#and while I didn't watch Lost from 2004

[locke-esque-monster]

I wonder if in the (primary) Lost universe they're having news reports and memorial events to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the crash... If I were a better (fan)fiction writer, I'd so run with that idea.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOST!!!

[natjennie]

jennie!!!!! how's your Lost watch going? my partner and I just started watching a few weeks ago (I've never seen it, he's seen it so many times he has some episode dialogues memorized by heart) idk how far you are so I don't wanna spoil anything but I wanna talk abt it so bad AAAAAAAA

it's good!!! it's CRAZY!!!! like I start to get a handle on who everybody is and what the dynamics are and then boom. polar bear. boom french lady killed her whole group. boom pregnant girl kidnapped. genuinely every episode I go WHA? HUH? WHO? HUWHA??? and I'm having a great time so far.

[yona049]

𝕻𝖍𝖆𝖓𝖙𝖔𝖒 𝖔𝖋 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝕺𝖕𝖊𝖗𝖆 𝖝 𝖗𝖊𝖆𝖉𝖊𝖗

Part 1

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

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Disclaimer!

This is a story following the events after the Phantom of the Opera (2004) and only follows the movie and not any other adaptations!

Started with this fic a few years ago and finally continued bc I couldn't find any new fic's to read! 🥺

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(For ambiance~)

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Y/n stood with her feet planted infront of the burning Palais Garnier opera house, the ashes of a once red stage curtain falling on her bare shoulders. The only bit of warmth was the costume she was wearing.

A red fire dancer, her hair still in perfect shape. Tho it seems that the other staff of the Opera house weren't as lucky.

Her home was burning down infront of her eyes, and snow did nothing but usher on the burning flames of rage.

This was the doing of one Phantom of the opera. The damned demon took it all from them, their home, their jobs and even Christine Daaé.

The lead singer and great musician that made Y/n dance like never before, Christine's sweet melody made her feet float inches from the ground as her soul danced in sync with her body.

One shiver crawled up Y/n's spine when she heard an unghastly scream. Her feet simply lept to it, only to find a man crawling out of the burning opera house.

"Monsieur!" she cried out to him.

His face seemed to have already been caught by the fire and he barely wore anything but a shirt and his trousers. Y/n fell to her knees beside his weak body.

"Don't worry, Monsieur, you are out of the fire! Please, be still! You are injured. "

She trembled watching blood force its way through the thin gaps between the snowflakes. Blood still warm enough to melt and merge with ice to water.

In a desperate attempt, Y/n pulls off the bottom part of her dancing grown and desperately looked for the point of injury when she finally found the wound on the calve on his leg.

Tieing it tightly before Y/n hoisted him up to his feet.

"Please lean on me, we need to get further from the flames!"

He didn't speak, only grunted in pain. His voice was deep, without effort as if he was willing to Perish without hesitation.

Y/n took a moment to gently touch his burnt skin on his face, he didn't seem to whine. It was as she thought, the wound was not from the fire that had engulfed many others in its treacherous flames.

She shakes herself awake and quickly focuses on the problem at hand.

"I have strength to carry you, but you'll need to carry your consciousness for a little while longer!" she shutted, her voice swelling with pity for him.

'What happened to this poor soul?' She wondered and dragged his feet though the snow.

Y/n didn't know his name, nor his origin from the opera house. Perhaps a operator for the theater special effects? Or perhaps a member of the audience, sitting among the red velvet seats and nearly getting crushed by the chandelier falling loose from its hinges.

It wasn't long after when Y/n and the other performers were taken to a nearby inn. Perhaps it was the will of a greater power that the Opera managers didn't leave them to rot on the streets. Rather to reclaim insurance funds or come around a lone?

At least, she hoped that was the case. But for the moment, she was afraid of what might happen.

The opera house had been home for the last eighteen years of Y/n's life. No, certainly more!

Her father was a dancer, and her mother's legacy had been lost among the chatter and rumors of the opera.

Y/n's father had passed when she was only ten. Now, she was eighteen years older and she promised to follow in his dancing steps to fame.

Still engulfed in her thoughts Y/n stared into the small oil lamp flames while she sat on the bed of the inn. The figure of a woman danced in the red and orange colors.

This seemed to distract her from the man waking up from his exhausted slumber behind her.

He winced with a grumble when Y/n's head turned to face him. His palm covering the burn on his face that she saw before.

"Monsieur?" she whispered in an effort not to frighten him.

His gaze slowly trailed to Y/n's worried expression, but his palm never left his face.

Y/n took this opportunity to explain their predicament.

"Please, do not be frightened. We're in an inn, the managers have sent us to wait until they can reclaim funds."

She stood up to take the bowl of water and cloth to dampen the burnt flesh on the man's face.

She knelt down beside the bed and lightly lifted the damp cloth to his face. His eyes met hers, but Y/n only stared in silence hoping he'd understand her efforts.

Tho he was hesitant, his palm lightly lifted from his face. She feared the wound was still hissing with pain. Lightly the cloth is placed onto his eye and he gave a simple sigh of relief.

Silence filled the room, it would've seemed like only the stars were their witness if it weren't for the drunken cheers from the bar below.

Finally the man took a breath and spoke.

"What of Christine Daaé? Has she been found?"

Y/n's breathing seemed to betray her when her body couldn't fathom the gentle voice the man muttered. She tried to form words, creating a stutter.

"Y-yes, it um, It seems she has been retrieved by the Viscount Raoul de Chagny. She has offered many services to those who did not escape the flames unscathed." she whispered and willed herself to not look into his captivating eyes.

He looks to the side and gives a simple smile, seeming satisfied with his thought.

As soon as his skin was dampened once more he tried to stand with a gasply hiss of pain.

"Monsieur, please be patient! Your wound is still open and fresh!"

He grits his teeth before taking his seat again but looking back at the fireplace.

The rest of the night remained quiet, like he didn't have need to ask her anymore questions.

An awkward night spent sharing a room with a stranger. He fell asleep quickly with exhaustion.

Y/n couldn't sleep. Things ended so abruptly! How could she? Her love died in the fire, her home, belongings. She had nothing to her name anymore.

Y/n quietly stood up from the bed trying to keep noises to a minimum. Avoiding the creeking floor boards and opening the window to look outside.

The smoke from the Opera house covered the sky, no moon in sight. This quiet moment with her thoughts caused her throat to close up and her eyes to push tears.

As quietly as she could, she tried crying everything out, to no avail. Morning her loss took more than just a moment of soft tears.

"I'm sorry my love, Aloïs, I couldn't save you!"

She whispered. Her lover in the theater house had been burnt in the flames because he pushed her away from falling beams.

"Aloïs?"

She gasped when the voice lurks from behind her caught her off guard. The man stood up from the bed and had walked to right behind her without her hearing him.

"Monsieur! I'm so sorry, did I wake you?"

He shakes his head before spotting Y/n's shivers. Looking back at the blanket on the bed, he grabs it with one hand and swings it across her shoulders.

A gentleman! Y/n wasn't sure many workers from the Opera were quite so kind.

"You knew my Aloïs?"

He nods before leaning on the wall next to the window.

"Indeed, he helped me with costumes, more specifically Masks." The man mumbled folding his arms across his chest.

Y/n quickly realized what he meant when the dim light shone on his burnt face. Aloïs was the lead costume designer for all actors, singers and dancers in the opera. He'd certainly be willing to help a gentleman like the man stood next to her.

With a small giggle she put her hand on his shoulder.

"Of course, Aloïs would do something like that. I'm sorry if I make you uncomfortable without a mask."

He looks at me confused almost relieved that he wasn't the one in trouble for once. That someone genuinely asked if he was uncomfortable instead of rushing him away and out of sight.

"You're apologizing? Mademoiselle-"

"Y/n, please."

He seems to smile before leaning closer and wiping a lingering tear off Y/n's cheek.

"Y/n, my name is Erik."

Small talk lasted for a few more hours until the sun started to rise.

All members of the Opera house were called to the outside of the Inn where Monsieur André and Firmin would enlighten them of the situation.

Monsieur André took the lead standing ontop of the inn balcony.

"Listen all! I'm afraid we have terrible news you will all now be let go from the Opera house!"

A sudden uproar of voices filled the street and Y/n felt my body wobble a little from shock. Erik stood beside her with his hand on the small of my back trying to stabilize her.

Monsieur Firmin then took the lead and explained:

"This was a terrible tragedy! And with the business in shambles we have no hope of reviving it, thanks to our generous sponsor, Viscount Raoul de Chagny, we will be giving out warm clothes to help with your resignation."

They both quickly scurry out of view back into the inn, likely out the back door leaving the crowd in shock and anger.

Y/n bit her lip feeling another wave of sadness overcome her. Quick breathing and a pounding heart for the unknown future that lied before her.

"Fools!" She hears Erik mumble under his breath.

"We must go quickly!" he said grabbing her hand and pulling her through the crowd to the front.

They got their clothes, thanks to Erik for getting them there early enough to take a few extra pieces of clothes.

Even with a wounded leg, Erik managed to take them to a proper alleyway to get dressed in the clothing.

He dressed first, then stood at the front of the ally to let Y/n get dressed keeping a look out.

A gentleman walked by peeping into the alleyway, but Erik growled loudly and with his burnt face scared the gentleman away.

"I'm done!"

Y/n smiled walking out with the costume she wore neatly folded in her arms.

Erik seemed to smile at her for a very small second then it quickly fell away, he brought his palm to cover his face.

"May I?"

He looked at Y/n confused until she gently took his hand and pulled it away.

"This might not be as good as Aloïs's handy work."

She looked down at her costume before quickly ripping off a piece of the skirt. She used the edges to tie it delicately around the side of his face tracing over it.

"You shouldn't have to hide! People are children! Gasping at the first strange thing they see." Y/n declared.

Erik chuckles but only for a second before going back into a smile.

"Perhaps."

He offers his arm which Y/n gladly took. They walked out into the crowded streets.

The sights were great and all the small shops and children seemed so foreign to her. In the Opera house they only had wooden or stone walls with the occasional windows high up in the building. The space of an open sky and streets going as far as the eye could see was a breath of fresh air.

A few hours later, Y/n suddenly realized that neither Erik or herself currently had a place to live, she have no living family to rely on.

Walking around the city for the first time in years distracted her from the dormant thoughts about the trouble we were in.

She looked back at Erik ready to ask him if he has a plan, but his eyes were sparkling. He was bewildered and intrigued by buildings, people, sounds and other sights. Y/n was starting to wonder if he'd ever been outside the Opera.

She felt a smile spread across her face from the warmth radiating off Erik.

"Erik, have you never-"

"Hello little mis!" a voice from behind her.

Three men quickly surrounded them and Y/n felt her body shrink into fear. Her lack of outside experience made her forget about the rats lurking around the city.

"Well, well! Give us a smile! How much?"

Y/n felt one of the bigger men behind her run his hand down her back.

She jump forward from his touch ready defend herself however, Erik pinched her arm tightly between his bicep and torso.

Y/n looked up at him and noticed the grimace clenching of his teeth.

"Now, this is unfortunate, just as I was starting to enjoy the outside." Erik fumed.

The man reaches for Y/n's behind again but this time Erik uses a closed fist to swing right into the man's nose.

He pushed Y/n off to the side, just hard enough for her to delicately hit the wall. She watched while this night old acquaintance fights off three large men with a bit of wood he swooped off the ground.

Using it to jab into the first mans forearm and then kneeing him in the groin.

Erik kicks the second man in the side, and to their luck, the third starts running. Finally all three run at the first sight of blood.

Erik breathes heavily before dropping to a knee with a loud grunt,clutching his injured leg from the fire.

"Erik!" Y/n ran to his side and wormed her arm underneath his arm and around his torso.

"We have to leave before they bring friends." Y/n stammered.

Her eyes dart around to land on a Inn with a tavern at the ground floor. The sun was setting again so soon and the candles of the tavern were lit.

She walked with Erik and quickly made their way inside to set Erik down in the corner of the tavern by a table.

"Oi!" The barkeep yells at us.

"Out!! You don't have no money!"

Looking at their clothes Y/n understood exactly how he knew we had no money to spend.

"Please! This man is injured, we need-"

He interrupts Y/n again.

"No money, no service! Out!"

Y/n bit her lip hard, thinking of anything to pay this man until she got a small shred of an idea.

"I dance!"

This makes the barkeep stop and look back at them. He leaned against the bar and waited.

Y/n realized he wanted an example before she swallowed the lump of pride in her throat.

She slowly pulled her coat off revealing a very inexpensive dress they received from the Managers.

Low cut to account for all bust sizes and too long skirt for all heights of woman in the Opera house. Throwing the coat over Erik she leaned close to his ear to whisper.

"Hold on, I'll get more help and medicine for that leg."

He groans grabbing Y/n's arm, objecting to what he knew she'd do. She felt her heart want to cry at his genuine worry for her pride. She gently lifts his hand off before turning back to the bar keep.

She looked down at her skirt before lifting it and tieing it into a knot showing just above her knees.

The musician with a pocket fiddle in the corner starts playing a rhythmic song and patrons start coming in.

Y/n puts on the best smile she could muster before starting to move her legs and hips.

Y/n felt the gazes of every drunken basted, but worst of all, she felt Erik watching her. Intrigued or Disgusted? She wasn't sure. She hoped for the latter. It was the better of the two.

Moving her hand over a rich looking patrons shoulders before spinning to the bar and smiling at another gentleman.

For what felt like forever, Y/n danced following each rhythm of each song played.

Getting a small tip from some patrons before she stopped and leaned against the bar.

Out of breath with her chest moving up and down rapidly. Another song had ended. She wasn't sure how much longer she could continue, her legs burnt from no warm up before hand like she knew she had to.

The barkeep, more likely the owner of the inn, pushed a glass of water toward her.

"Well done girl! We haven't had this many patrons in a while."

He praised but Y/n growled and reached out to him with an open palm.

"I did my part, I need payment."

The barkeep looks disgusted and Y/n was afraid for a moment he would refuse her payment. Thankfully he reached into his apron pocket and gave her a good hand full of coins.

Before she could pull her hand back he grabbed her wrist and smirked.

"Come back, with a better attitude, and you can make twice as much."

Y/n gritted her teeth looking away knowing its a large possibility she'd need to come back for more payment.

She pulled her wrist back then ran to where she'd left Erik only to spot him with an angry expression.

"Erik?"

She knew it, he was disgusted! She hesitated in front of him. He only managed to lean forward and pull the knot out of her skirt letting it cover her legs again.

He looks away but patted on the seat beside him. Y/n felt her body once again shrink in on itself as she sat beside him.

She took this opportunity to count the coins and realized they had enough to rent a room for the night and for her to go buy bandages and medicine.

Once they were in the room she felt a very strange hole in her heart, she felt like she'd betrayed him. She was sure he'd leave the next chance he got. She basically did what he'd tried to prevent in the first place.

She sat on the bed facing away while Erik used this time to wash up in the wash room and apply the medicine and bandages himself.

"Y/n."

His voice stood out from the muffled cheers downstairs.

His hand traveled to Y/n's and he sat beside her on the bed.

"I'm sorry."

Those small words made Y/n breath a sigh of relief before she felt his arms wrap her into a hug.

She'd never cried in front of anyone or at least she tried to avoid it as much she could, so how is it possible for this man to have seen her cry twice.

His chin rested on her head as she sobbed. It felt like she would never stop. Until Erik started humming. A soft but familiar tune. A song from the Opera house used in one of the famous plays.

It was beautiful, an angel of music. A voice she didn't know she longed to hear. In sleep he sang to her, and in dreams he he came.

Y/n slowly calmed her sobs before her body fell into a limp sleep and exhaustion.

Erik smiled before slowly laying her onto the bed, however she was clenched onto his shirt so tightly, Erik gave in and layed with her on the bed.

He looked at her calm face wondering how she was able to remain so strong though everything, even taking care of him aswell as herself.

Feeling his heartbeat similarly to the first time it did when he saw Christine. He placed a gentle kiss on her forehead and slowly pulled her into his chest, keeping her covered from all the worldly wrongs.

[kafus]

i'm going to finally talk about The Buizel that i keep mentioning but then neglecting to elaborate on. just for the sake of personal documentation honestly. because she means everything to me

warning for discussion of SA! (nothing graphic but it's relevant to the story of this buizel)

this is Hope. she's a buizel. she looks unassuming with nothing particularly special about her other than being a pretty high level for an unevolved buizel. but she is one of the most important pokemon i own, if not the most important.

i've been into pokemon games since i was a really little kid, starting in 2004. my first game was leafgreen, but the sinnoh games have a very important and special place in my heart. by the time DP came out in 2007 in the US, i was a little bit older, 7 years old to be precise, and was able to enjoy the games on a deeper level than before due to an increase in reading comprehension and pokemon knowledge. when i think of "my childhood generation", it is definitely gen 4. when i think of 2007, i think of my excitement for diamond and pearl, begging my parents to get it for me for my birthday/christmas that year, watching the anime on the TV in eager anticipation for hopefully getting the games as a gift.

unfortunately when i think of 2007, i also think of an extreme traumatic event that happened that year. i was being sexually abused by my grandfather from a young age and this was ongoing in that year. in a fit of rage or god knows what, his level of violence increased all of a sudden in the summer, while i was left alone at my grandparents' house for multiple weeks at a time without my parents. i was brutally injured and could have died - my grandfather nearly killed me. i promise this is relevant to the story of this buizel so bear with me.

by the time i was home, my injuries had healed enough that despite coming extremely close to being examined by a doctor, ultimately no one ever found out, and i never told because of memory loss/repression. suffice to say we kept visiting my grandparents for the holidays. in particular, we took the small roadtrip to their house again for thanksgiving, and unexpectedly my grandma wanted me to open her birthday gift for me early since i was there in person, and i excitedly tore open the package to find pokemon pearl inside.

i did eventually get other pokemon games, gens 3, 4, and 5, but this pearl file remains the only childhood file i have that i didn't overwrite or lose the cartridge for. it's been very lightly played since childhood but it mostly remains in the same state it was whenever i last picked it up as a kid, including the over 200 hours of gameplay. considering i spent similar amounts of time in diamond which i got for christmas that year, suffice to say i played a lot as a kid! thanksgiving in 2007 was on november 22nd so the "adventure started" date lines up perfectly with the trip i was on to my grandparents' house.

i've peeked around this file multiple times and was happy to have some remnants of my childhood, but was also disappointed to find that most of the pokemon i was attached to and used had mysteriously vanished from the save file. my best guess is that i traded them to my copy of diamond which i was using in tandem with pokemon battle revolution on the wii, of which i unfortunately lost at some point along the line.

for instance, i peeked into my hall of fame data - i had beaten the league 9 times on this file and my first hall of fame entry, AKA when i beat the game for the first time, was from january 26th 2008 and had my original team, consisting of lucario, palkia, torterra, staraptor, and amusingly, an unevolved pikachu and an unevolved buizel, both at stupidly high levels for being unevolved pokemon. i was humored seeing this a couple years ago when i first looked through this file because it was so like me to have unevolved pokemon on my team, and in particular i was obsessed with pikachu and buizel at the time, so like... of course.

at first, i looked through the PC (and the daycare!) for any traces of any of these guys... nothing. they were all gone. after checking out other stuff like my underground base or whatever else, i shelved my copy of pearl again, only taking it back out of my box of DS games when i occasionally needed it for version exclusives or multiplayer battle tower shenanigans.

you may see where this is going.

this year i booted up pearl again because i wanted to ribbon master a pokemon from my childhood with my actual OT on it, AKA get all the ribbons possible on a pokemon. if you aren't familiar with the "ribbon master" challenge, don't worry about it, it's just a (very time consuming) hobby i have and i like doing it with pokemon that are meaningful to me.

in the pictures in this post so far, i've blacked out the trainer name on everything because i actually named myself after my legal name back then. i don't identify with that name anymore at all, but i really wanted to honor my childhood self because... sinnoh meant so much to her. this file, this cartridge in particular, was a light in a year that contained unthinkable violence and trauma towards me. a year when i could have died. i first played with this game cart in the building where just some months prior i had been bleeding profusely in the basement at the hands of my relative, a house that has since been sold off and i can no longer return to - this pearl cartridge remains one of the only remnants of that time and place, and it is deeply, deeply important to me. i didn't want 7 year old me's pokemon to rot away forever.

little did i know that apparently when i looked through the PC a couple years prior, i somehow completely missed that one pokemon from that hall of fame entry still existed on the file. just the one. miraculously. and it was the buizel.

genuinely nothing could have prepared me for finding her, i didn't expect it at all. i just started crying. i couldn't believe it.

her met date was november 26th 2007, just a day after i started this save file. i could not believe it either when i tabbed over to the ribbons page and saw the sinnoh champion ribbon, three contest ribbons, a ribbon for talking to the sunyshore NPC on a wednesday, and the footprint ribbon which is received for max friendship from a guy to the east of pastoria. she was by far the most well-loved pokemon still on the file, and maybe the one i wanted to see the most, if i could have any of those 6 pokemon from that hall of fame back.

i haven't mentioned it until now, but that aforementioned extremely violent event is the traumatic memory i have come to un-repress in the most detail out of any of my trauma by far. i still remember what i was thinking at the time to survive it, staring at the ceiling and escaping into my mind to pretend it wasn't happening. first i thought about the usual, my mom, my bedroom back at home, but thinking about those things ended up just making me feel their absence, and so my mind drifted to pokemon diamond and pearl. i didn't even own the games yet, but i played out what i thought they might be like based on that gamestop demo kiosk and commercials and the anime in my mind, and in that daydream, because of the buizel from the diamond & pearl anime, buizel was one of my pokemon, my main pokemon, a pokemon that i could not have yet but that i thought very fondly of and really wanted. and unsurprisingly it ended up as a member of my team once i finally got the games months later.

suffice to say, buizel is a pokemon that meant a lot to me and held a lot of weight and emotion for that 7 year old girl that was me. and so to find my first childhood buizel after all this time after i thought for sure she was gone and to see how much i loved her, i could not stop crying for a good while. and i'm tearing up again just writing all this out frankly

and so i traded her to my platinum and soulsilver saves to play with her, and start getting more ribbons on her like i had set out to do. (for the record, she had been fed horrendous poffins when i was a kid, and the contest ribbons were extremely & excessively difficult to get as a result, but i digress, i'll save talking about that for some other time). but one thing was still bothering me after all of this...

as a kid, i was spotty with naming my pokemon. i kind of had a whole thing where often times their species... felt like their name? so it felt weird to overwrite their species name sometimes. but despite wanting to honor my childhood self's wishes, the one thing i couldn't get past was this buizel lacking a name. i wanted to name her after all this time. but how on earth was i supposed to name a pokemon so meaningful to me after over a decade since she was first caught?

there were so many deepcut references to my childhood i could have made, so many thoughtful names... but i ended up just going with Hope. a simple name for a simple joy in a really complicated time of my life, something i probably would have named a pokemon at that age, and straightforwardly emblematic as to what she represents to me. because she is hope. i survived to catch her for real, not in my dying daydreams, and if i survived that then hope surely exists and i can survive anything.

and so i traded her to pearl one last time to give her her new name.

and this is hope now, in my platinum version:

i hadn't shared her nature until now. i think "brave" is really fitting. and as you can see i've been working really hard on her ribbons. eventually when i have all of them (just a few battle tower ones left to go!) i'll be transferring her up to see other pokemon regions and get all the ribbons she can, but i'll definitely be keeping a copy of her in gen 4 forever as a time capsule.

if you read this far thanks for reading this really overly personal and emotional account about this random buizel i just so happen to have. pokemon continues to surprise me with how much a cluster of 1s and 0s and some pixel art can mean, despite me getting attached to, and sentimental over them, time after time again. though out of all of them, hope has to be one of the most irreplaceable. i'm really, really glad i never traded her to diamond, and i'm glad i still have her around. i want to cherish her for a very long time & as i continue working on the ribboning process i'll post updates about her. just uh. don't expect that to be fast because i am ribboning a lot of pokemon right now lol

[broadwaydivastournament]

Movie Musical Divas Tournament: Round 3

Ann Miller (1923-2004): Claire Huddesen in On the Town (1949) | Beverly Ross in Reveille with Beverly (1943) | Lois Lane/Bianca in Kiss Me Kate (1953) | Nadine Hale in Easter Parade (1948)

"Often overlooked, relegated to the side, brought in just to showcase her ridiculous fast tapping, Ann Miller was a toe-tapping diva from a very early age and kept going till late in her life. There are many things claimed about Ann Miller(her age, how fast she could actually tap, her actual name) but the truth remains that she was a star and a diva that gifted the movie musicals with so much talent." - @tabbyofwisdom

Angela Lansbury (1925-2022): Em in The Harvey Girls (1946) | Eglantine Price in Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971) | Ruth in Pirates of Penzance (1983) | Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd (1982) | London Speciality in Till the Clouds Roll By (1946) | Mrs. Claus in Mrs. Santa Claus (1996)

"The patron saint of girls and young women labeled character actors at a young age, there are few people in the history of cinema who can claim a career as long and iconic as Angela Lansbury’s. Despite near constant sidelining and regularly being cast to play characters decades older than her, she managed to create a resume full of iconic characters and performances. In addition, she used her star power to advocate for AIDS research while it was still a taboo subject, as well as create roles for older actors to help them stay afloat." - anonymous

This is Round 3 of the Movie Musical Divas tournament. Additional polls in this round may be found by searching #mmround3, or by clicking the link below. Add your propaganda and support by reblogging this post.

ADDITIONAL PROPAGANDA AND MEDIA UNDER CUT: ALL POLLS HERE

Ann Miller:

"her LEGS man hER LEGSSSS. please pit her against cyd charisse so we can have a leg-off" - anonymous

"Nothing can recreate being eleven, bi but not knowing it, and watching Kiss Me, Kate for the first time. I didn't know if I wanted Ann Miller or wanted to be Ann Miller, and honestly, that's still the case." - anonymous

Photos and video submitted by: @tabbyofwisdom | Photo submitted by: @funnygirlthatbelle

Angela Lansbury:

"Because of Sondheim's continued insistance on making his musicals as accessibly viewable as possible, we have the glorious Sweeney Todd proshot that captures Angela Lansbury's career-defining performance as Mrs. Lovett. Many have followed. None of have baked a better pie." - anonymous

"Angela Lansbury lost the Emmy eighteen times. Don't let her lose again. She deserves this as one of our most beloved gay icons. She is happiness personified and the world is dimmer without her." - anonymous

Photos submitted by: @mygreatadventurehasbegun, @funnygirlthatbelle | Video submitted by: anonymous

[moonpoolcat]

No Significant harassment 2\6

FINALLY HE'S OUT!

Quick backstory (Short version)

No Significant Harassment is a hyper outgoing gen 3 iterator an co-senior of the Twilight local group alongside Looks tot he Moon. After witnessing Slivers death NSH noticed Moons behavior had changed, rather then taking pity on the senior like everyone else but instead became more then a friend an did what he always had done an stuck by her side becoming the ultimate emotional support making sure she recovered from the loss in peace. That was until the incident happened. NSH was the first to respond to Moons distress calls when Five Pebbles suddenly starts abusing the resources he shared in his attempts to break the taboo prompting the jester and Seven red suns to create slugcats in a futile attempt to save their senior well as the iterator he fell in love with all those cycles ago. but in his efforts of creating a slugcat to deliver slagkeys he had created Hunter a cycle too late an had to deliver them himself almost destroying his puppet trying to save Moon in a last ditch effort to hold together whatever life they had. But it was would all be in vain anyway as Moon had suffered a major error erasing almost every piece of their relationship broke the poor jester to pieces. Even though his attempt failed and the results leads to the disaster that was Moons death Sig had been introduced to a new reality. He had lost everything but continues to power through his own mental state maintaining the groups stability. Ever since Moons rampage of death an carnage he had done everything to keep the admin sane to no avail. He can only do so much being everywhere at once. But with the rise of the anti-sliverists how long can the jester keep on the happy façade with the rising danger that slowly lurks around the corner? or will he too finally snap an becomes a danger to everyone?

Explanation behind design Yes if you look hard enough he looks like a green Fizzoroli, I took inspiration from him to make Sig unique from the others. Making him a jester makes sense as Sig cracks jokes constantly or tries to make other iterators laugh fits his character. The jester hat antennas was a suggestion. I had him wear a hoodie in the first sketch but the antennas kept getting in the way so it was scrapped.

I didn't really enjoy that NSH's design looked too simple. Putting him in baggy clothes just looked off to me. I wanted him to fit a role that made sense. I had lots of fun with the color palette, it was a way of migrating locked personalities into an extroverted character as i am introverted IRL, his sleeves were inspiration from the 2004 joker from batman that gave me the idea to make Siggy a jester in the first place ditching the idea of giving him a jacket. He still has his scarf it's just really short an not noticeable, his antennas are long because it looked like hair to me so I went with that. It was not easy working with so many shades of purple. There was no way i was going with green on green i was not going to make him look like a walking pile of green shit.

Relations

Looks to the moon: NSH tries his best to entertain her to hopefully calm her mood. Still longs for the relationship they had but knows Moon will never remember their time together. Follows every order to the letter no matter the circumstance. He suffers slight trauma from watching her kill off the rest of the local group. He knows what she is doing is wrong but her manipulation tactics are flawless an hard to break away from and he doesn't want to be useless.

Seven red suns: They actually dated a while back but it was short because of Sigs attachment to Moon that broke them apart. He didn't want it to be this way being Suns long running friend when everyone else feared him. Becoming admin was a suggestion, he didn't think this action would cause his best friend to go off the deep end to trying to kill him causing all of this calamity to happen in the first place? He hopes to one day repair their friendship but for now he can only observe and make sure Sun's doesn't go postal. SOS: NSH always did enjoy participating in Slivers experiments, she was his inspiration for reaching out an trying new things being a common influence to his outgoing an 'zesty' behavior. Five Pebbles: His hatred towards Pebbles was a mistake after Moon died. Harming him while had had the rot crossed the line. He has some remorse for his pain of wanting to leave the cycle. Sig talks to Pebbles every once in a while mainly to help him with projects or just talk.

Chasing Winds: They didn't really bond that well so there is hardly any information on how these two got along. He did witness Winds and Suns fight at the last meeting they had. Wind was never fond of Sigs jokes though They don't really see eye to eye.

UI: A strong ever lasting hatred, NSH was more than pissed finding out the careless actions she had done that not only affected his friends but had ruined his relationship with Moon entirely. EOS: The iterator is busy being protected by his own sick twisted group but NSH is determined to kill him for the reason of abusing Suns.

Other local groups

Oasis local group: His partner is a senior of this local group and he temporarily runs as co- senior managing both the Oasis local group and his own group.

Zodius local group: His two sisters are within his group so it is not unusual for NSH to bounce back an forth between groups visiting them.

Jaded local group: NSH has not thoughts on this group, but if Moon wants them dead then so does he. Stormfall local group: Regularly stops by to visit Winds, sometimes uninvited. He still sees him as part of his local group that is considered family whether Winds like it or not.

Extra

Sig has an older and younger sister, (all three of them are speedsters) built after one another but his sisters would rather not get involved in Moons murder sprees. Their names are:  Carefree Evanescent Espionage and Sixteen flying bold affinity

Astral form: Goat

NSH is both pansexual an polymerous, known for being a total casanova Sig never stuck to one partner other then Moon an Suns at the time as he never was one for getting attached. Even if he is already married now his partner has no issue with him revisiting these past partners that are or so one night stands if anything while still keeping in touch with them all.

Sig is a speedster, meaning he can run almost at the speed of light if he wanted an can be in almost every place at once.

Regularly messes around with scavengers, he had become one with a tribe on top of his can and he normally takes them with him to pull pranks on his friends.

Fear of glass, specifically tight spaces surrounded by glass.

The city on top of NSH is forever set a light being an infinite power source. Anything left behind by the ancients that would have decade without power is still in perfect working condition stuck in time.

When stressed Sig will phsycally roll into a ball as a means of coping.

Since NSH has a small thing for music, his time with the scavengers while being semi feral has developed his own type of music, he hates the sound of silence so there is always some type of music playing nearby

His territory his can resides in littered in crystals an towers that respond to the aggressive electric activity caused by clouds when his can breathes or just Sig in general when he runs by.

The color tangerine makes him feel uncomfortable for some reason though its unknown why?

If Sig is overstimulated his body reacts by releasing high amounts of static but any creature that comes into contact with him is automatically immune to it.

A series of crystals naturally grow on an his around structure and territory, they're highly attracted to lightning especially if Sig runs by them

Weapon of choice: Volt rings, the rings can be found only on his tail, they're conductors to contain the amount of electricity Sig picks up on a daily from natural surroundings, normally that would be otherwise lethal to other iterators. When taken off they can expand or shrink to whatever Sig desires to be used in certain situations and are automatically electrified to use as projectiles. Along with these are virtual panels that Sig summons at will, they don't do much accept become platforms or other means for him to protect himself or props when entertaining others. Just like last time if this reaches loads of likes i'll go suffer an write a longer NSH lore post.

[upslapmeal]

The Devil's Chord

For context going into this episode, I can name off the top of my head.....3 Beatles songs? idk I'd probably recognise more but I was v much hoping this episode didn't hinge on having any actual emotional attachment to them lol

that kid is excellently cast, really looks the part

RIP Henry your great casting was cut short too soon

very chaotic vibes from Maestro!

the theme on the piano!!

the theme on the jukebox!!

‘I want to see the Beatles’ followed by the most cute serious face <3

sure Doctor you've never been to see them but you've had the space time visualiser!

lmao Ruby and Fifteen are so much fun

pure vibes and here for a good time!

1963!!

meanwhile One is busy kidnapping Ian and Babs lol

so. gonna guess from their faces it’s not an actual Beatles song

poor Fifteen dying at the orchestra and Ruby just 😐😐 *pat on the back*

hey it’s that lady again!

do these people look like the Beatles? I feel like they don't but again. I don't really know what they did look like

so my question with all this is.. why still make music if music isn't a thing any more?

why are the Beatles formed as a group and recording with someone encouraging them in the control room?

why even set up a recording studio at all?? I guess it speaks to the underlying human-ness of music

that even when musicality is gone, people are still forcing themselves to make some sort of music

yeah I feel like I should care more about the Beatles lol

Lennon and McCartney just. immediately baring their souls

feels weird watching this and knowing it's about someone who's still alive

'GEGGC'....ah ~~music~~

'we had bad smog in November ’62' I love how the Doctor speaks like a reminiscing Londoner bc that's what he was!!

Susan mention red alert!!!

‘timelords were murdered. :D I’M FINE’ sure

Ruby's theme!

interesting that in-universe it’s music she wrote for someone else

the giggle!!

‘you never hide’ I get that Fifteen and Ruby were instant besties but she's speaking like someone who's known the Doctor way longer than 3 adventures

the sonic screwdriver being sonic!!

RIP piano granny

‘defeating him took everything*’ * catching a ball

‘you always know’ idk if it's a symptom of the reduced episode count but it does feel like they've skipped over a fair bit of Ruby and Fifteen getting to know each other

‘I was born in 2004’ 👵🏻

oh so it’s been 6 months since the last ep??

again I guess the reduced ep count has meant speeding through but :/

‘where’s my mum’ :(((

I like the un-music that Murray Gold has going on for this bit. v effective.

child of the Toymaker??

‘now time for my ppt presentation about nuclear winter’

'the lost chord' - I feel like they could have done a lil bit more with that at the start bc it didn't feel as though the guy played anything particularly unusual or special?

lol Fifteen kissing the tardis better. I mean it seemed to work

the Doctor leaving Actual Musician Ruby Sunday in the control room while he tries to play a guitar

‘I thought that was non-diegetic’ lmao I guess it makes sense that the whole episode's music is being messed with

‘there’s a hidden song deep inside her soul’ hmmmm

...secret evil power Ruby??

excellent visual of her held up by the music in the snow

they're lucky Maestro doesn't seem interested in just. killing them.

‘music battle’ this is so weird. not sure if it's weird in a way I'm enjoying

this ep has felt a bit....meandering isn't the word but I don't know what is

lmao the nostalgic voiceover…not-Lennon totally unfazed by magical floating notes...reading them even though they absolutely cannot be read because there’s no stave

danse macabre!

it’s just so funny that it's the most boring-ass chord that defeats Maestro

the thing is the ep did v little to establish these guys as Characters To Root For outside them being Beatles and I just. don't care

I'd be interested to know if Beatles fans felt more about them saving the day

musical number!!

that shot of Fifteen vibing in the spotlight is so much fun!

and the one of him and everyone in the control room watching Ruby!

the world has been deprived of music for so long that of course it explodes into a musical number!!

and a certain Mr H Arbinger returns…I imagine that's not the last we'll see of him

what a fun end lol

I dunno about this one, it had good stuff but some of it was a bit all over the place and weird in a way that I didn't enjoy that much. And some of the music-specific stuff just idk. didn't land.

Also I rewatched the ep before editing my notes but I watched it as ep4 which honestly made Fifteen and Ruby's dynamic seem less rushed (and then there wasn't the weirdness in Boom of Ruby not going to a planet for the first 6 months of travelling).

I don't know. Mixed bag this one.

[agenderpunked]

just finished lost. will not be recovering, ever, me thinks...

I'M GONNA RAMBLE BECAUSE WHAT WAS THAAAAT OUUUUUGH I DIDN'T SEE ANY OTHER WAY FOR IT ALL TO END BUT THE FACT THAT IT *IS* WHAT THEY WENT WITH hURTS

I have so many thoughts and many of them are spoilers so if you haven't watched Lost (2004) stop reading this and go watch it instead.

- Jack dying in the same place he started. The cinematography and spiritual implications of making a trek back to the beginning and finally closing his eyes... DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON VINCENT LYING DOWN NEXT TO HIM I CRIIIIIIIIIIIED. THE DOG KNOWS "LIVE TOGETHER OR DIE ALONE" AND HE MAKES SURE JACK DOESN'T DIE ALONE IM IN SHAMBLESSSSS DONT TALK TO ME

- rose and bernard. i care you so bad. i want a bob ross energy survival show spin off that just follows them making their cabin and garden and traps and such and exploring the area around their cabin. Unproblematic favs, truly. THE FACT NO ONE BELIEVED ROSE WHEN SHE SAID SHE KNEW HER HUSBAND WAS ALIVE???? who visited you and told you that? are you just that faithful??? Did that hope, faith, and love protect both of you from dying on the island before you found each other??

BC ALSO. sorry but i view faith as energy, and when you focus and devote that energy to something it becomes concentrated, and what do our brains run on? electricity. what is everything about Lost about? electromagnetism. What can spirits fuck with? electromagnetic frequencies. That energy can be used to attract what you're searching for. Rose is such a necessary character ESPECIALLY for Jack's development because of how she displays such radical acceptance when she knows there are things she cannot change, ie. cancer, being trapped on the island, being surrounded by danger, and focuses instead on what she can, confirming her husband's status, creating an environment that feels safe, and enjoying the time she has left with the people she loves.

- Boone and Shannon getting into a bar fight at the end??? Boone walking up to Hurley and chatting??? Boone and Shannon are severely underrated characters in my opinion, and it's 100% from the emotionally incestuous aspects of them, which is a shame because I truly believe they are one of the most realistic depictions of relationships like that that I've seen in media. I didn't immediately like Boone. I thought he was an asshole because the show presents Shannon and Boone to you as they would an unhappy romantic relationship, but they never confirm it, even joke about it, to the point I nearly immediately realized 'They're not dating at all. They're siblings that were emotionally neglected by their parents and are codependent as all hell.'

Watching further, I was so scared to think I'd find Boone slander all up and down in the fandom while Shannon gets victimized and absolved of her fucked up actions, because of the way we immediately see Boone treat her without the context for understanding their relationship and that Boone was only on 815 to bail her out of another abusive relationship. But what I actually got from the fandom was NOTHING. ABOUT EITHER OF THEM!!!!

HOW ARE WE NOT TALKING ABOUT BOONE HALLUCINATING SHANNONS DEATH AND ADMITTING THAT HE WAS UTTERLY RELIEVED 😭😭😭 IM GONNA BLOW MYSELF UP ABOUT IT GOOD GOD.

The fact that Shannon also does find a potentially healthy relationship with Sayid, and that Sayid can allow himself to feel and care for someone and have gentle and tender moments in such a hostile environment while serving as the groups main mercenary, and make her feel safe, regardless of her clearly morally skewed history of dating. Sayid has morals, and he wants to stick to them, but he's been put in environments that do not allow him to adhere to that. He has restraint, and emotional intelligence. The glimpse we get into Shannon's life shows she hasn't been around men of those qualities, at least recently, save for Boone, who even then, doesn't compare next to Sayid. Imagining how Shannon would have felt about Sayid being brought back in the temple and seeing how extremely empty and different he is 😟

- Thinking about the general implications of what the island is, as well... Did they ever survive the initial crash? When they leave the island, were they alive? or was it merely an illusion of life? Is death on the island equivalent to someone accepting that they're dead and moving on for realsies? Is the island symbolizing purgatory? The themes of duality and shadows and light and twins are also not lost on me and rank this media even higher because these were not on my bingo card or prior knowledge of the show and they are damn near a critical criteria for intriguing me and getting me into a media.

Are the souls whispering in the forest of the island trapped there? Michael says they can't move on, but is it a personal choice grappling with what they did? Or is it related to actions done after death, while passing through purgatory, that decides whether you are bound to a place or able to move freely???

Oooooooough.....

[simptasia]

Tell me all about LOST all I know is from Dane Cook

that is. such a funny sentence

aw shucks, its tempting, but i don't wanna give ya spoilers. and there are truly things in lost that must be experienced by your own flesh

...yes im aware of what my blog is like

so i guess i'll give a vague spoiler free overview

so. a group of plane crash survivors find themselves on a mysterious island and have to deal with the strange happenings + their weight of their individual traumas

the show is serialized and one ep more or less flows into another, so literally no ep can be skipped (no matter what anybody says) or else you'll miss something

its a large ensemble cast, ranging from the 13 to 20s range, all in all i think theres like 35 main characters

the show follows a flashback structure, each episode dedicated itself to a main plot on the island intercut with flashbacks to one character. we call these centric episodes. eg. this is a jack centric episode. sometimes an ep will have multiple characters have flashbacks in one ep. while this show didn't originate the concept of a large cast or flashback storytelling, it did popularize it in the early 2000s. so a lot of post 2004 shows wanted to be lost so bad and it shows

at first lost was a survival show but they gloss over this very quickly and its more about the weird shit going on. as time goes on, plots and mysteries stack up. this is to create intrigue, as the shows main focus is an endless parade of character studies. with the added bonus of some cool and twisty shit going on too

but because lost had so much plot, over time it got accused of being confusing and convoluted and Not Answering Questions and well. your mileage may vary. but i think its confusing if you watch it too slowly. like, it aired over a 6 year period, no wonder people got confused. its better to watch nowadays, way easier to handle

the genre of lost is: drama mystery action paranormal sci fi romance with a dash of comedy. lost is full of the saddest fucks you'll ever meet but the show contains enough levity and great colouring to make it not a huge misery fest

pretty decent racial diversity. next to no LGBT rep. more women than the average tv show. then and now

the score FUCKS

not a single bad actor in this entire show, the performances on display are fucking outstanding. and every emotion is like up to 11, which is great for my autistic brain

for those of you who find sex scenes to be tedious, i have a bit of trivia for ya: all sex in LOST happens off screen. not a single sex scene to be found. pre sex, yes, post sex, yes. making out, yes. but sex itself? footage not found. i'm neutral on the concept, i just thought that was something to point out

i highly recommend lost to, like, anybody. ever. its a masterpiece of television. even the low points are better than most shows. sometimes i take lost for granted and then i watch any other drama series and im like "oh right, lost is incredibly good"

its my third favourite show. and thats only cuz star trek and doctor who exist, and nobody is beating those fuckers

anyways do you like to see beautiful people cry and scream but it isn't cringe?* well, i've got a show for you! *okay there is some cringe. as a treat. the leading man of this show has the social grace of a cold pancake (affectionate)

thank you for your time

[fans4wga]

drew gooden has a pretty good video abt tha writers strike , " The Future of TV is Bleak " . it doesnt go super in depth but i encourage ppl to watch it , and also to show it to ppl who dont support writers

Thank you for sending this in! Mod Ani here. While this video is a decent primer (link here if anyone wants to watch), Drew unfortunately perpetuates some common misconceptions, so here’s some more sourced info if you want to read more.

I’m not calling Drew a liar at all—in fact I’m really glad Youtubers are calling attention to the strike and supporting the WGA publicly. But he said he remembers the strike himself, and to be fair, he was at maximum 14 years old during the strike. His memory might be faulty or he might have misinterpreted sources or found flawed sources in the first place. Anyway, in the spirit of fact-checking…

Did the 2007 WGA strike tank shows?

At the 0:44 mark and later around 1:40, Drew claims the 2007 strike tanked a lot of shows. While a very common misconception, this is mostly untrue! Many of the shows that got canceled/"got worse" were already on a downwards trend before the strike. “Heroes” got bad reviews before the strike; meanwhile, “Lost�� and “Pushing Daisies” both got renewed despite the strike, so you can’t really blame the strike for its changes or cancellation. See this Twitter thread for a comprehensive debunking of shows people think "got worse" during the 2007 strike, written by someone who covered it (writer Emily St. James @/emilystjams.)

To sum up her thread: “The 2007-08 strike didn't uniformly impact shows. For the most part, the shows on good trajectories stayed on them and vice versa.”

This is an especially pernicious mistruth because it has the potential to turn audiences against the WGA strike; fans are being led to think that the strike will only mean bad news for their shows. But the opposite is true: shows will in fact get better if writers have fair wages and aren’t overworked.

Later in the same Twitter thread linked above, Emily St. James says: “By far the most deleterious effect on young shows at that time was that a bunch of shows that might have gotten time to build more of an audience suddenly had to deal with long hiatuses. Many were canceled. Most never re-found their viewers.”

Yes, that’s what happened with fan-favorite Pushing Daisies (RIP). But this is already happening with no need for a strike intervention with Lockwood & Co., HBO’s canceled Batgirl, First Kill, Willow, Warrior Nun, The Bastard Son and the Devil Himself, 1899, and more. Popular shows are getting canceled after 1-2 seasons, for no good reason—or getting wiped from the streaming service entirely. The worst has already happened for many shows.

…Drew’s absolutely right about Quantum of Solace, though. They were basically working with a rough draft script for the film, which, of course, bad idea.

Did the 2007 WGA strike cause the reality TV boom?

At the 0:58 mark, Drew claims that the 2007 strike led to the reality TV boom and “altered the landscape of television.” While it’s true to an extent that studios filled their programming with reality TV during both the 2007 and 2023 strikes, the reality TV boom definitively predates the 2007 strike.

Again, this is a particularly pernicious mistruth because it could potentially turn people against the WGA and blame them for a trend they dislike. In truth, the reality TV boom that shifted the landscape started in the early 2000s with the enormous success of such shows as Survivor (2000), America’s Next Top Model (2003), The Apprentice (2004), The Biggest Loser (2004), Dancing with the Stars (2005), and more all predating the 2007 strike. This is all years before the strike was even a glimmer in a writer’s eye.

Lots of people have made jokes about the 2007 strike causing Donald Trump’s presidency because The Apprentice was popular during the strike. I tend to think this is a pretty silly correlation—who’s to say he wouldn’t have gotten a gig like that despite the strike?

What is the WGA fighting for now?

At the 4:00 mark Drew claims that the WGA is fighting “to be paid residuals for streaming shows rather than just a day rate.” I see what he’s getting at, but as phrased, this is a nonsensical statement. He means “flat rate”—a pre-determined rate the studios currently pay to writers regardless of how many people watch it. The writers—and I’m quoting this directly from the WGA demands posted by WGA member Adam Conover—want to “establish a viewership-based residual—in addition to existing fixed residual—to reward programs with greater viewership.” (Link to the WGA demands here.) This would make streaming residuals more like network residuals, but it would also require streamers to have transparency about how many people are watching, which they’ve been very nervous about publishing.

Drew also confuses the term “production companies” with the term “studios”, though this is a minor nitpick. The WGA is fighting the studios. A production company like ILM visual effects works with a studio like Paramount (studios are also called “motion picture companies”, because we’re old-timey) to make a movie. Some studios ARE production companies (Studio Ghibli does their own production), but not all production companies are studios. Okay, film school over, next point. (Link to read more about studios vs. production companies vs. publishers)

At the 4:06 mark Drew claims writers are fighting to keep AI out of the writers room entirely. This is just a slight misconception! The WGA is fighting to keep AI from replacing them, but in the current WGA demands, individual writers would still be able to use AI as a tool at their own discretion, but AI couldn’t be used as “literary material” and writers couldn’t be forced to rewrite an AI-generated script. Individual WGA members are not a monolith; some are hardline anti-AI, and some want to see if they can make AI work for them. (Mod Ani is on the anti-AI side of things, just to make my own bias here clear.)

The current WGA stance is, “How do you make sure this is a tool used by writers, like spellcheck and Wikipedia, and not a tool used to replace writers?” (John August, a WGA member and also part of the negotiating committee, wrote that and has some blog posts about it.) I think this part of Drew’s video is in line with a lot of popular anti-AI sentiment, and I do not personally disagree, but anyone talking about the WGA has got to put aside personal biases and report what the WGA is actually doing, not what we want the WGA to do. All in all, this is still a strong position for the WGA, considering the WGA is on the frontline of any business agreement about AI! The main struggle is to make sure it doesn’t replace human labor.

Drew also contradicts himself at 4:43 by saying the previous strike wasn’t about streaming services, when earlier in the same video he said correctly that the 2007 strike was all about gaining residuals for streaming services in the first place. So, uh, fact-checking himself?

Again a small nitpick, “There’s no financial upside for doing a good job” (5:45 mark) is also not quite true. The financial upside is getting a Season 2 renewal. Yes, increased transparency and viewership-based residuals would mean high-performing film/TV shows get paid more. But there’s definite financial upside to getting a renewal!

Production companies/studios shortening employees is absolutely not about “not having to put your name in the credits” (6:14). Everyone in the writers’ room gets their name in the credits. The issue, of course, is that studios are trying to have shorter writers’ rooms so they pay the writers for fewer weeks of work. WGA members not being credited isn’t a negotiating point at all, so not sure where this is coming from.

Miscellaneous things Drew is absolutely correct on and I will reiterate here

Drew’s absolutely correct on how scripts evolve during filming. That’s why writers are so necessary on set! Studios are cutting costs by getting rid of writers earlier in the production timeline, and a consequence of this is that writers aren’t getting the mentorship/training of being on-set for the show’s actual production. This is necessary training to become a producer/showrunner that writers nowadays simply are not getting.

He’s also absolutely right about how little money writers actually make in Hollywood, despite the films and shows they make producing so much more value for the studios. Residuals are lower than ever, writers’ rooms are shorter than ever, and many WGA members work a lot of side hustles to just be able to afford LA rent. So the discourse surrounding “rich spoiled writers” is just totally incorrect and maddening!

Drew is also absolutely correct about the entertainment industry simply being the first place AI is threatening jobs. Without legal challenges, AI will disrupt other industries soon, and the WGA is on the frontline of battling that.

Just for some clarification, around the 12:20 mark, Drew is talking about the common complaint about prequels/sequels/franchises/spin-offs. This is a real industry problem! Writers desperately want to write original stuff (remember the creator of Powerpuff Girls saying he pitched 16 originals to Netflix, with no luck, before doing a reboot?) It’s 100% the studios' fault; no writer wants this industry landscape.

Also at 13:40 mark, Drew makes a very good point that AI is only a small part of the strike, and it’s kind of been blown out of proportion because AI is trending in the news and popular in the discourse. Even the WGA probably wasn’t expecting this to get so much air-time. It’s still a part of the strike, of course, but keep in mind that pay and staffing are more major negotiating points at the moment.

Conclusion!

To sum up, Drew makes some good points, but muddles some too. I’d highly recommend going straight to WGA members instead of Youtuber middlemen… but in the meantime we’re here to fact-check. :)

[batsplat]

i just remember something i meant to ask ages ago but why did Valentinos relationship with Honda end so bad like was he already wanting to switch bike for the 2004 season or was he happy to stay at Honda if things didn't go sideways. Cause I know why he left Yamaha for Ducati, i just haven't found definite sources and reasoning for his Honda to Yamaha switch. (also while i'm here I am going to start a vale career watch once I finish Marcs (upto 2019 atleast i dont think im ready for the honda dark years just yet so i'll make myself feel a little better by watching Vale who will also be joined by Dani, Jorge and Casey)) so excited to watch caseys 2007 season when I get to it, i'm Australian and i've always been aware of him i saw an advert of his on my train the other day so that was fun this ask got so sidetracked sorry, but i'm definalty going to go over your race rec tag but i'll probably just end up watching whole seasons cause i like having the context of things if something in a previous race is going to set up tension in later races.

okay, so this is MOSTLY covered in the sete post. which I understand is a bit long lol so I'll try and give the sparknotes version here. he was getting kinda miserable at honda! winning felt too routine... the way he frames it is that he didn't feel like honda particularly appreciated his efforts and thought it was mostly just their bike doing the trick, not the rider. he talks about it in this autobiography excerpt - he felt like nobody was really getting enthusiastic about his victories anymore, that it was just expected of him, and honda didn't really give a shit if it was him or someone else doing the winning. throw in the press who were also giving him a tough time in early 2003... it just wasn't fun anymore. valentino needs stimulation, he needs challenges, he wants to feel like he's part of a team and he wants to feel loved by that team (and love them in return). it's partly an ego thing and partly just... a question of passion. winning felt too easy and it felt like it had lost his meaning - like it was just a job

and y'know, yamaha did actively court them. which even valentino at the beginning was deeply sceptical of... even though he already felt dissatisfied with honda over the winter of 2002-03, switching to another manufacturer just felt like competitive suicide. he was also being courted by ducati - and even though it doesn't seem like he seriously considered that, until quite late in the season it looked like he might go any of three ways. iirc ducati was willing to throw a particularly obscene amount of money his way lol. but in the end, valentino felt that ducati would be much like honda in their disconnect from its riders and their refusal to listen to them (gosh, could someone not have read his own words back to him in 2010). yamaha was willing to build their whole team around him... and it was also just a special challenge. it'd be something new!! valentino isn't really built for easy domination I reckon, like he just has a trigger in his brain every 2-3 years that starts making him a bit restless idk

and yeah, I always think watching full seasons is well worth it!! there's some seasons that really live and die by the complete storylines, the sense of tension and build-up - especially the first half of 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2008 don't work anywhere near as well without context I reckon. and obviously I'm a massive casey fan... though I will warn you that for reasons entirely unrelated to casey, there is a massive drop-off in average race quality between 2006 and 2007 lol. I'm actually intending to go back over the winter break and fix up my casey race recs list because it was the first I did and quite casual when compared to the later ones - I thought I could do that one without consulting my notes, which in retrospect was a bit high on the hubris and I feel like I want to do that one justice. casey's actually already a really fun presence in 2006!! it doesn't show as much in the results because he'd often drop back or crash, but you see quite a lot of him - including the first few fights with valentino. he has a very pedro-like rookie season if you want a cheap and easy comparison... results are a bit worse on paper but the vibe is quite similar, including the spectacular early season form that trailed off for various reasons. but I do have a lot of fondness for 2007, even if it has some absolute howlers. qatar, mugello, catalunya, assen, donington and estoril the highlights as I recall. still wish we'd gotten casey/valentino with a continuation of the 2006 engine regs and just like. dogfights galore featuring those two... but on the plus side, I suppose laguna 2008 wouldn't have hit quite as hard if it hadn't been such a contrast to everything else happening during that time

[frazzledsoul]

So let's talk about my favorite arcane subject... historical TV ratings! In this case, historical Gilmore Girls ratings in the aughts.

As a reminder, everything discussed here will be in the 18-49 demo preferred by advertisers. Also, the WB/CW were less universally available than the other networks, so their numbers were lower.

2000-2001

In the debut season of Gilmore Girls, the highest rated show was Survivor, with a demo rating of 16.9.

As you can see, all WB shows are towards the bottom of the chart. Gilmore Girls had a 2.5 demo rating, 8th in the network and 127th total out of 157 shows. The top rated show on the WB was 7th Heaven, with a demo rating of 4.4.

So respectable but not a smash hit.

Why was the show on several times a week? Well, it originally aired on Thursday, during the same time slot as Friends (5th ranked with a 12.6 demo rating) so the network wanted to give it another shot. During that first season, they used to air a recap after the first half of the show in case people switched over after watching Friends.

2001-2002

The highest rated show overall was Friends, with a 15.0 demo rating.

Ah, season 2. Jess Mariano enters the scene and the show starts to develop its core identity as Love Triangle Central. It rises to third ranked on the network (bested by 7th Heaven and Smallville) and 115th overall and goes up to a 3.23 demo rating.

Oh, the power of a bad boy who can read. He will transfix many for decades to come.

2002-2003

The highest ranked show overall was CSI with a 16.1 demo rating.

Season 3 is the last season we have Jess full-time and the only Literati season. We also briefly enjoy the company of Twilight Dad. The show maintains it's popularity but nothing much changes: it's still outranked by 7th Heaven and Smallville, goes a little lower in rank overall to 121th overall, and maintains a 3.23 demo rating.

Gilmore Girls: Beginnings was a time slot where they aired episodes from S1 on Sunday nights. The show was not yet syndicated and streaming didn't exist yet: you couldn't buy DVDS until 2004. This was the only way to see old episodes. Even so, it wasn't that popular.

We lose the boyfriends at the end of the season, and things take a turn for the worse.

2003-2004

American Idol was the top rated show with a 10.7 demo rating.

Season 4 is the season of Single Rory, who ASP tells us we should adore more than the boyfriends.

Unfortunately, ASP also chose to give her scintillating plotlines about urine mints, arguing over a study tree, and begging for attention from a guy she meets in the laundry room. Lorelai's time is mostly taken up by Jason Stiles and his fascinating insurance saga. The viewers were bored. The show slipped to 6th in rank on the network and 128th overall, lost almost half of its viewers, and went down to a 1.7 in the demo rating.

ASP regrouped, brought the boyfriends back in, got rid of Jason, and finally hooked Luke and Lorelai up. The episodes near the end of the season are considered some of the best of the series. The show allegedly was close to getting canceled.

Quality wise, I think there are a lot of nice episodes here and there, but overall the season drags because there are far more interesting things going on with the supporting characters than the mains. Jess is as emo as he ever is and his hair is fabulous.

2004-2005

The top rated show for the year was American Idol with an 11.1 demo rating.

The show was on an upswing in season 5. We have to put up with Dean for a while, but Rory's attention strays (again) to yet another bad boy who can read and Logan brings a lot more energy and more interesting storylines to the show. We also have the glory days of Luke and Lorelai as a couple.

The show rises to #1 on the WB, finally outranking 7th Heaven and Smallville. It ranks 120th overall and the demo rating goes up to 2.0. The show's ratings will never be as high as they were during the Jess seasons.

Jess is not in season 5, as he was busy moving to Philly and becoming awesome. Milo shows up on American Dreams as yet another bad boy, yet his fresh-faced love interest in that show seizes the moment and not only fucks him but runs away with him, too. Meg Pryor at least knows how to take advantage of her opportunities.

American Dreams had slightly better ratings than Gilmore Girls but because it was a network show (and had insanely expensive music rights) it was canceled.

2005-2006

The top rated show (again) was American Idol with a demo rating of 12.9

Oh, season 6. The season of disappointment, thwarted dreams, and Jess Mariano reinventing himself as a hipster dreamboat.

The show remained popular, tying for first place in the network with Smallville and Beauty and the Geek (the reality show version of The Big Bang Theory). The demo rating stayed at 2.0 and the show ranked 110th overall.

Supernatural (the show Jared is most known for) debuts in 5th with a 1.6 demo rating. It will become quite the phenomenon over the next 15 years and spawn many stans of its own.

Milo's show The Bedford Diaries isn't too popular, but he also films the Rocky sequel and is cast in Heroes. He's on to bigger and better things, as is Jess, who is now a stable, successful author and business owner and hotter than ever, while Rory is stuck in a holding pattern of indecisiveness and bad decisions. Oh, well. The population of Philly awaits, son. Start your slut era in style.

2006-2007

Y'all will be shocked to find out that the top rated show of the year again was American Idol again with a 12.3 demo rating.

Oh, season 7. The new writers tried, I guess. ASP had pretty much destroyed Luke and Lorelai as a couple and also set her sights on almost every other character, too. So we're left with a devastated Luke, the specter of Christopher on the horizon, and Rory once again embroiled in love triangle drama.

The WB and UPN had combined into a single network, so the show has more competition, but I think a lot of people just gave up.

The show went down to its S4 series low of 1.7, ranked 4th behind America's Next Top Model and Beauty and the Geek. It ranked 122nd for the year and was canceled. There were negotiations for a 13-episode season 8 (with Matt Czuchry as a regular cast member) but they fell through. I think if that season had happened, Luke and Lorelai would have gotten married/had a baby and Rory and Logan would have been endgame. We would not have seen Jess again, because Milo was too busy elsewhere.

Heroes was the 7th ranked show overall that year and the top rated show on NBC. It has a demo rating of 6.4, over three times as high as Gilmore Girls and almost twice as high as Gilmore Girls at its height. There was a ton of water-cooler chat about the show during that time: it was pretty much everywhere.

There's been a lot of chatter on this site about ASP having big plans for Jess in S7, that she was going to have Rory cheat on Logan with Jess again and Milo only said no because he hated the new writers. There's never been any indication any of that is true because why wouldn't he move on to another job with more money, prestige, and attention? It was wise of him to leave and better for both Milo and Jess in the end.

So what have we learned here, other than that Frazzled has weird hobbies? Well, mainly that season 4 almost killed the show, the show's glory days truly were the first three seasons, and that I was not alone in rage quitting the show in 2006. All good lessons to keep in mind.

[drikadreemurr]

Tim Drake - A AU rant-thing

Greetings there Tumblr! This isn't something I usually do and I often get hesitant on sharing things with others... but this has been eating up my brain in a bit and I just need to get it out there. So I am really new to the DC universe, but I have always loved Robin. I remember going wild watching the Original Teen Titans and The Batman from 2004 on TV. And now that I know at least the basic ordeal of the 4 Robins, I can say that Tim is my favourite.

The last month I decided to check out what they were trying to do with him in Tim Drake: Robin and like most I didn't really liked it, but also saw that it HAD so much potential on trying to build a solid base for who Tim can be in this new universe.

I guess that's what most -if not all of us- Tim fans have been waiting and wanting to see: WHO is Tim Drake here? I get that today characters suffer a lot from being brought to a FLAT portrait like Jason being the "angry one" or Damian being the "spolied brat" one, wich we all know it's not the ONLY thing they are, SPECIALLY Jason -- and Tim is over and over being portraited as the "lost and insecure" of the bunch. And we know he IS that too, but that's not all there is to him. Reading Superboy - The man of tomorrow (Even as it being a bit... eh?) I thought: why not make Tim go through something big like this too? What I liked about the Tim Drake: Robin run is how he was set out in a entire different enviroment from other comics: He's not at the Mansion, not at his or his dad's appartment or some other random house. He's still in Gotham, but in a new separate part that seems mostly overlooked by others - including the vigilantes. And as for foes... The Chaos cult really needs to go, or at least suffer some huge overhall to be a REAL, SERIOUS threat to Tim. I mean c'mon, he is the guy that EXPLODED half of Ra's al Ghul bases, he can deal with a 16th century cult.

I know it's "hard" to built a decent threat to Tim if we take into account his hacking/fighting/detective skills, but not impossible. I keep looking back into that comic where Tim and Jason get stuck on that loop of their nightmares and the one thing I like about this comic is the two of them working together. I think that instead of focusing on making threats in form of real villains, would it not be possible to make them something else like in Puss in Boots: The Last Wish?

The way I see it, Puss had way to many lives and Tim... has way too many personas, leading to the point where he doesn't know WICH one makes up Tim Drake in the end, and THIS is what I consider to be his biggest threat.

I have this idea cooking in my brain: Thanks to some dimensional-travel shenanigans (Don't know exactly what could have happend here), Tim ends up in a dimension where almost everything is identical to his own, but: 1. Batman and Robin are nothing more than a discontinued series of comics and TV show; They were never real, living breathing heroes and this line came to a abrupt and bitter end when a tragedy happend on the TV set.

2. The only existing heroes here are the Supers (Superman / Supergirl and Superboy).

3. The Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson of this place still met eachother and currently run WE together. Also, Bruce is the owner of a museum dedicated to The Batman Series in honer of his father.

4. His parents are ALIVE. Still, that doesn't mean things are perfect - He lives with his mother who is now a history teacher in Gotham while his father lives on the other end of the country running Drake Industries all by himself.

The main thing I thought of this whole deal was for Tim to be put on a situation where he NEEDS to figure out who he is taking into account that:

- No Batman means no Robin. No Robin means he never had anyone to stalk throught the nights, and so, he could NEVER become Robin in the first place.

- His parents being alive, while still in VERY BAD TERMS, means he would no longer be a lonely only child. In fact, he would much rather do anything to get away from the galas and parties his mom would often drag him to.

In the other hand, I would like this "AU" to also focus on other characters like Bernard and that other girl that would often help Tim on some occasions - While Tim was gone, Bernard could very well try to fill his empty spot with his own hero persona, he did learn how to fight to protect himself, why not put this to use in a time of need? Also, I would really like to JASON be the one travelling to the other dimension to drag Tim back, but not as the Red Hood - No Batman and no Robin also means no Joker, wich means no death and no Red Hood - but just as Jason. Out of all the Batfamily, I think he is the one to mostly be able to talk through Tim and relate to him. I often think of that scene of Vee and Luz at the museum and I just think that it suits both:

They both know what it is like to be left behind and alone, still, THEY ARE NOT THE SAME, one of them never really had a choice.

ANYWAY, I have some small "points/scenes" on my head for this crazy idea and I could develop more about them later, I still have no idea if something in this line had been done already.

If you reached this far, thank you for reading my insane ramblings about Tim and let me know if you would like to see more about it :D

[shiroi---kumo]

//So what inspired you to write Kumo? I'm very curious

|| So I actually started writing Kumo many many years ago before I created this blog

This blog was born of the fact that I lost the log in for my old blog so I simply moved him. I've been writing Kumo (on Tumblr) since 2014 in truth. (Whoo ten years now)

I've been apart of the FFU fandom since the old days of the Japanese fandom sites and artist website galleries and circles and when the series DVDs were releasing one at a time. I saw FFU for the first time when I was 15 and it was on one of the trial DVDs that had like 1 episodes of a few different shows per disc that came in my friend's NewType magazine.

I fell in love with Kumo at first sight. He's been my favorite character since day 1. Since I was 15. It's been 21 years and I'm still desperately in love with this man. Kumo isn't just my favorite character, he's my dream cosplay and has been since I was just a teenager. So I've been invested in him and everything he is and everything that concerns him since I was just a wee tot in high school, so picking him up as a muse was really just everything coming full circle.

I picked him up as a muse because despite my nervousness because no one knew him my RP friends at the time encouraged me to do so. They knew I loved him and they said they would write with me even if they didn't know him at all ( and they did 😊).

I learned quickly how easily I could cross him over with literally anything and how versatile of a muse he was but personal matters drew me back from writing and I took a break from Kumo for a while. My intense love of FFU sparked again speaking to other friends in 2020 and being on a layoff from work at the time because of the lockdown, I rebuilt Kumo's blog.

Here we are. Four years later. Drowning in world building and lore and at least 50 OCs deep. Kumo and Kiri (his older brother (yes I write him too)) have always been special to me. Since I was a kid, and I mean that with every depth of my soul when I say that.

I mean begged my grandmother to go up to town with me on my learner's permit driving to the store with every scrap of money from pop bottles and other various ways a 15 yr old in 2004 can manage to find money I could manage to find saved up for months just to buy the next volume of FFU (vol.5) because the DVD that has Kumo and Kiri's episode on it finally dropped after months of collecting these DVDs starting at vol. 1, one at a time. The release date for Vol. 5 of FFU was highlighted and circled in my school planner because I waited so long to watch Kiri and Kumo's episode. It was important to me and still is. I've rewatched that episode alone more than 100 times.

FFU was my SHOW.

I can't put that in words enough. I watch it at least once a year every year for the last 20 years because it is my "I'm depressed and I need to be happy so I'm going to watch a thing I love" show.

Kumo's face has the power to cure depression and end wars to me I swear to fuck. I cannot give you the proper words to explain what I mean when I say that it's been 21 years and I'm still desperately in love with this man.

His voice just soothes me. His face melts my depression away. He is just - the best. He's my favorite and it took a long time for me to let myself be okay with that because some of my IRL friends teased and mocked me relentlessly for liking FFU as much as I do, but I can tell you right now - it's been 21 years and I am still desperately in love with this man - so yes of course I would write him.

Of course I would write him and expand his world and give him the backstory and home world and proper culture he deserves. So fun fact, FFU ran for 25 of 52 planned episodes and was cancelled 1/2 through because SquareSoft went bankrupt. The second half of the series is referred to as "Final Fantasy: Unlimited After" (After 2 / After Spiral) and was only ever released as a script book that was never seen outside of Japan. The day I got my hands on it, I cried.

It's been 15 years of me owning the novel "FFU: Bond of Two / Twin Stars" for Google to give me the tech to scan a page and translate it but my god I'm reading it now. 15 years I waited to read this novel and we're doing it dammit.

I can't begin to tell you what I mean when I say FFU is my show but it is and it's not perfect and has problems and it's so quirky but it's my quirky and I adore it to pieces.

So really it only makes sense that I would go whole hog on world building build Kumo's entire society and culture from the ground up for him. The creators sure didn't so someone needs to. They gave me a cookie cutter outline of Misterica and now it's mine to go crazy with and do whatever I desire.

And Kumo is so fun to write. He's so fun to write and explore and listen to him talk to me to tell me about his life and his people. It's so fun to meet his family and his friends and his society as a whole. Misterica is so dear to me, I just - can't. I love them so much.

I've loved Kumo as a kid, so of course I love him now. It's been 21 years and he still has my whole heart.

[fereldanwench]

so i finished my lost rewatch last week, but i have this problem in which i often cant just let a show end and i have to immediately restart it, which means I'm watching s1 again lmao

s1 i think will always have comfort show status in the spirit of the x files or roswell--i had the box set in college, and i pretty much always had it on when i was chilling in my bedroom. plus the star wars RPG i was really involved with at the time also had a lot of lost fans (soooo many face claims were actors from the show), which added to a fandom coziness

anyway, i just really like having it on in the background

but this also means i have Thoughts of varying import and controversy so under the cut it is

there have been a lot of jokes over the years about how oceanic flight 815 had a ridiculous amount of hot people on it, which is true, but i feel like shannon and boone are like a time capsule of early aughts hotness which i find kind of fascinating. shannon especially--tall, skinny, blonde, tan, square face--she is like the epitome of what was supposed to be hot for young women in 2004. which, uh, as a curvy brunette teen i thoroughly resented and probably contributed to some of my disdain for the character at the time lmao

still not really a huge fan of her character, though, even with that envy and contempt long behind me. and i will never understand what sayid sees in her--sayid has always been a fave, and i liked the scenes with him and shannon bc he's such a romantic and i love that about him, but i just have a hard time believing he'd be attracted to her personality-wise

i actually noticed there seems to be a little bit of chemistry between him and kate early on, which, yanno, she's obviously got her hands full with jack and sawyer, but i was like hmmm, that could be an interesting dynamic to explore. I'm not invested enough to read lost fanfic but if i was, that'd probably pull me in

i've also found myself liking claire a lot more now, although i will always find emilie de ravin's voice SO grating. and it's not the accent--her (bad) American accent in roswell didn't help either. she just sounds like she's always 3 seconds away from sobbing and i just wanna tell her to take a deep breath

i was always on the fence about charlie, and while there are things about his character i find sympathetic (namely his struggle with addiction), I've decided i don't like him lmao I've teared up quite a bit during my rewatch, and i remember crying when he died in s3 when it aired, but it did nothing for me this time around

you know what does make me tear up every single time despite knowing it's doomed (or maybe bc i know it's doomed)? the scene when they get michael's raft into the water in s1. hits me every time

i watched a video recently that showed the top googled shows over the past 2 decades or so, and while i was never super involved in the lost fandom, it did occur to me when i saw it listed as the number one show for a while that i think lost was probably the last major fandom to enjoy a pre-social media community. i mean it was like right on the cusp of web 1.0 and 2.0: a lot of the social media juggernauts like facebook and twitter would launch while it was on air, but i think most of the community still existed on personal sites and forums

[moiloru]

🧑‍⚕️ Monster Review 👺

Hello, everyone! Welcome back to a new anime review after a while! I'll review an old classic in this one - get ready for a thriller with Naoki Urasawa's Monster!

Monster aired in 2004, so it's almost twenty years old now. It's a thriller/suspense/mystery/psychological anime that's very reminiscent of this early-2000s era, actually. It has 74 episodes, so it's a decently long one.

The strength of these older anime is always how well-written they are. Monster has a good premise, and the way the plot is written really does it justice. Furthermore, it has this realistic vibe that increases immersion.

This anime deals with the concept of good and evil, but unlike Death Note, it does it without venturing into supernatural territory. Instead, it's done through pure character dynamics and development and done exceptionally well.

You're slowly drawn into the plot, learn to know the characters - both recurring and not - and are immersed in the mystery. Sure, it has a couple of slower moments in the middle, but the intriguing start and powerful ending more than make up for that.

It's pretty well-paced, and the 74 episodes fly by quickly. It's neither too long nor too short; emphasis is given to every critical character/plot point.

The mystery can get quite intricate sometimes, though. You have to follow the story closely if you want to avoid getting lost, especially since there are many flashbacks and changes of POV.

The "filler" scenes are just as impressive as the main plot, which is rare enough to be pointed out. Not that they're genuinely fillers, as every single moment and character turns out to be important in the long run.

Talking about characters, they're Monster's main strength. The main cast is terrific, whether it's the protagonist, his friends, enemies, or the main antagonist. Again, it's infrequent.

What makes them so good is just how deep their characters are. They feel humane, with complex psyches and emotions, their development is realistic, and they feel like real people. It's another strength of these older animes.

They have strengths and weaknesses, which matter in the story. Their dynamics are excellent, too, and are a crucial part of the plot. They cause many dilemmas throughout the anime and force the cast to be more morally grey than average.

Of course, there are still a few I didn't like quite as much, but it's pretty minor. It's an anime for adults, though, with mentions of mature topics (sex, physical & psychological violence, addiction, xenophobia...), so probably not everyone's thing.

It has aged, of course. At first glance, it's not stunning, but you grow to love the art and animation's old-school style. The color palette, in particular, is used very wisely.

Musically, it has one of the most fitting OSTs I've heard. It has this mysterious/thriller-y vibe that might make you shiver from time to time. The OP is lyricless but remains very good, and the ED has a story to tell!

Overall, Naoki Urasawa's Monster isn't far away from a masterpiece. It probably lacked a few epic moments during the weaker parts of the story, but it's incredibly minor. It's old, but it's good! Don't hesitate to give it a watch!

Down below is the tierlist for the characters in this anime. Thank you for reading this review!