#and ep 4 will renew you

[emily84]

but why isn't tumblr eating up Kaos netflix?

it's got everything! canon old man yaoi, a lot of trans representation, including a trans man as one of the main characters who is complex, desirable, and gets the girl at the end (uh, sorta, but, no spoilers), a succession-level of drama with a fucked up family that needs to be toppled, greek mythology, amazons, the three Fates as trans entities, the Furies as biker lesbians, a WHOLE spectrum of various sexualities and genders as well as great poc representation, a whole spectrum of disabilities, whimsical creatures and frightening, power hungry women... what are ya waiting for?

[piratecaptainscaptainpirates]

I've been thinking about the pacing this season, and I think a lot of the issues with telling instead of showing we've been noticing come down to two big factors.

ALL the episodes this season are sticking very strictly to 30 minutes or less. Most of s1 did that, too, to be fair, but some of the most important episodes - 4, 8, and 10 - are all closer to 35 minutes. It doesn't sound like a lot but that's extra breathing room that we're not getting now, it means some things that were almost important enough to make the cut had to get chopped. We're probably missing a lot of little lines that would've rounded things out because the writers had to bank on us getting it from context.

I wouldn't be surprised if the writers went in expecting a 10 episode second season and Max hit them with cutting down to 8 eps, or they had to make the hard choice to save as much money as possible to increse the odds of getting renewed and decided to cut it to 8 themselves. Either way, I definitely think they'd planned on 10 episodes and because of that some things feel rushed; it's really starting to show in ep 7 and I think that's because they just haven't had the space to set things up they thought they'd get.

I really think that we're missing an episode here, and I'm pretty sure it would've gone between 5 and 6. That would've been the logical place to let Ed and Stede's relationship breathe a bit between their second kiss and having sex in 6, and it would've been the right spot to wrap up some lose plotlines (when did Ed get off probation? How does he feel about it? The crew seem so much more comfortable with him in 6, does that make him feel safer and more loved?) and forshadow what's coming up (literally just one line with Olu feeling bad about what happened with Zheng Yi Sao would've made that so much less jarring).

On the whole, I genuinely think the writing this season has been smart and efficient, but not to the same standard as season 1 (which, to be fair, was a very high standard, but still). And I really think the things that matter (Ed and Stede's arcs) are largely done very well.

But it has still been so obvious that they tried to make this season as cheap and palatable for Max to produce as possible. I really hope it pays off. I think it will - like I said, I think the writers always managed to keep sight of what matters, and that's Ed and Stede's story. And I'm grateful that, despite trying to make this show an easy one for Max to make the decision to renew, they didn't compromise on the queerness.

But it stings. You know any other show that's so successful and has not only such a devoted fanbase but such a deeply invested cast and crew would've been renewed a long damn time ago. I am so, so happy we got s2, and I've loved it, really I have, but I'm still a bit sad thinking about what we could've had.

[gentlebeardsbarngrill]

03/02/2024 Daily OFMD Recap

TLDR; Cast & Crew Sightings; SambaSchutte; Vico Ortiz; Captain's Orders; AdoptOurCrew Saturday Sillies; Saturday "Masculinity" Fuckery; March 3 Reminders; FOTC and Short Poppies Watch Party Polls; Our Flag Turns 2; The Pirates Watch party; New Watch Party: Next Goal Wins; Repo News; Articles; Love Notes; Daily Darby/Tonight's Taika;

= Cast&Crew Sightings =

= Samba Schutte =

Samba's new short film "I Keep Bumping Into Candy Maldonado" is screening tomorrow Mar 3 @ 10 am at the Kingston Canadian Film Festival! If you happen to be there, give it a watch!

Src: Samba's Instagram Story

= Vico Ortiz =

Vico's out here re-tweeting the AdoptOurCrew #TheseThems Watch Party! Way to go @adoptourcrew!

= Today was Captains Orders!=

Several folks got out and took some time to enjoy nature! I only got a few permissions to share so if I get more, I'll add more tomorrow! Thank you to @lucyrosebutler for sharing! The last two images are me and my sad dry state. Bonus, my nugget before he ran off.

== AdoptOurCrew Saturday Sillies ==

Our lovely crew-mates @AdoptOurCrew are back again with more #SaturdaySillies! This time around it's Pirate Connections! Want to know how to play? Check out the guide. If you already have twitter, please visit the Adopt Our Crew Thread to play! Don't have twitter? No problem! Their links to the Pirate Connections are below!

Game 1

Game 2

Game 3

Game 4

Game 5

Game 6

== Saturday Fuckery! ==

Our darling @RedsiesWorld on twitter started up a fuckery! Various crew members managed to lots of positive, healthy masculinity posts running through the #MasculinitySaturday tag!

== Reminders for March 3 ==

= FOTC/Short Poppies Watch Party Polls =

Have you voted yet for times for the Flight of the Conchords or Short Poppies Watch Party? @iamadequate1 still has the polls up!

How should ep breakdown in a Mon-Fri week be for the 12 eps of FotC S1?

What is a good hashtag for a FotC watch party?

What is a good hashtag for a Short Poppies watch party?

= #OurFlagTurns2! =

Our friends over at @AdoptOurCrew are hosting several questions on twitter regarding #OurFlagTurns2! If you're on twitter, please respond on their feed, otherwise, if you want to respond on any other platform, just add the hashtag #OurFlagTurns2!

Mar 3: The Pirates! Watch Party! 

This is a family friendly movie so bring the kids! Or the adults-- or anyone you know, really, as long as it's not against their will! Sunday March 3rd, 3 PM EST, 12 PM PST, 8 PM GMT!

Watch Party Hashtags:

#OurPirateCaptain

#SaveOFMD

#AdoptOurCrew

== New Watch Parties! =

March 8th - Next Goal Wins!

When: 8 pm GMT / 3 pm EST / 12 pm PST

Thank you @lamentus1 for the info! Now available to buy in the UK: £11.99 @ Apple (https://tinyurl.com/mr3p6bvm) and £9.99 or £11.99 @ Amazon https://tinyurl.com/2fwdmezz.

(US fans can watch on Hulu, and Disney Plus)

Watch Party Hashtags:

#SaveOFMD

#OurFlagWins

== Repo News ==

Hey all! Sorry it took so long.. I finally got the Renewal Repo Resources up with approved resources this time. I also added a new permission form so if you'd like to offer up your creations to be added to the repo for the purpose of sharing (with or without credit) you can do so and choose how your creations will get to be used. If anything on that form doesn't make sense or doesn't include something you feel needs to be included, please reach out to me! I got lots of feedback but I know there's always room for improvement, and I want to make sure I'm covering everyone's bases.

Please Note: This form is for shareable media. For "Fan Spotlight" I'll still be reaching out individually and those will be in a completely different part of the repo and not for sharing purposes.

OFMD Renewal Repo Sharable Media Submission / Permission Form

== Articles ==

Anti-Warner Bros. Sentiment Grows as Major Boycott Gains Traction (A shout out to @adoptourcrew in it! woo!)

== Love Notes ==

Hey lovelies. I hope if you were able to get outside today that it helped a bit with giving you some relief. Nature really can be healing, as the captain says. If you weren't I hope you got to do something fun, like make a gif, read a fanfiction, eat something you love, and get some rest. Just wanted to remind you that you can do anything. You can write that fic. You can draw that art. You can learn that language, or that subject you want. You can get that new job, or take that break. You can make it through another day, even when it feels like you can't. Remember that. I believe in you <3 The crew believes in you <3 If you don't already, one day I know you'll believe in you too. Sending all the love <3 To Quote @bossbabe.inc "yes the fuck you can".

== Daily Darby / Tonight's Taika ==

The gif theme tonight is "Strut your stuff". Rhys Gif Courtesy of @lacefuneral Taika Gif Courtesy of @fuckyeahworldoftaika

[david-talks-sw]

An allergy to the Prequels

While I'm putting together a post about the evolution Lucasfilm's transmedia strategies, this part kinda turned into its own thing!

So I'm not sure if anyone else noticed, but, uh... there hasn't been that much Prequel content since the Disney sale, right?

'Couple novels and comics, some episodes... but nothing meaningful.

The more I look into it, the more it feels like a deliberate avoidance to touch on anything Prequel-related - beyond the required quota, that is - to a point where they'd rather tell stories set during periods that are Prequel-adjacent (Dark Times, High Republic) than something set around Episodes I, II and III.

On-screen policy: "pretend they never happened"

I mean, this one's no secret. When The Force Awakens had been announced, with J.J. Abrams at the helm, everyone sighed in relief. "Finally, George Lucas won't keep ruining the franchise."

When Abrams had been announced as the director of Episode VII, I remember this cringey animated video started circulating online, titled "4 Rules To Make Star Wars Great Again" or "Dear JJ Abrams":

“Star Wars isn’t shiny and clean... Star Wars is a western.”

If you ask me, those two things are not mutually exclusive.

'Cause Star Wars has always been both, for many Prequel kids. Both clean and dusty, Coruscant and Tatooine. There was never a disconnect between the Original Trilogy (OT) and the Prequel Trilogy.

Even the documentary The People vs George Lucas shows Prequel-hating fans begrudgingly admit their kids felt all six episodes tied seamlessly.

Abrams, on the other hand, said: "I think [the "Dear JJ" video] was right on." Later on, he also said:

he considered "putting Jar Jar Binks's bones in the desert" on Jakku, somewhere, and

he intentionally made the lightsaber fights "rougher", "primitive" and "more powerful" unlike the fast-paced ones in the Prequels.

Later, we found out he wanted to blow up Coruscant.

It's clear he wasn't a big fan of the Prequels.

But y'know what? Not many fans over 20 were, at the time. And when The Force Awakens came out, most them celebrated it as a wonderful love letter to the OT.

Star Wars is cool again. Mission accomplished 🙌 !

However movies keep coming out, and references to the Prequels - if there are any - are literally just that... references.

Sometimes in the shape of a cameo ("hey look, Genevieve O'Reilly from the Ep. III deleted scenes is playing Mon Mothma again!")

Sometimes in a name (Luke name-dropped "Darth Sidious"!)

But nothing set during the Prequel era, and nothing treating the events that happened in that period as relevant or impactful, beyond subtextual nods.

In fact, the trend of avoiding anything Prequel-related continues as the final film in the Skywalker Saga comes out:

The Rise of Skywalker has a secret Sith society that chants the name "Palpatine" instead of his Sith name "Darth Sidious",

the film pretends the Kaminoans never existed,

and neither TROS nor Trevorrow's Duel of the Fates script even try to bring Hayden Christensen's Anakin Skywalker back on screen. Let that sink in, we're talking about the Chosen One, Skywalker Senior, whose sins caused this whole mess... and his name isn't even uttered once in the final chapter of what Disney dubbed the *Skywalker* Saga (or the entire Sequel trilogy, for that matter).

But hey, The Clone Wars got renewed for one last Season! That's cool right? So many stories had gone unfinished and somehow the animation looks even better than befo--

-- oh. It's not 22 episodes? Only 12?

Four of which had already been shown to us, but hey! We need to set-up the Bad Batch series, so let's shoehorn those episodes in there, and forget Son of Dathomir, Dark Disciple or Crystal Crisis.

*sigh* Better than nothing, I guess.

In other mediums: "just not a priority"

Now this is something that I'll explore more in the transmedia post (and purely my interpretation), but the noticeable change between Lucasfilm's transmedia strategy *post-ROTS* and the one post-Disney sale is that:

Before, the games, comics and novels were the main content. After all, Revenge of the Sith had been released, so that was it, for the movies. Thus, a variety of other content was being cranked out to keep the Star Wars franchise relevant. There were comics set 100 years after Episode 6, comics set 25,000 years prior, games set in the Old Republic era, other stories in the New Republic era, novels galore, a couple of parody films and an animated show, The Clone Wars, which sometimes received its own tie-in comics, novels and games.

After the sale and ever since, most of the transmedia products have had only one goal: promoting the films & streaming shows.

So while in 2015 you won't see an abundance of Prequel content... you'll see an avalanche of OT books and comics come out.

Why? Because the heroes of that era will be in the Sequel Trilogy movies. It provided context to the kids who hadn't seen the OT yet, and reintroduced those films to a new generation of fans, while priming them for the Sequels.

A multimedia marketing strategy that ultimately proved successful.

However, it continued even after The Force Awakens came out.

Don't believe me? Compare how many comics there have been set during the Prequel era vs the OT era.

If they make comics about the Prequels, they're limited runs.

Case in point: before the current Yoda series, the best any Disney Prequel-set comic series ever got was 6 issues.

Note: it's worth pointing out that the frequency of mini-series aren't just a Star Wars-specific thing, it's a comic book industry thing. The readership for comics is dwindling, many people are reading scans online, and so no publisher wants to commit to a story that lasts more than 4-6 issues. My problem is: there absolutely would be readership for a Prequel comic series to warrant an extended run instead of a mini-series.

Let's talk books. There have been give or 64 canon novels published since the Disney sale.

Only 11 of them are set during the Prequel era. And even those stories only came out when the planets were aligned.

Almost half of them were released while being a part of some bigger multimedia push.

Example:

Before the Obi-Wan Kenobi series was being released on Disney Plus, we'd had one novel and like two comic stories about him during the Prequels... released between 2012 and end 2021. That's about three pieces of content in almost ten years.

Clearly a low frequency.

Then, when the series is around the corner, two books and a comic story comes out in the space of months, plus an anthology book with an alt cover with his face on it and a comic with a story of him and Anakin in the first issue, all in 2022.

My takeaway: short of there being a film or series that needs to be promoted, you'll rarely get any Prequel comics or books.

And this is OBI-WAN we're talking about. The character who even the Prequel haters love. Imagine how little attention the other ones get.

Gaming-wise, Battlefront had no Prequel content at all (again, 2015 was the year where OT content was shoved down the consumer's throats to prep them for Episode VII), and Battlefront 2 only released Prequel content a full year later.

All that being said, we did seen some Prequel elements here and there. After all, some actors got to reprise their roles, books and comics came out featuring Prequel characters... but there's a catch.

The stories they appear in are set in-between Episodes III and IV, a time-period known as "the Dark Times" or the "Imperial era".

"Dark Times" being used instead of the Prequel era

It's easy to see the appeal of this era. You keep the same threat from the Original Trilogy - the Empire - but redress it with Prequel elements... while also cherry-picking the best characters of both the OT and the Prequels and giving them a chance to shine again.

The situation is more clear cut, as opposed to the complex one in the Prequels. Bad guys are stormtroopers, good guys are anyone else. And the stories no longer take place in the shiny capital, you're back on the frontier.

But at this point... it feels like a cop-out.

When you consider how much content has been set during the Dark Times, it's nothing to sneeze at. Since the sale, we've had:

2 movies (Solo, Rogue One)

4 series set in that time-period (namely The Bad Batch, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Andor, and Star Wars: Rebels).

2 video-games (Jedi: Fallen Order and Jedi: Survivor).

17 novels (such as Ahsoka, Lords of the Sith, the new Thrawn books, etc)

And just a whole bunch of comic book series & mini-series (like Kanan, Princess Leia, various Vader-centric comics including Darth Vader: Lord of the Sith, many tie-in mini-series promoting Rogue One, Jedi: Fallen Order, Obi-Wan Kenobi, etc).

There's been so much content made for this time-period that it feels like an unwillingness to do the work and create something set something during the Prequel era, let alone something that follows its Jedi.

After all, why make a story set in the Prequels (disliked by vocal fans) when you can just take the characters in that story and put them in an OT setting (which will appease the Prequel-haters)?

Maybe these stories get relegated to the Dark Times because:

there seems to be a perception that anything set in the Prequel era won't sell?

or maybe the current SW writers weren't fond of Episodes I, II and III, and don't find those Jedi characters likable, thinking they're too righteous and dogmatic which makes it hard to craft a story around them.

Or maybe it's because they're under the impression that the Prequel Jedi are bad. Like, canonically, in the narrative. Not just in a "I don't like them" sense, but also in a "the story is all about them becoming corrupted" sense.

Let's expand on that last point.

Retconning the Prequels as the "Fall of the Jedi" era

Somehow the rare stories set during the Prequels that we do get seem to automatically be about how "the Jedi lost their way/failed".

The series Tales of the Jedi is explicit about it...

... and I already explained why it contradicts what George Lucas established here and here.

You also see it in Rebels and the new season of The Clone Wars...

... in comics...

... in games...

It gets to a point where the Prequels era has now been redubbed the "Fall of the Jedi" era by Lucasfilm.

You wanna know what that period was referred to before the Disney sale? The "Rise of the Empire" Era.

Because - and I'll never get tired of saying this cuz it's factual - the Prequels aren't about the fall of the Jedi, they're about the fall of the Republic and Anakin, and rise of the Empire and Vader.

So in addition to being overdone, the "Jedi lost their way" is not even the intended narrative of the Prequels (if one puts any stock in Lucas' words). It's a minor subplot at best, hardly the focus of the films, let alone a whole time period.

But dubbing it "Fall of the Jedi" implies that there's another era in which the Jedi were in their heyday.

Because Star Wars authors are in luck! Yet another alternative has presented itself in the shape of a new transmedia initiative, and it's even better than the "let's set it during the Dark Times" solution:

A new transmedia initiative: The High Republic

You wanna deal with the Jedi before the Empire, but for some reason you wanna avoid dealing with the ones seen in the Prequels?

Look no further. Meet the Jedi of the High Republic.

Noble, adventurous, inspired by the Knights of the Round Table, they're everything the OT kids dreamed about when they heard ol' Ben Kenobi talk about the Knights of the Old Republic.

That's more like it!

Note: the High Republic was created for other reasons and has many more upsides than the ones mentioned above. Namely, a fresh new spot in the timeline that allows for creative freedom and a beautifully-coordinated transmedia storytelling effort where retcons are non-existent. However it does seem evident that not having to deal with the 'unlikable' Prequel Jedi and their "fall" is one of those upsides.

Another perk that the High Republic era offers is more freedom in terms of storytelling compared to the Prequels.

In 2016, Pablo Hidalgo tweeted he still quotes to authors the following excerpt of West End Games' guide for aspiring Star Wars writers, from 1994.

You can't write "this was the best day in Luke Skywalker's life", for example, because another author may want to write a better day than the one you just wrote.

My guess is that a similar approach applies to how all characters from the movies are treated. They're massively iconic. So you can't write a book that drastically changes how Mace or Yoda or Obi-Wan are perceived overall.

The stories need to be self-contained, disregardable if necessary, because you'll have dozens of writers coming up with new stories for those same characters, and you need to leave them some room.

Examples:

Notice how in the book Dooku: Jedi Lost we never see how Dooku turns to the Dark Side and joins the Sith.

Same goes for crossover comic book arcs of the Star Wars issues, like Vader Down or Crimson Reign... the characters don't really change by much in those comics. You could stick to just watching the movies and you wouldn't really miss anything.

But with The High Republic, you indeed can develop these characters as much as you want.

All stories featuring Avar Kriss leave an impact on her, you can nail down who she is perfectly in one book or one comic arc, both being just as meaningful to her character.

The fact that she's not as iconic/famous a character as Mace Windu means that authors can go to town on crafting an interesting and nuanced character arc for her that'll have a beginning, middle and end... something Mace will never really get.

CONCLUSION:

Back in 2015... let's not kid ourselves. The Prequels were unpopular and Disney is a multi-billion dollar corporation. Opting to make as much money as possible is what they do.

It's the same reason they decided not to go with George Lucas' original plans for the Sequels, in 2012.

I mean, imagine you're Disney. You just dropped 4 billion dollars, with a B, on this franchise. Your next Star Wars movie needs to be worth the price tag. Now, you can pick between two options:

Option #1 is uncharted territory and it explores the midi-chlorians (the cursed word…!) and the guy who presented you with this option also openly admits that a big chunk of customers won’t like it, but he wants this to be done because it’s his vision.

Option #2 is very simple: a soft reboot, that plays on nostalgia that the same chunk of customers (aka the 'boomer and Gen-X fans who grew up with the Original Trilogy and now have kids, grandkids and MONEY) will like.

It's a no-brainer. They gave the customers what they wanted.

But time has passed, the fans who were children when the Prequels first came out have grown up, and grew up with characters like Yoda, Mace, Plo Koon, Kit Fisto and other Jedi as their heroes, aside from main characters like Anakin and Obi-Wan and Ahsoka.

Can we maybe expand on them, flesh them out more?

No, let's either ignoring the storytelling potential of these characters or reducing it to them being "righteous, arrogant and dogmatic".

God forbid we get a story showing the Prequel Jedi in a *gasp* more positive light? One where their POV is more understandable, instead of the same old "we brought this on ourselves" storyline.

There's a whole decade between The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones... you're telling me there's no space to show us Anakin's training and how he formed bonds with the Jedi we later see in The Clone Wars? I tried my hand at it here:

Interesting or fun Prequel-set ideas from other pro-Jedi fans on Tumblr can be found here, here and here.

And y'know, part of the Star Wars intent is for fans to take the ideas in the movies and come up with their own stories. You're supposed to create headcanons.

What I'm saying is fans of the Prequels are being given less "imagination food" than the rest, and many of us who like the Jedi in particular are forced to rely on headcanons only. "Better than nothing" is no longer an acceptable standard.

There's a range of recognizable Jedi characters that have already been established in films and TCW, can we maybe expand on them, flesh them out more, instead of whole new ones?

[beautifulpersonpeach]

What do you think is gonna happen with BTS after military? Group longevity, I mean. Will they last? Because I get the feeling that after the mandatory comeback and tour things will get… tricky.

***

The members say they want to last until they're all well past retirement age, so who am I to say otherwise?

It's not like it's not possible, after all. Bands like U2, Coldplay, and Radiohead are still together and touring 20+ years later with most/all of the original line-up. Within k-pop, Shinhwa is technically still active 26 years later even if their performances have long downtime intervals these days.

Think I've said this before, but again, Chapter 3 will be everything we've seen in Chapter 2, supercharged. I assume the first thing on the agenda when BTS returns is an OT7 tour plus one or two OT7 albums. Concurrently or subsequently, solo projects (features, singles, EPs) for the members will continue within two years of BTS returning so they build on the momentum set up in Chap 2. I think its fair to assume a few years dedicated to group work, interspersed with solo projects in music, acting, design, producing etc, every seven years or so. I see things being intense for ~4 years immediately after their military service, before a more sustainable rhythm is set by the company/group.

Reading between the lines in HYBE's quarterly investor calls, the company (1) is desperate for cash and BTS is their primary cash cow; (2) intends to ruthlessly destroy their competition while they still have BTS locked up in exclusive contracts for the next 7 years.

It's anybody's guess on if BTS renews their contracts with HYBE in 2030. I'd imagine HYBE will offer any concession to keep the members so we'll see. There's also been some chatter about one or two members starting sub-labels in HYBE, and while that's an interesting possibility, it's still just chatter for now.

In the meantime, the fandom will only become more crazy so buckle up if you intend to be active in fandom spaces.

[don-quixotine]

Thoughts on NATLA so far (up to ep 5)

I'm really loving it!!! There are some parts where the pacing gets a bit slow but it makes up by hitting you out of left field with the feels.

Episode 4 is my favorite so far.

I absolutely LOVED this rendition of Sukka. What bisexual disasters, the pair of them.

ON THE FIRE NATION:

I absolutely LOVE the background story on the fire nation family, particularly the bond between zuko and iroh. It is presented completely different than in the OG, since the 'show don’t tell' of the original happens in Book 2 and here they use flashbacks, but it works. Still ended with me in waterworks. Also, I understand the logic behind showing all of the cards from the very get-go being that Netflix can cancel the show before it is renewed for another season, so it needed to make the best impression possible, show all the stakes but not reveal them in ther completion. I think they did that very well so far.

ZUKO IS SO AWKWARD I LOVE HIM

his expressions and reactions are just peak comedy. He is the embodiment of "😫😟" and I love that for him.

Dallas' performance is definitely one of my highlights.

ON KATARA AND SOKKA:

The thing that is the most foreign to me so far is the decision to improve Sokka's emotional stakes at the expense of Katara's. I like it but this has to be the element where the adaptation departs the most from the og. Like, in the cartoon it is Katara who bears the brunt of the responsibility taking care of the water tribe and her brother, which is why Sokka's sexism as a character flaw worked there. I can see now why they chose to drop that. With the script flipped like this, with Sokka being the main caretaker and provider between him and Katara, making him stay sexist would've been a bit too much. It is very different, but I like how they flipped the script between them.

What I did not like about this flip is that the change seems to affect Katara's character for the worse. She is not as outspoken or short-tempered as she was in the cartoon. It's almost the complete opposite. But I can definitely see the shyness and insecurity being the deliberate starting point of her arc. Now in ep 5, you can see her becoming more confident both in personality and bending. I think this was a conscious decision, but I still wish she had been written to be more headstrong from the very beginning.

That being said, I really appreciate how different the dynamic between Sokka and Katara is. I love how Katara is trying to get her independence while Sokka is still caught on the fact he has to be her protector, almost parent figure, which is a cool change of pace. One of the things that kinda bothered me as a young girl watching Avatar was that Katara was always stuck being the mom and sort of getting teased for it despite the fact no one else could or wanted to step up to that responsibility. It's cool to see Sokka bearing that responsibility as the eldest in the adaptation.

ON THE BLATANTLY MISSING KATAANG

You know, I don't hate this change. Aang and Katara's interactions are still pretty wholesome, and once they start catching feelings for each other, it will be super cute because you see where the love is truly coming from. It's not just Aang's childhood crush/Katara's "destiny", as it was presented it the cartoon. Besides it would have looked a little weird, considering that the age gap between Gordon and Kiawentiio is way more obvious on screen than it is right now when you see the interviews with the cast, because that kid Gordon is growing up SO fast.

OVERALL:

I am enjoying it very much! The adaptation is excellent. Despite some changes being quite big, they managed to capture most of the show's essence. I do believe it could have benefitted from a bit more balance between the comedy and the seriousness, particularly when it comes to Aang because he is mostly just weighted down by his responsibility in the adaptation, I don't see him joke as much, but in general and all limitations considered, I think they did an excellent job! It won't be for everyone, for sure, but I can say it has managed to bring back that feeling of watching the show for the first time again on some parts :)

[pharawee]

🖇️BL WATCHLIST SEPTEMBER

🎬First Note of Love - GAGAOOLALA - I am here to make gifs of Jame Kasama my beloved.

🎬Jack & Joker - IQIYI - I hope this show stays as action-oriented as it currently is because I'm loving every second of it.

🎬I Saw You in My Dream - GAGAOOLALA - I love everything about this show. EVERYTHING. It reminds me of La Pluie (minus the ending).

🎬Monster Next Door - GAGAOOLALA - How does Kongthup know exactly what I want? Plus, this has one of the best depictions of introvert behaviour I've ever seen in Thai BL.

🎬Kidnap - GAGAOOLALA | NETFLIX | YOUTUBE - We're off to a good start, I'd say. I'm really impressed by the series' direction so far, and I'm trying to just enjoy myself without any other expectations. I've always loved Ohm and Leng and he together are 😍😍😍

🎬The Hidden Moon - WeTV - I renewed my WeTV subscription for this and I wasn't disappointed. It's intriguing with a promising plot and beautiful shots of Chiang Mai.

🎬Love Sick - IQIYI - This one is such a light and charming watch. Just very sweet and very well done in general. I think I'll definitely try and keep it on my watchlist.

🎬Bad Guy My Boss - GAGAOOLALA - I'm really, really not vibing with this show. I like office BL well enough, but this is waaay too trope-y for me. I think I'll give it one more week because Kad is cute enough to make up for everyone else in this show.

🖇️CALENDAR (THAI PRODUCTIONS ONLY)

🖇️UPCOMING

⭐Club Friday: Family Tragedy - YOUTUBE - This anthology series is messy and unhinged (it's based on true stories so...) and often has lots of QL elements. In this part, a man is having an affair with his new wife's son - which is probably about as messy as it gets. Amazing, I'm in.

🖇️ON HOLD

🎬Battle of the Writers - YOUTUBE - I want to like this (especially for Mark Sorntast) but I just don't have the time and if I manage to catch up with one ep it's kind of all over the place.

🎬Addicted Heroin - I've decided to switch from the cut version on youtube to the uncut version but that one doesn't have a fixed release because it's often missing subtitles. For now, I really like this show and the way it's filmed. It's respectful of the actors' ages and beautifully filmed.

🖇️COMPLETED

🎬4 Minutes - GAGAOOLALA - For some reason I just couldn't get into this. Maybe it's the lack of time. Maybe it's one of those shows you'd need to rewatch to fully appreciate but at least for now this seemed very style over substance to me.

➕ MDL | ABOUT | ALL WATCHLISTS | COMMENTARY & NEWS TAG | THAI BL NOVELS | BL INDUSTRY | UPCOMING | SPOOKY BL

[sugdenlovesdingle]

Bestie my beloved I followed you for the robron shenanigans and all I can think about is thinking of starting that firefighting show.

Is it good? 👀

I'm guessing you mean 911 since that's kind of taken over my brain (and blog) lately.

I have to be honest, I was more of a casual viewer up until about 6 weeks ago (ish?) when this happened

and Buck (on the right) had his bisexual awakening. And his story so far has been just textbook Queer JOY. The man has always been a human ray of sunshine, but now he's dating a hot firefighter/pilot with a cleft who makes bad fake mouth static? He's GLOWING.

But this is season 7 (it's already been renewed for season 8 though) and A LOT has happened since the first ep (caught in a tsunami, crushed by a firetruck, struck by lightning - and that's just Buck).

It has its ups and downs (like any show i suppose) but if you're looking for something to watch the next few weeks, give it a shot! Just don't expect timelines that make sense or realistic firefighting/emergencies - we don't do that here.

There is also 911 lone star, set in Texas - hence the lone star thing - that's 4 seasons now and they're filming season 5 and has these cuties (among others)

and even more batshit crazy emergencies and fucked up timelines.

[lover-of-mine]

IDK enough about when scripts for S7 were written vs knowing 10 eps only and S8 renewal, but I kind of feel like eps 1-5 were written with Eddie/Tommy leading to Buddie in mind and then when the switch happened they changed a couple of things in eps 1-3 (not much, just Buck speaking to Tommy before he headed off after Eddie) and then ep 4 became a mish mash of what was originally planned with Eddie (his whole meeting someone and clicking thing and their "dates"). I feel like they were going Buddie (making Buck jealous while Eddie figured out he liked men in 7a and then going to spend 7b with the fallout of that leading to Buddie) but then found out they had only 10 eps and the woman who played Natalia couldn't come back so they switched it to Buck because it was easier to make him bi/they didn't have a storyline for him anymore if Eddie wasn't dating Tommy, making Buck question everything while still dating Natalia. And THEN they got renewed so instead of pushing Buddie to end S7 they moved it to S8 to give Eddie a better coming out arc, but then had to come up with a storyline for him beyond the nun thing and TM happened to watch Vertigo late one night... IDK maybe I'm crazy, but I just feel like S7 was planned buddie (starting with Eddie/Tommy as catalyst) - even including how they marketed the season before it aired with a lot of Buddie stuff and talking about it in interviews, etc (and that Family Feud ep) after filming the first 5 eps that had been written - and then between only 10 eps and a S8 renewal the plans changed. Does that make sense or am I delusional?

If you're delusional, we both are delusional because I'm right there with you. They already had episode 6 recorded by the time of the renewal but not anything past that, and assuming that the renewal allowed them not to rush things doesn't feel crazy to me. Also I think they switched things around because they realized Buck was more straight forward to get out of the closet than Eddie along with the actress availability, I don't think they planned on shoving Buck on the back burner, they just happened to not know what to do with him because Natalia couldn't come back so they couldn't use her for whatever plan they had about his death, and then they gave him something they had planned for Eddie, because the switch happened while they were filming the cruise, and just kept him in Eddie's storyline for the rest of the season because they didn't plan that far ahead lol the vertigo thing was very clearly a last minute decision because if they had thought about it earlier, they would've expanded the situation to happen all season, imo they could've used Kim in 705 for the conflict with Marisol instead of that nonsense of moving in/moving out, along with actually giving us the backstory on Eddie and Shannon. That deleted conversation with Chris adds a lot and it would be interesting if we had seen some version of it during 701 when Chris is having his crisis about Shannon and talking to 5 girls, and if they had laid the groundwork from the beginning of the season, that storyline wouldn't be so out of pocket. I think it was a combination of the way the actress couldn't come back, the show was renewed early and the way that Buck bi was well received, they kinda realized they could use Eddie being queer to bring the same type of buzz to s8 as biBuck brought to s7, and looking at it from a business perspective, to cram both storylines into one season when they could milk the exposure is kinda dumb, so we ended up with them not knowing what to do for the back half of the season and just winging it. And Ryan said they were getting scrips hours before shooting, so like, it was very clearly we did not plan for this but we need 4 more episodes so they let Tim play in his sandbox of madness.

[notalkingbusiness]

Have you considered that the reason LC & DG are equally billed is because they start from stronger negotiating positions? Both have already left; LC because she wasn’t paid enough & DG because she could & did pursue other things. The latter leaving after Andrew Lincoln is also reported to be one of the main catalysts of the original show being wrapped up & broken down into spin offs.

Melissa, on the other hand, feels like someone who doesn’t care too much about billing. She wasn’t even billed until season 4 in the original show. Add to that the fact the show is named after Daryl, and the Carol is a subtitle, I’m not sure it makes sense for equal billing. There’s maybe something to be said about Norman, Zabel & Nicotero agreeing to go ahead without her while Andrew Lincoln & Scott Gimple waited until DG was free. Yes, Carol is important. Yes, Melissa is a great actor but the show’s had a strong first season before/without her. The other spin offs both start with all their leads in place.

Maybe equal billing will come for Caryl in s3 when they hit their stride/they bring in the ratings.

No, I don't think that's the case at all, anon.

I can't speak for the individual negotiating positions of all the leading ladies, but I'd be curious to know how Lauren Cohan was in a stronger negotiating position after she walked away from TWD? She returned to TWD after Whiskey Cavalier was not renewed for a second season. To me, that looks more like pragmatism than a straightforward triumphant return.

I'm not sure where you're getting your information from about Danai Gurira either? Fans had to wait years for TOWL because Gimple couldn't get his Rick movies off the ground. The films were announced in 2018 and never materialized. That's the reason for the delay. Gimple didn't do anything out of the goodness of his heart or because he's #Best Ally #All About "Strong Female Characters" #Not Like Other Showrunners.

The original Caryl spinoff was supposed to run alongside the main show, presumably with Maggie and Negan leading the TWD in Caryl's absence. As mentioned in the article below, "talk of the offshoot actually pre-dated news of the mothership winding down. 'There's been talk for a long time about a Darryl [smh, Dalton] /Carol spin-off,' says Kang. 'And so that was something that we were working on well in advance of the news about the ending of the series.'"

Billing matters. It matters to everyone involved in a production because it's one of those things which impacts the overall hierarchy. Billing is directly linked to pay, professional recognition, and seniority. TBOC's unequal billing and unequal title set the stage for an unequal show. Not only in terms of uneven storytelling, but in terms of whose EP notes are taken with more consideration etc.

Melissa should've been properly billed before Season 4, but we can't do anything about a billing from over 10 years ago. Personally, I think comparing TBOC's billing to the billings in 2013-14 is redundant because we're not comparing like with like. The most pertinent and relevant points of comparison are TBOC's sister shows - TOWL and DC. These shows are all being made by the same company concurrently and they all fall under the same brand. Both of the leading ladies are equally billed in TOWL and DC and rightly so! Plus, neither of them were reduced to a subtitle. The discrepancies with TBOC trouble me. Why have AMC opted for a clunky and uneven title? Why have they broken protocol when it comes to billing their female lead? Why are they so bad at this?

There's a reason why the other spinoffs started with their female leads in place - none of the other shows were needlessly yeeted across the Atlantic at the last minute. Honestly, I'm not sure if any of the shows are doing well. Not really. It's not a good sign when the uninitiated are surprised that TWD is still going. It's not a good sign when everyone laughs at the idea of Daryl randomly ending up in France. DD had the added problem of splitting a previously loyal demographic and creating a lot of negative energy when some of the dudes attempted to justify extremely questionable decisions.

Can they turn things around? I hope so. But I can't put my hope and trust in Zabel, Nicotero, and Gimple. These men have proved time and time again that they just don't get it. I'll believe that brighter days are ahead when Melissa is equally billed. Melissa is Norman's equal in every way and she should be equally billed when the show airs in September. No ifs, no buts.

I'll believe that brighter days are ahead when TBOC can make me feel something other than disappointment.

Anyway, as you can probably tell, I am very frustrated with TBOC atm 🫠 To be clear, all of that frustration is directed at TPTB rather than you, anon. We all deserve so much better than this.

[telomeke]

MOONLIGHT CHICKEN – FUN WITH THE NAMES

Not meaning to take away from all the big emotions in Moonlight Chicken, but they were really having fun with the names weren't they? 😊

JimBeam caused the biggest hangover for our dear protagonist uncle. And their furkid came about because, well, Jim + Beam = Jimbo.

Also, going back in time, can you imagine little siblings Jim and Jam running around their family farm? How cute are those names for a pair of little rascals! 😂

When I first started writing this post, it was because I thought the wordplay in the examples above was a bit of fun. But remembering how Pat and Pran's names in Bad Buddy were also able to represent deeper layers of meaning (write-up linked here) I took a closer look at some of the other names in Moonlight Chicken.

Here's what I've found – some of it's fun, some of it's heavier, and some are probably just the product of my fevered, moonlight-induced delirium, so be warned! 😉

First up is this guy, Wen's good friend Gong–

(above) Moonlight Chicken Ep.5 [3I4] 4.12

The Thai spelling of Gong's name (ก้อง) can be seen on Wen's mobile at Ep.5 [1I4] 16.16, and it translates to resonant. And the idea of a resounding gong (the percussion instrument, that in East and Southeast Asia was also used to signal announcements as well as in music) does fit rather well with Gong's depiction in the show. He's shown to us as kind of an unfiltered loudmouth, and this is established early on when his indiscreet nail-and-bail advice to Wen in the gym locker room was broadcast to everyone else there. 😂

(above) Moonlight Chicken Ep.1 [3I4] 7.12

This pun also works across many languages, where the word gong (the instrument) exists in homologous versions – in English, Malay/Indonesian, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Japanese, Portuguese, German, Polish… but not in Chinese and only partially in Thai, ironically, where the word ฆ้อง (for the instrument) is pronounced more like khong. 🤷‍♂️ (Still similar though.)

There's also another possible pun that plays on the show's overlap with Chinese culture (remembering that Moonlight Chicken is heavily Thai-Chinese) – the Chinese dialect honorific Ah Gong (阿公/亞公) that many grandkids use to address their Chinese grandpa. (In Bad Buddy, you can hear Pat's mother use this term when talking to him about his grandfather, at Ep.10 [4/4] 11.14.) In Thai, this Chinese loanword is spelt differently from Gong's name (ก๋ง instead of ก้อง) and the tone is also different. However, the pronunciation of Gong's name is similar enough to Teochew (the predominant Chinese dialect group in Thailand) that I think the pun does work too.

Based on the above, in my head at least Gong the character is very much a caricature of a worldly-wise gramps, dispensing advice to the less-experienced Wen. He's even got the near-white hair to suit, and in the scene at Ep.5 [3I4] 3.36 he's also dressed in yellow, which in Thailand is often associated with a higher, wiser authority – a reference to the saffron robes of monks, and also to the current king and his father.

OK I'll shut up about Gong puns now – just as Moonlight Chicken's art direction told Gong the character to do later, via his wardrobe: 🤣

(above) Moonlight Chicken Ep.6 [4/4] 6.33

Now Li Ming's name is packed with many layers of meaning, and this makes him symbolic of one of the show's major themes (that of renewal and a fresh start in the future).

(above) Moonlight Chicken Ep.6 [1I4] 14.09

I've written about Li Ming's name in previous posts so I won't go into it again, but the posts with more info are linked here and here. (I'll probably write more about Li Ming's name in relation to the show as a whole later.)

I think of Heart's character as a metaphor for LGBTQ+ love – which may seem a little unusual, given that gay romances are at the core of the whole series.

(above) Moonlight Chicken Ep.5 [4/4] 9.46 – it's so powerful that Heart's parents aren't even in the frame, because it highlights the communication gulf that separates them; it's like he's talking to a void

However, I don't think LGBTQ+ love is really the central theme of Moonlight Chicken (and will post about this separately). Rather, the romances are there to help move the ship of themes along, without being the central message. But as in any Aof-driven show there will always be some sort of political statement in support of LGBTQ+ rights, and I think Heart was so named for this reason.

Heart is fully capable of love, a complete human being in that respect. Yet his parents saw him as deficient because of his deafness, withdrew themselves from him, and left him feeling quite unloved, lonely and sequestered – not so much out of shame perhaps, but more out of a misplaced desire to protect him I think (eyes on Bad Buddy's Dissaya here! 😡).

But Heart wasn't deficient as a human being, or any less than the people his parents were comparing him to – they isolated him simply because the language that most clearly communicated his innermost self was different from that of the majority, and they did not understand enough to cope with it. He wasn't voiceless – he simply spoke differently, using his hands (thus all the discourse around not using the word mute at Ep.5 [4/4] 8.04).

All Heart needed was understanding in order for his full, authentic self to flourish (which he got first from Li Ming, and is what the Jintanas finally gave to him when they took up sign language).

Do we need a stronger parallel for the experience of young queer people, whose hearts love differently from the cishet majority's, growing up in families that cannot or will not understand them? 💖

Saleng's name (ซาเล้ง) refers to three-wheeler vehicles (and saleng is an abbreviation of the full form รถเข็นซาเล้งสามล้อ). These are usually the pedal-powered tricycles used by rag-and-bone men (who load recyclable/saleable trash into the barrow sitting on two wheels at the front of their vehicle) or (sometimes) motorcycles that are equipped with sidecars (see this link here for some images). In an example of metonymy, the scrap-pickers who ride the salengs are also known as salengs themselves.

(above) Moonlight Chicken Ep.5 [4/4] 1.22

And this name is especially suited to Saleng the cheeky, rough-and-ready rascal in Moonlight Chicken – just like the man himself, the vehicle saleng is zippy, unbound by rules of the road and gainfully shoulders its burden, while scrap-picker salengs are used to constant hustle and hard work in their lives, ready to capitalize on any opportunity that they might happen to find.

One of the more important names in the series is the name of the diner, because it's the same as that of the show – พระจันทร์มันไก่ (visible on the lantern at the front), and it's pronounced something like phra jan man gai.

(above) Moonlight Chicken Ep.1 [1I4] 6.02

Phra jan means moon, where the phra part is a prefix used for revered persons, places or objects and the jan part is a word derived from Sanskrit that also means moon (and is a cognate with the Chandra/Chandran of many Indian/Sri Lankan names – e.g., சந்திரன் in Tamil – as well as candra in Balinese, Javanese and Indonesian, and cendera in Malay).

The man gai part is the same as that in khao man gai (ข้าวมันไก่), the Thai name for chicken rice. The literal translation for the name of this dish is chicken-fat rice, where man means oil/fat/grease, gai means chicken and khao means rice (adjectives or descriptors follow the noun in Thai). This name refers to the fact that the rice is given its deep savory flavor by sautéing it in chicken-fat (the famously flavorful schmaltz, for those familiar with Jewish-American cooking – see @waitmyturtles's encyclopedic post on khao man gai linked here if you'd like to delve into more culinary detail 👍).

You might think the most obvious translation of the diner's name would be the decidedly unglamorous Chicken-Fat Moon, but I don't think that's the only way it comes across in Thai. It was probably worded that way because it plays on the khao man gai served within, but the words do have other meanings too. The word man (มัน) in the diner's name can also mean joyful, enjoyable, flashing, shining, sparkling, glowing, bright, audacious or interesting. The words shining, glowing and bright are of course often associated with the moon, and in this light (pun unintended 😂) the translation Moonlight Chicken maybe isn't that far off (since phra jan man can also mean Shining/Glowing/Bright Moon).

But remembering that in the Thai language descriptors follow nouns, another possible reading of พระจันทร์มันไก่/phra jan man gai (at least to my non-Thai ears) is Glowing (or Joyful/Enjoyable/etc.) Moon of the Chicken (just as khao man gai is literally rice of the chicken-fat).

And if it's Glowing Moon of the Chicken, I think (bear with me on this) that the Chicken being referred to here is actually Jim (don't laugh). He's the main protagonist and the center of all the action in the series, so it wouldn't be surprising for him to be referenced in the title. (And I'm thinking of chicken in the sense of the living bird, not the food on a plate.)

Remembering that the full moon in Chinese tradition represents completeness in life, especially completeness of the family (referenced at the Mid-Autumn Festival of Ep.1, and written up here), we also see that Jim is haunted throughout the series by a home life that is incomplete (ever since he lost Beam), partly because he is still hanging on to the past. We are also told in the theme song that the moon represents the heart (see this write-up linked here) and I think Moonlight Chicken is very much about Jim's search to fill the hole in his, and render it complete again (despite his instincts to do the contrary).

So if Jim is the avian protagonist in the title (remembering that chicken is also a synonym for timorousness, even as we see Jim unwilling to take that bold step to remedying the emptiness in his life), he's very much domesticated fowl (and we're also shown how fastidiously he motherhens his brood – not just Li Ming and Saleng, but also the late-night dining crowd who come to him to be fed). Noting too that Jim was also from a distant rural farm also echoes this idea that he's very much a gai baan (ไก่บ้าน or domesticated fowl), not so much a gai aawn (ไก่อ่อน, literally tender chicken, slang for naïve greenhorn)…

Anyway Jim is not the only gai in the village (this isn't Llanddewi Brefi, Daffyd 😂). Of course, the other gai is Gaipa (ไก่ป่า).

(above) Moonlight Chicken Ep.3 [3I4] 2.14

Gaipa's name is quite unusual (even Director Aof's good friend and sometime GMMTV director Jojo Tichakorn has tweeted about how wild it was, if I remember correctly). Because of this, I think it's very much a deliberate choice. The meaning of Gaipa's name also reinforces the idea of Jim the moonlight chicken because it brings up a very interesting contrast.

The word gaipa (ไก่ป่า) actually refers to this handsome beast:

(above) Red junglefowl (Gallus gallus) – photo by Francesco Veronesi on the Wikipedia article linked here, and image license linked here

It's not quite correct to call this bird a chicken (which is domesticated fowl) – this picture is of Gallus gallus or the red junglefowl, the wild ancestor of all domesticated chickens, that still lives in forests throughout Southeast Asia (including Thailand) and parts of South Asia. Bold, resourceful and adaptable, it's also commonly seen in urban areas that neighbor its natural habitat (while still remaining very much an untamed bird).

In Gaipa's name, the gai part (ไก่, sometimes rendered phonetically as kai) does mean chicken in Thai, but the pa part (ป่า) means forest or wild. So Gaipa's name translates to something like forest fowl or wild chicken, that is the wild counterpart to domesticated chickens.

I suspect Gaipa's character may have been originally written as more flamboyant, and thus the image of the loud, colorfully bold (and sometimes squawky) red junglefowl would have been a better fit. Red junglefowl will also freely pursue and interbreed with domestic chickens (they are basically the same species, like wolves are to dogs; it's just that domestic chickens also have some genetic input from the closely-related grey, green and Sri Lankan junglefowl, and are more placid than their wild versions). With this in mind, Gaipa's romantic interest in Jim also makes sense (since Jim is the domesticated version of the wild gai).

Part of me wishes they had gone with a campier portrayal for Gaipa though – it might have been a chance to make up for the negative depiction of the screamy, predatory Green in 2gether. But at the same time it would have been a really delicate balance to get right (and flubbing it would ironically have become replication rather than reparation). So maybe Director Aof just didn't want to take the risk and opted for Khaotung's sweeter, more restrained rendering instead. 🤷‍♂️ I'm still a fan of what they've done nonetheless. 👍

OK, so on to Wen's name, and his is thought-provoking for the different questions and themes it evokes. The analysis of his name is so long that I've moved it away into its own post (linked here).

(top) Moonlight Chicken Ep.5 [4/4] 14.21; (bottom) Moonlight Chicken Ep.5 [1I4] 16.20

Keeping it simpler, Wen's name can be linked (via the wn that we see on his phone at Ep.5 [1I4] 16.20) to a political era in Thailand where opposing camps were known as the Red Shirts and the Yellow Shirts. The Red Shirts were identified with the country's lifeblood (its rural poor), and passionately championed the cause of the impoverished farmer. The Yellow Shirts were drawn from the urban elite (including intellectuals and royalists) and because of their origins among the intelligentsia can be seen as representing the message that passion should always be tempered with reason.

Not taking sides here, but very broadly I think that, based on the above, the colors yellow and red (including their various shaded incarnations like mustard/saffron for yellow and rust-brown for red) represent the different pulls of head versus heart, and we are shown both Jim and Wen struggling with knowing the right thing to do, and staying too long in the wrong situation because of emotional attachment (e.g., Jim with the diner, and Wen in his messy relationship with Alan). And we see Jim and Wen wearing more of each color at different stages of their journey, before they come to their final decisions allowing wisdom to prevail over their emotions. 💖 There's more detail in the write-up linked here if you want to read more (but it's a long post and a bit of a trudge to read, I must say 🤷‍♂️).

(top) Moonlight Chicken Ep.5 [1I4] 11.35; (bottom) Moonlight Chicken Ep.8 [3I4] 7.33

Anyway, I don't have any analysis for other names like Jim's and Alan's, so I'll end this write-up here. Maybe will expand more on these and other names after I've rewatched a few times! 💖

[annie-thyme]

okay so. I've binged almost all of leverage (3 eps left) and now wanna scream and chew cardboard I mean. I mean. hear me out here okay?

first I was like yeah okay sure I'm in a not doing things mood so might as well watch. I don't know any of these ppl except for like a handful of guest stars, but I liked the team's brand of weird and their dynamics basically right from the first ep. and sure the show's a little naive and a lot moralizing (don't like the moralizing), but the banter and the shenanigans and the fact that I suddenly remembered that I like heist movies but somehow haven't watched leverage until now is what kept me clicking on the next ep and the next and the next.

and I mean. this is tumblr ive seen gifsets here and there and I'm aware of the ship (you cannot be on this webbed site and not be aware of the existence of basically every major ship in basically everything, so) - but for the entire 4 and a half seasons I was like yep yep love the dynamic and really love the whole slow progression of rivals to teammates to friends and yeah okay Parker and Hardison dating makes sense but I'm not feral abt it and I still cannot see the threeway ship I mean they're friends and I love that for them and then AND THEN. and then I watched the dc ep. you know the one I mean. with the bomb and the virus and all the intense feelings and and I'm like *Eliot voice* oh come on!!! I did not require any new ships like I'm not much of a fandom person at all these days and yet here we are. facepalms and muffled screams into the pillow.

and I was like where! is more! of that I need more of that!!! after the dc ep and honestly I've watched the next couple eps on autopilot waiting for well not the progression but the same intensity of the dynamic at least but hahaha no said the show. and now it's 8 am and I'm writing this instead of sleeping or diving headfirst into the deep end of the fic pool and I know there's still those three eps left and then the entire renewed show but it's too much and not enough at the same time do you know what I mean

[gentlebeardsbarngrill]

02/01/2024 Daily Recap

TLDR; Thank you for the help!; HoistTheAdsReceipts; HoistThePetitionCampaign; UK News; Basingstroke Comic Con; Cast & Crew Sightings; Samba's birthday; Watch Partys; In Person Meetups; Articles; #OhBloysHeMad; Videos; Misc; Love Notes; DailyDarby/Tonight's Taika

Hey everyone! Thank you for all the kind folks that gave me feedback on the Renewal Repo! I'm still getting stuff back filled but please feel free to check it out now, it's got the current events I'm aware of and I'm keeping it up to date with everything daily that comes across my feeds. There's also a contact form for anything I'm missing or you'd like to add!

OFMD Renewal Repository

== Hoist The Ads Receipts ==

So technically this was yesterday, sorry I put it in my todo folder and then completely forgot to add it! So for those of you asking about receipts for the Hoist the Ads Charity donations. There are more images on those links but I'm running out of image allotment for this post so please visit the tumblr or other socials to read the rest. Instagram Link / Tumblr / Twitter

==Hoist The Petition Campaign!==

The @SaveOFMDCrew is hosting a #HoistThePetition campaign to try and boost Signatures on the Petition. You have a chance to win some OFMD stickers. If you don't have twitter you are welcome to message me and I'll message LC on your behalf or find alternative contacts for you! For those with twitter: LCWebsXOXO

== UK News ==

As always, thanks @lamentus1 for all the information on the UK front! Basingstroke Comic Con is happening on May 10-12 2024 at the Hampshire Court Hotel in Basingstoke, UK

BasingStrokeComic Con Facebook Ticket Links Some cool news on the twitter front, @lamentus1 tweeted the SunTV Magazine editor Steven Corbett and he responded!

== Cast & Crew Sightings ==

It's Samba's birthday!!!! He sent us a lovely photo on IG

Looks like he's feeling the love! He's trending! (and so are oranges haha- thank you @lucyrosebutler for catching the trends!) He's been out here liking everyone's comments so he's definitely seeing everyone's well wishes! Thanks for making him feel loved everyone!

Kristian Nairn gave some more updates! Looks like they're sorted for Wee John Monday! More info tomorrow!

==Reminders for Upcoming Events==

=#OurFlagMeansDeadloch=

Last day of #OurFlagMeansDeadloch tomorrow!

Watch Party Hashtags:

#OurFlagMeansDeadloch

#SaveOFMD

#AdoptOurCrew

=#StewAsACrew=

February 4th is National Soup Day! Share soup pics, jokes, recipes, etc while rewatching Season 1 of OFMD! 

Watch Party Hashtags:

#StewAsACrew

#AdoptOurCrew

#SaveOFMD

== In Person Meet-Ups!==

Are you near Burbank, CA? Tues, Feb 13 there will be a walking processional to celebrate #OFMD! Thank you @aimeekitty for sharing this!

== Articles ==

The big article that's got everyone's attention today was this pile of nonsense from the Vulture about "The Truth Behind Max's Cancellation Spree". If you don't want to give them the satisfaction of having clicks, you can go under the cut on this post to see screenshots of the article.

The Truth Behind Max's Cancellation Spree

This has once again triggered our fun and exciting hashtag: #OhBloysHeMad and a new one #Don'tStreamOnMax.

There are some tips from the #SaveOFMD Crew though about Hashtags and cross-posting

Also something to note....

==Videos==

New episode of Movies with Marty! Our Flag Means Death (2023) S2 Eps 3 & 4 Reaction | FIRST TIME WATCHING

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== Love Notes ==

I am very tired tonight lovelies. I had a lot to say but it's been a very long day, so I'm going to call it quits a bit earlier tonight. I think this picture sums up my feelings pretty well. <3 you all, see you tomorrow.

== Daily Darby / Tonight's Taika ==

Tonight's Darby picture is courtesy of @jacemerlyn on twitter. Thank you for this gem! Taika's picture courtesy of his instagram.

[blogger360ncislarules]

It’s become somewhat of a tradition for CBS’ Ghosts to end on a cliffhanger.

And Season 3 was no different. While audiences are going to be left waiting anxiously to know what, exactly, is going to happen to Isaac (Brandon Scott Jones), showrunners Joe Port and Joe Wiseman are delighting in the latest pickle they’ve gotten their characters into.

Not only has Isaac decided not to get married to Nigel (John Hartman), he’s now in the clutches of Patience the Puritan ghost, who struck up a friendship with Flower (Sheila Carrasco) while she was stuck in the well and has a bone to pick with Isaac since he let go of her hand while they were escaping from their own hole on the grounds a few hundred years ago.

“We really just enjoyed the possibilities of Patience,” Port said. “She’s become sort of a favorite in the writers room as we discussed what she could be like. So we just decided to have that be a turn that happens at the end of the of the season finale. I think it was just such a big part of the prior episode that we found it enticing to bring her back and finally meet her.”

Having already been renewed, the Season 4 writers room is officially open. The first order of business is “how we get him back,” Port said.

No doubt, there will also be some retribution for the basement ghosts, who were somewhat culpable in Isaac’s kidnapping. Although, Wiseman is quick to come to their defense. After all, the upstairs ghosts do treat them pretty awful — and they never intended for Isaac to really get hurt.

“We thought it was too far if they knew that Isaac was going to be kidnapped, but I don’t think they would have literally lured him into such a precarious situation,” he said. “You could argue that they had a right to be upset. They weren’t invited to a very big event in the house. They’re very much treated as second class citizens all the time. But we wanted to make sure that they didn’t know it was going to be so crazy. So we’ll see if they come clean next season or not.”

Among those relieved to hear that the writers plan to bring Isaac back to Woodstone Mansion is Brandon Scott Jones, the man behind the character.

“That means I still have a job,” he joked. “I have no idea how they’re gonna play it out. I don’t know if we’ll ever see Patience. But I think it’s a cool way to expand the world and remind people that there are so many more ghosts on this property than we’ve even seen just yet.”

Jones did have some ideas about where Isaac’s story could go in Season 4, now that he’s single once again and (probably) escapes the clutches of Patience the Puritan. He discusses all that and more in the interview below.

DEADLINE: When did you find out that Isaac and Nigel weren’t actually going to get married?

BRANDON SCOTT JONES: Somewhere towards the end of the season. I can’t remember where, but I think Joe Port and Joe Wiseman came to me and they said that they were thinking about breaking Isaac and Nigel up. Things change, so I knew that there was a chance before we even got the script that it was going to happen. But when I got the script, I just didn’t know what the machinations were going to be. I think even as we were filming it, it went back and forth a little bit between who left who at the altar, so I was a little bit…unsure of which way it was going to go, which kind of made it a little fun. I’m sad to see the relationship end, but I think it’s probably the best thing for both characters.

DEADLINE: Joe Port and Joe Wiseman mentioned to me they felt that maybe Isaac and Nigel rushed into their engagement. Did you feel the same?

JONES: Yeah, I always felt that, when he proposed to Nigel, it was a little bit of like a panic proposal. Isaac spent 250 years not really being himself, so he finally gets this opportunity and he kind of admits to at least the other ghosts, who he really is as he’s exploring that. He immediately finds himself in this relationship with Nigel, and I think it’s funny because it’s almost like he decided to go right back into the traditional steps of a relationship rather than exploring any other new thing. He just kind of felt like, ‘Alright, well, I guess I’m now gay, but I’m still going to propose to this person and live with this person and do all the necessary things.’ But I don’t know if he’s doing it because he wanted to or just because he felt like he had to because of the traditions of his era. When the stripper comes, it was definitely one of those things where I think it started to open up his eyes of like, ‘Oh my god, could I even find myself attracted to somebody else?’

DEADLINE: The stripper-turned-DJ being Isaac’s moment of awakening is quite funny and somewhat touching. It seems like he’d never considered there was anything else out there for him.

JONES Yeah, I think so. I think he probably has comfort in tradition. The idea of deviating away from any of that…it’s probably the reason he stayed in the closet for so long, even after he died. And I think the idea that this guy opens up his eyes, but also Pete really opens up his eyes too. He has this awesome story, which I think poses a really great question. What do you have to live for if you are already dead? What really, to me, made it cool it was that how they connected those two storylines and the wheels started to turn for Isaac.

DEADLINE: I thought it was quite beautiful how the other ghosts were reassuring him that there have been so many ways that they’ve met knew people and ghosts they never knew existed, and there is still so much for Isaac even though he’s dead.

JONES: Right. All these ghosts are stuck in purgatory. I think in Episode 3 of the entire series, they mentioned how their dream is to move on from this existence, no matter what. I think, as an actor, that’s sort of like your supreme motivation in almost anything you do on this show. This might be an opportunity where Isaac’s finally starting to wake up and realize, ‘Oh, I don’t have to just check boxes. Maybe the reason I’m stuck here is something a little bit larger that I have to go out and seek and find.’

DEADLINE: Do you think this is really the end for Isaac and Nigel? They do still have to exist on the same property basically forever.

JONES: It doesn’t sound too fun to be trapped in the same space as the person who left you at the altar. If there is a path forward for the two of them, I can imagine it’s not going to necessarily be smooth sailing. But then again, I also don’t know. Maybe it’s good that they spend time apart and if they never get back together again, that’s okay. But hopefully they’re both better because of this relationship, and they can find some common ground somewhere, either quickly or down the road.

DEADLINE: Isaac has to come back first, though. That cliffhanger at the end. What did you think of it?

JONES: The easiest way to describe it is that it feels like Isaac gets what he deserves, because he left this woman literally in the dirt. Then he recently left this man at the altar. He was, even in this episode, just a little persnickety with Sam the entire time. He’s a messy, messy dude that has a lot to figure out. Anytime he’s called out on his bullsh*t, or he has to pay the price for some of the things that he does, I think it’s a good moment because it’s funny, hopefully. But also, hopefully, he’ll be able to either learn or at least figure something else out. I don’t know what’s going to happen. I have no idea where this is gonna go, but I hope he does have to atone for something.

DEADLINE: Did they tell you they were going to do this to Isaac?

JONES: No, no, I didn’t get a heads up on that. I read that in, I think at the table read. It was definitely right before we were filming. I wasn’t sure if that was going to stay or not. But yeah, we filmed it and it’s in there. I’m excited because I think it’s gonna be a cool opportunity.

DEADLINE: Isaac is now the third ghost to ‘disappear’ in some way from the property this season. What do you think that means for the rest of the ghosts?

JONES: I don’t envy the job our writers have of sort of being like, ‘Well, these people can’t live or die, or hold anything. They can’t touch anything. They can’t talk to people that aren’t also dead.’ How do you tell the stories? But they always find a way to do that. I love any opportunity that we can to just deepen the mythology of the show. It is funny you actually pointed that out. I hadn’t noticed that, but yeah, this is the third person to go missing.

DEADLINE: Since the show has been renewed, what are you hoping is in store for Isaac once he’s back?

JONES: I try not to think too far ahead because the writers always keep us guessing. But I guess I hope this experience of leaving your fiancé at the altar, getting dragged into the dirt by a woman you left for essentially dead — if you can leave a ghost for dead. I hope that it sends Isaac on a new path of self discovery. There’s something really, really funny to me about somebody really trying to make a hard right turn into being a better person. That could be really interesting.

DEADLINE: I do think Isaac trying to be a nicer person would be a hilarious story.

JONES: Exactly. It’s really coming to terms with the atonement of all the bad things that he’s done. Like he killed so many people when he was alive. I would love to see him start to really try to figure things out and see how difficult it really is to change in the afterlife.

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

Thinking about HOTD's future seasons and the Dance of the Dragons...

OK. So GRRM said he thinks they need 4 seasons (40 episodes) to properly tell the story of the Dance. Last I heard, "while nothing is carved in stone, the current Targaryen storyline is currently plotted to run only about three or four seasons" -- that is, they didn't know at the time how many seasons HBO will grant them. Hopefully it's four; the way they were renewed for a second season within the first week of broadcast, and that each episode had such high viewership and gained viewers each week, would make it more probable that HBO would be willing to invest the money.

Anyway, here's the major events of the Dance of the Dragons and how I think they could line up with each season (under the cut for major spoilers, all the spoilers in the world):

So. Season 2 could end with the the Battle of Rook's Rest... or the Battle of the Gullet. It really depends on if they want to have the ending trauma episode Rhaenys's death or Jace's… either way the whole season should involve a major build up for both characters. Jace in particular will be in the Vale and the North for a while at the start of the season before returning home, so bookending with his ending could work well on a character arc level.

On the other hand, to have two ep10s with the death of one of Rhaenyra's sons? It might be too on the nose. But also I can't see the Battle of the Gullet as anything but an enormous setpiece -- big ocean battle, little Aegon riding his dragon for the first (and last) time, dragonseeds firing on the ships, Myrish archers firing back, Vermax getting pulled down by a grapnel, Driftmark attacked, High Tide burned... that's a Battle of the Blackwater -level kind of episode. Maybe it could be S3 ep 2 or 5? But I really can't help but feel it's an ep9 or 10 kind of thing. But then, so's Rook's Rest, with a 2-on-1 dragon battle and all... 🤔

But either way, I'm pretty damn sure they won't go as far as the Fall of King's Landing as a season 2 ender. Only if they're only given 3 seasons... and ugh, the time compression involved there, it would make S1's timejumps look like amateur hour, so let's pray not.

Assuming 4 seasons, if I were doing it, I'd put the Sowing of the Seeds mid s2 followed shortly by Rook's Rest, end S2 with the Gullet (major loss for Blacks, Jace dies), and end S3 with the Butcher's Ball (major loss for Greens, Criston dies). That would likely put the Fall of KL in mid-S3, a good audience-grabber episode, lots of dragons. And then the episode after, so many executions! Tyland gets tortured! (paging @mylestoyne) Probably what happened to Maelor... happens. 😭 But I definitely wouldn't want to end s3 with the Gods Eye, as HBO will need Daemon and Aemond to carry into the last season... can you imagine the S4 trailer? Oh.

Anyway, the Gods Eye and the KL riots happen so close to each other, and they both definitely are last season material. So, I'd make S4 start with First Tumbleton and the Two Betrayers -- that would lead to Rhaenyra turning on the rest of the dragonseeds -- which is what makes Corlys defect and also is what makes Daemon decide to just go mano-a-mano with Aemond -- and that leads to her downfall and the riots and escape back to Dragonstone etc. This would also give a core arc to the first part of S4 of Addam needing to prove his loyalty, etc, as well as the arc of Ulf and Hugh turning traitor at the beginning but getting theirs by halfway/75% through the season at Second Tumbleton. (Keeping these secondary character plots within one season would be ideal, as watchers forget their investment during hiatuses.)

But I would for sure move Rhaenyra's final scene to after Second Tumbleton for irony purposes (she doesn't know that the tide is turning in her favor, but it's too late for her anyway), as well as prioritizing emotional investment. Not to mention the deaths of the dragons in 2T would lead to showing Sunfyre's horrifying state at Dragonstone.

And again, if it were my choice, the last 2 or 3 episodes would have Aegon II's brief reign and murder, Aegon III's crowning, and the Hour of the Wolf. (Even more executions!) If they want to end downbeat, the last scene could be a focus of little Aegon all alone on the Iron Throne. But if upbeat (my ideal scenario) then there will be a last episode after the Hour of the Wolf with a swift pass through Corlys's death from old age, the Regents doing their thing, and the Winter Fever (Alicent's & Tyland's deaths)... and finally end with Alyn bringing Viserys home to the embrace of his family. (Like @naomimakesart's perfect artwork.)

Or at least, I'd include the Winter Fever in the final episode, since I'd like to keep Alicent's death the same (mourning her lost children and her lost innocent childhood (and in HOTD, her love of Rhaenyra)), and also include it in the show. But I don't know if they'll do that. 🤷‍♀️

But then who knows how many of these battles they'll keep in this adaptation, or if they'll keep them in order at all. Still, I hope you all enjoyed my fantasy booking anyway!

[muthaz-rapapa]

Hirogaru Sky Impressions (3/5)

Alright~

So we're more than halfway there. Excited for leaks season yet?

Show is still going good despite the last 10 episodes being mostly filler. I don't have anything to really complain about since as far as fillers go, the quality of HiroPre's is definitely better than those of previous seasons.

But me being me, of course there is going to be some form of criticism so let's gogogo~ and get that over with.

Again, the fillers are quite enjoyable but ever since the recovery of Captain Shalala, doesn't it feel like we've gone too long without any plot-related episodes?

Thankfully, it seems they're getting back to that with ep 31 next week. But even so, the lack of clues or hints about the Undergu Empire and the reason for its antagonism dragged the show's momentum slightly. So it felt longer to get through these 10 weeks.

"Filler doldrums" as I'd like to call it because tuning into Precure weekly became more of chore than something to look forward to.

But it wasn't that bad so let's hope the next 10 episodes will be more balanced.

Moving on.

I spoke too soon on not having to worry about the handling of Mashiro's character arc anymore. Why am I surprised, though? Whenever I let my guard down, my expectations are always betrayed. Oiy.

But honestly, they got me all hoping and excited since they actually gave her potential content to work with. Like her taking an interest in creating picture books. Or even her cooking skills or passion for makeup. Or her long distance relationship with her parents. That's quite a bunch of material to expand on for her.

Instead, she's been regulated to the passenger seat again to let Sora drive.

On one hand, I understand and can accept that Sora would receive more focus since the she is the main character of the overall story. Her coming from another world and therefore being a fish out of water bird out of Skyland when it comes to most things Earth-related...along with being someone who's never had friends before due to spending most of her time training are all prime real estate for development.

However, you can't deny that there is a blatant amount of lead favoritism.

It's not as bad as previous seasons since the writing for HiroPre is a lot better. But when the rest of the cast individually gets one episode of spotlight for every five or so the lead gets, it can be tiresome or even suffocating to sit through.

...on another note, my theory about Captain Shalala possibly being a double agent for the Undergu Empire turned out to be wrong after all. But I think having the enemy take Shalala hostage was the more suitable direction to go for breaking Sora down in order to let her renew and restrengthen her resolve as a hero. The loss of respect for your idol can be a really difficult thing to bear and that might be too harsh a topic for Precure's target audience. It achieved similar effects to the Broken Pedestal trope anyway so no complaints there.

Anyways, we may have broken the Pink trend this year but I'm not optimistic it will stay that way as long as there's always one primary lead in each group. Frankly, I think we're going straight back to special Pink treatment for another 4 years before 25th anniversary but that's a thing to worry about later.

As for Tsubasa and Ageha, I was more satisfied with their focus eps. Mostly.

Tsubasa's always teaches you something new. I really liked the one about branching out your dream, which is something we all need to hear should we ever reach our goal or get stuck on what to do next. And Ageha's most recent one with her older sisters and her parents' divorce when she was younger provided more depth into how she became the person she is today.

But I wasn't pleased when the Peach airline promotion ep that should've been about Mashiro spending time with her parents went to Tsubasa instead. I mean, Tsubasa showing off his airplane knowledge is always amazing but...ngh, they really don't care for Mashiro, do they?

Another thing. I became a little concerned about the portrayal of Ageha. She is shown to be consistently confident and composed in most things she does...but most 18-year olds aren't like that. So I worried for a bit if that might've sent an unintentional message that "you should be as competent as Ageha when you reach adult age" which is like ehhhh......not true.

Though it's only a flaw you notice if you're incredibly scrutinizing like I am. And given Ageha's personality, there's nothing wrong with presenting her as such cuz she wouldn't be Ageha without those traits. But definitely think of her more as a role model instead of one to emulate, that's all.

Right so, next week...is not the debut of Cure Majesty.

YET.

But very soon. Maybe even the week after? September titles haven't been released yet (as of checking right now) but with only...wow, 18 more episodes to go, they better make the best of it.

I don't think Ellee-chan suddenly getting older will become too much of an issue with pacing...as long as they don't put her in school if she still largely retains the mind of a toddler.

Or maybe she'll only grow older when transforming into Precure and return to being a baby during off-hours? That'd be interesting...it wouldn't be as fun as seeing her more grown up, yea, but it'd be unexpected, at least.

Whatever. Just give me more lore and I'll be good.

Finally (haha), let's talk about the future of Precure for a bit.

This season is obviously not going to be the last of 'em. If it was, they wouldn't try to scare you with it in an All Stars movie preview of all things. They'd likely do it the boring way by just announcing it in the news. :P

Anyways, we can definitely expect the franchise to continue for another 5 years. 25th anniversary is something Toei absolutely has to aim for because it will be a double milestone.

Quarter of a century run for the Precure franchise.

And (if my projected calculations are correct), if we keep to teams of 4-5 every year up until till 2028, we will hit over 100 Precure total.

Pretty exciting, yes?

With mixed-gender teams no longer being just a dream (look, Cure Wing even made the news! WAAAAHHH!!! xD) and upcoming projects like the Otona Precure series and the all-male Precure stage play in the works, it's definitely a confirmation that this franchise has no intention of ending any time soon.

If you want more consumers of your product, you need to accommodate for a variety of people and all sorts of new and different ideas, aspects and tastes.

Formula they probably won't budge on too much (not for the main tv series anyway) but there always will be other rooms to explore, y'know?

Ok~ So Precure won't be ending but summer is~

Hope everyone enjoyed it in spite of the heat and best of luck in school or whatever your future endeavors are!

See you in another 10 eps! (^ _ ^)/"