#also i think it would be funny if we never saw ashley’s dad directly

[jasminedtookes]

hsm 2 golf scene but with leon & ashley instead of troy & sharpay

[thefiveavengers]

jester and sexuality/romantic inclinations

so, this is my last day of summer break (actually the day before last, but tomorow is monday) and I decided to put into words what my thoughts about this dicey, dicey subject are. First, these are solely my opinons based on 1) watching the second campaign, 2)watching talks machina and the meta knowledge that comes with that and 3) assuming the players are playing in good faith and are open minded to organic changes that might come to their characters along the way.

and second, I do have my biases, and I come from the following inclinations: I ship lavorregard, and I don’t believe Jester is straight.

That said let’s begin. I’ve written a far amount about the lavorregard ship, but mostly focused on Beau’s feelings and her perspective. Right before the ep that Beau reveals the crush to Nott I wrote the following: “ If I were to put a chronology on Beau’s feelings for Jester it would go something like that: 1)“This girl is cute and somehow I like her way more than I usually like, well, anybody” 2) “This girl is cute and we are… friends???” 3) “This girl is cute, we are friends and I love her” 4) “We are friends, I love her AND I think she is hot” 5) “This girl is hot, I love her and maybe I love her as more than friends?”

But last ep I think it shifted to, “I’m definetely into Jester as more than friends and she’s never been hotter AND I think I’m getting to a point where I’m ready to actually process my feelings regarding that and be open about it.”

And lo and behold, the very next ep we saw Beau actually processing her feelings when talking to Nott. But what about Jester?  

         I’ve seen some people express the idea that “wouldn’t it be galaxy brain if all three cr ladies had independently decided when creating their characters that they are lesbians?” and honestly, while a cute thought, I don’t think that’s what’s happening. In my opinion what happened was, Marisha created Beau as a lesbian and she made sure to make that clear as possible from the get go, and one of the reasons I think she did that is because she entered the campaign looking to avoid a pc/pc romance, since the one she was in in cr1 took such a toll on her. She probably figured it would be a safe bet, playing a lesbian she would shield herself from the male characters and most likely the other female characters would not be interested in Beau, right?

      Enter Ashley Johnson. Honestly I don’t think Ashley had such a clear idea that Yasha was (or is) a lesbian. She had a wife, and from what has been said in canon Zualla was her only romantic and sexual relationship. Now, from what we’ve seen Yasha hasn’t expressed any interest in men, but to be fair she hasn’t really expressed interest in much anybody. She called Jester adorable in the very first ep and she seems to be fond of Beau’s flirtations even if not directly responding to them. The conversation where Yasha has said that she has “seen {Beau} a lot” coupled with one of the songs in Yasha’s playlist has me convinced that Yasha has some kind of feelings for Beau, even if is just a small crush. And I say this as someone who doesnt ship Beau/Yasha. I don’t think they would make a good match, but that doesn’t mean I’d deny either of them having interest in the other. But that doesn’t mean Yasha is for sure a lesbian who would never engage with a men ever. She seems pretty adamant on not having any romantic connections, so its hard to gauge really where her interests lie. She is for sure though a wlw. 

      Now, when it comes to Jester and Laura Bailey that’s when things get complicated. I would assume that most of us that have considered the possibility of Jester not being straight have read the excellent essay on comphet by tumblr user fuzzy-face ( https://fuzzy-face.tumblr.com/post/185001577009/you-make-your-own-fairytale-jester-comphet ), so I’m not gonna rehash what she’s said already. While I do agree almost wholeheartedly with this post, I’ll say this, I don’t think Laura Bailey when creating Jester set out to tell a story of a wlw learning how to overcome comphet. But (BUT!,!) I also don’t think her idea was Jester is totally straight and that’s that! I think she created Jester as a sexually and romantically inexperienced young woman that almost immediately got a crush on Fjord because, among other reasons, he reminded her of a hero from her smut books. 

       Recently, with the new upload of talks to the CR youtube channel, I rewatched this talks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZqJzNj_1tI , which is about the ep a Hole in the Plan, deep into the pirate arc, but before the first big Beau/Jester moment, the conversation they had in the boat on ep 46. First I must express my annoyance  at the fact that Laura and Marisha are the guests and yet at least 80% of the questions are about Fjord. I know it was in his arc, but COME ON! Also I was very surprised by how open they are talking about Fjord/Jester as if it were a done deal alaready. When anyone involved in Talks claim that they don’t do shipping questions, you should show them this ep because it is all about shipping questions. Anyways, Laura clearly states that Jester has a crush on Fjord (at the time at least) and she compares it to a super intense high school crush. So to me there is no refuting the fact that at least at some point Jester had a crush on Fjord. 

    What I do find it interesting is when you compare her answers in that talks to what she said in the most recent talks she’s participated  ( https://youtu.be/_NmZ2b_Q3So ) which seem to at least indicate that Jester has, on a level or another, moved on from said crush. It’s also, the now infamous moment where Laura talks about Jester’s crush...es. We’ll get back to that.

     That’s all good and dandy, but this is meta outside the game. Let’s go analyze actual in-game developments. As far as I can remember (and I’m not an expert in Fjord/Jester, so I might be forgetting something) these are the moments Jester spoke directly or inderectly about her crush on Fjord; when Caleb point blank asked her if she was sweet on him (to which she answered “I don’t know” and let’s keep that in mind); when she talked to nott about first kisses and the best thing she can say about it is that it didnt make her feel dead, and to me the most significant moment; when she asks the traveler  how to make a boy like her. Now, I’ve seen some people band about this as irrefutable proof that Jester IS straight, otherwise she wouldnt be asking the traveler advice about boys, but in this case she wasn’t talking about boys in general, she was talking about ONE boy and that was Fjord. 

      And that’s the crux of the matter isn’t it? Jester has demonstrated sexual/romantic interest in one man and one man alone, and that’s fjord. That does not mean she is straight. It doesn’t even mean that she, if a wlw, is bi. Her crush on Fjord has been wrapped around in all these expectations and I think its hard to parse how much was just projecting, among other things, the romance her parents had. Also, let me comment on how all these developments were long ago, during the pirate arc, over one year ago in real time.

     Jester has commented about Fjord’s appearance and Caleb’s and even pointed out to Reani that hot boi Essek was hot, but its all done very matter-of-factly. And if we are going to talk about Jester commenting on people’s apperances we have to acknowledge how Jester cannot SHUT UP about how she finds women beautiful. From Beau to Nott, from Reani to random shop girl in Uthodurn and her obssession with the Bright Queen in particular its all very in your face. Once someone wanted to argue with me that this is just how straight girls air their insecurities, and even if that’s true and not just misogyny, the only time Jester commented on a woman’s apperance with any kind of insecure note was one time when she compared herself to her mother.  

     Look, the thing is, if we take at face value every comment Jester has made about Fjord’s looks and strenght, we also have to take at face value how distraught she looked and sounded facing the idea that Beau’s new vestiments wouldn’t let her abs show. Is it funny? Yes, but it’s funny for the idea that Jester is very appreciative of Beau’s abs, which, I’m still waiting for the straight explanation if anyone if willing to give me. 

     To end, this goddamned book that I’ve started, the thing that gives me the most certainty that Jester is not straight and that a Beau/Jester romance is not only possible but likely is that I do not believe Laura Bailey is cruel. If she had no interest in exploring the possibility of a not-straight Jester and a B/J romance she wouldn’t been doing what she has been doing for awhile now.

     And what do I mean about that? I mean that even before Beau’s confession there’s been a different dynamic to their relationship. I already mentioned the “but can I see her abs????” incident, but also her encouragement about beau’s qualities and abilities (beau, you’re super strong), using the traveler as a proxy to her feelings (the traveler thinks you’ll do great, the traveler thinks you’re awesome, the traveler loves you), waiting to hold beau when she went up a column and showing disapointment when she didnt fell into her arms, listening to Beau regarding her wanting to confront her dad, being super, and I mean SUPER bummed out when Beau and Reani kissed and took a walk. And after the confession things ramped up.

   Like, that was Laura Bailey listening to the conversation between Nott and Beau, not Jester. She could have had continued to play out their friendship as usual, but that’s not what she did. She used this opportunity to play the romantic possibility as never before. Making sure that Jester shielded Beau’s body in combat, being VERY specific that when her double cured her, she leaned over her body and put her hands to her face and even contradicting Matt, pointing out that when she woke up, it wasn’t the laughing hand that she first saw, but Jester’s face. And then there’s ep 89, the juiciest lavorregard ep since ep 46. It’s romantic comedy set up, one character confesses their love to a third one, and the one character who is the target of that love starts a conversation with “Are you avoiding me? Because I think I know why.” That’s a romantic trope ladies and gents, and Laura Bailey the genius she is played it to perfection. Not being sure why she was so upset about not curing Beau (a sentiment that battle mercy Jester has never expressed before). Wanting to punish Beau’s dad for not treating her right, getting to an agreement after arguing about tarot and molly. Afterwards engaging Fjord in an activity that she usually associates with beau, that goes disastrously and thanks to the dice gods, I could see, in real time the comphet melting away.

And concluding with the fact that she bet 20 extra gold on Beau on the down low.

So coming back to the idea of Jester having crush...es, to me is very clear those crushes are, the one she has/had on Fjord and her new emerging one on Beau. do I think Jester herself is aware of these feelings? Not really, but Laura sure is.

     look this is not about being entitled or acusing anyone of queerbaiting if my ship doesnt pan out. its just, you know, laura’s sister is a lesbian, and I do think that gives people some perspective that they might not have, and I genuinely don’t think she would be playing things as she is, if she didn’t have any interest in playing out to the end.

[operationoverdrive]

power morphicon diary (2018)

twitter thread with pics and such ✨✨✨

now to recap the greatest weekend of my life:

brennan mejia (tyer, dino charge red)

the first ranger i met, his line was always really long i love my relevant king. i was shaking and speechless pearl had to speak for me, she told him i loved all latinx rangers and he said “good!”. he told us everyone got to keep 8 items from the set and he kept his energem, tyler’s boots, his dad’s bracelet, tyler’s red puffy vest (for me ofc), and other stuff idr because he was so beautiful i was physically unable to breathe. 

later kat was reminiscing and said “i can’t believe azim had a mental breakdown because of us” and we turned the corner and a voice said “azim had a mental breakdown” GUESS WHO IT WAS! we all screamed, kat ran back around the corner but we all did end up in the elevator together and he was very chill even tho we were all wrecks

selwyn ward (tj, turbo red/in space blue)

idr planning to get a pic with selwyn but he has a magnetic forcefield that draws people to him and no one was in his line so he talked to us for a while and asked if we preferred turbo or space and which episode was our fave and he actually remembered the plot of mine (the curve ball). he was tight-lipped when we asked if he was in the anniversary even tho we pointed out a pic of him and chrysti was posted (BY HIM), it was so adorable he was squirming so much. 

later we saw him while waiting for our car and we SCREAMED and he rushed right over and gave us all hugs and told us to make sure to come see him (he corrected himself when he saw pearl and remembered we’d already been)

brandon jay mclaren (jack, spd red)

i asked him to sign a marriage license and he almost died laughing, he was so happy. fyi he has never been proposed to by a fan before so @everyone in the world i need you to step it the fuck up

jorge vargas / adam tuominen (blake and hunter, ninja storm navy and crimson)

my first sighting of them was while we were waiting for our tickets and they were going to check in, as soon as i recognized jorge i screamed my lungs out and he was utterly bewildered but he waved while adam was living for it. everyone around me looked at me like we did NOT just see the actors of our generation and i chastised them all for failing at life. when they came back around jorge had his phone out to film the crowd and i screamed even louder and he waved really big and BLEW A KISS IN MY DIRECTION AND I ASCENDED TO HEAVEN

when i finally was able to meet them to take pics pearl had to drag me over and she immediately let jorge know i was his biggest fan and was the girl who shrieked every time she saw him. he came right around and gave me a big hug!!!! i couldn’t really talk to him for long nor do i remember what we talked about because i mean how do you hold yourself together in front of someone that means so much to you??? YOU DON’T THAT’S HOW!

it was easier to talk to adam bc i could actually remember how to breathe. he told us jorge was the second oldest in the cast even tho he was supposed to be hunter’s baby brother so it was a strange contradiction but he loved playing an older brother. he said he and jorge hung out just the two of them alot to strengthen their bond (i asked if they got drunk together and he laughed and said “well i wasn’t gonna say it but yes”. i told him hunter was a pink ranger and he laughed and said “Yea first male pink ranger!!!”

i saw them again when we were in line for the atm and this time they definitely recognized me and waved really big i love those thunder punks

megaforce panel

this was the only panel i went to bc pr fans don’t know how to act so they’re all boring or frustrating but thankfully the megacast is charming as hell and made every second entertaining and engaging

andrew and christina were late but when christina walked in i guess we screamed really loud because when she asked if we missed her john mark said “yes the christina masterson fan club is right there” and pointed to our group in the crowd

some fan asked them about the vrak is back two parter and the entire cast was like scrambling to remember if that was even an episode of their series, azim started talking about fight scenes and crates and confused vrak with vekar so i decided to yell that its the episode where robo knight dies and cameron was like “that must’ve been an episode my morpher was coincidentally turned off” and i was like “no you dummy you were kidnapped! orion was sleeping beauty!!” and he cracked up. john mark told me to calm down.

i asked christina if she prepared or studied anything about photography since emma is very passionate about it and she said her boyfriend at the time was a photographer and she was a model so she knew some basics and became a photographer herself

tracy lynn cruz (ashley, turbo/in space yellow)

even tho we were second in line we had to wait FOREVER bc some dude kept asking her about monsters. we ended up talking to her son who was helping with her booth and he was really nice! her husband was also there and wearing her merch it was so cute! i told tracy she needed to start a fashion line based on ashley’s wardrobe and when i almost forgot my debit card she told me “oh wait i can use this to start my fashion business”

davi santos (ivan, dino charge gold)

quite possible my favorite interaction of the entire con??? we approached him right as he arrived so we were the first to meet him! pearl and i were basically gushing as soon as we made it to the table and he was so confused bc we kept talking at the same time. i congratulated him on the new show and he said he hopes we all enjoy it. his booth was so cute, he was selling energems but the signs specifically said “zandarian energems” and his sign advertising his social media said “thine twitter, thine instagram, thine facebook” bc he’s a fucking NERD. he let me wear his jacket which was real and from the show, specifically from the episode sync or swim where they made a bunch of replica’s bc of the scene where they have to ruin it. he also kept his glasses on bc i asked him if we could be glasses twins and did ivan’s famed duck mouth selfie with me. then he hugged me and i died

azim rizk (jake, megaforce black/super mega green)

he recognized us as soon as we approached his booth and said he noticed our little “cluster” because we were so loud at the panel dkhgfmdg. he was literally the easiest person to talk to i could’ve spent all day talking about megaforce and how much i love it with just him. he was selling jake pins for FIVE DOLLARS and i told him to raise his prices bc he is hashtag worth it and also to make jake hoodies (he was wearing his one from the show!) and sell them and we would all be his investors. we were holding each other for the pic and he looked right at me and his face was really close so i screamed “omhy god don’t look at me” and he was like “oh sorry” so yea gia moran found dead in a ditch

the second time we saw him pearl recapped here

at one point when we were chilling behind his booth cameron was like ??? and i was like “we’re his security team please don’t look him directly in the eye” and he laughed. azim literally could not stop hugging us he was so cuddly and soft!!!!!!! he also told us he brought his spandex with him and if it would be Too Much if he put them on and were like no bitch that would be the best thing ever why is no one else doing it, but then i called him a nerd when he actually ended up wearing it just bc we told him too and he was like “Yes.”

christina The Main Event masterson (emma, megaforce/super mega pink)

my darling my angel my being of light the sweetest human to ever live, she was so kind and easygoing but the first time i met her i could not speak. the first time my brain turned to slime so i think all i told her was that emma was my favorite ranger of all time and i loved her so much and pearl brought up all the times emma kicked ass and i think i interjected with “the halloween baking episode!” and she said she didn’t like that episode bc emma didn’t get to dress up. pearl asked what emma would’ve been and she said a monarch butterfly we stan an intellectual

i took a second pic with her bc i am That Emma Stan aka i bought a child-sized megaforce pink t-shirt and squeezed into it just for the aesthetic. i was better about speaking this time and told her i loved her syfy movies truth or dare but how dare she make me watch her awful death scene, she told me her dad also hated that scene but we talked about how we loved that her character chose to take her destiny into her own hands. when i brought up zombie shark she cringed a little but i told her i thought it was a fun movie and she said she loved playing a shark. i asked if she got tips from john mark since he’s a shark ranger and she said “as if”, she and ciara had also commandeered all the boys’ helmets for some reason it was adorable. i told her the girls rightfully owned them anyway and she smiled. they were so many babies in line for the girls and they kept calling them by their character names it was the most heartwarming thing ever to hear a small child squeak out “hey gia!” I LVOE POWER RANGERS MEGAFROCE

hector david jr. (mike, samurai green)

first saw him at the valet and kat is the one who pointed him out like “He....” and we all started screaming and as he gains life from such activities he immediately rushed over and gave us all a huge group hug bc he is an angel sent from heaven

he was announced like one hour before the con so they literally just shoved him into najee’s booth it was so funny bc all the merch was blue ranger (i got a kevin t-shirt!) and hector’s one green ranger helmet. i told hector to sell me the shirt off his back and he said he’d think about it since it matched my outfit kdnhnkd. he kept doing flips and jumping over the table bc he’s part grasshopper i guess. when kat took her picture we had to wait while he did a flip and kat asked najee what was up with him and najee was like “thats just hector” lmao. i asked hector why he and brittany were the only rangers that didn’t get an intro scene where their helmets flashed and he said it all just boiled down to the writing but that we haven’t seen the last of mike and he wants to come as a villain so i’m like 👀🔍📝 noted. when we took our pic i l layed my head on his shoulder and he said “my prom date right here” and morphicon became little mix’s love me like you mv as he also agreed to be ben’s prom date i love hector david jr with all my heart. again SO MANY BABIES IN LINE FOR THE SAMURAI RANGERS!!! the kid ahead of us asked if the samurizer that najee had was real or was it a toy CHILDREN ARE OUR FUTURE

anna hutchison (lily, jungle fury yellow)

while in line for the atm we saw her entering and i screamed “we love you anna!” and she waved and smiled at us she’s so ethereal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! kat and i were the first (paying) people in line, she had lily figurines all over her table i love jungle fury’s number one stan. she is literally the sweetest person ever and so engaging. kat told her it was an absolute power move that she wore red instead of yellow and anna said she did it so she could lead the morph for once, i told her that lily could absolutely lead in yellow just fine and she laughed and agreed. when we were taking our pic kat mentioned how i didn’t like how some of my previous pics had turned out and anna said she’d wait until i signed off on them and we could retake them if i didn’t like them QUEEN OF CHARITY!! her handler was...really bad and the pics came out all shaky as soon as we saw them she and i exchanged looks and anna was like “uh yeah let’s try again” i still didn’t like how they came out but i stayed quiet the second time bc i was grateful enough to be in the presence of a literal heavenly being. she asked what other parts of the convention we were looking forward too and i told her she was the main event because we had been waiting for her all day and she hugged me!!! blonde yellow rangers respect ur leader

andrew gray (troy, megaforce/super mega red)

this man printed out an article that explained why super megaforce was the strongest team in power rangers history and cited it during the panel fuck everyone else i RESPECT HIM. when we came up to his booth i picked up the article and said he should have it on display and he told me i could keep the paper copy because he had A PRESERVED DISPLAY COPY ANDREW LOVES MEGAFORCE MORE THAN ANYONE. he was also the epitome of beauty and has the most intense nature about him so it was hard to think of things to say. i just told him i loved troy and he said “that’s cool man”, a chill legend. when we did our photo op he kept trying to talk to us and asked to see how the pic turned out a few times but my mouth just could not form words around him, years of academy training wasted.

katrina browne / katrina devine (marah and kapri, ninja storm)

literally the most excited and affectionate ladies at the con they were so happy to talk to people i told them that marah and kapri were the greatest villainesses of all time. they were so adorable and didn’t know what i was talking about when i said “let’s do the charlie’s angels pose!” so i had to show them. it was their first con and i asked them to please come back and they said it was so much fun so they really wanted to!

jack guzman (danny, wild force black)

he made a Comment and had me like ..........................give me my money back, but i got a cool danny jacket and i love it and i love danny delgado what’s a jock gizmo

mike ginn / li ming hu (gem and gemma, rpm silver and gold)

APPARENTLY my snake friends told mike ginn about me and how much i loved gem and gemma and how excited i was to meet them but that i was really shy around my faves so when he came over to take the pic and i told him my name he was like “omg you’re shy tabby!” and i immediately died. he kept trying to tell me it was okay and i was just giggling so much and trying to fake run away and li ming told mike to stop embarrassing me it was so cute. he asked for a hug to calm me down and he was so gentle i love him.

later when kat and i walked past mike’s booth he yelled “hey there’s tabby!” I HATE HMI SO MCUH WHY IS HE LIEK THIS

karan ashley (aisha, mmpr yellow)

she was selling so much merch we stan an entrepreneurial queen. i told her that i stan all mexican rangers and she said “yes i love that!”. she hugged me and told me that she loved that i was Ready with my cute pose and i told her it’s bc she emits cuteness energy and i thrived off of it but she said it came from me so i guess you could say we’re dating

other sightings

mike chat (chad, lightspeed blue): was hanging out at the beast morphers unveiling and i saw him and was like....,,,,,.,.,.oh myog do........ITC HAD!!!!!!!! but he had like a ring of handlers around him and the panel was going on and he wasn’t there as an official guest (he trained those auditioning for beast morphers including the 3 cast!!) so i didn’t approach him but he was wearing an all blue suit so thank you for my life

cerina vincent (maya, lost galaxy yellow): saw her as she was walking to the con and she recognized us when she saw me and kat standing in another line she’s literally sunshine personified

kevin kleinberg (trip, time force green): a bunch of people got into the elevator and it got too full for us but i noticed one of the men looked familiar and then it hit me “OH MYGOD YOU’RE KEVIN KLEINBERG ITS KEVIN KLEINBERG!” he smiled real big and waved and told me he liked my shirt (megaforce) as the doors closed, then i reminded everyone it was trip from time force and no one but me is valid 

alycia purrott (syd, spd pink) +2: i talked to her while kat was getting her pic and asked why a full version of syd’s hit single was never released and she said she’d love to get hands on the original recording. i told her that it’d be the perfect SPD reunion if they all shot a music video together and she agreed. kat met all the spd rangers so i also spoke a bit to matt austin (bridge) and chris violette (sky) and matt said chris stole his poster design from greg and i said “that’s such a sky move” and he cracked up. i asked chris if he was having fun at the con and he said of course but i told him he didn’t have to lie and he gave me a look and said “i know right” and laughed, the spd cast is so funny

i also saw will shewfelt eating lunch, he was with his entire family which was adorable that they all came to see him at his power ranger event and his brother looks EXACTLY like him but tiny

anyway i love morphicon and power rangers and the hell clique and all you pr fans need to step it up and ask better questions at panels and be nicer to the actors and also do research and learn all their faces so ur not looking around wondering why i am screaming my head off because some lady passed by (IT WAS KARAN ASHLEY YOU UNGRATEFUL BRATS!!!!!)

can it be 2020 now?