#but i was thinking of maybe looking at her conditioning force work w s4 and s9 ish
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not sure if you've shared your acting thoughts on j.a.w. but would love to hear if you have any stand-out moments. it keeps hitting me what a powerhouse he is and his arc (and especially the incredible power of his scenes with emmy) pretty much singlehandedly kept me watching through seasons 6-8 when a lot of other storylines dragged on! i'm still happy with the show in a post-fiona world but i really miss the lip and fiona dynamic as it really felt like the backbone of the show and the gallagher family!
hey! <3
you sent this weeks ago and i am profusely sorry about that. i havenât talked about jeremy yet but since it was lip love hours on the dash today, i decided to have a crack at it. lipâs storyline has definitely been the most consistent and solid throughout the entire show â thereâs never really a time i donât enjoy watching his scenes (though i do find it difficult to watch the helene sl in s6). he and emmy consistently worked phenomenally off one another and though i really miss emmy now, i do think we need to hand it to jaw and his contribution to carrying the show for itâs run.Â
thereâs a lot I could talk about with jeremyâs work so iâve had to pick a couple of my favourite things for today, otherwise iâd be writing for hours. discussion under the cut!Â
remember: this is all my opinion! iâm just an unemployed actor in a pandemic.Â
one of my ultimate favourite things about jeremyâs performance is the way he approaches lipâs monologues. in my personal opinion as an actor, monologues fucking suck. theyâre unnatural, difficult to pull off and so easily end up being a vehicle for the self indulgent actor to just hear their own voice. luckily for us, jaw manages to knock them out of the park every single time. the key to a successful monologue is a hell of a lot of prep work before hand â youâve always got to remember that no one monologues and talks at a great interrupted length naturally, thatâs just not how humans exist and interact in the world, so an actor always has to consider why their character continues talking and doesnât stop after the first line. their objective for the scene â what they want to gain â has to be so solid, so vital to the actor/character that we believe they canât stop talking until they achieve it. an objective is the only thing that drives dialogue forward â we only speak out loud because we want to achieve something. now, thereâs an incredibly fine line between pushing to achieve your objective during a monologue and allowing the objective to push you. this is never a problem with jeremyâs work.Â
a good objective goes hand in hand with how the lines of the monologue are delivered. every line a character speaks is new to them â the actor rehearses a line but the character doesnât â each thought behind a line, even if itâs something theyâve thought about before, is new to them. when youâre working in a scene with another actor and trading dialogue, itâs easier for that new line of dialogue to feel more natural as a response to your partner â when youâre on your own in a monologue this can be a huge challenge. monologues are badly done when everything sounds rehearsed â you can tell when the actor isnât working from moment to moment and is simply saying the lines theyâve learnt in a huge chunk. you donât believe theyâre speaking to achieve their objective, theyâre simply speaking the lines on the page and probably are thinking about how good they sound. again, this is never a problem with jeremyâs work.Â
now letâs look at this monologue from 5x08:
this is a really well done and subtle monologue on jeremyâs part â itâs one of my favourites and it does a really good job at highlighting how detailed and personalised his work is. before he even begins to speak, you can tell jeremy is prepared for the circumstances of scene. lip is completely riddled with tension â you can see it in the way he clenches his jaw and wipes his hands on his trousers â as an audience member, we already know thereâs a hell of a lot on his plate. this monologue is a moment where he allows it all to bubble over.Â
lipâs obviously trying to get some leeway on his college finances by explaining his situation to his adviser â perhaps that was jeremyâs objective (to achieve help with his finances) but as he continues talking, it morphs into really heartbreaking glimpse into lipâs pov of being the âgolden gooseâ of the family. itâs the first time we really hear his thoughts on ianâs diagnosis, monicaâs illness and how guilty he feels every single day being away from his family. lip asking for a favour becomes less about financial help and even more so about being heard. he needs someone to understand and hear him out. to understand the heavy pressure he feels to achieve what everyone else expects of him.Â
a monologue has a mini storyline arc within it and jeremy takes us on journey as we watch lip continue talking, continue exposing himself, putting himself in a horribly vulnerable position. he starts by easing himself in â cracking a joke about how they should get to know one another because heâll be there a lot â but as soon as he starts going into detail about ian and why he needs an extension on payments, thereâs a significant shift in jeremyâs delivery and lipâs relationship to how badly he needs this. jeremy allows himself to fully experience each thought before he delivers a line â he doesn't rush and allows moments to breathe. every single line he says, every single sibling or situation he mentions, we get a glimpse of his pov on the subject. these moments of pause allow lipâs journey throughout the speech to be so clear to us as audience members, thereâs never a moment where a piece of dialogue feels delivered falsely or preplanned. jeremy doesnât push to achieve anything and we follow lip throughout the speech on his journey without a clue where heâs going to end up.Â
by the end of the monologue, lipâs desperation to be understood is clearer than ever. heâs panicking but jeremy never overplays it. even as it builds and he begins to visibly get more emotional with tears in his eyes, it never becomes a performance. jeremy always manages to get the balance right and itâs just a really, really beautiful reaction to his circumstances and truthful acting coming from the moment. itâs a huge deal to bare his heart like this to someone â a stranger at that â and jeremy manages to capture that vulnerable dent in lipâs pride perfectly. heâs not yelling, heâs not pulling his hair out, but we still completely understand why this is so important to him. although I'll never know how he actually prepares his work, his text work here is deeply personalised â you can tell jeremy has given lipâs pov a good thought. I believe him the entire way through, his objective is clear and whatever it was that jeremy decided to use worked perfectly for both his motivation and our belief.Â
as someone who has shed a tear over performing many a monologue, he makes it seem so fucking effortless â i think thatâs what really gets me. iâd love to see him do work on stage one day. as i said, there are about a million things I could talk about when it comes to jawâs work on the show. this baaaaaarely even scratches the surface! I wanted to talk about another monologue here too, but i think this got long enough only talking about one!Â
please always feel free to ask me about any specific moments if you have any pressing questions, i canât promise iâll get to it very quickly (iâm sorry, iâm sorry, iâm sorry!) but i will always try.my inbox is always open for anything, acting or otherwise. it takes me a while, but I really, really do love talking about this stuff.Â
thanks for reading! <3Â
#willaâs acting thoughts#sorry this ended up being about one scene and not more#but i just really really love this scene and i love his work#and i could talk about it for hours!!! hours!!#okay this made me nervous so iâm gonna go brush my teeth đââď¸#enjoy#jeremy allen white#shameless#lip gallagher#also surprisingly no one has asked me about emmy yet#but i was thinking of maybe looking at her conditioning force work w s4 and s9 ish#but ajdhshabdhajqksb#asks#actingasks
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okay I have to do this today because even I wouldnât do it after the godforsaken finale airs, and itâs basically my specialty and I did spend like an hour thinking about it last night while washing dishes. Definitely partly inspired by @words-writ-in-starlightââs insightful post on everything Supernatural did wrong, and apologies in advance to all the characters for dragging them into anything related to Christian mythology:
Wei Wuxianâs parents die in a house fire when heâs 6(? I refuse to look anything up) months old
Jiangs are a hunter family I guess? That whole disaster of a family dynamic, except WWX dips out at some point to be idk an environmental activist bc at the time, that seems like the larger threat to the whole world. âMom and Dad went on a hunting trip and they havenât come backâ, âbitchâ âjerkâ, 2 brothers in a beat-up old car, you know the drill
Jins are also an old hunting family, but more Men of Letters energy - they have a fancy bunker and do research and avoid getting their actual hands dirty. Jiang Yanli ducked out of the active hunting life a few years ago to be happily married to her peacock and settled down with a baby and sheâs fine. Weâre not going to bother Yanli. Sheâs safe and happy and doesnât need to involved in any of this
so, WWX is the demon blood child developing exciting new abilities like telekinesis, mind control, exorcising demons by sheer force of will...etc, and Jiang Cheng is the Righteous Man. Lucifer, Michael, etc.
s1-3 probably proceeds more or less as spn canon...which I more or less remember...by the time they find their parents at the end of s1, Jiang Fengmian is...ugh, we probably shouldnât kill him offscreen, I mean, we should probably meet him before he dies. I guess. Madam Yu lasts longer because Iâm way more interested in her. But we do know that both Jiang parents are totally inclined to fling the boys into a metaphorical or literal escape boat and go hold the line for as long as possible, so...thatâs spn energy...
Xue Yang is the one whoâs like âfuck yeah, demon powersâ and opens the gates of Hell, because I want him to have nice* things
*nice for Xue Yang
from characterization rather than memory, Iâm 90% sure that Dean tried to hide his crossroads deal from Sam, but Jiang Cheng does it...better. I think it does come out, though. Right before the hellhounds do.
hereâs where it starts to go farther off from spn canon. Jiang Cheng crawls his way out of the grave, gets stalked by a menacing presence that explodes windows for an episode, incidentally canât find WWX...*Lan Wangji voice* âIâm the one who gripped you tight and raised you from Perditionâ (a baller line then and a baller line now)...and then the next episode starts with them all awkwardly standing around, and JC is like, âok well letâs go find my brother thenâ, and you think thereâs going to be an mdzs-riffing JC+LWJ Roadtrip To Find WWX...and theyâre immediately attacked by like a dozen demons
in fact, the first time we see WWX in s4 is here, wherein he goes toe to toe with an angel and...holds his own. thatâs new and terrifying! also is leading a squad of demons??
because hereâs the thing: for the last 3(?) months, thereâs been war in hell
because unlike Some People Mooses, upon finding out that his brotherâs soul was legally nearly-owned by a crossroads demon, heir-apparent-to-Satan!WWX went, âactually fuck thatâ and kicked open the door of Hell (metaphorically, not loosing any demons this time) and was like, âwho do I have to beat the shit out of to get a specific crossroads contract around hereâ
this did not work, obv. He didnât know until it was too late, Lilith had already snapped up the contract, etc. etc.
obviously he also tried to offer himself instead, and got rejected for some reason
Since Jiang Cheng died, however, thereâs been a war for control of Hell. Leading one side, Lilith, the Original Babe, who wants to break all 666(?) seals keeping Lucifer bound and in the meantime, break the Righteous Man so Heaven wonât even have Michaelâs destined host ready for the Final Battle. Leading the other side, Wei Wuxian, infamous upstart, who wants to rescue the Righteous Man and restore him to life, tear Lilithâs guts out through her nose, and also stop her from doing the Lucifer thing because Wen Qing explained that yes, thatâs a Thing, and itâs Bad.
Wen Qing! Iâve decided to combine Bela and Rubyâs roles and let WQ be both the cool badass example of how demon deals can go Bad and the demon deliberately leading our heroes astray for most of s3-4. Wen Qing is a very new demon; she used to be some sort of herbalist/witch but then she sold her soul in a crossroads deal to cure her brother of some lingering illness. 10 years of happiness and then boom, hellhounds. WQ is so obviously competent, though, that they (Lilith, I guess?) immediately offers her a job, with the promise threat that gee, thatâs a nice brother youâve got there, even with his Designated Chronic Health Condition getting all relapse-y. Itâd be such a shame if something were to...happen to him...
we find this out at some point in last s3 I guess? some Monster of the Week case involves WN as a witness or something, or possible next victim, and WQ shows up to be A Normal Amount Of Invested In This, while desperately trying to avoid actually interacting with her brother (who thinks sheâs dead). YES, the truth comes out; YES thereâs a tearful reunion
now in s4, Wen Ning is fine actually, health-wise, bc he maybe made a crossroads deal with Wei Wuxian personally, and Wen Qing may or may not have admitted that sheâs supposed to be working for Lilith to get WWX ready to host Lucifer? Or potentially that comes out later, idk. Either way, sheâs 100% his top lieutenant in this exciting Hell War theyâre waging
[insert whatever the hell (ha) happened plot-wise in s4 of supernatural]
we obviously mix up the relationships, too, bc itâs like, *LWJ internal monologue* Iâm too young to remember my brother Lucifer as he was before he Fell, but surely Wei Wuxian is his Heir and Destined Vessel in truth, for he is Charismatic and Charming and Makes Me Feel Things, with his Clearly Feigned Righteous Drive and Compassion for All Godâs Creatures and - why does heat keep pooling in the lower abdomen of my vessel when I look at his lips, which I am definitely doing a Normal and Not-Weird Amount - Iâm just keeping an eye out for the famed Silver Tongue, and not in any way wondering how it would feel in my own mouth -
itâs actually DEFINITELY plausible for Lucifer to still be released even if our designated Heir Apparent is using his demon powers to his full potential and no oneâs lying to each other about their motives. You just need to let Lilith be more scary too, and especially bc by âno oneâ I mostly mean Wen Qing; the angels are still totally hiding the fact that they, too, want to jumpstart the shit out of this apocalypse. LWJ decides at the last minute that thatâs a bad idea actually, gets himself discorporated to send JC to intercept WWX because he accidentally releases Lucifer, etc. etc. Oh yeah, the boys were def fighting before this, bc JC has actually fairly reasonable concerns about the sort of things WWX is getting up to in his quest to become King of Hell...
SO
...I neither know nor care what happens in s5
it does end with both Lucifer and Michael locked in the cage probably, bc I rather liked that solution. Fuck both of âem, basically.
I was toying with the idea that WWX also found Madam Yu in whatever hellish torment she was suffering after making a deal so her idiot son(s) would survive, and she was leading forces for him in the war against Lilith as well. If she came back to life somehow, body and all, itâd probably be compelling if she offered her own body to Michael - bc itâs her lineage! - and weâre all led to believe that sheâs, uh, being a bitch and actually wants to risk destroying the world in order to destroy all demons...but then she seizes back control and flings herself/Michael and Lucifer into the Pit, because sheâs just That Hardcore?
which means weâd actually have had her around and having characterization for most of s4-5, too, which would be fun
More importantly, it ends with newly crowned King of Hell Wei Wuxian appointing Wen Qing as Queen-Regent and ditching to go on an indefinite honeymoon with his new angel boyfriend (theyâre going to fuck for like three weeks straight, then roll up their sleeves and go conquer Heaven in the name of free will), and Jiang Cheng gets to live out his hitherto-unknown-to-himself lifeâs ambition to be the sugar baby of the Queen of Hell. Itâs very Hades/Persephone, except he goes back down to the underworld at least once a month. He gets his own demon squad whom he trains up in all the hunting techniques and itâs gr9. Wen Qing is reforming the crossroads deal process to make it more fair to the humans.
the end
Addenda:
it should go without saying but Jiang Yanli is definitely a recurring character, like, at least once a season thereâs a filler episode where they go to Jiang Yanliâs for dinner and have to get along as a family, and also do the much easier job of defeating some sort of terrible demon that gets loose in the bunker and turns the evening into a horror movie. Sheâs their main research/emotional check-in person, a la Bobby, more often appearing in later seasons when thereâs, uhhh, more to emotionally check in about.
Jin Zixuan is actually a perfectly competent hunter; heâs just a priss and we donât Like him
we like Mianmian, though. Oh, I guess the official Hunterâs Guild or w/e tries to declare WWX a public enemy on account of the whole âKing of Hellâ thing and sheâs like âactually what if youâre morons and assholes?â and joins hte team in s4 or 5? Yeah.
idk how the 3zun disaster happens in this âverse but I do encourage it to be happening in slow motion as a recurring subplot for several seasons. NMJ is a hunter, LXC is obv an angel, and JGY is...I wanna say one of the more human monsters, like a vampire? Or, you know, something that could be born from JGS sleeping with someone/something he shouldnât have
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5 headcanons for Arthur, Merlin, Morgana, and Gwen
ANON I LOVE YOU thank u
im doing these in reverse order bc i wanna save the best 4 last
GWEN:
i think she genuinely enjoys taking care of people. itâs a role sheâs forced into a lot - she takes care of her dad, elyan, morgana, uther, even merlin and arthur once in awhile, even HUNITH - but i think sheâs the kind of person who finds genuine fulfillment in doing that kind of thing (she picked FLOWERS for morgana just because), and if she hadnât been the blacksmithâs daughter she would have made a fine apprentice to gaius herself
sheâs a better rider than you. and arthur. and elyan. and morgana. and everybody
we never hear word one about gwenâs mom but i like to imagine she died just before gwen and morgana met (which iâm assuming happened shortly after morgana came to camelot) - and gwen, who had just lost a mother, could easily sympathize with morgana, who had just lost a father and was somewhere new and unfamiliar - and thatâs why they became such fast friends
gwen is probably a few years older than morgana - i like to think she was morganaâs maidservant from the start, but i donât think they would have let her be a maidservant to the kingâs ward at age 10, so maybe sheâs 3ish years older - not so much older she strays into big sister territory, but old enough to do the job required of her
nobody among the knights/guards really knew what to make of gwen or arthurâs feelings for gwen because sheâs ??? just a serving girl ??? like they didnât dislike her exactly and they respected arthurâs choice for the most part but they also didnât know anything about her and couldnât see why the fuck arthur would make such a stir over her when it would be so much easier not to. this changes 100% after gwenâs shenanigans with smuggling leon out of camelot; leon comes back singing her praises like ok ok i GET HER now yâall ainât gonna believe how she got me outta that cell and on leonâs word (and because sheâs elyanâs brother and heâs a knight now too) everybody else warms up to her too
MORGANA:
this is practically canon but sheâs a lesbian, obviously. gwen was the first girl she had a crush on
this isnât a headcanon exactly but i wish bbc merlin had had a better budget because you know who deserved a black cat familiar? morgana. like, aithusa made a wonderful foil to merlinâs relationship w/ kilgarrah and i would not wish aithusaâs fate on any creature let alone some poor innocent cat, but also, the IMAGERY...it could have been so good
this is also sort of canon but i think she dresses expressively, hence the goth look after she goes evil. @dellesayahâ & i joke about her âevil girl eyelinerâ in season 3 but honestly look the way the girl wears 100% black in s4 and s5 i think the eyeliner was her own private expression of her inner angry goth post-poisoning when she still had to be wearing those colorful dresses to fool everybody into thinking she was the same good girl morgana in s3
same age as arthur. idk why most fics have her being older - tho i admit her being older but still not being able to inherit the crown is a VALID source of her rage - but if she was born w/ magic is makes the most sense for her to have been born after the purge started, aka after arthur. i guess it depends on when you think uther cheated on his wife lol. but i never really thought of morgana and arthur as having like an older/younger sibling thing - to me they were more like twins, so definitely within a year of his age, whether itâs slightly older or younger depends on how you feel that day i guess
wintertime birthday. i think arthur has a summertime birthday (more on that below) so it makes her a nice balance to him in that way
MERLIN:
the Most doting son ever. i imagine he had a few difficult teenage years (being a warlock and all) and that he still gets himself into trouble out of sheer stupidity sometimes but aside from that he was probably really well-behaved for the most part just because he didnât wanna make his mama sad
autumn birthday, since we went there with morgana (to complete the quad in Balance, gwenâs would definitely have to be in the spring)
ok i know colin morgan had to like put on a nice âproperâ english accent for the show because katie mcgrath didnât have one but in my heart merlin sounds like a HICK (whatever the ye olde englishe/modern british version of hick sounds like, heâs it) and his accent only gets worse for all the time theyâre at ealdor. like arthur THOUGHT it was bad he probably picked on merlin about it all the time but he had NO IDEA how bad it gets! none! and EVERYBODY in ealdor sounds like that except somehow EVEN WORSE! gwen and morgana think itâs UTTERLY charming but arthur is SO GLAD to get back to camelot and away from all that nonsense! and so then ok when they meet balinor in s2 (who speaks like a normal human being) he listens to merlin talk for 5 minutes and IMMEDIATELY knows exactly where the fuck heâs from. #hicksrepresent
merlin SAYS and BELIEVES he understands magic should only be used for great deeds blah blah blah but when he gets overworked and short on time, yeah, that armorâs gonna be polishing itself while he works on 4 other things at once - he just gets better at not being caught. itâs a great deed to keep arthurâs armor in peak condition, right? arthur says heâs a terrible servant but actually being magically aided he winds up being like...really good at his job, once he gets into the swing of it. heâs just fucking insubordinate always 24/7
*** ****** no i will not be taking constructive criticism
ARTHUR:
he knew they lied to him in 2.08. he always knew. canon evidence supports this in 4.03 he says âi lost both my parents to magicâ listen to me he ALWAYS KNEW!!!
canon also semi-supports a summertime birthday - i read somewhere once that they made it a point to only show camelot in spring thru early fall so they didnât have to explain why there wasnât snow on the ground. arthurâs coming of age ceremony (which i assumed either followed or preceeded his birthday) was in the middle of season 1, which would have been mid or late summer, hence: arthur is a summer baby.
i really like the gay!arthur headcanon but i also think he and gwen have incredible chemistry and i really like their relationship so like...maybe gay with one genuine exception. also that boy EMBODIES internalized homophobia :( poor lad
fond of DOGS and sometimes HORSES but refuses to show it because thatâs not very manly of him. heâs too into hunting to truly be an Animal Person but since you donât hunt dogs or horses generally he has a very very secret soft spot
the writers didnt do this on purpose but in my heart i believe the reason he was willing to risk SO much to save mordred in 1.08 was because of what he did to that druid camp from 4.10......like at first yeah he tries to be hard-hearted about it & just do his fuckin job but i think once his conscience was tripped he couldnât stand to see a druid kid die again under his watch for no good reason. heâdâve never agreed otherwise, not even for a kid. he wouldnât have ratted morgana out but he wouldnât have helped her either
(send me a character & iâll give you 5 headcanons)
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