#Subjective thoughts

[cliozaur]

Fresh from the West End production of Les Mis, I have some impressions to share. I was quite anxious that I might be disappointed since the last time I saw it live was almost 15 years ago, and I absolutely loved it back then. However, I've heard some unflattering things about the changes made by the new creative team. Fortunately, the changes weren't THAT drastic. The best part about the original production, the emphasis on the interplay of light and shadow on the stage, is still present! Although, I must admit, the absence of a revolving barricade is disappointing. And let's not even get started on the cart with dead bodies. The costumes are much more colourful than I remember, although I preferred the bleaker aesthetic. Overall, I still enjoyed it.

Now, what I'm about to say is completely subjective and a matter of personal judgment. Josh Piterman, an Australian actor (and I have a soft spot for Australians after the phenomenal Philip Quast), is a very good Jean Valjean – beautiful tenor, at times tender and vulnerable, as Valjean should be. Beautiful rendition of Bring Him Home. Claire Machin delivered a thunderous and hilarious portrayal of Mme Thénardier, one of the best I've seen and heard! Nathania Ong was truly wonderful as Éponine, great deep voice and good acting. The rest of the cast was okay. I must mention that I actually enjoyed Javert's Suicide (and this is a huge compliment coming from someone who stubbornly recognizes Philip Quast as the one and only Javert), although the rest of his performance didn't quite meet my high expectations. The kids in the production were absolutely adorable. Gavroche stole my heart! That little guy was just so Gavrochy! He did a great job mocking Javert, raising a stick after Stars (I don't remember if it's canonical, but probably yes), showing middle finger, and bonding with Grantair who was wining him from his bottle.

I don't recall, however, that Bamatabois was depicted as actually raping Fantine on stage, but perhaps my memory is failing me.

I must say, I was truly impressed by the sheer amount of work done by the ensemble! My deepest respect goes to them for their challenging and often unappreciated job. Additionally, I found it touching that the brochure mentioned all the musicians from the orchestra and production team. It's such a simple but lovely gesture to acknowledge their contributions.

[turtleblogatlast]

Leo learns something about himself 🏳️‍⚧️

Based roughly on this old post.

Bonus:

[Leo is taking the fact that he was born biologically female simultaneously very well and also not so well but overall he’s mostly coping with the fact that it was Draxum that just essentially gave him the turtle equivalent of ‘The Talk’.]

[artkaninchenbau]

People keep on asking for more Baby Robin and Papadile so here is more Baby Robin and Papadile. Now never ask anything from me ever again

[hamletthedane]

Still laughing at Brian May offhandedly writing the greatest understatement in the history of academia in his astrophysics doctoral dissertation:

Ah, yes - “various pressures.” Like being one of the greatest guitarists ever and playing/writing/singing for the most legendary rock band of all time.

Those various pressures.

[mothprincess]

huh. i just thought 'it's ok to not know what the hell is going on when you start learning something new' and it soothed my anxiety significantly

[starry-bi-sky]

don't you want to be a cult leader? - danyal al ghul au

this is mostly a joke post but i thought it was funny and had to share so--

his first mistake was, obviously, inheriting his father's inability to see an injustice and stand still. -- actually, danyal's first mistake was his lair being so big. a mountainous island with a large temple in the center resembling his old home in Nanda Parbat? With sprawling foliage and rivers and streams and waterfalls galore? What was he going to do with all that space? Let it go to waste? He had plants there! Native trees of the ghost zone growing from the soil! He couldn't let it all be left unchecked!

So naturally after helping a fellow teenage assassin ghost -- who he later learns is named Akihiko, -- from Walker of all people, he sent them over to hang low at his lair until it was safe enough for them to wander around the Zone. Walker couldn't get through Danyal's astrofield if his life depended on it, and trust him -- he's tried. Danny was clearing out debris from his stupid transport vans for weeks.

Honestly it wasn't so bad, he and Aki really quickly became fast friends and Danny loves having a sparring partner close to his level again -- he hasn't had this much fun fighting since he left the League. Aki was very dedicated and levelheaded, the both of them clicked really well because of it.

Nonono, the real trouble began after Danyal met some long-passed League members and allowed them to come join his island as well. Apparently they had made a few enemies of the zone, and maybe Danyal still felt some loyalty to the League. He couldn't just let them be left to rot. Their zealotry could be overlooked so long as they kept it contained and helped him take care of his island.

And it.. snowballs from there? He meets a teen squire aptly calling himself Ambroise -- whether that was his living name or not is yet to be seen -- who died during feudal france, who is just about as dramatic and passionate as every french stereotype makes them out to be. He calls Danyal "my moon and great muse" -- which is both flattering and little uncomfortable, but Danyal's grown up in the League as the Grandson of the Demon Head, he is used to mild worship. he passes it off as nothing more, nothing less. -- and while his energy is overwhelming on the worst of days, he helps Danny draw out of his shell more in ways that Sam and Tucker still struggle with.

Him and Aki butt heads a lot, but the two seem to hold the other in at least some positive regard, so Danny doesn't worry too much about them fighting while he's gone. It only becomes a mild issue when Aki also begins calling Danny "my moon". It's a little sweet, so Danyal brushes it off.

Then he takes in a troupe of ghosts some time after he defeats Pariah Dark and they begin calling him "great one" just as the yetis do in the far frozen. This is where he meets the twins -- a pair of sibling ghosts who call themselves Trixie and Missy (short for Trick and Mislead) -- who aren't quite as passionate as Ambroise but more energetic than Aki. Eventually they also start calling Danyal "my moon" and attach themselves to his hip, even within the living. They like to hide in his shadow and cause trouble for the rest of the students. He makes sure they don't hurt anyone.

He's pretty sure Aki is jealous, same with Ambroise, but he can't be too certain other than the fact that they become much more lingering (re: clingy) whenever he visits the island.. Something he's trying to do much more often these days due to the increasing amount of people living there now. Since when did he become so popular?

Then there's Pēnelópeia from the Greater Athens, who ran away from home and joined his Island after he ran into her while she was being chased by Skulker -- and he's pretty sure the reason was because of her chimeric appearance. Her strange eyes and mismatched wings and lion's tail and talons. She assimilates into his friend group very easily, she gets along well with Ambroise and Trixie and Danny usually finds the three of them climbing the trees to pluck the most fruit from the top. They can fly and he knows it, but they prefer to climb.

Then finally there's silent poet Akkara who comes from ancient mesopotamia, who gets along most with Aki -- which is no surprise there considering their similar personality dispositions. he watches Aki and Danyal fight each other and leaves comments on this or that that he notices. He writes Danyal poems on clay tablets and leaves them by his room.

They're one big mismatched group of outcasts, and Danny's got the other ghosts on his island to tend to, because they're living on his island and he wants to be hospitable even if he struggles with that. But he spends the most of his time with them.

Sam and Tucker are making fun of him. Tucker jokingly tells him 'careful Danny, at this rate you're gonna start a cult'. Danny really wishes he had taken that joke more seriously.

He just. keeps. collecting people. Wayward souls lost in the zone, looking for shelter or refuge from something or other -- whether that be another hostile ghost, or a past afterlife, or just a purpose. Danyal finds them, he takes them in, offers them a place on his island until they are ready to leave. Many seldom do. He's not complaining -- he has the space, and it feels like it's only ever growing.

His close friends, his "inner circle" as he's heard the others call them, keep insistently calling him "my moon". He starts calling them his stars, because then it only feels fair. They're his stars, this is his constellation. It becomes a thing; little star halos begin forming behind their heads, picking them out from the rest. He loves them so much, it's hard to place. Sam and Tucker are also his stars, but they reside in the living realm, they're his tie to Life. Meanwhile, his friends here know what it's like to be dead, and sometimes its nice to relate.

Those living on his island keep calling him "Great One" and he's beginning to notice zealotry in their care for his island. He really, deeply appreciates it. His close friends gain nicknames -- as his stars, it's only natural for him to pick them out from the cluster in the skies. Akihiko, his Sirius and bright star. Trix and Missy, Castor and Pollux, the twins and troublemakers. Ambroise, his zealous Antares and close friend. Penelopeia, chimeric and loyal Vega. And Akkara, his Arcturus and strength.

It's ridiculous how long it takes for him to notice; he is, of course, a deadly trained assassin. He is meant to be observant -- and normally he is! But somehow this becomes a blind spot. One that becomes too big to be dealt with by the time he realizes it.

He should've noticed when Aki, his Sirius, stood beside him one day while Danyal looked over his island and saw the sprawling spirits carrying on about their afterlife and bowing to him as they saw him, and said: "I looked down into the depths when I met you; I couldn't measure it." They aren't one for flowing prose, it took him so off guard he was silent for over a minute before he finally spoke.

Danyal should've recognized devotion for what it is, and yet he didn't. He should've recognized it when Antares began spouting praises about him, crowing about his radiance and resplendence to the heavens. He just brushed it off as Ambroise being Ambroise. He should've recognized it when Trix and Missy nearly broke Dash's leg after he knocked Danyal's books out of his hands, he excused it as them being protective. Of them coming from times where such violence may have been customary -- after all, that's what he used to be like. What he was still like, sometimes, when his emotions nearly got the better of him.

He should've noticed it when the people living on his island followed his word like gospel, looked at him like he hung the stars in the sky. When his friends gifted him a shawl with the moon phases delicately embroidered into it, with silver, shimmering thread and moving stars lovingly stitched into it. Their constellations seen clear as day in the dark fabric. When he found small shrines dedicated to him -- but they lacked any image of him beyond stones carved to look like moons, so he ignored it. When the religious imagery began popping up.

He really, really should've noticed it when a bunch of cultists accidentally summoned Antares, and Antares had turned to him when he arrived and called them heretics. But he was so centered on the fact that they had kidnapped one of his stars, that he hadn't paid much attention to what Ambroise had said.

Sages say that faith is blind, they should also say faith in you is even blinder.

It really only hits him one afternoon while he's sitting in Sam's room studying with Tucker, Missy and Trixie lounging at his feet, Aki sat on his right, Penelopeia braiding his hair, Ambroise draped against him, and Akkara lurking over him. Its one of the rare few times they're all in one room together.

It hits him like a bolt of lightning. He looks up from his textbook. "Oh Ancients," he says in no amounting shock. Everyone looks up to him.

"I've become my grandfather."

[soldrawss]

I uh, started this as a little wholesome thing but it QUICKLY got out of hand, anyway part 2 here.

[hinamie]

shows up a day early with a nobara birthday tribute

[rorykillmore]

the other thing that itched at my brain on upon a rewatch was ruth harker's insistence that she did everything she did so that lee be "allowed" to grow up and yet we are surrounded by evidence of stagnation. the hoarding. the fact that she keeps teeth and hair from lee's childhood. the doll, the literal eternal manifestation of lee as a child. and the fact that lee herself is so clearly stunted by this terrible thing that happened to her, BECAUSE she cannot remember it enough to confront it. ruth claims that she is protecting them both but her every action keeps them both steeped in their trauma. and it is very obvious that this movie is about parents who do damage through acts of love and intention to protect but there is something about her actively preserving the memory of her daughter pre-trauma and being unable to connect to the woman she's become that makes me nuts. if there's anyone who's not letting lee grow up, its ruth.

[kelocitta]

Anthro Au Survivor drafts feat. too much worldbuilding because I cant just put pants on a slugcat like a normal person & my godawful handwriting

The Survivor (Their full, scavenger-given name includes the 'The') was separated from their family while traveling between colonies and stranded in the dangerous unpopulated wilds. Against all odds they managed to survive (and wander) far longer than they should have been able, but rather than reconnecting with their (or another) slugcat family, they instead made contact with one of the many wandering scavenger troops- But unfortunately not one that had ever met a slugcat nor had any idea what to make of a stranded one. Regardless the group gave it their best, ended up committing to the role of slugparents, and The Survivor and their troop still consider themselves close family long after Survivor finally reconnected with their sibling. (They're a bit of a mess though, understandably)

[i-cant-get-into-my-other-account]

Like idk but-- something about how Laios is never once portrayed as desirable in the traditional way really gets to me. The entire series is about every kind of desire and how people deal with it, but as for the main character?? Sexually?? Romantically?? Not one single person. (There was that one auxiliary character but she was after his favor as team leader/perceived birth status, though he actually ran away from it all.)

There are even several jokes about how undesirable he is from a sexual/romantic standpoint. And while yes that does have some aroace flavor to it, given that he (in the show/manga anyway) shows no interest in romance or sex himself, so of course he wouldn't try to be appealing that way, I find it comforting from just-- a general standpoint??

Like that an author sat down and wrote a main character that's just plain awkward and unattractive in-universe, noticed, joked about sometimes (after all it is a comedy series), but the character himself is never ever The Joke, Laios is always shown as worth it. Worth watching. Worth knowing.

He's socially inept, the only reason he even shaves and cuts his hair is because he doesn't want to look like his father, he doesn't even care about romance let alone have the skills to be a good partner, and just... so what?? The story never asks us why. He just is.

He's the main character, he's himself. His story is worth telling, screw the love interest sideplot. It's worth seeing through.

He's enough.

[f1shart]

omg happy new year ^^ haha *disappears for an entire month without a word*

i'm sorryy i know i should've said something but i really needed a social media break... like if you look at my previous posts you can see me slowly get more depressed ☠️ but i'm getting therapy! and i caught the flu! that's pretty much all that's new sooo STRANGETOWN

it's not asher f1shart without a bonus... just some guys i drew while i was out NOT tagging everyone i'll die fr

[gcmonsterappreciation]

I think it's funny how trans activists are always like "BuT wHaT aBoUt InFeRtiLe wOmEn?!?". As an infertile (technically sterile) biological woman who had my fallopian tubes removed at 22. I have never once not felt included in any definition of woman? Like wtf are they talking about?

[yuzuria]

acheswan one night stand in a nutshell

[cockyhorror]

[frownyalfred]

thinking about a Damian who was raised his entire life hearing how much he looks like his Father, how he's the blood son, how he's better than any other child Bruce Wayne has taken in, starting to buy into it like a kid does, only to hit puberty and turn out looking like 80% Talia.