I have always felt a connection to Judy and I just really love her.

Natalie Wood (West Side Story, The Great Race)—She went through so much shit which I know can be said for all these women but Natalie really was a star and her death often overshadows her career and life. She could make you cry, but she also had the capacity to be incredibly funny which I think is lost on people.

This is round 4 of the tournament. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. Please reblog with further support of your beloved hot sexy vintage woman.

[additional propaganda submitted under the cut.]

Natalie Wood:

Judy Garland:

Judy's voice alone qualifies her for at least top ten hottest HOT VINTAGE MOVIE WOMEN. She was a truly incredible swing singer, with a stunning voice on top of her technique. Her short dark hair looked incredible in just about any style. Have I mentioned her swagger? I can’t do it justice with words. She had swagger. She was funny as hell, and clever too. Incredibly charming and cool. I adore her.

Her eyes, her voice have bewitched me

I mean how can you beat the one and only Judy? She's beautiful, her smile is contagious, the way she sings with her whole body. You can't help but love her.

Beautiful woman, love her singing voice. And she can do everything between happy or silly and angry or heartbroken

[chaostudee]

i love you i'm sorry part 2, charles leclerc + jude bellingham.

summary : charles releases his debut album and fans go crazy, y/n and jude are the main talk over social media, and yet charles is adamant to get his girl back. faceclaim : cindy kimberly a/n : since you all asked here is part 2 <33 tysm sm for all the love ily all smmm also here is part 1. part 3.

y/nusername

liked by judebellingham, kikagomez, oscarpiastri and 5,720,820 others.

user278 oh she's defo listening to i love you i'm sorry

username_211 plsss 😭😭

f1fan ngl her and jude are acc rly cute

user00 the most gorgeous omlll

judebellingham ❤️

y/nusername ❤️

anon ugh what a bitch

username_78 i'm so glad that she is happy :)

f1fan_16 when i tell you i sobbed when i heard this lyric like i'm sorry but you can't convince me that he is not still in love with her

liked by landonorris, f1lover, justaninchident and 56,189 others.

landonorris trust me he is

user728 LANDO PLSS OMG username66 not him outing charles like that i can't

user400 on repeat.

username_15 this song feels like a stab through the heart.

charlesleclerc life recently 🤍🫶🐶

liked by landonorris, georgerussell, lewishamilton and 2,829,667 others.

user11 stoppp this makes me so sad to see leo without his mum 😭😭

f1fan i rly hope that he's okay

username_ we love you charles <3

user516 stop charles is actually the nicest person ever he does not deserve this

f1lover_45 ik charles is okay because he has lando

landonorris damn right

user526 off topic but the fit is fire 🔥

༘˚⋆𐙚｡⋆𖦹.✧˚

texts between jude and y/n

baby? jude

yeah? y/n

can i come with you to paris fashion week jude

what omg acc?! y/n

id love to come and support you sweetheart jude

stopp why are you so perfect 🤭💗 y/n

that's all you jude

༘˚⋆𐙚｡⋆𖦹.✧˚

judebellingham angel face

》 omg waitt is jude coming to paris fashion week?!?!

》 wait they are acc so cute

》 charles is better

》 y/n is acc so pretty

y/nusername paris fashion week with @ miumiu

liked by judebellingham, pierregasly, kikagomez and 3,282,962 others.

user82 she is defo getting war flashbacks from being in paris rn

username672 serving face !!

f1fan ooooo body is tea

justanichident so jealous of her beauty 🫠

kikagomez gorgeous gorgeous girl

y/nusername mwah

miuiu love the fit 😉

user526 guys guys did u see jude cheering her on ughh so so cuteee

judebellingham that's my girl

liked by y/nusername, kylianmbappe, lewishamilton and 9,728,551 others.

y/nusername love u smm thank you for supporting me 💋

judebellingham love u sm babygirl

user991 jude bagged a baddie fr

username both serving cunt

user_18 ultimate bi panic

f1fan oml the fits are actual perfection

ln4_67 y/n we need the skincare routine !!

username_99 my fav couple 💗

charlesleclerc album is finally out hope you enjoy!!

liked by lewishamilton, landonorris, oscarpiastri and 13,629,829 others.

user777 i'm in a puddle of tears

username51 i'm acc not okay LIKE SOME WARNING OF HOW HEARTBREAKING THIS IS WOULD HAVE BEEN NICE

f1fan okay kinda team charles rn because tf

justaninchident imagine your ex making a whole album about you, crazy stuff.

user33 LEWIS'S VERSE OMG THIS MAN I DIED

landonorris so proud of you man and so happy that not only me but everyone can hear this incredible record you made 🫶

user00 aww supportive bsf lando we love to see it

username11 so so good

f1lover oh charles

liked by justaninchident, f1_67, user88 and 172,552 others.

user415 nope.

username11 i'm crying over this like it's my own breakup.

justaninchident my therapist has heard too much about this that she is acc fed up of me.

f1fan_333 best song on the album but the saddest

user00 omgg guys imagine if he went on tour and sang these songs

f1_5 y/n lost a good one

user44 we all know damn well that she would take him back in heartbeat

༘˚⋆𐙚｡⋆𖦹.✧˚

texts between jude and y/n

why did you lie to me??? jude

i didn't exactly lie....i said i was meeting a friend y/n

A FRIEND AS IN YOUR EX WTF Y/N jude

i'm sorry i didn't think you'd y/n

well i sure as hell do mind jude

you know damn well he is still in love with you jude

yk what? jude

what? y/n

i think you are still in love with him too jude

jude baby what are you talking abou i love you y/n

bffr y/n jude

i acc can't with you rn jude

i knew that getting myself involved with you was a mistake everybody warned me saying that you'd go back to him, well ig they were right jude

but i love u y/n

well too bad jude

༘˚⋆𐙚｡⋆𖦹.✧˚

judebellingham no caption.

liked by kylianmbappe, footballfan_67, user626 and 7,529,331 others.

user432 no y/n.....

footballfan_67 my goat 🐐

username55 he deserves better than y/n honestly and anyone who says otherwise is dumb asf

f1fan he's so real for the no caption

username_411 yesss no y/n finally she was such a bitch

user11 bro acc finally looks happy

f1lover wait do we all acc think they broke up??

y/nusername

liked by charlesleclerc, kikagomez, landonorris and 5,311,905 others.

user445 i'm so in love.

username67 serving face

f1fan i hope she's okay she looks a bit sad :,(

f1lover omggg charles in the likess

user900 my fav ever actually

username526 petition for y/n to become a victoria secret model 🪽🫧

y/nusername

》 omg

》 y/n defo cheated i don't believe this crap

》 it defo wasn't mutual literally jude is with another girl, he either cheated or y/n did

》 oh she is soooo going back to charles

y/nusername

liked by charlesleclerc, landonorris, carlossainz and 12,618,341 others.

user516 SHE'S BACKKK

username_67 omfgggg

f1fan ARE THEY BACK TOGETHER WHAT WHAT

justaninchident guess she finally realized that charles is just better

anon girl just broke up with jude and is now back with charles bffr omg like

user19 i need a moment BECAUSE WHAT

f1lover this is so y/n coded

user890 it girl before it girl now

username_56 i've never been happier 😫😫

user_53 guys guys hold up they could just be friends

anon shush let us dream

taglist⭑.ᐟ

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[slugtranslation-hypmic]

Hihi slug, I love your work, and thanks for everything!! Since Matenro season is nearly upon us, I was wondering if we could get your opinion on the solo snippets🤞🤞

Matenro's new solo previews are SO GOOD, what do you think of them?

Thank you both for notifying me about them! Taking a look now...

(The album is probably already out now, but... better late than never...)

Jakurai's A Majestic Figure

Title note: 4-kanji compounds are like the SAT vocab words of Japanese; they're not super common in everyday speech and can evoke a literary or sophisticated feeling. This one is...interesting. To the best of my knowledge, it isn't a standard compound (I'm also not getting any hits when I Google it) and I wonder if that's significant. It's just two words strung together to make the appearance of fanciness, perhaps. I couldn't say for certain. At any rate, both 威風 and (especially) 颯爽 describe a majestic, often captivating appearance. This isn't to say that such qualities of dignity or majesty aren't real, but I definitely feel like both terms are defining a subject from an outside perspective. These aren't terms I would ever expect someone to describe themselves with, which makes the song title sound like it's an outside observer commenting on Jakurai instead of Jakurai talking about himself. We see this happen a lot in Hypmic, with people putting Jakurai on pedestals or Jakurai struggling to see himself as the same grand figure others perceive him as. As a result, I wrote the song title as "A Majestic Figure" to emphasize the appearance of majesty, whereas the character of the figure is unknown. Anyway, let's dive in and see what this is all about.

(10 seconds in) Vibing with these instrumentals

(19 seconds in) Not vibing with these "ah"s... but we can't have everything in life

(43 seconds in) I'm a little too tired to fully keep up (I'll look up the lyrics when I'm done) but I REALLY like the urgency in the delivery, which is so at odds with the flowing, dignified background music. In JPN fiction as a whole, flusteredness/desperation is contrasted with calmness as a synonym for imperfection and perfection. Jakurai is, honestly, really kind of a desperate character...yet one that appears outwardly calm/perfect to most of the rest of the cast, so it's interesting that we get to see his desperate nature on full display right at the start of the song.

(1:26 in) Hand motif mentioned *Cinemasins ding* (of

(End) Thank you uta-net for having the lyrics up already; ily. Let's see now... Interesting. I'll have to read them again in more depth later, but it looks like a call to forgive past wounds and seek out a better, less painful way of existence--in a societal sense, a religious (as in like, ascending or becoming enlightened) sense, and a personal sense. All great things to see Jakurai expressing. Again, it's interesting to see Jakurai expressing this with such urgency, even if these are things we know he really, really cares about. That coupled with the background music seems to match a bit in the lyrics that says "And [to end war within society, paraphrased] I take grand, dignified action mixed with the discord and noise of Shinjuku, a samsara spiral of cacophonous echoes." Mixing the stately and the chaotic, the "imperfect" and the "perfect." Really interesting stuff!

Hifumi's The Beginning of the Last Song

Title note: "Last Song" is English and written in katakana, which is a sharp contrast to the style of Jakurai's title. Creates a much younger and casual feel appropriate for Hifumi. Not much else to say here, so let's jump in.

(10 seconds in) Modern indie pop song on the radio feel. I'm not a fan of autotune in general so I'm not in love with this, but I'm hopeful it'll pick up soon.

(22 seconds in) I listen to so much "soft hiphop" (for lack of a better term) during work that my brain instantly catapulted itself into work mode and stopped paying any attention to the words. Coffee mug? Check. Emails? Check. Anxiety? Check. Let me rewind and listen to this properly.

(32 seconds in but for real this time) So far, very Hifumi. Opening verse has some fun figurative language but essentially says Hifumi's suit is pure courage he dons like a suit of armor. In doing so, it masks him and makes him become like a whole other person. From there, he switches to addressing a listener: "I want to soothe your mental wounds. I want to change your frown into a smile. I won't let go of your hands, and no, I'm not doing this for a reward." It's something that Hifumi should be saying to himself (something Hifumi wants to hear, maybe?) and yet he says "To [Host!]me, this is happiness."

(59 seconds in) Hmm... I was going to say this song feels sad to me, because all these positive messages of "Keep going! You're safe now!" are framed as being directed at other people, and I was like..."Hifumi, who's going to say that to you? Who's going to help you feel that way?" but then the line "You made me realize I'm not alone" radically flips the framing so that it DOES become things Hifumi is saying to himself, too. How nice. :) I would not want to translate this, personally... Haha it's using the vagueness of Japanese grammar and lyrical conventions to great effect, but I don't feel comfortable touching that personally.

(1:02) Hell yeah, belt that shit, homie

(1:32) So it's a last song in the sense that it's a farewell or the final song of his old self. Now he's the new, healing Hifumi. We love to see it 10/10 bravo. The song is also a happy, heartfelt thank you to the unspoken listeners (presumably Matenrou) who helped him feel less alone. That's cute! I like it. I probably shouldn't go here, but I find it intriguing how the vagueness of listeners is utilized. The first time the listeners are addressed, the language is...if not borderline romantic, pathos-filled to the point where it's definitely evocative of his host job (hence why he's not seeking compensation for handholding, an often romantic gesture). Yet it's borderline enough that it wouldn't be inappropriate to imagine it being addressed to Matenrou instead of his patrons. Hahaha. Again, another reason I don't want to go near this one.

(Overall) I like it! A nice ballad for Hifumi.

Doppo's Andante

(5 seconds in) For a song called Andante, this has a faster tempo than at least one other song on this album lol. But it's much less frenetic than Doppo's other solos, so there's that, I guess.

(7 seconds in) This delivery is giving me anime ending made by a 2010s rock band vibes lol.

(14 seconds in) Damn there's a baller line here that I'm stumped on how to convey in Eng in a way that's both baller and sensical. Meaning wise, it's like "I want to take back the things I shouldn't have said and give them as a present to you" and in figurative language it's like "Once, I used to fire words into the air [speak things in anger or carelessly]. Now, I want to gather them up [esp. like a bouquet of flowers] after their flight and use them to decorate you [again, like flowers or like a piece of jewelry--it's a positive connotation]" Pop off, Doppo

(40 seconds in) Oh this is killer and also going to need some major explaining. Doppo's name is literally "he who walks alone" which is usually considered a positive thing--someone who "walks the path of life" alone would have gotten there by outstripping the rest of the pack. In Doppo's case, though, this is a negative thing. I think it's not as obvious to Eng-only fans, and I know I didn't really think about it for a long time myself, but Doppo considers himself a "loser" bc he didn't follow a conventional life path. It's considered atypical to switch employers, especially very early on in one's career, as he did when he stood up for Hifumi and got himself fired at his first job. Part of why he puts up with shitty treatment at EL Medical is because it's one of the few places that would hire someone who switched employers at such a young age. (Sidebar: My (probably flawed, as I don't live in Japan) impression is that this is becoming less and less of a thing as time goes on and the economy goes to shit, but I think it's the self-stigma more than anything else that's affecting Doppo. To me, it feel similar to the societal pressures in the US to attend and graduate from a four-year college. Plenty of people don't for all sorts of reasons, but because that's so ingrained as the default life story for Americans in a lot of communities, Doppo's dealing with the kind of disappointment and self-hatred someone who dropped out before getting a four year degree might feel.) Doppo beats himself up about that a lot, but here we get that lovely line of "In the waves of people (hitonami) passing all around me, I no longer see anyone who looks like me. It's a shame, because I always wanted to be just like everyone else (hitonami)." Outside of that beautiful wordplay on hitonami, we're also treated to the figurative language of hitonami being literally "in line with others." Doppo, a character who walks through life alone, wanted to walk through life at the same pace/reaching the same milestones at the same time as everyone else.

(1:04 in) "Life is a tightrope act; it's like walking a balance beam [lit. "average beam" aka a beam where everything is averaged/balanced]. In a country where not everything can be average (narasarenai) and where even if the things that [I] can accomplish (narasareru) don't matter [in the eyes of society], sometimes the sounds I want to make don't come out right (narasarenai). When that happens, I can call myself pitiful--or I can feel the breathing of the beautiful flowerbed that is this city, and when someone's humming under their breath disturbs that short break [lit. breath], I ask them 'So, what is this happiness thing anyway?'" I would rather die than TL this song but I'm LOVING the creativity and depth of the lyrics.

(1:27) WILD! FUCKING! CHEERING!!! "You fake smiles in a mirror to make other people happy and call it love. It's a form of hypnosis, and I've made a go of falling under its spell because I just want to be equals [on par with, balanced], and so if you and I can walk these crowded streets together, then I think I don't mind as much that I'm always walking alone." THE GROWTH! THE GROWTH!!!!

Damn, this album's lyrics go hard. What a feast.

[incognitopolls]

The primary purpose of this blog is to facilitate questions that might feel too awkward, embarrassing, or revealing to ask on main. Since this blog receives a lot of submissions, I've had to set some filters on some of the ones that aren't "on topic," so to speak.

This list outlines the main reasons I may reject submissions. I reserve the right to at times reject submissions even if the topic isn't specifically listed here.

Vetoed topics:

Repeat polls. If it's basically the same as a poll that has already been posted or is currently in the queue, it will be disregarded or combined. .

Polls copied from other poll/tournament blogs, such as “who did you vote for in Best Blorbo Of The Year?” The results on the Best Blorbo Blog answer that question already. .

Polls that will stir up harm, invite hateful speech, or trivialize serious current events. This includes asking people's opinions on specific ongoing wars, or asking if specific identities or groups are "valid." .

Polls fishing for people to agree with your unpopular opinion, such as "Who else thinks that pumpkin spice lattes suck?" Sorry, these just aren't fun. .

Polls speculating on other people’s personal lives. This includes questions like “Do you think [celebrity] is gay?”

–

"Off topic" topics

Media polls about general consumption and preferences, such as “Have you played this video game?" “Which movie in this franchise is your favorite?” “Which franchise is better?” "Did you like this musician's new album?" etc. There are a number of "Do you know this [song/game/movie/etc]" and otherwise media-focused poll blogs that are better avenues for this type of question. .

Personal/relationship polls that boil down to “Is this problematic?” such as age gap questions and "Am I The Asshole?"-style questions. .

Polls about very general, benign preferences, such as “Do you like this food?” or "What's your favorite animal?". This just doesn't fit the purpose of this blog. .

Joke/trick/meme polls, such as “Did you vote on this poll?” or “Vote for option 2." .

Polls about pronunciation of internet words and abbreviations. There are just too many ways to pronounce ouppy/pfp/etc and it's impossible to represent in a poll. In general, we'll only post pronunciation polls if there are very specifically 2 or 3 different ways that everybody pronounces the word.

–

This post is linked in the pinned post for reference and is non-rebloggable so that it can be updated as needed.

[toomanythoughts2]

Hello hi I wanna go over a list of Metalocalypse AUs that I have come up with because I can.

D&D Dethklok: Dethklok are just regular people playing D&D as the Dethklok we know. Charles is the DM.

KidKlok: Dethklok met as kids and have a kiddie band together. They rule the playground and school with their music, singing, and personalities.

De-aged Klok: One (or more) members of Dethklok are de-aged into kid(s) without their memories and it's up to the group (or Charles) to get them back to their adult ages, while also giving them the best childhood they could have.

AgereKlok: They are all age regressors. This isn't much of an AU they're just age regressors. They're the exact same except sometimes they want sippy cups instead of glass bottles.

Late Bloomer Klok: Dethklok forms much later in life, around their 50's. It starts most likely as a mid-life crisis thing that grew out of control, and it all happened post-regular career. Toki is still the baby of the group though.

Godklok (my version): Basically the same ideals except the execution is different. Murderface represents war instead of hatred and ugliness. Toki dies in DSR which unlocks his true power as the god of Death, though this also transforms him into said god, not Toki becoming a god (Toki is no longer Toki, he is death, and a combination of all former human versions before Toki.) Skwisgaar is life, which means he can not die, and in fact unlocks his godlike statue once he lets go of his pride and embraces his role in creating life (Think "Fatherklok" song except instead of making babys, it's about creating life.) Murderface transforms once he learns of his role, not just in the band, but in the greater scheme of the world, as a tactician. Pickles unlocks his powers when he stops indulging in what the world has made and instead indulges in what the world is (Not drinking or drugs but consuming the chaotic energy of how the world functions.) Nathan unlocks his power during his drug trip when he discusses the "hand or the fist" line, where he chooses the hand. Realizing that being intimidating and domineering means caring greatly for those around him and protecting what is important, the earth.

Runawayklok: They're all runaways that met up somehow and joined together to take care of each other. They form a garage band to make money and dream of making it big.

Missing Member Klok: This usually pertains to Toki, but the idea is that the band has mysteriously lost a member and have to go back in time to convince that member to go where they're supposed to be in order to join the band. Or, they must create a time where they meet because the OG has long since past. Usually this AU is focused on the "why" of each members origin story into Dethklok.

Retiredklok: Dethklok has retired and gone their separate ways. But what's this, a new enemy has awoken and they must regroup once more to make another album, except everyone has changed. What does this mean for them? Will the new attitude and personalities coexist or is the magic of Dethklok gone? Will their new aging body's be able to keep up with their former glory? And how will they react seeing their former friends so different? (Think Chinese food scene from IT.)

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 10/8/2024

The Boy is out of my house. end of an era. formally adopt the boy for only twenty of god's own dollars here!

listening

i really really love reading perfume reviews and i would love to start describing songs like a perfume reviewer but maybe this song is not a great one to start out with: the ghost inside by broken bells, off their 2010 self-titled album. it got stuck in my head bc it is sort of the ur-example of 2010s indie rock. you have to listen to it but after you listen to it you know i am Right. kind of a bonkers scifi music video with mostly practical effects and actress christina hendricks (interview here).

thank u spotify weekly recommended playlist bc i had completely forgotten about broken bells. i think i found them through one of those little music cards starbucks used to give out?

-

reading

The Blood Trials (Book One of the Blood Gift Duology, Jan 2023) by N.E. Davenport. i KNOW i originally put this on my holds list bc of a tumblr post but i cannot find that post again.

explaining the plot of this book to my best friend involved saying the phrase "and then THE BLOOD EMPEROR" a lot. there is no short way to explain the plot of this thing.

Blending fantasy and science fiction, N. E. Davenport’s fast-paced, action-packed debut kicks off a duology of loyalty and rebellion, in which a young Black woman must survive deadly trials in a racist and misogynistic society to become an elite warrior. It’s all about blood. The blood spilled between the Republic of Mareen and the armies of the Blood Emperor long ago. The blood gifts of Mareen’s deadliest enemies. The blood that runs through the elite War Houses of Mareen, the rulers of the Tribunal dedicated to keeping the republic alive. The blood of the former Legatus, Verne Amari, murdered. For his granddaughter, Ikenna, the only thing steady in her life was the man who had saved Mareen. The man who had trained her in secret, not just in martial skills, but in harnessing the blood gift that coursed through her. Who trained her to keep that a secret.

this is a "graduate or die" book that i would normally say is YA but the protagonist Ikenna is ~20ish and there are two quite explicit sex scenes. so i feel it veers more new adult? what if you learned to be an ancient greek spartan praetorian but also had blasters? that's what this school is.

this is a military scifi that is also a murder mystery (HELL of a dense concept to pick for a debut novel) that gets SO yuckydisgusting with loving descriptions of military training wounds and a cannibalism scene (not by our protagonist) i had to skip over. i think this would be terrific for locked tomb girlies but it is at the bleeding edge of my tolerance level. i am a noted big baby about gore, so ymmv.

tumblr user kay, why the fuck did you keep reading it? one of the best technically written debut novels i've ever read. extremely compelling in how the narration is from Ikenna’s point of view and she has almost all the murder mystery pieces but fails to put them together bc of personal flaws and foibles. and she is so good at tripping face first over those flaws and foibles it really effectively distracts you from the pieces of the murder mystery! she’s so so so good at making the worst possible decision (in hindsight) at any given point. all her decisions have complex hidden downsides but at the same time she could not have made any different decision. failsafes her grandfather put in place fail bc of the way she interprets them. she is a very good soldier but less good as a strategist. terrible as a politician. this sort of thing.

she is quick to act and quick to decide, and allies and enemies flip fairly quickly without much hemming and hawing. once she has definite proof of betrayal or alliance, she accepts it and charges on. i think the occasionally flimsy lead up to these flips is one of the book’s weaknesses, but i also think it’s one of Ikenna’s major weaknesses. im not convinced the author handles doling every clue out or how the very complex political situation clicks together Well, but Ikenna’s reaction and dealing with the fallout of these things is very believable and well done.

VERY rapid pace— reminds me of The Hunger Games, where Suzanne Collins’ background in TV helped her know when to break chapters. there aren’t any lulls where I lost interest— i read this book in basically one sitting overnight.

-

watching

meandering through a playlist of oscar-nominated shorts: the 1951 UPA black comedy musical film noir short "Rooty Toot Toot" has been one of my favorites so far.

it's so hyperstylized and so gleefully minimalist. the background characters, even though they are mostly just blobs and circles, are notably diverse for 1951. let's yoink some more background from the description/TCM:

Hubley brought in a number of interesting collaborators on Rooty Toot Toot. Dancer Olga Lunick was hired to choreograph the ballet-style dance moves. There was no rotoscoping involved; her moves were only referenced by the artists and animators, not slavishly traced. Paul Julian designed the backgrounds and utilized some non-typical techniques; in his essential history of UPA, When Magoo Flew: The Rise and Fall of Animation Studio UPA (Wesleyan, 2012), Adam Abraham quotes Julian on one of them: "'I found a kind of oddly corroded gelatin roller - an ordinary print roller that had been pitted and pocked in some way, chemically.' With this device, he produced distressed-looking backgrounds that suited the sordid tale." In addition, Hubley and the studio brought on jazz musician Phil Moore to write the score. Moore had done orchestrations for many MGM musicals in the 1940s, but uncredited--this would be a rare on-screen credit for the black musician. Legendary animator Grim Natwick also joined the crew. Natwick had been active since the silent era and had designed and animated Betty Boop for the Fleischer Studios. He went on to work on such key films as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and Gulliver's Travels (1939). For Rooty Toot Toot Natwick animated the memorable shots of Nellie Bly on the witness stand.

-

playing

i don't have anything fun to say about genshin this week. prepare for me to lose my mind next week about hot ocelot lady.

-

making

sanitized/enzymatic cleaned everything orange boy touched in my office and the office bath, bc he was so full of love and also worms and boysmell. i believe the stink has been defeated, but only time and the girls will tell me. unforch, i will have to sanitize and destink the bathroom Again at the end of the month bc a new outside boycat will be recovering here after his neuter. this time i am Not paying for it and he already has a home lined up! it is a complicated case with a friend's exit from a Situation and it is not fully mine to tell. can't believe this office and office bath have been like a revolving door of cats this summer/fall. phil only got fulltime house privileges at the end of june-ish.

[bibliophilea]

The Lake Beckons

Inspired by "Misery's Lake" by @bubblegumbeech

Album artwork by bibliophilea

Lake wave recordings by arpeggio1980 and TRP on freesound.org

For @invisobang 2024

Flynn has lived on the edge of this lake for as long as he can remember. And for just as long he's been trying to make sure no one else ends up like him or the ghosts he calls his siblings. Unfortunately for him, the teenager that keeps knocking on his door seems to have the wrong idea about things and it's only a matter of time the Lake gets him too.

Read the phic here: ao3 Listen to the song here: bandcamp | spotify

Thank you @kinglazrus, for heading Invisobang, and putting so much work into making it such a phun event! And thank you, @strawberrycamel and @underforeversgrace, for all the work you guys put into helping run the event! Y'all are amazing, and you make this event amazing!

And thank you, Bee, for writing such a phenomenal phic! You write creeping horror incredibly well, and I adore how you weave it into everything about the story - the characters, their surroundings, the narrative, the style, everything! I love how you characterize Flynn in particular, and how he relates to his situation, and how he relates to Danny! It's so well done, and so well crafted!

I hope the music does your work justice!

Passage from Chapter 1 under the cut:

A call came from across the water.

“Do you see anything?”

“No,” Flynn called back, half bent over the edge of his small dinghy. His eyes scanned as far as he could see in the dark. The lake was still, flat: more like a black glass mirror than anything else.

They weren’t going to find anything. They never did.

Flynn had to help the search anyways.

It was best to try and avoid anyone else disappearing, and an unorganized search in the middle of the night through miles of deep water was a surefire way for more than just a two-person canoe to disappear.

The one other volunteer with him, Valerie, shifted the searchlight a few inches to the left, lighting up another long strip of identical lake water.

“You’d think they’d stop asking every five minutes when we’ve been giving them the same answer,” she grumbled; frustration, worry, and a distinct lack of sleep all warring for prominence in her features. “This is a waste of time. We’ve never been able to recover anyone from this lake.”

Flynn shrugged, keeping his eyes on the expanse of dark water. For a moment, something blue flickered beneath the calm surface, then disappeared. “You think they’d stop letting people in.”

“Not with the new marina they just opened.” Valerie looked over at him, taking her gaze off the search for a moment just to throw him a look. Assessing.

He couldn’t quite hide his scowl, and turned away to look somewhere else. “Nothing I can do about that, good old imminent domain and the importance of tourists’ pocket money.”

That got him a chuckle and a gentle ribbing on his side with her elbow. “This your origin story as a Scooby-doo villain?” she asked, and Flynn let himself smile, let himself relax.

They wouldn’t find anything tonight, the boat they were looking for would have long capsized and sank to the bottom of the lake. In the morning they’d send out a new crew; different volunteers looking for corpses instead. They’d probably try to dredge the bottom of the lake.

Flynn wondered if they’d find the bodies this time, or if the thick layer of sediment and mud had claimed them already.

“I’ve never liked being out here.” Valerie shivered, taking one hand off the searchlight to try and bring her coat in closer. It was always a bit colder on the lake. She hadn’t properly prepared for it. People rarely did.

A whistle sounded, calling for the end of the search, and Flynn tried not to make it obvious how much his relief relaxed him. “No one actually likes it out here,” he said, back to Valerie’s point. “It's creepy as hell.”

He pulled the starter cord and let out a soft breath when the engine purred back to life. Maybe he’d be able to relax soon, enjoy his night and sit with a cup of tea, a nice book. Maybe he could even get enough sleep to tend to his garden in the morning.

It was a choice to ignore the way Valerie was staring, and how heavy her gaze weighed on the back of his neck.

Continued Here...

[wavesoutbeingtossed]

what are you favorite mashups from eras? no limit to how many, just ones that you loved the most

That’s what I tell you, no rules!

I know I’ve answered this a few times before, but I can’t find the posts because tumblr.

The first one recently that comes to mind is evermore x Peter, which wrecked me since those are some of my favourite songs from their respective albums. The mashup told such a story and one that absolutely punched me in the gut, ugh.

Looking at Jaime’s handy song tracker, I’m just going to eyeball it and pick out some of my faves or else we’ll be here all night!

All of the August London ones (but especially the first three shows because I was there lol).

But: Everything Has Changed x End Game x Thinking Out Loud because as you all may have guessed, I love harmonies, and I loved her singing with Ed, particularly on Thinking Out Loud. Taylor’s got a kind of raspy, bluesy voice she doesn’t get enough credit for and it was just so much fun.

And also My Boy x Coney Island because when I tell you my third eye opened sitting near the very back of Wembley Stadium about both those songs as I processed it in real time

Cornelia Street x The Bolter

The Great War x DBATC

Cassandra/Mad Woman/IDSB because that was epic

Never Grow Up x The Best Day

Is It Over Now x OOTW

Getaway Car x august x Other Side Of The Door

New Year’s Day x Peace (another “she took some of my most favourite songs and smashed them together to personally attack me” instance)

WCS x ivy (same)

Clean x evermore (again, same)

Carolina x no body no crime (same)

Hits Different x DBATC

Sweet Nothing x hoax (which broke my brain)

Paper Rings x Stay Stay Stay

You’re Losing Me x How Did It End

There are tons more but I’ll be here all night lol

[earlgreytea68]

hi egt

what fob songs scream hiatus to you?

i need to experience emotional ruin real quick

God, there are so many, like, basically allll of Save Rock and Roll feels like them working through the hiatus together (not least because of how it has a higher percentage of Patrick lyrics than usual, probably because of him coming off his solo work). But the hiatus loomed so large for them as this nuclear blast in their relationship, it seems to bleed all through Pete's words (and hence their songs) for years afterward.

And it actually even starts before the hiatus, with the "What a Catch, Donnie" music video, which is the most hiatus-y thing to ever hiatus, Pete going down with his ship while he sends everyone else away to party without him. IT'S ALL SO SYMBOLIC.

And then to title a song on the first Believers Never Die album "From Now On, We Are Enemies." WHAT THE HELL hahahahaha WHAT A CHOICE, PETE WENTZ. (a downward spiral, just a pirouette and I only what what I can't have -- wanting what you can't have is a total hiatus theme for me that shows up a bunch in Pete's lyrics. I have not done an empirical analysis to see if it's a more prevalent theme after the hiatus or not.)

"The Phoenix" has obvious symbolism for their life as a band, raising their career from the ashes, changing themselves up like a remix, wearing their vintage of misery better than everyone else. Also, I love the imagery it has of peace, the "release the doves, surrender love" bit. Waving the white flag and putting down your weapons (in contrast to put on your war paint). But I've always kind of felt like surrender love is one of Pete's deliberate ambiguities: It could be "surrender your love" but it could also be "surrender, love." And Pete doesn't often use "love" as a term of endearment in his lyrics but he called Patrick "love" on stage not too long ago, so, you know, it seems not too outside the realm of possibility to think that these are really lines about reconciliation. It feels like time is running out, so let's surrender and hold tight.

Then there's "Alone Together": I'm outside the door, invite me in so we can go back and play pretend. The image of playing pretend / make-believe with someone also recurs in Pete's poetry, and it's something else I always read as Patrick-coded. Who did he used to "pretend" with for the sake of the shippers? And, of course, starting at the end of the road to ruin sounds like people who have burned everything down but are finding their way back.

I wrote a whole fic about "Where Did the Party Go" :-)

What is there to say about "Miss Missing You" that hasn't already been said? The infamous "hot whiskey eyes" line that honestly can only be about Pete Wentz lol. The imagery of the person you'd take a bullet for being behind the trigger: they have both at separate points in time proclaimed their readiness to take a bullet for the other. The fact that Pete wrote in a poem once before the hiatus I miss you missing me, and this song is I miss missing you. Like, everyone just die over this song.

To me "The Kids Aren't Alright" is a hiatus song in that it's about surviving the hiatus, coming through it, reversing the curse, it's our time now if you want it to be, in the end, I'd do it all again, I think you're my best friend.

"Fourth of July" is another hiatus song for me, the reference to the burned bridges being the light that leads you home is just so hiatus-y. Also, the torture of small talk with someone you used to love just smacks of the hiatus, of how they stopped talking to each other, of how they knew so little about each other and had to start over. This is more wanting what you can't have, too: my favorite what-if, my best I'll-never-know. I said I'd never miss you. I wish I'd known how much you loved me. It's so much, this song lol

Twin Skeleton's: ouch. This song is so painful. This song scrapes over your skin like sandpaper. This song is so angry and bitter. This song is I need a new partner in crime and you shrug. oh my GOD that line kills me every single time. That one and the way Patrick snarls, I could just die laughing on your spiral of shame. This is an angry song, but the anger is born of a depth of emotion and it ends with Patrick promising hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on over and over, and that's what makes it extra-hiatus to me, like, hold on, it all gets better, I'm coming back, hold on, hold on, hold on...

I find the hiatus infects their songs less and less the farther they get away from it, which is good. It's healing. As we've discussed, they've almost forgotten the whole thing even happened, it's been blurred over by the sands of time.

[thelastofarcadia]

THE BAD BATCH+REX+FIVES(+bonus) as Taylor Swift songs and albums

As a Star Wars fan AND a swiftie, I sometimes relate my favorite characters to some songs and also albums so I wanted to share my thoughts on a few taylor songs that remind me of my fav clones + the bad batch!

Disclaimer: those are my personal thoughts i have towards them based on the shows and fanfics I’ve read so you might disagree but feel free to tell me your own thoughts too!! or to add a few songs!

Rex:

album: midnights

songs: the lucky one, i think he knows, style, you are in love, is it over now?, delicate, so it goes…, the archer, epiphany, long story short, the great war, hits different, karma

Fives:

album: 1989

songs: blank space, how you get the girl, come back… be here, our song, the very first night, sparks fly, last kiss, superman, sad beautiful tragic, i wish you would, king of my heart

Echo:

album: evermore/folklore

songs: this is me trying, marjorie, evermore, right where you left me, it’s nice to have a friend, forever winter, begin again, new year’s day

Hunter:

album: red

songs: red, haunted, the way i loved you, i can see you, I almost do, stay stay stay, the last time, the moment i knew, out of the woods, wildest dreams, gorgeous, dress, false god, ivy, maroon, midnight rain

Tech:

album: speak now

songs: enchanted, electric touch, you belong with me, the story of us, gold rush, coney island, sweet nothing, call it what you want, ours, speak now

Wrecker:

album: lover

songs: i’m only me when i’m with you, mine, lover, me!, you need to calm down, paper rings, hey stephen

Crosshair:

album: reputation

songs: look what you made me do, i did something bad, don’t blame me, i knew you were trouble, you all over me, mr. perfectly fine, better man, innocent, babe, bad blood, this love, say don’t go, illicit affairs, you’re losing me

bonus❤️

Omega:

albums: fearless/debut

songs: the best day, fearless, stay beautiful, a place in this world, fifteen, you’re on your own kid, never grow up

Thank you for reading ❤️

[marvelousmop]

The King in Yellow and the War Over the Mind

I think one of the most powerful aspects of Robert W. Chambers's The King in Yellow, and one which sets it apart from a lot of later Weird Fiction about academics who become too invested in the world of the arcane, is the idea that there just isn't anything explainably wrong with the play. People know there's something wrong with it, especially once you get to the second act... but if you just looked at the text itself, you wouldn't find anything.

'No definite principles had been violated in those wicked pages, no doctrine promulgated, no convictions outraged. It could not be judged by any known standard, yet, although it was acknowledged that the supreme note of art had been struck in The King in Yellow, all felt that human nature could not bear the strain, nor thrive on words in which the essence of purest poison lurked.' ~ The Repairer of Reputations

Despite how central it is, I completely missed it on my first reading (mainly because I was young and grappling with a particularly bad printing of it which made the text really small). I only started to grasp it when I listened to the concept album The King in Yellow by experimental post-rock band "Ah Pook, the Destroyer".

This album is largely inspired by Chamber's work, using that premise - an idea that you can't see but can still cause genuine harm - to talk about the current political climate. Songs touch on a wide array of cults and conspiracies - from the modern-day antisemitic ramblings of Qanon and Lizard People conspiracies to the strong figureheads and interpersonal conflicts of cults like Heaven's Gate. They even find time to touch on the Time Cube somehow, all under the framework of the King in Yellow propagating harmful ideas and bringing about the New Age of Madness.

But it's not as simple as just looking at these people and calling them mad. Okay, sometimes it is that (best exemplified in the gospel stylings of "The Tribulation of Alex Jones"), but there are cases where the characters are presented with genuine empathy, such as in "The Road to Carcosa" where we hear about the life of a man who, through exposure to the Yellow Sign (which here is attached to Right-Wing conspiracy theories) ends up destroying his relationship with his family. The singer gets a moment of lucidity in the refrain "The fall of my life came after; And all of my mind was scattered", though this fades away as we hear the end of this story: Him living alone in a gun-filled squalor.

Another thing that elevates this album is how it turns it all back on the listener. There's obviously a specific audience of Left-leaning listeners a project like this would attract, and those people are very unlikely to also share the beliefs of the average Qanon-minded person, but (much like in the book) it constantly emphasises that the actual specific beliefs don't matter as much as the spread of ideas. This is most visible in the refrain heard throughout the album:

The fall you believe Is not far as it seems And the deep can not be so alive The blithe poison meme That you did not believe But you saw and it entered your mind

Belief doesn't matter. Sheer exposure to these toxic ideas means that, in a way, you've already been harmed no matter what you take away from it. This idea is also present in the book, most directly in the story "The Yellow Sign".

In it, Mr. Scott is fully aware of the King in Yellow, but has actively tried to avoid its influence, partially due to the unfortunate fate of Hildred Castaigne (who featured in the story "The Repairer of Reputations" and at the very least wanted to do a monarchist coup of America that would place him as King - all after reading The King in Yellow). By all means, he should be doing the right thing - he has no interest in The King in Yellow and is actively avoiding the play... and it's not like anyone's staging it anymore, so he should be fine... and yet, after strange dreams, an erie watchman, and other bizarre events, he and his model, Tessie, are driven to read it. This is also a story the album quotes right at the start:

'Then, as I fell, I heard Tessie’s soft cry and her spirit fled: and even while falling I longed to follow her, for I knew that the King in Yellow had opened his tattered mantle and there was only God to cry to now.' ~ The Yellow Sign & Beautitudes

It's an idea I think is also evoked in the structure of the anthology. While the first 4 stories directly feature the King in Yellow in one way or another, the rest are tragic, sometimes supernatural romances with seemingly no connection to the title character, to the point where some reprints just do the first 4 and ignore the rest... though I feel it's deliberate when keeping this idea in mind. While the King is absent, Yellow is a recurring motif throughout the book, often emphasising death or danger, and reminding the reader of that titular presence. You have been exposed to the King in Yellow, and now your mind is his domain.

[realrichinmyhead]

﹡ ' 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡 ' 𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝟐.

( ૮₍´˶• . •🎀₎ა ) : ────────── dialogues taken from the extra songs in maisie peter's album , ‘ the good witch ( deluxe ) ’ . dialogues range from happy , sad , angry and more . edit and change as you deem necessary . please like and / or reblog if using and consider following !

❛ but i'll believe in you, still your number one fan. ❜

❛ so i've been tryin' peace and love and telling the truth. ❜

❛ good luck, god speed. ❜

❛ you have a phone, you should've called. ❜

❛ you knew i was scared when you were driving too fast. ❜

❛ i gave you the answer, it was in all the songs. did you even listen to the playlist? ❜

❛ my thing is i'm still obsessed with the idea of this one thing—with all the ways that's it wasn't but it might've been. ❜

❛ but by new years' i'll be a very different person. ❜

❛ but i'll always see great heights in you. ❜

❛ you misunderstood a lot of things. but, yeah, i guess me too. ❜

❛ i'm older now but i still don't really know things. ❜

❛ you should've put me above those people you didn't even know. ❜

❛ my ex was a bitter man, middle child. ❜

❛ i thought that we were forever and ever, i guess i was wrong. ❜

❛ can you just please listen? ❜

❛ time to grow up, you were the one and now you're not. ❜

❛ man, you know, yoko never broke up that band. ❜

❛ i wrote you all these fucking songs, and you broke up with me. ❜

❛ last year, i had to focus on survival. ❜

❛ you'll be lonely in your fifties. ❜

❛ i gave you the option and you chose wrong. ❜

❛ after the crowd's gone, i'll be the last one. ❜

❛ thought you knew how i felt, now i doubt it. ❜

❛ and say you're pretty sure that blonde wants you so bad. ❜

❛ i guess i'm disappointed that you didn't "merry christmas" your way back into my life. ❜

❛ you said fine, when you should've said, "or we could try?" ❜

❛ who took all of my trust then abused it? ❜

❛ cute, your car is sports, like, is that fast? ❜

❛ but i got drunk, told everyone that i broke up with you. ❜

❛ took a big leap, now you're bleedin' with a broke nose and a dumb smile. ❜

❛ you were an asshole, face it. ❜

❛ it's just the way you're talking, it's just your head. ❜

❛ should've been honest, should've told the truth. ❜

❛ i think you want to start a war, i've got bigger battles. ❜

❛ i'm joan of arc and you're just a guy on a horse. ❜

❛ i see it like i always knew it. ❜

❛ so you've really only got like a five day gap before i definitely can't tolerate your bullshit anymore. ❜

❛ i meant don't go, it came out as goodbye. ❜

❛ did someone drop you as a kid or is that coke? ❜

❛ i have two friends, i listen to them like the bible. ❜

❛ sometimes you can't be the hero and tell the truth. ❜

❛ time will heal, but i'll always be a little bit broke. ❜

❛ no getting attached to men you can't have. ❜

❛ i hear you talking over me, like, is that smart? ❜

❛ you weren't love but i think i confused it. ❜

❛ it's a shame i told my journal and my mirror, but i never told you. ❜

❛ and you misunderstood me leaving as something i wanted. i didn't want it at all. ❜

❛ hey baby, he's just something you'd regret. he's not a savior or the best you'll ever get. ❜

[thewadapan]

Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 - three mini-essays

"Starchild" is a pretty good song, so when a local theatre group put on a production of Dave Malloy's Ghost Quartet, I checked it out. Ghost Quartet is much more of a concept album (it's sometimes billed as a "song cycle") than a musical; hell, I'd call it a formal exercise, more than anything, an intricate show that has very little conventional storytelling to speak of, revolving instead around a handful of big moments/emotions which are translated across various time periods. It's a fun show, with technically-impressive lyrics, but for my own personal tastes, I just didn't "get" it, as a narrative.

I didn't "get" Malloy's other famous show either—Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, an adaptation of a specific section of War and Peace (which I haven't read, duh)— but it's a musical in a much more conventional sense, which leaves me better-equipped to express my thoughts on it.

Before I get into it, though, let me get my usual obligatory "theatre is the most inaccessible medium" grousing out of the way. As far as inaccessible musical theatre goes, however, Great Comet actually ends up being one of the least inaccessible. Firstly, as the musical is sung-through—no dialogue scenes—they just slapped that bad boy in the cast recording, so you can just listen to the whole thing and as long as you can distinguish the voices you should be able to get the gist of it. Secondly, thanks to an industrious YouTube user, there's a fantastic edit of various footage sources for the show, which selects the best camera angles to make it possible to actually see the actors' expressions—something which is frankly impossible with most bootlegs.

At first, trying to watch this edit, I tapped out halfway through the first song, as the vocals were completely unintelligible. But then it turned out the same user had a playlist of separate song-by-song videos, which were individually subtitled; with the subtitles, it became perfectly comprehensible. Bafflingly, despite having already taken the time to transcribe these individual subtitles, the user hadn't copied them over to the full edit, implying that they would need to transcribe the whole thing from scratch—which, well, I don't think that's true? It is possible to combine pre-existing subtitle files, right? Whatever.

The ideal edit for me, if such a thing were possible, would just be to sync this footage to the audio of the cast recording. It's something I've seen done before on other bootlegs and it can work fantastically if done well. Clearly, this user had a real love for the show, and I think their understanding of it actually came across in many of their editing choices.

Because the buried lede here is that this production of Great Comet was performed "in the round", with audience members seated in and around the stage, which consisted more of a web of catwalks with railings. Shit's crazy. I was amazed nobody tripped up going up and down all those stairs. I don't usually have much to say about production values, it's not something that interests me, so consider this my obligatory acknowledgement that the whole cast was fantastic, the staging was thoughtfully-done and impressive, great stuff, no notes.

Pierre

At the start of Great Comet's best number, towards the start of the show, Pierre is listlessly playing the piano, sitting in the orchestra's pit, and I clocked, "oh, Malloy wrote this part for himself." Sure enough, the part of Pierre was originated by Malloy. Take this with a pinch of salt, I haven't fact-checked it, but I'm told that the impetus behind Great Comet was basically just that Malloy was reading War and Peace and became smitten with this one section of the book, gripped with the need to communicate it using music. Fair enough.

Pierre is kind of a nothing character, in the sense that he doesn't do anything for 90% of the play: he's portrayed as a bystander in his own life, literally sitting offstage for much of it, wracked with self-hatred and impotency. In the end, what happens to Natasha ends up being of intense personal relevance to him, and I find it hard not to read this through the metatextual lens, that Malloy had a similar revelatory experience with this one section of the book.

One of the craziest things about Great Comet is that "Dust and Ashes", this aforementioned best song in the show, is that it apparently wasn't fucking there in the earliest incarnations of the production, it was added in a revision. For me—and I think for my girlfriend Lizzie too, who's been thinking about this musical for almost a decade—"Dust and Ashes" represents the thematic core of Great Comet, the rest of the show practically existing in service of this emotional moment, a premonition of the stuff with Pierre at the very end.

"Dust and Ashes" takes place after Pierre nearly dies in a drunken duel against the guy fucking his wife (who he doesn't love). The sentiment it resolves towards is "I don't want to die while I'm like this". Drunk, alone, weak, pathetic, never having known love. The specifics of Pierre's plight honestly aren't that important; it's really about this moment, this one moment (a comet appears), where you weigh who you are in the present and decide how you would feel if this was all there was. And in "Dust and Ashes", this moment of reflection spurs Pierre to action, which will eventually allow him to intervene in events at the end of the show.

The title of the musical itself is interesting, isn't it? The three things chosen to characterise this story: Natasha, Pierre, the Great Comet. Imagine if the show didn't have this title. Imagine if "Dust and Ashes" wasn't there. Surely, you'd just think this was Natasha's story, right? Pierre would just be this odd supporting character, maybe a greek-chorus-type figure, who suddenly graduates to Important Character status at the end. But the title puts Natasha and Pierre on basically equal footing. It's an interesting choice.

Natasha

The story of Great Comet, insofar as there is one, boils down to this. Natasha is betrothed to Andrey, who is away fighting a war. While he's gone, she becomes smitten with a hot guy called Anatole, whose manipulative and womanizing ways she's oblivious to. They plan to elope, but get caught; this affair dishonours Natasha, who feels that her life is ruined. The other important character, Pierre, is Anatole's brother-in-law, who mostly watches events from the sidelines, until he interacts with Natasha at the very end.

Of course, there are lots of other supporting characters, and there's tons of flavour and nuance and character development that I've omitted there, but broadly speaking, the musical is preoccupied with this sorta-affair between Natasha and Anatole and how people react to it.

The thing I found most challenging about Great Comet is that Anatole sucks. He obviously sucks. He's a sleazy bum who appears to have not one thought in his head. He just wants to fuck Natasha real bad, but because it's 1812, the only way you can get someone to sleep with you is to marry them, making this the most elaborately-plotted one night stand ever. Everyone, and I mean everyone in the show knows that Anatole sucks, except for Natasha.

Malloy generally loves dramatic irony, I think, it strikes me as one of his things, and I think that's what informed this creative choice. What I find curious about it, though, is just how distancing an effect it is—especially considering the entire musical is building up to a point where Pierre professes that he understands Natasha perfectly, empathises with her completely.

The thing is, I don't understand Natasha. In fact, to me, it feels like the best explanation we get for her actions is given in like the second line of the show: "Natasha is young". She's young, she's too young to know anything, she's too young to understand why Andrey has abandoned her to go fight his nonspecific war, she's too young to realise that Anatole just wants in her britches, she's too young to articulate herself honestly to either of them. It's that she's young.

From the very point of his introduction, we know exactly who Anatole is, and his courting of Natasha is mostly depicted as him saying "I love you!" over and over again. At one point, Natasha receives a letter (which was actually written by one of Anatole's cronies), which also consists of "I love you!" written over and over again. It's the fact that the show even specifies that Anatole didn't fucking write it that drives me insane, because the letter isn't good! If it was a good love letter, then sure, I'd be totally in Natasha's headspace, I'd be feeling what she feels, and the revelation that it's actually ghostwritten would be a great twist of a knife. But it's dog. Who cares whether he wrote it or not, then? It makes no difference to the obvious fact that Anatole doesn't have a single thought in his head.

Even at the very end of the show, when Andrey asks Natasha, "Did you really love that bad man?" and she replies, "Don't call him 'bad'!!!", we are no closer to understanding what the fuck she saw in him. It's such a weird choice to me. I wonder if Malloy, reading this romance as written in War and Peace, didn't fucking get it then either, and that was (one of) the feelings he wanted to communicate with this musical: the complete inability to understand what was in Natasha's heart.

I wonder if maybe it was assumed as a given that we would understand how Natasha feels about Anatole, simply through the casting of a hot guy in the role. But then, in the metatextual angle where Pierre is meant to understand Natasha, there's dissonance there: Pierre doesn't find Anatole hot (OR DOES HE?! No.), he knows Anatole better than almost anyone, and yet he's still like, "girl, I get it." Is that the idea, then? That, in spite of not getting it at all, you just sweep aside the question of "why did you love him" as irrelevant and profess that you nevertheless understand her completely?

This comparison is going to drive people feral, but the example that came to mind for me as a counterpoint was Disney's Frozen, which similarly features a plotline about a young woman getting suckered into a romance with a heartless monster who's solely after her for mercenary reasons. One of the big memorable songs from that movie is "Love Is an Open Door"—a song which people for some fucking reason seem to insist on interpreting completely unironically, playing it at fucking weddings and whatnot. It's impossible to listen to that song and not understand exactly what it is Anna sees in Hans. On the surface, they're totally simpatico, she's swept completely off her feet. And then there's this great twist where the film later interrogates this, by being like, "okay, but that was all totally surface-level, wasn't it?" And in that moment, we really feel for Anna over this horrible betrayal. I don't think about Frozen often if ever, but this is the beat that comes to mind when I do.

The creative choice made in Great Comet is the complete opposite of this. Everyone is always asking Natasha, "What the fuck are you thinking?" I didn't feel like it ever, not even for a second, wanted me to love Anatole. It was as though the very idea that I might was abominable to the narrative itself. So fine, I don't love him. There. I never did. I never, not once, found him "charming". And because of this, despite my best efforts, I don't understand Natasha at all.

The Great Comet of 1812

Cosmology is a recurring motif throughout Great Comet, the moon cropping up in various songs, the stars to a lesser extent (though present throughout in the staging). The comet itself appears very suddenly at the end of the show, and I was left wondering—what the fuck did they mean by this?

Part of it is that the comet grounds the story in history, right? Malloy has a gimmick in his writing where he rapidly and seamless switches from "ALL THESE GRANDILOQUENT, FANTASTICAL DIATRIBES" to "just sort of normal guy speech" and back, blurring the lines between historical and contemporary. Ghost Quartet explicitly made this device part of the metaphysical conceit of the show. So I feel like maybe the gimmick with the comet is that the show is meant to exist in a sort of timeless state, until this comet appears, and it's like—it's 1812! It's this one, specific moment in history! Here we are!

Is that it?

Let me try again. As Pierre points out, the comet at the time is taken to be this portent of all these significances, the end of the world and suchlike. But to him, and to Natasha, it takes on a significance all of its own, in context of all that has happened to them personally. It represents a rejection of the end, a foot planted to say "no, my life isn't over". He feels as though the comet, which is actually this uncaring lump of rock hurtling through space oblivious to all that passes on this mortal earth, is actually appearing in reaction to his inner change. "Live comet reaction", if you will.

I don't know. This moment rules, anyway. It's only natural, as a human, to find awe in the cosmic.

Okay, one more thing. Like the comet, there is another element that intrudes on the events of this musical at the very end: Andrey himself, Natasha's fiancé, who returns from war to go "roight, wot's all dis then".

Early in the musical, there's a funny scene with Pierre where he's writing to Andrey and the letter boils down to (paraphrasing Lizzie here) "I'm so bored. I wish I was at the nonspecific war, with you, doing killing. I bet it smells so good there. I think Napoleon might be literally the devil. Your fiancé is really fucking hot, by the way. Anyway bye." What's funny about this letter is that Pierre is naively romanticising this war, which is this big horrible thing he doesn't understand at all. Andrey is probably having a fucking miserable time. For all Pierre knows, Andrey could be fucking dead as he writes that letter!

But on reflection, I don't know that this ambiguity/irony is something that actually consciously occurs to the musical itself. Because when Andrey shows up again, he's like... here I am! Right as rain! If anything, it's as if being called back to Moscow is a fucking inconvenience, and he really would rather be back killing guys in the based war. What? Again, I'm like—what did Natasha ever see in this guy?

The arrival of Andrey serves to torpedo a bunch of what I personally was finding compelling about the musical up to that point. There's a great motif that crops up a couple of times, where one of the characters foresees "when your dad/Andrey finds out about this, he will back and challenge Anatole to a duel, and Anatole will kill them dead, and then what?" When Andrey shows up, however, he is explicitly like "fuck you Natasha, you wronged me and I won't care about you any more", and no duel takes place. Nobody dies in this show; duelling as a plot device is introduced early on, but ultimately serves no purpose apart from to give Pierre his near-death experience.

Again, the fact that we actually see Andrey for who he is—it's pretty straightforward, in the end—distances us from the experience of Natasha, who otherwise is seriously distressed by the fact she doesn't know what Andrey is thinking and nearly kills herself out of shame. Like, I think I'm right in saying that they don't meet in person, they just interact by letters, right? But I think the musical would have it that these letters accurately depict the truth of the matter between them. Because otherwise, Andrey would be duelling Anatole, or whatever. The truth of his heart is revealed to us.

I was recently impressed with Greta Gerwig's adaptation of Little Women, which deliberately fucked with the structure of the story to effectively change its entire ending while nonetheless technically hewing to the exact events of the book. I think Great Comet is in some ways let down by (to my understanding) hewing so faithfully to what happens in War and Peace. I think a less literal adaptation could have introduced more ambiguity and embellished the story with greater interiority for the characters (Natasha especially).

If it was me doin' it, I'd cut Andrey from the show entirely, fulfilling the promise of his one core character trait declared at the very start: that he "isn't here". At some point in the show, you know he's on his way back, the letters stop, Natasha has no idea what he's thinking. The comet, which prophecies the end of the world, would take on additional significance as a sort of portent for his return: what will happen when he arrives? Will the world end?

Without Andrey's return, those earlier beats where Marya predicts a fatal duel would be allowed to "exist" as moments from outside the narrative, smuggled earlier in the story. Maybe they do duel, maybe someone dies. We don't see. (Anatole is kind of a wildcard; Pierre compels him to flee Moscow, but I think depending on where you cut the story, there remains a possibility that he might run into Andrey.)

I think it would give Pierre's sentiment towards Natasha greater bravery—when he promises her that her life isn't over and that there are good things in her future, this isn't something that is already kind of bearing out in the narrative. There's still things to fear, in the future. So instead we have this promise, which Pierre makes on faith, on utter conviction, after all that he has experienced: no matter what the consequences for this will be, it's not the end of the world.

That's just what would have appealed to me, though. I guess my question, when all's said and done, is: what is it that distinguishes Pierre from these two guys who have gone before him, Andrey and Anatole, who both at separate points confessed to loving Natasha? He is able to better articulate his understanding of her, it's true. But is that all? What elevates him?

I freely admit that I did not come out of this musical feeling that I understood it, that whatever emotion Malloy had felt reading War and Peace that he wished to communicate with Great Comet had successfully been translated for me. On a technical level, this is obviously a great musical, but I just didn't get it. Maybe I would have done if I'd read War and Peace myself, I don't know. I'm always very open to hearing good-faith responses on these kinds of posts, so if this musical did resonate with you, I'd love to hear your interpretation.