#While I do really love Shakespeare I absolutely DO NOT LOVE ROMEO AND JULIET

[sundrop-writes]

i’d love to see the preview of the stiles fic! please & thank u 🤍

I am so excited to post this fic later!!! for now - here is a preview <3

BRAINWASHED (preview) - Stiles Stilinski x Fem!Reader - NOW POSTED

everything's clean - except for my thoughts

Word Count: 900

A/N: The longer fic is about Stiles stealing a pair of the reader's panties and masturbating with them. Currently, I am running a poll where one of the options is a sequel to this fic where the reader 'punishes' Stiles for stealing her panties, so if you want to see more of this, go vote in that poll!!! Also, my requests for Teen Wolf are currently open, but please read my Rules before requesting.

Warnings: reader uses she/her pronouns and has a vagina, the reader is implied to be plus-sized, this is mostly just one-sided pining and fantasizing from Stiles's perspective (which is what the whole fic will be), mentions of Stiles fantasizing about having sex with the reader and giving her oral sex, Stiles has sexual fantasies about the reader and has a romantic crush on her, mentions of Stiles's romantic feeling distracting him from school work. I think that's it for this part of the fic?

...

Tonight, the two of you were studying for an upcoming English mid-term that would be worth a decent portion of your grade. 

Logically, Stiles should have locked himself in his room and forced himself to study, or he should have taken up Scott on his offer to study with him and Allison. But no, he just had to ask you for your ‘help’. And you pitied him and said yes, because he was doing poorly in the class. The only reason being because it was one of the classes that he shared with you, and he spent all of his damn time staring at you across the room during it. He had tried to tell himself that he really would study tonight, that he would really take advantage of your intelligence here and now to get his shit together in order to up his grade. 

But no - since the moment he had set foot in your bedroom that afternoon (and it was dark out now, well into the evening) - he hadn’t been able to focus on anything but you. 

Sure, sometimes that worked to his benefit. Hearing you recite Shakespeare, the words coming off your sweet lips - it did force him to focus on the material at hand for at least a short period of time. But it wasn’t like he was actually retaining any of it. He was just thinking about how gorgeous your voice sounded and how amazing you would be in an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. One where he played Romeo, of course - and he would get to use someone else’s well-crafted words to romance you, finally getting to kiss you for the first time. 

Again - he was hopeless. 

Currently, he was laying diagonally on your bed, sitting among a mess of books - the english textbooks, the assigned novels, the published copies of the play, along with binders of your notes and other notebooks, stray papers - and he couldn’t pay attention to the notes he was supposed to be writing, not for a moment - not when you looked this stunningly beautiful while busy writing your own notes. 

With the soft lighting from your bedside lamp brushing across your skin, making that skin look even softer, you were a goddess-like vision sitting on the bed across from him. You were wearing the simple dress that you had worn to school earlier that day, your tights since shed off in the name of ‘comfort’ (and so that your cat wouldn’t rip holes in them while crawling across your lap, you had remarked to Stiles). When you had stood at your hamper and peeled them off your legs, Stiles had a hard time not letting the drool spill out across his chin. 

Your thighs were gorgeous. Thick, wide, spread out like a buffet for his eyes to feast on every single time you sat down. From his angle, laying down the way he was, he was up close and personal with the dimpling cellulite and stretchmarks you had there. The hem of your dress had ridden up when you had adjusted your position to get comfortable, and he felt absolutely spoiled by how much more of your thighs were revealed. 

A few times throughout the evening, he had to physically clench his fingers to remind himself not to reach out and touch. How many times had he imagined what those thighs would look like bouncing and jiggling while you rode his cock? How many times had he imagined those thighs clamped around his head while he licked your pussy? (Far too many for his own sanity.) 

Not to mention the concentration spread across your face - the way you would nibble your own lip when thinking, the way your brows furrowed slightly in thought. Everything about you - from the bra strap sticking out of the neckline of your dress to the chipped edge of your nail polish where you had chewed on it - was a fucking vision. And Stiles couldn’t take his eyes off you, no matter how hard he tried. 

It was a wonder that you didn’t notice Stiles staring at you - not as often as he did it. 

Stiles felt strangely caught when you put down your pen and looked up from your notebook, then - and he scrambled to grab his own pencil and start writing something, to look busy. But of course, he just looked like more of an idiot when the eraser began scraping across the page in nonsense patterns. 

“Stiles,” You scolded him with a sigh, a way he was used to hearing his name come off your lips. “Have you gotten anything done? I told you to copy down at least half my notes-” 

Of course. You pegged his blank page as simple laziness, rather than his brain slowly melting out through his ears due to his inability to think about anything but you (especially when he was in the same room as you). At least he hadn’t been caught staring at you in that creepy way yet. 

You snatched up his notebook to check his work, and his heart dropped - if you looked too carefully, then he would be caught. In the back of that notebook, there were about three pages of his name and yours in hearts, and a few times he had practiced writing his signature as ‘Mr Stiles L/N’. (He was a feminist, and he liked the idea of starting a new tradition.) There was even a drawing he had made designing your theoretical wedding cake, including a topper where he was Superman and you were riding on his back while he was flying. 

“Y/N, uh-” 

He quickly snatched the notebook back, causing a glare from you while he sighed in defeat. 

“Fine.” He shrugged. “I didn’t get anything done. You caught me.” 

“Stiles!” You scolded him again, reaching out to gently smack his shoulder. “If you keep this shit up, you’re never gonna graduate!” 

Sadly, you were probably right.

[seasonsofcapri]

Seasons of Capri 2023: Cycles & Circles - Masterlist!

Thanks to everyone who participated in the fest this year and made it such a success. Scroll down for the full masterlist, but here's a quick summary of what we did this year:

Fics submitted: 14

Fanart submitted: 3

Total number of words written: over 198,000, including four works in the 10,000-20,000 word range, and three that broke 30,000

We're so grateful to everyone who signed up and made all this incredible art. We couldn't do it without your love for these characters and this fandom! ❤️

And now, here are all of the wonderful creations for this year's fest:

Sexual Intercourse by antivillain

Fic | Damen/Laurent | 2.3k

Damen's healthy enough to engage in sexual intercourse. Laurent is (emotionally) healthy enough to tease Damen mercilessly for being so awkward and uncomfortable discussing the matter with Paschal. Paschal is not paid enough.

Tie Me Down, Set Me Free by @kiseopingu

Fic | 14.3k | Damen/Laurent

When Damen gets hired by his family's sworn rival to help track the man's younger brother, he doesn't expect the road to lead him to familiar places, and familiar faces. As for Laurent, his path to freedom is clear. It's only a matter of creating an opportunity to reach it.

As past and present slowly merge, both Damen and Laurent are forced to contend with their truths, whether they want to or not.

Jokeste’s Journey by @vmcgmidlifecrisis

Fic | Jokaste/OFC | 4.3k

Jokaste travels north, meets (original character) Drifa and gets some sexy fulfilment.

Beautiful, Beloved, Strong by bluehair

Fic | Erasmus/Kallias Erasmus/Torveld | 1.5k

My prompt for The Seasons of Capri Fest 2023 was: "Kallias schemes to save Erasmus with no hope of seeing him again--until one day, he does." Hope I did it justice! Because Kallias really would do anything for love.

Returning by flightinflame

Fic | Damen/Laurent | 2.4k

Damen knew the return to Arles would be hard for Laurent. He had not considered that it would be hard for himself.

The Stand-In Wedding Planner and the Obstinate Baker by penstrikesmidnight

Fic | Damen/Laurent | 2.8k

Auguste's wedding planner has decided to go on vacation a week before his wedding, leaving Laurent, the best man, to make sure everything is taken care of. If that's not enough, Laurent has to deal with an obstinate baker who seems intent on making his job as hard as possible.

There is absolutely no chemistry between them. At all.

Heat by @linecrosser

Art | Auguste/Laurent | Digital

While in the middle of a campaign in Delfeur with his older brother, the Crown Prince of Vere, Laurent goes into his first (late) heat at age 17 (totally triggered by the presence of Damen, the stupidly handsome Crown Prince of Akeilos). There are very few things more dangerous than having an Omega in heat while camping in enemy territory, and it's too late now for suppressants. Leaving Laurent to ride out the heat on his own would mean leaving it last for three days or more. Auguste has no option but to help Laurent through it by himself, so it will last no longer than a couple hours.

Red (like our spilled blood) by @pijulle

Fic | Kastor/Laurent Damen/Laurent Auguste/OFC | 39.6k

Akielos and Vere are at war, but maybe marrying the princess of Vere would help the two country finds a common ground - "The prince!" Auguste shouts. "Laurent is a prince!"

Star Crossed by @hephaest1on

Fic | Damen/Laurent | 35.2k

A story of Laurent Capulet and Damen Montague. A tale based on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, of lovers who suffer because their families are feuding. A modern AU that leans on the themes and actions in Shakespeare's original play and plays on the issues young lovers face in a world where gossip is news.

if only to dream of you by @nv-md

Fic | Damen/Laurent | 2.4k

During negotiations with the Vaskians and Patrans, Laurent falls ill and Damen must leave him to lead their newly-forged kingdom.

After a week of quiet suffering, Damen returns to their bedchambers and attends his husband.

Ruin Your Salvation, Ruin Your Mind by pretend_i_dont_exist

Fic | Damen/Laurent | 10.2k

"I do not understand. I thought we had a truce, so I came here for peace." His voice had grown hard and dangerous. "Why?"

Silence for a moment. "You killed my brother. ------- Laurent has suffered a lot since his brother's death, but he survived to his wedding day, and he's looking forward to a quiet life with a man he appreciates. New life, new him, he decides to invite his brother' killer to the wedding to talk and make peace with himself (by murdering the guy).

In Another Life by @mosrael

Fic | Halvik/Jokaste | 43.8k

Jokaste is the pearl of Ios–beautiful, intelligent, revered–and the consort of the most powerful man in Akielos… Or so she thinks. When her chosen lover’s power is corrupted and usurped by a foreign faction, Jokaste must make the hardest decision of her life: remain in Akielos and meet a perilous fate–one she had a hand in crafting–or flee to seek her future elsewhere.

Or: when getting kidnapped, then kidnapped again turns out to be the best possible thing that could happen to a girl.

antidote by @banananamilks

Fic | Damen/Laurent | 2.7k

Auguste survives Marlas, but Damen still becomes our captive prince. Actually all three princes are kind of the captive prince. oops

Soldier, Poet, King by @bluebutter-art

Art | Damen/Laurent | Digital

Two years after the bells had rung, both Akielos and Vere celebrate the wedding of their two Kings, which coincidentally falls on Vere's Annual Autumn Festival.

Chasing Meridians; Or 26,00 Miles to Home by @not-a-coral-snake

Fic | Damen/Laurent | 17k

Laurent lives a life of quiet routine, until the day a few ill-chosen words, his uncle's malice, and his own inability to back down from a challenge see him wagering half his fortune on an impossible journey to the ends of the earth and back. Happily, or perhaps unhappily, his newly-hired valet is making the journey with him and has plenty of opinions about where they should go, what they should do, and de Vere himself.

An Around the World in Eighty Days au.

At the Drop of a Veil by @seekthemist

Fic | Damen /Laurent | 19.1k

The Battle of Marlas could have brought the relationship between Vere and Akielos to a breaking point, but it didn't. As the peace treaty is finally signed, King Aleron has a very clear idea of how to ensure the agreement is truly felt.

"Since the formal establishment of Vere and Akielos as independent reigns, there had been twelve peace treaties. The Peace of Marlas, signed by King Aleron and Theomedes-Exalted before the beginning of autumn, would be the thirteenth.

The thirteenth peace would not go down in the history of the Kingdom as an abject failure. Not if Laurent could help it."

By the Waterfall by @captaindamianos

Art | Damen/Laurent | Digital

Laurent is the god of winter, Damen is the god of summer. They only ever overlap in spring and fall. Is their love story doomed forever?

Don’t forget to kudos and comment to show our wonderful creators your love!

❤️ your mods!

[spirit-meets-the-b0ne]

After the now infamous deleted GRRM blogpost it felt like a good time to bring up this rant that's been sitting in the back of my drafts for a while now. This is a long one so buckle in.

The adaptation discourse will be so much easier when the fact that an “adaptation” and “inspired by” are accepted as different things. Many of the things being argued as adaptations really end up fitting under “inspired by/based on” more than “adaptation.” The basis of the breakdown lying in “are you adapting for change in medium or are you adopting characters and worlds with new narratives and personalities?” Too often these terms are used interchangeably or amalgamated together.

Because an adaption from text to film should boil down to; okay we may not be able to show this grand explosion or wild fight so we will make it as similar in tone as possible with the right tension and have a choreographer work around our physical limitations. For example, if you tried to make a live action Naruto (which I vehemently condemn for the record) almost every single fight has to be changed because outside of overusing CGI you could simply never display the key moments of those battles. So while the resounding retort of, "aN aDapTatiOn iS nEveR gOinG tO bE a 1:1" is obvious, but that phrase is commonly being used as a blanket response to any and all criticism regardless of how valid the point is.

An inspired by on the contrary CAN deviate from the canon in ways that an adaption should not. Inspired by is categorically like what Disney did with 90s animated movies, they were inspired by myths, folktales and legends but changed to make palatable for young audiences and of course there’s subtextual references (Scar holding the skull as in Hamlet) through out. You would never call them adaptions however. A production inspired by Shakespeare (Lion King inspired by Hamlet) and an adaptation (Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo & Juliet) are inherently different because of this fundamental distinction. Because the adaptation of Romeo & Juliet kept faithfully to not only the themes in a modern setting but Luhrmann being a madman left the play's dialogue unchanged, only the setting and props suited to the new format. Which is the case in point. THAT was an adaptation.

I always come back to it but with Avatar the Last Airbender adaptations are really categorically more suited for the label of “inspired by” because an adaptation doesn’t mean “okay let’s jam 3 separate story lines into one episode” like absolutely NO. If you don’t “have the time” to explore an arc fully then YOU NEED MORE EPISODES. Sokka not wearing Kyoshi makeup and therefore changing the entire dynamic and the entire point of that plot is NOT an adaption, it was something both physically and metaphysically that could and should have happened. Changing a character and their relationships is not adaption, it’s adoption, and listen it’s okay to want to do that. It’s the foundation of fan fiction. And it’s also okay to say, I like the stories as they’re presented because I don’t have a relationship/love for the source. However, the people who do have every right to take issue with the changes, even those you enjoyed.

Whereas the inspired by category gets a lot more leniency with the plot and characters. To go back to the Disney animated films of the 90s, Hercules is one of the cases referenced most often. Of course you can’t make a Greek mythological adaption for children with today’s ratings and restrictions - that was what made them stories to inspire not adapt. It’s why what Rick Riordan did was a great effort and worked to make complex mythology accessible to kids. It’s why tumblr nerds often laugh about the portrayal of Zeus being a faithful and loving husband and Hera being the loving mother of Hercules. In that case of course you have to change those dynamics and principles for the intended audience. Or sometimes inspired by requires you to introduce a different setting and protagonist inspired by a source. Detective Pikachu for example isn’t an Ash Ketchum led live action it’s something completely separate from that universe while following most of the main principles. Similar to the “based on” film/television that might also keep some foundational material but present a new plot or different tone. Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy is a fantastic example of this where the protagonist and antagonists are all familiar and they’re in Gotham City as fans would expect but their stories and relationships might not have been what the audience expected.

All that to be said, when a writer themselves is entering the ring to defend their work from the "adaptation" being put forth with their name on it - it is completely justifiable. GRRM isn't new to television or film, he's been doing this for decades and has worked on projects before, all of which had budgets and production teams to be considered. The other blanket response of "well THE BUDGET" is really fallible because we've seen low budget films pull off incredible results on screen. The reoccurring issue here and in the television media landscape really all doubles back to executives being the downfall. You have calculating business wads who wouldn’t know creativity if it bit them in the ass making creative choices for shows. Most of them being qualified only in business and not in media or entertainment by any other way. This is not exclusive to television we can see cases of this happening in music as well (see Sabrina Carpenters label not wanting to release “Espresso” the arguable song of the summer) when these people are more often than not dead wrong.

GRRM's main focus in the blog post was around Maelor's exclusion which was purported to be a budget/casting issue. To me this is a very fallible excuse. Mainly because, not wanting to cast another toddler when you already aged down the other children is an easy one. A. You could have had used an infant (also would have added more emotional tension in B&C if Haelena was alone holding the baby) because it's pretty easy to interchange infant actors. B. use a doll. I mean this is like elementary but seriously a swaddled baby doll and some sound fx could have been easily done. Still works for later scenes if you have the doll in a crib "sleeping" and that's me accepting a relatively lazy inclusion of Maelor. Considering there's no way to introduce him now after the explicit details of Aegon's dick being destroyed. Some of these changes or mashups of plot points are more than just budgetary issues they’re logic and continuity based issues.

My point being, the very purpose of an adaptation is to take the source material and doing what you can to present the best version of this story to the audience with the tools you are given. There are of course ways this won't mean every single line of dialogue or action is going to be followed to a t. However, if you were going to adapt a recipe let's say, to make it a vegetarian dish - you can swap out the meat for another source of protein or veggies and make the sauce/foundation of the recipe exactly as it's called for but adapt it to your palette or preference. Inspired by is when white people make shit like “lasagna tacos” where you’re like well that’s … nice I guess? But definitely not authentic. Or just ask an Italian chef if you put heavy cream in your Carbonara and watch them start foaming at the mouth.

So while I understand not everyone may agree with GRRM about his response - he is completely justified in doing so, as is anyone else critical of this adaptation. Because it barely adheres to what an adaptation is supposed to be. Some of you may not like that either but this production should have been labeled as "inspired by" or “from the world of” for a lot of reasons considering the liberties they took and omissions they executed. This goes far beyond the scope of this case but I truly applaud George for making a stand and calling out the failures of this production. If I had one more person try to tell me to basically accept shitty adaptations for the sake of them being adaptations I was going to start screaming at the sky. If you're one of the people that likes the changes to HoTD or ATLA or Witcher then god bless I'm happy you have that but the suggestion that fans of the source material are supposed to shut up and accept them is asinine. Discounting the majority of a fanbase is grossly disrespectful and dismissing their criticisms is truly unjustifiable. When an author has to throw their hat in the ring to explain this it's time to look at the bigger picture. He nailed it in a previous blog post:

it does not seem to matter whether the source material was written by Stan Lee, Charles Dickens, Ian Fleming, Roald Dahl, Ursula K. Le Guin, J.R.R. Tolkien, Mark Twain, Raymond Chandler, Jane Austen, or… well, anyone.   No matter how major a writer it is, no matter how great the book, there always seems to be someone on hand who thinks he can do better, eager to take the story and “improve” on it.   “The book is the book, the film is the film,” they will tell you, as if they were saying something profound.   Then they make the story their own. They never make it better, though.   Nine hundred ninety-nine times out of a thousand, they make it worse. (x)

Not to sound like a Boomer but making a story your own is not an adaptation. It just isn't. If you aren't clever or creative enough (*cough* Ryan C*ndal *cough*) to make an original work I personally do not see any validity in taking someone else's work and implementing your own artistic choices that fundamentally contradict the source material. Unless you want to call it something else. I have no problem with taking a concept and reinventing the story ie: Kurt Sutter basing Sons of Anarchy loosely on Hamlet or Diablo Cody's Lisa Frankenstein. I actually rather enjoy re-imagined stories whether they be parodies or more creative interpretations. Those are all well and good. Not to be mischaracterized as adaptations tho.

"Adaptations" and "inspired by" works can and should coexist but there needs to be a clear distinction to the production teams and audiences respectively.

While some people have had negative responses to George's post, on the website flooded with creators whether they make art or write, I find it rather a suspiring reaction. It's an odd position to take even if the justification is that he sold the material - how many of you wouldn't take that opportunity? Who wouldn't want a major media corporation to offer to adapt your work. Shit, I would sell my work for pennies on the dollar to see a television show produced from it. That being said, I would be devastated beyond belief if the changes that I never accepted or approved were implemented and put out there under the name of my work. So whether it be from the point of view as a fan or an author I simply cannot subscribe to the notion that disappointing adaptations are in and of themselves a compliment undeserving of criticism. Nor can I accept some of the television productions being marketed as "adaptation" when they're categorically "inspired by" in nature. If that distinction was acknowledged I could at least justify some of the changes we’ve seen and dismiss book purists as well, but as the show is purported to be an adaptation I cannot see this as a success. It fails in ways an adaptation would not, for reasons that frankly have more holes in them than Swiss cheese. George deserves better and the fans deserve better.

[aziraphales-library]

Hello! Thank your for your service 🫡 it’s really appreciated 🫶

Is there any Romeo and Juliet AU? I would looove to read one!

Have a nice dayyy

Hi. I'm not aware of an out-and-out AU, but here are some fics featuring or referencing Romeo and Juliet...

if i profane by Waywarder (T)

“I think I’d like to be in a play someday,” Aziraphale pivoted. “Oh, it must be absolutely thrilling.” “How’s that?” “Oh, I don’t pretend to really know,” Aziraphale went on, brightening a little. “But I imagine that it must feel quite freeing to lose oneself in a character. To get to live inside romantic, beautiful stories, if only for a moment. To simply do whatever the poetry tells you to do.” And a positively terrible idea crept into Crowley’s head. After their sixth showing of Romeo & Juliet, Aziraphale and Crowley drink and argue about the play and, eventually, Crowley comes up with an idea.

Arms, take your last embrace by stormsonjupiter (T)

Alternate Universe: What if Crowley hadn't used his holy water by the time he though Aziraphale was dead? Would he use it on himself? This is my version of Az/Crow's Romeo and Juliet suicide scene. TW: suicide.

Oh speak again, bright angel by HolyCatsAndRabbits (G)

Happy Good Omens Celebration, everyone! This fic ties in with the GOC prompt “Contrast.” Written to go with this amazing art by Selene-yoshi-chan, which was a DTIYS by PinkPiggy93. Selene gave me a run-down of their thoughts about this piece, and I wrote the fic from those.

A Pair of Star-Cross’d Lovers by Libbyfay (T)

They attend the opening performance of Romeo and Juliet, and it hits a little too close to home. -- It all starts out so innocently, “palm to palm” in the first act. Then, it’s nothing but a torturous, slow descent toward heartbreak and oblivion. Aziraphale could see the writing on the wall, and he refused the fate which was playing out before them. Unfortunately, Crowley wasn’t going to understand, and simply could not be trusted to keep himself in check. The soft-hearted demon sniffling at his side was nothing but a liability. It was all going to be up to him.

Paradise Regained by ThetaSigma (T)

Wouldn’t it be nice, Aziraphale thought, if they could be on the same side finally? But of course demons couldn’t unfall. It was silly to wish for that. And rather dangerous, since thinking that a demon might unfall and become Heavenly again was tantamount to saying that God had erred and that demons could be redeemed. And things like that led to falls. Aziraphale froze. He could Fall. Crowley couldn’t rejoin Heaven, but Aziraphale could Fall from Heaven and become a demon, and then they would be on the same side. **** or, A showing of Romeo and Juliet leads Aziraphale to consider Falling.

Hell is Empty, All the Demons (and One Angel) are in Verona by Lost_Stories (M)

"Gloomily, Crowley swirled the red liquid in the cup in front of him and looked up to the other side of the tavern. There, just out of earshot, sat Aziraphale and Will. He scoffed. Not only was he having a bad day, Aziraphale and Will seemed to be having an entirely too good one. Aziraphale’s cheeks were a (beautiful) shade of red as he leaned close to Will, hand resting on his arm. He was clearly drunk, and Crowley would love to grab that tankard of wine from Will’s hands and throw it out the window. If looks could kill, William Shakespeare would never write another play..." One night when William Shakespeare gets drunk in a tavern while he's stuck on his writing, Crowley and Aziraphale tell him the story of Verona, with which they were much more involved than anyone would be able to tell from the story today...

- Mod D

[fiercynn]

too wise to woo peaceably (bad buddy + much ado about nothing)

i was talking recently with @ranchthoughts about our feelings about bad buddy and theatre, and i was reminded of how the wonderful @ryfkah once wrote on dreamwidth about the parallels between patpran and beatrice & benedick from much ado about nothing! much ado is absolutely my favorite shakespeare play, so ryfkah’s comparisons have lived in my head rent-free since they made their post a year and a half ago:

I actually want to switch gears from Romeo & Juliet and talk a little instead about Beatrice and Benedick. Pat & Pran do not have the exact energy but are definitely B&B-adjacent -- first of all, in that all the habitual patterns of their interactions are set firmly to Bickering and Bravado, but second and more important in that the bickering and bravado already have a huge weight of feeling and history behind them at the time that we enter the narrative. This is the thing, I think, that a lot of other variants on this style of snappy, outwardly antagonistic God I Hate That Person [I Do Not Hate That Person] miss: what makes Beatrice & Benedick work is that we have enough glimpses of context from the dialogue to know that they know each other extremely well, they've cared about each other in the past, and no matter how much they argue they do in fact still care about each other enormously in the present. Likewise, the thing that makes Bad Buddy really fun, for me, is that the events of the show absolutely do not depict not the first time that Pat and Pran have gone from rivalry through cahootship to the realization that they are not only required by circumstance to be obsessed with each other but actually genuinely like each other as people -- this has all happened before, and ended badly. The show begins right after the only period of their life that they've spent not defining themselves against each other, so when they meet once again in a position of nonsense forced rivalship the tension between them has a really different weight to it: Pat is like 'hey, we missed our shot last time but we can do a speedrun! we have a chance to do this again! :D' while Pran, significantly more self-aware about the fact that what they achieved on the last go-round was not just Unfortunately Thwarted Friendship but Powerful Homoerotic Tension with a side of Miserable Romantic Pining, is like 'god I cannot believe that we are here again, constructing intricate rituals AGAIN.' [x]

which gave me a lot of thoughts as well! putting below the cut since it gets a little long.

building off ryfkah's post: one of the things people either seem to love or hate about much ado is its massive tonal shift in the middle. the play starts off with pure shenanigans – battle-of-the-wits banter, using a masquerade ball to pretend to be other people, “let’s try and match-make our friends who hate each other by having them ‘overhear’ conversations about how the other is in love with them!” – classic comedy stuff. and then you get to claudio and hero’s wedding and everything goes to shit.

the interesting thing is that the impact of the shenanigans isn’t negated by the dramatic shift – beatrice and benedick are still, technically, “tricked” into confessing to each other, because each of them goes into their confession thinking the other is already pining away for them. but their confessions happen in a scene where the stakes have been raised already: beatrice is furious about at the defamation of her cousin by claudio and hero’s subsequent heartbreak. beatrice and benedick’s banter falls away, not only into expressing their love, but with beatrice’s conviction, stated plainly, that benedick should kill his best friend. and benedick, though conflicted, agrees to challenge claudio unless he recants the insult he’s done to hero, because beatrice has asked it of him. when performed well, it’s an incredibly raw and impactful scene, and one that always sticks with me. and there's a sense that the trickery by their friends operates mostly as a cover for them to say out loud what they've already been feeling – both the good and bad parts of that, the love and the pain, the confessions and the demands. people who were truly tricked into loving each other by shenanigans wouldn't be this honest with each other at this point, and wouldn't go this far.

i'm not going to claim that there are super direct plot parallels between bad buddy and much ado, and obviously the stakes and level of gravity are very different, but i do get some similar feelings watching both? especially when rewatching the beginning and remembering how silly it is, which i think is absolutely intentional just as it is in much ado. because then, when bad buddy allows pat and pran to reveal their deep connection by letting the banter fall away – when things get serious enough between them that they’re taken out of their “nonsense forced rivalship”, as ryfkah says – it hits even harder.

i'm thinking of pat saying, “i don’t like it. i hate to see you play [the song] with someone else,” on the rooftop, and the way that pran’s been playing their usual game in that conversation thus far, using sarcasm and indifference as his defense, until pat’s honesty makes his expression shift into pain, before he responds in kind with, “pat, you’ve got to stop doing to me.” (@ranchthoughts and @dudeyuri talk beautifully and in-depth about those two lines here.) and again, in episode 6, on the first night of the architecture volunteer trip: pat’s been playing all day, trying to goad pran into talking to him, but when it’s just the two of them on the beach in the dark, pat says, “we’re talking now?”, the hurt clear in his voice, and pran’s face changes again, because he gets out serious pat is now.

and then, of course, we get back to shenanigans soon enough, because those intricate rituals that they build together are important to them: that’s how they talk to each other, and how they have fun together, and the fun is just as crucial to their relationship as the heartfelt moments when they can be there for each other. the second half of bad buddy is so enjoyable to watch because we get to see how their dynamic doesn’t change after they get together, which is a confirmation that they always had a deep and meaningful relationship, even when it was mostly expressed through banter: they just get to say more of it out loud now, when they need to. extremely beatrice and benedick-coded tbh.

[eldritch-blasted-bagels]

Excuse my brain rot and the fact that I was a theatre kid BUT-

What Shakespearean Monologue I Want to See Each BG3 Companion Perform

Wyll

“O Soft, What Light Through Yonder Window Breaks” from Romeo and Juliet

Of course. There is no other option.

This man is a hopeless romantic and, I adore him, would not get the point of the play but would have so much fun playing Romeo.

Everyone in the cast would also be hopelessly in love with him.

(Bonus) “Once More Upon the Breech!” from Henry V

Oh this man would KILL this monologue. The battle cry? The rousing of his men against an impossible task? It’s what he was made to do, it’s what the character was built for.

Equal and opposite to how he’d absolutely slay as Romeo, he would make an amazing Henry.

Karlach

“O, Then I See Queen Mab Hath Been With You” from Romeo and Juliet

I almost, almost gave this to Astarion because I think he could also do it justice, but he already had two monologues.

Just… love u Karlach you can say whatever nonsense and I will nod along. Also absolutely ragging on your friend and getting carried away in the bit feels very in character for her.

I feel like she doesn’t really do acting but she would come support her friend’s productions however she could.

Astarion

“To Be Or Not To Be” from Hamlet

Hear me out; I think it would either be so over dramatic or the best damn rendition you’ve ever heard.

Contemplation of mortality, pain, existence? Astarion is at his best when he’s having an existential crisis.

This man was also just built to play Hamlet. You could replace this with “‘Tis now the very witching hour of night,” “O, that this too too sullied flesh would melt” Or any of his soliloquies and what I said still goes.

(Bonus) “Dost Thou Not Suspect My Place?” from Much Ado About Nothing

This is one of the best comedic monologues Shakespeare has to offer and I won’t be told otherwise

Specifically based on the line of Dogberry describing himself as a tasty piece of flesh while also being Dogberry and flouncing about, being hysterical, because someone called him an ass.

(Bonus 2) (Sorry this man is very Shakespeare coded) He would be such a good Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Just a little shit.

Gale

“O, She Misused Me Past the Endurance of a Block!” From Much Ado About Nothing

Just as I think Astarion was built to play Hamlet, Gale was built to play Benedick.

He’s just enough of an ass but also fucking comedic enough to pull this off and make it hysterical. Like Benedick, he also just keeps talking.

(Bonus) Lear’s Storm Monologues

I think at his worst, Gale could do Lear some fuckin justice in his performance of that specific piece, and that slow descent into madness.

Lae’zel

“I Would Eat His Heart In The Marketplace” from Much Ado About Nothing

It’s a take I’m so here for and I think she’d get really into scolding Benedick for being a dishonorable coward.

Just think about the potential delivery of “Oh! If I were a man! I’d eat his heart in the marketplace!” gives me chills.

I don’t ship Lae’zel and Gale necessarily but I think if you put them in a production of Much Ado together it would be cemented as a bar-standard production.

Shadowheart

“O What a Noble Mind Been O’erthrown” from Hamlet

She kins Ophelia and you can’t tell me otherwise. Also specifically, in this, the context of being used as a pawn by everyone in her life feels appropriate.

(Bonus) Let her play Joan of Arc in Henry VI. I don’t know why she’s so Joan of Arc coded in my brain but let her do it.

Halesin

“All the World’s a Stage” from As You Like It

This one is the one I’m least confident about but the world-weary and worn nature that it can take on feels very Halesin and I think he would do a performance in such a way that it sends you spiraling into an existential crisis.

(Bonus) Minthara

“And Dash’d the Brains Out!” from Macbeth

Again, I just think Minthara would kill as Lady Macbeth.

But, I don’t think “Out damn spot” would be where she shined; I think these moments of absolute murder and ambition would.

Also inspired by the production (in DC I think?) where they had to cut Lady Macbeth literally smashing a baby doll on rocks during this monologue because the audience found it too disturbing.

[raayllum]

What do you think of tdp's rating potentially changing for s6? Personally I'm all for it because I'm on the younger side of the fandom (not a minor but I definitely was when I started the show) and it's nice that the show is growing with me, but I've heard complaints that the increasing darkness doesn't fit well with some of tdp's less mature aspects/humor. One of my favorite artists dropped the show because of it, which is a little disheartening since I thought s5 was absolutely amazing.

Honestly I thought S3 was pushing the lid on Y7 with some of the final ep violence / some elements of the Aaravos-Viren-dark magic body horror, so I think realistically S4 (because of the Ibis scene) and s5 (gestures to - half the season) should absolutely be rated PG. Y7 tv shows tend to get away with a lot more than G-rated films (at least since the mid 2000s I think) so I think that skews stuff as well.

As for the humour, even when it doesn't work for me (personally S1, S5, and S4 have had the best humour for me) it's almost all character based so I give it a pass. Like soo many people acted like the goofiness in S4 or fart jokes were baseless / a personal offense, but 1) Claudia's always had bathroom humour and while it's never been something I found funny, I appreciated it for its character consistency and that a girl gets the gross out humour at all bc we just don't see that a lot, and 2) teens and adolescents make bad jokes all the time. I make fart jokes all the time. I don't really want 'em in my media, but I do think they're funny, and I like that the characters in my media think they're funny because yeah... Bad puns, stupid jokes, being ridiculous with your friends, even or especially in times of crisis - sounds pretty grounded in realism to me.

I think part of the disconnect people have with humour (and less 'mature' humour, which - my favourite Shakespeare joke is the "do you bite your thumb at me sir" from Romeo and Juliet which shows my 'maturity' level when it comes to laughs, lmao) vs the rest of the show is... People outside of the age demographic being unwilling to accept that they're outside of the age demographic. Like drop TDP for any reason you want, of course, but

It's like - I didn't love the episodes in She-ra about "learning how to be a good friend," but I'd be dumb if I genuinely complained about it because this show is For Kids and it's catering to them first and foremost. It's not supposed to cater all parts of itself to my age demographic, nevermind my taste and no art does that, even stuff that is for my age demographic because it's an unrealistic choice to put on media. TDP is a little different since they've gone on record stating that its for Families, so that warrants something a little more 'mature' by proxy (and I very much think the show reflects that) but like - it's for families, and that means reflecting all those elements, too. Including humour (some for adults, some for tweens/teens/etc).

TLDR; emotionally scared because I love all the kiddos but very glad overall about the rating change, cause I'd rather people be warned ahead of time / be able to make informed choices about what they want to watch / consume.

[checkoutmybookshelf]

"You're a 15-Year-Old in a Bespoke Suit and Nobody Died!"

Well...it wasn't quite that nobody died, Angeline (honestly it's a miracle that Holly doesn't have a complex about beloved CO/mentors dying on her watch), but based on Artemis's reaction to you buying him jeans and a t-shirt, it's fair to say that we might need to recalibrate expectations. Let's talk Artemis Fowl and the Atlantis Complex.

If this is your first time with us, please be aware that THIS IS A SPOILERIFIC ZONE below the break!

Headings worked so well for me the last time that we're going to keep going with them here, because there is a lot to talk about for this book!

Turnball Root

They say that every good villain is the hero of their own story. You flip the perspective on Turnball's story, and it's a twisted version of Romeo and Juliet surviving to become Anthony and Cleopatra. Just with more black magic runes.

Turnball makes me so, so sad as an antagonist, because you don't fall in love and enthrall the object of your affection while hanging on to the signs of your glory days if you have any level of self-worth and self-respect. Opal Koboi revels in her own inflated sense of self-worth, but everything about Turnball screams that he has some deep unresolved issues with himself as a person. That makes it really hard to enjoy him as a villain the same way I enjoy Opal, but I appreciate the nuance and weight and depth to his character that the massive red flags herald. If something had gone just a little bit different, if Turnball had been confident in his worth and his value, he could have been much more like his little brother. Julius Root was not perfect, but self-worth was not an issue he dealt with.

Artemis says it himself at the end of the book: Nobody wins when Turnball is "defeated." Anthony and Cleopatra have died by their own hands, and neither Rome nor Egypt are better for it.

Leonore talking Turnball down and basically saying he can help her or stop her is also heartbreaking, because it's so, so clear that she would have loved him without the thrall rune and--again--if Turnball had had the confidence to let her love him on her own, they could have been happy without the evil schemes and separation while Turnball was in jail. Leonore doesn't get a whole lot of character development in her own right, which makes sense for a middle-grade/YA-ish book that just doesn't have the space to develop yet another secondary character, but she's compelling in the sketch we do get, and I believe that Turnball would actually throw everything over for her. His last words in the book are in service to Leonore and Leonore's well-being as he helps her. He couldn't have done anything else, and that choice says so, so much about what could have been.

For me, Turnball is ultimately a tragic figure who was covering his own insecurities and self-loathing with sheer drama and villainy. He absolutely does bad things, and I'd even go so far as to say that he's a bad guy, but the tragedy is that he simply did not have to be.

The Atlantis Complex: Artemis and Orion

Ok, so my book is literally about representations of physical and mental disability in Shakespeare, but this freaking book manages to be more nuanced and more real in terms of the fact that mental health is COMPLICATED. Experiencing it is complicated. People's reactions to signs and symptoms of mental illness is complicated (and often objectively ableist and shitty). Everyone involved is often trying their best, and often it's just not enough. Sometimes it is.

While I was conceptualizing this review, I spent so much time going back and forth on minutiae: What was a positive representation, what was a negative representation, who said what and was it hurtful or not, the nuances of having symptoms in life-or-death situations. It got to the point where I could have written an entire post just about this, but then it occurred to me: I don't have to do that, because if I'm going back and forth this much and if there is so much evidence for both positive and negative representation, then the book isn't trying to do one or the other: it's simply allowing Artemis's mental illness to exist in the story. Which is MIND BOGGLING since so many stories--if they deign to mention disability at all--make the disability the whole thing. Frankly, Colfer pulled off a story where Artemis experiencing psychosis during a life-or-death situation was just...part of the story. It wasn't the main focus, it didn't warp the rest of the world and the plot around it, and it acknowledged the complicated peice where it can be both a help and a detriment in the situation.

Basically, it was allowed to be messy. And it was allowed to be complicated. And it was allowed to be emotional. But nothing derailed the plot.

There was also something really interesting that I'm not going to articulate terribly well here because I'm still processing it, but I want to at least nod to it. In terms of negative and harmful stereotypes about mental illness, Colfer manages to do this thing where he acknowledges that they exist, and there are moments where characters lean into them, but almost as soon as they do, another character pops up to call bullshit on it. For example, at one point Foaly makes a (totally in-character) crack about Dr. J. Argon strapping Artemis into "the crazy chair," and then immediately calls himself out on having said something absolutely shitty. "Crazy" is an ableist term, but it gets tossed around all the time in the real world. For Foaly to make the crack and then immediately walk it back isn't something you see often, but I think showing the crack, immediate self-correct, and then improved behavior going forward is critical. Humans are imperfect, but to self-correct and change for the better is important, and showing that is rare and I really appreciate it.

Ok, I'm going to stop ramling in circles about something I'm still processing, and move on to talking about Orion. I'm going to treat Orion as a separate character here, partly because the book does and partly because I am a) not an expert in mental illnesses and b) do not personally experience any and I don't want to speak from experience I don't possess. What I do want to say is that writing Orion as a blatant charicature of a fantasy medieval hero is AMAZING and HILARIOUS and holy cow I loved it so much. The contrast with Artemis is excellent, and the fact that ORION took Butler's lessons to heart was fabulous.

Artemis and Angeline

The other amazing relationship in this book is Artemis and an Angeline who knows exactly what Artemis's deal is. Between telling Artemis that girls are frightened of him because he's "a 15-year-old in a bespoke suit and nobody died" and her insistence on him spending at least two days a week in the jeans and t-shirt she's bought him, Angeline is absolutely fabulous.

Artemis and the Butlers

Oh Butler...dear heart, you get done so dirty by the son of your heart in this book. You were hired to be a bodyguard and what Artemis needs more than anything in this book is mental health support. You've done well with his mental health so far, but this is so, so far outside your wheelhouse. And then Artemis is one of perhaps three people on earth who know how to actually hurt you, and he DOES. He pushes you away, he invents a threat to Juliet, and then worst of all, he takes away your trust in him. Butler needs therapy almost as much as Artemis does in this book, and it's just crushing to see their relationship take this pounding. When the bullet is your principle's brain, a bodyguard cannot stand between bullet and principle.

On top of all that, Butler has to make the phonecall to Angeline explaining that Artemis has Atlantis Complex. That is one of the worst possible phonecalls to make, but he does it and he does it with grace and compassion. Domovoi Butler is objectively too good for this world.

Juliet Butler is out here living her best life, and frankly we love her for that. She's loving the hell out of her professional wrestling career, and she's found her own feet to stand on, not only with Butler but also with Artemis. She quite rightfully calls out his bullshit a couple of times, which is just delightful. She marries the girly/feminine stuff with the totally badass (and traditionally coded masculine) beautifully in a way that finds joy in both. So many "strong female characters" are strong because they reject everything girly/feminine, but Juliet gets BOTH. It's my favorite thing.

And her match against a dickhead gnome at the end is A+ no notes.

Holly and That One Time She Dated Her CO???

Ok, so I don't actually have a whole ton to say about this except...OMG OMG OMG HOLLY AND TROUBLE WENT ON A DATE!!!!! Which has to be immediately followed up with "Is this how Holly's complex around beloved and respected commanding officers dying horribly on her watch manifests?" And then naturally we have to side eye the absolute hell out of Trouble Kelp because dating subordinates has got to violate workplace ethics. Not that either Holly or Trouble have a great relationship with the rulebook, but Trouble is in charge now, so....Broski. Meet rulebook.

Now, all of that said...I am so mad that this date happened off-page. I would have killed to see it. Especially if Grub showed up at any point in the evening.

Finally: Artemis asking if Holly and Trouble have any plans to bivouac in the near future is INCREDIBLE and deserves both a slow clap and a slap.

A Brief Moment to Hate on Ark Sool

Ark Goddamn Sool full-on went to the dark side. He is MERC-ING for Turnball Root. He doesn't even have the scrap of integrity or loyalty to join the crew properly, he's in it for the goddamn money. We HATE Ark Sool. So. Freaking. Much.

Butler crushing him to death is better than he deserves, but it is IMMENSELY satisfying.

Concluding Thoughts

Overall, I have a lot of affection for this entry in the Artemis Fowl series. It has a complexity and a humor to it that I actually don't think any other book in the series has ("I'm the nut!" anyone?). It does sort of bring the arc of the series as a whole to a grinding halt to have a tragedy about Turnball Root and give Artemis Atlantis Complex, but I'm not mad about it. There is some really damn good character work here, and it paces quickly enough that the book really rocks on by as you read.

[cornyregans]

Hey, glad to see you back. I absolutely loved your essay about Hermia, I also had always assumed that she had a weird placement within the Capp family. It's a shame, that they changed her, cause I loved her as Regan's daughter... (Also that Avril-esque outfit in her wardrobe kinda mirrors the Regan's one in color pattern. (I assume it's Hermia's since it suits her style better than Juliette's.)) So, what do you think about Miranda as in-game character? It seems like that she was intended to be a child/toddler, who's even younger than Hal and Desdemona, before they removed Tybalt as Goneril's eldest and placed her in that position instead. To me it felt like that in-game Miranda that we know was made of scraps of what Hermia supposed to be at first, down to her crush to Mercutio. Since Regan and Cornwall are not Hermia's parents anymore, she doesn't have to be a rebel then, so Miranda overtook that role instead. Also, thank you for your VV essays, this hood definetly deserves a better treatment! :))

Hi! It's good to be back! I'm glad you liked the essay, it's one I've been working and sitting on for years, but I only just found the right words to finish it.

Also, I added a read more to my response because this got long.

Tbh, I didn't really think much of Hermia's placement until I came across Cornwall's French biography in 2018. Until then, I thought her place as Juliette's sister was so she could better serve as a parallel to the nurse from Romeo & Juliet. Much like the nurse, Hermia is implied to be Juliette's confidante when it comes to the latter's relationship with Romeo. This is most obviously seen in the neighborhood album, where Juliette is gossiping about Romeo with Hermia, especially since Juliette's interaction is paused during the shushing animation. Beyond that, Juliette and Hermia are also best friends, which also mirrors just how close Juliet was to her nurse.

Once I was made aware of the leftovers, I realized that we could have had another Shakespeare reference, but alas. It definitely would have been fun to have Hermia as Regan's daughter, but I'm also fine with what we got. That said, it's mostly because it allows for a copious amount of headcanons that I can implement in my own narrative. I've already covered some of them in my playthroughs, but it has since gone much deeper than that.

I had completely forgotten about the Avril cosplay in Hermia's wardrobe, mostly because I've been using default replacements for years. If it's the outfit and recolor I think it is, I definitely see the connection.

As for Miranda, I can't say for sure whether she was intended to be younger than Hal and Desdemona. It's definitely possible, given Albany's memories, but both Consort (the first sim created for the neighborhood) and Goneril remember her being older than the two. As for the Tybalt initially being Goneril and Albany's eldest child, it's another possibility, but it makes me wonder about how Consort's memories list Miranda as being born first. If that was indeed the case during development, then it stands to reason that Tybalt's age bar might have altered following his relocation in the family tree.

When it comes to Miranda's crush on Mercutio, I don't think it was left over from Hermia's earlier role. Miranda having a crush on Mercutio largely echoes the Shakespeare iteration's romance arc in The Tempest. In that play, Miranda's love interest, Ferdinand, is the son of a man who assisted in usurping her father's throne. While not an exact match, I find that this parallels quite nicely with her crush on a member of the Monty family; furthermore, it allows the devs to somewhat replicate the AMSND love quadrangle in their game.

It's possible that the Miranda we know was made from scraps of who Hermia was meant to be. That said, I find that her final version lines up too well with Shakespeare for it to be mere coincidence. Much like Hermia in AMSND, Miranda's romance arc is not without pushback from her father, the only difference being that she doesn't know that Prospero doesn't actually oppose the match. Not to mention, her liking Mercutio, who likes Hermia, lines up very well with the aforementioned love quadrangle.

Thank you so much for the ask! I definitely agree that Veronaville deserves more love, but then again, I'm also someone whose interests line up very well with the neighborhood. XD

[swagcoolcat]

I’m making another Cassidy and Seymour post because I’m obsessed with them :)

(In case don’t know what I’m talking about)

First off, my friend came up with the ship name idea of musicalgeeks, and I really like it, so I’m gonna start tagging posts about them with that (as well as stagedorks)!

Second off, I have some headcanons for you :)

(Feel free to add your own in the notes! I love hearing from everyone about these two!)

This starts in their senior year of high school

Seymour is the first one to realize he’s trans and talk about it

Seymour also goes from she/her to he/they to he/him

Cass realizes she’s trans because Seymour kind of presents that as an option

She’s super in denial though until she impulsively asks to try on one of Seymour’s dresses or skirts and is shocked to find how right wearing it feels

Their first couple’s costumes out are based off of the characters they named themselves after

Seymour has a pretty similar style once he looks enough like a boy in his eyes because he likes dressing femininely as long as he’s not perceived as a girl.

Seymour also loves overalls

Cass also dresses more femininely

Seymour doesn’t bind, because while he doesn’t like his chest, binding makes him more dysphoric because he feels it makes his chest look more obvious

While Seymour is the first to come out, Cass is the first to start HRT

By the time they’re starting HRT they’re definitely in college and share an apartment

Cass hates needles, but hates pills more (for obvious reasons), so decides to do injections, as long as Seymour is willing to help

(He is)

Seymour plays Romeo at some point after his transition and jokes constantly that he loves Shakespeare so much he played Romeo and Juliet

Cass absolutely loves when Seymour braids her hair

Their friends are very supportive of their transitions

So are their families

They of course live happily ever after

Seymour cuts his hair short

Seymour doesn’t fully vibe with the term “man”

Like Seymour is a boy and a dude and a guy but he’s not a man

(He’s not a trans man but he is transmasculine)

Cass loves the term girlfriend

Seymour likes both boyfriend and partner

Cass uses she/they pronouns

That’s all I have for now, but I will post more if I have it!

[cupidsbower]

Festivids 2023 reeeecs

What a great year it's been for festivids. There are some stonkingly good vids!

Here is the Masterlist. As always, my recs below are just those I liked most, but there are a lot of other fab vids that are worth a watch as well.

I made six vids this year. A bit astonishing really. I think three of them are really obviously by me, but the rest maybe not so much. Anyway, if you can guess, the guessing post is here: Guess the Vidder.

Two fantastic vids were gifted to me:

Fireflies - Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (2021) - Gen

I watched this movie on a whim one day, and it was sweet and genuine and funny and I loved it way more than I thought I would. This vid captures that perfectly. It's a delight.

Been Caught Stealing - Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023) - Gen

This has everything you could want from a D&D vid: it's action-packed, funny, and captures the chaotic energy of the movie really well.

Highly Recommended

And Do It Again - 开端 | Reset (TV 2022) - Teen

Fantastic time-loop vid, which ramps up the tension in the most delightful way.

I'm Gonna Make You Love Me - Christine (1983) - Teen

Christine is the perfect girlfriend. Such a creepy-great premise.

I'm That Queer - Janelle Monáe Music Videos - Teen

Spectacular, surreal, gorgeously edited.

Les Fleurs - Gake no Ue no Ponyo | Ponyo - Gen

This is so lush and dramatic, and sweeps you along in the best way.

a vulture feeds upon that heart forever - Moby Dick - Herman Melville - Mature

All the Moby Dick vids are great - who knew it would be the power fandom of the fest? But while they are all worth a watch, this one is my fave. The soundtrack is lush, and the visuals are over the top, and full of drama. The sources are mixed so beautifully.

Here it Goes Again - Moby Dick - Herman Melville - Teen

This is also a spectacular multi-source feast for the eyes.

Everything I Do - Cocaine Bear (2023) - Teen

LOL. This is just exactly what it sounds like, edited to absolute perfection. The joke couldn't be better executed.

Do What I Do - Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023) - Teen

Wonderful character study of Holga.

Tusk - The Silence of the Lambs (1991) - Mature

Clarice is showcased to her best here, and it's gripping.

magnetic - Romeo+Juliet (1996) - Teen

Mercutio vid and it's so much fun!

Recommended

Hard Times - Star Trek: Lower Decks (Cartoon) - Teen

Flirting & Fighting - 新龍門客棧 | Dragon Inn (1992) - Teen

The Only Way to See - Amaury Guichon - Fandom - Gen

Nothing in My Head - Dropout TV RPF - Gen

Feel Better - Silo (TV) - Teen

The Eye of the Tiger - RRR (2022) - Teen

satisfaction - The Quick and the Dead (1995) - Teen

Disaster Party - Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023) - Gen

How to make a perfect Hanukkah movie… - Hallmark Movies - Gen

Uja - Slash/Back (2022) - Teen

Didn't Come to Play - Women's sprinting - Gen

The Shape of You - The Pirate (1948) - Gen

The Adventures of Priscilla, Dancing Queen of the Desert - The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert (1994) - Teen

#teamwhale - Moby Dick - Herman Melville - Gen

Queequeg and I - Moby Dick - Herman Melville - Teen

Boys Keep Swinging - As You Like It - Shakespeare - Gen

Dream Girl Evil - Last Night in Soho (2021) - Explicit

Cat Apostle, Conqueror of Asthma, Chosen One Of The Light - 开端 | Reset (TV 2022) - Gen

Andor: Come Forth Now - Andor (TV) - Gen

Bad Reputation - For All Mankind (TV 2019) - Gen

put on a show - The Wheel of Time (TV) - Teen

Upside Down - The Woman King (2022) - Teen

Always On My Mind - Strange Way Of Life (Short Film 2023) - Teen

Trust+Fall - Romeo+Juliet (1996) - Teen

[readnburied]

13 Thoughts I had while Reading “These Violent Delights”

So I read These Violent Delights by Chloe gong this month and really enjoyed it. I loved the entire atmosphere and the setting, and most of all I loved the plot. I felt a lot while reading this book and wanted to share my thoughts here. So here’s a glimpse of my thoughts regarding These Violent Delights. 

1. A retelling? Wow! This will be exciting! 

This book is a retelling of Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare which I read in junior high and didn’t like it. But I loved this book. 

2. Okay I’m loving this idea of rival gangs. And the names. I love the names.

The author’s idea of having rival gangs was a clever one and I absolutely loved the names of the characters and their personalities. 

3. Juliette is badass. She knows how to shoot. I want to learn it. 

Considering she’s the heir to the Scarlet Gang, it’s fitting that she’s strong and independent but I loved how she could wield a gun, because that is something I really want to learn. 

4. I love the relationship dynamics between Roma and the others. 

Roma is an amazing character. He will steal your heart without you knowing it. And I loved the dynamics between him and his people and Juliette. 

5. What is this monster? Lice? Eww. 

The monster is causing people to die in a unique and horribly gross manner. I’ve never read about this kind of monster. So as disturbing as it was, it was also novel. 

6. So much bloodshed. So much misunderstanding. Loyalty? Love? What do you choose? 

This is after reading about Roma’s and Juliette’s perspectives and the reason behind what they did. Both of them had it tough. 

7. I like how nobody questions Juliette and Roma and they can go wherever they want. 

Throughout the novel, they’re hardly ever home, which makes sense considering their lifestyle and what they have to do. But I like how no one questions them, because if I go out, a lot of people ask me to give them details. 

8. This madness is driving me mad. I hate people dying! 

As the story progresses, the monster takes hold of the city and plenty of people are dying. I hated how people close to the main characters become victims of the monster. 

9. Roma, Marshall and Benedict have my heart. They have it and I don’t regret giving it to them. 

I adored this trio and I wish I could meet them in real life. I wish they were real. The author has done a splendid job with these characters and their personalities. 

10. Oh my, I did not see that coming!

When the truth finally comes out and the audience gets to know who the monster is and why it was created in the first place. 

11. This monster is unreal. Good thing it’s fiction. 

Reading the physical description of the monster made me nauseous, but that’s just another proof of the author’s talents. But yeah, I found the whole monster thing kind of unrealistic but since it’s fiction, I can’t complain. 

12. Marshall!! No!! 

Marshall didn’t deserve what happened to him. And I wished I could protect him from such a fate. I love Marshall. 

13. Oh my… thank God! But wait, release what? 

The ending brought a massive relief but at the same time a fresh wave of anxiety, which made me hungry for book 2 and I can’t wait to read it. 

And that’s it. These are some of my thoughts while reading These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong. Of course I had other thoughts as well but I couldn’t write them all down or I’ll be here forever. If you haven’t read this book or series, I highly recommend that you guys read it. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it. 

[thatgirlonstage]

irt the richard iii anime, that's a totally fair reaction to have! I must admit that i have absolutely zero knowledge about the play and the history that inspired it, much less about how the play came about and what the intention behind it was. So my ignorance definitely helped with my enjoyment of the anime; it's a lot like enjoying shyamalan's avatar if you've never watched atla. The demographic for the manga and anime is shoujo– and it shows. Some viewers even likened the show to fujoshi bait and i must say i cannot disagree with that assessment. That said, one thing i noticed near the tail end of the show was that the narrative definitely showed how the tudors are sowing seeds of propaganda throughout the kingdom through plays and incitements intended to villainise richard so i think they have that going for them at the very least. Anyway the anime on the whole will most probably not appeal to shakespeare enthusiasts but personally i really enjoyed what they had to offer. Especially the internal struggle of the wants of one's self vs duty. The duality of rejecting and accepting one's inner desires. And above all else, i gotta say i really enjoyed the romance 😂 it was very messy and delicious despite the egregious censorship and questionable animation quality.

Anyway, cheers mate and i hope you're not bothered by my previous recommendation. Hope you have a nice day

Not bothered at all!!! My reservations about the theme of disability aside, it absolutely sounds like my shit and the whole reason I fell in love with Shakespeare in the first place was that they're these stories that you can take and reinvent and make your own and retell in a thousand different ways. I am right at this moment trying so hard to get my hands on a copy of the feral cats Romeo.Juliet movie that the latest Um Actually episode mentioned. Return to the Forbidden Planet is one of my favorite plays I've ever watched in my life lmao it was such a batshit hilarious time. Also one of these days I'm going to finish watching the Romeo x Juliet anime, I was just trying to watch it I think while I was still in college and I kept losing track of what was happening, but I fuckin loved what it was doing.

All of which to say I may very well still decide to check this out! It just pinged concern because I do think there are a handful of Shakespeare plays (Othello, Merchant, RIII, maybe Taming and Measure for Measure as well) that deal very heavily with prejudice and social issues that are still very present and serious issues today (as opposed to like... I think you can do whatever you want with Edmund in Lear because people in modern society mostly aren't shunned for being born out of wedlock anymore, that's not a thing you're going to really offend or hurt anyone with), and as such warrant some extra care in adapting, imo. And even those plays I'm not saying you can never take apart and reassemble into something new and different, just, like any piece of art, it's subject to criticism if you do it poorly. Also, full disclosure, I worked on a production of Richard III fairly recently (our director, a couple of our designers and crew, and a good chunk of our cast all self-identified as disabled), so a lot of conversations about how to approach that play with respect and in a way to open the floor to disabled folks are still very fresh in my mind, which may well have intensified the knee-jerk worry.

Thank you for expanding, and if nothing else I'm so fascinated to know this exists. I always like adding weird and wild Shakespeare adaptations to my repertoire of knowledge.

[bloopdydooooo]

Hi! I just read your recent Hamlet fic and noticed your note about the mob Hamlet ask disappearing. Me again! I still care and am here if you wanna share (: hopefully tumblr doesn’t eat it this time!

finally.... someone has stumbled into my lure.......

essentially mob!hamlet is the hamlet id direct if i ever - god knows how or why - got a chance to direct hamlet. it stemmed from the fact that i'd been in a gritty performance of romeo & juliet and thought shakespeare and violence really go hand in hand, if done well. (i think it's important to state that i am in no way shape or form a director, nor do i intend to be as a career. i am an actor and, more importantly, a nerd, and i think a lot of thoughts about hamlet.)

anyways i figured it's easy to keep everything the same while transposing the characters into a world of organised crime and you know what? i was right. picture like.. the godfather type visuals but it's hamlet.

the fact that i don't see a world in which i'm able to actually stage this production means i've created a whole au in my head with character designs and very fixed motivations, but at its heart it's a performance i'd want to stage.

uh. from this point onwards im gonna ramble about the specifics of how i'd direct a few bits cause i've just. i've been stewing with this for so long now.

my main concerns were the ghost and polonius' death scene, because the whole concept mainly came to me through an idea of how i'd like to see the deaths in 5.2 done.

it took me an embarrassingly long time to come up with a solution i liked to kill polonius which consists of making an audience uncomfortable. my idea would be to have all the spying take place from the audience, with the characters being spied on acting their hearts out on stage, which means that i can have polonius be in the audience when hamlet shoots him (not a fan of guns but boy oh boy is a long range weapon cool to use). the aim is to make the audience feel on edge, like they, too, have been spying on hamlet's private life.

maybe i just think immersive theatre is really cool. but i think i could pull it off, with some well-timed flashes of house lights.

as for the ghost i..... uh am still struggling. this is why directors work with designers instead of just being some nerdy guy who's read hamlet one too many times for it to be sanity. but i saw a production in cambridge that i though excelled in some ways (and fell horribly flat in others - why did they do 3.4 like that???) and one of the elements i liked was the fact that the ghost was an almost inhuman creature, but still clearly a regal figure. almost mothlike in the way he was wrapped in his cloak, ambling ominously across the grass with what i can only describe as arm stilts and some basic plate armour. i so far all i've got is that i thought that was cool, though :/

my idea for the hamlet, laertes, and claudius' deaths are pretty set in stone in my mind, though. hamlet and laertes can have a little fight (who doesn't love stage fighting?) but with knives, not swords cause uh. we don't really use swords anymore and i fear there'd be too many similarities to rsc's hamlet 2009 if i did fencing. also i think knife fights are cool. anyways, they do their whole mutual poisoning thing, and hamlet makes his way over to claudius.

there are a couple accepted ways to kill claudius (that i've seen); my proposal is All Of Them. hamlet threatens claudius with the poisoned knife to make him drink the poison, and claudius goes to drink it. before he can, though, hamlet runs him through with his blade because he needs to be the one to kill him. i don't think he'd let claudius get away with doing it himself, even if he was forced.

also horatio absolutely tried to drink that poison and hamlet absolutely guzzled it down before he could. cause of homosexuality.

as in sure you can tell, the deaths are a large concern, staging-wise. also, they're the only thing that's remotely interesting for me to talk about because no one wants to hear which side of the stage i think rosencrantz and guildenstern enter from or whatever lol

[allthemusic]

Week ending: 4 February 1954

Another two-song week, and we've got a first, possibly - the first song that I think just about everyone could sing at least one line from, regardless of where they're from. I could be wrong about that, of course, or overlooking something we've already heard. But this first song is definitely huge and still well known - though our other contender certainly has an interesting title...

That's Amore - Dean Martin (peaked at No. 2)

This is a big, cheesy slice of pizza quatro formaggio, or possibly a dish of steaming lasagna, but I really like it. Sorry, if you wanted me to have a more sophisticated opinion, it's just warm and sappy, and I love it. It's since become Dean Martin's signature song, and I can't object to that at all.

It was written for a film, The Caddy, which looks like it was a fairly lightweight comedy about a talented golfer afraid of playing in front of crowds who coaches his love interest's brother and ends up going into showbusiness with him. The plot looks thin and to be honest, quite silly, and has absolutely nothing obvious to do with this song.

As you might expect from this, the song is also very silly, from the overdramatic "In Napoli" introduction, which sets the scene almost like Shakespeare's "fair Verona" monologue in Romeo and Juliet, over these dramatic, minor chords.

The chords then immediately give way to something much happier and cod-folksy, with what sound like mandolins or zithers, and some marimbas, later on, and tambourines, and just a fairly upbeat waltz time.

And then the line people know: "When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza / That's amore / When the world seems to shine you've had too much wine / That's amore." D'aww, it's sappy but I love it.

It does then devolve into onomatopoeia, with bells going "ting-a-ling-a-ling" and hearts playing "tippy-tippy-tay, like a gay tarantella", and from there it gets properly nonsensical. Seriously, lines like "When you dance down the street with a cloud at your feet" would make the Surrealists proud.

While this would normally annoy me, I like it here, because it's a song about the way that falling in love makes you all goofy and leaves you in this sort of loved-up daze. So I can forgive some slightly awkward lyrics, because it echoes the awkwardness of just being absolutely besotted with someone.

It turns into a big party, at this point, with a mixec choir of backing singers chipping in, and a wild sequence of slow-downs and pauses. It's rowdy, in a warm, fun way, like a whole restaurant or inn full of Italian peasants are joining in with you, celebrating being in love. I like it.

And we keep going until a lovely, slow, slightly quieter ending. It's got drama from slowing down, but while it gains in intensity right at the end, Dean makes the very sensible decision not to go for the Big Old Ending that I hate so much. It makes the end of the song feel quite modern, in a way, or at least not as desperately outdated as most David Whitfield-type songs.

Dean, throughout, is really milking his Italian-American heritage, with lots of Italian dropped in throughout, and references to Italian cultural traditions and foods, and I think if I were Italian, or even Italian-American, like Dean, I'd probably feel some kind of way about all this. As a non-Italian, I can just enjoy the cultural pastiche. It does feel a bit like it belongs in a playlist with songs like Mambo Italiano and Nel blu dipinto di blu. You'd hear it playing at Frankie and Bennys, in the UK, it's that kind of vibe - not a bad vibe, but not the classiest.

What saves it is probably Dean's delivery, which always sounds like he's about to laugh, but not in a mean-spirited way, just in a good-natured kind of way. It's annoyed me in other songs, where he sounds a bit smug, but it's impossible to sound smug when you're singing this much nonsense, so it works here. Not a song for every occasion, but it's certainly a happy sort of song for the occasions where it does fit.

I should also say that it makes me think of the "When a fish bits your heel / And it looks like an eel / That's a moray" meme. Which is a niche genre of post that I will reblog every single time I see them, so that also wins this song some points, in my eyes. It's also probably a sign of how popular this song still is, the fact that you can make memes indirectly referencing it, and people of all generations absolutely know where the meme is going and get it, still. Huh.

Absolute banger, change my mind.

The Creep - Ken Mackintosh (10)

I thought this would be about a person who was somehow creepy, like a 1950s precursor to the Radiohead song. I was wrong, but in a good way - this song is such a fun find!

It starts, and you realise immediately that this is going to be a jazzy sort of instrumental, as we start with some striking repeated riffs on what sounds like a bass saxophone? We then get into a shuffling rhythm, and that keeps up for the rest of the track. It's a song that absolutely lives and dies on its heavy walking bass that sort of "creeps" up and down the scale.

It feels like it's doing a less menacing version of what the Dragnet theme did, packaging swing-y rhythms with this sort of heavy, cool, riff-driven sound. You would feel pretty great swaggering around to this, or I would at least!

About a minute in, we get a pretty exciting key change upwards that just ramps up the energy of the whole thing, culimating in this freewheeling, happy-sounding trumpet solo, as the trumpeter messes around over bass and some jazz drums. It's good fun, and it keeps being good fun when the rest of the band comes back in. Trumpets are having a bit of a moment, here in early 1954, and I'm really enjoying it!

You could use this track for the end credits of a film. It's instrumental, it's got just the right amount of happy, carefree vibes, it changes the instruments up just enough to keep things interesting, and it doesn't outstay its welcome, either, just stays around long enough to be enojyable.

We end with a brief drum solo - love a drum solo! - and then the song settles back down, creeping off into the distance as it draws to a close. It's a nice, classy end to a nice, classy song. Certainly an overlooked gem.

Well, both of these songs started strong and grew on me. To be honest, I was ready to slate That's Amore, or at least to explain why I didn't like it's brand of pastiche-y Italian schlock, but I just couldn't. It turns out there's a reason it's stood the test of time, even if it's a bit cheesy. And then we have The Creep, which also comes highly recommended, as a lesser known but very enjoyable listen. Still, my favourite has to be the one that proved me wrong.

Favourite song of the bunch: That's Amore

[mistwraiths]

2 stars

I feel like I'm in the minority here because I really didn't enjoy Foul Lady Fortune. These Violent Delights and Our Violent Ends was a really good duology despite the fact that I don't love Romeo and Juliet. I loved the writing, the action, and even enjoyed the characters and ending. Foul Lady Fortune has everything that sounds like an amazing book. Spies forced to work pretending to be married in undercover, a historical background filled with tension, and some characters we already know, set among the backdrop of As You Like It. It's just a shame that the execution is poor.

For a novel about spies, this was awful. Not a single one of these characters had any discretion or professionalism. They've been apparently spies for several years and they're talking about important information and things in the OPEN with people around them?? The fact that they should keep secrets so things don't get tortured out of them is constantly stated but EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER KNOWS ABOUT ALMOST EVERY OTHER CHARACTER'S MISSON or name or whatever. There's also like maybe two characters that ACTUALLY believe their cause because everyone else doesn't and it's hard to care about what's going on when no one else does???? There's so many little things that just doesn't make any sense. Too many simple mistakes! Rosalind and Orion hardly work together at all until the near end.

Speaking of, I didn't buy the romance and I found myself not really warming up to Rosalind or Orion. I do love that Rosalind is demisexual. But honestly I don't understand how they even like each other that much they didn't have any chemistry in my opinion. It honestly felt like a trope checklist sometimes but nothing meaningful seemed to ever happen between them. Him falling for her like bro how?? When?? Why??

Rosalind being an immortal didn't even have much to do with the plot here? Also I don't believe there's that much of a visual difference between 19 and 24? Orion's reveal was lackluster because there was not even foreshadowing. How did he not realize there was gaps in his memory??? His super strength not even mentioned until the moment of discovery. I did guess correctly on Phoebe's reveal but I couldn't stand her as a character, she just came off as entitled, childish, and annoying. The ONLY two characters I liked were Celia and Oliver. They had chemistry! They had presence. Sadly, their plot was boring as hell and they were sidelined a lot.

Maybe it was because I had two days I struggled to read that put a damper on this book, but I almost couldn't follow much of what was going on in this book. It felt like way too much half the time with too many characters, too many different sides and interests and what not. But what really didn't help was that almost nothing big happened until nearly 80% of the book. That's when everything happened. The reveals, the come togethers, the love part, etc. I was skimming by then and desperate to be over with.

In the first duology, I loved the omniscient POV chapters but they didn't feel useful here.

At the end, there's a reveal of JM but there's been hints. Personally, I absolutely hate that Juliette and Roma are alive. Destroying the tragically beautiful end of your duology AND the fact that its Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Why are authors so reluctant on killing their characters and keeping them dead.

I did like Alisa and Celia and Oliver. There are some really great lines in the book. The part where Rosalind remarks that while she lives she still feels like one of Dmitri's casualties was a beautiful sentence.

I'm kind of bummed I didn't love it more.